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A New Life

-Chapter 25: Journey to the Undiscovered Country–

Morning fell upon everyone in a hurry. It always seemed time was in a hurry for the Oken family and the people who knew them. Jim rolled out of bed, woken by the sounds of light thumping feet in the hallway. The footsteps could only belong to one person.

"Daddy!"

It was Rory; he didn't seem to waste any time letting everyone know it was time for something. Jim almost tripped over the weight set he had recently taken out of the attic. He was trying to get back to his old muscular form. It hadn't all gone to the wayside, but he had a lot to regain.

Meanwhile, he raced quietly into the hallway, trying not to wake his sleeping wife. But he had no such luck. Alice rolled over in the bed, groaning in protest.

"Come on…just one more hour…I'm begging you guys…"

"Go back to sleep, I'll take care of roaring Rory…" Jim whispered. Alice rolled back over and pretended to be asleep.

Jim walked out into the hallway where Rory stood. He looked up at his father, smiling wickedly, his golden-blonde hair spiked up. He was standing there in his pajama pants and no shirt, thin as a board. Rory was skinny and already athletic, so it was only a matter of time before he started bulking up like his father.

"What're you smiling about? Did you already take your shower? Why the big hurry kiddo?...I'm sorry R-money…" Jim grinned at his son. He scooped him up and threw him over his shoulders. "We need to keep quiet; your mom's trying to sleep."

"Okay." Rory whispered into his father's ear.

Rory climbed down his father's back and quietly strode out to the front of the house, pulling on a shirt that was hanging from a kitchen chair without even slowing down.

"That kid has the energy of five kids…you have your hands full." Mike commented, he had been there waiting for who knows how long.

Jim made his way out to the dining table where his son was already waiting for him, two bowls of cereal ready.

"I made you breakfast daddy!" Rory whispered quietly.

"I'm having a breakfast of champions today!" Jim commented with a smile. Mike rolled his eyes, which told Jim he'd better be careful.

"Rose and Alex's kid Ethan's still coming over tonight so they can do date night, right?" Mike asked for the millionth time.

"Yeah, why?"

"Cause I've got dinner with Susan." Mike reminded him.

"Oh, right. Your date!"

"It's not a date…well I'm hoping it is…we'll see…" Mike blushed a little.

They made it to the bus stop with plenty of time. Rory stood between his dad and a couple of friends from the neighborhood as they waited for the bus. When it came Jim quickly kneeled down to talk to his son.

"Now Rory, you have a fun day. And if that girl Izzy gives you a hard time, just remember you are Rory "Smokin'" Oken!"

"Smokin' Oken!" Rory repeated coolly. He turned and got on the bus with his friends. Jim watched his son, a new life that only just begun.

The evening seemed to creep up on Mike at a snail's pace, but when it was time it seemed like his mind was going a mile a minute. The holographic GPS system in his car guided him right into Susan's driveway. He was actually a few minutes early, but Susan was at the front door waiting for him. She seemed to have something on her mind judging by the labored expression she was wearing.

"Hope you don't mind, I'm fashionably…early."

"Not at all. I actually wanted to talk to you about something before we go inside." Susan said, scratching the back of her head trying to decide where to begin. "Okay…well you know how I told you my ex-husband walked out about eight years ago…right?

"Yeah, what about it? He's not back is he? … Weird things always happen to me on dates…"

"No, it's not that. He's never coming back. I know where he is…he's not coming back." Susan informed him, that certain something still lingering on her mind.

"Okay, well if it's not that, then what does your ex have to do with our dinner?"

"Well he didn't exactly leave me empty-handed. I got the house and money in the divorce, but I also got something else…actually someone to be more specific." Susan started to say, but she seemed to be agonizing over the right words to say.

"I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me…"

"I think it would just be easier if you came inside and I'll show you." Susan led him through the front door, and into a fairly substantial living room. In the middle of the room approached the answer to Mike's confusion. It was a boy, about eight or nine years old. He was slender with dark red hair and a smattering of freckles that lined his dimpled cheeks. "Mike, this is my son Emmett. He's eight."

"Hi there, Emmett, it's really nice to meet you." Mike said in his most friendly voice. Emmett said nothing, simply continuing to stare directly at Mike's face.

"I would have gotten a babysitter, but it's a little difficult cause…" Susan began, but Mike cut in.

"It's okay, kids are great. I used to be one. Still am…at least when it counts." Mike grinned. "So, Emmett, you into sports?"

