by Mia Sheridan
Some strange instinct told me to run after her and take her hand. I suddenly realized I was still holding Maya's and my grip had tightened so much she was glaring at me. I loosened it and smiled apologetically at her and then looked back at the girl who now stood next to Hector at the podium.
"My beloveds," Hector said, beaming at us and raising his arms again. "Today is a magnificent day. Today is a day filled with the glory of the gods." He looked around at each of us again. "Today is the day you all meet Eden." He put his hands on the small shoulders of the girl next to him and moved behind her.
I frowned in confusion and looked up and back at my dad and then over at my mom's faces and they both had matching looks of pure pleasantness. I mimicked their small, accepting smiles and turned back around to where Hector and the little girl, the blessed one, Eden, stood. Evidently, I was the only one in my family thinking this was an interesting turn of events.
Hector continued, "I know you're probably surprised to see your mother is so small, so young. As was I when I first laid my eyes upon her and saw she had the mark." He turned Eden, who was looking around the Temple with wide eyes, and directed her to a chair in the center of the council’s seating arrangement. She sat down primly, her hands clasped in her lap—perhaps shaking slightly, although it was hard to see from where I was standing—her lace dress pooling on the floor.
When Hector turned back to us and began speaking again, I moved my eyes away from Eden with effort. Hector moved back behind his podium, looking thoughtful. "The ways of the gods are not always clear to us—are not always predictable, or easily understood. And yet, the gods always know best, do they not?"
"Yes, Father," we said in unison.
Hector nodded and leaned forward casually, resting his forearms on the podium and lacing his fingers together. "Yes, the gods always know best, and the gods always provide. And so the day I saw Eden and recognized the mark on her shoulder that foretold the identity of the blessed one—my perfect balance and harmony—I went back to the home where I was staying and prayed to the gods. How could this be? How could the blessed one, my bride, my wife, the one to lead us into Elysium, how could she be nothing more than a child? My beloveds, I had the same questions I'm sure you have as well."
Hector raised his arms slightly and banged them back down on the podium, startling us. Raising his voice he continued, "That night I prayed to the gods. Please guide me! Don't let me let my people down! My beloveds, they're the reason for my very existence!" He dropped his head slightly, looking wracked with emotion. When he brought his head back up, his eyes were shining.
"I cried and prayed all night long. And finally . . . finally in the early hours of dawn, the gods spoke to me in a whisper." Hector looked around the room and I held my breath, waiting to hear what the gods had said to him. It had to be good.
"‘She is the one,’ they said. ‘Her name is Eden, and she is the one.’"
He paused and looked around again and then turned and held out one arm to Eden, as if presenting her one more time before turning back to us.
"And so she has come to live with us, a child who before was an orphan, alone in the world. And when she reaches her eighteenth year, she will become my beloved, my one and only bride. And as the foretelling has said, we will live together as man and wife for two months and six days before the mighty flood comes and destroys the earth and all the people and animals, and we, the blessed people of the gods, will be escorted to the glorious fields of Elysium where there is no more pain, no more struggles, and never, never any tears."
I felt a chill run through me, just as it always did when Hector spoke of the great flood and our journey to Elysium. Only now, we had a timeframe and now, we knew that the great flood was years and years away—for Eden couldn't be older than eight . . . probably closer to seven. She was so small. I felt my shoulders relax.
"Eden will sit in her place of honor during every Temple meeting, and she will be looked upon with honor and love. Please welcome her with the adoration she deserves."
We all dropped down to our knees and bowed our heads, my mother taking Maya onto her lap, as Maya couldn’t bend her leg. We kneeled like this for several minutes until Hector said, "Rise," and we did. I looked back up at Eden and she was looking around, a more curious look on her face now as she took us all in.
I wondered what it had been like where she came from. I wondered if she had lived in a house, or maybe an apartment. I wondered if she had eaten sugar cubes and drunk Coca-Cola. I wished I could talk to her and ask her all sorts of questions. But, of course, that wasn't possible.
I realized Hector had started speaking again as my mind had drifted away to sugar cubes and Coca-Cola. "As if Eden's presence isn't enough of a surprise, I have one more for you on this glorious day." He paused. "On my travels, I also came across Teresa. Teresa, beloved, will you come up here, please?"
A skinny woman with brown hair and hollow cheeks stood up and started making her way to the front where Hector stood, larger than life itself. Teresa joined him and looked around at the crowd embarrassed-like, finally bowing her head and staring at the floor.
"Before she came here, Teresa led a wicked life," Hector said, shaking his head with what looked to be unbearable sadness. "I found her in an alleyway, offering to do depraved sexual acts for money." Teresa seemed to shrink in front of us even further as several people made disapproving sounds and others gasped and shook their heads. "She had been prostituting herself for drugs since she was sixteen years old. She's thirty-six now."
