DURING THE TRIP IN THE VAN, LORRAINE TOLD THEM SHE'D LEFT some traces in the river to deceive everyone into believing she'd drowned, while she investigated how to go back to the Earth without Leonard stopping them. She knew she'd have to move far north, where new, more regulated consortia were acquiring control over areas that had never actually been feudalized like this territory. Joseph surely was aware of that. He, though Leonard's son, had been raised away from the nonsensical theme reserve and, thanks to the proximity to the other zones and to his father's gradual slackness, which had led to the sale of that part of his properties to the companies in the vicinity, he'd lived in the real world, that of technologies and scientific research, which was fortunately gaining ground against some of the first owners' sexist-classist elation. Even his mother had found a partner a few years ago, who made her happy - one of the doctors that, like Alan, had come temporarily to do some research. This man had actually, after he adopted Joseph, already a teenager, as his own child, given him the opportunity to build a career in medicine, and even spend some of his university years on Earth. For love, the man had decided to settle on this planet, and Joseph would be eternally grateful to him for making both his mother and him happy.
Roxanne thought she was grateful to him too for contributing to make Joseph so different from Leonard.
Lorraine's arrival was not just a breath of fresh air for her niece. Blanche and Celeste, deeply depressed since Violet's murder, took shelter by her side, loving her more as a mother than Leonard's badmouthing had ever allowed them to.
During the several hours inside the vehicle, Roxanne had time to mentally switch between the different spheres that coexisted in such a limited space. Her incredible happiness for having recovered Lorraine, whom she thought dead; her concern about her sisters - not only the ones that were with her -; her concern also about Joseph's condition, who was trying to conceal the discomfort and pains of the knife wound; her growing love for him - most of which she wasn't even conscious of - and her uncomfortableness towards Alan, similar to that of the first hours after meeting him, but necessarily different.
From time to time, she attempted to figure out his mysterious pose, in case she was wrong about him and about what she herself felt. After all, how much experience did she have with relationships to afford to pass such a radical and fast verdict?
He made it easy for her. He left as soon as they got to Joseph's house. He was going north to catch that spaceship that would take him to Playa.