Chapter Ten

The trio emerged from the cabin door with Cameron in the lead.
The two girls clutched each other's hand as they -
They walked single file until they reached tghe gang plank which
led to the boardwalk.  At this point Cameron tunred his
head and held his point finger to his lips.  And then he motioned for
them with his other hand by pointing in a downward motion to be
still.

The two girls continued to walk in a single file behind Cameron.

The two girls stood quietly holding hands at this point squinting in the
darkness to see of anything was amiss.  Their hearing took on a sharpness
as they listened to the night sounds.  An owl hooting, the gentle flapping
of the surf as it stirred and hit the sides of the boats parked in the arena.
There was the rustling of the park leaves and occasional bird call, but
nothing that they would call unusual.

A few seconds into the sounds of the night and it hit them at the same
time.  The silence was now deafening -- there was an abundance of quiet.
No sound.  Hannah was the first to speak.

"Trespassers, " she said.    And then Cameron thought he heard Hannah
whisper the word run.

Cameron was the first off the boat and his hand and arm wrapped around
Lindsay's waist and he clutched her hand and pulled her off the boat.

Hannah was right behind her sister and in one leap she was on the
boardwalk.

She fumbled and landed on all fours.   It took her breath away, but then she
focused, her eyes narrowed and she howled.

She ran past Lindsay and Cameron.  (on all fours)

It was a shadow that passed the two and Lindsay was shocked into a frozen
stance.

Cameron was momentarily stunned.  He was still holding Lindsay's hand so
he just pulled her and yelled in her ear.

"Run," Lindsay run.   Do what Hannah said, "run."

Lindsay blinked and came back to the sounds of the night.

"What about Hannah?"
\
Cameron  pursed his lips and  whispered "Hannah is fine."


He spoke with more confidence then he felt for at that moment
the young assistant didn't know what had actually happened.

He pulled Lindsay along the boardwalk.

Soon the two reached the end of the boardwalk and ran on to the path that
led to the parking lot.

As Cameron took out his car keys the pair heard screams coming from the
woods adjacent to the parking lot.

"What was that," said Lindsay.

"I don't know," said Cameron.

"Probably just an animal in the night," but in his innermost mind he had never
heard such screams before.

Lindsay's eyes widened with fear.

Cameron opened the back door of the car first and pushed Lindsay in.


"Get down," he ordered, "now."

Lindsay obeyed without hesitation and laid down on the back seat.

Cameron slammed the back door of the car and then got into  the driver seat.

A shadow ran past the car.  And the passenger door swung open.


Cameron had his hands on the steering wheel and turned to his right.  .

 "OK, let's go, Cameron, now."

He gasped and looked hard at Hannah.   He could only make out a shadow
and It was Hannah, but she seemed different.

"Drive," she said.

Lindsay recognized Hannah's voice.

"Hannah," she whispered.

"It's okay,  Lindsay, it's okay."   The words had a lyrical note and had a
soothing effect on Lindsay.

Lindsay stopped shivering and started to breathe a little slower.

Cameron took a quick glance at Hannah.  Her profile seemed
taller.  He surmised taller, that of a young woman.
And was it his imagination or had her voice changed.

The Hannah sitting next to him seemed older, wiser.

""Let's go, Cameron, drive."

memoir - jumping versus falling

father thomas made a slight distinction between
jumping into the arms of god versus falling
into the arms of god --

when he spoke these words i saw a slight
hesitancy in his voice between the distinction of
falling and jumping.

hence

i watched a video on you tube of returning army
soldiers and the reaction of their children when they first
saw their dad.

these children literally ran and jumped into the arms of their
father.

(since i came off my daily prozac two months ago the tears
literally rolled down my face - it feels so good to weep. I love
it, love it, love it)
.
one little girl jumped into her father's arms and after
a minute he put her down -  the two literally stood
there looking at each other.   their eyes were locked -
and they soaked each other in.  they didn't move.
you could feel the energy between the two as u looked
at them.  the little girl was focused and centered on her
father's face.  he was literally caught in her embrace.

then slowly the little girl took a few steps and falls into the arms of
her father.   the father hugged the little girl close to him
and she hugged him back.  

that encounter of the other in the child looking at the other in the adult 
reminded me of the time when as a young child i had the practice of sitting
in front of the blessed sacrament and i soaked in the presence of jesus -
and he in turn soaked me in.  our presence was eyeball to eyeball.   i would
categorize that as falling and not jumping.

these are my memoirs - that i share with u.

as tony the tiger would say have a grrrrrreat day!!!!

