Seymore's Interlude

by Franci Neale

  Chapter 20

  Everything in Its Place

  When Geralty arrived with Fred in tow, Jesmond brightened and Fred seemed to notice as he jumped onto the picnic bench right next to the new addition to Seymore Place. He leaned and rubbed up against her and she stoically watched him as he curled his long tail through her fingers. She tentatively reached to touch him and then smiled and giggled with Geralty. Friends were made.

  Mesa gave Jesmond a soft, sweet smile and told her, “You’ve won a new friend.” She reached out and ran her hand down the cat’s back and continued, “Fred came to Seymore Place from somewhere else just like you did.” They had been using mental communication, but Jesmond turned to Mesa and said with sound, “I would like for Geralty to show me the pond. I’ve never seen one. ”Mesa turned to Geralty and he quickly offered Jesmond his hand and they were off with Fred close on their heels.

  Left by themselves, Mesa turned to Seymore and told him, “I was very, very lucky to be able to bring Jesmond back with me. Jesmond was a new pattern but she had been first chosen by Psyche to help her with several small projects and had only recently returned to Mercury Place. She’s very excited to be asked to participate in ES360 and is hoping to always stay here. I have told her about the scope of the project and why we need her help. While I don’t think she really understood completely, she is aware that your creations are well known and greatly admired. She took a little while to decide. I think she sent a message off to Psyche to see what she thought of our offer. I’m delighted she accepted and I’m sure you will be too. It’s easy to see that Geralty is taken with her and Fred, whose approval we all seek, seems charmed.”

  She paused and looked at Seymore hoping for some response. He seemed to be only half listening while looking down toward where the dunes begin. She called his name and he quickly turned to look at her. “I’m happy if you’re happy, Mesa. Jesmond seems bright and sweet. Geralty seems very pleased. When you arrived did you come in over the water illusion? ”His abrupt change of subject caught Mesa up short.

  “Yes, we did” she replied, “and I can now see how easy it was for The Meddlers to sneak in. The approach is completely unobstructed and the water illusion picks up much further out than it needs to. The barrier we created is still easy to get around at the ends; at least it was for me. I think we need to recreate that area so that it is more protected and actually does what we want.”

  Seymore was glad he had spent his time putting the plans together and told Mesa about them. Then he said he wanted to send a message off to Valentino about the next steps in moving their plans forward. Mesa produced a mini-Seymore so he could impress his message:

  My Dear Valentino,

  I am proud to send you to my trusted protégée, Geralty. He is currently overseeing the installation of the Mercury Band which Mesa has generously transferred to us to make two-way communication easy and fast between Seymore Place and Middle Mind. The installation for ES360 is made and Geralty will complete the connection for you while he is there. I would like for you to make a space for him in your offices and kindly help him to finish his project.

  We are building the site for the arrival of holograms from Middle Mind and I hope that you can establish your sending point and give Geralty a receiving marker for our new facilities. The points and markers should be open so that we both can send and receive. It also might be helpful for Geralty to meet the assistants who are going to be doing the transmitting since he will be handling almost all transfers as well as the Mercury band traffic. They might offer Geralty a tour of Middle Mind; he would love it.

  And finally I am sending a personal message to you that Geralty is carrying. He’s very reliable and you can trust him with your personal reply. It is highly confidential.

  The latest news from Seymore Place is that Mesa just returned from a good trip to Mercury Place and brought both our new band and a new addition to our staff. Jesmond is a young and gifted Mercury scrap that is permanently assigned to ES360 and we are glad she’s here. Everything goes along well and we make progress daily. I have set your marker so that you will be able to transport easily from Middle Mind to help us celebrate our work when it is complete. I’ll give your plenty of notice so you can help The Meddlers to behave themselves.

  Love to you always from your brother, Seymore

  He turned to Mesa and told her, “Can you hang on to this until I finish writing the personal message to Valentino for Geralty to hand carry to Middle Mind? I’m going to write it now and maybe you could talk to Geralty and help him complete the Mercury Band installation. I think it’s a good idea for him to make this trip soon. I’m going to give him my transport marker to use and set it to land him in Valentino’s office. But I’m going to give him some instructions in case it lands him in my office with The Meddlers.”

  Mesa stood up with a big grin on her face shifted into her schoolmarm self and looked at Seymore and laughed. “You know, you give those meddlers much more power than they deserve. I think they are just three lonely men who haven’t been wise enough to accept a new post and are just drifting from one shiny object to the next. I’ll bet your brother has them corralled by now. ”She paused long enough to return to her more charming winged woman and added, “But, you’re right to tell Geralty to steer clear of them anyway as they are apparently definitely not above manipulation of the unwary.” Her conversation with Psyche had made that clear. “I’ll go help him with the finishing touches on the installations and take Jesmond with us so you are free to complete you private message. ”She paused long enough for him to tell her what was in the undisclosed missive, but he didn’t so she left to walk around to the pond wondering what could be so private that he wouldn’t tell her.

  Seymore went back up to the double door entrance to the library. Inside he produced some old fashioned writing paper and a pair of envelopes. He wrote to his brother:

  Dear Valentino,

  I’ll never be able to thank you enough for finding the image of Sarah. It was wonderful to see and very reassuring as it means she is safe and continuing with her life at The Rim. I told Geralty and Mesa about the image and they are anxious to see it.

  Toward that end, can you reduce the image to a hologram and give it to Geralty to bring it with him. I am enclosing an envelope for just that purpose. Please don’t tell him what it is as I want the surprise to include Mesa. This is going to be a treasure for all of us.

  If there is the slightest problem, I am sending a Mercury message just before Geralty leaves for Middle Mind and you can send your concerns back using that messenger.

  Thank you very much, brother dear. The hologram will have an honored place here and bring us much joy.

