Opening Salvo

[finch]

I wondered, at first, why Eden had turned up here. Of course there needed to be someone to care for our foundlings, but she’d been assigned just as I had.

“So how did you get this assignment?” I finally asked her as we drove into Medford to order the furnishings we’d need for the place, and to pick up the equipment I’d mail-ordered.

“I volunteered,” she answered in the same no-nonsense tone she always used.

“Why?” I sputtered, wondering if I’d been projecting my own misery onto her. No, she’d complained about the location as much as I had. Maybe they hadn’t told her what she was volunteering for?

She was looking out the window when I glanced over. “It was the right thing to do.”

“I’m sure if we weren’t in the picture, these children would still be cared for.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what?”

Her voice was unusually bitter. “I’m sure a man of science like yourself doesn’t want to hear about a woman’s intuition.”

“For a time I was something of an expert in listening to women no one else could hear,” I told her, “and my work is unorthodox. Try me.”

She looked at me like she was trying to decide if I was worth the effort of explaining. “What do you know about magic?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Her face closed up, and I realized how I must sound. “No, no, I’m sorry, I just… hasn’t anyone told you what the project is for?”

“‘You’ll do as you’re told,’” she said, her voice a perfect, cold mimic of the same OSS agent I’d seen ordering Victor around. “‘Explaining to you would be a waste of time. It’s not as if I need to find an excuse to get rid of a woman who doesn’t know her place.’”

“Eden, magic is what I do. Practical applications, yes, but…”

She shook her head. “That’s not…”

“I promise you, I believe in magic. I’ll explain later if you want me to. But tell me, why did you volunteer?”

“I knew I was needed. It simply happens sometimes, that I know. I suppose if you’re working with magic that makes more sense.”

I could have started laughing again. “You do what you’re told even without knowing why?” Could I really be so lucky? To find someone who understood?

“Because I have to- I’ve never tried to explain this before. Not to another person.”

“Why not?”

She hesitated to answer, then broke the silence with a pointed finger. “Isn’t that where we’re going?”

It was easy enough to let her change the conversation, but I wasn’t going to let her get away from me that easily. After we had stuffed the car full of equipment and made arrangements for more to be shipped in the next couple of days, we stopped for dinner.

She made small talk while we ordered food, and I waited until the waitress had disappeared with the menus. I was so eager to talk about it that I cut her off in mid-sentence as she talked about plans for the school.

“I’m sorry, it’s only… I haven’t had anyone to talk to about it since Salome left.”

“Salome?”

“My wife. It’s a long story. Everyone that understood left with her.”

I watched her eyes go to my hand, my bare ring finger, and then back up to my face. “So you’re married.”

“Widowed.” I reached into my collar, pulled out the chain with my wedding ring, hers, and the engagement ring.

“That explains what Kether said. And your wife, she understood your work?”

“There were six of us working together. Patrick and I handled the science, did the work on the specimen. William and Iris were the folklore experts, they gave us the idea where to start. Salome, she did the talking for the goddess, and Irene was her second.”

“The goddess?” Now it was my turn to wonder if I’d said too much. How many people had we known, then, who would listen politely and then turn and sneer?

“There was… a goddess, yes.” I wanted to explain about William and Iris and how too much tequila had turned a book club into an archaeological expedition, but where would I start? Waking up in the backseat of their car, driving through the desert? In the dark, hearing her voice for the first time? No, another time. “The important part is that Salome was as much a part of the work as I was. Kether is as much the goddess’s son as he is Salome’s. Maybe more. My work here is meant to be a continuation of that.”

She studied her french fries very carefully and said nothing, so I continued.

“That’s why all of this. I start treating them when the girls get here. The government takes control of them once they’re born. They get every advantage I can manage to give them, scientifically speaking, and they grow up with your other orphans.”

Her fork fell from her hand and clattered against the plate. “And what’s the point?”

“The point? For me, I prove my theories, I pay back a little more on the debt I incurred getting out of Japan in one piece. For them, they get Ka’ana’s super soldiers.”

“Ka’ana? That’s your goddess’s name, then?”

I nodded.

“I think I know why I’m here, Jin. Thank you.”

“Why?”

“To teach those children of yours to fight demons. To use magic properly. You can’t really teach them that, can you?”

“In theory, but- no. You can? You will?”

“I will.” She was looking out the window, far past the car parked outside, but her eyes were bright as sparks. “But you have to promise me something in return.”

“What’s that?”

“You let me do it my way. You trust me.”

“I suppose that’s fair.”

“And you let me teach Kether.”

“But he’s -”

“He’s going to need it at least as much as anyone else, if he is what you say he is.”

“He’s not just part of the experiment, though. He’s my son.”

“And I’ll keep that in mind. But you can’t leave him untrained much longer. He’s eight now?”

“Almost.” I sighed. Where had the time gone? “You’re right.”

“I’ll start with him this week. It’ll give him some structure, and we’ll be taking a few children from an overfull orphanage near Portland this week so he needs to be settled.”

“You’re good with kids, hm? Any of your own?”

She shook her head. “We should head back. You promised Kether we’d be home before dark.” I stood like a spell had been broken, left money to cover the meal, followed her out to the car. The entire rest of the drive, I waited for her to say something. I wanted the conversation to start again.

Eden was silent, and I was left to wonder about her a while longer.

Mirrored from Jack-a-dreams.