Free Clay's Ark by Octavia E. Butler

began hammering in siding nails.
    She watched for a while, and he discovered he enjoyed the attention. He had not believed women outside the crew
    would want to look at him with his body so changed. Meda was trouble, but he was sorry when she decided to leave.
    She looked as though she had lost a little weight, he noticed.
    As she walked away, her brother Christian came out of the main house and stopped her. They were too far from Eli to
    worry about his hearing them, but he heard every word.
    "That guy been talking to you, Mead?" Christian demanded. Eli could not recall having heard Christian refer to him as
    "that guy" before. For Christian this was damned unfriendly.
    "Sure he has," Meda said. "I came out here to talk to him. Why shouldn't he talk to me?" Blast her honesty!
    "What'd you say to him?"
    "What did you do this morning, Chris? Look in the mirror and mistake yourself for Dad?"
    "What did he say to you?"
    Eli looked at them and saw even over the distance that she smiled sadly. "Relax," she told her brother. "He said no. He
    said the family had been good to him and he didn't want trouble."
    Christian gave an oddly brittle laugh. "Anybody who recognizes you as trouble has the right idea," he said. "If that guy
    were white, I'd tell you to marry him."
    Meda watched her brother with visibly growing confusion. Living in the house, Eli had heard enough to know Christian
    was her favorite brother. They had shared secrets since childhood. Christian knew how tired she was of being an
    isolated virgin, and she knew how nervous he was about becoming a father. Right now, she knew there was something
    wrong with him.
    "Did you break down and buy some perfume?" he asked. "You smell good."
    Eli put down his hammer and stood up. It was beginning. Meda had bathed and she smelled of soap, but she was not
    wearing perfume. She was simply coming into her time. If she and her brothers lived, they would have to learn to avoid
    each other at these times. Now, however, Eli might have to help them. He stood still, waiting to see whether Christian
    could control himself. He realized Meda might not be as much in control as she should be either. He would not let them
    commit incest. They would be losing enough of their humanity shortly.
    Eli jumped down from the floor of the house and started toward them. At that moment, Christian reached up and
    touched Meda's face with one trembling hand. Then, with a strange, whining cry, he folded slowly to the ground, out
    cold.
     
     
    PRESENT 10
     
     
    When Eli and Keira were gone, Blake opened his bag and turned it on again. He punched in his identity code, then the
    words "TIMED SLEEP" and the number three. He hit the deliver button. Moments later, he had a capsule that would
    put him to sleep for three hours and let him awake fully alert. Next he ordered a much less precise dosage for Meda.
    This he ordered in injectable form-a sleep tab.
    He placed Meda's dosage under the pillow he intended to use, then turned off the bag and closed it. He stripped to his
    shorts, and got into bed. Remembering Keira, he doubted that he could have slept at all without the capsule. And he had
    to sleep. If he did not, Meda would look at him and realize he was up to something. She might even figure out what it
    was. He did not underestimate her any longer.
    He thought he heard her come in before he dozed off, thought she called his name. He may have muttered something
    before the drug took full effect.
    He awakened on time, clearheaded, aware of what he must do. The room was full of moonlight and Meda lay snoring
    softly beside him. It amused him that she snored. It seemed utterly right that she should.
    He was surprised to find himself feeling sorry for her as he eased the sleep tab from beneath his pillow and pressed it to
    her thin, bare right arm. She repelled him, but she was not responsible for what she had become.
    There was no pain involved, but at his touch, she jumped, came awake, found him leaning over