  Love always from your brother, Seymore

  He folded the letter and the return envelope and put them in the envelope that he addressed to his brother. He set it on the shelf of butterfly specimens and went to his study to look out and see what was going on at the pond.

  He looked out on a group of Mercury pieces and one cat having a perfectly wonderful time. Mesa was again her sweet young woman who can fly. All had removed their shoes and socks and rolled up or held up their clothes and danced through the shallow water on the bank of the pond near the small dock. They were probably the only former Mercury natives to ever frolic in pond shallows. He was almost tempted to join them. Fred wanted no part of the water, but sat and watched from the dock with genuine curiosity as the play went on and on.

  Jesmond seemed the most carefree of all and danced and jumped with delight; her laughter was like music. Seymore really liked her and relished her sense of fun. Then he realized that he didn’t have a place to offer her that she could call her own. Her first undertaking would be to cast herself as a desk to replace the one that was Mesa in the office. Since it was to attract the watcher, he decided that it should be put in the atrium. Maybe while Geralty was away he would allow her to use his room until he had a chance to c
ome up with something for her.

  He continued with his planning. The Jesmond magic table would be different and smaller, no doubt, but if it was accessible to The Watcher it would be better to have the desk part of her permanently in the glass atrium since it was constructed from the same materials as the dome. And Jesmond, like Mesa, would still be free to come and go. If The Watcher wasn’t attracted to the new desk, maybe the desks could be exchanged. Or, better yet, it was possible to make the new desk irresistible to the big foggy eye by putting Sarah’s ring on it. Seymore congratulated himself and was certain he had a solution for The Watcher. One more step in the right direction he was sure.

  He decided to join the merry makers and left by his outside door and walked toward the pond. Everyone waved and yelled for him to join them. He waved back but declined their invitation. Instead he picked up Fred who had come to meet him. He sat on one of the benches shouting his own instructions and approval for the watery game. The fun only ended when Geralty feel into the water and had to be treated to a dramatic faux rescue.

  Mesa and Jesmond pushed and jostled Geralty as he left the water and all three fell onto the soft grass to more laughter and silliness. Geralty sat up, looked himself over and announced he was going to go to his room and clean up. Fred followed him. Seymore thought to himself that Fred was not his cat any more. He first lost him to Sarah and now he spent all his time with Geralty.

  He turned to Jesmond and said, “We need to find a good place for you to call your own. When I rearranged the cottage I made the office much larger by adding the front turret and I was thinking I would take the other end of the space and make a place that would be just yours. The front part of the office has always belonged to Mesa and now that the turret is in place she has a perfect spot for her table self. You’ll need a place for your table self as well.

  “I’ll make a doorway from your new space that leads to the glass atrium and you can put your desk there.” He turned to Mesa to see if she was in favor of this. She looked genuinely delighted and added, “Seymore, I think you have hit on a perfect idea. For now it would be nice, I think, to divide the room with a beautiful curtain or a pretty screen. Maybe in time a new wall can be added.” She turned to look at Jesmond whose eyes were warm and brimming with pleasure at this surprising news. She ran into Seymore’s arms and thanked him and then wrapped herself around Mesa and said how happy she was that she chose her.

  Geralty came back around the corner from his room and Jesmond ran to him and danced along as she told him about her new room and the table in the atrium and how much she loved being at Seymore Place. Then she shyly added that she was especially glad he was here as well. Her enthusiasm was inspiring and Seymore turned to Mesa and said, “Could you come with me to the study, there are a few things I’d like to talk about.”

  Mesa walked out to where Geralty and Jesmond were now sitting with Fred on the boat dock and told Jesmond when she was finished with her meeting with Seymore the two of them could go and make her new space just the way she wanted it. She told them to stay dry and turned to join Seymore as he walked toward his back door to the study.

  Inside Mesa returned to her schoolmarm visage and sat on the arm of the big leather chair and Seymore sat at his desk. Mesa said, “That is a really fine idea about putting the new desk in the atrium. Do you think the eye will be attracted to it?”

  Seymore said, “If I put Sarah’s ring on top of it I’m certain it will. ”He really enjoyed Mesa’s exclamation, “Good idea! ”Then he continued, “I have a hunch that the intelligent light that is in the dome may not know that it is looking for Sarah, just someone like Sarah. Someone it can help. I’m going to do more thinking about that, but it may be what Psyche meant when she said that the light knows what it’s doing. If that’s true then the desk is going to be its center of activity. Our stranded light could play a significant role in helping travelers return to The Rim. But, as I said, I still need to think that idea all the way through.

  “In the meantime, we need to at least start on the Beach House. I have the plans and I think we can manage the force field together, though we probably should wait until we have the marker for the incoming holograms before the force field is activated. Or maybe I’m ahead of myself. ”He thought that was right, that he was ahead of himself and he asked, “Does Geralty know exactly what to do to get your Mercury Band functional? ”He seemed to be highly energized and Mesa wondered if having Jesmond at Seymore Place had brought the new enthusiasm. Whatever it was, it was good to see and she sensed that they would now move easily toward overcoming the last hurdles to completion of the station even though there was a lot to learn.

  Mesa replied, “As soon as I’ve arranged a few things for Jesmond and set a few tasks for her to handle I’ll review the Mercury Band with Geralty. I had originally thought to put our part of the installation in the office, but now I think that having it in one of the cupboards in the library is better and more central. Doesn’t that sound better to you?”

  Seymore nodded that it did and said that while she was helping Jesmond he would go over helping him with the last details of the band she could send the message off to Valentino. He said he would like to have the Beach House finished before Geralty left. Mesa agreed and they went to take the next important steps in their still incomplete and unclear plan. Seymore stopped in the library to pick up the personal message for Valentino so Geralty would be sure to have it when he left.