Third Person P.O.V.
A few weeks have passed since Jasiri and Edwin's first dinner date with Kiara and Kovu, and it is November already. The leaves around Chicago are more noticeably changing color and the temperatures are now lowering compared to the previous month. Edwin and Jasiri's relationship further progressed, and there were even several occasions where each of them spent the night at the other's place.
Jasiri P.O.V.
I woke up in the morning with Edwin spending the night at my place again. Edwin was still sleeping and I can see that the sun just started when I got up from bed. I went to the shower and performed my usual morning routine, and changed into a different pair of clothes from last night...when I started to feel a familiar pain in my abdomen.
I started to bend my knees and hold onto the edge of my bathroom sink tightly. I looked into the mirror to see that my fur was getting shorter until I saw mostly skin left, parts of my body becoming less hyena-like, my claws…or nails going to shorter length, and the painful feeling of my tail slowly disappearing into my lower back. I closed my eyes during most of this, and opened them when the pain stopped. I looked in the mirror and found that once again I have changed to my human form. I get used to the pain more after each transformation I go through, both human to hybrid, and hybrid to human transformations.
I exited the bathroom and started to make some coffee along with placing two pieces of bread in the toaster. I started to play some music on my phone while I was getting some other stuff out.
I then started to hear steps towards the kitchen, and saw that Edwin was coming from the bedroom with a change of clothes.
"Good morning Ed, did you sleep well last night?" I asked.
"Good morning Jas, I slept well last night. How about you?" Edwin replied though still looking a little tired.
"I slept great last night. You still look a little tired. I'm making some coffee, want some?" I asked.
"Sure that will be good. Man, last night was memorable. I had such a great time." He replied.
This made me think back to last night and I agree, I also had a great time.
"I had such a great time last night, I had no idea that we were able to go to all those places in one night." I replied.
"Yeah, I'm not sure why there was so little traffic on a Saturday night, but on the other hand it is November and the weather is getting colder." Edwin said.
"That's true, but I was also impressed by how Kendall was able to navigate through some of the traffic we did encounter. We had a good time from the restaurant to the art gallery." I said.
"I know right? We were there five minutes before the larger crowd started to come. I also never knew that Jamal had a strong knowledge in the visual art as well. I know he is good at coding and programming, but I never knew he also had an extensive knowledge of modern art. Then he told us that along with being a computer science major at Penn, he also had an art history minor as well." Edwin said.
"Yeah, and he also said he visited a lot of galleries when he was growing up in Seattle." I replied.
"It's also kind of funny thinking that we managed to go to a restaurant, an art gallery, an antique shop and a quick stop at the grocery store in one night, while still having energy to have some time for some intimate time between just the two of us after Kendall and Jamal dropped us off at your place." He replied.
"I know, I still couldn't believe we had all that energy last night, we basically slept like a rock for the rest of that night. I knew that a bunch of people were staring at us in each location because of my hyena hybrid form, but we were having too much fun to care." I said.
"Yeah and …oh Jasiri, just out of curiosity, are you available this coming Saturday?" Edwin asked.
"Yeah….why?" I asked.
"Well we have been dating for three months and I was wondering…if you are ready for it, but if you are not that's okay and.." He was talking before I interrupted him.
"Just ask your question Edwin!" I said.
"Okay, I was wondering if you will be okay if I introduce you to my mother on Saturday?" He replied.
I was a little surprised. Edwin mentioned his family to me on several occasions, but he didn't really mention the notion of introducing me to them this soon in the relationship. I thought he would not start introducing me to his family until six months or a year after we started dating. But on the other hand, based on what he told me, his mother is the relative he is closest with, plus the only one who still lives in Chicago with his sister basically traveling the world, his dad, with whom he was never close to, living in Florida, and his aunts, uncles and cousins scattered across the country. It feels pretty good that Edwin feels comfortable enough with me to introduce me to his family, considering that he has met everyone in my 'pseudo family' except for Chausiku who still lives in Milwaukee.
"Sure, it would be an honor to meet your mother. During the times you have mentioned her, she seems like a nice person and you guys seem to have an improved relationship compared to when you were younger. What time on Saturday are you thinking of us meeting up with her?" I asked.
"I texted with her and she said she is available at around 1:00 Saturday afternoon, does that sound alright with you? We will be meeting her at her house?" Edwin asked me as I was pouring coffee into two mugs. I soon walked with the mugs and gave him his and placed mine on the counter in front of me.
