Chapter 1.19: Farewell

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Dear Diary, I sadly have to start on a sad note. Unfortunately, our beloved Nacho passed away during the night. 

Who knows whose fridges he'll be jumping on now... It's impressive, he's lived with us for so long we feel like his spirit is still here with us.

Taco and Mango look so much like him, in some moments it is so easy to mistake them for him. And, when we realize our error, we just feel even sadder, for sure all of us are going to miss a lot that old ball of fur...

As an attempt to cheer up the kids a bit, we decided to spend a day at the park. It was a beautiful sunny day, Nacho would have had a lot of fun chasing the lizards among those stones and bushes...

About midday, Luna approached me with a grave expression on her little face. It wasn't just the sadness for the loss of our cat, thinking about it she had been speaking less than usual for a couple of days already. What could have worried her?

Luna: ... Dad, I don't understand: why don't others know about us aliens?

Stuart: It's a long story... Mostly, people don't know this because the older aliens don't want anyone to know about them.

Luna: But why?

Stuart: Well...

Luna: They're not doing something bad, are they?

She is just a child, how can I explain such a situation to her? But she's smart too, and she's starting to put together the information she knows. And what she managed to understand scares her a lot, because it would imply that...

Luna : (almost in tears) Dad... But if aliens are bad, does it mean that I'm bad too?

Stuart: Of course you're not! You never hurt anyone, did you?

Luna : (unsure) ...

Stuart: Some other aliens may have decided to do bad things, but you have nothing to do with all this.

Then I hugged her tightly, I don't know which of the two needed comfort the most at that moment.

Luna: Why can't you just explain to me what's happening?

Stuart: Well... It's a bit too complicated for a child, sorry. But I will tell you everything, when you will be older.

Luna: Do you promise me?

Stuart: Sure.

Shortly after, we celebrated Milo's birthday.

Now my kid turned into a boy, he's almost as tall as me at this point. Time flights, that's for sure.

Chapter 1.18: Father Winter

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It's the Winterfest again, it seems a lifetime has passed since the last time we celebrated it... The children can't wait to unwrap their presents, they've been talking about it for weeks.

The felines still seem upset instead. Mango, you too? Really?

And also Taco? C'mon, what's wrong?

Luna at this point is just trying to ignore the scared cats around the house. Usually, she just sit at the kitchen table to watch some cartoons on TV.

Wait, watching cartoons on TV... Actually, this makes me wonder. What if...

Thinking about it, Luna always switches on the TV every time she walks into the kitchen. What if the cats were just upset because of the loud cartoons gingles, and not for her presence? I couldn't fully blame the cats for that either, some of those songs really pierce through one's ears...

For the moment, I tried to tell Luna to turn down the volume a bit, just to test my hypothesis. She immediately accepted, she wants to make peace with the cats after all. In addition, she also found it as a funny experiment on felines behaviour.

Chapter 1:17: Taking off

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Stuart: Nacho, can't you just sleep anywhere else?

Nacho: Meow!

I'm a bit worried about Nacho. He is no longer as agile as he once was, his fur is becoming more and more grey too, is it still safe for him to keep jumping on top of our fridge?

Milo: (from the other room) Mom, Dad, help! There's a monster under Luna's bed!

Milo: Taco, can't you go under the bed and see what it is?

Taco: (continues snoring)

Luna: I guess not ... Dad!

Sylvia: don't worry, it's nothing!

Luna: but we heard a weird noise, and...

Sylvia: Whatever it was, this water will make it run away! Now return back to sleep, okay?

Chapter 1.16: Chasing answers

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At the laboratory I'm continuing to work hard, I must learn more about aliens and their technology. We haven't surrendered yet, we still want to do something to try to stop them, we just haven't planned exactly what yet...

Their cloning machine is very useful, we often use it when we run out of reactants and raw materials for the lab. It seems to be able to reproduce objects of any complexity but, obviously, it can't create matter from nothing. 

A quick analysis showed us that it is loaded with the necessary elements to compose the desired object, and when the stock is over the process fails. I would define it as a matter-recomposer, if I had to name it.

Could it be the reason why they need to collect raw resources from less developed planets, like ours? Thinking about it, the first time I met the aliens, they were looking for a nickel delivery at my place. However, this makes me wonder: don't they have metals on their planet too?

The space rocket is also taking shape, our engineers say it will soon be able to fly.

However, most of our efforts continue to be focused on the black hole generator, the one that aliens use to move over great distances. Most likely, they are also using it for travelling from their planet to the Earth.

Stuart: Does it seem well-tuned to you?

Colleague: Well, it still looks a bit pale, try to give a bit more voltage...

Stuart: give me a sec...

Colleague: Perfect, it should be working now!

Those aliens continue to travel back and forth through that portal, carelessly, transporting materials and so on. Apparently, we can't cross it instead, the environment on the other side appears hostile to us.

For Jupiter sake, how strange could their planet be?

Chapter 1.15: Union

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Once the decision was made, we planned to get married as soon as possible. We had already waited long enough, don't you agree, my dear diary? However, a lot happened in the meanwhile.

First of all, Milo grew up, now he goes to school and everything.

He looks a lot like I did when I was a kid but, fortunately, he didn't inherit my myopia. At his age, I was already as bling as a mole instead.

Taco is growing too, now she looks like Nacho's younger copy. Only Sylvia is able to distinguish between them, and I still don't understand exactly how she does it.

For example, Sylvia assures me that the one in this photo is Taco.

As if those two felines weren't giving us enough trouble, Taco also felt sick. We flew her to the veterinary clinic where Sylvia works, it's the first time I've been there.

She's really good at her job, what do you agree, my dear diary? 

