Beauty and the Beast (21 page)

How do you manage to heat them? I didn’t see heaters of any kind anywhere.”

Father smiled at Joe. “When I was first brought to the tunnels, we had no heating system. It was cold, but not completely unbearable, because we were protected in the tunnels from exposure to the chilling winds. However, even very warmly dressed, it was not comfortable. During the summer, we have no need for air-conditioning, because the tunnels are naturally cool, even on the hottest days, but winters were a problem. It was especially hard on the children. Fortunately, we ended up with a few of our members who had electrical skills. At that time, we had to tap into the city’s abandoned electrical lines, and those electricians of ours devised a way to adapt an idea they had seen above for heating the tunnels. They had our stone cutters carve out channels along the tops of the tunnel and chamber walls. Then they electrified oil filled pipes in those channels, which provided radiant heat for the whole community. It was safe, because the stone walls weren’t going to catch fire. Having the heat at the top of the walls also kept the children we have running around safe from burn injuries. Next, they scavenged fans from abandoned and condemned buildings, repaired them, and placed them in strategic places around the community to effectively circulate the heated air. Those fans run during the summer too, so we have proper ventilation.”

Joe had one more question. “There is one last thing that I’ve been wondering about. I saw the washers and dryers that you have in the sewing cavern, and I know that you have a major water source from that beautiful Waterfall Cavern you took me to. What do you do for bathrooms? Everyone is obviously clean and well-groomed.”

Father actually laughed at that one. “That explanation is a little more complicated, but it is really pretty funny.

We owe our modern plumbing to Mouse.”

Joe interrupted Father. “Before you tell me about Mouse’s plumbing, please tell me about Mouse. He sure is an odd duck, but I get the impression from everyone in your world that he is nothing short of a genius.”

Father then explained. “Mouse is one of our children for whom I had to make up a birth date. By that guess, he is twenty-two now. When he was five, we all began to notice small amounts of food disappearing on a regular basis. Vincent staked out the pantry one night to try to catch the culprit, and it turned out to be Mouse. Vincent caught him and picked him up, biting, kicking, and screaming, and brought him to me. He was filthy, dressed in rags, and malnourished. Obviously, he had been surviving on his own for a very long time. He couldn’t even speak. He was so wild, only Vincent could handle him. Vincent was very patient with him, though. He bathed him, dressed him in clean clothes, fed him properly, and then he began the long process of teaching him to speak and then to read. The result is the man you have seen. He is strange, and he still keeps his speech to only the necessary minimum, but he is an absolutely brilliant engineer, inventor, and craftsman. When we noticed his extraordinary gift for figuring out how to make things work, we began letting him work with our electricians and engineers. It wasn’t long before they were learning from him!”

Joe shook his head. “If Vincent hadn’t caught Mouse, all of that talent would have been wasted. He probably would have met an early death pilfering from the wrong people. Tell me about how he managed to take care of your plumbing needs.”

Father went on. “Mouse really blessed our community by solving that critical need. Before he set us up with modern plumbing, we were making do with chamber pots, with a few out-houses we were able to dig out in some of the lower caverns where we infrequently found areas with dirt, rather than rock floors, and with the use of our Helpers’ facilities or public restrooms. It was inconvenient, messy, and definitely not the healthiest way to handle our sanitation needs. Bathing wasn’t a very serious problem, because we do have ample water from

the Waterfall Cavern, some springs we located, and even a few hot springs, which we still sometimes use for bathing during the winter. Even now, each member still has a water pitcher and basin in their own chamber for immediate washing needs. Mouse improved our situation dramatically.

“When Mouse was ten, he disappeared on us. We were pretty frantic until Jamie told us that he and she had gone to the closest train station to use the bathroom. They had been exploring above, and Mouse had wanted to stay in the bathroom when Jamie was ready to go. She took William and Cullen to the bathroom where she had left Mouse, and they found him studying the toilets. It was a good thing they got there when they did, because he had pulled his tools out of his pocket and was ready to take one of the toilets apart. They practically had to drag him away from it, and he was very unhappy. He insisted for days afterwards that he wanted to figure out how those toilets worked. He was sure he could put toilets into our world.

