The Fern Tender (18 page)

     Continuing she added, “First though we must handle the issue of Ellen’s son. Ellen has served the Colony well, going above and beyond, and protecting our Lillian.”

     Lillian cocked her head to side, “Protecting? Excuse me what does that mean?”

     Regina shot back, “Lilian there will be plenty of time for all of us to learn more about our duties and our past lives, but we must move forward now and join our new lives. We don’t have time to explain now. But rest assured you have done your duty well too and deserve the truth. Please let’s move to Andrew.”

     “Yes, let’s move forward, fine but I do need to understand more about Ellen and me.” Lillian agreed.

     Regina looked at Lillian and said, “Thank you my dear. Again you show your generosity. Now Ellen has brought us a son from the Capitol. A half blood to which the
Book of Ferns
says, we must vote as to whether he can stay with us or must go back to The Capitol.”

     The rain continued to trickle, thumping down through the huge oaks and ancient palms that lined the courtyard. Inside the discussion continued with each woman arguing their point, usually starting with Ellen’s service then working on towards their vote on Andrew. Ellen explained Andrew’s childhood, his stint as a marine, his education, even his drug dealing, but most of all she explained the strength and wisdom it took for him to put up with her. He had to live with her delving into black magic, her boredom, and through it all he just rolled his eyes and went with the flow. The discussion and learning about Andrew all went back and forth between the ladies for a precious half hour.

     Finally Lillian gave her case for Andrew, and she spared no detail. She explained his power, his magic, his intellect, how her thoughts of Andrew get her through the bad days, keeping depression at bay while she carried out her duties. She shared how different he was from the pasty men in the Capitol that seemed to live for cheeseburgers and war. How those men measured their rights and exclaimed their freedom by buying guns and keeping them by their beds in case of attacks that never came. Their world was not brought down by a demonized federal  government or foreign enemy, but instead by their own lack of virility. The attacks they waited for with their shiny guns actually came up through the pipes and into their own kitchens,  poison that poured out into their own glasses. These were not men, they were caricatures that became real. These were people who had to take pills to have sex. Their fear and consumption swallowed a once good society and eventually brought it down. Lillian was convincingly contrasting Andrew with the majority of men in the Capitol.

     She also explained her guilt in falling in love with Andrew, yet still loving her David. It was a strange sensation of loving two men in two different ways in two different places. It was real though, it was happening to her and she couldn’t run from it.

     She went on to also talk about the difference in Andrew's intelligence and the men in the Colony. How Andrew was refreshing, how much he differed in a good way from both types of men. She settled on a explaining that he was third type of man, he was one that read books and used magic, but that could fight and protect when he needed to as well. She argued that he could be an asset here in the Colony during the reset. Who knew what the wheel would read and how much of an impact the reset would have on the Colony, so he might be someone good to have around, was her defense.

     Andrew sat in silence outside feeling the raindrops on his shoulders completely overwhelmed by the events of the last couple of days. His past life and now his new life which somehow belonged to these women in the classroom. He prayed they would do the right thing and let him stay. He like Lillian had fallen in love and the thought of going back to the failing Capitol to never see Lillian again was a crushing thought.

     Finally, the board emerged from the classroom. It wasn’t even close. All the women including Lillian’s own mother voted for Andrew to stay. With tears in their eyes they welcomed Andrew to the Colony and hugged him as their own son. With the exception of Lillian. She was the last to hug him and she snuck a spontaneous kiss on his lips into the embrace.

     After a few moments, Andrew was asked to go to Lillian’s mother’s house. Regina and Ellen waited in the classroom while Lillian left to visit her family. She needed to see them before the final reading.

     Alena met Lillian on the front porch with a hundred questions. Lillian then greeted both David and Alena. Again, feeling guilty, she hugged David and smelled his neck. The scent of onions and garlic were on his clothes. He was cooking dinner for them.

     “Will you be here for dinner Lillian?” He asked.

     Tears welled up and she responded, “No, I have to go to the Ferns. I’ll be back soon. Save me some. But thank you so much for the impromptu lumberjacking earlier today. Cutting those dozen trees and felling them across the road near the village was important for what I doing right now. So, thanks again honey.”

     David swallowed hard then said, “OK, we’ll save you some dinner. You be careful.”

     “I love you Momma,” Alena shouted as Lillian left them once again.

      Lillian trotted back to the classroom where she met up with Regina and Ellen. The sun was setting and the blood moon was gone now. A huge white waning full moon replaced it and was hanging just above the cliffs casting it’s light into the valley where it mixed with the last drops of sunlight. Both sun and moon illuminated their walk into the ferns.

     They kept it light on their walk, with Regina and Ellen recalling their tours of duty as Fern Tenders. They recalled their adventures with the trinity; the jaguars, the wheel, and the ferns, and their deep understanding of this place and it's magic. The world’s most exclusive and important club moved quietly with purpose through the forest. Stopping every so often for a drink of water from the stream and a long listen to for any monkeys or jaguars nearby. They had all retained their forestry skills. Lillian walked behind the other two and listened to their recollections of this place and their chatter about life. These women were unflappable, the special forces of womankind. Just as the world was losing its grip and on the verge of a reset, they handled their mission without panic and a wonderful sense of humor and grace.

     As they entered the ferns, the moon wrestled back the dusky sky from the setting sun. Now bathed in moonlight, they approached the Spring. They peered over the rocks surrounding the Spring and each took positions on the boulders. The Spring was fully illuminated, making it appear a fluorescent blue, the wheel shimmering below the surface was completely stopped. It had been waiting for them. As the three gazed into the water the wheel hid its contents and they instead began to see a scene of destruction, fires, nuclear bombs, guns. It was a look into the Hell that the Capitol had become. In a few short hours since they made it back to the Colony, the place had become total chaos. They watched in awe. Each one silently asked for mercy for the women and children of the Capitol, for the innocent caught in a whirlwind of masculine destruction.

