Zollocco: A Novel of Another Universe (11 page)

About three weeks after the Week of the Waves, I walked into Yartem's apartment and was met by an icy stare. He was working on a painting so I figured he didn't want to be bothered. I left, expecting to hear from him later that day. I didn't hear from him for five days. I went back to his apartment to find out what was happening.

"Yartem, its been ages since I've seen you."
"I don't wish to be made a fool further."
"What do you mean?"
"You have fooled me; you have fooled everyone. You

pretend to be a human. You are nothing but a zitam. Ever since I have discovered this I have wondered what I should do. Waves, you are nothing but an animal. I can't tell the zitam gatherers and watch them sell my former girlfriend, but I don't want to see you again. Animal. Zitam."

I ran back to my apartment and into my room. I was quaking. Neighteeha came for her lesson. She was very concerned.

"Oh, no! Did Yartem discover you?"

I froze. "Yes," she said, "I know you are Listed as a zitam. I have known for some time. One morning, when it was time to wake you I saw the scroll floor-sitting. I guess it had fallen out from where it was hidden in the mattress and so I re-hid it. Then I woke you. Don't worry, I haven't told anyone, not even Mother. It's been an exciting secret. I've wished and wished there was something I could do to protect Ipernia and thwart the Toelakhan. When you came I was elated. Then I began to think you were a member of the Toelakhan force, but when I found the Letter of List I knew you really were hiding. I realized my part was a very serious one. Kidnapping people, and then selling and calling them pets! Waves!"

I remembered the morning I had made a panicked search for the scroll, only to find it had simply roiled under the bed. I had convinced myself that Neighteeha hadn't seen it.

"How did Yartem find out?"

Neighteeha answered, "Oh, you can be sure the Toelakhan have been looking for you. They must get a citizen of Gretern to declare you. The Toelakhan, of course, never directly expose themselves. Apparently they have been trying to get Yartem to do it."

"Neighteeha, how did this zitam business come about?" Well, the Toelakhan, an interplanetary network of spies, were among the first to learn of the discovery of totally different universes. They organized businesses to seek life in these other universes, and sell the life as pets, household creatures. The revenue the Toelakhan receive in the zitam business is enormous, because only wild animals and wild plant-fife from other universes may be sold. The Forests do not allow us to trade in lpernia's wild animals. Only the domesticated life that people had used before the Forest's rule can be bought and sold. That is because those animals and plants can not be made wild again; they need human companionship."

Even though I knew that Neighteeha used very slanted language against the Toelakhan and in favor of the Forests, her statement that the Forests ruled seemed to stretch the truth just a little too far.

