He eats his dinner in silence. He studies each member of the family and knows that this will be the last time he’ll be with them, the last time he will see his father as a baby. His racing thoughts are popped when his grandmother speaks.
That, I will not miss, he reckons, smirking to himself.
“That lucky box thing you got for Benjamin - I don’t like it, it looks evil,” she growls. “I don’t like the idea of giving it to him.”
“It’s just a box, Margaret,” Arthur argues meekly, “he can put his small toys in it.”
“He’s too young for small toys!” she snaps at him.
“I’m not giving it to him yet,” Jack’s grandfather patiently explains to his disgruntled wife. “When he’s older I will.”
“And when he’s older I’m going to give him my soldier set,” his brother Bill chips in.
“Humph!” she says and focuses on her dinner again.
That’s right! remembers Jack. His father had been given a Lucre Box as a boy but his parents hadn’t kept it because his mother thought it was evil.
Looks like she won this battle, he grins to himself.
Megan and his parents were becoming very concerned indeed. He had been in this state for two days now and his face was taking on an ashen colour, even though an intravenous tube had been inserted. The medics were providing round the clock care, and kept assuring them that Jack was doing well. The thing that scared Megan, however, was that they couldn’t tell them when Jack would come round.
How would they know anyhow, she thought.
Megan took hold of Jack’s hand and kissed him.
“Please come home,” she whispered in his ear, “we love you.”
Nancy and Ben hugged her. The three had become close over the trauma. Refreshments were brought in for them. None felt like eating, but forced themselves anyway. The food tasted good, and the non-alcoholic drinks immediately relaxed them.
It was the same drink that Megan had been given when she was angry about being held against her will by Sobek’s brother and his team.
Jack now wants to cherish his last moments with his family and asks if they can all sit around the fire in the living room that night and chat. He announces that he will be leaving in the morning at first light and returning to the South Island. They are surprised, their expressions changing to sadness. All except his grandmother. And Benjamin who is too young to understand. He dribbles and grins at Jack innocently.
That night Jack has a chat with each of the boys, getting to know them; his uncles. He has Benjamin on his lap, cuddling him and whispering in his ear that it won’t be the last time they will see each other.
“Just a little differently,” he says quietly to his baby father.
Marjorie is a sweetie, appearing quite upset about Jack’s impending departure. They have some good laughs as Arthur tells a number of interesting stories. It takes Jack by surprise, as he didn’t think his grandfather would be such a storyteller.
He then remembers his large purchase that day, of the chest of drawers. It is going to take three weeks for it to be delivered. He decides to give it to the family, telling them it is a gift in appreciation of their hospitality. They are delighted, his grandmother even thanking him.
When everyone has gone to bed, Jack lies there for a good couple of hours to make sure everyone is asleep. He nearly falls asleep as well and has to force himself to stay awake. When he is certain everyone has nodded off he steals into the living room and goes over to the sideboard. He opens the drawer very slowly, finding it stiff and squeaky. Carefully he takes out the Lucre Box and holds it in both hands. He reads the inscription on its lid, discerning that it is the same inscription his one had:
“Sinestu-ipini-itxaro-ahalguzti.”
He then witnesses the letters flickering, dull at first then becoming brighter and more colourful. Jack closes his eyes and whispers the words of the inscription. He opens his eyes in time to see a bright green luminous ray of light shoot through the window.
Once again Jack feels like he is in a gravitational pull then weightlessness.
Chapter 20
It took a while for Jack to realise where he was. He heard people talking quietly and felt the warm pressure of someone holding his hand.
There was his Megan, his adorable young girlfriend. At first she didn’t notice Jack had returned because she was talking to Nancy. Nancy saw first and smiled at him. Jack did a quick squeeze of Megan’s hand, making her shriek with joy. Exhilaration set in by everyone.
Jack felt enormous relief while Megan embraced him tightly. Someone had rung the household, and within a few minutes the girls came flooding in with Sobek in tow. They jumped all over him in great excitement.
