Encompassing (13 page)

CHAPTER 43

“Deal with the current problem, but do not lose focus on the other problems.”  -- from the book of Brian

Once Brady was in the room, he understood what all of this was about.  He couldn’t help but be shocked, yet again.  His mind reeled, “My god!  I had no idea this was going on!  And we used to fear nuclear weapons, this is far worse!”  He scanned the room, mouth open in awe while a shiver went up his spine.  He quickly noted the place where he was to place the device, but then he thought, “This is all on film!  Someone is watching this room!”  He started scanning for cameras, but he didn’t see any.  Brady ran to place the device, despite his concerns.  Immediately Illumna grabbed him and they vanished in what they all referred to as a ‘click’.

They were next to Renfield.  He was laughing but obviously in pain.  He looked at Illumna, “Where’s Solstice.”  Illumna knew the only reason he would need her right now is if something was wrong.  She thought out to her sister and Solstice was there and then none of them were.

Solstice kissed her father on the head and said, “You need to keep more medical supplies around!  How are we supposed to patch all of that up?”

Renfield started to laugh but the pain was too much and he laid back and instead replied, “You need to be more creative, girl.”

All of them were wrapping and stinting and Illumna inquired, “What bones did we miss?”

Solstice laughed for the first time in a while and replied for Renfield, “Lots of them.  Keep looking for…”

Christina wasn’t laughing and looked at Sara, “Is this what you mean?  I should have gone!”

Brady interrupted, “Illumna, if you could get in there so easily, why the hell was I even part of this?”

Solstice whipped around and with fury answered, “My sister is backup!  Aren’t you some great cop or something?  Not to mention…”

Sara jumped in, “It’s OK.  Or going to be.  Right, Adam?”

Renfield was completely unconscious,  Brady pressed on.  “What we just did will cause an International incident.  They’ll know I was in there, they most likely saw where I placed that device and simply remove it.  What was the point in all of this?  And now look at him!  Why?”

Christina spoke sternly, “Obviously my husband”, she paused at saying that out loud, it felt strange, but true, “knows what he’s doing Brady.  And I think it’s time you and I go have a talk.”  She began walking away but turned to look at him and gesture with her eyes that he should follow.

As Brady turns to follow, looking unwilling, Illumna thinks to her sister, “Solstice, he’s worse.  You have to stay here and finish.  You’ll end up like him.  We can’t do this if you both die.”

Solstice looked at her and thinks back, “If he dies you don’t exist.  You may be my older sister, but that happens later.  I can’t be the only one.”  With that she begins looking for more of her father’s broken bones and Illumna stares at her sister understanding.

CHAPTER 44

“I have regrets.  Sometimes that seems okay.  I’m not sure how to feel.  I regret that.”  -- from the book of Brady

The girls take a break to eat.  Renfield was unconscious and they knew he would be for a while.  Brady, returns from his talk with Christina, enters the room, runs over and punches Renfield’s unconscious face as hard as he can.

“You son of a bitch!”  Brady continues punching as hard as he could.

Renfield wakes and stares at him, as he falls off the bed.  “What?”

“I talked to Christina and that was before you and I ever met!  What’s your damned issue?”  Brady is yelling loudly and everyone begins moving quickly except Renfield.

With blood running down his face, Renfield looks up at Brady and asks, “Can I quote Shakespeare?”

Brady begins the onslaught again and then Sara grabs his arm and he stops Brady pauses, but remains poised for another blow.  Slowly Brady semi-relaxes.  Illumna states plainly, “He may be broken but he could have killed you, Brady.  Don’t ever forget that.”

Solstice thinks quickly to Illumna, “Don’t say things like that.”

Illumna thinks back, “But it’s true.” Then adds, “My way annoys you, but it is my way.”

Solstice ignores her sister and raises her voice, “Brady, it’s complicated!  Stop or I will kill you!”

Brady pauses from the sheer insanity of his actions an turns to look at Solstice.  Sizing her up, he understands it is best, for his own survival, that he listen to whatever damned explanation comes next.

