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be careful and we worry.
Sometimes a lot of the time there are no clear answers, only hard choices.
Jeremy thought about that, too. It reminded him reminded him uncomfortably
of his own worries after he and Amanda got stuck here. He said, Things don't
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seem as black-and-white to you as they do to me, do they?
Dad and Mom looked at each other. They both started laughing at the same time.
Jeremy started to get mad. Dad saw that, too. He held up a hand. No offense,
he said. Honest, none. It makes us feel good that you're growing up. It really
does. It's just that
You don't know how right you are, Mom broke in.
You sure don't, Dad said. That's what you'll do between now and when you're as
old as we are. One of the things you'll do, anyway. You'll find out how right
you are.
The older you get, the more complicated things look, Mom said. That's not
because you'll get smarter.
You'll just get more experience.
You won't get more RAM, Dad added. But you'll have a lot more programs and a
lot more files on your hard disk that you can use and read.
Not all of Dad's comparisons made sense to Jeremy. That one did. He said, What
do we do if somebody from a nasty alternate figures out how to go crosstime?
Mom and Dad looked at each other again. They didn't laugh this time. Slowly,
Dad said, I don't know. I
don't think anybody else knows, either. What do you think we ought to do?
A lot depends on when we find out they're doing it, Amanda said while Jeremy
was still chewing on it.
We can do things if we catch them quick that we can't if they have a chance to
spread out.
She was right. Jeremy could see as much. He said, I just hope it doesn't
happen, that's all.
Well, so do I, Dad said. But it probably will. It's almost bound to, sooner or
later. He raised his winecup in a toast. Here's hoping it's later.
They all drank to that.
Two days later, the Robinson family came into Polisso. As Jeremy and his kin
had before them, they
walked in through the western gate. As far as anyone here was concerned, they
came from Carnuto.
They were all small and dark. For looks and size, they fit in better than the
Solters family did. They too had a boy and a girl. The boy, Michael, was
thirteen or fourteen. The girl's name was Stephanie. She was
Jeremy's age, and pretty enough almost to make him sorry he was leaving. That
was all the more true because she seemed very impressed about what he and
Amanda had gone through during the siege.
Amanda noticed Jeremy noticing Stephanie. She got him aside and asked, Well,
are you going to tell her all about what a hero you were?
No! He shook his head violently. That hadn't even crossed his mind. He said, I
never even want to think about that again, let alone brag about it.
His sister eyed him. After a few seconds, she nodded. He felt oddly relieved.
He might have just passed a test, and an important one. Amanda said, All
right. She started to turn away, then seemed to decide that wasn't enough.
Better than all right, in fact. I wouldn't like it if you got all
blood-thirsty on me.
You don't need to worry about that/' Jeremy promised. I saw that guy get shot
when I was up on the wall at the start of the siege. It wasn't movie blood or
video-game blood. It was real. I could smell it. He shuddered. And it could
have been me as easy as him. Nothing but dumb luck,, one way or the other.
Anybody who goes on about how glorious war is, should have been there, you
know what I mean?
Oh, yes. Amanda nodded again. I know just what you mean. I was there when that
cannonball came down by the fountain. That could have been me, too. And you
could see the blood in the cracks between the cobblestones for days
afterwards. Maybe you still can, if you get down on your hands and knees and
look close.
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Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were hashing things out with Mom and Dad. They were
talking about business, and about exactly how big a snoop the city prefect
was. It all mattered if you were going to do business in Polisso. Somehow,
though, to Jeremy it seemed to be missing the real point.
And what is the real point, if you're so smart? he asked himself. After a
little while, he came up with an answer: I suppose the real point is that life
is cheap here, and you'll get in trouble if you forget it. He wondered if he
should have gone to the beast shows and the gladiator games at the
amphitheater. They would have made him sick, but they would have taught him
the lesson he needed to know.
He also wondered if he ought to tell Michael and Stephanie Robinson to go. He
shook his head. They wouldn't go on his say-so. The locals' blood sports would
gross them out, just as they did with him. One way or another, the Robinsons
would have to find out for themselves. And, seeing what Polisso was like, they
probably would.
In neoLatin, Stephanie was saying, It smells so bad now that we're in a town
again. She was careful about protecting the secret. Michael made gagging
noises to show how he thought Polisso smelled.
Jeremy hardly noticed the stink any more.
But he noticed the fresher air when he and his sister and his parents left
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