Chapter 166: Meet the Parents

Monday, June 21, 1971

I was standing beside Hanna on the rear vestibule of the Rowena as Harvey Newman backed our three railcars into the passenger siding in Longview, Texas. Even though it was only noon, the heat and humidity were both in the upper nineties, and would only get worse as the day wore on. But Hanna didn’t seem to notice as she waved animatedly to the small group of people standing on the platform.

“Look! They brought Jimmy!” Hanna squealed happily.

I counted one man and three women standing there, and what looked like a young man in a wheelchair.

“Jimmy’s my cousin. That’s his mom standing beside my mom. He was in a car wreck in high school. His dad was killed and he was paralyzed from the waist down,” Hanna supplied breathlessly, then resumed waving excitedly to her family.

When the train finally came to a stop, I quickly stepped to the passenger platform and handed Hanna across the narrow gap, into the waiting arms of her family. After many hugs and kisses, Hanna began introducing me to her family.

“Michael, this is my Dad, Robert Castleberry,” she said proudly. Her dad gripped my hand firmly as we shook, but he didn’t say anything as he just looked me up and down. At almost fifty years of age, Hanna had already told me that he was a veteran of WWII and had just retired after twenty-two years with the Longview Police Department. When I scanned him, I detected some surprise over the Rowena and lots of happiness over the arrival of his daughter. I could also detect a pair of emotions about me. Skepticism, and disappointment over my age.

Then she happily introduced her mom and her younger sister. Her mom, Cindy, I knew was a nurse. When I scanned, I found that she was thankful that she had finally convinced her husband to leave police work behind. As a result, she was in the process of reducing her schedule in order to spend more time with her husband.

“Is this him? He doesn’t look old enough to be your boss...” Cindy Castleberry whispered to her daughter, echoing some of her husband’s sentiments.

“Mom-m-m! He’ll hear you!” Hanna squealed. She had already told her parents that she had gone to work for me to make a documentary, but had not mentioned anything about our relationship or impending nuptials on Tapato.

Her parents weren’t the only ones who were disappointed in me. Her younger sister, Alice, who was nineteen, was also disappointed, but only because I was younger than her.

“He’s not bad looking, and it looks like his folks have some money, but he’s so-o young,” she whined to herself as she appraised me.

“What is it with older girls and younger guys?” I lamented for the hundredth time.

“I wonder if she’s actually screwing this kid?” Alice added as an afterthought.

“And this is my Aunt Melanie,” Hanna told me as she pulled back from her aunt’s warm hug so she could introduce me. I had held out my hand, but Aunt Melanie just brushed it aside and wrapped me in her arms.

“I’m so glad to finally meet you,” she gushed warmly.

Then, taking my hand, Hanna led me over to the last member of the group. Hugging him warmly, but carefully around the neck, she whispered in his ear. Then lifting his hand to mine she said, “Michael, I’d like you to meet my favorite cousin, Jimmy.”

Since Jimmy’s useless right hand was curled into a fist, I curled mine and touched his knuckles as I said, “Hi, Jimmy. Nice to meet you.”

His look of surprise was fleeting as I suddenly realized that the “knucks’ gesture was still decades in the future. Trying to cover my gaffe, I quickly invited everyone onboard.

“Oh, yes!” Hanna said. “Just wait until you see the inside.” Then she looked at Jimmy sadly as she realized there was no way to get the wheelchair on board.

“I’ll just wait here with Jimmy,” Melanie said quickly. She was feeling that maybe her coming hadn’t been a good idea, even though she had wanted to see Hanna again. And she just couldn’t have left her son at home alone.

“Since I’ve already seen the inside, why don’t I wait here with Jimmy?” I offered.

“Would that be okay, Jimmy?” his mom asked.

“Sure, Mom. You go ahead,” Jimmy said blandly. I could sense the guilt that was gnawing at his gut. He knew that his injury had kept his mom from doing many things. And that even after repeated reassurances from him, his mom still felt bad about doing anything that left him out. But finally, they were all onboard and it was just Jimmy and I. And typical of teenaged guys, we just kinda looked at each other, not saying anything at first.

In my first life, my brother had been handicapped and I had learned at a young age how to be sensitive to his needs without fawning over him. So, as I was standing beside Jimmy, I slipped back into the same mode.

“How does that thing work for you,” I asked, referring to his wheelchair. “Any good for picking up girls?”

His face jerked around to look at me, and when he saw my smile, he laughed.

“Not really,” he deadpanned. “That’s what my Ferrari is for.”

I laughed. I was slightly surprised at his quick wit. I would find out later that he had a very dry sense of humor.

“How much do you weigh?” I asked out of the blue, a few moments later. I had an idea.

He raised his eyebrows in question as he said, “Around one forty. Why?”

“Can you sit in a regular seat? Like a booth?” I asked quickly.

“Sure. If I can get my chair to it,” he said. “But...” he added as he waved his good arm at the train.

Squatting in front of him, my back to him, I said, “If you can you climb on my back, I’ll piggyback you inside. I think you’ll really like my train.”

Jimmy only debated for a moment before I felt his good hand at my shoulders. With my hands under his thighs, I was careful as I stepped onto the rear vestibule and then began my running commentary as I told Jimmy about the train. I stopped and let him look in my room, describing how it had been designed for the President’s use, before carrying him on to the Dining Car.

I had just deposited him in a booth, and sat down across from him, when Kip brought us a couple of Cokes.

“Kip, Jimmy,” I said by way of introduction.

Jimmy thanked Kip for the Coke and they talked about the train while I took a moment to scan outside.

“All clear,” I thought to Kip. I was trying to stay extra vigilant since Kip was the only remaining security person on the train. Penny, Karla, David, and Beth were with the others of my family.

Soon, the rest of the Castleberry family entered the dining car, chatting noisily. Suddenly, the noise stopped as Melanie cried, “Jimmy! How...”

“Magic, Mom. Didn’t Hanna tell you he was a magician?” Jimmy said.

“Jimmy!” Hanna laughed as she rushed to our table. “Don’t tell all our secrets!”

Then she hugged her cousin and whispered in his ear again. Sliding into the booth beside me, she said, “Thank you, Michael. You are so wonderful!” Then she kissed me, passionately.

It was the sound of her father clearing his throat that caused Hanna to suddenly break our kiss and pull away.

“Maybe I should try kissing my boss like that,” Melanie said, breaking the tension.

Hanna was blushing sixteen colors of red as she reached for my bottle of Coke, trying to buy some time.

“Won’t you have a seat?” I said, nodding at the booth across the aisle. Alice slid into the booth with her mom going in beside her and her dad across from them. Melanie just sat down next to Jimmy, across from Hanna and me. The rest of my crew then melted away, leaving me alone with the Castleberry family.

“Hanna?” her mother asked. “What’s going on?”

When Hanna didn’t answer, her father asked, “Son, how old are you?”

“Mr. Castleberry, I am not your son. My name is Michael and I’m sixteen,” I told him. I could feel the hackles rising as I tried to control my anger.

“Michael...” Ileana and Kalani both thought at the same time. “I’m sure he’s just a father worrying over his daughter. Just like you’re going to be in the near future.” Kalani reminded me.

“Excuse me, ah, Michael. I meant no offense. We’re just not sure what’s going on here,” he said, honestly.

“My apologies, Mr. Castleberry. I tend to get a little defensive about my ... er, youthful appearance,” I told them. Kalani’s words had helped. I wasn’t angry anymore. “I’m sorry if my age is a disappointment.”

“We’re not disappointed, Michael,” Cindy said quickly. “Just surprised. When Hanna told us she had accepted a position with your ... with you, and described how you owned a large company, we weren’t expecting ... I mean, she didn’t tell us you were only sixteen.”

“That’s okay, Mrs. Castleberry,” I told them. “Would you excuse Hanna and me for a moment?”

