The Caryatids

That was the true genius of the Dispensation. They weren't exactly revolutionaries, but they always had some brand-new way to shuffle from the bottom of the deck.

Radmila dodged a robot with a socketed tray of stray hobjects. "What will the investors make of her prognosis?"

"Stars don't die easy, but the woman did die."

"She doesn't look very dead this morning. The brain is just another organ, isn't it? There must be some kind of investment path for us there."

"Of course there's an investment path," said Uncle Jack. "We could waste an incredible amount of our Family capital trying to revive our oldest star...Or we could invest that same amount of money into you. Or into Lionel. Or best of all, into little Mary...What course of action has the best long-term return for our Family? You can do the math."

"I hate math," Radmila lied.

"We have to think in the long term. That is our core Family value. So we stick by our core values now, eh? We've got to cut and run on Toddy. She's become a sinkhole. We've got to get those knotheads to reroute her investment stream. As soon as we can."

"I would never ask the Family to do that for me."

"Well, it's time for you to ask for that. No, more than that. You're a big, grown-up girl now, Mila. It's time for you to bite off a chunk and just tell those sons of bitches who the star is. You have to do that for us. You're the Family's biggest star now. Nobody else will be able to ask for that, and make that stick with our investors."

"That sounds so selfish of me."

"It is not selfish. It's practical. Toddy always did practical things. Toddy did a hundred things like that, and worse things, harder things. Being beautiful, that is not a pretty business. You can see where that leads. Because: Look at her. That's your own future, girl. That is what you will be asking for. In the long term, inside there, that's you."

Inside the puckered plastic bubble, the naked creature sucked at her wizened fingers and glared madly into her fine glass toy. Radmila realized, fatally and finally, that she would never get another kind word from Toddy. Not another smile, not another knowing nod of approval. Grief rolled through her like thunder.

Radmila wanted to die. She'd never wanted to die in this keen way before. She'd never realized that dying could be such an aspiration.

She drew a breath. "No, that is not me! Not my future! Never! By the time I'm her age, this world will be transformed ! That future world will be nothing like this world! The brilliancy, the lightness...we don't even have words for that world."

Her outburst surprised Uncle Jack. "Mila, I never realized you were quite so Synchronistic."

"My husband insists on all that."

"Are we entirely on the same page here?" asked Jack. "By Synchronistic standards, I rather let the Family down...God knows I tried to buy into that modern highbrow stuff, but, well, my heart was never in it."

Jack's embarrassment was painful. "Well," she said haltingly, "I do know, for sure, that Toddy would want me to remain a star...So I'll do that. For her. She gave us all that, because she had so much to give to her audience...She brought so much grace and elegance and beauty into people's lives...Toddy Montgomery never forgot her public! Toddy always wanted to give them beautiful dreams."

Jack's nose wrinkled a bit. "That's how you remember her?"

"I know I'm talking silly star-hype...but I can remember how she made me work. Discipline, personal transformation, and thorough rehearsals. Toddy made me what I am. I've lost so much..." Radmila waved vaguely at the peach-colored bedroom walls. "She built all of this, and all I can do is to try to hold it up."

"That won't be easy," Jack told her, "but she handpicked you. Everybody knows you've been groomed for that role. You're in a strong position, if you can stand the pressure."

"Jack, I can stand it. I can stand anything. Worse things have happened to me than this. You will help me, won't you?"

"You always called her 'Toddy,'" Jack said. "'Theodora Montgomery.' Well, I remember another woman-Lila Jane Dickey from Hawkinsville, Georgia. That's who I remember when I see that thing in the bubble. You meet a creature like Lila Jane maybe once in a generation."

Jack chased a busy robot from the windowglass, which was already spotless. "You ever heard of a thing called 'AIDS'? AIDS was another plague."

"Of course I've heard of that one, Jack."

"Well, Toddy, or rather Lila Jane-she showed up in this town right after we first cured that illness. Curing AIDS was awesome. It was like somebody hit Hollywood with a promiscuity bomb. You could literally see the dust blow right off the sexual revolution."

Uncle Jack liked to talk in an old-fashioned way. There was something deeply touching and endearing about him. That nostalgic glow in Jack's fine old face was illuminating her dark mood. The future might be painful, even chaotic, but no one could rob the Montgomery-Montalbans of their heritage.