Switching shifts

Day 29, midnight

Life continued like that for the next two weeks.  I did my duty with Andrew, and he kept his eyes off me.  June finally stopped asking me what was wrong.  Andrew must have continued to do badly in his studies, because his score barely budged.  I did, finally, learn to sleep.  I just pretended that he was some pillow or stuffed animal or something, and he probably enjoyed it.

But I did not enjoy it when, after those two weeks, the computer suddenly woke us up with the light as if we were late.

“It’s only four hours into our sleep shift!” I complained, sitting up and clutching the blanket to myself while Andrew blinked stupidly.

“You are going to be changing shifts and so you need to begin the change today.  Please finish all morning activities.”

Even Andrew didn’t seem to enjoy our bedplay this time, but we quickly finished and showered.  I was too sleepy to even care which direction he faced, and I think he was too sleepy to care (much) either.

I wandered down the empty hall to our sim room, and came in… to emptiness.  That is, there were no naked girls lined up to get in the med chamber.  There was the usual gray suited girl there, who just looked up from her console and nodded at me, “Shift change, eh? I hate those.”

I hung up my robe, “It’s my first.  Do we do them often?”

“Not too often, mostly in the beginning.  They’re messing with the teams a bit, seeing how you react to other girls, how your partner does with different boys.”

“So, any advice on how to handle it?”

“Well, try to be friendly, but don’t break up existing friendships,” she said.  “Shift change is a good time to get close to your partner, as they always shift with you and, for the next few weeks, they will be the only person you know well.”

Oh, great! I got into the chamber, and then into my suit.

“Hey, Aliyah,” Andrew said.  I looked around.

“Where on Earth are we?” I asked.

“It does look like a different sim,” he said, shrugging.  “City life, I guess.”

“Not like any city I’ve ever been in!” I said.

“No, colony cities, I guess.”

We stared in front of us at the extraordinary structure.  Surrounded by a wall, a wall made, it seemed, of stone and mud, the structure was… small.  It couldn’t cover more than a hundred yard, if that, on each side.  But inside that hundred yards there were dozens of structures.  And the smell.

“Come on,” said Andrew, reaching out instinctively for my hand and then flinching back as if burned when I refused him.  “Our bouncing ball leads us forward.”

I followed him, sparing a glance for his clothes, and my clothes.  Right out of a history book they were.  I kind of liked my fluffy dress, but he looked really stupid in those tights things.  I had to admit he was a lot more muscular than when we had first gotten on the ship.  I remembered those first few glances I had stolen at him in the shower…

“Look out,” he said, reaching out and stopping me with his hand.  I looked down…

“Gross! They put that right in the streets?”

“I think there is kind of a gutter thing for it,” he said.

“Still!” I said.

“Bread?” a man asked, yelled really, at me, holding up a loaf from a table in front of him.

“No, no thanks,” I said, accepting Andrews hand as the crowd, which had been coming in and out of the gate, flowed around us and as I tried to avoid getting any of the disgusting flow on my skirts.

“Come, love,” he said.  “Our ball continues.”

I glanced at him, but this hardly seemed the time or the place to object to being called ‘love’.  And besides, I think he thought he meant it.  I pleased him in bed, obviously, and that meant more for boys than for girls, or so I had been told.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“I can answer that, actually,” said a voice from besides me.  I jumped, startled.  “I don’t know you, though.  You can’t be new, we left the planet a long time ago.”

“No, no, we’re not new,” I said, talking to the girl.  “We are changing shift.”

“Oh… are you then? Well that explains… that explains why the Smith’s had to leave in mid sim.  Well, welcome to our shift.  We have been doing this sim for a while and it is, well, in some ways it is easy, in some ways it is hard.”

“What do we do?”

“Well, in a word, live… and live on top of each other.  You’ll be assigned some occupation, not too hard, something you can do, and then you… live.”

Just then our little green ball began bouncing away, so we followed it… to a restaurant.  “Ah, good, more help,” the very harassed man at the front desk said to Andrew.  “Your partenere can help in the back, with my partenere, and you can help me up here, setting and serving tables.  The napkins are over here…”

I followed his hand to the back, where several women were busy ‘cooking’.  “Ah, more help?” a woman asked, looking at me quizzically, but coming forward and kissing me on both cheeks.  I guess that was the greeting for this city.  It was better than that primitive sim where the boys (thankfully not the girls) spit on their hands and then shook them.  “You are new?”

“Shift change,” I said.

