Summary: By Mary Robinette Kowal Read by Veronica Giguere Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Cerbo un Vitra ujo By Mary Robinette Kowal Grete snipped a diseased branch off her Sunset-Glory rosebush like she was a body harvester looking for the perfect part. Behind the drone of the garden’s humidifiers, she caught a woosh-snick as the airlock door opened. Her boyfriend barreled around Mom’s prize Emperor artichoke. Something was wrong. The whites showed around Kaj’s remarkable eyes, a blue-green so iridescent they seemed to dull all the plants around them. “Mom and Dad got me a Pass to a down-planet school!” The blood congealed in her veins. Kaj would leave her. Grete forced a smile. “That’s the outer limit!” “I didn’t even know they’d applied. Fairview Academy—game design.” His perfect teeth flashed like sunshine against the ink of space. “It’s wacking crazed. Should’ve been you, you’re a better hack than me.” “I’m already entitled to school.” Grete winced as the words left her mouth. Like he didn’t know that. He was the middle of five children, way past the Banwith Station family allowance. She picked up the pruning sheers to hide the shake in her hands. How would she live without Kaj? “So, I guess you got packing to do and stuff.” “They provide uniforms. All I’m taking is my pod with music and books. Zero else.” Kaj slid his arm around her waist and laced his long, delicate fingers through hers. “And I want to spend every moment till launch with you.” She loved him so much, it hurt. Grete leaned her head against him, burning the feel of his body into her memory. She breathed in the musky smell of his sweat and kissed his neck, sampling the salt on his skin. After a moment, Kaj hung a chain around her neck. The metal tags hanging from it were still warm from his body. “What?” “Dogtags, like they used in the oldwars. I put all my bios on there so you’d remember me.” “Kaj Lorensen, don’t think I could forget you.” But if he was away at school, he might forget her. She studied her rosebush and freed the most perfect rose with her sheers. She held it out to him, suddenly shy. He kissed the rose and then her palm. Grete sank into his gaze, lost in the blue-green of his eyes. # Grete buzzed the Lorensen cubby and waited as the comunit scanned her retina for i.d. If her mom knew how to hack into scanner records, Grete would get major grief for skipping school, but she couldn’t stand the waiting anymore. Around her, the kids who weren’t entitled to school played a game of tag in the corridor. She watched to see if any of Kaj’s younger sibs were there. The door hissed open. Kaj’s mother, belly starting to round with another pregnancy, glared at Grete. “What.” “Sorry, the address I have for Kaj doesn’t respond.” A month. She’d pinged him and waited. Pinged his mom, and waited. She’d even asked the counselor at her school, but he had never even heard of Fairview Academy. Grete was tired of waiting. Ms. Lorensen’s eyes were as flat and grey as her voice. “You leave him alone. You want to mess this up for him?” “No, ma’am. I just miss him.” “Maybe he doesn’t miss you.” The door hissed shut. Grete stared at the mute door for a moment, and then started looking for Kaj’s sibs, hoping they would know how to contact him. The older two would be in school, which was where Grete should be, but Kaj’s younger sibs were not entitled. On any other station, no parent in their right mind would let their unentitled kids run free, for fear they’d be taken by a body harvester on a job for some rich-ass client. Banwith Stat[...]
