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Aparna is in the clinic, binding Amber’s hand from a nasty cut when the news reaches her—there’s a buzz in the enclosure..not the frenetic warnings of birds or the wild clash of leaves, but a different kind of sound—it’s lighter somehow.
..She knows there’s a group inbound from upriver. Four people. Three, she reminds herself. One will have to look. She wonders if by some miracle that they’ve made it.
They’re coming from impossibly far away—two days on the river with all that comes between.
Rick says sometimes conditions let their signal go further than usual. But it seems…cruel somehow. No-one has made it from so far. No-one has made it at all in over a year.
Then she hears the whispers—three sighted travelers, clear eyed—one woman and two children.
children
Aparna can’t imagine. She rushes to the courtyard, looks for unfamiliar faces. She sees the little girl first—impossibly small.
None of the travelers have managed the journey with small children, and the youngest students at the school were seven when the world ended. Someday she hopes they’ll have to worry about babies and toddlers, but for now couples are careful—not quite trusting a world full of monsters to spare a child. Right now, even in this place of safety and hope, there are no children younger than twelve.
Aparna knows Rick asks each group they find by radio if they’re traveling with children. She knows each group for five years has said no. She knows Rick asks anyway. Rick is a good man, a hopeful man—the kind of man who opens his sanctuary to strangers who could bring chaos and death. She knows if Rick could calm the rapids he would. She knows Rick needs to believe there are children out in the world. She is not Rick.
If you’d asked her five minutes ago whether there were any five year olds in the world, she would have said no.
And she would have been wrong.
The crowd parts and there, miraculously, wonderfully, hilariously, there is her last patient from before. The name comes without effort, and Malorie stares at her, calls her “Dr. Lantham”
And Aparna understands.
***
Olympia is brightness and light and hope in a tiny, bouncy package. She chatters and laughs with such abandon that it’s easy to forget the world outside is full of monsters.
Tom is full of energy—he climbs just about everything, runs with abandon, and, as Aparna finds out, is better at echo-location than most of the seeing adults.
They’re almost never apart—Olympia urged on by Tom’s bravery and Tom made silly by Olympia’s giggles.
They are sublimely, wonderfully childish. And Aparna is overwhelmed by how normal it feels to watch 5 year olds play.
***
Olympia is the one who tells her about Tom.
The three of them are in the clinic, and Olympia chatters away—Aparna learns that Malorie was the protector, Tom was the nurturer, the dreamer.
His namesake pipes in, “he told us about the trees!”
Aparna can’t quite place their ease in talking about him.
None of the travelers, the ones who made it through the rapids, discuss the one-who-looked. Aparna has only seen (heard, really) one person under the influence of the creatures, and she can only think about Nigel for the briefest of moments.
But both children talk about Tom as if….
“And then Malorie said one of us would have to look, but then she didn’t choose, so we fell in the water”
Aparna’s breath catches and she barely can form the question, “Tom didn’t look?”
The girl glances at her brother. “Tom stayed behind”
Aparna manages to nod, and bundles the children towards another teacher before turning towards Malorie.
“You travelled the river alone?”
Malorie looks defiant. “I had my children.”
“You took the rapids blind?”
There’s a wall there. A story Malorie isn’t quite ready to tell, and Aparna resists the urge to make a sarcastic crack.
Malorie moves to sit, wrings her hands and says, finally, “I promised her mother. I couldn’t choose…”
Aparna feels everything and nothing and all things at once. She pulls Malorie into the tightest hug she can manage, whispers in Malayalam words Aparna’s grandmother used to soothe her with.
***
When Amber goes into labor, Aparna brings Malorie with her.
“So I’m the hard-ass labor and delivery nurse now?”
“I’ve heard you training the teenagers—you’re a natural”
The baby is big, healthy and lets out a full throated cry at being brought into the world. Malorie greets the baby with a “Yeah, your review is spot on, but I’m not shoving you back in, so you’re stuck with us”
Amber laughs, then starts to cry, releasing her vice grip on her husband’s arm as Malorie hands her the squalling bundle. Amber feels along the edges of the blanket, holds the baby close.
Malorie goes quiet, and Aparna can tell she’s reliving something, so she fills the silence “Healthy baby girl. We don’t know about her eyesight quite yet, but…”
Amber smiles. “A girl…just like you wanted…” She guides her husbands hands to the baby.
“Do you have a name picked out?”
Amber’s smile goes wide, “After my sister. Jessica.”
Aparna catches Malorie’s look of hurt, then…
Malorie smiles widely, looks at Aparna, and for a moment they’re back in the exam room just before the end of the world.
“I think Jessica is a fucking kickass name.”