Ilika, Kibi, and Boro quickly led the others out of the ravine and into the darkness of the first cluster of dunes they could find, where Sata tapped the ship recall code into her bracelet. The Manessa Kwi was there in seconds, and back on the hidden rock ledge a minute later.
Rini and Mati collapsed into seats in the passenger area, not quite next to each other. Kibi got a towel for Rini’s cut, and Sata stayed right beside Mati.
Boro and Ilika weren’t sure what to do, so they just found seats and tried to relax.
“Ilika . . .” Mati began in a very tentative voice, “. . . if I decided that I made a mistake . . . and I can’t be on your crew . . . would you take me back to somewhere in my kingdom . . . somewhere I choose?”
Ilika took a slow breath to collect his thoughts. “Y . . . yes. But I think Manessa needs some engine maintenance that would force you to wait a few days.”
“Yeah,” Boro said with slight sparkle in his eyes, “three or four days.”
Mati frowned but didn’t withdraw. “And you’d take me . . . anywhere I wanted . . . even if it was . . . the meadow north of Lumber Town . . . just past Farmer Koto’s house?”
The upper deck of the Manessa Kwi was suddenly filled with tense emotions and furtive glances.
“Yes, Mati, wherever you wanted to go.”
“NO!” Rini screamed, suddenly jumping to his feet. “You CAN’T! I just
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hurt someone deeply, and wasted more of Ilika’s money, because I chose YOU
back at the swamp, and I love YOU!”
The silence that followed was filled with the smell of sweat and the sight of tear-stained faces. Mati slowly raised her head and looked at Rini. His face was filled with anxiety, and his hand started bleeding again.
The two ex-slaves just looked at each other for a long time, and no one else made a sound. Eventually Boro stood and whispered something in Rini’s ear.
Rini suddenly looked foolish and embarrassed. “Why didn’t I think of that?” He took several slow steps toward Mati, knelt down beside her, and with wet but sparkling eyes brought his head close to hers and placed a delicate kiss on her lips, the first he had ever given, the first she had ever received.
As the room filled with clapping and cheering, Kibi approached the couple and wrapped the towel around Rini’s bleeding hand without interrupting the occasion.
“I love you too,” Mati said when the clapping died down. Then she placed an equally delicate kiss on his lips.
“Actually, I think the engines are okay,” Boro said, grinning at Ilika.
After moving the Manessa Kwi back to their landing site in the dunes, Ilika discovered he had a new problem — how to get his watch and pilot to come to lessons and training sessions.
It wasn’t that Rini and Mati were ready for the closeness of shared cabin and bed — they knew such things still lay out of reach somewhere in the future. If asked why, they probably would have pointed to Mati’s knee.
But the deeper reason was clearly visible to at least Ilika and Kibi. Rini and Mati were two shy introverts, just learning to be together and share thoughts and feelings. They needed some time to find out what those first tender kisses meant.
They walked slowly into the dunes, Rini taking the place of Mati’s crutch.
The air was very still under an overcast cloud layer. Arriving at the top of a saddle between two sand dunes, they looked at each other.
“Would you like to sit here?” Rini asked.
“If you do . . .”
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Rini laughed. “I know! We’ll take turns making little choices.”
“Okay!”
Rini helped Mati down onto the sand and they just held hands and gazed across the open desert in silence for a few minutes.
“Without my crutch, I’d die right here unless you helped me get back.”
“The only reason I wouldn’t help you is if I died right here with you.”
With her head on Rini’s shoulder, Mati smiled and closed her eyes to enjoy the warm glow she felt inside herself.
“Now that we’ve studied a few cultural symbols,” Ilika said from the head of the table under the large display screen, “let’s see how many of these we can find in Rini’s recent predicament.”
“The breaking of bread together was obviously part of it,” Boro said, “but I wonder if it had a special meaning because each one fed the other half of it
. . .”
“Probably,” Ilika agreed, “but the general meaning of bread-breaking is still the underlying idea.”
Kibi searched her memory. “Peaceful coexistence and bonding . . .”
“That was the second time,” Rini admitted. “The first time was just as me and Kibi were coming out of the clothing tent. The girl was waiting for me. It was the same kind of fancy pastry.”
