First Steps 2/3
A flat tire was not good news, Jim thought, especially when his spare tire was underneath all his luggage. Still, there was a house not too far away, and there might be someone there who could help him. Besides, it was about time that he stopped for a break, because he'd been driving non stop since leaving Cascade. The view was certainly spectacular, and it was the sort of thing you didn't get in the city, because of all the buildings. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen such a view; the beach was close by, so staying somewhere around here would be handy. There was bound to be someone willing to rent a room to him for a couple of nights. Failing that, he could always sleep in his truck, but he didn't know what sort of law and order was set up around here. The last thing he wanted was to end up being arrested for breaking some vagrancy law. Maybe they could tell him that at the house.
He had to admit that this was one of the better kept areas he'd passed through. The road was well maintained, and it looked as if someone was keeping the side of the road clear of trash. There wasn't all the much noise either, and that was good, because noise had really started to get on his nerves recently. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but it had only started recently, roughly about the same time he'd been on a stakeout in the middle of nowhere. Whatever it was, he was going to have to get it sorted out, because it could end up costing him not only his career, but his life as well.
"I'll get it," Blair said, getting up from the kitchen table. Her dad was worrying too much again. She was more than capable of taking care of herself if she had to. Not that she had to in the commune, because nobody here would hurt her. Outside, it was an entirely different matter altogether. People who had travelled in the outside world had told her about the dangers that were waiting for the naïve and unprepared.
"Be careful," Nathan said.
"I will be," she replied. Like she didn't know the basic rules of safety when opening the door to a stranger. It had to be a stranger, because everyone they knew would have come round the back of the house and knocked on the kitchen window. They hadn't had a stranger in the commune for a few months now. She enjoyed the stories that they brought with them. Stories were hard to come by these days, there were very few new books being printed, and those which were, she devoured as soon as she got them home. Plus, she'd read all the books in the commune's library. "Yes?" she said, after opening the front door.
"My truck's got a flat tire, and I was wondering if you could help me," the man standing there said.
"Dad," Blair shouted. She was smart enough to know that it wasn't a good idea to just go with someone who came to the door asking for help.
// "He asked, not demanded," Blair said. So maybe there was some hope for this Ellison after all, but he knew that it wasn't going to be easy for her to convince him that she could help him.
"We can be civilised when we want to be," Jim said.
"Well, he'd better be on his best behavior with her," he said. "I know what your family's reputation with women is like." Who would have thought that Jim's brother would have gotten married and divorced three times? Still, a lot of early survivors had suffered serious emotional problems after losing everything they'd ever known.
"Stephen was an exception," Jim said, "and he is probably the worst one so far. And what is it with your family? Not one of it's children has been raised by two parents."
"Robert was widowed," Blair protested, "as for the rest of them, it wasn't their fault." So his family had made some mistakes as well when it came to women, but nobody could say that they hadn't been good parents.
"She'll be different." he added. As long as this Ellison was a little more trusting that Jim had been.
"And it's not just the men," Jim said.
"Jim, have you seen some of the places where he goes for company?" Blair asked.
"Unlike some people, I don't keep tabs on other people's sex lives," Jim replied.
"You should, it's a lot of fun," he grinned. And it wasn't as if he was going to get laid any time soon. An after life without sex should have been hell, but he had plenty of time to do research.//
"What can I do for you, Mr..." Nathan began.
"Ellison, Jim Ellison," Jim replied. "As I was just telling your daughter, my truck's got a flat tire and I need some help changing it."
"You're not from around here, are you?" he asked. There was something about this man that made him nervous.
"No," Jim replied, "I'm on vacation."
"So where do you come from?" Blair asked.
"New Cascade, look, can you help me or not?" Jim asked.
"A flat tire's no problem," Blair said. "So are you going to be in the commune long?"
"Is that what this place is?" Jim said.
"Blair, don't you have something important to do?" Nathan said. She was paying their visitor too much attention for his liking, and he certainly didn't want her to get any ideas about going off to New Cascade with this man.
"Yes dad," she sighed. "I'll see you around, Mr. Ellison."
"Sure," Jim said.
