CBC - Origins

Zack Grant  (by: Coffee ©05/2005)

After the Serlano case I knew I had to make some hard decisions. I love my job and I love field work. It’s what I’m good at. But my first priority is Eric. The field work put him in danger and if I’d lost him it would have killed me. If something had happen to me, Eric would be alone. All Eric and I have is each other. I put my paperwork in to transfer to a desk job. I hate paperwork, but it was the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do.

I’ve been working at Security Clearance Investigations for a little over two years now. I still get out of the office every once in a while to do interviews, so I’m not chained to the desk. I’ve gotten used to the routine even though I still don’t like the paperwork. Eric’s doing real well and hasn’t shown any adverse effects of his ordeal and likes that I have more regular hours. Mary comes to visit as often as her flight schedule allows. I even get e-mails occasionally from Yuji in Japan checking on Eric and even Mary. I helped Yuji get deported as compensation for helping get Eric back from Serlano. Which worked out better for him than staying in the US. He’s working for his father in Japan. He said he was welcomed home because he saved face by taking out Serlano’s son and then helping me take out Serlano. The Japanese are big on Family and honor.

Lately, Eric has been telling me I need to get out and do something for myself. Go out with some friends, maybe meet a girl. My son wants me to go out a meet a girl? Mary is singing the same song. I’m closing myself off from the world. I need to do something that makes me happy. She doesn’t believe me when I say I am happy. If Eric is happy, I’m happy! Mary and Eric shake their heads at me when I say that. They don’t get it! Eric is my life, I don’t get a life until he’s in college or out of college.

I left the office early one day for no apparent reason, I just felt like leaving early. As I was walking out of the building I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw a man in jeans, navy blazer and a polo shirt. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place where I had seen him before.

“I’m Zack Grant. Do I know you?”

“G’day mate, my name’s Terry Thorne. We’ve never met, but we are related. Is there some place we can talk?”

“I was going to the park to wait for my son to get out of school. We can go there and talk on the way.”

“I understand you transferred out of field work after the Serlano Case. How’s that working out for you?”

“It was something I was good at, but I had to put my son’s welfare ahead of my own happiness. There’s no one to take care of him if anything happens to me.”

“What if I told you there was a way for you to take care of your son and at the same time find the happiness you want and frankly you need.”

“I’d say, no fucking way!”

Thorne then tells me a story about how we’re brothers. He goes on to tell me that he has been searching for all of our brothers and that there are twenty-four of us. That among the brothers there is a wide variety of professions and that there are a couple of brothers that are law officers like myself. He has found most of them and they are living in a place called Central. He proceeds to tell me about a woman named Darrin who created Central and her sisters that live there too. How Darrin and her sisters are there to love and take care of us as well as be loved. He’s helping each of the other brothers find their way to Central despite special circumstances much like mine.

“That all sounds very nice and very unbelievable. I can’t just walk away from my son and my career and not look back. It would take a miracle or magic to arrange for me to be in two places at one time.

“So Zack are ya saying you would be interested if it could be arranged that you could be in two places at one time?”

“Who wouldn’t be interested?! To be honest, it’s obvious even to my son I’m not happy no matter how hard I try to prove it to him I am and no matter what I try to do to be happy. If there’s a way to provide my son with a happy father who loves him, his job and his life, I would be a happy man.”

“Zack, do you believe in magic? Look over there.”

I look toward the school and I see Eric coming out of the building. I stand up to start across the street when I see Eric running over to a man dressed like me. I watch as Eric jumps into the man’s arms and is swung around and the two of them are laughing. The man puts Eric down and takes his hand and they walk down the street. I look at the man closely and it’s me! I’m smiling and laughing like I haven’t done in a long time. I can hear them talking about how the Yankees are doing this season. I watch as “I” walk down the street, swinging Eric’s hand in mine and I hear the two of us singing.

The Camptown ladies sing this song
Doo-dah! Doo-dah!
The Camptown racetrack's five miles long
Oh! doo-dah day!

I turn around and look at Thorne and he’s standing there smiling at me. I turn back to look and I am stooped down putting a ball cap on Eric and I turn to me and wink. I then pat Eric on the head and start walking down the street singing again.

Goin' to run all night
Goin' to run all day
I bet my money on a bob-tailed nag
Somebody bet on the gray

“Ya ready to go, mate?”

“Yeah, sure, I’m ready!”

Thorne and I walk in the opposite direction and he’s telling me that it won’t take long to get to Central just a few hours. I felt that a huge weight had been lifted off me and I could feel myself getting lighter and lighter with each step I took toward a new life. I suddenly realized that what I was feeling was happiness. God, it felt good!

“So Thorne? How many sisters live in Central that want to love me?”

Terry laughed and slapped my shoulder.  “Mate you’ll see when we get to Central.  Every one of them a fair dinkum beauty!  That’s no bull dust either mate!”

On the trip to Central we compared war stories and became fast friends through common experiences and backgrounds.  Once we got to Central he took me over to meet Darrin and we went on a tour of Central. The last stop on the tour was to meet one of my brother’s who was a fellow law officer.  It was hard not to chuckle when I met Wendell White and I was real glad he told me to call him Bud.  Terry told us there was one more brother he was trying to locate that also had a law enforcement background.  Terry mentioned to us that he had an idea about starting an investigation agency of some kind.  With this much law enforcement experience in one place it would be a shame to not put it to work.  Bud and I told him it was definitely something to think about.

There was a lot to get use to in Central not to mention meeting and getting to know all my new found brothers.  I thought of Eric and wondered how he was doing with my other self.  Every time I did think of him I would have a dream of him laughing and singing.

The Camptown ladies sing this song

Doo-dah! Doo-dah!

The Camptown racetrack's five miles long

Oh! doo-dah day!

Goin' to run all night

Goin' to run all day

I bet my money on a bob-tailed nag

Somebody bet on the gray