Page 16 of Seven Oars
Rosamma looked up in surprise.“Of course.” Then she scanned their faces and read their doubts.“What did you think?”
“Maybe an adopted one or something,” Alyesha confessed.
Genuinely amused, Rosamma laughed.“We’re twins.”
“No way!” Eze exclaimed.
“But he’s human and you’re… what are you, anyway?” Fawn leaned in.
Of course, they would wonder. She was used to this reaction. They weren’t rude about it, just curious. Her peculiar appearance, a mix of delicate human features and Tana-Tana slanted eyes, flat cheekbones, and a small, uniquely patterned nose that was both girlish and animal-like, had earned her plenty of the sameEwwattitude on Meeus.
“Our father was a Tana-Tana alien,” Rosamma explained.
Eze’s bushy, straight eyebrows, a typical Sakka feature, formed an inverted V.“What was he doing on Meeus?”
Rosamma looked at her hands.“Mom met him on Earth. That’s where she was from.”
The women exchanged looks.
Earth. Once the jewel crown of humanity. Now, only a dark shadow of its former glorious self. The humans that remained on Earth were rough and poor, and aliens dwelled among them, fighting for resources.
Humans had migrated to Meeus over centuries, and the women around Rosamma were generations removed from their Earth ancestors. Meeus was their home.
It was her home too.
What am I doing in space, flying away from my beautiful Meeus?
“I’ve never met my father,” Rosamma continued, leaving the troubling question hanging.“He left Mom before Ren and I were born.”
Rosamma didn’t even know her birth father’s name. She’d never asked, too afraid to learn the true story. She wasn’t sure there had been any sort of a relationship between her mother and him beyond the single act that had resulted in her and Ren’s conception. She clung to the hope it had been consensual.
What she knew for certain was that the relationship, whatever it had been, and the shame of bearing half-breed children, were the cause of the drink and drug-addicted ruin her beautiful, hapless mother would become.
“Mom got cast off by her family on Earth. She found a way to come to Meeus, where she eventually met and married Zaron, the owner of the club, Atticus.”
“We know him! Ren called him Uncle Zaron.”
Rosamma nodded.“That’s what Ren and I call him. Our mother died when we were thirteen, and Uncle Zaron took care of us.”
In reality, their mother had stopped mothering them long before that tragic event, leaving Zaron to raise them as best he could.
He had never complained. He loved them, and he loved their mother. But all of Zaron’s devotion couldn’t heal her broken spirit. She died outside, in a ditch where she’d fallen. Too impaired to get out, she had drowned in a foot of stale rainwater.
Ren never forgave her for her drug use. He carried a lot of anger inside. He thought she was an embarrassment. Weak.
But Rosamma had forgiven her. Mom had loved them. She just hadn’t loved herself. Yes, she had been weak, but weakness—that was something Rosamma understood better than Ren.
“I bet you’re glad to go to Priss with your brother,” Fawn nodded, having come to the conclusion that Rosamma was as eager as they to leave Meeus behind.
Well.
Everyone else looked forward to going, and Rosamma chose not to stand out by telling the truth.
Mostly, she was afraid that saying the words out loud would make the mistake of leaving real.
She smiled and said,“Yes.”
*****
