The City Lake

XII

Caleb sat down on his ratty towel to listen, making sure he wasn’t leaving anything important behind when he rushed off, as Anna cautioned he would have to. That worried him too, but he pushed that off for now. 

“So, it begins with me trying to join the military,” Anna started. She glanced at the sky, taking a steadying breath before going on. “They were finally letting females into the army, as Roberta paved the way. I told you about her. Anyway, I thought I’d fight, or something, except there was no war, no place to fight. There hasn’t been since the Great War, and I was too young to take part in that. I wasn’t even born until after.”

At Anna’s long pause, Caleb gently prodded her into continuing. “What did you do, then? If you didn’t fight?”

“Well, I trained to fight a little. Just in case. But it was never needed, and just because the door was open didn’t mean it wasn’t fully accepted. Being a woman, I was assigned to a special project instead of doing the training. I had no choice in it, and most of the men got to stay where they were, and us women were funneled into completing these special projects in task forces. Of course it wasn’t all women. I met my husband there, in that group. I loved him dearly, but in the end he was too different from what I remembered.” Anna took a moment to breathe. “Questions so far?”

Caleb nodded. “What was he like, when you first met him?”

“Dreamy. He was so nice, and liked me for who I was. We’d go on dates to different buildings we had clearance for, and go explore what we could. That was before things got secretive.”

Anna stopped when Caleb’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and peeked at who had messaged him. “Jeremy.”

“He’s doing well?” she inquired.

“Seems like it.” Caleb texted his friend back that he was busy but could talk soon, and glad that he was back to the real world. “Go on.”

Anna rubbed a hand down her face, exhausted already from telling the story. “I erased it all, everything that is gone. Well, that was our project. We erased history, scrubbing it all clean. We were told to be thorough. Roberta? Gone. She exists no more, except for in the minds of those who are old enough to remember or were told from people who knew of it. You didn’t learn about her achievements because of me, I did that. I can’t believe I did that.”

“You said you had no choice,” Caleb said, slow and trying to show her the other side. “I’m sure even if you refused, someone else would have done it.”

“I know that, but I could have quit. I could have not joined the military in the first place and be ignorant! But I didn’t. I wasn’t. I wanted to refuse. I knew I would treasure the stories we learned as we did it, when no one else seemed to, and I memorized each one the best I could. At least I would remember them, you know? I could hope that was enough,” said Anna.

“Did you tell anyone else those stories? Preserve them orally? I’m sure if we looked at things from the past, too, we would realize what happened once we look hard enough. A picture, or something,” Caleb suggested.

“I don’t think you understand how thorough we were. There are no pictures. There are no relics. Those eternally slow movers are slow for a reason. We didn’t just rewrite the books for the next generation, getting rid of anything incriminating for the government or things that would give ideas to people looking for a fight. We had to erase everything or risk being caught. Those random missing photographs or grandma’s favorite rug, whatever held evidence, we had to track down and steal as part of it. That’s how thorough we were,” Anna explained. “By the time I had enough, we were only missing a few things to do with the Roberta case, which is one of the reasons it stands out in my mind. No one with the right items had moved, and I’m not sure they ever will, though I doubt anyone will be able to make the connection.”

“That’s…” Caleb trailed off and swallowed. “That’s messed up. Just, everything is gone? Poof?”

Anna crossed her arms. “Poof, yes. Forever. Sad, isn’t it? Doing all this, scrubbing history clean of people’s hard work, just to make the government look nice and caring from the beginning, something to look up to. The worst part is, is that I get it. I understand why they want to look good, and it may have even helped.”

“Hm,” Caleb said. “Maybe it has, maybe it hasn’t.”

“I did do something about it. This is the juicy part, I suppose,” said Anna, closing her eyes and drawing strength to go on.

“I’d had enough,” she continued. “I wanted to preserve those stories, even just in a minor way. Perhaps eventually write some books and pretend they’re fiction, I don’t know. I’ll never know now. Anyway, I had enough.

“I wrote down everything I could remember onto scrap pieces of paper. A name here, what they did there, I’m sure you get the idea. My husband had become all in on the program, and he knew me best. He confronted me about what he thought was changed behavior and figured it out, even though I had lied well enough to convince everyone else. We fought.” Anna drew in a ragged breath and rubbed her hands down her face.

“Wow,” Caleb murmured, attempting to keep up with the story. He was pretty confident he was, and he was ready for more, if that’s what she needed to let out.

“He,” Anna paused again. “He found my papers, the ones with all the stories. He burned them, and we fought some more. I didn’t know who he was anymore. And then all my stories were gone, and… that was disappointing to say the least.”

Caleb reached out to give her a sympathetic pat, then realized that wouldn't work, and returned his hand to his lap. “That's rough.”

Anna nodded. “That wasn’t good enough, though, the stories I had written down, and then they were burned. I wanted to shut down the entire operation. I may have successfully set the building we were working in on fire to at least delay the program, except that didn't end well. I thought I'd have a chance to write the stories out again, but then with everything that followed, I never got a chance. I could get into that, but I'd rather not.”

“That's fine,” Caleb said. “You're said a lot.”

“I suppose my husband already knew most of this, but I didn't get to tell my story to someone who wasn't all caught up in that project. This has been nice,” said Anna. She grinned, and looked down at herself, where she was fading. “Time to go.”

“Have a safe trip, to wherever you're going,” Caleb said as he bent down to pick up his towel. The water level was already rising and his feet were dangerously close to the water.

“You too,” Anna said. “I'll resist as much as I can to help you, but you better get going now.”

So Caleb turned toward where he knew the closest shoreline was, and hurried.