THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
        Episode 56
Robert stared at the screen
until the letters blurred.
He realized he was slipping
back into old habits now.
"I am using too many short
bursts," he told Minnie.
She was sitting nearby,
sewing a button on a shirt.
"You need to let the story
breathe a bit," she said.
"Talk to me like a person,
not a radio operator."
Robert took a deep breath
and deleted the last page.
He began to write about the
afternoon Virginia visited.
She had come over after a
very long shift at the
county hospital morgue.
"It makes you think about
what lasts," Virginia said.
She sat at the table and
drank a glass of water.
"The diamonds and the cars
don't follow us, Dad."
"Only the way we treated
people stays behind us."
Robert listened to his
daughter with a heavy nod.
He thought of the men he
had left in the facility.
He hoped they were finding
their own version of truth.
Minnie looked up from her
work and smiled at them.
"We are the lucky ones,"
she reminded her family.
"We have a second chance
to build a clean legacy."
Dorothy called later to
talk about the new books.
"The kids at school are
asking for more stories."
"They like the idea of a
hero who protects people."
Robert felt a spark of
real joy in his chest.
He wasn't writing for the
money or the fame anymore.
He was writing to show the
world that change is real.
Barbara sent a text from
the Boom Lake office.
"The first shipment of the
Y2K book is going out."
"The formatting is perfect
and the covers are crisp."
Shirley had spent hours
in Photoshop on the art.
She wanted the colors to
match the Arizona sunset.
"It has to look like the
land we live on," she said.
The Towers were no longer
divided by lies or walls.
They were a single unit
working toward a goal.
They were authors and
builders and healers now.
The radical honesty was
the air they breathed in.
Robert finished the new
chapter with a smile.
He felt the flow of the
story returning to him.
The saga was moving at a
steady and honest pace.
The Arizona night was
cool and very quiet now.
He closed the laptop and
looked at his wife's face.
"We are home," he said.
"We are finally home."
The stars were bright and
the desert was peaceful.
They had everything they
needed in this small room.
The debt was a memory.
The future was the light.

  My books and screenplays:
 www.boomlakeproductions.com
    Turquoise Software
    solartoys@yahoo.com