Chapter Eleven: “They Don't Talk Like That Here.”

Chapter Eleven: “They Don't Talk Like That Here.”

“I’ve been watching the Markets since I got here.” Megan said to Erica softly after they wandered around the marketplace for a while. “They don’t charge for food.”

“What?” Erica couldn't believe that.

“Seriously, they don’t charge for food. Every house I’ve seen since I got here has a veggie patch, or an orchard like Hugh has. They swap with each other, but they never charge for it. If it’s here, it’s because it’s the stuff they have left over. Someone wants something, they walk up and ask for it. Look around, half these stalls don’t have people watching them.”

Erica looked. Megan was right. “So what stops people from just taking it all?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve never seen anyone take more than one basket of anything.” Megan admitted. “Hugh’s fruit trees? He always has tons more than he can eat. Kasumi taught me how to preserve it in jars. There’s a guy on the other side of the tower who makes the jars and lids in his workshop. Kasumi took me along; swapped a print of one of her photos for a blanket, then swapped that for a jacket, then took it to the guy and swapped it for a box of jars,” She reached into her bag and pulled out a jar of preserved fruit. “I made it myself.”

Erica couldn’t help the laugh. “Wow. Look at you, Pollyanna. Making jam and picking fruit.”

Megan flushed a little and looked down. “I figured it’d last longer in a jar if we were going to…”

“To take off?” Erica finished. “You want to do that?”

“I go where you go.” Megan said finally. “You always said if you were in a place you didn’t trust, find a way out and figure things out when you’re safe.”

“Yeah, I did.” Erica looked behind them at the Market, and the road that would lead back to the house Megan had been living in for a while without her. The other direction was the open road. Behind them the tower, with an airship docked. “You know how much a ticket costs?”

“I checked out the train schedules. No charge.”

“They don’t charge for that either? Good grief, sweetie; where the %$&!# are we?” Erica remarked in disbelief.

A few people glanced over sharply, and Erica couldn’t figure out what had drawn their attention. She hadn’t been speaking loudly, at least she hadn’t thought so.

“They don’t talk like that here.” Megan told her softly. “They don’t use bad words.”

“Everywhere uses swear words.”

Megan shook her head. “Not here. They don’t charge for food, they don’t steal, they don't swear.”

Erica rolled her eyes. “Well, not that I don’t believe you, kid; but that’s impossible. But if it’s true, then it’s all the more reason to get out of here and find someplace sane. We stick out too much here.”

Megan nodded. “Okay.”

“If they’re willing to give us credit in the Market, then we’ve got some time. We won’t get far on a jar of fruit.”

“There are community gardens and orchards all over the place.” Megan reported. “I’ve been marking where they are on my map; but I don’t have anything past the tower. The station is as far as I was able to go without getting caught.”

Erica nodded. “Well, I’ve been busy too.” She confided. “Your guy Hugh wants to know where I go when I’m not in your room; he has no idea. None of them do. I’ve been getting supplies and stashing-”

“You’re wrong. They all know.” Megan said plainly.

Erica froze. “What?”

“They know you’re the one taking things.” Megan told her without blinking.

“The hell they do, I ain’t never been caught yet.”

“Yeah, but they still know who’s doing it.” Megan told her. “They knew it was me when I was stashing stuff. Hugh and Kas didn’t say anything because they knew why I wanted my own food in reserve. But the guy with the stall full of tools knew you took the pocketknife, and the guy with the stall full of clothes knew you swiped the scarf, and the guy with the information booth knew you took the maps.”

Erica didn’t let her face change, but she looked around the market as Megan listed the charges. Sure enough, the stall keepers she was talking about were all looking at her. Not angry, not even judgmental, but they all knew exactly where she was. “Alright. How?”

“The people here are sharp, Erica. You heard what they said about how long they’ve lived? I don’t know about that, but they can do anything. Hugh’s sketchbook is better than anything I ever saw in those Museums we used to hang out in during winter. Kasumi has photos of places I only saw in nature magazines, my school teacher can play any instrument you put in her hands; they can run like track athletes, and they have whole books memorized. Big books. Like the bible.” Megan gestured. “They can tell when they’re missing something that was there ten seconds ago. The people here don’t steal, so they know it’s the new kid doing it. I know, because until you came back, I was the new kid.”

Erica stared at her. “You saying they’re letting me do it?”

“I’m saying they’re not hung up about it. They don’t understand people who take things they don’t need. It’s not like the old days, Erica. We don’t have to do the things we used to.”

Long silence.

“You really believe that?” Erica asked carefully.

“I dunno.” Megan hesitated, wanting to say yes but not wanting to tell Erica she disagreed. “But you were dead and now you’re not. I can’t think of anything else.”

“Look, sweetie; I know you like Hugh and Kas. They’ve been nice to you. So was your last foster family. But when you get sick, is Kasumi going to sit up with you, or just tell you to stay in your room until you stop coughing like the last one you tried calling ‘mom’?”

Megan looked down.

“When you need cash, or when you want to see a show, are they going to take you? Or will it be a 'waste of time and money' like with the last guy you wanted to call 'dad'?” Erica pressed. “And when one of these guys at the Market complains to Hugh, you think he’s going to stick up for us? Has anyone? Ever? In our lifetimes, has anyone ever defended us?”

