Chapter 49
“Mami, I’m worried,” Manuela Alba Villacís said from the edge of the dimly lit dining room.
Esmerita jerked slightly, then looked up from her comm tablet, eyes bloodshot with baggy skin forming under them. She turned the tablet screen face down on the dining table. “Why are you awake, dear? Come here.”
Mother held out her hand to her daughter, who walked over to the table.
“I’m worried and I can’t sleep,” Manuela said.
“Why are you worried, dear girl,” Esmerita said, taking her eldest daughter’s hands in hers. “We have plenty of food with our latest crops growing, we have a wonderful place to live, your Papi has been here with us the past two months, and I haven’t heard you and Dolores argue for the past week. Food, shelter, family, happiness, what is there to worry about?”
“I’m worried we can’t keep all this. I’m worried the aliens are really angry now and will hunt us all down,” the near-teen said.
Esmerita’s grip squeezed reflexively. “They are thousands of kilometers from here, Manuela. They have no reason to bother us.”
“Oh, Mami, I’m sorry,” the girl said, releasing her Mother’s hands and looking down at the floor. “It’s not right that we haven’t heard any outside news for almost two weeks. I know we’ve had network problems here in Esmeraldas before, but only for a day or so. Not for two weeks. I know you told us not to try and sneak around and that you would tell us before something important was going to happen to us. But we should have heard something by now. Martine said her older brother heard their parents talk about some casts they watched four days ago. I asked Dolores to try and find something, but she couldn’t get past the security codes for any new casts. So I asked Alfredo to help. He couldn’t get my tablet to unlock either, but he took one of his parents’ tablets, and he, Martine and I watched a bunch of casts today. I know what happened in Georgia in the United States. And I even saw the livecast that poor woman sent when the elevator landed on her and that awful preacher-man. The aliens have stopped all flights, Mami. All air travel and air transport of any kind. And they stopped the regular casts. I think the aliens are really upset and are going to catch us all because of the bad things that Preacher did to them.”
Esmerita took a deep breath. Then she leaned forward, interlocked her daughter’s fingers with her right hand and put her left hand under the girl’s chin to raise her head up. “Manuela, listen to me. There is nothing to worry about here. You shouldn’t have gone sneaking off to watch those casts. Yes, they can be scary. But once you understand what is happening, you know why we are ok here.”
The girl didn’t speak, awaiting the explanation.
Her mother continued. “Yes, that crazy man in Georgia did have a bunch of people attack the elevator there. He shouldn’t have done that. Not because of what happened to the elevator, but because of what happened to all those people he led there. A lot of people were hurt specifically because of what that man had done. He had a plane crash into the elevator, and when it fell from the sky, it was his actions that caused it to fall on all those people. It was proper justice, in my mind, that the elevator also fell on him. But that poor woman on the cast didn’t need to be hurt, and none of the others had to be either.”
“So after that happened, the aliens naturally reacted the way they did by stopping any future threats from the sky. If that bad man hadn’t attacked the elevator, the planes would still be flying. And I think some of the governments were just as afraid as the aliens about what happened, so from what I understand, they were the ones that stopped the network since they didn’t want the news to spread so fast and give ideas to people in other parts of the world.”
“But we humans are resilient. We figure ways around things that block us, don’t we?” Esmerita continued, giving her daughter a friendly parental smile. “We find ways to communicate. So the news from individuals was shared by other means. You know how the network sends information through energy waves in the air we can’t see? Well, people sent the information in old wires buried in the ground that could connect to the electricity grid. I know it may not make sense, but people found a way to get the news around the network blockage.”
“Yesterday the governments that were blocking the network knew they couldn’t control the news, so the network is working again. I didn’t tell you, dear, because I want to make sure I learn everything I can and help explain things to you and Dolores. And I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding now and was going to talk to the two of you in the morning. Does that make sense?”
The girl nodded her head hesitantly and gave her mother an uncertain look.
“But I’m confused why it was bad that the people in Georgia did something? Sometimes isn’t it better to do something and not just be lazy and wait? You tell me and Dolores and Rafi that if we don’t do something when we think something wrong is happening, if we wait too long it will just get worse,” Manuella noted. “So should we just wait for the aliens to come here and pick us up?”
Esmerita’s brow furrowed a bit. “Yes, the aliens still want people to get on the elevators and move to Nova. But they aren’t going around trying to capture people. They could never capture everyone since there are too many people. And we still have boats and transpods and transbuses and even trains to help move people and things around, so we are just fine, okay?”
Manuela nodded a bit more and tried to smile.
“Now you and I both need to go to sleep,” Esmerita said. “I am up way too late and now realize how tired I am. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
With that, Esmerita walked her daughter back to her room, tucked her under her covers and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Then she went to the room she shared with her husband, got into the bed where he was breathing deeply and laid her head on her own pillow. But she didn’t fall asleep for quite some time.
