"But you did improve after you came to the compound."
"Yes, on the outside. I wasn't as shy. I talked louder. I liked being around my Wilizy sisters and brothers and I was doing something that I was good at. But I knew that I couldn't stand to have a man see my body and touch it. That meant no sex and that meant no babies."
Momaka poured another thermos cup of tea, sipped it slowly, and said nothing. All in good time.
"I enjoyed helping Melissa with her babies and she told me how she had taken baby steps to solve a problem that seemed impossible. So I did that too. I undressed in front of Winnie. And it worked. I was able to do that. So I thought OK, if I can undress in front of Winnie, I could do that with a guy too. I didn't know about the touching stuff, but I thought baby steps, right? And Melissa's babies were so wonderful, and I started to believe that I could have babies, and Wizard would be my husband."
"I wanted to be cured so badly and I wanted to never have to be scared of being touched that I began to force it. I got Wizard to kiss me. He didn't want to, but I knew that if he kissed me, he'd want to, ah..."
"Touch you sexually."
"Right. And because I wanted him to do that, I knew that it would be all right. I wouldn't freak out. I'd be cured. I'd be normal. But he didn't want to touch me. And I thought it was because I'm so tiny on top. It was my fault that he wasn't interested because I didn't have a normal body."
"And so you helped him along a little."
"Yes. Because I had to know. Could I stand being touched sexually? And if I could get used to that little bit of touching, it wouldn't be such a big step to have sex. And because I wanted to have babies, I'd be able to do it."
"And you had the dream of Wizard's bedroom."
"That awful, horrible dream. My dreams had always come true. I figured that this one would too. I saw myself naked in Wizard's bed. At least my top half was naked. So, I knew from that dream that I wouldn't become upset when he saw me. I was sitting in the bed showing myself to him and smiling. I knew that I wouldn't freak out if he saw all of me. I wouldn't freak out if he touched me sexually. I would finally be cured. I was so excited to be cured. Then he ran out of the room and I knew that my dream hadn't been about me being cured, it was about me being a sicko."
"You're being hard on yourself, don't you think?"
"Momaka, I'm a sicko. I manipulated Wizard into doing what I hoped that he would do on his own. Now I've lost him and he's never coming back. And I'm back to being scared of somebody seeing me undressed. I know I'll absolutely freak out again if somebody touches me sexually, or if somebody bursts into my bedroom. I'm tired of being a freak. I'm tired of these dreams. I want to be normal."
"So when you were slicing our late friend into teeny-weeny pieces, is that why you were angry? Not because of what your dad did. But because you think you're not normal?"
"Momaka, it has nothing to do with thinking I'm not normal. I know that I'm not normal. How many people do you know who can see into the future and freak out if somebody touches them?"
"You're the only one. How many people do you know who have killed four thugs, can read people's personality, and have raised eight lovely children?"
"Yolanda?"
"The same. Yolanda is probably the only person in the world who has done that. But she's a perfectly normal person. In spite of some unusual events in her past that affected her at the time, she's still leading a normal life with a husband, kids, and now grandkids. You have had a very difficult childhood. That doesn't mean that you can't have a normal adult life. You'll learn to live with your dreams in a positive fashion, just as I have learned to live with an invisible dragon penned up somewhere inside me. You shouldn't get angry with yourself. You don't deserve those insults you made about who you are. You need to remove all the anger about your past. Keep coming to funerals. Who cares if you need more funerals than other people? And go back to taking small steps to counter your fear of being seen undressed. But do that in a safe environment where you know that nothing bad is going to happen to you. Don't let anybody touch you sexually until you have all these fears behind you. Go slowly. Be patient. And constantly look at all the good things that you have in your life right now. How many people in this world do you know who have flown into space in an old submarine and looked at our beautiful planet?"
"Did you and Stu go up?"
"Yes, we did. We had a very romantic time."
"Did you take Bob the invisible dragon with you?"
"Poor Bob was sick and couldn't go."
