A New World
Copyright© 2026 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 5: Boys Know
Holy Cross Hospital
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
Tuesday, May 18, 1999{br}
It was midday when Will pulled off the Capital Beltway. The interstates in the states were always crowded near the cities. Between the traffic and driving on the right side of the road, he had had to spend too much of his attention on the driving. He had seen no one following them, but he knew that once word of the adjacent world got out, Jess, Marie, and Kim would need guarding. Their families also would need guarding. Probably all of the family members within a year. Moving to an adjacent world, especially not the one that would be announced, would be the safest thing to do. Everyone would want to go, and it would make sense to the governments that they would want to be there. We would have to build the houses and the compounds in locations so that they could not be easily reached from another world. Security would be a nightmare as soon as people caught on to how easy it was to hop from one world to another. What good is a locked door if you could walk in from another world?
The Suburban pulled into the hospital roadway. “Jess, I will let you and Edna off at the front door. You girls go with them. Leslie and I will park the car, then head on in.”
At the front door, they got out of the vehicle. Jess leaned back in. “This hospital has a very large maternity unit with about seventy suites for the mothers and babies. Make sure you ask for the room number and directions.”
Leslie looked a little shocked. “The Townsville hospital isn’t that big overall. They’re upgrading it to a regional hospital, but the maternity unit will be only ten beds.” She knew a lot about the hospital upgrade. MME’s headquarters was nearby, and she was on the fundraising board. She would take a look around and see what she could learn from this place.
“They’re the biggest baby factory in the area.” Jess laughed. “Kim was very happy with them after she checked them out.”
As Jess and the three women headed into the lobby, Will considered the need for medical care when they explored the new worlds. “We may want to do our first egresses into the other worlds near hospitals. It’ll be handy to get people quickly to them.”
“Not necessarily. Transportation will be easier on this world for a good while. We should move the window close to the worksite. That way we can shift them back to Earth and then transport them to the hospital.” Leslie replied.
“You’re a step ahead of me again. I was thinking exploring and you’re thinking mines and farms.”
“Yes, I do tend to think long term, that’s why I took over the family ranch. Not the money maker that the mines, factories, or investments were, but I think that the future will be interesting there.”
Will smiled. Leslie’s intuition had shown remarkably accurately many times. Her place on the MME board had much more to it than family.
As they approached the room, Brenda and Mary slowed down. Jess noticed this, turned and waved them forward. “There’s room for all of us.”
Edna had not slowed down. She would answer a question that had been haunting her for over fifty-four years. Had she been mistaken in believing that the soul of her grandmother Alice and her daughter Alice were one and the same? If it had happened again, then others would be able to tell. Kim had talked about it. She expected that Jess and Will would be able to tell also. As she got closer, she sensed Kim and Alice. Yes, it was Alice. She hadn’t been wrong all these years. She entered the doorway. “Kim, I have a lot to tell you.” she said as she caught sight of her granddaughter and great-granddaughter.”
Kim looked up as her father and cousins entered the room. “Yes, I hope you can explain.” She smiled and looked down at her daughter. “It has been a bit much, but I understand that you know that.”
“Yes, the soul of my grandmother Alice passed from her to your mother. Now it has moved on again to your daughter. I could sense Alice as I came up the hallway just as I could sense you.”
Rob, who had been sitting by his wife, interrupted, “What happened to the soul that was in Alice Elizabeth?”
“No, Rob. Mother did not kick our daughter out of the baby. She was making her place there all along. Just that she was there and not yet there. I could feel a trace that was like her, but it was more like an echo and not being actually there.”
“Thank God!” Rob sighed.
“You must be more sensitive than I am. I didn’t have a good feel for any of my children until after they were born.” Edna walked over to the bed.
“She may have reinforcement from my side of the family. Baby Alice is Alice.” Jess added.
Brenda and Mary were at the foot of the bed. They looked intently at the baby. They looked at each other and shared a thought. “We agree.” Brenda remarked.
“Well, that is five of us now.” Kim said with a look of relief on her face.
