Free The Memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card Page B

the whole city. “What makes me sick,” said Nafai, “is that all you care about is whether
you
get in trouble. You’ve got no family loyalty at all.”
    “This doesn’t hurt my family. Masking is a perfectly legitimate way to get started as an actor, and it pays me a living and wins me just a little tiny scrap of respect and pleasure now and then, which is a lot more than working for Father ever did!”
    What was Meb talking about? “I don’t care that you’re a masker. In fact, I think it’s great. I was hanging around here today because I was thinking maybe I might try it myself.”
    Meb pulled his mask off and looked Nafai up and down. “You’ve got a body that might look all right on stage. But you still sound like a kid.”
    “Mebbekew, it doesn’t matter right now. You a masker, me a masker—the point is that you can’t do this to Father!”
    “I’m not doing anything to Father! I’m doing this for myself.”
    It was always like this, talking to Mebbekew. He never seemed to grasp the thread of an argument. “Be a masker, fine,” said Nafai. “But darting your own father is too low even for you!”
    Meb looked at him blankly. “Darting my father?”
    “You can’t tell me you don’t know.”
    “What is there in this satire that darts
him
?”
    “The scene you just finished, Meb.”
    “Father’s not the
only
person in Basilica who believes in the Oversoul. In fact, I sometimes think
he
doesn’t believe all that seriously.”
    “The vision, Meb! The fire in the desert, the prophecy about the end of the world! Who do you
think
it’s about?”
    “I don’t know. Old Drotik doesn’t tell us what thesethings are about. If we haven’t heard the gossip then so what? We still say the lines anyway.” Then Meb got a strange, quizzical expression on his face. “What does all this Oversoul stuff have to do with Father?”
    “He had a vision,” said Nafai. “On the Desert Road, this morning before dawn, returning from his journey. He saw a pillar of fire on a rock, and Basilica burning, and he thinks it means the destruction of the world, like Earth in the old legend. Mother believes him and he must already be talking to people about it or how else would your satirist know to include this bit in his satire?”
    “This is the craziest thing I ever heard of,” said Mebbekew.
    “I’m not making it up,” said Nafai. “I sat there this morning on Mother’s portico and—”
    “The portico scene! That’s . . . He wrote how the apothecary—that’s supposed to be
Father
?”
    “What do you think I’ve been telling you?”
    “Bastard,” whispered Meb. “That bastard. And he put me on stage as the
Oversoul
.”
    Meb turned and rushed toward the masker who played the apothecary. He stood in front of him for a few moments, looking at the mask and the costume. “It’s so
obvious
, I must have the brains of a gnat—but a vision!”
    “What are you talking about?” asked the masker.
    “Give me that mask,” said Mebbekew. “Give it to me!”
    “Right, sure, here.”
    Meb tore it out of the other man’s hands and ran up the hill toward the satirist. Nafai ran after him. Meb was waving the mask in front of the satirist’s face. “How dare you, Drotik, you pus-hearted old fart!”
    “Oh, don’t pretend you didn’t know, my boy.”
    “How would I know? I was asleep till rehearsal started. You put me on stage darting my
father
and it’s justcoincidence that you didn’t happen to mention the fact, yes, I’m sure I believe
that
.”
    “Hey, it brings an audience.”
    “What were you going to do, tell people who I am, after all your promises about keeping me anonymous? What are these masks supposed to
mean
anyway?” Meb turned to the others, who were clearly baffled by the whole thing. “Listen, people, do you know what this old pimple was going to do? He was going to dart my father and then tell people that it was
me
playing the Oversoul. He was going to unmask me!”
    The