Seymore's Interlude

by Franci Neale

  Chapter 30

  Story Teller

  Mesa could see that Jesmond wasn’t clear about the job she had been charged with. Mesa wasn’t totally clear either, but she made a sincere effort to set Jesmond on a path that would be easy and productive.

  Mesa said, “It is a wonderful, almost miraculous, thing that you have been able, on your own, to create a relationship with The Watcher. We believe The Watcher is a means to gaining lots of information that is needed to provide the best, safest and most reliable means for the great lights to make use of the dome. We also believe it will be essential to create the scenarios necessary to support the riders to return to their lives and then to ride the great light home safely. ”She waited to see if Jesmond understood and, being fairly sure she did, she continued.

  “From the very beginning Seymore has always been certain to include me, then Geralty and now you in his plans. I can see now that I’ve not always told you things that I knew when I should have and I’m sorry for that. I am going to be much better about that from now on. We need a plan for making sure that you have all the support you need to continue with the wonderful contribution you always make to our mission here.”

  Jesmond looked at Mesa and said, “Thank you. I have been thinking that my skills wouldn’t be good enough to find a way of communicating with The Watcher. I would be very sad to have to leave Seymore Place. I love it here and I love The Watcher. ”Tears welled up in her eyes and Mesa reached for her small hand and held it very tight. She put her other hand on top of Mesa’s and continued, “Since I have been here I have been sending telepathic message into the great light in the dome and when I was able to see the great eye from the Weedy Field I was thrilled to know that it had understood my messages of love and good will. The Watcher is very happy now to be in my desk and we are able to exchange information that wasn’t possible before. I think that’s because the Watcher feels safer. ”She looked at Mesa with wide-eyed sincerity and spoke with the urgency of one who deeply desires to be understood.

  “I will be glad to be able to bring the stories to you and Seymore instead of working to understand them by myself. I don’t have any understanding of life at The Rim. Everything that The Watcher tells me is about The Rim and it seems so strange to me. As I said, the emotional content is very easy, but the rest is just not clear to me at all.” She stopped and looked at Mesa to see if she understood.

  Mesa did and let Jesmond know, “Well, Seymore knows lots and lots about The Rim and it will be much easier for him to understand what The Watcher is talking about. He and his brother, Valentino, oversaw the entire Zone where personalities from The Rim return to transition. I don’t know how many tours he has made at The Rim, but he has a great deal of personal experience. Between your communication skills and Seymore’s bank of knowledge, I believe we are all going to learn everything we need to know. ”She looked at Jesmond who seemed to be more at ease. Knowing that she had a way to understand the Watcher’s stories simply by asking Seymore was a relief.

  The young Mercury scrap smiled and said, “That really does make a big difference. Sometimes the little stories are told in odd ways and seem to be hard for The Watcher to tell. The Watcher sometimes seems shy. I think it’s because it is very young. ”She stopped and smiled at Mesa and went on, “I think I’ll go back and visit for a while with the shy, young Watcher.”

  She and Mesa stood and Mesa gave the young pattern a generous hug and Jesmond clung to her. Mesa felt that she should have taken better care of Jesmond and vowed to do more to look out for her from now on. Jesmond released Mesa and went off to her end of the big room; there was a new lightness in her step. Mesa left to find and talk to Seymore.

  Seymore was in his study when Mesa found him and so was Geralty. They were laughing and acting silly over Seymore’s resistance to technical communication. Geralty was teasing him while setting up the new Mercury band receiver on the corner of his big desk. She sat down on the daybed and watched them until Geralty was able to finish and say, “Now Mesa can make this work for you and you’ll be able to talk to your brother any time you want.”

  Mesa said, “I’ll do that right now if you like.” Both Seymore and Geralty jumped from surprise and then laughed even harder. Mesa went over to the receiver and hit a series of keys on the pad and then gave Seymore a three digit code. She told Seymore that he would have to put the code in each time in order to make the connection to the band in the library and on to Middle Mind.

