Free Mya

12: Nearly Valentine's Day 2035; some tensions; a festival

"Is there anything I could buy you?" It was nearly Valentine's Day. Daniel tried to explain Valentine's Day to Mya.

[And yes, this is still Alison writing this.]

"I can't think of anything I want that I don't have. I don't think I want red flowers or a card and I can't remember if I eat shocolate."

"I don't think you have tried it yet."

"Oh. Maybe some other time. Don't get it as a present because then you will be sad if I don't like it."

"I wouldn't be sad. I would eat the chocolate. Or I would invite Cin around and she would eat it. Especially if I told her not to eat it. But it would be silly to get you a present you didn't like." He paused slightly. "My great-grandmother died a few years ago and left some jewellery to me and my sister. I have some necklaces and rings and stuff in a box. Cin wanted them, but I wanted to annoy her by keeping my share of them. Then I forgot about them for a long time. You could have them."

"Are the necklaces pretty? You could have given me one to wear at our second wedding."

"I forgot about it. I only thought about it when I could give you a necklace now. Or you could have all of the jewellery now."

"No. Just one thing. To mark the birth of the baby."

"Can I choose the prettiest thing?"

"Of course. Why would you choose the ugliest?"

She looked down.

"I thought you might want to save the best one. For when we have a boy."

He handed her the shoebox in which the items were kept. "You must choose the one you like best. Now. You can have the second prettiest item plus another present if you have a second baby. Because a second baby would be just as important as this one. Unless you want all the jewellery now."

She looked through the box whilst he briefly phoned his grandparents. (It seemed his parents had failed to pass on the news of the birth. Maybe they had missed his message. They promised to inform other relatives. "But you will have to send them pictures of the baby, when you get the time," they added.)

He came back to see Mya holding two items.

"Normally, I like blue stones," she said, indicating a turquoise bracelet. "But this one I prefer. The necklace with the yellowy-brown stones. I don't know what they are called. They're the same colour as your eyes."

He was not totally convinced of the match, but he obediently fastened the necklace for her.

The telephone rang. Daniel glared at it and willed the caller to leave a message.

"Nobody in Sandar has eyes like yours," pondered Mya. "But that woman said that the baby's eyes will stop being blue and start looking like your eyes?"

"Yes, she assured me that would happen."

"So she will look a little bit like you."

Daniel thought, "If we had stayed, I would have known she was my baby. Thank goodness we didn't leave merely so I could find out."

"I think those stones are called topaz."

"Say that word again. It has a nice sound to it. It is quite like toparro. That is a nice word.

(According to Jude, "toparro" means "contented".)

"We could call her Toparro if you want."

"Toparro is not exactly a name. No babies have names like Toparro or Toparra. Topaz sounds nice."