Chameleon Ch 46

Tom woke slowly, feeling short of breath but otherwise unharmed. The room was dark, where he lay was hard, and the odd scents of – his eyes adjusted and now he saw.

“Papá? Are you okay now?”

“He’s okay, Zalara,” he heard Rianya say. She’d moved half a meter from the spot of destiny, a silent baby in her arms, her face at rest.

“I’m all right, Pet.” He coughed and struggled to his feet, stumbling but not falling. “Are you all right?” he asked Rianya. She nodded.

“Tired.”

“Zalara, can you find a couple towels for me?” She danced off. The floor was wooden; he heard an echo of her steps.  The water in the copper pot was still warm. He lifted the corners of the old tunic and pulled them together to make a hammock and rushed out the back door, but then all he could think of was to place it near the far fence, at least for now.

The night air was chilly, and there was no hint of dawn. In the final hours of pure darkness, the Milky Way reminded him of home, seeing how the streak of dark matter ran more horizontally than vertically as it did from Earth.

Back in Jake’s cottage, he took a towel from Zalara and returned to the living room. He poured the tepid water on the floor and used the towel to drive the remaining fluids toward cracks between the floorboards, drying as the floor washed clean. By the time he’d finished, he realized the towel was as bad as his shirt, so he took those outside as well and rushed back.

It was over. He’d done it. And to his embarrassment, he’d actually feared nothing. Yes, well, the blood threatened to crush him, but he had to be there for Rianya. She was in the boat on a stormy sea; he had just been on the shore collecting sea shells. His respect females had soared off the chart by light years.

“Come, on, off the floor,” he said, taking the baby, and pulling Rianya to her feet. “Oh, you cleaned her up.” For small favors he was truly thankful.

“Zalara did,” she told him. “She’s a natural.”

“I should have known. Honey didn’t get up?”

“She’s a pretty heavy sleeper.”

Tom helped Rianya to the small bed, then took a look at the tiny life wrapped in a cocoon of blankets.

“She’s every bit as beautiful as Zalara. Just like her mother.” He swept sweaty locks of hair away from her face, but with no ear to tuck it behind they just fell back.

“She’s tired,” Zalara said with authority. The two of them gave her puzzled expressions. “Can’t you hear her? I can hear her.”

“No, Pet, I can’t. Maybe because she’s your sister.” He looked at Rianya.

“I didn’t hear her say anything, but I think I know what you mean. You can hear her thoughts.”

“I can hear her feelings. She doesn’t know how to talk yet.”

A shaking tingle ran down Tom’s body. This was not anything he’d ever felt when his own sister was born. And he was ten, not six.

“That may be, Tom. Anju and I could understand each other without so much talking like humans do all the time.”  She flopped back on the bed and closed her eyes.

“Do you want to hold her?”

“I’ve been holding her for months. Your turn.”

“I can hold her, Papá.”

“Come over here,” he said, taking the infant with him to the big chair under the window. He sat, holding her so they could both see her face. Zalara climbed on the arm of the chair and slid into Tom’s lap; he put an arm around her and held the baby with the other. She opened her eyes a tiny bit, not enough to see their color.

“This is your little sister. She’s just a tiny baby, but she’s going to grow up, like you are. We don’t know her name, or who she will be, but the two of you will always have a unique connection. You two are more alike to each other than you are to me or Mamá.”

The three of them drifted in the chair, in silence. Rianya had fallen asleep already. One of her petite arms punched out of the blanket; Tom put out a finger for her to anchor upon. The baby had three fingers and a thumb, like her mother. Like Zalara, she had no ear pinna, just channels like a bird, where her hair would cover the way feathers did.

Her skin was a fawn color rather than pink, but her feet were like her mother’s, with only four toes, not five. Her hair was not as full as Rianya’s, nor as had been Zalara’s hair at birth, and it was seal brown, not like his and Zalara’s autumn chestnut color.

Tom didn’t feel sleepy anymore. He was wide awake, but calm, the most relaxed he’d been in quite some time, surprising himself.

