Confusing Earth - Chapter 24: Deep

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Chapter 24: Deep

“We’re going to the zoo” announced Nathan, entering the room. This strange family he had adopted as such were sitting at the table in the dining room.
“What’s a zoo?” asked Maree.
“It’s a place where they keep animals so that you can look at them” answered Nathan.
“So we are going to go and gawk at inferior life forms?” asked Maree.
“Yes” said Nathan, “Most human children your age would be excited.”

“Okay” said Maree and she returned to eating her breakfast. She twirled an “o” shaped piece of nutrition around in her bowl.
Nathan looked up at Bella. Bella smiled at him. He went up to her and said, “I thought we all needed a day out. Do you want to go and as Maree says, gawk at inferior life forms?”
“That would be good” said Bella. There was silence for a moment. Bella went to say something else but Maree’s voice beat her.
“So these round things are fruit?” asked Maree gesturing at her bowl of breakfast.
“Oh God no” said Nathan, “Those things are just fruit flavoured. There’s no way that they are as good for you as fruit”.
“Oh” said Maree, “Well I like them. And I liked the fruit you gave me to try the other day. What was that again?”
“An apple” said Nathan.
“Apple” said Maree. Bella opened her mouth to speak.
“Are apples as good for you as confectionery nutrition?” asked Maree.
“What’s confectionery nutrition?” Nathan asked Maree.
“You know the brown sweet stuff” said Maree.
“You mean chocolate?” asked Nathan.
“That’s what some of the coverings around it said” said Maree, “Is that what it is called?”
“Yes” said Nathan, “And that is not good for you.”
“Oh” said Maree, “Well we have been living on it and just it before we came to see you.”

No one was talking so Bella took her turn.
“Nathan, I need to talk to you” she said.
Nathan turned to Bella.
“Of course” he said, “What is it Bella?”
“I just wanted to thank you” said Bella, “You have been really…”
She stopped mid sentence. Both Nathan and Bella turned to look at Max, Maree and Liam. They were all staring at them.
“Gee you three” said Bella, “Do you really have to stare at us?” Max let out a low whistle and turned back to his breakfast. Maree looked away and back at her food. Liam continued to stare. Nathan put his hand on Bella’s shoulder.
“Maybe we should go in the other room to talk” he said. They went to the lounge and sat down on the couch.
“Bella” said Nathan, “You don’t need to thank me.”
“Yes I do” said Bella, “You have been really helpful. You took us in when we had nowhere to go, you handled the fact we are aliens relatively well…”
“I threw glasses at you Bella” interrupted Nathan.
“You could have taken it worse” shrugged Bella, “But you’ve been great now. You were there to help me through the issues I had with the infant and you have been great in the couple of weeks following. It’s been two and a half weeks since I lost the infant and you have been nothing but supportive with that but what’s more, you have been helping us to live here. We now know not to eat chocolate for health’s sake, I now know what those things I thought would make a spaceship with no flying devices…”
“A car” corrected Nathan.
“Yes I now know those pads with wings that I thought would make a car fly are actually for a completely different thing and on a related note, you also handled me freaking out thinking I was dying of internal bleeding or something. And you have us working everything out. You have been helping to get the children dressed and fed and take care of. These last two weeks have been amazing. We have been learning so much – I mean, those apples, they taste great, we have never consumed anything like that before, in fact before earth we injected nutrition into ourselves with needles – anyway, we are learning heaps and you are helping so much with life and the kids and with my loss and I guess, I really just want to say thank you for everything. You have been a great partner throughout this whole time” said Bella and she hugged Nathan.

Nathan hugged her back. The word partner danced around his lips, dying to get out. He had to say it. He had to know what she meant by that. Bella pulled out of the hug and Nathan looked at her.
“Partner?” he queried.
“You know partner” said Bella, “Working together. We have been good partners in taking care of children and handling life and you have been a great individual in helping me negotiate life when I’m stuck.”
“Oh so that sort of partner?” said Nathan, “A partner like a partner in a project. We are working together on raising the children.”
“Yes” said Bella, “Exactly. You have been good at that. Am I using the word wrongly? Was there some other sort of partner?”
“No” lied Nathan, “You’re using the word correctly”. In reality, she was using the word correctly, just not in the way he might have hoped.

Maree’s voice rang out from the kitchen.
“Bella” she yelled, “Liam has just oozed nutritional sludge from his breakfast onto himself.”
Nathan and Bella looked at each other for a moment then Bella sighed heavily and got up to deal with Liam. She walked off and Nathan sat on his own for a moment. Then his phone rang. He answered it.

“Hi Nathan” said the voice on the phone, “It’s Jack. I’m trying to find my family. I said something stupid and I’m really sorry and I know I was wrong and I have now lost them. I was wondering if you have seen them at all?”
“What?” said Nathan. He knew who Jack was but him calling him out of the blue and turning what was going on upset down frazzled him somewhat and he had trouble taking in what Jack was saying.
“You know, it’s Jack” said Jack, “I made a mistake of wearing a dress when I met you.”
“Oh yes” said Nathan, thinking quickly that he needs to say something else, “What’s up?”
“Have you seen my family?” said Jack, “They left because I said something stupid but now I realise I was wrong and I want them back. Have you seen them?”

Nathan thought about what Jack said and then looked into the kitchen. Sitting at the table were the children, happily chatting about the day. There was Bella standing in there already finished cleaning Liam up, cutting up some apples to take with them to the zoo. The perfect picture was there in his kitchen.

“No” said Nathan, “I have not seen them.”
“Okay” said Jack, sounding deflated, “Can we still catch up? We are friends.”
“Not right now, I have guests over for a few weeks” said Nathan, “I’ll let you know”.
“Okay” said Jack, “Bye Nathan, thanks for your help anyway.”
“Bye” said Nathan. Jack hung up. Nathan put his phone on the couch and watched the family in the kitchen, feeling a mixture of both relief at having just escaped something undesirable and a gnawing sick feeling deep inside his stomach.

THANK YOU FOR READING

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

Chapter 23: Missing: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-23-missing

Chapter 22: Human: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-22-human

Chapter 21: Fish: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-21-fish

Chapter 20: Broken: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-20-broken

Chapter 19: Flame: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-19-flame

Chapter 18: Second: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-18-second

Chapter 17: Glasses: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-17-glasses

Chapter 16: Spider: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-16-spider

Chapter 15: Sister: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-15-sister

Chapter 14: Sprinkle: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-14-sprinkle