It was now well past noon, Zava estimated; she did not know how long days were on this planet compared to hers; she had never thought to ask Mark about such things. Boredom, loneliness and worry made time seem to have slowed to a crawl.
She also did not know, but was now discovering, that one could be cold and get sunburnt at the same time. A chill wind kept blowing from the sea, making her shiver. The sun was curiously low in the horizon; it had stopped climbing a while ago and was now declining; Zava estimated it was about 30 degrees at its highest, earlier, instead of reaching an overhead position as in her hometown. She wondered what season this was, as Mark had told her in his land they had four, but her town had only the dry and wet ones. She did not know if the Earth’s sun was more potent, or the atmosphere thinner, as she was not getting much warmer, but somehow the light stung a lot in her exposed skin, being specially annoying on her face.
For a while, as she lay on her back, she had covered her eyes, forehead and nose from the stinging sunlight with her hands, squirming uncomfortably. Then some of the soldiers nearby cried out to her.
“Humm…. Lady?”
When she turned to the side, to her surprise, she saw two soldiers had brought her a white tarp, very similar to one of their tents, probably a spare from their own. She smiled at them and very slowly, so they were not startled, reached out for it and carefully took it out of their hands, thanking them. At her smile and words, they smiled back nervously at her, recoiling a little from her big hand. She put the tarp, which reeked lightly of mildew, on her face. It barely covered it, but at least she could protect her eyes, nose and lips. Her chin was still exposed, though, as was her abdomen, legs and arms.
It looked like her attempts at conversation with the troops guarding her had not been completely unsuccessful, judging from this unexpected kindness. One soldier had told her that they had not been expressly been ordered not to talk to her, but his and his companions’ nervous glances at the command tent said that they knew they could get in trouble for it, so she desisted, mostly.
By the way, she thought… it’s been a while since I last saw the colonel and the other little people in charge. Last time she saw them was when they had brought her lunch. It consisted of several crates of a yellowish-red fruit, roughly the size of a little people’s fist, which they called ‘apples’, according to the soldiers who brought her the crates.
It was not until she saw the food that she realized she was famished. She sat up, legs crossed and faced the people who brought her the food.
She tried to eat the little fruits daintily, but she soon got frustrated with their small size, which made it difficult to pinch them between her fingers without squishing them into mush, so she gave up the pretense of being a lady and instead taking the crate with one hand she upturned it into the other and then emptied her hand at her upturned mouth, to munch at them all. She noticed, sheepishly, that everyone around had stopped what they were doing to stare at her, slack jawed, as she did short work of all the crates with the apples. Then they brought her about two dozen small hog-like animals roasted on spits, which she also consumed very quickly. After this, they brought several cauldrons of broth.
She discovered the broth had some kind of very fine yellowish threads inside, which a soldier, laughing at her question, had called ‘pasta’. Finally, they gave her several boxes filled with many small loafs of a sweet bread. After these were gone, still hungry, she looked around hopefully for more, but it seemed that was all, except for a few plastic kegs of a bitter brew, ‘kophee’, which she tried but did not like at all. She was too self-conscious to ask for more, lest they thought her an insatiable monster, but she could not help feeling a little grumpy with yet another source of uncomfortableness, compounded by the fact that she did not have her toothbrush, and she suspected that it, and a warm bath, were going to be long in coming, judging by appearances.
She then had decided to turn her back to the people and face the sea, legs crossed, elbows propped on her thighs, her chin supported on her hands. She was feeling more than a little sullen after the paltry meal and the wholly unpleasant situation, but did not want to show it. She looked down at her now very grimy clothes with distaste. Certainly I’m not in the mood to talk to anyone, right now. She remained like that for a while, until she decided to lay back again, to try to warm herself with the sun. A while passed, and it was then that the soldiers brought her the tarp. She just laid there, praying for some sleep, when…
“Zava?”
She sat upright and got on her knees so quickly that the soldiers around her scampered away, alarmed. The tarp on her face was sent flying and her carbon bracelets got suddenly much heavier, pining her hands to the ground. Did I just imagine that? She turned around, her heart lurching in her chest, struggling to lift her hand to grasp at her earring, the one with the earpiece. Was it his voice?
