In preparation for her tenth birthday, Sarah decided to make several changes in her life-style.
Most of the dolls and toys that had been cluttering her room and had not been played with recently were bagged for donation to a charitable thrift store. That left considerable free space, and she was glad. She was ready for a few new things in her life.
At a computer terminal, two craft classes she had been taking all year were dropped. Actually, she planned to go one more time to show her most recent creations and to say good-bye. They were replaced by Sister Claire’s Horsemanship class and Brother Wilhelm’s Gourmet Cooking class.
With Rachael’s help, she picked out a new dress, of a lavender velveteen material, that complemented her hair and skin colors perfectly, and gave just the right impression of youthful grace mixed with rapidly maturing femininity.
Then she wrote her invitations.
Only her female friends received invitations, but each was welcome to bring a date. Liberty invited Jason, of course, and Charleen planned to bring Brian. Sister Rachael announced with a smile that Brother Aaron would be accompanying her.
Both Ashley and Tabitha might have been tempted to invite Shawn if the situation were different. But on this particular occasion, they had a hunch he would be receiving an invitation from another source. They conferred, and
decided the best thing to do was to invite each other. After all, Sarah hadn’t said anything about gender!
Shawn received his invitation, written in calligraphy on hand-made marbled paper, bordered with pressed, dried flowers. As he was reading the request from his younger friend to accompany her on her birthday, he became aware that a subtle floral scent was emanating from the paper. He smiled, and sat down to finish wrapping her gift.
When the appointed hour arrived on the twelfth of August, with the sun moving toward the horizon and a warm evening at hand, all of Sarah’s friends and their dates, wearing formal dresses or suits and ties, gathered at the van that Sister Rachael had reserved for the evening. They wondered where Sarah and Shawn were.
Up on the third floor of Timbuktu Hall, Shawn knocked on Sarah’s door.
It opened, and he was stunned by what he saw. She was truly beautiful, he admitted to himself, and seemed to be growing taller every day. He had long before ceased to notice the scar tissue on her face and neck. Her golden blond hair was longer than ever before, and slightly waved for the occasion. Her new dress, which he had not seen before that moment, made her look so grown up that he caught himself thinking of possibilities that he had never before allowed himself to consider. He quickly stopped himself. She was his friend. She was way too young to be anything else. He was just accompanying her on her birthday, nothing more. He offered his arm, she took it, and together they descended the steps and walked out to the awaiting van.
But on the way to their destination, as he sat beside her on the front passenger seat, he wondered, if she was just a friend, why she was such a very, very good friend.
They arrived at the tri-level mall where Sarah had chosen to spend the first evening of her second decade of life, and as it was still nearly an hour before their dinner reservation, they all looked at Sarah to know her pleasure.
But before she could open her mouth, Sister Rachael spoke. “My gift is one hundred dollars credit in the first store you enter, so be careful where you put your feet!”
Sarah grinned from ear to ear. Those empty spaces on her shelves were going to be quickly filled.
“Fifty in the second shop!” Liberty said.
“Fifty in the third shop!” Brother Aaron said.
“Twenty-five in the fourth shop!” Jason said. He was still saving up for the vacation he had planned, the one he hoped to share with Liberty.
Sarah decided to spend the time before dinner looking over all the shops, but not setting foot inside any. Then, she figured, after dinner she would know just where to go.
So they walked, and she pressed her face to the glass many times, and tried to imagine how the merchandise within fit into her new life-style. Her friends and her mentor pointed out silly things that she would never dream of wasting her credit on, and they all laughed and talked and had fun.
Their large table was ready when they arrived at the dining room which overlooked the multi-level courtyard of the mall. Sarah glowed with happiness when Shawn pulled out a chair for her and seated himself beside.
The mood was quickly set when Sarah ordered a huge seafood and vegetable appetizer platter for everyone, and several bottles of sparkling concord grape juice. She surprised everyone, however, by ordering medium-rare prime rib for her own main dish.
But when it was time for dessert, Sarah was the one to be surprised. A whole cheesecake appeared, with a lit candle set in each slice. She glanced at Shawn, closed her eyes to make her wish, and then blew. It took a couple of extra well-aimed puffs of air to get the last three flames, but they all went out, and everyone clapped and cheered.
Everyone at Lyceum was aware of the changes Sarah was experiencing, and none of her gifts were childish. In between bites of cheesecake, she received books, disks, clothes, and craft tools. But the gift that felt most special to her was the leather bound blank book from Shawn. The beginning of her second decade was, she realized when she saw it, the perfect time to start a journal. Many important things were happening in her life, and she had hopes for even more important things in the near future, and she wanted to write them all down.
