Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
Anna
Anna’s legs ached as she kept up with the others. She huffed as she walked. I am out of shape. But how in shape could you be after spending a month stationary in a spaceship and eight months pregnant, even with the lowered gravity?
“Would you look at that?” Nora pointed at a tall structure in the distance.
“What now?” Anna squinted. The road stretched on before them, every turn showing them something foreign.
They passed several small buildings, which Simon had told them were for equipment storage, but this one was bigger.
The large building cut up across the horizon, almost like a beacon calling to them.
“Is that a barn? That red color. Isn’t that what they used to be painted? In stories?”
“. . . Yeah. I think so?” Nora said.
Tilly was ahead on the dirt path with Simon, still skipping, and Nora jogged to catch up with them.
Anna put her hands on her hips, forcing herself to keep up.
At least it was easier to walk here than back home.
The lowered gravity accounted for most of that.
Something in her chest loosened when the structure was for sure identifiable as a barn, right ahead, taking her mind off her legs.
Yeah, it’s a barn. And where there’s a barn .
. . her footsteps quickened. Maybe some animals?
By the time she caught up to Nora and Simon, the barn door was already pushed open, and the first dust motes she had seen so far on Mars were in the air. Pasture grassland extended all around the structure, circling the front. Cows were in the distance, snagging her attention.
Nora called to her from the barn’s entrance, “Anna! Get in here!”
“It’s a barn, right?” Anna stepped over the stone threshold and peered around. The barn was complete with a hay pile in the back.
“Yes it is! This is the first building that kinda looks like Earth, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, like those children’s books we read.
” She looked around in wonder. Not many barns were present in modern day, but the cow feed lots back on Earth had an approximation of one.
Mostly the cows on Earth lived in a giant dusty lot, open air, with a large roof above.
The town did have cows and milking facilities, because for some reason the drops the androids provided didn’t contain much milk.
Maybe it was hard to preserve? There was freeze-dried butter sometimes in the drops, but that was about it.
But Mars plainly had cows, much healthier than the ones that Anna always passed on the way to the market. This barn was sturdy, and definitely had that brick-red color from the few books she remembered as a child.
Her lips split into a smile as she walked farther in. It’s even bigger on the inside. Who lives here? She wrinkled her nose. It smells like cows even in here.
Tilly ran the length of the barn back and forth, poking her head in every area that was segmented for various workstations. Rooms were off to the side, where storage areas and desks were set up.
Anna walked the aisle, examining the layout.
There were a few pens for containing livestock, but the barn was attached to living quarters that appeared set up for storage and observation.
The barn was made from the same fiberglass exterior the spaceship was, but it was gentled somehow. Maybe it was the color?
Or was it the open area designed to let the animals walk into?
Or maybe it was the dust and concrete floors?
Anna took a deep breath in. Whatever it was, being here felt good compared to the two months of sterile ship life and that facility an hour’s walk away.
Hay was stacked along the side of the animal area.
She inhaled deeply until her eyes watered.
She chuckled. I’ve even got allergies on Mars.
The same kind that always happened when the monsoons kicked up all the dust back home.
After walking the whole length of the barn, her nose truly started to itch. She backed out toward the entrance, yelling. “The dust is getting to me. I’ll walk around the outside for a minute. Go check out these cows.”
“Alright.” Nora was deep in the back next to Simon, who was examining what the boxes held. Their soft discussion followed Anna as she walked out, Simon explaining all of the equipment pieces in there one by one.
Anna hurried her steps outside. In the pasture to the left were the cows. Oh yes. There they are. She almost ran the last few steps to the gate. They look just like the ones Atlas showed me. Black and white ones.
A smile crossed her face. Yes. They were there, mixed in with an animal she had heard about before, with a mane and a tail.
It took a minute for the name to surface.
Horses? People rode those, right? Anna trailed along the fence’s edge before slumping against the frame.
They really are just cows. Happiness bubbled up, making her grin wider.
