Angie gazed down at Rollie.  She had been watching him sleep for the past half hour or so.  He had not moved in all that time, not even a twitch.  His utter stillness was a bit unnerving.  Only the slow rise and fall of his chest eased her misgivings.

Rollie had been asleep for nearly three hours.  To be honest, she was surprised that he’d actually managed to fall asleep.  She wasn’t sure she would have been able to after seeing what he had.  But he was, indeed, asleep.  He wasn’t in the Dreamtime.  Both Daniel and Mangela had “peeked” to see if he was.  Angie was delighted that Rollie had managed to get to sleep.  He definitely needed it.  He was lucky that he hadn’t put himself back in the hospital.

Angie made a silent promise that she wasn’t going to let this happen again, that she was going to make sure Rollie didn’t put any more strain on himself during his healing process.  He needed rest and lots of TLC, and she was personally going to make sure he got it.

“How is he?” a quiet voice asked from the doorway.

Angie turned to look at Daniel.  “Still sleeping like a baby.”

The minister came into the room.  “Good.”  He gazed at his brother.  “He has been through so much lately, far too much.  I wish there was a way for me to take part of the burden off his shoulders.”

“Me too.”  Angie shook her head.  “I used to think that it would be cool to have some kind of psychic ability.  Boy, was I ever naive.  It isn’t cool at all.”

“No, it isn’t, not if you’re someone who cares like Rollie does.”

Angie brushed the hair away from her fiancé’s brow.  “Who was on the phone?  I heard it ring a while ago.”

“It was Alex again.  She and Dylan have been helping with the tear-down and cleanup at the fair.  She called again about Rollie and to ask if she should bring Arnie over.  She’ll be leaving the fair in about forty minutes or so.”

“I don’t know what to say about having your friend come over.  I guess it all depends on if Rollie wakes up and how he feels.  He needs to take better care of himself.”  Angie brushed her fingers across the Aussie’s cheek.  “He’s never been good at that.  He rarely takes the time to just rest, and he always pushes himself too hard whenever he’s sick or hurt.  Maybe he learned that from when he was a stuntman.  Those guys just keep right on working even when they’re hurt.  I remember there was one time that Rollie took a nasty fall while we were setting up a gag and hurt his arm.  Dad wanted him to go to the doctor and have it checked out, but he kept insisting that it was okay.  Well, not long after we finished the setup, Rollie’s face all of a sudden went white, and he almost keeled over.  We rushed him to the hospital and found out that his arm was actually broken.  He’d been working all that time with a broken arm.  I can only imagine the pain he was suffering.”  She gazed at Rollie lovingly.  “He can be such an idiot.”

Daniel smiled softly.  “Well, I’d guess that he’s not going to be able to get away with things like that much anymore.”

“You’d better believe it.  I’m going to make sure he rests when he’s supposed to and goes to the doctor when he should.  I’ll make it my mission in life, if I have to.”

Daniel’s smile broadened.  “I’d say that Rollie is in good hands.”  He looked at his brother.  “Well, let’s let Sleeping Beauty here continue to rest as we decide what we’re going to do about dinner.”

They went downstairs to decide what to get to eat.  They’d been at it for only a few minutes when the sound of footsteps on the landing alerted them to the fact that Rollie was up.  The Aussie came down the stairs and went into the lounge.

“Hey, there,” Angie said, studying him with a concerned expression.  “How are you feeling?”  She scooted over to make room for him on the couch.

“Um . . . better.  I feel better,” Rollie replied as he sat down, an odd look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked.

“Nothing.  I just. . . .”  The Aussie shook his head.  “Nothing.”

“Well, by the look on your face, I’d say it wasn’t nothing, Rol, so cough it up,” Angie ordered.

Rollie’s lips twitched slightly in a smile.  Then the puzzled expression returned.  “I just feel . . . too good.”

“Too good?” Dingo repeated.  “How can someone feel too good?”

“When I went to bed, I . . .” Rollie’s gaze dropped to the floor, “I couldn’t shake those images from my mind.  They just kept replaying in my head over and over again.  And I could actually feel those babies.  I could feel their pain and suffering.  I felt them die.”

“You experienced the Dreaming on a physical level again,” Mangela said quietly, “just as you did with Joanne Carfield when she had her heart attack.”

Rollie shook his head.  “This was not the same as it was with Joanne Carfield.  That time, in my Dreaming, I saw and felt things from her perspective.  It wasn’t like that this time.  I didn’t become those babies.  I never saw things from their point of view.  I remained an observer.  There’s also the fact that I didn’t feel that way when I was actually having the Dreaming.  It wasn’t until later that I started to feel connected to those babies.  And it just kept getting stronger.  But it didn’t really get bad until I laid down.  Then it became unbearable.  I thought I was going to go insane.”  He felt Angie’s hand slip into his, and he gave it a squeeze.  “It's almost as if I linked with the babies empathically.”

“How could you form a link with babies that have been dead for almost thirty-five years?” she asked.

“How could you form a link with anyone like that?” Daniel asked.  “I thought it was only through the connection of our songlines that you and I have the empathic link.  How could just having a Dreaming about someone forge a link with them?”

“I don’t know, but that’s what happened.”  Rollie looked at Mangela.  “Do you have an answer for this?”

“No, I don’t.  It’s beyond my experience and the knowledge of the People,” the Aborigine admitted.

“So, what’s all this got to do with you feeling too good?” Dingo asked.

Rollie stared down at the floor for a few seconds.  Then he looked at Angie and Daniel.  “Do you remember when I was telling you about what happened in the complex and I recounted that time when I could feel the machine killing me, when I could feel myself dying?”

“Yes,” Angie said in a low voice, her heart still aching whenever she thought about what Rollie had suffered.

Rollie turned to his brother.  “You experienced the pain with me because we’d inadvertently become linked empathically.  You remember what you felt afterwards, what we both felt?”

Daniel nodded.  “Yes, I remember.”

Dingo looked back and forth between his sons.  “What?  What did you feel?”

“An incredible sensation of warmth, and love, and tranquility,” Daniel replied, “like God Himself had taken me into His arms and was comforting me and keeping me safe.”  He looked at his brother.  “Did it happen again?”

“Yeah,” Rollie replied softly.  “I was right on the brink, ready to topple off the edge, and I begged God to help me.  Then, all at once, all the pain and everything just went away, and I felt that peace again.  It was incredible.  After that, I guess I either lost consciousness or just went to sleep.  The next thing I knew, I was waking up and three hours had passed, only, the way I felt, it was more like I’d slept the entire day.  I felt totally rested.  In fact, I’m feeling pretty damn good right now.  My chest hardly hurts at all, and I feel almost . . . energized, like I’ve tapped into some hidden reserve of energy.  Considering what happened earlier, I really shouldn’t be feeling this way.  But the strangest thing of all is the memories of my vision.  I can still remember it all, but it’s like I’m more . . . distant from it.  It’s not affecting me as strongly, like there’s a sort of buffer between me and the full strength of the emotions.  I can remember what I saw, and it doesn’t hit me as hard as it did.  Maybe it’s because I’m no longer feeling what those babies experienced.”  His expression turned sad.  “It still saddens me when I think about what those babies suffered, how they died, and it still enrages me that Carfield and Brier did that to them, but I can handle it, and I think that I’ll be able to put those images out of my mind more easily.  I’ll be okay.”

Angie got up and went to Rollie, wrapping her arms around his waist, filled with relief that Rollie’s pain and sorrow had been lessened.  He pulled her close and gave her a soft kiss.  He smiled down into her eyes.

Daniel smiled as well, so grateful that God had helped his brother to cope with what he experienced.  The smile did not last long, however, as thoughts of what they’d learned returned.  “I have to wonder about the women who were used for those experiments,” he said.  “Obviously, they couldn’t have known about what was being done.”

“No, they wouldn’t have,” Rollie agreed.  “They were probably told that what was being done were routine procedures or maybe that there was some problem that needed fixing.  Most of the women at the facility would have been young, first-time mothers.  They’d have had no experience in what tests and procedures are done during a pregnancy.  Doctor Brier and Carfield probably picked the women who were the youngest and most naive.  They didn’t do this to all the women.  They had to allow most of the babies to be born normally and adopted to maintain their ‘cover’.”

“What about the babies that were born with birth defects?” Dingo asked.  “Wouldn’t the mothers have seen them when they were born?”

Angie shook her head.  “From what I know, it’s common practice not to allow the birth mother to see the baby at all if she’s giving it up for adoption.  It keeps them from forming an attachment to the baby.  There have been cases where women who were planning on giving their baby up for adoption suddenly changed their mind when they saw their baby.  The bond between mother and child can form that quickly.”

“But wouldn’t what Brier did have hurt the mothers, affected them somehow?” Dingo asked.

“It all depends on what was done and how it was accomplished,” Rollie replied.  “I doubt that Brier and Carfield cared if they ended up making any of the women barren or if health problems arose later on.”

“It still horrifies me that someone could be so lacking in humanity,” Daniel said.

“Me too,” Angie responded.  “At least Carfield is finally paying for his crimes.  I just hope that, somehow, some way, Brier did too, or someday will.”

“Yeah,” Rollie murmured.  He was silent for a moment.  “I figured out something else today.  When I was standing there, looking at Cromwell, before I had the vision, I finally figured out why the name Cassandra Electronics seemed so familiar to me.  Actually, it’s the name Cassandra itself  that rang a bell.  It’s from Greek mythology, the Trojan War.  Cassandra was Paris’s sister.  She had the gift of prophecy.  She foretold that Paris should be killed at birth because, if he was not, he would bring about the destruction of Troy.  He wasn’t killed and, ultimately, the prophecy came true when the Greeks destroyed the city after Paris stole Helen.  Knowing what we do about Cromwell, he obviously gave the company that name because of his obsession with psychics, but I wonder if, in the end, he realized the irony of it.”

“What irony?” Dingo asked.

“A psychic in Cromwell’s employ warned him that I would destroy him and everything he’d worked for if I was not killed.  He chose to ignore the man’s warning, and it came true, just as Cassandra’s prophecy came true.”

Everyone thought about Rollie’s words soberly.

Pushing aside those thoughts, Rollie looked at his brother.  “So, when is your friend coming over?”

“Well, I didn’t know if it would be a good idea, considering what happened.”

“I feel fine, Daniel.  I’d really like to meet him.”

Daniel smiled.  “Okay.  Great.  Alex will be calling when she gets to Arnie’s hotel.  I’ll tell her to come over with him.”

Rollie grinned.  “Terrific.  So, what’s for dinner?  I’m getting pretty hungry.”

Angie laughed.  “We were just trying to figure out what to get when you came down.  I wasn’t feeling very hungry then, but I am now.”

Once the question of what to get for dinner was answered, Dingo and Mangela left to go get it.  Not long after that, Alex called, and Daniel told her to bring Arnie over.  He then called his parents to let them know that Rollie was all right.

“Oh, that’s very good to hear,” Bonnie said, relief in her voice.  “What happened?”

Daniel did not reply for a moment.  He didn’t know if he should tell his parents about what they had discovered.  It would upset them terribly, and there really wasn’t any reason why they needed to know, at least not at this time.  “Um, in his vision, Rollie witnessed a crime that Frederick Carfield committed, and it was . . . it was really bad, pretty horrifying.  It really upset him.”

“What did he see?”

