“Are you really?”
“Eh…maybe not a hundred percent sorry.”
“You dick.” I shook my head. “I’d feel the same way if she didn’t remember you. See you tonight at the elections.”
I made my way over to the medical building. When I got to the floor I could hear Bonnie talking. I knocked once before walking in and called out, “Hey,” as I shut the door behind me. “How’s it going?”
Bonnie looked at me. She didn’t smile, didn’t look miserable, she just looked, well, Bonnie. Mera acknowledged me with a smile.
Then Bonnie responded, “Good. Thanks. Here’s an odd thing. Mera doesn’t remember me at all, yet she remembers Stilton.”
“Heck, that don’t surprise me none. Stilton is the Jack Daniels of the apocalypse.”
Mera laughed. “That was funny.”
“Alex has his moments,” Bonnie said. “When you’re in the mood for his humor he can be funny.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled. I then noticed Mera was holding something in her hand. It couldn’t be what I thought it was and I took a step closer to the bed. “Is that the iPad?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s from Sonny.”
“Where the hell did Sonny get an iPad from?” I asked.
“He said he got a bunch of tablets from Walmart. This was the first one he got up and running. He is still working on the others.”
“Wasn’t that nice of Sonny?” Bonnie asked.
“Yeah, he’s swell,” I said. “Why does he want you to have an iPad? Just to keep you busy?”
“I guess,” Mera said. “Mainly to keep notes.”
“On what?”
“On everything everyone is telling me,” Mera said. “He wants to give me a test. He’s such a nice guy.”
“He is,” Bonnie said. “Such a shame about the things that happened to him.”
“I know,” Mera said sadly.
“Oh come on,” I griped. “You can’t be—”
“Easy,” Bonnie said. “I almost got her to the point where she nearly likes you.”
“Still having trouble,” Mera said. “With you, you know, stealing Keller and giving him to the ARC without permission.”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Can’t anyone tell her anything nice that I did?”
“Well,” Bonnie said, “since I can only tell her what happened from the moment we met, do you want to tell me what nice things you did?”
I was certain if I thought about it long enough I would be able to come up with a few nice things. When it hit me, I snapped my fingers. “I always made sure she had plenty of bourbon.”
“You did.” Bonnie nodded. “I’ll give you that.”
“See? Anyhow, where are we at now in the story?” I asked.
“We just got to the small town,” Bonnie answered.
I pulled up a chair and sat down. “Okay, I can take it from here.”
“Are you sure?” Bonnie asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Okay, I left off as we got to the town.” She stood up and handed me a notebook. “Here is this if you need it.”
I looked down at the tattered notebook. “What the hell is this?”
“Sonny’s notes. That’s the notes he took for the Doctrines. I’d say they’re more his journal entries.”
“Don’t you have your own memories?” I asked. “Why do you need Sonny’s?”
“Alex,” she scolded, “I do have my memories, but I’m just double checking with what Sonny has written down. He is the historian.”
“Yeah.”
She pulled the notebook back from me. “If you don’t need it…”
“No, I’ll keep it with me.” I placed it on my lap. “Go on, I’m good.”
Apprehensively, Bonnie moved to the door. “All right. Mera, make sure you document everything he says. We’ll need to compare it with what Sonny has.”
“What about Randy?” Mera asked. “He was there.”
“Oh, he died. Alex will fill you in. See you in a bit.” Bonnie walked from the room.
Horrified, Mera looked at me. “Randy died? But he’s here?”
“Yes, a little thing called time manipulation,” I explained. “Some of us are more guilty than others. For example…” I lifted the notebook, “Sonny has the time travel power of the pen. Needing to know more about the future and if the Doctrines changed, and knowing Randy would read the Doctrines, he wrote Randy in. And wouldn’t you know it, Randy arrives on a bus that came from Grace.”
“I’m so confused.”
“I am too. So we won’t hang on that.” I flipped through Sony’s notebook. “See, he doesn’t have it in here?”
“What?”
“That Beck died.”
“Beck died?”
“Yep. He was caught trying to sneak out with Phoenix. You and I changed that. Well, me more than you.”
“When?”
“After we got to Grace. A good year and a half later we found out we could do this thing called cerebral time travel. Again, more useless information you don’t need to know. Bottom line, we stopped them shooting. And lucky us, in the changed timeframe, Beck went to the ARC with Phoenix so nothing was affected by it.”
“I need another cough drop.” Mera reached for the sack.
“You’re not coughing.”
“They’re better than a shot.”
At that moment Michael came in.
“Aw, see, my alone time is not up,” I said.
“Bonnie said you were in typical form and I should be worried.”
“Nah, we’re good. Did you know Sonny took notes, or rather journal entries?” I asked.
“Yes, everyone does. Those are the Doctrines in pure form.”
“Wow.” I pulled out a pen.
“Alex!” Michael yelled. “What are you doing?”
“Making a change,”
“Don’t.” Michael took the pen. “Don’t do that. Mera, has he told you anything that doesn’t sound believable?”