To be able to distinguish the two cats on the fly, we eventually decided to use two collars of a different colour: now Nacho has a blue collar, while Taco has a red one.

Chapter 1.14: Birthday

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This morning our neighbour rang the doorbell, leaving to us this little ball of fur. Apparently, their cat just had kittens, and they insisted to leave one of them to us.

Stuart: What? Wait, does it mean that Meow is a female?

Sylvia: (amused) come on, didn't you notice?

Stuart: Okay, but... Why should we keep him?

Sylvia: This kitten is a female too, actually. Besides, did you take a good look at her?

Stuart: Nacho, where are you hiding?

Sylvia: He's surely sleeping somewhere, as usual.

It took some time before Nacho noticed that another little kitten was wandering around the house.  At that point he started to smell her with a puzzled air, he did not seem particularly sure about the novelty.

Stuart: Are you surprised too, Nacho?

Sylvia: Try to get along, at least.

Normally Sylvia would have been thrilled to have a new feline around the house, but this time she hadn't been able to do anything but sigh with an exhausted air. We were already busy enough looking after our puppies, the last thing we needed was to take care of Nacho's kitten too. By the way, we decided to call her Taco.

Milo: Dad, I'm hungry!

Luna: Food!

Milo and Luna were born less than a year apart from each other, it is exhausting to keep up with both of them and both Sylvia and I are starting to suffer the situation.

Stuart: Maybe we should hire a babysitter... just to get some sleep, at least for a day.

Sylvia had thought about it for a moment, she didn't like the idea of ​​letting some stranger take care of Milo and Luna. But she and I were both so tired, that situation was not healthy for anyone.

Sylvia: yes, it might be a good idea, actually.

Parenting isn't easy at all, but being able to rely on each other made it a little easier to cope with.

So this guy will be our babysitter, his name is Tony. Bah... at least, he seems to know what to do.

Luna doesn't seem too happy, but at least Sylvia and I managed to sleep for an afternoon...

MSSSC: New Horizons

This short story is my entry to the Monthly SimLit Short Story Challenge (January 2022). You can find the challenge details in the related blog entry and forum page. The theme for this month is: new.

New Horizons

What a horrible, horrible day. I messed up everything, that’s it. And the worst part had yet to come…

Lynda was waiting for me, as usual, and probably she had also noticed already that something wasn’t right.

-I recognize that face. What happened at work this time, Raphael?- 

-Well, we are better sitting down.-

I didn’t know where to start from. Not that it mattered, she was going to scream at me anyway. Very hesitantly, all I managed to tell her was:

-I, ehm… I got fired, the chef…-

-You what? - She replied, angrily. - It’s going to take forever before we can afford a real house, why can’t you be just a bit more responsible? As if your job was difficult, you just have to not burn down the restaurant! - 

-I…-

I couldn’t listen to her anymore, it always ends this way. And, as usual, I just left and had a walk, to reflect on my life.

As predicted she was mad, very mad at me. She’s right, we have a lot of plans for the future, like finding a better home, and having kids, maybe. But how could we manage to do it, if I’m not even good at keeping a job? That’s what she thought, for sure.

All I could think of, instead, was that I couldn’t stand that situation anymore. I needed a break, I didn’t care anymore about money, nor about our future. 

At that moment, I remembered what tia Rosa always used to tell me: “When you can’t stand it anymore, just take a break, relax for a bit. Everything will appear clearer, afterwards.”

Tia was a very wise person, I trust her suggestions. And, maybe, I also had in mind what to do, during my pause for reflection…

-What a surprise, Raphael! Did Lynda really let you come this time?- 

-Well… Not exactly.-

-Have you really argued again? About what?-

-I don’t really want to talk about it...-

-I can’t blame you. What could be a better way to forget all our problems than hiking this mountain?-

Yes, he was right. When I was younger I used to hike mountains a lot, but I forgot the last time I was able to join my old times friends in one of their trips. 

-Wow, what a view!-

Snowy mountains are so wild and majestic. Hiking can be hard, it obliges us to be constantly alert and careful every time we put down a foot or climb a rock. All the problems we left back home are forgotten in the blink of an eye, and it is so easy to just focus on the wonderful scenery, getting lost in it.

-Hey Raphael, you're still good with that guitar! We thought you’d got rusty, after all this time!-

Well, they were not wrong. I never play when I’m at home, in the apartment I and Lynda live in it’s not allowed, too noisy. I realised how much I missed it only at that moment, playing again with my friends. How could I forget it? It used to be my dream, when I was a teen, did I really change that much?

-Just one last effort, I can see the top already!-

The last few meters are always the hardest, but the satisfaction once reaching the top is incredible, there isn’t anything else like it.

As expected, the view was breathtaking, everything seemed so small from there. Also the problems that were crashing me until this morning seemed so far and insignificant… C’mon, I had just climbed the tallest mountain in the region, my life’s problems were really that hard to overcome in comparison?

I’m really doing the right thing, insisting on a path that in all those years only made me more and more unhappy? From here I can see so many different places, so many possibilities… There really wasn’t any better path for me?

Tia was right, that trip really helped me to shed light on my cloudy thought, in that moment I understood what to do.

Six months later…

-Who’s the best girl in San Myshuno? It’s you, of course!-

-Woof!-

Many things changed in these months, so many I struggle at listing them all. I broke with Lynda, at that point it was clear we were just too different. Then I got a dog, I love them but Lynda was allergic. And, finally, I moved to San Myshuno, to chase the dreams I’ve hidden in a drawer for too long. 

New city, new job, new friends, new life. I didn’t know yet whether all those choices were the right ones for me or not, but I didn’t care. I was happier than I have ever been, and that was enough for me.