Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
In addition, now and again I will provide some of my fiction to read, for free, on this newsletter. Everything is available to anyone who subscribes, but I am always pleased when someone shows their appreciation for the newsletter by upgrading to paid, and I particularly enjoy getting likes and comments at the bottom of posts.
Daily Diary, Day 1492:
Today, I’ve included the seventh scene in Aelwyd: Home, my short story in the Caelestis series set in the Paradisi Chronicles universe. I am publishing a new scene every Tuesday and Thursday. If you haven’t read the first two introductory posts yet, I strongly suggest you do so before you start on the short story itself. To find the first of these two posts, or the earlier scenes, click HERE. Also very brief check in at end of post.
Aelwyd: Home
By Louisa Locke, copyright 2016
Scene 8:
Kammie didn’t like the fact that they were taking a military guard with them in the small shuttle that was transporting the medical team.
“Ma’am, Dr. Wong, we will be at the designated landing site in ten minutes,” the pilot announced.
“Mother, if you’ve tried the clearing where I was found before, and no one was there, why are we going back?”
“We’ve tried everything else. The Thorndikes are reluctant to admit it, but somehow the natives are able to shield themselves partially from the infrared tracking devices. And the forest is just too big for us to scour every meter looking for them. Every day we can’t reach them, more of them are probably dying.”
“But that still doesn’t…”
Her mother interrupted her, saying, “The scouts say there is evidence someone has been back to this clearing several times. Now that we have a rough translation of the original language, at least a dialect from the tribes to the South, we hope that we can communicate with whoever that person is. If they will make themselves visible.”
“And you think me being there will help?”
Her mother sighed. “It can’t hurt.”
Her mother looked so tired and discouraged. Kammie knew she’d started her nursing career on Earth during one of the worst planetwide epidemics. One of the reasons she’d been willing to marry a Thorndike was so she could live in space and forget that terrible experience.
They landed in the clearing and everyone got off, removing all the medical supplies. Kammie thought the presence of the black-uniformed, gun-toting soldiers would pretty much guarantee none of the natives would turn up. But there was no way that the base commander would permit civilians outside New Hong Kong Base Camp without a military guard.
The clearing looked very different in the daylight. In the month since she’d been here, the bare white branches of the trees had become covered in pale green leaves, while the forest floor was carpeted by wildflowers in oddly shimmering purples, reds, and oranges. Kammie thought the color scheme was quite festive and gave off a much friendlier vibe. In fact, ever since she’d had her adventure, all of the planet appeared friendlier to her. Which was odd, because she rather expected that having gotten so sick would have made her feel even less safe out of doors.
Whether or not the forest’s human inhabitants were feeling friendly was an entirely different question. The plan was to broadcast a recorded voice that was purportedly telling the Originals in their own language to please show themselves so that they could be given medicine to cure their sicknesses. The recording ended with the statement that many would die if they didn’t let themselves be treated.
Kammie remembered the grave silence of all the native people she’d met, and the strange musical sound to the few words they’d spoken. That didn’t sound at all like what was coming out of the loudspeakers. “Honestly, Mom,” she said, “how do we know the translator doesn’t have it all wrong and we’re telling them to come out so we can shoot them?”
Her mother shrugged and continued to unpack medical supplies.
When Kammie couldn’t stand listening to the recording another second, she slipped away when none of the guards were looking, going in the direction the natives had gone that night. As the noise from the loudspeaker became fainter, she began to hear the voices of the forest. Finding a fallen tree, she sat down and waited. Eventually, a small red bird fluttered down and pecked among the leaves nearby, chirping out a busy refrain. Then, delighted, she saw several of the big-eared micekins scurrying down the path, grumbling about their empty stomachs. Today, in daylight, and in a forest that seemed much more welcoming, she wasn’t even afraid when she saw a small, orange snake-like creature with six legs march past. She watched as it tasted the air with its purple tongue then lowered itself, welcoming the warmth of the sun-soaked earth against its belly as it sort of swam away through the wildflowers.
When she looked back up, there he was, the man, standing in front of her, his canine companion sitting at his side. Today, he didn’t appear nearly as fierce. She noticed his clothing, including his tall boots, was made out of a pale leather that would permit him to blend in with the trees. But the multiple braids in his blond hair were threaded with strings of red, purple, and orange. He stared at her with hazel green eyes but didn’t speak.
She stood up, pulling out the mobile from her jeans pocket, and flicked to the screen that phonetically spelled out the native words she was supposed to use. Feeling like a fool, she haltingly sounded out the words that purportedly said, “Thank you for saving me. We want to help. We can fix the sickness of the red spots and the cough. Make people better.”
If it wasn’t so important for her to get through to him, she would have found the puzzled look on his face comical. She tried again, but this time she acted out her meaning.
She pointed at him, then herself, and put her hand over her heart, while saying the native word for “friends.” That startled him, so she went on and pointed at herself and then pretended to be cradling and comforting a child. She smiled and nodded. Then she pointed at him and used the same motion cradling a child, only this time she looked sad and then made the whooping sound she’d heard the small native boy make.
He cried out and raised his arms in what looked like frustration. Without thinking, she caught his hands and pulled him closer, feeling that if she could just look deeply enough into his eyes, he would understand that they were there to help.
She repeated the words, “Help you. Want to help you.”
Suddenly a barrier came down and she saw comprehension, as if he understood more than her simple words. He looked over her shoulder, and she turned around to see her mother and Bai standing behind her. She pointed, keeping one hand firmly grasping his, and repeated, “They want to help you.”
Again she felt that it was more than words that were passing between them. He looked at her intently again. Then he turned, her hand still in his, and they watched as men and women came silently out from the trees, carrying their sick and dying in their arms
To be continued…
Brief check-in: Yesterday was spent doing catch up in a number of areas, returning emails, scheduling phone dates, attending a zoom meeting. I also spent my writing time listing the various plot threads from both this current book and the series as whole that I wanted to touch on in the epilogue. Today is my busy day with other responsibilities, including noon zoom meeting and phone meeting so I may not get much writing done, but hope to make a lot of progress starting on Friday. Here’s a truly lovely rose from yesterday’s walk.
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This is my favorite Rose. It is still very hot 🥵 in Texas. Low 90’s high. Supposed to go to maybe low 80’s later next week. And humid. Enjoy your weather
Loving the developing story! Gorgeous rose.