Chapter 10
Fireworks on the Blue Pearl Sea
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In mid-spring, Aurelia frequently experienced cloudy, rainy days, or sometimes the wind blew and howled through the streets, so Abby was relieved when Tuesday turned out to be mild and sunny. Since this was the day that Humans on Gracchia with an American background celebrated Independence Day, Dad had hung the stars and stripes next to their front porch.
That morning, the Ellsworths had received a message from Prospero on the whirlibox. He was excited to experience his first Fourth of July on Earth.
'I understand,' he'd written, 'that your countrymen express their joy of independence through explosive ordnance. Gemma has promised to take me to a good vantage point to view the controlled blasting. She assured me that I need not contribute to the event, but is it considered polite? Yours truly, Prospero. Addendum: have you put fish in the courtyard pool?'
Tom read the note to the others over breakfast. "Oops. We still need to buy fish."
Oliver was more concerned with the other part of the note; was Prospero planning on bringing his own explosives to the fireworks display? He got up from the table to send back a reply promptly. Last year while the Ellsworths were still there, the city officials had even banned sparklers after a two year-old had poked himself in the eye with one. Oliver could only imagine how they'd react to a Gracchus with some Gracchian version of fireworks. He'd write a note to both Gemma and Prospero to help ward off trouble.
When Dad came back to the table, Tom told him of the need to buy fish. "Could I, Dad? It'd be just a short trip, and I'd come home right after. Please?"
Tom had now served more than three days of his house detention without complaint, not trying to wheedle or cajole his way out of being grounded. Oliver was inclined to let Tom run this errand. "Did Prospero say why we need to put fish in the pool?" he asked.
Abby shook her head. "We think maybe it's something to do with the health of the pond. The fish might eat algae," she explained to her Dad.
"It could be important," Tom added. He collected the cereal bowls and took them to the sink trough.
"Well, all right. I'd like you both to go," said Dad. "I'll transfer ten credits to your money spike, Tom. If it's more than that, we'll get them together. And come home straightaway."
Every resident on Gracchia had a money spike keyed to the individual. Humans tended to think of them as some type of credit card, but of course they were not. Each person's spike was a store of value unto itself like a one-person bank, yet it was not connected with any centralized system. As such, it offered perfect privacy.
"Great! Thanks, Dad," Tom said.
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Luke had told Abby and Tom that the fish store was located close to the House of Ice, the soda fountain that was a favorite of all the Human kids. Abby hoped they never got their shipments mixed up. Some of the ice cream flavors at the House of Ice were pretty eccentric, just like the shop's owner, Florizel. She could imagine Florizel deciding to make a fish-food flavored ice cream.
The name of the fish store was, simply, 'WET.' That was how it was translated into English on its sign at any rate. Tom and Abby were greeted by the owner, a giant Nawak named Gruben. Unlike a Human style aquarium and fish store, there weren't glass tanks lining the wall but rather a series of large vats sunk into the ground. Abby counted twelve of them. She could see fish swimming around in them, but all the fish seemed to be dull, dark colors. Abby was disappointed. She had been hoping they could get some pretty ones.
"First," Gruben said in a low rumble, "Need to know the bearings of the pool."
Tom wasn't quite sure he understood the translation. "Bearings? You mean the location of our house?"
Gruben nodded. This seemed to mean yes, because he next pulled out a detailed map of Aurelia. Tom could find their house without difficulty, but, oddly, it showed a cobweb tracery of lines between many of the buildings, including their own. It wasn't obvious what the lines represented. Power lines underground? Magnetic fields? Tom pointed out their house to Gruben.
"Fish for your home water, yes," said Gruben.
"How much?" Tom asked the store owner. He didn't want to commit himself without knowing.
"Four." Gruben held up four fingers just to be sure he was understood. "Standard amount."
There was a standard amount of fish? Abby wondered.
"Okay, then. Yes, I'll buy the fish," said Tom.
