X-Ray Vision Ch. 13: Ever After

Jillian set the tea down. "Light duty! Looking after an old woman."

She smiled, which reminded me of my Mom suddenly, for no reason.

It was a pretty easy job, hanging out with this nice lady at the conference center. Geriatric medicine, my specialty, folks who need the most help. Nobody here most of the time, just me and Miss Jillian and the cook.

After I first arrived a bunch of Family Heads showed, their regular meeting, lots of activity with TK everywhere and catering and politicos and so on.

Then quiet again. It was quiet now.

Odd, this woman actually lived at the Farm. Only person living here. I guessed it used to be a house; she had a room at the top of the elevator, it had clearly been a bedroom forever, old-style furniture, big bed, old and lumpy, room for two but only one big dent down the middle, like she'd slept there all her life alone?

All the other rooms up there, three floors, were fitted out as conference rooms. Didn't get much use, Family could Talk anywhere in the world now, didn't need a special room for that.

And under the basement, you couldn't go down there now, stairs were blocked by a kitchen remodel, they had a museum of sorts, I could See it there. All sorts of antique medical equipment, mostly unused, laid out like it was put there yesterday. Interesting for a medical student like me, sort of. Now we just use an integrated body scanner, fits on my fingertip, tells me all about my patient, about this odd woman.

Who was she? Jillian, the most common family name. That didn't tell me much.

She used to run the J Foundation, they said when I arrived. Pretty important! Not many trillion-dollar Foundations in the world. Wonder how she got that job...

I guess she wanted to keep tabs on things when she retired. That had to be decades ago, she is over 100!

I saw a plaque in the Visitors' Center lobby, had a big eye on it, the credo of the J Foundation. Something about Lost Girls? Don't know what that could mean - how can somebody be lost? The Families see everyone, everywhere, keep everyone safe. Nobody is lost, not anymore.

Lots I don't know about her, about this place. Should have paid more attention, watched that movie they made, that got all those awards, The Beachcomber?

Nowadays the J Foundation was in charge of finding, training Seers, all over the world, all of us. From birth; from before birth!

In special places like the Farm, they used to do that here, an old guy came up with that, he died then they moved to a desert camp in Arizona. I remember that much!

Camp Gregory, quieter there, a thousand square miles, east of Tucson, that's where I went my watershed year. Doing all sorts of things - playing games, watching hawks, ground snakes, weather, learning about Apache vision quests from an old shaman, about spreading your awareness, how to change viewpoint, concentrate it.

Another camp was on a mountaintop in Tibet, been there for a thousand years, used for just this the whole time. Nobody knew until somebody in the Family Saw it, recognized what it was. Found a ready-made Family there, already at work!

Good connections, new/old ideas, they came up with new training plans, instructors go back and forth all the time. They'd taught us to Hear, some of us, attend to the voice box, train yourself to imagine the phantom voice. Start with hitting notes on a xylophone you can See somewhere, playing the note in your ear, repeat. Then they don't play the note, still you hear it! Keep doing that, soon you Hear everything, your brain puts it together.

I could, a little. People I knew; voices I was familiar with.

Training centers on five continents. Families on five continents, new and old. The Foundation was everywhere, Seeing, helping.

Miss Jillian was looking out at the lawn, sometimes pods landed with visitors, tourist or Family, everybody welcome. Nothing there, empty now. But not seeing that.

And not Seeing it either; she wasn't a Seer, I figured that out pretty fast. Don't know what she was seeing, not the grass, not the trees, not the City beyond the trees.

"You doing ok, ma'am? You seem quiet today."

She looked normal enough, heart ticking over, lungs looked pretty clear. For 100.

She closed her eyes, laid her head back. I adjusted her pillow, felt her forehead, brushed a thin grey strand out of her eyes.

"Sometimes, I imagine I'm on a long road? Rough now, though it used to be smooth.

"Oh, so smooth! I'd run along, heedless! Thought it might go on forever, never end. Had these running shoes..."

