THREE
Different Kines
2067. April 8th.
Bethany Kines pressed the End button on her phone and quickly rubbed her eyes. It had been five months since her visit to Base City and GenRes, where, thankfully, Doctor Temlane had been able to correct her unborn baby’s Ryson’s diagnosis. That baby, a brown-eyed, brown-haired girl named Melody, had been born perfectly healthy last week.
Setting the phone down on the kitchen counter, Bethany took in a deep breath, let it out, and sucked in another before walking into the living room. She had been fighting to hold back the tears while on the phone – not that she had been entirely successful – and now they threatened to run full force. She had been talking to Melody’s father, and things had not gone the way she wanted.
Steady now, Beth, she told herself. Steady. After a few more calming breaths, she made her way over to the couch and gingerly sat down. She was still sore from giving birth.
Melody was sleeping in her safety seat on top of the coffee table “Well, Melody, baby,” Beth said, “That was your daddy on the phone. He said he’d send some money, but he doesn’t think it’s ‘a good idea’ to get back together with Mommy right now. Can you believe that? He said maybe he’d come to see you after a while, though. He’s just like all the other guys Mommy’s dated.” Bethany leaned forward to kiss her baby on the forehead but had to pull back. A fresh, hot tear had come rolling down her nose, and she didn’t want it to drip onto Melody’s mostly-bald head.
May 18th.
Five weeks later. “Well, baby,” Bethany sighed, as she and Melody rode along in the car, “I wish we could keep spending our time together, but the government says it’s time for Mommy to go back to work. And that means it’s time for you to go to daycare. But don’t worry. I’m sure they have some very nice ladies there who will take care of you until I get off. And I’ll come see you at lunchtime. How’s that sound?”
A few minutes later, Bethany’s car entered the line in front of Gate 3 at Newsprings’ Troeger SkyForce Base. When it was her turn to pass through the guard station, she pushed the button to make her window go down and leaned out. “Hey, Ken! Take a look!”
Ken, an older man with salt and pepper hair – he had to be close to retirement – looked up from his clipboard. “Beth?” he said, walking out of the guard house. “How are ya, girl? Back already, ‘eh?”
“Yep. Back to work. But look who I’m bringing with me.”
“Oh,” Ken said, peering past her into the car. “Hi, there. Hi.”
On the seat, Melody began fussing, and Bethany turned to quiet her.
Ken straightened back up and said, “She’s a good one, Beth. It’s nice to see you back.”
“Thanks, Ken.” Then, glancing in her rearview mirror, “Well, we better not hold up your line anymore. See ya!”
“See ya tomorrow.”
The base’s daycare center was down the road from Gate 3 and was free to any Force personnel. Bethany, with Melody and diaper bag in her arms, walked to the entrance of the building and scanned her badge. Like most doors on base, however, these doors were programmed to let only certain badge numbers unlock them, and so Bethany had to push the call button for assistance.
A middle-aged woman came to the door and held it open. “Hi, I’m Mrs. Burchell.”
“Bethany Kines.”
“Oh, yes, we’ve spoken on the phone. Did your badge not work? They must be running behind on programming the new numbers in. Come with me, and I’ll show you where… Excuse me; what is the baby’s name?”
“Melody.”
“Thank you. I’ll show you where Melody’s room will be and introduce you to her teachers.”
When Bethany had seen the classroom and met the two ladies who would be Melody’s ‘teachers’ – caretakers was more like it at this age – she thought everything seemed well enough, but it was also strange. In a moment of surrealism, she thought, How can I be leaving my baby here? With people I don’t even know? And I still haven’t gotten used to the fact that I have a baby to leave!
But a glance at the clock and the teacher’s outstretched arms told her that she did have to leave Melody here. Best to do it quick. She handed Melody to the teacher, thanked her, thanked Mrs. Burchell, and walked out.
Bethany cried a little as she got back into her car. This was the first time she and Melody had been apart since they came home from the hospital.
A few minutes later, Bethany was at her locker, changing into her brown bodysuit and boots, her ‘greasemonkey digs,’ as she called them. She strapped on her tool belt, checked the assignment sheet on the wall, and walked out into Maintenance Hangar Two.
Some of the other members of the day crew – mostly men – were already there and Chief Jernigan was talking to a man she didn’t know. “Beth!” Jernigan called, seeing her out of the corner of his eye. “How are you doing? You okay?”
“Hi, Chief! I’m good.”
