: can't wait for more
Kara
Gazer gets the Girl -Mature- Epilog 22 Oct. 2009
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incognito-sticks
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excellent update
(sorry its taken me so long to leave a reply)
i'm dying to know what bet maria has going i can't wait to find out.
plz update really really soon
(sorry its taken me so long to leave a reply)
i'm dying to know what bet maria has going i can't wait to find out.
This has to be the funniest thing i have ever heard!!!hahaha“That had better be intended for Alex, young lady,” Gloria interjected, “Because if you ever get catty with me I’ll drag you down to the vet’s by your hair and have you fixed.”
plz update really really soon
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Stargazer's Delight
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incognito-sticks wrote:excellent update
This has to be the funniest thing i have ever heard!!!hahaha“That had better be intended for Alex, young lady,” Gloria interjected, “Because if you ever get catty with me I’ll drag you down to the vet’s by your hair and have you fixed.”
: i have to agree.i've missed so much lately
but glad that i can always come back and you get me back in the mood for some Gazer reading 
It's a wonder Alex isn't worshiped as a god because Isabel building him up as a stud
: I think the geeks around school are benefiting
: loved the all in all life's good and the fathers all in all, life truly sucks moment
: poor guys, i hope they get atleast one victory in somewhere with the women : And always enjoy your Isabel/Gloria moments
i'm just used to, to many mentions of her as always dealing with a tribe of men in any mention of the whitman family..that i like any interaction with Isabel like she finally has the chance to have daughter to guide
I still enjoy this and look forward to more
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Velvet Skye
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incognito-sticks
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- Location: i have no idea
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Stargazer md
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Stargazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 24-F There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
Sunday evening found Alex treating Isabel to one of her special stir-fries at the Crashdown and despite the fact that his taste buds were in a free fall, he was still able to get some enjoyment from his Will Smith burger and Saturn rings. Of course the fact that Michael had added some chopped Habaneros peppers to his grilled onions didn’t hurt. But despite their ‘in’ with the owners, they were seated at the counter for all the booths were full.
“What’s going on?” Isabel asked quickly as Liz grabbed their empty dishes. “I’ve never seen you this busy on a Sunday night.”
“You haven’t heard?” Liz moaned as she blew a puff of air straight up, tossing her bangs out of her eyes. “There was a sighting,,,”
“Sighting is not the term I would use,” Jeff interrupted. “Golden opportunity is more like it.”
Seeing Alex’s brow rise in question he continued, “Business is booming,,,”
“Business is crazy is more like it,” Liz rebutted sarcastically.
“Crazy is good Pumpkin. Crazy is what’s going to pay your way through college,” Jeff continued as they headed back towards the kitchen.
“Great!” Isabel snapped. “Here we go again,,,”
Alex placed his hand on hers as well as reaching out for her through their connection. “Lets not jump to any conclusions,” he said as he reached for his cell.
“What are you doing?” Isabel asked nervously.
“Izzy,” Alex said reassuringly as he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “There’s two big difference between this time and the last time we went down this road.”
“Really,” Isabel teased, a reaction that surprised even herself, but while he hadn’t been able to totally allay her fears, she did have infinite faith in her husband’s ability to take care of her.
“Yea, first, we’re connected,” he said as he flipped his phone open.
“And?”
“And, even more importantly, we know we haven’t done anything to draw attention to ourselves,,, Sheriff Valenti,,,”
“~~Evening Alex. What can I do for you? Everything okay?”~~”
“I believe so, but I’m at the Crash with Izzy, and the place is swarming with tourist, tourist who are talking about a sighting. Have you heard anything?”
“~~I got a call from Clovis Air Force Base about a week ago. They wanted to advise us that a tanker flew low over the city with it’s lights on. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but Amy told me that her business was picking up, so I called Max yesterday and warned him that we might start hearing about a sighting, but I guess you all haven’t caught up with each other yet.~~”
“But nothing official’s going to come of it, right?”
“~~Well seeing as how the entire thing is a known Air Force screw up, I can’t imaging the government doing any thing, and I’m sure as hell not going to get involved.~~”
“Thanks Sheriff, that’s good to hear.”
“~~Okay then, you say howdy to Miss Evans for me, and you be sure to let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.~~”
“I will, bye.” He turned towards his wife. “The sighting was nothing more than a low flying Air Force jet. We’ve got nothing more to worry about.”
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Isabel replied, visibly relieved, “But judging by the tips the girls are making, I bet they’d wish for a low flying jet everyday. Ready?”
Alex hopped up and held Isabel’s coat for her, but as they said good bye to Liz and left, he couldn’t help but think that more alien activities would be good for every business in the city.
**********
Tish leaned back against the bank of lockers while she confidently placed her bet. “Maria, I understand everything you say, but I’m still betting on twelve, but having made it that far, I think he’s then going to drop dead,,,”
“Alex is not going to drop dead,,,”
“Isabel,,,” Tish gasped as she elbowed Maria in the side.
“Tish!” Isabel gushed warmly as she gave her friend an air hug. “How was your date with Bruce?”
“Okay, I guess,” Tish replied, confusion evident in her voice. “I mean, he promised dinner and a movie, and then he took me to dinner and a movie,,,”
“That’s all?” Maria teased. “Nothing else?”
“Well of course there was ‘something’ else, but all that amounted to was making out on the porch when he dropped me off.”
While Isabel just smiled, Maria figured there was more dish to be had. “And how was the good night kiss?”
“Oh, it was a good kiss,” Tish teased.
“A really good kiss?” Isabel teased.
“It was such a good kiss I had to go inside and wash my cat,,,”
“So you have a really clean cat?”
“I’ll tell you, I have the cleanest cat in West Roswell High,” Tish cooed as she slinked away with an extra wiggle in her step.
Isabel watched Tish walk away before turning back to Maria in confusion. “You can’t wash a cat! First cats groom themselves, second a cat would rip you to shreds if you tried to put one in a tub, and,,, what does washing a cat have to do with coming home from a date?”
Maria looked at Isabel with a look of incredulity on her face. “You’re serious. You don’t know what she was talking about, do you?”
“Washing a cat,,,”
“Iz, not much gets by you, but when you miss something, it’s a doozie,” Maria said as she slammed her locker door before wrapping her around her friends back and leading her towards their first class. “Bruce left her all worked up, so she stripped, laid down in her tub, schooched down so her ‘cat’ was under the spout with her legs up against the wall, then she turned the water on,,,”
“She didn’t!” Isabel gasped as she stopped, pushing Maria into the alcove of an empty classroom and forcing her to turn and face her.
“Oh yea, and knowing Tish she stayed there until the hot water ran out.”
“But that would cause her to,,,”
“Pretty much instantly and continuously,” Maria said with a smile. “Why do you think she’s always in such a good mood.” Seeing a look of disbelief on her tall friends face, she continued, “You’re not telling me,,, you,,,”
“No!” Isabel gasped in shock. “Why would I do that? I have Alex!”
“Come on, never?” Maria probed. “Are you telling me that having dated almost every desirable guy in school,,,”
“No,,,”
“You never got hot and bothered once,,,”
“No! Never! Not until I decided I wanted Alex.”
“How is that possible,” Maria rebutted in disbelief. “You don’t mean to tell me that you’ve never gotten all hot and horny on a date, that’s,,, that’s,,, inhuman.”
“Ria,” Isabel answered softly, with a smile that her friend thought of her as just another normal girl. “I’m not human, remember? I waited for two lifetimes for Alex. I was made for him.”
“Wow,” Maria gasped in amazement.
Isabel silently smiled in response as she gave her friend a moment to let it all sink in.
Maria’s eyes went wide as she processed this new information. “It’s true, isn’t it! You’ll die without him,,,”
Maria placed a finger over Maria’s lips, quieting her before answering her. “So the Granolith tells us. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’m in no hurry to find out.”
Their discussion was interrupted by the warning bell.
“So Tish washes her cat, hugh?” Isabel teased as they reentered the hallway. “Have you been known to wash your cat?”
“Well,” Maria drawled out. “If I did, I probably wouldn’t admit it, but then again, I’m only human.”
**********
“Alex!” Thumper shouted as she headed for him like a heat seeking missile. Closing in on him, she leapt the last ten feet, slamming into him, hanging on with her arms around his neck while she covered his face with kisses. This public display of affection did not go unnoticed, not only because of the participants, but also because Thumper was wearing her usual short tartan kilt over a pair of brown opaque tights.
“Isabel, don’t blast Thumper into oblivion in front of witnesses,” Maria commanded nervously. “This would be a really bad time for the green eyed Alien Princess to come out,,,” but to her surprise, when she looked over, Isabel was smiling.
“Butt Cheeks!!!” a nearby student called out, ringleader of a table full of freshmen who were doubtlessly getting their first peek at Thumper’s epic assets.
Isabel’s smile faded from her face as she picked a peanut from her trail mix. She rifled the improvised projectile at the apparent ringleader of the offending table, striking him on the top of his ear. As the frosh looked over, Isabel leveled a long perfectly manicured finger at him, throwing in her best ice-princess scowl for good measure. Moments later the entire offending table was retreating from the suddenly unfriendly Quad.
“Okay,” Maria stammered. “What’s happening? Not only is Thumper hanging all over your husband, but you’re defending,,,”
“Her Grand Jury appearance was this morning,” Isabel said happily as she watched Alex put his arm around her shoulder and led her towards their table.
Thumper broke free and made her way to Isabel’s free side. She wrapped her arms around the tall teen’s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you guys,” she gushed as she broke free and sat down. “You’re my heroes.”
“I take it things went well?” Isabel said softly.
“I’m free!” Thumper exclaimed. “All charges dropped.”
“That’s wonderful,” Michael replied sincerely as he settled next to Maria on the opposite side of the table.
“And now I can talk,” Thumper said, her mood leveling. “All these weeks I’ve been wanting to say something,,, All those horrible things they’ve been saying about me.” The first of many tears slipped down her cheek as Isabel took her hand. “What I couldn’t tell anyone is that her parents left a twenty dollar bill (15 €) under the keys to the Pathfinder. They had promised the kids that I would take them to McDonald’s for McFlurries,,, I didn’t take the car without permission,,, I didn’t take the kids,,, I didn’t do anything wrong,,, I loved her,,,” Thumper cried out as she completely broke down.
“I know,” Isabel said soothingly as she pulled Thumper against her shoulder while the entire group closed in on her in support. It took a while for Thumper to cry herself out, but the entire assemblage was shocked when they found that Michael was the last one to turn away. Instead he took her hand as he looked her in the eye. “Thumper, I know something about,,, hard times,” he explained quietly. “You don’t need to believe me now, in fact you don’t need to believe me until you’re ready to, but things do get better. You won’t forget, and there will be times when the memories will hit you like a ton of bricks, but given time to heal, you will find peace with yourself.”
**********
Meanwhile, south of Roswell, Amy’s heart fluttered as Jim again wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight into his strong chest.
Now most people think way to much when they do this,” he said softly, his breath causing a tingle as it brushed against her cheek, “But the secret is not to think at all. Just let your body relax and do what it needs to do.”
“If you think that’s best,” Amy teased as she pulled the trigger, putting every round into the black.
“Okay, I’m going downrange to change targets,” Jim said as Amy placed the Browning High Power flat on the table. She watched as Jim brought a larger target frame downrange but her questioning look turned to dismay as she was now facing off against a profile target, the profile of a human form. Moments later Jim was back by her side. Seeing her look of shock on her face, he tried to explain. “I hope this never happens Amy, and if it does, I hope I’m there to protect you,,,”
“Jim,” Amy pointed at the target. “I don’t think I can do this,,,”
“Amy,” Jim pleaded as he took her by the arms. “Don’t think! Just point and shoot! The only time you’ll ever have to do this is if you or Maria is in danger.” He looked her in the eye, and finding that he was getting through, he continued, “Think of Maria needing you, then point and shoot,” but the smile that crept over her face scared him.
Without another word Amy snatched the weapon and a spare magazine from the table. She pivoted towards the target, thumbing the magazine release lever as she did so, ejecting the empty magazine onto the ground. “Remember that morning I caught Michael in bed with Maria?” she asked as she slammed the fresh magazine in place. Lifting the weapon into battery, she thumbed the slide release, loading a fresh cartridge into the pistol’s chamber as she slid the safety lever into fire position. As the weapon aligned with her target, she began firing, emptying the entire magazine in seconds.
Stunned at the fluidity of her motions and the efficiency of her attack, Jim could only stare at the target. He took a dry gulp as he looked at the groin area of the target, finding it shot clean away.
“You’re right, this was fun,” Amy said cheerfully as she packed the shooting supplies into her pistol case, not noticing the cold sweat that had broken out on Jim’s brow. “Why don’t you come out to the house for lunch. You should be rewarded for all your hard work you’ve done,” she continued, but her voice turned flirty as she continued, “And Maria’s working at the Crashdown after school. We’ll have the entire afternoon to ourselves.”
“Ahh,,, I’d like that,” Jim replied, still not able to take his eyes off the mutilated target, but he couldn’t help thinking, ‘What the frack have I created?’
**********
At the warning bell Isabel broke off from the others and headed for her next class, bumping into Kyle at the door. “What’s wrong? You look like someone shot your dog, well,,, if you had a dog.”
“It’s nothing,” he responded morosely.
“That’s not what I hear. Word is you have to meet with your father on a professional level this afternoon,” Isabel replied evenly. Although Kyle was a teenage jock who did stupid jock things, Isabel had spent enough time with him over the last year or so that she had seen his softer side, so she wanted to try to not make things any worse for him.
“Yea,” Kyle sighed, “It’s not going to be pretty.”
“So what happened?”
“I don’t know, things have just gotten so out of control. Between Pam getting hurt and Steve’s truck getting slimed.”
“So what are you going to do?”
Kyle shook his head in response as he stood and picked up his uneaten lunch. “I don’t know, but I hope someone comes up with something, because if this feud keeps growing, Pam’s not the only person who’s going to get hurt.”
*********
As soon as school let out Alex raided the kitchen looking for a snack. “Hey Mom,” he said cheerfully to Diane as he kissed her on the cheek.
“Hi Alex,” Diane replied cheerfully as she looked behind him. “Where’s Iz?”
“She’s taking a meeting. Kyle got into some trouble, and she’s trying to help find a solution,,,”
“Nothing serious I hope.”
“No, hopefully not.”
“There’s a package for her, from France.”
“Paris? Oh, it’s probably from Simone Pérèle of Paris. It’s a bra,,,”
“A bra? From Paris? Sometimes I wonder about her, what would possess her to order a bra from Paris?”
“It’s custom made, a matter of fit, comfort and style,” Alex answered cheerfully. “You do realize that eighty-five percent of women wear the wrong size bra, and a properly fitting bra consist of at least thirty-two pieces of fabric?”
“Well I guess Iz can spend her money as she chooses,,,”
“What makes you think she’s spending her money? She put it on my credit card saying that if I liked her boobs to stay the way they are,,,”
“Hum, hum, hummm,,,” Diane interrupted while stealthily pointing towards Isabel’s father.
“Alex!” Phillip commanded. “You know way too much about bras, so put the package down and then put your hand between your legs.”
“Excuse me?”
“Put your hand between your legs and tell me if you still have a set of balls there.”
“Yea, I still have a set of balls,,,”
“Good! Because quite frankly, as much as I love seeing you with Isabel, you’re starting to worry me.”
**********
“,,,But I didn’t know if I had to take a dump, or just fart, so just for safety’s sake, I went into the bathroom. Well it turns out that all I had in me was a little ball of crap, but just before my cheeks hit the seat, I farted like the mighty camel of the trackless desert. Well that ball of crap hit the water like a canon ball, and created such a splash my ass felt like I was walking through a garden sprinkler,,, and in my opinion the city is right to regulate garden sprinklers,” Kyle hastily added as he looked down the hall. “We live in a fracking desert, and water’s important.”
Isabel entered the anteroom, all the while giving Kyle the evil eye with one brow arched. “Afternoon, Splash,” she said haughty, looking at Kyle as if he were something dirty on the bottom of her shoe.
“Oh, you heard that, hugh?” Kyle said dejectedly, knowing that this was the wrong time to bring up his CD player.
Steve smirked at Kyle’s discomfort as he nodded to the new arrivals. “Hey.”
“What are you doing here?” Owen snapped, eyeing Michael skeptically.
“I just got caught up in the magic of the moment,” Michael muttered.
“Deputy Blackwood, good to see you back in Roswell where you belong,” Isabel said respectfully. “As for Michael, he’s with me.”
“Meaning no disrespect, Miss Evans, but what gives?” Owen replied in a much calmer voice. “Don’t tell me those jocks are lawyering up.”
“No, Deputy, my presence here is neither official nor expected,” Isabel said with an evil grin. “I’m just trying to find some opportunity in a bad situation.”
Owen’s face cracked into a wide smile for the first time in a long time. “Maybe I should take Jim down to the Crashdown for a coffee and let you take care of business,,,”
“No way!” Isabel interrupted. “The Sheriff’s been working up a good head of steam all weekend, and it would be a shame to deny him a chance to give out a good ass kicking,” but her retort was interrupted by the sound of shouting coming from Jim’s office. “Show’s on,” she quipped as she headed towards the voices.
“You slimed my truck!”
“What?”
“You covered my truck with pig sperm,,,”
“Hey! None of that language, keep it civil!” Jim interjected.
“What the fr,,,” John Andrews started to reply, only to stop and look at Deputy Blackwood warily. “What are you talking about?” he continued more reasonably. “First there isn’t enough pig sperm in the whole county to cover your truck, but more importantly, I’m a truck kind of guy. I might slime Kyle’s ride, but I would never let anyone hurt the Lydick Lightning,,,”
“Nobody slimed your truck,” Michael said impatiently.
“What?” Kyle protested. “Dude, you weren’t there,,,”
“Did you ever wonder why there’s a ‘no parking’ spot behind the Crashdown?”
“There’s not a ‘no parking’ space behind the Crashdown,” Steve protested. “It’s private property.”
“There is,” Isabel said softly, “Right under the exhaust blower for the grill.”
“What are you saying,” Kyle demanded, his eyes opening wide in horror. “That the mess on his truck was hamburger grease?
“You fracking numb frack,” Steve whined towards Kyle. “You’re the one who told me to park there,,,”
“Sounds like the boys at Goddard had nothing to do with this,” Jim interjected.
“What about Pam getting hurt?,,” Kyle asked hopefully.
“I talked to Miss Troy,” Jim advised. “She doesn’t know who attacked her, but she said that they were probably about twenty, too old to be in high school,,,”
Steve and Kyle looked at each other in horror. The war that they’d been waging for the past several weeks had been based on faulty intelligence. Kyle stepped forward, stopping directly in front of John Andrews, who was flanked by his co-captains, Jim (Big Red) Robinson and Kenny Young. “Dude, I’m sorry. I didn’t know,,,”
Following the ‘guy code,’ and knowing about Kyle’s softer side, John let him off the hook before he got all weepy eyed or tried to hug him, embarrassing them both. “Fer-get-about-it.”
“Sorry I hit you,” Steve added.
“No problem,” John sneered, indicative that despite letting Kyle off the hook his problem with Steve was far from over. “You hit like a pussy.” He then looked over to the Sheriff, “Are we done here?”
Having seen the look in John’s eyes, Jim answered, “No, we’re not. As a matter of fact Isabel called me earlier with a proposal.”
Drawing on a deep pool of confidence, Isabel stepped forward. “We have some real problems here in Roswell. We have families with no place to live, and even worse, we have children with no families. Now, instead of trying to make sure these children have a good Christmas, it seems the entire cities getting caught up in your little pissing contest.”
“Pissing contest?” Kyle muttered, drawing a sharp look from his father.
“So after hearing about how things had gotten so out of hand I decided that there must be a way to solve all of our problems at the same time,,,”
“What do you expect us to be able to do?” Jim Robinson asked.
Isabel walked up to him, an athlete twice her size, and looked him in the eye. “I was found homeless in the desert and brought to Casa Maria, where I spent the Christmas before I was adopted,” she said softly. “So I’m one of the lucky ones, but there are still too many children still looking for a family to love them. Tell me you won’t help them.”
“I’ll help you,” Big Red replied gently, impressed by her countenance and confidence. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
“A benefit game,,,”
“You think a basketball game is going to help?” Deputy Blackwood interjected skeptically.
“Yes, a bury the hatchet game to benefit the homeless shelter and the orphanage,,,” the Sheriff replied.
“The only ‘burying of the hatchet,’ that’s likely to occur would be in each other’s head,” Kenny muttered under his breath.
“He’s right,” Jim Robinson agreed. “Goddard and West have been rivals for years, and after the way we’ve been treated during our past two games,,,”
“Which you won by default,,,” Steve spat.
“We don’t need no stinking default to beat you guys,,,” John replied.
“That’s enough of that shit,” Jim shouted before leaning into Steve’s personal space. “I thought you were keeping quiet because you were smart, because you knew you still have an assault charge hanging over your head, a charge which could kill any chance of getting a scholarship and getting out of this town.”
Steve suddenly found his shoes very interesting, remaining silent as the discussion continued.
“You would have to mix the teams to get it to work,” Isabel said, encouraged by the fact that she had already got one convert. “The Captains would have to pick players from both teams,,,”
“Never happen,” Kyle said under his breath.
“KYLE!”
“No, he’s right,” Jim Robinson agreed while making positive eye contact with the Sheriff. “However the teams are picked,
the process would have to be arbitrary.”
“By address,,,”
“By the first letter of our last names,,,”
“Odd and Even,” Isabel suggested. “Jersey numbers ending in zero, two and four play for the orphanage, and jersey numbers ending one, three and five play for the homeless shelter,,,”
“No!” Big Red Robinson interjected. “Odds play for the orphanage.”
“We’ll play at our school,,,”
“Neutral territory,” Isabel snapped. “The community center,,,”
“I thought it was closed with the fire and all,,,”
“Just the kitchen,” Isabel replied coldly. “The rest of the building is fine, and we are going to have this benefit if I have to kick every one of your asses myself,,,”
Unobserved, Isabel leaned close to Kyle. “You help me with this, and I’ll help you with your little ‘stereo’ problem.”
“Now,” Jim bellowed, “Get the frack out of my office!”
**********
“You and Thumper must be the last two girls in school who still wear pantyhose,” Maria commented cheerfully on Isabel’s outfit.
“Newsflash girlfriend, I've never owned a pair of pantyhose, which is lucky for me since Alex likes me in stockings. So that leaves Thumper, with whom I have an understanding.”
“Seriously? You ratted our Alex's leg thing to Thumper?,,”
“Well no, I have to be a special kind of stupid to give her that kind of ammunition. Let's just say that I understand her. Alex rescued her, and she has a hero worship kind of crush on him. It's all kind of sweet and innocent, and after years of being the butt of every joke, Alex really deserves to have a groupie,,,”
“And you're okay with that?”
“Sure, but to be honest I'm keeping my friends close, and the girl with a crush on my boyfriend closer.”
Maria watched as Isabel placed her hand over the combination knob of her locker, opening it utilizing her own express method. “Do you even remember your combination?”
Hidden by her locker door Isabel smirked at her friends little dig, but when she closed her locker door and turned to face Maria her face was all business. “What are you worried about, I can open my locker with no glow at all.”
“So I'll see you at lunch then?”
“No, Alex and I have plans. He's going to help me prepare for the Spanish AP exam I have this afternoon.”
“That's our Alex, the perfect study buddy,,,”
Sensing an opportunity to return fire, Isabel stepped in tight to her friend, crowding her personal space and making her uncomfortable. “Alex and I am not going to study. He is going to take me in to the eraser room and frack me into submission. Then I will be relaxed for my exam, and I'll ace it.”
“For God sakes Padmé, too much information,” Maria complained as she put her hands over her ears.
“Ria, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. We are more alike then you realize. We both like to torquing each other up, but in addition to that you like being torqued up.”
“I do not?,,”
“Are you kidding? When you leave here you go to spend the rest of the day making Michaels life miserable, but in your mind it's going to be an entire day of foreplay. I just hope that Michael gives you as good as Alex is going to give me.”
Isabel stepped back, preparing to head for her class when Maria grabbed her by the elbow. The pixie leaned in close and whispered, “Just promise me that you're going to give Alex as good as I'm going to give Michael, and I'll say we’re even.”
Leaving the alcove Isabel turned left while Maria turned right, but she was stopped moments later by one of her classmates.
“Maria, you’re the one running the pool?” he asked.
“Shut the frack up!” Maria snapped angrily before dragging the clueless one out of traffic. “Do you have any idea what Isabel will do to us if she finds out,,,”
“I got twenty on six,” Octavo continued in a much softer tone of voice. “And after Alex conks out Maybe Isabel’ll be ready for a real man,,,”
“You?” Maria choked out. “You and Isabel?”
“Yea, why not?”
“If Isabel thought for one minute that you had thoughts like that about her, she’d kill you the moment you turned onto her block.”
**********
“So what do you think?” Isabel asked as she concluded the tour of the Albuquerque house.
“It’s nice,,,” Diane replied hesitantly.
“It’s big,” Gloria added bluntly.
“It’s got enough room for us, our business and our guests,” Isabel said indulgently, accepting that any objections from their parents would be more about their leaving home than any shortcomings of the house.
“It’s too far from Roswell,” Phillip complained.
In response to this, Alex led the fathers to the French doors overlooking the rear deck. He pointed to a portion of the back yard behind the garage. “Before we move in, I’m going to have them install a pad mounted emergency generator and a security system,,,”
“I thought you said the business suite was on a separate electrical service?”
“It’s on a separately metered sub-panel, but that meter’s part of the house system, not the power companies. That way the electrical usage of the business can be measured and written off as a business expense. As far as installing a generator, I’ll have them place an automatically activated cut-over switch that’s rated for the whole house. That way if Isabel’s ever home alone and the power goes out, she won’t have to do a thing,,,’
“I bet she likes that,” Phillip quipped.
“Actually she hates the thought of it, as well as the security system I’m having installed,” Alex answered. “She thinks it’s a waste of time and money,,,”
“What do you think?” Phillip challenged.
“She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s going to loose this time,” Alex quipped. “She is my family, and nothing is going to stand in the way of my making sure she is safe and comfortable.
While Phillip nodded appreciatively, Charles asked what kind of security system he was looking at.
“Brinks,” Alex answered. “I’m going to go with a perimeter system instead of motion detectors, which will cut way down on false alarms plus allow Isabel to keep the system armed while she’s moving around the house,,,”
“Land line?”
“No cellular, with battery back-up, not to mention the generator,” Alex replied confidently. “The antenna’s going to be mounted in the attic, and it will be protected by a motion detector. That way no one will be able to attack the system without setting it off.”
“You’re kind of on the outskirts of the city to have natural gas, aren’t you?”
“Yea, this was one of the first houses built in the neighborhood, so instead of natural gas, it has propane.”
“I don’t see a tank,,,”
“Pops, the place was built by an architect. It was his home and office. He buried the tank off the end of the garage. I already looked into it and it’s big enough to support the house and generator for at least a week if something ever happens,,,”
“Weapons cache?” Phillip asked offhandedly.
“Yea, if you need back-up and we have to come charging halfway across the state I don’t want to get stopped for speeding with a trunk full of illegal weapons.”
“In the hallway wall between the master bedroom suite and the office suite. There’s a closet behind that section of wall, so I’ll ask Isabel bump the sheetrock back so the wall will end up a foot thick, plenty of room to secrete a weapons locker.”
“Well, it sounds as if you have everything covered,” Charles sighed.
Meanwhile Isabel was showing the Moms the office suite. “Alex is going to rack mount all of the computer equipment in this alcove, and then in the main section there’s room for three workstations, a drawing table for me, a small conference table, and a casual corner with Alex’s recliner, a futon, mini-fridge, and an entertainment center,,,”
“Alex has a recliner?” Gloria asked in amazement.
“He will,” Isabel replied with a smile.
“Why do you have an entertainment center here,” Diane questioned. “Your fathers home office is just that, an office. I would have thought that you learned not to mix business and pleasure from him?,,”
“This isn’t the same thing Mom,” Isabel answered. “Daddy’s a lawyer, and as such he has to generate billable hours. That means he has to maintain a dedicated office, but it also means that when he’s not working on a project he can turn his work world off. It’s not the same for us. We may go for weeks at a time doing nothing but working, eating, and sleeping while we’re struggling to deliver a project under deadline, it’s just as likely that one of us may be working while the other is off, but we still want to stay close by. To be honest, I expect that for the first year or so, we’ll be living in here, and may never go downstairs,” she concluded as Alex and their fathers joined them.
“So what timetable are you looking at?” Phillip asked nonchalantly.
“The estate will probate any day now, in fact it already may have,” Alex answered. “Our inspections happen this week, and then we have until January First to sign a purchase and sales agreement or the house gets listed with a broker.
“Who did you decide to do the home inspection?” Charles asked.
“I asked Chief Montoya, who called the State Fire Marshal, off the record of course, for a recommendation. Turned out he liked the same guy you recommended,” Alex answered, nodding towards his father, “So he’s doing the inspection Tuesday morning,,,”
“You said inspections, plural,” Phillip challenged.
“Well, there’s today,” Alex stammered. “Your opinions mean a lot.”
Phillip took a slow deep breath, giving himself time to bite back all of the objections that revolved around the irrevocable fact that his daughter was moving out of his house more than any complaint about the house. “So what’s Izzy got to say about all this?”
“She says she’s deferring to me to make the final decision, as the man in the relationship. She said it was my responsibility to provide a suitable house that she would then make over into a loving home, but somehow I think I’m being played,” Alex chuckled. “It’s as if she’s already vetted the place and that my approval is both expected and little more than a formality,,,”
“And you’re just figuring this out now?”
“How long have you been hanging out with Liz and Maria?”
“Yea,,,”
“For the record, I approve,” Phillip said slowly, “But it has to be your decision.”
As it started to get dark, Gloria heard a giggle from the back of the van. Her voice slowed as she looked over her shoulder, her irritation showing, but apparently Isabel and Alex didn’t notice, because moments later it happened again. ‘Give me that,” Gloria snapped, taking Diane’s water bottle. She snapped open the pull tab, and then fired it over her shoulder, eliciting a number of screams from the back seat. “Phillip! Pull over, right now,” she bellowed.
Now Phillip didn’t have to be married to Gloria to recognize that tone of voice. In fact any man would recognize it instantly. He had heard it from his mother while he was growing up, he had heard his wife use it on more than one occasion, and he had also been astounded and dismayed when Isabel had perfected it right around her thirteenth birthday.
As soon as the van stopped Gloria leapt out of the door and signaled Diane to follow. “You two, in the front where we can keep an eye on you,” she commanded as Diane snickered softly.
“That’s okay. We’re fine back here,” Isabel replied happily as she clamped her hand down on Alex’s thigh, keeping him in place. “But thanks for your concern,,,” She watched with alarm as Gloria glared at her while settling her clenched fist on her hips. Realizing that they weren’t going anywhere until she complied, she got out of the van, allowing Alex to scoot into the middle bench first. Meanwhile she turned to her mother-in-law. “You do realize that you’re dealing with an alien princess, don’t you?”
“So?” Gloria answered indifferently.
“Isabel stammered a moment before replying, “With just a thought I can have you dreaming that you’re laying in a bed filled with Charles’ toenail clippings, all night, every night, for the rest of your life,,,”
Gloria simply stepped into Isabel’s personal space and looked up. “I’ll pull mother-in-law’s prerogative and move in with you. I’ll pick your girls up at their bus stop every afternoon. Then I’ll fulfill my grandmotherly duties by spoiling them rotten with Jolt Cola and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I’ll get them so juiced up that they’ll be bouncing off the walls until midnight every day until they start college,,,”
“You wouldn’t,,,”
“Try me!”
Feinting indifference, Isabel knew when she was beaten. As she buckled her belt, she glared at her husband, the man who had failed to support her in her recent conflict.
“Og tveimur geisladiskum er varðveitt á segulböndum þjóðfræðasafni finna frá bænum,” Alex simply whispered in reply.
“What?”
“That means, ‘I will never cross you, but don’t throw me under the bus with Mom’.”
(Authors note: The Antarian character set is not supported by the ANSI-II Extended character set that is utilized by our computing equipment, so I have taken the liberty of transcribing Alex’s Antarian speech into ANSI-II phonetically.)
Charles settled into the drivers seat, and as he leaned inward to buckle his seat belt he glanced over at Phillip. “Do you remember asking how Gloria was adjusting to the knowledge that we aren’t alone?”
“Yea,,,”
“I think she’s over it.”
As soon as the teens got settled, Alex raised his arm. Allowing Isabel to snuggle back against his side. “You’re not afraid of her, are you?” she teased.
“Afraid?,, Hell yes! She rules our house the old fashioned way, fear. Now she’d never hurt you, you’re the daughter she always wanted, but with three more sons, she could drop me like a prom dress and never notice.”
“Sweetie, she’s not that bad,,,”
“Really? Mom went toe to toe with Jesse the day after he came back from boot camp. She said if he was staying in the house he would have to abide by a midnight curfew. Jesse just said that he was eighteen, an adult, and a Marine. He wasn’t bound by any curfew, then he kissed her on the forehead and took her by the upper arms and tried to swing her out of the way,,,”
“No,,,” Isabel gasped in amazement. “What’d she do?”
“Kneed him in the balls,,,”
Isabel couldn’t help but break out laughing at this.
“Dropped him like a sack of potatoes. He ended curled up into as ball puking up Tack Shack Mexican food all over her just waxed floor,,,”
“Was this before or after she broke her good pan on his head,,,”
Both teens were startled as Gloria’s head popped over their seatback. “Actually,” she answered for him, “It was the same day.”
**********
Late that evening, Liz parked her father’s car and exited it with trepidation. Finding Maria sitting with her back to her at the opposite end of the picnic area, she took a deep breath before heading over to give a friend a target for her wrath. “Ria?”
“Hey,” Maria said in greeting before handing her friend a sundae cup. “About time you got here, vanilla with strawberry topping, just the way you like it,,,”
“You mad?” Liz asked rather pointlessly as Maria had never stopped speaking.
