You may also be wondering about Patella's assignment as a sling warrior. The reader may recall that Winnie had trained Patella to fly her own sling. Now, in addition to contorting herself into barrel rolls in the sky, Patella could attack an enemy at supersonic speed. For her, attacking was equivalent to chasing down prey in the forest. Winnie and William had created a sling weapon that was the equivalent to a wolf's killing bite. When Patella was in her sling and went to grab a pretend prey in her teeth, the sling would fire a broad laser beam that had the power to take out whatever Patella was trying to chew on, be it a machine of some kind or a human. Winnie had to be in the area for this to work. She'd tell Patella what the target was and then monitor the area for secondary threats.
# # # # # # # #
The crew's training was not restricted to practicing their battle attacks. In the command ship, Melissa had observed that she had created a certain amount of distraction when she started to feed the twins while she was sitting in the command chair. With both hands and arms occupied in keeping the twins in position, she hadn't been able to cover herself up. Melissa waited until the day's training was over and the crew was relaxing. Baby Izzy was showing signs of becoming hungry, so she picked her up, and asked Wizard to come with her. "Dreamer, you can come too if you want." The invitation was solely an afterthought; she had intended to talk only to Wizard.
Melissa sat in the command room's battlechair where she had fed the twins, opened her blouse, and placed Izzy on her knee. "Wizard, look at me." This invitation was necessary because Wizard had immediately turned around and appeared to be searching the far opposite corner of the room for spider webs.
Wizard did as he was told, but kept his eyes squarely on Izzy's forehead, the result of some sort of gravitational pull from a strand of red hair that was stranded there. (Narrator: Pun intended. Sorry about that, I couldn't resist.)
"Look lower, Wiz. Lower. Lower. Stop. What you're looking at are milk delivery systems that are currently active. At least, that's how William refers to them. I think of them as milk hydrants. That's because they're heavy and I am forced to carry them around on my chest wherever I go. My back hurts constantly; my shoulders spasm at times. With two babies feeding on them several times a day, they have to make enough milk to feed both of them. That's a lot of milk and that's why the hydrants are so big. They're hard right now because they're full and I'm waiting in some discomfort for the next feeding. If the babies aren't hungry at the right time, my hydrants are going to become even harder and they're going to hurt even more. When one of the babies chomps too hard, as one of them usually does, that also hurts me. What you're looking at are not sexual objects. These are big, clunky milk hydrants!"
Wiz swallowed. He knew that he had been caught trying to sneak a peek.
"Wiz, you've probably never seen a girl with her top off, so you're bound to be curious. You can stay here as long as you want and look." Melissa waited.
Wiz fidgeted, but looked, and eventually turned his head away.
"Wiz, I can't have you becoming distracted if we're in a battle and I have to feed the babies. The babies won't wait until the battle is over. They will scream until they're fed. I'll have to take my top off to do that at the same time as I'm commanding the battle. Will you be able to concentrate on your job now?"
Wizard nodded.
Izzy started fussing.
"I'll have to start feeding Izzy soon. Did you want to watch? You can, you know. But not when we're in a battle."
Wizard shook his head No.
"You want to get out of this room, don't you?"
Wizard nodded his head.
"When you see me taking off my top in the ship, Wizard, just think of me as opening the valve to some very ugly, heavy, milk hydrants. There is nothing sexy about milk hydrants. OK?"
Wizard nodded his head and fled, leaving Dreamer still watching from the far corner.
"I'd like to watch you feed Izzy, if you don't mind," Dreamer said. She even used a business voice.
# # # # # # # #
Melissa had little Izzy lying in a cradle made of her arms and was swinging her gently from side to side. Izzy was trying to grab air molecules, or at least it looked like she was.
"Did you enjoy the first time she fed?" Dreamer asked.
"Not the first time. But afterwards, yes. I felt like a real mother."
"And now?"
