The Aliens That Took Me

Little One

     When I woke up, all was quiet. I could see from out the window that the sun was up, and I felt better. I sat totally up, looking around the ship for any signs of the creatures. Suddenly the door opened and Dakota came into the ship very quietly. I turned to see her and waited expectantly for her to come to me. She however, did not. She pressed a button on the ship and soft ribbens came out from the ceiling. She motioned to me to be very quiet, and then left again. I slid backwards and forwards away from the ribbens trying to get away, but I did not make a sound. I could feel that something was wrong. Eventually, they caught me. Two ribbons wrapped around my waist and one attached to them by going under my diaper. It felt like a makeshift, extremely soft swing. Another ribbon tickled my tummy and I laughed trying to push it away, I hadn't even noticed we had moved to the other side of the ship with the changing table. Now I understood. These ribbons were meant to be my babysitter. I watched and passively let them change me and tuck me back into my crib. I wondered where Dakota and River had gone. They had never left me before. I worried quietly that maybe something had gone wrong with my mother, that they had been called instead of me. I curled up, i felt like a terrible daughter. First my mom gets in an accident without me, now even my adoptive parents don’t want me. 

     I felt Cole’s soft fur near my hip and dragged him up near my face. I petted his soft forehead gently. Suddenly I heard loud yelling and then a crash. I sat up immediately. Dakota and River were never clumsy and they never yelled. I put my hands on the bars of my crib. I could feel the sense of fear trickling into my stomach. “You could always go and see you know.” I looked down to Cole, and then stood up. The top of the bars was just over my head. I looked around and saw the other toys in my crib. Quickly I pulled then up against the edges of the crib until I had a pile. I threw cole on top of all the others and tried to gently step on his soft tummy. I was just high enough that that I could use my upper body strength to pull myself up and throw one leg over. I wobbled precariously at the top of the crib and realized that like my creatures had mentioned, my balance was not what it had once been. I heard more shouting from downstairs and quickly threw my other leg over the crib wall. I gripped the wood and carefully slid down, letting the crib bars dig into my feet. Once I was near enough to the floor I let go and quickly grabbed Cole.

     We crept to the ship's door. If I jumped I could just reach the button. It was just enough. The door opened. carefully I slid into my bedroom, looking around the room for any signs of what might be there. But there was nothing, and no noise from downstairs. I kept further to the staircase. But still, I heard nothing. What had happened to everyone? I stepped one stair, then two, and then sat down, craning my neck downwards to try and hear, but there was still nothing. I held Cole to my chest trying to breath as softly as possible.  Where could everyone have gone?

     “What are you doing?” I felt cool lips press against my ear. It was River. He was standing behind me on the landing at the top of the stairs, leaning half his body over so that his head almost sat on my shoulder. In the dark, his white fangs and bright gray eyes were glowing.

     “I-I just-” River looked up, I saw his eyes narrow, like a cat’s, little slits in the dim moonlight. His lips became a tight line around white canine teeth that sparkled, and it seemed thoughts of me were forgotten. I felt him quickly bite the top of my dress and lift me high up. he was a crane and I was the wrecking ball. He used his entire body to lift me above the stairs and set me down just over the threshold of my bedroom.  I pulled my dress down pathetically embarrassed, but River had already moved on. Quickly and quietly he had swept to the drawers, rummaging frantically. He threw a shirt and some sort of pants on the bed. I walked over to them and gently felt the material. It was weird to feel human clothing after becoming used to my alien dresses. I stared at them bewildered. Was he giving me back to the man downstairs? Was I not good enough for them? I did not ask any questions, and River did not offer any answers.

  He came toward me, I shied away a little bit, and he looked at me for what felt like the first time, his pupils widened so that his eyes were not quite so narrow, he reached over and patted my head gently, caressing my cheek. I leaned into his hand. Once again, he motioned for me to be quiet, which seemed to be a common theme lately. I found myself wishing to be home, not here. I realized again that this, this was no longer my home.

  River lifted my Arkian dress off my body. I shivered. He didn’t remove the diaper, and he did not put human undergarments on me. Instead, he slipped the pants and shirt on me. I sat and watched, it was as if I was in a dream inside of another dream. My mind was not in my body, instead it was somewhere far away, where my mother wasn’t in the hospital and my father was still far away and I was safe and warm and happy. That was the place where I wanted to be. 

  I snapped out of it when I realized it was time. River was lifting me into his arms, not that he needed any help from me. His hand rubbed my back soothingly. I put my face into his neck and scaly chest. I loved the way he smelled. It was like clean wet grass and outdoors, but just a hint of black liquorish which I realize, is a strange combination, and yet it was one of the best smells I had ever known. I don’t even like black liquorice. We just rested like that for a moment, and I closed my eyes, only for a second.

  We did not move, and now that I am thinking about it, that was probably on purpose. Something was wrong, and River was trying to allow me to have a few more minutes without something else going wrong. Somehow, we both knew deep down, that whatever it was, was going to change how we did things. As someone who had just made an irrevocable life decision to move in and be adopted by aliens, I couldn’t say that I was thrilled with the idea of yet another change. Especially one to do with my father, but at this point, I did not have much of a say in the matter.

