Heaven was a beautiful place. A soft bed. A white, feather comforter. Warm air moving lazily around an open window. A distant, rhythmic sound.
No pain.
Eva stirred in the bed and soft cotton caressed bare skin. She felt warm and dry and clean.
There really was an Afterlife.
She looked up at the ceiling. Lightly colored, oaken rafters crisscrossed in the distance. Two unmoving fans hung from them.
They looked wrong.
They looked flat.
Eva felt momentarily that she merely stared at a photograph of a cabin ceiling, but it looked too real for that. It simply looked flat.
Did everything in heaven look flat?
She also needed to go to the bathroom. Badly. Did people have to go to the bathroom in heaven?
She reluctantly got up out of bed and her body felt whole, but weak. A long, white cotton nightdress flowed down around her legs as she stood. She rubbed her hand along its smoothness.
The air smelled a little salty and she thought she recognized the scent, but couldn’t place it. The distant sound rose, then ebbed.
She looked around for a bathroom.
A door with a handle about chest high stood slightly ajar, and Eva moved to it. She was barefoot, and the hardwood floor under her feet felt good. The floor, the ceiling rafters, the furniture, all of it was made from the same light-colored oak. A couple of nondescript wall hangings afforded the only contrasting color.
She found a bathroom behind the open door and entered it. The toilet looked like a normal toilet. A roll of paper hung from the wall across from it. Maybe she was back on Earth. The only Hrwang toilet she’d used before had been the one on the spacecraft, but it was designed for use in zero gravity. It wasn’t normal. The toilet in her cell had been a hole in the ground. She had no idea how a ‘normal’ Hrwang toilet looked.
A quick inspection revealed that she wore no underwear, so she hitched her nightdress up around her waist and sat. The toilet paper looked flat against the wall. Eva reached out and touched the roll and it hung away from the wall as expected, but it still looked like a part of the wall. Her hand blended with the wall as she felt the paper. Her senses conflicted. Her eyes told her one thing; her touch another.
Heaven was strange.
Finishing quickly, she washed her hands and looked in a small mirror over the sink.
She cried out in shock.
She closed her eyes and reached up and touched the mirror to confirm that it was, indeed, a mirror.
It felt like one.
She opened her eyes again slowly, prepared this time for what she might see, and the image hadn’t changed.
Eva was bald.
Not only was she bald, she had a deep, rectangular scar on her head and face. It started just below her right eye, extended past her cheekbone, went up her temple almost all the way to the crown of her head, came back across the top of her skull, and then back down along the side of her nose to her eye.
She traced her finger along the scar, and although nothing hurt, it was deep and must have taken a while to heal.
As her finger felt her scar, she also felt tiny hairs growing on her head. It hurt a little to touch them.
She breathed deeply, suddenly remembering the stabbing pains she’d felt lying on a hospital bed in the infirmary. But this time, there was no pain. She could inhale and exhale completely.
In the infirmary, she’d been with Visitor.
She remembered that she’d confessed to him that she was a spy.
She felt guilt. She no longer believed she had died and gone to heaven. She believed that she was either on Earth or on Hrwang and that someone, Visitor perhaps, for some reason, had saved her. She couldn’t possibly guess why, so she decided not to try.
She was hungry suddenly, but her reflection in the mirror bothered her. It distracted her from worrying about finding something to eat. As she looked in the mirror, her right eye, the one surrounded by the nasty scar, looked out of place. It looked like it didn’t belong. She closed her eyes and reopened them, but her right eye still looked the same.
She put her face next to the mirror, trying to see closely inside her right eye to see what was wrong with it, but her perspective didn’t make sense. It was as if the closer she moved her eye to the mirror, the worse she could see it. She pulled back away.
Eva closed just her left eye and everything went dark. She tried it again a few times, even holding the eyelids on her right eye open, and still everything went dark when she closed her left eye.
She was either blind in her right eye or it was artificial. She’d never seen an artificial eye before, so she couldn’t judge. She touched it with her finger.
It felt hard.
It was definitely artificial. She’d lost her right eye in the fight with the guards. She remembered that desperate fight now.
Images of choking a guard with his own belt came unbidden. She’d squeezed the life out of the man, even using her knee for more leverage. She could feel her knee in his fleshy back as he struggled in vain to free himself from the leather noose.
She knew she wasn’t in heaven now.
She touched her right eye again and all the feeling was in her finger. The eye felt nothing. That confirmed she wasn’t in heaven. She’d learned as a child that a person’s body was supposed to be restored to its perfect form after death. She didn’t think God gave out artificial eyes.
