Julie watched Sam and Ruth walking through the backyard while she beat the pancake batter.  The kitchen window allowed the early morning sun to shine onto the granite counter top, igniting the flecks of mica into sharp points of glitter.  She was getting more and more worried about Sam.  He’d had some kind of dream that he didn’t want to talk about.  But when he’d offered to do the wash, she’d figured out it must have been a wet dream.

 With three sons going through puberty, she was well acquainted with ‘nocturnal emissions’.  Smiling faintly, she looked away for a moment to test the readiness of the griddle.  Then her eyes went back to the window and the enigma that was her middle child.  The sweet tempered, emotional boy, who’d grown up to follow in his father’s footsteps, had also become a man who was hiding something.  Something he couldn’t talk about, at least to her.

 And that hurt.  Julie felt tears well and immediately blinked hard to stop them from falling.  It seemed as if the whole house was full of secrets these days.  First Sam, then Ruth and now even Toby and Mei Ling had returned from Boston yesterday practically brimming over with news that could only be shared with Ruth.  A twinge tightened her jaw.

 The fulcrum of these secrets was Ruth, the stranger.  Julie blushed to herself and hastily set the batter aside before she beat it to death.  When Toby had told her about the dreams which had brought him home, she’d been concerned but when he admitted that Ruth was the mother in his dreams, she’d gone straight to jealous.  No passing Go, no collecting $200, as her sons would say.

 Even his hug and the carefree way he’d told the story hadn’t stopped the bitter seeds of jealousy from sprouting in her soul.  And now Sam looked like he was telling Ruth what was bothering him and it should be her he told, not some stranger.  Julie bit her lip and resolutely turned away from the sight of her son with his arm around the stranger.

 Setting the batter aside, she opened the fridge and got out the bacon.  Hunting through the lower cabinets, she found the bacon platter for the microwave and started peeling each slice off, very carefully concentrating on her task so no other thoughts could intrude.  The opening of the back door startled her and she looked back to find Sam coming in with a worried look on his face.

 “Mom, can we talk for a minute?”  He sounded unsure to her ears and for a moment she didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded.

 “I guess you figured out why I volunteered for laundry detail.”  He blushed red and his eyes dropped to the floor.  “And you probably know that I’ve been kind of distracted since Kosovo.”

 “I had noticed, Sam.  And I hoped that you knew that you could tell me anything.”  She laid the bacon aside and washed her hands in the sink.

 “Yeah.  I mean I know it with my head but part of me is still a little scared.”  He was looking everywhere but at her.

 “But you can tell Ruth?”  Even she could hear the hurt in her voice.

 His startled gaze returned to her.  “Well, she’s a stranger, Mom.  She doesn’t have to deal with the fallout.”

 Julie felt a little shiver run up her spine.  “That bad is it?”

 “It’s . . . different, Mom, not bad or good.  Well, it could be really, really good or absolutely the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”  He was struggling.

 “Sweetheart, I love you.  Your father loves you and both your brothers think you’re pretty special.  I can’t think of any reason we’d stop any time soon.”  Julie crossed to him and took him in her arms.

 He hugged her back almost to the point of bruising.  In a whisper, he finally told her.  “I’m attracted to a . . . man.”

 She went very still while she tried to wrap her mind around what he meant.  Listening intently, she held him while he spoke of getting drunk, meeting Colonel Griffin, then meeting him again at the base, finding him actually here in his own home and dreaming last night that his dream lover, Sarpedon, in ancient Greece was in truth the Colonel of today.

 When his voice trailed away, she gathered her wits about her and kissed his cheek.  “Well, Sam, if you’re going to be attracted to men, at least you chose someone nice.  Not to mention . . . what was it Mei Ling called him?  Studly?”

 “Mom!”  Sam looked at her in shock and Julie rather enjoyed the effect.

 “You can’t expect me to not notice Seth’s allure.  He is as close to my age as he is to yours but in the opposite direction, Sam.  Didn’t he say he was going to be 45 in a couple of weeks?”  Julie thought back to dinner on Sunday.

 “It wasn’t his age, I was afraid you were going to ask about.”  Sam had such an interesting look on his face that Julie decided to take pity on him.

