Family Fill-in

Dear Mama,

Not much happening the last couple of days, just humdrum stuff. Nicole is gearing up for a major cleaning of the apartment because we’re all going to be away. Nicole and I and the babies are going to see her family for three weeks, then a friend of hers for another week. Anyway, she wants the place clean before we leave so we don’t have to come back to anything but just the usual dust, especially because we’re getting another baby while we’re on this trip. More about that later, but it means we’ll be going with two young babies and coming back with three.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to get into a routine of checking in on the family on Facebook every day, like my friend Bert does. Oh, Mama, if you were still with us, I think you’d be ashamed of me. Robin and I text or talk every couple of days. I kept my promise to you about him. I’ve been a mother to him the best I could. But the rest of them… moon above, after the way they took it when I came to see them after I graduated, it’s really hard to miss them. Oh, they were happy to see me at first, or so they said. But really, things were just awkward. So much had changed in seventeen years. It was almost like we didn’t know each other at all, except for me and Robin. He was so young when I left that the top brass at Shya-Roven devised a way for me to communicate with him, and as he got older, it became mutual, so we knew each other all along. Not quite like we would if I’d been actually there, but enough to get by and to make us really, truly glad to see each other when I got home. Anyway, enough rambling. I guess it’s time I filled you in on what everybody’s up to these days.

Dad is still the school teacher, although from what Robin says, his heart has never come back into it. I think you took his heart with you, Mama. I know you hoped that wouldn’t be what happened, but it was. He’s so different. Oh, he’s tried his best all these years, mostly for Robin’s sake, I think, but you can just see it in his eyes — this awful kind of quiet, broken desolation. I don’t know what he’ll do when Robin gets married and moves into his own cube. I’m afraid to think about it.

Speaking of Robin, oh, Mama, he’s just the sweetest, best, brightest of young leps. I’m so, so proud of him. He has such a gentle way about him and the most infectious smile, but if anyone takes him for being soft, they find out quickly how wrong they are. He’s a peacemaker and a natural singer and storyteller, so much like you. He’s apprenticing under Dad to be the next colony school teacher. To tell the truth, I think he’s stayed with Dad this long because he knows Dad couldn’t get along without him. All the fems like him. He could have his pick of those who are marrilee, but he just won’t.

Since I started with the youngest, I guess I’ll tell you about Tina next. She’s okay. She’s been the only one of us, besides me, to move away from the colony. She met this farmer almost twice her age when she was sixteen and he was visiting the colony to see his grandma. Well, she was marrilee, after all, and Dad didn’t have a problem giving permission, so she married Kelsin Wildanan and moved out to farm with him in Idaho. They’ve got cows and chickens and even little tiny horses that help them plow their fields. Can you imagine that? She’s been really good to Dad, by all accounts. Every now and then she’ll show up with good, fresh, creamy milk or butter or cheese for him from their farm. They have five lings and one on the way, and every one of them are as healthy and rosy as anyone could wish.

Perri’s the odd one of the family, but not in a bad way. He’s the only one besides me that isn’t married, except they all joke he’s married to his pieces and parts. Remember how he was always into everything as a little ling, forever making messes, coming in from playing smeared all over with something, or taking something apart to see how it worked and then leaving the pieces all around the cube? Well, I guess it all paid off, because now he works with the salvagers. He’s one of the leps who find human things like computers or phones or other electronic things they don’t want anymore and have thrown out. He brings them back, looks them over, and fixes them if they don’t work. From what I hear, he can fix anything. He’s always posting pictures of his latest projects on Facebook, although usually it’s hard to tell what exactly they are until you read what he’s written. He’s the same happy-go-lucky lep he always has been and really loves his work. I’m glad for him.

Let’s see, who’s next? Oh, Fil, of course! Well, big surprise, Fil is one of the best foragers in the colony. He really came into his own there after you went to High Country. I’m convinced he kept Robin and me alive the first few months, you know. He also tried his very best to do all the chores around the cube that I used to do. He’s married to a really sweet, good-natured fem named Noriana (Nora), and they have four rambuncious, healthy lings so far. It would make you so proud to see him with them. He’s such a devoted dad and always makes sure they have the best of everything. Nora is podding with another one, and when I was there, I even caught him making dinner for them all so she could rest. Isn’t that awesome?

Rosie is… well, forever and always Rosie, who does whatever anyone else says is a good idea and never thinks before she acts. I’m afraid that hasn’t done her any favors. She married just the type of lep who’d appreciate a personality like hers. Brody is a big, bullying brute, and Rosie just does whatever he tells her to. I’m sure he knocks her around. I saw bruises on her face when I was home visiting, and she told some goblin and kelpie story about how she fell carrying a foraging basket that was too heavy. As if. Rosie’s never been any good at foraging at all, and I don’t know who’d trust her not to poison Brody, herself, and the twelve lings. All her silly bubbliness is gone, and that makes me sad. The whole time I was there, I don’t think I saw her smile once.

There’s not much to say about Marco and Marli, except thank the stars they don’t live together anymore. I’ve never come across another set of twins who argued as much as they did. It used to just drive me crazy. Anyway, Marli is married to a good, steady worker, a builder named Milo Darvilan. She takes care of her cube and her lings and that’s about all. Marco married my old school friend Loraletta Travona, can you believe it? They deserve each other. He’s as arrogant as she is these days. He’s an advocate now. I guess all those years arguing with Marli until the rest of us all wanted to scream paid off, huh? But you know what? They don’t have any lings, and no one knows why. It’s caused a lot of gossip, the kind that’s in bad taste, of course, but still. I’d almost feel sorry for them if they weren’t so horrible to everybody.

And that’s it for the immediate family. If I get into Aunt Dilli and Uncle Ren and Abby and all the rest of them, and Flori and Aunt Nell and Uncle Toth, I’ll be here all night, and I really need to get this posted and go to bed. More soon. Good night.

Love,
Elli