Pilgrimage (The New World) (16 page)

It certainly explained some things such as why they had never seen the car again, or their mother’s body before the funeral. They had been told by the authorities that her body had been so badly burned in the accident that a farewell viewing wasn’t possible, and come to think of it they were military representatives. As Ross spelled this all out verbally, he silently wished he had been privy to the information before encountering the alien species while exploring the Moon. He could have asked them if their previous scout missions had anything to do with his mother’s abduction or not.

Ross paced back and forth across the room, and continued to connect the dots by realizing that the heavy burden of deep secrecy from 1947 and 1957 had taken an incredible toll on his father. It probably explained why the bottle became Robert’s source of comfort more often throughout the years, and why he had never gotten truly close to Patty’s mother Elizabeth. From Robert’s point of view his wife Janet was still alive someplace, so he felt he would be unfaithful to her by taking another woman into his arms.

Returning to the reality of the present moment, Ross asked his father if anyone else knew of this shocking revelation. Robert shook his head sideways to signify the negative, but uttered that Grandpa Hank had taken the secret to the grave with him. The drugs to keep Robert awake were now losing the battle with the ever strengthening cancer inside of him, and he began to fade. Before falling asleep a few minutes later, Robert told his children that he knew it in his heart and soul that their mother was still alive somewhere. He didn’t know how or when, but Ross and Jessica should never give up hope of her someday being returned to them.

Fighting through the tears of pain and confusion, Jessica looked at Ross for comfort and guidance. She asked him what he thought of their father’s claims, and wondered if the medication had somehow created this delusion. Ross told her that he didn’t think so, because Robert had clarity in his eyes that he had never seen before. He continued by saying “I visibly noticed how dad felt a sense of relief at finally being able to reveal what he had been keeping inside for so many years, and everything about all his claims made sense.” She gave Ross a quizzical look after his final statement, so he checked to see if their father was indeed asleep before returning to his chair next to Jessica. He then leaned over towards the person he trusted more than anyone else in the world, and whispered into her ear “I have something incredible to tell you!”

HAVING MOVED HER
to a position in the room that was as far away as possible from both the door and their father’s bed, Ross once again leaned into his sister and began whispering into her ear. Before actually weaving the tale of the events that had taken place on the lunar surface, he demanded that Jessica keep the information she was about to hear in strict confidence. There was no way that he could risk anyone else, including his wife Patty, knowing what had happened to him and Dennis at this juncture, and he would need more time to evaluate whether he could ever release the information to the world. Jessica could tell by the look in her brother’s eyes, and the added precaution of moving away from the door, that he was deadly serious about keeping the upcoming information a secret. Based on what she had witnessed about the news of Ross’ presence on the base, she knew that secrets in this hospital did not exist.

Jessica listened intently to Ross as he whispered that he had encountered an alien life form while on the Moon, and she cupped a hand over her mouth in order to muffle her initial response. She composed herself before asking Ross to continue, but was still in awe of the information she was hearing. There was an alien species that had visited and charted over a thousand planetary systems throughout this part of the galaxy, and had been monitoring the development, or lack thereof, of life on this planet for more than two of our centuries. Ross occasionally needed to reach over to push her chin back up while he continued to tell the story. He couldn’t really blame Jessica for having her mouth fall agape at the news, but once again demanded her secrecy.

Ross then informed her there was more to the story, as he pulled the necklace out from under his shirt collar. Asking Jessica if she remembered the item that once belonged to their grandpa; she nodded and whispered, “You received it from our father when grandpa died.” A return nod from Ross preceded the next level of bombshell news, as he informed Jessica that the emblem belonged to the alien species they had been discussing, and he had found one just like it on the Moon.

For the first time that Ross could ever remember, his sister then made a ridiculously stupid statement by saying, “Are you trying to tell me that Grandpa Hank was actually an alien?” It was all he could do to keep from laughing out loud at the absurdity of her remark, but the expression on his face told Jessica all she needed to know. Ross calmly whispered, “You are far too intelligent to believe such a thing, and if you are going to be an idiot I will stop telling you the story right now!” Jessica knew her question had been ridiculous from the moment it came out of her mouth, but then again during this particular philosophical discussion about life altering events she wondered what, if anything, would be considered a stupid question?

