by Nobo13
FINDING WORDS FOR LOVE
by Nobo13
Copyright 2012 Nobo13
*****
Finding Words for Love
The last three years have really been busy for earth. It all started with the Mars missions by Russia. It was hard to believe but they had found ruins there, and even harder to believe, they talked with aliens.
The next few months were hectic as countries and organisations fought for their place in the whole scheme of things. Whatever happened, the ones on top would benefit the most out of all of this.
In the end three countries dominated the positions, Russia, America, then China. As a graduate who spoke all three languages, I suddenly found myself from being a jobless nobody, to a very good position.
I studied in the states where I majored in linguistics. I later found myself job hunting for the next three years. Unsuccessful job hunting that is. I found myself in a one room apartment doing nothing. I ate bread for a month once because I had no cash. I found myself doing anything for money.
But it all changed when first contact happened. The first meeting of aliens was broadcasted all over the world in real time. Holograms of the event streamed across all public places, but I couldn’t care less. I simply stayed at home doing nothing. But it wasn’t long before I found myself heading out for my last job interview.
Mankind couldn’t speak a single word to them. All of a sudden, people like me were needed. I guess one word describes those three years the best.
NEET: Not in employment, education or training.
*****
I remember the queue was massive. I was one of millions applying for a job of learning the alien language. There were all sorts of people from all over the world. I really didn’t think I had a chance.
The first sets of interviews were meat grinders. If you couldn’t speak at least Russian, English and Mandarin, you were knocked out straight away.
Next came a three hour reading test. All of earth’s languages appeared in this test, a question in each tongue. I couldn’t believe it. The effort needed to put all this together would be enormous. But I guess I wasn’t thinking that at the time, all I could think was that I failed. I couldn’t answer more than half of the questions. I just sat there staring at the ceiling for the last two hours, that’s how bad it was.
Amazingly, no one was knocked out, the third test came straight away. Each candidate was taken to a room one by one. In each room was an interviewer. Simple enough right? But guess again, each interviewer spoke tongue. I suppose they wanted to know how well we would do when learning a new language.
Fortunately I learned a bit about body language, I tried the usual simple tactics, I highlighted myself and spoke my name. Luckily I got the interviewer to give me his name. George. In the twenty minutes we were given, I got pretty far. Afterwards I was told to go to a certain room in another building.
Without knowing it, this was the fourth test. I walked over the university grounds where the interviews took place and into another building. I stared and sighed heavily. All the signs were in another language, probably made up. Even the staff here spoke tongue.
I got to the room in about half an hour. Inside were four old men.
“Congratulations candidate, you’ve passed the preliminary process” one said
I shook hands with all of them before thanking them. They handed me a bulky envelope and told me to translate the contents. The deadline was in a week. I nodded and left. I opened it and peeped inside. It was an alien language. I had but one word on my mind.
FTW: For the win.
*****
I spent three days awake, eating nothing but instant noodles. It didn’t make sense, what kind of language did these aliens speak? I couldn’t figure it out.
Was it a letter? Was it a sampled text? I couldn’t get my head around it, it was gibberish, complete and utter nonsense. Afterwards, I must have fallen asleep. I woke up having slept nearly a day. I didn’t really know what to do so I took a walk outside. It was dark and the stars started coming out. I stared at them as the bright diamond appeared.
That’s where they were, that bright diamond was the international space station. Fifty odd nations made that, but now it housed two worlds. I found myself crying, I wanted to go. I wanted to go so badly.
The rest of my work was in vain. I went to the next interview without a clue. I stood before ten members that were all famous astronauts or something similar. They asked me how I did. I simply gulped and told them how it was.
“It’s gibberish, I couldn’t translate it” I said in a quiet voice
“Could you explain a bit more?” one member said
“Ah, well, there isn’t any structure…” and that’s when I struck it lucky, “… it’s like something a toddler would write”
At once there was murmuring and I saw that they were impressed. Before I could ask, they simply told me that they would contact me.
I stepped out and stood there in a daze. Did I pass? Or was that the polite way of saying ‘you didn’t get it?’ I sighed and ate at the cafeteria downstairs. I undid my tie and pulled at my cheap £30 suit. I sighed and expected to go back to job hunting. Unsuccessful job hunting that is.
A week later I got a call. Yes? Excuse me? What? I was running in circles naked in a one room apartment. I was selected for the next phase of tests! Only one word describes that naked form of mine.
Ecstatic: A feeling or expression of overwhelming excitement from joy.
*****
The next three months of my life was hell. I went through physical training to ensure I was fit for space travel. I’m not complaining though, my fat belly got replaced with a six pack, and my arms could lift my own weight.