"I like it when the twins are feeding properly and getting full. But it takes a long time for a baby to feed, and frankly, it's a little boring at times. I'm sitting there with nothing to do, and the babies are working away, or perhaps drifting off to sleep. Yollie brings in a book and reads it while Yo-Yo feeds. I can't do that with two of them and they absolutely refuse to go one at a time. If one is drinking, the other one will be wailing a minute later. I'd enjoy your company. You can ask me questions about the babies if you like."
Dreamer had many question. Most of them on the practicalities of holding the baby, knowing when the baby was finished feeding, and what else might happen that would hurt in addition to being bit. Melissa answered every question frankly. At one point, she passed Izzy to Dreamer and asked her to bounce her gently on her knee. Little Izzy was fussy but not hungry yet. "I hold her often. She should get used to other people holding her too."
"Can I hold her close to me?"
"Sure. Pull her up against your body, put one arm under her bum, and support her head with your other hand. It's like hugging somebody, but somebody very tiny."
Dreamer stood up and started walking in the space between the command chair and the sensor stations with the baby in her arms.
"Nice, eh?" Melissa asked.
"She's opening and closing her mouth, sticking her tongue out a bit, and squirming."
"Time to put the hydrants to work." Melissa held out her arms and Dreamer put Izzy into them – supporting her head as she was supposed to. Little Izzy found the spigot and attached herself. Melissa winced at one point. "She always chews on exactly the same sore spot."
"Better now?" Dreamer asked.
"Better. Will is going to start wailing in ten, nine, eight, seven... Told you. I think they rag at each other. I'm getting fed and you aren't. Would you bring Will to me?"
# # # # # # # #
Dreamer continued to watch the babies feed while she and Melissa talked. Couldn't tear her eyes away would probably be a better description. Melissa asked her about Clearwater, and the mill, and Nonny. They were just idle questions that gave Dreamer a chance to talk in a business voice. It was when the twins both nodded off in the middle of the feeding that Melissa realized that this was an opportunity. Nobody in the family had thought of a way to open up this topic with Dreamer yet.
"They're dozing right now. I need to stand up. Could you take Izzy and hold her in the hug you used before and walk her back and forth?"
"Sure."
"I'll walk with Will over here."
"OK."
Then...
"I'm going to turn the overhead light off so they can nap better. Are you OK with that? You won't bang into anything?"
"Sure. This is fun. I can feel her breathing against me. Her breath smells like stale milk."
"You should be glad that it isn't smelling worse. Sometimes, when the twins can't sleep at night, William and I will both get up and walk back and forth, holding them, and stroking them. Trying to help them go back to sleep. William often sings nonsense little things to them. They like that. The twin he's holding will always fall asleep first. He goes back to bed and I take the other twin into the living room and continue to walk. I talk to the baby I'm holding. Sometimes I'll talk about things that I'm happy about; sometimes I'll confess things that I did when I was growing up that I'm not particularly proud of. That helps me feel better about things I'm ashamed of. If it looks like my baby has had a nightmare, I'll tell him that he's safe and that I'm not going to let anything bad happen to him. Why don't you try that with Izzy? Pretend she's had a nightmare. Just p
ut your face on the top of her head, and tell her that she's safe. That you'll protect her. Kiss her head. Stroke her."
Dreamer did.
...
"Does she understand what I'm saying?"
"Not the words. But the feelings, I believe so. The feeling of being safe, for sure. One night I told little Will about the time that I had to watch my mom get tortured. I had always hated her, but she didn't deserve to be tortured."
"What did she do to you?"
# # # # # # # #
Melissa confided. And as part of that conversation, she explained how she was able to prepare herself for her mom's torture. "If you're afraid of something very, very nasty, don't try to overcome your fears all at once. Do something that will make the fears go away a little bit. Then make the fears go further away the next time. And a little further the next time. Before you know it, you've conquered the fears. You should do that, you know."
"Me?"
