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Morning meant the tiny lavender flowers on the lichen were opening up, releasing their sweet scent.
Ella breathed it in, feeling incredibly lucky.
The only thing that pained her was knowing that her family was still suffering back home. She had been sending most of her monthly stipend to them. She and Jhon traded labor for food fairly often with their neighbors to keep costs down. There was plenty of work, since Abbra and Charl were getting older, and Ree-lah was busy with the children’s schooling.
Ella knew she and Jhon would be faced with the same challenge for Bo in years to come. But for now, the little one was happy to accompany her when she popped over to Ree-lah’s to cook or clean or tend to the lichen. So long as Ella carried him in his beloved sling, and sang to him while she worked, he never complained.
It was bittersweet that he was beginning to pull himself up and walk. She loved carrying him in her arms, but he was getting nice and heavy.
Ella had put on some much-needed weight herself. Having plenty to eat all the time was something she would never take for granted. She hadn’t woken in the night with a grumbling, aching belly in half a year now. Letting out her dresses was a small price to pay for that.
She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Jhon coming out with a sleepy Bo on his hip.
“You two are up early,” she teased.
“I think he knew there would be a big delivery today,” Jhon said, wrapping an arm around her from behind and pressing his lips to the top of her head.
A shiver of want went through her.
They had spent nearly a week in the mating frenzy before they were able to reclaim Bo. And even then, it was all they could do to wait for the little one to go to sleep at night before they were all over each other again.
Even now, Jhon’s slightest touch was enough to awaken her appetite. She wondered if that would ever fade.
“What are you thinking about, little mate?” he whispered teasingly in her ear, knowing full well what she was thinking about.
“I was wondering what you meant by a big delivery,” she lied. “Are we getting more wicker twine from Zar-sol?”
“Maybe,” Jhon said noncommittally.
“Charl’s on recall today?” she asked.
“He sure is,” Jhon said with a smile. “I think he likes going to town to shoot the breeze.”
“I wish it were easier to do,” Ella said, nodding.
“You get lonely up here?” Jhon asked her.
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “I have you and Bo and the neighbors. But it would be nice to have more people around, especially as Bo gets older.”
“Maybe we’ll have more immigrants one day,” Jhon said. “There are a couple of nice islands close by.”
Ella didn’t like to say so, but life on Sigg-3 was hard. It was also beautiful and rewarding, but those things didn’t become apparent until you were on your feet. She couldn’t imagine choosing to migrate here. If you had enough money for migration, that meant you probably had other, easier options. After all, wasn’t that why all those islands were empty to begin with?
“Morning, kids,” Charl called out from the chute platform as it rose. “You’ve got a lot of packages today.”
It reached the top and there were Charl and Abbra along with a nice stack of packages, no bigger than usual.
“What do you mean?” Ella called back, heading over to the chute to say hello.
But Charl and Abbra were hard at work unloading the packages.
Before Ella reached them. Charl tapped the sensor with his walking stick, and it dropped down, empty.
Which was odd. Why send the chute back down, unless there was more to bring up? But if there was another trip to be made, there was no one down there to load the goods on.
She froze when she heard the sound of the chute flying upward again.
What in the stars?
