Chapter 13

When Helen and the girls entered the bedroom they could hear the water running and thought that Ben was taking a shower, so they sat on the bed to wait for him. They talked some more about all the fun they have had, here in this paradise. They waited and then heard the water turn off and they anxiously awaited Ben's arrival into the bedroom.

Suddenly, Brie screamed!

Then Helen heard in her mind, 'Please forgive me, Mother, for what I am about to do. This is the only way out!'

All three tried to rush into the bathroom at once, and were thwarted in their attempt by too many bodies attempting to pass through the enclosed space of the doorway. Brie was the first to see her brother bringing the very sharp penknife to bear upon his upturned wrist.

She screamed, "Nooooo!" again, and fainted. This did allow Helen to slip through the door, and lunge for the blade that could end her son's life.

Brie's scream startled Ben. He dropped the knife alongside the outside of the tub. It fell to the floor, breaking the blade on the ceramic tiles. Helen grabbed her son around the shoulders, and hauled him out of the tub. She held him, crying and shaking uncontrollably. For Ben, this was a reprieve, or was it? Bea was not in the room, that he could see. Brie was on the bathroom floor, unconscious. His mother was holding onto him, with what felt like a death grip. Bea, however, was nowhere to be seen.

'She hates me so much that she can't stand to be near me. They should have let me die. I need to die, so that I can never hurt Bea (or anyone else) ever again, ' were the thoughts running through young Ben's mind. Brie slowly came around, and stirred, slightly. Ben could see that Brie was alright. Well, she was not dead, at least. But ... where was Bea?

When Bea was able to take in the scene in the bathroom, she was awe struck. She backed up out of the doorway, and fell as her knees contacted the bed. She couldn't believe her eyes: her brother was trying to take his own life! He must have felt that he had hurt her so badly, that he didn't deserve to live. How could he have thought that way? Didn't he know that she loved him? How could he know? She had shunned him, and called him horrible names last night. Then, again, this morning, she wasn't there for him. Perhaps she was the one who was bad. Maybe she was the one who should be punished.

Belinda slowly rose from the bed, and walked into the bathroom. She picked up the broken penknife and put the sharp edge against her own wrist, but against the top part, not the underside. That is when Brie became aware of everything around her, and she stood up. She grabbed Bea. She twisted the hand holding the knife. The knife fell again to the tile floor of the bathroom, breaking the blade completely. Bea let out a screech, and turned to see who had stopped her from doing what needed to be done.

Suddenly all four in the bathroom heard Voice boom thoughts into their heads.

'ENOUGH!! This has gone too far. You have all passed my test. This test was to see, when I planted false and evil thoughts into you, how you would react. I needed to know your true intentions. I have found that you four are the ones for whom I have been searching, for so very long.'

'Please, let us adjourn to the other room, so we may converse in comfort. It has been a very long search, indeed, to find individuals worthy of my power. Yes, you each have a power within you, and each one of you compliments each other. Combined, you are almost as powerful as I. Once you have combined with my power, there is no force on this planet that can stop us.

'I am sorry I had to break your pen knife, Ben, but I could not allow either of you to come to harm.'

All four moved off to the bedroom and sat on the beds, Helen and Ben on one bed and Brie and Bea on the other, all facing each other.

'I am about to reveal to you some facts about my past and my origin. I am much older than you think I am. I am an entity of pure energy. According to your method of time measurement, I am approximately four billion years old.

'I arrived on this planet about the time that its crust had cooled enough to have achieved solidification. I did have some powers of locomotion; however, at that time, I was still an infant. I had to rely upon solar and cosmic winds, as I am unaffected by gravity due to my lack of mass. I looked at Mars and Venus, but only Earth showed the possibility of developing significant varieties of life.

For such a long time it was a very lonely existence. Then man came along in his earliest form. It was very difficult trying to communicate with mankind, then, as they had no language. Their minds had not developed enough for language.

