The Forever War (The Forever War Series) by Haldeman Joe

Author:Haldeman, Joe [Haldeman, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781497695566
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2014-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

11

We got off the plane at Dulles and found a monorail to Columbia.

It was a pleasingly diverse jumble of various kinds of buildings, arranged around a lake, surrounded by trees. All of the buildings were connected by slidewalk to the largest place, a fullerdome with stores and schools and offices.

We could have taken the enclosed slidewalk to Mom’s place, but instead walked alongside it in the good cold air that smelled of fallen leaves. People slid by on the other side of the plastic, carefully not staring.

Mom didn’t answer her door, but she’d given me an entry card. Mom was asleep in the bedroom, so Marygay and I settled in the living room and read for a while.

We were startled suddenly by a loud fit of coughing from the bedroom. I raced over and knocked on the door.

‘William? I didn’t—’ coughing ‘—come in, I didn’t know you were …’

She was propped up in bed, the light on, surrounded by various nostrums. She looked ghastly, pale and lined.

She lit a joint and it seemed to quell the coughing. ‘When did you get in? I didn’t know …’

‘Just a few minutes ago … How long has this … have you been …’

‘Oh, it’s just a bug I picked up after Rhonda went to see her kids. I’ll be fine in a couple of days.’ She started coughing again, drank some thick red liquid from a bottle. All of her medicines seemed to be the commercial, patent variety.

‘Have you seen a doctor?’

‘Doctor? Heavens no, Willy. They don’t have … it’s not serious … don’t—’

‘Not serious?’ At eighty-four. ‘For Chrissake, mother.’ I went to the phone in the kitchen and with some difficulty managed to get the hospital.

A plain girl in her twenties formed in the cube. ‘Nurse Donalson, general services.’ She had a fixed smile, professional sincerity. But then everybody smiled.

‘My mother needs to be looked at by a doctor. She has a—’

‘Name and number, please.’

‘Beth Mandella.’ I spelled it. ‘What number?’

‘Medical services number, of course,’ she smiled.

I called into Mom and asked her what her number was. ‘She says she can’t remember.’

‘That’s all right, sir, I’m sure I can find her records.’ She turned her smile to a keyboard beside her and punched out a code.

‘Beth Mandella?’ she said, her smile turning quizzical. ‘You’re her son? She must be in her eighties.’

‘Please. It’s a long story. She really has to see a doctor.’

‘Is this some kind of joke?’

‘What do you mean?’ Strangled coughing from the other room, the worst yet. ‘Really — this might be very serious, you’ve got to—’

‘But sir, Mrs Mandella got a zero priority rating way back in 2010.’

‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

‘S-i-r …’ The smile was hardening in place.

‘Look. Pretend that I came from another planet. What is a “zero priority rating”?’

‘Another — oh! I know you!’ She looked off to the left. ‘Sonya — come over here a second. You’d never guess who …’ Another face crowded the cube, a vapid blonde girl whose smile was twin to the other nurse’s.

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