“It’s just the door, I’ll be right back baby.” I kissed him on the forehead and thankfully he quietened, though his eyes were open and wide awake as he looked up at me. I left him in his bed and went to answer the door. On the other side was a huge hulking figure of a man…dressed in clothes a lot like the Star Trek-looking outfit Jay had been wearing. I held my breath…
“Can I help you?” I looked up…and up at the man’s teal blue eyes. His features were strong and traditionally handsome. His gaze was hesitant, but also shrewd.
“This question may seem odd, but do I appear familiar to you at all my lady?” he asked in a deep gravelly voice.
“Your clothes…I met someone some months ago who dressed like you,” I pointed out. He took a deep breath before he nodded.
“Then you are the one, you lay with an Abalonian named Jesper?” I remembered all Jay’s talk about his being from another planet called Abalon…but I didn’t know a Jesper.
“His name was Jay…and he spoke about a planet named Abalon…though I didn’t really believe him. Who are you?” I asked, trying to get my head on straight and ask proper questions.
“I am Rockwell. I need to speak with you about your encounter with this…Jay,” he said slowly and I glanced back at LJ’s bassinet. I didn’t want some huge strange man simply walking into the house.
“I’m sorry, I don’t feel comfortable just letting you in,” I said and he looked past me, right at LJ
“That is your child, the one you had with this Jay?” he asked me and I tilted my head and stared at him in confusion.
“How do you know?”
“We found out that a child with Abalonian blood was born on Earth. I believe it that child there. My mission is to bring you back to Abalon so that the child can be tested to reveal its father,” he said and I recoiled a bit.
“You expect me to just believe all that?” Rockwell reached into the pocket of his pants.
“This is the male you lay with correct?” he said. He showed me a picture of Jay, smiling and handsome as ever, on the screen of a phone. But only it wasn’t like a cellphone you would find…on this planet. It was a clear touch screen with two silver ends that held a speaker and microphone, or so I guessed.
“That’s Jay…what is that though?” I asked him and pointed at the phone.
“This is King Jesper of our planet Abalon. He gave you a false name on your night spent together. There is a strong possibility that your son is his and therefore the heir to the Abalonian throne.”
I stared at him in shock. My whole body had gone rigid. And that’s when LJ started to cry from my being away from him for too long.
“I…I…” I didn’t know what to say, but LJ got through to me and eventually I stepped aside to go and pick him up. Rockwell, or whatever his name was, stepped into the apartment and shut the door behind him. “What does it all mean?” I asked him.
My mind was not keeping up with anything. I was still stuck on the fact that the whole thing about Abalon could actually be true! Rockwell peered at LJ and surprisingly smiled. Though it was a small smile.
“He has the king’s eyes…what name did you bestow upon him?”
“Well I thought…I thought Jesper’s name was Jay, so I named him Jay,” I explained.
“So his true name would be Jesper then, Jesper the Second,” Rockwell said and I thought, well on Abalon maybe, but on Earth his name was Jay.
“I call him LJ for Little Jay…or Jesper now I guess… oh this is too much,” I said. My chest felt like it was about to explode, but LJ was the only thing holding me together as I held him. He was real and in my arms. At least I could be sure of that.
“I can understand how this could be overwhelming for you, my lady. But we truly must get to Abalon. There all will be explained,” Rockwell said respectfully.
“Why would I want to go to a man who lied to me about his own name…who didn’t truly explain the reality that I was having sex with someone from another planet?” I asked him, and LJ complained at my distress. He reached up to my face as I cradled him and soon, I knew, he’d start crying. I bent down to kiss him and then took a deep breath, inhaling his scent. I calmed down a little and then looked up at Rockwell again.
“Do you have kin on this planet? Notable obligations?” he asked me in all seriousness.
“No…I don’t, but Earth is my home,” I said and Rockwell made an apologetic gesture with his hands.
“I am afraid Abalon will have to be your new home. There are customs and laws as well as concerns that simply won’t allow for LJ to be raised here. As I said to you, he is heir now.”
Then it hit me…Rockwell kept saying how Jesper was a king and that LJ a prince. What the hell did that make me? Some sort of human concubine?
“We should go now my lady,” said Rockwell, glancing around. “Is there anything you would like to bring?” I was surprised for his consideration, but then again he seemed pretty nice despite his huge and tough exterior.
“Yes…I guess I’ll pack a few things,” I said slowly and then walked with LJ over to the bed. I laid him down in his bassinet and then quickly packed a few pictures of my parents, from when they were still alive, and LJ’s favorite toys.
“I can’t believe this is real…” I mumbled to myself as I slung the duffel bag over my shoulder. I then got some clothes for LJ to put over his onesie, a pair of thick socks with some comfortable cotton pants and a long sleeved shirt.
“I can carry the bag for you,” Rockwell offered. I picked up LJ and handed him the bag. Half of my mind was warring with the other. Was any of this real? Was it a dream? If it was reality but some sort of elaborate trick was I walking into a dangerous situation? What if Rockwell was telling the complete truth? What if I was about to be on some other planet?
“Rockwell I don’t know about this, you could be fooling me,” I said and Rockwell shook his head at me.
