Sunday, December 24th
Christmas Eve dawned cheerfully in the Quest Compound. Everyone ate an early breakfast and talked animatedly about what they had planned for that day. Jonny and Hadji were going out with some friends from school. Benton had some work to finish up in the lab. Race was going to secure the house for the blizzard that the Weather Channel had predicted for Christmas, and Jessie and Estella had planned to go into town for a few hours.
Jessie was a little fatigued from the previous night. Because the doctors had suspected that Jessie might have a slight concussion, Estella had to pull up a cot in Jessie's room and wake her up every couple of hours to make sure that Jessie would wake. Jessie was cheerful, nonetheless, and was looking forward to the day.
Jessie and Estella arrived in town about 10:00, for some serious shopping. First they headed for Tillman's clothing store, where they both searched for gifts for Race and Benton. The crowds were enormous, but the two Bannons did not care. They spent the morning trying on clothes, laughing at some of the ridiculous new styles, and window-shopping along the thoroughfare. Jessie bought Hadji and Jonny some new videogames, which Jessie was certain that Jonny would modify to work in Quest World. An invention of Dr. Quest's, Quest World was a virtual-reality computer program based out of the lighthouse lab. Since they were planning on going home for lunch, they stopped in Dunkin Donuts for only a few minutes to buy a couple of Vanilla Chais. Jessie had highly recommended them to her mother, who finally gave in.
"You're right Jess, this is pretty good. Warmed me right up," Estella said with a smile. They were sitting in the window, watching last-minute shoppers dash from one store to another. "So you haven't told me much about your life lately," Estella began, setting her cup on the table. "How's school going? How're your friends doing? Are you still friends with Alicia?"
"Well, yeah, everything's fine," Jessie replied, trying to register all of the questions that her mother had just thrown at her. "School is okay. I have a history project due in a few weeks, but I've already done most of the research for that. The project is on Ancient Mesopotamia and the Euphrates environment, and Dr. Quest told me about this research program that he had developed in Quest World. It's kind of like a time travel program, but when I traveled back to Mesopotamia, I was just an observer. I wasn't actually there, so nobody could see or hear me, but at the same time, I could follow the people around and learn their way of life as if I was experiencing it myself. I could even feel the warmth of the air and the breeze coming across the river. It's a great program."
"That's amazing!" Estella said, hanging on Jessie's every word. "If you can experience it first hand, it must make studying it through a history book really dull in comparison."
"Maybe a little; but I like having the knowledge of what to expect before I see it for myself. It's also fun to see the discrepancies between what's in the history books and what really happened. I'll have to be careful, though, when I write the report. I don't want to make it look like I know something that the historians don't."
"Well, it certainly sounds like you're learning a lot. I guess you don't miss living with me very much."
"Mom!" Jessie looked up, shocked. "That is NOT true. I miss you so much. I think of you all the time, and what I learned on the excavation sites in Colombia and in the ancient Malenque ruins has given me so much background to work with in classes. When I lived with you, I was able to do things that very few people do, much less kids my age. But I missed Dad, and I really like being with Jonny and Hadji. They're my best friends and they're like brothers to me." Jessie paused, looking down at her Vanilla Chai. "It wasn't easy for me to choose which life to live and which parent to live with..."
"I know it wasn't, sweetheart," Estella sighed. "And I'm sorry. I'm the one who chose to lead the life that I do. And I don't blame you for choosing a more stable one..." More stable, perhaps, but not by much, Jessie thought. Up until a few months ago, Jessie had been traveling around the world most of the time with the Quests solving crimes, rescuing lost treasures, and fighting evildoers. Jessie did not want to point this out to her mother, though. Jessie had traded one hectic life with her mom for another hectic life with her dad. She had not chosen a stable life—she had chosen her father over her mother. Jessie wondered if her mother had noticed that too.
The conversation was dying. Jessie and Estella had left Dunkin Donuts and were walking toward the car. It was only 1:00 PM, but already the sky was beginning to darken. Desperate to keep their mood upbeat Jessie said,
"Oh, by the way, Alicia and Jonny are dating now."
"They are?" Estella whipped around, obviously interested and amused, which was
Jessie's desired effect. "Since when?"
"A few weeks ago. Remember Alicia had really long hair? It was so bushy, and the length did not suit her at all. So finally she decided to get her hair cut in layers falling just below her shoulders. She started using hair gel and really played up her naturally curly hair, which nobody had realized that she even had, since she always brushed it straight." Jessie had been fumbling in her wallet and just then retrieved a picture, which she handed to her mother.