"Neighteeha, surely the Forest World does not rule the solar systems Imenkapur."
"In a manner of speaking they do. They do so indirectly when they suggest political policies and ideals that the different cultures are free to work into their own body of laws or not as the cultures wish. In the case of their Law about not trading in Ipernian creatures they do enforce that rule. Any creature that is captured from Ipernia without the individual Forest's consent develops the viruses any creature always has infesting it into a virulent form. The virus kills the creature and spreads into the society of humans and their domesticated creatures. Since no one wants to court a plague, this Law of the Forests is obeyed."
"But Neighteeha, you tell me Forsythia wine is made everywhere in Imenkapur. Forsythia is surely a Forest creature."
"Yes it is, but the Forest Kiappia allows people on Ipernia to forage for her forsythia on occasion. Any Forest creature that humans are allowed to forage for, we are also allowed to transplant to our own worlds' Forests. Forsythia lives wild in every world and, as in Kiappia, we are allowed to forage for it. The same with mirnie berries. But these creatures are wild. We will never be allowed to domesticate them."
"Oh," I said.
"Anyway," Neighteeha said, "to finish what I was saying about he Toelakhan and the zitam trade; when the Toelakhan found people in these other universes, they convinced businesses to sell the people from other universes as zitam, before the legal definition of a zitam could be changed. There have only been six humans from other universes known to be found---human, I guess you are the seventh---and you ring an incredible price."
"Neighteeha," I said, "this doesn't make any sense. Why not go to the other galaxies in your universe, why to other universes?"
“We are at the extreme end of our universe. We know of another galaxy with life but it is farther from Imenkapur than the life-supporting planets in the adjacent universes. But wait a minute! What day was it, do you think, that Yartem discovered you are Listed as a Zitam?"
"It was five days ago that he started to ignore me."
"If he has known that long you are in trouble. You must leave this planet. I have a cousin who can help us. He has a private spaceship. Oh, you need to be alone. I'll talk to you later. I'll tell will my mother you aren't feeling well."
I fell asleep, leaving my unhappiness to speak in dreams. Neighteeha came back in the evening. We made plans into the early hours. Nighteeha knew of a city on another planet where I could probably live indefinitely without the Toelakhan finding me.
"Ichloz is where you have to be," she said.
"Ichloz?"
"Ichloz is an almost completely decadent city; the ruling government is utterly corrupt and very traditionalist."
“Taditionalist?"
"Ichlozians want to preserve their culture as it was before the Forests agreed to save humanity from genocide. They agree humanity made mistakes, but they don't believe all of the ways of that ancient time were bad. They believe very much in commerce and material gain, so Ichloz is a very wealthy city. They have a class of nobility, which has been rich forgenerations upon generations."
"What makes them noble, divine right?"
"I don't know what you mean by divine right, unless you mean right of wealth. Money held in a family over three hundred generations establishes nobility. Some families die out; new families become noble. Their money never dies out though."
"Is there a lot of poverty?"
"No, there isn't, because Ichloz trades and provides interplanetary shipping to everybody. They rival the Toelakhan because some of the innocent zones are willing to trade with them and not the Toelakhan. They don't do the types of trade the Toelakhan do, but they do what they call "high class" trade: spices, fine fabrics, luxury items. Every man woman and child in Ichloz has lots of money. They are immune to bribes, and they take pride in being the only rival to the Toelakhan."
I nodded, "So they won't be interested in selling me out to the Toelakhan, and they have the clout to protect me from the Toelakhan if they wish." "Yes," said Neighteeha.
"But I don't have much money. If everyone is rich, won't they find it suspicious I'm not rich? How could I blend in?" Neighteeha took a deep breath, "In Ichloz stealing is legal. Everyone has so much money that theft is seen as a proper livelihood for the members of noble families that inherit only the small portions of the family estate. Theft is seen as a challenge to the ingenuity and skill of the thief, and as a challenge of wits with the society. Since you are a Leekimbee speaker you can easily use the elevated, somewhat snotty Regal dialect. You can set yourself up in a properly posh, but not too posh, neighborhood with the money you have saved, and then steal riches to live a very comfortable life free of the Toelakhan."
"But stealing, Neighteeha, I don't think I could live making other people suffer."
Neighteeha folded her hands in her lap, "You really don't have much choice if you want to have your freedom. If you are caught as a zitam, your owners would give you anything you want. It would be a life of wealth, but you wouldn't be free. In Ichloz you would be free and wealthy, and you wouldn't be making anyone suffer. All of the wealthiest families expect to be stolen from and are disappointed if not enough clever thefts take place. They even have a magazine devoted to stories of the clever trists their poor relations have conceived. A really clever heist earns a thief a marriage to a noble who is the heir apparent of a families' estate. It is considered a kind of exotic game of wits to the nobility, and every family boasts of the thieves among its relations."
"That may be Neighteeha, but, at the risk of sounding preachy, it's immoral."
"You will be hounded by the Toelakhan from one corner of Imenkapur to the other if you don't live in Ichloz. Slavery as a pampered pet, poverty as hunted exile, or legal thievery on Ichloz are your options."
I stared at the floor too miserable to speak.
Neighteeha spoke again, "The Toelakhan will not always be allowed to seize you and sell you. Personally, I doubt they are actively hunting for you. They probably have posted in their offices throughout Imenkapur that you are at large, and they're probably offering a reward. Any Toelakhan member who happens to sight you will report you in hopes of getting some of the reward. I think you have to be on guard about that, but you don't really have to worry about an organized search. Sooner or later the different cultures will pass laws against trading in humans as zitam. Ichloz has an Alternative Government, that is the Government which legalized theft, and it promotes the adoption of many Forest Laws. Ichloz will probably be one of the first cultures to forbid the sale of people as zitam. Then you could leave Ichloz on an Ichloz ship and be free to make your living in an ethical way on another world. So many worlds prefer to trade with Ichloz that they adopt the Forest Laws that Ichloz adopts--
"I made an effort to smile at Neighteeha. She was so kind and trying so hard to help me. "Neighteeha I know nothing about Imenkapur and you do. I know that I can trust you, so I will take your advice."
Neighteeha gave me a hug. "I don't know why I feel sorry for you," she joked. "You are going to have a life of leisure and ease."
We discussed together the logistical aspects of getting me to Ichloz. We decided it would be prudent if I stayed in hiding in the apartment, since once I stepped outside of it any citizen of Gretern would then be free to declare me to the Toelakhan. Neighteeha would withdraw all of my money from the bank for me, and sell most of the clothes and all of the books I had acquired here.
Neighteeha went on, "When I went out this evening I bought an Ichloz newspaper. You can call some of the Real Estate places tomorrow to arrange for accommodations. That way, when my cousin drops you off at the space station, you can take a taxi directly to see some apartments. The advertisements I have circled are for apartments in neighborhoods considered suitable for the less wealthy Ichloz nobility. Tomorrow I'll get you a map of the city and some Ichloz clothes."
The next afternoon Neighteeha took me to her cousin and his spaceship. The cousin was about seventeen, and he had a bad acne problem. He wore boots with thick soles to make himself taller, but the boots only made him wobble when he walked. He had a tattoo of a Wave on his jugular, and he looked at the world through very cool, slitted eyes. He had obviously painted the spaceship himself, for it bore a huge Wave on a black background. The `Space Wave' I was about to ride in was even smaller than the space capsule I had lived in when I landed in the Forest Zollocco.
"I will explain to Mother," Neighteeha promised as she handed me the wad of bills that represented the value of my possessions, and the total of my bank savings. "You have your bag of clothes and maps. Remember to put them on before you leave the `Space Wave'. You mustn't been seen in Ichloz in Gretern clothing."
"Thank you for everything, Neighteeha. Say goodbye to your mother for me, and thank her. Say goodbye to Yartem-
-no don't bother. Say goodbye to -- to Zollocco, and tell him I'll try to get back there."
"Zollocco the Forest?"
"Zollocco the Haetrist, and the Forest."
Neighteeha stared at me.
"Goodbye Neighteeha." "Goodbye. I think I might see you in the Realm of Circle." With that, Neighteeha ran off before I could ask her what the Realm of Circle was. I asked her cousin as we boarded, but it wasn't in his dialect.
The `Space Wave' rattled as the stars flew past. My palms were clammy, and I had to dry them every so often with my white lace handkerchief. Neighteeha's cousin proudly told me he had built the `Space Wave' himself. I wondered if I would survive my second space ride.