“Just us.” Megan said.

“Right.” Erica said, breaking it to her gently. “I don’t doubt they care about you, babe. That’s obvious. I just don't want you to get hurt again. We take care of us. We always do.”

Megan looked up at her. “Not all the time.”

Erica blinked. “What does that mean?”

Megan was silent for a long time, and then changed the subject. “I think I saw an angel last month. Two of them, in fact.”

Erica stared. “Okay. I’m waiting for the punchline.”

Megan shook her head. “I was ready to bolt too. I swiped a bike, and started riding once I had Kasumi looking the other way…” Megan told the story. “And once I got away from the market, the…. The bike just stopped. I kept pressing on the pedals, but the wheels just wouldn’t turn… And then just two guys just appeared out of thin air; on of either side of me. They lifted me off the bike, and walked me home.” Megan shook her head in wry disbelief. “They had wings.”

Erica stared blankly at her. “Kid, you haven’t gone crazy on me, have you? Like Janice did? You know the sorts of things she saw when she was tripped out. She thought she saw angels calling to her once, and she flew thirty feet, straight to the ground.”

“I know!” Megan insisted. “I checked. Janice came back a month before I did. She’s home with her grandmother now!”

Erica scoffed.

“The two of them walked me home, and…” Megan cleared her throat hard. “They told me that I was brave, and I was smart, and that Jehovah God loved me and wanted me to know it. They told me that I didn’t have to run away again, and that I can be as strong as I want to be. They told me the world was better now, and that millions of people who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from would never have to worry about that again.”

“We’ve heard all those words before, Megan. More than once.” Erica told her.

“Wings, Erica!” Megan insisted. “They let me check! I touched them! They were real!”

Erica let out a breath hard between her teeth. “Aw, man.” She let out a whine. “Megan, you know I love you, right?”

“I know.”

“Kid, I can see how badly you want this to be real. I just… I hate to see you disappointed again.” Erica said gently. “I told you once, you had to pick your shot if you want something in life, because you never get a second chance. You’re telling me you picked this? I mean… The idea that God snapped his fingers and took everything bad away, brought back the dead and gave us all eternal life in paradise? That’s the sort of fairy tale that Santa Claus would find hard to swallow.”

“I know it.” Megan agreed. “Which is why I was waiting for you.”

~~/*\~~

Kasumi checked the time again. “They’ve run.”

“They’re one hour overdue. Erica’s never seen the Markets before.” Hugh told her, trying to calm her down.

“No, but Megan has. What do you want to bet that the two of them stuffed their bags with whatever they could get in one day at the Market and hopped a train? How would we even find them again if-”

The door opened, cutting her off mid-sentence. Erica came in first, leading Megan by the hand. Megan was smiling broadly. Something that Hugh and Kasumi had never seen her do before.

“This is a very interesting place you guys have.” Erica said broadly. “Never seen a market that doesn’t have at least one stall full of bootleg CD's. How do you guys stand it?”

Kasumi’s eyes went straight to Megan, still holding Erica’s hand. They looked like a natural mother and daughter, despite their ages. “You missed dinner.”

“Oh, don’t worry. We ate at the market.” Megan barely noticed the expression on her face.

Kasumi looked helplessly at Megan for a moment. “Okay, um… Well then, you have study to do for next week… And it’s getting late, so you should probably do that before bed.”

“Aw, I’m not tired.” Mega waved it off. “I have plenty of time.”

“Still…”

“Kasumi, how do you expect her to sleep when she’s not tired?” Erica drawled. “You don’t turn it on and off like a light-switch.”

Megan nodded at that. It was clear who’s side she was on.

Hugh spoke up. “Megan, go up to bed and I’ll make up the spare room for Erica if she’s willing to stay. She's slept on your floor long enough; it's time she had her own room.”

It worked. Megan immediately turned to Erica hopefully. “You will, right? You’ll stay here?”

Erica hesitated for a split second. She had in fact been planning to leave, come back at breakfast. But she couldn’t bring herself to say so. And if she stayed inside, it meant Megan would too.

Hugh pressed the advantage. “You know, Megan… maybe Erica would like to know about some of the things you’re studying. You know that school isn’t limited to kids any more. Maybe she’d like to know what the school is teaching you.”

Megan beamed, loving this idea. “We could go together!” She clapped. “I’ll get my books!”

Hugh sent Kasumi a look and followed Megan upstairs, leaving Erica and his wife alone together for a few minutes.

The minute they went upstairs, Erica scowled at Kasumi. “You can talk about truth and honesty, but I can see how good you are at manipulating her.”

“He wasn’t manipulating her, he was getting her out of the room so that you and I could have a chat.” Kasumi said quietly. “I don’t get to preach at you about how you stayed alive back in the day. But I do get to set the rules in my own house. You don’t know me yet, but I think you know Megan enough to know that if we were like her last Foster family, she would have bolted long ago.”

Erica’s face was stone, but after a moment she nodded.

“And I think that you know Megan enough to know that if she tells you a place is safe, then you can believe that, at least long enough to find out for yourself.”

Still no expression, but Erica gave a single nod.

“I know you think I’m against you, Erica. But you were the one and only person who gave her love that she trusted.” Kasumi said firmly. “So from the bottom of my heart: I want to say thank you.”