"I'm sure that as soon as you've gotten your tire changed, you'll want to be moving on," Nathan said. In fact, he would do everything he could in order to encourage him to do that. The commune didn't want someone like this staying around for long. He wouldn't be surprised if Ellison wasn't in some sort of trouble with the law.
"Actually, I was thinking of staying for a few days," Jim said, "maybe do some surfing."
"If you're in some sort of trouble, we have a police force here," he said.
"That's good to know," Jim said. "I might drop by and pay them a visit later, as a colleague."
"You're a police officer?" Nathan asked. The man didn't look like any police officer they'd ever had in the commune.
"I'm a detective, Major Crimes department of New Cascade," Jim replied, taking out his badge and showing it. "While I'm here, I'm going to need somewhere to stay. You wouldn't happen to know of a room I could rent, would you?" he added.
"Depends on how long you're going to be staying," Nathan replied.
"Just until Monday," Jim said. "I have gold currency."
"Problem is, your a stranger," he said, "people are wary of strangers, especially those from cities." He had a free room, but he wasn't going to rent it to Ellison, because he didn't want Blair getting too close to this man.
"I'm sure I'll find somewhere," Jim said.
It was him, Blair thought, looking at the photo in the journal. Now all she had to do was get him alone and tell him about her dreams. But somehow, she doubted that he was the sort of man who would believe in such things. Still, she had to try; because she got the feeling that this was really important to both of them. Her dad hadn't seemed too pleased about her showing any interest in their unexpected visitor. Still, he didn't have any say in the matter, because she was an adult who was free to see whoever she wanted to. Coming from the big city, he probably had a lot of interesting stories to tell. Maybe she could persuade him to tell her some, and she could write them down for other people to read. She'd done some writing before, and it had been very well received.
People didn't go on vacation now, so there had to be something wrong with him. He certainly looked tense; a few sessions of meditation would soon sort that out, though. Meditating always had a good effect on people, and she couldn't help but wonder how flexible he was with all those muscles. Most men in the commune didn't come built that way. Still, if he was like the other Jim, then he was going to need her help. Not that she would be able to give him much until she'd read all the other Blair's journal, along with anything else he'd written.
She was watching him from an upstairs window, Jim thought, as Nathan helped him to change the tire on his truck. It was some distance to the house, so he shouldn't have been able to see her, yet he could, just as clearly as if she was standing right in front of him. Now was not the time for his senses to start playing up again. He didn't want anyone to know about the problems he was experiencing until he'd worked out not only what was wrong, but what he could do to make it stop, because he didn't want to be different any longer. There were times when he had lapses, and eventually that was going to turn out to be very dangerous, not only for him but for the people he was supposed to protect.
"And this commune..." he began.
"We've been around for a long time," Nathan said, "have our own laws and our own punishments."
"No militia?" Jim asked.
"No," Nathan replied.
"That's pretty unusual," he said, they tend to go for small communities." It was probably only a matter of time before they were bothered by them. He hated to think about good people being held captive by a militia.
"We've never had any problems with them in the past," Nathan said.
"You know, other places haven't been so lucky," Jim said. "It would be a shame if anything happened here."
"Is that a threat?" Nathan asked, "because if it is, you can go back and tell whoever you work for that we're not afraid of them."
"It's not a threat," Jim said, "just a comment. I see a lot of people coming to Cascade to get away from militias." The stories some people had told him about what had been done to them had made him angry. Being poor was no reason for anyone to be treated badly.
// "Don't piss the man off," Blair said, "he's not going to let his daughter go anywhere with you if he thinks you're a caveman."
"I don't think he's going to let her go anyway," Jim said. Which meant that they could have a very serious problem on their hands. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to waste on the social niceties, so it looked as if he and Blair were going to have to step in and take more direct action in order to try and make sure that things worked out the way they wanted.
"If he doesn't, she'll run away," Blair said.
"Then she's going to find herself in serious trouble," Jim said. The very reason why they were needed so badly was because the world was in such a bad state. If she ran away, then she was going to find herself facing a side of life that she had never been exposed to.
"You mean like I did," Blair said.
"Something like that," he said. Not that it had always been Blair's fault, things had just happened to him. Until, finally, he'd been murdered by that bitch Alex Barnes. He could have stopped that from happening if he'd trusted Blair more than he had. It wasn't going to be easy for his namesake to trust her, but he had to, if he wanted to stay sane.
