Chapter 2

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

The first thing Dave noticed as he was coming to consciousness was the smell of fresh coffee. That was strange; Julie didn't like the smell of coffee for some reason, so he usually got some on the way to work ... he opened his eyes, and saw a very tall blonde in the kitchen.

All of a sudden things snapped into place. Yesterday. The tower going down. Julie. The boys ... and then, Shae and Eve. "Shae?" he said wonderingly, the question hanging in the air.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she smiled. "The boys are still asleep, but I just looked in on them, and I don't think they're going to be much longer. Eve went down to K-Mart to see if she can get some fresh underwear and stuff for you. She's got a better idea of men's sizes than I do, so she can make a better-educated guess. How do you like your coffee?"

"Black," he said, still coming to grips with the strange situation -- and the sorrow of losing Julie, the knowledge he'd never see her again. "I'm surprised I got any sleep at all," he commented. "I didn't think I could ever sleep again, and I was scared to. What did Eve do, hypnotize me?"

"Maybe a little," Shae grinned. "She knows how to do it. But your Bloody Mary last night had enough Ambien in it to stun a horse. All she did was help you surrender to it. You needed sleep, Dave. Now go use the bathroom before your boys wake up, and then I'll make you some breakfast. If you want a shower, I can loan you a robe. It'll be big on you, but you could wear it."

"I think the shower, Shae," he nodded. "But let me have a taste of coffee, first."

"Coming right up," she smiled as he got to his feet. It was still dark in the living room from drapes being drawn, but through the cracks and weave he could see it was a bright day outside. He walked over to the crack in the drapes and opened it enough to get a good look. Though he could see that while the apartment was well back from the shore, there was a good view of the ocean. Off in the middle distance there was a low, green shoreline; a little to the left, open ocean. Not a bad view; in its way, better than his own apartment, which faced where the World Trade Center had stood until yesterday. At least he wouldn't have to look at the blank spot in the skyline from this window...

"Nice view," he told Shae as she walked up to him with a mug of coffee. Something seemed strange about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"I like it," she said as she handed him the coffee. "When I first moved up here from Durham, I got a place in New Rochelle, but that was really stupid. It was a long haul into the WSN offices, and an even longer haul to go down and see Eve in Philly, and worse, it wasn't close to any of the airports. As much as I was traveling, that was really a pain in the butt. So then, when I got more seriously involved in the show, I found this place. It's an hour closer to Eve and John, I don't even drive when I have to go to the network offices, and it's an easy shot across the Narrows Bridge to the studio. To top it off, I'm not even paying as much rent. When Raylene got married, I just didn't go looking for another roomie."

"I take it to mean you're not married," he said.

"Never been," she smiled. "I got close once, but then I realized how much Larry was sleeping around and decided it wasn't worth it. I'm not at all anxious to get AIDS, and he apparently is. I'll go find you a robe."

A few minutes later he was in the shower. It felt good to clean off all the dust and dirt that had settled on him from the clouds after the towers went down; he hadn't realized how dirty he was. It felt strange to be able to stick his head under the shower head without having to bend down -- clearly, it had been modified for Shae's height.

A lot had obviously happened to her since he'd last seen her at the open house her family threw for her and Denis Riley right after the graduation ceremonies. Back in those days, she'd seemed like a freak, a big, gawky jock -- a magician on the basketball court, a real joy to watch, tough to get past. Dave had been more or less roped into getting onto the basketball team, although he was no great shakes at it, but sometimes when they were going to be going up against a team with someone real tall they'd ask her to scrimmage with the boys, just to practice against a big defender. She had an awesome defense, great moves, and had been the best girl rebounder in the state in their class. After going a few rounds against her, shorter guys seemed easy by comparison. It was no wonder that she and Cindy Dohrman had led the girls' team to the state finals three years running, winning the state championship two of them.

God, that was a long time ago, he thought. He'd actually sort of dated her a few times. Since he was the tallest guy in the school, people somehow thought they ought to try to set them up with each other -- but they just didn't click. They were friends, but no more than that. She was focused on her athletics, and he didn't care much for it; he'd rather have been wrapped up in one of his sci-fi books. But a few times they'd been together with a group after a game, and he even remembered kissing her goodnight a couple of times.

As the water pounded on his body, his mind rolled back, and he remembered that in their senior year, something strange had happened. No, on thinking about it, it was late in their junior year. Shae, the biggest kid in the school, got to going with Denis Riley, who was just about the smallest. Denis was a little jerk, a real wuss, and everyone figured he was gay, so he caught hell from a lot of kids and some teachers, too.

