Chapter Twenty-Nine

Four people sat in a room. Two were human.

“What on Earth is going on?” Ma said, staring at Gina with penetrating eyes. “What was that? How does that prove you’re immortal?”

Gina blinked. “Oh. Yeah, I guess that only proves I can manipulate my body. But… I guess if you can believe that, then the other thing probably isn’t too unbelievable.”

Da shook his head. “No, no, that was a trick, right? You used hologram-ographic-whatever technology or whatnot, right?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you about something like this,” Gina said. “This is real. I promise I’m telling the truth.”

“You don’t mutilate yourself in front of your family to prove a point, Ginavriklin Kteth!” Ma shrieked. “With your history? What were you thinking?”

“It didn’t hurt!” Gina said. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t think of a great way to prove it, you know?”

“Not like that!” Ma said.

“I’m sorry! I swear, I won’t do it again”

Ma shook her head and sat back on the couch, looking ten years older. “So, what, we’re supposed to just believe that you have superpowers now?” she asked, her hands shaking as she tried to put on a neutral affect.

“Uh… I guess? Not very good superpowers, if you can call them that. I can split my hand in half, I can eat glass, and I can’t die. I’m not gonna go out and fight crime or anything, I’m… mostly just gonna live my life as normal. But I didn’t want you guys wondering why I still look twenty when I’m in my fifties… I figured you deserved to know.”

“How did this happen to you?” Ma asked.

“Um…” Callana said, slowly raising her hand.

All eyes went to her, and she shrunk into herself. “So,” Callana began, “I’m not a Nim-in-vi-an, I’m… not from this planet.”

No one said a word.

“You’re an alien,” Da stated. “From outer space.”

“I can prove it, too,” Callana said. “I’ll just—”

“No true form stuff,” Gina interjected. “Do something small.”

Callana shrugged, closed her eyes, and then opened them again. But when her eyelids raised, so too did hundreds of thousands of other eyelids, which had appeared all over her skin. They all blinked in unison, and then disappeared.

Da stood up, cleared his throat, and left the room.

“Cal,” Gina groaned, “that wasn’t small.”

“Sorry!” Callana said, shrinking into herself. “Yours wasn’t small ei-ther…”

Meanwhile, Ma looked between the two girls, dumbstruck. “I don’t—what are you?”

“I… don’t really like the term for what I am,” Callana said. “It feels mean. I just call my-self Callana, and that is that.”

A minute or so passed, and then Da walked back in, holding a tiny, old, stuffed bear. He sat down on the couch once more, clutching the bear to his chest. It looked so small in his massive, black, calloused hands.

“Please, tell us the whole story,” Da said, squeezing the bear like it was his one lifeline.

“Uh…” Gina said. She’d hoped Da would get through the conversation without bringing out Stuffie.

No one was allowed to mention Stuffie under any circumstances. And yet, when things got tough, Da always slipped out into his room and unearthed the bear from his hidden resting place. Then, he’d wordlessly hold Stuffie close, as he had since early childhood. From what Gina had picked up over the years, Da hadn’t grown up in a happy home. Stuffie was his only relic from those days. So, she decided to tread even lighter than usual.

“So… I told the truth about how we met. I found Cal on the side of the road, walking up the beach, naked, as I said. This was actually the same day I came out, so I was a bit flustered, I guess. But when I saw her, I assumed she was a victim of some crime, and I took her to my apartment, and Von and I decided it would be best if we got her to a hospital. But then, it turned out, she’s—uh—not exactly human, and she started figuring out the language really quickly.”

“I have not made the progress in a while, though,” Callana said. “I still talk weird, and I cannot figure out how to not sound that way.”

“I think it’s cute,” Gina said. “It’s very you, you know?”

Callana shrugged.

“Anyway, she’s actually… kind of a god? Not on Brovar’s level,” Gina said, hastily adding that last bit so she didn’t offend her parents’ religious sensitivities. “More like one of the… minor gods in his army, but not really affiliated with the whole Ashen War thing. She just kinda floated around in space, snacking on stars and planets for a long time, but then she got chased onto Earth, so she shrunk into this form.”

Da furrowed his brow. “So… she’s not part of the Vile Throng?”

“No, no, definitely not,” Gina said.

The Vile Throng, of course, were the ones who Brovar was supposedly off fighting in the cosmos as he bravely tried to rebuild Heaven for humanity’s sake, even though, as every Brovarian would tell you, humanity did not deserve such a graceful sacrifice. It was just another way of manipulating people, convincing believers that humanity was depraved and awful, undeserving of Brovar’s love, yet receiving it anyway.

“As I said, she’s not involved in any Brovarian stuff. More of a third party, doing her own thing, you know?”

Ma blinked. “And she made you… immortal?”

“Yeah, uh, it’s a long story. Basically, she felt bad for staying in my house without paying rent and stuff, so she altered my body so I wouldn’t have to… die.”

“But… what about Heaven?” Da said.

