take her back or make her stop. But then I thought that this was just another hippie who wasn’t afraid to let her child explore the world around her.
“They also called him” — the mother stalled and pressed her fingers between her eyes — “Ordé.”
The child started laughing. She wrapped her arms around my head and squeezed. She was strong for her age, but I had a hard head, hard enough to take police sticks when they raided squatters in the Haight. My head was as hard as it needed to be, but I wasn’t stupid.
“Are you Adelaide?” I asked the woman.
She nodded and said, “And this is Julia.”
“That’s not my name,” the child whispered.
“And you’re looking for Ordé?” I asked.
“I need him,” Adelaide said. “He has to help me with her. Every night she’s been waking up terrified. And she keeps talking about things I don’t get, only I kinda remember Bill saying the same things.”
“What does she say?”
“Hey,” the little girl in my arms said.
Adelaide looked directly into my eyes and said, “I know it sounds crazy, but she’s always talking about planets that don’t have suns that planted people here. That’s the kind of stuff Bill used to say, but lately she’s been saying something different, that everyone will die. And somehow I feel like maybe she’s right.” A shudder went through the hippie mother’s shoulders.
There were no other offspring from the Blues that were known, though Coyote was pregnant before she saw the light. Ordé went out once every six months or so, when everything was right, he said, to try and impregnate some woman. It had never worked, to our knowledge. The women usually got sick, and none of them ever came up pregnant.
Ordé had asked me to go down to Pomona to look for Adelaide, to see if she had taken his seed.
“She was sitting right next to me, Chance,” Ordé said. “When the light struck. She was sleeping and so she wouldn’t be transformed, but her skin might have taken in something — she was naked. I don’t know, maybe a little got in through her eyelids. It wouldn’t take much. Find her. Maybe she has our firstborn of Earth.”
I did find her family, but by then their daughter had come and gone. She’d left because her father said that if she came up pregnant, he’d want her to get an abortion.
I got all that from her little sister, Ada, who also told me that if her father found a black man asking after his daughter, he’d take out his shotgun and kill him.
I took her word, on all counts, and left. I didn’t think that Adelaide had actually gotten pregnant. I asked Ada, who was nice enough, and she said that as far as she knew, Adelaide was not pregnant. No one else among Ordé’s peers had managed to conceive. Ordé said that it was because of their potency. He believed that it was more likely for a woman of his kind to take the sperm from a normal man than for a Blue male to impregnate a normal woman. He believed that sperm from the blue light would devour the ova. But Claudia Heart hadn’t conceived either.
There had been a few attempts to intermingle between the Blues, but the effect was quite toxic. Gijon Diaz and Phyllis Yamauchi tried once. The result was a skin rash that spread all over Diaz’s body, and Phyllis developed a fever from which she almost died. Ordé said that it wasn’t a chemical reaction that caused the maladies. He said that the Blues suffered because of something that arose from the original radiance of blue light. Once one had experienced the light in his own eyes, Ordé said, he could not share another’s vision.
“I asked around, and some people said that I might find him around here. Do you know where he is?” Adelaide asked me.
“Tomorrow,” I said. “But you better get away from here until then.”
“Why?”
“Maybe what Julia’s scared about isn’t so crazy. There’s some bad shit goin’ down,” I said, my adopted street tongue slipping in with fear.
“What do
“They also called him” — the mother stalled and pressed her fingers between her eyes — “Ordé.”
The child started laughing. She wrapped her arms around my head and squeezed. She was strong for her age, but I had a hard head, hard enough to take police sticks when they raided squatters in the Haight. My head was as hard as it needed to be, but I wasn’t stupid.
“Are you Adelaide?” I asked the woman.
She nodded and said, “And this is Julia.”
“That’s not my name,” the child whispered.
“And you’re looking for Ordé?” I asked.
“I need him,” Adelaide said. “He has to help me with her. Every night she’s been waking up terrified. And she keeps talking about things I don’t get, only I kinda remember Bill saying the same things.”
“What does she say?”
“Hey,” the little girl in my arms said.
Adelaide looked directly into my eyes and said, “I know it sounds crazy, but she’s always talking about planets that don’t have suns that planted people here. That’s the kind of stuff Bill used to say, but lately she’s been saying something different, that everyone will die. And somehow I feel like maybe she’s right.” A shudder went through the hippie mother’s shoulders.
There were no other offspring from the Blues that were known, though Coyote was pregnant before she saw the light. Ordé went out once every six months or so, when everything was right, he said, to try and impregnate some woman. It had never worked, to our knowledge. The women usually got sick, and none of them ever came up pregnant.
Ordé had asked me to go down to Pomona to look for Adelaide, to see if she had taken his seed.
“She was sitting right next to me, Chance,” Ordé said. “When the light struck. She was sleeping and so she wouldn’t be transformed, but her skin might have taken in something — she was naked. I don’t know, maybe a little got in through her eyelids. It wouldn’t take much. Find her. Maybe she has our firstborn of Earth.”
I did find her family, but by then their daughter had come and gone. She’d left because her father said that if she came up pregnant, he’d want her to get an abortion.
I got all that from her little sister, Ada, who also told me that if her father found a black man asking after his daughter, he’d take out his shotgun and kill him.
I took her word, on all counts, and left. I didn’t think that Adelaide had actually gotten pregnant. I asked Ada, who was nice enough, and she said that as far as she knew, Adelaide was not pregnant. No one else among Ordé’s peers had managed to conceive. Ordé said that it was because of their potency. He believed that it was more likely for a woman of his kind to take the sperm from a normal man than for a Blue male to impregnate a normal woman. He believed that sperm from the blue light would devour the ova. But Claudia Heart hadn’t conceived either.
There had been a few attempts to intermingle between the Blues, but the effect was quite toxic. Gijon Diaz and Phyllis Yamauchi tried once. The result was a skin rash that spread all over Diaz’s body, and Phyllis developed a fever from which she almost died. Ordé said that it wasn’t a chemical reaction that caused the maladies. He said that the Blues suffered because of something that arose from the original radiance of blue light. Once one had experienced the light in his own eyes, Ordé said, he could not share another’s vision.
“I asked around, and some people said that I might find him around here. Do you know where he is?” Adelaide asked me.
“Tomorrow,” I said. “But you better get away from here until then.”
“Why?”
“Maybe what Julia’s scared about isn’t so crazy. There’s some bad shit goin’ down,” I said, my adopted street tongue slipping in with fear.
“What do
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