"Sure sounds great! I wonder if that girlfriend of hers, uhh Nelle, I think that's her name, will also be there." I said.
"I am curious about that too, she is still kind of evasive or secretive about it. One time I even brought up my concerns about the relationship possibly moving a little fast, considering she moved in with my mother after only a literal month of meeting each other. She told me that 'you can't wait when you get my age, when you get to be my age, time passes by so fast and the both of us wanted to experience our relationship to the fullest not knowing how much time we might have left.' But I also tell her that she is sixty years old and that there is still time to enjoy life to the fullest without rushing in, but she seems happy where she is with Nelle right now, and I think that as long as she is happy, that's all that matters to me." Edwin said.
"That's good, as long as she seems happy, I also think that's the most important thing. Though I am a little curious why Nelle moved in with your mother that quickly, but I think you told me that your mother also said that part of it was that Nelle was in a difficult housing situation before and she wanted to get out of it fast," I replied.
"Well I guess we will see what happens when you meet her." Edwin said as we continued to enjoy our coffee and small breakfast before he left back to his apartment.
Edwin P.O.V.
It was a pretty routine week in my research lab at the museum. That Friday evening, there was another meeting of the Human-Hybrid Alliance. Rafiki set up another activity and excursion activity for us, but this time we were placed in different groups than last time. After the discussion periods were over, we were placed in our excursion groups and my group was assigned to check out the Ancient Egypt exhibit.
This time the hybrids in my assigned group are Makuu, Kovu's sister Vitani, Timon: the guy who works in the lower floor children's exhibit, Bupu, and that teacher Rani who comes to these meetings occasionally even when she no longer works at the museum. All of them were in their anthro animal forms.
The humans in my group consisted of four other people. Ramaz Shaburidze, a man in his twenties with short black hair and brown eyes wearing a brown long sleeve shirt and black pants who works for the museum's Institutional Advances Department. There is also Lena Carty, a woman in her mid forties who had curly brunette hair in a bun, green eyes, wearing a purple sweater over a mint green shirt and black pants, who is the museum's public relations director. Anahita Ron, a woman in her early thirties who had her long black hair in a braid with brown eyes, wearing a short sleeve magenta shirt and a long red skirt, and she is an accountant in the finance department. Finally Dominika Skala, a woman in her mid fifties who had short blonde hair with hazel eyes, wearing a long sleeve yellowish green shirt with blue jeans. She works in the museum's security department.
We walked in the dimly lit entrance hallway into the Ancient Egypt exhibit and we looked at some display cases that contained artifacts that included small pieces of jewelry, statuettes of Egyptian gods and symbols, and even a couple of mummies. As we got further down the hallway, we also looks at display cases that featured some ancient wooden chests, several other objects from that era, and small dioramas that depicted events in Ancient Egyptian life and mythology, including people operating boats, mummification and scenes from the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. One diorama depicted the god Anubis weighing the deceased's heart against a feather on a scale to determine whether or not a person's soul was worthy enough to enter the afterlife or if it gets devoured by the creature called Ammit.
We also saw many pieces of hieroglyphs within the cases too. At one point after looking at some of the artifacts, Vitani turned towards the rest of us.
"It's kind of funny being in here knowing how Kovu is practically infatuated with subjects dealing with Ancient Egypt. Since we first arrived in human society and he first learned about Ancient Egypt and got his first book on it, studying it and other ancient civilizations became a passion of my brother's." Vitani said.
"Yeah I get it. Sometimes a subject can be so interesting that it can eventually become a passion. It is like me and Edwin with genetics, Makuu with fossils and even you with languages." Bupu said as he looked at another display case.
"Très juste, Bupu!" Vitani said.
"Wait, what did she just say?" Timon said in a curious tone.
"Oh she just told Bupu 'good point' in French. Je parle français aussi. Je l'ai appris depuis j'ai onze ans. J'ai fait mes études en biochimie et la biologie moléculaire pour mes matières principales à l'université, mais je fais mes études en français pour ma matière secondaire à l'université." I replied to the group.
(Translation: I also speak French. I've learned it since I was 11 years old. I majored in biochemistry and molecular biology in college, but I studied French for my minor.)
"Ah, très intéressant! Avec le français et l'anglais, je parle l'espagnol, le chinois, la Tagalog, et le Swahili aussi." She replied.
