Forty-one
Evie thought Corin chose a strange time to rest with
all the excitement in town. She followed him to the room furnished with
the single bed and sat beside him. He seemed not to sleep. In time, he
looked up at her. “Evie, could you go get my wheelchair?”
“Billy?”
“Something’s wrong. Corin’s not coming back.”
Evie shot to her feet. The wheelchair was stationed
just outside the door. She pulled it into view, then pushed it alongside
the bed when Billy gestured to her.
“But what’s happening?” she cried, following as he
wheeled himself to the control room.
“I don’t know.”
Billy studied the monitors. “My mother and Richard
Welk are stirring up trouble.” Billy studied a few of the monitors filled
with text and graphics that meant nothing to her. He rolled his
wheelchair to an unused computer terminal. “Debrief me,” he said aloud.
“There are people coming up to the house. How are we going to defend
ourselves if they know we’re in here?”
MY ADVERSARY WILL DESTROY OUR BUNKER, Billy’s fingers
typed. WE WILL BE DRIVEN FROM THIS PLACE. THE SITUATION WILL SEEM LOST.
WE WILL APPEAR TO BE DEFENSELESS, TWO UNARMED INDIVIDUALS PITTED AGAINST
ALL OF THE FORCES OF THE ADVERSARY.
Billy moaned in anguish. “But it’s just a strategy,
right?”
THE ADVERSARY WILL THINK US DEFEATED AND DESTROYED.
HIS WEAKNESS IS IMPATIENCE AND OVERCONFIDENCE. WE WILL REAPPEAR UNHARMED,
IF WE INDEED SURVIVE, AND FORCE A TEST OF RESOLVE.
“I don’t understand that business about a test of
resolve. You make it sound like a parlor game.”
A CHALLENGE OF RESOLVE ARE CHOICES BETWEEN LIFE AND
DEATH.
“Evie and I have no idea of what you’re talking
about.”
A CHALLENGE OF RESOLVE IS A MICROCOSM OF LIFE
ITSELF. KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULES OF THE CONTEST WILL NOT HELP WIN IT.
NEITHER WILL IGNORANCE HARM ONE’S CHANCES OF SUCCESS.
“Then you know what you’re doing, right?”
I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM DOING.
“Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. When
your adversary takes the bait, he’ll have you right where you want him.”
I HATE TO ASK AGAIN.
Billy sighed. “Trust you.”
TRUST ME.
Billy pushed away from the keyboard and glanced
around at Evie.
“Are we going to die?” she said.
Billy threw his arms in the air. “I don’t know! I
know Corin is concerned, more so than he lets on. He thinks we can defeat
the adversary, but we’re risking so much by trying, more than just our
lives.”
Evie knelt at his feet. “I’m afraid, Billy. I told
him I didn’t think I could do it. Can we?”
Billy shrugged, too thoroughly defeated by his own
circumstance to offer any encouragement. “What the hell, I can’t even
walk.”
“Can you tell what he is thinking about now?”
Billy through her a guilty look. “He thinks of you a
lot. He doesn’t want me to know, but it’s a hard thing to keep from me,
seeing as we share the same brain and all.”
Evie avoided eye contact with him momentarily.
“You don’t have to hide it from me, Evie. I can
guess what you feel about him. I'm not jealous or anything like
that. It isn't that you might run off with him without taking me
along with."
Evie hated her face all screwed up with misery with tears making her eyes red.
Neither one of them would think much of her if she couldn’t stop crying
like a baby.
“Deep down," Billy said, "I
think we really are just one person. I’m beginning to think that I can’t walk
because he needs to use my body. We have to share because we can’t afford
to fight over our resources. We
don’t have a chance without him, so I stay out of his way the best I can."
“You can’t just give me away like a piece of
property, Billy. I’m not a piece of bait to keep Corin happy. I’m not a reward for his sacrifice.”
He looked up at her with eyes dark with hurt. “I’m
not telling you what to do, Evie. I’m just telling you that his feelings
are important to us. He lost you once. All he had left of you was a
memory. Now he’s going to lose you again, win or lose, and this time it’s
going to be forever. Who do you think I'm sharing you with?"
Tears came to her eyes, because
she heard her own deep thoughts reflected in his plea. “I love you, Billy Trevor.”
Billy reached for her hand. Together, they watched
on an army of men rush the hill in the afternoon sun and do battle with
hordes of Corin's little machines.