  Seymore, still looking very happy, thanked Mesa and told Geralty that as usual he had done a fine job. He turned back to Mesa and said, “You appear to have something on your mind.” She said that was true. Geralty quickly excused himself and left through the pocket door closest to his room and shut it behind him. Mesa asked Seymore to close the door across from the atrium. He did and then sat down in his big leather chair and propped his feet on the ottoman. He said, “Mesa, this must be important.”

  “Yes,” she said, “I believe it is. I just had a long and very interesting conversation with Jesmond and she had a lot to say about The Watcher. She has a growing relationship with the great light and The Watcher is much happier now that it has a place at her table. Jesmond’s opinion is that The Watcher is very young. She is in the process of building a reliable means of communicating with the big soft eye. She explained that the emotional content of the information from the eye is very easy to understand and respond to, but The Watcher tells small stories that have meanings that are hard for her to understand since the content all refers to activities and events at The Rim.” Mesa continued to give Seymore all the details of her conversation and then concluded, “Seymore, we need to make an effort to be more aware and available to Jesmond. She is doing much more complex work than I ever imagined. But we also need to be sensitive and thoughtful to this sweet pattern. She is not aware of the power and impact of her gifts and we need to help her grow into them and not take her skills for granted. The main skill she is using seems to be intended telepathy and that is very uncommon.”

  Seymore thanked Mesa for telling him about Jesmond’s relationship with The Watcher and said he would do everything possible to assist her, especially with interpreting the stories. “Right now, I’d like to think about what you’ve told me and then we can talk again. I may have some questions.”

  Mesa was surprised at Seymore’s even response, no hint of excitement about the potential for meaningful conversation with The Watcher. She stood, congratulated him on his recent technical advancement, rolled her eyes and left by the back door to go out and enjoy a spate of thinking of her own by the pond.

  Seymore had to dredge up every ounce of personal control to keep from dancing around the room and jumping up and down with joy before Mesa left. Her recounting of the dynamic conversation between young Jesmond and The Watcher produced what he was sure was the flash of inspiration he had been expecting.

  He began to make some deductions based on his new information. The light told its story to Jesmond in terms that would make sense at The Rim because all lights were constructed from Rim stuff and were created at The Rim. The stranded light was in a glade (the dome) in a forest (all that can be seen from the dome on one side is woods and the Weedy Field).Hearing his mother’s call fits perfectly with Sarah’s experience of the rocket baby in the light. It was the baby who had originally owned the stranded light in the dome. It would have had to be the baby’s mother who called the baby back with her mournful love and ultimately led to the baby’s abandoned light being attracted to Sarah and was now stranded at the dome.

  His mind was racing to figure out exactly how he was going to enlist The Watcher to convey the stories of the light travelers to Jesmond. The stories would be directly related to each light since both the traveler and light were created from Rim units. Would an arriving light automatically impress its traveler on to the stranded light as Sarah’s had? Once the integration had taken place the Watc
her could automatically relay the story of the arriving traveler to Jesmond. Once that was done it would be very simple to provide the holograms and instructions to accommodate the travelers’ needs. He knew for sure he had it 90% figured out and now he just had to urge everything into the proper order and place to produce the perfect solution. He stood up from his desk chair and went out the back door to where Mesa was. He just had to tell her.

  He was nearly dancing as he approached Mesa. She was sitting looking out over the pond with her back to him and he called her name, louder than he needed to, and she jumped to her feet. She quickly moved down the paved path to meet him. He grabbed her by the shoulders and then gave her a bear hug. He held her as he laughed and swayed. He finally released her, she gasped for breath and he ushered her to the bench where she had been sitting.

  They sat there side by side, Mesa dumbfound, and Seymore delirious. Finally Mesa couldn’t stand it any longer. “Seymore, what’s going on? I’ve never seen you like this.” Seymore was smiling so wildly that she thought his face might be damaged. Then he said, “The flash of inspiration I’ve been expecting has arrived and I have the path to completion of ES360. The Watcher can speak in stories and the stories can be told to Jesmond and through her to us. The reason for the greeters is to meet the travelers with the background and characters that will most fit with the light traveler’s personal stories.” He stopped and then said it again, “… with the light traveler’s personal stories!”

