Watching Yute (15 page)

It felt like almost everyone knew- or
rather thought they knew- what Cassidy was feeling, and it all lent
itself to a bit of paranoia. She reminded herself of the saying…
“You wouldn’t worry what people are thinking about you, if you knew
how often they didn’t.”

Alright then. Don’t worry about the
whole unit. Just Wanda, and maybe Cipriana. And of course Cheryl.
And Maxine. And Jim.

Ach. Poor Jim. He’s got other things to
fret about.

“
Hey Cassie!” Cheryl’s voice
came, jostling her out of her mental circles.

“
Oh! Cheryl. That wasn’t so
bad, was it?”

“
The ceremony thing? Nah, it
was kind of nice. You know, it feels more like a community around
here than a military unit.”

Cassidy nodded. “Jim suggested it’s
more like a highschool. Little mini-dramas unfolding and such. She
sat in her bunk, finding herself facing Cipriana across the aisle,
who was idly browsing though a book.

“
Dramas?” Cheryl asked.
“What kind of dramas?”

Cipriana’s attention was silently
perked again, and her eyes met with Cassidy’s. “Eh, nothing bad,
Cheryl,” Cassidy said, looking back at Cipriana with a tired
expression. “Nothing worth worrying about.”

“
Oh, you mean like those
lizards, and Alan versus the greedy apes?” Cheryl chuckled
lightly.

Cassidy turned her head to look at
Cheryl, and smiled. “Yup, perfect examples.” Frig she was cute.
Knowing her orientation now was going to make ignoring the cuteness
even harder. Mind you, this was second hand information. It could
be wrong. Karl might have misunderstood something Cheryl had said.
Heck, she might have given Karl that impression to avoid being hit
on. Sure, that was very likely.

Cassidy felt- or imagined feeling-
Cipriana’s eyes on her. Tenting her fingertips almost diabolically,
Cassidy looked back at Cipriana. She was innocently reading.
Hm.

Hm, indeed. What of Cipriana’s alleged
‘20/20 gaydar’? Were it true, it was a powerful gift to be wasted
on a straight person.

“
She knows things.” Cassidy
said softly to herself, staring at Cipriana. This accidentally got
her attention, and the attention of Cheryl.

Cheryl innocently asked, “She who?
Knows what?” Cipriana just coyly raised her eyebrows.

“
Superior officers and their
classified information!” Cassidy rambled, “They know things that
may or may not be helpful, and may not be in a position to rightly
share such information. But they know things.”

Cheryl stared at Cassidy waiting for
further explanation that was not to come. She saw that Cassidy was
looking towards Cipriana. Cheryl looked back and forth between the
two of them, and finally asked softly. “Drama?”

Cipriana only read quietly, eyes on her
book with her soft smile. “Drama.”

Cassidy flopped back in her bunk, arms
dangling to the sides. “Drama.”

Night watch was nearly in effect, and
those due for duty trickled towards the temple. Cassidy spotted
Cheryl alone, and hastened to catch up with her. “Hey.”

“
Oh, hey Cassie.” Cheryl
seemed in a good mood, and glad enough to see Cassidy.

“
I just wanted to fill you
in a bit about drama. I know I was a little convoluted.” Cassidy
said.

“
Kay...”

“
Well, I just wanted to say
that of all the little junk floating around, none of it’s negative.
Like no backstabbing, or fighting, or spiteful garbage, y’know? Not
that I’ve seen, at any rate. Keeping in mind I’m pretty new here
too.”

Cheryl shrugged. “Good to know, I
guess.. so.. what kind of stuff is it?”

Cassidy sighed. Was the sunset making
Cheryl look so good, or was it the other way around? “Well, some
good, some funny, some awkward, some sad… “ She sighed, debating
telling her more. Maybe a well concealed example that would let her
vent a little.

“
I see.” Cheryl said in a
relaxed, but cheerful way. That was all she needed. That was enough
for now.

Cassidy looked forward, and could make
out Jim waiting by their south doorway, the previous shift still on
guard. “I have a little bit of sad drama to take part in
tonight.”

