Eclipse Child |✔|

|63|

Sometimes you wake up.

Sometimes the fall kills you.

And sometimes,

when you fall, you fly.

- Neil Gaiman

*   *   *

"So he's gone?"

I look at grandma, watching as she slowly rocks Tala.

"Yes. You said goodbye to him this morning. Why are you asking me that?"

"I just couldn't believe it."

Grandma stares thoughtfully in the distance, "I felt like I knew her...that woman..."

I don't say anything. I had the same feeling as well. But Grandma's words seem more personal as she looks down to smile at Tala.

"Hello," she coos, smiling sweetly at her.

"Leo's gone. Mom and dad are gone...."

I can't say the other name but Grandma looks at me knowingly.

"I wish your mother and father could have been here to say goodbye to Leo...well, if they come back to the Alba Rosa, I'm sure Mark will tell them."

"So Uncle Mark is staying there?"

"He and Aunt Quinn have positions there. Of course they want to stay."

"And Lilah?"

Grandma sighs, "I can't imagine Lilah wanting to leave her twin. Though she was very hurt that Lexie and Atlas left without telling her anything."

"She wasn't the only one."

Grandma turns to smile at me, "I don't think I understood my own mother until I became one. The sacrifices made that you are willing to take. The hate you are able to bear in order to do what you think best for your child. I twisted my childhood and changed it for my own convenience sometimes, Soraya. I would tell lies of what it was like just to soothe my own soul. But I like that you never did that. You were always an honest child to yourself."

I stare at Grandma, and suddenly I know what I need to do.

I don't reach for Tala. I want to. I want to hold her now, more than ever as I take a deep breath and turn to Grandma, "Will you listen to my childhood, Grandma? Will you listen to every word I say about it?"

Grandma pauses and slowly, a sad smile spreads across her face.

"You know Soraya...I've been waiting a long time for you to say that."

*   *   *

Tala is gone for the night. Orion sits on the bed, his eyes closed as I slowly run the brush through his hair.

Grandma volunteered to take care of her for the night. I blushed as she gave me her suggestive look, but feel a smile come to my face when I imagine telling her how the night so far has unfolded between Orion and I.

Just our usual bath together, and then this- our routine is not broken, even with Tala's absence.

"Do you think they're feeding her?"

"For the last time Orion, she is in the house right next to us. Grandma and Grandjay know what they are doing. I doubt they would starve Tala."

There is another pause of silence before Orion breaks it again.