“And you shared it in the same way?” Ilika asked.
Rini
nodded.
“My hunch is that you stumbled into a combination of two factors, Rini.
First, the sharing of a single small pastry that could easily be eaten by one person alone. Second, the pastry may have been unique, perhaps specially made for just the purpose of a marriage proposal.”
“So . . .” Kibi speculated, “if he had eaten the whole thing himself . . .”
“Or if it had just been plain bread . . .” Sata added.
“Then the girl may have seen it as rejection, or been unsure and attempted further communication.”
“But I love sharing, and I love sweets . . .” Rini began.
The
others
laughed.
Mati didn’t feel ready to take an active part in the discussion, but was
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paying close attention, and couldn’t help but smile at Rini’s admission.
“Since you eagerly shared that particular pastry,” Ilika continued the thought, “the girl must have been absolutely sure you were hers for life, because that’s how it’s done in her culture.”
Rini suddenly became sad at the painful memory of accidentally marrying one girl when he was already promised, at least in his own mind, to another.
“What did you mean about choosing me at the swamp?” Mati asked as she and Rini snuggled between some dunes, their hoods up and their backs to the cold breeze.
“Remember how Ilika had to ask me some questions about my written answers?”
“Yeah.”
“I was . . . confused because I had feelings for . . . about three different girls. Ilika helped me to see . . . which of those feelings had any hope of . . .
you know . . . ever being returned to me. That was when I chose you.”
“You mean . . . you chose me to share a cabin with . . . when Boro and Sata decide they want to share one?”
Several thoughts and emotions crossed Rini’s face before he could answer.
“No. I mean yes, but not just that. I chose you to be the first and only girl I ever kiss.”
Mati looked into Rini’s sparkling eyes, then placed her lips on his, determined to do her very best to make him never regret that choice.
With big drops of rain pounding the sand outside, the captain and crew of the little response ship sat around the oval table in the passenger area. A bowl of nuts slowly worked its way around.
“Okay, we can see there are a million ways to get tangled up in the cultures we’re visiting,” Sata began, “but is there any way to know for sure what we should do . . . and not do?”
“Um . . . no. Just study, like we are doing, and practice, like when we went to the gathering. I’ve been studying this stuff for fifteen years, and I didn’t see what was happening until it was too late.”
“Will . . . the people who run the Transport Service . . . be mad at us?” Boro
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asked.
“As long as you’re doing your best, and always learning, you’re okay. If you make mistakes on purpose, or refuse to grow, then you can’t fly starships.”
Kibi
smiled.
“I remember a certain crew member,” Ilika continued, “back at the little lake near the capital city, who was sure that if the local people tried to drag us into their affairs, we wouldn’t play along. Anyone remember who that was?”
Rini turned red and grinned. “Me.”
“After accidentally marrying a desert girl, can you see how easy it is to do?”
Rini nodded vigorously.
“Think you’ll be better prepared next time we interact with a local culture?”
Rini nodded again, then smiled at Mati.
“Overall, I’m very proud of Rini,” Ilika went on. “He had options, and even though it was painful, he chose to untangle himself from the situation, and remain with the Nebador Transport Service . . . with Mati . . . and with us.”
Kibi, Boro, and Sata all looked at Rini with smiling eyes.
Deep Learning Notes
Why was Mati thinking of returning to her kingdom?
What made her change her mind?
“Shy” and “introverted” are two different things, but Mati and Rini, to various degrees, were both. Shyness, or fear in social situations, was probably stronger in Mati, and introversion, finding comfort and meaning in inner thoughts and feelings, was probably stronger in Rini.
From Mati’s dependence on her crutch, and both their experiences as slaves, they are both very aware of the possibility of death. How do you think this affected their relationship?
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What 3 things made the pastry sharing a special ritual, instead of just a bite of food?
What was Mati’s fear when she asked Rini to clarify what he meant by
“choosing” her?
How is the criteria for being in the Transport Service (do your best and always learn) different from the criteria used by most employers in selecting workers? Hint: one is “social” in nature (relative to other people), and the other is not.