Chapter 15

The next few days were almost as busy as our first days in the valley, working to get the new people settled. Amanda's teams had set up new tents next to the ones already erected for those who came with us, as the simplest solution to the problem, but I had an issue with keeping them separate.

"We need to get them integrated, Amanda," I told her. "If they are to become part of the community, we and they need to have no dividing lines between us. Let's find a way to mix them in with the rest of us. For starters, I think the doc can stay up at the house, since he needs to be on call. As for the rest, well they don't necessarily have to share a tent with one of our people, but their tents shouldn't be in a separate group."

"Hmmm, it'll take some explaining, but I'll get it done. How's the arm?"

"It's okay. Doc looked it over and said it doesn't look infected, so he stitched up the holes. It's still going to be about six weeks until it heals. Anything else going on here that I should know about?"

"I've put a couple of the new folks who proved they could shoot on watches around the perimeter of the valley to take some of the load off of the original people. You know, it's amazing the difference the little training we've had has made in the attitudes and discipline of our group. I hadn't really noticed the changes until I got to compare them with the newbies. We've come a long way in a short time."

"That we have. Wanda Somers kicked one of the new guys' ass this morning when he refused to do something that needed doing. My first instinct was to step in, then I remembered our rules. Personally, I think the guy fell in love with her, but that's none of my business. At any rate, we need to get these folks trained too. I know you're pretty busy, but get some of your better pupils to help out with the hand-to-hand. Who've we got that can fill in for Garcia for a couple of days?"

"The only one I can think of is Sanchez, but she's cooped up in the fire control center."

"Well, since I'm pretty useless up here, and you're better at managing this stuff than I am, why don't I go relieve her. Oh yeah, get Matt to start teaching marksmanship, too."

"Already thought of that. He and Crystal will start this morning. Oh, before you go bury yourself in that mine again, you should know that both Ruth and Cora are pregnant. My strip didn't turn the right color yet, but I'm still hoping."

"That's great news! I'll be sure to stop by and congratulate them."

I found Ruth and Cora together in the kitchen. Ruth looked devastated, and Cora was trying to console her.

"Remember what Gavin said the other night? It doesn't matter whose baby it is, because it is our baby. You don't have to go through this alone. You have Jamaal as well as the rest of us. It will be all right."

"How can it be all right? I won't know for at least eight more months who the father is, then what? You think Jamaal will stick around if it isn't his baby? I know he says he will, but I know men. As soon as he sees a white skin on that baby, he'll be gone!"

"I think you're selling Jamaal a little short, there, Ruth," I butted in. "But even if you're right, even if he does bail, I'll be here. Cora will be here. Everyone will be here. You are not alone. What I said the other night still goes. No matter whose baby, it's a precious gift, and I guarantee that the entire community will treasure you and your baby."

"How can you guarantee that? You can't change hundreds of years of prejudice and, and... well you just can't!"

"Actually, I happen to know a bit about marketing. We'll keep hitting them over the head with the message until they've heard it enough times that their automatic responses kick in. You know the ones: 'I've heard that a lot. It must be true.' It used to work for the crap they sold on TV and it'll work for us, even easier because it is true. Wait and see. We're in a time when change is forced on all of us, so we're in the habit of re-examining our old ideas. People will come around, Ruth, it just takes time and the right environment."

"God! What were you before? A snake-oil salesman? Listening to you, you make it so easy to believe it will come true."

"I've never been a salesman in my life. What I have been is a guy who makes things happen. My company was beating out its competitors because I made my people think beyond the 'tried and true.' I made them come up with original solutions to old problems. I made them break out of their comfort zones. That's what I'm good at. I make people do what others think is impossible. You believe what I say because, deep down, you know that I believe it too. That's all there is to it."

I took her in my arms as she sobbed, and held her for long minutes. When she finally disengaged from me, her face was a wet, smudged mess, but there was a smile on it. Not much of one, but a smile nonetheless.

"Thanks, Gavin," she said softly. "I still don't know whether I can believe what you say, but you give me hope, and maybe that's enough."

