"Any idea on the number of maids looking for work? Number of men with shovels?"
"No. I think that there are many."
"I believe you are right. What did you learn today?"
"Too many people are looking for work but there isn't enough work. That doesn't seem to hurt the rich people."
# # # # # # # #
Friday morning, before breakfast.
"What will I do today?"
"Perhaps you should rest. You have been very busy the last four days."
"I'm not tired."
"No urge to nap?"
"No."
"Your sleep?"
"Better – only ten hours last night."
"I noticed you are eating more. Does that bother your stomach?"
"No. I'm eating three teaspoons plus a dessert for supper, and I'm still eating every two hours."
"Where's the scale?"
...
"You've gained a full kilogram."
"Told you I was feeling better. What should I do today?"
"Who is the wealthiest man on the hill – as far as you can tell from his house?"
"The mayor."
"See if you can find out why he's so wealthy. Also count the number of mothers and their children when the families go to church."
"Which church?"
"How many are there?"
"Three. One meets Friday night, the other Saturday morning, and my church meets Sunday morning."
"Do all three."
"Why am I doing this?"
"Think of it as part of a math lesson."
"Can I look at the construction man again too?"
"Sure. Why?"
"I don't know. Something isn't right."
# # # # # # # #
Friday evening.
Winnie wasn't getting very far with her research into stem cells and how that might be able to help Kashmira. She understood enough to know that stem cells could be used to build new parts of the human body. Like a stomach. At least that was where the research was pointing before The Troubles. Now there was no research on stem cells to find. However she did know one person who had done a considerable amount of genetic work.
"Dad, could you ask Rick if it would be possible for me to meet with Ingrid in her prison cell?"
[Narrator: Ingrid was TG's mother. She had been the evil woman in charge of creating the babies for the It's Only Fair Society in Alberta. She had also made biker clones. The Wilizy were instrumental in imprisoning her in an Alberta jail.]
"I can ask. What do I tell him when he asks me why you want to see her?"
"I'm trying to find a way to cure Kashmira's organ problems. Something called Stem Cells. Ingrid might know something about them."
"I'll ask."
# # # # # # # #
Meanwhile back in Maasin City, Kashmira had just returned from the city. She had missed dinner and it was well past her normal bedtime.
"I couldn't find out how the man in charge of Maasin City's construction can live in a big house on the hill. He can't be making much money by renting out shovels."
"But he's making money somehow?"
"Yes. He has to be earning money from the city but I thought the city was too poor to do much construction. Why would they be giving money to him and all their other people to do nothing?"
"That's a good question."
"I heard him talking about attending an important meeting this night. It was at the hotel man's house."
"Do you know what was the meeting was supposed to be about?"
"No. I didn't arrive in time to see the people go inside because I had to do the count at the church. It was too risky to sneak inside. They were still inside when I left."
"Why do you think they were meeting?"
"They were discussing my father."
"I agree."
"Melissa's plan is working."
"Looks like it."
"Did you leave anything from supper for me to eat?"
"There's a plate in the fridge."
"Thanks."
"I'm feeling a bit peckish. I think I'll join you."
[Narrator: Doc was feeling hungry because he had been following Kashmira everywhere she went today and had missed his supper too. He had followed her every day. If Kashmira ran into trouble and mind-messaged him for help, he'd be seconds away.]
...
"What is this peckish?"
"It's a very old expression. When somebody is a little hungry, they might say that they are peckish. They'll eat small amounts. Like a bird pecking at its food."
"You have strange expressions."
"Wanna hear another strange expression?"
"Sure. Do you want that carrot?"
"No. When it is raining very hard, in our country we might say that it is raining cats and dogs."
"Really? Why do you say that?"
"A very long time ago, poor people used to live in shacks that did not have wooden roofs. They used thick clumps of straw to keep the heat in and the weather out. When it was cold, small animals like cats and dogs would climb up onto the straw and they'd be kept warm from the fireplace inside the house. But if it rained hard, the straw would become wet and the cats and dogs would slide off the straw and fall on the ground. Thus, it was raining cats and dogs."
"We have an expression: estar como un flan."
"What's it mean?"
"We use it when a person is scared or nervous. It means to be like a pudding. Shaky."
"We have a similar one. Shake like jelly."
Kashmira got up and stuck her head in the fridge. "Do we have any pudding in here?"
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Chapter 39
Lucas' operation to save the boys in Safe Haven's gangs went off without a hitch during a moonless October night.
The operation started with Marie visiting each gang's sleeping quarters wherever those might be. The members of the gangs slept in a small, safe area that could be protected by one armed older boy on guard duty. Marie slipped into these dormitories invisibly, muttered her sleeping curse over each gang member, and left. Theo and Nary were there to guide her to the next city and the next gang dormitory.
