Time and Dirt
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Day 33
Heliopause Colony on Planet Vertumna, Medbay
“Solane, hey! It’s such a beautiful day outside today. We keep getting rain showers alternating with sunshines, so you can see several rainbows! It’s so wonderful. It makes you remember how this is the most beautiful place in the universe, doesn’t it?
...
Aww, it’s even better to see you smile at that. I missed that so much.
Soon we’ll be able to experience it together outside again, right? But even just looking through a window is nice. I know you have trouble doing that from where you’re lying, so I brought something to help you with that!
Here it is: A mirror! If I position myself here a step away from the end of your bed, and hold it a bit angled so the light falls in on it from the window, you should be able to see a bit of what’s going on outside. Including the annual asters I planted right in front of it for you to see! What do you think?
...
Oh, uh, and you can also see the medbay plants if I shift the mirror like that. See, isn’t that... wonderful? I know you’ve missed seeing the world outside the small room here. I mean, you didn’t tell me. But you don’t have to. It’s obvious to me as is.
No need to stare at me like that, heh. It doesn’t take a supernatural ability to be able to tell that. Just knowing someone for years, right?
You know, I wish you wou... could reply to me more. After all, you haven’t forgotten how to talk, have you? Or are you just speaking so quietly I don’t hear it now... Maybe I need to sit next to you at the edge of the medbed?
...
Hey... oh, it’s not as soft as I thought. Is that really comfortable for you? I guess the nights we spent sleeping in the barn during harvest season stop you from ever complaining about how nice a bed is.
...
... Why are you turning away from me? Did I say something wrong?
...
Or... are you looking at the... the wall over there? Wait, probably not. There’s nothing really there.
And, i-if you don’t want to talk, I don’t want to try to force you, of course. But hey, that you turned away yourself is great progress, I think. You don’t even need my help with physical therapy as much, do you? That means you might be healing faster than Dr. Instance anticipated! At least the simple things you can already do yourself.
Come on, isn’t that great news?”
Then I reached for your hand. I thought holding it would make you feel better. Or maybe I thought it would make *me* feel better. But you pulled away, and ...
...
“M-maybe you’d also want more time to yourself now... Since I know I can talk a bit much, which is probably exhausting to you? I guess I have ended up trying to talk for both of us the past month, just to fill the silence.
Here, have Tiki provide you quieter company, okay? I’ll be back tomorrow. There’s still more than enough work to do in Geoponics even with the new... reluctant aides, too, so I’ll get to that now.”