“Uh, I don’t think this is a good time to tell you, Mom.  It’s . . . not something you need to know.”

Bonnie paused.  “It’s very bad, isn’t it.”

“Yeah, just about as bad as it can get, Mom.  I don’t know if even God could forgive him for it.  Carfield is even more of a monster than we thought he was.”

There was a pause.  “Whatever it was, Daniel, he will receive just punishment for it from God.  Please, tell Rollie that he is in our prayers, okay?”

“I will.”

“So, what are your plans?” Bonnie asked.  “Your father and I were wondering if, since Arnie is here, will you still be coming back home with us?”

“I’d like to.  It would be nice to spend some time with you and with Arnie.  He’s leaving tomorrow morning, so I’ll only have tonight to visit with him here.  But I don’t want to leave until Tuesday.  I was planning on taking Alex and Dylan to Coney Island tomorrow, and I’d like to spend Monday with Rollie.  We haven’t had the opportunity to really spend time together, just the two of us.  It will probably be several weeks before we see each other again, maybe not until just before the wedding, so I’d like to have one more day with him.  Will that work out all right with you?”

“I think that will work out fine.  Let me ask Cliff.”  There was a muffled conversation for a few moments, then Bonnie got back on the phone.  “He said that would be all right.  He just needs to make sure we get back before Friday.  He has a broadcast next Sunday, and he needs to prepare for it.”

“Great.  I’ll probably be gone until pretty late tomorrow, and I don’t know what I’ll be doing Monday.  I’ll call you Monday night.”

“All right.  We’ll talk to you then.”

Rollie, Angie and Daniel chatted quietly until Bluey’s bark alerted them to someone’s arrival.  Rollie had told the electronic dog to keep an eye out for cars and let them know as soon as someone pulled up.  A look at the monitor showed that it was Alex, Arnie and Dylan.  Rollie got a big grin.

“Time for me to go hide,” he said.

“Hide?  What are you planning?” Daniel asked, also smiling.

“Nothing.  I just thought you might not want your friend to suffer a shock the second he walks in the door.”

The Aussie quickly ducked into a dark corner of the loft as a knock came on the door.  Daniel opened the door.

“Hey, Daniel,” Arnie said as he stepped into the loft with Alex and Dylan.  “So, what’s going on?”  Then he started looking around.  “Whoa.  This place is wild.  What is it?”

“The people who live here do special effects for movies.  This is their workshop as well as their home.”  He turned to Angie.  “Arnie, this is Angie Ramirez.  She’s a good friend of mine.  Angie, Arnie Greenburg.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Angie,” the rabbi said.  He turned back to his friend.  “Okay, so what’s all this about?  Alex refused to tell me anything, and this guy,” he ruffled Dylan’s hair, “has had this big grin on his face almost since the moment he and his mom picked me up.  You know, the kind of smile that we used to get as kids when we were up to mischief.”

Daniel grinned.  “Well, Arnie, it’s a long, long story, one that’s going to blow your mind.  But, before we get started on it, there is someone very special that I want you to meet.”

Knowing that was his cue to come out of hiding, Rollie came forward.  Arnie’s jaw promptly hit the floor.

“What in the. . . .”  Wide-eyed, he turned to his best friend, then back to Rollie, then to Daniel again.

Daniel laughed in delight at the rabbi’s stunned expression.  “Arnie, this is my twin brother, Rollie.”

“Your . . . your . . . what?”  Arnie stared at the Aussie.

Rollie came up to him and held out his hand.  “G’day, Arnie.  It’s great to meet you.”

Still in shock, it took Arnie a few seconds to notice the hand.  He shook it slowly.  His gaze returned to Daniel.  “Okay, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

The minister laughed again and put an arm over Arnie’s shoulder.  He led him into the lounge, followed by Alex and Dylan.  Rollie and Angie got some more chairs so that everyone would have a place to sit.

At that moment, Dingo and Mangela returned with dinner.  Daniel made introductions.

“Arnie, this is Mangela, a friend of Rollie and Angie’s, and Dingo . . . my father.”

Arnie’s eyes widened again.  “Your father?”  He shook the hands of both men.

“Yeah.  How about if we eat first before we get started on all of the explanations?”

The next few minutes were spent getting their food and settling back in the lounge.  As they ate, Arnie asked Rollie and Angie some questions about their job and what movies they’d done.

After dinner was finished, Rollie turned to Alex’s son.  “Hey, Dylan.  You want to take another spin in the VR chamber?” he asked, figuring that it might be best if the boy didn’t hear some of the stuff they might be talking about.  “I can set up the F-16 program so that you can actually fly the plane.”

Dylan’s eyes lit up.  “Really?”

“Uh huh.  Come on.  I’ll show you how it works.”  The Aussie took the boy upstairs.

“VR.  That’s short for virtual reality, isn’t it?” Arnie asked.

“Yeah.  That thing is incredible,” Daniel said.  “You can see places from all over the world in it, and you’d almost swear that you were really there.”

“Wow, that must have cost a bundle to buy.”

“We didn’t buy it.  Rollie designed and built it,” Angie told him.  “A lot of the stuff you see here was built by him.”

Arnie looked around in surprise.  “So, he’s some kind of technological genius?”

“Yes, he is.”

The rabbi laughed.  “Well, maybe that explains Daniel’s total lack of skill with anything even remotely technological.  His brother got all those genes.”

“Har har,” Daniel said.  “But you’re right.  This is one way in which Rollie and I are polar opposites.  There are actually a lot of ways that we are different . . . and a lot of other ways that we are alike.”

“I can imagine how surprised you were to find out you have a twin brother.”

“Oh, yeah.  But it’s great, Arnie.  I always wanted a brother when I was growing up, and, now, I have one.  I feel blessed, especially to have a brother like Rollie.  They don’t come any better than him.”

Rollie returned a couple of minutes later and sat on the couch beside Angie.  “Okay, I think Dylan’s all set for the rest of the evening.  We’ll probably have to pry him out of there when it’s time for you to leave, Alex.”

The redhead laughed.  “I’m surprised that he didn’t ask yesterday if you could build one of those things for Hope Island.”

The Aussie grinned.  “Give him time.  He might ask tonight.”  He lost his smile.  “So, I guess it’s explanation time.”  He turned to Arnie.  “I guess you’d have to say that this whole thing started almost thirty-five years ago in Australia.”

“Australia?” Arnie repeated.  “I thought that was an Australian accent I heard.”

“Yeah, that’s where Daniel and I were born.”

“But I thought you were born in St. Louis,” Arnie said to Daniel.

“No, as it turns out, that’s only where I was adopted,” the minister told him.

With Rollie and Dingo’s help, Daniel went on to recount how he was abducted as a baby and illegally adopted.

“But why,” was Arnie’s first question.

The twins exchanged a look.

“Frederick Carfield actually wanted both of us,” Rollie explained.  “But the man who worked for him screwed up and only got Daniel.  He came back and tried to grab me a couple of weeks later, but messed up again.”

Arnie shook his head.  “I still don’t understand why.  Was it because you were identical twins?  There are twins born here in the States all the time.  Why take ones from Australia?”

Rollie and Daniel looked at each other again.  The Aussie turned back to Arnie.

“There was a particular reason why Carfield wanted us,” he said.  “It has to do with something that’s unique between us.”

“What?”

“Rollie and I share a . . . connection, a bond that links us on a, um, psychic level,” Daniel told his friend.

Arnie’s eyes widened.  “A psychic level?”

“We can sense each other’s presence,” Rollie explained.  “There is also a kind of empathic connection between us.  If I’m seriously hurt or ill, Daniel experiences my physical symptoms.  We can also speak to each other telepathically.”

Arnie gaped at them.  “You’re joking.”  He studied the seriousness of their expressions.  “You’re not joking.”

“No, it is very real, Arnie,” Daniel told him.  “There was an incident that happened when Rollie and I were babies.  Rollie was bitten by a poisonous insect, and we both got sick from it.  Carfield found out about it and became very interested in us.”

“Wait a minute,” Dingo said.  “What are you saying?  Cini told me that you were both bitten.  That’s what she said the doctor told her.”

The others stared at him in surprise.

“Mom said that the doctor told her we were both bitten?” Rollie asked.

“Yeah.  Rollie, she wouldn’t have lied to me about that.”

“No.  No, she wouldn’t, which means that either Doctor Brier is the one who talked to Mom or he somehow got the doctor on the case to lie about it, perhaps bribed him.  I guess it makes sense.  That kind of thing would have attracted a lot of attention in the medical community, something Carfield wouldn’t have wanted if he was going to kidnap us.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Brier managed to get the medical records changed, too.  I was kind of wondering why you didn’t tell us about the insect bite incident.”

“If I had known about it, I would have told you,” Dingo assured him.

Arnie shook his head.  “I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around this.”  He looked at his best friend.  “So, if you two have this connection, how come you didn’t know that you had a brother before?”

“Because the link between Rollie and Daniel was broken when they were separated,” Mangela replied.

“Okay, then what, uh, mended it?”  He looked at the twins.  “And how did you two find out about each other?”

“Well, that whole story started four months ago when I was presumed murdered by a bomb planted in my car,” Rollie told him.  “I was actually kidnapped by a man named Arthur Cromwell, and the bomb was a cover-up for the kidnapping so that no one would look for me.”

Arnie frowned.  “That name sounds familiar.”

“It should, Arnie,” Daniel said.  “The story’s been all over the news about Cromwell and a secret organization he set up to sell illegal and classified information to the highest bidder.”

The rabbi’s eyes widened.  “Yes!  That’s it.”  He stared at Rollie.  “They kidnapped you?  Why?”

Rollie paused.  “I’m the one who was going to get them the information they planned on selling, or at least that was what they intended.”

“How were you going to do that?”

There was another pause.  Daniel was the one who broke the silence.  “As it turns out, Rollie is the one who should have been named Daniel or perhaps Joseph.”

“Huh?”

The minister grinned.  “Oh, come on, Arnie.  Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your bible stories.  What did those two men have in common?”

Arnie’s brow knit in puzzlement, then an expression of realization dawned on his face.  “They both had prophetic visions of the future.  Are you saying that Rollie can see the future?”  He turned to stare at the Aussie.

Rollie nodded, feeling uncomfortable.

“Believe it, Arnie,” Daniel said.  “Every one of us here has seen what Rollie can do.  He has an extraordinary gift.”

The rabbi shook his head.  “This is unbelievable.  So, Cromwell kidnapped you to make you look into the future and tell him what you saw?”

“In a nutshell,” the Aussie confirmed.

“Well, what happened?”

There was another silence, one filled with tension.

“I didn’t cooperate,” Rollie finally said in a very quiet voice.  His gaze had dropped to the floor.  Angie’s hand slid into his as her other hand stroked his arm soothingly.

Arnie noticed the action.  He also did not miss the expression on the Aussie’s face.  That coupled with the heavy silence told him that something really bad had happened to Daniel’s brother.  He turned to his best friend for answers.  There was an expression of great sorrow in Daniel’s eyes.

“They tortured him, Arnie, for three and a half months, trying to take control of his mind, make him a puppet,” the minister said, his voice low-pitched.

Arnie cursed softly in Hebrew, his gaze focusing again on Rollie.  Now that he knew, he became aware of something in the Aussie’s eyes, a pain that dwelled deep in the soul.  They were the eyes of someone who had suffered terribly.

