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He extended the flower to me. I crouched beside him and took it.
“What’s up?” I said.
“How do I shoot like you?” he said.
“It’s very simple,” I said. “Are you ready? Come closer and I’ll show you how to do it.”
I sensed Waev watching us. I wished he wouldn’t—there was a chance Cleb would feel self-conscious but I could understand his interest. Cleb was a part of the family and they were all concerned about him.
I held him close and remembered how good it felt to work with children, their warmth, and their happiness. There was nothing like curling up with a good kid for company.
I helped him and we shot the “arrow” together. It hit Waev’s foot. He hopped on the spot and pretended like he’d been shot.
Cleb giggled and I noticed immediately how the house workers snapped to attention. It seemed laughter wasn’t a common commodity for this kid. I wondered why.
“Great shot!” I said. “Were you aiming for his foot?”
Cleb nodded.
“Do you think you can hit his hand?” I said.
Waev held his hand out like a target.
Cleb took careful aim and poked his tongue out in concentration. He released the flower and it struck Waev’s extended hand and exploded in an explosion of petals.
“Well done!” I said. “High five!”
Cleb didn’t know what that meant. I guessed it wasn’t a thing with Titans but he grinned as he slapped my hand, and then Waev’s.
Waev shared an incredulous look with the other house workers and looked at me with genuine warmth in his eyes.
“Thank you,” he mouthed.
I shrugged my shoulders. If he was impressed with that, he was going to be amazed with my next trick…
Cleb opened up to me after that, walking with us and helping tend the gardens. It was a good thing to get a child’s hands dirty in soil, I always thought.
I struck paydirt when I told him I was from a far and distant planet that no Titan had ever been to before.
“Really?” he said. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true,” I said, not knowing if it was really true or not. “Do you want me to prove it to you?”
He nodded his head shyly.
“Okay,” I said. “If I am from a planet that Titans have never visited before, that means I know nothing about Titans, right?”
“Right.”
“So ask me a question. Something anyone who knows about Titans must know and I guarantee I don’t know it.”
Cleb thought for a moment before raising his hand.
“Have you got one?” I said.
He nodded.
“Great,” I said. “Hit me with it.”