“I had an opportunity to talk to one of our Helpers about Mouse’s obsession with toilets, and he told me to bring Mouse to his home. He took Mouse out to his guest house, which wasn’t being used then, and showed him where the water cutoff was. He told Mouse to go ahead and dismantle the toilet. Mouse spent two days taking the toilet apart and putting it back together again. He wouldn’t even leave it alone to eat, and he slept on the floor by it. Our Helper and his wife ended up taking meals out to him and hand feeding him, because he wouldn’t stop working on that toilet in order to eat. The Helper told me that Mouse finally asked him for a new wax sealing ring, whatever that is. He got it for Mouse, and Mouse put that toilet back together in perfect working order.

“Well, then our ten-year-old Mouse had a new obsession, finding toilets for our world. We knew we weren’t going to hear the end of it until we found him some, so Kanin and Cullen went scouting above to find toilets for Mouse. Meanwhile, Mouse asked to look at the maps of our world, and he made up detailed drawings of how to access the water from the Waterfall Cavern, which would provide the water pressure he needed, and how to hook into the city’s sewer lines. He also found the perfect central location for his very complex project. It was an huge cave that we really couldn’t do anything with, because it was so big. He drew up plans to partition it off and install plumbing pipes.

“When Kanin and Cullen returned, they had found the perfect source for Mouse’s toilets. It was a large hotel which was scheduled for demolition in just a few weeks, and it was filled with bathroom fixtures. When Mouse went through the building with them, he was very excited. He didn’t just want the toilets then. He wanted the tubs, the sinks, the water heaters, the huge commercial dishwasher in the hotel kitchen, and the washers and dryers in its laundry room! When the community

members saw his plans, and realized that Mouse knew what he was doing, they also became excited over the prospect of having actual plumbing fixtures.

“Our electricians hooked up the electricity to the hotel freight elevator temporarily. Kanin cut out an access door in the basement of the old hotel, and then everyone began carrying out plumbing and water fixtures as fast as Mouse could take them apart. It always amazes me how wasteful people can be up top. All of those beautiful, useful things were just going to be blown up and destroyed! Mouse made sure that we salvaged even the pipes from that building to use for our communication system and heating in our extended tunnels and the newly constructed chambers. I know we at least saved that company some money on trips hauling the rubble away.

“Within six months, with everyone’s help, and some more building materials salvaged from a construction site that was throwing them away, Mouse had an assigned private bathroom with a tub, sink, and toilet set up for each single community member, couple, and family. He built ten extra ones to accommodate visiting guests and for new community members. He also built enough of them for the orphaned children that Angela cares for, so that no more than three children would have to share a bathroom. He set up the washers and dryers in the sewing chamber you saw, and installed the dishwasher in William’s kitchen. We have four areas outside of that central bathroom cave, where we have men’s and women’s bathrooms nearby. Those four places are our Great Hall, where we have our holiday celebrations, William’s kitchen chamber, our hospital chamber, where Mouse installed two full baths, and a boys’ and a girls’ bathroom just down the tunnel from the children’s sleeping chambers.

He then set up a large storage chamber where he organized and cataloged the remaining fixtures for future use. Catherine left us a very generous trust fund, so the washers and dryers, along with William’s kitchen appliances and dishwasher, have all been updated. Mouse’s bathroom fixtures, though, are still in perfect working order.”

Diana spoke up at that point. “All of that happened because a child the world threw away was fascinated with a toilet! That is a truly awe-inspiring story!”

Joe added, “Nothing seems to be impossible in your world! It sounds just like Cathy to leave your community well provided for.”

When they arrived at the elevator in Peter’s basement, they slipped into silence as they rode it up to Peter’s hospital wing. When the doors to the elevator opened again, Diana took Joe’s hand and said, as they stepped off the elevator, “Joe, what we are going to show you will undoubtedly take you by surprise, but it will make you very happy. Are you ready?”

