Eve: A Novel by Wm. Paul Young Page B

systems were still in recovery. When they finished eating, he left her staring out at the ocean, the magnificent view of shoreline and sand below and, beyond the coastal divide, an odd mix of flora both tropical and northern rain forest.
    Lilly then went through her regimen of exercises, contracting and relaxing each muscle beginning with her toes and working her way up her body to her nose. This was something she repeated six times each day between waking and sleeping. With a push of a button she could now change her bed to mobile chair, and even though she felt her strength returning, she resisted the temptation to try and step off and stand by herself. Everything, it seemed, was about timing.
    Today, John had another surprise. He succeeded in navigating Lilly’s mechanical chair up a moderate incline and out a door into an open patio above the rooms where she had been healing. For the first time she could feel the air and sun’s embrace without any sense of separation. The space was small and sat like a crow’s nestatop a mast and offered a stunning panoramic view. He left her to attend to other matters.
    A strong rail was all that stood between solid footing and a couple of thousand feet of open space. She opted not to approach it in her chair. Even from her position a sense of vertigo overwhelmed and exhilarated her.
    Face upturned, she reveled in the late afternoon sun. A playful wind tugged at her hair, which she had let loose from all ties or bands. In spite of the ever-present sadness, she was almost happy, when suddenly her reverie was broken by the sense of being watched. She flinched. It felt as if a hand of ice had touched hers. Not ten feet away, looking out as she was, stood Simon, positioned strategically between her and the exit ramp.
    Tall, slimly built, he was dressed carefully but almost too heavily for the day’s warmth. His white buttoned shirt topped by a scarlet bow tie enhanced his features and dark hazel eyes. Oddly, while the wind swirled around her, it seemed reluctant to approach him. Simon spoke without turning, his voice surprisingly gentle.
    “I am sorry if I startled you,” he stated. “Don’t be afraid!”
    She let herself draw in a deep breath, relieved without a reason. “You did! I didn’t even hear you, at all, and it . . . surprised me, that’s all.”
    “I am like that. Quiet, that is. I don’t draw a lot of attention, at least not directly. Where’s the Collector?” he asked, turning with a smile toward her. “I assumed he would be with you, your ever-present guardian.”
    “I don’t know,” she said.
    “It is just as well,” the Scholar declared. “I wanted an opportunity to talk to you alone, if that would be all right?”
    Lilly almost let her internal smile play on her lips but resisted. This man was a stranger and she needed her guard in place. But there was an aura of the dangerous and delicious about this one, and it felt good to be sought out.
    “That’s up to you,” she offered. “We could call for John to join us.”
    It was a game, and she knew it and suspected that he did as well. He smiled and looked away, out in another direction and then back before speaking.
    “Lilith . . .”
    “Lilly,” she interrupted. “My name is Lilly.”
    “Of course.” He pursed his lips. “Regardless, you have been chosen as the Witness to Beginnings, and that is unimaginably significant. I am deeply honored to have met you, no matter what any of the others have said.”
    “What others? What have they said?” The flattery she’d enjoyed vanished, replaced instantly by insecurity.
    Simon appeared to be embarrassed and quickly apologized. “I didn’t mean at all to cast aspersions. I’m sure they mean well.”
    “Who?” she demanded.
    “The others, the older ones.”
    “What did they say?”
    “Well, for example, that you are just a child, which is not at all how I see you. However, they are accurate in pointing out that you are young and lack