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Mommy Metis is a psychologist. That means she studies how brains work. I’m only thirteen, but I want to be a psychologist too. I want to be just like Mommy Metis.
You might think it’s embarrassing that I’m thirteen but still call her Mommy, but I don’t care. I live at a space centre and my ears are super sensitive (I can actually hear what people are feeling), so I’m not exactly normal.
And if you’re wondering why I call her Mommy Metis, well that’s simple: I have two mommies, and it would get super confusing otherwise. My other mother is Mommy Aura, Mommy Metis’ partner in robotics research and her wife.
Anyway, I want to be just like Mommy Metis. Because being so good at brain stuff means she is so compassionate and always wants to help everyone. She’s dedicated so much time to trying to stop me getting horribly overloaded by emotions in crowds, making me big headphones and giving me Widget (which Mommy Aura actually made, because is the one who builds the robots) to help me interpret them. She cares so much about me and I love her so much.
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Mommy Metis isn’t the only Mommy in our big space family, but she is totally the one who cares for everyone. These are just some of the things she has done to help and look after all of us:
- Director Cosmos was struggling to walk (he hurt his leg years ago) very far, so Mommy Metis insisted he get some kind of mobility aid. He only agreed to use one after Mommy Metis designed a one-of-a-kind scooter for him, which he calls his Space Scooter, and now he uses it all of the time and is in much less pain.
- Two years ago, Mr Starbuck was in an accident up in space (some bad person sabotaged the launch, but he was caught and put in prison… I think they called him some sort of phantom) and he now has a real phobia of space. He used to have panic attacks all the time from just being in the space centre, and it made us all sad. So Mommy Metis fitted PONCO with a special programme and now she can tell when he is about to panic and can help him deal with the emotions. Plus, Mommy Metis is always happy to talk when he is feeling bad.
- Clay and Apollo are always at the space centre, and Clay really wants to be an astronaut one day. They are have been best friends for years and are now a couple, and they do everything together. But Apollo has this ability that gives him headaches, and Mommy Metis was sad when she saw him with a crude eye patch on to deal with the problem. So she made him a proper, discreet eye patch that is much more comfortable. Plus sometimes Clay and Apollo have arguments, and Mommy Metis is always good at breaking it up and making them calm down.
- Simon has a pet hawk called Taka which he loves a lot, and one time Taka flew away and came back with a broken wing. And even though he is a prosecutor who was twenty two at the time, he started panicking, so scared Taka was going to die. So Mommy Metis checked over Taka for him and called a vet, and reassured Simon that his bird was going to get better. Simon looked embarrassed, but he was smiling.
- Bobby, Simon’s boyfriend, visits the space centre a lot too, often with Simon but sometimes on his own. Like me, he gets sensory overload, but his is because he’s autistic. Loud noises as well as bright lights and tastes and textures he hates get too much for him and Bobby closes in on himself, not talking and barely reacting. If he doesn’t get out of the situation, he has horrible meltdowns that usually end with Bobby in tears and bruises patterning his body. I saw a meltdown once, and it was so scary. So did Mommy Metis, and she was determined to stop Bobby having the sensory overloads that led to the meltdowns. And with the help of Mommy Aura, she put a special tint on his sunglasses to block out bright lights and gave him a pair of earplugs and insisted he wear them when he gets stressed. Since then, he hasn’t had a meltdown.
- Mommy Aura tends to overwork herself, staying up all night working and drinking too much coffee to stay awake, to the point that there are usually bags under her eyes and she falls asleep whenever she sits down. So Mommy Metis insists Mommy Aura get enough sleep, and calls her stubborn when Mommy Aura argues back. She is a very stubborn person, but she always gives in when Mommy Metis is worried about her wellbeing.
- The robots, including PONCO and CLONCO, aren’t people, but they are like family to us. Especially to Mommy Metis, who decided to programme the robots to call her and Mommy Aura ‘mommy’, and the robots really do see them as their mothers.
