“I know.”
“Please, Dad. Please can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me? I love you so much. I’m sorry. I am so sorry. Please.”
Frank’s jaw tensed as he connected eyes with Johnny. Johnny’s eyes had glazed over. He inhaled. “Johnny, I had a chance to talk to you in Lodi. I’ve had chances to speak to you here. It … I just needed time. No matter how angry I was with you. No matter how much I despised what you did. No matter how much forgiveness was not in my heart, I never … ever stopped loving you. I need you to know that.”
Johnny’s head dropped with sob.
“John.”
A hard sniffle, and Johnny wiped his hand under his eyes. “Yeah.”
“I love you. I’ve forgive you. It’s time to start mending.”
Johnny sniffed again. “Thank you.” He stood up and stood before Frank.
Frank stood, as well.
They embraced.
“I’ll never let you down again.” Johnny said within his hold. “I swear to you, I will never let you down again. I’ll make you proud of me. You’ll see.”
Frank cupped the back of Johnny’s head and brought his lips to Johnny’s ear, whispering. “I love you. We’re good.” He kissed him on the cheek. “We’re good.” Inhaling deeply, Frank stepped back from the embrace, and smiled.
The server approached. “Here is your sampler.” She set it on the table.
“Wow, our sampler.” Frank said and the smile dropped from his face. “Its soylent green, red, blue and is that brown?”
“Yeah.” Johnny sat down. “You have to try these.”
Frank grumbled.
“Dad, honest to God. OK. Take a red one. Close your eyes and take a bite. Chew it, let it absorb in your mouth and tell me what it tastes like.”
“John, you like the tea …”
‘Just do it.”
“Fine.” Frank grabbed a red cracker. He closed his eyes, hesitated, and then with a wincing face, took a bite. He chewed, paused, chewed, and opened his eyes. “I haven’t had this taste in my mouth for a while. It’s … hot wings.”
“Yep.” Johnny nodded.
“Holy fuck.” Frank ate the rest of the cracker. “What are the flavors of the other ones?”
“Depends what day it is. See.” Johnny pointed to the wall. Each day the colors mean a different thing. Today red is wings, tomorrow red is pizza.”
Frank nodded impressed. “Green is Caesar salad today, blue is blueberry pie …”
“Blue is always a desert. Brown is beef.’
Frank grabbed a brown Crisquits. “Fuck. How do they make them taste like it?”
“I don’t know.” Johnny said. “It goes back to when the group formed after the plague. They did it so people could taste the old world food.”
Frank finished his cracker and grabbed a green one. “How do they make them?”
Johnny smiled. “Out of people.”
<><><><>
“Yahtzee,” Ellen said after making her roll. “I so rock at this game.”
Elliott looked upon her curiously. “You rock at this game? What does that mean?”
“It means I’m good.”
“Yahtzee requires little skill. It’s all chance.”
“How can you say that?” Ellen asked. “I have to decide what I’m going to roll for, don’t I, huh?”
“Yes, but you don’t determine what is actually rolled. That is chance.”
“Not really.”
“How can you say ‘not really’?”
“Because I estimate the odds of the dice that have rolled, the hands that I have rolled, and the odds of what I need to roll.”
Elliott stared at her. “You are so full of shit.”
“No, I’m not kidding.” Ellen paused. “Ok. I am. But Roy would.”
At that second Roy walked into the living room. “Boy those children in there can be exciting and fun. Have you heard them speak about Forrest Ceceres? Alexandra imitates him wonderfully.”
“Watch.” Ellen winked at Elliott. “Hey, uh, Dean. I just rolled two fives. I need three more. That are the chances of me rolling three fives in the next roll.”
Roy nodded. He looked at the card at what she had rolled, and lifted Elliott’s card. “That would be one in four thousand, two hundred and twenty-one.”
“Thanks,” Ellen said.
“No problem. Good luck.” He walked back to the bedroom area.
“Is he serious?” Elliott asked.
“Oh yeah, very. He’s super smart. I mean all he had to do was learn when he was younger. No influence whatsoever.”
“Why haven’t you shared much of what he has told you?”
“I have his trust. And he hasn’t really told me much.” Ellen shrugged. “Just that he had a purpose for being here and was stuck. He said he’d let me know when he accomplished his mission.”
“Did he say why?’
“Just to make the future a better place. He was matured …” Ellen drifted into thought.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Elliott I just had a thought.”
“What’s that?”
“He was matured, meaning placed in a womb out of a need for a great scientific mind. If the future was so bad and they needed that, what will become of him one he makes the future bright.”
“You mean if a bad future was the reason for his birth, then if the future turns and is good, would he be born.”
“Yes.”
Elliott shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Then we have to do something, we have to secure his life.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Ellen asked. “He is a great mind. My God, we can use him. If that turning point comes and his mission is successful. It is conceivable that he could disappear.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve seen back to the future.”
Elliott held up a hand. “Ok. But what can we do to secure his birth?”
“Talk to the person that is responsible.”