"Sure. You're afraid of getting undressed in the light, right? Winnie says that you won't change clothes unless the cabin is pitch-black."
"I can't."
"Do you want to be afraid of getting undressed for the rest of your life?"
"No."
"Then attack the problem. With baby steps. Get undressed when you're alone in the bedroom but do it with the light on. Then when Winnie is there, take your top off in the bedroom, but with your back turned to Winnie. After you can do that, take your top off, turn towards Winnie but keep your top in front of you so that she can't see what you're hiding. After you can do that, put your hands in front of your body rather than your top. Next time, don't hide yourself but show yourself to Winnie for ten seconds, then twenty seconds, and then thirty seconds. After you can handle one step, take the next. Keep pushing yourself to go further until you can get completely undressed in front of Winnie with the light on."
"Do you know why I'm afraid to undress in the light and in front of somebody?"
"Probably. Why don't you tell little Izzy the details? Kiss her when you feel like it. Hold her close. Stroke her. Tell her about the first time your dad did something to you that he shouldn't have. Tell her how you felt about that."
# # # # # # # #
Dreamer did, and once she had told little Izzy about the first time, she went on to the next and the next and the next. Melissa could hear Dreamer snuffling in the dark, her voice breaking, and there'd be long pauses between words sometimes. Melissa desperately wanted to hug her but knew that would be impossible. She stayed as quiet as she could in the dark, hoping that the twins wouldn't wake up, and keeping her own snuffles as quiet as she could.
Melissa heard about Dreamer's dad sneaking up to her bedroom and looking through the keyhole when she was undressing. She heard how he would hug her and then rub her bum with his hands. She heard how he'd lift her shirt when he was tickling her and stare at her chest. She heard how he tried to climb into bed with her one time, but she said she had to go pee and then hid behind the locked bathroom door all night. After that, she'd put a chair up against her bedroom door whenever she was in the room.
One time, Melissa had to interrupt. "How old were you when this was happening?"
"It was after my mom died. I was five when that happened."
"Tell little Izzy about the worst time ever."
"I'm nine years old. I'm having a bath in Nonny's house. Nonny isn't in the house, but I'm thinking that I'll be safe because I hadn't had a dream about this. But my dad comes into the bathroom. The lock is broken and I'm sure he broke it on purpose beforehand. He kneels on the floor next to the tub and looks at me. I try to cover myself with my hands and arms. He puts one of his hands over the lip of the tub so that it's hanging above the water. Then he puts his hand in the water. Further and further. I start kicking at him and screaming at the top of my lungs. He gets up. I think he's scared of my screams being heard by a neighbour. He tells me this was all my fault because I'm always wearing skimpy clothes around the house, and if I tell anybody what happened, he'll hurt me. He tells me exactly how he's going to hurt me. I don't want him to do that to me. I start to wear long clothes and baggy sweaters, but still he always looks at me in a way that makes me want to run away and hide."
# # # # # # # #
"You mentioned something about not having a dream about that bath. Does that have something to do with how you got your name? What is your real name?"
"My real name is Frances, after my mother. She died in a canoe accident. I didn't want anybody calling me her name when she was dead, so Nonny asked me what I wanted to be called instead. The kids at school were calling me Dreamer, and even though it was a tease, I didn't mind it."
"They called you that because you were always day-dreaming?"
"No. They called me that because I told some of my class that I believed in dreams. They called me Dream Believer and then shortened it to Dreamer."
"You believe the dreams that we have when we're sleeping are going to come true?"
"No, I believe the dreams that we have when we are awake are going to come true. You know, the kind of dream when everything gets fuzzy and things sort of go in slow motion?"
"I don't have those kinds of dreams."
"I do. I saw Wizard coming into our tribal center in a fuzzy-dream. I saw Wiz and me living in the Wilizy compound in a fuzzy-dream. I had a fuzzy-dream where you were sitting in a cabin feeding two babies but I didn't know who you were or that we'd talk like this."