“Buenos dias, dormilona,” Gabriel greeted his wife. “I don’t think I remember you sleeping in this late since our first year of marriage.”
“Buah dahh,” Esmerita mumbled as she yawned. “Where are the children? Did they get breakfast?”
“It is ten o’clock in the morning,” Gabriel answered. “They ate two hours ago. Well, at least Dolores and Rafi ate two hours ago. I made them breakfast when I came out here and they asked why you weren’t awake and when you were getting up since they were hungry. I still have my skills with cereal and eggs, you know. Anyway, Manuela ate when she came out. She slept in as well. Until nine am. Did the two of you go out to the clubs last night?”
Esmerita smiled, shuffled over to her husband and gave him a kiss on the ear. “Thank you, Gabi. I’m sure they all appreciate you feeding them. Where are they now?” she asked, as she continued her shuffling over to the coffee pot.
“I sent them to the park,” Gabriel answered. “They were getting too bored and started to pester each other. I didn’t want them to wake you, so out the door they went!”
“Why are you being so nice this morning?” Esmerita asked.
“I can be nice every morning,” Gabriel answered. “It’s just this morning I’m showing it.”
Esmerita sat down at the table with a cup of coffee in her hands.
“So why were you so tired?” Gabriel asked.
“I didn’t get to sleep until some time after five AM,” Esmerita said, stifling another yawn. “So I got less than five hours of rest. I have a right to be tired.”
“Why were you out here until five AM?” Gabriel questioned.
“I wasn’t,” Esmerita answered. “I was out here until one-thirty, and then your thoughtful daughter came out and we had a little late night conversation.”
“So that’s why she slept in,” Gabriel said. “And she was up until five AM as well?”
“No, we finished our conversation in less than thirty minutes, and I had her back in bed by two AM,” Esmerita explained. “I came to bed and laid down, but my eyes didn’t close until my mind stopped running around like a transpod stuck in a traffic circle. And that was five AM.”
“What was your mind driving around looking at?” her husband asked.
“Georgia,” his wife responded.
“Georgia?” Gabriel questioned. “Like Georgia in the United States?”
“Yes, the United States,” Rita confirmed. “Manuela found out about the attack on the elevator and she wanted to talk about it. She is worried we upset the aliens and thinks we should do something about it.”
“How did she find out? Did Dolores trick her way onto the network?” Gabriel asked.
“No, it was Alberto,” Esmerita said.
“I knew he was a shifty one,” Gabriel exclaimed. “Didn’t I say we can’t trust him and he would be after our girls? We need to talk to them and, …”
“Settle down, angry papa, and put away your rifle!” Esmerita chuckled. “Manuela asked Martine to help her get on the network and Martine talked to Alberto. Besides, she is just twelve years old and he is seventeen.”
“She is starting to mature and I know what boys are like,” Gabriel said, shaking his head.
“You’re getting off track, Gabi. This is about what Manuela is thinking, not what some teenage boy may or may not have in his head,” Esmerita clarified. “Manuela feels we should do something and not just wait for the aliens to drive up in a transbus, knock on our door and ask us to go for a ride.”
“But we saw what happened in Georgia ten days ago when they tried to do something,” Gabriel said. “And the protests in Lima in January, and the riots in Pakistan last year, and every other time there was a peaceful or violent challenge at an alien site all the way back to Ukraine last Spring. Nothing stopped them. The aliens kept building and people kept leaving Earth and going to who knows where.”
“Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking, and why I couldn’t get to sleep,” Esmerita said. “So I finally said to myself we should stop trying to challenge them.”
“You must still be tired, Rita. Are you saying we should get in that transbus you talked about and drive to an elevator ourselves and save the aliens some trouble?” Gabriel asked.
“No, we fight them by not challenging them,” Rita responded.
“Then I must still be tired, since I don’t understand what you are saying,” her husband responded.
Esmerita took a sip of coffee from her cup. “I know. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this myself. But the way I looked at it last night is that we can’t fight the aliens directly. They have technology that is superior to ours. But that doesn’t mean they have intelligence superior to us. Nor does it mean they understand this world better than we do.”
“So I say we disperse. We disappear. We do what we are doing here in Esmeraldas, but we do it all over the world,” Esmerita said. Then she set the coffee cup on the table, folded her hands in front of her and sat up straight. “I need to go to the United States and help lead those poor people with better ideas. That is my purpose.”
Gabriel looked at his wife across the table, folded his own hands and stared at her without a reaction. Then a smile slowly appeared on his face. “So is this a new Esmerita Villacís Hirtz de Alba sitting in front of me, or have I been ignoring this person and not realizing who she really is.”