“Well, good. Welcome back. This is Jack Crisp. He sounds like he knows some things – just transferred from L.A. – but I want him to work with you today. Show him how we do things at Troeger.”
Bethany looked at Jack. He was handsome. Well-built too. She was suddenly a little nervous to work with him, but excited at the same time. “Will do, Chief!”
“Okay. Get to it, then.”
Bethany walked over to an SKF Osprey and handed Jack the work detail. “You know how to read one of these?”
Jack glanced down at it for a moment. “Sure. You want me to get started on this, and you can do something else?”
Jack was grinning, so Bethany knew he was joking. She smiled back and said, “Well, the Chief did say I was supposed to babysit you today...”
“Uh-huh. I think you just want to stay with me.”
Bethany laughed. “Whatever.”
Jack grinned and then said, “So I heard the Chief say you’d been gone for a while.”
“Yeah. Pregnancy leave.”
Jack looked surprised for a moment and then glanced at Bethany’s hands. “Must not’ve been married long, huh? I notice you don’t have any ring lines on your finger.”
“Oh, no, I’m not married,” Bethany laughed. She wished Melody’s dad would have married her, but now maybe not. She could see herself getting together with this Jack guy. “No boyfriend either.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. I’ve two of my own. Boys. They’re with their mother though.” Bethany nodded, and Jack continued. “We were too young when we got married, you know? Didn’t work out. Hey, do they have a volleyball league here?”
“Um, yeah, the base has a league. I was playing before I got pregnant.”
“You going to get back into it?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve got the baby…”
“You should. We could play together. And I have to tell you; I wouldn’t mind seeing you in some of those short shorts.”
Jack invited Bethany to have lunch with him – and she wanted to – but she excused herself to go check on Melody instead.
“She’s been crying all morning,” the teacher said when Bethany walked into the classroom. “We tried rocking her; we tried playing with her.”
“Did she eat?” Bethany asked worriedly. She had packed plenty of breastmilk bottles for the teachers to use.”
“Not very much. Has she been sick lately?”
Bethany shook her head and went to the cradle where Melody was. The baby was crying and screaming and turning her body from one side to the other as much as she could.
“Melody,” Bethany said sweetly, reaching down to pick her up, “what’s the matter?” Her mother’s voice immediately caught the baby’s attention, and she stopped crying. Bethany held her daughter and rocked her for the full hour of her lunch break. When it was time to go back to work, she laid Melody, back down in the cradle. She was sleeping peacefully, and Bethany hoped she would stay that way for the rest of the afternoon.
When Bethany came to pick Melody up to go home, she heard the same story. The baby girl had woken up shortly after Bethany left and had been throwing a fit the whole rest of the day. But when mommy went over to pick her up again, she was quiet and content.
In the car, Bethany cooed, “Well you sure are a momma’s girl, aren’t you? Yes! Yes, you are. And you’re not gonna let Mommy go out with Jack tonight, are you? No. No, you won’t. You’ll be crying too much for any babysitter I get, won’t you? So we’ll have to call Jack and see if he wants to come over and have dinner with us. How does that sound? Do you want to meet Jack too? Do you want to have some company tonight? Yes. Yes, you do. Yes.”
Jack arrived at Bethany’s apartment two hours later, wearing a dress shirt and tie and carrying a bouquet of roses and a bottle of wine. Bethany was in a slimly cut dress. She introduced him to Melody and told him he could have a seat while she finished dinner, but Jack had different ideas. Coming up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her. “You smell good,” he said and began kissing her neck. From there, he did not waste any time taking her clothes off, and they finally had dinner about an hour later.
June 2nd.
Two weeks later. “There’s one for ya!” Jack yelled, spiking the volleyball over the net and into the face of an opposing team member. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”
Bethany, playing in the second row of the rotation and purposefully glancing over at Melody on the sidelines, didn’t know how to feel about Jack’s playing. This was her first night back playing on the team, and it was Jack’s first night with them at all. He was good, no doubt about that – they were crushing the other team – but he was also loud. He yelled at their opponents, yelled at his own team, stole other people’s hits. But that’s what guys do, isn’t it? Bethany thought. Manly guys, anyway. I mean if you’re that good, why not show it a little? And maybe he’s trying extra hard tonight because he’s new. He wants to prove himself to the team.
“C’mon! Hit that!” Jack yelled when their team’s captain missed a volley.
July 5th.
