She walked by two young Akhbreed women, skinny and
slinky in obviously newly bought tropical fashions including
sandals and the latest inventive rage, sunglasses, and they
gave her a look that could only mean. Hey, you fat. barefoot
slob of a baby factory, how dare you be in a place like this?
It no longer particularly bothered her. In fact, her one fond
wish was that someday one of them would actually make a
comment like that and she could reply, "Hey. skin and
bones! While you're still trying to score in bars, I got a great
358 Jack L ChaSker
marriage, great kids, and, on top of thai, I own this fucking
place!" Nobody ever had, but there was always hope.
The fact was, she was comfortable with herself. True,
she'd still like to be 36-24-36 and not worry about it, but not
if she had to trade what she had to get it. Not if she had to
trade any of it.
Kira shouted her name and waved, then came and joined
her. She was still what Charley would want to look like, what
any woman with any taste would want to look like, although
she was starting to show just a little wear and tear. Kids, even
with housekeepers and day-care, will still do that to you,
although Kira hadn't been quite as gung-ho as Charley on that
score, having been a bit gun-shy having her first baby just a
few days past nine months after seeing her first sunshine in
years.
Kira, in fact, was just back after a couple of months on the
road with Crim and the kids setting up some new delivery
contracts, and she was just seeing some of the new projects
after being away.
'*Am I going crazy, or is that building-sized mural of
Boday's on the North Wall being redone again?" she asked,
shaking her head.
Charley chuckled. "Yeah, our big attraction. War of the
Maelstrom. I don't think she'll ever actually finish it, but it
keeps getting more grandiose and, I suspect, less realistic as
she goes along."
"Well, I remember the initial one had her as just a tiny
figure down in the comer, and now it seems like Boday is the
star of the entire painting. Before we're through we'll have an
entire building side that's nothing but Boday in a reclining
position, whip in hand."
Charley laughed. "Well, the rest of the Board wilt have
something to say about that. Still, her gallery's going great
guns, even if I can't figure out a damned thing in it—I
mistook a fire box for one of their creations the other day.
And I'm somewhat afraid that her body painting studio is
going to catch on and become the next real fad."
"Well, not for me it isn't. How's Dorion and the kids?"
"Except in one department, I think Dory was born the
wrong sex. He absolutely adores the kids, loves cooking and
keeping house, and seems perfectly content to let me run the
359
WAR OF THE MAELSTROM
business end while he stays home. Of course, he keeps writing
those epic first-person accounts of him and the great sorcerers
that nobody will publish, but it keeps him occupied. It's the
only blessing to my failure to ever learn to read Akhbreed,
although he's pestered me to teach him how to read and write
English. And, of course, he's created a whole range of inge-
nious children's toys and games for our kids that have wound
up being successfully marketed. I think that's his true secret—
he's never wanted to grow up, and now he doesn't have to."
"Not Crim. He's getting sick of being on the road half the
year, coming home and having his own children ask for his
identification. That's why we all went along on this last
one—and I think it will be the last one. Lately he's been
talking about building a new chain of world-specific malls in
me provincial capitals and other hubs. We have to go that
route soon, I think, or the Masalurians will run out of places
to live."
Charley leaned back in the chair and sighed, looking around
at it all. "You know, sometimes I really can't believe that
such a nightmare as I was cast into turned out like this. God!
You know, this place, this life—me, my family, all of it—is
more than I ever dreamed of achieving when I was a kid. I
keep living in fear that one day I'm gonna wake up or be
awakened and find this was all a dream or some hypnotic
trickery- So far, though, it and you have all still been here.
And it just keeps getting better."
"Well, at least nobody's come up with television yet. I
have hopes that it won't happen in our lifetime but you never
know."
"Oh, I dunno. The idea of a Hedum variety show fascinates
me. Still, I look around and I wonder what Sam is doing
now. If she's finally happy, or if she still exists as we
understand it, and if at least she knows what we've done
here. I think she'd love this place."
"You know there's actually a large cult movement growing
around her, complete with prophets and visions and holy
books?"
"No! In the other lands?"
"Uh-huh. And creeping this way. I'm afraid. Masalur's
holy ground to mem."
"Jeez! Well, 1 hope they don't expect me to be their high
360 fack L. Chalker
priestess and interpreter, or decide that all this is profaning
holy ground or something. You know, that vision I had, all
those years ago—it was kind'a like she was gonna become a
goddess, more or less against her will. There was some
sadness in her, like she always just slightly missed the boat
her whole life. Be kind'a weird if she was, huh? If that cult
really was worshiping a live one? A god created from a
teenage girl who never wanted anything but a normal life in
absolute obscurity and a half-baked old physics professor?
Hell, you always think of being a goddess as having no
troubles at all, no pain, no worries, and anything you want.
I'd like to do it, just for a little bit. Point my astral finger and
say, 'From this point on, the more chocolate you eat the more
weight you will lose.' ''
Kira laughed, and then remarked, "You know, it is some-
thing to think about. Between the two of you, you might have
had fun as a goddess, while the one who might well have
gotten it, would carry it as a burden." She sighed, "I don't
know, though. Maybe, if you must have a god, that's the
kind of attitude you want your Supreme Being to have."
Charley shrugged. "Yeah, well, maybe I am living the life
she so much wanted, but I love it and if Sam's up there in the
great beyond looking down at me with jealous eyes she can
just eat her heart out."
The sky, which only a moment before had been a clear
blue one. suddenly went dark, and storm clouds suddenly
rumbled overhead, and there was the feeling of the barometer
dropping and the distant sounds of thunder.
"Only kidding, Sam'" Charley said loudly to the sky.
"Only kidding!"
Table of Contents
Chalker, Jack L - Changewinds 3 - War of the Maelstrom
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