Part 6 (1/2)

”I don't know, I just don't know. I think maybe we believed that it would all be, well, over sooner. I mean, who could have imagined, years without other people, without civilization.

How long until we get our lives back?” A smacking sound against wood. Then his mother's voice.

”Honey, it's not that simple. How long until we figure them out? I know the situation is strange. Yes, it's lonely out here. And Tommy. I admit he's not what we would have expected.

What we might have wanted. But this is what we got, and the Froggies need us. They were just living, going about their business; they didn't invite us down for a visit. We're the ones who decided to invade their home. It's not like Tommy got a vote, is it? G.o.d, Dave, too bad you had to marry a xenoanthropologist!”

Tommy hated the hysterical note in her voice. He didn't understand what they had said, but he knew it was about him and that his father was still mad at him. But Mommy wasn't making it better, she wasn't making Daddy laugh and calling Tommy to start a game of hop-and-catch. He decided he didn't want to hear any more. He hopped morosely back to his room and crawled into bed.

Soft. Warm. Deep, buried safe. Rubbing skin against skin, neighbor bristles poking his tender underbelly flesh, ow. Poke, poke, squirm, nestle down, deeper. Push aside slippery limbs, slide over brother-backs and sister-backs, around and through the tangle of skin and bristles. He breathes in gingery musk of contentment and peppery hunger, finally food-smell, he burrows inward to the source. Gleaming warmth in the center of the depression, it smells of wet and orange. He bites, sucks, ah.

Sunday morning, when he came downstairs for breakfast, his father was gone. ”Daddy had to go away for a little while, he needs to get important things for us,” his mother said. ”I've got to talk to Amanda and Gillian today; they're coming over for lunch. You can play with little Heather and Erin. But no digging in the garden, you hear me? Your father was quite upset about the damage to his plants. You know how hard-” She stopped talking and started rubbing hisback. ”-I guess we didn't tell you about it, did we? Those plants Daddy made, they're special.

He's been studying Minervan biochemistry for six years now, and he thinks he's starting to recognize which protein sequences control the regeneration functions. Do you remember when we talked about biochemistry?”

Tommy wrinkled his nose. He really liked it when his mother talked with him about science-things, because she got so serious and excited, both at the same time. He didn't know what any of the words meant, but just a few months ago he'd figured out that if he nodded his head up and down and said, ”How does it work?” every time she paused, she would keep talking for a long time. So he said, ”Yes, I remember,” and she kept talking, words that sounded fun on the tongue, like multicellular and unprecedented and embryonic and miraculous. That last one was particularly juicy. ”Mommy, how does miraculous work?”

Her delighted laughter washed over him, and he rolled over onto her legs, reaching up to tickle her ribs with his midhands. ”Where did your midhands go, Mommy? Did you lose them when you were little? Will something happen to mine?”

”Shh, you'll learn all about it when you're older.” He didn't know why she sounded so sad, but she sent him off to study before Heather and Erin came over. He went to his room obediently, but he couldn't concentrate. Those dreams, they were so yummy, but so strange.

Everything was different in the dreams. When he heard the rumbling of a land-rover through the trees, he hopped down quickly, running to meet his friends.

Heather and Erin hooted out greetings as they bounded to meet him. ”h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.lo, no school today, yippee, yea!” ”Let's go digging, Tommy-Tom, digging, dig, yea!” Erin pounced, and landing on his back, grabbed his ears. ”Ride 'em cowboy,” she squealed. He could smell her excitement, and reaching back a midhand, he snagged her foot to flip her off him. He got her wrestled to the ground, but then Heather landed on his head, covering his ears and nose with her tummy. Unable to hear or smell, he kicked his legs in the air helplessly while the girls tickled him. Trying to squirm out of Heather's grasp, he suddenly remembered that dream last night. He bucked his legs until he was free, and grabbed each of them by their upperhands.

”Hey, you guys ever, you know, dream? Like, like this? Us, touching, food-smells?” He trailed off uncertainly. Heather smelled like confusion, but Erin rumbled with impatience.

”Who has time for dreams, let's dig us a nest!” and she bounded away.

”No, no no no no no!” Tommy hopped frantically after her. ”No digging, Daddy says no!” He quivered, worrying she'd already started making holes. Maybe she was hurting one of the bushes right now.

”Erin, stay away from the p.r.i.c.kly-bushes. They're special, Mommy says special, be careful!” He caught up to her, sighing when he realized she was still poking around the underbrush, looking for a nice spot to dig.

”Hey, lookee here, Heather-Tommy started a nice hole, feel the soft squishy dirt right here.”

”No, Erin! Daddy filled it in, he says no more digging. C'mon, let's go exploring.” He had to distract her, and he knew she wouldn't be able to resist a challenge. ”I found a bush I couldn't crawl through, follow me, I bet you can't get through it either.”

