EMILY AND FAMILY
I'm getting really tired of Calgary. I'm now not cleared for the American Consulate here. I may have raised too much of a ruckus. I almost headed for the airport for a flight to Toronto. Not that I have any money, but the Canadian airline sometimes makes allowances for ex-pat Americans who are desperate.
I want to go home. Your mom's gone, the house is gone, my truck is gone, most of the town is gone. Still, there's no other place I'd like to be. Forget Canada, they haven't even hit back at Gilead. We need to take back everything we've ever said about the Indians.
My daughter is a fighter. You're a Malek. We saw that in high school when you gave that athlete girl a good beating. You'll survive. I cannot for the life of me contemplate that you'd be involved in a murder. Maybe a killing, but not a murder. I read an excerpt about Fred Waterford, from stuff assembled by your friend's husband. Waterford was a class A asshole. What he got was too good for him.
It's now time to turn your attention to Oliver and those refugee kids from Angel's flight. Don't get distracted.
I may have to make my own way to either Sweet Grass or Del Bonita to the west. Can you believe that there are airports right along the 49th? I think they are holdovers from WWII from when Canada was in the war and we weren't.
Grandpa
Grandpa Ollie
So much has happened since I last wrote. It's amazing how far we're come through all the trauma of the last while. I guess it's true what they say, there's no way through it but through it.
Emily is in the free and clear. Social services has done a full assessment of her, and sees no problem with her returning home - here! - unsupervised. Not only have they said that she is no problem with Oliver, that they anticipate no problems in the future. As it is there is more good news - it's hard to anticipate what our lives may look like in a year's time.
You have been cleared by the American consulate here in Toronto to come live with us. But you sound like you're heading south. It's about time that we got you out of there, so you can live where you belong - with family. The whole process has been a 'hurry up and wait' - exercise. At each point we were told that there was nothing standing in the way of you coming - except for 'final approval'. 'Final approval'? An ever-receding destination! My question to them was that if that were true - that nothing was 'standing in the way' - why was it that you were there and we are here? This whole refugee stuff should be straightforward. I sometimes get the feeling that they overreact, thinking all of you ex-pat Americans are secretly Gilead sympathizers.
We've also been approached by Children's services on another matter. I cannot say everything about it, because it is (apparently) a 'matter of State'. Not another one! It's not bad enough that Emily had/has been caught up on the whole 'Baby Nichole' saga (that has not yet even remotely dropped out of the news-cycle). Her involvement in the 'Commander Waterford-scandal' had brought her briefly into Gilead's crosshairs again. We've been assured that as far as Canadian law enforcement is concerned, that the real issue is June Osborne. Although Osborne still has refugee status in Canada, she has since disappeared. Emily is loyal to her friend,
Ok, I'm sorry Ollie, I started but didn't finish. Too much happening. Like I said, Emily will be home soon. Me, her wife, will be charged with her supervision. Emily will be left alone and me, once a month, I will have to report to a probation officer - not for me, but to report on how she's doing. It's a bizarre process, but I figure that if you're eventually going to be here in Toronto with us, you may as well know.
Ok, I still haven't finished. It was a surprise to me to hear that Emily has requested that she and I adopt - wait for it - Serena Joy Waterford's baby girl, who was born in the prison Serena had been in. Since the birth, Serena has been deported back to Gilead. Without the baby. The rumour going around Little America here, is that Serena Joy - an architect of women's place in that misogynist nightmare - that she will go into that surrogacy-service program to service elite families, the one that had held Emily captive. Two wrongs don't make a right, but still!
Her baby? It seems we will come out of Emily's Gilead-time with a daughter after all. Canada practices birthright citizenship, meaning that since the baby had been born here she's automatically a Canadian, like me and Oliver. Cannot be deported. Gilead has filed protests which the psychologists say has helped Emily over any misgivings she may have had. Emily needs something to fight against, and with the baby she has found it.
I'm not sure when the baby is actually given to us. I think it depends on Emily being settled here - they know that eventually you'll be here, they don't seem to mind that.
