Stan Morris - Surviving the Fog

“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.

“It looks like poop.”

Carefully, he took a tiny bite. His eyes lit up, and he popped the whole piece into his mouth, as older teens looked on enviously. He and Star hugged Yuie.

As Lincoln watched Yuie give the children the precious chocolate, he shook his head. I’m in love with a peacenik from Berkeley, he mused. He asked Yuie to take a walk around the track with him. When they were away from everyone else, down where the river left the valley and entered the woods, they turned to look back toward the village. He pulled her back against his chest, and she lifted her arms above her head, so she could lean backwards and place them behind his head. Lincoln laid his chin on her head, reveling in the aroma of her long, silky black hair, and they stood there together down at the far end of the meadow.

Then Lincoln said, “Yuie, I have another deal to offer you. Here it is. I promise to teach our children to respect and to honor people like you. People who question the government. People who demand accountability from our representatives. People who protest against the government when they think it’s wrong, especially when the government is sending our people to fight and die.

“In return, I would like you to promise to teach our children to respect the people who wear the uniform of our country. I want you to promise to teach our kids that it isn’t the military who make the choices of when to fight and die; that it’s the civilian government that makes those choices, and that the men and women in the military have a duty to faithfully carry out the orders of those civilians. Will you accept this deal?”