Mai Legacy
1.31 - The End of a Generation
“Please, my husband needs help!” Susan yelled, shoving her way through the doors of the hospital alongside the stretcher James was on.
Leah, Seth, Jocelyn, and Maverick stepped out of the ambulance and watched her go in with anxious eyes.
“Should we ask her to calm down?” Seth asked. “They’re doing all they can…”
Leah shook her head. “You know there’s no stopping mom in times of crisis.”
Jocelyn turned back into the ambulance and reached out a hand. Little Ronnie reached out and grabbed it. Maverick saw what she was doing and picked up Willow.
“Everything’s going to be just fine…” Jocelyn cooed, picking up Ronnie and cradling him. “We’ve just got to go inside to make sure grandpa is alright, okay?”
“Be brave for me, okay?” Maverick whispered to Willow.
The six then slowly meandered after Susan, wandering through stark hallways until they reached a room where Susan stood yelling at a doctor who stood there like a deer in headlights.
“Why aren’t there more doctors working on James?” Susan bellowed.
“M’am, you must understand, it’s early in the morning and staff is limited, many of them are tending to a man who was recently shot in the slums of San Myshuno,” the doctor said gently.
Seth tensed up when he saw him. That was Doctor Brock, the man who’d given him his plastic surgery. He had to admire him for trying to reason with Susan right now because urgent care definitely wasn’t his field, but the last thing Seth wanted right now was for the focus to shift back to his operation. James deserved all the attention in the world right now, he needed to get better because neither he or Leah was ready to become heir yet. At least… he wasn’t.
“Then why isn’t he at a hospital in San Myshuno, then? I… I just love him a lot, okay? Please… do your best for him,” Susan sobbed.
“I don’t deal in urgent care, m’am, but I can assure you that our doctors are doing the best they can right now,” Doctor Brock reassured her.
Spotting Seth, Doctor Brock spotted an escape route. “Ah, Seth, I’m glad the operation was such a resounding success! And, uh… apologies about your dad.”
“Uh, y-yeah, Doctor,” Seth stammered. “Could we focus on my dad right now? Thanks.”
Doctor Brock nodded his understanding and went on his way.
Leah gave Seth a knowing look.
“Seth?” Susan said, a surprising amount of strength in her voice. “We’ll be talking about all of this when we get home, your father along with me.”
Seth walked over to her and gave her a hug.
“Ohh, my beautiful baby boy,” Susan sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
A nurse emerged from the room where James was and directed the seven of them to a waiting room. They sat there in dead silence, even Ronnie and Willow feeling that it wasn’t the right time to babble or make jokes. Hours passed, and the sun rose, and person after person streamed past the Mai family who sat there in dead silence. A few recognized them, but no one was bold enough to approach them in their sadness.
At around 9, when Ronnie and Willow were officially late to school, Jocelyn stood up.
“I’ll take the little ones to find some food,” she smiled, trying her best to stay positive for the kids.
“I’ll come with,” Maverick said, standing up. “Anything you guys want?”
Susan, Leah, and Seth all shook their heads.
Maverick nodded his understanding, and followed Jocelyn and the kids down a corridor. They wandered for awhile before coming to a vending machine filled with snacks against the wall of yet another stark white hallway.
“What do you guys want?” Maverick asked, looking down.
“Cinnamon roll!” Ronnie cheered.
“Me too!” Willow added.
Maverick handed them both some cash, then stepped back to let them try out the vending machine. Jocelyn joined him.
“It’s cute to watch them struggle to do this,” Jocelyn laughed quietly.
Maverick nodded. “They’re so young…”
Jocelyn turned to Maverick, a more serious expression in her eyes. “I don’t think James is going to make it,” she said quickly.
“Jocelyn!” Maverick hissed. “Don’t say that! He’s a fighter, he could still make it through this!”
Jocelyn looked at the floor. “He’s old, Maverick. Both Seth and Leah are full-grown adults now, he’s resolved his past with his family, even Joaquin has passed away… it might just be his time.”
“And was it your parents time when they died in a fire?” Maverick asked.
Jocelyn’s eyes widened.
“I’m sorry,” Maverick apologized immediately. “I just… I don’t believe that anyone has a time. I don’t talk about my past much because both my parents died when I was very young. Car accident. I was raised by my aunt. I can’t believe that happened because they were fated to die. No one with a 10 year old child is fated to die, I refuse to accept that the universe could ever be that cruel. So… in my mind, it’s all up to chance.”
Back in the waiting room, Susan sat in dead silence, both her and her two children dreading talking about James.
