Part 19 (2/2)
Then he got it.
”You-you-”
”Yes. I'm time-jumping.”
”Time-jumper...!” He'd heard about it, but he didn't believe it. Now he looked and saw...
seventy-five years looking out of her baby eyes. Old. The spark in there was old.
Loolie checked the nail again. ”I have to tell you something, Dovy.” She took hold of his face solemnly. ”I have to warn you. It's very important. Darling, don't ever ig-g-g-eugh-gh-”
Her jaws jabbered, her head flopped-and her whole body slumped on him, dead girl.
He scrambled out and had just got his ear on her heartbeat when Loolie's mouth gulped air. He turned his head and saw her eyes open, widen, wander to his body, her body, and back to his.
”Who're you?” she asked interestedly. Asking for information.
He drew back.
”Uh. Dov Rapelle.” He saw her face, her eyes were different. She sat up. A strange teenager was sitting in his bunk, studying him so clinically he reached for the blanket.
”Hey, look!” She pointed at the window. ”Snow! Oh, great! Where am I? Where is this?”
”It's my cabin. Calgary, Alberta. Listen, are you all right? You were time-jumping, I think.”
”Yeah,” said Loolie absently, smiling at the snow. ”I don't remember anything, you never do.” She squirmed, looking around and then suddenly squirmed again and said ”Oh, my,” and stopped looking around. She put her hand under herself and her eyes locked on his.
”Uh... hey-what happened?”
”Well,” Dov began, ”You, I mean we-” He was too nice to blame it all on her.
She bugged her eyes, still feeling herself.
”But that's impossible!”
Dov shook his head, no. Then he changed it to yes.
”No,” she insisted bewilderedly. ”I mean, I've been hyped. Daddy had me fixed so I couldn't. I mean, men are repulsive to me.” She nodded. ”Girls too. s.e.x, it's a nothing. All I do, all I do is sailing races. Star cla.s.s, yick. I'm so bored!”
Dov couldn't find a thing to say, he just sat there on the bunk holding the blanket. Loolie put out her hand and touched his shoulder tentatively.
”Hey.” She frowned. ”That's funny. You don't feel repulsive.” She put her other hand on him. ”You feel all right. Maybe nice. Hey this is weird. You mean, we did it?”
He nodded.
”Did I, like, enjoy it?”
”You seemed to, yes.”She shook her head wonderingly, grinning. ”Oh, ho, ho. Hey, daddy will be wild!”
”Your father?” said Dov. ”Isn't he-you said he was dead.”
”Daddy? Of course he's not dead.” She stared at him. ”I don't remember a thing about it. All I remember is being in some big old house, being seventy-five. It was awful.” She shuddered. ”All stringy and creepy. I felt, bleeah. And those weird old people. I just said I was sick and went and lay down and watched the shows. And slept. For two days, I guess. Hey, when is this? I'm hungry!”
”December twenty-ninth,” Dov told her dazedly. ”Do you do this a lot, time-jumping?”
”Oh no.” She pushed her hair back, ”just a few times, I mean, daddy just installed it. I was so bored, I thought, well, it would be nice to give myself a treat. I mean, when I'm old, I'll enjoy being sixteen again for a little while, don't you think?”
”I wouldn't know, we don't have anything like that here. In fact, I never believed they existed.”
”Oh, they exist.” She nodded importantly, frowning at him. ”Of course they're very expensive.
There's only a few in the world I guess. Hey, you know, I saw your picture there. By the mirror. I am so hungry. There has to be food here. s.e.x is supposed to make you hungry, right?”
She scrambled off the bunk, trailing blanket. ”I'm starved! Can I help you cook? Oh, my glitterbugs.
Oh dear. Is that the moon? We're up in real mountains?” She ran around to the windows. ”Daddy never lets me go anywhere. Oh, mountains are fantastic! Hey, you really do look nice. I mean, being a man isn't so hideous.” She spun back to him, nose to nose. ”Look, you have to tell me all about it.” Her eyes slid around, suddenly shy. ”I mean, everything, G.o.d, I'm hungry. Listen, since we, I mean, I don't remember, you know. Can't we sort of try it over again? Hey, I forgot your name, I'm sorry-”
”Loolie.” Dov closed his eyes. ”Will you please just shut up one minute? I have to think.”
But all he could think was that she had a good idea: food.
So he fried up some corned beef hash, with Loolie all over the cabin like a mongoose, opening the door, smoos.h.i.+ng snow on her face, admiring the moon and the mountains, running over to poke him with a spruce icicle. When she turned her attention to the fire he was pleased to see that she put the wood on right. They sat down to eat. Dov wanted very much to ask about her father. But he couldn't-being Dov-break through Loolie's excitement about him, and the mountains, and him, and the cabin, and him, and...
It began to dawn on Dov that this little Aerovulpa had a pretty sad locked-up sliver of the twenty-first century.
”You ought to see this place when the ice goes out,” he told her. ”The big melt. And the avalanches.”
”Oh, Dovy, I'm so b.i.t.c.hed with people-places. I mean, n.o.body cares about anything real. Like this is beautiful. Dovy, will you, when I-”
That was when her father's private army came chunga-chunga out of the night sky.
Dov scrambled into his suit and discovered that the army consisted of one small hysterical man and one large hairless man.
”Uncle Vic!” cried Loolie. She ran up and patted the small man while the large man showed Dov several embossed badges.
”Your father, your father!” Uncle Vic spluttered, thrusting Loolie away and glaring around the cabin.
His eyes focused on the bank. The big man stood stolidly by the door.
”Angry, yes!” moaned Uncle Vic. He took off his hat and put it on again and grabbed Dov's snowsuit.
”Do you know who this girl is?” he hissed.
”She says she's Loolie Aerovulpa. She was time-jumping,” Dov said, being reasonable.
”I know, I know! Terrible!” The little man's eyes rolled. ”Louis-Mr. Aerovulpa-turned it off.How could you do this to him, girl?”
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