Chapter Nine

A few moments before Cameron spoke

Hannah had peeked out from behind Lindsay's shoulder and took
a hard look at the man standing before her.

He didn't look dangerous.   In fact to her twelve year old eyes
he looked sort of  enticing in a fun sort of way.

She didn't know where these thoughts were coming from.  She
hurriedly rid her mind of these thoughts and chastised herself for
thinking like this. This was not a game.  This wasn't one of her fantasy
adventures where she retired from life and played some part in some
sort of  magical adventure that she concocted in her mind.

No, this was real life.  But yet there was something about this
bold young man standing in front of her holding out his badge to
show Lindsay that perked Hannah's attention.  Brought out the
boldness in her.

She gave the young man the once over.  He seemed very sure of
himself.  He positioned himself on his two legs like he was bolted
into the floor and he wasn't moving.  His denim jeans revealed
full flowing legs and his torso as seen through his white tailored
shirt revealed a well built male of between 20 and 25..

Something stirred in Hannah.  Something she remembered from
long ago.

Lindsay also had been studying Cameron her blue eyes scanning
his tanning squared face to see if she could sense any kind of
unusual emotion.  On instinct she stuck out her hand.

Cameron was caught off guard and he had taken Lindsay's hand
when offered to him.

He had surmised she was signaling for them to lead the way out of the
cabin but then he too remembered something.

Lindsay felt the warmth of Cameron's hand as he clapsed her hand.
She was searching for something anything that would give her a heads' up
as to Cameron's state of mind.

She found it in the warmth of his outstretched hand.  There was no shakiness
only the strength of his hand as he wrapped his hand around hers..
She felt determination and sureness as he clutched her hand.

She didn't know who this Cameron was.   One thing she did know he
meant them no harm.

Lindsay turned toward Hannah and nodded her head up and down.

Hannah  had been watching the two of them and when Lindsay and Cameron's
hand had locked Hannah had felt a surge of warmness and tingling spread
through her own body as Hannah's hand rested on Lindsay's shoulder.
It was as if the three of them shared a secret that at this time they each
didn't understand only that somehow their lives were going to be connected
by a sense of emotion and strength that was going to lead them on a path of
unsureness and at times pain and sorrow but laced with adventure, wholeness,
spirit and love.

It was a path strewn with uncertainty/   Hannah knew this and when Cameron
spoke she knew she would follow him.

Cameron had felt the surge of warmth run through his body when Lindsay
touched him.  Lindsay had felt it also.  She also realized that Hannah was
included in this circle because she felt the warmth travel through the tips of
her finger to Hannah when the young girl squeezed her hand.

A quiet surrounded the trio as they bonded in this moment of tranquil silence.

Cameron was the first to speak.

"Okay, I don't know what just happened, but we have to go."


The two girls nodded their assent and followed Cameron out the cabin door.

chapter eight

Hannah squeezed Lindsay's hand tightly.

Lindsay turned her attention to the door of the cabin
and watched as the doorknob slowly turned and then stopped.


Letting go of the younger girl's hand Lindsay shoved Hannah behind her.

Hannah held on to Lindsay's waist and stepped behind her sister.

Lindsay leaned over and picked up a broom handle that was propped up
against the side of the bed.

In the dim light of the one lamp that lit up the inside of the cabin  Lindsay could
make out the silhouette of a man in the frame of the door as it swung open.

She raised the broomstick over her shoulder.

Cameron hesitated and then turned the knob.

The door opened and his eyes adjusted to the light.   At first he didn't see anything
but then he caught a glimpse of a girl about 17 years of age facing him.

Lindsay didn't recognize the person in the doorway.  It certainly wasn't her father.

She swung the broomhandle and caught Cameron on the side of the head.

He raised his arm to protect himself as the broomhandle glanced off the side of his head.
He fell to one knee.

"Goddamn," he cursed.

He was quick and grabbed the stick as the figure raised it to strike him again.

As the stick flew in the air he grabbed it and yanked it hard, there were screams and
the person on the other end  went sprawling on the floor.


