Daisy in the Fringe

Dear Diary,

Oh Diary, I got the most terrible fright tonight. But let me tell it how it happened.

After the dinner dishes was all cleaned up, Geoffry and me decided to go for another walk. The soldiers asked if we wanted a guard, and they was chuckling as they asked, but we figured we would be okay without one. That may have been a mistake.

We went back to our grassy slope and lay down for a bit. It was awfully nice, lying next to Geoffry. And before long, we was kissing again, and that was awfully nice too, and a lot more comfortable that way than sitting up. And I made a nice discovery: lying down and kissing and hugging sure did make an awful fine combination.

Well, Geoffry had his arms around me, and I was using his shoulder as a pillow, when next thing I knew, Dusty was shaking my shoulder. I had fallen asleep. And what’s more, Geoffry was gone!

I jumped to my feet and looked all over for him, but he weren’t nowhere. I was getting awfully worried, and Dusty called for a soldier that she had waiting in the trees nearby and told him to get Mr Dutch. The soldier got on one of them little radios that they carry and said Dutch and the others would be along soon.

I was so scared! I knew that Geoffry wouldn’t just run off without me, and I worried that maybe one of them killers or something had carried him off when I fell asleep. I had just found my one true love, and it broke my heart to think I had lost him after only one day. I got so upset that I started to cry, and Dusty just kept patting my shoulder and telling me that everything would be all right.

After a bit, one of the soldiers found an old can nearby. He said it used to be full of sleep gas which some people used to help capture folks. That got me worrying even more. What if Phoebus had come to get Geoffry like he had with Posca? I hadn’t even liked Posca all that much, and Phoebus smashed him all up. What would he do to Geoffry, who I loved?

Oh diary, that was one of the worst moments of my life, and I just cried buckets. But then Mr Dutch came up and he found the trail. It was only about half an hour old, he said, and whoever had left it was going slow so we’d have no trouble catching up. And he wasn’t wearing no army boots neither, so I figured it probably wasn’t Phoebus.

I still didn’t know who had taken Geoffry, but we was after him now. We moved as quick and quiet through the woods as we could, pausing every now and then while Mr Dutch checked the trail. And before long, we saw them. The kidnapper was walking down a trail, leading a mule with Geoffry tied across the back. That wasn’t no way to treat a doctor, and I just saw red and went for him. I was still in my dress, and hardly armed at all, but that didn’t keep me from running right at him. As I got near, I leaped in the air and launched a flying kick to his head. He skipped back out of my reach and took a shot at me, but I dodged the bullet and launched another kick at his nethers, which he managed to avoid.

At this point, Hank shot him in the leg and he went down. But the mule had enough of all that shooting and started running off. For an instant, I wasn’t sure whether to go for Geoffry or give that kidnapper another thwack. I really really wanted to give him a boot to the head, I was so worked up, but instead I dove for the mule’s reins. I grabbed them hard and pulled his head around, and the Goddess must have been lending me strength because that mule’s head exploded with the force of my pull.

The mule fell over, but Geoffry wasn’t hurt. I threw myself on him and just sobbed and sobbed while he told me how wonderful I was and how much he enjoyed watching me go at that kidnapper and asking me to cut him free from the dead mule. I managed to cut him free while wiping tears from my eyes, but I sure was glad to have my Geoffry back in spite of my sobs.

After things got settled, we got to talking to the kidnapper. He said he was a bounty hunter and had a rightful claim on Geoffry. But Hank checked out the papers, and while they described someone who looked like Geoffry and who was traveling with a pair of blond twins, the fingerprints didn’t match at all. Like they would – whoever them papers was for, he had done some horrible stuff, like blow up a temple and killing a bunch of women and children who was worshiping in it. My Geoffry would never do any such thing!

I would have just tied that kidnapper to a tree and left him for the killers, and Hank said it served him right to lose his mule and have his leg shot off. But Geoffry insisted on healing his leg as best he could, though the man still was limping when he was done. That’s the kind of decent fellow Geoffry is – he was willing to forgive that villain and do what he could for him even if the man did want to carry him off to be hanged for something he didn’t do. How could I not care for a man as decent as that?

After Geoffry was done his doctoring, we started back towards camp. Geoffry and me kept our arms around each other all the way back. I wasn’t going to lose him for anything, not now that I’d just found him and all. And nobody better mess with him in the future or they’ll have me to answer to!

