wildflower

[bulrushes]

On the doorstep of a little house in Forks, Washington, a basket is placed.

The doorbell rings.

There are footsteps, and then there are not.

Comments

[bulrushes]

"I want to stay orange," says Astrid placidly.

She investigates all the orange things in the grocery store, and assesses them for foodiness, and also learns that red and yellow make orange together and eats carefully balanced amounts of those two colors, and then also learns that turmeric is an intense orange pigment and reintroduces blander-colored and even outright green food on top of plenty of the spice.

[asmyown]

And lo, Astrid stays orange. Lynn's not even surprised anymore.

She buys a stethoscope. If her daughter is not human, she would like to know by just what measure - how fast is her heartbeat in comparison to a normal human's? It's not pumping blood, obviously - does she even have one?

"Astrid, sweetie, can I try a thing?" she asks, stethoscope in hand.

[bulrushes]

"What thing?"

[asmyown]

"This is a stethoscope," explains Lynn, showing the item to Astrid. "It helps you hear things you can't normally hear without help - you can play with it, if you like, but I'm - going to listen to you, check for something."

[bulrushes]

"Okay."

[asmyown]

Right, stethoscope goes over Astrid's heart, and....?

[bulrushes]

[asmyown]

Lynn tests it on herself, to be sure that it works.

Thump, thump.

Right then. Astrid is not human.

"All right, dear - you know I love you no matter what, right?"

[bulrushes]

"Uh-huh?"

[asmyown]

"Well, I have reason to believe that you're not human." And then, because this is Astrid and not some other child, and therefore would like to know the reasons why, she continues, "My hair color doesn't change based on what I eat, when I get hurt I bleed red, I need to eat more than you do to be healthy, and I - have a heartbeat. You do not seem to."

Pause. "I have no idea what you are, but I love you all the same. Okay?"

[bulrushes]

"What's a heartbeat?"

[asmyown]

"Well, a heart is something that makes sure all parts of an - animal's body gets the oxygen from blood it needs. It does this by pumping. When it does this, it makes a sort of - thump sound. That's called a heartbeat. You can listen to mine, if you like?"

She offers up the stethoscope.

[bulrushes]

Astrid listens to Lynn, and to herself. "I don't thump," she confirms. "So I'm not an animal?"

[asmyown]

"Apparently not," agrees Lynn. "I don't know what you are instead, though."

[bulrushes]

"What else looks like a human?"

[asmyown]

"There are a few animals that walk on two legs, but none that I know of that look like they're human."

[bulrushes]

"But I'm not an animal, what's an not-an-animal that looks like a human?"

[asmyown]

"I don't know of any. You'd be the first to know if I did."

[bulrushes]

"Am I the only me?"

[asmyown]

"I doubt it, because there only being one of something doesn't make sense. You had to come from something, somewhere. But I don't know where the others are."

[bulrushes]

"Because of the basket."

[asmyown]

"Because of the basket, and also because things don't - appear randomly. Especially living things, which you obviously are. Trees come from seeds, birds come from eggs, microscopic cells come from cell divisions."

[bulrushes]

"Maybe I came from an egg. Tiny tiny Astrid hatching from an egg." She makes a gesture about chicken-egg sized.

[asmyown]

Lynn laughs. "That would be very cute. It's entirely possible, too, though if I had to guess I'd say that you'd come from an egg that's bigger than that, if you came from an egg at all."

[bulrushes]

"Medium-tiny Astrid," says Astrid, making a larger gesture. "I don't remember hatching. But I don't remember anything from before."