Cheryl saw where Cassidy was looking,
and read Jim’s body language. “Uh…. What, are you breaking up with
him or something?”

Cassidy chuckled a little. Well, it
seemed that she wasn’t the only lesbian around with zero gaydar.
“No, no, we’re definitely not each other’s types. I’d explain,
but…. It’s not really my place to say.”

“
Gotcha. Well, whatever it
is, good luck, I guess…!” With that, Cheryl parted paths towards
the other south door, where she was assigned tonight. Cassidy waved
to her, and climbed the stairs towards Jim and the previous shift.
Ohhh kay. Here we go.

Jim and Cassidy engaged people with
idle conversion until the shift change was complete. They then
stood for a bit, silently. Jim’s tension was visible, and he
finally brought up the impending topic.

“
So.” He huffed a sort of
sigh. “I saw you dragged Karl away. Did you get to
info-digging?”

“
Yeah.” Cassidy lowered her
head. She’d said enough.

Jim clenched his jaw, and turned his
head to look out across the ruins. A more frustrated sigh escaped
him, then after a moment, he snapped to himself. “Damn
it!”

Cassidy could see his grip on his spear
trembling. “Just relax, Jim. He doesn’t even know. At least you can
still be friends.”

This seeped into Jim’s thoughts, but
didn’t help much. “It’s not fucking fair.” He spoke very softly,
but with anger. “Not fucking fair. We connect, y’know?” He turned
his head to look at Cassidy with an expression that seemed to be
searching for a better answer.

“
Yeah. Yeah, I know. I’ve
been there.” Cassidy watched Jim shift uncomfortably. It made her
wish she’d saved the info for the end of the shift, but that would
have been torture. She also wished there was a bar nearby. She
could get him drunk, maybe get it out of his system. Ehh, that
never really works. “It’s crap like this... why I kind of have my
guidelines… not crushing on someone before I know if it’s a valid …
uh... option.”

“
Does it work?” Jim sounded
like he was ready to prescribe to a new methodology.

Cassidy thought about her situation
with Cheryl. Not exactly a textbook case for her policy, since
Cassidy wasn’t looking for a relationship right now. “Meh. It’s… a
far from perfect system.”

Jim managed a smirk. “Aw,
hell.”

“
Yup.”

Jim took a deep breath, still looking
sorrowful. “No cookies for Jim this time, huh?”

“
Guess not. But you know,
there’s a lotta guys here, y’know? Statistically, ten percent of em
are going to be gay.”

Jim smirked. “Well, there’s one gay guy
I know for sure, who’s really nice..”

Cassidy tilted her head.
“And..?”

“
He’s about fifteen years
older than me, and married.”

“
Ah.”

“
The thing is, I wasn’t just
out looking for ‘someone’… I fell for Karl.”

“
Ah. Well... I got an idea
that might help you get over him.”

“
Eh?”

“
Every time you think of
him, just graphically imagine a hot karl.”

“
Gawwd, Cass!”

“
You’ll never be able to
look at him the same anyway, so why not picture him as a ridiculous
turn-off?”

Jim grimaced. “I’ll take that into
consideration.”

~~~~~

:::C /15

~~~~~

Days passed like sand in the lightest
of breeze. Constant, quiet, bringing changes, but ultimately
unchanging.

That’s the way it normally was, at
least. But now a decided change was coming, and rumors filtered
around the base until they were confirmed.

“
Splendid.” Cassidy
sarcastically speculated, during yet another idle chat in the
barracks. “Isn’t that exactly what we all wanted? Overweight men in
Hawaiian shirts and speedos?”

“
Oh, it won’t be that bad,”
Cheryl joked soothingly, “We’ll enforce a dress code. Minimum khaki
shorts, just above the knee, or lower.” It slipped her attention
that her own off-duty shorts violated her proposed mandate by a
considerable length. No one complained, least of all
Cassidy.

“
As long as the topic of
tourism has come up,” Cipriana said, closing her book, “Marcus has
asked me to see if anyone would want to volunteer for tour guide
duty. The aim is to have no one having to do more than one tour a
day. This might change in time, depending on how things go, but at
this point, it’s hard to say.”

