The soldiers check on me and question what I am doing. Their anger fades when I explain I was told to draw livestock.
It’s another two days before Chloe comes to see me. In that time, I have added to the animal drawings, including two of the most dangerous ones that live near my tribe as well as the screamer that lives near here. I even drew a man, me, as a sizecomparison. On a whim, I add Chloe to the drawing, so it is clear how big some of these creatures are.
I am determining how to write her name when she steps into the building. I sensed her approach but didn’t want to seem too eager by waiting for her the way I have done previously.
“What are you doing?” she asks as if she didn’t tell me to draw on the walls.
“Labelling the animals.” I finish her name—it's made of sounds that rarely go together, which is why it took time to figure out how to spell it. “I added you for a size reference.” I point to the person who is meant to be her. Aside from being short and having a long braid and hair over her face, it doesn’t look like her at all.
“And yourself.”
“That is a Honey warrior.” I lie. But I’m glad she thought it was me, even though he is unnamed. “I realized that wouldn’t be as useful as saying the screamer is one and a half times your height.”
Chloe steps up to the bars. “The screamer is what attacked my sister's group…you don’t farm them.”
“No, these are predators.” I have fenced them off, so they are away from the livestock. I point to the one with big teeth. “Very dangerous where I live.”
“And is that its name, in your language?”
“It is…that is your name, or as close as I could get.”
She looks at my hands with a small frown. Was I not supposed to draw on myself? I discovered the pens worked on skin by accident when I stained my fingers. “Have you learned my numbers?”
“Yes.” I count for her, in her words. It is easier to learn without the whisperer turning everything she says into my language.
“You have been busy.”
“There is nothing else to do, Chloe. I am…” I try to find the right word. I am not restful as that comes after a day of work. I am not satisfied or contemplative. “I need to do something.”
Even when crossing the ocean there were things to do. Nets and sails and clothing to mend. Fish to catch. Games to play. Here there is nothing and no one to talk to.
I didn’t like being alone when I was first banished, and I do not like it now. In fact, it’s worse, as I know there are people I could talk to, but they have locked me away.
“You are bored.”
There is no translation for that. “What does that mean? “
She licks her lip. “That you are searching for something to do and restless.”
I nod, but it’s more than that. “My people, we are not used to being on our own. Being banished is a punishment because we are without a tribe. Without connection.” I run my fingers over one of my kam. “I am used to sensing others and communicating with them." I should have realized that going with the humans would be difficult. “I did not expect to be locked away. I thought I would be helping your colony. Not drawing pictures on the wall."
“You need to be around people?"
“I can survive on my own, but the act of surviving fills my time. Here my food and water are delivered. There is no firewood to gather. No rope to make. No weapons to fix or sharpen. And you are not here every day. How are my samples?”
While she is here, I want to suck up every interaction I can. I want to learn what she is learning.
“I have been working on them and it’s very interesting. In some respects, you are very similar to a human, but in others very different. You have a different number of chromosomes.” She pauses with her mouth open as though trying to think of a way to explain the word. “Do you know what a cell is?”
“A cage?” She called my cage a cell at the start.
“No, your body is made up of tiny cells, and in each cell are the instructions on how to make more. That’s how you heal."
“Perhaps you could draw me some pictures, because I do not understand.” And some of that is because every time she says cell, the whisperer in my ear says cage and that is not correct.
“I can do better; I can show you the photos I took with a microscope."
“Your device that can see very tiny things?” She showed me what it was like when she got really close to take a detailed photo with the tablet, but her microscope can look even closer.
