Playing Marbles for the Big Blue

11 Learning to Mother

By Jo Dora Webster

Will Amaza escape slavery at the hands of the Alvians?

11 Learning to Mother

"~Amaza we are about to be able to see Greg Hardin's house on the right.~"

"~Thank you Sela. Do you observe anything else?~"

"~Greg has a Tesser set to stun hidden in his left hand. I suggest that you don't react and simply turn your back to him and let him stun you.~"

"~Sela, I will comply. Please send me your perceptions of the sights and sounds around us telepathically.~"

I turned my back on Greg and looked out the window of the minivan that Greg was driving. Greg spoke to me.

"Celeste, sweetheart, please keep looking at the houses on the right. Our house will be in view soon. I hope it begins to jog some memories."

Sela showed me from her perspective what Greg was doing. Greg stopped the minivan on the street just before his home's driveway. He then pulled out the Tesser and shot me with it. I again was aware subconsciously and functional thanks to Sela even though incapacitated outwardly. I fell unconscious and I slumped against the minivan door but did not fall out of my seat.

Greg drove the Minivan to the end of the driveway. At the end on a separate slab which merged into the driveway, sat a Mini Cooper. Greg came out his door and went around to mine. He slung me over his shoulder and carried me down a hill around to the back of the house. At the back the full basement wall with windows was exposed and it had it's own entrance.

Something sensed his presence and it opened up the door for him and closed it after we were inside. There was a mud room with space to hang coats and store boots. Beyond the mudroom was the entry into a great room but over to the left was a closet. The closet door opened like the back door and behind the ordinary door was another door which opened by disappearing into the top to open and it let us in.

"~Sela, the closet is bigger on the inside than on the outside.~"

"~Amaza, the interior is dimensionally transcendental which is why it is bigger on the inside. This was their escape pod which took the family safely to Earth when their ship was presumably destroyed by the Van Allen Belt.~"

Greg took me deeper into the space pod. I recognized the Alvian design of the interior and had further confirmation that they were Alvans. I supposed that our destination was to their infirmary where Greg would alter my human form to be identical to his dead wife's appearance. I was curious what the Alvan Technology would be able to do to reshape my human body. My destination was revealed a moment later when Greg took me into the infirmary and laid me down on a treatment bed. Greg turned off the disguise emitter and he restrained me on the treatment bed. I could hear Greg talking to me again while I was unconscious.

"Oh Natalie, Natalie, Natalie. Now I am going to hide you in plain sight from that Golram, Makelam. You get your freedom from him and I get a Mother for my children. You can be assured that I will treat you with every kindness and respect due to you as Mother to my children. Even though you did not birth them, you will care for my children as if you did carry them in your womb. I don't know if over time you will fall in love with me and want to have a life as my wife. I shall be content to let us have separate lives and beds. Even though I would never have chosen a human to mate with I will treat you with as much love as I had for Celeste while she lived. For a while you will be ignorant of my family's origin on Alvia. With your spy bands to aid, you will see yourself transformed into an Alvian and with their capabilities you will be able to fly as we do. Then you will be truly one of us and with you sharing our lives and secret, I won't take the risk of you ever leaving us. Your life will be in a cage with us but I shall do my best to make it a pleasant cage. This will be the last time I address you as Natalie. Now you take on my wife's body, in every human detail, that for her was a human simulation but for you will be real. I shall always call you Celeste starting now. Sleep on Celeste, because when you wake you will take on your new life."

Greg programed the medical device, then it began to remake me in Celeste's image. Watching the process was amazing and at the end I was indeed looked the splitting image of the image in the photos of Celeste that I had seen earlier. After the process was completed, Greg scooped me up and again draped me over his shoulder and took us back around the house to the front but this time he took me to the front door. Greg laid me down sitting with my back against the houses exterior wall. He changed the setting on the Tesser to revive and discharged it in my direction. I came out of it and looked up at Greg.

"Greg, what happened to me?"

"Celeste, you feinted as we got to the front door. We need to get you to eat to build up your strength again. Do you think you can stand if I help you up?"

"Greg, I think so. Let's try."

I was indeed able to stand with Greg's help and then Greg rang the doorbell instead of unlocking it with his key. A pretty and pleasent 18 year old girl answered the door.

She saw Greg and greeted him. "Hello Mr. Hardin. How did your search go with the tip you received?" Then the girl gasped when she saw me, "Mrs. Hardin! It's so good to see you. We thought we had lost you."

