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

Line 19

"Miss you too dad. I wish I'd be old enough to go there with you. I think you have the coolest job camping out all summer long and getting paid for it too!" The admiration in John's voice almost made Tom choke.

"Yeah, but what about the part where I have to fight evil demons that attack our trees and being away from you guys for such a long time?"

Tom's scientific mind, long trained to be aware of even the smallest changes in any given environment, enabled him to notice a shift in John's responsiveness. Was it something he said? He stopped talking and allowed a moment of silence. When John started to speak it was hesitant, almost shy. Though it was obvious that he was trying to make light, the previously present buoyancy had left his voice, giving away the seriousness of the matter.

"Dad? Do you really believe that demons exist?"

Beat.

"Or - "

Beat.

"Ghosts?"

Tom could almost see how John's gaze focused somewhere near the tip of his nose, lips pressed together, the way he always did when sharing something that meant a great deal to him while pretending that it didn't. For Tom this meant walking the tightrope of parenting. Weighing the pros and cons of helping his son with an obviously touchy subject while being not physically present, he opted to let John take the lead.

"Do you mean as a scientist or as a personal belief?"

The question took John aback. "Whoa! You saying there could be scientific proof for ghosts?"

Aha, Tom mused, it's about ghosts then. Always having been somewhat shy himself, he was sensitive to the difficulty for his secretive Scorpio son to talk about this. Part of him considered Sarah so much more competent when it came to things unseen, however, just a second ago, he referred to John as his 'secretive Scorpio son.'

Consequently, he admitted that some of his own mother's ideas must have surely rubbed off on him. Kate held the firm belief in what she called 'a more natural world' populated by countless visible and invisible beings living more or less peacefully side-by-side.

"Well, there are known cases where ectoplasm has been photographed you know, some kind of matter we usually can't see with our eyes. Now whether that counts as scientific proof of ghosts I don't know. Then again, pretty much none of the things I deal with on a day-to-day basis in my lab are visible to the naked eye yet what I do is perceived to be straight science. So I guess it's all up to your own perspective, isn't it?" Entering more familiar grounds, Tom was warming to the subject. "And our new paradigm of science shows us anyhow that we can't divide our beliefs from our experiences. So I don't know John, I guess if you believe in what grandma Kate says, ghosts, or many other spirit beings for that matter, not only exist but are very much a part of our natural world. She believes the only reason why we don't see them is our arrogance."

"What's a paradigm then?" John wanted to know. Of course he had heard the word before but was foggy about its meaning.

"Sorry for using a big word without explanation. A paradigm. Hmm. You can look at it as a model of some kind, a model that includes its own symbols to describe it. So in a way it's always the frog describing its well thinking it's the ocean but it's the best we can do."

Lips still pressed together exactly the way his father had imagined, John's eyes now slowly moved upward, contemplating what Tom had said.

"OK, thanks dad. I get mom back on the phone for you," and before Tom could say his proper good-byes he heard John's feet stomping down the hallway while yelling "mom, it's dad." A loud clank told him the phone had been disposed onto the table, and ruefully counting the seconds of unused satellite time it seemed to take Sarah forever to get back on the line.