“Thank you!” she said, looking into his eyes while holding her precious gift.
Soon they returned to the mall promenade, and Sarah used her promised credit in a dress shop, a book store, a candle shop, and an art gallery. She couldn’t afford original art, but she found a print that would go well in her evolving apartment.
When they returned to Lyceum, the entire birthday group helped her carry her gifts upstairs. It was after ten o’clock, and on any ordinary evening most of them would have soon been preparing for bed. But they could all remember a time when, for one reason or another, they had been up in the middle of the night, and Sarah had always been there, helping out, bringing them treats, or just keeping them company. They looked at each other.
“Why don’t we all change into comfortable clothes,” Sister Rachael said,
“and then meet in the Cedar Grove! I know some folk dances that really come alive in the moonlight.”
“I’ll bring goodies!” Liberty said.
“I’ll bring lanterns!” Brother Aaron said.
“I’ll see if the pool in the Vesuvius Garden is free!” Tabitha said.
Everyone dashed to their rooms to change. Most of them were leaving for New York the following day, and so their responsibilities were being covered by others. They could catch up on sleep during the flight. That night was a very special night for their friend Sarah, and they had no intention of letting her spend it alone.
Forty-three Lyceum members left for the airport shortly after breakfast the following morning. Several of them could hardly keep their eyes open, and had their heads nestled in pillows as soon as they boarded the airliner. Sarah felt very honored that they had stayed up all night just for her. She did not, however, feel sleepy.
Everyone was looking a bit more alive when they landed in New York. A United Nations bus collected them at the airport and carved its way through mid-day traffic into Manhattan. Lyceum’s large apartment quickly became crowded with excited but anxious members.
“Brothers and Sisters!” Sister Ruth said over the chatter.
Everyone fell silent.
“Liberty and her support people have a meeting with the Secretary General at three o’clock. That team meets with me in about twenty minutes, and we’ll go over together. The regular and supplemental U.N. office staff have a training session at four to go over the new services we’re offering to the countries involved in disarmament. That’s in conference room A-12. Ashley, you’re invited to that. Everyone will need to be familiar with that material eventually. Brother Li’s team is meeting with the Chinese delegation at five for dinner. Anyone who doesn’t have other plans can eat here between five and seven. The technical and dance teams can get into their facility at 7:30 to look everything over.”
The afternoon and evening were busy for everyone. Liberty was glad the Secretary General was a gentle man who had teenage grandchildren himself.
He was very respectful as he made suggestions about Liberty’s planned speech. Liberty was also thankful that both Shawn and Jason were with her, and both of them were glad they wouldn’t have to handle the full force of her emotional needs all alone.
Most of the members enjoyed eating a simple dinner of slow-cooked pork roast and pot herbs in the Lyceum apartment that evening. They knew there would be plenty of formal meals during the next few days.
After returning from the dance facility, where they would be performing in just two days, Liberty, Ashley, and Tabitha were dead tired, still short on sleep, and more than ready to fall onto their sleeping bags. Only Sarah still had any energy, sitting in the living room with Brother Keith and several other members who had high levels of diplomatic clearance as they quietly discussed recent and upcoming events until they too were sleepy.
In the morning Brother Timoteo led worship and reflection while muffins, hash browns, and eggs cooked in the kitchen. Ashley remembered her dinner with him fondly. It had come at just the right time to boost her spirits for this mission. She had enjoyed the training session the day before, even though it had forced her to leave Liberty’s side early, and Ashley was excited about the
other events she would be helping with while they were in New York. Even though she continued to be a little baffled by the situation, every time she took part in anything to do with diplomacy, she seemed to understand and feel comfortable with all of it. But it seemed less strange when she reminded herself that she couldn’t be a gymnast forever. Gymnastics belonged to the young. She wouldn’t be young for the rest of her life.
After breakfast, nearly everyone headed over to the United Nations building. There were more training sessions and meetings all morning long, although Shawn was happy to see that Liberty and Jason had some free time, and equally as glad that he himself didn’t, so that the two of them would not feel guilty about getting into the museum or the garden together. There were times when three was company, and times when three was a crowd. Shawn was very glad he had kept them both as friends, and his part of that revived friendship meant accepting that Liberty had chosen Jason as her lover, not him. He would find someone... he just wasn’t sure when or where. And he said a silent prayer of thanks that his feelings of being alone had not plunged him into another self-pitying depression like they had at Christmas.
All of the Lyceum members joined the U.N. diplomatic staff for a buffet lunch in the headquarters’ huge dining room, and there was much discussion about the work that lay ahead of them, whether the Treaty was approved that afternoon in the General Assembly, as was expected, or whether one or two nuclear nations backed out at the last minute and the entire process was put on hold.
