Terra Nova: An Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Science Fiction (6 page)

“
Kesha?” he called a
little uncertainly. “Kesha!”

Charni felt sorry for him. Of course her
mother was at home. She was the queen, where she needed to be. Was
it true that men could not perceive that the noise or the mix of
scents in a closed space was more intense when there were other
beings in it?

She shook he head. She did
not want to think about it. Although she could not understand how
men’s fifth sense worked and what it meant to them to lose it, the
mere idea that she might suffer something similar with one of her
four senses made her feel terrified.

“
Qjem?” her mother
answered, also worried. “Is that you?”

“
Yes, it’s me.”

“
Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t
expect you so soon. Come in, come in.”

What a lot of lies in just one moment. How
did her mother make it sound so natural to imply that she was
clumsy and foolish?

To begin with, if she had
called him by name, it meant that she had recognized him. If not,
she would have asked
Who are you?
or simply have said
Identify yourself
if it were a woman
who had visited her. Without a doubt, she was using the same polite
expressions as Charni so she wouldn’t make him feel vulnerable or
proud.

As for the second lie, she
had perceived her mother’s impatience two terms after the other
women had told her about Chaid Khasat. In fact, her mother had
spent alarms waiting for Qjem! How could she make her voice sound
so calm and absent-minded? And Charni knew it specifically involved
this elderly man because she had often heard her say (and curse)
Qjem’s name.

“
Mother,” she said, using
the proper form of address for when they had visitors, “I’m
home.”

“
Oh, my daughter. Come
here. Greet your mother.”

Interesting.

Normally she ought to wait until the
visitors had left, but with that gesture her mother not only showed
that she wanted her present, but after the greeting she wrote on
her skin to stay. Charni guessed she did that because the man would
not notice she was there.

Incredible.

He had perceived her many times and had just
perceived her now, and still she could not fail to be surprised.
How was it actually possible that men could not sense more than one
presence in a room unless it made a noise so loud that even her
sister in the next room could hear it?

“
Forgive me, Qjem, for not
attending to you immediately, but I needed to feel my daughter and
make sure she was well. Please sit wherever you want. This is your
house, as you know.”

“
I’d prefer to remain
standing,” he said while he attempted to localize Kesha’s voice to
get as close as possible. “And don’t worry, I’ve often observed
that women love to hug each other. Besides, we’re talking about
your daughter. So take your time.”

Observe
, another word men used a lot. Curse it, when would they let
her learn about men’s language and not just the words that they all
shared?

Her mother wrote on her
skin to stay quiet and make not a single sound. Then she said to
the old man: “Thank you, Qjem. But please, tell me if you’ve come
here with a solution for what I’ve told you about.”

“
To begin with, Kesha, I
want to make it clear that I would never take something like that
lightly. A Ksatrya is not merely faithful to his code, he protects
his women because you are weak and vulnerable, but also
valuable.”

Charni felt her heart race
and her face grow red. Weak? Weak? Since when? Wasn’t it thanks to
women that the men who lived in this world did not die of hunger,
illness, or madness? They could not take care of themselves or
learn to cook, wash, clean, or simply walk through the world
without breaking things that they passed on their way. They only
knew how to shout, fight, and spill information, as if they were
two-cycle-old girls who were afraid to be away from their mothers
for a long time. Why, curse it, wouldn’t his mother set him
straight?

Her mother immediately noticed that her
daughter was tense and, with a caress, urged her to calm down.

“
A Ksatrya who breaks this
rule,” Qjem carried on, “not only ceases to be a man but is worse
than an animal, and we will not tolerate it. Imagine how difficult
it is for someone like me to believe that one of us is capable of
something like that. I have no reason to doubt you, but based on my
experience, I know how women are naturally insidious and vengeful,
so I have my concerns. And although I know you have nothing in
common with the women I’ve seen outside, I know it’s your nature,
and I can’t ignore it.

“
So, since it was possible
to commit a terrible mistake against an innocent man, I will give
him the benefit of the doubt. Believe me when I tell you that I was
the first person who wanted to solve this as soon as possible,
whether it involved an injustice or such a brutal act. So I ordered
my men to watch him for several days, but he did nothing
suspicious. Still, because I believe you and see no reason why you
would lie to me, I rebuked him and, just the same, gave him the
opportunity to defend himself. He accepted it and lost. I can
assure you that it was humiliating for him and if he ever did
something like you told me, I don’t think he will do it again.
Ever.”

Both women remained silent, Charni to be
unnoticed and her mother to be sure Qjem had finished talking.
Then, very calmly and gently, she said:

“
Thank you, Qjem, really.
Thank you for what you’ve done and the time you invested in this
issue. I understand how difficult it must have been for you to make
a decision like this, and I appreciate that you’ve been so
considerate. Forgive my ignorance, but there’s one thing that I
didn’t understand. He accepted it and lost? Does that mean he
admitted he was guilty? Please, I don’t understand everything.
Would you be kind enough to explain it to me in words that a woman
like me could understand?”

“
I offered him a fight
with our best warriors to show his innocence. If he had been
innocent he would have won, or he would have fought to the death
rather than admit defeat. We did justice two weeks ago. I didn’t
come here earlier because I was waiting for his wounds to heal and
to tell you that although you might see him here, there’s nothing
to fear. I’m not stupid, Kesha. I might not know how you organize
things down here, but I’ve noticed that it’s always you who comes
and tells me about the problems of other women. So I imagine that
in spite of your simplicity, you are capable of organizing
yourselves with leaders and that you’re one of them. Although I
didn’t think I needed to come and explain anything to you, I
thought I ought to. Problem solved.”

