TITLE: As Time Goes By
AUTHOR: Clairisant
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story takes place almost a year after Catherine's death. I was never happy with how quickly after Vincent lost the great love of his life the writers had him showing an interest in someone new. While I am not happy about Catherine's death, if it had to take place, this is how I would like to have seen it dealt with.
Chapter 1
Vincent had been given the usual talk about the newest member of the tunnel community's arrival. 'Don't show yourself for a while', 'Give her time to adjust to the tunnels first', and 'We will let you know when we think she's ready to meet you'. After the first dozen or so of these 'talks', many years ago, he had learned how to tune Father out while still appearing to be paying close attention. The only part of the talk he paid any attention to these days was whom the new arrival was. This time the newcomer's story really touched his heart.
Maybe it was because of Catherine's role in his life, but a woman in crisis always called out to him. Clara Wyatt had recently come to the Big Apple from the rural mid-west. She had arrived on the laurels of her first successful book. Her series of children's stories about a brave little centipede that lived in a magical place called Sockland was being hailed as the best thing to come along since CS Lewis's Narnia stories. The naive young woman had come to the big city at the urging from her publicist to begin promoting a book signing tour.
Unfortunately after the first evening signing she had been accosted in the parking lot of the bookstore and raped. A young lady with the romantic notion of saving herself for marriage Clara had been a virgin. She had been knocked out early, so her attacker didn't have to worry about her screams, but the trauma to her spirit was what brought her Below.
Dr. Peter Alcott had been on duty when she had been brought into the hospital and became her doctor. Although her physical injuries healed quickly, her mental ones had not.
Every time a man came near her she started trembling in fear, she hated being alone, and became anxious of the dark. While her fear of being alone or in the dark gradually faded over the next two weeks, her fear of men seemed to intensify. Knowing she wouldn't be able to function in the frantic bustling man-filled world of New York City Peter approached the council to plead her case.
The council had met and decided that Miss Wyatt would be granted permission to come Below. Peter had guided her down. He was the only man she seemed to be able to tolerate, and he speculated that it was because she accepted him in the role of 'doctor' rather than seeing him as a 'man'. Clara was brought before a select few of the council for her introduction into the tunnel world. Father was the only male present in his study when the new comer arrived.
Mary took the lead in greeting Clara and introduced her to the other females present. She informed Clara of who Father was and he merely said, "Welcome to your new home," but didn't step forward to greet her.
That night Clara had dinner in her new chamber while Father explained her story to the community in the Dining Hall. He instructed all the men to avoid her for the time being and even errand runners to her chamber should be the female children until they discovered if even male children frightened her.
Everyone was touched by her plight and agreed to help in any way they could even it that just meant leaving her alone for now.
Clara had been Below for a week and the tunnel folk that had met her all liked her. She was a big hit with the children, male and female alike. Her stories about Bryya and Sockland held the children enthralled. They had found it was only 'men' she feared and although Mouse was over the age that she was comfortable with, his innocence and child-like speech seemed to make him exempt from the 'men' list.
Because everyone Below contributed to the community as a whole, each resident was given jobs to do. Each person's talents were assessed or in some instances they were asked their preferences in duties. Then they were given the tasks that best fit them. Clara clearly had an affinity for children, as evidenced in the book she had written. She was assigned to the nursery, at first, under Mary's supervision, as well as asked to take a turn at bed time story time for the dorm chamber. There was also talk of her taking up a teaching position in the future if she decided to remain Below. What no one had expected was the instant chemistry that happened between Clara and Jacob, Vincent and Catherine's eleven month old son.
To be continued….