Thanks for all of the faves and reviews! They make me very happy!
ch 2
When Julie and I wake, it's mid-morning. We have missed breakfast, and lunch should be starting in the next hour. I stretch and dress, and Julie turns to give me a wink before she goes into the bathroom to shower. I walk to the bedroom window and stare down at the streets in the stadium. People mill about freely and openly, children laugh and chase each other. A lot has changed since I first walked through these gates. Under Rosso's eye, the people are still housed and cared for, their meals at sanctioned times, their drugs restricted and monitored, but that's only because the rest of the world hasn't evolved to this status quite yet. The infection is lifting, but slowly. Still, there is talk from stragglers that come into town that Philadelphia would soon be opening the first restaurant since the epidemic occurred. Julie loved that idea. Dining under the stars. Eating food cooked by real chefs. The thought of flushing every ounce of carbtein she could find. One other thing that set the world back in motion was the resurgence of the television set. Mostly re-runs of sitcoms and soap operas rule the airwaves, but every morning and evening comes news from across the country. Our president is the one who speaks, no powdered news anchor behind a fancy desk. Just this man, in front of what remains of the White House comes on to urge us to keep moving forward, how this is a new day and a new dawn. How millions of people are coming back to us, how mankind has reclaimed the Earth. Then, for the next hour, photos of people missing are listed with contact information of loved ones. I do my best to avoid that.
Julie and I are celebrities. Everyone in the stadium knows us, wants us to sit with them at meals, touch our hands, thank us. Julie rolls her eyes at the publicity, but I drink it in. After what I have been through, being accepted by all of these people makes me happy. They are full of sunshine and though that light often blinds me, I am glad it's there. I don't turn away any hand, or hug, or kiss on the cheek. I drink it all in, this feeling of belonging. This love. I have been without it so long that it quenches my parched soul.
We are living in the house that Julie shares with Nora. The first thing Julie did when I moved in was plaster her hope wall with photos of the two of us. A few solos of me. A few of Nora, and even M. She said that I had given her enough hope and support to no longer be afraid. I was too stunned and happy to ask what she meant, but I got the gist of it.
Julie comes up and rests her head against my shoulder. "How's it looking today, R?" She asks.
I smile and draw my arm around her waist. "Looks like a good day."
She frowns, and walks over to her dresser. "You know, you don't have to go if it's too much."
I sigh. Today is the day I have been dreading for over a week. My adopted children, the ones the boneys assigned to my "wife" and I- well, their parents are alive and well, and ready to take their children back with open arms now that they are cured and don't want to eat the flesh from their bones.
I'm happy for them all, of course, and it's not like I bonded that much at all with the kids, still, I can't help but feel an overwhelming feeling of sadness and loss. The easiest thing to do would be to blow it off, close the blinds and stay in bed with Julie. But it's not that simple. Since this is the first of its kind in the stadium, Rosso is holding a huge celebration. He says that this is a miracle, something to be promoted and celebrated, and he's absolutely right. If I don't go, I'll look like a chump, since they were my kids, and in all honesty, I'd feel bad about missing it. The two sets of parents of the kids are coming from another compound in the south. They saw the kids' pictures after one of the president's news broadcasts and had called Rosso right away. It took them three days to get here.
"I'm okay," I tell her, turning around. She's dressed in a simple white dress with a floral pattern. She looks beautiful.
"Are you sure?" She asks. "I can change in two seconds."
I nod.
"Alright, then. How do I look?" She gives a spin, the dress flying around her small frame.
"Amazing." I tell her.
She smiles, dashes over to give me a kiss on the cheek, and then heads out the door.. "Hurry and get dressed. It starts in an hour."
…...
