THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
        Episode 55
The wind picked up across
the dry Arizona plateau.
Robert sat at the kitchen
table with his laptop.
He was refining the text
for the Y2K Protocol.
Minnie stood at the sink
watching the dust swirl.
"The sky is turning a
deep shade of red," she.
Robert didn't look up
from the glowing screen.
"It?s just the desert
reminding us it?s here."
He checked the character
count on the fifth line.
It was exactly twenty-six
marks across the white.
Precision was the only
way to keep the peace.
Virginia called from the
hospital break room.
"The clinic is full of
heat exhaustion cases."
"I'll be home late, so
don't wait up for me."
Robert gripped the phone
with a steady, calm hand.
"Stay safe, honey, and
keep up the good work."
He hung up and looked
at the bare condo walls.
They were a far cry from
the mahogany of the past.
But the air inside was
not heavy with secrets.
Dorothy arrived with a
bag of school supplies.
She was tired but had
a bright spark in her.
"The kids are learning
how to code," she said.
"I told them about the
logic of the old ways."
Minnie poured a glass
of iced tea for her girl.
"As long as they learn
the truth," Minnie said.
Shirley walked in then,
carrying her tablet.
"I fixed the alignment
on the book covers, Dad."
"The Photoshop layers
are perfectly centered."
Robert smiled at the
youngest of the four.
She had her mother?s
eyes and his own drive.
Barbara sent a report
from the sales office.
"The paperback orders
are climbing fast now."
"People want the story
of the virus and Rob."
Robert felt the weight
of his seventy-odd years.
He had been a Marine
and a titan and a thief.
Now he was just a man
who wrote the truth out.
The radical honesty was
the light in the room.
They ate a simple meal
of beans and hot rice.
The steak rub was kept
for the Sunday special.
They were saving every
penny for the future.
The debt was gone but
the hunger remained.
A hunger to be better
than they were before.
Robert finished the
final line of the day.
He saved the file and
closed the lid slowly.
The house was quiet as
the desert night fell.
He looked at Minnie in
the soft lamp light.
"We are still here," he
whispered to the dark.
The Towers were solid.
The foundation was real.
The saga moved forward.
The air was very pure.

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