Time and Dirt
(First Day -- Previous Day -- Day 35 -- Next Day)
Day 35
Heliopause Colony on Planet Vertumna, Medbay
“Solane, I’m here again. Even if I’m still tired. So you aren’t so alone.
Let me hug you tightly, so you can feel it, too. Then... then I also don’t feel so alone with what happened to, to us. Since it’s still just the same, no one even wants to talk about it... It’s just the same awkward silence or dismissive words. I thought it would be different now but it’s just the same.
...
It’s like nothing makes any difference to anyone, no one seemed to even care when I told them the good news about you getting better and better. Except for Dr. Instance, which is almost weirder.
So many days now I keep thinking what Tammy would do if she was still with us here. So many days I wish she was here...
...
...
...”
This silence, that lay on us worse than the most sweltering heat in Dust in the middle of the year... my breathing became short and I had no words to end it in me.
- “Why...”
“Why what?”
- “why why why...”
“Hey, it’s fine...
...
Uh, or it’ll be at least. What’s that song, *don’t worry, about a thing, cause every little thing ... is gonna be alright*. I think you liked to listen to an Earth recording of this whenever you were a-alone and depressed. I’ll ask someone about it, okay?
But for now, just let yourself cry as long as you need to. Let the tears flow. I’ll be here besides you and can dry them for you later, too. And then we’ll return to physical therapy, to help you get well sooner and get your strength back.
It’s like helping plants regain their health! Sometimes they end up in bad positions due to a storm or accident and then you give them some support so they can grow beautifully again. A young sunflower knocked over will then soon be able to seek out the sun again.
I asked Dr. Instance if there’s anything else I can do, or that she is planning to do, but she was remarkably silent about what she has been working on, only saying that she will tell me when it’s ready. And to not touch the plants in the medbay, especially the ones growing on the table near you.
...
Look, the purple bobberfruit lollipops are starting to disappear behind the shoots the plant is growing! Or well, fungal plant. I think some people even like to call them pseudoplants, because they are really fungi with just tiny photosynthetic symbionts... like the algae in lichen. I still often have to remind myself that xenobotany is really very different from Earth botany. In this case, even the complete opposite! After all, on Earth something like 90 % of all plants have tiny fungi inside or around their roots.
Hmm, let me take a closer look... Their color is a much darker shade than what it should be, and less shiny, too. Odd. And their smell is still all wrong, ew... Let me see if can open the window here, the noise outside seems more tolerable today.
...
Hey, you are smiling again! A bit like a hesitant sun after a long rainshower, but that makes it all the more welcome to me... And I was so engrossed in your ...oddly fruity fellows here I didn’t even see it at first.
Do you want to start with physical therapy now? I think you’ll feel better after it!
...
Here, I’ll take your hand, and if you squeeze it, that means yes, okay?
...
You did it! You understood what I asked entirely... so you’re still making a lot of progress! It’s so wonderful to see.
Now, since you already managed to do rolling over yourself, we’ll practice sitting up today, okay? You’ve been laying in the medbed for over a month, so today you can look at the world from a less horizontal position again!
... Let me take you gently again, by both shoulders this time. There, and... oof, now you return to the land of the upright!
Your eyes are darting around, is your head spinning? I think that’s to be expected after all that time. Now you can see far beyond the tables with the plants and all the stuff right next to your bed. You can even see the ... kind of dirty floor. Some of that weird liquid that’s been dripping on the bobberfruits must have gotten on it instead. Maybe I should ask Dr. Instance if I should help with cleaning that up. After all, who wants to be in a dirty room, right?
Ugh, there’s so much more I need to do, too. And so much I want to talk to you about. And I so want to figure out what all those other plants here are that I don’t recognize. Dr. Instance never mentions them to me, she seems to be intentionally avoiding the subject even, so I can’t even ask her, I think.
But now I have to see that I can get some more work in the fields done before the next council meeting instead, and hope I won’t get another unpleasant surprise at that... But we’ll see, right? We’ll definitely see each other tomorrow again in any case, heh. I can’t wait! Oh, I should try to bring some more fresh food to you. You can look forward to that!”