The moment I told New Fish that we could be apart for five miles on land and seven in the air, New Fish took off, gleefully zooming up about two miles, then free-falling back to land and zooming large circles around the area. Still, she couldn’t return to the field that she’d liked so much because it was over a hundred miles away. Not without me. And I wanted to return to my dorm and lie down. I’d been so worried and now things were sort of okay. I was okay. Sort of.
There was a small open field near my dorm. It didn’t have the tasty yellow grass or the ntu ntu bugs New Fish wanted to taste, and students liked to walk through it on the way to class. But it was relatively quiet and two other living ships stayed there. New Fish approved.
I closed the door behind me and sank to the floor. Then I quickly got up. I needed to check on the fresh jar of otjize I’d mixed last night. I took the lid off, sniffed it, and looked at the red-orange paste. It still looked thin. Maybe another day. Another day of being naked. I sighed, putting it back on the windowsill where the light from Oomza Uni’s large moon and tomorrow’s sunshine would heat it. I’d just lain on my bed for a nap when there was a knock on my door. Groaning, I reached into my pocket to grab my astrolabe so I could see who it was. Then I remembered that my astrolabe was back on Earth. Broken, probably left in the dirt when I’d been shot.
“Who’s there?” I said.
“Open the door,” Haifa said.
I smiled and said, “Open.”
Haifa stood there grinning at me and behind her stood Mwinyi, who wasn’t grinning at all. “Saw him in the lobby and assumed he was coming up here. I decided to show him the way.”
“I’ve been here twice already,” Mwinyi said, cracking a small smile.
“Okay, I just wanted to walk with you,” she said, batting her eyes flirtatiously at him. “You seemed lonely.” From the moment Haifa had set eyes on Mwinyi, she’d been in “love.”
Mwinyi laughed. “I appreciate the company,” he said, sitting in the wooden chair at my study desk.
Haifa giggled and sat on the bed with me.
“You didn’t tell me you were back,” Mwinyi said.
“I assumed you were busy with all your new friends,” I said with a smirk. “When you had time, you’d come here.”
Where I’d had a hard time making friends since coming to Oomza Uni because people were afraid of Okwu, Mwinyi was a friend magnet. From the moment the university gave him a room in the mostly humanoid dorm beside mine yesterday, despite the fact that he refused to become an Oomza Uni student, he’d been incredibly popular. I was there with him when he entered the dorm. He’d immediately struck up a conversation with the dorm’s elder, a treelike individual who spoke in a series of cracking and creaking sounds. Somehow, Mwinyi was able to understand it. I watched him relax and give that intense look and then start to make gestures. This dorm elder liked Mwinyi so much that after introducing Mwinyi to practically everyone on his floor, it and several others stayed in Mwinyi’s room to help him set up and just to “talk.” I’d ended up quietly saying goodbye and heading to my dorm. From the start, I saw that people of all kinds were simply attracted to him.
“What’d they tell you?” he asked.
Haifa looked at me and yet again, I felt my nakedness. I glanced at my jar of still-stewing otjize and wanted to groan. One more day. Hopefully.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I muttered.
Haifa laughed. “I’m just glad you’re back,” she said. “Even the Bear said she missed you.”
“No she didn’t,” I said, rolling my eyes. “The Bear doesn’t like anyone.”
The Bear lived in one of the rooms down the hall. She was mostly bushy brown hair. The Bear and I didn’t speak much, but we often sat side by side on one of the large couches in the main room. We’d always shared a quiet bond. I imagined she understood one’s need to be covered.
“The Bear was the first to ask me why you’d left for break instead of staying with all of us. She wondered if you didn’t like us.”
“After we went into the desert that night? Of course, I like you both!”
“Binti, what’d they say?” Mwinyi insisted.
“I’m okay, Mwinyi,” I said. “I can move five miles from New Fish on land and she can fly about seven miles high.”
Before I even finished saying this, Mwinyi slumped in his chair with relief. I laughed. He stood up suddenly and then seemed unsure of what to do next, as he looked at Haifa and me on the bed. Haifa looked from me to Mwinyi and back to me. Her eyebrows rose. “Oh!” she said. She looked at me and pointed at Mwinyi. I nodded.
“You could have told me,” she said, smirking.
“I just got back yesterday. There’s a lot I have to tell you.”
Haifa got up.
“Tomorrow… do you and the Bear want to come with me to see the Falls?” I asked her. I turned to Mwinyi, “You too, and Okwu. I’ve been meaning to see them since I came here but never had the time.” I didn’t say the rest of what I was thinking, which was, Better see them while I can. You never know tomorrow.
Haifa kissed me on the cheek. “Of course. It’ll be a good homecoming thing for us. I know the Bear will. She loves the Falls with all those colors.”
“Mwinyi?” I asked.
He nodded.
“I hope you all don’t mind that we’ll have to fly there in New Fish instead of taking the shuttle.”
Haifa beamed and clapped her hands. “Yes! Everyone will be so jealous. You do know that everyone in this dorm has wanted a ride on your ship since you got here, right?”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes,” Mwinyi and Haifa both said. Then they laughed.
When the door shut behind Haifa, Mwinyi turned to me. “What else did they tell you?”
“I don’t really want to talk about it right now, okay?” I said.
He came across the room to me. I looked down, trying to avoid his eyes. He took my chin and lifted my face. “Are you alright?” he asked. As I looked into his eyes, I felt all my defenses relax. Looking into his eyes was like being a mirror who was looking into another mirror. Universes.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I said.
“Everything is going to be fine,” he repeated.
He stepped closer, paused, then closer. He took me in his arms and slowly I relaxed and then finally lay my head on his shoulder, turning my head to his bushy hair. Somehow, he still smelled like the desert. I kissed him on the neck and soon found my way to his lips.
We forgot ourselves for a while.
CHAPTER 14
Shape Shifter
In the morning, I sat at the windowsill with my jar of otjize in my lap.
The first sun had just risen, shining its lush yellow light into my room. I tilted my damp face toward it, enjoying the warmth as I leaned against the wall. My okuoko were wet from the long shower I’d taken, but they dried quickly in the morning light. The transparent blue flesh that they were remained soft once dry, it never grew chapped like my skin when I didn’t apply otjize. I opened my eyes and they fell on the two large stones I’d had New Fish pluck from Saturn’s ring.
After digging them out of the crevice I’d had New Fish hide them in, letting the ice encasing parts of them melt off, I’d brought the stones to my room and spent several minutes examining them. I’d tasted them and indeed they had the same tang as the salt from Undying trees and god stone. Then I decided to test for what I suspected by treeing and called up a complex current. Splitting the current into a treelike shape, I laid it over each stone and watched how the network of current sank through it with control and ease. I smiled widely. Not only would I use these stones to carve out each intricate dial, womb, rete, star pointer, plate, and circuit board, but the astrolabe I would build would be like no astrolabe any Himba has ever made.