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To her surprise, Spex climbed right into the palm of her hand.
“I’m going to lift you now, okay?” she said to him. “If you don’t want me to, you can jump off my hand.”
The little Eye-pet didn’t move. Instead, he settled more firmly in her palm. Abbey took it as a sign he didn’t mind being lifted, so she carefully brought her hand up to her face. Spex didn’t weigh very much, maybe about as much as the guinea pig she’d had as a child, she thought.
He was furry like a guinea pig too—the downy fuzz covering his round, plump body felt as soft as silk against her fingers.
“Hey, little guy. Hey, Spex,” she murmured, when she had him closer to her face. “Are you all alone here?”
“All alone,” he agreed in a tiny, squeaky voice that somehow managed to be adorable and sad at the same time.
“And why is that?” Abbey asked him. “Why are you all by yourself, Spex?”
He let out a high, trembling sigh.
“Spex not talk so good,” he admitted in his squeaky voice. “He doesn’t bond when he is little and now that he’s grown, nobody wants him, because he doesn’t say just right.”
“You seem to talk well enough to me,” Abbey remarked. “My seeing eye dog, Major, couldn’t talk at all.”
“He no talk?” Spex sounded surprised. “How he tell you where to go then?”
“He nudged me sometimes. He was bigger than you—he wore a special harness I could hold onto so he could lead me around the town,” Abbey explained.
“Spex can wear a harness,” the little Eye-pet said, sounding eager. “Spex will lead you, if you want, pretty lady.”
Abbey laughed at his willingness.
“I don’t think that kind of arrangement would work for us because I’m so much bigger than you, Spex. But could you ride on my shoulder and tell me what you see and if it’s safe to cross the street or not?”
“Spex can do that! He can! He can!” He danced in her hand—the turquoise blur bobbed up and down and she could feel his three tiny feet tapping against her palm with excitement.
“I don’t live here, though,” Abbey warned him. “I’m only visiting Tengula Five. I live on a planet called Earth, in a far distant galaxy called The Milky Way.”
“Spex doesn’t care where the pretty lady lives as long as Spex can live with her,” the little Eye-pet declared.
“Do you want to do a trial run, then?” Abbey asked him. “Would you like to sit on my shoulder and tell me how to get around the room?”
“Yes, yes! Spex will tell pretty lady how to go!” he squeaked, dancing excitedly again. Abbey remembered how Solon had described the Eye-pets and had a mental image of a furry turquoise tennis ball with eyes on stalks jumping up and down in her palm.
The image made her smile and she carefully held her hand up to her shoulder and let Spex climb on board.
“Okay—I’m ready,” she told him.
“First, be careful,” Spex warned her. “There are still many little Eye-pups around your legs, pretty lady.”
“You can call me, ‘Abbey’—that’s my name,” she told him.
“Pretty Abbey, be careful,” Spex said.
Abbey laughed.
“I’ll ask the Royal Breeder to move them.”
“I’ll get them out of your way, my lady,” she heard Gustobrav say. A moment later he was there, gathering the tiny pink and yellow blurs and taking them out of the pen. As soon as they were gone, Spex squeaked in her ear again.
“Safe to get up now, pretty Abbey.”
“Okay, thank you, Spex.” She rose carefully and stood there. “All right, tell me how to get around the room.”