"Oh…c'est beaucoup-" I said before Lena interrupted us.
"I'm sorry to interrupt this conversation but I cannot speak French. Would it be okay if you guys translate a little for me." She said.
"Also for me." Timon added in.
"Sure, I was just talking about how I have learned French since I was eleven, and I also minored in it in college alongside my biochem and molecular biology majors. Then she told me that along with French and English, she also speaks Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog and Swahili. And I was saying that's a lot. Back to you Vitani, just out of curiosity, where did you learn how to speak so many languages?" I asked.
"Well I have known English and Swahili when I lived in the Outlands and Pride Lands before entering human society. After becoming a hybrid, I learned French and Spanish in middle school and high school, then I started learning Mandarin Chinese in college along with some courses after words, and Tagalog I learned from both an app and I live in an apartment complex where many of my neighbors are Filipino, so I picked up some from them. I guess you can say I am a polyglot." Vitani said.
"That's impressive Vitani, all I know is English and French, plus a little Italian from this app I got on my phone. How about you guys, do you guys speak any language outside of English?" I replied.
"Well I know English, some Swahili and some Spanish." Timon said.
"I know English, Swahili and some Spanish." Makuu said.
"Same with Makuu, mostly English, Swahili and Spanish." Bupu.
"I know English, Spanish, and some Latin from high school and college. Oh and some Hindi when I lived in the Tree of Life." Rani said.
"Along with English, I know Georgian since my parents were from there. I mean Georgia the country near Armenia and Azerbaijan, not Georgia the state in the U.S. Oh and I am also learning a little Mandarin from this app on my phone." Ramaz said.
"I know English and some Spanish, but that's pretty much it." Lena said.
"Same with Lena, I know English and Spanish. I also know Python and C++ if you count coding and programming languages."Anahita said.
"I know English and Slovak, and then some French and Spanish from school." Dominika said.
We continued to talk about the subject of languages for another five or seven minutes until we continued to look around the exhibits around us.
Many of us were looking at the depictions of Egyptian gods and goddesses around the exhibit. They seem to be ubiquitous around the exhibit, ranging from depictions on hieroglyphs, papyrus samples, small artifacts and statues, even the lids of canopic jars. I noticed that Makuu was particularly fascinated with the depictions of the god Sobek, probably because Sobek has the head of a crocodile. I also noticed that Vitani was fascinated with a statue of Sekhmet, the lioness goddess.
"According to this description, the goddess Sekhmet was the goddess of warfare and healing. And one of her duties was protecting pharaohs and leading them to warfare. Man, I didn't think I will have similarities from a goddess of a civilization from millennia ago. Hey Makuu, what does the god you are looking at do?" Vitani said while turning her head towards Makuu's direction.
"Well according to this plaque, Sobek was a god who signified power, warfare and oddly enough fertility…not sure how that one came into the mix, but it's still interesting." Makuu said.
"Yeah, it's kinda funny to think that if we entered human society and became hybrids during the time of Ancient Egypt, we might have ended up being confused for being the potential incarnate of one or more of their gods." Vitani said.
"Yeah, if we were alive then and still hybrids, we probably would have gotten special treatment because of our potential resemblance. Man, why were we born so late." Makuu said jokingly before gently turning his head toward Timon and Bupu.
"Sorry Bupu and Timon, I don't think there was an antelope or meerkat gods in Ancient Egypt, but I can look it up if you want to." Makuu said.
"It's okay, if I was in that situation, I wouldn't have liked that much attention anyway." Bupu said.
We just continued to walk through the exhibit and looked at the artifacts and displays. Ramaz was reading the plaques describing the mummification process, Domminika And Bupu were looking at the display of replicas of Ancient Egyptian hairstyles of nobility and royalty during the time, and Lena and Vitani were looking at some of the artifacts on display.
I was looking at the 4,000 year old boat that was said to have been owned by the pharaoh Senwosret III. As I was looking at the boat, I started to hear footsteps approaching towards me. I gently turned my head to see Makuu also looking at the boat.
"Hi Makuu, how's it going?" I said to start casual conversation.
"It's going well Edwin, how have you been?" He replied.
"I'm good, just looking at this millenia-old boat. Still can't believe that this is four thousand years old and there is still so much left of it." I said.
"I know, it is impressive how some types of wood are able to last that long. Also in an unrelated topic, I have been talking with Jasiri and she told me that you are going to introduce her to your mother, is that true?" Makuu said.
