Chapter 24: Ghosts

Talk about chaos bombs! The bomb that went off when Ginny and I got back to my house was monumental. The story we told Dad and Grandpa floored them. Grandpa was clamoring for a phone so he could call home and get Sheb out here. Dad was upset that he hadn't been there. Mom was upset that Dad was upset. Before the dust had settled, Ginny and I had retold the entire thing from start to finish three times.

Dad and Grandpa got on the phone with Sheb and started trying to convince him to get out here before tomorrow morning. Grandpa interjected that if the Citation was not in use, he probably could, but He'd have to meet it at Pitt-Greenville airport in Greenville.

In the middle of all this, I thought about what I had learned today. "Where's Sheb now?" I asked.

"He's at our house with Violet." Grandpa said. "Why?"

"I have an idea." I said and reaching out to the jump point at Grandpa's house, two miles away, I pulled myself through to the clearing. I looked quickly around for wildlife and didn't see any, but I figured I'd better be safe and reached though the point to Grandpa Bill's garage and moved a pistol, web belt and a couple clips through to me. I quickly put them on and took another quick look. Still looking clear.

I took a deep breath and reached out with my mind back into my own Earth and found the jump point in Chocowinity that I had been pulling power from while we were there. I let my consciousness reach though that spot on the other side of the continent, and I found Sheb and Violet sitting at the kitchen table. With a surge of power that I drew from both points, the one here and the one there, I pulled them through, chairs and all.

I barely gave them time to react, saying "Hold on!" and moved the three of us through this jump point back all the way to my living room, where I reappeared with Sheb and Violet.

We were greeted by stunned silence. Finally Sheb couldn't resist.

"Well, I guess this does qualify as a new development Bull. Okay, I guess I'll come," and said it into the cell phone he was still clutching in his hand before folding it up and putting it in his pocket.

Thank God for Sheb's sense of humor. That group belly laugh managed to prevent another chaos bomb from going off. Personally I wasn't sure of the house could handle two of them in such rapid fire succession. At the same time, I realized I really needed to sit down. Despite my taking power from the jump points, that huge effort had exhausted me completely. I sat down in the sofa and shivered a little as the fatigue really hit me. Ginny noticed immediately and sat beside me.

"Are you alright Davey?" She asked, panic and concern in her voice.

"That little trick really wore me out. I think that was at the far edge of my new limits."

So I got fussed over a little bit, and Mom brought me a big glass of orange juice and a piece of pie. I ate a little bit, drank a little bit and cautiously pulled a little power from the jump point a few feet away. Slowly I returned to normal. Once I was feeling comfortable again with my state of being, I decided to drop the other shoe.

"Dad, if we're going to include Ginny's parents in this, we need to get them over here now and let them see this for themselves before we begin introducing everyone from North Carolina to Construct. I do not want to create any hard feelings here, especially since they are my future in-laws."

"Ooh! I like the sound of that." Ginny said laughingly.

"Cool your jets, kids." Mom said, with the emphasis on kids. I was glad this little conversation had happened before Mr. Parkin was here!

Mom called Mary and asked if they were free to come over to her parent's house for a bit. Paul was at work, but Mary said he could leave for an hour or so. Dad offered to come pick them up in the minivan, and Mary said she'd meet him at the sporting goods store in five minutes. Dad grabbed the keys and took off. I reached down and touched the web belt and its pistol still strapped to my side. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to have people packing when they got here, or seeing us lock and load before we jumped either. I looked at Cyrus and Sheb.

"Feel like being the advance team?

"Sure. But let's get me one of those 870's, I'd feel better with the extra stopping power."

"what about a pistol? " While I was asking, I jumped one of the shotguns into my hands.

"nope, got my own thanks." I handed the shotgun to him, and jumped a box of shells out next, tossing them onto the coffee table. I jumped the other shotgun into my hands and handed it to Sheb, along with another box of shells. I took off the web belt with the loaded Colt I had been wearing and handed that to Sheb as well."

"Where's my pistol?" Violet asked. "No self respecting Carolina girls is going to let her man run off alone when she could be standing by his side with her own guns drawn!"

I jumped the other web belt and pistol straight into her hands.

"I like the way you work kid," Cyrus laughed. I reached out and moved them through.

Dad came in with Paul and Mary, showing them into the living room. Ginny gave them both a hug and asked them to sit down in a couple of our lawn chairs. A.J., Bill and Grandma Beth and Mom were already sitting in them. Dad and Ginny them came to stand by me in the in the circle, completing it.