PS. Hank and Dusty got into a real set-to on the way back. Hank said Dusty dyed his hair pink while he was asleep (knowing her, that’s just the kind of thing she’d do), and Hank challenged her to a fist fight over it. I wasn’t sure what to do. I mean, it seemed like Dusty deserved being knocked around a little – that was my dye she used on his hair, and she didn’t ask my permission or nothing! But after they went round a bit, I figured I couldn’t let her get all beat up. And besides, Hank might start getting real riled and forgetting that Dusty wasn’t related to him or nothing, and then things could get real ugly. So I grabbed ahold of Hank (he sure is a slippery feller, and hard to stun too!) and held him down til he said he’d stop fighting. He was awfully upset, though, and wouldn’t talk to Dusty at all, and when we got back he shaved all his hair off so Dusty couldn’t mess with it no more.

Oh, Dusty dyed her own hair too, a real bright pink. It looks nice on her, even if it is a little weird. But the best part is that with her hair all pink like that, ain’t nobody ever going to mistake her for me.

PPS. I’m going to bed now. I sure am tired, not having slept at all last night. But today has been just about the best day of my life. Thank you, Aphrodite. You sure came through, and I’ll keep my promises to you, I swear.

After we got back, there weren’t much going on in camp. Nothing as interesting as what had happened in the woods, anyway.

The soldiers were all still around, but they was heading off to the other ship to kill some more frogheads. So we all went into the dome room where the smaller ship was to see if we could fly it off, but it turned out that its computers was busted so Dusty and Hank went off to see if they could talk the soldiers into sending someone down from the Minerva to fix them.

Meanwhile, Geoffry and Dutch and me stayed around the camp. I asked Geoffry to teach me how to heal people – not the god-touched way, like he does it, but how I’d be doing it when I became his nurse. He started in talking all about how blood flows through the body and how lungs work and all, but I had something else in mind. So I asked him to show me what I should do if someone came to me with a cut on the leg, like he had fixed for me in the morning.

Geoffry started explaining about all the kinds of medicine that you had to put on and how you had to keep the bandages clean to keep off the germs, but I was more interested in a hands on demonstration. So I pulled up my dress to above the knee and let him show me how to take care of the bandage. I sat awfully still while he rubbed some special ointment on my leg, and I grinned when he let his hand linger a little longer than it needed to. He was real gentle, and it didn’t hurt even a little bit as he put a fresh bandage on right above my knee.

I thought about what I’d like next, and then I held up a finger to have him wait while I excused myself. I came back wearing my work shirt and my jeans, cause I figured it would be easier that way to let him at what I wanted him to tend next. He’d already fixed me once when I got run through the belly with a spear, only I didn’t know enough to enjoy it at the time. Besides, having a real spear hole in the belly hurts, so I wanted to see what it would be like to have him tend to a pretend one.

I unbuttoned the bottom half of my shirt from right below my bra and I lay back with my belly uncovered. I gave him a little frown and a shake of my finger, like I was saying, “Keep it clean, buster.” He got a real serious look and said of course he’d be treating me with all due respect, that a doctor had to be proper at all all times, but at that point I couldn’t keep a straight face. Geoffry sure is cute when he’s being all serious and all. He really is a good guy, but he can’t never seem to tell when somebody is joshing him. That makes it more fun to do so!

It’s awfully funny to see him trying so hard to keep his head where he thinks it should be. Anyway, he was carefully explaining how to deal with a major wound, and how serious a belly wound can be, and how you got to be careful when you’re sewing it up. But I could tell as he put his hands on my belly and tried to push together my pretend wound that his mind wasn’t all on medicine. I mean, I know sewing, and you it don’t take that long to sew a seam. And besides, his forehead was sweating, and the day wasn’t that hot.

Once he declared me healed, I buttoned my shirt. Then I told him it was my turn to give it a try: I’d be the doctor now. He nodded and opened his shirt to where his belly button showed, and I started in to a-stitching and a-salving. He watched closely and kept giving me instructions, and he looked so serious that I just had to tickle him a bit. That surprised him, but it did make him smile.

