Friday, December 29th
Jessie awoke early the following morning and lay quietly in bed for several minutes. She had not slept well throughout the night, but she did not feel tired. She had had nightmares all night and found it difficult to extinguish the memories completely. Remnants of the dreams remained with her as she crawled out of bed and opened the blinds allowing the early morning sun light to enter, illuminating her white comforter with an orangey-yellow glow. The shards of her nightly visions persisted as she pulled on her favorite pair of jeans and a warm white knitted sweater. She knew of only one way to banish unwanted memories and after braiding her long red hair, she left her room and hurried downstairs.
She left the house and stepped outside into the frigid early-morning air. She hurried across the snow-laden lawn toward the lighthouse, which overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. Jessie entered the base of the lighthouse, having to touch the hand plate on the wall outside to identify herself first, and climbed the first set of stairs to the second floor, which housed the computers hooked up to Quest World and three large padded chairs grouped in the center of the room. Each chair allowed whoever sat in it to enter the virtual reality universe of Quest World, by forming a green semi-circular laser beam across the eyes of the user, providing her a virtual entrance into Quest World.
Jessie did not linger on that level, though, but instead continued up the stairs to the third floor of the lighthouse. This floor was the observation level. It had windows all around as a means of allowing the occupant of the lighthouse to view any ships nearing the shore. The height also allowed an incredible view of the mansion and the surrounding grounds.
Jessie set down the backpack, which she had brought with her and removed a small computerized earpiece. She, Jonny, and Hadji each had one. A portable version of the VR chairs one level down from where she stood, this computer allowed her to access Quest World from anywhere. Jonny liked to use it for his more active computer games. The programs were so immersive, though, that Jonny had once almost launched himself off a balcony, while he had been fighting the images of creatures with giant scorpion legs and medusa heads. Jessie and Hadji had walked into the room to see Jonny heading toward the open balcony door, oblivious to his surroundings.
This is why Jessie had chosen this room in which to use the VR earpiece. Race, himself, had reinforced the windows with bullet-proof glass as a security measure, and Jessie had the option of raising the bars around the hole in the floor, from which the spiral staircase descended, so that she would not fall down the stairs. Once securing her environment, Jessie placed the earpiece on her left ear and said, clearly,
"Quest World logon. Subject: Jessie Bannon. Going hot." Instantly the green laser bar materialized over her eyes, and she found herself in the virtual reality Quest World. Her appearance had changed as well. Instead of her sweater and jeans, she now wore a seamless black body suit with pink trim on her shoulders and knees. (This had been IRIS's own adaptation, not an option of Jessie or any of the other members of the Quest family.) Her previously long braid of hair had been replaced by a sort of helmet of long red hair, with little braids working their way throughout the looser hair. But it was not her appearance in Quest World that mattered; it was her ability to adapt to the environment, and she was an expert.
Presently she stood at the gates of Quest World, so to speak. She had not yet voiced her choice of program, so the computer remained in ready mode waiting for her command.
"IRIS, open the program 'Kickboxing' using the specifications of 'Surd's New Quest World.'"
Acknowledged, IRIS replied.
Immediately, the world around her morphed into a life-like gym. Jessie now stood on a polyurethane-covered hardwood floor; a punching bag hung next to her. This was a simple sports program, which allowed the user to practice and improve her skills in whichever sport she chose, without actually feeling pain or soreness afterwards.
Jessie had, however, chosen different specifications for the program. She had opted for the conditions of a program that had been reformatted by criminal mastermind and psychotic killer Jeremiah Surd, who was Dr. Quest's arch nemesis. Surd had threatened the Quests and Bannons countless times in the past, but luckily they had always managed to thwart his plans and emerge safely from danger. On one occasion though, Surd had hacked into a program which Jessie and Jonny had been using, so that when they logged into Quest World it would not only lock them in the system, preventing them from logging out, but would also modify the rules of virtual reality, so that the users would sustain actual injuries if they were hurt in Quest World—they could also ultimately die, if they were killed in virtual reality.
