The Exchange,

Chapter 3
The exchange part 3

Chapter Description: Sandra meets some new friends

The minute Anya stepped out of their door Sandra felt different, within mere seconds she was feeling sleepy and light headed. Sandra looked at her surroundings as Anya walked with her strapped to the baby carrier on her chest. It looked more like an office block, or a hospital, there were loads of closed doors down a long straight corridor, harsh lighting overhead, it all looked official and efficient, some of the doors had notices on them, but Sandra realised to her dismay that the words looks unrecognisable, they represented symbols she had never seen on earth. She really was going to have to learn to read all over again. Sandra suddenly realised she felt excitement at that thought, tackling such a task would be challenging yet rewarding. She wondered how long it would be before she’d be allowed to read.

"The writing over there." Sandra pointed at the nearest door they passed with a notice on it.

"What does it say?"

Anyas hands came into view and gently ruffled Sandras hair. "Yes that’s right sweetie, we’re going for a walk, I’m going to take you to see the pretty birdies"

"Wha?....Pretty...Birds?"

Sandra couldn’t bring herself to call them birdies, it just sounded too childish. It suddenly dawned on her that Anya could no longer understand what she was saying and annoyed at her sudden inability to communicate, Sandra fell silent and pouted. They turned down one corridor then another. Sandra noticed they hadn’t bumped into anyone. How big was the ship? How many passengers did it hold, why was there gravity if they were in space. So many questions that she would have to wait to be answered.

Suddenly they stopped and Anya pressed a button on a wall. An invisible door opened and Anya stepped into the small box sized room, the doors whooshed closed and all of a sudden Sandra felt the motion of moving up, at speed. Must be an elevator she surmised. Anya hummed soothingly as the lift shot ever upwards, soon the feeling of movement slowed and the doors opened. Sandra gasped at what she saw.

Trees as high as she could see, thick with lush green foliage, A stream ran by, the water looking crisp and cool and clean, there were open areas amongst the trees with benches to sit on, a few of them were occupied by other people chatting, some people were sat on picnic blankets, there were even a few children running around splashing about and giggling. The whole scene was so vibrant and full of energy. Sandra squealed happily from the feeling of elation she got from the scene and clapped her hands. Then shook her head angry that she had reacted in such a childish way. She didn’t have a second to really reflect on what she had done as Anyas hands came and plucked Sandra out of the baby carrier, and looked her in the eyes. Anya was smiling broadly and Sandra felt herself matching the grin despite her anger a moment ago.

"I knew you’d like this place. Its my favourite part of the ship. Just wait until you see the birdies, I know you’ll love them, we have such a variety of wildlife here, there’s so many things I want you to see."

Instead of putting Sandra back in the carrier, Anya carried her in her arms, they walked out of the lift and had been heading over to a bench when Anya suddenly gasped and changed direction heading over to where two people were sitting on a blanket chatting to one another. They both stopped talking and looked up as Anya approached. Both smiled happily as they realised who was approaching them.

Sandra looked at the two people, a mix of fear and curiosity. One was a woman, wearing black combat trousers and a tank top, she had short cropped black hair, dark brown eyes, she was slimmer and had more muscle than Anya, and she had a tribal looking tattoo going across the right hand side of her face. The other occupier of the blanket was a man, stockily built, wearing similar black combat trousers but his t-shirt had been taken off and was laying beside him, he had long shaggy blond hair, he too sported a similar tattoo down the right side of his face. he had an easy lopsided smile. Sandra instantly liked these people, she didn’t even know their names but she could feel that they were good. it was an odd sensation to feel from a woman who barely trusted her own work colleagues that she had spent the last 8 years working alongside. To suddenly trust these people after being in their vicinity for two minutes made no sense to her at all.

Anya spoke warmly.

"Daniel, Eliza, good morning. how are you both I haven’t seen you in ages?"

Daniel grinned at sandra then turned his attention to Anya

"We’re good, just enjoying the morning before we have to go on duty, is that her then" He pointed to Sandra, Eliza quickly elbowed him in the side.

"Don’t be so dumb, of course that’s Anyas charge, she wouldn’t be carrying around some other exchange student, you idiot."

Anya chuckled as she sat down on the blanket and plopped Sandra down in her lap, suddenly without warning Sandra wet herself. She had no inclination that it was about to happen she just suddenly felt her nappy getting warmer and warmer, she was mortified and quickly tears came to her eyes she looked down at the blanket, trying to hide her distress in front of these people. Distractedly she grabbed at her left bootie, trying to distract herself from the unpleasant warm and wet sensation. Anya hadn’t noticed.

"This is Sandy, she became aware this morning so....."

Daniel cut in. "Aware?! Already? But.."

