Chapter Six: Getting Started

The drive wasn't that long; but the route Alec had to take for his work as a mailman made it a slower trip. Rachel wasn't worried. The railway she was taking made the trip once every two weeks. Her destination at The Conference was apparently ongoing. Invited people arrived when they could.

It gave them all a chance to meet others from different Circuits. Rachel had been new enough in the congregation that she didn't recognize anyone, but she didn't feel left out. She had always been a little introverted, living her life in her head and with a small group. But everywhere she went, she found herself making conversation easily enough; if briefly.

Beckah recognized a few people, and practically danced around, showing off her new mobility to people who hadn't seen her for a while.

Alec made his announcements and answered questions, as always. He noticed that Rachel didn't make much small talk, compared to others. But she noticed everything, scribbling in her notepads.

~~/*\~~

"I can't believe how much building they've done." Beckah remarked, a little stunned. "We haven't got nearly as many dorms and common rooms set up. And that marketplace? We haven't done a fraction of that!"

"Well, it's not a race." Alec quipped. "But I get the feeling that it's more a matter of what's available to work with. You remember the way things were towards the end? What goods were left in the depots, the ports... They were all seized, before they got looted. When the dust settled, whatever group was closest to them got to use them. We've all but abandoned the old cities, but the roads? Those we use."

Behind them, Rachel groaned. "Oh, I just thought... what about places like Africa? The infrastructure fell apart there, even before it got really bad... What are they dealing with?!"

"Hey, remember something, sister." Alec called back. "We aren't all scrambling for survival here. We're looked after. We've got a thousand years to clean up the mess of the last six thousand, and we haven't made it through Year One yet. The reconstruction will take centuries, and it will take the combined efforts of everyone."

"Well, I guess if you live forever, you gotta have a few ridiculously ambitious life goals."

~~/*\~~

They drove for a second day, made another stop or two, and headed for the coast. Alec and Rachel had been rotating turns behind the wheel. Beckah knew how to drive, but not using pedals. Alec was taking his turn, when they saw another car coming their direction from ahead. The other car flashed its lights, and Alec peered at the driver, before he smiled and pulled over. "Thomas King."

"Who?"

"Another Postman who works this route. My opposite number." Alec stepped out of the car and took his mailbags with him.

Beckah and Rachel traded a look and got out too, stretching their legs. Alec and Thomas were quickly sorting their mail on the hood of their cars, and found Thomas had passengers too. A young woman carrying a baby. The woman came over and nodded, both arms wrapped tightly around the infant. "Mornin'." She had an Irish accent. "I'm Siobhan King."

Rachel and Beckah introduced themselves, eyes fixed on the baby. It was younger than any they'd seen so far.

Siobhan smiled, divining their interest. "Aye, she's mine. First of our family born free."

It was an interesting way to put it, and Beckah felt a lump in her throat. "Born after?"

"With twenty hours to spare." Siobhan smiled, rocking her son. "When we fled to our Hall up north, my Ma was watching me like a time bomb about to go off. She said there was always one woman in the family way in every disaster movie. I wasn't due for another week, but she was tearing her hair out. It was almost a relief to get soldiers pounding on the door."

Beckah hadn't shifted her gaze from the infant for a second, eyes tearing up a little. "I wanted kids." She said softly, as though confessing.

Siobhan took her measure for a moment, and then held out the baby a little. "His name is Liam."

"Hi, Liam." Beckah took the boy in her arms and rocked him a while. "I was in a wheelchair." She confessed to Siobhan. "The accident meant I couldn't have kids either, and then I was closer to 30 than 20 and..." She shook her head. "I told my mom I didn't mind. That I was okay with not having kids because I never wanted them, but I did. I lied to her for ten years so that she wouldn't weep for grandkids she'd never get."

Siobhan wrapped her arms around them both. "You could now."

"I could, couldn't I?" Beckah sniffed. "It honestly hadn't occurred to me until right now."

Rachel drifted back towards Thomas and Alec, vividly aware that she was not part of this instant bond that had formed between two total strangers. She sidled up to them, speaking soft enough that the other ladies wouldn't hear. "Your family?" She asked Thomas.

"They are." He confirmed. "I couldn't do this job and leave them behind."