The Nawak took a clear, lightweight container from behind the central counter and walked to one of the sunken vats. With one enormous hand dipped directly into the water, he ladled out a dozen or so little fish. Two more scoops and the container was swarming with gray fish. Abby saw that they were speckled with red, so they were kind of pretty.
Gruben handed the container of fish to Abby as Tom took out his spike, keyed it for transfer of four units and touched it to Gruben's store spike. The transaction was registered with a flash of blue light.
"Do we need to feed the fish?" Abby asked. She didn't see any containers of fish food for sale.
"Food fish, yes," Gruben answered.
Abby tried again. "What do we feed them?"
"Feeding food. Fish." His answer wasn't enlightening.
There was a problem with the translation or perhaps it was a cultural thing. This was the first Nawak Tom and Abby had met directly.
"C'mon Abby. You said it yourself; they probably eat stuff in the pool," Tom said to his sister. "Let's go."
"Thanks, Mr. Gruben," Abby said as they left. The Nawak politely held the big door open for the two small Humans.
He nodded at Tom and Abby then said, "Good food fish," as they left the store.
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When they got back home, Tom poured the fish into the pool, and he and Abby watched the small fish swim around. Most of them went directly into hiding among the vegetation, but some wandered here and there on the pebbled bottom. It wasn't obvious what, if anything, they were eating.
"Well, at least now we can tell Prospero that we put fish in the pool," said Tom. "It seemed so important to him."
The fish weren't very interesting, and eventually Tom and Abby wandered back inside to have some lunch.
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Abby was going to go see the fireworks with Sara and her family. They were taking a picnic dinner to the shores of the Blue Pearl Sea and would stay for the show. Abby wasn't going with her father because he was taking Ms. Tavish, first to the Theobroma Café for dinner, then out to see the fireworks. Tom thought it was pretty nice of his Dad to take out the teacher when he didn't have to, but Abby set him straight.
"He's asking her out on a date," she said.
"Dad? Ms. Tavish? But Dad's so old," said Tom.
Abby sighed.
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Mrs. Vargas had packed traditional Fourth of July-type food for their picnic on the dunes overlooking the water. There was potato salad, barbequed ribs, lemonade and watermelon. Well not watermelon, exactly, but some kind of red melon shipped from Gracchia’s warm climes. It was very sweet. She had brought blankets for them to sit on, but also blankets to wrap around their shoulders because it was still cool spring; the season of Gently Warm Blossom hadn't arrived yet, at least not out in the open away from the stored heat of city streets and buildings.
Abby hadn’t visited the Blue Pearl Sea yet, though it was a great favorite among the Human expatriate population; just about all her classmates had been here, swimming in the summer, going out on boats to the Gem Islands or just to enjoy the shoreline. The Wooster Gate was adjacent to the beach area, and the Ellsworths had passed it on their very first day on Gracchia as they traveled from the Gate to town on one of the large, slow cargo rollers.
Abby was grateful for the warmth of the blanket as she sat between Sara and Luis and gnawed on a smoked rib. It was funny to have Indepen
dence Day without the hot weather, but a picnic was still wonderful. A few other people had the same idea. One couple had brought along a portable grill in their jellycar, but they were having trouble keeping it going in the breeze that came off the water.
Abby thought she recognized her neighbor in the group of people, Human and Gracchus, setting up the fireworks platform. She didn’t know this man’s name, but she had seen him coming and going, and once she’d seen him leaving Vaux’s market. He had caught her attention by the odd way he dressed. She’d variously seen him in: a Snoopy t-shirt with a kilt, a shiny blue suit, a pink raincoat, and once he’d even had on a beret. Dad had said that the neighbor man must be a bachelor. Today, he was wearing jeans and a long white shirt. The only odd note was the striped tie used as a belt around the untucked shirt.
Abby's attention was drawn back by Luis. "Did Tom say which chip he pulled to override the speed control?" Luis asked her. The story of Tom and Luke's drive along the Scopos River had been making the rounds at school yesterday. One rumor was that they had been airborne, another that they'd driven the car into the river. One especially outlandish rumor had it that Luke and Tom had run over a person and buried him in the woods.
