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He
knew that it would take several weeks to get the house ready to move in. At this time he needed an inexpensive place to stay. He was thinking of going to the recommended people in seek of advice. If his instinct was right, he would get the same warmth that so far the lady at the restaurant and the car dealer had demonstrated.

It was after eight when he was knocking on the door of a house. There he was, hoping to find the woman who coordinated the support group for refugees.

The door opened
and a lady about 50 years old came out. She was slightly plump, had an affable expression and her little eyes gave off a glow when speaking.

“
Hello?” She greeted him.

“
Good evening. I am looking for Mrs. Garcia.”

“
It’s me. What can I do for you?”

“I got your name; this i
s why I have come. I am a dissident. I just arrived a few hours ago. I intend to settle down here.”

The woman
’s face lit up as soon as she heard him. One could tell she was really glad to get one more refugee.

“Come in
. We are having dinner. Join us at the table while you tell us your story.”

In the dining room
were her husband and daughter, who was about 17. They greeted him friendly, and after a few minutes he was already sharing the table with the whole family.

“It’s been several m
onths that nobody comes around,” said the father. “It seems that it is becoming increasingly difficult to flee.”

“
So I have heard. I was not easy to me.”

He
told them about his trip, omitting the part of his intrusion as a spy, but mentioning that he had had to give some service to the local authorities and had been paid with the farm.

“
We will help you to settle,” finally said his hostess. “All of us who have come here have been helped by others, and it is our custom to pay for what we received by helping those who come behind. It will not be a problem getting people to work for you on the farm, and as for the repairs of the house, we all will do our share. We will have it ready very soon.”

The words of the woman filled
him with optimism. It seemed that they would really support him.

He was informed that
his property had been abandoned for more than 15 years and since then had been under the custody of the civilian authorities of the community because the previous owners had incurred in illicit activities and eventually had defected to the opposite side. Exactly the opposite of what he was doing.

After dinner
they guided him to a nearby guesthouse. Finally, they agreed to go with him the next day to inspect the property and determine what kind of help he should get.

Now he was not only
feeling well received, but protected, and if it were not for that feeling of loneliness that filled him occasionally, he could say that finally he was at peace with himself.

Somehow, despite being at a point where it was still much to be done, he
was confident that things would go well, with that kind of certainty that comes from deep inside and leaves no room for doubt.

A few days after, the remodeling was in progress and the fields to be cultivated during the next season were showing the results of the agricultural machinery that had been working on them every day.

The support received from community members
had exceeded even his highest expectations. He had been subject to the generosity of many, who had provided according to each one’s possibilities. His life plan was beginning to take shape.

A group of young students who were in their summer
vacation had offered to help, contributing with their labor.

Among them was a boy, around
16, to whom he was becoming especially attached. He could not help it. He remembered him his own youth. Besides having some physical resemblance to him, watching his ways and his attitude before every situation carried him back to those years of his adolescence, when having left behind the shyness that had characterized his childhood he had become a cheerful self-assured lad. He knew him only by his nickname; Ax.

The young brigade used to
show at about nine o’clock on two rickety vehicles, and would normally depart shortly after five in the afternoon.

Two weeks had
gone by and the colossal task of remaking the house was looking somewhat advanced. They have planned for this this day to apply varnish on the newly renovated wooden floor of two bedrooms, but time had run inadvertently. When the time to leave came, the task was still unfinished.

Along with two other boys
, Ax volunteered to stay a while and help him finish the job, which would take them about another hour. In return, he should take them back and drop each one at his house, which would not represent a major inconvenience as he had to go back to the village to spend the night in the house where he was still staying.

On the
ir way back to town, Ax and he were talking casually.

“With whom
do you live?”

“
With my mother,” said the boy. “She came here a few months before I was born, so I never knew my father.”

“
And what does she do?”

“She has been an
art teacher in the middle school we all attend. She is well known in this place.”

“
You mean that she is a refugee?”

“
As many others around here. I have been told that this population hardly appeared on the maps until 25 years ago, when the first group of refugees arrived. In those days it was very common that people came here escaping from the life they had been forced into in other places. As those who were not used to their ways did not like them because they considered them to be of dubious moral qualities, the refugees finally sought a quiet place to settle down. Since then our town has become the handiest refuge for those who arrive, and we have developed a hospitable attitude toward them in appreciation of all having been helped in our time. And I consider myself one of them because when my mother got here she already was pregnant with me.”

“
I understand. And what do you know about your father?”