“Not really. I’m taking notes and will show Sonny. One thing no one told me,” she said. “I know Beck is a good man. Apparently I went to extremes for him.” She looked at me, obviously referencing the time change. “But what was the thing that made me so dedicated to Beck? Was there one thing? Or was it over time?”
“Well—” I started to answer.
“Alex,” Michael stopped me. “Don’t.”
“What?” I lifted my hands. “She asked.”
“It will be an Alex answer,” Michael stated. “It won’t be correct.”
Mera shook her head. “I’m okay. Tell me. What do you think?”
“I call it the rooftop obligation,” I said. “When we were trying to get to the ARC we had saved Jessie, but in a sense she was still a Sleeper and carried the virus. We were on a hospital roof surrounded by thousands of Sleepers. The ARC came for us and wouldn’t take Jessie. The city was scheduled to be blown up. You made Danny get on the chopper and you stayed to die with Jessie. Beck stayed with you.”
“He was willing to die with me and my daughter?’
“Yep.”
Mera gasped. “Oh my God. He stayed.”
“He stayed.”
“To die.”
“Yes, Mera, what the hell? To die. You didn’t die cause Padre here distracted the Sleepers and you guys were able to get off the roof. I always said it was the lame—”
“Oh my God,” she gushed again and reached to Michael. “He stayed with us.”
“I always said that was his defining moment,” Michael said.
“Oh, hell, you weren’t even there.” I stood. “In fact, you were the hero in that, not Beck, Goddamn it.”
“Alex!” Michael yelled. “What is the matter with you?”
“Nothing. Absolutel
y nothing.” I kissed Mera on the cheek. “I’m gonna leave, and I am gonna hope that somehow someone brings up an Alex defining moment. I am sure there are some, but no one wants to admit it.” I walked to the door.
“Alex,” Mera called, “I’m positive there are.”
“Thank you, Mera.”
“Even though I’m still in that phase where I don’t like you much, I…”
I didn’t let her finish. I just left.
Things were different and I had to adjust. I would. If I wanted Mera to see me for who I was, I had to let her. In a sense I was starting over.
That was all right. At least Mera was healing and my daughter was strong. I had that.
If she didn’t remember my defining moments, I was sure I’d create some new ones. Perhaps they wouldn’t all be bad.
There was only one thing I knew for certain with Mera. With the elections coming up in a few hours I more than likely wasn’t getting her vote.
18. Sonny
Election night in the camp was quickly turning into party night. I guess in a sense the feeling of relief was really needed.
Beck had packed boxes and bags of the Walmart goodies and passed them out to the women. I took Mera her box. She was ecstatic. Then again, she was also happy about the iPad. While there was no way to download any new games she was having fun with the ones installed on the demo model.
“I’ll be back and we can go over those notes you took,” I told her.
“Please, Sonny, Alex was the last one here. You know how he exaggerates.”
“I do. And here…” I handed her an envelope and slip of paper, “is your ballot.”
“There’s nothing on here. The paper is blank.”
“Yeah, vote for whoever you want. The top four vote getters will be the council. The one with the most is new leader.”
“Who came up with that idea?”
“I did. I also drafted our laws, or a good bit of them.”
“Oh my God, you’re so smart. Give me your pen. I’m casting my vote.”
“You don’t have to right now, I can come back for it.”
“No need.” Mera wrote something down, folded the paper, and put it in the envelope. “My decision is made.” She handed it to me. “Good luck, Sonny.”
“I’ll need it.”
“You have my vote.”
“Really?” I smiled. “That’s awfully nice of you.”
“From what I get, you built the electric fences, you got the power on, and you got me an iPad that works. I am forever grateful. Don’t sell yourself short. Although, keep in mind if people don’t vote for you, it’s probably because they know you do so much and being leader will interfere.”
I nodded. She was cute saying that and it was obvious she lost her memory because if she didn’t, surely she would know, I wasn’t in the running.
I left her to sort through the box and told her to radio me what she wanted to trade and I’d reach out to the other women.
When I got to the dining area it was more of a party than an election process. Rod Stilton set up the Fine and Shine fountain complete with his moonshine, the women were exchanging underwear, and Miles guarded the ballot box as if it were some prized possession.
“You having a good time?” I asked Miles.
“I will. Making sure one vote per person,” Miles said. “Eight more minutes. Then I’ll have a drink.”
“I’m sure you can have one now.”
“Nope. Nope. I’m on duty.”
“So, like, considering this was once a jail, do you feel like you’re back in your old world job?”
“Sometimes I get flashbacks. Never bad. How about you?”
“I learned a lot when I was here. So it can’t be all bad. Can I vote?”
“Sure.”
“Oh, and here’s Mera’s.” I placed it in the box, and picked up my piece of paper. I knew who I was going to vote for. It was obvious. There was only one person I trusted to be leader. Even though I knew there would be decisions I’d disagree with I knew he would be unbiased in making them. I wrote the name, ‘Alex’ on the paper and cast my vote. “Say, Miles, who is counting the votes?”
“Michael and Patty. Neither of them want to be in the running, and I trust them both.”
