Violet (14 page)

When Eli finishes speaking, we notice sound and
movement beneath our feet, though we see nothing happening. What is
that sound?
Stone scraping stone,
I realize. The stones
closest to the wall begin to move. They reposition themselves to
form a staircase that leads into the darkness below the floor. Eli
looks at us and raises his eyebrows, motioning for us to descend
the staircase first. I take a deep breath. It’s now or never.

We descend into the darkness until we reach the
bottom of the staircase. When we do, the stones reposition
themselves as they were in the floor. We have been sealed in. I
soon realize that we have not reached the bottom as I previously
thought. We have only reached a landing that serves to change the
direction of the staircase. We begin our descent again, but this
time, a soft golden light emanates from bowl-like sconces mounted
high on the wall. We reach another landing, and again, we descend
further. Finally, we come to a door. Eli steps in front of David
and me. He uses the face of his ring as a key; he presses it into
an indentation on the door and the door swings open as if
mechanized.

The first thing that I notice when I enter is
that this must be some type of common room. Cushioned seats line
the walls on one end of the space. Various reading materials and
papers are organized on shelves that seem to have been carved into
the stone walls. The other end of the room is a kitchen, in the
simplest sense of the word. A recess large enough for two men to
stand inside has been made into the stone wall. Here, a fire heats
the contents of a large black kettle pot. The smoke does not come
back into the room, so some type of vent or chimney must be used as
an outlet. There is no icebox or refrigerator, so I assume that
residents either eat mostly preserved foods that are just heated up
in the pot, or fresh food is brought in daily. Eli sees me
analyzing the room and says, “We don’t have a power source, but we
do have running water; we’ve tapped into the main of a nearby
building since all of the pipes are connected underground. We don’t
draw much; so far we don’t think anyone has noticed.”

Something about this place is familiar; I have
been here before. I remember waking, but much of what followed is
still hazy. There are many details that I cannot recall. However, I
know that I was here before my father and I went to Eligo.

As Eli speaks, three other members of The Third
Stone enter the common room from a separate chamber. They are
talking amongst themselves until the woman among them sees me and
stops short, causing one of the men to plow into her. “Hey, watch
it, Arielle—” the man begins, but then he follows her gaze to me
and his voice trails off. It is apparent that these people
recognize me, but how?

The woman steps forward first. She pushes her
long dark brown hair behind her shoulder, then holds out her hand
to me. “Hello, Violet. Welcome. And you are?” she says, gesturing
to David.

“David.”

“Nice to meet you, too.”

Next, the man who stepped on Arielle holds out a
well-worn hand. He’s a bear of a man with an auburn beard and a red
face, but his eyes reveal a jovial nature. He nods first to me,
then to David. “Violet, David. Name’s Cecil.”

The third member of the group, who has been
watching me throughout this conversation, does not introduce
himself. In fact, he ignores us entirely. As Cecil introduces
himself, the man walks to the kettle and stirs its contents. He
then walks to one of the shelves, removes a dusty volume, sits and
begins to read. Well, he is pretending to read, but I can tell that
he is not. He’s just listening.

Cecil seems embarrassed by his companion’s
rudeness. In a voice loud enough for the pretend reader to hear, he
says, “And that
unfriendly
fellow over there’s Ezra.” Then,
with a good-natured smile, Cecil puffs out his chest and adds,
“Don’t mind him, he’s just embarrassed because he doesn’t possess
my stunning social skills, and Arielle’s got the good looks in the
family.”

When Cecil mentions Ezra, I take another look at
him as he continues looking at his book. I know that Cecil was only
teasing him, because both Arielle and Ezra are strikingly good
looking. They are very young for revolutionaries; surely they have
not seen more than eleven rotations. Ezra’s hair is the same dark
brown as Arielle’s, and he wears it in the same rugged style that
my father had. While Ezra and Arielle bear a remarkable resemblance
to one another, there is a marked difference in appearance that
seems to be caused by difference in demeanor. They both have thick,
heavy brows and the same dark eyes, but Arielle’s eyes are inviting
and seem constantly to be smiling, while Ezra’s seem clouded and
somber.

