Free Native Tongue by Shannon Greenland

language?”
     
     
    “Sometimes.” Parrot stroked the brush down the horse’s side. “But all I have to do is hear someone speak it, and I’m good.”
     
     
    “Huh.” I twirled the hay I held between my fingers. This language thing fascinated me. “And the new languages? How do you learn them so quickly?”
     
     
    It took me a whole week to learn five words in Ushbanian. Talk about slow.
     
     
    He mulled my question around for a few seconds. “I listen for the rhythm, the clicks, the guttural thumps.” He chuckled. “That doesn’t make any sense to you, does it?”
     
     
    I laughed with him, pleased to hear his lightened mood. “You’re right, it doesn’t.”
     
     
    A quiet minute passed as I watched him brush the horse and listened to its heavy breaths.
     
     
    “Dreams?” I asked. “What language do you dream in?”
     
     
    “They’re silent and black and white, like an old movie.”
     
     
    “That’s your brain’s way of telling you it needs quiet for a while.” I put the hay in my mouth and chewed on the end.
     
     
    “Think about it. You’ve got a whole world living in your head. It has to wear out your poor brain.”
     
     
    Parrot smiled. “That’s a good way to put it.”
     
     
    “Excuse me, GiGi?”
     
     
    I glanced over my shoulder. David, my boyfriend , stood across the barn in the doorway backlit by a ray of sun that filtered through the cloudy sky. My stomach fluttered. With my preoccupation with my translation program, I’d barely seen him in the past week. And I certainly hadn’t gotten any more of his yummy kisses.
     
     
    “Be right back,” I said to Parrot, who smiled and nodded. I jogged across the barn to my boyfriend David.
     
     
    His dark eyes crinkled. “Hey, gorgeous. Long time no see.”
     
     
    “Hey.”
     
     
    David took my hand. “TL’s sending me to Egypt to help Piper and Curtis with a few things.”
     
     
    My joy at seeing him drained away. “What?”
     
     
    “I’m leaving tomorrow morning. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Do you want to go for a walk or something? Just the two of us?”
     
     
    But I’d be leaving for South America in a few weeks. What if David didn’t get back before I left? It’d be forever before we saw each other again. “What are you helping them with?”
     
     
    He squeezed my hand. “I’m not allowed to say. I’m sorry.”
     
     
    Nodding, I looked down at our joined hands. “It sucks having secrets.”
     
     
    David moved closer. “Yes, it does. But one day we’ll both have the clearance to talk freely with each other about our work.”
     
     
    He had more clearance than any of us.
     
     
    A breeze flowed in, messing my hair. He smoothed the stray strands from my cheek. “So what do you say? Want to go for a walk?”
     
     
    I glanced back through the barn to the stalls. I didn’t want Parrot to be alone. He needed somebody other than his horse, and I wanted him to know he could count on me as a friend.
     
     
    With a soft smile, I turned to David. “I would love to spend time with you. Believe me. But Parrot’s back there all alone, and I think he needs a friend right now. I’m sorry. Please understand.”
     
     
    Making the right decision, picking Parrot over David, a friend over my boyfriend, brought me peace and a sense of maturity I’d never experienced before.
     
     
    David kissed my cheek. “Don’t apologize. Your dedication to your friends is one of the many reasons I adore you. We’ll find each other later.”
     
     
    He slipped something from his back pocket and brought it around. A lollipop! I grinned. He was the greatest guy on the entire planet. He handed it to me and gave me another quick kiss.
     
     
    “That’s forty-one,” I said as he stepped away.
     
     
    He looked at me, clearly not understanding, then it dawned on him, and he smiled. “No, it’s thirty-nine.”
     
     
    I watched him stroll away, scrolling my mind through every kiss. I