The Inheritance Paradox
Twenty-Nine (My Story)
THE TRIP BACK to Ann Arbor was pretty quiet. Brenda had just found out the truth about her birth mother and biological father. She sat in the passenger seat with the case containing the folded flag from her father’s casket. Tears were never far from her eyes and she sniffled a lot.
“Honey, you know I’ve been doing a lot of research,” I started, reaching over to touch her hand.
“Thank you. It was really good to meet Deborah and Ron. The story was sad, but I’m glad I know it,” she said, smiling at me.
“Well, I wanted to wait until we were sure before I told you this next bit. I think I am,” I said. “I know who your grandparents were.”
“Who cares about the Averys? They abandoned my mother and left her to die alone. They can rest in hell!” she erupted.
“The Avery’s weren’t your grandparents, love.”
“What?”
“Like you, Deirdre was adopted as an infant.”
“The State let people like the Averys adopt? Who were my real grandparents, and why didn’t they want my mother?” Brenda cried.
“Your grandfather didn’t know he had a daughter. Your grandmother died less than two months after Deirdre was born.”
“Oh, my God, no!” Brenda cried.
I couldn’t take this while I was driving and pulled into a service station so I could park and hold my beloved wife. I was crying through this as well.
“Honey, your grandmother was Rachel Erickson. I talked to her nephew, Richard, a while ago. It turns out he did one of those ancestry DNA matches. He gave Megan permission to access the results. He’s your first cousin once removed,” I said.
“But… But that means…”
“Dad’s your grandfather.”
“He’s my daddy! And Lynn is my mommy.”
“And they love you like they’d have loved Deirdre if they’d ever known about her.”
“The letters that Rachel wrote… She wasn’t just dying; she was pregnant with Dad’s child and didn’t tell him.”
“She was so committed to him that she didn’t want anything to come between him and his calling,” I said. “Even his daughter.”
“But… that means… you… are my uncle.”
“I’m your husband. I won’t recognize any other relationship than the one we have,” I said firmly.
Brenda started laughing through her tears. I thought she might be getting hysterical. She kissed me deeply, leaning across the console.
“It’s such a cliché!” she said, still laughing.
“What is?”
“My uncle took my virginity!” she laughed.
“Oh, Christ!”
“I love you. There had to be a reason, though. Why did you even think of asking Richard Erickson about this?” she asked.
“It was Megan’s fault,” I defended myself. “All the DNA samples she took. She ran every possible test she could think of on all of them to try to isolate this new RNA she found. She found DNA evidence that you were Dad’s granddaughter. I couldn’t just tell you that without confirming the evidence. She confirmed it this week with Richard’s DNA. He said he’d get his father, Lemuel, to submit a test, too. He’d be your great uncle.”
“I just… it will be hard… to put all this in my little head. You know, I’m not that smart.”
“Don’t put yourself down. You know perfectly well you are as smart or smarter than anyone in the family,” I said.
“But I’m not used to using that part of my brain. I need to talk to Mom about her ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in her head at the same time. You know, like her Buddhist beliefs and love of bacon.”
“Well, we need to tread carefully when we talk to Mom and Dad. I think it would be better to do after Meg gets here next week.”
“I agree. Take me home now. I want to read through all Rachel’s letters to Dad now that I know what was really going on.”
I helped Zach put a few final touches on his car. The Corvair wasn’t known for its air conditioning, but I didn’t think they’d want to drive all the way to California with the windows open. We found a Vintage Air Under Dash unit for less than $500 and it only took Zach an hour to install as I held the light and handed him pieces. It was good because it didn’t tap into the car’s controls and if he decided to sell the car, he could restore it to factory condition by pulling a few screws. He’d already changed the ignition system, though, so he didn’t think anyone would complain about getting an AC.
Wednesday, right after work, we went to the Johnsons’ house for a farewell dinner for Val. Lisa rode over with Zach earlier in the day, but she’d head back with us. After dinner, we’d be packing the Corvair for Val and Zach’s big trip. I was pretty sure Zach wouldn’t be back home that night.
“Brenda. Nathaniel. Welcome!” Don said. “Are we ready for this big launch?”
“I don’t think we’ll ever be ready,” I said. “It must be even harder on you and Ruby. Zach will be back in a couple of weeks. When will Val manage to get home?”
“It’s been all we could do to convince her she couldn’t come home every weekend. She has already booked a ticket for the holidays, though. She’ll be here for three weeks.”
We were called to the table.