By this time, Hank and Dusty were back, so we decided we had enough doctoring for one day. Geoffry said he figured it wouldn’t take many lessons for me to learn nursing, seeing as I was so smart and all. I don’t think I’m as smart as he says, but even if I was, I reckon I’m gonna need many more of these lessons before I’m done. And even then, I expect I’ll occasionally forget a thing or two and need to touch up on my skills.

But now Hank wanted to practice his swordplay, so I got out my sword and we set to for a while. Geoffry sat there and watched – he sure does seem to like watching me in action. Nobody got hurt, but it would have been okay if we had. We got a first-class doctor with our team, and he’d fix us up good if we needed it.

I was wiping off some of the sweat and dirt when Dusty came on by and said I should talk to Asakisan about my god-touched ability, seeing as the Nihonese know a lot more about it than we do. I went on over there and asked her, and she had some useful things to say, all about what I could and couldn’t learn with it. But she didn’t know which god touched me to let me do them things, so I still don’t know who to give offerings of thanks to.

After that, Asakisan asked me if I’d like to hear some of what she learned about men from being a concubine, seeing how I was getting serious with Geoffry. I told her I hardly knew anything at all about men, and I’d be mighty grateful for whatever she could tell me. And tell me she did. My eyes just about bugged out as she described some of the things that Geoffry might like me to do to him, or let him do to me. I may get up the nerve to try something from her list sometime, but there ain’t hardly one that I’d do before I got a wedding band on my finger. And even then, I don’t know if I’d dare – just thinking about some of them things makes me blush redder than a strawberry in June.

What with all that running through my head, I must have seemed awfully distracted making dinner. Why, I just about jumped out of my skin when Geoffry came up and offered to help. That was awfully nice of him, and he even asked me to teach him to cook, but I reckon that a person with his gift has better things to do with his time than spending it over pots and pans.

Still, I let him help tonight and was happy to have him. I don’t know that the cooking got done any quicker, but it sure was a lot more fun. It was a proper end to a really nice day, even if we didn’t get much exploring done. And Geoffry and me, well, we may just go out for another walk tonight. But I don’t think I’m gonna try any of them things Asakisan told me about. I reckon kissing’s good enough for now.

Miscellaneous, found written inside hand-drawn hearts:

• Geoffry
• Daisy + Geoffry
• Doc Geoffry!!!

In a list:

• Daisy Bentry
• Mrs Daisy Bentry
• Doctor and Mrs Bentry
• Doctor and Mrs Geoffry Bentry
• Geoffry and Daisy Bentry
• Mrs Delores Banks invites you to the wedding of her daughter Daisy to Doctor Geoffry Bentry
• Daisy and Geoffry, sitting in a tree…

Dear Diary

After I wrote up that last entry, I went to my sleeping roll and cried my eyes out. Then I thought about how Daddy used to say that crying never did get the horses saddled and the stalls mucked out, so I decided to do something useful. Since I don’t know nothing about men, and Dusty hardly knows more, I decided that I’d turn to somebody who does. I figure there ain’t nobody who knows men as much as the Goddess Aphrodite, so I reckoned it was time to do a bit of praying.

I ended up staying up all night preparing an offering to please the goddess, something tied to the matter at hand. Then at first light I wrote up a prayer asking the Goddess to please make Doc show me how he feels, and to let me know if he’s the right feller for me. I then consigned my offering to the flames, feeling pretty tired but also hopeful that the Goddess would help.

Turned out she helped a lot sooner than I expected. I was still making breakfast for everybody and wondering how I’d last until evening when I could step out with Doc for a spell when Dusty came on by. She had that look that meant she knew more than me about something important – nothing pleases Dusty more than knowing what others don’t, especially when it’s about their business. She’d been talking with Doc, she said, and though she couldn’t say what about, it being in confidence and all, she reckoned that I’d probably be smiling before the day was out.

I was cleaning up my pans and trying to figure what Dusty meant when Doc came over. He seemed a little nervous, but he settled down when I asked him to bind up my leg that got cut. (I didn’t tell him how I got cut, cause I didn’t figure I should be telling him that I was trying to get Aphrodite involved in our things. He didn’t ask anyway.) I lifted my skirt to let him at my knee, and he seemed to like that, though he stayed professional through it all. And then, once I was bound up, he asked if I would like to go for a little stroll in the woods. My heart was in my throat as I nodded yes.

