Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 173(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 173(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Poor, sweet Liesje. She’s an older woman, maybe a bit older than my mother was when I last saw her. Her gray hair was unkempt and her clothing dirty and rumpled, and the lights were off inside her house. I introduced myself and Liesje let me borrow her sled. Borrowing the sled turned into me showing up the next day with lunch as a thank you, and then me checking in on her regularly, trying to manage her farm and mine at the same time.
“Liesje’s caught up in terrible depression,” I tell the custodian as I drive my air-sled back toward Liesje’s farm. “I recognize it, but I don’t know how to get her out of it. I’ve been trying things for months now, but I’m running out of ideas. I thought maybe a holiday could bring a bit of a change to her days. Give her something to look forward to.”
He’s quiet, and when I glance over at him, his expression tells me that he thinks I’m exaggerating. “If this colonist is struggling with her mental health, the Port doctor will be happy to prescribe something—”
“She doesn’t go in to Port,” I tell him. “She doesn’t leave her house. Ever. Half the time I’m not even sure if she feeds herself.”
“If she requires assistance, all she has to do is ask. It is a custodian’s responsibility—”
“Did you miss the part where I said she’s depressed?” I shoot him a glare. “Her getting out of bed is a momentous occasion. She’s not gonna pick up the phone and call an alien and tell him she’s fucking sad. Not when aliens are the ones that caused this in the first place.”
He flinches at that and shuts up. I keep driving for a time before he speaks again. Then, “Was it mesakkah who kidnapped her from Earth?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does to me,” he says in a quiet voice. “I am proud of my people and my heritage, but I do not like the actions that some take. It’s hard to win trust when others have abused it so badly.”
Maybe he’s not so bad after all. Maybe I have the wrong impression of him. Maybe—
Jerry chooses that moment to jump from the back of my air-sled onto my ponytail. He makes his “hungry” chirp and climbs on my head with his clingy little claws, his tail swishing.
Sinath makes a disgusted sound in his throat. “That thing is getting germs all over you.”
“That thing is my best friend and the only reason I’m not in the same spot that Liesje is. I didn’t ask for your opinion, anyhow.” I clutch the steering controls of the air-sled tightly and hope I don’t have to shove a custodian out the passenger door.
That’ll be a tough one to explain to the authorities. Yes, have you met him? Huge, huge dickhead. I couldn’t take any more.
He makes a hmph-ing sound in his throat and is silent for the rest of the ride. Suits me just fine. I focus on the skies and sledding the familiar way back towards the hills where my farm is nestled. The rain rests on the windshield for a little longer than it should, as if hinting at forthcoming snow and ice, and I’m so excited. Between that and the gray skies, I’m reminded of blustery New England winters and I miss Earth fiercely.
My eyes get itchy and my throat gets tight, and I blink rapidly until the feeling passes. On the horizon, Liesje’s farm appears and I steer the sled toward the ground. “Here we are. We’ll visit Liesje and then you can see why I want the tree.”
To his credit, the custodian frowns, and I hear his tail thump against the door. “This is an occupied farm?”
“It is.” I know it looks bad. Of course it does. The sled is surrounded by yellowed weeds and parked haphazardly in front of the small house. The supply crates that should be in the barn are still stacked next to the door and covered with a tarp, since they’re too heavy for me to move on my own. Her fields should be brown, bare earth at this point but Liesje hasn’t bothered to change the settings on her bots to clear the fields now that the harvest is done. That’s a more manual process (because the bots will happily clear EVERYTHING and need to be watched) and one I haven’t been able to manage around my schedule just yet.
We get out of the sled and I hesitate, looking over at him. Custodian Sinath—I don’t know his full name—is fearsome looking. He’s not as big as some of the others, but he’s still taller than a human, with broader shoulders. His horns arch proud and high, and his features are lean and narrow. It could be misconstrued as mean looking, and I don’t want Liesje to be afraid of him. I march up to his side, ignoring the patter of rain. I eye his stark gray uniform and the short, military-cut hair that gives no softness to his features. “Can you open your collar?”