Frek and the Elixir by Rudy Rucker Read Free Book Online

He sliced off a piece of the puffy white grobread, enjoying, as always, the way the new-cut surface of the remaining loaf immediately started plumping itself up, growing the loaf back to its original size. The surface puffed up like foam. But somehow the new-cut slice in his hand knew not to grow. Frek had experimented with this a few times: slicing the grobread loaf first from one side and then from the other, making a whole lot of slices in a row, or cutting the whole loaf exactly in half. But it was always just one of the grobread pieces that would renew itself, and this always seemed to be a piece that you weren’t biting into.
    Slicing off a piece of anymeat wasn’t so dramatic; the smooth pink loaf of anymeat renewed itself at a slower pace than the grobread. He took a tomato and some carrot sticks and sat down with the others. The watchbird sat on the back of his chair.
    â€œWhat does it mean for you and Daddy to be unwebbed?” Ida was asking Mom just then. The girls had heard the conversation with the counselors, too.
    Mom didn’t answer right away, preferring to busy herself with pouring them mugs of tree-juice from a pitcher she’d filled.
    â€œIt means they’re not married anymore,” put in Geneva. “And that Carb’s never coming back.”
    â€œThat makes me feel sad,” said Ida in a low voice. “I hardly remember him at all anymore.”
    â€œMaybe we’ll see him again when we get big,” said Geneva.
    â€œDon’t count on it,” said Mom, setting down the pitcher with a clack.
    â€œI could go visit him,” said Ida quietly. “Just to say hello.”
    Lora Huggins started to say something more, then stopped herself. She reached over and patted Ida’s head. “Of course you can, Ida. And maybe one of these days you will. It would be nice of you. I’m sure Daddy misses you.”
    â€œIf he misses us, how come he never gets in touch?” asked Frek. That was the thing that really rankled him. Carb’s continued silence. If he’d been off on a secret mission of some kind, working to save the Earth, well, that would have been one thing. But it seemed like he’d just found an easy way to save his own neck. Probably he was flirting with other women, and maybe even starting a new family. Didn’t he care about his kids at all?
    â€œDad would call us if he could,” said Geneva loyally. She was the one who remembered Carb the best. She’d been his favorite. “But Crufters don’t have uvvies,” she added, as if Frek and Ida were complete gurps. “They don’t use any newbio at all.”
    â€œExcept for the rockworms that hollow out their asteroids for them,” said Mom a little harshly. “And the oxymold that makes their air. And the space bugs they use to get around. It’s all pretty bogus, if you want my opinion. The Crufters think they can pick and choose, but in the end their world’s as compromised as ours. I’m afraid Frek’s right, Geneva. If Carb tried hard enough, he could find a way to send a message. But probably his new girlfriend doesn’t want him to.”
    â€œHow do you know he has a new girlfriend?” asked Geneva.
    â€œHe was talking to her on the web before he left,” said Mom. “I didn’t want to tell you before. A woman called Yessica Sunshine. What a stupid name.”
    â€œWhat is the Anvil anyway?” interrupted Ida, maybe to change the subject. “Is it going to hurt us?”
    â€œI doubt if there’s anything to it at all,” said Mom. “Gov is pretty paranoid. He put a watchbird on Linz Martinez last year just because Linz was hiking around counting trees for a teaching project.” Linz was a fellow facilitator who’d been spending a lot of time with Lora.
    â€œLiiiinz,” sang Ida, sweetening her voice. She liked to tease Mom about having a boyfriend. “Linz and Mommy under the