206 New Beginnings Ahead

 

A few weeks into the new job, and Jyoti doesn't feel better about anything, but she's started to notice that time is passing again. She's moving forward, with or without her son. It feels horrible. But as a new recruit, she's getting screamed at in the face and yelled into even more punishing workouts, so in a way it makes her feel better. Join the army, she thinks. At least, you'll be able to pass the time.

Drained from training constantly, she answers the phone when it rings without looking at the caller id. Which is probably good, because someone found an actual payphone and her cell did not know what to do with that information.

“House of pancakes.” She answers.

“It's me. How have you been?” The voice on the other end of the line sounds genuinely concerned for her.

“What the hell, Loki?” She stumbles over her words, a million retorts not able to form.

“I heard about what happened, I'm so sorry.”

“Long time no see.” She replies woodenly. “Heard about what?” She plays dumb, wanting the salt to really rub into her wounds when he has to explain himself. Wondering if he's going to be embarrassed and back off.

“There was an article in the newspaper. It was about your dad, and about... your loss.”
“Loki, I'm not really in the mood to be consoled by you.”

“Well I don't hate you enough not to call at least.”
“You don't hate me... enough?” Her brain isn't quite working lately. That's one thing she loves about her new job.

“I didn't know, that it would be him, or your son. I swear it. I never new who's life might be...”

click

She hangs up on him before he can make her feel guilty for staying in Starlight.

Jyoti starts jogging again.

Me three, Jet. Me three.

xD

He turns his attention to missing his girlfriend, and paints her on the front lawn of the house. She has eyes that are much more round, but hey, artistic license, right?

Everet has investigator jobs to do here, but I don't really do them.

Still amazing the game assigned you this job, mister crook.

Also this person belongs in Starlight.

Jet has had enough of waiting around to get older and proposes to Christian right before graduation.

She gets some kind of happily ever after promises.

Jet gets genuine affection from the one person whose opinion he actually cares about. He can't do anything about the past, but he can start to move the wheels of the future. At least, for himself and Christian.

“Hey dad... how come some people's lives are just full of worthless, useless things?”

Dustin freezes up. He was just down here to shower and have a cookie after his show.

“Life isn't about a destination, Jyo. It's not like, a big orchestra where you're merely being conducted, you have more than one roll to play. No, you could say we all are the play, but we get to decide how to act...”

“Dad... you're losing your flair for the dramatic.”

“No no, now I'm not saying you can't join the army and somehow end up in the navy because of that, which will naturally lead to a successful jet pilot career until one day they launch you into space, but don't you ever start to doubt your roll on this stage. The moment you do, some worthless stagehand steps in to replace you as a stand in.”

“Nevermind dad, I read you loud and clear.”

“You get it now?”

“Yes dad I have no further questions.” She lies.

He rambles on about how life is never really full of garbage for something like fifty more minutes until she feels the need to interrupt.

“What makes you think I am going to be an astronaut though?”

“I could still get into art, like Jet.”

“Then what are all your muscles for?!”

Jyoti just smiles a small smile. This is one of her father's ways of coping lately. Meddling with her every decision and trying to help her reason her way through it.

“Your body is art. It's a work of art, that you have sculpted carefully for years. You should be proud of what you've accomplished already. Most people are so lazy they will not even get out of their chair once in three hours, so they can write to fake people they meet online in video chat rooms. You have built something you can build on, your body will let you live a long and healthy life...”

“Yeah thanks I'm going to keep working out.”

“Good.” Dustin remembers to chew again, satisfied that he's made an impact one of his children he can help. Makes him forget all his other failings as a father.

Wiggles sleeps in the butler's sweet above the garage. It's kind of like a storage room with a bed and mini kitchen in it. I'm also pretty sure he's a face one, I don't know if I bothered to confirm it for sure.

Meghan (and the others) are working with focused aggression to move ahead into whatever future lies before them. Meghan leads, and over the next few weeks and months of intensive experiments on the apparatus in her own back yard, hard work must pay off.

Dustin marches up in his jammies to see what roused him out of bed. “My wife. What's all this? I mean, it looks cool and all...”

“Get up here, it all needs to equalize at precisely one third of the total energy consumed and it'll drop when switching nodes. Can you operate the green one for me?”

Dustin grins. It's on. The biggest thing he'll ever get to tinker with in his life.

Jyoti always finds it startling to find someone other than Malcolm in her room when she gets home from training. Instead of the feeling of closeness and warmth that was once in this room, it feels a bit like a regressing back to her younger days. Arresting at first, but better than an empty room. Everet and she have different schedules as he works mostly nights, so really she's able to fall asleep right before he has to get up and leave. It doesn't always help her sleep like she had been hoping, but the rigorous training from the base fills in the rest of the sleep depravity enough to keep her from staying up all night doing things she's going to regret later.

For Everet, this is as close as he ever wants to be to getting married. He is doing this strictly as a favor, and not because he wants to actually share his space with anyone else.

Also rocketships are cool. Maybe Jyo will let him on one, one day.

He doesn't snore and all his sarcasm goes away when he's sleeping. It's kind of... endearing.

...was that the word? Jet would know.

The soft sounds of breathing make the room everything she needs at the moment.

“Thanks, Ev.” She whispers one night when she knows he won't hear her. “Now I don't have to run away from home and sleep on a park bench.”

“Think how bad the food would be.” He mumbles in his sleep.

Meanwhile, the more mature Sparrows are working outside.

And having what looks like an immense amount of fun in very little time. Meghan has spent weeks and weeks calibrating this thing (plus some restorations had to be done as it has sat outside unused for more than a decade). She never had the luxury of time to work on a device like this (much less two other people to help her with it). Now that she's got the market on specimen bugs cornered and cash-flowing, she can finally play around with new things.

Dustin and Meghan work through the night that night, talking about the near future in an excited way for the first time in a long while. The subject of what (and whom) they've lost, is still something they both try their best to avoid approaching.

Everet is adapting nicely to the investigator dining plan, I see.

Nice looking out, ghost. You must've seen that your son in unable to make ramen noodles for himself, let alone unfreeze a waffle.

Eww. Dead things. The trip to China has now lost all significance, other than to fill up Meghan's bug collection.

“I ASKED if you had seen Jyoti's new husband over there?”

The ghost just stares right through Dustin as if he's not talking.

“You know, on the OTHER SIDE?” He doesn't know if the ghost is deaf of just ignoring him. Either way, Eugene behaved similarly in real life.

...how did... how did a ghost get stink?

You know what, I'm going to stop asking these kinds of questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next time.. the Sparrows do... whatever this thing does. I barely remember. So tune in!

And probably we get to have a long-awaited burial.