  My entire life I had done things on my own. It had just been mom and me and I needed to help her take care of the house and myself, she was only one person after all. But now, with River and Dakota, I had no say in what happened to me or how it happened. Even more then that, I couldn’t have one even if I wanted to, I couldn’t even sit up on their couch by myself. How was I supposed to tell them I was mature enough to make my own life choices?

  I knew that this was part of the point of why they treated me the way that they did. They wanted, and maybe even needed me to feel helpless. Part of me understood that, the want to make their child all their own, and be able to raise it from the very beginning without any sort of pre influence. At the same time, it worried me that they wanted that because I knew my past was complicated, even more so now that my father had decided to reappear. It crossed my mind that they might want to send me back for good, and pick an easier child. Instinctively, I gripped River at the thought. I knew one thing was for certain, I did not want to go back to living as normal

     The Aliens, my parents, said nothing to me when I woke up. But I had been moved to my crib on the ship.  As much as they tried they really were not like humans at all. They barely touched, they barely spoke. They had their link thing, but how that worked I couldn’t be sure. I couldn’t really be sure of anything. The pull to be near them was strong, they had to feel the bond as well, they hardly ever left me alone. It wasn’t that so much time had past, it was that i could feel them even when I slept. How close or far they were. I could hear their voices if they spoke, neither spoke to me, and I couldn’t understand their language. 

     The crib bars had gotten higher, which was not a problem for Dakota and River, who easily picked me up, but it was a problem for me when I tried to climb out on my own the next morning. I guess the high from doing it myself the night before had not worn off. They took turns changing me, and feeding me and even giving me baths. Today it was River’s turn, especially since it was him that had caught me escaping the night before.  When he walked in to start my day, instead of just picking me up, he looked at me. I looked back at him. His hair, which is longer then Dakota’s, waved in the slight breeze. He hadn’t pulled it back today.  “Today is the first day of being our kind. Which is why we have returned home. We will continue to monitor your mother’s condition from here, and visit her in due time. This is not to say you weren’t one of us before, rather, that today you will come off the blockers which prevented you from truly feeling all at once as helpless as you actually are. Since being here, these blockers have helped you not to feel smaller negative emotions which might have made you uncomfortable, but today it is time for you to begin to accept your role as our baby fully. This regression is essential for your development. We will also be starting your language development as much as is comfortable. But don’t worry. We will be here every step of the way, and we love you, no matter what.”  I layed back down in my crib. The idea of everything changing enough was enough to make me want to go back to sleep and never wake up. This did not stop my adoptive father though. He leaned over the crib. and pointed to himself. “Akanom” (pronounced aa-K-a-nom). I turned my face away, hoping that would make him leave me alone, but he only pressed his hand to his chest again, “Akanom”

     “Aka,” I mumbled back into my pillow, in a semi- sad attempt to learn. I knew it was supposed to be what I would call him, and that it was what he wanted, after he had done so much for me, it was hard to refuse, but at the same time, I wasn’t sure I could do it. But it seemed my worrying was pointless, because his face lit up at my mumbling. 

    “Aka.” he said back to me, and pointed at himself. I sat back up, apparently, my dreams of him leaving me alone to sleep were unrealised, at least for today. I lifted my arms to him lazily, and he obliged, lifting me up out of the crib and onto his side. My head found its place against him as he walked. “Mik chug er vereba gho.” It was clear from the baby- talk, he was not expecting me to respond to his sentence, which I knew was in his language, but could not understand. But it was nice, because most of the time, both of them said very little. My mom wasn’t very much of a chatter box either, so it was okay. To be here, instead of there, gave me a deep pit in my stomach, but I didn’t  want to ask just yet what “visit in due time” meant.  

     He deposited my body onto the changing table and it took him no effort at all to press my upper body down, and my dress up. I didn’t remember putting this dress, or the diaper I now saw on, but at some point that must have happened, because here we were. The blue button made it’s little opening sound and he pulled the soiled material away from me. I watched with intensity as it took him no effort at all to hold my puny legs  in one hand and clean me with some kind of cool fabric. If it had been a man doing this, he would have had both feet on the table, with me lifting myself, or maybe both my legs on his shoulders, holding me that way. I’m not sure, I just know it wouldn’t be as though I was a real new-born baby, the way they treated me. 

     For a moment, he found my eyes, starting me out of my thoughts, and then to go even further, he leaned over me, and kissed my forehead. Instinctually, I went to hold him up, as comical as that is, as if I could ever hold him up.  He looked down at my hands, pressing into his chest, and grinned at me- a tight smile, with more teeth then a person who hadn’t been living with aliens would probably be less  comfortable with. I smiled back, and surprised him by reaching my arms around his neck and holding tight, like a little monkey on a tree.

     He stood up and playfully tried to shake me off, “Marley, Marley, you are silly for a human girl- you are!” I held tighter, laughing with him as he shook me harder and spun around.  As he spun, I noticed Dakota standing against the door way, shaking her head, laughing at us. “Ajew,”  he called as he looked to her, “I seem to have caught a little lizard, I need your assistance!”  He stopped moving but continued laughing, as Dakota came toward us, and gently pulled me into herself. I could see her looking at him, playfully, but slightly disapprovingly at the same time. She set me back down on the changing table, and pressed the clean diaper, which had been forgotten about, into my skin.  

The thoughts of my mother were definitely still there, and I was still worried for her. But in this moment, my lungs hurt from laughing, and my body felt good.  It was good to be home, to be back.