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Matt was thrilled to be having a second meeting with the fascinating, mysterious Ana. A little strategizing seemed prudent. It would not be good to startle her or seem too forward, given her reaction at their first meeting. Mrs. Alvillar's kitchen seemed the best choice for their one-on-one, since it was private yet not isolated, and familiar to her.
They got off to a good start thanks to his culinary inspiration: Chinese takeout. She had to be shown how to eat some of it, but once she caught on she dug in with relish.
For a small person she can sure eat!
She ate more than he did, not that he minded. It was fun just watching her. He’d never seen anyone actually pay such close attention to their food.
"That was delicious!" she said. "Thanks!"
Immoderately pleased, he beamed back at her.
"What was that yellow stuff?"
"You mean that stuff there? That's Chinese mustard."
"It's incredible! It's hot like chilis, but it's different too. It makes my nose and my tongue burn. Chili only burns my tongue, not my nose."
"You're right," he laughed, after a moment of reflection. "I never realized that."
“We don’t have hot peppers back home. They’re amazing!”
Off to a good start, thank heavens. She’s a real person. Likeable! Fascinating! Got to know more about her. Maybe I can get her to talk.
He gathered up the wrappers and napkins, tossing them away.
"That makes me wonder—how have you found your former home, earth? I mean, do you like anything here?"
"Oh, certainly! Of course I do! Remember, I've watched and listened to you all for a long time. I love your music, or at least a lot of it. I love your fiction. I have to admit, I don't understand a lot of the poetry. Your history and political systems are troubling, however. Your public health system is primitive. You've had some terrible, terrible wars. And many, many people here are selfish and worship money. But not everyone, of course."
"Well, what about since you've been here in person—what kinds of things surprised you?"
"Oh!"
Her face brightened for the first time, issuing a radiant smile that hit him like a physical force.
Oh God. She’s beautiful.
"The air! The weather—It's so wonderful and alive! The plants, the animals. So beautiful up close. The smells! The roses by the library are so delicate and sweet! The smell of horses! Juniper needles!
“And there’s the food. I can't believe all the amazing flavors. Like that mustard, there, and pizza, and salsa, and carne guisada. Stewed meat. Lemons! Oranges! Peppermint! Oh, Matt, there are such lovely smells and tastes here!"
She said my name!
Steady, man, steady. Try to act normal.
“I like those things too...only they seem familiar to me. It’s fun to see you excited about them.”
"I'm sure there are other things here I would enjoy. It's...it’s just that I've been scared ever since I landed. I'm not a brave person, Matt, and I'm not comfortable around strangers. As much as I want to explain the danger of those meteoroids, I know that very smart people are trying to capture me. I'm terrified of what they might do to me. It's hard to separate reality from all the movies I've seen."
She began folding down the edge of her Styrofoam cup.
Wait! I just folded the edges of my cup. Is that because she thinks that’s the custom? Or maybe she saw someone in a movie doing that. Hmm...
"So,” he hesitated, then said, “I guess you've seen a lot of television and movies, huh? Is that how you learned English?"
"Well, yes. Hleo and I taught each other. We've been working on learning several languages, actually. Hleo keeps good notes."
"Yeah, Hleo. I'm still wondering how you could live all that time by yourself, even with that Hleo assistant there too. How could they send just one person on this assignment? And why you?"
"The mission was the most expensive project our people have ever done. Our whole society contributed. I'm in command of the station, or I was, before I came here. I am the Chief of Thomo’s daughter. This voyage was the very important to us. It had to include someone of high rank to represent all our people.
“But Hleo is the really important one. He can run the mission by himself, without me. If I were to get sick and die or do something stupid like disobey orders and go to the planet we're studying, the mission will continue just the same."
She paused and pressed her lips together. Matt was beginning to relax. It was fun talking to her once he realized she wasn't going to run off or sprout claws and fangs and tear him to shreds. He'd seen a few movies himself. She really did seem like a normal person, a small, normal person. A small, extremely intelligent normal person. Well, OK then, a small, extremely intelligent, scared, super-attractive not at all normal person with a sense of humor who happens to be from another planet. She was miraculous.
"Uh, if you don't mind, can I ask how old you are?"
"I don't mind. But I can't give you an answer that will mean much to you."
"Why not?"
She licked a finger and pressed it against some fortune cookie crumbs and licked the crumbs off.
I did that too, he thought. She’s just learning, from me!
"Well, consider: you measure your own age by the number of trips around the sun you have made. I have made a number of those too, about seventy, but for most of those I was in suspension. And I was alive a good while before I came to your sun.
