by Rena Marks
“Okay, onward to the kitchens,” she announced, waving at Jason who remained on the fence as she and the children headed on their way. It was both a relief and yet strangely lonely not to have Thane tagging along. Oh, well, he was back where he belonged and would probably forget about them soon enough. But later, in her tent alone, she would remember. Remember how he grinned at her story, remember how he stared at her like he’d never seen a human before.
Which, of course, he had. From what she understood, they had human employees. She’d applied, but with the felony on her record, she’d been rejected immediately.
The children were babbling about the story she’d told, but soon it morphed into what the Xeno Sapiens might have on the other side of the wall. They’d spent a couple of hours shelling beans and shucking corn before she rounded the children up to head back to camp where a few of the parents should be waiting.
Sure enough, three of the parents were back. The kids would head to their own tents for a couple of hours before the dinner boxes were able to be collected. The people of their camp usually sat together for the dinner meal, talking about the day and their experiences. She lived for the stories they told about the various Xeno Sapiens that they met that day.
And the underlying rumor that there were Xeno Sapien babies on the other side of that wall. Was it true? Could Thane have a little green infant? Or would a baby be…half human? Because, of course, the children would have the genes of half the mother and half father. Even if the Xeno Sapiens were able to reproduce together, it would be two different alien species mixing. Perhaps a gold and a green baby. There was a gold female who patrolled the wall. Would she be attractive to Thane?
She checked on Adam, who was sleeping soundly still. Good, it meant he would have the strength to head to the kitchens to claim a meal later. His father had to carry him a couple of nights earlier because only one box per person was doled out. It was one of the rules, as unfair as they were.
“Everly McMillan! Is there an Everly McMillan here?”
The Xeno Sapien who was barking her name would wake up Adam. She hurried to the small gathering of people, where some were already pointing her out.
He was unusual looking. Red skin, the color of a ripe tomato. Like all of the other Xeno Sapiens, he was tall and muscular. But she tried not to focus on his looks so much as why he was here. This was the second time she’d encountered an actual Xeno Sapien.
“This is for Everly,” he announced, pointing to the long, tube-like contraption he’d brought.
He pressed a button, and a sharp stake protruded from the bottom, which he used to stab into the ground. He pressed the button a second time and the tube unfolded, arms snaking out from the top to make a giant canopy.
“Hold your finger down on the button at night to make the hologram lights activate under the canopy. You’ll have some light for evenings and protection from rain.”
The Xeno Sapien turned to leave.
“Wait. Why? Who did this? How do you know my name?”
He shrugged. “This is for Everly.” He made the announcement again, as if someone might snatch her beautiful canopy, before turning and disappearing.
She stared at it in confusion. It was amazing. It would serve as a shade from the sun during the day. She and the children wouldn’t have to rush through lunch and story time before the heat of the sun blazed down upon their heads.
But all around the camp, eyes stared curiously at her. Because who was she to get such a prized gift among the homeless?
Chapter Two
She tried to remain on the down low the next couple of days even though the sun-shade taunted her with its presence. Eventually, people of her camp grew used to the contraption and began to use it, bringing a couple of rickety folding chairs to set beneath it. It was a relief to have it viewed as community property after the strange announcement the Xeno Sapien kept making. “This is for Everly.”
For Everly.
Good grief, way to single her out in a world of people who tried to blend.
Nearly a week after her encounter with Thane, he showed up again. It was the children who were excited as she took them to the pond used for laundering clothing. Each child had a basket with a change of their clothing and one of their parents’. Adam was up and about this time.
“Thane! Thane!” Savannah bobbed up and down in her excitement to wave, as if Thane couldn’t see them.
“Good afternoon,” he said to the children. He lugged a large box-like carrier that hung from a strap over his shoulder.
Jacob stared at the contraption. “Whatcha got, Thane?”
“It’s a surprise for story time.” Thane winked at him, and then turned to face her.
