ALL THE DOORS and barriers opened for Traci Howe and Admiral Keith Kaylin.
It was the real outside. It was the real sky. There was real earth and real grass and there were real trees and real birds in them and the sun was shining brightly and that was real, too.
“This is how outside looked to me when I was a little girl, when everything in life was new to me and everything outside was thrilling,” Traci said softly to Admiral Kaylin. “I went on my hands and knees and felt the grass and then I laid down on my back and looked up at the sky. I remember rubbing my hands on the bark of a tree. I haven’t thought about all that again until now. Today, it’s the same feeling, only more so because I wasn’t thrilled by it for all the years since then. I just accepted it. I don’t know if I will ever be able to simply accept it again. Now I think I’ll always be thrilled by it. I want to stay thrilled by it.”
“I feel the way you do, Traci. The world is a magnificent place.”
“It wasn’t yesterday.”
“Do you want to go for a walk, Traci?”
“Oh, I do. I want us to walk and walk and walk and walk. I want to breathe this air. Where does it all come from? It’s so fresh! I hope it doesn’t stop.”
“It’s not going to stop. It’s been coming here for millions of years. And it’s never stopped.” He held her hand and, just as she wanted, they walked and walked and walked and walked.
“Let’s go to that tree,” and she pointed to a giant oak tree, its branches sprouting out like the thin spokes of an umbrella with thousands of deep green leaves covering the spokes so they were almost invisible, the leaves providing a unified covering making any fabric unnecessary. “Let’s sit under it for a moment, Keith.”
He nodded. “Let’s do that. Now you feel free to call me Keith, don’t you?” And as they sat he added, “I lost my rank with you!”
“You’re not my boss anymore. And there’s no one to hear us.”
“I liked you calling me ‘Admiral,’ but I have to admit that I like it better this way.”
“I love saying your name. Now I don’t have to salute when I see you!”
“You never saluted!”
“Keith?”
It was too sacred a moment for him to respond by saying “what?” so he didn’t say anything.
“Keith—we’re free!” And she bent her head back and looked at the view of the sky through the leaves.
For such a learned man he was so inarticulate in this circumstance. It wasn’t like war when words of Shakespeare came to him. No Shakespeare now. And no phrases of world leaders or admirals or generals to guide him. But after staring at her as her gaze traveled to take in everything of the outside, he at least chose the right words. “I love you, Traci.”
In a jolt she stopped her gazing and rested her eyes on him alone. “Do you, Admiral?”
The reprisal of her calling him by his rank was meant to do exactly what it did: confuse him. Somehow, he knew how to handle it. “The Admiral loved you for ten days but he didn’t tell you. On the eleventh day, Keith came along and has no hesitancy to tell you.” From his back pocket he took out a white handkerchief and gave a few dabs with it above Traci’s upper lip. “Your allergy,” he explained with a smile.
She was embarrassed. “I’m sorry.”
He wasn’t. Anything to do with Traci was beautiful.
Later, but still under the tree, the reality of the past and future was seeping into the joy of the current. “Traci, are your folks okay? Did you contact them?”
“Oh, of course I did. I called them from Sebotus the moment we received the all-clear. You know that all of us on the staff of Sebotus had advance word that something was happening that could cause a national emergency. We all contacted our families. Like others on staff, I told my folks to get out of the country and they did. They went to Mexico, just south of Juarez. They’re going to head back to El Paso, maybe tomorrow. Do you have anyone, Keith?” She was careful not to itemize any relations or relationships; afraid that maybe, just maybe there was a woman among the ones he cared for.
“Friends. Just friends. My mother and father are both gone. My dad passed away seven years ago. And then my mom just last year. I never had any brothers or sisters, so all I have is friends. I still don’t know about them. Most of them are military and a few people who were friends of my folks since I was a little boy. I put all the names on a list and submitted it to the Human Resources Office at Sebotus right after I took the oath there. They extend that courtesy for members. They haven’t reported back to me anything through these ten days, but I didn’t expect they’d know anything with our communications down. Now I’ll find out. Now everyone will find out.”
“Keith? How did the war end in such a flash?”