We walked out a ways from camp to where none of the soldiers or nobody could see us. We found a nice little grassy slope that looked down over a bubbling creek. It was awful pretty, and the green green grass was soft to sit on. A baby deer and its momma was standing in the creek having a sip, little white wildflowers poked out of the weeds under the trees, and the sun shone down out of a bright blue sky. Everything was just about perfect: even the wind rustling in the leaves seemed to whistle in harmony with the singing of the birds and the chirping of the crickets

We sat down next to each other facing the stream, Doc with his arm around me like last night. I’d never looked real close into his eyes in the light. They’re blue, like mine, and I liked looking in them and thinking of how that was another thing we had in common. Then he took my hand in his, and though the day was warm there was a slight coolness to his skin. He cleared his throat and squared his shoulders and said, “Daisy, you are the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve never known a girl like you, so smart and capable, but a real lady too. I wouldn’t ever want to do anything to offend you, but I was wondering if you’d let me have a kiss.”

Well, of course I would. But I didn’t want to look too eager and give him the wrong ideas about me, so I just half nodded and half shrugged and kept looking deep into his eyes.

He gave a little nod and took a breath, and then he leaned his head close to mine and pressed his lips against my cheek.

His lips were warm and soft against my face, and when he pulled back I put a hand to a cheek that still tingled with his touch. Then I looked into his eyes and gave a little grin, and I dabbed my tongue out a bit to moisten my lips. He looked awfully happy at that, like that was the signal he was waiting for, and then he tilted his head in and pressed his lips against mine.

He left them there for an instant, and then he pulled back just the barest smidgeon and looked at me as if to ask if it was all right. There was a bead of sweat on his forehead, but he had a good smell: fresh and clean and manly, so I just bit my lip a little and kept looking straight at him.

This time when he kissed me I closed my eyes and opened my mouth just a teeny bit as he gently worked his lips against mine. The warmth of the sun was working its way through me, and I rested my hand on his shoulder while he cradled me with his arm. He paused for a moment and I opened my eyes. He was so close that his eyes blurred together, and his breath, soft on my lips, smelt of mint and of the breakfast that I had made him. I felt a rush of heat work its way from my belly to my heart. With one hand, he reached up and gently touched my cheek, my hair, my neck. I gasped just a little as he cupped the back of my head with his hand, and my eyes gently shut as he pulled my face towards his.

My heart skipped a beat as his tongue brushed my lips. He lingered there for a moment, enjoying my flavor, and then he slipped past my lips and our tongues met. My mouth felt filled with sparks, like I’d just licked a battery, and the energy rushed into my heart and beyond and out through my fingertips and toes. I closed my eyes tighter as he kissed me ever more deeply, and I could almost swear I heard a bell ringing somewhere as I relaxed into his arms.

We kissed and we kissed, sitting under that tree. I knew the Goddess was smiling on me, filling me with more joy than I had ever felt. And as I drank of my Geoffry’s lips, I knew that he’s the one for me. It was just like the storybooks, and all the world went away as my universe was filled with our true love’s kiss.

I’m so happy!

PS. When we got back (I got no idea how long we was gone – everything was timeless in the woods, and it felt like forever and no time at all) there was a call from Captain Crispin back on the ship. He said Tacita the oracle girl wanted to know if me and Geoffry had kissed yet. We both just blushed, and Hank said he reckoned we had.

A lot of folks was wondering why Tacita was so interested in our kiss and all, but it didn’t surprise me none. It was so special, so magical, that there must have been something divine about it all, and I figure Tacita had just noticed the presence of the Goddess down in the crater and was trying to figure what that was about.

PPS. I’ve decided I like Geoffry better than Doc. It sounds soft and sweet, and that’s the kind of feller he is. I’m going to call him Geoffry from now on, cause he’s more than just a Doc.

Dear Aphrodite,

You may not know me cause I never had call to ask you for nothing before. My name is Daisy Banks and I am a maiden from the fringe on the planet Dirt. I got me a problem that’s weighing on me something fierce. I thought at first that I’d pray about it to your fellow goddess Artemis, seeing as I just met her recently and she blessed me and all, but after giving it some thought, this really ain’t in what you’d call her area of expertise. So instead I write to you.

