Free And All Between by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page B

Teera, Pomma could hardly keep from leaping up and dancing about the room. Her fingers twitched and tangled in her lap, and her feet moved involuntarily in little dancelike motions. She knew her parents were watching her, smiling delightedly, and now and then Pomma smiled back. It had been a long time, a very long time, since she had felt so wonderfully happy and alive and had taken such Joy from anything at all—except, of course, the Berry.
    At the thought of the Berry, Pomma’s hand moved involuntarily towards the pouch that she kept at her waist—but then it stopped. There were no Berries there. It had been several days since she had kept Berries handy in her belt-pouch so that they could be quickly eaten when the dark, empty pain swept through her body. But the pain had been less of late, and besides, Teera did not like her to eat so many Berries.
    “Don’t eat those things,” Teera always said. “When you eat them, your Spirit goes back into yourself so that I can’t pense you at all. If you eat them, we won’t be able to image for a long time. And I want to image some more about gliding.”
    “But you can have some, too,” Pomma had said, holding them out to Teera, fat ripe Berries, oozing with thick dark juice. “Eat some, and you won’t mind about not imaging.”
    But Teera shook her head, shuddering. “I don’t like them,” she said. “They make me feel strange, like everything was dissolving and floating away from me.”
    And so, because of Teera, there were no Berries now in Pomma’s belt-pouch. But there was the beautiful new shuba, and the fact that Raamo would be arriving at any moment.
    And then suddenly the door hangings were flung aside, and Raamo was there, along with the tall young Ol-zhaan, D’ol Neric, and Pomma was running to meet them.
    For several minutes all was joyous confusion, an intermingling of bodies, palms, cries of Joy and hastily sung greetings. When, at last, the greetings were complete, Raamo turned his full attention to Pomma, and she preened before him, holding out her arms and twirling on the tips of her toes.
    “See how much better I am,” she told him, “and Teera, too.” It was not until then that Pomma, looking around her, noticed that Teera had retreated to stand partly hidden behind the hangings of the hallway door. Reluctantly she allowed Pomma to lead her forward.
    “Look how much fatter Teera is. Teera loves to eat,” Pomma said. Raamo bent down and offered his palms to Teera in greeting, while Pomma chattered on about what Teera ate and how much.
    “It is not to be wondered at that Teera was hungry when she came to you,” Raamo said, smiling at Pomma. “She had been wandering without anything to eat for two days when we found her.”
    “I know,” Pomma said eagerly. “And before that too, she was hungry. Teera says that everyone is hungry below the Root.”
    There was a quick exchange of glances between Raamo and D’ol Neric as Pomma spoke. Watching them, Pomma failed to notice Teera until she felt a touch upon her arm and turned to see Teera staring at her with fear-widened eyes. Guessing quickly that Teera feared her mention of those who lived below the Root, Pomma quickly turned the talk to other matters. Knowing that Raamo would be interested and approving, she spoke of Teera’s dislike of the Berry, and of the games and songs that they had taught each other. But when she boastingly mentioned that she and Teera were able to play Five-Pense all the way to the third level, Raamo laughed unbelievingly and accused her of exaggeration.
    “No,” Pomma told him emphatically. “I’m not over-speaking. We can truly. I thought I was too old, too, but Teera and I can pense each other. We can do Signals and Choices all the time, and sometimes we can do Images. We can’t do Thoughts and Words yet, but I think we’re going to. Isn’t that wonderful?”
    Before Raamo could answer Neric interrupted. Asking Pomma to come and talk to him, he told Raamo