The Inheritance Paradox
Twenty-Eight (My Story)
TIME WAS AT a premium around our house. I stayed up way late on Saturday writing Dad’s story. I was becoming obsessed with fitting all the pieces together, and from what Dad was telling me, he was beginning to think the adventures had been dreams. The big thing, though, was that I didn’t want to shortchange my time with Zach and Lisa. I’d committed to spending the day Sunday in the garage.
It seemed that Lisa was spending a lot of time hanging out with Val and Zach, too. When I got out to the garage, I discovered her with them, as well as Val’s younger brother, Del. Val and Lisa had one of the front seats on the floor in front of them as they stretched upholstery over it and worked on getting it to fit correctly. Del had his head under the hood with Zach.
Hood? Is that what you call the engine cover when it’s in the back? Oh, well. It didn’t really matter since they hadn’t attached the cover to the body yet. Zach wanted to make sure everything was perfect in the engine compartment before he put the cover on.
“What’s on the docket today?” I asked, peering into the compartment with them.
“I had to rewire the ignition,” Zach said. “Looked like mice had been at it. That meant we had to open every compartment and check the wires. We’re just getting ready to reconnect the engine to the ignition now.”
“What can I do to help?” I asked. Zach straightened up and pointed at a long roll wrapped in plastic.
“With the girls getting the front upholstery done, we need to get the carpet installed. I think the interior is completely cleaned and painted, so it should be pretty straight-forward to roll out the carpet and fasten it down.”
“I can probably handle that,” I laughed.
“Hey, Zach, why don’t I work on the carpet. I’m not being much help on the engine and I’m sure you’d rather be working with your dad,” Del said.
“Good man, Del. That’s a great idea. Be sure to degrease your hands before you unwrap the carpet. The girls will want to see it as soon as you have it laid out,” Zach said, patting the younger boy on the shoulder.
I was impressed. It was great that Del thought to volunteer to do the carpet so I could work more closely with Zach. I didn’t think I knew any more about the engine than he did. It crossed my mind, though, that doing the carpet probably meant working more closely with Val and Lisa.
“Well, what do you need?” I asked.
“I’m just fine tuning the points,” Zach said. “One of the biggest failings of this model was the frequency that the points went out of adjustment or even burned out. I had to make a decision between being strictly original in the operation or using more current methods to improve the performance. I finally decided to use a capacitive spark discharge system, which I’m pretty sure Chevy would have used if it had been available when they built this. Let’s start with you holding the light here where I can see the points better.”
It was simple enough and as the day progressed, I did get my hands dirty a little. The important thing to me was that I was helping my son and spending time with him.
“We’re getting close, aren’t we?” I said.
“Eighteen days,” Zach responded immediately. “We’re going to make it. I have to keep reminding myself not to take any shortcuts. No matter how much of a hurry I’m in, I have to remember that I’ll be transporting the love of my life in this bucket. That’s more important.”
“I’m glad you’re thinking that way. Don’t forget that to your mom and me, to Lisa, Gram, Gramps, Aunt Meg, and Val, the most precious cargo in this car is you,” I said. “What about seatbelts?”
“The brackets are installed. We can attach the belts as soon as the carpet and seats are in,” Zach said. “And yes, I got shoulder straps and put the brackets in for those, too.”
“This is really a big job,” I said. “Are you sorry you started it?”
“No way! The biggest problem has been to keep myself from working around the clock on it. Val has kept me anchored on that. We’ve reserved some time each day to just… um… be together, you know. I mean… yeah.”
“She doesn’t have to go home every night if her parents are okay with it,” I said.
“Wow! We’ve talked about that. You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. The question is whether you two are sure.”
They were counting down the days until they started driving to California. We knew they’d been sleeping together when they could. Brenda came home from Mom and Dad’s early one day and they were just coming down the stairs, both freshly showered and looking very lovingly at each other. From then on, she made sure to have Zach and Lisa both know her schedule.
It made sense to have Del work with them at least on occasion. I wasn’t sure if he and Lisa were actually dating again, but it looked like a strong likelihood that he’d be Zach’s brother-in-law one way or another.
Sunday night, I had my weekly call with Megan, and she gave me her feedback on the story of Dad’s intervention with the witches in Scotland.
“I wish you made it longer! Twelve women in one night? That’s epic! I have to know what Mom thought about all that.”
“It went so fast that Dad didn’t even remember most of the names or what they looked like. I didn’t feel like just making stuff up. The important thing is that Dad was confronted with the possibility that if his time travel was a dream, perhaps his life here with Mom was a dream, too. I thought this Wells was really pushing him on that. Do you suppose Wells is the stand-in for his conscience?”