“Seth, Leah, I need to say something,” she said slowly.
“Yeah, what is it mom?” Leah asked, raising her head from where it'd been staring at the floor to look Susan in the eye.
Seth nodded and smiled an encouraging smile.
“Just- just in case James doesn’t make it… I want you both to know that he knew this day would come soon. So… if you two don’t get to talk to him again, I have what he wanted to say to you written down at home. If it comes to that.”
Seth and Leah’s response was to wrap Susan in hugs.
“Miss?” a nurse asked, emerging from the hallway. “We’ve done all we can. You’re welcome to see him, but I’m afraid he doesn’t have much time left.”
“We’re going to take every second we can get,” Susan said firmly, standing up.
Susan led Seth and Leah down the hall, and stopped outside. “This… this is hard for me, but you two, go in there first. I think you need to speak to dad one last time alone.”
Seth and Leah shared a confused look, but did as she asked. Susan gently shut the door behind them.
James lay in bed, looking completely exhausted. He looked older than he’d ever looked before to Leah and Seth.
“Seth… Leah…” he coughed. “Come here.”
They did as he asked.
“Seth…” he said carefully. “You’ll always be my boy, no matter what you do to your face. Do whatever makes you happy, alright?”
Seth nodded quickly, tears in his eyes.
“And Leah… don’t let criticism of you or others get you down. You can rise above it and combat it, I know you can.”
Leah wiped away a tear.
“I… I just want both of you to know that no matter what happens, I love you. If the rules of a legacy allowed for two heirs, that’d be perfect because both of you deserve the world. You’ve both grown up so much… Seth, gone are the days when you’d kiss someone just because you wanted to beat someone in some competition. Leah, you’re no longer the type of person to rat people out just because they're ahead of you. Neither of you would do anything like that to each other anymore. So… no matter who becomes heir, I believe that you two know better than to fight. Because, you do. Now… please, send in Susan.”
Susan floated in the door because she’d be listening at the door the whole time.
“I knew you wouldn’t want to be left out, Susan,” James chuckled.
“You know I wouldn’t spend one of these last few precious moments without your voice. I would’ve barged in here with Seth and Leah, but I know that one of your last wishes was to have the two of them alone in the room with you in your final moments.”
“Susan…” James breathed. “Take my hand.”
Susan walked over to the chair beside his bed, and carefully sat down, grabbing his hand.
“I wouldn’t want to spend my last few moments without your hand in mine,” James smiled. “We built this family together, Susan, and that’s because I love you. I’m not going to go and die without staring into the eyes of the love of my life.”
“I love you too, James,” Susan sobbed.
James blinked, and suddenly, he was sitting in a place that was oddly familiar. He slowly pulled himself off the floor and looked around, and, after a few seconds, everything clicked into place in his mind.
“This is the Dishman’s house…” he muttered to himself. “But it burned down in the Hajar’s fire… Am I…?”
“You sure got that right,” someone laughed from behind him.
James whirled around and was met with someone very familiar. “Jacques?”
“The one and only,” Jacques bowed.
“Why are you-“
“Why am I here?” Jacques said, cutting him off. “This should be obvious, especially for someone Akira was so quick to take a shine to. I’m here to welcome you to the afterlife.”
“No, that’s not possible…”
“Look at me, James. Look at yourself! We’re young again! In a building that was burnt to ash! Don’t be as dumb as I pegged you for when I was alive.”
James hurried to the nearest mirror to check, and when he turned back around, Jacques was gone. With nowhere else to go, he walked further into the house. Seated at the dining room table of the Dishman’s house were the Fengs.
“James!” Victor called out in his heavy accent. “Good to see your legacy has been such grand success, yes?”
“A bigger success than we ever imagined,” Lily laughed.
James walked closer to the table hesitantly.
“Everything's so much clearer here…” Lily sighed. “Victor and I… let’s just say we set certain things in motion back when we were alive that might end up rather unfavorably for your family… For that, I’d like to deeply apologize.”
“You did what?”
You want me to spoil the surprise?” Victor laughed. “I don’t think so!”
The next second, they were gone, only the echo Victor and Lily’s laughter a reminder that they were ever there.
James walked around the kitchen and looked through all the doors. They all seemed to lead to nowhere. Without anywhere else to go, James headed upstairs. He’d never spent much time up here when he’d been alive, so he went through the first door.
Seated on the bed were Sara and Rene, Jocelyn’s parents.
