Chapter 13 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 13 — Milk and potatoes

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: Havana · Previous: Chapter 12 — Shadow Boxer · Next: Chapter 14 — The gauntlet run · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Milk.

Summary

Milk's sixth-edition note: a stew of rance meat, bone broth and leeward grass that woke the migration route in her people's young — and the young are not here. Rosetta: 'Your fifteenth birthday. Your mother poisoned your father and left him for dead, and then she went into the basement of your home and hanged herself from the pipes.' Carl found her; a note to him nobody has read. Donut: 'You always said she left you.' The history in one breath: father gone months later, a foster home and a broken nose, the Anacortes Boys' Ranch to eighteen, a couch in Seattle, the Coast Guard recruiter because he was the only one at his desk at lunch. What Carl does not say: 'You're a bully, and nobody likes you. It's why mom left'; the fish tank his father shattered with a motorcycle helmet; 'Just wait until I'm big enough to finish what she started'; a sophomore year alone until the power went out, fed by his friend Sam. On screen, a grainy interrogation: fifteen, in a hoodie, a first cigarette, letting a detective think he killed his father because it was the first time an adult had seemed to see him — until Wisconsin found the man drunk and alive and the kindness stopped; hours forgotten in a room that smelled of Lysol; the social worker's 'Come on now' the moment he could see where he was. News to him: a Georgia traffic stop seven years later, the warrant unserved. Odette has aired a special on his life. The ranch: no animals, a summer shovelling goat crap, rewiring lights, 'something inconsequential'; 'Compared to some other kids, I had it great […] sometimes my mother was right.' Then a photo that is wrong — Carl chopping potatoes in a kitchen he was never allowed in, a soda-shaped jug labelled Milk, the camera where a wall was — and Rosetta's script about stew night: 'Milk and potatoes and whatever else you could find.' 'Potatoes are very versatile.' 'Very.' The world blinks. Harbinger has ended the interview, recalled Quasar mid-insult, banned Rosetta from all crawler interviews for 'talking in code', and tells Carl he is working to have him and the caprid disposed of. Zev, angrier than Carl has ever heard her, is doing the work of five since the Valtay changeover. Carl has it: Milk's chapters on portals, maps and inks; a rant answered by Rosetta — 'Just like all root vegetables'; the toraline; the Open Intellect employs at least one, likely two, possibly three Cookbook authors, and what they want him to do matters. In the green room the river comes up — 'I’m still here. I’ve been here the whole time', patches applied improperly never holding for long — and Donut, who was going to ask, leans against his head instead and asks about her own special. Zev: Li Na's aired last night, Donut's tonight, Katia's tomorrow. Milk's closing note: 'I wish to cook a feast for the whole galaxy. I wish for them all to choke on our pain.' Rosetta: 'Comrade, I agree.'

Characters

• Carl — His mother's suicide and his father's leaving said aloud; a message in a fake photograph.
• Rosetta Thagra — Risks her show to say 'milk and potatoes'; banned.
• Princess Donut — Learns what Carl never told Bea; chooses not to ask.
• Harbinger — Ends the interview, recalls the lawyer, promises disposal.
• Zev — Doing the work of five; furious at a liaison.
• Quasar — Recalled mid-sentence.
• Milk — The sixth edition: a stew, the young, a feast of pain.

Locations

• The Valtay landing vessel — A dark studio, a spotlight, a roundabout of screens.

Motifs

• Carl's family — The basement, the fish tank, the interrogation room, the ranch.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Milk and Rosetta in the margins; root vegetables; the toraline's purpose.
• The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network — A network of former authors with a plan.
• The river in Carl's head — 'Patches, when applied improperly, never hold for long.'
• The Syndicate — A liaison who can end a show and swears to end a crawler.
• The show — Odette's specials airing in her absence.