The Dragon Man - Brian Stableford [62]
Sara had momentarily forgotten her budget problems. She had already realized that her newly-granted freedom to handle her own finances had its downside, but she hadn’t expected to hit the rocks quite so soon. “These are special circumstances,” she said, rallying her argumentative reserves. “I mean, this is a new technology displaying an unexpected side-effect. I’m the one who discovered it. It could be news. National news, even.”
“As we’ve been trying to explain, Sara,” Mother Quilla said, with an affected world-weariness that didn’t suit her at all, “everything you do that’s at all out of the ordinary is news, at least locally—and not in a good way.”
“Not necessarily in a bad way, though,” Mother Jolene was quick to put in.
“Exactly,” said Sara, seeing an opportunity and moving swiftly to seize it. “Don’t you think it would reflect better on you, as parents, if I....”
“Don’t you dare take that tone...,” Father Aubrey began, at exactly the same time as Mother Quilla said “That’s not your...,” and Father Stephen said “That’s not the point at....”
None of them got to finish, because Father Gustave was lying in wait for another opportunity to play the tyrant; he shouted for quiet again.
“Oh, shut up yourself, Gus,” Father Lemuel said, brutally. “She’s right, damn it. Nothing’s likely to win us prizes from the self-appointed jury of our peeping peers that passes judgment on our every move, but we can at least try not to look stupid. I’ll pay for the cab if Sara wants to take the thing to Frank’s shop by herself—the important thing is to get it out of our cabbage-patch and make it someone else’s problem. Is everybody okay with that?”
Mother Quilla began to say “I don’t think...,” but it was her eyes that were flickering from side to side now. The words died on her lips as she found no conspicuous support for a tough line.
“Lem’s right,” said Mother Verena, although Sara guessed that she said it as much to get in a dig at Father Gustave as for any other reason.
“Well, all right,” said Father Aubrey. “Jo has a point when she says that not all news is bad, and Sara has a point about showing initiative. And we did all agree that it was time she took a little responsibility for herself. Let’s not get hung up about a cab fare to town. Gus?”
“If you think so,” Father Gustave said, stiffly.
“Well,” Father Lemuel repeated, with grim determination, “I’m glad that’s settled.”
“But we still need...,” Mother Maryelle began.
“Save it for the regular meeting,” Father Lemuel said. “Give my regards to Frank, Sara. Tell him it’s been far too long—my fault entirely. I’ll drop in on him one of these days, when I’m not too busy.”
Sara observed several sneers forming in response to Father Lemuel’s remark about being too busy, but all of them were politely suppressed before flowering into expressions of open contempt. “I’ll have my breakfast first,” she said. “In my room, if that’s okay.” In the absence of any manifest dispute, she assumed that she was free to go, and she wasted no time at all in turning on her heel.
While she ate her breakfast she called Gennifer. Their conversation about the total unreasonableness of parents far outlasted the meal, and might have gone on for a great deal longer if Sara’s desktop hadn’t posted a flag telling her that she had a message from Frank Warburton waiting to be read.
Sara pasted the message into a window and reported its contents to Gennifer. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she read aloud, “but since you have, you’d better bring it in as soon as you can. Text me an ETA. Give my regards to Lem, Gus and the others and say ‘long time no see’. See you soon. Frank Warburton.”
“Very Frank,” Gennifer observed. “Fancy your Fathers and Mothers knowing a tattooist. If it’s been a long time, they must have known him when