“Oh,” she said, nonplussed.  I guess it wasn’t common for them, either.  “Well, anyway, we are happy to have you.  How long will you be staying?”

“The computer said twelve more hours.”

“Oh, then you’re on C shift.  Half the people here right now are on C shift.  I’m B shift myself, we get to sleep in about four hours or so.  Anyway, here is what you need to do…”

She set me to work, chopping onions.  I had the standard pack on my back (did I still want that to be a real baby?) but otherwise the work wasn’t hard.  Suddenly I felt a pull on my skirts.  I looked down, “You new?” The small form asked.  It was a little girl, who looked to be about four years old.

“Yes,” I said.  It was the first time I had seen a child on board ship, except for June’s baby and an occasional small boy or girl hustling past me in the halls with his mother or father.  It was certainly the first time I had gotten to talk to one.  “We just came today.”

“Why?” she asked.

“This is my new place to be for right now,” I said, which was easier than saying that the computer, or whoever programmed the computer, had assigned us. .

“Cutting onions?” she asked, going on tiptoe to look onto the table.

“Yes,” I said, “Do you like onions?”

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head, and I laughed.  “I didn’t when I was little either; until I found out that they made spaghetti with onions.  And spaghetti was my favorite, so I decided I liked onions.”

#

“I like spaghetti…” she started to say, when a loud bell clanged out over the town.  Everyone froze for a second, and then went back to work.  But the lady who had met me when I came it came over to me, “Dear, we have to assign someone, some girl, to the walls, and as you are the newest and know the least about what we are doing here, I wonder if you would go.”

“Sure,” I said, putting down my knife gratefully.  “What’s going on?”

“Take off your dress,” she said, hauling me over to a corner, and handing me a very plain dress covered in blood stains.  “Quickly.  Don’t worry, the men never come in here.”

I glanced around and had my dress off in a couple of minutes… it being of a rather different type than any I had worn before.  I slipped the new one on while she talked.

“It is an attack.  All of the boys will be on the walls, and we will have to keep them fed and all.” She started tucking cloths into my waist belt.  “But you and a couple of other girls will start by taking water to them.  The water is over in that barrel there.”

“Attack?” I asked, “By what? The enemy?”

“Oh, no.  This simulation has no enemy, or, if they are, they are too far away for us to worry about.  But there are these other animals, kind of like wolves, only worse.  They hunt in packs, and they hate people.  They come out in the late afternoon and hunt till almost midnight… it is weird.”

“Ah, OK.  What are the cloths for?” I asked.

“Oh, those, we will all have those.  Those are for injuries.  These animals have a mean bite, and their claws are almost worse.  They can jump really high, so stay away from the edge of the wall.”

“Got it,” I said.  “Another combat scenario.”

“Well, sort of.  But this is more a question of living together, of getting along.  You’ll see.”

Wondering, I left, going by the barrel and picking up a bucket.  It took me a while to find the way up the wall, which was a ladder.  Getting up the ladder was difficult, but I was very glad she had had me change, it would have been impossible in the other skirts.

Stay away from the edge? The whole wall was only a meter wide! I came up right behind two men who were yelling and thrusting with some kind of spear.  At least, one of them was, and the other had a sword, a very short sword.  I crept along behind them… against them, really, but they paid me no mind, and then, not able to resist, I leant forward…

“Aaah!” I screamed, leaping backwards, dropping my water, and almost falling off the wall.

“Careful lady!” the man with the sword said, pulling on my shirt and rescuing me from a very painful fall.  “They can really jump.”

Really Jump indeed! I had only seen it for that flash of a second, and I had mostly only seen his mouth, with it’s enormous, jagged, teeth… but it had been very like a wolf indeed.  Well, except for the scales.

“Water?” I asked the man, who was still holding on to me.

“Naw,” he said, letting go.  “Jack and I just got onto the walls.  Maybe along there, there were a couple of guys that had been on the walls for a while, they might be thirsty.  We all will be eventually, though.  Just make the rounds.”

I nodded, and, after going back down for another bucket of water, began walking around.  Sure enough, as he had said, there were a couple of men aways along that were thirsty.  And then, a few feet along, I met Andrew.  He was standing behind some sort of shield thing and he had his bow.  It was his best weapon, I knew that.

“Hey, love,” he said, sparing me a quick kiss.

“Water?” I asked, him, holding out my bucket.

“Not now,” he said, “thanks.” Suddenly he drew back an arrow and fired.

“Did you get it?” I asked.

