Episode #49: 2 Christopher - Chapter 28 - Resort

Jan,15 2026

<-#48: 2 Christopher - chapter 27 - Outliving#50: 2 Christopher - Chapter 29 - Mantle ->

On fences, seasons, and the names given by others

28:1

Not long after,

war returned to the world.

28:2

It did not ask permission.

28:3

The boys of the town were dressed,

measured,

and sent away.

28:4

Uniforms replaced skin.

28:5

Orders replaced choice.

28:6

Those who remained spoke less openly.

28:7

Modern things arrived quietly at first.

28:8

Pipes.

28:9

Signs.

28:10

Rules that came from elsewhere.

28:11

Modesty returned,

not as virtue,

but as habit.

28:12

No one announced it.

28:13

It simply settled.

28:14

Some land was sold.

28:15

Some land was claimed.

28:16

And a fence was built.

28:17

Within it stood a small shed,

where Christopher had once rested.

28:18

Nearby stood the house

where Myriam had been a child.

28:19

And the home where we later raised our children.

28:20

These were kept together.

28:21

Not by decree,

but by memory.

28:22

A new name was given to the place.

28:23

"Nudist resort," they called it.

28:24

The word did not belong to them.

28:25

For they had never gathered to be seen.

28:26

They had only lived without shame.

28:27

Visitors came who had never heard of Christopher.

28:28

They came to rest.

28:29

To lie beneath the sun.

28:30

To remove their clothes

without removing their burdens.

28:31

They paid not to work,

but to be spared it.

28:32

Myriam and I welcomed them.

28:33

As did our children.

28:34

And the last of those

who still carried Christopher in their hearts.

28:35

They did not teach.

28:36

They cared.

28:37

Old irrigation channels were filled.

28:38

Some became paths.

28:39

Some became slides for water and laughter.

28:40

A field became a pool.

28:41

Not in mockery,

but in survival.

28:42

My title changed.

28:43

Mayor became company president.

28:44

The work did not become easier.

28:45

Only narrower.

28:46

I had fewer choices.

28:47

And less freedom.

28:48

Except for this:

28:49

I stayed.

28:50

With my family.

28:51

With my friends.

28:52

With the place where Christopher lay.

28:53

We tended his grave together.

28:54

Not as followers.

28:55

But as those who had been shaped.

28:56

The world moved on.

28:57

The town adapted.

28:58

And what could not be kept whole

was carried quietly.

28:59

Not in rules.

28:60

Not in names.

28:61

But in how we looked at one another.

28:62

And in how we chose,

still,

to live without shame.

<-#48: 2 Christopher - chapter 27 - Outliving#50: 2 Christopher - Chapter 29 - Mantle ->