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"What? Why?"
"A powerful stranger who has us completely under his control. You're Ariel, the sweet one who loves your master. I'm Caliban. I just want to be set free."
"You're a teenager. You'll grow out of it."
"Never."
"There is no such thing as freedom," said Dorabella, getting impatient. "Sometimes, though, there's a chance to choose your master."
"Very well, Mother. You chose your master. But I haven't chosen mine."
"You still think the Wiggin boy even notices you."
"I know that he does, but I'm not pinning my hopes on him."
"You offered yourself to him, my dear, and he turned you down flat. It was quite humiliating,
even if you didn't realize it."
Alessandra's face turned a bit red and she stalked to the door of their quarters. Then she whirled around, real pain and fury on her face. "You watched," she said. "Quincy recorded it and you watched!"
"Of course I did," said Dorabella. "If I hadn't, he or some crewman would have watched. Do you think I wanted them ogling your body?"
"You sent me to Ender expecting me to get naked with him, and you knew they were recording it, and you watched it. You watched me."
"You didn't get naked, did you? And so what if you had? I saw your naked body from angles you've never even thought of during the butt-wiping years."
"I hate you, Mother."
"You love me, because I always watch out for you."
"And Ender didn't humiliate me. Or reject me. He rejected you. He rejected the way you made me act!"
"What happened to, 'Oh thank you, Mother! Now I shall have the man I love'?"
"I never said that."
"You thanked me and giggled and thanked me again. You stood there and let me make you up like a whore to entice him. At what point did I force you to do something against your will?"
"You told me what I had to do if I wanted Ender to love me. Only a man like Ender doesn't fall for tricks like yours!"
"A man? A boy is what you mean. The only reason he didn't fall for that 'trick' was because he probably hasn't reached sexual maturity. If he's even a heterosexual."
"Listen to yourself, Mother," said Alessandra. "One minute Ender is the beginning and end of the world, the best chance for a great man that I'll ever have a chance to find. The next minute, he's a gay little boy who shamed me. You judge him according to whether he's useful to you."
"No, my pet. Whether he's useful to my little girl."
"Well, he isn't," said Alessandra.
"That was my point," said Dorabella. "And yet you gave me a tongue-lashing for saying so. Do make up your mind, my little Caliban." Then Dorabella burst into laughter, and, completely against her will, so did Alessandra. The girl was so angry at herself for laughing, or at Dorabella for making her laugh, that she fled from the room, slamming the door behind her. Or trying to--the pneumatics caught it and it closed quite gently.
Poor Alessandra. Nothing went the way she wanted.
Welcome to the real world, my child. Someday you'll see that my getting dear Quincy to fall in love with me was the best thing I ever did for you. Because I do everything for you. And all I ask in return is that you hold up your end and take the opportunities I get for you.
Valentine tried to walk normally into the room, to remain perfectly calm. But she was so disgusted with Ender that she could hardly contain herself. The boy was so busy making himself "available" to all the new colonists and old settlers, answering questions, chatting about things that he could not possibly remember from half-hour interviews two years ago, when he was so tired he could hardly speak. Yet when someone with whom he had a genuine personal relationship was looking for him, he was nowhere to be found.
It was just like the way he had refused to write to their parents. Well, he hadn't refused. He had always promised to do it. Then he simply never did.