"Don't worry I'll take care of it," Blair assured him.//
With his truck fixed, Ellison wouldn't have any reason to stay, Nathan thought, so why did he have the overwhelming desire to invite the man to dinner. It was bound to be a recipe for disaster, but it might just put Blair off the idea of going to New Cascade. As much as he wanted his daughter to expand her horizons, he didn't want those horizons to extend to a man like Ellison. He'd come across Ellison's type before, and they only cared about what they could get from someone.
"If you can't find anywhere to stay, I have a room you can have for a couple of days," Nathan said. "It's pretty basic though."
"Basic is fine," Jim said. "I'm planning to spend most of my time on the beach."
"I said if you can't find anywhere," he said. And after he had made a few phone calls, Ellison would be inundated with offers of places to stay.
"You don't like me very much, do you?" Jim asked.
"We've had problems with strangers before," Nathan said, "it's nothing personal, but the world is a very dangerous place, and I don't like that danger getting too close to my daughter." He knew what Blair was like, and with the mood she was in at the moment, she was likely to go to New Cascade with anyone who offered to take her, and that would be the last he saw of his daughter.
"I'm not dangerous," Jim said.
"That's your opinion, not mine," Nathan said, "I have a pretty good idea of what you are."
"I'm just here for the weekend," Jim said, "then I'm going home, so I don't understand what your problem is."
"Just stay away from my daughter," he said. He'd warned Ellison off, and he would have words with Blair. Not that he was really expecting her to listen to him. She was really excited about finding out about the other Blair, and that sort of excitement was going to land her in a hell of a lot of trouble if he couldn't steer her away from it.
Her dad only slammed the door like that when he was really pissed off about something, Blair thought. As she hadn't done anything, it had to be their visitor. She knew what her dad was going to say, that she should stay as far away from him as she could. Well, she couldn't do that, because he could be what she was looking for. Even if he wasn't, he might know where she should start looking, or at the very least, be able to give her a lift to New Cascade. As it was, there was no way her dad was going to let her go, he'd already made up his mind that it was too dangerous for her there. There had been times in the past when he had told her not to do something and she'd gone ahead and done it anyway, this could be one of those times.
"I'm coming," she shouted when she heard him calling her. Now came the lecture and the expectation that she would give him her word not to have anything to do with Ellison. She really hated lying to her dad, but she was going to have no choice but to do jusr that. "What do you want dad?" she added.
"Sweetie, we need to talk," Nathan said from the bottom of the stairs.
"What about?" Blair asked innocently, making her way down the stairs.
"Our visitor," he replied. "I'd prefer it if you stayed away from him while he was in the commune."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because he's not a very good influence," Nathan replied. "Men like him don't understand our way of life. All he knows is violence."
"Then shouldn't we try and show him that there's another way to live?" she asked. Other people had come into the commune and learned to live the way they did.
"Blair, promise me that you'll stay away from him," he said.
"I promise," she said, crossing her fingers behind her back. He hadn't made her promise not to bump into Ellison by accident, and she was more than likely to, as the commune wasn't that big a place.
That guy had some nerve telling him, to stay away from his daughter, Jim thought, especially when he'd barely said two words to her. Still, he was a visitor, and the last thing he wanted to do was piss off the locals. Simon was not going to be happy if he had to bail him out of some jail because he'd broken some law by accident. Yet, there was something about her which drew him to her. When she smiled at him, he'd felt at peace for the first time in a long while. It was pretty obvious that life here moved at a much slower pace than it did in New Cascade. The people here didn't have to deal with the darker side of life on a daily basis, because they'd isolated themselves from the world. He wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing, but he could understand why they had done it.
It might have been a century since the VX attacks had taken place, but the world was still recovering. This place seemed to have done a lot better than others. But if they weren't careful, then a militia was going to march straight in and take over. He'd seem plenty of places where that had happened, and it made him sick to think of people being treated like property. That was not a fate he would want anyone to suffer, especially not someone like her. She would never be able to survive a life like that. However, the one she would have if she left the commune would be just as hard, unless she had someone to help her. He could be that person, not that it was going to be easy to convince her father of that fact. She might not even want to go to New Cascade with him. After all, it wasn't as if she knew him or that he could offer her a great deal.
