Parable of the Talents - Octavia E Butler Page 0,41
my cue from him. He even seemed to be enjoying himself some of the time. Everyone else sat around on the ground, waiting, and looking bored or confused and angry. My people were the confused, angry ones. Dan in particular looked first disbelieving, then disgusted, then furious. But he followed the example of the two men. He kept quiet. He sat staring at the ground, his face expressionless. Travis watched me, then looked from me to Bankole, trying to figure out what was going on. But he wouldn’t ask in front of Cougar. Bankole maintained a perfect poker face. Later, the three of them would have a lot to say to me. But not now.
And Cougar did want to get rid of Marcus. Maybe it was Marcus’s age, maybe something else, but I couldn’t miss that veiled eagerness of his. What he said just didn’t jibe with his body language. I think being a sharer makes me extra sensitive to body language. Most of the time, this is a disadvantage. It forces me to feel things that I don’t want to feel. Psychotics and competent actors can cause me a lot of trouble. This time, though, my sensitivity was a help.
I bought my brother. No shooting, no fighting, not even much cussing. In the end, Cougar smirked, took his hard currency, and released Marcus from the slave collar. He had offered me the collar and a control unit too—at added cost. Of course I didn’t want it. Filthy things.
“Nice doin’ business with you,” Cougar said.
No. It hadn’t been nice at all. “I still want the Noyer girls,” I said.
He nodded. “I’ll keep my eyes open. That young one over there is a real good fit to the description you gave.”
I turned to Dan. “Is she…anything like your sisters?”
The girl and Dan stared at one another, and it hit me again that I was going to have to walk away and leave these children to their pimp. I avoided looking at the girl.
“Yeah, she looks a little like Nina,” Dan mumbled. “But what good is that? She’s not Nina. What good is anything?”
“Can you tell him anything more that would help him recognize either of your sisters if he sees them?” I asked.
“I don’t want him to recognize them.” Dan turned to stare at Cougar. “I don’t want him to touch them. I’d kill him! I swear I would!”
Bankole took him to the truck, and Travis, in spite of his confusion, followed with Marcus. I went back into George’s and took care of Dolores. She hadn’t found Dan’s sister, but she had done me a favor that I would never have imagined anyone could do. She had more than earned her fee.
As for Dan I couldn’t really blame him for his attitude. But we couldn’t afford a fight now. I was too close to my own edge. Leaving the rest of the kids, especially the little ones, was horrible. I had been willing to fight for Marcus if I had to, but I might have gotten him and others killed. I would have gotten someone killed. I don’t know how to stop people like Cougar, but I don’t think killing off their victims, their human property, is the best way.
Inside the truck, I hugged my brother. He was as unresponsive as a stick at first, but after a moment he held me away from him and stared at me for at least a full minute. He didn’t say anything. He just shook his head. Then he hugged me. After a while, he put his hand to his throat. He felt all around his neck where the damned collar had been. Then he just kind of curled up on himself. He lay on his side in fetal position, and I sat beside him. He flinched when I touched him, so I just sat there.
And I told the others. “He’s my brother,” I said. “I…for five years, I believed…that he was dead.” And then I couldn’t say anything more. I just sat with him. I don’t know what the others did apart from keeping watch and driving us home. If they talked, I didn’t hear them. I didn’t care what they did.
In all, Bankole told me, my brother had three active venereal infections. Also, his upper back and shoulders, his left arm, and the outside of his left leg were covered with an ugly network of old burn scars. No wonder Cougar had wanted to get rid of him. He probably thought he’d