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  “Thank you, Kalea, and that’s not the only reason I asked you to lunch. I wanted to see you. I’m concerned about you. You’re my cousin and like another sister to me.” He tilted his head. “You never answered my first question. How are you?”

  Kalea crumpled her napkin in her hand. “I’m scared.”

  “Why?”

  She dropped the napkin and sighed, looking at the sweltering summer day outside the window. “I don’t know.”

  Chapter 2

  Annaliese Kerner Boyce twisted a strand of her shoulder length, brown hair around her finger as she watched her father and cousin, Kalea, being interviewed about his “resurrection experience” the previous week. “I guess I should have tried harder to get down there.”

  Kieran Boyce hugged her and sat on the couch beside her. “You did the best you could. You run a business specializing in mental health. You can’t drop your patients and run whenever you want to leave town. They need you. I’m sure the family understands.”

  “Avery’s mad. He said I have partners that can take over the load and thinks I should have been there when the whole thing happened. And I wanted to be there, Kieran. You don’t know how hard it was to know my father was dying, and I was nearly five hundred miles away.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “I envy the freedom he had to jump on an airplane, without worrying about clients, or secret service, or reporters, or any of that stuff.”

  Kieran crossed his arms over his medium built frame, his blue eyes dark. “He has that freedom because of the work my committee did to reorganize the entire United States Space Program into the Space Exploration Society. Otherwise, he’d still be at NOAA in Columbia.”

  “I know he’s grateful, but this was our father.”

  “He’s still your father,” Kieran pointed to the screen over the fireplace at the streaming webcast. “There he is; alive and well.”

  “I should be seeing it from that living room in South Carolina, not a townhouse next to Capitol Hill.”

  Kieran frowned, running his hand through his short, dark hair. “Do you regret marrying a politician?”

  Annaliese stared at Kieran. “Absolutely not! I’m happy with my life here. It’s been tough knowing that Dad was slipping away and I wasn’t there to help.” She looked down. “Kalea’s done more for him than I have.”

  Kieran leaned back, studying the screen. “Kalea looks scared. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her frightened. I always thought that girl could slay a dragon.”

  Annaliese laughed as she stared at her cousin’s wide eyes staring into the camera, talking about how Uncle Carson grabbed her foot while she was lying in a chair. “It sounds like it was quite a shock for her.” She broke off as the reporter played back the footage of Kalea running down the hall. He stopped to zoom in and point out dark spots on the floor, asking what they were.

  “That’s blood,” Kalea said. “The place where grabbed my foot left a scar.”

  “Can we see it?” the anchor asked.

  The camera focus dropped as Kalea removed her sandal to reveal four half-moon gashes on the top of her foot. She turned the foot to show the scar of his thumbnail on the bottom of her foot. Annaliese leaned forward, studying the scar.

  “Is it infected?” the reporter asked.

  The camera pulled back up to focus on Kalea, whose eyes flashed a sliver glint in the camera. “No, it’s fine.”

  “It looks infected,” the reporter protested. “Have you had it checked out? Are you sure you’re healed?”

  Kalea smiled, but it looked forced. “Yes, I’m fine,” she said, as Uncle Carson leaned over to hug her. “We both are. It’s a miracle. He’s cured, and so am I. I’m thankful to be back on my feet again.” She laughed. “It’s good to be back on my feet, and even better to have my uncle back.”

  Uncle Carson leaned over and kissed Kalea on the cheek. “I’m thankful little Kalea and I are both back.”

  Annaliese turned to look at Kieran. “Can you get me a flight back home?”

  “When?”

  “As soon as possible. I’ll take a red-eye if they can get me on one.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kieran asked.

  “We’ve talked and messaged. She sent me before and after pictures of her foot on Monday, and there was no scar. She hated that miracle talk, too. That doesn’t sound like her.” Annaliese leaned back, shaking her head. “It doesn’t look like her, either. She’s done plenty of local interviews for her work with Uncle Gerald, and she never got camera fright or laughed. She was always professional and pulled together on camera. That’s not the Kalea that I know. Something isn’t right. It’s time that someone who knows what they’re doing talked to both of them about what happened in that hospital room that day.”

  Kieran picked up his phone. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  Annaliese stared at her cousin’s face on the screen. “No, she needs a doctor, and I intend to do things right this time.”

  Chapter 3

  Annaliese scanned the pickup line outside of Columbia Metropolitan Airport, searching for her cousin’s car. She checked her watch. Four o’clock on Monday afternoon, right on time. Kieran tried to get Annaliese a flight on Saturday, but the President and Vice-President were traveling over the weekend, so it was easier for her to wait until they returned on Monday to get flight privileges. She fanned herself in the sticky summer air. Kalea may not have seemed like herself on the webcast Friday night, but she still had a bad habit of running late. Then again, Annaliese should have known better than to wear a black pantsuit and two-inch high-heeled sandals on the flight. Congressman’s wife or not, southeastern summers are too brutal for formal dress.

  Kalea finally pulled up five minutes late in her metallic blue luxury car. Annaliese raised an eyebrow, thinking that her cousin was taking well to her role as a successful business owner, until Kalea stepped out of the car in light blue jeans, a pink shirt, and slip-on walking shoes.