Erica twitched. This was unexpected.

“You have been the one and only person in Megan’s life that makes her think that maybe there’s someone who might be willing to help. If she can believe that from you, she can grudgingly accept it from us. And from the things she’s told me, you had a hard enough time keeping yourself alive, without adopting a ten year old kid for two years. To me, that makes you a hero… Or at the very least, a mom. Speaking as someone trying to fill your shoes, Megan seems to hold you above the whole human race. So I want to say thank you for that.” She took a breath. “But if Megan decides she’s going to follow your lead again, then you better make absolutely sure that you’re right. Because if you never have to eat out of a dumpster again, and you do anyway? Megan might just do the same. She followed your lead in everything for two years, including the minute she found out you’d died. Don’t underestimate the amount of-”

“What?” Erica reacted. It was the first outright horror anyone had seen on her face. “That’s what she meant. ‘Not all the time’.” Erica turned on her heel and sprinted up the stairs to Megan’s room and forced the door open without knocking. “Out!” She told Hugh.

Hugh read her face and decided to chance it, leaving them alone. Erica shut the door behind him and spun on Megan. “Kid! You took The Exit on me?”

Megan scowled. “Can’t tell a mom anything, can you?”

“Shut up about that an’ answer me: You gave up?” Erica demanded. “I taught you better than that! I taught you to keep rolling with it. I taught you to keep your chin up and your eyes front.”

“And then you died.” Megan told her harshly.

Erica froze.

“I hated it.” Megan confessed. “Because you were right. There was no way out for people like us. Nobody was going to help us without putting us in a cage. Zoo animals or alley cats. Those were our choices.” She went hard. “I came back to the squat and… You already had rats sniffing around you! So yeah, I gave up. And you know what? I wound up here! If the Padre was right, and this is Hell, it’s better than the Squat. I’m even with you!”

Erica licked her lips. “It’s for real, isn’t it? Everything they’re telling us. We’re not in the Hot Place.”

“Padre was a moron.” Megan scoffed. “I looked him up in the Database. He didn’t make it past A-Day. He got his. He dropped his collar at the snap of a finger when the wind changed on him, and… He was wrong. All that time he spent telling us that God despised sinners? Well we’re here and he’s not.”

Erica was silent a moment. “Kid, you were the one and only good thing I ever did. I figured there was no way I was going to heaven; and given that I didn’t believe in it, I didn’t mind so much. But now I find out that you gave up without me? That doesn’t fill me with rainbows, y’know.”

Megan shrugged.

Erica leaned back against the closed door. “Kasumi… She said something just now… She said that if I’m wrong, and there’s no reason to go off-grid any more… If I did it anyway and you came with me, then that makes me the bad guy in this story, wouldn’t it?”

“You could stay here.” Megan said hopefully.

Erica stared. “I love you, kid. But I’m looking around this house, and you know what I’m seeing? Something we never had before?”

“Wallpaper.”

Erica snorted. “A family. I mean, a real, actual family. I’ve never seen one before, but I can still tell. I’m not sure I’d be that… useful.”

Megan shrugged. “I thought that way once. They kept me, didn’t they?”

Erica looked at her carefully for a long moment. “Okay.” She said finally. “Get some sleep.”

“Will you…”

“I’ll be here in the morning.” Erica promised.

~~/*\~~

Kasumi was cleaning up the kitchen, when she noticed she had company. Erica was drying the plates and stacking them carefully. Kasumi said nothing for a while, and the two of them worked quietly.

“You were right.” Erica said finally. “I don’t know if I can trust you yet. It’s not the first time I’ve been promised a better deal, and it’s not the first time I’ve woken up in a whole other place with no memory of how I got there.”

Kasumi nodded. “Give it time before you decide if this is real or not.”

“Oh, I know it’s for real. If what Megan said about Angels didn’t convince me, then an hour at that Market did for sure. What else could tick all the boxes? Either God made this place or someone else did, and I can’t believe anyone else could pull it off.” Erica nodded blandly.

Kasumi was so derailed by the simple matter-of-fact tone that she had to struggle for words.

“You think it’s weird?” Erica commented blandly. “Consider this for a second. My world was a small place. If someone told me that Martians had landed on the far side of the world, it wouldn’t have made any difference. Telling me that this guy had won an election, or that side had lost a war? None of it mattered on my end. None of it made the slightest difference. So you tell me that God’s running the show now? Fine. Once again, that’s for people who have their lives affected by things, good or bad. I believe just fine, the same way I believed that the earth was round, or that someone had walked on the moon before I was born. All of them are useful facts, and interesting things to know, but so what? So the earth is round, but I still ate out of a dumpster. Does it really make a difference?”

“Living forever doesn’t interest you?”

“Forever is a meaningless word. Forever is a very long time to wait and say ‘I told you so’ if you turn out to be wrong. Once again, I slept in a subway car when winter came; because it was warmer than the surface. 'Forever' means that I'll do that for a century instead of a decade.” She scoffed. “So men walked on the moon. Who cares? Life doesn’t change.”

