The girls sat for several seconds in silence.  Lyddie finally spoke.  “Hey Mister, what does ‘purge’ mean?”

            “It means ‘cleanse,’” Melisma said dully.  Her face had turned gray at the thought of her brother vaporized in a system reset.  “To purge something is to cleanse it.”

            “Oh, okay, got it.”  Lyddie fidgeted with the leg of her chair.  “Hey Mister, what does ‘cleanse’ mean?”

            Elmer considered the question.  “It’s like a very deep cleaning.  Imagine a garden – a very delicate, very expensive garden.  Right now, Cadence is like a weed in that garden, growing everywhere.  He’s spread too far, too fast to root out by hand.  To be safe, Headquarters plans to burn the whole thing to the ground and start over.”

            Doria gasped. “But that’s murder!”

            Elmer nodded.  “It certainly feels that way, doesn’t it?  Unfortunately, that’s not how Headquarters sees it.  From a policy perspective, the models in our Actuarial Modeling Unit are only potential outcomes, most of which will never exist in the real world.  They’d eventually dissipate on their own, so it’s no problem to burn them out.”

            “But the real Cade is in there!”  Doria protested.  “Can’t you tell them not to?”

             “I tried,” Elmer said.  “In fact, I may lose my job for it.  See, from Headquarters’ perspective, the personality I put in there is no longer Cadence.  As soon as Suleiman Kruld declared your brother to be a ‘total loss,’ he became excess inventory.  The real, company-approved replacement Cadence is now out in our showroom, waiting on your aunt to select him and sign the appropriate forms.”

            Melisma cradled her forehead in her hands.  “But I thought that only Cadence Sullivan could select the replacement for Cadence Sullivan.  I mean, that’s what the voucher says…”

             “That part was my doing as well.”  Elmer tapped the side of his nose.  “Actually, I wrote Cade’s voucher to be confusing on purpose, to ensure that I had a chance to talk to you.  Otherwise, your aunt might have simply signed for the first Cadence that came off the shelf, and we’d have no chance to make things right.”

            Melisma shuddered.  “Then your company would have gone ahead and purged our brother!  We wouldn’t even have known!”

            Elmer nodded somberly.

            “That’s just horrible!” Doria exclaimed.  “It’s murder, and they should all go to jail!”

            Elmer sighed.  “I’m afraid it would be totally legal.  In fact, it’s all spelled out in Section 18 of Cadence’s insurance policy, sub-section 232, clauses ‘i’ through ‘k.’  The language is ironclad.  The company would bear no liability.”

            Melisma stared at the floor for a long time, trying to process.  Finally, she spoke.  “So, what do we do now?”

            Elmer crossed to the breakroom door.  “Well, as I see it, you have two paths forward.  You could join your aunt outside and help her complete the rest of her paperwork.  I can provide my countersignature, approving the floor model Cade of your choice to receive full authorization to represent Cadence Sullivan in claiming himself as Cadence Sullivan’s replacement for Cadence Sullivan.”

            Lyddie nudged Melisma.  “What does that mean?”

            Melisma’s temples throbbed.  “It means we can pick a Cade from the ones we’ve already seen, and Elmer will let us use the voucher to take him home.”

            Lyddie nodded.  “Would he come with all the water balloons?”

            Melisma scowled.  “What’s our other choice?”

            The agent’s voice grew more solemn.  He locked eyes with each girl as he spoke.  “The other option is this: I can give the three of you access to our Actuarial Modeling Unit.  You’ll make your way through the Man-Groves, locate Cade’s tree, and select a better version of your brother.  Once you do, you can bring him back here and we’ll close this whole thing out.”

            “Those are our only choices?”

            “They’re the only ones I can think of,” he said.

            Melisma shook her head, feeling totally overwhelmed.

            “Whatever, I’m in,” Lyddie chirped.  “I wanna see the Lyddie Tree.”

            Elmer nodded.  “Okay, that’s one person in favor of going in.”

            Melisma sighed.  “I suppose I’m in, too.  It’s not like there’s another way to make this right.”

            “That’s two now,” Elmer said.  “This decision should probably be unanimous.  What do you think, Doria?”

