“I do hope I see you both later,” said Darius. “In a place other than this.”
13
“That’s a bite,” said Pete. He seemed a little young to be a medical professional, but he looked like he knew what he was doing.
“It’s a cut,” said Rowan. “She mishandled her knife and accidentally sliced herself.”
“There are teeth marks all around. You’re telling me that a knife did that?”
“I don’t see what you’re seeing at all. Those marks could be anything.”
Pete finished wrapping the wound up with some fresh gauze. “You don’t need to lie. Unlike many of the other people here, I’m not quite as fearful of those who may be infected. I’m a damn doctor, after all—and I won’t say a single word to anyone.”
“What do they do to the sick people here?” asked Lorena.
“Nothing good. That’s for sure.”
He grabbed some antibiotics from the large cabinet behind her. “Take three of these a day for the next week. If you need anything else, you can always come back to me.”
“So that’s it?” asked Rowan, taking the pills from Pete. “She doesn’t need anything else?”
“That’s it. She’s perfectly fine as far as I can tell.”
Lorena eased off of the table she was sitting on. “Pete, can we ask you about this place? I have a lot of questions, and I feel like we can trust you the most.”
“I’d love to, but my sister will have better answers for you. She gets all the gossip and knowledge around here, seeing as how she’s the cook and all. She hears everything.”
He opened the door for them. “Darius should’ve already told you both how to find the dining room, but in case you forgot, it’s on the right straight outside of this hallway. Tell Hailee I said hi, all right?”
“Thanks a lot,” said Lorena.
“You’re very welcome.”
Lorena followed Rowan out the door and waited until they made it a few steps down the hall before she spoke. “What do you think about this place?”
“It seems safe,” said the boy. “That’s all I can really say about it right now.”
“But what about what they’ve been saying about the sick?”
“I know what they’ve been saying. But what can we do about that? All we can do is focus on making sure you get better before we head back out there.”
“You’re right. I hope I can start walking without any pain soon.”
“I hope so, too.”
Before Rowan had the chance to ponder about how long they might be staying here, they suddenly entered a large dining room with a makeshift kitchen. Underneath one of the many international flags that adorned the walls was the short-haired blonde woman from earlier. She was accompanied by a small child: a boy who couldn’t have been older than five. He clung to her pant leg at the sight of new visitors, which made the woman laugh and call Rowan and Lorena over to her.
“Hey there,” she said. “I’m Hailee, and I run the kitchen here in this community. This is my son Ethan. He helps me out whenever he can. Say hi to them Ethan!”
“Hi,” said the boy meekly.
Lorena went over to pat the boy on the head, which relaxed him a little. “Hi Ethan, I’m Lorena.”
Rowan shook Hailee’s outstretched hand. “I’m Rowan.”
“How was the visit with my brother? He’s the doctor here, you know.”
“It went better than expected, actually. And he told us to tell you hi.”
Hailee ushered Ethan over to the large dining room table, which stretched across the entire room. “Great! Would you two like some food, then? I can make some scrambled eggs.”
“I’d love some,” said Lorena. “Thank you.”
“I second that. We’ll take whatever you guys can spare for us.”
“Just take a seat and I’ll bring a plate over to you both,” said Hailee. “It won’t take that long.”
Rowan and Lorena both pulled out chairs next to Ethan, who was sitting as close to the edge of the table as possible. He avoided eye contact with both of them and focused on his mother instead.
“I’m sorry I can’t make you guys anything better right now,” said Hailee. “It’s currently breakfast time still, and Tobias only lets me make breakfast foods at this time. He says it helps people cope with how bad the world is. Weird logic, but I get it.”
“It’s fine,” said Rowan. “Anything works for us.”
Hailee soon finished up and handed Rowan and Lorena their plates. They immediately began to devour their food, as it was their first real meal in what seemed like forever. This, however, wasn’t a comforting experience to Rowan—it was more disturbing than anything else. The existence of such a high-functioning community was uncanny and unsettling. There was no way that people could come together harmoniously without some sort of evil lurking about. Peace, as Rowan knew it, was never benign.
Hailee picked up her son, took his seat, and sat him down on her lap. “I always ask everyone who comes here the same question, and I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how is it that you two found your way here?”
Lorena had already finished her eggs and spoke up before Rowan could respond. “We came all the way from Los Angeles. We were heading north to San Jose to try and find Rowan’s friends and family.”
“I see. Does that mean you’re both leaving soon?”
Rowan put his fork down and wiped his mouth. “Yeah. But maybe we’ll be back with my family.”
“I understand. Let me know if there’s any way I can help. You can ask me anything about the place, and I’ll give you any answers I’ve got.”
“Do you happen to know how the electricity here works?” asked Rowan. “I feel like that knowledge would be really useful.”
“I don’t really know all the details, but we have two engineers living here. They apparently take care of all of that stuff behind the scenes. All I know is that we have several generators all up and running.”
“What about the running fountains? Isn’t that a waste of water?”