“You say that because yours was short. If you lived to be my age-”

“Then the rules would stay the same.” Erica told them. “So we don’t have to worry as much about getting beaten up? Fine. But for people who know how to read a room and know when a fight’s brewing, it’s not like avoiding violence is any great miracle. I got my hand slapped away for asking for food, so I found it myself. I got laughed out of the room when I asked for a job, so I had to find my own cash. I got turned down every time I tried to find a house, so I found my own place to live. I had a family. It was Megan, and everyone told me I couldn’t take care of her and tried to take her off me, throw her back in The System. But I still kept her fed and warm and safe. So God is offering food and safety and family? I already had all that, and did it in spite of the whole world trying, tooth and nail, to stop me. God and I have an understanding. I don’t bother Him, and He doesn’t bother me.”

“And if there was something better than that?”

“Then who cares? I know there’s better than survival out there, but reaching for something better doesn't really strike me with inspiration. I was there the day the millionaires jumped out the windows. The same Wall Street guys who had cops run me off were begging for spare change a year later. I can look after myself. If you can give Megan more than I could, then I am all for it. But you know what? Me and Megan both knew people who were born and lived their whole lives without ever having their own bed, and they never felt sorry for themselves. I’m not ashamed of it. I’m good at it. But telling me it’s all better now is an insult. I can look after myself, and I don’t need help to do it. I know, because no matter how much I begged for help, I never got any. So I stopped wasting my time on asking, and started spending my time on getting by.”

“And then you arrived here, and we were just two more people who tried to take Megan away from you, and told you that you couldn’t do it alone.” Kasumi finished dryly. “I’m sorry for that. I promise, it wasn't meant as an insult to your ability to look after your own. It’s our job to show you how much the world has changed, and we don’t appear to have done a good job of it, have we?”

“Better than you think.” Erica admitted. “You won Megan over, if nothing else. You seem like good folks; and I appreciate the straight talk. It’s more than I’ve ever gotten from anyone else. It’s just that I’ve heard all these promises before. People don’t get out of my kind of life.”

“You know what? You did.” Kasumi said simply. “And it had nothing to do with earning it or deserving it. Acts 15:11 says: ‘On the contrary, we have faith that we are saved through the undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus’.”

“Undeserved. I heard that a lot.” Erica commented with a cynical grin. “But for me, it was always a reason to get turned away. God is like any other authority. He’ll promise you the sun and the moon until you show up and ask for it, and then He’ll tell you all the reasons why you don’t deserve it.”

“I could see you thinking that way back in your old life.” Kasumi told her. “But when I was Megan’s age, I was in a hospital bed dying of Leukemia, and then I woke up here and walked across the whole world and back again with a smile on my face. And God never stopped me to make sure I deserved any of the beautiful sights I saw.” She looked hard at Erica. “Can you blame me for wanting you and Megan to feel the same way?”

Erica sighed hard. “Could I actually be in a world where you don’t have to earn love?” It wasn’t really a question, she was just musing to herself. After a moment, her eyes went back to Kasumi. “I… I checked. I should have some scars, but I don’t any more. I don’t know what can do that, and I’m not ready to sing hosanna just yet. But you were right. I have to think about Megan. I’ve done that long enough that it’s sometimes the only thing I think about.” She looked sideways at Kasumi. “She’s such a good kid, y’know?”

Kasumi smiled. “I know.”

“Not yet you don’t, because she hasn’t let you see. Not for real. But for what it’s worth, you got a lot further than her other foster homes ever did.” Erica told her. “Look, I don’t agree with some of what you’re saying, but I’m not taking any chances with Megan… So I’ll be good. It’s your house, and that means you get to call the tune. At least until I get some idea of what else to do.”

Kasumi nodded. “We’d be good to her, Erica. We’d take care of her.”

“I… want that.” Erica said finally. “I want Megan to get a great life, go to school, sleep in a bed, go somewhere better than I did. Of course I want that… But every person who has offered her something better than what we carved out ourselves? There was always a catch. I mean, I could have stayed with my dad if I could tolerate getting a black eye every time he had a bad night. I would have had a bed and three squares a day, but…”

“There’s no excuse for what you went through.” Kasumi agreed. “And you’re to be commended for having the courage enough to look after yourself. Plenty of people would have been far more scared of facing an uncertain future than of standing up to bad things.”

Erica scowled. “You're always quick with the smooth answer, Kasumi. Megan tells me you've handled plenty of 'resurrections' before. But so help me, if you turn out to be like the rest of them anyway, I will do something bad to you for breaking her heart again.”

“I know that trust is earned. But I’m still going to say it, even if you won’t take my word for it yet: You can trust us. Megan can trust us.”

Erica let out a breath. “Thing is, I almost want to believe it more than Megan does. I’m… hoping to be hopeful.”

Kasumi grinned and put the last plate away. “Well. It’s a start.”

~~/*\~~

Father God,

Things are definitely improving. Adding Erica was actually the best thing that could have happened. Megan would take Erica’s word over anyone’s, including Your angels. Erica would have taken off weeks ago if not for her love for Megan. Erica won’t cross the line if there’s a chance that Megan would do the same, so both of them keep the other even.

Megan has been playing the experienced tour guide, showing Erica around the Market, the hall… Erica still believes in You the same way she believed in any kind of Miracle back in OS. Nice to think about, but not enough to hang a hope on.

