Chapter 41
Annie was in Garfield Park.
Or she guessed she was in Garfield Park.
Hard to tell for sure, since the dome of the Field House stretched up for miles, with the sun glinting off the gold paint as if it were an infinitely tall Willis Tower with a million golden windows.
But the sounds were more familiar to the Park.
Lots of voices, multiple languages, children laughing and calling out to their parents.
Was that Felix that she heard crying?
She looked around, but a large cloud must have passed overhead as everything went into shadows.
It had to be Felix. And she heard Atticus talking, although the words weren’t clear.
‘Where was…? Ah, there he is,’ Annie thought, as she heard the voice of her husband Karl talking in a calm tone.
‘What are you saying, Karl?’ Annie asked. But he didn’t answer.
‘It’s too dark,’ she thought. ‘Did I close my eyes?’
Annie concentrated, and willed her eyelids to open.
Through narrow slits, she thought she identified family members standing around, staring down at her.
‘Am I dying? Am I in a coffin?’ she wondered.
Annie’s body stiffened, fearful at the uncertainty, her fingers clenched to her palms.
Another hand eased into Annie’s fist and loosened the fingers, caressing the top of knuckles and hand to relax the grip.
And a calming voice came close to her ear and softly sang.
“Brown baby
Brown baby
As you grow up
I want you to drink from the plenty cup
I want you to stand up tall and proud
I want you to speak up to clear and loud”
“Mama,” Annie whispered, her whole body relaxing.
“Close your eyes, and sleep some more, baby,” the woman’s voice whispered in reply.
And Annie complied.
Annie opened her eyes again. This time, there was no Garfield Park, no infinitely tall golden domed tower. Just a slowly illuminating ceiling of uncertain height.
She lifted her head, and the bed she was lying in started moving. Her body tensed.
Karl quickly came into view, smiling, and standing to her front left. As the bed turned into a chair, he held out his hands.
Annie reached out, but missed the connection. Thankfully Karl was more alert, and quickly moved his hands to grasp hers.
The chair stopped, but Annie continued her forward movement, and started to slide off the chair.
Karl quickly shifted his grasp from her hands to her elbows, and steadied his wife’s body, preventing it from falling to the ground.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m glad to see you waking up.”
“Karl?” Annie said with a very raspy voice. “Are we still on the alien ship?”
“Yes, we are, hon,” he answered.
“Where are the kids? And Abby? And Papa? And…” she began to ask.
“Everyone is here,” Karl replied. “Everyone is awake and doing great. You were the last one to wake up.”
Karl nodded his head, motioning someone to come over. And Abby came into view.
“You had me a little worried, sister,” Abby said, tears streaming down her cheek. Abby grabbed her sister around her chest and hugged her tight. “But I should have known you’d oversleep if you could.” Abby continued, half laughing and half sobbing.
Karl took the opportunity to grab the tunic and trousers next to the bed. “You might want to put these on,” he said to his wife.
Annie looked down and noticed she was naked.
“Yes!” she said, her eyes widening.
Abby took the tunic and helped pull it over Annie’s head and arms. She held onto Annie while Karl pulled the trousers over her legs and hips.
Once dressed, Annie tried standing. Karl reached around her waist to hold her upright, and no sooner got a grip than two young children came running over to give their mother a hug.
“Mommy! You’re awake!” her Atticus said.
“You were really out of it, Mom,” Kaden said, his hug pushing the air out of his mother’s chest.
“Give her some space, you two,” an older voice said. “She needs to get her wits about her a bit.”
“Papa?” Annie said, turning her head around to see her father.
“It’s all ok, Cocoa,” LeeAndré said. “We’re all here with you. You just need to ease into this. I was certainly all messed up when I woke up. Here!,” the elder of the family took the glass of water and handed it to Abby. “Give that girl a drink! That should help.”
Abby handed the glass to Annie, and helped her hold it to her mouth.
Annie gulped down the liquid, almost feeling the coolness smooth out the tension as it passed down her throat, into her stomach and seemingly trickled through nerves, tendons and blood vessels like a drop of water color paint spreading out over the surface of a clean bowl of water.