“Make that seven.” Leslie and Will hurried into the room.
“So it’s more than one bloodline.” Beth commented as she looked at Will and Leslie. She had first met Will during her time at Edinburgh. She had thought that Jess and he were twins at first. The closeness between them had been like looking at two images of the same person. They seemed so much like the same person. Years later, she had met Leslie and their family when Will had brought them to visit Jess and Alice in Texas.
Rob looked at his mother. “Definitely, Mother. I also can feel Alice. I was just too scared to mention it. I was worried about what happened to the soul that was there. I knew the baby was Alice as soon as I saw her.”
Kim took her husband’s hand from where it rested on her shoulder. “I know, dear. I waited for grandmother to explain so that you would feel comfortable.”
“Well, everybody, say hello and get comfortable. I will explain what I know and answer your questions.” Edna bent down and kissed Kim as she took the baby from her arms. “I wish we could get answers from you, but my daughter didn’t know much, and so I guess you will also not have any answers.”
“Grandma, I would like to wait until Dr. Klemanski can get here. Linda heard what I said about the baby. I want her to hear what you have to say.”
Edna gave a questioning look to Kim, but it was Beth who offered an explanation. “Linda is more than Kim’s doctor. She’s also a friend. Alice and I helped her son, John, with choosing a graduate school. She often stops by to visit when either Alice or I are in town.”
Beth walked out to the nurse station to have Linda paged. She had talked to her earlier when Jess had called to say that they were leaving the airport. Linda was visiting some of her other patients.
Jess walked over to Edna. “May I hold her?”
Edna smiled as she handed him the baby. He’s holding up very well. I know what it was like when I lost Alan. To have your loved one back as a baby is a twist I wouldn’t like to have.
When Linda entered the room, she was a little startled to see Will with his arm around Leslie. She had mistaken him for Jess but had quickly straightened her thoughts out when she saw Jess holding baby Alice.
Kim had sensed Linda in the hall, had seen her face as she came in. “This is my dad’s cousin Will and his wife Leslie. Their daughters, Brenda and Mary. You know my dad, Jess. And this is my grandmother, Edna. She is the one with some explanation of what is going on.”
Edna watched as Will closed the door. “Thanks, Will. No, I don’t have explanations. I haven’t found anything on something like this having happened except for my Alice and now Kim’s Alice. And that information is definitely not written anywhere.” She settles back on the couch. “First though, so you don’t think that it is just two mothers imagining something about their daughter’s because a loved one died at the time of the birth, we have others who believe the baby is Alice. Raise your hand if you know that this babe is the same soul as my daughter Alice.”
Everyone but Linda and Beth had raised their hand. That included the baby Alice. Jess sat there stunned as he held her. Just like the others, she had raised her hand when Edna had asked for it. Kim had noticed as soon as her father had, as she had been watching them. Linda and Edna were the next. With the incredulous looks on their faces soon, everyone had looked at the baby, who was smiling at Jess. Then she had taken her hand and touched his face tenderly. She had put her hand down and gone promptly to sleep.
Linda had gone over to Jess and examined the baby. She then had looked at each individual in the room. On none of them had she seen anything less than amazement. Only Leslie showed anything more; she had been shaking her head yes. “I have been practicing for twenty-seven years. I have never seen that type of cognizant activity in a three-month-old, let alone a one-day-old baby.” She looked at Edna. “Did your Alice ever show that type of advanced behavior?”
“No. She was wise beyond her years. She was exceptionally intelligent. But nothing as a baby where I would think that she understood and acted as someone of many greater years.”
Leslie spoke up. “She had a greater presence when we arrived. When Edna asked us to raise our hands, I felt that spike to being like an older person, not a baby. Now that she is asleep, she still feels like Alice, but a baby Alice, not an adult. It was like she was waiting for the question, then to touch Jess to say goodbye.”
Jess’s eyes had started to tear. Linda took the baby as Kim got out of bed and went and sat in her father’s lap. Beth came over and picked the baby from Linda’s arms. Rob and Will walked over and put their hands on Kim and Jess.
