Revolution (53 page)

             
Cain stopped beside me and looked up at it. He whistled. "Looks good."
He
read aloud the 'In Honor of Daniel. The Lighter who
se sacrifice saved us all'. He smiled wistfully
, rubbing L's arm as she laid her head on his shoulder,
and then
smiled
down at me
.
"And how are you doing?"

             
"Oh, fine," I sighed happily and rocked my hips side to side. "I just don't want you g
uys to get in over your heads, t
hat's all. There's a lot of people in this town to feed."

             
"Nah," he shrugged off, "we're fine.
We've got lots of help from the other guys in town. And Pap's seeds that he left at the cabin were plenty enough to get us started." He chuckled. "I never thought I'd be a farmer."
             
Lillian wrapped her arms around him from behind. "Bet you'd look cute in overalls."

             
He grinned. "I look cute in anything, L."
             
"True." She smiled at me. "How are you
really
doing?"

             
"I'm great!" I laughed. "Everyone needs to stop worrying about me."

             
"Where's Marissa?" Cain asked.

             
I nodded my head toward the
lounge chair. "She's there." Marissa
, Jeff and that gorgeous baby were all snuggled up for a nap in the lounger together. They needed the sleep for sure. The baby was keeping them up at night, I knew.

             
"You could probably do with a nap, too," Lillian said and gave me a look.

             
"She's right," Merrick said and glanced at Jeff. "I'm a little jealous of Jeffrey right now."

             
"Ah," I crooned and kissed Hope's little head. "She's not that bad, are you, baby?"

             
Merrick
smiled gorgeously and kissed her head, then mine. "No, she's not that bad.
" He took her from me, my arms releasing with the ache of being still so long.
"
In fact, she's perfect.
She looks just like you,
"
he whispered, as he'd whispered a million times since she was born.
He held her effortlessly and
kissed her forehead again.

             
"Let us take her for
a bit," Lillian said
excitedly
. "The
gra
nd opening for the produce farm
isn't for a few hours still." She looked at Cain and he nodded
with a grin
. "Come on, let us," she pleaded.

             
I kissed my little girl's head once more and
Merrick
handed her sleeping form over rel
uctantly. She wa
s exactly two months old today. Merrick took my hand and towed me upstairs toward our apartment.
Calvin and Lana's was right at the end of the stairs. I saw Calvin's sheet tent in the living room.
Ellie and Ryan's apartment was on one side of us and Jeff and Marissa's was on the other.
Ryan's door was open and they were standing in the doorway.

             
He must've been he
ading off to help with the
opening because he was giving her one heck of a goodbye kiss. Merrick and I smiled at each other as we passed. We entered our apartment, a nap sounding like the best idea ever right then, to find Lily there. She was brushing out her doll
'
s hair and setting them up for a tea party.

             
We stopped. She'd been so good about sharing us with the baby and all the stuff that needed to be done to get things right in the town again. We both looked at each other at the same time. Even without his Keeper talk, I could practically hear his thoughts.

             
We b
oth sat down across from her.
I picked up one doll and Merrick picked up the other. I laughed at him, because I knew what was coming.
He held the Barbie in one hand and the other held out like a diva and said
in a high voice
, "So girls, what's been going on?"
             
Lily squealed and moved her Barbie closer. "Nothing, just buying a new fur coat. Wanna see?"
             
"Do I
ever
!"
             
We laughed and played with our little girl until it was time to go meet up with everyone at the opening of the produce store.

             
The men in our group had gotten together with a few others and started a garden. Pap and Margaret had gone back to their cabin on the hill to live instead of staying with us. But not before he to
ld us about his farm supplies, s
eeds and tractor included. As far as we knew, we were the only farm\garden in the state. No one
else had seeds and we planned to start spreading them around when our first big crop came in. And it was in. Today we were open for business, but not for money. We traded things or services
with everyone and it worked out perfectly.

             
And let me tell you
, M
errick
,
shirtless in the blazing sun as he worked in the garden was
a sight
to see. You though
t
chocolate made your toes curl…

             
T
hey were getting a school ready, too. Marissa was going to teach along with a couple of others. It was going to be laid back. Marissa was taking the baby with her and we were starting off with half days. I had agreed to start teaching piano
and music
once the baby was a little older.

             
The town wasn't perfect by any means. We'd had a few run-ins with trouble, someone who wasn't too keen on having to go back to the following the common laws of a society, like no stealing. The Enforcers, who were mostly a bunch of cops anyway, had kind of started
to keep the peace again. The town clean-up had been massive, but we'd gotten so much done in the last ten months.

             
Marissa and I had our babies within three days of each other. That had been eventful, but so worth it. Merrick was the best coach ever. We thought Jeff was bad. Merrick turned worrying into a sport for those months, but I loved every minute of it.

             
Ryan and Ellie were stuck in the lovey stage. The sweet one where all you wanna do is touch and be touched. Miguel and Rylee were still love-hating on each other. Miguel never walked around with anything but a smile though, so I assumed it was working for him. Celeste and Danny lived across the hall from us and were still the same old, same ol
d. He was a great uncle and husband
. When kids of his own were brought up
,
he and Celeste both wrinkled their noses.

             
Cain and Lillian were as happy as ever
and lived down the hall from us
. They were the biggest baby hogs of the bunch.

             
Calvin had grown two more inches.
Franklin hadn't and was brooding and irritated. Two teenage boys running around…
But Calvin had become extremely protective of Lily lately.

             
The radio
transmissions
had been turned back on, but we only had one station. Some older man who used to run one decided he was taking it over. He only played songs from
the
forties, but it was better than nothing. The news continued to play
daily
because there was
n't
much
else
, but they talked about actual news and not just Lighters anymore
. They did start to play some old movies and re-runs, but again, we only had one channel, so it was that or nothing.

             
This was our life now. We lived our
separate lives in our apartments and then lived together, one big family and community.

             
Later that night the whole town gathered for the grand opening and listened to Chesser give his speech on the importance of equal giving and taking. We all needed to work together to make this new world work.

             
They cut the ribbon and everyone went inside the big field for our first time with fresh produce in more than a year. Lily went right to the watermelons.

             
Afterwards, they held a get together and had live music and dancing in the street. I rocked my hips side to side to keep my Hope asleep and felt Merrick's arms go around me from behind. "Still sleeping?"

             
"I'm surprised with the loud music that she is, but yeah."

             
He kissed
the side of
my neck
. "Wanna dance with me?"

             
I looked out at our family who was already dancing. The band was playing a wonderful acoustic version of Howie Day's
Collide
. It was a perfect song, to a perfect day, to a perfect new life.

The dawn is breaking,

a light shining through.

You're barely waking,

and I'm tangled up in you.

Yeah.

I'm open, you're closed.

Where I follow, you'll go.

I worry I won't see your face light up again.

Even the best fall down sometime,

Even the wrong words seem to rhyme,

Out of the doubt that fills my mind.

We'll somehow find, you and I collide.

             
I held Hope between us as Merrick took us in his arms and swayed us. He kissed my forehead, his lips warm.
Human
warm.
I let him guide me with his hands on my hips.

             
"I love you, baby," he said to me and closed his eyes. "I could stay right here all night."
             
So we pretty much did.

             
Life wasn't perfect, but we found our perfection in it. Our new life in this new world was going to be hard and rough and beautiful. I couldn't wait for my kids to grow up and see what they helped to literally build back up from nothing. This was worth fighting for.