Among trees and grass, Jeriba Zammis sat upon a stone bench, staring at the ground. Its eyes never blinked, its hands never moved. Gothig frowned at me, but I could spare nothing for Shigan’s parent. I walked to Zammis. "Zammis, do you know me?"
The Drac retrieved its thoughts from a million warrens and raised its yellow eyes to me. I saw no sign of recognition. "Who are you?"
I squatted down, placed my hands on its arms and shook them. "Dammit, Zammis, don’t you know me? I’m your uncle. Remember that? Uncle Davidge?"
The Drac weaved on the bench, then shook its head. It lifted an arm and waved to an orderly. "I want to go to my room. Please, let me go to my room."
I stood and grabbed Zammis by the front of its hospital gown. "Zammis, it’s me!"
The yellow eyes, dull and lifeless, stared back at me. The orderly placed a yellow hand upon my shoulder. "Let it go, Irkmaan."
"Zammis!" I turned to Nev and Gothig. "Say something!"
The Drac orderly pulled a sap from its pocket, then slapped it suggestively against the palm of its hand. "Let it go, Irkmaan."
Gothig stepped forward. "Explain this!"
I looked at Zammis but addressed the guard. "What have you bastards done to Zammis? A little shock? A little drug? Rot out its mind?"
The orderly sneered at me, then shook his head. "You, Irkmaan, do not understand. This one would not be happy as an Irkmaan vul—a human lover. We are making it possible for this one to function in Drac society. You think this is wrong?"
I looked at Zammis and shook my head. I remembered too well my treatment at the hands of my fellow humans. "Wrong? No. I just don’t know."
The orderly turned to Gothig. "Please understand, Jeriba Gothig. We could not subject the Jeriba line to this disgrace. Your grandchild is almost well and will soon enter a reeducation program. In no more than two years, you will have a grandchild worthy of carrying on the Jeriba line. Is this wrong?"
Gothig only shook its head. I squatted down in front of Zammis and looked up into its yellow eyes. I reached up and took its right hand in both of mine. "Zammis?"
Zammis looked down, moved its left hand over, and picked up my left hand and spread the fingers. One at a time Zammis pointed at the fingers of my hand, then it looked into my eyes, then examined the hand again. "Yes…"
Zammis pointed again. "One, two, three, four, five!" Zammis looked into my eyes. "Four, five!"
I nodded. "Yes. Yes."
Zammis pulled my hand to its cheek and held it close. "Uncle… Uncle. I told you I’d never forget you."
We brought Zammis back to the estate. Then came a revealing challenge: trying to find a mental health jetah who didn’t think Gothig and Nev were crazy for tolerating me. It took three days, but one was found. It prescribed a regimen of withdrawal from the drugs they had Zammis on at the Sa Ashzhab Kovah. It would be two days before the jetah would arrive, and I spent the entire time with Zammis in its apartment, sitting next to it on its sleeping pallet. Zammis stayed quiet, trembling, crying silent tears, and holding onto my arm with both hands. Physically Zammis was a fullgrown adult, but what I saw before me was a sick, terrified child.
I looked for monsters, people, cultures to blame, someone I could kill and make everything all right. There was nothing except my memories of Zammis’s parent and myself trying to kill each other on that cold, wet sandbar.
"Nu gejh, Irkmaan!"
You die, Earthman.
"Kiz da yuomeen, Shizumaat!"
Yeah, and Shizumaat eats it.
How did I get from there to here? I thought of the hellish winds and deadly winters on Fyrine IV and realized what brought Jerry and me together, and then left Zammis to make my life whole. It wasn’t that we were all driven together by the unforgiving planet. It was that Fyrine IV was clean. There wasn’t anyone else there. I wondered how the galaxy could be given a mental enema to make it half as clean. A problem for someone smarter than me.
I looked down at Jerry’s child and said, "Zammis. Zammis?" I placed my free hand against its cheek. "Zammis?"
"Uncle, don’t leave me," it whispered.
"I’m not going anywhere. Zammis, when were you the most happy?"
"Happy?"
I nodded. "Yes. When the nightmares begin crowding you, where do you go to hide? In your mind, where do you go to be safe?"
Zammis looked away from my face and its gaze moved over the cut stone walls of the apartment. I could see it went to its safe place and then smiled at the same time fresh tears came to its eyes. "The cave, Uncle. I hide in the cave."
I patted its cheek and nodded. "Me, too. How would you like to go back?"
"Go back?"
"To the cave, to Fyrine IV. How would you like to go back?"
Zammis sat up and smiled hopefully for a moment, then frowned at me. "Uncle, you always said you hated it there."
"I was a fool. I want to go back. Do you want to go back?"
"Together, Uncle?"
"Of course, together."
Zammis buried its face in my neck and held on to me as it hadn’t done since it was little. God, how many tears are there left to cry?
I never counted the years that passed. Mistaan had words for those who count time as though their recognition of its passing marked their place in the Universe. Mornings, the weather as clear as weather gets on Fyrine IV, I would visit my friend’s grave. Next to it, Estone Nev, Zammis, Ty and I buried Gothig. Shigan’s parent had taken the healing Zammis, liquidated the Jeriba line’s estate, then moved the whole shebang to Fyrine IV. When told the story, it was Ty who named the planet "Friendship."
One blustery day I knelt between the graves, replaced some rocks, then added a few more. I pulled my snakeskins tight against the wind, then sat down and looked out to sea. Still the rollers steamed in under the grey-black cover of clouds. Soon the ice would come. I looked at my scarred, wrinkled hands, then at the grave.
"I couldn’t stay in the colony with them, Jerry. Don’t get me wrong; it’s nice. Damned nice. But I kept looking out my window, seeing the ocean, thinking of the cave. I’m alone, in a way. But it’s good. I know what and who I am, Jerry, and that’s all there is to it, right?"
I heard a noise. I crouched over, placed my hands upon my withered knees, and pushed myself to my feet. The Drac was coming from the colony compound, a child in its arms.
I rubbed my beard. "Eh, Ty, so that is your first child?"
The Drac nodded. "I would be pleased, Uncle, if you would teach it what it must be taught: the line, The Talman; and about the life on Friendship."
I took the bundle into my arms. Chubby three-fingered arms waved at the air, then grasped my snakeskins. "Yes, Ty, this one is a Jeriba." I looked up at Ty. "And how is your parent, Zammis?"
Ty shrugged. "It is as well as can be expected. My parent wishes you well."
I nodded. "And the same to it, Ty. Zammis ought to get out of that air-conditioned capsule and come back to live in the cave. It’ll do it good."
Ty grinned and nodded its head. "I will tell my parent, Uncle."
I stabbed my thumb into my chest. "Look at me! You don’t see me sick, do you?"