Temporarily leaving Charley to socialize with some other kids, Jocasta sees Genevieve enter the back yard ahead of Marshall and his footman. She gives a wave, then dashes over with two glasses and a bottle.
"Genevieve!" she calls out, as if they've been friends for ages. "So glad you could make it." She looks thoughtful for a second. "It occurs to me that I've never actually introduced myself. I'm not Mary Smith, or Maurdunn, or Carolyn Preston ... not all the time, anyway. You can call me Jo." She holds out a generously filled glass. "1971 Gaja Barbaresco, from the Peidmont. I don't know a thing about wine but the man at the shop was enthusiastic."
Viv looks noticably relieved when Jo flags her. She had been scanning the yard for the host and hostess, to perform all proper etiquette and niceties, but happily diverts to Jo giving her a big smile and taking the glass of wine "cheers, Jo." She takes a sip.
"I know enough about wine to impress people who don't know anything about wine and to embarrass myself with people who do. This is lovely, thank you!"
Jocasta takes a (slightly larger) sip and seems pleased. "Thank you. Not to ruin this lovely occasion with a lot of shop talk, but you were tremendous at the St. Francis. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you." She has another sip of wine.
"How is everything at the convention? Did everyone more or less settle back into...normality? Any lingering trauma?" She seems to catch herself. "Oh, God, please feel free not to answer that. The last thing I want to do is spend this lovely day on work affairs."
Viv's response is very warm. "Don't apologize at all, this sort of stuff is all I think about!" She looks furtively around the yard making sure they're secure to talk. "You're a very capable person, Jo, I have the feeling I don't know the half of what you and your team went through to keep us safe in there." Another slow sip of wine.
"And honestly, I personally feel amazing. No trauma, connected, thriving, thrumming. Even Andy has opened out of himself after this one. It's impressive; I never expected it. The con settled back into itself and I think, with the exception of a few of our more shall we say experienced compatriots from the roof, no one even has a sense that things were in any way abnormal."
"That's all wonderful to hear," Jo replies with sincerity -- and a bit of relief. "The team comes from very diverse backgrounds; it's a lot of what makes us work well together. But I sometimes worry that, with the main job done, we leave the people who also went through it to their own devices. And they aren't as used to it as we are." She brightens and says, "So, tell me about yourself, Viv -- Viv is good? I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't read your books but I'm looking forward to doing so now that it's not, er, homework."
"Viv is great. To your first point, I see what you mean. There was I guess a clean up team of your people who came through, but we had to set up a grieving space in the con suite for poor Tom, and lots of people had something lingering and unsettled in them from that unexpected, out of context loss..."
She's thoughtful for a moment. "You know, Jo, as a therapist I don't answer that question nearly as much as I ask it," she laughs. "I'm going to think about that for a second. " Even her awkwardness is charming, sincere, dreamy ... Like it wouldn't be so close to the surface if not for the encounter with Reality B being so recent and not fully metabolized into her worldview and integrated into herself.
"It's like one way of viewings things is very, very plain ... I'm a therapist and an author and a parent and a partner and and and ... while the other one is very very cosmic and weird and I don't know what to tell people sometimes." Viv makes somewhat arresting eye contact.
"If you do read my books, you'll see what I mean... But also don't feel like you have to. I won't be offended. I have many fine friendships with people who don't read my books." She laughs melodically. Viv doesn't drink a ton, a few sips and her cheeks are a little rosey " How about you, Jo? What do you want me to know about you?"
Jo laughs a little sharply. "Well, there's what I want you to know about me, and there's what I'm allowed to tell you about me," she says.
"Sorry, we talk like that a lot. I feel a lot of ... radical openness from you, and it's something I admire terribly. So please don't think I'm trying to dance around anything. It's just this world we live in. Once you see things ... things that you may have thought were real, but now you know ... you learn ways of walking the thin line between those two ways of seeing things." She finishes her wine and pours another, setting the bottle on the brick steps behind them should Viv choose to have more.