"Umm, he's a big fan of…" Susan was cut off, this time by her son patting her on the arm. He made a gesture to her and then looked back to Mike.

"I like watch baseball…I like swim a lot." Emmett spoke in a slow and somewhat distorted voice, almost as if his tongue didn't quite fit in his mouth. He then proceeded to make several rapid fire hand gestures to his mother, who made several back.

"Mike, he's not slow or handicapped or anything. Emmett is deaf. He was born almost completely deaf and he still is. He can read lips so look at him when you talk, and don't go too fast. He always has a lot to say, you just have to be patient sometimes." Susan explained.

"So you guys communicate with sign language, I just realized that's what that was." Mike said, a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, I learned it when he was little so I'd be ready when he started learning to communicate. I already knew I need to learn ASL, and it was gonna take longer for him to learn to talk out loud."

"Oh, ok, so it's no big deal then. He can understand us and we can understand him just fine." Mike inferred.

"…As long as you don't talk too fast…which we've been doing. He gets really frustrated when he can't understand what people are saying and he kind of shuts down a little." Susan explained.

Mike seemed to know what she meant when he noticed Emmett pouting and crying a little. Mike was a soft person so he couldn't help but feel empathy for someone who was upset by his actions. Before Emmett could lapse into fully formed tears Mike knelt down so he was at eye-level with Emmett.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that…ok. Hey, I have an idea. I promise to slow down and talk so you get it, if you'll let me pitch to you on the baseball field down the street." Mike suggested, hoping it would spark some kind of bond between them.

"I'm a pitcher, you can bat." Emmett stated, the tears ceased abruptly.

"You got it buddy." Mike said, he gave him a hi-five.

Emmett made a sign where he moved his fingers straight out from his chin.

"He's saying 'thank you'" Susan explained.

"How do you say 'you're welcome'?"

"Like this…" Susan showed him, it was a twist of her open hand down to the chest. Mike repeated the sign to Emmett. In turn Emmett signed something else.

"He says 'cool'"

SLAM! Rory's slender body slapped against the salty glistening blue water of the Pacific for what seemed to him like the millionth time that Saturday morning.

"Daddy! I can't do it!" Rory wheezed, the wind had been knocked out of him this time, and he was huffing for air. "It hurts too much." He complained, grasping his bony midsection with both hands and wincing in pain, his stomach red as an inverted strawberry.

"No, I won't hear that. You're an Oken; surfing is in your blood." Jim assured his son.

"Then how come Grandpa Oliver wipes out all the time?"

"Maybe he has a little less of it in his blood…" Jim said, hoping his son wouldn't need much more convincing.

"Well if I keep at it you might end up seeing some of my 'Oken blood'"

"Very funny, little man!" Jim sneered lightheartedly. "Ethan's doing just fine, see? And he's got Oken blood."

"He's a Rhodes, dad."

"I know, but your Aunt Rose is an Oken. ISN'T THAT RIGHT SIS?" Jim shouted to Rose. She gave him a quick thumbs up. She turned to help her son redo the Velcro strap on his board.

"What's your point dad?...Besides Ethan's a year older than me…"

"What did I say about making excuses? Anyway, you're my son; surfing is in your veins. You have at least half a dozen moves that Ethan doesn't." Jim encouraged his son.

"So…what's your point?!"

"Uhhh…space your left foot a little farther out and you'll get it…" Jim improvised.

Meanwhile, a few hundred feet away, Mike and Susan were teaching Emmett some of their moves, which was slightly more complicated. They couldn't call out suggestions or coach him orally. He did, however, have a piece of technology that allowed them to communicate with him almost as if they were speaking out loud. On one end they spoke into a device and on the other end Emmett saw them in contact lenses as if they were standing in front of him somehow, signing to him.

As the day progressed everything seemed to be going swimmingly. Ethan and Rory were even playing with Emmett. Few words were exchanged, partly due to Emmett's limited speaking ability while surfing, but mostly because the boys' ability to have fun did not require a lot of talking. Rory quickly discovered Emmett had been schooled by his mother quite well in the art of wave surfing. He had to swerve several times to avoid a collision with the red-haired wave master. However, after several close calls, this proved more difficult than either of them thought. When they swerved a third time they both wiped out. Rory, with his blond dangling hair lifted his face from the sand and spit grains of salty water and sand from his mouth. He looked around to see how well Emmett had faired. The sight wasn't pretty. He was trying to sign something to his mother right when he bent down and retched all over his board.

