She turns back to the box and digs through it, this time pulling out a book. She holds it up, smiling again. “See this? This is my favorite storybook. But now it’s yours.”
I take the book from her hand and open it. I can read some of the words, but not all.
“Zoan.”
I look at her.
“Why are you not speaking?” she asks, tilting her head. “Can you not speak?”
I shake my head.
She tilts her head to the other side. “Then say my name.”
I watch her for a few seconds, then say quietly, “Dove.”
She laughs, the sound that fills the room. “That’s not my name! My name is Avira.A-V-I-R-A.”
I nod.
chapter 2
15 November 2035
Avira (4 years old)
Mama wipes my face and nose. “He will be alright, baby. Didn’t Uncle Stan say that?”
I shake my head, sobbing. “Uncle Stan is a liar.”
He told me Zoan would become healthy. He said that in summer, and now it’s winter, but Zoan is still not okay.
Daddy comes inside my room. I run toward him. He picks me up and presses my face into his neck.
“What happened to my little pumpkin?” he asks, patting my back.
Between sobs, I tell him, “Daddy, Zoan is hurt. He was crying so loudly. Why is no one helping him? Give him the medicine you gave me when I fell from my bicycle.”
I lift my face to watch his face. He wipes my cheeks. “Do you remember the story I told you about a strong man fighting monsters?”
I nod.
He sits on my bed with me, beside Mama. I press my cheek against him.
Mama caresses my head. “Zoan is also fighting with monsters.”
“There are no monsters, Mama,” I tell her.
If there were monsters, I would have beaten them already.
“There are monsters inside his head, pumpkin. You and I can’t see them. Only he can see them,” Daddy says. “Zoan is very strong. He will kill the monsters, and then they will stop torturing him.”
I picture Zoan fighting ugly green monsters with a big laser sword that orbit hero in TV used to kill green space monsters.
“But Zoan is small. If Leo helps him, the monsters will lose soon,” I insist. Leo is big.
Daddy tucks me into bed and kisses my head. “It’s Zoan’s fight.”
He pats my head, making me sleepy. Slowly, I drift off into dreams of Zoan winning against the monsters.