Cameron got up rubbing his head and closed the door behind him.

In the dim of the light Cameron could see that the figure on the floor was a girl of about
17 or 18.  This must be Lindsay he thought.  Where was Hannah?

Lindsay had been stunned for the moment but she got her breath back and was up like a
cat.  All the gymnastics she had taken in school paid off.

She stood in front of Cameron and motioned for Hannah who was off to the side to again get
in back of her.

Hannah found Lindsay's hand and stepped behind Lindsay.

For a moment no one spoke.  And then Lindsay found her voice, "who are you?"

Cameron stood in front of the girls and took in a deep breath.  He grabbed his shield from his right
pocket and flashed it in front of the girls.

"Dayton sent me."

Hannah found her voice and stepped out from behind Lindsay.

"My dad sent you.  Is he all right?"

"Yes," said Cameron.  "He's fine."

"Where is he?" said Hannah.


"He is enroute to a safe house.  He wants you to come with me.

This meeting place has been compromised.   He will be meeting us tomorrow.
But for now we must go.  You are not safe  here anymore."

The younger girl moved forward.

"No.  Wait, " said Lindsay.  And she grabbed Hannah's hand as the younger
girl went to move past her.

"Not so fast," said Lindsay.   "Who are you?
"How do we know we can trust you," said Lindsay.

"Well, I'm here aren't I?"

  "Yes, but that doesn't tell me much,"  said Lindsay.

Cameron squinted his eyes.  He realized Lindsay was going to be a problem
and he would have to come up with something else to gain her trust.

"Does the name Madison mean anything to you Lindsay?"

"Madison/"   "How do you know about Madison?"

Cameron had gotten Lindsay's attention.   The older girl's guard was momentarily down.

"It's complicated," said Cameron.

"Well, uncomplicate it," said Lindsay.

"Madison sent me to get you." 

Lindsay mulled this over in her mind.  She had never seen this man before.  But he knew
Madison that was in his favor.  

Madison would have known about the boathouse and she would have had her workers
nearby.  On one level it made sense.  On a deeper level Lindsay eyed Cameron with
suspicion.

"He seemed to know something, but not everything."

Cameron watched the frown spread over Lindsay's face.   And then the lines in her
face relaxed.

Lindsay reasoned she would have to trust him.  What choice did she have.  They couldn't
stay at the boathouse.  Whoever he was he was right about that.  He had found them.
Others could too.

Out loud, she said, "okay, where are we going/".

what's the plan?:"

"Madison wants us to go to where she is in the mountains.
 She lives in a small hermitage with a group of women."

Cameron had gleaned this information from the file he read in the Chief's office
and this seemed to resonate with Lindsay.

"Yes, I know the place," said Lindsay.  "That's where I grew up."

"Bingo."  Cameron had hit the jackpot.

He knew Lindsay knew exactly where Madison was and she would unknowingly
lead him to her whereabouts. 

"My car is outside," said Cameron.  "I parked it in the shadows of the trees,
 just beyond the boat parking lot."

"Okay, " said Lindsay.

"Does the girl know what is going on?"

"Not completely," said Lindsay, "a lot has happened in the last 24 hours and she
has a great deal to process."

"Yes," said Cameron, "she certainly does.."

Lindsay didn't know what to make of Cameron.  He seemed legit, but yet there was
something about his demeanor that threw her off.  She couldn't quite put her finger
on it, but for the time being she would have to trust him.

The one thing in his favor was that he knew about Madison.

"All right," said Lindsay.  "Let's go."

Lindsay turned to Hannah.  "Hannah, we're leaving."

Hannah had been standing to the side watching the events unfold before her.

Everything concerning the last twenty-four hours went through her mind in a flash.

Up to now Lindsay had been her protector.  She realized that.  She also realized
something else.  She felt a knowing inside of her.  It was kind of like a reality
check.  There was something about Cameron that she recognized.

Cameron saw the younger girl looking at him.

There was something about how she was looking at him.  It kind of got under his skin.

He turned to go, but before he did the younger girl addressed him.

Now, it was Lindsay's turn to be surprised.   Hannah had been so scared the last couple of
hours, but now the younger  girl's voice seemed to hold authority.

Hannah called Cameron' by name.

There was something about her voice that made Cameron stop.

"You don't remember me," do you Cameron?.