“Dean?”
“No.” Ellen shook her head. “Danny Hoi.”
Upon her stating the name of Danny Hoi, Ellen left leaving Elliot alone at the house with the kids and Roy.
She also left him wondering. Ellen claimed that Roy didn’t tell her much, but somehow Elliott doubted it. Perhaps Ellen didn’t see the relevance in stating all that Roy the Clone shared with her. Obviously, there was great detail on something if Ellen knew who was responsible for the birth of the clone.
Elliott, intrigued, watch Roy shake the cup with the dice and giggle.
“This is an exciting game,” Roy stated.
“Yes, Yahtzee is. That’s why they say to yell out when you get a Yahtzee.”
“Which is all the same of the dice.”
“Yes.”
Roy looked at his roll. He looked at his sheet, and picked up to dice, tossing them back in the cup.
“Are you calculating?” Elliott asked.
“Yes, the odds. The odds are in my favor that I will roll a two and a four.”
“But doesn’t that take the fun out of it?” Elliott asked. “I mean having to do math?”
“Oh, no.” Roy chuckled. “Math is fun.”
Elliott crinkled a brow. “Did you gamble a lot?”
“No. There was no gambling in my …” Roy stopped. He looked up. “In my home town.”
He almost slipped. Elliott knew it. He nodded and watched Roy play. Ellen wasn’t gone that long. He had to lie and tell Roy she went to see Frank.
The truth was she did run to see Danny. Needing to secure the survival of Roy. But how? Ellen said she had a plan. Elliott reminded her that she could not disclose the truth about the clone and Dean.
Ellen said she had a plan.
But he had to wonder, what was she going to say? Elliott trusted that. Ellen was smart, she knew the importance, and he was confident that she would not divulge any info she wasn’t supposed to.
<><><><>
Besides, Betsy was his plane, like his car, and he took care of her, treating her like a prized possession, even hanging fuzzy dice from the controls.
They had good strong conversation on the flight, and the stop off provided a moment of rest and food.
A small training camp was there in St. Louis, mainly a camp to train mechanics.
They were working on the railroad system as well. One day, George conveyed, the system of travel would be back and running. From one end of the country to the next.
It was on the second leg that George told them of his plans. Plans he hadn’t even shared with his own people.
“Retired!” Tigger said with some enthusiasm, popping his head between the front two seats like a kid in the back of the car. “No way. Really?”
“I’m curious,” Lars interjected. “How does one retire from a leadership position in a post-apocalyptic world?”
George chuckled.
“I know you’ve said about me taking over here, and you working on the Air Force, but I didn’t think retirement” Lars said.
“Yep.” George nodded. “I have to. Besides being tired of it, I love Beginnings. I realized that while I was there. I want to kick back and work a job like I use to. The Air Force is going to take up a lot of my time and I need to concentrate on that. I have planes to get, fix, and pilots to train. Fast, too.”
“How soon will you be heading back?” Lars asked.
“Soon. I have to pack some things. Head back. Try to win Margaret back.”
“Who will be in charge?” Lars questioned.
“Actually, Stew Lang ran things and can continue to do so, reporting to Frank. I’ll help out. I have to. Frank isn’t gonna know exactly how things go. But I’ll be there in the event of transition. Bertha will be in charge of my military.”
Quickly, both George and Lars looked back when Tigger sighed.
“What?” George asked.
“I love her.” Tigger grinned. “Hurry, George get us there. I can’t wait to take her in my arms.”
Lars peered over his shoulder. “Seeing the obvious physical differences, don’t you mean, she takes you in her arms?”
Tigger shrugged. “Same difference.”
Inhaling through his nostrils, Lars peered at George through the tops of his sunglasses. “I think we need another stop. I’m not so sure I want to see this reunion.”
<><><><>
“Have you ever seen the movie, Back to the Future?” Ellen asked Danny Hoi.
Danny chuckled “You came running over to my house at ten at night to ask me that question.”
“No, seriously, we do have to talk.” Ellen said, sitting on his sofa. “But I was just wondering. Did you?”
“Of course. Who hasn’t?”
“In the first one. Do you remember what almost happened to Marty because he interfered too much with his parents in the past?”
“He almost wasn’t born.”
Ellen nodded. “Exactly.”
“OK. And …”
“And I gave great thought to how and what I’m going to tell you. I am limited; see, because there are things that I can’t tell you.”
“Says who?”
“Says those who know who say no one else should know.”
“Why can’t I know?” Danny asked. “I’m pretty important to this community.”
“And to the future. So you should know.”
“Then tell me.”
Ellen held out her pinky.
“What’s this?”
“Pinky swear Danny.”
“Pinky swear that what is told to me goes no further than you and I?”
“Yes.”
Danny latched his finger to hers. “Pinky swear.”
“Ok.” Ellen leaned back. “Something has gotten swept under the rug, and it’s more on purpose to not generate questions.”
Danny nodded.
“In Containment. Remember when Fort first showed up? Do you remember the reason he insisted on why he was there?”
