Jack's family had never moved out of the Bay area since the tragic die off of so many of it's populace. Family had been in the same place for well over a hundred years, they stayed in the place of so much death for fifty more.
The older of two brother's, he had been trained and expected to take over the family buisness, as head of his large family of siblings and all of the offspring they would all produce.
But, as a young boy, he had exhibited certain talents that his maternal grandfather had noticed and began to train him to develop more strongly. As a sorcerer.
This did not set well with his parents. And adding to the fact that Jack really wanted to
go see the world. A world they viewed as dangerous, full of untrustworthy other people who lived very different lives from themselves.
The community they lived in hadn't really changed a lot after the Great Death. They still kept to the China Town community, still plan marriages within the community, stll carried on with the family business.
After a great blow out with his father, mother, uncles and aunts, Jack packed his bags and left. His grandfather found him before he had left the bay city entirely the next day.
Griping his hand, he told Jack everything else he thought Jack should know about how to use his talents, told him to work it so he did performances for money, and handed him a bundle.
When Jack opened the bundle, tears came to his eyes. Within was some of Grandfather's cherished robes, hats and slippers, his short sword, and his wand. He had also included his
I-Ching tiles.
When Jack had exclaimed, all Grandfather did was hug him, tears in both their eyes, Then told him to go south and not look back.
Grandfather died six months later. Jack always believed Grandfather knew he would go soon.
Jack did come back once with his new wife. His tall beautiful red-headed Sheila. Of Irish and Mexican descent, and as gorgeous a woman as he had ever seen. She towered over him, but he loved her more and more over the years.
She was made of fire, but when they got a cold reception from his family, she told Jack without any signs of her usual hot temper, that she wanted to leave and never come back.
So except for the time he came back to fetch his mother, he hadn't been back home in a long time.
His mother and Sheila finally found some common ground, they both adored Jack Chang with all his odd habits and wandering ways, and so finally made peace just before his mother died.
So now, with this silence between his brother and himself, Jack sat at a table eating food with his daughter and great granddaughter seated next to him.
An ocean couldn't have put more distance inbetween the brothers.
Jack's brother, Leslie Chang turned and chatted to his oldest daughter, directing her to
make up two rooms for their guests upstairs. Most of the family lived either upstairs, or in the surrounding buildings. Using the rooftops as their only access to fresh air and sunlight, and kept
every thing within their holdings well guarded.
Leslie stood up and nodded at Jack, Grandmother Magnolia, and Rosemma. Then turned to Charlie and Charles and spoke. "Gentlemen, I wish you a good rest, Niece and great-niece, sleep well."
Mary Chang Kwon smiled at his back as he walked out. "Don't mind him, he is very surprised by your sudden and late visit. He is not too good at surprises, Uncle Jack you do remember that?"
Jack grinned,"Oh yeah, he is the image of my Dad, I know you were old enough in the family line-up to kind of remember your grandfather."
"A little bit,Uncle. Let me show you to the rooms we made up for you. If you aren't tired you can go sit on the roof for a bit. Everyone gets up early to get the kitchen started, and so on around here. Business as usual, but don't let that stop all of you from sleeping, it sounds like you had a long hard walk to get here. There are towels in the bathrooms for each of you. But make the baths quick, the hot water tanks will be shut off, we have to to conserve our wood to get through for a while."
Jack thought on this as they were climbing the stairs, "Mary where do you get your wood from nowadays?"
Mary thought,"Well, for a long while there were some old buildings that had fallen down by the old Sausalito area that some crews looking to trade for goods and meals tore apart and then hauled all the way here. But some of the family enterprises lately are hauling down wood from up North, there are no people in Santa Rosa anymore."
Jack pressed for more information. " How about any kind of fishing, boats, small ships, sailing yachts, what lies down in the harbor?"
Mary thought, then frowned. "Why would you be interested in that, Uncle?"
Jack glanced back at Charlie and the others, " We maybe need a boat, none of us are sailors, we need to know who is, what they have to rent out, that sort of thing?"
"We'll ask in the morning, someone in the family will know, Uncle. There are lot of us Changs, not all of us spend all our days in this old restaurant tending to customers. And some of our regulars know a lot of what goes on out there in the bay. Till tomorrow, Uncle. Magnolia, Rosemma, and you two fine gentlemen." She bowed to Charlie and Charles, then turned and
walked down the hall leaving them standing in front of their rooms.
Grandmother pressed Rosemma into their room. She had been glad that Jack never mentioned that Rose and Charles were newlyweds. Indeed. She still simmered at her son-in-law for putting them all in such a position. They could still be home, Rosemma would be an apprentice and not have felt this pressure to make a foolish leap into marriage and leaving to find the Nommos. But now they felt hunted, and Jack had quietly told her they were being tracked but were well ahead of Rosemma's father and brothers.