When Dr. Quest realized what was going on and overthrew Surd from his reign over Quest World, he purged the program from the system. He did not know, however, that Jessie had saved a version of the program on a back up file. She knew that a program like that might benefit them in the future, and now she was glad that she that thought ahead. Accessing the rules from that program, she could now improve her skills at kickboxing while actually improving her muscles in real life. She stepped back from the punching bag and called to IRIS,
"Accessing boxing gloves." A pair of red boxing gloves materialized on her hands, as ace bandages wrapped themselves around her wrists. She threw a punch at the bag, feeling her fist connecting with the bag. After throwing a few idle practice punches, her mind began to wander back to all that had happened over the past few days. She remembered being attacked outside of the cabin and watching Jonny and Hadji being taken inside. She thought of the horror of falling through the ice, the frigid water rushing around her body; Joey and Scott pulling her out of the water; the walk through the woods. In her mind's eye, she saw the van parked along the side of the road, she saw Joey attempt to attack her and felt herself fighting back and knocking him to his knees. She envisioned the ride in the back of the van, remembered the feelings of fear and helplessness, remembered being kidnapped with Hadji a second time, being thrown in the car after thinking that Jonny had been killed, and finally fighting against Joey's last attack.
She had not even realized how hard she had been punching and kicking the bag until she twisted her ankle slightly and fell to the floor with a cry. She glanced down at her ankle and rotated it with some difficulty. It'll be fine, she thought to herself and stood up again, exhausted.
"IRIS, log me out of Quest World," Jessie said and felt the familiar warp speed pull backwards. When she felt her feet connect with solid ground, she pushed the button on the side of the earpiece, and the green laser bar disappeared. She once again found herself standing in the middle of the circular room, with the morning sunlight pouring through the unobstructed windows.
She looked down at her aching hands and found that her knuckles were red from her workout. Her ankle hurt a little, but even though she could apply pressure to it, she decided that she should take it easy for the rest of the day. She limped slightly as she walked toward the staircase and prepared to make her descent to the ground. She had not seen the turban-clad head that had disappeared from view a few moments before.
Hadji descended back to the floor level of the lighthouse, which acted as a little break room for those who were working long hours in the upstairs lab. The small circular room contained two armchairs, a small table, a coffee pot, a sink, and a couple of bean bag chairs. The floor was even carpeted and Hadji had always found the room to be quite comfortable. He had spent many nights holed up in the computer lab and had taken full advantage of this room's resources, but on that morning he did not linger there. He had not wanted Jessie to find him there and know that he had been spying on her.
He strode absently back to the mansion, not even caring to climb over the snow as he trudged along. Being an early riser, he had looked out of his bedroom window that morning to see Jessie approaching the lighthouse. He thought that it had been a little early for her to be awake on a vacation day, and he could not imagine what she might want to do in the lighthouse. As a precautionary measure, none of the kids were allowed to access Quest World from the computer lab without someone to sit at the computer console. The more he had considered the situation, the more he had worried about her.
She had been behaving very oddly lately. First she would seem distant and irritable, and the next moment she would act overly cheerful. She had also been avoiding eye contact with Hadji, which had disturbed him. He knew that she had been through an ordeal, and he understood that she would be emotional because of it—it was only natural. But he had the impression that she was trying to push away her feelings and hide them. He knew that she would not be able to keep this up for long, and he wondered if he should intervene. Instead he had decided to follow her to find out what she was up to and was relieved to find that she had made the precautions that she had before she had gone into Quest World. Now, as he walked back to the house, he had come to a decision—he had to talk with Jessie.
The rest of the household was awake when Jessie closed the front door of the mansion and entered the warmly lit living room. It seemed that everyone was in the kitchen—she could hear laughing voices emitting from under the swinging door. Maybe, she thought, I can sneak upstairs before anyone hears me.
"Hey, Jess," Jonny called from the staircase. He was descending the steps casually, his hands in his pockets, and upon reaching the bottom, he continued, "You ready for breakfast?"
"Yeah," she sighed, resignedly.
"Gosh, Jess, that bruise looks awful," he said, leaning closer to her face to get a better look. "How'd that happen anyway?" Jessie touched her left eye defensively.
"I don't even remember," she said quickly. "I guess it just happened along the way." She turned away from him and hurried toward the kitchen.
The noise in the kitchen increased by three times, as Jessie and Jonny pushed open the swinging door, and the crowd at the table hailed them, enthusiastically. Jessie put on a fake smile and settled in a chair between her parents. She could not remember afterwards what had transpired at the breakfast table that morning. She had smiled and nodded and laughed along with everyone else, but her attention had been elsewhere. She had been reliving the moments of the previous two days over and over again, and the thing that upset her most was that she was not sure if she was doing it intentionally, or if it was her mind harping on the events. A part of her wanted to forget all that had happened and get on with her life. She wanted to be foolishly happy like the other people at the table and have no worries. On the other hand, she sort of wanted to relive those moments. She supposed that remembering would make her stronger and encourage her to improve her fighting skills—so this would never happen again.
