The Anything Box Part 2

"Who's Doovie?" Serena's voice was firm. Splinter examined his thumbnailcritically, then peered up at Serena out of the corner of his eye.

"Doovie," he began, "Doovie's a little boy."

"Oh?" said Serena. "A play-like little boy?"

"No," Splinter whispered, hanging his head. "A real little boy. A Linjenilittle boy." Serena drew an astonished breath and Splinter hurried on, hiseyes intent on hers. "He's nice people, Mommie, honest! He doesn't say badwords or tell lies or talk sa.s.sy to his mother. He can run as fast as Ican-faster, if I stumble. He-he-," his eyes dropped again. "I like him-" Hismouth quivered.

"Where did--how could-I mean, the fence-" Serena was horrified andcompletely at a loss for words.

"I dug a hole," confessed Splinter. "Under the fence where the sand is. Youdidn't say not to! Doovie came to play. His mommie came, too. She's pretty.Her fur is pink, but Doovie's is nice and green. All over!" Splinter got excited. "All over, even where his clothes are! All but his nose and eyes andears and the front of his hands!"

"But Splinter, how could you! You might have got hurt! They might have-"Serena hugged him tight to hide her face from him.

Splinter squirmed out of her arms. "Doovie wouldn't hurt anyone. You knowwhat, Mommie? He can shut his nose! Yes, he can! He can shut his nose and foldup his ears! I wish I could. It'd come in handy. But I'm bigger'n he is and Ican sing and he can't. But he can whistle with his nose and when I try, I justblow mine. Doovie's nice!"

Serena's mind was churning as she helped Splinter get into his nightclothes. She felt the chill of fear along her forearms and the back of herneck. What to do now? Forbid Splinter's crawling under the fence? Keep himfrom possible danger that might just be biding its time? What would Thorn say?Should she tell him? This might precipitate an incident that- "Splinter, how many times have you played with Doovie?"

"How many?" Splinter's chest swelled under his clean pajamas. "Let mecount," he said importantly and murmured and mumbled over his fingers for aminute. "Four times!" he proclaimed triumphantly. "One, two, three, four wholetimes!"

"Weren't you scared?"

"Naw!" he said, adding hastily, "Well, maybe a little bit the first time. Ithought maybe they might have tails that liked to curl around people's necks.But they haven't," disappointed, "only clothes on like us with fur on under."

"Did you say you saw Doovie's mother, too?"

"Sure," said Splinter. "She was there the first day. She was the one thatsent all the others away when they all crowded around me. All grownups. Notany kids excepting Doovie, They kinda pushed and wanted to touch me, but shetold them to go away, and they all did 'cepting her and Doovie."

"Oh Splinter!" cried Serena, overcome by the vision of his small selfsurrounded by pus.h.i.+ng, crowding Linjeni grownups who wanted to "touch him."

"What's the matter, Mommie?" asked Splinter.

"Nothing, dear." She wet her lips. "May I go along with you the next timeyou go to see Doovie? I'd like to meet his mother."

"Sure, sure!" cried Splinter. "Let's go now. Let's go now!"

"Not now," said Serena, feeling the reaction of her fear in her knees andankles. "It's too late. Tomorrow we'll go see them. And Splinter, let's nottell Daddy yet. Let's keep it a surprise for a while."

"Okay, Mommie," said Splinter. "It's a good surprise, isn't it? You wereawful surprised, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was," said Serena. "Awful surprised."

Next day Splinter squatted down and inspected the hole under the fence."It's kinda little," he said. "Maybe you'll get stuck."

Serena, her heart pounding in her throat, laughed. "That wouldn't be verydignified, would it?" she asked. "To go calling and get stuck in the door."

Splinter laughed. "It'd be funny," he said. "Maybe we better go find areally door for you."

"Oh, no," said Serena hastily. "We can make this one bigger."

"Sure," said Splinter. "I'll go get Doovie and he can help dig."

"Fine," said Serena, her throat tightening. Afraid of a child, she mockedherself. Afraid of a Linjeni-aggressor -invader, she defended.

Splinter flattened on the sand and slid under the fence. "You startdigging," he called. "I'll be back!"

Serena knelt to the job, the loose sand coming away so readily that shecircled her arms and dredged with them.

Then she heard Splinter scream.

For a brief second, she was paralyzed. Then he screamed again, closer, andSerena dragged the sand away in a frantic frenzy. She felt the sand scoop downthe neck of her blouse and the skin sc.r.a.pe off her spine as she forced herselfunder the fence.