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Chapter 12
Karita came into the living room and saw the man sitting with Renfrew and Jenkins. He was the doctor she had met after being rescued from her first parents. She had seen another doctor once before when she had been sick. He had seemed very nice. Her first mommy had gone in the little room with her. He gave her first mommy something to drink that made her feel better.
She saw the doctor sitting with Renfrew and Jenkins after another man had rescued her from her kidnappers. He had the same white coat and lots of shiny tools. She had believed him when he put the thing around her throat and fastened it with something that she couldn't undo. "It's a piece of jewelry that I give to all of my young patients for being so good," he had explained. She had found out afterwards that it wasn't a nice thing to wear. She knew now that this doctor was a liar. He was a bad person. She wouldn't believe him the next time he told her anything. But in spite of all of this, Karita would do what he said. Because of what the thing around her neck did to her.
This bad doctor had come to the house where she and her temporary parents were staying once before. She had recited the little poem that Jenkins had helped her memorize and then she had left the room. Now he was back – looking at her.
"You say that she's had a fever?" Safe Haven's personnel officer asked the temporary parents.
"Yes. Two days now. We've noticed her face has been quite red and she's had very restless sleep. She may be coming down with a cold, but we wanted to be sure."
"Come here, Karita."
Karita did as she was told.
The doctor put something into her ear and she heard it beep.
"She has a fever. Quite high actually. I'll check her throat and glands."
Karita opened her mouth obediently and stood very still when his hands touched her throat.
"Her glands are swollen. It could be the start of something nasty. You should take her to a hospital. Why don't you help her pack some things, Renfrew?"
Karita went back to her bedroom and obediently filled a backpack with some of her favorite belongings while Renfrew watched.
Karita always obeyed her temporary parents. Karita agreed that her first parents were bad people – like her temporary parents wanted her to say. She told them that her name was Karita – like they wanted her to say. She said that she believed the blonde lady in her dreams was her real mommy – like they wanted her to say. She said that she believed that the big house in her dreams was her real home – like they wanted her to say. She said that she believed that the big man with blonde hair, bushy eyebrows, and a bushy moustache who was coming into her dreams now was her real daddy – like they wanted her to say. Karita had never seen this bushy man before. He was in her dreams now and she didn't know why he was there. But she didn't care why he was in her dreams so long as Jenkins didn't keep the button on the wand pushed down until she was rolling around on the floor screaming.
While Karita was filling a backpack with her favorite possessions, Maddy was there too. It had been Maddy who had thought of the singsong rhyme that would allow Karita to remember her real name. Maddy’s a baddy, Maddy’s a baddy, Maddy’s a baddy. Maddy put the felts into the backpack so that she could write her real name wherever she went. She knew she wouldn't be going to a hospital. The doctor was a liar.
Maddy couldn't remember what her first mommy and daddy looked like any more. But she remembered about her blood being special
. And she remembered to singsong Maddy’s a baddy several times a day, especially after she was forced to have afternoon naps. She didn't want to forget her real name.
Maddy was a bad girl because she lied when Karita said the things Renfrew and Jenkins wanted to hear her say. Good girls like Karita didn't lie. But Maddy was a baddy.
Karita went back to the living room where she let the doctor give her an injection to help her travel to the hospital. When she was unconscious, the personnel officer gave Renfrew and Jenkins their real instructions.
"Leave no sign of the child behind. Take or destroy any of your own personal belongings. After I leave, wait until midnight and then exit through the escape tunnel. Jenkins should carry the child on his back so nobody can find the child's footsteps. You'll have enough moonlight to work your way to the pick-up zone."
"This is a controlled retreat, not an escape at all costs. We're closing down all the Washington bunkers and moving all of our blonde girls into the ranches. Arm the explosives throughout the house and the bunker below. Put all security cameras onto high sensitivity. Perhaps we'll find out who's been killing our kidnappers. Perhaps we'll kill them too. In the meantime, keep the child unconscious until you are safe. A copter pilot will be waiting to take you and the child to Ranch #4. You will continue the child's education there."