Anya continued to talk ignoring her friend. "...yes... I told her I’d take her for a tour of the ship. She’s been such a good little girl" Sandra noticed the pride in Anyas voice as she spoke, but Sandra was now sitting in a nappy soaked in her own urine, how could anyone be proud of that? She wasn’t sure she liked being talked about when she was sitting right here with them. She wasn’t stupid. Daniel was looking at her with a strong concentrated gaze and she felt herself feeling awkward all of a sudden, like she’d done something wrong.

"I’ve never seen an exchange student so small before." It was Elizas turn to speak, suddenly Sandra was picked up by the armpits and held out to Eliza. "You can hold her if you want to." Sandra dangled there unable to get away. Eliza shook her head. "No its quite alright I’ll just end up dropping her or something, she looks pretty fragile. Sandra heard Anya laugh and Sandra tried to twist round to see her carer but she was being held pretty firmly so was unable to move much. She heard Anya speak though "no, not at all, children this young are actually quite robust. Look she wont bite, well...I don’t think she’ll bite"

Daniel chuckled, "what she means El, is that if you drop her, she’ll bounce" he chuckled some more as Sandra was handed over to Eliza who looked a little distressed at suddenly having to hold this squirming baby.

"Look hold her like this." Anya moved round and helped Eliza hold Sandra so that Eliza found herself cradling Sandra carefully. Sandra in her position could only look up at this new woman. Eliza looked down at sandra with a mix of confusion, interest and horror on her face. "well...err...yeah this is great, although I thought exchange students were a lot less wet than this." Sandras face burned with embarrassment and she suddenly burst into tears, her dummy falling out of her mouth and dropping to the blanket. "Awww sweetie sweetie sweetie, don’t cry, shhhhh shhhhh" Anya had plucked Sandra back from Eliza and was gently rocking her. picking up the dummy and trying to pop it back in Sandras mouth but sandra wasn’t noticing, she was too busy crying. "My goodness you HAVE soaked yourself haven’t you, what a soggy little baby" Anya smiled serenely but Sandra continued to cry, never having felt so humiliated in all her life.

"It’s okay little one, don’t worry, lets get you cleaned up huh" Sandra felt relief, they could go back to their quarters and she would be able to talk to Anya again, and get out of this sodden mess. She still cried but was less intense.

"You guys don’t mind if I change her here do you?" Sandras eyes widened in horror, here? in front of these people? Out in the open like this? No no NO! Anya was already digging around in the white bag she had brought with them, Sandra had to get away, She flopped herself onto the blanket and started to move in the only way she possibly could, she crawled. She could hear Anya chuckling and Sandra hadn’t even reached the end of the blanket before she felt both her little bootied feet grabbed and she was slowly and gently hauled back to Anyas lap and flipped over onto her back so that she was looking up at Anya.

"My my little one, where ever are you going? Are you exploring? Are you?" Anya smiled and tickled Sandras tummy, a small giggle escaped sandra even though she hadn’t wanted to laugh.

"Please don’t change me here, please. lets go back. I want to go back" Sandra sobbed as Anya continued to chuckle and unpop the side poppers of Sandras nappy cover. Whipping it off quickly Anya then unpinned the wet nappy and put it into a plastic bag. "my you’re a little chatterbox today aren’t you, I can’t wait till you start speaking real words, you’re going to be so much fun. " Anya turned her attention to her two friends as she got out some wipes gathered Sandras squirming feet up in one large hand and lifted her so that she could be cleaned up.

"So hows work?"

Eliza shrugged, as she watched Anya clean up her baby "Same old job really, Security detail has been quiet to be honest, but its only a few days into the journey, its normally later in the trip that people start getting tetchy with one another and we start having to really work." Daniel nodded. "yep a couple of months stuck on this space boat has most people going stir crazy." Sandra was still trying to struggle away but Anya hadn’t really noticed as she dusted her baby with talc and slid a disposable nappy under her naked bottom. Sandra just cried, if she’d thought this was going to happen she would have been more adamant about staying in their quarters.

Eliza spoke over Sandras wailing. "How’s it going with you Anya? I mean having that to look after as well as your job, isn’t that going to get hectic?" Anya nodded, "yes it will get fairly tricky later looking after Sandy, but for the first three weeks I have a settling in period, so i’m not actually at work at the moment." Both Eliza and Daniel made a collective "ahhh" noise, as if some question that had been perplexing them had finally been answered. "Yep, its just me and her, for the time being. I feel really blessed. She’s such a bright...." Anya paused as she pulled the attachment tapes of the disposable and fixed them in place...."little girl." With the nappy now firmly fixed on, Anya picked up Sandra and hugged her a little bit trying to calm the still crying baby. "its okay now, clean and dry see, that wasn’t so bad was it." Anya jiggled Sandra up and down gently trying to sooth her, rubbing the baby’s forehead rhythmically trying to comfort Sandra . Sandra was exhausted and distressed by the whole affair and felt her loud wailing slowly subsiding into a whimper and then the occasional sniffle. carefully Sandra placed the pacifier back into Sandras mouth and this time Sandra accepted it. Anya grinned broadly down at her baby. "there we go, shhhhhhh, Shhhhhhh, I made it ALLLL better." Sandra sniffled some more, her heart still pounding heavily in her chest. If the guys back at the office could only see her now, her face flushed crimson again at the mere thought of her boss seeing her in this state, the rhythmic motion of the rocking was beginning to make Sandra tired, Anya had resumed talking to her two friends

"why are you crying?" Sandra heard the voice clear as day. it was a little boys voice, probably five years old at best. She was suddenly wide awake again, and looked around for the boy. She couldn’t see him.