“Apparently all of the water here is delivered by a gravity-based system from some mountain a few miles away from here. At least, that’s what Tobias told me. I’m not entirely sure how it works, but we’re near the coastline anyway, so even if that system ends up failing, I don’t think this place will be running out of water for a very long time.”
“So you and Ethan didn’t live here before the bombs dropped?” asked Lorena.
Hailee laughed. “No, I don’t think anyone here did.”
“When’d you get here?” asked Rowan.
“A day after the bombs dropped. I actually lived in San Simeon, so Hearst Castle wasn’t too far away from where I lived. When I saw what was happening on the news, I grabbed Ethan and ran over to Pete’s house, which was only a block away. He and I decided to leave our homes behind because things just got way too chaotic. We both agreed that Hearst Castle was the best place to go, since it was the closest place to us that we could think of that felt like it would be safe. We didn’t want to wander around and scavenge like other people were—it would’ve been bad for Ethan. We’re lucky this place was managing to hold itself together despite all that was happening outside its walls.”
“Do you think this place is safe, then?”
“Quite safe. Safe enough to have board game nights, too. You both should come! We’re having one tonight in the study. It’d be a great chance for you two to meet some of the people here.”
“Are the people here nice?” asked Lorena.
“For the most part, yeah,” said Hailee. “But you’ll run into some mean behaviors from time to time. That’s just how the people are here. People are very scared and defensive now, and they’ll do anything to protect this place and themselves. Wouldn’t you do anything to protect your home? That’s what this place is like for all of us, now.”
Rowan pushed his plate aside. “Should we watch out for anyone?”
“I think it’s best
you meet everyone yourself and form your own opinions. No one treats every person the same. Of course, I hardly have any bad opinions of anyone since everyone loves the cook, so people treat me quite kindly.”
“Can I at least know who the plague doctors are?”
“You don’t need me to tell you.” Hailee put the dishes away and waved at someone new who came in. “You’ll know.”
“Rowan and Lorena, right?” asked a young woman whose dark hair draped over the desk she was leaning on. “Hailee told me about you two.”
“Yeah,” said Rowan. “Are you the librarian? Is that an actual job here?”
She laughed. “Yeah, actually. I’m the librarian. I didn’t ask for this job, though. It’s a pretty pointless one, but Tobias told me that it’s necessary for some reason. Honestly, I just let people come in here and take whatever the hell they want to read, since most people return the books anyway. Plus, just look at all of these shelves. We’re never going to run out of things to read. Anyway, I’m Jamie.”
Rowan looked around the room and noticed a few people sitting down in a circle, laughing together.
“Has board game night already started?” he asked.
Jamie looked over at the group and called out to them. “Hey, Max, you guys starting early?”
An older gentleman looked up at her with amusement. “Not quite. Wayne is just telling us a hilarious story of something that happened out there today.”
He stood up and walked over to Rowan and Lorena, shaking both of their hands. “Pleasure to meet both of you. I’ve heard a lot about you guys. I’m Maximilian, and I’m in charge of social activities here at Hearst Castle. I mostly do board game nights, though we do love our parties up here as well.”
“Parties?” asked Lorena.
Max stretched his arms out and turned his gaze to the girl. “Yes, parties! I’m trying to keep fun and culture alive here.”
“Isn’t that a bit wasteful?”
“Leisure is never a waste.”
Rowan backed Lorena up. “But don’t you think that the time and effort and supplies that go into hosting parties would be better used to... you know, survive? Resources are scarce. There’s got to be better things we can all do with our time here.”
“It’s not that I don’t think that surviving is important, it’s just that I don’t think that prioritizing surviving more than trying to enjoy your time here on Earth is a good idea. When tragedy strikes, you can’t always live on the defensive. To be humans who always live in fear, without leisure, without enjoyment—we wouldn’t be happy. Remembering to be who we were before tragedy—that’s our goal. To be happy. We must be careful to never lose ourselves in the face of tragedy. We can’t just survive—we must recover.”
He took a seat on the arm of one of the couch chairs and looked at Rowan. “Have either of you two decided on what job you want to take up?”
“No,” said Rowan. “I’ll do whatever. We’re not staying here for long because I still need to find my family.”
“Well, for when you come back then. You’ve got to pick a job here and do it with as much passion as you can, you know. I doubt there’s any place like this anywhere else, and you’ve got to pick something that’ll help out our community in some amazing way. We can make this the best place to live with your help.”
“Listen, that’s not on my mind.”
“Come on,” moaned Max. “Indulge me a bit. What do you like to do?”
“Write. But I don’t see how that’s relevant to anything.”
Max’s eyes widened. “You should write for our community then! Write about Hearst Castle and its people and what we’ve done in this new world, because the world will always need someone to keep track of its history. You could work here in the library and write stories, fact and fiction, because this world needs new writers and new books and new stories. We could fill our shelves with all your works!”