"Oh yeah, we are going to my mother's house tomorrow afternoon. I figured that we have been dating for three months and I would like to introduce her to at least one of my family members, or at least the only one who still lives in Chicago." I said.
"Sounds nice, and just out of curiosity, does your mom know that Jasiri is a hybrid?" Makuu asked.
"Well actually no, not yet. Jasiri and I talked about it and we both thought that it would be best that we tell her about the whole hybrid, Pride Lands/Outlands thing later so we don't overwhelm her with it on my mother's first day of knowing Jasiri. Plus, I want my mother to get to know Jasiri so that when the day comes, she won't judge her on her appearance." I replied.
"Okay that makes sense….but wait didn't you tell those friends of yours from your high school reunion about her being hybrid?" Makuu asked.
"Yeah, but that was because it took place at night when she usually transforms and since they already saw her in her anthro form, we decided to tell them the whole story. Though I did ask Jasiri beforehand whether she was comfortable with it, she said she was and then we told them sitting in a cafe drenched from the rain." I said.
"Okay, I understand, but I don't really understand the whole 'drenched in the rain part'. Is that a metaphor for something?" Makuu asked.
"Oh no, it was raining hard that day. And plus who knows, maybe if I introduce her to my mother, she might introduce me to her former guide Chausiku in Milwaukee." I said.
"If you do meet her, you have nothing to worry about, Chausiku is a wonderful woman. She is so sweet and caring, along with always finding witty jokes to say to work into conversations. It's been a while since I last heard from her, I should send her a text sometime." Makuu said.
"Even when I am excited, I'm a little nervous because I don't want to make either of them feel uncomfortable." I told him.
"I can understand how Jasiri might feel." a voice called. Makuu and I both turned to see that Timon was approaching us and started to stand next to us.
"Yeah, I remembered when Gary first introduced me to his parents. We did not tell them about me being hybrid for my first month of knowing them. Then one night Gary and I agreed to show his parents my hybrid form. His mother was surprised at first but she started to accept it after I told her my whole story, and she is still a lovely lady to talk to. His dad on the other hand, did not accept it kindly at all. So Gary's dad was pretty religious, so their relationship was already strained because he still did not really accept the fact that Gary was gay. He was already telling Gary and I we were 'damned to fiery pits of hell', but when I transformed to my anthro meerkat form, he started spraying me with some 'holy water' he had thought I was some kind of demon. Then he tried hitting Gary with his Bible a few times, and we just had to get out of there. After that we only met up with his mother outside their house, or in the house when the dad was not around, and based on his lack of communication with us, he did not want to contact us either. Then a year after that incident, Gary's dad died of a massive heart attack when Gary's mom was out with some friends, so he ended up dying in his house completely alone. After that whole incident of first showing Gary's parents my hybrid form, Gary and I both questioned why his loving mother was still married to that radical homophobe. It turns out in the wake that his mother told me and Gary that she was initially hoping that he would eventually change since he no longer had a connection with any of his children, Gary and his two siblings included. But then she revealed that a week before they died, she realized that there was no was no hope in him changing and served him divorce papers literally a week before he died. She said that he was just angry and at first refused to accept the papers, but then he died before the divorce could have officially happened. I just hate it when people still hold onto these prejudiced and obsolete ideologies and beliefs because either it is said in a religious text or trying to maintain some sort of privilege built upon ignorance and the suffering of marginalized groups. Though I don't necessarily judge people who practice religion, I've met some nice people who happen to practice religion. I'm just not a fan of the people who take it too literally, like the fundamentalists and those who try to force their beliefs onto others, or those who try to enforce religious issues into government and law, in which religion and government should be completely separate to begin with. So even when I was turned off by organized religion, the experience with Gary's parents solidified that I myself will never partake in organized religion. Gary has been turned off by organized religion for a longer time than me, because his parents basically shoved it down his throat and he wanted to leave that part of his life as soon as he could. Though Gary told me his mother is not as religious as she used to be, she seemed to have calmed down in recent years." Timon said while staring at the remnants of the boat.
