X-Ray Vision Ch. 13: Ever After

"Then they wanted delivery at their depot in some back street; I suggested they pick up from our warehouse on a public wharf, no doubt that would be agreeable to upstanding businessmen such as themselves. Named the day Tito had set up for deliveries, when his security team would be there, all safe. They folded after that."

My head was spinning. I would have been so useless in that deal, would have accepted their suggestions without any suspicions. Would have gotten myself fleeced at the very least, floating in the bay at worst.

And Tito had a security team? In Hong Kong? Well, he had a fleet of fishing boats and a jumbo jet, why not. Probably had a security office there already.

"So, Tito has a security office in Hong Kong already, that's why the jet, going back and forth on deals. Set up some clients while we were there, security for similar transactions, keeping it all above-board, executed out of that office. TK Security is gonna change the landscape for smaller players, make it safe to do business with the sharks."

That sounded like the Tito I knew. Looking out for the regular guy.

"You got any luggage? I have the pickup."

Nick smiled, genuinely glad to see me. I think, glad to be doing normal things for a while.

"Tito is having them sent down to the condo, is that ok? Wants to go talk to Jillian about her part, what he's got set up for her Foundation.

"After seeing Kelly of course; that comes first. I have a suspicion he actually bought the jet, so we could get straight back to Kelly. He was jonesing hard, missing her. Those two are..."

I nodded; yes they were, God love them.

Tito had a moment for me, shook my hand with a wide smile. Reserved that for Family, I could see that now, a whole different guy when he was with us.

"It was a wild ride! Felt like we had a target on our backs the whole time. Glad to have it all squared away!

"But now, can we go right home? I need to see Kelly, like, right now."

We left straight away, headed down the coast, Nick regaling me with stories of strange food, interesting people. Driving on the wrong side! Signs in multiple languages!

I figured it out, after a little bit. Nick had outgrown us, was off on her own journey, it would never be the same.

Melancholy, but in a good way! I'd had a part in helping her find her way. That felt right.

"What's next for you?"

"I'm employee number two at TK Security! The pilot is number one. Francis, like the saint? French, or Algerian anyway, a good guy. Then a bunch of guys in the Hong Kong office."

"What will this entail? Travel? Dealing with customers?"

"Mostly training at first. I got a lot to learn. Firearms right off, then some martial art, I think jujitsu, I tried it in Hong Kong, it suits me. Learn another language, maybe Japanese, learn accounting. Learning to fly!"

"What TK doesn't cover, Jillian will, you know that right? Anything you need." Nick gave me a fond look, a sort of Thank You Uncle Greg, but I'm OK On My Own look.

I believed she will be, now.

Tito took a nap, laid across the back seat, just put his head down and out like a light. Woke just as we pulled in. Something people in his business learn I guess, sleep when you can.

Kelly was waiting at the door, saw him pop up in the back seat, and just melted. I got out quick, made room for him to vault onto the drive, run to the door.

Nick and I left them to it, snuck around, went inside to find Jillian.

Billie was home! I mean, at our place, whatever. She nearly bowled Nick over, pow! into a power hug. Let Jillian in on it, get her hug too, then pulled Nick onto the porch, bubbling over with questions.

Tito and Kelly came in not much after that, stuck together, each with an arm around the other. Settled and at peace. I didn't think they'd split up like that again, not for so long, maybe not ever. Too hard on the both of them.

"Ms. Jillian? I can fill you in on what progress we've made regarding your Foundation."

Jillian had to have a hug first, the pair of them, you couldn't get the two apart, not yet. Then they settled on the furniture, Jill all ears.

"Chan Salvage owns forty apartments in Hong Kong proper, good residential areas, very liquid. The market is hot, these are new builds, the only way you can get anything right now."

"Is that enough? For a land swap? It could be upward of a million dollars, the place we're thinking of. Then the land around, a few more."

Nods. "Hong Kong real estate is expensive, the highest in the world. Each apartment was around one point three million American. Over fifty million dollars total, in forty very-swappable chunks. Will that do, for a start? For the house and land, Chan Salvage Headquarters? And then some city properties for your Lost Girls?"

Jillian nodded, a little stunned at the numbers we were dealing with here. Recovered quickly.

