Decision at Doona

Chapter XV. INTERLUDE

AS KEN ROSE to follow Ben, Pat caught his arm, smiling up at him with an expression he knew all too well.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” she asked very sweetly.

Ken looked puzzled.

“Your son,” she reminded him, indicating Todd with a dramatic gesture.

“He can help with the dishes,” Ken replied firmly.

"Don't duck out, mister," Kate Moody said, sternly reinforcing Pat. Kate punctuated her remarks with her index finger jabbing at his breastbone. "He – is – now – your – responsibility, my friend. That boy needs a father's loving care.

Hrrula and Todd watched this exchange. Silently the two rose and joined Ken. Ken, who wanted nothing more than to have Todd out of his sight after the morning's antics, glowered down at the small serious face. There was nothing of apology in Todd's expression; no remorse for scaring his father or for putting Hrrula's life in danger, not to mention their relations with the Hrrubans.

To a child only the present and immediate future are relevant, Ken reminded himself.

Beyond them, other youngsters were clearing tables, their voices, as usual, subdued. Years of training in whispers held strong in a place where a shout died unheard. Even their walk, the mincing steps of those who learned the skill in small spaces and crowded sideways, reflected their earth-bound conditioning.

It occurred to Ken that Todd had never recognized such restrictions. His voice last night had been audible throughout the festivities. His clear requests at the breakfast table had stopped other conversation. On the walk back from the Hrruban village – until Hrrula had taken him pickaback – his stride had matched his father's when he wasn't dancing ahead or jumping over obstacles. He had not unlearned earthways overnight, Ken realized, he had never had them. And Reeve shuddered to think of Todd caroming off bodies and on toes on the city sidewalks, of his voice echoing through an entire level of Aisle flats, of Pat's desperate measures to control the rebel they had released on the world and to minimize the penalties exacted for such social misdemeanors.

Sighing, Ken held out his hand for Todd's. The boy's face lit up with a tentative smile and the small grubby hand curled into Ken's. The other hand, Ken noticed, was firmly gripping Hrrula's.

The three started for the barn.

Of the colonists only McKee and Ben had much experience with live animals. Once ticketed for Doona, McKee had been given extensive practical animal husbandry as the livestock allotted to Doona would have been partly in his charge. He would also have been responsible for the domestication of the urfa, the deerlike species of Doona. Samples of urfa milk proved rich in butterfat and calcium, and was not unpalatable; the Hrrubans used it to make cheese as well as for beverage. The short-coupled body of the urfa suggested that it would be uncomfortable as a riding animal – rather like the now extinct Terran zebra.

The major husbandry effort, however, was to have been the revitalization of the declining equine, bovine, porcine and fowl; the first two particularly.

Reeve had volunteered to learn horse breeding as one of his jack-of-all-trades skills. He had studied the theories but had had no occasion to pratice them. Vic Solinari, the second volunteer for this facet of the colony, was too busy with stores and supplies to help today. In fact, as Ken, Hrrula and Todd walked down to the plastic shed-barn, Vic was already busy with the forklift, directing his workers.

“Hrriss!” Todd's shriek of pleasure split the air and the boy shot like an arrow toward the bridge which the small Hrruban was crossing with a group of adults.

“Your people need not feel they must help us,” Reeve protested courteously to Hrrula.

“There is much to do here and little of importance at our village now,” Hrrula replied.

“Todd,” Reeve called, realizing as he did that the child couldn't possibly hear that polite summons. “TODD,” he bellowed. Everyone stopped work and turned to look at Reeve.

“YEAH, DAD, WHAT DO YOU WANT?” Todd replied in equal man-sized voice.

There was a second stunned silence until the newcomers realized that such volume was no longer a social sin but an asset.

Unsettled by the reaction to his stentorian call, Reeve beckoned broadly to Todd. Rope tail trailing behind him, half dragging the larger Hrriss, Todd scampered back to his father, absolutely oblivious to the curious looks turned on him.

Sitting firmly on his temper, Reeve resumed their walk to the barn with Hrruba and the two youngsters.

“They've already been grained,” Ben told Reeve and Hrrula. He kicked at a grain sack and Hrrula, hunkering down, caught the slight shower of seed. He held it to his nose and inhaled deeply.

"They will need to be watered, however," Ben went on. I'll demonstrate how to bridle a horse and then I suggest that you get your first lesson in equitation by riding the animals bareback to the river. They're still groggy enough not to be frisky."