The medical team carried out an examination and were satisfied Jack was well enough to return home.
A large welcome party was awaiting him, the housestaff having quickly organised a feast. The cooks must have known he would be ravenous. Jack ate till he couldn’t move. A steaming bath was also waiting for him.
The following evening Jack asked his father for some time alone together.
“Dad, I’d like to tell you about my journey,” he stated, plumping up the cushions and getting himself comfortable.
“Sure Son, I’d like to hear where you went. It must’ve been very interesting because you didn’t want to come home in a hurry.”
“Draw up a pew Dad, this is going to take a while,” Jack announced, grinning inanely. “Oh yeah, it was definitely interesting, it’s going to knock your socks off.”
“Do you remember that Lucre Box your father gave you?”
Chapter 21
Jack hadn’t forgotten the reason why he’d wanted to escape on a journey in the first place, the reason why he’d acted recklessly, typing in a time and date that he didn’t think would work. He hadn’t forgotten the tall order that had been requested of him, to return to Earth to introduce genetically modified foods in order to create a more contented race of people and extinguish world hatred and greed. And as a result he’d be rewarded with a significant sum for each of his charges.
He weighed up the ethics of the situation. It seemed almost hypocritical to accept such an amount when he was supposed to be fighting world greed. He had to ask himself what he was doing it for, and needed some space to rethink things, and this time, he told himself, he had to act rationally. After all, he had everything here.
Money is just paper. The girls are going to have a great life anyway. They don’t need 40,000,000 Egyptian pounds each to live a good life. But what if something went wrong, and everybody started living in poverty? The girls might grow up hating me for cheating them out of a good future just because I couldn’t bear to be away from them for a few years.
He was giving himself a headache.
Jack was confused as to what to do. He’d only been living on Jovian five minutes, or so it seemed. Jack knew only too well that people generally didn’t like change and it would be a gargantuan task. He knew he’d be swallowed up in bureaucracy, which would definitely take its toll on him.
“I don’t need the hassle,” he said to Megan. “Let someone else do it if they want to; who cares about their problems anyway, it’s boring stuff. And I don’t want to be a friggin’ martyr. Life’s too short for that. I want to be left alone with my perfect girlfriend and family.” He scooped Megan up in his arms and slapped a wet kiss on her lips. Akila, Kenza, and Jordan came in to see them play fighting on the couch.
“Come on, let’s do something cool today,” he suggested to Megan’s clones, waving his hands in a backwards circle and jumping up and down as if he were the same age. The girls giggled.
The family packed a large picnic lunch and flew off in their new utility air vehicles. Jack and Megan thought it would have been better if they could have all travelled in the one vehicle, but knew it was impossible with such a large family. Sobek, Ben, Nancy, Megan and Jack each drove a vehicle, but with GPS monitor screens they could view each other
on the large monitors. Jack lead the way as they flew through the city and out towards the coast, gliding over the rooftops of palatial homes and beautifully landscaped gardens.
“The airways are busy today. Everyone must have had the same idea,” Jack spoke to Megan through the screen.
“This is such a beautiful place,” Megan stated happily.
“Oh yeah, it’s awesome alright,” Jack agreed, blowing kisses into the viewer. His spirits were high.
Bo, Cecile, Kenza, Chione, and Akila, who were travelling with Megan, giggled amongst themselves. Sakmet, Ain and Layla were travelling with Ben and too were listening to Megan and Jack’s conversation.
“You and Mum are always talking about how great this place is,” Sakmet remarked. “What was it like where you came from?”
“Well,” Ben began, “I guess some parts of our home country are very much like here. I’m probably biased but to us it was the prettiest country in the whole world. It was a small country on a large planet and everyone wanted a piece of and was becoming overpopulated in the cities with foreign immigrants who also started buying large chunks of the coastline. Then the indigenous people became threatened by it all and started fighting for their customary rights.”