 “At the risk of repeating myself, Sam, I love you and as long as you’re happy, that’s all that’s important.  Although it’s still a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy in the military.  And do you have any idea if Seth feels the same . . . attraction?”  She asked him gently, watching his face grimace.

 “No idea.  It’s too much to hope that he had the same dream I did last night.  Ruth just told me that the dream came from 2000 B.C.”  His eyes went to the backyard and a look of amazement crossed his face.

 Julie followed his gaze and stood still in shock.  Their backyard boundary was a small creek lined with stately old oak trees which housed many different species of birds.  Which all appeared to be in their yard clustered around Ruth.  On her wrist, the peregrine falcon perched, its head tilted as if they were having a conversation in bird talk.  Ruth laughed and stroked his feathers with a gentle hand.

 “My God!  She is really something.”  Sam shook his head and hugged Julie close.
 
 “Was she the queen in your dream?”  Julie couldn’t tear her eyes away from the amazing tableau of Ruth wearing an old blue sweater of Sam’s over a navy blue turtleneck and a pair of her jeans turned up at the hem, surrounded by flocks of birds in a never ending spiral.

 “Yes, sister to Sar and Queen of Crete.  She said that it was a matriarchal culture at that time.  The oldest child ruled and she was the elder by two years.”  His voice was rather absentminded while he watched the amazing sight of his patient talking to the birds.  “She looks like a feminine Dr. Doolittle.”

 Julie groaned.  “Darn it, Sam, now I’m going to have that ‘Talk to the Animals’ song running through my head for the rest of the day.”

 The horrified look on his face was priceless.  “So will I.”

 They shared a laugh and kept on watching the birds come and go.  The falcon took wing and sailed back up to the top of the tallest oak.  A raven took his place, all sleek and shining in the sunlight, preening his coal black feathers and bobbing his head back and forth.  After him came a bright red cardinal, then a brown thrush and the last was a common sparrow.  Ruth was frowning when he flew away and Julie felt a frisson of fear.

 “Looks like the last one gave her some bad news.”  Sam put into words the very feeling Julie had.

 “She’s been out there long enough for a woman recovering from pneumonia, no matter how bundled up she is.”  Julie pulled away from her son and gave him a little push to the back door.  “Go bring her in while I start the first batch of pancakes.”

 “Are you okay with this, Mom?”  Sam didn’t move, just looked down at her with eyes so very like her own.

 “I will be, Sam.  Once I understand all that’s going on.  Just remember that I love you and don’t wait so long to tell me what’s happening.”  She scolded him gently, relieved to find that her words were true and the sore place in her heart wasn’t quite so tender anymore.

 “You’re the best, Mom.”  He leaned over and kissed her cheek before going back outside.

 She watched as the opening of the back door scared the rest of the birds away.  Flying up in a cloud of whirring motion, they wore all the colors of the rainbow.  The look on Ruth’s face was so arresting that Julie paused to try and decipher it.  Joy, pain, loss and finally resignation and acceptance chased themselves across her scarred face.  For a moment, Julie saw her face whole with no scars then it blurred back to the familiar half disfigured and half undamaged.

 Shaking her head, she went back to making breakfast while her brain whirled between the enigma that was Ruth and Sam’s confession.  She hadn’t been lying when she had approved his choice.  Dinner on Sunday had been delightful.  Julie paused with the first cake on the griddle.  Seth had seemed like a friend of long standing rather than a comparative stranger.

 Toby came in yawning, trailed by Mei Ling with a book open already.  “Hi, Moms.  Something smells good.”

 “Pancakes, Toby.  Would you get the syrups down from the cupboard?”  She directed him and after pressing a kiss to her cheek, he pulled down the familiar cruets of maple, raspberry and boysenberry syrups.

 “Anything I can do to help, Mrs. H.?”  Mei Ling carefully replaced her finger with a bookmark.

 “We’ll need plates and silverware, Mei Ling.”  Julie winced at the shrill screech of the teakettle.  “Can you get that, honey?”

 “No problem.”  Mei Ling quickly lifted the teakettle and brought it over to the big teapot that already had tea bags in it.  Pouring carefully, she filled it to the brim and then popped the padded tea cozy over it.

 Sam and Ruth came in, bringing a chill breeze with them.

 “Good morning, everyone.”  Ruth’s husky voice sounded clearer today.