"Yes! City property is expensive too, especially on the scale I expect to need." She was thinking rooming house, job training, small business classes in Foundation education centers.

"I have another little item? Greg was concerned, your deposited share came to something like twenty million short of what you are owed."

"That was due to certain overheads, fees and..."

"Bribes, yes, all as expected, no problem. But still, we feel the Family should make good on that.

"No! Listen, here's what we came up with. The Family fund will transfer twenty million to TK Security, as an advance on a contract between TK Security and, um, Chan Salvage, as a client. To be used toward efforts to keep their employees and contractors safe and secure now and in the future, from threats financial and otherwise."

Tito and Kelly shared a look, then reached out, shook Jill's hand. The deal was done; that was all it took, with Family.

I felt pretty sure they would have done that anyway. Kept us safe. Because family is the most important thing.

...

TK Security left, back to the apartment over the tire shop for some quality time. Tito was taking a few days off, to be with Kelly. They needed that.

Nick and Billie went up to the rooming house, like two sisters, rattling on and laughing. That made my heart feel good too.

I suspect none of them will stay where they are, not for long. Like I told Nick last fall, everything changes now.

Billie had a parting shot to me, just as she left.

"Hey Mister Billionaire! You're gonna be too busy for small fry like BRS. I'm gonna buy you out? I got a line on a new partner!"

That got a little tear out of me, that's ok, Billie hugged it out and we parted friends. She'll buy out my share over time, only about one grand in the hole, shouldn't take long.

The new partner, I couldn't even guess. One of her clients? Someone from the rooming house? An Auntie? One of my brothers? She wasn't saying and I don't pry into other people's business.

Jillian had a good cry when the house was quiet again. Just the stress and motherhood and everything working out ok after all, the relief, she needed to do that.

I held her on the porch, a blanket thrown over the both of us, warm and safe there, until she had her fill.

"Ok! That's better. I can be myself again." She was red-faced but aligned, I Saw, things that had been tense and compressed were open and easy now.

She sipped some of the fizzy water I had for her, collected herself.

"Nick is changed. Makes me kind of sad."

I commiserated. "Launched! Off on a new trajectory, headed for great things! I'll miss having her around, every day."

Change, even good change can be emotional. Nick was growing, and I guess we'll have to grow too.

"Billie is launched! Her own business, all hers now. With some partner?"

Jillian smiled at that but wasn't sharing. I'd get read in when it mattered, I suppose.

"Tito and Kelly, they'll be more careful in future. Not do such foolish things, like spending a month apart. Too hard!"

Jill didn't talk about the other side of things, the business side, the risks that entailed. The vicious mercenary world of Hong Kong finance. Tito worked hard to keep everybody safe. We had to trust him there.

"I'll get started on buying the big place, tomorrow. Been for sale for years; no buyers. Then, see what kind of land deal we can get. It's in some kind of perpetual trust."

She had been digging! I was sure she and Renae could work something out.

"What will we do with this place?"

It had only cost me like three quarters of a million. Worth more now. Those kinds of numbers seemed smaller today. Maybe we would just keep it, have a beach cottage for the weekends.

But Jill had that worked out too.

"Phuong needs to retire. Someplace nice, where folks will want to come visit! Where he can have guests, but not too many at one time. Not too far from his great grandchildren. A housekeeper and cook on call."

Of course! That seemed right. Settled. If he was agreeable.

"Only one important thing left undecided! That I can see."

She looked at me quizzically? Jill probably had thought of a thousand things.

"What color will the baby's room be? I think, seafoam. To remind us of this place."

Jill lit up, delighted, nodded. That would be wonderful.

...

In the end, Jillian decided to buy the old mansion outright but lease the land. It took one Hong Kong apartment plus a smidge more, in a real estate swap involving the state, a developer of some city property and Chan Salvage.

The land trust was glad to have regular income in the form of perpetual rent. They'd never managed to make much off of the land. A good cause. Everybody wins.

Jill put off renovations. Plan first, then execute. About all she had energy for, in a very-motherly state.

Once Jessie was born and Jillian had recovered somewhat, though she was still prone to losing random hours just holding her boy, smiling and talking and making him promises, promises it turns out she would keep, left plenty of time in the day to move a trailer onto the property, spend days at a time overseeing repairs and improvements.

