Chapter Eleven

Dayton and Monroe were making good time to the boat docking
when Monroe pulled the car over to a grassy shoulder.

"What is it?  Why have you stopped?

Monroe had taken his hands from the wheel and was rubbing his forehead.

"Are you ill?" muttered Dayton.

"No," I'm not ill, but there has been a change of plans.

"What change of plans?   What could possibly have happened in the last
35 minutes that I'm not aware of.

"Well, the phone is going to ring and I think there is going to be an
inmportant message for us."

"How could you possibly know the phone is going to ring?.  

"It runs in the family.  It's a vibrational thing I think.  Anyway that's
what my mother used to call it.  So let's leave it at that.

The two were silent for a moment and then there it was the jingle of
Monroe's phone.

"Hello.  Yes, he is with me.  There was a long pause and then Monroe
nodded his head and said, "yes, I understand.."    .

There is a slight change of plan after all.  All you need to know is the
girls are safe and in the company of my assistant Cameron.

I am as surpirsed as you are that Cameron has them, but that is what
I am informed.

"Who was that?"  said Dayton.

That was Madison.

Dayton was speechless.   He hadn't heard or seen Madison in ten years and
now in the middle of everything this man was telling him that he had just talked
to his wife.

"You're speechless, are you," said Monroe.

.Monroe looked at Dayton sideways saw from the expression on Dayton's face
that he was processing this new information as best as he could.

Monroe sort of felt sorry for the man.   He could understand the younger man's
shock at the turn of events but he had no answers for him.

Finally Monroe said, "look, Madison wants us to come to the mountains. that's
where the girls are headed and if we drive all night we should get there by
tomorrow morning.  It's 12 o'clock now so we should get there by 10:30 tomorrow
morning.   Is that okay with you?"

Dayton got back his wherewithall and said in a voice that was much calmer than
the inner turmoil that was churning in his stomach and riding having with his mind.

"Why is all this happening now?  And, yes, to your question by all means let's take
advantage and travel as fast and expendiently as we can through the night.

"What mountains are we headed for?"

"The only ones in existence by the desert.  It is sort of a retreat.  Off the beaten path.
There are only 989 inhabitants in the town and the local keep to themselves and
visitors tend to just come and get their required rejuvenation and leave."  

"I can help with the driving: said Dayton.

The older man grunted but said nothing.

The car drove through the darkness and for awhile both men were
alone with their thoughts.

Dayton was the first to speak.

"What do you make of all of this?"

Monroe formed his thoughts before he spoke.

"it's time,"  he said.

"What does that mean," said Dayton.

Monroe didn't know how much he should reveal to Dayton, but the older
man thought he Dayton deserved some answers.

"Dayton, do you remember your parents?"

"Yes," I have glimpses of them.  I was nine when they were killed in a
fire, but yes I remember them.

"What do you remember", said Monroe.

My mom was really pretty.  She had long red hair and green eyes
that shined when she was happy.

There were times when I looked at her and I would catch her wiping away
a  tear, when I asked her, "mom, why are you crying"   She would  only say
it was a grownup thing and for me not to worry.

"What do you remember about your dad?", said Monroe.

"My dad.  My day was a big man.  Well, he seemed big to me.  He had to
take a lot of business trips.  But when he came home mom would make a
big issue of it, and plan family night.  We would sit around the fire and
dad would tell stories of his father and his grandfather how they were these
strong knights of the old world.   They could shape shift and turn into
animals and they would run through the night.  Then out of breath the clan would gather
around the fire.  The mothers and the fathers and the children and extended family they would
start to hum and then sing.  Sing the songs of old.  Sing the songs of their ancestors.   Sing
songs of praise to their Creator.

Dayton was lost in thought as he remembered the time he spent with his mother
and father and cousins and uncles.  They seemed to all live together.  But how
that could be he didn't know.  It was a long time ago.

