Gene Wolfe - An Evil Guest

Zelda ordered a Denver omelet. “Now tell me about the bracelet. No, don’t. Have you got it? You didn’t leave it up in your room, I hope.”

“You do not get ten percent of my bracelet.” Cassie was firm.

“Swell, let me see it.”

“Not yet. Margaret came, and I told her I thought Wally’d given me another bracelet and I’d hidden it. She said what about the safe? I didn’t remember there was a safe in the closet — that’s where I’m going to put it — until she said that. So I said probably not, because I’d forgotten about it, but she wanted to look.”

“The numbers were scrambled,” Margaret explained. “Mine was set to all zeros when I got here. That will open it until you reprogram it.”

“Mine was locked,” Cassie went on, “and Margaret wanted to know whether I’d changed the combination. I didn’t know you could, so Margaret said I probably hadn’t. She turned the numbers zero-zero-zero-zero and it opened. There it was!”

“Hooray.” Zelda looked impatient and sounded the same way. “I wanna see the bracelet.”

“I’ll take it out of my purse,” Cassie began, “and hold my arm under — ”

The waitress returned bearing food, coffee, tea, and a program from Dating the Volcano God . “Would you sign this, Miss Casey? It’s for my boss.”

Cassie did.

“And could you sign my arm, too? I want to show it to people, and there’s a tattoo place down the street.”

IN Zelda’s rented car, Cassie asked, “Will your hopper hold us all? Three people? I’ve heard some of the little ones only seat two.”

“Yes and no.” Always a fast driver, Zelda was driving faster than usual. “It seats four, so it’ll certainly hold the three of us. Only Ebony’s coming and bringing a tenor for the duets. So that’ll be five if Margaret comes.”

“Margaret’s coming,” Cassie said firmly. “I want her there.”

“Let’s hear it from Margaret. Ever warped through hyperspace, Margaret?”

Margaret shook her head, and Cassie said, “She can’t see you there in back. You’ll have to speak up.”

“No, I haven’t, Ms. Youmans.”

“Scared?”

“No, Ms. Youmans.” Margaret looked frightened.

“I was the first time, too. The saleswoman took me up for a test run, and I was scared to pieces. She talked me through it a dozen times, and after the third one I saw it was a piece of cake.”

Cassie said, “Ebony won’t take up much room. She’s as thin as a soda straw.”

“Bucket seats, so it doesn’t matter. Only there’s cargo space in back. You know. The tenor can sit back there.”

The airport was small. Ebony and the new tenor were waiting in the lounge, and looked at least as rain-soaked as Cassie felt. Ebony said, “This is Gil Corby. Gil, this is Cassie Casey, our star. She’s the one you’ll be singing with.”

They shook hands while Corby stared at Cassie’s new bracelet. Afterward, Cassie studied Corby’s rain-washed face while he met Zelda and Margaret.

Zelda said, “You’ll have to sit in the cargo space, Gil. The whole thing will only take ten minutes. Is that okay?”

“Certainly.”

As they were scampering across the tarmac, Margaret gasped, “I’ll never understand how these things fly. They haven’t got wings.”

Zelda overheard her. “Does an apple need wings to fall out of a tree?”

Margaret shook her head.

“Well that’s how a flier works. It falls, only it falls up.”

Margaret looked more baffled than ever.

“It’s what the saleswoman said, and the owner’s manual says the same thing. I don’t understand it either.”

Corby struggled to keep the green golf umbrella he had bought in the airport above Cassie’s head. “What makes the apple fall?”

Ebony said, “Gravity.”

“Really? What’s that?”

Cassie said, “I don’t know either, Gil. What is it?”

“It’s the name we give the property of warping space possessed by matter. All matter has it, even a feather. It’s just that in the case of a feather, the amount it has is very, very small.”

“You’d better get in first,” Zelda told him. In spite of her hooded raincoat, rain was trickling down her cheeks.

Awkwardly, Corby clambered into the cargo space.

Wondering whether Corby’s umbrella and her sopping jacket would hurt the upholstery, Cassie took a seat. “This is smaller than a lot of cars.”

“Just a li’l pink bug,” Zelda admitted cheerfully, “but I can drive to Mars if I want to.”

Ebony, seated in back with Margaret, turned to speak to Corby. “Do you really understand these things?”

He shook his head, and suddenly they were rising through the rain, buoyant as a cork in a thousand feet of water. Margaret shut her eyes.

“We’re warping space now,” Zelda told Cassie. “If you can’t imagine that, here’s an easier way to think of it. We’re grabbing the space over us and throwing it behind us, and that makes us go — less space ahead, more space behind. Are you a physicist, Gil?”

“Hardly.”

Cassie said, “He’s an actor and a singer, aren’t you, Gil?”

“Correct. But like most of us, I’ve held a great many odd jobs when I couldn’t find work.”

Ebony said, “Wait ’til you see him dance, Cassie!”

The rain had vanished while Cassie gawked at the instrument panel. “Are we really at fifty thousand feet? Why haven’t my ears popped?”

“I have no idea. Okay, folks. We’re up high enough that the hop-bang won’t break any windows. Here it comes!”

“I didn’t hear a bang,” Margaret said. Her eyes were still shut, tightly clamped against a glorious sun that darkened windows and windshield.

Cassie said, “I didn’t either, but I think the lights flickered.”

“We were gone before the bang.” Like Margaret’s, Corby’s voice came from behind her. “It wasn’t loud anyway, because the air was so thin.”

Ebony giggled. “You can open your eyes now.”

“I’m not opening my eyes,” Margaret told her firmly, “until we’re down.”

Cassie had turned in her seat to stare at Corby. “You remind me of somebody I know. You even look a little like him.”

Corby grinned. “Handsome, huh? I’d like to meet him.”

“I’ll introduce you,” Cassie promised, “if you’re still around.”

His grin widened. “I’ll wait. Zelda, do you have a big car?”

Zelda shook her head. “It’s not much bigger than this.”

“In that case, Cassie and I will take a cab to the studio. We’ll meet you there.”

“Cassie stays with me. Why don’t you and Ebony take the cab?”

Margaret asked, “Are we falling? I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Not very fast.” Cassie reached back to pat her shoulder. “You won’t mind riding with Ebony and Zelda, will you?”

Before Margaret could answer, the pink hopper pitched forward, then seemed almost to correct itself. Below, as Cassie could see more plainly than she liked, rolled a vast sea of pearlescent cloud. Above that sea, thousands of feet below, flew something that might have been a monstrous bat. As she watched, horrified, it dove into the cloud and vanished.

IN the back of the cab, Corby whispered, “Why did you want to talk to me?”

“Who said I did?” Cassie favored him with a sidelong glance. “I wanted to smell your aftershave. If you think I’d rather be in a crowded car with three other women than ride in a cab with a handsome man, you need to get to know me better.”

“I’d like to. But you may wish to keep your voice down. The driver can overhear us.”

“Naturally. If I have to say something he shouldn’t hear, I’ll tap your arm in code. One tap for A, two for B, three for C. You know.”