Page 46 of I Think I’m in Love with an Alien

Seeker: Then believe in yourself. You never know what the future holds.

FarfromHome: A thoughtful response. I expected nothing less.

JazzyPlum: That’s it for me.

SquidHead: Same! Take care, everyone.

17

Jennette

I’m hugging Seeker.

Tamzir.

I wonder if he’d prefer for me to use his name, now that I know the truth. I breathe him in because I can. Now that his tech isn’t scrambling my brain waves and confusing my senses, I’m aware of a sharp, spicy scent that must emanate from him, like a chemical blend of cinnamon, cardamom, and saffron. Not exactly, of course, but those are the comparisons that linger in my mind.

At last, I sit back, hoping he feels better. Because there’s so little I can do when he’s lost so much. Yet it means everything to me that he trusts me with such a weighty secret. He’s put his life in my hands, and I’m so aware of that, it hurts. In a good way.

I’ll never betray that faith.

“You mentioned five family members… What does family look like where you’re from?”

“To put it in terms you’ll understand, it depends on the domestic partnership. My parents formed a triad, though Betau isn’t sexually involved with Arlan or Oona. They all contributed genetic material when they were ready to brood young. They hatched six of us, and we were reared collectively in the creche. My creche guardians are Tivani and Morv.”

Though I hate to interrupt, I have to ask, “What’s a creche?”

Sure, I could extrapolate, but it would be better to get his words on the topic. Seeker pauses, likely trying to figure out how make it stack up without context. I wait patiently, still sitting close to him. And he doesn’t move back.

“I suppose the closest comparison I can make on 97-B is a commune, where everyone takes responsibility for the offspring and contributes to caring and raising them. Creche guardians are an extra set of unrelated parents who focus on education.”

“Oh, that’s interesting.” I have so many questions that I don’t even know what to ask first.

“Is it? For me, it’s just how things were. I find it strange how uninvolved humans are, how they seek to cut connections whenever possible. There are so many of you, but it seems to me that you push for self-sufficiency at the expense of connection.”

I laugh, though there’s a trace of wryness in it. I see what he means. “We do fight like hell to get free of our family’s influence, and then we look for that one perfect person who can complete us. But…”

“Perhaps that’s not possible. There can certainly be a special person—or people, depending on how your needs align—but it seems to me that if you expect one person to meet all your needs until the end of time…”

I nod. Seeker and I are on the same page. “It’s setting yourself up for failure. I’ve always thought a relationship should be welcoming, with plenty of room for others.” It’s not that I’m looking for a poly arrangement per se, but I don’t want to be with a possessive person, who gets aggro over me wanting to see friends or pursue hobbies on my own. My last boyfriend hated me spending time on cosplay.

“You would like it there,” he says then.

“Don’t you have a word for it? Like, we call this planet Earth.”

Seeker makes an amused sound. “Yes. We call it Home. Earth translates to dirt, does it not? Or soil?”

He has a point. “In your language, though? What’s the phonetic sound?” Even if the syllables don’t mean anything, I still want to know.

To my surprise, he makes a series of clicks and pops, a squeak, and a hiss. It’s like a combination of natural lizard and bird calls. I find it fascinating, but there’s no way in hell I could reproduce those sounds. I come up with, “Tikpupeesh?”

“That’s not bad,” he says. “It will suffice. Our language also incorporates minute hue changes in our skin and subtle olfactory cues, but…”

Yeah, yeah. I repress the urge to defend our evolutionary limitations. There are reasons our noses aren’t too sensitive. Probably.

“So, you didn’t fit in on your homeworld,” I prompt. “And you didn’t become a musician like Oona wanted.”

“They wanted me to create beauty,” he corrects.