Chapter 20

When things came clear again, it was very obvious that I wasn't really awake. For one thing, I was sitting on my bed in my old dorm room at Dartmouth. For another, Cooper James was sitting in the chair at my study desk staring at me.

"Cooper?" I asked.

"Hello Grandfather," he answered gloomily.

"I'm sorry," I said, not sure for what. Maybe for lots of things.

"Great grandmother never told a soul," he said, letting me know what he thought I was apologizing for. "I always wondered why mother and I seemed so different. So much like Great grandma and so little like the rest of her family."

"Really,?"

"Oh yeah, and looking back on it, I think Grandma at least might have suspected, but if she did, she never said anything."

"So where do we go from here?" I asked.

"Onward and upward," he laughed. "You're Cooper James now. I'm just along for the ride. I've been holding back, hiding. The voice got it right. Because of that you haven't had access to any of what was me. Memories, skills, nothing. Now that we're aware of each other in here, I hope that will change."

"Well, I guess I hope they do to. I was sad thinking I'd never get the chance to know you, and even sadder knowing that you were my great-grandson. I've been feeling pretty lost trying to live as a part of your generation. The world has changed too much since I was young. I don't know how to do anything. I don't know what anything means."

"Well, you were doing okay so far. You got a cell phone, a laptop, a car, cable TV and an internet connection, and you managed to not look too lost doing it."

"Well, that was mostly just treading water," I admitted.

"Maybe so, but you got a class act like that Kelli Montoya to give you her number, and I don't think I could ever have had that kind of luck with her. Your manners might be those of a different age, but they're classy, and she liked you because of that."

"You think?"

"I think. And I think you ought to call her tomorrow morning. Leave her a voice mail at least.
Let her know you've been thinking of her."

"Voice mail?" I mentally gulped.

Cooper Jame's laughter in my head, faintly echoed by that of the voice faded out with me as I finally found real sleep.

I woke that morning bristling with energy. I got up and started for the shower but stopped when I remembered my promise to myself that I would start exercising. Too bad I hadn't thought of that promise while I was at the mall the day before.

"Lets see what dad's got," Cooper's voice reminded me I was no longer alone in my head. We wore the same sized shoe four years ago.

"We all here?" I asked silently. "Yes!" came the sounds of both mine and Cooper's voices in my head, sounding rather enthusiastic.

There were some low top deck shoes that would be better for a little light jogging in than my hiking boots. The new casual shoes I'd bought the day before would not have worked at all, so I tried them on, and they did seem to fit, at least for walking around in.

"What do you think?" I asked silently.

"Feels like they were mine," Cooper said after a moment more of my experimental walking around.

"Okay, where too? The edge of the highway doesn't seem the safest, and the driveway's not very long."

"No, but the yard is huge and its mostly lawn or dirt with scrub," Cooper offered. "We could run the perimeter of it and it would be about a mile and a half per circuit I think."

"A mile and three fifths, I make it," the voice countered.

"Voice, I've been just thinking of you all this time as 'the voice'. Now that there's two of you, I need something better to call you, don't you think?"

"Hmm," he said sounding like me for a moment. Then he was silent for a minute longer, followed by a giggle, which really sounded strange, coming from him. "How about calling me Bud?"

"Bud?" I said incredulously. "Where the hell did you get Bud?"

"Well, amongst other things, one of my jobs is to be the voice of wisdom for the two of you in this venture. So since I am the wiser of the three of us..."

The pause was broken by Cooper's laughter. "Oh man," he said " he's Bud-wiser. Good thing we both like beer."

So that was how the voice got to be known as Bud, and how Cooper and I learned that our companion had a sense of humor. We were all three still chuckling intermittently when we began our run around the perimeter of the yard. We ran it three times before we stopped and found a nice piece of lawn where we could do some crunches and push ups.

"A chin up bar would be better," Cooper said as we were doing the push ups.

"I was thinking yesterday that there's a lot of room in the basement for exercise equipment," I added.

"You two will have to decide that for yourselves," Bud said. "My people have already done the last of what they can accomplish physically for a while."

"What?" I asked, echoed by Cooper.

"Shower and breakfast first," Bud answered. "I'm hungry."