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Back Daughter of Eden
Chapters (68)
  1. Title page
  2. Dedication
  3. Part I
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 20. 20:25 MT.
  30. Part II
  31. Twenty-six
  32. Twenty-seven
  33. Twenty-eight
  34. Twenty-nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-one
  37. Thirty-two
  38. Thirty-three
  39. Thirty-four
  40. Thirty-five
  41. Thirty-six
  42. Thirty-seven
  43. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 22. 20:05 MT.
  44. Thirty-eight
  45. Thirty-nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-one
  48. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 25. 15:30 MT.
  49. Forty-two
  50. Forty-three
  51. Forty-four
  52. Forty-five
  53. Forty-six
  54. Forty-seven
  55. Forty-eight
  56. Forty-nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-one
  59. Fifty-two
  60. Fifty-three
  61. Fifty-four
  62. Part III
  63. Fifty-five
  64. Fifty-six
  65. Fifty-seven
  66. Fifty-eight
  67. Also by Chris Beckett
  68. Copyright page

‘You know what,’ Teacher Gerry said to us. ‘I’m sad that you won’t stay with us because there really are things we could teach you. You Davidfolk just pass on the old stories from Old Family, and you don’t think enough about where they came from or how the women that used to run Old Family might have changed them when they had the chance. Me and the Headmanson here know you’re not bad people. We know you love Mother Gela in your own way, and we respect that. But there’s a lot you don’t know. For example, you know nothing about President, Gela’s dad, not even that he was her dad. Or even that President was a man. And that’s a big shame because, important as our Mother is, wonderful as she is, kind friend that she’s been to all of us, her power comes from her father President. He was the Headman of all of Earth. He had the starship built, and the other sky boats, and it was him that made lecky-trickity and telly vijun and all the wonderful things we know they had on Earth. And of course it was him that told the Three Disobedient Men to return to Earth, and him that sent his daughter Gela to fetch them back. In fact he’s behind the whole story, when you think about it. He might seem to be on the edge of it, but really he’s out there all the time, looking in, reaching in himself only when he has to, so as to make the story go the way it needs to go. I believe he even meant for Gela to come to Eden, and that he arranged everything to make that happen, just so his children could have another whole world to make their own.’

We just stood there, enduring this weird nonsense, waiting to learn if we really could carry on towards Davidstand, unharmed, with all our bucks, and all our kids, and all our stuff.

‘So tell me,’ said Teacher Gerry. ‘Who made the world? Who made the stars? Who made Eden and Earth?’

We looked at each other. What a thing to ask us now! And what kind of crazy question was it, anyway? No one made the world. How could anyone have made it? The world was what people were in.

‘You don’t know, do you?’ said Gerry. ‘And why should you? It’s not like it’s obvious. But we teachers, we think and we write down our thoughts, we read what teachers wrote who came before us, going all the way back to John, and slowly slowly we figure things out. And you know what, we’re starting to understand that President wasn’t just a man. He was there from the beginning. He made the world. He made all of this. He made Eden and Earth and all the stars.’