A month later. Jack had gone outside for a smoke, leaving Bethany to finish her wine at the restaurant table by herself. “I’ll take that whenever you’re ready,” the waitress said, coming over and laying the bill down on the table.
Bethany was handing the bill back to the waitress when Jack came back in. “What is that?” Jack asked.
“What’s what?” Beth answered coyly.
“That!” Jack said, pointing at the bill.
“Don’t worry about it,” Bethany answered.
“Give it here.”
The waitress started to hand it and Bethany’s credit card over to him, but Bethany said, “Just ignore him. He pays for stuff all the time. It’s my turn.”
“Are you sure?” the waitress asked.
“No,” Jack said.
“Yes,” Bethany insisted. “Go ahead. It’s fine.”
The waitress, not waiting any longer, turned and walked away, Bethany’s credit card in hand.
Jack, glowering, pulled his chair out in one quick, angry movement, and sat down.
“Jack, are you angry?” Bethany laughed. It was absurd that he would be. “Jack, c’mon! Don’t be like that! You can pay again next time.”
Jack still had not answered when the waitress came back, and he didn’t even look at her.
“Jack, you’re being silly,” Bethany said on their way to the car. “You were outside, and you know I make as much money as you.”
They got in the car, and Bethany said, “Fine, you wanna be a big, macho baby about it…”
Slap!
Bethany recoiled. Her face stung. Had Jack hit her? She hadn’t seen it coming.
He was pointing his finger in her face, leaning in and yelling. “Don’t ever do that again, do you hear? I pay! I’m the man! Understand?”
“…Yes.” What else could she say? He might hit her again.
September 8th.
Two months later. “Hand me that power-wrench,” Jack said. He was on top of a ladder, leaning against the hull of a damaged Condor Transport.
Below him, Bethany mechanically bent down, picked up the tool, and handed it up to him.
“Thanks, Babe. What do you wanna do for lunch? I thought we could go get some sandwiches.”
“I have to go check on Melody,” Bethany answered dryly.
Jack looked down at her. “You do that every day. I think you can come have lunch with me once in a while, don’t you think?”
“She still cries too much,” Bethany answered. “Maybe when she gets better at…”
“Fine.”
Jack turned back to the Condor, but Bethany knew what ‘fine’ meant. She’d be hearing about – and maybe feeling – this conversation later if she didn’t do something to put Jack in a better mood before then.
At the end of her lunch hour, Bethany drove back from the daycare center to the maintenance housing. She was getting out of her car when another car stopped on the road in front of her, and a man called out to her, asking for directions.
Bethany was at the man’s car, giving him the number for the building he needed to go, when Jack, who had gone out for lunch alone, pulled up and saw them talking. Suspicious, he waited to get out of his car until the man drove off.
Bethany turned back to the building and was heading for the door when Jack got out of his car and came toward her, interrogating her. “Who was that?” Jack demanded.
“Who?”
“That guy in the car. I thought you said you were going to check on Melody.”
“I did.”
“Who was the guy, then?”
“Just some guy. A new guy. He didn’t know where he was going.”
“Where was he going?”
“What? What does it matter?” Bethany was getting irritated herself now.
“If you were only giving him directions, then you can tell me where he was going.”
“He was going to… You know what Jack? I’m not gonna tell you where he was going. It doesn’t matter.”
“You were out with him, weren’t you? What is he, a pilot? Maintenance guys aren’t enough for you anymore?”
“You are so ridiculous,” Bethany said. “I gave him the number to his building,” and she walked past him, again heading for the door.
“We’re not done talking about this!” Jack growled, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back.
“I think you are done, Jack,” Chief Jernigan said. The older man had come out the door, cigarette in hand, and had immediately taken in the situation. “Now let her go and get off my base. You’ll be on suspension until I can arrange your transfer.”
“Suspension?” Jack asked. Then, realizing that he was still holding Bethany’s wrist, he angrily let go and got into his car. A second later, he was driving off.
Bethany was left standing in the middle of the parking lot, and she was suddenly crying – not so much because of what had happened with Jack but because the Chief had witnessed it.
Jernigan, lighting his cigarette, said, “Don’t worry about him. I saw he wasn’t treating you so well these last couple of months, but, blast it, Beth, you’re a soldier. I thought you’d say something.”
