Picking up the pen after three months certainly wasn't easy, I definitely spent a few hours with a Sprite staring angrily at a blank Word document that refused to fill itself up... but I'll keep notes for the end.

Wikus shied away from the father's gaze. He stared at the cracked ground, a mottled mix of dirt and sand. He felt the ground vibrate and guessed that Andrw was approaching. He risked a peek upward. Squinting, he could make out the size of him, although the sun hid his coloration. He was about four inches taller than Wikus, and broader and much more muscular too. With a son Sam's age, he has to be pretty old, realized Wikus. He's been laboring here since the ship landed. That explains why he's so ripped. With a start, he noticed he was staring. He glued his eyes to the ground. A piece of trash passed through his field of vision, an empty jug buffeted by the evening wind. He stole another look up. Still coming over. His antennae twitched, smelling the pheromones in the air but unable to identify them. Finally, gathering his courage, he looked up again. Andrew's progress ground to a halt about a foot away from Wikus. Andrew's eyes glided over him. Wikus felt exposed, as if his Andrew's judgmental dark orbs were evaluating every part of him. He dropped his eyes awkwardly. His antennae twitched again, and sensing motion, he glanced up in time to see Andrew cock back his fist and slam it into Wikus' face.

Andrew's fingers might not have been particularly hard, but the force he put into it certainly was. Wikus was too clumsy to roll with the punch, and he felt two of his forehead plates splinter before he fell away, slamming onto the hard, dry ground. …What? After taking a second to recover, Wikus lifted his bloodshot eyes and saw Andrew peering down at him. From Wikus' perspective, he looked like a colossus about to pass judgment on him from above. Andrew drew in a breath, and with a completely straight face, said, "You were looking at the ground so much, I thought you might want to get to know it better."

Wikus lost it. Fuck this! I've had enough of being pushed around! He heaved himself up and yelled, "What the fuck was that for? I was just looking after you fucking son over here! Thought I might do you a fucking favor, man!"

Andrew threw up a hand, cutting him off. "I got one. I know your story. I know what you did, who you used to be. And that was what you get. Now, we're even." Wikus blinked, rooted to the spot. Andrew strolled past him into the shack. With a giggle, Sam followed, hopping onto his father's shoulder and nuzzling his head affectionately. Wikus continued to blankly stare out in front of him for a few minutes, his brain feebly trying to make sense of what had just happened. Shaking his head and kicking at a piece of garbage, he turned around and followed them into the shack.

**********

It felt bizarre to be sitting at a dinner table with nothing but prawns for company. If you could call it a table; all it really consisted of was a long flat piece of plastic balanced precariously on a few cinderblocks. Still, oddly, the awkward silence comforted Wikus. It reminded him of when he'd eaten with Tania's parents while they were still dating. Hopefully I won't spill the potatoes this time. Hah, I remember the time when Tania's mother had baked… a whole…

Wikus's shoulder's sagged. The raw meat sat on a plate in front of him. Wikus stared at it, seeing only for a moment its rotted and raw folds. His mind wandered into a dark and cold place, and Wikus once again considered the dilemma that had been slowly tearing him apart. Tania is all that can give me hope for the future. It's for her that I make it through the day. But… thinking of her… knowing short of a miracle I will never be to see her again kills me a bit every day. To know I'll never be able to run my hands through her hair… imagine me running my sick, prawn hands through her hair. It's disgusting.

"It's not gonna eat itself, you goof!" sniggered Sam, dragging Wikus's thoughts from their black brooding-place back to the present. Wikus shook his head and apologized absentmindedly.

"Well, have a bite, then." Said Andrew without looking up from his own meal.

Wikus, suddenly feeling a bit pressured, scrambled to find utensils on the table before realizing they obviously didn't have any. Feeling a bit foolish, he picked up the meat and, with a grimace, took a hearty bite. To his surprise, it didn't taste as bad as he would've thought. His new taste buds were obviously tuned differently than his old ones. Still, his human side was repulsed by eating such a thing in such a fashion. He finished the rest of it in two bites, glad to have the ordeal over with. He noticed Andrew had put down his meat and was watching him. Wikus met his stare for the first time. He tried to place the emotions in Andrew's deep, dark eyes.

"You should stay here tonight." Said Andrew after a silence. "You're not fit to be wandering around the District at this hour in your state. You'll be seen by Nigerians or MNU, and you'll be too frazzled to come up with an excuse for being out so late. We don't have a room for you, but the floor is the District's finest."

Confused but thankful for the promise of a safe night, Wikus got up and made for the living room floor. Andrew caught his arm as he walked by, and locked eyes with Wikus once again. "I was serious when I said you got one." He said quietly. "Now, you are one of us in my eyes. I'm ambivalent towards you. Sam likes you. But Sam likes everyone (Sam gave a squeal of delight and nodded vigorously). You will have to prove yourself to me the same way everyone else does."

Wikus nodded, realizing that he had been given exoneration by this prawn. It was only one prawn, but it was a start. Maybe there was a way to live with the prawns until Christopher returned… if he returned… Staving off another wave of grim thoughts, he collapsed onto the floor and tried his hardest to drift off into blissful oblivion.

So, there we go. I realize a few things: A) This isn't quite as strong or refined as before, but I'm rusty and I also have time constraints that didn't exist during the summer. B) I know Sam wasn't as prevalent in this chapter, but don't worry, that won't be a fad. ;)

After being gone so long, the thing that hit me the most was that I need to keep writing the same story as before, where as it would be easy to start writing a different one from where I'd left off. If this doesn't feel like that same story, please warn me. As always, thanks a lot for the reviews--means the world to me!