WRITING IN THE SALT

1560 4D

No one came to answer my calls. I wrapped her cape around her body. Hours later, they came and took the body out in a containment bag, without touching it. No one spoke to me. I stayed alone in the chamber for what seemed like a long time. I didn’t want to touch anything.

My own body vibrated, whether from being with Drasstar, from kissing Thringe, or from the overall confusion and pain and loss, I couldn’t tell. I wanted to shriek. I stood and circled the room briskly. When would I cry? What would come next? I kept walking. Finally the keys rattled again, and the door opened. My father stood with Drasstar and a soldier.

“You can go now,” the soldier said. “But first, give me your left wrist.”

I did, and he locked a metal band snugly around it.

“Come on, Lejina,” my father said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Drasstar‘s head hung low. He didn’t speak. I came to him and took his hand. “It’s done,” I said. “She’s gone.” He nodded once, but didn’t look up. We left the detention area. As we moved out into the wide City ring street, a male voice cried out in pain behind us, and keys rattled again.

At that very moment, I remembered the code words the woman dressed as a corpo soldier had told me: Twelve Four Hundred Anxiety Bedrock. Thringe was dead, and only she had known what they meant. I had never had a chance to ask her.

“Why did they let us go?” I asked my father as we walked.

“They didn’t,” he said. He drew back his coverall sleeve, showed me the band of metal tight on his left wrist, like mine. “We’ve all got markers. They’re tracing every one of us.”

“Why?” Bands similar to my father’s and mine circled the wrists of Drasstar and the other two.

“I don’t know.” My father put a finger to his lips, and we didn’t talk the rest of the way back to our neighborhood.

We reached Aswar Nagrasai, and Caladrina‘s. A stonehoser, with its huge tank of fast-setting liquid rock, trundled away down the wide ring street. The ceiling over Caladrina‘s was now smooth, fresh gray stone. Two workmen on a long-arm scaffold were laying on a coat of white plast.

“This is where we leave,” Drasstar said, his voice a slow growl.

I came to him and whispered, “What about the code?”

“We can’t talk,” he mouthed, pointing to the metal band. “We’re vapor. Show tonight.” And he, Masinarin and Grioskin turned away and headed for their zone. He looked back once, and then they were gone down a side street.

My father looked warningly at me as I started to speak to him. I mouthed, “Where do we go now?” as I pantomimed different directions.

“What a pleasant surprise!” Caladrina spoke behind us. “Quessnar! And–“

My father whirled and clamped a hand over Caladrina‘s mouth. He showed Caladrina the metal band.

Caladrina‘s eyes widened. Without a word, he showed us to a table in a deep recess in his place, out of sight of the street crossing. He sat us down and sprinkled salt across the table.

What happened? he wrote with his finger.

Let us talk alone, my father wrote. He scattered the salt again, and looked at me expectantly. Caladrina nodded, and left us.

Why did they let me go? I spelled out.

They wanted Thringe, he responded.

But she said I was her now.

You are. But you are better. He looked sadly at me.

I am not her. I am Lejina. My eyes filled with tears.

He put his hand on my shoulder. You are sisters, he wrote.

My astonishment made me stand up.

Yes. Your mother never told me. It was before we married. He scattered the grains of salt, and wrote, Did she kiss you?

I didn’t want to answer him. How did you find out she was my–

She carries this tiny jewel in her left ear. I nearly choked when I saw it. Your mother had one exactly like it, and she’d never told me where its twin had gone. He shook his head. Did she kiss you?

Yes. It embarrassed me to tell him.

Once, or two times?

Twice.

He relaxed a little, and wrote, It is done. We can be glad.

I glared at him, frustrated. WHAT IS DONE? TELL ME. SISTERS???

Your mother was andro.

It stunned me. I sat down again, and put my head in my hands. He tapped my shoulder. He had written, She never told me about Thringe. It was before we… stayed together.

Sisters? I wrote again.

Yes. But Thringe came all andro, not part human. He had to erase the tabletop, and then wrote, You came mostly human. And Thringe had the death genes, like a vat-child.

That’s why she died?

Yes. But she lived over twenty-five years, not ten. We both sat and stared at the table.

A horrible thought struck me. But they kill part-andros.

That’s why she kissed you the first time. It passed along the viruses you needed. Another erasure, then, She gave you a rogue conversion virus. Erased. It changes human gene markers to andro. Erased again. She took in some of your genes, too. Another bandit virus applied them to her markers. He finally wrote, She started turning into you. When they test the body, it will show part human.

I pondered all this. So I passed the police test as andro?

Finally. Else they would have killed you. He looked grim. Instead they let you go.

What about the second kiss?

She said she had a gift for you. A gift you would need.

She told you all this?

Yes. But I couldn’t find you.

Now I looked in my father’s eyes. Why didn’t you warn me?

He looked down at the table and shook his head.

She was dead, and I banged my hand on the table, knocking away most of the remaining salt. I used the shaker, and then wrote, Why not?

You loved her. His question to me.

Yes. My tears fell into the salt and smeared the next few words: Now she’s gone. My sister.

He cleared away the wet spots, mine and his own, and wrote, I love both of you.

What was the gift?

She didn’t tell me.

I have to find Drasstar, I wrote, and stood up.

My father grabbed my arm and shook his head strongly.

I shrugged, and pulled away. Leaning over the table, I wrote, I’ll find you. Tell Caladrina where you are. And I walked away, not looking back. I was afraid I’d run to him and stay.