Nanny for the Alien Lord by Tammy Walsh

Belle

The studio was locatedin a large former warehouse on the other side of town.

It didn’t look like much from the outside and reminded me of a decrepit church that’d seen better days.

I was more than a little hesitant about heading inside until Tauas reassured me it wasn’t a trap.

If it was, what were Abbie and I really worth?

The only person with anything worth kidnapping was Tauas.

If he felt relaxed about this situation, so did I.

The moment we stepped inside the warehouse, my fears immediately evaporated.

Sunlight glinted off glass walls that divided the space into neat little cubicles.

It was a very modern, chic layout, and housed most of the company’s stalwart secretaries.

Iatell’s assistant met us at the entrance and took us upstairs.

This space was wide and sported no dividing walls but was instead individualized by colored floor tiles.

Each of the sections contained a dozen or more mannequins and half-finished outfit designs.

A team of people probed and made tiny adjustments to each ensemble.

None garnered more attention than Iatell, who prodded at a design that she was not altogether happy with.

Once she spotted us, she dropped her focused expression and rushed toward us in her usual strange floating pose.

She seized Abbie by the shoulders and kissed her on her cheeks.

Abbie responded in kind as if they’d known each other for years.

“Please, come,” Iatell said. “We have arranged everything over here.”

Abbie wheeled after Iatell.

Watching her follow her new mentor made me feel left out.

Tauas wrapped a comforting arm about my shoulders.

I was pleased for his support and smiled distractedly up at him.

He held Elken in the crook of his other arm as she worked at a bar of chocolate with so much ferocity you would have thought we hadn’t fed her in a month.

As we approached Abbie’s corner section, the designers from the other areas drifted over to join us.

They stood in an arc, waiting as Abbie and Iatell whispered amongst themselves.

Butterflies battered my stomach from the inside but Abbie didn’t appear any worse for wear.

Iatell introduced Abbie to her friends and colleagues and informed Abbie how the other designers were desperate to see her handiwork.

Iatell opened the first of Abbie’s wardrobes and reached inside to extract the first dress.

She checked with Abbie before fully removing each dress in turn.

This was Abbie’s show and she was in control.

Iatell withdrew a cocktail dress with a ruffle shaped like a rose on one shoulder, and a slash of yellow wrapped about its waist.

The assembled designers oo’d and ah’d.

One drifted close and couldn’t help but feel the material with his fingertips.

“G’ari fur,” he said. “Ingenius.”

The other designers smiled and nodded with undisguised excitement.

The revelation of the material seemed to mean a great deal more to them than it did to me.

Iatell turned to Abbie.

“Why don’t you tell us about where you got your ideas for this particular design?”

Abbie took a deep breath and kept her eyes down in her usual shy manner when confronted by strangers.

She talked about flowers on Earth and how the beautiful blooming red rose caught the attention of anyone who came across it.

Iatell nodded in fascination and hung on her every word.

As she brought out each dress, Abbie shared the story that inspired her to make it.

As she told the stories, her confidence grew until finally, she was fully in her element.

She shared more about herself and the life she’d lived.

She’d never shared any of those memories with anyone else before.

I squirmed beneath the strangers’ glances and their judging demeanor.

Abbie shared our history that’d always felt so precious to me.

Finally, after extracting a dozen dresses from the wardrobes, Iatell joined Abbie and comfortingly placed a hand on her shoulder.

A sharp stab of jealousy bit me hard and I couldn’t bear to watch any longer.

“There are many, many more dresses Abbie has designed,” Iatell said. “I think we can all agree that what we have in Abbie is a very unique perspective. I want to offer Abbie a position in the Warehouse, for as long as she wants it. I intend on holding an event in her honor to share her extraordinary gift with the public. I’m certain we’ll find a market for your designs and look forward to sharing our expertise with you. What do you say? Do you wish to join the Warehouse?”

Abbie peered between Iatell, the people watching, and me.

Her eyes lingered on me a moment longer before she nodded.