“It was so nice to have Lisa come over to help cook,” Ruby said as the put food on the table. “Val and Zach have been packing the Corvair and unpacking it to arrange things better. Eugene and Lynn are coming, aren’t they?”
She looked around, noticing my parents weren’t there. Just then, the doorbell rang and Don went to welcome them.
“Sorry we’re running a few minutes late,” Lynn said. “There was an owners’ association meeting this afternoon to welcome all the newcomers to the neighborhood. I think there was only one other new cabin occupied but they invite people who have moved into the apartments as well.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I wouldn’t have called people to the table if I’d realized you hadn’t all come together,” Ruby said. “This is a wonderful big family get-together!”
With our six and the six Johnsons, it made for a lively dinner at a big table.
“Did you get a chance to say goodbye to your grandparents, Val?” I asked. I knew Zach was emphatic about having Mom and Dad at the table tonight.
“We had a nice dinner this weekend,” Val said. “They said they would come to visit me over Thanksgiving.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Brenda said.
“That reminds me, Mom gave me her copy of our family genealogy,” Ruby said. “It goes back about a hundred years to my great grandparents. I guess there might be a copy that goes back further at Lennox House.”
“Lennox House?” I asked.
“Yes, apparently most of the family was still living near when my great grandparents decided to donate their historic home to the city as a museum. There’d been some kind of dispute among the kids about who would inherit it and they decided to settle it without anyone getting it.”
“That’s interesting. Megan and I didn’t have any qualms about having Mom and Dad sell their house. Even though Megan is moving back here for a while. She’ll get here Saturday,” I said.
“Oh, I like your sister. We had such a nice chat when she came to collect our family DNA samples,” Ruby said.
“I didn’t realize she’s a medical doctor,” Don said.
“Yes. She’s going to be working with the University Human Genetics Department to do more sample collecting in Ann Arbor and she’ll be doing some lectures there,” I said. “I wonder how far back she thinks our family link is.”
“Probably Civil War era,” Dad said out of the blue. “Lots of big families after the war.”
“It’s been years since I visited Lennox House,” Ruby said. “I know there are a lot of Civil War era relics in it. I remember a signed photograph of President Grant.”
“Well, here’s to the current generation,” Dad said raising his wine glass. “To Zach and Val. May you have a safe journey tomorrow. May it be only the first of many adventures together.”
“To Zach and Val,” we all chimed in.
“I’ll raise my glass also to my daughter,” Don said. “Valerie, you are far smarter than your parents, and far healthier, too. Even though you will be 2,000 miles away across the country, know that you will always be right here at this table in our hearts.”
“To Val!”
“Thank you, Dad. One of the things that Zach and I share that has brought us closer together is the love of our families and our love for them. Maybe we didn’t always see eye-to-eye—I still think I could have had a later bedtime. But we’ve never lacked for love and respect. Here’s to our families!”
I got a text message in the morning just as I was leaving for work. Val and Zach were heading out of town and Zach had shared his location with me so I could track their journey.
I was deep in the documentation and release notes for our first alpha of the health monitoring system. Of course, at the moment, we were running it on a desktop simulator, and it wasn’t hooked to any actual hardware that could be implanted. We were still months away from that. But it was a big deal to have the first few features online.
Saturday morning, I went to pick up my sister at the airport. She had more luggage with her this time than on the last trip.
“This is my personal stuff,” she laughed. “Company things are shipped directly to the University.”
“What kind of things are you bringing for the company?” I asked.
“We did a survey of the lab at the university and decided on a few enhancements. And my office at the U will have my computers and a bunch of monitors that will be connected to the processing stations. The university is providing an office, but I’ve gotten used to a specific setup at the Institute. They are equipping my office with the same desk and chair that I have in North Carolina.”
“You’re really a big cheese over there, aren’t you?” I said as we loaded her suitcases in the back of the station wagon.
“Oh, maybe,” she said teasingly. “Nat, you don’t know how big this is. I’m not just here at the university to collect samples. There’s a researcher here I’ve been sharing data with for a couple of years. We’ve already drafted our first look at the research for publication. It isn’t conclusive, but our success in isolating the qRNA will be published in the spring.”
“That’s fantastic! I don’t have anything as important as that. We got an alpha version running yesterday. It’s not connected to the hardware yet, though.”
“Everything starts somewhere. Simon has been in touch with your company to talk about possible connections with our research,” she said.
“Simon?”
“He’s the researcher I mentioned who will be working with me. And he’s kind of a nice guy, too. It won’t be a hardship to work with him.”
