The Descendant

Finally I got home and took my medicine eagerly. I'd never really been hurt before and didn't realize how draining healing can be. Instead of doing homework or dealing with anything, I took a nap until it was time for pre-dinner. Deri came down with me and we were surprised to find that we'd beaten our parents down. We settled in and Alan served us our usual drinks. "Are you looking forward to your birthday?" I asked as we sipped. "I'll be picking up your present soon." Her eyes brightened. "Don't even think about poking around," I taunted her, and she tossed her head.

"Whateverrrrrr," she said. "I just have to be patient a few days more and I'll find out for myself." I caught her glance and we both cracked up, since patience is not really a Deri quality.

"So what are you doing at your school for Halloween tomorrow?" she asked.

"Not a darn thing, actually. We have parent-teacher conferences, and the teachers have some sort of in-service day, whatever that means. They hold off on those after midterms to allow the students to improve a little if their grades were disappointing. That way the teachers can report good things to the parents or have suggestions for improvement. I'm just as glad to be able to sleep in."

"Are you doing anything tomorrow, then?" she asked, frowning.

"Taking it easy," I shrugged. "I've got a little homework, but otherwise I'm sleeping in and relaxing. The crutches and not being able to walk normally is really tiring, and it hasn't been that long since the accident."

"Is that what we're calling it?" she asked.

"Well, it has less syllables than 'kidnapping attempt' and it's a less loaded term." She nodded. "I'm surprised that you didn't want a party for your birthday."

She fidgeted. "Well, what with how awful I was to my friends, I don't really deserve one. And after the accident, just family will be fine. I love to see the cousins. It's too bad Chris can't come." I grinned; she had a crush on him, which was ok since he wasn't actually related to us. Steve and Emma were courtesy uncle and aunt because of Grandma Alex's friendship and because Emma had once been married to Uncle Bucky.

"Chris does liven up a party," I agreed. He was handsome, friendly and outgoing like his dad. And very tolerant of his younger cousins. "But you paid a price for your behavior, Deri. You learned something important, so don't think you don't deserve something nice."

"I'm trying," she sighed, twisting the glass in her hands. "Every time I'm tempted to use my ability, I think about how I would feel if somebody did it to me. Then it's not so hard to not to want to use it. And while I was p.i.s.s.e.d. when it was locked away, I guess now I feel like it was a good thing."

I felt her forehead. "Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?" I asked, and we were both laughing when Mom and Dad came in.

"There's my good girls," Dad said, wheeling over. Alan came over with a club soda for him and a whiskey for Mom; he wasn't drinking alcohol because it impaired the efficacy of the medication. "Lys, honey, I'll be going to your parent-teacher conferences tomorrow afternoon since I'm taking a lighter schedule at work until I'm out of the wheelchair. Do you have any questions or concerns that you'd like me to share with your teachers? What do you think of your courses?"

"You could ask why trig is required," I said grumpily. "It sucks and it's pointless." Dad laughed.

"You need it for calculus, which I think you'll like a whole lot more," he said indulgently. "Aside from trig, though, are you liking your other classes?"

"English is fine, I like Comparative Religions a lot. We're working on the Greeks right now, so that's relevant and interesting. Chemistry and history are fine, we get a lot of Returnees as speakers so that's living history. Networking is great because it's fun and practical. And photography is going to have a little gallery of our best work at the end of the semester with a couple of professionals coming in to judge them and provide feedback."

"That sounds interesting," Mom said. "How are you doing with your photography with your leg, dearest?"

"Right now we're learning how to photograph detail, so I went to the public library, St. Patricks, and the GE Building, getting a lot of architectural photographs with limited walking, and Central Park to get some nature as well as some plants and trees here."

"I'm looking forward to meeting your teachers, Lys. Tell me again, what clubs did you join?"

"Photography club, chemistry bowl. And I'm taking a first aid/cpr class next week from the Red Cross club. They were passing out flyers today."

"I'm a little surprised you're not doing more, honey."

"Why?" I asked, a little crossly. "I used to have dance class, and I can't go to my job right now, and they both took up a lot of time. Give me a break, Dad. It's only been a couple of weeks since my ankle was stomped. I should get a grace period before having to come up with more activities."

'Oh. Well," Dad said, looking flustered. "I don't want to push you into anything, Lys, but now you've got college to think of, and they're going to want to see activities. But there will be things that you can pick up next semester. Deri, how's swimming going?"

"Really good," Deri said eagerly. "I'm working hard on my freestyle stroke, it's my strongest, but Coach would like me to learn breast stroke too. We don't have a lot of people who do and I might be able to compete in it if I stick with it."

Bless her, Deri chattered until it was time for dinner, then I asked Mom what she was doing. She was like almost everybody else in the classical studies group, restricted to working with items that didn't require a lot of space, since they were putting the finishing touches on the displays and artifacts for the Egyptian exhibition that would be opening soon. "Oh, and starting next week, I must perform sentry duty up at the Watch Tower," she said, sighing. "There were some signals that might be Kree, or they might be nothing at all, or somebody peaceful. A large number of heroes are busy in the territories they protect, but the city here is fairly free of the type of trouble I address, so I will be on the night watch."