Reeve looked dubiously at the horses in the shed.

“Ze big hrrss,” Hrrula said softly in Terran, making the 'r' take the place of the vowel. “I am to learn to care them?” His eyes glistened with eagerness as Ben nodded solemnly.

“He understood?” Ben asked Reeve in a quiet aside.

“Evidently.”

“I prefer that Hrrubans get them. It would be a pity to shoot them,” Ben remarked.

“Shoot them?”'

“They are unused to freedom, and it would be unfair to permit them to fall prey to mda after we left.”

Ben ushered them over to the nearest stall and, taking a bridle from its peg, explained its purpose and use. He spoke next in simple but adequate Hrruban, although something he said caused Hrriss to giggle until Hrrula growled warningly. Todd then pulled Hrriss's head down to whisper something which made both boys laugh.

“You! Sit here,” Ken said irritably. He picked up Todd, then Hrriss, and set them on the unopened feed sacks. “And stay there. These horses are nervous and we don't need you getting kicked. Watch.”

The boys blinked rapidly, their eyes accusing Ken; they hadn't done anything wrong. He resolutely turned his back on them.

Ben gave Ken and Hrrula a bridle each.

“When you go into a stall, go to the left side and slap the horse smartly on the rump. Tell it to get over,” and he demonstrated. The gray mare moved over obediently. “Horses like to be talked to in low reassuring tones. Now, release the halter strap from the manger, so. Slip the reins over the head, so; the headstall goes up over the ears. Hold the bit, so, in the hand, and open the teeth, forcing the bit within. So! Now, taking the reins behind the bit, so, and encouraging the animal with your voice, back it out of the stall. So!”

The procedure appeared remarkably simple and, determined to learn what he could, Ken advanced resolutely into a stall. It was not entirely by chance that he picked the ruddy red mare. He had admired her when she had come off the ship. She was a cheerful color, with white markings up to her knees on her front legs. Her name turned out to be Socks. Ken slapped her smartly on her rump, advising her to move her big warm rear end over. Socks snorted but obliged. Where Ben had smoothly slipped the reins over his mount's neck, Ken found he had too many lines and they got entangled. He had to stop and sort out the bridle again. This time he got the proper lines on the proper sides of the mare's neck. Fumbling, he got the headstall up on the ridges above her eyes. She blinked patiently. He put his fingers on either side of her mouth and was appalled at the size and quantity of her teeth. He inserted his fingers as he imagined Ben had done and discovered that her hard teeth could also hurt him. He got his thumb out of the way and tried to get her to open her jaws to take the bit. Socks snorted, ducked her head, the reins slid to her ears and the headstall crumpled over his fumbling hand.

When he finally got her bridled and out of the shed, he saw that Hrrula, with two small followers, was half-way across the meadow to the river on the stallion. Ben was already returning with the gray mare.

“I'll give you a leg up,” the vet called cheerfully.

This recalled to Ken the fact that he was supposed, somehow, to get astride this now large looming animal. He patted her shoulder tentatively and she looked around at him, her big brown eyes politely questioning. Her hide was warm and velvety. And the rich aroma of her was oddly comforting to Ken.

Ben gave him a leg up as promised and there was Ken high up on the horse, his legs dangling uselessly down. Socks didn't seem to mind and Ken told himself that if she didn't, he shouldn't. But her backbone was very hard and pressed him in a physiologically vulnerable place. He adjusted himself.

“Now,” Ben was explaining. “She has been trained to neckrein and this is what you do. You wish her to turn left, you lay the rein, so, on her neck, turning her head. You wish to turn right, you lay the rein, so, turning her head the other way. You wish to back her, pull firmly backward on both reins. You wish her to go forward, ease up all pressure on her mouth and press your heels, so,” and his big hand took Ken's left heel and pressed it firmly, into Socks's ribs “and she will move forward.” Which is exactly what the mare did so that Ken was caught off balance and clutched at her mane. He was glad Ben was too polite to laugh for he knew he looked ridiculous.

“What do I do when I want to stop?” he asked, trying not to sound frantic and pulling up on the reins. The mare obediently stopped.

"She knows,'' Ben said encouragingly and led his horse back into the shed.

Ken found he was pressing tightly with his knees against her withers and that she didn't seem to mind. Her ears cocked forward and her head came up. He let up on the reins and she moved forward in a pleasant rhythm. He got himself into a comfortable position although he felt he must look foolish with his feet flopping around. She moved a little faster as she smelled the water.

