Page 37 of Thalen

“Let’s get these things loaded,” I said, looking at their purchases.

“We need to get his bedroom ready. The walls are bare. What sort of things does an eight year old Dragonii like?”

“Space ships,” Jason replied confidently. “All boys love space ships.”

“He’ll probably come with the things from his old room, so I won't decorate too much.”

“Right. Think his granny will come?”

I shrugged as I lifted the stasis boxes full of kilt-ha and hop-a-long meat into the back of the flitter. “Don’t know. It’s a long way for someone her age. She was already fairly old when I knew her as a kit, Hrak’s mother being a late in life surprise to her own mother.” I hefted a large bag of Duke and Benny’s usual brand of dog food next. It was replicated to order under license, one more convenience provided by our three way treaty with the Mylos and humans.

“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

As it turned out, we didn’t have to wait long. By that evening, his grandmother had arranged for all of his belongings except for his furniture to accompany him, and by a stroke of luck, he was scheduled to arrive on the same ship as the sheriff and teacher, boarding at a space station rendezvous. Being our local official law enforcement officer, the sheriff was the one accompanying him from there on out, allowing for Grix to return home from there. As for his great grandmother, she had decided to sell up and move into a retirement community where a few of her friends lived. We promised weekly vid comm chats, not wishing for Vrann to lose the connection he had with her and his other existing family members.

Jason was beside himself with anticipation, perhaps even more so than Evan and I were.

“I can’t believe that it was all arranged so fast.”

“I think she and Grix pretty much knew we’d take him in and had already made arrangements. If we’d refused, they could have cancelled them.”

“And then what would have become of him?”

“Probably adopted by a Dragonii family somewhere else.”

“Well, he’s ours, so they can’t have him. And you grew up with his dad. You’ll have stories about him to share.”

That I would, but that wasn’t the best thing about Vrann joining our small family. The generous hearts of Evan and Jason were.

21

EVAN

Talk about life becoming a rollercoaster ride! I’d gotten one son, then a mate, and now a second son, all in the space of just under a few weeks. Not to mention moving to another planet and living my dream life as a farmer. Every time I thought that my life couldn’t get any better, boom! Something else wonderful happened to make it so. Some people would say that if I had a lick of sense, I’d know that all the good things just meant that something really, truly awful was going to happen. I knew they were wrong. I sided with optimists in life. I’d had a hard start in life, and all my effort to reach for something better had simply come to pass. The stuff that kept on coming was all due to karma giving us all our rewards for our efforts. Bad people got bad karma. Good people got good. Simple.

What was not simple was keeping Jason from fidgeting and driving us a little bit crazy as we waited for the shuttle bringing Vrann and the new sheriff and teacher down, along with their belongings.

Bob had thoughtfully put the conversation between the shuttle pilot and himself on loudspeaker, so we could all hear it. And by we all, I meant Thalen, Jason, and I, as well as Johree and Jesse and two Dragonii males who turned out to be Varek and Rethan, who had mates arriving. Rethanls, of course, was Nick Carter’s mate, while Varek’s was a woman called Sarah Bennet. While Nick was the new teacher, Sarah was who the large house in town had been built for as she was opening a bed and breakfast slash rooming house sort of place.

“Silver Horizon’s shuttle is now ready to depart,” the pilot said.

"Good afternoon, Silver Horizon. Welcome to New Haven. Before landing clearance can be issued...Knock knock."

Jason giggled as we all collectively shook our heads at Bob’s now famous landing procedure.

A sigh came over the loudspeaker.

“Who’s there?”

“Cargo.”

“Cargo who?” came the resigned reply.

“Cargo unloading is to occur only after landing safely.”

A soft snort. “Copy that, Bob. Um, hahaha,” the pilot forced out a laugh.

“I guess you’ll do. Clearance granted. Follow my guide beam.”