REEVES AND Troy were placing a mattress on the backseat of the Mustang for Laura's comfort during the Exodus Trail journey that they tend to pursue after lunch. Reeves was concerned, "will she roll and drop off?"

Troy laughed. "We just have got to warn fatso to stop monkeying around with his drift-driving then."

They left the garage to collect more of their gears.

*

Laura was stretched out on the king-sized bed in Capt. Howdy's bedroom. Her index finger moved slightly while she was in a dream—in it, a twelve-year-old Laura was running in a forest. She peered up ahead at the toddler in the red dress walking alone ahead...

"Hey, little girl—wait!"

Behind Laura was a descending Boeing plane in the skies with yellow smoke streaking from its tail. It nosedived into the forest from her rear. Laura started running after the little girl but she stopped a second to look behind to the rumbling sound. The Boeing had crash-landed with its wingspan breaking small trees like splinters. It approached fast towards her. Laura screamed and raced faster while cautioning the girl...

"Run! Run!"

She now noticed ahead—the nine-year-old plump Roberta was standing beside the little girl in red. Roberta grabbed the infantile girl's hand and they both started running to safety. Laura was now being pursued by the fast-approaching plane. She kept yelling ahead to them...

"Faster, Robbie—run faster!"

The plane was only yards away behind Laura. She shrilled even louder before she fell down on her face. The gargantuan plane passed over without crushing her.

Laura froze and gazed up to see the colossal metal bird was now heading after Roberta and the girl...

Laura got up on her feet and now chased the plane that went like a bull elephant on the rampage, wreaking the forestry. She kept hollering at the escaping youngsters ."Go, Robbie—run faster!"

The plane was now far ahead and it halted at the edge of the forest. Laura drew nearer and noticed that the plane's end was tilting downwards. It was about to plunge down a canyon. She looked up to see Roberta and the girl in red was now on top of the plane roof. The plane tilted further, and the jolting cries of the little girl in red were audible...

Robbie and the girl drop down on the sliding roof towards the plane's nose. Robbie grabbed on a groove on the surface on the roof of the cockpit. The screaming child clutched and hung on Robbie's ankle. The plane was now gradually moving to almost ninety degrees downwards, ready to plunge down into the canyon. Laura reached the plane and she hollered instructions...

"Save her Robbie—don't let her fall!

Robbie looked down at the girl clinging on to her leg, Robbie started to kick the young girl's hand. The astounded elder sister screamed back...

"Robbie—No!"

The girl's grip released and she dropped down into the bowel of the deep canyon. Robbie rolled away from the massive bodied metal, falling off from the Boeing's side. The plane slowly plunged behind moving towards the same direction of the falling girl in red...

"No!" shrieked Laura seeing the end to the girl's fate.

Roberta was on the grassy ground, witnessing the plane's tail disappearing as it fell off from her view. Laura dashed ahead to edge and viewed the falling plane falling to crash below. She sobbed, slowly turned to find Roberta sitting on the ground...

"She is gone—why, Robbie why did you do that?"

Roberta picked her portly-self up and stood beside. Holding her older sister's hand and looked down at the burning pit below...

"We don't need her, we both have ourselves, Mimi—that's what that matters."

Laura looked in ache at the evil grin on Roberta's face shown enjoying the sight of the collective suffering below.

Laura was now afraid of what has become of her sister.

*

Laura was sweaty, lying on the bed in Capt. Howdy's bedroom. Her eyes were open and staring a twirling suspended model Boeing plane above on the ceiling—a tiny wind-chimes was attached to it. Her body was taut with her eyes rolling back and forth, observing the new surrounding she was in. She tried to move but she could not. Her mind was awake—but the body was stiff as a corpse; Laura laid flat, stared at the chiming Boeing plane ornament above...

She heard laughter in the hall outside the bedroom. Laura thought it was her father. She called out in a soft low cracking voice... "Dad...Dad...Mum..."

Her fingers moved a little. She managed to turn her palms towards the bed-sheet. She gripped the linen sheet and used her strength to move upwards, a few inches at a time. She slowly has gained her partial strength to lift her left hand up. She looped her arm over and snatched the headboard.

She next tried to sit up while slowly stretched her legs aside. The feet roll off toward the side of the bed...

'You can do it!' Her swim Coach Kiernan always said that she has strong kicks...

One of her hand was still clutched to the sheet. The other hand was dragging onto the headboard for leverage. She managed to wobblingly sit upright, but only to plop over off the bed. She landed hard on the side of her face—the pain distressed sharply. Laura lolled stiff and was panting hard in anguish on the dusty floor. She can't move nor shout out for help...

