Sailing the Shipping Seas

“Rohan, did you forget your birthday?”

Momma!

He twisted to sit up, forgetting for a second that his dad was there. They laughed a little, but they were happy.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. His dad grabbed him by the chest and pulled him into his lap.

He leaned into his dad’s chest. Maybe he’d say something and make his chest rumble.

When he opened his eyes, Momma laid a hand on his knee and started rubbing it.

He closed his eyes, happy to go back to sleep.

“Today is a very important day,” Dad said. It made his chest rumble.

Momma’s hand squeezed his knee. “We are very happy about your birthday today. You’re getting big and strong.”

He loved Momma. He wanted Momma’s lap.

They made a lot of noise when he moved.

But Momma hugged him tight so he hugged her tight. She coughed.

“Gently, Rohan. Your mother needs to breathe.”

Momma coughed again, but patted his back.

He hugged her again, but not so hard this time.

He rubbed his face on Momma’s shoulder. He smelled Mommalin.

But she wasn’t there.

He frowned at Dad. “Where’s Mommalin?”

Momma took a deep breath. She said, “Rohan, today is a very hard day for Mommalin. Some bad things happened to her after you were born, and she couldn’t be with us for a few days.”

He didn’t know that. It made him sad.

“Would you be willing to take her a tea tray with a few treats? It might help her feel better.”

He pulled up on his knees. Momma grunted, and Dad pulled him back into his lap.

Momma rubbed her legs. Her smile looked a little funny.

“Can I help make the tea? She likes longjing.”

Momma’s smile was so pretty, he had to hug her.

Dad hugged him from behind.

He was so happy.

But then they made him get a bath and change his clothes and do a bunch of other stuff that made him mad.

He was still mad when he got to the kitchen.

Momma didn’t ask what was wrong.

That made him madder.

“Rohan, would you light the spark rocks for me? If you got some fire bending I don’t know about, that would work, too.”

He laughed.

“Momma, I’m a waterbender! I put fires out!”

She wasn’t looking at him, but she smiled. And that made him happy.

The spark rocks worked the fourth or fifth time, and Momma put the kettle on. She showed him where Mommalin’s longjing was, and how to measure it for her. She showed him all the steps, and he knew he could do everything himself next time.

Then Dad came with the tray and two cups. Momma filled the teapot and put it in the center.

He picked up the tray and nodded. He could carry it.

Dad opened the door, and showed him where Mommalin was practicing her bending.

She was stomping and punching and making a lot of noise. His clothes blew in the big breeze Dad sent out to let Mommalin know someone was coming her way. She dropped her arms. He could see her breathing hard. She didn’t turn around.

He stopped. “Mommalin! I have tea!”

She turned around. Her face was all wrong. He tried to make the same face she was, and he couldn’t tell if he was mad or sad.

And then her face changed. This time, she was just sad. She walked closer to him. He stopped walking, and she got down on the ground. She lifted her hands up for the tray, and he gave it to her so he could sit down with her.

She set the tray down on the ground and peeked into the teapot. She gave it a sniff and then smiled.

“It’s longjing! I remembered!” he told her.

She poured tea into the two cups and gave him one.

He took a sip, but he didn’t like it. Dad said he didn’t have to drink tea he didn’t like, but he had to be respectful about it. So he put his cup back down.

Mommalin drank hers. She didn’t talk for a while.

We wiggled. He thought he heard Momma say something about ants in his pants.

He got up and sat beside Mommalin.

“I wish the bad things didn’t happen to you.”

She set her cup down, and pulled him close to her.

“I could say the same.”

They sat still again.

“Will you tell me what happened?”

She squeezed him real tight, but didn’t say anything for a long time.

“Jinora and Ikki and Meelo helped me protect your mother until your dad could get back from helping Korra. You were born while it was quiet.”

She hugged him again. She picked up her tea and drank the rest of her cup and stood up. She bent down to pick up the tray.

“Let’s go back inside and find your parents.”

He ran ahead to open the door. Inside, Momma had made more tea. This time, he got some jasmine, like Momma. Dad poured some new longjing for Mommalin.

They sat quietly again.

He looked at his Dad. “Did the bad people hurt Mommalin?”

Dad looked at Mommalin. He turned and looked down at him. “Yes, they did, Rohan. She protected us as long as she could.”

“Did they hurt you? Momma? Jinora and Ikki and Meelo?”

He felt Momma tug his hand. She pulled him into her lap. “Everyone is ok now, Rohan. There’s nothing to be scared of. The bad people are gone. And everybody you love helped protect us.”

She rubbed his head and smiled.

“Today is a good day to say thank you, I think. Will you help me make dinner?”