William, TG, Wolf, and Mathias followed in Marie's wake. They were in charge of laying all of the sleeping bodies onto a filament pallet and then loading that pallet into Reese's jumbo transport. By 5 a.m. the gang members had been deposited onto the ground in front of the deserted Ranch #2 – their new home. The boys in each gang were kept together; they'd face enough strangers this day. William used a metal detector to disarm them and collected an impressive number of simple, but lethal weapons in the process.
The boys woke at first light to find themselves loosely surrounded by figures dressed in black and wearing black motorcycle helmets. Mac strode into the middle of the circle in her Saskatchewan army parade uniform, stepped up onto a large rock that had been placed there for her convenience, and began to speak.
"All of you will have memories of being in a slave camp like this when you were younger. Your mother was probably kidnapped as a young girl and forced to have sex with the owner of the slave ranch – he was called Big Daddy. After your birth, she and you worked in the fields. Neither of you had proper food, clothes, or sleeping arrangements. An organization called Safe Haven owned these slave ranches. They forced you and your mother to work as slaves so that they could become rich."
"Every boy on every Save Haven slave ranch was taken from his mother at the age of 10 and forced to live as a gang member in a very large city. Safe Haven was trying to get rid of most of you by starving you. All of you will know of gang members who did not survive. The gang members who did survive were brought back to a slave ranch where they were given the job of guarding the female slaves. To survive in a city, they had become brutal and uncaring. That's exactly the type of guard Safe Haven wanted. If a young guard showed any reluctance to beat a slave, he would lose his testicles and become a slave himself."
"This is the life that awaited you. But the adults that you see around you helped the slaves on all seventeen of these ranches to revolt against their Big Momma and Big Daddy. These slaves killed their slave masters as well as the guards and then they left the ranch. We do not know where the former slaves went to but we do know that they are free now. However, the people who organized all of these ranches and made money off the slaves remain alive. These Safe Haven men have not faced the justice they deserve yet."
"The people you see around you are part of an army that will be going after Safe Haven people. We will bring them to justice for what they did to you and to your mother. Afterwards, this army will continue to fight against evil people who kill, torture, and enslave people. We're inviting you boys to join that army."
"We will give you the necessary military training to fight in battles. We will also teach you what you would learn if you were in a regular school. We will feed you properly and set up warm and dry camps where you can sleep in comfort. We will care for you if you become sick. In return, you will obey the people who are giving you instructions."
Mac pointed at a thick tree that had been cut down, de-limbed, and laid on the ground. "Firewood, gentlemen," she ordered.
The helmeted figures activated shining swords of bright light and sliced the tree into small pieces. It took about ten seconds. Mac then stepped down from the rock, activated her own light saber, and sliced the rock in two. She kicked the two halves apart.
"What you saw are swords of light. We call them lightsabres. They can slice almost anything into small pieces. Those of you who demonstrate responsibility, learn well in school, become a fierce fighter, and have the skills to be leaders will be put in charge of other boys. The leader of each group of boys will carry a lightsabre into battle."
Later that morning, each gang erected its own canvas tent and received a tour of the camp including the mess tent and the latrines. Saskatchewan soldiers would run the camp on independent leave. Wilizy members, like Mac, would show their faces from time to time. Eventually, the boys would provide the labour to grow their own food (on Yuri's farm) and to pick his peaches. But right now, they were scared illiterate kids who weren't sure what to think. Predictably, some would try to leave the camp. Mac took care of that by marching them five miles out into the prairie and then sitting them down so that each gang of boys was in a tight group all by itself.
"You're in the middle of a huge desolate area of land," Mac began. "You could probably walk out of our camp like we just did and keep on going. But where would you go? There are no towns or villages anywhere near our camp. You could starve to death out here or die from lack of water. There are plenty of wild animals here in the wilderness. Those two animals at the top of that ridge are wolves."
Everybody's eyes followed Mac's pointing finger. "They've been following us. Normally they'll eat the small deer that roam the prairie. You look like small deer to them. If ever you decide that you do not want to be in our army, do not run away from camp. You're safe there. Out here in the open in a vast desolate area, you will probably die. Just tell us that you don't want to be in our army. We won't force you to stay. If you wanted us to, we could try to find your mother for you, but that would be difficult because we don't know who your mother is or where she is. Or if you have the skills to work a job and live on your own, we will help you move to a city and live there."
"But for now, you'll learn to work as a military team. Each of you are sitting in a group that we call a platoon. Platoons often go out on marches like this. Platoons also play what are called war games. These are pretend situations that are dangerous and that's how you learn how to survive."
"Here's today's pretend situation for you. Each platoon here has been attacked by a weapon that has left everybody temporarily blind. We will allow one boy in each platoon to recover his sight. Each boy who can see will lead his platoon back to our main camp by following the signs that we made on our way here. Each platoon will be on its own. You won't be able to copy what another platoon did, nor can you ask instructors for help. Right now, while you are waiting for the blindness to wear off, you will share food and water that will prepare you for that trip. Your instructors are passing out blindfolds now. Put them on."
...
