Child of Hades

8. Real (Brielle)

Money. I was seated in an interplanetary bus of the lower-class type. It was strange. The terms of my contract were clear, but leaving Lukra felt like a dream.

The gravity-regulators on the bus were not very good. I had to hold on to my seat, to prevent floating. Cheap travel. I had gotten used to this nausea a long time ago.

There is an old Tharoan saying: The more material luxuries you enjoy, the more you give away from yourself to the world. Being Tharoan to the core of my being, I quite prefer cheap travel.

For the first time in years, I had put on the clothes I was wearing when I first arrived in Lukra. Green and brown, simple but real. Every dream I had had when I first came here had come true. Several years had passed.

I cared about the son and the mother. Lukrain people think they are rich but they are lonely. How would Leo cope with his situation?

I had saved up a lot of money and was quite excited to return to Tharo. Even so, the nostalgia when looking out of the window back to Lukra was intense. I wiped a tear off my cheek.

Money. It had been so long since I had last felt the need to worry about money at all. Many of my nieces and nephews were approaching working-age.

It took a few hours before the bus finally arrived in Tharo. I took my luggage and made my way outside. My sister Naha was already waiting for me there. I was very happy to see her, but also surprised that my other sister Habakka was not there with her. We hugged shortly and then hurried to catch a taxi. I had not seen a car in years. The stink was horrible but I smiled and sat down next to my sister. "Where is Habakka?", I asked.

My sister caught me up on everyone that had died in our neighborhood during my absence, and also on everyone that had been born. After Habakkas death, our community had struggled to make ends meet.

Naha and I discussed which one of her children may be suitable for finding a job, and also where. She was considering sending her oldest daughter, Yoela, to the fields. It is an honor to work in the fields, and it is an honor to have a child working in the fields. Even so, I did not want my niece to work in the fields. The monsoons were very dangerous and she was only 13, and a girl. Boys are preferable for doing this kind of dangerous and physical work.

I had saved up a lot of money, so I insisted not to send Yoela to work just yet.

If I was very lucky, I would get another job opportunity outside of Tharo soon.

Leaving Tharo again, despite all its struggles, would be quite hard. I had missed my sisters every day. Now there was only one left.

People on other planets live longer lives. Their air is cleaner, their weather safer and their main sources of income are not considered criminal by Lukrains. 

If people were willing to pay as much for staying healthy and alive as they are willing to pay to get high, Tharo would have been much better off.

I called the hospital the moment I arrived at my sister's home. She was warming up soup and coffee for me.

Working in a hospital in Tharo, I was not going to do much work with the patients. I spent most of my time mixing up medicines to be sent to other places.

During dinner, I enjoyed talking to my nieces and nephews. I had brought some of Lukras delicacies. My former employer had insisted I take them. She was a good woman. I wanted my family to taste her kindness through the presents. The kids ate the chocolates I brought from Lukra. None of them had ever seen chocolate before and not all of them liked the sweet taste.

With very few resources available, Naha had made soup only for me.

Tharoan vegetable soup may not be appreciated by outsiders, but it filled my heart with great joy to taste it again. When I was a kid, I had never imagined traveling outside of Tharo. Monsoon winds, tents, cars, and friendly smiles and games were all I had known. Now that I was back home, I tasted the memories on my tongue like the sweetest of delicacies.