But there was one thing I hated, a diet of steamed chicken and veg. I was glad to eat a pizza at the end of my training.
After that, all the candidates were shipped off to Russia. In the cold universities, we studied the alien culture and written language. Of the five hundred selected, three hundred were knocked out during this time.
And then by six months, there was going to be a selection exam. I studied with five Russians and a British chap for a week straight. We kept each other awake, and took shifts doing an hour nap. I’m really grateful for them, they kept me going when I thought of giving up.
In the end, I was twenty fifth in the exam results. They needed five members. All I could think of was ‘now what?’ What were the rest of us supposed to do now that they have their five? Would we all be jobless again?
They kept us studying for a week when we heard. The five were rejected. All we could do was gossip about why and what went wrong, but we weren’t told. The next five prepared for space as we all wondered on what was happening.
Three days later, the next five were told to get ready. One of the Russians I knew was going, we held a party for her the night before she left.
I spent that week hoping for my chance, and when it arrived I couldn’t believe it. By then, they only wanted four candidates. One had stayed, we all wondered why.
I had two days before I would travel to space. My friends held a party for me as well, I told them that I’d probably be sent back but at least I’d have gone to space and met aliens.
Little did I know, that my meeting would change my whole life.
Question mark (?): a punctuation mark that indicates a question.
*****
“How’s it?” a medical team member asked me
“F-fine” I barely said
“Let me do your obs… everything’s in check, your blood pressure is a tad bit low, keep your fluids up”
“Ok”
I reached for my bottle and held it up. I expected the drink to seep out but tiny balls
of red flew out slowly. That’s when I realised it. I undid my belt and drifted to the window. Outside was a giant blue gem. That was earth.
I was in space. My body was weightless as I flew from wall to wall gently. The other four joined me as we all giggled and laughed. We even forgot our aches and pains from the rocket trip up here.
We were told that we would be docking with the station in twenty minutes, we had that time to play, after that, it would be professional from then on. That was my first and last water fight in space.
We arrived to be greeted by the hundred odd members of the space station. I really couldn’t believe it, we were all in tears at the event. It was then we all knew we wanted to stay.
It was a further twenty hours of checks and examinations before we met them, before I fell in love.
I remember the white tunnel into a great hall. There stood four aliens. Besides from their clothing, they looked remarkably like us. As I stepped closer I could see that their eye colours were of bright colours as well as their hairs. I came even closer before I saw her.
We looked into each other’s eyes for a second before I looked away. I could feel my heart beating faster as I took a peek of her. She smiled back at me before I turned away again. Really, this was something a little boy would do… yet here I was, so nervous to even look at her.
Despite one of the aliens, the rest were female I was told. The four of us stood in a line as the aliens stared at us. There were five other members of the team here, they stood silently before announcing the start. Get ready they said. Ready? For what?
It was then, that the girl that smiled to me, walked over to me and took my hand. I was a bit confused, as the rest of the aliens, even my fellow colleagues, did nothing. The five other members talked and nodded to each other.
Three came over to me and told me congratulations, the other two went to the rest and told them they would return to earth in thirty hours. I stared dazed at them as they stared back at me with jealousy. What happened? Why was I selected? All I knew was, I was happy as she held my hand.
Embrace: a sign of affection.
*****
I was told my job now was to teach this lady my language. Of course, I would also learn hers, I knew a bit from all the studying back in Russia but it wasn’t enough.
I found myself with her all the time. We had our meals together, we spend four hours a day together learning each other’s words, and we spend our free time together. Though we slept in separate beds, they were close by, but of course, everyone was also close by.
I found myself happy with her by my side but for the time being, we never spoke. Those first days together, I was so nervous, I couldn’t even look at her. She was the more confident of us, but even still she couldn’t say a word to me. It wasn’t like she wasn’t trying, but she didn’t know our language. Even the simple task to getting her to say her name took me a while. When she learnt my name, she was happy. She would call it all the time.
I can still remember when I first heard her gentle voice. It was like the summer wind to me. Every hour was warm when I was with her. I simply lost myself in my thoughts as I spend each day falling a little bit more in love with her than my work. I still didn’t understand her very well, but just hearing her speak was ok.
Gradually I got the confidence to speak to her. I would say something and she would laugh. I wasn’t sure if I was saying it wrong, or if I said something strange, but I didn’t care. Her laugh was music to my ears.
There was a kitchen available to us, and it was on some days that she took me there. She would cook something for me and I enjoyed it. I suppose it was an alien meal, but it didn’t quite taste right. I tried the word sour and she nodded. From then on, whenever she cooked for me, it wasn’t sour at all.