"Ordinarily, I'd say that the bub's a bit small for this kind of life, but I'm not sure that's a consideration any more."

"Siobhan was climbing the walls, eager to see more of the world less than thirty hours after Liam was born. Back on The Day, she was watching the clock like a hawk when we tried to reach the Hall. If the baby came Before; then she would see the police take her baby straight from her hands at gunpoint, since we were 'illegals'. If it came After, then..." Thomas smiled. "I took the assignment, because I figured the front seat of my car was a good enough compromise between taking it easy and... y'know."

"Not?" Rachel quipped.

"Less than thirty hours?" Alec remarked in jaded awe as he packed his half of the mail into his sack. "Really?"

"Labor pains." Thomas explained, sounding almost smug. "She didn't have any." They both went buggy-eyed, and he nodded. "I'm serious. We were in the car trying to push through the roadblocks, and she thought it was a false alarm for over an hour, had no idea it was happening. Babe came at three in the morning and she nearly slept through it."

Rachel let out a bark of laughter before she could stop herself. "I never really planned for kids myself, but... Somewhere in the world is the first woman to have a baby painlessly, and it might be your wife. I actually want to slap her just on behalf of all womankind."

Thomas laughed.

"Say, Alec?" Rachel asked casually. "Just wondering, but... You want kids, right? Sometime in the future?"

Thomas raised an eyebrow, getting the implication at once, glancing over at his wife and her new friend.

Alec missed it completely. "Sure, why? I mean, I'd have to find a girl gullible enough to marry me first, but..."

"Well, we should be moving on!" Thomas declared suddenly, loud enough for his wife to hear. He traded a knowing smirk with Rachel and they all got ready to head off. It took several seconds to pry Beckah away from Liam and his mother.

~~/*\~~

"He puts on a brave face, but… I know it hurts him." Alec said quietly. "You heard the accent? Thomas is a little twitchy on the subject of family now. His mother died a few years ago, but the rest of the family were Catholic. Irish-Catholic family means lots of brothers and sisters… Thomas is the only one left."

Beckah winced. "Man, I didn't even think of that. And I really should have, given that I'm in the same boat. If I don't hear from my dad at some point..."

"It's the hardest part of the best thing in the world." Alec agreed. "One day, Thomas will see his mother again, and he'll have to tell her."

They didn't talk about it for a while. They drove for a few hours. Rachel was snoozing in the backseat when Beckah spoke to Alec again. "The baby... What kind of life will he have, compared to the way we grew up?"

"I know." Alec admitted. "I think back on my life, and I just can't picture it. Every generation has raised the next one, armed with some life experience. How much of what our ancestors went through will apply to anyone born today?"

Beckah sniffed. "When I was a kid..." She shook her head. "My momma warned me about fake friends, about stranger danger, about looking both ways when I crossed the street..." She winced. "That last one, I should have listened harder. But almost none of it will apply to little Liam."

Comfortable silence. Alec pulled the car over, and reached into his bag. "Beckah, I have a small confession to make. I knew your name before you came over to ask for a ride."

Beckah blinked. "Really? Why?"

"Well, every congregation I've been delivering post to? I've asked specifically for someone who fit a certain criteria." He glanced back at Rachel, who was dozing in the backseat. "Because nobody back home had my old problem, and I figure miracles are best when shared."

Beckah wasn't sure what that meant, but swiftly understood when Alec pulled something out of his bag.

It was a small jar of peanut butter. Crunchy style.

She bit her lip. "Huh. It just... It honestly just dawned on me. Amazing to me, the things I haven't thought about in years..."

He grinned. "You said that you had a pretty bad peanut allergy." He grinned. "I had a similar problem. Back before The Day, I kept this jar hidden. It was the only thing I kept when they told us to make our food and water available to the Cong. I carried this jar through Tribulation, A-Day, and every day since, and didn't tell anyone else. This is something paradise has for us, and none of the others in our Congregations. A spoon of this stuff would have killed me a year ago."

"Me too." She hadn't taken her eyes off the jar. "Um... How close are we to perfection right now?"

"Close enough to not worry about going into an allergic shock?" He guessed. He held out a plastic spoon. "I'm betting we are."

