Happy Birthday, Uncle Adam!
The birthday dinner was at our house, mostly because Uncle Adam and Aunt Deborah still had their Wednesday night clinic shift; and also so it’d be easier for Mom to take care of Ethan and Ehlana while she and Aunt Leanne were busy cooking. We had nearly the same group as last year for this party, along with a few additions – like Nick and Aunt Deborah. That was fun, and I got to have Rowen stay for dinner too after we were drafted to help after school; but the best part of the night was when Uncle Adam got back to the house after working at the clinic. That’s when Ethan, Ehlana, and I got to spring our little birthday surprise on him, Aunt Leanne, Mom, and Dad.
This is a good time to put my photographic memory to use here, and just record the entire conversation.
***
“We – Ethan, Ehlana, and I – have another birthday present for you,” I told Uncle Adam; handing him the wrapped gift after we’d all gotten comfortable on the sofas in the living room. He and Aunt Leanne had Ehlana to cuddle with, and I was sitting with them while Ethan was with Mom and Dad on the other sofa.
“I’m already on birthday overload,” Uncle Adam advised us with a smile as he started to tear the wrapping paper.
“We’ll see if you still think so in a few minutes,” Ehlana joked telepathically once I’d put up my wards around the room.
“This is your future,” he read aloud after pulling our little booklet from the last bits of wrapping paper. After opening the cover, he looked up at me in surprise while turning the booklet so we could all see the map I’d made up of Witch Falls.
“You’re giving Adam Witch Falls?” Aunt Leanne joked. “I didn’t know it was up for sale.”
“And there seems to be quite a bit more to our little town on this map than we have now,” Dad added.
“Well, this is supposed to be Adam’s future,” Mom pointed out. She smiled at me, and didn’t look particularly surprised. “You’ve been busy,” she added; directing that at all three of her kids.
“We needed to tell all of you about some of the things we see for our future, and thought this would be a fun way to do that,” Ethan said, directing that telepathic comment toward our parents, aunt, and uncle.
“Witch Falls hasn’t changed much in size in nearly a century,” Aunt Leanne pointed out. “How far into the future are you going with that map?”
“Not very,” I answered. “The next few years are going to be a lot of fun.”
Uncle Adam put the booklet in his lap and turned to the next page. “Why don’t you give us the condensed version while your uncle is busy reading?” Mom suggested.
“We can do that,” I agreed. “Why don’t you start, Ehlana?”
“Okay,” she agreed enthusiastically; both aloud and telepathically before continuing to talk silently. “The big projects we need to start working on are the lab and archives; the new medical center; and the new residential part of town that we’ll need for the extra people that will be living here in Witch Falls.”
“Dr. Mark!” Uncle Adam exclaimed in amazement; looking up and focusing his attention on Ehlana. “Are my grandparents going to decide to replace me after all?”
Ehlana laughed happily. “Not that we’ve seen,” she assured him. “Uncle Mark is going to be your partner.”
“Uncle Mark?” Aunt Leanne asked quickly; her smile flashing brilliantly as she suspected where that was leading.
“Oops,” Ehlana said with a telepathic laugh. “Okay, future Uncle Mark,” she amended. “That’s one of the reasons we needed to talk with you now. Aunt Grace and Mark definitely need to fall in love sooner than later – if they’re not there already – and you need to talk them into coming here to live and work.”
“It’s a good thing that you’ve got a couple of good jobs,” Uncle Adam told Aunt Leanne. “I’ll only need to work part time with two doctors in town.”
“Read on,” Ethan suggested. “You’ll be busy enough between working at the med center and lab. While you’re reading the boring details about that, Mom and I can talk about bringing the archives home.”
“They’ve been split up for a very good reason,” Mom told him, “and you’re talking about a huge undertaking to make that happen. Are you sure about doing that, and why now?”
“We’re sure,” Ethan answered confidently, “and the reason for the now is because it’s going to take years to make that happen – and to build the lab and archive. Witch Falls is going to be Magi Central, and we’re going to need the archives here for all of us.”
“Plus we’ll be able to protect them better now that we have help,” Ehlana added.
“That’s true,” Mom conceded, “but the digital archives – or at least the parts of them that can be used by most Magi – will be easier for most of our friends to use.”
