He gasped, eyes snapping open, heart pounding. He couldn’t remember why, but he felt like he came from a terrifying encounter. Like a nightmare. What was it, though?

“Ah, you’re awake, Abe,” said a man.

Abe looked over, tears in his eyes. The man seemed familiar somehow, in a way that Abe couldn’t trust despite the wide smile on his face.

“What happened?” His voice cracked. “What happened to me?”

The man’s face morphed into compassion. “Ah, I was afraid of that. Amnesia. Do you remember me, Abe?” Abe shook his head. “Mr. Germain? Does that ring any bells?”

Again, he shook his head. “No, sorry. It doesn’t.”

Mr. Germain sighed, resting a hand on Abe’s shoulder. “We’re here to help. Rest for now. As soon as you recover from your injuries, we’ll go into more detail. You were such a good student, too. You loved the arts. You honestly were fast tracked to get an internship here in the government. Seems like the underground had other ideas.”

“What?” Abe asked.

“You need to help us fight them, Abe. They’re the ones that did this to you.”

What was this underground? Abe frowned. “They erased my memories?”

“You were a threat to them, and this-” Mr. Germain tapped Abe’s forehead “-is what they do to people they perceive as a threat. Now, get some sleep. Hopefully not everything has been forgotten. We need your intellect to solve this case of this hiding underground.”

Abe nodded. “Yeah. Yeah of course.”

“I knew I could count on you, Abe.” Mr. Germain stood up and dimmed the light. “Good night.”

Mr. Germain closed the door, leaving Abe with the dimmed lights. Abe winced as something pinched at his wrists. He looked down to see he was strapped to the bed. Why was he strapped to the bed? He moved his arm and in the dim light he saw bruises, cuts, and a welt all around his wrist. In fact, it was the same size as the straps keeping him to his bed. Something told him he had to be careful who he trusted, especially someone like Mr. Germain.

***

As the night got darker, Marie realized exactly how cold a summer rain could get and was grateful for her jacket. She tore the address up into a lot of tiny bits and threw a few ripped pieces in any garbage can she came across. If she was caught, having an address on her would be detrimental for this man.

All things considered, she wasn’t too scared. So many emotions ran through her the past few days because she didn’t know what to do or where to turn. Now they had a plan. It was crazy, but it was a plan. One of peace, she hoped. This she could work with.

The rain continued to fall as Marie kept walking. There weren’t a lot of people on the streets. It was getting close to nine at night on whatever day this was. They all seemed to blend together. It wasn’t the weekend, though. She always marked the weekend by when they had their meeting with her friends. It wasn’t that long ago. She had seen Albert alive and well not that long ago.

Marie swallowed the painful emotions down as she picked up her pace. She forgot to ask how old this secretary guy was. Was he married? Single? Was he one to go to parties on weekdays? Marie didn’t even know his name. The only thing she knew was that Edgar trusted him.

The rain continued to beat down, and despite the fact that the few people on the street had umbrellas, Marie tipped her face toward the sky and let the rain drop on her face. It felt nice to feel the rain on her face again. It was another moment before she remembered everyone might have her face memorized and she bent her head. It was getting colder, and there were goosebumps on her arms, but she took a deep breath of the rain as it continued to fall. She was doing something. She didn’t know if it would work, but she was doing something.

It was another ten minutes before she came to the alleyway she needed. Her hair was completely soaked, even with the hood of her jacket over her. Her hands trembled from both the cold and nerves as she squinted in the street lamp to double check the address. It was too late to turn around now. She pressed the button of apartment three and waited. She checked her watch again. It was about nine thirty at night. Was this guy asleep already? She almost hit the button again when the intercom crackled to life.

“Hello? Can I help you?” The voice was soft. Marie couldn’t tell if it was because he had been asleep and had just woken up or if it was his regular voice.

“Hi, um, I…” Marie hadn’t prepared any of this. She just came. “I’m sorry, I… we have a mutual friend. He told me you were safe. I need someone to talk to.”

Marie waited, glancing around the alleyway. She should have said Edgar’s name, but she was afraid to. This guy worked at the S.E.A. It would be a struggle to remind herself that she could trust him. There was a buzzing sound, then the door clicked open. Marie closed her eyes, took a steadying breath, then walked into the stairwell. She walked to the third floor and knocked on apartment three. The wait was only a moment before the man opened the door. He was finishing tying a bathrobe around himself.

So he had just woken up, Marie thought.

He looked to be around his thirties, with dark hair and a kind enough face. He towered over Marie. Granted, sometimes everyone towered over her because she was so short, but this guy had to be up there with Abe in height. While she was studying him, he was studying her, and the realization dawned on his face. This man knew exactly who Marie was.

Marie pulled the hood of her jacket away from her face so he could get a better look in the light of the apartment. “Does this change anything?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

The man paused for a second, but that second stretched into eternity before he stepped aside. “Come on in. I’ll get my space heater.”

