The councillor noticed me first. His eyes bulged wide and he jumped to his feet, knocking his chair over in the process.
Nanako turned slowly to see what had upset him so. When she caught sight of me, she flung herself out of bed and limped towards me with her mother's help. I reached out for her, but she didn't come into my arms as I expected, but hammered her fists on my chest over and over again.
"What did you think you were doing?" she shouted. "Rushing off to Newhome all alone to try and save the day. And without even saying goodbye! You could have been captured or killed and I would've never known what happened to you! What would I have done then? Hey? What would have become of me?"
I folded her in my arms anyway and the punches slowly wound down. Finally, the blows ceased and she melted into my embrace and sobbed against my chest. I rested my chin on the top of her head and stared at the councillor, who was just standing there, watching me with his mouth open.
I didn't know if he was armed or not, so I pulled my gun from my belt and aimed it at him.
Nanako noticed the gun straight away, as did her mother, who took a step back fearfully. The two other patients in the room cried out in alarm.
"What's going on, Ethan? Why are you pointing a gun at the councillor?" Nanako asked, worried.
"I remember who shot me," I said, keeping my eyes on the councillor.
Okada went a paler shade of white.
"Ethan, you're scaring me," Nanako whimpered.
"Councillor Okada," I said slowly, "You were like a father to me. You took me out to practice archery. You took me on bush walks and taught me how to speak Japanese. You gave me permission to marry and you gave away Nanako on our wedding day. You asked me to join the Rangers to sus 'em out because you suspected they were up to no good..."
Nanako gasped in shock at the last point. She must have remembered me telling her that the person who shot me was the person who asked me to join the Rangers.
"...you are the one I turned to for help when I had to shoot my Ranger teammates in self-defence."
"I am sorry, Ethan," the councillor said sadly. "But your memories are inaccurate. I did not ask you to join the Rangers, and I most certainly did not shoot you. As you yourself said, you are like a son to me. So please, put down the gun and let us get you to the neurologist so we can find out what is going wrong with your memories."
"Bring him in," I said softly.
Footsteps immediately sounded outside the room and Madison pushed in a rather unwilling Ken, who stopped just inside the door and stared at the floor.
"Do I need to ask Ken to tell us where he was earlier today and what he was trying to do?" I asked sternly.
Okada's shoulders slumped and the fight went out of him. He broke eye contact and stared at the floor.
"I have just one question, Councillor – why? Why did you shoot me?" I demanded.
"I had no choice," he whispered.
"That’s no answer. We always have a choice!" I snapped.
"I suspected the Rangers were doing something underhanded, which is why I asked you to infiltrate them and be my eyes and ears. But I had no idea they were carrying out such outrageous, heinous crimes. If what you had uncovered was to become common knowledge, it would not just be the Rangers who would be dishonoured, but the entire town. We would have lost face with all of our neighbours, we would have appeared weak, and there would have been serious and damaging repercussions as those neighbouring towns demanded justice and reparations. I asked you if we could keep the knowledge of the Rangers' actions between ourselves and let me deal with the situation quietly, but you refused to cooperate. You said the knowledge had to be made public and be made public straight away, regardless of the consequences."
That wasn't the answer I'd been expecting. I thought he would say he'd attempted to kill me because he was mixed up in it all somehow. But to hear he'd shot me because of his rigid adherence to a misplaced sense of honour, shocked me to the core. "So in order to preserve the appearance of Hamamachi’s honour, because you consider the outward appearance of honour to be more important than true honour, you stooped to murder one you treated as a son."
Okada didn't answer. He just kept staring at the floor.
Tears were streaming down Nanako's face and her mother was flabbergasted.
"You were like a father to Nanako and me, Councillor, yet you took away everything from me – my health, my wife, my entire life!"
He lifted his eyes. "Don’t you think I regretted what I did? For every moment of every day since I shot you, I have been afflicted by guilt and condemnation."
"What good is guilt if it doesn't lead to repentance?" I snapped. "If you'd been truly sorry for what you did, you would have confessed the crime and revealed the Rangers' actions, but you did nothing. You just went on as though nothing had happened. You let the Rangers continue their reign of terror. You let Nanako and I continue to suffer. And in the end, it was all for nothing, wasn't it? Because we exposed the Rangers' evil deeds anyway."
"So it would seem," he said, and then, "what are you going to do me? To us?"
"Me? Nothing. For what it's worth, I forgive you – both of you. If there is one thing I have learned through this mess with Newhome and Hamamachi, with Japan and Korea's past history and all, is that harbouring unforgiveness and keeping a record of past wrongs is a one-track road to disaster. The question is, Councillor, what are you going to do? Are you going to take the coward's way out and commit suicide, or turn yourself in to the Militia and confess your crimes?"
The councillor hesitated for a moment, and then walked slowly around the hospital bed and prostrated himself on the floor in front of Nanako and her mother and said, "Please forgive me, I am sorry!"
Then he stood and headed for the door. He paused as he passed Nanako, but she turned from him, refusing to meet his gaze. As he left the room with Ken in tow, I heard Ken ask, "Where are we going now, Uncle?"