“For Pete’s sake, Nat! You have to probe more deeply. I know Dad doesn’t want to talk about some things, but it seems his time travel is open for question and answer.”
“Time has been precious. Hey, you know this implant we’re working on?” I said. “Do you think there would be any percentage in having it analyze the patient’s DNA? I know we couldn’t get that in the first version, but we’re collecting ideas for future development. That idea came up.”
“In your context, the most useful would be testing for health problems or risks. We use that to test for the qRNA nucleic acid,” Meg said. “The problems I see are in how to test it. Certainly, your device would have plenty of access to the DNA, but currently, we heat the sample to separate the DNA strands and then introduce Taq polymerase enzyme to it to identify the strands. I’ll search to see if other ways of testing have been devised. It’s a good idea, though.”
“I’ll put it in our database with a note about devising a test. Right now, we’re putting the software together to record and report things from known data,” I said. “It’s good to know I’ll have a job for a few years.”
“And Ann Arbor is about to become a hotbed for research,” Meg said.
“What? How so?”
“I’m going to be coming to town to handle collection and testing of samples,” she said. “I plan to get there in three weeks, on the sixteenth.”
“That’s wonderful news! You’ll be in town for a while, won’t you? I know Zach will be bummed if he misses you. He’s taking Val to California on the fourteenth.”
“I’ll be there at least a month. Probably until the end of the year,” Meg said.
“Well, the good news is you can have Zach’s room for a couple of weeks. We’ll figure something out after that.”
“It will be nice to have a place for a few days, but the company will find me a suitable accommodation. This has lit a real fire under the directors.”
“So, what will you be doing?” I asked.
“The tests I’ve done and cross-referenced with other material from Ann Arbor indicates there is a high likelihood of people in the area carrying qRNA. We’ve found it in tests we’ve been able to access from some of the commercial testing organizations. But to do a good analysis, we need to do a blood draw. So, I’ll be working in the University Department of Human Genetics on a cooperative agreement. I guess I’ll be doing some lectures there as well. But I’ll be orchestrating a massive DNA collection drive out of the clinic there.”
“That’s amazing, Meg. Congratulations!”
“I got one of the directors here interested in my preliminary research plan and he went to work to get this set up. I doubt I’ll be there more than three or four months, but it’s exciting to be coming back home. I’ll have to fly back and forth a bit, of course, but still…”
“We can’t wait to catch up and have you here,” I said. “Wait until I tell Brenda and Mom and Dad. I mean… I suppose you want to tell Mom and Dad. We shouldn’t keep them in the dark.”
“You know, this could give you an opportunity to open the discussion about Brenda with Dad.”
Of course.
It was the first of August when I got an email response to the posting I’d made in Niles. Deborah Graham sent the message asking what my interest was in tracking down information about Deirdre Avery. She might be able to help me.
I wrote back immediately that according to adoption records, my wife was her daughter, and we were searching for information on her birth parents. We also didn’t know who Deirdre’s parents were. I sent it but didn’t hear back right away.
That weekend—the first weekend of August—we had a launching event and christening of Zach’s Corvair. Mom and Dad were there, of course, as were Val, her parents, and siblings. Zach had rolled the car out into the driveway and covered it with a tarp for the unveiling. When we were all gathered around, Zach and Val made a gesture with a ceremonial bottle of water and Zach pulled the cover off.
“Presenting, Christopher Corvair,” he announced. We all applauded. It really did look spectacular. They’d waxed it to a high polish. I knew, of course, that Zach and Val had it out on a test run the day before, which included a trip through a touchless wash and wax, then they’d pulled into the garage and spent an hour polishing it with a buffer. They were mighty proud of that little car.
Zach said he’d take everyone for a spin around the block, but he could only take one passenger at a time because he hadn’t put the back seat in yet. The first passenger he invited was his grandfather. They were only gone five minutes while the rest of us stood around on the grass with glasses of sparkling water. We looked through the album they’d put together and Val narrated. She was definitely just as proud of that car as Zach was.
It took an hour for everyone to get their once around the block trip and then we all exclaimed about what a beautiful job they’d done restoring the vehicle. A couple of our neighbors came over when they saw the car parked in the drive with the hood open and the doors ajar so people could look at the restoration. Zach didn’t offer them rides, but he was happy to engage everyone in conversation and telling the story of the restoration and his plans to do it for a living after his course this fall.
Eventually, we all went in the house for dinner—a delicious pot roast, cooked by Lisa according to Mom’s instructions in the kitchen.