'Slowly, over time, things changed. Man became more aware of his surroundings. A kind of language was forming, but nothing was being written down. After more time, mankind became more perceptive of the world around him. He tried to tame the world, to make his life more comfortable. He cultivated foods to eat, he domesticated animals to augment his labors, he also learned to manipulate ores into metals, and then added different ores to make new alloys.

'I was tired of my existence of floating around the planet, by then, so I found a rock and settled into it. This occurred around 4000 BC. The rock was found, many hundreds of years later. It was cut and polished until my form, the fuzzy lightning bolt you see within the black stone, was visible. As I was passed from hand to hand, many times I allowed the being holding me to utilize some of my power.'

'In 1353 AD, a silversmith was creating a ring for a very powerful leader of his area. The leader wanted a unique stone to be added to a ring. The silversmith had bought my stone, many years before, but no one wanted such a fuzzy image. The silversmith wanted to be rid of a stone no one wanted, and the leader wanted something unique, so I was made into this ring. You were right about the oldest book you found, though. It was a copy of an ancient Sumerian text. It explained my uses and powers, when I was still a loose stone. The latest journal is indeed written in Early Modern English. The first part of it is a fair translation from the old Sumerian tongue.

You four, though, are almost more unique than I am. I have never, in my long history on this planet, found anyone who was truly worthy of my full powers. Because of my test, I am sure you are the ones who will benefit the most from what I can give you. I hope you will forgive me for the test; but I had to know your true feelings, before I awoke the ancient genetic powers within your minds.'

All four of us just sat there, stunned by this revelation. I was mad, of course. This had all been some silly test, just to see if we had the moral character to be accepted by him. Then, too, I could see some of his reasoning. I didn't know about the others, but this would take some getting used to. Nobody said anything for a few minutes, so I spoke up.

"We need to get dressed, and have some breakfast. It's going to be a long day, again, and we need to get home. Then we can think this whole thing over, in a place where we are more comfortable."

We broke up, then. I went to drain the tub, so Mom could shower. As for myself, I didn't think I would ever look at a tub of water again, without shivering and remembering this day. Soon Mom came in to shower, and I left to get dressed. I ordered breakfast for the room, and waited in lounge while everyone else got ready. I made sure I was all packed. All of the clothes I had outgrown, I had packed in an additional suitcase I had bought, here. I would donate them once we got home. I know it was silly to drag all that back home, but we could get receipts for tax purposes, if we did it at home. Here, I would just have to give it away.

Breakfast came just as Mom and Bea entered the lounge. We could get started, early. Brie showed up before the room service guy left, so we were all able to eat together. After we ate we grabbed our bags and we went downstairs. Mom took care of the resort bill, and began to arrange for a taxi to take us to the airport. We said we needed a van, and the resort clerk said that there was no need for a taxi, as their van could take us.

About ten minutes later, we loaded up in the van. We were driven to the airport in Orlando. After what seemed like forever, we boarded an airplane, and headed home ... well, to Little Rock, anyway. Then a smaller plane took us to the South Arkansas Regional Airport. It was quicker to go there even though it was actually further from the house than the El Dorado downtown airport. We had left from there, so Mom's car was in the long term lot.

We finally arrived home about 10:30PM. After all the worry, the excitement, and drama we'd had today, we all just went to bed. I even slept in my own bed, alone.

Sunday, July 3^rd, 2011

I woke up just after eight o'clock, the next morning. I actually felt rested, and ready to explore my new world as a being of power and control. I got up, showered, and dressed in shorts and a tee shirt. I came downstairs, and I was alone. I thought of each of the women in my life, and gently nudged them awake.

'Ladies, I'm going to fix breakfast for us. Would you like to join me? If so I would suggest you get a move on!'

While my sleepyheads got up and dressed; I cooked sausage, scrambled eggs, made toast, and poured milk and juice for each of us. I also made some coffee for Mom. I had just set everything on the table when the three women in my life came into the dining room.