  “I’m sorry I’m late,” Kalea hugged Annaliese. Annaliese stooped slightly into the hug. She was five feet five inches, but the heels made it awkward. “I just got finished with a school inspection, and they ran late.”

  “They make you do that in this heat? I’m surprised your foot isn’t swollen. You just healed a broken bone.”

  Kalea held up her left foot. “No pain, no swelling, just a few small scars. I’m fine, Annaliese.” She hit the button on her key fob, popping the trunk. “Work doesn’t wait or take a break. School starts Monday. We have to make sure it’s safe for the kids to walk in the building by the time the first bell rings.”

  Annaliese stashed her bag in the trunk and ducked in the car, where the air conditioner blew her dark brown, shoulder length curls. She knew the flat iron would be pointless in this humidity, so she left it at home, envying Kalea’s long, straight hair hanging obediently down her back in a neat braid.

  “Other than the foot, how are you?” she asked as Kalea pulled away from the curb.

  “Busy, but I think that will settle down over the next few weeks. I’ve had a lot of catching up to do from the time I missed with the broken foot and helping with Uncle Carson over the past few weeks. They had me home with the foot for a week, and by that time, things were rolling with Uncle Carson. He was in the hospital, had surgery, and then went in the nursing home. They decided to skip the rehab facility since the nursing home had the people and equipment they needed to do it with his dementia. It’s been a whirlwind.”

  Annaliese drew a sharp breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I wanted to, and I feel guilty about you having to play my role in this, especially since you were dealing with an injury you got while helping him.”

  Kalea waved it off. “I’m right there. Our houses are within a few acres of one another. It didn’t make sense for you to come down here when I can do it. We are family, after all.”

  Annaliese stared at the passing scenery. “It’s crazy up in D.C. between my practice and Kieran fighting to fund his projects with
the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee. As chair, a lot of the burden falls on him. The President is still threatening to discontinue the Space Exploration Society. Kieran is fighting to keep it alive.”

  “What’s the President’s problem with it?” Kalea asked. “Kieran’s committee worked tirelessly to reorganize it into everything the Cabinet required to save the program. Then they developed the nanotech and revolutionized the medical industry. Why would you destroy the entity that brought you humanity’s biggest achievement?”

  “It’s ironic,” Annaliese said. “Kieran did everything they asked, the Space Society produced something that’s saving millions of lives, and Congress is still threatening to pull the plug on the Society.”

  Kalea snorted. “I thought President Hastings’s tirade would end after the controversy over his comment on wasting resources on empty space.”

  “The President’s supporters on cutting the program claim that the funding would be better spent on building up our military. The unrest in the Middle East is building to proportions we haven’t seen since World War II.”

  “How will funding our military help? The United States stopped getting involved in national matters five years ago when Communist and the Middle Eastern Sectors started butting heads.”

  “That whole side of the world is at war, and it’s spreading. The United States is under pressure from most of Western Europe and Australia to support the cause for democracy.”

  “I didn’t know democracy was under attack. I thought it was this battle of theocracy and communism in that region.”

  “It isn’t now, but no matter what the outcome is, it’s not favorable for democratic governments,” Annaliese said. “A lot of people believe we’re on the brink of World War III.”

  “This is why I don’t watch the news.” Kalea laughed. “Of course, if they cut the Space Exploration Society and an asteroid smacks the planet, all bets are off. Then everybody will be arguing over why we didn’t keep our eyes on the skies.”

  Annaliese returned the laugh. “The things that undo us usually hit where we aren’t looking.” She looked down, studying her two-carat diamond ring and gold, diamond studded wedding band. “I try to help Kieran as much as I can. Some of my clients are well-connected, and if I help them personally, then they’re gracious with helping politically. Kieran needs all the support he can get to keep the Space Exploration Society alive. Most of our technological advances have come through it.”

  Kalea held up a hand. “You know politics blow up my brain, so you don’t need to explain. I trust that you’re both busy with matters of National importance.”

  “Family is more important than anything. I should have been here for Dad. There’s no excuse for that.” Annaliese paused. “I’m a psychiatrist, and I couldn’t help my own father.”

  “There’s nothing you could have done. His Alzheimer’s was too advanced by the time the nanotech was released to the public.” She paused. “He’s fine now, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “I still should have been here more. You’re stronger than I am. I couldn’t face seeing my father slip away.”

  Kalea smiled. “I’m an engineer. I don’t have feelings. I’m all logic and function, remember?”

  Annaliese returned the smile. “So are shrinks, but I didn’t pull it off this time. My baby cousin showed me up.”

  “I think six months hardly makes me a baby,” Kalea said. “Did Avery give you a hard time? He hasn’t been around a lot either. It’s ironic that he was fussing about you not being here last week, but before Uncle Carson took that bad turn it had been,” she paused, thinking. “Easter. He brought Elise and the twins for a long weekend at Easter.”

  “He did nag me, but I passed it off as his emotions getting the better of him. He just turned thirty. He has yet to gain our perspective.”

  Kalea smiled. “Give him six more years to grow up, eh?”

