Ultimate Justice (37 page)

“You've been to Persham?” said Bandi rushing into the room. “You didn't tell me you were going!”

“We didn't know, did we?” said Jalli. “You were at school and the white gate was there, so we went.”

“How's Abby?”

“She's very pretty,” said his mother.

“She was rather delighted to see us,” smiled Jack, “and was full of questions about you. Wanted to know what chapter of
Sophie's World
you were on.”

“What did you tell her about me?”

“Oh. Just how you were moping about the house mentioning her every five minutes…”

“Dad. Don't tease!”

“We just said you were well and working hard at school. What else should we have said?”

“Nothing. But what else did you do?”

“We were only there for a few days. We spent most of that time listening to Kakko's interview on the radio and watching the news coverage with her videotape.”

“Kakko, you didn't say you'd been to Persham too?”

“No,” put in Kakko, “London. I didn't go to Persham. I was only there for three hours, remember!” Kakko's leg was hurting and she was jiggered.

“Now, it is time to go to bed and let that leg heal,” said her mother.

“I'm always ‘healing'!”

“You're always having adventures! Just remember it has been worth it. We're proud of you. Now, sleep.”

“I don't think I'll sleep.”

But she did, soundly.

Ooh,” groaned Jalli. She was in the kitchen getting her breakfast and suddenly felt woozy. Kakko was still fast asleep but even though Jalli, too, had been on an ‘adventure' to Earth, she just had to get into work that day.

“Too much excitement,” Matilda declared. “Come on, I'll do that.”

But no sooner had Jalli's bottom touched the chair than she bounced up again and retched into the sink. Matilda was alarmed.

“Jack! Jack! Can you come?”

Jack, who was in the bathroom, registered the anxiety in her tone and rushed in.

“It's Jalli, she's just been sick.”

“I'm alright,” said Jalli. “I feel better now.”

“I'm going to call the doctor!”

“No. I'll be alright. I've only been a bit sick. That's all. It's OK. But I
will
make an appointment at the surgery. I've been ignoring it, but I think I know what's the matter… I've missed – I'm well overdue.”

“You mean, you think you're
pregnant
!” exclaimed her mother-in-law. “But how? You're forty-four!”

“Forty-four maybe, but that doesn't mean it can't happen! Everyone tells me how young I look and how lively I am… can't say I feel that lively today, though.”

Jack stood silent for several seconds, and then said, “So what are we going to do?”

“Wait till I've seen the doctor, and then, if it's as I think it is, find the baby stuff in the loft!”

***

The doctor confirmed what Jalli already knew. He said she was about eight weeks.

“Wanulka,” said Jack, “you knew this might happen. You even wanted it.”

“Yes. I asked for it didn't I?”

“Jalli, I'm…”

“Why the long face? I'm going to have this baby, and I'm going to be alright. This is no time to be gloomy. Come on. I want to celebrate. We're having a baby! And he or she is going to be gorgeous. Come on let's tell the kids…” And she stood and yelled, “Kakko, Shaun, Bandi – family conference! Nan.”

“But Muu-um!” said Shaun engrossed in the games console.

“Shaun!”

“OK, I'm coming…”

“Just ten minutes and you can all go back to your toys.”

“It's
not
a toy, it's a
game
,” protested Shaun.

***

When they were all sat around the sitting room. Kakko said impatiently, “Well? What is it, then?” and then she looked at her mother and it all added up, “Nooo! You aren't are you? Yesterday you were sick. Now you've got that glow they tell you about – you're pregnant aren't you?”

“No keeping secrets from your daughter! Yes. I'm eight weeks.”

“Wow!” said Bandi. Shaun said nothing, just sat stunned. The world in which his game was set didn't have babies in it.

“So? What do you say?” asked Jack nervously.

“I say we have a party to celebrate!” said Kakko with excitement.

“When can we tell people? Can I text my friends?” asked Bandi.

“Already have,” said Kakko whose right hand was permanently glued to her phone. “Er… just to Tam,” she said in defence when everyone stared at her.

“Go for it,” said Jack. “The more the merrier. Text your friends. Post it on your social networks. I reckon this baby will get a lot of attention on Joh!”

***

Two months later Kakko's white gate appeared again. After ascertaining it was only for her, she stepped through without hesitation. It led straight to a refugee camp with people like those she had met in Africa. Kakko found the little family she knew. Anna was alive and well.

