Homebody by Orson Scott Card Page A

had earned this house by the sweat of his body.
    Back in the parlor, he sat down on his cot and started taking off his shoes again, cursing himself for a fool. That stupid girl didn’t have to argue with him, he was going to flagellate himself into giving her a place to stay.
    She called down the stairwell to him. “Didn’t a friend ever give you a hand sometime in your life?”
    This stung him. He knew how much he owed to the friends who staked him to start his life over. “You’re not my friend!”
    “Well how do you know who your friends are, till you see who helps?”
    He didn’t have an answer for that. Instead, he flung a shoe against the wall.
    “What was that!” Her voice was fainter. Where was she now? What room did she sleep in? They had all looked equally dusty and unkempt to him. Well, wherever she slept, she should go and do it and leave him alone. He had a closing in the morning. Thinking of that made him wonder: What would Cindy think if she knew there was a woman sleeping in this house with him tonight? That was a complication he didn’t need.
    He flung the other shoe against the wall.
    “What are you doing down there!” she called.
    “Whatever I want!” he shouted back. “It’s my house! Now shut up and go to sleep!”
    He lay back on the cot and closed his eyes. This was so unfair, to throw the burden of her poverty onhim. That was what taxes were for, wasn’t it? So that the poor would go deal with an institution instead of asking so personally for help. And not even out on the street, like the other beggars. No, she accosted him here in his own house. What should have been a sanctuary.
    Of course, she had thought of it as her house, her sanctuary, and from that perspective he was the intruder here.
    Madness, all of this. Kissing Cindy in the upstairs bathroom, that was insanity enough for one day, wasn’t it? Then dinner with those crazy old ladies next door and their warnings about the house. And now this homeless urchin—well, maybe she was too old to be an urchin—this homeless woman, anyway, daring to ask him, Can I stay? As if it were as easy as asking for a glass of water. Can I set up residence in your house and look over your shoulder and get underfoot all the time? Can I destroy your solitude and take away your privacy and force you to deal with another person all the time when all you really ask of life now is to be left alone? How could he be so churlish as to resent the request?
    He muttered it again, like a prayer. “I live and work alone.” But like all his prayers in recent years, it went unheard.

8
Closing
    Don woke up shivering. He thought of crawling inside the sleeping bag in order to warm up—the faintness of the light told him the sun wasn’t up yet, or at least the morning mist hadn’t yet burned away. But he knew he wouldn’t get warm enough to sleep, and besides, he needed to find a toilet. Not to mention a toothbrush and a shower. He thought of Cindy’s offer yesterday. A shower, no questions asked, no strings attached. For some reason it reminded him of Esau taking a mess of pottage from his brother Jacob. He just didn’t want to be that beholden to anyone.
    This from the man who had taken a free dinner from the Weird sisters last night.
    And thinking of last night reminded him of how he had spent a half-hour in the small of the morning. Was she still in the house? He looked around at his stuff, glad that by habit he had put it all in the one room. Nothing missing. Even the Singing Sword was where he had put it last night.
    So also were his shoes. He got up and rummagedthrough his stuff until he found where they had fallen after he threw them against the wall. In the process he found his work jacket, which had once been leather but now had a texture and stiffness approaching granite. Rain and sun weren’t good on the old cowhide.
    He was at the door before he realized: I’m going to a closing. Which ordinarily wouldn’t be enough to put him in a