Earth Legend by Florence Witkop Page A

of us."
    "What exactly did he ask?" I made myself go
still.
    "Oh, whether I like you or not. Whether you
fit in with the other residents of New Rochelle, which of course
you do. Things like that, until Wilkes Zander came along and let
him know that he didn't appreciate anyone of any status whatsoever,
even an important Security person, asking questions of a personal
nature about our people. He suggested that if Cullen wanted to know
anything about you he should ask you himself."
    "I hope … "
    "So don't be surprised if he shows up at your
doorstep."
    I hope not. But I smiled and stepped
around her on my way to the sweet peppers. Which weren't as large
as usual. Another sign something was wrong?
    When I returned home I approached my
apartment cautiously. If Cullen was there, I'd disappear and wait
until he was gone. But he wasn't so I went inside and locked the
door.
    Restless, I stared out my window. What I saw
gave me pause. Cullen Vail was in the field and he was talking with
Alicia. Sweet, gossipy Alicia who knew most, if not all, of my
secrets. She had her cat in her arms, as usual. She held it out to
Cullen who took it and held it away from him as if it might bite.
But he managed not to drop it and petted it awkwardly twice before
returning it to Alicia.
    She said something and they both looked
towards my apartment. My window. I ducked out of sight but still
watched through the curtains. Alicia cuddled her cat and Cullen
seemed interested in it. Was she telling him that I'd taken one of
the kittens? Was it as simple as that? Nothing illegal about
adopting a kitten so I relaxed. A little.
    The two parted. Cullen strode towards the
road and his Harley but Alicia remained with her cat. I opened my
window. "Hey, Alicia." She looked up. "Want a cookie?" Fortunately
I'd been baking and she liked sweets.
    She gathered her cat and came to my
apartment. I had the door open when she arrived and soon mother cat
and kitten were playing happily while Alicia made quick work of a
plate of cookies as she answered questions that I hoped didn't
arouse her suspicions. But she didn't appear suspicious.
    "You talked with Cullen Vail."
    "Yep. He likes cats even though he couldn't
take one of the kittens. But that's okay because you took the last
one."
    "He can play with your cat."
    "That's what he said. He said he might come
back to play with Queen another time."
    "Did he say when?"
    "Soon."
    "What do you talk about when he visits?"
    "Mostly he asks a lot of questions."
    "Such as?"
    "All kinds of things. Today he asked about
you."
    "Me?" I pretended to be surprised as I fought
a growing unease. Cullen suspected something. Or not. I remembered
that woman's assessment of him being good at his job. How good? "He
didn't have to ask you. I could have told him anything he wants to
know."
    "He said he didn't want to bother you."
    "What did he ask?"
    "If you like your kitten. If I help you grow
stuff in your apartment."
    "What did you say?"
    "I told him that you gave me a tiny tree.
It's pretty."
    "Was that all he asked?"
    "There was more but I can't remember."
    Normal questions. Perhaps he was interested
in me as a woman after all and wasn't planning on arresting me,
though somehow I couldn't picture him in a romantic relationship
and not in any kind of relationship at all with me. But I relaxed
somewhat. I'd been on the Destiny for months and nothing had
happened. Except that I could never relax. I should remind myself
of that every day. Every single day.
    On the other hand, perhaps he just couldn't
figure out why I wanted to be a farmer instead of a scientist which
was a totally normal question. How many people spend as many years
in school as I did and throw it all away to go out and grow
cherries? Why ever he was asking about me, there was nothing I
could do about it and no way to know the truth. So I tried to
forget his visit to New Rochelle.
    A few days later, I was in the apple orchard
filling the cart with my weekly harvest of apples and