Hector came up behind her, towering over her as he grasped one of her bony shoulders in a fatherly way. Then he let go and walked past her to the side of the stage where several vases of flowers stood on pedestals. He carefully plucked a perfect, white lily out of a bouquet and walked back toward Teresa with it.
My eyes moved to Eden to see her following Hector's every move. Her hands still rested prettily in her lap and her shaking seemed to have stopped.
Hector stood in front of us all looking at the perfection of the lily before bringing it carefully to his nose and inhaling deeply. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
He simply stood this way for several beats before opening his eyes again and walking forward to Jeffrey Parker in the front row where he handed the lily to him and nodded. Jeffrey nodded back and then passed the lily to another man right behind him.
We were all quiet as we watched the lily be passed around the Temple, from one man to another and then finally back toward the front where Hector walked to Boris Friedman in the front row to retrieve it.
Hector looked down at the lily sadly. It was now bent and bruised, one of its petals hung down, ready to fall at any moment, a truly sad sight to behold. He brought it to his nose again and inhaled and then frowned down at the lily as if the sweet scent was no longer there.
He looked back pointedly at Teresa and then back at the lily. "Who would want this lily now?" he asked, his voice lowering. "Who could love a used-up, passed-around flower such as this one?" He thrust the lily out in front of him and looked around at us questioningly.
A single tear slipped down Teresa's cheek and she bit her own lip, her eyes cast downward again.
Now that I was ten, I understood what a metaphor was. I knew Teresa was that used-up lily, and I saw she knew it, too. And no one on the gods' green earth really wants to be a used-up lily, despite their behavior to the contrary, or at least that's what my mom had explained to me when I first asked her about all that business.
"WHO COULD WANT A FLOWER LIKE THIS ONE? WHO COULD FIND ANYTHING BEAUTIFUL ABOUT SOMETHING DIRTY AND SOILED LIKE THIS?" Hector boomed, spittle flying from his mouth as we all stared, spell bound by his intensity.
Teresa let out one small cry. But I had been witness to this same speech before and so although I was as captivated as I was each time I saw it, I just waited, as did the rest of us.
"Who?" Hector asked us more quietly. "Who?"
And that was our cue. "You
can, Father! And we can, Father!" we all said joyfully.
Teresa's head came up and she seemed baffled as she looked around, her mouth fell open and her eyes flew to Hector as he walked toward her.
"That's right, my beloved. I can. We can. We can all love you, our flower, made new again with love, with family, with purpose, with belonging." And then he brought the lily from behind his back, and it was as perfect as it was when he first plucked it from the vase. New and fresh and so very beautiful.
I loved that part and it always made a strange chill run down my spine. It was like a plot twist that you came upon in a story, and it made your heart jump and you wanted to tell someone about it right away. Only when Hector brought someone new up on the podium, the plot twist was part of their life and it was a good one, and they usually cried and carried on and on about it.
Naturally.
Teresa gasped and I could see she felt the same way, and her tears began to flow even harder as she sobbed out. Hector wrapped his arms around her, cradling her to his body, repeating, "I can, we can, I can, my love."
Hector looked out into the audience in my direction and I knew that was my cue to bring the water.
My dad took his arms from around my shoulders and I made my way to the marble font of water at the back of the Temple. I filled the small cup sitting next to it and walked down the center aisle toward Hector.
"My water bearer," Hector said, smiling at me. I smiled back proudly and handed him the cup and then stood to the side with my head bowed and my hands clasped.
As Hector gave Teresa a drink of the purifying water, I kept my head bowed but moved my eyes to look at Eden to my right, trying to secretly get a closer look at her. My eyes met hers and she stared at me without blinking. I looked away, but I couldn't help the small smile that curved my lips up and when I dared to look at her again, she was smiling a very small, shy smile as well.
I forced myself to bow my head again as Hector hugged Teresa to him and then handed the cup back to me. Then he presented her to all of us with simply a wave of his hand as she beamed out to the audience, wiping the tears off her cheeks.
And with that, Teresa was made new and would join our family, just as many had before her. And although Maya and I had been born into this community, my mother said that there was something extra special about those who chose it on their own.
She said the gods led Hector to them, but it was their choice whether they followed him.
I walked back toward my family, and we all filed out of the Temple quietly, ready to begin preparing the evening meal. I looked back as I walked behind my parents, and although other people moving behind me mostly blocked my view, I made eye contact with Eden several times, and I wondered if it was possible she was watching me leave.
CHAPTER TWO
Calder – Twelve-Years-Old
The dusty canyon trail was steep and narrow, but now that I'd almost made it to the valley floor where the harsh rays of the sun couldn't reach, I sighed in relief at the feel of the cooler air. It was January and the weather during the day was only in the seventies, but the shade still felt good while I was moving so quickly.
Even though it was a tough hike, I loved this bi-weekly ritual of collecting the purified water I brought and served at Temple. I made my way down the trail as quickly as possible, practically running in some spots, so I could spend extra time at the spring. Every so often, Hector would accompany me and say a blessing over the water himself, although it was actually the gods who provided the healing water for us so we would be pure and cleansed when the great flood came. It was this purification that would balance our systems and help ward off evil and temptation.
