The Long Cosmos Read Online Free PDF Page B

for her in the night . . . She’d lost it.
    Joshua had brought her home. He had saved her.
    Step Day had changed his life, but it hadn’t changed the essence of Joshua, it seemed to Sister John. He had gone on more solo treks. It was just that now he had jaunted off stepwise, to the High Meggers. He was still methodical and patient to a fault, but now he made and repaired Stepper boxes rather than assembly kits and jigsaw puzzles. There was a spooky side to Joshua – he had been the very first widely known natural stepper, after all, as if Joshua belonged more to the Long Earth than the good old Datum. But he was a man who was in essence simple , Sister John thought: not meaning dumb, but simple of construction within, with a short cut between his own deep moral core and the way he behaved.
    She’d tried to make it clear to Joshua that there would always be an open door for him here, whenever he needed it. It had been her idea to set up a memorial stone for Helen Valienté in the rebuilt Home’s little cemetery plot. It seemed the very least she could do.
    So if Sister Agnes and the rest had been able to help Joshua Valienté, if he had eventually grown up so straight and true, surely Sister John in turn could help Jan Roderick.
    But Jan was such a puzzle.
    One morning Sister Coleen, not far into her twenties herself, came to Sister John in a fluster.
    â€˜That boy will do the oddest things.’
    â€˜Such as?’
    â€˜He listens .’
    â€˜What’s so odd about that? Listens to what?’
    â€˜Not what. Who. To whoever comes in the door. Officials. Visitors.’
    â€˜I thought he didn’t get visitors,’ Sister John said.
    â€˜He doesn’t. I mean visitors for the other kids, or even the Sisters. If he gets the chance, he just sits there and listens. And he asks if they’ve heard any good stories.’
    â€˜Stories?’
    â€˜Travellers’ tales. Urban myths. That kind of thing.’
    â€˜Tabloid gossip? Virals?’ Sister John asked, feeling it was appropriate to try to sound stern.
    â€˜Well, maybe. But he seems to like best the stuff he hears direct from people. And he writes it down on that battered old tablet of his. He even adds times and dates and places. It creeps people out if they notice.’
    â€˜Well—’
    â€˜And then there’s the questions. He will ask the oddest things. He’s been watching one of Joshua’s old movies again.’
    â€˜Ah.’ Jan’s dogged interest in antique pre-Step Day science fiction had prompted the Sisters to curate the Home’s collection, left behind mainly by Joshua, with a lot more care. Putting battered paperback books in order was one thing, but it had taken a lot of technical expertise before various hundred-year-old movies had been successfully converted from tape or disc or creaky old file formats to be playable on modern tablets and screens. And after all that effort, the boy returned again and again to a mere handful of favourites. ‘Let me guess which one he’s watching. The First Men in the Moon. ’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜ Avatar . . . The Mouse on the Moon . . . Galaxy Quest !’ ‘That one.’
    â€˜Ha! I knew it.’
    â€˜He started asking questions, like he’d never seen the movie before, and you know he’s seen it twenty times. “What’s that place called?” “Well, it’s a planet.” “But what’s its name? Is it real?” “It’s just in the movie.” “Could you go there for real? What’s really out there in space? Are there people like us there?” And so on. Over and over. And you don’t dare guess at an answer, not even about a detail of some dumb old movie, or you know he’ll check it out and come after you.’
    â€˜It’s not so strange for a ten-year-old boy to be interested in space.’
    â€˜I know,’ Sister Coleen