After his mother and father had been killed in the fire he had been parceled out to
foster homes and he had lost touch with his heritage.  If he remembered correctly
the whole town had been wiped out.  Only a few had survived.   The red cross
had come in and taken in the surviving children.  No adults had survived the fire
and the children if they were related were sent to different parts of the country.

Dayton didn't know why.  When he was old enough he had tried to find the survivors of
the fire but the records seemed to have been lost.  That was all he could remember.
He had gone to college and become a marine biologist with a minor in astronomy.
He always had an interest in the sea and the creatures that inhabited the waters.
And the stars seemed to be his friends.  He remembered his mom had a telescope
and she would set it up for him and point out the big dipper, and the galaxies beyond
which she often said the galaxies beyond were his future.

It made sense that when he became a young man he would study the oceans and the stars.

Monroe listened intently to what Dayton was saying.

Dayton, continued, "The best thing that ever happened was when I met Madison and later
on after we got married Hannah came along and everything seemed to fall into place."

"You met Madison in college, right?"

"That's right.   I was in my third year of marine biology and she was studying spiritual
dynamics and the poets of the last decade.   We met at a frat party found out that we
had a lot in common and that was it we were a pair inseparable after that first meeting.

When we got out of college one week later we went before a justice of the peace and
got married.

That was the happiest five years of my life.  Hannah came along and just seemed to fill
out the whole process.   Madison's sister Laura came to live nearby and she and her
husband had a daughter Lindsay who was five at the time Hannah was born.  By the
time Hannah was two Lindsay and Hannah were a duo."

Dayton paused.

Monroe said nothing.  He could feel the pain of the other man.  It was palpable.  Heavy
in the air.

"It's all right, Dayton, you don't have to say anything more."

Dayton was quiet for a few moments.

When he spoke it was in a forceful but monotone voice.  Madison came to me
in the middle of the night.  Woke me up.  She said , I had to go and I had to
take Hannah and Lindsay with me."

"What did you think," said Monroe.

"I didn't know what to think, said  Dayton.   Madison had always been very vague
about her family.  Said she didn't have any.  They were killed in a skiing accident.
She said, she had no family."

"What did you think?" said Monroe.

"I believed her.  My own family had been killed in that fire.   We were like two
pieces of a missing puzzle."

Monroe rubbed his head.  "Dayton, I have to tell you something.  You and Madison
are from the same clan."

"Clan.?"   "What do you mean clan?"

"Well, remember when I told you I was Madison's fahter."

"Yes, I remember.  How could I forger?"

"Well,. there is more to it.   The fire that your mother and father were in is
the same fire that I lost my wife in."

There were forty of us.   Most of the adults were killed all that was left was
the children.

Madison was one of the children.  You were one of the children.
It was thought for safety reasons that you be separated and so you were sent
to different locations.

Because of your innate abilities and likes you both selected colleges that
dealt is asto physics, anthropology, and astorology.   You were destined
to meet and you did.  And then you had Hannah."

"This is so unbelievable," blurted out Dayton.  Don't say any more.

I must say one more thing.  This clan had unusual characteristics.   They were
highly musical.  Their sense of hearing was impeccable.  Their sense of smell
was at the top ninety percent.   And their thought patterns were very
conjoined.  They were highly focused and when they weren't busy doing
something which needed any type of mind control their minds were completely
quiet.   No chatter.  No back talk.  No nothing.  They were in tune with
source and this made them highly valuable.   Anyway that's what the elders
thought.

You and Madison were the future.  Just like your mother said.  You are the
future.  And Hannah.   She is the focal point of this future."

"What about Lindsay,  where does she come into play in all of this."

"Lindsay is a guardian.  She knew this and has always been there for Hannah
and is Hannah's protector."

Monroe stopped talking and looked in his rearview mirror   Flashing red lights
were seen.
    
"We have company," he said in a tense voice.

"Let me do the talking."  It may just be a routine stop.

 Dayton breathed in and hoped that that's all it was.