A Will, A Way, And Family
Chapter 48
XLVIII
Liz sat with her hand over her mouth and her eyes misty and wide open as she listened to Kryys describe the baby he had held in his arms and tried to bring back.
"That's him, Kryys! That's Jeffy! My little angel! Where is he now?"
"He's still there, Aunt Elizabeth, where he was."
"Is he okay, Kryys? Is he safe? Is he happy?"
Liz understood the irrelevancy of her questions. More than anyone there other than Kryys himself, Liz knew and understood that Jeffy was in no danger where he was… that he didn't exist physically in the way that we understand existence. But Liz still felt the need to ask.
"He's fine," Kryys said. "He smiled at me."
Liz looked at Kryys, and her eyes welled up with tears. She smiled, as the tears began to roll down her cheeks. Max put his arm around her and kissed her, gently wiping her tears away with his fingertips.
"We're going to get him back, Liz. Kryys will find a way… with our help. I'm sure of it."
Kryys blushed slightly, and Maria hugged him to her. Michael looked at Kryys and smiled, clearly proud of his son.
"I can't wait to see Jeffy," Maria said soothingly to Liz. "Kryys said that he looks like an angel. He said that he was cute for a baby."
Liz laughed, even as she wiped another tear from her cheek.
"That's high praise from a seven-year-old, Maria. I know Alyyx tries to distance himself from most babies. I think when children –boys especially- are his age and Kryys', they're trying to grow up themselves, and maybe that's just a little too close to… you know… to where they're trying to get away from."
Maria nodded. "Yeah, Zorel is ten. Jayyd is younger than Kryys, but only by one year, so he doesn't remember having another baby around. He wasn't old enough. He's still kind of our baby."
"I'm not a baby, Mom," Kryys said emphatically. "I'm going to school already."
"We know, Kryys," Michael said. "We didn't mean you're a real baby, just that you're one of our children… and you're special to us."
"Because I was the president of Alyendis and the allied planets?"
"No," Michael said. "…Because you're you… you're our son."
"Do you remember that, Kryys… being the president," Liz asked, surprised.
"Yeah… sort of. Not all the details, but I know that I did that… The Drax-ta-Kiya says I'll remember everything as I get older. When I'm with him, I remember, but when I'm here, I forget a lot of things."
Max nodded. "That's probably good, Kryys. It allows you to grow up as a… well, the way you should, without a lot of adult memories haunting you. There'll be plenty of time for adult memories when you're an adult."
"Yeah, I know, Uncle Zan. That's what Master Drax tells me. It's okay. I like playing with Zorel and Alyyx and Danny and the others. A president can't do that."
"You are wise beyond your years, Kryys," Max said with a smile. Michael laughed, and Kryys grinned sheepishly.
"Kryys, what can your Aunt Liz and I do to help you bring Jeffy back to us?"
Kryys thought for several moments. "I don't know, Uncle Zan. I think of more things when I'm in the other place… where the River of Time is. I need to go back there and see if I can think of something."
Max looked at Michael and Maria, and they nodded.
"You know I want to see the little guy," Maria said. "I already feel like I know him."
"Go when you're ready, Kryys," Michael said. "Be back for supper."
"I will, Dad," Kryys said, already starting to dissolve into a swirl of brilliant atoms. Michael, Maria, Liz, and Max watched as Kryys disappeared through the ceiling of the palace.
"You think he could teach me to do that," Max asked jestingly.
"He hasn't had any luck with me," Michael said. "He tried once. I stood outside with my hands out and my eyes closed and concentrated really hard. Then I thought I felt my atoms starting to dissolve, but it had just started to rain. Everybody else ran inside and left me out there with my eyes closed and my arms out in the rain, thinking I was dissolving."
Maria giggled. "It's all right, Michael. I like all your atoms right where they are. I don't need any of them changed."
Michael blushed slightly and grinned.
**********
Somewhere across time and the universe, far from where Max and Liz sat with Michael and Maria, Kryys sat on a rock at the edge of the River of Time, thinking.
"Master Drax said that no one can be taken from here. They would have to leave of their own will. But a baby doesn't have the ability to think that way, so a baby could never leave. And I didn't come from here… I came from somewhere else first and just went back where I came from, so maybe nobody can really ever leave here. I guess if somebody came along and put someone's atoms back in place, that person might be able to return if they had the knowledge required to want to leave." Kryys sighed. "But Jeffy doesn't… He's just a baby."
Kryys lifted his head and looked at the River of Time. "But… maybe…"
Kryys dissolved and disappeared momentarily. Returning after a few moments, he held out his arms and called for the cosmic winds. In a short time, he once again had Jeffy in his arms.
"Jeffy, you're going to take a little ride with me down the river."
