Chaim's first instinct was to run. He could just pack up and leave, right then, or at any time in the future. But if she could find him once, what would stop her from doing it again? He was pretty sure that her voices were no longer coming from God, but he also believed God had all owed her to find him for a reason.
Not least amongst his thoughts as he lay awake on the floor that night was the possibility that Sheree could succeed in distracting him from what he had been called to do. She had lost something spiritually, but her appearance was much improved; and she was right about Chaim's attraction to her.
It was very late when Chaim fell asleep; and he was no closer to a solution than when he had first laid down.
The next morning, he was awakened by a quiet tapping on his door. He answered it with a sheet wrapped around himself. It was Sheree, and, like her tapping, she seemed much more timid than she had been the previous evening.
"I'm sorry, Chaim. I can come back later," she said when she saw he was not dressed.
"That's okay. Just wait a tick," he said, and he turned to slip into some slacks before opening the door to her.
He offered her the one seat at the table, and fetched the chair in the corner for himself.
"It must have been quite a shock to you, finding me here like that last night," she said. Chaim just lifted his eyebrows in response.
"I don't want to cause problems for you; I just want to be near you," she said.
"About that," Chaim returned, "I want to be very clear that I'm not interested in a sexual relationship. I've stayed single this long, and I don't want to change now."
"I understand," said Sheree. "But if we could just be friends... I could maybe help you."
Chaim thought that if she really wanted to help, she would have stayed in Japan and patched things up with Bobbi instead. Still , it wouldn't be so bad, if she could keep from throwing herself at him, like she had done the previous evening.
"Well , you're here now," he said. "Let's just take it a day at a time."
And that's what they did, with Sheree spending that day and the next fixing up the shed, to make it more liveable. She stayed out of Chaim's way, and he was able to go off to "work" as he called it, without further interruption.
On Sunday, she asked if she could go to meeting with him, and it seemed pointless to refuse. Friends would take note of them arriving together, but they would think little more of it. They might even see it as a hopeful sign of him settling down.
Sheree picked up a casual job doing telephone sales, and when she tired of that she letter-boxed pamphlets. She shared with Chaim much that she was able to get by compromising with the system.
It wasn't long before Sheree was inviting Chaim out into the backyard occasionally (and then more than occasionally) for evening meals around a table that she had set up there. There were no further attempts to seduce him, and the overall effect was more seductive than anything else she could have done.
He really liked Sheree as a friend, at the same time that he weighed up constantly what effect this would have on the rest of the movement.
Every few months she would make some attempt to influence him in spiritual matters, but whenever he resisted, she would settle back into a less threatening relationship. Often she would disappear for days or weeks, and when she returned she would be in bad shape physically, like she had been living out on the streets. Chaim's presence seemed to be enough to restore her sanity, and to get her taking care of herself once again.
Several times Chaim thought about letting others in the movement know that she was there. At first he held back because he was certain that it would be temporary; but later he held back because it was not, and because he did not know how to explain it. Not even Molly and Bess, up in Newcastle, knew where he lived now, and Sheree was happy to stay in Sydney on the rare occasions when Chaim would take a trip to Newcastle to see them. Sheree became Chaim's little secret, and even though they remained only friends, he still had a feeling that it was more a "dark" secret than an innocent one.
Over the next two years, life for the entire movement progressed smoothly. There were the inconveniences of trying to do business without using money; but apart from that, they encountered few difficulties. Growth in numbers had come to a halt, giving individual cells an opportunity to organise themselves better, and to develop a clearer picture of what was happening and what was going to happen.
The rest of the world was still adjusting to the mass movement of so many Americans, but the general mood was one of continuing prosperity. Americans, many of them with skills and experience that could be used to build up local economies, became the Twenty-First Century version of slaves, harvested from an overnight war. With all the profits staying in the rest of the world now, people were starting to realise just how much they had been missing during those years when all of the world's luxuries had been sucked down the brain drain that led to the West.
Xu Dangchao's charisma had bedazzled the entire world. His role as Secretary General was now one of ex officio world ruler. Governments were not conquered (apart from America, and to a certain extent, Britain) but rather they were enlisted in Dangchao's many efforts to unite the world. Never in modern history had there ever been such a period of total peace, prosperity, and co-operation.
By the time that Chaim and Sheree were celebrating the second anniversary of their meeting at the little squat in Strathfield, Chaim estimated that there were just seven months left before things would change.