"That's unfortunate to hear about your first encounter with Gary's parents. It's a shame that a parent won't even accept their own son for who he is solely because it is against their religion or beliefs. I can understand about the religion thing, I was Catholic when I was younger, but we weren't strict Catholics. Then as I got older, me and basically my whole family eventually stopped practicing or believing in religion, and now I've been an atheist since I was fourteen years old. Though I don't judge those who practice religion, I hate those who try to enforce their beliefs on other people. I hope my mother does not react negatively when I tell her that Jasiri is a hybrid. But if I know her, she is a pretty open-minded person, and she hasn't practiced religion in years even before she came out as gay, so she's not really into that stuff. Also, based on what you have told us earlier and previous meetings, I'm still glad you and Gary's still going strong, and now you guys have been living together for a while, how's that?" I replied.
"It's been going well, we really seem to be settling in with each other now. Though we did have some initial first-time-living together conflicts, but nothing major. Though on occasion we still have some debate of how to organize the kitchen cabinets, or which of us leaves hair on the soap though I know it's me most of the time. Though it does feel quieter since Bunga moved out." Timon said.
"Do you by any chance still talk to Bunga?" Makuu asked, after which Timon slightly tilted his head forward with a sad expression on his face.
"We actually don't really talk to each other that much anymore since we had that argument in the cafe we had in August after I cut him off financially, you know the argument that you guys, more employees and some tourists have witnessed. I know that he and Kion are now roommates, which kind of surprised me at first. Apparently they've gotten close as friends again for some reason. Bunga never seemed to like Gary for some reason. In many cases, he claimed he thought that Gary was boring, but he also always seems to bring up Pumbaa in those discussions too, perhaps hinting that he might have not really accepted the idea of me being with someone else other than Pumbaa though he's been dead for 21 years." Timon said in a saddened tone.
"I'm sorry that happened to you guys. Also I am shocked that he would choose to room with Kion? After what he has done to Jasiri and Rani?" I replied.
"Yeah, I'm surprised too. Why would he go to that jackass for help? I lost every ounce of respect for Kion after his abuse towards Rani and Jasiri. I remembered seeing the last time he beat Jasiri….I was so angry, and I remembered tackling Kion off her and then breaking his nose. And for some reason Simba suspended me from work for like two weeks while Kion basically got what I would consider only a slap on the wrist, he should have been fired but his dad didn't agree with that." Makuu said.
"Anyways Edwin, I wish you luck with introducing Jasiri to your mother." Timon said to me.
"Likewise, I hope your mother will be an open-minded person when she learns about Jasiri being a hybrid." Makuu said.
"Yeah, I hope she is." I replied.
For the remainder of our time, we just continued to look around the Ancient Egypt exhibit.
Third Person P.O.V.
It was Saturday afternoon and Edwin was driving to Jasiri's place to pick her up to go to his mother's place.
The traffic was lighter than what he would have expected, and it was a relatively calm November day, though it was still fairly cold outside.
Edwin pulled up in front of her building and waited for five minutes before she came out through the front door and entered the passenger seat. She was in her human form
"Hi Jas, how are you doing?" He asked.
"I'm fine, just a little nervous. How about you?" Jasiri said.
"I'm fine, and don't worry, I'm sure everything will go fine knowing my mother. She's a pretty nice and calm person." Edwin replied.
"I hope so." Jasiri said.
They continued to head towards Edwin's mother's house. They casually chatted along the way while some music played over the car radio.
After about 20 minutes, the couple finally arrived at Edwin's mother's house. They parked the car and walked across the street to a dark red brick house that has a small concrete stoop with a small flower pot and a flagpole with two flags on it. One of the flags was the flag of Italy to represent the family's Italian heritage and ancestry. The other flag is a pride flag to represent his mother's identity as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
They slowly approach the door of the house as Jasiri and Edwin casually chat with each other.
"So this is my mother's house, which also happens to be the house that I grew up in." Edwin said.
"Oh yeah, I recognize it from the old pictures you showed me, and that holiday card I found one time." Jasiri replied.
They approached the door and Edwin knocked on the door. In response they heard the voice of an older female.
"Who's there?" the voice said behind the door.
"It's Edwin." Edwin replied.
The wooden door opened to reveal a woman in her early sixties, who had brown hair that was just below shoulder length and had a few small gray areas. She has brown eyes and two small beauty marks on the right side of her forehead. She wore a gray cardigan sweater with a brown blouse underneath and black pants, along with a pair of beige shoes.
"Hi Mom!" Edwin said while he embraced the older woman.
"Hi sweetheart! How are you? How's work?" Edwin's mother said enthusiastically as she left the embrace.
