“Da-da-da-da!” Lee turns back to the nipple after making his noise and closes his eyes as he latches on and returns to eating.
Still dizzy, I try to push myself up, but Beh’s hand against my chest sends me back into the furs. When I try to move my legs, they do not want to cooperate. I feel as if I have been running for an entire morning or that I haven’t slept all night. I might be able to push Beh away and make myself stand, but her soft hands on my skin and whispers of my name-sound calm me, and I lay back down.
I glance at Beh’s father and watch him warily as Beh takes both sleeping children from her breast and lays them together in a pile of furs next to me. I grab for her hand as she moves to stand, and she grips my fingers briefly before moving to the side of the cave where her father is seated, pulling her leather wrap up around her shoulders as she goes.
For a moment, I want to follow and take her farther away from him, but I realize I may have been asleep for some time, and if he had wanted to take them all away, he would have already done so. Also, as her father, he wouldn’t want to harm her, I believe.
So I do not move when she goes to his side, but I watch closely as she curls her legs underneath her body to sit near his feet. I try harder to focus on the object there and realize it is much like the thing he was carrying in his hand when he first appeared, but it looks different now. He reaches inside of the thing—the container—and pulls out a small, cylindrical object. It makes a strange noise when he shakes it, and he makes sounds with his mouth. Beh’s head bobs up and down, and he places the object back in the container.
Beh’s father repeats his actions with many strange-looking things, but my mind is still fuzzy, and I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. I roll slightly to look at the forms of my two sleeping children. Lee’s hand has reached out and grasped his sister’s arm, pulling her fingers to his mouth where he sucks at them in slumber. I reach over and lay my arm across them both protectively.
Finally, my entire family is together, and I smile.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Beh and her father sit at the fire and make constant noise. It hurts my head, but it makes Beh smile and laugh.
Leaning down, I scoop up a rapidly crawling Lee under one arm and bring him near the fire. Beh has finished preparing our breakfast, and Lah seems to have finished hers already. Beh lays her down on the strange, soft material Lah was wrapped in when Beh’s father brought her back and gently checks the other, smaller cloth that is wrapped around Lah’s bottom to see if it is wet. Lee has one as well, attached in the front with a small, shiny stick that is so sharp at the end it goes right through the covering. Beh’s deft fingers are able to attach and remove the little shiny stick quickly, but I end up with a bleeding finger when I try it.
There are many strange things Beh’s father has in his bizarre container.
I sit next to Lah and hand Lee over to Beh. He has already eaten but seems more demanding of Beh’s time now that Lah is with us again. Even though it is only the second morning his sister has been back with us, he notices that his time is now shared.
Beh and her father continue to make noise while I eat and rub Lah’s feet until she falls asleep.
“Ehd?”
I look up to Beh when I hear her call my name-sound. She reaches over Lah and places her hand on my chest.
“Ehd.” Beh taps my chest with her fingers.
“Lah.” She touches the top of Lah’s head.
I narrow my eyes a little as her hand moves to her father’s white-clad torso.
“Dad.”
My eyes meet his, and I scowl.
I don’t really know how I feel about the man. He took Lah from us in a way I can’t really fathom, and even though he has returned her, the method of return is too odd, and I don’t understand what has happened to my little girl. Part of me is grateful she is back and seems healthy again, but another part of me is mistrusting; I don’t know why he has returned or what he will do next. I have been ignoring his presence for the most part, hoping he will just disappear again.
Beh repeats the sound she made again and again, and I realize she must be saying his name-sound. I look from her to him again, and his blue, Beh-like eyes flicker between mine. I don’t want to acknowledge him because all I really want is for him to leave quickly and never return.
Lee chooses that moment to begin to make his own noises.
“Da da da da da!”
Beh beams at him as she repeats the sounds he makes. Lah’s feet kick out in her sleep, and I turn my attention back to her, rubbing her toes until she slumbers more deeply. Beh reaches over and she places her hand on top of mine.
“Dad,” she says again.