More Things In Heaven And Earth

Chapter Nineteen

"The Thing about chaos, is that while it disturbs us, it too, forces our hearts to roar in a way we secretly find magnificent." -Christopher Poindexter

We were out of the truck, practically before it stopped moving and splashing through the mud into the arms of our loved ones. Or, in my case, as near as I could be. Ike curled into my embrace. Michael was able to brush my cheek with the backs of his fingers for a moment, tears of joy and relief in his eyes. Donovan hung back but met my gaze and told me in a shaky voice, "I'm so glad you're home."

"I'm glad too, Donny. I missed you guys. I love you so much!"

I saw Denisa, watching us, and squeezed Ike a little tighter. I hadn't mentioned Donovan's concerns to Freyja, but maybe I should.

It is good to have you home, child," Gaia said, enveloping me in a bone-crushing hug.

Eddie tugged on my sleeve like an excited little boy. "Hey, Simone! Come check this out." I followed them to the workshop corner. For years, an old car had sat in front of the factory, slowly being drawn back into the earth. Somehow, they'd managed to drag it inside. They had it up on blocks and disassembled all over the floor like so many Lego bricks for grown men. I had assumed that Eddie and some of the other guys were stripping it for useful parts, so I was astonished to see a little boy, maybe eight years old, covered in grease, standing on a stool in front of the hood, fastening something down with a ratchet. "Hand me that piece," he said without looking. I glanced at Eddie who was grinning ear-to-ear.

"You heard the man," he said.

I picked up the part and handed it to him. It seemed far too bulky to be in such small hands, but the boy deftly placed it in a little nook that was just the right size and began attaching wires and hoses. I had never seen anyone working on a piece of machinery move with such speed and certainty. "How do you know where it goes?" I asked.

The boy just kept working. "I just know stuff."

I looked over at Eddie, who grinned. "Kid's a flippin' genius. His name is Alex. Shows up here one day, just like the rest. 'I knew I could come here and be safe,' he says. Then he just starts building stuff." He motioned for me to follow him over to a large box on the floor. It was a mash of parts: a wooden crate, a piece of screen cut from an old window, yards of copper wire. It didn't look like anything at all that I'd ever seen. "It's a mess, right?" Eddie said.

"It certainly doesn't look like anything you'd find at Brookstone," I said.

Conspiratorially, as though it were a big secret. "It's a two-way radio," he said.

I was duly impressed. "He built a two-way radio out of this stuff?"

"Yeah, but..." He shook his head like I just wasn't getting it. "Look at it!"

I looked. Obviously I was missing something. "OK. I'm looking."

Eddie was exasperated with the level of my ignorance. "There's no power source!"

I frowned. "Well... the copper... maybe he built in a battery of some sort?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Not with this stuff here. Somehow he's got it rigged to suck electricity out of the air. People have been trying to build this since Tesla said it was possible."

I looked at the little boy again, with new eyes. "He 'just knows stuff', eh?"

"So much stuff it'll scare you. There isn't anything this kid couldn't build given time, and space, and a scrap yard full of junk."

It was like the power in a lightning bolt--it could be harnessed to light a city or blow one to pieces. And the world was one big scrap yard full of junk these days. It did scare me.