Keeping Time

Chapter 6

Morning came to the jungle. Sun filtered through the trees. Butterflies flew about bushes of flowers and birds sounded through the jungle.

Maoko was the first to wake up. She looked where her village had been. It seemed that the Earth had swallowed it up. She couldn't understand how after so much pain, there would be so much beauty. How the sun could rise in the sky and the Earth could turn around it when good people were gone and forgotten. It wasn't fair. Yet the anger could not consume her. The pleasure of the night's oblivion had given way to the day. The night wouldn't last forever.

She found that Kadmon had wrapped his arms around her in the night. He wanted her forgiveness. She couldn't forgive him yet. She also saw Adam with his arms around Lux. It was just as well.

Showa awoke. She rubbed her eyes. She noticed Maoko standing on the cliff, looking at the sunrise. She got up and stood next to Maoko.

Maoko spoke first.

"Would you like to gather some fruit with me?"

Showa nodded her head.

They each grabbed baskets and headed into fields of flowers and wild bushes. There, Maoko showed her the difference between edible and poisonous native fruit. After a while, Showa got the hang of it.

"So I understand you come from a different time period?" asked Maoko.

Showa shook her head.

"Actually I come from this time period," she said.

Maoko's eyes popped from surprise.

"I hadn't realized."

"It's alright. No one would have told you except Myst and we aren't on the best terms right now or the Time Queen."

"May I ask what happened?"

Showa nodded. They both sat down on a flat rock.

"My whole family was taken by the Germans. My sister and her husband had a new baby. We were having a celebration. My mom had prepared a feast and had baked a cake. My uncle and aunts came. My brother and his fiancée also came. I was playing with my nephew. He was the cutest toddler - always smiling, all the time. My father was so happy to see his family. He was sick. We knew he would not make it through the coming winter. We had heard the rumors about the Jewish citizens being taken from Germany. We didn't think they would come for a German-Gypsy family too. My father had made his fortune in Germany. He was a proud German citizen and yet..." said Showa.

She stopped. Tears were coming out of her eyes.

"And yet they did come. They knocked my father out of his chair. They dropped the baby out of the window on purpose. My sister's soul died when she realized her baby was gone. My nephew was pried out of my arms, screaming my name. They took us to Auschwitz. They were leading me to the furnaces until a hand guided me and pulled me elsewhere. Pulled me down a long hall and strapped me into a machine. I thought for sure they had planned to do some weird surgery on me. I was carried through the woods to the Time Queen's castle. Myst had saved me. I never understood why I got to live or why she chose me but I know what it is like to lose your whole family. I know that man Kadmon cares for you Maoko and that he will be there for you during this period of grief."

"Speak for yourself and that dark, brunette friend of yours," said Maoko.

They both laughed.

"Thank you," said Maoko.

"Anytime."

They both walked back.

The others were awake and grateful for the food they had brought.

Myst was looking at her work phone.

"I've got a new message from the Time Queen. The Vampire Queen is in Germany. We are needed to stop her."

Showa shuddered.

"Then we must go," said Adam.

The group prepared to leave and teleported to Germany