Marie gave a short nod. She crossed the doorway into his apartment. The man seemed trustworthy enough, but it felt more final when he closed the door behind her. She was completely at his mercy now.

He lived in a studio apartment. He ushered her into the kitchen area. There was a half wall separating the small kitchen with the rest of the bedroom area as he disappeared into the bathroom. Marie studied his kitchen as she dripped rain water onto the tile. She accepted the towel he gave and began trying to dry herself. She tried squeezing as much of the rain from her hair and clothes as she could. The man returned with his heater and a second towel. Now that Marie wasn’t soaking wet, she felt better. The man plugged in the heater and pointed it right at Marie before getting things organized in the kitchen. A wave of warmth hit her, and she allowed herself to close her eyes to feel it embrace her before she remembered she was in the apartment of an S.E.A. worker.

Marie sat down on a chair at the small kitchen table. There was a whistle from the stove, and the man took off a kettle. He set it down on a tray and brought it to the table. There was a small jar with some cocoa powder and a mug on the tray. Marie reached for it, but hesitated. This man had been kind to her, but she still couldn’t shake the underlying fear that this man might try to drug her. He might have already alerted authorities to their location. There were countless possibilities that this man could have ulterior motives, and it made her hesitate to start filling her cup with water to make herself hot chocolate.

Marie glanced up to see the man smiling at her. It made her feel uncomfortable, like she always did around people who studied the arts. This man knew exactly what she was feeling.

He stood up and walked back to the cupboard. He grabbed a mug for himself and returned, filling it with hot water before adding a generous scoop of cocoa and giving it a quick stir. He began to drink it before he made a face. “It’s really hot,” he said, giving a small laugh.

Marie couldn’t help but smile. She understood the sentiment. There was every reason not to trust this guy, but she simply had to ignore it all and trust him anyway. It was all she could do at the moment. She made her cocoa as the man tried again to take a deep drink from the mug.

“So our mutual friend must be Edgar?” The man had a quietness to his voice that made Marie lean in to hear what he had to say. “Is he okay?” Marie met the man’s gaze, hating that tears were stinging her eyes as her still potent memories of what she did this morning hit her. “Will he be okay?” the man prompted instead.

“I hope he will,” Marie said. “It’s partially why I came.”

The man took another sip before setting his mug down. “Yes, tell me why you came. Is there any way I can help?”

Marie opened her mouth to start talking, but her mind started to whirl. She had been so focused on coming here, on making sure she’d be safe here, that she hadn’t actually given thought to what she wanted to say. She closed her mouth as she brought her mug close to her. She drank the super hot chocolate to give herself time to think.

“I’m a scientist. And I’m part of the underground. But… but I’m not… I don’t…” The words tripped up on themselves. How was she supposed to go about this?

“Maybe you could tell me your story,” the man said.

Marie gripped the mug in her hands, the heat warm her up. “My story?”

“Whatever you feel is relevant. I’d like to understand where you’re coming from, and often, I get it through understanding people’s life stories,” the man said.

Marie still felt a bit confused. “Like what it was like growing up?”

“Yeah, like that. Whatever you feel is relevant to help me know who you are as a person and the journey you chose to become a member of the underground.”

“Oh, okay.” Marie set her mug down and started to think. She sorted through the crazy things that happened to her, trying to find a good starting place for her story. She doubted the man meant her entire life, so she had to narrow it down. “I guess you could say it all started at the end of last summer. When I got the letter in the mail about what high school I would attend.”

Marie started out slowly, giving the details of the beginning of her freshman year of high school. For the most part, the man listened, only stopping her to ask clarifying questions every so often. Marie talked about her freshman test, where she sang about the zit in her nose, and the man’s face morphed into compassion. “Oh, that must have been so hard for you.”

Marie gave a little shrug. “It was. At the time. Honestly, I wish I could remember the lyrics better. I bet they were hilarious.” It was freeing to realize the most humiliating thing of her high school life she could now laugh about. Even though singing about a zit in her nose in front of the entire cafeteria was horrible, she’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant what she did to Billy would be erased from history.

She continued the story, remembering each part, telling in detail about what it was like to be at the S.E.A.’s after school program. The man listened, his eyes alert and never wavering from her face. He was a captive audience, and it didn’t matter that Marie wasn’t the best storyteller. The man seemed to genuinely care about her experiences.

He listened without interrupting as she talked about her experience at the S.E.A. She expected him to interject, giving her some throwaway line about how she didn’t know about the S.E.A. because she didn’t work there. She expected some resistance when she talked about the secret basement level and how she discovered they were creating hobos in the basement. The man nodded, a frown on his face, but his entire mannerism gave off the impression that he believed her. He looked genuinely worried.

“That’s simply terrible,” he whispered. “I had no idea.”

The hot chocolate had cooled enough for Marie to actually take drinks to help her keep talking. She came to Josef, and when she talked about the disgusting things he would do, the man closed his eyes and shuddered. “What an awful individual. You poor girl. To be stuck in such a situation.”

