LEFT WING: Part 29
CHAPTER FOUR
Cracked
Gosalyn woke up four hours later. It was Sunday and she spent her day tucked up in bed with her egg and her school books.
She had just gotten her term paper finished when there was a tapping on the window pane that made her look up.
Honker's face was looking in at her. "Gosalyn?"
"Honker?"
He climbed through the open window. "Why are you in bed?"
"It's warm for the egg." She replied. "Why are you coming through my window ... again? It's still daylight."
"It's just easier than getting through your front door these days."
"Huh?" Gosalyn raised an eyebrow. "Well anyway, I am pleased to announce that I have completed my term paper."
"Whoa, already?"
"It's called 'time'." She frowned. "Of which now I have plenty of."
"Grizlykoff gave you parental leave? Uh, what form is that?"
"A 1ML." Gosalyn shook her head. "What? Griz give me maternity leave? No way! I haven't even gotten my wage cheque this month yet. I went online to order a new bow just after lunch and it rejected. Turns out my bank account had nothing to cough up. It's probably just as well; it was an impulsive buy since I should be spending that sixty bucks on baby things rather than on a bow. That is if I ever get paid! He's probably holding it back to spite me, just like he did with the bucket. Man, Honker, I really need that money."
"Gosalyn, how've you spent your last paycheque already?"
"Honker, it's getting on over a month ago now."
"But, I mean, it doesn't just disappear. What have you spent it on?"
"Hmm, let's see ... I pay dad twenty five every week for board. Then you and I went to the movies a couple of weeks ago. Remember, we saw Maniacs Deliver? And then I've bought new arrows and other stuff for work, and I had to fill up the ratcatcher twice. That reminds me, it's almost empty again. Remind me not to go on any long trips for a while."
"Ouch. How much have you got left?"
"I've got ten dollars left in my bank account and about an eighth of a tank of fuel in the ratcatcher."
Honker mulled over this information. "Those arrows must be expensive."
"I go through them heaps following those eggmen around. The nets aren't cheap either when you start adding them together. I try to rescue them when I can of course. The arrows, not the crooks ... er, you know what I mean." Gosalyn paused, "Honker, where's your glasses?"
"In my room. I decided to try out my new contacts. I was hoping to get your opinion."
"Was it easier to climb the tree?"
"Yes, but I-."
"Then I think they're great."
He slighted a smile. "Thanks. I'm still a geek."
"So's my dad." She reminded him.
"So what did you do wrong last night?"
"Well!" Gosalyn took a deep breath and started off her usual tirade of disasters that ended with: "... I can safely say S.H.U.S.H. will not be on S.C.E.S.'s Christmas card list this year."
"That must've been some speech he gave you."
"Heck no, he didn't get into half of it, I wasn't waiting around to hear everything I already knew! This time I was the one that did the shouting. Then of course I walked out without being dismissed. Thank goodness dad came; no way was I fit to drive back to the tower this morning."
Honker sighed. "So you got to bed two hours earlier than you would have this morning."
"Yeah; I also skipped out without filing the appropriate paperwork. And I won't be going back there tonight or tomorrow night or ever again."
"But S.H.U.S.H. needs you, Gosalyn. Quiverwing."
"No, they don't. Honk, you don't treat someone you need like the way they've been treating me for the last five months. Did you know Justin can read now? I totally missed that because I just haven't been here. I only come home to sleep. I eat a quick breakfast because I wake up so late then I'm off to school again. This isn't living-correction that wasn't living. That was being a slave. I spent almost all the money they gave me back on the job. Everything I ever did was wrong and whenever I thought I'd done a faultless job I still got debriefed about a spelling mistake on my mission completion form and how I didn't do whatever the particular way he felt I should've done it at that moment in time. Well, I'm through with it; they can find someone else to be perfect."
"Maybe they'll enlist a robot. From all the things you've told me, I think perhaps it would be a logical option."
"And they can call him Hal." Gosalyn sighed. The idea of being replaced by a robot didn't make her feel any better about it. "I wish I was a robot."
"I'm sure Grizlykoff would still find something to complain about."
"Yeah, I agree, I'd probably squeak or buzz the wrong way. But at least then I could turn off my input processors and just stand there deafly ignoring him."
Honker took a breath. "I've said this a hundred times, Gosalyn."
"I know." She sighed. "I've let him get to me."
"You are a good crime fighter."
"He doesn't think that."
"Nobody cares what Grizlykoff thinks," Honker said steadily, "nobody except you."
Gosalyn sighed and leaned back against the wall. "None of it matters now. I've been thrown out with the garbage."
"How about we change the subject?" Honker said in a firm tone. "What do you think of Raya's new boyfriend?"
"I don't have enough of a clue yet, but what's with that? She's not old enough for that sort of stuff. It must be just a crush or something."
"She brought him home to meet your dad. Actually, she did that with her first one too. Have you met the new one yet?"
"No, Honker. Let's start from the top. What happened to the first one?"
"The way I heard it from Justin, the two of them had a fight over Raya and the new one won."
"A fight about a girl. What is this, the new animal kingdom? She's only in primary school for goodness sake! I'm away working for five months and the world goes crazy. And ... why are you getting gossip from a toddler?"
"It sure beats talking to Tank about construction." Honker shrugged.
"Besides, your dad pays me to baby-sit when he has to suddenly be out early in the evenings."
"Oh." Gosalyn exclaimed, feeling an uncomfortable prickling in her feathers. "Because you're doing the job I'm supposed to be doing."
"Well, you were out earning more than the forty bucks I get for babysitting."
Gosalyn choked. "... Dad ... gave you forty bucks? A whole ... forty bucks?"
"It's a whole evening without Tank raving about his job. I get some study done and feed Justin and Raya dinner. I wouldn't know what the going rate is but it seems reasonable to me since I'd otherwise do it for free."
"How many hours are we talking about here?"
"Uh, four. Sometimes if it's Friday or Saturday your mum gets delayed at the restaurant so I get a round fifty."
Gosalyn felt herself going red as the numbers sank in. "Honker, you really better go."
"Gosalyn, I haven't ..."
She reached her fingers for her completed assignment and dragged it forwards. She picked it up and offered it to Honker. "Can you hand this in to Mr Fieldmauser for me tomorrow?"
"Sure, Gosalyn." He took up her term paper and backed away to the window, climbed the sill and shut it behind him.
Gosalyn picked up the nearest textbook and hurled it at the basketball hoop on her door with a scream. "Da-a-ad!"
