I Love a Lemurian!

Happening 6: The Dinner Date

"Once upon a time in Lemuria there was a happy lemurian mother with a happy lemurian baby, who were caught in a terrible storm. Winds whipped from all sides and the rain poured relentlessly. As the mother looked for shelter, they were caught up in a torrent of water and mud coming down the mountain. The mother struggled and swam, holding the baby between her teeth by the scruff of its neck. With her last strength she managed to put the baby girl on a large boulder, and then she was washed away.
           "There was also a tiny village where lived the last few remaining humans up on the mountains. The storm washed away the whole village..."
           "Hold up, did there really live humans on Madagascar before the English and the French came?" Patty asked Pearly. "Or is this just part of the story?" A good question, thought Faye, she'd like to know.
           The three girls walked along the trail behind the Gustafson Farm late in the afternoon, their bicycles in their hands. They had walked like this for quite a few afternoons, just talking. It was nice. Pearly had also taken them fishing in the nearby reservoir. She hadn't caught anything. It wasn't her usual spot, she explained. She would catch plenty in the lake near the shantytown, but other lemurians and Mexicans would be there, and the three girls agreed it would be better if no one saw them together.
           "Yes, according to a lot of stories there were humans on Madagascar, like, thousands of years ago. Small groups. Lemurians told all sorts of strange tales about them, and called them 'smoothskins'. They all had black hair on the top of their heads, and small dark eyes and they came in canoes. They also called them the People from Beyond the Horizon," Pearly told them.
           "But where did they come from?" asked Patty.
           "I'm not sure. You'll have to ask Johnny when he gets back. I don't care much about history, I just like the stories Johnny tells me. So on with the story..."

"God, Johnny," Faye thought. Would he really come back? Of course she hoped he did, for Pearly and her family, so everything would be normal again. But would it be normal? What would he say to her? Honestly, part of Faye hoped he didn't return. Everything was pretty okay now. She still gave Pearly and her family some food each week, which made her feel good. And Pearly had found some other job, cleaning machinery during the night. Even though she was only six. That's right, six.
           "You're six years old?" Faye had asked stupefied.
           "Almost seven," she had said, "but we lemurians grow up fast."
           "Then how old is Johnny?"
           "He's twelve."
           Twelve? "Twelve? I thought he was about my age!" sixteen year old Faye said.
           "A twelve year old lemurian is practically grown up. But seeing Johnny is half human, I'm not sure how that works. I guess he's about your age, in a way."

"So on with the story," Pearly said, flapping her large pitch-black hands about like two birds, in this way she had when she was talking enthusiastically. "The lemurian mother survived the terrible storm and she went looking for her baby daughter. Among the rubble that had come down the mountain, she found a wailing human baby, still wrapped tightly in its wicker cot. She cleaned the baby girl, and breastfed her, while she pushed on to look for her own daughter. Which she found, and with the two babies she returned to her town.
           "The Judge ruled that the smoothskin baby was to be brought back to its own people, everything had its natural place.
           "So a few days later, a small group of lemurians climbed up the mountain, where the humans lived, but found the complete village had been washed away, and no other human had survived.
          "The mother could keep the human baby girl she had found, which was fine by her, because she thought it was pretty cute.
           "The baby grew up with her lemurian sister, and was happy amongst the lemurians. But the lemurians pitied the little girl. She was the last of her tribe. There were no other humans left. She could never have children, and be part of the Great Current. And as the girl grew older, she would look up at the stars and wonder what the Great Current had in store for her."
           "What's the Great Current?" asked Faye.