“Oh, look over there!” Jack cried, interrupting his father. All the girls looked out their windows to see a valley of huge leafy trees, the land covered in enormous purple flowers.
He lead the way over, the AVs hovering for a while so they could take it all in. At that moment something strange happened. The flowers closed up like sea anemones, to burst open again, emitting a sudden spray of crystals and creating a sparkling, iridescent blanket. Jack took his vehicle down to take a closer look, the girls crying in awe. The crystals, they ascertained, were actually diamonds, that cascaded down through the trees and settled beneath them, some landing and bouncing gently on the leaves, sliding off when they could no longer take their weight. The family watched, spellbound, as it happened again.
“So, that’s where they source their diamonds from,” Ben exclaimed, “the secret is out now.”
The utilities went on their way in single file out towards the ocean. The girls spotted miles and miles of sand dunes in the distance bordering the coastline, sand so white it appeared more like snow. Screened behind the sand dunes glistened a cluster of beautiful blue dune lakes. One of the lakes, they observed, was a lagoon that spilled out into the sea, the water so clear it was like viewing through glass. Small fish of the most striking colours darted back and forth, making a spectacular bird’s-eye view of sea life as they hovered over them.
After landing their AVs the girls jumped out, excited, racing each other to the water’s edge while the others found a nice spot to set up the picnic. Thankfully Sobek thought to pack their air vests and jetboards, Akila and Cecile being the first to get changed and grab their boards. They buzzed off in their jet-propelled waterboards with Nancy calling after them to be careful. Before long the normally tranquil lagoon was abuzz with twenty-four jetboards, their riders having a fantastic time trying to outdo one another while the rest of the family kept a watchful eye over them.
“Nah!” Jack said to Megan.
“What?” she looked sharply at him, startled.
“This is the life. I’m just going to carry on with what I was originally asked to do, and that was to establish communication between families up here and the ones they left behind.”
Chapter 22
Jack immersed himself in his telecommunication project. He chose Carlos Dimitri as his first client, who he’d already promised to help.
It was proving a very difficult undertaking, as it had been years since Carlos had gone ‘missing’ a hundred and forty miles west of Bermuda, and he didn’t have any idea where his family would be now, and even if they were still alive. Well, his child most likely would be anyway. The son or daughter would only be in his or her late twenties. At times Carlos became impatient with progress, as every time they thought they had a lead they got knocked back. Jack became frustrated with it also, and Carlos’s attitude was starting to irritate him.
One of the major problems of contacting family members was that not everyone on Earth owned computers yet, and it was more than likely the older generation didn’t have them. Their only hope was that Carlos Dimitri’s child would have one, so they decided to concentrate on locating him or her. The son or daughter may not even carry his name as the mother may have remarried and given the baby her new husband’s name. That was Carlos’s biggest fear, and another, whether or not his child would want to know him; he may not have been told that Carlos existed and had grown up thinking his mother’s husband was his biological father. Jack and Carlos had to remain positive however, as it would have been a fruitless exercise if their fears proved correct.
They put in long hours at the research unit, and Megan started complaining that Jack wasn’t paying enough attention to her. Jack, in turn, felt somewhat pressured by this.
The tiny computer clock ticked over silently, keeping perfect time, Jack inadvertently making a habit of glancing at it as he worked. He used the GPS technique of searching, and through computer electronic mail networks had narrowed it down to one locality. Finally they had a hit. There were forty-two Dimitris listed in the area where Carlos had been stationed when he met his fiancée. The names that Carlos and Glenys had chosen were Sarah for a girl and Robinson for a boy, so although it was a long shot, they keyed in the email address that was registered under the name of ‘S. Dimitri’.
An image came into view, a view of someone’s bedroom. The furniture in the bedroom was seemingly childish with soft toys neatly propped up together on a shelf. Not what they would have thought from an adult female’s bedroom. As they surveyed the room Jack felt it rather intrusive. He spotted a clock on the bedside table and zoomed in to make out the time: 2.07 p.m.