“So I’m talking to Isabel while Alex is so ignoring us,,,”
“Seriously? That’s all it takes to get you pissed now?”
“He’s was sitting there totally immersed in a double scoop of Kahlua chip ice cream,,,”
“Isabel?”
“She started out alright, but the more that he talked about how good the ice cream tasted, the more enamored she got that he was taking such a simple pleasure from an ice cream cone,,,”
“I sense a but coming up?” Liz teased.
“Then he said it was the best thing that he had ever tasted, she didn’t like that at all. So she reached out and touched his ice cream,,,”
“What, she change the flavor?”
“First the chocolate chunks disappeared, then it turned a kind of little alien princess green,,,”
Seeing the grin on Maria’s face, Liz figured it out on her own. “Oh no!” she gasped. “She could make it taste like herself?”
“Well I sure as hell wasn’t going to try it, but Alex seemed quite happy,,,”
“And Isabel?”
“Well she thought it was funny at first, but watching him lick that ice cream started to get to her,,,”
“Really,,,”
“Well you know how she gets around Alex, and here he is, with that big tongue of his licking away, and I think he was using his temperature thing to keep the ice cream from melting too fast. He was moaning, talking abut how good it tasted,,,”
“And Isabel?”
“She was starting to get in tough shape. Her eyes were glazed, her nostrils were flared, and her chest was heaving with every breath. I thought she was going to take him right there on the picnic table.”
“So how did you end up here alone?”
Maria looked at her friend in amazement. “I’m stuck here because she dragged him off by the scruff of his neck saying that she didn’t give a frack if I had to walk home, call a taxi, or if I spent the night sleeping under one of the picnic tables.”
“And you’re obviously alright with that,” Liz said in amazement. “I figured you’d be steaming.”
“I guess,” Maria waxed philosophically, “But the truth be told, I’m happy for Alex. He’s having so much fun with the only girl he's ever wanted,,, well, the truth be told, I’m happy for the both of them.”
“So, you want to go home?” Liz asked as she got up to toss her empty sundae cup in the trash.
“No. Michael’s,” Maria answered. “Hey!” she exclaimed seeing the smirk on her friends face. “Don’t look at me like that, you didn’t have a ring side seat watching a half-hour of foreplay.”
**********
The next day Isabel was getting a Lime Warp when Maria slid up next to her. “Sorry about last night,,,”
“Oh don’t worry about it,” Maria replied distractedly as she hopped from one foot to the other. “Would you mind swinging by your locker and helping a friend in need?” she added hopefully.
Isabel bit her lip a moment before letting loose an exaggerated sigh, “And what is it this time?”
“I need a couple of firecrackers,” Maria said softly. “Just enough to last me until I get home.”
“You know I don’t use them anymore,,,”
“Come on, I was with you on the first day of school,” Maria pleaded. “I watched you customize your locker and you’re better stocked than Spaced-Out Drugs.”
“Okay ‘Ria, come on. I’ll let you in on my stash.”
TBC
Chapter 24-F There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
Sunday evening found Alex treating Isabel to one of her special stir-fries at the Crashdown and despite the fact that his taste buds were in a free fall, he was still able to get some enjoyment from his Will Smith burger and Saturn rings. Of course the fact that Michael had added some chopped Habaneros peppers to his grilled onions didn’t hurt. But despite their ‘in’ with the owners, they were seated at the counter for all the booths were full.
“What’s going on?” Isabel asked quickly as Liz grabbed their empty dishes. “I’ve never seen you this busy on a Sunday night.”
“You haven’t heard?” Liz moaned as she blew a puff of air straight up, tossing her bangs out of her eyes. “There was a sighting,,,”
“Sighting is not the term I would use,” Jeff interrupted. “Golden opportunity is more like it.”
Seeing Alex’s brow rise in question he continued, “Business is booming,,,”
“Business is crazy is more like it,” Liz rebutted sarcastically.
“Crazy is good Pumpkin. Crazy is what’s going to pay your way through college,” Jeff continued as they headed back towards the kitchen.
“Great!” Isabel snapped. “Here we go again,,,”
Alex placed his hand on hers as well as reaching out for her through their connection. “Lets not jump to any conclusions,” he said as he reached for his cell.
“What are you doing?” Isabel asked nervously.
“Izzy,” Alex said reassuringly as he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “There’s two big difference between this time and the last time we went down this road.”
“Really,” Isabel teased, a reaction that surprised even herself, but while he hadn’t been able to totally allay her fears, she did have infinite faith in her husband’s ability to take care of her.
“Yea, first, we’re connected,” he said as he flipped his phone open.
“And?”
“And, even more importantly, we know we haven’t done anything to draw attention to ourselves,,, Sheriff Valenti,,,”
“~~Evening Alex. What can I do for you? Everything okay?”~~”
“I believe so, but I’m at the Crash with Izzy, and the place is swarming with tourist, tourist who are talking about a sighting. Have you heard anything?”
“~~I got a call from Clovis Air Force Base about a week ago. They wanted to advise us that a tanker flew low over the city with it’s lights on. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but Amy told me that her business was picking up, so I called Max yesterday and warned him that we might start hearing about a sighting, but I guess you all haven’t caught up with each other yet.~~”
“But nothing official’s going to come of it, right?”
“~~Well seeing as how the entire thing is a known Air Force screw up, I can’t imaging the government doing any thing, and I’m sure as hell not going to get involved.~~”
“Thanks Sheriff, that’s good to hear.”
“~~Okay then, you say howdy to Miss Evans for me, and you be sure to let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.~~”
“I will, bye.” He turned towards his wife. “The sighting was nothing more than a low flying Air Force jet. We’ve got nothing more to worry about.”
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Isabel replied, visibly relieved, “But judging by the tips the girls are making, I bet they’d wish for a low flying jet everyday. Ready?”
Alex hopped up and held Isabel’s coat for her, but as they said good bye to Liz and left, he couldn’t help but think that more alien activities would be good for every business in the city.
**********
Tish leaned back against the bank of lockers while she confidently placed her bet. “Maria, I understand everything you say, but I’m still betting on twelve, but having made it that far, I think he’s then going to drop dead,,,”
“Alex is not going to drop dead,,,”
“Isabel,,,” Tish gasped as she elbowed Maria in the side.
“Tish!” Isabel gushed warmly as she gave her friend an air hug. “How was your date with Bruce?”
“Okay, I guess,” Tish replied, confusion evident in her voice. “I mean, he promised dinner and a movie, and then he took me to dinner and a movie,,,”
“That’s all?” Maria teased. “Nothing else?”
“Well of course there was ‘something’ else, but all that amounted to was making out on the porch when he dropped me off.”
While Isabel just smiled, Maria figured there was more dish to be had. “And how was the good night kiss?”
“Oh, it was a good kiss,” Tish teased.
“A really good kiss?” Isabel teased.
“It was such a good kiss I had to go inside and wash my cat,,,”
“So you have a really clean cat?”
“I’ll tell you, I have the cleanest cat in West Roswell High,” Tish cooed as she slinked away with an extra wiggle in her step.
Isabel watched Tish walk away before turning back to Maria in confusion. “You can’t wash a cat! First cats groom themselves, second a cat would rip you to shreds if you tried to put one in a tub, and,,, what does washing a cat have to do with coming home from a date?”
Maria looked at Isabel with a look of incredulity on her face. “You’re serious. You don’t know what she was talking about, do you?”
“Washing a cat,,,”
“Iz, not much gets by you, but when you miss something, it’s a doozie,” Maria said as she slammed her locker door before wrapping her around her friends back and leading her towards their first class. “Bruce left her all worked up, so she stripped, laid down in her tub, schooched down so her ‘cat’ was under the spout with her legs up against the wall, then she turned the water on,,,”
“She didn’t!” Isabel gasped as she stopped, pushing Maria into the alcove of an empty classroom and forcing her to turn and face her.
“Oh yea, and knowing Tish she stayed there until the hot water ran out.”
“But that would cause her to,,,”
“Pretty much instantly and continuously,” Maria said with a smile. “Why do you think she’s always in such a good mood.” Seeing a look of disbelief on her tall friends face, she continued, “You’re not telling me,,, you,,,”
“No!” Isabel gasped in shock. “Why would I do that? I have Alex!”
“Come on, never?” Maria probed. “Are you telling me that having dated almost every desirable guy in school,,,”
“No,,,”
“You never got hot and bothered once,,,”
“No! Never! Not until I decided I wanted Alex.”
“How is that possible,” Maria rebutted in disbelief. “You don’t mean to tell me that you’ve never gotten all hot and horny on a date, that’s,,, that’s,,, inhuman.”
“Ria,” Isabel answered softly, with a smile that her friend thought of her as just another normal girl. “I’m not human, remember? I waited for two lifetimes for Alex. I was made for him.”
“Wow,” Maria gasped in amazement.
Isabel silently smiled in response as she gave her friend a moment to let it all sink in.
Maria’s eyes went wide as she processed this new information. “It’s true, isn’t it! You’ll die without him,,,”
Maria placed a finger over Maria’s lips, quieting her before answering her. “So the Granolith tells us. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’m in no hurry to find out.”
Their discussion was interrupted by the warning bell.
“So Tish washes her cat, hugh?” Isabel teased as they reentered the hallway. “Have you been known to wash your cat?”
“Well,” Maria drawled out. “If I did, I probably wouldn’t admit it, but then again, I’m only human.”
**********
“Alex!” Thumper shouted as she headed for him like a heat seeking missile. Closing in on him, she leapt the last ten feet, slamming into him, hanging on with her arms around his neck while she covered his face with kisses. This public display of affection did not go unnoticed, not only because of the participants, but also because Thumper was wearing her usual short tartan kilt over a pair of brown opaque tights.
“Isabel, don’t blast Thumper into oblivion in front of witnesses,” Maria commanded nervously. “This would be a really bad time for the green eyed Alien Princess to come out,,,” but to her surprise, when she looked over, Isabel was smiling.
“Butt Cheeks!!!” a nearby student called out, ringleader of a table full of freshmen who were doubtlessly getting their first peek at Thumper’s epic assets.
Isabel’s smile faded from her face as she picked a peanut from her trail mix. She rifled the improvised projectile at the apparent ringleader of the offending table, striking him on the top of his ear. As the frosh looked over, Isabel leveled a long perfectly manicured finger at him, throwing in her best ice-princess scowl for good measure. Moments later the entire offending table was retreating from the suddenly unfriendly Quad.
“Okay,” Maria stammered. “What’s happening? Not only is Thumper hanging all over your husband, but you’re defending,,,”
“Her Grand Jury appearance was this morning,” Isabel said happily as she watched Alex put his arm around her shoulder and led her towards their table.
Thumper broke free and made her way to Isabel’s free side. She wrapped her arms around the tall teen’s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you guys,” she gushed as she broke free and sat down. “You’re my heroes.”
“I take it things went well?” Isabel said softly.
“I’m free!” Thumper exclaimed. “All charges dropped.”
“That’s wonderful,” Michael replied sincerely as he settled next to Maria on the opposite side of the table.
“And now I can talk,” Thumper said, her mood leveling. “All these weeks I’ve been wanting to say something,,, All those horrible things they’ve been saying about me.” The first of many tears slipped down her cheek as Isabel took her hand. “What I couldn’t tell anyone is that her parents left a twenty dollar bill (15 €) under the keys to the Pathfinder. They had promised the kids that I would take them to McDonald’s for McFlurries,,, I didn’t take the car without permission,,, I didn’t take the kids,,, I didn’t do anything wrong,,, I loved her,,,” Thumper cried out as she completely broke down.
“I know,” Isabel said soothingly as she pulled Thumper against her shoulder while the entire group closed in on her in support. It took a while for Thumper to cry herself out, but the entire assemblage was shocked when they found that Michael was the last one to turn away. Instead he took her hand as he looked her in the eye. “Thumper, I know something about,,, hard times,” he explained quietly. “You don’t need to believe me now, in fact you don’t need to believe me until you’re ready to, but things do get better. You won’t forget, and there will be times when the memories will hit you like a ton of bricks, but given time to heal, you will find peace with yourself.”
**********
Meanwhile, south of Roswell, Amy’s heart fluttered as Jim again wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight into his strong chest.
Now most people think way to much when they do this,” he said softly, his breath causing a tingle as it brushed against her cheek, “But the secret is not to think at all. Just let your body relax and do what it needs to do.”
“If you think that’s best,” Amy teased as she pulled the trigger, putting every round into the black.
“Okay, I’m going downrange to change targets,” Jim said as Amy placed the Browning High Power flat on the table. She watched as Jim brought a larger target frame downrange but her questioning look turned to dismay as she was now facing off against a profile target, the profile of a human form. Moments later Jim was back by her side. Seeing her look of shock on her face, he tried to explain. “I hope this never happens Amy, and if it does, I hope I’m there to protect you,,,”
“Jim,” Amy pointed at the target. “I don’t think I can do this,,,”
“Amy,” Jim pleaded as he took her by the arms. “Don’t think! Just point and shoot! The only time you’ll ever have to do this is if you or Maria is in danger.” He looked her in the eye, and finding that he was getting through, he continued, “Think of Maria needing you, then point and shoot,” but the smile that crept over her face scared him.
Without another word Amy snatched the weapon and a spare magazine from the table. She pivoted towards the target, thumbing the magazine release lever as she did so, ejecting the empty magazine onto the ground. “Remember that morning I caught Michael in bed with Maria?” she asked as she slammed the fresh magazine in place. Lifting the weapon into battery, she thumbed the slide release, loading a fresh cartridge into the pistol’s chamber as she slid the safety lever into fire position. As the weapon aligned with her target, she began firing, emptying the entire magazine in seconds.
Stunned at the fluidity of her motions and the efficiency of her attack, Jim could only stare at the target. He took a dry gulp as he looked at the groin area of the target, finding it shot clean away.
“You’re right, this was fun,” Amy said cheerfully as she packed the shooting supplies into her pistol case, not noticing the cold sweat that had broken out on Jim’s brow. “Why don’t you come out to the house for lunch. You should be rewarded for all your hard work you’ve done,” she continued, but her voice turned flirty as she continued, “And Maria’s working at the Crashdown after school. We’ll have the entire afternoon to ourselves.”
“Ahh,,, I’d like that,” Jim replied, still not able to take his eyes off the mutilated target, but he couldn’t help thinking, ‘What the frack have I created?’
**********
At the warning bell Isabel broke off from the others and headed for her next class, bumping into Kyle at the door. “What’s wrong? You look like someone shot your dog, well,,, if you had a dog.”
“It’s nothing,” he responded morosely.
“That’s not what I hear. Word is you have to meet with your father on a professional level this afternoon,” Isabel replied evenly. Although Kyle was a teenage jock who did stupid jock things, Isabel had spent enough time with him over the last year or so that she had seen his softer side, so she wanted to try to not make things any worse for him.
“Yea,” Kyle sighed, “It’s not going to be pretty.”
“So what happened?”
“I don’t know, things have just gotten so out of control. Between Pam getting hurt and Steve’s truck getting slimed.”
“So what are you going to do?”
Kyle shook his head in response as he stood and picked up his uneaten lunch. “I don’t know, but I hope someone comes up with something, because if this feud keeps growing, Pam’s not the only person who’s going to get hurt.”
*********
As soon as school let out Alex raided the kitchen looking for a snack. “Hey Mom,” he said cheerfully to Diane as he kissed her on the cheek.
“Hi Alex,” Diane replied cheerfully as she looked behind him. “Where’s Iz?”
“She’s taking a meeting. Kyle got into some trouble, and she’s trying to help find a solution,,,”
“Nothing serious I hope.”
“No, hopefully not.”
“There’s a package for her, from France.”
“Paris? Oh, it’s probably from Simone Pérèle of Paris. It’s a bra,,,”
“A bra? From Paris? Sometimes I wonder about her, what would possess her to order a bra from Paris?”
“It’s custom made, a matter of fit, comfort and style,” Alex answered cheerfully. “You do realize that eighty-five percent of women wear the wrong size bra, and a properly fitting bra consist of at least thirty-two pieces of fabric?”
“Well I guess Iz can spend her money as she chooses,,,”
“What makes you think she’s spending her money? She put it on my credit card saying that if I liked her boobs to stay the way they are,,,”
“Hum, hum, hummm,,,” Diane interrupted while stealthily pointing towards Isabel’s father.
“Alex!” Phillip commanded. “You know way too much about bras, so put the package down and then put your hand between your legs.”
“Excuse me?”
“Put your hand between your legs and tell me if you still have a set of balls there.”
“Yea, I still have a set of balls,,,”
“Good! Because quite frankly, as much as I love seeing you with Isabel, you’re starting to worry me.”
**********
“,,,But I didn’t know if I had to take a dump, or just fart, so just for safety’s sake, I went into the bathroom. Well it turns out that all I had in me was a little ball of crap, but just before my cheeks hit the seat, I farted like the mighty camel of the trackless desert. Well that ball of crap hit the water like a canon ball, and created such a splash my ass felt like I was walking through a garden sprinkler,,, and in my opinion the city is right to regulate garden sprinklers,” Kyle hastily added as he looked down the hall. “We live in a fracking desert, and water’s important.”
Isabel entered the anteroom, all the while giving Kyle the evil eye with one brow arched. “Afternoon, Splash,” she said haughty, looking at Kyle as if he were something dirty on the bottom of her shoe.
“Oh, you heard that, hugh?” Kyle said dejectedly, knowing that this was the wrong time to bring up his CD player.
Steve smirked at Kyle’s discomfort as he nodded to the new arrivals. “Hey.”
“What are you doing here?” Owen snapped, eyeing Michael skeptically.
“I just got caught up in the magic of the moment,” Michael muttered.
“Deputy Blackwood, good to see you back in Roswell where you belong,” Isabel said respectfully. “As for Michael, he’s with me.”
“Meaning no disrespect, Miss Evans, but what gives?” Owen replied in a much calmer voice. “Don’t tell me those jocks are lawyering up.”
“No, Deputy, my presence here is neither official nor expected,” Isabel said with an evil grin. “I’m just trying to find some opportunity in a bad situation.”
Owen’s face cracked into a wide smile for the first time in a long time. “Maybe I should take Jim down to the Crashdown for a coffee and let you take care of business,,,”
“No way!” Isabel interrupted. “The Sheriff’s been working up a good head of steam all weekend, and it would be a shame to deny him a chance to give out a good ass kicking,” but her retort was interrupted by the sound of shouting coming from Jim’s office. “Show’s on,” she quipped as she headed towards the voices.
“You slimed my truck!”
“What?”
“You covered my truck with pig sperm,,,”
“Hey! None of that language, keep it civil!” Jim interjected.
“What the fr,,,” John Andrews started to reply, only to stop and look at Deputy Blackwood warily. “What are you talking about?” he continued more reasonably. “First there isn’t enough pig sperm in the whole county to cover your truck, but more importantly, I’m a truck kind of guy. I might slime Kyle’s ride, but I would never let anyone hurt the Lydick Lightning,,,”
“Nobody slimed your truck,” Michael said impatiently.
“What?” Kyle protested. “Dude, you weren’t there,,,”
“Did you ever wonder why there’s a ‘no parking’ spot behind the Crashdown?”
“There’s not a ‘no parking’ space behind the Crashdown,” Steve protested. “It’s private property.”
“There is,” Isabel said softly, “Right under the exhaust blower for the grill.”
“What are you saying,” Kyle demanded, his eyes opening wide in horror. “That the mess on his truck was hamburger grease?
“You fracking numb frack,” Steve whined towards Kyle. “You’re the one who told me to park there,,,”
“Sounds like the boys at Goddard had nothing to do with this,” Jim interjected.
“What about Pam getting hurt?,,” Kyle asked hopefully.
“I talked to Miss Troy,” Jim advised. “She doesn’t know who attacked her, but she said that they were probably about twenty, too old to be in high school,,,”
Steve and Kyle looked at each other in horror. The war that they’d been waging for the past several weeks had been based on faulty intelligence. Kyle stepped forward, stopping directly in front of John Andrews, who was flanked by his co-captains, Jim (Big Red) Robinson and Kenny Young. “Dude, I’m sorry. I didn’t know,,,”
Following the ‘guy code,’ and knowing about Kyle’s softer side, John let him off the hook before he got all weepy eyed or tried to hug him, embarrassing them both. “Fer-get-about-it.”
“Sorry I hit you,” Steve added.
“No problem,” John sneered, indicative that despite letting Kyle off the hook his problem with Steve was far from over. “You hit like a pussy.” He then looked over to the Sheriff, “Are we done here?”
Having seen the look in John’s eyes, Jim answered, “No, we’re not. As a matter of fact Isabel called me earlier with a proposal.”
Drawing on a deep pool of confidence, Isabel stepped forward. “We have some real problems here in Roswell. We have families with no place to live, and even worse, we have children with no families. Now, instead of trying to make sure these children have a good Christmas, it seems the entire cities getting caught up in your little pissing contest.”
“Pissing contest?” Kyle muttered, drawing a sharp look from his father.
“So after hearing about how things had gotten so out of hand I decided that there must be a way to solve all of our problems at the same time,,,”
“What do you expect us to be able to do?” Jim Robinson asked.
Isabel walked up to him, an athlete twice her size, and looked him in the eye. “I was found homeless in the desert and brought to Casa Maria, where I spent the Christmas before I was adopted,” she said softly. “So I’m one of the lucky ones, but there are still too many children still looking for a family to love them. Tell me you won’t help them.”
“I’ll help you,” Big Red replied gently, impressed by her countenance and confidence. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
“A benefit game,,,”
“You think a basketball game is going to help?” Deputy Blackwood interjected skeptically.
“Yes, a bury the hatchet game to benefit the homeless shelter and the orphanage,,,” the Sheriff replied.
“The only ‘burying of the hatchet,’ that’s likely to occur would be in each other’s head,” Kenny muttered under his breath.
“He’s right,” Jim Robinson agreed. “Goddard and West have been rivals for years, and after the way we’ve been treated during our past two games,,,”
“Which you won by default,,,” Steve spat.
“We don’t need no stinking default to beat you guys,,,” John replied.
“That’s enough of that shit,” Jim shouted before leaning into Steve’s personal space. “I thought you were keeping quiet because you were smart, because you knew you still have an assault charge hanging over your head, a charge which could kill any chance of getting a scholarship and getting out of this town.”
Steve suddenly found his shoes very interesting, remaining silent as the discussion continued.
“You would have to mix the teams to get it to work,” Isabel said, encouraged by the fact that she had already got one convert. “The Captains would have to pick players from both teams,,,”
“Never happen,” Kyle said under his breath.
“KYLE!”
“No, he’s right,” Jim Robinson agreed while making positive eye contact with the Sheriff. “However the teams are picked,
the process would have to be arbitrary.”
“By address,,,”
“By the first letter of our last names,,,”
“Odd and Even,” Isabel suggested. “Jersey numbers ending in zero, two and four play for the orphanage, and jersey numbers ending one, three and five play for the homeless shelter,,,”
“No!” Big Red Robinson interjected. “Odds play for the orphanage.”
“We’ll play at our school,,,”
“Neutral territory,” Isabel snapped. “The community center,,,”
“I thought it was closed with the fire and all,,,”
“Just the kitchen,” Isabel replied coldly. “The rest of the building is fine, and we are going to have this benefit if I have to kick every one of your asses myself,,,”
Unobserved, Isabel leaned close to Kyle. “You help me with this, and I’ll help you with your little ‘stereo’ problem.”
“Now,” Jim bellowed, “Get the frack out of my office!”
**********
“You and Thumper must be the last two girls in school who still wear pantyhose,” Maria commented cheerfully on Isabel’s outfit.
“Newsflash girlfriend, I've never owned a pair of pantyhose, which is lucky for me since Alex likes me in stockings. So that leaves Thumper, with whom I have an understanding.”
“Seriously? You ratted our Alex's leg thing to Thumper?,,”
“Well no, I have to be a special kind of stupid to give her that kind of ammunition. Let's just say that I understand her. Alex rescued her, and she has a hero worship kind of crush on him. It's all kind of sweet and innocent, and after years of being the butt of every joke, Alex really deserves to have a groupie,,,”
“And you're okay with that?”
“Sure, but to be honest I'm keeping my friends close, and the girl with a crush on my boyfriend closer.”
Maria watched as Isabel placed her hand over the combination knob of her locker, opening it utilizing her own express method. “Do you even remember your combination?”
Hidden by her locker door Isabel smirked at her friends little dig, but when she closed her locker door and turned to face Maria her face was all business. “What are you worried about, I can open my locker with no glow at all.”
“So I'll see you at lunch then?”
“No, Alex and I have plans. He's going to help me prepare for the Spanish AP exam I have this afternoon.”
“That's our Alex, the perfect study buddy,,,”
Sensing an opportunity to return fire, Isabel stepped in tight to her friend, crowding her personal space and making her uncomfortable. “Alex and I am not going to study. He is going to take me in to the eraser room and frack me into submission. Then I will be relaxed for my exam, and I'll ace it.”
“For God sakes Padmé, too much information,” Maria complained as she put her hands over her ears.
“Ria, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. We are more alike then you realize. We both like to torquing each other up, but in addition to that you like being torqued up.”
“I do not?,,”
“Are you kidding? When you leave here you go to spend the rest of the day making Michaels life miserable, but in your mind it's going to be an entire day of foreplay. I just hope that Michael gives you as good as Alex is going to give me.”
Isabel stepped back, preparing to head for her class when Maria grabbed her by the elbow. The pixie leaned in close and whispered, “Just promise me that you're going to give Alex as good as I'm going to give Michael, and I'll say we’re even.”
Leaving the alcove Isabel turned left while Maria turned right, but she was stopped moments later by one of her classmates.
“Maria, you’re the one running the pool?” he asked.
“Shut the frack up!” Maria snapped angrily before dragging the clueless one out of traffic. “Do you have any idea what Isabel will do to us if she finds out,,,”
“I got twenty on six,” Octavo continued in a much softer tone of voice. “And after Alex conks out Maybe Isabel’ll be ready for a real man,,,”
“You?” Maria choked out. “You and Isabel?”
“Yea, why not?”
“If Isabel thought for one minute that you had thoughts like that about her, she’d kill you the moment you turned onto her block.”
**********
“So what do you think?” Isabel asked as she concluded the tour of the Albuquerque house.
“It’s nice,,,” Diane replied hesitantly.
“It’s big,” Gloria added bluntly.
“It’s got enough room for us, our business and our guests,” Isabel said indulgently, accepting that any objections from their parents would be more about their leaving home than any shortcomings of the house.
“It’s too far from Roswell,” Phillip complained.
In response to this, Alex led the fathers to the French doors overlooking the rear deck. He pointed to a portion of the back yard behind the garage. “Before we move in, I’m going to have them install a pad mounted emergency generator and a security system,,,”
“I thought you said the business suite was on a separate electrical service?”
“It’s on a separately metered sub-panel, but that meter’s part of the house system, not the power companies. That way the electrical usage of the business can be measured and written off as a business expense. As far as installing a generator, I’ll have them place an automatically activated cut-over switch that’s rated for the whole house. That way if Isabel’s ever home alone and the power goes out, she won’t have to do a thing,,,’
“I bet she likes that,” Phillip quipped.
“Actually she hates the thought of it, as well as the security system I’m having installed,” Alex answered. “She thinks it’s a waste of time and money,,,”
“What do you think?” Phillip challenged.
“She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s going to loose this time,” Alex quipped. “She is my family, and nothing is going to stand in the way of my making sure she is safe and comfortable.
While Phillip nodded appreciatively, Charles asked what kind of security system he was looking at.
“Brinks,” Alex answered. “I’m going to go with a perimeter system instead of motion detectors, which will cut way down on false alarms plus allow Isabel to keep the system armed while she’s moving around the house,,,”
“Land line?”
“No cellular, with battery back-up, not to mention the generator,” Alex replied confidently. “The antenna’s going to be mounted in the attic, and it will be protected by a motion detector. That way no one will be able to attack the system without setting it off.”
“You’re kind of on the outskirts of the city to have natural gas, aren’t you?”
“Yea, this was one of the first houses built in the neighborhood, so instead of natural gas, it has propane.”
“I don’t see a tank,,,”
“Pops, the place was built by an architect. It was his home and office. He buried the tank off the end of the garage. I already looked into it and it’s big enough to support the house and generator for at least a week if something ever happens,,,”
“Weapons cache?” Phillip asked offhandedly.
“Yea, if you need back-up and we have to come charging halfway across the state I don’t want to get stopped for speeding with a trunk full of illegal weapons.”
“In the hallway wall between the master bedroom suite and the office suite. There’s a closet behind that section of wall, so I’ll ask Isabel bump the sheetrock back so the wall will end up a foot thick, plenty of room to secrete a weapons locker.”
“Well, it sounds as if you have everything covered,” Charles sighed.
Meanwhile Isabel was showing the Moms the office suite. “Alex is going to rack mount all of the computer equipment in this alcove, and then in the main section there’s room for three workstations, a drawing table for me, a small conference table, and a casual corner with Alex’s recliner, a futon, mini-fridge, and an entertainment center,,,”
“Alex has a recliner?” Gloria asked in amazement.
“He will,” Isabel replied with a smile.
“Why do you have an entertainment center here,” Diane questioned. “Your fathers home office is just that, an office. I would have thought that you learned not to mix business and pleasure from him?,,”
“This isn’t the same thing Mom,” Isabel answered. “Daddy’s a lawyer, and as such he has to generate billable hours. That means he has to maintain a dedicated office, but it also means that when he’s not working on a project he can turn his work world off. It’s not the same for us. We may go for weeks at a time doing nothing but working, eating, and sleeping while we’re struggling to deliver a project under deadline, it’s just as likely that one of us may be working while the other is off, but we still want to stay close by. To be honest, I expect that for the first year or so, we’ll be living in here, and may never go downstairs,” she concluded as Alex and their fathers joined them.
“So what timetable are you looking at?” Phillip asked nonchalantly.
“The estate will probate any day now, in fact it already may have,” Alex answered. “Our inspections happen this week, and then we have until January First to sign a purchase and sales agreement or the house gets listed with a broker.
“Who did you decide to do the home inspection?” Charles asked.
“I asked Chief Montoya, who called the State Fire Marshal, off the record of course, for a recommendation. Turned out he liked the same guy you recommended,” Alex answered, nodding towards his father, “So he’s doing the inspection Tuesday morning,,,”
“You said inspections, plural,” Phillip challenged.
“Well, there’s today,” Alex stammered. “Your opinions mean a lot.”
Phillip took a slow deep breath, giving himself time to bite back all of the objections that revolved around the irrevocable fact that his daughter was moving out of his house more than any complaint about the house. “So what’s Izzy got to say about all this?”
“She says she’s deferring to me to make the final decision, as the man in the relationship. She said it was my responsibility to provide a suitable house that she would then make over into a loving home, but somehow I think I’m being played,” Alex chuckled. “It’s as if she’s already vetted the place and that my approval is both expected and little more than a formality,,,”
“And you’re just figuring this out now?”
“How long have you been hanging out with Liz and Maria?”
“Yea,,,”
“For the record, I approve,” Phillip said slowly, “But it has to be your decision.”
As it started to get dark, Gloria heard a giggle from the back of the van. Her voice slowed as she looked over her shoulder, her irritation showing, but apparently Isabel and Alex didn’t notice, because moments later it happened again. ‘Give me that,” Gloria snapped, taking Diane’s water bottle. She snapped open the pull tab, and then fired it over her shoulder, eliciting a number of screams from the back seat. “Phillip! Pull over, right now,” she bellowed.
Now Phillip didn’t have to be married to Gloria to recognize that tone of voice. In fact any man would recognize it instantly. He had heard it from his mother while he was growing up, he had heard his wife use it on more than one occasion, and he had also been astounded and dismayed when Isabel had perfected it right around her thirteenth birthday.
As soon as the van stopped Gloria leapt out of the door and signaled Diane to follow. “You two, in the front where we can keep an eye on you,” she commanded as Diane snickered softly.
“That’s okay. We’re fine back here,” Isabel replied happily as she clamped her hand down on Alex’s thigh, keeping him in place. “But thanks for your concern,,,” She watched with alarm as Gloria glared at her while settling her clenched fist on her hips. Realizing that they weren’t going anywhere until she complied, she got out of the van, allowing Alex to scoot into the middle bench first. Meanwhile she turned to her mother-in-law. “You do realize that you’re dealing with an alien princess, don’t you?”
“So?” Gloria answered indifferently.
“Isabel stammered a moment before replying, “With just a thought I can have you dreaming that you’re laying in a bed filled with Charles’ toenail clippings, all night, every night, for the rest of your life,,,”
Gloria simply stepped into Isabel’s personal space and looked up. “I’ll pull mother-in-law’s prerogative and move in with you. I’ll pick your girls up at their bus stop every afternoon. Then I’ll fulfill my grandmotherly duties by spoiling them rotten with Jolt Cola and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I’ll get them so juiced up that they’ll be bouncing off the walls until midnight every day until they start college,,,”
“You wouldn’t,,,”
“Try me!”
Feinting indifference, Isabel knew when she was beaten. As she buckled her belt, she glared at her husband, the man who had failed to support her in her recent conflict.
“Og tveimur geisladiskum er varðveitt á segulböndum þjóðfræðasafni finna frá bænum,” Alex simply whispered in reply.
“What?”
“That means, ‘I will never cross you, but don’t throw me under the bus with Mom’.”
(Authors note: The Antarian character set is not supported by the ANSI-II Extended character set that is utilized by our computing equipment, so I have taken the liberty of transcribing Alex’s Antarian speech into ANSI-II phonetically.)
Charles settled into the drivers seat, and as he leaned inward to buckle his seat belt he glanced over at Phillip. “Do you remember asking how Gloria was adjusting to the knowledge that we aren’t alone?”
“Yea,,,”
“I think she’s over it.”
As soon as the teens got settled, Alex raised his arm. Allowing Isabel to snuggle back against his side. “You’re not afraid of her, are you?” she teased.
