Chapter 9: Comforting an orphan

[April 2373 AD – POV Timotheus Mellark – District Twelve]

During my spring vacation which I spent hiking in the Appalachian Mountains, I had observed a small plane crashing, and the only survivor had turned out to be a little girl who looked like she was about eight years old, with only few and minor injuries. As I was far from civilization, all I could do for now was to take care of her by keeping her warm and feeding her. There was something very odd about this girl; she had very long pointed ears, almost like a cat or lynx, vertical slit pupils in very large eyes and long canines in a larger than typical mouth, giving her a feline look, and she also had short but dense fur-like hair on some parts of her body. So far, though, she had not yet been willing to explain what was going on and why she looked like this, and I didn't want to push her.

She had just told me that she had already lost her mother a few years ago, and with her father killed in the plane crash, that made her a full orphan now, apparently. This was bad, specifically at her tender age. Why did God allow something like this to happen? Yes, I knew better than to ask, and both my grandmother and my pastor insisted that God always had a plan, but we humans were frequently not privy to it. Knowing that, though, did not necessarily make it much easier to get along with the various obstacles one had to face in life. More sobbing followed for quite some time, and I told the girl:

"Well, for now at least, you have got me. My name is Timotheus, by the way, but you can call me Tim, if you want. I will make sure that you get back to civilization at least, and then we will see. By the way, are you injured anywhere?"

She considered that for a few seconds and then replied: "I probably have a few bad scratches on my back, but nothing else I can feel. Maybe you can have a look at my back later on?"

"Sure, let's do that. For now, I am afraid that I need to get out of here. I need a restroom, so to speak."

Rue was hesitant to let me go, but I promised to be back in a few minutes. As soon as I had done my business, I started up the fire again. A few minutes later, the sun also started to shine into the overhang where my camp was located, and I encouraged Rue to come out of the sleeping bag. While she got out, I got a chance to look at her legs, and indeed, it looked like her lower legs, ankles and feet were covered by dense fur; the fur had almost the same color as her skin, so that this was not immediately obvious. However, I'd have to ask her about this later. For now, I had Rue sit on a blanket close to the fire, and when she turned her back to me, I saw some deep scratches. In a hospital, they would have probably stitched them, but I could not really do this out here, as I lacked both proper equipment and the skill for that. Yes, I could reattach a button to a shirt or coat with needle and thread if there was nobody else around to do it, but the result would not be very pretty. Doing something similar on human skin was something I'd prefer to only do if there was no other choice. Thus, I just fetched the small bottle with iodine from my first aid kit and told Rue that I was going to clean the cuts and bruises, and that this would probably hurt for a few minutes. In addition I told her:

"Rue, some of those deep scratches extend under your tee shirt. For proper treatment, would it be all right for you to remove your top?"

I hesitated to ask that of her, as Rue was a girl after all, although her chest had not yet developed and she was flat as a boy, as one could clearly see just by looking at her top, but the scratches might require some proper cleaning at least. Rue only took a couple of seconds to ponder that and then quickly removed her tee shirt, with her back still turned towards me; she wore nothing under it. While looking at her scratches I noticed that she had hair, actually more like a very short but dense fur, on her back between her shoulders and reaching further down, and this was very confusing; I had never heard about a human being with such kind of body hair, and together with her eyes, ears and teeth that made me wonder what was special about her. For now, though, I tried to focus on the task at hand and went ahead to clean the scratches with some medical iodine, and I heard Rue suppressing a squeal a few times. When I was done with cleaning, I wrapped a few layers of clean linen around her upper body and asked her to get the top on again; when she did so, the tee shirt was tight enough to help holding the layers in place.

As soon as we were done, Rue said that she was hungry. Well, it was about time for breakfast, and I was hungry as well. I had only had half a bowl of broth for supper on the day before, as my worries about Rue had distracted me from preparing a full meal in the evening. I could not easily supply a full breakfast like with toast and scrambled eggs or so, but I got slices of different bread, butter, jam, peanut butter, and some slices of dried meat, and we got hot black tea and orange juice to drink. Apparently, she liked that, and I managed to fill her stomach until she was full. As I had planned to stay out here for a week or so, I had plenty of supplies at least, and I had carried a huge backpack with some reserves.

After breakfast we discussed what we should do. Normally, with a young girl like Rue, I was expected to just make decisions and have her follow my directions without questions, but somehow that did not feel right. Judged by the way she talked, she might actually be a little older than she looked. I wanted to find out about that, and before we talked further I asked:

"Rue, do you mind telling me how old you are? I guess like eight or nine maybe? I have a sister who is eight, and you are about her size."

