On the second night of their capture, Jade approached his supervisor nervously. He wanted badly to see his comrades, but he feared the possible consequences of asking, should his request be denied.
“Sir?” he began.
“Yes?” Rodre replied.
Jade swallowed. “Sir, I’ve finished my work for today, and . . .” he paused.
“You may go, if you like.”
“Thank you sir, I would, but . . . but I’d like to go and see my friends tonight if I may,” he finished in a rush.
“You may.”
Jade was stunned. Rodre had said it as if the answer were obvious.
“Can you please tell me where I can find them?” asked Jade eagerly.
“I could easily look up where they work,” came Rodre’s reply, “but they probably won’t be there now. I’m sure that they’ll have all finished their work for the day as well. I would suggest that you try the main eating room on the second level of the Detu section. That’s where they’ll probably be if they want to see each other.”
“Thank you sir!” Jade was off almost before he had finished speaking.
The main eating room on the second level of the Detu section: that should not be hard to find. Jade was in the Wru section which was not far from the Detu section.
Rushing round a bend where the Wru section met the Neua section, Jade almost ran into a young man coming out of the latter area.
“Jade!” the young man exclaimed.
“Jaeger!” Jade grabbed his friend in a tight embrace. “Oh, it’s so good to see you!”
Jaeger returned the salute then stepped back to look at him. “Well, you look in good health. How are you?”
“Wonderful, now that I’ve found you,” Jade replied. “Oh, I’ve been miserable without you or any of the others. I only just barely got up the courage to ask permission to come and see you all this afternoon. Are you heading to the main eating room?”
“Yes,” said Jaeger. “I went last night as well, and Detrin and Eriane did too. They’re both stationed in the Gora section. Wysire came in last night too, though he arrived nearly an hour after the rest of us. We’re hoping that the others will find their way there eventually.”
They walked as they talked and soon came to a huge room filled with tables of all shapes and sizes. Jaeger led Jade over to a table large enough to seat ten. There were already four people sitting there.
“Jade!” Wysire exclaimed. “Wonderful! Now there are seven of us. Sandy and Cycil found their way here tonight too.”
“You’re here early tonight, Wysire,” said Jaeger as they sat down. “You arrived an hour after me last night.”
“I finished early today,” Wysire replied. “My section is rather far from here,” he explained to Jade. “I’m in the Shavu section.”
“At least we’re together,” said Sandy, indicating Cycil and himself. “Cycil and I work together most of the day.”
“Well, we’re quite a group now, aren’t we?” They all looked up to see Eriane. “Jade, Sandy, Cycil, it’s wonderful to see you all here and in good health. Now we only have to wait for Leil and Djaisiuk to come.”
That cast a slight shadow over the group. The obvious absence of Creole, Christopher, and Faquire recalled to mind that not all of the group might be well. The gloom did not last long however, and the dinner was eaten with relish, each of the boys enjoying the company of the others.
After they had all finished, Jaeger pulled out a fairly small, very worn book.
“I thought to bring this tonight,” he said. “I thought that it would be nice to start having devotions together in the evening.”
“They’ve let you keep your Bible?!” exclaimed Wysire. “That’s wonderful! They took away mine.”
Sandy gave a short exclamation. “They didn’t take ours,” he said, referring to himself and Cycil. “Why did they take yours, Wysire?”
“I don’t know,” Wysire answered sadly. “Moru, my supervisor, didn’t give any explanation really. He just took it.”
“Have you tried asking to have it returned?” Jaeger asked, not sounding very hopeful.
“Yes, I did ask once,” Wysire said. “He said that I couldn’t have it.”
“My supervisor took mine as well,” Detrin put in quietly. “And I was nearly finished memorizing the letters of Paul. I wish now that I had applied myself more to finishing them earlier.”
“Detrin, you’ll make us feel guilty, if you talk like that,” said Jade. “You’ve memorized more than twice what any two of us could recite.”
“But I didn’t finish,” Detrin replied. “And now I haven’t got it. When will I ever get another Bible? We have no idea how long we’ll be here, and I’m sure that I’ll not find one here on this planet. No matter what you say, I didn’t do as much or as well as I could have done.”
“Regret won’t change anything,” Wysire said gently. “It’s gone. What’s done is done. There’s nothing that you can do about it, so for the time being you should be content with what you have. Remember that you have far, far more than I have.”
“I’d tear my Bible in three and give you each a section, if I thought that it would do any good,” said Jaeger. “Then we could swap pieces from time to time, and we’d all have access to a large part of the scriptures at any point in time.”
“No, no you mustn’t do that,” said Wysire quickly. “At least not for my sake, you mustn’t. You’d only lose a third of your own Bible that way. I don’t know about Detrin, but I’m sure that for me even if I was to acquire another one or even a piece of one, they’d only take it away again.”
“If you wouldn’t mind bringing it here as long as they let you,” said Detrin, “it would mean the world to me, at any rate. Perhaps I could read some of it sometimes while we’re all here?”
“Of course!” said Jaeger, extending it towards Detrin. “As often as you like.”
Detrin started to reach out to accept it, but pulled back. “No, you had said that you wanted to have devotions,” he said. “I know that it’s starting to get late, and we ought to do that now if we want to do it all. I can wait until tomorrow night.”
“Is group devotions something that everyone would like to do?” asked Jaeger, looking around at all of them. “I don’t want assume that everyone is in agreement without asking first.”
The other boys were all quick to express their agreement, leaving Jaeger no room for doubt.
“I think that having devotions together in the evenings would be – will be wonderful,” said Wysire, “especially now that I’m not able to have them as well on my own.”
“I do wish that there was something we could do about that,” said Jade.
“I could give you my Bible!” Sandy exclaimed suddenly. “Cycil and I are together, so we could share one easily enough. I could give you my Bible, at least for the time being.”
Wysire smiled, but shook his head. “Thank you, but no; as I said earlier, they’d only take it, I’m sure, and then we’d just be short one more as a group. No, I think that it would be best for everyone to keep theirs for now. And do keep them as safe as possible! If we can have devotions together every night, it really will help those of us who are now without easy access to the scriptures.”
And so they did. The other boys who still had their Bibles started bringing them every night. When it was time for devotions, Sandy would give his to Detrin and then share with Cycil, and Eriane would share his with Wysire.
Leil joined them on the third night of capture, and the boys all agreed to meet there together every night afterwards. By the fourth night, they began to wonder at the absence of Djaisiuk. Might he not know about this eating room? Might his schedule not permit him to come at a time at which they were there? None liked to think it, but all knew that the possibility did exist that perhaps he might not want to come. No one ever voiced this however.
In actuality, all of these suppositions were correct. Djaisiuk did not know of the eating room; his then current schedule did not permit him to come at any time at which they were there or otherwise; nor did he care to try to have this changed. His mind was occupied with other matters.
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