Holes

The Family

Three women stood there when the door had moved to the right. Two had the same features as the captain. They bracketed the second woman who was my scale.

Since they all wore the same dresses I figured it was a uniform and these women were also soldiers. None of the four were armed-I thought. Knowing that this was a different planet would I recognize a weapon if I saw one?

They were delighted to see me. That was confirmed when they called me by my rank and name.
I studied each of them. The giants to either side aroused nothing in me but the central figure, an Antrican, brought the same trust up from the missing part of me.

Focusing on her I asked,"What's your name?"
"I am Major Hover." She pronounced it Ho-veer. She turned, slightly, to the left. "This is Corpral Hanson." She pronounced it Hahn-soon. "On my right," she turned that way. "Is Captain Adan." She lengthened the a.

"Major," Captain Dunn spoke. "She remembers nothing of her life here. When you present her to her parents, remember that."

My friend turned and left. The others looked at me. Hahn-soon wore an expression of disbelief, I thought. The giant faces were hard to read. The other was-puzzled? Major Ho-veer had her eyes on me but her mind was elsewhere.

I brought her thoughts back from where she had been by requesting, "Please, take me to the people who claim to be my parents."

"Come in, Princess."

I did with the giants following.
The door closed behind me. Major Ho-veer turned to face me, kneeling so that we were eye to eye.

"How did you react when the door below opened?"

"Terror and unacceptance. I backed into the darkness so fast I almost tripped over my feet."

She rose. "Corpral Hahn-soon, Captain Adan, stay here. I'm taking the princess to see her mother, first."

"Before we go," I turned to the giants. "We appear to be Antricans. What do you call yourselves? I would prefer to use that then continue to call you giants. Where I came from giants aren't always picky about what they ate. Sometimes their meals were human."

Hanson answered. "We are the Maccar."

Hanson was the shortest of the Maccar at 18 meters. She had rust-red hair that flowed over her breasts.

We crossed the room, several times the height of Omira, heading for a cluster of-when I got closer I saw that they were stairs, moving stairs. I had heard of these. On Earth they were called escalators but I had yet to see 1 in action.

We boarded the closest one. I watched the major put her hand on the moving railing and did likewise. It kept me upright when I had failed to match it's speed, immediately. When we stepped off at the top I was ready.
We boarded a second still moving upward.

On the third floor we stepped off. The wind was coming down the hall. It was blowing strongly enough to flatten our dresses against us. It lofted our hair so the masses of it also blew behind us. We approached an empty shaft. I balked for a moment, but followed her when I saw the platform that filled the shaft.

We rose 2 stories before stepping off. A mixed crowd got on and off at the different floors. The higher we rose, the stronger the wind blew.

When we stepped off she turned to the left, walked 1.5 meters, back to the wind, and opened a door. I had already noted that the height of the floors were made for the Maccar. The door she opened was also Maccar sized for which I had no explanation that held together.

We passed through into a large room, quite large, and windy. Near the opposite wall were 2 chairs. They were stationed next to each other.

In them, facing a somewhat long table, were a man and a woman. Around the table were a number of men and a few women. Most were Antricans. The few that weren't Antrican were Maccar.

Major Ho-veer approached the table. I hung back staying behind her until she reached it then stepped up beside her.

The couple seated at the head of the table stopped talking to the group when the Major stopped by the woman's chair.

My senses; hearing and sight had always been acute. Now I thought I knew why. I heard most of the words that they said to each other.

Major: Your missing daughter..
I saw the joy that burst across her face then watched it die.
Major : ...remembers...

The man's face, animated, became questioning then sober. He looked across the room at me making inviting gestures with his hands.

I took a step closer and hesitated. Studying his face I noted that I had his cheekbones and his chin. In the woman's face I saw my narrowness of bone and my red hair. That encouraged me to approach.

The major finished her explanation and departed. My father asked me if there was, indeed, Nothing I remembered. I Did have remnants of memory but had never given them credibility.

"I have bits, flashes, of memory. Because you Are my parents I'll tell you what they are.

I remember the darkness I came through to get here, being tucked against something that carried me into it, light, screams, popping noises, and falling.

"The rest of my memories were made on Earth and I must go back. I left my Mama there and she's alone now. I'm going to bring her home. Papa was killed 3 years ago."

Images of her love for me, and what she was going through, brought the tears. My mother saw them. She approached and bent down to fold me into her arms.

Turning toward my father she spoke. "We know what her Mama's going through, darling. She must go back. We have to send an armed escort of Antricans, not Maccar. Remember she came back alone. Adon is probably dead."

She released me, holding me at arm's length. I looked up at Father. He looked back, perhaps remembering the empty years of my absence, and nodded.

"I need to know everything you've experienced on this Earth. Every bit of your knowledge, no matter how trivial. I won't stop asking questions, prying at your account, until I'm satisfied. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Father." He took the impact of my formal address with little outward sign it distressed him. Mother, grasping the difference Mama made, looked at me sadly.

"Would you like to meet your brothers and sisters?

"There's More of us?" I asked, surprised. The thought pleased me. On Earth I had been an only child!

"Yes." She grinned as my delight fed her own. Father grinned, as well, and turned to the others.
"Ministers, this meeting is adjourned." He focused on a Maccar, then nodded.

The ministers left through the main doors. We went out through another door.

In a short hall my parents turned left and headed back to the intersection where three of the halls met. When we arrived I met the first of my sisters.

She bent down before me clothed in the brown dress the female ministers had worn. Her hair had been elaborately piled on her head. The force of the wind was tearing it apart but her attention was only on me.

She searched my eyes then looked me over, intently, and hugged me. Through her embrace I felt her concern, her love, for me. For the third time that sense of trust, of familiarity, came up from the empty place within my memory.

Impulsively, I hugged her as well.
"Thank you." I whispered to her.