"Have a seat, ladies. Breakfast is served! Coffee will be ready in a minute, Helen."

After breakfast was finished and the dishes put in the dishwasher, I refilled everyone's glasses with, juice, milk, water, or coffee.

"Okay! Now, we need to get with the Voice. We'll see what all we have to work with, and how we are to plan for our future. Voice, please join us and tell us what special talents we have, that you can add your power to."

We all sat in shock at what we had heard in our minds. It sounded like we were beings from another planet, with all the powers we had. But then, too, it kind of explained a few things. Now, how was I going to try to explain my physical difference to the people around us?

"Mom, I think we need to wait a couple of weeks to decide what new business venture we need to start, and things like that. How about for now, we just throw some ideas out, and list them. Then, later, we can discuss the true merits of the ideas that come up. Some of the farfetched ones may actually be the best. So we mustn't criticize or belittle any ideas, yet. How does that sound?"

"Ben you are quite right, sometimes the very best idea is the screwiest one; but, after you think about it, it becomes the most viable. I have found that to be true when making choices for my stock buys. I'll get some paper and be right back."

When Mom came back we sat until lunchtime, having a real brainstorming session. We had come up with at least fifty ideas for a business that we as a family could do, with the powers that we had. I checked again with Voice, to see if I had to have a full name to find someone, as one of the ideas was to find missing persons, and/or things. We thought that psychometrics could be used for that. Missing persons should be easy, if the person knew their own name, and had not been brainwashed into thinking it was something else. However, Voice said that unless we were talking about someone less than six years of age, their mind would still answer to their right name. He also told us that my telepathy would not necessarily need a full name, only a picture in my mind of the person, or an idea of who I was looking for, meaning that a photo of a person could lead me to finding them.

This led us to think that a company that would find people and things, could be a real possibility. The next question was, could we really find someone that was missing? Did they need to be alive for me to find them? Could I find people that were dead?

That was easy to test. I thought of Grandpa Phillips, but I drew a blank. Then I tried Ken's dad, Frank. He was recently dead, actually less than two years ago. First, I looked into Ken's mind, and found a lot of information about his dad. Then I looked into Karen's mind, to see if I could get some more information. Though I knew where Frank was buried, I didn't want to think about that right now. I looked for a mental signature that I thought would be Frank Stevens. I felt something emerging in my head, but what is was, I couldn't say.

Then I saw something that I think I will never forget. I saw the images of when Frank was killed. I saw about two minutes of the time up until his death and even about a minute after the explosion. His last thoughts were of his wife and family and how he was going to really miss them. Then his mind calmed and that was the end of what I saw.

One of the men I saw with him was a man that I remembered seeing at the funeral. He was in uniform and had an empty sleeve. I saw his arm being torn from his body by the explosion and I saw the piece of shrapnel that tore through the chest of MSgt Frank Evan Stevens, killing him almost instantly.

To say I was shaken by this vision would be a great understatement. I was visibly horrified, and almost puked my entire lunch at the table. The others were still kicking a few ideas around. My gagging brought everyone's attention to me, and they were worried about why it had happened. I had not told anyone what I was going to do, so they had no idea of what I did. I steeled myself mentally and physically, and explained what I had done.

Their first reaction was one of disgust. I was chastised severely for even attempting such a stupid idea. I explained that if I could find someone recently dead, without much information, then I could find anyone, anywhere.

I said, "Just think of all the parents out there that we could help, by finding their children, dead or alive. I suspect that if dead, they would have to be recently deceased. Because, when I tried to find Grandpa Phillips, I couldn't find a single trace. That is why I tried for Ken's dad, Frank. He was the only dead person I knew."

Bea said, "We need to name our company 'We Find It' and we could put it on the internet under that too. I think Ben has a great idea. This is something we can all do as a family and with Ben's computer skills, we could say he is just following leads he finds that way, until we all graduate. But we need to make sure that anyone who is a client knows that privacy is the only way we will work for them. No media circus for us finding things, we as a company, will stay in the background. We have to be very discrete; we won't go looking for anyone in a witness protection program, now crooks we will go after, but not people that need to be protected."

