We're a Wonderful Wife

Chapter 11

The Grim Christmas

When Karole's ex-fiancé lied to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Gendarmerie Royale du Canada GRC) and claimed that he got his meth from a lab in Karole's garage in Greeley, the Mounties contacted the DEA who launched a full-scale investigation. Although they found nothing the investigation put Karole in a bad light and her employer fired her. Unable to get a job in the medical career that she excelled at and burdened with student and medical debt Karole lost everything, her job, her truck, and now it looks like she will lose her house. She was only able to find a job working for a bill collector and she absolutely hates her job, she hates her situation, she's even beginning to hate her daughter. The only thing left in her life that she truly loves is Lanh whom she loves like a sister, and Don whom she loves like a potential lover, and she hates herself even more for that.

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It was difficult for Don to adjust to not being the bread winner. Academically he remains busy submitting papers and articles on his "Return to the Three Rs" mantra that earned him his degree. He also gets the occasional speaking engagement, but after farming and a decade of military service, it feels like a hobby to him, and it pays about the same as a hobby. Most of his time is spent babysitting Karole's daughter Krissy, which he and Lanh love doing. As for Lanh, her two jobs are demanding, exciting, fulfilling, and everything she could have dreamed of when she decided on a career in speech therapy, but since both jobs are part time jobs she receives no medical coverage nor any other benefits.

Ever since Karole lost her job, life for the four of them had become incredibly difficult. Emotionally Karole was shattered, and that was making it difficult for her to get close as she wanted to get to Krissy. Don and Lanh were there for her at every turn, but ever since the DEA and FBI poked and prodded, her employer Mountain Sports Medicine laid her off "For Cause" and with a black mark like that on her record there was no one in Colorado that would hire her.

Karole fought to keep her head above water financially, but the hits kept coming. First her pickup truck was repossessed, then Krissy got sick and medical bills kept pouring in. Don wanted to hold her and comfort her, but that wasn't his place, so he watched Krissy like a doting stepfather, and he left it up to Lanh and her sisters to cheer Karole. Money was getting tight for Lanh and Don too. Don's disability pay was based on last year's cost of living index, not this year's, and his military retirement isn't what a civilian would make in the same position, not by a longshot. Then, like all disabled veterans, to maintain his social security disability income he was forced onto Medicare which added a monthly bill they didn't need and could barely afford because Lanh's hours at the clinic were cut which hurt immensely.

Karole finally got a job at Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, which sounded impressive, but in reality it was merely a bill collection agency. Her job entailed calling people and harassing them to pay up immediately. She hated her job, she hated herself, sometimes she even hated Krissy, and to make matters worse the only person she truly loved was married to her best friend, which made her hate herself even more.

They only got to go to Minnesota once this year, for the Independence Day weekend and Karole spent every moment she could working at Nguyen Pho. Rosa, the manager, finally demanded, "You drove all the way up here from Colorado to wait tables?"

"Hell yeah, I make some pretty good tips here," she took Rosa aside and said, "I'm goin' broke down there, I need every dime I can get."

"Why don't you just move here? We have room for you here, and there's plenty of room out at the farm." Rosa held Karole's hands and said, "Mai and Duong are moving out, Bao and I are going to move into the main bedroom, you can have our room."

"That sounds awesome but right now I can't, I can't just pack up and abandon my house," but it wasn't her house that she couldn't bear parting with.

Later that day she and Kim-ly had a spat over some dumb thing, neither can remember what it was that set off the squabble, but it was getting pretty heated. Don and Lanh scooped up the babies, Krissy and Dahn, and vacated the area because their mothers' anger was making them upset. Sandy, Don's stepmother, stepped out of the farmhouse and said, "That's it, I'm tired of it. I've had it with you two children. Both of you get in the truck... NOW LADIES!"

Sandy was a firm believer in settling arguments before they became a habit, and she had a sure-fire way to solve the problem, a stretch of the leg. She drove them five miles out on county highway 10, then kicked them out of the truck. "Walk home!" she demanded and sped off. So, while Don and Lanh watched Danh and Krissy, Kim-ly and Karole walked home while Sandy monitored their progress at a distance in airconditioned comfort.

The first mile was walked in sullen silence, the second mile was filled with anger and accusations, Kim-ly had seen Karole mooning over Don, and Karole had seen the same in Kim-ly and it almost came to blows when Kim-ly shouted, "You can't steal Don from my sister!"

