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Two bodies? One a live Jane Doe, and other a possible death by lighting.
The municipal fire inspector and the medical examiner worked together to understand what had happened. Of the apparent victim, little was left beyond a protoplasmic puddle. A sample of the DNA and RNA were collected, along with blood typing. The total mass was collected, weighed, and suitably stored.

The bathroom, recent repository of said protoplasm, was flash burned, with plastic shower curtains, window curtains, bath and toilet caddies, all surrealistically melted and re-solidified in ways to mimic several pieces of modernistic art.

The water taps were in the on position, no longer functioning with plumbing in the pipe chase blown apart, along with portions of the CPVC drain from the tub.

The inspector and the ME ruled that the victim had been flash disintegrated by lighting. Damage to the roof surrounding the plumbing vent lent credence to the origin of an electrical path within the house. The bolt traveled via the galvanized vent pipe to the tub drain. The existence of CPVC pipe replacing galvanized drain line below the tub had disrupted the natural path to ground and left the repeated bolts of energy to find alternative paths.

The victim had been relaxing in the tub as it filled, along with the water, and lavender scented oils, were various rare earths and unusual salts that had been added to the bath waters for reasons unknown. The bolt traveled from the tub drain/vent piping connection to the highly mineralized water and body of the bather, thence to the water spout and subsequently to the supply piping. From there it had clear path to ground. Sadly the damage was done.

The only question left was the infant found in the wreckage. DNA identified her as a direct descendant of the victim, she could have been an identical twin but for the age and gender difference. The victim had no known descendants nor for that mater could any remember the presence of any others of any gender, “He was a nice guy but a loner”.

The judge who ruled on the estate, allowed that the DNA evidence of a direct descendant to the victim was valid and that proceeds of the estate be put to trust. The female child was released to social services for processing.

Phoenix Chapter 1:  A Time to Move On.

I had just graduated from Western State Military School and was preparing for yet another (and my last) Sea Cadet summer cruise, this time to be on the US Navy’s USS Nimitz (CVN-68). We were to fly out on US Air Force C141 from McCord Air Force Base on Saturday to land later at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego. There we will board the Nimitz.

As I packed, mom called out to me, registered mail for me, I need to sign for it.

This is quite a packet, from the Bloomberg Bank and Trust Company in the Smith Building, Seattle.

Mom yelled out at me, “Honey, don’t open that yet, your dad and I need to talk with you first, perhaps after supper, let’s eat out tonight, why don’t you call in a reservation for us, at the Sky City Restaurant, say for around seven”. I took a quick look up on the web http://www.spaceneedle.com/restaurant/ found the phone number, (206) 905-2100 and called.

I loved the view from here, at times I could see Lake Washington and the Husky Stadium, at other times we looked West to the Olympic Mountains, just now we faced South East and looked toward Mt Rainer. I sat back, and relaxed, I had finished my meal of Snake River Farm American Kobe Sirloin Pepper Steak with Roasted fingerling potatoes, and vegetables. I do not know why but I’m a steak and potatoes girl, none of those light salad meals for me. I topped it off with their trade marked Lunar Orbiter dessert. Just for fun I hope we take a turn at bumper cars before we head home. I was a six year old on Guam, the first time I drove a bumper car. It’s a love of offensive driving that you never lose. I watched my dad, still eating. My parents were young at thirty six, dad was thinking of his next assignment, perhaps his last in the service. He had talked to the detailer today. All of his options were back at sea but one. If he took the assignment to the USS Emory S. Land he would stay here, till 2009, as the ship went through over haul. We could keep our home in Port Orchard. After moving every two or three years it had become important to me to have a place that I could call home. All of my high school memories were here in Port Orchard, and I loved this part of the state. Mom and Dad remembered, we spent over an hour with the bumper cars.

We’re on the way home, the last auto ferry back to Bremerton. We have the observation deck to ourselves, dad has one arm around my shoulders and with his other he is holding mother’s hand. As they first look to each other, than me, I knew that it was time for me to hear what they had to say.

It was no surprise to me to find out that I was adopted. I had known it for years. They had forgotten about the health sciences class I had back in middle school. We had an assignment to blood type ourselves and family. I was type B positive. Both Mom and dad were type A, dad was A negative and mom A positive. They could not have passed on the B type RH factor. All they knew was that I had been adopted from a foster family in Puyallup.

They expected that the envelope waiting for me at home would have details of my birth.
I wondered if there would be anything in the package that would help me understand the dreams I have had since I entered womanhood. I would wait till the morning to read my letter, for now I just wanted to be held by my parents, as I had been as a little girl. I lay across daddy’s chest with my head resting next to moms, as she leaned against his side, her head on his shoulder. We sat that way till we approached the dock in Bremerton, it was time to reclaim our car, less we hold up traffic.