“Say, Ruby,” Brenda said to Val’s mother, “do you have any genealogical info? I ask because when Meg ran everyone’s DNA, she discovered a possible common ancestor, maybe a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago.”
“Really? I know my mother has some papers on ancestry. I don’t think we have anything on Don’s family beyond his parents and grandparents. They’re all gone now. Died young. That’s why I’m watching Don’s health like a hawk. He gets checked every year for any sign of the cancer coming back.”
“I certainly hope that doesn’t happen!” Brenda said. “I was just wondering. Thought it would be entertaining if we found out our kids had a common ancestor someplace along the line.”
“That’s true. Do you think we’d need to separate them?” Don asked.
Val and Zach looked horrified.
“Hey! That wouldn’t be necessary. Lots of people have common ancestors five or six generations back. It’s the same as not being related at all,” Val said.
“It would be interesting to find out, though. Maybe that’s where our good health comes from,” Zach said.
“It might be. You know Megan is coming back to town, just after you two leave for California,” I said. Everyone looked up at that. I assumed Megan had let Mom and Dad know she was moving back.
“Oh! No fair! I won’t get to see her,” Zach moaned. There was absolutely no notion that they’d delay their trip, though.
“I wouldn’t count that out,” I said. “She might still be in your room when you get back, so make sure it’s clean and ready for company. She’ll be making arrangements for somewhere else to stay since she’ll be in town for a few months.”
“A few months?” Mom asked. “Don’t tell me we sold the house and moved too soon.”
“Oh. I thought she would have told you,” I said. “She’s doing a residency at the University on an exchange with their Human Genetics Department. I guess she’ll be doing some lectures, too.” I thought it was best not to go into the reason for collecting a lot of samples here. We’d be getting to that soon.
“Oh, I liked your sister,” Ruby said. “She was so nice when she took our DNA samples. I’ll definitely look up Mom’s genealogy notes.”
It was a pleasant meal and conversation with all of us sharing stories of the restoration of the Corvair and our excitement for Zach and Val’s big trip to California. There were no objections from anyone when Val announced she’d be staying the night with Zach.
I didn’t have time to spend listening to Dad’s stories for a while. The time I wasn’t at the office working on the release notes for the alpha version of Galahad, I was spending with my kids. I wanted to spend some special time with Lisa as well as Zach. I felt like I’d been pretty crushed for time over the summer.
On Tuesday, though, I got a message back from Deborah Graham, with her phone number. I called immediately and we had a pleasant chat that didn’t include any of the information I really wanted to get to.
“Nathaniel, I think it would be better to talk about this face-to-face,” she said. “Can you and your wife come down to Niles this weekend? We don’t need to make it a big deal. Just come for lunch at the Home Plate Restaurant. I’d like my husband to be with me, too.”
That sounded like a reasonable precaution to me. I was sure no woman would want to meet with just me, especially since the subject was really my wife. I checked with Brenda and we set up a trip to Niles on Saturday.
Deborah and Ron Graham met us at the restaurant Saturday a little before noon.
“Brenda, it’s almost like looking at your mother!” Deborah exclaimed after our first hello. Tears sparkled in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get all emotional, but Deirdre was my friend and… and… Mike was my first husband. Both taken from us far too early.”
“Mike?” Brenda asked after their embrace.
“So much to tell. Mike Worland was your father. I’m afraid we were a rather rowdy gang back in the late eighties. No ill intent, but it seemed like we were always in some kind of trouble. There were others with us—Janice, Tom, Leo, Rick—but it seemed like they all congregated around the three of us. Brenda, I’m so sorry none of us were able to do anything to help!” Deborah said.
“It sounds like there’s a lot of story to tell,” I said as we sat to look at menus. “Why don’t we order first and get that out of the way. Our treat, Deborah and Ron.”
Ron hadn’t really said much. He looked to be a bit older than Deborah and I wasn’t sure if he’d been part of ‘the gang’ or not.
“You must be dying to know about your birth parents,” Deborah said.
“And grandparents,” Brenda said, “if you know anything about them.”
“That was where the tragedy started,” Deborah said.
“Not to speak ill of them, but the Averys were never really very nice people. Not like Deirdre. They moved here to Niles when we were all in fifth grade. I don’t really know where from. But I remember hearing my mother tell my father she thought they were on the run from somewhere and Deirdre was just a cover for them. They never came to school events, and no one seemed to know what they did for a living.”
“That sounds strange,” I interjected. “Was there ever an investigation?”