It’s been months since Erica joined us. She isn’t staying with us full time, though she comes over to be with Megan constantly. She defers to Kasumi when she does stay with us, and having Erica’s tacit approval has made things so much easier between Megan and Kas. It doesn’t feel like we’ve gained a second daughter, and it doesn’t feel like Erica’s trying to take over. It feels more like a transition.

I think that Erica’s not planning to stay. Not forever. But she keeps edging into place with our family; and I’m not sure why.

Fortunately, I have one surprising common interest with Erica Knowles.

~~/*\~~

“Try it now!” Erica called up to him.

“Trying now!” In the cockpit, Hugh worked the controls. The tail rudder turned.

“It works!” Erica called back. “What about the engines? I haven’t seen anything with a gas engine running since I got back. Are there even fuel stations any more?”

“Nope, but we don’t need them. The High IQ Team my brother’s working with have been turning out all kinds of power alternatives. I’m hardly the only one with an interest in restoring antiques. Solar would mean redesigning the whole plane, but there are chemical alternatives. Ones that don’t affect engine function too much. Even in a B-25.” He pointed out the window, over to the wing. “Mind helping me with a few engine tests? Number two engine’s been misfiring, and I think the timing’s off.”

Erica nodded and came over to help, walking along the fuselage to get to the exposed engine.

“Mind if I ask where you learned about engines?”

Erica shrugged. “You live like I did, you figure out how to be useful. I had this… boyfriend. Probably the wrong word for it, but it was better than the alternative. He had problems with his own family, and with… substances. But he was my best bet to stay the hell away from my own folks. We spent a lot of time getting his car working. It was a hunk of junk and rust, held together by positive thinking and duct tape. It’s a miracle the thing didn’t explode every time we started it. But we lived in that car for almost a year, going from one end of the country to the other, before the thing finally fell apart. The cops who came to offer help noticed how stoned we were; and that was the story of that.”

Hugh almost smirked. “You just described every great love story.”

Erica snorted at the sarcasm. “It’s life, Hugh. It’s just what happens. And before you start, I know things have changed.”

“Do you?” He commented. “Because it feels like everything’s changed except you.”

“I’ve been looking through Kasumi’s ‘Trophy Room’. A century of stories around a room full of knick-knacks. If I had a place to put stuff, I would have happily lived like that. The only souvenir I ever kept in my wanderings was Megan.”

Hugh laughed.

Erica tuned the engine slightly. “Try it now.”

Hugh did so. The engine started up, spluttering and coughing, before it went off completely. “No good.” He sighed. “Well, plenty of time to get to that.”

“Lemme try again.” Erica scanned the row of tools over near the bench, looking for one in particular. “You’re missing a few.”

“They aren’t missing, they’re loaned out.” Hugh told her. “Someone in the Cong needed a wrench for a home repair, someone else needed a hand drill. I’ve got the most complete toolbox for about thirty miles, so when someone has a need…”

Erica had a pained look on her face, somewhere between a look of disgust and awe. “I just… By all natural laws of reality, your tools should be gone, never to be seen again. If they haven’t been stolen or pawned outright, then someone should have misplaced it, or forgotten where they got it, or loaned it on to someone else without your permission.”

Hugh laughed again. “Sooner or later, you’re going to get used to the rules of this place, my dear.”

Erica looked sad. “Never.”

Hugh climbed out of his seat and collected his own toolkit, bringing it outside the plane as he climbed up to join her, both of them sitting on the plane's wing, with the engine between them.

Erica took the toolkit off him without looking, mind elsewhere. “I mean, even if I do believe it… and I guess I do, I don’t exactly…” She looked away from him, into the engine. “I didn’t tell Megan everything.” She confessed silently. “We didn’t agree on everything, y’know.”

Hugh was careful. “Oh?”

Erica kept looking into the engine. “I saw in the Broadcast that some extinct species are coming back. I wonder how far that will go.”

“Me too. Only time will tell.”

“I wonder how they’re coming back. Do they just… appear, the way I did? Does the dust come together suddenly, or… Some of your people think that maybe they’re being born again, literally. An extinct bird suddenly appears in a nest with a bunch of other birds, like an egg that hatches something else entirely.” Erica shivered. “Megan thought that praying was a waste of time. I don’t blame her. She grew up in The System, barely old enough to know what a mother is. Me, I know who my parents were. I’d rather be an orphan.” She glanced at him, beseeching. “It’s not so terrible, is it? Isn’t it a far more… cruel thing, to inflict a bad parent on a tiny baby, than to not be one at all?”

Hugh swiftly understood. “Oh, sweetheart.” He sighed.

Erica still didn’t look at him, eyes fixed, wrist deep in the engine in front of her, though it was clear she wasn't working on it. “Megan, back in the day she thought that prayers were a waste. So I never told her that I prayed real hard when I was younger than her. When I grew up, I only ever said one prayer. The day I had the abortion.”

Hugh said nothing, letting her talk.

“I… I couldn’t be a mom. I couldn’t even handle pregnancy for more than six weeks.” Erica said. “I never gave much thought to whether or not unborn kids were sacred or not. But when you scrape together spoiled food and count pennies… You can’t risk morning sickness, let alone afford a doctor, let alone the full nine months, let alone what came after that. I couldn’t go back to my father… So I made a choice. And I had to go past a row of protesters telling me that I was evil for even thinking it, and… And I thought that before I even got near them.” She wiped her eyes quickly, putting some engine grease on her face. “When it was over, I went to a church for the first time. I went there and I prayed real hard, asking God to… I don’t know. Take care of my baby? Forgive me for doing it?” She sighed. “That was the day I met Megan. Her Orphanage was church-run. The Padre… She told you about him?”

