The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

publish it a little at a time as they lived it and it would continue as the planet evolved. Everyone thought this was a splendid idea and spent weeks on their contributions. Violet decided that was stupid too, whoever heard of writing your own history? She failed to write her parts and refused to contribute anything so Harry just added her in as the twin sister of Amy Emery.
July twenty-seventh came and Harry had his yearly birthday bash at the beach and everyone came out to celebrate and Max gave his usual sloshed toast and everyone laughed. Jackson, who was five now, giggled and clapped his hands. Jake at him and ruffled his hair.
“You like it when they cheer for your dad don’t you?” he teased and the little boy nodded and grinned. Jake leaned over to whisper.
“They’re only cheering for the free booze you know?” he teased again and Harry rolled his eyes.
“Don’t teach him any bad habits, Jake,” he teased and they grinned at each other and kissed. All of their kids now giggled. Violet rolled her eyes. Those two idiots were always kissing and in front of all the children, it shouldn’t be allowed.
Violet thought it was egotistical of Harry to throw himself a birthday party and remarked cattily to everyone around her. They all ignored her because they knew Harry only threw it because he wanted everyone to get together to have a party in the summer and he used his birthday as an excuse. He would have used Jake’s if his had been in July instead of May or one of the kid’s or any other reason.
“For someone who used to love Harry, she sure hates him now,” Tammy remarked to Amy who nodded.
“Violet’s always been like that, she’s used to getting her own way and if she doesn’t get it, then she turns into a real bitch, it’s my parents fault, she’s been the pretty one for so long, she believes she can have anything she wants and when she couldn’t have Harry, it twisted her head up,” she said wisely. Tammy nodded.
“Well, I fell in love with the right twin then,” she teased and Amy blushed and looked around. Tammy sighed. “Your parents are going to have to know eventually, darling.” Amy sighed.
“I know, but you know how my dad feels about homosexuals, he’d die if he found out I was a lesbian,” she said. Tammy sighed.
“Well, my parents are fine with it, my dad thinks you’re terrific,” she said and Amy smiled.
“I love your parents, I wish they were mine,” she said and with a brave grin, she leaned forward and kissed her in front of everyone. Tammy grinned and reached for her hand. Jan and Joy saw the kiss and smiled.
“Aw, baby dykes, how cute, honey,” Jan said and they kissed. Reverend Milo saw this and looked around to see if any of his children witnessed this and sighed with relief when he saw that they didn’t. He didn’t mind that they were homosexual, but couldn’t they keep it private where the children couldn’t be influenced by their behavior, what if one of his daughters saw that?
Max and Charles relaxed on loungers and sipped glasses of cold beer and enjoyed the ocean breeze while they puffed on big, fat cigars away from the crowd. Their wives had sent them away from the kids because of the stench of the tobacco. Harry grinned and brought them two more frosted mugs. Both men grinned and accepted them.
“You do know how to throw a party, kid, I’ll give you that,” Max gushed and Harry grinned down at them.
“Well, thank you, Max, I appreciate the compliment,” he said. Charles laughed.
“You’re not the only one with a birthday this week, I turned fifty just two days ago,” he informed him smugly. Harry looked down at the young looking man and whistled.
“Wow, Charles, you don’t look a day over thirty-five, I mean it, you certainly don’t look fifty,” he said and Charles beamed.
“It’s all this field work and good food, I swear, Harry, I don’t feel fifty, I feel marvelous. I feel better than I did when I was your age and I must say you don’t look twenty-five at all, does he, Max, I would say you were no older than twenty, twenty-one,” he gushed and Max grinned.
“He’s right, Harry, you don’t look twenty-five, I’d say you look twenty,” he declared and Harry decided the two men were quite drunk. He laughed and thanked them and carried the empty glasses back to the bar. Then he went back to the blanket where his kids were. He looked at his mother Kate who was playing with the girls.
“Mom, do I look twenty-five to you?” he asked her. She looked at his handsome face and shook her head.
“No, actually you don’t, Henry, you don’t look older than twenty-one,” she told him then she laughed.
“How about me, do I look like a forty-eight year-old grandmother?” she teased and he shook his head.
“Actually, Mom, you look exactly the same age you did when we first arrived, in fact, all of you adults look exactly the same age you did when we arrived,” he said looking around at all of them. “I’d swear you haven’t aged a day.” She looked confused.
“If you’re saying what I think you’re saying; how do you explain you children aging and all of the children aging?” she asked him. He shrugged.
“I don’t know, maybe we age to a certain age and then it stops, I’ll have to run some tests and do some scans. Let’s not tell anyone but let’s form a team, you, me, Myla, Dr. George, DJ and Steve, maybe Brian and Carl and do some scans on everyone and see what we get,” he suggested and she nodded. There was nothing the scientist in her liked more than a mystery to solve.