 Julie watched while she sat down at the table with a sigh.  The wind had whipped color into her cheeks but she was still pale and shaky.  “Good morning, Ruth.  I’ve never seen so many birds together in one place before.”

 The silver eye met hers and the little quirk of lips that was her smile appeared.  “They very much appreciate the multiple feeders you keep full over the winter.”

 Sam came over to the stove and took the first three pancakes she’d finished and placed on the platter by her side, handing one to each of them.  “You’ll need to rest this morning if you want another trip outside this afternoon.”

 “I don’t know if I can wait that long, Sam.  I need to visit the Peabody.  Today is not too soon.”  Ruth accepted a cup of tea from Mei Ling and poured some boysenberry syrup over her pancake.

 “Do we know yet if Colonel Griffin is related to the Griffin who paid for the exhibition?”  Toby asked around a mouthful of pancake.  “Moms, these are great.”

 “Thank you, Toby.  Sam, why don’t you call the colonel and ask him a genealogy question?”  Julie shot her suddenly blushing son a quick look and flipped another pancake.

 “Philip Anthony Griffin was his name.”  Ruth added.  “His nickname was Page.  And the opera story is quite true.”

 Toby snorted his juice and Mei Ling pounded him on the back while Sam started to laugh and couldn’t seem to stop.  Julie just shook her head and caught a teasing look from Ruth that told her she’d deliberately lowered the tension in the room.  Nodding to their guest, she promised herself a heart to heart talk with her as soon as possible.

 The next stack of pancakes disappeared then Sam took over the flipping while Julie sat down to eat.  Toby and Mei Ling were expounding ever more crazy schemes to get the crates out of the museum and opened.  Their sheer exuberance was enlightening.  Julie had always wondered why her baby wanted to be an archaeologist but the zest he brought to this discussion showed her his secret desire.

 The world had grown so small that the possibilities for adventure were few and far between.  When the evening news came from countries that were only a few seconds away by satellite, there really wasn’t anyplace left to explore.  The past could still be an adventure for the person patient enough to dig it up.

 Mei Ling echoed her thoughts when she cocked her head to one side and gazed at Toby.  “Why do unopened boxes always make our fingers itch?”

 “The Pandora-itch.”  Ruth pushed her plate away, shaking her head no to another pancake and cradling her teacup.  “The human race is unable to leave any stone unturned.  Finding the final frontier just makes us cross it to look at what is behind the rainbow.”

 “So, the past is our final frontier?”  Toby was skeptical.

 Ruth shook her head gently.  “No, the next frontier is moving off Earth and exploring what’s out there.”

 Toby sighed.  “I always wanted to be an astronaut but I couldn’t handle all the math.  And with NASA funding getting slashed so badly this year, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be much of a future for space research.”

 Now it was Ruth’s turn to sigh and Julie watched her gaze into her teacup.  Her voice when it came was deep.  “The future is coming sooner than they know.  Burying our heads in the sands of Earth will not save us.  It is the best time for us to look ahead.”

 Sam frowned and stopped flipping pancakes.  “That’s the voice you used four thousand years ago, the prophecy voice of my dream.”

 “I’m sorry.”  Ruth got up and disappeared into her room so quickly that Julie didn’t have time to blink.

 Toby and Mei Ling were both looking at Sam.  But Toby was the first to speak.  “You had a dream like mine?”

 Sam brought the stack of pancakes over to the table and sat down.  Julie listened while he told the other two of his dream.  When their questions started, she poured more tea into Ruth’s cup and quietly got up to take it in to her.  She found her curled up on the window seat overlooking the backyard.  Sitting beside her, she handed her the cup and sat back.

 “I was jealous of you, Ruth.  Toby told me of his dreams and it hurt that he considered you his mother too.  Then when Sam finally told me what’s been bothering him, I was doubly jealous because he told you first.  But you’re not here to take my sons from me, are you?”

 She shook her head and watched the trees move in the wind.  “When I woke up in the hospital, I was no longer alone in my body.  Three sister-selves shared my memories.  The doctors thought I’d turned schizophrenic, that the blast had scrambled my brain.  And for a while, I was afraid they were right.  But then I began to heal and it was my first-self who speeded the healing with her knowledge of herbal medicine and what we would call accupressure.  But the doctors didn’t approve or even try to understand and decided it would be best if I was ‘supervised’ was the term they used.”

