Undivided

“You mean they’re just going to leave them there?”

“No one wants to deal with them, no one wants to admit they exist, and the public made a huge outcry when someone suggested they be euthanized.” Cam sighs. “Molokai was once a leper colony. It looks like the island will be holding to its tradition.”

Then Cam pauses. You fill the emptiness bit by bit, he thinks, and not alone. He takes her hand, rolling her ring between his fingers, and when she doesn’t pull away, he says, “I would like it very much if you came back to Molokai with me.”

She takes a long look at him. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I asked?” he says. “Because you want to?”

“I put that ring on your hand. But I didn’t marry the rest of you.”

“I know,” he tells her. “But the rest of me comes with the hand.”

She smirks. “Not if I get my chain saw.”

“Ah,” says Cam. “The good old days.”

Silence falls again, but it’s not as awkward as it was a moment ago.

Una flips her hair back from her face. Her tears from before have almost dried. “What’s it like on Molokai? Hot and muggy? What should I wear?”

“Does that mean you’ll come?” Cam asks, a little too eager.

Instead of answering, she leans forward and kisses him. Then she runs her fingers through his multitextured hair, and with the faintest of smiles, she regards his admittedly irresistible eyes, and she gently whispers, “How I despise you, Camus Comprix.”

Then she kisses him again.

78 • Co

Once the grooms all leave and the residents of the Tyler Walker Revival Compound return to their business, the dusk is filled with the mild melancholy that follows any grand event.

“It’s Halloween,” CyFi notes, as he, Co

“The best of both?” Risa suggests. She takes Co

His seams are deep, and although the healing enhancers speed the process, there’s no escaping the aches of being rewound.

Lev shifts his clingy kinkajou from his waist to his back as he approaches Co

“Like . . . breathing out and never stopping,” Co

“No, not the unwinding,” Lev says. “What was it like to be divided?”

The only way Co

“Did you go into the light?” Lev asks. “Did you see the face of God?”

“I think you have to get through the door before you see that,” Co

Lev considers it and nods. “Interesting. I believe the door would have opened if the master of the house knew you were there to stay.”

Co

“What do you believe?” he asks.

As much as Co

He thinks Lev might smile at that, but he doesn’t. “Fair enough,” he says.

The kinkajou—a literal monkey on his back—now peers out from behind Lev with wide i

•  •  •

Una and Cam escort Lev back to the Rez before leaving for Molokai. Out in the front yard before they go, Risa hugs Lev so tightly, she actually lifts him off the ground. Then suddenly she gasps, and apologizes, realizing she might have hurt him. But instead Lev is smiling. He smiles so rarely that when he does, it holds such joy that Co

“This way you won’t blow up, and I won’t fall apart,” Co

“Thank you for saving me, Lev,” Co

“You saved me first.”

Co

“You could have let me go once you got to the woods, but you didn’t,” Lev points out. “Because you didn’t want me to go back. You didn’t want me to be tithed.”

Co

“Do you still have the scar from where I bit you?” Lev asks.

Co

The kinkajou, apparently wanting some attention climbs from Lev’s hip to his shoulder, and starts pulling at Lev’s ear. He seems impatient for Lev to get on with his day. To get on with his life.

“Take care of him,” Co

“I will,” Lev answers.

“I was talking to the monkey.”

And Lev smiles, big and broad.

•  •  •

At the insistence of CyFi, Co

“An early Christmas gift,” he said. “My second-favorite Proactive Citizenry product.”

Co

“Me, of course,” Cam had answered.

The ointment is soothing. Warming. But it’s not just the ointment; it’s the touch of Risa’s hands.

“Remember back at the Graveyard, when I would massage your legs?”

“It was the best part of my day,” Risa says.

“Mine too.”

With all his wounds gently massaged, he rolls to face her. She kisses him, he takes her into his arms, and his embrace holds not the slightest bit of hesitation. Whatever else is wrong with the world dissolves into down pillows and fine linen sheets, and he finds that Risa fills that space left within him from being pulled apart and put back together.

Co

He holds on to the feeling until morning, when the authorities come to take them away.

Part Seven

All Saints

ANONYMOUS RALLIES AGAINST HORRIFIC, ABUSE-RIDDLED “TROUBLED TEEN” INDUSTRY

By Roy Klabin, March 27, 2013 PolicyMic.com

A faction within the exceedingly diverse “Anonymous” online collective has begun targeting the Troubled Teen Industry—trying to expose cases of extreme child abuse, sexual misconduct, psychological torture, and even deaths, at various facilities which claim to “correct bad behavior.”

The sales pitch is simple: “If your teen has emotional issues, abuses drugs, or is promiscuous, help is just a phone call away. Our programs promise to fix bad behavior by teaching your child life skills and building self-esteem.” . . . Sometimes you get taken to these facilities in the middle of the night, grabbed from your bed by camp employees your parents have let into your home.