Inside the pen, the cows took no notice of her.
A herd of fifteen were inside the pasture, flicking their tails and completely ignoring her.
They were the first creatures to not treat her like an oddity or something to study, actually.
Under the Martian sun, they had grass to eat instead of just the dusty Arizona lot where she was from.
Anna leaned on the fence, kicking up a dirt clod with her foot.
They looked happier than any cows she had seen before.
Walking around, doing whatever they wanted.
She wrinkled her nose. They still smell just as bad though.
But even that made her smile. Who would have thought I’d feel the best here around some smelly cows?
They don’t care if I’m a human or android.
Besides, the cows weren’t like the hay from the barn.
Her nose was still itchy, but after a few minutes of watching the cows she didn’t notice the smell at all anymore.
“Hello, cow. Big cow.” Anna reached out, able to touch a solid brown one’s side. Oh. It’s fuzzier than I thought. The cow didn’t even seem to notice her, and moved away a second after.
Another came close and she repeated the gesture. “Come closer, you.” The cow ignored her. In fact, it moved farther away.
“Fine then, no scratches for you.” She dropped her hand. The pasture extended out into grasslands as far as she could see, with even more cows grazing in the distance. It was. . . Peaceful.
Anna turned around, leaning heavily on the fence.
Behind her there was the barn, and a smaller building next to it.
She narrowed her eyes. What is over there?
A shed? A warehouse? It’s as big as my bakery on Earth.
The painted yellow fiberglass frame stood on its own in the barn’s shadow, around half the size.
She drifted to the side of the barn, waddling to the smaller structure.
“Hellooo?” She hesitantly creaked open the door.
The floor was concrete and solid as she walked inside, but the air was stale.
She waddled farther in. Storage boxes were stacked to the rafters.
There was a front room filled with materials, including animal feed, and two other rooms behind it.
In the main room that she walked in, a solitary window looked out over the meadow where the cows were.
Anna walked to the window and gripped the side of the frame. She slumped against the wall like she used to do at her bakery and then later on the ship, gazing into the pasture outside. Standing here felt right, so much so that a tear came to her eyes. “This is the best damn view yet.”
It really was. Outside her window at the bakery was just the town and her backyard with her sad attempts at gardening.
All of that was caked in dust and dirt. Nothing that was beautiful.
The only beauty that she had were pictures on the walls sometimes from Tilly, and even those Paul took down saying they didn’t belong.
But here? Cows and grass and a bright blue sky? Everything felt like it belonged.
Maybe even she could too. Her hand tightened on the window frame. Yeah. . . Maybe.
Storage boxes were stacked to the rafters, but there were a few single ones only knee high.
She sat on a box edge, rubbing her belly.
Her imagination flowed with all the possibilities that the little building could become.
“Baby girl, I’ve got a crazy idea. What do you think about this place?
” There was no answer except the constant rolling in her belly under her hand.
“Well, I like it here.” She smiled openly and jiggled her belly. “My gut hasn’t been right about a lot of things. But this, baby girl, feels like it could be a home.”
Through the window, she saw Nora exiting the barn, her lips pressed together. “I know that look. I think Nora likes it here too.”
Anna hoisted herself back up to walk out front. She waddled over to where Nora stood, examining the barn from the outside. “Nory. What do you think?”
Nora had her hands on her hips, eyes not leaving the barn. She tilted her head toward Anna. “You feel it too?”
Anna looked back at the cows, and a smile stretched across her lips.
“Yeah. I do.” She turned back around to stare at the plain yellow building.
The warehouse had very little character, plain walls, and was completely utilitarian.
Unlike the barn next door, there was no electricity or water running throughout the structure.
It was just a garage. A plain, exceptionally large storage building.
“Home.” She jostled Nora’s shoulder. “This feels like a home.”
“It sure does.”
A crash sounded from inside the barn. Nora narrowed her eyes. “Hold that thought, be right back.”
“Uh oh, Tilly. . .” Anna watched Nora run off.