"Not that I doubt you, let alone Jah, but... this would be a particularly stupid way to find out we were wrong, given what we lived through already."

"I agree. I won't tell if you don't."

Smiling goofily, she took the jar and dug a spoon deep... before taking a big bite. She flat out moaned. "So, this is what all the fuss was about growing up."

He chuckled as she held the jar out and he took a spoonful himself.

"It's not just... I mean, I feel naughty." Beckah admitted. "When I was a kid, I figured it couldn't be that bad and tried to eat some peanut brittle that I got while trick-or-treating. I figured a tiny bit couldn't hurt. Barely made it home, let alone the hospital." She held up the jar. "Now I could eat this whole jar with my fingers and not even blink. It's crazy. It's... wonderful."

"It is. It's just wonderful." He agreed, glancing in the rearview again. "We eat the whole jar, we don't even have to tell Rachel we stopped."

"Don't mind me. I don't want any." Rachel called without opening her eyes. "This is your thing, guys. I could eat peanuts a year ago, and I still can. This is what Paradise means to people like you." She opened her eyes and sat up. "Miracles are no less impossible, when they're small." She sat quietly until the last of the jar was eaten by her two new friends in the front seat. "I do have a question, though." She remarked once the moment passed. "Do you still wash your hands?"

"What?" Alec laughed.

"When you eat? What you just said, about how you could eat this whole jar with your fingers right now? Who's to say you can't? If we can handle eating stuff we were allergic to, then... I mean, do we have to worry about bacteria? Do we have to worry about washing hands before we eat, and keeping things clean?"

"Close to godliness, right?"

"Yeah, but that was when being unclean was unhealthy. Is there any such thing as 'unhealthy' now?"

"You want to try getting sick to find out?"

"I do not." Rachel admitted. "But still, it's a question that we never considered before."

"One of millions." Beckah chuckled, licking her spoon clean. "Thank you for this, Alec. I owe you one." She noticed a slight smear of peanut butter on the corner of his mouth and reached out, wiping it away with her thumb without even thinking about it.

Rachel looked back and forth between them for a while, smiling secretly.

~~/*\~~

On the next day of their trip, they reached the ports at Southampton. Someone had figured out how to drive a ferry, and they went across. Plenty of people on the move meant there would always be passengers on the ferry; and even that had a roundabout route; stopping at several places in Europe. There were sleeping quarters on the ship, and fair weather seas, so nobody much minded.

Rachel tucked into a sleeping bag, and let Beckah take the bed. By the next afternoon, she'd be on the train with its comfortable sleeper cars; and Beckah would still be driving. She could have the bed tonight.

~~/*\~~

Rachel woke up with a gasp, sitting bolt upright. Beckah was with her instantly. "I'm here. I'm here. Easy!"

Rachel was trying to shake off the overload. "What... what happened?"

"You tell me." Beckah said, sitting back tiredly. "I woke up to the sound of you thrashing around in your sleeping bag. Nightmare?"

Rachel was staring into space. "I... I need..." She shook her head. "Wait, what did I just say?"

"You said you needed something." Beckah told her. "What do you need?"

Rachel rubbed her eyes. "I have dreamed a dream, and now that dream is gone from me." She blinked. "Did I just say something?"

Beckah stared at her uncertainly.

Rachel was wide awake, and climbed out of her sleeping bag. "You ever keep a dream journal, Becks?"

Beckah shook her head.

"An old friend of mine, Albie... He was really into Directed Dreaming. Part of that was journaling his dreams. Said he got his best ideas that way. Always seemed a little out there for me, but then I became a JW and he wrote me off as going crazy." She gave Beckah a look, smirking tightly. "She who laughs last, right?"

"Except you aren't laughing." Beckah observed, still worried.

Rachel tapped her friend on the nose teasingly. "Go back to sleep."

~~/*\~~

It was almost like being at a regular train station, back before. Beckah's infirmity meant she didn't travel much. Rachel knew very few people outside her congregation. Alec had very few close friends and hadn't travelled until being assigned as a Postman. So when they arrived at the train station, and saw a crowd of people, it was almost like being back in the world before. Hundreds of strangers, milling about, carrying luggage, shuffling towards their trains, having joyful reunions or tearful goodbyes.