Laura crawled towards the open door using one of her shoulder and an arm. She peeked out to glimpse at Joe and Two Bob laughing outside—they both were carrying guns...

She was screamed internally with terror, 'oh no, terrorist!'

Her memory evoked images of terrorist broadcasted on TV of the Medusa attacks on the day she hurt her knee after falling off her bike. She recalled her mum excusing her from going to school for a couple of days. She now remembered the plane with the yellow fumes...

'Was the girl in red in the plane?'

She can't remember who the child was—but Laura's emotions attachment towards her were immense just like the dead robin which she buried that same day.

'Did the girl die in her dream that she just had?'

'Where is Robbie?'

Laura with a great effort forced her neck to turn over her shoulder. She distinguished an open window from the corner of her eyes...

She started to crawl backwards towards it...

She had to escape...

*

Reeves and Troy joined the guys in the hall. They carried their gears out the front door of the lake-house to the garage, while loading it into the trunk of the Mustang. They both overheard True Bob's directions, "hey, arrange it well, Troy, we got more cooking utensils over here."

*

Laura upper body was hanging on the bedroom window sill—she slumped further using her rigid torso to wriggle until she finally plummeted down on the damp grass outside the window, hitting her head again. She laid on her side, called out softly for help in a raspy croak...

"Mum... Dad...Mum...Robbie..."

She was dazed while she tried to stand but she kept falling. She noticed a wooden rowboat oar and crept towards it. A minute later after several trying attempts, Laura managed to stand up on her feet using the oar as support...

She viewed elusively at the lake ahead and the three floatplanes—she was still in-between her vivid indefinable dream realm and the ecosphere of reality—she saw the child in the red dress walking towards the planes...

She felt glad that the child did not die ...

"Wait..."

Laura called out to the toddler, staggered to take the first few steps—and it was a difficult feat after eighteen years dormant on the ward-bed. She used the tall oar pole like a biblical Moses walking stick to gait. She realized the girl in red has walked further away to the lake...

She kept the race, she was told that she has strong kicks. Her feet moved a little faster...

'You can do it!' Her swim Coach Kiernan always told her so.

"You can do it!"

*

Troy walked past Capt. Howdy's bedroom to collect more things for the journey. He noticed the bed empty...

He rushed in and hollering out to alert the others, his head was out of the window, "Reeves! Come here quick!"

Reeves scurried inside to catch the sight of Troy jumping out of the window. Laura was gone too. He raised an alarm to the rest...

*

She was closing towards the floatplanes. Laura turned to see over a shoulder when her name was called. One of the terrorists was coming from behind, calling out her name...

"Laura!"

She perceived that she has been abducted—and next, the kidnappers will demand a ransom from her father who was struggling to keep his farm running from being taken over by the bank...

She needed to escape. Laura looked up to see the girl in red standing on a thirty-foot narrow boardwalk. It was built on stills across the water towards the lake...

"Laura! Laura!" cried Troy. He raced over towards the lake. She further dreaded and moved even faster after more voices calling her from afar. They were also pursuing her...

"Mum...help!"

Laura stepped on the boardwalk where the girl-child in red stood at the far edge—Laura needed to jump into the water with her and swim away—'what about the little girl?' If the kid slowed her down, the terrorist will shoot them both in the water...

Laura turned her neck back in a hurry and saw Troy nearing...

"Laura, stop!"

She looked forward again and was astounded that the girl was gone. 'Has she fallen off?' But the water was still without any signs of ripples. She dropped on her knees and looked closer into the mirroring water surface...

Her eyes were searching for the lost girl—but instead, she saw her reflection as an older woman...

Laura started to cry in both fear and mystification...

"Oh God, what has happened to me? Mum, what happened to me?"

Troy stopped halfway on the boardwalk. He signalled to the rest of the guys from not approaching Laura. They all stood from afar and watch her crying aloud—she kept touching her own face.

**

The rest of the Intersexuals sat under a shady tree, watching ahead at Troy with Laura by the lake. Both were seated on the boardwalk for the past fifteen minutes while Reeves and True Bob were discussing the 'dos.' The anxiety-filled Reeves turned occasionally to Joe and alluded to him the 'don'ts.'

"We can't shock her with too many details—that will be information overload, understand? She just snapped out after twenty-something years, man—you hear me, Joe? Don't go confusing her—and try to talk less to her, and just only answer the questions she asks you—let her fit the puzzle at her own pace, is that clear, Joe?"

This was getting to annoy Joe. "Hey yo, why pin-point at me, dude?"

Bob responded back chaffing. "Cos you have a flapping mouth like a dumb duck's ass—you say half the shit here without thinking, and half the time you confuse me too. I am afraid the longer I listen to you every day, I might get a brain tumour."