"Well, the reason I came here this morning was to congratulate the two of you. Your fears and uncertainties aside, you and Cora are the first official Mothers of the New World, and I, for one, appreciate that, very much. I think, perhaps that it calls for a celebration, only you should not be the one preparing it. Let me talk to Amanda and see what we can come up with."

"Celebrating is about the last thing I feel like doing right now, Gavin." Ruth said morosely.

"Then you'll just have to endure our celebration of you, and of Cora, my dear. This is part of that marketing campaign I was telling you about, besides being a true cause for celebration, okay? This is momentous occasion, and you two are going to be celebrated whether you want it or not."

I hoped my smile took any callousness from my words. I knew that, in Ruth's state of mind, she was not feeling very festive, but it was time for us to have a bit of relaxation if for no other reason than to relieve some of the stress of the last few weeks, and what better excuse than burgeoning motherhood?

I turned, then, to Cora, and gave her a passionate kiss. "Congratulations, Corazon," I told her softly, just as Jamaal came tearing into the kitchen.

Without a word to anyone else, he grabbed Ruth in a bear hug and started dancing her around the room, her feet never touching the floor.

"Jamaal!" she shrieked, "Jamaal! What's gotten into you?"

"No, baby," he laughed, "it's what's gotten into you! You gonna be a momma! We gonna have our firs' kid! I'm'on' be a daddy!"

"Jamaal, stop! Stop!" she pounded ineffectually at his chest and shoulders with clenched fists, "Cut it out! You don't even know if it's yours!"

"Yes I do, baby," he laughed. "Who else gon' step up, huh? You think I care if our baby got white skin? His momma got white skin, but that don't make no dif'ence to me. Thass our baby, baby!"

"Jamaal!" she exclaimed as he whirled her around again, but this time there was amusement and wonder in her voice. "You really don't care? You'll still love me?"

"Baby, you couldn't stop me lovin' you if you tried," he answered, finally becoming serious. "You been the bes' thing that evah happened to me. I los' a girl in that sickness, an' I thought my worl' was over. Then what happen'? One night I wake up an' there you is in my tent, smellin' so fresh an' clean. I know when you firs' come to me was mebbe jus' curiosity, but somehow, when you turn' to me after that rape, you done captured me. Right then, you stopped bein' a rich white bitch that wanted to know if them stories about black men was true, an' you turned into somebody real. Nobody never depended on me for somethin' like that befo' an' there ain't no feelin' like that in the world. I ain't nevah been like I been these las' few weeks, baby. Long as you aroun' I cain't be no other way. In mah mind, right up to the night after that rape, I was a playah, but I ain't playin' now, baby. I ain't got a lot of education, but I'm a damn good plumber, an' now I'm a daddy. I'm'on' be the daddy of yo' babies as long as you let me."

"Oh, Jamaal," Ruth sighed, capturing his lips with hers.

That kiss didn't show any signs of ending anytime soon, so I took Cora's arm and steered her out of the room.

"How are you holding up, Cora?" I asked.

"I am happy to be pregnant again," she replied, wistfully, "and although I am glad you are to be my baby's father, still, I cannot help wishing my husband was the father and, well, you know."

"I understand," I said, turning to embrace her... "I can appreciate that I'm not the love of your life, Cora, but I'm proud to be the father of your baby, and hope I can do a better job than I've done so far, of being there for you."

"It is okay. I know you have a lot to do, and I have been very busy helping Dr. Mondale set things up to make the infirmary more efficient."

"How is the good doctor working out? Have you had to kick his ass to keep him in line?"

"No," she smiled, "though it is a wonderful feeling to know that I could. He is actually not so bad, now that he understands the situation. He is like Heather - it takes a little time for things to sink in, but once they do, he's okay. He really is a good doctor. He just needed to break some old habits."

"All right. I've got to go down and relieve Carmen in the mine so she can come up and start training these people in the care and use of small arms."

I didn't see Amanda on my way to the mine, so I didn't have a chance to get her started thinking about a celebration. Carmen was happy to get more than a couple of hours out of the mine, though she wasn't sure she was ready to start training the new people.

