“No, they went to see a lawyer. Something about Daddy’s doctors.”
“Ah, I see. Well, Megan, I am here to help take care of your father, and while I’m at it, I will help take care of you and your sister. You can think of me as your friend.” Sister Benedict smiled.
The Cardinal had asked the Sister to be accommodating to the family, and to do everything she could to care for the well-being of the Stone girls. “They are going through a horrible ordeal, Sister. They need our love and support.”
While she was an adequate teacher and a tough disciplinarian at the Annunciation School, Sister Benedict was not well suited to making nice with children. Her smile was creepy.
“Now,” she continued, “is Jacquelyn at home?”
“No, Jackie”—Megan emphasized her sister’s preferred name—“stayed late at school to work in the computer lab.”
“Very good. It’s important that young women learn modern skills.”
A group of workers came in behind the Sister carrying a hospital bed and other hospital equipment. “Where to, Sister?” asked a burly man who trailed the group carrying a clipboard.
“Megan,” the Sister asked, “can you show these gentlemen to your father’s office?”
“Yeah, this way.”
“Young ladies do not say ‘yeah,’ Miss Stone. They say ‘yes.’ ” I can see, the Sister thought to herself, that I have a lot of work to do here.
For her part, Megan just shrugged and led the men upstairs.
***
Glio leaped a metaphorical chasm. Until this point in his short life, he had been singularly occupied with the internal destruction of Jared’s brain. Of course, Glio didn’t think of it as destruction. He was merely fulfilling his preordained purpose in the world. He had no more choice in the matter than does the tide in the ocean. Had Glio stopped to consider the arguments for and against free will, he would have come down heavily on the side of determinism.
But things were changing. Having exhausted the most interesting of Jared’s memories, having sampled and moved on from Jared’s motor skills, having pulled back the curtain hiding the deepest darkest secrets of Jared Stone’s brain, Glio needed something different. He needed to see the world beyond.
His first foray came largely by accident. While Jared and Deirdre sat in the offices of Morrison, Murphy, and O’Connor, a well-heeled Portland law firm, Glio, reaching out and exploring the places he’d never been, ambled his way from Jared’s frontal lobe, to his parietal lobe, to the temporal lobe, down the auditory nerve, winding a long tendril around the cochlea, and all the way to Jared’s eardrum. Glio was surprised to find himself actively listening to conversations in real time. It was fascinating.
“I’m sorry, Deirdre,” an older male voice was saying, “this contract you signed is airtight. And even if we do challenge it, the network attorneys will use a scorched-earth approach to push us back.”
“I’m sorry, Dan, I don’t know what that means.” It was a woman’s voice that Glio immediately recognized as Deirdre’s.
How strange, he thought, to hear memories as they are being made. Glio was glad for Deirdre’s question as he didn’t know what the lawyer meant by “scorched-earth,” either. He wondered, if Deirdre hadn’t asked, could he have asked? Could Glio have found a way to talk to this lawyer? Would it have been any different from Jared talking to the lawyer?
“It means they’ll force you to spend so much money that you’ll be bankrupt before you even get to settlement talks.”
“What if we go rogue?”
“I’m sorry?”
“What if we just leave the house and don’t come back?”
“I can’t advise that, Deirdre. You won’t get any money, and they’ll sue you into oblivion. I’m also not sure Jared can handle that.”
Glio sensed that everyone in the room was looking at him, or rather looking at Jared, though he was no longer sure he could tell the difference between the two. Feeling self-conscious, another entirely new experience, Glio retreated from Jared’s ear and made his way back to safer ground.
Emboldened and excited by the experience, he planned his next foray into the world outside. He wanted to see.
***
Jackie
I have to go soon, Max, my parents are going to be here any minute.
Max
Ok, Solnyshko, you will use new phone for more footage tonight?
Jackie
Definitely.
Deirdre had promised to buy Jackie a new iPhone before picking her up from school and to help her sneak it into the house.
Max
This is good. Do zavtra …
Jackie
And to you, Max.
When Jackie exited the school, her parents were already waiting for her in the parking lot.
“How’d it go at the lawyers?” she asked as she slid into the backseat.
“Not so good, honey,” Deirdre said. “I’m afraid we’re stuck with this for now.”
Jackie just nodded.
“But here.” Her mother handed her a bag from the Apple Store.
“Is it all set up?”
“Yep!”