Manuel’s mouth gaped open again. To cry? No one would ever know, because another stream of paste gushed down his throat. He coughed, gagged. And swallowed. And then, while Indira watched in stunned silence, the bewilderment vanished from the child’s face. He lifted his head, eyes closed, and opened his mouth once again.
There was no doubt now what emotion was being expressed by the child. Feed me.
Another stream of paste.
Indira tried to scramble to her feet.
“It’s poison! Animal product!”
Again, Julius forced her down helplessly. (He had the great strength possessed by many large, fat men. Not all that strength had melted with the fat.)
“No! It’s not milk, Indira. It’s regurgitated vegetation.”
“Are you certain?” she demanded.
He nodded. “Positive. This is actually quite a common method used by animals to feed their young. Especially when the food which the animals use is difficult—oh, my God!”
Julius was chewing on his upper lip, as he always did when he was pondering a problem. It was a slightly disgusting habit, in Indira’s opinion, but she had not tried to break him of it. Her ex-husband had had no obnoxious personal habits; he’d just been a self-centered, unfeeling son-of-a-bitch.
She was still filled with anxiety.
“But—”
“But what, Indira? What’s the worst thing that can happen to the boy? Die? He’s going to die, anyway. Look at him—he seems okay.”
And it was true enough. In fact, at that very moment Manuel began laughing, and playing with one of the creature’s arms.
Julius frowned. “There’s bound to be some of the critter’s fluids mixed with it—saliva, digestive juices, that kind of thing. But—not enough, I think, to hurt the kid. It’s worth the chance.”
Suddenly, she understood the hope that was dawning in her lover’s mind.
“You think—?”
He shrugged. “Who knows? It’s a long shot, like filling an inside straight. But we’re fresh out of full houses. And it’s possible, just maybe. The plant life on this planet isn’t deadly to us, the way meat is. But there’s something in the way it’s put together that makes it too tough for our digestive systems to break down. That’s exactly the problem lots of young animals face. Evolution has found several solutions. The solution mammals use is mother’s milk. This is another.”
She made a face. “It’s disgusting.”
“Not as disgusting as dying.”
She shook her head. “Julius, this is still no good. We can’t use a helpless four-year-old boy as a guinea pig.”
He nodded. “You’re right.”
And began slowly crawling toward the center of the clearing.
As soon as he broke through the ferns and came into the clearing, he was spotted. The creature pivoted quickly on its two rail-like fleshy “feet.” Julius stopped moving. He opened his mouth.
Slowly, the creature lowered the child to the ground. And edged back.
Julius crept forward, his mouth open.
The creature edged back. Its mantle was now rippling with alternating bands of ochre and pinkish-red.
Julius stopped again. He started chewing his upper lip furiously.
The frozen tableau held for a minute, until Julius suddenly grunted.
“Of course!” Indira heard him say. Slowly, Julius turned his head back to her. His eyes, for some reason, were feverishly scanning her body.
His rubbery upper lip twisted into a grimace of self-deprecation.
“I am so stupid. It’s so obvious.”
Then: “Go back to the camp, Indira. Find something khaki-colored—as close a match as you get to the shade of Manuel’s jumpsuit. A cloth of some kind. A big one—big enough to cover me, or as much of me as possible.”
Her brows were knitted. “I don’t un—”
“Just do it!”
Uncertainty vanished. As she raced back to the camp, Indira felt like she was floating on air. She had only a vague understanding of what Julius was trying to do, but she was suddenly filled with total confidence in her lover.
And hope. And hope. And hope.
Back at the camp, she ignored all the questions hurled at her. She just cried, over and again— “Manuel’s okay, he’s okay, he’s okay!”—while she rummaged furiously in the broken shell of the lifeboat. Within a minute (which seemed like a hour), she found the khaki canvas she was looking for.