Author's note: So far this has been a VERY interesting and fun ride. There will most likely be one or two more chapters after this, but I will soon have to stop writing for reasons that I can't go into. With luck I will be able to, one day, pick back up where I left off. But, for now, I hope you'll enjoy all that I can manage to create. As always, votes and comments are more than welcome- the more, the better!
And, now, on with the show...
The depression that ensues due to the loss of a loved one is truly extraordinary. It can leave a person, for a time, in a state which is like a shadow of their former self. Anger, denial, doubt, fear, anguish... all of these things are intensely felt while grieving, to this I can personally attest. But there is something amazing that happens if one can come out the other side of such an abyssmal ordeal. Strength, fortitude, courage, faith and even freedom can fill the afflicted up like the coolest waters filling an empty vessel. The key to surviving, as you might guess, lies solely in the love of those who are left behind. Kelly and I had each other to look after when Sarah was gone from our lives. And despite our tryst as lovers, it was the love of a father and daughter that saw us through. There is nothing more powerful or more enriching than knowing that the person you can depend upon most is there, depending on you. My daughter and I relied upon each other for support and strength, for each others' sake, and that is what saved us in the end.
The thing which was the catalyst for me, however, was when Kelly revealed to me the discovery of her own ability to side-step Time. It was such a bold, risky move on her part that I could do nothing but feel intense pride in her, as her father. I know, in the very depths of my being, that she didn't show me what she could do in an effort to brag or preen in any way. She did so because she realized that I had found a personal Mission in life and she wanted to help me. She wanted to participate and support me and contribute something good to the world around her. She had taken up my banner at my side and, without actually saying so in words, declared her determination to join me. Her choice was selfless and endearing, for now I knew that I would not have to go through Life alone anymore. Sarah, my lovely wife, may be gone, but part of her lives on in our incredible daughter Kelly. She would pick up where her mother left off and do so proudly and without fear.
After her astonishing display I had decided that I needed some time to myself, to think things through for a bit. I politely excused myself so that I could retire the shower and Kelly volunteered to make dinner while I cleaned up. While I stood in that hot shower, in some way washing away all the pains and ills which had plagued me since Sarah's death, I bent my mind towards what we would do next. I wasn't foolish enough to think that we could immediately set out to become vigilantes, striking at the heart of the criminal element like a couple of half-baked comic book heroes. We needed to plan, to understand our enemy, to consider our options and figure out how to safeguard ourselves completely. And that last point of business was the sticking point in my mind: how would we protect ourselves against discovery and possible trouble in the future? How could we ensure our safety?
I stepped out of the shower, turned off the water and turned to look at myself in the bathroom mirror. Staring back at me was a man who seemed like he'd just woken from a deep coma. I had bags under my eyes and looked completely bedraggled. Inwardly, though, I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I felt stronger and more in control than I had in years. I tried to filter out the physical flaws I saw in my face, the lines of worry and the paleness which had come from having stayed indoors with depression for far too long, for three months solid, and peered deeply into my own eyes. And there, like seeing an old friend, I saw the flicker of passion and the fire of self-possession. I grabbed a hand towel and swiped the fog away from the mirror to get a better look at my own face, to see if I could peer deeper into my own soul. I can't quite explain it, but the man I had been just before Sarah died seemed to finally look back at me and the color in my skin appeared to miraculously come back. I smiled at the image reflected in the mirror.
"Welcome back," I said to it. "You've been gone for far too long."
I then set about getting dressed in a pair of sweat pants and a simple tank top and went downstairs to discover that Kelly had made a simple meal of spaghetti and garlic bread. The cooked meat which had been added to the sauce smelled wonderfully inviting as I entered the kitchen. Kelly somehow sensed my arrival and turned to smile at me happily. She too, it seemed, had undergone some sort of mysterious transformation while I had been in the shower. Her shoulders looked more relaxed and the special glow of youth was evident in her smiling face. I was gratified to see that she, too, had dressed down for dinner, wearing a thin-looking white chemise (no bra underneath) and a flowing cotton summer skirt. A quick glance further down revealed that she was barefoot. The male chauvenist in me marvelled at that fact that my daughter had taken on the prototypical role of woman of the house: barefoot in the kitchen, with dinner on the stove. You psychoanalysts out there can jeer all you like, but I felt that my daughter had never looked more beautiful than she did at that moment.
