August crept by to become September and James and his little family, Meagan, and Makayla had to go back out to Chicago with Jessi and Marc joining them for the first time. James was closing in on his Pre- Law degree and he wanted to get back to Loyola to finish it up so and start applying to Law Schools. He’d also learned that the NFL was looking at him. He’d continued to play football through college. It was something he enjoyed. It was fun for him much like beating on a drum was fun for Jeremiah and Meagan.
Meagan was finishing up her Bachelors’ degrees in Mathematics and Molecular Biology. She was being offered a chance to work with NASA. She found the opportunity exciting. She was asked if she would work on her Masters’ in one of both and she told the man who’d called her, “I’ve always been good at Science- especially biology.” The man laughed.
Makayla was going Poly Sci with her degree. She didn’t want to get into politics. She just wanted to understand who everything worked. She’d also majored in Dance, much like her older brother’s wife. Makayla had discovered a love of dance in middle school and begged her parents to enroll her in dance classes. She loved to dance and figured that she would get a degree in dance along with a degree that was practical. She and Delilah were even working on a dance to take to Washington to honor her father with at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in December. The only two people that knew that they were planning that were Jeremiah and Brie.
Jessi was going to major in foreign language with emphasis in Middle Eastern Languages. She loved different tongues and wanted to learn as much as she could about the ones that came from the Middle East. Part of the course study was a trip to the Middle East for a semester abroad. She had already spoken with her Uncle Ben and he was more than happy to put her up while she was in Israel for her semester. But first, Jessi had to concentrate on something else. It was 2036 and she had been selected to play with the Women’s US Olympic Softball team. She’d been practicing all summer with them and was preparing to fly out to the games in Honolulu, Hawaii. David and Brie promised that they would do everything in their power to get out to Honolulu to watch her play. But, the further away he got from Colorado Springs, the harder it was for David to get out and amongst the populous without getting mobbed by rabid fans.
Marc had always been the computer whiz in the family and had decided to make that his major. He was going to specialize in Audio/ Visual effects and work with Reckless Disregard for their music videos. He’d take whomever that Jordan and Malachai decided to send his way. He loved computers and everything about them. He could take any electronic device in the house apart and put it back together with his eyes closed. As he packed his things to head out to Chicago, he talked to his mother about that Kennedy Center Video he had to put together. “Did you get me everything that you want to put in that video, Mom?” he asked.
“What all did I give you, Marc?” Brie asked her youngest son.
He picked up a medium sized black plastic tote that contained several years of video footage and photographs. “This I believe is half of that I have.”
She nodded. “Then I think I gave you everything.”
“Luckily, I’ve spoken with one of my professors and she said that this thing I’m doing for Dad can count as my big project for her class. I told her that the only reasons I was taking her class were because it’s required for my degree and to have access to her A/V lab.”
“You do have a pretty decent one here.”
“Yeah, mine’s pretty good, but hers is state of the art. She even has a machine that I can use to pull off of that ancient VHS footage off of the tape to put it in a true high- definition, digitally re- mastered format.”
“Wow, you’re excited about this, aren’t you?”
“Hell yes I am. I can’t to get into her lab to work on this project.”
“And I’m sure your Dad will love it too.”
“Oh, there’s no doubt about that, Mom. Oh, did you include the Decade of Disturbed Video?”
“Of course, Christopher. Would I have forgotten?”
“No. Unlike Dad, you’re memory’s not slipping.” Marc was joking, but kept his face as straight as he could as he said it.
Brie laughed. She couldn’t help it. “I’m gonna tell him you said that.”
Marc laughed. “That’s one last quick kick in the ass before you two ship Jessi and me away for a few years save the holidays.”
“And there maybe a year that Jessi doesn’t come home for the holidays. She’s going to be spending a semester in Israel and staying with Uncle Ben.”
“Lucky bitch”, he mumbled under his breath.
---------------
Brie told David what Marc had said. “Marc Christopher!” David called from his office where he was working on his book.