Without leaving our seats, I turned to Hanna and thought, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to tell them. Kalani just reminded me that I’m going to have daughters one day, and if I was in your dad’s shoes, I’d be uneasy too.”

Hanna hesitated, then she thought, “Okay, Michael. I know I’d feel better. I just don’t know how they’re going to take it. You’ll stay with me won’t you?”

“Of course, Sweetheart. I can tell you that your parents are not angry, just confused a little, and concerned because they love you.” I told her as she turned back to face her family.

“Mom, Dad,” Hanna began tentatively. “Michael has asked me to marry him.”

“What?” cried her dad. Then everyone else started talking. I just looked at Jimmy who sat there with a smile on his face. On impulse, I decided to scan him. He was okay with Hanna wanting to marry me, but he was enjoying the fact that we were rocking the boat. And he was thrilled to be able to listen to it. Jimmy, who was nineteen, had spent the last four years in a wheelchair and his biggest regret, outside of certain biological functions with the opposite sex, was that they tended to leave him out of things. He was very intelligent, and he yearned for anything that would stimulate his mind.

I smiled at Jimmy and then said, “Let me tell you my story.” I proceeded to describe how I had woken up on May seventeenth with no memory of my past and possessing empathic abilities.

“What do you mean ... empathic abilities?” Alice asked.

“Well, it means that I can feel what other people around me are feeling,” I explained.

“You can feel what Hanna is feeling?” Alice interrupted.

“Not only me, but you too!” Hanna told her sister.

“You can tell what I’m feeling? Right now?” she groaned.

“Not really,” I said. “I haven’t tuned into you since I found out on the platform that while you think I’m cute, you would never have anything to do with a guy who was younger than you.”

“O-o-oh, no-o!” Alice groaned again as she buried her face in her hands. The only thing stopping her from running from the car was that her mom had her pinned in the booth. Although I noticed she briefly considered crawling under the table to get out.

“That’s not all Michael can do,” Hanna quickly supplied. Then leaving her thought hanging, she looked at me and grinned.

“I can’t wait until he gets to the no secrets part,” Grace thought with a giggle from the other car. Thank goodness Hanna’s parents didn’t seem to have heard.

“What your daughter is referring to, is that I also have the ability to share my feelings, and the thoughts that are connected to them, with others, empathically,” I thought to the Castleberrys.

It was Jimmy who got it first. He bolted upright in the booth, his eyes wide as he thought, “I can hear him and he’s not talking!”

“That’s not all he can do,” Hanna thought to her family. “He can connect all of us so that I can share with you too!”

I sat there watching as general chaos ensued with all the women talking at once. Mr. Castleberry sat there quietly, his eyes never leaving me as he ran through every ruse or con he had ever heard of, desperately trying to find a way to expose my parlor trick.

I connected with just him and then searched for Anna. “Anna, I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m with Hanna’s father here and he thinks my ability is a parlor trick. Would you tell him who you are and what your diagnosis is? His name is Robert Castleberry.”

Anna proceeded to introduce herself as my doctor, and briefly described my situation, medically. Robert just sat back farther and farther in the booth as his face went from grim to incredulous.

“What’s wrong, dear?” Cindy Castleberry asked when she noticed her husbands near shock.

Finally, he said, “Uh, thank you, Doctor,” out loud. His family looked at him with growing alarm.

“Thanks, Babe!” I added at the end.

“Michael!” Anna warned. But I could feel her laughter as she said it.

“She said it’s real,” Mr. Castleberry told his wife and sister-in-law. “Probably a result of the accident he was in.”

“WHO said it was real?” Mrs. Castleberry asked. I could hear Grace and Sandy in the background trying to explain to Narvenia what was going on. But because they were all laughing, Narvenia was having a hard time understanding.

“His doctor, Dr. Carter,” Mr. Castleberry said in an almost trance induced monotone. “She said she was a head trauma specialist with the CIA. She said that Michael was the most gifted empath that she had ever heard of and that he was being protected by the government. She also said she was amazed that he would put himself in jeopardy like this by even telling us about his, er, gift. She also fussed at him a little for doing it.”