"Did you dream about your father rushing up the stairs to your bedroom and bursting into your room when you were studying with Wizard?"
"No. I get only some dreams. I don't see all the good things that happen to me and I don't see all the bad things."
"But you're safe now, Dreamer. Your dad can't hurt you."
"Melissa, I have always had a lot of fuzzy-dreams lined up one after another in my head. After the first one comes true, then I know the next one will come true soon. I only have two fuzzy-dreams in my head right now. In the first, Wiz and I are looking over a field of flowery plants. In the second, it's nighttime. I'm in the woods and I'm very frightened because my dad is near me. I know he's trying to hurt me. I see a sliver of a face coming towards me. Then I feel a big pain in my head. After that, I can't see anything, I can't hear anything, and I can't feel anything. There are no more fuzzy-dreams after that one waiting to happen. I know that my dad is going to kill me."
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Chapter 8
Wolf and Mac's son was born on October 18, 2084 and they named him Jock, after Mac's father. The same day, somewhere over Asia, Melissa opened their final planning meeting with the birth announcement and then began the battle briefing. The crews of all three ships were crammed together in the galley and living room of the Wilizy/America – Melissa's need to be near the babies making that decision for them.
"The typhoon is on the right path. It's a little late in the season for China, but not all that unusual. Ship captains – you won't be in the main body of the typhoon, but you're still going to experience strong weather conditions. We've already covered how you can keep damage to your ship to a minimum. The Wilizy/America will stay out of the path of the storm because it's the smallest and oldest ship. The two other ships are able to withstand more buffeting. Now I know that you've heard most of this already, but William is going to tell you why we're having this battle."
# # # # # # # #
William's speech:
Wolf, TG and I have been researching the Earth's atmosphere for the last four months. We've used time-travel to collect data all the way back to the early 19th century before industrialization really hit the world. We've taken air samples every decade from that point forward. Our instruments determined levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, ozone, water vapor, pollutants and other non-natural additives in the air. We collected that data not only at different time periods but also at different altitudes and at different geographic locations. We now know what the atmosphere was
like before mankind destroyed it.
I can tell you that the worst of global warming is now over. However carbon dioxide levels are still very high and ozone levels very low. We all know that. That's why skin cancer is so common and why it remains the highest cause of death today. If you have white skin, you can expect to live only to your early fifties. That's why people get married so young these days. The situation isn't all that much better for brown-skinned people.
Today, pollutant levels in the air remain high but not as high as they were when global warming hit the hardest. The Earth is gradually recovering because we are no longer filling the air with poisonous vapors from oil burning industries and gasoline powered cars. For the most part now, nations in the world rely almost exclusively on solar and wind power. Hydropower is limited because most continents have very little fresh water.
As you know, the Wilizy family's new goals are to strive for justice for the weak, and as well, to help the Earth recover from the damage the ancients did to it. Only one country in the world continues to spew poison into the air. If we are to help the atmosphere recover, we must first stop that country from poisoning Mother Earth's air.
China did not suffer from the internal fractures of other major economies during the oil crisis or the global warming floods. Most countries faced war, food riots, water riots, and the disappearance of reasonable forms of government. China didn't have those experiences. Instead, China's position as a major economy disappeared when 90% of its population died painfully and inescapably over a two decade period. The Chinese people died because their government had knowingly poisoned them with pollutants.
China now has a small and concentrated population living near the coast. It has a military government. Their source of power is coal. They still pour pollution into their skies and into their rivers. Their pollutants still travel around the world through the upper reaches of the atmosphere; the poison in their rivers still flows into the oceans where it is circulated throughout the world's oceans. We're going to put a stop to the harm they're doing to Mother Earth with as little loss of life as we can. When we are finished, China will have no access to coal-based energy. This appears to be the only thing that can be done to force their military to adopt other energy sources.
Bob, the Invisible Dragon Page 4