Liberty was excited. Even though it had not always been her choice to do so, she had put a great amount of her own personal energy into the Treaty, and was hoping it would be given a chance. She knew the history of nuclear weapons better than most people. Three times they had been used in war or terrorism, twice in the previous century, once in the century into which Liberty and her friends had been born. That was enough. The world had been in nearly complete agreement for more than twenty years that those awesome weapons should never again be used against people. Liberty could see that the Treaty, or something like it, was the only way to achieve that goal.
Shortly after one o’clock, the delegates of all the nations of the world
entered the General Assembly Hall. Most of the Lyceum members who were in the city were already seated in the visitors area, along with hundreds of others, including one senator from Pennsylvania. Television cameras and their operators could be seen in the media boxes.
Liberty, surrounded by Jason, Shawn, and two armed U.N. guards, was seated in a special section along with the Secretary General and several heads of state who had chosen to be present. She was nervous. None of the other talks she had given about the Treaty had been televised. They had only worked their way into the newspapers after the fact. Today, she knew, the entire world was watching. And she also knew that no matter what happened today, there would be millions of people in the world who would want to thank her, and millions of others who would want to kill her. Suddenly she knew what her father felt like, being a United States senator. And something she had said to her father more than a year ago, before she had even seen Lyceum, flashed into her mind.
... I like that world-class feeling, Daddy, and Lyceum has it...
Now there she was, ready to step onto the world stage, and her stomach was tied in knots even though she had brewed a strong cup of her special tea at lunch. For a moment she wished Ashley could take her place. She would do a much better job. But suddenly she understood something: Ashley was destined to be the hard-working behind-the-scenes diplomat, as were all of the Lyceum members who worked in international diplomacy and most of the U.N. diplomatic staff. They never got any credit. Others, who had pretty faces and a few smooth words, earned the love of the people.
Liberty felt ashamed. She didn’t deserve the world’s love, and she wasn’t going to accept it, not without sharing it with those who did deserve it. And that sudden decision, made moments before it had to be implemented, was destined to effect her speech that day before the General Assembly, the celebration she would host the following day, and the rest of her life.
The Secretary General rose and approached the high podium.
“Good afternoon, honorable delegates. Today’s session will be opened with prayer offered by Sister Lydia of New Zealand.”
Everyone knew that Sister Lydia had been chosen to open the session that
day because New Zealand was within the Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone, a part of the world into which no nuclear weapons were allowed. Robed in Lyceum blue, she stepped to a low speaking platform and spread her arms toward the ceiling.
“May we speak this day with tongues made wise through experience. May we listen this day with ears that are open to truth, truth that might be spoken, and truth that is only whispered to us from within. May we walk this day on paths that will lead us into a future we can embrace with our hearts and our minds. May we remember that no matter what we do here today, together we are, and together we will remain now and forever.”
Sister Lydia returned to her seat. Shawn knew how hard it must be to write prayers that would speak to everyone and offend no one.
The Secretary General returned to the high podium.
“General Assembly Resolution 24-1446 instructed me to ask Sister Liberty Buchanan to speak to you on this occasion. Please welcome her.”
The room filled with applause, and Liberty turned red, but knew this wasn’t the time to act embarrassed. She stood, squeezed Jason’s hand, touched Shawn on the shoulder, and approached the podium. The Secretary General shook her hand warmly as the applause continued. Then he returned to his seat and left her there alone with the whole world watching.
She felt herself begin to tremble, but then she happened to spot Ashley in the visitors section. She couldn’t see the scars on Ashley’s face from that distance, but she knew they were there. Her own feelings subsided and her stomach even seemed to relax a little. She glanced at her notes and then looked at her audience of delegates, world leaders, visitors, and cameras.
“Standing before you is the greatest honor I have ever had. And I believe today might be the most important day for the world that will occur during my lifetime. I am not here because of who I am or because of anything I have done. At home I care for horses, and I help run computer control systems, and I am studying to be a pilot someday. I have dear friends, and a young man I hope to marry when I am a little more grown up. In most ways I am just like young people all over the world, and it is their message that I bring to you today.
“The first time someone tried to end my life because doing so might help
them stop the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty, two of my friends were there to save me. They now carry wounds and scars because they were my friends at that moment. They were nine and thirteen years old at the time. It is their message that I wish to share.
“The most important thing to the children and youth of the world is that they have a family. Families come in many shapes and sizes, but in every family, there are parents who make the hard decisions and protect the children from the worst of their own mistakes. In any family that uses guns or sharp tools or dangerous chemicals, the parents keep them in a locked box or on a high shelf. And the children, ultimately, are glad.