Once home I brushed my teeth, and cleaned my face and arms, I would wait till morning to shower, even with my relatively short hair, it would still take some time to dry and I wanted to enjoy my own bed while I could. I turned out my light. That light, it brings me happy memories, I was eight at the time and mom wanted me to pick out my own light for the desk in my new room (almost every two years there was a new room). She tried so hard to find a character light that I would want. I did not want Snow White, Jasmine, Bell from Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella nor Pocahontas. No I wanted Cheetara from the Thunder Cats. She spent days at the library looking through catalog lists and mailing away for any that seemed promising, finally finding one from pottery supply firm in Ohio. She sent for the mold, and the lighting parts. She ended up taking a class at the base hobby shop in molding. The end result after painting and assembly was “my lamp”. She never made another molded item. I had watched as she had poured her love for me into that lamp, no store bought lamp would ever have the same meaning for me, now when we move the lamp is packed in its own wooden box, and it is very well padded.

After breakfast I went and found the letter. Within lay an invitation to the office of Jessamine Yishai, esq., Transactional Attorney, CPA, Bloomberg Bank and Trust Company. No details were given except that this would be to discuss maters of inheritance as I was the sole beneficiary of an estate that been held in trust pending my eighteenth birthday. I would turn eighteen in August. My birth certificate listed a date of birth, but no time. My parent’s names were listed as father and mother and the issue date was two years after the date of birth. I had never noticed before the empty places where information as to time, place, and attending physician were missing. The two times I had needed to prove my age, when I needed an underage work permit and when I applied for a driver’s license, I had used my navy dependent’s ID. As for my passport, I had used older passports, which in turn had been processed by my dad and the military.

I had no idea what information would be forthcoming from this lawyer, but I decided that it would be a good idea to make an outline of questions. Tomorrow, I would call to make an appointment, if it didn’t happen before Friday noon, it would not happen for thirteen weeks, the time I would be spending on the Nimitz.

Wednesday, dad and I stopped in at the coffee shop. Why does the mermaid have two tails? After a morning brace we caught a ferry to Bremerton, there he would take the bus on to the base, and I would catch one of the ferries to Seattle. I had decided that I would make my appointment from downtown, just a little pressure of “I just happen to be – where ever it would be”, and than set an appointment for today. I would not be wasting time any way, I love Seattle and I needed to start getting use to finding my way around the University of Washington, Seattle Campus. The book store and I would have an unscheduled date.

I rang up the office of Ms Jessamine Yishai, esq. and in speaking to the legal assistant I set up an appointment at two, today. After a couple of hours on campus, I headed cross town for my appointment. The Smith tower is a beautiful building a kind of sparkling appearance. I had passed it many times in the past and always heard references to it but today would be the first time I would be inside. While I had been at the campus I had “Googled” the building. I clicked on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Tower and there to my surprise I found that the owner was going to convert it over to condominiums. I am so glad that I will be walking around within it today.

The elevator is brass! And it is like that old open face with the sliding gate style that you see in the classic movies. The elevator operator looked like a marine in his tightly creased and starched uniform. As he operated the control you could see that he had to “aim” for the stop. Some floors, we were a bit low, some too high. There were fewer people as we reached the upper floors and the stops were more accurate. (Before I left, I went on a tour of the building, I saw the elevator motors, they’re larger than I am tall, and they too are brass, and well shined.)

Off and onto the thirtieth floor, these offices are not part of any of the bank’s branches and there were just two suites. When I entered I was politely asked whom I wished to see, I asked to see Ms Yishai, and I’m expected. All the sudden my inquisitor, had an odd look on her face, as if she was trying not to laugh. “It is Mister Yishai, and he instructed me to show you right in. With a name like that I had expected an Asian woman, perhaps of Japanese descent, oh was I wrong. Jessamine Yishai esq., is tall, about six seven, thin, maybe two hundred pounds, and about seventy or eighty years old and he speaks with a Boston accent. As we introduced our selves I came to find about that delightful name as he recounted the following:

“Because of the trials and tribulations facing my people, my family had make plans to emigrate to America or Canada. I would be the eighth child in our family and I was expected to be born before they would be able to leave. My parents did not know if I would be a boy or a girl nor what to name me, yet I would need paper work so they chose a name and applied for my papers along with theirs. I think my father was having a bit of a joke, you see  Jessamine is both a boy’s name or a girl’s name and is an English variant of the name Jesse which in turn is of Hebrew origin. It means "the Lord exists". As for why that would be funny, my surname, Yishai, is also a variant of Jesse, so in fact I’m named Jesse Jesse.”

