I was Only Trying to Help Pt. 02

You'd understand this story better if you read "I Was Only Trying To Help" first...

As always this is self edited so keep in mind I warned you : )

I was only trying to help, again

By NYSwede

Seeing the new generations of my family, and all they did, gave me a new goal; as I drove away, I decided to reinvent myself. I'd still let the casinos' ill-gotten gains finance my plans, only now I'd use the money to amass a fortune, and help those in need, while still keeping a low, if not invisible, profile.

On the surface, I was this millionaire whale who did nothing but kick around the world and gamble.

Who would I actually be? The guy who would send anonymous donations to families and communities in need, support charities, and create safe environments for special needs kids and young adults. I would continue to win, but now a percentage was invested. Even so, I still gave most of it away.

I couldn't believe it when I heard "Food Deserts" in poorer communities across America still existed. I had heard of them in the early part of the 21st century, communities where the nearest grocery store was 10, or even 20 miles away, more often than not, without public transportation. I didn't understand it then, and as I said I couldn't believe they still hadn't solved what seems to be a fairly simple problem.

The answer was technology. I started having shipping containers fitted with hydroponic gardens that would grow fresh produce all year round, while also saving a huge amount of water. I found various houses of worship, and nonprofit organizations, that gladly accepted the container/gardens with the promise to give away all they grew to those in need. I covered their operating expenses through ongoing donations... My, admittedly, the ambitious goal was to have ten thousand gardens in place, and operational over the next five years. Each would be growing thousands of plants at a time, with rotating weekly harvests, year-round.

While I was fairly busy living my dual life, I did get to see my daughter again, but it took twenty years. She was in a lovely nursing home, in the hill country, just outside of Austin. It was funded by a private charity as a way to give back to those who spent their lives giving back.

When I walked in, she looked up at me, smiled weakly, and said,

"Hi Dad, I'm glad you could drop by."

No need to hide anything now, I said,

"Hi Pumpkin, do you have time for a long, and kind of impossible, story?"

Leila cried, and said, "I told you".

*****

Seeing my daughter elderly, frail, and clearly dying was almost more than I could stand, I thought;

"Maybe a transfusion of my blood would help her?"

I immediately got an answer from Doc, the girls, and the captain...

"NO!!"

The doctor continued,

"I'm afraid that won't work Wes, it would probably make her feel really good for a few minutes, and then it would, painfully, kill her. Don't forget, we took years to modify your DNA, and to encourage your body to adapt to being different, and we did it here, where we have far more advanced medical facilities and technology. No, I'm afraid it really wouldn't help her."

Wes thought...

"Thank you, I guess I was just hoping, but I also know that even if it did help her, it would open a whole new world of problems; who would be helped, who wouldn't, would I be hunted for my blood?... I know I can't help her, but I know you all understand why I thought of it."

There was no clear response, just a general feeling of agreement.

"So Pumpkin, I'm guessing you would like an explanation."

"Dad, I can't wait to hear how..." she held out both her hands and waved them in circles, "...this is even possible."

I sat by her bed for three days, we talked of all sorts of things, memories we could have, or should have, shared. Her loves, children and life, nothing was out of bounds.

When we finished catching up, and just plain gossiping, she told me what she could remember about her mother, and how she lived after the divorce.

She started by saying;

"Mom felt the need to sit me down and tell me everything, it was way too much information, but it did help me understand her better...

... Even though she wouldn't admit it to you, she did say she should have held off on the trip to St. Maarten. She confessed that you had warned her, and of course, you were right... that said, it was also a life-changing revelation for her.

As you may have heard, there was a hurricane that caused so much damage, it took three weeks before anyone, other than emergency personnel, and the seriously injured, were even allowed to book a flight in or out to anywhere.

She actually was really very fortunate. Her hotel was on the French side, and while it was hit pretty hard, the Dutch side got it much worse.

Her room was on the second floor, so when the flooding started, she was spared. There was no power or water, and everyone on the second floor had to share their rooms with someone displaced by the first-floor flooding. She ended up sharing her room with a mother and daughter from France, who barely spoke English... and her bed with a film crew's producer."

