Author: Jordan Emilson

“Make sure it has a name” Werner whispered to the darkened figure beside him, looming over the crib. In the blackness the room appeared in two dimensions: his, and the one his wife and child existed in across the floor. Her head turned, or at least it appeared to him as such in the darkness.

“I think I already have one”, she whispered. “Opal, after my grandmother”. The baby cooed softly in seeming reply, a gesture that both Werner and the woman took in with a smile.

“I never wanted a child.” Werner rose from his chair and approached the crib. “Funny how life presents itself with such odd…opportunity.” The last word came out with an exaggerated drawl.

He reached down with a pronged hand and stroked the child’s chin. Peaches, he thought, she reminded him of peaches. The thin, fuzzy skin flushed with shades of red and orange. The plump flesh pushing through from behind a thin veneer. It was one of the delicacies that he most valued of Earth.

“Not yet, honey.” His wife’s hand rested upon his wrist, pausing his longing strokes of Opal’s cheek. “We’ll eat soon.”