This wasn't the first time that she'd snuck out of the house early in the morning, Blair thought, and she doubted that it would be the last time. If her dad caught her, then there would be hell to pay, but he wasn't going to catch her. At this time in the morning there weren't a great many places open. The beach was always open, and there were plenty of things you could do on it alone. She would have had to be blind not to have noticed the surfer's shirt their visitor had been wearing the previous day. Now was a really good time to catch some waves, not that she'd ever done that, because she was afraid of the ocean, she had been for as long as she could remember. It was probably due to the fact that she, or rather the other Blair, had drowned. However, she did like walking along the beach, just as long as she could get out of the way of any large waves that came along.
Seeing a figure coming out of the water carrying a surfboard, she smiled. Now all she had to do was go over there and talk to him, but she didn't want it to look as if she was following him, because she wasn't. They just happened to be in the same place at the same time. Besides, she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to say to him yet. It wasn't as if she could just come out and ask him if he was a sentinel. Doing that could land her in all sorts of trouble. Maybe it would be better if she just asked him whether he was enjoying his stay in the commune, and suggest some places of interest that he might like to visit during his stay.
// "I don't believe it," Jim grinned, "a Sandburg lost for words." This had been a long time coming, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.
"Give her a break," Blair said, "she's nervous. Your family has that effect on people."
"Chief, it's not as if he's going to hurt her," he said. At least, he wouldn't if he had anything to do with it. The guide had to be protected at all costs, something which he had forgotten, and the consequences had been devastating for everyone.
"She's led a pretty sheltered life here," Blair said, "even with his help, she's going to find it pretty difficult to adjust to life in a city."
"But if she doesn't go with him..." Jim began. She didn't have much choice in the matter, because New Cascade needed it's sentinel and guide. He'd seen what the future was like if they failed, and it wasn't pretty.
"They have to talk to each other first," Blair said, "and that's not going to happen unless he makes the first move."
"Him? Chief, all she has to do is walk over there and say hi," Jim said.
"He's next to the water," Blair said, "and she's terrified of it."
"Maybe giving her that particular nightmare wasn't such a good idea," Jim said.
"It was the best one that I could come up with at the time," Blair said, "and it got her thinking about the past."
"Plus, it's left her with a phobia about the ocean," Jim reminded him. Or any other large body of water that she came across. He had to admit that he understood how she felt, because he'd had the same phobia. So it was rather ironic that Blair had been drowned in a fountain.//
He had to admit that this was one of the better kept areas he'd passed through. The road was well maintained, and it looked as if someone was keeping the side of the road clear of trash. There wasn't all the much noise either, and that was good, because noise had really started to get on his nerves recently. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but it had only started recently, roughly about the same time he'd been on a stakeout in the middle of nowhere. Whatever it was, he was going to have to get it sorted out, because it could end up costing him not only his career, but his life as well.
"I'll get it," Blair said, getting up from the kitchen table. Her dad was worrying too much again. She was more than capable of taking care of herself if she had to. Not that she had to in the commune, because nobody here would hurt her. Outside, it was an entirely different matter altogether. People who had travelled in the outside world had told her about the dangers that were waiting for the naïve and unprepared.
"Be careful," Nathan said.
"I will be," she replied. Like she didn't know the basic rules of safety when opening the door to a stranger. It had to be a stranger, because everyone they knew would have come round the back of the house and knocked on the kitchen window. They hadn't had a stranger in the commune for a few months now. She enjoyed the stories that they brought with them. Stories were hard to come by these days, there were very few new books being printed, and those which were, she devoured as soon as she got them home. Plus, she'd read all the books in the commune's library. "Yes?" she said, after opening the front door.
"My truck's got a flat tire, and I was wondering if you could help me," the man standing there said.
"Dad," Blair shouted. She was smart enough to know that it wasn't a good idea to just go with someone who came to the door asking for help.
// "He asked, not demanded," Blair said. So maybe there was some hope for this Ellison after all, but he knew that it wasn't going to be easy for her to convince him that she could help him.
"We can be civilised when we want to be," Jim said.
"Well, he'd better be on his best behavior with her," he said. "I know what your family's reputation with women is like." Who would have thought that Jim's brother would have gotten married and divorced three times? Still, a lot of early survivors had suffered serious emotional problems after losing everything they'd ever known.
