Chapter 2: Birthing Season and the Significance of the 16th Spring

The show resumes as Dr Grimling tells his audience what they are looking at.

“We join the family inside their house. Helen Brown is returning home from her long night of helping the women of the community with their births. She looks weary from her seasonal work, but smiles as she enters the house and sees all four of her children relaxing and not fighting.

“I’m home!” Helen calls out coming in the front door.

“Hi mom.” “Hey.” are said from two of the four. Jim doesn’t call out, he simply runs to his mother for a hug. “Momma!!”

Helen scoops her baby into her arms, and kisses his cheek as he wiggles and giggles in his arms.

She puts him down and then heads in to kiss her other three kids.

“MOM!” Kyle groans as his mother tries to kiss his cheek. “I’m too old for that thing.” he says, wiping her kiss off of his cheek.

“You are never too old for a kiss from your mother.” She says to him and gives him another kiss on the cheek just for good measure.

She goes around and kisses the other two, then ends up sitting next to Kara after giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Mom, what are we having for dinner?” Kyle asks.

“I don’t know. I cooked last night and after the day that I’ve had, I’m too tired to think. Why don’t you have some of the food left over from last night?” Helen said, as she relaxed on the big padded seats big enough for multiple people.

“What she is resting on is called a couch by Helen’s people. It is a wide, padded, bench with a high back, arms rests and large enough for several people. I have not yet had a chance to use one, but when I return home, I am going to try and have one made. They look very comfortable.” Dr Grimling said as an image of a couch is shown to everyone at home.

“Ok mom.” Kyle said then went back to reading on her mobile communication device.

After a bit, Helen gets up and leaves the room, Kara follows her to the kitchen.

“Mom, can I talk to you?” Kara asks and Helen immediately stops and turns to face her daughter.

“What is it honey?”

“Um, some of the girls in my class were talking about our 16th spring... “ she said, then stopped looking down, searching for the right words. “What can you tell me about the festival?”

Helen steps closer to her daughter, puts a hand on her arm and looks into her face very concerned about what she is going to talk about.

“What do you want to know honey?”

“What’s it like? What goes on there? Will I enjoy it?” she started to ask as more and more questions fell from her mouth overwhelming her mother with worries of the upcoming event that marks her turn from child to adult.

Helen pulls Kara into a hug and rubs her back. “Oh honey.” she says gently while rubbing her back.

After a moment or two, Kara pulls back and looks at her mother. “Mom, you’ve been going to festival for my entire life, what is it like?”

“Kara, before I answer that question, what do you know about how babies are made?”

Kara sighs, frustrated that she has to answer questions. “A boy puts his thingie into a girl and fertilizes the seed that girls carry in their bodies. Nine months later, a baby is born.”

Helen smiles at her daughter’s very innocent but technically correct answer. “Well yes, that is correct. How often can a girl become with child? How often are girls able to have their seen fertilized?”

“Just once a year.”

“Ok, so when does that happen?” Helen continued to talk to her daughter, holding her and talking gently to her, walking her through the process of mating while the cameras in the room record everything they are talking about.

Kara looked at her mother, then down to the floor, “Just once a year, as the snow is melting and before the plants start to grow is what some of my science books said.”

“And when is festival?”

Then Kara made the connection, and her face took on the look of surprise as her eyebrows went up and her mouth fell open. “In the spring after the snow has melted and just before the plants to grow. NO?! Mom, is that what festival is all about? Getting your, my, seed fertilized?”

“Yes honey, it is.” Helen said to a stunned daughter, who withdrew from her mother’s hug and chewed at her nail processing all of this information.

“But, me ... a baby? Am I old enough? I don’t know anything about raising kids. How am I going to finish school? Will I be able to find a mate?” So many questions ran out of her mouth as she paced the room.

Helen moved to her daughter and put an arm around her shoulders and then led her out of the kitchen and into the big bedroom where Helen and Kovac slept. The sat on the bed and Helen talked.