Well and septic had to be put in. A power plant, geothermal and solar, some wind, nothing with explosions or fast-moving parts to scare her babies.

Chimneys re-lined, ductwork installed in a sensitive way. Electricity run through old-growth wooden beams; insulation blown into hollow timbered walls.

TK Security installed communications equipment, cameras over the grounds, motion detectors, monitors. Remote feeds to the city offices. Passive, unobtrusive, there to make Tito's job easier.

A road was built to the homestead from the property periphery, from a field by the blacktop road a mile distant made into a parking lot. Just a paved single lane, winding over the hills and crossing a creek. Very rural, very comfortable, enough.

A modern kitchen! The commercial one was twenty years out of date and far too big, made for feeding whole conventions of people. When that was pulled out Jill got a look at what was behind that sub-basement door, immediately made a call to the head of the Delaware nation.

They sent a kìkuwìnu out, an elder of their people, to have a look. He immediately sent for a brace of xawshisës, elder women, who knew the history of the place, the lineages involved. Finally a pòkxawësh was requested, an extremely elderly and frail woman, keeper of traditions. She arrived in a wheelchair, was carried down to have a look, by some really handsome skinu, young men of the nation.

She recognized the inventory from stories her grandmother had told, of the half-blood man who married a nkwëtaš, a half-dozen tribal women, for their doweries. These items matched in kind and in number from a chant she knew, a story-chant she remembered and recited, pointing to each pile of baskets or blankets, each mask or moccasin.

That clinched it; it all had to go back. Might even be some descendants in the tribe, to whom it properly belonged.

Lenape women from the University came out, helped with preserving and recording each precious thing, determining what was durable and what too fragile to leave its protected environment. Some went to climate-controlled museum storerooms, some restored and displayed in a casino, in a community center, to show the young their proud heritage.

The medicine bundles went to the senior medicine men, to be properly re-consecrated and put where such things were meant to be.

So that all got done right. And Chan Salvage got a connection, the respect of a people, which turned out to be important later.

Jillian engaged a young lawyer to make her Foundation right, to square it with the Chan Salvage deal, then spin it off, independent. Set the lawyer up in a city office, used him for deals up and down the coast, buying or building rooming houses, finding Aunties to run them.

Mrs. Vu moved out to the homestead, the Farm, once it was livable, water and power in place, a kitchen and plumbing. To help with the new baby, of course, mothers do that sort of thing. Greg was joyful to have Jillian's family close. Jillian's má was glad to have a place she belonged, was safe.

Little Lan was overjoyed, living with her new sister, with a growing family, a little nephew! Over the moon.

Lan had night terrors too, but hers were of being tied in a trunk, unable to move, to breath. Woke screaming, with her mother, her sister there, holding her, catching her. Took two years for that to subside, to entirely go away. The Farm was good for that, for healing, for feeling safe again.

Larry was hired as family driver, lived over the garage, was paid too much, on call twenty-four hours for family trips, taking Lan to school, shuttling Family back and forth.

He had no family either, embraced this one like our long-lost Uncle. The only person besides Greg and Jillian allowed to drive cars on the property at all, ever. Gas engines would not be allowed, they would switch to electric as soon as feasible.

Phuong could come and go as he pleased from his new digs in the condo, his condo now as befit the elder relative. Larry took him to visit his cronies, to make offerings of thanks at temple, to play Bai Choi on weekends. Became buddies with Larry, shared a bottle on Saturday nights.

Khang took over the whole tailor shop, moved into the vacated apartment side, expanded her back room into a studio. Bought the next building over for expansion. Hired three designers, opened a shop in the city. Everybody wanted a Khang Original, very expensive, very stylish, comfortable! A new thing in fashion.

Along with a cook and a housekeeper, the Farm was busy and noisy and happy. Plenty of bedrooms, a dozen, room for babies and Aunties, everybody, guests.

Auntie Khang was a frequent visitor, keeping up with her nephew, teaching him the right things as Aunties should.

Jessie loved all his Aunties dearly, but his favorite bar none was Cousin Billie. He'd shriek and laugh when he caught sight of her, toddle to her, cling to her legs, kiss her messily.

