Free The Cydonian Pyramid by Pete Hautman Page B

overlapping so that they appeared to occupy the same space. Lia recognized a few more Pure Girls. There was also a Boggsian, and a young man in Medicant-style coveralls. They were all talking and laughing and saying things that made no sense.
    “Corpus corpus!”
    “Bubbee! Who is your bubbee?”
    “Skip-skip? You want to skip?”
    Lia looked at Artur. “Can you make them go away?”
    Artur touched the edge of the table. The clear images faded, leaving only blobby patches of mist behind.
    “They are being a little silly,” he said. “The Klaatu are yet quite young. They are excited that you will be joining them.”
    “Join them? They aren’t even real.” The space above the table was crowded with ghosts. She could see their shapes more clearly now.
    “The Klaatu are discorporeal, but they are quite real. As I told you, they have transcended the flesh.”
    Lia stared at him as understanding came to her. “You mean they’re dead.”
    “Their physical bodies constrain them no longer.”
    “They are ghosts.”
    “There are no such things as ghosts.” Artur smiled through his beard. “The Klaatu are
transcended.
They live without illness, pain, or misery. A Klaatu can never die, and not one has ever asked to be unmade. When you join them, you will not regret your decision.”
    Was he telling her she had a choice?
    “If being a Klaatu is so good, why don’t you do it to yourself?” she asked.
    “One day I will.” He spread his arms, palms up. “For now, I have responsibilities.”
    “So do I,” she said, believing her own words, even though she had no notion of what those responsibilities might entail. “I do not wish to die.”
    “Excellent!” He clapped his hands together. “You will live forever. The Klaatu will be delighted.”
    The ghosts stirred about excitedly, hovering above and on every side of her.
    “I mean, I don’t want to be a ghost.”
    “Not ghost.
Klaatu!
” He pointed toward a pair of coffinlike chambers affixed to the wall, each one just big enough to contain a person. “It is a perfectly painless process. I will show you.”
    “No, thank you. I like being alive. I mean, in my body.”
    The Klaatu hovering around her began to move away. She could sense their disappointment. Artur’s shoulders dropped, and his face darkened.
    “You will change your mind,” he said.
    Lia began to edge away from him.
    “Where do you think to go,
bubeluh
?”
    Lia walked quickly to the door. Outside, the bright sunlight blinded her for a moment. She stopped and squinted back at the barn. Artur appeared in the doorway.
    “There is no need for you to leave, child.”
    Lia turned and ran. Artur waddled after her, slowed by his oversize belly.
    “You are always welcome here!” he called after her.
    A pair of Boggsian women were taking sheets down from a clothesline. Lia approached the nearest woman.
    “Can you help me?” she said.
    The woman would not look at her. Lia looked back toward Artur. He was coming toward her.
    “Excuse me!” Lia tugged on the woman’s long dress. The woman brushed her hand away as if it were a pesky fly.
    There were several other Boggsians in sight, each one of them studiously not looking at her. These people might not approve of Artur, but he was one of them, and she was a stranger. Lia realized that her only choice was to return to Romelas, or whatever it was called in this primitive era of digits and ghosts. She thought she could walk there in a day, but she wasn’t sure — Artur’s horseless horse-drawn cart had traveled swiftly, and she had no sense of how much distance they had covered.
    She walked quickly along the road through the settlement, back the way they had come. Artur continued to waddle after her, pleading with her to stay. Lia was certain she could outrun him on foot, but then he turned and headed back toward his cart. Lia walked faster. As she passed the last house, she looked back. Artur was coming after her. He hadn’t bothered to hitch