"Oh really, what was he like?"

"She" was very nice, but I better start at the beginning...

Mom was packed and ready to go, Bill was supposed to pick her up in a limo, so they could start their lives together in style. Well, he never showed. She took a cab to the airport, trying to reach him every few minutes, and never heard back."

"When she asked the ticket agent about their reservation, they found her's but didn't have anyone with his name booked on the flight.

Mom was pissed but wasn't going to let "any man" ruin her vacation. So off she went, alone."

"Everything went smoothly when she arrived on the Dutch side, it's called Sint Maarten, but you know that... The car was waiting and they drove her to the hotel on the French side, St. Martin."

"Mom couldn't stand hanging around hoping Bill would eventually show up, so she put on a string bikini, you know the kind that ties at each hip, and a top that ties at the front."

"Over her bikini, she wore a white chiffon top that was practically invisible with the light behind it. It was long and loose, and went down to her mid-thigh, so she wore it like a sundress. Flip-flops, a sun hat, and sunglasses rounded out the outfit. She caught a ferry out of Oyster Pond in St Martin, over to St. Barts."

"It was an unplanned side trip that changed her life... She was feeling full of herself. She had tanned before the trip and felt good about her weight loss. So she went to a topless beach, she said, they're pretty much the norm on St. Barts... She relaxed and even decided to go topless. Not just on the beach but in the water too."

"She hadn't noticed, until it was time to leave, that at some point; she assumed while she was swimming, her bikini top went missing."

"It was pretty small anyway, but it covered her nipples. She was frantic and spent so much time looking around and asking people if they saw anyone near her stuff, she missed the last tourist ferry back to Oyster Pond."

"How did she get back?"

"There's a later ferry for the locals, she said she was so embarrassed. The ferry was old and all beat up, and the people were mostly hotel workers, maintenance people, and housekeepers, all still in their uniforms. It really made her see-through "cover-up", look even more out of place."

"She felt fortunate there were a few other, obvious, tourists on the boat. Another woman on the ferry also looked a little out of place, and they ended up standing near each other along the starboard railing, there were fairly large openings, kind of like windows, along that side, but without glass."

"They thought the boat was ready to go, but the crew started to throw bags and bags, full of laundry, onto the boat. It forced them to keep moving away and pushed them farther and farther along the railing into a back corner of the main passenger seating area."

"Mom and the other woman ended up pushed against the rail with a bulkhead on one side, behind a large pile of laundry bags. As more bags and people got on the bags were pushed and pushed, it made it hard for them to get comfortable, but they eventually realized that facing the railing, standing hip to hip, or facing each other, breasts to breasts, were the two most comfortable options."

"I'm sure she hated that."

"Maybe at first, but things got interesting, as I said they were standing near a window, not a small porthole, a big opening, they had a nice view of the sunset over St. Martin... but once the ferry cleared the harbor, the boat started literally, rocking and rolling."

They were hanging on to each other, and the handrail. The laundry bags kept pushing them together and mom's cover-up got soaked from the spray as they splashed through the waves. She was pushed up against this, clearly well off, and sophisticated woman, with her invisible coverup clinging to her, she might as well have been naked."

"Anyway, being actually naked, except for her bikini bottom, must have made her look and feel pretty sexy, because after the boat rocked from side to side, and then front to back, as it went through and over the waves, the motion caused her and the woman to rub against each other. She, well both of them, tried to ignore it, but their bodies couldn't."

"Eventually, the other lady said something like;.."

"I'm sorry, but your body, rubbing against mine is driving me crazy."

Mom confessed,

"Your thigh between my legs is turning me on in a way that I have only dreamt of."

"Well, it started with that, then a touch, a kiss, and pretty soon turned into a full-on make-out session. Mom said she came over and over, and so did her new best friend. By the time they got to St. Martin, they each had had multiple orgasms and promised to do it again, as soon as possible."