He led the girls into the forest, away from Daddy's bushes, to the funny hard bushes he'd found last week. The branches of these bushes all ran into each other, as high as he could reach, and never had any break in them.

The three children pushed into the branches, squirming their arms into the tiny holes, but thestrange branches held firm. Heather tried digging under the bush, but she couldn't find any roots, just dirt so hard they couldn't break it up.

Erin tried to jump over, but it was too high.

Tommy scrambled up and down the branches. ”Erin, Heather, try this, it's fun.” They played, running all over the wide flat surface, up, down, around. But when they climbed too high, the upper branches were too sharp to touch.

”Ow.” Erin discovered that the hard way. And they couldn't swing properly, like they did from regular trees, moving through the forest without ever touching the ground. The branches didn't sway and bend, or extend toward the other trees.

They decided to go home and tell their mothers about the fantastic plant, so monstrous big and tough. But when they got back to Tommy's home, their mothers were busy talking, didn't want to listen to the kids.

”Erin, sweetie,” her mother said, ”don't worry about the funny bushes. Why don't you go get a snack in the kitchen? I bet Tommy's mommy has cookies.”

That night, Dave returned from his supply run. Jo-ann stroked the bright fabrics, the rich yellows and orangey-reds that didn't exist in Minervan nature. They watched the sun set, lilac in a pistachio sky. While they sorted out clothes for Amanda and Gillian, Jo-ann told her husband that the children had discovered the fence around the compound. ”I think they know something is wrong.”

”They'll be asking hard questions soon. It won't be much longer now,” he said. ”And the pressure is coming from the other side as well. When I was Out There, I saw the flashes of incoming s.h.i.+ps breaking hy-pers.p.a.ce. Big flashes, probably heavy-duty cargo haulers.”

”G.o.d, they're stepping up the schedule. How much time do you think we have?” She couldn't seem to stop chewing on the edge of her finger.

”It can't be soon enough. I want to get back to civilization. Don't you?”

”Dammit, don't you care what happens to them? This has to work.”

Tears ran down her face. 'You know how much the children, the Froggies need us.”

Dave put his arm around her, pressing into the knot of tension in her shoulder. ”I know, honey, but I want my life back. Why do we have to give up so much for them when they won't even admit we're here? Sometimes I hate them.”

She jerked out of his embrace, stood rigid facing away from him. ”Don't ever say that!

They're the victims. You can't forget that. We have to fight for them, whatever it takes. They deserve to get their planet back!”

”Even if they don't know we've taken it?”

”Even then.” She couldn't make herself turn around.

Dave didn't say anything more.

One year later ”Mommy, Mommy, I had the strangest dream last night. You were in it, and I was in it, and Erin and Heather, but we were big, bigger'n you, and the smells, I never breathed such smells before, excitement, and something spicy, strong, kinda scary, we were pressing in, pus.h.i.+ng into you, and you were scared, you got smaller and we were pus.h.i.+ng you between us, andsomebody was angry, someone different, with a big nimbly voice like Heather but more, stronger I think. I didn't like it, Mommy!” He wrapped all six limbs around her and squeezed, first the right three, then the left, right, left, rocking her in his distress.

Jo-ann tried not to panic at being enveloped. A hug that had had a certain weird charm when he had been less than three feet tall felt different now that he'd grown so much. She stroked his back, murmured, ”There, there, it's okay.”

Then his words registered. ”Honey, what did you just say? What was the nimbly voice like?

Was it Heather?”

”No, I said, bigger, stronger.”

”Like Daddy?”

”No, like us kids, we all sound different from you, you know, squeaky and deep, with the undersounds and the oversounds you can't hear. But different from us, too. Like, more, more tones. You know, like all three of us at once. But one person. I don't know . . .” His voice trailed off, uncertain. She rocked him sideways, smoothing down his bristled mane, thinking furiously. ”Honey, I'm just going to call Heather's mommy, I'll be right back. Would you like it if Heather came over today?”

Jo-ann slipped into her office, making sure the door was closed before she activated Amanda's monitor.

”Oh, my G.o.d, Amanda, you're not going to believe this! It's incredible, this is it, what we never understood, it's dreams! They talk in their dreams! Quick, get Heather, bring her over to my place, I'll call Gillian and get them here, too; we've got to find out what they've been dreaming.” Jo-ann rocked back and forth on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet, talking way too fast.

”Whoa, Jo-ann, slow down, will you? What're you talking about, dreams?”

”Has Heather mentioned any of her dreams to you? Ever, anything? Like, about the Froggies.” Jo-ann found herself whispering the last word, and looked guiltily over her shoulder.

”No, I don't think so. You know, Jo-ann, it's something we try not to discuss. In fact, if you recall, we agreed to steer our exercises and games away from any mention of, um, well, them. I still can't believe we've kept the charade going as long as we have. Sometimes, after Heather has been sitting near me, touching my skin, I see her stroking her own skin, stroking the smoothness. I know she's wondering.”