"Stephen was an exception," Jim said, "and he is probably the worst one so far. And what is it with your family? Not one of it's children has been raised by two parents."
"Robert was widowed," Blair protested, "as for the rest of them, it wasn't their fault." So his family had made some mistakes as well when it came to women, but nobody could say that they hadn't been good parents.
"She'll be different." he added. As long as this Ellison was a little more trusting that Jim had been.
"And it's not just the men," Jim said.
"Jim, have you seen some of the places where he goes for company?" Blair asked.
"Unlike some people, I don't keep tabs on other people's sex lives," Jim replied.
"You should, it's a lot of fun," he grinned. And it wasn't as if he was going to get laid any time soon. An after life without sex should have been hell, but he had plenty of time to do research.//
"What can I do for you, Mr..." Nathan began.
"Ellison, Jim Ellison," Jim replied. "As I was just telling your daughter, my truck's got a flat tire and I need some help changing it."
"You're not from around here, are you?" he asked. There was something about this man that made him nervous.
"No," Jim replied, "I'm on vacation."
"So where do you come from?" Blair asked.
"New Cascade, look, can you help me or not?" Jim asked.
"A flat tire's no problem," Blair said. "So are you going to be in the commune long?"
"Is that what this place is?" Jim said.
"Blair, don't you have something important to do?" Nathan said. She was paying their visitor too much attention for his liking, and he certainly didn't want her to get any ideas about going off to New Cascade with this man.
"Yes dad," she sighed. "I'll see you around, Mr. Ellison."
"Sure," Jim said.
"I'm sure that as soon as you've gotten your tire changed, you'll want to be moving on," Nathan said. In fact, he would do everything he could in order to encourage him to do that. The commune didn't want someone like this staying around for long. He wouldn't be surprised if Ellison wasn't in some sort of trouble with the law.
"Actually, I was thinking of staying for a few days," Jim said, "maybe do some surfing."
"If you're in some sort of trouble, we have a police force here," he said.
"That's good to know," Jim said. "I might drop by and pay them a visit later, as a colleague."
"You're a police officer?" Nathan asked. The man didn't look like any police officer they'd ever had in the commune.
"I'm a detective, Major Crimes department of New Cascade," Jim replied, taking out his badge and showing it. "While I'm here, I'm going to need somewhere to stay. You wouldn't happen to know of a room I could rent, would you?" he added.
"Depends on how long you're going to be staying," Nathan replied.
"Just until Monday," Jim said. "I have gold currency."
"Problem is, your a stranger," he said, "people are wary of strangers, especially those from cities." He had a free room, but he wasn't going to rent it to Ellison, because he didn't want Blair getting too close to this man.
"I'm sure I'll find somewhere," Jim said.
It was him, Blair thought, looking at the photo in the journal. Now all she had to do was get him alone and tell him about her dreams. But somehow, she doubted that he was the sort of man who would believe in such things. Still, she had to try; because she got the feeling that this was really important to both of them. Her dad hadn't seemed too pleased about her showing any interest in their unexpected visitor. Still, he didn't have any say in the matter, because she was an adult who was free to see whoever she wanted to. Coming from the big city, he probably had a lot of interesting stories to tell. Maybe she could persuade him to tell her some, and she could write them down for other people to read. She'd done some writing before, and it had been very well received.
People didn't go on vacation now, so there had to be something wrong with him. He certainly looked tense; a few sessions of meditation would soon sort that out, though. Meditating always had a good effect on people, and she couldn't help but wonder how flexible he was with all those muscles. Most men in the commune didn't come built that way. Still, if he was like the other Jim, then he was going to need her help. Not that she would be able to give him much until she'd read all the other Blair's journal, along with anything else he'd written.
She was watching him from an upstairs window, Jim thought, as Nathan helped him to change the tire on his truck. It was some distance to the house, so he shouldn't have been able to see her, yet he could, just as clearly as if she was standing right in front of him. Now was not the time for his senses to start playing up again. He didn't want anyone to know about the problems he was experiencing until he'd worked out not only what was wrong, but what he could do to make it stop, because he didn't want to be different any longer. There were times when he had lapses, and eventually that was going to turn out to be very dangerous, not only for him but for the people he was supposed to protect.
