Note: For the purposes of this blog, I made Akin a little older than he is in Part II, chap. 11, where I got my ideas from. ~KP
I have got to say, today had to be the weirdest, yet most interesting day in my life (well, in my new life). The day started out normal. I made breakfast for me and my husband Max, tended the garden, and did laundry. I was about to go out to town to see my friend Olivia, but Max tells me to stay home. I had a feeling he would. We heard gun shots fired from some house down the road last night. I think it was about some bad trade or something… Max didn’t want to tell me anything so I wouldn’t worry. I guess it’s his way of keeping me safe.
He went off to work at the blacksmith shop and left me alone in the house. I didn’t want to be cooped up inside all day, it’s not like people were going to start shooting again (we have a law against that stuff you know!). Besides, I really wanted to go visit Olivia before she traveled to another town to sell her new blanket designs, and to show her my new woodcuts.
I left the house around noon and almost walked past the house Max thought the gun shots came from. I got mixed feelings approaching the house… I felt angry and scared at the same time… just knowing that we banned guns from Phoenix a while back, and still people find a way to use them and cause trouble… I just didn’t want to think about it. I just wanted to visit Olivia real quick before she left and head straight home.
To avoid the house, I started to make my way across the road until I saw this little boy sitting on the steps of the house. I didn’t recall seeing him before, but he looked lonely. I went up to him and asked him his name. He told me his name was Akin. I asked him if he was from around here, but he told me he wasn’t and that he was half-Oankali. I was quite shocked when he told me this. I have seen Oankali constructs before, but not one that look so much like us…so… human. It was quite weird to me, yet Akin seemed act like a normal human child.
He was very sweet and very, very smart. He was interested in what Phoenix was like and what the people did here. I told him I was an artist and showed him some of my woodcuts. He was quite happy and wanted to learn how to make them someday. It felt so weird at first, getting to know someone who wasn’t human, but liked human things. I didn’t know Oankali were like that until I met Akin. It was too bad our visit had to be cut short. Akin was called inside and had to go catch Olivia before she left. I went to her house but she was already gone, so I started back home. I walked past Akin’s house on the way back, but I didn’t see him around. I have a feeling this will not be the last time I will see him. For someone so different, he is very interesting. I hope I will see him again.
Kaila Panavia-Poole
November XXXX