EPILOGUE - ORDINARY APPEAL
"There are those among us who live in a rooms of experience that you and I cannot enter." - John Steinbeck.
One thing is for sure. If you've never heard of Amanda Knox, you weren't on social media from 2008 to 2015. Knox was the American who'd in 2007 been falsely convicted of murder in Italy, eight years before that country's Supreme Court eventually exonerated her. Four of those years she spent in an Italian prison, and was eventually exonerated in what that high court said had been an 'amnesiac investigation', and lower court trials fraught with illogic.
British tabloids, though, ate it up, a young, pretty American implicated in murder. A social-media storm was dropped upon her. Even after the release and acquittal, tabloids hired paparazzi to stalk her in Seattle, from where she had hailed. Behind veils of anonymity, trollers made her life hell. It is only now that that 'room of experience' for her has abated, somewhat.
In 2015 back in Seattle, Knox chose her life-mate, not just because two bookish nerds bumped into each other in a local bookstore. As a writer she chronicled even that meeting - her initial draw to him was that he, even then, barely had followed the firestorm around her. She had finally found someone at three or four or five arms-length from the tabloid, social media storm - where she could have moments of a normal life, where HE was not preoccupied with or quizzing her about the contents of her room.
The guy she met in the bookstore wasn't totally oblivious to her Italian and cyberspace odyssey, he simply regarded her as 'ordinary' - intriguing, as any attractive stranger would seem, as well as someone he'd like to ask out. Perhaps someone had to have been named 'Amanda Knox', or even 'June Osborne' to know why their particular 'rooms of experience' would make one crave the ordinary.
June Osborne, all-be-she-fictional, was forever tainted with her 'Angels Flight' notoriety. Her sexual slavery in Gilead took PTSD to uncharted depths. Then in Canada, her anonymity was long-gone. We even write about her here in FanFiction! We even endlessly dissect her choice of lover!
No one wonders who Moira should date, post-Oona. June's problem was that she was central to the anti-Gilead narrative. All of it had left her being seen as a giant in within Mayday, the Gilead-resistance movement, as well as a 'to-be-destroyed-at-all-costs', larger than life enemy of the Commanders of that theonomic, patriarchal state.
Even so, her room of experience was knowable to very few.
What had her former life been? Ordinary and unremarkable. That's the point. All June had ever wanted pre-Gilead, was to proof-read books and engage in a little extra-marital intrigue with a guy she met at a curb-side sandwich shoppe. None of that is novel, nor remarkable. Being young and impetuous is neither a shield to nor preparation for big-picture events where the world itself falls on top of you.
When the smoke clears, if it ever does, man-oh-man does ordinary appeal.
KONA, BIG ISLAND, HAWAI'I
Moira looked at her friend, someone who she'd not seen in five years, not since June had been railroaded out of Toronto. Now in Hawai'i, June now appeared older, grayer. Knowing her, thought Moira, probably not wiser. But with The Republic of Gilead now on the ropes of history on the mainland, all sorts of old friends were starting to re-connect, with conversations embedded with new hope.
There she was, June, with a baby. Not Nichole, a new one. So much for the fertility crisis, thought Moira, no wonder June was so much 'in demand'!
So, before June could untie the baby from the chest-snuggly or sit, Moira started the renewal of their friendship by asking sharply, "hey bitch, is this Luke's? Nick's?" Only Moira could have got away with that sort of sass.
"Neither," June answered, sitting and gently taking the child out of the snuggly. "You don't know him," June continued. "I want you to meet him, he said he'll be here later, he had some things to do on the Island. He's my rock, Moira. In the meantime, meet little Janine."
"Your new man, obviously not shooting blanks, either!" Moira said with a smile, something she'd said back in Boston in the early days, but about Luke Bankole.
June settled, then asked, "how are you doing, girl? I hear you've been in Hawai'i for a while now. With Oona?"
Moira sat quietly as her smile faded. "Nope," she said sheepishly. "I still wish it, it's put a damper on my ability to circulate. No one these days is quite 'Oona'-enough."
June laughed, "we're both getting on, Moira. We've both been through the wringer."
Moira said, "you more than me, girl, you more than me."
June settled the baby in her arms, and just sat silently looking at Janine's sleeping face.
Moira asked, "I'm dying here, girl. Luke? Nick? What happened?"
June's mood flattened, She answered, "Luke and I have lost touch. Last I heard he was in Gilead, still searching for Hannah. He'd made some tries at going eastward from Colorado, but the more east he got, the tighter the security. I hope he's alive, I really do." June paused, then added, "he still is the best hope of getting Hannah out, even at this point."
Moira asked about Nichole. All June knew was that she'd been apprehended at the British Columbia/Gilead border that day, way back when. She and Luke had made the decision to surrender her on a promise of her return - of course, they were not going to take her south in that first Hannah-quest.