 “They put you in an asylum?”  Julie was appalled.

 “Exactly.  My second-self figured a way out and I escaped.  A new/old friend gave me shelter for a month while I finished all the healing I had time for.  Luckily, he had an Internet connection so I could do my searching online.  The crystal I need is in one of those crates at the Peabody.”

 “A crystal?  What is so special about one crystal?  There are thousands of them nowadays, maybe even millions dug up by the New Agers.”

 “There were originally four of them and they were the nexus of the power crystal that provided Atlantis with energy.  When we knew that our island was doomed, King Orion authorized their dispersal along with as many of our people as we could cram aboard our ships.  One made its way to Greece and two to China.  The second Chinese crystal was supposed to go to South America but something happened and they never made it.  While I was searching the Net, I came across mention of the Turner expedition and bells went off in my head.”

 “That’s why you came to Boston?  But why then did you get so sick if one of your personas was a healer?”

 A haunted look crossed Ruth’s face.  “The Goddess doesn’t believe in coddling her champions.  And she’s prepared to use anyone to further my quest.  It seems she knew that I would need help finding the crystal.”

 Julie sat up straight and tried to keep the glare off her face but knew she hadn’t succeeded when Ruth nodded.  “My sons are not pawns in some cosmic game.”

 “Keep them close to you, Julie.  There will be no innocent blood shed this time, my word on it.  My sister-selves taught me well.  I’m heading so far north that there will be no one but myself to witness this meeting.”  Her single eye caught Julie’s gaze.  “I need their help to retrieve the crystal and then I’m leaving.  With your aid, I can escape my well-meaning helpers and continue on.”

 Julie didn’t know what she was feeling.  There was a sick ache in her stomach and a throbbing behind her eyes that usually presaged a migraine.  She felt as if she’d been picked up and set down on the other side of the looking glass.  Ruth was asking her to protect her sons which she would have done anyway but at the risk of exposing the stranger in their midst to horrors unknown.

 “’The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.’  I always thought that a very profound statement.  There are more people in the world today than ever before and the resulting stakes are so high that you must see what you need to do.”  Ruth leaned closer and gently touched her temple.

 The moment Julie was touched, the throbbing went away and she found herself nodding to Ruth.  “Help you on your way and keep the boys busy here so they don’t try to follow.”

 “Exactly, Julie.  I have no wish to bring harm to those who have been so kind to me.”  Ruth drank down what had to be cold tea.

 Sam came in and headed for the phone on the desk.  “He should be at the base by now.  We’ll see how persuasive I can be.”

 Julie watched him dial and sat back to enjoy the show, feeling better about life in general and her sons in particular than ever before.

 “Hello, Eileen, is Colonel Griffin in . . . I see . . . Yes, I do need to speak to him right away.”  He put his hand over the mouthpiece and grimaced at his audience.  “Eileen is a dragon when it comes to the Colonel.”

 Julie laughed quietly while Ruth gave a little smile.

 “Colonel Griffin . . . All right . . . Seth.  I’ve got an odd question for you.  By any chance is Philip Anthony Griffin who died in 1903 a relative of yours?”  He listened intently, nodding unconsciously at the voice on the line.  “Did you know that he paid for an expedition to China in the year of his death and the results of that trip were crated and sent back to America and the Peabody Museum?”

 More talking and Julie itched to have a speakerphone handy.

 “I know this is a big imposition and I really can’t explain it over the phone but would you be willing to come to the house at noon for lunch?”  Sam’s face lit up.  “You would?  That’s great!  I have someone I’d like you to meet.”  He nodded again and then went white.  Ruth was off the window seat and to his side before Julie could even move.

 She took the phone from Sam and spoke into the receiver.  “Colonel Griffin, my name is Ruth and yes, Sam did have a dream last night.  I can explain it if you will just come.  Don’t wait until lunch, come now.  Please.”

 Julie found herself hugging Sam while Ruth smiled and hung up the phone.  “Well, Sam, it looks like you’d better change clothes.  He’s on his way.”

 Sam hugged Julie so hard she squealed then brushed a kiss over Ruth’s undamaged cheek.  “Thank you.”