I said, "I understand that, but we need a parent company, to be able to branch out from the initial 'We Find It'. Let's start 'Hamner Enterprises, LLC' with 'We Find It' as a subsidiary of the main company. The main company will be taking care of all the financial and administrative duties of the company, and then 'We Find It' will be just the tracing part of the company. That way we are isolated from lawsuits, and such. The main company funds the subsidiary, and controls the fees we collect from it. Does that sound more like a viable company?"

We all agreed, so I went about developing a website, with our domain name of 'wefindit.org'. The only trouble with that, was that the name was already taken. We had to come up with a new name. I looked and looked and could not find anything for a name for our company that hadn't already been taken.

I finally found one that would work: 'Hamner Locaters, LLC'. I then set about designing the website. It started out with a picture of a little boy putting up a handwritten sign that said, 'Have you seen my puppy?' There was a picture of a small dog, and a blacked out phone number. Underneath were the words: 'Is something of yours lost? Contact us to see if we can find it for you.' We would list an 800 phone number, and an anonymous e-mail address, from either yahoo or gmail.

I would work up a form letter, which a client could fill out on the site. They would just click it, to send it to us. I went ahead and set up the website and e-mail address. I would get the toll free number set up, tomorrow. I thought we should also add Ms. Donner to our firm, for legal help. I would have Ms. Donner contact the State Attorney General's office, to submit a form to register the companies with the state.

Mom still had Ms. Donner's phone number, so she called and asked if Ms. Donner could come over for supper, Tuesday night.

"I think that can be arranged. Are you having some more trouble, Mrs. Hamner?"

"No, Gloria, but I do have some questions and a possible business opportunity to discuss with you. It may be something you might be interested in, as it has nothing to do with divorces."

"You know me too well, Helen. How did you know I am getting burned out on messy divorces? Not that I'm not good at it, it's just that it's wearing me down. Now what's this all about?"

"Gloria, I really don't want to discuss this over the phone; but if you could come to the house for supper, Tuesday night, I think you might be interested."

"Now you have my curiosity up and running, full time! Is tomorrow night too soon to come over? I have nothing planned that night, and since I live alone, I don't have to answer to anyone."

"I think tomorrow would be all right. I'll see if Ben can whip up something nice for us for tomorrow night ... say, at 6:30?"

"Ben cooks? My, my, will wonders never cease? Is he a good cook?"

"Believe me, Ben cooks like a chef. See you then."

"Yeah, I'll be there."

"Did you have to say I would fix a chef style meal tomorrow? Let me see what I can thaw out, and what I can whip up."

I quickly ran upstairs, grabbed my laptop, and came back down. I looked in the fridge, and in the freezer. I found six boneless pork chops in a package, in the fridge. I had pulled them out of the freezer when we arrived home last night, to have for either tonight or tomorrow. Okay, now I went to my trusty 'cooks dot com' website. I was looking to find a really good, but quick and easy recipe for pork chops. I found a 'pork chops a la Dijon' recipe that I thought would work. I found a package of peas with pearl onions, in the freezer that would go well with the pork, and a standard sized can of applesauce.

Okay, the menu was set for tomorrow night: pork chops, peas, and applesauce. I would fix some mashed potatoes and gravy, too.

Now for a little background on Ms. Gloria Margret Donner. She is a thirty-nine year old divorcee, who had a very bad marriage. Her husband was a real asshole, much like Martin Hamner, but this particular asshole was into spousal abuse.

When Gloria met Steven Kitchener, they were in college. He was finishing up his MBA, and she was starting on her last year of law school. She already had an offer from a prestigious firm in Dallas, Texas, upon her graduation from the UT Austin, School of Law [That's the University of Texas at Austin, Texas].