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THE UNEXPECTED GIFT CONTINUED

K

Kate

Guest
Chapter 2

I hadn’t been prepared for the beauty of this place and for the Maddy’s kindness and generosity. I knew I would have to return as the council commanded. I had to come to terms with the fact that coming here was an experiment. It had been over 40 of Maddy’s years since my father came. Her mother, Jean, found him in the exact same spot by the creek, an area where the veil between our worlds is easiest to penetrate. My father did his duty and returned, but against the express instructions of the council he told me about his time with Jean so long ago. When he died, I immediately applied to the council to undertake this voyage, convincing them that I could bring back valuable information of the earlier experiment.

Maddy would be shocked if she knew she was the result of an experiment by people from another galaxy. She definitely wouldn’t understand that my father mated with a woman genetically engineered to resemble the woman he’d left behind, or that he himself had been engineered in the same way to attract Maddy’s mother. I had seen the mere mention of genetic engineering send Maddy into a frenzy. Her world revolved around the farm, her crops and animals, and now me. It will break her heart when I go, but I have no choice. I am determined that I will return, but now it is time for me to meet my obligations to the council or the consequences could be terrible.

After Maddy went to bed I took out her writing case and tearfully wrote the truth, or as much as I dare reveal, and left the neatly folded page near her mother’s picture. I knew she always went to the sitting room and gave the picture a hug every morning, so I was sure she wouldn’t miss my message.

“Dear Maddy, you were right. I do resemble your mother and I want you to understand why. My father visited this place and your mother took him in, as you did me. They fell in love, something unheard of where I come from. We are expected to mate and produce ourselves and then go our separate ways. He stayed for your birth but not long after was commanded by our council to return. He swore your mother to secrecy and even if she had told anyone where he came from she would’ve been branded – how do you call it here – a nut? That is why she would never speak of a father to you. On his return to his planet he found it impossible to put you and your mother out of his mind. He continually badgered the council for permission to come back. The council refused and eventually he was instructed to mate with another female. He purposely chose my mother for her great likeness to the woman he had abandoned. So as you can see, he never forgot! Before he died he told me exactly where your farm was and I managed to convince the council I could gather valuable information if they allowed me to visit.
Life on our planet is quite different, although as you can see, we aren’t “little green men” as your television shows depict. (It amused me greatly to see how earthlings imagine people on other planets). Sadly, we have no farmland, only deep impenetrable forests and mighty cities built under domes to protect us from the lethal rays of our three suns. You think it is hot in your land! I can assure you it is pleasantly cool compared to my home. We have heavy rains for four months of our year. You could do with some of that, I hear you say!
One major difference between us is that we hold our animal life sacred. To harm an animal is punishable with death. I think my father almost convinced your mother not to kill them for food. We subsist on plants and grains grown in sterile conditions with all the essential minerals added for our well-being and long life. Animals are our brothers and sisters and we speak and understand their languages, as they do ours. I know it puzzled you the way I could communicate with your sheep and goats. Your dear dog, Sol, became my true friend and has pledged to keep you safe. Many of our people want to settle on your planet - like your pioneers I suppose - and some just want to spend our wet months there. I will be meeting our ship out on the plains just before daylight as my father did many years ago. Maddy, forgive me for leaving you. I’ll love you always. I now we will meet again, my dear sister.”


Chapter 3

The house seemed unusually quiet when I surfaced just after daylight. Jean was usually up by now and had started the breakfast. There was no tantalizing smell of fried tomatoes and onion coming from the kitchen and I checked her room to find it empty. I ambled through the house looking for her. In the sitting room I reached for mum’s photo to say my usual good morning and I saw the folded notepaper propped against the frame. An eerie silence pervaded the room and my knees started to shake as I tried to make sense of the astonishing words she’d written. I sank weakly into the armchair, desperately trying to control my emotions.

She’d signed it Marra. The name rolled off my tongue as I quietly spoke her name. What d’ya know! She was my sister and she was from another planet! My father was from another planet! I wasn’t a bastard and mum wasn’t a slut! Well, I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about it, that’s for sure. As Marra said, I’d soon be labeled Maddy-the-Mad by the people around here. The townsfolk already think I’m not the full quid. I picked up mum’s photo and hugged it to my chest, feeling the tears on my cheeks. What an exciting and sad secret she’d kept all these years.

Life goes on and although I couldn’t forget Jean –Marra – keeping the farm going takes every ounce of my strength and by the end of each day I am exhausted. But every night I watch the sky and each day I ride down to the creek to check if she’s come back. I cling to the belief that I’ll see her again; it’s only a matter of time. Who knows? I might start up a holiday farm for aliens – wouldn’t that be a turn up?

The end – or is it?

PS - if the word ******* (not my doing) is blanked out when it appears on site, it is a very much used word for an illegitimate child. :roll:
 
It will make a lot more sense now Chris that I have put the correct version of the beginning on. What a dill I am :roll:
 
Aaagh Grace I got in too much of a tangle spitting out that lot. No more Pleeeze :)
 
Great one Kate!
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I am so pleased we prompted you into more. Although this story is now none, it's so very well (in fact, superbly) told, perhaps we can look forward to lots of new tales from you.
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Paul, that is praise indeed coming from you. I've been watching a BBC show tonight called "Canterbury Tales", a series of short tellie scripts and thought of you instantly. You would be ideal to write for them. I'll try to write something soon, but you would know you just can't force it. I need a good dose of creative salts I think :lol:
 
Kate, I saw that series a while ago. Some of those tales are pretty weird, aren't they?
Yes, I do keep plugging away at good old Aunty Beeb through The Writers Room but as yet have been unable to impress her. :?
I know I shouldn't be encouraging more competition but there's no reason why you shouldn't have a go yourself. Who knows, the Tassie perpective might be just what they're looking for.
 
Have bookmarked the site to have a look at Paul. I think I'd have to have a super creative surge to even try though. You will certainly succeed with them before long - I feel it in my bones 8)
 
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