Quiet for a time. She stirs, continues.

"Now, now, I look ahead, it only looks rougher, steeper, up to the sky, beyond!

"I look back, it goes oh so far back, to the horizon and more. Lots of turns and bumps and false starts."

Deep sigh. "Everybody I started on this path with, they're gone, just me and Billie left. Stopped along the road somewhere, at rest, or gone in a different direction.

"My sisters! My mother! My Girls. My friends. My Greg! My Jessie!"

A tear ran down her cheek, making slow progress over the seams and wrinkles.

Concerned; "No ma'am! Jessie was here, just last week, ma'am! She talked to you! Remember? She's not gone, not for long. You're not alone."

Jessie the fourth, current European Family Head, had come to make contact with the North American Family. The Family talked all the time, but the Heads, they had to meet in person, it was their thing. 'Breath the same air' they called it, physical contact, handshakes and hugs for everybody. Important they said, to keep the Families close.

They had all visited Miss Jessie that time, every one, out on this porch, one at a time like some kind of sacrament, almost reverent?

Well, she was a nice old lady, deserved kindness. The Heads were kind to everyone, their whole job really. They always said, they get that right, the rest follows.

"I'm not alone. No, not alone. People call all the time, visit. But I hardly know them, now.

"I see something in their face, the way they brush their hair back, toss their head, the words they use, the way they Look at me, I know they're Family.

"But, lonely for all that."

Pretty deep! I guess you don't get her age without getting philosophical.

"Well, you try to stay awake, ma'am! It's important to be active all day. Helps you sleep at night!"

Jillian hadn't slept right, not for a third of a century. Without Greg, holding her, keeping her, she tossed and turned in that bed. That big, empty bed.

"I think... I think now, I'll take a step back, stop here. Take a rest, on a bench at the side of the road. Let you all go on. " She seemed certain, decided.

Funny thing to say; she was already sitting on the bench! A ratty old thing, looked like shit, re-covered a dozen times, metal straps bolted on to keep it from falling apart.

Out of place on this porch; belonged at a beach house or on a patio really. Or the dump.

"I've said enough, everything I know to say, you've heard enough. You all know enough, now, you'll make it just fine.

"I think you'll all be fine."

She sighed, a deep sigh.

Then, nothing. She just seemed to stop.

I checked her stats - very low, hardly there.

I pressed the panic button.

...

"She seemed normal this morning?"

This from the Family Physician, a very tall, very thin woman, all bone and lean muscle, tattooed, from the Dipo branch of the Family in Ghana, trained at Timbuktu where all the best doctors come from.

I knew her, knew of her anyway. How did this old woman rate the finest doctor in the world?

And she was consulting with me! There were three other doctors here, Family doctors. I'm not even done training!

Normal? "Yes! Well, no. She was melancholy, remembering things, I think.

"And forgetful! She called me Trinh! I'm Nicky."

The Physician smiled. "You have a mother named Trinh? A grandmother?"

"Uh, my great-grandmother I think." I was intimidated. In my entire career, I was unlikely to meet this woman again, she traveled in such stratospheric circles.

She nodded. Yawned. Had arrived from halfway around the world, up all night. For one old woman!

The local doctor had moved Jillian to her bed upstairs, made her comfortable. In the next hours two more arrived, locals, from North America Family anyway. Deep in conversation.

Then two Family ministers, one from Australia, one from Tibet. They were all sitting with Jillian, a crowd even in that big room. Though what they were doing up there, I had no idea. She was unconscious; had not come to.

"Then she, uh, she said something about a road, taking a step back, letting us go on.

"She said, she thought we'd all be fine."

This connected; the Physician nodded gravely, came to a decision.

Panicked; did I make a mistake? "I did all I could! I never left her side! When she - stopped, I called the emergency crew, gave her oxygen, monitored until they got here, until the Doctors got here."

"You did well. No one could have done more.

