A half hour later the group had moved to the larger meeting hall, at Alice's suggestion, and the few absent villagers had been summoned to join them. Lucius had wondered whether Edward and Tabitha Walker would seize the opportunity to slip away. To their credit, they did not.
For the first time, he was genuinely pleased to see splashes of violet in most of the villagers' clothing. Despite his five-month absence, these people still regarded him as a "saint." He knew they wouldn't shout him down, refuse to believe the startling things he and Ivy had to tell them.
Thankfully, none of them imagined that the restoration of Ivy's sight was a "miracle" of other than the medical kind. Her needing to wear glasses told them nothing supernatural was involved. And the change in her might help them accept that the outside world held as many happy surprises as horrors.
The young couple rose to face the crowd, prompting a chorus of cheers from all but the dour elders. Tears stung Lucius's eyes as he raised his hands to silence them.
"Thank you! We love you all, as we always have. But now we have to tell you what we've learned." How can I do this? I've never talked much, never wanted to.
"Try to stay calm," he told his audience, hoping he could heed his own advice. "Don't be afraid. But...prepare yourselves for news that will change all our lives, forever." Over the excited buzz that followed, he said, "Ivy and I have agreed that I'll tell you this part of the story."
Agreed, yes. But he still felt as if she was deserting him when she squeezed his hand, then sat in the front row with Alice and August and left him on his own.
He waited for silence. Then he took a deep breath. "First, there are no dangerous creatures in Covington Wood. The elders have always known that."
.
.
.
.
.
As he'd expected, the uproar threatened to keep him from ever getting beyond that subject. "Settle down! I'll explain. Briefly, for now, because there's much more you need to know."
He gave a condensed explanation of the "forest creature" hoax, while the elders squirmed in their seats. Unfortunately, it required sharing the truth about Noah Percy's death; he was glad to see his mother put a comforting arm around Ivy.
"Outside the forest," he continued, "Ivy and I discovered that wasn't the only way in which we've been deceived.
"All our elders had lost loved ones to violent crime. They wanted to retreat from the world, to what they viewed as the 'simplicity' of an earlier era.
"So they did. They didn't just put a forest between them and everyone else. They turned back the clock...by more than a century. The year we're living in isn't 1898. It's 2005!"
Stunned silence.
And then the younger members of the audience were on their feet, howling in outrage--not doubting him, but ready to assault the now-terrified elders.
"Sit down, everyone!" Lucius commanded. "Hear me out."
As they grudgingly complied, he urged them, "Try to show compassion for your parents. They'd been badly hurt. I don't approve of what they did, but they were trying to assure what they saw as a better life for their children.
"And in any case, we don't have time for recriminations now. There's much more that Ivy and I need to tell you."
He went on to describe the wonders of the modern world: cities with millions of people, advances in medicine, motorized travel, air travel, near-instantaneous communication in its many forms. He had a selection of photographs to be passed around. "Before our village was settled," he told them, "humans had traveled to the moon!"
When the ruckus over that died down and he had their attention again, he began pointing out the negatives. "Crime and violence still exist. Besides that, there are problems caused simply by the vast numbers of people. There are so many motor vehicles on the roads that accidents claim an appalling number of lives. Big-city hospitals are so overburdened that medical errors result in a significant number of deaths. And there are people living in desperate poverty--some here in the United States, many more in other parts of the world."
He gave his now-sober audience a capsule account of the wars of the 20th century, including the horror of the Holocaust and the development and use of the atom bomb. Then he continued with a history update that shocked even the elders.
"Four years ago this country experienced a new and frightening type of attack. A small group of people from other parts of the world, who hated the United States government's policies, seized control of several airplanes--with passengers aboard--and deliberately crashed them into buildings. Two enormously tall buildings collapsed, and close to 3,000 people were killed."
By now his voice was shaking. But the cries of revulsion gave him time to bring it under control. When he could be heard again, he addressed another painful subject.
"And two years ago, the United States invaded a much smaller country. Over a thousand American soldiers have been killed, and over a hundred thousand of the other country's people." Raising a hand in acknowledgment of the shocked gasps, he continued, "Some Americans believe this was a necessary war; others don't. I don't understand the issues well enough to have an opinion...yet.
"But for good or ill, we live in the United States. In the event of war or natural disaster, we'd have to rely on its government for protection. Personally, I'd rather know what's going on than not know."
There were murmurs of agreement.
"And now," Lucius told his audience, "I want to make clear two points that are of key importance to us.
"First, despite all the violence in the outside world, the great majority of people in countries as advanced as ours get through life without experiencing any of it, and die of natural causes at an advanced age."
He allowed a minute for that to sink in.
Then he said, "Second...in the 24-year history of our village, there have been eleven deaths. I've explained how Noah died. Let's leave discussion of that for later, and consider the ten natural deaths.
"Births have far exceeded deaths, so we've thought our community was thriving. But the truth is that every one of those deaths was premature and preventable. Every one of those people could still be alive!
"It's not that Dr. Ashline isn't a good doctor. He is. They died because he didn't have the medicines or the surgical capabilities that would have been available in the outside world. And none of those things are new! He understood perfectly well what was needed."
A white-faced Ashline got to his feet, looked around, and said brokenly, "That's true." He sank into his seat again and buried his face in his hands.
"We haven't even been as well provided for as Americans in the real 19th century," Lucius went on, "because their communities weren't isolated.
"In most respects, the outside world isn't better or worse than the one the elders created here. It's just different. But this difference is crucial. The elders had the right to deprive themselves of good medical care--to choose 'peaceful' lives over long ones. They had no right to make that choice for their children and grandchildren!"
As dozens of young villagers voiced their assent, he looked at his mother and August. His eyes misted. I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt you.
Then he told the crowd, "If there had been no other compelling reason for Ivy and me to reveal the truth, this would have sufficed."
He wondered how many had noted the if.