He nodded. “You chose the right word. It was a flash. Or maybe more accurately simultaneous flashes all over the world.” And he told her about the ideal collaboration between Eli Jared and Wayne Stuart, and that Stuart had earlier designed and was responsible for the building of the Solarium. He told her about the plan that was devised at Sebotus using augmented reality through a digital mask sent to eighty cities of the world that combined with real troops whose numbers were small but appeared by the enemy to be massive. “You’ll learn more later. All the facts will have to be put together but there will be a full report to the public in short time.”
“And where was President Wadsworth through all of this? What happened to him through those days? Was he a prisoner?”
“In a sense he was—in the same way that we were prisoners. The enemy made our own facilities our prisons. This is all unofficial, Traci, so don’t repeat it anywhere; wait for the report, but as I understand it early in the morning of the 16th, President Wadsworth and his top staff headed by helicopter to Sebotus Headquarters. But there were too many revolutionaries on the ground near Sebotus. They were visible from Army One, the helicopter, and so they headed off to Andrews Air Force Base. The crisis was growing with such speed that they weren’t positive where they wanted to go once they got to Andrews. They tentatively decided on getting aboard one of the Doomsday Planes there. Then, just before boarding, they decided not to do that since they had no idea how long they would need to be in air. They suspected it could be a very long time with in-flight refueling becoming a perfect target for the enemy that’s been proven to be proficient in ground to air missile technology. So instead of that, they headed by helicopter to another emergency headquarters near Ansted in West Virginia that was most likely not known by the enemy. It had a cover of not just being a mountain but being a coal mine. There are over 500 coal mines in West Virginia so it seemed they wouldn’t suspect the cover that was the headquarters if they suspected any at all. Once the President and the others got in the headquarters, they discovered, like we discovered, that communicating with the armed forces was impossible. Electromagnetic pulse barriers had made all military bases and camps and other facilities free from being contacted by anyone trying to contact them. And there was fear of even attempting to contact another secret headquarters recognizing that the attempt could be intercepted by the enemy and then other headquarters would be revealed. There was no other choice for President Wadsworth and his staff than to just stick it out—like we knew we had to do.”
Traci was fascinated with what he was telling her, but when he got to the part about the President going to the headquarters in West Virginia there was the diversion of an occasional rain-drop. Just a few but by the time he said the President and his staff had to stick it out, there were more rain-drops falling than just a few. “It’s raining! It’s raining!” She put one hand in the earth and sifted through it as rain fell on it making it soft in the wetness. “Look! There’s a little spider! I wish I could pet him! But I think he’s running because he wants to be sheltered before the rain comes down hard!” And she tried to follow the spider with her hand, her fingers staying close behind it. “I won’t hurt you, little spider! I wouldn’t think of hurting you!”
“I hope it isn’t poisonous!”
The spider ran under some brush. “That one wasn’t poisonous. It’s so good to see insects again. I loved seeing them when I was a little girl. I was fascinated with them. Some walked straight and some walked funny. Some had a lot of legs and some didn’t seem to have any legs at all. Some could fly. Then, as I grew up, and I don’t remember exactly when, but I got scared of them. I’ll never be scared of them again. They’re little pieces of life. They’re living. And they’re free! Today we’re all free. Oh, Keith; all of us, even that little spider that’s hiding is free!”
“Like the spider, do you want to get some shelter?”
“No! I want to stay in the rain. Remember when we saw rain in the Solarium?”
“Of course.”
“Oh, how I wanted it to be real rain, but it wasn’t. Now it is. Let’s get away from the tree! I don’t want it to keep us from feeling the rain as it wants to be felt.” He stood and bent down to take her hand and she held it tight and propped herself up by gripping his hand, and when she stood she kept her hand as tight around his as when she was rising. They walked as the raindrops fell on them, increasing in intensity and frequency, and soon the rain was pouring on them. But they walked as slowly as they would walk if they were on the sands of a beach on a clear day. “And, besides,” she said, “we shouldn’t stay under a tree during a storm because there could be lightning. Oh, I hope there’s lightning! Lightning and thunder! I love all this! I want it to keep pouring and I don’t want any shelter other than you! Will you shelter me?”
It wasn’t a difficult request to fulfill. He was an Admiral who was used to much more difficult assignments.