Cameron shook his head.  "No, we've never met," said Cameron.

"Yes," said Hannah.  "We have met.  It was a long time ago."

There was something about Hannah that was oh, so familiar.  "What was it,"
thought Cameron.

The younger girl was right.  He also had a knowing inside of him.  They had met
before and each one recognized the other.

Lindsay pressed her lips together.  This was too weird.  What was going on
at this minute she didn't understand, but she knew they had to leave.



 

chapter seven

The two girls closed their eyes tight and hugged each other into infinity.

Hannah was terrified.
Lindsay was apprehensive.

The door to the cabin opened oh, so slowly.  The two girls could hear the hinges creaking.

Hannah held her breath while Lindsay inhaled at a more rapiad rate.

Lindsay would protect her sister no matter what - to the death if it came to that.

Cameron turned the knob .  he was apprehensive. .He hadn't done something like
this before and he didn't know how the Chief would react to his taking things
into his own hands.  He surmised that Monroe wouldn't be too happy.

Cameron knew the chief had a surveillance on Dayton for the last few months.

He had  found the file on Dayton by accident.  Cameron didn't mean to intrude
on the Chief's private file, but Cameron had come upon the manilla folder inadvertently.

The Chief had told him to clean out the old files in the second room of the station
house and that is exactly what Cameron had been doing - cleaning out old files.

Cameron had been on the second file cabinet when he came upon a file marked Stardust.

Stardust was a file that Cameron hadn't expected to find.  And the Chief must have
forgotten that he had stored it there.

Cameron  was looking for felons.  People who committed serious crimes. 

Stardust was stuck behind an old folder marked, Madison.
It was out of alphabetical order and that had piqued Cameron's attention more vividly.

Cameron had just been curious.  So, with a shrug he had he just pulled the file. 

He dropped the folder on the desk.  He looked at it again and pressed his lips together.
His curiosity was definitely stirred.
He muttered out loud, "This is none of my business."
 
Then he picked it up.


He stood there under the thirty watt bulb reading the file.  It read like a story out of Grimm's
Fairy Tales. And like a child Cameron couldn't put it down.
.   
Madison was a descendent of the Light Bearers.

He had read halfway through the file when he had enough.
Cameron dropped the file on to the only desk in the file room.
Clearly this was something he was not  supposed to read.

The Chief must  have been working on some long forgotten case and not realized
he had stored it in the old file room. .

At first Cameron rationalized.   He had  tried not to read the file.
It was none of his business.
But it was so out of the ordinary.
So out of police business that once he started reading the  file he knew
he had to continue to the end.
He couldn't put the file down.

The file Stardust referred to a woman named Madison.

Cameron recalled the file in front of Stardust labeled Madison.  He rummaged for it and
pulled out the file.

He laid it on the desk
.
He breathed slowly and deliberately he picked up both files.  Madison and Stardust.  How were
they connected?  What did one have to do with the other.

He sat down and opened the Madison file.  There was a  picture of a nice looking
girl with long brown hair and a tempting smile.  She looked about 19.

It was only a head shot but Cameron was intrigued with the photo.

He closed the file and breathed.  He mulled over the picture in his mind.

Then he pulled the seat closer to the desk and propped both elbows on to the
worn green blotter that covered the top portion of the desk and he put his hands
under his cheek bones. and began to read the file.

What Cameron read would change how he felt about  the chief.
 How he felt about life in general.

As the story developed he realized  that if any of it was true  a prophecy would come to fruition
in 2015 and that he Cameron would be a part of these events.

----------------------------

Cameron turned the knob to the cabin door..  It was a cool night and his hands were sweaty.

From all the information he had the girls were inside the cabin.

Would they accept him?
Would the Chief be mad?
Would Dayton the father accuse him of deception?
What was his role to be?

The young Cameron had no answers.  Only questions.

He turned the knob and the door swung open.

chapter six

Hannah stared at her sister Lindsay.
What Lindsay was telling Hannah had so shocked
the younger girl - that Hannah's tears which had been flowing
copiously stopped as suddenly as they had begun..

Hannah's brown eyes were focused on Lindsay's mouth and the words she was speaking.

The young 11 year old squinted her eyes and watched the sentences as they fell from Lindsay's lips.
The words  were foreign.  And Hannah realized that her sister was speaking another language,
but yet she Hannah at some level understood her.