“Afraid?,, Hell yes! She rules our house the old fashioned way, fear. Now she’d never hurt you, you’re the daughter she always wanted, but with three more sons, she could drop me like a prom dress and never notice.”
“Sweetie, she’s not that bad,,,”
“Really? Mom went toe to toe with Jesse the day after he came back from boot camp. She said if he was staying in the house he would have to abide by a midnight curfew. Jesse just said that he was eighteen, an adult, and a Marine. He wasn’t bound by any curfew, then he kissed her on the forehead and took her by the upper arms and tried to swing her out of the way,,,”
“No,,,” Isabel gasped in amazement. “What’d she do?”
“Kneed him in the balls,,,”
Isabel couldn’t help but break out laughing at this.
“Dropped him like a sack of potatoes. He ended curled up into as ball puking up Tack Shack Mexican food all over her just waxed floor,,,”
“Was this before or after she broke her good pan on his head,,,”
Both teens were startled as Gloria’s head popped over their seatback. “Actually,” she answered for him, “It was the same day.”
**********
Late that evening, Liz parked her father’s car and exited it with trepidation. Finding Maria sitting with her back to her at the opposite end of the picnic area, she took a deep breath before heading over to give a friend a target for her wrath. “Ria?”
“Hey,” Maria said in greeting before handing her friend a sundae cup. “About time you got here, vanilla with strawberry topping, just the way you like it,,,”
“You mad?” Liz asked rather pointlessly as Maria had never stopped speaking.
“So I’m talking to Isabel while Alex is so ignoring us,,,”
“Seriously? That’s all it takes to get you pissed now?”
“He’s was sitting there totally immersed in a double scoop of Kahlua chip ice cream,,,”
“Isabel?”
“She started out alright, but the more that he talked about how good the ice cream tasted, the more enamored she got that he was taking such a simple pleasure from an ice cream cone,,,”
“I sense a but coming up?” Liz teased.
“Then he said it was the best thing that he had ever tasted, she didn’t like that at all. So she reached out and touched his ice cream,,,”
“What, she change the flavor?”
“First the chocolate chunks disappeared, then it turned a kind of little alien princess green,,,”
Seeing the grin on Maria’s face, Liz figured it out on her own. “Oh no!” she gasped. “She could make it taste like herself?”
“Well I sure as hell wasn’t going to try it, but Alex seemed quite happy,,,”
“And Isabel?”
“Well she thought it was funny at first, but watching him lick that ice cream started to get to her,,,”
“Really,,,”
“Well you know how she gets around Alex, and here he is, with that big tongue of his licking away, and I think he was using his temperature thing to keep the ice cream from melting too fast. He was moaning, talking abut how good it tasted,,,”
“And Isabel?”
“She was starting to get in tough shape. Her eyes were glazed, her nostrils were flared, and her chest was heaving with every breath. I thought she was going to take him right there on the picnic table.”
“So how did you end up here alone?”
Maria looked at her friend in amazement. “I’m stuck here because she dragged him off by the scruff of his neck saying that she didn’t give a frack if I had to walk home, call a taxi, or if I spent the night sleeping under one of the picnic tables.”
“And you’re obviously alright with that,” Liz said in amazement. “I figured you’d be steaming.”
“I guess,” Maria waxed philosophically, “But the truth be told, I’m happy for Alex. He’s having so much fun with the only girl he's ever wanted,,, well, the truth be told, I’m happy for the both of them.”
“So, you want to go home?” Liz asked as she got up to toss her empty sundae cup in the trash.
“No. Michael’s,” Maria answered. “Hey!” she exclaimed seeing the smirk on her friends face. “Don’t look at me like that, you didn’t have a ring side seat watching a half-hour of foreplay.”
**********
The next day Isabel was getting a Lime Warp when Maria slid up next to her. “Sorry about last night,,,”
“Oh don’t worry about it,” Maria replied distractedly as she hopped from one foot to the other. “Would you mind swinging by your locker and helping a friend in need?” she added hopefully.
Isabel bit her lip a moment before letting loose an exaggerated sigh, “And what is it this time?”
“I need a couple of firecrackers,” Maria said softly. “Just enough to last me until I get home.”
“You know I don’t use them anymore,,,”
“Come on, I was with you on the first day of school,” Maria pleaded. “I watched you customize your locker and you’re better stocked than Spaced-Out Drugs.”
“Okay ‘Ria, come on. I’ll let you in on my stash.”
TBC
-
Stargazer md
- Fan Fic Follower
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- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:43 pm
- Location: Seacoast New Hampshire
Stargazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 24-F There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
Alex woke early, shaking his head and wondering why when he had a wonderful night dreaming of Isabel and the girls, he couldn’t get thoughts of manufacturing standards and sheet metal processing out of his head. This mystified him as he didn’t know anything about sheet metal processing. Adding to his confusion was the fact that the Blade server was still running a job. First, he didn’t remember starting a job before turning in for the night, and second, even if he did leave a job running, it should have completed by now.
“Morning Mom,” he mumbled as he made his way around the table to Isabel’s side. “Morning,” he said, this time in a more coherent voice as he leaned down and kissed her.
“Ugghhh, morning breath,” Isabel teased as she waved her hand in front of her face. “Either you’ve got to adjust to your new taste in foods or use mouthwash.”
“I can’t use mouthwash,” he teased back. “Michael drank it all when he and Maria came over to visit,” he added as he got the captain Crunch and Count Chocoula cereals out of the pantry. Dropping the boxes and a bowl on the table, he went to the refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of cranberry juice. He sat, poured from both boxes into a large bowl, and then wet the mix with the juice. As he started to dig in he looked at Isabel. “Do you have any idea what the Blade is running?”
“It’s running a Pangborn Job,” she answered nervously. “I got their bill of materials database completed, and now the process inventory control module is building,,,”
“I nowhere near ready for that,,,” Alex replied in alarm.
“We are now,” Isabel answered. “I know you’ve been pounding away on the EMS program, getting it polished for delivery, and there isn’t anything more we can do for Leprino until we get a purchase order from them, so I’m keeping Pangborn moving along.”
“How?”
“Well,” she replied hesitantly while biting her bottom lip, “While you were sleeping I connected with you to find out what needed to be done,,,”
“Is that why I woke up thinking of sheet metal?”
“Probably,,,”
“You don’t have to do that!”
“Of course I do,” Isabel snapped.
“Izzy, I don’t want you to have to do things like that. I can take care of it myself,,,”
Things like what?” Isabel demanded. “First, I may occasionally like to laze in bed for ten hours, but I only really need two hours of sleep, and second, I don’t think you’ve taken an evening off for the past several months that I didn’t schedule for you,,,”
“I’m okay,” Alex stammered, suddenly finding himself on the defensive. “Besides, I’ve been having a blast these past months, as long as I’m doing if with you,,, for you.”
“Alex, all I want to be able to do is my fair share. You took a school project and built it into this great thing,,,”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,,,”
“If there is anything I can do to get these projects done, if there’s anything I can do to make your job easier, I’m going to do it,,,” Isabel pleaded. “For frack’s sake Alex, you’ve had to kill for me,,,”
“Not for you, or because of you,,, To keep us safe,,, Not to mention the others. Besides, Tess and Nicholas,,, they weren’t even human,,,” Alex knew he had made a major mistake the moment the words left his mouth. “Izzy,,,”
“I’m not human,” Isabel gasped as her face dissolved into tears and she ran out the door.
“Izzy,” Alex shouted after her in disbelief as he sprang from his chair.
“Alex!” Gloria commanded. “Sit down!”
“I’ve got to go after her,” He muttered as he fumbled through the hutch. “Where are your keys? I’ve got to make her see I didn’t mean what I said the way she took it,,,”
“She knows that,” Gloria replied consolingly. “But you stung her, twice. First by minimizing her contributions, and second with your ‘human’ comment. She’s going to need some time to calm down, and you’re going need to change your attitudes about her pulling her share of the load,,,”
“I’m going after her,,,”
“No you’re not!,, Let me tell you about the difference between boys and girls.”
“We’ve had this talk,,,”
“Not this one,” Gloria snapped as she closed the door to the garage and stood in front of it with her arms crossed. “If a cop pulls Isabel over, he will find a beautiful woman dressed in modest red silk pajamas and a red satin robe. He will listen sympathetically as she tearfully recounts the fight she had with her boyfriend, explaining that she is running home to her mother’s loving bosom. That cop will don his shining armor, climb on his white steed, and ride off to slay a dragon for her. On the other hand, if that same cop stops you, all bed-headed and dressed in baggy drawers with a wife-beater shirt, and you tell him you are chasing after the girlfriend you just had a fight with, he’ll drag you out of your car without the benefit of opening the door. He will give you a hard-wood shampoo the likes of which you have never seen before, and then throw you into a cell with a drunken red-neck named Bubba who will make you his snuggle bunny for the rest of the week.”
Despite his upset, Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at Gloria’s colorful description of his impending doom. “Given a lot of thought to this, have you?” he asked.
“What can I say,” Gloria replied levelly. “You are Son Number Four. I’ve had lots of practice.”
“So, what do I do?”
“You take the day off and let her cool down, then this afternoon you get down on your knees, admit you’re wrong, and grovel like crazy until she takes your sorry ass back. Now go upstairs and get dressed, and throw that ratty-assed robe in the trash,,,” Gloria shouted up after him. “I’m amazed she let you keep it,” she continued to mutter under her breath as she collected the remains of her tea and breakfast. “For frack’s sake God, why’d you have to give me a house full of boys,,, they’re all brain damaged you know, it’s Charles’ fault. Him and his defective genes. The least you could have done is given me one girl. At least then I’d have something to work with, I’ve gotten to Isabel way to late.”
**********
Maria paced back across her room, muttering under her breath while Alex sat backwards on her computer chair wondering what in hell had her so worked up. “Maria, why don’t you just tell me what’s wrong?” he pleaded.
“What, you think this is easy for me?” Maria snapped.
Alex leapt from the chair and before Maria could react, he took her by the shoulders and sat her on the foot of her bed. Moments later he had fished through her purse and had her sniffing from her vial of cedar oil. “Better?” he asked.
“A little,” she sniffed.
“Good. Now why don’t you tell me why you asked me over here.”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“Ria,” Alex said softly. “We’ve never kept secrets from each other. Who did you turn to when you got your period?”
“You,” Maria answered softly. “But that was natural. It was supposed to happen. It was nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“Maybe for you,” Alex chuckled. “But it was quite a shock for me.”
Maria’s brows shot up. “You never said anything,,,”
“Course not. I don’t have time to be embarrassed when it comes to my girlfriends. I’d do anything for you, you must know that by now,,,”
“My grandmother died of breast cancer,” Maria gushed. “She was younger that Mom is right now,,,”
“Ria, what’s this about?”
In response she stood and started to unbutton her shirt.
“Maria!” Alex gasped.
“Don’t worry Whitman,” Maria admonished. “We’re to old for show you mine, show me yours,,,”
“Mom was pissed that day, wasn’t she,,,”
“You’d think she’d have given us credit for the Mister Bubble bubble bath,,,” Maria complained about the decade old scolding she had received, first from his mom, then hers. By the time she had finished she had her blouse off, leaving her in a tank top and bra. “Here,” she said, pointing to the back of her underarm, almost all the way back to her shoulder blade.
“Maria, that’s no where near your breast,” Alex explained as he palpated the area.
“It’s still in the area of my lymph nodes,” she rebutted nervously. “And it really irritates me when I wear the wrong clothes.”
“Maria, it’s not a lump,” Alex said cheerfully.
“No?” she responded nervously. “Oh my God, it’s a mole. It’s going to grow hair and turn into cancer,,,”
“Ria, it’s a skin tag, just a piece of worn skin.”
While Maria continued to mutter, he connected with Isabel, checking up on Maria’s malady in the medical books he had asked her to memorize. “I can take care of it,,,”
“Really! How?”
“The easiest method is estrangulation,,,”
“You’re going to strangle me? Isn’t that a little drastic?” Maria gasped.
“No, Ria,” Alex replied consolingly. “I’ll tie it off with a piece of dental floss, cutting off it’s blood supply. It’ll shrivel up and fall off. Or we can go homeopathic with a herb called bloodroot, but that may leave a mark. Both methods take about a week,,,”
“A week! You expect me to walk around with a roll of dental floss in my armpit for a week,,,”
“You know, Max could,,,”
“Girlfriend, don’t you know that I am the last of the unadulterated in our group,,, the Noah’s Ark,,, the Rosetta Stone of humanity?” Maria stated emphatically. “I have a duty to keep this body sacrosanct.”
“Okay, surgery it is,,,”
“Surgery!!!”
“Relax, it’ll only take a moment, and you won’t feel a thing,” Alex explained as he quickly gathered supplies. Moments later he had a short piece of floss tied around her tag,
“You see, if Max took care of this,,,” Maria rambled on as Alex held an ice cube to her skin. “He’d change me. Maybe a lot, or maybe just a little,,,” Alex removed the cube, tugged the now anesthetic skin tag tight, and then snipped it off with her good scissors. “But how can I allow that and put the whole human race at risk,,,” Alex put a drop of Betadine on a Band-Aid before covering her tiny wound. “All done,,,”
“Done? That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Alex replied cheerfully as he cleaned his mess. “You can take off the Band-Aid tomorrow.”
“Kewl,” Maria replied cheerfully as she reached for her bag. “Come on! Saturn Rings, my treat.”
“Rings,” Alex sighed in agreement. This would postpone his homecoming to Isabel, but as much as he didn’t have an appetite, he hadn’t yet composed the perfect apology.
**********
Gloria parked her Focus, and giving it a disgusted look, she walked through the garage into the kitchen, but as soon as she entered the kitchen, her senses were assailed. “What the frack is that smell?”
“I’m cooking a pomegranate for Alex,” Isabel replied proudly. “It’s one of his favorite foods, and with Christmas coming, it’s in season,,,”
“You’re preparing one of his favorite foods?” Gloria asked incredulously. “When Charles screws up I make him suffer,,,”
“Alex didn’t screw up,,,” Isabel exclaimed earnestly as she charged her surrogate mom.
“Do you really want to be doing this?” Gloria asked acidly as she slowly turned her face down and looked at one of the two hands pinning her back against her new refrigerator.
Isabel, realizing the enormity of her mistake, released her and took a step back. “He didn’t screw up,” she repeated softly. “I did,,,” She held her hand up, preventing Gloria from interfering. “Everything he said was true. Nicholas and Tess were aliens,,, he did kill them,,, for me,,, for us.” Looking in Gloria’s appraising eyes, her confidence began to fade. “I know he didn’t mean me,,, he doesn’t think of me that way,,,”
“How does he think of you?” Gloria queried, confident that enough time had passed that Isabel would answer correctly.
“Our connection was open all day, we couldn’t control it. I was angry, he was contrite and hurt that I was holding him off, but I’m ready apologize when he gets home.”
“Where is he now?”
“He had to do a favor for Maria and then she took him to the Crashdown for a snack. He’s there now but he’ll be home for supper.”
“Charles?”
“He’s in the den, he brought some work home with him.”
“So now that Gloria was up to speed on the happenings in her home, she turned to the crisis at hand. “Let me see that pomegranate.” Taking the offered saucepan she looked Isabel in the eye. “How did you prepare it?”
“I washed it, peeled it, cut it in half and then cleaned out the insides. I then diced it, boiled it until it became soft, and then mashed it,,,”
“I take it this is the first time you prepared one of these?”
“Yea,” Isabel replied meekly.
“You are your mother’s daughter,” Gloria muttered as she stepped on the foot pedal for the garbage can, throwing out Isabel’s concoction pan and all. “Let me have another one.”
“What?” Isabel responded, staring wide-eyed at the now closed garbage can.
“Come on, you’re not capable of buying just one of anything,” Gloria teased while getting out a large mixing bowl and setting it in the sink. “I’m certain you bought several and then agonized while grading them in levels of near perfection before butchering your top choice, so let me have the one which was your second choice.”
Without comment, Isabel opened the refrigerator, reached inside, and handed Gloria the fruit.
Gloria reached for a chief’s knife, giving it a couple of swipes with the ceramic for good measure and then placed the pomegranate on a cutting board. Making a quick sure cut she instructed, “Cut the stem off, making sure you get all the pith off.” She then made several light cuts from end to end. “You see these ribs of pith diving it into sections? Cut the rind over the ribs, being careful not to go all the way through.” Gloria then put the knife down and moved the fruit into the mixing bowl that was now filled with slightly cool water. “Now break it into sections and gently scoop out the arils (juice pods) being careful not to break them, which is why you didn’t cut all the way through the rind.”
Isabel’s face fell as she watched Gloria throw ‘her’ part of the pomegranate in the trash. “You don’t use that at all?” she asked in alarm.
“Even with all the strange stuff I’ve seen you eat; no, you don’t want to try it,,, “Here, hold the strainer.” Gloria swirled the arils in the water, flicking odd bits of rind into the sink and then she poured the bowl through the strainer. Next she took the strainer from Isabel. “Get me a serving bowl,,, no, not the Corelle, the small china bowl with the blue glaze.” She gently poured the fruit into the offered bowl and then took it from Isabel, placing it on the counter. Next she reached for Isabel’s favorite cereal bowl, and then scooped several spoonfuls of pomegranate into it before sprinkling it with sugar. “Here, try this,” she offered.
“Oooh,” Isabel moaned as she took a taste. “Tart and sweet. I love it,,,”
“Well no more now, I don’t want you to spoil your appetite. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it on the counter, it should always be freshly prepared, and served cool, not cold.”
Isabel did as she was told, then as she rinsed out her bowl and spoon Gloria continued, “Now get out of my kitchen so I can get supper ready. Go out and bug Charles for a while,,,”
“Okay Mom, and thanks for the cooking lesson. I’m sure Alex is going to like it when he gets home,” Isabel teased as she kissed Gloria on the cheek before heading for the hallway.
“Isabel!”
“Yea,” Isabel replied with surprise as she stopped in the doorway and turned to see what Gloria wanted to add.
“Don’t let Alex off too easy,” Gloria instructed. “Men value the most that which they have to work the hardest to get.”
Isabel thought about this a moment before her face broke into a wide grin. “Then Charles must value you a lot,,,” Isabel squealed and dodged the dish towel Gloria threw at her.
**********
“Alex, stop acting like it’s the end of the world,” Maria snapped, slapping him on the shoulder for good measure before stealing one of his onion rings. “Michael and I fight all the time,,,”
“Foreplay,” Liz interjected, faking a cough into her elbow as she loaded an alien blast into the shake machine..
Alex snickered at Liz’s less than subtle dig as he turned to face Maria. “Everyone expects the two of you to fight, hell we’d be surprised if a day went by and you didn’t find a reason to holler at each other, but it’s different with Isabel and me. When Isabel gets upset, I get the old heave ho,,,”
Hearing this, Maria spun him on his seat until he faced her squarely. “You don’t believe that anymore, do you? I mean those days are gone forever, Isabel’s crazy about you,,,”
“Ria, how long have you known me? I’ve never been a ‘glass half full’ kind of guy,,,” Alex admitted softly.
“I saw her today, and she’s just as upset as you are,,,”
“I know,,,”
“She said that your connection was wide open all day and she could feel how much you loved her,,,”
“I know,,,”
“You know? Then what are you doing here?”
“She’s supposed to be home for supper. I’m composing my apology.”
“Do you know what you’re going to say yet?”
“No,” Liz interjected while leaning over the counter. “But I bet it will involve significant groveling,,,”
“I’m going to have to rub her feet,,,”
“You do foot massages?” Maria interjected excitedly.
“Don’t even think about it,” Alex retorted. “I hate feet.”
“Then why are you going to do Isabel’s,” Maria pouted.
“Now you how much trouble I’m in.”
**********
As Isabel headed towards the front of the house the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” she called out as she reached for the doorknob. Opening the door, she found two uniformed Air Force officers, hats in hand.
“Is this the Whitman residence?” the first officer asked.
“Yes,” Isabel answered cheerfully, for the first time in her life comfortable with Charles’ contemporaries.
“I have an important message for Major Charles Whitman from the Secretary of the Air Force. May we come in please?”
Isabel opened the door wide, allowing the officers to enter as she noticed Charles stepping into the hallway from the den, his face ashen. Isabel slipped into hostess mode as she ushered the men into the house and closed the door behind them. As she turned, she found Gloria grasping the frame of the kitchen doorway in support. Although she didn’t yet realize what was going on, she ran to Gloria’s side and helped her into the den where Charles had led their guest.
“My name is Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey McDaniels. I am the commander of the Five Hundred Twenty-Second Fighter Squadron based at Cannon Air Force Base. (Clovis, MN) Am I addressing Major Charles Whitman? Are you the father of Lieutenant Robert Whitman?”
Charles slid down onto the couch next to his wife. He wrapped his hand around her, pulling her head to his shoulder as he nodded yes.
“The Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, has asked me to express his deepest regrets that your son, Lieutenant Robert Whitman, has died as a result of a gunshot wound received in Fairfax County Virginia this morning,,,”
“He was shot? How the hell did that happen?” Charles demanded.
“The preliminary information we received from the Virginia State Police lead us to believe that he was shot by the Beltway Sniper,,,”
“No, NO!” Gloria screeched.
“Apparently a woman and child came under fire. Lieutenant Whitman came to their aid, leading them to cover, but he was struck himself in the process.”
The second officer stepped toward the couch, but still remaining his distance, he sat back onto his heel, lowering himself to Charles’ and Gloria’s level. After giving them a moment to come to grips with their message, he asked, “Is there anyone we can call?”
Maria noticed Alex space out, and became quite upset that some of her best material was going to waste. “I know that look,” she said sarcastically to Liz. “Even when she’s on the other side of town,,,”
“Something’s wrong,” Alex blurted out, coming out of his Izzy-gram.
“Isabel?” Liz gasped.
“I don’t think so.”
“Czechoslovakian?” Maria probed as she got up to follow.
After a moments pause he answered. “No, but she wants me home, now. I need your Jetta,” he demanded, snatching maria’s keys from the counter.
“Agnes, call upstairs and tell Mom I had to go,” Liz called out as she stripped off her antenna and apron.
“Alex, this isn’t a good time for you to drive,” Maria implored as she followed him out the front door of the Crashdown. “Why don’t you let me have my keys back,,,”
Instead Alex threw his keys to Liz and headed for the passenger door of the Jetta. As he buckled his seat belt, he turned to face Maria in the back seat. “You guys raised me so I wouldn’t go all macho on you, but as much as I might concede that this is not a good time for me to be driving, I’m certain it’s not a good time for me to give you the keys,,,” But Alex’s diatribe was cut off. He grimaced and turned forward as Liz blew through a red light and went around several corners on two wheels.
“Good plan,” Maria teased, “Except for one thing. Have you ever asked yourself why in three years no one has ever seen Liz drive?”
Alex hopped out of the car before it stopped, but the sight that awaited him froze him in his tracks. Ever since he had been a little kid growing up at Plattsburgh (Air Force Base, Plattsburgh, New York) he had nightmares of finding a blue Air Force car in front of his house. Instead of blue, this Crown Victoria was jet black, but there was no mistaking the yellow on blue military stenciled license plate. “One of my brothers is dead,” he said softly, his voice trembling.
Maria and Liz knew better than to question his pronouncement. Instead, they enveloped their childhood friend in a three way hug, giving him all the love and support they could muster, but as time wore on, Liz realized that Alex stood firm, rooted to the spot. She stepped back and pulled out her cell. “Granolith, can you reach Isabel discretely?”
“I will activate the vibrator on her cell. If she is wearing it, she should respond. If so, what message do you wish me to convey to her?”
“Text her that Alex is outside, that he is afraid to come inside. She will understand.”
Moments later the Granolith replied, “Message conveyed.”
“My son Jesse should be enroute home as we speak. Harry is in Aviano,,,”
“Major, Lieutenant Whitman’s DD-93 (Record of Emergency Data form) is up to date, and we have all of the necessary information to locate his secondary next-of-kin. If you wish, we will make the necessary notifications,,,”
Isabel felt a soft rumble at the back of her waist, and she discretely pulled out her cell where she could see it.
“Not by phone,” Gloria implored. “I don’t want them to get that call.”
“No Ma’am,” the Colonel answered softly, turning his attention to her fully. “We would make the notifications in person, within the next three hours. Simultaneously to the notification, they would be placed on emergency leave status, allowing them to requisition priority travel vouchers to get home as quickly as possible.”
By now Isabel had made her way to the window, where she could ‘notice’ the car outside. “Alex is home,” she announced as she started towards the door.
“Alex,” Gloria gasped. “How could I forget,” she muttered as she started to stand.
Isabel was in front of her in an instant, gently pushing her back into her seat. “I’ve got it,” she whispered. “You stay here and take care of Charles. Alex is my responsibility now.”
As Isabel headed for the door Gloria continued, “I need to call Rachel,,,”
“Is that something I could do for you,” the Chaplain probed gently.
“No!” Gloria insisted. “With Harry flying over Bosnia, I need to make this call myself. I don’t want her to hear an unfamiliar voice and mistakenly start to panic, thinking something’s happened to her husband.”
Isabel slowly approached the group still supporting each other in the yard. As she approached, the twins stepped to the side, opening Alex to her approach. “Who?” was all he could manage to ask.
“Robert,” Isabel answered softly, hesitating just out of reach, waiting for his reaction to guide her actions.
“Robert?” Alex gasped in amazement. “He’s CONUS! (Stationed in the CONtinental United States.) He’s at Fort Meade Maryland, one of the safest bases in the world. Have you ever been there? Even their children’s day care center is surrounded by barbed wire and is defended with it’s own dedicated guard house.”
“He,,, It was a crime, nothing connected to the military,” Isabel explained. “That’s all, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
At this point Alex façade crumbled and with their petty differences forgotten, Isabel pulled him into her arms.
TBC
Chapter 24-F There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
Alex woke early, shaking his head and wondering why when he had a wonderful night dreaming of Isabel and the girls, he couldn’t get thoughts of manufacturing standards and sheet metal processing out of his head. This mystified him as he didn’t know anything about sheet metal processing. Adding to his confusion was the fact that the Blade server was still running a job. First, he didn’t remember starting a job before turning in for the night, and second, even if he did leave a job running, it should have completed by now.
“Morning Mom,” he mumbled as he made his way around the table to Isabel’s side. “Morning,” he said, this time in a more coherent voice as he leaned down and kissed her.
“Ugghhh, morning breath,” Isabel teased as she waved her hand in front of her face. “Either you’ve got to adjust to your new taste in foods or use mouthwash.”
“I can’t use mouthwash,” he teased back. “Michael drank it all when he and Maria came over to visit,” he added as he got the captain Crunch and Count Chocoula cereals out of the pantry. Dropping the boxes and a bowl on the table, he went to the refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of cranberry juice. He sat, poured from both boxes into a large bowl, and then wet the mix with the juice. As he started to dig in he looked at Isabel. “Do you have any idea what the Blade is running?”
“It’s running a Pangborn Job,” she answered nervously. “I got their bill of materials database completed, and now the process inventory control module is building,,,”
“I nowhere near ready for that,,,” Alex replied in alarm.
“We are now,” Isabel answered. “I know you’ve been pounding away on the EMS program, getting it polished for delivery, and there isn’t anything more we can do for Leprino until we get a purchase order from them, so I’m keeping Pangborn moving along.”
“How?”
“Well,” she replied hesitantly while biting her bottom lip, “While you were sleeping I connected with you to find out what needed to be done,,,”
“Is that why I woke up thinking of sheet metal?”
“Probably,,,”
“You don’t have to do that!”
“Of course I do,” Isabel snapped.
“Izzy, I don’t want you to have to do things like that. I can take care of it myself,,,”
Things like what?” Isabel demanded. “First, I may occasionally like to laze in bed for ten hours, but I only really need two hours of sleep, and second, I don’t think you’ve taken an evening off for the past several months that I didn’t schedule for you,,,”
“I’m okay,” Alex stammered, suddenly finding himself on the defensive. “Besides, I’ve been having a blast these past months, as long as I’m doing if with you,,, for you.”
“Alex, all I want to be able to do is my fair share. You took a school project and built it into this great thing,,,”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,,,”
“If there is anything I can do to get these projects done, if there’s anything I can do to make your job easier, I’m going to do it,,,” Isabel pleaded. “For frack’s sake Alex, you’ve had to kill for me,,,”
“Not for you, or because of you,,, To keep us safe,,, Not to mention the others. Besides, Tess and Nicholas,,, they weren’t even human,,,” Alex knew he had made a major mistake the moment the words left his mouth. “Izzy,,,”
“I’m not human,” Isabel gasped as her face dissolved into tears and she ran out the door.
“Izzy,” Alex shouted after her in disbelief as he sprang from his chair.
“Alex!” Gloria commanded. “Sit down!”
“I’ve got to go after her,” He muttered as he fumbled through the hutch. “Where are your keys? I’ve got to make her see I didn’t mean what I said the way she took it,,,”
“She knows that,” Gloria replied consolingly. “But you stung her, twice. First by minimizing her contributions, and second with your ‘human’ comment. She’s going to need some time to calm down, and you’re going need to change your attitudes about her pulling her share of the load,,,”
“I’m going after her,,,”
“No you’re not!,, Let me tell you about the difference between boys and girls.”
“We’ve had this talk,,,”
“Not this one,” Gloria snapped as she closed the door to the garage and stood in front of it with her arms crossed. “If a cop pulls Isabel over, he will find a beautiful woman dressed in modest red silk pajamas and a red satin robe. He will listen sympathetically as she tearfully recounts the fight she had with her boyfriend, explaining that she is running home to her mother’s loving bosom. That cop will don his shining armor, climb on his white steed, and ride off to slay a dragon for her. On the other hand, if that same cop stops you, all bed-headed and dressed in baggy drawers with a wife-beater shirt, and you tell him you are chasing after the girlfriend you just had a fight with, he’ll drag you out of your car without the benefit of opening the door. He will give you a hard-wood shampoo the likes of which you have never seen before, and then throw you into a cell with a drunken red-neck named Bubba who will make you his snuggle bunny for the rest of the week.”
Despite his upset, Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at Gloria’s colorful description of his impending doom. “Given a lot of thought to this, have you?” he asked.
“What can I say,” Gloria replied levelly. “You are Son Number Four. I’ve had lots of practice.”
“So, what do I do?”
“You take the day off and let her cool down, then this afternoon you get down on your knees, admit you’re wrong, and grovel like crazy until she takes your sorry ass back. Now go upstairs and get dressed, and throw that ratty-assed robe in the trash,,,” Gloria shouted up after him. “I’m amazed she let you keep it,” she continued to mutter under her breath as she collected the remains of her tea and breakfast. “For frack’s sake God, why’d you have to give me a house full of boys,,, they’re all brain damaged you know, it’s Charles’ fault. Him and his defective genes. The least you could have done is given me one girl. At least then I’d have something to work with, I’ve gotten to Isabel way to late.”
**********
Maria paced back across her room, muttering under her breath while Alex sat backwards on her computer chair wondering what in hell had her so worked up. “Maria, why don’t you just tell me what’s wrong?” he pleaded.
“What, you think this is easy for me?” Maria snapped.
Alex leapt from the chair and before Maria could react, he took her by the shoulders and sat her on the foot of her bed. Moments later he had fished through her purse and had her sniffing from her vial of cedar oil. “Better?” he asked.
“A little,” she sniffed.
“Good. Now why don’t you tell me why you asked me over here.”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“Ria,” Alex said softly. “We’ve never kept secrets from each other. Who did you turn to when you got your period?”
“You,” Maria answered softly. “But that was natural. It was supposed to happen. It was nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“Maybe for you,” Alex chuckled. “But it was quite a shock for me.”
Maria’s brows shot up. “You never said anything,,,”
“Course not. I don’t have time to be embarrassed when it comes to my girlfriends. I’d do anything for you, you must know that by now,,,”
“My grandmother died of breast cancer,” Maria gushed. “She was younger that Mom is right now,,,”
“Ria, what’s this about?”
In response she stood and started to unbutton her shirt.
“Maria!” Alex gasped.
“Don’t worry Whitman,” Maria admonished. “We’re to old for show you mine, show me yours,,,”
“Mom was pissed that day, wasn’t she,,,”
“You’d think she’d have given us credit for the Mister Bubble bubble bath,,,” Maria complained about the decade old scolding she had received, first from his mom, then hers. By the time she had finished she had her blouse off, leaving her in a tank top and bra. “Here,” she said, pointing to the back of her underarm, almost all the way back to her shoulder blade.
“Maria, that’s no where near your breast,” Alex explained as he palpated the area.
“It’s still in the area of my lymph nodes,” she rebutted nervously. “And it really irritates me when I wear the wrong clothes.”
“Maria, it’s not a lump,” Alex said cheerfully.
“No?” she responded nervously. “Oh my God, it’s a mole. It’s going to grow hair and turn into cancer,,,”
“Ria, it’s a skin tag, just a piece of worn skin.”
While Maria continued to mutter, he connected with Isabel, checking up on Maria’s malady in the medical books he had asked her to memorize. “I can take care of it,,,”
“Really! How?”
“The easiest method is estrangulation,,,”
“You’re going to strangle me? Isn’t that a little drastic?” Maria gasped.
“No, Ria,” Alex replied consolingly. “I’ll tie it off with a piece of dental floss, cutting off it’s blood supply. It’ll shrivel up and fall off. Or we can go homeopathic with a herb called bloodroot, but that may leave a mark. Both methods take about a week,,,”
“A week! You expect me to walk around with a roll of dental floss in my armpit for a week,,,”
“You know, Max could,,,”
“Girlfriend, don’t you know that I am the last of the unadulterated in our group,,, the Noah’s Ark,,, the Rosetta Stone of humanity?” Maria stated emphatically. “I have a duty to keep this body sacrosanct.”
“Okay, surgery it is,,,”
“Surgery!!!”
