Mi Mama

Participants:

delilah_icon.gif tania_icon.gif

Scene Title Mi Mama
Synopsis Delilah makes a point of meeting one of the new additions, and Tania meets the alien.
Date August 25, 2010

The Sweat Lodge

The Sweat Lodge is a safehouse with a number of interesting features. Among them: 60's architecture, bright pastel colors, kitchen magnets, peeling floors, rounded corners, and a small chapel where peaceful, Christianity-based Evolved superiority thinking (cultists, to be crass) is quietly preached. An unusually high number of Moab Federal Penitentiary ex-convicts live and operate out of there, and several Ferrymen operate out of the local block.

The Sweat Lodge itself was formerly more of a supply facility, and run by an operator named Felicity until ex-con David McRae took over in the spring of 2009. Felicity has since moved in full-time to look after children and assist in cooking, cleaning, etc.


Sitting on a bench just outside the Sweat Lodge, there's an unfamiliar face. Young, thin and delicate looking, the girl sits cross legged with a book in hand. And she does seem to feel she belongs there, as there's a certain ease in her posture. The door to the inside stands open and a few of the children can be seen running to and fro every now and again, but this girl, somewhere in her mid-teens, doesn't seem to feel the urge to join in whatever games they have going.

Delilah makes a point of introducing herself to others as often as she can; teenagers happen to be those she does her best to see. Often, they are here for such odd or terrible reasons- Delilah usually can offer herself as someone to talk to, for them. She always seems to be walking that fine line between adult and young adult.

Entering the barrio-like neighborhood is less trouble for her than it could be; the trust of children goes a long way. In fact, she is fielding questions from a girl no older than nine when she comes to the walk out in front of the Lodge. The little latina is talking in mixed English up to her, bold with one hand patting at Delilah's distended belly, covered at current by a long skirt and shirt, the latter being printed with Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'.

"Mi mama, she is getting one too-"
"Oh? Is she?"
"Ella es pequena-"
Delilah has picked up enough to know that the girl talks about something being small- and she rightfully assumes it is about her next sibling's hiding place.

The voices do get Tania's attention, and she lifts her gaze from her book to look toward Delilah. There's a certain amount of wariness in that gaze, like she's not sure who is safe to trust. Which might give her away as one of those teens here for an odd reason. She doesn't interrupt, but she does glance back toward the Lodge, just making sure other people are around. But her gaze swings back to Delilah again, while her fingers turn a page on her book that she hasn't actually read yet.

Delilah and the little girl exchange a few more short words, and the last exchange is Dee putting a hand to the girl's dark hair before they move apart with little waves. When the redhead turns back towards the Lodge, it is with a pause to take it in, and the thin girl sitting at the front.

"Hello? Are you Katya?" Delilah takes a few steps forward to greet the girl, before she is able to start reading the next page. "I heard you've just come over." The older girl makes sure to ensure more clarity in her words than usual, for the benefit of if Katya still has English to learn.

Eyebrows lift as that particular name is spoken, and Tania nods her head and seems to relax some. "Yes, that is me. You are… a friend of Mister McRae?" It may be a surprise, but her English seems pretty solid, although her accent tints it heavily. So very Russian. "Would you like to sit?" She says, gesturing to the rest of the bench. She doesn't take up much of it.

"A friend of a friend is a friend, as much a one as I can be. He's such an old mutt I can't tell if he likes me at all. Most people seem to though." Sitting down carefully onto the bench near- deliberately a bit of seat down from- Tania, brown eyes turn over to examine the new face. "I'm Delilah. I work here and there, where I'm needed. I heard there was a new girl, so I came over to introduce myself. I know no teenager is different, but I guess there is a lot to be found in peers."

"It is nice to meet you," Tania says as she closes the book to set on her lap and offers a hand over for a shake. "And congratulations?" she adds, as if uncertain, with a nod toward Delilah's stomach. "I only arrived a few days ago. But they have been very kind here."

Delilah takes the offered hand in her own, nodding and smiling. "They tend to be. And this is a friendly place as any. Are you planning to see the city soon, or are you going to settle down here for a while first?" She is more subconscious in her arm around the side of her middle, only noting it when Tania points it out to hesitantly congratulate. "Oh, yes. Thank you! It was an accident, actually- but it happens. I'm glad for it now though."

