East Meets West Pt. 01 Ch. 05

While in Texas Hunt mentioned that I reminded him of someone, a good friend of his who was also both a former Marine, and originally from North Carolina. Hunt invited Jiao, Meili and me to an authentic Texas-style barbecue at the sprawling Texas ranch owned by his friend's father-in-law. Since the father-in-law raised horses, and Jiao and Meili both loved horses, I simply couldn't say no.

After we arrived at the ranch, Hunt found Dennis and Susan Osborne and introduced us, then Dennis introduced me to his father-in-law, John Williams. John, also a former Marine, was one of the biggest men I have ever met at about 6'6" and well over 300 pounds.

As it turned out, Rutledge also owned several thousand acres in Texas, and that land was now also mine as well. Rutledge's Texas land bordered the property owned by Williams, and "Big John" had been leasing that land for the past 20-some years. I assured John, Dennis and Susan that they could continue to lease that property for as long as they wanted.

Susan was one of the most extraordinarily beautiful woman I have ever met, and when Dennis told me she had been the runner-up in the Miss Texas beauty pageant I didn't doubt it at all.

Dennis and I became friends very quickly, and shared stories about growing up in North Carolina, and our time spent in the Marine Corps.

It was extraordinary to see Susan and Jiao together. They were so totally different, and yet each was incredibly beautiful. Susan was as tall as I was, while Jiao was barely five feet tall. More than once Dennis and I both acknowledged we were blessed to have found such amazing women.

After spending several days in Texas, we finally returned to North Carolina. We also bought several horses from Big John; Dennis and Susan arranged to drive the horses to North Carolina in a trailer.

Once back "home" we divided our time between "The Meadow" as we were all calling it, and the English-style mansion. We also built horse barns at both locations for the horses.

Several months later Dennis and Susan delivered the horses personally, since Dennis also wanted to spend some time with his parents, who still owned a farm in North Carolina. Dennis and Susan also spent two weeks with us where we showed them both the underground bunker under the cabin, and "Fortress Appalachia."

Meili absolutely loved "Fortress Appalachia" and could spend hours exploring the miles of caverns honeycombing the entire mountain. By now, Jiao had replaced the bulky headphones with a very small receiver that fit inside your ear. Another very small microphone was attached to your shirt, and Jiao had made repeater stations she placed throughout the miles of caves so there was no place outside or inside the mountain you would be out of range.

We literally could have instant contact with each other, no matter where we were.

If left up to Meili, I have no doubt we would have spent ALL our time at The Meadow and the two hidden retreats located there. For Jiao and I, though, Rutledge's mansion quickly became our favorite place on earth.

Rutledge had also built a heated, Olympic size swimming pool behind the mansion and the girls and I would spend hours swimming each day.

Jiao spent months writing a proposal, then with the help of General Wells and the U.S. Government, she received a patent for the world's first "pocket reactor."

Jiao went to work for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory when she became director of the program to build the pocket reactors.

As promised, the U.S. shared the results with the Chinese, and it wasn't long before they had their initial 100 reactors, and the U.S. added 50 more.

Jiao charged the incredibly modest fee of one-fourth of one percent of the construction cost of each reactor in exchange for using her patent.

Of course when you consider that the average construction cost of each pocket reactor is approximately $1 billion – well that adds up in a hurry. For each pocket reactor built, Jiao received $2,500,000, or so far, a total of $375,000,000 for the 150 built by the Chinese and U.S.

Jiao won the Nobel Prize (and the accompanying several million dollars that went with it) for her contributions to nuclear physics and helping solve the world's energy crisis.

Jiao also became Dr. Jiao Collins after earning her PhD in nuclear physics.

As mentioned, Meili enrolled at M.I.T., at age 16, and completed her degree by age 19.

In the ensuing seven years I went back to school, and soon had my bachelor's degree in military history, then earned a master's degree as well.