Gina frowned. This would be the hard part, since it would be the closest she’d come to lying. “We don’t know yet. I mean, if Brovar really does rebuild Heaven, I’ll probably visit and stuff. But, you know, this is kinda like in the Cryptologia, when that one god and that mortal girl fell in love… right? You remember that story?”

Ma and Da shared a look. “You mean Clendarian and Shiliaska?” Ma asked.

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“That’s always been one of my favorites,” Da admitted, petting Stuffie’s head. “‘Thou’rt the sky and the stars, for the grandest wonders I can create are naught to your grace…’ I have a tattoo of that verse.”

“Yeah,” Gina said. “It’s… uh, it’s like that.”

Ma puzzled for a bit. “You’re still going to go to college?” she asked.

Rolling her eyes, Gina scoffed. “Yes, I’m gonna go to college. Cal’s been helping me apply, remember?”

“I also might want to go to the col-lege,” Callana said, earning a shocked look from Da. “I do not know much about the humans, and it has been fun lear-ning.”

“Did you really work as a waitress?” Ma snickered.

“I had never had a job, and I wan-ted to see what it was like,” Callana said. “It was not fun…”

“So…” Da said. “Do you know Brovar then?”

“No,” Callana said. “Gina says his name a lot, but I was alone in space, and I did not hear about any ‘Brovar’ until I came here. The Angry Things that chased me here were the only things I in-ter-act-ed with, and they were not nice.”

“I didn’t know there were gods who hadn’t heard of Brovar,” Da said. “Big universe, huh?”

“Y-yeah,” Gina said.

For a minute, they all just watched Callana fish out a bag of marbles from her purse, then start popping them in her mouth like peanuts.

“Are those…?” Ma finally asked.

“Want some?” Callana said. “They are not as good as stars, but they are close!”

“She can’t eat glass, Cal,” Gina said.

“Right.”

“They actually are pretty good,” Gina said, trailing off at the end.

Da cocked an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t they just taste like… nothing? Sand?”

“Nah,” Gina said, “they’re kinda fruity? It depends on the temperature they were made at, and I guess all the dyes add a bit of extra flavor. I… like the red ones best.”

“I have to save the red ones for Gina,” Callana admitted, a coy smile tweaking the edges of her lips. “She gets all up-set if I do not give her them, e-ven though they are my fa-vor-ites, too.”

“Well, it’s not my fault they’re the best ones,” Gina whined.

On the other side of the coffee table, Ma and Da shared a baffled look. Gina couldn’t imagine how weird it must be for them to listen to their daughter talk about eating marbles. But damn it, she wasn’t about to lose her red marble privileges.

“So,” Da said, setting Stuffie down beside himself and glancing at Callana. “Do you have… a family or anything?”

Grimacing, Callana shook her head. “Not really.”

“Oh,” Ma said, her eyes softening. “Oh, I’m so sorry, hon.”

“It is fine!” Callana said. “I am buil-ding one.”

Squinting, Ma puzzled for a moment. Shooting a look at Gina, she frowned. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“Ma! How could I be pregnant? We’re both girls!”

“I’m not gonna assume what she’s got down there,” Ma said, throwing up her hands.

“Brovar’s ashes,” Gina muttered.

“We just want what’s best for you,” Ma continued. “So, no kids until you’re at least thirty, understand? I love you to death, but your father and I should’ve waited a few years before having you. Don’t put your kids through what we put you through!”

“It wasn’t that bad, Ma.”

“I’m not kidding! You deserved a better childhood than that. It’s my biggest regret, not having a real home for you. Not having enough money to take you places, do fun things together, get you into a good school. We’ll support you as much as we can—just save up, buy a house, get a good career, and then think about kids.”

“What did I say that made you think I wanted kids right now? We’ve been dating for a month!”

“To be hon-est,” Callana said, “we were da-ting well be-fore that. We just didn’t ad-mit it.”

“That’s how Shierie and I did it,” Da said, shrugging. “My folks were so furious, said men and women shouldn’t sleep together before they’re married. I said, ‘Oh, we’re not dating, we’re just roommates. We don’t have another bed, so we share it—it’s perfectly innocent.’ Well, uh… that didn’t last long.”

The four shared a silent moment.

“Apples and trees, yadda yadda,” Da said.

“Yeah, I’m starting to see it,” Gina said.

The rest of their visit went surprisingly smooth, as Ma and Da asked simple questions, getting simple answers, and sharing a few jokes and observations. For a time, they just sat in the living room, chatting. But after a few hours, they went off into the dining room to share Ma’s signature borscht with yeast rolls, then gathered around the TV to watch the Unity Parade in the capitol, before finally heading out to the local park. There, the fire department held their yearly fireworks display, launching an absurd number of shells into the sky, which burst in brilliant yellows and reds and greens, the colors of the Borakovoni flag. Despite the overwhelming nationalist fervor the holiday excreted from every metaphorical orifice, Gina couldn’t help but cuddle up to Callana the whole time, thrilled to share the occasion.

As the sky burst into fiery lights, the two shared a long kiss under the stars.

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