“That’s good!” she said, some of the raspiness leaving her voice.
“How long was I asleep?” Annie asked.
“Longer than most,” Karl said.
“But not as long as some,” Luther said, walking up from the side, holding Felix, who had his arms outstretched.
“Mama!” Felix shouted.
Annie reached out to take him and held him close to her side, not needing any assistance to support her youngest son. “Hello Mr. Felix! How is my big little man doing?” she said, nuzzling his cheek and neck.
Felix laughed and held his mother as firmly as he could, his reach not able to go around her body, but both hands crumpling opposite sides of her tunic in a tight, toddler grip.
Annie looked at her family surrounding her. “So how long have you all been awake?”
Everyone looked at Abby, who, in turn, looked at Karl.
“Well, it’s hard to tell, since there’s no clock or anything, but I’d guess at least three hours,” Karl said. “At least that’s as long as I’m estimating I’ve been awake. Abby woke up before I did.”
“And Hazel was awake before me,” Abby said. “In fact, she was the first of us to wake up.”
“Where is she?” Annie asked. “I haven’t seen her yet.”
Abby pointed towards the wall, where Hazel was standing, gently rocking her baby sister Raina as she walked her along the side of the room. “She told me she was pretty scared when she got out of her bed and the rest of us were all still locked inside. In fact, she was one of the first people awake, from what I can tell. Another woman said she tried to talk to her, but Hazel didn’t engage in the conversation, didn’t have anything to drink or eat. She just walked back and forth between our beds, until mine finally opened. Then she wouldn’t leave my side or stop holding onto me, even when Beckett, Luther and Karl woke up. Then poor Raina awoke and wouldn’t stop crying, even when I tried to console her. It wasn’t until Papa was struggling when he woke up that I made her let go of me and I gave Raina to Hazel. Raina stopped crying, and Hazel has been walking and singing to her sister ever since, for almost an hour.”
Some tones sounded, and a voice from above said, ‘Lay on the bed. Arrival in nine minutes.’
“Now what?” Annie said.
People all around were paused, huddling with each other and talking, some looking at the walls or ceiling, with only a few people moving towards a bed.
“I’m guessing we’ll be entering the atmosphere of the new planet soon,” Luther said.
“So we’re still in flight?” Annie asked.
“It’s hard to tell, hon,” Karl said, trying to take Felix from his wife’s arms. “But I’m guessing we are. We should all lie back down. Let me take Felix.”
“No!” Annie said, her hold on Felix tightening. The toddler likewise increased his grip on his mother’s shirt.
“It’s probably ok for her to hold him in the bed, Karl,” Abby said. “We didn’t have any seat belts or restraining straps when we left Earth or when we switched ships. And we’ll not be going back into hiber-sleep.”
Karl looked at Abby who gave a reassuring nod, then he took his hands off of his son.
“OK, but let me help you get in your bed with him,” he said to his wife. “You step up and lie back, the bed will go down, and I’ll hand Felix to you.”
Annie agreed, handed their son to her husband, and got back into the bed. She leaned back, then moved forward quickly, stopping the lowering motion of the bed.
“But what sort of place is this new planet?” Annie asked. “How do we know what will happen when we arrive? Are we getting back on an elevator to go down to the surface?”
Abby came over, and put her hand on her sister’s shoulder, moving her back into the chair, which in turn began laying back again. “You remember seeing the transmissions, Annie. I’m sure it will be just like that. We’ll touch down, walk out, and be greeted by all of the people from Seneca that arrived before us. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ll need to head out to find some open ground someplace. There must be twenty-thousand people around the landing zone by now, if we counted the number of departures from Kansas correctly.”
Annie’s chair was now a bed, and Karl brought Felix over to her.
“What about food, and drink?” Annie asked. “Surely those little food cubes I saw aren’t going to be enough for us.”
Abby patted her sister’s arm. “They showed us a video of what to eat and what not to eat about an hour ago. But I’m sure the people on the ground have already figured out what is safe. I need to make sure the kids are in their spots now, Annie. Relax. This is all still new to you.”