“I hope you have all noticed that during the past one or two centuries, the world has become a family of nations and a family of cultures. Young people have certainly noticed. All of you here have come together for a world family meeting. Since the United Nations began, small nations have looked to large ones for resources, weak nations have looked to strong ones for protection, young nations have looked to older ones for wisdom.
“And now, fifteen members of our world family have nuclear weapons, and we don’t want to ever use them again. What shall we do with them? We could scrap them all, and pretend we don’t know how to make them...”
Liberty was silent for a moment, looking at the delegates.
“Yes, you and your governments have had the intelligence to not choose that path. You know that the children of the world would grow up and figure out how to make them again. Remember, we might be the source of the world’s curiosity, but we are not the depository of the world’s wisdom.”
The room erupted into laughter, and Liberty smiled.
“So the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty was crafted by countless diplomats working all over the world during the last ten years or more. It creates a box where we can put our most dangerous weapons, and keep them well oiled and in working order. The box will be locked and no single member of our family will be able to open it. But if we ever need them again, really need them, they will be ready. Maybe none of us alive today will ever see a need for them, and I hope very much that we don’t.
“But we cannot see what the future will bring. Perhaps, someday, in some dangerous situation we cannot imagine, our children will be glad we had the
intelligence to create them, the prudence to put them in a box, and the wisdom to hold onto the key.”
Liberty stopped to breathe. Somehow, although she couldn’t say how, she had gotten to the end of her notes. But she had one more thing she wanted to say.
“Whatever you decide, tomorrow I will dance for you, as will many other young people from all over the world. We will dance for you just because we are happy to be alive, and because we are glad that wise men and women like you watch over us, make the hard decisions, and pass on the wisdom of the world. Thank you.”
She stepped down as the room filled with clapping again. She was shaking when she landed in her seat between Shawn and Jason. The Secretary General was back at the podium waiting for the applause to die down.
“Thank you, Sister Liberty. I have requests from thirty-four delegations to address the Assembly. The delegation from Spain has the floor.”
Liberty listened to the speakers while her heart slowly quit pounding and her hands reluctantly stopped shaking. The remarks of the many delegations who spoke sounded very hopeful, ranging from unconditional support of the Treaty, to support with minor reservations. Only one middle-eastern country spoke against the Treaty, and everyone in the room knew that they did not possess nuclear weapons, and if the rest of the world had anything to say about it, never would.
After about an hour and a half, every delegation who had any desire to speak had done so, and no procedural issues had arisen to reschedule the vote. The Secretary General called for a voice presentation by the nuclear nations of the world.
“The government of the United Kingdom has ratified the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty as worded.”
“The people of Israel have ratified the treaty under consideration.”
“The duly elected government of India has sustained the treaty as presented.”
Liberty listened anxiously while several other delegations also announced their support.
“The government of the People’s Republic of China is in support of the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty.”
“The Australian government has ratified the item under consideration.”
Ashley was practically out of her seat with excitement.
“The treaty under consideration had been approved by the people’s government of Ukraine.”
“The Congress of the United States of America has ratified the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty.”
Shawn was holding his breath. There were only two more.
“The people of Russia endorse the treaty as proposed.”
A big smile flashed onto Liberty’s face. If they hadn’t endorsed it, she would have immediately switched her language studies to Swahili or Urdu.
Only one more.
“The government of France has duly ratified the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty as worded.”
Liberty hugged Jason, then Shawn. But tension still filled the room, and the words of the Secretary General caught her attention again.
“The General Assembly in its entirety will now consider the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty. As previously decided in Resolution 23-0528, this is a Class One treaty requiring eighty percent support for passage. The delegates may now vote.”
For the next minute, the room was completely silent, save for the soft clicks of the delegates pressing their voting keys. Liberty scarcely breathed and was perched on the edge of her seat.
“All votes are locked,” the Secretary General said. “I have two hundred and five votes in support, and two votes opposed. The Nuclear Disarmament Treaty is sustained by this body, the General Assembly of the United Nations.”
The massive room was filled with applause and cheering. Liberty flew straight up into the air, clapping even before she landed. Many embraces and handshakes were exchanged throughout the delegates and the visitors.
Seldom, during all the decades during which that great room had served as the focal point of international diplomacy, had such a joyful sound been heard filling its immense volume. Several people abandoned all their inhibitions and began dancing in the isles, and the many security guards throughout the
room were too busy clapping and smiling to care.
Only two delegates sat morosely, not taking part in the exchange of congratulations. That was okay. The world had been watching those two nations closely for many years. The world was willing to continue to do so.