“Hello Kakko. Your wound… it has healed?”

“It's fine. You made it here to safety, then.”

“We made it,” said Miriam. “Anna is going to be baptised on Sunday. We all are. We have all become Christians because we know God loves us and never leaves us. He sent you to help us – and others help us too. We are giving Anna a new baptismal name; we are going to call her Kakko.”

Little Anna Kakko's mother's face split into a broad smile that revealed her broken teeth. Kakko shed a little tear.

“Will you be her sponsor, her godmother?” asked Miriam.

“Of course,” said Kakko. “I'd be honoured. But I live a long way away.”

“But in God you will always be near. You pray for her?”

And they all held hands right there and then, and prayed to the Creator who was so close – in every part of the universe and beyond. They gave thanks and prayed for the many little ones and their parents who had not made it to safety. Kakko thought of Momori surrounded by them in her heavenly home.
That is, after all, the place where we ultimately belong,
she thought.

Kakko told them of the new baby they were expecting in their family. It was highly unlikely that he or she would ever have to suffer bombs or have to run away. They were happy for her.

“A new baby is always a blessing if you have food to feed him,” said Miriam.

Kakko didn't stay long in the refugee camp. They were tightly packed. They had just enough food to stay alive and a limited recourse to medical care. Kakko discovered they didn't know much about what was happening in the rest of Planet Earth, but she told them about her interview with the British prime minister and the way the world was apparently talking about their situation. She was reassured that at least this mother and child, if not free, were reasonably safe.

The family were just about to sit down for their evening meal. They were all quiet waiting for Jalli to say a prayer when they heard a knock at the door.

“Who can that be?” asked Jack. “Bandi you're nearest. Will you go and see who that is?”

Bandi got up and went out to the front hall and opened the door.

“Abby!” he cried.

“Bandi! It's you! This is your house?”

“Sure is, how did you get here?”

“Just walked through a new white gate in the hedge in the bottom of the vicarage garden… and here I am!” she cried with excitement and leapt into Bandi's arms. So life wasn't quite so unfair as she had once believed!

“You'll never guess who it is!” rejoiced Bandi shouting to his family in the kitchen behind him. “It's Abby!”

“And there was I thinking we might have a period of peace and quiet,” sighed Matilda, tongue in cheek.

***

The gate persisted for Abby and Bandi. It stood between their two worlds without fading. Abby would often just come over after school and sit with Bandi in the dining room with her homework while Bandi did his. At other times Bandi would go to Persham, particularly if Abby and her friends were doing something special. On a couple of occasions he went and shared a picnic with Abby's family armed with all sorts of questions he had from
Sophie's World
. Abby's dad enjoyed these visits almost as much as Bandi and Abby did.

As the year sped on, the challenge of exams forced them apart somewhat. Perhaps the coming holidays they both shared would allow them more time to explore each other's planets.

Tam and Kakko became inseparable. Jack and Jalli wondered how long it would be before Kakko suggested they share a flat or something. Her parents hoped they would wait until at least Tam finished his studies. They need not have worried. Tam was a wise and thoughtful young man and was probably telling his girlfriend, as usual, that they shouldn't rush into things. So long as she was at the agricultural college it made no sense moving near the university.

Shaun passed his exams at the end of term with credits. Whilst retaining some general studies, he specialised further in language and communication.

Matilda spent most of her days with Ada, but she would always be back for the evening meal when the family ate together. “A family that eats together,” she declared, “stays together!”

Jack and Jalli busied themselves in their daily lives. Jack brought ‘light' into the dark world of the students of the blind school.

As her new baby grew in her womb, Jalli immersed herself in the activities of the insects so important to the balance of nature. Even at that level she occasionally came across something that made her question the fairness of everything.
But,
she told herself,
the very realisation that not everything was just in the universe, was the evidence that an ultimate justice existed beyond it – a true justice by which all human attempts at justice could be measured.

As for Kakko, she had already had glimpses of that ultimate justice. Now she wanted to know it in all its fullness. But for that she would have to be patient. Very patient. But not so patient that she was going to hold back if she thought she could make a difference. And, she vowed, she would
never
have patience with anyone who tolerated injustice – not ever!