Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One - Andi Is Four Years Old, Quiet, And Really Smart

"Lots of field-specific lingo's changed over the last thirty years. They used to say 'so-and-so many feet above the ground, for example. The pilots did.

But since everyone with a bit of money has hovercars, hoverbikes, hoverbusses…pilots aren't the majority of airborne, er, navigators anymore. And us normal people, we call 'em meters. Some of us, at least.

So now that's the official lingo, too, even among the professionals. Most places, anyway. Military types are still all special with their angels and their cherubs."

– John 'Johnny' Jon-Jon, honorary internet-dad to thousands in a forum by the name of WhyTheFuck; Or: Life Lessons, February 2057

 

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"Lee-ah. Leeh-ah. Le-ah," Andi whispered quietly to herself, nodding carefully with each siblabble. Silbabble. "Sssil-lall…?" she whispered, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

Talking good was dif-fi-cul-t. But Andi grinned to herself. "Dif-fi-cul-t." That was a word she'd lear-n-d yesterday. Dif-fi-cul-t. Lear-n-d. "Le-ah." Andi was satisfied with that one and smiled.

She could call Leah good, now!

Andi looked around as Sister Lana's soft hand patted her hair and made her feel warm and snuggy. S-nug-gy. Andi smiled. That was a word that always made her happy. It felt warm and smiley. She'd lear-n-d it long ago, too.

Sam and Jora were hopping around on the floor, looking hard at the Tee-Vee. That was a really easy word! Not dif-fi-cul-t at all! And it also had another word. S-k-ree-n. Weird word! That first bit was really dif-fi-cul-t for her tongue. To-ng. "Sss. K. Ree! N."

There was a big sound and a bright light on the Tee-Vee and Sam and Jora cheered loudly. The yells hurt a little bit in her ears and Andi winced, so big sister Jenny bopped Sam and Jora on the head with her paper stick thing.

But it made a funny, poppy sound, so Andi giggled as big sister Jenny came back to sit next to her and make her warm with a really huggy hug. Sam and Jora shu-sh-d each other, held hands, and hopped a bit less. Sister Lana made the aww noises she made every time they did something like that. Andi didn't know why, but she didn't mind, because Sister Lana squeezed her from the side, and Andi liked getting squeezed.

Andi looked at the Tee-Vee, too, and saw three big spiders running between many-many of the bad green monsters. The broken ones were starting to pile up around the spiders and making walls, and the alive ones were climbing the walls from behind. The smallest of the big spiders was throwing lots of little lights that kept breaking any monsters on top of the fleshy walls, and the walls got higher with more broken, squishy-looking monsters. The monsters had a name too, but Andi didn't know it yet. She'd tried lear-n-ing it, but it was too dif-fi-cul-t. She'd try again tomorrow.

Jenny had told her she talked good most of the time, and Sister Lana had also said that. It made Andi very happy, because the doctor had said that Andi was a bit slow with her mouth. But Jenny and Sister Leah told her she talked good, and they were right a lot more often than they were wrong. And so she knew she could lear-n the

dif-fi-cul-t word. She made a fist, the way she'd seen Le-ah make when she had to do something dif-fi-cul-t. Tomorrow.

"Look Andi," Sister Lana said, pointing at the big spider with a dollie kite flying behind it and one leg missing. The other legs went really fast, so fast they got all blurry. "That's Leah."

"Huh?"

Andi tilted her head the way Leah often did, because that was s-ill-y. That was a spider. Not Leah. Leah didn't look like a spider. Leah had pretty red hair.

Andi looked at the spider's legs. Too many. She tilted her head the other way, because Leah did that when she was thinking. Too many legs, but they were really long. Like Leah's legs. And arms.

But Leah didn't look like a spider, so she shook her head hard.

She looked up at Sister Lana, who was patting her hair again. "Not Leah. Thpider." Aw. Bad tongue. "Ssss-pi-der. Spider." Andi nodded, because that's what Leah did when she got things good.

Sister Lana rewarded her with a kiss on her forehead and Andi smiled at her. Big sister Jenny huggy-hugged her again, and that made Andi warm and happy again.

"Leah's inside the big spider. She's piloting it."

Oh! New word! But…she'd heard it before. She mem-ber-d an old man with gray hair sitting in front of her in the ho-ver-bu-s. Yes! Big sister Jenny said he was a pi-lo-t. And that he made the bus go where they wanted.

So Leah was a pi-lo-t in the spider? Andi carefully squinted at the Tee-Vee. The old man with gray hair had sat in the front, but Andi wasn't sure Leah would fit anywhere in the front of that spider, where the many legs were. Maybe if she wasn't sitting, but lying down?

Andi stared at the big bum of the spider. Leah could fit there easy. Maybe a pi-lo-t didn't have to be at the front? But she couldn't find the swooshy doors, like the ho-ver-bu-s had. There were lots and lots of little lights, but no swooshy doors.

The long thing riding on top of the spider twitched towards one of the big, long noodle monsters. There was weird black-black lightning that was dif-fi-cul-t to see, and then Andi jumped a bit when the whole Tee-Vee crackled and blurred.

Sam and Jora also went quiet, along with Sister Lana and big sister Jenny.

The Tee-Vee came back on, and everybody cheered, so Andi threw her hands up too, because that was fun. The monster wasn't a monster anymore, it had stopped moving, and the biggiest monster behind it stumbled and fell on its face. That was funny, too, and Andi giggled more.

Then she gasped when the spider pooped out a glittery angel.

