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again and, frankly, the
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0-%20War%20of%20the%20Maelstrom.txt village was basically a nudist colony,
which suited her just fine.
Bugs weren't a real problem so long as you kept the netting on the doors and
windows and remembered to rub a potion on me stilts once a month so nothing
wanted to crawl up it. The floors were of a rock-hard native wood that insects
didn't bother, although it warned a bit and wasn't ideal in its
243
244 Jack L. Chalker primary use. The walls were of a bamboolike plant, the
roof was some kind of woven grasses over a rust-proof metallic webbing, and it
was waterproof. Inside ventilation was by a clever series of permanently
netted openings that let some light and all me air through but caught most of
the rain and all of anything else. It was enough that only a central oil lamp
was needed to pretty well illuminate the place.
It had only a single interior, but it was fairly spacious, the only thing
blocking free access was a thick pole rising from the ground below, though the
floor, and up to the roof center.
There were two sets of bunk beds over to one side handmade affairs of the same
wood as the floor, with criss-crossed and tightly bound vines providing the
support for thin and well-
worn mattresses. She didn't know what the mattresses were made of, but they
looked like some kind of soft vinyl, the only plastic stuff she'd seen here
and so it probably wasn't, and she had no idea what they were filled with but
they held the human body, even her, fairly comfortably. They had ordered her a
bed weeks ago, but she didn't care when it arrived. All four were seldom home
at the same time and she had whichever lower she wanted.
Other than that, there was a large round table, also of the same irregular
wood and looking hand-carved, with four match-
ing chairs and one obviously cobbled from another set some-
where; a large chest with all sorts of clay pots, gourds, and the like, and
another with a set of well-worn and dented pots, pans, plates, and utensils. A
makeshift cupboard and shelves held some fruit, containers of dried meat, and
some Jar-sealed delicacies. Without a refrigerator or freezer there wasn't
much else you could keep around. Food was caught or picked from die Company
common stores which were constantly restocked, me men of the camp taking turns
doing the required hunting, fishing, and the like. The women were supposed to
plant and tend and pick the gardens and citrus grove, and tend to the miriks,
a chickenlike bird that thrived here and gave regular fine-tasting eggs. Then
they would pick up and deliver what they needed at the end of the day for the
next day's food.
Cooking was done on a wood stove on the porch, where the smoke could easily
disperse. It was of stone and reminded her of nothing as much as the most
elaborate permanent backyard barbecue she'd ever seen. Still, with a little
instruc-
WAR OF THE MAELSTROM 245
tion from the other women, she'd had no trouble in mastering it pretty well,
and getting to know the seasonings and oils and
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0-%20War%20of%20the%20Maelstrom.txt herbs and spices by eye, as well as bow to
cook without getting spattered or asphyxiated. She'd gotten real good real
fast because she'd been a cook for Boday all that time, and because she was
very eager to learn and please.
Over to one side was a partially finished project with the basic tools for the
carpenter's job set in a case next to it.
She'd always been a fair carpenter and the crib was taking real shape, but she
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was finding herself too easily frustrated and upset by little things, and she
just hadn't been able to keep at it. She knew she'd let me boys finish it,
although it bothered her. She was proud that she still did all the same work
as the others, that she could be "normal." Of course, she had thought that she
would handle the later stages of pregnancy better than she had; what was a
little more weight and tummy when she already carried so much? It wasn't like
that, though. After a while you hardly thought about the fat, but this was
like a bowling ball that didn't move exactly the same as you did. Dead weight
that shifted suddenly and wrongly and threw you off balance and made you
perma-
nently a little uncomfortable, and you didn't get used to it.
She heaved herself out of the chair, got her cup, and lumbered over to the
door where there were two amphoras, each containing a supply of pretty good
wine one white, one red. Covantians seemed to live on wine, and to be able to
produce a drinkable product somehow in the damndest places.
They mostly looked kind of American Indian, but she was certain that they must
somewhere have had common ancestors with the French or Italians. She didn't
like drinking so much alcohol, for the sake of the kid, but these were
deliberately fairly weak, and they were here and running water was not.
Central wells provided the water, which was taken in large gourds on the head
back to each hut. She'd gotten quite good at carrying fairly heavy burdens on
her head, and so each day as needed she'd climb down the ladder after lowering
the vine-rope-supported platform that served as a kind of dumb- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]