Authors: M.A. KROPF
One week and many cries later, I received a call from Max. The Seniors were coming in that night and we would be meeting at his house.
“How are you, Megan? Since our talk?”
“I’m okay. It’s been a lot to think about this week.”
“Yes,” I could hear sadness in his voice. “I’m sorry about that. There really was no easy way to tell you.”
“Agreed, it’s okay. Can we make the meeting time late tonight so I can make it look like I’m going to work?”
“Sure, eleven-thirty?”
“Great.”
“Oh, and by the way, how was your birthday?”
I chuckled. Of course he remembered. “It was great. Thanks.”
“Good.” There was a pause. “Nicholai is asking if we can meet with him beforehand, you know, because of Tomas. Can you meet this afternoon with Aaron, Nicholai, and me?”
“Okay. Can we meet around noon so I have time to drop off the girls and get a few errands done?”
“I’m sure that’s fine. They all got in last night and are each going their separate ways today. I’m sure he can get away.”
“Where?”
“We’ll meet at my house.” He gave me the address, and I finished getting the girls ready for school. Dropping them off was always so bittersweet. I just wanted to spend every minute with them. I had not told them about my newly discovered lineage. No sense upsetting them before I had a chance to speak with my parents.
After running my errands, I drove to the address Max had given me. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I got the message from both Aaron and Max that Nicholai was the one who could be trusted. What was this Nicholai going to be like… what would he think of me?
I pulled up to Max’s house and stopped in front. It took me a second to get my bearings and realize that I was in the Diamond Heights area. I looked up and down the street, admiring the very large, expensive houses. I had been so preoccupied with my own thoughts that I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was going, and certainly not to where I ended up.
I parked on the street and looked at the entrance in front of me. There was an arched iron gate bridging two brick walls that encircled the enormous property. Looking through the gate, I saw a long cobblestone driveway with a fountain in the middle. At the end of the driveway was a grand house with peaked roofs and brick facing laid in curved designs, almost mirroring the landscaping behind it.
As I walked nearer the gate, I saw ivy encircling the windows, climbing the exterior walls and arching over the eight-foot double doors, taking over the building. Upon reaching the gate, I saw a small speaker box with a call button. Pressing the button, I waited.
“Hello?” said a friendly, but unfamiliar female voice.
“Um, hello. This is Megan…” then I heard a buzzer and the gates separated and swung inward.
I walked up the driveway, and just as I was about to knock, the doors parted and opened. A tall, strikingly beautiful woman with salt and pepper hair stepped through the open doors. She was dressed impeccably in pressed slacks and a white button-up shirt with a silk scarf loosely tied around her neck. She flashed a smile that immediately made me realize that I had been holding my breath. I exhaled… I felt welcome.
She looked as if she were about to reach out and hug me but restrained herself and extended her hand to shake mine. “You must be Megan. My name is Vivian, Max’s wife. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” So, he told her about meeting me again. She knew about Aurators? For a split second I contemplated telling Luke. Only for a second.
“Yes, hello. It’s very nice to meet you,” I said. Wow, what a brilliantly white aura. Her warmth and the feeling I got just standing next to her were almost intoxicating.
She motioned for me to follow her into the house. As we walked in, my eyes were immediately drawn toward the vaulted two-story ceiling, where a painted mural was lit by several lights. I looked down the walls to the windows that curved around a winding staircase made of marble. Again I had to remind myself to breathe.
The wooden floor looked newly refinished, with an inlay of different colored woods designed in the shape of a star directly below the painting.
She motioned for me to follow, and we walked into a room directly off the entry. As I walked through the doors, my senses were hit with the scent of old books and a musty hint of mothballs. I chuckled at this. The walls were floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books. Too many and too far away to see titles. The rest of the room mirrored Max’s office at the university. A large wooden desk with papers piled high and stacks of magazines and other periodicals on the floor. There were four leather chairs, no couch.
Standing in the middle of the room were Max and Aaron, both of whom came over to greet me. Max first with a big hug that felt more like making amends than saying hello. Aaron and I shook hands and then quickly parted… pleasant enough.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone else moving toward me. I turned and met eyes with another man, taller than average height and dark curly hair, deep thoughtful brown eyes and an olive complexion. His aura was a brilliant red and much larger than either Max’s or Aaron’s. I wondered how mine compared. He was a very attractive man, maybe in his sixties.
“Megan,” Max interjected with a bright smile on his face, “may I introduce you to Nicholai.”
He stopped just before me and took a deep breath and exhaled. Then with the most beautiful accent that would melt any woman’s heart, Nicholai said, “I’ve waited forty-two years to meet you. You look just like your mother… beautiful.”
My heart began to race. “My mother?” I looked at Max who nodded at me. Looking back toward Nicholai, “You knew my mother?”
He reached his hand up toward my face but then lowered it, changing his mind. “She was my sister-in-law.”
I looked back and forth between the men, searching for some missing piece and breathing faster. “Your sister-in-law? She was married to your brother?” Everyone was silent, as if waiting for me to catch up. “You’re my uncle?”
He smiled, “Yes.”
The room was spinning, coming and going, and as I reached out in front of me, I felt several hands catch me. As they lowered me to the floor, I focused in on the face in front of me. “Give me a minute,” I barely got out.
Max and Aaron helped me by raising my feet for a moment. Vivian appeared next to my head with a cold compress. I sat up slowly. “Uncle?” My voice sounded more irritated and demanding than I had intended it to be… but… so be it.
“Yes… Cos… I mean Megan.”