“Rollie, I am so sorry,” Arnie told him, his voice echoing his sadness and compassion.

The Aussie nodded.  He gave a quiet sigh.  “What none of us knew until recently was that Arthur Cromwell was actually Frederick Carfield.”

“Did he know that you were one of the twins he’d wanted all those years ago?”

“No.  He had no idea, which is a good thing.  If he had known, he might have tried to grab Daniel, too.”

“All right, so he kidnapped you, made it appear that you were dead, and held you captive for all those months.  What happened to change things?”

Angie was the one to reply.  “During the time that I thought Rollie was dead, I was a real mess.  It was, um . . . not an easy time for me.”

Rollie tightened his grip on Angie’s hand, and, as she had done with him before, he caressed her arm in a soothing manner.

“My friends told me that I need to get away, go someplace quiet and try to heal,” she continued.  “As luck would have it, one of them had heard about Hope Island and suggested that I go there.”

“Oh, boy.  I can guess what happened then,” Arnie said.  “You saw Daniel and got the shock of your life.”

“That’s putting it lightly.  I thought he was Rollie for a minute.”

“Then we both got a shock when we realized that I was his twin brother,” Daniel told his friend.

“Okay, so how did you find out that Rollie was alive?” Arnie asked.

“During the time that I was a prisoner, I’d been trying to contact Angie, to somehow reach her telepathically,” Rollie replied.  “But I wasn’t having any luck.  That changed when she and Daniel met.  You see, Angie and I also share a kind of connection, and, without getting into details, when she and Daniel met each other, the connection I had with Daniel when we were babies slowly began rebuilding.  I was eventually able to get through to him and Angie and tell them that I was alive.”

“So, is that when you found out that you had a brother?”

“No, I found that out around a month earlier in a dream.”

Arnie gave a short laugh.  “This is all so wild.  It sounds like some plot for a science fiction movie.”

The others laughed, with the exception of Rollie, who just smiled.

“Arnie, the better part of my life is like something straight out of a movie plot,” he told the rabbi.  He grimaced slightly and lightly rubbed his chest.  Angie noticed immediately.

“You okay?  Do you need some more ibuprofen?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m starting to hurt a bit.”

“What’s wrong?” Arnie asked as Angie got the bottle.  “Is it something to do with . . . with what they did to you?”

“No, I was shot.  I just got home from the hospital yesterday.”

“And he really should be taking it easier, getting more rest,” Angie complained as she handed the ibuprofen and a glass of water to the Aussie.

“Hey, I’m resting,” Rollie said.  “I’m just sitting here talking, Angie, not swinging from the rafters.”

“Oh, now, that’s a lovely mental image.  It’s bad enough that you act like Batman.  If you start doing a Tarzan imitation, I’m outta here.”

Rollie wrapped an arm around her hips and pulled her close.  “You mean you don’t wanna be my Jane, Ange?” he asked with a wicked gleam in his eyes and a waggle of his eyebrows.

The others chuckled.

“How long have you two been together?” Arnie asked, amused at the banter.

“Well, Rollie and I have known each other since I was a kid,” Angie told him.  “Being more than friends is a very recent development.”

“We’re having a double wedding, Arnie,” Daniel said.  “Rollie and Angie are getting married at the same time.”

The rabbi smiled in delight.  “Hey, that’s great.  Congratulations.”  His smile turned mischievous as he looked at the women.  “So, you two think you’ll be able to tell them apart?”

“Absolutely,” Angie and Alex replied simultaneously.

“But I may just have to see how many other people on the island I can fool into thinking I’m Daniel,” Rollie said without his Australian accent.

“Wow, you sounded exactly like Daniel just then,” Arnie said.  “How did you lose your accent so easily?”

“I’ve had lots of practice with other accents over the years,” Rollie told him.

“Oh?  Did you do impersonations or something?”

Angie laughed.  “Only as part of his role as a crime fighter, Arnie.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ve helped the cops out on a few cases,” Rollie explained.  “I have some friends in the department, and there were times when they need the kind of help that I could give them with my experience in F/X.”

“Rollie is being modest, Arnie,” Daniel said.  “The truth is that he’s been instrumental in bringing down a lot of criminals and saving a whole lot of lives.”

Rollie cleared his throat, embarrassed by the praise.  “You need to keep everything we’ve just told you under your hat, Arnie,” he said, changing the subject.  “Very few people know the whole truth, and it needs to stay that way.”

“But how are you going to keep the press from finding out?”

“I have some . . . acquaintances in the government who are helping in that way.  As far as the rest of the world will ever know, I have no connection to the whole Cromwell thing, and my relationship with Daniel will never become public knowledge.  A cover story is being set up that will say I was put in the Witness Protection Program, and that’s where I’ve been all this time.”

“So, no one knows yet that you’re alive?”

“Only a very few people.  At first, we hid the fact that I’m alive because I didn’t want a media circus to hinder our attempts to catch Cromwell, who hadn’t been caught yet, and our investigation into Daniel’s abduction as a baby.  And then, just a few days after my rescue, Cromwell kidnapped Daniel.”

Shock once again colored Arnie’s face.  “You were kidnapped?” he said to his friend.

“Yeah.  He thought I was Rollie.  Rollie, Angie, Mangela, Dingo and some others rescued me,” there was a pause, “but Rollie got shot in the process.”

“Was it bad?” Arnie asked.

“Yes, it was bad.  He almost died.  Clinically speaking, he did die, we both did.  We were both clinically dead for six minutes.”

“You were hurt, too?”

“No, it was that empathic link I told you about.  I wasn’t hurt, except for a minor flesh wound in the arm, but I experienced Rollie’s medical crisis as if I had been shot too, except that there was no real physical damage.”

Arnie was silent for a long time.  “Daniel, what if Rollie had died?”

“I would have broken that part of our connection before it came to that,” the Aussie told him.  “Daniel would not have died with me.”

“So, this connection between you can be broken again?”

“Only that part of it, and broken really isn’t the right word.  Blocked is actually a more accurate term.”

“Rollie and Daniel’s connection could never truly be severed now,” Mangela said.  “Only death could do that.”

“Well, I’ve still got about a million questions, but I think I need some time to absorb what I’ve learned before I start getting dizzy,” the rabbi said.

The others smiled.

“So, what about you, Arnie?  What do you do for a living?” Angie asked.  “Or are you a full-time clergyman like Daniel here?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I do.”

“Arnie also volunteers at a hospital in Irvine, where he works with terminally ill and disabled children,” Daniel said with pride.  “He does a lot of wonderful work there.”

Hearing what Arnie did made the image of the babies leapt into Rollie’s mind again.  He closed his eyes tightly against the vision.  Keeping his eyes closed, he forcibly pushed the images out of his head.  Angie noticed him tense up and saw the flash of anguish on his face.  Guessing what he was thinking about, she covered his hand, which was now closed into a fist.

‘Rol?  You okay?’ she asked in her mind.

‘Yeah, I’ll be all right.  It just still hits me sometimes.  It’s not something I’m ever going to forget.’

‘I know.  It’s not something that anyone would forget.  But I’m here for you, Rollie, any time you need me.’

Rollie opened his eyes and looked at her.  ‘I know you are, Angel, and that means a lot to me.  I love you.’

‘Love you, too.’

They turned their attention back to their surroundings.  Dingo was asking Arnie how he and Daniel had met.  Daniel, though he was involved in the conversation, was, at that moment, looking at Rollie, clearly aware of what was going on.

‘I’m okay, Daniel,’ the Aussie told him.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah.  It doesn’t bother me as much as it did in the beginning, but it still hurts to remember.  It will always hurt to an extent.’

‘I know it will.  But I have faith that God will continue to help you and give you strength.’

“Hey, Earth to Daniel,” Arnie said, interrupting the silent conversation.

“Oh.  Sorry, Arnie.  Rollie and I were talking.”

Arnie blinked.  “You were what?”

“Talking.  Telepathically.  Remember?  Rollie said we could do that.”

The rabbi looked at the twins.  “So, you can really speak to each other in your heads?”

“Yep,” Daniel confirmed.

“That must be weird.”

“It was at first, but it didn’t take long to get used to.  It seems natural now.”

“So, will it still work after you go back to California?”

“Distance makes no difference,” Mangela replied.  “No matter how far away they are from each other, they will still be able to talk mind to mind.”

Arnie studied the Aborigine.  “I get the feeling that you know a lot about this stuff.”

“Yes, he does,” Rollie confirmed.  “Mangela was my teacher when I was a child.  It was his training that first enabled me to tap into my abilities.”

Rollie and Mangela told Arnie a little about the Aborigines and Rollie’s time with them.  Before they realized it, it was getting quite late.

“Wow, I didn’t realize the time,” Alex said.  “I’ve got to get Dylan back to the motel and to bed.  I should imagine that we’re going to be getting up early, that is if we’re still going.”  She looked at Daniel.  The minister turned to his brother, who instantly knew what his twin was going to say.

“Don’t even think about, it, Daniel,” Rollie said firmly.  “I don’t want you staying here with me because you’re worried about me.  I’m fine, and I want you guys to go have fun.  When’s the next time you’ll get a chance to go see Coney Island?  Go.  Have a good time.”  He grinned.  “You can bring me back a Coney Dog.”

Daniel laughed.  “Okay, it’s a deal, though I don’t know if the dog will survive the trip back.”  He stood up.  “So, shall I go drag Dylan out of the VR chamber or do you want the honors, Alex?”

The redhead smiled.  “I’ll let you do it.  It’ll be good practice for when you’re his father.”

The minister chuckled and went upstairs.  He opened the door and went into the VR chamber . . . and found himself standing on another planet.  His eyes widened at the surreal landscape.

“Whoa.  What’s this?” he said in awe.

“I don’t know,” Dylan said.  “Rollie showed me how to pick other programs, and I just found this one.  Isn’t it cool?”

“It sure is.”  Daniel looked up at the unearthly sky, which was filled with the colors of a nebula, two gigantic moons rising from the horizon.  “It’s beautiful.”  He returned his attention to Dylan.  “I’m afraid it’s time to go, buddy.”

“Already?  Couldn’t we stay a little longer?”

“Not if you want to go to Coney Island tomorrow.”

That thought perked the boy up.  He turned off the program and went downstairs with Daniel.

“So, did he fight you tooth and nail?” Alex asked with a grin.

“No, not too much, but if I’d been where he was, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave either.  How many people get the chance to visit another planet?”

Rollie smiled.  “Ah, he found that one, did he?  That was one that Angie and I created.”

“It was breathtaking.  It looked so real.”

The Aussie nodded.  “The original art was done for one of the movies we worked on.  I liked it so much that I decided to turn it into a VR program.”  He stepped up to Arnie and shook his hand.  “It was nice to meet you, Arnie.”

“Same here, Rollie.  So, I guess we’ll see each other again in August, right?”

“Right.  Nothing’s going to keep me from that appointment.”

“I’m staying here at the loft, so it’ll just be Alex and Dylan who take you back to your hotel,” Daniel told his friend.  He pulled him into a hug.  “It was great seeing you, Arnie.  We’ll see each other again in a few days, okay?  I’ll give you a call when we get to Mom and Dad’s Tuesday night.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it,” the rabbi said.

After discussing what time to pick Daniel up in the morning, Alex left with Arnie and Dylan.  Rollie turned to his brother.

“Well, you were right.  I do like him.  He seems like a great guy.”

