Free On Whetsday by Mark Sumner Page B

was not there. She waited. But it was cithians who came, cithians and dasiks. Yulia was put on a train the next day. She never saw either of her parents again.

 
     
     
     
     
    16
     
     
     
    When she was done with her story, Yulia stood up. “It’s very warm in Jukal,” she said, as she shifted inside her oversized coat. “But somehow I’m always cold.” She walked out, brushing aside stars as she went.
    Denny stayed there for a long time, under Yulia’s stars. Finally, when he thought he understood what he needed to do, he stood and walked out of the dark room. It was almost surprising to find that it was not Dimsday outside, the way it had been in Yulia’s story, but still the same Pairday it had been when Denny had followed her across the street. He didn’t see Yulia anywhere as he crossed back over the cracked pavement.
    When Denny came back into the Porium, Poppa Jam looked at him with cautious hope. “Decide there was something else you needed after all?”
    Denny sat the torn box back onto the counter, and nodded. “Yes.” He thought for a moment and pointed across the counter. “I still want the picture book,” he said. Then he turned and nodded toward the rear of the store. “And I want some other stuff.”
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
    17
     
     
    Dimsday
     
    It took Denny two trips to bring his purchases and other supplies to the old building at the edge of the human quarter. He had no way to lock the doors, and no way to explain what he was doing to anyone who saw him carrying his burden to the building. Denny wasn't sure that anyone had ever said they weren't allowed in the unused authority buildings, but he was pretty sure no one had ever said that they were. If one of the cithians stopped him, Denny would probably be in serious trouble. No chez for three days sort of trouble. Maybe worse. But he saw no one.
    There were only two rooms inside the old building. The first one was cleaner, with a series of benches, but it also had a window that looked back into the quarter, a window someone might look through. Denny dragged all his things into a corner of the second room. This room had no windows. One wall of the room was lined with water pipes and nozzles. There was a dented metal sheet at one end, which would come in handy. The room smelled bad, an ugly mix of rotting wood and chemicals. When Denny came in, there were red scuttles as big as Denny's hand gnawing at some paperboard boxes. The scuttles moved out of his way slowly, like they were irritated about being disturbed. There were some chairs at the side of the room, but the scuttles had also gnawed at them, grinding them down until they were barely more than the ghosts of chairs. They surely weren't sturdy enough to sit on. Denny wrinkled his nose and put his things on top of a sagging box.
    Carefully, he pulled out the spare clothing he'd brought in his duffle and began to assemble his disguise. There was a thick sweater that had belonged to his father. Two shirts, three belts, two pairs of pants, and a bag full of towels and rags. Denny meant to wear it all.
    He put the extra set of pants in front of him, and looped a couple of belts together to hold them in place. Then he stuffed rags down the legs. He put an extra shirt on over his shirt, and stuffed more clothes into the arms. When all the human clothes were on, Denny took the bolts of the thick, coarse cithian cloth that had come from Poppa Jam's Porium, and began wrapping it around himself.
    It took longer than Denny had hoped to finish winding the cloth around his face and body. By the time he stumbled toward the stained square of metal to see how he looked, Denny was sweating and feeling very uncomfortable under the many layers of cloth. The clothing, which included an old coat that Denny had outgrown and the blanket from his father's unused bed, bulked Denny up until his figure seemed nearly round as a ball. He had taken special care to wrap up his shoulders so that his head and