18.3

LANDING PLUS
FIFTEEN YEARS

Yvette worked the loom, slow and painstaking effort. It was fun, however, to see the different colors of yarn slowly create a pattern. It took so long to make a completed sheet. She liked to make bright things for Adam to wear, but for herself, she usually made plain tan garments with a thin red stripe and a thin blue stripe every now and then.

Adam tanned hides, rubbing, rolling, and beating them soft. Some of the small animals had such soft fur that Yvette sewed several pieces together to make a comfortable rug for a bed. She loved to lay there naked and feel the softness all over her body. It was too warm on some nights, but it was still a pleasure that she savored.

During the day, she wore a shirt or a dress. She had resisted this idea from her mother at first, but she was used to it by now. For some reason, mother thought that she and Adam should not see each other naked. They still did, almost every day. The house, as big as they had made it, was still pretty small. They had grown up naked. Now, both of them had changed, with hair and swellings where none had been before. But it was still the same two kids, just a bit grown up now.

Today, she watched Adam leave with a couple of spears and a bag full of stones to bring home some game, hopefully a couple of birds for dinner. She went to the garden, while Savanna went to bathe in the pool they had made so many years ago she could hardly remember. Both of them carried staffs with one sharp end. Since meeting the first panther, they had encountered several other predators though none as frightening.

It was a cloudy day, wet from rains that came often this time of year. She spent hours weeding, pruning, and, finally, harvesting a few items for dinner. Yvette approached home tired with a basket of vegetables. Her mother said she was now a fully developed woman who walked with grace and confidence. She just felt bored. Tending the garden was not interesting. She wanted something more. From a distance, she saw Savanna seated on the ground, leaning up against a bench, rubbing the center of her chest. Yvette hurried to her.

As she neared, she saw blood on her mother’s arm and neck. She put the basket down.

“What’s wrong?”

“One of those smaller cats, a lynx or something, surprised me. I fought it off, but I got scratched up in the battle.” A couple of shards of skin dangled from her forearm. “I made it back here OK.”

“Why, all of a sudden this past year, do we have so many of these mean animals?”

“They come here for food, I imagine.”

“Did it scratch your chest?”

“No. It just hurts. A lot.” Savanna looked a different kind of color, her lips darker, her face lighter. A glaze seemed to cover her eyes.

“What’s wrong, Mom?”

“Maybe I’m just tired,” she gasped. “Where is Adam?”

“He’ll be back. What can I do?”

Savanna looked around as if searching for something. Her lips moved without speaking. Maybe she wanted to talk but didn’t know what to say. This happened a lot lately. “I need to tell you one more thing,” she finally said.

“You know so much.”

“Listen to me.” She reached for the one red fruit in the basket. “This has seeds inside.”

“I know that.”

“Those seeds make new trees.” She wiped her brow and her eyes. “You and Adam have seeds inside. Your seed is here,” she said as she reached under her shirt and softly touched her naked belly well below her navel. “You need to have children to complete my mission. Complete the mission. Complete the mission.” She repeated as she slumped, dazed.

“OK, Mom. Stay with me, please. Don’t fall asleep.”

This aroused her. “His seed needs to mix with yours inside you.” Savanna’s face contorted. “Like the bees do with plants. Like we do sometimes to make a new plant that’s a little bit like both the parents. Do you hear me?” she asked.

“Yes, but how do we—? Seed? I don’t get it.”

“He has a part that will fit inside you.”

Yvette knit her brows and then screwed up her face. “That?”

“Yes, sweetie.”

“Does he know this?”

“I haven’t told him.”

Yvette cradled Savanna in her arms. She grew heavier and weaker. “I’m still not sure how this is supposed to work.”

“You should wait until you’re eighteen or so. He will know how, once you tell him. He just needs that one bit of information.”

“Will it hurt?”

“It might hurt a little at first, but it will also feel good, like when you touch yourself.”

“How do you know I do that?”

“After a while, you’ll have a baby, like I told you a few years ago.”

Savanna clutched harder on her chest and grunted. “I think it’s my heart. It’s so heavy. I’m too young.” She panted, sweat on her face. Yvette felt her forehead, cold with approach of death.

“Sometimes you are so confusing, Mom. But I owe you so much, for all you have taught me.”

Savanna’s voice was faint. Her phrases came in weak bursts. “My time is long past. But here I am, a relic in a different age, a new world. I have done my duty. My part of the mission is over. It is for you to complete it here. I love you, Yvette. I love you two with all my life. I am tired. I need to sleep.” She tried to lift her hand to Yvette’s face, but it stalled before she touched. Yvette took the hand and brought it to her face and let it feel her tears. Savanna’s eyes closed in peaceful sleep. A minute later, she sighed her final breath. Yvette called to her, butfound no answer. She sat sobbing, unmoving for a long time.

When Adam arrived, he wept with her. Three days later, they buried her with her seven mates but not with the one she truly loved. It didn’t matter, she had told them a year ago. It was part of the deal.