The Liberation Paradox

Epilogue: Eighteen Years Later

Fatima Valentine

Galaxy: Darklands (dwarf galaxy)

Cluster: Backwater

Planet: Promisedland

Town: Catfish City

Today was a hard day for Fatima Valentine. She was saying goodbye to her son, Danny.

No, not Danny, she reminded herself. He insisted on being called "Dan" now. A man's name. Much as it broke her heart, Fatima had to admit that "Dan" was almost a man now. Her sweet, little boy was nearly all grown up. Nearly.

He looked so much like his father. He was tall and broad-shouldered like his father had been. He had his father's toffee-colored skin, his father's high, sharp cheekbones, and his father's laser-straight, black hair. Unlike his father, who'd worn his luxurious hair long, Dan kept his cropped short. Dan was nearly a clone of his father, except that he'd inherited Fatima's blue eyes. In her opinion, her son was even more handsome than his father had been. But as his mother, she might be biased.

Fatima had named Dan after his father, a man with whom she'd spent only a single afternoon so many years ago. She'd only known the man named Danny Jake for that one afternoon, and she'd only slept with him to spite the man who was nominally her boyfriend at the time. But to her surprise, Danny Jake had given her so much she felt she'd never be able to repay him. He'd given her kindness. He'd given her a way out of her situation, the number of an old woman named Mrs. Kundertson. Most of all, Danny Jake had given her the greatest treasure of all: her son.

She'd called herself by the name Mika Claire back then. It was the name she'd been born with, but to her, that name symbolized a life lived which was not her own. Casting off that name, she'd cast off the string of men who'd owned her in one way or another.

She doubted if she'd ever have called Mrs. Kundertson's number if she hadn't gotten pregnant. She would probably have stayed with Eddie Daniau until he'd either killed her or sent her back to her father's mainland farm where she'd been born. But the baby growing inside her had changed the equation.

What would Eddie do if the baby turned out not to be his own? Eddie would insist on a paternity test. Fatima—Mika, as she'd been then—was almost certain, with that irrational certainty with which mothers know such things, that Danny Jake was the baby's father. She'd needed to get out. She'd needed to get away from the man who would almost certainly kill her when he found out. She was pretty sure he already suspected.

She'd been in love with a woman named Jen back then. When she'd asked Jen to flee Distortion with her, Jen had refused to come. Jen had cared more about her own comfortable life as the wife of a senator. Mika had been devastated, but she couldn't look back at what she'd shared with Jen. She had to look forward. She had to keep her eyes on the future, and for her the future was the baby inside her.

Forget Jen and fuck Eddie.

So, Mika had called Mrs. Kundertson's number and left a voice message. "Hi, Mrs. Kundertson. Sorry, I know you don't know me, but my name is Mika Claire. I'm in a difficult spot and a friend gave me your number. He said you might be able to help me out. Please call me back. Thanks." With that, Mika had ended the call.

The enigmatic Mrs. Kundertson had never returned her call, and they'd never met. The old woman, whomever she was, had sent agents who'd essentially abducted Mika. They'd scared her at first, but once she understood who they were, she went with them willingly.

These agents of Mrs. Kundertson's had gotten her private passage off of Distortion, a new identity, and even some money to get herself started in her new life. The mysterious Mrs. Kundertson had come through for her after all.

And she'd lived a happy life all these years since. Mrs. Kundertson's hired muscle had escorted her to a small backwater settlement called Catfish City on a planet called Promisedland. The small town of Catfish City was in the tenebricite shadow, so no complex electronics worked here. People here relied on horse and wind and their own labor to get things done. The occasional steamboat churning its way up the Great Catfish Lake or the rare rumble of an airplane's internal combustion engine were the closest things to advanced technology around here. It was much like the town she'd grown up in on the mainland of Distortion. Fatima, as her name now was, had never heard of this place and that was probably what made it a good place to hide.

Fatima had considered leaving Catfish City after the baby was born, but by then she'd become a part of the community. She decided to stay there and put down roots. She'd married a fisherwoman named Ayako Cooper and in the intervening years, Fatima had gotten very good at cooking catfish.

She'd watched her son, Dan, grow into the man he now nearly was. He'd always loved airplanes. When he was a little boy, he'd carved airplanes out of wood. Later, he'd made actual flying models with windup springs to power their lovingly carved propellers. Fatima had been obliged to buy her son a subscription to the Aviator's Guild Journal. At first, he'd only flipped through it, looking at the illustrations and pictures of planes and engines. He'd cut those pictures out and decorated the walls of his bedroom with them.

As time went on, he'd started to actually read the articles in the journal. At first, he'd read the narrative stories written by pilots celebrating their own exploits. Later, he'd begun reading the more technical articles about the complex minutia of airplane construction, design, and operation.

By the time Dan was 13, he had his heart set on an a life in the sky. It had been difficult, but Fatima had eventually consented to allow him to take an apprenticeship with a local aviator. It had scared her to death every time Dan had flown away with his instructor, ferrying mail, cargo, and the occasional passenger out to Shallasea. But Dan always came back to her.

After today, however, he might never come back. He was a Senior Aviator with the guild now. Rather than pursuing the rank of Master, Dan had decided to go to spaceplane school at the guild's Darklands headquarters on Home Hearth Station. He would make his living not in the sky of Promisedland, but in the stars above. Who knew when he'd be back to lowly Catfish City. Perhaps never.

Fatima didn't cry when she'd held Dan one last time. She didn't cry as they'd said their goodbyes. She didn't cry when he'd walked across the grass runway of the local airstrip to the waiting biplane. She didn't cry as the slipstream from the plane's idling propeller had trailed his scarf out behind him.

She managed not to cry as Dan pulled his leather helmet down over his father's luxurious hair and she held her tears as he put his goggles on over the blue eyes he'd inherited from her. She didn't cry as his long legs hoisted him into the plane's passenger seat alongside a bag of mail and she maintained her composure as the plane taxied, took off, and disappeared over the horizon.

She was silent and composed as her wife, Ayako, drove their small, horse-drawn cart back to town. Ayako said nothing as Fatima climbed down from the cart, went into their small, modest house, and went straight into Dan's room.

The room's walls were papered with pictures of airplanes, aviators he admired, schematics of engines, and even the occasional scantily clad woman leaning against an airplane. All around the room were model airplanes and unfinished model components. Outside the open window, a set of wind chimes tinkled gently on the breeze. Dan had made those chimes for her one Mother's Day from broken and discarded pieces of glass.

Finally, Fatima cried. She held Dan's pillow to her face as the sobs came, gasping and undignified. He'd just slept on the pillow the previous night and it smelled strongly of him. She breathed in the scent as deeply as she could, knowing it wouldn't last. Soon, even his lingering scent would be gone. At some point, she wasn't sure when, Ayako had come in and now held her. Ayako had been in Dan's life since he was very little and she too loved him like a son. Like that, they passed much of the afternoon, holding one another and missing the son who may never return.

As for Dan Valentine, his story is written in the stars.

23 July 2019. 05:36.

© 2019 Sarah McKee

https://darklandschronicles.com