When you looked closer, you could see the differences. The parking lot was almost empty, as well as the road outside. There were far more children than adults. The city beyond was visible, but dead quiet. The towers that had once been bustling and full of noise and lights and traffic and even aircraft... now there was nothing. All the activity was outside the world of a year before.

Rachel noted that people were passing their bags inside the appropriate trains without locking them, or carrying them in personally. Total strangers were passing the bags forward, checking the tags to see where to put them, and just delivering them correctly.

There was little shouting. The only yelling done was to make announcements over the hubbub. There was no pushing or shoving. There was no swearing, even in jest.

There was no rush. Everyone Rachel knew now was full of energy, but nobody was seeming to be overworked or stressed by deadlines. The idea of being young forever was less than a year old, but people were already finding a whole new pace to move at.

Rachel gazed at her own ride, looking for the least crowded doorway in, when she felt a pair of arms go around her waist. "Travel safe." Beckah said in her ear. "I'm gonna miss you."

Rachel turned and hugged her back. "I never realized you were taller than me." Rachel admitted warmly, and hugged her tightly as Beckah laughed at that. Rachel was a little surprised at the emotion. She and Beckah had never exactly been close friends, back before. Their journey together was less than three days.

So why am I tearing up? Rachel wondered. Just because I was there when she took her first step, just because we've lived through the end of the world, just because she's my sister, and I've never had a sister before, and never will again now that my family is all...

She stopped those thoughts immediately, and broke the hug. She worked up a smile for Beckah, and gestured at Alec, who was standing a respectful distance away. "Keep him out of trouble. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Beckah flushed bright pink. "You've been a JW less than 18 months. I don't know what you would do, and I may not want to."

Rachel chuckled and climbed aboard the train.

Alec came over, and held Beckah's hand until the train pulled away. It was a little out of character for him, but she was glad for it. She didn't let go until they got back to the car.

~~/*\~~

"So, where am I dropping you?" Alec asked quietly.

"I've been asked to join the Restoration work." Beckah pulled out her Invitation. "New Forest, Southampton."

"What?!" Alec blurted. "I could have dropped you off two days ago!"

Beckah pulled her head in. "Well... I wanted to see Rachel off on the train."

Alec just looked at her.

She caved in and started babbling, talking a mile a minute. "I haven't gone anywhere without wheelchair assistance in almost fifteen years, I got into speaking Spanish because of our neighbors back in Philly; and then the UK Branch says they need Spanish and English speaking people and I needed a fresh start, so I went, and then I never saw more than six blocks of anything because of the damn chair, and I never had a car, and I never went on a roadtrip with friends, and I wanted to just see more than my dorm, and I was itching to just take off and go exploring, and then months passed without any of us going anywhere; and I know I can be patient, but there was Rachel getting into a car, and I had an invite too, and she was going all the way to the other side of the world and I was only going a few hours south, and I knew you'd be driving back the way I needed, and it was fun just walking around new places because I can walk now, and then you brought out a jar of peanut butter and I just didn't want to say goodbye yet and-"

Alec was laughing, just from the look on her face. "Relax, Beckah. I'm not mad." He smiled. "I'm glad you came along. I have no idea what I would have talked about with Rachel for three days. I don't think I can spell half the things she has degrees in."

"I was her roommate in the dorms. Trust me: that's her in a nutshell."

Alec put the car in gear. "Okay. Back to the UK."

Beckah put her feet up on the dashboard and wriggled her toes, purely because she could do it. "Think we can find more peanut butter somewhere on the way?"

~~/*\~~

They drove for a while. There were few vehicles on the road, several more hitchhiking. "There was time that would be way too dangerous." Beckah observed. "Nowadays, it's just a question of finding someone going your way."

"I actually feel bad that we aren't." Alec grinned. "I wouldn't have dared stop at any other time." He glanced over at her. "They promise you can walk again, they never mention things like hitchhiking suddenly being a valid way to travel."

Beckah laughed as they came around a turn, and she noticed something off to the side. "Huh. Speaking of things they didn't talk about." Beckah said in surprise. "It's still here. The tobacco field is still here."

"Well, why wouldn't it be? It's a plant."

