Coda

The boy in checkered pants circled the long table with both arms out, like an airplane. His tongue stuck out at the corner of his mouth because his joy was too much to contain. His mother was afraid he’d trip and bite it off; his father was more concerned about lab protocol. Protocol allowed authorized children, assuming they were properly supervised, in the lab but did not condone physical harm to self or others.

“Margaret. Where’s this boy’s mother?”

“It doesn’t matter where his mother is, Coop, because his father’s standing right there.” She waved a hand in his general direction. “Do you want to take him upstairs with Blue? Jeffry’s working the Magic Room today and she does much better after she’s spent some time with him.”

Blue was crouched on a stool stringing glass beads on a bit of bailing twine. He had no idea how she got her hands on bailing twine, but at least it wasn’t barbed wire.

“Uncle Coop. If it was barbed wire, the beads would get stuck. Bailing twine is much better, it helps them stick together and I can put them wherever I want.”

“Nice to hear your voice, Little Girl. Feeling chatty today?”

“Not particularly. I just wanted to answer your question. You get cranky when you’re worried and when you’re cranky, Mom yells at you but then Daddy gives her a chewie, so I guess everything’s OK. Bye now.” Blue hopped off the stool and ran out the door, the glass beads bounced and rolled in her wake.

“Shit. Dammit, Coop. I got distracted and she ran off again. Sometimes I’m afraid she’s going to forget to come back.”

“What? You think she’s going to vanish into a cloud of stardust? Just like that?”

“Sometimes, Coop, that’s exactly what I think.”

*

Blue Christie was the saddest name in the galaxy. She understood why everybody had trouble calling her Sam, but Blue wasn’t even part of her name! She stood up tall and informed the elevator door that it was being addressed by one Samantha Christine Abegg-Evans. That’s a mouthful, but a lot cheerier than Blue. She offered her hand to the elevator door for closer inspection. Positively brilliant! 

When the doors opened, Blue got in and pressed eight. If she’d heard her mother correctly, her favorite person in the world was working this afternoon. He knew how to dance and if it wasn’t too crowded and she asked very nicely, he’d call up a waltz and they’d dance all the way to Vienna and back.

*

Mr. Charles Yeager Allen did, in fact, fall and bite his tongue but not until he was nine and wearing regular pants. His mother pulled him out of a neighborhood scrum by the seat of his regular pants, stood him up and turned him about for inspection.

“Open! Charlie, I mean it, Open!” She stuck a finger in his mouth. He heard her praying to something for mercy. Mother Mercy? Hard to say. Eventually he gagged and she pulled her finger out of his mouth faster than it went in. It helped that his big brother was the Notorious Jeffry A. Franklin, man with a thousand teeth. Charlie giggled and stuck out his tongue. Laura turned white and fell back on her ass.

So. Satisfying. Sometimes joy presented itself in the most unlikely circumstances.

“I’m glad you’re happy, Charlie, but neither of us are going to be happy if Daddy notices your tongue. Could you please refrain from wiggling it in his face?”

*

Martin had a crush and without a doubt, it was going to end badly. He stopped blaming his pathetic romantic failures on his missing fingers, and, concluded that he simply made very, terribly, ohmygod can you believe this shit, inappropriate choices. Nothing wrong with his taste in men, for the most part.

There was nothing at all wrong with this man. Martin could, and often did, move heaven and earth to make sure they were in the same meetings. Blue, who had a disconcerting habit of suddenly occupying previously unoccupied seating, understood the problem. She would have offered to help, she liked Marty very much, but had no solution. Marty was right, Reed Beaver Hunter was completely out of his league.   

Blue thought Marty might need to see her dad about an eye exam because he obviously didn’t see the ring on Mr. Hunter’s finger that exactly matched the one on Mr. Franklin’s finger and if you couldn’t see a big, fat wedding band inscribed in Tengwar all the way around the outside, you needed a checkup.

Samantha Christine Abegg-Evans was not familiar with denial.

*

Laura consumed and was consumed by grief for two years before she was able to take her heart back. Coop didn’t mind in the least. She was the warmest, fuzziest person he knew, and that was saying a lot because his brother was THE Dr. Frank J. Evans, the fuzziest of fuzzies. Nope. Laura had him beat hands down. Coop would have held Laura’s heart for the rest of her life if that’s what she needed.

Sometimes a very quiet voice piped up, reminding him that he’d really like to make a baby with this woman. He told the voice to shush. Laura’s not ready, might never be ready, or if she got ready, her baby factory might be closed. He was OK with all of that. He would never have bothered her with his pesky wish but, of course she knew. Laura knew most things.

*

Laura Allen stared at the pink and blue stick on the morning of her forty-sixth birthday. Technology hadn’t changed at all. Packaging had changed. The result was still the same, a plus for yes and a minus for, great job! Missed again!

Forty-six was too young to start randomly missing periods and too old to be having babies. Laura Allen missed three consecutive periods and knew exactly what the stick had to say. If she’d thought to ask Coop, given him a handful of telltale signs, he’d have presented his biggest goofy grin six to eight weeks ago. She placed the stick next to a sink in the seventh-floor ladies’ room and walked back to her office.

When the door closed behind her, Margaret flushed and stepped out of the last stall. Honest to god she did NOT mean for this to happen which didn’t stop her from running to the sink and picking up the stick. She did a Christie joy dance and put the stick back where Laura left it.

Laura had a brief conversation with Reed before she left for the day and after dinner that evening, she told Coop she was ready to stand on her own. He looked a little sad when he reached into his chest and pulled her heart back out but seemed much happier when he realized it was in pretty good shape.

He worried on and off for the rest of the evening. When they were getting ready for bed, he was nearly certain she was going to leave him.

She leaned against him and whispered in his ear. He cried in her arms until the alarm went off.

“It’s not a pesky wish”, she told him. “It’s the brightest light of a wish and look what you’ve gone and done.”

*

Blue came to see him in the afternoon, and that was nice. It didn’t matter what they called the kid, she still reminded him of his sister, which reminded him of yes, no, which inevitably covered him in sad. He was still glad to see her, way more emphasis on the yes.

Jeffry attended a highly reputable private school with two teachers and one student. His mom dropped him at an apartment on her way to work and one of his teachers brought him to the AO building at the end of his day unless his mother had already gone home, in which case they stuck him on a city bus. Mostly he got to the AO building by 2 PM and two days a week he got to work the Magic Room, which was great, if it wasn’t completely devoid of human life.

When the room was empty, the lights came back. He didn’t know if they came for anyone else and he didn’t ask. The glass floor had been restored but it didn’t look like anything other than a shiny black floor. Mr. Anderson tried to fill it up with pillows to keep the littles from bashing their heads, but the pillows just got pushed into the corners.

When the room was empty and the lights came back, Jeffry got down on his belly and watched the constellations form. He didn’t recognize any of them. There wasn’t even a North Star. But he knew his sister when he saw her.

This shouldn’t make me sad, he told himself, but I miss her so bad I can’t breathe at night. And she’s right there. He waved at her, but she never waved back. It was only a little better than looking at the photographs on her mother’s night table.

Sometimes when he pressed his face to the floor, he heard singing, “Ring the bells that still can ring” but that was all.

He learned to waltz because Blue wanted to dance, and they agreed that this joy was epic. That’s something, right, Sam?

“Yes, Jeffry, that’s EVERYTHING. That’s how the light gets in.”

The Notorious JAF scrambled off the glass floor and dove headfirst into Coop’s giant pile of pillows. When he felt as if he’d regained control of his bladder, he periscoped up and looked down at floor.

*

Jeffry’s big sister continued to twinkle, just for him, for the rest of his life.