I am now teaching at the same college when Theodore Roosevelt Rutledge began teaching shortly before World War II – for the princely sum of one dollar a year. I am also working on my Ph.D. as well.

Jiao still works at Oak Ridge, and Meili would have gone to work with her Mom.

Except for one damn drunk driver.

For the first time since I had known both Jiao and Meili, their ESP had failed them, not offered any clue as to what was going to happen.

Jiao was in Washington, D.C., where she was testifying before Congress about providing funds to build more pocket reactors.

Normally, I would have gone with her, but she insisted I stay behind with Meili in case her daughter needed anything.

I had already called Jiao in Washington, and she was on her way back.

Now, all I could do was wait.

As a sniper, I was used to waiting. But that was waiting to "eliminate" a target.

Now, as a father, I found out there is an entirely different kind of waiting. Now I was waiting to find out if my daughter was going to live.

Finally, the doctors came to see me.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Professor," one of the doctors began, "she's out of surgery, but not out of danger. In fact, the next two or three hours are going to be critical.

"If she can get through the next few hours . . . well then at least she has a chance."

When I asked what sort of chance, I was shocked to hear what they had to say.

"Right now, I would only give her about a 20 percent chance to survive the new few hours. If, and it is a big if, if she can make it that long, then I would rate her long term chances as less than 50 percent.

"I'm sorry Professor, but you have to prepare yourself for the worst."

Once they moved her to the Critical Care Unit, I finally got to see Meili.

Even though the doctors had tried to prepare me, I was still shocked to see her.

I could almost swear she was whiter than the sheets she was laying on, and Meili looked so pathetically tiny in the big hospital bed.

At first you couldn't even tell if she was breathing or not. Only the machines she was hooked up to actually showed she was still alive.

One machine was recording her heartbeat, another her respiration, and a third her blood pressure.

"Talk to her, read to her, just let her know that you are there with her," they advised.

I walked over and pulled a chair up beside the bed, then held Meili's tiny hand in mine. I began to speak softly to her, and even without any medical training, I could hear the machine recording her heartbeat begin to increase slightly.

"She knows you are here," said one of the nurses, "keep going."

For about 15 minutes Meili seemed to be improving, but gradually her heartbeat slowed back down to the same level it was when I came in.

"Just keep talking," advised the nurse, who said she would leave the two of us alone. "I'll come back every 15 minutes to check her."

I talked and talked for two hours.

I told her all about Jonathan Wilson, and Jack Collins and how I had met her mother. Because of the ESP Meili already knew most of the details. Whenever the nurse came back in, I would change the subject, until the nurse left, then pick up where I left off.

For two hours there was no change. Well, that is not quite true. Very, very slowly her heartbeat slowed, and her blood pressure dropped.

I knew we were losing her. Even the nurse shook her head at the slow, but steady decline, and had tears in her eyes.

After about two hours, the nurse offered to get me some coffee or a soft drink, and as I reached into my pocket for some money, I felt my old silver dollar in my pocket.

I pulled it out, then began walking it across my knuckles.

I told the nurse the first time I met Meili, I did a little magic trick. I could almost swear I could hear the heart monitor speed up slightly when I said the word "magic."

I asked Meili if she remembered the first time we met, and what I said, then started repeating the conversation.

"Do you remember Meili? I knelt down beside you . . . you were hiding behind your mother, and all I could see was one beautiful jade green eye.

"Hello, Meili," I repeated that long ago conversation, "My name is Jack. I know that your Mom has already told that we are now married, but I want to tell YOU how much I love your Mom and always will."

Even my untrained ear could hear her heart beat monitor going slightly faster.

"Keep going," urged the nurse.

"And then Meili, I told you that I hope you will understand that I already love you, just from what your Mom has told me about you.

"And I hoped that you would love me as well."

The nurse again whispered, "Whatever you are doing, keep doing it. I am going to get the doctor."

"'Meili, do you like magic?' I asked you so long ago."