"I am good, and work is great. I would like to introduce you to my girlfriend Jasiri." Edwin said as he gestured towards Jasiri.
"Nice to meet you Jasiri! Edwin has told me so many nice things about you." Edwin's mother said as she shook Jasiri's hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Mariani." Jasiri said calmly.
"Please call me Julia, plus I dropped the Mariani marriage name some time after my divorce from Edwin's father, and I went back to going by Julia Sala shortly before I came out." Julia said.
"Okay Julia. How have you been?" Jasiri replied.
"I've been fine, my girlfriend is at a conference out of town right now, so I've got the house by myself and work has been fine, though being a bank teller is not that eventful to begin with anyway." Julia said.
"Come on in you too, we have so much to talk about." Julia then said as she let the couple inside her house.
Jasiri and Edwin are led to a cozy living room setting that had a dark green carpet, a wooden coffee table with some other wooden cabinets around the living room, and grayish-black couch with some near it ottomans. The walls are painted a reddish-orange color, which are adorned with several small pieces of artwork, photographs of Julia, her children, and other people including Edwin and Julia's extended relatives similar to those found on one of her cabinets. Next to the couch was a soft gray chair next to the
As Jasiri and Edwin sat down on the couch which was across from a small television on another small cabinet. Julia soon layed out some small yellow coasters on the coffee table.
"Just sit right here, would you like anything to drink?" Julia asked.
"Just some water will be fine." Jasiri said.
"Same." Edwin said.
"Coming right up, I'll be back in a minute or two." Julia said as she went into the kitchen.
The couple continued to look around the living room.
"So Edwin, was this the living room setup that you grew up with by any chance?" Jasiri asked curiously.
"Sort of, the TV and the couch are different, the couch I grew up with was a dark purple color with some leaf patterns on it. The wall color, coffee table, cabinets and some picture frames are pretty much the same." Edwin replied.
Jasiri was looking around the room and on a cabinet next to her side of the couch she found a picture frame with two small children. One was a boy that looked like he was in preschool with short brown hair with light bangs, wearing a red short-sleeved shirt, blue shorts and black sneakers. The other is a little girl who looks to still be a toddler with head-length blondish-brown hair, wearing a turquoise shirt, lavender pants and red shoes. The two children were in what looks like a park since there were visible pathways and the fence and the fence of what looks like a playground in the background of the photo.
"Hey Edwin, was this you when you were a kid?" Jasiri said.
"Yeah, that was me and my sister Kat when we were little." Edwin replied.
"Oh yes, I remembered when that photo was taken. It was a summer weekend and I took the two of you out to Touhy Park and I took that photo after you two spent a full two hours on that playground. Man I was tired after that day, but it would be exhausting to try to keep up with both a four year old and his two year old sister." Julia said as she placed a pitcher of water on the coffee table and sat down on the chair next to the couch.
"Wow, I'm surprised you remembered all that." Edwin said.
"Of course I did, I loved spending time with you kids when I had time, plus someone had to compensate for your father's lack of interest in doing activities he is not interested in. You were a cute kid back then….what happened over the years." Julia said, which caused Jasiri to let out a slight laugh and Edwin to blush a little in embarrassment.
" I also remembered that when you were at that age, you used to always ask for a night light when you needed to sleep so that the 'monsters'-" Julia said.
"Mom!" Edwin interrupted.
"Sorry…Anyway, Jasiri, tell me more about yourself. Where are you from? What is your job at the museum? What do you like to do during your free time? Does your family live near here?" Julia asked.
Jasiri was thinking about what she was going to say because she doesn't want to immediately tell her about her being a hyena and hybrid, so she will tell her the fabricated origin story in which she told people for years since entering human society.
"Well I was born and raised in a small community in western Tanzania. My parents both died when I was young so I was in the custody of legal guardians. Don't worry they were both nice to me and tried the best to provide me with the resources and care they could. Anyway, I moved to the U.S when I was nine when one of my guardian's got a job in Milwaukee….." Jasiri said as she continued the story.
She continued her story discussing her school days, undergrad and graduate work. SHe also discussed when she moved to Chicago and her bad relationship with Kion before we met and how she put a restraining order on him.
"So yeah, I am still currently working on my fossil preparator and then some time later, I met Edwin I think literally on his first day working in the genetics lab. We first met by a vending machine while both of us were on our lunch break. We started out as friends for three months, and then we realized the feelings we had between each other and started dating. We have been dating each other for three months." Jasiri said.