Hannah felt something in the recesses of her mind nudging her.
She instinctively knew somehow that what Lindsay was saying was true.
It was startling for the younger girl to know that she could sense the truth of Lindsy's words
somewhere in her deepest being.

Her mind just didn't understand the words.

Her older sister's words were striking Hannah on another level. 

Hannah realized with a jolt  that it It was that second voice in Hannah's head that was picking up what Lindsay was saying.  The voice that had been quiet for most of the year.

Hannah was remembering something in the recesses of her mind..  She just couldn't quite tune into it.
It was within the recesses of her mind but Hannah couldn't put a grasp on what it was.

Her mind nudged her, a memory unfolded.  She held it in the palm of her hand when she was a child.

With a jolt she remembered  it was somehow connected to the magic rock.  
The rock held  many happy  memories and was a truth she held in the palm of her hand but
discarded  when she was about eight.  Why had she done that, Hannah thought.  She couldn't
even remember what had brought her to put away the magic rock.
Yet, she had put it aside and done so with only a slight hesitation.

There was something else too.
It had to do with the voices in her head.

She was remembering that the voices were so strong at times that she had felt like two
different people.
.
They were with her for a long time.  She grew up with them.  She didn't tell her family about them.
She didn't tell any of her friends about them either.  Even at an early age she knew what it was
to be different and she didn't want to appear strange.  She wanted to fit in.

Hannah didn't have any imaginary friends and no extra plates were ever set at the table for
the big white bunny.

No, her voices were real.  One was distant and the other one was who she was comfortable being.    

She repeated what Lindsay was saying, and the words seemed disjointed and stuttered off Hannah's
tongue as she repeated  what her older sister said.     "I am a child of the Light,"

Hannah looked at Lindsay hard.   She felt nautious and the younger girl's stomach was
churning so much that she felt that she might throw up.

When she spoke Hannah's voice was calm and she almost seemed to pull off what she was
saying in a grown up voice,

"What r u saying Lindsay?  Why r u doing this?"

A look of utter panic and fright was etched on Hannah's face. 
Lindsay realized Hannah was trying to process the day's events as calmly as an 11 year old could.

Lindsay felt so sorry for Hannah, but this had to be done.

"What language r u speaking?"  uttered Hannah.

And finally she wailed in her 11 year old voice. "You are scaring me.
Where is dad.  What r we doing on this sailboat?"

Hannah's mind was a hodgepodge of thoughts.

Lindsay kept speaking.  There seemed to be no stopping her thought Hannah.

Her sister just wouldn't stop talking.

"Why are you doing this?" she blurted out.

Now, Lindsay was talking about someone named Monica.

Hannah's breathing increased and she seemed to be taking in extra breaths.
  
Had her sister Lindsay lost her mind.

Hannah was concerned about her dad and Lindsay was telling her some story about a woman
named Monica who was her birth mother and had come from another star kingdom.

All Hannah could think of was that her sister Lindsay, her 17 year old sister had lost her mind?

Hannah felt she was losing her grip on reality.  

Lindsay meanwhile took in her sister's appearance.  She noted that Hannah's brown eyes were
as wide as saucers.

Fear was etched on her face.  Hannah was scared.  Lindsay could see that.

Hannah tightened her fist and  rapped her knuckles hard on the table two times.
She breathed.  She could feel the hardness of the table and it calmed her.
 
She remembered in the past that when she heard the voices and they got to be too much for her
she would  bang her knuckles hard against the tablet or she would turn around and slap slap the palm
of her hand hard against the kitchen wall until she felt the sting of pain on the inside of her hand.

That brought her back to reality and she would say out out loud, "Now, that's what I call reality.  Not those voices in my head."

   
Lindsay saw that Hannah was scared and for a moment she saw Hannah lose her breath.

Lindsay had to make a decision.  Did she continue on with what she had to do or did she stop.

Hannah saw the look of concern that her sister was directing at her.  And she breathed slowly.

Lindsay continued,

"Hannah, I know this is a lot to take in, but there are some things that have to be told."

Hannah breathed.  It was too much.  Finally she wailed.

"Are you kidding me," said Hannah.  "This is 2015.   Not some dark vadar
movie.  This is America.  And u r talking about some light child. "

Hannah's voice had started out calm.  But now with each word it was becoming a roaring scream.

