An Incremental Journey

Chapter 5

By Portia Bennett

Al’s life was a history of not being involved with others and she learns more about what might have happened had she. She and her companion visit another universe and follow the experiences of a family previously explored in The Heart of the Beholder and other stories. She learns a great deal about forgiveness, acceptance and love.

---

Hopefully, there haven’t been too many violations of the universe created by Bill Hart perpetrated in the revelations in this story. Robert A. Heinlein proposed that each time an author takes to the pen, a new universe is created and I guess I will beg the number of the beast that this universe is just a variation of SRU.

Thanks again to Holly for her enlightening editing.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

---

 

Chapter 5

 

“Where are we now?”

“Where and when doesn’t really matter, and I don’t always know what’s going to happen. I just know where they want us to go, and when in the time continuum. I think we need to stop here.”

Al took in the scene around them. They were in what appeared to be the suburbs of a typical American city. The area was relatively flat, and the streets were broad and curbed. She thought she recognized some of the many trees as oak trees, others had lacey foliage and if she had known much about trees, she would have recognized them as Mesquites. The mystery for Al was solved when they settled into the middle area of a broad avenue. They were in Texas, a fact displayed on most of the license plates on the cars that whizzed by them. There was a sign proclaiming the speed limit was 40 miles per hour; however, the speed of choice seemed to be closer to 50 miles per hour.

Wondering why they were standing in the middle of a road with traffic oblivious to their existence passing around them and through them, Al took in more of the surroundings. She thought she caught sight of something, and then she knew it for sure. There was a small cat hiding in the shadow of an Oleander. It made several false starts before it raced for the other side.

“Shit, it’s not going to make it!” Al figuratively yelled. Several cars slammed on the brakes and others swerved to avoid the little, terrified critter. It managed to cross three lanes and the center turn lane but it just wasn’t to be. Almost safely to the shelter of the far side, cat and car met. There was an audible thump, and the little body was tossed to the gutter against the curb. The driver had made a weak attempt of swerving and braking, but it was far too late and too little. Instead of stopping, the auto sped off with the rest of the traffic.

Al felt terrible, yet there was nothing she could do about it. The cat was still alive and lay panting in the gutter. There was a nasty gash along one hip and there were probably other injuries as well. After five or six minutes the cat dragged itself over the concrete curb and managed to get up to the shade of a tree. That was as far as it could go. It lay there for the better part of an hour. There was no doubt many drivers and some of their passengers saw it. Several cars slowed, but then went on their way.

By this time Al was in agony. She hoped that the cat would die and end its, as well as her, misery. That was not to be. Al couldn’t feel the heat, but she knew it was hot. Finally a car slowed and almost stopped. The driver turned on the flashers then thought better of stopping. Instead, the car pulled into a driveway several hundred feet away.
The driver was a young woman. She got out and opened the trunk of the car where she retrieved a blanket. She cautiously approached the little form. If the cat was feral, it no longer had the energy to try to flee. It lifted its head, and uttered a quiet hiss that could probably be translated to, “I am hurt and don’t want to be bothered. Please let me die.”

“You’re not going to die, Little One; not if I can help it.” The woman gently covered the little cat and bundled it gently. It no longer had enough energy to fight back, although it did utter another little hiss. Gently cradling the cat, she placed it on the floor of her car, then carefully backed into the traffic and headed off.

Without any willful effort on Al’s part they followed the car to a veterinarian’s office several miles away. The woman rushed the cat inside.

The vet and assistant took the cat back to the operating room and a few minutes later the vet returned. “Mrs. Tankersley, it doesn’t look very good, and I’m not sure we can save it. The leg will have to go. The bones are shattered. If you want my advice, I would have her put down.”

“Can you save her?” asked Alice Tankersley wiping a tear from her eye.

“It will be difficult, but we can try.”

“Then try. She deserves a chance. I guess the estate sales aren’t going to have me as a customer for a while.”

They were back in the tunnel. “What’s the point of this? We don’t even know if the cat lived.”

“Oh, the cat lived. It was a close call, though.”

“I still don’t see why we are here. What do I have to do with this?”

“Not that much; however, you could have.”

“What do you mean? I didn’t hit that cat.”

“No, you didn’t; however, you were in the fourth car that passed after the cat was hit. You were attending a real estate conference in Arlington, and were returning to your motel.”

