REPUBLICA

14. Oasis

"Why do you want to go to Roberta's?" Jo asked Shelton while backing out of the apartment complex garage. After Shelton had inspected Jo's Mini Cooper for tracking devices, he convinced Jenny and Jo that they were in danger if they stayed in their apartments.

Shelton sat in front with Jo, and Jenny sat in the back seat with a few precious books. "Is Roberta coming with us?" Jo asked, as the car rolled toward the main road.

"You'll understand completely when we get there," Shelton said, smiling from behind the sunglasses he always wore in public. "Guarantee it."

"When do we get to go back to our apartments?" Jenny asked from the back seat, looking up from her faded copy of The Federalist Papers. Reading the words of her cousin James Madison reminded Jenny that she and her friends were loved by ancestors who had walked through similar fires. "We will come back, won't we?"

Shelton's smile faded. "Jenny, I honestly don't know." As Jo turned onto Roberta's street, Shelton heard Jenny sigh and slump back in her seat.

***********

"Perfect," Meriwether Lewis said, mostly to himself but partly for the benefit of the other attendees at the meeting. It was a gathering unlike any other: George Washington, James and Dolley Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Chief Osemaquin Massasoit and Queen Saunka, Julia Woodman, and Meriwether Lewis. All were seated at the usual long, wooden table, except for Lewis, who was observing the activities in Exeter, New Hampshire.

"Just perfect," Meriwether said again, turning away from the window and looking at Jenny's mother. "Roberta Entzel is a genius, Julia. Come and see."

Julia stood up and tentatively walked toward the window, not convinced that it was a good idea to "come and see." She had mastered dream visitations but was still unsteady and nervous about real-time observations beyond the veil. Meri motioned for Julia to come closer to the window.

"It's all right, Julia," Dolley Madison said. "It takes practice, so don't be discouraged."

"That's right," Meri said, smiling and offering his hand to Julia. "So, you might as well start now." James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, exhausted from drafting their All Hallows Eve Declaration, sat quietly but attentively.

Chief Osemaquin rose to his feet and accompanied Julia to the window, where Meri was watching Jenny, Jo, and Shelton set up housekeeping behind a wall in Roberta's house. Roberta peered through her lace-covered living room window, ready to warn the others if danger approached.

"Oh, my!" Julia exclaimed, standing between Meriwether and Osemaquin. "Mrs. Entzel was my high school history teacher long before she was Jenny's teacher. She lost her teaching job after everything changed." Julia still couldn't bring herself to call her former teacher by her first name.

Looking up at Meriwether, who was at least 6 inches taller, Julia said, "Mrs. Entzel isn't giving up on our country!"

"Or your daughter," Meri said gently. "Have faith, cousin," he continued, placing a strong hand on Julia's shoulder. "Jenny, Jo, and Shelton have many allies, as you can see."

************

Jenny and Jo could not stop marveling at the hidden living space in Roberta's house. It reminded them of secret passageways in books they had read as children: wood-paneled walls, handcrafted cabinetry, shelves lined with worn books. Somehow, there was room for a vintage loveseat, two overstuffed chairs, and a kitchen table with two chairs. A thick, dark carpet muffled every sound and added warmth and coziness.

Roberta's late husband had built the hidden room before he died, just after things had begun to change. The Precinct had not yet been established, but the school district had already ordered Roberta to remove the Bill of Rights from her curriculum. She was warned to stop making derogatory statements about slavery and to refrain from using the words "inclusion," "diversity," and "voting rights." Roberta's courses on women's history and indigenous peoples of the Americas were cut from the school calendar and her classroom library was dismantled.