July 29, 1996 [20]

"It would probably be foolish to try and change your mind again, wouldn't it?" Steven said as he loaded Martha's army duffel bag of clothes into the back of the Jeep parked in front of her childhood home.

"Who knows, Dad? Maybe twenty-third time's the charm," Martha teased, adding a backpack and CD binder. She unzipped the front pocket of the backpack and took out a handkerchief.

"Promise me you'll enroll next fall," he implored. "Or... maybe even this spring? I'm sure Berkeley would take you a semester late. Say the word and I'll handle all the paperwork."

"I cannot promise you that. But yes, eventually," she reassured. "As we've discussed, there's going to come a time when I don't have the freedom I have now, so I'm making the most of it while I can."

"I know. I know. It's just that you're so bright and I worry that..." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "But I've already made that argument enough."

Martha put her hands on his shoulders. "Everything's going to be alright." She could see it in his eyes. Beyond the usual torment he'd carried from raising an immortal, there was fear – for her future and her well being, but also that he wasn't living up to his responsibilities as a father.

He didn't deserve fear. He deserved peace. And she knew how to give it to him. "I know you're proud of me, Dad. Of my academics... my basketball... my gardening..."

"Oh yes. Your gardening has always amazed me – the carrots... And the turnips? Don't get me started on the turnips!"

"You've always been partial to the turnips," Martha agreed. "But what I'm trying to say is... In addition to all of that, you've raised... a happy daughter." His Adam's apple bobbed. "And you did it all on your own." He sniffled. "You did a magnificent job, Dad."

His face clenched as he reached out to hug her tightly. "You know, all I... ever wanted was for... you to... be happy," he choked out.

"I know. I know," she said, patting his back. They released one another and she offered him the handkerchief.

He wiped his eyes and blew his nose, then said, "Jeez, I don't know what's come over me."

Martha couldn't help but roll her eyes a little. My dad, crying... Imagine that.

James walked out of the garage carrying various camping supplies. Steven turned to him and said, "There he is! Someone, call the cops. That's the boy that's stealing my daughter!"

James played along. "Oh no, he caught us! We better make a run for it!"

Smiles broke across the men's faces as they broke their farce. Steven had a great deal of respect for James, in fact. And as with all things James, and now Martha, it was entirely by design...

He'd been a wunderkind growing up in Illinois, graduating high school early, acing the entrance exams, and then finishing college by eighteen. Along the way, he sold six patents on hybrid engine technology to six separate automotive companies, assuring himself financial independence for the rest of this life. And maybe give the clean energy industry a jump start...

He'd also struck up a correspondence with a bright young girl from Southern California. They were pen pals until Martha convinced her dad this new email thingy was legit, after which, they talked daily. James even flew out to visit a handful of times, making about as good an impression as a boy can make on a girl's father.

And now he was taking her away.

It was to be a gap year for Martha, traveling up the Pacific coast and into Canada with James, though of course they hadn't told her father the whole story. The whole story... Ha!

As James loaded the gear, Steven asked, "Did you find the butane torch?"

"I did, thanks."

"And the road flares?"

"Got those too."

"Great. They can really be a lifesaver. Well..." Steven slapped his hands together nervously. "Anything else you kids need?"

Martha and James shook their heads at one another and then Steven. He held out his hand. "Then young man, please take care of my daughter."

James shook his hand and said, "Mr Beckett."

"Steven."

"Permit me – Mr Beckett – because I take the safety of your daughter seriously," James said with a tone to match. "And I promise to do whatever needs to be done to keep her safe. But... you know better than I that Martha is profoundly capable."

"That's true," Steven agreed.

"She'll be taking care of me as much as I, her."

"Excellent point, James."

"That being said, I'd jump in front of a speeding train..."

Steven smiled and nodded his appreciation. Martha was enjoying the performance. If they were competing to see who could tell her father exactly what he wanted to hear, James had just tied the game.

But he wasn't done. "And Steven. I don't know how to say this, but... I never really had much of a relationship with my dad..."

Martha sighed. Really? As James continued to speak, she reached into the Jeep's glove box and pulled out a travel pack of kleenex.

"...and I hope you don't mind, but... for a while now, I've... kind of considered you as my dad."

Steven stared at James in shock. But Martha knew better. In 3... 2... 1... His face broke into tears as he embraced James. "Of course... I don't... mind..."

Martha walked to them just as they released and handed her father a kleenex.

Wiping his eyes, he said, "Oh, here I go again."

"Just let 'em fall," Martha said. "Because now I'm going to hug you goodbye. Love you, Dad." She hugged him and felt his tears on her shoulder as he squeezed her a little tighter than their normal goodbye. And Steven was right to, because this wasn't a normal life. Though exactly why, he was still unaware.

"Love you too, Marty. Okay, you better just go before I collapse into the fetal position," Steven joked.

"Sure thing," she said, tears crowding the corners of her eyes now as well, then climbed into the Jeep. As James pulled away, she looked back and waved to her father who waved back. James turned the corner and he was gone. Martha sniffled.

"Aw... Is Martha in her feelings?" he teased.

"Me? Are you kidding? 'I... kinda consider you my dad.' Where did that come from?"

"It was sincere! I do kinda consider him my dad. Granted, I'm much older than he is and have been since the day we met. But still..."

Martha stuck out her lower lip. "Poor widdle Jimmy never had a daddy..."

