Goulart, Ron - Shandy

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Shandy

By Ron Goulart

HOLMAN CAME DOWN out of the forest of giant orange-woods and trudged across the plain toward

the place where Nancy Tanner lived. It was late afternoon and the woods beyond Nancy's home were

already growing dark and dim.

The door of the old spaceship was open and a dark flowered rug hung over the rail of the gangway. Late

sun glazed the round window near the door, but Hoi-man thought he had seen Nancy behind the

strawberry-patterned curtains.

Wearing a pale-blue cotton dress, tan and slender, Nancy came out of the ship and into the low-trimmed

grass. She held up one arm and waved once, smiling. "Ken," she said and turned to roll up the rug.

Holman said, "How you been?" as he came near, walking at his usual pace.

Setting the rug carefully on the bottom step, Nancy looked up at him. "Fine. Yourself?"

"Not bad. Had a cold last week." Holman put his suitcase down next to the neatly rolled rug.

Nancy frowned. "You still don't eat enough greens. That's why."

Holman kissed her, his hands gentle on her back. "Well, here I am," he said.

"Well, come in and we'll talk." She stepped slowly away from him and went up into the ship.

Holman gathered up his suitcase and the rolled rug and followed her.

He looked in and all around the kitchen before he entered.

Nancy watched him over her shoulder while she got two china cups. She grinned at him as he stepped

into the room.

"I left the rug and my grip in the hall," Holman said and sat down in a straight-backed chair. Stooping to

retie his hiking shoes, he glanced under the table. "Made it from the settlement in under four hours. Of

course, I took big steps."

"Would you like rum or whiskey or something like that in your coffee?" Nancy asked, touching the

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Shandy

handle of the coffee pot.

"Schoolteachers don't drink before sundown."

"You're on vacation."

"I'll wait. You go ahead, though."

Nancy set a cup in front of him and backed away. "You really have a tent in that little suitcase? You're

not trying to get me to put you up here?"

"It's one of those monofilm ones." He pulled the cup closer to him and it rattled in the saucer. "I told you

my intentions in my letter. And you said okay. So here I am to court you." Holman started to rise.

Nancy nodded him down. "I supposed it will be all right. I don't know." She went back to the stove.

Holman stood and started toward Nancy. He was distracted by a clicking sound in the hallway outside.

As he turned to the entranceway, a large, tan lion came in, its black-tipped tail swishing slowly.

Holman stopped as the lion crossed the kitchen between him and Nancy. "Don't panic. Nancy," he said in

a calm voice. "If nobody moves, it'll go away."

Nancy smiled. "Why should he go away? It's only Shandy."

The lion nuzzled his head over the backs of Nancy's knees and made a growling, purring sound. The tip

of his tail flipped against the smooth white stove.

Holman frowned at the lion and dropped back into his chair. "Shandy? The last time I saw him he was a

St. Bernard dog."

Nancy rumpled the lion's mane. "Well, you know how Shandy is. He doesn't stay one thing for long. He

saw a picture of a lion on a sack of meal last week and off he went."

"When you're through fondling him I'd like my coffee. And where's the rum?"

Gently pushing the leaning lion away from her legs, Nancy said, "I'll get it, Ken." She patted Shandy on

the back. "Go outside and play. Shandy. That's a nice boy."

Without looking at Holman, the lion left the kitchen.

"That's ridiculous," Holman said, turning from the empty doorway.

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Shandy

"Damn it. Ken. He's my pet and I like him." The rum bottle made a hard flat sound as she put it in front

of Holman. "You might try to accept him. He's a very nice pet."

Holman unscrewed the bottle cap. "Love me, love my whatever the hell he is."

"For somebody who came by to court me you're not being very pleasant." She poured out two cups of

coffee.

Looking at the red bottle cap, Holman said, "Okay, I'm sorry."

"You know Shandy's been with me since I was Just ten or so. And since dad died. Shandy's been a real

help."

"You don't have to live out here." Holman poured some rum into his coffee. "Just because your father

was a naturalist and all."

"We don't have to talk about my father. I like living here. We've always lived here. Since we came out to

Enoch."

"All right." He paused to look across the table at her. "You want to keep arguing or will you let me

propose now?"

Nancy shook her head. "Don't now. Ken. Later sometime."

"You do know, though, that I want you. And you know I want you with me at the settlement."

Nancy folded her hands on the white tablecloth. "Oh, yes."

Holman drank the hot coffee fast. "And, really, Nancy, I don't see how we could keep something like

Shandy in the settlement."

"Come and have dinner with me tonight and we'll talk then."

Putting down his empty cup, Holman said, "I'll go set up my tent at a safe distance."

Outside it was nearly night. A few yards from the ship, the lion was rolling on his back in a patch of

yellow flowers and growling to himself.

Holman kept his back to the lion while he assembled his tent. And when he had it finished he went inside

and didn't come out until Nancy called him for dinner.

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