When I said "magic" again, there was NO doubt her heartbeat was getting stronger. I knew Meili couldn't see me, since her eyes were closed, but I had learned a long, long time ago that both mother and daughter could "see" in more ways than one.

I had once said how much I hated the word "assume," but now I could only hope and pray that I was correct in assuming that somehow Meili knew I was there, and that in some way I would never understand she could hear me, could feel my presence and could "see" me and what I was doing.

"You laughed that day, all those years ago, and told your Mom that you were a scientist, that you didn't believe in magic.

"Then I said, Okay, my pretty scientist, let's see if you can figure this out."

I heard a noise behind me, and glanced backward. There were several doctors and nurses in the room. The nurse motioned for me to keep going.

I told Meili that I then began walking the coin across my knuckles, and I was saying the words I was doing that as well.

"You watched the coin, and then it happened . . .

"Suddenly the coin was gone." In real life, I flicked my hand, and the coin was gone as well.

"Do you remember my asking you, 'what happened??' And then I asked you, 'Meili, did you take my coin?'"

I could almost swear I could see the beginning of a smile in the corners of her mouth.

"You denied taking my coin, and then you asked me, 'What did you do with it?' Do you remember my little angel?

"I, of course, told you that I didn't have anything to do with it.

"I then showed you both of my hands, front and back."

Even though her eyes were still closed, I opened both hands, and turned them over in front of Meili's face. Somehow, whether it was through ESP or whatever, I knew Meili could "see" my hands and the coin.

"Then I told you that 'I think you must have it.'"

By now there was no doubt that there was a smile on her face, and even though Meili's eyes were still closed, she turned her head slightly towards me.

"I examined one side of your head, and then the other, and told you, 'I think it see it,' and then reached over and took the coin out of your ear where you had been hiding it.

"Then I asked you, 'How did you do that?'"

Meili's eyes began fluttering, and I heard a tiny little voice whisper the single most beautiful word in the English language.

"Daddy?"

I suppose if this were a Hollywood feel-good movie I would next write about how Meili's eyes continued to flutter for a minute or two, before opening and seeing me. Then I would write about how her no longer skinny, but still slender arms would raise up, still with tubes sticking everywhere, and she would give me a hug and an innocent kiss on the lips and tell me how much she loves me.

Then she would ask for her Mom, and Jiao would step out of the group of people behind us, where she had been standing watching what was going on. We would all hug and kiss, and in a few days Meili would leave the hospital and resume her normal life.

But the real world isn't Hollywood, and the real world doesn't have to be neatly wrapped up in 90 minutes or so. Her tiny body had already endured so much today, and now she needed one thing more than any other. And that was rest. So, instead I will say what actually happened, which is Meili then slipped back into a coma, but not as deep as before.

One of the doctors, and one of the nurses then started checking her vital stats, before they asked me to step outside where we could talk.

"Look Professor, I have to admit that I lied to you before when I said we only gave her a 20 percent chance of living even a few hours," the doctor said. "Actually, we gave her a lot less than a 10 percent chance – in fact, we gave her virtually no chance at all.

"What I just saw was a miracle. But Meili isn't out of the woods yet. She is still incredibly weak, but I also have to say that her vital signs are really good right now.

"Again, to be honest, normally I would still only give her a 20 or 30 percent chance of making it for the next 24 hours, but if you can continue to do that magic trick – The Miracle of the Silver Dollar – every time she starts to slip away . . . well then it is out of our hands, and in the hands of God."

The doctors and nurses then left, but I continued to sit in my chair beside her bed, just holding her hand in mine and continuing to talk about any and everything under the sun.

One of the nurses would check in every 10 or 15 minutes, and offered to watch Meili while I got something to eat, but I refused. I finally did let her bring me some tea.

