Chapter 7

There was no answer when Rock knocked on Alexandra’s door. I know that the three of us parents had seen James go in just a few minutes ago. I tapped into James’ mental activity and then into Alex’s. Both of them were quiet, and still.

“They are meditating,” I whispered. “As far as I can tell, they are not trying to communicate with each other, and I haven’t spent a lot of time teaching them to go to level other than the bare essentials. How to think of nothing, getting your mind out of the alpha brain wave level and to ‘go deeper.’ To quiet the thinking part of your brain, the ‘busy’ part of your mind. Like when you’re sleeping.”

Bear motioned us back toward the kitchen. “Don’t forget that they are twins. As much as you can do mentally, Lexi, from everything I’ve heard, twins have a connection that non-twins do not have. I wouldn’t be surprised if the mental skills that you have uses a different part of the brain than twins have. It’s more innate maybe. And I don’t think we should try to mess with that.”

I considered what he said. “When I peeked into their minds,” I replied, “there was nothing. Like looking at a person who was just meditating or asleep and between dreams ... Okay. I won’t try to explore their ‘connection.’ Jimmy was very grown up about our joint punishments that we imposed. And he said that he’d get in touch with Alex. Maybe we just have to trust him now.”

[Lexi, in 2922 C.E. it was discovered that multiple birth people – twins, triplets and the like – did have a connection that was undefined. It was a non-mental connection, in that it did not employ the mind at any detectable level.]

Red, how is that possible? If there was a connection, but didn’t involve the mind, what DID it involve?

[That there was a connection was proven. They could pass information at a deeper level of communication that they themselves didn’t acknowledge. It was a connection. Even in the 1980s, where twins wound up their lives living separately but were doing similar things – it was a silent mystery. How twins who were separated at birth found their interests to be parallel. Even in the far past it was known. There are records of this unproven connection that go back to ancient China.]

[As far as my far, far future history reveals no mechanism for this connection was found. One set of triplets described this as ‘just a feeling.’]

“I think, Bear, that you are 100% right. I won’t even try to get between them or even monitor what they are thinking,” I reflected Red’s information into the conversation in our kitchen. “Let’s let them interface and share whatever they are feeling.”

Rock, with his usual ‘let the world be what it is’ attitude said, “Do you remember five years ago that we had an intervention along the lines of ‘take a step back, don’t try to run every aspect of their lives?’ This is another time ... We’ve force fed them to be little seven-year-old adults. Let’s leave them alone, for a while. Adults don’t always know what is best.”

I have to admit, he didn’t often pontificate, but when he did, he was usually right.

“Maybe we should modify the conditions of the punishments. We should allow visits to the Grandparents: Soon Maritsuki, Crying Wolf, Desert Flower and Dark Wolf would be a good influence,” I said.

Bear and Rock agreed. “A sort of ‘expanded grounding,’” Bear said.

I fell back on something I could do without thinking about it much. I made waffles.

...

Bear and I went to the McKesson office and had a chat with Marylou; Rock was staying home with the kids. Marylou was showing off a diamond on her left hand when we entered. I did a quick peek into her mind. She was excited by her news, and also conflicted about her OTHER news. She was newly pregnant.

“Ooo!” I got excited and grasped her hands. “Who placed that bauble on your finger?”

“I’m planning on an early ceremony, where I’m going to be Mrs. Mark Sweet Water!” she said.

I stifled myself. Announcing her pregnancy was her business, and I wasn’t going to preempt that. I did peek into her body, just to make sure that everything was okay. There was a little bundle of cells just forming into a baby, in her uterus. Based on what I knew of things, based on my own pregnancy, everything was great with Marylou and the baby Sweet Water.

“So, you’re going to change your name? We’re going to have to give you a new set of business cards?” I teased.

“Oh yeah. It took me over two years to get him to pop the question. Last night, I decided to let him announce that he had thought of the idea on his own,” she laughed. “It was cute. He even wore a jacket and tie, and dropped to one knee in the steak house. He got a round of applause when I answered, ‘About time!’. He slipped on the ring while he was turning red.”

Well, we gabbed on and on about her plans. Eventually we ran out of gossip. Imagine me, a gossip. Well, Marylou wanted to chat.

“So, when is Chas coming up here?” I asked. “He’s going to set up a small bottle, I hear.”

“Yeah, he’s coming up sometime in the next couple of weeks. He’s going to give us some ‘real electricity’ as he calls it. Going to use some of the crystals hot off the kilns, he said. I think he’s looking at this as a grand adventure.”

’A grand experiment, more likely,’ I said, to myself.

Well, over the next few weeks, the Dassault made several trips to the McKesson International Airport. Laser emitters, equipment for the EM fields, shielding, copper to make a ‘catcher’, and such were delivered. There must be another name for it, besides ‘electricity catcher.’ Something more ... technical sounding. Maybe an ‘EC.’ And the construction crew started to expand two of the houses into one building. Apparently, the powers that be decided to build a fusion reactor right in the middle of town.

Red, take a note. Remind me to get in touch with the powers that be. Not me, it seems.

[Do you think it’s really necessary to micromanage everything?]

But they’re putting a nuclear reaction in the middle of town!

[Is the fusion reactor safe? Or should we be planning for a melt down or explosion outside Burnside North?]

Of course it’s safe!

[As safe as a solar panel?]

I suppose so.

[So...?]

Red, I really hate it when you catch me doing something I shouldn’t be doing.

[Have you taken the kids to meet up with their Wokitas?]

Alexandra is still grounded.

[James is not. And she can still go to Dark Wolf’s. Antonia can go to Dark Wolf’s. And she can bring the pups to Dark Wolf’s.]

That is violating the spirit of being grounded.

[You and the boys have already violated the spirit of being grounded. And Alex has already been much better since she started meditating with James. She’s half-way through the month, so I thought that maybe she’s ready for a half lifting of her restrictions.]

You, too? Rock has already been militating for lifting the grounding. She’s got him wrapped around her finger. I swear, Red, you’re a male ABE – if that isn’t bending things too much.

[I’m not wrapped around anyone’s finger. And I’m not a male. Otherwise, your comments are noted.]

When Chas arrived there was a town-wide fiesta, almost. People were crowded around the McK #1 electricity plant - to be. I declared a one-day holiday on Alex’s grounding and all five of us trudged over to the new building. Chas was already inside, setting things up. He’d set up the remote for the TV in the Community Center so everybody could watch it. Jed Somerville helped him run the TV cable.