Peter wasted no time before telling her Respite’s dirtiest little secret; her mother had been having an affair with his father, Ben Hasten, since before The Day. Her stomach burned. The affair was a betrayal of her love as well as her father’s, and it burned her chest more than she wanted to admit.
Milly searched for her father, Gary, the man who helped raise her, the pillar in her life that provided a stable presence in the whirlwind that was Sarah Hendricks. She would make sure he never knew of the betrayal. Maybe it was time to give Peter what he wanted, and they’d have a secret of their own? And she’d have more leverage.
“So we gather here to commit Sarah Hendricks to the sea…”
Her mother’s final words ran through Milly’s head over and over as they tipped her ceremonial raft into the sea. “Beneath the fire. Beneath the fire.” She’d shaken her mother. “What? What’s beneath the fire?” she’d screamed, but Staff Captain and former First Secretary of Respite Sarah Hendricks had passed into the next world.
The sacred texts presented varied opinions on what death meant. More bezoomny shit. Milly bought none of it, and it was time everyone else saw things her way. The sacred texts were the random musings of people who lived in another age of the world where everything was provided for you. A bunch of goose turd.
She stepped forward with her family in tow. Randy tossed a flower off the cliff and said, “Bye Grandma.” One by one the people of Respite paid their final respects to the woman who’d shaped their world. Doc Hampton, the children of Rocco Sereggio, Peter and his family, and a bunch of young people, some of which Milly knew, and many she didn’t. Tye hugged her and whispered encouragement. Everyone threw their flowers, said their words, and would go back to their lives as though nothing had happened.
When everyone had passed, Milly said thank you and the crowd dispersed. There would be a meal later in the Womb, but for now everyone trailed separate ways. Sarah’s remains floated out to sea, and Gary stood at the cliff’s edge watching it fade into the surf. Curso and Randy went down to the shoreline with Milly.
Out on the blue water, pieces of the Oceanic Eco cast tall shadows across the beach. People scavenged within the fragments of the old ship as there were still treasures of the lost world therein for those brave enough to venture deep into the rusted metal. Shanties and tents lined the beach, and Milly made her way home to Citi. With the death of her mother, she inherited her place, a big double room on the east end out of the wind.
Citi was a sprawling structure on the side of the mountain overlooking the ocean. All the windows were gone, and wooden shutters covered most of the openings. In many places, the old world molded stone was fractured and worn, and people cultivated herbs in the cracks.
Citi was quiet, and she overheard an older woman speaking to a child. “See that there? I used to flip that little black switch and the room would fill with light.”
“How?” the amazed child asked.
“See that hole in the ceiling there? It used to have a round glass bulb, and when the switch was turned on it would light up.”
“Like magic.”
“Electric magic.”
Her mother had been Citi’s founder and heart, and anything without a heart dies. She already felt the urgency and unease of her neighbors. Her mother had kept them calm and reminded them how lucky they were to be alive.
Milly would teach them how to live.
That night, Milly tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She drank some ginger tea and goats’ milk, and finally fell into a fitful sleep, tormented by dreams she didn’t understand. A child with long dark hair stood before her in the haze. The girl’s pupils were blue flecked with silver, her irises the orange-red of fire. “I’ll see you soon,” she said. The girl watched Milly, a smile spreading across her face, which was tan and free of blemishes. She looked in perfect health, and her white robe was clean and unworn.
“Where?” Milly said.
“You’ll know.” The child giggled. “You’ve never seen a reborn before?”
Milly felt like maggots were burrowing through her brain and her neck tightened and her stomach went cold. The child was reading her mind. Or writing it like a sacred text?
Milly woke drenched in sweat.
Three months later, Milly had a secret, but not the one she’d planned. Most folks on Respite didn’t know about the ear, and nobody had ever heard anything on it. The myths of messages she’d heard from fire guards had no proof, and they’d been long ago. She was on duty at 2:15AM as the ear listened into the void.
The ear was an emergency transceiver from the gone world brought to Respite by Chief Engineer Rocco Serregio, though his children didn’t know it existed. Its nickel-metal hydride power cell took thirty-six hours of full sun to charge, and it still functioned well, despite being well beyond its design parameters. It charged via a small flexible solar panel connected to the base station. Originally made for a water bottle, the solar panel generated energy that collected fresh water from the ambient air. The bottle was long gone, but teachers in the Foundation still used it as an example of the science the world once knew. Milly had always been the one to point out that the same science caused The Day.
Master Aragorn took special precautions
