Service Goat by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781539167983
Publisher: Dreaming Big Publications
Published: 2016-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9: Revelation

They were both tired from their night of desperate passion, but the decision was firm: Venus would visit the goat that evening. Then they relaxed and slept for much of the day, holding hands. Because they knew Venus would have to be at her best for this dreaded encounter. It might indeed take her out of the game.

Ben drove her to the Doctor's house. They kissed one last clinging time, then she got out, while he waited in the car. Venus knew she was impressive; she was dressed conservatively in a skirt and blouse with a high decolletage, sensible low-heeled shoes, minimal makeup, and her hair in a neat ponytail. There was nothing seductive about her; she was just a pretty girl.

Her time with Ben was slowly making her that way inside as well as outside. He was teaching her discipline and responsibility, as well as an increasing concern for whatever effect her actions had on the world beyond. She was growing up. She liked that.

She walked up to knock on the door. They had not called ahead; she wanted to surprise them.

The door opened to show a mature and handsome woman with iron gray hair: the doctor's wife. “Yes?”

“Please, you don't know me, but I must talk to you. My name is Venus.”

The woman frowned. “If you are selling something--”

“I know about the mobile horns.”

The woman took stock. “I am Melinda Stevenson. Come in, please.”

And there they were, waiting to see the visitor: Doctor, Girl, and Goat. The doctor's hair matched the color of his wife's tresses, while the girl was a blonde who would be pretty when she grew up, except for the eye bandages that were not fully concealed by her dark glasses. The goat looked like a quite ordinary doe. “Uh, hello,” Venus said, abruptly out of sorts. She somehow had not thought to rehearse this encounter.

“My husband Sterling, our foster child Caladia, and her Service Goat Nanny,” Melinda said. “This is Venus. She knows about the horns.”

The air in the room seemed to congeal. “What is your business with us?” Dr. Stevenson asked curtly.

“Please, this is awkward,” Venus said. “May I sit down?” Which was not what she had intended to say; it just came out.

Melinda gestured to a chair, and she and the doctor took chairs facing it. The girl stood beside the goat, her hand firmly on its back. Her face was oriented on Venus, and it was oddly as if she were looking at her. But of course she was; she could see via the goat. They had concluded that almost at the outset. It simply was eerie to be the object of that eyeless vision.

Venus had discussed with Ben how much she should tell them, and they had decided that when she touched the goat it would probably all come out, so she might as well tell the truth up front. “I am the—the associate of a man who is researching about the goat. About Nanny. I'm his—his common law wife.

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