The next time Adri came round, I told him that yes, I would have his child for him.
He was so grateful. And so concerned that I didn’t feel that I was being coerced or anything like that. The last of my doubts melted away as he, instead of jumping at my offer, wanted to make sure that I was happy to do this.
It wasn’t that long afterwards that I found myself throwing up one morning. Adri said to let him know as soon as I thought I was pregnant – I would need to come out of the medi-suit.
He was so happy and excited about the pregnancy.
I was less happy when I went into labour!
But, at the end of it all, I had Abigail in my arms…
…and Adri had Barbara in his arms. Twins! He was so happy, and so impressed with how clever I’d been.
Adri brought someone new round for me to meet. Confusingly, his name was Adri too – Adri Tallin. He was green. Just by way of a change. And healthy, and vigorous, and bursting with life. He took me out to see a bit more of the place.
I had to admit, this planet did have its own charm and beauty. Adri Tallin obviously knew lots about plants and wildlife generally. He loved showing them to me, and I loved seeing them.
At first, I wasn’t sure how I’d find being a mother – whether I’d cope or not. Surprisingly enough, what really helped was growing up in the orphanage. The older children were always encouraged to help with the younger ones. Potty training was something I’d done before.
Teaching a child to walk was familiar too. And I enjoyed it. Abigail and Barbara loved me, smiled at me, were pleased to see me.
So when Adri Caldin asked me if I would carry a child for him, I said yes. He had been kind to me, shared his knowledge with me. And his happiness when he learnt that I was pregnant again was lovely to see.
I sat in the sunshine, talking to my daughter and feeling another child stirring within me. I wasn’t alone any more. I had a new family. It was a strange feeling.
Adri Caldin called round regularly to see that I was all right, and happened to be there when I went into labour. His reactions were quite amusing! Adri Adrin had taken it all in his stride – but then he was a doctor.
And I had twins again! Daisy and Catriona. Adri Caldin’s love for them was evident right from the start. These children were never going to be left to grow up in an orphanage: they meant far too much to the community around them.
Time moved on – although not for my body. And for my first two girls, it moved on fast. Adri Adrin was right when he said they could speed time up. Abigail and Barbara were going to school, and sitting doing their homework far sooner than I would have expected. I worried that they were being pushed into adulthood too fast, but Adri told me not to worry. They would have a long teenage time, and only mature when both he and they thought they were ready for it. There was much for them to learn as they got older yet.
Adri Adrin invited me round to his house – which I had to say, was a bit primitive – and Adri Caldin came round too. Was I ready to meet someone else, and to see some more of the place? It was up to me – they didn’t want to rush me.
His name was Adri Mellin. “Why are you all called Adri?” I asked. “It’s so confusing.”“Adri’s not a name,” he said. “It’s a title. I am the Adri for the Mellin. When I became Adri, I lost my name. To be Adri is to cease to be a private individual.” We’d stopped by some ruins that he wanted to show me, but this was interesting.
“Go on,” I said. “So what’s the Mellin?”
He thought for a bit. “You would probably say clan, or tribe, but it is more than that. The Adrin, for instance, often specialise in science, and medicine. And the Caldin are farmers, botanists, fishermen, food providers, plant breeders. And the Mellin, we were family specialists – teachers, cooks, helpers. Home and hearth makers.”
We walked on past another set of ruins. “How come you all speak my language so well?”Adri Mellin laughed. “We don’t,” he said. “It’s that helmet you’re wearing. It links in to your language centres and is translating for you. Our computer knows your language, but we don’t speak it. And it translates in reverse too – but we don’t need a helmet, we’ve got an implant. The good news is that your brain is slowly learning our language as you wear the helmet. Plus, it’s got a homing device in it, in case you get lost: we always know where you are. And it transmits bio-feedback, so that we know if you get sick. You are very precious to us all. We want to take care of you.”
We paused at a third ruin.“I wanted you to see these,” Adri said. “These were family homes once. This one belonged to my sister and her daughter.” Seeing his sorrow, still evident after all those years, I reached out and took his hands.
He walked me back home again. We didn’t say much, but it was a comfortable silence. When we got back, I leant towards him, and whispered in his ear. “I will have your child for you, if that is what you want.”
Sitting talking to Daisy, my stomach round with another child (incredibly round! I think it’s twins again! Adri Adrin did say this was likely), I decided I was fed up with the hospital look of the place. It was more institutional than the orphanage I’d grown up in.