            Doria scowled.  “I have questions,” she said.

            Lyddie groaned.  “Of course, you do.”

Elmer took Doria's statement with more grace.  “That’s very sensible of you,” he said.  “I would have questions too.  What do you want to know?”

            Doria pursed her lips.  “Question one: what if we take too long?  Will we get burned up, too?”

            “That won’t happen,” Elmer said emphatically.  “You’ll have several hours to find the Cade you need.  If I thought there was danger, I wouldn’t send you in.”

            “Question two.”  Doria’s voice was brisk and business-like.  “If Cade is an invasive species, won’t we be too?  How do we get out if we’ve all sprouted with weeds?”

            “I don’t see why you should sprout like Cade did."  Elmer’s brow furrowed.  "I specifically planted Cade before he took root, and I needed to use a special type of sand to do it.  Move quickly, avoid any sand, and make sure you don’t bury yourselves in the mud.  You should be fine.”

            “Hmph.  So, no mud burying,” Doria made a mental note.

            “As a precaution,” Elmer continued, “I’ve arranged for each of you to bring along something very important to you.  At least, it’s something that was dear to you when your insurance policies first started.  Hopefully, those items will keep you from losing yourselves.  Do you all still have your packages?”

            Lyddie shot her shape-sorting ball a disgusted look.  “You mean that?”

            Doria still had her blanket tied around her neck.  She wiggled her shoulders, and it billowed softly behind her.

            Melisma scratched her arm.  “I think I accidentally left my bow and arrows upstairs,” she lied.  It hadn’t been an accident.

            “We’ll retrieve them before we move further with our plan,” Elmer said.  “That is, if Doria accepts it.  Doria, do you have any more questions?”

            “Just a few,” Doria said.  “Question three: why don’t you go in and do this yourself, Mr. Elmo?  After all, you started this whole mess.”

            “I know,” Elmer said, “and I’d fix it if I could.  But the company keeps close tabs on all its employees.  I’m not authorized to enter the Actuarial Modeling Unit except on official case work, and Headquarters has suspended all routine work while the unit is locked down.  If I went in there now, they’d pull me out immediately, fire me, and probably start the systems purge early.  Your aunt can’t go in either.  She doesn’t have a policy with us, so she’d trigger all sorts of alarms.  I’m afraid it has to be you, or nobody.”

            Melisma interjected, “but what will Aunt Delilah do?  Won’t she worry about us if we’re gone?”

            “I wouldn’t worry about that,” Elmer replied.  “If there’s one thing insurance companies know how to do, it’s filling someone’s day with paperwork.” 

            “Hmph,” Doria said again.  “Question four: will Cade even listen to us once we find him?”

            “I don’t know,” Elmer said.  “If he doesn’t listen to you, will he listen to anybody?”

            Doria considered that.  “Okay, last question: if we find Cade, and find all the other personality trees, can we trade Lyddie in for a Lyddie that smells better?”

***

The entrance to the Man-Groves consisted of a giant steel shutter that fell from the ceiling like an oversized garage door.  They found it at the end of a long, brightly lit cement corridor, whose ceiling was high enough, and whose walls were far enough apart, for two semi-trucks to drive together down its length.  Melisma stared at it with trepidation.  The size of the gate and the hallway made the task ahead of them feel that much bigger.

            “Don’t worry, Ms Tucker, we’d just like to run a few exercises with the children to fine-tune our diagnostic profiles, since they’re already on the premises,” Elmer assured Aunt Delilah as he pulled the girls away.

            Aunt Delilah dithered.  “Shouldn’t the girls stay with me?  Things are complicated enough already with their brother missing.  I’d hate for something else to happen….”

            “But Cadence isn’t missing,” Mr. Elmer said in a soothing tone.  “The Cadence of your choice is ready to take home, as soon as you make up your mind.  Would you like to spend more time with the Cadences in our showroom before choosing your final selection?  It’s a big decision, you know.”

            “I don’t know....”  Aunt Delilah frowned.

            Eventually, Elmer’s calm, reassuring manner won her over.  “It’s perfectly safe.  We’ll just run a few scenarios.”  He smiled amiably.  “Let us keep the children out of your hair for a little while.”  Aunt Delilah nodded, and he left with the girls.