  “He did make a point. I felt guilty about not being around since Dad fell three weeks ago. He went downhill fast.”

  “He had been going downhill before that. Aunt Tabitha was just trying to ignore it and hope it went away.”

  “As if that ever worked,” Annaliese grumbled.

  “The problem is that it usually grows and smacks you in the face. Or in this case, Uncle Carson’s head and my foot.” Kalea released a short laugh. “But maybe she was onto something, because it did go away.”

  “It’s still so strange. There have been a few more cases like that over the past couple of weeks. How is Dad? Had he had a physical to see if the dementia is really gone?”

  Kalea shook her head. “They did a scan and full check-up before they released him last week and it was gone. In fact, he’s the picture of health. Uncle Carson is the man you remember again; mostly.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “He seems different.”

  “How?” Annaliese asked.

  “I don’t know, its little things. Sometimes he looks at me like he can see right through me, or like he sees something that nobody else can. And he says strange things like he’ll be watching the news and he’ll blurt out ‘what a waste of energy when there are worse things coming.’ Then when you ask what that means, he either passes it off as a joke, or he doesn’t remember saying it.”

  “I imagine coming back from the brink of death has shifted his paradigm. Didn’t the nurses say he only had hours left just before he woke up?”

  Kalea nodded.

  “When you fight the reaper and win, then I imagine a lot of what we worry about seems silly.”

  “I suppose so. You can talk to him and decide for yourself.”

  “I will,” Annaliese paused again. “I saw your interview Friday night. It was good.”

  “I shouldn’t have done that,” Kalea said sharply.

  Annaliese stared at Kalea, shocked at the bitterness in her voice. “Why not?”

  “I made a fool of myself. I looked as bad as those people proclaiming that we’re living in the end times.”

  “No, you didn’t. I thought it was a great interview. But there was a point where you didn’t seem like yourself. It’s when the reporter asked about your scar.”

  “I don’t know what came over me or why I said that,” Kalea said, “and I don’t know why that scar flared up right before the interview. It had been faint until that day, and once they turn on the cameras its neon red.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “No.”

  “Have you had it checked?” Annaliese asked.

  “I did this morning. They scanned it again and said it’s cosmetic. They offered me nanotech to fade it, but I said no.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s expensive, and avoiding a scar isn’t worth it, especially if there’s no medical reason for it,” Kalea said, “and I don’t like the idea of robots doing stuff in my body.”

  “You’re one of those types that don’t believe in mixing biology and technology.”

  “I don’t believe in doing it indiscriminately, especially for something that isn’t life-threatening. Nanotech is too new and too expensive, especially for something as small as a few pricks in my foot. I thought you of all people would understand that.”

  “I do,” Annaliese said.

  “The body has a remarkable capacity to heal. Just look at Uncle Carson. He recovered completely without nanotech.” Kalea smiled mischievously. “You can’t let robots perform all the miracles, can you?”

  Annaliese stared at Kalea, surprised by the out of place comment. “Do you believe what happened to Dad was a miracle?”

  Kalea thought. “I’m not sure what it was, but I’m certain we’ll find out soon enough.” She turned on the gravel driveway mostly hidden from the main road. “Welcome back to The Kerner Complex. Do you want me to take you to my house, your house, or your parent’s house?”

  Annaliese thought as Kalea wound through the road leading to the houses spread out on their family land. “Take me home. I’d like to unpack
and change into cooler clothes. I’m supposed to go to Mom and Dad’s for dinner. Will you join us?”

  Kalea shook her head. “Thanks, but I have to pass. I have some work to do from home tonight. Maybe another time.”

  “Maybe,” Annaliese said softly, still staring at Kalea.

  “You enjoy some time with them,” Kalea’s eyes sparkled in a shaft of afternoon sunlight streaming through the trees. “I’m sure you’ll be amazed at what you find at home.”

  Chapter 4

  Kalea sat in the bay window in Uncle Carson and Aunt Tabitha’s kitchen with a glass of red wine, watching storm clouds gather overhead away from the music, chatter, and laughter coming from the den.

  “Hiding out?” Annaliese sat next to Kalea.

  “Those clouds are charged,” Kalea said.

  Annaliese wrinkled her brow. “What?”

  “All of this heat has the atmosphere electrified. We’re going to have a storm soon.”

  Annaliese sipped her own wine. “You’re never off work, are you?”

  Kalea turned and stared at Annaliese. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

  “Yes, you need a vacation. That’s what I said!” Annaliese poked Kalea. “This is a party. You’re supposed to be celebrating!”

  “I’m sorry,” Kalea finished her wine and sat the glass on the oak kitchen table. “You know I’m not fond of crowds.”

  “Neither am I, but I suck it up every now and then.”

  “You have to do it more often than I do.”

  “That’s true,” Annaliese finished her own wine and sat her glass next to Kalea’s. “I’ve hardly seen you these past few days. You’re working too hard.”

  “I know,” Kalea said. “I’m still freaked out by what happened in that hospital a couple of weeks ago. I can’t seem to shake this anxiety that something else is going to happen.” She paused, staring at the darkening sky. “How does Uncle Carson seem to you?”