Andi's mouth made a big O when she understood. The swooshy door was on the underside! Leah was probably sitting in the spider's big bum and pi-lo-ting it, and Andi couldn't see the swooshy doors because they weren't on the sides. Andi nodded. She was smart as a fox! Even if she wasn't quite sure what that was, but Leah always said that when she got things good.

There were many-many little green monsters that tried to jump and catch the angel, but she made lots of fire like a rocket and shot up into the sky. Sam and Jora cheered again, and this time Andi knew why she was cheering, too. The angel won!

One of the big, weird, ugly birds with four flappy wings bent its head down towards the angel, and then started diving. Faster and faster, but the angel was already looking at it and made more rocket fire to move around it.

Then she suddenly did a magic trick and held two long sticks with round balls at the ends in her hands. Andi grinned and clapped, because that's what you were supposed to do when somebody did a magic trick.

The angel stabbed the big, ugly bird with both sticks in the back and kept flying up, while the monster wrapped its long neck around and tried to eat one of the sticks. But it was just a bit too far and the bird couldn't reach it, so it tripped over itself and started falling.

There were some weird grass-hoppy-bug-things that threw spikey balls at the spiders, but they all got smacked down by the smallest spider, and when some still got close, they got eaten by sudden, bright fires.

Andi tilted her head. She didn't know the word for those. So she looked up at Sister Lana and nudged her.

"What's thoth? Thooosss. Those. Mmm." Andi could make her mouth smart if she tried, no matter what the doctor said!

"Which ones?" asked Sister Lana, smiling at Andi and gently patting her hair. Andi always got happy when Sister Lana smiled. Sam had said that's probably because Sister Lana was so pretty, but Andi didn't really know what that meant. Jora said she'll figure it out soon, though. Maybe just one or two more years. Andi knew that was how long it took between birthdays.

"Fires," Andi said, pointing at the fast and bright ones between the spiders and the spikey balls.

Sister Lana looked at the Tee-Vee again, picked Andi up, and plopped her on her lap. She had the softest lap of everyone and Andi always felt warmest and happiest on it. Especially because Sister Lana always followed up with a squeezy hug, and those were the best.

Sister Lana squeezed her, and Andi giggled.

"Those are explosions, Andi. Ex-plo-shi-on."

"Urgh."

That was a dif-fi-cul-t word. Andi would have to make that fit in her mouth. She yawned. Tomorrow. Today she'd already lear-n-d

good.

The angel had kept flying up on her rocket fire, but now she flipped over on her back, and then more, bent over backwards to look back down on all the monsters, like a ma-ho sho-jo always did. Andi's happiest word! The angel looked like the prettiest one, too! She had a black and glittery swimsuit on, and rainbows on her head, just like the ma-ho sho-jo on the Tee-Vee in the morning!

Andi looked up again when Sister Lana covered her lips with a hand and whispered, "Oh my," as she stared at the Tee-Vee. Her cheeks were a little red. Andi didn't know what that look on Sister Lana's face meant, but Andi did know that she always hid it from the other adults. Andi didn't know why that was, but she did know that Sister Lana wasn't happy to talk about it. So Andi never asked.

Instead Andi looked back at the Tee-Vee, just when the sticks stuck in the weird bird's back made quick, bright fires and tore it into pieces. She mem-ber-d the time when her dollie got torn like that and almost cried, but she mem-ber-d herself that the angel was a ma-ho sho-jo, and ma-ho sho-jos were the good guys!

So, this wasn't like with her dollie, and Andi didn't need to cry. "Mm," she mumbled, and nodded her head proudly. The good guys won, and Andi was smart, and Sister Lana smiled at her and petted her hair.

The big door made of two swooshy doors beeped the go-away-or-get-stubbed-toes signal, and then opened. Andi watched Sun and Jem come in. They always had that adult-quick-busy walk from far away. It used to scare Andi a little, but since they'd slow down before they got too close, Andi smiled at them instead.

Sun was much shorter than Jem, and had much lighter skin, but they were still always together. They even lived together. Big sister Jenny had said, after coming back home from the hos-po-tal where they put the ugly white tube around her arm, that they might marry sometime soon.

Sun and Jem said hello at everyone, rubbed big sister Jenny's cheeks and kissed her on the nose until she laughed, and then tickled Andi's tummy until she giggled. Sun hugged Sister Lana too, and leaned on the back of the big couch. They stared at the Tee-Vee, and Andi saw Jem's eyebrows waggle.

"Tinea, huh?" he said.

Sister Lana nodded with a wry smile. Andi noticed that the red on her cheeks wasn't there anymore, and even if she couldn't say how, Sister Lana looked differently at the angel.

Sun grinned and chuckled, "Right smack in the middle of Leah's strike zone, isn't she?"

Andi didn't exactly know what Sun meant, but the knowing grins on Sun's and Jem's face told her it was adult-knowing stuff. That was a little annoying, but big sister Jenny said she doesn't understand it all either, but that she understood more now than she did when she was Andi's age, and that Andi would too, eventually. So, Andi figured that she'd have to wait, and waiting wasn't as annoying for her as it was for most of the other kids. Sister Lana once secretly told her that Leah liked Andi a lot for that. Andi wasn't sure why, but she didn't mind and it got her lots of cuddles from Leah.

But what Andi did know was that Jem had called the ma-ho sho-jo on the Tee-Vee Tinea. And Tinea was the people that helped find Leah, after she'd suddenly gone away for many sleeps, and she was also helping Leah find her way back home.

Andi nodded hard. That made sense. Tinea was an angel and a ma-ho sho-jo. A good guy. That meant she'd bring Leah home so she could give Andi more cuddles, because that was a good thing.

"Mm. Ti-ne-ah," Andi said carefully, and smiled.

And so did everyone else.

 

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