The End of Eden (Water Worlds 1)

Chapter 12

12

This new life was thrust on us quickly. Everyone and everything was so fast-paced here, I barely had time to think.

Father worked in a far off village called Langley, and every morning the Blond Man (Mr. Kasey, I learned, was his name) came and walked with father to the Metro subway. 

Mother was given an important research position in nuclear medicine at the government's National Institutes of Health, and it was close enough to home that most days she chose to walk to and from work.

Joo Chen was enrolled in a school called Richard Montgomery, likely named after one of America's presidents, and I started studies in astrophysics at George Washington University, who's name I knew from the days in Korea when our Dear Leader often compared himself to this Father of America.

The university was a long ride from home, but then it was just a short walk to classes. The subway cars were much older and dirtier than those in Beijing, and I didn't always feel safe around some of the people who stared at me, impolitely. 

The university required that I take an intensive English course, which immersed me in the language and culture of America. 

I was a little frightened at first, but there were people from all over the world in this class, and my English wasn't the worst, so I felt a little better. The class was even fun, and I remember we laughed a great deal. 

Also, Mother tutored me at home, and that helped. 

Joo Chen, now thirteen, was much better at languages than I, and he quickly picked up American teen-age slang. Within a year, he had many friends.

I turned eighteen in April of 2034, and although our family usually celebrated everyone's birthday on the New Year, this was a special date. 

It was my first birthday in America.

So Father decided we'd celebrate in Washington's Chinatown, which was right on a subway stop.

At first, it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. It was not much like the real China at all, except for the homeless people, and it was much smaller than the Chinatowns I'd read about in other American cities. 

But we entered a modest-looking restaurant and everything changed. The people there were so welcoming, they put us at ease right away.

Father knew the owner, it seems, and we were brought to the family area, behind a black curtain in the back of the dining room. I got to meet a few people my own age, but, since most of them were second or third generation American, they spoke only broken Chinese. 

I thought it was very funny until we switched to English. Then it was they who laughed. But it was all in good fun and no one took offense.

We had a wonderful meal, and the number one chef came out to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. When he found out it was my birthday, he brought a cake for dessert, with candles I had to blow out. 

"Everyone does this on their birthday," they said.

It took a year, but I began to feel comfortable. At home.

People in America were generally very welcoming and friendly, but I felt a note of anxiety in almost everyone. 

Maybe it was the pace of life, or the unbelievable cost of everything.

Or maybe it was the coming of Apophis. 

Sooner or later, every conversation turned to the topic of the approach of the asteroid's debris field, and, although he never talked about it, I think Father's new work was involved somehow.

Of course, there was no news at all about him on the Record, but he believed the Chinese government blamed him personally for Apophis breaking up. I thought that was nonsense, of course. 

No one could have predicted it would turn out this way, but I knew Father felt his honor was diminished, and that nearly broke him.

We'd been watching the approach of the rubble mountain for months, and from the photos and live videos streaming on the Record, I noticed the colors were different this time around. 

No matter the angle of the sun, or the position of the camera, it just looked like a dirty gray pile of rocks and debris. Gone was the shimmering, color-changing mass, almost as if the life had simply drained out of its body when it shattered. 

I searched for images everywhere, not knowing what I was looking for, swiping from site to site, following Apophis' every movement. 

Then, I came upon one video in particular that gave me a rush of exhilaration. It was a close-up of the rock field, sunlit from below, and speeded up, to compress one hour of transit into a few minutes. 

Strong shadows cast powerful lines, and, in the constant, swirling motion of the spinning rocks and dust, independent and yet bound tightly by microgravity, circles began to form. I watched it again and again. 

Then I saw the faces. 

A sad old woman, in shock or disbelief, with tears in her eyes. Suddenly, the tears turned into flames. There were young boys and girls shouting. Slithering dragons and snakes of all sorts, appeared and disappeared.

I became very afraid and had to make some sense of this madness. I had to draw it. 

So I went off to my room and drew for hours. Dinner came and went, the sky grew dark. I was unaware of time. I changed from pencil to pen to colored markers. I combined charcoal with wax crayon and blended and smeared. I was covered in soot and ink. I used both hands to draw and gripped the chair and table corner together with my legs, like a monkey, to hold them steady. 

My legs were going numb. Completed pages cluttered the floor, tossed at random, one after another. I stopped and stood suddenly, straddling the floor with dozens of drawings beneath my feet.

Each drawing was different. I had just tossed them aside, but now, arranged in this way, they seemed to connect. 

They seemed to fit together. 

Then I saw her! 

It was the old woman, with the fiery eyes. I could actually see her! 

At least, I thought I could.

She was looking at me. 

Not speaking. Just looking.

This is impossible! I thought. What does she want? 

But I had stood up too fast. Suddenly the blood rushed out of my head and I felt faint. I couldn't feel my legs but I couldn't sit quickly enough.

It is too late. I heard distinctly as I went down. Actually heard it!

It is too late, she said, sadly. We are so sorry.

It's a she! I thought with my last bit of consciousness. I knew it! It's a woman's voice!

I collapsed on the floor, and passed out. Perhaps not in that order.

When I woke, the room was dark. Joo Chen must have tucked the blanket around me on the floor, but he never mentioned it.

Neither did I.