"I don't know. Why don't you ask him?" Abby said. Boys and cars again.
Luis looked glum. "He won't tell me. All I know is it must have been a yellow chip."
"And Mom and Dad have put an extra lock on the controls for the car," Sara added, "so poor Luis can't see for himself."
"I'll bet I can figure it out, though," said Luis.
"Your feet can't reach the floor," Sara pointed out.
"Yes they can! The jellycars are made by the Gracchus and they're shorter than I am, stupid!" Luis was always sensitive about his stature.
"Knock it off, kids," Mr. Vargas said.
"Who wants a brownie?" Mrs. Vargas asked. It was hard to be angry with a mouthful of chocolate, and Mrs. Vargas made very good brownies.
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The light was leaving the sky even as the remains of the picnic were packed away. One of the advantages to having fireworks in spring, Abby reflected, was that you didn't have to wait forever for darkness so the show could begin.
"Mom, can Abby and I move over there by ourselves?" Sara pointed to a hillock closer to the fireworks platform.
"Of course. But take your brother," she said.
Sara rolled her eyes, careful that her Mom didn't see her.
The three of them moved their blankets over to the hillock. Abby didn't mind much having Luis around. He was okay, just kind of pesky.
There were a lot more people arriving at the shores of the Blue Pearl Sea. The majority were Human, but word had also gone round to other species; almost none of them had ever seen a fireworks display, and there was a great deal of curiosity.
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Tom was bored. He wrote a message on the whirlibox to his friend Doug back on Earth, telling him about driving a jellycar but omitting the wreck. He sent Gemma a message, too. Maybe she could come for a visit sometime. Tom wandered around the house and the courtyard. Wilson, sitting on the edge of the pool, seemed to be interested in something in the water. Probably he wanted to catch the fish, Tom thought.
For dinner, he had bean roll-ups. These were made more palatable by a lot of spicy mustard, and Tom ate two. He wondered what his Dad and Abby were having for dinner. Undoubtedly something much better.
As dusk fell, Tom ventured out into the courtyard again. He surveyed the roofline. It looked sturdy enough. Tom dragged out a chair from the kitchen and balanced it on top of one of the massive planters, being careful not to crush the plants. Or not crush too many of them, at least. Wilson sat on his haunches and watched these proceedings from a prudent distance.
With great caution, Tom climbed on top of the chair seat. From here he could get a good grip on the eave of the roof and swing one of his feet up to the edge. Then it was easy to lever the rest of his body up.
The roof was gently rounded like so much of the rest of the house. Tom walked to the center of the curved arch and sat down. From here, he might be able to get a good view of the fireworks. Earlier, he'd thought about asking his Dad if he could come up on the roof, but sometimes it was better not to try for permission in the first place. That way, Dad couldn't say no.
"Hey!" Tom heard a shout. He looked around and saw Luke up on the Whipples' roof. He was waving and grinning.
"Hi!" Tom yelled back. "Great idea!"
"Great minds think alike," Luke shouted.
It wasn't possible to have much of a conversation this way, but at least Tom didn't feel lonely anymore.
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The chrysanthemum of light burst over the watchers' heads in cascading showers of red, white and blue. Rockets of green and scarlet shot up into the air only to turn into a shower of sparkling diamonds falling almost to the ground. The lights danced, twirled, exploded over the Blue Pearl Sea where the reflection from the water mirrored back the beauty. The crowd was loudly appreciative; people gasped, applauded and shouted encouragement. Abby had heard a couple of screams at the outset of the show, but she supposed those were from people who had never seen fireworks and hadn't been quite sure what to expect. Now everyone seemed to be entranced, and a few of the Vannevar and Aeris were dancing with their arms in the air.
The evening had grown even cooler with the disappearance of the light, and Sara, Luis and Abby were huddled together for warmth under their blankets. But it was worth it; this was the best show Abby had ever seen. She thought about the Vannevar and their concept of what constituted 'art.' This surely was great art.
