‘Oh, we'll have to enquire if that's possible,' said Sean with a very serious expression.
‘Sean!' his wife chided him. And then he laughed, giving her an affectionate kiss on the cheek, and grinned at Marmion and Namid.
‘As if we dared take Namid away from his educational duties with Petaybee!' Then he pointed. 'Ah, the best is about to begin.’
After the custom of latchkay singings on Petaybee, Buneka Rourke accompanied Diego Metaxos to the dais.
‘Diego has a song to sing,' she said with more than her customary dignity and the assembled Petaybeans settled down to listen.
Diego's song was different from any other Petaybean song. It was neither a chant nor an old Irish melody with new words but a tune all his own, with Irish and Spanish influences and the beat of the Inuit as well, but also hints of the music of the other peoples of Petaybee and parts beyond. It spoke of growth and change, pain and discovery, the pain that had accompanied the awakening of the planet, the near-death of his father, the actual deaths of others, the cost of too much change too quickly to Petaybee, but how good a thing the change could be if it altered someone as it had Dinah O'Neill. And lastly, it spoke of his fear of change if it meant losing Bunny. He concluded with a hope that he could be like the planet and let the changes awaken himself and his beloved to lives limitless in possibility for adventure and love.
There was a chorus to this song, with its repetitive theme of change and growth, and on every chorus, the voices of the people were joined by another voice, a big, melodious, joyous voice that contained all of theirs in a resonance of its own.
The 'around' echoed particularly long and happily throughout the rest of the latchkay.
Epilogue
Oddly enough it was the word 'come' invading her dreamless sleep as an undeniable imperative that woke Yana. And, the rumbling purr of the orange cat, Marduk, unexpectedly sitting right beside her head on the pillow. She felt the muscles in her belly shifting, not painfully, but definitely contracting, and she woke Sean. The cat jumped off the bed and stood imperiously by the door - as if she hadn't guessed what needed to be done.
‘It's time. I've been called,' she said. He was up and half dressed before she could swing her legs to the side of the bed. But then, advanced pregnancy had slowed her once quick precise movements to awkward rumblings which she sometimes resented.
Sean grabbed up the fine polar bear rug that Loncie had given her and threw it about her shoulders. He picked up the satchel which contained the necessary items and opened the door.
Nanook was there and Clodagh had her foot on the bottom step.
‘I wondered…' she began, smiling in the dawnlight up at Yana.
When Yana and Sean reached the ground - the path to the cave well trampled in preparation for this moment - Clodagh moved to her other side. 'Do you feel like walking?' Clodagh asked.
‘It's good for me.’
‘Yes, but is it what you feel like doing?’
‘Well, I have to walk as far as the cave, don't I?’
‘Yes,' Sean said. 'That you must do.’
Looking sideways, Yana saw that Sean's lips were tight against the anxiety he was feeling.
‘It's OK, Sean,' she said gently, patting his hand. 'It's really OK. Hell, we know I've never been fitter.’
‘But you are not, so Sister Iggierock says, in your first youth.’
‘Iggierock has learnt a great deal,' Clodagh said with a chuckle.
And then they were in the cave which began to glow, a soft lambent one, welcoming, soothing and the little twitch of apprehension which Yana had so vocally denied eased.
I believe in you, she told the planet. I believe in you.
‘Yes, believe,' the planet said.
‘Oh, I believe,' Sean said beside her since he must have thought the planet was speaking to him.
They reached the spot that had been previously picked and the bedding and other necessities were there. They had no need of the extra lights, for the cavern was radiant.
Clodagh helped Yana slip out of her flannel nightgown and then the first of the strong contractions caught her.
‘Breathe as you've been taught,' Clodagh said, waiting until the contraction had eased before she led Yana to the water's edge.
Sean dived in and broke the water as a selkie, came to the two women, both of whom were now in the warm comfort of the water. Yana slipped down into it, found the ledge that seemingly had been created to cushion her while Clodagh made herself secure just below Yana.
The mist began to rise then, but only on the ground behind them. Yana inhaled deeply of the scented, comforting moist air. The next contraction was harder, yet she didn't feel it as 'hard' only as a working of muscles. She could relax. Petaybee was all around her, and her husband was as he wished to be at this propitious moment in his life, this miraculous moment of hers, and Clodagh would see to everything healing as she always did.
A furred face stroked hers from out of the mist and she laughed when she realized it was Nanook - yes, and there was Marduk, too, and the gods knew how many more purring mightily in the cave for it echoed of 'purr'.
Another massive contraction which Yana, for one second apprehensive, thought much too soon in a normal delivery. Then she found herself wanting to push and panted as she'd been taught.
‘It's much too soon for this stage,' she said between pantings.
‘Well, you never know,' Clodagh said comfortingly. 'We've been here longer than you might realize.’
‘But we… just… got… here.' Clodagh chuckled again and then was very busy, between Yana's legs underwater. The water itself was bright, so Yana was able to view her upheld legs on Clodagh's shoulders and know that the woman was submerged. Sean's furred flipper-hand was on her knee and then a mighty convulsion and Clodagh came up out of the water, holding her hands up and Yana saw a silvery furred baby body in the capable palms.
‘Your son, Shongili,' Clodagh cried and the cats gave voice to the most musical caterwaul possible, sounds not generally considered feline or musical but were a voluntary of welcome.
‘Oh my god,' and Yana's body wanted to repeat its previous confusion.
A naked furry wet body was thrust into Yana's hands as Clodagh ducked under the water again while Yana, consumed with a second mighty pushing, realized she was delivering a second selkie child.
‘How did that happen?' she exclaimed as Clodagh surfaced with yet another squirming baby, this one already squalling at its lack of precedence.
‘You've a fine family all in the one go,' Clodagh said, water sheeting off her smiling face.
‘Did you know I'd be having twins?' Yana exclaimed, half of her appalled that that information had been withheld while the other half of her was marvelling at the perfection of her selkie son who, minutes old as he was, was already altering his form to human now he was out of the water.