He asked me to just call him Jesse, that the rest was a waste of breath.

Jesse then asked if I would join him in a late lunch in the Chinese Room, I assented and we walked up to the thirty-fifth floor. Jesse told me about the “wishing chair” and asked me if I would like to sit in it? No, being married by nineteen is just not in my plans.
Per Jesse “Food is to enjoy, take your time, and savor it”, we don’t work till we are done with the meal. After desert and chai tea, we settled back in our chairs to talk a bit. Jessie did not plan to talk business until we returned to the office, but first he wanted to get a feel as to who was, how did I see my life going. He has a gift to lead people into talking, I didn’t expect to tell him this much, yet by the time we were done he had my whole life as I knew it from what I remember as an infant up to what I thought of and did today on my way here. At times he had me come back to a time in my life and expand on it. When I couldn’t, he plied me with questions that would lead me into analyzing the what, why, and how. By the time we arose from the table, I found out that I knew myself better and wondered just how much of myself had I show him?

His office had bookshelves on three sides, interrupted by the doors for the outer office and utility area, with the outside wall bearing windows, pictures, and planters. In one corner facing center was a desk, just off center but in the other corner, was a circular table, a curved love seat and two chairs. In the third corner, bean bags, big bean bags. He asked me to sit at the table, I chose a chair. In a moment he returned with what looked like a brief case. On the handle, was a tag with my name, and a series of numbers followed by two dates, the first one August 31st, 1989, the second was August 28th, 1991.

In opening Jessie showed me the tag, some numbers mean little, some mean much, the first one is just our filing system, the second is the start date for all that follows, the third the date upon which you were adopted.  He opened the case and first handed me a copy of a newspaper article. Army Doctor Perishes in Fire Sparked by Lighting. In the subtitle the article read Child Survives Fire.

     “Army medical researcher Lt Colonel Eilif Toov was pronounced dead at the scene of a small but intense house fire thought to have been sparked by last nights lighting storm. Toov is the only known fatality of the line of storms which descended out of  highlands of the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation and swept through the Lower Puyallup River Basin and Tacoma.  An unidentified child was found at the scene of fire and turned over to child protective services until her relatives can be located.”

As you have now gathered, you are that child dear Phoenix. You were named Phoenix because you were found alive, and unhurt in the fire that killed Eilif Toov, whom we have determined was your father. To date we have not identified your mother.

Next he passed to me a folder, in it were copies of all paper work dealing with child protective services, up to the present time. Jessie explained to me that my adoption had not terminated involvement by CPS, they had and would perform follow up studies until I reached the age of majority. This was not normal procedure but had been in the instructions of the judge who had declared me to be the only known descendant of Eilif Toov. Judge Michael Yishai had also been the judge who had signed the adoption papers granting my mom and dad sole custody of me on the date of my second birthday. I questioned Jessie on the surname of the judge, Michael was Jessie’s son.

I read the reports of the medical examiner and his office. Because there was no identification in the home, nor had any child matching my description been reported missing, they had maintained a long investigation into my identity. Their first actions had been to order DNA matching between my DNA and that of Eilif Toov. Except for differences due to gender we were identical, had pictures not been available from the military, a rudimentary description could have been taken from my physical traits.

To the pediatric doctors at the hospital, it appeared that I was no more than three days old, and for the time being a birth date of August 28th was applied to my records. In the meantime Jessie had been declared guardian-ad-litem to protect my rights and look out for my interests. His son Michael had been the judge to assign Jessie.

Jessie and his offices had worked to have me declared legal hair to Eilif Toov, to obtain a finding of legal dependency that would be honored by the military bureaucracy, and shepherd me through the trials and tribulations of CPS. Indeed it had been he who had encouraged my parents to become licensed as foster parents and had petitioned to have me placed with them. Jessie stated to me “Until your adoption you were identified as Phoenix Toov, and covered by the military health care system. As your father is also in the military, you were and are still covered by that system. As for the assets of Eilif Toov, they are considerable, we have managed them well”.

As the afternoon continued, Jessie introduced me to the inheritance that would become mine. As for information about Eilif Toov, he could not, or would not say, just that he had be an army medical officer who had been assigned to the United States Army Medical Research Detachment (USAMRD) at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). For the last two years prior to his death, he had been assigned to a detachment performing classified research at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis in Tacoma.

We finished by half past four, I now had a friend and a lawyer in one, and some one I could bounce my thoughts off of as I attended school in Seattle. He had answered many of  my questions and left me more, there had been no clues here to help me understand my dreams, and now I thought I knew whom my original father might also be, but that in its self was a mystery!