She felt her cheeks warm at his first gaze. Land sakes, he was even more beautiful in person than she’d remembered. She had no idea how his skin lit up with such luminosity, but green skin should not be so lovely. It should be plain and dull. His brown and yellow eyes should not be so gorgeous. But brown and yellow were an understatement. Both shades were more golden than anything. They glittered with warmth and brightness.
“Hello, Everly.” Damn, if his voice didn’t sound lovely.
“H-hi,” she stammered, clearing her throat. “It’s nice to see you again, Thane.”
“Are you staying for a while, Thane?” Savannah had no such qualms about talking to him.
“If Miss Everly will have me.” His eyes never left hers as he answered the little girl.
“Oh, she will. Everly takes care of everyone.”
“She does, does she? Maybe later she’ll let me take care of her.” He turned to face her. “I can take you over the wall,” he said. “Show you my city. Maybe afterward you can weave new stories during your story time.”
The children gasped along with her.
“You can do that?”
He nodded. “I can.”
“Please go, Everly.” Even Adam sounded excited. “We can hear all about the city in the next day’s story.”
“When?” She was lost in his eyes, those smooth, velvety, golden-brown eyes.
“Dinnertime.” His voice was soft. “I know you supervise the children in preparing the meal. Afterward, we can bring them back here and you and I can go.”
She nodded. “I’d like that.”
He finally tore his beautiful eyes away to focus on the children. “What are we doing here? Washing clothes?”
“Uh, huh,” Savannah said. “We rub them on these rocks. And we can smear this soap on them. Everly says to focus under the arms of the shirts.”
“She does, does she?” Thane’s eyes twinkled as he glanced her way, and she felt her cheeks warm again. Damn blushing. Hopefully her tanned color since becoming homeless would mask that. “Why is that?”
“Grownups get stinky.” Savannah shrugged like it was a fact of life.
“I get tired to wash,” Jacob said, his small voice loud like he wanted to be included in the conversation.
“You get tired cause you forget and stick that thumb in your mouth when it’s all soapy,” Stevie said.
“It tastes icky,” Jacob said to Thane, wrinkling his nose.
“How about if I help you with your load?” Thane asked him, reaching for his pile. “Are these your daddy’s shirts?”
“Uh, huh. And this is my mommy’s.” He held up the shirt belonging to his mother.
“Thanks,” Everly murmured. “I usually help him with those.”
Thane smiled at her. His smile was devastating. His lips curled, deepening the grooves on the side of his sexy mouth and crinkling his eyes at the corners. She swore she felt her belly drop at the sudden beauty.
“Did you like the new canopy for story time?” Thane asked the children, breaking her trance.
“Yes! It’s so nice to have the shade,” Stevie answered.
“Yes, thank you for thinking of us,” Penelope followed.
Everly felt proud that her little group remembered their manners.
“An
ything I can do to make it a little bit easier out here,” Thane said. Then he looked at Everly.
“Do you like our Everly?” Adam asked.
“Adam!” She was aghast that he would ask such a thing, especially when they were doing so well.
“Yes, I do,” Thane said easily.
She’d never blushed so hard in her life.
“Well?” Savannah prompted, nudging her with her shoulder.
“Well what?” Everly asked.
“Do you like Thane, too?”
Oh, good grief. “Yes,” Everly replied. “Very much. Just like I like all of you little rascals.”
Little Jacob clapped his little hands, splashing droplets everywhere. The smallest, most innocent of the bunch. “Yay, Thane! She loves you ‘cause she loves us.”
The other children began giggling.
There was no doubt that her face was red as a tomato now. Red as the Xeno Sapien who had delivered her canopy. She could feel her cheeks burn.
“Out of the mouths of babes,” she said sheepishly.
“It’s okay, Everly,” Thane said. “I love you, too.”
The older children giggled harder while poor little Jacob just looked confused over the laughter he’d caused. They wrung out the wet clothing and put it back in the baskets to keep clean until they could get back to camp.
