As I come through the door, I hear the girls giggle. James is at the kitchen table, smiling with them over a family album. He sees me and calls me out.
"Hey, Katherine, welcome home honey!"
"Hi, mom!" follow the girls.
"Hi everyone, what are you looking at?"
"Oh, dad wanted to see the family album, to try and jog his memories."
"That's a good idea, let me put my stuff away and I'll take a look as well. Any luck so far?"
"Not really, but I'm learning more and more about my beautiful daughters." James says. I flinch.
"Hey, James, do you mind giving me a hand in our room real quick?"
"Sure thing, honey. Sorry, girls, I'll be back." he says, rising and following me to the master bedroom. As I close the door, I turn towards him and ask Cassie to set up a telepathic link to talk without outside ears.
"What the hell?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"Are you trying to sleep with those girls?"
"What the fuck, Mace? Of course not! I'm trying to fit in, spend some time with our "daughters"" he says, with the air quotes.
"It really doesn't look like it, it's exactly the type of stuff you say and do when flirting, I've seen you do so multiple times before."
"God damn it, Mace! I know what I'm doing, I'm not flirting, I'm charming them. There's a difference, If they like me, they won't be asking too many questions. I'm not trying to get in their pants, but in their hearts."
"Why, though? They'll be leaving the house soon, you won't have to deal with them then."
"You don't seem to understand. I'm planning for the future, just as much as you do. If I don't have a good relationship with our family, people will think there's something wrong. You do remember that one of our goals is making me a public figure, right?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot. I'm sorry."
"Are you okay, Mace? You're not yourself…"
"Obviously. I'm Katherine, now," he rolls his eyes "I don't know what's going on."
"Is there a way to prevent that? I don't want you to snap and kill me when I'm doing the grocery."
"Hah, hah. I think Katherine's body still has strong feelings for you and is jealous of seeing you like this with your adoptive daughters," he smirks, making me shake my head. "Cassie, I want you to determine a way to regulate my vitamin C intake. Medicine, food, whatever. I'm sorry, James, I'll try to keep under control."
"No problem. I think we should go back to the girls, lest they think we were doing the naughty."
"Alright."
Walking back, I ask him about his day, and James tells me he started communicating with people of the neighborhood and 'his' friends, to try to understand what kind of relationship he had, and who could be helping us with some of or plans.
As we look over the list of names compiled with the help of Cassie and Nessa, we try to make a sort of timetable for a few of the names. Some of them might be useful to us, so we decide to slowly ingrain a few ideas in their heads in the span of weeks, thanks to meetings in and outside the house, some diners here and there, etc. At this time, we're playing the long game. James has to make a reliable "base" with 'our' friends and neighbors before he can start working on a bigger scale.
Religion here is a boon for us, as we'll be going to church every Sunday, and interact with the people over there that don't necessarily restrict our circle to our immediate surroundings. And becoming a trusted member of the community through our religious endeavors is quite a good way to make new friends. We also decide to plan some kind of social action for the poor neighborhoods, and say we're following the words of Michael Harrington concerning The Other America. While I can't be sure when exactly this book will be or has been published, we'll follow it up with our actions and try to involve our congregation after we do it a couple of times on our own.
We have multiple reasons to start something like this. The official reason is to help our community and come to the aid of our neighbor. Obviously there is more to it than just that. We also want to improve our social standing showing how we're selfless and responsible for example. We also want to improve some of those people's lives and livelihood for a few reasons, one has to do with criminality, the other, deeply linked with the first is racism, and the third is we want to try some pawns. Of course when I say it like that it sounds bad, but what I actually mean is finding someone who can't do much on his own, give him a new lease on life, a new starting point, and since he'll likely be grateful ask him a favor, like publishing a book in his name instead of ours — provided of course, we give him a cut of the profits. Obviously we won't be using the first 'hobo' we find, but as it is a long term plan, we're sure to find a couple or more potential targets.
"Should we really go down this road? I still find it a bit weird to take people off the street to use as we see fit…" I say.
"Well, first of all, they'll be getting a lot of money doing almost no effort, so we'll be improving their lives by quite a lot. Secondly, Most of those people we'll be helping without "using" as you say will still profit plenty from our help. We'll be doing actual charity work, Mace-Kath, sorry."
"I know, but I can't really shake it off my head that easily."
"Well you're doing the same thing with the women at NASA, it's just that this time, it's with people you don't know, so it should affect you even less. Don't worry, We'll take care of them and they'll feel useful and fulfilled. Most of them wouldn't have had this kind of help before a few years — hell, decades. What we're doing is a good thing, and asking a few favors here and there doesn't make it less so."
"I hope you're right," I sighed. "In any case, we won't be doing that for a few months, so I have a bit more time to prepare myself. Speaking of Social action, what are we doing with MLK and company? Should we join them in Washington next year? Try to change the future by giving him a couple of warnings about his entourage and the assassination?"
"I don't know yet. The SCLC should start becoming even more violent in a couple of months, so we'll have to hold on during that time. I think stopping the assassination is a wrong move, but preventing him to sully his own image should be good. And I can try to approach him slowly thanks to the community and your's and Dorothy's NASA night schools once you'll start taking in white women. Anyway, we'll see how it goes," as he says that, we hear a knock at the door. "Come in."
"Hey, hum... What's this about a night school? You're going back to school, mom?"
"Girl, who told you listening in on conversation was a good thing to do?" James says, with a sly smile on his face and slightly furrowed brows.
"I-I wasn't listening, I just heard you say that… I didn't mean to-"
"Ha ha ha, don't worry Constance, I was just joking."
"I assume you're here for dinner, right?" I see her nod while looking at the floor. "We're coming. We'll talk about that school while eating." As I say that, we see her scamping off towards the kitchen. We look at each other and smile.
"Alright, honey. What are we eating tonight, dear?"
"Oh darling, you'll be eating alone if you ever say that to my face again," I say through my clenched teeth with a very strained smile. "Now, let's get going, we don't want the girls to wait longer, do we?"