The Journeys of John and Julia: Genesis (Book 1) ~Complete~

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John on the other hand was working his way out of emotional indigestion with the help of his computer and his headset: playing a game of snake while listening to some of his favorite trance. Years later he would acquire the logic behind this intuitive choice, namely that the hypnotic rhythm of the drum machine allowed him to enter low alpha-brain-wave states, whereas the amount of concentration needed to quickly respond to the challenges of the game kept him from becoming too relaxed and spacing out or falling asleep, thereby effectively putting his awareness into what is called an altered state of mind - a most skillful way to achieve insight. Knowing none of that at this point his little trick still worked like a charm.

He contemplated his mother's story about how Julia might have experienced the events of this fateful afternoon and reached the conclusion that all things considered, his behavior may not have made a lot of sense to her. He remembered that he actually was pretty chilled when grandpa appeared the first time to him at the lake, telling him about the pixie living in the tree right next to his tree house. And Julia had already been liquefying before Grandpa Sam showed up anyway, sobbing and admitting how lost she felt with her mom not being there for her and her dad moving out and all. So it really wasn't her fault that she had the bad luck to live in the big city where everything was loud and the nasty stench coming at you from all directions was something else! No wonder the sheer effort of surviving there made her brains go hiss.

Whenever he and his parents made a trip to the city he immediately parked himself in his favorite high-tech store and mercifully forgot about his environment as soon as he began to check out all the new stuff. Or the big bookstores! That was something he missed. But overall he knew he didn't slot too well with the big city and maybe all Julia suffered from was chronic mall hangover.

Having arrived at giving Julia the benefit of doubt, he decided to call her and apologize for his rash behavior. Start a new time-line. Erase file and John meets Julia take three. He let the snake bang into a wall and took his headset off just in time to hear his mother knock at the door.

"John? Can I come in? I have dad on the phone."

"WOW! Cool!" John jumped to open the door and grabbed the phone from Sarah's outstretched hand. "Hey dad! So cool! Blows my mind to think how my voice goes all the way up into orbit and then back down to you somewhere in the middle of the forest!" His excitement about technological magic instantly displaced any leftover anguish regarding his relationship to girls or childhood friends.

"Hi kiddo, good talking to you too!" Tom, remembering the reason for this phone call, restricted himself from discussing satellite technology and because straightforward, guileless communication was number-one law in the Freeman household he said, "So mom tells me your friend from the big city arrived today and that you were not entirely happy with your reunion. Now if you want a guy's perspective on the situation, I'm here."

"Okay. Thanks dad but I worked it out. You know how grandma Kate always says it's best to put yourself in the other person's shoes before you make up your mind about something? I guess that's what I did and it worked. So cool you're calling! Where exactly are you?"

It was clear to Tom that, at least for the moment, John had pretty much lost interest in whatever it was that had happened between him and Julia and judged it best to let it go. 'Gotta trust the offspring' was the baseline of Freeman parental discretion.

"Well, where exactly only God and the GPS know. All I can tell you is, it's dark, I can see a few stars only because our camp is at a small clearing, I hope we're making some progress work-wise, I haven't seen a Bigfoot yet but wouldn't be surprised if they were watching and I miss you guys terribly. How's that for an answer, buddy?"