Barbary by Vonda N. McIntyre Page B

pushed the drawer shut. It squeaked. She flinched,
hoping the noise was inaudible outside. She opened the door and tried to join
Yoshi in the living room. But her foster father guided her back into the room.
He sat on the bunk and patted the blanket beside him. “Please sit down,
Barbary.”
    Staring at the floor, Barbary obeyed. So her almost sister
had told on her the first chance she got.
    “Heather looked upset when she came out,” Yoshi said. “Did
you two have a fight?”
    Maybe this bawling out won’t be as bad as I thought, Barbary
said to herself. Maybe I can get it over with before Mick decides he has to
get out of that drawer.
    “Not a fight, exactly.”
    “Do you want to tell me about it?”
    “It wasn’t her fault. I just thought I’d have a room all my
own. I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings.”
    “I think you must have, though. Rather badly, the way she
looked.” He folded one leg under him. He was barefoot. “There are quite a few
people on the station. We don’t have a lot of living area. As much space as we
can, we use for research. And right now, with the extra people, it’s very
crowded. After they go home, I think we can find a room for you. That’s the
best I can offer just now. Can you be patient for a while?”
    Barbary guessed that the only alternative to patience was
going back to earth.
    “Yeah,” she said. She heard a faint scratching from the
desk. “Sure.” She would have said almost anything to get Yoshi to leave. “I’m
really sorry. I’ll tell Heather.”
    “Good.” Yoshi got to his feet. “We’re very glad to have you
with us. But the environment’s different. It’s difficult. It takes extra effort
to get along, sometimes.”
    “I understand,” Barbary said. “I’ll do better from now on.”
    “Okay.” Yoshi went to the door, opened it, and glanced back
with a grin. “I’ll let Heather know you want to talk to her.” He closed the
door.
    “Oh, shit, ” Barbary whispered.
    She stopped herself from shouting, but not because she cared
right now whether anyone thought she was civilized. She was afraid Yoshi would
hear her and wonder what she was still so upset about.
    But she did not know what to do. Even if she wanted to drug
Mickey again — which she did not — she had no more pills. Besides, she could
not keep him drugged all the time. She had concentrated so hard on how to
smuggle him off earth that she had never thought about what she would do if she
succeeded. Now she had to face that problem.
    She heard a louder, more insistent scratching from her desk.
    The bedroom door opened and Heather came in.
    “Hi,” she said, watchful restraint in her voice. “Yoshi says
you want to talk to me.”
    “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. The room’s really
nice. It’ll be fun to share it. I wouldn’t have said what I did, only I’m
awfully tired. I need to take a nap before I fall over —”
    “Mrrow,” the desk said, through Barbary’s rush of words.
    “What was that?” Heather said.
    “Nothing. What do you mean? I didn’t hear anything.”
    Mick yowled and scratched frantically. If he did not get his
way soon, he would howl so loudly that no one in the apartment could possibly
miss it.
    Heather looked curiously at the desk. “What have you got in
there?” she said.
    Mickey growled. Barbary yanked the drawer open to keep him
from screeching. He poked his head out, blinked, and sprang out of his hiding
place.
    “What’s that?” Heather said. “Is that a rabbit? How did you
get him up here? What’s his name?”
    Mickey took a couple of cautious steps, gathered his
powerful hind legs under him, and leaped to the top bunk. He walked across it,
his paws making small padding noises on the puffy comforter.
    “A rabbit! Don’t you know anything? He’s a cat!” Barbary
swung around suddenly and grabbed Heather’s shoulders, pushing her hard against
the wall. Heather caught her breath in astonishment.
    “If you tell anybody…”