Finally she and Rose laid their heads down to sleep exhausted.
Up on the roof, Charles, his grandfather and Jack sat with steaming cups of tea.
Jack had gone back down into the kitchen, and found things really hadn't changed much. The cups, the pots, the tea was still just as he remembered from his childhood.
He needed a clear head in the morning, and even though Charlie made a face, they sipped their tea.
"Jack, I ain't sure your family quite knows what to make of this grandson of mine and me, coming here with you so late in the evening."
Grunting, Jack waved his hand towards the lower floors of the building, "They never know what to make of anything, time hasn't changed a thing. They cling to the same old ways,
cook the same food, feed the same customers, with a new face here and there, serve the same old watered down booze, go to bed the same time, get up the same time. You are not white, maybe latino?" At this he grinned at Charlie's expression, and then at Charle's smile. " Maybe not, doubt they see too many Indians around here anymore."
"Face it, it has been a long time and living out and off the land was easier for your folks, my folks were never country people. So they live in this wrecked old city, doing the same thing as always, being shop keepers, serving food, trading for goods, hardly go too far from home. When they do they scurry back pretty quick."
Charles observed Jack's face. He seemed a little melancholy. "Uncle Jack, you left, you were always out adventuring, and you stayed away, why?"
"Well young man, they didn't like my wife, the love of my life, they never tried to
send me a message except when my old man died, and my mother just wanted to be with me, her oldest son, that is what goes on, the oldest son takes care of his mamma. So I came and got her, and took her with me back to the desert. She had a hard time at first , but she did come to love Sheila and the kids, and helped out." Other than that they never tried to be friendly with my wife and kids, or me. I did send them a couple of messages as to where I could be reached, but that was that."
Charlie scratched his chin, thinking of those days in the desert. "We were gone a lot, Jack, but we made some money and took good care of our families. Not easy out there. But we all worked hard, each in our own ways, and none of the children went hungry, ever."
Jack sighed, "I know, we did well by our kids. But when Mother died, I sent a message to this place, to my family, and not one of them came to visit her grave, and I never heard from them, and I quit trying after that."
He shook his head half in anger, half in sorrow. "I am the odd man out, I took after my mother's father, he traveled in his younger days earning a living for his family, and then this family, looking for students, and here I was under his nose, and when I became his apprentice, my father knew it was the right thing, but he hated it. Leslie was his apprentice, he had the right son for the job, but he held a grudge against me for leaving, never wanted to leave his little niche and resented me for being different. The older son. So now here I am, needing their help, all to go traveling again!" He chuckled.
They all got up thinking sleep was a good thing to get some of before the night grew thin and morning was on top of them.
Once in bed, Charles lay awake for a while. The old men fell asleep quickly and he wished he had their ability to just nod off.
He had a wife, something he really didn't want or even had seriously considered. Not that he didn't like Rosemma, but she was so young, and after her determined slightly mad jump into
a way to become his apprentice, he wondered if she was thinking over what she had actually done.
He knew the Nommos contact with her had made her determined no matter what. But his first impression that she was just a scared little very young mouse of a girl stayed with him. But that scared little mouse of a girl had gone behind her very big and dominant father, married him to become his apprentice, then fled, ran away with the rest of the party to avoid all of the consequences that would come the next day.
So now what? He thought it all over, and for better or worse he would stick with her, try to reach the Nommos, try to find this place they were in a worry about, then they would see.
And who knew, maybe they would grow on each other. He thought of her blue eyes, and smiled.
Somehow, he knew she wasn't like her older sisters, but did she even know how powerful she was. Very few humans he had met had the ability to move things like he had seen her do. He wondered what other abilities lay dormant inside Rosemma waiting to show themselves. Her
great-great grandfather was a Chinese sorcerer, so was her great grandfather. Her grandmother was a whale singer, her aunt and cousins had magical talents. She was never encouraged in any thing magical, it could be she had some strong talents. She was Irish, Mexican, Chinese, and what ever else, what kind of talents did she inherit from other ancestors?
His grandfather, Charlie Bearscratcher, got his name because he could talk to animals, walk up to bears, and scratch them on the belly, and put them to sleep. He was a shaman, Charles had been his apprentice, and he could find animals at a long distance away, and communicate with them.
His mother had trained him in the healing arts, and use of wild medicinal plants, and he had hoped to one day go to the big gathering of his people in the middle of the country to find his seat on the council of medicine people. His mother went and sat, and some year he hoped to be admitted to participate in discussions on the state of the tribal nations. Like all other humans, they had to struggle to subsist and coming together gave them a combined strength and shared
information as to what went on in the world around them. Government as it had been before the Great Death no longer existed. Just small pockets of humanity in communites united in survival and protection against starvation and bandits.
Like the ones they had seen since they entered the bay area, like Chinatown.
