Foxie: the Contact Child—Birthing Village

Chapter 2: Birthing Village

Every ten years, the birthing village of Cha Chu Pani comes to life. People who want to be mothers and fathers travel to the village. Each person is paired with someone they love and get along well with. On Cha Chu Pani, everyone loves everyone, but sometimes two people have a special reason to spend more time together. I was my parents’ special reason.

Parents can be any age or gender, and they can even be different—but compatible—species. It depends on what sort of DNA the future child needs for the mission they will eventually have. Sometimes, instead of two parents, a small group of people joins together to create and care for one Cha Chu Panian baby. The only rule that never changes is this: every person involved must be 100% committed to the project, which is the child.

When the soon-to-be parents are ready, they sit quietly for several hours. An energy bubble forms around each person. Slowly, the bubbles drift toward one another until they overlap. In the shared space between them, a spirit arrives from somewhere else and begins to grow.

That is the beginning of a Cha Chu Panian baby.

It’s not exactly the very, very beginning—because, as I said, every spirit already lives somewhere else first—but it is the beginning of life on Cha Chu Pani.

Chapter 3: Hide and Seek

The birthing village is a wonderful, exciting place. One of our favourite games is hide and seek, but we don’t hide under beds or inside wardrobes. We hide in other dimensions and worlds.

When we play, we leave little clues about where we’ve gone. Sometimes we leave golden, transparent footprints that disappear and reappear. Sometimes we leave a scent trail. My scent smells like a fox, so the other kids know it’s me straight away.

There are so many different kinds of worlds to travel to that no one has ever been able to count them all. Some are like Earth. Some are like Cha Chu Pani. Some are so unusual that it is hard to understand them.

I’ve heard of a world that sits right on the edge of the black hole at the centre of the galaxy we share with you—the Milky Way. The black hole is four million times heavier than your sun but only about seventeen times bigger. So, it’s very heavy for its size. That’s because black holes suck everything in that gets too close.

The strange world sits exactly at the tipping point where everything gets sucked in. The tipping point is called the event horizon—the point of no return.

But the strange world doesn’t fall in. It not only sits there safely, but also gathers all the information the black hole swallows. It’s like a giant cosmic library.

Cha Chu Pani children are warned never to go there in our games. It’s too dangerous.

School lessons in the Birthing Village are fun. When we need to learn something important or difficult to remember, the drumming man comes. We close our eyes while he plays a calm, steady rhythm. Slowly, our heartbeats sync with the beat of the drum. We are awake and alert but extremely relaxed.

When the drumbeat slows down, so do our hearts. Then our teachers tell us things that sink deep inside us—things we will never forget.

Chapter 4: What Next?

Children on Cha Chu Pani grow up much faster than children on Earth. It may sound strange, but by the time we are five, we can mostly look after ourselves. After five fantastic years in the birthing village—with our parents, teachers, and all sorts of other fabulous people—the village shuts down and rests for five years until the next cycle begins.

So what happens to us?

I bet you think we go and live with our parents because we are only five.

But no—we don’t!

That’s when the big adventure begins.

Each of us chooses where we want to go next, based on what we love, what we’re curious about, and what feels right inside us. I chose Gentle Forest because I love animals and everything to do with nature. I think my parents knew that would happen, which is probably why they called me Foxie.

We can easily teleport. It makes travelling easy. When we teleport, we dismantle ourselves in one spot and rearrange ourselves back together in another. If we get into trouble, need something, or want company, we can travel to our parents in an instant. But we don’t need to do that as much as you might think, because on our planet, all children are cared for by all adults. We trust everyone.

We are also telepathic. We know what each other is thinking and we speak without using words. If you visited Cha Chu Pani, you would probably find it very quiet because there isn’t much out-loud talking. We even laugh without making a sound—but sometimes, just for fun, we make a big racket!