Mum brung me a orange for my 2000 Days day. Mum says that Ive been living for 2000 days but it doesn't feel like it. Ive never had a orange before and I don't know how she got it for me. Mums magic. But she left before she could show me how to eat it. I used Rock to make a hole in it and juice came flying out like I made it bleed. Im bleeding too from when I tried to follow Mum after she left and I bumped my knee on the wall. Orange and I are the same now. I felt bad for hurting Orange so I put his think skin back where it was and he stopped bleeding. I put orange next to Little Spear on Wolf so that I can play with him later.
A Bad Guy came and got Mum early because something happened out There. Mum helps Bad Guys feel better. I don't understand why she would help Bad Guys. Maybe just because shes the bestest Good Guy in the world. Mum says that we are the Good Guys and the people around us are Bad Guys. I want to go where there are only Good Guys so that Mum wouldn't have to leave and come back with purple on her skin.
I play with Little Spear for a little bit. I like feeling her sharp point under my finger nail. Mum gave her to me so that I can stab a Bad Guy if they come while she's gone. I don't want any bad guys to come Here. Sometimes a big Bad Guy comes and takes Mum away by the wrist and hurts her in another There. They think I don't hear but I do. Mum always sleeps and cries a lot after that.
Mum comes back and I'm glad because I was starting to get cold and I'm not allowed to make a Dancer.
She has blood all over again. "It's not my blood, Finn. Don't worry." She says. But I always worry. She takes off all her clothes and washes herself in the water that seeps in through a hole in Wall. She only has one set of clothes and I don't have any at all.
"Whose blood is it this time?" I always ask whenever she comes home with red on her.
"Just another Bad Guy who hurt himself, but I made him feel better." If he feels better, why is there blood? I think but I don't ask.
"Will you have to leave again tonight?" I don't like it when she's taken away while it's dark out There. Once she didn't come back for two days and I got really hungry.
"I don't think so." Mum waves her hand at me to come to her.
"You stink, Mr. Finn." Mum catches handfuls of water in her hands and splashes me, then uses Mossball to wipe the dirty off me.
"Did you eat the orange I got you?" She wraps Wolf around me so that the water can soak into his fur. I point at Orange because I'm smiling too big to say anything.
"You didn't eat your orange?" She plays a gasp and grabs Orange. "Is it because you don't know how to open it?" I shake my head.
"Orange is my new friend, Mum. He bleeds just like me." Mum looks at Orange.
"Tell ya what." She tosses Orange in the air and I think he might go splat on the ground but she catches him. "If we don't eat this orange, it will rot. We don't want rotting fruit Here. It might attract rodents."
I don't know what a rodent is, but I don't want Orange to get all green and stinky. I nod and Mum nods back.
She uses her fingernail to peel Orange's skin off. He starts bleeding. I start crying. Mum hands me half of Orange and she starts eating. I take a teeny bite and it's the best thing ive ever ate. Im still crying because hes bleeding all over my face but then its happy crying because it tastes good. Mum happy cries sometimes when she comes back and sees me after being gone a long time.
We finish eating and Mum makes a bed of sticks for the Dancer to eat. She keeps us warm while the sun is sleeping.
After the Dancer starts growing, Mum climbs onto Bed with me and I pull Wolf over us. Hes not big enough to cover her all the way but she doesn't mind.
"Mum?" I rest my head on her chest and listen to her heart go thump thump. "Yes, Finn?" She rubs my back lightly. It tickles. "When will I go out There?"
"You need to stop asking this." She starts to sound annoyed but she keeps rubbing my back anyway.
"But why can't I go?" Wolf keeps slipping off but the Dancer's heat keeps our skin warm.
"I've told you thousands of times." Thousands are lots. I don't remember that many. "You can't go There because of the Bad Guys. They'll try to take you away and teach you to be a Bad Guy." I don't want to become a Bad Guy.
I wonder where Orange's skin went. I look up and see the pile of skin on Floor.
"Tell me a story." I rub my cheek onto Mum's chest again. Her heart goes thump thump.
"Say the magic word." I know the magic word but I say Open Sesame instead. Mum laughs.
"Please."
"2000 days ago," I'm going to like this story. "I was lying in this bed.." "And I zoomed down from Heaven and came out of your heart."
"Are you going to let me tell the story?" I listened to her heart go thump thump.
"I was lying in the bed and the Bad Guys kept trying to come in but I told them to stay out." Her heart sped up for a bit. "And the only person in the room was Lexa." I had never heard this part of the story before.
"Who's Lexa?"
"She was my partner for a while, but she had to leave and go to Heaven."
"Why?"
"Because that's just how it is. She had to leave." Mum's eyes were getting red and she sounded kinda shaky. "She's watching over us now." I look up but I couldn't see anyone.
"Where?"
"She's in Heaven, remember?" Oh yeah.
"Keep telling the story" I rest my face on Mums chest near her breast.
"Lexa held my hand while I pushed you out of my tummy and you came out with your blue eyes wide open."
"What color was I?"
She tickles my neck and I giggle. "Bright pink." She holds up a berry, "Like this."
"Tell me another story. About Lexa." Mum's heart goes thump thump faster
"I think you know enough about Lexa for now. Maybe I'll tell you when you're 3000 days."
"Then can you tell me the story about Wanheda?" Wanheda is my favorite story. Mum never likes telling it because she was Wanheda.
"Okay." She says. The Dancer is starting to get tinier so mum throws a stick at her without getting up. She's amazing. "Wanheda used to be an average girl who lived in the sky."
"Average girls don't live in the sky." We both giggle but Mum looks like it hurts to giggle.
"But one day she and a hundred of her friends…" She continues.
"One hundred is a lot." I say, looking at my fingers. I would need twenty hands to have one hundred fingers.
"But one day, she and a hundred of her friends went to the Ground."
"Earth?" Mum taught me letters, numbers, and planets. I like learning about planets the best.
"Yep. But while they were on the ground, these Bad Guys kept hurting them and killing them, so they went to war." Mum moves her head so that I can't see her eyes. I wonder what she's looking at?
"While they were fighting, they found a common enemy: Mountain Men. So the Bad Guys and the Good Guys decided to team up to fight the Mountain Men. Wanheda was the one who convinced them to work together."
"And while they were fighting Wanheda met a girl who was a Bad Guy and she fell in love. Ew." I say that part because Mum always makes it sound all lovey dovey. Mum smiles. Mum doesn't smile very much.
"Yes. I – I mean Wanheda met the Commander of the Bad Guys and fell in love." I don't know why she has to tell the story like that. I know that Wanheda is her. Mum equals Wanheda. "But the Mountain Men made a deal with the Bad Guys so that they wouldn't fight. So it was just the Good Guys against the evil Mountain Men."
"And the Good Guys won, right?"
"Yep. We won, but at a price. All of the Mountain Men had to be killed. Even the ones who didn't do anything wrong. And it was all Wanheda's fault."
"Then what?" I know what happens next, I just don't want the story to be over.
"Then Wanheda ran away and went to the Bad Guy camp to see her lover." I don't like that word. Lover. "And she decided to stay, so she lived in the Bad Guy camp forever and ever." Mum finished the story quickly and told me that it was time to go to sleep. She faced me and I kept my forehead on her chest and listened to her heart go thump thump.