7 Years Later. 2022


“Come on! Let’s go, Ayvah!” Lynn yelled from the bleachers as she and JD watched their daughter play in her summer basketball game.


Ayvah had grown to be five foot, five inches tall. A girl tried to drive to the basket but was quickly shut down by Ayvah, who blocked the shot. She maintained control of the ball and dribbled the entire court length to score on a fastbreak layup. 


“Hell yeah! Let's go, Ayvah,” JD clapped.


Lynn was a little bit louder with her cheering.


After the game, Ayvah met up with her parents.


“Good job, kiddo. You played a great game,” Lynn said as she hugged Ayvah.


“That’s how you hoop!” JD hugged her before they did their own special handshake.


Lynn smiled every time she saw them do it.


They grabbed something to eat, then headed home.


JD entered their room, Ayvah went to her room, and Lynn hopped in the shower. Ayvah came into JD and Lynn’s room while he was lying down, searching for a movie on Netflix for them to watch. 


“Hey, Dad. Can I ask you something?” Ayvah said in an almost timid tone. She seemed to be a little shy, which isn’t normal for her when it comes to her parents.


JD sat up. “Hey, rugrat. Yea, what’s up?”


“I keep having these weird dreams. I keep being chased by this guy named Luther,” she said.


“Wait. Are you still having those dreams? You had them when you were like six. I thought they stopped,” JD said.


“They did for a while, then they came back. Do you know him?” Ayvah asked.


“Uhhh, he seems to know me, you, and the pretty girl there much better than I know him. He’s a maniac and extremely smart. I have no idea what he wants, but I think I figured out something. He was thrown into the Temple River when he was a baby. Here’s the weird part, though. No one covered this story; not national news nor local news,” JD explained.


“The river that we always go to? With the park and the track and stuff?” Ayvah asked.


“Yep. That’s where it all happened. I searched for months because I was trying to find him. I found the police report from 30 years ago. A man named Julian Kano saw Luther’s dad throw him in the river. Kano saved him and then adopted him. Kano died a few years back. I don’t know what happened to him, though. So, I can’t talk to him. Luther’s mom was killed by his dad. He has no one. That’s why he’s so deranged,” JD told Ayvah.


“Man, that’s crazy! You won’t get mad and throw me in a river, right?” Ayvah asked in a joking tone.


“Eh. I thought about it,” JD laughed.


She hit him on his arm, playfully. “That’s not nice.”


“Been around ya mammy too much,” he said, laughing.


Lynn walked into the room, rubbing her hair dry with a towel. “You talkin’ shit?”


“Oh no hablo ingles,” JD said in a terrible Spanish accent.


“Mmhm,” Lynn rolled her eyes and smiled.


“Goodnight, love you guys,” Ayvah said as she left their room.


“Love you, superstar,” JD said.


“Love you, babe. Goodnight,” Lynn said.


Ayvah closed the door behind her.


“She ok?” Lynn wore a concerned expression on her face.


JD just stared off into space, seemingly for a moment, before snapping out of it. “Yeah, she’s just having those weird dreams again,” he said.


“The ones about Luther?” Lynn asked.


“Yeah.” JD shook his head. He took one of those deep breaths through his nose.


“Did you tell her what you found?” She asked.


“Yeah, I did. She’s old enough to think for herself, smart, and has some visionary thing going on. Those dreams like that don’t last that long, and name a person you have never met before without a reason. She’s special,” JD said.


“She is. I don’t want her fighting actual demons, though,” Lynn said.


“She’ll be fine. She doesn’t have to fight,” JD assured Lynn.


The president continued to receive supplies at the White House. He now has barricades and an electric fence around its perimeter.


While the President continued to fortify the White House, Sultan, Rusenov, and Xi Li all conspired to plan an assault on the United States and any of its NATO allies. This assault plan would take at least eight years to complete fully, which coincidentally would be perfect.


“Mr. President, if we are going about doing things our way and not what was agreed upon for all nations, wouldn’t that put us in jeopardy of being attacked by the other parties?” An advisor of the President asked.


“Of course not. If anyone attacks us, especially together, that would start a world war. No one wants that. I am the first president to see the big picture. Look at all the big states, from New York to Cali, here, there, everywhere. They all suffer from the same things. Crime-ridden, overpopulated, too many single-parent homes. The governments before us created this society of ‘get a lot for nothing.’ Damn kids don’t want to work anymore. The world is, ironically, the coldest it’s ever been, but somehow, it’s also the most sensitive. It is absurd that a woman can get on MY internet and do NOTHING and get paid more than the damn President! I do not want to clean out the whole country. I want to do a factory reset.” The President smiled at that last line as if he had just told a funny joke.


“Yes, sir. What about this Luther guy? He seems dangerous,” the advisor said.


“Yes. He is. He’s former CIA,” the President said.


“What?” The advisor was shaken. “Does anyone else know this?”


“Everyone, except I guess, the staff here. We all need each other. I will not be secretive like the last guy. I am sorry he had to die of that virus. Luther was a baby abandoned and thrown into a river in Texas. I forget the name. Anyway, his dad shot his mom and then threw him into the river. A man saw this and saved the baby. That man was Kano. Kano was CIA. He adopted the baby and gave him the name Luther. Once Luther came of age, he killed Kano in his sleep. Kano was one of the best the CIA ever saw, but even he didn’t see his sixteen-year-old adopted son killing him in his sleep. That boy was unstable. Maybe he learned of his past and felt his life was a lie. He would eventually get a hold of our President at the time, the older brother of James King, Sam. Sam had the boy training and put him in the best classes money could buy. He’s smart. Way too smart. He became a CIA agent at 18. He went rogue when he was 25. James had to die because he continued to feed Luther knowledge and anything else the boy asked of him. I have no idea why. It must have been some relation. Who knows?” the President asked rhetorically.