Anya watched Sandra perk up a bit, she felt frustrated that she couldn’t understand her baby, maybe bringing her out this soon had been a bad idea. She placed Sandra down on the blanket, now that her baby had stopped crying. Perhaps they should go back so that sandra could rest.

Sandra looked around feeling confused, the voice had been very close, she looked at Anya and Anya smiled at her. "Did you hear that kid?" Anya ruffled Sandras hair. "Theres a good little girl" Sandra looked around.

"Are you a good little girl?" the boys voice asked again. Sandra couldn’t figure out from what direction the boy was coming from so she just nodded. Sandra noticed something moving in one of the trees nearest to her. Whatever it was it was black, and fairly big. Sandra pointed up, alarmed by whatever was up there, it didn’t look human...or alien...or whatever she was now. Anya looked up to where Sandra was pointing.

"Did you spot a birdie, did you? did you?" Suddenly Anya grabbed Sandra and started tickling her feet, Sandra burst into hysterical infectious laughter and both Eliza and Daniel chuckled too. Sandra could hear the kid giggling too.

"That looks like fun." The voice was louder now and Anya gasped and stopped tickling. "look sweetie there’s a birdie"

The black thing in the trees had come down from the branches, but it wasn’t like any bird Sandra had ever seen, if anything it was more like a dog. It looked surprisingly like a black Labrador puppy except instead of a muzzle it had a beak, it didn’t have feathers on its body but its black fur looked very floaty and fluffy, and it had two large feathered wings protruding from its back. Sandras eyes widened in surprise. the dog bird things beak opened and a green tongue flopped out as it panted. It cocked its head to one side and took a few more cautious steps towards the people on the blanket.

"you’re very small" The boys voice said, and suddenly Sandra realised that it was the bird dog thing that was speaking to her. She looked at Anya, and Eliza and Daniel, none of them seemed to be showing any indication that they could hear this creature, was it all in her head. She felt stupid but shyly opened her mouth.

"are...are..you talking to me?"

The dog bird made a yipping squawking noise and bounded around the blanket happily. Anya looked surprised

"yes, yes I am. Whats your name?"

Daniel was speaking to Anya. "I’ve never seen one this friendly before, looks like a chick, wonder where the mother is." Anya was looking concerned. "I don’t know, but I think it’s time we made a move, there’s still much of the ship to see."

Sandra was fixated by the dog bird.

"I’m sandra, err...nice to meet you."

Suddenly Anya was standing up and picked Sandra up and plopped her back into the baby carrier. Sandra wanted to stay now, and speak to the dog bird.

"wait, don’t leave now. I want to stay." Sandra sounded distressed, the urgency must have transferred to her baby babble because Anya seemed to get the idea, but she simply chuckled. "Don’t worry kiddo, we’ll come back here a lot, wave buh bye to our friends." Anya grasped one of Sandras tiny hands and waved for her.

The dog bird cocked its head to one side.

"oh are you leaving? So soon? Come play sometime kay. I like you."

Sandra felt sad she wasn’t getting more time to get to know the creature, the only being so far to understand her outside of the apartment, it was like an oasis in the middle of a large desert.

"Well have fun at work guys and I guess i’ll see you around." Anya was saying.

Daniel nodded as he pulled on his t-shirt. "Yeah, we’ll be here most mornings around this sort of time, it’s a great place for just chilling out" Anya smiled. "oh well in that case, i’ll possibly pop out again tomorrow. See you here then."

Eliza waved at Sandra. "bye Sandy, see you tomorrow." With that Anya turned round and walked back to the elevator. The dog bird was following them. And sandra could hear Daniel and Eliza laughing, they called out to Anya. "Looks like you have someone else to look after" Anya turned round, alarmed that it was following them. "Shoo you silly thing, go on, go find your mother" She waved her hands at the chick and because of her sudden movements the chick quickly squawked spread its wings and took off back into the dense safety of the trees.

"byeeeee!" Sandra called out.

"byeeeee!" the dog bird thing replied.

Anya was back at the elevator, she’d pressed the button and stepped inside once it had opened. Sandra couldn’t see anyas expression, which was just as well because Anya was looking throughly distressed.