2068. April 2nd.
Eight months later. “Well, that was nice, wasn’t it, little Mel-Mel?” Bethany asked. She was laying Melody down on her blanket on the floor of their apartment. “Did you have a good first birthday? And did you like your daddy? It was nice of him to come see you and take us out, wasn’t it? Of course, he should have come earlier, shouldn’t he have? Yes! But he’s such a jerk, he can’t help it. At least he’s better than Jack, though, huh? Yeah, Jack was a meanie-butt. But Daddy says his new wife doesn’t even know about you yet. Do you think we should tell her? Do you think we should make Daddy miserable? No, we won’t do that, will we? No, we won’t. As long as he keeps sending some money for you and comes to see us once in a while, right? After all, we don’t want a deadbeat Daddy for you, do we? No, we don’t.”
Knock, knock, knock!
“Upp! Who’s that? Do you think Daddy forgot something? Let’s go see!”
But looking out the peephole, Bethany could see that it was her sister, Peggy. Should she open the door…or not?
It had been quite a while, a year and a half, since her sister had even talked to her. And now she was here? Why?
Bethany knew she didn’t have much time to think about it. She could open the door and find out what Peggy wanted, or she could pretend she wasn’t home and then spend who knew how long wondering about it.
“Peggy,” Beth greeted nonchalantly, opening the door.
“Hey, sis!” Peggy exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Bethany. “How are ya?”
“Fine.” Bethany did not return the hug. “What are you doing here?”
Peggy let go and her mood became more serious. “Can I come in?” she asked with a weak smile on her face.
“…Sure,” Bethany sighed, stepping aside to let Peggy in.
Peggy stooped down and picked up two huge bags. Bethany could see that they were full of wrapped gifts. “It’s your daughter’s birthday, isn’t it?” Peggy said in explanation.
Peggy walked into the apartment and saw Melody on the floor “There she is!” Peggy beamed. “There’s the baby! Hi!” Peggy set her bags down and knelt in front of the little one-year-old.
Melody, suddenly seeing a new face in front of hers, began crying.
“She doesn’t like strangers,” Bethany explained. “She’s the shy type.”
“What’s her name?” Peggy asked, standing up and backing away.
“Melody,” Bethany answered dryly, scooping the baby up and bouncing her up and down against her chest to quiet her.
“Melody,” Peggy repeated. “That’s a pretty name.”
“What are you doing here, Peggy?” Bethany cut in impatiently. “Last time I talked to you…”
“I was a jerk. I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that… Well, why don’t we sit? There are some things I need to tell you.”
Bethany, still staring, still angry, walked to the couch and sat on one end.
Peggy sat at the other end and said, “When I was at Yale, I met this guy. Charlie. He was a Teacher Assistant. Anyway, we were pretty serious, I thought. He would stay at my place sometimes, and I would stay at his and…well, we were together, okay?”
Bethany nodded. Was she supposed to have a reaction to this? She knew how her sister was now and she knew how she had been then.
“But then,” Peggy continued, “someone told me he was cheating on me. It turns out he was actually engaged to some Susan girl the whole time I was dating him. So I broke it off, and I was all depressed and…
“Anyway, a couple of weeks later, this girlfriend of mine invited me to go to a church meeting with her. Of course, our family was never the church-going type, but I was curious. I don’t know why. Maybe because of what happened with Charlie. Anyway, I went. It was a house church. They didn’t have an actual building or anything. This couple had started a little Bible study in their house and…
“Well, I went and I liked it, and over the next few weeks, I started to believe what they were saying. I was reading the Bible and looking into things and it was all making a lot of sense of to me, you know?
“I know,” Bethany replied. “You’ve told me all this before. You moved back home, you started going to God’s Love, you wanted me to go with you, I wouldn’t, you got on the church board or whatever…”
“And then you called me and told me you were pregnant and that the guy had left you. And, Beth, I didn’t know how to deal with that. I just kept thinking about Charlie and what a jerk he had been, and now there was some other guy being a jerk to you.
“And I was mad at you. I shouldn’t have been, but I was mad at you for sleeping with someone and getting pregnant before you were married. Christians don’t do that. At least, they’re not supposed to, and I wanted you to be a Christian like me. So I was upset when you weren’t one.
“And I was upset at myself too. I thought maybe if I had tried harder, maybe if I had talked to you more, I could have convinced you before you got yourself into it with that guy.”
Bethany scratched her nose, taking all this in. Her sister was right. Bethany wasn’t ‘a believer,’ but she could still understand what Peggy was saying. “So what changed?” she asked.
