The gently lined face was vacant with unconsciousness. She was quite pretty in an inconspicuous way-her features very symmetrical on her oval face. Forty-five, maybe a little younger, maybe a little older. It was hard to tell with no animation in the face.
“They need you,” I went on, pleading now. “You can help them. You know so much that I never knew. Doc tries so hard. He deserves some help. He’s a good man. You’ve been a Healer for a while now; some of that care for the well-being of others must have rubbed off on you. You’ll like Doc, I think.
“Is your name Sarah? Emily? Kristin?”
I stroked her soft cheek, but there was no response, so I took her limp hand in mine again. I gazed at the blue sky through the holes in the high ceiling. My mind wandered.
“I wonder what they’ll do if Kyle never comes back. How long will they hide? Will they have to find a new home somewhere else? There are so many of them… It won’t be easy. I wish I could help them, but even if I could stay, I don’t have any answers.
“Maybe they’ll get to stay here… somehow. Maybe Kyle won’t mess up.” I laughed humorlessly, thinking of the odds. Kyle wasn’t a careful man. However, until that situation was resolved, I was needed. Maybe, if there were Seekers looking, they would need my infallible eyes. It might take a long time, and that made me feel warmer than the sun on my skin. Made me feel grateful that Kyle was impetuous and selfish. How long until we were sure we were safe?
“I wonder what it’s like here when it gets cold. I can barely re-member feeling cold. And what if it rains? It has to rain here sometime, doesn’t it? With all these holes in the roof, it must get really wet. Where does everyone sleep then, I wonder.” I sighed. “Maybe I’ll get to find out. Probably shouldn’t bet on that, though. Aren’t you curious at all? If you would wake up, you could get the answers. I’m curious. Maybe I’ll ask Ian about it. It’s funny to imagine things changing here… I guess summer can’t last forever.”
Her fingers fluttered for one second in my hand.
It took me by surprise because my mind had wandered away from the woman on the cot, beginning to sink into the melancholy that was always conveniently near these days.
I stared down at her; there was no change-the hand in mine was limp, her face still vacant. Maybe I’d imagined the movement.
“Did I say something you were interested in? What was I talking about?” I thought quickly, watching her face. “Was it the rain? Or was it the idea of change? Change? You’ve got a lot of that ahead of you, don’t you? You have to wake up first, though.”
Her face was empty, her hand motionless.
“So you don’t care for change. Can’t say that I blame you. I don’t want change to come, either. Are you like me? Do you wish the summer could last?”
If I hadn’t been watching her face so closely, I wouldn’t have seen the tiny flicker of her lids.
“You like summertime, do you?” I asked hopefully.
Her lips twitched.
“Summer?”
Her hand trembled.
“Is that your name-Summer? Summer? That’s a pretty name.”
Her hand tightened into a fist, and her lips parted.
“Come back, Summer. I know you can do it. Summer? Listen to me, Summer. Open your eyes, Summer.”
Her eyes blinked rapidly.
“Doc!” I called over my shoulder. “Doc, wake up!”
“Huh?”
“I think she’s coming around!” I turned back to the woman. “Keep it up, Summer. You can do this. I know it’s hard. Summer, Summer, Summer. Open your eyes.”
Her face grimaced-was she in pain?
“Bring the No Pain, Doc. Hurry.”
The woman squeezed my hand, and her eyes opened. They didn’t focus at first, just whirled around the bright cave. What a strange, unexpected sight this place must have been for her.
“You’re going to be all right, Summer. You’re going to be fine. Can you hear me, Summer?”
Her eyes wheeled back to me, the pupils constricting. She stared, absorbing my face. Then she cringed away from me, twisting on the cot to escape. A low, hoarse cry of panic broke through her lips.
“No, no, no,” she cried. “No more.”
“Doc!”
He was there, on the other side of the cot, like before, when we were operating.
“It’s okay, ma’am,” he assured her. “No one is going to hurt you here.”
The woman had her eyes squeezed shut, and she recoiled into the thin mattress.
“I think her name is Summer.”
He flashed a look at me and then made a face. “Eyes, Wanda,” he breathed.
I blinked and realized that the sun was on my face. “Oh.” I let the woman pull her hand free.
“Don’t, please,” the woman begged. “Not again.”
“Shh,” Doc murmured. “Summer? People call me Doc. No one’s going to do anything to you. You’re going to be fine.”
I eased away from them, into the shadows.
“Don’t call me that!” the woman sobbed. “That’s not my name! It’s hers, it’s hers! Don’t say it again!”
I’d gotten the wrong name.
Mel objected to the guilt that washed through me. It’s not your fault. Summer is a human name, too.
“Of course not,” Doc promised. “What is your name?”
“I-I-I don’t know!” she wailed. “What happened? Who was I? Don’t make me be someone else again.”
She tossed and thrashed on the cot.
“Calm down; it’s going to be okay, I promise. No one’s going to make you be anyone but you, and you’ll remember your name. It’s going to come back.”
“Who are you?” she demanded. “Who’s she? She’s like… like I was. I saw her eyes!”
“I’m Doc. And I’m human, just like you. See?” He moved his face into the light and blinked at her. “We’re both just ourselves. There are lots of humans here. They’ll be so happy to meet you.”
She cringed again. “Humans! I’m afraid of humans.”
“No, you’re not. The… person who used to be in your body was afraid of humans. She was a soul, remember that? And then remember before that, before she was there? You were human then, and you are again.”
“I can’t remember my name,” she told him in a panicked voice.
“I know. It’ll come back.”
“Are you a doctor?”
“I am.”
“I was… she was, too. A… Healer. Like a doctor. She was Summer Song. Who am I?”
“We’ll find out. I promise you that.”
I edged toward the exit. Trudy would be a good person to help Doc, or maybe Heidi. Someone with a calming face.
“She’s not human!” the woman whispered urgently to Doc, her eye caught by my movement.
“She’s a friend; don’t be afraid. She helped me bring you back.”
“Where is Summer Song? She was scared. There were humans…”
I ducked out the door while she was distracted.
I heard Doc answer the question behind me. “She’s going to a new planet. Do you remember where she was before she came here?”
I could guess what her answer would be from the name.
“She was… a Bat? She could fly… She could sing… I remember… but it was… not here. Where am I?”
I hurried down the hall to find help for Doc. I was surprised when I saw the light of the great cavern ahead-surprised because it was so quiet. Usually you could hear voices before you saw the light. It was the middle of the day. There should have been someone in the big garden room, if only crossing through.
I walked out into the bright noon light, and the giant space was empty.
The fresh tendrils of the cantaloupe vines were dark green, darker than the dry earth they sprang from. The earth was too dry-the irrigating barrel stood ready to fix that, the hoses laid out along the furrows. But no one manned the crude machine. It sat abandoned on the side of the field.
I stood very still, trying to hear something. The huge cavern was silent, and the silence was ominous. Where was everyone?
Had they evacuated without me? A pang of fear and hurt shot through me. But they wouldn’t have left without Doc, of course. They would never leave Doc. I wanted to dart back through the long tunnel to make sure Doc had not disappeared, too.