Disclaimer:
These characters aren't mine. Well, some of them are. But the important ones
are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm
not making any money out of this . . . . Blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.
"Are we there yet?" Miss Parker whines,
shifting uneasily in her seat.
"We're closer than we were when Imani asked me
that exact same question ten minutes ago.
But no. We're not there yet,
Honey. Why don't you try to get some
sleep," Jarod suggests, trying hard to keep his patience with his two
passengers.
"I'm hot, Jarod. My back hurts. My ankles
are swollen. I'm hungry and I have to go to the bathroom," she complains.
"We just stopped 45 minutes ago for lunch. Why didn't you use the bathroom there?"
"I did go," she snaps. "And I have to go again. Would it be too much trouble to stop the
car? You act like I'm doing this on
purpose or something." She crosses
her arms across her chest and cuts her eyes at him.
"Sorry," he says calmly, trying to soothe
his cranky wife. "I'll pull over
at the next exit. I should probably get
some gas anyway," he says, knowing good and well that they have almost a
full tank.
"Oh, you're just too good to me," she
mumbles sarcastically, starting to get a little irritated with him.
They get to the next exit and find a gas
station. She goes around back to the
bathroom and he starts to pump a little gas into the car that they didn't
really need.
"Daddy, is Mommy okay?" Imani asks, poking
her head through the window.
"She's fine, Princess. Just a little cranky. And I guess she thought I wasn't being very
nice to her," he admits.
"Did you pologize? She always makes me say I'm sorry when I'm naughty."
"You mean 'apologize'? Yeah, I told her I was sorry. But she's still kind of mad at me,"
Jarod sighs. The gas meter slows down,
signalling the tank is full. He returns
the hose to the stand and then replaces the gas cap just as Miss Parker starts
walking back towards the car.
"Well maybe you should get her a surprise. Surprises always make me happy," Imani
smiles.
"That's a good idea," he admits, returning
her smile.
"What's a good idea?" Miss Parker asks,
overhearing the end of their conversation.
"Oh nothing," he says, winking at
Imani. "I'm just going to go
inside and pay for this gas. I'll be
right back."
He jogs into the store and comes back a few minutes
later with his hands behind his back, smiling like the cat who just swallowed
the canary.
"What took you so long? We need to get moving again," she
orders.
"Here," he says, giving her the package he
was trying to conceal. "I got this
for you."
She opens the bag and almost cries at his
thoughtfulness. It was a pint of her
favorite ice cream.
"I thought you could probably use a little
snack. It should cool you off a
bit. And keep your mouth busy so you
can't yell at me anymore," he says lightly, trying to make her laugh.
"I'm sorry, Honey," she says getting some
tears in her eyes. "I've been
awful to you this trip."
"Hey, I understand you're uncomfortable. I'll try to get us there as quickly as
possible," he promises, flashing her a smile before leaning over for a
quick kiss.
She digs into the ice cream happily as he directs
the car back to the highway. After a
few quiet hours, they finally see their destination. They pull into the driveway and the person sitting on the porch
rises from her seat, anxiously awaiting their arrival. Imani is the first one out the car and run
towards her.
"Granny!" she squeals. "I missed you so much." She jumps up into Miss Dee's waiting arms
and hugs her tightly. Jarod is right
behind her.
"Hey, Miss Dee," he says, leaning over to
kiss her cheek. He pulls Imani out of
her arms so that he could give her a hug.
"I hope you have plenty of room for us here. I sold the other house because it didn't
seem to make much sense to keep it for occassional visits."
"Of course I have room. There's always room for family, Jarod,"
Miss Dee smiles. "Now where's Tori?"
she asks, looking around for Miss Parker.
"I'm right here, Miss Dee," she says,
coming from the car, trying to straighten out her messy clothes and hair. "I'm such a mess. I didn't realize how difficult it would be
to travel with a child."
"That doesn't matter. Come give me a hug anyway," Miss Dee says, pulling Miss
Parker into her embrace before she leads them all into the house to get
settled.
Before they could even get everything into the
house, Imani takes off for the backyard, remembering just where she had hidden
all of her toys the last time she was there.
The adults want to keep an eye on the little girl, so they all take
their lemonade out to the back porch.
Miss Parker is grateful that it's screened in and has it's own ceiling
fan. The weather in South Carolina was
unbearably hot that time of year.
"Are you alright, Tori? You look a little flushed," Miss Dee
comments.
"That's actually part of the reason why we're
here. We have something to tell
you," Jarod smiles.
"Good news, I hope," Miss Dee smiles.
"Very good news," Miss Parker adds. "But first we need to ask you
something. About Imani."
"What about her?"
"Imani is . . . special. She has the way of knowing things. And she can see things that no one else can
see. Where does she get that gift
from? From her mother? From you?" Miss Parker asks gently.
"That's a long story, Dear. And I don't even know where to start,"
Miss Dee sighs. "But maybe I can
start at that day when your mother came here to tell me pretty much the same
thing you've come to tell me," she says, placing a hand on Miss Parker's flat
stomach.
"My mother?
You knew my mother?" Miss Parker cries, in complete shock at this
turn of events. She looks down at the
hand still on her stomach and places her own on top of it.
"I knew your mother all her life,
Victoria," Miss Dee explains.
"How far along are you?"
"Almost three months. How did you know about the baby?
I'm not even showing yet."