“Just growing, I guess. Learning more. Understanding what it means to be a Christian. Accepting people where they are and forgiving, not only others but myself as well. And knowing that I don’t have all the responsibility to make you into a Christian. I can help, maybe, but God is the one in charge of that, not me, and He’s going to send other people to you too. I guess those are some of the things that I needed to learn.”
Bethany nodded again. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Peggy repeated. “So you forgive me?”
“…Sure. Why not?”
2070. September 5th.
Two and a half years later. Things had been going really well for Bethany since Peggy came back into her life. Now that they were grown up and weren’t constantly at each other’s throats, they were able to be more like friends to each other. Even though Peggy lived and worked in Base City, she would drive over to Newsprings a couple of nights a week to hang out, and they would usually spend their Saturdays together. Melody had even gotten used to her aunt after the first couple of weeks, and they were good friends now, with Melody, who was three and a half, always anticipating ‘Aunt Pe’ey’s’ visits with a mad run around the apartment.
Peggy was supposed to be coming out to help make dinner tonight, but for now, Bethany and the rest of the maintenance day crew were gathered around Chief Jernigan. “The senior staff is gonna be takin’ State Senators all over the base today,” the Chief was saying. “Now, they probably won’t stop in here, but I want everyone on their best behavior in case they do, understand? That means I want you to look professional. Keep your areas and your mouth clean. And use your walkies. No yelling across the hangar.”
As he was talking, the door at the front of the hangar opened, and Chief Jernigan immediately started walking toward it. “General Goase! Senators!” The Chief had been wrong about them not wanting to stop in at the Maintenance bays.
Bethany knew that this was only a routine tour. The state senators, representatives, and the governor were all expected to pay a visit to Force facilities at least once a year and, when the President was going to be nearby, he or she would usually stop in as well.
But today was special because she knew one of the Senators in today’s group: Greg Hoffaker. He was finishing his first term.
As he walked around the hangar with the rest of the tour, Bethany wondered if he would recognize her. They had gone to high school together and had known each other a little, but that was a few years ago. She tried to stay busy up on the roof of the plane, but she was also trying to watch him, curious about this once-acquaintance of hers.
The group was coming around the other side of the plane and were thanking Chief Jernigan, ready to head back for the door, when Senator Hoffaker said, “One moment, General. There’s someone here I’d like to say hi to.”
Bethany looked around. Was there anyone else here that Greg could have known? He hadn’t seen her up here, had he? She hadn’t noticed him looking this way.
But a second later, he was climbing up her ladder. “Bethany? Hey! I thought that was you! How have you been?”
“Good!” she laughed. “I’ve been good. How about you, Senator? You seem to be doing well for yourself.”
“Well, I can’t complain, I suppose. Hey, nice necklace.”
Bethany reached down and fingered the little gold cross around her neck. It had been a gift from Peggy a couple of years ago, and she had worn it every day since. It always reminded her of the first night she had gone to church. Peggy had been asking her to come with her, but Bethany kept refusing. “I have to work Sunday morning,” she would say. “That’s fine,” Peggy would answer. “We can go to the Saturday night service. I usually go to both anyway.” “Well,” Bethany would counter, “you know I’m not into the religious stuff. I mean, it’s fine for you, but…” “Just come try it. How do you know you’re not into it until you come find out for yourself? If you come once and you don’t want to go back, I’ll drop it.” So, to satisfy Peggy, and hopefully get her off her back, Bethany had gone. She could still remember some of the lines from Pastor Frank’s sermon:
“Satan wants you to keep you in guilt for all those things you’ve done. He wants you to believe that all you are is a failure, a sinner, someone who is not worth loving.”
“God says that He has separated our sins away from us as far as the east is from the west. As far as the east is from the west!”
“Jesus took our sins on Himself when He died on the cross. And when He came back to life, He didn’t bring those sins back with Him. They’re gone. Buried. They don’t have any power over us anymore. R.I.P., sins!”
“Do you know how God sees you? He sees you as His child whom He loves infinitely. You are a son, you are a daughter, of the King. Do you know what that means, friends? It means that you are royalty. You are a prince, you are a princess, in the Kingdom of God, and all God wants is to have you back as part of His family. If you’ve been away from God or if you’ve never known God as your Heavenly Father, I’m going to ask you to come forward right now and kneel at the altar so I can pray with you. Will you come?”