“Even if I were to do that, my writing isn’t any good. I’ve never even taken any professional classes.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Whatever it is that you write will have value. Maybe not to everyone, but to someone, and as long as you write with raw emotion and feeling, you’ll succeed. That in itself has value.”
Max grinned widely and continued. “Books are the study of humanity and of the human condition, just like music and paintings and other art. People don’t realize how important all of these things are for a society to function. All of the art here at Hearst Castle is the real reason why this place is the most perfect spot to rebuild society. Here, come with me. I want to show both of you something.”
Rowan and Lorena followed Max over to a large painting that hung above the fireplace. It depicted a kneeling man in tattered clothing, and he was pressing his head against the stomach of an older, well-dressed man, who had his arms wrapped around the man’s back. Three bystanders, all with somber expressions, were hanging out in the shadows, watching them.
“Do you guys know what this is a painting of?” asked Max.
“I’ve seen this before,” said Lorena, running her hands along the frame of the painting. “My dad had a copy of this in our old house.”
“He has quite good taste then. It’s a painting that portrays the return of the prodigal son. Are either of you familiar with the story?”
“Don’t think so,” said Rowan. “Who’s it by?”
Max stood by Lorena at the base of the painting. “Well, it’s actually a story in the Bible. It’s one of the parables of Jesus, and it tells the story of a father and two sons. The younger son asks his father for an early inheritance, and then he uses some of that money to leave his family and travel to a distant country, where he wastes the rest of his money on extravagant living. He soon becomes extremely poor and miserable, and he comes to the realization that he could just go back home and work for his father. He returns home with a plan to tell his father that he’s no longer worthy to be called his son and that he wants to become one of his servants instead, but when he gets back, his father runs up to him and embraces him, not letting him finish his spiel about becoming a slave. The father tells his servants to dress his son in fine robes and to prepare a feast for his return, and when the older brother hears of this, he’s driven to anger and tells his father that it makes no sense that while he has served his father loyally for many years and never abandoned him, he was never rewarded with a celebration like his brother was getting, even though his brother abandoned them to spend their family fortune on prostitutes. His father merely tells him that it’s necessary to celebrate the younger brother’s return, as he was essentially dead to them, and now here he was, alive and well, so it is appropriate to be glad and happy, because he was lost, and then he was found. Despite the younger son’s mistakes, his father loves him enough to still welcome him with open arms.”
Max put his hand on the painting, examining it further. “You see, stories like that are beautiful. They give us insight into who we are as people, and who we should strive to be, and what faults we find in ourselves when we fall off the path of righteousness. The Bible is full of powerful stories like that. That’s why I hope that a priest comes here someday to preach and give hope to everyone, because stories like that could help all of us heal and become better people in a world that encourages people to be the opposite. Religion is a very important thing in society, don’t you think?”
Rowan locked his gaze on to the kneeling man in the painting. “You know, my mom is actually a really religious person, and I could never understand how she could pray every night for all of the people who have wronged her. If someone fucks with me, I want them to die. I don’t ever wish them the best. It doesn’t make any sense to me why I would want an awful person to live a better life than mine.”
“You need to bring your mother here,” said Max. “We need someone like her in this community.”
“Do you really think that religion would make people better?”
He turned to Rowan and shrugged. “I c
an only hope that it would. People are ultimately in charge of how they act and what they believe in. Religion itself doesn’t turn people into good people—people turn themselves into good people.”
“Max, are we fuckin’ startin’ yet, or what?” yelled a man from the opposite side of the room. Next to him was a thin woman who ran her hands through his ash brown hair, and she too looked over to Max.
“Relax, Wayne.” Max sighed and started walking back to his seat. “We can have this talk another time. Let’s go meet everyone.”
Rowan and Lorena joined the circle of survivors and introduced themselves. First, they said hello to Wayne, who introduced his wife Margaret. She was a quiet fellow, quite unlike her husband, whose loud, boisterous energy seemed to drain her of her own. She chose to sit out of the game they were playing, choosing instead to watch intently from the other side of the couch. Hailee was there, too, and she introduced Rowan and Lorena to a rather large, pink-faced man named Anthony. His skin contrasted deeply with his dark curls, which he sometimes took the opportunity to play with. Next to Max was an older and more solemn man named Felix, though he took great pleasure in greeting the newcomers.
The game they all decided to play for the night was a board game that involved buying and selling property. Rowan chose the racecar token while Lorena chose the dog token, which she grabbed instantly before anyone could even think about it. Hours passed, and though Rowan was winning far beyond anyone else, he had no reaction to the excitement and joy and frustration around him. Instead, he was mindlessly rolling the dice.
“You ain’t gonna win,” said Wayne. “I’m gonna catch up and beat you.”
Anthony made his move and frowned. “Rowan is too far ahead of us. It’d take a miracle to beat him now.”
Max was already eliminated, but he stayed and watched the game regardless. “Wayne, you never finished your story earlier.”
Seasons After Fall Page 14