"I think he's been wearing the interpreters too long! He's gonna need to lie down!" Susan called out. But Mike got to Emmett first. He plucked the contacts out, much to Emmett's discomfort and pocketed them so as not to lose them.

Grabbing Emmett on both sides of the face beside the eye sockets, he focused the boy's eye-line in one place. Emmett seemed very apprehensive and struggled in Mike's grip. He spoke five simple words, not knowing if the disorientation would prevent Emmett from reading his lips. "Be still, it will help."

Immediately Mike knew he understood. Emmett relaxed completely and stared trustingly at Mike, not breaking his gaze for even a microsecond. It seemed Mike had made a connection or at the very least gained Emmett's trust.

"What are you doing!?" Susan shouted, running up to them almost short of breath.

"I was a beach lifeguard for two summers in high school…they never really taught us to do this, but that's cause they don't really expect you to run into people with hearing disorders…I got that from my brother. That and motion sickness make for some really mean vertigo." Mike explained quickly.

"So you've run into deaf kids getting sick surfing…but how did you know to…" Susan stammered.

"I don't know I just kind of did it without thinking the first time." Mike said, scooping Emmett up in his arms, and carrying him over to one of their towels. He lay him down under an umbrella to shade his eyes. He looked him right in the eyes, "Emmett I need you to try and breath normal, okay?"

Emmett held up his hand weakly and made the shapes of the letters 'O' and 'K' with his fingers and then rested his hand at his side. He seemed to relax even more, his chest rising and falling at a relatively normal rate.

Jim caught up to them moments later. He didn't even have to ask what was going on. "Good job little bro! But how'd you know to do that?"

"Like I just said, something I just kind of did without thinking."

"Wow, Mike, you've changed a lot!" Susan commented. And she really meant it, thinking back to their childhood when they hung out on a daily basis.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mike asked, a little annoyed.

"I just mean, you used to be the one that would freak out at the first sight of blood. And there was a lot of it. You were a klutz." Susan grinned.

"Come on!...Yeah, you're right…but still, that's not that much of a change."

"You were always the one to laugh when someone got dizzy and threw up…even if it was you…unless you saw it, then you got sick…" Susan recounted further.

"Yeah…when I was…eight…"

"Try when you were fifteen! And you never seemed that comfortable around kids, but you're great with Emmett." Susan told him. She was now seeing something in him, that she had never before imagined possible. He had become a smart, mature, and amazing adult. She also thought he was now the kind of guy she could see herself with. Something she had never thought once in the past. Sure he had always been incredibly friendly and sweet, but he had also been extremely corny and sometimes very immature. Things he had seemingly long grown out of.

"Well I guess you're right, I did grow up a little…"

"Try a lot little bro! You're a cop for crying out loud! You are way different then you used to be." Jim patted him on the back. "You look like you have this under control. Give me a holler if you need anything." Jim headed back over to the other kids.

"Since I'm so grown up now, what do you say to dinner tonight, just you and me?"

"Who's gonna look after Emmett?" Susan asked the obvious question.

"My brother can have him over till we get back. Rory seems to really get along with Emmett. So it'd be fun for them too."

"Okay, then it's a date." Susan said with a grin.

Mike had never felt so happy in his life. He never really thought of Susan as more than a friend except for the week-long crush he had on her in high school, a crush that ended with a kick between his legs. But now all sorts of thoughts were flooding his mind. Thoughts of what it would be like to be with Susan and her son all the time. At one time his thoughts would have excluded Emmett. But like they said, he'd grown up a lot. Before he could get too deep in thought, he realized Susan was still right in front of him, but closer. As they leaned in to kiss, something snapped them back down to earth.

Emmett was sitting upright now, waiving his hands in front of his face. "Hello? I'm still here!"

The two of them looked at Emmett and then back at each other and began laughing. Emmett didn't seem to be as amused with the situation. He also seemed to be feeling a lot better, judging by the ease with which he stood and bounded away towards the other kids who were playing with a beach ball a ways away.

Mike and Susan stood up and walked slowly side-by-side down the shoreline. Their hands discretely slipped together. They smiled as they walked silently through the sand together, cool water lapping at their feet. Neither of them knew what they future had in store for them. But at the moment they wanted to face that New Life together. They walked forward into the sunlight, their journey towards that Undiscovered Country called the future had just begun.

-THE END-