- And there is my girlfriend Juniper, who is very timid and shy and has a weak immune system, but she is desperate to become a judge one day. Mommy Metis is so good with Juniper, helping her with her people skills and teaching her coping mechanisms for if she gets scared in social situations, and Juniper is really starting to turn into the sort of person who could make a judge one day.
And none of these things even begin to describe how much Mommy Metis has done for me. She is such a lovely, caring person.
So it makes a lot of sense that Mommy Metis tends to be the primary caregiver when someone gets sick. Whether it is calling a doctor or making someone go to bed and rest or giving them medicine to help with the symptoms, you can always rely on Mommy Metis if you spend a lot of your time at the space centre and happen to get sick.
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Earlier this week, Simon and Bobby came to the space centre after work (they had been in court all day, Simon prosecuting and Bobby presenting evidence as the lead detective on the case), and I noticed there was something wrong with Bobby. His face was droopy and he looked flushed and exhausted – he looked sick.
“Are you okay, Mr Bobby?” I asked.
Bobby smiled and coughed into his gloved hand. “Not particularly, young Athena.”
“He has a chest infection,” Simon said, patting Bobby on the back. “But he insisted on coming into court today despite his illness, insisting justice was more important.”
“Justice is more important,” Bobby insisted, coughing again.
I heard the phlegm in his cough and felt the sadness in his heart, and I knew Bobby was feeling really bad.
Mommy Aura laughed and said a swearword as she walked into the room. I giggled, knowing Mommy Metis would tell her off for swearing if she was in the room.
But even though Mommy Metis wasn’t there, CLONCO was, and he said, “Mama Aura, don’t swear in front of Athena.”
“Shut up, Hunk of Junk,” Mommy Aura said, and she rolled her eyes. “So, Robert’s ill, is he?”
Mommy Aura always calls Bobby ‘Robert’, and he doesn’t bother to correct her.
“Yes, and the fool will never get better if he continues to get worse,” Simon said.
Mommy Aura coughed, the cough sounding suspiciously like, “Pot kettle.”
“Huh?” Bobby said, but I knew what was going on; I could hear the happiness in Mommy Aura’s heart at winding up her younger brother.
“Shut up, Aura,” Simon said.
But Mommy Aura simply laughed and said, “I just think it’s a tad hypocritical to tell your boyfriend off for overworking when you once collapsed at school with a fever.”
Simon’s eyes widened and I giggled.
“Did that really happen?” Bobby said, glancing at Simon.
“No comment,” Simon said, glaring at his sister.
Mommy Aura and Simon have a brilliant relationship. They bicker all of the time, but brother and sister care about each other deeply.
Rolling her eyes, Mommy Aura said, “Anyway, Robert, if you don’t want to be fussed over by my wife, I suggest leaving now.”
Bobby smiled, wiping his clammy forehead with a handkerchief. “I don’t think she’s that bad, to be fair—”
“PONCO detected a massive difference in Bobby Fulbright’s body temperature,” Mommy Metis said, rushing into the room. She hurried over to Bobby and shoved a digital thermometer in his ear. “You’re running a high fever, and should be resting.”
As Bobby’s eyes widened, Mommy Aura raised her eyebrows and smirked. “What was I saying?”
“Point taken,” Bobby said.
“Hmph,” Simon huffed, looking between Mommy Aura and Mommy Metis. “Mrs Cykes, how on Earth are you married to my sister?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, brat?” Mommy Aura said.
But Mommy Metis smiled. “I fell in love with her. If you’re implying what I think you are, I just assume it’s because opposites attract.”
“What utter poppycock,” Simon muttered, handing Bobby a tissue as his nose started to run.
Mommy Aura burst out laughing. “You’re calling opposites attract poppycock – by the way, learn to swear – even though you’re in that sort of relationship too?!”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Simon said.
As they bickered, I looked between Simon and Bobby. Mommy Aura was right; they don’t have much in common, just like my mothers. But they still fell in love.
“If you two are done arguing,” Mommy Metis said. “Bobby, I want you to stay in bed and get prescribed antibiotics if necessary. Simon, don’t let him out of bed until he’s starting to get better.”