“Robert? What’s going on?” asked his wife, worry growing on her face. “There’s no Dr. Carter here.”

“She’s in Colorado, Mom,” Hanna supplied. “Now do you see why I was reluctant to tell you all this?”

““I ... I don’t understand,” Mrs. Castleberry cried. “What’s happening, Robert!”

The conversation disintegrated from there as Hanna jumped up to hug her mom. Alice reached out to grab her dad’s hand and Melanie stood and hugged Robert.

That was when I noticed it. After another scan of both Hanna’s father and her aunt, I understood much better.

I looked over at Jimmy and asked, “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah. That is so-o cool. Can you teach me to do it?” Jimmy asked. I noticed that he had immediately taken to the conversations within his mind, because he hadn’t tried to speak the words. I just smiled as I shook my head no.

As Hanna and her family continued to talk, I began to study Jimmy. Suddenly, I connected back to Anna.

“You up to a little medical exploration?” I asked as I began to zoom in on Jimmy’s spine. I could hear her excusing herself from whomever she was with and head for her room at the Lodge. While she was doing that, I replayed what was going on, so she would know who Jimmy was.

“Are you sure it’s wise?” she asked.

’It’s just a hunch,” I told her. “And maybe some curiosity. Besides, I like him.” Then together we delved into the human spine.

“Start at the base of the spine. There. And then just work your way up slowly. It’s a mess, but you might be able to heal some of his pain,” Anna thought to me. So I did as she instructed, and together, we worked our way up Jimmy’s spine. At one point, I noticed he had closed his eyes, but there hadn’t been a sound. Later, I noted that he had dozed off, sitting up in the booth, his head rolled onto the window.

Finally, I could do no more. I was out of energy. Anna tried to call the others, but there was no connection. Vickie didn’t have the necessary range without me. I slumped forward into Hanna.

“Michael?” she said, alarmed.

“He needs some energy. Quickly!” Hanna heard Anna say. Hanna jumped up and ran to the galley. Grabbing a bottle of orange juice from the cooler, she hurried back to the booth.

“Who said that?” Melanie asked. She was aware Jimmy had fallen asleep and was trying to be still as she held him pinned against the bulkhead to keep him from falling out.

“Can you hold it yourself?” Hanna asked me worriedly as she sat the almost full bottle in front of me. It only took a few minutes before my energy began to return.

“Thank you, Sweetheart,” I told her as I kissed her cheek. “I kinda zoned out there for a minute. What did I miss?”

“I was just explaining how you wanted a documentary of what you were doing and how you were helping the Omugi. I was about to ask if you could introduce Kalani and Ileana.” Hanna told me. Then she thought to me, “We might as well tell them about your other wives.”

I nodded, but became distracted as Jimmy stirred. I saw him lift his crippled right hand to stifle a yawn. It was a natural movement and he had probably done it thousands of times before the accident. However, he was still groggy enough that he hadn’t even caught it himself.

“Uh-ho, I thought, quickly connecting to Anna and replaying what I had just seen. Then I also replayed our ‘knucks’ greeting out on the platform. Anna immediately saw the difference in Jimmy’s right arm.

“Dad shipped some of my medical books out. Let me go look up something,” Anna said and then she was gone.

Turning my attention back to Hanna, I asked, “Are you sure your parents are ready for more surprises?”

“There’s more?” her mother cried. Robert leaned across the table and patted his wife’s hand reassuringly. He had figured out his liabilities and was desperately hoping that I hadn’t yet.

Melanie was helping her son to sit up again, having slouched down some when he dozed off. She also had been strangely quiet, wondering just how much I had read her mind.

“What else?” Cindy finally asked her daughter.

“Like I told you, Michael has asked me to marry him,” Hanna started cautiously. “The wedding is going to be next month, on an island in the South Pacific.”

Hanna paused, allowing her words to sink in. Her dad actually heaved a sigh of relief, “Finally!” was his predominate thought. But her mom immediately went to the root of the problem.