"That's nice to hear. I am sorry to hear about your prior relationship, but fortunately things seem to be going better for you since then. You two seem pretty good together." Julia said.
"Thank you, Julia, I appreciate that." Jasiri said.
"Also speaking of couples, how is your girlfriend Nelle doing?" Edwin said.
"Oh yeah, the two of us are doing great….we really communicate with each other well and take time to listen to one another. She always emphasizes the importance of good communication because before we started dating and she moved in, she was in a bad relationship before we dated. Though this was before I came out, I wish I could have tried to implement improvements to make things at home and the divorce less awkward when I still lived with your dad, Edwin. I apologize that you and Katrina got exposed to all of our arguing when you were younger. Neither you nor your sister deserved to grow up around a home environment with constant arguing. I should have divorced him and come out much earlier." Julia said.
"It's okay mom, I have already forgiven you for that, and besides you learned from your mistakes. It looks like you have really learned the importance of efficient communication. Jasiri and I try to practice efficiently communicating with each other a little bit each day. Also speaking of Nelle, when do we get a chance to meet her? I would like to meet the woman who has been dating my mother for four months and living with her for three of them. I am also surprised that I haven't even seen a picture of her yet." Edwin said.
"Well….I am honestly not sure when she will be a…uh…available because her work schedule can get busy and unpredictable. Plus, she's very camera shy so there aren't really many photos of her, and the ones I do have are not very good in quality. I promise to send you a photo of her when I can." Julia said.
"Alright, I guess I can understand that. Sometimes I get uncomfortable and nervous with public speaking, and I guess that Nelle has the same thing with photos." Edwin replied.
"Yeah, I can understand that, sometimes I get anxious on occasions when I record my own voice." Jasiri said casually.
They continued to talk with each other for another hour or two. They seem to be getting along with each other and the three seem to be laughing, conversing and just having a good time with one another.
"...So that is when Edwin literally got sick the weekend after he completed his final exams when he was 12. He spent all that weekend in bed, and let's just say he was a cranky patient at that time. He always seemed to be overly critical of almost everything I tried to do whenever he didn't seem to get sufficient rest. I also remembered that during those two days you always seemed to have a tissue up one of your nostrils somehow." Julia said.
They all shared a little laugh over this, though Edwin was visibly blushing with all these embarrassing stories from his past being revealed.
"Mom come on, I was in sixth grade, my first year of middle school and I wanted to do well on my exams so I did everything I could, even staying up late to further study. But hey, I passed all my exams with good to decent grades. But to be fair, I guess I overdid it a little, leading me to becoming sick." Edwin said.
"Yeah, but that was not an excuse for not taking care of yourself." Julia replied.
"On the other hand, something similar happened to me after I finished my presentation to my dissertation committee when I was getting my PhD." Jasiri said.
"Oh yeah, I remembered when I had to defend my thesis in front of my dissertation committee. Man I was stressed out of my mind before that appointment, and so relieved when they accepted my thesis." Edwin replied.
"I felt the same in the case of my thesis. Though I ended up getting sick for a day or two after that, my thesis was still approved." Jasiri said.
The three individuals continued to talk for another half hour before Edwin and Jasiri started to prepare to leave and they were sending their farewells to Julia as they got up from the couch.
"Well it has been a nice time talking with you mom, I am so glad that we got to talk with you today." Edwin said.
"It's nice spending time with you, and it has been a pleasure to meet you Jasiri." Julia said.
"It's been nice to meet you too Julia, I had a great time talking with you too. I hope you and Nelle have a good week after she returns from her trip." Jasiri replied.
"Thanks, and I hope that you two have a good weekend and upcoming week as well." Julia said.
"Thank you, I hope the two of you have a great week as well." Julia said as she was shaking Jasiri's hand.
"See you later mom!" Edwin said as he hugged his mother.
The couple soon went out the door and walked towards Edwin's car. Even though the couple had a good time with Julia, they do feel a little bad that they didn't tell her about Jasiri being a hybrid and her backstory as a full hyena.
They were also suspicious of why Julia was so evasive when it came to the subject of her girlfriend Nelle.
On the other hand, the couple's suspicions might be more understandable than they thought.
Edwin and Jasiri might not completely know this, but Julia has a secret of her own.