"As they waited for the laundry bags to be offloaded, Beth, the woman's name was Beth, by the way, handed mom her bikini bottoms... and top... and said, "you'd better put these on".

"Mom started to say something, but then they both laughed.

Beth admitted to having seen mom on the beach, took her top, and followed her onto the ferry hoping to meet her."

"Their instant connection and physical attraction wasn't part of her original plan.

"Beth was the producer for a French film being shot at mom's hotel, so they took a cab back together."

"Beth was working long hours trying to get the film done within budget, and on time, so they didn't see each other very much the first couple of days, but then... hurricane Lenny hit."

"As I mentioned before, they had all settled into an uncomfortable routine waiting for the okay to leave. Mom had her roommates and was making the most of it."

"One evening around midnight, mom went down to the kitchen to get some tea and saw Beth sleeping on a towel on the kitchen counter. Mom was already sharing her room with the mother and daughter assigned to her, so it was easy for her to convince Beth to join them."

"This way she could get some sleep in a real bed. It was understood she would be sharing the bed with mom... They both liked that idea."

"They were stranded there for a little more than three weeks, so I guess they were able to have some quality "alone" time, and grew very close, I'd even say, they fell in love."

"She confessed that when things got really bad, to thinking "what would Wes do" a hundred times, and tried to remember the stories of survival you told us, you know, from when you were grounded, stranded, or marooned."

"She remembered that you had found a trash can and brought it to your bathroom, filled it with water from the swimming pool, so you could flush the toilet. The roomies all worked together to find a big plastic trash can, clean it out, and bring it to their room. Then they carried buckets of pool water up to the room to fill the trash can. After it was pretty full, they tried it and it worked, the toilet flushed. When it worked the first time they all hugged her and told her how smart she was."

"I'm surprised she remembered that, or anything really, she never seemed to be listening to me."

"Oh there's more, they used wire coat hangers strung together to rig an antenna, like you had done that time in China when the power went out. With the larger, although makeshift, antenna they were able to get English and French news updates on that little portable radio you always had in your luggage. She said people brought batteries and would crowd around the doorway every evening just to listen to the latest news."

"Haha, she would have hated that too."

"Oh, she did, but she also talked about it fondly later on. She stayed friends with "the French girls", as she called the mother and daughter. Even visiting each other over the years."

"They had a working toilet, but what about food and drinking water?"

"That was also, just one of those things... the guests at the hotel were asked to vote about the staff staying or going home to be with their families, and almost everyone voted for them to go."

"The French film crew volunteered to take over the kitchen, two meals, and one bottle of water, a day. They used the food on hand, as things defrosted, to make brunch and dinner."

"She said they did a great job, and even delivered the food to every room. Everyone staying at the hotel was asked to be in the film. They couldn't use the big equipment but had the idea of "home movie" clips being introduced into the story. Everyone walked around in the background, making it look like the hotel was really busy."

"How did she get home?"

"Well, actually, she never did."

"What?"

"As I said, she and Beth not only fell in love, they fell madly in love. She stayed with Beth when Beth moved back to her room on the first floor. Then stayed after the filming was done for "a real vacation" in St. Barts. They flew to France directly from St. Maarten and lived together in a villa in the Trocadéro neighborhood of Paris. Two years later, on the Plateau de Valensole, in Alpes-de-Haute, Provence, just a few hours north of Marseille, they were married in a field of lavender. "The French Girls" were her bridal party."

"I was the only one, from mom's side, who could get away. It was a nice wedding... before I left she told me that she was truly sorry for how she treated you. She said the affairs were her attempt to deny the true urges and feelings she had had her whole life. Meeting and loving Beth allowed her to finally admit the truth."

Hearing all this helped me understand the many little things that seemed "off" in our relationship and marriage. I thought about it a moment or two and realized I was happy she had found herself, and someone to truly love.

Naturally, I told my daughter about the crash and fire, the people that saved me, and how they had, in a sense, rebuilt me. I admitted to feeling out of place and was still trying to find a way to help people without being found out.

