Page 84 of Cozy Prisons
“A baby is coming.”
Nataly didn’t realize she’d said those words until Hale let out a sob.
“No, they’re gone. My babies are gone.”
Out of everything they might have said to her, that wasn’t what she’d expected. She thought she’d be dealing with depression, but not from the loss of children. Poor Hale!
Their eyes opened a little more and met her gaze. “I’ve lost everything.”
Her intuition wasn’t giving her anything, so she had no idea how to respond. Sima was really good at soothing people. What would she say in this situation?
Thankfully, Hale kept talking.
“They weren’t mine, but they might as well have been. I loved them more than anything. Then they died, and I had nothing. All I could do was remember them. Fulmons believe that the living need to remember the dead. Only if the living remember them long enough can the dead transcend to the highest level of the afterlife. I tried to remember them every moment of every day so even though they were only babies, they’d find their way to the Ever Green Sea.”
Hale grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly enough to hurt. Their skin felt horribly cold, and they were shaking!
“What if I forget them? Their parents are dead too! There’s no one to remember them but me.”
“Describe them to me,” Nataly said. “I’ll remember with you. Then there’ll be two of us remembering them.”
Hale let go of her hand and sat up. Their short brown hair was greasy and stuck up at all kinds of angles. It would’ve been funny if the situation weren’t so serious.
“Yes, I can do that,” they agreed. “If I had the data crystal you copied, I could show you. They were so adorable. The cutest Fulmon babies ever! I lost it, but I’ll tell you everything I remember.”
Sudden guilt made Nataly wince. She didn’t want to tell him, but she had to. “There’s something you should know, but, um, I don’t want you to get mad at me.”
Hale blinked, then anger took over their face. “You don’t want to listen.”
“No, no! I swear I want to hear all about your um, Fulmon babies,” she said in a rush. “It’s about your data crystal.”
Hale’s anger morphed to confusion. “Thank you for recovering and copying the data, but both the original and copy are gone. They’re at the bottom of that pit. Those vids and image captures were the only ones of my babies. I couldn’t even stay on the station where they lived and died because Iris and Damascus bought my work contract and made me leave.”
Ah, that explained why he was so angry.
“Right, so, uh, I’ve recovered a lot of data crystals,” she said. “It was one of my many jobs back on Tanash Station. I got into the habit of, um….” She really didn’t want to tell him this part. It was an embarrassing secret no one else knew about.
Hale made an impatient sound. “Please tell me so we can move on. I want to tell you about Dimla and Sukla.”
“I made a copy of your data crystal!” she said in a rush, then braced for their anger.
“I know, you gave it to me,” they said. “I was there, remember?”
“No, I mean I made an extra copy and kept it,” she continued. “I shoved all my data crystals in a bag and tossed them on Grace and Merrick's mover bot when we were evacuating. They probably still have it.”
She flinched back when Hale moved toward her, but they weren’t going to hurt her. Instead, they grabbed her in a tight hug. She felt hot tears on her skin before she heard the bawling.
“You really are a savior,” they whispered between sobs.
Nataly let out a nervous laugh. “No, I’m a thief. I’ve been doing this for years. I promise I didn’t look at any of it. I just have this impulse to keep a copy of everything that crosses my path.”
Hale pulled back, their expression fierce. “You had the impulse because I was going to need it someday. You’re a River.”
“River? Is that another Fulmon thing?”
Hale beamed at her, which looked odd because tears were still streaming down their face. “Yes, exactly! Sometimes the EverGreen Sea sends souls down as gifts to the rest of us. Souls like yours are designed to help.”
Nataly pointed at herself. “Except I’m not a Fulmon.”