We move to a section of the cushioned seating. I
end up sitting about three feet from the end where Ezra is seated.
David sits on my other side, while Cecil and Arielle sit facing us.
Though Ezra wants me to think that he is still reading, I see him
watching me. When David reaches over to hold one of my hands, Ezra
lowers his gaze to look at our intertwined fingers, and he does not
look away for several moments.

Eli tosses each of us an orange and announces
that he’s going to have a wash. As he leaves the room, Ezra gets up
and follows him. Arielle takes the opportunity to apologize for his
behavior. “I’m sorry about Ezra… We’re twins, so we look alike, but
that’s pretty much where the similarity ends. He can be really
moody. Sometimes he goes to a dark place and it might take him days
to snap out of it. I’m sorry he took it out on you two, though.
He’s not always comfortable with meeting new people.”

I smile and nod as David responds, “Oh, it’s all
right. I think we can all be like that sometimes.”

I’m not listening. I’m straining to hear what
Eli and Ezra are saying in the hallway. I try to tune out David and
Arielle’s conversation and focus all of my hearing on Eli and Ezra.
It helps that the volume of their voices has become raised.

The first voice that I hear must be Ezra. “So
who is going to show her?”

There is a pause. “No one’s going to show her
anything.” Yes, that’s Eli.

“She has to know, Eli. She deserves to know.
It’s not his right to keep it from her.”

“And it’s not your right to show her! We figured
that this day would come and we’ve all agreed on how to handle it.
The Scientist thinks it’s best.”

“The Scientist. Who cares what he thinks? Who
put him in charge?”

Eli is no longer patient. He speaks to Ezra with
force and finality. “
Ezra.
We are not going to discuss this
anymore. Let me remind you that none of us, not me, not you, not
Arielle, would have anywhere to go if it weren’t for The Scientist.
I suggest you remember your place. The decision has been made.” I
hear the shuffle of feet as Eli walks away.

I have the distinct feeling that the
she
in that conversation was referring to me. What is it that I haven’t
seen?

My thoughts are interrupted when Gillis, the
newspaper peddler, enters. He bounds across the room and plops down
next to me on the couch. “Aha, so you’ve found us! I knew you’d
follow my advice.” He picks up an orange from the table in between
us. “These really are the juiciest oranges, though.”

Arielle is the next to speak. “Wow, I just can’t
believe it. Violet Price, right here talking to us!”

“Violet Massassi is the name my father gave me.
I’ve never known myself as Violet Price. I lost my memory after the
explosion at the lab.”

Arielle and Cecil exchange looks. For a moment,
there is an awkward pause as no one is really sure what to say. I
pull my father’s golden watch from my pocket, open the latch, and
show the picture to them. “Did you know my mother? Her name was
Tara. It was her tattoo of your symbol that led us here.”

Arielle shakes her head sadly, but Cecil says,
“I knew Tara. She was more dedicated to this cause than anyone I’ve
ever known. Probably could’ve convinced the whole Sententia to
listen to us if she just could’ve spoken to them. Tara had that way
about her. When she spoke, people listened.

“She had some radical ideas, though. Tara wasn’t
just against Earth Banishment; she was ashamed of the way we all
got to Cerno in the first place. She had this idea that we all owe
the people living on Earth some type of restitution. She said the
only way to make it right would be to give everyone on Earth the
option to come here to live on Cerno. I thought your father’d die
of a broken heart the day they loaded her onto that transport.”

I do a mental double take at this last sentence.
“Cecil, what do you mean? What transport? My mother was killed by
disease.”

Cecil looks taken aback. “Do you mean to say
that no one’s told you what happened to Tara?”

I stare at him blankly. I clutch my father’s
pocket watch. I thought I knew. I suppose I’ll just add this to the
rapidly growing list of things that no one told me.

Cecil looks at me. He leans forward and speaks
softly. “She died of disease, Violet, but she didn’t die here. She
died on Earth.”