“If I were fooling you, for reasons to harm you or LJ I could have done so by now. I can show you the spacecraft and then you’ll see. Otherwise you can come right back up here,” he said and held my gaze steadily. I didn’t see any reason not to trust him…so I nodded and then followed him out to the hallway and then upstairs until we came to the roof. There stood something that looked like a fighter jet, with a hell of a high tech propulsion system.
“Oh…my God,” I breathed and Rockwell looked at me.
“So do you believe me now,” he asked. I had no option but to nod woodenly. I looked down at LJ whose head was wobbling as he stared at the spaceship with his big eyes. I held him more securely in my arms, and then slowly followed Rockwell towards the ship…or jet, or whatever it was. The difference inside was that instead of two seats front to back, the seats were next to each other.
“How are we going to strap LJ in?” I asked and Rockwell pointed to a car seat looking fixture next to the passenger seat.
“He will be perfectly safe, due to the anti-inertia system. Even you will barely feel the trip,” he assured me.
When we were all seated, he typed something into a console in front of us, and then we slowly ascended into the sky. We built speed quickly until all I was aware of were colors going from light blue to black with streaks of white light. Then we slowed. I gasped when I saw the night sky of an entirely different planet. The land below was bright with a teeming city and even from high up I could tell that the ground, the grass on the countryside was in shades of white instead of green.
“It’s true…it’s actually true, this is…this is Abalon?”
“Yes my lady, soon we will be on the royal palace grounds,” Rockwell answered. I glanced down at LJ. The trip had lasted about an hour and he slept through everything. He was still sleeping so peacefully. Soon everything would change though.
*****
“This way my lady.”
Rockwell led me through the ridiculously large palace. I had never seen anything like it before. It was like some mix between the Palace of Versailles and the Taj
Mahal. The people walking about were all so finely dressed, or wearing uniforms similar to Rockwell’s. I did notice that all the men were really tall and muscular. Rockwell was walking quickly and my attention was pulled all over the place. There were definitely little similarities on Abalon to the aesthetics of Earth. I was glad that LJ had enough of trying to be awake to see what was going on. He was heavily asleep in my arms. I tried to keep my walking steady so as not to rock him too much.
Rockwell stopped short and I almost ran into him. “Wait here,” he said. We had stopped in a quiet hallway. There wasn’t anyone walking back and forth like in the rest of the palace. Directly in front of us was a large set of ornately carved mahogany doors. For some reason my heart rate sped up dramatically as Rockwell disappeared behind those doors. I subtly shifted LJ to my shoulder. He wrapped one chubby arm around my neck and hid his face in my nape.
A few moments later the huge doors opened wide and there he was Jay – or Jesper, which was his actual name. He looked the same, though his hair was a little longer and his eyes were, well they were wide with several emotions I couldn’t name exactly.
“Hello Clarice,” he said. His voice was a little choked and raspy with emotion. Then his caramel colored eyes shifted to LJ on my shoulder and stayed there.
“Jesper…is it?” I asked and then his gaze snapped back to mine.
“Yes…I apologize for not being honest with you, or conveying the truth of my being from Abalon,” he said with true sincerity. “I apologize for…for—” he looked at LJ again and his emotions got the best of him as he couldn’t get any more words out. “It is…a boy?” he asked me after a long pause.
“Yes…his name is LJ. I named him Jay, after you,” I said. Jesper’s eyes closed briefly. I imagined he was feeling a lot of regret at that moment. “But he’s just a month old, we can change it to Jesper, he’ll still be LJ” I said and he nodded.
“That would be…a great honor,” he said. Then he slowly walked towards me and then held out his arms for LJ. “Can I hold him?”
“Do you know how to hold a baby?” I asked and had to smirk at the brief flash of panic that crossed his features.
“I have never had to hold a child before,” he admitted. I shifted LJ in my arms to demonstrate.
“Make sure you support his head and keep him close to your body,” I instructed, and then gingerly shifted a still sleeping LJ into his father’s arms for the first time. Jesper’s face was rapt as he stared at the baby and instinctually began to rock him back and forth.
“He is…beautiful,” Jesper said in a reverent whisper. Then he bent his head to kiss LJ on the forehead.
“My king…” A voice I didn’t recognize came from a man dressed in a long grey robe. He looked kind of like a monk and was watching Jesper with a wary expression. He had materialized behind Jesper. I wanted to reach for LJ.
“Oyce,” Jesper sighed, almost resignedly. He carefully handed LJ back to me and turned to face the guy.
“We should administer the test…to be sure of things of course,” he said and then bowed to Jesper respectfully.
“What test?” I asked Jesper and he gave me a reassuring nod.
“A simple genetics test, for official purposes,” he explained. I hoped a DNA test on Abalon was as simple as a cheek swab, like the kind on Earth. Then that got me to wondering about vaccines and such for Abalonians. I’d have to talk to Jesper about that. In the meantime, I followed after him and then became aware of Rockwell’s presence behind me. He was like a stone pillar. I wondered what he was to Jesper. When we left what I assumed were the king’s private quarters, there were more people milling the halls and walkways. As soon as they saw Jesper they would pause even in mid-conversation to bow or salute him. Then their eyes went to me and the baby, expressing open curiosity and even confusion.