 “Nonsense, Sam, I didn’t do anything.  Wear that soft red sweater over those jeans that are about ready to go into the scrap pile.”  Ruth shooed him away and Julie watched him hurry off.  “Julie, is this going to be all right with you and Edward?”

 “All we ever wanted was our sons’ happiness.  It’s not the path I would have chosen for him if only because of the way society and especially the military views a …homosexual pairing.”  She stumbled over the word but took a deep breath and continued.  “But if he’s going to choose a male partner, I think he’ll be safe with Seth.  Safe and loved.  A mother couldn’t ask for more.”

 “True, but you could expect more.”  Ruth gazed calmly back at her.

 “Perhaps.  No grandchildren and some initial winnowing out of the people we’ve always considered friends.”  Julie could see the pitfalls ahead as if they were on a map listed from A to Z.  “But our real friends will be happy for Sam and welcome Seth as a new friend.”  She paused and thought back over the last few minutes.  “Seeing Sam smile like that is worth any amount of trouble.”

 “And the rest of the family?  Toby will be all right once he comes to grips with all the ramifications.  Mei Ling will help him.”  Ruth looked into the other room where voices rose and fell.

 “Edward will be a bit bewildered for a while but he’ll come around eventually.  And Peter will look at it logically and support Sam in every practical way.”  Julie smiled.  “He’s the Vulcan in our family.  It must come from being the eldest and always looking out for Sam and then Toby.  Peter has always known what he wanted and how to get it.  Sam mentioned the other night that he thought Peter would be a general before he retired and I expect he’s right.”

 “Ah, a thinker and a doer.”  Ruth nodded.  “Too bad I won’t be meeting him this time around.”

 “I did notice that two of my sons shared lives with you.”  Julie asked, her curiosity peaking.  “Do you think Peter did as well?”

 Ruth got that faraway look that Julie had noticed before.  “He sounds like King Orion in Atlantis.  They elected their kings there and even though he was the younger son, he was chosen to rule.  I never doubted the people's choice once I met him.”

 “Who were you in that life?”

 “Just a priestess, not even one of the inner circle.”  Ruth smiled.  “The Goddess came to me one night in a dream and told me that a great challenge was coming to our world.  She needed an avatar to fight for her.  Then she handed me a sword of crystal and touched my forehead.  When I awoke the next morning, I was holding the sword in my hand.  When I went to tell High Priestess Illyan of my vision, she gasped before I could even tell her and bowed low before me.  I couldn’t understand why until she held a polished metal mirror in front of me and that’s when I saw it.”

 Julie was practically holding her breath.  “Saw what?”

 Ruth shook herself out of her trance.  “A crescent moon was etched into my forehead.  A blood red moon that signaled war for our world.  King Orion heard me out when Illyan took me to him.  Nodded once and began planning the evacuation of our people.  He stood with me when the Ikiiri came.  I’m assuming we died together, along with the rest of the invasion force.”

 Julie swallowed hard and tried to shake the chill from her bones.  “Is that what always happens?”

 “So far.”  Ruth understood the real question and smiled gently.  “I fight the Ikiiri, destroy them and die.  Pretty simple really.  It seems to be all the Goddess needs of me.  Each time, I’ve been unable to save those nearest to me.  This life, there are no blood ties to protect.  I’m a complete orphan.  The friends I’ve made will feel some sorrow but then they’ll move on with their lives.  And actually, over the millennia, I’ve been refining the techniques of our battles.  Each time, there are fewer and fewer casualties.  This time, I think I can keep it down to just me and the Ikiiri.”

 Julie nodded unsure just what to say to someone who was planning her own death with such matter of fact confidence.

 “I wouldn’t mention this to the boys.  There’s something about that Y chromosome that just won’t take this kind of plan sitting down.”  Ruth smiled and Julie found herself nodding agreement.  “You know, I think I could eat another pancake.”

 Laughing, Julie ushered Ruth back into the kitchen and the rather misshapen cake that Toby had produced on the griddle.  Julie promised herself a good hard think about all that had happened, later when things had calmed down.  But for the first time since Ruth had appeared, she felt that things would come out all right.  At least for her sons and the world as she knew it.  That might sound selfish to some but she realized that Ruth understood completely.

 Cold blooded?  Yes.  Women really were the more practical species.  And her mother instincts were on high alert.  For now.

******************
End chapter eight