The next day the team met for the first time and Harry ran his hypotenuses by everyone and Dr. George seemed the least surprised by it. This surprised Harry and the rest of the team. He told them why.
“I’ve noticed for years now that whenever I do a scan on everyone the age scan is always incorrect, it shows the same age year after year and I just assumed it was broken,” he told them. Harry laughed.
“Why didn’t you ask me to look at it and fix it?” he asked him. Dr. George shrugged.
“It was the only thing that malfunctioned, everything else worked fine and the age scanner isn’t that important, we all know how old we are,” he explained and they all laughed.
So they pulled everyone in the hospital one family at a time and scanned them, telling them it was a routine scan to check the medical equipment but no one believe that, they knew something was going on; especially by the people involved in the project. Then Harry pulled out everyone’s age scan and developed a program to sort them out by the tiniest degree so they could tell the minutest differences and they were very minute. He had to go to the thousandths for them to see the differences in yearly scans. Then they split up the team into sub-teams with him alone and Dr. Myla and Dr. Kate on one team, Dr. George, Carl and Brian on the other and Steve and DJ on the last and everyone calculated the figures. They took all of a week and into the next until they all met back in the little conference room with the results.
“Well, did we all get the same results?” Dr. George asked as he looked at the solemn faces around the table. Harry raised his eyebrow.
“If you mean, did we all reach the conclusion that everyone ages normally until they reach the age of twenty-one and then the aging process slows down,” he said and everyone nodded. Harry continued. “Then we age one year for every six hundred and seventy-two years that we live on this planet. That is the result that I got, did all of us get the same results?” he asked and they all nodded. DJ grinned.
“This is one great planet you found for us, Harry,” he said and everyone grinned. Dr. George laughed.
“I was thirty-eight when we got here and I’m going to be thirty-eight for another six hundred and sixty-two years. That’s fucking amazing, pardon my French, ladies,” he said and Kate laughed.
“No need to apologize, George, I feel the same way, I feel like doing cartwheels. I’m going to be thirty-seven for another six-hundred and sixty-two years,” she exclaimed and they all laughed. Then Harry giggled. They all looked at him.
“Actually, Mom, if you count the three years we traveled to Galileo and the hundred years it took us to reach Eden, you’re really a hundred and forty-one,” he told her and she blanched. Dr. George laughed.
“And I’m a hundred and forty-two,” he said.
“I’m a hundred and twenty-nine,” Steve said.
“I’m a hundred and twenty-eight,” DJ said. Carl laughed.
“Well, then I’m a hundred and thirty-seven,” he told them. Brian nodded.
“I’m a hundred and thirty-eight,” he informed them. They all looked at Harry who grinned.
“I’m a hundred and twenty-eight, DJ and I are the same age,” he said. Myla laughed.
“I’m still forty-five,” she said and everyone laughed. Kate snickered.
“Do we really have to be a hundred and something?” she whined. Harry shrugged.
“Only if we want to be accurate and face it, Mom, when you’re twenty thousand and forty-seven years old, that hundred and three years isn’t going to sound that old,” he teased her. She looked shocked.
“You’re absolutely correct, Henry. An average life span for a human female is eight-five years old and I’m thirty-seven, I have forty-eight years to go. Multiply that times six hundred and seventy-two and you get, oh, my God, thirty-two thousand, two hundred and fifty-six years,” she informed them. They all looked shocked. Then she continued.
“If a young person ages to twenty-one and lives to just eighty, then they would have lived fifty-nine years in an average life, but that’s thirty-nine thousand, six hundred and forty-eight years here on Eden,” she told them. They all grinned. Harry laughed.
“I think we’re going to have to have a party for this,” he said and everyone laughed. Then they called a town meeting to tell everyone their findings. Harry explained it all to them. They were shocked. Lily stood up.
“Explain it again but make it easier to understand, Harry,” she said and he nodded.
“Okay, Lily, you were twenty-four when we landed on Eden, correct?” he asked and she nodded.
“Well, you’re still twenty-four and you’re going to be twenty-four for the next six hundred and sixty-two years and then you’ll turn twenty-five. Then you’ll be twenty-five for six hundred and seventy-two years and then you’ll turn twenty-six,” he explained and he could see the light go on over her head and a big grin come over everyone. Kathleen stood up.
“I’m going to live for thirty-nine thousand years?” she asked and he nodded.
“Roughly, and with me and all the other healers here, no one will ever die before they age, we’ll all get to live until we’re all very old people,” he assured them.
“My God, Harry, you’ve found