Autumn in the City of Lights (9 page)

After a while, I found myself drawn to a blinking red light. It was the beacon on the top of Brass Ring Records on Hollywood Boulevard.

“Do you see that red light? I was thinking about all the people who’ve been there over the years.”

Grey leaned forward and stared at the light. “I never noticed that before,” he said more to himself than to me.

“Noticed what? The light?”

“No, I’ve seen the light, but I just realized... it’s blinking in Morse code. It spells out ‘Hollywood.’”

I looked at the red light with more curiosity now.  With each blink I wondered which letter in the word “Hollywood” it was flashing.

“It’s getting late,” Grey said. “We should probably get back.”

I stood reluctantly, not wanting to ever leave this bench or this hillside, where the moon shone so brightly. I felt the ring circling my finger and realized I hadn’t thanked him.

I looked up at him suddenly and found him watching me. I opened my mouth, but he touched his finger to my lips. “The look on your face is more than enough for me.”

Moments later, we were back in his lab. “Let’s go check on Ben, and then I’ll take you home,” he said.

When we got to Ben’s room, I was surprised to find Connie, Daniel, Shad, and Rissi all there. Something was wrong.

“What happened?” I asked, chills prickling my skin.

“Why don’t you both take a seat for a moment?” Daniel said, pulling out a chair next to him. “We need to talk to all of you.”

I sat down in the chair next to Daniel, and Grey leaned against the wall beside me. Connie looked around the room at us and took a deep breath. “I’m sure you’ve noticed Daniel and I have been a bit on edge recently.”

I nodded, remembering her outburst last night. I hoped she wasn’t going to say they were separating.

“Well, there’s a reason for it. A very good reason.” She looked at Daniel, who nodded in support.

She looked back at us, then took another deep breath. Her eyes locked on mine.

“I’m pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” I asked, stunned. “Are you sure?”

 She nodded. “Very sure. I’m three months along.”  She put her hand on her belly in a protective gesture. “We’ve been keeping it quiet until now, but I’ll start showing soon. We figured it was time.” She looked around the room, examining all of our slack-jawed faces.

“Connie...” Shad said, shaking his head. He got up and went to her, wrapping her in a firm hug. I saw tears gather in Connie’s eyes as he held her, but she wiped them away.

“Don’t be sad for me.”  She glanced at Daniel, then said, “For
us
. At least not yet. There’s always hope we’ll have a healthy baby.”

“Maybe it’ll be born immune,” I said, trying to make myself believe it. But the odds weren’t in her favor.

“It’s possible,” Daniel said. “And it’s also possible Grey will have figured out a cure by the time Connie’s ready to deliver.”  He took Connie’s hand again and squeezed it, then wiped a tear from her eye with his other hand. A thought occurred to me, and I turned to stare at Grey, who had remained silent.

“You knew?”  I wasn’t sure why I felt anger, but I did.

Grey met my gaze, then crinkled his eyebrows as if to say, “I’m sorry.”

“That’s why you’ve been in the lab nonstop for these last few months,” I said, trying to control the accusatory edge. “And that’s why you were so upset today when your samples broke down.”

“I wish I could have told you, Autumn. But Connie and Daniel asked me to keep this to myself until they were ready to share their news.”

I turned to Connie and Daniel. “We’re supposed to be a family. Why keep a secret like this? We could have—”

Daniel stopped me mid-sentence. “You could have what, Autumn? What could you have possibly done to help us?”

I tried to organize my thoughts, despite the anger and hurt jumbling everything into a mess inside my head. The realization that Connie was a massive hypocrite surfaced, and I felt my irritation almost bubble over. The lecture she gave to Grey and me after discovering him in my room a couple days ago seemed feeble and annoying in light of this new information.

“I could have given Connie someone to talk to,” I said.

“She had me,” Daniel bit back.

Connie put her other hand on his side and begged him to calm down. “She’s just upset right now because we kept her out of the loop, Daniel.”

“Not everything is about you, Autumn,” Daniel said, not wanting to let it go. “It’s time you grew up a little.”

My jaw dropped open.

“Me? Grow up? Are you kidding?”

“Hey, hey,” Shad said. “Let’s all just take a few minutes to calm—”

“Hang on,” I said over Shad.  This time I was the one standing up. “I think over the past two years I’ve done a hell of a lot of growing up. Remember,
Daniel
, I was the one pulling your ass out of Area 51. A
kid
might have panicked and left you there to die.”

“Autumn!” Connie gasped. Her astonishment cut through my anger, and I instantly knew I’d crossed a line. I looked around at the faces full of mild reproach and wanted badly to run away.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

Daniel’s face was as red as his hair now, and I could tell he was raging mad at me and doing his best to control it.

“I’m going to go take a walk,” I said, then turned to leave.

