TC85

“Ah, Jael, you might have caught news of another row between the Allies and Germany lately? And perhaps you’ve heard rumors of the Allies at least thinking about invading Europe? I’m in Britain with my parents to make sure the Allies don’t trip over their own feet when the Channel crossing actually comes off, as they surely will do if no one intervenes.”

Jashen seemed worried. “Are we on course to lose the War?”

“No, Germany and Japan will eventually be defeated. Italy is going to roll over next year, in fact. But the way things are going right now the Soviet Union will end up dominating all of Europe outside of Britain and that’s not the ideal outcome from the perspective of El and myself.”

Jael looked around at the restaurant. “Do you think stopping here is safe or did we just trip over our own feet as well?”

Dory said, “Claude knew you were gone but it was too dark to go looking for you. By the time we all got to Cody he was searching around the camp for two dead kids in hospital gowns and stolen blankets. I guess right now he’s trying to make heads or tails of that damaged rail car in Powell. That we might be sitting right here hasn’t entered into his wildest imagination.”

Jashen said, “Leliel wanted to come with us, but I couldn’t see much use for a footrunner, however swift, and if she was with us right now she’d be eating so much food the owners would have something to tell the FBI.”

Ariel had a sudden insight. “Seer Shybear. Your wife! Dear God, she’s not just named after Leliel from the Green Book, she’s the original Leliel!”

“And no wonder, since I’m also the original Shy Bear.”

“But Shy Bear was born a hundred years ago. You don’t even look forty.”

“Eternal Wednesday,” said Dory.

Jael was drawing a blank. “Eternal Wednesday? What does that mean?”

“Think about it,” Dory said. “My father held an office of the Church from the beginning, and he presided over the Last Rites every Wednesday. How did he pull it off? Simple! Every single day was Wednesday for Mom and Dad. They squeezed fifty-six years into eight. Me and Gabe saw part of that.”

“Binah bumped us along,” Jashen said, “every night, right up those magic stairs in the Temple. And she did that for your family too, Jael.”

“So we had Eternal Sunday,” Ariel said. “Now some things that I dimly remember are starting to make a lot more sense.”

Dory continued. “Then in 1930 your father quit as Seer, and took Miriam, I guess, to England?”

Sophia nodded. “Momma Mary’s baby bump (that is, me) was starting to show. Who ever heard of a ninety year old woman having a baby? Of course, she was physically about thirty but a pregnancy would certainly bear explaining. All this will come out in the wash, eventually. Now is not the time.”

“Dad became Seer at the ripe old age of twenty-four, in physical years,” said Gabriel. “Rankled Earl Warner to no end, that did.”

“And Warner can’t prove anything right now,” said Jashen, “but he really thinks the Shahar Haruach works something like the Fountain of Youth.”

“Earl Warner and Agent Claude Colson have separate agendas but they don’t have the complete picture,” said Sophia.