"I just knew," Miss Dee smiles.
"That's how Imani is. She just 'knows' things.
Things that you don't see how a little girl can even understand. So I take it she gets it from you,"
Miss Parker guesses.
"We don't really know what 'it' is. But yes.
I guess she gets it from me.
Both Tracee and Sharisse had 'it' as well, but it seems to be more
active in Imani."
"What does any of this have to do with my
mother?" Miss Parker asks, her voice cracking with the threat of tears.
"It was a day much like today. I was sitting out on the porch, watching the
children play in the street. Tracee and
Hampton Jr. were old enough to be out on their own. Sharisse always wanted to play with them, but, she was just a
baby. I would sit out on the porch with
her and let her watch the older kids.
That day when your mother came was the first time I'd seen her in over
15 years. My mother was her nanny. A live in nanny, so I grew up in that house
with your mom. I was about 10 years
older than her, so she would try to tag along behind me as best as she
could. But as she got older, we got
closer. I was someone she could talk
to. Confide in. Share her deepest secrets with.
"One day her father took us for a ride. I might have been 12 and she was just a
toddler. He didn't want my mother or
your grandmother to know about the trip, so he took me along to watch out for
her. We ended up at this huge place
that looked like a castle. We never
knew where he worked, so we would always make up stories about him being a mad
scientist working for this secret organization. We didn't know how close to the truth we were.
"When we got to the place, he left us in this
room with glass all around. There was
plenty for Catherine to play with, so she wasn't scared. And I never really had a reason not to trust
your grandfather. He scared me
sometimes, but he was always nice enough.
About an hour later, two sets of doctors come in and start examining
us. Poking us and prodding us. Taking a little blood and giving us a couple
of shots."
"Shots? What kind of shots?" Jarod wants
to know.
"I don't know," Miss Dee tells him. "As far as I know, they didn't even do
anything. When I went to visit my
cousins a little later, they were all talking about getting innoculations and
shots. So I just assumed that's what
they did for Catherine and I. But
sometimes I think it was a lot more than that.
Afterwards, he paid a lot more attention to both of us. He played these 'games' with us. He said that he just wanted to see how vivid
our imagination was."
"I can't believe this," Jarod whispers.
"What are you thinking, Jarod?" Miss
Parker asks.
"It sounds like Miss Dee and your mother were
the start of it all. Honey, I think
your grandfather was attempting to use them as his first subjects in the
Pretender project. But from what I can
tell, Miss Dee ended up with a heightened sense of insight instead of the
ability to pretend. That 'sense' was
passed down to all the girls in the family.
The same thing probably happened with your mother and you."
"Jarod, are you saying that I have this same
ability as Imani and Miss Dee? I don't
see dead people, Honey. I don't just
'know' things," Miss Parker insists.
"Neither did I at first. Or your mother for that matter. Or even Tracee or Sharisse. Not until we started having children," Miss
Dee explains. She sees that Miss Parker
is trying to absorb all what she's telling her and decides to tell her the rest
of the story.
"That day your mother came to visit me, she had
you with her, Victoria. You were about
Imani's age. Maybe a little
older," she continues. "She
came here to introduce me to her little girl.
She brought you here, that day."
"I don't remember you. Or ever being here," Miss Parker
cries. "But then, there's a lot I
don't remember about my past. So much
that I never knew that I'm just now finding out. It doesn't surprise me."
"Well, you were so young. And your mother didn't stay long. She came to bring me two special gifts. A couple of things she needed guarding and
didn't trust anyone else to do so. Like
I said before, I'd known your mother all her life. And I knew that something was bothering her. But all she would tell me is that her
husband was starting something that terrified her. And she had to do something before things went too far."
"Did she tell you what my father was
planning?" Miss Parker asks, not sure she wants to know the answer.
"Something with children. Catherine didn't go into details, but she
said that she knew of a little boy who needed a home. And she begged me to take him in. Otherwise, he'd have to go back to that place. I was a little hesitant at first, since
Sharisse was still just a baby. But he
was a little older. I guess the two of
you were the same age, Victoria.
Anyway, once I saw him, I couldn't resist. I didn't know what they were going to do to him, but your mother
seemed adamant that he didn't go back there.
So, I agreed to take him. And
that's how Billy came to live with us."
"Willie was one of the first children your
mother rescued," Jarod realizes.
"He must be the last red file.
I never would have guessed."
"Jarod, I don't even know what to think
anymore. Everything that I know about
the past is a lie," she sighs before turning her attention back to Miss
Dee.
"You said my mother had two things for you that
day," Miss Parker reminds her, trying to change the subject. It was just all too much to handle just
then. She needed some time to think it
all over.
"I'll have to get it. Stay right here."
The woman goes in the house and rumbles around up in the attic for a few
minutes. Just when Jarod and Miss
Parker started to wonder where she'd gotten off to, she reappear.
"Your mother knew this day would come. And she gave this to me, making me promise
that when the time was right, I'd make sure to give it to you. Something's telling me the time is
right."
Miss Parker extends a shaky hand towards Miss Dee
and waits expectantly for the mysterious gift. The cold object falling into her hand shocks her and she
realizes that she had her eyes closed the whole time. She timidly opens her eyes, almost afraid of what she'll see in
her hands.
"Jarod," she gasps, when she finally sees
what the object. "Look. It's one of the medallions."
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