“Relax, it’ll only take a moment, and you won’t feel a thing,” Alex explained as he quickly gathered supplies. Moments later he had a short piece of floss tied around her tag,
“You see, if Max took care of this,,,” Maria rambled on as Alex held an ice cube to her skin. “He’d change me. Maybe a lot, or maybe just a little,,,” Alex removed the cube, tugged the now anesthetic skin tag tight, and then snipped it off with her good scissors. “But how can I allow that and put the whole human race at risk,,,” Alex put a drop of Betadine on a Band-Aid before covering her tiny wound. “All done,,,”
“Done? That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Alex replied cheerfully as he cleaned his mess. “You can take off the Band-Aid tomorrow.”
“Kewl,” Maria replied cheerfully as she reached for her bag. “Come on! Saturn Rings, my treat.”
“Rings,” Alex sighed in agreement. This would postpone his homecoming to Isabel, but as much as he didn’t have an appetite, he hadn’t yet composed the perfect apology.
**********
Gloria parked her Focus, and giving it a disgusted look, she walked through the garage into the kitchen, but as soon as she entered the kitchen, her senses were assailed. “What the frack is that smell?”
“I’m cooking a pomegranate for Alex,” Isabel replied proudly. “It’s one of his favorite foods, and with Christmas coming, it’s in season,,,”
“You’re preparing one of his favorite foods?” Gloria asked incredulously. “When Charles screws up I make him suffer,,,”
“Alex didn’t screw up,,,” Isabel exclaimed earnestly as she charged her surrogate mom.
“Do you really want to be doing this?” Gloria asked acidly as she slowly turned her face down and looked at one of the two hands pinning her back against her new refrigerator.
Isabel, realizing the enormity of her mistake, released her and took a step back. “He didn’t screw up,” she repeated softly. “I did,,,” She held her hand up, preventing Gloria from interfering. “Everything he said was true. Nicholas and Tess were aliens,,, he did kill them,,, for me,,, for us.” Looking in Gloria’s appraising eyes, her confidence began to fade. “I know he didn’t mean me,,, he doesn’t think of me that way,,,”
“How does he think of you?” Gloria queried, confident that enough time had passed that Isabel would answer correctly.
“Our connection was open all day, we couldn’t control it. I was angry, he was contrite and hurt that I was holding him off, but I’m ready apologize when he gets home.”
“Where is he now?”
“He had to do a favor for Maria and then she took him to the Crashdown for a snack. He’s there now but he’ll be home for supper.”
“Charles?”
“He’s in the den, he brought some work home with him.”
“So now that Gloria was up to speed on the happenings in her home, she turned to the crisis at hand. “Let me see that pomegranate.” Taking the offered saucepan she looked Isabel in the eye. “How did you prepare it?”
“I washed it, peeled it, cut it in half and then cleaned out the insides. I then diced it, boiled it until it became soft, and then mashed it,,,”
“I take it this is the first time you prepared one of these?”
“Yea,” Isabel replied meekly.
“You are your mother’s daughter,” Gloria muttered as she stepped on the foot pedal for the garbage can, throwing out Isabel’s concoction pan and all. “Let me have another one.”
“What?” Isabel responded, staring wide-eyed at the now closed garbage can.
“Come on, you’re not capable of buying just one of anything,” Gloria teased while getting out a large mixing bowl and setting it in the sink. “I’m certain you bought several and then agonized while grading them in levels of near perfection before butchering your top choice, so let me have the one which was your second choice.”
Without comment, Isabel opened the refrigerator, reached inside, and handed Gloria the fruit.
Gloria reached for a chief’s knife, giving it a couple of swipes with the ceramic for good measure and then placed the pomegranate on a cutting board. Making a quick sure cut she instructed, “Cut the stem off, making sure you get all the pith off.” She then made several light cuts from end to end. “You see these ribs of pith diving it into sections? Cut the rind over the ribs, being careful not to go all the way through.” Gloria then put the knife down and moved the fruit into the mixing bowl that was now filled with slightly cool water. “Now break it into sections and gently scoop out the arils (juice pods) being careful not to break them, which is why you didn’t cut all the way through the rind.”
Isabel’s face fell as she watched Gloria throw ‘her’ part of the pomegranate in the trash. “You don’t use that at all?” she asked in alarm.
“Even with all the strange stuff I’ve seen you eat; no, you don’t want to try it,,, “Here, hold the strainer.” Gloria swirled the arils in the water, flicking odd bits of rind into the sink and then she poured the bowl through the strainer. Next she took the strainer from Isabel. “Get me a serving bowl,,, no, not the Corelle, the small china bowl with the blue glaze.” She gently poured the fruit into the offered bowl and then took it from Isabel, placing it on the counter. Next she reached for Isabel’s favorite cereal bowl, and then scooped several spoonfuls of pomegranate into it before sprinkling it with sugar. “Here, try this,” she offered.
“Oooh,” Isabel moaned as she took a taste. “Tart and sweet. I love it,,,”
“Well no more now, I don’t want you to spoil your appetite. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it on the counter, it should always be freshly prepared, and served cool, not cold.”
Isabel did as she was told, then as she rinsed out her bowl and spoon Gloria continued, “Now get out of my kitchen so I can get supper ready. Go out and bug Charles for a while,,,”
“Okay Mom, and thanks for the cooking lesson. I’m sure Alex is going to like it when he gets home,” Isabel teased as she kissed Gloria on the cheek before heading for the hallway.
“Isabel!”
“Yea,” Isabel replied with surprise as she stopped in the doorway and turned to see what Gloria wanted to add.
“Don’t let Alex off too easy,” Gloria instructed. “Men value the most that which they have to work the hardest to get.”
Isabel thought about this a moment before her face broke into a wide grin. “Then Charles must value you a lot,,,” Isabel squealed and dodged the dish towel Gloria threw at her.
**********
“Alex, stop acting like it’s the end of the world,” Maria snapped, slapping him on the shoulder for good measure before stealing one of his onion rings. “Michael and I fight all the time,,,”
“Foreplay,” Liz interjected, faking a cough into her elbow as she loaded an alien blast into the shake machine..
Alex snickered at Liz’s less than subtle dig as he turned to face Maria. “Everyone expects the two of you to fight, hell we’d be surprised if a day went by and you didn’t find a reason to holler at each other, but it’s different with Isabel and me. When Isabel gets upset, I get the old heave ho,,,”
Hearing this, Maria spun him on his seat until he faced her squarely. “You don’t believe that anymore, do you? I mean those days are gone forever, Isabel’s crazy about you,,,”
“Ria, how long have you known me? I’ve never been a ‘glass half full’ kind of guy,,,” Alex admitted softly.
“I saw her today, and she’s just as upset as you are,,,”
“I know,,,”
“She said that your connection was wide open all day and she could feel how much you loved her,,,”
“I know,,,”
“You know? Then what are you doing here?”
“She’s supposed to be home for supper. I’m composing my apology.”
“Do you know what you’re going to say yet?”
“No,” Liz interjected while leaning over the counter. “But I bet it will involve significant groveling,,,”
“I’m going to have to rub her feet,,,”
“You do foot massages?” Maria interjected excitedly.
“Don’t even think about it,” Alex retorted. “I hate feet.”
“Then why are you going to do Isabel’s,” Maria pouted.
“Now you how much trouble I’m in.”
**********
As Isabel headed towards the front of the house the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” she called out as she reached for the doorknob. Opening the door, she found two uniformed Air Force officers, hats in hand.
“Is this the Whitman residence?” the first officer asked.
“Yes,” Isabel answered cheerfully, for the first time in her life comfortable with Charles’ contemporaries.
“I have an important message for Major Charles Whitman from the Secretary of the Air Force. May we come in please?”
Isabel opened the door wide, allowing the officers to enter as she noticed Charles stepping into the hallway from the den, his face ashen. Isabel slipped into hostess mode as she ushered the men into the house and closed the door behind them. As she turned, she found Gloria grasping the frame of the kitchen doorway in support. Although she didn’t yet realize what was going on, she ran to Gloria’s side and helped her into the den where Charles had led their guest.
“My name is Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey McDaniels. I am the commander of the Five Hundred Twenty-Second Fighter Squadron based at Cannon Air Force Base. (Clovis, MN) Am I addressing Major Charles Whitman? Are you the father of Lieutenant Robert Whitman?”
Charles slid down onto the couch next to his wife. He wrapped his hand around her, pulling her head to his shoulder as he nodded yes.
“The Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, has asked me to express his deepest regrets that your son, Lieutenant Robert Whitman, has died as a result of a gunshot wound received in Fairfax County Virginia this morning,,,”
“He was shot? How the hell did that happen?” Charles demanded.
“The preliminary information we received from the Virginia State Police lead us to believe that he was shot by the Beltway Sniper,,,”
“No, NO!” Gloria screeched.
“Apparently a woman and child came under fire. Lieutenant Whitman came to their aid, leading them to cover, but he was struck himself in the process.”
The second officer stepped toward the couch, but still remaining his distance, he sat back onto his heel, lowering himself to Charles’ and Gloria’s level. After giving them a moment to come to grips with their message, he asked, “Is there anyone we can call?”
Maria noticed Alex space out, and became quite upset that some of her best material was going to waste. “I know that look,” she said sarcastically to Liz. “Even when she’s on the other side of town,,,”
“Something’s wrong,” Alex blurted out, coming out of his Izzy-gram.
“Isabel?” Liz gasped.
“I don’t think so.”
“Czechoslovakian?” Maria probed as she got up to follow.
After a moments pause he answered. “No, but she wants me home, now. I need your Jetta,” he demanded, snatching maria’s keys from the counter.
“Agnes, call upstairs and tell Mom I had to go,” Liz called out as she stripped off her antenna and apron.
“Alex, this isn’t a good time for you to drive,” Maria implored as she followed him out the front door of the Crashdown. “Why don’t you let me have my keys back,,,”
Instead Alex threw his keys to Liz and headed for the passenger door of the Jetta. As he buckled his seat belt, he turned to face Maria in the back seat. “You guys raised me so I wouldn’t go all macho on you, but as much as I might concede that this is not a good time for me to be driving, I’m certain it’s not a good time for me to give you the keys,,,” But Alex’s diatribe was cut off. He grimaced and turned forward as Liz blew through a red light and went around several corners on two wheels.
“Good plan,” Maria teased, “Except for one thing. Have you ever asked yourself why in three years no one has ever seen Liz drive?”
Alex hopped out of the car before it stopped, but the sight that awaited him froze him in his tracks. Ever since he had been a little kid growing up at Plattsburgh (Air Force Base, Plattsburgh, New York) he had nightmares of finding a blue Air Force car in front of his house. Instead of blue, this Crown Victoria was jet black, but there was no mistaking the yellow on blue military stenciled license plate. “One of my brothers is dead,” he said softly, his voice trembling.
Maria and Liz knew better than to question his pronouncement. Instead, they enveloped their childhood friend in a three way hug, giving him all the love and support they could muster, but as time wore on, Liz realized that Alex stood firm, rooted to the spot. She stepped back and pulled out her cell. “Granolith, can you reach Isabel discretely?”
“I will activate the vibrator on her cell. If she is wearing it, she should respond. If so, what message do you wish me to convey to her?”
“Text her that Alex is outside, that he is afraid to come inside. She will understand.”
Moments later the Granolith replied, “Message conveyed.”
“My son Jesse should be enroute home as we speak. Harry is in Aviano,,,”
“Major, Lieutenant Whitman’s DD-93 (Record of Emergency Data form) is up to date, and we have all of the necessary information to locate his secondary next-of-kin. If you wish, we will make the necessary notifications,,,”
Isabel felt a soft rumble at the back of her waist, and she discretely pulled out her cell where she could see it.
“Not by phone,” Gloria implored. “I don’t want them to get that call.”
“No Ma’am,” the Colonel answered softly, turning his attention to her fully. “We would make the notifications in person, within the next three hours. Simultaneously to the notification, they would be placed on emergency leave status, allowing them to requisition priority travel vouchers to get home as quickly as possible.”
By now Isabel had made her way to the window, where she could ‘notice’ the car outside. “Alex is home,” she announced as she started towards the door.
“Alex,” Gloria gasped. “How could I forget,” she muttered as she started to stand.
Isabel was in front of her in an instant, gently pushing her back into her seat. “I’ve got it,” she whispered. “You stay here and take care of Charles. Alex is my responsibility now.”
As Isabel headed for the door Gloria continued, “I need to call Rachel,,,”
“Is that something I could do for you,” the Chaplain probed gently.
“No!” Gloria insisted. “With Harry flying over Bosnia, I need to make this call myself. I don’t want her to hear an unfamiliar voice and mistakenly start to panic, thinking something’s happened to her husband.”
Isabel slowly approached the group still supporting each other in the yard. As she approached, the twins stepped to the side, opening Alex to her approach. “Who?” was all he could manage to ask.
“Robert,” Isabel answered softly, hesitating just out of reach, waiting for his reaction to guide her actions.
“Robert?” Alex gasped in amazement. “He’s CONUS! (Stationed in the CONtinental United States.) He’s at Fort Meade Maryland, one of the safest bases in the world. Have you ever been there? Even their children’s day care center is surrounded by barbed wire and is defended with it’s own dedicated guard house.”
“He,,, It was a crime, nothing connected to the military,” Isabel explained. “That’s all, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
At this point Alex façade crumbled and with their petty differences forgotten, Isabel pulled him into her arms.
TBC
Last edited by Stargazer md on Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My completed stories:
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
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Stargazer's Delight
- Newbie
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:42 am
Damn you know how to take a major change,,-
Stargazer md
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:43 pm
- Location: Seacoast New Hampshire
If you've grown up on air force bases, it's the embodyment of every childhood nightmare.
I've been planning this for about two years now, but i hoped i was able to write it so it came as a surprise,,, just like that knock on the door.
P
I've been planning this for about two years now, but i hoped i was able to write it so it came as a surprise,,, just like that knock on the door.
P
My completed stories:
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
-
Velvet Skye
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 12:04 am
- Location: Yeah! Am I really here?
-
incognito-sticks
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:13 pm
- Location: i have no idea
OMG, i DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!!!!
EXCELLENT CHAPTER
Both parts where amazing, you handled the situation with the family very well and how the offices at your door, are every families worse nightmare, especially for kids, i should know..
My dad is in the army and has been long before i was born, and on the bases it was horrible to meet kids then make friends with them, and sometimes within a couple of weeks later they are no longer in your class because their father has passed.
And the worst thing is, seeing that black car drive down your street and you pray that car doesn't stop outside your door, and carries on to someone else's, its horrible because thats another families tradgedy that you hope you never go through,but in the back of your mind it could be you, and you get a a feeling of happyness when you see the car pass your house, but a wave of guilt and sadness when it stops next door.
can't wait for the next update
p.s
Have you any experience in the air force paul, or are you yourself an army brat :D
EXCELLENT CHAPTER
Both parts where amazing, you handled the situation with the family very well and how the offices at your door, are every families worse nightmare, especially for kids, i should know..
My dad is in the army and has been long before i was born, and on the bases it was horrible to meet kids then make friends with them, and sometimes within a couple of weeks later they are no longer in your class because their father has passed.
And the worst thing is, seeing that black car drive down your street and you pray that car doesn't stop outside your door, and carries on to someone else's, its horrible because thats another families tradgedy that you hope you never go through,but in the back of your mind it could be you, and you get a a feeling of happyness when you see the car pass your house, but a wave of guilt and sadness when it stops next door.
can't wait for the next update
p.s
Have you any experience in the air force paul, or are you yourself an army brat :D
-
Stargazer md
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:43 pm
- Location: Seacoast New Hampshire
Sorry it took so long to get back and answer questions. I have had laptop problems, having burned up my back-up Dell. The Toshiba proved to be unrepairable, so I had to break down and pay for one. Lord, I miss my job recycling electronics. It was like going to a toy store every day, and I even got paid. I had my pick of equipment, all one generation old of course, but available for pennies on the dollar. So now I have a new Acer, and it is slow going getting all of the crap-ware out of it, and VISTA SUCKS.
My father is a three war veteran; WW-II, Korea, and Vietnam. He served first in the Navy, and later in the Air Force. We were stationed at Pease AFB, Portsmouth NH, McGuire AFB, Wrightstown NJ, and Suffolk County AFB near Riverhead NY, on Long Island. Early on we were scheduled to go to Albrook AFB, Balboa Panama CZ, but that turned into an unaccompanied tour when rioting broke out. While my father was there we stayed in our home town, Newmarket NH, near Pease.
We also came home to Newmarket when Dad went to Chu Lai Vietnam. The last duty station we were scheduled for was a four year tour at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. By now the Vietnam was winding down, but when Dad found out that being stationed in Hawaii meant multiple TDY’s (Temporary duty assignments) to Vietnam, he decided that he had pushed his luck enough and retired.
My Great-Grandfather was a real horse soldier, his retirement papers mention two engagements with Pancho Via. Then before that, most of my family sat out the civil war in Canada, eating turnips and trying to keep warm, but one ancestor reportedly took a stroll through Georgia that they are still talking about.
So growing up I lived three cardinal rules. Make friends easily, as people moved in and out of school on a daily basis as fathers got transferred. (Yes, women in the military were still the exception in the 60’s and 70’s) You tried to stay calm if you saw a Blue Air Force Car in base housing, so as not to upset the little ones, and if you heard an explosion and saw a plume of smoke, you ran home to the sound of ringing phones in every house because the first rule of a plane crash is to call home and tell your family you weren’t on the plane. Oh, and one more.
Play it straight and narrow in school. One of my friends got into trouble and we were all dragged to the office. I thought I was in trouble with the principal, but that was nothing compared to the mood my father was in when his lieutenant pulled him off the flight line and delivered him to the school.
My experience is a little different. I served twelve years with the Newmarket Ambulance Corps, as Operations Officer and President. The Squad was totally volunteer, and I was an EMT-D (Defibulator).
My Job with DMC recycling took me to Maryland, where we had defense contracts working for the military and other government entities. I was able to put a lot of things I learned growing up to good use. The only bad thing was that we were providing security type services but being paid out of an environmental line in the federal budget. The day George Bush was elected we knew we were in trouble. The mantra was ‘why pay to recycle this when we can sell it at auction.’
I’ll leave you with a lesson about what I used to do, and a good current events lesson at the same time. We used to work with an DoD unit called the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service. They are responsible for pretty much everything that the military is done with,,, like the Navy’s recently retired F-14 Tomcat. The aircraft go to the bone yards where they are either mothballed, or stripped of parts and scrapped. The DRMS is expected to operate at a profit, selling property back to the government or when safe selling it to the highest bidder.
In very basic terms, parts are categorized as DEMIL (Demilitirazation) code A, B, C, or D. DEMIL A is common hardware, like nuts and bolts. DEMIL B is more like a commercially available item, like a Motorola portable radio. DEMIL C property contains keypoints that must be sanitized before resale to the public. An example would be personal computing equipment, which could be sold to the public after the hard drive and other ‘keypoints’ are removed. DEMIL D is end-of-life destruction required, for example the radio altimeter of say,,, a F-14 Tomcat.
Now even DEMIL D parts can be sold or even given, back to the government, to a defense contractor, your local police department, foreign governments, so long as your paperwork is in order, so if you have been watching the news lately, you would know that there is only one other nation flying the F-14, and they are looking for parts. This sounds like a win-win. We want money, they want parts, but the US Customs Service, those spoilsports, keep seizing the parts and returning them to the DRMS. According to what I’ve read, three deals botched so far, but I imagine sooner or later they will slip by Customs, and the customer will get the parts they want.
Who flies the F-14? Iran. We gave them to them under the Shah.
First, why are we even considering selling these parts when the only country that needs them is Iran, and second, how moral is the policy of selling parts that may be used against us.
Sorry Incognito-Sticks,,,
(climbing off soapbox),,,
I was just going to explain how I was an Air Force brat/Defense contractor, but I got carried away.
P
My father is a three war veteran; WW-II, Korea, and Vietnam. He served first in the Navy, and later in the Air Force. We were stationed at Pease AFB, Portsmouth NH, McGuire AFB, Wrightstown NJ, and Suffolk County AFB near Riverhead NY, on Long Island. Early on we were scheduled to go to Albrook AFB, Balboa Panama CZ, but that turned into an unaccompanied tour when rioting broke out. While my father was there we stayed in our home town, Newmarket NH, near Pease.
We also came home to Newmarket when Dad went to Chu Lai Vietnam. The last duty station we were scheduled for was a four year tour at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. By now the Vietnam was winding down, but when Dad found out that being stationed in Hawaii meant multiple TDY’s (Temporary duty assignments) to Vietnam, he decided that he had pushed his luck enough and retired.
My Great-Grandfather was a real horse soldier, his retirement papers mention two engagements with Pancho Via. Then before that, most of my family sat out the civil war in Canada, eating turnips and trying to keep warm, but one ancestor reportedly took a stroll through Georgia that they are still talking about.
So growing up I lived three cardinal rules. Make friends easily, as people moved in and out of school on a daily basis as fathers got transferred. (Yes, women in the military were still the exception in the 60’s and 70’s) You tried to stay calm if you saw a Blue Air Force Car in base housing, so as not to upset the little ones, and if you heard an explosion and saw a plume of smoke, you ran home to the sound of ringing phones in every house because the first rule of a plane crash is to call home and tell your family you weren’t on the plane. Oh, and one more.
Play it straight and narrow in school. One of my friends got into trouble and we were all dragged to the office. I thought I was in trouble with the principal, but that was nothing compared to the mood my father was in when his lieutenant pulled him off the flight line and delivered him to the school.
My experience is a little different. I served twelve years with the Newmarket Ambulance Corps, as Operations Officer and President. The Squad was totally volunteer, and I was an EMT-D (Defibulator).
My Job with DMC recycling took me to Maryland, where we had defense contracts working for the military and other government entities. I was able to put a lot of things I learned growing up to good use. The only bad thing was that we were providing security type services but being paid out of an environmental line in the federal budget. The day George Bush was elected we knew we were in trouble. The mantra was ‘why pay to recycle this when we can sell it at auction.’
I’ll leave you with a lesson about what I used to do, and a good current events lesson at the same time. We used to work with an DoD unit called the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service. They are responsible for pretty much everything that the military is done with,,, like the Navy’s recently retired F-14 Tomcat. The aircraft go to the bone yards where they are either mothballed, or stripped of parts and scrapped. The DRMS is expected to operate at a profit, selling property back to the government or when safe selling it to the highest bidder.
In very basic terms, parts are categorized as DEMIL (Demilitirazation) code A, B, C, or D. DEMIL A is common hardware, like nuts and bolts. DEMIL B is more like a commercially available item, like a Motorola portable radio. DEMIL C property contains keypoints that must be sanitized before resale to the public. An example would be personal computing equipment, which could be sold to the public after the hard drive and other ‘keypoints’ are removed. DEMIL D is end-of-life destruction required, for example the radio altimeter of say,,, a F-14 Tomcat.
Now even DEMIL D parts can be sold or even given, back to the government, to a defense contractor, your local police department, foreign governments, so long as your paperwork is in order, so if you have been watching the news lately, you would know that there is only one other nation flying the F-14, and they are looking for parts. This sounds like a win-win. We want money, they want parts, but the US Customs Service, those spoilsports, keep seizing the parts and returning them to the DRMS. According to what I’ve read, three deals botched so far, but I imagine sooner or later they will slip by Customs, and the customer will get the parts they want.
Who flies the F-14? Iran. We gave them to them under the Shah.
First, why are we even considering selling these parts when the only country that needs them is Iran, and second, how moral is the policy of selling parts that may be used against us.
Sorry Incognito-Sticks,,,
(climbing off soapbox),,,
I was just going to explain how I was an Air Force brat/Defense contractor, but I got carried away.
P
My completed stories:
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
-
Stargazer md
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:43 pm
- Location: Seacoast New Hampshire
Stargazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 24-H There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
“The clerk is ordered to enter a finding of guilty,” Judge Lewis commanded as he slammed his gavel on his bench. “Fine set at ninety-six dollars. (71€) Pay the cashier in the lobby. Miss Holly? The next case please.”
“The next case is UCR code eighty-eight dash two-zero-zero-one dash nine dash two-six sequence number eleven. The City of Roswell verses Jason Summers.”
Jason Summers stood and looked around the courtroom nervously, but this was far from the first time Judge Lewis had to deal with a first time defendant. “Come on down, Mister Summers,” he said teasingly. “We don’t stand much on ceremony here, so just come close enough so Miss Holly can hear you, and we’ll make this as quick and painless as possible.”
Jason slowly approached the bench, but as he made eye contact with the deputy that gave him the ticket, his nerve faltered. “Maybe I’ll just sign the back of the ticket and pay the fine,,,” he stammered.
“I know what you were thinking,” the judge interjected as he leaned forward. “You were hoping that Deputy Copp wouldn’t be here and you could get your charges dismissed,,, Right?”
“Yes,,, Your Honor.”
“Well as you can see Deputy Copp is here, as well as Sheriff Valenti, myself, and Miss Holly. Now since the City of Roswell is paying all of us to be here at your beck and call, I think it’s only fitting and proper that we have ourselves a trial, don’t you agree?” he asked cheerfully.
“Yes, I guess,” Jason agreed, his nervousness fading fast in light of the Judges homespun appeal.
“Good,” Judge Lewis drawled as he settled back in his gleaming black leather chair. “Now I can guess, word for word, what Deputy Copp is going to have to say, so we’ll dispense with that for the moment and listen to your side of the story.”
“Your honor,” Jason stammered nervously. “I’m new to New Mexico, and the first thing I wanted to do when I got here was to visit Roswell. So I was driving through the desert, and I didn’t really understand that there was a speed limit out there.”
“You didn’t realize there was a speed limit?” Judge Lewis repeated skeptically. “Aren’t there speed limits where you come from Son?”
While the Judge was speaking, Jason looked over his head, at the Roswell City Seal. He could almost imagine seeing a stylized U.F.O. shaped like a New Mexico Sunburst swooping down from the nighttime sky. “No your Honor,” he replied hesitantly. “We don’t.”
“And just where do you come from?”
Jason scrambled for a name, and the first thing that popped into his mind was the manufacturer of the video capture converter that he had just installed on his computer. “I come from the planet Plextor, your Honor.”
“Really?” Judge Lewis replied laughingly. With a harrumph, he looked down at his bench and began to shuffle through the paperwork assembled there. While he was doing this, he couldn’t help but notice Sheriff Valenti trying to hide a chuckle behind his hand while Deputy Copp’s face began to turn red, but finding that the man had a spotless driving record, he decided to play along. “Well in that case, let me be the first to welcome you to planet Earth,,,”
“Your Honor!,,” Deputy Copp protested, only stopping when the Sheriff placed a restraining arm on his own.
“But speaking for all the citizens of this fair city, I need to warn you that we take our laws seriously here, we can’t have our special guest tearing up the roads and parking their spaceships wherever they damned well please,,, excuse my French Miss Holly, I didn’t mean to offend,,,”
“None taken, your Honor,” Miss Holly replied without batting an eye, for she had heard much worse pass through the good Judge’s lips over the years.
“Now, as I was saying, you never know about aliens. Those Centari,,, they really know how to throw a party.” the Judge admonished. “Last time they were here they blew up every parking meter on South Main Street.”
“I promise your Honor, when I party I park my car first, but as far as this ticket goes, I had already seen the edge of the city and started to slow down, but by then the deputy already had me,,,”
“Your Honor! Aliens?” Deputy Copp pleaded in disbelief. “You’re not buying this, are you?”
“Sheriff?”
“Why Roswell’s full of aliens Deputy,” Jim admonished. “I bump into them all the time; in fact I’ve had aliens out to the house for barbecue.”
“So I’ll tell you what I’m going to do Mister Summers. In light of your unfamiliarity with Earth’s customs, I’m going to continue this case without finding for the next six months. If I don’t see you again, the charges will be dismissed. Is that clear?” Judge Lewis advised, his voice taking on a sinister tone as he finished.
“Yes your Honor,” Jason stammered.
“Good,” the Judge declared, banging his gavel. “In that case it’s a warp.”
Jason turned to talk to Jim, who seeing the judge waiting expectantly, didn’t want to get involved in chitchat with a civilian. “Did you hear Judge Lewis bang his gavel?” he asked sarcastically.
“Yea,” Jason answered slowly.
“That’s judge-speak for ‘get the frack out of my courtroom before I change my mind,,,”
“Oh,” Jason replied as he beat a hasty retreat for the door.
“Miss Holly, you’ll drop the day’s summary by the newspaper on the way home?” Judge Lewis asked needlessly.
“Yes your Honor,” she replied. “I always do.”
“You’ll point out our special guest?”
“I will,” she continued. “I’m willing to bet Foster will have a story uploaded onto the wire services before he goes home tonight.”
“Good,,, good.”
“Next week the cover story of the National Inquisitor will be about Roswell’s ‘first ticket free’ policy for aliens,,,”
“Your Honor,” Deputy Copp protested. “What’s this all about?”
Judge Lewis looked over to Jim with a smile on his face, receiving a shrug in reply. “Deputy, you just happened to have gotten a job in a town that depends on tourism for it’s survival. Oh sure we have the cheese factory and the air center, but without tourism, this city would be nothing more than a gas station and a MacDonald’s at a highway intersection,,,”
“Then we need that forty-eight dollars now more than ever.”
“Son, that forty-eight dollars just bought us exposure on every supermarket checkout counter in the entire country. Now for my money, that’s a fair trade,” Judge Lewis concluded, banging his gavel one last time. “Now, if there are no more questions, get out. I have a card game to get to.”
**********
“Lance Corporal Whitman reporting as ordered, Sir!” Jesse barked as he braced at attention in his platoon commander’s office.
“Take a seat, Marine,” the captain commanded as he rose from behind his desk. “Gunny, please wait outside,” the officer requested of the Sergeant who had accompanied Corporal Whitman.
Jesse felt a chill run up his spine as his ass puckered. As a Marine, he was trained to face any enemy with confidence in his abilities to overcome any obstacle, but he now found himself in unfamiliar waters. Marine Corporals did not sit while officers stood, and more importantly, Marie Captains did not close their own hatches (doors) when there was an enlisted man handy to do it for them, but in the end he did as he was ordered. He sat down.
Moments later the Captain sat back behind his desk and crossed his hands. “Marine, I’m afraid I have some bad news.,,,”
Less than an hour later Jesse was driving towards San Diego airport, with instructions from his Gunny to report to the United Airlines customer service counter where he would be put on the next flight to Albuquerque. Once there, he would have to make a decision, whether to rent a car and drive through the night or to wait until morning and catch a Messa flight into Roswell. Thinking of the disruption a three AM arrival would have on his parents, he was leaning towards sleeping at the airport. He could sleep anywhere after all, he was a Marine.
**********
As midnight approached, Isabel slowly walked through the quiet house, surveying her domain. She had already looked in on Charles and Gloria, gracing them with a deep dreamless slumber that would give them rest that that they would desperately need over the next several days.
Her rounds finished, she found herself at Alex’s bedside. She considered climbing in besides him, wondering if Gloria might grant dispensation in light of the circumstances, but decided that incurring the wrath of the house’s alpha female was not worth the risk, especially when she had a much safer way of spending the night with him.
Isabel decided that it was time for another pillow swap, as his scent was fading from her linens. She scooted to the linen closet and covered her own pillows with fresh crisp pillow cases. Her task completed, she returned to his bedside.
“Lift your head, Sweetie,” Isabel softly commanded as she eased Alex’s pillow out from under his head, replacing it with the fresh one, but as she went to replace his second pillow, a smile crossed her face. She took her own second pillow and ran back to her room. Safely alone, Isabel slipped her panties down her legs and sprayed them with her Lady Grace perfume. ‘’What Gloria doesn’t know won’t hurt her,’ Isabel thought as she slipped the warm garment into the clean pillow case before returning to Alex’s room.
“Turn onto your side,” she asked softly, and as he complied, she set the pillow against his chest. She watched as Alex hugged the pillow against his chest, and as it settled against his face, he took a deep breath, a smile crossing his face. Next she pulled his comforter up, tucking it around his neck for Charles was as frugal with the heat as he was with the air conditioning.
“I’ll be with you in just a moment, Sweetie,” she said softly before gently kissing him good night and returning to her own bed. “I think we’ll take the girls swimming tonight.”
After a rambunctious afternoon at the pool back at Balmorhea State Park, Alex found himself sitting at their campsite with his girls while Isabel made a quick run into Toyahvale, Texas to purchase food for an evening cookout. Both of his daughters were exhausted, and before leaving Isabel had instructed that everyone, Daddy included, take a nap.
Alex was resting in the only spot of shade in the camp site, his back against a large Velvet Mesquite tree. Despite the heat, both Andy and Cassie wanted to curl up in their dad’s lab, but the girls had grown to a point where they wouldn't fit together. “You can sit on Daddy’s lap,” Andy told Cassie. “You’re Daddy’s little girl.”
Cassie crawled into Alex’s lap in innocent bliss of her sisters words, but Alex had heard the hurt that was there. “Come on Princess,” Alex implored while holding out his arm. “Daddy’s always going to have room for everyone.”
Andy’s face lit up as she snuggled into her father’s side, and with his family happy for the moment, the Whitman’s fell asleep.
“Charcoal’s ready!” Alex called out.
“Cheese-burger! Cheese-burger! Cheese-burger!” Andy and Cassie chanted as they danced around the campsite.
“Girls, stay away from the grill,” Isabel instructed.
Alex, wearing his wife’s ‘kiss the cook’ apron, turned to face Isabel, communicating silently before adding, “I need the corn first.”
Isabel made eye contact before raising her brows in question, Receiving a slight nod in reply, she called Andy over and handed her the platter of carefully prepared corn. “Okay Sweetheart, bring this over to Daddy, but be careful. Your Uncle Max isn’t here to take care of you if you get burned on the grill.”
“I’ll be careful, Mommy,” Andy replied solemnly.
Alex took the platter from his daughter, placing it on the grill’s sideboard before scooping her up in his arms. “You know the rules little girl. You have to kiss the cook,” he teased as he rubbed his cheek against hers.
“Daddy, your cheek scratches,” Andy replied laughingly.
“Okay then, I’ll let you off easy,” he teased as he kissed her on the forehead before putting her down. “Now go back to Mommy.”