His quiet commentary and willingness to believe drove Marie forward. She kept most of the members of the underground private, and the man respected her desires for that. She thought sharing her story would make her feel better, but the longer she talked, the more she realized that wasn’t it at all. It wasn’t just telling this man her story, but he believed her. He wasn’t treating her like a child. And on the flip side, he wasn’t treating her like a criminal either. He was simply listening to her.

“And then this morning…” Marie tried so hard to keep her voice neutral, but she couldn’t. “This morning we were talking about what we might do and…” The tears stung her eyes. The man got up to get tissues. Marie hadn’t cried at all the entire time, but she knew this would be inevitable. “I know what we did was wrong,” Marie said, looking at the man she had barely met and already didn’t want him to judge her harshly. “It…”

“What happened?” he asked.

Marie finished her story, feeling like a weight had been lifted off her even as she admitted her horrible crime of what she did to Billy. She could hardly get through it.

“Ah,” the man said, as though he felt her pain. “You poor girl.”

“I’ve lost Billy’s friendship. I know it. And I don’t blame him.”

“It was wrong,” he said calmly, his voice, though still quiet, cut through to her. “But never forget the power of forgiveness, Marie. Both Billy’s forgiveness, and forgiveness for yourself.”

Marie shook her head. “There’s no way he can forgive me after what I did.”

The man stared at the tray in front of him, deep in thought, crafting his words carefully. “The hardest people to forgive aren't our enemies. It’s those we love. But it’s vital to learn to keep healthy relationships.”

“I was a monster to him.”

The man took a small drink of his cocoa. “Everyday we are confronted with situations that make us realize how imperfect we are. But it’s the very struggle with that imperfection that helps us grow. It’s what brought you to me, right?”

Marie nodded. “I didn’t want to fight in the war. I never want to fight again. Especially now that it seems more imminent with an army coming over the wall any day now.”

“Army?” the man asked.

Marie paused, realizing she hadn’t mentioned that part. She winced.

“I probably shouldn’t have told you about the army. I hope we don’t have to use it. But…” Marie shook her head. “Sorry. I’m sure the leader of the underground won’t be thrilled I gave away our plan to someone who works in the S.E.A.”

The man smiled as he squeezed his mug. “I’ll keep that between us, then.”

Marie looked over at him, almost not believing him. “That’s incredibly kind of you. I hope we don’t have to use the army at all.”

“You were placed in a situation where you had to act. And you were scared. I understand why you made the decision. Albert seems like a dear friend,” the man said.

Marie stared into her almost empty mug. “Yes, he is. I realize we acted out in fear, and I’m afraid that what we’ve done will hurt us all. Please understand, I don’t want to go to war.” Marie wiped a tear from her eye before she swallowed the last of the hot chocolate. “I just want to live my life. I hope to get Billy’s friendship back. I want to study science. The S.E.A. doesn’t seem to understand what it’s like for people like me, and the way they are going about this is damaging to us. We can’t change who we are, and there are those of us who will fight back if we’re pushed. And...and the S.E.A. keeps pushing.”

The man nodded, taking his gaze away from Marie for the first time since she started talking and stared off to the side as he picked up his hardly touched mug. He gave it an absent minded swirl before taking a deep drink. “I had a feeling the S.E.A. was overstepping its bounds, but this confirms it.”

A warmth filled Marie’s soul. This man was good. Edgar was right. They should have contacted him a long time ago. “Albert, Billy, and Edgar mentioned their Junior Officials are good, if misguided. Can you talk to them? See if there’s some way we can come together and see if there’s anything we can do to take away President Arnold’s power? And… and his hate for us?”

The man set his mug down again. “I know a lot of good people at the S.E.A. who feel the same as you. But I shall start with those three. Mr. Reagan, Mr. Wayne, and Mr. Disney, right?”

Marie nodded. “Yes. Those are their names. We’ll do what we can in our hideout. If you get a group together, we can meet up with them and plan how to best get President Arnold to listen to us? To get him to release Albert?”

The man paused, his brows furrowed in thought. “I’ll need a way to contact you. I don’t want to scare any members of the underground by knowing your exact location, but is there a way I can get in contact with you safely?”

Marie tried to think. She agreed it wasn’t safe to give this man the address to their safe house. It was dangerous information to give someone who might sing it if prompted. “There’s a war memorial park we can get to easily. The one on Improv Street. If you need to send me a letter or something, you can put it under one of the benches and I’ll come find it.”

The man nodded. “I’ll try and contact you that way. I’ll send one tomorrow night with an update on how it’s going. We’ll get a group together and I’ll report with a time and place we can meet with the members of the S.E.A.”

The weight lifted from Marie’s soul. “Thank you, Mr.-” Marie froze, staring at the man in front of her as he grabbed his mug again to take a drink. “I’m so sorry. I just realized I don’t know your name.”

The man stopped drinking and set his mug down. He swallowed, giving a small smile. “Where are my manners?” He stretched out his hand for a handshake. “Fred. Fred Rogers.”