Page 17 of Alien Mine

He turned the scraper around and scraped away from her, scattering old paint into the overgrown hedge. “Good morning, Lady Kelly. Have you decided what lesson you want to study today?”

“I figure we should keep working on the planets, seeing as how we still got a long ways to go in that book.” She glanced down, scrubbed the toe of her sandal along a lower step. “You reckon me and Tiny can stay up late tonight and maybe practice spotting them constellations we been learning?”

“If your mother says it’s ok.”

Her foot stopped abruptly and her dark eyes went round. “Really?”

“Of course.”

“You’re supposed to argue and tell me all the reasons why staying up is bad for me.”

He glanced at her and arched an eyebrow. “Why would I do that?”

“Because that’s what grownups do.” She wrinkled her nose, exactly the way her mother had. “Are you sure you’re a grownup? ‘Cause you don’t act like one.”

He set the scraper down and keyed up a link to his ship’s AI on his wrist com. “How old is a grownup here?”

“I dunno. Hold on.” She scrambled off the steps and through the kitchen entrance, and was back again just as quickly. “Mama says eighteen is an adult, unless you want a beer, and then you gotta be twenty-one.”

“Nice to know.” He requested a conversion of his age from Abywian into Earth years and showed the display to Kelly. “Twenty-five years, twelve weeks, three days. Definitely a grownup.”

She plopped onto the top stair and propped her chin in her hands. “Younger than Mama, though, so I guess I really better ask her, huh? Seeing as how she’s older and all.”

“Seeing as how she’s your mother and all,” Dyuvad corrected gently. “Have you finished your morning chores?”

“Yes, sir, me and Tiny both.”

He glanced at the stretch of peeling paint along the porch rail and judged the amount against his patience and the girls’ need to learn. “Can you be ready to study in an hour?”

“Sure thing, Mr. Dyuvad. I gotta help Mama with the goat cheese anyhow.”

She was gone in a flash, leaving Dyuvad to the heat of the morning sun and the day’s growing humidity. He eased around a thorny bush and its fragrant flowers, and scraped another section of porch rail, nodding in time to the music on the radio.

Tiny pushed open the screen door and bounced outside, then settled herself on her knees on the porch and peered through two slats at him. “Mengen arig, Dooda.”

“Myengen dun arig, Lady Bettina. Can you say that in English?”

“Ny,” she said cheerfully, and prattled away in slightly mangled Pruxnæ, something about a bad man shooting a gun at the goats, though he couldn’t quite be certain given her syntax.

Talking in his native tongue was one thing he hadn’t anticipated doing while on Earth. How Tiny knew his language was a mystery, though he suspected it had something to do with the reason the Net ‘paths were interested in her. Maybe she was a budding telepath. If so, she could be picking Pruxnæ up from his mind. She could’ve been born with it already in her head, though. Who could say? No one knew much about the ‘paths, rumors and speculation aside.

Rachel came outside carrying a blue tube and a glass filled with a pale yellow liquid. “Go on inside and get your sister, Tiny. She’s about to pull the pool out so y’all can play in it thisafternoon.”

Tiny obediently pushed herself upright and ran across the porch, her small feet a rapid patter against the worn wood.

Rachel set the glass down on the porch rail as the screen door slammed shut behind her youngest daughter. “Lemonade. Good to cure thirst on a hot day.”

“Thank you, Lady Rachel.”

“Just Rachel.” She held up the blue tube. “Fate can’t work outside without using sunscreen. He blisters something fierce.”

She pursed her lips together as a faint blush rose on her cheeks.

Dyuvad paused his scraping, curious about that blush and its cause. “He’s working with his bees right now.”

“Yeah, I know. Thing is, it’s not a good idea to be outside for long without sunscreen on. UV rays.”

He stared blankly at her, trying to piece together her conversation into something that made sense, much as he had with Tiny. Like mother, like daughter, he was beginning to suspect.

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