You see, there’s this feller. (I suspect that most prayers to you start something like that. Sorry I can’t be more original, but I got the problem that I got.) He’s nice and all, and he seems awfully sweet on me, and we been courting a bit. He’s an awfully good man who spends all his time traveling around tending to the sick and injured. I think that’s a fine thing, and I do honor him for it.

But there’s two problems. First off, I ain’t really sure exactly how I feel about him. Sure he’s a good man, and I reckon that I could do good in this world by helping him with his calling, but I don’t know if he’s the one I am meant to be with. I’m only seventeen, and I ain’t hardly known any fellers at all, not in anything like a romantic way. But everyone’s talking about me marrying Doc (that’s the feller), and Doc’s talking about how we’ll live and what we’ll do after that, and I’m afraid that they’re all just going to rush me into marrying him. But I don’t even know yet if I want to!

Now I heard all the stories. I ain’t stupid. I know that when you meet the right feller, he gives you Love’s True Kiss, and when you get that, it’s like the birds sing and the temple bells ring and music comes down from the skies, and then you know you’ve found the One. That worked for me once before with this other feller named Posca who was interested in me, and when I let him kiss me I knew right away that he wasn’t the One. So I figured I’d let Doc give me a kiss and then I’d know.

But that leads to my second problem, cause Doc just don’t seem to want to kiss me! We been alone a couple of times now, and in some real romantic settings too – starlight under the trees and moonlight on the water and all that stuff. And I even gave him all the signals that I learned from a good-time girl named after you (which now that I think on it seems awfully blasphemous – I sure do hope you don’t take offense at her using your name or at me for listening to her anyway). But Doc still didn’t kiss me, and I still don’t know if he’s my One True Love.

My sister Dusty says that men is like horses. Some of them is all fire and fury, and a girl has to keep a tight rein or else he’ll just run wild all over the countryside. But some is a mite slow and needs a touch of the crop every now and then. From all I can tell, Doc’s one of them slow ones. But I’m an awfully new rider, and I don’t know how to use a crop.

But I figure if anyone knows how to crop a feller, it’d be you, oh dear Aphrodite. So I am humbly asking these two favors. First, I’d appreciate it you’d give Doc a touch of your crop. Not too much, because I don’t know what I’d do if he got to bucking and broncking and all. But just enough to get him going down the path a bit.

And second, when that happens, I’m asking you to help me know if he’s the One for me. I don’t really know anything about love and I ain’t sure that under the circumstances I’d recognize a temple bell if it rang so hard that it fell right down on top of me. So when his lips touch mine I ask you to give me a sign and to make it clear if Doc’s the right feller for me. I hardly know nothing, and you know so much, and I sure could use your help.

Anyway, I know I owe you an offering in exchange for these favors. That’s a little problem right now, as I’m out here in the woods far from any temple and there ain’t no priests around to take my offering. There ain’t even any animals that I could give to you, cause all the animals in these parts are sacred to Artemis and I don’t reckon it would right to sacrifice one of her beasts to you.

But as you can see, I have made you something special. I spent all night awake making a heart for you. I made it by sewing together pieces of cloth that I had left over from a shirt I made for Doc, and putting them with other pieces of cloth that I cut from the sleeves of my prettiest dress that I made myself. These are what Doc and I wore when we went on our date last night, so I figure they have special meaning to us as this cloth is what covered our hearts.

I stuffed the heart with pine needles that I gathered in the woods from near where we went together. And I mixed in some of my own blood, that I took from cutting my leg just above the knee. I offer you this work and this token of my pain if you will do me these favors. And if you should decide that Doc is the feller for me, and if you should give me the sign that I ask for, I promise that I will make you another heart out of tokens of our love on the first day of every month for as long as we two shall live and love.

I now place this note in the heart and commit it to the flames in your honor, oh mighty Goddess. Please grant me this favor and help me find my true love.

Your friend,

Daisy Banks

Dear Diary,

I’m back from my walk with Doc, and I’m so sad I can hardly write. I think maybe I been wrong about him all this time, and he don’t really care about me after all. He sure don’t act like a man who is in love, and he ain’t never said he’s loved me anyway, so maybe I just been fooling myself all this time.

The walk started nice enough. I was all washed up in my prettiest dress and he had bathed and was wearing the shirt I made him. He seemed as happy as me to be away from Hank’s endless dirty speechifying, and so we both was glad to be out alone under the trees and the stars.