Her new awareness made her feel unsafe. She’d been beaten badly, almost to the point of death, but had been saved. Someone had operated on her and had placed an artificial eye in her head and had saved her life.
But why?
She explored the cabin cautiously. It consisted of nothing more than the bathroom and the bedroom where she’d woken up. A wooden privacy fence blocked any view from the windows.
The front door was unlocked.
Eva opened it a crack and peeked out.
A path decorated with inlaid, colored stones led from the front door of the cabin to the side door of a large house. Short, turf-like grass grew on either side, and the privacy fence extended on either side between both structures. It was lined by pots filled with thick stemmed, leafless plants, similar to plants she’d often seen in California.
The fence on the right side had a hinged section, like a gate, but it was padlocked. The fence was only about eight feet high, and Eva considered climbing it until she smelled something from the large house.
She was hungry.
Going into the house felt stupid, but her stomach growled. She opened the door wider, looked around, and the horror of the dungeon cell returned. She retreated into her cabin and closed the door.
Breathe, Eva.
Visitor had saved her. He’d said he’d put her in her cell, had had her whipped, but he had rescued her. She was safe, at least for the moment.
Besides, if there was a kitchen, it would have a knife.
Eva opened the cabin door again, looked out of it in both directions at the tiny court, and stepped carefully onto the path.
She walked slowly, listening, watching, and ignoring the tenderness of her bare feet on the stone path. She reached the door to the large house and looked through the inset window.
Curtains blocked her view.
She looked behind her and around her, but nothing was threatening. The distant, rhythmic throbbing grew louder and a blast of salt smell struck her. A gull flew overhead.
Blocking out her surroundings, she put her ear to the door and listened.
Nothing.
Except for the pounding of blood in her head. Her breathing became shallow and her hand shook as she put it on the door handle.
Breathe, Eva.
She pushed the handle down slowly, then swung the door open sharply.
No one waited behind it.
The d
oor opened to a main room decorated with pinks and tans. Throw rugs on a stone tiled floor, leather couches and wicker chairs, sea shells glued to lampshades, and light, airy curtains filled the room. The whole place gave off the aura of a beachside vacation home.
She entered, following the scent of baking bread.
She quickly found a kitchen large enough to service a small restaurant. She glanced in, staying behind the side of an oversized refrigerator. She saw no one.
The sight of fresh apples on one counter made her mouth water and she ignored further safety concerns. She attacked the apples, grabbing two and moving back to the cover of the fridge. She ate the first and her hunger abated enough to let her think.
She tried to piece together the fragments she remembered, but mostly she remembered pain. She’d confessed to being a spy to Visitor in the hospital. He must have decided to save her for that reason, but she couldn’t fathom why.
Finishing the second apple, the smell of the baking bread driving her crazy, she wanted meat to go with it. To eat a real sandwich.
She rooted through the fridge looking for meat, sniffing everything until she found something that looked like turkey and didn’t smell like spicy manure. She debated pulling the hot bread from whatever oven it baked in, but the bread would take time to cool. The meat looked too good to wait that long.
She ate it quickly.
She found a cup and poured cold water from the refrigerator into it and washed down her food. She couldn’t keep from looking around the whole time she ate, constantly expecting someone to come in on her, but the house remained empty except for her.
A small, round container held something that looked like hummus and didn’t smell. She dipped her finger in it and tasted it, immediately spitting the substance back into her hand. Too much garlic and too much of the stuff that tasted like horse manure. She put the container back and washed her hand in the sink.
She wasn’t on Earth. No human being would eat things doused in Hrwang spices. She didn’t know how the aliens could eat them either. It all tasted disgusting.
She found some bread in a cupboard. It didn’t smell bad. She retrieved more of the plain meat, heaped it on the bread, and began exploring her surroundings while she ate her sandwich.
She stopped when she found the porch that led to the beach.
Lying naked on her nightdress, which she had spread out on the sand, Eva heard someone walking toward her. She didn’t care. Part of her reminded herself that she should have grabbed a knife out of the kitchen. The other part told her it didn’t matter. She really didn’t care.
She didn’t even look up. She simply continued to lie on her stomach in the soft sun, her eyes closed, enjoying the warmth on her skin and the sound of the ocean waves in the background.
“Only criminals walk around naked,” Visitor said reprovingly when he reached her.
