Chapter Three: Ulterior Motives
She sat in front of the mirror, studying her reflection. He had called her Lucy. That put a name to who she had been, but everything else remained too fragmented for her to fully make sense of things. If they knew about what she knew, or who she had come across… She shuddered involuntarily. It was bad enough as things stood. She stood up. There was work to be done.
"There you go, Grandma. It's all done."
"Thank you, boys. Saved me balancing on those steps." Josie smiled at Scott and Virgil. They turned to go, but Josie grabbed onto Scott's arm.
"Scott, I'd like a word with you."
"Sure, Grandma," Scott replied. Virgil elbowed him.
"Have you been pilfering the chocolate muffins again?" he grinned teasingly, before leaving the kitchen. Scott pulled a face after his brother, then turned to his grandmother.
"I'm not in trouble, am I?" he asked, jokingly. Josie shook her head.
"No Scott, not at all. I need to talk to you about your father."
"Okay," Scott replied, a little puzzled. Josie took a quick look round to see if there was any danger of them being disturbed, then looked back at her eldest grandson.
"I think that your father has been working far too hard lately," she began.
"Nothing new there," Scott said.
"Perhaps not," Josie agreed. "But I'm afraid that it might be beginning to take its toll on him."
"You think so?" Scott asked, a little surprised. Other than the fact that his father had seemed preoccupied since he had returned from New York, and had been a little more crotchety than usual before going there, he hadn't seen any behaviour that would give him cause for concern. Josie clasped her hands together.
"Well, when he came in here to give me his dirty plate, he told me he had seen someone in New York."
"What's so unusual about that?" Scott asked. His father was always bumping into old friends when he went to the East Coast.
"He can't have seen the person in question, Scott. He was adamant that it was them, absolutely insistent, but he can't have been right."
"Who did he see then, Grandma?" Scott asked her, curious and a little unnerved by her agitation.
"Oh, Scott…he said that he saw your mother," Josie burst out.
"He saw Mom?" said Scott, hardly believing his ears. "Well, he can't have. He must have seen someone who looked like her."
"That's what I said, Scott, but he wouldn't have it. What's more, he said that he's going to find her! That's what he's started doing at the moment," Josie said. "He didn't want this mentioned to any of you boys, but I couldn't keep something like that to myself, which is why I've confided in you. I just don't know what we should do about him. I'm worried for him, Scott."
"Yeah, me too," Scott replied, still wondering what to make of it all. He realised that his grandmother was waiting for him to come up with something. He scratched at a place behind his ear, as he always did when contemplating something.
"The way I see it is that we have two options, Grandma," he said. "We can let him pursue whoever it was he thought was Mom, in New York, and see how it goes, or we force him to take a breather. Now, given the trouble we had getting him to take a few days off to stay at Lady Penelope's ranch, I say we let him carry on for the time being, and hope that he comes to the logical conclusion that he was mistaken."
"That does sound sensible, Scott," Josie agreed. She hadn't really liked the thought of confronting Jeff. It would give them more time to analyse his behaviour, too, and if Jeff really was struggling, they would be able to come to the most appropriate solution.
"We keep this between you and me," Josie said.
"Yes," Scott agreed. "But I'd like to see if Dad will tell me about it himself. Virgil and I thought that he was keeping something to himself, but I never thought that it'd be something like that."
"Maybe you can make him see sense," Josie suggested.
"Maybe, Grandma, but you know what Dad's like when he's got his mind set on something," Scott replied.
"Sure do," Josie said. "Well, I'd best get on with the fruit crumble for dessert tonight. Thank you for listening, Scott."
"No problem, Grandma," Scott answered. Josie patted him on the arm as he left, feeling a little better now that her eldest grandson was aware of the situation. Scott always knew what to do.
