Three

It feels like I was reborn. I'm dizzy, I don't understand anything, the world is blurry and weird looking.

As my sight wobbles back, Mother screams. I'm confused until I see it. Then I try to scream too, though it's soundless. 

It's a black hole. The planet we transported to, was being slowly sucked into a black hole. It was only on the outskirts right now, but it was still going to go in there.

"Oh no no no no no!" Mother exclaims in a panic. "We're going to turn into spagetti!"

Umm......

      "Brook! I'm so sorry. We should kill ourselves right now so we don't have to die painfully..." Mother almost starts to cry. I hug her.

      Mother hugs me back. "I should have never done this... Never..." She starts to sob and closes her eyes. "Do you want me to kill you now? I don't want you to..."

      Alarmed, I shake my head rapidly. "Okay," Mother says.

      I squeeze my eyes shut as we slowly advance towards the black hole, and then suddenly I see white instead of black.

      Am I dead? Is this heaven?

      Wherever I am, I can't move. I can't see Mother... Everything is just a blinding white. I can't close my eyes to shut it out. I feel like an angel, but it's torturous at the same time.

      After I don't know how long, it ends.

      I open my eyes and blink. I'm lying on the... ground, I think. My nose and forehead are pressed against the grass. 

Rolling over, I see the sky and shriek soundlessly.  

The sky is yellow. And the clouds are a pale red. Not pink, but pale red.

I put a hand on Mother's shoulder and shake her, stopping when I realize the color of the grass. Blue. I suddenly don't feel safe touching it. 

Mother groans and sits up gingerly. "Where are we?"

I shrug and take a deep breath, looking around again and now expecting weird things. 

The stuff we brought with us is not here. Just Mother, me, and my whiteboard. I hope the people here know how to read English. 

"Ooh, this is weird!" Mother says, her eyes shining with excitement as she jumps to her feet. 

I frown. Is she not worried about getting back home at all? I wish I could talk, and tell her that we need to find a way to go back, not moon over the strange nature of this world. I reach up and shake her shoulder again.

"What?"

I point behind me, hoping she'll get the idea that I want to leave.

"You want to explore back there?"

Nope, she didn't. I shake my head and grab my board.

"Can we go home?" I write.

Mother gives me an apologetic smile. "I don't really know how we'll be able to. But let's find out where we are and why everything is like this first. If it's safe, we'll stay for just a week so I can write a report later. This is so interesting!"

I sigh.

Mother is now skipping around, looking more excited than ever. "Whoa, the water here is orange! Look at this pond! And see, if you look underneath the grass, you can see the dirt is white! I wonder what this water tastes like-- Oof!" She trips and falls out of my sight, behind a tree with red bark and blue leaves.

I jog to where she fell, and sees a... okay. A pink zebra with tiny horns on her head is standing there, rubbing her head against the tree. 

"Oh my gosh, you're so cool!" Mother squeals at the zebra.

The zebra turns around, looking amused. "Um, sure. I'm Zara, and I've never seen anything like you before!"

A talking zebra. A talking pink zebra. I should have suspected this.

Ignoring Mother's surprised face, I write on my board, "You mean there's no humans living here?"

Zara gives me a confused look.

"She wants to know if there's any other humans living here," Mother translates for me. "Can't you read?"

"What's a human? Is that what you two are? And I can read, yes, but not what she wrote. I can read Kiwanese," Zara answers.

I wonder if she could teach me how to write in Kiwanese.

Mother looks fascinated. "Kiwanese? Is that your native language?"

"That's the only language I know. We use it here in Kiwano. You're speaking it right now," Zara says casually.

I'm feeling oddly left out, not being able to communicate with Zara and ask her my questions.

"But we speak English..." Mother says, her eyebrows scrunched as she thinks.

"Oh! I know why now! It's a long story though," Zara's eyes suddenly light up with understanding.

"Anyway, I don't have supplies to last for long here, but--"

"Just eat the horned melons!" Zara interrupts brightly. "They're all around, that's what the planet is named after. They grow on blue vines, like that one." Zara nods at a vine wrapped around a nearby tree.

"Okay, so as I was saying, I want to explore here for at least a week. Is it safe here?" Mother says.

Zara paws the ground. "Yeah, mostly. We've got brown lions, but they won't attack if you keep your distance and leave them alone, or just give them a friendly greeting. And there's the orange snakes too. They might bite if you get too close, but they're nonvenomous and pretty rare to see. You should be fine if you observe your surroundings carefully."

"Great!" Mother says unexpectedly. "I'll go then. Take care of my daughter Brooklyn!" Then she runs off towards a patch of lime-yellow on the ground, leaving me and Zara looking at each other awkwardly.

"Um..." Zara laughs suddenly. "Well, I wasn't expecting her to run off like that, and... well... that thing she did. She's your mom, right? Pretty enthusiastic. Kinda like me, but I'm not as... rushed... as her."

I nod to the question about Mother being my mom.

Zara nods along with me. "So your name is Brooklyn. I like it, reminds me of a brook. Gentle and steady and wet. And you're also awfully quiet. Are you just shy and like to write stuff?"

I shake my head. I point to my mouth and cover it with my hand. When Zara doesn't seem to understand, I let out a howl with all my might, but it's only a silent breath of air.

Zara's eyes widens as the realization dawns on her. "Oh! You can't talk!" She stops to consider that for a moment. "Well, that's great! You're even more amazing than your mother! We could have so many great adventures together, and I could talk to you all the time without worrying that you'll interrupt and..." Zara trails on. "...Right?"

I make myself look as happy as I can.

Zara gives me a wide grin, which would be creepy on a normal zebra, but seems kind of normal for this bouncy pink one. "So, I really don't want to use you or make your feel like your voice is unheard and all of that. And I'm guessing that you really want to be able to talk. So, guess what? I have an idea!"

It's probably impossible to fix me on my home planet, but here in this wild place they might be able to speak again. So I tilt my head and listen.

"You want to be able to make sounds. Here, on Kiwano, there is a magical orb called the Skylit Orb, nicknamed the Wisher, that grants endless wishes but only one to each organism. We could go on a quest to the city of Melano where it's located and get you an ability to talk!"

But for now, there's also a horn that rare zebras possess, and I happen to have one of them." Zara smiles mischievously. "The horns have communication powers, which makes us very good survivors being able to negotiate with lions. Also why I could understand your mother perfectly. It's because I touched my horns to her."

I wait for her to continue, trying to follow her explanation.

"So if I touch them to you, I'll be able to understand what you write! Isn't that awesome?" Zara dips her head to my feet, and then straightens again and excitedly says, "Write something!"

I take out my board and write, "Can you understand me?"

Zara exclaims, "Yes I can! This is great! Makes life so much easier. Ready to adventure then? Let's get you to the Wisher so you can actually talk!"

She bounces away, and I follow, hope filling me. If I could talk, everything would change. I would become normal. It would be a miracle, and if it was possible, then I would try my best to be able to get a real voice.