He'd done too much of it already, the last few days. After a while, one house, one tree, one open space looked like another. If anything could be more boring for him than traveling in a horseless, he had no idea ,.. what it was.
His eyes tried to glaze, but even that was denied him; it was too early in the day for him to fall asleep. He played With his fingers for a bit. That soon palled. He started to stroke himself, then stopped. For some reason, he knew people did not like anyone doing that out in the open.
He started to sing instead. His song had no words; tongue and lips could not shape them. But the hoots a grunts he let out in their place had rhythm of a sort, rhythm he made plainer by pounding on his thighs withe palm of his hands. His head bobbed happily. As far he was concerned it was a fine song.
He was the only one who thought so. Before very long Ken burst out,
"Wil you please stop that infernal racket Matt subsided; he was used to obeying people. But he was not pleased about it this time. He held up his hands so they could see them in the mirror. Like my song, he signed grumpily.
"Is that what you call it?" Ken said. "I don't."
Matt held up his hands again. Not free to sing? he asked Not freed Ken almost drove off the road. "Watch where you going," Melody exclaimed. "What's the matter with you! Ken told her what the matter was; she laughed and laughed She turned round in her seat so she could sign with Matt as well as speak to him. "sing all you like."
He opened his mouth to begin again, then paused. Why laugh he asked.
"Because, because, " Melody stopped, finally, "Because we do want to help sims be free, but it surprised us to have a sim, you, use the word to us."
Matt made an uncertain noise deep in his throat. It didn't seem very funny to him. He gave up and started sing again. Ken made a noise remarkably similar to his, but he didn't say anything.
They got to Springfield before noon; Ken drove around while, trying to find the next safe house. "Fancier part town than I expected," he observed. The house was biger than the ones where they had stayed before and the yard had a fence around it, but Matt, who was used to the immence size of the towers, remained ummpressed. If a day in a horseless was the way to freedom, he was beginning to doubt that he wanted any part of it.
His boredom fell away as he walked through the front. A female sim of about his own age was on her hands knees in front of the house, weeding in a flower bed. wa!" he said enthusiastically.
She female looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. , "Hoo!" she said back. Her backside twitched a little.
Uh-oh," Ken and Melody said at the same time. Matt paid little attention to them. Something else was on his mind.
A plump, middle-aged man came out on the front porch he house.
"Hello, my friends," he said. "I'm glad to see you. I'm Saul. Rhoda is on the phone, but she'll be out in a moment, I'm sure."
Glad to see you, Saul." Ken nodded toward the female . "And who is this?"
"Lucy?" Saul frowned. Then he looked from her to Matt.
Matt saw that Saul was not looking at his face. He looked down at himself.
His enthusiasm was quite visible. "Oh," Saul said.
"I see"
Yes," Ken said. He did not sound happy.
Wel ," Saul said, and let that hang for a while before ming as if with happy inspiration, "let's go inside and uncle After that we can see what comes up." He looked last again, and broke into a laugh that sounded any thing but cheerful.
The prospect of food was almost enough to divert Matt I Lucy.
He went with Ken and Melody to join Saul with only a brief sideways glance at the female sim.
Lucy put down the trowel she had been using and started to follow everyone else in. Matt felt a smile spread over his Food, a female, maybe this was what Ken and Melody ment by freedom. He had had this much back in the tower, outside, at least, no one did hurtful things to him, save the injection each morning. He'd had that before too, with much else, none of it pleasant. Getting away from those prodings, pokings, and stickmgs made even long stretches of riding in a horseless seem not too bad.
But then he heard Saul say, "Lucy, why don't you stay outside and finish what you're doing? Rhoda will bring something soon, I'm sure."
Matt let out an indignant grunt and sent a look to Ken and Melody. He was surprised and dismayed when they agreed with Saul.
"Come on, Matt," Ken said. "Lunch first. We'l worry about everything else later."
Sulkily, Lucy went back to work. Before she did, thou she gave Matt a glance full of promise from beneath brow-ridges. He let himself be steered into the house, but all he noticed about lunch was that there was a lot of it ended up not being hungry anymore, but with no idea what he'd eaten.
After a while, Lucy did come in, to use the toilet. Before she could get into the same room as Matt, Rhoda found something for her to do out in the back yard. Again Ken and Melody failed to interfere.
Matt glowered at them. This did not strike him as anything like freedom.
Finally he had waited as long as he could. He got up and started toward the back of the house. "The toilet is through that door," Ken said sharply.
Matt snorted. Not want toilet, he signed. Want, H. forearm pumped graphically.
"No!" All the people in the room spoke together.
The flat refusal brought Matt up short, and also madehim angry.
Yes, he signed, nodding so vigorously that his long, chinless jaw thumped against his chest. Want couple. Not couple since leave tower. Want to. You couple, Yes? He pointed at Saul and Rhoda.
Rhoda was even rounder than her husband. She turned pink at the question, but answered, "Yes, of course we do. Saul nodded.
Matt turned to Ken and Melody. You, you couple, yes?
They both turned pink, and looked away from each othf for a moment.
"Yes, we do," Ken admitted at last. He still did not look at Melody until she reached out and took him hand in hers Matt signed. I couple too. He headed for the back door again.
"No!" everyone said again.
Now he stared at them in disbelief. Not free to couple? he signed.
Not free? That had worked just this morning; he was sure it would again.
But it failed. "No, Matt," Melody told him. "I'm sorry, but youre not free to couple."
Not free? Matt signed, wondering if he had heard carectly. Why not free?
When his hands had finished signing, they curled themselves into fists. He saw Melody, and everyone else, look alarmed at that. sims were stronger than people.
Their fear did not stop them from arguing with him, though. Ken said,
"You can't couple with Lucy because you have the AIDS virus in you. If you couple with her, you'll give her the same sickness you have."
Not sick, Matt protested. Feel fine. Feel fine long time now.
you give medicine, hurt arm, so l feel fine, yes?
"You feel fine, yes," Melody said, "but what makes you sick is stil in you, and can go out when you couple. And we’ve no medicine for Lucy.
I'm sorry, Matt." She spread her hands in a gesture sims and people shared.
Matt only shook his head in reply. What she said made no sense to him. If he felt well, how could he have anything inside him that made him sick? And when he mated, the onIy thing that came out of him was jism.
Jism was just jism. How could it make a female sick?
A Besides, In tower, he signed, couple with many females.
they not sick now. Why this female here get sick, if they not now? He grinned, pleased at his own cleverness it was bigger mental effort than he usually made.
The people seemed to understand that too. Ken rolled his eyes, something else that was not part of sign-talk but that ,matt understood, and said to no one in particular, "Just at we need, a sim who cites precedent on us."
that Matt did not follow. He did not waste time on it in any case, for Melody was saying to him, "The female sims the tower had the AIDS virus in them like you. They already il the same way you are."