David’s eyes widened. “Tuck?” he asked.
Ur-Zababa smiled. “He is here.”
“Is he alive?”
“I told you that he was. I told you when you asked that he was right where he was supposed to be.”
“But is he here, in your body... his body?” Ur-Zababa nodded.
David would have been angry were he not so happy at what he had just been told. “But why didn’t you tell me? Why did you allow me to believe that he was dead?”
“Because I knew that you never would have allowed me to use his body.”
“Of course I wouldn’t. You had no right.”
“But I did have a right. You see, when I came upon him in the cold waters of the bog, I asked him. He gave me his permission to be the dominant soul in his body for a while. He wanted to help.” Ur-Zababa paused. “You have a very special son, David.” He smiled. “And Tuck has a very special father.”
He took both of David’s hands into his own. “I leave you now. I wish you and your family great peace and happiness. And I hope that perhaps in some distant space and time we may meet again.”
With that, his eyes closed and remained shut for only a fraction of a second before they opened again, this time sparkling with a familiar light.
“Hi, Dad,” the familiar voice chimed.
Tears filled David’s eyes as he swooped his son up into his arms. “Oh, Tuck, I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too, Dad,” Tuck returned, and they both hugged each other so tightly that Tuck grunted.
It was on their way back to the car that he saw something different, something eerily wise in his son’s eyes.
“What is it, Tuck?” he asked.
Tuck smiled, but his gaze remained dreamy. “It was just so amazing,” he said in a voice that now seemed curiously older than its years.
“What was?”
“Everything,” he said shaking his head, his eyes still glazed with wonder. “I know so much, Dad. I just know so much.”
David smiled, but he was almost a little frightened. What did Tuck know? Where had he been in the past several weeks, and what had he seen? As they got into the car and Tuck scrambled over to greet his mother, David realized that in sharing a body with Ur-Zababa, Tuck had no doubt also absorbed some of his information. This basically pleased David, for he had always expected a lot from his son. But as he turned the key in the ignition he realized that in some ways it meant that Tuck was now perhaps far wiser than he, and in the years ahead he wondered what Tuck would become. And what unfathomable wisdoms Tuck would eventually expect from him.
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