After dark Alex was sitting in front of the fire, listening to his beautiful wife as she read to Cassie in their tent when he felt, more than heard, Andy approach. “Come on Princess,” he beckoned, sweeping her up with an arm and settling her on his lap. He let her wiggle a moment to get comfortable, but as soon as she snuggled in against him, he wrapped his arms around her and bent to kiss the top of her head. “That was a very nice thing you did today, letting Cassie sit on my lap.”
“That’s okay,” she silently pouted. “She’s the little girl.”
“Andy,” Alex said softly as he again kissed her head, “Cassie may be a little younger than you are, but you’re both my little girls. You’ll always be my little girl,” he continued, kissing her head again.
“But Daddy, I’m older!”
“Um-hum,” he replied, giving another kiss, “But little girls never get old. Have you ever watched Mommy when Grampy Phillip comes to visit? Mommy always makes sure that she spends some time alone with her Daddy because your Mommy is still her daddy’s little girl. Some visits she lets him take her out to dinner, and other visits they only have time to take a walk around the block, but Mommy always has time for him,,,”
“Mommy says that we can’t fix the broken light over the table,” Andy advised shyly. “She said she is saving it for Grampy.”
“That’s right. The next time Grampy visits, Mommy will complain about that bulb, and Grampy will get the step ladder and replace it with a new bulb,,,”
“But doesn’t Grampy know that Mommy could fix it by just touching it?” Andy asked in wonder.
“Ah yes,” Alex answered, loving how his daughter was growing so insightful so fast, and needing to give her another kiss. “Grampy knows that Mommy could fix the bulb, but he also knows that she saved it for him because she loves him and she still needs him to fix things for her because she’s still his little girl even though she had two little girls of her own.”
“So no matter how old Mommy gets, she’ll always be Grampy’s little girl?”
“Um-hum,” Alex answered with another kiss.
“And I’ll always be your little girl?”
“Um-hum.” Another kiss.
“Even when I’m so old I have boobies like Mommy and I’m in high school?”
Alex groaned at the thought of his precious daughter all grown up and at the hands of a bunch of West Roswell High hornball jocks. “You’re never getting boobs like your Mom, and you’re never going to high school,” Alex declared, clutching her tight to his chest.
“Daddy! Too tight,” Andy complained, causing her father to instantly let go. “Daddy! Too loose,” Andy next whined.
Alex crossed one hand over his other, calling on years of practice and got his grip just right.
“I’m always going to be your little girl,” Andy declared, and with the crisis of the day settled, she turned her head, resting her cheek against her father’s strong chest, and went to sleep.
Alex held his daughter and alternated between watching the flickering fire and the stars crossing the inky sky. Amazingly, the night never grew cold, and the logs were never consumed even as the crescent moon rose in the east and set in the west. His mind was blank of all thoughts until his wife faded into view next to him. Despite their desert setting, she was sitting in his computer chair, dressed in his shirt from the day before, over, well he couldn’t tell what else she was wearing, her legs were crossed modestly. “Thank you for this,” he whispered. “Thank you for all of this.”
“Don’t thank me,” she replied softly. “This is your dream. I was going to join you, but by the time I got here you were having so much fun I figured I would just stay back and observe.”
“I did this? There’s so much detail,,, It’s so perfect.”
“Your mind needed a time out,” Isabel answered. “It gave you what you needed most,,,”
“Aren’t you cold?,,”
“Sweetie,” Isabel teased. “I don’t think you’re even capable of letting me be cold in one of your dreams.” Having said that she slinked out of her chair, exposing a lot of pantyless flank before squatting down next to him. “Here, let me take her,,,”
“No! Don’t take her from me,” Alex exclaimed in panic, holding her more tightly, but not tight enough to wake her.
Isabel, realizing that this conversation wasn’t over, settled back onto her heel. “Sweetie, I would never take her from you, but it’s morning, and your dream’s just about over. It’s time to get up.”
“Promise me we’ll have this!”
Isabel’s eyes grew wide. “Do you need this,,, now?” she asked nervously.
“Now?” Alex answered in shock. “You would do that?”
“If that’s what you wanted,” Isabel said softly, reaching out and caressing her daughter’s hair. “I’m not due for my period for about a year, that would give us time to adjust,,,”
“Izzy,,,”
“I could talk to the Granolith, maybe there’s a way to speed the process along,,,” her voice faltered as her mind started planning.
“Izzy!” Alex insisted as he took her chin in his hand and gently pulled it down. “Careful, or you’re going to bite through your lip.
Isabel looked into his eyes, and seeing his love for her there, her confidence returned. If he wanted his family now, she would gladly give it to him.
“Not now,” he said softly but firmly. “I still want time to be a couple before we’re a family. There are so many things I want to do with you,,, so many places I want to show you,,, but promise me we’ll still have this.”
“Sweetie,” Isabel answered, her face falling. “I can’t promise you that which I don’t have the power to give. I can’t control the future outside on my realm, but I swear to you, I want this future as badly as you do, and I will work as hard as you do to achieve it.”
Alex’s face broke into a beautiful smile. “That’s enough, in fact that’s more than most people have a right to ask for; besides, I seem to remember that you wanted me to make love to you ten thousand times before we start having to worry about night time feedings.”
“Oh how nice and human of you to think of me that way,” Isabel said tenderly as she reached out and caressed his cheek. “You just remember that your heart and soul felt ‘making love’ is part of a good hard body bruising fracking that leaves me awash on a pool of sweat and you gasping for your next breath and we’ll get along just fine.”
“Izzy!” Alex complained as his face turned red while he struggled to cover his daughters ears.
“Prude! You know you like it as much as I do,” she teased as she leaned forward and took their sleeping daughter. “Mommy’s going to put you in your sleeping bag and tuck you in,” she said softly, kissing Andy’s forehead. Seeing Alex start to stand, she turned back to face him, “No! I’m not ready for you yet. You just sit there a moment and watch the fire.
Isabel’s eyes opened slowly, but once she was fully awake, she bounded out of her bed and scurried into her bathroom. Within moments she had brushed her teeth, used mouthwash, and combed the worst of the bed-head out of her golden mane. This done, she hesitated at her door. She sharpened her senses for a moment, then despite finding that everyone else who was upstairs was still asleep, she gripped the hem of Alex’s shirt and pulled it a couple of inches lower. This accomplished she scurried across the hall and knelt by Alex’s bed.
Alex looked up from the fire to find Isabel sitting on her heel in front of him. She reached out, touched his cheek, and advised, “Time to wake up.” Alex opened his eyes to find Isabel waiting for him. “Good morning Sweetie.”
“Good morning,” He replied tenderly as he rolled forward for the first kiss of the day.
“You know, it’ll only take a moment to stroll through the house, knock everyone out, and then we can get going on that ten thousand,” she teased.
“Izzy,” he replied regretfully. “There’s so much we got to do today,,,”
In response she stood and lifted the hem of his shirt, showing off her golden curls that he insisted she keep untamed. “Are you sure about that?,,”
“One of these days you’re going to kill me with that thing,” he moaned as he crawled out of bed and headed for the hallway bathroom.
**********
The rest of the day proved to be quite tumultuous at the Whitman household, with all the comings and goings of the rapidly growing household, but this all went on without Alex and Isabel, as Gloria had insisted that they attend school. “You’ve already going to miss far too many classes due to your business,” she stated. “So get out of my way and let me get some work done.
By the time the teens arrived home from school, Jesse was ensconced in the kitchen, systematically pillaging the refrigerator, but when he caught a glance of Isabel, he did a double take. “Alice,” he said in surprise. “Who’s this, your study-buddy?”
“Isabel Evans,” she explained as she stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m Alex’s fiancé.”
“Fiancé?” Jesse gasped. “You?,, Him?,,”
“Yea, I know,” Isabel said with a sweet smile. “Some days I can hardly believe that he’ll be in the same room with me, but I’ve got him now, and I’ll never let him go.”
“You’ll never let him go?,,”
Meanwhile Alex had been ignoring the sparing match between his wife and brother, fully realizing that she didn’t need any help from him. Instead he had walked over to look out the back window. “Rachel!” he said happily.
With Jesse dismissed and forgotten, Isabel turned her attention to Alex. “Your sister-in-law?”
“Yea, and the kids,” he replied reaching for her hand. “Come on, I’ll introduce you.”
**********
“Phillip,” Charles asked softly. “Gloria and I would like it if you would be one of Robert’s bearers.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you. We’ve also asked Jim, so that will make three airedales, one squid, a jarhead plus Alex the hose-dragger.”
“I haven’t had my uniform on since I left the Navy,” Charles quipped. “I’ll have to get some help from Isabel to make it fit.”
“Did you know that Jim made Staff Sergeant during the three years he was in?”
“’E-Four’ during one enlistment? He must have been cruising,” Phillip commented. “I just put in my hitch and got out.”
“Phil, no one’s going to give a rats ass if you were Seaman Apprentice, we’d be appreciative if you would help out.”
“I would be honored,” Phillip answered sincerely.
**********
Gloria came down the stairs, and the first thing that struck her was silence. With Rachel in the house, or more accurately, with Rachel’s children in the house, silence was an ominous thing.
Gloria walked up to the kitchen window. “What are you looking at?” she asked of her daughter-in-law. “Where are the kids?”
“They’re out back with Alex and Isabel,” she replied.
“Oh No,” Gloria exclaimed. “You’re not letting my kids take care of your kids, are you?” She looked out the window and her worse fears were confirmed. “Charles! Get down here! Now!”
“What’s the matter?” Rachel asked. “They’re both fantastic with the little ones. Besides Alex can gain some points with Isabel if she sees that he’s good with kids. Nothing stirs a woman’s nest building mo-jo like seeing her man being all tender with a little one in his arms.”
“Alex doesn’t need any mo-jo points with Isabel,” Gloria said with disdain.
“And Alex can barely handle her mo-jo at it’s current level. He doesn’t need you ratcheting it up on him,” Charles moaned as he walked into the kitchen. “That poor kid burns up a year’s worth the will power every time he’s in the same room as her. Is this discussion what you called me down for?” he asked of his wife.
“Look,” Gloria said simply as she pointed out the back window.
Charles walked over, leaned over the sink, and looked out the window. “Aww Crap!” he exclaimed. “I’m going to have to stay up all night prying her off him with a crowbar.”
“Not if they want to get together,” Gloria sighed. “If she gets him to give in and you stand in the way, she’ll take that crow bar away from you and shove it up your ass sideways,,,”
“I know, that’s what I’m afraid of,” Charles said, calming down.
“You’re not afraid of her, are you?” Rachel asked in amazement.
“Let me put it this way,” Charles said, getting a beer out of the fridge while pushing the image of Isabel blasting their computer to the back of his mind. “If anything were ever to happen to Alex again, I wouldn’t want to be caught in front of her when she went to him.”
“Why?” Rachel asked, clearly confused. “What happened?”
“Harry didn’t tell you what happened?” Getting a shake of the head in response, Gloria settled at the table with a mug of hot tea, and waved to the opposite seat. Once Rachel had sat down, she continued. “We went on a cruse over the Memorial day weekend. While we were gone, Alex was hurt. Isabel terrorized the hospital. She demanded and got him the best of care, and then brought him home and didn’t let him out of her sight for three days.”
“She took his clothes and shoes away from him so he had to stay home like the doctor ordered,” Charles added. “I honestly think that she was reluctant to give him back to us when we got home. Then several weeks later she wasn’t satisfied that he was recovering properly, so she defied us, her own parents, and the doctors here in Roswell. She dragged him down to a specialist in Las Cruces and got him taken care of.”
“What was wrong?” Rachel asked with concern.
Charles looked to Gloria who shook her head. “To this day I don’t think anyone knows exactly what was going on, with the exception of his having some memory issues, which were so subtle that we didn’t notice them until Isabel pointed them out to us, but she’s watching him like a hawk, making sure it doesn’t happen again,,,” she explained, allowing her voice to trail off, not wanting to even mention his latest hospital experience.
“Not to mention the fact that they had a brush with the law a couple of months ago and now the entire city council is afraid of her,” Gloria concluded.
“Wait a minute,” Rachel protested. “You’re making them sound like a couple of super heroes.”
“No, not super heroes,” Gloria explained, “But certainly special. “Alex came home from his first day of school here almost eight years ago and announced that he had met the girl that he was going to marry. Isabel took a little longer, but her heart is now set on Alex, and she will never let go of him again.”
“So their high school sweethearts,” Rachel prompted, warming to the subject. “I had one, but I have to admit that my parents never let us spend as much time together as you do.”
“In the past six months,” Charles recounted proudly, “Those two kids have traveled to Boston and declined full ride scholarships to two of the best schools in the country because they didn’t fit in with their plans. When they returned home they set up an early admissions program here in New Mexico,,,”
“A college two thousand miles closer to home,” Gloria interrupted with a smile on her face.
“Then this summer,” Charles continued, “They took a school project and converted it into a company that has made them more money than Gloria and I combined have made so far this year, all the while maintaining their standing at the head of their class. Yet while they’ve been charting their future, they have also been contributing to the community. Isabel continues to work at the homeless shelter and the community center, while Alex has joined the volunteer call company of the fire department.”
“But they’re still kids,” Rachel protested.
“They’re kids who are engaged, and are already buying a house in Albuquerque for when they start college. They could move out tomorrow, if they wanted to,” Gloria responded. “They are here because they want to be, “
“So they are going to be in Albuquerque?”
“Yea, as soon as they start college.”
“Good,” Rachel replied thoughtfully. “You know Harry is trying to get stationed at Kelly (Air Force Base, Albuquerque) when he gets home. It would be good to have family close by.”
**********
At Washington DC’s Dulles airport, David Black Wolf settled down into his spacious seat in the first class cabin of United Airline’s flight seven eighty-three. Having caught the red-eye flight into DC early this morning and meeting with a critical customer all day, he was tired, sore, hungry, and impatient to get home. Looking over his shoulder he saw that while the line of passengers entering the plane had ended, the cabin door was still open. Being a seasoned traveler, he decided to test the limits of the flight attendants preferential treatment of first class customers by leaving his seat and walking to the gallery to ask for a drink.
“Excuse me Miss, would it be possible,,,” but his question died on his lips as he saw the stairway door on the jet-walk open and a young Air Force officer step through, entering the aircraft. Taking note of the officers Class-A uniform, the shiny silver bar on his lapels, and especially his white gloved hands, he turned back to the flight attendant, all timidness gone from his voice. “Who’s in charge here?” he demanded.
“I am,” an older flight attendant answered.
“You will take the Lieutenant to my seat in first class, make him comfortable, and see to his every need. Is that clear?”
Ignoring the confused look on the young man’s face the senior attendant hesitated only a moment before answering, “Yes sir, but first class is full. We don’t have another seat for you.”
“That’s okay,” he answered. “I have a sudden craving to ride in coach.”
“Lieutenant, would you follow me please,” the senior attendant asked solicitously.
“Semper Fi, Lieutenant,” said the businessman as a different flight attendant led him to his new seat, and as he settled into the cramped coach seat next to a young woman holding a crying baby on her lap he realized that compared to the mission the young officer was on, his day could have been a lot worse.
**********
Isabel was a little worried about Alex. He had sat through the entire game of Jeopardy without answering a single question and now that the show was over, it didn’t look like the situation was getting any better. “Come on out back,” she prompted as she stood and tugged on his arm. “I’ll let you feel me up while we wrestle.”
“Okay, I’m coming,” Alex replied as he slowly stood. “You don’t need to pull my arm out of it’s socket.” Although he acted as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulder, Alex was secretly happy to go out back with Isabel. First, he was indeed in a funk, and he knew it, but more importantly, he was still a teenaged boy, and happy for any excuse to feel Isabel up.
“And just where do you two think you’re going?” Gloria demanded as they passed through the kitchen.
“We’re going out to the back yard,” Isabel replied confidently. “I’m going to let him practice some moves on me.”
Gloria was long accustomed to their little wrestling matches, but while she was sure that some groping was going on, both accidental and intentional, she had enough men in the house to realize that the ‘training’ they were doing on a quite regular basis was serious, and in fact dangerous if they weren’t careful. She willingly accepted this though, as part of the price Isabel paid for her safety. “You just be careful,” she warned. “One of these days you’re going to kill him and then you’ll have no one to play with,” she added teasingly.
“I know,” Isabel replied haughtily. “Men are just like a favorite pair of jeans. It takes years to get them just right and then the ass falls out of them and you have to throw them out,,,”
“I’m standing right here,” Alex interjected.
“Well you need to take better care of him than your favorite jeans,” Gloria cautioned. “It took me years to get him ready for you, and I have neither the time nor the desire to go through that again. In fact if I were to go through that again, I’d try for a girl.”
“I can hear every word your saying,” Alex added, not that either woman was listening.
“Well you don’t have anything to worry about,” Isabel teased, obviously for Alex’s benefit. “As long as I have these,,,” she said, pointing to her breasts, I can get all of those,,,” she continued, pointing towards Alex’s crotch, “I want.”
“Hey!”
“You should switch to plastic,” Gloria countered, also happy for a moments levity on a dark day. “It’s easier to keep clean, batteries cost less than food, and you can always slip the neighbor boy a couple of bucks to take the trash out and mow the lawn,,,”
“MOM!!!”
“Yea,” Isabel replied with a smile, relenting and pulling Alex into a warm sideways hug. “But plastic won’t snuggle and keep you warm on a cold night,,,”
Gloria’s face clouded over and a single brow shot up at this admission.
“Or so I imagine,” Isabel giggled as she dragged him out the back door.
Alex had just finished showing Isabel a throw when Jesse made his presence known. “I’m impressed Alice. It’s about time you got your ass out from in front of a computer. Of course with a girlfriend like Isabel, it’s about time you learned to defend yourself, or more importantly, her.”
“I’ve always been able to take care of myself,” Alex protested
Alex and Jesse spent several minutes sparring, and while Alex was coming out the worse for wear, he kept coming back for more. Alex was not in the same league as his brother, who was after all a Marine Rifleman, meaning that combat arms was his only specialty, but Alex was slowly impressing his brother, not that he would ever admit it.
Showing off for Isabel, Jesse became complacent, and tried the same move on Alex twice in a row, learning to his sorrow that his brother was a quick learner. The proof of this was the fact that he found himself on his back, looking up.
“My, my,” Isabel teased, proud of her husband. “High school boy flips Marine.”
“That means nothing,” Jesse replied defensively. “This isn’t real. You’re making the mistake of assuming your enemies are going to fight you fair on a field of honor. That only happens in movies. In the real world, fighting is a dirty business,,,”
“The point is to avoid getting physical at all,” Isabel instructed. “If you need to go hand-to-hand, it means your best defensive tactics have already failed.”
“Well, that may be true, for ugly chicks,” Jesse replied sarcastically. “But there are bad guys out there who don’t play by the rules, and more importantly, bad things happen to good people every day. Now Alex’s hit and dodge tactics may work for him, because the puke attacking him isn’t going to get into a pitched battle for a teenager’s near empty wallet, but someone who looks like you, they’re going to rape. If some dickwad get you on the ground, your battle is just beginning, because he’s probably going to have a hundred pounds on you, and by now, he’s probably worked up a rage and is motivated.”
“Rape isn’t about looks, it’s about power. But make no mistake. If that dickwad gets me on the ground, I’ll be motivated, and I’ll show him power,” Isabel replied coldly.
“Good,” Jesse said with a smile. “I’m not one to believe the someone should just lie back and submit to their destiny,,,”
“Destiny is overrated,” Alex interjected.
“Okay Alice, so you got her on the ground,” Jesse challenged. “Now what are you going to do?”
“Hugh?” Alex answered in amazement.
“You got her on the ground, now you want her on her back, that’s where the goodies are, but you,” he continued, pointing towards Isabel, “You want to be on your side,,,”
“Why my side?”
“If he gets you face down you’re pretty much defenseless, but you’re not much better when you’re flat on your back, so when he tries to roll you, that’s the time to fight him. As he’s forcing you over, you want to curl up, stay on your side,,,”
“Why her side?”
“Because that is her best defensive position. Curled on her side she can protect her head between her arms or pull her knees up to protect her torso.” He turned towards Isabel. “Pull your heels up to your ass with your knees in tight to your chest, then if you can sense where he is, kick behind you with your heels, using your thighs for power. Strike back with your elbows. Aim towards the sound of his voice, striking towards his face. Strike his belly where he is soft. Strike at his knees, the weakest joint in his body.”
“If he is in front of you, hit him with the heels of your hands and with your knees, putting all the power of your thighs into it. When you get an opening, escape. Don’t try to punish him, and it’s not your job to catch him. Just get away and run. Run as if the devil’s after you.”
“Show me,” Isabel demanded.
“Okay,” Jesse replied. “I’m going to make the same move on you that Alex just tried, you try the same counter.”
“Be careful with her Jesse,” Alex warned. "I wouldn’t want to have to hurt you.”
Jesse ignored him as he grabbed Isabel, who easily countered his move. “Okay, that’s self defense for beginners, so lets see what happens when your attacker knows the counter.”
Isabel took a deep breath then nodded that she was ready. Without warning Jesse attacked, but when Isabel countered, she missed. Instead she found herself flying through the air, landing heavily on the lawn. Moments later, Jesse was on his knees besides, but not yet touching her.
“No!” he barked. “The moment he comes down, you need to decide if you can escape or if you need to fight. If you can’t get away, move in closer to me, with your back towards me. Make sure you’re close enough to strike back.”
“Again,” Isabel demanded.
This time Jesse held nothing back, and despite the fact that the attack had been requested, the violence of the attack scared the living shit out of Alex. Isabel had adapted her defense to Jesse’s last attack, but again she failed to connect, for he had again changed his attack. This time he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her across his hip.
Isabel wasn’t fazed by his attack. She had already seen more real combat than her attacker, and more importantly she was motivated to defend herself and her family. The moment Jesse came down next to her, she rolled to her side with her back to him, curled into a defensive ball as he expected. Before he could touch her, she struck back with her upper elbow, hitting the outside of his lower thigh, just above his knee. For good measure, she added a healthy dose of power to her blow.
Jesse roared as he felt a lightning bolt of pain shoot up his leg, but his amazement turned to shock as he realized that Isabel had learned her lesson all to well. Not the lesson that he had articulated, but the lesson that he had demonstrated. Two times now he had changed his tactic and committed to an attack that Isabel had not anticipated, and now Isabel was using that tactic against him. Having bolted uptight as a result of the pain inflicted to his leg, he was not close enough to Isabel to prevent her from rolling onto her back. Her knees were curled tight to her chest, but she was spinning on her back, bringing her feet into battery.
Before Jesse could move, Isabel switched from the defensive to the offensive, putting every ounce of force she could muster in the most powerful muscles of her body into a kick directed towards Jesse’s soft belly. Before her legs were even half extended, the heels of her boots dug deep.
Jesse found himself being tossed backwards gasping for breath, but Isabel’s offensive wasn’t over yet. Like a cat she rolled to her knees and launched herself, landing on him and rolling him onto his stomach. She grabbed his arm, and before he could react, she bent it up behind his shoulder.
Isabel was amazed at how fast Jesse reacted. Maybe he was aware of what she was doing, but it was much more likely a combination of instinct and training. His arm felt like a tree trunk as he simply used raw strength to power out of her hold, signaling to her that it was time to get out of Dodge; but it was now a fact. A high school girl had pinned a Marine, even if for only a moment.
Isabel sprung to her feet, slamming into Alex, who had been coming in for his own attack. Knowing that she didn’t have time to explain, much less calm the blood fury in his eyes, Isabel slammed through their connection, escalating it instantly into the super connection level. “No!” she commanded, pulling him back several feet.
Superb physical training allowed Jesse to recover quickly, but when he stood he was still a little wobbly in his sore leg.
“Attack, incapacitate, and escape,” Isabel declared. “I’m already a block away, and having run in the desert heat every day for the past year, I’ll take my chances that I’ll stay ahead of you, especially with your sore knee,,,”
Charles had been looking out the window, and seeing seen Jesse drag Isabel down by her hair, he came charging out of the house, loaded for bear. “What the frack are you doing?” he shouted as he stormed into the yard looking for a weapon. “You hurt her and I’ll break that thick skull of yours wide open,” he added, hoisting a baseball bat.
“Pops, why is it that whenever you or Mom come near me you have a hunk of aluminum in your hands?” Jesse gasped, bent nearly in half.
“Fracking jarhead,” Alex muttered as he checked his wife for damage.
“He was just showing me a move,” Isabel demurred as she rubbed her shoulder.
“You treat your brother with respect,” Charles commanded as he turned on Alex. “He’s serving his country.”
“Pops, how many times have you said the only good Marine is one you throw out of the back of your airplane,,,”
“God damned Air Force pukes,” Jesse muttered. “You look like a fracking Greyhound bus driver in your plane-jane uniforms,,,”
“I served!” Charles snapped back. “I earned the right to call him a fracking asshole. You join the service and then you can swap insults. “’Till then, you treat the shit-head with respect,,,
“Fracking hosehead,,,” Jesse spat back.
“Now just a fracking minute,” Charles snapped as he made an abrupt about face. “Your brother has been injured twice while serving this city while I’ve never seen you do anything around here but chase cheerleaders,,,”
“STOP IT!” Isabel shouted. “Jesus Fracking Christ, Gloria’s been feeding you guys too much red meat. “Jesse, thank you for your help, but as you can see we’re doing fine on our own.” She turned towards Alex. “Get your keys. You’re taking me out for an ice cream,” and then she finally addressed Charles. “And you, go get yourself a bourbon before you have a heart attack.”
Seeing that all three men just stood there looking at her, she jammed her fist into her hips. “Now!”
Already having his keys, Alex reached out and took her hand, leading her towards the front of the house and the driveway.
“No wonder your mother turned out the way she did,” Isabel complained. “And there were four of you?”
‘Actually five, at least when Pops was home,’ Alex thought to himself, but he knew better than to say anything out loud for the moment.
**********
As United flight seven eighty-three settled on the end of runway twenty-six at the Albuquerque International Sunport, several of the passengers took note of the time in surprise. “We’re almost an hour early,” one said happily.
“Thank God,” his seatmate replied. “I usually end up missing my connection here,” but his glee turned to shock as he saw the cockpit door open and the captain enter the cabin. It was rare that the cockpit door was opened while an aircraft was in motion, and since 9-11, it never happened.
~~“,,,We know that there are many choices for your air travel needs,”~~ the flight attendant droned on from the mid-cabin bulkhead as she wrapped up her arrival announcement, ~~“And we want to thank you for choosing United. I am now going to ask you to settle down and stay in your seats for a brief announcement from the Captain.”~~ Now finished, she handed the microphone to the pilot.
~~“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is David Anderson, and in addition to being a captain with United Air Lines, I am also a major in the Air Force Reserves.”~~ He paused a moment to take a deep breath before continuing. ~~“We have been given the privilege of bringing a young Air Force officer, who has been killed while serving his country, home to his family. When we arrive at the terminal I am going to ask that you all stay in your seats and allow his honor guard to perform their duty.
~~“I assure you that we have received preferential treatment from the FAA for the entire flight allowing us to arrive early, making sure that despite this delay you will all have plenty of time for you to make your connections and meet your loved ones. So for the moment I’m going to ask you to remain in your seats, refrain from the use of electronic devices, and pay a moment of respect for this brave airman.”~~
As he hung up the microphone, he saw that the cabin door was ready to be opened. As the flight attendant disarmed the escape chute he leaned into the first class cabin. “Lieutenant, we’re ready for you.”
The pilot led the lieutenant out of the cabin, and as soon as they stepped onto the jet-walk, he opened the door, allowing them to take a short stairway down to the tarmac. On the opposite side of the aircraft, the United ground crew finished opening the cargo door and placed the luggage conveyor in place as a State Police cruiser leading a glistening black hearse followed by a white airport van pulled up next to the plane. As the pilot and the lieutenant moved towards the end of the conveyor, the honor guard stepped out of the van and marched to plane. Two members of the United flight crew met the honor guard, and then helped two of the airmen, one carrying a flag, scramble into the hold.
The pilot watched with approval as his co-workers reverently moved the coffin to the cargo door, pausing while the honor guard unfolded the flag and draped it over their fallen comrade. This task finished, the airmen scooted back down and took their place at the foot of the conveyor. As this was happening, the pilot waved the rest of the ground crew and the state trooper into a line in front of his aircrafts wing, and waited for the honor guard to get into position..
“Ten-Hut!” he commanded softly as he raised his hand in salute. The honor guard snapped to attention, their arms at their side, the lieutenant and the trooper also saluted, while the ground crew stood rigidly, doffing their hats. With everyone in position, he nodded towards the crew members in the hold, and they activated the conveyor, gently guiding their precious cargo onto the slowly moving belt.
The head flight attendant had never seen a cabin full of passengers act so quietly as they lined the windows, watching the honor guard lift the flag draped coffin and carry it across the tarmac before passing the coffin hand to hand as they loaded it into the back of the hearse.
“Tu!” the pilot commanded, and as they lowered their arms, the trooper stepped forward, joining the two officers before they marched to the front of the hearse. As the honor guard closed up the rear of the vehicle, the pilot reached over and opened the passenger door, holding it for the lieutenant as the trooper marched to his cruiser. His duties finished, the pilot returned to his ground crew and watched as the vehicles started up and moved away. As soon as they were out of sight of the aircraft, he looked up at the windows and nodded.
~~“Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Captain, I would like to thank you for you patience. You are now free to deplane.”~~
TBC
Photo links:
Charles’ AUG-A1
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... AUG-A1.jpg
Firefighter Alex Taylor, Alex’s rescuer when he was shot at the Kettle’s
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... Taylor.jpg
Isabel’s Floating Heart, a gift from Alex after Prom
http://www.kheigl.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi? ... t/kh34.jpg
Courtesy Khegil.com
Isabel’s Earrings, Alex’s present for her Eighteenth birthday.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... arings.jpg
Isabel’s Engagement Ring
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... sring2.jpg
Chapter 24-H There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
“The clerk is ordered to enter a finding of guilty,” Judge Lewis commanded as he slammed his gavel on his bench. “Fine set at ninety-six dollars. (71€) Pay the cashier in the lobby. Miss Holly? The next case please.”
“The next case is UCR code eighty-eight dash two-zero-zero-one dash nine dash two-six sequence number eleven. The City of Roswell verses Jason Summers.”
Jason Summers stood and looked around the courtroom nervously, but this was far from the first time Judge Lewis had to deal with a first time defendant. “Come on down, Mister Summers,” he said teasingly. “We don’t stand much on ceremony here, so just come close enough so Miss Holly can hear you, and we’ll make this as quick and painless as possible.”
Jason slowly approached the bench, but as he made eye contact with the deputy that gave him the ticket, his nerve faltered. “Maybe I’ll just sign the back of the ticket and pay the fine,,,” he stammered.
“I know what you were thinking,” the judge interjected as he leaned forward. “You were hoping that Deputy Copp wouldn’t be here and you could get your charges dismissed,,, Right?”
“Yes,,, Your Honor.”
“Well as you can see Deputy Copp is here, as well as Sheriff Valenti, myself, and Miss Holly. Now since the City of Roswell is paying all of us to be here at your beck and call, I think it’s only fitting and proper that we have ourselves a trial, don’t you agree?” he asked cheerfully.
“Yes, I guess,” Jason agreed, his nervousness fading fast in light of the Judges homespun appeal.
“Good,” Judge Lewis drawled as he settled back in his gleaming black leather chair. “Now I can guess, word for word, what Deputy Copp is going to have to say, so we’ll dispense with that for the moment and listen to your side of the story.”
“Your honor,” Jason stammered nervously. “I’m new to New Mexico, and the first thing I wanted to do when I got here was to visit Roswell. So I was driving through the desert, and I didn’t really understand that there was a speed limit out there.”
“You didn’t realize there was a speed limit?” Judge Lewis repeated skeptically. “Aren’t there speed limits where you come from Son?”
While the Judge was speaking, Jason looked over his head, at the Roswell City Seal. He could almost imagine seeing a stylized U.F.O. shaped like a New Mexico Sunburst swooping down from the nighttime sky. “No your Honor,” he replied hesitantly. “We don’t.”
“And just where do you come from?”
Jason scrambled for a name, and the first thing that popped into his mind was the manufacturer of the video capture converter that he had just installed on his computer. “I come from the planet Plextor, your Honor.”
“Really?” Judge Lewis replied laughingly. With a harrumph, he looked down at his bench and began to shuffle through the paperwork assembled there. While he was doing this, he couldn’t help but notice Sheriff Valenti trying to hide a chuckle behind his hand while Deputy Copp’s face began to turn red, but finding that the man had a spotless driving record, he decided to play along. “Well in that case, let me be the first to welcome you to planet Earth,,,”
“Your Honor!,,” Deputy Copp protested, only stopping when the Sheriff placed a restraining arm on his own.
“But speaking for all the citizens of this fair city, I need to warn you that we take our laws seriously here, we can’t have our special guest tearing up the roads and parking their spaceships wherever they damned well please,,, excuse my French Miss Holly, I didn’t mean to offend,,,”
“None taken, your Honor,” Miss Holly replied without batting an eye, for she had heard much worse pass through the good Judge’s lips over the years.
“Now, as I was saying, you never know about aliens. Those Centari,,, they really know how to throw a party.” the Judge admonished. “Last time they were here they blew up every parking meter on South Main Street.”
“I promise your Honor, when I party I park my car first, but as far as this ticket goes, I had already seen the edge of the city and started to slow down, but by then the deputy already had me,,,”
“Your Honor! Aliens?” Deputy Copp pleaded in disbelief. “You’re not buying this, are you?”
“Sheriff?”
“Why Roswell’s full of aliens Deputy,” Jim admonished. “I bump into them all the time; in fact I’ve had aliens out to the house for barbecue.”
“So I’ll tell you what I’m going to do Mister Summers. In light of your unfamiliarity with Earth’s customs, I’m going to continue this case without finding for the next six months. If I don’t see you again, the charges will be dismissed. Is that clear?” Judge Lewis advised, his voice taking on a sinister tone as he finished.