"To Militia Headquarters."
I put my gun away, and Nanako looked up at me.
"I can’t believe it was him. All that time he spent with me over the past two years, comforting me, helping me, providing for me – and it was him all along. I just can’t believe it," she lamented.
I held her tightly, but felt guilty for doing so, since I would be leaving her soon. It felt like I was leading her on, or giving her the wrong signal. Oh, but life could be so cruel! I didn't want to leave her, I didn't!
Chapter Thirty-Five
Nanako was discharged from hospital that evening, complete with a set of crutches. Her mother gave us a lift back to her place. Surprisingly, Madison accepted Nanako’s offer to stay with us until she found a place of her own. David, Shorty and Leigh were still in Inverloch, where they’d become overnight celebrities from what I’d been told.
On the way home, we heard on the car radio that Councillor Okada and Ken had been arrested for attempted murder and as accessories to the Rangers' criminal activities. I should have felt some kind of satisfaction, but I felt nothing, nothing at all.
Nanako's family home was a two-story white-brick townhouse, one of many that lined both sides of the road. It had smoked-gray clay roof tiles and rice-paper screens that could be seen behind several windows.
We entered the house via the carport, which only just accommodated Okaa-san’s car. Hobbling away on her crutches, Nanako led me into a foyer with a polished wooden floor that was cluttered with several pairs of shoes and slippers. I immediately recognised it as the foyer I had seen during one of my partial seizures. After we’d removed our shoes – okay, I removed hers too – she bundled us into the small lounge room, which was somewhat crowded with several plain sofas lining the walls and the low kotatsu table. I recognised this room too.
While Nanako plopped herself on one of the sofas, I knelt down at the table with her mother and Madison, who was examining her surroundings with newfound interest since she’d lived such a sheltered life.
"We’re back," Nanako sang out.
Two pairs of small feet immediately thundered down the stairs and the air was split in half by high-pitched shouts of joy as Nanako's little brother and sister caught sight of me and flung themselves across the room to land on top of me.
"Kazu and Akiko, so glad to see you again," I said when they dropped onto the floor beside me. Kazu was a skinny kid with short cropped hair and was still several inches shorter than his mother. Akiko, two years Kazu's junior, was so small. I wondered if Nanako had looked like her at that age.
Kazu tugged at my hand, "I got a trophy from the soccer league two weeks ago, Ethan. You've got to come see it."
"Ethan needs to rest a bit, Kazu-chan," Nanako said, but I jumped to my feet. "It's okay," I smiled, "Lead on Kazu-chan, show me your trophy." I garnered from the kids' reaction that we must have gotten on like a house on fire when I was here two years ago.
"And I got a blue ribbon from track-meet last week," Akiko said as she bounced alongside us.
I gave my wife a wink as I followed them out of the room, and she rewarded me with her cute upside-down smile.
I went upstairs with Kazu and Akiko, and they excitedly showed me the trophies, ribbons and keepsakes they’d accrued since I last saw them. I delighted in their attention, but at the same time, I was dying on the inside. I knew I would leave soon and never see them again. What cruel twist fate had played on me. To bestow upon me the wonders of genetic engineering, to bless me with the most wonderful girl in the world and marry into the greatest family ever, but then to have the latter two torn away because of complications caused by the first.
* * *
After dinner, Nanako took me by the hand and led me outside into the backyard, where we sat down on the immaculate green lawn outside the lounge room window.
"Okay," she began sternly, "Spill the beans, I know something’s troubling you. You’ve been different ever since you got back. And it ain’t got nothing to do with Okada, so don’t go blaming it on him."
I looked at the grass and wondered what to say, because I’d been planning to wait a few weeks before springing this on her.
"Come on, out with it, Mister," she commanded.
I glanced at her, but then quickly broke eye contact, and while focusing my attention on a miniscule beetle climbing a stalk of grass, I began to talk. "In light of what we learned from Madison – that all attempts to have children will result in miscarriages. And keeping in mind how much it means to you to have your own kids, I’ve decided to offer you a divorce so you can remarry and have kids and the future you deserve. And after the divorce, I’m gonna go somewhere. New South Wales, Queensland, I dunno yet – and you’re not to come looking for me. I want you to get on with your own life, okay?"
"Look at me, Ethan."
I tore my eyes from the beetle and hesitantly met her gaze.
"There ain’t no way I’m ever gonna divorce you, you big doofus. You’re my husband and I love you and I’ll stay with you forever, regardless of what the future holds."
"But..."
"I married you because I want to be with you," she continued, not letting me get a word in edgeways. "If we have kids, hey, that's a bonus, but that's not why I married you. Because whether we have kids or not, I’ll be happy, because I've got what I wanted, and that's you."
"You really mean that?" I asked, deeply moved. I was sure she’d see the merit in getting a divorce, so her answer took me by surprise.
"Of course I do, silly," she assured me. "Besides, if it turns out we really can't have kids, there is another option."
"What's that?"