“I think it is a bit of both,” Esmerita said, returning the smile. “Well, you’ve probably been ignoring her more than we both realize, but I do feel some newness appearing in me. I don’t know if it is a metamorphosis like an insect or a blooming like a flower.”
“A flower, of course,” Gabi said, standing up. “Let me get you some more coffee while we figure out how we will tell the children about this.”
Rita turned to the window facing the side of the house. “You’d better think quickly, as I hear visitors approaching.
As if on queue, the side door burst open, and in ran Rafael.
“Hah!” the boy said loudly, looking over his shoulder as he ran past the table and to where his father was standing. “Once again I am Mr. Lightning Shoes and you are Miss Turtle Pants!”
“You are a cabbage head,” his sister retorted as she approached the house. “A turtle would eat you up and poop you out!” she finished as she stepped through the door.
“Dolores! What are you saying! And you, Rafael, stop running in the house!” their mother said.
The young girl stopped in her tracks, surprised and embarrassed to be caught in her actions. “I’m sorry, Mami! I didn’t know you were awake!”
“I am awake, and it is not me who you should apologize to,” Emerita said, nodding towards the young boy.
“I’m sorry, Rafi,” Dolores said without much enthusiasm.
Her brother stuck his tongue out at his sister.
“Rafi! Now it is you who owe someone an apology!” Esmerita responded.
“I’m sorry, Do-lor-res” he said without much sincerity.
The third sibling then crossed the threshold.
“What were you doing with these two, Manuela?” Gabriel asked. “I thought you were all going to wear out some of that energy!”
“Those two haven’t stopped picking on each other since we left,” Manuela said, crossing her arms.
“Enough of the fuss,” Esmerita said. “Everyone get a glass of water and sit down. Your father and I have some news to share.”
Manuel gave her mother an expectant stare. Rita gently smiled and nodded her head slightly.
Gabriel gave each of the children a glass of water and they sat around the table with their mother.
“We’ve been doing a good job of living a safe, happy life here,” Esmerita began. “And we’ve helped many people here learn how to do the same, by growing their own food, starting to make use of local energy, and how to get along with each other and help support each other’s needs.”
The mother of three breathed in deeply, “Now we need to do the same for people far away from here,” and she held her breath, looking from one child to the other.
Rafael finished his water and was staring at his older sister’s untouched glass.
Dolores looked uncertain.
Manuela looked impatient. “And?” she finally said.
Esmerita exhaled. “We’re going to move again.”
“Move again? Where? Back to Quito?” Dolores asked, still looking uncertain.
“To The United States!” Gabriel responded.
Dolores looked at her father then back to her mother. “Is Papi joking again?”
“No, not this time,” Esmerita answered. “I know you heard about what happened in Georgia. The people there were lied to and taken advantage of, and they got into a lot of trouble because of it. It’s important that we help them learn how to live independently, how to be good to each other, and how not to get into trouble with the aliens.”
“Georgia?” Manuela said, her impatience turning to excitement. “We’re moving to the State of Georgia in the United States?”
“Yes,” Esmerita nodded.
“When?” Manuela asked.
“Well,” Esmerita said.
“As soon as we can get things organized here,” Gabriel interjected. “And we collect the next batch of seeds of course! So maybe in two or three weeks.”
“Two or three weeks!” Dolores said, her eyes widening. “What about when Maggie and Rudi get here? Aren’t they still coming next week?”
Esmerita looked in her daughter’s eyes for a moment, thinking through the question. “I’m going to call Carmen and your father and I will talk to her and Paulo and explain what is happening. In fact, we’ll talk to many people in our neighborhood and invite them to go with us to the United States like we will Carmen and Paulo and Maggie and Rudi.”
“Rudi! Rudi! Rudi!,” Rafael starting chanting.
Gabriel placed his hand on his son’s shoulder to calm him down.
“So we are moving again?” Dolores said, sounding a bit defeated.
“Yes,” Esmerita said gently. “But we need you three to be okay with this move.”
“We’re moving again so we can start over?” Dolores questioned.
“We’re moving because we need to share our knowledge with others and show them a better way to live. They need our help. And we can help them challenge the aliens and not be afraid of them but not get hurt by them. And we need to help them to be in control instead of letting bad people take advantage of them. Does that make sense, Mariposa?”
Manuela started to open her mouth, but Esmerita held out her hand to stop her.
Dolores looked at her glass of water. Then after a few moments she nodded. “Yes, that makes sense,” the girl said, looking up and smiling at her mother. “We can’t let the aliens win. Not here. Not in Georgia in the United States. Not anywhere!”
“We’re doing something! Oh, Mami, I’m so happy!” Manuela said, not able to contain herself any longer.
“Rudi! Rudi! Rudi!,” Rafael starting chanting.
And everyone around the table began to laugh.