He asked her and she nodded and covered her face with her skirt. "Why?" he asked, "Hungry?" She shrugged; all of her gestures were his. He saw himself in them. Suddenly he realized he had not thought of his brother Harry and the flaming heat exchanger room for months. I've traded one pain for another, he mused, and did not have the heart to slap her for killing the rooster.
Another thing that amazed him: he had never given her a name.
"Harriet," he said, pointing at her, but she shook her hair in a swirl about her head; she was nameless as the tree was nameless; it had cling peach characteristics but there were non-Earthly shapes to its leaves and the ripening fruits were blue. He didn't press the matter; with the two of them, names were unnecessary. When one called it was for the other.
He learned she behaved in cycles. For several weeks she would be attentive, watching closely while he pushed seeds into the earth, helping when he directed her, although she rarely volunteered. Then she would begin to stand with her bare foot on his, to put her hand in his pocket, to chatter and push him to attract his attention, to sneak her arms about him and chew gently on his shoulder. Sometimes when he would push her away she would snarl and squawl at him, other times, she would stand with her lip pushed out and her eyes blinking so that he was near tears himself. He listened for the rocket with eager unhappiness.
In the ninth month, without warning, she bit the tip off his ear. The impetus of the pain swung his fist against her mouth. When she stumbled to her feet, she tore off her dress, spitting blood and hatred, and fled into the woods. He watched her go with mixed feelings.
In the afternoon, when he began to gather the peaches, he could feel her burning gaze, but he gave no sign. When mealtime came, he did not call her and she did not come, although he glimpsed her once through the alien trees.
Silently he mashed the peaches in five gallon cans, then welded the tops on. He found useful copper tubes in the junk of the _Ventura_ venture. But the world was for waiting. Perhaps the spaceship would come first. It was strange, he reflected, that no other ships had paused. The Sirius System was supposed to be a sure thing.