Chapter 29

Three months later.

Time: Monday, December 24, 2007 11:20 PM

Melanie closed the door as she came into our bedroom. "Whacha reading?" she whispered as she climbed into bed.

"Greg and Lisa sent us a Christmas letter."

"Oh, really?! Great! How are they going?"

"Fine. Greg's getting married in the spring."

Melanie's eyes lit up in a big smile. She gently tugged the letter from my hands. I let her read while I curled up by her side, just thinking about life.

The fifth rotation has been pleasant so far. My sense sphere radius keeps doubling every 31 days, 19 hours, and 56 minutes. As I lay by my wife's side, I felt the radius pass the 1100 kilometer mark.

It's an enormous difference, working with such a large sphere of influence. I can sense large regions of the intense vacuum of space to the hot plastic semi-liquid rocks deep in Earth's interior. I was just starting to get the feel of the curvature of the Earth with my sphere. By sensing directly through the planet, I could reach out an extra 1.4 km along the surface. It was a very small positive difference, but that would change as the sphere kept growing.

So far all the evidence supported steady growth within the nineteen periods of the major rotations. My third period would end in another ten days, January 3, 2008, at 3:52 PM. My sense sphere should be 1358 km by then, and I was assuming I had at least that much in the bag. My real hope is that the sphere doubles at least twice more. If it does, by the time the next hurricane season arrives, I should be able to protect the Caribbean and the Atlantic from hurricanes from the comfort of my home in Massachusetts or even from the Allagash in Maine. Gently starve them of heat over periods of days; no more emergency conferences puzzling over my handiwork.

Melanie was petting my head as she read. She finally put down the letter and looked at me. I nodded and pushed off the lights. Melanie curled up by my side a moment later.

"Have a nice chat with Patricia?" I whispered. Her sister was in our other bedroom, starting her second week of a two week visit.

"Oh yes, a wonderful talk. She even gave me a backrub!"

"Wow!"

Melanie laughed. "Patricia says she bought a massage book. She's very good at it." Melanie kissed me. "You know, it's as if I found a sister I never knew I had. I really enjoyed being with her, maybe for the first time in my life."

"Did you mention the job opening to her?"

"I did. I told her the people were good friends of ours; that we could vouch that they'd be good employers. Patricia spent a long time reading the ad. It really does cover her areas of expertise. If I had to guess, I think she'll do the interview, and then talk it over with the parents once she gets back to Illinois."

"Well, she'll have a lot of time to decide. The position doesn't open up till May."

"Which in this case is a good thing. It'll be such a change for her Eric! She'll be truly free of the parents' direct control for the first time in her life."

I nodded, and then Melanie and I turned quiet for a while, cuddling and watching the fierce snowstorm through our bedroom window. Melanie shivered at the howl of the wind and the blowing snow. "Eric?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we manipulating Patricia?"

"Well, we're not laying all our cards on the table. That's for sure."

"Yeah. The parents will probably be thrilled to have Patricia be so close to us. I think they'll still hoping that Patricia beds you."

"They're certainly acting as if they are. Melanie, why do they hate you so much?"

"I don't know! It's all games and mirrors when I talk to them. I spent so much time with them in Paris. They were social, talkative, very generous. We toured where I wanted to tour, chatted about medical school and my financial needs and all my likes and dislikes, all the things we never got around to talking about when I was a child. The trip could have been a great reconciliation, except for the fact they were so eager to keep me with them and give Patricia one-on-one time with you."

I nodded, holding Melanie close to me and idly caressing the side of her hip. "I've talked with Patricia a little about this yesterday. Even she's a little bewildered by their actions. But she asked my advice, and I advised her not to mention her concerns to her parents. She seemed relieved. She still loves her parents pumpkin."