His thoughts come from a good place...Heaven.

John walkes across the parlor. There is one more place to check where some intruder could be hiding. After the empytiness of kitchen, and finding Uncle Billy's ring, he now feels like he is just humoring himself with this search. He swings open the coat closet and of course, it's empty. He sits in an over-sized chair with his back to the front door -facing the staircase. Wondering again how Uncle Billy's ring got on the table, he looks up to the top of the stairs. Did he hear some rock song from 1976...Philadelphia Freedom...coming from the hall to his bedroom. No, John thinks. The house is empty he concentrates as he looks at the top of the stairs. All of the sudden, he feels there's someone at the top of the stairs. The feeling is so loving and good in that area, it seems brighter. In fact, it is an emotional spotlight on that area at the top of the stairs. You're making this up John thinks until the top stair creaks as if someone is walking on it. The bright area now feels to be moving down the stairs towards the parlor. Now it was at the bottom of the stairs and moving across the parlor to John. It sits unseen, but again felt, right in front of John.

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'How can you be good in...a world that's kinda not so good?'

John

'You're Uncle Billy.'

Uncle Biily's Spirit

'You know I am.'

John

'I know I'm nuts and I'm not telling anyone about this.'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'...or in your own time...you'll tell everyone...through writing.'

John

'Wrong social class to be published.'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'Five years ago no one heard of the Internet.'

John

'I write web pages...'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'I'm not here to be a prophet. It'll happen in a way you can't see in 2001. Besides I'm here to guide you and guard you.'

John

'Dammit. I knew I had a guardian angle. Thought his name was Brian.'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'Dammit?' Billy laughs.

'Well you got the 'b' right. I requested the job. Thought it was gonna be a short gig with your asthma as a kid.'

John

'Me too. I couldn't move. I think that's why my imagination grew. I went places in my mind.'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'...and became an award-winning writer.'

John

'Awards from immoral people. But I still like the awards.'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'I know you do. And you think the world is mean and horrible.'

John

'I read about the first suicide bomber in Palestine. Such a waste...'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'They have no idea. I will tell you this, the cosmic joke on humanity is that radical Muslims think God wants them to blow themselves up. Jews think God wants them in Israel. Catholics think...'

John

'...it's almost time to hang the lighted Shamrocks for St. Patrick's day.'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'...no that's our family's wierdness...Christians think they have the answer. Hindi's too. The Cosmic joke is everyone is praying to the same God. Maybe we should have called him Good instead of God. Maybe then we'd get if you want to be closer to God...act more God-like...good to each other.'

John

'I'm gonna write about that. I don't care if people think I'm nuts.'

Uncle Billy's Spirit

'If?'

The unseen area of goodness disappears.

An angel leaves his ring.

The oak stairs creaks as John makes his way down the staircase. Is he being followed, John wonders, turns fast and looks behind him. He catches his breath as he sees no one on the staircase. That's right he thinks as he remembers how the 100 year old boards pop back up in sequence after being stepped on. He refocuses on investigating what made the kitchen door slam.
The Grandfather's clock reminded John of Big Ben he thinks as he crosses the parlor with the oak Victorian table.

He stops to listen. Is anyone moving in the kitchen. The house creaks as the wind off the ocean hits it. Outside the front window, the only thing moving is sand, blowing like a sand storm. Without moving, John leans forward to glance around the corner into the kitchen. The careful movement still betrays where he is as the floor creaks. John takes a hestitant step. This is it. If someone came in an open kitchen door, hel'll see John now. Relief. The kitchen is empty. One more place to check...the pantry. John walks cautiously into the kitchen towards the pantry door. He watches his own hand reach for the pantry door handle. One more step and I'm gonna yank that door open, John thinks. He might be stalking back in the pantry so he can get a running start to jump on me John's mind races. I'll stand to the side as I open it John decides. One, two, three...John thinks, and with his right arm muscles tighted to punch, he yanks open the pantry door. John screams at and punches a mop as it falls towards him. The pantry is full of shadows...but empty. With that, John walks across the empty kitchen to check the door. He turns the door knob and yanks the door open. A blast of cold air comes in as John shuts the door. Great, aunt Margaret leaves the door open, John thinks as he locks it. Should I lock it before I check the house. I could be locking myself in with them. Or have you been scaring yourself. There's stuff to fear out there and then there's fear in here John gesters to his head.

