The Scalian Legacy

Jack’s dreaming wasn’t as pleasant this time. His loneliness and discomfort drifted his mind to a time when he felt similar emotions: a bright, beautiful day in São Paulo many years ago, but the gorgeous weather could not be enjoyed on this day. Jack was outdoors, but at a large cemetery where well over a hundred mourners had come to pay their respects at the burial of his father.

“Buddy, you know we’ll always be here for you, right?” Robbie had just come over from talking with their mom and put his arms around his little brother. It looked as though he had more to say, but another speech began. He refrained from continuing.

“Working at the consulate for over thirty years, Robert Felder was as much a Brazilian as he was an American. He was a loving husband, caring father…” His dad’s boss, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, spoke lovely words to the large crowd of family and friends, but Jack didn’t listen. His thoughts were elsewhere, and his feelings were overwhelming him. He had kept thinking that his dad would recover. He was a fighter; how could he succumb to this? he asked himself. Why did he have to leave me alone?

He looked up at his brother and wished that he was the older one. Jack was young, but not naïve. Robbie lived two thousand miles away, and Kenny was starting a family of his own. With his father gone, Jack could not help but feel lonely, and he was not good at hiding his feelings. Of course they will tell me they will be here for me, he told himself, but I know better. While he believed what his brothers were saying, he just didn’t think they would come through on promises.

As the speech ended, Robbie began again. “Seriously, little buddy. I’m staying here this week, and I’ve asked Mom to let me take you to Macapá when you get out of school in a couple of weeks. You want to help Marcelo and me with our tours over the summer? You liked the dolphins, didn’t you?”

Robbie’s words caused Jack to feel chills as he became overwhelmed with emotions. As tears began to swell in his eyes, he smiled and hugged his big brother. The tears flowed freely. He sobbed as Robbie squeezed him hard. “We’re Felders, Jack,” Robbie said. “We’ll always be here for each other, just as Dad wanted.”

Jack was tearing from his dream when he was awakened by the sense of movement. The ship was floating again, and the leg of the ship was closing in on him. How long had he slept? It hadn’t felt too long, but he was becoming disoriented and knew he was running out of time. He was also losing feeling in his extremities, and the scrapes on his knees, elbows and even chest were burning. He moved his extremities as much as he could to get some circulation going, but it wasn’t getting better. He couldn’t remain perched within this tiny area for much longer.

As he cleared his mind and the leg completed locking in place, he realized he was being separated from his brother and Marcelo! They were still back on that larger ship they had landed on and he was now leaving them. I’ve probably lost them forever, he told himself. Even though he had always known it was a one in a million shot, he couldn’t help but feel he had let down his brother.

It wasn’t long before that odd feeling of weightlessness returned; they were in space again. Jack realized that this did have one benefit, namely, the pressure on his extremities subsided as gravity was no longer in play. He figured this should help his circulation. However, as time passed, Jack’s primary fear of running out of oxygen returned. He tried to conserve his breathing by trying to relax and take fewer, longer breaths. Still, soon it was apparent that this trip was taking longer, and he began to drift into an unconscious state. He realized that if he let himself fall asleep, he might never wake again.

Jack knew he could not remain conscious much longer. Still, he had no regrets. He had done what he felt he had to do for his brother, and he would do it again. If these were his last moments, at least they were adventuresome and he had seen things he never thought he would.

Those were his thoughts as he drifted into unconsciousness.