“Yes your Honor,” Jason stammered.
“Good,” the Judge declared, banging his gavel. “In that case it’s a warp.”
Jason turned to talk to Jim, who seeing the judge waiting expectantly, didn’t want to get involved in chitchat with a civilian. “Did you hear Judge Lewis bang his gavel?” he asked sarcastically.
“Yea,” Jason answered slowly.
“That’s judge-speak for ‘get the frack out of my courtroom before I change my mind,,,”
“Oh,” Jason replied as he beat a hasty retreat for the door.
“Miss Holly, you’ll drop the day’s summary by the newspaper on the way home?” Judge Lewis asked needlessly.
“Yes your Honor,” she replied. “I always do.”
“You’ll point out our special guest?”
“I will,” she continued. “I’m willing to bet Foster will have a story uploaded onto the wire services before he goes home tonight.”
“Good,,, good.”
“Next week the cover story of the National Inquisitor will be about Roswell’s ‘first ticket free’ policy for aliens,,,”
“Your Honor,” Deputy Copp protested. “What’s this all about?”
Judge Lewis looked over to Jim with a smile on his face, receiving a shrug in reply. “Deputy, you just happened to have gotten a job in a town that depends on tourism for it’s survival. Oh sure we have the cheese factory and the air center, but without tourism, this city would be nothing more than a gas station and a MacDonald’s at a highway intersection,,,”
“Then we need that forty-eight dollars now more than ever.”
“Son, that forty-eight dollars just bought us exposure on every supermarket checkout counter in the entire country. Now for my money, that’s a fair trade,” Judge Lewis concluded, banging his gavel one last time. “Now, if there are no more questions, get out. I have a card game to get to.”
**********
“Lance Corporal Whitman reporting as ordered, Sir!” Jesse barked as he braced at attention in his platoon commander’s office.
“Take a seat, Marine,” the captain commanded as he rose from behind his desk. “Gunny, please wait outside,” the officer requested of the Sergeant who had accompanied Corporal Whitman.
Jesse felt a chill run up his spine as his ass puckered. As a Marine, he was trained to face any enemy with confidence in his abilities to overcome any obstacle, but he now found himself in unfamiliar waters. Marine Corporals did not sit while officers stood, and more importantly, Marie Captains did not close their own hatches (doors) when there was an enlisted man handy to do it for them, but in the end he did as he was ordered. He sat down.
Moments later the Captain sat back behind his desk and crossed his hands. “Marine, I’m afraid I have some bad news.,,,”
Less than an hour later Jesse was driving towards San Diego airport, with instructions from his Gunny to report to the United Airlines customer service counter where he would be put on the next flight to Albuquerque. Once there, he would have to make a decision, whether to rent a car and drive through the night or to wait until morning and catch a Messa flight into Roswell. Thinking of the disruption a three AM arrival would have on his parents, he was leaning towards sleeping at the airport. He could sleep anywhere after all, he was a Marine.
**********
As midnight approached, Isabel slowly walked through the quiet house, surveying her domain. She had already looked in on Charles and Gloria, gracing them with a deep dreamless slumber that would give them rest that that they would desperately need over the next several days.
Her rounds finished, she found herself at Alex’s bedside. She considered climbing in besides him, wondering if Gloria might grant dispensation in light of the circumstances, but decided that incurring the wrath of the house’s alpha female was not worth the risk, especially when she had a much safer way of spending the night with him.
Isabel decided that it was time for another pillow swap, as his scent was fading from her linens. She scooted to the linen closet and covered her own pillows with fresh crisp pillow cases. Her task completed, she returned to his bedside.
“Lift your head, Sweetie,” Isabel softly commanded as she eased Alex’s pillow out from under his head, replacing it with the fresh one, but as she went to replace his second pillow, a smile crossed her face. She took her own second pillow and ran back to her room. Safely alone, Isabel slipped her panties down her legs and sprayed them with her Lady Grace perfume. ‘’What Gloria doesn’t know won’t hurt her,’ Isabel thought as she slipped the warm garment into the clean pillow case before returning to Alex’s room.
“Turn onto your side,” she asked softly, and as he complied, she set the pillow against his chest. She watched as Alex hugged the pillow against his chest, and as it settled against his face, he took a deep breath, a smile crossing his face. Next she pulled his comforter up, tucking it around his neck for Charles was as frugal with the heat as he was with the air conditioning.
“I’ll be with you in just a moment, Sweetie,” she said softly before gently kissing him good night and returning to her own bed. “I think we’ll take the girls swimming tonight.”
After a rambunctious afternoon at the pool back at Balmorhea State Park, Alex found himself sitting at their campsite with his girls while Isabel made a quick run into Toyahvale, Texas to purchase food for an evening cookout. Both of his daughters were exhausted, and before leaving Isabel had instructed that everyone, Daddy included, take a nap.
Alex was resting in the only spot of shade in the camp site, his back against a large Velvet Mesquite tree. Despite the heat, both Andy and Cassie wanted to curl up in their dad’s lab, but the girls had grown to a point where they wouldn't fit together. “You can sit on Daddy’s lap,” Andy told Cassie. “You’re Daddy’s little girl.”
Cassie crawled into Alex’s lap in innocent bliss of her sisters words, but Alex had heard the hurt that was there. “Come on Princess,” Alex implored while holding out his arm. “Daddy’s always going to have room for everyone.”
Andy’s face lit up as she snuggled into her father’s side, and with his family happy for the moment, the Whitman’s fell asleep.
“Charcoal’s ready!” Alex called out.
“Cheese-burger! Cheese-burger! Cheese-burger!” Andy and Cassie chanted as they danced around the campsite.
“Girls, stay away from the grill,” Isabel instructed.
Alex, wearing his wife’s ‘kiss the cook’ apron, turned to face Isabel, communicating silently before adding, “I need the corn first.”
Isabel made eye contact before raising her brows in question, Receiving a slight nod in reply, she called Andy over and handed her the platter of carefully prepared corn. “Okay Sweetheart, bring this over to Daddy, but be careful. Your Uncle Max isn’t here to take care of you if you get burned on the grill.”
“I’ll be careful, Mommy,” Andy replied solemnly.
Alex took the platter from his daughter, placing it on the grill’s sideboard before scooping her up in his arms. “You know the rules little girl. You have to kiss the cook,” he teased as he rubbed his cheek against hers.
“Daddy, your cheek scratches,” Andy replied laughingly.
“Okay then, I’ll let you off easy,” he teased as he kissed her on the forehead before putting her down. “Now go back to Mommy.”
After dark Alex was sitting in front of the fire, listening to his beautiful wife as she read to Cassie in their tent when he felt, more than heard, Andy approach. “Come on Princess,” he beckoned, sweeping her up with an arm and settling her on his lap. He let her wiggle a moment to get comfortable, but as soon as she snuggled in against him, he wrapped his arms around her and bent to kiss the top of her head. “That was a very nice thing you did today, letting Cassie sit on my lap.”
“That’s okay,” she silently pouted. “She’s the little girl.”
“Andy,” Alex said softly as he again kissed her head, “Cassie may be a little younger than you are, but you’re both my little girls. You’ll always be my little girl,” he continued, kissing her head again.
“But Daddy, I’m older!”
“Um-hum,” he replied, giving another kiss, “But little girls never get old. Have you ever watched Mommy when Grampy Phillip comes to visit? Mommy always makes sure that she spends some time alone with her Daddy because your Mommy is still her daddy’s little girl. Some visits she lets him take her out to dinner, and other visits they only have time to take a walk around the block, but Mommy always has time for him,,,”
“Mommy says that we can’t fix the broken light over the table,” Andy advised shyly. “She said she is saving it for Grampy.”
“That’s right. The next time Grampy visits, Mommy will complain about that bulb, and Grampy will get the step ladder and replace it with a new bulb,,,”
“But doesn’t Grampy know that Mommy could fix it by just touching it?” Andy asked in wonder.
“Ah yes,” Alex answered, loving how his daughter was growing so insightful so fast, and needing to give her another kiss. “Grampy knows that Mommy could fix the bulb, but he also knows that she saved it for him because she loves him and she still needs him to fix things for her because she’s still his little girl even though she had two little girls of her own.”
“So no matter how old Mommy gets, she’ll always be Grampy’s little girl?”
“Um-hum,” Alex answered with another kiss.
“And I’ll always be your little girl?”
“Um-hum.” Another kiss.
“Even when I’m so old I have boobies like Mommy and I’m in high school?”
Alex groaned at the thought of his precious daughter all grown up and at the hands of a bunch of West Roswell High hornball jocks. “You’re never getting boobs like your Mom, and you’re never going to high school,” Alex declared, clutching her tight to his chest.
“Daddy! Too tight,” Andy complained, causing her father to instantly let go. “Daddy! Too loose,” Andy next whined.
Alex crossed one hand over his other, calling on years of practice and got his grip just right.
“I’m always going to be your little girl,” Andy declared, and with the crisis of the day settled, she turned her head, resting her cheek against her father’s strong chest, and went to sleep.
Alex held his daughter and alternated between watching the flickering fire and the stars crossing the inky sky. Amazingly, the night never grew cold, and the logs were never consumed even as the crescent moon rose in the east and set in the west. His mind was blank of all thoughts until his wife faded into view next to him. Despite their desert setting, she was sitting in his computer chair, dressed in his shirt from the day before, over, well he couldn’t tell what else she was wearing, her legs were crossed modestly. “Thank you for this,” he whispered. “Thank you for all of this.”
“Don’t thank me,” she replied softly. “This is your dream. I was going to join you, but by the time I got here you were having so much fun I figured I would just stay back and observe.”
“I did this? There’s so much detail,,, It’s so perfect.”
“Your mind needed a time out,” Isabel answered. “It gave you what you needed most,,,”
“Aren’t you cold?,,”
“Sweetie,” Isabel teased. “I don’t think you’re even capable of letting me be cold in one of your dreams.” Having said that she slinked out of her chair, exposing a lot of pantyless flank before squatting down next to him. “Here, let me take her,,,”
“No! Don’t take her from me,” Alex exclaimed in panic, holding her more tightly, but not tight enough to wake her.
Isabel, realizing that this conversation wasn’t over, settled back onto her heel. “Sweetie, I would never take her from you, but it’s morning, and your dream’s just about over. It’s time to get up.”
“Promise me we’ll have this!”
Isabel’s eyes grew wide. “Do you need this,,, now?” she asked nervously.
“Now?” Alex answered in shock. “You would do that?”
“If that’s what you wanted,” Isabel said softly, reaching out and caressing her daughter’s hair. “I’m not due for my period for about a year, that would give us time to adjust,,,”
“Izzy,,,”
“I could talk to the Granolith, maybe there’s a way to speed the process along,,,” her voice faltered as her mind started planning.
“Izzy!” Alex insisted as he took her chin in his hand and gently pulled it down. “Careful, or you’re going to bite through your lip.
Isabel looked into his eyes, and seeing his love for her there, her confidence returned. If he wanted his family now, she would gladly give it to him.
“Not now,” he said softly but firmly. “I still want time to be a couple before we’re a family. There are so many things I want to do with you,,, so many places I want to show you,,, but promise me we’ll still have this.”
“Sweetie,” Isabel answered, her face falling. “I can’t promise you that which I don’t have the power to give. I can’t control the future outside on my realm, but I swear to you, I want this future as badly as you do, and I will work as hard as you do to achieve it.”
Alex’s face broke into a beautiful smile. “That’s enough, in fact that’s more than most people have a right to ask for; besides, I seem to remember that you wanted me to make love to you ten thousand times before we start having to worry about night time feedings.”
“Oh how nice and human of you to think of me that way,” Isabel said tenderly as she reached out and caressed his cheek. “You just remember that your heart and soul felt ‘making love’ is part of a good hard body bruising fracking that leaves me awash on a pool of sweat and you gasping for your next breath and we’ll get along just fine.”
“Izzy!” Alex complained as his face turned red while he struggled to cover his daughters ears.
“Prude! You know you like it as much as I do,” she teased as she leaned forward and took their sleeping daughter. “Mommy’s going to put you in your sleeping bag and tuck you in,” she said softly, kissing Andy’s forehead. Seeing Alex start to stand, she turned back to face him, “No! I’m not ready for you yet. You just sit there a moment and watch the fire.
Isabel’s eyes opened slowly, but once she was fully awake, she bounded out of her bed and scurried into her bathroom. Within moments she had brushed her teeth, used mouthwash, and combed the worst of the bed-head out of her golden mane. This done, she hesitated at her door. She sharpened her senses for a moment, then despite finding that everyone else who was upstairs was still asleep, she gripped the hem of Alex’s shirt and pulled it a couple of inches lower. This accomplished she scurried across the hall and knelt by Alex’s bed.
Alex looked up from the fire to find Isabel sitting on her heel in front of him. She reached out, touched his cheek, and advised, “Time to wake up.” Alex opened his eyes to find Isabel waiting for him. “Good morning Sweetie.”
“Good morning,” He replied tenderly as he rolled forward for the first kiss of the day.
“You know, it’ll only take a moment to stroll through the house, knock everyone out, and then we can get going on that ten thousand,” she teased.
“Izzy,” he replied regretfully. “There’s so much we got to do today,,,”
In response she stood and lifted the hem of his shirt, showing off her golden curls that he insisted she keep untamed. “Are you sure about that?,,”
“One of these days you’re going to kill me with that thing,” he moaned as he crawled out of bed and headed for the hallway bathroom.
**********
The rest of the day proved to be quite tumultuous at the Whitman household, with all the comings and goings of the rapidly growing household, but this all went on without Alex and Isabel, as Gloria had insisted that they attend school. “You’ve already going to miss far too many classes due to your business,” she stated. “So get out of my way and let me get some work done.
By the time the teens arrived home from school, Jesse was ensconced in the kitchen, systematically pillaging the refrigerator, but when he caught a glance of Isabel, he did a double take. “Alice,” he said in surprise. “Who’s this, your study-buddy?”
“Isabel Evans,” she explained as she stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m Alex’s fiancé.”
“Fiancé?” Jesse gasped. “You?,, Him?,,”
“Yea, I know,” Isabel said with a sweet smile. “Some days I can hardly believe that he’ll be in the same room with me, but I’ve got him now, and I’ll never let him go.”
“You’ll never let him go?,,”
Meanwhile Alex had been ignoring the sparing match between his wife and brother, fully realizing that she didn’t need any help from him. Instead he had walked over to look out the back window. “Rachel!” he said happily.
With Jesse dismissed and forgotten, Isabel turned her attention to Alex. “Your sister-in-law?”
“Yea, and the kids,” he replied reaching for her hand. “Come on, I’ll introduce you.”
**********
“Phillip,” Charles asked softly. “Gloria and I would like it if you would be one of Robert’s bearers.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you. We’ve also asked Jim, so that will make three airedales, one squid, a jarhead plus Alex the hose-dragger.”
“I haven’t had my uniform on since I left the Navy,” Charles quipped. “I’ll have to get some help from Isabel to make it fit.”
“Did you know that Jim made Staff Sergeant during the three years he was in?”
“’E-Four’ during one enlistment? He must have been cruising,” Phillip commented. “I just put in my hitch and got out.”
“Phil, no one’s going to give a rats ass if you were Seaman Apprentice, we’d be appreciative if you would help out.”
“I would be honored,” Phillip answered sincerely.
**********
Gloria came down the stairs, and the first thing that struck her was silence. With Rachel in the house, or more accurately, with Rachel’s children in the house, silence was an ominous thing.
Gloria walked up to the kitchen window. “What are you looking at?” she asked of her daughter-in-law. “Where are the kids?”
“They’re out back with Alex and Isabel,” she replied.
“Oh No,” Gloria exclaimed. “You’re not letting my kids take care of your kids, are you?” She looked out the window and her worse fears were confirmed. “Charles! Get down here! Now!”
“What’s the matter?” Rachel asked. “They’re both fantastic with the little ones. Besides Alex can gain some points with Isabel if she sees that he’s good with kids. Nothing stirs a woman’s nest building mo-jo like seeing her man being all tender with a little one in his arms.”
“Alex doesn’t need any mo-jo points with Isabel,” Gloria said with disdain.
“And Alex can barely handle her mo-jo at it’s current level. He doesn’t need you ratcheting it up on him,” Charles moaned as he walked into the kitchen. “That poor kid burns up a year’s worth the will power every time he’s in the same room as her. Is this discussion what you called me down for?” he asked of his wife.
“Look,” Gloria said simply as she pointed out the back window.
Charles walked over, leaned over the sink, and looked out the window. “Aww Crap!” he exclaimed. “I’m going to have to stay up all night prying her off him with a crowbar.”
“Not if they want to get together,” Gloria sighed. “If she gets him to give in and you stand in the way, she’ll take that crow bar away from you and shove it up your ass sideways,,,”
“I know, that’s what I’m afraid of,” Charles said, calming down.
“You’re not afraid of her, are you?” Rachel asked in amazement.
“Let me put it this way,” Charles said, getting a beer out of the fridge while pushing the image of Isabel blasting their computer to the back of his mind. “If anything were ever to happen to Alex again, I wouldn’t want to be caught in front of her when she went to him.”
“Why?” Rachel asked, clearly confused. “What happened?”
“Harry didn’t tell you what happened?” Getting a shake of the head in response, Gloria settled at the table with a mug of hot tea, and waved to the opposite seat. Once Rachel had sat down, she continued. “We went on a cruse over the Memorial day weekend. While we were gone, Alex was hurt. Isabel terrorized the hospital. She demanded and got him the best of care, and then brought him home and didn’t let him out of her sight for three days.”
“She took his clothes and shoes away from him so he had to stay home like the doctor ordered,” Charles added. “I honestly think that she was reluctant to give him back to us when we got home. Then several weeks later she wasn’t satisfied that he was recovering properly, so she defied us, her own parents, and the doctors here in Roswell. She dragged him down to a specialist in Las Cruces and got him taken care of.”
“What was wrong?” Rachel asked with concern.
Charles looked to Gloria who shook her head. “To this day I don’t think anyone knows exactly what was going on, with the exception of his having some memory issues, which were so subtle that we didn’t notice them until Isabel pointed them out to us, but she’s watching him like a hawk, making sure it doesn’t happen again,,,” she explained, allowing her voice to trail off, not wanting to even mention his latest hospital experience.
“Not to mention the fact that they had a brush with the law a couple of months ago and now the entire city council is afraid of her,” Gloria concluded.
“Wait a minute,” Rachel protested. “You’re making them sound like a couple of super heroes.”
“No, not super heroes,” Gloria explained, “But certainly special. “Alex came home from his first day of school here almost eight years ago and announced that he had met the girl that he was going to marry. Isabel took a little longer, but her heart is now set on Alex, and she will never let go of him again.”
“So their high school sweethearts,” Rachel prompted, warming to the subject. “I had one, but I have to admit that my parents never let us spend as much time together as you do.”
“In the past six months,” Charles recounted proudly, “Those two kids have traveled to Boston and declined full ride scholarships to two of the best schools in the country because they didn’t fit in with their plans. When they returned home they set up an early admissions program here in New Mexico,,,”
“A college two thousand miles closer to home,” Gloria interrupted with a smile on her face.
“Then this summer,” Charles continued, “They took a school project and converted it into a company that has made them more money than Gloria and I combined have made so far this year, all the while maintaining their standing at the head of their class. Yet while they’ve been charting their future, they have also been contributing to the community. Isabel continues to work at the homeless shelter and the community center, while Alex has joined the volunteer call company of the fire department.”
“But they’re still kids,” Rachel protested.
“They’re kids who are engaged, and are already buying a house in Albuquerque for when they start college. They could move out tomorrow, if they wanted to,” Gloria responded. “They are here because they want to be, “
“So they are going to be in Albuquerque?”
“Yea, as soon as they start college.”
“Good,” Rachel replied thoughtfully. “You know Harry is trying to get stationed at Kelly (Air Force Base, Albuquerque) when he gets home. It would be good to have family close by.”
**********
At Washington DC’s Dulles airport, David Black Wolf settled down into his spacious seat in the first class cabin of United Airline’s flight seven eighty-three. Having caught the red-eye flight into DC early this morning and meeting with a critical customer all day, he was tired, sore, hungry, and impatient to get home. Looking over his shoulder he saw that while the line of passengers entering the plane had ended, the cabin door was still open. Being a seasoned traveler, he decided to test the limits of the flight attendants preferential treatment of first class customers by leaving his seat and walking to the gallery to ask for a drink.
“Excuse me Miss, would it be possible,,,” but his question died on his lips as he saw the stairway door on the jet-walk open and a young Air Force officer step through, entering the aircraft. Taking note of the officers Class-A uniform, the shiny silver bar on his lapels, and especially his white gloved hands, he turned back to the flight attendant, all timidness gone from his voice. “Who’s in charge here?” he demanded.
“I am,” an older flight attendant answered.
“You will take the Lieutenant to my seat in first class, make him comfortable, and see to his every need. Is that clear?”
Ignoring the confused look on the young man’s face the senior attendant hesitated only a moment before answering, “Yes sir, but first class is full. We don’t have another seat for you.”
“That’s okay,” he answered. “I have a sudden craving to ride in coach.”
“Lieutenant, would you follow me please,” the senior attendant asked solicitously.
“Semper Fi, Lieutenant,” said the businessman as a different flight attendant led him to his new seat, and as he settled into the cramped coach seat next to a young woman holding a crying baby on her lap he realized that compared to the mission the young officer was on, his day could have been a lot worse.
**********
Isabel was a little worried about Alex. He had sat through the entire game of Jeopardy without answering a single question and now that the show was over, it didn’t look like the situation was getting any better. “Come on out back,” she prompted as she stood and tugged on his arm. “I’ll let you feel me up while we wrestle.”
“Okay, I’m coming,” Alex replied as he slowly stood. “You don’t need to pull my arm out of it’s socket.” Although he acted as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulder, Alex was secretly happy to go out back with Isabel. First, he was indeed in a funk, and he knew it, but more importantly, he was still a teenaged boy, and happy for any excuse to feel Isabel up.
“And just where do you two think you’re going?” Gloria demanded as they passed through the kitchen.
“We’re going out to the back yard,” Isabel replied confidently. “I’m going to let him practice some moves on me.”
Gloria was long accustomed to their little wrestling matches, but while she was sure that some groping was going on, both accidental and intentional, she had enough men in the house to realize that the ‘training’ they were doing on a quite regular basis was serious, and in fact dangerous if they weren’t careful. She willingly accepted this though, as part of the price Isabel paid for her safety. “You just be careful,” she warned. “One of these days you’re going to kill him and then you’ll have no one to play with,” she added teasingly.
“I know,” Isabel replied haughtily. “Men are just like a favorite pair of jeans. It takes years to get them just right and then the ass falls out of them and you have to throw them out,,,”
“I’m standing right here,” Alex interjected.
“Well you need to take better care of him than your favorite jeans,” Gloria cautioned. “It took me years to get him ready for you, and I have neither the time nor the desire to go through that again. In fact if I were to go through that again, I’d try for a girl.”
“I can hear every word your saying,” Alex added, not that either woman was listening.
“Well you don’t have anything to worry about,” Isabel teased, obviously for Alex’s benefit. “As long as I have these,,,” she said, pointing to her breasts, I can get all of those,,,” she continued, pointing towards Alex’s crotch, “I want.”
“Hey!”
“You should switch to plastic,” Gloria countered, also happy for a moments levity on a dark day. “It’s easier to keep clean, batteries cost less than food, and you can always slip the neighbor boy a couple of bucks to take the trash out and mow the lawn,,,”
“MOM!!!”
“Yea,” Isabel replied with a smile, relenting and pulling Alex into a warm sideways hug. “But plastic won’t snuggle and keep you warm on a cold night,,,”
Gloria’s face clouded over and a single brow shot up at this admission.
“Or so I imagine,” Isabel giggled as she dragged him out the back door.
Alex had just finished showing Isabel a throw when Jesse made his presence known. “I’m impressed Alice. It’s about time you got your ass out from in front of a computer. Of course with a girlfriend like Isabel, it’s about time you learned to defend yourself, or more importantly, her.”
“I’ve always been able to take care of myself,” Alex protested
Alex and Jesse spent several minutes sparring, and while Alex was coming out the worse for wear, he kept coming back for more. Alex was not in the same league as his brother, who was after all a Marine Rifleman, meaning that combat arms was his only specialty, but Alex was slowly impressing his brother, not that he would ever admit it.
Showing off for Isabel, Jesse became complacent, and tried the same move on Alex twice in a row, learning to his sorrow that his brother was a quick learner. The proof of this was the fact that he found himself on his back, looking up.
“My, my,” Isabel teased, proud of her husband. “High school boy flips Marine.”
“That means nothing,” Jesse replied defensively. “This isn’t real. You’re making the mistake of assuming your enemies are going to fight you fair on a field of honor. That only happens in movies. In the real world, fighting is a dirty business,,,”
“The point is to avoid getting physical at all,” Isabel instructed. “If you need to go hand-to-hand, it means your best defensive tactics have already failed.”
“Well, that may be true, for ugly chicks,” Jesse replied sarcastically. “But there are bad guys out there who don’t play by the rules, and more importantly, bad things happen to good people every day. Now Alex’s hit and dodge tactics may work for him, because the puke attacking him isn’t going to get into a pitched battle for a teenager’s near empty wallet, but someone who looks like you, they’re going to rape. If some dickwad get you on the ground, your battle is just beginning, because he’s probably going to have a hundred pounds on you, and by now, he’s probably worked up a rage and is motivated.”
“Rape isn’t about looks, it’s about power. But make no mistake. If that dickwad gets me on the ground, I’ll be motivated, and I’ll show him power,” Isabel replied coldly.
“Good,” Jesse said with a smile. “I’m not one to believe the someone should just lie back and submit to their destiny,,,”
“Destiny is overrated,” Alex interjected.
“Okay Alice, so you got her on the ground,” Jesse challenged. “Now what are you going to do?”
“Hugh?” Alex answered in amazement.
“You got her on the ground, now you want her on her back, that’s where the goodies are, but you,” he continued, pointing towards Isabel, “You want to be on your side,,,”
“Why my side?”
“If he gets you face down you’re pretty much defenseless, but you’re not much better when you’re flat on your back, so when he tries to roll you, that’s the time to fight him. As he’s forcing you over, you want to curl up, stay on your side,,,”
“Why her side?”
“Because that is her best defensive position. Curled on her side she can protect her head between her arms or pull her knees up to protect her torso.” He turned towards Isabel. “Pull your heels up to your ass with your knees in tight to your chest, then if you can sense where he is, kick behind you with your heels, using your thighs for power. Strike back with your elbows. Aim towards the sound of his voice, striking towards his face. Strike his belly where he is soft. Strike at his knees, the weakest joint in his body.”
“If he is in front of you, hit him with the heels of your hands and with your knees, putting all the power of your thighs into it. When you get an opening, escape. Don’t try to punish him, and it’s not your job to catch him. Just get away and run. Run as if the devil’s after you.”
“Show me,” Isabel demanded.
“Okay,” Jesse replied. “I’m going to make the same move on you that Alex just tried, you try the same counter.”
“Be careful with her Jesse,” Alex warned. "I wouldn’t want to have to hurt you.”
Jesse ignored him as he grabbed Isabel, who easily countered his move. “Okay, that’s self defense for beginners, so lets see what happens when your attacker knows the counter.”
Isabel took a deep breath then nodded that she was ready. Without warning Jesse attacked, but when Isabel countered, she missed. Instead she found herself flying through the air, landing heavily on the lawn. Moments later, Jesse was on his knees besides, but not yet touching her.
“No!” he barked. “The moment he comes down, you need to decide if you can escape or if you need to fight. If you can’t get away, move in closer to me, with your back towards me. Make sure you’re close enough to strike back.”
“Again,” Isabel demanded.
This time Jesse held nothing back, and despite the fact that the attack had been requested, the violence of the attack scared the living shit out of Alex. Isabel had adapted her defense to Jesse’s last attack, but again she failed to connect, for he had again changed his attack. This time he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her across his hip.
Isabel wasn’t fazed by his attack. She had already seen more real combat than her attacker, and more importantly she was motivated to defend herself and her family. The moment Jesse came down next to her, she rolled to her side with her back to him, curled into a defensive ball as he expected. Before he could touch her, she struck back with her upper elbow, hitting the outside of his lower thigh, just above his knee. For good measure, she added a healthy dose of power to her blow.
Jesse roared as he felt a lightning bolt of pain shoot up his leg, but his amazement turned to shock as he realized that Isabel had learned her lesson all to well. Not the lesson that he had articulated, but the lesson that he had demonstrated. Two times now he had changed his tactic and committed to an attack that Isabel had not anticipated, and now Isabel was using that tactic against him. Having bolted uptight as a result of the pain inflicted to his leg, he was not close enough to Isabel to prevent her from rolling onto her back. Her knees were curled tight to her chest, but she was spinning on her back, bringing her feet into battery.
Before Jesse could move, Isabel switched from the defensive to the offensive, putting every ounce of force she could muster in the most powerful muscles of her body into a kick directed towards Jesse’s soft belly. Before her legs were even half extended, the heels of her boots dug deep.
Jesse found himself being tossed backwards gasping for breath, but Isabel’s offensive wasn’t over yet. Like a cat she rolled to her knees and launched herself, landing on him and rolling him onto his stomach. She grabbed his arm, and before he could react, she bent it up behind his shoulder.
Isabel was amazed at how fast Jesse reacted. Maybe he was aware of what she was doing, but it was much more likely a combination of instinct and training. His arm felt like a tree trunk as he simply used raw strength to power out of her hold, signaling to her that it was time to get out of Dodge; but it was now a fact. A high school girl had pinned a Marine, even if for only a moment.
Isabel sprung to her feet, slamming into Alex, who had been coming in for his own attack. Knowing that she didn’t have time to explain, much less calm the blood fury in his eyes, Isabel slammed through their connection, escalating it instantly into the super connection level. “No!” she commanded, pulling him back several feet.
Superb physical training allowed Jesse to recover quickly, but when he stood he was still a little wobbly in his sore leg.
“Attack, incapacitate, and escape,” Isabel declared. “I’m already a block away, and having run in the desert heat every day for the past year, I’ll take my chances that I’ll stay ahead of you, especially with your sore knee,,,”
Charles had been looking out the window, and seeing seen Jesse drag Isabel down by her hair, he came charging out of the house, loaded for bear. “What the frack are you doing?” he shouted as he stormed into the yard looking for a weapon. “You hurt her and I’ll break that thick skull of yours wide open,” he added, hoisting a baseball bat.
“Pops, why is it that whenever you or Mom come near me you have a hunk of aluminum in your hands?” Jesse gasped, bent nearly in half.
“Fracking jarhead,” Alex muttered as he checked his wife for damage.
“He was just showing me a move,” Isabel demurred as she rubbed her shoulder.
“You treat your brother with respect,” Charles commanded as he turned on Alex. “He’s serving his country.”
“Pops, how many times have you said the only good Marine is one you throw out of the back of your airplane,,,”
“God damned Air Force pukes,” Jesse muttered. “You look like a fracking Greyhound bus driver in your plane-jane uniforms,,,”
“I served!” Charles snapped back. “I earned the right to call him a fracking asshole. You join the service and then you can swap insults. “’Till then, you treat the shit-head with respect,,,
“Fracking hosehead,,,” Jesse spat back.
“Now just a fracking minute,” Charles snapped as he made an abrupt about face. “Your brother has been injured twice while serving this city while I’ve never seen you do anything around here but chase cheerleaders,,,”
“STOP IT!” Isabel shouted. “Jesus Fracking Christ, Gloria’s been feeding you guys too much red meat. “Jesse, thank you for your help, but as you can see we’re doing fine on our own.” She turned towards Alex. “Get your keys. You’re taking me out for an ice cream,” and then she finally addressed Charles. “And you, go get yourself a bourbon before you have a heart attack.”
Seeing that all three men just stood there looking at her, she jammed her fist into her hips. “Now!”
Already having his keys, Alex reached out and took her hand, leading her towards the front of the house and the driveway.
“No wonder your mother turned out the way she did,” Isabel complained. “And there were four of you?”
‘Actually five, at least when Pops was home,’ Alex thought to himself, but he knew better than to say anything out loud for the moment.
**********
As United flight seven eighty-three settled on the end of runway twenty-six at the Albuquerque International Sunport, several of the passengers took note of the time in surprise. “We’re almost an hour early,” one said happily.
“Thank God,” his seatmate replied. “I usually end up missing my connection here,” but his glee turned to shock as he saw the cockpit door open and the captain enter the cabin. It was rare that the cockpit door was opened while an aircraft was in motion, and since 9-11, it never happened.
~~“,,,We know that there are many choices for your air travel needs,”~~ the flight attendant droned on from the mid-cabin bulkhead as she wrapped up her arrival announcement, ~~“And we want to thank you for choosing United. I am now going to ask you to settle down and stay in your seats for a brief announcement from the Captain.”~~ Now finished, she handed the microphone to the pilot.
~~“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is David Anderson, and in addition to being a captain with United Air Lines, I am also a major in the Air Force Reserves.”~~ He paused a moment to take a deep breath before continuing. ~~“We have been given the privilege of bringing a young Air Force officer, who has been killed while serving his country, home to his family. When we arrive at the terminal I am going to ask that you all stay in your seats and allow his honor guard to perform their duty.
~~“I assure you that we have received preferential treatment from the FAA for the entire flight allowing us to arrive early, making sure that despite this delay you will all have plenty of time for you to make your connections and meet your loved ones. So for the moment I’m going to ask you to remain in your seats, refrain from the use of electronic devices, and pay a moment of respect for this brave airman.”~~
As he hung up the microphone, he saw that the cabin door was ready to be opened. As the flight attendant disarmed the escape chute he leaned into the first class cabin. “Lieutenant, we’re ready for you.”