The young girl shook her head and looked unhappy while replying: "I am not sure if you will believe me, but I am already thirteen years old."

I could not believe what I heard: "Thirteen? Seriously? You do not..."

She sighed and continued my sentence: "I do not look like thirteen at all; I know. I have heard that many times before."

Rather than explaining further, she sighed again.

"I also need to ask you about your eyes, ears, and teeth, and about the dense hair on your lower legs and feet. Are you masquerading for some reason, or why are you looking like this?"

She started to sob, and I hastened to explain:

"Rue, I am sorry, I did not intend to offend you, and of course you don't have to talk about it unless you want to. I just need to know if there is anything I can help you with, you know."

"No, you can't help me; nobody can help me, and I know that I am ugly."

"What? Ugly? No, not at all! Your look is quite special, and I'd consider it rather cute than ugly. But that is probably something you do not like to talk about, right? That's all right for me; you are allowed to keep a few secrets for yourself, if I can keep mine to myself as well."

Now she almost laughed, and said: "Deal!"

I continued to talk: "Sooner or later we have to get you back to civilization, also to make sure that the scratches on your back do not get infected. However, it takes about two days of walking to the next town, and you do not even have proper clothes. I can carry you for some time, but I am not sure if I can carry you for two days straight."

"I have a few more clothes" Rue stated. "They are, or were, in a bag in the plane."

"Maybe I should get back there and see if I can find the bag."

"Please do not leave me alone here!"

"Rue, I think that you will have to stay here for a couple of hours. But look, Rex is back now, and he will sure stay with you. Do you like dogs?"

She turned her head and probably saw Rex consciously for the first time. Her eyes got big and she asked: "This is your dog? Really?"

While Rex could be quite fierce when needed, he was a good search and rescue dog and he liked children. In addition he had seen me close to Rue for some time now; he was smart enough to deduct that Rue was a friend. I had Rue get back into the sleeping bag, placed a bottle of water next to her, and signed Rex to get close to her. Rex understood that he was in charge of guarding the girl, and he barked twice to confirm. "Good boy!" I said, petted his head for a few moments, and then left towards the crash site.

When I turned around after a few minutes, I could see Rue's hand reaching out from the sleeping bag, fondling my dog's fur.

Once I had arrived down at the crash site, I approached the plane from the rock area and arrived at the nose section first. The engine and propeller had been torn off entirely, and for a few seconds I admired the ancient construction; the engine had apparently been a reproduction of a radial engine, one of those which had been very popular in planes during the first half of the 20th century. Such engines provided airflow to reach all cylinders and thus allowed engines to be air cooled. Looking at the cabin next, I first saw the pilot in the front left seat, and his face and body were badly mangled; maybe he had hit his face on the dashboard when the plane had touched the ground. Further back there were two more corpses, one of them probably Rue's sister; I was not able to enter the main cabin, so all of that was derived by a view from outside. That was good enough for me; I had not desire to examine mangled and bloody copses all on my own. The small baggage compartment in the back was, fortunately, not damaged that much, and with some effort I managed to pry the cover open. Inside there were a few bags, and initially I was not quite sure which was one was Rue's. Fortunately she had mentioned that her bag was green and had a pendant formed like a dragon attached to it. I found such a bag, had a quick look inside and noticed clothes which seemed to be about Rue's size, plus some hiking shoes; this was good enough, and I grabbed the bag.

Less than two hours later I was back at the camp, and I found Rue asleep again, groaning a little. She woke up around noon time, and while I prepared a meal, she browsed the content of the bag. She changed behind my back, and when she called out for me to look at her, I saw her dressed in a warm sweater, jeans, and decent shoes; a thick jacket was draped around one of her arms.

"Yes, this looks better for this weather, all right" I commented. "How are you feeling?"

"I am quite all right, but still very sleepy."

"May I ask why you were dressed only in tee shirt and shorts when I found you?"

"Oh, we started from a city and it was a warm spring day. Also, the heating in the old plane was not operating properly, and the pilot warned us that the interior was likely to overheat. We could have opened a window, but my sister is, or rather was, sensitive to draft, so that we decided to dress for warm weather. We did not have any plans to leave the plane in the mountains, believe me, and I was getting real scared when the engine failed."

Rue tried to walk around the camp, but stopped soon enough and told me:

"My right ankle hurts when I walk; this is not good. Maybe I sprained it when Dad pushed me out of the plane."

"Can I have a look?"

"Sure!"

