REPUBLICA

10. When the Veil is Thinnest

"So what?" Jenny asked, sitting in a chair in her hospital room and talking up a storm with Jo. Ever since Jo had revealed that they talk to their ancestors all the time, Jenny had wanted to ask a few questions. "So far, I've sat in a meadow with one cousin, and played a violin duet with another. So how have my illustrious cousins — legendary historical figures — helped me get our country back?"

"Ahh, I think I know what's going on," Jo said, tapping their chin and gazing into the middle distance. "Your cousins on the other side are encouraging you to do things that bring you joy."

Jenny sighed, gingerly shifting her position in her chair. A cheerful bouquet of daisies, mini sunflowers, and sweet Williams from Inspector Shelton sat on her table along with a teddy bear from Roberta, a box of tissues, and a plastic cup and straw. Three days after the hit-and-run, Jenny's bruised body ached, and she wanted to go home.

"But what's it to them if I find joy?" she asked, returning to the topic of her distant cousins. "It's very nice, but what good does it do?"

"Well, first of all, they love you and want you to be happy. But they may also be trying to help you raise your vibrational frequencies," Jo explained.

"My what?"

"Your vibrational frequencies. The higher they are, the easier it is for them to communicate with you. Negativity lowers the vibrations and positivity raises them. Your cousins must really want a word with you," Jo laughed.

Jenny slumped back in her chair and pressed the red call button. "Just need to get back in bed now," she said. "But don't go anywhere, Jo. I want to hear more about this."

"Sure," Jo laughed again. "I can't talk about these things with most people!"

Jenny thought a moment and said, "Meriwether told me he worries because I'm afraid of disappointing people. I guess that's his way of saying that my frequencies are too low?"

"Probably," Jo said. "But don't forget, your cousins also want to help you because you're family and they love you!"

Jenny sat up straight again and brightened before turning pale and sinking back into her chair. "Ugh, I wish they'd come help me to bed," she groaned. "Anyway, so maybe if I find joy, they'd be able to teach me important things about politics, history, the Constitution?"

"Whoa," Jo said. "Slow down. They may do that, but remember that first and foremost, they're family. They're just as likely to remind you to take your vitamins or wear a hat on a cold day."

"Or play music and mend?"

"Exactly. The pursuit of happiness, eh?" Jo lowered her voice to utter the words from the now-banned Declaration of Independence. "Let's not talk about this right now. Too dangerous."

Jenny nodded, tickled to think that Thomas Jefferson, the author of that history-making document, would be worried about her catching a cold.

A just-out-of-school CNA named Maria hurried into the room. Soon Jenny was once again reclining in the bed, savoring the cool, fluffed up pillows.

**************

As Inspector Shelton drove to pick up Roberta Entzel for a visit with Jenny at the hospital, he mentally reviewed the puzzling findings from the hit-and-run investigation. Thanks to his law enforcement training, he had the presence of mind to memorize and type the New Hampshire license plate number and description of the car into his phone.

Hours after an ambulance had rushed Jenny to the hospital, the car — a blue SUV — was found abandoned in a pond ten miles from the scene of the hit-and run. But somehow, the plates did not show up in any data base. When Shelton pressed for answers, shrugs were the most common reply.

Shelton couldn't get the image of Jenny, lying unconscious, bruised, and bleeding heavily, out of his mind. He pulled into Roberta's pine tree-lined driveway and sighed heavily as he parked his shiny, black sedan. Before he had a chance to get out, Roberta was on her way to the car, carrying a folded, multicolored crocheted afghan. Shelton waved and unlocked the door on the passenger side.

"It's for Jenny," Roberta said after she opened the car door and slid onto the passenger seat.

"Very nice," Shelton said, smiling weakly and backing out of the driveway. Roberta couldn't help noticing his preoccupied manner.

"I'm sorry I haven't visited her until now," she said. "They've been loading me down with volunteer work at the Precinct. It's as if they don't want me to have time to visit our girl. Anyway, I hope Jenny liked the stuffed bear."

"You know," Shelton said, "the way things work at the Precinct, I wouldn't be surprised if they were keeping you away from Jenny. But don't worry, Jo has visited twice and I've been going up there a couple of times a day."

"Oh, my!" Roberta chuckled. "That's a lot of visits from you! She is quite a girl, isn't she?"

Inspector Shelton cleared his throat and said, "I just feel bad about the things I said to her before she was hit."

Roberta glanced at him and smiled as he drove into the hospital parking lot. She was glad to be away from the Precinct and finally among friends. And she couldn't wait to reassure Jenny that the copy of the Constitution was safe. Roberta hugged the folded afghan to her chest and walked with Shelton to Jenny's room.

**************

"Do we really have to wait that long?" James Madison asked, his brow furrowed with concern. "So much can happen between now and October."

In a quiet, wood-paneled room, James and Dolley Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Meriwether Lewis sat at a long wooden table. They pondered the wise counsel they had just heard from a trusted old friend who had just left the room. They agreed with their friend that Jenny needed their help, and that intervention would be easiest on All Hallows Eve, when the veil is thinnest. But they also feared that October would be too late.

"We should invite Chief Osemaquin Massasoit and Julia Woodman to come with us," Meriwether said.

"Jenny's mother?" Dolley asked with raised eyebrows. "Is she ready?"

"I believe so," Meriwether replied with steady, quiet confidence. "She's progressing in her studies. She knows the Exeter area better than we do. And she showed such courage when she was smuggling banned books in those shopping bags." Dolley smiled and nodded, satisfied with the answer.

"What do you think, Tom?" Madison asked. Jefferson had been silent, which usually meant that he was about to say something that everyone else needed to hear.

"I think," Jefferson said in his soft-spoken Virginia drawl, "that we all know it's the only chance we have to directly help our cousin and her friends. And besides," he added with a conspiratorial twinkle in his eye, "it'll be Halloween, when everyone dresses in costumes. We'll blend right in."

The others laughed, grateful to share a lighthearted moment.

"Do we agree?" Meriwether asked the group, placing his palms on the table. "All Hallows Eve?"

"Yes!" Dolley Madison exclaimed, and the others nodded in agreement. They couldn't wait to report back to their wise friend, who had proposed the All Hallows Eve project.

Jefferson, Lewis, and the Madisons walked down the corridor to their friend's study and knocked on the closed door.

"Come in," their friend said.

Meriwether opened the door and spoke for the group. "We've agreed to your recommendation, Sir." He glanced at the others and added, "Operation All Hallows Eve, eh?"

George Washington stood up from behind his book-laden desk and said, "Then the decision is final." After allowing the group a moment of cheering and embracing, Washington reached to shake hands with all who were there.