Land of the Blind (Epilogue)

                                                                Land of the Blind

                                                                      Epilogue

                                                              (35 years later)

Anna peered out the window of her living room and smiled at the continuing snowfall that had already covered the Naval Air Station and the rest of Fort Worth, Texas.  She’d always wanted a white Christmas and now she had it.  She looked around the room at the magnificently decorated Christmas tree, with dozens of unwrapped gifts beneath it.  All around the room were brilliant ornaments, garland and wreaths.  All had been made by hand, gifts from her children and, she thought wistfully, her grandchildren.

“I’m getting old, Maria,” she said, slowly.

“Old?” Maria asked, as she carefully pushed a gift back under the tree.  “By today’s science, we’re not even middle-aged."

Life had been kind to both of them in the years since Fox destroyed Chiang's Cabal.  Both had retired on half-pay as four-star generals.  Through in vitro fertilization, both had been blessed with five children and now, of course, had grandchildren.  They owned a mansion and were comfortably well-off by current standards.

"If getting old means having a wonderful Christmas dinner with family and friends, then I guess we're getting old," Maria said, walking over to stand next to her wife.  "Now, come off it. What's bothering you?”

Anna turned around to look at her wife.  It was true that neither she nor Maria had really aged physically.  And it was true that they had built a good life together.  Yet, something had been nagging at her for a long time.

“I was thinking about Fox,” she finally admitted.

Maria’s curious look disappeared and she became concerned.  She leaned over and hugged Anna tightly.  She planted a light kiss on her cheek and gently squeezed her wife's hands.

“After all these years, why would you think of Devereaux Marshall Fox?”

“I think it was because of the feast tonight,” Anna said, slowly.  “That and all of our blessings.  But, then it just popped into my head: what was Fox doing right now?  Was he having a merry Christmas?  Does he even have Jesus Christ or God in whatever universe he’s in?”

“Well, I think he has them in his heart and mind no matter where he goes,” Maria said, comfortingly.  “But, it's been thirty-five years and you're only now thinking of him? Come on.  What’s really eating you?”

“I guess I was thinking of other things to be thankful for,” Anna said, with a wistful smile.  “I’ve been so thankful for our family, so I wanted something else to mention at the dinner table.”

“Well, let's see," Maria started. "Thanks to Fox, we unraveled Chiang’s entire organization.  Even after all these years, the world can still be grateful for that."

Maria remembered the aftermath of Jacksonville as vividly as she had the aftermath of her other encounters with Fox.  It had taken years to clean up the destruction Fox left behind.  It took longer, though, to fix the mess Chiang had created and the Federation had exacerbated by its inaction.

Chiang had suddenly found himself without friends or allies when Velasquez and Mavromichalis dug all the way to the bottom of his dirty dealings.  After seven years of shocks and scandals, no one was surprised when Chiang was convicted -- well, no one except Chiang.  The actual execution was witnessed online by 20 million people; despite its ghoulish nature, it was looked upon as closure.

"To be perfectly honest, Anna, I was surprised when Chiang took his punishment with dignity," Maria mentioned, off-handedly.  "I really thought he'd have taken his own life in that bunker after Fox totally humiliated him."

"His family ensured that," Anna said, catching Maria by surprise.

"His family?" Maria asked.  "Surely you don't mean his wife?"

"His mother and sister," Anna clarified.  "Nia swore me to secrecy because it broke all protocols, so don't spread it around.  If a judge or a defense lawyer had gotten wind of it, there would have been hell to pay.  Officially, it never happened, but Nia and I let his mother and sister in to see him in prison during his trial.

"Considering what he did to Elise and how he ultimately got his brother Lee killed, I think they convinced him or reminded him of the family honor he's espoused for so many years.  I think that's why he finally stood up for his actions and accepted the consequences.  He stopped all of his appeals and kept a lot of ugly wounds from being reopened.  It was pitifully inadequate in relation to his crimes, but it was a start to the healing.  At least he took his punishment better than the others."

Maria couldn't argue with the logic.  She couldn't decide what bothered her more, though -- that Anna had kept a secret from her or that she had failed to pick up on that secret for almost four decades. She pushed the thought from her mind and brought herself back to her wife's worries.

She remembered that the trials of Chiang's conspirators had been drawn out and painful.  The Cabal members had gone down kicking and screaming.

Van Sant was ultimately convicted of high treason and had to be dragged to the execution chamber, crying all the way.  Most of the Cabal, like Dainmon Chiagas, were convicted of high crimes and then sent back to their home countries for further trials.  Most, like Chiagas and Mara Sverdlov, were lucky to be executed.  Kavi Singh only got 15 years in prison for building the Boraton bomb that nearly destroyed the world, but was horribly tortured in prison by guards and fellow inmates, succumbing to his injuries after a week of excruciating agony.  Angella Vashon escaped severe punishment, but only because of her deal with Fox to protect Elise Chiang from further harm by her uncle.  Of course, the definition of severe was in the eye of the beholder.  Vashon got life in prison -- in protective isolation.  She was alive but would not see a parole hearing for at least another 50 years.

And Maria definitely could not forget Peter Donat.  With Paulius and Rickholts dead, he had to take the brunt of the punishment for being one of Chiang's henchmen.  However, because he had not directly planned or participated in many of the Paulius' brutal doings, he had escaped with a sentence of thirty years' hard labor.  He'd completed his sentence and had been paroled a physically and mentally broken man, without access to his family's fortune or influence.

“God, now you made me remember Peter Donat," Maria mockingly cursed.  "Heir to a huge fortune, but now reduced to working as an orderly in a Federation shelter.  I can't think of a man more deserving."

“Be nice,” Anna gently admonished.  “It's Christmas.”

