Page 133 of Sky Song
“And what happens if the two of you are separated?” Cricket asked.
“We can’t function without one another.” Rosamma sighed. “Ren is stronger and he can last longer on his own, but in the end, the energy will simply leak out of our bodies into the air.And that is that. He wants to be free, to be with Paloma, and… I feel like a burden, yet I know he depends on me as much as I depend on him.” Rosamma grew agitated and tears glistened on her white lashes.
Cricket stood up and hugged her. “Ren loves you.”
“And I love my brother. I just want to be my own person. Is it too much to ask?”
What a question to answer. Cricket could only hug the woman tighter, the parallels with her own health struggle not too deep in her memory.
“Everything will be alright.” She had caught a break. So could Rosamma. “You will overcome.”
She felt the other woman shake her head mutely, but she knew Rosamma was as keen to hear those platitudes as she herself had been.
Cricket spent the day helping Rosamma tidy up the house and bake bread under the melodious otherworldly tunes the woman was so fond of. Humming one under her breath, Cricket laundered the sheets and her clothes, and neatened her appearance, determined to maintain as much order in her life as she could under the circumstances.
Later, she sat down to make a list of items she planned to retrieve from her house, and stared at the blank slip of paper for a long time. Apart from her meager savings which were banked and therefore inaccessible at the moment, nothing in that little house was of any true need. She had clothes and food provided by her gracious hosts, and nothing else mattered.
A quiet knock on the door nearly sent Cricket’s heart into the stratosphere.
“It’s Paloma!” She heard Rosamma call out as she answered the door.
Paloma threw Yanet’s tablet on the table and threw herself into a chair with the typical dramatic air. “It makes me so tired.”
“What is ‘it’ and why does ‘it’ make you tired?” Cricket picked up the tablet and carefully turned it on. The screen lit up, presenting her with an invitation to enter her parameters, including an iris scan. She did that, knowing nothing would happen, and nothing did.
Meanwhile, Paloma pulled close a large canvas tote with a logo of Shadush’s agency of the government programs implementation. The logo seemed familiar…
Unsnapping the top, Paloma reached inside. “I have a present for you, my alien sister.” She extracted terrified Hipper out of the bag and thrust him at the shocked Rosamma.
“My world…” Hipper was shaking and attempting to hide by sticking his head in Rosamma’s armpit. “Oh! Oh!” She awkwardly cradled him and stroked his tangled fur.
Cricket turned to Paloma for explanations.
“There was a big brouhaha over you in our neighborhood, my friend,” Paloma shared with a certain amount of glee. “After the news broke, the neighbors came out of the woodwork and started knocking on my door, asking questions about you. They knocked on Sulys’ door, too.”
“Oh, great.” This wasn’t the news Cricket wanted to hear. It made her precarious situation very real.
“No, not great.” Paloma pursed her lips. “Sulys’ ego inflated like a hot air balloon from his temporary importance. He told everyone who asked that he’d always known you were shady and a problem neighbor, that he isn’t surprised at all by your criminal tendencies…”
“Little prick.”
“…and jabbered on and on about aliens he’d seen around, and theorized that you are to blame for attracting them.”
Cricket waved it off. “He knows nothing definite.”
Paloma gave her a look. “He was very persuasive. And then the peacekeepers came and interviewed everybody about you.”
“And you?”
“Yes. Don’t worry, I never said anything. I only showed them this tablet.” Before Cricket had a chance to get worried, Paloma yelled, “Just kidding!”
Hipper, scared of Paloma’s sudden shrill laugh, wriggled like crazy, which in turn startled Rosamma whose weak arms lost their grip on the animal. He fell down and hit his head on the table leg with a painful yap.
“Oh no! Oh, he’s hurt, poor baby!”
All three of them dropped to the floor at once to help Hipper, and their heads came together with a dry crack.
“Ouch!”