After breakfast she joined the family in saying goodbye to Dr. Barnes and Scott. Jessie told Scott that she had enjoyed getting to know him, and she thanked him again for all of his assistance. He gave her his phone number and hugged her good-bye. And then he was gone. She felt a sudden emptiness and after ascending the stairs to the second level, she just wandered the upstairs hallway until finally ending up in the guest room in which Scott had stayed. She sat down on the bed and listened to the quiet of the house. Everyone else was still downstairs, so there was nothing to interrupt the peaceful atmosphere of the welcoming guest room. She glanced up at the walls and noticed the mounted black and white photographs. Jessie had helped Dr. Quest decorate the guestrooms with Rachel's photographs. Dr. Quest had thought that Rachel's kind and welcoming spirit would induce anyone who stayed in the guest rooms to feel welcome in the mansion. It was Jessie, though, who had decided the placement of each frame.
She had chosen this room as the black and white room, thinking that the extreme contrast in the photographs would nicely complement the red comforter on the bed and white shag carpet. The guestroom on the other side of Jonny's room contained some of Rachel's color photographs in various sized frames, and the guest rooms on the West Wing showcased Rachel's watercolors. The guest rooms in the main part of the house contained a collection of black and white and color photographs, but with a wildlife theme. While the other guest rooms displayed landscapes, the ones in the main house exhibited pictures of Siberian tigers, African birds, and even Western American buffalo. Rachel had been only 29 when she had died, but she had already become an accomplished artist. She had published several of her photographs in southern journals and had displayed them in galleries in the Florida area as well. Because she and Dr. Quest had traveled frequently, she had had opportunities everywhere they went to broaden her portfolio, from the jungles of Malaysia to the mountains of Tibet. Dr. Quest had once related to Jessie that Rachel would be as excited to return from a vacation as she had been to go on the trip, because she could not wait to develop the film that she had taken. Dr. Quest had built a dark room in the Florida complex, and Rachel would spend hours there. Jessie supposed that Rachel had been as dedicated to her work as Dr. Quest was to his. Rachel had started painting while she was pregnant with Jonny, and she proved to be very talented at that as well, but her true passion had been photography.
Jessie sighed and looked down at her socked feet, digging them into the shag carpet. She was not sure how long she sat there, staring absently at the floor, when she heard someone walk up to the open doorway.
"Jessie, we need to talk."
Hadji said the words matter-of-factly, but tried to add as much compassion as he could. She glanced up at him, and he was at first unable to read her expression. She seemed distant again, but tired at the same time, like all of the grief was wearing her down.
"About what?" she asked without interest. Hadji took a step inside the room, but did not walk any closer to his friend. He did not want her to feel like he was pressuring her, cornering her.
"I think that you know what I want to discuss. We are in this together, my friends. We both endured much pain and fear. I wish only that you would talk to me about it."
"I'm fine, Hadji," Jessie replied, still not making eye contact. "I'm just tired. You know that none of us slept much this week."
"I am tired also, my friend, but I do not believe that fatigue is all that is bothering you."
"Well what do you want me to say then, Hadji? If you claim to know me so well, then you tell me what's wrong with me." She turned away from him, pulling her legs up on the bed. He closed his eyes for a moment, praying for strength before walking soundlessly over to the bed. He sat down across from her and took her hand in his. When
she finally looked up at him, he said.
"I know that this is difficult for you. I was scared too. You and I are the only ones who know what it was like to be there in that warehouse. But I understand that it was different for you. I wanted so much to help you...but, I..." his voice cracked, as he was consumed with emotion. He stopped speaking and stared past her instead.
"But you shouldn't have had to help me, Hadji," Jessie began softly, but her voice increasing as she spoke, impassionedly. "I should have been able to take him. I know how to get out of that kind of situation! I've practiced it!"
"And you did, Jessie. You threw him off of you, and he is a very strong man and much larger than you."
"But I should've been better." She broke off, as if she had intended on saying more but then decided against it.
"This is not your fault Jessie; you have to believe that."
