ode to life | cameron dallas

Chapter 50 (2077)

Roughly 50 years later

July 2077

Dear journal,

Happy 91st birthday, Ariel Vi-Dallas. I can hear heaven celebrating all the way from here, which must be a good sign since I just went through four hearing aids in the past month.

Was that funny? I thought it was funny. In case you're wondering, I still obtain my charm and wit throughout these years. My grandchildren would beg to differ, but they're all warped up in the 27th century, so what do they know?

I just spent the last forty minutes reading through my journal entries back when we were 29. I don't think I ever showed you any of them, which was probably for the best because you would have laughed at my face of how hung up I was over you.

Oh, you would have never guessed how I found this journal, by the way. My wife, Nicole, was cleaning up the attic since our daughter, Chessey, is moving into our house with her two kids. She found it amongst all my souvenirs of when I was an actor, along with my Emmy awards and old movie scripts. How ironic!

I can feel you eye-boggling me down from heaven, and yes, it is that Nicole. My editor back when I wrote Ode to Life. You're probably leaking of utter happiness right now with that snarky I-told-you-so grin, and I'll let you have it. You were right. Nicole is amazing.

We've been married for fifty years now, a decade after you passed. We have three children, Chessey, Donovan and Ariel. (It was Nicole's idea to name the last one). Chessey is married and has two kids, Arnold and Maya. Donovan is divorced and has three kids, Kelly, Farah and Matthew. Ariel is in college right now and is majoring in business, and she's in a pretty committed relationship. I know what you're thinking, how can I, Cameron Dallas, possibly be father/grandfather of over a dozen kids. The answer? (I don't even know). Holidays and birthdays get pretty crazy down here.

What you should really know about is Camille. God, Ariel, if only you could see what a beautiful, gracious, intelligent and successful woman she became. She's forty with a husband and twins, Melly and Marcey. She graduated first in her high school class and went straight to med school. Sounds a lot like someone we know, huh? Unfortunately med school didn't work out, and she switched her major about four or five times. She even tried art! (I'm convinced your spirit is partially living through our daughter) But now, she is CEO of an international organization called "A.Vi", a billion dollar foundation targeted to globally stop drinking and driving.

She took the organization after her father retired from his presidency spot, about fifteen years ago. Yes, I made an entire foundation in dedication toward you. You told me to change the world, and partially, I believe I did in a way.

Throughout these last sixty years, our organization has funded over 2.5 million families who have suffered the loss of a loved one who has died in a drunken car incident. I believe A.Vi has also spread awareness, too. Statistics show that ever since the foundation was built in 2027, the amount of car accidents from driving under the influence has dropped impressively 63%. I'm proud of that.

What else have you missed? Jack and Jack finally got married together before they both died of old age a few years ago. I remember them telling me that sometimes they switched names for the hell of it and Johnson would be Gilinsky and Gilinsky, Johnson since legally, it was technically correct. They had about six kids together from a surrogate mother. I still keep in touch with the Gilinsky-Johnson family.

Carter and Maggie married, too. They never had kids together but they sure as hell ran perhaps the most successful clothing industry ever created. They were multimillionaires before Carter was murdered in '44 by some of his very own business partners. It was the biggest news of the entire decade. A couple years later, Maggie had committed suicide, and now their company is owned by some random, who doesn't run half the business as successful as Carter and Maggie did.