"Why? Because you're going to get him first?"

"I'm not after Don! He is Lanh's husband!"

"YOU HAD HIS BABY! WHAT'S NEXT?" shrieked Karole.

"You BITCH! What the hell happened to you? We were so close!"

"Oh, I don't know, lost my job, lost my truck, up to my eyeballs in debt, and the only job I can get is a fuckin bill collector."

The third mile was filled with questions and memories, the fourth mile was all apologies and tears, and the last mile was full of friendship and the kind of secrets that husbands, boyfriends, brothers, and others wouldn't believe that the woman in their life would share with other women. It was when Sandy saw the transformation from anger to laughter that she pulled up close and said, "Ok you two, hop in," then drove into town for ice cream. "That was a cool trick mom," said Kim-ly between licks of her ice cream. "Did you learn that from your mom?"

"Actually, I learned it from Don's grandmother," said Sandy as she licked her own cone.

"Hilde?!?" gasped Kim-ly.

Completely out of the loop Karole asked, "Who's Hilde?"

"You may have seen her in a movie," said Kim-ly, she screwed up her voice to sound like a crone and said, "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!"

"Don't let your sister hear you say that about her favorite grandmother-in-law," scolded Sandy. After Lanh learned more about Don's Grandma Hilde, they became close and spent a lot of time together when Don was in Germany, and she was waiting for her flight over. Sandy continued, "My mother wasn't interested in raising me... my upbringing was a bit like Karole's. I found myself stuck in a house with four girls ripping each other's hair out and Tom was down in Mankato for work, Don's mom came over and helped me. While she helped me around the house, she told me how her mom handled problems with her seven kids."

"You made your girls walk five miles like you did us?" said Kim-ly. She was teasing of course.

Sandy just looked at her and smiled, "You may notice that three of my girls held state track records."

"Damn!" gasped Kim-ly, "you are hard core!" causing Karole to snicker.

Sandy raised four rambunctious daughters; she knows how to handle two more, a five mile stretch of the leg works wonders. And it was then that Kim-ly and Karole became telling-secrets-at-the-table close once again, and it helped a lot in other ways. Karole fell in love with Krissy again, now that she faced her jealousy that Kim-ly had Don's baby, a jealousy she didn't realize that she had.

One afternoon Kim-ly and Karole ended up at the campsite overlooking the pond, sunning themselves and letting the babies roll around on the blanket. In the pond Don was swimming while Lanh stood in the rowboat coaching him in her squeaky little voice. "You're jealous of her, aren't you?" asked Kim-ly.

Karole raised up on her elbows and looked at the two splashing in the pond. Now Lanh tried to dive on to Don but as she leapt the boat slid out from under her and she smacked down flat on the water. "Not after that dive," said Karole.

"Don't be jealous. They were made for each other. They're like diamonds in the rough that polished each other."

Karole looked at Kim-ly like she was diseased. "That is the worst metaphor I've ever heard. That's not how diamonds work."

"I know, but I can't find a metaphor that describes them properly. It's like..." Kim-ly struggled with a proper description but words are not her strong suit, being an accountant she's all about numbers.

"Like steel sharpens steel?" suggested Karole.

"Not exactly, when you separate them, you would have two sharp pieces of steel. It's just... when you separate them, you have to keep them busy, or they'll just sit there and mope. If Don's not watching Krissy when Lanh's at work, there's no fire, he's not Don anymore, he's..."

Just then Lanh started talking very excitedly about something, but they couldn't make out the words. She wriggled back into the rowboat and started rowing for shore as fast as she could with Don hanging on to the stern. "Watch Krissy, I'm going to see what is going on," and Karole sprinted down to the end of the pond where Lanh was pulling up to the dock. "Is everything ok?"

"I just over did it some," said Don as he gasped for air. Lanh hopped out of the boat and splashed to the stern to help Don get up on his feet.

"That's a bit more than just overdoing it some, are you seeing someone?" asked Karole as she helped Lanh assist Don to shore.

"We were seeing Dr. Andi Roberts over at University hospital," said Lanh, "but she up and left practice."

Don gasped as he tried to get his blood/oxygen levels up, finally he was able to say, "She went on vacation and didn't come back..."