"Hadji, I really don't want to talk about this."
"I know that it is painful to remember this, but I still feel that you should talk to someone about it. You do not have to speak with me, but you should tell your parents. They can get you the help that you need."
"No, Hadji! I'm fine." Jessie stood up abruptly and headed for the door, as Hadji reached for her arm, but before either of them could reach the hall, Race stepped through the doorway, blocking their path.
"Is everything all right in here? I can hear you two all the way down the hall." Neither of them answered at first; Jessie glared at Hadji, daring him to speak, and Hadji considered her, deciding whether or not he should tell Race. Finally he said,
"We are fine, Race. We are just discussing something."
"All right," Race said, skeptically. "Well, I'll be downstairs if you need me." He turned on his heels and left the room, leaving Jessie and Hadji standing silently in the ray of sunlight shining across the room. Finally Jessie sighed and turned back to the young man, who continued to look at her, concernedly.
"You're right, Hadji. I do need help. I can't go on like this." The tears glistened in her eyes, and Hadji wrapped his arms around her. After a few moments, Jessie let go of Hadji and brushed the tears from her eyes. Wordlessly she turned toward the door, and Hadji followed her down the hall and down the stairs. They found Race and Estella sitting in the kitchen with Benton, sipping coffee and talking animatedly about the upcoming New Year's party.
"Could I talk to you two alone?" Jessie asked her parents, hesitantly. It would not be easy for her to talk about this to anyone, Jessie decided, but it would be even more difficult to tell her parents, who were sure to overreact.
"Of course," Race said, looking slightly worried.
"Actually," Hadji spoke up, looking at Dr. Quest, "I was hoping that I could speak with you alone, too." Dr. Quest stood up and silently followed Hadji out of the room, while Jessie pulled up a chair at the table across from her parents. Where should I start, she thought.
That afternoon, Benton, Estella, and Race sat together in the living room, watching Jessie, Hadji, and Jonny running through the snow with Bandit outside of the window.
"I think she'll be fine," Estella was saying to Benton. "The state police took her report earlier and said that this new evidence against Joey and Steve will definitely help to put them away for a long time."
"I still can't believe that Jessie tried to hide it and lied about where she got that bruise. And Hadji was helping her to cover it up," Race exclaimed, incredulously.
"She was ashamed," Estella explained, shaking her head. "She had always believed that she was so strong and could handle anything. This was a real shock for her. I've heard about cases like this—women would rather forget it happened than talk about it and drudge up all of the emotions again." Benton nodded and added,
"Hadji had seen what hiding the truth had been doing to her. He's the one who finally convinced her to tell you. It's been hard for him too," Benton sighed and glanced out of the window again. "He feels so guilty about not being about to help her."
"Well, thank goodness that Jessie was able to throw that maniac off of her," Estella said, "before it went any further." The three sat in silence for a while again, lost in their own thoughts. Then Race spoke up,
"While you were on the phone with the police, Benton, I spoke with Jessie some more. She told me about a program in Quest World that she reformatted to improve her fighting skills. Clearly she feels the need to strengthen her moves as well as her physique, but her program is completely human-initiated. I thought that it might be a good idea if we had a program that could teach the kids self defense. I know that they already have a lot of skills, not to mention experience, but they could always learn more."
"That might be an idea," Benton agreed. "I'll see what I can do."
"I think," said Estella, "that it'll take more than just self-defense to help Jessie recover from this. We can't act like this happens all the time and make her feel like this is a constant threat. We touched on the topic of a psychologist this morning, when she spoke with us, and I feel that it's a good idea. Jessie and I set up an appointment for Monday. I didn't think that we'd get one until next week, but there was a cancellation." Race hesitated, but Benton said immediately,
"I agree, Estella. Jessie needs to work out her feelings before starting a self-defense program."
"Also," Estella continued, "I wanted to be able to attend the first session with Jessie before I leave on Monday." She allowed Race to absorb the impact of that statement before continuing. "I've decided that Jessie should stay here. She's obviously happy here, and I don't think that running away from danger is the best thing for her right now." Race smiled his appreciation, as Estella said, "Besides, her last visit to see me in South America was just as dangerous as any excursion that you've taken her on." Race silently agreed with his ex-wife, who was referring to when Jessie had almost come to her end, when she was accidentally infected with an ancient plague.
The three sat in silence, thankful for their children's safety.