Jess looked up at Kim. “She did say goodbye. That is the one thing that I had regretted, not saying goodbye to her. She found a way to say goodbye.” He looked at Beth, who brought the baby closer. “Goodbye, my wife. Hello, my granddaughter.”
Kim looked at the baby. “Goodbye, my mother. Hello, my daughter.” She turned to her father and kissed his cheek where the baby had touched him. They gave a hard hug to each other, and then they looked each other in the eye. Slowly, they let go, then Kim rose and hugged her husband. They kissed. She returned to bed.
Jess looked at Edna. “Sorry for the interruption.” He laughed. All the sadness of the past day was gone from him. “Well, there is nothing that we can say that is a better proof of what just happened. I too felt an older Alice there, but I don’t any longer.”
Beth had been looking hard at the baby. “I too had a sense of Alice. I have never felt anything like it before. Now I feel a sense of her, but it is different.”
Linda was shaking her head, yes. “I felt it also. I too feel the difference with her, but I also feel something from each of you. I can sense each of you.”
“Yes, I feel it stronger with Rob, but he’s my son. I guess that is a stronger bond that I never noticed before. I do feel all of you, though.” Beth went and hugged her son.
Mary looked at Brenda, who shook her head, “Yes.” “Brenda and I think that this makes the case for learning to feel someone’s presence, but I don’t see it leaning one way or the other on whether it requires a special something in the individual already. Both Beth and Linda have close ties to the family, which included Alice. Maybe part of this closeness is due to the potential to sense someone’s presence. It may be Alice who is the catalyst, or it could be the group of us together who bring this out.”
“The boys have it. I don’t remember having the ability at such a young age as they do.” Kim remarked.
“I had it as a teenager.” Edna stared at the wall as she thought about her experience. “I didn’t understand it. My mother didn’t ever have it. Grandma Alice. She talked about sometimes being able to sense people, but it was now and then. My ability grew, but it was always there. When I was pregnant with Alice, it grew more. I was able to identify members of the family and some of my friends before seeing them.”
“Jess and I have had it since we were boys. We lived near Edna and Alice and went through school with Alice. We knew that she had it also, but none of our other classmates. That’s what made us close. Jess and Alice fell in love. I wondered if I was ever going to find someone with whom I could share that same closeness. I joined the army partly so that I could travel and meet more people. While in Australia, I met Leslie’s brothers while cross-training with the Australian SAS. They had it and used it to work with each other. I had been using it one-sidedly; nobody else that I had met in the SAS had that special knack. They were in a reserve unit, so they lived off base at a small ranch. Andy and Don had their own homes, but Gav still lived at home with his parents and sister. They took me home to meet their family, but I think they were trying to set me up with their sister. I didn’t mind since I needed some home cooking.” Leslie elbowed him. “Well, it was love at first sight.”
Leslie continued the story. “We were married within the year, and he took me to this horrible cold island off Europe. It took him getting shot up in the Falklands before Daddy could bribe him to take a job with the company.”
“Well, I needed to get my twenty years in. I needed to know that I was going to be able to provide for my family. I didn’t know how long I could hold the job as head of security.”
Jess started laughing. He looked at Leslie. “What is your share of MME?”
“Twenty percent.”
“And that’s worth over a billion pounds.”
Leslie nodded her head.
“Well, they had just opened the Rainbow a little bit before that. Until then, they didn’t have that big a need for security. I didn’t want to live off of my wife’s money.”
Jess looked at his cousin. “I think you just liked playing soldier. Getting shot up reminded you that you wanted to see your kids grow up and marry.”
Will’s smile had told them that was as close as they were going to get to the truth.
Linda looked at Will and Leslie.
Leslie had gotten used to people’s attitudes changing once they knew how wealthy they were. She had really started to like Linda.
