The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Margie's Legacy

"I saved this part for the last." Janie walked over to a picture on one wall that was draped in cloth and pulled the shroud off. An old color picture of Margie.

Janie paused to look over the new restoration before she said anything. When she spoke again it was reverent. "This was Margie, from back when she was a dancer. Before she ran 'rox' she lived in our life. This was her lobby shot. Margie knew what we have to deal with every day because she was one of us. Morgan found this picture when she was going through her things as her executor. Even the original photo negative. She knew what needed to happen. Bob cleaned it up and enlarged it for me to make this beautiful picture. We are here, in this new place for a few reasons. One is that Margie prepared for this day. For the day when she was gone. She made Morgan her executor, and that was brilliant. Probably smarter than Margie knew. If it had been me or Mike? We would not have known what to do. We would have probably thought the path was to sell it all off for peanuts, and give everyone as big a severance check as we could. Morgan knew better and she had smarts and the resources to make sure Margie was honored as she should be. This new, safer, better than ever place is because my sweet love Morgan knew how to make this happen. I know it's hard to think of Morgan as anything but a badass Cop sometimes, but trust me on this: Sweet is the right word. In case you are wondering? She is taken. Spoken for. She does not have time for any of you in her bed so quite dreaming about it right now. Her porch light is off and she is taken care of."

Morgan tried very hard not to look embarrassed. To others, she probably succeeded. I know better.

"Morgan knew Helen. Jessica. Denise. Angel. All members of her fine-as-hell family. They all worked hard to buy this land, get these buildings built, and even had the private road laid down that leads from the country road to up here. The best construction company I ever saw. Nearly all ladies, too. Kind of a theme for this place."

Janie stayed by the picture, but pointed over at another picture, standing on one of those hotel lobby-type temporary displays. "Over there, on that easel is the architects drawing of even more things to come out here. The RV park went in early so we would have a place to stay while the private houses are built. You can do that! You can build yourself a house in a subdivision, right over there. We are only going to sell to people that work here, somewhere in the complex. Stay in an RV. Put in a trailer house. Stay where you are now, even if it's back in Houston. Whatever works for you. This is going to be a company town, but we are not looking to lock anyone in here. We are just making sure we don't get snake-bit by the neighbors again. Building something that will survive past my tenure because I won't be here forever any more than Margie was. Change happens, and we are building this place to try to survive it."

That caused some discontent in the room. I understood the deeper context of that. As a Vampire, Janie is time-limited in ways Margie was not. She can't grow old running the new rox. She'll have to leave long before Mike, and how we navigate that is a mess yet to be determined. It all pivots off her son Paul and when she tells him about the hidden world.

All problems for another day. Plenty of time right now to stand up this new place.

"There will be a grocery store. A convenience store. A sex boutique that sells all the usual stuff from crotchless panties to sex toys to videos. Customers can take home a nighty to their significant other to try to relive their time here. For those of you that works on."

I came in for a look. I never in a million years thought I would be in this much shit over not liking the mind games. Helen looked amused at my discomfiture, but then: She would.

"All this land is private, and everything on it is ours and runs by our rules. You are not going to get arrested for watering your daisies in front of your RV or house or whatever naked. If you look at the layout in the drawing, you will see all sorts of non-sex stuff around here or coming soon too: A game arcade. A couple of eateries. Pizza. Burgers. Dumplings. Pho. An emergency medical clinic. We will expand the current water tank for the cattle... that's what they call artificial lakes: Tanks. I don't know why. Just call a lake a lake, but whatever. We'll dig it out, make it big, use the dirt to make some more hills. We'll add paddle boats, canoes, and kayak rentals to the campground. Maybe have some music festivals someday. Our own Woodstock, right down to the naked people screwing in the pasture. We even have a house band for that! No. Really. We do. I'm screwing the lead guitarist and the bass player, so they have to play here when I want. This is Austin! The live music capital of the world. We have to do our part!"