Free Shadow's End by Sheri S. Tepper

loses it and I give him another red ball, he has to start from scratch. Though it looks identical to me, somehow he knows it isn’t the same thing he had before.”
    â€œStrange.”
    She nodded. It was. Strange.
    â€œI understand they’ve tried splicing him.”
    It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyhow. “The geneticists spotted a few rare variations that they thought might be connected to behavior, and they tried substituting some more common alleles. Among Leely’s unique attributes, however, is a super-efficient immune system. Each time extraneous genetic material is introduced, his body kills it. It may take him a day, or a week, but he manages it every time. That means that even if we hit upon whatever variant might help, it would take him a very short time to get rid of it. And, of course, it may not be in the chromosomes. It may be elsewhere in the cells.”
    The geneticists had suggested a complete cellular inventory, but she had resisted that. Perhaps she didn’t really want to know. If they found something …Well, how very final that would be!
    Trompe said, “I imagine the doctors are very interested in him! The immune system, I mean.”
    â€œExtremely interested. Particularly inasmuch as he alsoheals very quickly. At first thought, these traits would seem to be extremely valuable—”
    â€œBut only the healing, the immunity.”
    â€œRight. If they could be separated from the rest of his pattern, but no one knows what particular combination of combinations has resulted in that trait.”
    â€œSo, whatever’s wrong, it can’t be fixed.”
    She stiffened. “I object to the word. Leely is all right the way he is! You may as well know that Leelson Famber and I disagreed on that point.”
    He narrowed his eyes at her. “But…how intelligent is he?”
    â€œI believe he has a different level of intelligence,” she said belligerently. One of her most vehement arguments with Leelson had been on that subject. She tried to be fair. “Though it’s hard to be sure because our idea of intelligence is so dependent upon the use of language. He scores quite high on some nonverbal tests, those that don’t depend solely on classification.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    â€œWhat I said earlier! He doesn’t classify things. He can’t look at a pile of blocks and pick out all the blue ones. Mere blueness isn’t a category for Leely. Nor mere roundness, mere squareness, mere… whatever. Each thing is its own thing.”
    â€œWith its own name?”
    â€œWho knows? If he could talk, perhaps that would be true. He’s past the age when most children either learn a language or create one.” She heard the pain in her voice, knew Trompe heard it too.
    â€œSo?” He was looking at her curiously, figuring her out.
    Lutha took firm control of her voice. She had to sound objective and calm. She would not start out on this arduous project with a companion who felt she was irrational.
    â€œSince he’s so very healthy, I’ve considered he might bea new and fortunate mutation. Perhaps he will learn language later than most children.”
    There was no legitimate reason for her to believe that, but she believed it anyhow, passionately, with her whole heart. Leelson had said that for every positive mutation, there were undoubtedly thousands of useless or lethal ones. Intellectually, she accepted that. So far as Leely was concerned, she could not. He couldn’t be … useless.
    She pulled her mind away from that thought. She didn’t want Trompe Paggas to think she was—what? Deluded. A mother who was blind and fond to the point of stupidity? Speak of something else!
    Trompe gave her the opening. “He didn’t like those colors you gave him. Why was that, do you suppose?”
    â€œA mistake on my part,” she admitted ruefully. “He loves to