CHAPTER 22 Josie was almost two years old when we finally landed. We had been moving through space for so long I had almost forgotten we had left earth. We had spent the last two years living a serene life with plenty of food and laughter. Pud was now seven and Ina and Robert had a 15 month old baby boy named Seth. He was adorable with red hair and freckles across his nose. Pud had named him and she, Zen, and Z oe spent a lot of time with Seth and Josey . Zen and Zoe were 16 and 17 and had started dating some of the older men. There were no males their own age. No one thought anything about them dating men in their thirties. Our community was very unique from anything I could have ever imagined. On the day we finally started landing, it felt like we were floating down like a feather floats through the air, so that there was a gently rocking motion along with the sinking feeling. We were very excited and most of us were standing along the wall of the thing we were in, which no longer looked anything like a cave. It looked more like a jellyfish as I’ve said before, but when we were finally on the ground, it turned into the cave-like structure and I realized it was the way it disguised itself . We could no longer look out and made our way to the entrance of what was now a cave again. It looked like it had before but the old dwellings had been tucked underneath so that they couldn’t be seen. There was a crowd of us who went down the hill that day and I could feel the excitement. My heart was beating very fast and I could sense Joe’s excitement too. We had left Josie with the girls and Seth. At the bottom of the hill we hiked quite a ways before we finally came to a village. It looked more like the houses and road in my t ime. The roads were either sand or some sort of hard material that resembled coquina which is made up of small pieces of shell cemented together. I knew this couldn’t be earth because we had come so far but it looked just like the Florida I had left and the time I had left. “You know what,” Joe said. “This surface hurts my feet. Maybe we need to think about getting some shoes.” We all looked down then and we were wearing sandals. They were very comfortable and enabled us to walk more easily on the coquina. The houses we were passing were all made of wood and all had porches. There were no lawns but the yards were all sand. We noticed one house at the end of the road we were on that was huge with two stories. It was painted in white and had orange shutters. Some of the houses had cars parked in front that looked pretty much like the cars in my time but they didn’t have any names on them. The rest of our group were talking and pointing at the cars and I explained what they were. We headed toward the big hous e thinking it was some sort of t ow n hall or something but before we got there a tall thin man with long dark hair and full shaggy beard came out of one of the houses. “Hi, friends,” he said. “Welcome. Won’t you come in and share a meal with us? My name’s Ted Monroe.” I looked down and noticed he was wearing sandals just like the ones we were wearing. He was also wearing bellbottom jeans like everyone was wearing when I died in my time and a long-sleeved tee shirt in rusty red. I liked him right away. He reminded me of Joe. We all introduced ourselves and four of us followed him inside. They were Joe, Ina, Robert and me. The others said they wanted to continue exploring. “I wouldn’t go near the pig’s house if I were you,” Ted called after them as we started inside. When we got inside it looked just like many houses in my time. A lot of people were living here and, instead of regular furniture there