That night, everybody came. He sat with Mommalin and Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi and Asami and Korra and Mako and Bolin and Opal. Everybody told stories and everybody hugged him.

Dad told him to say good night to everybody because it was time to go to bed.

He looked at everybody. There were so many stories. Naga hitting the bad guy away. Dad pushing the bad robot away with his bending. Korra helping Naga swim underwater.

And Mommalin flying through the air.

He ran over to her and jumped in her lap. He wrapped his arms around her neck, but didn’t want to hurt her.

“Thank you. I love you, Mommalin.”

Tenzin had looked positively crushed as he returned to the central meditation hall after his “girlfriend” (how did a woman of that age stand the term, she couldn’t say) left early. She had been called out again.

Pema wasn’t the only acolyte who resented phone duty when that woman was on the Island. It was never hard to find her. She would only ever be in a few places anymore, and like as not, their shouting would make it a short search.

But nevertheless, she had carefully taken the message (without being too excited to be rid of her), promptly brought it to Tenzin’s study (where they were fighting again), and handed it over (just for it to be snatched away angrily). She had not stayed. That woman always rounded on whoever thought they’d be taking a message back or learning something interesting.

She had even heard that woman’s boots in the corridor as if to check to see that Pema had left.

Just because she had left directly didn’t mean that she hadn’t overheard anything as she approached.

“…not the right time, Tenzin. My promotion…”

“That’s what you said the last time! Dad has been dead almost a year, Lin! You said you’d give me an answer, but you keep putting it off. I’m worried sick what a pregnancy might do to you, and it won’t get any easier with age.”

Why he was worried over that woman escaped Pema entirely. That woman had no interest in the Air Nation, at any level. She attended at dinner only on rare occasion. She never attended formal functions, never wore robes befitting her station as the Master’s consort. Pema understood they had known each other for years, but this so-called “romance” bore little resemblance to any literature of the type that she had ever read.

They had already been arguing earlier in the day. That woman had been gone within minutes of receiving the phone message. Though Pema had learned a few of the police codes, ‘green fifty’ was not one of them. But that woman had startled before Pema could even turn away.

And Tenzin had returned, alone and forlorn.

Pema had not followed him, precisely. She had gone about her own duties, and merely marked where and when he had been expected, but did not show.

So when she walked by his study later that evening, she was astonished to hear his voice. No one other than that woman joined him in his study for more than a passing moment. If he wanted to have a conversation with someone, even a private one, he would use a different room.

To hear him talking - no, crying - stopped her in her tracks.

She quietly pushed one panel open to see him kneeling in front of his writing desk, his head in his hands.

Unthinkingly, she crossed the room and laid a hand on his shoulder.

He gasped, raised his shoulders, and turned in the direction of the touch.

“Lin? You’re…”

His face fell with such disappointment that it nearly knocked her backwards.

But he schooled his expression and rose to his full height.

“Sister Pema. Forgive me. Is there something I can do to help you?”

Her resolve locked into place, and she raised her chin to look up at him more comfortably.

She took a breath to steady herself, met his eyes and said, “You should marry me, not her.”

His jaw dropped open, but he made no sound, no other motion.

She scrambled to reassemble the coherent argument she had been rehearsing for weeks.

“She doesn’t do anything you like. You never smile when you’re around her. She hates being here. She shows no interest in being part of your life, unless she is staying the night. And even then, she is gone before breakfast.” She paused, but was still getting no reaction from him.

“She doesn’t want children. That’s plain to everyone but you. You spend more time with the children than any other duty here. You clearly want to be a father.” She paused again, but his face was still slack with shock.

“I came here to learn from you. I came here to support you. I have attended your meditations and lectures. I have learned all of the duties on the Island except for being a mechanic for the ferry. I’m familiar with the garden and the children’s school. I have worked in the infant nursery and helped your sister deliver babies.”

She took a half step back and adjusted her shoulders.

“I would be a better wife for you than she ever would be.”

At that, his face slammed shut, anger clouding his features.

She was so taken aback, she only knew he had spoken because she saw his lips move.

She lifted her eyes to his, but found a stormy fury there. Around them, the air swirled, lifting papers from his desk and swirling the robes they each wore.

His lips parted, but his jaw was clenched shut.

“Out.”

She took a shaky breath, not ready to concede. “If you think about it…”

He pointed at the door.

“Out.”

At that, she took a full step backwards, but not in the direction of the door.

“Master -” she stopped. “Tenzin, you deserve better.”

The wind dissipated instantly, leaving a dead stillness as if the air itself had vanished.

He turned away from her, leaving her nearly bereft.

“Just go.”