The Weird Sisters, Hand In Hand
What is that?”
Looking where Pinga pointed, Lusa saw a building-sized ad for hardware upgrades.
The display featured three people, each from the navel down, each with giant glowing appendages between their legs.
Each with ridiculous names; The Stallion – for the fiscally prudent gentleman; The Clydesdale, for the connoisseur; and The Percheron – for those with the spirit of the Marquis.
That last one extended to just above the kneecaps.
“It’s ugly as fudge, that’s what it is.” Sesi shot a grin at Callie. Callie gave a curt nod. It was absurd that Callie still insisted on policing language, but that wasn’t an argument Lusa was willing to engage in at the moment. Nor one she was going to win.
Her and Pinga’s first outing to Tyton was too tenuous to ruin.
They’d been allowed at trading camps, where Lusa had had to endure Pinga staring at the trader boys, falling for their leaping and grunting and constant need for attention.
But they’d never been allowed here. Tyton was dangerous.
Lusa was on her best behaviour and ruining it with an argument wasn’t worth it.
“DocPod access must be getting scarce.” Sesi turned to Sparx. “Either that, or it’s not physically possible to make them that size.” Lusa still had no idea what they were talking about.
“You absolutely can make them that size” Sparx threw his arm across Pinga’s shoulders. “I ever tell you about the time I hooked up with a guy with two of them?” Pinga ears grew three sizes.
Callie kicked Sparx before he could continue the story. “She’s fifteen!” she scolded.
“Two what?” Pinga asked. Lusa was glad she did, because they weren’t getting any closer to an answer and Uncle Sparx never let a chance to spill illicit information slip away.
“Penises.” Sparx grinned wickedly at Callie. Lusa darted her eyes between Callie and Talia. She might not know what they were talking about, but that look always meant he was offending Talia and invoking Callie’s protection.
True to form, Talia tensed. Lusa caught Callie squeezing her hand. “You can’t kill him,” Callie whispered.
“I can and I will.” Talia muttered. She shared a knowing grimace with Lusa.
Lusa rolled her eyes, hoping it showed solidarity with Talia and dismissal of Sparx’s nonsense.
She might threaten to kill him at least once a week, yet he still drew breath.
“You can help.” Talia nudged her with her hip.
Her famous lopsided smile made an appearance. Crisis averted, for now.
There were few perks to being Talia’s favourite. She might have Sesi’s complexion, her hair and eyes, but she towered over the other girls like her. Between that and her easily bruised ego, Lusa tended to hang back rather than stick her nose where it didn’t belong. At least in social situations.
It didn’t help that Pinga was so outgoing. Inwardly, Lusa held a kernel of resentment. She knew she shouldn’t, but it was hard not to when everyone loved being around her. And Pinga relished attention almost as much as the trader boys.
Lusa preferred the company of adults anyway.
And after a few too many violent outbursts, the adults who preferred her had narrowed to a select few.
They might not have said anything directly to her, but Lusa could tell the other mothers didn’t want her near their girls.
The way they’d glance at her from the side, stance guarded.
Or seated nearby, ready to spring into action if Lusa slipped up.
Keep your head down, she told herself. Be faster. Be stronger. More responsible. Better. So far, that strategy of getting the approval she craved hadn’t yielded results. It only added to her growing ball of resentment, but she didn’t know what else to do or how to change.
Pinga, on the other hand, blurted out whatever came to mind. “What’s a penis?”
Sparx looked like someone had slapped him. He stared at Sesi, mouth gaping like a giant fish. When that failed to produce the desired reaction, he wheeled around and sought help from Calle. Callie shrugged.
Sparx thrust out his hand, palms up. “How does she not know this?”
“Who cares?” Sesi waved him off. “How many men are even at the Lake?”
Sparx wasn’t about to give up so easily. He turned back to Pinga, eyeing her like a schoolmaster. “Do you know what the difference between men and women is?”
Pinga looked to Lusa. She might be bolder, more willing to take risks, but Lusa could always be counted on to get her out of situations.
Without her, Lusa would never do anything fun.
And without Lusa, she would probably be dead multiple times over.
Resentment aside, it was their thing, and so far, it worked.
“Men don’t have boobs,” Lusa mumbled just loud enough that Sparx could hear and not one decibel louder.
“And?” Sparx waited impatiently.
Lusa wracked her brain. Tornit didn’t have boobs.
Neither did Uncle Siku or Cam, though he always wore something across his chest, so maybe?
But none of the men from the trading camps did.
Nor the boys Pinga liked to look at. And Sparx’s disappeared whenever he went from aunt to uncle.
“Sometimes more hair. Or less, if they’re older.
” She stared, hopeful that had been the correct response.
“They’ve seen nothing below the belt?” Sparx’s gaze flitted between Callie and Sesi. Lusa noticed he avoided Talia, who quietly seethed.
“I’ve seen Uncle Cam,” Pinga offered, entirely unhelpfully.
Callie massaged her forehead. “When did you see Uncle Cam without a shirt?”
“Lusa and I were picking cloudberries.”
Lusa turned bright red, grinding out the words through clenched teeth. “Shut. Up.” Today, Pinga chose betrayal.
“Why? Afraid to tell mom that you kept looking for excuses to talk to Auntie Alana for a month afterwards?” That had been years ago. Back when Alana didn’t hate her.
“I will kill you!” Lusa lunged. Talia had anticipated this and her arms were already in place to prevent a sisterly massacre.
Lusa hadn’t thought Pinga was stupid enough to sink a ship they both occupied, but since she’d fired the first volley, Lusa loaded up the cannons.