"You're lucky I'm so secure or else..." His voice began to waver comically. "...Your words might have been hurtful."

"Oh relax. I'm just messing with you... Just trying to keep the spark alive now that you've knocked me up."

"Don't worry," he said as he pulled onto the highway entrance ramp. "We've got so many sparks, I really should be wearing protective goggles!" As he accelerated, the canvas top of the Jeep flapped like a tent in a hurricane forcing them to shout over the noise. But it was their intention to feel every last inch of this life and the Jeep fit the bill. The road ahead would be rough and loud and they would embrace every bump and sound.

"Har, har," Martha deadpanned. "Seriously, will you still love me when I'm waddling around like a whale on cankles?"

"Shouldn't even have to dignify that with a response..."

"But you will anyway."

"...But I will anyway. Martha my love, any ideal body type is a construct of the human ego. It is entirely irrelevant to my love for and attraction to you. I want you to be happy and healthy. Whatever shape that presents is the perfect shape for you to be."

"Gee thanks, professor. Anything else?"

"Okay." He thought for a moment, then said, "As you gain weight, I will be reminded that it is for our child growing within you. That weight will represent the sacrifice you're making, the gift our child will be, and the infinite joy their birth will bring."

"Also nice... But strike two."

"Tough crowd! Alright, alright. I got this..." He switched lanes to go around a slow moving truck, then back again to let a street racer scream past. Finally, he appeared ready. "Martha... if one were to have asked me a lifetime ago, or ten lifetimes, or one hundred – I would have said, 'I've reached the end! I cannot possibly love this girl, or woman, or soul any more than I do in this moment.' And yet, here I sit, disproving each claim. For as the universe continues to expand beyond our comprehension, so to my love for you..." He felt for her hand and brought it to his lips. She smiled and felt her chest sparkle.

"Fair enough. You pass." She let him kiss her hand a second time before taking it back. "Speaking of the universe – or universes – I've been thinking about Dr Tanaka."

"Good Ol' Seamus?"

"Mm-hmm. So... he said that every time you die, you don't go on to a new universe, but directly back to the one you were just in. And then you create the new universe once your consciousness returns?"

"Right. Because the previous life has changed me, I'll make different decisions and poof! New universe."

"But then it's not just your first new decision – it must keep happening. Your next decision creates a new universe, then the decision after that..." Martha noticed the freeway signs ahead. "Like, we could take the 5 north and get there sooner or we could take the 101 along the coast which would take longer, but, you know... it would be along the coast. And so there are two universes just hanging there waiting for that decision?"

"More than two," James added.

"Yeah. Way more! Because you could choose the 101 and drive until we need gas or choose it then take the first exit after the split or just slam on your brakes in the middle of the freeway-"

"Will not be slamming on my brakes."

"Which I appreciate... But each choice creates a... a tree of infinite universes branching out, based on every micro-choice we could make thereafter."

"Maybe not infinite..."

"Fine. Sure. Like, your car's not going to suddenly turn into a luck dragon who will fly us to the Southern Oracle."

"Solid reference."

"Thanks. I guess every possible universe is created. And they're..." Martha suddenly thought of the global chaos and suffering she'd caused after their spy games in Hawaii. "They're all real – not just in theory or in our imagination – but they actually exist, superimposed over ours... Happening right next to us..."

"Everything okay?" James asked after a moment.

"Yeah, yeah. Just... feeling claustrophobic all of a sudden."

"No doubt. Because while we're creating universe tree after universe tree, so are all the other drivers." He motioned to the cars and trucks on the freeway. "And their passengers... and people at home... animals even... It helps if you forget about the concept of three dimensional space."

"How's that?"

"Well, where do the ba-zillions of universes go? How do they all fit?"

"It doesn't matter!" Martha concluded. "Because none of them, including ours, actually take up any space." Then, in her best Rod Serling, "'There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity.'"

"Do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do," James intoned as he merged onto the 101.

The plan wasn't actually to travel all the way to Canada as they'd told Steven. Instead, their destination was thirteen acres of land just west of the Mendocino National Forest in northern California. And it wouldn't be a gap year for Martha so much as a gap eight months, give or take, before everything would change forever.

The idea had formulated after they left Martha's apartment in Chicago for James' house on the lake in the previous life. She was thoroughly impressed that he'd built the isolated lake house on his own and fell in love with the idea of their own private Walden to build and share with their daughter or son.

And it certainly would be private. The property was thirty miles from the nearest town; five from the nearest neighbor.

Of course, they weren't stupid. Though they planned for a home birth, they would travel to James' residence in San Francisco as her due date approached. It was a modest two bedroom that would triple in value over the next ten years, close enough to a hospital in case something went wrong.

Presently, Martha placed her hand on her stomach. At roughly the size of a grape, he or she was too small to kick. Martha knew, however, that a cascade of miracles was unfolding as they drove, and wondered at the tree of possibilities bursting therefrom.

Author's note:

Again, with the traffic??  Not quite as bad as the first book.  But this is what happens when you write a novel and commute through Los Angeles every day.

Return of like, totally 80's reference:  Hey kids!  Did you know The Neverending Story is an actual movie and not just a song Dustin sang with his girlfriend?  Give it a look!  (And it does actually end in case you've got stuff to do later)

Kind of burying the lead here but... Martha's pregnant!!  Now we get to re-imagine all of the fights we had with our parents if they had been omniscient immortals.  Poor kid!  (Maybe he/she will bond with Steven over it)