"I… believe I will be here for a little while. On the island. Settle in." Tania smiles a little, an expression as delicate and subdued as the rest of her. "Not all accidents are bad, yes? We learn this sometimes. How much longer do you have left?" She hasn't been around enough pregnant women to be able to tell. This may actually be her first!

"When you're feeling up to getting around, I'll be happy to show you a bit of it? Still a big place, I know most of the tamer neighborhoods too." Not that this does not mean shit happens. The Russian girl is subdued, whereas Delilah is so clearly not. "Getting around to seven months now. Been taking its toll on me this summer. So god-awful hot. I've never done t.his before." She doesn't quite finish, rubbing her palm over her stomach and laughing to herself.

"That would be nice. It is… very big. Very busy. I am not used to it." Katya, as she's calling herself, smiles a little bit there, and nods, "I will ask Mister McRae when would be a good time." She tilts her head a bit, curiosity showing a bit on her features. "Does it move? I always think… it must feel very strange. Do you know if it will be boy or girl?"

"It does feel strange, actually. I'm getting used to it. It's gonna be a boy, for sure, even have the ultrasound to prove it. He started moving pretty early, I could feel it before he kicked hard enough that other people felt it. Still at it. Fighting dragons and what not." As Walters are apt to do. Delilah is grinning by now, motioning to her bump and Tania in turn. "Do you want to feel? He acts up a little more when I'm sitting down. I wonder if that means he won't be lazy? Hm."

"Fighting dragons?" Tania says with a hint of a laugh in her voice. When the offer is made, the girl blinks a moment before she reaches out to lay a gentle hand on Delilah's stomach. "Perhaps it means he is already planning a lifetime of not letting his mother have a moment to rest," she says with a crooked smile. But she looks up at Delilah and cants her head a bit, "I will really be able to feel him from out here?"

"If he wants to kick, yeah. It'll be a riot in there these next couple months. I hope I get a moment to rest- but I think you'd be right. I remember what I was like, and then I found out from the father's mother what he was like…" Delilah lifts a hand to her forehead, suddenly looking bewildered as she pushes her bangs back. "I'll be lucky if he hasn't sailed a stolen sailboat to cross the Atlantic and liberate some African nation by the time he is six." Something like that.

True to her word, the baby does make some fluttering kicks down below, though it takes a few moments and is perhaps helped by Mum massaging her own side.

"Trouble is passed down, no?" Tania smiles as she goes on, and she remarks, "It would be good to teach him how to swim early, just in case." When the baby kicks, Tania jerks a little, like she had forgotten what it was she was waiting for. And then something is muttered in Russian that sounds sort of surprised. Pleasantly, though!

"I know he'll be a waterbaby too. Sicilians are half-island I suppose." Delilah laughs when Tania starts, apparently shocked by the wiggling actually proving itself. "There it is, huh? I bet it feels like being in …some alien movie, to everyone else. Things moving around on the inside of other people. Hopefully he doesn't actually come bursting out."

"It feels like… You know I am not sure what it feels like. But that must be very… it must be a good feeling, for you." Tania brings her hand back to her lap, shaking her head a bit. It's all very strange! "Only if you have… ah… Cesarean? Cesarean birth."

"Hopefully not. Though in that big-" Dee waves her hands at the air, vague. "-vision thing that happened over here, I saw the birth go fine." She doesn't get specific, unless Tania has no idea what she is talking about. "It is a good feeling. One I wasn't nearly ready for, but good anyway. I'll say it once, I'll say it a million times."

Tania does, in fact, look lost at the mention of the vision. She seems to debate asking or not, but in the end, she leans in a little to whisper. "Vision? Like a dream?"

Oh. She doesn't. Delilah smiles, toning down if just for Tania's sake. "During the summer there was an incident here in the city. Someone with an ability caused a lot of people to black out. We saw different moments from a date in our future. If the cards play like they did, he'll be born on November eighth."

Looking wide-eyed for that news, Tania looks up and around a bit as if something might start up again right this moment. "You saw the future? Everyone? People must have been… so scared," the girl says, her brow furrowed for a moment. "Who would do such a thing to so many?"

"It was pretty damn scary, what with people crashing cars and buses, that sort of thing. Let's just say that where there are heroes, there are always going to be villains. Bottom line. I think lately we outnumber'em in determination." Delilah winks once and crooks her smile.


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