I did too. I excused myself and walked to the Fine and Shine fountain. At least six women stopped me and thanked me for thinking of them. I got a splash of Stilton’s brew. It was sweet and I could see he was working on that bourbon flavoring. After determining I liked it I put some more in my cup.
It was not only Alex’s loud laugh that caught my attention, but hearing my name as well. I walked over and he was talking to Beck.
“I didn’t think I was that funny,” I said. “I heard my name when you were laughing.”
“Sonny, my man, you are a hoot.” Alex put his hand on my shoulder. “I was sharing some of the memory notes you wrote in that journal.”
“Okay.”
Beck said, “In typical Alex fashion he’s making fun.”
“Why would you make fun of my notes and journal entries?” I asked.
“‘Cause I can see why the Doctrines turn out as screwed up as they do. You are totally off on some things.”
“Like what?”
“Like…” Alex paused to think. “Okay, the first time we tried to do community movie night. A drive-in of sorts. You wrote it was the beginning of the Alex and Mera wars.”
“It was. That was the first big fight and the first time Michael intervened.”
“I’ll give you that,” Alex nodded. “You wrote that we were watching Willy Wonka, and if I recall the first movie was I Am Legend, and me and Mera got in a fight because it was a remake.”
“No, Alex, it was Willy Wonka because we had a lot of kids and we didn’t want to scare them.”
“They were all future kids and that’s why we picked I Am Legend because they were used to Sleepers and they wouldn’t be scared.”
“No,” I argued. “It was Willy Wonka, and you and Mera fought because you said it was a movie about a pedophile. Which in turn made the Stiltons, Patty, and Levi all freak out and you wouldn’t let it go. You kept saying it would scare them more than vampires. Mera kept telling you to shut up and Michael removed you. When you came back we were watching I Am Legend.”
Alex shook his head. “Nope. It was the other way around. Hey, let’s ask Danny.”
“Ask me what?” Danny walked up to us.
“First huge fight in Grace between your mom and Alex was the first movie night,” I said.
“Oh, yeah. Dude, that was funny. My mom kept screaming for him to leave and get out and threw everything she could get her hands on. Didn’t he end up needing stitches?”
“That was the second fight,” I said.
“That’s right. That was the Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament,” Danny said.
“Yes,” I nodded. “What was the movie we watched the first movie night?”
“We watched two,” Danny replied. “Because we had to shut off the first one after Michael took Alex from the movie.”
“What was the movie?” Alex asked.
“Which one?” Danny asked.
“The one that caused me to get kicked out.”
“Oh, Willy Wonka,” Danny replied. “You said it was about a child molester and no one wanted to watch it after that.”
“Ha!” I said. “See?”
“No, I don’t see,” Alex argued.
“Alex,” Beck said, “just admit you remembered things wrong.”
“Nope. Because I’m sure it was different and it probably changed when we brought you back to life.”
Beck laughed at that. We all did. Everything was lighthearted and it made me feel good. We were a resilient community and we bounced back. It didn’t matter where we live
d or how, we were a strong community on the brink of our first democratic process.
Randy came over and offered premature congratulations to Alex and Beck. “I just know that’s how it will play out.”
Beck smiled. “I would be honored, but I have things to do other than run a community. Besides, I’m confident that Alex will win this. I may be in the top four, but Alex is the man already in charge.” He placed his hand on Alex’s back.
“You got my vote,” I said. “You make tough decisions, Alex. You have led us from the moment we got to Grace.”
“Thanks,” Alex said. “If I’m not, I’m okay with that.”
“For real?” Danny asked. ‘You won’t be pissed if someone else gets it?”
“No, not at all. It’s not a popularity contest. These folks are voting on who they think will best run the community.”
“Even if it was,” Danny said, “people like you, Alex.”
“No they don’t,” I said. “That’s okay because you don’t need to be liked to be a good leader. Even not liked, you’re popular around here.”
“Sonny, hell, everyone is popular, there ain’t that many people,” Alex said. “Will you be okay if you lose?”
“Me?” I laughed. “Who the hell would vote for me? Other than Mera.”
All facial expression dropped from his face. “She what?” Alex asked.
“Voted for me,” I answered. “That’s what she told me.”
“Dude,” Danny nudged me, “she’s probably being nice.”
“No. She wrote it down right in front of me. I saw.”
“What the hell, Sonny?” Alex snapped. ‘Did you guilt her?”
“Alex, stop it,” Beck laughed. “So what if she did? It’s one vote and I thought it didn’t bother you.”
“Yeah, well, it does. If it was you. No.” Alex said. “Sonny. Yes.”
“Hey!” I balked. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Because you’re the smartest dumb person I know,” Alex said. “You as leader doesn’t make sense.”
“I would say I resent that remark,” I said. “However, I don’t see myself as leader material. You never know though.”
I was sure Alex had more to say, another snide comment about my abilities or me being the smartest dumb person, whatever that meant, but the wait was over. Michael called for everyone’s attention.
Sleepers (Book 7): Sleepers 7 Page 10