Regret crossed James’s face. “I’m sorry that my feud with the Le Chien family led to this…”
Sara waved his concern off. “Death comes for us all eventually. Ours just came swifter… and more violently than most.”
“Jocelyn’s doing great,” James said carefully.
“Naturally,” Rene laughed. “Always knew good things would come from that girl, little Ronnie is just the cutest.”
James blinked, then he was in the hallway again. He slowly walked to the next door and entered a room he’d only seen in pictures Jocelyn has shown him on his phone.
“Jocelyn’s room,” James breathed.
“Tragic that the poor girl had to loose her youth so quickly that night,” a voice sighed.
James whirled around, and saw Rosaline and Bronson, Joaquin’s parents, seated on Jocelyn’s bed.
“Sort of like our Joaquin, huh, Rosaline?” Bronson asked.
“That night our statue went missing… that was the last time we saw a youthful glow in our little boy,” Rosaline sighed. “It dimmed, and dimmed, until the time the 24 hours were up, and that's when he transformed into the sad and defeated man you knew later in life.”
“That wasn’t-“
“We know,” Bronson nodded. “That wasn’t your family. And we thank you for that, you and Susan had the respect to not throw away what’s been built up for hundreds of years.”
“All that’s left are memories…” Rosaline sighed. “I pray for our grandchildren, Hajar’s genes can’t be good for our descendants.”
The next second, Rosaline and Bronson were gone, and the bed they were sitting on was replaced by one that was a deep purple. A sickly woman laid in it, her head wrapped up in a tightly wound towel.
James slowly approached the bed, sitting down in the chair, and was suddenly met with a youthful Hajar Le Chien.
“Well, well, well,” Hajar drawled. “Look who the cat dragged in. Rather awful of you to stand there and do nothing while I laid dying on the courtroom floor.”
“Joaquin was already-“
“Bah! I know you don’t trust Joaquin, James. You think he took your children and wasted away years of their life. So, tell me, why couldn’t you have been the decent person you claim to be and save a life?”
“Because in the short time I knew Joaquin, he didn’t come off as a bad person to me. I know whatever happened to my children had to be you. Witchy Hajar, Susan and I called you. We couldn’t prove it, but we knew in our hearts that you’re the only one with a heart black enough to take away an innocent child’s time on earth.”
Hajar gave James an incredulous look. “Bravo, James. Bravo. Congrats to you and that insufferable bitch Susan for figuring that out. But you’re still not decent. In your terms, I know in my heart that you and Susan aren’t actually good people. Just wait and see, your descendants will prove that in time.”
“Hajar?” a familiar voice spoke. James turned around quickly, and saw Joaquin. “That’s enough.”
“Aw, come on, Joaquin! Please?”
“We’re not friends, Hajar. Don’t test me.”
James blinked again, and Hajar was gone. Instead, James was suddenly seated in an unfamiliar room where he could observe Joaquin and an unfamiliar man.
“This, James, is what should have been,” Joaquin smiled sadly. He gestured to the man next to him. “This here, is Sergio. He’s the man I’ve always been in love with.”
James gave Joaquin a confused look.
Joaquin sighed, and went on, walking towards James. “Or, at least he was until ‘witchy Hajar’, as you call her, addled my brain and made me think I was in love with her. This room right here is the living room of Sergio’s parent’s house, the first place Sergio and I kissed. Believe it or not, I wasn’t always the weak willed, broken man who did whatever Hajar asked. I was only able to let her die because I’d reached such a low point in my life that even her potions couldn’t simulate the feeling of love in the dark void that’d become my life. A Le Chien, serving as a glorified babysitter for the Fengs? Especially after the things they’ve done? That never should have happened.”
Joaquin looked James dead in the eye. “So, James? I’m sorry for all the terrible things I helped Hajar do. I overreacted the first time you told me the news, and I see now that our two families could have coexisted, perhaps even have been friends. I’ve made a great many mistakes in my life, and turning my family against yours is second only to letting Hajar back into my life.”
“I… I don’t know what to say, Joaquin,” James said quietly.
“Then don’t,” Joaquin said gently. “You have only two more people waiting for you.”
Joaquin and Sergio faded away, and James found himself in an empty space. Waiting for him, with open arms, were two very important people. The most important people. His parents, Ed and Daniela, standing in the kitchen James had spent so much of his childhood in.
“Mom, dad, I’ve missed you so much,” James gasped.
“Welcome home, James,” Daniela smiled.
“I’m sure you have a lot to tell us,” Ed added.
“I’m finally home again,” James laughed, tears in his eyes.