Undersea

Chapter 10: Paradise Lost

After the gala came many dreams and Sarah could not escape them. It was the surging flood, the giants hemming her in, and the shaking earth that appeared to her with regularity now as she slept. Then came the words spoken above the waters echoing through her head. Other times there were nightmares of that evening: flashes, fire, screaming, and people stampeding in terror. Sarah did not sleep well.

Neither did her brother Jack, for his ordeal had been no less frightening. After he and his date fled into the Parlour Lounge they sheltered behind a couch across from the open doorway leading from the Great Hall. Jack poked out his head to watch for danger and saw the final fight in the corner they had just been, at the very table they had just eaten. A stray bolt even flickered into the Parlour Lounge causing a small fire on a nearby ottoman. Then there was the smell of things burning both living and dead; horrible to behold and forever tied to his memory.

And so the fruits of Undersea bore bitter produce that night and not the sweetest sounding words of song, chant, or pulpit lectern could wash it clean. By words and actions Undersea was faltering; by what words and actions could save it? Yet Sir LaRosa drove madly on, the hammer of any nail that poked to far above the status quo. For the status quo was now the new gold of Undersea; the most treasured virtue of it's citizens. The people heard the rumors of the purge and trembled, and in the big house on the wall brother and sister leaned on each other, for they were closest of all to the fear everyone felt.

On most nights Jack would come to Sarah's room and sleep on a couch there. Sarah would read to him from grandma's book and it brought them comfort, but also questions. Other times when they could not sleep; when one would wake the other with their screams, they would sit together on the floor, one holding the other until sleep took them both. It was hard for Jack, who was being groomed by Sir LaRosa to one day be a powerful player in the elite of Undersea. For he had looked up to his doting step father and had seen only a tall confident man; impeccably dressed with stars on his shoulders. A man who was careful to look a certain way in the eyes of his stepson, careful to give him every luxury, appearing as the very thing Jack should want to obtain in life: power, glory, wealth, and prestige. There was nothing powerful, glorious, wealthy, or prestigious about what Jack had seen that night of the party. There had to be a better way.

So Jack learned from Sarah and heard much of what she told him of father and grandma and the sunlight above the waves. Sarah would copy whole pages from grandma's book on pressed kelp paper and Jack would take those copies with him. One day Sarah gave him grandma's book. "Take it with you!" she said, "I will keep the copies." Jack protested but in the end Sarah won out. Jack read it often.

- - -

Somehow Sarah managed to keep up with her studies despite the purge, for school work helped keep her mind off things. Sarah soon neared the end of her standard education at a school where everyone feared her feeling very much alone. She thought of Zenith and Beamer often and missed them terribly.

In those isolated months following the party Sarah saw mother and Sir LaRosa seldom, and so was much surprised one day when she received the summons to come to their chambers for a "talk". A terrified Emmie delivered the message and there were two Mariner Patrolmen with her. When the three of them entered her quarters the patrolmen went straight to the bed. Lifting her pillow they uncovered the trove of papers and writings she had hid there. "Busted," thought Sarah as she looked over at a confused and frightened Emmie. Emmie looked back and feebly shook her head as if to say, "I had no idea this was coming." Sarah gave her a reassuring smile, "lets get this over with," she thought, turning to the Mariner Patrolmen.

"Can I help you gentlemen find something?" she said without fear.

"Ha, right where LaRosa said it might be," said one out loud, "though I don't see any old books or anything like that. Just loose papers in some sort of scratch-like hand writing."