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Ten minutes into the show, Abby found herself wishing she hadn’t had so much lemonade with the picnic dinner. Dad almost never let them have sugary drinks, so Abby had drank two glasses. Now her attention was increasingly drawn to the demands of her body.
Abby leaned over to whisper in Sara’s ear, “I’ll be right back.” She carefully crept out from under the blanket; thankfully, Luis didn’t say anything and didn’t seem even to notice her leaving.
The three children had been sitting, like most of the crowd, with their backs to the lights of the Gate station, the better to see the fireworks. Abby walked to a little hillock in the direction of the Gate, hunched over, trying to be unnoticed. Behind a large clump of plumed grasses, out of view, she did what was necessary and prepared to return. Then, almost lost among the sound and light show, Abby heard a muffled boom coming from the Gate building accompanied by a bright flash of light coming through the small windows.
Abby froze. In the soft lights of the Gate facility, she could see her weird neighbor skulking along the side of the building. Though he was several hundred yards away, his figure was unmistakable in his white shirt belted at the waist. The neighbor man holding a sort of noose on a pole in front of him. Abby saw him lunge, then lift the pole. Now the noose was glowing blue; inside was a squirming creature, something that looked like a large rabbit. Then, bizarrely, the rabbit pulled out a pea-shooter and hit the Human in the leg.
The neighbor didn’t drop his pole but ran limping around the corner of the building with his captive. A bright, brief strobe of light came from inside the building, and there was nothing more. Abby, now standing completely upright, had watched all this in puzzlement. The only noise she had heard was from the fireworks.
Abby walked back to where Sara and Luis were still watching the show.
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"What?" Sara asked. When she turned her head to look at Abby, Sara's curly hair blew over Luis' face.
"Do you mind!?" he sputtered.
Sara ignored him.
"It's….nothing. I thought I saw something, that's all," Abby said, unsure of herself. How to explain that her neighbor was stalking rabbits outside the Gate building?
Then the next cascade of light filled the night sky,
and all three of them looked up again.
Abby couldn't explain it to Sara, not now, not when she wasn't sure herself what she had seen. Abby tried to enjoy the rest of the show, but seeing her neighbor capturing rabbits (rabbits who shot back?) at night was deeply strange.
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The grand finale went off without a hitch, a dazzling display of cascading lights in the form of giant flowers. After the last lights had faded, the crowd lingered for a while, reluctant to let go of the magic
But eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Vargas packed up the picnic basket and they made their way back to their jellycar. The Vargas' car was bright lime green, and large enough to squeeze all five of them inside. Mrs. Vargas extended the dome over the car once they were all in and drove away. She dropped off Abby at her front door.
"Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Vargas. I had a great time."
"You're welcome, dear," Mrs. Vargas said.
"Bye! See you tomorrow!"
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"Hi. How were the fireworks?" Tom asked as Abby entered the living room. He was sprawled out on the floor with one of his comic books. Dad was there, too, going over some papers from work in the light of one of the floating globe lamps.
"Oh, they were wonderful! I wish you could have seen them, Tommy."
Tom nodded. "I'll bet they were great."
"Did you have a good dinner, Dad?" Abby asked with an innocent air.
He smiled. "Yes, thank you."
Abby persisted. "How was the food?"
"Very good. I've never seen so many chocolate desserts in my life."
"What did Ms. Tavish have?" Abby asking, flopping onto her favorite overstuffed chair.
"She had the seafood crepes and sachertorte for dessert."
"Did you talk a lot?" Abby asked.
"Naturally. She's an intelligent, interesting woman.
"And now it's time for bed," Dad said, collecting his papers and getting to his feet. "Tomorrow's a school day, you know."
Abby gave up. Obviously Dad wasn't going to tell her anything important.
She didn't mention to Tom nor Dad about the weird incident she'd seen at the fireworks launching area; Abby didn't know herself quite what she had seen. It already had the quality of a half-remembered dream.
Abby had no idea that she’d witnessed a skirmish in the ongoing Gracchian effort to correct a dangerous mistake.
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