Much calmer, John decides to check the front coat closet near the foyer. Is that a ring on the table John wonders. He walks over and picks up a ruby ring, set in gold with three round bumps on it. There was no ring on that table when I walked by before. Willam Pender is enscribed on the inside. John slips it on his finger.

John never met Uncle Billy. He had served in the Navy. In April 1976, the sun shone on a distant World Trade Center like the pearly gates as Billy and his friends rounded Sandy Hook in a small boat. Since 1828, the Twin Lighthouses have been guiding everyone entering New York Harbor atop the highest point on the East Coast. Once a sailor saw the Twin Lighthouses, he was safe. But not Uncle Billy. He anchored his boat and being young, the gang of 20 somethings began to joke around. Being overweight, Maggie O'Brien made herself into the funny one. No one would was gonna look at her body...but funny...that contest she'd win. Telling her story on the edge of the boat, she kept making more and more exaggerated gestures as the gang roared louder and louder. Her hand flew up wide as she laughed, lost her balance and fell into the 50 degree water. Everyone reach for her as laugher turned to screams: Maggie could swim. She went under, and reed thin, Uncle Billy jumped in. He was an excellent swimmer. The gang screamed as Uncle Billy went under. He came up blue-cold once and went under again to try to find Maggie one more time. He floated up again, dead from the cold water. His 21 year old wife and friends pulled him onto the boat.

A flood of images-almost like scenes from a movie-flashed across John's mind. This Account person lying to get control of an account or more money for it. Someone being fired for being 'dead wood' after working at the agency for 10 years. Account Executives smiling at Bernie as they secretly meet with the other Bernie to pull their accounts. Endless shopping bags from Manhattan designer boutiques-filled with designer clothes made in some third world sweat shop. John twists the ring on his finger. And a man like Uncle Billy dies at 21 trying to save someone. Even after she remarried years later, Uncle Billy's wife brought flowers to his grave for the rest of her life. Wonder if he was her first love? Wonder how his ring got here. Maybe Aunt Margaret left it here. She was going to give it to me John thought. But it wasn't on the table when I first went by, John thought.

John pictures Uncle Billy's soul being lifted up above Sandy Hook Bay, across New York Harbor, past the Statue of Liberty. The sun frames the World Trade Center' twin towers like the golden door Lady Liberty speaks of. A Navy hero is coming home, through the pearly gates and into Heaven. In Heaven, our souls resemble white rod-shaped lights. A soul greets Uncle Billy.

Soul Greeter

'Hey Billy. Welcome to Heaven.'

Billy

'I can't believe I'm here. I was the youngest of five...I swim. I was in the Navy. I came home.'

Soul Greeter

'You are home.'

Billy

'Well, where do I go. Where do I stand?'

Soul Greeter leads Uncle Billy's soul.

'Not way out here. See that bright center.'

Billy

'It feels so happy and good there. That must be God.'

Soul Greeter

'We're headed closer to him. Hey Billy. Did you ever think about being an angel? You could save a lot of people. You're already saving John...the nephew you never met.'

Billy

'He's wearing my ring.'

Soul Greeter

'He's wearing the ring of a moral man. He knows your life story.'

Uncle Billy's Soul

'My big sister Margaret. She always did take care of me.'

Soul Greeter

'And your memory. Your example. She talks to John about you all the time.'

Uncle Billy

'John is wearing my ring.'

The Soul Greeter nods as she and Uncle Billy's Soul walk towards the most evolved souls in Heaven and God.

'John is wearing your ring.'

Things that go bump...in the day.

Mohammed Atta leaves Germany for periods of time, spending some time in Afghanistan, including several months in late 1999 and early 2000 when he meets Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders. Atta and the other Hamburg cell members are recruited by Bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for the "planes operation" in the United States. Atta returnes to Hamburg in February 2000, and begins inquiring about flight training in the United States...in broad daylight.

