Zoe's Tale (Old Man's War, #4)(10)

"It's not appropriate," Hickory said. "It's too familiar."

"You've lived with us for seven years," I said. "You might be able to risk a little familiarity."

"If you wish us to call them 'John' and 'Jane,' then we will do so," Hickory said.

"Call them what you want," I said. "I'm just saying that if you want to call them by their first names, you could."

"We will remember that," Hickory said. I doubted there would be a change in protocol anytime soon.

"You'll be coming with us, right?" I asked, changing the subject. "To the new colony." I hadn't assumed that Hickory and Dickory would not be joining us, which when I thought about it might not have been a smart assumption.

"Our treaty allows it," Hickory said. "It will be up to you to decide."

"Well, of course I want you to come," I said. "We'd just as soon leave Babar behind than not take you two."

"I am happy to be in the same category as your dog," Hickory said.

"I think that came out wrong," I said.

Hickory held up a hand. "No," it said. "I know you did not mean to imply Dickory and I are like pets. You meant to imply Babar is part of your household. You would not leave without him."

"He's not just part of the household," I said. "He's family. Slobbery, sort of dim family. But family. You're family, too. Weird, alien, occasionally obtrusive family. But family."

"Thank you, Zoe," Hickory said.

"You're welcome," I said, and suddenly felt shy. Conversations with Hickory were going weird places today. "That's why I asked about you calling my parents by rank, you know. It's not a usual family thing."

"If we are truly part of your family, then it is safe to say it's not a usual family," Hickory said. "So it would be hard to say what would be usual for us."

This got a snort from me. "Well, that's true," I said. I thought for a moment. "What is your name, Hickory?" I asked.

"Hickory," it said.

"No, I mean, what was your name before you came to live with us," I said. "You had to have been named something before I named you Hickory. And Dickory, too, before I named it that."

"No," it said. "You forget. Before your biological father, Obin did not have consciousness. We did not have a sense of self, or the need to describe ourselves to ourselves or to others."

"That would make it hard to do anything with more than two of you," I said. "Saying 'hey, you' only goes so far."

"We had descriptors, to help us in our work," Hickory said. "They were not the same as names. When you named Dickory and me, you gave us our true names. We became the first Obin to have names at all."

"I wish I had known that at the time," I said, after I took this in. "I would have given you names that weren't from a nursery rhyme."

"I like my name," Hickory said. "It's popular among other Obin as well. 'Hickory' and 'Dickory' both."

"There are other Obin Hickorys," I said.

"Oh, yes," Hickory said. "Several million, now."

I had no possible intelligible response to that. I turned my attention back to my parents, who were still standing in the road, entwined.

"They love each other," Hickory said, following my gaze.

I glanced back at it. "Not really where I was expecting the conversation to go, but okay," I said.

"It makes a difference," Hickory said. "In how they speak to each other. How they communicate with each other."

"I suppose it does," I said. Hickory's observation was an understatement, actually. John and Jane didn't just love each other. The two of them were nuts for each other, in exactly the sort of way that's both touching and embarrassing to a teenage daughter. Touching because who doesn't want their parents to love each other, right down to their toes? Embarrassing because, well. Parents. Not supposed to act like goofs about each other.

They showed it in different ways. Dad was the most obvious about it, but I think Mom felt it more intensely than he did. Dad was married before; his first wife died back on Earth. Some part of his heart was still with her. No one else had any claim on Jane's heart, though. John had all of it, or all of it that was supposed to belong to your spouse. No matter how you sliced it, though, there's nothing either of them wouldn't do for each other.

"That's why they're out here," I said to Hickory. "In the road right now, I mean. Because they love each other."

"How so?" Hickory asked.

"You said it yourself," I said. "It makes a difference in how they communicate." I pointed again to the two of them. "Dad wants to go and lead this colony," I said. "If he didn't, he would have just said no. It's how he works. He's been moody and out of sorts all day because he wants it and he knows there are complications. Because Jane loves it here."

"More than you or Major Perry," Hickory said.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "It's where she's been married. It's where she's had a family. Huckleberry is her homeworld. He'd say no if she doesn't give him permission to say yes. So that's what she's doing, out there."