Rue sat down next to me, removed shoe and sock from the right foot and placed it on my lap. Like I had noticed before, her entire foot and ankle and most part of her lower leg was covered by dense and short fur, and it felt very soft and nice, almost like velvet; at another time and in another situation I might have felt tempted just to caress foot and ankle for some extended period of time, but of course that would be strange for Rue, and I was supposed to examine her, too, rather than petting her. While I was neither a physician nor a trained nurse, I had gone through an extended first aid training session with the rangers, and the ankle indeed felt slightly swollen. I had some medication for that in my backpack and applied it, and I told her:

"We best apply that ointment twice a day for a few days, but I guess that you need to rest for one or two more days before we can leave."

The girl nodded and asked: "Is that all right for you? I mean, do I keep you from something? You sure had other plans!"

"Oh no, that's all right" I replied. "I am on vacation, and I am not in a hurry to get anywhere."

"But I am a nuisance for you, and I disturb your vacation!"

I decided to flatter her a little, but it wasn't a lie at all: "Oh no, not really, not at all. I do not often get a chance to save the life of a pretty young girl and spend time just with her."

"Come on, I know that I am not pretty; I am ugly. There is no reason to pretend; you can be honest with me."

This girl seemed to have some serious doubts about herself, and to a certain extent I could understand that. Her special features made her look kind of alien, and people who were not into fantasy themes and such might indeed feel repelled by such a look. My own situation was very different; I loved to read fantasy stories and play fantasy games, and a girl with long elfish like ears, supersized eyes, long canines and partial fur coverage was totally cute and droll and very much appealing to me. Thus I explained:

"Why do you think that? I have told you before that I see your as rather cute than ugly, and honestly, you are very pretty, seriously. Has nobody told you yet?"

"Well, Daddy used to tell me, but parents are supposed to be prejudiced about their own children, aren't they?"

"I guess that they are, but I am neither your father nor your brother, and I tell you that I consider you pretty."

"But I have dark skin, ugly teeth, and those awful long ears!"

"None of those prevent you from being pretty and, in my opinion, quite cute, specifically with your long ears. About your long canines, they are really nice, and I almost wish you'd bite me with them. In addition, I really did enjoy touching the fur on your feet when I treated your ankle, and I do like the color of your skin, and I. Hey, my grandmother also has dark skin."

That was not a lie at all. Except for my grandmother – Delilah Mellark, my father's mother – and a few of her friends, I had not had much contact with dark skinned people at all, and I knew that were a lot of white people with prejudices against dark citizens. I was not one of those, though, and I had to admit to myself that I considered Rue's skin color quite appealing. Despite her strange ears, eyes and teeth, or maybe specifically because of them, I indeed considered her pretty, and maybe even more than pretty, although I was not sure what the proper term might be; I just liked to be close to her and enjoyed her presence, and I tenderly touched her cheek a few times.

Rue was apparently not sure if she could believe me: "You like my ears and my teeth and my skin color? Really?"

"I do – honestly. Look Rue, I do not have a reason to lie to you, and I prefer to avoid lying anyway as much as I can. I admit that I have not been in contact with dark skinned people a lot, except for my grandmother and some of her friends, but I do like your skin color, and I do like you."

"You like me? A poor girl who already is a teenager and looks like she still attends elementary school? A girl who's got cat ears and eyes and who gets told all of the time that she is different, in a bad way? A girl who is getting mocked all of the time because she's still got all of her baby teeth, except for overlong canines? A girl who's not going to live for much longer..." Rue suddenly stopped speaking and started sobbing once again.

I wrapped my arms around her, Rex put his snout on her lap, and both of us tried to comfort her. With her special features, specifically the ears, it was likely that she had been mobbed constantly by some people, notably fellow students at school, and I suspected that life had not been easy for her so far. Above and beyond that, I was worried about what she had said about not going to live much longer, and I wondered what that might be about; I really hoped that she wasn't about to commit suicide or something like that. Maybe, with time, I might learn more about her and her life, but for now I'd better not push too hard for more information. This was probably one of the secrets she was not willing to share with me, at least not yet, and I had no right to pry that out from here.

"This sounds like you have not had an easy life so far, correct?"

Still sobbing, Rue just nodded, and we stayed like this for quite some time. Lunch was ready, though, and I stepped to the fire to get it. Once we had eaten, I checked the wounds on her back, and we just sat there and enjoyed the scenery of the mountains around us.

