Page 38 of His Little Hessonite

I push her slowly. We have plenty of time, and I know she likes to look around.

“Oh, what’s that, Papi?” she asks as a critter scampers across the sidewalk and disappears into the foliage.

“That was a shama. It’s sort of similar to the bunnies you have on Earth.”

She squeals in delight. “He was so cute. Can we get one? Can we get a pet?”

I chuckle. “No, Baby girl. We don’t domesticate any of our animals on this planet. We let them live in harmony. We don’t disturb them at all. They’re all part of the perfect balance of our ecosystem.”

“Poop. No pets?”

“No pets, Little one. You have to enjoy the animals in their natural habitat.”

“And you don’t eat any of them either?”

“Nope. We are a plant-based society. We don’t eat our animals.”

“If I sit in the backyard really still and quiet, will I get to see some creatures?”

I laugh. “Do you think you could ever sit still and quiet?”

She gasps dramatically. “Papi, I can be quiet and still.”

“I haven’t seen evidence of it, Little one.” I’m grinning. I love her to pieces. I’m incredibly lucky because she has not spent the last ten days angry and surly about having been yanked off her planet and relocated to another. That’s the norm among Little girls. It’s difficult for most of them to accept their new lives. In addition, many of them struggle harder with submission and regression. They all come around eventually. Fate doesn’t make mistakes. She picks the perfect mate for all of us. No one has ever returned with their mate and found her unable to eventually come around to our customs.

She claps her hands and giggles again. “What’s that one, Papi?”

I lean over to see where she’s looking and follow her line of sight. “Ah, that’s a lanau.”

“It looks kind of like a squirrel.”

“Yes, I suppose it does.”

“And no one is mean and kills them?” She twists around to look at me. “Do your people have guns? Do they kill each other?”

“No, Baby girl. We do not have guns on this planet. We are a peaceful people. Crime is very rare here.”

She sits back. “Huh. I think I’m going to like it here.”

I grin all the rest of the way to the clinic. I’m certain she’s going to like it here, and I’m so damn grateful to have found her.

Chapter Sixteen

Clara

“Just Thabo? I don’t call you doctor?” I recall that the physician on the spaceship referred to himself as Dankin with no letters or extra accomplishments in his name.

Thabo chuckles. “You can call me doctor or Thabo. We aren’t as formal with our names as humans. We don’t place a tremendous amount of superiority for one profession over another. Everyone is necessary on Eleadia.” He gives one of my pigtails a playful tug.

The pigtails have been one of the weirder things to get used to. I didn’t even wear pigtails when I was an actual child. I was raised in foster care, and no one ever had time to fix my hair.

Until Papi. He fixes my hair every day, and he takes his time and brushes it out until it shines. It makes me feel incredibly special and loved. I only told him about my childhood a few days ago. Since then, I think he’s been taking even more care with me as though I missed out on something, and he wants to make up for it. It’s very sweet, and I love him more every day.

Thabo pats the exam table. “Let’s get you checked out, Little one.”

Papi lifts me onto the table.

“Do you have any particular concerns?” Thabo asks Papi.