“At least I didn’t sneak out at night to try and catch Uncle Cam naked again like a creep. ”
Pinga tried to slap Lusa, but Sesi caught her wrist. Fretfully, Callie looked around, to see if anyone else was watching her unruly children. Talia grinned through the chaos.
Sparx did not appear fazed by the teenage girlness of it all, nor by Pinga spying on naked adults. “They don’t know about Cam then?”
“That’s a really messed up thing for someone who’s trans themselves to say.” Talia glared like the only thing keeping her from murdering Sparx was that her hands were busy keeping Lusa from murdering her sister. If she let go, there would be a double homicide.
Sparx took full advantage of the situation. “Fair point, but you don’t think it’s messed up that your daughters don’t have the most basic information about sex?”
That did it. Sesi stopped and turned Pinga to face her. “Your moms and I gave some eggs to Aunt Jenni, who did science and then put them inside me. Nine months later, you two came out.” She straightened herself up and looked Sparx dead in the eye. “Sex-ed done.”
“There was also a fishing trip involved,” Callie added.
“That’s also how Ila, Kuak, Amka and Panik were born.” Talia looked at Sparx as she said it. “Happy?”
“And Danica.” Sparx added. “And…”
But Pinga interrupted. “You gave birth to Danica?” She seemed very concerned, and for good reason. Lusa knew they’d been snogging in secret. As had she, which was awkward enough.
“No,” Sparx was getting techy. “Your Uncle Cam did. He and Alana gave some eggs to Aunt Jenni.”
“Oh. Okay.” Her and Pinga said in unison.
“No,” Sparx suddenly blurted out. “Not okay!”
Everyone stared at Sparx, gripping his dark hair like he was about to tear it out. “It’s all well and good that you’ve created this gender inclusive paradise, but they have to know that Aunt Jenni isn’t the best way to make babies!”
“Says you.” Sesi smiled in that way that said she was amused enough to let him live just a bit longer. Talia was usually doling out the threats, but Lusa had actually seen Sesi kill.
“Yes, says me!” Sparx flailed impotently. “Wasn’t the whole point of this to find uninfected men? Shouldn’t they at least know what that looks like?”
Sesi pointed to the ad projecting a cyan hue across piles of filthy slush and rubbish. “That’s a penis.” She made sure both Pinga and Lusa were paying attention. “Though they’re usually not so big. Or glowy. Easiest way to have babies is to put one in you.”
“And Uncle Tornit has one of those?” Her sister was now on a fact-finding mission. Lusa was mortified.
Sesi turned to Sparx and crooked an eyebrow.
“Uh,” Sparx swallowed. “He does.”
“And he puts it in you?”
“Oh my god!” Sparx looked to Callie for help, though she was fervently avoiding eye contact. Lusa enjoyed watching him squirm.
“This was your idea.” Talia’s lopsided smile grew wider.
Sparx acquiesced. “Yes. His doesn’t look like that though.”
“But you don’t have babies.” There was more to this story and for once, Lusa was grateful for Pinga’s inability to care about social decorum.
Sparx deflated. “No. We’re both infected. Most people are.”
Pinga looked to Sesi.
“Every man we’ve found is infected,” Sesi explained. “Which means what your Uncle Sparx has made and arse of himself by telling my teenage daughters about useless penises.”
“It’s not too late to kill him,” Talia said under her breath to Lusa. Lusa snickered, happy to share her approval. Her vendetta against her sister had been temporarily set aside and now she hoped Pinga would continue.
And she did. “Then why do you use penises?”
Sparx twirled his head around frantically looking for help. Callie continued to avoid his gaze. Talia glowered. Lusa stared, unblinking and expectant.
Finally, Sesi broke the tension. “Most women like it when men do that.”
“Do you like it when they do that?” Pinga now directed her questions to Sesi. Sparx’s shoulders relaxed.
“No. Your moms and I aren’t most women. That’s why you’re here.”
“What about the other moms?”
Sesi blew out her cheeks. “They’re uninfected, but like your Uncle Sparx. They still use your Aunt Jenni because that’s the only way right now.”
“Most women are straight,” Sparx added.
“So, I shouldn’t put one of those in me?” Pinga narrowed her eyes. By now, Lusa understood enough, even if she had zero desire for penises or babies, but Pinga always was a bit slower.
“You can do whatever you want with your body.” Sparx said. “When you’re old enough!” he added quickly. Callie struggled to hold Talia back.
Lusa nearly vomited a little. Pinga would absolutely take that as implicit permission to try everything, just to see.
“Sparx isn’t wrong. We really should have told them a lot more by now,” Callie said.
“Why? It’s not like there’s any point.” Talia’s body language suggested that the only thing preventing her from strangling Sparx was Callie holding her hand.
Callie stopped in the middle of the market. “And two girls ran off with trader boys last year. Way too young, I might add.” She crossed her arms. Pinga and Lusa knew that meant she was standing her ground. Sesi and Talia did too. “We need to have a proper discussion with them.”
“Fine. But not until we get home,” Sesi conceded. “There are things that shouldn’t be said in public.”
Lusa looked around. The public was only dilapidated stalls made from broken Hexaline bricks, chain link and corrugated metal in the shadow of a fancy megabuilding – The Glacier.
Even Lusa had heard of it. If you had the scrip, you lived there and you never left.
The only entrance was at the top from a helipad.
She doubted the rich cared whether her family was bickering.
Talia seemed less amenable to the idea, but it was two against one. “Let’s finish shopping and get out of here. Siku’s blowing up my Opti asking where we are.”