“He is,” Daniel confirmed.  “He’s my oldest friend.  Because my family moved around so much, I was never able to make lasting friendships as a kid.  Every friendship I had ended when we went on to the next city.  It was really lonely for me.  When we first moved to Irvine, I didn’t let myself get close to anyone.  I didn’t know how long we’d be there before we ended up moving someplace else.  But then, I met Arnie.  We’ve been friends ever since.”

“How did your father feel about you being friends with a Jew?” Rollie asked quietly.

“He wasn’t happy about it, but he learned to tolerate it in time.”

Everyone said good night and went off to their beds.

As Rollie lay in the dark, he heard Angie’s voice in his mind.

‘Hey, Rol.’

‘Hey.’

‘Are you going to be all right tonight?’

‘Yeah, I think so.  I’m going to miss you, though.  I really like waking up with you in my arms.’

‘Me too.’  There was a short silence.  ‘Would you like me to come over there?’

‘I’d love it, but I don’t think it would be a good idea tonight.’

‘Why not?’ Angie asked.

‘Because, tonight, I’d want more than just to hold you in my arms.’

‘Oh.’  Angie gave a mental sigh.  ‘I want that, too.’

‘Yeah.  We just have to be patient, Angie.  Besides, I don’t think I’m in any kind of condition to do any of those strenuous activities that the doctor warned me about before.’  He chuckled.  ‘I wouldn’t want to pop a stitch.’

‘Ooh, well, if we did do something like that, I can guarantee that you’d do more than just pop a stitch.’

‘Oh, really, Angela.’

‘Yes, really.’

‘Okay, now that I’m going to find it impossible to get to sleep with all these mental images playing through my mind, perhaps we’d better say good night before I lose what common sense I have and decide it’s worth the risk of ending up back in the hospital.’

Angie laughed.  ‘Good night, Rol.’

‘Night, Ange.  Sweet dreams.’

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

Alex and Dylan picked Daniel up early the next morning.  A little later, Angie decided that it would be a good time to go grocery shopping and take care of some of the other errands that she didn’t get done before.

“I want you to swear to me that you will go nowhere and do nothing that will put a physical strain on you,” she told her fiancé firmly.  “And I mean it, Rollie.”

Rollie heard his father give an amused chuckle.  Not looking at him, Rollie responded in a childlike voice, “Yes, Mummy Dearest.  I promise.  But if I take my vitamins, and eat all my veggies, and am a really good boy, may I go outside?  Pretty please?”

Angie pretended to ponder on it for a while.  “Well, all right, but don’t leave the yard.”

“Oh, goodie.  Thanks, Mummy.  I promise not to leave the yard.”

Angie smiled and gave Rollie a kiss, then left.

“I’m afraid she’s not going to let you get away with much, Son, at least not until you’re healed,” Dingo commented.

“Yeah, well, I already figured that.  I knew I’d be on a short leash.”

“So, do you have any plans for today?”

“Actually, I do.  I’m glad that Angie went off shopping.  Otherwise, I was going to have to figure out a way to get her out of here for a while.  I need to go shopping for her engagement ring.”

“Didn’t you just promise Angie that you wouldn’t go anywhere?” Mangela asked.

“Yeah, and I intend to keep that promise.  I will be doing my shopping online.  My friend, Mitch Dearborne, has a Web site for his jewelry store.”

The Aborigine shook his head.  “I would not be surprised if a day comes when people will not have to leave their houses at all.”

“Well, with all the stuff you can get online or by delivery, we’re already at that point for people who don’t work or who work out of their homes.”

The expression on Mangela’s face told Rollie what he thought about that.

Rollie smiled faintly.  “Well, I need to hop online, so you two will have to amuse yourselves.”

“Actually, there is something that I need to do,” Dingo told him.  “I can’t keep the trailer parked out there in front of your place forever, so I need to find someplace else to put it.”

“There’s no need to rush, Dad.  I don’t mind having it out there.”

There was a short silence.  “Actually, the truth is that I’m thinking of selling it.”

Rollie’s mouth fell open.  “Sell it?  You’ve had that trailer for as long as we’ve been in the States.  It’s your home.”

“It has been, but my traveling days are over, so I figure it’s about time I settle down in an apartment or something, put down some roots, as the Yanks say.”

Rollie felt his throat close up.  He had wanted his father to settle down in New York for so long.  It was hard to believe that it was finally happening.

“That’s . . . that’s really great to hear, Dad.  I think you know that I’ve always hoped you’d move here permanently  But maybe you should wait a little while before going apartment hunting.  They’re not cheap, and there will be a security deposit, so you might want to wait at least until after you’ve gotten a few paychecks.”

Dingo nodded.  “Yeah, you’re right.  But I’m still going to go looking for a place to park the trailer.  I’m sure that, once Daniel and Mangela leave, you and Angie will be busy with work and other things and won’t want me hanging around, getting in the way.”

“You wouldn’t be in the way, Dad,” Rollie said quietly.

“And what if you and Angie want to, um  . . . be alone?”

Rollie flushed slightly.  Then he smiled.  “If you mean what I think you mean, Angie and I have decided to wait until we’re married.  Besides, it’ll be a while before I could do anything like that anyway.  If you mean just spending time alone together, then, yeah, I admit that we will be wanting that every now and then.”

Dingo grinned.  “That’s what I figured.  It’s best if I’m not parked right outside.  That way, you don’t have to worry that I’m suddenly going to come waltzing in here.”

Rollie’s smile faded, and his gaze dropped to the floor.  Seeing, the faint shadow of sadness that had covered his son’s face, a puzzled Dingo looked at Mangela for answers.  The Aborigine just looked back at him, his expression telling Dingo that he should be able to figure out for himself what was wrong.  Dingo looked at his son, who had gone over to his workstation, and the answer suddenly came to him.  He walked over to Rollie.

“I’m not going to be a stranger, Son,” he said gently.  “I promised you that I was going to be a good father and make up for the years we spent apart, and I meant it.  You’ll be seeing plenty of me.  In fact, you’ll probably grow sick of the sight of me within a few months.”

Rollie looked up at him.  “That’s not going to happen, Dad.  Ever,” he stated, his voice and eyes filled with such quiet fervency that it choked Dingo up.

Dingo pulled his son into a tight embrace.  “I love you, Son.”

“I love you, too, Dad.”

Dingo drew back and put on a smile.  “You’d better get busy shopping for that ring.  I’ll be back later.”

“I’ll go with you,” Mangela said with a pleased smile.  He’d been waiting a long time to see Dingo give up his wandering ways and be a real father to Rollie.  He was delighted that it was finally happening.

Once the two men were gone, Rollie turned his attention to the computer.  He loaded Mitch’s site and started browsing through the rings.  He first looked through the ones that were in the engagement ring section.  There, he found a couple that he liked, but nothing that really wowed him.  He then went on to look at other rings, but still didn’t find what he was looking for.

Rollie sat back in his chair and thought about trying some other sites.  Instead, he turned to Bluey.

“Blue, personal address book.  Dial Mitchell Dearborne, home number.”

The electronic dog did as commanded.  The phone rang three times before being answered by a female voice.

“Hey, Suzanne.  How are you?” Rollie greeted.

“Rollie!  How wonderful to hear your voice.  I can’t tell you how happy I was when Mitch told me you were alive.  So, when are you going to come over?  More importantly, when are you going to introduce us to your fiancée?  We’ve heard so much about Angie, but we’ve never met her.”

Rollie chuckled.  “Yeah, that’s right.  I guess you haven’t.  Maybe after I get a bit more healed, we’ll come over.  So, is that husband of yours around?”

“He sure is.  Let me go get him.”

There was a couple of minutes of silence, then Mitch got on the phone.  “Hi, Rollie.  How are you doing?”

“Good.  I’m out of the hospital, which I couldn’t be happier about.”

“Hey, that’s great news.  You never told me what happened to put you in there.”

“Well, it’s a long story, Mitch.  To make it short, I got shot.”

“Bad?” Mitch asked in a somber voice.

“Yeah.  But I’m healing.  Anyway, the reason for my call is that I looked on your site for a ring for Angie, but I couldn’t find what I’m looking for.”

“What are you looking for?”

“I don’t know.  Something different, unusual, not your usual engagement ring.  I noticed that the ring Daniel got for his fiancée wasn’t on the site, so I thought that there might be others you didn’t have on there.”

“Yes, there are.  That ring and several others were recent acquisitions.  I haven’t had an opportunity to put them up on the site yet.”

“When do you think you’ll be doing that?”

“Gosh, I don’t know.  How long do you think it will be before you’d be well enough to come to the shop?”

“Well, that all depends.  I’d probably be able to come over later this week, but I’m almost certain that Angie will insist on coming with me to keep me out of trouble.  I sort of overdid it the last couple of times I ventured out, so she’s really watching me like a hawk now.  I had to just about make a blood oath that I wouldn’t go anywhere before she’d leave me alone this morning.”

Mitch laughed.  “So, what you’re saying is that she’s going to be stuck on you like glue for the next week or so.”

“Pretty much, and I really don’t want to wait that long to get the ring.  I know that I could go shopping for it with her, but I’d rather have it be a surprise.  So, could you give me some advice on where I might find a nice ring online?  I was hoping to get one from you, but I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

“Well, I could suggest a couple of places to look, but I have another idea.”

“What’s that?”

“I could bring some rings over there for you to look at,” the jeweler replied.

“I don’t want to put you through that much trouble, Mitch.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, Rollie.  I still owe you for pulling me out of that bad situation.”

“No, you don’t.  You don’t owe me a thing.”

“Well, that’s not how I look at it.  So, how about if I come over there now?”

Rollie thought about objecting again, but decided just to give in.  “Yeah, okay.  Thanks, Mitch.”

“No problem.  I’ll just run over to the shop and pick up some rings I think you might like.  Do you know what size Angie wears?”

“Uh, no, I don’t.  I saw her jewelry box upstairs, though.  Could you tell what size she wears from some of her other rings?”

“Yes, I could, but I didn’t want to have to bring a bunch of sizes with me.  Can’t you give me an idea on the size of her hands?”

“Well, they’re pretty small.  Angie’s only five foot six, and she’s quite slim.”

“Okay, that narrows it down.  I’ll bring some of the smaller sizes with me.”

Rollie thought of something.  “Um, I hate to ask, but could you do me another favor?”

“Sure, what is it?”

Rollie told him what he wanted, and Mitch said he’d be happy to do it.

After he hung up, Rollie tried to figure out a way to keep Angie away long enough that there wouldn’t be any danger of her coming back while Mitch was there.  He thought of something that would keep her busy for a while longer.

‘Ange?’

There was a brief pause.  ‘Just a sec, Rol,’ Angie then replied silently.

Rollie waited for Angie to get through with whatever she was doing.

‘Sorry about that,’ she finally said.  ‘I was at the cash register.  What’s up?  Is there a problem?’

‘Nope, everything’s fine.  I was just wondering if you could get something for me.’

‘Sure.  What is it?’

‘Well, I was thinking that the ibuprofen is going to start doing a number on my stomach if I keep taking it without food like I have been.  Acetaminophen doesn’t work well on me, so I was thinking that maybe you could see if there was anything natural that you could get.  You once said that there was a good herbalist in the Village.  You think they might be able to recommend something?’

‘Yes, they probably could, and I’m pretty sure they’re open on Sunday.  Rol, are you okay?  Are you in a lot of pain?’