"Be especially careful at the pick up point. Our pilot will expect the sardine set of contact codes. If the pilot cannot give you the correct response, kill the child first and the fake pilot second. Then if you can, make your way to Ranch #4 and report. I believe the people searching for us have already killed three of my men. These kidnappers were well hidden. If you're caught, you can expect to be interrogated and killed. You'll be safe at the ranch."
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Chapter 13
The Assassination Day holiday on September 1 was the excuse to have another family holiday, but this year it would be in the main compound – the presence of the gym being a compelling reason. Everybody wanted to play invisiball again. Yollie would not be playing as she was eight months pregnant, but Brigadier-General Jock MacLatchie would take her place. That's right. Brigadier-General. Mac's father was now in charge of Saskatchewan's entire armed forces and had relocated from Saskatoon to Regina.
The family was together for four full days with the Wilizy/Europe anchored high in the sky to provide beds for the satellite compound families. Yolanda had produced a schedule for meal responsibilities so that Stu and Momaka would actually have some holiday time. The general was bunking with Doc and Granny in their house. I'll refer to him as Jock from now on.
There were a few significant events to tell you about, but first, I'll tell you that the family took a lot of pictures – some of them showing each generation of the Wilizy family together as a group. The first generation was Doc and Granny, and yes, I know that Doc was not the family's birth grandfather, but everybody thought of him as that. Hank and Yolanda were the family's second generation. Other adults that were about the same ages were Wanda, Stu, Momaka, and Jock. The third generation had all the young adults and teenagers. The fourth generation was small in number but becoming larger. As of September 2085, it consisted of Liset (me), Yo-Yo, Will, Izzy, Jock junior, and one more to be born soon.
Below is the picture of the third generation of the Wilizy family. I have a copy of this picture in the living room where I am now sitting. It clearly shows Will and Izzy – two corpses that were alive and breathing on the day that picture had been taken.
[Censor's Note: A doctored picture has been removed from this book for reasons of public safety. The public is cautioned that this author invents much of the content of her stories and cannot be trusted to present an accurate account of historical events.]
The tallest 3rd Gen members were in the back row of the picture. Wizard was on the extreme left. Wizard didn't normally wear a suit coat and tie to family functions. Yes, he wore a suit when he was travelling and meeting other businessmen. But at home when he was relaxing, he wore a pair of ratty sweatpants and a crumpled t-shirt. You'll notice the pair of spectacles sitting on the top of his head. These were actually magnifying glasses that Wiz used when he was reviewing printed spreadsheets. He parked them on the top of his head so often that he didn't know they were there for the picture. Nobody else noticed either. You'll notice that Wizard, at 17, had his mother's oval face. He was slightly taller than her, so call his height in old measurements at close to six feet. By September 2085, he had stopped growing.
Next was Wolf – same height as Wizard. Wolf was a clone of his dad, especially the square jaw, piercing eyes, and chiseled stone face. As his dad did, he wore his hair long and in a single braid that was now reaching his shoulder blades. In contrast, Wizard had a businessman's haircut.
Third from the left was Theo, the tallest male member of the family at 6' 2" and I'll point out that this is as of 2085 when Theo was nearing his 13th birthday. Theo was another of the boys in the family that carried Yolanda's genes. The oval face gives that away immediately. Notice the slightly goofy smile? Theo was easy going and happy to be in company with anybody in the family. His hair in the picture was typical Theo: all over the place and he didn't care about that at all. Just about everybody else in the family checked their appearance before the picture was taken. Theo didn't. He just stood where he was told to, put his slightly goofy smile on his face, and enjoyed himself.