“Are you an idiot!  He could have changed it a long time ago!  He didn’t.  For YOUR daughter and…”

“And me.”  Illumna cuts in.  She turns to look at Solstice and grins.

Solstice thinks at her, “Really?  How inappropriate can you be, Illumna?”

Brady looks down at Renfield.  The weight of the situation just beginning to settle in.  “So how does this all turn out, Adam?”

“I’ll start by beating you in the face one day, but besides that?”  Renfield shoots back.

“Yeah, besides that.  I’m, going to lose my job, there’s no longer any question about that and you are dead to the world, so how do you raise your family?”

“Did I mention I have a map and a plan?”  Renfield pulls himself to the bed, stands and flops back in it looking suddenly relaxed.

“Ok, let’s see the map and the plan, asshole!”  Brady was still angry but trying to calm himself again.  He also knew what Illumna said was true.  Renfield could have killed him, even in his state.  If he hadn’t Solstice certainly would have.  He knew her anger well enough to know she would swat him like a fly.  However, what didn’t make sense to him is why she didn’t.

“Ok here’s the thing, its’ all in my head and you just beat on it, so not really in the mood to tell ya.”  Renfield started to chuckle, but his ribs were in extreme pain, so he just looked up at Brady and grinned instead.

Brady raised a fist, but again considered many factors.  He looked at Christina whom had been unexpectedly silent.  “Do you understand this nonsense?”

“No”, she replied, “but I understand him.  I believe him and I know why you’re angry.  I should have told you about Sara years ago, but you know how it is for women on the force.”

“Women on the force?  Have you gone mad, she’s my daughter and you should have told me!”  Brady is lit up like a blaze again.

“Would you have received all of those promotions if people knew?”  Christina replied.  People tend to pick at weakness perceived.  Sara would have become objectified.  You and I would be the ‘in thing’ to remark on.  So we stayed friends.  Illumna told me about Renfield and his anger over it.  She explained.”  Christina was searching for words.

“Time is a confusing thing.”  Announced Illumna.  “He has two reasons not to teach me how to make bigger clicks.  One is he doesn’t want me to get confused.  The other is he doesn’t want what happened to him and my sister happen to me.”

Solstice turned to Illumna and began to think a thought to her, but her thoughts changed at that moment.

Brady looked at Sara for an explanation of what he thought he had seen several times.

Sara, still holding her father’s arm, lightly, as Brady asked, “Do they really…?”  He left the sentence to dangle.

Sara said, “Yes.  Sometimes they are even like one.  When it’s necessary.”  Sara explains.

“Can they hear me?  I mean, you know, when I don’t speak.”  Brady was being flippant, but it was something he’d been wondering for a while.

Illumna answers, “My sister heard you coming.  Dad knows how to confuse his thoughts so that she couldn’t be sure it was him.  But when she heard you, she knew it was.  He planned for it.  That’s why Mom and I had to come.”

“Okay.” Brady takes a breath and then continues, “What is he?  Some sort of super genius”

Illumna begins to respond, but she gets the thought from Solstice and stops.  Solstice explains, “The way all of this works is understanding that everything is everything.  The more you understand that the deeper you go into everything.  So, for instance, deoxyribonucleic acid is a chain of sequences of basic amino acids, but the result can be profoundly different.  Just as an atom is made of different protons and electrons, just as the galaxy spins the way it does because of the unique position of stars and planets.  It’s true of all things.”

“Slow down, what?” Brady replies.

“It’s about interaction of things.  Heat is the way we measure interaction.  Well, we don’t know it is scientifically, but he figured it out.”  Solstice continues.

“In the absence of heat things that exist go to their true form and cannot interact.”  Illumna adds.

“Illumna, there is no true absence of heat.  There is only less of it.”  Solstice reminds her.

Illumna continues, “So that is where he goes.  It hurts.  A lot, and he has to remain focused with the inability to react or be reacted to.”