‘No, I’m fine, Angie.  I swear,’ Rollie assured her.  ‘The ibuprofen is working.  It’s just not easy on the stomach, though it generally doesn’t bother me.’

‘Okay.  I can go over there and ask what they’d suggest.’

‘Thanks, Ange.  So, will you be back before lunch or will I need to fend for myself?’

‘No, I’ll be back before then.  Would you like me to pick something up for us?’

‘Sure.  Whatever you’re in the mood for is fine with me.  It’ll just be the two of us.  Dad and Mangela are gone, and I don’t know when they’ll be back.’

‘Okay.  I’ll see you after a while.  Bye.’

Rollie said goodbye, figuring that, between going to the herbalist and picking something up for lunch, Angie would be gone an additional forty minutes or so.

While waiting for Mitch, Rollie did a little surfing on the Internet to kill time.  When the jeweler arrived, he was carrying a metal case and the item that Rollie asked him to pick up.

“Rollie!  It’s great to see you, man,” Mitch said happily shaking the Aussie hand.  He studied the Aussie closely.  “You’re looking a bit ragged around the edges, though.  And you’ve lost weight.”

“Yeah, I’ve had a bit of a rough time of it, but I’ll be back to my old self in no time.  So, let’s see what you’ve got.”

Mitch handed Rollie the other object, then took the case over to the desk.  The moment Rollie looked inside, his eyes gravitated toward one ring in particular, which seemed to stand apart from the rest.  He picked it up and studied it.

“I really like this one.  I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Mitch nodded.  “It is a unique design.”

“Is the band Celtic?  That’s what it looks like.”

“Yes, it is, which is what makes the ring so unusual.  You generally don’t see Celtic bands with a center stone like that.”

Rollie looked at the ring more closely.  It was made of white gold.  The band was a beautiful, open weave Celtic design.  Mounted on it was a large, oval-cut, intensely blue sapphire surrounded by a dozen small diamonds.  There were also seven tiny sapphires mounted around the circumference of the band.

“That’s it.  That’s the one,” Rollie said with conviction.

Mitch grinned.  “Gee, Rollie.  You think you could have taken a little less time to decide?  I’ve been here a whole . . .” he looked at his watch, “five minutes.  I just can’t stand customers who take forever to make up their minds.”

Rollie chuckled.  “Hey, what can I say?  I know what I like, and that ring is perfect.”

The jeweler shook his head, smiling.  “Well, that was the quickest sale I ever made.  Don’t you even want to know what it costs?  I’ll warn you.  It’s not cheap.  That center sapphire is very high quality.”

Rollie shook his head.  “It doesn’t matter.  Whatever it costs, I’m getting it.  I’ll probably have to get it on payments, though.  Being dead doesn’t pay well.”

Mitch laughed.  “No, I should imagine it doesn’t.”  He looked that the Aussie more closely.  “I guess it wouldn’t do any good to ask yet where you’ve been all this time.”

“Not yet, Mitch.  A story will be released to the press soon, though I’m hoping to wait a few more days.  I’m not looking forward to all the media attention.”

“No, I should imagine not.  So, you said that you could get one of Angie’s other rings for me to check the size?”

“Yeah.  I’ll go get a couple.”

Rollie went upstairs and to his bedroom.  Angie’s jewelry box was sitting on the dresser.  She hadn’t gotten around to moving it out of there yet.  The Aussie gathered three rings and brought them to Mitch, who measured them.  The jeweler then lifted the top drawer out of his case, and Rollie saw a set of rings that were identical to the ones he looked at, except that they were a different size.  Mitch pulled out a ring like the one Rollie had chosen.  He got a black velvet ring box and placed the ring inside, then handed it to Rollie.

“There you go.  I know Angie is going to love it.”

See what Angie's ring looks like.

Mitch pulled out some paperwork for the financing.

“Um, I just thought of something,” Rollie said, looking at the papers.  “You go through a bank for the financing, right?”

“Yes.  Oh, I see the problem.  You’re still officially dead, so the bank might frown upon okaying monthly payments for someone who isn’t supposed to be alive to be able to pay them.”

“Yeah.  Would it be possible for you to delay filing the papers for a couple of weeks?  I can give you a deposit on the ring for the full purchase price, then you can give it back to me after you get the money from the bank.  I’ve got the money right now.  I’m just going to need it later when the medical bills start pouring in.”

“Sure, I can do that, but you don’t have to give me a deposit, Rollie.  I trust you.”

“I know you do, but I don’t want you to have to wait for the money.  You’re going to have to get another ring to replace the one I just bought.”

“Well . . . all right.  I still say it’s not necessary, but arguing would probably be a waste of breath.”

Rollie grinned.  “Yep.”

A while later, the papers for the financing completed, the two men stood.  “If you don’t mind, wait for a call from me before you submit the papers,” he said.

“No, problem.”

The two men shook hands again, then walked to the door.

“Thanks for coming over, Mitch,” Rollie said.  “Angie and I will come over to the shop soon to get our wedding rings.”

The jeweler nodded.  “Oh, that reminds me.  Is your brother still planning on coming over for their wedding rings?”

“I don’t know.  I’m not sure what the plan is for tomorrow.  He and his fiancée are leaving on Tuesday.”

“Well, if they don’t manage to get over there, I’m sure they can find some rings where they live.”

“I’ll talk to him about it.”

After Mitch’s departure, Rollie took the ring and the item Mitch had gotten for him up to Angie’s room.  He placed both on her bed.  Looking at them for a moment with a smile on his face, Rollie then went back downstairs to await Angie’s return.

Long before she pulled onto Brewery Lane, Rollie sensed Angie’s approach.  He was outside waiting for her when she pulled up.

“See, Mummy?  I stayed right in the yard, just like you told me to,” he said.

“Yes, I see that.  You were such a good boy.”

“Soooo . . . do I get a reward for being a good boy?”  Rollie’s eyebrows waggled.

“A reward, huh?  Hmm.  What kind of reward?”

Rollie immediately pulled Angie into his arms and consumed her mouth in a deep kiss.

“That oughta cover it,” he murmured against her lips.

“Well, I don’t know.  You were a very, very good boy.”  Angie followed that statement up with another kiss, this one even deeper and hungrier, as her hands slid over Rollie’s body intimately.

“If you keep that up, Ange, I’m going to be a very, very bad boy,” Rollie told her meaningfully, gazing into her eyes with desire as he pulled her tighter against him.

Angie chuckled low in her throat.  “Promises, promises.”  Then, with a regretful sigh, she pulled away.  “Come on.  Let’s get these groceries inside.”

They unloaded the car, then Rollie tried to wait patiently as Angie filled the fridge.  The moment she was done, he grabbed hold of her hand.

“Come with me,” he said quietly.

“What is it?”

“You’ll see.”

Angie kept glancing at Rollie as they went up the stairs.  As soon as they stepped through the main door to the living quarters, Rollie went behind her and covered her eyes with his hands.

“Rol, what’s going on?” she asked.

“Patience, my love,” Rollie murmured in her ear.  He led her to her room and positioned her in front of the bed.  Then he uncovered her eyes.  Angie blinked a couple of times then focused on what was on the bed.  A single blood red rose sat beside a black velvet ring box.  Angie’s breath caught in her throat.  She looked up at her fiancé in surprise.

“Mitch came over while you were gone.  I didn’t want to wait until I was well enough to go get you a ring,” he explained.

Angie picked up the box and slowly opened it.  She gasped sharply.  “Oh my God,” she whispered.  “Oh, Rollie.  It’s so beautiful.”

“No more beautiful than you are, Angel,” he told her with absolute sincerity.

Angie spun around and threw he arms around him, burying her face against his chest.  Rollie was surprised to feel wetness soak through his shirt.  He gently tilted Angie’s face upward.

“Hey, hey.  What are you crying for?”

“Because I really never thought I was going to get this.  All the time I knew that I was in love with you, I was almost certain that you didn’t love me back that way.  Getting married and being your wife became this unobtainable dream to me.  And then you died, and the dream died, too.  I knew that there would never be anyone else for me.  But, now, I have you back, and my dream is actually coming true.  If I’m sleeping and this really is just a dream, please don’t ever let me wake up.”

Rollie cupped her face in his hands.  “It’s real, Ange.  It’s all real.”  He kissed her forehead gently.  “This is real.”  He placed a kiss on her wet cheek.  “This is real.”  A kiss to the other cheek.  “This is real.”  He brought his lips to within a millimeter of hers.  “And this is real.”  He captured her mouth with his.  With a sound halfway between a sigh and a moan, Angie pulled him closer and deepened the kiss.  It was quite a while before they separated.

“So, does it still feel like a dream?” Rollie asked with a smile.

“Mmm.  The best dream I ever had.”

Rollie pulled away and took the box from her hand.  He then slipped the ring on her finger.  They both gazed at it, thinking of all that it signified.

“I used to dream about this, too,” Rollie said quietly.  “It was a new experience for me.  I’d never thought about getting married before, not seriously.”

“Not even with Taya?”

Rollie’s eyes met Angie’s.  He had detected the falseness to the casual tone she’d asked the question in.  “Not even with Taya,” he told her with conviction.  He remembered the thoughts he’d had about this subject a few days ago and decided to share them with Angie.  “Maybe if things had gone differently and she had come back with me to the States instead of pulling her vanishing act, I would have.  But she walked out of my life before I started thinking that far ahead.”

“Yet you thought far enough ahead to ask her to leave Hong Kong and come with you.”

“Yeah.  Yeah, I did.  But the truth is that all I really knew at the time was that I wanted to be with her, and the only way that could happen was if she came home with me.  But I wasn’t really thinking all that far into the future.  I know I should have.  Before I asked her to leave with me, I should have thought about whether or not she was someone whom I’d want to spend the rest of my life with.  But what I felt for her was something new to me, and I didn’t want to lose it.  To be honest, I acted impulsively.  I shouldn’t have asked her to come to the States.  We’d only been together for a few weeks.  We didn’t know each other well enough.  As it turned out later, I really didn’t know her at all.  She wasn’t the person I thought she was.”  Rollie cupped Angie’s cheek and looked deeply into her eyes.  “But with you it was so different.  Almost as soon as I realized I was in love with you, I was thinking about our future together, how I wanted to spend forever with you as your husband.  I thought about having babies with you.”  He laughed.  “And that is most definitely not something I ever considered with another woman.  Not to say that I didn’t think about having kids.  I did.  But there has never been a woman in my life whom I looked at and said, ‘I want her to be the mother of my children.’  Only you, Angie.  Only you.”  He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her.  Then he smiled at her.  “Go put the rose in some water, then come to my bedroom.”

Angie searched his eyes, then nodded, smiling.  After finding a vase and putting the rose in it, she went back upstairs and to Rollie’s room.  She found him on the bed, his shoes off and his back propped up by several pillows.  He held his hand out to her.

“C’mere,” he said softly.

Kicking her shoes off, Angie settled beside him, snuggling into his arms.  With a happy sigh, Rollie deepened the connection between them as he had done twice before.

‘This feels so good, Rol,’ Angie said in her mind.  ‘So right.’

‘Yeah.  It feels perfect.  More than perfect, if there is such a thing.’

They were both silent for a moment, just reveling in the depth of their connection.

‘Ange, I want to try something,’ Rollie said at last.  ‘I don’t know for sure if I can do it, but I’d like to try.’