“I’ll come with you,” Grey said, standing.

“No, thanks. I really just want to be alone right now.”  I knew Grey wanted to explain himself, and I was sure under the right circumstances, I would forgive him, but I’d just lost my temper in a shocking fashion, and I knew I was still on the edge of losing it again. I walked out of the hospital into the cool night air. I wanted to get some distance between me and the rest of my family.

I walked all the way home. Snicket heard me coming and stamped anxiously as I approached. I often brought her after-dinner treats of carrots or apples. This time I had nothing for her. I stroked her long, smooth nose and tugged at her forelock.

“How would you feel about an evening ride?”  She snorted in response, as if she understood what I wanted. Moments later, we were on the street, and I snapped her reins and yelled, “Heyah!” urging her faster.

I let Snicket go at a full gallop on the main boulevard through New Burbank. Heads turned as I passed, but I didn’t care. The cool air whipped past me, chilling my face and arms, and it felt good, sobering me from my tirade with Daniel. I thought about how angry I was and then realized it wasn’t actual anger. It was fear. I was scared of Connie and Daniel having to go through a nine-month pregnancy only to lose their child. I was scared of Connie losing someone else, when she’d lost so much already. And I was hurt she hadn’t confided in me. I’d told her so much over the last couple years, but she didn’t feel she could reciprocate.

My anger began to subside. I was still frustrated Grey hadn’t told me. I knew something had changed when he’d begun spending tireless hours in the lab. That should have been the first big clue. Connie freaking out about Daniel leaving for the Paris trip should have been my next one. But the thought of Connie being pregnant just hadn’t occurred to me.

I rode Snicket all the way to the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains – the craggy, desert mountains lining the back edge of New Burbank like a cape. Unlike the lush, green Hollywood Hills near our house, these were brown and angular and much, much higher. There were hiking trails throughout the mountains, and I chose one, not knowing or caring where it led.

I’d been up in these mountains before, only a few years ago. You could see all of the lights of the city from here. Now they were clustered around one spot – New Burbank, snuggled against the base of the Hollywood Hills.

Most of the population here was situated near the equestrian center, but we were slowly spreading out. I wondered if we’d ever have enough people here to light this area up like it used to be.
Not without babies
, I thought. There just weren’t enough people left to fill the town up, at least not in the area. Even if all of The Front came to live with us, I didn’t think we’d even fill a quarter of the houses left. I silently prayed Connie and Daniel’s baby would live and be part of the next generation re-populating this area, and the rest of the world. Grey had to succeed.

*     *     *

Three months passed. Connie’s baby bump appeared and then grew larger. I rarely saw Grey, as he was spending his every waking minute in the lab at the hospital. There was no progress on finding the bomber from the incident at the Hillside Bowl. Shad and the Guard rode countless miles and interviewed everyone from the meeting that day, but the trail had gone cold. No one knew of anyone with a star tattoo on the back of their neck. Karl continued to insert himself into the everyday goings on around New Burbank. I couldn’t stand to see him walking freely around the town we’d worked so hard to rebuild, so I stayed home, working in my garden and helping Daniel build wheelchair ramps for Ben.

Ben moved home on a sunny day that finally felt like spring. He’d grown quieter than he used to be and I worried that the accident had changed him. On the surface, he seemed fine, spending most of his days talking on the radio to Franklin and anyone else planning to go to the Summit of New Nations. He also began working on a project with his new BFF, Jen, the nurse. I thought they were an odd choice of friends at first, but in the last few weeks, I’d just been happy to see someone around who made Ben light up and forget about his paralysis.

It’d taken time for Daniel to forgive me for my outburst, but in the end, we’d found our way back to the way things were before. Still, with every sign of the life growing inside Connie’s body, the nervous energy in our house grew stronger, too.

Even Rissi was scared. She was old enough now to understand most babies didn’t live and had begun trying to take care of Connie in her own way. For the most part, Connie appreciated Rissi’s constant attention, and when her patience was wearing thin, I did my best to distract Rissi so Connie and Daniel could have some time to themselves. Rissi never asked me about Grey’s “special powers” again, though I did catch her staring at him from time to time.

I got into the routine of bringing Grey food at the lab, just to make sure he took enough time to eat. On a few nights, after we were certain everyone was asleep, he projected us back to Hoover. We searched the rubble near the dam with flashlights, sifting through endless mounds of rocks and dust, hoping to find his lost vial of E-Vitamin. Grey was certain that if he could synthesize it, he might be able to crack the code to making an inoculation. But we never found it, and Grey had to continue working with the virus sample we stole from Karl the same night we’d lost his E-Vitamin. Grey said the virus itself should be enough for him to figure out an inoculation, but I saw doubt in his eyes.