“
Let me thank you again
not just for what you’ve done but also for troubling yourself to
come here. Although, Qjem, I’m not a leader in the sense that I
think you mean. Women simply trust me and tell me their problems. I
don’t know why. And since I’m such a blabbermouth I can’t be quiet
when I’m around you.”

“
Whatever you say,” he
replied after a grunt. “I’ll let you play your games. Just this one
time.”

“
I appreciate your respect
for me. I assure you I won’t forget it. You’re a good man, Qjem
Sath, and that makes me feel attracted to you. Would you like to
satisfy your member with me? I know I’m not as attractive as I used
to be, but …”

“
I would,” he interrupted
while he clumsily tried to find her.

Writing quickly, Kesha told Charni to go far
enough away to cause no problems, but to be close enough to
perceive what would happen next.

Noises, panting, and a scent that grew
stronger and stronger filled the room. Charni, as usual, could not
decide if it was disagreeable or strange. Unusual but familiar at
the same time. Still, unlike what had taken place other times with
other visitors (something that did not happen often in recent
cycles), it was not fast. And Charni got bored quickly. With all
the questions that she wanted to ask her mother …

Eventually: the final grunt, the final sigh,
and the sound of feet dragging on the ground. And then they were
truly alone.

Charni drew close to her mother, who had
taken out the cloth for blood and was wiping it between her legs.
She curled up as usual on her lap.

“
What’s the spilling of
information like?” she asked.

“
It’s something I can’t
explain to you, Charni. You have to experience it for yourself. I
can only tell you that not everyone perceives it the same way, and
with a little luck and patience, I’ll get Qjem Sath to be the one
for your initiation ritual. He’s elderly, which means that his
information is powerful, and for a man he’s smart. He’s the best
option for you.”

“
What I don’t understand
is why, if you’re queen, you let him talk like that to you. Why do
you act is if you were one of the assistants that come to our
house?”

“
Oh, Charni, you’re a
young woman, but you still need a few cycles and a couple of
productions to be an adult. Everything is based on perceptions. Men
are born in this world, but at a half-cycle, they’re taken to the
other one. There, everything is wild and brutal. And they don’t
just need a fifth sense, they need a thick contour. Have you
perceived Qjem’s? Even though he’s elderly, his muscles are many
times bigger than ours. Our contour is not like that. The opposite,
in fact. When you touch us, you can feel our bones, something that
I’m sure you have never felt in men, right? From their point of
view, we’re the weak ones because we couldn’t survive in the cruel
world where they live for cycles and cycles. From our point of
view, they are the weak ones because they couldn’t exist without
our help.”

“
Of course. Physically
we’re weak compared to them, but as they themselves say, we’re
valuable. But I didn’t perceive that consideration in Qjem’s tone
of voice. Not for a moment. In fact, I seemed to sense … contempt.
As if it bothered him not only to come here but simply to have to
talk to you. And you … you talked to him as if you had to thank him
just for letting you breathe.”

Her mother sighed, then held her even
tighter against her chest. Then she began to caress her arms to
show affection and at the same time to ask for patience.

“
Yes.” She sighed again.
“I suppose the moment has arrived for you to know how the world
works. Well. Let’s feel this together. There is a kind of balance
between women and men. They protect us, and we help them see. They
bring us food from the other world, and we make sure than those who
live in this one do not die from hunger. Without men there would be
no spilling of information and we couldn’t produce women. Without
women, they could spill, but it would be useless wasted
information, and they would have no way to keep up the number of
guards. But this balance is fragile, and it is our duty to maintain
it any way we have to because we’re really the ones responsible for
this fragility.”

Charni tensed her muscles at the final
sounds and textures that her mother had transmitted. Had women done
something wrong? How?

“
Yes, Charni. Feel it. Men
are the best weapon and protection we have against the other world,
and yet in our desire to produce the strongest and most able
warriors, the most honorable of all, we transmit the information of
pride to them. Without a doubt it’s the best way for a Ksatrya man
to achieve his goal, and yet it can also be his biggest weakness.
So we have to take both the blame and the responsibility for having
created such a powerful weapon. If it’s not carefully managed, it
could turn against us. That’s why we treat our men with such
pampering and care. If you never put your finger on the blade of a
knife that you hold tight in your hand, you’ll never cut yourself
with it. And really, that’s a small price to pay compared to the
benefits we get: safety, protection, food, production …”

“
Right.” Charni managed to
relax herself enough. “I think I understand. But … I get the
sensation that Qjem —and I suppose the rest of the men— don’t
perceive it that way. Worse, he called us insidious and vengeful. I
don’t know what the first word means, but I understand they look
down on us with it. I also don’t like the comparison with women in
the other world.”

“
But it’s true, Charni. We
are insidious and vengeful. In what other way do you think we could
fight the women who are our enemies and who we can’t perceive from
this world?”

“
Women
enemies?”

“
Of course. Who do you
think we fight against? Men say that they fight other men, but we
understand that the real enemies are the women who produce these
men. Try to imagine it, Charni. To live in a wild and dangerous
world without limits. I’d also do everything I could to conquer
this one, with its safe limits. But since they remain incapable of
producing men with pride, we don’t have to worry … for now. I don’t
want to think about what it would mean if one of those women got
the information about pride from one of our men and could begin to
produce men like that herself.”

Charni was silent for a while, trying to
assimilate all that information. It all seemed so logical …

“
But Mama … why didn’t you
want Qjem to know that you are queen? You let him think he’s in
charge.”

“
Well, it’s always been
like that. We don’t know how men organize themselves in the other
world or how they live together and prepare themselves to fight. …
We really don’t care as long as they fulfill their role. In the
same way, they don’t know how we organize ourselves, and they don’t
care as long as the balance is maintained.”