Medu's Creation: NaDaeja

Helpern squeezed against me. I shuffled in agitation. How could something so little be..so..so...BIG!?

Helpern squeezed against me. I shuffled in agitation. How could something so little be..so..so...BIG!?

I pushed him to the side, hearing a sharp hiss and yell. Then a rumble of clawing to catch himself. I ought to be better to Helpern.

But really, I was allergic to Goanums. So, I happily rolled over with a smug smile. I could hear Helpern scratching his way back up to my lofted bed. Without a look, but with an intense gaze, he told me everything I needed to know.

As my eyes surveyed him, he scratched at the heap of hair zig-zagging upon my head. My scarf was long gone. Strewn across my tiny room. Lying limply.

Helpern's claw stuck into my skull. I let out an incredible scream and began to grab Helpern by his torso.

We were at a standoff or scratch-off. Me, breathing heavily and quite annoyed that I was shaken from my sleep. Helpern was hell-bent on giving me a double dose of my own medicine so I flung him to the floor in agitation.

The sun was creeping into the sky. I looked over my shoulder out my window longingly. A tear dared to rest itself on my cheek. My sister burst into my room.

"Nadeja. What the hell is going on? It’s 5 am!"

I sucked in a hard breath and what came out was high pitched squeaky voice.

"It was Helpern! Why do I have to sleep with him anyways?!"

My sister's hip had rested firmly to her left side. Her arms crossed like pretzels. Her head alert. Her headscarf, impeccably intact.

"Because...you know why." She said exasperated.

I sighed and thought deeply because Dejon, my twin, was Halperns best friend, and as separation set in, so did grief and loneliness.

I was the closest thing to Dejon Helpern had. Yet, as much of an uplift I was to Dejon's stray Goanum.  Helpern was just a grim reminder that blood wasn't thicker than water.

Blood had been the reason I couldn’t see my brother Dejon.

My sister, DaJanae, stood firmly in front of me.  She like my creator-mother would have. How did she manage to keep her scarf coiffed and unbothered by slumber? She's got to be magic.

My sister breathed in deeply through pursed lips....

"If I have to come to this room one more time..."

"OK OK!"  I yelled with rain staining my face. I looked up to see if the ceiling had leaked. There was no leak, just my tears.

Helpern was all I had of Dejon and, in some ways, DaJanae too.

Why wouldn't DaJanae abandon me too? She could have had a happy life in Madena Xitchtl or on Earth.

"NaDeJa—Why are you always crying, girl?! We are going to have to get you some damn towels or something." She took a few steps toward me.

My hand bolted up to tell her no. But this time, an earthquake came with rain, and I climbed down from my stoop. My stoop of a bed. Then I crumbled into DaJanae's arms.

"It’s all my fault!" I mustered with a cracked and dry voice.

"No" she said, hugging me,  "It’s their fault. It’s their fault for being shitheads."

Medu was fucking bullshit, what kind of creator-mother leaves its creation? I thought while howling in uncontrollable tears.

"I’d never leave you. Ever." DaJanae reassured me.

My sister looked me straight into my reddened eyes.

"Never" she whispered with a slight smile.

After a long pause DaJanae told me to get back to bed. Helpern pushed against my leg. Maybe he felt bad for me too or maybe he needed a hug just like me.

I climbed my stoop of a bed with Helpern following quickly after me. When I reached the top I imagined I was in a lofted treehouse. My bed became an intergalactic pod of safety where DeJon and I could play games.

Where I could replay my last few moments with my brother from Earth.

Just before Medu killed him.