"Yeah, but..." Beckah waved a hand vaguely. "We can't get sick. Can we? I mean, is it that we never have to get sick, or that we're physically incapable of it? Because I was thinking, when we met little Liam, and I told you those things that my momma told me not to do? Eating too much candy was one of those things. I broke that rule a few times and spent some time heaving my guts out for my trouble. I was twelve at the time, and everyone can tell a story like that, but... I wonder."

"You're wondering if Liam will eat too much candy one day and not even become nauseous?"

"Well, why not?" She offered. "When we eat something toxic or dangerous, getting sick is the body's way of defending itself. If we're incapable of sickness, then theoretically, I could eat poison ivy right now, or for that matter, drink actual poison. So, is it that we can't get sick, or don't?"

"Illness in the old days came from bad luck, bad lifestyle, bad circumstances. At least two of those things were never up to us, and they're gone now."

"Rachel was talking about how a perfect person, with a perfect metabolism and immune system could probably eat whatever they wanted." Beckah offered. "She figures that's why we didn't all become young instantly. Cells replace themselves normally. Every two or three years, every cell in your body is replaced. It's how we heal injuries; grow bigger when we're babies... When you get old, that process breaks down; which is why we wrinkle, get weaker with age...

"Why we used to." Alec put in. "We don't anymore."

Beckah blinked. "Oh. Right." A slow smile spread across her face. "Anyway, if that process has been restored to full power, then it'll still take a few years for all those decayed cells to replace themselves. But missing limbs don't spontaneously regenerate, and me being in a wheelchair wasn't simply a matter of waiting for an injury to heal. Same for blindness and deafness. All those things were taken care of. Wrinkles and grey hair will sort themselves out over the normal flow of time, the same way they went bad." Beckah gestured at herself. "Two years ago, Obesity killed more people than terrorism and car accidents and Alzheimer Disease put together. If I dug out a deep fryer and ate like a horse, could I still get fat? If I could, would I have to worry about blood pressure, cholesterol... Is that covered by 'sickness'?"

"We appear to have wandered a bit from the tobacco field." Alec said dryly. "If we still smoke, can we still get sick? If we can't get sick, do we still ban it?"

"I don't want to take up smoking." Beckah said honestly.

"Neither do I." Alec agreed. "But sooner or later, someone will. The Resurrections will go widespread. Smoking has been around for hundreds of years, and the health warnings for less than seven decades. Most of the people asking for 'pipe weed' or whatever they called it, won't know it was bad for them."

Beckah shivered. "There's a couple in my Congregation. Maxwell and Amelia. They've been pioneering for more than forty years. Before they came into the faith, Amelia smoked. A lot, to hear her tell it. Ten years after she quit, she found she had lung cancer. Max stuck it out with her. Amelia? She regular pioneered from her hospital bed. And she beat it. She made it all the way to the end. But Max? He managed to develop the same thing after a lifetime of being married to a smoker. He insisted it wasn't the secondhand stuff, since she'd been clean for years at that point, Amelia remained convinced that it was all her fault; and he died, less than six months before it all ended. Max came back, the day before you met me and Rachel."

Alec nodded. "A happy ending."

"No, terrible ending with a happy twist epilogue." Beckah smiled. "But my point is, millions of people who have a story like that are going to come back. When they get here, do we tell them it's okay to smoke now, because they can't get sick? Or do we tell them that nobody will ever get lung cancer again, because smoking, as a habit, is gone forever?"

Alec was silent a long moment. "Somewhere out there, a bunch of smart people are getting their heads together and figuring out the answers to all these questions. I know, because we just put Rachel on a train to go join them. Can't wait to find out what they come up with."

~~/*\~~

There were about sixty people gathered around at Southampton when Alec and Beckah arrived. Setting up the Restoration work in this region was more than just the work. There was food and drink to be dispensed, teams to be organized, and equipment to gather. The Witnesses were famous for their quick building work, but for most of them, this was their first assignment.

Beckah gave Alec a tight hug when she left to join the group. "I'll miss you."

"Write me." Alec said simply. "I'm a postman after all, I'll get your letter faster than most."

Beckah laughed. "Get something to eat before you leave. I don't think anyone will mind."

