Vivian was staring at the screen on his laptop, sitting on the couch on a nice, lazy day. He had just received an email from a Jack Thompson claiming to be his son. He was feeling speechless an confused as he was pretty sure that he never once had any kids….did he? He look. He tried to rack his…
Claire slipped her robe on over her pajamas and walked to the living room, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She had been up late again working on her latest project; if she had it her way, she would sleep for another hour. “What in the world are you talking about?” she asked, squinting at the screen as she approached.
Jack Thompson… That name didn’t seem familiar. She quietly scanned the message. It sank in quickly.
“Son of a bitch,” she muttered. “When did this happen? Just now?” If she hadn’t been awake before, she certainly was now. “I can’t believe he found you.” If the kid was as old as he said he was, then it would have been a little harder for his parents to keep in touch over time. “Let me guess. He wants to come up here.”
Vivian nodded and told her that the email came in just recently, that he was sure of. What he wasn’t sure of was the exact time and date when he might’ve conceived Jack, he doesn’t seem to know how old he exactly was. All he knew for sure was that he must’ve been in his thirties, “Well I am not sure how old I was when I had him but….I know it was years after I escaped…” Vivian started, his attention still on the screen, reading the email over again, “Somewhere in my thirties,” Vivian added softly. It was only after a short amount of silence passed that he finally turned to look at Claire, “Yeah, he um, he wants to finally meet me face to face,” Vivian said, sighing a bit. He wasn’t sure if Jack even knew about his past, “I don’t know if he knows what I used to do…” He logically knew Jack would probably know if there were articles about his crimes on the internet, and he had a feeling there might be one or two on there, but considering he was just a small known criminal then the information might be hard to find.
“He’s probably gonna have questions to ask if he has that…dreamwalking ability.”
Claire sighed and rubbed her temple as she tried to figure out what to say next. “Then… I guess we have to invite him. How else is he supposed to know where to go?” She paced back and forth behind the computer chair, still glancing at the screen.
“Well, I doubt he would know about what happened up here. You never left the state, remember?” Not that she knew of, anyway. It was hard to get anywhere when you couldn’t drive and had no form of identification, so how would he get to another state? “He won’t know anything.” And he would not know, if everything went well. “Trust me.”
But the dreaming thing.. that was one thing his mother wouldn’t have been able to help him with. “One of us can help him with that. But for now… well, I guess just email him the address. And ask about his mother.”
Vivian nodded as he went back to the keyboard and started typing up a reply, giving an address and asking about his mother. He felt bad that he couldn’t remember more about her, like her name and whatnot. All he remember was how pretty she looked, but he was gonna get his answer soon enough.
5 minutes passed until the reply came and Jack told him that his mother was a woman named Jade who apparently was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts would came to Northampton that had ended up in her getting pregnant with him.
“Says here she moved out of state a month and a half after she found out she was pregnant…” Vivian added, looking up at Claire before looking back at the screen, typing again, telling him he looks forward to meeting him.
He got a message back saying that he was too and he’ll be there in a day or so.
Claire glanced over the message and shrugged. “I’ve never heard of her.” She had gone to Boston College herself, but she didn’t remember many people from back then. Everyone moved on after graduation. It wasn’t likely that they had met anyway. At least she sounded normal. “I’m guessing she wouldn’t be interested in a family reunion,” she said.
“Guess we should try to make this place presentable then.” A day wasn’t much turnaround time. “Just tell him not to show up before eight in the morning.” She couldn’t subject a guest to the sight of her early in the morning. “We can be ready by then.”
Her lab padded up to her side and sat down calmly. “Shit…forgot about you,” she said as she crouched down to pet the dog’s head. “And make sure he’s alright with dogs.”
Vivian shook his head in agreement with her, “Probably not, if she wanted anything to do with me she probably would have gotten in contact with me about the whole Jack thing. Nice name though.” He said as he looked back at the screen and clicked to make his reply, staring for a moment so he could think of what to say.
“I’ll tell him noon or 11 am would be just fine with us, And I’ll give him the heads up about that to,” He said as he made his reply. Ten minutes later a reply came, Jack was excited to meeting his dad and had questions he wanted to asked, “He’s excited about meeting me…” Vivian said with a smile on his face and a light laugh escaping, “I don’t remember the last time someone was actually…happy to the occasion of meeting me for the first time….unless you count my cats,” Vivian quipped lightly, “Oh and he says digs are fine.”
“Fair enough,” Claire said with a shrug. Hell, she herself had only found Vivian by accident. If Jade wanted to stay hidden, that was understandable.
She peered over Vivian’s shoulder and smiled as she scanned the screen. “I think he’ll like it up here. Try not to get too worried about it. Everything will be fine.” The cats… Shit! “You told him about the cats too, right?” she said as she started straightening some of the things in the living room. The house didn’t seem too messy…maybe she could get it together in time.
Vivian nodded and pointed where he had mentioned the cats, ‘I did, I also told him the names. He said he likes cats too.“ One of the said cats jumped up on the couch and meowed for a pat to which Vivian petted the kitty.
Vivian was feeling excited to meet the son he never really knew he had, the house doesn’t seem too bad but he bets with two people the house will look ready, "I can help with any cleaning if you want Claire,” He offered with a smile.
"It's only us here...we shouldn't need to do too much," she said, standing in the middle of the room, surveying it with her hands on her hips. "But if you could fix up the bedroom and the guest room, that would be good."
So...this kid was going to be here in less than twenty-four hours. This kid who might have the same ability they had. If he did, surely she would find out, she thought to herself.
