A (Belated) Epilogue
The spring that Anitam announces FTL, Leilei gets a cat, and finally makes a promise to her long-denied biology.
Immediately after summering, after taking a few days to assess her decision once the spring hormones are out of her system, she sets about looking for a nice pair of sideways-springing fellows to co-parent her child.Ā She will need the time, after all.Ā She plans to be extremely picky, and being able to provide the entire cost of the credit is not as powerful a bargaining chip as it was before the price drop.Ā After a long search she finds a pair, both of them youngish and healthy, well-established in reasonably successful athletic careers, and handsome in ways that she feels will pair well with her own features.Ā She wants her child to inherit as many useful qualities as possible, of course, so that they have as many opportunities as possible.
As much as she loves other people, Leilei has always had a streak of ruthless practicality, and she has not forgotten the poverty in which she was raised.
The next year, her son is born.Ā He is strong and healthy, and during his first spring they all live together to be as close to their child as possible.Ā The distraction of a baby is enough to let her ignore the stress of sharing a home with other people, but the moment they all summer they separate, and their son is raised mostly by his fathers.Ā Her own father and his new wife visit often, and are delighted.
As she feared, Leilei is not a very good parent.Ā She tries, but itās simply not in her nature.Ā She visits as often as she can bring herself to, but the lure of peace and quiet is too strong.Ā Thankfully, her sonās fathers are excellent parents, but by the time he is two her son is old enough to understand why she only comes around in the springtime, and their relationship grows strained.
This goes on for a few years, but finally the two of them sit down and have a long mother-son talk.Ā Itās difficult and painful, but they come out of it understanding each other much better, and any lingering resentment is greatly mollified by her enthusiastic willingness to contribute to the cause of grandchildren.
Her father lives long enough to see his first great-grandchild born.Ā She mourns him and moves on, grateful to be free of the guilt she suffered after the death of her mother.
She never has another child, but her son is successful enough to have several, and most of them go on to have at least two of their own.Ā Her family grows, and there is almost always one or two babies young enough to ease springtime.Ā They spread out to the stars, and she delights in visiting new worlds to see them.
By the time Leilei is old enough for the physical strain of her work to be too much for her she can comfortably retire.Ā She never does move off-world, being something of a homebody at heart, but she likes to travel once or twice a year, visiting her ever-growing brood of descendants.
She is happy enough.