June concluded, "then when we got back - that first time - the child welfare people in Vancouver, they'd closed her file, meaning that neither Luke nor I, her mother, could find out where she was. Nick, Nichole's father, he interfered - and Nick had the backing of the American government at that time. Canada is a big country, Moira, Nichole could now be anywhere, maybe even with a new name. She's young enough, even she probably doesn't know."
THE ROOMS OF EXPERIENCE OTHERS CANNOT ENTER
Moira then asked about Nick, but first wanted to be clear about Luke. "So….." she asked, pointing to the baby, "Luke is history?"
"It was too much, Moira, too much." She then said she knew that Moira would ask, and that quite honestly, she did not know how she would answer the inevitable. It's not as if June herself had had time for contemplation those last five years to put much thought into her ordinary, domestic life.
"Moira," June started, "you're one of the few who CAN even know what Gilead does to someone. I'm not sure even Rita gets it. She often says that she was never touched…..."
Moira said, "and you believe her? Have you seen her drink?"
June continued, "I love him, I still do. But he tried, tried so damn hard to understand. For him to understand, I had to relate to him stuff I actually did not want to think about - much less remember. It was his need, not mine. I mean, it's not that I have any choice - the memories, they smack you in the back of the head anyway. Luke, he then tried to be so sympathetic, so understanding. Not even knowing what he was sympathetic about. It was all overwhelming, dealing with him - his concern for me - while I was drowning."
"So….." Moira cycled back, "Nick?"
June asked, "Nick, what?"
Moira said, "at least Nick was around in Gilead, you were able to find some intimacy in that hell-hole. He knew the score."
June sat up so quickly that the baby stirred. "Are you kidding?" She then stopped herself, and added, "I love him, Moira, still. That's strange, I know. Stockholm, I know, but fuck Stockholm." She said more quietly, "it wasn't just that Nick was involved in spiriting Nichole from us…. what he did for me at the Waterford's… well, Canada was not the Waterfords. I don't know how to explain it."
The two old friends sat, listening to the baby on June's lap make little snoring sounds. June caressed little Janine's cheeks, one by one. All she wanted now, was to be an ordinary mother.
NEW LIFE
Eventually she said, "and then there's this one…"
Moira asked, "so, do I get to meet the dad? Is it serious, you and he?"
"We met in Anchorage. Me, I had gone north, Luke, he went south - for Hannah," June said. "this wee one's father, he knows, Moira, he knows it all. I've told him. The best part?" June said as a question, and immediately she provided the answer. "I told him, mainly because he never asked."
"He barely knew me - the 'public' me, I mean. He'd only heard of Calamity June in passing. I had to explain to him what Angels Flight was. He actually did know what Handmaids endured, but he refrained from asking stupid questions like well-meaning, dumb-asses ask."
June smiled, "and he's cute, Moira. Like Luke without the attitude. Seriously? When we started I thought that this one, you'd approve! Soon you'll get to meet him for yourself."
June got quiet again.
She then said softly, "he walks with me, never once has tried to fix me or make things right. He knows that there are places he cannot go - he gives me room. I can breathe with him."
Moira then pointed at the baby, "and ergo…. this sweet cherub!"
June sat up straight and said, "I am so sorry, Moira, I've not asked about you! So, no one is quite 'Oona-enough'! You and me, girl, we're at the opposite ends of what we need, to get enough of…"
THE END CREDITS
Naomi (Putnam) Lawrence's obsession with Janine Lindo's comments about her, five years ago in a very round-about way landed both Luke Bankole as well as Nick Blaine in Vancouver. All at the whim of June Osborne, who did not fully appreciate that Naomi could manage such things.
So. After all the principals were gathered what did we learn? More importantly, what happened to each?
NAOMI LAWRENCE
She became what Martha Lori referred to as 'Dilettante Mayday'. She never quite let go of her search for either Janine Lindo, as well as Olivia Winslow. In her heart, she never could accept that Gilead was an evil-State, deserving of its status as a pariah nation. On the few occasions that her dalliances into Mayday operations put her in the company of rebels, during 'down times' with them she'd always want to take the 'balanced' view about Gilead. She had no idea how many times someone almost ended her.
MOIRA STRAND
Moira and Oona finally did 'have that argument'. During some particularly heated exchanges, they agreed that what separated them was their view of June Osborne. To Moira, June had at first been that 'frilly girl' from Boston with the strident feminist, physician mother. Each time June's mom, Holly Maddox, had marched for a feminist cause, June would overreact 'the other way' - Moira would tell Oona. Then Gilead. June told Moira that she'd been oblivious 'to the signs', and was from that point going to march in her mother's shoes.
As for her, Oona was a big-picture representative from and builder of a major NGO, one that provided relief to countless people in Gilead. Oona needed to help, as many as possible. Oona was offended that Moira had let the fate of one person endanger relief work that would otherwise benefit 1000s. Moira had made no apology for choosing a friend in those circumstances. Oona had countered, "then it would be the height of hypocrisy on my part if I chose you, Moira, over work what would benefit so many others."