"Packages of food and water are now being placed near where you are sitting. Nobody in your platoon can see yet. You must decide how you can find those packages without losing track of where your group is sitting. Make sure that everybody in your platoon receives an equal share."
# # # # # # # #
By early September, Lucas and Theo were back in Toronto living in the Wilizy/America which was sailing in giant circles above the clouds. Dreamer resumed living in the boarding house with Lylah. All three were continuing their basketball practice routines from before summer break, namely practicing on their own with help from other coaches. Between practices, they would work on their school bots.
Nary was also in Toronto and sharing a cabin in the Wilizy/America with Theo who was helping her with some math and reading bots. Nary was also working with Marie on some undefined skills. Marie would come into Toronto for a week and take Nary away on some sort of excursion. Nary wouldn't divulge much about it when she returned. "Just Voodoo stuff," she'd say when somebody asked what she had learned.
Theo wondered if she was crossing into the other astral plane to take care of the panther cubs who had come along in October. He knew this was possible because Nary had told him a deep dark secret. After she had been born in the slave camp, Marie hid her in an astral plane where she could drink panther milk and be kept safe from the Safe Haven bosses. As an infant, Nary had actually been living with panthers, which is why she was so much like one. Nary wouldn't let Theo tell anybody about this because they'd think it was weird. As if being able to share a panther body wasn't weird enough. As to how Marie had been able to give birth to a child at her age, Nary revealed only that a Voodoo god was the father, not Big Daddy #2. If Theo wanted further information about Marie's love life, he'd have to ask her. Not surprisingly, Theo never did initiate that conversation.
About those panther cubs... Contrary gave birth to a pair of them, one female and the other a male. The father panther didn't stick around after the birth. This was normal for panthers. Theo named his panther Theogun after the Voodoo god.
Speaking of giving birth, Yollie's baby girl arrived safely in September and was followed in October by Momaka and Stu's baby boy. With the Yolanda name and its variations already used, Yollie and TG broke with tradition and named her Ivanika – Ivan being TG's Russian name. Stu continued to lobby halfheartedly for Dumbass as the name for his son, but saner heads prevailed. He was named Petro after one of Stu's Italian uncles but everybody called him Peter or Petey. Petey was currently in the satellite compound getting nourishment from Yollie. Momaka was unable to serve in that regard but she'd commute as frequently as possible.
Finally, down in the satellite compound, both EmmaGee and Liset had started school.
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Chapter 40
Monday October 7th arrived and with it came another meeting in El Patrón's garage. The paterfamilias had produced another carton of Kashmira's weekly earnings. As required, he had also brought her music table and all of the money that she had paid so far for that table.
"I asked you to bring the music table and money for safe keeping," El Patrón explained. "She might decide to sneak in and steal it if it's in the church. It's safer here."
Paterfamilias didn't argue. He knew that if somebody stole that music table and the money, that somebody would be Ramón on El Patrón's orders. Paterfamilias figured Kashmira would have the cost of the music table paid off in two or three weeks. Then he'd be free of the Japanese lady and the scary woman who held his hand while his flesh tried to run away and hide.
El Patrón waited for the garage door to fall behind the departing paterfamilias before speaking. "Did you find the Japanese?"
> "No," Ramón replied.
"They may be coming in by boat. Put guards on the harbour. Do we know what they are doing here?"
"Not yet. I have asked some friends. They have been slow to answer. That was a lot of money in this week's carton, Patrón."
"I'm expecting you to find her, Ramón. If you don't, I'll hire another Head of Security."
"Yes, Patrón. I had figured that out already."
# # # # # # # #
Somebody else was figuring things out that Monday.
"I've drawn the bar chart you wanted. This bar is the average number of children per mother for the church that meets on Fridays. This bar is the average number of children per mother for the church that meets on Saturdays. The last is for the church that meets on Sundays. My church."
"What do you observe from this bar graph?"
"The mothers who go to the Sunday church have many more children. The other two churches are similar to each other. "
"Why do the mothers in your church have so many more children? Is it because the people in the other churches aren't interested in sex?"
"I don't think so."
"I don't either. This bar is so different from the others, there has to be a reason."
"The people are different. My church has all of the people from the slums. The other churches have wealthier people. Friday's church sits on the hill. The people there are very wealthy."
"And they had the lowest number of children per family."
"Yes."
"What else is different?"
"The churches meet on different days."
"Meeting on different days wouldn't account for the difference in children. It must have something to do with sex."
"How so?"
"The people in one church have many children. But we agree that all the people in the city probably have sex often."
"Filipino men are very interested in sex."
"So if they're having a lot of sex, and the parents in one church are the only ones having a lot of babies, what's causing that?"
"I don't know."
"Did you know that people can have sex without making babies?"
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
"How do they do that?"
"You'll have to ask Granny about that."
"You don't know either?"
"I know. But it's not something that a man should be telling a young girl. Find a time when Granny is relaxing and she can have a long conversation with you."