Nexus day, minus one:​

     Abby came home to find Gramps packing his suitcase.

​     "What's going on, Daddy?"

​     He didn't answer or look at her. 

     "They summoned you," she said. 

     He nodded.  

     "You're retired."

     "No one retires from the Azure." 

​     "Adam Forwarder did."

     "Adam Forwarder broke the mold in so many different ways I can't even begin to count."

​     "What did they say to you?" 

     "They didn't say anything. That's not how the Azure operate. They use images, not words."

     "In your..." 

     "In my mind, yes. They are telepathic, although, honestly, I don't know what they are. No one really does." 

​     "Yet you worked for them."

     "It's complicated." 

     "What do they want you to do?" 

​     "Again, it's...I've told you about the timelines, right?"

     "Sure. You believe..." 

​     "No, I don't believe. I know. The timelines are a fact."

     "Okay, you know that time fragments like the branches of a tree branching out and branching out into infinity." 

​     "Eternity."

​     "Whatever. Where are you going, Daddy?"

​     "We call those branches timelines," Gramps said, "and those branches, those timelines, and there are trillions of them, trillions and trillions, follow more or less the same path, although, on the other hand, there are also an infinite number of variations..."

     "You're losing me." 

​     "Okay, anyway, these timelines, they wind around each other, they loop and they twist."

      "And they are also conscious. That's what you told me. You told me that these infinitely and eternally twisting and looping timestrands have an overall consciousness that fancies itself to be God, although I don't believe it's a God, and I..."

     "Believe what you want. Again, I'm not telling you what I believe. I'm telling you what I know, what I've seen with my own eyes and sensed with my own senses and experienced over my long, long life." He closed the suitcase he'd been packing. He had one more to fill, and then he'd be done. "Anyway, for the most part, the flow of all these timestrands is smooth, although that's not always true. There are times when a bunch of them get all tangled, get all bunched together, and things get very intense around those points, those tangled bunches..."

​     "Again, you're losing..."

​     "They're called nexus points, these bunches, and they're very rare, although the word rare doesn't really have any validity when you're talking about infinity and eternity all as one...anyway...What I'm trying to say is...what I'm struggling to say is..."

     "We're at a nexus point right now. Is that what you're trying to say?"

     "Tomorrow to be more precise. If I'm reading the Azure properly, the nexus point coalesces tomorrow."

     "Okay, so..."  

     "So, tomorrow get ready for things to get real crazy here on good ol' planet Earth."

     "So much that the Azure contacted you."

​     "Exactly. There's a lot more to it, actually, but...for now...please, Abby, I..."

     "So where are you going?" 

​     "Seatrailia."

     "Adam Forwarder. I should have guessed." 

     "He seems to be at the core of this particular nexus." 

     "Adam Forwarder wants nothing to do with the Azure."

​     "I've never blamed him for that. Anyway, it's beyond any of us now. I've already booked a flight."

​     The full impact of what her father had told her hit Abby then. She touched her father's sleeve with the tips of her fingers. "You won't be gone long, right?  I mean, whatever happens on this 'nexus day', you'll be coming right back, won't,,,,"

​     "Nothing is certain. I promise you, I will do my very best. I love you so much, Abby. You can't really know what you and the children mean to me."

     "Oh Daddy." Tears flowed from Abby's eyes as she fell into her father's arms. "What would we ever...You mean so..."

     "I know. I know." He kissed his daughter's forehead. "I love you too, my darling. I'll be back as soon as I...I..."

​     He found he couldn't finish the sentence. His life, their lives, everybody's lives,

was, at that moment, in Gramps' mind at least, nothing but one huge question mark. Nexus day. Dear God, would anyone survive?

END OF CHAPTER TWO

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