First Intermezzo
April 30, 2010

Dear Jill,

Yes, things are just awful here. We are not having the mass suicides your area is suffering from, but there have been many suicides especially among the elderly and teenagers. The no air-conditioning or refrigeration rules are being strictly enforced. It is so hot, 94 degrees, that people get desperate and turn on their refrigerators and of course get fined and have their refrigerators confiscated. I buy lots of ice, and use our fridge like an icebox. The people in the nursing homes really suffer since no one is spared from the ban. Most of the old people in the homes have died from heat prostration. Once in a while I will still see someone fall down in a store or in the street gibbering in terror because of the announcement that everyone must wear oxygen masks at all times and protect themselves from the ultra-violet light when out-of-doors. With the oxygen mask I do have a lot more energy and am not faintly blue at the lips and finger tips like I was and this in itself scares me. How could we have let this happen to our world?

I moved from New Jersey back in with my parents since it isn't as hot here as it was so close to New York. The small woods behind the house is still alive which is a miracle. The fire department comes and waters it every day. The big church behind it was taken over by the town so that the parking lot could be torn up and planted with more trees. The church building is being used by foresters, biologists, and ecologists who are working to preserve and expand our woods and the adjacent town woods. Mom and Dad bought a beautiful little house in the Berkshires, and we are going to go stay there this summer when it gets too hot here. We plan to rent this house out to the construction workers who are coming this summer to rip down my old grade school and plant more trees there.