Linka exhaled a deep breath as the geo-cruiser quietened and darkened around her. Rain smattered against the windows, blurring the vision of the dark, bent little house in front of her. She gazed at it for a while, wondering if it had always been so small, before she picked up her bag and jumped from the cruiser, walking quietly across the rain-slickened dirt to the front door.
She was digging around in her pocket for the key when the door opened quietly. She jumped, and looked up into her brother's face.
"Mishka," she breathed, greeting him with a warm hug. "I didn't wake you, did I?"
He squeezed her gently and kissed the top of her head. "No, I was awake." He stepped aside and she squeezed past him into the house. She could smell cooked tomatoes and the faint scent of bread left over from their evening meal.
"Is there any food?" she whispered, smiling at him. "It's time for my lunch."
He chuckled and they went through into the kitchen. She sat at the table and watched him put some leftover tomato soup into a saucepan on the stove, heating it through gently.
"I'm sorry about our argument," Linka said after a moment, looking down at her hands.
Mishka looked at her in surprise. "It wasn't much of an argument, Linka. But I'm sorry too." He kissed the top of her head again and she smiled at him as he sat opposite her.
"Is it very bad?" she asked after a moment. Her throat felt dry.
"She has good days and bad days," Mishka answered. "It just feels as though there have been more bad days, lately."
She nodded and drew a pattern against the bare tabletop with her finger.
"She repeats herself a lot," Mishka continued quietly. "She forgets she has told me things. Or she believes she has told me something and then gets angry when I don't remember it." He paused for a moment. "I am worry when I leave her alone each day," he admitted. "I don't like leaving her by herself. She puts the stove on sometimes and forgets about it."
Linka swallowed carefully, feeling tearful. Her grandmother wasn't supposed to be resorted to something like this. She was the woman who had taught her about birds, holding their little wings open to count their feathers, making up little phrases to match their singing. She was the woman who had taught Linka how to tie her shoelaces, how to make khalva, how to knot an apron behind her back. She had been strength and comfort and intelligence for all the years Linka had grown up, and now she was fading away into old age, memories and skills unravelling and falling apart, broken and unfixable.
Mishka patted Linka's hand gently and got up to take her soup off the stove, pouring it into a bowl and setting it in front of her with a thick slice of buttered bread.
She smiled at him and began to eat, though she didn't feel very hungry any more.
"She'll be pleased to see you," Mishka said after a few minutes of silence. "She mentions you a lot."
Guilt shot through Linka. "I'm sorry I don't come back more often," she said. "It's just so far, and I don't get much time –"
"I didn't mean to make you feel guilty, earlier," he interrupted, looking sheepish. "I'm sorry. When Grandma has a bad day, it tends to mean a bad day for me, too."
She squeezed his hand and turned her attention back to her soup. "I know it must be hard for you," she said after a moment. "There's nobody else to help, is there?"
"Not really," he answered. "She's adamant about not needing help, anyway. She wouldn't let anyone else come in to cook or clean for her."
"You have to do it, instead," Linka said, giving him a small smile.
He smiled back and shrugged.
Linka scraped her spoon against the bottom of her bowl. "Does Uncle Dimitri know?" she asked timidly, looking up at Mishka.
He watched her for a moment. "He calls every week," he said. "I think he can tell things have changed. But I can't ask him to come back, Linka."
She shifted uncomfortably. "You asked me to come back."
Mishka sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. "You're younger than Uncle Dimitri," he said. "To be honest, Linka... All that Grandma will talk about when he calls is Boris. It upsets him. I can't ask him to come back and face that..."
Linka felt a quiver in her stomach. She lowered her eyes back to her soup and forced herself to eat the last spoonful. "Doesn't she know it upsets him?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know." Mishka laced his fingers together and then separated them again to toy with the salt shaker. "I think she wants Uncle Dimitri to come home, and she – she mentions Boris because she hopes he'll come back to his family here. She thinks if they had stayed here, Boris would..." He shifted uncomfortably. "That he would be all right," he continued. "I think she wants Uncle Dimitri to feel guilty so he will come home."
"Grandma would not do something like that," Linka retorted immediately. "That's horrible."
Mishka just blinked tiredly and gave a shrug. "I can't ask him to come back here, Linka. He doesn't want to come home, and Grandma has two young, fit and healthy grandchildren to look after her." He raised his eyes to hers again and Linka blinked and looked away, hating herself for immediately thinking how unfair it all was.