"Alicia?" Estella said, incredulously. "Wow, what a difference!"
"Jonny thought so too," Jessie said, with a smirk. "They've been out a couple of times. I haven't seen her much lately, but she'll be coming to the New Year's Eve party that Jonny, Hadji, and I are having."
"Well, isn't that something," Estella said, handing the picture back to Jessie. "Oh, but are you okay with this? She's your best friend, and you used to have a bit of a crush on Jonny."
"'Used to,' Mom. That's the optimum word. Things are different now. I see Jonny and Hadji as friends—nothing more."
They arrived back at the mansion to find it deserted. This was not surprising; Race was probably outside working, Benton still in the lighthouse. They all knew that Jonny and Hadji would be out until around 5:00. So Jessie and Estella settled down in the family room with some sandwiches. Jessie loved to just sit around the house, especially at this time of day. The sun filtered through the great windows and lit up the room. Even though the house was so huge, it really was quite peaceful. Dr. Quest had brought a lot of Rachel's belongings with him when he and the boys had moved from the Miami Complex. Benton had been so consumed with grief after his wife had died, that he put anything that had reminded him of Rachel into storage. But when he decided to move north, Benton retrieved Rachel's paintings and furniture from storage and brought them with him to Maine. Jessie wondered what the mansion would look like without those feminine touches and antiques—not nearly as special, Jessie thought, nor as welcoming.
When Jonny and Hadji returned that evening, they found Jessie and Estella watching the end of White Christmas. They could hear Bing Crosby's voice when they walked through the front door. "What do you do with a general, when he stops being a general..."
"Now it feels like Christmas," Jonny said as he walked into the darkened room.
"Jessie watches that movie every Christmas Eve."
"So do I," said Estella. "Even when Jessie was little, she watched it with me."
"Are Dr. Quest and my dad around?" Jessie asked.
"We saw Race bringing the extension latter into the garage when we parked," said
Hadji, "but the light in the lighthouse lab is out. Maybe Dr. Quest is on his way back." They heard the back door slam and Benton joined them in the living room.
"Hi everyone," he said, a little breathless. "Merry Christmas!" He pulled off his coat, but he was still shivering.
"Has it gotten colder out?" Estella wondered.
"A little," Benton responded, joining Jonny on the couch next to the TV. "But it doesn't feel like snow yet."
"Well, we'll see," said Estella. "Can I help you with dinner? Did you have anything planned?"
"Actually," Benton said, "We have a little Christmas Eve tradition as far as dinner is concerned. We make bruchetta, deviled eggs, a veggie platter, and grilled chicken salad. It's just a meal made up of appetizers."
"Wow. That sounds like fun," Estella said. "Need any help?"
"Of course," said Benton, "Do you know how to make deviled eggs?"
The family celebrated Christmas Eve with their little party over the next couple of hours, as they talked, and Estella, Race, and Benton told of their childhood Christmases. At 8:00 they dressed in heavy coats, hats, scarves, and gloves, and they drove down to Clifton, where they joined a group of friends for caroling. This was a yearly tradition that
Benton especially loved. Living on the cliffs, the Quests were pretty isolated from any neighbors or friends. Caroling always brought them together. Between singing at houses, Benton talked with Dr. Reynolds, a professor at the University of Maine, who was visiting family in Rockport. The two men had known each other for years. Dr. Reynolds taught sociology at the university, and the two were now comparing a speech that Dr. Quest had given at a conference in England with a workshop that Dr. Reynolds had facilitated at a convention in San Francisco.
"I understand," Dr. Quest said, "that one of the keynote speakers at the conference was Dr. Joseph Barnes? I've never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I've heard about his work. In fact I read an interview the other day, which he gave in a science journal. It mentioned that he might have stumbled upon an invisibility potion. I would not have thought it possible."
"Well," Dr. Reynolds answered, "he didn't mention that at the conference, so I don't know anything about that, but I'll certainly keep an ear out. I would be interested to know how any potion would be able to rearrange the molecules of the body in order to make them invisible."
"Hey, Dad, over here!" Jonny yelled to his father, who had almost walked past the house at which the rest of the group had stopped. Drs. Quest and Reynolds had agreed to continue their conversation later, and they joined the merry group in singing "Frosty the Snowman."