Jackson folded his arms and turned toward the arched entrance of the grove, peering darkly at the shadowy form of the monument inside it. “Question is, how are we gonna cork this bottle now it’s been opened?”
“Now, just a minute,” Barney objected, putting an arm around his shame-faced wife. “For all we know, we’ve just stumbled upon the most important thing we could ever find. You should know—you’re the one who brought us here.”
Constance looked at the older man fiercely. “I’m not saying it ain’t important. I don’t know one way or the other. All I’m sayin’ is that we’re like to have plenty of time to figure it out after we get our work done.”
There was murmuring and shuffling among the group as they weighed the novelty of this new experience over their obligations to the colony. Pair by pair, eyes met the determined gazes of Constance and Jackson, who now stood side-by-side in front of the grove. One by one, the colonists broke away from the crowd and returned in the direction of their appointed tasks. After a few moments, the unlikely allies were accompanied only by Lamont, Rosemary, and Anna Lightfoot-Owens.
Constance stuffed her hands in the large pockets of her baggy jumpsuit and frowned at the steadfast matriarch. “I didn’t set out to cause trouble,” she said.
Anna smiled softly. “I know, girl.”
Jackson folded his arms and turned toward the arched entrance of the grove, peering darkly at the shadowy form of the monument inside it. “Question is, how are we gonna cork this bottle now it’s been opened?”
“Who says we got to?” Constance objected. “Just ‘cause we don’t know what it is doesn’t mean it’s bad. What happened to me didn’t feel bad.”
“How did it feel?” Lamont asked.
Constance hesitated. “It felt like…”
Her blue eyes flashed around at the small group, who were all watching her intently. The challenge of making herself vulnerable gave her the aspect of a trapped wild animal. Lamont suspected that at any moment she might throw an indiscriminate punch and run for it.
He stepped in, lowering his recorder and placing himself physically between Constance and the two other colonists. “It feels as if you’ve been looking for something your entire life without really knowing it, and you’ve just found it,” he said quietly to Jackson and Miss Anna. “It feels as if suddenly, everything is about to be made clear. As if everything you’ve been through up to this point was part of a plan leading to this precise moment. As if every failure, every disappointment, every bitter loss was not only valuable and necessary, but…”
He glanced at Constance, who was standing rigidly off his shoulder. Her face was a mask of suspended tension, but her eyes, meeting his, glittered wetly. “But okay,” she whispered. “Everything’s okay. And everything is going to be.”
I'm getting an "Elegy" (Twilight Zone) thing going up my spine.
I think this thing is essentially a hospice. Last stop, then you're in the chorus.