The scared orphan

Prologue

It was the morning of the babelian New Year, when Marka woke up as early as usual. The skies of their village were as sunny as they always were in the 1^st of March and people were still asleep after celebrating last night. He went to the lake in quick steps. He revised all over again in his head the last order he had two days ago. He got there just in time, when the Cassandra freed her anchor in the clear water. The sailors greeted him, while setting foot on the dock.

He opened the warehouse to be unloaded and the sailors were right behind him, three of them driving forklifts. Marka showed the men their articles for that day and stepped back in his office to allow them to do their work. 

Last night he and Pali made their New Year’s resolution, hoping that the Golden God will hear them this year and decide it will be their lucky one. They hoped for a child and agreed it should be a male, old enough to stand by himself. Pali was no longer a young blossom, but her work at the goats’ nursery made her want to mother a human being.

This morning Marka was tender to her and kissed her sleeping cheek. He hoped for the best…

A strong honk woke him from his daydreaming as the sailors let him know the load was ready for his final inspection. He got up from his chair lazily and took his pad. He descended directly on the ship on his levitator. He scanned the merchandise with his pad and manipulated with his fingers the hologram, searching for anything out of ordinary.

‘Yeah, guys! I think it is fine!’ he said, starting his levitator. ‘Have a safe journey back! See you next week!’

They all replied lively, while the anchor was raised and the engine started. Marka’s eyes followed the Cassandra until the horizon sent her behind the forest border. He was not ready to go back home, even if that was all his work for today. It was the Golden God’s New Year, so there was no action in the port. Nobody else was there, because it was a holyday. Marka was not much of a holyday spirit. He loved to work and to be busy. He loved to offer his time to their lord in the sky.

He could have gone home, but he knew Pali was not there. She was already at the nursery, according to his pad. Like she said, goats don’t really have holydays. So he stayed on his chair facing the tall window, asking himself again of what might begin after this harbor ends. He was holding his metallic mug of lentil soup, sipping sleepily. Then a crack in the sky, like an explosion made him wince. What he saw next made him jump of his chair and get his face closer to the window like he could not believe his eyes: a weird aircraft shaped like a wheel was heading furiously towards Lake Freedom. First it cut the water two or three times and then it collapsed making small waves and splashes, still moving in circle with a noise that resembled a drilling machine.

Marka got a little closer to the window then he stepped back. He looked at his pad which mirrored his face turning colors, his health application popping on the screen, showing his heart rate. Then he made a crazy decision: he took his pad in one hand and the console of the levitator in the other. He put them in the levitator and ran back to get a life vest. He then jumped in full of excitement and drove to the landing place of the flying object.

Pali always said Marka was a little crazy about myths and he believed too much in the lord and in superstitions. But he proved her wrong a few and significant times and now he had the feeling he was going to do it again.

The levitator took him above the fallen aircraft and he turned around to have the access gap towards it. He descended so much that the cold water was splashing all over him. He scanned the grey metallic thing, but it only said on the screen it was an unidentifiable object and it said what atomically compounds it was made of. The pad showed that it could not complete its scanning, as the object has a defending mechanism that prevents that to be done.

Marka put his pad in his inner pocket and then he zipped back his life vest.  He leaned over to study this anonymous aircraft better. It looked like a tortoise’s shell made of metal. He reached and touched it in the middle. He then heard a blipping sound and he pulled away from it, thinking it might be the warning that it will explode. But the only thing that happened was for it to open like two doors tearing apart from each other. Inside Marka saw a little baby boy almost one year old. He was peacefully asleep, though the aircraft had arrived in Marka’s harbor in such fast.

The first thing he thought was that he was right one more time to believe. Then he carefully picked the child up, looking at him. There was something strange about him. First of all, his color didn’t seem to be proper for a human child to have. None of the children that arrived in the village were so dark and brownish. And another strange aspect about him was his skin covered in floral-like scars, like of those people he knew that were struck by lightning.

But who is he to judge what kind of child the Golden God delivered to him and Pali? He is not to deny this divine gift; he is to keep him and raise him as part of the village community.

He and Pali decided to name the child Loop and dedicated their free time to nurture and educate him.