Giddeon (Silver Strand Series) (29 page)

Sometimes, I just sit on the boat and watch the water and the sky and the clouds.
 
The breeze often kicks up, and I lean back and smile as the seagulls and pelicans use that invisible substance to carry themselves up and over the marina in a never-ending quest for food.
 
It’s peaceful, there, and Giddeon sometimes joins me on deck and brings his guitar.
 
I love his voice, but my favorite selections are his instrumentals… instrumentals that just seem to go with the peace and tranquility of our little spot.
 
Especially, in the late afternoon, when the shadows grow long and the sun sinks low.
 
It’s like I have my own private soundtrack to our own private world… a musical overlay on our little piece of reality… our small slice of pie.
 

I wish I could feel his touch more often… all of the time, actually… but, only when you two share a dream is it possible.
 
It doesn’t happen too often, but, when it does, I’m in heaven.
 

He and I got married.
 
I didn’t tell you that, did I?
 

We waited and waited for the opportunity, and finally, it happened.
 
You and Greg shared a long, extended dream.
 
Giddeon and I went over to the golf course and we said our vows on the 9
^th
green… the green where we exchanged our first kiss.

It was three o’clock in the morning, and a full moon was above us.
 
My Giddeon looked so handsome in his tuxedo and tails.
 
I wore your wedding dress… the second one from your uninterrupted wedding.
 
We’re exactly the same size… did you know that?
 
It was so romantic that I cried all of the way through our little ceremony.
 
We promised to love each other, forever.

Forever and beyond.
 

Not until death do us part, because he and I don’t really believe in death, anymore.
 
We’ve seen so many futures and so many pasts that we know that we will always be together, somewhere, in the multi-verse.
 
Death is just an illusion.

Love is the only thing that’s real.

And, it’s the only thing that matters.

That’s the conclusion that he and I have come to.
 
Nothing can tear us apart.
 
Not monsters, not time… not asteroids.
 
We’re here and now, and there is no there and then.
 
When he took me by the hand, and we teleported over to the Hotel Del and he carried me over the threshold of our suite… I fully understood permanence.
 
That some things can never change.
 
Some things are forever.

Our wedding night was… well, it was magical.

It was more than that.
 
It was quantum physics and magic combined.
 
All of the wonder and excitement and joy of the universe, along with every enchanted world ever born… together.
 
I had been waiting and wanting to give myself fully to him, and if we weren’t one entity, before, we most certainly are, now.
 
Thank goodness your dream with Greg lasted for most of the night, because we needed all of the time that you gave us.
 
I think on some level you knew that we were together, and that’s why your dream went on for so long.

Thank you, for that.
 
It was the best possible wedding present you could have given us.

Sometimes, I go back and get inside of my body on the bed that night, just so I can relive it, again.
 
I know he does the same thing.
 
It’s always wonderful, but, I try not to go there too often… I want it to always be special.

I’m crying, now, just thinking about it.

I thank my lucky stars that you two met.
 
I can’t imagine still wandering around by myself in worlds of my own making.
 
Never being able to touch, or talk, or kiss.
 
So many people are like that, you know, and it’s so, so sad.
 
I think maybe that’s what’s wrong with humanity.
 
Lost people separated from their other halves.
 
Looking… always looking.
 
There’s a force that draws us together, an emotional gravity that pulls and pulls, but, sometimes, I suppose it has no clear direction.
 
It doesn’t know where to act, and the energy then gets warped and misdirected and can eventually turn even upon itself.
 
When that happens, I believe that people can put themselves above all others… and, as a result, like magnets torn apart, cleave only to their own fractured pieces.

I feel that most misery and pain and suffering are born from the frustration of that unrequited force as it seeks its reciprocal bond.
 
I’m so happy you found your bond, so that I could find mine.
 
There’s nothing like it in Heaven or on Earth, is there?
 
Nothing like looking over and knowing that next to you is a harmonic oscillation of the same frequency.
 
I really am starting to sound like him… but, I don’t mind.
 
Because he’s starting to sound like me.
 
We not only visit moons and planets and stars, but we ride winged horses and flying dolphins when we do.

I know Ray will find a way to divert the asteroid, because, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
 
And, I think the action has already begun.

*****

They touched down on the green of the island.
 
The jade-colored land mass was surrounded by the warm turquoise waters of the
Caribbean
, and Jennifer took the welcoming, humid salt air into her lungs as they left the jet.
 
Raymond had travelled as a passenger on that trip, since a pilot and co-pilot were part and parcel of the insurance agreement for the G-5… as a result, he and Jennifer got to spend more time getting to know each other.

Bradford
found that he liked Jennifer Evans very much.
 
He knew she was trustworthy, because she had been pre-screened by Giddeon… basically hand-picked by my sub-conscious for the task of bringing his voice onto this side of reality.
 
That being the case, Ray figured that she would be willing to go along with a disinformation campaign to protect Melody, Little Gid and myself.
 
There would be time for explaining that, later.
 
They climbed into his vehicle… another Range Rover… after her bags and files were packed.
 
Looking into russet eyes that were flecked with gold, it seemed that for the first time in a very long time that Ray Bradford was drawn to something that wasn’t attached to an engine or a motor of some kind.

I know all of this because Giddeon took that trip to
Texas
, and then to the island, with them.
 
He’s something of a snoop, it seems.
 
Not to mention, matchmaker.

Mia stayed behind with us to look for any more rogue private investigators… there were none that she detected.
 
Apparently, the Secretary of Defense had given Raymond a call, and the billionaire had read him the riot act.
 