“Let’s get you changed, Jacob,” Everly said, taking him behind one of the larger boulders for privacy. He was striving to be like one of the bigger kids and no longer wanted to be changed like a baby in front of everyone. She quickly stripped him from his wet clothing and dressed him in clothing that was dry, taking his clothes for a quick rinse in the running creek.
“What do you do with the wet clothes?” Thane asked, easily stepping alongside her.
“The canopy comes in handy,” she smiled. “We toss them on top and it takes almost no time to dry them. We just have to be careful not to toss them too far back to where no one can reach.”
“I bet you can reach, Thane,” Savannah said, looking up at the sheer height of him.
“I’ll do my best,” he said, tweaking her nose.
She happily slipped her hand in his.
Everly couldn’t help but feel envious. Why couldn’t it be just as acceptable for an adult to slip her hand in Thane’s?
When they reached the camp, she lined up the chairs at the edge of the canopy so they could show Thane how they spread out the clothing.
“We have to check it lots,” Adam said to Thane. “We can’t leave them too long cause we don’t want the sun to fade them.”
“I understand,” Thane said solemnly.
“We might as well have story time,” Everly said.
The children cheered and ran around camp gathering chairs to bring to the canopy.
Everly turned to Thane. “After we set up, we usually take a walk to the wall where I have to grab the storage box that’s being powered by your wall’s electrical field.”
“There’s no need today,” Thane said, reaching for the carrier he’d brought. He unzipped the top. Inside were paper sacks—just like theirs. But these were heavy sacks, not the little niblets of leftovers they saved.
“Thane?” Her mouth watered at the sight of so much food.
“Wow, that’s a lot of food,” Savannah said. “Everly should take two before Penelope comes because she gives Penelope her leftovers anyway.”
Everly caught the way Thane narrowed his eyes.
“I’ll tell Jack’s adventures today,” he said, taking her hands and lowering her into a chair. “You eat with the children.”
The older kids came running. Thane placed the little ones in chairs around Everly, leaving the older kids to sit on the ground.
“Where’d you leave off with Jack and the Beanstalk?” he asked.
Before she could respond, Stevie piped up, waving his hands excitedly. “He found giant eggshells. We don’t know what monsters hatched. They could eat people.”
“They don’t eat people,” Thane said. “Because Jack turned the corner to see a mom cooking lunch. She was green, like me. And smack dab in the middle of the room were two brand new green babies who had hatched from an egg and kicked from the shell.”
“What?” Savannah’s eyes were wide. “They weren’t monsters? They were cute, cuddly babies?”
“Yup. They were. You see, their daddies were twins and they go into these cocoons every once in a while. So when their wife got pregnant, she had babies that grew an egg around them, kind of like the daddies. They were very cute and fat and you couldn’t tell them apart unless they wore tiny little shirts that are different colored.”
“What are their names?”
“Logan and Brody.”
“Are they your kids, Thane?”
“Nope. I don’t have a giant green wife sitting over the clouds.”
“What about over the giant wall?” Savannah asked. She was too smart for her own good, but hell if Everly wasn’t dying to know, too.
“Nope. No wife or mate. A mate is what a Xeno Sapien calls his wife. We don’t get married like humans do.”
“Aren’t you human, too?” One of the older teens asked, barely looking up from his food.
“We’re almost human.” He seemed to smile at an inside joke. “But now, back to these giant babies…they’re not exactly well behaved,” Thane said. “And since they had just hatched from their egg, their momma didn’t know they were born yet as she prepared lunch. Now here’s where it gets interesting.” He leaned in. “These babies created all kinds of hell.”
One of the children gasped at the word.
“Oops. I mean heck.” Thane smiled at her apologetically, and the look in his eyes caught her breath. His gaze stared at her for a brief moment before focusing back on the children. “These naughty little babies ran naked through the whole house. They peed, everywhere.” A few children giggled.
