Page 7

Chapter

Six

D elilah didn’t know what to think of the aliens.

She’d felt them watching her daily since their arrival and yet, while they had left her plenty of fruits and vegetables, they hadn’t made any further attempts to come nearer to her until the day the male called Agrel had sought to rescue her from the fierce Nimh.

Even so, they kept their distance, though they lingered more, their eyes following her.

They had watched her before, she’d always been aware of it, but it had been from a distance.

She was more acutely aware of it now that she was sharing the village with her without any of them feeling the need to avoid each other now.

She was certain that they were very much aware of where she was in the village at any time of the day.

No matter where she went, she caught sight of one or the other, or sometimes both of them, whether in passing or while the males happened to be lounging as they rested and enjoyed the sun.

Even from her window, she would often look to see one of the males passing overhead, their color disguised by the brightness of the sun behind them, making it difficult to extinguish one from the other.

They were a constant presence and rather than alarming her, she found that she was comforted by it.

Nothing dangerous was liable to get into the village while the males were on guard.

Not only that, but the males were considerate of their welfare.

On numerous occasions, she had seen the male called Gehj leaving baskets of wild fruits, nuts and other bits of food that had obviously procured from deep within the woods.

A plentitude of food that the meager gardens within the village and the dying fields just outside the walls couldn’t even match.

And it wasn’t just that. Since learning that they ate meat, the other male, Agrel, had also begun to leave meat out for her as well.

She was reluctant to accept it at first, since they were still very much unknown to her, but she had Lily to think of.

Lily, who watched them from the windows with far too much interest. And it was getting harder for her to justify keeping her daughter confined within the home—even to herself—when everything they did demonstrated that they could possibly be trusted.

She was just frightened to trust to that extent, not when everyone else in her life had already abandoned her. And she was equally afraid of how much she’d recently come to rely upon them. The thought of losing that—of Lily slowly starving to death—terrified her.

“I still don’t know why I cannot go out and play,” Lily complained. “It’s so boring in here.”

“I explained it before. We aren’t alone out here, so you can’t have free rein of the village like before.

I would just feel better knowing that you are here where it’s safe…

with Nimh. You are both very small and can be easily hurt.

It’s better to be safe now rather than sorry later over a lapse in judgement,” Delilah replied, her attention focused on wiping down the kitchen, and really any surface of the house.

Perhaps she was also beginning to feel the pressure of always being indoors as well. She was feeling as restless as her daughter looked.

“But they came from the wishing stars,” Lily reminded her with a heavy sigh.

“Of course they did. They are aliens.”

Lily shook her head, a secretive smile on her face. “No momma, I told you, they came from the stars for us. They are our new family.”

New family. That was something Lily certainly had not said before.

Saying she wished on the stars that they wouldn’t be alone was one thing, but insisting that the aliens were family to them gave Delilah a pause.

They never had any other family except each other after Zack disappeared.

She’d thought that was enough. That Lily was happy despite the hardship.

She didn’t realize that Lily had so keenly felt the lack of having the large families that the other children had.

She never had uncles or cousins… was that what she was hoping for?

If so, her daughter’s heart was going to be broken.

It was painful knowing that she would have to stand helplessly by as her daughter cried her heart out, all because of a harmless fantasy dreamt up by her lonely child.

It wasn’t fair. Why did they have to come to their village?

Why should Lily be forced to experience abandonment and pain a second time when the aliens eventually leave?

She knew that it wasn’t their fault. They were doing nothing to encourage any such fantasy over the hours her daughter spent watching them.

Of course, they watched Delilah and Lily in turn—what little they could see of the little girl through the window—but it had struck her more like the sort of fascination one might feel encountering something new.

Wasn’t that why she also often looked for them as she walked through the village?

It had long ceased being about fear, but rather, it had become an unconscious pull to observe something so very different from her.

“Lily, honey, I don’t think they would see us the same way you see them,” she cautioned.

“I know that they are fascinating with their long feathers and red wings and even look a tiny bit like us in the way they are shaped, but they aren’t human.

They may not even consider us as people in the same way we do, much less as a potential member of their family.

It would be best to get that out of your head. ”

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Lily dropped down from her knees as she turned on the couch, giving her back momentarily to the window behind her.

“Momma, don’t be silly. Of course they do.

Don’t you see the way they are always bringing us food?

” she pointed out in her most reasonable voice.

“Who else would do that but family? That’s what families do…

they feed each other. Kids are given good foods by their families to show them how much they love them. ”

Perhaps she should have expected that response. In Lily’s eyes, they were practically heroes. It didn’t hurt that from day one she’d been wildly enthusiastic about them. She practically bounced when one of the males came within view of the windows, her slender arms waving over her head jubilantly.

“Okay,” Delilah replied, drawing out the word slowly. “But people also feed small animals that need food without making them part of their families. We took Nimh in, but that is not always the case. Their kindness might be the same that we would show a starving dog.”

Lily giggled. “We would bring the dog home, too,” she pointed out.

There was no arguing with that. “Fair point,” she chuckled. “But Lily, just remember that they are not us. We can’t expect them to just adopt us.”

A sweet, knowing smile spread across her daughter’s face. “You’ll see, momma.”

While she was certain that it was just the fantasy of a lonely child, she couldn’t ignore that her daughter’s words sparked something within her.

What it was exactly, she wasn’t sure. But with the dangers of the woods growing by day, and the males attentively providing so happily for their meals in ways they hadn’t enjoyed since her husband disappeared, she could understand the appeal for Lily.

It was hard to not want someone who was there specifically for them.

And although it was a fantasy, it was one that followed her into slumber that night and haunted her all next morning when she woke.

She went about doing her morning routine listlessly, her mind occupied with conflicting thoughts of the alien males.

Was Lily right? Not specifically the family part—that was just the hopeful imagining of a child.

But might they have been lured to the village and were lingering because they were… interested?

They claimed to just be hunting and renewing their supplies and yet their interest in her was difficult to refute.

Not that they came to the village for them, but even if it was by some wish that made their paths cross, did they see something more in her than just a lone female they were forced to share space with?

It sparked a crazy idea—one that the old Delilah would have pushed away with revulsion and not dared do consider.

But why shouldn’t she? Zack would hate the very idea of his daughter being permitted around a pair of “monsters.” It would have all been a matter of principle, of course.

That was the way it always was with Zack.

Everything he did for Lily was about his image or the core principles of his beliefs.

He certainly hadn’t invested any of himself or his time into her, which accounted for the fact that Lily barely had any memory of him.

His duties often took him away, and for increasingly longer periods when the newness of being a father wore off.

And when he was there, he was often impatient with the little girl who interfered too often with his pursuit of his baser desires.

That is why , an insidious voice within her whispered, you question whether or not he truly died. How many times did you have to listen to him complain about him not being able to have you to himself?

She had believed that he was just tired, overworked, and wanting some comfort from his wife.

Lily hadn’t understood that, but Delilah had been certain it was just something that would fix itself and that her husband would grow close to his daughter.

Was he ever close? Had he ever held her?

Had he ever voiced wanting a baby or being disappointed when Delilah struggled to conceive?

A chill worked deeper within her and suddenly the house that she had shared with Zack for so many years felt claustrophobically small.