"You see? She is finished with this life, has made the decision to go on, to whatever comes next.

"No skill of ours can change that. We shouldn't try. This is her chosen path."

I was supposed to help people! There had to be something.

The Physician saw my frustration.

"Keep Vigil here? Stay with her, keep her comfortable, do the best you can for her. Let her leave when she's ready. Can you do that?"

That I could do. I nodded, once, then again firmly. "I can do that."

It took three days.

By then Family had arrived. Some had started before, Saw they were needed, been Watching the old woman? Left for the Farm before the call went out, arrived earlier than the rest.

Nearly the whole North American Family! At the Farm! Hadn't happened in years. And more, Seers and others, from Families around the world.

Seven Senators, fifteen corporate heads. Twenty-six charitable organizations, politicos from 16 countries, two Supreme Court Justices.

An astronaut in orbit couldn't come but she spoke by video call from the space station, Saw it all from there.

And Billie, she's 95, not doing well, couldn't travel, sent her love, her great-great-grandson came.

So, over 2000 all told. Managed by TK Security, as usual, another hundred people, some of them Family too.

A mob, like never before.

My Mom! So good to see her. She said she used to come to the Farm, before I was born, just a little girl. Remembers being held by an old guy; remembers saying Jessie's Promise here another time, the first time.

There was a first time?

Up front, where the Heads were sitting, was a stand with a large picture on it. Seers stood at the back, we could See from here, everybody else gathered close.

The picture, Jillian at sixty-something, with her husband Greg, 80, on the porch, holding hands, Greg completely at ease, Jillian's smile just like my Mom's.

Head said, Hang this picture in every Family shrine, around the world, oranges in a bowl, burn incense. Honored ancestors now!

Just like at our house, my grandparents, great-grandparent pictures. We had this picture already! On a table. I hadn't recognized her here, from that picture. Will have to put an orange in the bowl, next time I went home. Should go home more often.

Head says Flags in fifty-two states flying at half-mast. Biographies released on seven networks. Condolences from the President, from twenty-five Presidents around the world.

Words were said, stories told. Family stories were all apocryphal now, in books, they even made a documentary! Hard to separate the myth from the history, nobody left alive to say yea or nay. Some pretty wild stories; some very simple ones.

I like the simple ones best.

Learning a lot today; Family history, World history. Foundation history.

I learned, this odd woman had been The Jillian! The J, in J Foundation, Architect of the Plan! First in the Family, Mother to the Twelve, Grandmother to us all. Khang's and Lan's sister! My Great Great Grandmother!

Somebody could have clued me in; I probably made a fool of myself more than once.

Now I have a story to tell, all my life I guess. Just felt like I'd missed a chance.

Funeral services are to make you think things like this, I suppose.

At the end we repeated Jessie's Promise. A tradition, at funerals, in our Family anyway, I don't know what other people do.

When they got to the part, asked Can you do that? Take up her job? I got a catch in my throat for some reason, could just croak out Yes!

Big shoes to fill! She'd done so much, all of it, really. Looking around, we were so many, if we all tried real hard maybe we could do it, do her job, together now.

Mingling after, Breathing the Same Air! It was good, so many cousins I'd not met, touched in so long. Arms getting sore from hugging!

Ready to leave, get back to Uni, my duty here done, getting another posting, Bangladesh I'd asked for this time, close Family there. Catching a ride with a cousin to the terminal.

One of the Ministers, the sweet round lady, sipping green tea, collared me.

"I understand you were here for her passing? Sat Vigil with her?"

Trying to comfort me, my first time losing a patient I guess.

I nodded. Said she was unconscious for three days. But right at the end, lucid, just for a minute.

"Did she say something? Do you remember?"

"Yes. Her eyes were focussed on nothing, Seeing something I couldn't See! and she said, she said - 'Oh! Greg! You waited for me.' Just like that, clear as a bell, like she was not surprised, she was expecting him."