Only My Entire Life
Tonight, something happened I’ve only been waiting for my entire life.
We heard the singing. Octy ran out first. He looked up at the light.
Then, by the time Pops and I joined him, she beamed down. It was Xirra.
“Ah! Mommy! Hi!” said Octavius, and he marched inside. That simple! His meeting with his mom was that simple.
Pops seemed flustered and bashful. He looked like a shy kid as he hung back while Xirra introduced herself to me.
I felt with her the way I felt when I first met Whisper. I know her!
“Have we met?” I knew we had. I could feel it.
Pops went inside, leaving the two of us to find our ways through the years and back to this present moment.
“I saw you once,” she said, “when you were about the size that Octavius is now. But I think it isn’t me who you remember.”
A door opened into darkness, into fire, past screams and shrieks, and I fought my way through the crashing debris and blocked corridors and back, back, into a quiet nursery and the faintest songs of wind and meadow. I followed it back to the touch of Blue Roses.
“Think,” she said. “Feel. Let it come back to you, Baxin’ivre.”
With her voice, the fear melted, the grief softened.
And when she said my name, it all came back. She spoke in the voice of my bizaabgotojo.
“How is it that you sound like her?” I asked.
“Situ was my sister,” she said.
“Situ?”
“That was her name! We were Xirra and Situ!”
Life and Spirit.
“She was a brave warrior, sure. But she was also funny! Oh, the things we used to do back in the camp! Once we put syu corn in the jisu! Oh! You should have seen their faces when they took a sip!”
We heard the singing from the ship again. I looked up and there was the big eye, hovering above the house.
“You don’t have to go already, do you? I just met you!” I felt panicked that she’d leave before I had a chance to get to know her, before I had a chance to ask my questions, to learn my fate.
She laughed. I will never tire of her laughter! It’s a sound that’s wrapped up with all my memories of my first experiences of happiness, of love.
“It’s not for me!” she said. “I’m on leave for a few days. If you’ll let me, I’ll stay. This ship came back for your father!”
We didn’t even watch as Pops got carried up by the beam of light.
We heard him call, “Watch after Octy until I come back!”
But we were too busy drinking in the sight of each other to raise our eyes to the sky.
My brother’s mom has come to visit, Whisper’s aunt, and the sister of the one who first taught me to love.
Author’s note: This beautiful extra-terrestrial woman really is Octy’s mom! She’s Pollination Technician #3, and, thanks to a tip from RainyDayz, we used the Teleporter Mod to bring her for a visit. We love her!
Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology 