While Jessi was away in Honolulu, the rest of the kids that were in college- save Jeremiah and Jona- left for Chicago. Jessi was still practicing with her new teammates and preparing for their first game against Russia. Jessi had an advantage over her teammates. She was used to getting sports massage like the Russians. “Look guys, I know the benefits of sports massage”, she told them. “At least give getting an event massage a shot. I promise, it will be quick and it will make you feel energized and ready to play.” She decided that she was just going to do her thing and got daily massages while they were waiting and asked that one of the team therapists came to the game so that she could get to event massage so that she could perform at her highest potential.
Their first game was a sweep. Jessi pitched her heart out. She may have let a few of the Russians slip past her, but the US team won by a landslide. The team carried her back to the locker room on their shoulders. “For she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow! Which nobody can deny!” they shouted. When they got back to the locker room, the entire team paused at Jessi’s locker.
All Jessi could do was smile. “Mama! Daddy! You made it!” she shouted as she jumped off of their shoulders and threw her arms around their necks.
They smiled and hugged her. “Yes, we made it”, David laughed. “Like we could miss our baby girl in the Olympics.”
“I can tell someone’s been doing like I taught her through school”, Brie said.
“Every day. I go to the team therapists and get regular massage like I used to when I was in school. I think that my performance today made all of them believers”, Jessi laughed. “I’m so happy you guys made it. How long are you able to stay?”
“Until you guys are either eliminated or wearing a medal around your necks. We’re here for the duration, baby girl”, David said with a smile.
One of Jessi’s teammates tapped her on the shoulder. “Jessi, are those your parents?”
“I wouldn’t have called them Mama and Daddy if they weren’t”, she said with a roll of her eyes. “Come on Cameron; think about that for a minute.”
“I suppose you’re right, but did you know that your father is a rock star?”
“No”, Jessi said, the smart ass within coming out to take a peek. “I only grew up with him writing music, disappearing for weeks and MONTHS at a time to either record or tour. But, I didn’t know my father was a rock star. He’s only Dad to me. David Draiman doesn’t exist in our house. He’s just my Daddy.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense. Ok, I’ll let you get changed, Jessi. Have fun.”
“We have another game later. What are you guys doing?”
“We change between games.”
“That’s bad luck. I can’t win these things on my own. If we get eliminated because you guys want to waste time changing between games, you’re all retards but grown. As for me, I’m just going to throw on my sweat suit, go to lunch with my parents, then about fifteen minutes before warm up, I’m going to get another massage. Changing is bad luck for me. Did that one time, and even though I’d gotten a massage before the game, I threw out my shoulder. Never again will that happen.” She pulled her jacket on and started heading out of the US locker room with her parents.
---------------
Jeremiah felt like he was going insane as he tried to pull all of the things together for the Kennedy Center ceremony for his father in his mother’s absence. Delilah and Makayla were having trouble choreographing the song they were going to dance to. Hell, they were having trouble agreeing on a song. Delilah wanted to do ‘The Infection’. Makayla wanted to do one of the newer songs, more specifically, the song that was written for their mother. All Jeremiah could do was sigh.
Jake was going to do the voice over for the video and he was trying to get a few ideas of what he wanted to say. As certain segments were finished, Marc would email them to Jake and Jake would start working on his monologue.
And, Jeremiah managed to get it confirmed that his godfather, Dan Donegan, was going to introduce and induct his father into this proud and elite group of men and women. Dan had insisted. So, Dan was in writing his induction speech for the ceremony and keeping Jeremiah updated on how well it was going.
The musical tribute was going to star Reckless Disregard and feature Royce March of Crosshairs and a young up and comer that Jordan had taken under her wing named Ryan Winters. He was the vocalist for a new band called Wrought Iron. Rumor had it that one of those boys could damn near mimic the “monkey call” that Jeremiah, Jordan, and Malachai’s father did in ‘Down With the Sickness’. If Jeremiah knew his older sister, she wasn’t going to let either of them do it unless she absolutely couldn’t do it. They were trying to discern what songs they would sing and who would do what. For sure, ‘Rise’, ‘Down With The Sickness’, ‘The Night’, ‘Prayer’ and ‘Never Again’ would be performed and Jordan was making it very clear that she was singing ‘Never Again’. They were tossing around a few of the older songs like ‘Indestructible’, ‘Another Way to Die’, even ‘Inside the Fire’, as well as a lot of the newer songs from after the Occupation. No one could make up their mind. Jeremiah was about ready to tell them all what the final song would be himself and end the bickering.
What amazed him was that his father was still clueless as to what everyone was up to. “I still don’t believe it”, he said while he was on the phone with his mother one night. His father was in the shower.
“He’s not completely oblivious, ‘Miah. Just keep that in mind”, Brie told her son. “It’s more that he’s blissfully ignorant. He doesn’t want to know, so he convinces himself that the whole thing is going to be nothing but a surprise. He’s walked in on my speaking to your Uncle Dan in code about it and he figured out the code in no time.”
“You and Uncle Danny are always pretty obvious about that code you two speak.”
“It was a code that the wives developed during the Utopian Conflict. It helped us keep things from the men, but your father figured it out and called me on what I’d said the day before.”
“You ladies actually managed to keep things from Dad and the guys during the War? How?”
“I don’t know if you remember the Lake Tenkiller Rally or not, but that’s what we were keeping for them. I can’t for the life of me tell you what the code was exactly, but when Uncle Danny started speaking it I feel into it automatically. It’s kinda like when you’re father and I haven’t spoken Hebrew with you kids for a while and you’ve forgotten certain words, but when you finally speak it again, it comes back. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I think I get what you’re saying. I guess I equate it to the prayers at Hanukkah. We don’t use them all year so we kinda forget them. But, we know exactly what Dad’s saying when we light the Menorah at sunset.”
“That’s as good an analogy as any. Now, how is the set list for the tribute coming?”
“Jordan, Royce, and Ryan keep arguing over what the final song is going to be. Jordan wants to keep things old school with stuff from before the Occupation because those songs are the songs that made Dad the song writer he is today. Those songs define him. But, Ryan grew up with Post- Occupation Disturbed and he wants to do some of the newer material. He wants to sing the song Dad wrote for you.”
“No. Not on his fucking life. That’s my song and NO ONE sings it but your father. I’m making that call.”
“Understood and I’ll let them know.”
“Good boy, ‘Miah. Now, I’ve got to go. The water in the bathroom just shut off and your father can now hear me. I’ll talk to you later son.”
“Ok, Mom. Love you and give Dad my love, too.”
“Will do; and I love you too. Bye, ‘Miah.”
“Bye Mom.”
---------------
When Jessi checked her email that evening, she found an interesting letter from her twin brother. He was called ‘The REAL Dad… Caution when watching attachments. You might be shocked.’ Jessi was a little taken aback when she read the massive title but opened it and put her ear buds. “Hey Jess, you know how Dad’s always been called the Voice of the Resistance because of the work he did during the Occupation? Well, as I’ve been working on this video, I’ve gained a new appreciation for what that means. You might want to watch these to see what people mean when they call Dad the Voice. It will show you a whole different side of Dad- a side that Dad’s never shown us.”
Jessi downloaded the videos to her laptop and played them. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as she watched her father on stage in front of not thousands, but MILLIONS of people as he gave the impassioned and historic “Never Again” speech in Austin, TX. “Holy shit!” she said out loud. “He means every word he’s saying there. I know that tone in my father’s voice”, she said aloud to herself. Then, she watched her father dare the Utopians to come find in him his final monologue to the men and women of the Resistance. She’d had no idea that the Utopians wanted to burn her father alive for his alleged crimes. All he was doing was protecting the rights that the nation’s founding fathers had laid out in the constitution so many years before. But, she had to admit that her father was a bold mother fucker for daring the people that wanted to take him from their family to come and get him and how he told them that the war would end by the end of that year. “My children will know a world where they can play outside and not have to worry about being taken or shot at because of their last name. My children will know a world where they can go trick or treating on Halloween and not have to worry about some soldier stopping them because of who their father is. My children will NOT fight this war after I’m gone.”
She got out of her bed and went up to the suite her parents were staying in. She felt the need to give her father a hug. She had never seen the man in those videos and she was proud to call him her father. She’d never know what he had done during the War, but now that she did she wanted to tell him so and that she loved and was proud of him. When she knocked on the door, she bounced her foot impatiently as she waited for one of her parents to open the door. When it swung open, it was her father. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged his as tightly as she could. He was rather taken aback. “Jessykah, what the hell are you doing?” he asked in his shock.
“Daddy, I never knew what you did during the Utopian Conflict until tonight when I checked my email and Marc had sent me a couple of clips. I know I tend to be a bit clueless about what REALLY happened. But, now that I know, I wanted to tell you that I love you and that I’m proud to call myself your daughter.” She’d started to cry as she spoke.
David hugged his daughter and pulled her into the hotel room he shared with her mother. “Jessi, sweetie, I’ve put that part of my life behind me. I may very well be known as the Voice of the Resistance until I die, but the only thing I want you and your siblings to know me as is Dad.”
“But, aren’t you proud of the work you did?”
“Very much so, baby girl. The Utopian Conflict and the things I did are some of the proudest moments not only of my career, but of my life. I became a husband and a father not long before and started having children of my own not long after. I inspired the masses to stand up and do what they had to do to reattain the rights that had been taken from them when the war started. I’m very proud of the work I did. But, I’m more proud of the job I did raising my children.”
“We’re all proud to call ourselves your children, you know. I’ve never been as proud as I am now. I decided that I’m going to kick my teammates in the collective ass and we’re going to win that Gold. I’m doing it for you and Mom.”
David smiled at his nineteen year old daughter. “You don’t have to do that, Jessi, but I’m sure your mother will appreciate it. I know I do. Now, don’t you have an early game in the morning?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should take your ass back down stairs to your room and get some rest, shouldn’t you?”
She smiled. “Yes, sir. I’m going. Good night, Daddy. I love you.”
“I love you too, Jessi baby. Good night.”
----------------
Though it was late, Jordan and her wife stood in her living room as Davina taught her to hula. Jordan was learning that the rhythm in her hips could be slowed down and put to a pretty tropical melody. Davina sang in Hawaiian as they danced. She loved teaching Jordan and Levi about her home as much as the loved learning about the fascinating culture that Jordan came from.
When they took a break to get some water, Jordan kissed her wife. “Damn, baby, you sure know how to wear a girl out”, she laughed.
“Oh, I haven’t worn you out yet”, Davina said with a smile. “I’ll do that later. But, one of these days, I’m taking you and Levi out to Kona where I’m from. It’s beautiful.”
“You want to take Levi to play on the same beaches his Mama Vina played on as a child.”
“Yeah, after the war was over.”
Jordan smiled. “Sounds like a plan to me, gorgeous. Now, about that wearing me out…” She reached out to pull Davina gently into her.
“So, that’s why you were doing this?” Davina said jokingly.
“Oh, you know it”, Jordan laughed. “What does your wifey have to do to get some lovin’?”
“All she has to do is give me a kiss and I’ll take it from there.”
Jordan pressed her lips to Davina’s and Davina laid her on the couch after removing her clothes. Jordan could only lay back and sigh in pleasure as her wife of three years showed her love and what pleasure was.
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