After dinner, I listened to Dad talk about the old guild system that the masters he had working in the building division of Wayne wanted to resurrect; there seemed to be a drive worldwide in traditional jobs like clothmaking, woodcarving, furniture making, blacksmithing, things like that. Masters, journeymen, apprentices. Dad was in favor of it as long as there were safeguards to prevent the apprentices from abuse and to make sure that they did in fact learn their trades and weren't just cheap labor for the masters; he had instituted a version within Wayne, but this was to be a global effort but customized slightly for each country that participated. And he was interested in opening a manufacturing complex in Mongolia, provided that a good deal could be struck with that country. It was an emerging market, having broken free from both China and Russia finally during the past twenty years, and there was a lot of opportunity. But Dad, as ever, wanted to keep Wayne from being associated with unfair labor practice, and most of the workforce wasn't very skilled. Yet. He was going out before Thanksgiving to look at a couple of proposed sites and meet with the country's ministers of trade, education, and interior. I ate the almond cake and drank my coffee, and then I went up to my room again. I decided to take it easy and lit the candles in the fireplace, sitting in the wingback chair and propping my feet on the footstool. Uncle Clint had recommended a really old book, To Kill A Mockingbird, and I was going to give it a shot. I had an annotated copy that explained what was going on in the American South at the time, which was, frankly, horrifying and disgusting.

I wasn't in the mood for it, and went in to take a long hot bath, reading a lighter cozy mystery instead. The bath was wonderful, but getting out of the tub was a lot harder. I had to drain it first for safety, then got on my hands and knees (I was grateful my knee was still intact or I'd have been there until somebody missed me tomorrow) and crawled out. So. No more baths for awhile. I went to bed early.

The next morning, Deri made a lot of noise getting ready to go to school. I smirked and turned over, going back to sleep. I got up midmorning, taking my time before going down to get a breakfast snack. Alan usually had these little scrambled egg cups in the freezer; egg with a variety of add-ins like sausage, veggies, bacon, cheese, all sorts of good stuff. I heated a couple and had a leisurely breakfast before going up to the attic. I had thought about what Iris had said about having some place for somebody to sit and chat with by the fire and she had a point. Deri could use it sometimes, or one of the cousins when they came over. I found a nice armchair; the arms were wide and low, and when I sat on it experimentally, I could sling my legs over the arm, which was very comfortable. I pulled it out and planned to ask Mom about getting it reupholstered to fit into my room. I puttered around my sewing room, making sure everything was neat and tidy, and the thread pieces swept up. I did some maintenance on my machine, brushing out the lint from the fabrics, then went down for a late lunch. After that, it was back up to my room to knock out the studying. It didn't take long; the teachers had been preparing for the conferences and hadn't wanted to deal with a lot of homework or lectures; mostly we'd been given worksheets to complete or taken to the library to do research. It was nice.

I really missed being able to get on the roof, but it was absolutely out of the question. I was down in the library, reading through some of Mom's Greek texts for my term paper. We had to select a specific god from the pantheon of our choosing and discuss his or her abilities and actions as well as the role of that individual in their pantheon, then compare and contrast with a similar god or goddess from one of the other pantheons we were studying this semester. We'd done the Chinese, Norse, Aztec, and were finishing up the Greeks; we had Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism after the Greeks. I was discussing Athena and comparing her with Odin, since he was also a god renowned for battle and knowledge. I was going to talk to both Mom and Grandma Alex for personal insights, although I probably wouldn't use them as sources. I was struggling through some sacred poetry when Dad came home from the conferences.

"How'd it go?" I asked. I couldn't think of anything that they would have to say that was negative, frankly. I was quiet, respectful, and obedient in class and I did my share of participating.

"About how I expected, honey. Your teachers think highly of you and like your work. They feel you have a lot of potential. They're impressed that your grades haven't slipped, even with the kidnapping attempt." I sighed and closed the book. It wasn't what I was after, anyway.

"So I guess they all know who my family is," I said, and Dad nodded, frowning faintly.

"They did before, when we notified the school of the kidnapping attempt and that you'd been hurt. There's nothing wrong with being in this family, Lys."

"I didn't say that there was," I said. "It just makes things harder than they have to be."

"It's not easy having to deal with envy, but there are a lot of good things to balance out that," Dad said briskly. "The family contributes to worthy causes, does fundraising, we get our hands dirty too, like with our annual Habitat for Humanity outings. Our family is strong and there's no doubt that everybody in it loves you." I was silent; I agreed with him for the most part, but he was glossing over my problems like they weren't anything. "Lys?"

"I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying."

"But?"

"But they are problems to me, even if you don't think they're a big deal. It's fine for you, you fit the mold of what people expect a Wayne to be. I don't. I'm not excessively smart or beautiful or skilled. The only thing I'm really good at I can't do anymore, and that happened because somebody thought they could trade me for money. Normal people don't have those problems."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Dad asked tentatively.

"Not really, it's not like anything can be done about it. And I am grateful for my family." I got up and returned the book, choosing a couple in English and putting them in the bag. "I'm going upstairs to start writing this report."