Epilogue

Finally, it's the big day. Somehow it seems much less significant now. Faced with my own mortality, having a whole range of people that I'm personally responsible for and already having a large foundation to run, somehow graduation day seems like a pretty small event in the overall scheme of things. In fact, I can't imagine what I'll ever use my diploma for. I'm not going to college, though I may try to attend a couple of online college courses while I travel over the summer, I doubt I'll ever get much farther than that. Although who knows, there's a chance I may just survive for another ten years, in which case I may be able to focus on my education after all. But chances are that would just give me time to visit other places looking for new followers. Places like Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and possibly even Africa. I think I can safely skip Antarctica.

However, everyone likes ceremonies, especially supposedly significant ones like graduations, marriages and yes, even deaths. So I'm here mainly for my friends, all those people I've met over the last two and a half months since I returned from New Orleans a changed man.

After that momentous day when I had to face two gunmen out to shoot me in the back, things have been busy. We tried to manage it carefully, making sure Lisa was there to report the original story so she'd be first in line to do any in-depth interview thereafter. Everyone seemed to run interference for me, from my school friends and even my enemies here at Eldorado High, to the local police. There's nothing like the image of a naïve young man to bring out the protective nature of people. After my story hit the news everyone wanted to protect me from further scrutiny and any continued interruptions to my life.

But the two weeks since then have been filled with other things as well. I had to accompany Nikki on her trip home to see her parents. That went well, but it was stressful for both of us. The fact that I had an armed guard and my sister along didn't make Nikki's parents feel any better about me. However we avoided all the unpleasant talk of otherworldly powers. Once they recognized me as "that guy on the news" they couldn't be nicer. They told me how sorry they'd felt for me and what a nice kid I seemed. In the end Nikki said she was going to work for the Angel Vision Foundation, she would also be working with a variety of universities and would be attending SIU, which was closer to the foundations headquarters but which was still not that far away from home. She didn't bother to mention it was where I now called home as well.

Kevin did show up at our table that following Monday, and he was guardedly accepted by everyone. They treated him much like Julia in that they were wary, but encouraging in his efforts to change his previous behaviors. If he maintains contact with everyone, both he and Julia might be brought on board. The other kids also got a few more details about my life, but not a lot. They pieced together a lot of what was happening at the hospital, so I gave them a brief summary of what I was doing, but without any of the technical details of how I was able to do it. But I think Cate is right, they all seem to be hooked, so I think they'll be hanging around my girls longer than I'm likely to.

We'd moved into the loft in Carbondale soon after the events that Saturday. Once the walls were painted and the floors finished, we built an elevated bed that overlooked the entire loft, office and the rest of the building, and we worked on the space while living there. With so many people working on it, it really didn't take long to finish it either. However, being so close to everyone, we constantly had people stopping by, between the girls from SIU, various visitors from New Orleans coming up on the Amtrak train just a short distance away, to our friends from both Shawneetown, Eldorado and St. Louis, there was always someone wanting to say hello.

However the biggest thing was preparing for final exams and graduation. Surprisingly, Cate actually had to work harder than me, despite her better grades, because she had to pass a whole variety of tests and she insisted on getting A's in everything, even if she was only taking them on an advanced placement basis. But she had no fears. SIU was more than glad to accept her, and even if they didn't, Northern University guaranteed her an education as well, although she plans to use that for her graduate work in genetics, human physiology and physics. Seems she has to study a lot of different things to figure out what's going on inside of her brother.

I've been doing well since the events outlined here. As always, I heal quickly, and even though I still bear a small scar on my throat from my gunshot wound, it played very well on television and in person, making me seem both more dangerous and more endearing—as if I could be any more attractive to women than I am now.

After the press coverage of my attack it seems the entire school solidified behind me. When Tyler Cox and his cronies made a backhanded comment, I literally thought everyone was going to put him out of his misery then and there. Ever since, he's been unable to get away with anything, as everyone, students, school staff, teachers, parents and the local police call him to task before he can even think of doing anything wrong. I even made up with Tony, as unbelievable as that sounds. As I always thought, there's actually a fairly nice guy hiding behind that facade of his, but I doubt we'll ever be close friends.

Unfortunately, Rodger hasn't fared as well. The police, press and public all came down on him quite hard. He now lives on his own, supporting two unemployed sons who no longer have an education to fall back on, all three very publicly humiliated. He promptly got fired from his job, but managed to get a lower paying one through a somewhat sympathetic friend afterwards. Seems the friend lost his own family through an overreaching fascination with his kid's sports activities as well, so he could relate to Rodger's problems, although he's watchful of him as well, making him come along to his AA meetings even though Rodger doesn't drink much. He says the 12 steps work on a variety of problems.

Both Rodger and James are still facing a very public trial, though I keep trying to downplay it and I've already recorded a sympathetic deposition just in case I'm not around when the case finally comes to trial. After all the troubles we've had, I refuse to see him as a bad guy. Each of them were just short sighted in how they viewed their lives, and when they saw troubles they simply panicked and overreacted. Actually, I blame the school for the initial problem with Brandon, since it never would have occurred if he and James hadn't both been pumped full of steroids.

As difficult as it seems it would be to support someone who tried to have you killed, I really needed to do what I could for Chalise. As much as she disliked her father, you don't throw your girlfriend's father under the bus. Besides, I'm not asking for him to get off, just for a little leniency based on his circumstances.

Caroline moved in with us at the Loft, as did my other sisters, although they share a separate smaller loft that we sometimes use for overflow whenever we get busy, which is often. We also put Caroline to work for the foundation, which actually worked out quite well. Not only does she have an excellent business mind that Rodger had long ignored, but she's great at meeting nervous adults who are uncomfortable dealing with all the youngsters we have working here. And no, very few people know that I'm actually in charge of everything. Actually, I still play a very small role, just making a few major decisions and setting the aims for the organization. I now have enough good people working for me that they can handle things on their own. Plus we have several people examining the paper work, part of the trouble with being a charity organization.

The building we bought is already profitable, largely because everyone, including me, pays the corporation rent for the lofts, which helps our bottom line. Yes, charities have bottom lines too. You can't spend money you don't have. Plus we got a hell of a lot of donations after the story of my attacks hit the media. In fact the contributions continue to come in due to that. The public attention focused everyone on what the foundation was trying to achieve, and there were many people who felt it was a good cause. We now have an office in New Orleans as well, and are discussing potentially opening more in the future. But first we need someone to scout out some possible locations.

Patricia stayed over after her Prom performance. Once she heard what happened to me you couldn't have kept her away. Everyone moved me to the loft as soon as I got out of the hospital. Gail went ahead and hired a few trusted fellow officers, all women, who do a few other jobs but mostly serve as security for the foundation's businesses. We also have a few willing volunteers from some nearby schools.