“They must be at work, we’ll have to wait a few hours. Do you want to go home and get some sleep first?” Jack asked Carlos.
“What, are you kidding me? How am I supposed to sleep wondering if this my son’s place? Or daughter’s?” Carlos replied excitedly, correcting himself.
“Well, okay, stay here then. I’ll go and grab us a hot drink and something to eat,” Jack said. He was feeling tired and a bit grumpy.
Is this really going to be it? he asked himself, trying to shake himself out of his irritable mood. Worth the work if it is.
Jack and Carlos sat in front of the computer, the screen showing an empty room, for the next three hours. Due to the inactivity they both fell asleep.
In the small hours Jack roused and peered at the computer. He shook Carlos awake, who nearly fell off his chair at what he saw. The image was marred with horizontal lines and ghosting, but they could quite clearly see a young woman’s face staring back at them in shock. Instinctively Jack typed in a message telling the girl not to be afraid, trying to make clear to her that they weren’t cyber criminals. He glanced at Carlos who was also in shock. In fact, their expressions were so similar it was plain to see they were related, without a doubt. Jack prompted Carlos to type something into the computer.
“Is your name Sarah Dimitri?” he typed. The wide-eyed young woman nodded. Carlos made a visceral sound.
“Keep typing!” Jack instructed, waving his hand at the keyboard.
With trembling fingers and slow to type, Carlos keyed in the words, “My name is Carlos Dimitri and I am your biological father.”
They watched as Sarah’s eyes lowered to read the message, look up again, and then disappear from view altogether. She had obviously fainted.
“What the hell do we do now?” Carlos said, his voice raised.
“Nothing. Just wait. She’ll come round soon,” Jack assured, trying to calm him down. At that moment they saw the bedroom door fly open and a toddler appeared. A little boy carrying a teddy bear, thumb in his mouth and rubbing the bear’s arm over his nose simultaneously. He stood gazing at Sarah on the floor for a few moments, then dumped
his teddy on the floor and ran over to her. Carlos and Jack were unable to hear anything, but could see the boy cry out, ‘Mummy’.
“I have a grandchild. A little boy!” Carlos cried, his face splitting into a wide grin.
Jack tried to angle the camera towards the floor, but could barely see the top of Sarah’s head with the little boy bent over her. He then lay down beside her and snuggled into her side, putting his thumb back in his mouth. Half an hour passed before Sarah came to. Her face appeared in the screen again. She looked pale and frightened.
Jack began to type again, “We are sorry for giving you a scare and hope that you are okay now. It is true, Carlos Dimitri is your father, who disappeared in 1976, just after he found out your mother (his fiancée) was expecting you. He didn’t perish in the Bermuda Triangle but was brought to Jovian, a planet thirty-five light years away from Earth. It has taken us a long time to locate you,” Jack typed, realising that it was similar to the message he’d read when his parents first made contact with him.
Sarah’s expression switched to one of elation, tears streaming down her face. She splayed her hand on the screen and mouthed ‘Daddy’. Carlos started crying as well. He matched Sarah’s hand with his. Jack felt a lump in his throat, admitting to himself that it was a tender moment for him too. Sarah said something to her father.
“What? What’s she saying, Jack? I don’t know what she’s saying to me!” Carlos exclaimed frantically.
“Tell her to type it. Type it to her. Tell her to use the keyboard,” Jack instructed.
Carlos tried hard to stop his fingers from trembling as he plonked away painstakingly slowly to ask Sarah to type her message, telling her he couldn’t hear her. Once she’d received it, her fingers flew over the keys and within seconds her message came through.
“Mother told me you had gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle. They found wreckage, but no survivors. Everyone was presumed drowned. You were out in the middle of nowhere in shark-infested waters,” Sarah typed. Jack and Carlos saw her shiver when she typed that bit.
The Jovian Legacy Page 19
