​     Katy told Gramps her story quickly, and she felt grateful that, afterward, the old man didn't laugh openly in her face. On the contrary, he seemed to hang on every word. She found that she liked him right off. In spite of the fact that he was so damned old looking​, what with the white hair and the wrinkles and all of that, she sensed nothing feeble about him whatsoever. In fact, he exuded great strength, great confidence. She felt there was nothing she could tell him but he couldn't understand. There was something else, too, something just the slightest bit disconcerting. In the middle of her story, and it was a story anything but amusing, he chuckled for no reason. It had absolutely nothing to do with what she just said. She'd be in the middle of a sentence when...

     Chuckle. Chuckle. 

     And then she saw the earpiece, and she heard, very faintly, the comedian who fed jokes into the old man's ear. Finally, mid-narrative, she said, "Can I ask you something? Who's that you're listening to? You seem to think he's very funny."

     "He is. I've heard these jokes thousands of times, and they still make me laugh." As if to prove his point, he chuckled at the next joke he heard. 

     "Do you think I'm going crazy, sir?" 

     "Gramps. Call me Gramps. Everybody but my daughter calls me Gramps."

     "Given what you've just heard, do you think I'm going out of my mind? I think I'm going out of my mind. I...I feel like I..."

     "I don't think you're crazy at all. In fact, I..." Gramps pulled his brand new cell phone out of his pocket and punched in a number. 

     Ring. Ring.

​     "Yes?" Claudia replied. 

     "It's me, Claudia." 

​     "Gramps?"

     "Hello to you, too. Long time no hear."

     "You still have that thing in your ear?" Claudia hated the comedian that Gramps listened to every moment of every day, even when he slept. When she spoke, she wanted to be the only thing anyone heard. 

     "He's funny, Claudia. You've never given him a chance." He paused, then, "At home, yesterday, my azure glowed, Claudia. It told me to get to Adam as soon as possible."  

​     "The Azure never told me anything."

     "You know what I mean." 

​     "Adam is..." 

     "My azure hasn't glowed in forty years, Claudia, since Abby was born." 

​     "You think we're..."

     "Come on, Claudia. Don't make me force this out of you. We're talking about nexus here, aren't we?"

     "Not necessarily. They're more rare than you might..." 

     "There's something else, too." Gramps went into what Katy had just told her about her dream. Then, when he finished, he said, "You still think we're not talking about nexus?"   

​     "Let me look at the girl. Turn the phone around." 

     Gramps pointed the phone in Katy's direction. "Smile for the camera," he said. "This is Adam's computer on the other end of the line. She's one step removed from talking to Adam himself. Her name is Claudia. She wants to get a look at you." 

     Katy did her best to comply, even though she really didn't feel like smiling at that precise moment. "You know, I'm starting to feel a little silly here. I mean, about the whole thing. After all, it was just a dream. It's quite possible that I..." Katy had always been a little self-conscious about her slightly crooked teeth, so her smile was a thin one. 

     "Okay, I'm done," Claudia said. "Let me talk to you again, Gramps." 

​     He put the phone back to his ear. 

​     "Not much, is she?" Claudia asked. 

​     "You snob," Gramps said.

​     "When I imagined what Adam's wife would look like, what the Mother to the One would look like, I always pictured someone a bit more...a bit more...regal?" 

     "You're a computer. You don't have an imagination." 

​     "You'd be surprised."

     "You imagine what Adam programmed you to imagine. You're imagining Myanna, and she really was regal. You keep forgetting you're a machine." 

     "I'd like to think I'm more than just a machine."  

     "We're not having this discussion right now. We need to get in touch with Adam. We need to see him, the sooner the better. Is that possible?" 

     "He's in private consultation with Livia Montcrief right now." 

     "This is kind of important, Claudia, wouldn't you say?"

     "I guess, if she really is Mother to the One." 

​     "This woman doesn't strike me as any kind of liar. In fact, in the few moments we've spent together so far, I find that I am quite fond of her."

     "Touching. I tend to agree with you, though. Okay, I'll talk to him. And Gramps?"

​     "Yes?'

     "I-I think you're right about this maybe being a nexus day."

     "My God."  

     "I...I'm feeling a little intimidated, Gramps. This is my first one. I've heard of them, I've studied them, but this is the first one I've personally experienced."

     "They're interesting, I can tell you that. Anything can happen. Anything."

     "I know, and...Gramps?"

     "Yes?"

     "Protect him, Gramps. Do your best to protect my friend, Adam Forwarder. I love him so." 

     "He programmed that into you, too."

     "Still..." 

     "I'll do the best I can. That's all I can promise."  

     "He should be getting in touch with you any minute."

​     "Fine." Gramps clicked his phone off. 

     "So what does she think of me?" Katy asked. 

​     "Uh..."

​     "She said something to you about me, and then you called her a snob. Why'd you do that? What does she think of me?"

​     "Uh...Uh..."

CONTINUE

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