SALVATION
By
A.j.
Timeline: Years after
Author's E-Mail: jetfixer@interaccess.com
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Hi, all! Guess what? My creative slump went buh-bye, and I have a story!!!! Yipeeee! I'm so happy!! This story may be a little depressing. It has to deal with death, and I really hate the title. It has nothing to do with the story, but I could never, and will never be able to come up with a name on my own, and I wanted to post this. It takes place about 15 years in the future from where those greedy comecialists left us off. They are in New Pacifica and you'll find out the rest if you read it.
(For lack of a better name)
Salvation
by A.j.Devon sat silently on a rock over looking the sea. Her eyes stared, unfocused, at the horizon, and her ears listened half-heartedly as the waves pounded the shore. Her mind was on her husband of thirteen years, John Danziger.
'I love that man, but I don't know what I'm going to do.' They'd been fighting recently, a lot. And not only over big stuff, everylittle thing set them off. Just that morning, Devon had put his pants in to wash, when he came barreling down the stairs, and started yellingat that she had taken them without his permission. She, of course, had come back, saying tha he never did his own work around the house. It had ended with him slamming the door so hard it broke, and her bolting away and running here.
'What am I going to do?' The tears started to fall again. The last fifteen years had been the most wonderful of her life. Firsth her son had been healed, then she had married the most wonderful man, and made such amazing friends. Suddenly, everything seemed to be galing apart. John and her ahd make it through so much, gone through almost every kind of hardship, and finally made themselves a place to be happy.
'But what happened Devon? Why is everything such a mess? Why are you and John fighting?' The answer came unbidden into her mind.
'Why did Anna have to die?' The thought brought back the crushing wall of pain that had made itself a reality ever since her grand-baby's death.
Last year Trueand Uly had decided that they had waited long enough, and they were going to get married. Devon and John had known it was only was only a matter of time, and were very happy for them. None the less, it had come as quite a shock, after only five months of marriage, True was ecpecting thier first child.
Devon was so happy when she found out. She was going to be a grandmother! True had an uneventful pregnancy, and everyone in the colony had been so excited. The new baby, Anna, was going to be the first born of the third generation on G889. She was a sign of hope, and the future of human kind on this planet.
Something went wrong. Two months after Anna was born, a hale and hearty little girl, it happened. Uly had been playing with Anna in her swing, letting her rock and watching as only a new father can, with love and pride as his daughter smiled. He had taken her to her crib, so she could take a nap, and then headed to the kitchen. There he had cleaned an worked, as quietly as he could. Finally, he had gone to check on her, and he found the thing every parent dreads. Anna lay face down in her crib, not moving or breathing. Julia had done everything she could, but it was too late. Anna died, and both the Adairs and Danzigers had fallen apart.
It seemed Anna had died from a long thought dead disease. Sudden infant death syndrome had claimed her, and nothing could bring her back. Humanity had come two-hundred years, and millions of miles in their advancement, but they learned that you can't outrun your mortality.
True and Uly had been completely shattered. Uly, not being able to handle his daughter's death, had broken down. He still, after three months, was a shadow of his former self. True, on the other hand, wouldn not deal with her child's premature departure. She never talked about Anna, and worse yet, made as if she had never been born. She took after her father so much.
John acted thesame way. When ever Devon brought up Anna, John just gave her a dirty look, and walked away. Devon was the only one who had tried to deal with her feelings. Daily, she went to Anna's small grave, and layed flowers on the tiny tombstone. She tried, God how she tried, but she couldn't make sense of it.
Suddenly, a presence behind her brought Devon up from her revere. She turned, and found her husband. His face was stone gray, and his eyes dead. Devon gave a little sniffle, and held out her arms. A gesture he never could resist, he hesitated a moment, and slowly, carefully, moved his way over to her.
Not giving him the chance to leave, Devon wrapped her body around him. "John...it's so hard. I need to talk about her, you do too." He stiffened at the mention of his lost grandchild, and tried to remove her hands from his waist. Desparetely, when that didn't work, tried to push her away, but she wouldn't let him. She held on for all she was worth, her tears soaking his shirt.
"No, John, we *have* to face she's gone, and I can't...I *won't* do it alone." Devon's tone was a heartbreaking plea that went straight into his soul. No matter what, he couldn't ignore his wife when she used that tone. Somehow, some way, that pitch decimated the barriers he had built, knocking those airtight shelters to dust. With them gone, he had to feel the pain. The pain of losing someone, yet again. Years of fear and guilt and agony were released. Not only the horror of his little grand-daughter's death, but all the residual feelings that had never been given the chance to vent.
Memories flooded his mind. Elle dying in his arms, Alex and Les wasting away in front of him, losing Devon to the cold-crypt. Everything that had been bottled up for so many years came pouring out and into his wife's shirt. The tears ran hotly down his face, shudders racked his large body, and he clug tightly, like a little boy, to his wife.
As for Devon, she clung just as tightly to him. Though tears were streaking her face, she felt something disappear. The weight that had been pressing down between them seemed to dissolve. The tension that had been apart of them for the last horrible months was whithering away with the release of their emotions.
It was then Devon knew. She knew that even though would be a long hard road, they were going to make it, together. Uncetain as the future always was, she knew that as long as they held tight, and didn't let go, they would be okay. And for now, that was enough.
-The End-
This text file was ran through PERL script made by Andy. Original text file is available in Andy's Earth 2 Fan Fiction Archive.