And Bethany had. The whole time Pastor Frank had been talking, it had felt as if her spirit was on fire, as if God was talking directly to her through Pastor Frank’s words, as if everything she wanted in life – deep down – was being offered to her right here, right now, and it was free. All she had to do was accept it and admit that she wanted it. So when the pastor gave the invitation, Bethany responded. How could she not? She was nervous, but she was brave and determined also. Nothing was going to stop her from receiving this. Without hesitation, she stood and began sliding out of the pew. Almost immediately, she heard Peggy let out a surprised, little gasp, and heard her stand up behind her, moving to accompany her down the aisle. When they made it to the altar, Bethany looked behind her and saw Peggy weeping for joy. That night had been the beginning of her new life.
“I’ve got mine here.” Greg pulled a large, silver cross out from under the collar of his dress shirt.
Are…are you a Christian?” Bethany asked, confused. She didn’t think Greg had been a believer in high school.
“Yeah, I came to Christ in college. It’s great! Listen, we’re about to move on, but you and I should catch up. I didn’t see you at our five-year reunion, you know.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t be there.” I was giving birth at the time.
“What are you doing tonight? We could do dinner. My treat.”
“Uh…yeah. Sure.”
“Great! I’ll see if the General can send one of the guys back with me when we’re done and we’ll set it up.”
“Sounds good!” Was she going out to dinner with a Senator? Just as friends, though, right? Hopefully, Peggy wouldn’t mind babysitting.
2071. August 25th.
A year later. “Let me see that!” Chief Jernigan said.
Bethany stretched her hand toward him, showing off the new diamond ring on her finger.
“I don’t know how you did it, kiddo,” the Chief said, “but you got that Senator wrapped around your finger.”
“That’s right!” Bethany agreed. “And now I’ve got his ring wrapped around it too.”
“When’s the date?” another of the maintenance men asked.
But before Bethany could answer, the combat alarm started going off all over the base.
“Posts!” Jernigan yelled as everyone in the maintenance bay began scrambling back to their lockers to retrieve their guns.
A second later, bombs had begun landing all over base. Bethany was buried in the rubble halfway to her locker.
Peggy sat in her office at the County Services Center, watching in horror as her computer showed image after image of destroyed SkyForce bases. It kept switching between that and showing different maps of where Force and Chinese enemy planes currently were. Newsprings and Base City were both among those the Chinese had hit the hardest, and she kept praying for Bethany and Melody’s lives to be spared, hoping that somehow the Maintenance section and the daycare facility in Newsprings had been left unharmed.
A moment later, the President, Ms. Felicia White, was on the screen. Somberly, the President said, “Such a tragedy has not occurred on American soil since the days of Pearl Harbor or the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Today, the Chinese government has used illegal technology to reenact those tragedies among us on an even greater scale. As the LandForce Office of Intelligence has recently reported, the Beijing government has, for some time, been in possession of a unique aircraft of unknown origin. When American Force personnel attempted to ascertain the nature of the aircraft, the Chinese government used the technology they had gained to retaliate, inflicting countless deaths and untold damage in today’s attack. Therefore, we, the American people, and I personally, call upon the governments of the world to oppose this injustice and to cause the Chinese government to share their discoveries with the international community. I vow that this administration and the United States of America will not rest until justice has once again been established. Thank you.”
It was a couple of hours later when Peggy’s phone rang. Her heart stopped when she saw the caller ID. It was a Newsprings number calling, but it wasn’t Bethany’s. Peggy had been trying to call Bethany and the Base ever since the attacks started, but she hadn’t been able to get through. Now that someone from Newsprings was calling her, she didn’t know if she wanted to answer. “Hello?”
“Ms. Kines? This is Tammy Burchell from Newsprings Troeger SkyForce Base. Could you come pick Melody up?”
Peggy’s heart skipped a beat. Melody’s alive! “Is she all right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Melody’s fine. The daycare only suffered slight structural damage.”
“Bethany? Melody’s mother?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’ve been unable to contact her, and your name was listed next on Melody’s emergency form.”
“I understand. I’ll be right there.”
August 26th.
The next day. Peggy had asked again about her sister before picking Melody up the night before, but no one had any information yet. Bethany was listed as MIA – missing in action – and SkyForce assured her that they were doing everything they could to find her, along with all of the others who were still missing.
So Peggy had taken Melody home, telling the four-year-old that her mom had to stay at work late that night – it wasn’t exactly a lie – as she also tried to explain to her why someone had bombed the place she went to every day. Fortunately, the conversation didn’t last long. Melody was swirling her finger around in her light brown hair, undeniably tired from the stress of the day, and went right to sleep when Peggy laid her in her bed.