She was then informed by Ross that their grandpa had received the emblem from his father when he was a young boy. Their great-grandfather had passed away long before either Ross or Jessica had been born, but the story was that he had retrieved the emblem from a crash site in 1897. He then gave it to his four year-old son as a present, and Grandpa Hank had held onto it for the next sixty-four years until passing it on to Ross. Grandpa had talked to Ross many times about the possibility of extra-terrestrial life when they would go fishing, and now Ross knew where his grandpa had formulated such an idea. Ross informed Jessica that their father would get mad at grandpa when he would discuss such matters with Ross, and that he definitely wasn’t supposed to mention it around her. Jessica was only six when their grandpa had passed away, so it made sense to Ross why the discussions could never be had in her presence. She was just too young to understand, but now there might be added significance to keeping her in the dark.

With plenty of available time at his disposal, Ross had been thinking about their great-grandfather and grandpa at length on the way back from the Moon. His encounter with the aliens had helped him fit some pieces together, but what his father Robert had said recently added to the intrigue.

In a superior moment of clarity to counterbalance her earlier ridiculous notion, Jessica drew in a deep breath and now understood why Ross had said that their father’s claims had made sense. The two of them had been able to read each other very well from the time they were kids in Rumley, and Ross instantly knew that Jessica was now also putting some things together. Ross said that he thought all of the events were somehow connected, but that didn’t mean that their mother was still alive someplace else. He felt it would be ridiculous to entertain such a notion, and Jessica agreed. Ross did however know that it was an absolute fact that aliens were visiting and studying Earth, and it was also quite obvious that their father, grandfather, and perhaps even great-grandfather held a similar belief.

In what could not have been a more inappropriate moment, a knock on the door informed them that their father’s current unstable life signs had triggered an alarm at the nurses’ station, and he needed immediate attention. Ross loudly agreed to allow the medical team to enter, and then whispered to Jessica that they should continue their discussion at a later time.

THE MEDICAL TEAM
at Fort Hood had done their best, but Robert didn’t survive until Thanksgiving Day. Ross and Jessica had hoped that he wouldn’t die on that specific day, and in that regard their wish was granted. During the late afternoon of Wednesday, Robert fell asleep for the final time. There had been a really close call the previous day when Ross and Jessica were having their private conversation in his room, but the Doctors had managed to keep him alive.

The next twenty-four hours had been difficult, as most of that time Robert was unconscious with extremely close monitoring. In the brief moments when he was awake, Ross or Jessica would tend to his needs while asking if there was anything else he wished to tell them. The questions themselves were unnecessary, but it seemed the appropriate thing to do. Both Ross and Jessica could tell by the look in their father’s eyes that he had entered a quiet peacefulness by having said what he needed to say the previous day, and there was nothing more to add. Robert was tired of fighting the disease that now owned his body almost completely, and told his two children that he loved them both more than he had ever led them to believe. He smiled before closing his eyes, and soon after that the vital signs on the bedside monitor showed nothing but flat lines.

On the following Monday morning, a funeral service was held for Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin on the base at Fort Hood, Texas. The event included all the pomp and circumstance associated with most military funerals, but wasn’t attended by many people who were not stationed at the base. In truth Robert had more than earned both aspects of his final sendoff because he had served slightly more than thirty-one years in the Army before retiring in the winter of 1973, but had also become an abrupt and difficult man to get close to for more than the last quarter of a century.

After Robert had died, Ross put the wheels in motion with the appropriate personnel on the base for the upcoming service, and then needed to return to Houston for a few days of dealing with NASA and all the issues associated with the Moon mission. There would soon be a service for Dennis Strickland that the President, Secretary of the Navy, and other dignitaries would be attending, so Ross had to meet with his superiors to iron out some of the details and content of the impending eulogy. Jessica decided to take the road trip with her brother because there were a few things she needed to take care of back in Houston as well, and they would return to Rumley on Sunday evening. The time alone without interruption would also give the two of them a chance to further discuss the now increased alien influence upon the history of their family.