Finally he drifted off, sighing to himself over the turn his life had taken.
The older of two brother's, he had been trained and expected to take over the family buisness, as head of his large family of siblings and all of the offspring they would all produce.
But, as a young boy, he had exhibited certain talents that his maternal grandfather had noticed and began to train him to develop more strongly. As a sorcerer.
This did not set well with his parents. And adding to the fact that Jack really wanted to
go see the world. A world they viewed as dangerous, full of untrustworthy other people who lived very different lives from themselves.
The community they lived in hadn't really changed a lot after the Great Death. They still kept to the China Town community, still plan marriages within the community, stll carried on with the family business.
After a great blow out with his father, mother, uncles and aunts, Jack packed his bags and left. His grandfather found him before he had left the bay city entirely the next day.
Griping his hand, he told Jack everything else he thought Jack should know about how to use his talents, told him to work it so he did performances for money, and handed him a bundle.
When Jack opened the bundle, tears came to his eyes. Within was some of Grandfather's cherished robes, hats and slippers, his short sword, and his wand. He had also included his
I-Ching tiles.
When Jack had exclaimed, all Grandfather did was hug him, tears in both their eyes, Then told him to go south and not look back.
Grandfather died six months later. Jack always believed Grandfather knew he would go soon.
Jack did come back once with his new wife. His tall beautiful red-headed Sheila. Of Irish and Mexican descent, and as gorgeous a woman as he had ever seen. She towered over him, but he loved her more and more over the years.
She was made of fire, but when they got a cold reception from his family, she told Jack without any signs of her usual hot temper, that she wanted to leave and never come back.
So except for the time he came back to fetch his mother, he hadn't been back home in a long time.
His mother and Sheila finally found some common ground, they both adored Jack Chang with all his odd habits and wandering ways, and so finally made peace just before his mother died.
So now, with this silence between his brother and himself, Jack sat at a table eating food with his daughter and great granddaughter seated next to him.
An ocean couldn't have put more distance inbetween the brothers.
Jack's brother, Leslie Chang turned and chatted to his oldest daughter, directing her to
make up two rooms for their guests upstairs. Most of the family lived either upstairs, or in the surrounding buildings. Using the rooftops as their only access to fresh air and sunlight, and kept
every thing within their holdings well guarded.
Leslie stood up and nodded at Jack, Grandmother Magnolia, and Rosemma. Then turned to Charlie and Charles and spoke. "Gentlemen, I wish you a good rest, Niece and great-niece, sleep well."
Mary Chang Kwon smiled at his back as he walked out. "Don't mind him, he is very surprised by your sudden and late visit. He is not too good at surprises, Uncle Jack you do remember that?"
Jack grinned,"Oh yeah, he is the image of my Dad, I know you were old enough in the family line-up to kind of remember your grandfather."
"A little bit,Uncle. Let me show you to the rooms we made up for you. If you aren't tired you can go sit on the roof for a bit. Everyone gets up early to get the kitchen started, and so on around here. Business as usual, but don't let that stop all of you from sleeping, it sounds like you had a long hard walk to get here. There are towels in the bathrooms for each of you. But make the baths quick, the hot water tanks will be shut off, we have to to conserve our wood to get through for a while."
Jack thought on this as they were climbing the stairs, "Mary where do you get your wood from nowadays?"
Mary thought,"Well, for a long while there were some old buildings that had fallen down by the old Sausalito area that some crews looking to trade for goods and meals tore apart and then hauled all the way here. But some of the family enterprises lately are hauling down wood from up North, there are no people in Santa Rosa anymore."
Jack pressed for more information. " How about any kind of fishing, boats, small ships, sailing yachts, what lies down in the harbor?"
Mary thought, then frowned. "Why would you be interested in that, Uncle?"
Jack glanced back at Charlie and the others, " We maybe need a boat, none of us are sailors, we need to know who is, what they have to rent out, that sort of thing?"
"We'll ask in the morning, someone in the family will know, Uncle. There are lot of us Changs, not all of us spend all our days in this old restaurant tending to customers. And some of our regulars know a lot of what goes on out there in the bay. Till tomorrow, Uncle. Magnolia, Rosemma, and you two fine gentlemen." She bowed to Charlie and Charles, then turned and
walked down the hall leaving them standing in front of their rooms.
Grandmother pressed Rosemma into their room. She had been glad that Jack never mentioned that Rose and Charles were newlyweds. Indeed. She still simmered at her son-in-law for putting them all in such a position. They could still be home, Rosemma would be an apprentice and not have felt this pressure to make a foolish leap into marriage and leaving to find the Nommos. But now they felt hunted, and Jack had quietly told her they were being tracked but were well ahead of Rosemma's father and brothers.
Finally she and Rose laid their heads down to sleep exhausted.
