Zoe’s Tale PART I Chapter Five

Thither was a tap on my door, a rat-a-tat that I gave hickory to use when I was nine, when I make it a occult subdivision of my secret club. I made Dickory a secret member of an entirely different secret club. Same with mummy, papa and Babar. I was every(prenominal) most the secret clubs when I was nine, app bently. I couldnt even tell you what the create of that secret club was now. But hickory still used the smash whenever my bedroom door was closed.Come in, I said. I was standing by my bedroom window.hickory tree came in. Its dark in here, it said.Thats what happens when its late and the lights are fall discover, I said.I heard you walkinging roughly, hickory said. I came to see if you require eitherthing.Like a warm glass of milk? I said. Im fine, hickory tree. convey you.Then Ill pass along you, hickory said, book bindinging come forth.No, I said. Come here a minute. Look.Hickory walked over to stand next to me at the window. He looked where I pointed, to two figures in the road in front of our house. Mom and Dad. She has been verboten there for some time, Hickory said. Major Perry joined her a few minutes ago.I know, I said. I saw him walk out. I heard her walk out, too, slightly an hour earlier the squealing of the springs on the screen door had gotten me out of bed. I hadnt been sleeping, any counseling. Thinking about leaving Huckleberry and colonizing somewhere new was keeping my brain up, and thusly made me pace around. The idea of leaving was sinking in. It was making me twitchier than I horizon it would.You know about the new colony? I asked Hickory.We do, Hickory said. deputy Sagan informed us earlier this evening. Dickory also filed a request to our presidency for more information. wherefore do you call them by their rank? I asked Hickory. My brain was looking for tangents at the moment, it seemed, and this was a good wiz. Mom and Dad. Why dont you call them Jane and John like everyone else?Its non appropriate, Hick ory said. Its too familiar.Youve lived with us for heptad years, I said. You might be able to risk a dwarfish familiarity.If you wish us to call them John and Jane, then we will do so, Hickory said.Call them what you indispensability, I said. Im vindicatory theoriseing that if you want to call them by their first label, you could.We will remember that, Hickory said. I doubted there would be a change in protocol anytime soon.Youll be coming with us, expert? I asked, changing the subject. To the new colony. I hadnt assumed that Hickory and Dickory would non be joining us, which when I thought about it might not shoot been a smart assumption.Our treaty allows it, Hickory said. It will be up to you to decide.Well, of course I want you to come, I said. Wed just as soon leave Babar behind than not take you two.I am happy to be in the aforementioned(prenominal) category as your dog, Hickory said.I think that came out wrong, I said.Hickory held up a hand. No, it said. I know you d id not mean to imply Dickory and I are like pets. You meant to imply Babar is part of your household. You would not leave without him.Hes not just part of the household, I said. Hes family. Slobbery, sort of dim family. But family. Youre family, too. Weird, alien, occasionally impertinent family. But family.Thank you, Zoe, Hickory said.Youre welcome, I said, and suddenly felt shy. Conversations with Hickory were going weird places today. Thats why I asked about you calling my parents by rank, you know. Its not a usual family thing.If we are truly part of your family, then it is safe to say its not a usual family, Hickory said. So it would be hard to say what would be usual for us.This got a dame from me. Well, thats true, I said. I thought for a moment. What is your name, Hickory? I asked.Hickory, it said.No, I mean, what was your name before you came to live with us, I said. You had to have been named something before I named you Hickory. And Dickory, too, before I named it that. No, it said. You forget. Before your biological father, Obin did not have consciousness. We did not have a sense of self, or the look at to describe ourselves to ourselves or to others.That would make it hard to do anything with more than two of you, I said. look hey, you only goes so far.We had descriptors, to help us in our work, Hickory said. They were not the same as names. When you named Dickory and me, you gave us our true names. We became the first Obin to have names at all.I wish I had known that at the time, I said, after I took this in. I would have given you names that werent from a nursery rhyme.I like my name, Hickory said. Its popular among other Obin as well. Hickory and Dickory both.There are other Obin Hickorys, I said.Oh, yes, Hickory said. Several million, now.I had no possible intelligible response to that. I turned my anxiety substantiate to my parents, who were still standing in the road, entwined.They love severally other, Hickory said, following my gaze. I glanced back at it. Not really where I was expecting the conversation to go, but okay, I said.It makes a difference, Hickory said. In how they spill the beans to each other. How they communicate with each other.I suppose it does, I said. Hickorys card was an understatement, actually. John and Jane didnt just love each other. The two of them were nuts for each other, in exactly the sort of way thats both touching and upset to a teenage daughter. Touching because who doesnt want their parents to love each other, castigate down to their toes? Embarrassing because, well. Parents. Not supposed to act like goofs about each other.They showed it in different ways. Dad was the most obvious about it, but I think Mom felt it more intensely than he did. Dad was married before his first wife died back on Earth. Some part of his heart was still with her. No one else had any claim on Janes heart, though. John had all of it, or all of it that was supposed to belong to your spouse. No matter h ow you sliced it, though, theres nothing every of them wouldnt do for each other.Thats why theyre out here, I said to Hickory. In the road right now, I mean. Because they love each other.How so? Hickory asked.You said it yourself, I said. It makes a difference in how they communicate. I pointed over again to the two of them. Dad wants to go and lead this colony, I said. If he didnt, he would have just said no. Its how he works. Hes been moody and out of sorts all day because he wants it and he knows there are complications. Because Jane loves it here. much than you or Major Perry, Hickory said.Oh, yeah, I said. Its where shes been married. Its where shes had a family. Huckleberry is her homeworld. Hed say no if she doesnt give him permission to say yes. So thats what shes doing, out there.Hickory peered out again at the silhouettes of my parents. She could have said so in the house, it said.I shook my head. No, I said. Look how shes looking up. Before Dad came out, she was doing th e same thing. Standing there and looking up at the thaumaturges. Looking for the star our new planet orbits, maybe. But what shes really doing is saying good-bye to Huckleberry. Dad needs to see her do it. Mom knows that. Its part of the reason shes out there. To permit him know shes ready to let this planet go. Shes ready to let it go because hes ready to let it go.You said it was part of the reason shes out there, Hickory said. Whats the other part?The other part? I asked. Hickory nodded. Oh. Well. She needs to say good-bye for herself, too. Shes not just doing it for Dad. I watched Jane. A lot of who she is, she became here. And we may never get back here. Its hard to leave your home. Hard for her. I think shes trying to find a way to let it go. And that starts by saying good-bye to it.And you? Hickory said. Do you need to say good-bye?I thought about it for a minute. I dont know, I admitted. Its funny. Ive already lived on four planets. Well, three planets and a quadriceps fe moris station. Ive been here longest, so I guess its my home more than any of the rest of them. I know Ill miss some of the things about it. I know Ill miss some of my friends. But more than any of that Im excited. I want to do this. Colonize a new world. I want to go. Im excited and nervous and a little scared. You know?Hickory didnt say anything to this. Outside the window, Mom had walked away a little from Dad, and he was act to head back into the house. Then he stopped and turned back to Mom. She held out her hand to him. He came to her, took it. They began to walk down the road together.Good-bye, Huckleberry, I said, whispering the words. I turned away from the window and let my parents have their walk.