     The feed from the Capitol of armageddon then began to fade, wiped away by a beautiful translucent green light shining from beneath the wheel. The chartreuse light formed a perfect circle and framed an abyss of darkness. The inside of the wheel was completely black now. All the names, figures, characters, and people the wheel so diligently displayed everyday were all erased, gone. Lillian gasped as the wheel showed nothing for second, thinking that they may not be safe and this was truly the end of everything, including them. But as soon as the feeling hit her, the circle began to turn. The green light was encasing the darkness, a void. There was nothing but darkness as the wheel slowly cranking itself counterclockwise. Turning backward from its normal spin, it began to move faster and faster. Then finally it stopped coming to rest on the two characters of history who would assume earthly bodies. These two would head the reset, the start of a another cycle. The new era.

     None of the three said a word, they all sat quietly in awe of the wheel and the names it had chosen.  In the still of the night Ellen broke the silence, “Just to make sure we’re all seeing the same thing here. Please confirm that I’m seeing that the two figures of history to head the start of the reset are Eve and Lucifer.”    

She continued, “And I’m seeing that Lillian shall be and assume the role of Eve and Andrew shall be and assume the role of Lucifer?”

     “Yes, that is what I am seeing,” Regina replied.

     There was a long pause, and finally Ellen asked, “Lillian? Are you seeing this?”

     After adjusting herself on the boulder and taking a deep breath, she also replied, “Yes, that is what I am seeing.”

     The wheel had waited patiently for them to try and digest the reading. As human beings there was no way to fully grasp the significance of what they were seeing, but they could catch their breath and do their best. Now the wheel began to slowly turn clockwise, but before it could get any momentum, it stopped again. This time showing a timeline of all those figures who had ruled before them. Ellen gasped as the wheel showed that the key figures on the planet for the last 5,000 years and up until today. “Am I seeing this right?” she asked the other two.

     Regina chuckled and responded, “Yes, if you’re seeing that you were the last Morgan Le Fey and the President was the last Adam.”

     Lillian now taking a moment for her own brand of gallows comedy responded too,“Wow. What a cluster fuck Morgan. Ha! No wonder.”

     Shaking her head, Ellen interjected, “I had no idea I was Morgan Le Fey, but it makes sense now.”

     Regina chimed in, “They never do know, well in the case of a reset like we have now, the Fern Tender and the board knows. That’s the beauty of our world, these roles are filled and refilled over thousands of years without the people even knowing. Has to be that way. But now Lillian you have the special honor of knowing who you are and helping usher in a new era. The next Eve won’t be as lucky, she’ll assume her role without knowing until the next reset which is hopefully many many years from now.”

     “Its not my place to do so, but will you tell Andrew, Lillian?” Ellen asked.

     Lillian answered, “I don’t know. I am still in shock. I guess we’ll see what happens and go from there.”

     The wheel again let their dialogue play out, then began its new journey, spinning clockwise with Eve and Lucifer now buried under the turning wheel. The spin increased and now began blur all of its names and figures. Finally it was no longer legible. It had been almost fifty years and three Fern Tenders since the names of the wheel spun fast enough to blur.

      Now the water began to pour up through it, boiling and roiling into the pool, faster and faster. The spring had turned from a quiet reflecting pool into a strong healthy churn with drops of water spinning out of the encirclement every so often and pelting them with fresh springwater. A mist began to rise above the cauldron of water and soak the the three beautiful Fern Tenders.

     They lingered for a few more minutes, then began their journey back to village. As was custom and according
The Book of the Ferns
, they would keep this knowledge to themselves. No one could know what they saw.

     Curious and intrigued, Lillian asked “So, Regina, with you being our elder here what do you make of the names and what do you think it means?”

     Pausing to collect her thoughts, Regina then shared her wisdom and her analysis, “To me it's obvious, the world of the Capitol since the last reset was run by men. The choice of Adam the wheel presented last time had its consequences as we have seen in the Capitol. It took a long time but the world eventually caved under the weight of the male ego. I think assigning Morgan Le Fey only exasperated it, she was genuine and interesting but not equipped to deal with the collective power that men wielded. Ellen what do you think? Is that close?”

     “I really don’t know. Time will tell how Lillian and Andrew deal with their power. I had no idea who I was, but looking back I don’t have a lot of regrets. I loved, lived, and did my duty. I’m not sure I would have done anything different if I had known I was such a famous witch.”

     Lillian stepped back into the conversation, “So Regina what’s your take on the Lucifer thing? Should we be concerned.”

     “Of course we should be concerned, but not so much as Andrew represents a boogy man. I think anyone with the power you two will have in leading the remaining 10,000 should be a humble power. My take on Lucifer is more of a sympathetic one. He was a deeply flawed angel, thrown back to Earth. I prefer to believe in the myth that shows him as the bringer of light or the morning star. I’d like to think he has redeeming qualities and maybe is here again because he has learned his lessons and wants to right his wrongs. He certainly has experience, Adam could not have pulled off the apocalypse we just witnessed without Lucifer being around. We shall see. Maybe he was tired of it all. After all it is called a reset. You will have your hands full with him for sure.”

     Regina continued without being asked, “As for you my girl, I think Eve will suite you wonderfully. She is another misunderstood character of the bible. She is a being that embodies all that is good about Earth yet cannot control her temptations, her lust for interesting new things. She is lover of beauty and the environment. Eve and the Devil himself may make a great team, who knows.”