"Did you ever read a book or see a movie called The Highlander?"

"Yes, I remember it."

"In the beginning, when he woke on the battlefield and wasn't dead, he went back to his people, they rejected saying it was the work of the devil. He tried over the years to live a normal life but had to watch the people he knew, and the women he loved, grow old and die. Not to mention that he was always being hunted by others. I guess I was afraid of being a freak, afraid of being found out... or worse turned into some type of lab rat, for some unknown government agency. Instead, I decided I could quietly help people."

"You were always like that."

"I tried, anyway, it seemed that casinos were a good place to start. They may dress everything up to look like people have a chance, but the odds are always in their favor. In the long run, they take pretty much everyone's money. As far I am concerned that's at least, taking advantage of people, at the worst, stealing."

She asked a reasonable question...

"Is it really casino money, or is it the money belonging to the people who lost it?"

"Is was someone else's money, but no, once they lose it, it becomes the casino's money, and they're not going to give it back willingly. I had the ability to, let's say, redistribute it. So I did, at least for a while."

"What are you doing now.?"

"Through investments, I have all the money I need and have set up accounts that will continue to help those in need for years to come. What I'm doing now is funding research that seems to have promise... research in slowing the effects of aging, and new cancer treatments...

One treatment shows real promise; as I am sure you know, if bacteria didn't have anything to stop it, the world would end pretty quickly. That doesn't happen because of bacteriophage. It is the natural enemy of any, and all, bacteria, and it grows to kill a specific type of bacteria. It feeds off that single type, and when that specific bacteria is gone the phage dies."

"The experiments are based on growing bacteria that feeds off a specific type of cancer. Once the bacteria eliminates cancer, a phage is used to eliminate the bacteria. The theory is sound and if it works in larger trials, eventually all cancer could be curable."

"That's amazing, what else are you working on?"

"I know this sounds way out there, but I have asked my friends and they said it wouldn't be too dangerous, so I am working with MIT and NASA to try to develop a vortex drive. The work is a little scary, so it's being done on the moon in a new lab we are building there. When it works, it will allow earth's scientists to travel throughout the nearest parts of this galaxy."

"Are there other planets?"

"Yes, the first one on the list, revolves around Proxima Centauri, which is about four and a half light-years away. The vortex drive would make exploring places like that possible."

"Oh, so you're doing it so you can see your friends?"

"No, Pumpkin, that's not possible. They are already hundreds of light-years away, but I do hear from them from time to time."

"How is that possible?"


"While there are unproven theories, the only thing we know of that is faster than the speed of light, is the speed of thought. Imagine us connecting that way."

"Pumpkin", it makes me smile every time you call me that, I've missed you dad."

"I missed you to, but I couldn't put you in danger. My being around, without obvious aging, would certainly have attracted attention, especially with family and nosey neighbors."

"I think I understand, Funny, I didn't know what was going on, but I was sure it was you. The rest of the family just thought it was nice that "a distant cousin" had first gotten, and then stayed in touch, not to mention supporting our causes."

We caught up, laughed, and cried. On the evening of the third day, I was holding her hand, she smiled at me, squeezed my hand for a moment, and said,

"Daddy" and quietly died.

*****

We were making progress on the cancer treatment and I was due to make a trip to the moon for the first full-scale test of the vortex drive sometime before the end of the year, but of course, nothing ever goes as planned.

Somewhere, someone had stumbled on a picture of me, in the background, at a casino and thought I kind of looked like another accidental picture of me, some thirty years later.

It started as a rumor, false news really. The first one, of course from an unnamed source, claimed that I was a time traveler. Another had "evidence" that I was an alien sent to discover Earth's strengths and weaknesses as "my people" prepared for a pending invasion, then there was the Anti-Christ crowd, and of course, the "conclusive" proof that ghosts walked among us.

The stories were everywhere, and everywhere I went people who thought they recognized me, tried to take pictures. As crazy as it sounds, some spook agency of the government caught wind of all this and decided I needed to be investigated. They planned to interrogate me in a "secure location".