“Bringing the archives here will mostly be for me, Mom,” Ethan explained. “That’s going to be my future.”
“The world’s least known; and most important librarian,” Ehlana joked with another mental laugh.
“Archivist – and Magi teacher,” I amended,
“You say tomato,” Ehlana deadpanned. “I’m just glad that won’t be my job.”
“There are reasons why we have our particular talents and interests,” Ethan countered. “Your job’s going to be cooler than mine; but I can always play in the lab too if I need a break from the books.”
“We’re getting a bit ahead of things,” I told them. “You can talk with Mom about what you want to start with for the archives another time, and Ehlana can do the same with Mom and Uncle Adam for the lab.” I looked at how far Uncle Adam was into reading the booklet before continuing. “It looks like Uncle Adam is through the section about the lab, so he knows that Aunt Grace is supposed to be the CEO for the company we’ll need to start up for it. I’m fairly sure that we can make her an offer she won’t refuse.” I smiled at Aunt Leanne. “If you missed it on the map; they’re supposed to be your river side neighbors in that new section of town.”
“None of that land is part of the town now,” Aunt Leanne pointed out. “That could take years to appropriate from the Ridge River District.”
I shrugged and shook my head. “We’re going to trade them the tax base from a wind and solar energy farm at one of the old quarries to get the land annexation. Don’t worry – we’ve got that all figured out; and it really won’t take long at all – especially since there are only two families that own the property we’ll need; and one of those families is ours.”
“You have been doing your homework,” she told us approvingly. “So what else do we need to work on to get all of this started? I’m sure there’s a why for everything too, but maybe I don’t want to know all of those answers quite yet.”
“We’re sure you don’t,” Ehlana agreed. “Just like there are things we would like to know less about.”
“That sounds ominous,” Dad said; smiling when he looked down and saw Ethan grinning at him.
“Ehlana’s referring to the boyfriends and girlfriend thing for us,” he explained silently. “Only two out of three of those will be ominous for you.”
“I wonder which two,” Aunt Leanne joked, “and which guys and girl?”
“The bad news is that you don’t need to know that yet and we won’t need your matchmaking services,” I answered with a grin. “The good news is that you’ll have other matches to make and be entertained with instead.”
“Can you give me any hints on that?”
“We’ll need one of your cousins matched up with one of the boys in town,” Ehlana told her.
“Deborah and Nick are already matched; and so are Violet and Dillon. Mark isn’t from town; and you want him paired up with Grace; so you can’t mean her. Isn’t it a bit early for Dawn, Jaimie, or Kaitlyn? Rick and Blaine wouldn’t be amused if I started setting them up with boys here already – they’re still making jokes about Violet and Dillon.”
“You do have other cousins now,” Ehlana reminded her, but since you brought up Violet, Dillon, and Uncle Blaine; let’s talk about them next. They are three of the main reasons we needed to talk with you about this now.”
“You need an architect for all of this, so I’ll guess that’s why you want Blaine,” Dad suggested. “What do you see for Violet and Dillon?”
“A Magi bio-engineer for lab in Dillon,” Ehlana answered.
“And a future second in command for Aunt Grace in Violet,” Ethan added; finishing Ehlana’s thought. “We need to nudge them into college majors in time for them to have the right courses picked for their senior year of high school.”
“Especially for Dillon,” I added. “He hasn’t been thinking about a research-type career because there isn’t anything like that available here. A few hints about Uncle Adam starting up a research lab should get him thinking in the right direction; and Mom can just make sure Violet knows she has a guaranteed job after getting her business degree even if we don’t tell her it will be working with Aunt Grace quite yet.”
“That’d be easier if we could just let them know that they’re both Magi,” Ethan suggested.
“Give them time,” Mom counseled. “What we’ve done so far is coming a bit fast for them. You may find that they’ll be your biggest obstacle with all of these plans.”
“I’ll just get Ehlana and Cassie to hug and kiss them into submission,” Ethan joked. “The Ascension of the Light is coming, and when it happens; Witch Falls is going to be the center of Magi power whether they like it or not.”
“We’ll all like it a lot once we get there,” Ehlana declared confidently.
