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relief. If Mom's appendix had waited a little longer to act up, she would have
got stuck here. That could have been very bad. Amanda couldn't think of
anything much worse, in fact.
She asked, How long before you're able to come and get us?
Crosstime Traffic and the Ministry for the Environment here both have to
decide it's safe, Dad said. A
week or two, probably. But you said there was a war going on there?
That's right, Amanda said. She and Jeremy took turns telling what had happened
since they got cut off.
We've had to sell for money instead of wheat and barley, she put in at one
point. We didn't have any place to put the produce, and then we didn't want
the locals calling us hoarders.
Don't worry about that, Dad said. No one will complain that you went against
the grain.
For a second, Amanda just accepted that. She opened her mouth to start to
answer it. Then she saw the revolted look on her brother's face. She read the
message again. She made a horrible face, too. Well,
that's Dad for sure, she said.
You better believe it, Jeremy said. Nobody else in the world makes puns that
bad. From revolted, his expression suddenly went crafty. Except maybe me. He
spoke to the PowerBook: Answer. Wheat like to tell you to clean up that last
message. We could barley understand it. It seemed pretty corny. Send.
Ow! Amanda exclaimed. Where's something I can hit you with? Jeremy looked
proud of himself, which wasn't what she'd had in mind.
There was a pause at the other end. Amanda hoped Dad wasn't running out and
throwing up. That could be awkward in an antivirus spacesuit. At last, he
answered, Your sense of humor is as rye as I
remember. He must have typed that in instead of dictating it. If he'd spoken
into the computer, it would have written wry, which was right, and not rye,
which was wrong, to say nothing of ghastly. For good measure, he added, But I
don't want to be on the oats with you.
That's rice/' Amanda said. Jeremy groaned,, not quite in praise. It wasn't the
best comeback, but they were running out of grains.
Dad got back to business. Just hang on tiii we finish decontaminating here, he
said. That's aii you need to do now. Like I toid you, it won't be too long.
As long as the Lietuvans don't get into Polisso again, we'll be fine/' Jeremy
said. Amanda thought he'd put in one word too many, but it was too late to
stop him.
Sure as houses, Dad wrote back, Again?
They got some men in at night, Amanda said. Not too many, though, and Polisso
is crawling with Roman soldiers. We had to pay the prefect a sort of a bribe
to keep from having any quartered on us. They drove the Lietuvans out again.
Are you aii right? Is the house aii right?
We're fine, Jeremy said quickly. And the house is okay. A couple of
cannonballs hit the roof and smashed some tiles, but that's it.
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He didn't say anything about the broken-down front door. It was just about as
good as new, so Amanda could understand that. And he didn't say anything about
the Lietuvan soldier who'd stumbled when the table broke under him. He didn't
say anything about stabbing the Lietuvan, either. Amanda supposed she could
also understand that. Jeremy didn't want to think about it, and it was all
over with anyhow, and it would only worry Dad. We're fine was an awful lot
simpler and it was the truth.
Maybe one of these days I'ii get the whole story out of you, Dad wrote. Even
when he couldn't see faces and hear voices, he wasn't so easy to fool. But he
went on, For now, I'm just giad you are fine. I hope I'ii see you soon. I've
got to go get out of this suit and dean up now. I iove you, and so does your
mom.
'Bye, Amanda and Jeremy said together. They didn't get an answer. Amanda
wished they would have, but Dad had already said he was going. They found us
again! she said. She couldn't imagine a more wonderful sentence.
Yeah. By the glow in Jeremy's eyes, neither could he.
But then Amanda found one: We're not going to have to stay here.
Yeah! Jeremy said again. That would have been pretty bad. I kept trying not
to worry about it, but...
His voice trailed away. Sometimes you can't help it.
No. You can't. Amanda had thought about living out the rest of her life here,
and wondered how long it would be. It would certainly have seemed long, with
hard work filling so much of it. She wouldn't have had the whole world and
lots of alternates at her fingertips, the way she had back home. Anything
outside of Polisso would have faded to a whisper, almost to a dream.
She would have had to live with stench and dirt the rest of her life. Sooner
or later, the drugs they had here would have run out or got too old to do any
good. Doctors in Agrippan Rome didn't know anything, and mostly didn't know
they didn't know anything. Dentists were even worse. If her wisdom teeth gave
her trouble when they came in, what could she do? Take poppy juice and hope
for the best.
But none of that was the worst. If she and Jeremy were stuck in Polisso, they
would have had to become part of the city in a way they weren't now. They
would have had to make real friends, good friends, here.
If they didn't, they wouldn't have any. How were you supposed to live your
life without friends?
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