Hannah could hear herself talking.  Her voice had been soft and low.  Like she was some other person.
But her mind, oh her mind was screaming.  

And then finally Hannah got her 11 year old senses back and she wailed uncontrollably, tears and
screaming, "What about dad? That's who you should be talking about.  Our dad."

Lindsay put her hand to her eyes.  Her eyes were so tired.  She closed her lids and she
could feel her eyes burning.

Okay,  said Lindsay,  breathe,   That's it .  Breathe in.  Breathe out.

Lindsay continued.

Dad and I had a conversation that if this life and death scenario actually came to
be he left me instructions as to what I was to do.

Lindsay tried to assure Hannah that dad would be all right.

"But how is that possible?" said the younger girl.  " I saw him .  He was lying on the kitchen floor.
He wasn't moving."
.
Lindsay continued,  Dad said, "That if this situation ever occurred we were to come to the pier
and board the sailboat Midnight.  They keys would be in the flowerpot on the deck."

Lindsay said, "dad told me to tell u to specifically trust in the present moment, to look inside for
a specific presence and that she Hannah would come in contact with her inner strength.

Dad told me he would be okay.

That you can't always believe what you see and sooner or later he would find his girls".

Lindsay wanted to tell Hannah about Dayton and what part he was playing in Hannah's life,

She breathed.  There were parts of Dayton's life that he wasn't even aware of yet and Lindsay
herself didn't entirely understand but she knew that it wasn't her place to figure out. .  

Lindsay knew that Dayton was more than Hannah's father.  That he had been specifically
chosen by Madison to be Hannah's father.  And that his time on this planet was
coming to an end but  it would not be until he saw a certain chapter in Hannah's life
completed and he got to see Madison one more time. 

Lindsay had stopped talking and Hannah glanced down at her multicolored socks
that she had put on earlier that day before school started and tiny sobs shook her shoulders.

Hannah stared at Lindsay and said mournfully, I want my childhood back,"
I want my life back."

Lindsay and Hannah locked glances.   Lindsay opened her arms.
The two sisters both knew from that moment on there was no going back.
There lives were forever changed.

They heard voices outside and the stamping of feet on the deck.
The younger sister snuggled into the circle of Lindsay's protective arms.

Lindsay cradled Hannah's head against her chest.  She knew that whoever came
through the cabin door of the sailboat was going to impact her and Hannah's lives
in a very serious way.



 

chapter five

the silence in the car hung like a muffled curtain
between the two men.

layman peered at monroe in the darkness trying to
figure out his next step.

monroe coughed and layman said, "is there something
u wanted to say?"

Monroe said, " well, there is a lot to explain to u, but
at the moment i was just clearing my throat."

Oh, said, "Layman."

the two men were quiet for a few moments and then
Monroe, said, "i have been watching u and monitoring
your movements for the last two months."

"why was that," said Layman.

the chief paused and then addressed Layman.

"well, as u know, i told u the queen sent me."

"well, i don't know anyone that goes by that name."

Monroe, took the next right down Hart Street and
then made a full stop at the stop sign.

"Well, you do know a woman named Madison,don"t you?"

Layman closed his eyes.  thoughts of kinder times rushed
through his brain.  This was too much.

Cautiously, he said, :how do you know Madison?  and
who are you?

Monroe said, "it's enough for you to know that I am working
for Madison and she sent me to watch over you.

That was enough for Layman to hear and he pondered this new
information for the next five minutes.

Thoughts of Madison rushed again through his mind.  He could
smell her perfume.  Sense her presence when she was near.
How many years had it been?  He counted.  Ten years.

Hannah was just turning eleven.  Madison had given  their child Hannah
to Layman and told him to take care of her with his life if
need be.  As an added protection Madison had sent Lindsay
with Layman and she was to act as Hannah's older sister.
Lindsay was seven when she had hooked up with Layman ten
years ago.

Layman breathed hard.  Where were the girls?

He hadn't realized he had spoken out loud.

"We are almost there," said Monore.

"Almost where?"   said Layman.

"At the pier." said Monore.

You know about the pier, said Layman.

Of course, said the chief.

And by this time I am sure Lindsay has explained the
situation to Hannah.


"Exactly what is the situation," said Layman.

"It's time to act," said Monroe.
The time for preparing is over.

