There was a day when Nora first said "Iniss" to Melissa Chapman. Most other
teachers say "Hedrick" to her. She's not bothered by either, she knows it's
her we mean.
Illim helped arrange for Nora and me to be encaged together at the pool. In
those few hours every three days, I try to comfort her as best I can. I also
try to help her at school. That doesn't make anyone suspect that Illim's in
the YPM. Most Yeerks -- even loyal ones -- would be decent enough to let
their host help a poor widow who's lost her stepson.
And anyway, it would have to be part of their cover. Everyone thinks I'm
best at comforting Nora. For the obvious reasons.
But there are more reasons than the obvious.
The truth is that I love Nora. That I've loved her for a while now. It
started a few years after my wife's death.
I've told Nora about my love for her. But she loved another widower. One
who was perhaps not even a widower. Either way, their marriage was the
best for both of them. I knew that, and didn't try to stop it.
And now we know for sure Peter had never been a widower. And Peter himself
knows, too.
Now it's Nora who believes she's lost her husband and child. And as much as
it hurts me, I must keep her in that belief. With all the help I try to give
her, I can't give her the help she truly needs.
I believe Nora appreciates my feelings for her. Maybe, in a few years, if
she'll have gotten over Marco and Peter, she'll feel the same for me. Maybe
we can be as happy together as Peter and Eva are now. Maybe the four of us
can live in the marriages we should already be living in for a long time, if
it weren't for the Yeerks.
Except that Peter and Eva will still be in a faraway valley, believed dead.
And I still won't meet the real Nora more than once every three days.
I do hope it can once be different. I hope along with Marco that someday
he'll be able to free Nora. I know for sure that Illim would leave me
whenever I asked. And so I hope we can be an ordinary couple, or at least as
ordinary as Peter and Eva are.
Two ordinary couples. Four people who know the truth about each other.
Because it doesn't hurt me that Nora was, and is, married to Peter. What
hurts me is that neither she, nor he, nor Eva may know the whole truth
about this marriage.
teachers say "Hedrick" to her. She's not bothered by either, she knows it's
her we mean.
Illim helped arrange for Nora and me to be encaged together at the pool. In
those few hours every three days, I try to comfort her as best I can. I also
try to help her at school. That doesn't make anyone suspect that Illim's in
the YPM. Most Yeerks -- even loyal ones -- would be decent enough to let
their host help a poor widow who's lost her stepson.
And anyway, it would have to be part of their cover. Everyone thinks I'm
best at comforting Nora. For the obvious reasons.
But there are more reasons than the obvious.
The truth is that I love Nora. That I've loved her for a while now. It
started a few years after my wife's death.
I've told Nora about my love for her. But she loved another widower. One
who was perhaps not even a widower. Either way, their marriage was the
best for both of them. I knew that, and didn't try to stop it.
And now we know for sure Peter had never been a widower. And Peter himself
knows, too.
Now it's Nora who believes she's lost her husband and child. And as much as
it hurts me, I must keep her in that belief. With all the help I try to give
her, I can't give her the help she truly needs.
I believe Nora appreciates my feelings for her. Maybe, in a few years, if
she'll have gotten over Marco and Peter, she'll feel the same for me. Maybe
we can be as happy together as Peter and Eva are now. Maybe the four of us
can live in the marriages we should already be living in for a long time, if
it weren't for the Yeerks.
Except that Peter and Eva will still be in a faraway valley, believed dead.
And I still won't meet the real Nora more than once every three days.
I do hope it can once be different. I hope along with Marco that someday
he'll be able to free Nora. I know for sure that Illim would leave me
whenever I asked. And so I hope we can be an ordinary couple, or at least as
ordinary as Peter and Eva are.
Two ordinary couples. Four people who know the truth about each other.
Because it doesn't hurt me that Nora was, and is, married to Peter. What
hurts me is that neither she, nor he, nor Eva may know the whole truth
about this marriage.