I am too dismayed to respond. My mother was
banished to Earth? My mother died a traitor? My lack of response
assures Cecil that I do not know the details. David squeezes my
hand.

“Tara was not willing to be quiet to save
herself from punishment. She knew that at some point she would
probably be sentenced to Earth Banishment. That’s what happens to
people who challenge The Sententia. She decided to use it to our
benefit.

“There are certain members of The Vox who are
sympathetic to our cause. Rather than punish us, they’d prefer to
reach a peaceful compromise. She used their sympathies to our
advantage and figured out a system to communicate through them.
When she was sent to Earth, Tara was prepared.

“Earth Banishment is exactly what it sounds
like. You are banished from Cerno, forced to live out what remains
of your life on Earth. It doesn’t matter to The Sententia how long
you live. It’s up to you to survive. You’re given enough food and
water for three days. That’s how long it takes to journey to Amara
from the drop off point. Beyond that, you’re on your own.”

David interrupts. “Amara?”

“When life on Earth began to wither away, when
the trees in the jungles became mostly shadows of themselves, it
became clear that there was one place that did not diminish. Many
places on Earth are unlivable because there are not enough plants
to create breathable air. There are a few places where forests
still exist, but there is only one place where a seemingly
untouched oasis can be found. The surviving people in that area
have named it Amara. That’s their word for paradise.”

Now I’m the one interrupting. “My father told me
about that place. He said that it’s something of an anomaly.”

“Your father was right. Amara has been tested
hundreds of times; Claro scientists are interested in it because of
its application in agricultural as well as global engineering. Your
father must have done extensive research on the area as well as the
culture. Especially since he named you Massassi.”

I must look perplexed again, but Cecil does not
grow impatient. “Massassi is a name from a tribal legend. In the
story, Massassi is the first woman on Earth.”

It’s a relief to have finally found someone who
can give me answers, but I can’t help but feel renewed grief… Not
just for the fact that my father is dead, but for the fact that
even when he was alive, he never shared any of this with me.
What other secrets has he kept?

“Tara, though… Tara became a legend on her own.
She assimilated into the tribal culture in Amara. The people
trusted her. She learned the language and taught them about what
had happened on Earth. She told them about Cerno and what she
wanted to do. They even gave her a new name. They called her
Adanech.”

“Adanech.” I repeat the name softly to
myself.

“They saw her as a hero, Violet. It means ‘she
has rescued them’. She even created a system to send some people
back to Cerno. If one of our Vox allies was working the transport
on a particular day, Tara would orchestrate the safe return of some
of The Third Stone members who were banished. She couldn’t save
them all, but she did what she could. She never came back herself,
though; she was truly committed to the cause.”

I clutch my mother’s photo to my chest. I feel
overwhelming pride for my mother and the woman that she was, but my
pride is tainted with selfish thoughts. I never even got to know
her. I was a child when she left. From what Cecil says, she
anticipated being sent to Earth. She knew that it would happen but
still didn’t stop. She had unyielding passion for her cause, but
now I finally understand the anger that Elena felt. Why couldn’t my
mother have left the fight to someone else, someone who didn’t have
a child at home? When people describe the love of a mother, they
say that she would stop at nothing to protect her child. My mother
left me willingly. Even later, when she had the means and
opportunity to return, she declined. She had found her place.

I release my grip on the pocket watch and allow
it to fall to the floor. David leans over to pick it up, but I stop
him. “Leave it.” I can’t bring myself to pick it up. I can’t bring
myself to carry her around with me when she left me so freely.

Arielle touches my arm and says softly, “She
never stopped thinking about you, Violet. She just couldn’t keep
herself from fighting for people who had been forgotten.” I do not
respond. I am ashamed, but I allow myself to feel the bitter anger
of desertion. My mother had seen only what she would do for mankind
without thinking of how it would affect the family she left
behind.

I wait a moment to compose myself, then I stand
and turn to Cecil and Arielle. “I’d like to go to sleep now.”