X-Ray Vision Ch. 13: Ever After

Greg and Jillian had half a century, together, with Family surrounding them.

Everything everywhere was changed from half a century of a world with Seers in it, caring for everybody, in ways nobody could have Seen.

The End

Epilogue

Greg lived ninety-two years. He died with 107 living descendants, all members of Jillian's Foundation, the Family. Seven more on the way.

All seven expectant Moms had visited, when Greg was failing, so he could See them, meet them.

Th entire Family attended the funeral including a deployed soldier given leave, a sitting Governor.

They arrive from a parking lot outside the Farm limits, enter in electric carts, the only thing allowed in.

Teenagers, in charge of the electric carts, ferry people in and out, they'd See a car arriving, be there to help the families, help elders negotiate the drive.

Sitting on the lawn, in the love seat dragged out for Jillian, she was too old and stiff to sit on the grass anymore. Chairs for other Family elders. Everybody else on the grass, chatting.

Billie chatted up Serena, Nicky's long-time partner, an analyst, always a little nervous and self-conscious around Family. Billie pokes fun, gets a little boy to play find-the-penny with Serena, his silly antics make Serena laugh, help her understand he's really an ordinary little boy. Billie is good at that, understanding people, what they need.

Nicky, in full dress uniform, southwest district US Marshall, shares stories with the soldier on leave, reliving her glory days in the field. She is retirement age now, fugitive pursuit was Family business now. Manning a desk for another year, then glad to be out, glad to be obsoleted.

Renae is working the crowd, the business leaders, the community organizers, making the personal contacts that keep connections alive. Keeping her fund alive, grown to over a hundred million, benefitting communities up and down the coast. On the cover of magazines, in the news.

Tito is here, still looked strong and dangerous at 70, still the same tight smile. Retired now, since Kelly got sick, four-five years ago, they left the business to their granddaughter Kelly III, she runs it all now, worldwide.

They spent Kelly's last two years on the Farm together, let's go home Kelly had said, be with family.

Greg had filled the empty sub-basement with medical equipment, a whole hospital really, kept doctors on call, so Kelly would have everything she could possibly need in that department. So like Greg. It helped, some, at the end.

Tito stands aloof today, scanning the crowd, the horizon, the house, the approaches, repeat. He wasn't on duty though he still he had on an earpiece, talked occasionally with his granddaughter, she was in charge.

He needed to be useful, busy, matter to the Family. They all knew it, loved him for it. Depended on him, he needed that. Children came, tugged his pantleg, asked if he would show them judo. He promised; when you are six, TK will teach a class.

Tito's earpiece told him, a yellow school bus arrived in the parking lot, outside the Farm! Members of the Community, from Vietnam Town, come to pay their respects!

Tito collared the cart-drivers, arranged a relay. They start arriving, brought by Lan Vu, here to support her big sisters, show everyone Greg's community was still strong there.

Young adults, Elders, Aunties, looking awkward, afraid they're out of place.

Jillian struggled up, started over to greet them, on Khang's arm; the Family Sees as one, moves as one, like a surging wave, following, leading, flowing around the sisters, the newcomers, shaking hands, greeting.

Youngsters bowing to elders, pleasing them greatly, holding Aunties' hands, showing their pennies, prattling about their game. Preteens running to the shed, hauling out more chairs, carrying too many but laughing, competing! Setting up for the Elders, for Aunties, to make sure they're up front, can see and hear everything!

Young men take Aunties by the arm, squire them to chairs in front, listening and chatting, charming. Young ladies take Elders, nominally taking their arm, being squired by them but with one free hand on his elbow, keeping him steady on the grass.

Khang and Jillian greet Lan, their little sister! A bowl of rice is received, carried by her eldest Grandson to the table where Greg's photograph stands, arranged with a bowl of oranges, incense.

Khang took Jillian back, on her arm. Just sat with Jillian, not talking, holding her hand, never let go, letting her lean on her shoulder. Somehow smaller now, age does that, but still the same Khang, feisty, strong, devoted, unbent.

Lizzie, just one Lizzie now, diabetes took Lizzie the Greater, sat behind Khang, ready when Khang would need her. Which she would; a decade together now, Lizzie knew Khang was a softie, really, inside, it was only a matter of time.

Jessie called everyone to order, Let's get right into it! Stories about Dad! Young folks first!

Nick settles on a chair next to Aunt Jillian, leans on her shoulder, ready to listen. Billie is at her feet in the grass - only four years apart but still playing Little Sister to Nicks Big Sister.