Meantime in New Jersey, John wakes up this morning to an empty house with the sun shining through the Irish lace curtains. He gets up from bed and gazes out at an empty, stark, winter white beach and neighborhood. Even  the window pane feels cold and dead. This time of year, Seaside Park is dead. You can gaze outside all day and not see a single car or person walking. Just sand blowing across empty Ocean Boulevard.

Even up in his third, floor bedroom, he can hear his great, grandfather's grandfather clock chime, ominously down in the livingroom. Funny how a sound that is so comforting when your surrounded by your family, can be down-right creepy as it echos off victorian furniture and heavy, oak stairs. It sounds like someone is coming up the stairs towards John. But he thought his Aunt said they were going to Atlantic City. John walks across the room and peaks out his door. The hall is empty and shadowy. That's the thing about Victorians: there's always shadows. And with every ocean breeze, the house creaks and moans about every life that's passed through it.

As John enters the shower, he could swear he hears the door downstairs slam. He gets out of the shower and unlocks the bathroom door. The trouble with living in a beach town year-round, there are break-ins because everyone knows there's few witnesses down here in the winter. That would be the worst, John thinks as he unlocks the door to the hall: to come in on someone robbing a room. He sticks his head out the door almost afraid to look. Did someone just jump back in to tht last bedroom before the stairs? Or did I make a shadow move by turning my head fast, John wonders. He grabs his electric toothbrush and makes his way slowly down the hall bathed in pertual twilight. Suddenly, he has to stifle a nervous laugh. You grab an electric toothbrush for protection, he thinks. Should have been a cop...stop or I'll brush your teeth. He moves to the right side of the hall. Hell jump into that last bedroom and surprise whoever. He can see his fingers grab the dark brown molding on the bedroom doorway. This is how it happens...before something happens. Everything goes in slow motion. One, two, three John jumps into the bedroom and land on the huge pink hippo his Uncle won for his Aunt on the boardwalk and wrestles it to the floor. John bursts out laughing in relief. He remembers his Aunt asking his Uncle why he picked out a hippo for her? As John stops laughing, the house grows silent again...except for the unmistakable slam of the kitchen door to the deck downstairs.

Headline: ?

David is looking over John's shoulder at his PC screen.

John

'So the Swartz Media campaign. For your Fortune Cookie visual...I thought this:'

Visual: Fortune Cookie with a cast shadow

Headline: Cookie's Crumble

Copy: Telling a product's future is an opinion best left to fortune cookies. Swartz Media tells you where to place your product so fortunes aren't told...they are made across multi-media platforms.

'It's a little hand holding, you know, mentioning the fortune cookie, but this way if a numbers person is the decision maker, he'll get the metaphor.'

David

'Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm o.k. with that.'


John

'This one...' John points at the PC screen.

Visual: Crystal Ball with cast shadow:

Headline: Ball Buster

Swartz Media gives you the research so you can tell your own future.

David laughing

'Today you are a man. Little Johnny learns to curse...almost."

John

'Well, it shows we're edgey...I guess.'

'And then there's this one with your Eight Ball visual:'

Visual: Eight Ball with cast shadow

Headline: ?

Before you can find the answers to your product's future...you have to know the questions. Where does the market that would buy your product work, play, communicate or just veg-out.

David

'I like how you.ve turned these around and made fun of seeking the future with gimmicks...unsubstaniated opinion...guessing... all that. And each headline is a surprise...people look for answers in the Eight Ball.'

John

'...young, coversation tone...veg-out. You know, 'cause Bernie isn't young...'

Bernie comes in at that moment.

John

'And in my next life, I will be a diplomat in the U.N.'

Bernie

'Sooner than you think...'

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

David comes up to John's desk with print outs for the Schwartz Meida ad campaign.

John

'Gung Hay Fat Choy!'

David

'I know I'm going to regret this...but what?'

John

'Happy New Years in Cantonese.'

David

'Moving on. Here's the ads...you just have to write the copy. You have time on these.'

David puts the computer print outs on John's desk. John picks them up, artwork against a white background with a cast shadow under the art: a fortune cookie, crystal ball, eight ball.

John

'These are great David. They'll really stand out against ads with so much stuff in them.'

David

'I know.'

John looks up at him, amused.

David

'What? I'm my biggest fan.'