“I could not possibly be mistaken,” Richard insisted to Nicole. “I heard it twice. There is no other sound like the cry of a human child.”
“I’m not doubting you, Richard,” Nicole said. “I’m just trying to exclude logically all other possible sources for the sound you heard. Juvenile avians do have a particular shriek that can sound a little like a baby crying . . . and you were, after all, in a zoo. It could have been another animal.”
“No,” said Richard. “I know what I heard. I have lived with enough children and heard enough cries in my life.”
Nicole smiled. “Now the shoe is on the other foot, isn’t it, darling? Do you remember your response when I told you I had seen a woman’s face in that mural the night we went to see the octospider play? You scoffed at me and told me that I was ‘absurd,’ if I remember correctly.”
“So what’s the explanation? Did the octospiders somehow kidnap some other humans from Avalon? And the incident was never reported? But how could they have—”
“Did you say anything to Archie?” Nicole asked.
“No. I was too stunned. At first I was amazed that neither he nor the zookeeper made any comment, and then I remembered that the octospiders are deaf.”
They were both silent for several seconds. “You^weren’t supposed to hear that cry, Richard,” Nicole then said. “Our nearly perfect hosts have made a nonoptimal slipup.”
Richard laughed. “Of course, they are recording this conversation. By tomorrow they will know that we know.”
“Let’s not say anything just yet to the others,” Nicole said. “Maybe the octos will decide to share their secret with us. By the way, when do you start to work?”
“Whenever I want,” Richard replied. “I told Archie I had a few tasks of my own to finish first.”
“Sounds as if you had a fascinating day,” Nicole said. “Everything was mostly quiet around here. Except for one thing. Patrick and Nai have set a date for their wedding. Three weeks from tomorrow.”
“What?” Richard said. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
Nicole laughed. “I didn’t have a chance. You came in here talking nonstop about cries in the zoo, and avians, and quadroids, and the Embryo Bank. … I knew from experience that my news would have to wait until you wound down.”
“Well, mother of the groom,” Richard said a few seconds later, “how do you feel?”
“Considering everything,” Nicole said, “I’m very pleased. You know how I feel about Nai. It just strikes me as a strange time and place to start a marriage.”
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12
Ts
hey were sitting in the Wake-field living room waiting for the appearance of the bride. Patrick was nervously wringing his hands. “Be patient, young man,” Max said, crossing the room and putting his arm around Patrick. “She’ll be here. A woman wants to look her finest on her wedding day.”
“I didn’t look my finest,” Eponine said. “In fact, I don’t even remember what I was wearing on my wedding day.”
“I remember it well, Frenchie,” Max said with a grin, “especially up in the igloo. As I recall, most of the time you were wearing your birthday suit.”
Everyone laughed. Nicole entered the room. “She’ll be here in a few more minutes. Ellie is helping Nai with the final arrangement of her dress.” She glanced around. “Where are Archie and Dr. Blue?” she asked.
‘They went to their house for a minute,” Ellie said. “They have a special present for the bride.”
“I don’t like having those octospiders around,”*Galileo said in a nasty voice. “They give me the creeps.”
“Starting next week, Galileo,” Ellie said gently, “there will be an octospider with you in school nearly all the time. She’ll help you learn their language.”
“I don’t want to learn their language,” the boy said defiantly.
Max walked over next to Richard. “So how is the work .going, amigo? We haven’t seen much of you these last two weeks.”
“It’s completely absorbing, Max,” Richard said enthusiastically. “I’m working on an encyclopedia project, helping them design a new set of software to display all the critical information about the hundreds of thousands of species in the Embryo Bank. The octospiders accumulate such an enormous wealth of data in their testing, yet they are surprisingly limited in their knowledge of how to manage it efficiently. Just yesterday, I began working with some recent test data on a set of microbiological agents that are classified, in the octospider taxonomy, by the range of plants and animals for which they are lethal—”
Richard stopped as Archie and Dr. Blue entered together carrying a box about a meter tall that was wrapped with their parchment. The octospiders set their present down in a corner and stood at the side of the room. Ellie arrived a moment later, humming Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. Nai followed her.