“And if he does?”
“Sic Taka on him,” Mommy Aura said, laughing.
“But, but what about justice?” Bobby said.
“Honestly, Fool Bright,” Simon said, his expression quite soft for once (and I could hear the care and love in his heart he had for Bobby, even though he didn’t show it). “The other detectives are more than capable of dealing with things without you for a few days. So follow the advice of Mrs Cykes, better known as the resident caregiver, and rest.”
As Simon and Bobby talked some more, I looked at Mommy Metis.
“Resident caregiver?” she said, and Mommy Aura put her arm around her waist.
“Yeah, because you’re always looking out for us,” she said, and Mommy Metis blushed when she gave her a kiss.
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Over the next few days after Bobby got sick, several other people got the same sickness.
Simon came down with it first, and he and Bobby moved into the spare bedroom at the Blackquill-Cykes residence in the space centre so they could both be looked after. Mommy Aura refused to visit them in case she got sick (although she did instruct PONCO and CLONCO to bring the pair drinks and medicine), but Mommy Metis spent a lot of time in the room with them, trying to help them get better.
I started coughing next, my lungs heavy with phlegm and feeling so bad I could barely sit up in bed. Even though I was bored and wanted to climb on a robot and get a ride around the space centre (I did that once; it’s really fun), Mommy Metis made me stay in bed, although she came to see me a lot, always bringing me drinks and medicine and even reading stories to me like she used to when I was younger.
Junie insisted on visiting me to give me some fruit and plump my pillows for me, and she kept me sane during the few days I was stuck in bed. She sat beside me and held my hand, saying things like, “You’ll feel better soon, Thena, I just know it.”
And several times she kissed my sweaty hair and managed to get a smile out of me.
Unsurprisingly, it was Juniper who fell ill next. She started coughing after school one day, and when I held her hand I realised she was running a high fever. I was too sick to look after her, and Mommy Metis did her best to make Junie feel better until her parents came to pick her up. I haven’t seen her in three days, and I really miss my lovely girlfriend.
Apollo, Clay, Director Cosmos and Mr Starbuck haven’t got sick yet, mainly because they are avoiding us all. Simon said it’s like we’ve been quarantined, and I guess he isn’t totally wrong.
It is now five days since Bobby got sick, and Bobby is nearly better. The rest of us still feel awful, and Mommy Metis and Mommy Aura are, out of the people spending time with us sick people, the only ones who aren’t sick.
I just hope it stays that way.
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Bobby has recovered, and Simon seems to be feeling better. Even though he’s technically well enough to work again, Bobby is taking Mommy Metis’ advice and staying off work until he feels strong enough to without risking getting sick again. And that means he is spending all of his time looking after Simon.
I still miss Junie, but we’re talking on the phone a lot. Her voice is gravelly from coughing so much and I can hear the sadness in her heart from feeling sick, but also the happiness from talking to me. It makes me happy to talk to her too.
But something bad has happened. This morning, Mommy Metis got sick too. She keeps coughing and we all know she has the chest infection too. But she’s always the one who looks after everyone, so what will we do now she is sick?
I say as much to Juniper on the phone. “Mommy Metis is the one who looks after everyone else. It’s so weird for her to be sick.”
“I know, but it’ll be fine, Thena,” Juniper says. “Besides, someone can look after her, can’t they?”
I know she is right. And sure enough, when Mommy Aura comes into my bedroom carrying a glass of water, she says, “I’ve taken over from Metis on ‘primary caregiver’ duty whilst she’s sick. But don’t expect it to last; I’m so bad at looking after people.”
I smile. “I know. But thank you, Mommy Aura.”
“For what?”
“Looking after me. And Mommy Metis.”
Mommy Aura rolls her eyes, but she ruffles my hair. “Whatever. Just get better.”
I smile even brighter. It’s sad that everyone is sick – especially Mommy Metis – but I know Mommy Aura is more than capable of looking after us. And we’re all going to get better soon, and then hopefully everything will be back to normal.
Including Mommy Metis’ lovely habit of caring about everyone so much.