The Lieutenant was lying on the ground. His upper clothing had been removed, and he had a bandage around his torso. Yuie sat next to him watching Lincoln anxiously and repeatedly questioning Diana.
“Are you sure he’s all right?” she kept asking, ignoring Kennedy’s reassurances.
“It’s just a scratch, Yuie,” Kennedy gasped out.
“It’s not just a scratch,” Diana retorted. “But he will be alright.” There were already ten stitches along his left side.
The troop from Petersburg stayed in the glen until they buried the bodies, and then they started their journey back to the river and from there, down to Petersburg. They made the woman and her two boys trail behind, but they fed them.
Someone seeing them eat muttered, “Why bother?”
Jean replied, “Because that’s what the Chief would do.”
At Petersburg, the residents were waiting anxiously for news of their troop. Mike returned two days after they left. He was surprised to hear about the people from the Retreat, but he didn’t offer any opinions, or any advice for that matter.
Howard offered to let Mike sleep in the loft until Jean returned, but Mike turned him down. Mike moved into the Lodge and took a bunk in the boys’ cave. One night, Imee sent for him. He found her in John’s and Desi’s room. He and John waited in terrified suspense most of the night, and then in the early morning hours, they heard a small high pitched voice wailing. Imee called them into the room. The newborn lay on Desi’s chest.
“John, come say hello to your son,” said Desi wearily. “Hey, Mike, come say hello to Michael.”
After a time, while Desi and the baby slept, Mike and John took a long walk and climbed the slope next to the cave. Amid the trees, they found a private place to talk. Later, before they left that place, they laughingly promised each other that neither would ever tell anyone that they had held each other and had bawled like John’s son.
Days later, the happy community rejoiced as they welcomed Kennedy and the other defenders back. If there had been any doubt about the Rangers integration into the community, it was forgotten. Together with the villagers, at the risk of their lives, they had protected their community. And the Rangers, too, saw this village they had defended as their village, and when they walked once more into the valley, it was as if they were home.
Lieutenant Kennedy and Yuie were often observed hand in hand, to everyone’s relief. Their arguments seemed unimportant to them now, and they began to speak about who they really were and where they were from. Kennedy laughed when he found out that Yuie was from Berkeley, California. Her grandparents, she told him, had been political activists in the nineteen-sixties.
“That figures,” he said, grinning at her.
Yuie was not surprised to learn that Kennedy was a second generation soldier. She was surprised to learn that he was from Lubbock, Texas. He doesn’t have much of an accent, she thought. Yuie was delighted to hear of the birth of Desi’s baby, and she and everyone chuckled when they saw Mike carrying the child as if he had done so all his life. But when he changed the baby’s diaper in the dining hall one day, there was some grumbling about the smell.
“Tough,” was his one word reaction.
Most of them were happy to hold the baby for a few moments, except for Jacob who broke out in a terrified sweat when John handed baby Michael to the scout. Standing next to the scout, Lily assured him that the baby would not suddenly explode or grow wings and fly away.
Now that Jacob was back, Lily wanted to go and see the edge of the Fog, so she could check on its progress. Jacob packed their things, and they set out. After the three day journey, they came to the Fog and verified that it was, indeed, much lower. This time, Jacob placed a small boulder in the road to mark the spot. They moved away from the Fog and found a place to camp for the night.
It was warm that night, with just a light breeze, and Lily wanted to talk. She managed to get Jacob speaking about his life before the Fog. She discovered that his father had owned a gas station in Oakdale. She in turn, talked about her life growing up in the coastal city of Watsonville.
“Artichokes,” he said, and she nodded pleased that he knew something of her home town.
But though he had mentioned his father and his mother, after a while Lily felt Jacob withdrawing, and he became tight lipped even for him, so she finally asked, “Jacob, what’s wrong?”
She sensed his sudden tenseness, and she wondered if he would answer, and then he said, “It’s my birthday today. I’m seventeen.”
“Oh, happy birthday, Jacob,” Lily responded.
“Thanks.”
Lily waited, and as she waited, her thoughts turned to the previous year when she had first met him. She sighed, remembering their conversations, and then she leaned toward him and put her arms around his shoulders, and then lifted them to his neck.
“Happy birthday, Jacob,” she whispered again, tenderly, and then for the first time, she kissed him.
The villagers were pleased when Jacob and Lily reported that the Fog was still receding. There was a new confidence among the community that one day their world would be normal again. There was a sense that, as the seasons passed, this community would become stronger. Some of the older girls looked at Desi’s child and thought about the possibility of their own children.
Summer was passing. The grain was high, and it needed to be cut. Mary was due to arrive in the village any day to start the combine. Eric was trying to build a working bicycle. Ahmad’s position as Admin was making life easier for Howard. Most of the people from the Retreat were adjusting to life in Petersburg. The women and the small children had suffered trauma that would take a long time to overcome.
Life for Lieutenant Kennedy would have been just fine, except for the fact that Yuie was depressed. She hid it, but Lincoln had come to know her well, and, one day he coaxed into speaking about what was wrong. Gradually, haltingly, she began to talk about that day in the glen. She was feeling guilty about her part in the fight.
Staring straight ahead, Yuie said, “I didn’t want to kill again, Linc.” She turned her head and looked at Lincoln. “I didn’t want to kill anyone ever again.” Lincoln pulled her head against his shoulder. He put his arms around her, and he held her as she began to cry.
“I know, Yu,” he whispered quietly. “I know, Yu.” Eventually, Yuie’s emotional health began to mend, and so did Lincoln’s.
When September arrived, Howard announced a four-day Labor Day celebration, and this year he turned it into a fair of sorts. Everyone was encouraged to make something to trade for something else. The Brown Farm community came for the fair, and Mary started the combine.
“I’m not going to cut yet, but this is a good opportunity to power up and check it,” she explained.
Ralph got a chance to talk to Howard about who should be chosen to live in the Solar Apartments. There were more applications than apartments, so the young men debated over whether or not to use a lottery, or to choose the inhabitants based on what skills they would bring to the farm. Ralph was not looking forward to the possibility of kicking someone out of their apartment, because they refused to work.
While they were throwing tiny spears at a target set up in a booth, Lincoln suggested a deal to Yuie.
“I’ll trade you my last four pieces of chocolate for four kisses. My choice of time and place,” he said.
Yuie laughed and agreed to the deal, so Lincoln gave her the chocolate. Then Yuie surprised him by taking the sweets to Comet and Star. She gave them each one piece. Star was seven years old now, and she could barely remember chocolate. Comet didn’t remember chocolate at all, and he looked suspiciously at the brown sweet.