Everly hid her smile behind her hand.
“I mean it. Puddles of yellow pee decorated the walls. Apparently the boys learned they could aim to pee.”
“I wanna do that,” Savannah said longingly.
“Nuh, uh, Sav’ni. Only boys could.” Jacob glared like it was their God-given right.
Thane wisely continued on. “They peed in the plants. They peed on the sofa. The only place they didn’t pee was in the toilet, where they should have peed.”
“Oh, they’re gonna get a spankin’,” Jacob said.
“Yeah, that’s beyond time-out,” one of the older teens laughed.
“We can pee behind trees, Thane.” Stevie was matter-of-fact.
“Um, okay. Well, uh, Jack stared at the giant babies and the giant babies stared back. There were two of them and Jack knew it would be hard to get away if they rushed him. Plus, there was pee everywhere so he didn’t want to slide around in it.” He leaned in to whisper. “He didn’t want to touch it at all.”
“Eww!” The chorus echoed with the little ones and set off a round of giggling. Even the older kids smiled.
“What did he do, Thane?”
“I don’t like ta touch babies.” Jacob wrinkled his tiny nose. “So stinky.”
“Duh. You’re almost a baby,” Adam said. “Hush.”
With a chuckle, Thane went on. “One of the babies had been holding onto his…what can I call it?” He looked to Everly for help. “Wiener?”
She just wasn’t sure what to say.
* * * * *
Stars above, this little female was the most adorable human he’d ever seen. He wasn’t sure what made her different, because, quite frankly, they all looked alike. Except for the few he knew, Heather, who was mated to Jett and Brax, and Irina and Amanda, they were all brown. Brown hair. Brown eyes.
Heather was what humans called a throwback, with her dark red hair. Though it was nowhere as bright as the Xeno Sapien, Blaze. And Irina and Amanda didn’t count, because being doctors, they could afford to have their hair color licensed for change.
But the rest of
humanity? All brown. Brown, brown, and more brown.
But damn if this one wasn’t different somehow, despite her tan. Her brown hair was streaked in a golden top layer from the sun, which gave her an exotic look. Her skin was tanned a light brown like a walnut, and he couldn’t help but wonder how far over her glorious body the tan extended.
Were her naughty bits a lighter color? What would it be like to trace the lines of demarcation with his tongue? Would she even let him? He thought he saw her cheeks turn pink when she stared at him too long. Perhaps she was thinking along the same lines.
It was adorable, the flush that covered the apples of her cheeks. Even her lips seemed to redden. The lips he’d like to cover with his own to see if she’d taste sweet.
Unfortunately, this adorable human that he’d been trying to impress was looking at him rather horrified at the moment. Was wiener perhaps too strong a word for the smallish human offspring? He thought perhaps that was the case when the older ones began to snicker.
Everly cleared her throat. “Perhaps wee-wee,” she said, her voice strangled.
Good. Was probably dry-mouthed because she was thinking of his. He gave her a wink and continued the story.
“Anyway, this large, naughty, giant of a baby who had his hand on his wee-wee realized Jack was going to scream. So what did he do? He knew he didn’t want is momma to come in and see the messy puddles all over the room. He reached out and covered Jack’s mouth. With. The. Same. Hand.”
The smallest of the offspring began to giggle, the horrified Everly cracked a smile, and the older children groaned out, “Eww.”
“Jack panicked, his eyes darting back and forth. He almost opened his mouth, and then he shut it quickly. When he and his brothers used to play and one would cover his mouth, he’d usually lick the palm to gross them out enough to remove it—”
“Jack doesn’t have brudders, silly!” The smallest one laughed.
“Oh. Well, the thought crossed his mind to lick the palm, but then he remembered it was a dirty, dirty baby who’d been holding his wiener…err, wee-wee, and so he held his tongue in.”
“Okay, well, that’s probably enough for today,” Everly said. “Lovely story.”