Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Epilogue: Sun and Dirt and Growing Things or Sunrise in the Garden

ESTHER

Esther bent over a row of tomatoes and picked little green worms from the leaves. The summer sun showed brightly, and the wind brought the scent of fresh-cut fields and warm dirt and blooming flowers. She ran her hands over her head and through her hair. While her hair had been growing back steadily, it was now fine and gray, not the thick brown of her youth. Years in a kiln had taken much from her, but she was slowly rebuilding.

Behind her, the bare bones of a farmhouse stood. The young and strong wood frame had been built around the original chimney, the one part of the old house they had saved. Past the house, down by the woods, the graveyard lay peacefully in the field of blue stars. The wreckage of the destroyed barn had been long cleared away, and, once the house was completed, the barn would be rebuilt next.

"You missed one," said an airy voice.

Esther smiled. "Did I?" she examined the tomato plant carefully and finally found the little green worm crawling up a leaf. "Ah, there it is." She removed the worm and looked up to see Eli standing before her.

She would never get used to seeing him like that. It wasn't his form, his transparency, and brightness—everyone on the other side, in that other dimension, looked like that when they visited this side. They glimmered in sunlight and were only just translucent, but she was used to that. She wasn't used to the face Eli wore. His natural face as he should have been.

Before she stood the man as his original body had been. After centuries of creating vessels and transferring, the face before her was so different from the Eli she had known, the one she had fallen in love with. He looked similar, but the nose was different, and the mouth was thinner and sadder, and lines creased his face in unfamiliar paths carved by silent and long-forgotten sorrows. Yet, somehow, the voice was the same. It was, and it wasn't, but she could still recognize his voice, even from that other side.

At first, after the fighting had ended, she had seen him often. They had talked about the past and had told stories from the deep wells of their memories. She had told him about Ben, and Mica, and Anda, how they were doing, and where they were. He had told her about the other side, the people, the bright animals, the strange and silver places in that other dimension. But eventually, he had started coming less and less. It had been almost six months since she had seen him last.

"I hope you're not staying there," he said, looking behind her to the house without walls or roof.

She smiled. "Not yet. It's been hard finding workers. Too much else in this country needs rebuilding. But I'll finish it someday. They rebuilt West Six. So I'm staying in town until the house is finished."

Eli nodded. "Anda and Mica, they're coming back today?" he asked.

"Yes. Stephen too."

"Ah."

"Since he lost his brother, Mica's refused to let him go anywhere else. She won't let him leave her side."

"I'm not surprised. Mexico went well?"

Esther shrugged. "I think so. They've been so busy. I haven't spoken to them much."

"I'm sure being Ambassadors isn't easy."

"No. But Stephen has had some experience with politics, and he and Cassandra have been a big help. Ben and Cassandra are coming today too. And Seth."

"Sounds like a party."

Esther smiled. "In a way. This will be the first time they've been back here since...." Her voice trailed off, and they sat for a moment in the sunshine.