With each passing week, Grey’s nerves became more frayed, and it was dismaying to see how his emotions were beginning to get the better of him. It also didn’t help that the lingering question of who New Burbank was sending to Paris was still unanswered.

There was only so much gardening for me to do, so to stay busy, I asked Ben to join the team to help solve the fuel crisis. It’d been Ben’s idea to begin refining fuel again. Once cars were back on the road and planes back in the air, we’d have means to re-connect the country and possibly, the world. We thought that if we hurried, and had a little luck, we might be able to have enough fuel ready to ferry our representative to Paris for the Summit.

Ben suggested we start by sending an exploratory team out to an off-shore drilling rig to see if it could be made operational. With crude oil coming in, it could be transported to the mainland, where they were trying to initiate the refining process again. When an oil rig was chosen, I volunteered to be part of the expeditionary trip. I was eager to get out of town for a few days.

I woke early on the morning of the trip. I found myself nervous but didn’t know why. My room was still dark, and when I looked at my alarm clock, it read 5:15 a.m. I tried to fall back asleep, but it was useless. I dressed and went down to the kitchen. I was surprised to see a pot of coffee already on and Connie sitting at the massive kitchen table, staring out the window into the dark yard.

“Morning,” I said, pouring some coffee into a mug.

“Oh, hey. Did I wake you?”

I assured her she hadn’t and sat down across from her. I motioned to her cup of coffee and raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that a no no?”

She laughed quietly and shook her head. “It’s decaf. I can put on the fully loaded stuff if you need a little caffeine to wake up.”

I waved away her offer. “Nah. I don’t know why, but I’m wide-awake. No coffee necessary this morning.”

Both of our eyes gravitated to a hummingbird flying to a feeder just outside the window. I thought about how good it was to be able to be with Connie and not say a word. It reminded me of Sarah, back in the days before The Plague... and my mother.

“Do you think he’ll do it, Autumn?” Connie broke the blissful silence.

“Sorry?” I asked, not knowing who “he” or “it” was.

“Grey. Do you think he’ll be able to make a vaccine before my baby is born?”  She rested a hand on her ever-growing stomach. “I know he’s a capable doctor, but he’s still so young. Seems like if doctors three and four times his age couldn’t figure out cancer or AIDS back in the days when they had thousands working on it...”

“Connie,” I stopped her. “I know it seems impossible, but I swear to you, if there is anyone left in this world capable of solving this problem, it’s Grey. And I’m not just saying that because I love him.”

Connie looked over to meet my eyes. Hers were full of tears.

“I can’t tell you for sure that he will save your baby,” I continued, “but I will tell you I have faith in him. And I’m not the only one.”  I took her hand in mine. “And if, for some reason, the vaccine doesn’t come, we will all be here for you. We’ll get you through this. I promise. And, you know, the fact
we’re
still here is a miracle, so that should be proof enough for you that anything is possible.”

Connie took a gulp of air, trying to contain herself, but failed. She burst into tears. I wrapped my arms around her, and she buried her head into my neck. Despite wanting to be strong for her, I felt tears gather in my own eyes.

“You know I love you?” I said.

“I love you, too.  Thank you so much, Autumn.” She pulled back and used the back of her hands to wipe her tears away. “Won’t you just look at what a mess I’ve made of myself?”  She started to laugh. “I forgot how hormonal I get when I’m pregnant.”  She pointed a finger at my tears. “What’s your excuse?”  I joined her, and we laughed through the tears.

A couple hours later, Connie and I were both cleaned up, and everyone was awake. Now the coffee was the full-strength kind, and the mood was surprisingly light. Ben’s wheelchair was rolled up to his space at the end of the kitchen table, and papers covered the entire surface within his reach.

“Is that an alien spaceship?” Rissi asked, staring at the giant set of blueprints in front of him.

“No, silly. There’re no such things as aliens.”

I hid my smile as Ben continued. “This is a blueprint for Castor and Pollux, the two oil rigs the team is going out to see today. There are two of them, connected by this big bridge, about ten miles off the coast of Malibu.”

Rissi crinkled her nose. “Those are dumb names.”

“No they’re not!” Ben protested. “Castor and Pollux are names from Greek and Roman mythology. They were two brothers. There’s a constellation named Gemini, of two brothers side by side, remember that from school? Well, the brother’s names are Castor and Pollux. That’s probably why they named this rig after them.”

“Whatever,” she said and walked off, unimpressed. Ben looked up at me and grimaced.

“Don’t encourage her,” he said. I shook my head and smiled. It was so good seeing them back to normal after everything Ben had been through.

The back door opened and Rissi exclaimed, “Look! Look! Grey is here! You
never
come for breakfast anymore. Why don’t you eat with us like you used to?”  Rissi was at full speed ahead. I smiled and stood to greet Grey with a quick kiss.