Chapter 13

I stood there gazing into her eyes.

I had first seen her eyes across a crowded bistro in San Francisco. She had ventured across the Bay with several of her friends, and was clearly uncomfortable in such a crowded setting. But her eyes were full of light and life, and her smile flashed brightly across the room. My wife had recently passed away; I was not ready for a new relationship. But when I saw her I was intrigued.

Standing here like this reminded me of our wedding day those many years ago. We stood on that grassy knoll in the park. There we were, surrounded by just a few of our closest friends and relatives. Then she was dressed in an ivory, antique looking dress of satin and lace that fitted her contours perfectly, elegant, simple, and stunningly beautiful. Her feet were bare but her hands were covered with lacy gloves as she reached up to touch my face when we were told we may kiss as husband and wife. Then, too, I was lost in her eyes - those electric blue eyes that contained the eminence of eternity and the vastness of the universe and her heart. It was like looking into that place on the horizon where the ocean and the sky blend together and become one, stretching and reaching on to eternity.

Now she was dressed in black. Her feet were bare again as she walked - ran! - across the expanse of the cavern to meet me. I stood riveted to the spot, feeling her eyes on me, in my soul. She was the woman of my dreams, truly the love of my life. And here she was, amongst all this strangeness and concern. Looking into those eyes, I nearly forgot where I was - it all seemed a strange dream.

When she reached me she threw herself into my arms and I lifted her from the ground in an embrace that was warm and intimate and real. My six foot two height made it easy for me to lift her small, lithe body from the ground. The rest of the world seemed to melt away as we held each other. The moment seemed to stretch on forever - I would never let her go! Nor would she, me. But then I heard a small voice at my side.

"Mommy?" the voice intoned. "Mommy? Is that really you?"

Only one voice in the world could compare with the sweetness of this moment, and that was the voice of our daughter. It was not an intrusion into the privacy of the moment. It was an inclusion - as if the universe itself doubled in size. Janice reached down to pull her and my son into our embrace, and the four of us stood there, holding each other.

"Janice," I said, finally breaking the moment. "What is going on? What do you have to do with these people? What is all this about?"

She hesitated, looking at the children. "I will tell you, Michael. But not now. Let's just enjoy the moment, shall we? Come on - I'm starving. Let's go and find something to eat!"

She led us down a hallway - flanked by two men whom I could only assume were guards. Interestingly, their eyes were on me, as if I could do anything to hurt any of these people. They followed us at a discrete but still oppressive distance. Janice said something to one of them - she used the strange language they all seemed to know - and got a reply. She turned to the right down another corridor which ended in double doors. The doors opened of their own accord as we approached and we entered a large eating area. It was largely deserted, but the men who were in the room arose when we - she - entered. All of this was becoming too much for me to take.

Janice led us over to the serving line - a set up clearly designed to maximize efficiency when feeding a large number of men, cafeteria style - and turned to the children. "What would you like to eat?" she asked.

"Can we have some chicken nuggets and fries?" Adam and Ellen both asked at the same time. I smiled - they thought so much alike, and their tastes were almost the same in every regard. The only major difference was that Adam liked things spicy, while Ellen couldn't stand hot things at all.

Janice smiled, also. She normally didn't like them to eat fried food because it was not healthy, but this seemed like a special circumstance. She turned to the folks behind the serving line and said something to them that sounded at once like an order but also very polite. The people bowed and began setting to work. "OK," she said. "They'll bring it right out to us. Let's go find a place to sit."

We walked over to a place that was off to one side - there were no corners in this place: all of the rooms were spherical or made of series of spherical spaces, like this one was - and sat down. Janice began asking the kids about their adventures since she'd last seen them, keeping things light and easy. She loved the children and would listen with real attention when they spoke with her. This, I realized, went a long way toward making them feel at ease and know that they were loved. Adam and Ellen spoke of the time in the desert, of the wreck, and of the time they'd spent here. "The only bad part," Ellen said, "was wondering what happened to you! How did you get here anyway?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, Ellen, my brother drove me here. His name is John. You'll meet him later, I'm sure."

"You have a brother?" Adam and I asked at exactly the same moment, causing us both to smile in spite of ourselves.

"Yes. And my father is here, too. His name is Rick."

"Rick is your FATHER?!?" Adam and I asked, again at exactly the same moment.

Janice began to giggle, which of course set us all off. We were still laughing as they brought the food out, which caused a break in the conversation. They had brought me a grilled chicken caesar salad, with the dressing on the side - just how I like it - and had brought Janice a plate of pasta with chicken and mushrooms. The kids, of course, began devouring their food at once. Silence settled across the table as we each turned to our meal. Janice, with a twinkle in her eye, reached out with her feet and rested them on my lap. This was our favorite position, and I dropped my left hand down to stroke her feet and toes and ankles. It was almost surreal - here we were having an intimate family meal while guards in yellow jumpsuits stood guard at the door.

What was going on?