“Then it’s good that I’m a criminal.” The words in Est came easily to Eva. She couldn’t say everything, but as soon as she heard something, like the word criminal, she knew what it meant and how to use it properly in a sentence. The Hrwang sleep conditioning was powerful.
“I’ve brought you a swimsuit. And some sunscreen.” He paused nervously. “You should moderate your first time back in the sun. You’ve been out of it...a long time.”
Eva turned her head to face him. He was a handsome, young man, younger than she was, but with worry lines already etched into his face. His hair was sandy brown, his skin tanned, and his eyes smoky dark. Eva half smiled, then looked at the swimsuit he held up. It had long legs and long arms like those in pictures she’d seen from the 1800s. The bodice was dark blue and the arms and legs a soft, almost see-through, lighter shade of the same color.
She wanted to ask him if he was joking, but she didn’t know the word in Est. She settled for shaking her head.
“This is very fashionable. It’s my sister’s and she wears nothing but the latest, and most expensive, styles.”
Eva laughed derisively and turned away from him, putting her head back down on her arms. She was never going to wear a swimsuit that looked like that.
“You’re naked!” he protested.
“You took my clothes,” Eva replied harshly.
He was quiet for a moment.
“At least allow me to put sunscreen on you,” he finally said. “You’ll burn badly. Particularly your...”
“You touch me and I’ll kill you,” Eva said calmly.
“I...” He sighed. “I believe you. But it’s a spray. I won’t touch anything. And you’ve been in the sun long enough. This will keep you from burning more.”
“Okay,” Eva agreed. He was probably right. She didn’t need a bad sunburn.
She shivered when he began spraying her.
The spray felt so cool on her skin that it probably meant she’d burned a little already. She didn’t mind that. She’d tan quickly. But tanning wasn’t her primary concern. She just wanted to lie in the sun. When she lay in the sun, nothing in the past had happened; only the present existed.
When he finished spraying her, he stammered a little. Eva saved him the embarrassment.
“Just leave the sunscreen and a towel. I’m about to roll over,” she said. “Unless you want to watch.”
“I, uh, I...”
“Just leave,” she said, still not looking at him and not wanting to toy with him any longer.
“I have bodyguards. They watch this beach. I’m sure they’re watching you.”
“Then they’re getting quite the show, aren’t they? Just like your men in the prison.”
“I don’t understand,” he said.
“Your men in the prison seemed to enjoy watching me. Even more.” She didn’t know if she could talk about being raped. Just thinking about it turned her stomach. She wanted to get up and run away.
“The guard you killed?” he guessed.
“Yes.”
“Is that how you lured him into your cell?”
“He came of his own free will,” she said, leaning up a little on her elbows and turning to face him. “I didn’t lure him in. He got what he deserved.”
Visitor looked away from her and at the ground.
“I’d feared you had been raped. You were...” He struggled for the words, looking out over the ocean. “You were...well, technically not. A week doesn’t actually count, according to the doctors, but you would have been...”
“I’m pregnant?” Eva cried, sitting up a little more, forgetting that she was still naked.
Visitor pointedly continued looking away as he shook his head.
“I’m sorry. Not anymore.”
Emotions overwhelmed Eva. Revulsion that the pig who had raped her had made her pregnant. Disgust at the way he’d made her feel, at the way he’d stripped her of her humanity and self-worth. Abhorrence at how she’d cooperated with him, even though she knew she’d done it to save her life. Anger that she’d been forced to kill him, to take another human life. And yet wonder that cells within her had changed and become something that could have developed into a baby. She couldn’t remember the strange name given to a fertilized egg, but one of them had been inside of her, and even though the source of it repulsed her, it had been in her and it could have become a life.
At that thought, she felt loss. Loss that her unborn child, her tiny, fertilized egg, had died because of the beating she’d taken. One more life lost because of her quixotic mission. She hadn’t known the child, hadn’t even known she was pregnant, but the loss still hurt.
She’d never thought much about having children, other than not wanting to get pregnant by an alien. She’d been careful about taking birth control while she was with the Lord Admiral, but had not had anything available to her in prison. Before that, while training, she’d also been careful to not become pregnant. Having children
would have deep sixed any opportunity at becoming a field agent. Children just hadn’t been in her plans.
“It’s worse,” Visitor continued. “The doctors say your injuries were so severe that you’ll never, um, you were hurt so much that they couldn’t, uh, they just...” He huffed. “I apologize.”
“I’ll never be able to have children?”
“I apologize.”
“Go away.”
Eva buried her head back into her arms, but didn’t begin crying until she heard him leave.