Great-granddaughter Kylie tells of last summer, in Budapest.

"I told Papa I was going over, me and my roommate Bobi. Papa never said anything against it, but I knew he was worried, me a Family member, still a new thing over there, maybe some folks won't like to see me.

"Encouraged me to go, to see the world!

"One day, in a market square in Budapest, this gal wearing a TK Security shirt, a big smile, greets me by name. Hands me my passport, wallet.

"How did you get that? I had it in my coat!

"She just smiles, waves, disappears again, a big crowd, I lost her, I haven't yet got the knack of finding one person in a crowd."

Navin shouts I'll teach you!

Smile, thanks Cousin!

"How did that happen?" She asks the little ones.

They chorus out Papa!

"Of course, Papa and Uncle Tito had got together, had somebody shadowing us the whole summer.

"Bobi thought it was creepy, over-protective?

"Nah, I told her, it's just Family, my Papa, that's how it works! Look out for each other; really Look! See! And then do something. That's the important part; we should all be doing that.

"I talked big to Bobi, but it'd never happened to me before! Felt kinda nice, kinda made me think too.

"When I get back, still not sure how I felt, so I asked Papa.

"He says, I'm your backstop, here to make things work for you, so you can go out, do your amazing things, I can't even imagine, change the world. Be confident! Family has your back.

"What did I learn? Gotta be a moral. Good stories need a moral."

"Papa loves you!" a little voice called from the audience.

"Thank you, sweetheart! Papa and Uncle Tito love me, want me to do well. That's a good moral, the very best one.

"They got together, made a plan. Watched, made me safe, so I could do it all. Loved me. Love me still!"

Billie was bawling for some reason, wanted to be strong but caught off-guard by that. Nick slid down off her chair, held her in the grass, held her little sister, let her hide her face on her shoulder, ruin her uniform, petting her hair, being there with her.

It was so, so hard to see Billie sad. She'd had a grin her whole life, lit up any room she came into. But today, not today...

A Granddaughter, the Foundation foreign organizer worldwide. Tells of her watershed summer, five and a half, same summer as Sunil and Cricket!

"I was so excited, I got to spend the summer at the farm with Gma Jill, Grampa Greg! Mom came for a week, saw I was doing fine, then went home, left me to it.

"Sunil suffered from Falling Terrors! "

Half the crowd nods, serious. Even on the Farm, falling terrors were a risk. Sleeping, then a rapid change of point of view, disorienting, suddenly fasten on something above, a falcon 1000 feet overhead, wake screaming, falling!, terrified. Happened to more than one of them. Everybody knows about it, respects it.

"Grampa Greg was very busy, catching Sunil, playing Seeing games with Cricket.

"He saw me at supper, caught my eye, a sad little girl, I can't do what Sunil and Cricket are doing, can't go where they're going.

"Grampa figured it out, of course he did, he Saw everything! Everybody! Sat with me on that ancient love seat on the porch, that one right there! Held me.

"Told me, I was special too, I was part of the Family but a special part.

"Me and Gma Jill were going to change the world, find Lost Girls, save them, run the Foundation, grow it, save everybody.

"Since I was going to be working with her, I could call her Jill, only Grampa and her team members could do that.

"Oh! So thrilling! I tried it out at supper, excited and terrified. Jill, please pass the peas! Gma Jill smiled, passed the peas, like it was normal, like I was her good buddy!

"I was in Heaven!

"Never tried again, until I was a teenager, a Foundation intern, then I nearly wore it out!

"I loved you Grampa! I love you, still. Love you forever! I'm gonna so miss you."

She returns to Gma Jill, kneels, hugs her, whispers private things.

Greg's youngest daughter tells her story, the year her Jeffrey went on his last mission, Search and Rescue, Army Rangers, she was 39, he was 41.

"In the arctic, a storm coming, getting worse, a lost expedition team, they're headed out for the extraction.

"Then, nothing, not for three days.

"Family was on the case, Army had planes out once the storm passed, was looking, looking everywhere, but the Arctic is huge, and that plane was so very small.

"The Army gave up the search three weeks in; Family continued, for six months! Trinh and Louise eventually found the plane, under a frozen lake...anyway.

"I was in the library at Cambridge when I heard, been doing my PhD research on old records of Seers, of second sight. Looking for Family History, finding it.

"I was staring at the wall.

"Not reading, not scanning, just staring. Felt like I was falling, falling, and no bottom. Stuck. Couldn't do anything, think anything, just a blank.

