Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm

Author:Kate Wilhelm [Wilhelm, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General
ISBN: 0060146575
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

12

IT had been a year since that first morning when Jean awakened slowly, dragging herself from a deep sleep with great effort. There were strange noises and smells, and the bed she lay on was hard and unyielding, altogether unfamiliar. She thought she was back in her university apartment, sleepily reached for Walter beside her, and then jerked into full wakefulness.

Now she remembered the day before, the night before, when women had bathed her and tended her cut and bleeding feet; someone had fed her broth, and someone else had very gently rubbed ointment on her face and hands. Dully she stared at the ceiling. All that effort, she thought, all her aches and sunburn and cuts for nothing. Her face was painful, and her hands hurt. When she moved her toes a sharp pain raced up her arch, up her leg. She did not try to move again, not yet. There was a soft noise, not like the other noises people were making in the early gray morning. She could hear low voices, the sound of a pan on a stove, the dull clang of an iron stove door being shut. . . . The new sound came again, a faint scratching at the door. She turned to look at it, and as she did, it opened a crack and a small face appeared. It was a girl with eyes as bright as sunlight on diamonds. The child slipped inside the room, holding her finger to her lips. She was no more than six, perhaps five, and very tiny. She flashed gleaming teeth and approached the bedside quickly, whispering in an unfamiliar language, speaking very fast, now and then giggling or chuckling between phrases.

Jean shook her head and said softly, “I can’t understand you. Do you speak English?”

The child giggled again, and she jabbered in Wasco, or Warm Springs, or Paiute, or a tongue she made up on the spot.

Jean shook her head and said clearly, “I don’t speak your language.”

The child laughed as if she had told a joke, and continued to speak rapidly.

Jean shook her head again, pointed to herself and said, “Jean.” She pointed to the child then.

“Olahuene,” the girl said, laughing, pointing at Jean. “Olahuene.” Then she pointed to herself and said, “Mary.”

She became very still then, listening although Jean could hear nothing that had not been there before, and suddenly, as abruptly as she had come, she left.

In the room was the bed, a small table and a wooden chair with her clothes folded on it, and a chest of drawers. Jean clutched the blanket around her and sat on the side of the bed, dreading her first step. Her feet were pulsing with pain now. Finally she stood up and had to blink away tears. Vaguely she remembered walking barefoot among the sharp rocks and she shuddered.

There was a knock on the door. Jean hesitated, then said, “Come in.” She pulled the blanket more tightly around herself and sat down on the side of the bed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.