“What about Papa?” Annie continued her questioning. “You said he had a rough time waking up?”
“He did, and I’ll fill you in after we land,” Abby said, walking away from the bed.
Abby, Luther and Karl helped get the children as well as LeeAndré back in a bed. Hazel saw how Felix had lain with his mother, and insisted Raina would stay in the same bed with her sister for the landing. Abby and Luther consented.
No sooner did Karl get in his chair after helping Abby into hers than the turbulence of atmospheric entry started, nearly throwing Karl onto the floor before his chair was far enough back that the flexible netting absorbed the buffets.
After some time, the internal shaking and the external noise subsided, and the beds were reforming into chairs in synchronicity.
And, nearly at the same time, the dim light from the ceiling was being overcome by a brighter light from the side of the room. A door was visible to the outside.
“We’re here!” Kaden shouted out. “We’re on the new planet! Come on, hurry up!”
“Quite the opposite, young man,” Karl said to his son. “You’ll wait with us. And we don’t need to be the first people off. No rush. Wait for us all to go together.”
The rest of the family rose out of their chairs and gathered around the twin doctors. Beckett, Theo and Kaden jabbering about what sort of creatures they would see when they stepped out, Atticus looking up at them and trying to figure out how to add to their chatter. Felix and Raina contentedly in the arms of Annie and Hazel respectively. LeeAndré was the only one still sitting. Abby came over to him.
“Are you ok, Papa?” she asked.
“Just adjusting my sea legs to land, I guess,” the grandfather said, putting both hands on the seat of the chair, and stretching one foot to the ground, watching his step down carefully. Abby nodded for Luther to come over, and they both helped LeeAndré come to a full stand and get his balance.
“Thanks,” LeeAndré said. Then, looking at his grandsons, “Ok, let’s see what adventure is awaiting us out there, shall we?”
The dual families made their way to the opening, parents or grandparents each holding one or more of the children’s hands to keep everyone together. As their chairs were further from the ramp, they were one of the last groups to depart. So they were able to pause at the opening to look around.
Walking away from the landing craft were the new arrivals, people of many different skin colors, but predominantly caucasian. A few hundred people were walking towards the craft.
“Well that figures. The white folks must have moved on, leaving all the black people still here,” Karl commented upon seeing the people approaching them.
One of those people was walking up the ramp. “Bonjour! Allo!” she said.
“Hello,” Abby said with a smile, stepping forward, holding out her free hand to greet the person. “Thank you for welcoming us.”
“Vous êtes Anglais, ou Américains?” the woman said, grabbing Abby’s hand.
“I’m sorry, what was…?” Abby paused. “Ah! Wait, do you speak English?”
“No, I speak not English,” the woman said. “I speak French.”
The family members exchanged confused looks.
“But didn’t you leave from Kansas?” Abby asked. “Why would you come all the way to Kansas? Or did you live in the area before you departed?”
The woman smiled and turned up her hands, obviously not understanding Abby’s questions.
Abbu turned to her sister. “Can you try, Annie? You used to use some French each time we had out-of-town visitors to the clinic.”
“Um, vous venez du Kansas?” Annie said hesitantly.
“Kansas?” the woman said with a confused look. Then with a little more understanding appearing on her face. “Ah, Kansas! Aux Etats Unis!”
“Oui, Aux Etats Unis,” Annie nodded.
“Non, mon cher, nous sommes de Côte d’Ivoire. Nous sommes partis sur la première embarcation de Toumodi,” the woman said with a laugh. “Venez vous du Kansas?”
“Oui,” Annie started. “Ah, non. Nous venons de Chicago, mais le, … le … le bateau vient du Kansas.”
“What are you saying, Mama,” Atticus asked his mother.
“The woman didn’t leave from Kansas,” she said. “She left from Toumodi in the Ivory Coast.”
“From where?” Beckett asked.
“From Africa,” Luther responded. “A country south and east of Guinea Bissau.”
“So did they drop us off in the wrong place?” Kaden asked.
“I don’t know,” Annie said. Then she turned back to the woman. “Les bateaux avant nous, venaient-ils du Kansas ou de Toumodi?”
