Read Online Eve: A Novel by Wm. Paul Young - Free Book Online Page B

around? Or was Earth, her mysterious place of origin—the place she couldn’t quite conjure—was that real?
    John spoke again. “Would you please sing over her? As you did for me when I was the Witness. I sense that she will need the strength of your song this day.”
    And the Voice did just that. Even if she had wanted to open her eyes, Lilly would have been unable. For the first time in any dream or fragment of memory, she truly rested. Peace came over her like a tidal flow, one harmony rolling over another and then another until she was embraced by song itself. In that solitary moment not one thing in her hurt.
    •  •  •
    A GREAT COMMOTION OF scuffling feet and voices woke her. Activity swirled around Lilly’s bright room but remained outside her vision. Behind the jabbering hubbub were mechanical clicks and clacks and what sounded like ropes being tightened or twisted. Occasionally she heard the ping of a wire and a shriek of satisfaction or frustration.
    John appeared above her and smiled. “Today is a momentous day. We’ve accomplished so much since the day you moved your head on your own—”
    “That was only yesterday, wasn’t it?” Her voice sounded strange to her own ears.
    “Well, listen to you!” John sounded very pleased. “No more hoarse throat. To answer your question, it was more like three days ago.”
    “I’ve been asleep that long?”
    “Hovering, if you want to be precise.”
    “Hovering?”
    “Um, yes, hovering. Definitely hovering.”
    “Well, are you going to explain that to me?”
    John looked up and thought for a moment before looking back at her. “It is as if we took you to meet death but we wouldn’t let you shake its hand.”
    “You mean I was in a coma?”
    “Coma!” he exclaimed. “I don’t know that word, but if it explains a procedure in which we intentionally kept you unconscious in order to hasten some specific healing—yes, then, a coma. Does that help?”
    She nodded.
    John’s eyes brightened. “Do that again.”
    “Do what?” she asked.
    “You nodded.”
    Realizing what she had done, she burst into a grin and did it again. The simple movement sent ripples of cheer through the room.
    “We’veloosened your head covering and stimulated your muscles,” he explained. “You should have a greater range of motion now as well as control of your extremities.”
    “John,” she interrupted, “you make me sound like an experiment. By the way, who is we ? I can hear them but can’t see them.”
    His eyebrows rose. “You can hear them? That’s unusual! Normally their voices are imperceptible to humans. Very strange indeed,” he mumbled, rubbing his short beard with his left hand. “Entirely unanticipated. Well”—he lifted both hands and spun around—“she wants to know who is here. Do we tell her?”
    The momentary silence was broken by a high-pitched chime that reminded her of a doorbell. “Okay then.” And he spun back to face her.
    “Let’s see. Today we’re joined by a rabble of Healers and Menders, and a number of Fixers, Builders, Designers, and Tinkers.” He pointed around the room as he named each group. “Various Messengers, who move too quickly even for me to see, a Thinker, a Seer, a Cook, and one Weaver. No Scholars. And no Inventors here today, or Singers, and no Managers, thankfully. There is one Timekeeper and one Curmudgeon.” He looked back into her eyes. “And there are always some Invisibles, but you never know who or how many unless they want you to.”
    She cleared her throat. “I want to see them.”
    “Well, you can’t.” He leaned down and whispered with a grin, “They’re invisible.”
    “I wasn’t talking about the Invisibles. I want to see the others, the Menders and Healers who have been tending to me, and why are there Fixers and Builders here?”
    John glanced around, apparently thinking through his options. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. When you think Mender or Healer, Lilly, your mind