"Kelly arrives, just a couple hours later. Doesn't talk, just takes me in hand, takes me outside, to a car, to the TK jet - the big one, we're gonna cross the ocean, just me and Kelly and the pilot, room for the whole Family but just us this time.

"We get back to the coast, ride an escort straight to a TK Security helicopter, to the Farm.

"Only time in history a helicopter was allowed on the Farm! Mom had to pull some strings; you get laws passed, a federal no-fly-zone, it becomes hard. I heard seven government departments had to be notified, an exception made.

"Then a flyby, a Navy jet, verifying our number before we got allowed over sacred ground. Thanks Aunt Nicky! Thanks Uncle Ted!

"Landed on the lawn over there and Mom, Dad waiting, on the loveseat, on the porch, holding hands, waiting for me.

"I ran, I just ran! Sat between them, they're not saying anything, just there for me.

"Mom held my hand, stroked my hair. I remember that, her hand, so warm, so real. Touching me; I missed that! I missed her!

"Remember kids, don't just See each other, remember to get together sometimes, shake hands, hug! Breath the same air! Feel the same sun on your face! It's important!"

They nodded, looked at each other, thinking about that.

"And Dad held me, like only he could do. Caught me. And I stopped falling! I was grounded again.

"Oh that man could hold you! Really hold you, you knew you were being held! Safe, nothing on earth was gonna harm you."

She had to stop for a bit, get her composure back. They all waited for her, patient.

"Stayed at the Farm the rest of that summer, mostly right there on that loveseat, Dad holding me every morning, talking about nothing, the birds, the colony of prairie dogs under the west slope, waiting for me to be able to continue, one day at a time.

"I'm back at Cambridge now! Took me five years, here and there, but I can get on a plane again, I'm back scanning Tudor manuscripts, gonna finish my PhD, fill in Family history.

"Thank you, Daddy! Thank you, Mom! I love you!"

Nobody quite ready to tell another story, so the children start in, "Tell the story of Jessie's Bridge! Tell that one!"

So Jessie himself tells it, in his cotton work shirt, jeans, work boots, farm store cap, so different from the suits he wears on TV. What he always wore on the Farm. Looked good in it; the whole Family liked to look good! Khang saw to that, her and her studio.

"I'm coming back from a basketball game in High School, late, in Mom's old pickup truck. In the dark, raining, got to the creek crossing, a ramp down and up, splash! through the water, just some cement at the bottom back then, for traction.

"Water was high! Flash flood! No moon! Driving by memory, couldn't see a thing! "

The young ones are confused. He couldn't see?

"Hey! I'm not a magician, I can't see in the dark!"

Kids howl, funny Uncle Jessie!

"So the pickup was swept up, turned around and around, crash! into the rocks downstream. I'm freaking out, terrified, thinking I'm gonna drown any second!

"I climb out the window, over the cab, standing in the bed, in the pitch dark, water everywhere, truck still rocking, soaking wet, rain bucketing down, what'm I gonna do now?

"I see the lights through the rain, Dad and Larry in the tow truck, remember Larry the driver? Larry was always ready, slept in his apartment over the garage, ready for anything.

"See, Dad had woken up, no reason, just something bothering him. Heard the storm, Looked and Saw me in trouble. Somehow, he knew he was needed! Woke him from a sound sleep!

"Dad was like that.

"Never so glad to see anyone!

"So it was all ok, they got me out, pulled out the pickup, never was the same but I was ok. Sorry about the truck Mom!"

Jillian smiling, wet face but smiling. It's ok honey! Just a truck!

"Next day a construction crew arrived, bulldozer, digger, cement trucks! In three days they had built that bridge, you all came in over it! Ten feet high! Sixty feet long! Two lanes! Lights!

"Dad said nothing, never said a word to me, about driving at night, coming home too late, being more careful. He just, just,... "

Jessie can't go on for a bit, blows his nose, just a minute, let me finish!

"My brothers and sisters, your Aunties and Uncles, named it Jessie's Bridge! Ever since!

"I'd say Not my Fault! I can't see in the dark! They'd laugh, never stop teasing me."

Hilarious! Uncle Jessie, oldest member of the Family, on the boards of ten corporations, in the news, telling the President things! Teased!

Kids take a while to settle.

"So I was a little resentful, didn't like the teasing. But now, now that I'm all grown up (hilarious! he was an old man!) I know Dad did that, because he loved us.

"He Saw a problem, so he did something about it, never mind the cost, never mind the trouble.