It's almost Hannah's 12 birthday.  It is time for her to become
aware of who she is.

It is time for her to begin her mother's work.

You mean Madison.  Madison's work.

"Right," said Monroe.

Layman thought of Hannah.  His breath quickened.  Hannah
was Layman's only link to Madison.

After all Hannah was Layman's and Madison's child.

Madison was a descendent of the Light Beings.  There were a few left
of the ancient tribe and Hannah was their child.  Madison's gift to this
universe.
Hannah was born of their spirit and their flesh.   It was her destiny to inspire
and lead the light bearers.   It was her destiny to awaken the human race.

Lindsay was a wise spirt and Hannah's protector.  She was not Layman's child..
Lindsay was aware of her role in Hannah's life and had accepted her part
graciously.  She was Madison's neice.

Madison had a sister named Helen who had a daughter named Lindsay.  Helen
and her husband had been murdered by those seeking to quench the light.  And
Lindsay had come to live with Layman and Madison when she was six.  Hannah
had been born and the family was complete.

Madison and Layman had split up because the queen of the dark had sent out
her hunters to find Hannah and Madison thought it would be best for them to
separate..

Madison had gone to the mountains of the north where she had family and Layman
had taken Hannah and Lindsay and gone to the east and settled in a small town
and become nodescript as possible to avoid detection from the queen's infiltrators.

Lindsay also carried the light bearer gene but it was Hannah who would awaken
the Light Bearers and the work that they would accomplish.

Hannah had a recessive gene that would come to fruition when she reached the
age of twelve.  She carried the full spirit of humanity within her and soon it would
be realized.

Madison had tried to explain it to Layman ten years go.

It was because Hannah was their child specifically that Hannah held this uniqueness -
a full humanity.

Layman recalled Madison's words - a full humanity - whatever that meant -

He just didn't understand what Madison meant when she said he was sought out
specifically.

Did that mean that he and Madison were destined to meet and that Hannah was
ordained to be their child.

He had questioned Madison on this.  And all she said was that in time one day he would
understand.  that he had to trust the process.  Hannah would be his daughter and he
would play an important part in her life.

Hannah was to be fully human.  The first developed human light bearer and that would be
her gift to humanity.

Her gift of fullness and expression of self would become fully visible when she reached her
12th birthday.

Layman breathed deeply and sighed.  so he had tried to Hannah in a small town and he Layman
and his two daughters, Lindsay and Hannah had settled into a quiet mundane life unlike that of his
neighbors.

Keeping as low a profile as they could but word had seeped out that there was a child who
was to become woman and when she did beauty would be born.

People would be touched by her presence.  Songs would be sung.  Music would be composed. 
Gardens would blossom.  And children would dance.  Old people would shake their heads
in approval.  And the sun would shine.

All this Madison had told him - but yet she had also told Layman another side of the myth.

A side of the myth where the dark side would try to cast its shadow and let its breath flow over
the land preventing the light bearers from actualizing their presence.

Layman looked at Monroe.  Was Monroe from the dark side?  he seemed to know a lot about
Layman and his girls.

If he was from the shadow Monroe was ready for him.  He would protect his girls no matter
what.  Just like he had promised Madison he would do that day ten years ago.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monroe took a peek at Layman.   He could see Layman was deep in thought.
Probably trying to figure me out chuckled Monroe to himself.   Yes, he knew
Madison had told Layman about Hannah and included Lindsay as part of his
family.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One thing Layman didn't know though.   Maybe he should tell him thought Monroe.  It
might put his mind at ease.  but then again maybe it wouldn't.  he didn't know how much
madison had told him about the myth and how much that layman the father would play
in the fate of humanity.

--------------------------------
the chief thought he might take a baby step and feel layman out a little bit.
The chief knew about Madison.  He should know about Madison.  He opened
his mouth to speak.

what?  said Layman.  What?

The chief spoke softly to Layman almost like he was talking his own child.

Layman, you have nothing to fear from me.

and why should i believe that said Layman.

the chief paused and then said, because in actuality I am Madison's father
and i'm really here to keep u safe.

Layman just stared at the other man and for a moment was rendered speechless.

He sat there processing what the other man said.

You're Madison's father, he finally said out loud.

Yes, I'm Madison's father.

Layman stared straight ahead into the dark of the night.