The Visionaries

34

The next day, I received a letter. It was from Dr. Miller. 

“Meet me at the conference room with the rest of your friends.” he had written. It was annoying. I turn to see Duane still sleeping in our shared bed. Charlie was asleep in the bed next to us. Patrick was knocked out on the sofa bed. I turned on the TV. It was a news network and it was showing people holding signs, with pictures of their loved ones and words like, “Missing. Dead. Taken. Find them.” 

My heart ached for them. I can’t imagine the pain they must feel, like the pain I'm feeling now. The pain of having to have lost everyone you loved. Of not knowing where they are at. I sigh. Of course, I know that pain. I literally have been through that. After Duane wakes up, I let him know about it along with the others. 

“I wonder what he wants this time.” Duane said. 

“I don’t know but I do know he’s getting cussed out if he tries to pull some white savior shit on us.” Bree said. 

“I hope not. He knows what we did to Michael.” Dany said. 

We left to the room and there he was, sitting at the end. He was wearing all black. Lana. He must of found out. There was some coffee and various pastries in the center. We sat down. 

"I'm glad you're all here." He said. "I wish this was a better day to spill this out but Lana would of wanted it." 

"What did you want to say?" I ask. 

"The technology that Michael used to alter Duane's body composition was the work of your mother and I." He said. "Your mother was a biomedical engineer. She was brilliant. Its a shame..." he looks like he's about to cry. 

"Cry if you need too." I say. "You knew her better than me, anyway." 

"We wanted to help those who were sick or injured with our technologies. Your mother had invented a new synthetic skin that was resistant to scratches, burns, bruises, and cuts. It would heal and meld right into the person's natural skin. I had invented a type of bone filler that would heal broken bones rapidly and wouldn't affect the production of blood cells. But he...Michael stole it."

"How?" Dany asks. 

"He met Alma's mother, my wife, when we were doing an internship in college." He said. "She fell head over heels with him. He convinced her to drop out and marry him. She finished school and the day after graduation, married him. She and I had been college sweethearts." 

"That still doesn't answer our question." Aaron narrowed his eyes at him. "Get to the point."

"He used our senior project as an idea for supersoldiers. He claimed he wanted to spare military casualties via upgrading our soldiers but thats not really what he wanted. I let him do it.They loved it. After that, they took our funding away, failed us and took our degree with the threat of death. But now they're all dead so here I am." He said. 

"So you feel guilty about this?" Duane asked. "We know its not your fault anyway. We didn't suspect it. We just didn't appreciate you trying to preach stuff that never worked for us." 

"I do. And I feel like I should of fought harder."

"Look, Miller. We know you're not guilty, like Duane said. Neither was my mother but honestly we're not gonna coddle you for that. You need to put your money where your mouth is and do something." I say. 

Dr. Miller nods. He wipes his eyes. "Your mother was trying to bring down Michael. That's why she left you. And I wanted to let you know that she wanted to be buried back in your homeland." My mother. My own eyes water and my lips tremble. I should bury her besides Taati. 

"How was she?" I ask. 

"She was beautiful. She loved strawberry shortcake, she loved to dance in the living room with me, and she was stubborn. But I loved her..." he wipes his eyes. He takes out a bag with three rings. One was a beautiful gold band with a square cut giant diamond in the center. The other was another diamond and gold ring with two smaller stones in the sides. The last was a plain rose gold band with a heart engraved in front and a date engraved inside. 

"Her engagement ring to Michael. Her wedding ring to Michael. Her wedding ring to me." He said. "You deserve them more than I do. You can keep them, pawn them off, wear them, whatever you'd like." 

"Thank you." I say. We take pastries and leave. I don't say much as we return to the room. I sit in the desk and stare at the rings. The diamond ones are probably worth a lot of money. When I see those rings, I see Michael's face, my dead mother, and hear my own wails. 

I'm selling the diamonds. I'm keeping the rose gold one. I don't like Miller but this is one of the few things I have of her. Duane looks at me. 

"You okay?" He said. I look up in tears. 

"No." I say. "I want to go back home."

"The house you lived in?" He asked. 

"Well, I need to at some point if they didn't destroy it. But I want to bury my mother in our homeland."

Duane looked at me. "Okay, we can do that. But how are we going to get on a plane?"

"You know we've never talked about post war plans. Not that we had time." I say. I go sit in the bed. "I don't want to return to the States once I leave. But with the baby, it seems like that will have to-"

"To be fair, I don't think I have anything holding me here either. I mean there's my dad and sister but I think they've learned to live without me." He said sadly. 

"I doubt that, Duane. They missed you. They looked for you." I grab his hand. We sit there quietly.