The Weapon - Resurrection - part 32
By Diana the Valkyrie
A visit to Rosetta
Update: 09/07/2003 to valkyrie05

Rosetta, it turned out, had been inspired by Fee's nursing career and had
trained as a doctor. She practically flew into Wendy's arms when we arrived,
and they huddled together. I was left with Mr Rosetta, actually his name was
Kevin.

"So what do you do," he asked. I explained that I was an academic, lecturing
in semiology, which is a good conversation-stopper because people are rarely
willing to admit that they haven't a clue what it is. "Which naturally got me
interested in Wendy," I explained, which was a total lie, it was precisely the
other way around. "Naturally," he agreed, "so now you both fly around rescuing
kittens from trees?" "Sort of. She does the kittens, I try to write about it."
I looked round. "No children?" "No," he said. "I'm slightly surprised, there's
usually hordes of rugrats wherever Wendy's been involved." "Well, in case you
haven't noticed, the world's been going to hell in a handbasket since she
left," he nodded at Wendy, "and we just didn't want to bring children into the
sort of mess we're all in now." If enough people were in this sort of funk,
that would account for the world population decline over the last couple of
decades.

"Hey, you can't blame Wendy for the mess we've gotten ourselves into." "No, I
don't blame her, of course not. But the fact is, a lot of people lost heart
when she went. I think it's like this - no matter how bad a pickle you're in,
you could always tell yourself, maybe the Guardian of Humanity will hear about
this and help me out. But when she left, even that forlorn hope was killed."
"But she's back now." "Maybe. Or maybe it's just for a short while, who
knows?" "You're a pessimist." "So would you be. Look, I've been working as a
low grade nurse for over ten years now. I'm a real cool hand with the
bedpans." "Nothing wrong with that." "There is when you're one of the best
biochemists in the business, and can't get a job because with all these
epidemics, people have become anti-science. Have you seen some of the
loony-science cures that people are selling now? And the worst thing is that
way that the lousy economic situation means that people like me, who might,
just might, be able to come up with new ways to handle these new diseases,
spend their lives cleaning out bedpans. I know nurses on the game, doctors
working as bricklayers, and microbiologists who can't even get that low-grade
a job. It's a shambles."

He looked disgusted. And I could see that even though he said he didn't blame
Wendy, he actually did. "Of course I bloody do. Duncan died, OK, that's sad.
But get over it. Life goes on. And Fee told us where she'd got to. Spending
half her time waiting on tables, and the other half in bloody church on her
bloody knees praying to a bloody god who couldn't give a bloody shit. If she
hadn't totally copped out like that, the last 25 years wouldn't have been
wasted. I'd be working in a microbio lab, we'd have grandchildren by now."

I looked over to Wendy and Rosetta. Wendy was listening to all this, and I
half-expected a major explosion. Sure enough, she came and joined us, and I
wondered how difficult it was going to be to get Kevin's blood out of the
carpet. But that's not what happened.

She sat cross-legged on the floor, so that we were all looking down at her.
She didn't look at any of us, she looked down at the floor. Her hair spilled
over her shoulders into her lap. "I'm sorry," she said, very quietly.

"Wendy, you don't need to apologise ... "

"No. I'm sorry."

"Wendy, it isn't ..."

"I failed you all. I let you down. I was too wrapped up in my own problems, I
should have seen what was happening. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to ..."

"No. I'm sorry."

Rosetta got down on her knees, and hugged Wendy. She was the first to realise
what was needed. "I accept your apology, Wendy."

I looked at Kevin, and said "So do I." Kevin wasn't stupid. "Me too."

. . .