We Who Are About To . . . by Joanna Russ

Author:Joanna Russ
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2018-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

They came in the afternoon. Putting one’s head down close to the stream, you can just barely hear it talking, but I think I screened out everything else with the river because I never heard them. I woke from a dream of talking very rationally to Cassie somewhere utterly indistinct and uncharacterized (so that it might have been equally easily back on the ship or in the middle of the Grand Canyon) and there she was, standing in silhouette in the door of the cave; I was mucking about in the floating layers between light sleep and lighter sleep when you become aware of your body and don’t want to, like anesthetic: places in the mattress that weren’t as thick as they should be. Stretching. Stiff back.

I said, “Why have you come for the water thingie? I left it.”

I woke up.

Why didn’t they come in? Because they couldn’t see in, probably. I had thought Cassie was already inside, but as my vision came back I realized I’d only been asleep; everything’s flat for a moment after you wake up.

I said, “How’d you find me?”

She said, “I want to talk to you. Can I come in?” Brave Cassandra!—whose shaky voice indicated something else was going on. Probably Alan-Bobby exploring the hillside. There are heavy scramblings overhead, something rather large and stupid moving about on the cave roof. Either he’s proving himself for Lori or (more likely) they decided he was It. I propped the mattress (which is very thin and light) against the rock-rubble at the back of the cave; don’t want to trip on it.

I said, “Good Lord, you didn’t bring Lori, did you?”

“No, she’s with Val.” So it’s Val now. I said, “I don’t know what you’re doing here and I don’t know what you want of me. Go away.

” She said, “Can’t you come out for a minute?”

I let a moment go by. “All right,” I said. I suppose one of us has to act in good faith that the other is in good faith, slender as such a chance may be. Let’s test it. I put on my jacket, picked up a couple of rocks about the size of my hand. Circled close to the cave wail, on the side Cass was on so she couldn’t see me, watching my feet carefully, and made it almost to the entrance without making too much noise. Which I hoped sounded like echoes, anyhow. Still in shadow. I threw one of the rocks across the cave and it made a very satisfactory, verisimilar sort of sound, falling in the loose shale over there, and there was a truly tremendous scramble from above, as Alan-Bobby the Megatherium dropped from the cave roof and rushed inside.

And bashed his head against the ceiling. He does not realize, I think, just how expendable the others consider him to be. On his hands and knees, shaking his head from side to side. Then he fell into the streamlet. He couldn’t see very well, of course. And the others might not have told him to do this; he might be acting on his own.

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