"No trouble! Not for Dad! He would do anything for us, for Family. Kept us all safe; never let anything bad happen if he could See it coming."

And the youngest kids were wondering, Why are the grownups crying? That was a funny story! They don't need to cry.

Jessie turns serious.

"We're gonna have to do that for each other, now. Take up Dad's job, look out for each other, See trouble coming, do something about it!

"Can we do that? Promise to look out for each other?"

Fifty kids nod, gravely, look at each other, serious, say Yes! Uncle Jessie. They can do that.

Jessie relaxes.

"Then we'll be fine. I think we'll all be fine. Thank you, Dad! For showing us how!"

Goes back to Mom, Jillian, a kiss, a hug, sits on the grass by her feet, one arm around cousin Billie too, eyes leaking and smiling.

The Governor, Uncle Ted, begs off,

"Nothing I can say adds up to beans next to this, can mean as much as Family stories.

"I loved, respected your Husband, your Dad, Grampa Greg, your Papa, my friend. Knew him fifty years, since I was a young lawyer, Jillian was just starting the Foundation with money Greg, Tito, Nick Found, trusted me to make it work.

"I'll never forget him. I know you won't."

That was about it. Jessie led his Mom to the table, lit some incense, put it in the sand. Put an orange in the bowl. Thanked everybody.

And now, the feast!

Its a big feast, smoked brisket and all the sides, cooked in Homer's Rig. Jessie fires it now that Mom can't manage, he came last night early, older grandkids helping, hauling it out of the shed with an electric cart, loading charcoal, scrubbing shelves.

Kelly III trimmed the meat, prepared the rub with plenty of helpful little hands. All done by feel, learned from her Granny. Came early last night too, organizing the event, helping in the kitchen.

Littler kids are watching, Seeing, amazed at the fire in the firebox and the smoke in the chimney, the meat sizzling. Actual burning! Hot! Looked different! Don't See that every day!

Learning, telling their cousins who don't see, what it's like.

Kids are everywhere, some can See, others hide pennies to make a game, searching! Finding! Papa taught them that game! Nobody teasing, they're all Family, its fun.

Little Marylyn can't play, she can see everything right around her all the time! Can't hide from her!

So she organizes the game, makes it fun for everybody else. Kisses boo-boos when little one bumped down, she always Sees, never misses, has everybody take turns, involves even the youngest, they hold the pennies, you have to ask nice to get one. Papa had a bucket of them, nobody used coins anymore, but he'd kept back this supply, for the kids.

Pre-teens hang around the porch playing I Spy with My Little Eye! Papa taught them that, too, played it whenever they visited. Had to choose something you could actually See! Something on the Farm! Not in space!

Teens are serving up barbecue, carrying trays, helping elders negotiate the lawn, cleaning tables, chatting with everybody, having a ball being in charge.

Jillian and Khang and Lan are at the center of it, in the middle of crowds of kids, young adults, bringing them drinks and plates of brisket. Never alone, not today.

Watching the kids; seeing so much of Greg in some of them, that helps heal their sore hearts.

Jillian turns to Khang, "Greg would have loved all this."

Lizzie is ready, hears her cue, comes forward, takes Khang in hand, enfolds her while she grieves, inconsolable.

Thirty Five Years Later

A young doctor, Family, sits with an old woman, an ancient woman, on the porch. Checking a sensor, reading her blood oxygen, hydration, making notes.

I had brought tea, Genmaicha, awful stuff. She said it was her favorite, helped her remember. Got lots of antioxidants, might help with memory, can't hurt.

She took a sip; made a face. Did I make it wrong? No, that's right, just how I remember it.

Sit quiet for a time, thinking.

"Trinh? You don't have to hover, go enjoy yourself! Take a walk, maybe to the bridge, feed the ducks."

She didn't remember me, my name was Nicky, she thought I was someone else? Not unexpected, at her age.

Bridge? There was some monument in the meadow, a huge arch of concrete, standing alone, the plaque said, "Jessie's Bridge", was that it?

A bridge was something that crossed over water, in the old ground-transport days? This one had grass under, in a hollow, a park around. No water. Some sculpture I guess, a memorial, visitors sometimes walked down, older people. Hadn't seen any ducks when I was there.

"I don't mind, ma'am! This is my first assignment, here at the conference center, the Farm. I graduate in the fall, take the Promise then."

They had a ceremony at the end of training, you all said Jessie's Promise, about Seeing and Helping and doing everything you could to make things work for everybody. Pretty simple stuff, obvious really; adults had been repeating that since I was just a kid. What my life was all about!