Chapter 25

“So, Jeremy and Meredith will stay a lot with the younger children, such as the B squad,” Charles stipulated now as they all sat to eat at the old rest stop.

“Precisely. Jeremy is just thirteen and Meredith is only nine. Even now, I have doubts that she’s mine. Then again, that was still the honeymoon phase with her mother, Gretchen, so maybe she is,” Mike Hawkins admitted his doubts.

“I can assure you, my friend, that she is yours. As you said, it was still the honeymoon period for you two. Things were still very amorous and you were both very fertile. That was before she had a tubal done, of course, which is why you have no more. She had you neatly baby-trapped in her mind, so didn’t need another brat. That’s how she saw it. She was a psychopath, even a cheater at times, but she never committed paternity fraud,” Lavelle swore to Mike, allaying his fears of a cuckoo in the nest.

“The B squad are all pretty young, relatively speaking. They could use new friends, cousins if you will. Babysitters for sure. Jeremy in particular could do well with that. But what about Jeannie? Where does she fit in? She’s what, sixteen? Old enough to marry in our tribe, if that proves wise and desirable to everyone, including her,” Justine remarked.

“That is very true, but we’ve never forced anyone to wed against their will and we’re not about to start doing so. And she’s seventeen, just to be clear. I remember her birth all too clearly. Sweet girl, thick head full of sandy hair, which just darkened over the years, of course. Now, if she’s not jet-black, it’s only missed by degrees. My Jeannie, back with me at last!” Mike grinned at that thought, even if the news of the manner of Gretchen’s death was quite the shock.

“And now Justine’s carrying her little sister, too!” Susie observed.

“Very true, she is. Just as you’re knocked up by each of us,” Charles noted with pride.

“Yes, twins! One by you, one by Mike! We shouldn’t rush Jeannie into marriage, at any rate, should we?” Susie proposed.

“No, of course not. Let her decide in her own good time. She still has to learn about Dandelion’s condition that she passed on to each of us. You know, the one that makes us all horny little omni motherfuckers? With no fear of death, disease, aging, etc., which sounds sweet, but it is clearly irrevocable. Jeannie shouldn’t go into this blind. She needs the same information as the rest of us when making such a choice,” Justine fully agreed with her sister-wife.

“Yes, that’s obviously a valid concern. We can’t deceive or manipulate her or anything. Let her choose freely, knowing all of the facts. Not just the most palatable ones, either,” Charles nodded.

“Choose what, exactly? Daddy, what’s going on here? What kind of group or caravan is this, anyway? I walked in on this girl, Dandelion, pulling a train that included Mr. Grossman and several others. How is Mr. Tremaine a Prophet?” Jeannie inquired as she rejoined them.

“He’s a Prophet because he was chosen by God and it was revealed through an angel. He’s not the main Prophet, my dear, but he is the only one in this group. We’re part of a traveling tribe here. We’re going westward toward Haven, a community that serves as a refuge or asylum, a place that is the foundation for the new society or civilization that will bring us out of the new Dark Ages back into the light.

“What we were discussing was your future. What you choose to do, with whom, and so forth. We’ve all been drawn into triads and quads of some kind, which help bind soulmates together. But you, my daughter, are now of age and can form your own attachments as you wish, as long as they are with those at least fourteen years of age and they agree to it,” Mike clarified.

“Well, except that it’s quite clear that she must choose among the throuples, I think,” Bill added.

“Yes, I would agree with that. Lavelle made it apparent that no groups among us should be larger than a quad. Quads appear to be the ideal or closer to it than anything else. Throuples are a close second. Is that right, Lavelle?” Bethany turned to the angel.

“Correct. Heaven wants quads, at least for now. Quads and triads. Not for any inherent reason, but for logistical purposes, so as to avoid leaving anyone still in couples or worse yet, alone. She should choose among the triads. Jeannie, I would counsel you to look at this matter with both heart and head. Find a triad that is ... an easier, relaxed fit, not one that is tough for you. Make sure that it is ... harmonious and makes you happy as well as them,” Lavelle proposed.

“Bear in mind also that you won’t be excluded from sex with others outside those groups. Far from it. Every adult here mates with every other adult, trust me on that. And if it doesn’t work out, I believe that you can relocate or reassign yourself,” Charles suggested.

“Indeed, as the Prophet states, you don’t have to stick to a mistake. And you are not required to be faithful to your quad or triad. Everyone within the community who is of age is to mate with everyone else of age. But the age of adulthood here is fourteen, not eighteen. Heaven doesn’t have any use for that artificially prolonged childhood, the infantilization of youth.

“Just because your brain is more mature at twenty-five than at fifteen doesn’t make you a child at the latter age. It just means the former is a more advanced stage of adulthood. Mature rather than young adulthood, if you will. If it meant what pre apocalyptic society thought, puberty would happen much later in life. Nature exposes the falsity of their claims,” Lavelle asserted now.

“And you’re an actual angel? Why didn’t you help me with Gretchen?” Jeannie demanded to know.

“Because, sadly, we can’t be everywhere and I had an assignment. This was not part of my role. It was, however, part of my job, once you got far enough, to help guide you here. To reunite you and your siblings with your father. Tragedy is not entirely avoidable, of course. What we can do is to free you from the clutches of that tragedy, to keep it from dominating your life,” Lavelle now explained to the teenage girl.

“Were you human once?” Jeannie wondered.

“Yes, I was. Long story. I’ll go into detail at some other point. But yes, there’s a reason that I’m black. I was a black man here on Earth, an African-American living in South Carolina. Now I’m a citizen of Heaven, an angel of God. Obviously, that happened because of death. I died a while back, yet here I am. My body is celestial now, not earthly, not human,” Lavelle smiled as he informed Jeannie of those details of his past.