Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling Read Free Book Online Page A

don’t know half enough to offer us any advice—you don’t know a thing about us, or our lives, or our situation, or anything else. You are condescending to us.”
    “No, she isn’t,” the girl said.
    “You’re patronizing us!”
    “Oh, she is not! Look, she’s crying, she really means it!”
    “You are being profoundly impertinent!”
    “Stop insulting this nice lady! She was completely right about every single thing she said!”
    The bus stopped. “I’m leaving,” the boy announced. “I resent it when old people deny the validity of my experience.”
    “Go ahead and run off, then,” the girl told him, folding her arms and slumping back into the seat. The boy was startled. Slowly his face darkened. He slung his pack over one shoulder and stormed off, boots clomping down the stairs.
    The bus started up again.
    “I’m sorry,” Mia said meekly.
    “Don’t be sorry,” the girl said. “I hate him! He’s holding me back! He thinks he can tell me what to do.”
    Mia said nothing.
    The girl frowned. “I never slept with any man more than twice, without him thinking he could tell me what to do!”
    Mia glanced up. “How old are you?”
    The girl lifted her chin. “Nineteen.”
    “What’s your name?”
    “Brett,” the girl announced. She was lying. “What’s your name?”
    “Maya.”
    Brett crossed the aisle and sat beside her. “It’s nice to meet you, Maya.”
    “Likewise, Brett.”
    “I’m going to Europe,” Brett announced. She began searching in her backpack again. “Stuttgart probably. That’s the biggest city for the arts in the whole world. Have you ever been to Stuttgart?”
    “I’ve been to Europe a few times. Not in many years.”
    “Have you been to Stuttgart since they rebuilt it?”
    “No.”
    “Ever been to Indianapolis?”
    “I did telepresence there once. Indianapolis seems a little scary nowadays.”
    Brett offered Mia a wadded paper tissue from the backpack. Mia accepted it gratefully, and blew her nose. Her tear ducts were all out of practice. They felt scorched and sore.
    Brett gazed at her with frank curiosity. “You haven’t been around very much lately, have you, Maya?”
    “No. I don’t suppose I have, really.”
    “You want to come around with me for a while? Maybe I could show you some things. Would that be all right?”
    Mia was surprised and touched. The invitation was notentirely welcome, but the girl was trying to be sweet to her. “All right. Yes.”
    Brett led her off the bus at the next stop. They began walking together down Filmore. This street was rather heavily wooded. A giraffe was methodically cropping the trees. Mia was sure that the giraffe was perfectly harmless, but it was the largest urban animal she’d ever seen roaming loose in San Francisco. It was quite an exotic beast. Someone had been busy on the city council.
    Brett merely ambled along at first, but then picked up her pace. “You can walk pretty fast,” Brett said. “How old are you really?”
    “I’m pushing a century.”
    “You don’t look a hundred years old. You must be really smart.”
    “I’m just very careful.”
    “Do you have, like, osteoarthritis or incontinence or any really weird syndrome stuff?”
    “I have a bad vagus nerve,” Mia said. “I get attacks of night cramps. And I’m astigmatic.” She smiled. It was an interesting topic. She could remember when strangers made polite chitchat about the weather.
    “Do you have a boyfriend?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “I was married for a long time. When it was over, that part of life didn’t seem very important anymore.”
    “What part
is
very important?”
    “Responsibility.”
    “That doesn’t sound very exciting.”
    “It’s not exciting, but if you’re not responsible, you can’t take proper care of yourself. You get sick and fall apart.” This truism sounded rather fatuous, pointless, and morbid, especially for a young person. “When you live a really long time,” Mia offered carefully,