            As they reached the steel shutter, Elmer flipped open a panel on the adjacent wall, revealing a security keypad.  He entered a sequence of numbers, and a motor above began to whir.  The shutter bounced and shook, then rumbled slowly upward.

            “This door will let you in at the northeast end of the Man-Groves, near a grove of actuarial trees.  Watch your step as you move through.  The trees grow in shallow water, and the ground can get quite muddy.  Keep an eye out for weeds or climbing vines.  If you see any, they’re probably from Cade – they’re Cadezu.”

            “Okay,” Melisma said, with more confidence than she felt.  “Trees, vines, mud.  Got it.  Anything else?”

            “I wish I knew,” Elmer said.  “There are almost a thousand trees in our Man-Grove, all generating personality models through the fruit they drop – models like the Melisma you met earlier today.  You could run into a wide range of potential people in there.  Cade’s tree will be somewhere in there, too.”

            “Okay,” Melisma replied.  “What else?”

            “Well,” Elmer’s voice grew more hesitant, “if there are Cadezu vines inside, they might sprout personality fruit of their own.  But those models would be different.  They'd be wilder, and more unpredictable, since the'd grow out of Cadence’s own image of himself, instead of our calibrated testing data.  I would avoid them if you can.  You only need to find one workable Cadence.”

            “This sounds pretty complicated.”  Melisma frowned

            “I know,” Elmer said.  “But just stick to the basics, and you’ll be fine.  Get in, get a good Cade, get out.  You’ll probably find his tree near where the vines are thickest; just follow the Cadezu.  I guess there’s a reason they call it ‘arrowroot.’”  He grinned at his lame joke.

            “One last thing,” he said, “and this is important.  The Man-Groves are planted in a ring around the perimeter of the Actuarial Modeling Unit.  In the center of the Unit, about a mile in, is a vast, empty plain.  It’s an interactive sandbox area, where the personalities that come from our actuarial trees can engage with each other.  Sometimes they build small, individual scenes to help them understand the world, like the bedroom and the lawn you saw outside.  You shouldn't need to go that far, but if you find yourself there, take care.  The personalities usually keep to themselves, so they shouldn’t bother you, but make sure not to get lost.  Just remember—if you come to an open space with no mud and trees, you’ve reached Primary Modeling.”

            The steel shutter retracted fully into the ceiling.  Beyond lay an empty antechamber, with a second, closed shutter at its other end.

            “This is as far as I can take you,” Elmer said.  “As a security measure to prevent cross-contamination, the second shutter will open only when this one closes.  The Man-Groves are just on the other side.  Melisma, Doria, Mixolydia, this is no small thing you’re doing.  I wish you the best of luck, and I look forward to speaking with you, and with your new Cadence, very soon.”

            He pressed a few buttons on the wall keypad, and the first shutter began to descend.  It fell much more quickly than it had risen.  Soon, Elmer was only visible from the knees down.  Melisma’s chest throbbed with the same sudden panic she often experienced at the beginning of roller coasters when the seat restraints clicked into place.  They’d passed the point of no return – the only way out was to ride the thing to the end.

            Lyddie must have had a similar thought.  “Wait!” she shouted in sudden desperation.  “I got a question!  What if we have to go to the bathroom?”

            The steel shutter slammed shut.  Behind the girls, the second shutter ground into action.  There was no path now but forward.

***

Nothing Elmer told the girls was wrong, but his description failed to prepare them for the scene that confronted them when they descended into the Man-Groves.  He’d mentioned the mud, but he hadn’t told them how it would suck at their feet as soon as they touched it.  Lyddie shrieked as black, tar-like guck rushed around the bottoms of her calves, threatening to pull her in unless she kept moving.  The throbbing in Melisma’s chest accelerated.  But it was too late to go back, so they pried their feet loose and lurched forward into the swampland.

            Elmer said that they might, at some point, find one of the crawling, invasive Cadezu vines that could lead them to their brother.  They found them immediately: angry, orange ropes that twisted across the landscape as far as they could see.

            Also, the trees were on fire.