‘What?’

Instead of answering her, Rollie recalled to his memory one of the dreams he’d had about Angie, one of the ones in which they were together as a family with their children.  Then he attempted to share the memory with her.  For a moment, nothing happened, then Angie gasped and stiffened slightly.

‘Rollie, what’s going on?’

‘This is one of my dreams, Ange, one of the many dreams I had about you.  I’m sharing this memory with you.’

Angie watched the images, seeing her and Rollie together, looking happy and content, their children, a little boy and girl, playing around them.  The sight and the thought that this was the memory of a dream Rollie had experienced made her throat tighten with emotion.  After a few seconds, the image faded.

‘There are others, lots of other,’ Rollie told her.  She sensed him smile.  ‘A lot of them are ones that I think it would be best to wait until after we’re married before I show them to you.’

‘Oh, really.  That sounds very interesting, Rol.  Couldn’t you give me a little bitty peek?’

‘I don’t think that would be wise.  It’s best not to play with fire if you can’t let yourself be consumed by it.’  He pulled her tighter against him.  ‘And believe me, Angie.  Those dreams were very consuming.’

‘Mmm.  I will be looking forward to you sharing them with me.’

They both fell silent and just held each other.

For the rest of the day, Rollie and Angie did nothing more than spend time together, talking and simply being in each other’s company.  They took a short walk around the block, holding onto each other’s hands.  Angie went down and got a movie, one of those romantic “chick flicks” that Rollie never liked, and they watched it snuggled together on the couch.  Surprisingly, Rollie actually liked the movie.  Perhaps it was because the love of his life was there in his arms, and that fact gave him a new perspective on things.

What surprised the Aussie the most was that, throughout the entire day, he never once got restless, never had the urge to be working on a project.  He was perfectly happy spending a quiet day there at the loft, getting nothing at all accomplished.  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that willingly.

Mangela and Dingo had returned that afternoon to say that they’d found a place to park the trailer, but Dingo had to take the space right away since the owner wouldn’t hold it for him.  So, hooking the trailer up to the Caddy, the two men went off again, saying they’d be back later.  It was nearly six by the time they got back.  Daniel, Alex and Dylan arrived about half an hour later.

“So, did you guys enjoy yourselves?” Rollie asked.

“Yeah, it was fun!” Dylan replied enthusiastically.

“It sure was,” Daniel agreed.  “We all had a blast.”

Rollie smiled.  “So, where’s my Coney Dog?”

Much to his surprise, Daniel reached into the bag he was carrying, pulled out a hotdog, and presented it to his brother.  “There you go, Rollie.”

The Aussie grinned in delight.  “Thanks, Daniel.”  He looked at the slightly squished hotdog.  “What did you do?  Sit on it?”

“No, Rufus did.”

“Rufus?”

“Hold on a sec.  I’ll go get him.”

Daniel went outside, then came back in a moment later with a huge stuffed dog.  “Say hi to Rufus.”

Rollie almost laughed, but stopped himself in time.  “So, how much money did you lay out before you managed to win that thing?”

“Not much, actually.  I’m pretty good at throwing a baseball.”

“Really?  Too bad I didn’t get to see your throwing arm in action when we played the baseball game.”

“Well, someday, we’ll have to play some real baseball.  Then you can see me in action.”

“You know, it’s a good thing you’re flying back with your parents.  Otherwise, you’d have to book a seat on the plane just for that thing,” Angie said.

The minister chewed on his lip.  “I didn’t think about that,” he admitted.  “We’re going to have to figure out how to carry it on the flight between Irvine and Seattle.”  He looked at Alex.  “Sorry, Alex.  We might have to leave him with Mom and Dad until they come up.”  He grinned.  “I’m sure they’ll take good care of him.”

The redhead sighed dramatically.  “Poor Rufus.  He was so looking forward to coming home with us.”  She grinned.  “And I was looking forward to introducing him to Bob.”

“Bob?” Rollie inquired.

“Bob is a dog who has a rather, um . . . dysfunctional relationship with his owner,” Daniel explained.  “Whenever they get into a fight, Bob comes to stay with Alex.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.  It’s the truth.”

This time, Rollie couldn’t stop himself from laughing.  “Hope Island sounds like a very interesting place.”

Daniel grinned.  “Oh, it definitely is that.”

Just then, Alex caught sight of Angie’s engagement ring.  She gasped and reached for her friend’s hand.  “Oh, wow!  Let me see!”

With a big smile, Angie showed off the ring Rollie had gotten her.

“That is absolutely gorgeous, Angie,” Alex said.  “The band looks Celtic.”

“It is,” Rollie confirmed.

“It’s beautiful,” Daniel agreed, thinking that the ring looked fantastic on Angie’s finger, though not as fantastic as the glow of happiness that was on her face.

After dinner, everyone chatted about Daniel, Alex and Dylan’s adventures on Coney Island, Rollie and Angie sharing some of their own memories of times they spent there.

“What are we going to do tomorrow?” the boy asked.  “It’s our last day here.”

Daniel looked at his brother, catching the faint flicker of sadness there.  “Rollie and I were planning on doing something together.  We haven’t really had a chance to do anything together, just the two of us.”

“We don’t have to, Daniel,” Rollie said.  “We can all go do something.”

“No, Rol.  I think that you guys should spend some time alone together,” Angie told him.  “The rest of us can entertain ourselves.”

“I agree,” Alex said.  “Besides, I’ve got to go in for the fitting on my wedding dress.”

“Oh, that reminds me.  When Mitch came over with Angie’s engagement ring, he asked about your wedding rings,” Rollie told his brother.  “I guess you had told him that you would go shopping for your rings at his shop.”

“I completely forgot about that,” Daniel admitted.  “I guess we won’t be able to now.  There won’t be an opportunity tomorrow, and we’ll be leaving too early in the morning to do it on Tuesday.  I really did want to get them there, though, considering how great Mitch was about Alex’s engagement ring.”

“Like I said, Daniel, we don’t have to do anything special tomorrow.  Either that or we can just go somewhere afterwards.”

Daniel studied his brother’s face.  “Did you have something special in mind for tomorrow?”

Rollie hesitated.  “Um, yeah, I did have a thought, but we’d have to leave really early in the morning.  It doesn’t matter.  We can do something else.”

“What was it that you wanted to do?” Daniel asked, his voice insistent.

“I, um, thought that maybe we could go to the Adirondacks.”

Angie looked at her fiancé in surprise.  “The Adirondacks?  I’ve been there several times, and you never showed any great desire to go.  Why now?”

The Aussie shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable.  “I don’t know.  I just feel like seeing it.  There are a lot of things that I’ve never taken the time to see that I’d like to.”

“What are the Adirondacks?” Dylan asked.

“The Adirondack Mountains is a region of mountains Upstate,” Angie replied.  “They’re part of the six million-acre Adirondack Park, which is the country’s largest state park.  It covers a fifth of the state.”

“Wow.  I’d like to see that,” Daniel said.  “I think it’s a great idea to go there.”

“Would you be up for that long a drive, Rol?” Angie asked.

“I think so.  We can stop and stretch our legs a few times on the way.”

“Well, then I think you should do it.  It’s really nice up there.  You are, of course, not planning on climbing any mountains.”

Rollie grinned.  “I leave the mountain climbing to you, Love.”  He looked at Daniel and Alex.

“Come to think of it, you’re supposed to go get you stitches removed tomorrow,” Angie said.

“It can wait until Tuesday.  One more day isn’t going to matter.”

Daniel grinned.  “So, are you going to just walk into your doctor’s office and announce that you’re alive or will you be breaking the news to him gently?”

“Neither.  I’ll just go to the clinic to get the stitches taken out, though I am going to have to set up a regular doctor’s appointment eventually.  I need to get frequent x-rays and examinations until my lung is fully healed.  Actually, this might be a good time to find a new doctor.  My old doctor was, uh, sort of losing patience with me.”

Angie snorted.  “That’s putting it mildly.  He once accused you of having a death wish.”

Rollie frowned.  “He was joking, Ange.”

“Only partly.”

The Aussie shrugged.  “Yeah, well, anyway, a new doctor might work out better for me.  Maybe I’ll ask Trent who he’d recommend.”  He turned back to Daniel and Alex.  “Getting back on the subject of the wedding rings, I don’t know if you’d be interested, but Mitch does have his wedding rings on his Web site.  If you wanted to, you could pick out your rings online, then Alex could pick them up tomorrow.”

Daniel looked at his fiancée.  “Hmm.  I don’t know.  It would be nice for us to go looking for our rings together.”

“Well, why don’t you at least take a look on Mitch’s site and see what he has?”

Daniel looked at Alex again, silently asking her opinion.

“Sure, we can do that,” she said.

Rollie brought up the site and navigated to the section with the wedding rings.  Knowing that his brother had little experience with computers, he gave him a brief tutorial on how to navigate from page to page.

Daniel and Alex went searching through the selection of rings.  After just a couple of minutes, they found a set they both liked that was at a price they could afford.  They looked at each other.

“What do you want to do, Alex?” Daniel asked.  “We don’t have to get the rings from Mitch.  We can go shopping in Seattle.”

“Yes, we could, but, like you said, it would be nice to get them from him.”

“You don’t mind not going shopping for our rings together?”

“Well, in a way, that’s what we’re doing now,” Alex reasoned.

Daniel smiled.  “Yeah, I guess you do have a point.  I’m just not used to the idea of shopping for things on the Internet.”

“Oh, I think that, once Dylan and I are living with you, and you have access to Dylan’s system, you’ll eventually get hooked on computers and the World Wide Web.”

“Hmm.  I don’t know about that, but maybe he can teach me enough that I won’t be a total dunce.”

“So, what do you want to do?” Alex asked.

Daniel thought about it.  He felt an obligation to Mitch to get the rings from him since the man had been so generous regarding Alex’s engagement ring, though he knew that Mitch would not see it that way.  Also, there was no way to know what kind of purchasing arrangement could be made with another shop.  He looked at the rings on the screen again.

“Do you really like those rings?”

“Yes, I do,” Alex replied honestly.

“Okay.  If you really don’t mind, we can do what Rollie suggested.”

“That would be fine, Daniel.”  She gave him a kiss.  “Really.”

The couple wrote down the order number of the rings, then went back to the others.

“We found a set we like, so we’re going to go ahead and do what you suggested, Rollie,” Daniel said.  “There is a problem, though.  I don’t know my ring size.”

The Aussie smiled.  “That’s not a problem.  I know mine, and I’m sure that you’d wear the same size.”

Alex and Dylan headed back to the motel at nine o’clock.  Alex had made arrangements to meet Angie in town so that they could hang out together.  Since Dylan would obviously have no interest in going to a bridal boutique or hanging out with two women while they went off and did other “girl stuff,” Mangela volunteered to watch the boy.

Dingo left not long after Alex’s and Dylan’s departure.  Daniel had been pleased when he found out that Dingo was planning on finding an apartment.  He knew how much Rollie wanted their father to move to New York permanently.

Because Rollie and Daniel would both have to get up very early in the morning, everyone retired early for the night.

‘Ange?’ Rollie called in his mind not long after turning off his bedroom light.

‘Yeah?’

‘Today was a nice day.  I’m glad we didn’t do any work.’

‘Me too.  It’s been a really long time since we just hung out together.’