“Yes, sir?” Marc said when he walked in. He was fighting the urge to laugh.
“What’s this your mother tells me that you think my memory is slipping?” David asked as he took his glasses off of his face and set them on his desk in front of him.
“Admit it, Dad, you’re getting old and you’re just a touch forgetful.”
“You’re calling me old, Christopher?” David laughed. “Have you lost your mind, child?”
“Quite possibly, Dad.”
David pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Well, at least he’s honest”, with a shrug as he laughed. He took a breath and called to his youngest daughter. “JESSI!”
Jessykah walked into her father’s office with her softball bag on her shoulder. “Yeah, Daddy?”
“Talk some sense into your twin, please.”
“What’s jackass doing now?”
“Calling me old.”
Jessi reached out and smacked her twin brother in the back of the head. “Neither of our parents are old, Marc. They’re well seasoned.” She winked at her parents and left the room.
Marc couldn’t help but laugh. “Ice Queen!” he called after her. “All you’re doing is calling them old in a nice way!”
---------------
Jessi’s flight to Honolulu was later that day. She had to be present for the opening ceremonies. Miah and Jona took her to the airport. “Bring me back that gold, Jess”, Miah said as he hugged his baby sister tight.
“I’ll do my best, but I’m not the only bitch on that field”, she said as she hugged him back. “If Mom and Dad can’t come out to watch me play in the fucking Olympics, then you two please try. It would be nice to see a friendly face.” She moved to Jona to give her a hug as well.
“We’ll do what we can, Jessi.”
“I’m sure that if Mom and Dad can convince Trevor to tear himself away from Jordan and Malachai to watch their asses, then they’ll be there. It might take a little convincing and a little promise making on Dad’s part”, Jeremiah said.
“Do you think he’ll take on that mantle of Morbus again?” Jessi asked.
“He might because it’s Dad and Mom.”
“Trevor’s funny as hell when he’s Morbus. He takes his job so seriously.”
“When it comes to keeping Mom and Dad safe, you had better believe it, Jess. You weren’t around during the War. I wish you could have seen the shit all of us older kids saw. Only then would you understand why Trevor is the way he is.”
---------------
Marc sat in his room tinkering with some of the video footage of his father during the Utopian Conflict. It was footage that he’d been sent after the war had ended. He got to watch the dynamic man that was his father inspiring the men and women that were fighting a fight that never should have happened. What the fuck, man?, he thought to himself. Dad was a monster on that stage. He looked at the label on the disc’s case. “Austin, TX- 2017- ‘Never Again’ Speech” it read. The Never Again speech? I’ve heard about it and read about it, but I’ve never heard it. He played the speech and listened to his father’s comparison of what was happening to the Holocaust of World War II. “NEVER AGAIN WILL WE BE FORCED INTO PRISONS AND CAMPS BECAUSE WE WON’T CONFORM! NEVER AGAIN WILL WE LET THE GOVERNMENT COMMIT GENOCIDE ON OUR FAMILIES!” Marc had to smile. He knew that his father was a passionate man when he spoke, but he’d NEVER heard such passion in his father’s voice before. He wanted that war to end. He wanted everyone to have freedom again. He wanted his children that had been born during the war to learn what freedom was. Marc counted himself lucky that his parents had waited to have him and his twin sister until after the war.
He cut the speech from the video and added it to the “slideshow” that was going to honor a man that he loved and respected more than in the world, though he’d never said it to his face but knew that he should before too long passed and he didn’t have the chance to do so. I hope that I can do you some justice, Dad. It’s the least I can do for such a strong, respected man, he thought as he fought off tears.
He moved to the next video on his list, the final monologue. All he did was rip the recording from the disc it was on and save it in a file he called, ‘The CONFLICT’. It contained all of the pictures and video clips from the Occupation. He’d seen the final monologue, but decided to watch it one more time. He listened to his father dare the Utopians to come find him so that they can end that ridiculous war once and for all, and felt pride swell in his chest; pride that he could call the man speaking his father.
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