Lost and Found
This is Chapter 25 of The Inheritance, a serial fiction novel on FITK
Monday evening, July 20th, 2020, Seattle
After dinner, Mareka went out to sit on her ‘throne’, the big rock in the backyard. She had begun conjuring patterns in the grass with her new-found power. After a few minutes of this she started to feel the same tingling that she had experienced at the Ice Cave in Decorah. She also began to hear the music that had accompanied her earlier vision. Then things really began to change: the sky; the air; the earth; all of it swirling in a melange of sound and light. Everything was glorious.
Instead of Mareka looking for a portal, the portal had found Mareka.
In the kitchen, Sean was cleaning up and Mary was going through her social media contacts on her iPad when Jo walked in.
“Hey,” said Jo through a half-smile, “Sup?”
“Looks as if we’re trending again,” said Mary, “Trouble seems to find us. Have you been following the Tweet storms?”
“My lawyer tipped me off when I was signing the papers for my mother’s estate.”
“Oh, Jo, I’m sorry, I forgot about your mother,” said Mary, “My condolences on your loss.”
“She’s free of her demons now,” said Jo, “What is the latest, besides me an Sean being a couple, and where did that come from?”
“Barbara Merrit. An independent researcher. She’s got the idea that the three of us are responsible for the death of her brother and she is trying to portray as an immoral troika of killers, going all the way back to Billygate,” said Sean, “She’s evidently got some internet evangelist preacher in Arizona in on it too.”
“Some of the guys from my old ADR team are looking into her connection with the guy in Arizona,” said Mary, “It looks as if there are some other players in the game.”
“Mary, has anyone in the media mentioned Mareka?” asked Sean.
“Not yet,” said Mary.
“By the way, where is she?” asked Jo, “I missed her… ”
“She was wondering when you’d be back.” said Mary.
The three of them went out on to the patio.
“Hey Kiddo, Jo’s here,” shouted Sean.
There was no response, and no sign of Mareka either.
“Mareka, Mareka,” Sean went out into the backyard; his worst fears began to creep into his consciousness, “Where are you, Kiddo?”
“Wait a minute, Sean,” said Mary, “She’s here, she’s very close, I can sense her.”
The grass blades in the lawn were swirling in large fractal patterns, creating an arc coming from the glacial erratic. Mary placed her hand on the large stone.
“Mareka, baby girl, come to mama, come home… ”
William Preston at KWAH had just finished editing the updated report on Barbara Merrit when his assistant came over.
“You’d better check this out… ” he said, pointing to a crawl on Preston’s monitor:
Andrew Stevenson, controversial internet preacher, found dead in Arizona.“Okay… how do we tie this in to the Merrit story?” said the assistant.
“Tack it on to the end, without comment, until we know more we’ll let the viewer’s imagination decide what the link is.”
Barbara Merrit had just posted a picture of Sean and Mary and the woman who DuPage said was Sean’s grandmother Emily to her Twitter feed.
Who is the mystery woman with Sean Carroll and Mary Robinson, and where has she gone? Another death?
Mareka had been swept up in a vortex of raw sensation. She was frightened, but fascinated. She wanted to go deeper into the glorious chaos but, in the back of her mind, a voice kept repeating “… come home, come home… ”
And then, suddenly, there she was—out of the mælstrom and standing on the patio with Sean and Mary and Jo.
She had wet herself.
“Come on, girl, I’ll get you cleaned up,” said Mary.
“Welcome back,” said Jo, “I missed you.”
Next chapter: Mystery Woman