"It happens," said Karole as they eased Don to the ground where his breathing slowly returned to normal. "Sometimes it's too much, and sometimes a new challenge comes along." And sometimes you just get screwed she added wordlessly.

Once Don's blood oxygen level got under control, he and Lanh walked back to the house slowly and once there Kim-ly insisted that he lay down in her room. Don didn't argue and he lay down, Kim-ly and Karole stepped into the room with Danh and Krissy in their arms and placed the babies in bed with Don and immediately both babies started demanding attention.

"Do you want me to take Krissy?" asked Karole.

"No, I can settle her down pretty easy, Danh will learn from her," said Don as he rubbed Krissy's tummy.

"Suit yourself," and Karole joined Kim-ly and Lanh in the room outside of the bedroom.

"I don't know if Ralph told you guys yet," said Kim-ly, "but he's planning to retire as soon as you guys move back."

"We can't run a farm," said Lanh, "Don is going to be going to the Mayo, I can't deal with this farm all by myself..." Lanh was really starting to panic.

"I'll still be here for you," said Kim-ly.

"I'll be here too," said Karole.

"And this new guy that Ralph hired, RJ, he's really good!" Kim-ly elbowed Karole and gave her a saucy wink, "and he's hot. That's the most important part of farmin'!"

"Can he manage the dairy herd?" asked Karole. She is starting to take an interest in the management of the farm, she wants to be involved with it if she moves here.

"Hell yeah!" Kim-ly looked around to see if she was being overheard, "Probably better than Ralph... By the way... where did Tôm (shrimp) go?"

"Lanh? She went in to look in on Don."

Kim-ly got up and turned to the bedroom. "I was going to ask her if I should start moving out of her room... aww." Kim-ly and Karole peeked in on Don and found that he and Lanh were sleeping with the babies nestled between them, Don and Lanh had fallen asleep holding hands.

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Autumn in Colorado was as gloomy as their spring, Don was aching to see Danh, so Kim-ly had brought him out for some daddy time. Karole was knocking herself out to get her life back on track, and Lanh was trying to make both of them happy and failing miserably because other than send Don back to Minnesota there was nothing she could do. "I can get you tickets right now," said Lanh. "You can be back there with Danh in two days."

"No. I can't do it. I got responsibilities here." But Don wouldn't meet her gaze.

"What is it? There's something you're not telling me." Lanh looked both angry and hurt and when Don refused to speak, she looked even more hurt. "So, we're keeping secrets from each other now?"

Now Don was in agony, he couldn't say it because it sounded so stupid to him, but he decided to give it a go. "I can't sleep away from you... I have these dreams... they're horrible... and they don't feel like dreams, they feel like a memory, dreams are fluid, but these don't change at all."

"But when I'm with you, it doesn't happen?" she asked.

"No, I sleep fine."

"What are you going to do next week when I'm in Colorado Springs for three days?"

Don felt a sudden wave of nausea wash over him, that conference! He knew it was coming but he didn't realize it was next week! "I... I...I'll just have to tough my way through it." He hoped his internal panic didn't show, but this was the longest they've been apart since Danh was born, and only the second time since his TDY to Saudi Arabia where he was so horribly injured. That's it! That has to be it!

"What?" said Lanh, "You're smiling."

"I figured it out," he smiled. Prodded on by her impatient hand gestures he explained, "The last time we were separated for any length of time was in Saudi Arabia, and that ended badly for us, right? It's got to be my mind reliving that trauma."

He's wrong thought Lanh, he forgot all of that recovery and therapy time in Grand Forks while she was living on the farm. "What did your VA shrink say?" asked Lanh forgetting how sore a subject that was with Don.

"This started long after the VA decided that I wasn't crazy enough to rate a shrink."

"Sorry, I forgot..." she picked up her phone and hit a number on speed dial, "Let's try the phone a friend option." Don fumbled for an excuse to get her to hang up but soon Tam's voice came on the speaker. "Doctor Nguyen...."

"I thought you were Doctor Johnson," said Don.

"Oh it's you. No, Jake is Doctor Johnson, the name was taken." Tam shook her head; Don stopped using that jab a long time ago, he knows that she used her maiden name for her professional title, but then he sounded a bit confused.

"Momma, do you have anyone or know anyone that is doing a study on recurring nightmares?" asked Lanh.

