Chapter 6 Section VI

June 20, 2202 Today I confirmed that I am pregnant again.Michael was delighted, Richard was startled and didn't know what to say.I reminded him that when we talked about having another child two months ago, he hadn't objected, but had shown great interest.Richard said he was infected by my "overexcitement" at the time and agreed. The baby is due in mid-March when we fix the nursery and provide enough room for the whole family to live.I'm sorry that Richard isn't thrilled to be a father again; but I'm still happy that Simone will have a little companion. March 15, 2203

Catherine Colin Walkerfield ("Katie" as we all call her) was born at 6:16am on March 13th.The labor went smoothly and the baby was born in just 4 hours after the first labor pains started.I gave birth to Katie in a squatting position and was fine and cut the baby's umbilical cord myself without any particular pain. Katie, unlike the quiet Genevieve and Simone, cries a lot, loudly, and is a total noisemaker.Richard was delighted that I named Katie after his father.I'm hoping that Katie's birth will heighten Richard's interest in fatherhood.However, as with Simone, he was still too busy working on his "perfect database" to care for the newborn.

Katie weighed about 4kg at birth and was 54cm long.Simone certainly didn't weigh this much when she was born, and we didn't have an accurate scale to measure her weight.Katie was fairly fair-skinned and had hair much lighter than her sister's dark hair.Her eyes are strangely blue.I know that it is not uncommon for a child to be born with blue eyes, usually the eyes are darker for the first year of life.I never thought my child would be born with blue eyes. May 18, 2203 It is unbelievable that Katie is over two months old.She was a demanding child, always wanting to suck, and I couldn't get rid of her bad habit.She gets very impatient when I'm feeding her when anyone else is around.Sometimes I would just turn my head and talk to Michael, Richard or just answer Simone's questions and she would bite me hard in retaliation.

Richard's moods had been very changeable of late.For a while, it was the familiar Richard, who joked with us with his erudition, making Michael and me laugh.His mood can change at any time, just a casual remark between me and Michael may make him angry, and his mood will become depressed immediately. I think the real problem with Richard is that he was so tired some time ago.He has completed the database project and has not yet started research on a new topic.He used this time to participate in the education of Simone, which added fun and color to his life.But he doesn't pay as much attention to every step of a child's development as Michael and I do.

Michael also noticed that Richard had been listless recently, and he encouraged Richard to make more toys for Simone.Richard made some pretty dolls, and those were Simone's favorite toys.Simone smiled innocently one night when Richard's robot, Bud, chased three dolls and recited Shakespeare's sonnets. For two weeks Richard hadn't slept well, which wasn't often for him.He doesn't seem passionate about anything.In the early morning of three days ago, he climbed to the top of the cave and spent more than ten hours alone near New York.When asked what he was doing, he just replied that he was looking at the Sea of ​​Columns, and then quickly changed the subject.

Both Richard and Michael believed that we were the only ones left on the island.Richard had been to the Aiyun Bird Cave twice recently, standing on the vertical passage away from the sentinels.Added a complex iron fence outside the Octopus Cave.For the past four months, Richard has conducted electronic monitoring around the octospider cave, with results that he has to admit are not clear.Through image observation, he firmly believed that the iron fence had not been opened for a long time. The two men installed the spare boat two months ago, and then used it for two hours in the Cylinder Sea for a two-hour interview. Simone and I stood by the sea and waved to them.In order to prevent the crabs from treating our boat as "garbage", Richard and Michael took the boat apart and took it home for safekeeping.The crabs once treated our boat as rubbish. At that time, we had just escaped the attack of the atomic bomb. When we came to the place where we put the boat, we could not find the boat.

Several times Richard said that he wanted to row across the sea to see the southern corner of the Cylinder of Dharama.Little is known about the southern corner of Rama, and what an adventure it would be to explore!Maybe we'll find out where the octospider went too.But at this moment we can't take any chances, how dependent our family is and how much we need the three adults - losing any one of them is an immeasurable loss. I believe Michael is content with what we have in Rama right now.Through Richard's computer, we can obtain all kinds of data stored in the "Newton" military cabin.Michael's current research assignment is art history, which he says is just for fun.Last month, his topic was full of great painters and important historical figures of the Renaissance, and he completely immersed himself in the history of 19th century art.I'm also very interested in this.We've been talking a lot about the Impressionist revolution lately, but my views are not quite the same as Michael's.

Michael spent a lot of time with Simone, and he was very patient, kind, and gentle with Simone.He watched her development closely and recorded every important milestone in her development in his electronic notebook.Simone can already recognize 21 letters, but she always confuses C with S, Y with V, and for some reason she can't learn K.She can also count to 20, and distinguish between the ivy, the octospider, and the four most common types of robots.She could also name the twelve disciples of Jesus, much to Richard's displeasure.We have held a "summit meeting" on the issue of the spiritual education of our daughters, and there are still great differences.

Although Richard seemed listless at times, Katie would cry like hell, and the wonderful life on this alien spaceship often made me feel elusive, but most of the time I was happy.I am always busy organizing my daily life: what to eat, what to do, when to sleep and rest, etc.Sometimes I kept asking where we were going, and it didn't bother me anymore if I didn't get an answer. Richard, Michael and I often had discussions that stimulated my thinking.Neither was very interested in the intellectual realm, which is part of my life.For example, my language talent showed its sharpness as early as when I was studying.A few weeks ago I had a nightmare: I forgot all languages ​​except English, could not speak or write.In the next two weeks, I insisted on reviewing my favorite French for two hours every day, while studying Italian and Japanese.

One afternoon last month, Richard designed an external telescope input port on the black screen, through which we can see the solar system and a thousand other stars.Although the sun is the brightest planet, it still doesn't look very clear.Richard reminded me and Michael: Now we are in the orbit of a distant galaxy 12 trillion kilometers away from the earth. We watched the movie Queen Eleanor that night.It was one of thirty films prepared for the astronauts before Newton's launch.This movie is based on my father's best-selling novel "Eleno of Aquitaine", and many of the locations are selected from the places I visited with my father when I was a teenager.The film ends with a portrait of Eleanor's final years.I still remember that when I was 14 years old, I stood in front of the statue of Eleanor in the monastery with my father. My hands were shaking with excitement, and I held my father's hand tightly. The queen of history said: "What a great woman you are! You are my role model, and I will never let you down!"

Richard fell asleep that night, and Katie was temporarily quiet.I feel an indescribable loss when I think of the daytime hours.The sun that is getting farther and farther away from us, the image of my boyhood, and the promise to the queen who has been dead for nearly a thousand years, etc., these scenes alternately appear in my mind, constantly reminding myself that everything that is brilliant is over.The two daughters born on Rama will never see this, and it means so much to me and to Genevieve.The two little daughters will never appreciate the fragrance and beauty of flowers and green grass in spring, will never hear the cheerful singing of birds, and will never see the brilliance of the bright moon rising from the sea.They have no idea that there is an Earth and its inhabitants.All they knew was this small, jumbled cabin they called home, and how small and unremarkable it was compared to the bustling world of Earth. I cried, tears slipping down quietly.I am soberly aware that even if I cry all night, I must also smile optimistically at others in the morning.Our lives aren't too bad after all.We have the basic necessities of life: food, water, shelter, good health, the friendship of friends and most importantly - love.It doesn't matter where it is - Earth or Rama, as long as my daughters Simone and Katie can learn to love from a distant Earth, that's enough.Love is the most important and essential factor for a happy life.