When Emily and I first met, no one had even heard of Gilead. The Sons of Jacob (Sons of Bitches, I loved that from you!) were some fringe group on a YouTube channel somewhere. Now every aspect of our lives has been overturned and effected by them.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. If Emily settles successfully, she'll be teaching high school biology. That is huge, Ollie.
Sylvia and Oliver.
EMILY, SYLVIA AND OLIVER
I'm back in Montana. Yes, I called it Montana. It may be a while before I make it back up to Canada. Although, I've been told that Toronto is actually way-south of where I am now. So maybe 'over-to-Canada'. Okay, it's not very funny, so I'll stop with the dad jokes.
I miss your mom desperately. I stayed in town less than two hours. Couldn't even make out where our house had stood. I'm now bunking at the Flathead Reservation just north of Missoula. By the way, the Flatheads have retaken Missoula. They always defended their Reservation, now they're helping the white folks off-Reservation. These are the people who'd massacred Custer, so Gilead has found out about them the hard way. Nothing to go back to back home. What I'd give for even one of your mother's photo-albums.
I haven't been north to Alberta in quite a while now. You can't carry rifles there. The Flatheads here practically make it a requirement! I join them periodically in their pick-up patrols, and we monitor a couple of areas in Missoula - one of them is the university. We found out that part of the university had been converted into a surrogacy center for fertile young women, it was horrible. It's now closed. Most, but not all of the women are now up north in Calgary and Edmonton. It breaks my heart to see first hand what you had to contend with. There's a mercy in your mother not being here to see it.
The Flatheads have extended their police service to now cover Missoula. They keep their cruisers impeccable. Gilead (the Northern District) still holds Helena.
Thanks for the pictures. Oliver is sprouting up like a weed. One day I'll end up there. I'm not a young man. But it is heartening seeing the Flathead defend their land. I still don't know where they're getting their weapons, and they aren't telling.
Grandpa Ollie
MS. RACHEL TAPPING
It's with gratitude, Ms. Tapping, that we receive the Consulate report on Mr. Oliver 'Ollie' Malek. He was my father-in-law, my wife's father, and our son's grandfather. It is quite raw to consider that Ollie never met his grandson. They certainly exchanged many many pictures over the years.
Us? We were looking forward to Ollie eventually being relocated as an American refugee here at our home in Toronto. Now it's not to be. We'd already set up a place for him, to give him some privacy. A men's group of ex-pat Americans meets for coffee every morning in Little America, Emily joined them a few times to ask if her dad would be welcomed. They got out napkins and all wrote kind words to him, about how welcome he would be. Emily forwarded them.
We understand completely that the reports forwarded to you from your Calgary colleagues are murky. Ollie had a stubborn streak to him. Although a staunch 'Reagan-conservative', Gilead never set right with him. As you may imagine, Ollie and us had many disagreements over the years. Often heated. Emily assures me that that's what Montanan families do.
The armed fight for Montana may have claimed Ollie, but not his spirit. We understand that the Flathead Reservation had a full ceremonial Confederated Salish and Kootenai funeral rite for him. Ollie had been a born-again Christian, but he also respected the Flathead people greatly. I know he would have been honoured.
Is there anyone we can write to in Missoula (or in Pablo?) to thank them? Ollie used to brag that even with the armed take-over of most of Montana, that the Flathead never once closed their casino!
Once again, Ms. Tapping, thank you so much for your care and advocacy for our Toronto family. Our 'growing' Toronto family. We thank you for your support and understanding through all our upheaval, which is in the past, I promise you.
Our daughter has been in the house for almost a week. Oliver has really taken to his little sister, It's almost like he'd been waiting all this time to be an elder brother. Emily cries about her dad, as well as her mother. I've not seen any emotion like that before with Em. When the tears stop she shares stories with Oliver of what it was like growing up in northern Montana.
Those days are gone.
Once again, thank you for your service to the ex-pat American community and to my family.
Sylvia.