“So we need to get Blaine to design a research lab and archive; a new medical building; and a new residential addition to town,” Aunt Leanne summarized. “We’ll need to buy some land; annex all of it from the Ridge River District; and eventually get construction crews to build everything. On the personal side of things, we need to get Grace and Mark together and moved to town; nudge Violet and Dillon into education paths they’ll need for their roles in the future big picture; and work on some unspecified matchmaking. Anything else?”
“Grandpa Grant and Grandma-to-be Eleanor will be changing their archive trips to start bringing everything home instead of just checking all of the archives,” Ethan added, “but I’ll go over all of that with Mom later this week.”
“Grandma-to-be?” Mom asked with a laugh. “Isn’t that impossible for a twenty-nine year old?”
“She has great-grandchildren old enough to do the math already,” Ethan pointed out. “She may complain about it, but everyone will start calling her Grandma Eleanor in the not-to-distant future.”
“Like right after the wedding,” Aunt Leanne predicted. “Are you about finished reading?” she asked Uncle Adam.
He smiled and looked up at her; then closed the booklet. “I can finish it later. This all sounds amazing, but I have a feeling that this is one birthday present that is going to take a lot of work to assemble.”
“And you thought that your first model airplanes and cars were tough,” Dad joked.
“We did add a ‘some assembly required’ disclaimer in the booklet,” Ehlana advised them. “Inside; back cover.”
Uncle Adam flipped the back cover open; laughed; and turned it so Mom, Dad, and Aunt Leanne could see that we had actually done that. “Possibly the understatement of the year. Especially since we’re supposed to do a lot of this within the next six years or so.”
“You’ll need to time-phase the whole town,” Aunt Leanne told us.
“We’ll have more than enough help,” I assured her. “It seems like a lot right now, but you do have four Magi Masters here, and we will have a lot more Magi adding their talents too. You’re going to be amazed with what we can all do when we really start using our abilities instead of just mostly playing with our Magi powers.”
“That’s more than a little scary for those of us who have been taught to hide our abilities from everyone,” Dad told me.
“We’ll still be hiding our abilities from most non-Magi,” Ethan said telepathically with a shake of his head, “but that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to use our powers too.”
“I get the feeling there’s a lot more you’re not telling us about this future you see,” Mom deduced.
“That’s true,” I agreed, “but this is all we’re supposed to tell you about for now. Isn’t this enough for one night?”
“Yes and no,” Mom answered. “These plans are leaping decades beyond anything we’ve dreamed about so far.”
“In a brilliant way,” Uncle Adam added. “Not to mention the never dreamed of parts – like having Mark and Grace live here in Witch Falls.”
“When do we need to spring that on them?” Aunt Leanne asked.
“According to my little plan here; by the end of this coming summer,” Adam answered. “Can you have them married and moved here by the end of next summer?”
“No problem,” she agreed with a laugh. “That’s way more time than we needed for us.”
“We were both living here,” he reminded her. “Getting Mark to move here from Seattle might be a bit tougher.”
“If marrying Grace, working with you, and living happily ever after isn’t enough for him; we’ll use Olde Bakery treats and Sunday night buffets at the Inn to bribe him,” Aunt Leanne declared.
“He doesn’t stand a chance, and has no idea that his fate is already sealed,” Dad joked. “Maybe we should warn him, Adam. You are his best friend after all.”
“I wouldn’t want to break any man-laws over this, but there is no way that I’m going to get between Leanne and a matchmaking opportunity,” Adam told him. “As long as the happily ever after thing works out for them, I’m sure Mark will forgive me.”
***
That pretty much covers the main points of everything we talked about, and the next part of that conversation included some discussion about Aunt Leanne taking Uncle Adam home for reasons we don’t need to cover in my journal; so we’ll leave it there. We did talk for nearly another half hour, and then after our Aunt and Uncle went home, I helped Mom and Dad with Ethan and Ehlana’s bedtime routine; and have been in bed, working on my computer, since then.
My Japanese chat sessions are getting better every time, and I read a novel and wrote a book report on it in Japanese too. I should be ready to start another language soon while continuing to master Japanese. Maybe I’ll do that after March break. For now, though, it’s been a long day and I’m ready to crash, so...
...live from Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor, signing off!