“You are that Captain Maclaren that snuck into the Falklands before the invasion. You and your troops got into a battle with the Argentinean troops when they tried to use the civilians as a bargaining chip to halt the British from landing. I remember watching as the Queen came to your bed and knighted you.”
Leslie looked at her husband. Well, Linda did have the correct idea of what was important. Will’s stand to protect the Falklanders certainly outweighed money.
“Yes, I can go by Sir William, but my commander was not too happy when I told him I was going to go work for my father-in-law. Of course, he was willing to overlook that a few years later when I hired him to come in to run the office so I could spend more time in the field.”
Edna told her story of Alice’s birth. How she had no one to talk to about Grandma Alice now being her daughter. She discussed Alice growing up and the early arrival of Alice’s ability to sense people. She didn’t bring up how Alice was very lucky or the many times that she knew what would happen and how to make the most of it. Alice had learned to hide it soon after she started school, so she wasn’t too sure how much of those abilities Jess knew about.
She spoke of Alice finding in Jess and Will, two who were like her. How the three grew together because of the gift they shared.
She had never known Alice to remember the past. In her early years, she had met family and friends of her mother’s generation. She had often commented about how old they had gotten, but she didn’t know their names.
When Edna finished, Linda looked at her watch. She went over to Kim. “Let us get you and Alice checked out. I think that it would be better for you to go home. You and your family have much to talk over. I’ll stop by later in the week, and we can talk about it.”
“That sounds good. I miss the boys. They are eager to meet their new sister. I wonder how they will take this.”
Linda left the room to get the paperwork taken care of.
Rob commented. “They’ll know her. It might confuse Jerome and Eric a little, but Jason is very good at identifying people. He leads me right to Kim every time at the mall.”
Will looked impressed. “A couple of hundred feet is a good range.”
“No, it is more like a half mile. We are driving up to the mall, and he tells me what store she is in and what clerk she is with if he has met them before.”
Will whistled. “What I would give for a man who could track like that.”
Rob looked at Leslie. “I think you would give more for the twins. They are dowsers.”
“Yes, some of the native people can detect water. It’s very useful to know where the water flows in the mines.”
“They do more than just water. They can tell you where all the pipes and wires run in the yard. If I misplace my keys, they know where they are. If they are with me but not Jason when I go to pick up Kim, they know where she is by the items in her bag. They go out in the yard and find nails and other metal items. I had to have a long talk about them not doing this in public without their mother’s or my permission. Also, we have had to warn them about the types of things that they should not go looking for. I had to put my guns in a case with a combination since they knew both where the guns were and the keys.”
Leslie looked at Kim. “Twenty percent finder’s fee.”
“What?” Kim replied.
“MME will give them a twenty percent finder’s fee to find and map out mineral location when we go to the new worlds.”
Edna complained. “That is too much money. They are just little boys.”
“If they can find the big mother loads and map out the location and the surrounding rock and water so we can go right in and get the high grade without trial and error, they’ll be worth it. Especially if we avoid errors that could kill someone, they are saving us at least that much.”
Jess said, “Shake on it, Kim. It’s a good deal for both sides. Additionally, it’ll be very important for our development of the two worlds. I wonder if any of the kids can detect a window.”
Will looked at Leslie. “We will spend a few days here. Your brother will have to wait for the controllers. He’ll understand when he hears the news.”
Leslie walked over to Kim, and they shook.
As Linda entered the room, she could tell something had happened. “I missed something big.”
Leslie looked at her. “How would you like a job with a bunch of travel?”
They all laughed at the look on Linda’s face.
Kim looked to set her friend’s mind at ease. “We will discuss this when you drop by. Bring Jim with you. This is definitely a family offer. A surgeon is definitely on the list.” Jess and Leslie both shook their heads yes to that.
Linda could tell that was all that she was going to get from them. She knew that Leslie had only made the offer because of her comment. What had that comment to do with such an offer? Well, she and Jim would find out later. How had they known that with the kids all on their own, they had been looking for something different? They had been thinking of a small hospital in a remote location of a developing country, but hadn’t looked forward to having to rely on primitive equipment and a shortage of supplies. Leslie or more likely her family’s company could afford the best, so that wouldn’t be a problem. But what did they mean by travel? Well, let them get out of here. I think that Jim and I are going to have a very interesting meeting with them.