“I hit it,” he said, but I don’t think I hurt it.  The scales make it difficult.”

“I guess so,” I said.  “Well, I have to go on.”

I hadn’t gotten another four steps before the man in front of me, just before I got to ask him whether he wanted water, jerked back from the wall, screaming.  I ran forward…

“Can I help you?” I asked him, and then screamed myself, as something heavy landed on my back.  I heard yelling, and then felt blood streaming down my shoulder.

“Aliyah? Are you all right?” Andrew’s voice asked me, just after the weight was lifted off my back.”

“I, I don’t know,” I said, staring at the blood.  It was a strange color… I felt myself all over.  “I think so, was all of that from him?”

“Yes, I hope so,” he said, examining me.  “You’ld better help him, though, he said, pointing to the man underneath me.

“Oh, oh, yes,” I said, and took one of the rags off of my belt and began wiping, and then tying it on, his arm.  He had a very nasty slash… I think it got one of his arteries.  I watched as the cloth got tighter and tighter and then, finally, the blood flow stopped.

“Oooow!” he said.  “I hate these creatures.”

Just then the men in front of us stepped back simultaneously, almost stepping on us both.  We scrambled to our feet, I trying to gather my things, and he holding his hand.  “Will you be all right?”

“Getting down the wall is gong to be a bother, but I’ll be all right.  The women have a clinic downstairs, someone will practice their sewing skills on me.”

I shuddered at the thought, but, gathering my stuff I went on.  Twice more men wanted a drink, and then another man got hurt, this time far in front of me.  The men around yelled for me.

This one was worse.  He was clutching his stomach and blood was oozing out around his fingers.  “Let me see,” I said, but he shook his head.

“Don’t bother,” he said.  “We’ve both been here before.  Just help me get out of the way so I don’t bother the others.  You could get me something to drink, if you like.” He looked down at my bucket, “Something stronger than that.”

I nodded, helped him into kind of a corner, and rushed off down the ladder.  “Drink?” the lady at the bar asked.  “Oh, for the walls.  Yes, we have a supply, we keep it right here.  These skins are easy to handle, and easy for the men to drink from.”

“Thanks,” I said, and took it and rushed away.

“Thanks,” the man said, when I gave him the skin.  I looked at him.  I wanted to do something else, but he just waved me on.

The attack ended an hour later.  I learned that we had killed three of the creatures, and driven off the rest.  “there were a dozen easily,” Andrew said.  I got some good shots, but I don’t know if I hurt them at all.  They are very difficult to hurt.  Did you do OK?”

“Yes, but… that man got  hurt.  That was hard.”

“Well, you’ve seen death before.  Simulated death, anyway.”

“Yes, but always you or me.  Never anyone else.  Somehow it was different.”

“Huh,” he said.  “I never thought about it that way.  Well, I guess we need to get back to our regular work, anyway.”

We climbed down the ladder, in the middle of a group of others, and went off to the restaurant… which was suddenly very popular.  “Oh, good, you’re back,” the lady said, looking even more harassed.  “Those onions are still waiting for you, as is my daughter, who seems to have taken a liking to you.”

I looked and, sure enough, there was the little girl, standing by my table, looking at me hopefully.  “She is kind of lonely, poor thing,” the mother said.  “She just has her little brother to play with.”

Well, I liked children, especially girls, so I was pleased to get back.  It turns out she liked stories, so I set her up on the table and told her several that I knew.

“Tell me about you,” she said.  “What is your story?”

“Oh, there is nothing interesting about my story,” I said.

“Do you have any sisters?” she asked.

“Yes, two little sisters,” I said.  “And three big brothers, and two little ones.  One I haven’t even seen.”

“How can you have a brother you haven’t’ even seen?” she asked.

“When I was culled, my mother was pregnant, and she didn’t have the baby before I left, so I haven’t even seen a picture.”

“So how do you know it is a brother, and not a sister?” she asked.

“Because the doctors have a little camera that they can use to look in and see.”

“Oh,” she said, nodding.

“Aliya, dear, could you debone this meat for me?”

I looked at it.  “That’s not…”

“Oh, no, dear.  Vile stuff, that meat.  This comes from a thing kind of like a deer.”

Well, better kind of like a deer than kind of like a wolf, I thought as I started to cut it up and little Lydia started to tell me how much she liked some dish made with this particular meat which her mother made… and which didn’t, at least she thought it didn’t, include onions.  I only understood about half of it but, as it turned out, it was what we were making, so I got to learn how to make it (and it did include onions) and got to taste it, as did Andrew.  They gave the two of us a few minutes together to eat, which was nice.  It was kind of lonely, here, without all my girlfriends.

