Milo on The Earth

13: Memory

Many people said things went back to normal after that, but to Chloe and Alex, that was far from the truth, they had allowed Milo's life to become theirs, and living on their planet had permanently changed them. Alex no longer enjoyed sweet tasting foods, Chloe had developed a strong need for physical exertion, humans had almost become foreign to them.

Now it was almost like everyone was trying to forget the diversity of beings they had only recently lost, stlrakl characters in television, especially children's programs, disappeared without a trace. Chloe even had an aunt who tried to change subjects whenever Milo or their family were brought up.

The only place that seemed to properly acknowledge everyone's absence was Alex's work. The few people left to manage everything had set up small memorials on their alien coworkers' desks, and Chloe was soon invited to a small ceremony set up by them in the park, which she gladly accepted.

When she first arrived, a woman was standing on a small stage, singing stlrakl style music. She sat down on the grass next to Alex, and started to chant random noises as everyone else was.

Stlrakl music was an acquired taste, but they had both learned to enjoy it from Milo, who had a surprisingly beautiful singing voices. Vocal songs usually had a heavy emotional quality to them, and were sung in a strange, vibrato like style. Others, such as the one they were currently singing, didn't mean anything, and were composed of random noises sung in an emotional way.

At some point, someone started walking around with a mesh enclosure filled with fireflies, handing them out to anyone who asked. It was based on an annual holiday where everyone would pick a levitating, glowing seed pod from a type of ivy for each loved one that they would never see again, normally due to death, but there would always be a few symbolizing lost or given up children. They would then release them into the sky, like lanterns during Diwali. The actual ivy would likely be dangerous for the local wildlife, if not impossible to find, so this was their version.

Alex walked up to Chloe with his hands cupped, "I got five, want three of them?"

"Sure." she smiled, making the transfer and then releasing them in the air.

"You know, we're thinking of doing a website." he said, as they watched the yellow lights fill the sky.

"What do you mean?"

"Like a tribute website. People can upload artwork, stories, messages, that kind of stuff."

"As a way to cope, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"That is actually a really good idea, in fact, I think I have something we could put on it." She pulled out her phone and held up a photo of a watercolor painting. It was a human and a stlrakl standing next to each other, the human's back was turned away, and the stlrakl had a serious look on their face, each one was carrying a tiny version of their home planet.

"I didn't know you could paint, sewing and woodworking, sure, but painting is a whole different ballpark," he stared at it for a few more seconds before adding, "Yeah, we can definitely use this."

Chloe put her phone away and sat down. "I remember thinking of them as a nuisance the first few days."

"Wait, why?"

"They were destroying my house and stole my sofa, what do you expect?"

"They'd never been on Earth before, and for intensive and purposes, they were sick, what do you expect?"

She paused, "Fair point."

The two of them settled closer together, as Alex mumbled "If these last few years are swept under the rug, like history teachers tend to do, I am not gonna be happy."

"That's why we're doing this, to make sure they aren't."

The End.

So that's it, that's Milo's story, I probably won't post for a while because the story I want to put on here next is still being worked on, but you can find a brief plot summary of it on the conversations section of my account. I hope everyone enjoyed Milo on The Earth.