“
My mother tells me that she escaped one day because he wanted to force her to replicate while she was carrying me in her womb. She fled even though my father did not know about her pregnancy. If she had replicated, I would not exist. For many years she expected him to follow her. She was convinced that he would come looking for her, to the point that she never married again and she has hardly held any sentimental relationship with a man since then, even though I have encouraged her many times to put an end to her loneliness. It worries me that next year, when I leave for college, she will stay all alone.”

They were silent for a moment. The memory of Lucy, whom he
had forced to replicate the second time, had saddened him. If only he had known then what he knew now they too would probably had become refugees at that time. But the damage was done and now Lucy was living in a world completely apart from his, along with a fake character, who despite having been copied from him had nothing in common with his renewed self and the new way he looked at life.

The silence
into which he had fallen and the sad expression on his face prompted Ax to ask:

“
We never question those arriving about their pasts, but I see that something has saddened you, what happens?”

“
Memories, just the painful memories of my past mistakes that reach me from time to time. It is nothing at all.”

They had come to the house of
the first one of the boys. He got out of the car after casually saying goodbye and pushed the door of the vehicle with excessive force, making it slam.

The passenger on the back
seat let his voice be heard:

“I’
ll stay two blocks ahead, at the yellow house.”

A minute later
they were alone in the car. Then he asked Ax:

“
Where will I leave you?”

“Near here
. You must turn right at the next intersection and move two blocks ahead.”

“Got it.”

“I was thinking,” Ax went on, “I have been talking about my mother all the way. Would you like to meet her?”

“Maybe some other time.
Now it is late. I don’t think she will want to have visitors at this time.”

“
Come on!” he insisted. “She will want to know for whom I have been working these days. Besides, right now she must be preparing dinner. I don’t think it would be a problem I you only go to the door to say hello.”

“
Don’t you think that my visit would seem her unwise?”

“No
. She will surely be glad to know you. She is a people person.”

“
Well, but please do not insist that I come in.”

“
Alright.”

A minute later
the car had stopped at the boy’s house. The got off to reach the front door.

Ax did not keep his word. As he opened the door
he began to push his visitor in the back, forcing him to stand inside the hall despite his loud protests while he screamed:

“
Mom! We have a guest for dinner!”

From the top floor the distant voice of his mother
answered:

“I’ll be down right away.”

“Sit down a moment. She’ll be here in a minute.”

“
We had agreed that you would not make come in. You make me be ashamed.”

“In this town we
visit without many formalities. I assure you my mother will be happy to receive you.”

“
Yet!” he disapproved as a last answer.

The house was nice. While not luxurious in any way,
it had some warm air that made the visitors feel relaxed. From the kitchen a pleasant aroma arose announcing that dinner was ready. The response of his stomach was immediate.

The
cold lunch he had had earlier this day now was history. The expectation of proving some good homemade cooking now was appealing. In the end he would not regret having come here.

A few minutes later the woman’
s footsteps echoed on the wooden steps as she was descending the upper part of the stairway, which was partially hidden by the roof of the room.

“
Who have you brought this time?” the mother was heard.

Her
voice made him stand up with a jump while the rhythm of his heartbeat had risen to the limit.

“He’
s the man who arrived a few days ago. I want you to meet him,” said Ax.

The
guest’s gaze was now fixed on the staircase, where the legs of the hostess had already become in sight as she was slowly coming from the upper floor.

Time
seemed to have stopped. He knew this could not be true; however, he could not control the reaction that the voice just heard had triggered in his systems. He was feeling his chest about to burst.

The figure of the woman was
revealing little by little after each step. Each moment had become an eternity, and the end did not come.

One more step and
her face finally appeared.

He felt his eyes
coming out of their orbits. From the bottom of his stomach a question came hesitantly:

“
Lucy?”

She stopped
, her eyes staring at his.

For a moment
she stood still, until she finally managed to answer:

“Is it
you?”

“
Lucy?” he repeated, now with a firmer voice.

“Is it really
you?” she insisted.

Both of them stood
stunned, looking at each other without even blinking, until she ran and hugged him.

Ax was perplexed.
He could not understand what was going on, but he could see that both had gathered in an embrace that seemed endless. Words had left them.

“
I knew you would come. I always knew,” she said without loosening the tight squeeze even for a moment. You are exactly the same as when I left; however, I have become old.”

“
Lucy,” he answered. “I did not know you had fled. As soon as you left they replicated you without telling me. I am just coming to know it,” he added.

“
It was so hard,” she went on, “but let me introduce to you the reason for my disappearance.”

Sh
e finally came out of the hug, and squeezing tightly her man’s hand she walked a few steps to face the boy. Then, with a radiant voice she announced:

“Meet
your son. I have named him after you: Axel Leniov.”