Suddenly, after a few hours of working, my ‘ball’ appeared. “Oh, guess you gotta go,” XXX said. “Next part of life here.”

The next part was a meal in a different resteraunt, with Andrew. “How was your time ofn the walls?” I asked.

“I didn’t die,” he said. “Those scaly wolves are nasty things. They attack in  packs. No idea why. It’s not like they get to eat any of us. They guys think it is a territorial thing. We interfere with their territory.”

“How do the people live here, anyway? I mean, I know this is a sim but, if it weren’t?”

“The wolves, bizarrely enough, are very diurnal… the only come out during the day. The people here do a lot of work at night. Logging and all. Food is a bit harder, but the wolves can’t eat Earth animals, and they don’t eat vegegables at all, so they don’t touch the fields. They have some tall towers out there at the fields, too tall for even these leaping stupid wolves. This food is good!”

I laughed. “You’ve got the same recipe we were making at the place I was working. I had it earlier. That’s the reason I had this steak. It tastes like pork, but then a lot does, eh?”

He laughed. “Isn’t it about time for our shift to be over?” he asked, and suddenly the world flickered, and changed… and we were standing, together, in a bare metal room with that Newtonian lady.

#

“Take your helmets off,” she said.

“You are going to be undergoing a new simulation today. As has been explained to you, community living within the CF often involves very tight sleeping quarters. So, for all new inductees, especially those from a society such as New Texas, we have a sim designed to simulate this. But, unlike most sims, this sim cannot legally be done in a sim suit. Come here.”

We both walked awkwardly into a small room she took us to… awkward in our suits. “This is where you will be sleeping for this sim,” she said. It was a tiny room with a cot in it. “As soon as you remove your suits I will turn on the wall sim. I am required to inform you that no human will review this sim. The computer will monitor your behavior only to measure how well you adjust to these tight quarters. But no human will be able to review your sexual activities, or listen to your private communications.”

She stopped and we stared at each other, and then, reluctantly, took off our suits. “No shower?” Andrew asked, his voice tinged with embarrassment.

“No, this is a primitive sim. I will bring your suits back to you in the morning. Have a pleasnt evening.”

She walked out the door and, as it closed, the walls lit up and I gave a squeal, as we were suddenly ‘in’ a large room, divided up by blankets. Around  us we could hear dozens of voices, all ages, babies crying and the like. Our little area was divided from the others by hanging blankets but they were kind of droopy so we could see out quite a bit and…

I ducked down onto our bed, blushing. No one had noticed our sudden appearance but I wasn’t wearing anything and the man in the next booth, the one who was yelling at his son well, I could see him so obviously…

“Well, this is different,” Andrew said, sitting down next to me and, well, staring at me. “But, remember, they aren’t real people. That lady said this was all  a simulation. In fact, she was a simulation, you know.”

“What?” I asked, turning to him.

“Yeah. Would have been against the rules, otherwise. Outside of our room she couldn’t have stood there and watched me as I dressed. And, from what they tell me, a Newtonian would have smirked at me as I undressed, this  one didn’t even bat an eye. Just a simulation. Like everybody here.”

“I… yeah, I guess we got to get used to this,” I said, my brain still overwhelmed by the sounds from around us. “You didn’t seem to be OK with her watching you,” I challenged.

“Well, yeah, I mean…”

I laughed, and hugged him, which he really enjoyed.

 

 

 

 

 

<fix>

“Time to go, love,” Andrew said, coming up behind me and squeezing me, in the way I used to like, just a while ago.  “The next shift is here.”

They were indeed.  The shift that had left soon after we had come were back from their sleep shift.  It was good, I was groggy tired.  “How much sleep do you think we will get this time?” I asked.

“Well, I think a full eight,” he said, “Minus shower and all.” He squeezed me to show me how much he appreciated the ‘and all’.  He tried, anyway, but I just couldn’t for get that, if he had run a little less quickly, he would now be dead, executed.  I had to carry on though…

<have them ‘sleep’ in the new city>

#

Day 30, morning

It had been a hard evening but I had concentrated on the idea that I was being graded and that these ‘people’ were all fake and had done, I thought, a pretty good job. Andrew seemed pleased, anyway. I hated not getting to shower, though, and using this awful chamber pot thing, which stunk.

