This is a chapter from the SciFi novel I am working on.
Brant Candor had left the
Tavern as Venki and Sara insisted on cleaning up after their meal. He walked
over to the Flagpole and took a seat at one of the benches the settlers had set
up around its base. He looked up as he heard the flag flapping in the gusty
winds. A light was shining at the Earth flag flying high above his head. Just
like the Stars and Stripes before it, it was considered unpatriotic to fly the
flag in the darkness. So it was lit every night rather than lowering it each
night at dusk to raise it again at dawn. He had had a part in the flag's
design, an effort by all the Outsiders to rebuild some semblance of normalcy after
every nation state in the world had crumbled. It was a simple kelly green
circle, surrounded by a ring of dark blue on a background of pale blue trimmed with
a blood red border. Land, Ocean, Sky, and a stark reminder of the lives lost to
the skank or the nuclear explosions.
He was lost in thought when he
was startled by a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry Brant, I didn't
mean to creep up on you, but you were so lost in thought."
Sara took a seat on the bench
beside him and put an arm around his shoulder.
"Venki is putting the kids
to bed. They wanted you to read them a story but we told them you'd had a
tiring day but that you might read to them tomorrow morning."
"I shouldn't stay the
night Sara." He looked into her eyes. “Cora has your eyes, that beautiful
shade of sky blue like the flag."
"But you ARE going to stay
Brant, we insist. You need to rest before hitting the road again." She
paused before adding "Cora does have my eyes, and Dene has yours."
He looked back into those deep
brown eyes of hers again. "Sara, I thought we'd agreed to never give Venki
any reason to doubt. What if he hears us? "
Until today this had been his
darkest secret. It had happened at a Thanksgiving party. No longer for an
America thankful for a good harvest and a new land, but a handful of struggling
survivors thankful for the birth of children. Uninfected children. Ale, wine
and moonshine had been consumed by everyone in the settlement, and the
laughter, singing and dancing had given way to a somber storytelling.
Eventually, as the revelers went back to their own homes, Venki had passed out
and Brant and Sara had fallen into each other's arms. It had been one stupid
moment of passion with a woman he loved like a sister because she was the wife
of his best friend.
After it was apparent she was
pregnant again they prayed every day until the birth, but when Brant saw Dene
for the first time it just confirmed what he already knew. Venki had just
assumed that Dene had inherited more of Sara's light skinned ancestry and less
of his own darker skinned genes. Nevertheless it took both Sara and Brant by
surprise when Venki started to joke about Dene's skin color and implying he may
be Brant's kid.
"Take it easy Brant. The
bedtime routine gets longer every day. They won't let him leave for another
half an hour, easily."
He knew that she loved him like
a brother and like him had tried to forget that one mistake, but he realized it
must be difficult with the evidence living in her presence every day.
“I must admit that the bedtime
routine is a lot easier since your last visit, when you convinced Dene that his
nightmares about falling were actually about flying. Every morning he now tells
us something new about what he did as an owl in his dreams. Sometimes he can’t
wait to get to bed to finish a dream from the prior night.”
Then, her smile as she talked
about their son vanished and he knew she was thinking about their earlier conversation.
"We can keep Kayli a secret. Were you going to tell anyone else?"
She looked at him as he tried
to decide if it was fair to his two friends, to ask them to keep this information
to themselves, and he also knew that by ‘anyone else’ she had meant Kayli
herself or his parents.
"I haven't decided
yet." He looked into Sara's eyes again. "What good would it do to let
her know? As far as she is concerned I killed myself after her mother died in
childbirth. As far as my parents are concerned I died as soon as I made the
decision that the future of humanity lay outside the domes not in them. They are
the only ones who should care, I should stay dead to all of them."
They both turned as a door
closed behind them and Venki came across the meadow from the house.
"I know what you've been
talking about.”
Brant and Sara exchanged nervous
glances.
"Kayli and her
grandparents live separate lives under the Dome, and no one Outside need ever
know. There's no benefit in this knowledge going beyond the three of us.
Sometimes secrets are worth keeping.”
Sara and Brant looked at each
other as if to say 'How could we disagree?'
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