Shadow of the Hegemon, the - Book 2 (Ender)

only twenty minutes by train from Ribeirao Preto. She took care to make sure she approached Bean from a direction where he could see her coming. Soon she stood beside him, looking at a marker.
    "Who is buried here?" she asked.
    "No one," said Bean, who showed no surprise at seeing her. "It's a cenotaph."
    Petra read the names that were on it.
    Poke.
    Carlotta.
    There was nothing else.
    "There's a marker for Sister Carlotta somewhere in Vatican City," said Bean. "But there was no body recovered that could actually be buried anywhere. And Poke was cremated by people who didn't even know who she was. I got the idea for this from Virlomi."
    Virlomi had set up a cenotaph for Sayagi in the small Hindu cemetery that already existed in Ribeirao Preto. It was a bit more elaborate-it included the dates of his birth and death, and called him "a man of satyagraha."
    "Bean," said Petra, "it's quite insane of you to come here. No bodyguard. This marker standing here so that assassins can set their sights before you show up."
    "I know," said Bean.
    "At least you could have invited me along."
    He turned to her, tears in his eyes. "This is my place of shame," he said. "I worked very hard to make sure your name would not be here."
    "Is that what you tell yourself? There's no shame here, Bean. There's only love. And that's why I belong here-with the other lonely girls who gave their hearts to you."
    Bean turned to her, put his arms around her, and wept into her shoulder. He had grown, to stand tall enough for that. "They saved my life," he said. "They gave me life."
    "That's what good people do," said Petra. "And then they die, every one of them. It's a damned shame."
    He gave one short laugh-whether at her small levity or at himself, for weeping, she did not know. "Nothing lasts long, does it," said Bean.
    "They're still alive in you."
    "Who am I alive in?" said Bean. "And don't say you."
    "I will if I want. You saved my life."
    "They never had children, either one of them," said Bean. "No one ever held either Poke or Carlotta the way a man does with a woman, or had a baby with them. They never got to see their children grow up and have children of their own."
    "By Sister Carlotta's choice," said Petra.
    "Not Poke's."
    "They both had you."
    "That's the futility of it," said Bean. "The only child they had was me."
    "So ... you owe it to them to carry on, to marry, to have more children who'll remember them both for your sake."
    Bean stared off into space. "I have a better idea. Let me tell you about them. And you tell your children. Will you do that? If you could promise me that, then I think that I could bear all this, because they wouldn't just disappear from memory when I die."
    "Of course I'll do that, Bean, but you're talking as if your life were already over, and it's just beginning. Look at you, you're getting along, you'll have a man's height before long, you'll-"
    He touched her lips, gently, to silence her. "I'll have no wife, Petra. No babies."
    "Why not? If you tell me you've decided to become a priest I'll kidnap you myself and get you out of this Catholic country."
    "I'm not human, Petra," Bean replied. "And my species dies with me."
    She laughed at his joke.
    But as she looked into his eyes, she saw that it wasn't a joke at all. Whatever he meant by that, he really thought that it was true. Not human. But how could he think that? Of all the people Petra knew, who was more human than Bean?
    "Let's go back home," Bean finally said, "before somebody comes along and shoots us just for loitering."
    "Home," said Petra.
    Bean only halfway understood. "Sorry it's not Armenia."
    "No, I don't think Armenia is home either," she said. "And Battle School sure wasn't, nor Eros. This is home, though. I mean, Ribeirao Preto. But here, too. Because ... my family's here, of course, but. . ."
    And then she realized what she was trying to say.
    "It's because you're here. Because you're the one who went through it all with me. You're the one who knows what I'm talking about. What I'm remembering. Ender. That terrible day with Bonzo. And the day I fell asleep in the middle of a battle on Eros. You think you have shame." She laughed. "But it's OK to remember even that with you. Because you knew about that, and you still came to get me out."
    "Took me long enough," said Bean.
    They walked out of the cemetery toward the train station, holding hands because neither of them wanted to feel separate right now.
    "I have an idea," said