"And this commune..." he began.
"We've been around for a long time," Nathan said, "have our own laws and our own punishments."
"No militia?" Jim asked.
"No," Nathan replied.
"That's pretty unusual," he said, they tend to go for small communities." It was probably only a matter of time before they were bothered by them. He hated to think about good people being held captive by a militia.
"We've never had any problems with them in the past," Nathan said.
"You know, other places haven't been so lucky," Jim said. "It would be a shame if anything happened here."
"Is that a threat?" Nathan asked, "because if it is, you can go back and tell whoever you work for that we're not afraid of them."
"It's not a threat," Jim said, "just a comment. I see a lot of people coming to Cascade to get away from militias." The stories some people had told him about what had been done to them had made him angry. Being poor was no reason for anyone to be treated badly.
// "Don't piss the man off," Blair said, "he's not going to let his daughter go anywhere with you if he thinks you're a caveman."
"I don't think he's going to let her go anyway," Jim said. Which meant that they could have a very serious problem on their hands. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to waste on the social niceties, so it looked as if he and Blair were going to have to step in and take more direct action in order to try and make sure that things worked out the way they wanted.
"If he doesn't, she'll run away," Blair said.
"Then she's going to find herself in serious trouble," Jim said. The very reason why they were needed so badly was because the world was in such a bad state. If she ran away, then she was going to find herself facing a side of life that she had never been exposed to.
"You mean like I did," Blair said.
"Something like that," he said. Not that it had always been Blair's fault, things had just happened to him. Until, finally, he'd been murdered by that bitch Alex Barnes. He could have stopped that from happening if he'd trusted Blair more than he had. It wasn't going to be easy for his namesake to trust her, but he had to, if he wanted to stay sane.
"Don't worry I'll take care of it," Blair assured him.//
With his truck fixed, Ellison wouldn't have any reason to stay, Nathan thought, so why did he have the overwhelming desire to invite the man to dinner. It was bound to be a recipe for disaster, but it might just put Blair off the idea of going to New Cascade. As much as he wanted his daughter to expand her horizons, he didn't want those horizons to extend to a man like Ellison. He'd come across Ellison's type before, and they only cared about what they could get from someone.
"If you can't find anywhere to stay, I have a room you can have for a couple of days," Nathan said. "It's pretty basic though."
"Basic is fine," Jim said. "I'm planning to spend most of my time on the beach."
"I said if you can't find anywhere," he said. And after he had made a few phone calls, Ellison would be inundated with offers of places to stay.
"You don't like me very much, do you?" Jim asked.
"We've had problems with strangers before," Nathan said, "it's nothing personal, but the world is a very dangerous place, and I don't like that danger getting too close to my daughter." He knew what Blair was like, and with the mood she was in at the moment, she was likely to go to New Cascade with anyone who offered to take her, and that would be the last he saw of his daughter.
"I'm not dangerous," Jim said.
"That's your opinion, not mine," Nathan said, "I have a pretty good idea of what you are."
"I'm just here for the weekend," Jim said, "then I'm going home, so I don't understand what your problem is."
"Just stay away from my daughter," he said. He'd warned Ellison off, and he would have words with Blair. Not that he was really expecting her to listen to him. She was really excited about finding out about the other Blair, and that sort of excitement was going to land her in a hell of a lot of trouble if he couldn't steer her away from it.
Her dad only slammed the door like that when he was really pissed off about something, Blair thought. As she hadn't done anything, it had to be their visitor. She knew what her dad was going to say, that she should stay as far away from him as she could. Well, she couldn't do that, because he could be what she was looking for. Even if he wasn't, he might know where she should start looking, or at the very least, be able to give her a lift to New Cascade. As it was, there was no way her dad was going to let her go, he'd already made up his mind that it was too dangerous for her there. There had been times in the past when he had told her not to do something and she'd gone ahead and done it anyway, this could be one of those times.
"I'm coming," she shouted when she heard him calling her. Now came the lecture and the expectation that she would give him her word not to have anything to do with Ellison. She really hated lying to her dad, but she was going to have no choice but to do jusr that. "What do you want dad?" she added.