In the center of the picture was Dreamer. In the picture, she looks taller than Theo but that's not quite accurate. In 2085, they were the same height. Dreamer had been letting her light brown hair grow long for some time now. Wearing it short had made her look like a boy, or so she had thought. For gym time she bound her hair into a bun and parked it on the top of her head. It made her look 6' 4" – a dominating height for a teenage girl on the basketball court during this part of the century. Few girls in the frontier ever grew that tall because their nutrition generally was poor and their lives were harsh. (Theo was also much taller than the average frontier boy; a benefit of the nutritious life Hank's family enjoyed through his military connection.) Dreamer had her hair in a bun in this picture because she had been in the gym before the picture was taken. Outside the gym, Dreamer wore her hair in a ponytail most of the time. For important meetings, she'd pull it into a bun at the back of her head. Notice that even though Dreamer was not related by birth to the Wilizy, she did have an oval face although her nose and chin were different.
TG was next. Instantly recognizable by his white skin, TG had a Slavic face with the high cheekbones, round face, and straight, fair hair which he brushed straight back – giving him a high forehead as a result. You can't see his blue eyes. You can see that he's almost the same height as Wolf and Wizard.
William, the breathing corpse, was next. William always took the same picture – staring at the camera and with no hint of any expression on his face that is dominated by the Albertan nose. Melissa had William wearing his hair longer this year. Since it was quite thin, and since William never cared what he looked like, he'd often appear in public with his hair sticking out at all angles in the mad scientist look. Melissa would go Ack and try to smooth it down with spit. Mac was convinced that William deliberately arranged his hair that way before he entered a public room, just to see what Melissa would do. However nobody had been able to catch him doing that. Wolf and TG would look at you blankly and go "Huh?" if you asked them if William was pranking Melissa with his hair. This is known as the dumb male look and it's almost always a sign of guilt, at least in my experience.
On the far right was Lucas. At almost 14, he was nearing adult height and you can see that he's not quite as tall as Wolf. The Hank genes are strong in Lucas' body. Like his dad and Wolf, Lucas had the single braid falling down his back. If you had a closer look, you'd notice that Lucas had lighter coloured hair than the black hair that dominates Hank and Yolanda's family. Lucas was wearing a sleeveless t-shirt in this picture because
he too had come right out of the gym. You can see how well developed his chest and arms were.
Now to the people sitting in chairs: from right to left this time.
Melissa was sitting right in front of William. You can see the classic Izzy face from before she died. You'll notice the wisps of red hair curling around her ears and her bright smile. She was also wearing a nice dress. If you're curious about such things, Melissa had lost the fire hydrant look and was back to her normal body. Given the hair and the new dress, it was likely that she knew that pictures would be taken. Several references to I'm not going to look like a giant cow this year were heard coming out of the bathroom where Mac and Melissa were getting ready for the pictures.
Yollie was next. My mom was eight months pregnant which is why she was sitting in the picture and not standing with the giants in the back. You can see her gorgeous smile. Like Theo, Yollie was an easygoing goof ball who enjoyed having a grand old time. Everybody enjoyed being in my mom's company.
You'll recognize the waif that was standing by herself in the front row. Winnie with her pigtails. The picture showed her with what most people would assume was a simple smile. Those who knew her better would say that she was plotting something. At 9 years old, Winnie was still the little gem of the family, emphasis on the word little. At one point, Reese had been somewhat close to her in height, but you can see with him sitting right next to Winnie in the picture that this was no longer true. Winnie was holding something sparkly on a purple pillow in her hands. Yes folks, that's a diamond. A huge diamond.
As I mentioned, Reese was sitting next to Winnie. Reese was wearing some nice clothes for the picture – not his usual shorts, grungy t-shirt, and moccasins. For this picture, he wore brand new gray slacks and a white shirt. These were his school clothes. Reese would be attending school in Penticton in September, part of Hank and Yolanda's efforts to give their children a more exposed view of regular life. Reese was starting to shoot up as he approached his 11th birthday. Reese sported another oval face and hair that wouldn't go anywhere he tried to put it. When this picture was taken, he hadn't made up his mind whether he'd let his hair grow long or not.