*

Troy and Laura sat at the end of the boardwalk with their feet wading in the water under the noon sun. Beside them was the floatplane, The Lady of the Lake. Troy was very gentle with her, so to gain her trust. "What else can you remember, Laura?"

She was trying hard and regained bits of her past memory. "It was a long journey on the road—days I think. We saw lots of awful things happening—lots of accidents and people killing each other. Dead bodies were burnt by the roadside," She educed even more of the emotional incidents from her juxtaposed experience...

"Then there was this little baby girl left on the roadside—she was crying all alone and we did not stop—we just drove away."

She finally knew who the kid dressed in red was—her little robin that she could not safe.

Troy saw her crying again. He instilled some pleasant positive thoughts, "don't be upset, Laura—that happened a long time ago, and this little girl must have grown up by now. She must be more than 20 years old now, living happily somewhere, don't you think so?"

Laura then recalled seeing the laughing child in the arms of a woman behind a Mexican truck. "Yes, I guess so," she softly responded and became quiet.

Troy realized that Laura was a confused thirty-year-old woman with a mentality and the understandings of a twelve-year-old girl since her awakening.

Troy's eyes searched for Reeves over his shoulder. They were seated under the tree, eagerly waiting to be called over after Troy broke-the-ice. "Laura, can I introduce you to my friends over there? They are good guys and they mean you no harm." She was now flustered...

"But I saw them with guns—and that is why I ran. Are they terrorists?"

In her lost era after eighteen years, Troy was caught in a position where he did not know what Laura's definition of a terrorist was coming from. In his own views, he hated guns too and will only pick up one for self-defence situation of trepidation just like the time on the roof of Tombscradle when they faced the storming Elite soldiers who came with a command to kill the prisoners. It was the same reason why he took the task of Intel and Communication in God's Army outfit so that he will not have to carry and exploit a loaded weapon...

"You don't like guns, Laura?" She slowly shook her head, "they are so loud and scary. My dad has a shotgun back on the farm and I saw him use it once. He shot at a fox but did not kill it though. He just scared it away." she replied innocently and Troy nodded.

"So, would you like to meet my friends?" he asked again. She shook her head staring at her feet in the water. He assumed that she was afraid of trusting strangers. "Are you afraid of them?"

Troy then saw her smiling and even blushing when she nervously responded back in a whisper. "No Troy, I am actually shy to meet boys—I am not like Robbie, she is my tomboy sister." They both were laughing now.

"They are friendly boys, Laura—they just want to say hi to you," Troy said with his neck turning again to the guys behind in the shade.

Her hand tugged the sleeves of his t-shirt; Laura was still confused about their gender because of their androgyny looks...

"Troy wait, I want to ask you something—why do you all look different? Are you all boys or girls?"

Troy now laughed aloud by himself. He then clarified...

"We are boys—remember when you said just now that you saw the plane that had yellow smoke coming from it?" Laura nodded with wide eyes, listening closely to Russian terrorist attack information that was lost after her long absence...

"It made us this way—our genders got mixed up a little genetically as babies, and our faces are like girls—but other than that, we are regular guys...err, boys."

Laura now pried even more. "So, it is only your face then?" She stopped to put some thought on her query—if they were hermaphroditic species like she learnt in school.

Troy saw that she had stuck out her index finger—

"...then as boys, you have that...?"

Troy realized that she was embarrassed to say out 'penis.'

He nodded, "yes, we have that too." Laura blushed even more and covered her mouth and laughed that he had read her mind; Troy joined her laughing, to mirror the actions and emotions of the 'twelve-year old-woman.'

He was pleased that she was inquisitive and was opening up, and gaining his trust. "I am going to call them over, okay Laura?"

Troy whistled and signalled Reeves and the rest at the back. They started coming over with Bob and Joe walking ahead, while the hesitative Reeves follow from the back...

Laura viewed the Intersexual trio stepping on the boardwalk and they were coming over. More shyness crept into Laura. She shifted from foot to foot and she grabbed Troy's arm tighter. She was demure, avoided eye contact and she whispered to him. "Oh, I am so shy, Troy."

"Then keep holding my hand."

Troy first introduced Truman Robert to her; he was the one who gave the most resistance in the earlier group-discussion that morning. Then, he introduced Joe—who by nature, needed no introduction in creating embarrassing moments, the red-haired blurted out...

"Who are you actually, Mimi or Laura?"

Laura froze a little—the only person who had called her Mimi in the whole wide world was her mother Martha.

Reeves stepped up slowly from behind—and Troy finally presented him, "Laura, this is Reeves." They both shook hands and Reeves nodded and smiled weakly; Laura peered up into his eyes and blatantly responded...

"You look familiar from back home but I can't recall—do I know you?"