They sat in relative silence as Linka finished her bread, listening to the rain on the roof and only chatting now and then when certain thoughts occurred. Unpleasantness was pushed aside again.
"You should go to bed," Linka said, checking her watch and getting up to rinse her dishes. "You need to be at work in a few hours."
Mishka yawned and nodded, getting to his feet and pushing his chair in. He leaned over and kissed Linka's cheek. "Thank you for coming home," he said. "I've missed you."
She smiled, and he disappeared into his bedroom, closing the door quietly. She heard his bed creak as he sat down.
She stood for a moment, listening to the rain and the slight creaking of the house as the wind pushed against it. Sounds that had been so familiar to her once sounded so strange now. She felt her way along the short corridor into her old bedroom and curled up on her bed, feeling very awake and feeling very anxious about what the morning would bring.
"Have you seen Wheeler?"
Gi propped her chin up on her hand and squinted up at Ma-Ti. She was reading a book in the shade by the beach, her hair still damp from swimming in the ocean. "Nope."
Ma-Ti sighed and headed for the common room. Sure enough, Wheeler was stretched out in front of the TV, a half-eaten bowl of popcorn on his lap. As Ma-Ti watched, the Fire Planeteer plucked a popped kernel from the bowl and handed it distractedly to Suchi, who was sitting beside him. The monkey nibbled at it, turning it around in his hands happily.
"What are you doing inside on a day like this?" Ma-Ti asked, sitting down beside Wheeler with a smile.
"Ask him," Wheeler answered, pointing his thumb at Suchi. "He wanted popcorn."
Ma-Ti chuckled and Suchi moved over into his lap, chattering quietly. Ma-Ti ran a hand gently over his fur.
"I dunno, man," Wheeler sighed, stretching tiredly. "I know I should be out enjoying the nice weather, but watching a movie sort of appealed to me."
Ma-Ti didn't bother pushing the gentle teasing any further. They had more than enough time outdoors in their regular duties as Planeteers.
"I have a favor to ask you," Ma-Ti said after a moment, watching the screen.
"Hm?" Wheeler asked, digging around in the popcorn again.
"I was wondering if I could drop you in Brooklyn on Friday and keep the eco-copter for a while. I'd like to visit Shaman."
Wheeler looked at him in surprise. "Is everything okay?"
Ma-Ti smiled. "He is fine. I was just thinking, and I realised it has been quite some time since I saw him last. With Linka away, and you going to New York, I thought I would take advantage of the few days we seem to be taking off from things. Would you mind if I took the eco-copter?"
"No, of course not." Wheeler shifted slightly on the couch. He hadn't been planning on staying in Brooklyn very long, and without the eco-copter he'd be forced to stay until Ma-Ti came to pick him up... But Ma-Ti's request wasn't an unreasonable one and Wheeler felt no need to say no to it.
Ma-Ti ran his hand down Suchi's back again, and the monkey reached for the bowl of popcorn, snatching a greedy handful.
"Manners, dude," Wheeler said, frowning down at him.
Ma-Ti chuckled and Suchi swung himself up onto the Heart Planeteer's shoulder. "We'll leave you to it," Ma-Ti said, getting to his feet.
Wheeler watched him go. He had been feeling awkward about his trip to Brooklyn anyway, but now he would be there with no chance of escape until Ma-Ti came back for him...
He sighed and shrugged his weight further down on the sofa, fixing his eyes on the television and forcing himself to forget about it.
"Taste this." Gi held up a spoonful of sauce and waited for Kwame to take it into his mouth.
He hesitated at the last second. "You have not slipped something dangerous in there?"
She cackled. "No."
He grinned and opened his mouth obediently.
She smiled when he nodded his approval, and held her hand up. He high-fived her and reached up for the spaghetti strainer that was sitting on the shelf above her head.
"I think we're going to be alone together this weekend," she said after a moment, watching him drain the pasta. Steam rose up into the air and bathed his face.
"We are?"
"Ma-Ti is going back to his village for a couple of days. It's just going to be you and me. Are you scared?"
"Terrified," Kwame said, grinning at her.
She grinned back and gave the sauce another stir.
"You do not want to go and see your parents?" Kwame asked.
She cringed suddenly. "I meant to call them tonight." She checked her watch. "I'll do it later." She looked up at him with a slight frown. "Don't you want to have a weekend alone with me?"
