Notes from the Future: Veronica's Journal, June 24 (much later)

June 24

Much, much later

The first woman to come see me I call Nice Rachel. She is the one who spoke up back there on the ridge. She said they should help us. She looks me directly in the eye and asks practical questions. She also brought me my food and tasted some of it to prove it wasn't poison. I think she even made a joke, said something like, "If I've already drunk the Kool-Aid, it's not going to matter if I put some in your soup," and it made me laugh and she laughed too, but quietly. So it was hard to tell if she meant it as a joke.

I asked her about Tad and she said he was doing well. Actually, she said, "He's stable," which set my nurse bells ringing. I could tell she had more to say but maybe couldn't say it. Or won't say it yet. She squeezed my hand and I asked if there was any news of the aftermath, if there was a way I could listen to a radio or something. She just stared at me. For a long time. I almost wondered if they are anti-media here, but then she squeezed my hand again and went out.

The soup was chicken soup, homemade, with parsnips. Just the way Tad makes it. Are these bastard people reading my mind and trying to make me go insane? I assume it's a coincidence, but man. Parsnips.

A woman came in to take away the dishes. I call her Pre-Menstrual Rachel. She scowled at me and darted her eyes around the room like she thought I was hiding birds just out of her peripheral vision. She was so creepy and suspicious that I couldn't help it, I said, "Mad Meg of the Marshes!" to her. It's an inside joke, but I said it the way Tad does and she stopped dead, staring at me like I had a python crawling out of my mouth. I haven't seen her since she left with the dishes.

Ezekiels, by the way, do not enter a Rachel's room. Only the Prophet may enter a Rachel's room. That's something Nice Rachel told me.

A little while ago, Shy Rachel came in. She's maybe fifteen. I can tell she's scared of me, but she wants to talk. She said that Rachel is getting me a TV, then she asked if there is anything I need. I thanked her and mentioned that Max needs water and food and her eyes lit up when he wagged his tail at her. Max grins at people and they get happy. He walked over to her in that way he has and she looked at the door for a long moment before she knelt down and rubbed his ears, looked into his eyes, scratched his chin and then held him close. He sat still for all of it, noble and yielding. Like he knew she needed this. And Shy Rachel was completely silent the whole time. She hardly breathed. With tears flooding her face. She's been gone a while. I am really, really tired.

Future Veronica, if you read this and can't remember it? Check your ears for brain-control bugs.

That's all for now.