“Quels autres navires?” the woman said “Vous êtes le premier à arriver ici depuis que nous avons atterri il y a trois mois. Quand avez-vous quitté le Kansas?”
Annie shook her head, “Encore, s’il vous plait. Et lentement.”
The woman repeated her sentences slowly and with a bit more volume, enunciating the words as she went.
“Navires?” Annie questioned.
“Ah, bateaux,” the woman said with a giggle.
“Vous êtes seuls?” Annie questioned.
“Il y a une autre colonie pas trop loin, mais personne d’autre n’a débarqué ici jusqu’à aujourd’hui,” the woman said.
Everyone looked at Annie. “Ok, if I understood her correctly, they came here on the first ship from Ivory Coast three months ago. And no other ships have landed here yet, until we did today. But there is another colony not too far away.”
“So they dropped us off a bit from where we should have been,” Karl said.
“L’autre colonie, parlent anglais?” Annie asked
“No, espagnol,” the woman said. “Ils viennent du Mexique.”
“Did she just say Mexico?” Abby asked.
“Yes, she did,” Annie confirmed.
“So we’re not in Kansas anymore, and neither are they, and neither is the nearby colony,” Karl said.
“You know, it makes sense if you think about it a bit,” LeeAndré said, holding onto the hull of the ship. “Why would they want to dump everyone in eighty-one spots around this world? We would all immediately be fighting for resources. They probably are trying to spread us around a bit.”
The scene brightened as the illumination of understanding occurred for all of the adults, one after the other.
“Y a-t-il des colonies américaines près d’ici?” Annie asked their host greeter.
The woman thought for a bit. “Non, au Mexique. Et nous avons trouvé beaucoup plus loin d’ici des colonies d’Inde, de Chine, d’Amérique du Sud, et quelques explorateurs qui ont dit avoir ramé depuis une autre île d’une colonie de Madagascar nous ont rendu visite le mois dernier. Mais personne des États Unis.”
“She said there are colonies farther away from India, China, South America, and then she said something about a colony from Madagascar. But no one from the United States,” Annie translated.
“Damn, now what?” Luther said.
“Luther!” Abby exclaimed. “Not even an hour on this planet and you’re already starting to cuss?”
“Sorry, Abs,” her husband responded. “But everything we talked about doing when we arrived doesn’t seem to be going as planned.”
“Then we adjust the plan,” Abby said. “Just like we always do.”
Luther chuckled. “Just like we always do.”
“You disagree with me?” Abby said sharply.
“Babe, I don’t know whether to agree or disagree,” Luther said in a calm response. “Everything here is going to be so new that I’m not sure all of our worldly experience back on Earth is going to do us much good.”
Abby’s face softened.
Karl nodded his agreement.
And no one said anything for a moment until the woman spoke again. “Je m’apelle Mélodie. My name is Mélodie.” she said, putting her hand on her chest. “And you?” she pointed to Annie.
“Je m’appelle Annabeth,” Annie said. Then, pointing from one person to the next, “Ceci et ma famille. Mon mari, Karl. Nos enfants, Kaden, Atticus, et Felix. Ma soeur, Abigail et son mari Luther et ses enfants, Hazel, Raina, Beckett, Theo. Et notre père, LeeAndré.”
LeeAndré stepped forward and extended his hand, “Enchantee, Mélodie.”
Mélodie giggled, “Enchantée, Monsieur LeeAndré.”
“Vous etes tous Américains?” Mélodie asked Annie.
“Oui,” Annie said.
“Eh bien, bonne chance. Tu nous ressembles ici, donc tout le monde te parlera en français créole,” the greeter said.
Annie translated, “She said we look like the others here, so they will speak French to us.”
“Great,” Luther responded. “We can almost feel comfortable, except we can’t speak to anyone. Well, maybe that’s better than getting the looks we did back in Missouri.”
“Viennent! Permettez-moi de vous présenter aux gens du Nouveau D’Ivoire!” Mélodie said, waving them to follow her.
And with that, the Freeman-Caruthers and Freeman-Jones families stepped onto their new planet.