Patrick’s bride was wearing her Thai silk dress. It was adorned by the brilliant yellow and black flowers that the octospiders had given to Ellie. She had pinned them to the dress at strategic locations. Patrick rose to stand beside Nai in front of his mother. The couple held hands.
Nicole had been asked to perform the ceremony, and to keep it as simple as possible. As she prepared to- begin her brief statement, Nicole’s mind was suddenly flooded by memories of other wedding days in her life. She saw Max and Eponine, Michael O’Toole and her daughter Simone, Robert and Ellie. . . . Nicole shuddered involuntarily as the memory of the sound of gunshots intruded into her mind. Once again, Nicole thought, forcing herself to return to the present, we have gathered here together.
340
ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
She could barely speak. Nicole was overwhelmed by her feelings. This is my last wedding, she realized, almost thinking out loud. There will not be another.
A tear ran down her left cheek. “Are you all right, Nicole?” the always sensitive bride asked quietly. Nicole nodded and smiled.
“Friends,” Nicole said, “we have joined together today to witness and celebrate the wedding of Patrick Ryan OToole and Nai Buatong Watanabe. Let us form a circle around them, locking arms to show our love and support for their marriage.”
Nicole gestured to the two octospiders as the circle was forming and they too put their tentacles around the humans beside them.
“Do you, Patrick,” Nicole said, her voice cracking, “take this woman, Nai, to love and cherish as your wife and partner in life?”
“I do,” said Patrick.
“And do you, Nai,” Nicole continued, “take this man, Patrick, to love and cherish as your husband and partner in life?”
“I do,” said Nai.
“Then I announce that you are husband and wife.” Patrick and Nai embraced, and everyone shouted^ The newlyweds shared their first married hug with Nicole.
“Did you ever talk to Patrick about sex?” Nicole asked Richard after the party was over and the crowd had dispersed.
“No,” said Richard. “Max volunteered. But it shouldn’t be necessary. After all, Nai has been married before. . . . Goodness, you were certainly emotional tonight. What was that all about?”
Nicole smiled. “I was thinking about other weddings, Richard. Simone and Michael’s, Ellie and Robert’s . . .”
“That’s one I would like to forget,” Richard said. “For many reasons.”
“I thought, during the ceremony, that I was crying because this was probably the last wedding I would ever
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attend. But later, during the party, I thought of something else. Has it ever bothered you, Richard, that we have never had an official ceremony?”
“No,” Richard said, shaking his head. “I had a ceremony with Sarah, and that was enough.”
“But you have had a wedding, Richard. I never have. I have given birth to children from three different fathers, but I have never once been a bride.”
Richard was silent for several seconds. “And you think that’s why you were crying?”
“Maybe,” Nicole said. “I don’t know for certain.”
Nicole walked around while Richard was in deep thought. “Wasn’t that a magnificent statue of Buddha the octospiders gave to Nai?” she said. ‘The artistry was superb. I really thought both Archie and Dr. Blue were enjoying themselves. I wonder why Jamie came to get them so early—”
“Would you like to have a wedding ceremony?” Richard asked suddenly.
“At our age?” Nicole laughed. “We’re already grandparents.”
“Still, if it would make you happy . . .”
“Are you proposing to me, Richard Wakefield?”
“I guess so,” he said. “I wouldn’t want you to be unhappy because you’ve never been a bride.”
Nicole crossed the room and kissed her husband. “It might be fun,” she said. “But let’s not plan anything until Patrick and Nai are settled. I wouldn’t want to steal their limelight.”
Richard and Nicole walked toward the bedroom with their arms around each other. They were startled to find their passage blocked by Archie and Dr. Blue.