Whenever someone was injured or sick, I would fetch an extra dose of the water for them, as sickness was mostly a massive state of imbalance, or so Hector said. Hector also said that although the gods provided the water for us, and it would help with the situation, ultimately it was to be seen whether the gods' will was for healing or not. Sometimes they deemed healing to occur, and sometimes, Hector said, it was not their will, and we had to accept that and not question the reasons why. It was not for us to know, at least not yet.
That was the case with Maya. My parents had told me that when they saw the deformity of her leg and the fact her features were different, they had dripped the healing waters into her small, baby mouth, but apparently the gods had their reasons for keeping her the way she was, because that time, the water didn't work.
But, just last summer, when I had served the water to Franklin Massey who was doubled over in agonizing stomach pain, later that day, he suddenly straightened up and was healed, wouldn't you know.
I guessed it was true you never could know the reasons of the gods because from what I'd seen, Franklin Massey was a mean old crab who walked around with a puss on his face all the livelong day. And Maya, well she was like a little ray of sunshine. It wasn't how I'd run things when I got some authority up in Elysium, that was for sure. Although I guessed that was a moot point anyway, because there was no sickness in Elysium. Maya would run through the fields on two perfectly working legs and her mind would work just like everyone else's. I had to smile at the picture.
I knew for sure the water was magical though, because every time I drank it, a feeling of peace and happiness flowed through me, and I felt cleansed and strengthened.
I made a sharp turn and the spring came into view. The water was crystal blue and sparkling and it had green plants blooming around it. It always struck me as a small paradise and I stood simply admiring it for a few minutes.
I set down the canvas bag that held the water containers and dropped to the grass, laying back and lacing my fingers behind my head so I could gaze at the clear, blue sky, surrounded by the towering canyon walls. Everything around me was grand and beautiful and full of color and light. I wondered how Elysium could be any more beautiful than what the gods had already created right here on earth.
As I lay there, my eyes landed on some brush that seemed to have been pushed aside in a way I'd never noticed before. I frowned in curiosity and pulled myself up and walked over to the strange, little opening. There was a break between the rocks I'd never seen because of the vegetation that had been in front of it.
I peeked inside a little nervously, and then stepped in when I couldn't see anything much from where I stood. On the other side, it suddenly opened up and I stood upright and walked through the space, mostly consisting of dirt, rock, and a few sparse patches of desert grass. But as I walked farther, I heard running water and noticed more vegetation. Moving through another doorway-sized opening I found another spring! I laughed out loud, looking around in wonder at the hidden pool of water. How was it I didn't know about this? I spent more time than anyone down at the healing spring. This one was even larger than the other one—just as clear and just as blue—with plants growing everywhere. There was even a very small waterfall, mostly a trickle really, that ran between two of the larger rocks.
Something caught my attention to my right, in between two rocks. When I moved closer, I saw that someone had written in the dirt and there were several toys sitting neatly on a small blanket where both rocks met, creating a small alcove.
I tilted my head, taking it in. Two baby dolls, a plastic tea set, and a small, pink horse. Strange.
My eyes moved down to the dirt in front of the toys and I saw "Eden" had been spelled out in small pieces of broken sticks.
I scrunched up my face in confusion. Was this where she played? The items looked older. Had she been playing here since she arrived? I stared down at the toys for a minute, curious and wanting to touch them, but I didn't. The council member kids were given toys and the worker kids were not. Still, I kept my hands to myself. Something about those toys sitting there struck me as very, very sad and weakened my desire to pick them up and study them one by one. I thought about the many friends I had and how we played together every afternoon after our work was done—variations on sports our parents taught us, l
ike hide and seek, tag . . . From my experience, there was never a lack of someone to spend time with inside Acadia. As a matter of fact, you had to put some effort into finding some quiet time if you got fed up with people chattering at you from sunup 'til sundown.
But Eden . . . didn't she play with the other kids who lived at the lodge with her? The council members' kids? Or was she forbidden for some reason? I had seen the way my friends looked at her as she walked to the front of the Temple month after month—still with some interest—but clearly she was different than the rest of us. Separate . . . and looked upon with a certain suspicion, probably even jealousy.
I guessed it might be the same with the council members' kids, too. She was separate from them as well—not just another ordinary kid, not yet a wife—sort of a strange mixture of both and not one of an “us.”
I stood up slowly and chewed on my lip for several minutes considering Eden, picturing her playing here in this place she'd found. All alone.
I was jolted out of my thoughts by the loud call of a hawk and made my way back to our spring to fill my water containers. My mom would be looking for me if I wasn't home soon.
I walked back through the brush between the two rocks and arranged it so it wasn't noticeable this time. Hopefully Eden would remember to do the same. For some reason, I didn't want anyone else finding out about that secret spring through the hidden passage.
