Authors: Teri Hall
“I’m not.” Elizabeth turned to Jonathan. “For once, I’m not, Jonathan.” She smiled at him. “I want you to know something.”
Jonathan looked at her. “Is this a good something?” He shaded his eyes from the glare of the sun. Elizabeth’s hair flew out around her head like a halo. It reminded him of days long past, when they were both young. Elizabeth, so beautiful and carefree, her hair loose and waving around her face. Elizabeth when he had first fallen in love with her.
She held out her hands to him and he took them. “It’s a good something, I hope.” She waited until he was looking in her eyes. “I love you. I know it’s late, maybe too late, and I know it’s not enough. But I wanted to tell you that, anyway.”
Jonathan lowered his chin, so the brim of his hat hid his face. He was silent for a moment. Then, he looked back into her eyes—his Elizabeth. “It’s plenty, Elizabeth. It’s plenty.”
They both heard the shouts at the same time. Turning together, they saw people running down the beach toward them. Elizabeth shaded her eyes, squinting to try to see.
“Is that—”
“It is! It’s our Rachel!”
In the evening, after they’d had a chance to rest and unpack some things, Elizabeth and Rachel sat together near the platform, while Jonathan went on a tour of the cave with Daniel.
“I did bring others, but I think this one will do fine, once it can get some sun.” Elizabeth inspected the last of the orchid crosses Rachel still had—the other one had died in the dim light of the cave.
“It will get sun tomorrow, then.” Rachel grinned. “That’s another thing we told them—that we wouldn’t hide anymore, here in the cave. The whole island will be ours to wander as we like, to make our home. Pathik and I are thinking we’ll build a house out there, up high on the dunes somewhere. And Indigo said there was a wind farm here once. We’re going to try to find that—” Rachel broke off, realizing she’d mentioned Indigo’s name. “I’m sorry, Ms. Moore.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Don’t be sorry, Rachel. He was a special person. We need to remember him as often as we can.” She ran her fingers through her hair, enjoying the way it felt. She decided she’d never wear it in a bun again. “Where is Pathik at now?”
Rachel grinned. “Planning Usage. He’s going to teach Usage classes, just like Indigo did. He says it’s no wonder they got in such a mess here, with no rules about how they use their talents.”
“I imagine he’s right.” Elizabeth frowned. She watched as a gray-haired lady walked past, led by a cherubic-looking young girl. “Certainly Filina could have used some rules.” She’d heard about all the things the woman had done.
Rachel followed her gaze. “She can’t do any harm now.” Rachel wondered if Filina had any idea what Lethe had done to her. It had happened the day after Rachel, Pathik and the Honorees had returned to the island. Sarah said Lethe had knocked on the door of the unit where Filina lay drugged. Jim had been watching over Lethe since the day of Celebration. He’d gone to the secret unit Filina had kept the girl locked away in and brought her back with him. But he hadn’t been with her when she came to see Filina. Later, he said he hadn’t told her anything about what Filina had done, or what she’d made Lethe, unwittingly, do.
Sarah said Lethe had just settled next to Filina’s bed and asked if she could stay with her for a while. Sarah couldn’t see the harm—the woman was the only mother the girl could remember. She’d left to find Jim and when she’d returned with him, Lethe was still sitting next to the bed. She’d turned, looked up at them with a smile on her face. “She won’t need to be asleep anymore. I fixed her.”
She had, indeed, fixed her. They’d decided to skip Filina’s next sedative dose, and when she woke, she had no memory. At least no memory of what she had done, of Celebration, and most importantly, of her own talent. They’d questioned her exhaustively, and she’d shown no sign of knowing anything about those parts of her past.
Sarah was wary, but they had a general meeting about the situation, and everyone agreed to stop the drugs and see what happened. And it was just as Lethe said. Without any recollection of her power, Filina was rendered harmless.
Lethe had been working, slowly, in the days since the Honorees had been returned, to restore their memories. She said it was harder than wiping them, that it took care and attention to detail. But she kept working on it, and she told Jim that she was sure she could give them back everything she had taken. She felt sad that she had done anything at all to them. “They weren’t really unhappy at all, were they?”
But when anyone asked her if she would restore Filina’s memories, she just shook her head. “Mother was
so
unhappy. She’s happier now.”
“Ms. Moore.” Rachel spoke the words almost shyly. “I wanted to ask you if you would help me start a greenhouse. Here, I mean. Jim and Sarah said they thought they could find some old glass windows—they said there are places on the island where houses are still almost intact. And if we could find the right location . . . well, I was hoping—”
“Why do you want to do that, Rachel?”
“I know it may sound silly, but I think there’s a place in life for . . . for just beauty, maybe. For the kind of pleasure beauty can bring, in all its different forms, to the people who see it. And I think we might be ready for that, here. A simple pleasure. One that has nothing to do with survival. It’s a sort of magic, if you can reach that place.”
“Rachel.”
“Yes, Ms. Moore?”
“I think it’s time for you to call me Elizabeth.”
end
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Teri Hall likes to write books.