Gene Wolfe - The Land Across

I won and I was not sorry, but Martya started in on Kleon. No, she did not like him, but it was not right to kill him. Besides, he wanted her to help him but she would not even if he was her husband because she had not wanted to marry him anyway. And they were going to shoot him if they found him and they would shoot her, too, if they knew she had brought him that ham when he had been hiding in the empty building but had only brought it because he made her. He would have beaten her and he needed to find work here in the capital and she had found one he could do because he could weld, but …

And so on and so forth all the way to headquarters. When we got out there Naala told her to shut up, she would fix things for Kleon if I could ever catch him. And of course that started Martya off again, only trying to be really careful so Russ, Rosalee, and Aliz would not hear anything, particularly Aliz.

I guess it gave us something to do. We must have waited about two hours, and I kept thinking that I had a lot of money now, and why was it I did not have a watch? The answer, of course, was that I had busted the one Naala had bought for me and had not had time to shop for another one. I wanted a good one, not flashy, that would stand up to a lot of knocking around. And I knew that even in the capital that was going to take some real looking.

Baldy came in person to fetch us, saying nothing, just motioning for us to follow him. We went through a corridor and down a flight of stairs, then along another corridor, and came out into trees and shrubs that looked like they were not getting a whole lot of care. I suppose that was the back of the building, although nobody said so. A stretch limo that would have reached from the pitcher’s mound to home plate was parked and waiting for us. It had a bunch of doors, and they were all open.

All of us got in including Baldy, who sat up front with the driver regulation or no regulation. I was on one of the side benches, facing Rosalee on the other side. Russ was on one side of her, naturally, and Aliz on the other. Martya was on my left and Naala on my right. Martya and Aliz had the backseat, so they faced forward. None of this stuff is important, it is just that I remember the ride so well.

Our driver took it slow and seemed to be trying to avoid the main streets. I asked Naala about that, but she just shook her head. I decided the limo was bugged, and the JAKA knew it. Very likely JAKA had put in the bugs.

Pretty soon we were out of the city and on a road that could not have been much smoother if it had been a black silk ribbon. After a while I caught onto the fact that it was always climbing. Not steeply, but we kept getting a little bit higher. We were taking it slow, considering how good that road was and that there was hardly any traffic on it. By and by Naala whispered, “Soon we stop for ices?” She was grinning.

I was looking out the windows and seeing mountains off in the distance, big ones with white peaks. Closer to the city there had been farmhouses at first, with barns and fields and trees. We kept going and there were more and more trees and fewer houses, barns, and fields.

Then there were none, just trees, big ones, oaks at first, later some kind of spruce. Trees that always had dark green needles, summer or winter.

After quite a bit of those, sunlight and a log cabin on steroids. I could not see it well until I got out of the limo, but it was really worth seeing, four stories in places, with wings sticking out in every direction. I do not think there was a log in it that was less than four feet thick.

Nobody told me who lived there, but nobody had to. I could guess pretty easily, and I was right.

There were guards in uniforms I had never seen before, all bottle green and black, with caps that must have been designed about eighteen ten. They had bigger pistols than mine. Some had assault rifles, too.

Baldy led the way into one of the wings, and walking through the doorway cut through those big logs was almost like walking through a tunnel. The room we went into was a sort of lounge, wide and roomy and bright. The brightness came from three skylights in the roof and from the floor lamps and table lamps that were scattered all over. Every one of them was turned on. Also from the furniture and rugs, pretty much all earth tones, yellow and brown and red. There were wolf pelts scattered around, and the skin of a white bear in front of the fireplace.

Baldy told everybody to sit down and relax, so we did. We also used the restrooms. Eventually, I think everybody there used them. There was some talk (I remember that Aliz and Naala talked about soccer) but not a lot. Russ and Rosalee whispered and necked like newlyweds. I tried not to look at them and pretended not to know that Martya was trying to get me to sit next to her on one of the couches. Also I got up and wandered around quite a bit. Peeking through doorways and looking out windows at the forest.

Two maids came in pushing carts, one with food and one with glasses and bottles. I ate (it was far and away the best food I ever got in that country), and drank club soda over ice. Baldy had vodka and tonic, I noticed, and everybody else drank wine. Russ’s eyes opened wide when he tasted the wine, and after that he just took tiny little sips, rolling them around in his mouth.

I am not sure what I should call the person who came in about an hour after we had finished eating. They call him “the Leader.” Mostly I have been calling him the third border guard. You could not pronounce his name at all. I could pronounce it, but it would not be exactly right. He looks like my father. That was the first thing I noticed about him when I saw him on the train, and it is the thing that still sticks with me. He is about the same height, which is maybe four inches shorter than I am. His features are about like my dad’s, especially the eyes and the nose. Also the black mustache. He looks older than his pictures on the posters, and his hair is getting gray and thin.

He was wearing a blue suit, pretty dark, that most people would not realize had cost at least a thousand bucks. White shirt open at the collar. No tie. He came striding in with a couple of generals in uniform trailing him. When he saw me his face lit up. “My young friend!” He has a great smile. “How wonderful that I should see you here!”

First thing I knew, I was getting hugged. I hugged him back, and I have always been glad I did. Okay, I have hugged a dictator. How could I not have hugged him back, when he looked so much like my dad?

“Something I have that you will most like,” he told me, “a little gift, also.”

Then he was shaking hands with Baldy, still smiling only not so wide. He said something I could not hear and Baldy said something back, then turned around and started introductions. Naala was first, and you could see she was proud enough to bust, standing very, very straight and looking very, very serious. The Leader shook her hand and put his arm around her for a moment. Then he turned to one of the generals who was carrying a flat black-leather box. The general opened his box, and the Leader got out a medal. It was on a long ribbon. (They all were.) After he had put it on her neck he said something to her and she said something to him and stepped back.

Aliz was next. She shook hands with the Leader, too, and they talked a little, but she did not get a medal. Russ was after Aliz, and he got one. It was not the same as Naala’s, but it was silver like hers.

Then Rosalee, and she was crying. The Leader put his arm around her and stood there telling her everything was all right and she should calm down, there was nothing to cry about. Still crying, she told him she had to cry. She was so happy she could not help it. I thought sure he was going to turn her over to Aliz, but he did not. He stood there with her and motioned for Russ to come over. The two of them stayed with her, sort of petting her and talking to her until she finally stopped. I could not believe what I was seeing, but that was how it was.