She always saved Richard for last. Although Nicole never really shook the premonition that she would not touch her husband again, she did not let that feeling detract from the daily pleasure she experienced sharing his life in the basement in New Eden. She especially enjoyed his conversations with Archie, even though it was often difficult for her to read his lips. Their discussions reminded Nicole of earlier days, after her escape from prison and New Eden, when Richard and she would talk and talk about everything. Watching Richard always left Nicole feeling uplifted and much more able to deal with her own loneliness.
The reunion between Richard and Katie caught her by surprise. She had not been following Katie’s life closely enough to know that her daughter and Franz had success-folly designed a plan to secure a short visit with Richard. Because the quadroid images covered the infrared portion of the spectrum as well as the visible, Nicole actually had a better view of the reunion than the participants. She was deeply moved by Katie’s action, and even more by Katie’s sudden admission (which Nicole watched over and over, in super slow motion, to make certain she was properly leading Katie’s lips) that she was a drug addict. The first step to overcoming a problem, Nicole remembered from somewhere, is to admit to someone you love that the problem exists.
There were happy tears in Nicole’s eyes as she rode the
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nearly empty transport back to the human enclave in the Emerald City. Despite the fact that the bizarre world around her was deteriorating into chaos, for once Nicole was optimistic about Katie.
Patrick and the twins were outside when Nicole stepped off the transport at the end of the street. As she drew closer, she could tell that Patrick was trying to adjudicate one of the boys’ innumerable disputes.
“He always cheats,” Kepler was saying. “I told him that I wasn’t going to play with him anymore and he hit me.”
‘That’s a lie,” Galileo replied. “I hit him because he made a face at me. Kepler’s a sore loser. If he can’t win, he thinks it’s all right to quit.”
Patrick separated the two boys and sent them, as punishment, to sit against opposite corners of the house. He then greeted his mother with a kiss and a hug.
“I have some big news,” Nicole said, smiling at her son. “Richard had a surprise visitor today—Katie!”
Of course Patrick wanted to know all the details of the visit between his sister and Richard. Nicole summarized what she had seen, admitting that she was encouraged by Katie’s confession of her drug habit. “Don’t read too much into her action,” Patrick admonished. “The Katie I knew would rather die than be without her precious kokomo.”
Patrick had turned around and was almost ready to tell the twins that they could resume playing, when a pair of rockets raced skyward, bursting into bright red balls of light just underneath the dome. Moments later the city was plunged into darkness. “Come on, boys,” Patrick said. “We must go inside.”
“That’s the third time today,” Patrick commented to Nicole as they followed Kepler and Galileo into the house.
“Dr. Blue said they extinguish the city lights the moment any helicopter rises to within twenty meters of the top of the forest canopy. Under no circumstances do the octospiders want to risk showing the location of the Emerald C^y.”
“Do you think Archie and Uncle Richard will ever have a chance to meet with Nakamura?” Patrick asked.
“I doubt it,” Nicole replied. “If he were going to see them, it should have happened before now.”
Eponine and Nai greeted Nicole and embraced her. The three women talked briefly about the blackout. Eponine was holding little Marius on her hip. The boy was a fat, happy baby with a major drooling habit. She wiped off his face with a cloth so that Nicole could kiss him,
“Ah-ha,” she heard Max say behind her, “the Queen of Frowns is now kissing the Prince of Drools.”
Nicole turned around and gave Max a hug. “What’s this Queen of Frowns bit?” she said lightly.
Max handed her a glass containing some clear liquid. “Here, Nicole, I want you to drink this. It’s not tequila, but it’s the best substitute the octospiders could make from my description. We’re all hoping that maybe you’ll find your sense of humor before you finish the drink.”
“Come on, Max,” Eponine said. “Don’t make Nicole think that we’re all somehow involved. This was your idea, after all. The only thing that Patrick, Nai, and I did was agree with you that she has been very serious lately.”
“Now, my lady,” Max said to Nicole, raising his glass and clinking it against hers, “I want to propose a toast. To all of us, who have absolutely no control over our future. May we love each other and share laughter until the end, whenever and however it might come.”
Nicole had not seen Max drunk since before she went to prison. At his insistence she took a small drink. Her throat and esophagus burned and her eyes watered. The drink contained a lot of alcohol. *
“Before dinner tonight,” Max now said, opening his arms in a dramatic flourish, “we are going to tell farm jokes. This will provide us some much-needed comic relief. You, Nicole des Jardins Wakefield, as our leader by example if not by election, will have the floor first.”
Nicole managed a smile. “But I don’t know any farm jokes,” she protested.
. Eponine was relieved to see that Nicole was not offended by Max’s behavior. ‘That’s all right, Nicole,” Epo-
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nine said, “none of us do. Max knows enough farm jokes for all of us.”
“Once upon a time,” Max began a few moments later, “there was a farmer from Oklahoma who had a fat wife named Whistle. She was called Whistle because, at the climax of her lovemaking, she would close her eyes, screw up her mouth, and make a long whistling sound.”
Max belched. The twins giggled. Nicole worried that maybe it was not appropriate for the children to hear Max’s story, but Nai was sitting behind her boys, laughing with them. Relax, Nicole told herself. You really have become the Queen of Frowns.
“Now, one night,” Max continued, “this farmer and Whistle had a big brouhaha—that’s a fight, to you, boys— and she went to bed early and fuming. The fanner sat by himself at the table, drinking some fine tequila. As the evening progressed, he became sorry that he had been such an ornery son of a bitch and began to apologize in a loud voice.
“Meanwhile, ole Whistle, who was now angry all over again because the farmer had awakened her, knew that when he finished drinking, her husband was going to enter the bedroom and try to seal his apology with some wild lovemaking. While the farmer emptied the bottle of tequila, Whistle slipped out of the house, went over to the pigpen, and carried the youngest and smallest of the sows back into their bedroom.
“When the drunken farmer staggered into the dark bedroom later that night, singing one of his favorite hymns, Whistle was watching from the corner and the sow was in the bed. The farmer took all his clothes off and jumped under the sheets. He grabbed the sow by the ears and kissed her on me lips. The sow squealed and the fanner pulled back. ‘Whistle, my love,’ he said, ‘did you forget to brush your teeth tonight?’
“His wife bolted from the corner and began beating the farmer on the head with a broom.”
Everyone was laughing. Max was so amused by his own joke that he could not sit upright. When he ^finished laughing, he took another drink of the octospider alcohol.
“My brother Clyde,” Max said, “knew more farm jokes than anyone I ever met. He courted Winona with them, or so he claimed. Clyde used to tell me that a ‘laughing woman already has one hand on her panties.’ When we would go duck hunting with the guys, we’d never shoot a single goddamn duck. Clyde would start telling stories, and we’d be laughing and drinking. After a while we’d forget why we got up at five ayem to go and sit in the cold.”
Max stopped talking and there was a momentary quiet in the room. “Damn,” he said after the brief silence. “For a while there I was imagining I was back in Arkansas.” He stood up. “I don’t even know now which way Arkansas is from here, or how many billions of kilometers away it is.” Max shook his head. “Sometimes, when I’m dreaming and it’s real lifelike, I think the dream is reality. I believe I’m back in Arkansas. Then when I wake up I am lost, and I think for a few seconds that this life we’re living here in the Emerald City is the dream.”