Kryys held the baby to him and dissolved in a swirl of atoms. This time, though, instead of returning home, he reappeared further down the River of Time. Kryys looked at the baby in his arms. It was no longer a baby… and Kryys was no longer seven. Seven years had passed. Kryys, now fourteen, set the young boy in his arms down.
"Jeffy, you've got to want to go home," Kryys said to the now 7-year-old Jeffy.
The young boy looked at Kryys with a bewildered look.
"Jeffy, your Mama and Daddy want you to come home. Do you understand?"
Jeffy looked at Kryys and then at his surroundings but showed no sign of understanding.
"Can't you answer me," Kryys asked.
"He can't," a voice behind him said. Kryys turned to look at the Drax-ta-Kiya.
"He never learned to speak, Kryys. You brought him through time. That was brilliant. I should have thought of it myself. But he doesn't understand. Jeffy is still a baby, because he has never been taught or even been exposed to others long enough to learn or to have any understanding of what you're saying."
"I can teach him, Master."
The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled. "It is no small matter to take care of a baby and teach it, Kryys. You would have to feed it… now that it is in this form. It could take months, maybe years. I know you are willing, Sundrop, but I do not believe that you are able, even with your abilities. It takes more to raise a baby than just a boy who is willing to teach it."
Kryys looked crestfallen. "I tried to think of something, Master, but I don't know what to do. There must be something."
"You are very determined, Sundrop. Your determination will serve you well."
Kryys turned to ask the Drax-ta-Kiya if he meant by that that he would eventually succeed in getting Jeffy home, but the Drax was gone.
"Well, Jeffy, it's just us." Kryys picked up a flat pebble and skipped it over the surface of the river, which wasn't actually water at all but was actually a stream of cosmic particles. It did look very much like a river, though. Kryys waded into the edge of it, holding Jeffy's hand. Jeffy followed along silently. Kryys reached into the cosmic stream and pulled out a small, shining piece, probably a minute remnant from an exploded star or some other cosmic event. He handed it to Jeffy, and Jeffy looked at it then threw it toward the surface of the stream as Kryys had done with the flat pebble.
"Yeah, that's how you do it," Kryys said. "But it has to be flat to skip." He picked up a flat pebble and handed it to Jeffy. Jeffy looked at it then threw it at the surface of the stream. It skipped twice then sank into the cosmic stream.
"That was very good," Kryys said, grinning. "You learn quick!"
Jeffy smiled but said nothing.
"Jeffy… I have another idea. I hope you don't mind being a baby again. We're going back where we were." Kryys started to take Jeffy by the hand but then thought for a minute. "I'm going to have to pick you up, Jeffy. When we get there, I wouldn't want to be dangling you by the arm." He reached down and picked Jeffy up in his arms.
"You're a really big baby, Jeffy."
Jeffy smiled.
Kryys dissolved into a swirl of atoms then reappeared at the place he had first brought Jeffy to. He looked around him and called out…
"Master Drax! Master Drax, can you come?"
"I am here, Sundrop. What do you need?" a voice said.
Kryys turned around to face the Drax-ta-Kiya. "Master, hold this," he said, placing the baby in the Drax-ta-Kiya's hands.
"What are you planning to do, Sundrop," Master Drax asked, his voice reflecting concern for the first time since Kryys had ever known him.
"You'll see, Master. Just wait here!"
Kryys dissolved in a swirl of atoms. The Drax-ta-Kiya looked at the baby in his arms. Then he called out hesitantly, "Kryys! You are going to be right back, right?" Kryys didn't answer. He had already disappeared. The Drax-ta-Kiya looked at the baby again and smiled at it.
"Well, I guess it's you and me for now, little… let's see, what can I call you? Kryys is already 'Sundrop.' You will be… 'Angel-eyes?' You do have an angelic look, little one… What else could I call you? 'Starshine?' Hmmm. Maybe. Or how about…"
Jeffy looked at the Drax and smiled.
"'Angel's Smile.'" I'll call you 'Angel's Smile,' because you have an angel's smile… and because you could make an angel smile with that smile of yours, little one.
Suddenly, Kryys reappeared. He had Liz by one hand and Max by the other hand. The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled and handed the baby to Liz, who ran to hold it. Kryys thought that he noticed a look of relief on the Master's face. Must have been his imagination, he thought.
"Master, I couldn't take Jeffy to his mama and daddy, so I brought his mama and daddy to him."
The Master looked at Liz and Max holding the baby in their arms with tears running down their faces. "I know you have good intentions, Sundrop, and you have an angel's heart… but is this really a good idea? They cannot take him home… and they cannot remain here…"
"I know, Master. But if this works, they may not have to."
"I hope you're right, Sundrop."
The Drax-ta-Kiya dismissed himself, leaving Kryys with Liz, Max, and the baby.