“I don’t remember that. Yes, I was in Arlington at a conference, but I wouldn’t have just driven by something like that, would I?”

“You did. It wouldn’t have made much difference as far as the cat was concerned, and it wouldn’t have ended up in a different home. The Tankersley’s spent their summer vacation money on the care of the cat. That is, instead of going on vacation, they paid for the medical care of the cat. No one complained, and the children eagerly waited until they could bring the little three legged cat into their home. That is where it is now, and it hardly knows that it is missing its right hind leg.

“Had you stopped and rescued the cat, the results would have been the same. You probably had what it cost to treat the cat in pocket change. The Tankersley’s often rescue and adopt injured pets, and in this case the cat would have still ended up in their house. The only difference is they would have been able to take a family vacation to Walt Disney World.

“You had a chance to make a difference but you didn’t.”

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

“Al, this is going to be a long path to follow, although time isn’t that important.” They were back in the tunnel and Al noticed that for the first time there was a ‘fork in the road’ so to speak. “We are going into a different universe,’ the spirit continued. “What you call magic is much rarer here than it was at one time. It’s a world close to yours in many ways and there is a story here that you need to experience.”

They were in another schoolyard which except for the fact was in a different universe, was virtually identical to the one Al had experienced when she was in grade school. There was a scene unfolding before them. Three boys were harassing a small, effeminate boy. They were teasing him and calling him ‘queer’ and ‘faggot’. Time sped up and now they were inside the school building. The little boy was going to the restroom and had been preceded there by one of the bullies. They watched as the unsuspecting boy was struck rather brutally in the face by a rapidly opening stall door. It was a very deliberate and cruel act.

The scene changed and now one of the previous harassers was trying to establish a friendship with the previously injured boy. What’s more, the friendship was quickly established.

“The little boy is gay after all, isn’t he,” stated Al. “In fact, they are both gay.”

“One would think so; however, that’s not the case. The blond boy is actually an intersexed girl. She is just starting to enter puberty, and the physical changes are just starting to show up. They are very much in love, by the way, and always will be. Both of them are a bit conflicted by the mutual attraction they feel; however, they have both come to the realization that there is nothing wrong with their friendship. The gender issues aren’t that important at the moment. Only their friendship is. It’s just going to take a while for this little drama to unfold.

“We need to move forward a few years.”

Now they were in a city park, and once again Al was frustrated by her inability to affect what was going on. The two friends were being brutally attacked by the two bullies from the elementary school, and the intersexed girl was badly hurt. Fortunately, help arrived in time. They followed the injured children to the hospital, and observed the first aid treatment, and the revelation that the blond boy was actually a girl.

Al was amazed at how easily the revelation was accepted by every one; that is everyone but the boy’s father.

“He knew all along, didn’t he,” Al said as they watched the two young lovers to be kiss.

“Yes it was something they both felt almost right away,” remarked his companion. “But it will be a long time before they can be together. It’s not their love that’s the lesson to learn in this story. It is something much deeper than that. Shall we move on?”

“Certainly,” replied Al, knowing full well she had no choice in the matter.

They followed the boy and girl’s families for what was apparently many years. They witnessed the bigotry of the boy’s father expand, and witnessed his involvement in murder. There was a divorce, and the boy’s father remarried, as did his mother.

The two best friends (They were Mike O’Donnell and Jo Beebe) were now in college. The two spirits had been viewing vignettes of their lives as well as the lives of two youths’ relatives. Something was bothering Al besides the months of real time involved in seeing what the two were going through.

“Why don’t those two, who are so obviously in love with each other, do something? He has never pressed her for any sex. They haven’t even discussed marriage. Now she’s going to medical school, and soon he will be going on active duty. Time for them is wasting.”

“There will be much more time before they are finally together. We are here to see something else.”

They were in the library of the university and watched a young lady approach Mike and strike up a conversation with him. Al recognized her immediately. “That’s his stepsister, Mindy. What’s she doing here? They have never met. He doesn’t even know she exists.”

“She’s here because his father, her stepfather sent her. She’s here to destroy the relationship between Mike and Jo.” They watched as she nearly succeeded. They watched as Mike, the ever constant gentleman, took Mindy out on two dates.

The disaster took place a few days after their second date. Mindy met Mike as he walked between classes. They sat down on a bench in the shade of a large Kellogg Oak when Mindy suddenly said, “Mike, isn’t that your friend over there? I would love to meet her.”