"Sweetie, we need to talk," Nathan said from the bottom of the stairs.
"What about?" Blair asked innocently, making her way down the stairs.
"Our visitor," he replied. "I'd prefer it if you stayed away from him while he was in the commune."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because he's not a very good influence," Nathan replied. "Men like him don't understand our way of life. All he knows is violence."
"Then shouldn't we try and show him that there's another way to live?" she asked. Other people had come into the commune and learned to live the way they did.
"Blair, promise me that you'll stay away from him," he said.
"I promise," she said, crossing her fingers behind her back. He hadn't made her promise not to bump into Ellison by accident, and she was more than likely to, as the commune wasn't that big a place.
That guy had some nerve telling him, to stay away from his daughter, Jim thought, especially when he'd barely said two words to her. Still, he was a visitor, and the last thing he wanted to do was piss off the locals. Simon was not going to be happy if he had to bail him out of some jail because he'd broken some law by accident. Yet, there was something about her which drew him to her. When she smiled at him, he'd felt at peace for the first time in a long while. It was pretty obvious that life here moved at a much slower pace than it did in New Cascade. The people here didn't have to deal with the darker side of life on a daily basis, because they'd isolated themselves from the world. He wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing, but he could understand why they had done it.
It might have been a century since the VX attacks had taken place, but the world was still recovering. This place seemed to have done a lot better than others. But if they weren't careful, then a militia was going to march straight in and take over. He'd seem plenty of places where that had happened, and it made him sick to think of people being treated like property. That was not a fate he would want anyone to suffer, especially not someone like her. She would never be able to survive a life like that. However, the one she would have if she left the commune would be just as hard, unless she had someone to help her. He could be that person, not that it was going to be easy to convince her father of that fact. She might not even want to go to New Cascade with him. After all, it wasn't as if she knew him or that he could offer her a great deal.
This wasn't the first time that she'd snuck out of the house early in the morning, Blair thought, and she doubted that it would be the last time. If her dad caught her, then there would be hell to pay, but he wasn't going to catch her. At this time in the morning there weren't a great many places open. The beach was always open, and there were plenty of things you could do on it alone. She would have had to be blind not to have noticed the surfer's shirt their visitor had been wearing the previous day. Now was a really good time to catch some waves, not that she'd ever done that, because she was afraid of the ocean, she had been for as long as she could remember. It was probably due to the fact that she, or rather the other Blair, had drowned. However, she did like walking along the beach, just as long as she could get out of the way of any large waves that came along.
Seeing a figure coming out of the water carrying a surfboard, she smiled. Now all she had to do was go over there and talk to him, but she didn't want it to look as if she was following him, because she wasn't. They just happened to be in the same place at the same time. Besides, she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to say to him yet. It wasn't as if she could just come out and ask him if he was a sentinel. Doing that could land her in all sorts of trouble. Maybe it would be better if she just asked him whether he was enjoying his stay in the commune, and suggest some places of interest that he might like to visit during his stay.
// "I don't believe it," Jim grinned, "a Sandburg lost for words." This had been a long time coming, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.
"Give her a break," Blair said, "she's nervous. Your family has that effect on people."
"Chief, it's not as if he's going to hurt her," he said. At least, he wouldn't if he had anything to do with it. The guide had to be protected at all costs, something which he had forgotten, and the consequences had been devastating for everyone.
"She's led a pretty sheltered life here," Blair said, "even with his help, she's going to find it pretty difficult to adjust to life in a city."
"But if she doesn't go with him..." Jim began. She didn't have much choice in the matter, because New Cascade needed it's sentinel and guide. He'd seen what the future was like if they failed, and it wasn't pretty.
"They have to talk to each other first," Blair said, "and that's not going to happen unless he makes the first move."
"Him? Chief, all she has to do is walk over there and say hi," Jim said.
"He's next to the water," Blair said, "and she's terrified of it."
"Maybe giving her that particular nightmare wasn't such a good idea," Jim said.
"It was the best one that I could come up with at the time," Blair said, "and it got her thinking about the past."
"Plus, it's left her with a phobia about the ocean," Jim reminded him. Or any other large body of water that she came across. He had to admit that he understood how she felt, because he'd had the same phobia. So it was rather ironic that Blair had been drowned in a fountain.//