Gene Wolfe - The Land Across

I could sit on those steps all night. In the morning somebody might unlock the door, and I might be able to get away from him without getting busted, but maybe not.

So how about the shops upstairs? If I could get into one, there might be a back door. And if there was, it was probably just bolted from inside. What was more, I could probably break the glass in those doors without anybody outside hearing. I would be doing it up on the second floor, and the windows were closed.

So up I went. Hats or head? I felt like flipping a coin, but I did not have one. After a minute, what I really did was flip an imaginary coin and call, heads! Naturally that settled it. The glass broke as soon as I kicked it, and in I went.

That head felt like leather and I was tempted to boost it, but it reminded me of the hand way too much. What if it came alive, too? I let it be.

There was no back door, no back stairs, nothing like that. On the other hand, there were windows at the front and back of the building, and one on one side. They were locked, sure. But anybody could turn the catch from inside and open the window. I opened one myself just to prove it. It was a back window with a dirty patch of bare ground down below. Maybe I could have let myself down and dropped, and walked away from it. But maybe I would have broken my ankle, too. Basically, looking out of the back and side windows showed you big trees. Out the front windows, you saw a few little trees, then the street, then the trees on the other side.

I had already noticed the skylights, and it seemed like they might be better. I cleared some stuff off the top of a table and climbed up on it. Opening the skylight was a piece of cake. It took me a couple of minutes, no more than that, to get it open and pull myself up onto the roof. It was flat, gravel over tar. I went to the edge, and sure enough, one of the big trees on the side of the building had reached a limb over the roof. I grabbed it and climbed into the tree, going from limb to limb until I was only about six feet above the ground.

That was better than okay, but once I was down I had a thought. It was a crazy idea and I was tired, but getting out the way I did had perked me up. What I did was climb up again, which was pretty easy, get up on the roof, and close the skylight.

I was not just trying to be nice. That skylight was closed now, but not locked. Whoever ran the shop was going to see his glass door had been busted, and he was going to check his stock and find out nothing was missing. (Really I had taken one thing, but it was not from the stock.) So he would figure somebody had broken in but had not found anything he wanted and had gone out the same way. It could be weeks or a month before he noticed his skylight was not locked. Meanwhile I could get in anytime I wanted to by climbing the tree and pulling up the skylight. Want to know why I thought that might be handy? It was just because the head had reminded me of the hand.

So after that I went back to Naala’s. I did not have a key, but when I knocked on the door she let me in right away. “You I was expecting earlier. I had begun to think some hurt had befall to you.”

I shook my head. “Nothing. I’ve been walking my feet off, that’s all.”

“You are not hungry?”

I just about said I was starved, but I thought about it for half a second or so and realized I was not. I was too tired to be hungry. “No,” I told her, “or not very. If you were to offer me a bowl of corn flakes I’d probably eat it, but I wouldn’t walk outside the building to get one.”

She gave me the grin. “You fear I will wish you to walk a hundred kilometers to some café.”

I shook my head. “I fear you’ll wish me to walk fifty meters. Okay if I take off my shoes?”

“You are my guest, how can I refuse? A glass of wine? Some I have that is not so bad.”

I only had one shoe off, but I stood up anyhow. “I’ll get it. You must be tired, too.”

It worked. Naala jumped up and said, “No, I. I know where is it, and you do not. Besides, you would drink the bottle in the kitchen.”

I sat down again….

Something touched my hand. Naala’s voice. “It is here.”

I had leaned back and closed my eyes. Now I opened them again and took the wine.

“Taste. If you do not like, I will drink.”

I tasted. “You think I’ll think you’re trying to poison me, right? You won’t, because it wouldn’t make sense.”

“Also I like you. More also I have the uses for you. So no. Do you like it?”

It was too sweet for me and not cold enough, but I said I did.

“A gift from someone who desires many favors. I will complain of it.” She giggled, something that always caught me off guard. “If I complain well, he may give me better. You have walked from shop to shop, yes?”

“Yes. One hell of a lot.”

“You did not find Rathaus?”

“I didn’t even get a smell of him.” I was taking off the other shoe. “Let me tell you something. Either he doesn’t know Rosalee’s out of jail, or he knows she doesn’t need clothes.”

“Or he is unable. Or too much frightened. Or a hundred other things.”

“You’re wrong. It’s one of those two things. You’ll see when we find him.”

For a while Naala did not say anything. She sat down and studied me, sipped from the glass she had poured for herself, and studied me some more. Finally she said, “You do not speak.”

“I’m tired, like I told you. I’m tired and my feet hurt.”

“You have found something or learned something. You have that to say which is of interest, but you wait the moment.”

I shrugged.

“The moment has arrived, Grafton. What have you learn?”

“Well, for one thing there’s nobody looking for Rosalee except the JAKA. I saw one, a middle-aged lady. Nice dress, gray hair. Do you know who that is?”

Naala nodded. “Proceed.”

“Here’s the bad one, and it may be the biggest I’ve got. I know why Rosalee escaped.”

“It was not as I said?”

“No. Or anyhow, not exactly. You know, you could have some food for us delivered here.”

“Ah-ha! You must be bribed.”

I grinned. “A pizza or something. That’s pretty cheap for what I’ve got.”

“That word I do not know, only that it is food you want. I am to walk to the café. There I am to pay and walk empty home. In time someone will bring our food. All so you may remain in my chair and be lazy.”

“It was just a suggestion.”

“If I do this you will tell me?”

I nodded. “Absolutely. Word of honor.”

“All right. I go. All day I am here. Now for me the breath of evening.”

She went out, but she was back before I could fall asleep. Say, five minutes tops.

“Now I have done as you say. Tell me.”

I said, “I didn’t know there was a café as close as that.”

“Tell me!”

“Not til the food comes. I’ll tell you something else instead. Rathaus sent Martya to Papa Iason with the hand.”

That opened her eyes.

“We thought that the hand was sent so it would kill Papa. That was wrong. It was sent so he could kill it. That’s the only way the stuff I found out makes sense.”

“Tell me.” Naala was leaning way forward, and her eyes caught the light. I thought of a German shorthaired bitch I had seen one time. In a second or so she would get the signal to range, then she would run from side to side, farther and farther out, sniffing and listening and looking for birds. If they were there, she would find them and point them for the guns.

“Let’s start here. Martya isn’t hurting. She had on good clothes when she came to see Papa Iason. New shoes and so forth. The hand was wrapped in a shawl—you know that already. I saw it and it’s a good one, not cheap and just about new.”