‘Yeah.  I’m sorry about that.  We should have done that more often.’

‘It’s not just your fault, Rol.  I could have suggested that we do something together at any time.  I guess we were just too wrapped up in the things we do.’

‘Well, that’s going to change.  From now on, we’re going to pay more attention to the other things in life.  We’re going to take the time to slow down and do the kinds of things we were always too busy to pay attention to before.’

‘That’ll be nice, Rollie.  I’m looking forward to it.’

‘Good night, Angie.  Love you.’

‘Night, Rollie.  Love you, too.’

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

Rollie and Daniel left on their trip shortly after sunrise.  The twins were not wearing disguises of any kind, Rollie having decided that the chances of someone recognizing them were virtually nil where they were going.  They took turns doing the driving, stopping several times along the way to give the Aussie a chance to stretch his legs.  As they drove, they talked about past experiences, mostly things in their childhood and teens.  Rollie was surprised to hear about the acts of rebellion that Daniel had committed in his youth, though he did understand the reason behind them.  Cliff Cooper had not been much of a father.  That was definitely one way in which the brothers were alike.

At last, they reached Adirondack Park.  They picked up a map and some brochures to guide them through the massive park to what they’d like to see most.  The scenery was spectacular, and Rollie found himself really enjoying the day just taking in the sights of the lakes, mountains and trees.

The brothers decided to have lunch on the shore of Lake George.  As they ate, Rollie looked at a map that showed the various hiking and nature trails in the area.  He knew that he wasn’t up to a hike up one of the mountains, but many of the nature trails were mostly level.

“How about a walk on one of the trails?” he asked his brother.

“That sounds good as long as it’s not something tough.  Angie would not be happy if you overdid it yet again.”

Rollie grinned.  “‘Not be happy?’  Boy, is that ever an understatement.  She’d probably lock me up in the loft and not let me out for the next week if I overdid it again.”

Daniel laughed.  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“There are some trails here that say they’re easy walks.”  He pointed to one in particular.  “This one’s kind of off the beaten path, but it goes up to a spot where you can view Lake George.”

Daniel looked at the one Rollie was pointing to.  “Um, doesn’t that symbol mean there are some mild inclines to go up?”

“Yeah, but I can make it, Daniel.  We can stop to rest as I need it.  Trent said that I’m supposed to do some deep breathing exercises.  Well, a mild climb will do just that.”

The minister looked at his brother doubtfully for a moment, then acquiesced.  “All right, but if you start getting too tired, we’re going to turn around and go back.”

Rollie shook his head.  “You’re sounding just as bad as Angie.”

“Call it self-preservation, Big Brother.  Angie is expecting me to keep an eye on you.  If I don’t, she’ll have my hide.”

A while later, they were at the chosen trail.  They’d brought one backpack along to carry food and water.  Putting the pack on, Daniel started up the trail with his brother.  They did not rush, choosing to enjoy the tranquility of the forest surrounding them.  At last, they reached the section of the trail where it began to climb upward.  Daniel watched Rollie closely, looking for any sign of tiredness.  He called a halt when it appeared to him that Rollie’s breathing was too labored.

“I’m all right, Daniel,” the Aussie insisted, though he was hurting a little bit and did feel slightly winded.

“Maybe.  But you won’t be soon if you don’t take a break now.  Let’s just go over there and sit on that log for a while.”

With a somewhat exasperated sigh, Rollie went over to the fallen tree and sat down.  “Happy now?”

Daniel smiled.  “Delighted.”

The brothers stayed there for a few minutes, then continued up the trail.  They stopped twice more before the trail leveled off.  Shortly after that, they reached the end and came to a spectacular view overlooking Lake George.

“Well, that is definitely worth the walk,” Daniel commented.

“Yeah, it is,” Rollie agreed.

The twins settled on the ground where they had an unobstructed view and just looked their fill.  They’d been there perhaps fifteen minutes when a sharp cry drew Rollie’s attention upward to a lone bald eagle soaring in the air.  The sight made him recall a revelation he’d made some time ago.

“You remember the Dreaming I had that made me realize I had a twin?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“I was talking with Dad a while ago, and something he said enabled me to figure out what part of that Dreaming meant.  I think I understand more about what this thing is between us, this connection.  I can’t say that I know why it happened, but I sort of know how it came to be.”

His brother studied him.  “How?”

“I think that, when the egg divided, separating us into two people, our songlines did not separate.  We shared the same one until the moment we were born.  It was only then that it divided into two songlines, each one almost a mirror image of the other.  If we had grown up together, I think that we would have been virtually identical in every way.  But when we were separated, the connection between us was severed, at least mostly.  We were only babies and weren’t strong enough to maintain the link, even if we’d known how.”

“You mean that, if we had stayed together, our bond would have made our personalities the same?”

“I doubt that they'd have been exactly the same, but they probably would have been very close.  The extremely tight meshing of our songlines would have caused our personalities to . . . bleed into each other's, or at least that's what I'd guess.  I didn't figure that part out until very recently.  But, because we grew up apart and had lost the link and its influence on us, we developed different personalities, likes, dislikes, etcetera.  They say that much of a person’s personality is what they are born with, but the way someone is raised and their experiences do affect it.  You and I were raised in completely different environments, a different culture, everything.  It was bound to affect the kind of people we became.  As for the other ways we differ, like my proficiency with electronics and mechanical gadgets and your, um, lack thereof, I don’t know.  For all we know, you might have a knack for it, too, but you just never had a desire to learn.”

Daniel gave a chuckle.  “I very seriously doubt that I could ever do the kinds of things you can do with electronics and such, Rollie.”

The Aussie shrugged, a faint smile on his lips.  “Maybe, maybe not.  Perhaps one of these days I’ll give you a crash course, see how well you do.”  His smile disappeared as his gaze became more intense.  “You know that moment when we finally saw each other for the first time, when we both felt that jolt?”

Daniel nodded.

“I believe that was the final connection being made between us, the last link in the chain being forged,” Rollie told him.  “And I think that, now that our bond has been fully reestablished, we’re being changed by it, or at least I am.”  Rollie’s gaze fell to his hands.  “I’ve been noticing . . . differences in me recently, not big differences, but big enough that I am aware of them.”

“What kind of differences?”

“Well, I’ve always been pretty . . . energetic.”

Daniel smiled slightly at what he knew was a major understatement.

“I was forever on the go, always doing or planning something.  Leo once asked me if I ever just kicked back and did nothing, and the truth is that, even when I am taking a break and relaxing, which isn't often, my brain is usually still going full speed, thinking about work, or some idea for a project I had, or a case I just helped on, something.”

“And now?”

“I spent the entire day yesterday without any desire to do work of any kind.  I never got the itch to get busy on some project.  I never got restless.  I was just enjoying being with Angie, spending time with her.  We took a short walk, sat around the loft and talked, watched one of those romantic movies, things like that.”

Daniel looked at his brother in surprise.  “You willingly watched a romance?”  He laughed, knowing that was not something his brother would normally do, if given a choice.

Rollie grinned.  “Yeah, and I liked it, too.”  His smile softened.  “Maybe I never cared for them before because I didn’t have someone I loved like that to watch them with.  It makes a difference.”

Daniel nodded.  “Yes, it does.”

Rollie became completely serious again.  “And then there’s this.”  He spread his arms to encompass the view laid out before them.  “I’ve lived in New York since I was seventeen years old, yet I’ve never come here.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate stuff like this.  I do.  You saw some of the VR programs I have.  I spend a lot of time in there looking at things like this.  It’s just that, whenever I took some time off, I usually did things like skydiving, stuff that gets the adrenalin pumping.  And the truth is that, even when I was in the VR chamber, looking at some beautiful scenic wonder, my attention was only partially on it.  My mind was still full of other stuff.  I could never really turn my brain off and just sit there and enjoy the view.”  Rollie’s gaze went to the lake.  “But it’s different now.  When we first got up here, I sat here, looking at this, and I was really looking at it, just appreciating what I was seeing.  It’s like my mind has learned how to be quiet.  And the thing is that it doesn’t feel strange or wrong.  I like the fact that I’m coming to enjoy the quieter things in life.  I could probably say that this is all because of my long captivity, but I know there’s more to it than that.”  Rollie looked at his brother.  “I think that, through this link, I’ve . . . absorbed a little bit of you.”

Daniel sat quietly, thinking about what his brother had just told him.  “If what you say is true, then I think it’s working both ways,” he finally said.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, except in reverse.  When we went to Coney Island, I really cut loose.  I was acting like a teenager.  No, actually, I never acted quite like that, even when I was a teenager.  Alex couldn’t figure out what had gotten into me.  I just felt so full of energy and drive.”  He laughed.  “To be honest, it was a great feeling.”

“That definitely sounds like a Rollie moment to me,” his twin said, smiling.

“So, what does this mean?  Are our personalities going to merge to the point where we'll be like the way we would have been if we'd grown up together, virtually identical?”

“No.  It wouldn’t go anywhere near that far.  Our personalities are too firmly established.  We’ve just gained a little piece of each other.”  Rollie’s eyes returned to the scenery.  “And I’m glad about it.”

“Me too,” Daniel said.  He smiled.  “I like having a bit of Rollie Tyler in me.”  His smiled broadened.  “He seems to have a lot more fun than Daniel Cooper.”

Rollie chuckled.  “Well, just as long as you don’t gain the part of me that gets into trouble all the time.  That part’s not so fun.”

“Yeah, I know.  I’ve gotten a little taste of that, remember?”

The sound of voices drew their attention.  A young couple was coming up the trail toward them.

“Hello,” the man said.

“Hi,” both Rollie and Daniel responded.

The woman turned slightly to the right, and the twins realized that what they had thought was a backpack on her back was actually a baby carrier.  In it was a little girl perhaps seven or eight months old.  Her bright eyes looked their way.

With a sigh of relief, the woman took the carrier off.  “Hey, Katie.  I bet you want out of that thing as badly as I wanted to get it off my back,” she said.  She took the baby out and set her on the ground.  Then the woman helped her husband take his pack off.  One of the snaps on the pack popped open, and several things tumbled out.  As the couple picked the things up, Katie took the opportunity to crawl over to where Rollie and Daniel were.  Her little hand grasped Rollie’s shirt and used it to pull herself to her feet.  The Aussie found himself gazing into a pair of huge, bright blue eyes.  He looked down at the small, beautiful, innocent face, and, all at once, the memories of what he’d seen in Cromwell’s past flooded into him.  Tear welled up into his eyes, and he quickly turned away.

Instantly knowing what was wrong, Daniel picked the baby up and carried her back to her parents.

“I think you lost something,” he said in a friendly tone.

The couple looked up.

“Katie!  Did you go wandering off again?” the woman said.  She took the baby with a smile and a thank you.  “She didn’t bother you did she?”

“No, not at all.  She’s beautiful.”

“Thank you.  She’s my little darling, even if she is a handful sometimes.”  The woman looked down at her daughter.  “Now, you stay put, Katie, while your daddy and I get lunch out.”  She set the baby back down.

Katie, totally ignoring her mother’s words, immediately made a beeline back toward Rollie, who was turned away from them, his shoulders hunched forward, arms hugging his knees.

“Katie, come back here, you little stinker!” the woman said, making a move to fetch her wayward child.

