Parental love…
It’s been at the forefront of my mind for the last week or so. First, my beautiful wife, Amy, gave birth to our second child on Saturday, March 22nd, and the baby that we were told was going to be girl turned out, lo and behold, to be a BOY! That’s right, after two ultrasounds in which we were told that little baby Heistand was definitely female, in the delivery room we were hit with a truly shocking PLOT TWIST – one worthy of even the Deep Dive Daredevils, if I do say so myself. I literally fell out of my chair when the doctor told me, guys.
My oldest is a girl, named Jean, so this was a welcome surprise. Now, we have a complete set, so to speak. The important thing is that mother and baby are happy and healthy. Oh, and for the record, my little Daredevil in training’s name is Nicholas Ray Heistand. BTW, Do they make newborn size eye patches?
So, it was serendipitous that this week’s prose installment is all about the JOY and RESPONSIBILITY of being a parent, sandwiched between the obligatory plot machinations and drama, of course. Despite the rather dire implications of that last Section X memo, I choose to concentrate on Jehan Bumpass’ (whom some of you thought was a dude) beautiful letter to her adopted daughter, Abigail Singer. When this idea of having little miss Holmwood adopted by an agent loyal to Sir Arthur first came together I was relieved that Abigail, who had seen so much horror at such a young age, would have such a happy and loving late childhood and adolescence.
However, could it be that DARKNESS and HEARTACHE are permanent fixtures in the life of our red-haired secret agent? Could we be that CRUEL? Find out NEXT WEEK in the SHOCKING finale to The Secret Origin of Abigail Singer. In just 7 days, you will never be able to look at Abigail the same way again! Make sure to RSS, Like, or Follow for all the obvious reasons.
Welp, I hear the cries of baby Nicholas over-my-shoulder, so I better wrap this sucker up and get back to being a daddy. If you want more Daredevils goodness to chew on in the meantime, mosey on over to the Sunday Bonus Lunch.
Anyways, till next week!
-Matt-
P.S. A No Prize will be awarded to the first person to figure out the code in the main letter and discover the location of Abigail and Jehan’s secret meeting.
If you read the extremely cryptic first letters of each paragraph down the line, you get: Athens …
I absolutely love the please Abigail at least feign being demure in the company of men line. indeed, who is she kidding? Great way to harp on what is already known about her character in a fun manner.
I’m also happy that in our time and place neither I nor my wife ever had to tell something like that to our daugthers. Quite the contrary. (OK, we don’t tell them that much anyway, we rather rely on being either role models or cautinary tales.)
Jehan’s mother as well as mentor declaration comes accross fine, especially since she still is first and foremost a secret agent.
And kudos for the moral courage to let such a wonderful woman be rippe(re)d apart.
Congratulation, Timothy, you have won the NO PRIZE!
For those keeping score at home, the first letter of each paragraph in Jehan’s letter does indeed spell out ATHENS, and actually the last two lines of the letter start with G and R (as in Greece) just to hammer home the exact location.
Good eye, man, and thanks again for reading!
I love this story. I’m really interested to know more about the SIS and their agents. Do you guys have any plans on making that into a comic?
Welcome aboard, Nathan!
I’m glad you are digging our story, and that these Section X prose interludes have intrigued you. At the moment, there are no concrete plans to do a Section X comic, but we have talked about the possibility of it in the most general sense.
The more we write these though the more ideas we get…so, you never know!
I love these little background episodes, but unfortunately I am not a cryptographer. [And shame on the SIS for not telling Abigail that her mom is dead!] Also, I’m super-worried about McGinty; even if he disables the missile, it’s a loooong way down.
Gonna be a few more weeks until we check back in on McGinty and the rocket, but trust me, when we do it will be worth the wait!
My Lord Man, that photo is scandalous!
I see knees for God sake!!!
JACK, WHEN DO WE GET TO SEE JACK!?
We keep mentioning Jack (and not showing him) to torture you, T. Gatto.
That’s OK, at least I got to see some knees…
Her encounter with ‘the ripper’? Oh that cant possibly be good…why do I get the feeling the ripper is not a mere maniac murderer.
Yeah, an “encounter” with the Ripper is never a good thing. Never a good thing, at all.
And, if you go back and read the first installment of the Section X Secret Files, I believe your suspicions about o’l Jack being more than meets the eye will be confirmed.