Solstice again thinks at Illumna, “Your learning, but he can hear you and he’ll…”

Brady looks at the two of them and says, “OK, so basically if he can do it, any of us can?”

Solstice and Illumna answer at once, “No.”

Illumna begins to explain, yet Solstice again thinks to her, “You are too dry, this requires my grey.”

Illumna looks at her sister knowing she is better at grey and her own talent is in absolutes.

Brady asks, “Why not, it’s just science, right?”

Then Solstice does the unexpected and thinks to Illumna, “You explain.”

Illumna, taking a cue from her sister says, “Define science.  What is known or the things not known yet?  What should be included?”

Brady, not understanding the question begins to ask for clarification.

Renfield sits up, “Are you two done now?”

Both answer in unison, “Yes, Dad.” and leave the room.  Solstice taking Sara’s hand and Illumna taking Christina’s.

Brady thinks to himself, “I just want out of this madness!”  He sits down on the edge of the bed Adam is laying in.

Renfield puts a hand on Brady’s back.  “That’s the woman you once loved, her daughters, your daughter and your grandchild.  You’re in the right place, but slightly out of time.  At least you know it.”

Brady turns and looks down at Renfield, “Aren’t we always?”

Renfield begins to laugh and then moans at the pain of it.  “We have to make sure the world is here for them.  Understand?”

“Yeah, Adam.  I caught that a long time ago.  It’s the only reason I’m in this mess.”  Brady retorts.

Renfield lays back and replies, “Yup, me too.  But them also.”

Brady thinks to himself and begins to chuckle slightly.

Renfield says, “I heard that.  You’re not sorry about the face, you’ve been wanting to do that since you first saw my handsome mug.”

Brady breaks into full laughter, turns and taps Renfield and says, “Get some rest.  It’s not like anything I did you can’t get over.  But as a friend, I’ll tell you, you’re not as handsome as you think.  Or apparently everyone else thinks too.”

Renfield laughs at the comment.  “There is one thing.”  Renfield replies.

“How about we leave that topic alone.  I’m confused, you’re angry and it’s the past in the future.”  Brady puts his own head in his hands.

Renfield sighs, “Well at least your sort of getting this all.”

Brady laughed again and he heard Christina yell up, “Are you going to come down and get some of this pie?”  He turned to look at Renfield to make sure he really was all right.

Renfield looked up at him and said, “Go on.  You do love pie.”

Brady stood and started towards the door and turned around chuckling, he pointed a finger at Renfield and started to say something then stopped.

Renfield yelled after him, “You and Christina never get used to it.  Your daughter does.”

Brady stopped cold on the stairs.  Suddenly he realized he had never had a father daughter talk with Sara.  He wondered, “Is she too old?”

Renfield yelled, “She’s your daughter dummy!”

Brady got a look of annoyance on his face and yelled back, “Stop that!”

Renfield replied, “Stop trying to think against yourself, Brady!”

Brady pondered and realized Renfield was right.  That was exactly what he was doing.  Then it occurred to him that he should talk to Illumna too.  How, he didn’t know.  While Sara was quiet, she could open up, but Illumna was calculating.  He wondered if he’d have the ability to communicate his emotions to her.  He opened his eyes and Illumna was in front of him.

“You already have, Grandfather.  I do understand.  Now come on and get some pie with us.  We made it mostly for you, not that we don’t all like it.  Well, except for him.”  She pointed back up the staircase.

Brady laughed and said, “OK.  Yeah he’s a strange one, huh?”

Illumna replied, “He’s my father.  I can’t answer that.”  She puts her fingers jokingly to her lips in a ‘shhh’ manner.

Brady’s smile went away.

Illumna said, “I didn’t mean anything bad about him.  It’s just that he has a penchant for fun, like Grandma, even with everything in the balance.”

Brady smiled again and replied, “That’s probably why they get along!”

Illumna considered this and surprisingly laughed.  “I know.”  She replied and headed to the kitchen holding Brady’s hand.