Elmyra suppressed a groan as her alarm went off. She briefly considered the validity of her plan as the clutches of sleep threatened to re-ensnare her, but she managed to force herself upright and out of the bed. Glancing at her window, she confirmed she'd estimated the time just about right. While sector five was never truly dark beneath the plates, the sight of the narrow column of natural light was comforting and as the news had promised, it would be a sunny day. Perfect.
She moved stealthily around her room, conscious of her still sleeping daughter in the next room. Out on the landing she stepped carefully over the loose floorboard, reminding herself once more that she really should get it fixed. Elmyra crept downstairs on tip-toe and out of the front door. She re-checked her watch; she had about an hour and a half for her little project before the time she usually roused her daughter.
She set off across the hard packed ground, clambering up the short ladder to the first of the two circular islands that bordered her secluded home. Her target today was the central portion of island; she and Aerith had been slowly cultivating a border of flowers around it. They'd been postponing doing anything with the very centre for some time, Elmyra insisting they were awaiting some new seeds to plant there. In truth, she had decided that this patch would be Aerith's. Sinking onto her knees, Elmyra plunged her fingers into the tangle of weeds that coated the land and began pulling them from the ground.
Elmyra's mind drifted as she worked, thinking back to how bold Aerith had been the day after she began living here. She had been prepared for an awkward start in their relationship given the precise circumstances of their meeting, but Aerith was never shy or timid; she talked happily from the moment she woke. Elmyra had called in sick for the day, not feeling comfortable leaving her ward alone so soon. It didn't take her long to realise that Aerith was not prepared to discuss anything that had occurred before the previous day, and specifically prior to their meeting. Turning the topic of conversation elsewhere, Elmyra realised the young girl had never even glimpsed plant-life before. This in itself wasn't impossible given the increasingly harsh environment of the slums, but people could still easily make trips out to the country-side surrounding the city, or to one of the still incomplete sectors, or like her, find a place where the sun still touched the ground below the plates. For Aerith to never have seen any greenery was decidedly peculiar.
Plants fascinated Aerith when she later saw them in the garden and she carefully watched every move Elmyra made as she dug little pits for each seed and smoothed the soil over the top of them. Their conversation meandered through so many topics; Aerith desperate for knowledge about anything and everything, while Elmyra tried to learn whatever she could. It took some time to find out such little things as her favourite colour (pink), and she couldn't even begin to name a favourite food; such a discussion seemed to border uncomfortably onto the taboo 'before' and besides that, she had no way to describe whatever she had been consuming all these years.
Aerith surprised her when she said didn't want to call her 'Elmyra', instead settling for Mom. The girl's words fazed Elmyra for a moment, and the enormity of what she had taken on finally hit her. This could not be a temporary situation; she had promised to take care of Aerith and she would be doing so as a mother. She now had a daughter; the realisation inducing a new, warm feeling in her chest. They were getting on so well, everything comfortable and natural until Elmyra asked Aerith when her birthday was.
"'Birth-day?'" the seven year old asked, tilting her head to one side in confusion. "What's that?"
Again Elmyra was confronted with deeply disturbing implications of just what mother and daughter had fled from the previous day. She considered the question for a moment, trying to find a new way to explain the concept. She supposed if Aerith truly didn't know the date in question, they could use the previous day for want of a better plan. "It means the date of your birth; when you were born," Elmyra tried gently, her head already planning a belated party in case this information was lost.
"'Date of specimen birth: one-nine-eight-five, zero-two, zero-seven,'" Aerith recited mechanically and then shivered. "Something like that?" she asked and fell quiet. The sudden absence of speech was more disturbing still given how freely and easily the girl had spoken just before. Somehow that innocent question had strayed right into the topic of conversation Aerith had been so assiduously avoiding.
"I think so; your birthday would be the seventh of February," Elmyra replied slowly, watching Aerith carefully.
The girl looked at her, a touch of fear now in her eyes. "What happens then?"
Elmyra reached out a hand to the girl's and smiled. "It means it will have been eight years since you were born. So we need to have a party."
"A party?" Aerith looked at her blankly.
Elmyra pushed away her morbid curiosity once more; the implications of every missed experience in her life were too horrible. "It means when we celebrate the day you were born. And then you get cake and I give you presents." In response to Aerith's wrinkled brow, she added, "It's something just for you, something that's yours."
"Oh." Aerith smiled then in understanding. "Like my ribbon?"
"Yes, like your ribbon. But something new."
Aerith tilted her head to one side again, and Elmyra could almost see the gears turning in her head as she puzzled out what this new thing could be and Elmyra began idly wondering what she could possibly give her as a gift. It had taken weeks, but she had finally realised the one gift she was certain Aerith would like at the moment.
Some time later, Elmyra gently eased Aerith's door open and shook her daughter awake.
"Aerith. Aerith. Wake up, it's your birthday."
Aerith's eyes flicked open in fear. Like every morning the moment thankfully passed and then Aerith was smiling. "My birthday?"
"That's right. Now if you hurry up and get dressed, I have a present downstairs for you."
The girl leapt from her bed quickly and dressed as Elmyra chuckled to herself and wandered back downstairs to sort breakfast. Her daughter charged down the stairs a few moments later to her usual seat and stopped. She regarded the small, pink parcel that lay in place of her cereal bowl.
"Is... is that the present?" she asked, looking at the gift curiously.
"It is. Now you have to unwrap it."
Small fingers pulled at the bow that looped around the parcel, before carefully unpicking the tape that held the stiff paper together. Deftly unravelling the paper she looked at the thin packets within, each decorated with a bright photograph of a flower.
"Flower seeds!" Elmyra smiled, silently relieved she had anticipated her daughter correctly. "T-thank you." She regarded them for another moment before looking up at her mother and asking, "Is it okay for me to plant them in your garden?"
"Of course it is. In fact, I cleared a special area just for you. Go have a look."
Aerith raced to the door and out to the garden beyond, Elmyra following after a pause. Her daughter excitedly raced to the cleared section of garden pausing only to wave before she dropped to her knees and began sifting through the soil.
"Happy birthday, Aerith!" Elmyra called, and Aerith's smile in response made everything worthwhile.