“Meg! Are you hinting at a possible romance?” I asked, amazed.
“Probably too soon to really talk about it. We’ll see if I feel like I can bring him home for Thanksgiving Dinner.”
“There are at least three cooks in the family who could probably figure out how to serve him. Roast is always popular,” I laughed.
“Evil brother! Maybe I won’t bring him at all!”
We got home and settled Meg in Zach’s room. At that point, Lisa attached herself to her aunt and begged her to go with her to a movie premiere, so we didn’t get a chance to talk a lot after that. We had a big family dinner on Sunday and that evening—during the time when I’d usually talk to her on the phone—Meg and Brenda and I sat down to talk. We told her about the additional things we’d found out in Niles and having told Brenda about her grandparents.
“How are you doing, sister?” Meg asked.
“Oh, pretty good. It’s like getting a bonus to what’s already a great relationship. I really couldn’t be closer to Mom and Dad, even if they were my biological parents. Finding out my grandmother was Rachel was a real shock. I re-read all her letters. So many things were obvious once I looked back knowing she was pregnant and sick. I still think she should have told Dad. But we’d be a very different family if she had.”
“I wonder if Dad time traveled back to her.”
“Everything he’s said up until now has indicated that wasn’t possible—or was really dangerous to do. The only time he traveled back in his own life was when he rescued Mom. That was for something like ten minutes of overlap,” I said.
“I wonder if there was a paradox caused by that,” Meg said.
“Well, only in his fierce protectiveness of Mom,” I guessed. “He really doesn’t know what his time travel was supposed to have accomplished beyond that.”
“So, do we tell him we know about Rachel and their child?” Meg asked.
“I thought at first that we should just leave well enough alone,” Brenda said. “But after re-reading the letters and getting the pendant from Mom, I think it would put to rest a part of his history that still haunts him.”
“I agree. And I want to put that whole story in the book,” I said.
“How’s that coming along?” Meg asked.
“Well, you’ve both read the handwritten part, including what I found out about his earlier life. As I’ve found out more, I keep revising it. I have most of it transcribed onto the computer now for editing.”
“Well, I definitely think we need to get it all out in the open before you show it to him in the book. When?” Meg asked.
“Might as well plan it for next weekend,” I said. “I know they’ve got a little list of things they want me to do, like anchoring the bookcases to the wall. You know, things we should have done before we started loading them.”
Zach and Val made it to California in a week. I was happy to see they had taken their time and had even done a little sightseeing on the way across. I had a feeling, though, most of the sight they saw was each other. Zach said he’d start back on Monday, when Val had to register for orientation. It would be a quicker trip home without the pleasant distraction in the passenger seat. I was sure we’d see him by the next weekend, and he’d need to start classes the day after Labor Day.
We set up time to go over to the cottage on Saturday. I’d do the handyman jobs while Meg and Brenda were with Mom. Lisa’s junior year in high school started that week and she was already deep into the swing of activities and studies. Meg was right into work at the university, and I continued to document the change orders for Galahad and monitor the bugs reported by testing.
“Dad, you know we’ve been researching Brenda’s family heritage as well as compiling your stories, right? Megan uncovered some pretty startling information when she did the DNA tests on our family.”
I finished the last bracket and started reshelving all the books. It had been the homeowners’ association that had spotted the violation, of course. They weren’t as belligerent as I’ve heard many HOAs are. It was just a routine safety inspection after move-in. Apparently, it’s a state law that requires earthquake-proofing in senior housing. Makes sense.
I turned toward Dad and found him standing up. He had that far-away look in his eye that usually precedes one of his stories.
“You dug up my past, too, didn’t you?”
“It was kind of… Well, one thing led to another.”
He nodded.
“We should go to the living room where your wife, sister, and mother can hear the whole ugly story, too.”
“Dad, it’s not ugly. We didn’t find anything that makes us love or respect you less. I’m sure Mom will agree.”
He suggested to Mom that we all have an afternoon cup of coffee or tea so we could listen to ‘my story.’
“Well, you know Meg’s research on DNA has focused on our family because of our general good health,” I started. “We’ve been so healthy all our lives that it was a real shock when Dad told me he’d had cancer. Geez, Meg, you tell this part.”
“We all, except Brenda, share a gene that appears to enhance our ability to fight viruses,” Meg said. “But when I did the full work-up on Brenda, I discovered she shared family genetics other than that one peculiar gene. What shocked all of us was that Brenda’s X chromosome work up points to Dad as her grandfather.”
