Barbary

“All right,” Yoshi said, though he still looked concerned. “But don’t talk the whole time. Agreed?”

“Sure.” Barbary’s voice sounded funny to her, because she was trying to talk without inhaling or exhaling. As soon as she took a breath, she would begin to giggle.

Yoshi slid the door closed behind him. Heather immediately clapped her hands to her head, and Barbary flung herself forward with a muffled shriek of laughter.

“I’m glad you think it’s so funny,” Heather whispered.

“I’m sorry,” Barbary said. “I wasn’t laughing at you. Mick was tickling me. I almost couldn’t stand it.”

“Okay. But keep quiet or Yoshi’ll hear us.”

Mickey sauntered out of his hiding place, looked at them both in disdain, and jumped off the bunk.

“Are you okay?” Barbary asked.

“I think so, yeah. I might have a bump. Boy, was that dumb. Running yourself into a ceiling is real kid stuff.”

Barbary climbed down from the bunk, picked Mickey up, and cradled him in her arms. “That was close, Mick,” she said.

Heather jumped down beside her. “We better at least pretend to sleep,” she said.

“Yeah, okay.”

Heather gestured toward the top bunk. “You better take that one. It’ll be safer.”

“Are you sure that’s okay with you?”

“Uh-huh,” Heather said. “But be careful not to sit up too fast.”

“Right.” Barbary nodded.

The floor twisted beneath her. She staggered, flung one hand out to catch herself, and clutched Mick to her with the other arm. He hissed in protest and tried to jump free.

“Barbary! What’s wrong?”

Barbary kept hold of the edge of the bunk, but let Mick loose.

“You mean… you didn’t feel anything?”

“No,” Heather said. “Feel what?”

“The floor…” She stopped. Maybe she had something wrong with her, and if anyone found out

Heather laughed. “I know!”

Barbary scowled. “What?”

“You nodded — didn’t you?”

“I guess so. What’s so bad about that?”

“Nothing — except that up here you have to get out of the habit of nodding or shaking your head.”

“Why?”

“Because the spin of the station affects your inner ear. That makes you feel like the floor is twisting or tilting, depending on which you’re doing and what way you’re facing. Go ahead — try it.”

“Well ... okay.” She shook her head. The floor tilted up and back. Barbary stopped.

“Now turn this way” — Heather moved her a quarter turn — “and shake your head again.”

This time it felt as if the floor were tilting from side to side.

“And if you turn around this way —”

“I don’t like this very much.” Barbary grabbed hold of the bunk support.

“But — oh. Oh, gee, Barbary, I didn’t realize — here, sit down.”

Barbary sat still, letting her equilibrium return. She tried to listen to Heather’s explanation, but it was too much for her to take in all at once.

“You get so you don’t notice it after a while,” Heather said. “But by then most people have already trained themselves out of nodding or shaking their heads.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Barbary said.

“Don’t worry — you’ll be an old hand in no time.”

Mick jumped to the top bunk and curled up on Barbary’s pillow.

“I think he’s trying to tell us something,” Heather said.

“Yeah,” Barbary said. This time she did not nod.

When they had both lain down, and Mickey was purring beside Barbary, kneading her arm with his paws, Heather said, “Are you all settled?”

“Yeah.”

“Lights out,” Heather said.

The lights dimmed and went out.

A very long, very narrow triangle of light fell across the floor. It came from the other room, through a crack where the door did not quite meet the wall.

Barbary had thought she was too nervous to sleep, but in the darkness and in the half-gravity ease of her bed, exhaustion began to take her over.

“Barbary?” Heather whispered.

Pulling herself partway out of a doze, Barbary answered. “Yeah?”

“Don’t misunderstand — it’s neat that you brought Mickey. But… how come you risked it?”

“I wanted to chase him away, but I couldn’t. Then after we made friends, they wanted me to take him to the animal shelter so they could kill him.”

“Oh,” Heather said. “Oh. I’m glad you brought him.”

I wonder how long I’m going to get away with it, though, Barbary thought.

“Heather?”

“Uh-huh?”

“How come you live here? In low gravity?”

Heather was silent, and Barbary thought she must have asked her something very rude. But you asked me a personal question, Barbary thought. Don’t I get a turn?

“Well,” Heather said, “I have to. There’s something wrong with my heart. I’m only allowed to go into one g a couple of hours a day.”

“Oh,” Barbary said. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. I don’t care. I like it here. I don’t know why people want to stay at one g anyway.”

She probably knew better than Barbary, who only knew what the instruction book said. If people did not stay used to regular gravity, then after a long time in space it would be too hard for them to go back to earth.

As she drifted off to sleep, Barbary thought, But I don’t want to go back to earth. I want to live in space, where there isn’t any gravity.

o0o

Barbary flung her arm across her eyes to block out the sunlight —

There was no sunlight. She woke abruptly.