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Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“T

hey’re going to rape us.”

Beulah looked into the corner of the room to see if Eva had heard her aunt’s ravings. Thankfully, the child was sound asleep now that the ship ceased its roller coaster of a ride. Beulah turned back to her sister.

“These creatures have no fear of God.” Esther paced the room. Her thick-soled shoes made no sound as they rhythmically hit the floor.

As children, they’d been taught to take their shoes off upon entering a home, even if it wasn’t their own. It was a sign of respect. It was also to keep the red clay of the rural Georgia earth from neighbors’ carpets. Only Eva had removed her shoes since coming onboard this ship.

“I saw how they looked at us.” Esther paused in her pacing. “They want to defile us and put their demon seed inside of us so that we’ll breed them an army of devils. I will die before I open my womb to any of them.”

Esther’s voice was frantic, high-pitched, as she began pacing again. Her eyes were wide, her blonde hair disheveled. Beulah reached out to her sister, but Esther shooed her away.

“Essie, calm down. No one has tried to hurt us. They’ve only tried to help.” Beulah almost convinced her rapidly pounding heart that she believed her own words.

“They’re tricking us, Bee. Can’t you see it?”

“But the blue demon, Shanti’s… husband. He attacked the crazy brown one.”

Back on the ship, when the blue demon -Chen he’d said his name was. When Chen entered the door behind the dark demon, his alien face had registered shock at seeing them there. Then rage when he turned his big eyes to Eva. He’d produced a dagger. Beulah had turned away from the fight. When she’d reopened her eyes, the dark demon was on the ground and Shanti and another blue man were coming into the door.

“Shanti trusts them,” Beulah continued. “She said they’d get us home.”

They had to get home as soon as possible. She looked again at her sleeping daughter. It was Eva’s weekend with her father. If they didn’t turn the ship around soon, they’d miss his visitation with Eva.

Josiah often missed visitations with his daughter. He hadn’t made a scheduled date in over a month. Beulah always had Eva ready for him. Just in case he did show.

The divorce had been hard on Eva who thought the sun rose and set on her father. For the first few months of their separation, Eva had assumed her father was simply on business trips. Sleepover trips, Eva called them. But her six-year-old mind also knew that, in the past, business trips had never lasted more than a couple days.

By the second week, Eva began waking up with nightmares that her daddy was in danger. Beulah hadn’t known how to tell the poor girl that her daddy wasn’t in danger. He was in another woman’s bed. Beulah had stopped waking up in the middle of the night reaching for Josiah within the first year of their marriage. She was used to him having sleepovers elsewhere.

“We need to get out of here.” Esther went to the wall where Shanti had entered and exited.

Shanti had told them to stay in the room to be safe. Like they had a choice. There was no door on the wall. No way to open or close an exit.

Esther put her hands on the wall. “Let me out she shouted.”

An opening materialized. On the other side of the door stood another child-sized alien. This one had a staff in his hand and a frown on his face. He narrowed his eyes at Esther and clutched his long stick. Esther screamed.

Esther’s scream brought Eva to a screaming awakening. When the child awoke, the first word after her scream of fear was “Daddy.”

Beulah gathered her baby to her. Eva’s little body shook and heaved with sobs.

“I want my daddy. I want my daddy.”

Beulah looked out around the room helplessly. Her eyes caught her sister who cowered away in a corner. Then her eyes fell on the alien child who peered into the room.

It wasn’t the same boy as before. This one had darker skin. She noticed that these beings seemed to come in pairs. One dark, one light.

The dark brown boy had his eyes fixed on Eva. Eva turned her face and caught sight of the alien child. She screamed again and hid her face in her mother’s chest.

The alien boy looked at her in confusion. Beulah looked down at the weapon he held in his hands. The boy followed her gaze. Finally, he made the connection. He dropped the long staff as though it were poisoned.

“I didn’t mean to frighten her.” His words came out slowly, unpracticed. “I only meant to protect you.”

“Protect us,” Esther said. “Protect us from what?”

“Hsing-I and Pakua have neutralized the attacker. They are bringing the enemy on board, to try to come to an understanding.” The boy’s face crumpled in distaste. “It is a Yang concept. As a Yin, I do not understand it.”

Eva turned her head back to the boy. Her sobs slowed as she regarded him. She took in a deep breath, wiped away her tears, and then addressed the alien boy. “Your lips move funny.”

The boy rose a hand to his lips. And then, just as quickly, jerked the hand away. “I speak Eloh. Your inferior brain takes time to interpret my words into your confounding language.”

Eva pushed herself up in her mother’s lap. “That’s really rude.”

The boy bristled.

Eva hopped to her feet and took a step towards the boy. “Your whole family has been really rude to us. You took us without permission. You made us stay in this room like we’re on punishment. And you keep driving this boat too fast and making it shake. I want to go home. Now. My daddy’s taking me for ice cream today.”

All eyes stared at Eva.

Anger and shame and finally defeat warred on the boy’s expressive face. “We will take you home, as you desire. But you will have to have… ice…cream…” he pronounced the words slowly and carefully, as though they were new to him. “…on another day.”

“Why can’t I go today?” Eva asked.

“Because your planet has revolved…” He counted on his long, slender fingers, “… five times since we rescued you.”

“Five days,” cried Beulah. “That’s not possible!”

“Time moves differently in space.” The child shrugged, a very adolescent move of nonchalance. “By the time we turn around, it will already have been, perhaps, thirty revolutions.”

Thirty revolutions? That was a month. Even if Josiah had missed one or two weekends, he would notice if they’d been gone as long as a month. By the time they got back, he would have charged Beulah with child abduction and she would lose Eva for good.

No. This could not go on any longer. She had to get home now.

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