"Paul and Mary" I began. "First please accept my apology. Ginny and I, along with my parents have been hiding something from you for a while now. You will soon understand why it was so important that we keep this secret from all but a few. Recently I've learned that the secret I've been keeping from you relates to a secret that Dad's family has been keeping also. This is going to be a significant factor in my life, and by extension Ginny's and yours."

Looking around the circle and shaking his head Paul said to me, in what I"m sure was a calculated tone of disbelief, "Sudden calls to sit around in tacky lawn furniture in someone's living room and hold a séance are not exactly scoring you any points with me. I hope you have something better than this!"

I said "How about this?" And moved us all through.

Birds chirped, the wind moved through the trees, that nearby stream babbled, etc.

Paul and Mary blinked. Hard.

"Okay, I guess this qualifies."

"Paul, Mary I'd like you to meet Sheb Halliday and his fiance Violet. The rather large gentleman to the other side of you is Cyrus Poole, Grandpa McKesson's chauffeur and bodyguard.

"Any activity while you were waiting for our arrival Cyrus"?

"Yeah, we had a couple of black bears nosing around at the edge of that little clump of bushes about a quarter mile north of us, but they took off pretty quick when you guys came through. I'll keep watch, they could've been cubs, and that means mama might still be around."

Of course they had a million questions, and we gave them what was becoming the standard run down on the discoveries and activities that had led up to us all being there now. With this accomplished, and everyone thinking about those bears, we adjourned to the comforts of the Carson living room. I had everyone stand, and I left the lawn chairs there in the meadow when we went.

With the sense of urgency abated, I was able to stop and consider the events of the past day. I sat on Grandma and Grandpa Carson's couch with Ginny and ran back in my head all the things I'd done. Some of them had seemed major, like reaching clear to Chocowinity and pulling two people through from across an entire continent. I think that would have to remain the gold standard of what I defined as major at the moment. I finally had time though for some of it to really sink in. I was able to pull power from the jump points and use that energy by manipulating it somehow so that I could increase my own energy, and dissipate sleep and fatigue in myself and others.

I could move objects through a jump point and have them appear in exactly the location I wanted. My sensitivity and awareness of the objects I was moving and the location I was moving them to seemed to have expanded by at least an order of magnitude.

"Everybody check your shoes!" I said out of the blue.

"Everyone must've thought I smelled wolverine poop or something, as they began checking the soles of their shoes. "Grandma, have we gotten your carpet dirty?"

"No Davey, why?"

"Just checking." I had started leaving the dirt and other debris behind when I jumped us through now. The level of sensitivity I was operating at without conscious effort really gave me pause to wonder.

I went back to my considerations. I was able to know somehow what Dare was thinking or feeling, and She could sense me in the same fashion and apparently to the same degree. We had communicated information to each other in this way several times now. I could literally sense her like I did the jump points. I had an idea. Dare knew what I was thinking and climbed down of of me and stood in all her slinky glory on the back of the couch.

"Go ahead Dare. You can do it!" I urged. This got everyone's attention of course. They were probably hoping for the ferret version of stupid human tricks, so they turned to look just in time to see Dare disappear.

"Davey, did you send Dare someplace? Is she going to be okay?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, she's fine," I said. "Just testing something."

Even now reaching out through the jump point, I was sensing her presence in the meadow. A long minute later she popped back into existence, directly into my lap. Dare had used her connection into my mind to jump herself through to the meadow and back. I hadn't done a thing. I let everyone assume it was me who had been conducting a test, when really it had been Dare!

Paul and Mary had gone through several varieties of excitement and concern before finally seeming to decide that it was something beyond their control and in good hands. They loved and worried about their daughter, but saw the levels at which we were prepared to ensure our safety, and decided she was where she needed to be. Of course Mary reminded us sharply that being some sort of reality-hopping super couple did not relieve us of our school obligations, and that we would be attending those home school lessons!

Breakfast the next morning was subdued as everyone was wrapped up in their own thoughts, anticipating the meeting with Construct. We had all agreed to meet at Grandma and Grandpa Carson's house at ten that morning Sheb and Violet had spent the night in their guest room, so it was just the four of us and Ginny. Grandpa A.J. and Cyrus said they needed to make a couple stops, so they left at Nine. Ten minutes later we decided it wouldn't hurt to head over early. As we were getting ready to head over, I paused and looked at Mom and Dad.

"Want to try something?"

"Okaaay." dad said with some hesitation. He looked at mom and she gave him a nod.

"Hold on!" I said, and BOUNCED us through the Greenhorn Creek jump point to the meadow and back to Grandma and Grandpa Carson's living room.