Chapter
28. Just Rewards
So, it was a success for the world, but I’d lost everything.
I’d gotten my just rewards. And
I was okay with that. Whatever it meant.
I had no money; Global Missiles would probably continue in the killing
business, because they could probably line up the best lawyers to show that One
Day In Peace was celebrated throughout the world, even if it wasn’t called that
everywhere. But it would have to go on without me, because
I couldn’t go back to doing that, ever again. I had no idea what I would do, but it certainly
wouldn’t be that. I probably still had
feelings for Art, and I’d lost him forever... but that’s okay -- he belongs with
Samantha and his kids -- so I’m glad I had some small part in helping him to see
that.
I’d been disgraced in front of the whole world.
But, I have a father now, and I have more of an idea of why Uncle had treated
me the way he did. And so, I can finally
forgive him and move on.
And hey, there was peace on earth for a day, and I was watching it happen
in each time zone with my closest friends. As
I sat there, I realized that there was one person who was missing, that I really
missed.
“Heck, the campaign’s
over,” I figured, “I can call him.” It
had been so long since I’d dialed his cell phone -- it felt like a whole lifetime
ago -- that I almost had to look up the number.
“Hallo,” Troy answered. My heart
leaped. It felt so good to hear his voice.
“Troy...” I whispered, my voice quivering.
“Jess?” he exclaimed. “You’re not
going to believe this... I was just...” he paused and laughed.
“...thinking of you,” he said, still rolling in laughter.
“You were?” That made me happy.
“Actually...” he paused and laughed again.
The doorbell rang. Out of the corner
of my eye I saw Melissa get up to get it. “Troy...”
I stammered because his end of the line was silent. “Are you there?”
Nothing. I felt devastated.
“Here I am darling.” His voice didn’t come from the phone. I looked up.
There was Troy, holding a huge bouquet of red roses. He looked wonderful. I felt like I’d waited an entire lifetime to
see him again. I jumped up into his arms
and tears of joy were streaming down my cheeks.
“I brought you these,” he said. “Global
Flowers Unlimited’s very first bouquet of ‘Lady Martin Thornless Roses’ -- they’re
twice the size and twice as red as any other rose. We’ll be shipping out 100 million this Valentine’s
Day.”
“Huh?” I sighed, still holding him tightly. I
didn’t want to ever let him go again. “Global
Flowers... but the world was peaceful...”
Troy laughed. “Oh, we’ve been in
the flower business for the past three weeks.
After all those polls in November, the Executive Board set the number-crunchers
working. The shareholders voted unanimously
after we published the projections. Of course, we don’t just produce flowers.
We’ve got the world’s first Fusion-Recycler, for example.
Takes mountains of trash and ‘melts’ them down to their perfectly re-usable
basic elements. And a fleet of non-polluting
cars running on a whole array of alternative energies, including solar, air, water
and even used-organic-fat-free-french-fry grease. We’ve got a hundred other products-for-a-better-world
in the works, too. Why, we’re making twice
as much selling flowers and products-for-a-better-world than we did peddling missiles. And we’re much happier doing it.”
I hugged Troy even tighter, finally believing that fairy tales can come
true. Previous Chapter | Next Chapter Table of Contents | Preface | Ch 1
| Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch
4 |
|