He glanced towards the kitchen door. "I do, very much." He kissed her forehead gently. "I just thought you might want to visit your family. It seems everyone else is."
"Do you want to visit your family?" she asked after a moment. She paused with her wooden spoon held above the bubbling pasta sauce. Kwame never spoke of his family and she had the sudden feeling she'd just put her foot in her mouth.
"I have nobody to visit," Kwame said, shrugging and giving the pasta another shake.
She bit her lip guiltily. "Sorry, Kwame. You never talk about your parents and I guess I –"
"It is easy to assume we all know everything about each other, sometimes," he whispered, kissing her forehead again.
She looked up at him. "Do you ever want to talk about it?"
He tucked a strand of her silky hair behind her ear. "Later," he said softly, giving her a small smile. "You are burning your sauce."
"Shit." She shoved the saucepan off the hotplate and stirred it quickly.
He laughed and tipped the pasta into a dish, carrying it through to the kitchen table.
Gi threw the window open and hollered in the direction of the common room. "Food!"
She could practically hear Wheeler's sprinting footsteps as she pulled the window closed again and followed Kwame to the table.
Gi kicked Wheeler under the table and grinned at him. "Your turn to do the washing up."
He groaned. "Can't you cover for me just this once?"
"Just this once?" She raised her eyebrow. "I stopped falling for that one five years ago."
He grinned and shrugged. "Nice work on the pasta sauce."
"Flattery won't help," she sang, stacking plates in front of him.
Wheeler sighed and picked them up, heading for the sink. "What are you guys up to this weekend?"
"I think we are still trying to decide," Kwame said, giving Gi a quick smile.
She checked her watch anxiously. "I really should call my parents. But if I let it slip we have this weekend free, they're going to want me to visit."
"Is that a big deal?" Wheeler asked, filling the sink with water.
Gi leaned against the counter. "No." She gazed at the floor for a moment and sighed. "Okay, here I go." She gave them a small wave and headed towards The Crystal Chamber.
Wheeler watched her go. "Is she all right?"
"I think so," Kwame answered. He frowned after her, feeling a little worried. "She gets on with her parents... right?"
"I dunno," Wheeler answered, shrugging. "I assume so."
"Has anybody heard from Linka?" Ma-Ti asked, grabbing a dishcloth.
"Nope." Wheeler scrubbed at a plate with a frown, looking slightly distracted.
Kwame shook his head. "I hope her grandmother is all right."
Ma-Ti glanced at Wheeler for a moment before he shrugged. "I might call her and see how things are going. She was very worried when she left here earlier."
Kwame and Wheeler watched him go.
"Is everything all right between you and Linka?" Kwame asked, picking up Ma-Ti's abandoned dishcloth.
"Yeah," Wheeler said airily. "Why?"
Kwame smiled and shrugged. "You are very quiet, lately."
Wheeler sighed and stacked another plate haphazardly on the side of the sink, watching the suds run across it before Kwame picked it up to dry it. "Nah, man, I'm okay. A bit nervous about goin' home, that's all. I got along okay with Dad at the end of the last visit but I don't think it was something that will last."
"You never know," Kwame said comfortingly. "Is his health any better?"
"Don't think so," Wheeler muttered.
Kwame gave his friend a quiet pat on the back and turned his attention back to drying dishes, letting the subject drop.
Gi had chosen to use the telephone rather than the Crystal Vision screens. Ma-Ti could see her out on the porch, the phone held to her ear. She was gazing out at the ocean with an annoyed look on her face, apparently not liking whatever it was she was listening to.
Ma-Ti dialled Linka and waited patiently. He smiled when she answered. "Hello."
"Ma-Ti!" She beamed back at him. "Is everything all right? Do you need me for something?"
"No, nothing like that. I just thought I should let you know that we are taking some time off, ourselves," Ma-Ti said, referring to himself and the other Planeteers. "Wheeler is going back to Brooklyn for his mother's birthday and I am going to go and visit Shaman."
Linka smiled at him. "Say hello to Shaman for me."
"I will." He smiled back and rubbed at a mosquito bite on his arm. "How is your grandmother?"
Linka's facial expression became one of mild annoyance. "I think Mishka is over-reacting," she said. "Grandma does not seem any different to me. We have just had breakfast and she seems just like her old self."
"That's good," Ma-Ti offered. "I'm sure she's glad to see you."
Linka nodded. "Da, she is. I just wish Mishka had not worried me so much."
