Thursday Febrary 26, 1953 (Morning)
[Sheldon was wide awake and now trying to move around. His ribs, arms, back and legs still hurt but laying there doing nothing never helped the muscles much. He sat up slowly, using his right arm to support his ribs and to keep from moving around too quickly, he had to move. He shifted his position and pulled the blankets off his slight frame to
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[She's about to go off at a tangent when she sees the movement and turns to face Sheldon instead. Smiling, Giselle places one hand on Sheldon's cheek and accepts the kiss, gently.]
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You're silly, you know that?
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I've been told that before.
[She only lowers her hand reluctantly, mostly to let him eat again.]
You don't mind it, do you?
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[He takes another spoonful of the soup to collect his thoughts. He needed to chase those thoughts of carnage away for the time being and that was the best way to do it without words.]
It's like...you're not entirely sure about reality but you're trying to learn it. It's not a bad thing. In fact, it's pretty...endearing. We're from opposite worlds, you and I and this place stuck us right in the middle.
[He takes another spoonful of his soup.]
It's a weird place but not one that's completely hopeless either.
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Well, by the third world it's sometimes difficult to tell what reality is.
[Her voice is still light, but there's perhaps a tone of sadness beneath it now.]
Hope is always the important thing. The Gate might control what items are here, but it doesn't control the things we keep in our heads, or in our hearts.
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I never thought of that. I suppose reality is a relative term in cases of world hopping with a Gate that can't make up its mind.
[He noted the sadness in her tone and his brow furrowed in thought.]
But you know, you're right. It doesn't control us.
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Whether the Gate has a plan or is just making it up as it goes along... I don't suppose it matters really, though. We've only got what we have in front of us, and perhaps things will change, but perhaps they won't, or not for a while yet.
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Oh that's very true. But, like you said, we can only gather the picture with what's in front of us. My mistake was digging holes in places where I shouldn't have.
[He finishes off the soup and places the bowl to the side on the small table next to the bed, before facing Giselle fully.]
You've really thought about this, haven't you?
[He was impressed and endeared that she was putting in a lot of effort to understand.]
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You still did something very brave. Perhaps it just wasn't time for it yet.
[A flicker of a glance to follow the placing-aside of the bowl. A practical thing, food. Perhaps it's strange how Giselle gets some practical things but not others.]
I suppose so. Not deliberately, but perhaps I have, from time to time. There are some sorts of lives which give you a lot of time to think. And once the thoughts are there, you just need to reshape them, not come up with them all over again.
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Yeah, I think so. But you know, even from time to time, we all have to be willing to learn the basics of a think, right? This place isn't really much different....well...except for the Communism and the guards. I've yet to see a zombie.
[Sheldon took everything that she's done into consideration which the practicality of her methods certainly outweighed her naivety.]
When you first arrived here, how did you adjust?
[He didn't think to ask that question before.]
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[She just lets the first half go. It's probably too complicated for now, too much to go through.]
So I suppose that helped. And they gave me somewhere to stay, as well, and the first bits of food aren't that hard to find. I suppose that doing it once made it easier, especially since they're used to new arrivals here.
[Of course, Giselle has landed squarely on the practical processes of fitting in to the city and getting settled there.]
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Yeah, there's a lot of truth to that. Hughes said that the population grows and shifts but that's because of the Gate. Lina's baby is the first to be born here, I think. If it survives, there's a chance for change and the answers will come in the future. It's getting there that's going to be tough.
So you think that we should help others adjust in the same manner as you had....well...since my ideas would land someone in jail, for the sake of adjustment? You know, maybe there should be a greeting committee for new arrivals to help them adjust.
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[Basic maths she does have a bit more of an understanding of than basic biology. Good luck if/when you find out that particular one, Sheldon.]
Though yes, I mean... perhaps some more formal way of helping people settle in would be good. Help them to understand more about the rations and the jobs and everything here. And perhaps to cut down on some of the early misunderstandings as well; I've heard that there have been a few of those recently.
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The first I've seen and according to what I've noticed around here while I was on patrol was that there were no children other than the ones brought here by the gate.
[He turns his wrist with his eyes looking up at the ceiling.]
It's like...they disappeared.
[Again, another shift toward the side of the government that he didn't like.]
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That's very strange. I've never heard of anything like that happening before. Do you think that it's something to do with the Gate? Or is it to do with...
[An uncertain movement of her hand pointing away from them.]
The illness that people talk about sometimes?
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