Page 17 of Dax: Gratefully Bonded
Until my master glanced my way and said, “Dax, could you please answer the door? And bring the delivery into the kitchen?”
I was so shocked that for a moment, I simply gaped at him. He wanted me to…? I’d never been allowed to receive any deliveries before, and I’d reached the conclusion that my master didn’t think me capable of even that simple a task. But now he wanted me to…
“Yes, sir,” I said, snapping myself out of my daze. I rushed to the door, opening it to find a huge Denzogal man on the other side, his thick fur a chestnut colour, and three heavy grocery bags dangling from each hand.
“Ezekiel Rhodes?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, then quickly amended my answer. “I mean, he lives here, yes. He’s my master. But I can receive the delivery.”
The man set down the bags and tapped his comm, and then my own comm beeped. “Please confirm receipt of the delivery,” he said, in a rather deadpan voice.
I tapped the ‘received’ option on the notification I’d received, and then the man lumbered off back to his delivery van.
I gathered up the first four bags and hefted them off to the kitchen, expecting one of two things to happen as I did so. Either my master would tell me not to move them and do it himself, or he’d come to collect the last two bags – a silent reprimand that I should have been able to move all of them at once.
But as I returned to collect the last two, I saw that he had done neither. Instead, he was standing where I’d left him. He was wringing his hands a little, and I noticed that Aiden’s hand was resting lightly on his forearm, but aside from that, he made no comment about my task.
As I set the last of the bags on the kitchen counter, I heard Aiden mutter something to my master, but it was too soft for my translator to pick up the words. A moment later, my master arrived in the kitchen. “Let me show you where everything should be put,” he said, sounding rather apologetic about it. “I know you probably know half of this already. I mean, you’ve lived here for a year. But…” He glanced at Aiden again, who was now loitering in the kitchen doorway, a hint of resentment in my master’s expression. “But it’s probably best to set it all out clearly, and then you can take over properly next time.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, not at all offended by his offer. I’d never been given any clear instructions as to where anything should be kept, so I’d been guessing as best I could, copying my master’s somewhat haphazard placements, and just hoping for the best with the rest of it.
My master unpacked, being surprisingly methodical about it, and I paid close attention to his running monologue; flour and sugar on the top shelf, pasta and sauces on the bottom shelf, along with canned vegetables, condiments on the middle shelf, beside the biscuits. Cold goods in the fridge, frozen vegetables and a joint of meat in the freezer, coffee on the shelf with the cups, dishwashing detergent under the sink. The cupboards were in dire need of a thorough clean, but I knew better than to push my luck. My master had let me do more today than he had done for the entire past year combined.
Once the food was unpacked, I got the next shock of the day. “I want you to make a list of all the housekeeping chores,” mymaster said, though he didn’t sound terribly convinced about it. “Um… laundry, vacuuming, scrubbing the bathroom…”
“How about we go one room at a time?” Aiden suggested, giving me a reassuring nod as I rushed to pull up the list-making function on my comm. So we did. For the next half an hour, I made notes, asked questions, and trotted about the house after my master, as he detailed all the things he wanted me to clean or tidy. Aiden suggested at one point that I just do the most urgent tasks for today – laundry, washing the dishes, and giving the bathroom a cursory scrub – and then I could tackle one room each day, giving it a deep clean to get rid of a year’s worth of dust and grime, until the whole house was looking presentable.
By the time the list was made, it was nearing lunchtime. Lunch had always been a bit of a mystery to me. In the training camp on Eumad, the dimari were given only two meals each day, breakfast and dinner. It had taken me a few weeks after arriving on Rendol 4, to understand what the video channels meant when they talked about ‘lunch’. That confusion had not been helped by the fact that my master rarely ate lunch, either waking up so late that his breakfast was nearly at midday, or refusing to eat anything at all as he drowned his woes in a bottle.
So when Aiden turned to me and asked me to make some lunch for everyone, I was stumped.
“What would you like me to prepare?” I asked, attempting to disguise my bafflement. A good dimari should know how to prepare food for his master’s guests. I’d attempted to learn to cook for myself, using the scant ingredients that my master had ordered and recipes I’d found via my comm, but with no human to taste-test my creations, I had little idea if I was succeeding or not.
Aiden, too, seemed a little stumped by my question. “Have you ever made sandwiches before?” he asked, a note of caution in his voice. I felt my good mood slipping as I shook my head.I’d been so pleased to be allowed to clean the house, been so optimistic about sorting my master’s finances for him. But at the first slightly unfamiliar task, I was already failing.
“Kade, could you go and show Dax how to make some sandwiches for everyone?” Aiden asked his dimari, and Kade nodded.
“Yes, sir,” he said obediently, and I found myself longing for the day when I could respond to my master with such ease and confidence.
In the kitchen, I followed Kade’s simple instructions; butter on bread, then add sliced meat, dala greens, a slice of cheese and a sprinkling of grated baswal. Humans nearer the equator liked tomato or cucumber on their sandwiches, he explained, in a running monologue, but Hon was too cold for things like that to grow here. And the other Alliance species had also picked up the human practice of making sandwiches, with the Derelians invariably adding spiced mesal to theirs, while the Denzogals preferred meat-only sandwiches. Denzogals in general didn’t have a great love of vegetables. There were other vegetables that could be put onto sandwiches as well, he added. Each of the Alliance species had brought a variety of plants and animals from their home planets, and the ones that grew best on each of the Alliance’s colonised worlds had been put to good use by all six species in the Alliance. By the time we had a plateful of food ready to go, I’d been given a lightning-fast history lesson in both the art of sandwich making, and the colonisation of Rendol 4.
I carried the plate to the dining table. There wasn’t really a ‘dining room’, as such, with the table situated at one end of the living room, but given that there were only two of us living in the house, I supposed there was no need for a whole separate room, like there was in most grand estates. Kade trailed after me, bringing four smaller plates and a bundle of napkins.
“Lunch is ready,” I announced to the two humans, who were once more deep in conversation on the sofa. I felt a thrill of achievement go through me. I had just prepared my first ever meal for my master and his guests. As little as six hours ago, I would have scarcely believed that such a thing was possible.
Aiden glanced up at us, then murmured a last few words to my master, who nodded. Then my master stood up and came over. “Wow, looks great,” he said, assessing the food. “Well done.”
I felt an entirely unfamiliar sensation rise up in my chest, one that I had dreamed about for years during my training, but had never before experienced. It was… pride? Or… satisfaction? It was a sense of fulfilment, combined with a profound relief. My master was pleased with me. For the first time since he’d tried, and failed, to open my crate, he was actually pleased with me.
Kade’s eyes were glued to his own master, as Aiden approached the table. Aiden put his arm around Kade’s waist, giving him a quick hug, and then kissed his forehead before sitting down. “Thank you,” he murmured.
My joy suddenly evaporated as a hot shaft of jealousy shot through me. In the entire time I’d been here, my master had never once touched me. He’d never looked at me with anything like the fondness on Aiden’s face. And I’d certainly never had cause to smile bashfully – as Kade was now – or to rub my head against his shoulder in a gesture of affection.
One step at a time, I tried to console myself, as we all took our seats. We’d taken great strides forward today. This was a huge improvement to where we’d been yesterday. So I should be patient, and prove to my master that I was capable of serving him as diligently as Kade served his master. Planets were not colonised in a day, as the saying went. My master picked up a sandwich and took a bite. Then, to my relief, he didn’t set it asideor spit it out. Instead, he took another bite. This was fine, I told myself firmly. Everything was going to be fine.
CHAPTER TEN
Zeke