Then there was Splinter, catapulting out of the shrubbery, sobbing and screaming, "Doovie! Doovie's drownd-ing! He's in the go'fish pond! All underthe water! I can't get him out! Mommie, Mommie!"

Serena grabbed his hand as she shot past and towed him along, stumbling anddragging, as she ran for the goldfish pond. She leaned across the low wall andcaught a glimpse, under the churning thrash of the water, of green mossy furand staring eyes. With hardly a pause except to shove Splinter backward andstart a deep breath, she plunged over into the pond. She felt the burning biteof water up her nostrils and grappled in the murky darkness for Doovie-feelingagain and again the thrash of small limbs that slipped away before she couldgrasp them.

Then she was choking and sputtering on the edge of the pond, pus.h.i.+ng thestill-struggling Doovie up and over. Splinter grabbed him and pulled as Serenaheaved herself over the edge of the pond and fell sprawling across Doovie.'

Then she heard another higher, shriller scream and was shoved off Doovieviciously and Doovie was s.n.a.t.c.hed up into rose pink arms. Serena pushed herlank, dripping hair out of her eyes and met the hostile glare of the rose pinkeyes of Doovie's mother.

Serena edged over to Splinter and held him close, her eyes intent on theLinjeni. The pink mother felt the green child all over anxiously and Serenanoticed with an odd detachment that Splinter hadn't mentioned that Doovie'seyes matched his fur and that he had webbed feet.

Webbed feet! She began to laugh, almost hysterically. Oh Lordy! No wonderDoovie's mother was so alarmed.

"Can you talk to Doovie?" asked Serena of the sobbing Splinter.

"No!" wailed Splinter. "You don't have to talk to play."

"Stop crying, Splinter," said Serena. "Help me think. Doovie's motherthinks we were trying to hurt Doovie. He wouldn't drown in the water.Remember, he can close his nose and fold up his ears. How are we going to tellhis mother we weren't trying to hurt him?"

"Well," Splinter scrubbed his cheeks with the back of his hand. "We couldhug him-"

"That wouldn't do, Splinter," said Serena, noticing with near panic thatother brightly colored figures were moving among the shrubs, drawingcloser-"I'm afraid she won't let us touch him."

Briefly she toyed with the idea of turning and trying to get back to thefence, then she took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Let's play-like, Splinter," she said. "Let's show Doovie's mother that wethought he was drowning. You go fall in the pond and I'll pull you out. Youplay-like drowned and I'll-I'll cry."

"Gee, Mommie, you're crying already!" said Splinter, his face puckering.

"I'm just practicing," she said, steadying her voice. "Go on."

Splinter hesitated on the edge of the pond, shrinking away from the waterthat had fascinated him so many times before. Serena screamed suddenly, andSplinter, startled, lost his balance and fell in. Serena had hold of himalmost before he went under water and pulled him out, cramming as much of fearand apprehension into her voice and actions as she could. "Be dead," shewhispered fiercely. "Be dead all over!" And Splinter melted so completely inher arms that her moans and cries of sorrow were only partly make-believe. Shebent over his still form and rocked to and fro in her grief.

A hand touched her arm and she looked up into the bright eyes of theLinjeni. The look held for a long moment and then the Linjeni smiled, showingeven, white teeth, and a pink, furry hand patted Splinter on the shoulder. Hiseyes flew open and he sat up. Doovie peered around from behind his mother andthen he and Splinter were rolling and tumbling together, wrestling happilybetween the two hesitant mothers. Serena found a shaky laugh somewhere inamong her alarms and Doovie's mother whistled softly with her nose.

That night, Thorn cried out in his sleep and woke Serena. She lay in thedarkness, her constant prayer moving like a candle flame in her mind. Shecrept out of bed and checked Splinter in his shadowy room. Then she knelt and opened the bottom drawer of Splinter's chest-robe. She ran her hand over thegleaming folds of the length of Linjeni material that lay there-the materialthe Linjeni had found to wrap her in while her clothes dried. She had giventhem her lacy slip in exchange. Her fingers read the raised pattern in thedark, remembering how beautiful it was in the afternoon sun. Then the sun wasgone and she saw a black s.h.i.+p destroyed, a home craft plunging to incandescentdeath, and the pink and green and yellow and all the other bright furscharring and crisping and the patterned materials curling before the lastflare of flame. She leaned her head on her hand and shuddered.

