I hear Mom's ship land and I roll over, readjusting my blanket. No need to get up, really. As I was sleeping, Kevin came to curl up next to me and we nap together.
The door slides up and Mom comes in. "╓┤╋┶╄━╭╄┊ ╒╃┚╮┨┲." she greets us.
Her things - floating slightly behind her - fade away, going to storage. Mom makes her way to the kitchen to make sure we have water (we do) and food (we don't).
She refills our bowls and Kevin gets up. The only thing better than sleep is food (for him, at least). I stretch and roll over and continue dozing, listening to what's happening around me.
"┾┺┌┒╊╋ ╓╏?" Mom asks. I hear her say Gramps' name, "╓╏".
I listen to her walk around, and to Kevin eating, as I enjoy my soft blanket. Mom walks here and there, to each room of the house. Then I hear a strange sound coming from Mom.
Kevin and I both follow Mom to see what's wrong. She is in her room, and Gramps is laying next to a heater vent where he was taking a nap. Mom probes at Gramps here and there with her legs and with her invisible manipulators, Gramps not waking up.
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"Is Gramps a dead?" Kevin asks. Gramps warned us about this. I haven't seen a dead thing before, but Gramps said that for humans, it's like you can't wake them up from sleeping. It's more likely to happen if you're old, or if you're hungry for too long, or if you're too cold or too hot, or if you're too rough with another human.
Mom picks up Gramps with her invisible abilities and we follow as she leaves the room.
I've only lived with Mom for a couple of years, Kevin for maybe one year, and gramps for a dozen years, but I know he was much older. He said maybe seven of tens of years maybe. You could tell from his shaggy gray hair and droopy skin. Sometimes humans go to different Moms throughout their life because we do live a lot of tens of years, though I don't know how long Moms live, or what they look like when they are dead.
Mom sets Gramps down in the Mom waste compartment (where Mom poops, we Poop in a ceramic bowl because we're house trained) and Gramps is whisked away by a stream of water to who knows where. I hope Gramps doesn't have to spend his dead sleeping in poop.
Mom is sluggish for the rest of the day. I think maybe she's sad. And I'm sad, too. I loved Gramps, Kevin loved Gramps, and we will miss him and his stories. He was our only connection to knowing about when humans were wild, and now I'll have to do my best to keep telling his stories to other humans, if more come to live with us.