~~/*\~~

Alec had taken that advice, and found a familiar face at the food table. "Roland?"

Roland waved. "Alec! Good! I'm glad I caught you!"

"Roland. You're looking well..." Alec trailed off, and glanced at Roland sideways. "Something different about you."

Roland nodded, and let him look, finally raising a hand to run it across the top of his head...

"Hair! Oh, you lost the bald spot!" Alec clapped a hand over his mouth. "I mean..."

"Relax, you're right." Roland waved it off. "Remember how confused we were that we didn't automatically become young right away? Well, a sister in a nearby congregation came up with a schedule."

"I think I can guess which one." Alec said ruefully. "So, what put you on the Postal Route?"

"Assignment route, actually." Roland mused. "We've been running some numbers on the Resurrection. It's already accelerating."

"Yeah, that was the impression I got on my route." Alec nodded. "What's the thinking?"

"It's exponential, at least, this portion of it is. So far, the only ones to be brought back are former brothers. We figure at the current rate of growth, it'll take the first century to bring back all the faithful, going back to the days of Abel. If the pattern holds, about the last being first? Abel will be the last faithful human brought back."

Alec smiled. "I remember when I first started studying, as a kid. I was thinking that Abel was lucky. If the Book of Life was alphabetical or chronological, Abel still came first."

Roland laughed, long and loud. "I like that."

"Well, yeah. Except I was wrong. Last become first."

"Jesus had a few reversals like that. Humble yourself to be exalted. Disown yourself to save yourself. I remember before I became a witness, thinking that contradictions like that were proof that God made no sense."

"I think it's the most wonderful promise ever made." Alec smiled. "Anyway, I gotta get on with my deliver-"

"Alec, we've actually had another idea." Roland pulled him back. "We'd like to make you an Elder."

Alec laughed. Roland didn't.

"Wait, you're serious?" Alec froze. "I'm not even 23 years old." He paused. "I don't think. What month is it?"

"Well, maybe not an Elder exactly, but more than an MS. You see, your tasks will involve working with other congregations; but you're a little inexperienced to be appointed an Elder, so we haven't settled on a decision yet. But you won't be the only one in that category." Roland explained. "There's going to be a major manpower shortage in about five years. Long enough for you to get some experience in the job. If it goes well, we can make it official."

"But why me?"

"Alec, consider the ratio of people who know what's going on, to the people who won't." Roland explained. "Even ten years ago, we did things entirely differently. The cart work? Didn't exist. JW Broadcasting? Didn't exist. The website? Letterbox drops? Caleb and Sophia? The meeting schedules? None of them were the same. Anyone who died before 2010 won't know how it works any more. We have an army of brothers and sisters who lived their whole lives waiting for this world. We'll have no shortage of elders to reappoint. But they need to know what's happening, and what happened before we got to this point. We need every brother who can tell that story to brief the brothers with lifelong experience."

Alec thought about that. "And by the time all the faithful ones get here..."

"There will be millions of us. It's not just the JW's. It's the men of the past. An entire nation of people going back a hundred generations. Our Bible heroes, like Solomon, Noah, Moses, Elijah? They were promised rewards for their extraordinary service. But they still need someone to tell them what century it is. That will be our job." Roland smiled. "Maybe even your job, who knows?"

Alec was very glad he was sitting down when that thought hit him in full. "Me. An Elder."

"In time. If you'd prefer, we can keep it at ‘Ministerial Servant' for now; though you'll be ‘serving' for a lot of the circuit; and we'll need you to sit in on all the Elder's meetings." Roland nudged his ribs. "Hey, look at it this way. When I first came into the truth, being an Elder was a lifetime appointment. Lifetimes don't end any more." He read his younger friend's face. "I know you feel blindsided by this. But this is our world now. We all felt like we didn't have the capacity for things, but-"

"I do." Alec said quietly. "Most of it is going to be answering questions, and most of them I won't have answers to yet, but neither will anyone else. I've been speaking with people from half a dozen different circuits, and so far the questions haven't changed, even a little bit. The same questions all over the world, I imagine. 'When do I see them again?' and 'what happens next?'."

"Just being a postman puts you in a pretty good position for the job. A big chunk of the responsibilities will be coordinating with other communities, and you already know more of them than most."

