I've shared a lot of things with you about Sini's people, but I don't think I've ever told you about the Erisan sixth sense. Along with the usual five senses of hearing, touch, taste, smell and sight, Erisans have a non-physical sense; a kind of special mental ability. They're empathic, which means they can sense each other's feelings and emotions. They're not telepaths, so they can't read minds or have conversations with each other inside their heads or anything spooky like that, but they know when somebody is jealous, scared, scornful, overjoyed or depressed, or pretty much any other mental state you could think of. Sini says the crime rate is incredibly low on Eris, and I think this is probably because it's impossible to lie, cheat or be sneaky when everybody near you would know you were up to something.
Sini told me once that she thinks the empathic ability only works reliably between Erisans, as she can't sense what most Earth people are feeling. She can sense me if I'm feeling a strong emotion. She says she can often read Skyla's emotions too, but we don't know if this is because Skyla is half Erisan or because all mothers just seem to understand what's going on inside their child's head. We won't know for a while yet if Skyla will be able to sense Sini's emotions, since the empathic ability doesn't show up until a person starts to mature physically. In Earth people, that'd be around eleven or twelve years old, but Erisans mature later than we do. They don't start changing until they're around sixteen or seventeen.
Now I've explained that, the rest of this story should make a little more sense to you. Remember how I told you about Sini crash-landing in her escape pod in our back yard? For the longest time, she thought she was the only survivor from her starship who'd ended up here on Earth, and that maybe she was the only survivor, period. As it turns out, Sini wasn't the only one who crash-landed in somebody's back yard.
For about a week before Michael and I went south, I'd been noticing that Sini was acting strange. She seemed moody and restless and generally unwell, kind of like the way she was in the early part of her pregnancy with Skyla. I don't think I need to tell you that I got a little scared at the idea of us having another baby. When I asked Sini about it, she told me not to worry. We weren't expecting another child.
While that was good news in my opinion, I was still worried about Sini's state of mind. She told me that she was having unusual feelings, which didn't really enlighten me at all, since that much was already obvious from the way she was acting. When I asked her to tell me more about it, she said that she felt like she wasn't alone, like someone from her world was near. Of course that had to be impossible, she said, so the only other alternative was that she was losing her mind.
"How do you know it's impossible?" I said. "Maybe somebody finally figured out where you are, and they sent a ship to rescue you."
"I do not need to be rescued now," she said. "This is my home. I live here with you."
"Yeah, but the people on your planet don't know that, do they?"
"No," she conceded. "If it is a ship from my world, what should I do?"
"What do you want to do?" I asked.
"I want to stay with you and Skyla."
I smiled at that. "If that's what you want, then that's what you should do. If you tell them, they'll understand, won't they?"
"I do not know."
"Well, if they don't want you to stay here, maybe me and Skyla could come with you instead."
"You would really leave everything? For me?"
"You are everything, Sini," I said.
I hadn't meant to make her cry but, the next thing I knew, she was wrapped around me in an embrace so fierce that it was almost painful, and she was sobbing against my chest. I stroked her hair and tried to calm her. She settled down eventually, but I still held her because she didn't seem ready for us to break contact. While I sat there, I did some serious thinking about what I'd said to her. Would I really leave everything I'd ever known? Chances are, if I did leave, I'd never be able to come back. How would I manage in a completely alien environment where I was the only one of my kind?
Then, I realized that's exactly what Sini has been doing all this time. She's living in a place where everything is different from what she grew up with, and where there's no one else like her; yet, she said she wanted to stay. Even with the possibility of going home, she said she was willing to remain here. For me.
With the full impact of that realization, I started to cry.
"Tyler?"
"I love you," I said, only managing to whisper it.
She brushed some of the tears off my face with her soft, cool fingertips. "I know," she said softly. "I feel it. It is very strong."
That did it. I'd only been crying a little before, but when I heard those words it was like somebody opened a floodgate. I can't even begin to describe what it was like for me to hear Sini tell me that she knows I love her without my having to say so.
After that, we didn't talk about the other Erisans for a while. Things kind of went along, status quo, until the night before Michael and I were supposed to leave.
"He is very close," Sini said to me. We were lying in bed and I was half asleep, so I wasn't quite sure if I'd heard her correctly.
"Who?" I said.
"The Erisan," she said. "I am sure there is only one, and he is very near."
"If he comes to rescue you while I'm away, don't leave without me, okay?"
"I never wish to be parted from the other half of my soul," she said.
I love this woman to the moon and back. Maybe more. Maybe to Eris and back.