The next time Adri Mellin called round (and he came round lots to make sure I was OK) I told him what I thought about the décor. He said he’d set Adri Tallin onto the job – and took me and the others out for the day while Adri Tallin worked on the children’s rooms.
Which meant that when I went into labour…
..and gave birth to Eloise
and Felicity and Gabriella, they had pretty bedrooms to sleep in.
Abigail was ready to become a teenager, and was such a help with Daisy and Catriona.
Barbara wasn’t long after her, and the help I got from the two of them made coping with triplets possible.
Watching the four of them doing homework together was sweet. But I was worried about how we’d cope if I had more babies. The place would begin to be like the orphanage I grew up in - but with fewer adults!
Adri Adrin had thought of this, though. Actually, they’d planned it out together, all the Adris – that when the girls were old enough, they would go and live with their fathers, and continue their education and training in their homes. He proudly showed me the bedroom that was ready for Abigail and Barbara. I said it was way too plain, and why didn’t he do something about prettying it up. He said he’d ask Adri Tallin – which reminded me that I hadn’t thanked him for the work he’d done for me.
Barbara and Abigail stayed a little while longer,
helping with the triplets, and getting to know them.
But then it was time for them to move in with their father. It wasn’t as if he was a stranger to them – all three Adris visited their children often. It was still a bit emotional though – even though I knew they would be round to see us all lots and lots.
However with Catriona and Daisy both teenagers now, I had the help I needed.
They were both very happy to play with the little ones when they were home from school.
A few days later, Adri Tallin called round to see if I’d liked his work. I said I’d loved it – and could he do something about this room too, as it was very ugly.
He did better than that. He looked round the whole building – complete with its add-ons.
And decided that it was indeed very ugly, and also very badly designed. He moved us all out to an empty house for a while and pulled in a team of people.
He ripped out walls, put in stairs, painted rooms, ran his team of builders into the ground apparently, begged, stole and borrowed stuff from all sorts of people and places.
But at the end, the place was amazing. Lovely children’s rooms.
He’d made one bedroom a bit more sophisticated, for my teenage girls.
“And this is to be your room,” he said. “I hope you like it. I wanted it to be beautiful for you. I wanted it to be as beautiful as you.”
There was a big, friendly kitchen with gorgeous views over the lake.
“I want you to be happy,” he said. “I want to see your lovely eyes smile at me.”
It was no surprise that Adri Tallin asked me to bear a child for him. What was different was that he said he wanted to see what we would make together.
When we discovered that I was pregnant, he kept wondering if it would look like me, or him, be a boy or a girl. He was full of such an infectious enthusiasm.
Like Adri Mellin, he freaked out when I went into labour.
But like all the Adris, he was totally smitten by the two girls I had. “Can you call a child Hope?” he asked. “Because that is what you have given to us.”
He couldn’t do enough for Hope and Imogen. All the other Adris had been involved, but Adri Tallin was in a class of his own. He even slept over so that he could do the night feedings and spare me the effort.
I asked him what the Tallin did, and he told me (and Imogen at the same time). “We are artists, musicians, designers, architects. We make life more beautiful – or more practical – or more bearable. And there’s very few of us left – only a handful. These girls are going to carry a torch for the whole community.”
Adri Tallin got on well with the others too. Daisy and Catriona openly bemoaned the fact that they would have to leave soon, as he was such fun to be around. He played his guitar for us, taught the younger ones to paint – and did a special picture for me, called Hope in Darkness. “To remind you of what you are to us,” he said. I hung it over my bed.
Daisy and Catriona were growing more and more independent. They went fishing and helped out the family food supplies no end by doing so – and helped in the garden as well.
It was no surprise really when Adri Caldin came round and said that he thought the girls were ready to go and live with him now. I had to agree.
It was still an emotional moment, parting from them. I guess it always feel like this when your children leave home.
I knew they were ready to go, and that they would be happy and cared for, and that they needed to learn the things only Adri Caldin could teach them, and that they would still be near and close.
The next day, I looked at the painting Adri Tallin had done for me, to remind me that I was making a difference. Hope in the Darkness, he’d called it. I’d had nine children, but somehow I didn’t think that was quite enough yet.
Adri came in as I was making the children’s beds. “I have to go soon,” he said. “Hope and Imogen won’t be toddlers any longer, and you don’t really need me now. But I’m going to miss you.”Actually, he pulled me into more than his arms. It was a little while before he went downstairs to say goodbye to Hope and Imogen, who had come back from school.