Little Lydia was delighted to see me when I made it to my ‘work’, running over to me and hugging my legs. “Aliyah!!” she said.

“What are we doing today?” I asked.

“You can do some serving,” her mother said. “How was your night?”

“Long and noisy,” I said, breezily, trying to convince the computer that I hadn’t minded sleeping with all of those  other people just a blanket away.

“Well, our breakfast cereal is in the pot there. If you could take bowls of it out. It’s what everyone will be having, so just bring it out.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, grabbing a tray and some bowls…

The ‘wolf’ attack lasted for  hours that day, and three boys got killed, although not Andrew.  I delivered water for part of the day, but got to cook most of it.  When we were just finishing Lydia’s mother came over to me, “We’ll see Aliyah tomorrow, too, Lydia,” she said, and I looked at her,

“Tomorrow is break day,” I protested.

“Yes.  I checked, and you are assigned to our break day.”

My face must have fallen, and she said, “Surely you realize that you couldn’t go to your old break day while on our shift.”

“I guess I didn’t think about it,” I said, and sighed.

“We have a very nice group,” she said, patting me on the arm.  “And Lydia will enjoy having you.  She has taken to you so well!”

I bent down and gave Lydia two little kisses.  I wasn’t sure where on New Texas these people were from, but wherever it was the girls all did a lot of kissing of each other, and a lot of greetings overall, and I didn’t want to stand out.  Not that I had gotten to know hardly any of them, except Lydia and her mother.  “See you tomorrow, then,” I said, and Lydia duly kissed me back, smiling.

“How was your day?” Andrew asked me, as we sat down to our evening meal.

“Fine, Break day tomorrow,” I said, “With a new group.”

“Yes, the men were discussing it.  Apparently I will have to participate.”

I stopped and looked at him, “What?”

“Yes.  That is their way.  Each man brings something. Their ‘pastor’ talked to me.”

“What are you going to bring?” I asked.

“I haven’t fully decided,” he said; which I suspected was a slight untruth to cover his nervousness.

“Well, I’m sure it will be good,” I said.

“Want to go on a walk before bed?” he asked me, when we had finished eating.

“In that forest?” I asked. “And get eaten?”

“Nah, I asked, and the simulator will turn off the danger so we can have some private time together. They say that even in the worst of settings we should be able to find somethign to do alone.”

“Oh, well, yeah. That should be great.”

 

 

#

Day 31, morning

 

We woke up in that little room. It had been a very long night. Very long. I think they program had turned ‘up’ to test us. And then, of course, we woke up naked in that room, with that simulated Newtonian standing there with our uniforms. And this time she smirked… “You’re right, young man, I am just a simulation. But thank you for the information on how you determined that. I was meant to be a test for you.”

Andrew just ignored her, and she went on, “You may go back to your room to prepare for break day. The information for it’s location will be on your wall screen.”

It was wonderful to shower that morning. Wonderful. And we both spent a long time in the shower, and talking through the last night.

It was a much longer walk to this break day room, and, for some reason, I was very nervous.  We were almost there when we met up with Lydia and her mother; along with her partner and their son, who he was carrying.  “Good morning!” Lydia’s mother said, as we all went through the greeting rituals.  They were dressed in their robes, and Lydia and her mother both had headcoverings on.  I was surprised by the robes, but I suppose it was legal.  The rules were you could wear, or not wear, anything in the break room so I guess it was all right.  And the robe had to be easier for her to nurse, I thought, looking at their son.  He was a little old, but a lot of mothers continued well until two years old or more, nowadays.  My mother had always thought that was strange, but it was all the rage on New Texas right now.

But my surprise at seeing them was nothing compared to when we got into the room.  They were all in robes! And all the women were covered; their heads, that is.  A little nervously, Lydia’s mother came up to me with headcovering, her partner walking alongside of her.  “It is our custom,” he said to Andrew, “All of our women are covered for service.”

I looked at Andrew, appalled.  I had never, ever, worn a headcovering.  Well, that wasn’t true, I had worn one to a friends church when I was smaller.  But we didn’t…

“She will wear one from now on,” he said, shocking me with his authority.  He had never, before, presumed to give me orders although, by the rules, he could.  Surely he should have left me to decide… I realized that everyone was looking at me and, not willing to create a fuss no matter how much I didn’t want to wear this stupid thing, I quickly put it on and tied it.