The sun dipped low in the sky, a cool breeze picked up and chilled Eva’s sunburned skin, but it was hunger that drove her to return to the house with the refrigerator. She reluctantly pulled her nightdress back on, leaving the old-fashioned swimsuit lying on the sand, and headed inside.
A short woman bustled around the kitchen as she entered. The woman finished putting together a platter.
It held some of the plain meat, a thick slice of fresh bread, some of the stuff that looked like hummus, and a sliced apple. They knew exactly what she’d eaten or at least had tried to eat.
The tall glass of water on the platter appealed to Eva the most.
The short woman didn’t speak, but pointed to a table where Eva could sit. Eva pointed to the table outside on the deck and shook her head. The short woman nodded and gestured to the sliding door. Eva opened it and the woman set her up at the outside table.
Eva drank the water and asked for more.
She ate hungrily, stopping only to thank the short woman when she brought out a refill.
A different woman, much younger than the maid, joined Eva after she finished her meal.
“You don’t like the schmolj?” the new woman asked.
The hummus-like food still sat on Eva’s plate. She’d finished the water and eaten everything else.
Eva shrugged in reply.
The woman looked at her critically and Eva tried to ignore her. But she noticed the woman’s lipstick was too dark, the embroidery on the long sleeved white shirt she wore looked ridiculous, almost childish, and the white skirt she wore wasn’t actually a skirt, but wide leg pants, the kind that Eva hated. The woman also wore dark eyeshadow on her lower lids.
“I brought you clothes,” the woman finally offered.
“Who are you?” Eva asked, staring out over the beach at the ocean beyond. The woman sat back and crossed her legs.
“I am the Lor...” She caught herself. Eva pretended not to notice. “You designate him Visitor, correct?”
Eva nodded. She only knew one person besides the Lord Admiral on this planet, so the woman had to mean Visitor. She guessed from the woman’s slip that Visitor was a Lord of some sort.
“I am Visitor’s First Sister.”
Eva looked at the woman openly now. She would be pretty if she backed off on the makeup and wore some decent clothes. The symbol of an oval with jagged edges embroidered into the artwork on the woman’s shirt caught Eva’s attention. It appeared so incongruous with the rest of the embroidery.
“And does he have a First Under Sister or a Second Over Sister?” Eva asked.
“You must understand a thing before you can criticize it properly. How we designate ourselves is an integral part of our culture and you must learn to understand it if you are to survive.”
So she knew Eva was an alien.
Eva felt guilty for being childish and insulting the woman’s title, but she refused to apologize. She continued staring out over the dark ocean, lit only now by a slender crescent of a moon.
Visitor’s First Sister stood and made to leave.
“I can help you put together an outfit, unless you are above my help.”
She turned away but Eva reached out and put her hand on the woman’s arm. She remembered the woman with the baby outside of Griffith Observatory. Eva had needed something from that woman’s group, but she had also wanted to help, and the woman’s lack of trust had driven Eva to jamming her gun into the woman’s face to emphasize that it didn’t matter whether or not she trusted Eva. If Eva wasn’t to be trusted, there was nothing the woman could have done about it.
Likewise, now that Eva was on Hrwang, she was just as helpless as the woman with the baby had been. She didn’t know why Visitor had rescued her from the prison or why he had made sure she’d received medical treatment, but he had, and now she depended on his charity. She needed to trust him.
At least for now.
And that meant his sister also.
“I apologize,” she said quietly and removed her hand. In the corner of her vision, her one-eyed flat vision, Eva noticed Visitor’s First Sister smile a little. But her face turned quickly formal again.
“That’s a start. Follow me.”
Eva stood slowly and followed the alien woman back into the house. She led Eva into a bedroom. Clothes were laid out on a king sized bed with a black bedspread. Oversized, black pillows sat on the bed, leaning against the wall. There was no headboard.
The woman frowned.
“My brother has no taste,” she commented.
Look who’s talking, Eva thought.
The woman picked up underwear off the bed. She showed it to Eva.
“You do wear this on your world, don’t you? I brought several sizes for you. My brother was hopeless in estimating what size would fit you.”
Everything looked matronly, like something her grandmother would wear. Eva pointed and the Hrwang woman handed her the selection.
Eva started to dress under her nightdress, but had to pull it off to get the bra on. Visitor’s First Sister gasped a little.
“You’re sunburned,” she said. “I have something for that.” She fled the room, Eva not knowing whether it was to retrieve something for sunburn or simply so she didn’t have to look at Eva’s nakedness. Eva realized she knew so little about Hrwang culture.
