Chapter 14: Discussing Closet Space

As Alex lead Cate to their table, Gail hung back. "Alex, I'm going to remain by the door." Curious, Alex arched his eyebrow, prompting her to continue. "With the growing crowds of angry protestors, I feel better sitting by the door. By being discreet, I can better keep an eye on things while anticipating any approaching trouble."

"Makes sense," Alex said, nodding. "I certainly can't argue with it. You've got your foundation credit card, so you should be fine on your own."

Alex and Cate joined Jenny and her husband, Tommy Cox, Lauran Fraser with a woman Alex assumed was her life partner, as well as three people he didn't know but guessed who were pretty quickly.

Rising from her seat, Jenny took on the role of host, introducing her husband, but Lauran jumped in, taking over the rest of the introductions from there. "Alex, I'd like you to meet my spouse, Christie Hollie, as well as Kevin Eldridge and Nick Griggs, who we discussed earlier, as well as Carla Swift, their intended surrogate. Carla's a Watcher by the way," she said, although neither Cate nor Alex needed her to tell them since Carla been unable to look away since they first approached. "I thought I should do the introductions since I'm more familiar with everyone," she explained.

"I'm pleased to meet each of you," Alex replied shaking their hands, then hugging both Nick and Kevin. "I think we're beyond the formal handshake at this point, if you're going to be raising a child for me."

If Alex was going to pick two people as being gay, he wouldn't pick these two, as both were large burly guys who didn't seem to be overly sophisticated in the typical persona many gays took on. He then turned to Carla, a little thing dressed in a gray dress and gave her a firm hug, to which she promptly responded by molding her body to his own, while Cate welcomed the two men in her own style. Carla was obviously young and ready for life, though probably not yet ready for life with a baby yet.

"So does anyone need to know who either I, my sister Cate or our bodyguard Gail is?" he asked with an easy laugh. They each laughed and assured him they were all quite familiar with him. At that point they sat down and got started on the discussion.

"I'm really pleased to meet you. I know I've got no reason to be included in your inner circle, but... ," Kevin started to say when he noticed Alex's eyes glazing over. He'd been warned beforehand that this might happen, so he had the sense to wait until he seemed to be listening again.

'Alex, this is Shani. I just got a call from Lisa. It seems that Albert Rodriguez contacted her, since he has no other way of contacting you. If you'll remember, she sent him that video earlier. It seems he's got a 6:00 news program that's going to start soon, and he wanted you to have a chance to see it, since it's about you and your followers. He also said he'd appreciate it if you could give him a call afterwards.'

'Thanks, Shani. He certainly doesn't give much warning, does he? I guess there isn't much we can do about it now, besides, we're sitting down to dinner and we don't have access to a television. But I'll try to relay the information to someone who can check it out for us. Hopefully they can warn us if it's likely to cause us any trouble, ' Alex told her.

'From what I've been hearing you've already been having some trouble, although you seem to be handling it better than your last visit.'

'Yeah, I've got a lot of good people down here and they're all pitching in. It makes a big difference having people to draw on, especially when they've organized so well, ' Alex explained. 'I've got to go if I'm going to head this off. Thanks for warning me, though, ' he said as he switched to his next telepathic broadcast.

'OK, everyone, this is Alex, ' Alex broadcast to all his Seers throughout New Orleans. It took a bit of effort to identify and select them, but not as much as one might suspect since the connections were all mental. 'We've got a bit of a problem. Mr. Rodriguez is doing a TV special on me that is starting soon, and I'm stuck without a TV. If a few of you could watch it for me and let me know how damaging it is, I'd appreciate it. If anyone has access to a DVR and could record it for me, that would help. I suspect my family might appreciate seeing it, as it's about all they'll have seen of me since I left home a week ago. Check with Patricia to see if there's someone who knows enough to record it electronically so someone can send it to my iPad, since it would be good to see if there's something specifically I need to respond to. But let's not get crazy about this, folks. We're likely to be seeing a lot of reports about us in the future, so we've got to learn to take it in stride and respond to it the best we can. Let's keep everything in perspective. OK?'

Alex got numerous positive responses, which surprisingly he was able to identify, even if he didn't know the respondent's name, but somehow he could place each with a face. One girl said she was at home at the moment and could get her boyfriend to record it on his computer, so Alex thanked her and told her he'd get in contact with her after it was over. Patricia then asked him if he wanted her to do anything, to which Alex simply warned her to be prepared since she was likely to get a lot of flack due to her being so publicly affiliated with him.

The whole series of exchanges only took several seconds, so Alex's eyes refocused and he met Kevin's eyes once again. Kevin, who wasn't sure what had just happened, was afraid Alex may have lost his train of thought, so he started over.

"I was just saying that Nick and I have no reason to be included in your mission, but Lauran got us excited about the possibilities, especially when she suggested we may be able to help by finally getting the baby we've been hoping for so long."

"Sorry about fading out like that, I get distracted with a lot of information sometimes," Alex apologized, leaving off any details since he didn't want to upset his dinner companions. Those dinner companions consisted of only three Watchers, none of them would know what was happening until they started to talk to the others in the community. Even Gail was in the dark about what was going to occur.

"That's fine," Kevin assured him, waving it off. "We understand. From what we understand, you're responsible for a lot of people, both here in New Orleans and elsewhere."

"I can understand why you'd want a baby," Alex said, changing the topic as he regarded them both, "but why did you feel drawn to this particular community?"

"Oh, that's easy," Nick responded. "Now that gays are being so widely accepted by the world, from the military which persecuted us into better paying jobs, to religious figures who accept us completely, except in cases of marriage or being near kids. Heck, even those who occasionally beat us up on the streets feel the need to tell us 'Not that there's anything wrong with that'," he joked with a somewhat bitter laugh. "But we felt that if there's still this much hostility for something that's almost been accepted as normal, your group is likely to face even stronger opposition. Plus, there's a certain cachet to raising the next potential Angel of New Orleans. It's the newest gay thing," he teased.

Alex had been observing the two men while Kevin had been speaking. Kevin was what is referred to as a 'Bear' in the gay community, referring to a large man, often with a decent pot belly and/or a lot of body hair. Alex would never have known any of this, but the other Alex had brought him up to date when Alex continued to prompt him about gays in anticipation of his travels. The gays, unlike straights, considered this a sexy trait, since it was so much like cuddling a big teddy bear.

Nick, on the other hand, was a sleek muscular young man who seemed to be the antithesis of the typical gay stereotype. Neither one exactly shouted 'gay' by their appearance.

"OK, that answers a lot," Alex replied with a reassuring laugh. "I'd hardly presume to understand what you've had to go through in coming out, but there are parallels. We face potential persecution based solely on who we are, something we have no control over. Those that I trigger seem to be based on a completely random genetic trait which no one ever knew they had, so many people are finding themselves part of this community whether they knew about it or even wanted to. But we're always glad to have anyone voluntarily join us. We've got several people without these traits who have already joined us. Many of them from my school."

"Lauran has really been driven lately, and we noticed and asked her about it," Nick explained. "Since we're fairly close friends and have been talking about raising kids together, she confided in us. We'd heard about you earlier so we were intrigued, but the more we heard the more enthused we were. This is the first significant genetic advancement anyone in recorded history has noted, and it sounds like a major one. It's too bad it's restricted to women only, but we're hoping it will eventually benefit everyone."

"Just how much do you know about it?" Alex cautiously asked.

"Well, Lauran never said too much explicitly, but we're aware there are three classes of followers. We also know that you can transmit thoughts and feelings, and that the Seers are able to see things like how healthy people are," Kevin replied.

"That's a pretty good summation, although each of the girls is able to feel emotions. That's because they can sense the energy each person gives off, and that energy is flavored by a person's personality. So it would be good to pay attention whenever Jenny, Lauran or Carla warns you about someone. But as you can imagine, the idea that there are people who can communicate telepathically is likely to panic people. Plus the fact that people keep referring to me as an angel has the religious community in a tither."

"Yeah, Jenny explained you weren't particularly religious," Nick replied.

"Nope, although the women can literally see what we call a soul, I'm still not sure how to relate to it. I see it as a feature of a person's personality, but I still can't see it floating away into space, so I have trouble seeing a big king of the spirits floating around in a make believe ethereal kingdom," Alex told them, expressing his own difficulties with his new position.

"Yeah, I can see where you'd have a problem with religion with that framework," Christie responded with a slight smirk. "I think it's interesting the famed Angel of New Orleans doesn't believe in God," she observed.

"It's worse than that," Cate told her. "He's supposedly an Angel who doesn't believe in God, he lets people see souls that he doesn't believe exist, he heals people using energy he can't see, and he doesn't think anyone should treat him any differently than anyone else."

"Some people seek greatness, while others have to be dragged to it kicking and screaming," Kevin observed. Cate seemed to think that was very funny.

"So normally, Nick, I'd quiz you on what you're looking for as well, but I trust that Jenny has already tackled that topic. I assume Christie and Carla have also been vetted, so I don't have to worry about whether any of you will be good parents. Oh sure, you'll each struggle, but that's the whole nature of parenting."

"So says my 'oh, so experienced parent', brother," teased Cate.

"You know," Christie said, "I think you need to consider this movement of yours as your own parenthood. You've essentially delegated the actual parenting, but you need to grow the movement. From what I've heard, you've been doing a good job, but you've got to get over this shy retiring persona of yours. You need to address things directly."

