Apples on my family tree [part 4] - Ripples On Risa

Eva's Personal Log: Stardate 62651.7, Earthdate August 10, 2385.

As the suns set on the horizon, the water rippled with excitement and for the first time I can remember, I'm overwhelmed by their brilliance, and I forget... if even for a moment, why I'm here and what my mission is.  To Kabrina and Devon, it was a joyride to a place that is beautiful (to be sure), but I don't think anyone can truly appreciate such beauty until they see a place without any.  I've never seen so much water in one place... I even accidentally said so.

The beauty of Risa not withstanding, Kabrina became overwhelmed and had to sit and rest.  I'm still trying to gauge just how much power she has at this point.  One thing's for certain: I haven't been uncovered yet, so I can assume she's nowhere near where she was in the past... or the future... whatever.  I remember my mother telling me a story of how she lost her pet tribble, Shrimper, when she was young.  Kabrina was able to find where she had misplaced the pet, just by the feelings she got from my mother's tears.  Something about latent location empathy?  I'm not even sure I understand it all. Tryn would explain it to me, if he were here.

That's something that bothers me: ever since I've come back, I can't help but talking like him.  I find myself doing it whenever a philosophical topic arises, or a metaphor can be used for a point that has to be made.  I just start talking, and it feels as though it's his words coming from my mouth.  Like on Risa.  I launched into a metaphor about how Devon is like a rough unpolished rock that makes ripples when tossed into a pool of water.  How brilliant the ripples were, and how after time, he can become the polished beautiful rock from the very water that he makes the ripples in.  Just thinking about the paradoxical metaphor now gives me a headache.  Did Tryn do something to me when he...
Or maybe I just miss him terribly.

Kabrina and I had a few moments, there in those brilliant twilight hours.  I asked her something I'd been needing to for some time: I asked if she would knowingly hold onto Devon of today (the unpolished rock), if it kept him from becoming the polished one in the future.  To her credit and to my amazement, she said, "No, I wouldn't."  And for the first time, a sparkle of hope reflects on the ripples of the future.