Her breath caught as she saw Mark getting out of the command tent,. It IS him!!! , trailed by some soldiers, McAllister, the female doctor and a slim, long-haired blonde she had not seen before. He was quite smartly dressed, and as soon as he caught her eye she heard him say her name again in the earpiece, and then he started to walk faster, and then dashed towards her at full pelt, kicking his shoes off. Obviously, nobody expected that, and some soldiers, alarmed, got hold of their weapons, looking at McAllister, who waved them back, unconcerned.
Mark covered the field between them in a few seconds. Zava was stunned, hands flying to cover her mouth, barely holding herself back from springing forward, very conscious of the armed automatons, and the gravity cuffs. As Mark got near her, she set both hands on the ground in front of her, palms up. Mark hopped on them and she scooped him up, lifting him to her mouth to cover him with kisses as she stood to her feet in a pirouette, laughing, barely feeling the tug of the gravity bracelets. They both were laughing, she could feel his tiny, strong arms trying to hug what he could hold of her face. But as she held him in front of her, to look at his so beloved face, she saw, taken aback, tears running down his face.
“I thought I had lost you, Zav”, he said, voice trembling. Indeed, she could feel his whole body shaking in her fingers. She was shaking, too, and her eyes welled as she saw his tears, for the first time ever.
“I knew you would find me” said Zava, beaming at him… “I knew you would”. Then, acting on an impulse, she turned towards the crowd of onlookers, and holding Mark aloft with both hands, as a trophy, she cried, loudly:
“We’re together again!!!” A cheering roar of approval and claps rippled through the crowd. She then lowered Mark, covering him again with kisses as she waved at the multitude of people, being waved back by hundreds of tiny arms. Mark said, abruptly, in a low whisper, as she rained affection on him:
“Zava, when you look at the crowd, try to face a dark green car with a blue and red flag tied to a pole. They’re part of our ticket out of here” she quickly, discreetly located the flag and the truck with her piercing eyes. It had a long, protruding antenna and what looked like a camera on top of a pole, as well.
“How are we going to get out of this, babe” whispered Zava from between her teeth. “I don’t want to be kept here in this field a second longer… please don’t leave me here alone” she pleaded, squeezing Mark almost too hard to her bosom, before holding him in front of her again with both hands.
“Don’t worry, Zav, not going to leave you now nor ever. We’re on my turf now. Just trust me and be prepared to do as I say when I say it”. Said Mark, confidently. “But first… remember what I said about facing the crowd and please put me in your left hand, palm facing up. I need to stand up for what I’m going to do”.
She held her left hand, palm up, in front of her breasts and set him on it, looking down at him expectantly, as she tried to unobtrusively change her stance to face the green van with the camera. With her right hand she put her hair behind her ears.
First Mark stood up, and she saw him press lightly at his own earpiece. But just as soon he dropped one knee to her palm and held up his hands. She looked down at him, uncomprehending for an instant, but then reached out with the pinkie of her right hand, which Mark took between both of his, squeezing it lovingly.
“Zava, love. I have been meaning to do this almost since we started living together, but was waiting for the appropriate time, which given our situation never seemed to come. I see now that I waited too long and almost missed my chance. I do not want to take that risk again. You’re the most amazing, brave, beautiful and adorable woman in this or any Earth. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to share the days of my life with you, knowing that you love me back a twelvefold. I want more, though. I do not want to keep our love a secret any longer. I want it to be known all over the whole wide world, I want everyone to know that Zava Casafus and Mark Wilson are together for ever. Will you be my wife, Zava?”
“Yes!” She immediately shot back hoarsely, without a microsecond’s hesitation, choking with emotion as the moment she thought was impossible had finally come. She forgot she was in an alien planet, surrounded by a host of tiny people that barely made it to her ankles. She forgot she was a prisoner in fetters, guarded by armed automatons, that she was barefoot, barely clad, hungry, grungy and cold. Then, an instant later, with a firmer voice, which reverberated over the crowd, she cried: “Yes, I will”. Her eyes were deep pools of resolve.
They could not see nor hear colonel McAllister displaying again his lopsided grin, as he looked at the scene and muttered:
“Well played, son… well played”