"Ha, you should have seen him before," Cate observed. "He's making great strides, but personally, the rest of us think of it as our friend Anh does. Alex always seems to come to the right decision for all the wrong reasons. That's why we feel he's guided in his decisions. He seems to have a knack for judging people and making decisions. Now, whether he's guided by God, by Alexandria, or by a bunch of unnamed spirits, we don't know. But he does have a real talent for doing the right thing."

"After being told how we and those we love are all going to hell for loving each other, it feels nice to be working on God's side for a change," Christie teased, only somewhat exaggerating.

They were about ready to order and were looking for the waitress when they heard a loud commotion at the front of the restaurant. When Alex glanced up, he noted Gail was halfway to the table before she realized the noise had come from the front of the restaurant, which was behind her. Glancing around a bit nervously, she returned to her seat and watched the door nervously. She didn't investigate the disruption, since her responsibility was in guarding Alex, not policing the restaurant.

The disruption, which sounded like it might have been a fight as they'd heard some shouting, was over quickly, and everyone looked around trying to figure out what happened. But as soon as Alex decided it didn't involve him or present a threat to those he loved, he put it out of his mind. When the waitress finally came to the table a few minutes later to take their orders Carla asked what the problem was.

"Oh, there was some argument in the bar," she answered. "It seems some idiot turned off the normal sports channel to watch some news program, and a couple of people started arguing about it. I guess it was some religious thing."

Alex sighed and turned to his sister. "Cate, go to the bar and see who's there. It's likely one of ours."

She quickly got up and hurried off. Tommy asked the waitress, "Did anyone get hurt? Any damage done?"

"No, one guy shoved another," she said. "That seems to have been the extent of it."

Alex perked up at that. If it had been one of his followers trying to defend him against someone mouthing off after the news story, one of the two should have been a woman.

"Did you hear what the argument was about?" Lauran asked, picking up on Alex's interest in the topic.

"Sorry, I wasn't there. I just heard about it when I was placing an order," she told them.

'Gail, it seems there was an argument about us in the bar, ' Alex explained. 'Chances are the participants were thrown out. Cate's checking the bar, could you check outside and see if you can find anyone that might be related to us? They were supposedly two men, so it may be hard to identify them.'

'I'll do it. You sure you're going to be OK without me?'

'Sure, what could possibly ... never mind. No, I should be fine. Besides, you'll only be gone for a couple of minutes and there are plenty of people here.'

Gail nodded and got up, quietly walking out of the restaurant. Alex gave the waitress both his and Cate's order, since the waitress was waiting. Finished, she headed off just as Cate returned.

"Sorry, whoever caused the trouble already left," she informed Alex. "The program they were watching was still on. I caught a little of it. It seemed to be about you."

"Yeah, I already know about it," Alex admitted. "Apparently Albert Rodriguez got a TV special dedicated to me. I chose to ignore it, but I'm wondering just who may have been fighting about it just now. I'm not particularly worried about the pro-tradition participant, but whoever was defending me might be of interest. I'm particularly concerned with why he was defending me."

"Wait a minute," Jenny interrupted. "There's a news exposé about you, and you just chose to ignore it? No wonder there's a fight. That's some big shit. We need to get you out of here. There might be trouble."

"There's hardly—" Alex tried to explain, but everyone started getting excited.

"Oh, man, that's major. Do you want us to escort you out?" Nick asked.

"Let me check if there are any crowds outside," Carla said, getting ready to head out.

"Everyone, RELAX. It's not that major," Alex told them all, staring at each of them, letting them know he wasn't fooling around. "No one knows I'm associated with this, hopefully it was a fair report. I'll deal with it after it's done, but I'm not going to spoil my dinner worrying about something that I have no control over."

"Yeah, right, when was the last time you saw a fair and impartial report about anything on television?" Tommy asked. Cate snuggled up beside Alex and held his hand, trying to figure out just what was going on.

"So far we've been fortunate that the news has favored us. There hasn't been anything to report about us, and what there was to report has been very unimpressive. Frankly, most people won't care about a miracle with qualifications. However, the news cycle is now likely to be filled with reports of traditional conservative churches reacting negatively to us. And by conservative I mean that literally, these are the types of churches that don't want to see any changes of any kind, so they aren't likely to appear sympathetic to someone challenging the status quo. So, yes, I see this as something we can weather. But what we can't do is overreact. We can't fly off the handle and do something stupid that will focus the attention on us we're trying to avoid."

This stopped the others and they each watched him as the ideas he proposed percolated through their brains. While they were thinking Alex turned to Lauran.

"I've got someone who is organizing the relatives of my followers, trying to get them together with available Watchers, Seers, or type 3s. I've come to think she may need some assistance. It seems to me she should have some help from the lesbian and gay communities. I'd like you, Lauran, and you, Kevin, to meet with her, and you and your partners can assist her in helping merge these people into our community. There are actually two different groups, one is essentially a community dating service, while the other is trying to bring friends and relatives into the group. I'd like each of you to take part in both groups. I want to make sure that anyone coming to us feels welcome."