"Dinner's almost ready, Dad," she said airily and without a note of concern in her voice. "Mind getting some plates for us while I finish up?"
"Sure thing, sweetheart," I answered and then set the table while she pulled the garlic bread out of the oven.
As we sat down at the table to eat some moments later, with a bottle of red wine between us, I kicked off our conversation. "Okay," I said. "The way I see it, we need to get you trained as much as possible." I picked up the bottle and poured us each a glass of wine to the halfway mark.
"Trained?" Kelly asked, looking somewhat perplexed. "In what? Martial arts?" She picked up her glass of wine and held it up in the air, waiting for me to join her in a quick and silent toast. Our glasses clinked gently as we each took a small sip to experience the flavor of it before eating.
I shrugged after I swallowed the sip of wine and put my glass back on the table gently. "Martial arts? Sure. It wouldn't hurt, I suppose, but I was thinking more along the lines of your new-found ability. When I had my first real experience with it, I could only do it for a few seconds, too. It took me months to finally get to the point to where I could stay in the Between for indefinite periods of time. I had to learn how to control it and flip at a moment's notice."
Kelly blanched slightly at this news. "Months? How many months?"
"Well, to be fair, I'm still sort of learning about it. But you've got an edge that I didn't have, honey: someone to help you along and teach you how to focus. And that's the real key with this thing, Kelly. You've got to really learn how to focus your mind. In all honesty, that's the hardest part. But once you get that down, the rest comes pretty easily. And, with practice, it'll get to the point where you won't even really have to think about it anymore. These days I can flip as easily as I would tie my shoelaces."
Kelly seemed a bit mollified to hear that, but I could tell that she didn't like the prospect of taking too long just to learn how to go Between when she wanted to. "Do I really need to have the level of control that you do?" she asked. "I mean, why can't we just do what we've been doing? You take me there and bring me back when we're done."
I shook my head. "What if we get separated somehow?" I asked reasonably. "It's something that's always been a very major concern of mine, Kelly. It's an element of risk that I'd like to dispose of, and the sooner the better. You know what happens to things if I leave them in the Between. They stay there. As your father, I'd feel safer if I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you could get yourself back to Normal Time if an emergency arose. And in order to get back, you've got to be able to go there on your own."
"So what do you propose, Dad?" she asked as she picked up a slice of bread and began to sop up some of the spaghetti sauce on her plate. "You want me to do those meditation exercises you did? I'm not too good at that kind of stuff. It goes against my grain. And what worked for you may not necessarily work for me. Shouldn't we figure out what would work best for me, first?"
I gave that some consideration as I took a sip of the wine. "I guess you do have a point there, but as the person who has the most experience with going Between, I think it would be wise to at least follow my counsel." She started to protest a bit, but I held up a calming hand. "Listen," I said patiently, "I know you're ripping and raring to go out there and try to set this world right. I am, too, to be honest. But if we just went out there without a plan, then things might go south real quick. I don't want to put you in jeopardy. You're the only daughter I've got and, not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm not exactly equipped to make another. I don't want to lose you to some stupid mistake on either of our parts. What we're planning to do here is big. And we can't have ANY slip-ups. We've got to become absolute pros at covering our tracks, leaving behind not a single clue of our presence and generally being invisible. And we can't be invisible just to the criminals we intend to poach. We've got to be invisible to the police, too. And, now that I've had a bit more time to think about it, I'm figuring out that we'll need to pretty much fall off the radar entirely where the U.S. Government is concerned. I mean, what do you think would happen to us if the Feds figured out what we can do?"
