The Caryatids - Bruce Sterling [69]
“Why are you saying all that to me? You know that will make me crazy.”
“I can say it because you’re not crazy, Mila. If you were crazy, I might forgive you for the crazy way you behave. I know that you’re sane: but sometimes, you are just too damn stubborn to live. I know all about you, the three sisters, your brother Djordje …” Glyn stopped. She smiled in sweet reminiscence at the thought of handsome Djordje. That was never a pleasant thing to see.
“I know about the three dead girls, and the horrible ways that they died. I know about your mother. My so-called mother was a piece of work … but your so-called mother doesn’t even walk this Earth!”
Glyn looked her straight in the eye and drew a determined breath. “So: I know all that, I still love you, Mila. I do love you. You know that I do. So: Just stop shaking all over like a banana leaf. You don’t pull that stupid crap on me anymore. Not on me. I’m tired of seeing you do that, that is all done, it should be long over. You and me: We may have no blood relation, but we are closer than any two sisters. So listen to me: I learned all this from you, Radmila. I learned it from what you said to the Family. Sometimes, a huge crime just doesn’t matter. You were completely right about that.”
“No, my crime always matters.”
“Get over yourself. Become a different woman. This is not some little secret island in the Balkans twenty-seven years ago where they happened to clone some people. This is Los Angeles, stupid! This is the big time, in a big town! In the years to come, we’ll move Toddy’s investments into you. There are no technical limits there. When you swan around this city, all brilliancy, speed, lightness, and glamour, you will be so huge, so gorgeous, so totally vested in stardom they won’t even have words for you. The past will be done. Finished. Sealed inside a plastic bubble dribbling on itself.”
Radmila was sweating. “But I never asked for that. I don’t want it. I can’t believe you’re telling me to have seven children!”
“Radmila, we’ve never been part of the human race. This is how we buy into all of that.”
“I did buy into it. There’s Mary.”
“Your children will all be fine children. Seven is not too many. You are making up for the rest of us decadent aristocrats. You will be proud of your children. I know Mary. I love Mary. Mary is my favorite niece. I know her better than you do. Mary is not one of you-and-yours. Mary Montalban is definitely one of us-and-ours.”
Radmila smiled and wiped her eyes. “Well, thank God for that, at least.”
“Mila, you are really close to achieving a huge, lasting, major, public success. Just wise up a little. You are the perfect person to revive this Family and lead it into futurity. You are a lovable person. Toddy loved you. John loves you. Jack loves you. I love you very much. The other Family people, they all respect you, they’ve decided you’re all right for us. But that kid of yours: Everybody loves little Mary. Everybody. She is adorable and she is destined to be huge. This is your golden chance to turn yourself into the source of unity in our sad, strange little clan. If you turn down that chance because you’d rather be so hurt and proud and emotionally remote from us, you will never get another. Because you won’t deserve it. So do you hold it up, or do you kick it down? That is your choice.”
“Okay,” said Radmila, “I just heard your big, passionate set-speech. That one was pretty good. You obviously rehearsed that thoroughly, so it was great. So: I choose to hold it up.”
Glyn brightened. “Really?”
“Yeah. You have just talked me into it, Glyn. Because you talked me into it with my own advice. I can’t be such a hypocrite as to deny what I said to my own Family. Yes. You are right about putting the past behind us. We absolutely have to do that, we both have to do it. We must. We will get over ourselves, we will turn