It was real strange for a big popular jock like her to be going with him, but everyone figured there'd been more to it than that. Denis' dad was the manager of the General Hardware Retailers regional distribution center at the edge of town, far and away the biggest business Bradford had; Shae's dad was distribution manager or something. Dave seemed to recall that everyone thought Denis' dad had leaned on Shae's dad to have her watch over him, to try to protect him from some of the teasing and cruelties he had endured. It more or less worked; although Shae was a girl, and considered by most to be a real freak, she was big, strong, and tough, so not too many people were going to push her very far.

God that was a long time ago, and how petty people had been! It wasn't just Bradford, either; Julie had seen the same sort of thing in Hartford, a school ten times as big. It made him wonder for an instant how things had turned out for Denis. Probably not real good, he figured; he'd seemed like such a loser.

Out of the shower, he used a lady's disposable razor to chop off the beard stubble, so he felt halfway normal. Not perfect, but it'd do the job, he thought. Maybe some guys can walk around looking like Yasser Arafat, but I'm not one of them. He came out of the bathroom, to notice the boys were up and the TV was on. Some kid's show, he thought, and then caught a closer look at the screen -- and realized he was looking at Shae herself! She was dressed in a green jerkin and shorts and hat that made him think of Peter Pan, and a yellow leotard almost the color of her hair.

Really curious, he walked over and sat down in a chair near the TV, to get a better look. Tyler and Cameron were watching the show with rapt attention. On the TV screen, Shae was telling a story to two little kids -- well maybe not that little, Tyler and Cameron's age, but they seemed little, mostly because Shae seemed so damn big! After a few seconds, he realized the story she was telling was a takeoff of The Ugly Duckling -- a gentle lesson in "It's OK to be different." He was impressed how Shae interacted with the kids -- one black and one white.

Looked at critically, the staging and production were mediocre, the acting was broad and unsubtle -- but you don't do things subtly with three and four and five year olds; it has to be kept pretty straightforward. From that viewpoint, it was well done; it held his interest, to see just how well done it was with its fairly simple approach -- but the show itself would be boring to him once he got past that. Nevertheless, the boys seemed to be enjoying it. Had Julie ever seen this? Maybe, probably not, he thought, wondering what she would have thought of it.

As he sat there drinking it in, he felt Shae sit down on the arm of the chair next to him and pass him his coffee mug. The story wound down on the screen, and Shaella talked with the two kids for a minute, asking them about the story, what it really meant. The kids came up with some pretty decent answers, although Shaella made the questions pretty leading. He wondered if they were off the top of the kids' heads, or scripted. Whatever it was, it felt natural. Finally, an off-stage voice called for the kids, and Shaella told them their moms were calling so they'd better go home. They very sweetly said goodbye, and she waved at them as they took off. "You see," she said directly to the camera, "You're never sure how things are going to turn out in the end. Come back to Avalon and see me again." The credits began to roll, to a voice-over of children singing, and then the TV went silent and "MUTE" came up on the screen.

Shae, the real one this time, went over and sat down on the sofa next to the boys. "I just want to talk to you for a couple minutes during the commercials," she said gently, in the same voice and manner she used on the screen. "Tyler and Cameron," she said. "Does it look like we're sitting in Avalon to you? This isn't Avalon, is it?"

Both the boys shook their heads; Cameron softly said, "No, it isn't."

"You're right, it isn't Avalon," she said. "You know when you watch TV, some things are real, some things aren't, and some things are in between, don't you?" Both the boys nodded, and she went on. "What's on TV usually isn't very real. Now, who am I?

"Shaella," Tyler ventured. "Shaella Sunrise."

"When I'm in Avalon, and wearing green and yellow, I'm Shaella Sunrise," she explained. "But we're not in Avalon, are we?"

"No," the boys shook their heads.

"We're in my home now," she smiled. "My name really is Shae, I'm gentle, and yes, some people would consider me a giantess. I'm still pretty much the same person you see on TV, but a lot of what I do on TV is make-believe. Do you like make-believe? It's fun to think about being in Avalon but Avalon is really just make-believe. Make-believe is fun, but sometimes it's not good to mix it up with real things. Try to not mix up what you see of me here with what you see on TV, OK? Sometimes it's hard to tell which is which. If you have questions, ask, and I'll try to answer them. Is that OK?"

Both the boys smiled and nodded their heads. "Now boys, if you want to watch a little more TV, that's fine, or if you want to have some cereal, that's fine, too. But when Mrs. McClellan gets back, you're going to have to break from the TV to take a bath and change clothes. But today, I expect you'll get to watch a lot of TV, and I'll play with you or tell you some stories, just like I do for the kids on TV. Now, do you want to eat, or watch more TV?"