miner miracle
Andromeda's eyebrows shot up at Cora's description of spice, and her eyes grew wider as definition turned to a warning that in its turn became a lecture on the evils of drug use. She nodded her agreement, much like a child would to an insistent mother, which was of course absurd given their apparent closeness in age. But as worldliness went, Andromeda had to defer to this Cora. "No, no, of course," she agreed in the barest of whispers. "I think we had that at home," Andy added after a moment's hesitation. "I didn't -- I mean, I only heard things. that a certain mechanic at the machine shop could get you a little something to keep you alert and digging if you were behind on your quota, and somebody else made a kind of cigarette out of a certain kind of plant. My b -- my friend Tiny mentioned it. Only he called it chems."
Something bittersweet fell on her as she selected another book to return. She hadn't allowed herself to think of Tiny very much since she had left Irvulix V. Tiny by name, tiny by nature, her brother had always said of his best friend. Tiny was shorter than Antares, but taller than Andromeda, and strong like an ox. She had been fascinated by his vivid white-blonde hair in a village where almost everyone's coloring was dark. He had been kind to her, shared his rations when The City had punished the village for missing its impossible quota. He had insisted that she carry water rather than digging in the depths of the mine -- an arduous job, but less tiring, less dangerous than the deadly spelunking Tiny and Ares and countless others did.
She suspected that if she had stayed on Irvulix V, she would have married him. That was how things in the village usually went: young people took a shine to one another, they talked, they walked out together. They kissed behind the toolshed and if neither of them died before they were both twenty -- never guaranteed on their homeworld -- they usually ended up together in the long term. There was nothing formal to it, no vows or ministers, but an understanding between them. It had been how Andromeda's parents and the parents of everyone she knew came to be coupled.
Andromeda was coming up on twenty. That was the final step.
She realized she had put the book on the shelf upside down. A glance back saw that the last one was, too. Fool, she thought, and quickly rectified her mistake. With a glance toward Cora, she willed Don't look at me don't look at me don't look at me don't look at me. "You face spice and gangs on a daily basis?" Andromeda asked, out of curiosity on some level, but also to distract from her book snafu. "Here?" Andy's dark eyes darted around warily.
