Starport: Zeta Prime (Alt) (18 page)

As Jillian
stripped and was about to jump on in, she noticed the women staring
at her, openmouthed.

“
You are beginning to show, Jillian. Oh, you look
beautiful.” Fenn exclaimed.

She looked
down to her belly and sure enough, a small, protruding bump poked
out. It was tiny, really – and could almost be put down to simple
weight-gain from the amount of food she’d been consuming lately,
but as she placed her hands over it, something felt…different. It
was indescribable–she just felt a shift somewhere. She felt
protective, proud. She turned to the girls and laughed with tears
filling her eyes, as they dashed to her with congratulations and
took turns stroking her stomach.

“
Faron–look,” she said to him that evening once he’d
returned from the farm, and she stood sideways so he could see the
small convex of her lower abdomen. He got to his knees and kissed
the tiny bump–before moving on to kiss her in places that made her
forget all about Motherhood.

She couldn’t
stop stroking her swelling belly as the weeks passed into months,
and her cheeks began to ache from smiling so much. Occasionally she
would get the sensation of small bubbles inside her, and it would
fill her with happiness that the baby was growing and
moving.

Misha had kept a low profile since the incident, avoiding
most of the tribe
and living
almost as an outcast–but Jillian’s joy was impossible to ignore,
and one afternoon, when Jillian was eating with Sennan, Misha
approached her.

“
I heard your news. I just wanted to say congratulations.”
She was visibly shaking
,
afraid of the
response she might get–more from Sennan than Jillian.

“
Thank you, Misha. Why don’t you sit and eat with us?”
Jillian suggested. She could see that she had been going through a
tough time, and she knew Misha had more than paid her dues in
misery. She glanced to Sennan to check it was okay with her, and
her face was full of pride and respect for her open-hearted
daughter-in-law.

Misha gingerly sat next to her and
started to gush.

“
Jillian, you’ve been so good to me after what I did to you.
I don’t know how to thank you. I wish I could tell you how sorry I
am. I want to prove it to you. That person, the one in the woods…it
wasn’t me. I hadn’t been myself. I just ….” She looked down into
her lap.

“
I’m so sorry.” She
finished meekly.

“
Misha, it’s really fine.
No harm was done in the end, I’m glad you’re feeling better
now.”

The two smiled at each
other.

“
I hear you’ve got news of
your own, Misha?” Sennan interjected, keen to move the subject to
happier things and show Misha that she was one of the tribe
again.

“
Yes. Charin and I…we’re having a binding ceremony. He’s
been so amazing to me through all of this. We’re keeping it low
key
.
I didn’t think the village would be willing to help
us, well me really, celebrate. You two are more than welcome to
attend, though,” she said hopefully.

“
Low key nonsense, Misha. You are a member of this tribe and
we shall all be ready for the ceremony and a feast as normal. This
is your big day and we want to share it. Jillian can’t work in the
fields in this heat, so she and I will help you prepare for it,”
Sennan said authoritatively, her mind made up that the coldness
towards Misha had gone on long enough. If Jillian was a big enough
person to move on from it, then so the rest of them should
be.

Misha hugged each of them in turn,
tears rolling down her cheeks.

The ceremony
date was set for a week’s time. Jillian and Sennan had been busy in
the kitchen making what was similar to a fruit cake back on Earth.
Herbs, nuts and spices had to be roasted and ground down, before
they could even start on the mixture. Sennan knew the recipe by
heart, though, and instructed Jillian each step of the
way.

Jillian
felt
crushingly tired all the time, and as she smeared a purple line of
ground spice across her sweating forehead, she wondered if it
wouldn’t have been easier to stay working in the fields.

“
Are you getting enough rest? You need plenty now, you’ll
get little when the child arrives,” Sennan said to her with a
twinkle.

Jillian
bit her
lip.

“
I’m starting to feel a bit…frightened by the whole thing,
Mother. I’ve got no idea what to expect. How will I know when it’s
ready to be born? How will I know how to care for it properly? I
don’t know what I’m doing.” To
Jillian’s surprise, she burst into tears. Sennan fussed
around her.

“
There, there. It’s
expected that you feel a bit unsure, it’s your first child.” She
handed her a cloth to dry her eyes.

“
The baby will tell you
when it’s ready to come out. Trust me, you’ll know about it.” She
chuckled.

“
What? Why? Does it hurt?” Jillian sniffed, looking
alarmed.

“
I can’t lie to you. It
will hurt. But it’s a pain that you will be prepared to withstand,
for at the end of it you get to meet your flesh and blood. And that
moment is so magical the pain will seem like a small price to pay.
You needn’t worry about caring for it. You already do, and that is
all the knowledge you need. We will all help you my child. You are
not doing this alone.”

Jillian
was heartened
to hear those words, and her tears quickly dried as she carried on
baking.

As the day
of the ceremony arrived, there was much busyness in the communal
hut. Jillian was ordered to sit at a bench and tie ribbons. She
watched people rushing around her, and several times tried to get
up to help, feeling guilty for sitting down.

“
No you don’t missy. You stay there with those ribbons. We
are all fine.” Fenn pointed at her sternly on one such occasion.
Misha had been taken down to the pool to be washed and oiled by her
bridesmaids–as Jillian had been months before.

Faron
came to see
her, after carrying one of the beasts on his back into the village,
ready to be roasted at the feast. He kissed her and rubbed her
belly, which already seemed stretched to bursting. As he laid his
hand on her, the baby gave and almighty kick. They both looked to
each other and beamed, putting his other hand there too, in the
hope to feel it again. Inside of her, Jillian’s child responded to
the touch, poking limbs out as if reaching for its
Father.

“
Mother, come quick–
the baby’s kicking.” He called. Sennan came flying out of
the kitchen, closely followed by Fenn and Cara, who all had a go at
feeling the energetic child wriggling inside of Jillian. She felt
silly for worrying about bringing up a child–with this much love
around her it was going to be easy.

As beautiful
flashes of color lit the sky in an extraordinary sunset, Misha made
her way into the village, through the walkway fluttering with the
ribbons Jillian had braided, to a mesmerizing song played on wooden
instruments.

Faron
had his arm
around Jillian as they and the villagers formed a circle around
Misha and Charin. He squeezed her slightly as they
watched–remembering their own ceremony, remembering how certain he
was that he loved her. He had not been wrong. Since she had been a
part of his tribe, he had felt complete–whole. As if reading his
mind, Jillian looked up to him–love in her eyes.

The fire in
front of the newly-weds was lit and everyone circled round,
throwing the ash that changed the flames color–which Jillian just
discovered was a fertility ritual. She looked at each and every
face as they rotated round, a whole village full of people that she
now called family.

When she had
first been brought here, she had thought them to be aliens.
Foreign, other worldly beings close to savages. How wrong she had
been. How kind these people were. Generous, loving. They felt the
same things as humans–anger, jealousy, sadness. But yet far more
besides–they were much more intuitive, much quicker to forgive and
accept.

As Misha and
Charin started their life together, the tribe cheered and the feast
began. Amidst the beat of the drums, the tantalizing smell of
roasting meat and the crackle of the fire, Jillian and Faron shared
a moment together. Staring into each other’s eyes, they had no need
for words. The love inside them was visible to all. With the first
of their many children growing inside of her belly–filled with the
love from her husband, her family and friends, Jillian’s happiness
soared. She had found a place to belong, at last.

The End.