My wife is sobbing uncontrollably. She sits next to Julie and I and Rosso is talking into a microphone and addressing the crowd. Julie places her hand on my wife's arm comfortingly, and she turns and sobs into her shoulder. Julie eyes me for help. I wonder where that guy my wife was having sex with is now. A vindictive smile spreads across my face. I watch as the two kids... whose real names are Tobey and Emma Rae scamper across the stage and into the arms of their awaiting families. I am so happy to see them alive and robust and full of life, that I have to take a few breaths to stop myself from breaking down and sobbing along with my wife. I take Julie's hand and she squeezes it. I look up and find eyes upon me. Someone from Tobey's side of the family. I catch a glint of green eye before she is obscured from my view.
…...
I'm really glad that Rosso did not force me to make a speech. I stand next to Julie as people rush the area, asking me how I feel, touch my face and hand, pat me on the back. Julie has reached over to hug a woman, and as she bends, I see her. Not moving forward, just staring at me. I catch her eye, and her hand moves to her mouth. The smile slowly fades off of my face as I recognize this woman. Her red hair blows gently in the breeze, her green eyes filling with tears. I turn away and back to the crowd. I don't want to see her. I don't want her to be here. I take a step closer to Julie. She glances at me questioningly, but smiles.
"OH MY GOD, IT'S YOU GUYS!" Nora shouts, weaving her way through the crowd. She is pushing people aside as she makes her way up to us.
I let out a laugh and Julie is giggling when we see Nora. She has photos of Julie and I clenches in her hands along with markers, and she's waving them above her head like a crazed fan girl. "I NEED YOUR AUTOGRAPHS!"
Julie grabs a marker off of her and writes dork on Nora's forehead. I take a photo from her and sign it Happy the Clown.
Nora take the photos, stuffs herself in between Julie and I and puts her arms around us. "So, how was the ceremony?"
"It was very nice." Julie tells her as she bends down to hug a little girl. I scan the crowd again over Julie's shoulder. The woman seems to have gone and I breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe it was just my imagination.
"I wonder how long everyone is going to treat you like royalty." Nora says, watching an elderly man come up and touch my hand and walk away.
"Does it bother you?" Julie asks.
"Yes. Immensely." She says with a laugh, and then removes herself from us. "Anyway, off to work. Julie, you coming with, or is lover boy going to carry you?"
Julie rolls her eyes and turns to me.
I laugh. "No, you go ahead. There's something I want to check on, and I'll be there."
Julie pouts, "Alright. Love you."
"Love you too." I say and lean over and kiss her.
Julie turns back to the remaining people, "Sorry guys, I have to go." She pushes her way over to Nora and I am left with the remaining on lookers. The green eyed woman is nowhere to be found.
Nora, M, Julie, and I were given jobs by Rosso. We're working for the government of the stadium, so to speak. Nora is in weapons management, a field Julie occasionally helps out in, but the three of us are primarily in client relations. We travel to different camps, spreading our cure. We bring music, clothes, candles, little snapshots of humanity. M lectures. They understand M and I, moreso because we were once there, I think. Some start the transformation. It's a slow and gradual process, but the awakenings are happening. They turn their dead eyes to Julie and I, watch how our hands are linked together, how close we stand together, how her golden eyes peer into their souls. That's where M is now, away at a corpse camp, trying to get through to them. It's one of the ones we've visited many times. M is there doing a progress report.
On the flip side, we also travel to human camps, the ones that haven't heard about the cure, that don't know what's happening. We bring a television and a generator and Julie lectures on how to safely secure a corpse without killing them for good. I'm her assistant.
After the last hand is shook, I hurry away in the opposite direction from Julie. There's something I've been working on in secret for her. I turn down Victory Ave (all of the streets have been re-named) and see it. It's a small empty building next to the apothecary. I pull out my key and go inside. There's a small oven in the back that was salvaged from one of the camps we've visited. Julie thought I was being nostalgic. I had other plans for it. I enlisted the help of two men of the stadium who gave me this small building as a gift. And this will be my gift to Julie. This will be her restaurant, and Pad Thai will definitely be on the menu.