“It was a strange time,” Deborah said. “We were pretty much all latchkey kids, which is probably why we were so wild. Anyway, the summer before our senior year, Mike and Deirdre became an item. They still hung out with the rest of us, but they hung out together a lot more. And it got intense and intimate. Remember, we were only sixteen or seventeen and probably didn’t have the common sense of a fencepost among us. Anyway, Deirdre got pregnant. Mike wanted to ‘do the right thing’ because I think they really loved each other. The Averys threw a fit and threw Deirdre out of the house. Mike’s parents wouldn’t take her in. She mostly surfed the couches of the gang and if she needed a parent or guardian signature on anything, one of our parents would sign it.”
“She was homeless?” Brenda gasped.
“Yeah. By Christmas that year, the Averys had left town and to everyone’s knowledge, left no forwarding address,” Deborah said. “I went with Deirdre to Planned Parenthood. She was so desperate she considered an abortion, but the clinic told her it was too late for that, and they’d help her through the birth. She went in every few weeks for a check-up. With the pregnancy advancing, she started missing a lot of school. She’d stay a week or two at one of our homes and then our parents would figure it out and make her move. It isn’t that any of our parents were mean or meant her any harm, but none of them were equipped to welcome an extra daughter and grandchild. None of us were very well off. A couple of us girls got caught shoplifting basic supplies for her. Our parents were furious and tried to limit our contact.”
“Her story sounds sadder all the time,” Brenda said. “My poor mommy.”
“Yeah. She’d just turned eighteen and was off on her own when labor started. She tried to manage it on her own, behind the clinic. It was the weekend and the clinic was closed. No one knows exactly what happened, but when the staff got to the clinic Monday morning, Deirdre was lying in a pool of blood with her baby on her chest. You, I guess. They called for an ambulance, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.”
“Honey, I’m sorry we decided to investigate this. I’m so sorry,” I said. We all had tears dripping onto our basically untouched burgers and fries.
“No. I wanted to know,” Brenda said. “Please. What about my dad, Deborah?”
“Shit. Sorry. Mike heard Deirdre had left Janice’s house while we were all in school on Friday. We launched a search party for her and scoured the city all weekend. None of us ever thought to look behind the dumpster at the clinic. It was announced at school on Wednesday. A weird way to tell us. They asked if anyone knew how to contact Deirdre’s next of kin,” Deborah said, shaking her head. “We basically attacked the school office, demanding to know what happened. We were just told she’d passed away. They wouldn’t tell us anything about what happened to the baby, or even if there was a baby. We were just a bunch of seventeen- and eighteen-year-old kids, after all. What would we know?”
“That still happens all too often,” I said. “Brenda and I try to respect our kids and listen to everything they have to say.”
“Well, we made it to graduation—the rest of us, I mean. Rick was on the yearbook committee and managed to get the memorial box printed. Those of us who were left in the group went to the city morgue and asked if we could provide a burial. She’d been there waiting for someone to claim the body ever since she died. We raised the funds from our classmates and a couple of parents chipped in some, too. We bought one of the tiny lots in the cemetery—it was all we could afford. It was cheaper to have her cremated than to buy a casket. We buried her ashes out there. Mike—he was never the same. No one would tell him what happened to the baby. He wasn’t listed on the birth certificate or in the clinic records. In the fall, he went to college. So did most of us. It was the expected thing to do at the time, and it didn’t cost nearly what it does today. And Mike paid for his college by joining the ROTC. That meant he went straight into the service out of college in 1992.”
“You said he was your first husband,” I prompted.
“Yes. We met up again after college—the old gang. Mike and I started dating and after he finished his training, we got married. I think it was us trying to make sense of our lives. He was an officer and decided to make the military his career, so we lived all over. After 9/11, he was deployed to Afghanistan. He didn’t make it back. Well, his body did.”
“I served with Mike,” Ron said, breaking in for the first time. “He was a damn fine officer, respected by all his men. He died trying to rescue a guy trapped in a vehicle by an IED. I knew Deborah and went to see her after my hitch was up. I didn’t re-up. It took us a while, but we eventually started dating and a couple of years later decided to get married.”
“Thank you for your service,” Brenda said, “and for sticking by my father.”
“I don’t really have any mementos of your parents except one,” Deborah said. She reached in her bag and pulled out a folded flag in a presentation box. “Please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one’s honorable and faithful service.” She handed the flag to Brenda. “That’s what they said to me—or as close as I can remember. You should have it.”
Well, we were all crying by then. We didn’t last much longer at the meal. Brenda and I headed back to Ann Arbor after a brief stop at the cemetery, but I knew there was more to the story, and I had to finally tell my wife what our other research had uncovered.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