The pilot led the lieutenant out of the cabin, and as soon as they stepped onto the jet-walk, he opened the door, allowing them to take a short stairway down to the tarmac. On the opposite side of the aircraft, the United ground crew finished opening the cargo door and placed the luggage conveyor in place as a State Police cruiser leading a glistening black hearse followed by a white airport van pulled up next to the plane. As the pilot and the lieutenant moved towards the end of the conveyor, the honor guard stepped out of the van and marched to plane. Two members of the United flight crew met the honor guard, and then helped two of the airmen, one carrying a flag, scramble into the hold.
The pilot watched with approval as his co-workers reverently moved the coffin to the cargo door, pausing while the honor guard unfolded the flag and draped it over their fallen comrade. This task finished, the airmen scooted back down and took their place at the foot of the conveyor. As this was happening, the pilot waved the rest of the ground crew and the state trooper into a line in front of his aircrafts wing, and waited for the honor guard to get into position..
“Ten-Hut!” he commanded softly as he raised his hand in salute. The honor guard snapped to attention, their arms at their side, the lieutenant and the trooper also saluted, while the ground crew stood rigidly, doffing their hats. With everyone in position, he nodded towards the crew members in the hold, and they activated the conveyor, gently guiding their precious cargo onto the slowly moving belt.
The head flight attendant had never seen a cabin full of passengers act so quietly as they lined the windows, watching the honor guard lift the flag draped coffin and carry it across the tarmac before passing the coffin hand to hand as they loaded it into the back of the hearse.
“Tu!” the pilot commanded, and as they lowered their arms, the trooper stepped forward, joining the two officers before they marched to the front of the hearse. As the honor guard closed up the rear of the vehicle, the pilot reached over and opened the passenger door, holding it for the lieutenant as the trooper marched to his cruiser. His duties finished, the pilot returned to his ground crew and watched as the vehicles started up and moved away. As soon as they were out of sight of the aircraft, he looked up at the windows and nodded.
~~“Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Captain, I would like to thank you for you patience. You are now free to deplane.”~~
TBC
Photo links:
Charles’ AUG-A1
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... AUG-A1.jpg
Firefighter Alex Taylor, Alex’s rescuer when he was shot at the Kettle’s
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... Taylor.jpg
Isabel’s Floating Heart, a gift from Alex after Prom
http://www.kheigl.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi? ... t/kh34.jpg
Courtesy Khegil.com
Isabel’s Earrings, Alex’s present for her Eighteenth birthday.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... arings.jpg
Isabel’s Engagement Ring
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... sring2.jpg
My completed stories:
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
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incognito-sticks
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:13 pm
- Location: i have no idea
Excellent update Paul, i really enjoyed it, sorry it took me sooo long to leave FB, but i can't wait for the next update hope its really soon!
Also thanks for telling me about your family and there background with the air-force, its really intresting, i always love to hear about other families and their backgrounds with the air-force and the places they have lived.
Thanks again.
Also thanks for telling me about your family and there background with the air-force, its really intresting, i always love to hear about other families and their backgrounds with the air-force and the places they have lived.
Thanks again.
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Stargazer md
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:43 pm
- Location: Seacoast New Hampshire
Stargazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 24-I There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
At the funeral home a somber Charles completed the plans for his son’s service. He was greatly appreciative of the assistance that the Air Force was providing, but he was somewhat surprised as well. As the meeting broke up, he pulled Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey McDaniels to one side. “Colonel, permission to speak freely.” (As a military courtesy, a lieutenant colonel is usually referred to as ‘Colonel.’)
“You don’t have to ask that Major, you’re not in the service anymore,” Colonel McDaniels replied. “Speak freely, and please, call me Jeff.”
Although the comment on his military status wasn’t quite accurate, he would have been sent straight to jail if he admitted it, so he let it pass. “Thank you, and please call me Charles.”
“Charles. What is your concern?”
“Again, I appreciate the honors being extended,,,”
“Stop right there,” Colonel McDaniels interrupted. “You are asking why full military honors are being extended to an officer who was not killed in the line of duty?”
“Yes.”
“General Hayden (Commander, National Security Agency) feels that your son’s sacrifice brought honor and distinction to the service, therefore he ‘suggested’ that Lieutenant Whitman be treated with full honors. Now, how many times have you said no to a two-star? (general)”
“Never.”
“Neither have I, and I’m not going to start now.”
**********
Gloria took advantage of her employer’s rather liberal bereavement policy, which allowed her to stay home with Sarah and Sam while Rachel ran several errands alone. Over their morning coffee, Rachel had confessed that she had packed in such a hurry that she had given no consideration to the fact that she would reunited with her husband for the first time in eight months. Gloria had promptly sent her out with directions to Victoria’s Secrets at the mall and an appointment for a style and manicure at her hairdressers. This left her with the girls for the day, a situation she was most happy with.
“Okay girls, lunch time,” Gloria pleaded as she herded her rambunctious charges into the kitchen.
“Oh boy,,, cheeseburger,,, cheeseburger,,, cheeseburger,,,”
“I want a happy meal,,, chicken nugs,,,”
“Pop-Tarts and Fruit-Woops.”
“Meme? Can I have a milk shake?”
“Ya-hoo, Mountain Doo.”
“Kevo, Tacco-Swell,,,”
“Mommy makes Spegette-O’s for lunch,,,”
Gloria realized that if she didn’t reign in this stampede soon she’d have a kitchen full of out-of-control children, a situation she hadn’t faced since,,, actually she’d never faced that situation. “Girls! This isn’t Burger King. You don’t get lunch your way, you get it Meme’s way or you don’t get it all. Your choices are grilled cheese sandwiches, plain, or grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato,,,”
“Tomato? Ewww.”
“Okay, plain. Now Sarah, take Sam and go wash your hands.”
“Okay, Meme.”
Gloria quickly and efficiently gathered the materials for their lunches, white bread for the girls, oat-nut for hers, butter, and cheese. She put her griddle on her new range to preheat and then selected one of her own home grown tomatoes. While not quite as good as the ones she remembered growing back east, the Heatwave Hybrid variety she had found at the local nursery was still far superior to anything she could buy at Albertson’s.
Gloria was surprised to hear the back door open, and as she turned to see who was home, she found herself enveloped in a tight warm hug.
“I’m done classes for the day at West, and I have an afternoon session at Eastern,” Isabel explained, “So instead of hitting the Crashdown I figured I’d stop by and see if I could do anything.”
“You’re just in time for lunch. Grilled cheese with tomato on oat-nut,” Gloria replied warmly. “How do you want me to contaminate yours?”
Isabel quickly took a Habanero chili and a slice of Vidalia onion from the refrigerator. Placing them next to the tomato on the cutting board, she had just enough time to use her powers to slice and dice the vegetables before the girls made their way back from the bathroom.
“You’d better never let Jeff see you do that,” Gloria teased. “He’d never let you out of the kitchen.”
“Aunt Isabel, Auntie Izzy-bell,” the girls sing-sang as they ran and hugged their newest favorite relative around the legs.
“Actually anyone who has eaten at the Crash in the last year or so has eaten Czechoslovakian prepped foods,” Isabel teased. Max and Michael do it all the time. It gets Liz and Maria out of the kitchen a lot quicker.”
Gloria only shook her head as she began to assemble the sandwiches on the griddle.
“Look who’s here!” Isabel exclaimed in surprise as she turned her attention to the new arrivals. “My little helpers!”
She sat on her heels and faced them. “Who wants to help me set the table while Meme cooks your lunch?”
Used to being banished from the kitchen at meal time, the girls were happy to have an opportunity to help out, let alone the attention that went along with it. “Me!,, I want to,,, Me too,,,”
“Okay,” Isabel replied cheerfully, leading the girls away from the dangers of the range. “Sam, you take the place mats and Sara, you take the plates.” Isabel grabbed a handful of silverware, and then they were back at the breakfast table. Isabel taught the girls how to make a simple place setting before reaching up into the cabinet for glasses. Their next stop was the refrigerator, where Isabel placed a finger over her lip, deep in thought. “I wonder what little girls like to drink now-a-days,,,” Before the girls could chime in she continued, “When I was just a itty-bitty girl my Mommy let me drink lots-and-lots of milk so I would grow up big and tall,,,”
“I want Kool-Ache,” Sam pouted.
“No!” Sarah whispered fiercely. “Aunt Isabel drank lots and lots of milk, and look. She’s taller than Mommy,,, In fact she’s pob’ly taller than Daddy,,,”
“Nobody’s taller than Daddy,” Sam protested, but she did look at her aunt with admiration.
“Aunt Isabel, can we have milk too?” Sarah pleaded.
Gloria looked up from flipping the sandwiches, giving Isabel a wink in the process.
“Milk it is,” Isabel exclaimed as she took a container of whole milk from the fridge. She took it over to the table along with a pitcher of iced tea for Gloria.
As Gloria scooped the sandwiches into plates, adding a handful of tortilla chips, Isabel poured the drinks.
“I want a big girl cup,” Sam pouted, causing Isabel to look to Gloria for advice.
Gloria placed the plates on the counter before bending next to Sam’s booster seat. “Meme’s going to give you a sippy cup this time, but if there are no accidents, you can have a big girl cup snack time.”
“Okay,” Sam answered, her eyes wide.
Rising, Gloria nodded towards the counter, silently asking Isabel for help. “They need to go into the freezer a moment,,,”
“Mom would just let them sit on the counter long enough so that we wouldn’t burn our mouths,” Isabel teased as she held her hand over the girls sandwiches. “Our mouths would water so much while we waited, my way’s much quicker.
Gloria cut the sandwiches into strips and then slid the plates in front of the hungry girls with a flourish. “Wait!” she commanded, catching her charges by surprise, their hands in mid air. She reached out and took her granddaughter’s hands in her own, as did Isabel. “Would you say Grace, please.”
Isabel looked straight into Gloria’s eyes as she spoke from the heart. “Thank you God for this wonderful lunch which we are about to receive, and thank you for all the wonderful people who make sure that little girls are never lonely, Amen.”
With the formalities finished, the girls dug into their sandwiches and chips, while the adults continued to watch each other for a moment. “Oops, I forgot my juice,” Isabel exclaimed, and breaking eye contact, she headed for the fridge. Moments later she had stealthily laced her drink with Tabasco and was headed back to the table when she saw Sam knock her doll from the table.
“Bobo,” Sam whined as she looked down at her fallen friend. Isabel started to reach for it but stopped when Gloria spoke.
“No!” This is lunch time, and we are not going to play ‘make Meme and Auntie fetch.’ Finish your lunch and then you can play with Bobo.”
Expecting an outcry, Isabel was surprised when both girls settled down and took bites of their sandwiches, but the lull wasn’t going to last long.
“Auntie Izzy-bell, what’s you drinking?”
“I’m drinking tomato juice,,,”
“Like in Meme’s sandwich?”
“Can I try?,,”
“Me too,,,”
Gloria smiled at Isabel’s dilemma.
“Okay,” Isabel replied cheerfully as she stood and headed for the refrigerator. Reaching past her the bottle of Clamato that she was actually drinking, she took out the bottle of the V-8 Juice that Alex was fond of. She filled a small cup with V-8, and then shared it with the girls.
“That’s good,” Sarah exclaimed. “Does your sandwich taste like that?”
Now Isabel was in trouble, but Gloria immediately came to her aid. “You can both have a bite of my sandwich.”
Moments later the girls were liking grilled cheese on oat-nut with tomato, and were very vocal about saying so.
“Now stop that,” Gloria commanded. “You can not have my sandwich, what would Meme eat?” she teased. “Now finish up, but if you still want one at snack time I’ll make one for the two of you to split.”
Several minutes later lunch was finished and the girls stomped into the family room while Isabel helped Gloria clean up before heading out for her afternoon class.
“They are so wonderful, so full of life,” Isabel sighed, “Do you think I’ll ever be ready for them?”
“You will,,, someday.”
“Rachel has done a wonderful job.”
“She has, and she has the toughest job in the world.” Seeing a look of confusion on Isabel’s face, she continued. “She’s a military wife. Pops packs up and goes off on a mission, and she’s got to take care of the kids. While he’s gone she has to be both Mom and Dad, she has to fix the broken washer hose, and pay too many bills with too little money, all the time trying to save enough money so there will be a vacation when Pops gets home. Then when he does get home, he wants to be in charge. He wants to fix everything and take the kids out and spoil them. That’s probably the toughest part of her job, the constant shifting of gears when your husband comes and goes. But considering all that, she’s been operating at a severe disadvantage.”
“Yea, what’s that?”
“She hasn’t been able to spend enough time with me,” Gloria teased. “I expect much better from you.”
**********
Later that night, as Charles passed by Alex’s room, he was surprised to find Jesse setting up residence. “What are you doing in here Son? Is the couch too uncomfortable for your Marine back?”
“Nothing like that Pops,” Jesse teased back. “I can sleep on a pile of rocks, but Alex told me to take it for the next couple of days,,,”
“Your Mother isn’t going to like that,” Charles sighed. “She wanted to keep the entire family together.”
“All I can tell you is that Alex has finally become comfortable with his place in the universe, which just happens to be deferring to his warrior god brother.”
“Well maybe,” Charles postulated as he backed out of the room, ‘But it’s much more likely Isabel dragged him to her place in the universe out at the Comfort Inn,’ he added silently.
Meanwhile, down the hall, Gloria hid her ire as she helped Rachel tuck her granddaughters into Isabel’s bed. “Night-night,” she murmured as she kissed their cheeks.
“Night-night Mommy, night-night Meme.”
“Actually Isabel had them all settled in her room before I got back from the mall,” Rachel explained once they got out into the hall.
“Tea?” Gloria offered.
“Ahhmm, no, I have plans,,,” Rachel demurred, pointing towards Harry’s old room with a touch of blush coloring her cheeks.
“So I understand,” Gloria teased. “Maybe it’s a good thing Isabel offered her room.”
“I like her,” Rachel answered with a smile. “She even cleaned out the bottom two drawers of her dresser so the girls would feel right at home in the ‘Princess Room’ as she called it, but I don’t know where she got the Cinderella sheets so fast, and for a full bed set no less.”
“You’ll find she’s very resourceful,,,”
“Listen, I know you wanted to have everyone under one roof, but I’m not going to say I’m sorry. It has been almost eight months, after all,,,”
“Say no more,” Gloria instructed. Having been a young wife with a deployed husband, she knew exactly what Rachel was talking about.
“At least she has her own home to go to, and I’m sure Alex will survive a night or two apart,,,”
“Apart?” Gloria challenged. “Not likely, especially after you got her mo-jo all worked up in the back yard this afternoon.” Seeing a look of confusion on her daughter-in-law’s face she explained, “Isabel gave Alex’s room to Jesse, and while they may show up at Diane’s tomorrow or the next day, I’d bet my new kitchen she’s got him at the Comfort Inn right now, and I’ll also be willing to bet that she’ll give you a run for your money in the ‘getting an itch scratched’ department.”
**********
Towards the end of fourth period Thumper excused herself and snuck out of study hall. The fact of the matter was that she really needn’t have bothered. Mister Renner, a retired gentleman who supplemented his social security pension as a teachers aid who monitored study halls had a long standing and well known policy. ‘You don’t bother me and I won’t make your life miserable.’ Thumper bypassed the girls room and headed straight for the music room where she caught Alex packing his stuff. She approached him slowly, but once she was in front of him, she didn’t know what to say.
Realizing that he wasn’t alone, Alex looked up. “Oh, hey Thumper.”
“Hi Alex,” she replied shyly. “I heard about your brother. I’m sorry. It must really suck.”
“I really don’t know yet,” Alex replied honestly, setting his guitar case down and taking a seat. “Bobby’s the oldest, and he left for the academy not long after we moved to Roswell. I don’t think I’ve seen him five times since he left, but I always knew he was out there.”
Thumper took the chair next to him, carefully keeping her knees together and tucking her tartan skirt in under her thighs as she sat. Settled, she looked over to meet his eyes. ‘He didn’t look,’ she thought in amazement. ‘Not that I would mind if he looked, but this guy is one-in-a-million.’ “It’s not that you think of him everyday, or even that often,,, My Grandmother died during the summer,” she hastened to explain.
“Sorry,,,” Alex interjected softly.
“It’s like you suffer the loss of a sense of family, but at the same time,,, I don’t know,,, it’s almost like I feel guilty because I wasn’t more upset than I was. Am I making sense?”
“Yea,” Alex agreed. “It’s not real yet, at least not for me.”
Both teens sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts, but after a moment Alex looked at her, and found an unasked question on her face. “Thumper, is there something else?”
Thumper’s brows shot up. “Man, you are good.”
“A lifetime with Liz and Maria. They’ve taught me well,” Alex explained. “Especially Maria. She jealously guards her independence, finding it hard to admit that she needs help. So she won’t ask me about a problem until it’s to late, and by then she’s subconsciously disappointed that I failed her.”
“But how can you disappoint her if she doesn’t ask?”
“I’ve given up trying to figure that one out because apparently I don’t have the right chromosomes to think like her, but she is my friend, so I won’t fail her,” Alex explained resolutely. “It’s much easier with Liz. She’s much more analytical. She relates a need, accepts help, and them moves on.”
“Well, it was Liz that told me to talk to you, but now’s not the time,,,”
Alex leaned forward and put his hand on top of hers. “Are you going to get me in trouble with Isabel?”
“God No!”
“Then shoot. Anything for a friend,” Alex replied cheerfully before looking down at his hand, his hand which actually belonged to Isabel, which was sitting on top of Thumper’s hand, which was sitting on top of her green pantyhose covered thigh. He snapped his hand back as if burned. “Sorry.”
Thumper smiled, again struck by his sense of personal honor. Realizing that her instinct to flirt would make him more uncomfortable, she bit back that impulse and instead pressed forward. “Actually it’s a computer problem. My father promised me a new computer for graduation, saying that the one I have now is getting too slow. But during the past couple of months they’ve spent so much on lawyers, I’d rather try to fix the one I got.”
“How old is it?”
“It’s a two year old Dell,” Thumper explained efficiently. “It’s a Windows Ninety-Eight machine. Pentium three, seven thirty-three processor. Two fifty-six memory. Three gig hard drive. Daddy installed Office Ninety-seven and Norton’s System Works. The hard drive’s almost full, and it’s running really slow. If you could fix it, I could save the rest of the money towards books and other stuff I’m going to need for college.”
“I’m impressed. Usually if I ask someone about the particulars about their computer they tell me the screen size of their monitor. It sounds like it’s still new enough to warrant an upgrade, but it will never set any speed records. What are you going to use it for?”
“Homework. Word processing, some spread sheets, e-mail, the internet. Sometimes some music, but I’m not a power user like you.”
“Okay, here’s what we could do. Increase the memory and install a second hard drive. Then I’ll move all your documents to the new drive and disk-wipe the old one. Install Windows XP, and your copy of Office. We won’t run Norton’s, it’s getting more and more bloated with every revision, so I’ll download a freeware anti-virus program and a couple of other utilities. That should take a couple of hours and cost you about a hundred bucks.”
“You can do all that for a hundred bucks?” Thumper gasped.
“Yea, I got connections.”
“Alex, I don’t want you to do charity. I can pay for what I need,,,”
“Thumper, this is business. Isabel will give you a bill from Aries. You’ll be paying for an OEM copy of XP, and as far as the hard drive and memory goes, I have boxes of them in my garage. I’m sure I can find everything else you need,” Alex explained as he stood to leave.”
“Alex, this means a lot to me,,,”
“Hey, don’t thank me yet. When this is all over you will owe me a Will Smith and rings,,,”
“And an orange soda, light on the ice. It’s a date,” she concluded, reaching up and pecking him on the cheek.
**********
Alex was hanging with Maria at her mom’s shop, waiting for Isabel to finish at Eastern and pick him up. Ever the gentleman, he treated this as an opportunity to perform a lot of the pack out of the heavier cases of merchandise from the back room. He was just coming out with a box of life sized alien blow up dolls.
“Izzy,” Alex called out cheerfully, dropping the heavy box onto the counter. “Good, I need you to do something for me.”
Isabel thought she knew everything about her husband, but he still continued to amaze her. Here he was, just days after his brother was killed, car less, covered with dust and hauling heavy boxes, but with his friends, he stayed cheerful. She looked over at Maria and winked.
Maria loved times like this. Isabel could tease better than all of the rest of the group put together, and lately, more and more, Isabel was letting her on the inside.
“We’re not going to do that Alex, I already told you that.”
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“You’re only going to do me there on our wedding night, and that’s because it’s the only special gift I have left to offer you,,,”
“Hugh?”
“But it’s nasty,,,”
“By now Maria was making strange gasping noises as she struggled to keep a straight face.
“Really, really, nasty,,,” Isabel continued, her eyes aglow as she bent her head down and pivoted on her hips as she stared at him intently from under her brows.
“Izzy!” Alex gasped as light dawned on Marblehead.
“Unless I like it, in which case we’re going to be doing it a lot,,,”
By now Alex had his hands over Maria’s ears, but he was doing little to protect her delicate sensibilities as she was squirming around so much he couldn’t keep his hands in place. “No! Nothing like that! I need an invoice for Thumper,,,”
“Thumper?” Isabel continued, keeping her voice light and teasing, but Maria could make out a trace of the little green monster in her voice, and this green monster was definitely not alien in nature. “You’re going to do the nasty with Thumper?”
“I have to hand it to you Isabel,” Maria joined in. “Liz and I could never get him to blush deeper than pink. You’ve driven him all the way through red and it looks like he’s turning purple,,,”
“I’m fixing Thumper’s computer,,,”
“That’s what they call it now?”
“No,” Alex sighed in exasperation. “I’m going to upgrade her computer so it’s capable of working in her dorm when she goes to college next fall. I need you to invoice her for a copy of XP.”
Isabel realized that it was probably time to let him off the hook, so she turned towards Maria. “Are you done with him yet?”
In response Maria reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for the help Stud.”
“Come on Stud,” Isabel said, taking his hands. I’ll let you play with my floppies,,,”
“Isn’t that going to set off Mrs. Whitman?” Maria challenged.
“Naw,” Isabel replied confidently. “I think we can sneak one more night at the Comfort before Mom demands that we come home,,,”
“Ahhmm, about that,” Alex demurred. “My Mom called your Mom and we’re expected at your house,,,”
“Well at least we have six hours or so before we need to be home,,,”
“Actually my Mom told your Mom that you were craving her tuna surprise. She’s expecting us in less than half an hour,,,”
“I hate Mom’s tuna surprise,,, fish just isn’t compatible with Tabasco,,,”
“I know. I think that was the idea. She’s probably getting back at us for sneaking out last night,,,”
“I hate your Mom,” Isabel whined as they went through the door. “I admire her,,, a lot. But right now, I hate her too.”
**********
The evening of the wake, Phillip followed Jim’s pick-up into the parking lot of the Shady Rest funeral home, parking besides him. As he stepped out of his wife’s Toyota, he reached into the back seat for his jacket while Jim stepped over. As he pulled his jacket on, he looked over to his friend who was just finishing buttoning his own. “You look good in that uniform Jim, blue suits you. It took Isabel fifteen minutes to alter mine so I could fit into it.”
“Too much of Diane’s good cooking,” Jim quipped back.
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret Jim,” Phillip chuckled. “Now that Diane isn’t trying to please the kids and their,,, unusual taste in foods, she’s gone back to her old recipes. She’s always been fantastic cook.”
“It shows,” Jim answered as he slapped Phillip’s amble stomach with back of his hand.
Isabel and Diane waited at the base of the stairway while Rachel escorted Gloria down from her room, and as soon as she reached the floor, both women gave her a warm and heartfelt hug.
While this was going on, Rachel turned to Tish, who had volunteered to with the children. “You have my cell number as well as the other emergency numbers?”
“Yes. It’s all right on the refrigerator door.”
“Good. Now you understand that they aren’t to leave the house for any reason whatsoever?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Great,,,” Rachel said as she went into the front room and kissed her children goodbye. Moments later she was outside, where Isabel was holding the rear door for her mothers. Soon Rachel was settled in the shotgun seat while Isabel drove them to the funeral parlor.
Charles looked at Phillip’s uniform. “Frack sake Phillip. You’ve been holding out on us.”
Phillip held up the arm of his black dress jacket and looked at the sleeve. It was adorned with the gold star of a line officer centered above a narrow then wide stripe that wrapped around his sleeve, the mark of a Navy Lieutenant, junior grade. “Just a little something I did to put myself through law school.”
“Little, hugh?” Charles replied sarcastically, looking at Charles’ chest instead of his sleeve. “I’m going to have Juanita order a couple more special bottles and you’re going to tell me about that little adventure sometime.”
“Meanwhile, Jesse felt oddly uncomfortable in Phillip’s presence. Last night at the house he had been able to adjust, after several beers, to the fact that he was a lawyer, but an officer too? A Navy officer at that? And looking at his ribbons, it was almost too much for his simple Marine mind to comprehend.
Jesse continued to stare at the ribbon centered on the top of Phillip’s ribbon rack when Jim slid over. “I don’t recognize some of his ribbons.”
“Well that’s to be expected,” Jim said softly. “Combat arms is a young guys specialty, so most of the troopers you meet are probably too young to have spent enough years in combat to rack up a chest full of ribbons.”
“What are they?”
“Well lets see, the predominantly yellow ribbon with red and green, that’s a Viet Nam service ribbon. Two star means he served two tours. Blue and white, UN service medal. Purple heart with two stars, two combat injuries. The red and yellow as well as the white and green ribbons are for Republic of Vietnam awards, a couple of others I don’t know, they’re probably specific to the Navy,,,”
“Wait a minute,” Jesse interrupted. “Two stars indicates a double award?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what’s the wide white stripe in the middle of the ribbon?”
“You don’t recognize that?” Jim asked in amazement. Your father picked up on it the moment Phillip saw him.”
“I thought it was a purple heart.”
“No,,,” Jim drawled softly. “That, my good Marine, is a Navy Cross. The highest award the Navy can give for valor.” (A.N.: The next highest decoration can be awarded only by an act of Congress.)
“Frack me,,,” Jesse mumbled.
“You’ve heard of the Brown Water Navy?”
“The small boat operators in Viet Nam?”
“Yea, he was one of them. Deep in the Mekong delta, two PBR’s (Patrol Boat, River) stumbled into an ambush. Then they made about the biggest mistake they could have make under the circumstances, they gave up the advantage of being mobile and stopped to duke it out with a superior enemy. Within moments one boat was shot up pretty bad while the other boat was a flaming hulk, many of the men forced into the water.
“Ensign Whitman was in command of the only other boat in the area close enough to effect a rescue. He went in after them under overwhelming fire and with no hope of assistance. When his Boatswain’s Mate was hit, he took over the con and kept the boat moving. Despite the fact that he was totally exposed in the firelight, he went back a total of three times, not leaving the area until he had recovered every man. Dead, injured, or still fighting, every single of them came home. Now what do Marines say? Never leave a buddy behind?”
“Fracking A,” Jesse muttered under his breath. “He must have been a real operator in his day,,,”
“Still is,” Jim retorted proudly. “I’ve seen him in action. You don’t ever want to cross him or anyone that he considers to be family.” Knowing a little of the history of the Whitman boys he leaned in close and lowered his breath. “If he ever thought you would hurt Isabel, or for that matter Alex, he’d drop you like a dirty rubber.”
Reflecting on his still sore knee Jesse rebutted, “That girl doesn’t need her Daddy to watch out for her, she can take care of herself. In fact she’d make a good Marine,” which was about the highest complement he could make about anybody.
**********
Chief Montoya was cursing the inventor of the necktie as he headed back to his office for his Class A jacket when he noticed that the door to the utility room where the departments server was open. Looking inside he found the last person on the face of the planet that he expected to see at the station. “Whitman! What the frack are you doing here? Your brother’s funeral is in less than an hour.
“Oh hi Chief,” Alex replied, turning off the monitor and standing. “I have had several of the systems that have already been installed locally pinging the Albuquerque server and each other over the internet, and I got an error message that our firewall needed an adjustment. I couldn’t get the adjustment to take from home, so I just stopped in for a moment to take care of it,,,”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” the Chief said in a more reasonable tone of voice. “It could have waited.”
“No it couldn’t have,” Alex replied reasonably. “We’re still bringing the entire system live on Monday, and I need to have confidence that the network is secure,,,”
“No one would blame you if you postponed,,,”
“A commitment’s a commitment, Chief,” Alex explained patiently. “Aries is a small company, but we’re running with some of the big dogs. It’s important to me, to everyone, that we show we can be counted on to follow through on what we say we’re going to do.”
“No one who knows you will ever doubt your commitment, Alex,” the Chief said, looking at his watch. “But you’d better get home. Your family must be getting ready to leave. And if I know Isabel,,,”
“Say no more Chief.”
**********
“~~Slingshot One, Roswell Tower, Flight of five Vipers. We’ll be conducting training operations five miles (8 km) off the departure end of runway Three.~~” (Authors note: Although the Air Force’s F-16 is officially designated as the Fighting Falcon, pilots have taken to calling the aircraft Vipers, and themselves Viper Pilots. This nickname is in honor of the Colonial Viper of Battlestar Galactica fame.)
“~~Roger Slingshot One, we have been briefed of your operations. Runway Three is closed and we have instituted the flight exclusion zone as requested. Notify Roswell Tower upon departure.~~”
“~~Gentlemen, systems check.~~”
“~~Five-by-five Skipper.~~”
“~~Three.~~”
“~~Four had a slight flutter in secondary hydraulics, but is fine now.~~”
“~~Slingshot Five?~~”
“~~Good to go.~~”
“~~Slingshot Four, R.T.B. (return to base) Slingshot Five, take position Four~~”
Slingshot One watched through his bubble canopy as the change of aircraft occurred before continuing. “~~The goal today is absolute perfection. Tighten up, stay sharp, and prepare to turn on my mark.~~”
**********
Charles and the rest of the bearers lined up about ten feet from the back of the hearse, for while their best efforts were sufficient at the funeral parlor and during the Funeral Mass, they could not be expected to have the time to learn, let alone the presence of mind to perform, the intricacies of a proper military graveside service. An honor guard from the Five Twenty-Second took their place at the back of the hearse.
Stepping up onto the platform around the grave, the honor guard gently lowered their precious burden and made several minute adjustments, making sure the casket was positioned precisely on the heavy nylon straps of the platform. As the honor guard finished their task and stood at attention, the Officer in Charge stepped forward to insure that the flag was perfectly stretched and leveled, precisely centered over the casket. Completing this task, they stood to attention as the Chaplain began the graveside service.
“Let us pray;
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
(The Twenty-Third Psalm)
After a moments silence the Chaplain continued;
“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of —
wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
(High Flight. John Gillespie Magee, Jr.)
“Lord God, whose days are without end and whose mercies beyond counting, keep us mindful that life is short and the hour of death unknown. Let your Spirit guide our days on earth in the ways of holiness and justice, that we may serve you
in union with the whole Church, sure in faith, strong in hope, perfected in love. And when our earthly journey is ended,
lead us rejoicing into your kingdom, where you live for ever and ever.”
“Amen.”
The Chaplain made a sign of the Cross, blessing the casket, and the family beyond. “May the peace of God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Amen.”
As the Chaplain stepped back the Officer in Charge took his place at the head of the assemblage. ‘Ten-hut!” he commanded softly.
The first of the three rifle volleys caught Gloria by surprise. She flinched so violently that she almost came up from her chair. She squeezed her eyes shut, and braced for the other two volleys, yet even forewarned, she flinched for those as well.
At the staccato crack of the second volley, Isabel clutched her husband’s hand tighter, but he did not notice. Alex was never more thankful for the depth of their connection, for he was depending on the love of his life to keep him going. He had been looking forward to his brother’s visit at Christmas, to show Isabel off. He truly wished that they had met under better circumstances, but he could feel Isabel’s respect for his brother, and he believed that Robert approved as well.
As the echoes of the third volley faded from the distant hills, the sharp sound of a military bugler playing taps. This was a turning point for Charles. This made it real. He had heard this dirge too many times to think otherwise. His son was dead, and would never be home again.
“~~Slingshot One, Two minutes,~~” the watcher whispered into his radio.
As the last note of the bugle faded the well rehearsed honor guard bent as one, grasping the sides of the flag that shielded their fallen comrade. As they stood, the flag snapped flat as they ritualistically folded the flag along it’s length, first in half, then again. As the quartered flag hovered, white gloves caressed it’s edges, insuring that the folds were sharp and straight. Then, starting at the foot of the casket, the honor guard folded the flag into it’s characteristic tight triangle, ending with eight stars showing on both the top and bottom. The Airman at the upper right took the folded flag, tucking it’s end under the edge of the top triangle before turning and presenting it to the Officer in Charge.
Knowledgeable that some military traditions dictate that once folded, a memorial flag never be unfolded, the young Captain inspected the flag, making sure that it was perfect and worthy of presentation to their fallen comrade’s loved ones. As he turned and marched towards the Chaplain, he discretely slipped three spent cartridges, emblematic of the three rifle volleys, into the top fold of the flag. He presented the flag to the Chaplain, and then his duty done, led the honor guard away from the burial site, leaving the lieutenant who had flown out from Maryland behind, who would remain on station until the internment was complete.
The Chaplain took the flag from the Officer in Charge, placing one gloved hand over the folded flag and his other hand under it. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, He turned and resolutely marched to the seated family.
“~~Execute!~~”
The Chaplain stopped in front of the seated family, directly in front of Gloria, in accordance with the wish that Charles had expressed earlier. With the straight edge of the flag facing the family he slowly dropped to one knee, presenting the flag to Gloria. “On behalf of the President of the United States, The Department of the Air Force, and a grateful nation, we offer this flag for the faithful and dedicated service of Lieutenant Robert Whitman. God Bless you and this family, and may God Bless the United States of America.”
**********
In downtown Roswell windows shook and traffic stopped as the shadows of four Vipers flying in a perfect Fingers-Four formation screamed down the length of Route 380. Seconds later they were over the cemetery where Slingshot Three broke formation and rocketed towards the heavens on zone-five afterburner. He carried with him the soul of a warrior, delivering him to his well earned rest while the thunder of his jet exhaust let one and all know, ‘There be Heroes Here’.