The two men eventually came to an agreement that was predicated on no more spying… Raymond said he would keep the information about the incident to himself, and not inform the President of his indiscretion.
 
Like I said… he’s good with his cards.

On the way to his mansion, Ray Bradford took the opportunity to give Jennifer a partial tour of his home island.
 
Sampson kept his head out of the window at all times, and Dr. Evans almost felt like doing the same.
 
Something about the air and the water seemed so right and refreshing.
 
It was as if she had emerged from a long, dreamless sleep, and was seeing the world for the first time in a long, long time.
 
At least that was what she told Ray later on that evening… according to Gid.

Finally, they drove onto his estate.
 
It was fenced and secure, and Jennifer was fairly certain that the
Caribbean
mansion was about as private and protected of a get-a-way as she could get.
 

The size of the house was something of a surprise, and Ray seemed a little embarrassed about the layout.
 
He told her the same thing he told us about how he had come to think of his staff as family; how he would love to downsize, but he didn’t want to let anyone go.
 
He shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘What else can I do but live with it’.
 
Jennifer reached out and put a hand on his shoulder and said in mock seriousness,

“We all have our crosses to bear.”

That set him to laughing like a howler monkey, and tears actually came to his eyes.
 
Sampson started barking in the back seat as if he was in on the joke, too.
 
Ray opened his door and then let his dog out in front of the guest house.
 
Sampson continued to bark as
Bradford
reached down and picked a stick up from near a bush and flung it in the pool.
 

“Go, my son.”
 
Ray genuflected, keeping with the cross theme.

A black streak of lightning and muscle streaked across the lawn and leaped into the air as if the laws of physics didn’t apply to him.
 
He seemed to hang suspended in the crystal air above the crystal water for an eternity, until finally the pull of the Earth brought him down with an enormous splash that sent rainbows of droplets high over a circle of his Labrador-induced waves.
 
Jennifer clapped her hands as he swam to the edge of the pool with the stick in his mouth and got himself over the border with no trouble at all.
 
He ran straight up to her and dropped the little piece of wood at her feet.
 
She threw it back in the water and grinned as a repeat of the previous scenario ensued.

Ray and Jennifer started unloading the suitcases and the dog came back up to them with the stick in his mouth and shook violently back and forth, sharing the water with his people.
 
They both laughed and tried to get out of the way, but, it was too late.
 

They had been Christened and blessed by Brother Sampson.

*****

That night, Raymond and Jennifer had supper in the same spot that we had all eaten so many months before.
 
He explained to her his plan of implying that some of the information that he had divulged in
Washington
had come from her husband’s writings.
 
Raymond would say that a manual had been given to him, by Jennifer, when he had visited
Coronado
to update Melody and I on the progress of his rocket.
 

Bradford
would say that Dr. Evans had held onto the journal for years, not knowing what to do with it, and, had decided to give it to him when she heard the government might try to block the launch.
 
That would give him cover for knowing about the stealth missile that brought down his decoy launch.
 
The rest of the information he could explain as having been ferreted out by his own surveillance network.
 
A division of his empire is devoted to corporate computer security, and everyone pretty much knows that security personnel are recruited from the hacker community.

Jennifer agreed to the subterfuge, even though it meant that she would possibly be of concern to those in the intelligence community… perhaps for years to come.
 
She always suspected that Giddeon had been relaying information on his own through Melody… my wife had sat in on enough sessions to see how it was done… and Jennifer said as much to Raymond.
 
Dr. Evans knew that the reason for the shift away from her was that we were trying to protect her, and that the newer information from Giddeon was most likely very volatile… and, that it was being given directly to the man sitting before her.

“You’re very perceptive,” Raymond admitted upon hearing her conjectures.

“Kind of my job as a therapist,” she replied.
 
Her hair was down and over one shoulder; no glasses were shielding her eyes.
 
She looked to be at peace with her decision.
 
The soft light of the torches around the table, and from the moon above them, gave her smooth skin a soft, ethereal glow.
 

“You won’t be able to go back to your job… you’ll probably have to stay here for quite some time.”

Jennifer nodded and looked around at the island estate.
 
Lunar light danced off the tropical waves in the distance.
 
She was quiet as she did that.
 
Finally, she turned back to her host and smiled a small hint of a smile with one corner of her mouth.
 
“We all have our crosses to bear.”

Raymond broke into a grin and clinked his glass to the one she had just picked up from off the table.
 
He took a deep drink of his wine and handed a shrimp to Sampson, who was lying by the table exhausted from his afternoon in the pool.
 
The
Labrador
got to his feet and was rewarded with another crustacean.
 
He came over to Jennifer and put his head in her lap as if to say, ‘
It isn’t so bad, here… I think you’ll like it
’.
 
She patted him and fingered his soft ears, then gave him a bite from her plate, too.

*****

Later, that evening, Jennifer lay in her bed in her new accommodations, thinking of the abrupt turn her life had taken.
 
She would miss
Coronado
, but other than her patients, nothing was really holding her there.
 
Her practice would be in good hands… she had spoken to her mentor after supper and her friend was enthusiastic about the opportunity of stepping in.
 
Jennifer remained vague about her reasons for leaving, and said she would explain more about the circumstances at a later date.
 
They talked for about thirty minutes and, during that conversation, Jennifer wished she could let her friend know more… the woman was like a mother to her.
 
However, Dr. Evans needed a few days to sort things out in her own mind.
 
When it came time to say goodbye, her friend said…

“You tell him to treat you well.”

Jennifer had never even mentioned anything about a man.
 
She smiled and hung up the phone, musing to herself that therapists are indeed a perceptive bunch.

*****