Jen's Legacy.

“Gran, he may have lost his wife in one way, but not in another. I tried to make sure that she is with us all of the time and is even with us now; in memories, and in photographs, if not in any other way.

“Those albums keep her alive, and so will my journal. She’ll never be forgotten I wanted to make sure of that. I daren’t let Royce forget her so easily. I will not usurp that memory; we both owe her so much. I honestly think she guided Royce’s footsteps to that part of the canyon so that he would see me fall in, and would then rescue me. I know it’s hard for you to believe, but it’s true.”

“It’s still nothing more than a coincidence, my love. However, nothing much will surprise me after the last week, unless you can think of something that I haven’t considered yet. Is there anything else you can surprise me with?”

Claire was too quiet sitting there, so there was something. No doubt she had a lot of things she could surprise her grandmother with, if she wanted to. Just about everything that had happened between them would surprise and shock her.

There were a couple of things Claire could tell her.

“Yes, I can. I don’t want to, but I can.”

“Go for it. Take the risk. After today, I’m ready for anything.”

“I learned about Jen.”

Why would that surprise her?

“I’d be surprised if you didn’t. Royce would tell you about her. He would have to. You can’t just sweep your life under the carpet as though it hadn’t existed. It wouldn’t have been fair to hide that part of his life from you once you grew close together.”

“I don’t mean in that way. Royce did tell me about Jen. Some of it, and about how he was still hurting.”

“Then in what way?”

“I learned more from Jen herself, than from him.”

What a peculiar thing to say.

“He told me a little of Jen, but as I said... I learned more, from Jen herself. I met, Jen.”

Her grandmother didn’t understand that statement.

“How? You were at university when they were here for that interview.”

“I never met her then. You remember I told you about a strange dream?”

“Yes”

“I met her in that dream, which I am not sure I should tell anyone about… perhaps not even you… though I did describe certain events in that dream to Royce, that only he and Jen knew about, and he confirmed them.”

Her grandmother looked skeptical, of course.

“That’s not unusual. Lots of peculiar things happen in dreams.” You’ll have to do better than that to rob me of sleep or put my mind on a better track.”

“Alright.” She took a deep breath, and dropped another bombshell.

“I’m pregnant!”

There were a few moments of silence.

“After what you two have been doing with each other—and I suspect I saw only the tip of the iceberg from what I saw on those sheets in that motel room and leaking from you— nothing would surprise me, but how would you know that already? It takes a couple of weeks to find that sort of thing out. You haven’t had enough time to know.

“When did you first begin your last period?”

Claire had no difficulty discussing that. “On the fourth of this month.”

Her gran did some fast, mental calculations.

“Your best dates for conception were from about the sixteenth to the twentieth. Last week!” All of the time she’d been with Royce. That was when she had been vulnerable, and when Royce had started going at her; the randy devil.

Claire considered it for herself. Royce had rescued her from the river on the sixteenth and stripped her. She would have remembered him doing anything else to her, though he had been primed in the right way for that. She could think about it now and smile, where she hadn’t been able to before.

Had her hormones been driving her along to do what she’d done, asking him to make love to her just a day after that? She began to feel particularly warm around the collar of her nightdress and between her legs. Her nipples had also gone hard.

They’d made a perfunctory start on being intimate on the evening of the seventeenth and on the eighteenth, with real success on the morning of the nineteenth; that Thursday.

Her subconscious would have known all of that and somehow got that peculiar dream sequence started.

Nothing would surprise her gran, after the week she’d just had.

“I suppose you could be pregnant.” She did some more mental arithmetic. The first day you could actually test, is Friday, three days from now. Surely he wasn’t intimate with you even as he pulled you from the river. Was he? Did he?”

“No, Gran. He didn’t.”

“Then when did that particular intimacy begin between you? When did he begin, reaming you out?” She set Claire blushing again. It had been nothing like that.

We came close to it on the following night; the Tuesday, after he saw to that rash on me (what rash?), and then on Wednesday night, but on Thursday morning we did it properly, and then… several times since then.” She had the grace to blush, relating that.

“I know what you are thinking, but he did not take advantage of me. I, took advantage of him. I asked him to make love to me on the second evening.”

She’d admitted to that earlier. Her grandmother sighed. Was this girl her shy granddaughter?

“Yes, a man can do that to you when you know you cannot risk losing him.”

It had been more complicated than that, but she couldn’t tell her gran why she’d had to get it behind them so soon.

She laughed. “After what you two have been doing out in the middle of nowhere, that almost doesn’t shock me at all. The odds are still pretty much against you when you consider how often some parents try to conceive and don’t make it, while others just have to look at each other, kiss, and it’s done. And it’s difficult to avoid a bit of excitement and some bareback riding out there.”

“Gran!”

She raised an eyebrow, riding over that comment.

“Anything else you can try to shock me with?”

“Yes, Gran. I’m carrying twins.”

Her grandmother laughed in exasperation (now she was pulling her leg). “How can you know that? That’s impossible to know. It will be another two or three months to even begin to know that; to detect any hearbeats.”

Claire was feeling stubborn.

“Jen told me that, too.”

“You’ve gone cuckoo, girl. No one can know that.” It was all said, good-naturedly.

“I do. I’ve never been more sure about anything in my whole life.” But again, it was not something she could discuss with her grandmother as to how she was convinced of it. That dream had been so real.

“I know; I sense you are being serious, that’s what concerns me, and you are sober too, unless you slipped something into that chocolate.”

“I didn’t.”

“Okay, so I’ll give you that you met Jen in a dream, and that you believe you are pregnant. We’ll soon know about that latter event: on Friday, but the rest of it… about twins…?” Preposterous!

She suddenly thought of something else.

“Hell. I hope Royce is ready to think of an early marriage. It will have to be early if you are pregnant. I bet that Melissa woman has all the dates worked out already and is ready to speculate the hell out of it. I could see the way her mind was working as she asked her questions. We’ll keep it small and private. Family only. No social glitter, no fireworks, and little publicity.”

She groaned. “Now I’ll never sleep!”

Nor would Claire. They both swung their legs out of bed. They would have to find something to do for an hour or two.

“I am worried about what father will say. He will never condone anything he does not approve of, and did not have a hand in. This will all be too sudden for him.”

“Don’t worry about your father. You are beyond him. He does what I tell him. He has no say in any of this. Only you do.”

What a day! They were all talked out, but her mind would never stop working over what Claire had shocked her with. It was too much for a body to bear all at once.

Still, another few days. Maybe they could even test now. She’d give her one of those wands to pee on in the morning to say whether or not she was pregnant. It would be early to test, but they would keep testing each day.

She didn’t like the idea of being a great grandmother.

“And to top it all off, Royce will be here tomorrow.”

“He will?” Claire’s heart leapt to hear that.

“Yes. I spoke with the hospital people this evening. It’s beginning to settle down.”

Good! Then Royce could help her pee on that wand. He could hold it for her, and interfere with her too, while she did that.