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

[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."

[asmyown]

"Right, which makes it difficult to figure out where - others that aren't animals but look like humans are. Or what they do."

[bulrushes]

"If you found something that wasn't shaped like a human at all and it wasn't an animal how would you tell what it was instead?"

[asmyown]

"If it could talk, like you, I'd ask it. If it couldn't, I'd try and figure that out by observation; seeing what's different about it, seeing what sorts of things it needs to live, that kind of thing."

She does not bring up dissection. Because she is not going to frighten her child.

[bulrushes]

"Well, I eat plants," says Astrid. "And I drink water. And my hair does color."

[asmyown]

Lynn nods. "Unfortunately I don't know what things eat only plants, drink water, and change hair color based on what they eat. Besides you, of course. Which kind of makes it difficult to classify you."

[bulrushes]

"Oh. Well, what do we do about me not being an animal?"

[asmyown]

"Well, it means that I shouldn't take you to the hospital or nurse's office or anything, because I am worried that other people would want to - study you and that they would not have proper ethics while doing it. But other than that - I don't see a need to do much of anything, you seem fine."