by J. D. German
Chapter 16 – Almost Heaven
Lynn and Harriet took the scenic route through West Virginia, stopping briefly in Coal Creek where Lynn and Jack had met in eighth grade. It looked just as drab and dirty as when Lynn grew up here except that many of the businesses were boarded up. As they passed the old Island Creek Coal Company. Lynn remembered a newspaper photo of Jack Kennedy standing on the hood of a car in front of the building giving a campaign speech. That was back when coal miners meant something to the Government. The EPA had forced the coal companies to stop releasing the black water from their washing operations into the rivers and miners with black lung disease started getting monthly checks. Now the Government wants to put them out of business.
Lynn’s Miata had no trouble negotiating the winding roads through the mountains, so they made good time getting to Jack’s cabin. As she climbed the dirt road up to his property – her property now – memories started flooding back. Lynn let them come and go, both the good ones and the bad ones. The bad memories had little power over her now. The trip to Telluride exorcised those ghosts. Lynn hoped that didn’t mean Jack’s dream spirit had departed. He hadn’t visited for quite awhile and she missed talking with him. As they arrived Harriet saw Rick’s car parked in front of the cabin with Rick behind the wheel. As soon as Lynn stopped beside him Harriet was out of the Miata and into Rick’s welcoming arms.
“How long have you been sitting here, honey?”
“A couple of hours. I hoped you two might arrive early and I was anxious to see you. Driving a little car like that over these roads is dangerous; a coal truck coming around a bend in the wrong lane would squash it like a bug.”
“You didn’t need to worry. Lynn handles the Miata like a race driver.”
Rick replied with a smile, “I know she’s a good driver, but I was afraid she might let you drive.”
Harriet stepped back and punched him in the shoulder. “Enough of your misogynist jokes, buster.”
“Are you ready to head back to The Farm.”
Harriet didn’t want to leave Lynn alone on her first night in the cabin. “How about if we stay here over night and leave in the morning? Is that okay with you, Lynn.”
Lynn had the same thought and was feeling apprehensive herself. “That would be great. We can talk about the adventures we shared here when Winston sent Alexei to shut us up.”
As they sat in front of the fire Rick asked “Don’t you worry about someone breaking into the cabin while you’re away, Lynn?”
“You must be reading my mind. I was just thinking the same thing.”
Harriet joined in. “I remember that Jack installed a state-of-the-art security system in the house and around the property. If anyone was prowling around, his system would send a warning to his computer immediately and give him a live video feed. Can you reactivate that?”
“I suppose I should. Jack kept everything on a computer system hidden in the basement. After we finish our coffee, let’s go down and see if it can tell us how to get things working again.”
After breakfast the next day, Harriet and Rick climbed into their Cadillac Escapade and headed down the hill. After thirty minutes of dirt road they would be on the highway that would take them home. Lynn washed the dishes and then went to the basement to see what else she could find on Jack’s computer. The surveillance system was up and running, but she wanted to explore the hard drive for other useful stuff, and set it up to send intrusion warnings and video to her own laptop.
The first place she went to was a file marked ‘Jack’s Programs,’ and was surprised to find dozens of computer routines and documents Jack had created. She picked one titled ‘Security System Operating Instructions’ and opened it. “This is great! It shows me how to configure the cabin security system by adding features.” The first few pages described the video and acoustic sensors Jack had installed surrounding the property and at the cabin.
“This is amazing. His video cameras can be programmed to examine the shape of anything moving in the field of view and compare it to things that would cause false alarms. It’s got image templates for bears, deer, and large dogs installed. Jack must have gotten lots of false alarms from these creatures before he thought up this program. Damn he was brilliant.”
The other thing she noticed was a facial recognition routine. It could zero in on the key features of a face – the spacing between the eyes, the nose length and width, the shape of the cheekbones, the length of the jaw line, and the depth of the eye sockets to produce a unique digital faceprint. With this information Jack could hack into the FBI database, search for the closest matches, and send him the personal information about the face. Lynn found photos of several people Jack had gotten information on, but she didn’t recognize any of them . . . “Wait a minute! There’s a search on me. Let’s see when it was. . . . Right after he came to visit me the first time. I guess he wanted to verify that I was who I claimed to be. I’ll forgive him for that.” Lynn couldn’t think of any reason she would need that feature, but she enabled it anyway.
Next Lynn went through Jack’s folder of hacking routines, and was amazed again. There were hacking programs designed to get into dozens of very secure sites – the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the IRS, the Federal Reserve, three Caribbean offshore banks, major investment companies, and a dozen private companies. “Wow, what a find! I’ll copy these onto my laptop so I can use them for my hacking jobs.”
After she finished that task she fixed herself a sandwich for supper and washed it down with a glass of sweet tea. She took a cup of coffee out to the front deck and sat in Jack’s favorite rocker to watch the sunset. Once again memories flooded into her consciousness of when she and Jack shared these moments. She tried to focus on the good ones but the image of Jack getting shot in her foyer took over. And then she saw the fire burning up his body alongside Selena and O’Malley. She hadn’t witnessed either event because she had gone to town for groceries, but she had formed pictures in her mind of how it must have happened. Now those images were just as real as the burning house the she saw as she rushed back home.
Lynn felt the dark claws of depression closing in on her as she sat there and cried. She was about to give into it when a sane part of her mind pushed aside those thoughts. Get up, Lynn! Go for a walk . . . or better yet a run. She dragged herself out of the chair, put on her running shoes, and took off for a run around the lake. By the time she had covered the first couple of miles she was breathing hard but felt her spirits rise under the influence of the adrenalin. By the time she finished her run she was worn out and ready for bed. After a quick shower she climbed between the sheet of the bed she and Jack had spent their honeymoon in. She dwelled on those good thoughts this time as she drifted off to sleep. The last thing she said was “Come back to me again, Jack. Let me see and feel your spirit tonight.”