But then she saw the glitter of a silver s.h.i.+p, blackening and fusing,dripping monstrously against the emptiness of s.p.a.ce. And heard the wail of afatherless Splinter so vividly that she shoved the drawer in hastily and wentback to look at his quiet sleeping face and to tuck him unnecessarily in.

When she came back to bed, Thorn was awake, lying on his back, his elbowswinging out.

"Awake?" she asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Yes." His voice was tense as the tw.a.n.g of a wire. "We're getting nowhere,"he said. "Both sides keep holding up neat little hoops of ideas, but no one isjumping through, either way. We want peace, but we can't seem to conveyanything to them. They want something, but they haven't said what, as thoughto tell us would betray them irrevocably into our hands, but they won't makepeace unless they can get it. Where do we go from here?"

"If they'd just go away-" Rena swung her feet up onto the bed and claspedher slender ankles with both hands.

'That's one thing we've established." Thorn's voice was bitter, "They won'tgo. They're here to stay-like it or not."

"Thorn-" Rena spoke impulsively into the shadowy silence. "Why don't wejust make them welcome? Why can't we just say, 'Come on in!' They're travelersfrom afar. Can't we be hospitable-"

"You talk as though the afar was just the next county-or state!" Thorntossed impatiently on the pillow.

"Don't tell me we're back to that old equation- Stranger equals Enemy,"said Rena, her voice sharp with strain. "Can't we a.s.sume they're friendly? Govisit with them-talk with them casually-"

"Friendly!" Thorn shot upright from the tangled bedclothes. "Go visit!Talk!" His voice choked off. Then carefully calmly he went on. "Would you careto visit with the widows of our men who went to visit the friendly Linjeni?Whose s.h.i.+ps dripped out of the sky without warning-"

"Theirs did, too." Rena's voice was small but stubborn. "With no morewarning than we had. Who shot first? You must admit no one knows for sure."

There was a tense silence; then Thorn lay down slowly, turned his back toSerena and spoke no more.

"Now I can't ever tell," mourned Serena into her crumpled pillow. "He'd dieif he knew about the hole under the fence."

In the days that followed, Serena went every afternoon with Splinter andthe hole under the fence got larger and larger.

Doovie's mother, whom Splinter called Mrs. Pink, was teaching Serena toembroider the rich materials like the length they had given her. In exchange,Serena was teaching Mrs. Pink how to knit. At least, she started to teach her.She got as far as purl and knit, decrease and increase, when Mrs. Pink tookthe work from her, and Serena sat widemouthed at the incredible speed andaccuracy of Mrs. Pink's furry fingers. She felt a little silly for havinga.s.sumed that the Linjeni didn't know about knitting. And yet, the otherLinjeni crowded around and felt of the knitting and exclaimed over it in theirsoft, fluty voices as though they'd never seen any before. The little ball ofwool Serena had brought was soon used up, but Mrs. Pink brought out hanks ofheavy thread such as were split and used in their embroidery, and after aglance through Serena's pattern book, settled down to knitting the s.h.i.+ningbrilliance of Linjeni thread.

Before long, smiles and gestures, laughter and whistling, were not enough,Serena sought out the available tapes-a scant handful-on Linjeni speech andlearned them. They didn't help much since the vocabulary wasn't easily appliedto the matters she wanted to discuss with Mrs. Pink and the others. But the day she voiced and whistled her first Linjeni sentence to Mrs. Pink, Mrs. Pinkstumbled through her first English sentence. They laughed and whistledtogether and settled down to pointing and naming and guessing across areas ofincommunication.

Serena felt guilty by the end of the week. She and Splinter were having somuch fun and Thorn was wearier and wearier at each session's end.

"They're impossible," he said bitterly, one night, crouched forward tenselyon the edge of his easy chair. "We can't pin them down to anything."

"What do they want?" asked Serena. "Haven't they said yet?"

"I shouldn't talk-" Thorn sank back in his chair. "Oh what does it matter?" he asked wearily. "It'll all come to nothing anyway!"

"Oh, no, Thorn!" cried Serena. "They're reasonable human-" she broke off atThorn's surprised look. "Aren't they?" she stammered. "Aren't they?"

"Human? They're uncommunicative, hostile aliens," he said. "We talkourselves blue in the face and they whistle at one another and say yes or no.Just that, flatly."

"Do they understand-" began Serena.