“We’re going to the royal medical quarters; there we will take a sample of the child’s DNA, as well as yours. It will be a short wait for the results,” said Jesper, slowing his pace to match mine as he explained things. “It will be completely harmless.”
“So once it’s ‘official’ that he’s yours and I’m his biological mother, what will happen?” I asked Jesper, who glanced back at Rockwell. Rockwell simply nodded to him.
“I will explain once we are in private,” was all he said. His eyes drifted down to LJ. “He is a sound sleeper,” he said, and I chuckled.
“He’s just exhausted from a night spent awake and crying nonstop,” I said. Jesper’s expression became concerned. “He’s only a month old, it’s to be expected,” I added. Jesper nodded, though his gaze was still concerned as he looked at LJ once more.
“You must be fatigued as well then?” he asked. I simply shrugged, not answering him explicitly.
“We have arrived,” Oyce announced. We passed through a glass entrance to a pristine medical facility that appeared as any normal, high end, clinic. We walked directly back into a large examining room. There was a small crib with a monitor, and pieces of what looked like medical equipment.
“You will need to set the child down there my lady.” Oyce spoke to me directly and gave me one of those bows after he spoke. I wondered what kind of tradition that habit was bred from. Did it speak to his class or something? If I was going to live on Abalon with LJ I was definitely going to need several history lessons.
I set LJ down, and that was the precise moment he chose to wake up, his eyes opening as he yawned. He saw me first so didn’t immediately freak out, but then his eyes went all around. He looked at Jesper for a while, before he started to complain.
A tall willowy woman breezed into the room and then greeted each of us, the bowed to Jesper and inclined her head to the rest of us. “Your Majesty, General Rockwell, Advisor Oyce, my lady. I am pleased to see that our Abalonian child was traced and brought home to Abalon,” she said though I was unsure who she was speaking to. Her eyes were on me.
“Of course, doctor. A matter of such importance could not be delayed,” Oyce said. Jesper tensed next to me.
“Then let us verify whether this child has our king’s blood,” she said in an efficient and clipped tone. She walked over to the set of cabinets and pulled out two recognizable finger pricks and blood samplers. My hope for a cheek swab fell flat. I rubbed LJ’s head to comfort him a little. He was aware that something was very different about our surroundings. As the doctor, or who I assumed was a doctor, walked over to LJ and me, a few more Abalonians entered the room. They were all dressed in official attire, like Rockwell. Lastly, a man and woman walked in, dressed in very fine clothing, and surrounded with gravity and importance. Jesper tensed up even further.
Their eyes glazed over me and locked onto LJ while the doctor cleaned my middle finger before pricking me.
“Dear son, we just heard the news,” they said. Of course, they were his parents. Jesper had his mother’s eyes.
“Let us all just hold our comments until we have the results please,” Jesper said tightly. His mother’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. I didn’t even feel the doctor prick my finger and take the blood. After me, she approached LJ who complained. I was surprised that she cooed at him, trying to soothe him as she removed his sock and cleaned the bottom of his heel. Jesper’s parents moved closer and all the people moved out of the way so they could see LJ. They both gasped when they saw his eyes, which were identical to Jesper’s. I simply stood in the background as much as possible, even though my baby and I were the veritable center of attention. I couldn’t help but anticipate the confrontation that would ensue when our blood checked out, as I knew it would.
Everyone held their breath while the doctor went over to what looked like a computer sitting on a nearby counter. It was made of a plain glass, and attached to a mount holding it up. There was also a panel next to it that had various sleek-looking inputs on it. She slid mine and LJ’s samples into it like it was an SD card and then took out another finger prick and sampler to take Jesper’s blood. Once she had it
she input that too and everyone held their breath when the glass screen came to life.
Three charts emerged on the screen showing the data. After what felt like an eternity the doctor looked at Jesper.
“He is your son my king, and she his true mother,” said the doctor. I could have told them that, but anyway, now it was official.
After the doctor’s comment there was a chaos of voices and LJ really started to cry. Yet he didn’t even flinch when he was pricked in the heel. I slid his sock back on and then picked him up while everyone else seemed to speak to each other at once. Rockwell tilted his head to the exit. I nodded then followed him out into the hall to try and quiet LJ. He had to be hungry by then, but I wasn’t about to pull out my boob in the middle of the hallway.
“I have to get him to try and eat, is there another room…?” I asked him and he nodded.
“Yes, there is a private suite just this way,” I followed him farther down the hall. The private suite may as well have been quadruple the size of my apartment back home. “I will stand guard outside my lady,” he said, and turned to go. I stopped him before he left.
“You can call me Clarice, please,” I added and he inclined his head.
“Lady Clarice,” he amended and I smirked. He then left, giving me the quiet and privacy I needed with LJ. I wasn’t sure what would happen next, but I knew that I’d protect LJ and fight to stay with him at all costs.
*****
LJ was in rare form, usually he fed without any fuss, but he knew something was up so I had to talk to him.
Pregnant to an Alien King Box Set Page 3