Cassidy didn’t much like the sounds of
it, but Cheryl, Wanda, Maxine, and a couple of the others in the
room seemed very attentive. Cipriana continued.

“
We’re thinking a tour group
would have a leader, who would have notes, and talk about the
various sights, and a rear guard who would stick to the back and
make sure no tourists wander off, or get left behind. That aside,
the usual guard watch stations will of course be manned as always.
Marcus is not surprisingly first in line to be a tour leader.“ That
stood to reason. Another chance to spin the yarn of the statue’s
ghost.

“
Can I be one too?” Cheryl
chirped up with a raised hand. “I know I’m the rookie, but I think
I’m kind of a people person.. and if I have notes anyway, like you
said… it sounds easy and fun!”

“
Certainly.” Cipriana said,
scribbling a note.

Bah. “I guess I can be one of those
rear guards, if there’s no public speaking or lecturing involved.”
Cassidy’s voice made it unintentionally clear that she was less
than wild about it.

“
Very well.” Cipriana jotted
it down. “Would you like to be Cheryl’s partner?”

Cassidy examined Cipriana’s expression
for any double-meaning. She couldn’t tell, but the implication of
‘Cheryl’s partner’ had driven Wanda to bite her lips, and stare
innocently at the ceiling. Cassidy made a mental note to stick an
elbow in her ribs later.

Cassidy responded. “Sure, Cip, that’s
cool.”

Unnoticed by most, Wanda made a comic
little face that seemed to say “Oh, I bet that’s cool, Cass!” Yeah.
Maybe Wanda needed a kick to the shin instead.

There were also changes in the
landscaping between the helipad and the temple. Tasteful wooden
signs were planted along the paths with directions, and little
write-ups about the desert, some of the more prominent buildings,
and the ever-humble aeki. - With a cute illustration,
too.

One afternoon, the grapevine told of
something big being installed in the ground. Cassidy idly followed
the other lookie-loos and ended up at a large, round junction in
the ruins’ streets. The junction was smaller than the square that
Wanda exercised in, but not by much.

The new addition was a tree. Well, no.
A stump. With all its roots being carefully planted in the ground.
The two metre wide stump was carved into a likeness of the temple
statue’s head. It was very well done. Not nearly as detailed (nor
as big) as the statue itself, but still remarkable. To discourage
tourists from touching, a half-metre high ‘barricade’ was also to
be arranged in a circle around the stump, made from natural
stones.

“
Hey, I think I’ve seen this
before..” Cassidy mumbled to herself.

Wanda popped up as an informed Aguei,
raised by a traditionalist mother. “Beast of Yute. It’s like a
hundred and fifty years old. It’s been retouched and preserved, and
was the masterpiece of… uh, I forget his name now. It was in a
museum on the west coast for like the last forty years, and Armil
decided it could be moved here for the tourists.”

The Beast of Yute was probably the best
known Aguei stump. It was carved to look just like the statue’s
head.

Most traditional carved stumps stay in
the ground where the tree had grown, but some become popular enough
to be dug up (very carefully), and put on display elsewhere, always
planted wherever they went with more care than one would expect for
even a living tree. Most carved stumps are based on animals
portrayed as realistically as the artist is able, but in recent
decades, less traditional designs have become acceptable as
well.

Cassidy studied the stump for a moment,
comparing it in her mind to the statue. The statue’s head was
bigger, but this was no small stump; about a two metres across.
“Yeah, yeah, I think I saw it in a documentary or something. Well,
you seem to know a lot about it, Wanda.”

“
Well of course. I read the
sign they’re going to install here later. It’s laying on the ground
over there.”

Cassidy levied a dull glare at Wanda.
“Dork.”

“
What?”

~~~

Jim wandered into the mess looking for
a snack before night shift. The mess was in one of the day’s
regular lulls, a while after dinner cleanup. It wasn’t a shock to
see someone else there, but it was a bit of a belly drop to find
Karl.