“Nothing good.” Hugh nodded.

“I asked him which was worse, treating a kid like s- like garbage, or… doing what I did. He basically told me that I had done something unforgivable. In the church, that meant I was headed in one direction only, if you know what I mean.”

“From what Megan tells me, it was his favorite answer.” Hugh scorned. “I hope that waking up in paradise has at least set you straight on that much about what God is really like.”

“Believe it nor not, I agreed with him. Not about God being vengeful, but I figured that maybe the cliche was right and bad things happened to bad people. I figured that some people just didn’t deserve a second chance.” Erica almost smiled. “The ironic thing is… When I heard him talking like that, I just knew I couldn’t leave Megan with him, and I took her with me. We snuck out and never looked back.” She almost laughed. “Less than a day after being so sure I couldn’t handle being a parent, I went and adopted a ten year old. And I kept her safe for two years.” She wiped her eyes again and finally looked at him. “And now I’m here. In a world where people aren’t even capable of being irresponsible with a damn wrench that a neighbor loaned them. How am I here? How is that right?” She saw his face. “You’re going to hug me now, aren’t you?”

“I really want to.” Hugh admitted. “If Kasumi was here, you wouldn’t have a choice in the matter.”

She snorted. “Restrain yourself.”

Silence.

Hugh came over. Erica's back straightened, expecting him to embrace her, but instead, he joined her at the engine. He guided her fingers for a few moments, working the moving parts into place, making a few adjustments. She sniffed a bit harshly, leaning against him as he did, neither of them looking at each other. She didn't cry. She just rested her face on the side of his arm as they both worked on something else that wasn't working right yet, making it better.

After a few minutes of this, Hugh stepped back. “Erica, if you weren’t worthy of a second chance, you wouldn’t have gotten one.” He said simply. “It’s not a matter of believing that. It’s a fact: You’re here. You’re alive. That’s all the proof you need that you’re far from lost.”

“I don’t care about that.” Erica shook her head. “I just… I want to know what happened to my baby.” She looked up at him. “Does… Do you know what happens to unborn kids? Because I’m not the only one who made that choice. There must have been millions…”

“Per year.” Hugh nodded.

“I’m still not…” Erica searched for words. “I would just like to know if anyone can tell me the facts. Where does my kid end up in all this? Because if it turns out that an unborn kid doesn’t get resurrected, then that makes what I did a whole lot worse… But if I suddenly find myself knocked up again with the same kid...”

“I have no idea about your child, Erica. But I have heard about other babies being born… Unplanned. Inexplicable. A resurrected fetus is like any other resurrected life. It arrives in the place and time that gives them their very best chance at a happy, eternal life.”

Erica looked almost hopeful, and looked like she hated herself for feeling it. “That’d freak some people out, I bet. Immaculate conception on a global scale?”

“Well, that’s the point, Erica. It’s not conception; it’s resurrection.” Hugh reasoned. “Not all unborn babies were deliberately aborted. There were plenty of faithful men and women in OS who chose not to start a family in favor of their ministry, plenty more who couldn’t have children because of bad luck, bad timing, bad health… They all have their chance now.”

“People like you and Kasumi?” Erica wavered.

Hugh nodded. “Jesus said: “Truly I say to you, no one has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not get 100 times more now... and in the coming system of things.”

Erica bit her lip. “I’ve been here a while now, and Megan tells me things she still won’t tell you… She likes it here, Hugh. She won’t say it out loud, at least not yet; but she loves you guys. Admitting it is like asking her to pull teeth, but you’ve won her over. In all the ways that matter, she’s your daughter now. And… If Kasumi suddenly found herself pregnant with my resurrected kid for you to raise, I think I’d be okay with that.”

Hugh stared at her. “That is… quite possibly the most amazing compliment that anyone’s ever given us.”

Erica shrugged like it was no big deal. “Try it now.”

It took Hugh a long moment to figure out what she meant, but he returned to the cockpit and turned the engine back on. This time it purred smoothly. He let it run for a few minutes, and switched it off.

(Author's Note: Resurrection in the case of Abortion is a hugely loaded question, and one that the bible doesn't answer directly.

The latest information on the topic that I could find was a Questions from Readers in the 4/15/2009 Watchtower; where it says: “The Bible clearly teaches that life begins at conception and that Jehovah sees the unborn child as a unique and valued individual. In the light of those Scriptural truths, some might see it as inconsistent to argue that there is no hope for a resurrection of an unborn child that dies. Indeed, they might feel that such an argument undermines our Scriptural stand against abortion, which is largely based on those very truths.”

The Article also quotes the decision of the Governing Body themselves; who, after careful meditation declared that 'all things are possible with God'

The final paragraph of that article says: “We must emphasize that the Bible does not directly answer that question, so there is no basis for humans to be dogmatic on the matter. This subject may give rise to an almost endless variety of questions. Really, though, it seems best to avoid speculation. What we know is this: The matter rests with Jehovah God, who is abundant in loving-kindness and mercy. Unquestionably, it is his heartfelt desire to undo death by means of the resurrection. We can be confident that he always does what is right.”

