Becoming Calder (A Sign of Love Novel)(10)

"That's right, my beloved. I can. We can. We can all love you, our flower, made new again with love, with family, with purpose, with belonging." And then he brought the lily from behind his back, and it was as perfect as it was when he first plucked it from the vase. New and fresh and so very beautiful.
I loved that part and it always made a strange chill run down my spine. It was like a plot twist that you came upon in a story, and it made your heart jump and you wanted to tell someone about it right away. Only when Hector brought someone new up on the podium, the plot twist was part of their life and it was a good one, and they usually cried and carried on and on about it.
Naturally.
Teresa gasped and I could see she felt the same way, and her tears began to flow even harder as she sobbed out. Hector wrapped his arms around her, cradling her to his body, repeating, "I can, we can, I can, my love."
Hector looked out into the audience in my direction and I knew that was my cue to bring the water.
My dad took his arms from around my shoulders and I made my way to the marble font of water at the back of the Temple. I filled the small cup sitting next to it and walked down the center aisle toward Hector.
"My water bearer," Hector said, smiling at me. I smiled back proudly and handed him the cup and then stood to the side with my head bowed and my hands clasped.
As Hector gave Teresa a drink of the purifying water, I kept my head bowed but moved my eyes to look at Eden to my right, trying to secretly get a closer look at her. My eyes met hers and she stared at me without blinking. I looked away, but I couldn't help the small smile that curved my lips up and when I dared to look at her again, she was smiling a very small, shy smile as well.
I forced myself to bow my head again as Hector hugged Teresa to him and then handed the cup back to me. Then he presented her to all of us with simply a wave of his hand as she beamed out to the audience, wiping the tears off her cheeks.
And with that, Teresa was made new and would join our family, just as many had before her. And although Maya and I had been born into this community, my mother said that there was something extra special about those who chose it on their own.
She said the gods led Hector to them, but it was their choice whether they followed him.
I walked back toward my family, and we all filed out of the Temple quietly, ready to begin preparing the evening meal. I looked back as I walked behind my parents, and although other people moving behind me mostly blocked my view, I made eye contact with Eden several times, and I wondered if it was possible she was watching me leave.



CHAPTER TWO


Calder – Twelve-Years-Old



The dusty canyon trail was steep and narrow, but now that I'd almost made it to the valley floor where the harsh rays of the sun couldn't reach, I sighed in relief at the feel of the cooler air. It was January and the weather during the day was only in the seventies, but the shade still felt good while I was moving so quickly.
Even though it was a tough hike, I loved this bi-weekly ritual of collecting the purified water I brought and served at Temple. I made my way down the trail as quickly as possible, practically running in some spots, so I could spend extra time at the spring. Every so often, Hector would accompany me and say a blessing over the water himself, although it was actually the gods who provided the healing water for us so we would be pure and cleansed when the great flood came. It was this purification that would balance our systems and help ward off evil and temptation.
Whenever someone was injured or sick, I would fetch an extra dose of the water for them, as sickness was mostly a massive state of imbalance, or so Hector said. Hector also said that although the gods provided the water for us, and it would help with the situation, ultimately it was to be seen whether the gods' will was for healing or not. Sometimes they deemed healing to occur, and sometimes, Hector said, it was not their will, and we had to accept that and not question the reasons why. It was not for us to know, at least not yet.
That was the case with Maya. My parents had told me that when they saw the deformity of her leg and the fact her features were different, they had dripped the healing waters into her small, baby mouth, but apparently the gods had their reasons for keeping her the way she was, because that time, the water didn't work.
But, just last summer, when I had served the water to Franklin Massey who was doubled over in agonizing stomach pain, later that day, he suddenly straightened up and was healed, wouldn't you know.
I guessed it was true you never could know the reasons of the gods because from what I'd seen, Franklin Massey was a mean old crab who walked around with a puss on his face all the livelong day. And Maya, well she was like a little ray of sunshine. It wasn't how I'd run things when I got some authority up in Elysium, that was for sure. Although I guessed that was a moot point anyway, because there was no sickness in Elysium. Maya would run through the fields on two perfectly working legs and her mind would work just like everyone else's. I had to smile at the picture.