Ariadne Chin was the first of the rescued. Mai, her mother, was raped though rape was not a word that was used very often
in her mother’s world. Mai could see
it about to happen. Maybe she was
partially to blame she would later think.
She should not have been out of her hut and wandering around with the
sun going down but there was so much to do, and her own mother would angry if
the washing had not been done. So, she had gone out into the fading light to
finish the wash and gather water.
When she thought about it later, the men were no more
dangerous than anything else she would face that night. She was small and could very easily be taken
by one of the large snakes that tended to hunt at night. It had been warm out and when it was warm,
the jaguars liked to hunt early in the evening for some reason. It was not unusual for a snake or a jaguar to
take a lamb or a calf this time of year; for them to come out of the shadows
and drag an enticing little whining thing up into the trees. She was barely bigger than they and an
enterprising or hungry animal could take her rather easily.
Earlier in the week, when the moon was high in the sky, Lin
had disappeared from right next to her.
The sherekamen, animals with tough, thick hides, and large fangs that
waited in the water for small females like her to show themselves in silhouette
against the moon from their vantage points beneath the water would strike and
quickly and quietly drag girls like her into the water. Or maybe Lin had just run from her masters to
take her chances in the next village over.
Who knows. One moment she was
there and then next Lin was gone. She had never seen a sherekamen, only heard
the stories. They only took young promiscuous women
and ill-behaved boys according to legend. There was no
reason to believe they were anything more than a tale told to keep young women
and ill-behaved boys in line.
The men were walking along pretending to talk about other
things; laughing and poking each other. They likely did not work at anything
consistent. They like the other predators about her, were creatures of
opportunity. They would work for food
and labor when necessary, but they were not given to get up every day when the
sun rose and toil on a daily basis. They found work when they needed money. They found sleep where they were
allowed. Much like the predators around
her, they found sex when they could take it. Later in her nightmares, their
faces would run together and she would never really know who did what and when.
This was their camouflage; laughing faces that showed their teeth in amusement
rather than intimidation but the affect was still the same, elicit fear in the
prey.
At some point, she passed out. Her mind had escaped when her body could not. Her mind could only do what her mind could
do; leave her body behind and go somewhere else. Her eyes
swelled shut from the blows to her face.
Her body got pregnant when her mind was not there. Her mind never really returned to her body. Her own body did not feel like her home.
Lorraine was out of place.
She was nearly six feet tall, platinum blond with blue eyes wearing a
cotton polyester black robe. She was a
full two feet taller than anyone for miles. She had found a somewhat inconspicuous place
from which to watch Mai and chart her progress.
She had set up her tent in the woods and made herself as comfortable as
she could. Something in these people
brought them a calmness that Lorraine had only been able to assume from her
reading in the future. Mai would walk by every day on her way to the river;
every day getting more and more plump with her child and Lorraine would watch.
Mai would never say anything to the white woman in the woods. Whatever had brought her there would be
revealed in time. Other villagers saw
Lorraine too and they did not say anything either.
9 months went by and then two days before her due date,
according to Lorraine’s calculations, she stepped into the path in front of Mai
and told her in nearly perfect old Mandarin, “Your child will be a girl. When she is born in two days, I will take her. She will have a good life and you will have a
good life.”
Mai thought about the proposal that did not seem to be a
proposal at all. Lorraine had merely
said it in a matter of fact way. Her
child was going to go with this tall white woman and that would be that. It was neither request nor command; merely a
statement of fact. Mai would love her
child, but she could not care for her and she knew it. Her gods had told her in dreams that her
child would be a girl and girls did not fare well in this world. She knew from experience that girls did not
fare well in her world. Mai thought
about the world where Lorraine must come from and where she would be going back
to; her child in her arms. She looked
off over the mountains and assumed that was where she was going and where she
would take her child. She had explored
the plains to the south and the men told stories about the places far beyond
where she had been able to get to in a day’s walk but none had ever come back
with stories of tall white women. None
had ever gone over the mountain and returned, so she deduced that must be where
Lorraine was from; where the snow matched this woman’s skin.
“Come to my dwelling when you are prepared to have your
child. Tell no one, please” Lorraine had
asked.
When the contractions began two days later, it was the
middle of the night. She was not sure
she could make the walk to Lorraine’s tent and again there was the fear of
predators who might get two snacks that evening for the work of one. Still, she rose and quietly
stepped over sleeping brothers and made her way along the well-worn path,
pausing during the contractions; wincing with pain and breathing lightly. She was a little frightened that her groans
would bring jaguars or possibly other people from her village.
Lorraine heard her long before she arrived and met her on the
path. She brought Mai into her tent and
administered a sedative. Mai woke with
the birds chirping and without her child.
The mat on which she lay was the most comfortable thing she had ever lay
on. Lorraine had left her with all the
gear she had brought from the future, the tent that was more sturdy and less
leaky than any hut, and some medicine for the pain. She recorded a message on the view pad that
explained that everything there was hers and that there was powerful magic
there.
Mai did not believe in magic now and was not sure if she
ever had. When she saw Lorraine on the
view pad, she did not think that Lorraine had somehow shrunk herself and put
herself in the little screen. It was
something that she was unaware of how it worked. There were all sorts of things that she did
not know how they worked. She had not
believed in gods much before she was attacked in the woods and even less so after
she was attacked. Where ever Lorraine
had taken her child, she knew she would be safe though not some version of a
heaven. On the view pad, Lorraine held
her child for Mai to see and then disappeared.
Mai rolled over and went back to sleep.
Lorraine decided to call her Ariadne, a name she had always
loved. Her family name would be Chin. Lorraine swore she would never lie to
her. It would be best for her to know
everything, right from the beginning and start off with the time travel thing
right from the beginning because Ariadne Chin was going to do great things.
She called her mother, or at least the woman who was raising
her, Lorraine and Lorraine never called her anything other than Ariadne. Lorraine made sure that Ariadne knew that she
was not her biological mother; not the one who had brought her into the world
but that both her biological mother and she loved Ariadne very much. Lorraine was always very plain with Ariadne
in that respect; letting her know that though she would never lie to her, there
were things that she would only reveal when the time was right and she was old
enough. Those were the rules.
Chapter IV
Beth would not be the one.
She could tell and it broke her heart.
It is hard for a parent to see these things in their child, to believe
in the boundless possibilities that await them and then, suddenly, watch it all
fall away. Jordan knew that her daughter
would not be a Traveler.
Mason was there in the corner of the hospital room. He seemed to be hypnotized by the rhythmic
beeping of the heart monitor and the subtle “whooshing” of the some machine
that was helping her breathe. She stared
out of the window into the city lights but from time to time she would let her
gaze adjust so that she could see the room’s reflection in the window and Mason
sitting there; staring straight ahead as his daughter struggled for life.