“Absolutely. He said he came from the future and was chasing a clone.”
“But he didn’t know who, or what the clone looked like.”
Danny smiled. “Is it Dean?”
“Why would you say that?”
“Is it?”
“Why would you say that?”
“Why won’t you answer?”
“Danny.”
Danny sighed out. “Fine. A few things leave me to believe the clone is Dean. One, the serial mutilation evidence. Dean’s not a mutilator. Another is tracking. Why would Frank have me track Dean? And finally, Joe’s death. Frank had me pull up where Dean was when Joe died. The only reason whatsoever to suspect Dean was even at the scene of the murder would be if he had motive—which he didn’t. Or someone saw Dean at the scene. So I figured someone saw him, Frank checked. It wasn’t Dean. It was the clone. Simple.”
“But the clone didn’t have anything to do with Joe’s death. We just don’t know why he was there.”
Danny nodded. “And there’s more.”
“More what?”
“More reasons why I think the clone is Dean.”
“Go on,” Ellen said.
“Frank had me track Dean. Right?” Danny asked. “But, now, I turn on tracking, Dean’s not even coming up. Yet, Dean is right in the clinic. Now either he had brain surgery and had the chip removed, or it’s not Dean. Plus, that Dean that’s been hanging out at the lab, is way too smart. Does way to much stuff and he didn’t know me.”
“He knows you all right, just not this you.” Ellen sighed out.
“What did you mean?”
“I’ll get back to that. When did you know?”
“Right away. First day. I suspected the clone was Dean because they had pulled the tracking. I mean, everyone knew Fort was chasing a clone. He made no secret of it. But I think many forgot. I didn’t. I fire up the Dean tracker every day. I wake up one day, fire up the tracker. Dean’s gone. I go to tell Frank. But as I do so, I see Frank walking with Dean. I look at the tracker. Nothing.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I figured you guys drew him out. I would have done the same thing.”
“I didn’t draw him out. I just figured it out.”
“By how he works.”
Ellen nodded. “He invents too much, too fast, and too advanced. Plus, the way he talks.”
“And dresses.”
“That’s because all he ever watched were old sitcoms. Especially Happy Days.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Please do.” Ellen said.
Danny tilted his head.
“He is so smart because he spent his life in an isolated room with nothing to do but learn. No human contact. Nothing. Just invent and solve.”
“How horrible. Who would do such a thing?” Danny asked.
“You.”
Silence.
Danny blinked his eyes several times. A look of confusion on his face. “I don’t get it. Me?”
“A great war will take place.”
“I know this.”
Ellen nodded. “In the future, the future that the clone comes from, things are bleak. Hence his reasons to come back.”
“Wait. Time out.” Danny formed a ‘T’ with his hands. “He told you this?”
“I told him I knew who he was, and he told me many things. One of which was why he came back. He wasn’t specific, just that he had to come back to make things better in the future.”
“So things were bad.”
“According to him, they are really bad. The War killed so much. He says he has evidence and will show it after he knows for a fact that things have changed.”
“But if things change, wi
ll the evidence be there?”
“I asked him that. He said yes. Because it is synthetic and recorded. Just like when Henry wrote the journals, he carried through the time machines. They didn’t change.”
Danny nodded. “Go on.”
“Well, the world went bad. And you Danny, as we’d all expect, did your part to bring it all back. You were a huge part of the rebuilding. But the problem was bigger than you. Much bigger. You knew what the world needed. You knew the world needed a great mind. Thirty years from now, in a desperate attempt to save humanity from extinction, because of a problem with conception, you invent a viable artificial womb. An amazing womb. Eggs are harvested, mankind develops …”
“Farming,” Danny said. “Just like Fort explained. That was me?”
“Yes. It was you.”
Danny chuckled. “How do I have the knowledge, medically, to build the artificial womb?”
Ellen smiled. “It’s a vicious circle. Just like you invented the invisi suits.”
“Oh, my God. I’ll really never get to invent them, I’ll just …”
“Present them as an invention, right. Of course Danny, you have to learn the technology behind the suits and the womb.”
“I’m gonna take it the clone is inventing the womb?”
“He has. It’s in the lab.”
“So I learn them, learn how they work …”
“And are the named inventor.”
“So at sixty-six years old,” Danny said, “I invent the womb to save the world.”
“Yep.”
“Wow.”
“There’s more. Five years later you present to the counsel your theory that the world needs a great mind. You devise a plan. Take this great mind, feed it information while he develops, educated him in the womb, and do nothing but educate him while he grows. Limit outside stimuli so that all he can do is think, cure, and create.”
Danny winced. “It sounds so cold.”
“It was the only way. Imagine Dean untouched by any outside problems. Imagine how far his mind would have gone. You did. In the future. Forty years from right now, you have the clone of Dean processed and developed. You bring the forth the clone embryo that has been frozen, it is implanted in a womb …”
“So I don’t clone Dean, I just know where the embryo is hidden?” Danny asked.
The Third Ten Page 110
