Revolution (42 page)

             
"Shyeah!" he said excitedly. "Way to go, Ryan, my man."
             
"Get out, the both of you, before I jerk a knot in your behinds!"

             
"You don't even know what that means, do you?" Calvin taunted.

             
I jerked
up
and made like I was going to get up. They both took off like little cowards, hooting and carrying on as they ran. I groaned a little and then heard and felt Ellie's giggle. I looked down at her face on my shoulder and felt my breath stop. I'd heard it so many times over my many, many years; that expression men said to
a
woman about being beautif
ul in the morning. It was absolutely
true.

             
"Wha
t are you laughing at, beautiful
?" I heard myself say and my eyes went a little wide.

             
She smiled brightly. "You, defending my honor."

             
"It didn't need defending," I reminded her. "I was a gentleman."

             
"True, but they didn't know that." She was still smiling.

             
"So…tell me something about you." Her smile faltered. "You don't have to. I just wanted to know about you, your family, your life before all this."
             
Her eyes moved to my neck and stayed there. "I was
a
teacher. I was engaged. I had a big family. All of that was taken from me the day
they
showed up." I felt m
yself frown. "We were headed towards my engagement party. I was running late because I'd forgotten the wine that I knew my mom liked. She was a sweet lady, but she was a picky lady." She smiled, though her eyes began to fill. "One of those things was in the road and my family swerved to miss it. They all died…all at once. Except me. I've been alone ever since."

             
"Where's your Keeper?"

             
She gulped. "Never came," she whispered. "When I got here and heard all of your stories about the Specials and Keepers and about how you all came to save them, it made me wonder why my own Keeper never came for me. I thought maybe it was because he couldn't sense me, so he couldn't find me."

             
"No," I told her.
"
He or she watched you. He would have know
n
where you were."

             
"Then why?" she said and I could see that this truly upset her.

             
"There's nothing that can keep a Keeper from their charge. Something must have happened to him on the way to you. An accident. He didn't abandon you, I promise."
             

             
She nodded. "That's good. I thought I was defective or something."

             
"You are anything but defective," I told her and kissed her forehead. It was getting easier by the minute to
touch her and not feel like I was making her suffer some violation.

             
"Thank you," she said, "for letting me stay in here last night. I was a little unhinged."

             
"You're welcome," I whispered.

             
"I usually read before bed, to unwind, but last night it just wasn't working."

             
"
I was reading last night, too," I told her.

             
She blinked in surprise. "You were?"
             
"Yeah.
I …borrowed a copy of
Last of the Mohicans
from Mrs. Trudy's collection
."

             
"Last of the Mohicans!" she laughed. "Well
,
that's a cheery little novel. No wonder you couldn’t sleep."

             
"What do you read?"
             
She grinned. "Stay right here." She got up swiftly and
made a quick escape from my tent. When she returned, she was carrying a small book that was beaten and bruised. She smiled. "I
borrowed
a book from Mrs. Trudy, too." She showed me the cover. E.E. Cummings.

             
"What's it about?"

             
She sat by me and opened the book to a piece of receipt paper she was using as a bookmark. She flipped the pages and then turned to me. She moved my knee over so she could scoot between my legs and nestled into my chest with her back. She pointed with her finger as she read the lines.

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)

I am never without it

(anywhere
I go you go,
my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,
my darling)
I fear no fate (for you are my fate,
my sweet
)
I want no world

(for beautiful you are my world,
my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)
 

             
I was…stunned. "What was that?"

             
"It's E.E. Cummings. Poetry," she said softly and turned to me a little. My rough chin touched her cheek. She didn't seem bothered. "I like to read things that give me hope of one day being normal again."

             
I rubbed her arms with my hands. "Will you read
me
another
one
?"

             
She
smiled up at me in her profile.
"Of course."

i like my body when it is with your
body.

It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smoothness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh ... And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new.

             
Her breath hitched a little at the end and she wouldn't turn to look at me. I had no words… It was beautiful and sexual and described exactly the confusion
and awe I felt for Ellie. I let my hands float down her arms once more, skimming and teasing. She shivered and pressed herself further into me.

             
"
I didn't read that on purpose," she promised. "I just picked one."

             
"That was a good one," I told her. "It was perfect. Thank you." I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the side of her neck. She made a little noise of appreciation that had me pausing. It was a beautiful sound. "Can you read more?"

             
"
You like poetry?"

             
"I'm not sure, but I like
when you read it to me."

             
There were
a
few precious hours until we had to meet Chesser back
at the broadcast station. If
leaning my back against the wall with Ellie in my lap was my punishment for the day, I would take it with a smile.

             
We sat there, just like that
,
all day. She read to me and I listened and tuned out the sounds of the bunker, all except her smooth voice. When the book was done, she didn't leave me, however. I moved down a little and we napped.

             
It was a perfectly normal and human thing to do.

             
Later when they came and got us to tell us it was time to go, I mourned my missed time with her. If we came out of all this alive, I planned to never take that time for granted again.

Things Are About To Get Real

Sherry

             
In the time it took to make our way to the elevator and up
to the roof, I'd fought down
vomit three times. This was it. They didn't know it, but the whole state
,
and if I wanted to give my ego a little notch up, the world
,
was counting on us to make tonight happen without a hitch.

             
Jeff had finally stepped back into his leadership role. We knew it was an adjustment to find out you're becoming a father, so he deserved a little slack. But I was glad to have him back. His
rally the troops
speeches were epic. And this one was no different. Everyone understood the significance of tonight.