Up on the roof, Charles, his grandfather and Jack sat with steaming cups of tea.
Jack had gone back down into the kitchen, and found things really hadn't changed much. The cups, the pots, the tea was still just as he remembered from his childhood.
He needed a clear head in the morning, and even though Charlie made a face, they sipped their tea.
"Jack, I ain't sure your family quite knows what to make of this grandson of mine and me, coming here with you so late in the evening."
Grunting, Jack waved his hand towards the lower floors of the building, "They never know what to make of anything, time hasn't changed a thing. They cling to the same old ways,
cook the same food, feed the same customers, with a new face here and there, serve the same old watered down booze, go to bed the same time, get up the same time. You are not white, maybe latino?" At this he grinned at Charlie's expression, and then at Charle's smile. " Maybe not, doubt they see too many Indians around here anymore."
"Face it, it has been a long time and living out and off the land was easier for your folks, my folks were never country people. So they live in this wrecked old city, doing the same thing as always, being shop keepers, serving food, trading for goods, hardly go too far from home. When they do they scurry back pretty quick."
Charles observed Jack's face. He seemed a little melancholy. "Uncle Jack, you left, you were always out adventuring, and you stayed away, why?"
"Well young man, they didn't like my wife, the love of my life, they never tried to
send me a message except when my old man died, and my mother just wanted to be with me, her oldest son, that is what goes on, the oldest son takes care of his mamma. So I came and got her, and took her with me back to the desert. She had a hard time at first , but she did come to love Sheila and the kids, and helped out." Other than that they never tried to be friendly with my wife and kids, or me. I did send them a couple of messages as to where I could be reached, but that was that."
Charlie scratched his chin, thinking of those days in the desert. "We were gone a lot, Jack, but we made some money and took good care of our families. Not easy out there. But we all worked hard, each in our own ways, and none of the children went hungry, ever."
Jack sighed, "I know, we did well by our kids. But when Mother died, I sent a message to this place, to my family, and not one of them came to visit her grave, and I never heard from them, and I quit trying after that."
He shook his head half in anger, half in sorrow. "I am the odd man out, I took after my mother's father, he traveled in his younger days earning a living for his family, and then this family, looking for students, and here I was under his nose, and when I became his apprentice, my father knew it was the right thing, but he hated it. Leslie was his apprentice, he had the right son for the job, but he held a grudge against me for leaving, never wanted to leave his little niche and resented me for being different. The older son. So now here I am, needing their help, all to go traveling again!" He chuckled.
They all got up thinking sleep was a good thing to get some of before the night grew thin and morning was on top of them.
Once in bed, Charles lay awake for a while. The old men fell asleep quickly and he wished he had their ability to just nod off.
He had a wife, something he really didn't want or even had seriously considered. Not that he didn't like Rosemma, but she was so young, and after her determined slightly mad jump into
a way to become his apprentice, he wondered if she was thinking over what she had actually done.
He knew the Nommos contact with her had made her determined no matter what. But his first impression that she was just a scared little very young mouse of a girl stayed with him. But that scared little mouse of a girl had gone behind her very big and dominant father, married him to become his apprentice, then fled, ran away with the rest of the party to avoid all of the consequences that would come the next day.
So now what? He thought it all over, and for better or worse he would stick with her, try to reach the Nommos, try to find this place they were in a worry about, then they would see.
And who knew, maybe they would grow on each other. He thought of her blue eyes, and smiled.
Somehow, he knew she wasn't like her older sisters, but did she even know how powerful she was. Very few humans he had met had the ability to move things like he had seen her do. He wondered what other abilities lay dormant inside Rosemma waiting to show themselves. Her
great-great grandfather was a Chinese sorcerer, so was her great grandfather. Her grandmother was a whale singer, her aunt and cousins had magical talents. She was never encouraged in any thing magical, it could be she had some strong talents. She was Irish, Mexican, Chinese, and what ever else, what kind of talents did she inherit from other ancestors?
His grandfather, Charlie Bearscratcher, got his name because he could talk to animals, walk up to bears, and scratch them on the belly, and put them to sleep. He was a shaman, Charles had been his apprentice, and he could find animals at a long distance away, and communicate with them.
His mother had trained him in the healing arts, and use of wild medicinal plants, and he had hoped to one day go to the big gathering of his people in the middle of the country to find his seat on the council of medicine people. His mother went and sat, and some year he hoped to be admitted to participate in discussions on the state of the tribal nations. Like all other humans, they had to struggle to subsist and coming together gave them a combined strength and shared
information as to what went on in the world around them. Government as it had been before the Great Death no longer existed. Just small pockets of humanity in communites united in survival and protection against starvation and bandits.
Like the ones they had seen since they entered the bay area, like Chinatown.
Finally he drifted off, sighing to himself over the turn his life had taken.
