Cathy

Hannah and the others hadn’t told me about the meeting that she’d had with her mother while I’d been asleep. Our time in the prison kept dragging by with nothing to do in our cell and nothing to look forward to. They continued to keep me out of work despite the improvement that had been brought about by Dr Lighton’s food deliveries. The food that he brought for me was always delicious: vegetable soup, beef stew, rich and creamy oatmeal with apple sauce; I ate everything that he brought for me and in no time I was better. The food was so good that it got my imagination racing about the place that it had come from.

I could only talk about it softly with the others late at night after lights out. They told me that this was the time when the village would be getting ready for winter and that the apple sauce that had been brought for me was likely from the barrels of apple sauce that they were stockpiling for the winter. They went further and described for me the full scope of preparations that they would be undertaking for winter and with every detail my image of Prospera grew richer. Prospera really was a different world from a different time, which made being so close to it all the more frustrating. Knowing so much about it and having come all this way and endured all of this I had to see it, I just had to.

I only learned of Hannah’s mother’s visit when Lt. Col Raymond came to our cell a few days later, this time to summon Hannah and me. Noticing that I found this strange Hannah told me that there was nothing to worry about and to just follow them. We were taken above ground and outside where a woman in a white robe astride a horse was waiting for us with the reins of two more horses in hand.

“Hannah tells me you grew up on a farm, I trust that means you know how to ride,” she said to me.

“Yeah, I know how to ride,” I responded sheepishly.

“Good, get on and follow me, both of you.”

She rode off ahead of us before I had a chance to ask her who she was and what she wanted with us; I only found out from Hannah that she was her mother when we were already on our way. We were walking along the base of what I knew from the others’ description was Guardian Mountain. The mountain was large and intimidating; we were walking along a narrow path between it and the boundary of the forest.

“Hannah told me that you and your parents took care of them,” Hannah’s mother dropped back to ride along side us and said to me.

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“More or less.”

“I can’t thank you enough for that; as ill prepared as they were for the outside world you may very well have saved their lives by taking them in.”

“It’s not like they were charity cases, they more than earned their keep.”

“How so?”

“Kevin worked at my father’s butchery when he was desperate for help and Hannah took over the running of our farm and completely revived it; we owe them more than you owe us.”

“What were Lisa and Miranda doing?”

“Lisa worked at the clinic for refugees, Miranda never really did anything, with her talent it didn’t feel right to just stick her in any old job.”

“I’m glad to hear that they weren’t a burden; did you enjoy being a farmer, Hannah?”

“All of the produce went to help feed the refugees, the work was very rewarding,” Hannah said.

“Where are you taking us? If you don’t mind my asking,” I asked Hannah’s mother.

“I’m taking you to see Prospera, I thought it’s the least I could do after hearing from Hannah about all that you’d done for them.”

“They gave you permission for this?” Hannah asked her.

“No, they don’t know that I’m doing this.”

“Did you talk to them like you said you would?”

“Yes, all of them were as distressed as I was to learn of your imprisonment here but they weren’t open to the idea of allowing Cathy into the village.”

“What about freeing the prisoners?”

“They’re going to make a decision about that in the coming days, they’re all desperate to get you out of here and they understand that you won’t agree to any release that doesn’t include the release of everyone else.”

Hannah’s mother wasn’t as I’d pictured her. They’d described her as a cold and unfeeling functionary, the woman who was riding with us was anything but. The feeling I got looking at Hannah riding next to me was that she was seeing her mother in a way she’d never seen her before. Watching Hannah’s mother riding next to us wearing her white robe with her red sash draped around her shoulders, her back perfectly erect, her hair tied in an impeccable bun behind her head, I could see how they would have developed that image of her.

“This is where you crossed over, isn’t it?” She asked Hannah when we arrived at the site of a huge rockslide, at the foot of which was a boy standing next to a horse waiting for us wearing similar clothes to what Hannah’s mother was wearing.

“Philip!”

“Hannah!”

Hannah leapt down from her horse and the two of them ran to each other and hugged.

“That’s Philip, he’s from the village, he’s going to help you get up the mountain,” Hannah’s mother said to me, “Hannah, you stay down here with me, there are some things that we need to talk about.”

“You must be Cathy; come on, let’s go,” he said to me.

He was very handsome, with dark brown hair that he’d combed neatly back. I got off my horse and went with him, eager to get a look at what for years had existed only in my imagination.