Day one. The body woke up and the girl is going about her morning, though she is rubbing the bump on her head occasionally as well. I'm not apologizing. You can't make me. Celestine starts her day by rubbing her body off of all the sticky sweat that accumulated during the night with a cloth. She tries to do it all herself, but Mother ends up scraping off her back. How do they even get water here anyway? From the memories, this city is a decent size. Not as big as a city on Earth, but larger than a few farmers, hunters, and fishermen could reasonably supply. I think they do a lot of importing. From where, I don't know. The city isn't by a lake, river, or ocean, so it confuses me. Can't ask Mother about that without alerting the other soul, so I will stay quiet and only voice my questions internally.

Celestine and Mother eat a simple breakfast of hard tack and fish. We really are poor, aren't we Mother?

While eating I try to tap into the taste buds like I already have with sight and sound. I accidentally end up taking full control of the tongue and she ends up biting it. Ouch! Little devil! Oh, you're crying now. Not apologizing.

After breakfast, Mother dresses up Celestine in her sundress and hat while she wears her underwear, bra, a simple cloth top that doesn't cover her belly, and a skirt that drops over her knees. The fashion sense is non-existent. More necessity than anything. I hope we can move to a more temperate region one of these days so we can actually wear some decent clothes. You look like a prostitute, Mother. But I will forgive you because of the circumstances. Better to go out dressed half-naked than die of heat exposure. I wonder how hot it really is outside anyway. That was something Celestine's memories didn't exactly take note of. When you live in nothing but heat, you don't know how to compare it to the cooler temperatures. Touch is the next sense I need to master. I tap into her mind to gleam the experience from her and my heart died a little.

IT'S SOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOT. OH MY GAAAAWD. It has to be at least 120 degrees here. Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to build a city here and why the hell did you think it was a good idea to raise a child here, Mother?! I know everyone has their own circumstances, but even the Arabian cities I lived in when I was on Earth were cooler than this! If the founder is still alive, I want to stomp on their foot! I can already feel the sweat forcing the sundress to cling to my body.

"Tina, dear." Mother said beside me. The body turns to face her through the mop that had become of the hair. Mother places an odd contraption up to Celestine's mouth. "Drink." Mother spoke in simple words that Celestine could understand. She seemed to be familiar with this device, too. It looked like a marble with a few wires and a bowl attached to the bottom of it under the marble. The marble bit was pressed to Celestine's lips. She obediently sucked on the marble and could feel a chill liquid with no taste drizzle down her throat. Water. Water?! From the marble? The more she sucked on it, the less sticky she felt. The drier her dress became and her hair was no longer stuck fast to her head. Mother casually pulled it back behind her ears while still holding the contraption to her lips. When no more water would come out, Celestine stopped, pulled back, and I saw the marble drop a white powder out from its base and into the bowl. Mother did the same and even more powder dropped into the bowl. Did... what did I just witness?

Mother nodded and folded up the contraption that makes water and a white powder from sucking on it, then we left the house to go on various errands. Celestine happily humming while holding Mother's hand while I am sitting in the back of my mind trying to figure out what I just experienced. My only conclusion is magic. Some kind of magic apparatus that pulls the sweat off the body, separates the water from the sweat, cools it, and lets you drink it back into your body to replenish your supply of water while saving the minerals from the sweat, mostly salt, for later use.

The first place they visited was something that reminded me of a bank. There was a stone counter behind metal bars that people were exchanging money with and either not obviously buying anything or selling anything. The building was cooler than the house and outside, so Celestine was able to relax a little. She casually gripped the hem of her dress and fanned her sweaty legs, earning her a bop on the head from Mother's knuckle.

The line didn't last too long. Can't say the same for many of Earth's banks, so they must be doing something right here. When we got to the desk, Mother greeted the teller, "Good morning, @^%$#."

"Morning, Syl$#^#. Taking out %$#%$#@'s @^%@$# #$^@@%$ #[email protected]@@ today?"

"That time of the !^%[email protected]^." Mother replied, a mischievous grin on her face. A lot of what Celestine could make out didn't make much sense without the other words to add to the context. Something about it was obviously never explained to her. I couldn't make out names or words, so I didn't bother trying.

The teller had Mother press a crystal she took from her small leather purse into a stone slab. It lit up briefly before the teller turned to goto the back room. She returned with a small, what appeared to be burlap, bag of jangling metal that I assumed was money. But Celestine had no memory at all of Mother leaving or doing any work at home for money. What did you do to earn that, Mother?

"You helping your momma today, little Celestine?" The teller asked, looking down at us.

"Yeees!" Celestine chirped back loudly with a huge smile on her face.

The teller laughed softly while Mother was looking in the bag and was counting the contents, I assume. When she was satisfied she tightened the twine draw string and stuffed it in her leather purse.

"Let's go, baby." She said, patted our head and we were about to go when the teller spoke up again.

"Has he @#^%# for your %#^%$#& yet, Syl$#^#? That's where you're going, right? Just make him pay for it. Save you a little #[email protected]^%%$ each #@^##."

"The less I have to #$### with him the better. That's why I come here and not to his [email protected]#%^$#^@. If I have him pay for #^%#% then the more I @[email protected]$# him." Mother replied, her brow twitching in agitation.

"You know he's more than $#^@#^@ to pay. Just @^#$## about Celestine's ^$#@^&@@$."

"I don't need your !$^@%^@$$, @^%[email protected]$." She was getting angry now. "I know what's @^#%$# for Celestine. If ever I need to @^%#%$# at his #@^%$#%$, I will only for her. But that day IS NOT TODAY."

"Okay, okay, #[email protected]^$#@ I said anything. @@%[email protected]#$ it, okay? No hard @^@#[email protected]? But if you ever need more #@^@$, just ask. We can @^%$##$ him for you. @$^%$^*$ it my @$^@%^#$."

"I'll keep that in mind." And with that odd exchange, we left to complete the various errands.

The first place we visited was the tallest building in the city, I think. It's kind of hard to tell if it's the tallest when you're waist-high. Mother and I walked inside and Celestine's eyes were glued on the various tapestries hanging on the walls. I was more interested in the giant glowing crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling on thin wires. The entire circular auditorium room was illuminated in a blue hue. A large raised platform stood in the middle of a half-circle of stone pews. This was a church. No doubt about it. And the crystals were powered by some sort of magic. I wanted to know how they worked. I want to know everything! STOP STARING AT THE PAINTINGS ON THE WALL, GIRL! Erm, I mean, I suppose they're pretty. Lots of pictures of stars and even a galaxy on one. A couple nebula. Wait, why were we here again?

Mother seemed to have done what we came here to do without Celestine noticing. We were already leaving. I spotted a few people in galaxy-adorned robes slightly waving at us with a smile. I want to know what they do. Why is everything so spacey?

But I am still a child... A child can't do much. I hate this. Knowing what I know as I reincarnate. If I had to wait until I grew up every time, I would probably go insane. Just this once, though, I am going to be patient. I will continue to test my limits of existing here without notice and when Celestine is old enough to fully communicate, I will begin contact.