Book 2 - The Chameleon's Song

Chapter 15.5: Stress Relief

Catherine woke from her daily nap very hungry. She managed to pull herself out of the bed and made it to the stairs out of the tower before she heard the distinct sound of glass hitting glass from the top of the tower.

"Bruno?" she called. Her voice echoed back to her but he didn't respond.

Then there was another sound of glass on glass.

"Bruno!"

No response again so she began to make her way up the tower.

Catherine pulled herself up the last leg of the stairs. Struggling to catch her breath. She gripped her enlarged stomach. She looked across the bridge to her husband, Bruno, sitting on the floor outside his cave, surrounded by visions. He picked one up, looked at the vision before putting it in a box on the other side of him. Then he picked up another.

"Bruno?"

He looked up at her as she made her way across the bridge to him.

"Mi amor, what are you doing up here? You shouldn't-"

"I could hear you but you weren't responding," Catherine said. She sat beside him and Bruno kept watching her as if the wrong movement might break her. "What are you doing?"

"I-I'm sorting through my visions. Gotta do it ever so often or they pile up. Haven't done it since we rebuilt Casita," Bruno said.

"You haven't had this many visions since I got here."

"No. A lot of them survived Casita's fall. Surprisingly."

He looked at the vision he was still holding and put it in the pile between him and Catherine.

"How are you sorting them?" Catherine asked.

"Visions that have already happened," Bruno explained and motioned to the box. "Visions that haven't." He pointed at the pile between them. "And visions where I don't know." He pointed to a small pile behind him. "I'll decide at the end if I want to keep them or remind myself about them or..."

He shrugged and picked up another, it very quickly went into the 'already happened' box. With a smile, Catherine looked at the pile between them. The one Bruno had just put down had a distinct image of a mushroom-shaped cloud.

Catherine's stomach twisted as she turned it to face her.

"I think this has happened," she said.

Bruno looked at her, then the vision again. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"When did you have this vision?"

Catherine could remember the photos her old friend sent her. The words of the horrors he wrote about.

"After Camilo's gift ceremony but before Mirabel's," Bruno answered.

"So, nearly eleven years ago?"

Bruno nodded. "It's happened?" he asked.

"I can't tell for certain but I think it has. The war, the one that ended only five years ago. The Americans dropped nuclear bombs on two towns in Japan. Bombs that created this kind of cloud."

"Japan?"

Catherine laughed. "I forget how little you all know of geography and the history of the world outside the mountains. Japan is a country in the continent of Asia. It's on the complete other side of the planet. These bombs weren't shown to the whole world, maybe one day they will be but the war is still too fresh in people's minds. But after the war ended, some people explored. Wanted to learn and see the aftermath for themselves. A friend of mine went to Japan and went to the towns that were bombed. Through him, I learnt of the mushroom clouds and how the heat of the bomb seemed to destroy people's bodies leaving nothing but a shadow on the wall."