It was at that point that Oona walked out. There - that was the argument.
RITA BLUE
Rita ended up in Anchorage with what remained of the United States, State Department. She had been quietly sent on 'involuntary paid leave' by the Department, as she dealt with a severe drinking problem, one which almost claimed her. Her volunteer work with the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau suffered.
JUNE AND LUKE
June initially chose the one who would, 'not be a distraction to rescuing Hannah from Aunt Lydia'. That meant choosing Luke, her husband. It was neither a conscious thing for her, nor even a statement of marital fidelity - she found herself with the added bonus of actually being in love with someone with whom she did not have to explain her obsession with her daughter. It was Luke's other reactions to June's Gilead history which had doomed him.
She also loved Nick, desperately so. To hell with Stockholm Syndrome, to hell with any stories about Nick and the first Offred - June had never been so suicidally-low as when being enslaved with the Waterfords. Nick had offered tender comfort, he'd been there. Not Moira, not Luke. During sex, she could throw him around! That was as unGilead as she could be while there, dominating a man physically.
To those who claimed that Nick had 'used' her circumstance to coerce sex, June knew better - she had always been the sexual aggressor. A woman being sexually aggressive, in Gilead! Even though her enduring love for Nick was somewhat separate from those basic animal instincts, that sort of passion grew her love for him - it certainly did not abate it.
What was it that sunk her with Nick? Canada. He constantly choose Gilead - over her, over Hannah. He had hidden his second-marriage from her - the one to Rose. That marriage, it was pure Gilead - Rose's father was a powerful D.C. Commander. June feared that it was not until that marriage fell apart, that Nick turned his vision northward - it was not even clear that the 'prisoner-swap for the Wheelers' was even voluntary on his part.
Whether from his choice or his impotence, Nick was not interested in Hannah.
What is written above, it applies way too may words to why June chose briefly to recommit with her husband. The cause of rescuing Hannah was the unspoken bond which tied them together, until she decided she could wait-out Aunt Lydia.
That Hannah, being Holly Maddox's granddaughter, she would figure it out and then and only then not sit still. That's what June thought.
NICHOLE WATERFORD
Mark Tuello never intended on letting Nichole accompany her parents, June and Luke, back into Gilead that day. Even if it was to the Northwest District where Gilead's hold was mostly non-existent. He had no qualms of Luke and June rendezvous'ing with Martha Lori's people in Portland…. but he was not going to risk the propaganda coup Gilead could claim if they'd recovered Nichole.
Yet Mark was still with the American State Department. In British Columbia, he did not have the same sway with Canadians - or the Province of B.C. - that he'd had out in Ontario. In Central Canada, he could be in a meeting with the Prime Minister's Office in minutes - maybe an hour if the PM insisted that they meet in Ottawa.
Fast forward to Peace Arch Park at the 49th Parallel south of Vancouver, where the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development were waiting with RCMP. In tipping off the child services agency about Nichole, Tuello always intended the most severe form of apprehension.
The Child Services worker told June and Luke that the only thing they were insisting on, was that Nichole NOT accompany her parents to Gilead. That Nichole would be temporarily placed in a 'suitable home' in the Vancouver area, waiting for Luke and June's return.
Fast forward a year. Without getting into the specifics, Nick Blaine pressured Tuello to have Nichole 'placed', back in Ontario - and with a new name and identity. Where she lived until an explosion claimed her foster parents.
JANINE LINDO
Martha Lori's 'people' had intercepted the truck which had spirited Janine away from the Red Centre, mainly to rescue the Martha who'd been with her - the one who had told Janine about the attempt on June Osborne's life.
If either June or Luke had made it to Portland (in the former Oregon) they would have perhaps run into Janine. In her search for her son, Caleb, she had decided on the sand dunes of the famed Oregon Coast. From her basement suite in the coastal town of Waldport, Janine set up shoppe (and chair and umbrella) at Wakonda and Tillicum beaches. While looking out over the Pacific and walking the long beaches, she talked to Caleb and Charlotte, often in the past tense.
SERENA JOY AND NICK
Are you sitting down?
They got married, and settled in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. She was adamant, Noah was going to have a father. She also wrote that book that Tuello promised she could write, although this time - instead of treason and coconuts - he offered a pension, with only a side of treason. Her book, 'Gilead was Right, but Went Too Far', made her a favourite on what remained of American afternoon T.V. In Alaska and Hawai'i and parts of the Pacific Northwest.
Nick WAS the father to Noah that June had asked him to be with Rose's baby - that baby had not survived Gilead. He never mentioned it to Serena, but he thought of June every day.
He also received a pension from Uncle Sam. He developed a talent for 'reading upside down', esp. when in a State Department office. Especially when the officer had an open file on his/her desk with June Osborne's name in it.
