01.11

Julia sat on the chair, Kristen was sitting in front of her. Behind Julia, a rattling noise made by a blond and skinny girl. She would look at Julia and shake a light blue wooden box which produced the rattle.
She is Gaia, Kristen said. Gaia is an inventor and an explorer, she said.
I like to explore too, said Julia, but I hardly ever invented anything.
I am sure you did and I am sure you will help each other when I am not around. I am a singer and a songwriter and I am usually out at night, either rehearsing or playing.
Gaia moved closer to Julia.
When Gaia was one year old, she would touch the dinner table and say bebol, touch a chair and say sha, another chair and say leph. She would name each chair by small markings on the leg or some other sign that I could not recognize, and bring each chair to his owner, I had my chair and she had hers and friends that usually came over for dinner had their own, Kristen said. Gaia has always been curious and inquisitive of what others said and did. She imitated them since the moment when she was able to keep her head straight, she repeated the sound of the words they made, she repeated the expressions of other people faces when they spoke, irrespective of whether they were young or old. If someone in the street screamed, she screamed louder than him mimicking the sounds he made and the expression of the face and then she would laugh and make angry people laugh at themselves. She has the ability to bring joy and happiness to others naturally. At the same time she is restless, she either sleeps or be in constant motion, never too interested in something as to lose herself in it but always looking around her, as if she feared to lose something, to miss something essential.
Gaia raised from the floor and went close to Julia, offering her hand. Julia took Gaia’s hand in hers.
I see you have to go now, I’ll be around in the afternoon, Kristen said.