Woman of the Past

Chapter 2

The men all looked back and forth at each other as if silently debating what to tell her. Logan held up his hands as the other two both stared at him, “Why do I have to tell her? She’s your sister.”

“Yeah but you know the women’s point of view better than us. Alicia talks about things like that with you and so do the others. Carter and I just know about becoming lovers.” He lowered his voice to a whisper she could still hear. “I don’t particularly want to discuss that with my sister.”

Peyton decided to save him, “I agree, especially since I literally changed his diaper at 11:30 this morning, right before I went to chase my dog and got struck by lightning. I think I’ve been through enough traumas for one day.”

“I don’t really like talking to my sister about it either.” He sighed, “Fine, I’ll explain.” Logan paused a moment, rubbing his hand under his chin and along his jaw, “Well, once everything calmed down the Government decided to create a system to match women up with suitable men. The system excludes men with diseases, criminal backgrounds, and men that can’t have children. Women would have the final say in which they were with and would be able to choose from the list.”

“The women fought it at first. The things they had been through traumatized a lot of them. The government finally gave them an ultimatum: no babies, no protection.” Logan’s face reflected the anger he’d felt on his sister’s behalf. He stopped talking, and brewed in his anger.

“Please tell me they didn’t just cave. Tell me they had more backbone than that.” Peyton knew the women would have been fearful but she couldn’t stand the idea of them forgetting how strong a woman could be.

Logan snorted, “Naw, Mom wouldn’t let them. She made them send back a list of demands to be met.” He started listing them on his fingers. “The women would pick out a group of men from the lists for a Meet & Greet once a week. They would have full and final choice of whom they wanted to father their children. No woman has to have more than one pregnancy every two years. Mothers would raise all children unless the mother decided to give up the child. And the last one, if a woman chooses to marry, she never has to go to another Meet & Greet again.”

“That sounds fair enough. Did they agree?” Her curiosity ran wild with her.

“Yeah, they agreed. Oregon had the largest population of female survivors in the country, mostly because they were the first to learn about the cure. They have more control over what happens in this country than the politicians do. Our society is more matriarchal than it was in your time. They have affected everything in the last fifteen years.”

Peyton sat back on the couch and was quiet for a while, “I don’t know how to believe this whole thing. It feels like I’m stuck in some late night mindbender film.” She took a deep breath, steeling herself for whatever answer she got to her next question, “I don’t want you to fill me in on history anymore. I need to know, are Mom and Dad alive and are we,” She gestured between all of them, “related somehow?”

They all three smiled at her question, which she took as a good sign. Law answered, “Their alive and well. We don’t have any biological brothers and sisters, but we have five more sisters and fifteen brothers. Five of us are old enough to live outside of the Pearl district now. We chose to live here where it’s quieter.”

Peyton’s eyes practically boggled out of their sockets, “Twenty other siblings! How?”

“They couldn’t stand seeing kids alone. Three of the girls were orphans from the epidemic. One lost her Mom in childbirth, and the other is your cousin May. She’s fifteen now. The others, well girls are wanted and boys aren’t. Many of the women are abandoning their male children. Mom and Dad couldn’t stand it and took all of us in. They took care of us, fed us, and loved us, as our biological parents no longer could. Ellen and Max Parker showed us what family was all about. So we are brothers, and that’s that.” Carter spoke eloquently, his love for their parents apparent in every syllable.

Peyton wanted to cry but remembered Law’s reaction from before and managed to stop herself. Instead, she made her exhausted body stand up. The men around her stood too and she set her bowl down on the table. Logan and Carter stood next to each other and she stepped towards them, wrapping them both in a hug, “Sorry it took me so long. Welcome to the family.” She pulled back and smiled. They both smiled back. Logan with a lighthearted smirk and Carter with a flashing white smile dentists would swoon over.

“Right back at you… sis” Logan laughed as Peyton turned to Law.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, we have a lot of things to catch up on.” She moved over to Law and hugged him close. He hugged her back and she couldn’t believe how tall he’d grown. She reached up and brushed his hair away from his forehead. When she pulled her hand back a snort of laughter escaped from her.

Law stepped back as she broke out in half hysterical laughter, “What’s so funny?”

Peyton half doubled over, laughing so hard she had to gasp for air a couple times before she could give him and answer, “It’s nothing really.” She snorted again in a completely unladylike way, “It’s just that… when I put you down for a nap this morning, I thought you were growing like a weed.” She managed to get out through the laughter, the last word coming out in a squeak, “Just look at you now!”

She couldn’t see the looks exchanged by the others through the tears of laughter stinging her eyes. She heard Logan though, “Okay, I think she’s at her crazy limit for the day. The three of us need to talk and she needs to sleep off the hysteria coming on.” He didn’t ask her, he just picked her up as she continued to laugh. “Whose room used to belong to her? Maybe sleeping there will calm her down.”

“Jaxon’s room was hers. He has four births due any minute so he’s staying in Zone for the week.” Law told him as he followed them up the stairs.

“Hey why can’t I carry her?” Carter pitched in following.

Logan was the fastest to reply, with an easy bantering developed long ago, “Because she’s been traumatized enough and doesn’t need you hitting on her.”

Carter mumbled something that sounded like “No fun,” under his breath but smiled to show he was just joking.

Peyton had finally stopped her laughter when Logan placed her on a bed and Law came to tuck her in, “Time to sleep Princess Peyton."

As soon as her head hit the pillow, she realized how tired she was. She groaned and rolled to her side, burying her face in the pillow. She breathed deeply and had just enough energy to notice that her pillows smelt fantastic before she fell into a deep healing sleep.