“How could that be?” Lynn exclaimed.
I saw Dad holding her hand tightly.
“It happened a long time before you met, Mom,” I said. “I saw an obituary for Wallace Holbrook that listed his children, including Rev. Eugene Holbrook. It was a shock to see that Dad was a preacher, but when I went to Battle Creek to get more research and photograph Grandpa’s grave, I spent time in the library, too. Dad, there were a lot of pictures of you and Rachel Erickson in the high school yearbook.”
Brenda pulled the unicorn pendant from around her neck and handed it to Dad.
“Unicorns forever,” she whispered.
“Rachel,” Dad sobbed. “She died. I thought she’d dumped me, but she died. And I went kind of crazy when I found out.”
“Not only did she not dump you; she was protecting you. Maybe not the smartest thing to do, but she concealed from you that she was pregnant so you wouldn’t get distracted from becoming a minister.”
“I wish I’d never heard of the church at all. I had a child?”
“Deirdre Avery, Brenda’s birth mother. Deirdre died in childbirth, abandoned by her adopted parents. I talked to Rachel’s nephew, Richard Erickson, and he released a DNA sample for Meg to test. It points to Rachel’s father as a common ancestor. And to you.”
We were all quiet. Dad sniffed and handed the pendant back to Brenda. She immediately put it on and then ran to hug Mom and Dad.
“It doesn’t make a difference,” she said. “You are the only real mother and father I ever had. It doesn’t make a difference at all!”
“Oh, precious girl. You are right in that I couldn’t love you more as a granddaughter than I do as a daughter. I’m broken-hearted for my daughter. That she was adopted and then discarded and died alone.”
Brenda returned to the seat next to me and buried her face against my shoulder.
“I knew,” Dad said, shocking us all. “Deep in my heart where I couldn’t admit anything, I knew you were Rachel’s granddaughter. The first time I saw you, practically swimming in the sweats Nathaniel gave you that night he found you in the rain. It was so obvious to me I couldn’t speak. You looked so much like Rachel. I buried it in my heart, but I decided right then that perhaps you were sent as my redemption. That I could somehow honor Rachel by caring for you. That I would be forgiven for all my transgressions.”
“Eugene, you know you were forgiven for all your transgressions the night you rescued me behind that tavern,” Mom said. “It was a past life and no more relevant to the life we share than if it was in thirteenth century Romania.”
We knew the story of Dad’s time travel to that time and place. Princess Valoria and their flight to Italy. We knew also that Dad said he gave the unicorn pendant to Sasha after the Chicago fire. I wondered if Meg could dig up some DNA evidence that Mom was descended from her.
We talked more. I told him I had a box of some things he’d left behind when he divorced Mary and asked if he wanted to see them. He declined.
“Come and spend some time with me tomorrow afternoon,” he said. I was worried he intended to bawl me out but didn’t want to do it in front of the women. “I want to tell you about when it stopped being a dream.”
It was the end of August, a week before Labor Day, so we sat out on his little front porch in rocking chairs that were usually for him and Mom. Mom had gone to spend the afternoon giving Lisa another cooking lesson.
We had a couple of cold beers we sipped at as we rocked. Dad didn’t often drink, but a cold beer on a day as hot as this one seemed appropriate. We were both wearing shorts and T-shirts. I thought we probably looked like a Rockwell painting of ‘like father, like son.’
Dad had the little box of keepsakes on his lap and opened it. He sorted through it a little and pulled out a little hunk of metal. I looked it over and he took it back. He pulled up the leg of his shorts a little and I saw a scar on the back of his leg. I was sure I’d seen it before when we were swimming or something, but I never thought to ask him about it.
He fit the little piece of metal over the scar, and I realized it was a lead bullet.
“You were shot?” I asked.
“Minié ball. Fired from a Springfield or Enfield rifle. Probably an Enfield, since it was a rebel that shot me.”
A few months ago, I’d have thought this was probably a miscellaneous piece of trash he picked up—maybe a piece of melted lead from a plumbing job. But Dad would have a time travel story. I was no longer so sure the time travels were just stories he made up. Between the pendant Brenda wore and the DNA evidence Meg dug up, any of the stories could have been true, though he’d told me often enough he was convinced—Mom convinced him—he was just dreaming past life experiences.
“Lynn pretty much had me convinced all my time travel was me dreaming of past life experiences. It made sense. But Wells took it upon himself to give me an experience I could verify if I chose to. It isn’t the ball or the scar that convinced me. It was finding Sarah’s grave.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