I tried to cook something for her, but she objected quite violently. I didn’t even hear the individual words. It was just a noise that even I knew what it meant. But with time, I got to at least cook an omelette for her. I can remember her look as I gave it to her.
“Life” she looked at me
I wasn’t sure what she meant as I bobbed my two fingers up and down, a sign that meant I didn’t know.
“Life. Here.” She pointed to the egg
“Ah, yes. Life. This is called egg. Egg”
“Egg is life”
“Ah, yes…”
I found myself thinking things I never did before. I never thought about the life that was on my plate. The corpse I ate to stay alive. I never made her eggs again, and became a vegetarian soon after. I never thought I’d give up meat, but the sadness I saw in her eyes that day had changed me.
Meat: the most delicious food you can eat.
*****
It had been nearly a year, and they were now only looking for one candidate. I had come to realise why all the others had been rejected. It came about that day during a lesson.
We had gotten to know each other’s languages well enough now. We could talk about simple things. I enjoyed learning about her. She would ask me about my life, and about animals as well. It appeared she loved creatures small and big, so I brought photos along in most lessons.
Be it a bug or a great big whale, she loved them all. I asked which was her favourite animal and she replied ‘man.’ I didn’t realise she meant me at the time.
We had started grammar and I struggled with learning hers. She wasn’t too well on English, so we tried Russian instead. She could at least speak properly like that.
It was that day when I asked her about a word. Each day we were given a list of words to learn, and the other would teach us. Generally I didn’t need much help, but now the words were getting much more complicated.
For example, did you know they have seven words for crying? One for when it’s sad, one for when it’s happy, and others for describing when someone calls. She was very confused that we had one word for all seven meanings.
It was that day I asked about a certain word. I spoke it slow and clearly. She blushed a bit for a second before fretting silently. I saw her fingers go about in confusion as I asked her to explain it better. She nodded before coming to my side. She took my hand before kissing me.
Szuhlp: to kiss someone you love.
*****
I came to realise that these aliens, they had come here to find partners. They had travelled for further than we could ever know to find us, the very last few of their kind. Our love story was one that span the whole universe, and one that meant saving a race.
I didn’t really understand it all myself, but I suppose love at first sight was an important thing. Arhciul is what they call it.
From then on, we were always together. Whenever she could, she held my hand. I had never really been in love with anyone, so it was hard for me. I was glad she was so understanding.
We spent our time together in the peace of space. She had gotten better at Russian, and soon we were speaking well to each other. I spoke about my past dreams, about how I’d travel the world learning every language. I told her how I felt when I first met her, and about how happy I was.
She told me that once everything was settled, she would be glad for me to take her home, even if it was a one room apartment. With the money I’d saved up, I could probably buy a fancy house now.
And that’s when we started to plan out our future together. It was a joke at the start, but it became something serious. Where we would live, what kind of pets we would have. We planned out a very normal life that everyone dreams of.
I never imagined myself in love. I never thought how I could know what someone liked just by looking at it, I never thought I could understand someone without speaking to them. I was completely under her spell.
It was nearly another year now, and I was due to return to earth for check ups and tests. She wasn’t happy about me leaving. It wasn’t the right time for her to leave yet, so I had to go alone. I remember the day before, she was silent and still, hardly making eye contact with me. Though we could speak, she simp
ly held my hand as we sat in silence.
I thought back, remembering the time we spent together. Since the beginning, even though we couldn’t speak to each other, we still loved one another. All we were doing was just finding words for our love.
We walked together to the exit. We hadn’t spoken a word for a day. I didn’t know what I could say to cheer her up. I spoke with the medical team as they declared me fit for travel. We had about ten minutes before the capsule would depart.
I sat with her as I could feel the pain she was going through. I wondered how I could make it better before it came to me. As they called for me to file in, I said one word to her. With that, she kissed me and hugged me before letting me go.
Kohlol: to love someone for life.
*****
I returned safely to earth and finished my check ups. Besides minor bone weakening, I passed. I expected to return to space in a few weeks but I heard there wasn’t need to, she would come down in the following month. She had apparently put up a fight up there.
That night I stayed up and stared at the bright diamond. She was there, but soon she would be by my side again. I stared at my apartment before shaking my head. She deserved better.
I went out and bought that fancy house, and got the pets we spoke about. I got everything ready for her, the person I would love for life. I simply stared at everything we dreamed of as I thought about how I would spend the rest of my life with her. And how I missed her even now, I never thought I could love someone so much, or that someone could love me.
In the end, I could never put into words how I felt, I’m sure it was the same with her. But that won’t stop us trying, together we will find the words that will describe our love. But for now, it’s a feeling best described like this.
Love: something words cannot describe.
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