"Janey, as you can see Mrs. Hardin is fine. How did the girls do?"

"Mr. Hardin, they were both angels." Janey smiled a mischievous grin since the Alvans looked like human's perception of angels in their native form. Mr. Hardin paid Janey and she left to go to her own home across the street.

"Let's go inside and see the girls, Sweetheart."

"Of course, Greg."

We entered the house and went to the daughter's room. Greg spoke to them with me hiding behind Greg but I came out as he spoke to them.

"Girls, look who I found!"

Both Gail and Sally, the two girls to which I was now bound in servitude as their mother, came and wrapped me up in a big hug which Greg joined as well. We were joined as one family and I hoped that the lives, especially the girl's lives, would be happy ones. We broke the hug and then Greg spoke to his daughters.

"Gail and Sally, I have something to tell you. Let's sit down in the living room."

Both the girls answered, "Yes, Daddy."

We all sat down in the living room. Greg sat in the recliner facing the sofa and I sat on the sofa with Gail on one side and Sally on the other with the three of us holding hands.

"Girls, your Mother who was lost is now found. She is not as she was since her head was injured somehow. I took her to the hospital and a nice Dr Zha told me that your mother's head being hurt made her forget everything about us. Even though she sees us all now again, she does not know us. The Doctor felt like even though she doesn't remember us that being at home with us may help her regain her memory in our home. I've told her that her name is Celeste and a little about you two, Gail and Sally. Celeste has promised to be your mother and treat you as her very own girls, even though she does not remember you. We'll get back into the routine we had before and hopefully both that and being home will allow her to remember us. If she doesn't ever remember us, we will love her just like we did before she went away. I know that this makes it hard since so many questions on what happened to her will remain without an answer. We'll just have to do the best that we can together as a family. Girls, I'd like for you to play in the living room while I get your mother settled in our home."

"Yes, Daddy" both girls said and they got down from the couch and onto the living room carpet where was a doll house and dolls and various other things scattered on the floor used for their playing. Greg took me from room to room in the house and in each room I saw tasks that had been left undone that a mother would do. In the kitchen I saw a sink full of dirty dishes. Also I saw evidence that the girl's breakfasts had been cereal, their lunches sandwiches, and their dinners either frozen meals or take out food, by the evidence of all the things I saw left out on the counters. Greg gave me a running commentary on all the rooms of the house. Finally the tour was over and we stopped and Greg turned to me.

"Celeste, has seeing the house and the girls given you back any memories?"

"No Greg, It hasn't given me back anything at all. I am so sorry."

"Celeste it will all be alright in time. Let's not let setbacks get us down. Everything will be good in the end."

"Thank you Greg for being so understanding. What shall I do now?"

"Celeste, take it easy and rest. Feel free to look in drawers and closets and cabinets all over over the house. There is one exception is the locked closet that I showed you when we were down in the basement. I would like neither you nor the girls to go in there looking. It has special things in it for my work which I need to be, where I can find them and not broken by accident. Only I have the key and I keep it locked. If you ever find it unlocked, Don't go in nor let the girls into it either. You can lock off the door to the basement from the upstairs and the back door and keep out of the basement until I can lock it again. Can you do that for me, Celeste?"

"Of course, Greg. Shall we begin giving the girls back some boundaries and rules again?"

"Celeste you are correct. The girls need rules and boundaries. I had neglected enforcing the rules that we had, when they had to deal with the loss of their mother. The girls behave well in most things but they have to be prompted to do their chores and I had never done that before. For now, let's wait to discuss it before we reintroduce any rules, boundaries or chores for the girls before restarting them. Is that alright for you, Celeste?"

"That is alright with me, Greg. I'll start exploring the house now. What will you be doing?"

"I'll go back to the living room to be with the girls. Happy exploring!"

Greg and I walked up from the basement where he had ended the tour. Greg turned to go to the living room while I turned to enter the kitchen. I realized that Greg telling me to explore was code for me to get to work. I knew that I would be expected to do all the mother's chores that had been left undone for six months by the looks of the house. The house would be a wonderful place once all the chores that had been put off were done. I was to be a stay at home mother caring for the house, the children, and Greg. When I finally finished all of the chores that had been put off, keeping the house clean and in order would be much easier taking care of chores as they arose instead of them accumulating again.