Hence, I elected to take this route. In this story, if someone young dies, they are young when they return; and that includes being young enough that they aren't born yet. If a person dies at five years old, nobody in any literature or talk that I've ever heard has suggested that he or she would be any older or younger than five years old when they come back. God doesn't take those years from them. The Bible states that old will become young, but doesn't say directly if that includes being resurrected as elderly and grow younger. The whole discussion of the Resurrection suggests that we still come back more or less as the person we were when we died, just made better.

Once again, I have to stress that this is just for my story. It's an enormous topic, since many millions of abortions and miscarriages have happened though history, and that doesn't even include the millions of embryos left permanently frozen in laboratories because of IVF treatments around the world, or disposed of after successful treatments. I felt it was a topic that had to be at least mentioned. I don't think I will ever make it a major plot point beyond this chapter, so this is just background information.)

Erica smiled a bit as he came back, and the two of them re-installed the engine and replaced the cover. “Well. It’s just about finished.” Hugh said softly. “More than two centuries of work, and she’s ready to fly at last.”

“If you can find a runway.” Erica commented.

“Oh, I can use the street. Long enough and flat enough.” Hugh waved that off. “Thanks for all your help, Erica. You know, any kind of repair skill, even with engines? That’s a talent that you can take with you. The airfield where I train pilots? Plenty of room for someone who knows their way around an engine. They handle more than planes. Motorcycles, cars… If you were planning to go walkabout for a while, you could probably pick up a vehicle in exchange for work, have it working pretty well in no time.”

Erica shook her head. “Nah, see. I get it now. God didn’t put me with you guys because it was my best chance. He sent me here for Megan. He wanted me to know that she was with good people, and He wanted me to tell her that she should stay here and be loved and wanted. You never would have won her over if I hadn’t been here to tell her to stay. I’m not here for my second chance, I’m here so that Megan knows she’s in the right place.”

“Could be that’s true.” Hugh nodded. “But there’s no reason you can’t both be happy here.”

Erica shook her head. “No. If I stay, Megan’s always going to have one foot out the door, and you know it. It’s like having a step-parent at family dinner. Megan doesn’t need two mom’s, and it’s not fair to her or Kasumi. I won’t make it weird, I promise.”

Hugh deflated. “You’ve made up your mind then?” He said quietly. “Have you told Megan you’re leaving?”

“She’s been telling me about the conventions.” Erica said. “The Centennial next month is apparently an International Convention. Should be able to hitch a ride with someone when it’s over. I'll stay until then.”

~~/*\~~

“What do you think so far?” Hugh asked Erica. She was the only one from their family that hadn't been to a Convention yet.

Erica had her head on a swivel. “Crowds usually make me nervous, but... I don't know. Normally there'd be a huge crush of people fighting to get the best seats, get inside first... I've never seen such an orderly mass of seething humanity.”

Hugh laughed at that. “You're lucky. Your first convention is a Centennial.”

“You won't be offended if I decide to catch up on some sleep?”

“Ohh, trust me.” Nick said from a row behind them. “You won't once the musical interlude starts.”

“What do you... mean...” Erica trailed off as the air seemed to shimmer with the long, pure tone of a trumpet starting to call. The note held, and seemed to echo, as a hundred more trumpets took up the note, one by one...

~~/*\~~

“At the last Centennial, we asked the question: How are we to treat figures that we thought of as our heroes?” The Speaker said to the audience. “But now we ask the opposite question. What of the people we do not revere? The people we labeled as villains?”

Hugh noticed Megan and Erica turn to stone beside him. The girls had plenty of villains in their life.

“The most important thing to remember about the world we’re in is that there are no more bad guys. Bad people are plain to see, and cannot hide any longer. The final Authority does not turn a blind eye to suffering or to deception. Whatever evil was done in the past has been undone. Whatever victims there were through history, there are none now. Jehovah is a lover of justice. Imagine a perfect justice system. The First Book of the Third Testament quotes Isaiah 11:2-4, where it says: 'He will not judge by what appears to his eyes, Nor reprove simply according to what his ears hear. He will judge the lowly with fairness, And with uprightness He will give reproof in behalf of the meek ones of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth And put the wicked to death with the breath of his lips.' We have justice and protection. The only thing left is the hardest part of all. The need to forgive.”

Erica sneered a little to herself. The audience was fairly quiet, but Hugh’s ears could tell she wasn’t the only one to react that way.

“We know that some people will not return.” The Speaker continued. “Exactly which ones we leave to Jehovah. But they are a very small minority, and none of them disqualified because of their sins against men. Everyone else gets a second chance. And that was true long before now. The most famous example is Paul, whom many called the Thirteenth Apostle. But he began as Saul of Tarsus: one of the most determined and most violent opponents that the early congregation had. Imagine the early Christians coming in to a meeting, and finding him standing at the front of the room, ready to preach to them. Imagine the brothers that he had whipped and scourged, suddenly deferring to him as their Elder! And yet, Paul was privileged to take the lead among the congregations, to the point where his writings were actually a major part of the bible! Yes, Jehovah saw something in him that was not only worth saving, but something that did so much good!”

Polite applause.