Meanwhile, Jeff was setting about starting what no doubt would be a long and arduous task. Whilst there were no rescues to be dealing with, this would be more than enough to pass the time. He sat down at the computer and began a search for 'Lucille Tracy', which didn't return much other than some Lucille's that weren't his, and, painfully, some old news articles that reported upon the accident that had led to her death. 'Lucy Tracy' brought more results, but despite the many more pages of searching, it yielded nothing to aid him. Perhaps searching under her maiden name of Evans would be more productive. When she had worked as a journalist, in the first few years she had lived in America, Lucy had gone by her maiden name, even after they were married. Doing the searches of Lucille and Lucy Evans respectively brought up hundreds of results, and he began sifting through them. To his surprise, he found an old report of hers. He knew that she used to have to write the occasional one for the website of the stations she had worked at, but he hadn't expected them to be still around after all these years, albeit in a simple archived format. Out of curiosity, he entered the page.
2nd April 1995
Interstate Expansion Sparks ProtestsBy Lucille Evans.
Residents living close to Interstate 10 in the western suburbs of Houston are furious over plans to…
Jeff looked back at the date. April 1995. Jeez, Lucy had written this before they had gotten married. Before he had gone on his first mission into space. And almost a year to the day before Scott had been born. He stared blankly at the date, strangely fascinated by the frozen little moment in time that was on his screen. Strange to think that it had been locked in cyberspace for over thirty years, forgotten by everyone, most likely including its author. He imagined that he was probably the first person in years to bother reading this. He read the rest of the article carefully, somehow hearing Lucy's voice in his head as he looked at the words. Jeff exited the page and continued his search, finding some more articles of Lucy's, and even some references to her in context with her work. Of course there were plenty of Lucy Evans's all over the world, and though some could easily be eliminated, Jeff was taking no chances and noted down the ones that he thought could possibly offer him a lead.
"Dad?" Scott interrupted his thoughts.
"What is it?" Jeff answered a little more harshly than he had intended to, making Scott almost shrink back.
"Just wondered what you were doing working. I'd have thought you'd be resting after your trip," he said.
"I have things to do that can't be put off," Jeff answered.
"Anything I can help you with?" Scott asked, innocently.
"No, thank you," Jeff replied, gruffly.
"Grandma is a little worried about you," Scott said. "She thinks you're working too hard."
"Why, what has she said to you?" Jeff asked, for a moment wondering if his mother had betrayed his confidence.
"Nothing. She was just expressing some concern, which I guess she'd do for any of us," Scott replied. Jeff relaxed a little.
"You're right," he said. "Well, you can assure her that I'm fine."
"I could, but is that true? You've been unsettled since you've come back from New York. Maybe you need to take a proper break," Scott said, and braced himself for the inevitable glare. Jeff looked up from the computer.
"Don't you think that I should be the one to decide if I need a vacation?" he snapped. "You know that I don't find going away particularly useful for me."
"It was only a suggestion," Scott said, gently. Jeff subsided.
"Of course it was, son. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Dad. But you know, maybe what you need isn't a vacation as such, more some time out to do something different."
"Like what?"
"Something that you enjoy, like astronomy or flying. Maybe you could go travelling again, like you did a few years ago."
"I can't risk having what happened to me then happening again, Scott," Jeff said, remembering crash landing in the Malaysian jungle and suffering a broken leg.
"Well, just give it a thought, Father. That's all I ask," Scott replied. He must have managed to convey just the right tone of voice, for Jeff gave him a wry grin.
"Okay, Scott, I'll think about it. But don't nag me about it, else I'll think you're after something other than my well being!"
"As if, Dad," Scott retorted, good-naturedly. "Anyway, I'm going to find Alan. I promised I'd help him out with some stuff on Thunderbird Three."
"Sure. The way things are today, I reckon you'll have all the time you want on it," Jeff said.
"Yeah, it has been pretty quiet," Scott replied. "See you later, Dad." He left his father alone. Hopefully, he had planted the seeds of thought firmly in his father's head. If everything went to plan, his father might just decide to take some time out in his quest for the woman he saw in New York, under the pretence that it was for other reasons. Scott sighed to himself. He hadn't succeeded in getting a confession from his father, but perhaps with a little more careful chiding, that would come out in time. He wasn't entirely sure if his father was cracking up as much as his grandmother feared he was, but even if his father were chasing ghosts, it would get him out from behind that desk. Quite satisfied, Scott made his way towards the hanger of Thunderbird Three.