Kryys watched Liz and Max fawning over the baby, kissing it, playing with it… and he smiled. Then he sat down on his rock by the stream and waited. It was impossible to say exactly how long Liz and Max remained there. Time wasn't exactly measured in this place. But Kryys waited until he judged that they had had several hours with Jeffy. Then without warning or saying a word, he took Liz and Max each by a hand and dissolved with them into a swirl of atoms. As he expected, they arrived back with Jeffy no longer in Liz's arms… and Liz was heartbroken. She pleaded with Kryys…
"Kryys, take us back… please. We weren't ready to leave yet. We didn't get to say goodbye to Jeffy…"
Kryys looked down timidly at the floor, but he steeled his resolve, knowing that he was doing the right thing.
"Kryys," Max said, a tear coursing its way slowly down his own cheek, "…we'll always be eternally grateful to you for giving us this chance to see Jeffy, but couldn't you give Liz… give us… just a few more minutes to say goodbye properly?"
Kryys swallowed and shook his head.
"Hold out your arms, Aunt Liz."
Liz looked at Kryys for a moment, then she did as he said. She waited. "What's supposed to happen," Liz asked after a few moments.
"I'm… I'm not sure," Kryys said. "I was hoping…"
Suddenly a small stream of atoms swirled through the ceiling and down through the room into Liz's arms. Liz stood dumbfounded as Jeffy appeared in her arms. Then he looked at her, smiled, and cooed.
Liz and Max were in Heaven.
"How did you know," Max asked Kryys after he had convinced himself that Jeffy was real and was really there in Liz's arms.
"I wasn't sure, Uncle Zan, but I thought I felt something when I held Jeffy. He's like me… but he doesn't know about his gift. He's too young. When the bubble disappeared and his atoms dispersed, he was lost… until I found him and brought him back. He just had to want to come here. That's why I took you and Aunt Liz to be with him for a while. He's just a baby, so he had to get to know you again. He remembers you now… and now that he knows where you are he wants to be with you again."
"Thank you," Liz said, her voice breaking, as she hugged Kryys and the baby both to her.
"That goes for me, too, Kryys, Max said, his eyes red. "I don't know how I can ever repay you…"
Kryys smiled. "It's alright, Uncle Zan. I understand."
Max nodded. He wondered if Kryys remembered his own children… the ones he left behind on Alyendis when he was brought back to his own time and planet and became a child again. Sometimes he thought Kryys did remember. But he wasn't sure. Some day, of course, he would, and undoubtedly, he would want to return to the family he loved… when he was President Kryys.
As Max and Liz stood looking at their new addition, Maya, JoLeesa, Andya, and Alyyx came running into the room from outside…
"Mom," Maya started to ask… "When's dinn…?" Maya's eyes grew wide with surprise as she saw the baby… "What's that, Mom?"
"This is Jeffy," Liz said, smiling broadly. "…your little brother." Liz held the baby out a bit for the girls and Alyyx to see.
"Woah," Alyyx managed to say after a moment. "I didn't know you could get one so fast!"
Max laughed, and Liz smiled.
"Yeah, Mom," JoLeesa said. "How did you get him so fast? Is he… yours?"
"He's all mine," Liz said, grinning. "…all ours," she corrected herself, looking at Max.
"We'll explain it all later," Max said.
"This time, Dad," Alyyx said, "when you explain about that stuff… start all over. Either I missed something major or you didn't tell me everything there was to know."
Max pulled Alyyx to him and tousled his hair a bit, laughing. Then he put his arms around the girls and Liz, with Jeffy in her arms, and pulled them all together.
"Come here, Kryys!" He pulled Kryys into the group. "You'll always be like one of our children, Kryys. We'll always love you like our own."
Kryys smiled and breathed in deeply, apparently feeling that his efforts were well rewarded already.
"Can I take you home, Max asked?"
Kryys shook his head. "No need, Uncle Zan. I can get there faster… It's almost supper time, and I promised Dad I'd be back for supper."
Max smiled. "Thanks again,
Kryys. If we can ever…"
Kryys grinned then dissolved into billions of brilliant atoms that swirled around the room and disappeared through the ceiling. Max turned his attention to Liz and Jeffy. He kissed Jeffy on the cheek then kissed Liz and put his arm around them and the other children.
"Family!" Max said smiling. "Let's go get dinner somewhere. I'm hungry."
Liz smiled. "Yeah… I think I am, too. Can we go to Var'nat's Kires-Ryym? It's a great [b]family[/b] restaurant with great food… and they love babies there. I just need to pick up some special items first at a store somewhere…" She motioned toward Jeffy.
Max smiled and nodded. "Yeah! A family place!" He looked at Jeffy's smiling face and touched him on the tip of the nose playfully. "Because we're a family, Jeffy!"
tbc