“We have our own sun, but our year is a different length. I've also spent some time in suspension during the transit. And the vessel accelerated to nearly the speed of light, during which time slows down. You may remember your Albert Einstein said it would. So for people here, twenty six years might have passed, but time for me passed much more slowly, maybe only two or three years. I left my home planet before you were born!
“Once we set up the station, I was in suspension off and on in between observation periods. Usually, Hleo would wake me up every seven or eight years for a period of a year or less. That would slow down time for me even more. Do you see? I might have been born 100 earth years ago, but from my point of view, I’m not nearly that old. It's almost impossible for me to answer your simple question."
Matt could not compute any of that.
"That makes my head spin. But I guess I see why you can't answer it. It's just that you don't look old enough to buy beer. So you're actually fairly old, right? Older than me, for example? I'm 30."
She smiled.
"Yes, I'm older than you."
"What about your normal life span?"
"That's also difficult to answer. Our normal life span is longer than yours, by a fair percentage, but once again my case is unique. We don't actually know what effect suspension will have on my life span. It might lengthen it or shorten it, or it may not change at all. I guess I'm a test case.”
"What about earth diseases? You haven't been vaccinated against any of them, have you?"
"No. But on the other hand, my immune system—adrenal glands and all the rest—is genetically tuned up and I should be able to handle most infectious agents. I could be wrong, of course. That's another thing I'll just have to find out."
Matt shook his head.
"So, you've been on the moon for about seventy years?"
"Yes. From our home we detected what turned out to be early radio transmissions, and we marked them as one of several areas to investigate. It took many years of travel to get here, though. I sent back reports of what I found, but they too will take many years to get there. You can forget about ever meeting any of our people."
"Golly, if you've been gone for such a long time, will you ever see your family again?"
She frowned and looked at her crumpled cup.
"No, I won't, not my immediate family, anyway. Theoretically I might see my family's descendants. But I told you, I'll almost certainly be banned from the tribe. Anyway, all the ones I knew have to be gone by now."
"That's so sad!"
He almost touched her hand, but didn’t, fearing his forwardness might scare her.
"I made a note last night to ask you about the tribe thing. What's a tribe, exactly? I mean, I know, generally, but in your case, I mean."
"Someday maybe I can tell you about our social structure. I don't want to take the time now, but as best I can determine our society is basically a larger, more complex version of early nomadic societies on earth.
“We live in groups of families, those groups are affiliated with other similar groups, and all are hierarchically arranged under a “chief” or king, if you like, and sub-lords, not unlike some of your Indian nations historically or even Celtic or other Proto-Indo-European peoples. Power flows up as well as down, so there's an element of democracy with us. But there are also elements of aristocracy. But that doesn't really matter now. We have more important things to worry about."
"Yeah, we do."
Matt glanced at his watch.
"Golly! I had no idea it was getting so late! I also want to ask you about your planet and where it is, and about your language, and two dozen other things. But we can wait on those, I guess..."
She interrupted him, touching his arm lightly.
She touched me! Wow!
"You haven't told me anything about yourself, either, you know. It's only fair, Matt. Would you do that when we have time? Please?"
"Ay, uh, well, I'm not a very interesting person, Darcy. But sure, I'd love to talk some more whenever we can. For now, I imagine you want to know what I've come up with in the way of a plan, right?"
"Yes! Did you think of something?"
"Sort of. I must confess, Darcy, my first thought was that I wasn't smart enough to deal with this. I needed help. I needed the smartest person I know. So I went to see him. His name is Dr. William Sledd."
Darcy's brow wrinkled.
"I think I've heard of him!"
"You have? Are you sure?"
"No, I'm not sure, but I read several papers on the internet by a William Sledd on the subject of Germanic to English grammatical shifts. I told you I was looking for connections to my own culture."
"It has to be the same guy. That seems to be one of his areas of expertise."
Matt summarized his conversation with Dr. Sledd, finally saying "You'd never guess what he suggested. I know I never would have thought of it."
"What? What??" said Darcy, her eyes bright.
"Fame."
"Fame?"
"Right. He said ‘fame.’ What he meant, I think, is that the people who want to lock you away won't be able to if you are well known. You'd be too famous, don't you see? They wouldn't dare to touch you. Popular opinion would be against them.
“He might be right, too. A lot of famous people seem to do whatever they want, no matter what the rules are. They can get away with almost anything...not that you would, of course. I just mean that that might give you an opportunity to deliver your message before anyone can stop you.
“What do you think?"
She looked out the back door.
"Fame...fame. That’s interesting. Let me think about it."
She looked back at Matt, her face serious again.
"I might want to get a second opinion."