Billie grew, got her driver's license with Larry's help, incorporated BRS. Did missing persons full-time like Greg had guessed, while that was still a thing, until the Family made that obsolete. Switched to salvage and recovery, often as a contractor to TK Security.

Nick came when she was in town, flying in for meetings with TK Security teams from around the world, then stop by the Farm, see her Aunties and Uncle Greg and her cousins. Tell wild stories of escapades in deserts, on islands, in mountain valleys, big cities. Got hard and strong and completely capable in any situation, a real woman of substance, a leader.

Little Jessie never exhibited the slightest ability on the Seeing end of things. A normal, happy boy. Jillian was honestly relieved.

The second babies, twins, conceived under the Cottonwood tree, not certain exactly when, they were there so often. Leaving Jessie with his grandmother or grandfather or an Auntie, Greg and Jill would take any spare moment to have a picnic, enjoy one another, never forgetting to be a loving couple.

These twins Trinh and Louise, named for Khang's and Greg's mothers, were in sync from birth. They had a private language of gestures, body posture, facial expressions. Even when not in the same room, the same city, the same state. To the end of their lives, they could converse without saying a word, wherever they were, in constant contact.

There was no limit to their sight except for the time it took to attend, to scan, to pick out what they wanted to see. One afternoon in the garden, hoeing bitter melon for cụ Phuong they burst into tears, their favorite rhino killed by poachers in South Africa.

From then on as teens they would spend part of every day patrolling, making phone calls to park rangers, turning in poachers in South Africa or Nairobi or Tibet, using a satellite phone Uncle Tito gave them.

The next girl, Khang, started night terrors at five and a half. Greg took her camping on the grounds over that summer, away from everyone, cooking together, hiking together, taught her by small steps to control and refine her skills.

She could perceive in a wider area, not a beam but a little bubble at first, then a bigger one, finally a little larger than the entire Farm, aware of her surroundings at all times.

Little Khang served in the Peace Corp for seven years, disarming mines in Vietnam. Never lost a single team member, not a single injury, a hero to her colleagues, an important Ambassador for Family. Went to work with BRS after that, salvage operations.

Two boys after that, one never achieved the sight, didn't want it, didn't miss it. Very glad to have his big sister's help though, studied to be an archeologist. In the field he would write questions on a chalk board, the twins would send him a letter back or make a call. He always found the best stuff.

The other boy, Nicky, did See, was smart like Jillian, smart at math and engineering. He joined the military in a research capacity, investigating and developing Seeing with some success.

Years later he returned to the Farm with equipment on electric carts and a squad of soldiers. Buried them at the boundaries of the property. Greg thought them very strange - he couldn't see inside the boxes; they were just a blank space.

Nicky told Greg a story about neutrinos, groundwater, reflective layers in the Earth's mantle, holograms. Greg smiled and nodded. The upshot, Nicky told Greg, was that no power on earth could hurt the Family here on the Farm. The Family was safe from that.

Walking the grounds, his lifelong habit each morning, Greg would sometimes find a downed drone or miniature camera-helicopter. Not damaged, just drained, entirely. He'd make a call and an electric Army van would come and take it away, thank him, apologize for the trouble, promise to look into it.

Twelve wonderful babies in total. Seven with talent; one with partial ability. They all loved and respected their Dad, learned from him.

All totally devoted their Mom, to Jillian, worshipped her, would do anything for her, gladly die for her.

Learned that from watching their Dad.

Greg's favorite days were when Khang and Phuong, Billie and Nick, Tito and Kelly, other Lost Girls that learned to love the Family too were all there, a holiday or birthday or just because. Kids of every age running about, playing tag or new Seeing games that Greg invented for them.

Uncle Tito was a favorite, taught them judo, archery, knots. Later, driving and piloting, negotiation, anything they wanted to learn. Taught them personal discipline, adherence to principle as they were learning the other stuff.

Great Grampa Phuong, Grandma Vu continued to visit for a decade. Phuong lived to see eight of his great grandchildren, seven of Jill's and one of Lan's. Were honored once they'd left, their pictures by a table with incense, a bowl of oranges.