Mike stood up and waved at Jo, motioning for her to come over.

“Hi, Mike.”

“Jo, this is Mindy Rudolph. She’s the one I was telling you about.

“Mindy, this is Jo Beebe. We’ve known each other since the fifth grade.”

“Oh, Mike,” exclaimed Mindy, “so this is the freaky little faggot you were telling me about. It really does almost look like a woman, but I’ll bet she can’t fuck nearly as good as I do.”

The two spirits watched the scene unfold. “Of course Mike had never even thought about making love to Mindy,” mentioned Al’s companion. “There is only one person on that agenda and that is Jo. As you can see, Jo was devastated by this event. She felt that Mike betrayed her by revealing her intersexed childhood. She was very naíve and her naiveté compounded the problem. Mike’s father was behind this and you may want to learn more on your own later on but you are not ready to do that yet and won’t be for a while, if ever.

“Things are going to work out and we don’t need to see everything over the next few years of their lives. You were scheduled to visit Mike a few years from this point in time. He became quite the hero and was willing to sacrifice his life to save his comrades. However, you proved to us that was no longer an issue when you saved that child. As I said earlier, that was a complete surprise to almost all of us.

“Life and events are not predetermined. Some big events can be manipulated; however, there is so much randomness that comes into play that what was considered to be a sure thing suddenly becomes a non-event. We can make adjustments; however, there are some things that just happen. We are now going forward about seven years.”

They were back in the (a?) tunnel and travelled what seemed to be a short distance. “Al, what do you think about Mindy? What she did was a pretty evil thing, wasn’t it?”

“It was awful, so malevolent.”

“Things have changed a bit. Mike and Jo are getting married, and Mike’s father has been arrested for a previous murder and two additional deaths. He attempted to have Jo killed. Mindy found out what she had been part of and it could have killed her and her children. She is a very innocent woman who has been mentally abused by her stepfather and husband. She was brainwashed into believing what she did to Mike and Jo was God’s will.

“What happens next is very important. Mike’s father and Mindy’s husband are both in jail because of many crimes, and Mindy has innocently been involved. She found out through television and magazine articles a closer approximation of the truth about what had happened, and after much inner torment is seeking forgiveness from Jo.”

They paused as they had done so many times before at some predetermined point. “Okay, we’re here.” They were outside a hospital. The weather was dreary and a light rain was falling. Mindy had just parked her car and was carrying her youngest daughter with the older daughter in tow. She looked at the hospital directory in the foyer, and then proceeded to a reception area.

“Hello, I don’t have an appointment but I need to see Dr. Beebe. It’s very important, and I have driven a long ways to see her. My name is Malinda Alexander.”

“Dr. Beebe is in. Why don’t you have a seat? There is a play area over there for the children, and we can watch them while you are visiting the doctor.”

One of the nurses called Dr. Beebe, and shortly afterwards escorted Mindy to her office. What followed was one of the most heart rending pleas for forgiveness that Al could have imagined.

Al could see that Jo was deeply moved as she moved to Mindy’s side and gently embraced her, and through her embrace and gentle words let Mindy know that she was forgiven. Mindy, through malevolence that was not her own, had nearly destroyed a relationship, and as it would turn out was welcomed into the family. Her fortunes would take a miraculous turn.

The spirits hit several more points along the family’s time line. Al was astounded by the amount of warmth displayed in their welcoming arms. A little more than a year after the birth of their twins, Jo and Mike adopted an orphan. Several years after that, they welcomed a transgendered woman into the group, and helped her adjust to her new life after being released from prison. Jo was at her side as she completed her transition.
Their adopted daughter used tens of millions of dollars of her inherited wealth, inherited from her natural parents, to create and operate a medical network for the disadvantaged.

“Al, there will be a time when you might be able to follow this family further if you wish. It might be that someday you will become part of them. Right now, we need to go the where and when you came from, or at least, about when.”

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

OK, take a deep breath. Al's journey is just about over. We are going to find out about something mentioned in the very beginning of this tale. Obviously, there was a purpose behind the journey Al has been through. The Wizard helped facilitate Al's adventure, but where and when Al is going is being directed by others. We still haven't found out who Al's companion is/was and the revelation may not be a surprise to anyone who has stuck this tale out. Please forgive me from borrowing from my other stories; however, I felt Al would benefit from experiencing some of those adventures.