“Sorry, you're right," Maria admitted, sheepishly.  "I guess we should be most thankful for the things Fox didn’t do.  That warning of his that he would be around somewhere kept the Occidentals and Russians --"

"And certain elements within our own military and political outfits," Anna added.

"-- at bay long enough for us to follow the money and paper trails to the bitter end and get the entire Federation reorganized," Maria continued, with a smirk for being interrupted.  "Of course, his threat was a lie.  I think he went into that netherworld of his and never came back."

"I don't know, Maria," Anna countered.  "He was around, somewhere.  Maybe not our universe, but somewhere.  Anyway, the threat was enough."

"I think the human race needs the threat of a swift kick in the crotch to prod us to do what we're supposed to," Maria said, with a laugh.

"It was good of Fox to let the Federation handle Chiang, though," Anna said, with a slight smile.  "After all that destruction, I was sure he would have treated Chiang and the Cabal like he did the Special Elites."

"Fox's whole reason for being here seems to have been to level the playing field and maintain the status quo," Maria noted.  "He wanted to give everyone a chance to prove himself or herself.  He may have wanted revenge for Panama and Area 51, but, he saw the truth like..."

"You can say it, Maria," Anna said, with a little shiver.  "He wanted revenge like I did before I knew that the truth was a whole lot bigger than just me."

"Thank you, Anna," Maria replied, with a warm smile.  "So, by his own reasoning, he had to ultimately let us handle Chiang.  He had to let the Federation do the right thing and redeem itself in the eyes of the world."

"I keep wondering if the world will remember him for what he did," Anna said.

"Maybe it's more important that, like I said a moment ago, we remember him for what he didn't do," Maria replied, reaching out to rub Anna's shoulders.

“Grandma Anna! Grandma Maria!”

Both women looked down to see a young girl in ponytails and an even younger boy running into the room.  They knelt down and scooped their grandchildren into their arms and hoisted them up.  They laughed as the children giggled and happily planted kisses on their cheeks.

“Momma says that you and Grandma are holding up dinner,” the girl squealed to Anna.

“We’re hungry, Grandma Maria,” the boy added.

“Looks like the generals have spoken,” Maria laughed.

"Then, let's not disobey orders," Anna added, giving the girl a soft kiss on her cheek.

She and Maria set the children down and let them run out of the room.  Hand in hand, they followed.  They arrived at the house’s formal dining room to a grand sight – five small tables dominated by one long cherry oak table.  Children, ages five to 12 occupied four of the small tables while teenagers occupied the fifth.  They were all the grandchildren of Anna and Maria or the children of the dinner guests.

Anna smiled as she recognized her dinner guests at the big table.  On the left side, she saw Nia Mavromichalis and her husband, Steve Nguyen; Yon Cobra and his wife Adrienne; Thomas Wojonowski and his fourth wife Isabella; Tsukiko Hasagawa and her husband Kenji, and, finally, Elise Chiang.

Anna was glad to see Elise, who had shunned formal dinner arrangements for years.  She knew it had taken nearly a decade for Elise to overcome the effects of what her late uncle had done to her.  But, Anna had found out that Elise would be working with a high-profile electronics company in Dallas and had surprised the woman with an invitation to Christmas dinner.  Even more surprising to her, Elise had accepted.

On the right side of the table, Maria grinned at her and Anna’s children.  The youngest, Marquis, was by himself, still in college and out to make his mark in the galaxy before even contemplating marriage.  Next was Marigold (so named because of her hair) and her husband, Sven.  Then came Alicia and her husband, Daniel, followed by Nia Stefanie and her wife Joanne.  Finally, occupying the chairs next to Maria, was the oldest child, Anna-Maria and her husband, Yacoby, son of Yon and Adrienne.

Anna and Maria took the seats at the head of the table and asked everyone to rise.  They all joined hands and Maria led with grace.  She then gave final word to Anna.

“And most merciful God, please watch out for and give your blessings to Devereaux Marshall Fox, wherever or whenever he may be this night,” she said, smoothly, her voice brimming with concealed emotion.  “Amen.”

She looked up to see some confusion.  Her children and in-laws had never known Fox.  Those across from them had, though, and they smiled, thoughtfully, at the gesture.  Anna bade them all to sit down and soon, they were feasting on turkey and other traditional foods in lieu of RDA shakes.

As they ate, Maria leaned over to Anna.

“That was very thoughtful of you, Anna, to remember Devereaux in the prayer,” she said.

“Admit it, Maria, you miss him, too,” Anna whispered as she passed a bowl of mashed potatoes to Nia.

“Yes, I guess I do,” Maria admitted, a bit sheepishly.  “Sometimes, when some country does something stupid, I think that, whatever we do in response, it could be worse.  But, since you brought it up in the prayer, what do you think Fox is doing now?”

“Oh, I think he’s reminding someone of what Desiderius Erasmus once said and what he showed all of us a long time ago in a place not so far away,” Anna replied.

“And that would be?” Maria queried.

“Namely, that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

Someone proposed a toast and it was a mad scramble for the others to refill their glasses with real apple cider to join in.  Laughter and gaiety reined in the house for the rest of the night.  For those within, they wanted to revel in the peace while it lasted.  And for the next few hours, all thoughts of Fox passed from their minds, though they knew he would never pass from their memories.

Outside, the snowy skies shone clearly with moonlight.  A calm had settled over the base, over the city and, indeed, over the Federation.  In the distance, one light twinkled particularly brightly.  If asked, many would swear it came from the largest of the space cities.  Others would say it was a light upon a tall, distant building meant to show unity and peace in the world.  However, there would be those who would swear to the heavens above that it shone faintly blue before it ultimately faded with the coming morn.