Eva quickly put the bra on and pulled her nightdress back over her head.
“Here you go,” the Hrwang woman said, returning with a clear, glass jar with green ointment in it. “It helps with the burn.”
“It looks like aloe,” Eva replied, using the English term. “Thank you.”
“I can put some on your back if you want me to,” the woman suggested tentatively.
“I’ll be okay,” Eva replied.
“That’s good,” the woman said, relieved. She turned away from Eva. “Here is one of my favorite outfits.”
She held up an orange, long sleeved blouse and a pair of black, wide leg pants, the same style as the white ones she wore.
“I don’t know,” Eva said.
“It goes great with those shoes.” She pointed to a pair of basket weave clogs.
“I can’t wear that.”
“Just try it. You’ll be surprised how good it looks on you.”
Eva didn’t feel up to explaining Halloween. But not even on an alien planet would she be caught wearing orange and black like that. She didn’t like any of the other clothes sitting on the bed either.
“Why are you called First Sister?” she asked, partly to change the subject away from the awful clothing selection.
The woman seemed taken aback, and she set the clothes back down on the bed, sitting down next to them.
“I’m my brother’s oldest sister.”
“Why not First Daughter?”
She sighed. “When my father died, my brother became the head of our family. Before that, I was First Daughter.”
“So, if you were the daughter of First Over General Third Assault, you would be First Over General Third Assault’s First Daughter?”
“I would go by General’s First Daughter unless I was with other military children, then it would be Over General’s First Daughter. Wait. Do you know a general from Third Assault?”
Eva shook her head. “I only saw the Over General in a staff meet
ing.” But I saw his handiwork, she didn’t add, recalling the burned out tanks on the Pacific Coast Highway. She suddenly longed to be back in California, even with its tsunami-ravaged coastline. Anywhere but where she was right now. “Why?”
“Nothing,” Visitor’s First Sister replied wistfully.
“I take it you know a general in that unit?” Eva guessed.
Visitor’s First Sister shook her head.
“It’s nothing. Now. We need to pick some clothes out for you.”
“When your father died, what if you’d had no brothers?”
“Then I would have had to marry quickly. Unwed, unbrothered daughters have until their father’s estate is legally settled to find a new designation.”
Unbrothered? Oh dear, Eva thought.
“What if they don’t?” she asked.
First Sister groaned.
“It is not pleasant. If a woman is pretty or has money, it’s easy. But if not...”
She grimaced.
“And children?” Eva asked. “Daughters too young to marry?”
“A relative adopts them.”
Eva wanted to complain about how unfair this seemed, but she remembered the woman’s admonition from earlier. It’s better to understand something first.
So she held her tongue.
“Not all of our cultures follow the exact same set of rules, and some are less strict than others,” Visitor’s First Sister admitted. “But most are similar.”
“So it’s better to be a man?” Eva asked.
The alien woman bristled.
“I think not. There’s still a lot you need to understand.”
“No. I apologize,” Eva said. “I meant, it would be better for me to be a man.”
Visitor’s First Sister snorted. “That type of surgery went out of fashion centuries ago, and I think it’s illegal in Est anyway. Why would you want to be a man?”
“No, that isn’t what I mean.”
I don’t know what I mean, Eva thought. I don’t know what I’m doing here. It’s all a waste of time. I’ve wasted my life. I should have disobeyed the Director and stayed on Earth. At least there, I could fight the aliens.
And I could still have children.
Eva tried to push her hopeless thoughts away. She didn’t know what she was doing or what was going to happen, but self-pity never solved anything.
However, she wasn’t going to wear those pants with the orange shirt.
“What do you mean?” First Sister asked defensively. Eva realized she had raised her voice in response to the Hrwang woman.
She softened her voice.
“I apologize. Could you bring me some different clothes?”
“You will look beautiful in this outfit.”
“I’m bald,” Eva protested. I have a huge scar. I’ll never look beautiful again.
Visitor’s First Sister stared at Eva, and Eva finally noticed a hint of jealousy in her eyes.
Eva looked down at the ground.
“I just need some different clothes,” she pleaded.
“I will see. I will come back later. For now, you put these clothes on. You should eat more. You look too thin. The schmolj is really good. You should try it on crackers.”
Eva smiled in agreement but knew she would never go near the stuff again. It reminded her too much of her prison food.
She looked in a mirror. She did look too thin. She hadn’t noticed it before, focusing on her bald head and the huge scar that decorated it. No wonder she’d been so hungry all the time.