  Mesa looked at him rather blankly and said, “I don’t think I understand what you are so happy about.” Seymore’s look of exasperations was almost comical and Mesa mistakenly laughed.

  Mesa’s lack of comprehension set Seymore on fire with energy and he stood and began to pace back and for the in front of her. He was determined to make her understand. “When the light arrived here it had Sarah as its traveler, but there were two lights. Sarah’s light dominated because the smaller light, the one now in the dome, did not have its traveler. The Watcher knew that its way home was with Sarah, but that didn’t happen. When there are two lights in the dome the larger light dominates and that will happen again when the next great light arrives with its traveler. The arriving light’s story will dominate our stranded light and the integration will automatically impress the arriving traveler’s tale on our Watcher.

  “The Watcher can tell the larger light’s story to Jesmond, etc, etc. Do you understand now? It’s exactly what we need. We have all the pieces and now we just have to put them in working order. Do you understand now?”

  Mesa looked at Seymore without expression and then she couldn’t keep up the ruse and burst into a laugh and shouted, “Yes, I understand!” They laughed and laughed and began to dance around the pond, a kind of stumbling polka. They were beside themselves with glee. When they couldn’t dance any longer they walked down the path to the back entrance to Seymore’s study. They congratulated each other several time. Then Mesa continued on through to her turret room and Seymore fell into his big chair and nearly passed out with giddy relief.

  It wasn’t easy, but Seymore did regain his composure. He was intent on making a step by step plan to complete ES360 physically and begin to establish a format that would be effective each time a great light arrived with its traveler. It was complex and would still take some doing, and it was a joy to work on it and know that the results were going to be good.

  He decided to start by finding Geralty and seeing how the installation for the transfer of the holograms was progressing. He went out of his office and across to Geralty’s room. He wasn’t there so he looked down the meadow to see if there was any activity at the Beach House. He saw Geralty and Fred making their way up the lane. He went around to the library and out the double doors and headed toward his protégée and the handsome black and white cat.

  They met at the picnic table and Seymore picked up Fred, sat on one of the benches and invited Geralty to sit on the other. Geralty noticed right away that Seymore seemed brighter than usual, his smile seemed easy and there was a new light in his eyes.

  Geralty said, “I see something good has happened. What’s going on?” Seymore grinned at him and said. “I have had the flash of inspiration I have been expecting and it is quite wonderful. It’s also unexpected in many ways. But nothing is going to have to be changed. It is an expansion of the good work we have already done. Tell me how you are coming with the hologram transport system.”

  Geralty smiled almost as broadly as Seymore and said, “I am proud to say that it is up and running, it has been tested with three different transfers and it works perfectly. Celic and I were even able to make an enhancement that makes it possible to send several related holograms at one time making the use of the system much more efficient.”

  Seymore said, “Wonderful! Be sure to tell him that I am very pleased and proud of you both. I’ll give the same message to Valentino so that Celic gets some local credit. ”Then he suddenly changed the subject.

  “I think you should include your achievement in the history of Seymore Place that you are writing and you can add that I have found the means to complete ES360.I can’t yet say exactly how it’s going to happen as it will be step by step until the last little detailed is complete, but I am sure of which direction to go and how to get there. It is an enormous relief and I am very grateful.”

  Geralty was pleased to share his happiness and looked at him with great admiration. Seymore was amazing. His tenacity always paid off and he never gave up. Geralty congratulated him several time and asked what had happened that produced the flash of inspiration.

  Seymore said it was Jesmond’s ability to communicate with The Watcher and finding out that The Watcher conveys information in stories. Geralty said he didn’t understand and Seymore told him not to worry that in time he would.

  They were both feeling very confident and simply sat in each others’ company and enjoyed their sense of wellbeing and achievement. Even Fred seemed to sit taller and held his head a little higher.