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“Yes. Praise Him,” Elena said.

Martha smiled again. “Yes. Anyway, I’m going to pray now,” she said. She swept away before we could say goodnight.

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief. While none of us were active sinners—well, at least Elena and Lauren weren’t—being around someone as devout as Martha frightened us. It made us feel as if she would report us to the Elders for even the smallest infraction, so we had to watch ourselves and hold our tongues around her as much as we could.

“I spoke to him,” I said in a hushed voice, finally continuing my story. “To Mason.”

One of Lauren’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh!”

“I know we aren’t supposed to speak with outsiders, but I thought He would forgive me this one time. After all, Mason and I knew each other in the old days.”

“That’s true,” Elena said. “But still, we should keep this to ourselves.”

Lauren nodded her agreement. “What did you talk about?”

“Not a lot, because we only had a few minutes. But he said some very kind things to me.” I flushed at the memory. Men very rarely complimented women here at New Eden, so the fact that I had been called smart, beautiful and funny all in one day made my head spin. Mason was a true gentleman.

“Is he attractive?” Lauren asked, resting her chin on clasped hands.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes. Very.”

“Perhaps he will come to live here and one of us will marry him,” she said excitedly. “Probably me, because your father wants you to marry Danny Miller, doesn’t he?”

Weddings happened once a year on the fourth of April. Every girl who had reached fruition within the last year would be given to a man to marry that day. Elena had already been married for quite some time, and Lauren had also been married until her husband died three months ago. He was relatively old, somewhere in his late sixties, so it wasn’t an enormously shocking passing. Now that she was a widow, she would be assigned to another man in the spring.

I had reached fruition only a few weeks after the last wedding ceremony, somewhere around seven months ago. That meant I was able to spend nearly an entire year as an unmarried woman. I would finally be wed in the next spring ceremony alongside Lauren.

She was right about my father’s obvious designs for me and Danny Miller, but I didn’t like the idea of marrying him if Mason was coming to live here. I’d much rather marry Mason. He was so kind and handsome. So tall and muscular...

Here I was, letting my mind give way to thoughts of lust again. I was incorrigible.

I shook my head. “Father said Mason wasn’t staying. Just visiting.”

“So he’s going back out into the Wastelands?” Lauren’s eyes were even wider now.

“Yes.” I nodded miserably. Then I frowned. “He actually said some very strange things about the outside world.”

“Like what?” Elena asked.

“I took him into the Museum of the Damned, and he seemed to think it was amusing. I told him it wasn’t funny to joke about the Great Reckoning, and then he said the photos were all movie stills. I don’t know what he meant by that.”

“That doesn’t make sense!” Lauren said. “Movies… well, they moved. That was the point of them, right?”

Elena’s brows pinched together. “I think someone can pause a movie and print the picture on the screen. Then it’s a still image. Just like a photo.”

“Oh,” I said. I felt stupid for not realizing that sooner. What she said made perfect sense. “But why would Mason say that? I thought he might be confused or traumatized by what he went through out there, but I’m not sure. It was just so strange.”

Lauren nodded. “I think you’re right. If he wasn’t in a safe place when the Great Reckoning happened, then he must have witnessed some terrible, shocking things. He’s extremely fortunate to even be alive. His mind may have tried to block some of the bad memories, like Elena said earlier.”

We looked at Elena to see what she thought. Her face was scarlet.

“I… I don’t feel very well,” she said, abruptly standing up. “I’ll talk to you later.”

She hurried away. Lauren and I stared after her for a silent moment, our eyebrows raised, and then we looked back at each other.

“What’s wrong with her?” Lauren asked.

I frowned and shook my head. “I have no idea.”

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