Addition to the Family

The next morning, we had our council meeting as planned.  What was to be done with Daniel?  As we discussed the options, occasionally Bruce would glance back at Daniel, who was now sitting quietly outside his shelter, propped against the rock face.  I wondered what must have been going on in his mind as he saw Bruce giving him that occasional look.  Were we discussing how to dispose of him?  I outlined the possible outcomes: we kill him, we send him away, or we allow him to stay with us.

Bruce was the only one willing to snuff him out, but having him leave or stay were the only real alternatives that we entertained.  If we let him go, would he return with the same kind of attitude as his friends had had?  How would he look after himself, alone?  On the other hand, if he stayed, where would he stay?  Could we trust him?  After all, we knew absolutely nothing about him.  Also, Daniel had been quite willing to drop his weapon earlier in the day.  Not only was he willing, but he'd seemed more than glad to do so and wouldn't pick it up, even while Gary tried to intimidate him into doing so.  In the end, we'd give Daniel the choice.

“I can stay or leave?”  He seemed puzzled by the options.  “Last night, I told you that I would have to leave.”

“That was last night,” I said.  “A few things have changed since last night.  If you left, where would you go?” I asked.

“I guess I would go back to the place we stayed at.” 

“What would you do there?  You don’t have any friends left.”

“I don’t know.  I feel uncomfortable around here now, because of the way things went yesterday.  You people are different somehow.  You seem like a family.  Gary and Frank were the only family I’ve had for months.  We took care of each other.  Now they’re both gone.”

“Yes, they are.  And you're right about our being a family.  We've been together since this began.  But whatever happened to Frank and Gary, that doesn’t have to happen to you.  If we didn’t want you to have the choice, we wouldn’t have offered it.”

“What happens if I want to stay?”

“Well, you didn’t come here with the best motives.  And that is certainly one strike against you, but I have learned over the years, that some people need a second chance to prove that they can be trusted.  In my years as an educator, I have seen a lot of kids who some people would have discarded as trash, turn out to be some of Border City’s finest citizens.”  I let that thought sink in before I presented him with the big promise.  “Are you willing to give me, and them,” I pointed to the others still seated at the table, “your word that you will make no attempt to harm anyone here, and that you will adopt our rules of conduct to govern your life while you live here?”

Daniel started to say something, but I interrupted him.  “And, is it your wish to become a member of our family, entitled to all the benefits and responsibilities thereof?”

“Are you a lawyer?”  Daniel asked.

“Nope.  Just a school vice principal.” 

“Sir, what's your name?”

“I hadn’t even thought of telling him who I was.  I'd been so interested in interrogating him.  My students call me Mr. W.  W, short for Woolsey.”

“What do you do when people make mistakes here, like break the rules?”

“When we meet around the table there, they apologize and make it right.”  I thought that a strange question, but then Daniel was a bit strange anyway.  “What were you thinking happened?   A beating or something?”

“Do you ever fight?” he wanted to know.

“We've had our disagreements.  We’re not perfect,” I assured him.

“This is a strange society,” he said.

“I suppose it is, but then it's a small society and with an increase in population come problems that we don’t have right now.”

“Do you mind if I call you Mr. W?”

“Not at all.  I'm picking up that you might have changed your mind since yesterday.”

“About what?”  and then realizing what I was talking about continued, “I’d like to stay if that's all right with everyone.”

“It’s almost unanimous.  You can thank Shari and your decision to sound the alarm last night to your good fortune today.  Do I have your word regarding the conditions of your staying with us?” I added.

“Yes, sir.”

Daniel was now the newest member of our small community.  He even had a friend to help him learn our ways.  Not that our ways were particularly strange, for we based our community standards on those standards that existed before the attack on the planet wiped most of us out.

Daniel proved useful almost immediately.  I'd always wanted to ride a bike.  No, not a bicycle, but a large heavy one, like the three boys had ridden into camp that evening.  I remember wondering about what a person would do if it ever fell over.  They seemed so heavy.  These bikes were not quite that heavy, but what I'd worried about actually was true.  It was possible to drop the bike and require more than one other person to help get it upright again.  That was why the riders put their foot down when slowing, just in case they came to a stop and needed to keep the bike straight upright.  If the bike had been Harleys, they would have been difficult to manage that way, but these were much smaller machines and wouldn't require as much leg power to keep from falling over.  Our lessons began with starting and stopping, then turning around pylons.  We graduated from that to using all the gears.  There'd been one stretch of highway that was particularly clear and free from damage.  It was here that we had our first thrill from the sensation of speed.  In a closed vehicle, looking straight ahead, there is little difference between sixty or seventy miles per hour.  But on the bike, even slow speeds seemed fast.

These bikes were not really made for off road, but Daniel decided that it wouldn’t hurt to have a little practice at that, too.  Besides, when we eventually used them, we might have to take them off road.  Sand was particularly a problem, much like trying to pedal a bicycle through the same terrain.