Now, it was early the next morning, and Peggy’s phone was ringing again. “Ms. Kines, this is Doctor Kinny at Newsprings Medical. We have your sister, Bethany, here. Would it be possible for you to come in and talk to us?”
“Yes! Is she all right?”
“She’s incurred some serious injuries. Can you come in?”
“Yes. I’ll be right there.”
Greg Hoffaker was already at the hospital when Peggy arrived. She had left Melody with one of Bethany’s neighbors, not knowing ahead of time how bad Bethany would be and thinking that it might not be good for the girl to see her mother quite yet.
A nurse showed Peggy and Greg into Bethany’s room, promising that the doctor would come talk to them shortly. The figure laying there in the bed was almost unrecognizable. Bethany’s head and half of her face was covered with a thick bandage, and the half of her face that wasn’t covered was cut and bruised and swollen. A thick tube was running down her throat and she had multiple lines coming out of her chest and arms connecting her to IVs and various monitoring machines. Peggy took her sister’s hand and began to cry a little. She was glad Melody wasn’t here.
Doctor Kinny came in a few minutes later. After greeting both her and the Senator, he said, “Ms. Kines, your sister has suffered a severe brain injury. The truth is that it’s very rare for someone to ever wake up from the type of trauma she’s sustained. We’ll need you to decide what you want us to do.”
Both Peggy and Greg were silent for a moment. Then Greg asked, “There’s no chance of her waking up?”
“It would be very rare. The kind of damage we’re looking at is most likely permanent. If she ever did wake up, and, again, that would be a very low possibility, she would be very much changed from they way you knew her… Again, Ms. Kines, as next of kin, it is up to you how long we keep her alive. Right now, she is not breathing on her own at all. She is not conscious in any way.”
Peggy nodded. She understood what the doctor was telling her. She accepted that Bethany probably would not recover, but at the same time, could she be the one responsible for saying it was okay to kill her? Greg was her fiancé. “I…”
“Peg, she’s not gonna come out of this,” Greg said.
Peggy didn’t answer for a moment. Crying, she thought, God, what do you want me to do here? It’s not fair for someone to have to make this kind of decision! You can’t want people to have to suffer like this. And Beth being in a coma for the rest of her life can’t be what you intended for her, either.
“She’s okay,” Greg said. “She’ll go to Heaven.”
“I know,” Peggy sobbed. But what could she do? She couldn’t play God by telling the doctor to kill her, could she? She couldn’t kill her sister. But maybe it wasn’t killing her. Maybe it was letting her die. Was there a difference? “I know. But I can’t…I…That’s not a decision I can make. I’m sorry. I know you love her, Greg, I know that neither one of us want to see her like this, but…I can’t do it. I wish you were two were married already so you could make this decision.”
Doctor Kinny excused himself. “Why don’t I give you two some time to think about it?” he suggested. “You can have the nurse page me if you have any questions.”
It was a few hours later when Peggy went to pick Melody up again. When they got into Bethany and Melody’s apartment, Peggy tried her best to sound upbeat as she said, “I saw your mom today. She’s in the hospital. She’s going to be there for a while.”
Melody took this in and then asked, “Is she sick?” Bethany had told the toddler that when people get sick, the ambulance comes and takes them to the doctor to make them better.
“Kind of. She got hurt yesterday.”
“With the bombs,” Melody clarified.
Peggy nodded. “That’s right.”
“Okay,” Melody said and ran off to play. She figured that getting hurt wasn’t much different than getting sick. Either way, her mom was with the doctor and should be all better in a couple of days.
But the hospital called Peggy again just before midnight, this time telling her that Bethany was dead.
Greg had been in Bethany’s room with her. He had turned off the life-support machines and then blocked the door to keep hospital staff from entering. He was in the custody of hospital security now and would be turned over to LandForce directly if Peggy wanted to press charges against him.
“No. No, thank you,” Peggy said, relieved. “Let him go.”
August 30th.
Four days later, it was a national day of remembrance for those who had fallen, and there was a combined funeral service at the Troeger Base for the Newsprings’ personnel.
After the ceremony, Peggy asked Melody’s dad, “Are you sure you want to take her? I can take her if you’d rather not.”
“No, I’ll take her,” Melody’s father said. “She’s my daughter.”
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