The Complete Atopia Chronicles

9



I LEARNT THAT we’d had Little Ricky-Two right after Little Ricky had died, I guess to try and fill the gap that had appeared in her life. As the rest of them soon passed as well, it had all just become too much for her.

Watching reruns of this family that I had, but never had, I was filled with a bittersweet sadness. But maybe, just maybe, Cindy had gotten what she’d wanted after all. Did living a full life in a few short months make it any less? Did I feel any less sense of meaning in my life, having watched my children grow up and grow old and pass before my eyes so quickly?

It was all very hard to say.

What I could say with certainty was that Cindy’s family had flatly refused to allow me to have access to her body for the purposes of having children, which I had petitioned for immediately.

“Commander Strong,” her father told me, “I know Cindy loved you, more than we could understand after you kept leaving her alone for each new tour of duty. You know you nearly killed her each time you went back out.”

“I know sir...”

“She begged you for children, and now that you’ve...” he tried to say calmly, but then lost his temper. “This is an abomination, man! What in the world are you people doing out there?”

There wasn’t much I could say, so I waited for him to regain his composure.

“Rick, I just don’t see how, in good conscience, and after everything that has happened, that we can let you have a child of our dear Cindy.”

I could understand her father’s point of view. They’d never much cared for her marrying a military man to begin with, and this had just proved their point, whether it made much sense or not.

They didn’t ask to move Cindy from Atopia, as this remained the one place where they could still hold out hope. The future was approaching awfully fast out here, and maybe there was a way we could fix what had happened.

§

“So you have no ideas left, doc?” I asked, at yet another review I’d requested.

“Commander Strong, we’re going to have to refuse any further meeting requests until we have something new,” said the doc’s proxxi. “It’s one thing to play with the inputs and outputs to the brain, but the actual place where the mind comes together...it’s a tricky thing.”

Jimmy was with me too, trying to help out. “Why don’t you just take it easy, Commander, I’ll keep you posted if we can figure anything out.”

So I left it in their hands. Apart from watching reruns of my family, I spent a lot of my time floating back up on the edge of space, following the UAVs in their lazy orbits around Atopia high in the stratosphere, looking down at the storms that threatened to crush and destroy Atopia.

They could figure it out without me. I had other things to do.

§

Sitting high in the bleachers, the drama of the little league game was spread out before me. Tensions were running high at the bottom of the ninth inning, and everyone around held their collective breath as the final hitter came to the plate.

Nervously shifting silhouettes far in the outfield cast long shadows in the last rays of a late summer sunset. I squinted into the sun, trying to make out which kid was which, and then turned my attention back to the hitter.

Strike went the first pitch. Then strike again went the second. Hushed silence as the pitcher went into his windup.

“Strike three!” thundered the umpire.

The scene turned into pandemonium, at least for half of us there. I smiled, watching the little figures running in from the outfield, and someone grabbed me by the arm.

“What a great game!” said the man standing beside me. “You got a son in the game?”

“I sure do,” I replied as my boy scampered up the stairs through the departing crowd. He jumped into my arms and hugged me, and I looked down into his eyes.

“We won dad!” he squealed at me. “Why are you crying, dad? We won!”

I wiped my face.

“You sure have your mother’s eyes, you know that?”

Little Ricky just smiled without understanding. Drying my eyes I took his hand, and we walked down off the bleachers, across the infield and into the dying sunshine.