"You've learned what you've been taught, Carmen," I told her. "Just start where Ramon started teaching you and teach it to them. I don't think I'd try to copy his teaching style, though. You should just be yourself and learn as you go. I guarantee that whatever you teach these people, you will know better than anyone else by the time you're done."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"It means that there's no better way to learn all you can about something than to try to teach it to others. In answering their questions and making sure they get it right, you'll learn things you never thought to ask when it was being taught to you. Just remember, don't try to bullshit them. If you don't know the answer to a question, tell 'em you'll have to get back to 'em, then go look it up or ask someone. If necessary, make them wait until the Gunny gets back, then find out."

"Geez, now you've really got me scared!"

"Nothing to be scared of, Carmen. Might be a good idea to find out who knows what before you start trying to teach them, that way you can teach each one at the level he or she needs to be taught. You might even find that some of 'em can help with the teaching. There used to be a lot of ex-military types out there, so don't hesitate to use whatever resources you've got."

"I'll do the best I can, sir."

"That's all anyone can ask. Hey, if you run into Amanda, would you ask her, when she gets time, to come see me? It's not urgent, but there's something I'd like to talk to her about before I forget."

"Will do."

I used the time alone to try to devise ways of fighting and using weapons with only one arm available, but time still crawled. Carmen brought me my next couple of meals and told me that Amanda had gotten the message, but with me out of the watch rotation topside, and with all the work getting the new folks settled in, she didn't know when she'd be able to come down into the mine.

I had no choice but to use the five gallon bucket that had been put there as a chamber pot. Thank god it had a tight-fitting lid. Eventually, I fell asleep on the cot that had been brought in for Carmen's use, hoping the alarms she had set up on the fire-control consoles would work well.

By my watch, it was 6:23 a.m. when I awoke from a restless sleep. I had gotten used to sleeping with the bullet wound but the damned cot was a hellish place for a man of my advanced years to try to sleep. I yawned and scanned the monitors as I made a fresh pot of coffee. I was starting on my second cup when one of the terminals started beeping. I looked at the video monitor, but could sse nothing. Suddenly, there was movement in the upper corner of one of the monitors. A quick check showed me that this one was mounted near the southwest corner of our little desert fortress, and as I looked, a flood of relief washed over me. Into the scene drove an Army 6x6, followed by two more bearing Marine insignia. Our shopping convoy! My elation turned to alarm when the original three trucks were followed by three more, one mounted with a heavy duty lift arm. Behind those came, in quick succession, a tanker truck, a tractor-trailer rig with a flatbed that held a bulldozer, and another flatbed truck carrying a crane as well as the dismounted sections of its boom. This was followed by a tarp covered dump truck, also pulling a trailer. That trailer held a tractor on which was mounted both a front loader and a backhoe. Behind all that came a covered trailer bristling with antennae, and another flatbed whose load was covered by a tarp. I didn't wait to see what was behind that.

Hand shaking so badly I was sure I would blow the code, I began tapping the topside telegraph. There was no way to give numbers, so I sent the direction and a one followed by a whole lot of zeroes. I hoped that it was just a shopping trip gone crazy, but I couldn't rule out the possibility that someone had captured our trucks and now wanted to use them to gain entry to our fortress.

I had no sooner stopped tapping than a short reply came on my reciever. I had to look up the code. DASH DOT DASH DASH DASH that meant... friend! That must mean that Amanda had exchanged radio signals with the convoy and they had responded with the right voice codes. All right!

I was tempted to start up the mine to greet the returning 'shoppers' but decided that that would be setting a really bad example. To my surprise, as I watched the convoy wind its way from monitor to monitor, coming around the west side of our mountains, Amanda showed up to relieve me.

"Hey, big boy," she called out as she swung open the door to the fire control room. "I hear you want to talk to me."

"Well, I do, but I expected you to be busy getting ready to greet our returning convoy."

"Not my job," she grinned. "It's pretty clear that there are more people in that convoy than they left with, and since you're the guy who says who stays and who goes, I figured I'd better come down and relieve you so you could go do your job."

"One of these days, this is going to fall on you, you know."