“Yes!” she cried. “I sure as hell do want to join you!”

Iatell fell upon her, and within moments, the other designers joined them in one large group hug.

I’d never seen Abbie so happy.

Her grin was wide and infectious, her eyes shut tight and welcoming the warmth of her contemporaries.

Unable to watch any longer, I turned and walked away, feeling lost, and suddenly very alone.

Tauas raised my chin, Elken draped over his muscular arms.

He ran a thumb over my cheek and kissed me on the lips.

He never said a word.

He didn’t need to.

They would always fail to explain how he felt.

How we both felt.

Still, I was losing my sister.

And I wasn’t sure Tauas and Elken were enough to take up the hole forming in my heart.

Abbie couldn’t stop jabbering allthe way home about new design ideas.

She couldn’t wait to return to her room and get to work right away.

I was pleased for her, really I was, pleased she’d achieved what she’d strived for all these long years.

An outlet and a group of friends she could belong to.

It’d been a long day for her.

She’d met so many new people, left home for the first time since the accident, and no longer turned to me for support.

Soon, she would be unleashed upon the world, her designs stacking the shelves in every clothing store and boutique throughout the galaxy.

All thanks to Tauas.

Without him, Iatell never would have seen Abbie’s unique designs.

Every few seconds, Tauas glanced over at me in the front passenger seat of the shuttlecraft, checking to make sure I was okay.

I was happy Abbie was realizing her dreams.

No one deserved it more.

She’d done the hard work and gathered all the knowledge and experience she needed, now she had a partner who understood the business and could bring her work to the public.

Abbie was so excited she could barely sit still and constantly glanced out the window at our surroundings, acknowledging for the first time that we were on an alien planet.

She’d never taken much interest in the purple skies overhead, the strange and exotic Yixx plants and trees.

Where was my place in my sister’s life now? I wondered.

I wasn’t sure.

Presumably, she would go to the Warehouse to work every day, then maybe, she would want to live by herself.

That would leave me…

Alone.

I wasn’t sure how I would cope with that.

The life we’d built together was coming to an end.

Just as my work with Elken was drawing to a close too.

I wouldn’t leave, not until Abbie could care for herself.

Then, I would return to Earth and continue where I’d left off.

Studying finance and heading to work on Wall Street.

The future suddenly seemed so open with possibility.

And scary as hell.

Tauas took us down to street level and descended to the front driveway.

He reached over and squeezed my hand.

“Don’t worry,” he said, seemingly able to sense my concerns. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

His touch reassured me.

Everything would be fine.

I was sure of it.

The hatch door hissed open and descended.

A figure drifted over from the mansion’s front door.

It wasn’t Tauas or me that recognized the figure first, it was Elken.

As she was the one who spent most of her days in her presence, I supposed that wasn’t much of a surprise.

“Daynnis!” Elken screamed as she tore across the driveway and into her arms.

Daynnis scooped her up and squeezed her tightly in her spindly arms.

I stood, frozen, watching as whatever affection Elken’d had for me was transferred to her full-time nanny.

As we drew up to her, Daynnis put Elken down, and nodded politely at Tauas.

Her eyes scrubbed mine and she extended a hand.

“You must be Belle. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I took her hand and shook it, surprised she knew the human welcome.

“I thought you weren’t returning until Friday?” I said.

“Thankfully, my mother recovered faster than expected,” Daynnis said. “At least, his ticker will keep on ticking for the next few months. How about we head inside and have a nice cup of hot chocolate?”

“Yeah!” Elken said, taking the lead and running into the house.

Daynnis pulled up alongside Tauas and spoke to him in a low voice.

“She seems a nice sort,” Abbie said.

Nice…

And irreplaceable.

I was a fool for thinking I could be anything more than a temporary fixture in Elken’s life.

I was an employee, nothing more.

Soon, I would have no job, no sister, and nothing but a beaten-up flooded house to live in.

When had everything gone so wrong?