End Chapter
Authors note: One night while I slept, just ten miles (16 km) away from my house, the beltway sniper and his accomplice were captured by a contingent of Washington and Frederick County Deputies, the Maryland State Police, and the FBI. I am proud to say that the State of Maryland was gracious in allowing the Commonwealth of Virginia to try him first. (Virginia has the death penalty, Maryland does not.) He now sits in a cell, convicted and sentenced to die, awaiting his fate.
Photo links:
New Link:
21 ship Missing Man formation
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3M9BPE0DAlE& ... ed&search=
Charles’ AUG-A1
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... AUG-A1.jpg
Firefighter Alex Taylor, Alex’s rescuer when he was shot at the Kettle’s
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... Taylor.jpg
Isabel’s Floating Heart, a gift from Alex after Prom
http://www.kheigl.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi? ... t/kh34.jpg
Courtesy Khegil.com
Isabel’s Earrings, Alex’s present for her Eighteenth birthday.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... arings.jpg
Isabel’s Engagement Ring
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... sring2.jpg
Chapter 24-I There be Heroes Here
By Stargazer MD
At the funeral home a somber Charles completed the plans for his son’s service. He was greatly appreciative of the assistance that the Air Force was providing, but he was somewhat surprised as well. As the meeting broke up, he pulled Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey McDaniels to one side. “Colonel, permission to speak freely.” (As a military courtesy, a lieutenant colonel is usually referred to as ‘Colonel.’)
“You don’t have to ask that Major, you’re not in the service anymore,” Colonel McDaniels replied. “Speak freely, and please, call me Jeff.”
Although the comment on his military status wasn’t quite accurate, he would have been sent straight to jail if he admitted it, so he let it pass. “Thank you, and please call me Charles.”
“Charles. What is your concern?”
“Again, I appreciate the honors being extended,,,”
“Stop right there,” Colonel McDaniels interrupted. “You are asking why full military honors are being extended to an officer who was not killed in the line of duty?”
“Yes.”
“General Hayden (Commander, National Security Agency) feels that your son’s sacrifice brought honor and distinction to the service, therefore he ‘suggested’ that Lieutenant Whitman be treated with full honors. Now, how many times have you said no to a two-star? (general)”
“Never.”
“Neither have I, and I’m not going to start now.”
**********
Gloria took advantage of her employer’s rather liberal bereavement policy, which allowed her to stay home with Sarah and Sam while Rachel ran several errands alone. Over their morning coffee, Rachel had confessed that she had packed in such a hurry that she had given no consideration to the fact that she would reunited with her husband for the first time in eight months. Gloria had promptly sent her out with directions to Victoria’s Secrets at the mall and an appointment for a style and manicure at her hairdressers. This left her with the girls for the day, a situation she was most happy with.
“Okay girls, lunch time,” Gloria pleaded as she herded her rambunctious charges into the kitchen.
“Oh boy,,, cheeseburger,,, cheeseburger,,, cheeseburger,,,”
“I want a happy meal,,, chicken nugs,,,”
“Pop-Tarts and Fruit-Woops.”
“Meme? Can I have a milk shake?”
“Ya-hoo, Mountain Doo.”
“Kevo, Tacco-Swell,,,”
“Mommy makes Spegette-O’s for lunch,,,”
Gloria realized that if she didn’t reign in this stampede soon she’d have a kitchen full of out-of-control children, a situation she hadn’t faced since,,, actually she’d never faced that situation. “Girls! This isn’t Burger King. You don’t get lunch your way, you get it Meme’s way or you don’t get it all. Your choices are grilled cheese sandwiches, plain, or grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato,,,”
“Tomato? Ewww.”
“Okay, plain. Now Sarah, take Sam and go wash your hands.”
“Okay, Meme.”
Gloria quickly and efficiently gathered the materials for their lunches, white bread for the girls, oat-nut for hers, butter, and cheese. She put her griddle on her new range to preheat and then selected one of her own home grown tomatoes. While not quite as good as the ones she remembered growing back east, the Heatwave Hybrid variety she had found at the local nursery was still far superior to anything she could buy at Albertson’s.
Gloria was surprised to hear the back door open, and as she turned to see who was home, she found herself enveloped in a tight warm hug.
“I’m done classes for the day at West, and I have an afternoon session at Eastern,” Isabel explained, “So instead of hitting the Crashdown I figured I’d stop by and see if I could do anything.”
“You’re just in time for lunch. Grilled cheese with tomato on oat-nut,” Gloria replied warmly. “How do you want me to contaminate yours?”
Isabel quickly took a Habanero chili and a slice of Vidalia onion from the refrigerator. Placing them next to the tomato on the cutting board, she had just enough time to use her powers to slice and dice the vegetables before the girls made their way back from the bathroom.
“You’d better never let Jeff see you do that,” Gloria teased. “He’d never let you out of the kitchen.”
“Aunt Isabel, Auntie Izzy-bell,” the girls sing-sang as they ran and hugged their newest favorite relative around the legs.
“Actually anyone who has eaten at the Crash in the last year or so has eaten Czechoslovakian prepped foods,” Isabel teased. Max and Michael do it all the time. It gets Liz and Maria out of the kitchen a lot quicker.”
Gloria only shook her head as she began to assemble the sandwiches on the griddle.
“Look who’s here!” Isabel exclaimed in surprise as she turned her attention to the new arrivals. “My little helpers!”
She sat on her heels and faced them. “Who wants to help me set the table while Meme cooks your lunch?”
Used to being banished from the kitchen at meal time, the girls were happy to have an opportunity to help out, let alone the attention that went along with it. “Me!,, I want to,,, Me too,,,”
“Okay,” Isabel replied cheerfully, leading the girls away from the dangers of the range. “Sam, you take the place mats and Sara, you take the plates.” Isabel grabbed a handful of silverware, and then they were back at the breakfast table. Isabel taught the girls how to make a simple place setting before reaching up into the cabinet for glasses. Their next stop was the refrigerator, where Isabel placed a finger over her lip, deep in thought. “I wonder what little girls like to drink now-a-days,,,” Before the girls could chime in she continued, “When I was just a itty-bitty girl my Mommy let me drink lots-and-lots of milk so I would grow up big and tall,,,”
“I want Kool-Ache,” Sam pouted.
“No!” Sarah whispered fiercely. “Aunt Isabel drank lots and lots of milk, and look. She’s taller than Mommy,,, In fact she’s pob’ly taller than Daddy,,,”
“Nobody’s taller than Daddy,” Sam protested, but she did look at her aunt with admiration.
“Aunt Isabel, can we have milk too?” Sarah pleaded.
Gloria looked up from flipping the sandwiches, giving Isabel a wink in the process.
“Milk it is,” Isabel exclaimed as she took a container of whole milk from the fridge. She took it over to the table along with a pitcher of iced tea for Gloria.
As Gloria scooped the sandwiches into plates, adding a handful of tortilla chips, Isabel poured the drinks.
“I want a big girl cup,” Sam pouted, causing Isabel to look to Gloria for advice.
Gloria placed the plates on the counter before bending next to Sam’s booster seat. “Meme’s going to give you a sippy cup this time, but if there are no accidents, you can have a big girl cup snack time.”
“Okay,” Sam answered, her eyes wide.
Rising, Gloria nodded towards the counter, silently asking Isabel for help. “They need to go into the freezer a moment,,,”
“Mom would just let them sit on the counter long enough so that we wouldn’t burn our mouths,” Isabel teased as she held her hand over the girls sandwiches. “Our mouths would water so much while we waited, my way’s much quicker.
Gloria cut the sandwiches into strips and then slid the plates in front of the hungry girls with a flourish. “Wait!” she commanded, catching her charges by surprise, their hands in mid air. She reached out and took her granddaughter’s hands in her own, as did Isabel. “Would you say Grace, please.”
Isabel looked straight into Gloria’s eyes as she spoke from the heart. “Thank you God for this wonderful lunch which we are about to receive, and thank you for all the wonderful people who make sure that little girls are never lonely, Amen.”
With the formalities finished, the girls dug into their sandwiches and chips, while the adults continued to watch each other for a moment. “Oops, I forgot my juice,” Isabel exclaimed, and breaking eye contact, she headed for the fridge. Moments later she had stealthily laced her drink with Tabasco and was headed back to the table when she saw Sam knock her doll from the table.
“Bobo,” Sam whined as she looked down at her fallen friend. Isabel started to reach for it but stopped when Gloria spoke.
“No!” This is lunch time, and we are not going to play ‘make Meme and Auntie fetch.’ Finish your lunch and then you can play with Bobo.”
Expecting an outcry, Isabel was surprised when both girls settled down and took bites of their sandwiches, but the lull wasn’t going to last long.
“Auntie Izzy-bell, what’s you drinking?”
“I’m drinking tomato juice,,,”
“Like in Meme’s sandwich?”
“Can I try?,,”
“Me too,,,”
Gloria smiled at Isabel’s dilemma.
“Okay,” Isabel replied cheerfully as she stood and headed for the refrigerator. Reaching past her the bottle of Clamato that she was actually drinking, she took out the bottle of the V-8 Juice that Alex was fond of. She filled a small cup with V-8, and then shared it with the girls.
“That’s good,” Sarah exclaimed. “Does your sandwich taste like that?”
Now Isabel was in trouble, but Gloria immediately came to her aid. “You can both have a bite of my sandwich.”
Moments later the girls were liking grilled cheese on oat-nut with tomato, and were very vocal about saying so.
“Now stop that,” Gloria commanded. “You can not have my sandwich, what would Meme eat?” she teased. “Now finish up, but if you still want one at snack time I’ll make one for the two of you to split.”
Several minutes later lunch was finished and the girls stomped into the family room while Isabel helped Gloria clean up before heading out for her afternoon class.
“They are so wonderful, so full of life,” Isabel sighed, “Do you think I’ll ever be ready for them?”
“You will,,, someday.”
“Rachel has done a wonderful job.”
“She has, and she has the toughest job in the world.” Seeing a look of confusion on Isabel’s face, she continued. “She’s a military wife. Pops packs up and goes off on a mission, and she’s got to take care of the kids. While he’s gone she has to be both Mom and Dad, she has to fix the broken washer hose, and pay too many bills with too little money, all the time trying to save enough money so there will be a vacation when Pops gets home. Then when he does get home, he wants to be in charge. He wants to fix everything and take the kids out and spoil them. That’s probably the toughest part of her job, the constant shifting of gears when your husband comes and goes. But considering all that, she’s been operating at a severe disadvantage.”
“Yea, what’s that?”
“She hasn’t been able to spend enough time with me,” Gloria teased. “I expect much better from you.”
**********
Later that night, as Charles passed by Alex’s room, he was surprised to find Jesse setting up residence. “What are you doing in here Son? Is the couch too uncomfortable for your Marine back?”
“Nothing like that Pops,” Jesse teased back. “I can sleep on a pile of rocks, but Alex told me to take it for the next couple of days,,,”
“Your Mother isn’t going to like that,” Charles sighed. “She wanted to keep the entire family together.”
“All I can tell you is that Alex has finally become comfortable with his place in the universe, which just happens to be deferring to his warrior god brother.”
“Well maybe,” Charles postulated as he backed out of the room, ‘But it’s much more likely Isabel dragged him to her place in the universe out at the Comfort Inn,’ he added silently.
Meanwhile, down the hall, Gloria hid her ire as she helped Rachel tuck her granddaughters into Isabel’s bed. “Night-night,” she murmured as she kissed their cheeks.
“Night-night Mommy, night-night Meme.”
“Actually Isabel had them all settled in her room before I got back from the mall,” Rachel explained once they got out into the hall.
“Tea?” Gloria offered.
“Ahhmm, no, I have plans,,,” Rachel demurred, pointing towards Harry’s old room with a touch of blush coloring her cheeks.
“So I understand,” Gloria teased. “Maybe it’s a good thing Isabel offered her room.”
“I like her,” Rachel answered with a smile. “She even cleaned out the bottom two drawers of her dresser so the girls would feel right at home in the ‘Princess Room’ as she called it, but I don’t know where she got the Cinderella sheets so fast, and for a full bed set no less.”
“You’ll find she’s very resourceful,,,”
“Listen, I know you wanted to have everyone under one roof, but I’m not going to say I’m sorry. It has been almost eight months, after all,,,”
“Say no more,” Gloria instructed. Having been a young wife with a deployed husband, she knew exactly what Rachel was talking about.
“At least she has her own home to go to, and I’m sure Alex will survive a night or two apart,,,”
“Apart?” Gloria challenged. “Not likely, especially after you got her mo-jo all worked up in the back yard this afternoon.” Seeing a look of confusion on her daughter-in-law’s face she explained, “Isabel gave Alex’s room to Jesse, and while they may show up at Diane’s tomorrow or the next day, I’d bet my new kitchen she’s got him at the Comfort Inn right now, and I’ll also be willing to bet that she’ll give you a run for your money in the ‘getting an itch scratched’ department.”
**********
Towards the end of fourth period Thumper excused herself and snuck out of study hall. The fact of the matter was that she really needn’t have bothered. Mister Renner, a retired gentleman who supplemented his social security pension as a teachers aid who monitored study halls had a long standing and well known policy. ‘You don’t bother me and I won’t make your life miserable.’ Thumper bypassed the girls room and headed straight for the music room where she caught Alex packing his stuff. She approached him slowly, but once she was in front of him, she didn’t know what to say.
Realizing that he wasn’t alone, Alex looked up. “Oh, hey Thumper.”
“Hi Alex,” she replied shyly. “I heard about your brother. I’m sorry. It must really suck.”
“I really don’t know yet,” Alex replied honestly, setting his guitar case down and taking a seat. “Bobby’s the oldest, and he left for the academy not long after we moved to Roswell. I don’t think I’ve seen him five times since he left, but I always knew he was out there.”
Thumper took the chair next to him, carefully keeping her knees together and tucking her tartan skirt in under her thighs as she sat. Settled, she looked over to meet his eyes. ‘He didn’t look,’ she thought in amazement. ‘Not that I would mind if he looked, but this guy is one-in-a-million.’ “It’s not that you think of him everyday, or even that often,,, My Grandmother died during the summer,” she hastened to explain.
“Sorry,,,” Alex interjected softly.
“It’s like you suffer the loss of a sense of family, but at the same time,,, I don’t know,,, it’s almost like I feel guilty because I wasn’t more upset than I was. Am I making sense?”
“Yea,” Alex agreed. “It’s not real yet, at least not for me.”
Both teens sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts, but after a moment Alex looked at her, and found an unasked question on her face. “Thumper, is there something else?”
Thumper’s brows shot up. “Man, you are good.”
“A lifetime with Liz and Maria. They’ve taught me well,” Alex explained. “Especially Maria. She jealously guards her independence, finding it hard to admit that she needs help. So she won’t ask me about a problem until it’s to late, and by then she’s subconsciously disappointed that I failed her.”
“But how can you disappoint her if she doesn’t ask?”
“I’ve given up trying to figure that one out because apparently I don’t have the right chromosomes to think like her, but she is my friend, so I won’t fail her,” Alex explained resolutely. “It’s much easier with Liz. She’s much more analytical. She relates a need, accepts help, and them moves on.”
“Well, it was Liz that told me to talk to you, but now’s not the time,,,”
Alex leaned forward and put his hand on top of hers. “Are you going to get me in trouble with Isabel?”
“God No!”
“Then shoot. Anything for a friend,” Alex replied cheerfully before looking down at his hand, his hand which actually belonged to Isabel, which was sitting on top of Thumper’s hand, which was sitting on top of her green pantyhose covered thigh. He snapped his hand back as if burned. “Sorry.”
Thumper smiled, again struck by his sense of personal honor. Realizing that her instinct to flirt would make him more uncomfortable, she bit back that impulse and instead pressed forward. “Actually it’s a computer problem. My father promised me a new computer for graduation, saying that the one I have now is getting too slow. But during the past couple of months they’ve spent so much on lawyers, I’d rather try to fix the one I got.”
“How old is it?”
“It’s a two year old Dell,” Thumper explained efficiently. “It’s a Windows Ninety-Eight machine. Pentium three, seven thirty-three processor. Two fifty-six memory. Three gig hard drive. Daddy installed Office Ninety-seven and Norton’s System Works. The hard drive’s almost full, and it’s running really slow. If you could fix it, I could save the rest of the money towards books and other stuff I’m going to need for college.”
“I’m impressed. Usually if I ask someone about the particulars about their computer they tell me the screen size of their monitor. It sounds like it’s still new enough to warrant an upgrade, but it will never set any speed records. What are you going to use it for?”
“Homework. Word processing, some spread sheets, e-mail, the internet. Sometimes some music, but I’m not a power user like you.”
“Okay, here’s what we could do. Increase the memory and install a second hard drive. Then I’ll move all your documents to the new drive and disk-wipe the old one. Install Windows XP, and your copy of Office. We won’t run Norton’s, it’s getting more and more bloated with every revision, so I’ll download a freeware anti-virus program and a couple of other utilities. That should take a couple of hours and cost you about a hundred bucks.”
“You can do all that for a hundred bucks?” Thumper gasped.
“Yea, I got connections.”
“Alex, I don’t want you to do charity. I can pay for what I need,,,”
“Thumper, this is business. Isabel will give you a bill from Aries. You’ll be paying for an OEM copy of XP, and as far as the hard drive and memory goes, I have boxes of them in my garage. I’m sure I can find everything else you need,” Alex explained as he stood to leave.”
“Alex, this means a lot to me,,,”
“Hey, don’t thank me yet. When this is all over you will owe me a Will Smith and rings,,,”
“And an orange soda, light on the ice. It’s a date,” she concluded, reaching up and pecking him on the cheek.
**********
Alex was hanging with Maria at her mom’s shop, waiting for Isabel to finish at Eastern and pick him up. Ever the gentleman, he treated this as an opportunity to perform a lot of the pack out of the heavier cases of merchandise from the back room. He was just coming out with a box of life sized alien blow up dolls.
“Izzy,” Alex called out cheerfully, dropping the heavy box onto the counter. “Good, I need you to do something for me.”
Isabel thought she knew everything about her husband, but he still continued to amaze her. Here he was, just days after his brother was killed, car less, covered with dust and hauling heavy boxes, but with his friends, he stayed cheerful. She looked over at Maria and winked.
Maria loved times like this. Isabel could tease better than all of the rest of the group put together, and lately, more and more, Isabel was letting her on the inside.
“We’re not going to do that Alex, I already told you that.”
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“You’re only going to do me there on our wedding night, and that’s because it’s the only special gift I have left to offer you,,,”
“Hugh?”
“But it’s nasty,,,”
“By now Maria was making strange gasping noises as she struggled to keep a straight face.
“Really, really, nasty,,,” Isabel continued, her eyes aglow as she bent her head down and pivoted on her hips as she stared at him intently from under her brows.
“Izzy!” Alex gasped as light dawned on Marblehead.
“Unless I like it, in which case we’re going to be doing it a lot,,,”
By now Alex had his hands over Maria’s ears, but he was doing little to protect her delicate sensibilities as she was squirming around so much he couldn’t keep his hands in place. “No! Nothing like that! I need an invoice for Thumper,,,”
“Thumper?” Isabel continued, keeping her voice light and teasing, but Maria could make out a trace of the little green monster in her voice, and this green monster was definitely not alien in nature. “You’re going to do the nasty with Thumper?”
“I have to hand it to you Isabel,” Maria joined in. “Liz and I could never get him to blush deeper than pink. You’ve driven him all the way through red and it looks like he’s turning purple,,,”
“I’m fixing Thumper’s computer,,,”
“That’s what they call it now?”
“No,” Alex sighed in exasperation. “I’m going to upgrade her computer so it’s capable of working in her dorm when she goes to college next fall. I need you to invoice her for a copy of XP.”
Isabel realized that it was probably time to let him off the hook, so she turned towards Maria. “Are you done with him yet?”
In response Maria reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for the help Stud.”
“Come on Stud,” Isabel said, taking his hands. I’ll let you play with my floppies,,,”
“Isn’t that going to set off Mrs. Whitman?” Maria challenged.
“Naw,” Isabel replied confidently. “I think we can sneak one more night at the Comfort before Mom demands that we come home,,,”
“Ahhmm, about that,” Alex demurred. “My Mom called your Mom and we’re expected at your house,,,”
“Well at least we have six hours or so before we need to be home,,,”
“Actually my Mom told your Mom that you were craving her tuna surprise. She’s expecting us in less than half an hour,,,”
“I hate Mom’s tuna surprise,,, fish just isn’t compatible with Tabasco,,,”
“I know. I think that was the idea. She’s probably getting back at us for sneaking out last night,,,”
“I hate your Mom,” Isabel whined as they went through the door. “I admire her,,, a lot. But right now, I hate her too.”
**********
The evening of the wake, Phillip followed Jim’s pick-up into the parking lot of the Shady Rest funeral home, parking besides him. As he stepped out of his wife’s Toyota, he reached into the back seat for his jacket while Jim stepped over. As he pulled his jacket on, he looked over to his friend who was just finishing buttoning his own. “You look good in that uniform Jim, blue suits you. It took Isabel fifteen minutes to alter mine so I could fit into it.”
“Too much of Diane’s good cooking,” Jim quipped back.
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret Jim,” Phillip chuckled. “Now that Diane isn’t trying to please the kids and their,,, unusual taste in foods, she’s gone back to her old recipes. She’s always been fantastic cook.”
“It shows,” Jim answered as he slapped Phillip’s amble stomach with back of his hand.
Isabel and Diane waited at the base of the stairway while Rachel escorted Gloria down from her room, and as soon as she reached the floor, both women gave her a warm and heartfelt hug.
While this was going on, Rachel turned to Tish, who had volunteered to with the children. “You have my cell number as well as the other emergency numbers?”
“Yes. It’s all right on the refrigerator door.”
“Good. Now you understand that they aren’t to leave the house for any reason whatsoever?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Great,,,” Rachel said as she went into the front room and kissed her children goodbye. Moments later she was outside, where Isabel was holding the rear door for her mothers. Soon Rachel was settled in the shotgun seat while Isabel drove them to the funeral parlor.
Charles looked at Phillip’s uniform. “Frack sake Phillip. You’ve been holding out on us.”
Phillip held up the arm of his black dress jacket and looked at the sleeve. It was adorned with the gold star of a line officer centered above a narrow then wide stripe that wrapped around his sleeve, the mark of a Navy Lieutenant, junior grade. “Just a little something I did to put myself through law school.”
“Little, hugh?” Charles replied sarcastically, looking at Charles’ chest instead of his sleeve. “I’m going to have Juanita order a couple more special bottles and you’re going to tell me about that little adventure sometime.”
“Meanwhile, Jesse felt oddly uncomfortable in Phillip’s presence. Last night at the house he had been able to adjust, after several beers, to the fact that he was a lawyer, but an officer too? A Navy officer at that? And looking at his ribbons, it was almost too much for his simple Marine mind to comprehend.
Jesse continued to stare at the ribbon centered on the top of Phillip’s ribbon rack when Jim slid over. “I don’t recognize some of his ribbons.”
“Well that’s to be expected,” Jim said softly. “Combat arms is a young guys specialty, so most of the troopers you meet are probably too young to have spent enough years in combat to rack up a chest full of ribbons.”
“What are they?”
“Well lets see, the predominantly yellow ribbon with red and green, that’s a Viet Nam service ribbon. Two star means he served two tours. Blue and white, UN service medal. Purple heart with two stars, two combat injuries. The red and yellow as well as the white and green ribbons are for Republic of Vietnam awards, a couple of others I don’t know, they’re probably specific to the Navy,,,”
“Wait a minute,” Jesse interrupted. “Two stars indicates a double award?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what’s the wide white stripe in the middle of the ribbon?”
“You don’t recognize that?” Jim asked in amazement. Your father picked up on it the moment Phillip saw him.”
“I thought it was a purple heart.”
“No,,,” Jim drawled softly. “That, my good Marine, is a Navy Cross. The highest award the Navy can give for valor.” (A.N.: The next highest decoration can be awarded only by an act of Congress.)
“Frack me,,,” Jesse mumbled.
“You’ve heard of the Brown Water Navy?”
“The small boat operators in Viet Nam?”
“Yea, he was one of them. Deep in the Mekong delta, two PBR’s (Patrol Boat, River) stumbled into an ambush. Then they made about the biggest mistake they could have make under the circumstances, they gave up the advantage of being mobile and stopped to duke it out with a superior enemy. Within moments one boat was shot up pretty bad while the other boat was a flaming hulk, many of the men forced into the water.
“Ensign Whitman was in command of the only other boat in the area close enough to effect a rescue. He went in after them under overwhelming fire and with no hope of assistance. When his Boatswain’s Mate was hit, he took over the con and kept the boat moving. Despite the fact that he was totally exposed in the firelight, he went back a total of three times, not leaving the area until he had recovered every man. Dead, injured, or still fighting, every single of them came home. Now what do Marines say? Never leave a buddy behind?”
“Fracking A,” Jesse muttered under his breath. “He must have been a real operator in his day,,,”
“Still is,” Jim retorted proudly. “I’ve seen him in action. You don’t ever want to cross him or anyone that he considers to be family.” Knowing a little of the history of the Whitman boys he leaned in close and lowered his breath. “If he ever thought you would hurt Isabel, or for that matter Alex, he’d drop you like a dirty rubber.”
Reflecting on his still sore knee Jesse rebutted, “That girl doesn’t need her Daddy to watch out for her, she can take care of herself. In fact she’d make a good Marine,” which was about the highest complement he could make about anybody.
**********
Chief Montoya was cursing the inventor of the necktie as he headed back to his office for his Class A jacket when he noticed that the door to the utility room where the departments server was open. Looking inside he found the last person on the face of the planet that he expected to see at the station. “Whitman! What the frack are you doing here? Your brother’s funeral is in less than an hour.
“Oh hi Chief,” Alex replied, turning off the monitor and standing. “I have had several of the systems that have already been installed locally pinging the Albuquerque server and each other over the internet, and I got an error message that our firewall needed an adjustment. I couldn’t get the adjustment to take from home, so I just stopped in for a moment to take care of it,,,”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” the Chief said in a more reasonable tone of voice. “It could have waited.”
“No it couldn’t have,” Alex replied reasonably. “We’re still bringing the entire system live on Monday, and I need to have confidence that the network is secure,,,”
“No one would blame you if you postponed,,,”
“A commitment’s a commitment, Chief,” Alex explained patiently. “Aries is a small company, but we’re running with some of the big dogs. It’s important to me, to everyone, that we show we can be counted on to follow through on what we say we’re going to do.”
“No one who knows you will ever doubt your commitment, Alex,” the Chief said, looking at his watch. “But you’d better get home. Your family must be getting ready to leave. And if I know Isabel,,,”
“Say no more Chief.”
**********
“~~Slingshot One, Roswell Tower, Flight of five Vipers. We’ll be conducting training operations five miles (8 km) off the departure end of runway Three.~~” (Authors note: Although the Air Force’s F-16 is officially designated as the Fighting Falcon, pilots have taken to calling the aircraft Vipers, and themselves Viper Pilots. This nickname is in honor of the Colonial Viper of Battlestar Galactica fame.)
“~~Roger Slingshot One, we have been briefed of your operations. Runway Three is closed and we have instituted the flight exclusion zone as requested. Notify Roswell Tower upon departure.~~”
“~~Gentlemen, systems check.~~”
“~~Five-by-five Skipper.~~”
“~~Three.~~”
“~~Four had a slight flutter in secondary hydraulics, but is fine now.~~”
“~~Slingshot Five?~~”
“~~Good to go.~~”
“~~Slingshot Four, R.T.B. (return to base) Slingshot Five, take position Four~~”
Slingshot One watched through his bubble canopy as the change of aircraft occurred before continuing. “~~The goal today is absolute perfection. Tighten up, stay sharp, and prepare to turn on my mark.~~”
**********
Charles and the rest of the bearers lined up about ten feet from the back of the hearse, for while their best efforts were sufficient at the funeral parlor and during the Funeral Mass, they could not be expected to have the time to learn, let alone the presence of mind to perform, the intricacies of a proper military graveside service. An honor guard from the Five Twenty-Second took their place at the back of the hearse.
Stepping up onto the platform around the grave, the honor guard gently lowered their precious burden and made several minute adjustments, making sure the casket was positioned precisely on the heavy nylon straps of the platform. As the honor guard finished their task and stood at attention, the Officer in Charge stepped forward to insure that the flag was perfectly stretched and leveled, precisely centered over the casket. Completing this task, they stood to attention as the Chaplain began the graveside service.
“Let us pray;
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
(The Twenty-Third Psalm)
After a moments silence the Chaplain continued;
“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of —
wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
(High Flight. John Gillespie Magee, Jr.)
“Lord God, whose days are without end and whose mercies beyond counting, keep us mindful that life is short and the hour of death unknown. Let your Spirit guide our days on earth in the ways of holiness and justice, that we may serve you
in union with the whole Church, sure in faith, strong in hope, perfected in love. And when our earthly journey is ended,
lead us rejoicing into your kingdom, where you live for ever and ever.”
“Amen.”
The Chaplain made a sign of the Cross, blessing the casket, and the family beyond. “May the peace of God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Amen.”
As the Chaplain stepped back the Officer in Charge took his place at the head of the assemblage. ‘Ten-hut!” he commanded softly.
The first of the three rifle volleys caught Gloria by surprise. She flinched so violently that she almost came up from her chair. She squeezed her eyes shut, and braced for the other two volleys, yet even forewarned, she flinched for those as well.
At the staccato crack of the second volley, Isabel clutched her husband’s hand tighter, but he did not notice. Alex was never more thankful for the depth of their connection, for he was depending on the love of his life to keep him going. He had been looking forward to his brother’s visit at Christmas, to show Isabel off. He truly wished that they had met under better circumstances, but he could feel Isabel’s respect for his brother, and he believed that Robert approved as well.
As the echoes of the third volley faded from the distant hills, the sharp sound of a military bugler playing taps. This was a turning point for Charles. This made it real. He had heard this dirge too many times to think otherwise. His son was dead, and would never be home again.
“~~Slingshot One, Two minutes,~~” the watcher whispered into his radio.
As the last note of the bugle faded the well rehearsed honor guard bent as one, grasping the sides of the flag that shielded their fallen comrade. As they stood, the flag snapped flat as they ritualistically folded the flag along it’s length, first in half, then again. As the quartered flag hovered, white gloves caressed it’s edges, insuring that the folds were sharp and straight. Then, starting at the foot of the casket, the honor guard folded the flag into it’s characteristic tight triangle, ending with eight stars showing on both the top and bottom. The Airman at the upper right took the folded flag, tucking it’s end under the edge of the top triangle before turning and presenting it to the Officer in Charge.
Knowledgeable that some military traditions dictate that once folded, a memorial flag never be unfolded, the young Captain inspected the flag, making sure that it was perfect and worthy of presentation to their fallen comrade’s loved ones. As he turned and marched towards the Chaplain, he discretely slipped three spent cartridges, emblematic of the three rifle volleys, into the top fold of the flag. He presented the flag to the Chaplain, and then his duty done, led the honor guard away from the burial site, leaving the lieutenant who had flown out from Maryland behind, who would remain on station until the internment was complete.
The Chaplain took the flag from the Officer in Charge, placing one gloved hand over the folded flag and his other hand under it. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, He turned and resolutely marched to the seated family.
“~~Execute!~~”
The Chaplain stopped in front of the seated family, directly in front of Gloria, in accordance with the wish that Charles had expressed earlier. With the straight edge of the flag facing the family he slowly dropped to one knee, presenting the flag to Gloria. “On behalf of the President of the United States, The Department of the Air Force, and a grateful nation, we offer this flag for the faithful and dedicated service of Lieutenant Robert Whitman. God Bless you and this family, and may God Bless the United States of America.”
**********
In downtown Roswell windows shook and traffic stopped as the shadows of four Vipers flying in a perfect Fingers-Four formation screamed down the length of Route 380. Seconds later they were over the cemetery where Slingshot Three broke formation and rocketed towards the heavens on zone-five afterburner. He carried with him the soul of a warrior, delivering him to his well earned rest while the thunder of his jet exhaust let one and all know, ‘There be Heroes Here’.
End Chapter
Authors note: One night while I slept, just ten miles (16 km) away from my house, the beltway sniper and his accomplice were captured by a contingent of Washington and Frederick County Deputies, the Maryland State Police, and the FBI. I am proud to say that the State of Maryland was gracious in allowing the Commonwealth of Virginia to try him first. (Virginia has the death penalty, Maryland does not.) He now sits in a cell, convicted and sentenced to die, awaiting his fate.
Photo links:
New Link:
21 ship Missing Man formation
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3M9BPE0DAlE& ... ed&search=
Charles’ AUG-A1
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... AUG-A1.jpg
Firefighter Alex Taylor, Alex’s rescuer when he was shot at the Kettle’s
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... Taylor.jpg
Isabel’s Floating Heart, a gift from Alex after Prom
http://www.kheigl.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi? ... t/kh34.jpg
Courtesy Khegil.com
Isabel’s Earrings, Alex’s present for her Eighteenth birthday.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... arings.jpg
Isabel’s Engagement Ring
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/S ... sring2.jpg
My completed stories:
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
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incognito-sticks
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:13 pm
- Location: i have no idea
Great Update, the end was really sad though. It has to be the worst thing in the world to bury a child.
Alex is soo nice like we all know helping thumper, i wounder if isabel would get jealous if he started spending 'innocent' time with her!
can't wait for the next update please make it soon!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alex is soo nice like we all know helping thumper, i wounder if isabel would get jealous if he started spending 'innocent' time with her!
can't wait for the next update please make it soon!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Stargazer md
- Fan Fic Follower
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:43 pm
- Location: Seacoast New Hampshire
Very sad, but all too real now-a-days.
I need to know, did anyone try the link?
Did it work?
P
I need to know, did anyone try the link?
Did it work?
P
My completed stories:
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488
The Seekers, I&A with angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=282
Alex C Whitman SSAIC, I&A with uber-angst
http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=488