Diana was so intensely serious, that Joe felt a touch of apprehension. “I’m ready. Go ahead and show me.”

Father and Diana led Joe down the hallway, and took him into Catherine’s room. Joe stood frozen in the doorway and stared at Catherine for several minutes.

Then tears started streaming unchecked down his face. Diana put her hand on Joe’s arm, but he didn’t even notice. He walked to the bed, picked up Catherine’s hand, and sat down in the rocking chair beside her.

Joe finally looked up at Father and Diana. “Dr. Marx realized that she was alive, while the rest of us idiots were looking around her for clues, didn’t he? This is another really good reason for his odd behavior!”

Diana took Father’s coat off him, and Joe slipped his off and handed it to her as Father explained, “Yes, David sent me a note, and I helped him to stabilize her and bring her here. We have been hiding her here ever since. Joe, don’t feel badly. Vincent carried her all the way from Gabriel’s building to her apartment, and he didn’t even realize she was alive. Her heartbeat and respiration were so slow that it was a miracle David noticed.”

Joe looked at Father with extreme worry on his face. “So, she has been like this for almost four months. Is there any hope that she will wake up?”

Father smiled at Joe. “Actually, she is much better than she was when we brought her here. Her life is no longer in danger, because she is out of her coma. She is just deeply asleep.”

Joe knitted his eyebrows together as another thought occurred to him. “Vincent doesn’t know she is still alive, does he?” Diana had laid their coats on the table and was back by the bed. She and Father shook their heads. Joe exclaimed, “Why on earth haven’t you told him? He is devastated over losing her!”

Father then explained at length to Joe their reasons for not telling Vincent. Father emphasized that it was imperative that Vincent be protected from that knowledge until his link with Catherine was reestablished naturally, and he found her on his own. Joe nodded as he fully comprehended the wisdom in what Father’s community was doing for Vincent and Catherine.

Father added to his explanation. “Catherine seems to be trapped in some sort of nightmare, which Vincent is just beginning to pick up on, judging from the dreams he has been having. Right now, Vincent thinks she is reaching out to him from beyond the grave. We are hoping that when Vincent’s link with her is completely restored, that perhaps he will be able to help her to wake up. We have been pumping Catherine’s breast milk and sending it down every couple of hours to Vincent for Little Jacob. Handling her milk is causing him to have dreams and visions about her. Hopefully, it won’t be too much longer before Vincent is reconnected to Catherine.”

Joe was finally fully composed again, and he said, “It is such a good thing that she is hidden here, so Adrian doesn’t know that Gabriel’s attempt to kill her failed. According to what Diana heard, he would want to grab Cathy again as a lure to capture Vincent.”

Father added, “Exactly, when David rescued her from her apartment, part of our reason for hiding her then, was because no one even knew who had attempted to kill her. No one knew about Gabriel. Besides hiding her from Vincent for the moment, so his link can be healed, it is also still imperative to protect her from Adrian. To that end, Diana advised us that we should only visit her through the tunnels. That way, only people who belong here are seen entering or leaving by the street entrance.” Joe nodded his head. “That is a very wise precaution. By the way, who does belong here?”

As Joe asked the question, Peter stepped into the room with Sarah, and they both smiled at Joe. Joe stood up and went to Peter with his hand outstretched, and Peter grabbed it. Joe exclaimed, “Dr. Wellington! I remember when you helped us with an insurance fraud case a couple of years ago. So, you know about Vincent and Father’s world too?”

Peter answered, “Yes, Joe, I’ve known about it from the beginning, because Father and I went to medical school together. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to find out that they had brought you in to help us with our girl and Vincent.”

Joe spoke with joy in his tone. “Seeing Cathy alive has sure made my world a brighter place! I am so thankful that they decided to trust me, and brought me into this secret.” Joe suddenly stopped talking for a moment and looked at them. “Wait a minute! What in the world did we

bury in that cemetery? I was one of the pall bearers, and it sure didn’t feel like an empty casket!”

Father laughed as he replied. “It was a one-hundred-five pound sack of sand.”