Ma-Ti smiled and shrugged. "Never mind. Spend a few days with her and we will see you again Sunday."
Linka smiled back and nodded. "It really has been too long since my last visit," she sighed. "We have been so busy lately."
"I know," Ma-Ti agreed. "I am starting to feel guilty about leaving Shaman for such long periods of time. He is getting older, too, and I worry about him."
"I am sure he is okay," Linka said. She glanced over her shoulder and then back to Ma-Ti, looking apologetic. "I should go," she said. "I told Grandma I would feed the birds for her today and if I do not do it soon, she will beat me to it."
Ma-Ti chuckled and gave her a wave. "Give her and Mishka our love."
"Da, I will. Fly safely, Ma-Ti. I will see you all on Sunday."
He nodded and they smiled at one another before he disconnected.
He felt odd. They very rarely took time off, and it was even more unusual for them to split up to do so. One or two of them would occasionally part from the group to do something together, but for the next couple of days, Ma-Ti would be alone, without the Planeteers, and he could sense it felt odd to the others as well.
He glanced at Gi, who was still listening rather inattentively to what appeared to be a very one-sided conversation. She spotted him and rolled her eyes.
He smiled and headed back towards the kitchen.
Kwame emerged from the bathroom after his shower to find Gi sitting up in his bed, twirling one of his bracelets around her wrist.
"Hello," he said, smiling at her. "No midnight visit?"
"Linka's away," Gi explained, watching the bracelet catch the gleam from Kwame's bedside lamp. "I only had to sneak past Wheeler, and he's absorbed in some sort of video game."
"Ah." He sat down on the edge of the bed and watched her for a moment. "Are you all right?"
Gi sighed and leaned back against his pillows. "I had a bit of a fight with my mother," she muttered.
"What about?" Kwame shifted to sit beside her, curling an arm around her shoulders.
She leaned her head against him tiredly. "The usual stuff."
"What is the usual stuff?" He kissed the top of her head and tightened his arm around her slightly, worried about her.
"She just misses me a lot, I think," Gi said uncomfortably, drawing her knees up and burrowing into his side. "She's always talking about what my old friends are doing and what I'm missing out on back home..." She sighed and shook her head. "I don't know."
Kwame ran his hand up and down her arm and they sat in silence for a few moments.
"You never talk about your parents," Gi said after a while.
"What do you want to know?" Kwame shifted slightly, wrapping his other arm around her to hug her properly. He felt her smile against his shoulder, and then her lips pressed against his skin in a soft kiss.
"Why don't you ever talk about them? Is it too upsetting for you?"
"Not really," he answered. "When you think about it, none of us talk about our parents much."
Gi frowned, realizing he was right.
He continued before she spoke again. "My mother died when I was twelve. She fell ill. A lot of people in my village did." He shifted uncomfortably. "I am not entirely sure what it was..." He trailed off.
Gi didn't push it. She kissed him again, just above his heart.
"I never knew my father. I have no idea if he is alive, or dead, or if he has other children."
Gi traced her thumb across a scar on his ribs. "Do you ever think about looking for him?"
"No. I have no real interest in finding him."
Gi took his hand and closed her eyes. "You got on with your mother though?"
He nodded and kissed the top of her head. "We were very close."
"What happened after she died? Did you live with someone else?"
"No. I stayed in the village. I was looked after if I took on my share of the work."
Gi squeezed his hand and smothered a yawn.
"Tired?"
She nodded.
"Hard work, doing nothing all day," he whispered, kissing her temple.
She gave a soft giggle. "I swam a really long way today..."
He wrapped his arms tightly around her and pulled her down into his bed drawing the sheets over the both of them and reaching to turn out his lamp. Gi rolled over and gave a quiet sigh of comfort.
"Gi..."
"Hm?"
"If you want to visit your parents this weekend, I do not mind. I know it is a chance for us to be together, but if it will help settle things with your mother, maybe you should go."
She chewed her lip for a moment before she pressed her back against his chest. "Come with me?"
He kissed the back of her neck and smiled. "You want me to?"
"Mmhm." She rolled over and smiled at him, tracing her fingers gently over his face. "No secrets, either."
He smiled. "No?"
"None," she breathed, taking his hand and clasping it to her chest. "Come with me. No secrets."
He brushed his thumb over her cheek. "I would really like that."
She smiled at him again and leaned forward to kiss him gently.