The Wind From a Burning Woman: Six Stories of Science Fiction by Greg Bear Page A

scratch. Not even a twitch of tail in the wind. She took a deep breath, and so did I. Round about midnight the dog went out into the graveyard. It was very dark, and there wasnt wind or bird or speck of star to relieve the quiet and the dismal inside-of-a-box-camera blackness. He sniffed his way to the old part of the graveyard and met with the head rat, who was sitting on a slanty, cracked wooden grave marker. Only his eyes and a tip of tail showed in the dark, but the dog could smell him. What happened to the cats? he asked. The rat shrugged his haunches. Aint seen any cats, he said. What did you thinkthat you could scare us out with a couple of cats? Ha. Listenif there had been any cats here tonight, theyd have been strung and hung like meat in a shed, and my younuns would have grown fat on
    No-o-o! I screamed, and I ran away from the woman and the tree until I couldnt hear the story anymore.
    Whats the matter? she called after me, Arent you going to tell me your story? Her voice followed me as I ran.
    It was funny. That night, I wanted to know what happened to the cats. Maybe nothing had happened to them. Not knowing made my visions even worseand I didnt sleep well. But my brain worked like it had never worked before.
    * * * *
    The next day, a Saturday, I had an endingnot a very good one in retrospectbut it served to frighten Michael so badly he threatened to tell Mom on me.
    What would you want to do that for? I asked. Cripes, I wont ever tell you a story again if you tell Mom!
    Michael was a year younger and didnt worry about the future. You never told me stories before, he said, and everything was fine. I wont miss them.
    He ran down the stairs to the living room. Dad was smoking a pipe and reading the paper, relaxing before checking the irrigation on the north thirty. Michael stood at the foot of the stairs, thinking. I was almost down to grab him and haul him upstairs when he made his decision and headed for the kitchen. I knew exactly what he was consideringthat Dad would probably laugh and call him a little scaredy-cat. But Mom would get upset and do me in proper.
    She was putting a paper form over the kitchen table to mark it for fitting a tablecloth. Michael ran up to her and hung on to a pants leg while I halted at the kitchen door, breathing hard, eyes threatening eternal torture if he so much as peeped. But Michael didnt worry about the future much.
    Mom, he said.
    Cripes! I shouted, high-pitching on the i. Refuge awaited me in the tractor shed. It was an agreed-upon hiding place. Mom didnt know Id be there, but Dad did, and he could mediate.
    It took him a half hour to get to me. I sat in the dark behind a workbench, practicing my pouts. He stood in the shaft of light falling from the unpatched chink in the roof. Dust motes maypoled around his legs. Son, he said. Mom wants to know where you got that story.
    Now, this was a peculiar thing to be asked. The question Id expected had been, Why did you scare Michael? or maybe, What made you think of such a thing? But no. Somehow she had plumbed the problem, planted the words in Dads mouth, and impressed upon him that father-son relationships were temporarily suspended.
    I made it up, I said.
    Youve never made up that kind of story before.
    I just started.
    He took a deep breath. Son, we get along real good, except when you lie to me. We know better. Who told you that story?
    This was uncanny. There was more going on than I could understandthere was a mysterious adult thing happening. I had no way around the truth. An old woman, I said.
    Dad sighed even deeper. What was she wearing?
    Green dress, I said.
    Was there an old man?
    I nodded.
    Christ, he said softly. He turned and walked out of the shed. From outside he called me to come into the house. I dusted off my overalls and followed him. Michael sneered at me.
    Locked them in coffins with old dead bodies, he mimicked. Phhht! Youre going to get it.
    The folks closed the folding door to the kitchen with both of us