"We can adopt. There are always plenty of orphans, maybe not in Hamamachi, but we’d have no problem finding some in the other not-so-well-off Victorian towns. Do you know how much we could bless an orphan, rescuing them from poverty and giving them a home and a family?"
The full ramifications of her words suddenly smashed aside the layers of despair that had blanketed me ever since I’d decided to offer her a divorce. A deep-seated peace and joy spread throughout my entire being. I wasn’t going to have to leave her after all.
I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, and she snuggled against my chest and laid her head on my shoulder.
"Itsumo to itsumademo – always and forever, you are mine and I am yours," I whispered as I kissed her on the forehead.
"Always and forever," she whispered back.
* * *
Seven months have passed since that talk, and a lot's happened in that time. The Hamamachi council asked me to head up a new Special Forces unit attached to the Militia to deal with Skel incursions and the like, to replace the disgraced Rangers, since they'd all been put on trial and imprisoned.
I told 'em I'd accept the position on one condition – which they grudgingly accepted – that they let us raid Skel territory to rescue slaves and bring them back to live here or in Inverloch, with Hamamachi footing the bill for all associated costs. When Nanako heard of the condition, she immediately jumped on board, as did Madison, David, Shorty and Leigh, as well as a small number of Militia volunteers.
In fact, just yesterday we got back from our second incursion into Skel territory, bringing with us a whole bunch of slaves we'd rescued. The slaves' reintegration into society was assisted by two newly appointed immigration officials, Jack and his sister Beth.
Hamamachi was making good on its promises to make reparations for the Rangers' crimes, which included financing the construction of new homes for returned slaves, and extensions to both Inverloch and Hamamachi hospitals.
I was even in discussions with the council about the need to offer reparations to Newhome, though my motives weren't entirely selfless. I was hoping that at some stage in the future, good relations could be established between our towns, and that I'd be able to visit and see my family again. Maybe even get them permission to leave. That Newhome would let me back inside the town or grant such a boon was probably –almost certainly – wishful thinking, but it was a dream I wasn't gonna let go of.
On a more personal level, Madison's settling relatively well into life here in Hamamachi, and she's my second in command in the Special Forces unit. David's like a pig in mud now that he's got unlimited access to real computers and Smartphones. Shorty's found himself a girlfriend – no, not Madison – a Japanese forager a couple of years his senior. Leigh's become hard-and-fast friends with Jack, Beth and several of the slaves they rescued, and pops over to Inverloch to hang out with them every second day.
Me and Nanako? Well, we've got a quaint little unit not far from her mother's place which is the perfect size for entertaining our friends, and for now, we're just concentrating on liberating as many slaves as we can. We haven't forgotten about raising a family, though, and my research revealed foster-kids programs in both Inverloch and Hamamachi, so there's plenty of opportunities to adopt, should we decide to go that way one day.
But, we've got each other, always and forever, and that's enough.
Love...keeps no records of wrongs.
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011.
Thanks for reading The Forager Trilogy.
If you would like to see the adventures of Ethan & Nanako continue, and new books set in the Forager universe, please rate and review The Forager Trilogy on Amazon and let me know.
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Impersonator - Book One in the Forager Impersonator Trilogy. Due late 2015, early 2016.
* A Novel Set in the World of Peter R Stone’s Forager Trilogy *
A century after a global nuclear war, eighteen-year-old Chelsea Thomas has spent her life living in fear of Newhome’s paramilitary Custodians, due to a prohibited rogue ability.
In the past week, her twin brother – a forager – has uncharacteristically ran away from home and work after the mysterious death of a teammate; something has scared her normally unflappable fat
her half to death; and their family is threatened with eviction.
But her brother’s disappearance presents her with a long-sought after opportunity to escape the prison town, since only the foragers – all men – are allowed to leave the town. All she has to do is impersonate her brother long enough to make her escape while foraging out in the ruins.
But she never counted on the kindness of Ryan Hill, a forager new to the team. Nor on barbaric Skel attacking the team the moment she makes her escape. She has to choose between making good on her escape or saving Ryan and the others.
Twenty-two-year-old Ryan Hill made one mistake at his last place of employment, and that earned the wrath of his fellow workmates, and cost him all of his friends.
Alone and dejected, he begins a new job as a forager, expecting more of the same. But then he meets Chelsea, masquerading as her brother Brandon. And though he falls for her ruse, he sees in her a kindred spirit. Could he(she) spark the beginning of a true, genuine friendship that looks past the faults of the other?
A Note from the Author
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading my book.
I was wondering if I could ask for your help.
Due to a number of factors, I decided to self-publish my books rather than go the traditional route of trying to get my books published by a traditional publisher.
One of the chief advantages of this is that I can write the books I want to write, and not write books dictated by the narrow, restrictive guidelines required by those traditional publishers.
Having chosen to self publish, my biggest problem is that I do not have a large, professional company using their reputation and resources to promote my book, including getting the softcover into brick-and-mortar retail stores. (No mainline brick-and-mortar retail store will stock a self-published novel.)
Forager - the Complete Trilogy (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Trilogy) Page 71