He never did explain why he wasn’t able to come down to visit earlier this week, just that he had a doctor’s appointment.
“Everything okay?” I’d asked him on the phone on Monday.
“Sure. Everything’s fine.”
But still, over the last few days I found myself worrying about him and decided that next week I’m going to fly up to check on him.
I replace his photo and straighten it.
Fionna grabs her purse. “So I’ve been curious about something, Mr. Wray.”
“Yes?”
“What nuts are you eating today?”
“Almond Joy. In fact…” He digs through his knapsack and pulls out a heaping pile of candy bars. “I bought some for everyone. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
“Hmm. I was saving these for later today, but I suppose we can break them out now.” She goes to her purse and offers us a bag of those heart-shaped candies with little sayings on them.
“Are those the ones that taste like chalk?” Donnie asks.
“I don’t know, I…”
The kids all go for the Almond Joys instead. Charlene and I take some of Fionna’s candies so her feelings won’t be hurt.
It only takes me a few bites to discover Donnie is right.
They do taste like chalk.
Or at least what I imagine chalk would taste like.
We head outside.
Fionna, Xavier, and the kids pile into her minivan while Charlene and I head to the Aston Martin.
“How about I do some stories on the way,” I hear Xavier offer the kids as he climbs in.
“I thought there were rules?” Mandie sounds concerned. “That you have to wait until bedtime?”
“Once in a while it’s okay to break the rules. Right, Fionna?”
“Once in a while.”
“I’ll remind you of that, Mom,” Donnie says, his mouth full of Almond Joy candy bars.
“Quiet now. Don’t eat with food in your mouth.”
Then the door closes, Charlene and I hop into the DB9, and we all take off for Lovelock, Nevada.
“So what’s the big surprise?” Charlene asks me as I pull out of town. “Where are we going?”
“Can’t tell you.”
“Oh. Let me guess: or else it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
“See, we are operating on exactly the same wavelength.”
We spend some time brainstorming a new finale for our show when it opens up again next month. “Everything Xavier has proposed to me so far,” I tell her, “has to do with me being set on fire.”
“Imagine that. Maybe I could get set on fire this time?”
“We’ll have to see once your leg recovers.”
As our conversation cycles around the events of the last week, I think of my talk with Dr. Turnisen, something I haven’t told my friends about.
On Monday morning he’d mentioned the twenty million dollars that was going to go toward the progeria research, but since the drone never got delivered, he never received his payment from the drug cartel.
Now while I’m in the car with Charlene, I think about Tim and the possible breakthroughs in transdifferentiation research.
I make a decision to help move things forward.
Yeah, I have some money at my disposal, but a donation of that size would definitely put a crimp in things for a while.
Well, once in a while, crimps like that can be a good thing.
Charlene turns to me. “I’ve been thinking about the stuff we were talking about earlier this week — strong AI, machines making decisions like humans do, all of that. What makes humans different from machines: Consciousness? Self-awareness? Emotional intelligence? Can machines ever be taught to love? How to program them to be moral — it’s a lot to, well… consider.”
“They’re not easy questions.”
“Well,” she says, “to create truly ‘human machines,’ they’d need to be able to worship or rebel against their creators.”
“You mean, against us.”
“Yes.”
“But what kind of a creator would ever be bold enough to give his creation free will and the opportunity to kill him off if they chose to?”
“The real one,” she says softly.
We arrive in Lovelock two hours before dusk.
The town capitalizes on its name and has become known as a place where you snap a lock on a never-ending chain in the center of town as a symbol of locking your love to someone.
Lovelock.
Lock your love.
Good for tourism.
But today I have something better in mind. When we arrive at Altitude Escapades, they have our hot air balloon waiting for us. A big enough basket for the whole crew, just like I ordered.
I arranged a special takeoff ceremony with our pilot. It took some convincing, but the management finally went for the idea when I offered to buy them two new balloons if there was any damage to this one.
But first, before we go anywhere, I need to give Charlene her present.
“I’ve got something for you.” I move my hands in a circle around her neck, and when I pull them away a necklace appears.
“How did you do that?” Mandie gasps.
“Magic,” I tell her.
It’s a leather cross necklace that I picked up for less than ten dollars at one of the souvenir shops on the Strip. I have a feeling Charlene doesn’t care one bit about the cost.
“It reminds me of the necklace I left in the Philippines.”
“I was hoping it would.”
“This necklace is going to be one of the most special things I own.”
“Just one of the most special things?”
“You never know. Someday someone might give me a ring that ends up being even more special.”
“A ring?”
“You never know.”
“The right piece of jewelry can speak volumes.”
“Yes, it can.”
After we’re all in the basket, I give Xav a nod, snap my fingers, and the ropes holding the balloon down burst into flames.
Donnie gives me an approving nod. “Sweet.”
“Xavier’s idea.”
Everyone looks his way, and he gives us a sly half smile. “Fire,” he says. “The only thing better would have been an explosion.”
I’m not so sure about that.
The ropes burn away, but one line is still holding us down. The pilot nods to me and I’m about to untie it when Xavier stops me. “Do it with a flourish, bro. Why not? Come on, for the kids.”
I object that I’m not a flourisher, that he already knows that, but he presses me and so do Fionna and the children.
Everyone is waiting.
“Oh, alright.” I wave my hand above the rope, doing my best imitation of a magician doing a flourish. “I hope that satisfies you all.”
“Got it.” Lonnie winks at Xavier.
“Got what?”
He holds up his phone. “The video. YouTube, here we come.”
Great.
As he taps at his phone, I undo the rope, Charlene takes my hand, the pilot blasts the burner, and we take off on our twilight flight.
What better place to watch the sunset than from the ceiling of the world?
I draw Charlene close and kiss her.
Sometimes you look before you leap.
Sometimes you just gotta take the plunge.
Part X
Aspera
Hayden Pennet stepped off the bus, carrying the one suitcase she’d brought with her from Ohio.
Eighteen years old. She’d finally done it, finally left home.
She was going to be a model.
A man approached her and introduced himself as Martin Yearling from the Aspera Modeling Agency. “I’m thrilled to see you, Hayden. You’re even more lovely in person than you are in your audition video.”