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wholly separate of Ukiah. Perhaps Kittanning’s individuality came from resisting Hex’s will, perhaps it came automatic with the conscious mind of the human form, or maybe it was something more metaphysical, being gifted with a soul at the moment of his human transformation. Whatever it was, Ukiah had held the baby and known that Kittanning was no longer his as in the manner of fingers and toes, but his as in the manner of a son.
    Prior to Ukiah’s trip to Oregon, though, he had wondered at the truth of this, worried that he was mistaken. He had been ignorant of his mice nearly up to the day of Kittanning’s “birth.” What if the personality he felt in Kittanning was merely a projection of his own?
    Now, knowing he wasn’t the child born to his mother, but a blood animal transformed himself, Ukiah recognized that Kittanning was also a true individual. The knowledge, as he gazed down at the sleeping baby, banished all of Ukiah’s worries and left him with only love for his son.
    Lifting Kittanning out of his crib, Ukiah cuddled his son to him, waking him.
    Daddy! Joy shimmered through Kittanning, and the tiny fists clutched tight at Ukiah. Between them, there was no need for words of love, it poured out unreserved. Tempered into the flow, though, was a sense of terrible sorrow as the weeks had passed with glacial slowness for the infant, and a faint terror that Kittanning would grow to forget his father.
    â€œI’m home to stay,” Ukiah promised and kissed the soft black hair.
    Evans City, Pennsylvania
Monday, September 13, 2004
    â€œIt’s just I feel funny not telling anyone,” Mom Lara complained during the normal morning confusion, complicated by the addition of baby Kittanning to their family, and the recent start of school for Ukiah’s sister, Cally. Lunch bags stoodhalf-filled on the counter, morning coffee scented the kitchen, and a baby bottle shimmered on the cooktop. “I have a doctorate in astronomy. I’ve written papers on all of my tiny, almost insignificant discoveries. Now, I know everything about the most important discovery of mankind since—since the invention of written language, and I can’t say anything!”
    â€œI’m sorry, Mom.” Ukiah rocked back and forth, patting Kittanning on the back. He still found it disorienting to cradle the infant to him. They were so identical that his senses could barely determine where his body stopped and his son’s started. Ukiah could feel Kittanning’s hunger as if it was his own.
    â€œI’m hungry,” Kittanning whimpered into his mind.
    â€œI know, pumpkin.” Ukiah yawned. Kittanning’s hunger had woken them up in the middle of the night. With typical baby self-centeredness, Kittanning had shown very little patience with Ukiah’s late-night fumbling and needed a great deal of rocking to settle back to bed. In all, an hour had been stolen out of the heart of Ukiah’s sleep. Normally this wouldn’t leave Ukiah yawning; that it did was proof he hadn’t recovered fully from the battering he took in Oregon. “Your bottle is almost ready.”
    â€œActually, it’s not the scientific community that bothers me. Who would believe that ugly thing sat up there for two hundreds years or more, while a war between alien factions took place here on Earth, right under our noses? Only thirty-two percent of scientists polled believed that the ship posed a possible threat. Fourteen percent actually went so far as to say that interstellar conquest is an impossibility. No one is going to believe me if I try to claim that the alien ship was going to wipe out all life as we know it. I have no hard evidence.”
    â€œYou have me and Kittanning,” Ukiah murmured.
    â€œUkiah!” Mom Lara’s hard look forbade him to even joke about the subject.
    â€œIs his bottle ready?” Ukiah changed the subject.
    â€œIt should be.” Mom Lara