Rob and the Australians had left first to get the cars and to clear out the room. When Will had gotten in the car, he turned to his daughters. “Can Marie’s children do what Kim’s can?”
“No,” replied Mary with an impish smile.
“What my sister means is that they do not dowse or find people. At least that we heard of.” Brenda laughed.
“Then what do they do?” Leslie knew when her daughters had a secret that they were dying to tell.
Brenda knew that they had their parents’ full attention. “Well, Doctor Doolittle, KA, is breeding smarter cats and dogs. She says that it’s so hard to get anything meaningful from the dumb ones. She has a couple of parrots but says she needs more and a longer time to do anything with them.”
Mary took over. “If John had thought he would have a hard time with the PM, he would have taken JJ as well as his father. He is the one that did most of the negotiating for KA with their parents for the breeding program. Oh, he has gotten KA and himself on the third team for exploring through the window by S-I.”
“Less has not shown any particular ability. She’s into horses. I have never seen anyone ride like her. A six-year-old should not be jumping a 16-hand horse without doing more than hold the reins.” Brenda added for the last sibling.
“Oh, if you play any games with them, it’s almost like playing one person.”
As they pulled up in front of the hospital, Leslie remarked. “I think they may turn out to be every bit as useful as their cousins when we go exploring in these new worlds.”
Kim & Rob Reynolds’ Home
Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA
Tuesday, May 18, 1999{br}
The second Suburban with Robert and the pilots arrived at the Reynolds’ home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. David Ridgeway had driven. They hadn’t had as easy of a time getting there, since none of them were familiar with the area. They had followed the other Suburban until it had turned off to the hospital. It had been straightforward from there except for the amount of traffic until the circle by the school that had almost led to an accident. David had turned in the direction as he would have back home. He had found out that Americans didn’t treat the circles as Australians did. Luckily, there had been little traffic and their destination was only three houses from the circle.
Robert looked at the three older men. “I will go and announce us. David, stay with the SUV. Kevin, take a stroll further down the street. Nev, do the same with the street to the north of us. You are just stretching your legs. Be back in four minutes even if you find something.”
“Yes, sir.” They all replied.
David had stood by the open driver’s door of the vehicle as he inspected the neighboring houses. One of the rifles lay on the floor in easy reach.
Robert walked up to the front door and rang the bell. It took a couple of minutes until a young black woman had answered the door. She left the screen door shut. “Yes, can I help you?” she asked.
“
“G’day, I’m Robert Maclaren. I’ve come over with Uncle Jess. They sent me ahead with the luggage while they met Kim and Alice at the hospital.”
Linda Steele looked at the young man outside the door. He did look like a younger copy of Jess Maclaren, Kim’s father, but he was forty years younger and a half a head taller. If he were ten years older, she would make a pass at him, but even Mary, her younger sister, was too old for a teenager. She noticed the man by the SUV and the other two who were returning to it. They were checking out the neighborhood. “Who are your friends?” Four years as an Army MP after growing up in DC had taught her to have good situational awareness.
“Oh, David, Kevin, and Nev are our pilots. Dad has them dropping me off with the luggage before they go to the hotel and crash.” Robert could see that the answer had confused her. “Grandpa had us take the Gulfstream since he needed some parts picked up in Dallas.”
“Take the Gulfstream to pick up some parts.” Linda had been totally confused. He had made it sound almost like they were going to the hardware store.
Neither of them had noticed Tom Reynolds come up behind Linda. As he started to speak, his grandsons yelled and pushed by him and Linda and out the door to greet their cousin.
“Robert!” “You are taller than Daddy.” “Where is Grandpa Jess?” All three of the young Reynolds boys had spoken at once.
Robert knelt down to be more of the height of the three boys. He had last seen them two years ago at their Aunt Lynn’s wedding in Dallas. He had been surprised that they remembered him so well, especially the twins. Five-year-olds do not usually remember people that they met two years earlier.
“Hi, Jason, Eric, Jerome. Yes, and I am also taller than my dad. Your grandpa Jess went to see your mother and your new baby sister.”
Linda had been surprised that he had gotten the twins identified right. It still was hard for her to do even after working with her sister as their nannies for the past eight months.
“It’s all right, Linda. I know Robert. I am the one that sold them the parts that they are picking up in Dallas. Yes, his Grandpa Ian would send his family with a jet around the world to pick up parts since they were going that way anyway.” Tom Reynolds laughed at the expression on the young woman’s face. “Let’s get these young ruffians inside so that Robert and his friends can get the bags inside.”
They shepherded the boys inside while Robert returned to the Suburban.
Linda turned to Tom Reynolds. “He looks so like Mr. Maclaren. I thought his brother’s children were older.”
Jason answered before his grandfather could. “Uncle Will is Grandpa Jess’s cousin. They were born the same day. Their mothers were twins and their fathers were twins.”
Eric piped in, “We have a lot of twins in the family.”
Jerome, his twin, added, “Robert’s sisters are twins. Brenda is going to be a doctor, just like Mom and Mary.”
Tom finally got a word in. “Her twin, also Mary, is studying electrical engineering. That is close to what you are looking at doing. You and your sister should talk with them about what you are studying. Also, you should definitely talk to Jess Maclaren. He knows more about engineering than any three professors do. He has more patents than anyone else that I know.” Tom Reynolds was a Senior Vice President at TI. Much of his work there had been with products based on Jess’s patents. The first one came to TI because of Beth and Dame Alice’s friendship. Later ones were because TI had a need to do something and he got Jess interested in solving the problem or Jess had an idea and asked him if TI had anything that they would like to use it for. He had seen to the commercialization of Jess’s ideas. Jess was an inventor. He came up with ideas and made them work. It was someone else’s job to see that they made money. Jess and Alice had plenty of money even if they didn’t live a fancy life. They had lived in the same home since they were married. Then it all changed four years ago with Alice’s Adjacent World theory. She put it out with none of the support that she had presented for her previous work. Scientists and mathematicians tore it apart. They had done it not because she was wrong but because they were not bright enough to understand her theory. Beth had been distressed when she had seen what was happening to her best friend. They had gone to the Maclaren’s suite to comfort her. She had been shocked to find the four of them Alice, Jess, Marie, and John celebrating. They had planned for the bad reception of the paper. They had explained that they wanted people to remember it but as fiction and not fact. Jess had then turned to him and asked if TI would like to make a lot of money. He had laughed that TI was a business. Jess had laughed also. Then Alice, Jess, Marie, and John had explained what they were planning. Beth and he had been awed by the scope of the plan. Now with everything ready to go, Alice had died as they conducted the initial experiment with the window.
Linda had thought about Robert’s sisters and about what Mr. Reynolds had said. She didn’t see how two rich women could have anything in common with her and her sister, who had grown up in the inner city. True, Kim and Rob were very nice. They treated them as family. It was great to be able to discuss the technical aspects of what they were studying with them. Kim was covering their tuition as well as their salaries and benefits. Sure, they were distantly related through several marriages to Rob’s sister, but they had laughed when their Aunt Eve in New Orleans had called and asked if they would be interested in being nannies for some doctor in Chevy Chase with three boys. How that information had ever gotten to Aunt Eve; they would never know. Linda was back from the Army, and even with her GI benefits, going to college would be very hard since their mother had to put so much money towards Mary’s schooling. They had gone and found out that the couple in Chevy Chase was very different from anyone they had ever met. Maybe she should reserve judgment on these cousins. Robert sounded Australian. She had never really met any Australians.
“Boys, stay with your grandfather. You can talk with Robert after they get the bags in.” Linda opened the door for Robert and the black pilot. No, not black. Definitely dark-skinned but not of African descent.