Chapter 26: Wanting to Come Clean
by Jimmy Abdul Gandhi Geronimo Rogers

 

       Everyone overreacted a little when they found out who Jesse was.  The media came up with all kinds of conspiracy plots suggesting she was trying to sabotage the worldwide day of peace plans.  Some talking heads tried to spin a tale showing that the day of peace idea itself was all a plan to reap profits for the missile defense industry. 

       I’d been prepared for this to happen, eventually, and Jesse quickly put out a statement to try to put everyone’s mind at rest.  But it was tricky to figure out exactly what to say, because according to the will, we couldn’t let on about the One Day In Peace “condition.”   And we couldn’t stretch the truth too much -- on January 2, Jesse would be the primary shareholder of her Uncle’s company, whether it sold missiles or flowers.  Teary-eyed, Jesse went over what she wanted to say and we fine-tuned it and tweaked it. 

       “I wish I could just come clean,” Jesse cried, not for the first time.

       “They’ll get over it, Jess, and then we can move on...” I reassured her.

       “Even so, we’ll still have January 2 to deal with...” 

       “One step at a time,” I urged.

       Eventually she was great and the tears helped her story.  “I really believe in peace, despite my past and despite my family’s business.  I’ve given away all the money I inherited from my Uncle to work for One Day In Peace.”

       Of course there were tons of questions.  No one had even known that Sir Reginald had died!  They wanted to know about the future of the company and about Jesse’s future role, but we didn’t take any questions.  “I intend to strive towards a more peaceful, just and sustainable world for all my life.”

       All kinds of stories came out conjecturing on what Global Missiles might be up to.  Were they getting into the peace business instead of war?  Of course they tried to reach Global Missiles executives, but as it had always been before, Global Missiles was completely silent.  They interviewed regular people and ran polls instead, asking people whether or not the company should continue in the missile business.  Then they went on and on about how the polls showed nine out of ten people thought Global Missiles could earn more money promoting peace than it had promoting war.  They wrote anything they could to keep the story alive.  Poor Jesse had to keep a low profile after that, because any time she appeared anywhere she was swamped with reporters.

       In our own circle, everyone’s reaction was a little different, although they all quickly got over it once Jesse released her half-true statement. She was really torn up inside, because she wanted to tell the whole story, especially to her friends.  At first, Artie, Sam and Angel felt betrayed somehow.  Maya didn’t seem surprised at all.  But Merle, as I anticipated, was the most shocked of all.  The realization of Jesse’s true identity as Jessica Martin, of course, meant a little more to him than to anyone else.


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Table of Contents | Preface | Ch 1

| Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 |
Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 |Ch 10 | Ch 11 |
Ch 12 | Ch 13 | Ch 14 | Ch 15 | Ch 16 | Ch 17 |
Ch 18 | Ch 19 | Ch 20 | Ch 21 | Ch 22 | Ch 23 |
Ch 24 | Ch 25 | Ch 26 | Ch 27 | Ch 28 | Ch 29

ONE DAY IN PEACE
A Novel about creating humanity's first day of peace
Robert Alan Silverstein

The People For Peace Project


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UTOPIAN DREAMER


May Peace Prevail On Earth