“Hot pipe!” Dean exclaimed. “That’s what it was.” He explained, when faced with questioning glances, “Since we did the last jump, I’ve had dreams about Rona, and all the while we were on Pilatu, I kind of envied Mildred that thing about family and belonging that she was getting. It was like there was something that I was missing and it wasn’t anything I’d thought about, but it was just there.”
Sharona nodded. “I stayed behind the last time we hit Broadmead. I knew that I had to, that if I just waited long enough you’d be brought to me. All I had to do was have patience and wait till it got really strong. And I could see you, I knew you were near. Then when the sec patrol got ambushed, and they wanted a raiding party, I volunteered to go on it. They didn’t want me, but they were always too scared of Nyland’s crew to say no to us. And the rest…” Sharona trailed off with a shrug. There was nothing more to say.
But plenty for them to think about.
THE PILATAN CARAVAN spent the next two days journeying across the plain until they came upon the remains of an old highway that stretched, in jagged and broken line, into the distance. The growth of vegetation around the highway was considerably less than farther back through the plains they had just traversed, making their progress easier. There were little signs of any villes nearby, and after some consultation with the companions, who had traveled these kind of routes many times before, Sineta and Markos decided to strike out ahead. They had put a considerable distance between themselves and the ville of Broadmead. Whoever they encountered now would find them willing to take matters on different terms.
During the long trek, Sharona took the chance to be with her son as much as possible, and Dean was also eager to spend time with his mother. The rest of the companions, knowing that they had spent so much time apart, and that the youth was still in shock at the sudden and unexpected reappearance of his mother, let them be. Krysty couldn’t shake the notion at the back of her mind that there was something amiss with Sharona, and this wasn’t to be a glorious reunion. Was this some kind of residual jealousy because Ryan’s ex-lover had reappeared? Was it because she had, almost without realizing, slipped into the role of being a surrogate mother to Dean when he needed it? She didn’t know and didn’t feel inclined to delve too deeply in case she didn’t like what she may find.
But the alarm bells didn’t stop ringing.
Sharona made the most of the time she had with Dean to catch up on what he had been doing since she had last seen him, but when he talked of what they would be doing in the future, he noticed that she seemed uneasy and gave him pat answers that suggested she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of traveling with them. He broached the matter with his customary lack of subtlety as they rested by the side of the blacktop one late afternoon.
“Rona, why don’t you want to come with us? Are you going to sneak off and leave me again?”
Sharona leveled him with a stare, pausing to pick her words before answering. There were things about the question that hurt. She said, “I never left you willingly, you know that. And I came looking for you, waited to find you, so I don’t think it’s likely that I’m going to turn around and sneak off, as you put it—”
“I’m sorry,” Dean cut in with a small voice. “I didn’t mean…”
Sharona sighed. “I don’t blame you, Dean. You were young, and you wanted to stay, and I wouldn’t let you. And I’m not going to let you go this time.”
“Then why do you sound so distant when I start to talk about the others and where we’ll be going or what we’ll be doing next?”
Sharona paused. “Because I don’t know if it’ll be the right thing for me to go with them…or you, either.”