"Anyway, I guess we have a good deal in common: I'm from the Bay Area and I've lived her almost all my life, just like you. I went to Berkeley for my undergrad in psychology, just like you. But I was an only child, and my mom died when I was still a kid. I, uh, well, I made some bad decisions or got caught up in some bad circumstances or both, depending on how kind your interpretation is, and I ended up in the army after losing a few years. Then one day, also just like you, someone opened my eyes to what's happening, and here I am today."
"I'd love to hear about your kids. And your friendship with Andrew. And, honestly, what you thought when Charley and I came to visit you out at the MRI. Or we can just go get a burger from Archie. It's been a busy week."
"Oh, goodness, that was something like a week ago, wasn't it? An eternity. A different lifetime ago." Viv is a long way off from needing more wine "What a queer encounter that was, Jo. Charley is remarkable. There's no hiding that with a role, and it's clear her past life memories are authentic and powerful and animating her in unexpected ways. And then you! Well, I couldn't quite figure out where the tension I felt was coming from, but I felt this tension underneath which was partly feeling the role you were playing, but also some Truth inside that discomfort ... And then you passed out! And they whisked you all away so quickly! What was that all about? Is that one of the things you can tell me?"
Jo smiles, in a friendly way, but with a tiny hint of regret. "Probably not yet. But probably soon, and maybe more than you could imagine. I'll tell you what: let's go over and get something to eat, and pick this conversation up again soon. It won't be as long as you think. Today should be a beautiful, amazing day for you, Viv; the kind of day you remember from childhood, when you didn't know days could be anything but." She'll walk over to the grill, where Archie and Mitch are. If she sees Marshall before they get there, she'll break away politely and tug at his sleeve.
As they walk over Viv will happily disclose a little about her family. Charles and his trains, how nice it is getting to know her children as adults, what their interests are etc. She'll wave to Andy wherever he is on her way to get a burger.
Catching up to Viv, Jocasta offers a meek apology. "Sorry about...the team. I know they can be a lot." She glances back at the grill. "I would shoot someone for a joint right about now but I promised Archie I wouldn't. I'm not even sure I can smoke." She pauses and looks over at Roger and Mitch, a bit more affectionately but still with a little distant. "Navigating reality isn't all it's cracked up to be."
"Oh, don't worry, I'm not too offended. I realize I can be... a lot. Perhaps especially for someone like Archie Ransom." She looks at him putting the apron on Andy and shakes her head. Noticing the wistful glance, she softens "I guess that all depends on what you mean by reality, doesn't it?"
"Ha. That's the $64,000 question, isn't it? Whose reality are we saving from History B?" She rattles her cigarette case around in her purse, but doesn't take it out. "Anyway, I try not to make excuses for the team. Marshall thinks I do. Maybe he's right. But I will say this: they're a remarkable group, and they're doing work that no one will, or can, ever appreciate or thank them for. That's quite something to be a part of."
"Whose reality indeed! That's a question I'd like to spend some time considering ..." Implications of her kinarchist politics are swirling in her head right now, but it's a lot for a BBQ.
"I'm incredibly impressed with all of you. It must take real dedication. As you said, to know these things and not share them... and all for the greatest good of all beings in this timeline"
"It's a lot. I won't lie. And this group ..." Her face is clouded for a moment with a combination of love, pride, and ... fear? "I don't know if the men would agree, but it's a lot more like a family than you might think. And I imagine you've seen more than a few families who have to keep being one even though they've been through some trauma. I imagine you know more about that than most people. Something to think about." She raises her glass. "Anyway, cheers."
Something clicks in Viv's mind and her eyes go wide with amusement "Oh. My God, Jo, 'Mrs. Smith's' mysterious oppressive husband!" She laughs placing her arm on Jo's upper arm before giving her a little pat "I see what you mean. I see that this is the sort of thing I might be able to offer unique insights and support with."