"You know, most people wouldn't make a pregnant woman scramble after them."

"Have you seen him speak?" Rebeckah asked, ignoring my whining.

I shook my head. "I stay away from newsvids, remember?"

"You've never even seen a picture?"

"Sure, I've seen a picture. I'd have to be dead not to have seen at least some things. You ask me, he looks like any other scruffy-looking Jewish guy claiming to be a prophet." I didn't tell Rebeckah, but the prophet's gray eyes had struck me. Even in the holos of him, they'd seemed deep and intense.

Rebeckah laughed. "I guess so. He's got an interesting group of followers, though."

We reached the mess hall. Most of the kibbutz was carved out of the glassed remains of the city. We had destroyed most of the taller buildings, but this section of brick row houses was too beautiful and too historic to bulldoze. Patiently, people had been chipping away at the radioactive glass to reveal the perfectly preserved woodwork and stone. Some of the bricks had enough sand content that they were permanently transformed to glass, so the sun caught squares here and there along the tight line of buildings.

He stood up as we entered, those piercing gray eyes raising to meet mine. He'd cleaned up from the last vid I'd seen. Dark curly locks were cut in a martial style that took my breath away. A shaven face revealed the planes of his face, sharp enough to cut.

"Michael," I breathed.

As he looked at me, his gray eyes not quite comprehending, a wind shook the air between us.

I felt the baby kick.

Lyda Morehouse was born in 1967 in Sacramento, CA, which might explain her strange first name, except that her parents swear they were NOT hippies (beatniks, maybe, but NEVER hippies.) Plus, her folks came to their senses after only a few months under the California sun, and moved to LaCrosse, WI. Lyda spent her formative years in that magical town where three rivers meet, nestled in the valleys of the "driftless zone."

She moved to the Twin Cities in 1985 to attend Augsburg College, (not, unfortunately Oxford, which so many of her friends misheard "Augsburg" as.) While the college didn't particularly impress her, the Cities did, and she settled permanently there when she and Shawn Rounds bought a house in Saint Paul in 1997. Minneapolis/St. Paul is a haven for writers, especially science fiction writers, and Lyda would recommend it – winters and all – to anyone, anywhere.

At Augsburg, Lyda received BAs in English and history, despite the fact that everyone, including many of the department's professors, thought she was a studio arts major. Their assumption wasn't completely without substance as Lyda does dabble in the visual arts. Though she briefly sold some of her work as tarot greeting cards, these days, she mostly sketches the occasional "stud" or comic book superhero. However, she teaches cartooning on a semi-regular basis through Eden Prairie Community Education.

On August 5, 2002, Lyda became an "ima" (Hebrew for mother) to Ella Durene Mae Morehouse Rounds. Ella was stillborn, but she lives in our hearts. If you want to read about Ella, please check out Ella's page. We tried again as soon as Shawn was physically able, and we are now the proud parents the best little boy in the universe, Mason Gale Morehouse Rounds, born July 24, 2003. Lyda legally adopted Mason on December 5, 2003.

Lyda is currently attempting to live the life of a full-time writer. Due to the recent budget crunch in Minnesota, Lyda was recently laid-off from her job at the Minnesota Historical Society.