I asked if there was anything else I should retrieve from the plane if I could, maybe some of her father's belongings, but the girl shook her head. I wondered if she would get bored here just with me, but it turned out that she loved nature as much as I did. For an hour or two I carried her to a rock a few hundred meters away which offered a different view, and she actually smiled while looking around. She was absolutely mesmerized when a small group of groundhogs came out not far from us, and she showed a very broad and wide smile when they continued feeding without minding human company. I even got my tricorder out and managed to catch a few nice pictures, some with the groundhogs and some with Rue, and by looking at the images, one could have assumed that Rue was enjoying a nice mountain hike with me. Rex knew of course that he was not supposed to hunt the groundhogs, and he ran off to a different area to find something for himself.

When the sun got closer to the horizon I carried the little girl back to our camp and prepared supper. While we ate, I asked her about preparations for the night:

"I am not sure if you noticed about last night, but I had you in my sleeping bag with me. You needed to stay warm, and I only have one sleeping bag here; I had not been expecting company. I know that this may be uncomfortable for you, but I do not know a better option to keep both of us warm during the night."

"Oh, this is quite all right, actually. When I woke up in the morning, I felt real nice and comfortable; so, yes, let us share again, please. I feel so safe and good when I am in your arms and close to you."

She felt good when she was in my arms? I wished that I had an older girl, closer to my own age, feeling like this, but so far that had just been wishful thinking. I sighed and proceeded with my evening chores, and I provided a cup of water for Rue so that she could brush her teeth and wash her face. When we were done, I slipped into my sleeping bag first and then pulled Rue into it. The sun was down now and the first stars were visible; I had placed the camp in a way so that we were covered by a rock overhang, but had a nice view outside and could see part of the night sky. Rue turned around so that she had her back on my chest, and she looked at the sky and stars together with me.

After some time of watching silently, she said: "I wonder if there is life somewhere out there, too."

Where did this come from? This was not a question I expected to hear from a girl who had just started her teenage years, but a topic I was interested in myself.

"On one of the other planets in our own solar system, or one around another star?"

"The latter, of course. As we know, life on another planet in our solar system is quite unlikely, although there might be options on some of the moons circling Jupiter and Saturn, maybe in some huge lakes below the surface."

"Of course you are right about that, I just did not expect somebody of your age to know and care about that. So, you are interested in astronomy? Do you learn about that at school?"

"I like thinking about it and I read a lot of books. But at school we have to learn what they consider more important stuff, which does not include star gazing."

"So, school misses out on some important topics?"

"Sure it does, but they have to focus on some, I guess. It's just that I am interested in so much more. What's out there, far away? Why does the sun rise and sink? I mean, I know that it is due to the Earth rotating, but what if it rotated at a different speed or with a different tilt? Why do we have seasons, and what keeps our planet on its track? Why do we have tides in the ocean, and why did we have major flooding and the sea level rising? Can we live with nature rather than fighting it? Could mankind have prevented the climatic apocalypse by reacting earlier? Specifically the latter is something I have been thinking a lot, and while they do cover the very basics of the climatic changes of the past at school, there's still so much more to think about.

"Wow, that is a long list of questions."

"I know, but I just can't help it. Dad tried his best to explain some, but he did not know a lot of answers, and all he could do is to get some books for me. Sometimes teachers helped, but most of the time they were too busy."

"Well, if you want, I can help maybe, and I think that I can answer some of your questions at least."

"You can? Really? Yes, that would be nice, and I would very much like that."

At this time Rue started to yawn, and I smiled at her. Before we got to sleep, though, I had a final question for her:

"Rue, do you believe in God?"

She hesitated and then replied:

"I do not know, really. Dad did not talk much about religion. Do you?"

"Yes, I do, and when I look up at the stars light this, I always see this as God's infinite realm and power. Just imagine the scheme behind all things on our planet and the many stars in our own galaxy and the many other galaxies out there; this is so amazing, and I just have to see God's hand behind all of that."

"It must be nice to believe like this."

"It is, indeed, and maybe some time you can also believe like I do. For me, it is quite comforting to know that there is a higher being in charge of everything and everyone, and that the Lord has a plan for us, even at times when we don't understand it."

She seemed to like that, and it did not take along before she settled down on my chest and was soon asleep, judged by her steady breathing, while I took a little bit longer. I was still very much confused about my own reaction. I had very much expected and hoped to spend a quiet vacation hiking time in the hills, and instead I had found Rue, who had almost literally dropped on me. That should have been at least irritating me, specifically as I needed to share not only my food, but also my sleeping bag with her. However, I felt comfortable with Rue around, actually more than just comfortable, and I could not understand why. What was happening, and what was going on? Was that all just an incredible coincidence or maybe one of God's special long term plans? Would I ever find out?

[Author's Notes: There will be an explanation for Rue's looks and special features and the reason why she gets along with Tim so well in a (much) later chapter.]