"Please, tell me you didn't give me the Postman job because you were waiting to spring this on me?"

"We do what we need to do. We needed communications, and you were able to do that. Now we need people who can tell newcomers, and consolidate resources. If you can do that too..."

"I can." Alec said quietly.

Roland looked at him oddly. "I remember the time we talked about you doing the closing prayers, and you flipped. You're taking this a lot more calmly than I expected."

"I am, aren't I?" Alec admitted. "It's like there's some panic reaction in my head that should be there, but isn't."

"Spirit of the world has changed, my brother. Self-doubt was what challenged you in trying times." Roland offered.

"I see people doubting themselves, feeling guilty over things... Why hasn't it faded for them too?"

"If I had to guess? We were troubled by pressure of the world, its master, and our own imperfections." Roland reasoned. "We aren't perfect yet, but the other two out of three are gone. Could be the thing that haunted you was coming from somewhere else. Demons had no shortage of tricks. They used them on whoever they would work on best."

Alec considered that. "That's the sort of answer I should write down. I'll no doubt need it at some point." He smiled. "But it's a good answer. It means that whatever troubled us most about ourselves in the old days is the one thing we have to worry about least now."

(Author's Note: I can point to no specific scripture or publication on this point. The 'spirit of the world' is hard on all of us today, but it's hard to describe what it'll be like when it's gone. I chose this route.)

The two men stood up. Alec slid the mailbag off his shoulder. "So. If I'm done with this right now, what's my next move?"

"Well, your last mailbag included a suggestion from one of the other Presiding Officers regarding a sharing of the workload on the growing Restoration movement." Roland suggested. "There will be people from three congregations working together, so each cong will be sending someone; to help coordinate schedules, people... It'll be a good place to start." He handed a page torn from a notepad. "In fact, how'd you like to lead the group here in Southampton this week? Consider it a trial run."

And despite himself, Alec smiled broadly.

~~/*\~~

He tried to be casual about it, but he checked anyway. The look of disbelief on Beckah's face was almost worth the uncertainty of suddenly being appointed to a ‘leadership' role. The other half dozen brothers and sisters that were assigned to him didn't notice the look, and Alec began speaking.

"On the way here, I was able to talk to one of our new volunteers." Alec said to them, not looking at Beckah. She had told him all about the trees on the car ride. "These redwoods were transplanted to the UK in the 1800's. Turned out to be a good move, since climate change wiped out most of the Redwood's preferred climate over the last few years. These trees can live for an estimated eight thousand years. There was a time when they covered a fair chunk of the United States. During the gold rushes, they were cut down to build the city of San Francisco and San Diego. The reason we're starting the Restoration by planting as many of them as we can is threefold. First, Redwoods grow fast, and they suck up carbon faster than most other trees. If we're to restore the world to paradise, we start by cleaning up the air. Secondly, a redwood tree at eighty years is hundreds of feet tall. We're still figuring out how fast the Resurrection will spread but there will come a time over the next century when we need more lumber. Third..." He smiled a little. "Who can guess the third reason?"

Silence.

Finally, Beckah raised a hand. "So we can watch them grow?"

There was a rumble of laughter at that, but Alec nodded. "As a matter of fact, that's it exactly. We're taking cuttings and saplings from the greenhouses in the area. But look at them closely. These saplings? In a year, they'll be taller. Another year, they'll be taller again." He made sure they were all listening. "There was a museum exhibit I saw once. A cut down tree, twelve feet across. It was anchored so that you could count the rings. The tree grows a layer of bark to protect itself from winter. Every year, another ring in the cross-section. Someone had added annotations. The year that man walked on the moon. The year that Lincoln was shot. To that tree, it was a matter of a few inches." Alec gestured. "A redwood tree can live an estimated eight thousand years. Longer than the human race has existed. And that's why we're planting so many of them. Because we'll keep them for a century and then cut them down... and then plant saplings again. For every tree we cut down, we'll plant two more; until the air is clean and the world is healthy again. But I want you all to remember how they look. Because the time will come when we outlive these trees."

The thought was a little staggering.

Alec picked up a shovel with a grin. "So, let's get to work."