“Daddy, look at us,” Todd's voice crowed, interrupting Ken's concentration, and startled, he looked up to see Todd and Hrriss, legs at right angles on the back of the big stallion.

“Faster, faster, Hrrula,” Todd said in Hrruban. Grinning, Hrrula urged the trotting stallion on. Todd had his fists knotted in the black mane, bouncing happily. Hrriss, his arms and tail around Todd's waist, wore a grin of apprehensive surprise.

Reeve swiveled around in horrified concern for the children. The next thing he knew, he was spitting out black dirt and grass, one arm pulled upward with socket-wrenching jerks.

He realized he still had the reins in his hand and he looked up at the green sky, the mare's pretty head silhouetted against it. She made a farrumping noise and blew down in his face as if apologizing for finding him there.

“You've the makings of a good horseman,” Ben said as Ken scrambled to his feet. “You held onto the reins.” With no more comment, Ben linked his hands to give Ken a knee up. Before he realized it Ken was mounted again and Ben, riding beside him, patiently explained the elements of equitation just as if falling off a horse was an everyday occurrence. As Reeve was soon to learn, it was.

He took the bay mare down to the river next and found that he preferred the sorrel mare Socks. The bay mare minced her way in a bone-jerking fashion and had an annoying habit of tossing her head constantly.

Back at the shed, Ben set about teaching his four pupils how to groom their animals.

“Todd's too small to curry a horse. He might get hurt,” Ken said anxiously.

“I will not. I didn't fall off,” Todd reminded his father pointedly. “I'll stand on that,” he added, indicating a plastic crate, “and then I'll be tall enough.”

“The child doesn't fear the horse so why should we? It is good to catch them young,” Ben said with a grin which included Hrriss too.

It took Todd a little longer to finish but he worked willingly and well. The little gray mare he had been assigned stood obediently throughout the ministrations. Hrriss and Hrrula both had an additional hazard in that their tails were painfully trod on several times by their charges. Todd had merely wrapped his pseudo-tail around his waist.

Bill Moody and Alfred Ramasan appeared at the shed door, eyeing the horses nervously.

“Mr. Adjei,” Bill began tentatively. Ben was crooning to the horses and did not hear the boy's properly modulated tones. “Mr. Adjei,” and Bill blinked startled at his own unaccustomed volume, “we were told to help you.”

“We're finished here but we could use your help with the cows,” Ben declared, pointing to the placidly chewing beasts.

Fifteen minutes later his helpers were back to the original four. Alfred was being taken to the infirmary with a crushed toe and Bill willingly accompanied him. Bill was, – well, frightened wasn't kind – unaccustomed to livestock.

“I'll be back tomorrow?” he had asked and Ben, impassive, had nodded consent.

“At least he is willing,” Ben remarked cheerfully after the boys had left.

“Ben, you'd never have made an animal husbandman out of me,” Ken groaned. “Hrrula, Hrriss and Todd, yes, but not me.”

Ben's eyebrows went up in surprise. "Do you think I made no mistakes the first time I met animals?" I lost the thumb nail because I left my finger too long in a cow's mouth." Ben grinned reminiscently. "My foot was broken when a stallion reared and I've lost count of the bones I broke falling off horses before I learned." He gave Reeve a friendly shake on the elbow. "No, no, Ken, you'll do fine but it takes a little time."

“Yeah, but look at those,” he said, indicating Todd and the two Hrrubans.

“Hrriss and Hrrula are used to animals,” Ben replied with a shrug. “I'd be surprised if they behaved otherwise. And Todd, well, Todd is in a separate category altogether,” Ben added with a grin.

“What makes you say that?” Ken growled.

Ben's grin widened. “Akosua has told me much about young Todd. No, do not frown. The boy sees things with different eyes than most children. I think, seeing him today, he sees more clearly. Plainly he was meant for Doona, not Earth.”

“Yes, that is painfully obvious,” Ken agreed.

“No, no,” Ben said earnestly, “he is right. On Earth he took too large a step; on Doona, we do not step wide enough. Look at Alfred and Bill. On Toddy I can rely. And on Hrrula. Tonight,” and his voice became businesslike, “you must return after the evening meal to help bed the stock down. I shall require Toddy's help too.”

Ken snorted with self-disgust. Ben laughed as Reeve stumped off to Solinari's work gang.