“We can begin now,” Lydia’s father said, and everyone began sitting down.  I saw, we saw, almost immediately that it was not going to be like our service.  First of all, everyone was sitting in a great big circle.  Secondly, the partners were sitting together! That was never done in our area.  Kids, sure, they could sit with either parent, although most sat with their same sex parent; but once you were ‘of age’ you never sat with the opposite sex in church!

Andrew, who I’m sure had never done this either, took it in stride, however, and led me to an open spot… with two couples squooshing over a bit to let us in.  He kept his arm around me, which I found doubly distressing, but, looking around, I saw it was the regular rule.  All of the partners had their arms, or hands, on, or around, their partners in some fashion.  I leaned against him, put my hand on his leg, and waited to see what other bizarre things would happen here.

“I’m sure we would all like to welcome the new couple, Andrew and Aliyah Tome’.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but shut it with a snap, glaring at Andrew.  But he just looked placidly on as the leader continued, “They have joined us from another shift, and are both from the area around Victoria.  I have examined Andrew and his doctrine, while different in points, is still, I believe, acceptable enough to allow him to speak in our meetings.  I have warned him to be ready, as their meeting did things a bit differently.”

It sure did, I thought to myself.  The next part of the service wasn’t that odd, as the leader got out a computer board and began a sermon on I Peter 3:15.  It was a short little message and, when he was done, he led us in a hymn: a rather familiar hymn to me.  Then he passed the computer pad to the next man, who, himself, gave another message.  It went like that until it came around to Andrew who, very nervously, pulled up a passage and read,

Psa 86  Bow down thine ear, O   LORD , hear me: for I am poor and needy.  Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my Elohim, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. 

Be merciful unto me, O   LORD : for I cry unto thee daily.  Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O   LORD , do I lift up my soul. 

For thou,   LORD , art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. 

Give ear, O   LORD , unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. 

In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. 

Among the elohim there is none like unto thee, O   LORD ; neither are there any works like unto thy works. 

All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O   LORD ; and shall glorify thy name.  For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art Elohim alone. 

Teach me thy way, O   LORD ; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.  I will praise thee, O   LORD my Elohim, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. 

For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 

O Elohim, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.  But thou, O   LORD , art an Elohim full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. 

O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. 

Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou,   LORD , hast holpen me, and comforted me.

My heart was beating out of my chest by the time he finished but, when he looked up from the computer, he didn’t look at me, but at the leader.  “This Psalm has been very meaningful to me, recently.  I have sinned, and sinned greatly, and hurt people around me, people who I love.  This Psalm is encouraging that, even as I still have to live with the results of my sin here in this life, I can still look to The Creator; both for comfort here and for His final, everlasting love…”

I listened, unsure whether to be angry or… or not.  If he was asking for my forgiveness, he wasn’t going to get it.  And what else did he want from me, anyway? I did my duty, didn’t I? And I held his hand, and cuddled, and did that kind of thing to make him look good in public, didn’t I?

His ‘talk’ was mercifully brief and he suggested a Hymn and we moved onto the next man.  But I paid him no attention, being far too busy with my own thoughts and emotions.

“That was a nice message,” the leader said, coming up to us after the service.  “I sense you had your heart in it.”

“Yes,” Andrew said, briefly.  “I have a question for you.”

“Yes?”

“The dress code.  Not the headcoverings, I understand that, but the robes…”

“Ah, well, that was a decision we made the first week.  You see, we like to emphasize the Sabbath as a day of rest.  And it seemed to us that our uniforms were very much a representation of our ‘job’… so to come to our Day of Rest in our uniform, well, we thought it wasn’t properly symbolic of ‘rest’.”

“I see,” said Andrew.  “Well, we will certainly follow your lead…”

We would? Come to Break Day…? I looked around.  Well, it was us that stuck out now.

It was funny.  They sat together during the service but now, now that service and lunch were done, they sat apart… the boys in one group and the girls in another.  Andrew had taken me into a corner, however, and I sat on his lap, his hands slowly busy.  I relaxed.  I was used to this, anyway, even if I still didn’t care to have him do it.  I knew how important it was to him.  And besides, I was sleepy…

“Wake up, my love,” Andrew whispered in my ear and I sat up with a start.  A couple of the girls looked at me with grins on their faces.  Let them try changing shift.  “It’s time to go home and… go to sleep,” he said, with chuckle.

Home, I couldn’t sleep.  Andrew, after doing his duty, did though.  We were so cuddled up I couldn’t move, which added to my frustration.  I couldn’t stand him, but there was no way to be rid of him.