“And if that seems like a bold statement to make, then consider this for a moment: We will be meeting people who actually heard the thirteenth apostle speak! They may be back already, trying to figure out the new world that they live in! It's not an empty promise, it's a fact of our lives; because Saul of Tarsus is not the only enemy that we will have to meet. Those First Century Brothers are not just an example of forgiveness, but a personal example for us to follow!”

Stronger applause.

“With that in mind, we’d like to speak now with Brother Muller, recently returned to us.” The Speaker turned to a man that had just come out on stage. “Brother Muller, you were baptized just a few months ago, returned just a few months before that.”

“I immediately came to love everything I saw of the world now.” Muller nodded. “It was… an answer to a prayer that I never dared to make. I saw no end of evils. Some, I’m sorry to say, done at my hands. The idea that I was somehow forgiven was the hardest thing to accept… But it was fairly obvious that I had been given a second chance.”

“Now, without wanting to put you on the spot too much, can I ask how you knew the Witnesses in OS?” The Speak continued.

“Actually, I knew them mostly as 'Bible Students'. I was a… guard, in the camps. I was impressed by their resolve, and the way they pulled closer together. Goodness knows we did our best to make the prisoners turn on each other.”

While they spoke, the screen lit up with an image that most of the audience recognized. A Purple Triangle.

Hugh’s mouth became a thin line. He’d seen that before, long before he’d ever met a Witness.

“Brother Muller.” The Speaker said gently, broaching a difficult topic. “You came to this Region only recently; and you aren’t planning to stay. Do you mind sharing why?”

Muller sighed, suddenly seeming a lot older. “One of the… prisoners, was Returned recently. When he and I met each other, he… Lashed out.” Muller spread his hands wide. “I wasn’t offended. If I’m honest, I almost wish more people would lash out. It’s easier than trying to forgive myself.”

“But the Angels stopped his attack.” The Speaker nodded.

“They did.” Muller agreed. “I had worried that they might have done something… drastic. I hate the idea that I might have been involved with someone losing their chance at life twice.” Muller got back to the story. “After a few months at the camps, I was transferred to a combat unit. I… was part of several firing squads. I was chosen for the task because I was skilled at keeping my mouth shut. It was against the Articles of War, you see. We were only meant to do that against spies. Soldiers had protections... At least, they were meant to.”

Hugh’s hand suddenly clenched into a fist.

Megan noticed him go pale. “What?”

Hugh turned in his chair, scanning the row behind them. His eyes locked on Nick. His younger brother gave him a single nod, and gestured for him to calm down.

“What?” Megan hissed at him. “What is it?”

Hugh forced himself to take a shuddering breath, forcing himself to calm down. “That’s the man who shot your uncle Nick.”

Erica’s eyes lifted into her hairline. “Well now. The world still has some teeth after all.”

~~/*\~~

Nick had gestured for his brother to follow him out of the auditorium, and the two of them had a pointed conversation. It took a few minutes for Nick to calm his brother down, and when Hugh had returned to his seat, Erica and Megan had come out to press Nick for details.

“You’re not looking for revenge?”

Nick shook his head. “After the war ended, a general amnesty was declared for both sides. For all that, he died too, it just took him a little longer. I’ve actually been alive twice as long as he has, and history remembers him as one of the bad guys. All the victims of him and his army are back, or they will be soon enough. All the guys who fought to stop him, myself included, are going to live forever, and if he so much as raises a fist ever again, he’ll be stopped. The war wasn’t just Won, it was undone. The battlefields have been grown over or repaired so completely you can’t even find the damage any more. There gets to be a point where you just don’t need to go any further, you know?”

“He gets eternal life too.” Erica groused.

“Only if he deserves it.” Nick said seriously. “Some live who deserve to die. And some who die deserve to live. There’s only one person who can give both, and only one person who can decide which is which and never make a mistake.”

Erica had no answer to that, but it was clear she didn’t like it.

Neither did Megan. “Hugh told me once that there was no such thing as goodbye any more. He said that in a world where everyone lives forever, you always see each other again, if it takes a thousand years for it to happen.”

“Then it’d be a good idea if we all learned to live with each other, wouldn’t it?” Nick nodded.

“Why?!” Erica bit out. “Why should you just ‘live with it’? Why the hell do you have to ‘be okay with it’? That man killed you dead. Why can’t you just be allowed to dislike him on general principle? What is this place that the killers and thugs get all the same love and happiness that their victims do? Where’s the Justice?”

“Kids, be honest with me about one thing.” Nick said quietly. “When you go on about people who don’t deserve to be here… You’re not talking about that guy on stage, are you?”

Megan’s eyes swiveled to Erica immediately, waiting for a response. Erica was unreadable.

“Erica, it’s a big world.” Nick said. “I don’t feel any particular hatred for this guy. I was in his company for a whole six hours, and lived more than a century after that. Hugh’s the one that had to deal with the loss. If I felt like I had to stay away from one or two people to be okay with the world, then it’s still a paradise to me. In a hundred years, a thousand, a hundred thousand, a million… Will I even remember this guy?”

Erica looked like she was going to agree for just a moment… and her face hardened. “Some people don’t deserve a second chance.” She declared and stalked off. Megan gave chase immediately.

Nick watched them go. “Ohh, boy. Why do I suddenly feel nervous?”