I continued to talk to Meili for hours, telling her everything about how I nearly killed her mother, about our hiding in the underground shelter, falling in love, about the second squad of MSS men and my disposing of them. I told her EVERYTHING. When I ran out of things to talk about, I began reviewing – out loud – my upcoming military history lessons for my classes.

I am not sure how much time passed, but I feel asleep in my chair, with my head on the bed, just inches away from Meili. I was still holding her hand.

Then a hand softly stroked my face, and I heard a voice I love so much saying, "Thank you Jack. Thank you for saving my daughter . . . our daughter's life."

I woke up and Jiao was standing beside me, crying.

Jiao had actually arrived at the hospital some 30 minutes earlier, but the nurse had refused to let her into the Critical Care Unit until after she had spoken to the doctor – and heard about what had happened.

Jiao was now in my lap, hugging me and kissing me, and in between her tears trying to tell me what the doctor told her.

"The whole hospital is calling it The Miracle of the Silver Dollar," she said, then started crying so hard she couldn't talk.

Words really weren't necessary, so I just continued to hold Jiao in my lap, while holding Meili's hand.

After a while, Jiao finally made me get up and leave to go get something to eat, and take a walk outside.

When I returned to the room, Jiao was holding her daughter's hand and talking to her, telling her how much we both loved her.

We both stayed with her that night, taking turns sleeping in the chair.

I woke up about four in the morning hearing warning alarms going off on the blood pressure machine, but now Jiao was talking to her daughter, and soon the blood pressure came back up.

Neither of us slept any more that night.

Late that afternoon, Meili's blood pressure dropped again and her breathing became labored, but once more I pulled out my silver dollar and repeated all those words from eight years ago, and from the previous day.

Again, Jiao and I could see a slight smile on Meili's face when I "pulled" the dollar out of her ear, and her eyes fluttered.

And again I could hear a tiny little voice whisper, "Daddy?"

Meili immediately fell back asleep, and there were no more incidents for the next six days.

The doctors told us that Meili was now out of danger, and moved her into a regular hospital room.

The next day, Meili opened her eyes for the very first time, and this time it wasn't a tiny little voice whispering, "Daddy?" but almost her normal voice saying, "Daddy!" as she saw me sitting on the chair beside her bed.

I stood up, and with tears streaming down my face, leaned over my daughter and took her in my arms.

"Daddy, I love you!" was all she said, then she closed her eyes as she fell back into sleep, but that was enough – more than enough.

Three weeks later, we all left the hospital together. Meili rode in a wheel chair to the main entrance, and since she couldn't walk yet, I picked her up and carried her to my SUV.

Meili has never called me anything but "Daddy" since then.

EPILOGUE

Due to the extent of her injuries, it was several months before Meili could even begin walking again (following several surgeries), and over a year before the doctors could say she was actually back to normal. Actually, she still has a slight limp that most people can only see when she is really tired, but both Jiao and I can see it.

Even while still recovering, Meili announced that she planned to return to MIT and earn several other degrees, since the focus of her life had now changed as a result of her near death. Four years later, at the age of 23, Meili added degrees in biology and genetics to go along with her degree in nuclear physics.

By this point, Jiao had earned more money through her patents on the pocket reactors than she could spend in a dozen lifetimes. Add to that the fact, that because of the ESP that mother and daughter shared, they almost always knew what investments to make increasing the family fortune even more, and we actually struggled trying to spend money faster than we were making it.

Jiao and I had set up a foundation where we donated tens of millions of dollars a year to different charitable causes, organizations and even individuals. All anonymously of course.

So when Meili asked us for some money to set up the most advanced bio-genetics research lab on earth, we gave her $50 million to start with, and doubled that later. It was the most sophisticated, high-tech biology and genetics lab in the United States, and probably the world, employing dozens of the brightest minds on earth.

All of that, plus what happened after, is another story for another day.

All I can say right now, is that because of Meili's research, and with Meili's involvement, Jiao and I had several children together, despite the fact that Jiao had undergone forced sterilization in China.

That story will come later.