Joe laughed aloud and he announced openly. "What a family reunion!" Reeves was bowled over by Joe again. Even True Bob felt that the 'fat-fuck' had disremembered the 'don'ts' discussion which they had earlier minutes ago under the tree shade.

Joe was standing close to the edge of the boardwalk; Bob nudged him in the ribcage causing Joe to fall backwards into the water. Everyone was taken by surprise for a second before they joined the laughing True Bob...

Troy then got Laura's attention...

"Come let's go to the house, Bob has made us lunch and you must be very hungry?" Laura's eyes were still on Joe splashing in the water, cursing back at True Bob. She nodded back at Troy and made a quick request. "I love swimming a lot—I am in the school team, you know? Troy, can we come to swim later?"

"Sure we can -- let's eat first. I want you to meet 'some nice friends' at the house, Mr and Mrs Howdy." They all stepped out from the wooden planked walk while Joe struggled to climb up behind them. "Hey fellers, wait for me!"

They walked towards the lake-house, Laura was still holding Troy's hand and she kept on looking at Reeves. She was not reticent and she boldly spoke up. "Can I say something?" They looked at her and she stopped walking and she signified...

"Reeves, you look a little like my dad—who are you, are we related?"

The Intersexuals all look at each other in nervous silence—Troy said softly, "Laura, something happened..."

The perturbed Reeves intruded quickly. "Troy, no!"

He felt it was premature to relay such information after she had barely recovered less than an hour ago. All of the Intersexual were back silent again; Laura searched their vacant faces...

"Troy, tell me, what things happened?" she demanded.

Troy stooped closer to her ear and he told her delicately, "Reeves here, is your son..." Laura in return exclaimed...

"I got married? When was that?"

"We don't know the details but you have been in a coma for a very long time—but this happened 18 years ago; where somehow during that period of time, you gave birth to him in Columbus, Ohio."

Laura recalled memories of her family travelling east during the Medusa evacuation—and her mother had told that they will be going to stay temporarily with their Aunt Flo in Columbus. Maybe her aunt will probably know the details. While she processed the thought, her hand was on her neck—and her fingers ran on the chain that she wore—she saw the Mimi-pendant...

"This belongs to my mother's—why am I wearing it?"

Troy asked her again... "Can you remember where is your mother now, Laura?"

She gazed back into Reeve's eyes—she saw her father's dead eyes staring back in the Buick's rearview mirror; she spoke out from her memory of the tragic accident...

"Robbie got off the car, then I got off too but Mum—and the car was rocking." Her terrified eyes jumped on each of the Intersexual standings in front of her, "it then plunged down with Mum and my Dad!" Laura went forward and hugged Reeves and started to cry.

Joe who was soaking wet came from behind and looked at them. He was wise enough to keep his mouth shut and he listened to her sobbing. "Mum and Dad are dead..." She looked up to Reeves...

"Do you know where Robbie is, Reeves? She is a little girl—she is out there somewhere alone."

The younger Jensen held her firmly, "Laura, look here—listen to me, Robbie is safe! Whatever happened, happened a long time ago, and even Robbie has grown up too—and she is about your age now."

Laura now remembered the reflection in the lake a moment ago—she has begun to come with terms that she was no longer a twelve-year-old any more...

"What year is this?"

She asked as she wiped her tears on her back of her palm—none of the other Intersexual had a hankie to offer her.

"It is November 16th—it is now the year 2033," Reeves told her gently.

"It is been a long time ago," she replied back with a cheerless smile at them.

"Yes, you been in a coma for a very long time," Reeves reconfirmed.

Knowing that she will never get the loss of both her parents and the lost epoch where she was in the state of dark sleep; Laura was now slightly humoured...

"Now I am awake, and tomorrow happens to be my birthday." Troy in delight echo said, "your birthday, is it?"

"Yes, I was born on November 17th."

The dulcet situation was interrupted by the vigorous Joe, "hey we should celebrate it then!" He went over and tapped Reeve's back, "what's say you Sonny-boy, we are gonna celebrate your Mummy's birthday yo!"

Laura blushed in between her tears...

"Hey, don't call me that, I am embarrassed."

"See here, how he has outgrown from his wet diapers days since Wesleyan" Joe ribbed and not only Reeves but the rest of the team also felt like punching his loud-mouth, and put him in the bandaged-situation like how the rest of them were in.

She then laughed to the ironic thought that she now has a grown-up son...

She turned towards Reeves beside her...

"But Reeves, you can call me Mimi—your grandmother calls me Mimi." Laura went forward hugging and kissed Reeve's cheeks...

Reeves was finally gratified that he had finally found his consanguineous family after all those years of waiting and searching...