"We have interpreters, such as they are. None too good, but all we have."

"Well, what are they asking?" asked Serena.

Thorn laughed shortly. "So far as we've been able to ascertain, they justwant all our oceans and the land contiguous thereto."

"Oh, Thorn, they couldn't be that unreasonable!"

"Well I'll admit we aren't even sure that's what they mean, but they keepcoming back to the subject of the oceans, except they whistle rejection whenwe ask them point-blank if it's the oceans they want. There's just nocommunication." Thorn sighed heavily. "You don't know them like we do, Rena."

"No," said Serena, miserably. "Not like you do."

She took her disquiet, Splinter, and a picnic basket down the hill to thehole next day. Mrs. Pink had shared her lunch with them the day before, andnow it was Serena's turn. They sat on the gra.s.s together, Serena crowding backher unhappiness to laugh at Mrs. Pink and her first olive with the samefriendly amus.e.m.e.nt Mrs. Pink had shown when Serena had bit down on her firstpirwit and had been afraid to swallow it and ashamed to spit it out.

Splinter and Doovie were agreeing over a thick meringued lemon pie that wa.s.supposed to be dessert.

"Leave the pie alone, Splinter," said Serena. "It's to top off on."

"We're only tasting the fluffy stuff," said Splinter, a blob of meringue onhis upper lip bobbing as he spoke.

"Well, save your testing for later. Why don't you get out the eggs. I'llbet Doovie isn't familiar with them either."

Splinter rummaged in the basket, and Serena took out the huge camp saltshaker.

"Here they are, Mommie!" cried Splinter. "Lookit, Doovie, first you have tocrack the sh.e.l.l-"

Serena began initiating Mrs. Pink into the mysteries of hard-boiled eggsand it was all very casual and matter of fact until she sprinkled the peeledegg with salt. Mrs. Pink held out her cupped hand and Serena sprinkled alittle salt into it. Mrs. Pink tasted it.

She gave a low whistle of astonishment and tasted again. Then she reachedtentatively for the shaker. Serena gave it to her, amused. Mrs. Pink shookmore into her hand and peered through the holes in the cap of the shaker.Serena unscrewed the top and showed Mrs. Pink the salt inside it.

For a long minute Mrs. Pink stared at the white granules and then shewhistled urgently, piercingly. Serena shrank back, bewildered, as every bushseemed to erupt Linjeni. They crowded around Mrs. Pink, staring into theshaker, jostling one another, whistling softly. One scurried away and brought back a tall jug of water. Mrs. Pink slowly and carefully emptied the salt fromher hand into the water and then upended the shaker. She stirred the waterwith a branch someone s.n.a.t.c.hed from a bush. After the salt was dissolved, allthe Linjeni around them lined up with cupped hands. Each received-as though itwere a sacrament-a handful of salt water. And they all, quickly, not to lose adrop, lifted the handful of water to their faces and inhaled, breathingdeeply, deeply of the salty solution.

Mrs. Pink was last, and, as she raised her wet face from her cupped hands,the grat.i.tude in her eyes almost made Serena cry. And the dozens of Linjenicrowded around, each eager to press a soft forefinger to Serena's cheek, athank-you gesture Splinter was picking up already.

When the crowd melted into the shadows again, Mrs. Pink sat down, fondlingthe salt shaker.

"Salt," said Serena, indicating the shaker.

"Shreeprill," said Mrs. Pink.

"Shreeprill?" said Serena, her stumbling tongue robbing the word of itsliquidness. Mrs. Pink nodded.

"Shreeprill good?" asked Serena, groping for an explanation for the justfinished scene.

"Shreeprill good," said Mrs. Pink. "No shreeprill, no Linjeni baby.Doovie-Doovie-" she hesitated, groping. "One Doovie-no baby." She shook herhead, unable to bridge the gap.

Serena groped after an idea she had almost caught from Mrs. Pink. Shepulled up a handful of gra.s.s. "Gra.s.s," she said. She pulled another handful."More gra.s.s. More. More." She added to the pile.

Mrs. Pink looked from the gra.s.s to Serena.

"No more Linjeni baby. Doovie-" She separated the gra.s.s into piles. "Baby,baby, baby-" she counted down to the last one, lingering tenderly over it"Doovie."

"Oh," said Serena, "Doovie is the last Linjeni baby? No more?"

Mrs. Pink studied the words and then she nodded. "Yes, yes! No more. Noshreeprill, no baby."