“What did you say?” I caught that he almost called me by another name.
“Cosette. That was the name your mother and father had picked out for you. It means
people’s victory
. Which is what… who you are.”
“They knew I was a girl and who I was?”
“Yes. Your grandfather and I saw the red aura around her abdomen, and when they found out through ultrasound and told us they were having a girl, we were astonished. Your father was not an Aurator, but apparently he carried the right gene for you and was chosen for a much higher purpose.”
I had another question but he said something that just didn’t seem right. “Ultrasound? I thought those weren’t mainstream until the seventies?”
He chuckled, “True, but there were used in the very early 1960s, and your dad pulled all the strings he could to get several until someone on the east coast was actually good enough that they were able to tell them the sex of the baby. But no, it was not widely used then. At first he was really disappointed. Dad and I thought he was hoping for a little Aurator of his own. Little did he know.” He smiled widely as both eyebrows climbed upward on his forehead.
I rolled my eyes and remembered my earlier question now, even more poignant. “He knew about you?” This surprised me. Apparently I’m the only one who keeps secrets from my family.
“Yes, our father spoke with us about who he was, why he would disappear sometimes, and who we might become. He spoke to us about privilege and our duty to do what is right. As young men, we paid very little attention to this. But then in my late twenties I completed my first purpose, and your father was devastated. He thought he was not to be chosen. But soon he met a woman whose beauty I have yet to see matched. That is, until you. They fell in love, married, and she got pregnant. As I said, your grandfather and I saw the red aura around her abdomen. When we heard from your parents that they were having a girl, we sat down to discuss who we thought this child was to be.” He walked around mimicking a proud father with his chest out, pretending to boast. “Your father felt on top of the world. He was a brilliant surgeon who was offered an incredible job opportunity in San Francisco and jumped at the chance.” His head lowered as he remembered this. “We took them to the airport and said good-bye. I didn’t realize that would be the last time I would see them alive.”
He looked up at me. “Until now. I see them… in you. If it weren’t for Max’s quick thinking, we would have lost you too. All these years, I’ve wanted to come see you, but I knew that it might put you in jeopardy if anyone followed me. I needed to be patient. You see, your mom and dad knew exactly who you were going to be and thought that they could better protect you outside of Greece.”
I was concentrating on taking slow deep breaths, trying to comprehend everything that was being said.
“Let’s everyone sit… on furniture… and continue our conversation.” Max said. It was at that moment I realized I was still sitting on the floor. I stood cautiously with Nicholai’s help, moved to a chair, and again Vivian was right there, this time with a cool drink.
When I was settled, I looked back at Nicholai. “Do you have children? Is my grandfather still alive? Do I have other family?”
He smiled at me and chuckled slightly. “Yes… no… yes.”
I motioned for more details. He continued, “Your grandfather had hoped to be able to meet you, but he died of a heart attack two years ago.”
Strange, I would have thought that with such extra… powers… we would be less prone to regular, run-of-the-mill ailments. But apparently, no.
He continued, “You have a lot of family in Greece, on the island of Kos. That is where you are from… well, your family.”
“And you?”
He shifted in his seat somewhat, “I live in Kos. I’m gay and have a partner. I knew it was important for me to have children so we got a surrogate and I was able to father two boys.”
“And are either of them… ?”
Smiling, with a somewhat playful look in his eyes, “What? Gay?”
I frowned at him, “No. Like you… an Aurator?”
Smiling wider, “Yes, one. Why?”
I stood and started pacing across the floor. “I don’t know. Maybe because two weeks ago I had a family that… while I never saw how I fit in, they were still my family. Now they’re not my family… at least not biologically. But I have another family who I
am
linked to biologically, but I’ve never met them. This is nuts. This stuff doesn’t really happen outside of movies!”
I sat back down, breathing fast and my eyes welled up. I’m tired of crying, I’m tired of feeling out of control. I asked, “Is this why you wanted to meet with me before the others?”
He reached over and placed his hand on my arm. “Yes. The others, while they knew you were coming, did not know that I already knew of you. This withholding of information on my part could have compromised my position as a Senior. Especially the part where we are related. I have had to hide the knowledge of you all these years.” He hung his head and stared at the floor. “How I wished that I could have kept you when we lost my brother.” Then looking at me, “I couldn’t compromise your safety.”
I could feel myself surrendering in exhaustion. “What now?”
“Now we meet with the others tonight,” Nicholai said.
“Okay.” I looked up at Aaron, “Did you know about this too?”
He shook his head, “Not until today. You’re not the only one confused here.”
“The others… if they don’t know we are related, where do they think I came from?”
He wrinkled his forehead, “Yes, that is going to be difficult to explain, but you need to make them believe that you don’t know anything about your birth parents or that you are adopted.”
That shouldn’t be hard, I thought, since I don’t know anything about them. “Why?” I asked.
Max and Nicholai looked at each other. Then Max spoke, “We believe that information is coming from someone inside the Aurators and being given to the Caduceus side. If they find out who your family is… they will try to kill them all.”
“Caduceus
side
?” This is the first time I’d heard the Caduceus used that way.
“Can I answer this?” Aaron finally spoke. Everyone nodded. “It’s my job, Megan, to know how the other side is organizing. For some time now, someone from our side has been organizing those who we fight against… the Caduceus. But they are organizing at an alarming rate. Just last week I learned that they had a meeting to discuss information regarding you. Right now they don’t know who you are, only that you exist. Since we were the only ones who knew about you, someone in our camp leaked information.”