A thought suddenly occurred to Daniel.  “Wait.  Please,” he said in a quiet voice.  Startled, both the woman and the man stared at him for a silent moment, then turned back to their daughter.  Unstopped by her parents, Katie again covered the distance to Rollie.  As before, she pulled herself to her feet by grasping onto his shirt.  For a long moment, Rollie did not move, then, slowly, he turned and looked down at the infant.  Katie’s parents saw the expression of terrible sadness on his face.  They glanced at Daniel curiously, but he was busy watching his brother and the baby.

Rollie swallowed tightly and oh so carefully picked the baby up.  He set her on his lap and gazed down at her.  Katie smiled up at him, apparently quite happy to be there.  Rollie touched the baby’s face with a trembling hand.  Katie gurgled and grabbed onto his finger.  Rollie’s eyes went to the tiny hand, his thumb stroking the little fingers.  Then he leaned forward and drew in a deep breath of that pure, unique scent that only babies possess.  Katie took the opportunity to grasp his nose.  Gently removing her hand from the appendage, he slid his gaze over her face.

“Hey there,” the Aussie finally said in a small, shaky voice.  Katie gurgled again in reply.  Perfect.  She was so perfect, and beautiful, and innocent . . . and alive.  Alive, unlike the babies Cromwell and Brier murdered.  Rollie’s eyes closed again and gently lifted Katie into his arms, holding her close to him, nuzzling his face against hers.

Daniel watched the scene before him, his eyes stinging with unshed tears.  The sound of someone clearing their throat made him turn to the couple.  He saw the questions in their eyes.  He didn’t know how to answer without saying too much.

“My brother saw . . . something terrible happen.  He witnessed the death of several babies.  He’s still recovering from it,” he finally said.

“Oh no.  How awful,” Katie’s mother said.  She turned back to Rollie.  He was now rocking slightly from side to side, still holding onto Katie.

At last, Rollie put the baby back down on his lap.  He gazed at her a moment longer, then placed a kiss on her forehead.  He then stood and took Katie back to her parents.  Embarrassed, he did not meet their eyes as he handed the infant to her mother.  Then, without a word, he began walking away down the trail.

“Thank you,” Daniel said to the couple with sincerity.  He grabbed up his knapsack and hurried to catch up to his brother.  They made their way back down the trail in silence for several minutes.

“Rollie?” Daniel finally said.  “Do you want to talk about it?”

The Aussie came to a stop so abruptly that Daniel nearly lost his balance in his hurried attempt not to walked past him.  He watched Rollie go over to a tree and lean back against, drawing in a deep breath.

“It hurts,” Rollie murmured.  “It’s not like it was before, when it was so bad that I couldn’t handle it, but it still hurts to remember.”  His eyes went back up the trail.  “Most of the babies that they killed didn’t look like her.  Their poor little bodies were so badly deformed.  But they were still babies.  They didn’t deserve what happened to them.  They didn’t deserve to have that done to them.”

“I know, Rollie.  I know.  But they are at peace, now.  They’re with God.  All the pain they suffered in their short lives is over.”  An idea came to the minister.  “Rollie, I think that we should have a memorial service for them.”

Surprised, the Aussie looked at him.  “A memorial service?  They’ve all been dead for almost thirty-five years, Daniel.”

“That doesn’t matter.  It makes no difference.  They never had a funeral.  No one was there to say goodbye to them, to pray for them.  I think they deserve that.”

Rollie thought about it for a long moment, then nodded.  “Where?” he asked.

“How about up there?  I can't think of a place more fitting than where we are, surrounded by God's majesty.”

“But how?  There wouldn’t be time.  You’re leaving tomorrow.  If we were going to do something like that, I’d want Angie to be with us, as well as Mangela, and I’m sure that you would want Alex to be there, too.  It’s too late in the day for them to get over here by car.”

Daniel thought about the problem for a few seconds before the answer came to him.  “Come on.  Let’s get back to the car.  I’ve got a call to make.”

The trip back down the trail was made a whole lot faster than the walk up.  They then drove until they reached an area where Rollie could get a strong enough signal on his cell phone.  Daniel took the phone, got out of the car, and walked several yards away, out of Rollie’s earshot, and called his parents.

“Hi, Daniel.  We weren’t expecting to hear from you until tonight,” his mother said.

“Yeah.  Um, Mom, can I borrow the jet?”

Bonnie laughed.  “Just then, you sounded exactly like you did whenever you asked to borrow the car before your dad bought you one of your own.”

Daniel gave a laugh, then turned serious again.  “This is important, Mom.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, not really.  Rollie and I are in the Adirondacks.  There’s something we want to do.  We need to get Angie, Alex and the others over here, but there isn’t time for them to come by car.  Please, Mom.  I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t something important.”

“All right, Daniel.  I’ll ask your father.”

Daniel waited as his mother talked to Cliff.  He looked over at Rollie and saw that his twin had gotten out of the car and wandered away a few yards, hands shoved into his pockets.

“Cliff said that would be fine with him,” Bonnie told her son.

“Thanks, Mom.  And thank Dad for me.”

Daniel made some other arrangements with her, then he called Angie on her cell phone.  He quickly discussed his idea with her.  She was all for the plan, and so was Alex when Angie told her what was going on.

Once everything was arranged, Daniel disconnected the call and walked over to his brother.  “It’s all set.”

Rollie looked at him.  “What’s all set?  You wouldn’t tell me what you had in mind.”

“I didn’t want to say anything until I knew if I could work things out.  Mom and Dad are letting us borrow the jet.  The others are going to fly over on it, then rent a car to drive over here.  We’ll meet them at the lake.”

Rollie searched his brother’s face.  “Why are you doing this, Daniel?”

“I told you, Rollie.  I think that those babies deserve it.”

The Aussie nodded.  “And the other reason?”

Daniel stared into Rollie’s eyes, realizing that he couldn’t hide much from his brother.  “I think you deserve it, too.  I think that it might help.  You need closure, Rollie, for this and for a lot of other things.  I can’t give you that closure for everything, but I can do this for you.”

Rollie blinked back fresh tears, deeply touched by his twin’s actions.  “Thank you,” he whispered.

Daniel put an arm around his brother’s shoulders.  “Come on.  Let’s go find a place where we can hang out until the others arrive.”

They went back to Lake George and spent the time wandering around the area until Angie called Rollie’s cell, telling him that they’d arrived at the Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport in Queensbury.

“There’s one hitch, though,” she said.  “They don’t have car rentals here unless you prearrange it, so we’re going to have to take a taxi to Glens Falls and see if we can get a car there.”

“Okay, give us a call after you’ve got the car,” Rollie told her.

Sometime later, Angie called again to say that they were on their way.  Rollie looked at the map he’d gotten of the park and told Angie to meet them at one of the larger recreational areas nearby.  He and Daniel then headed over there.

The brothers were in the midst of a conversation when Rollie abruptly announced that the others were almost there.  Daniel smiled.

“Did Angie just ‘call’ you or is it that Angie GPS of yours?”

Rollie grinned.  “It’s the GPS.”

“You know, that’s a pretty handy talent to have, but I kind of feel sorry for Angie.  It would be impossible for her to go off somewhere without you knowing right where she was.”

Rollie shook his head.  “It’s not that precise, except when she’s really close by.  If I was sitting at home and she was somewhere in the city, I’d be able to tell what direction she was in and maybe have a rough estimate of how far away she was, but I couldn’t zero in on her exact location unless I was to go and try to find her.  It’s the same way as it is with you.  When you were kidnapped, I only knew what direction you were in and that you were several miles away.  Once we got on the road, I followed the feel of your presence.  The closer I got to you, the easier it was to pinpoint your precise location.”

The arrival of Angie, Alex and Mangela put an end to their conversation.

“Where’s Dylan?” Rollie asked.

“I asked Mom if she could watch him,” Daniel explained.  “Dylan doesn’t know about the babies, and we don’t want him to.”

The Aussie nodded, agreeing with the decision.  “I wish Dad could be here, but I wouldn’t have wanted him to postpone his first day at work yet again.”

“When he found out what we were going to do, he was tempted to call Chet, but he decided that it wouldn’t be fair to the guy,” Angie told him.

“Yeah, Chet’s been really great about everything.”

With Rollie and Daniel in the truck and the others in the rental car, they returned to the place where the brothers had taken their walk.  Angie pulled her backpack out of the car.  Puzzled, Rollie stared at it.

“What’s that for?” he asked.  “We’re not hiking up a mountain, Ange.”

“I asked her to bring some things,” Daniel explained.

Rollie looked at his brother, wondering what was in the backpack, then shrugged.  They set out on the trail.  When they got to the point where it sloped upward, Angie looked at her fiancé.

“You walked up that?” she asked in a disapproving tone of voice.

“Yes, Angie, and don’t start in on me.  It’s not that steep, and we took several breaks.  I didn’t overdo it.”

Angie was tempted to say something else, then changed her mind.  However, she did watch Rollie like a hawk as they continued up the slope.  Like before, they stopped three times to let him rest.  At last, they reached the end of the trail.

“How beautiful,” Alex murmured at the sight laid out before them.

Angie carefully set her backpack down and extracted something from it.  Rollie was shocked to see that it was an urn.  His gaze snapped to Daniel.

“We don’t have their ashes, Rollie, but I felt that we should have something to represent them.”

“What’s in it?” the Aussie asked, his voice rough.

“Wood ash,” Angie replied.  She handed the urn to Rollie, then pulled out the rest of the backpack’s contents.  There was Daniel’s bible, five candles and a lighter.  A candle was handed to each person.  Daniel lit his candle, then went from person to person, lighting theirs with his.  He told everyone to gather into a circle.

The minister was silent for a moment, preparing himself.  Then he began speaking the words that came from his heart.  “From the moment we are born to the day we die, our lives are like candle flames, burning bright, yet so easily extinguished.  For most of us, the candle is long and the fire burns for many years, sometimes brighter, sometimes dimmer, but always there until the last of the candle is gone and the flame flickers out.  But, other times, the candle is far too short, and the flame is gone long before it should be.  Yet, in those brief moments when the candle was burning, the light of its brilliance was there, and God saw it.  He saw it as clearly as He does the candles that burn for years.  And when the flame went out, He took the inner flame, the one that never dies, into His arms and carried it to where it would burn forever.”

His voice beginning to choke up, Daniel continued.  “We are here today to remember and say goodbye to the tiny, innocent souls whose candle flames were put out long before they should have been.  Beautiful lives that came into this world only to depart it before they had a real chance to live.  But God saw them and loved them, and when they left this world, He took them into His kingdom where they would be free from all the pain and suffering that they felt while here on Earth.  Their flames now burn true and strong with Him, as they will for all eternity.”

Silent tears were falling down the faces of Angie and Alex, and Rollie’s eyes were bright with the tears he did not want to cry.  Daniel handed his candle to Alex and motioned for Rollie to give his to Angie.  He then opened his bible to a passage he’d had occasion to read more than once in the past.

‘Open the urn, Rollie, and let the wind take the ashes,’ he told his brother silently.  The Aussie took the lid of the urn off and got as close to the edge as he could safely get.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” Daniel read quietly.  “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

As Daniel spoke the psalm, Rollie tilted the urn.  Slowly, the ashes poured out.  Caught by the light breeze, they scattered out into the air and over the edge to float away.  The tears that Rollie had held in before finally began to fall.

As the last of the ashes scattered into the wind, Rollie felt a portion of his grief go with them.  He closed his eyes and bowed his head,