She stands in the middle of the room, a VR headset on as she swipes her hands to move through whatever world she’s in.
I chuckle quietly as I pull it off her head. “What’s this?”
She spins around, startled. “Lucas.”
I pull the headset on over my own eyes. A neighborhood spans before me, and I turn, taking in the new world.
“Madoc mentioned you stayed,” she says, trying to sound nonchalant when I know she just wants to grill me. “How long?”
“For a bit,” I muse, quickly changing the subject. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh.” I can tell she’s smiling by her tone. “It’s my marketing plan. You know I hate to type.”
She puts her gloves on me, and I wave my hands through the air to move the graphics and proceed to the next street. We learned how to design models on a computer, but this really would be a selling point. Being able to put a client into the future to see their skyscraper or home—explore the interiors—before it’s even built? Incredible.
But as I move around, past businesses and down streets, familiar landmarks show up. Jared’s shop, the gym, the statue of the sleeping fox that sits on a bench in front the tree at the middle school…
“Is this…” I turn in a circle, zoning in on other structures and accents I don’t recognize. “Shelburne Falls?”
“Yeah.”
But the streets aren’t the same. Some of the structures are new, variances in others. “I don’t…” I pause, realization dawning. “Oh, I see it.” My gaze flits from one thing to the other as I swipe my hands and move the image, taking me from High Street to Fall Away Lane and back to the downtown to City Hall, the police station, and Rivertown Bar and Grill. Windows are bigger, overhangs extended. “Passive solar designs,” I say. “Green roofs, rainwater harvesting, the outdoor green spaces…”
This image shows a renovated Shelburne Falls for energy efficiency.
“Walking and bike-friendly streets,” she adds.
I look down at the road, seeing that there is a bike lane added.
“The Falls is expanding at a higher rate,” I hear her say as I continue to explore. “And now the talk of a train for commuters to and from Chicago…”
I nod, understanding. “Madoc’s worried about urbanization. Would that necessarily be a bad thing, though?”
“It doesn’t have to be,” she concedes. “More people means more jobs and businesses. As long as it’s not a McDonald’s.”
I let out a laugh, removing the headset and handing it to her. “Fallon, the old-timers are never going to agree to this.”
“And I would never try to convince them. You know I hate to talk.”
She and Madoc prove the old saying that opposites attract. Madoc thrives in a crowd. Fallon detests anything but her small circle. I’m not her kid. But I could’ve been with the way I take after her.
She sets the VR headset down. “You change people by showing them, not telling them. We start renovating our houses next year.”
Renovating…
“You mean…the whole family?”
She nods once.
I can’t help but smirk a little. “Jared’s never going to agree to that.”
“Jared doesn’t like to upset his wife even more.”
True.
I drift a little, taking in her workshop with its open spaces and a place upstairs to meet with potential clients. All their houses, huh? Fallon’s, Juliet’s, and Tate’s. It’s a huge challenge to take on, and it makes me love them even more. That they embrace possibility and lead by example.
“Quinn will love the bike lanes,” I tell her.