You guys already know how my brother and I got along on our trip, so I'm sure I don't need to repeat any of the details of that. Anyway, the Erisan did arrive while I was gone, but he definitely didn't come to rescue Sini. He was in pretty desperate need of rescuing, himself. I already mentioned that Michael and I got home at night, so I didn't get to meet Beau or our new Erisan friend until the next day.
In the morning, when I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled my way to the kitchen for the biggest cup of coffee I could get my hands on, Sini was there waiting for me. She greeted me with enthusiastic kisses, and lots of touching in all kinds of unmentionable places. I wouldn't have let her do that if I'd realized we had an audience.
Once she was done kissing me good morning, and once I had a cup of coffee in my hand, she proceeded to tell me that she wanted me to meet a new friend. I didn't need to be an empath to know that she was glowing with happiness and excitement.
"This is Pax Viridis," she said. "He is the son of our ship's captain." Then, she said something in her language, presumably introducing me. The only words I recognized were my name, and Sini's favourite Erisan term of endearment for me; the one that means 'other half of my soul'.
Pax responded to Sini in Erisan, and then Sini told me, "He says he is pleased to meet you and wants to know if he may have permission to touch you."
"Uh...no," I said. "I don't want to offend him or anything, but...no."
Sini laughed at that. "Let him, please. He will only touch your hands. I have told him the proper way. Oh...and your ears. He would like to touch those."
"Only if I can touch his ears, too," I said.
We all agreed that was fair, and Pax Viridis experienced his first Earth handshake. Then, I had my ears thoroughly examined and pronounced strange by this curious boy from another planet. Pax's ears are pointed like Sini's. I think he was pleased when Sini told him that I said they were cool.
"Cool," he repeated in English. "Cool, cool, cool!"
Slang may not be the best way to start Pax's education in the English language.
Sini told me everything she learned from Pax about what he'd been doing since the loss of their ship. Similar to what happened with Sini's pod, Pax's pod had landed not too far from a house. Also like her, he'd been taken in by the owners of the place, but that's where their stories diverge. While Sini settled in with us and became part of our household, the family Pax had been living with were treating him more like a pet than a person. They didn't try to teach him English and they didn't really tell him anything about the ways of Earth. They didn't even make him wear clothes, aside from underpants and a t-shirt, although apparently he wanted to dress like his human counterparts sometimes, just for fun. Pax actually seems to like wearing clothes, which Sini says is odd. Of course, she added the qualifier, "But, he is a child. Who can understand why he likes what he likes? Perhaps he will grow out of it." I hope not.
As time went on and Pax got closer to being a man instead of a boy, he started to sense that he wasn't the only Erisan on Earth. He became more and more certain that there was someone else, so one night he sneaked out of the house and set off to look for her. It took him about a month to find his way to Sapphire's house. He'd been more or less living on the street from the time he left his old place until he arrived here. He'd been trying to stay out of sight of humans as much as possible, which meant he slept during the day and travelled at night.
Judging by what Sini gathered from Pax's tale, he'd been relatively close to us the whole time. The place where he landed was about a hundred kilometers from here, and while that's a horrible distance for a young boy to walk, it'd only be an hour-long car trip. He could've landed a thousand kilometers away, or on the other side of the planet, in which case he may never have found us. If only we'd known how close he'd been, we could have had him with us all along. He's with us now, though, and that's the most important thing.
One thing about Pax's story made me curious, and maybe you're wondering about the same thing as I did. Pax told Sini that he'd started looking for her as soon as he was certain he could sense her. He could feel her from nearly a hundred kilometers away, so why hadn't she been able to sense him? Sini said her mental abilities are average and that she can't accurately sense someone unless they're quite near, which is why she wasn't aware of Pax until he was almost here already. She said she thinks Pax's mental abilities are exceptional, something like the psychic equivalent of having a genius IQ. His father, the captain of their ship, had awesome mental abilities too, Sini told me. Her account of Captain Piri Viridis and his legendary psychic skills practically bordered on hero-worship. I probably would've been amused by the way Sini venerated him, except that it's very likely Captain Piri can't be counted among the living. That thought pretty much erased any amusement on my part.
Sini said Pax hasn't mentioned his father at all. She wants to talk to him about what happened to the ship, but I told her she should wait. I know she's worried about Pax, but trying to talk to him about his dad or their starship before he's ready might cause a whole lot of problems. For now, I think the best thing we can do for Pax is to take care of him and teach him everything we can about life on Earth. I think it's going to be fun. He's like the little brother I never had. The little alien brother, but you get the point.
Sapphire discovered that Pax loves having his picture taken. Here's what he looks like:
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