Frek and the Elixir by Rudy Rucker Read Free Book Online Page A

tree. K - I - S - S - I - N - G.” Geneva joined in and they sang it again.
    Lora Huggins smiled and shook her finger at her daughters. Then she changed the subject. “Frek,” she said, “I noticed your bag of please plant seeds in the yard. Could you either feed them to the tree or fly them out to the woods? I told you I don’t want them growing in our yard. Why not get away from all this foolishness about the Anvil and have some fun with your new wings.”
    â€œYes,” said Frek, remembering his plan to plant the seeds up near the Giant’s Marbles. “I’d like that.” But right then of course he had to knock over his half full mug of tree-juice.
    â€œEvery meal, Frek?” said Mom a little impatiently.
    â€œI’m sorry,” said Frek, and got the cleaner tongue from its pouch in the wall. The tongue was glad to wipe the table off, for the tree-juice was sweet and sticky. When Frek had finished with the tabletop, he noticed that the juice had dripped down to the floor. He knelt down there with the cleaner tongue, and when he was finished his eyes felt hot and achey.
    â€œFrek’s crying,” said Geneva.
    â€œAm not!” he shouted. “Nosy brat!” He stamped across his kitchen and shoved the cleaner tongue in its pouch.
    â€œPoor Frek,” said Mom. She got up and put her arm around the shoulders. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s upsetting having the counselors snooping around, isn’t it? And all this talk about Carb.”
    â€œIt’s not just that,” said Frek, turning away from his sisters so they wouldn’t see him dry his eyes. “Sao Steiner said I’m so clumsy that I should get special meds. She said you should take me to a tweaker.”
    â€œThat dumb grinskin!” exclaimed Mom. “Meds are all she thinks about. Meds and clothes. Maybe I’d be that way too if I had to live with Kolder. Have you ever seen that man smile, Frek? Even once?”
    â€œNo,” said Frek, feeling a little better. “You don’t think there’s anything wrong with me? You don’t think I need a tweaker?”
    â€œWhat?” said Mom. “Dumb you down with a med leech? Of course not. You’re fine, Frek. You spill things and knock things over, and sometimes it’s annoying. But so what? It’ll be a cold day in hell when I let one of Gov’s tweakers put a med leech on my smart son. Don’t even think about it.” Mom held Frek out at arm’s length and smiled at him. “Go sow your please plant seeds. Have some fun. Just remember not to fly near the Grulloo Woods.”
    So Frek got his angelwings back out and flew to Lookout Mountain, with the watchbird whirring along in his wake. On the way, he uvvied Stoo to ask if he wanted to come, but Stoo said his mother wouldn’t let him. They talked for a few minutes. Stoo was eager to hear what the counselors had said to Frek about the Anvil, not that, come to think of it, they’d really said much. Stoo was impressed that the counselors had grown their own field quarters, and that Gov had put his eagle toon on its wall skin. He started to ask Frek to stop over on his way back home, but Sao in the background shouted no. Evidently she’d starting thinking of Frek as a bad influence.
    Grinskin, thought Frek.
    It was a lovely day, the sky clear blue with creampuffs of cloud. The rocky little Lookout Mountain rose about three hundred meters above Middleville, with the Giant’s Marbles halfway up. To make his flight more exciting, Frek spiraled straight up until he was even with the patch of boulders before heading across to it. It was incredible to be so high in the air, and just a little scary.
    Frek glanced at the heads of his angelwings, sticking out from beneath his armpits. At first it seemed like you couldn’t read much of an expression off an angelwing, as they had compound eyes: smoothly curved