3 Ghosts of Our Fathers Read Online Free PDF Page A

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hope I never run into such a thing, he thought.
    The concept of time being used as
a weapon was new to him. Charles must have had a recipe for a time-based
protection, like the stuff Daniel gave me , he thought. He wondered if the
recipe was in the book, or if it had been passed down to David and Roy. Perhaps
Roy’s protection incorporates it?
    Steven turned the page and kept
scanning for more passages that he could interpret. Of all his progenitors, Charles
seemed to have the most time-related entries. Just as he found a section on
time binding, his phone rang. It was Daniel.
    “Steven, I’m sorry to call,”
Daniel said. He sounded worried.
    “Sure, are you in trouble?”
    “Kind of,” Daniel replied. “I’ve
broken down just outside of Ellensburg. My car isn’t the most reliable thing
but I thought it would make it. Apparently not. I’ve got a truck coming but the
best they’ll do is tow me to Ellensburg.”
    “I’m on my way,” Steven said. “See
you in a couple of hours.”
    Steven left the book and poured
the rest of the pot of coffee into a travel mug. Then he locked up Roy’s house,
got in his car, and headed east on I-90 as fast as he could go.
     
    -
     
    Steven found Daniel at an auto
repair shop in Ellensburg. The car would be finished by the end of the day.
They decided to return to Spokane in the meantime so Daniel could finish
analyzing the piece of the glass man collected by the knife. Steven would drop
Daniel off to pick up his car in Ellensburg on his return drive home.
    Steven told Daniel about the
passages he’d found in Roy’s book as they drove to Spokane.
    “I was wondering, since Charles
had a protection with some kind of time element in it, perhaps it’s been worked
into the stuff that Roy uses all the time?” Steven asked.
    “Very possibly,” Daniel replied.
“There’s a lot going on in your father’s juice, let me tell you. It could very well
have some time stuff already in it. I don’t know how Roy feels about sharing
the family information, but if Charles had a lot of time experiences I would
love to read through them. There aren’t a lot of works on the subject and I’ve
exhausted all the ones I have; it’d be like fresh blood to me.”
    “Well, I suppose I could ask him,”
Steven said. “When he’s back.”
    They talked more about the book
and Daniel’s take on time bindings before the subject seemed worn out and
silence filled the car.
    “So,” Steven said, struggling to
keep the conversation going, “you know Eliza?”
    “Yes,” Daniel replied.
    “How long have you known her?”
    “Almost twenty years.”
    “You’ll have to forgive me,”
Steven said, “the River is all new to me; did you two meet because of that? Do
you guys have conventions or something?”
    “No,” Daniel replied, “we met in a
chat room, online. I think our mutual interests sparked things, but there was
an attraction there for sure.”
    “Oh, you two were a thing?” Steven
asked.
    “For a while,” Daniel said.
“Troy’s my son.”
    Whoa , Steven thought.
    “Eliza didn’t tell you?” Daniel
asked. “From the look on your face, I’m guessing she didn’t.”
    “No, she didn’t,” Steven answered. So what? Steven thought. It doesn’t matter. Don’t overreact.
    “You know how you can really like
someone,” Daniel said, “but could never live with them? That’s me and Eliza.”
    “So you really like her?”
    “Who doesn’t?” Daniel said. “She’s
immediately likeable. Everybody loves her. I just couldn’t live with her. And
we haven’t had a ‘thing’ for many years now. We’re friends. More like professional
acquaintances than anything. She has a lot of those.”
    “And Troy?” Steven asked.
    “I don’t understand that part,”
Daniel said. “I offered child support, I offered to stick around and be his
dad, but she didn’t want any of that. She wanted to raise him entirely on her
own without my involvement. I wasn’t too happy with that