“Let’s put you back to bed. You’ve been a great help to me, and to Mamá. You were very brave.”

“I’m not tired.”

“I know, but let’s go anyway. Warriors need plenty of rest. Your mother’s sleeping, and she’s a damn Cossack. A gladiator.” Zalara looked confused. “She’s a champion.”

“Okay.” Tom kissed her forehead and still one handedly he covered her and the blonde girl, closed the door, and rummaged for another blanket before he returned to the big chair. He was the only person in the house who hadn’t gone to sleep.

þ

“So how did she get out?” Honey asked.

“I don’t know. It was kind of a secret. But there was a lot of blood and stuff.”

“She’s cute, but she doesn’t have all her fingers.”

“She’s like my mother.”

“You have five. She should, too.”

“I’m more like my father and she is more like my mother.”

The two children watched Rianya, Tom, and the baby sleeping in a dogpile on top of the cushions in the alcove. Tom was the base, Rianya the middle, and the infant not quite on top but securely in Rianya’s arms. The fire had burned down to a mound of barely orange embers, not quite cold, but of no help in heating the room.

“I think they’re gonna keep sleeping,” Honey said. “Is there anything to eat?”

“Let’s look.” In the kitchen, a lamp brightened unexpectedly as the power returned to the city. “The ‘lectricity is on again,” Zalara said.

“Good. It’s silly to not use power when you can.”

“Over here, look. A box of grains.”

“How do you eat that?” Honey asked, disgusted. Zalara shrugged.

“I found some biscuits!” Zalara remove the lid from the wooden box and announced her discovery. They each took one and she replaced the box on the shelf.

“Are you sure there’s no bugs?”

“Bugs? Like, little crawly bugs?”

“He had these fruit chunks with big crunchy bugs on top for us to eat at the radar shed. Your dad ate one, even the bug. Not me. Hideous.” She shuddered her body at the thought. A door squeaked in the next room, then shut.

“Hello?” came a soft voice, that of Jake.

“Hello!” Honey called. “We’re in here.” Jake entered the kitchen, stunned and almost speechless. A human woman accompanied him.

“Your mother had her child?”

“There was a lot of screaming. And it was messy.”

“I didn’t hear any screaming,” Honey said.

 “You were asleep.”

“Then it wasn’t screaming.”

“Ladies, are you hungry? I can make you some food, some pan-fried bread.”

“Should I stay?” the woman asked.

“Please, stay, Charlotte. I’ll make us all something to eat.”

“No bugs?” Honey asked. Jake looked at her directly for a long moment.

“No, Sweet, I won’t put any bugs on them. You’re too pretty to eat bugs,” he said.

“I’m not. What kind of bugs?” Zalara asked directly.

“I’m all out of bugs,” he said, ruffling her hair. The girls sat at his table, a hand carved, heavy timber piece of furniture with three chairs that didn’t quite match. Jake made a fire in a metal box, and stirred water into a measure of flour, then added an egg. Honey watched the young man, beaming with a bubble of delight. Zalara was more interested in her new sister than the man.

Charlotte ambled on soft feet to the greater room, Zalara bouncing behind her. Tom was vaguely awake.

“Hi Pet. Is Jake back? I heard another voice.”

“I hope we didn’t wake you coming in,” Charlotte said. “Jake asked if I would come and see if your wife needed help, but it seems I’m too late. “I’m Charlotte.” The woman set a soft bag on the floor and bent down to shake Tom’s hand. Despite pins and needles in one leg, he rose to his feet.

“Tom Jackson. That’s kind of you. Maybe you can take over,” he hinted. They traded places. “Is Jake here?”

“He’s in the kitchen making bread. You know what? The ‘lectricity is on again.”

“The electricity is back on?” Charlotte nodded. “Spectacular. I’m going to run uptown to the Osprey and see if I can contact the ship. You stay with Mamá and the baby.” He walked into the kitchen and spoke a few words to Jake before heading out the door on his way to familiar technology.