“Oh, and...” Visitor’s First Sister paused before she left. “If you go back on the beach, you really must wear a swimsuit.” She held up the swimsuit Visitor had brought to her.
When in Rome...
Eva sighed and nodded.
Visitor’s First Sister smiled weakly and nodded in reply. She stood to leave, then paused, visibly torn. Eva waited, unsure if she should say something.
First Sister inhaled sharply, then asked, “Did your people really kill God?”
“I don’t think God can be killed,” Eva replied.
“The Messiah. He taught our people that he came unto his own and his own rejected him. He showed our ancestors the wounds on his hands and feet where you nailed him to a tree. He showed them the wound in his side where he was stabbed with a spear.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Eva answered. “It was thousands of years ago.”
Visitor’s First Sister shook her head, then shrugged. She said goodbye, adding that she would return in two or three days, and left.
Eva stared after her for a moment, pondering her question. It bothered her. She decided to worry about it later.
She turned and looked at the clothes lying on the bed. None of them appealed to her. She had enjoyed the feeling of the loose, soft nightdress on her bare skin, and she thought about wearing just that. It was dark out. She wouldn’t be going anywhere but back to bed eventually, so she removed the alien underwear, put her nightdress back on, scooped up all of the clothes into a pile, and set them on a chair. At least Visitor could sleep in his bed tonight.
Her world had killed God.
Well, not God himself, but his son when he was mortal.
The thought wouldn’t go away as she moved the clothes. What did it really mean? Did all Hrwang think of her and her people that way?
It wasn’t her fault. It had happened over two thousand years before she was born. She wasn’t going to accept responsibility for the actions of others.
She dismissed her thoughts again and focused on what she needed right now, which was something more to eat.
She returned to the kitchen where the short woman was working. The woman tut-tutted when Eva started hunting through cabinets, but Eva ignored her. She looked for something, anything, that might appeal to her.
A plastic jar of brown cream looked promising, and Eva twisted the lid off. Some things were so similar between Hrwang and Earth, it almost made Eva feel comfortable. It looked just like a chocolate spread she remembered. It smelled differently than most Hrwang dishes, and Eva put her finger in tentatively, a drop of the cream coming off on her fingertip. She heard a discouraging grunt from behind her.
She licked her finger.
Hazelnut spread. Lots of sugar. A chocolaty flavor. No Hrwang spices. She almost fainted in relief.
She turned to the short woman, who pantomimed spreading something on bread. Eva nodded, pointing to the sliced loaf of freshly baked, plain bread. The short woman shook her head and found a different loaf, pulling it out of a paper wrapper and exaggerated smelling it. She smiled. Eva took the bread, smelled it, and made a frown. She handed the bread back. It smelled like Hrwang. Spicy manure was the best description Eva could give to the scent.
The short woman shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “Suit yourself,” and handed Eva the plain bread and a spoon. Eva took her newfound treat out to the deck.
She ate with gusto, enjoying the cool, night sea breeze while she did. She forced herself to stop after three slices lathered with the spread.
The maid, the short woman had to be a maid of some sort, brought out a tall glass of cold water and Eva thanked her profusely.
After emptying the glass, Eva closed her eyes and enjoyed the peace.
“You’ll be much more comfortable in a bed,” a soft voice said near Eva’s ear. She jumped, startled, and was surprised that she had gone to sleep. Visitor squatted on the deck next to her.
Eva nodded sleepily. She wanted to go to bed. She was exhausted. Nothing mattered at that moment. Not her scar. Not her artificial eye. Not that she’d never have children. Not that she was trapped on an alien world with no hope of returning home, never mind the ridiculous thought of trying to save her own world. Not even the ridiculous selection of clothes she didn’t
want to wear sitting in Visitor’s bedroom mattered.
Nothing but going to bed mattered.
She pointed to the mess she’d left and Visitor told her not to worry. “First Over Kitchen Servant will clean it up in the morning.”
Eva nodded but internally pictured shaking her head. Even the maids had ridiculous sounding titles on this planet.
She let herself be led along the edge of the beach back to the separate dwelling where she’d woken up. The hinged section of fence she’d seen earlier now stood open, like a gate. They didn’t have to go back through the house.
She crawled into bed, exhausted beyond belief, but worried for a moment that she should brush her teeth. The chocolaty cream would coat them and the sugar would eat the enamel all night. But even that image wasn’t sufficient motivation, and she settled for licking her teeth with her tongue for a second before succumbing to weariness. She never heard her companion leave.
9