Doc held out his elbow to me like he did the other night, and I slipped my arm through it. It was a little chilly, but I pressed close to him, and he seemed to like that. After a while, when we got out of sight and hearing of the camp, I pointed to a rock in a little clearing. We sat down on it and looked up to the stars above.

I was starting to feel awfully sweet, and so when Doc put an arm around me, I just snuggled in close. It sure did feel good, and even though the night was getting cooler, his warmth kept me warm. I lay my head on his shoulder and thought what a comfortable pillow I had, all wrapped up in the shirt I made him.

It was too dark for me to write notes of course, and Doc ain’t learned none of my hand talk so far. So I couldn’t say anything to him, not with words anyway, but I didn’t really need words to tell him how I felt. Even out there in the dark woods on a chilly night, I never felt so warm or so safe as I did sitting on that rock with Doc’s arm wrapped around me and his hand resting lightly on my hip.

After a time of feeling his soft breath on my head, I turned my face up to him. He was staring down at me with a soft loving look, and I could feel the starlight twinkle in my eyes as I gazed up into his. I felt his arm tighten as he pulled me closer and with a quick dab of my tongue I moistened my lips. My eyes slid slowly shut and our breath softly mingled while he leaned his face closer to mine, and then he…

And then he…

And then he nothing.

After about a minute of that, I popped one eye open to see what Doc was up to. He was bending his head back, like he had a crick in his neck or something, and then he shifted his weight away from me, reached a hand down to brush something off his butt, and said, “Sorry about that. I was sitting on a pebble.” And then he just sat there for about another hour or so grinning at me and every now and then mumbling something about how purdy I was.

I ain’t never felt so disappointed in all my life.

I mean, I know how men is. When they like a girl, they just want her bad as anything. Momma always told me how they was, and I had that date with Phoebus and all. And if I had happened to forget that about men, well, I had Hank reminding me in hideous detail right that very evening.

But Doc, well, I didn’t think he was gonna try anything bad, and even if he did, it ain’t like I couldn’t break him over my knee if I had to. But here I was, giving him every signal I could, and he didn’t want to take advantage of me even a little bit. He just kept looking and looking and looking, and it was almost like I was Dusty, cause I could practically hear his every thought about what a perfect gentleman he was being and how all-fired noble he was to treat me so genteelly and all.

But with all that starlight and me in my best dress and everything, he never gave one thought to kissing me. Not one! I mean, I was sending him all them signals like I had learned from Aphrodite back in the Minerva, and he was ignoring every last one of them. Even Posca kissed me when I used them signals, and Posca probably only ever kissed his momma before he met me. But Doc, who had his own concubine girl and who says he wants to spend his life with me and give me babies and everything, never even gave me a peck on the cheek!

I don’t know what to make of it. Is Doc one of them fellers like Momma told me about, the ones who likes to keep their wives pure as well-water while they go get their jollies with the neighborhood good-time girls? Or does he not really like me that way at all and instead just wants someone to do his cooking and cleaning and to fly that traveling hospital he keeps talking about, all without being able to speak a word of complaint? Or maybe he just prefers his concubine girl to be dirty with, and only wants me as a wife. I wonder if he’s with her right now, working off his steam like Momma says a man’s gotta do now and then.

Don’t a gentleman ever kiss a girl when he’s out with her alone on a starry night? Because if he don’t, what’s a gentleman good for anyway?

I just don’t understand men.

Dear Diary,

After we returned from our bath, Hank decided that it would safe enough for the men to go out and wash up after all. I spent the time when they were away writing that last entry. Now they’re back, and Hank and Dorothy are talking. She made the mistake of asking him what he thinks of copulating, and he’s telling her.

My dearest friend and Diary, when I told Momma I’d be going out as a cook for a slave caravan, she warned me that I might see and hear things that would shock me. She said I was a sensitive soul, and the world could be a harsh place. That I was used to a certain level of decency among people, and some of the things I learned about just how debased and degraded the world could be might fill my soul with an enduring horror.

I don’t know when or where it happened, but Momma has clearly met Hank.

I sure do hope no one ever asks him what he thinks about these things again. Or if they do, they wait til I’m not around.

Meanwhile, I think I’m gonna ask Doc to take me for a walk. That could be nice, and it sure beats going behind a bush and throwing up.