Tam's heart sank, Lanh only calls her momma when she's in trouble, the last time was when she was feeling tremendous guilt when Kim-ly turned up pregnant against all odds. Tam tried to make it clear that she knew what Lanh was asking about, "Yes, one of our people is considering doing a study on PTSD and recurring dreams... do you have someone in mind for the study?"

"Yes, I do."

Oh, those poor kids, Tam groaned inwardly. It's been over a decade since they were teenagers stumbling around with their first real feelings of love and turning to her for advice, and Tam considers herself the most fucked up example of emotional instability known to man. She majored in psychology to figure out what was going on inside her own head. As for Don and Lanh, she still calls them kids even though they've been facing nightmares that would destroy most couples and coming through them still madly in love. "Ok, I'll send you a zoom invite, forward it to your volunteer."

Lanh checked her inbox and read the invitation then said, "Can you do it sooner?"

"That's the soonest I have."

A week later Tam logged into Zoom and saw a very exhausted looking Don looking back at her. "You're family, you know I can't treat you."

"I know that, but I just have to talk to somebody." Don picked up a glass of water to take a drink and his hand was clearly shaking. "You know how details of a dream fade the minute you wake up?" When Tam nodded, he continued, "Check your email, I just sent you the details of a dream I had Tuesday night. I typed up the details about fifteen minutes ago."

Tam saw that Don sent her a long email which she printed up and sat down and started to read. "Oh my God," she muttered, "You remembered all this?"

"I still remember," Don looked dazed, like he was just pummeled. "I thought I had it figured out, I thought my mind was reliving the trauma of Saudi Arabia..." Don paused as the memory of his horrific injuries overwhelmed him. "I don't know what to think... I don't know if I'm capable of thinking..."

"You remember seeing this?" Tam was aghast as she read through the details of his dream. In his dream he had seen the damage done to Lanh when she was run over by a vehicle of some sort. He didn't know when or where, but he saw her body and described in detail the horrific, massive injuries that killed her little sister in his dream.

"I still remember every moment, every detail. This isn't the first time, it's like I'm being taunted by this dream."

"What did you dream of last night?" Tam asked, dreading to hear more grotesque details of Lanh's death in his dreams.

"I didn't sleep last night," said Don sadly. "The follow-ups are worse than the first dream."

"What do you mean? Follow-ups? First dream?" Tam was confused.

"These dreams come in pairs; I get the bad one then the awful one."

Tam could see that Don was hiding something. She looked through the pages of printed horror and said, "I don't see any mention to 'the awful one,' except here it says, "The other one, Kim-ly," what does that mean?"

"The other one means... the other dream..." he paused; he just couldn't say it.

"You saw Kim-ly dead?"

"No, I uhhh..." finally the damn broke, "I've never touched another woman! I've never even wanted another woman! It could never happen..." his voice started to break, and he began a painful internal struggle.

"You had sex with Kim-ly?" Tam asked. "I mean in your dream." Don looked away from the laptop camera and nodded his head. "Things like that happen in dreams; the dream isn't saying this is what you want, it's putting memories together. You were her birth coach, and everything was on display... she gave birth to your son... your mind will take those images and put them into a dream..."

"It's not a dream," insisted Don, "it's a memory of events that haven't happened yet. And it's not always Kim-ly, when it's not her it's Karole." He squeezed his eyes closed tight as if to squeeze out the memory.

"Ok, we need to calm down. You're getting pretty worked up." Tam's never seen him this worked up, he was breathing heavily and looking about him as if looking for a route to use to exit. "Where's Krissy?"

"She's asleep in a crib over here," Don turned the laptop to reveal a bassinette not far from him. He calmed down a bit when he concentrated on Krissy, so he could gather his thoughts. "I'm becoming paranoid, when Lanh is here, I can't fall asleep before she gets in bed, I'll be in a memory... dream... whatever, but I'll be in one so quickly, so I wait for her to go to bed. When we sleep together the memories fade to the back, they're always there, but I can live a normal life, but when she's gone, it's hell. Bad hell."

"What do you think these dreams want?"

"I don't know, it seems to me like somebody wants Lanh dead so Karole or Kim-ly can take me." Don looked around nervously, looking to see if someone besides Tam was listening. "It won't do them any good," he said furtively.

"Why is that?" asked Tam.

"Remember that bottle of pills that Lanh had when we first started dating?"

Tam tried not to show the terror that gripped her. As a teenager Lanh was in such emotional dire straits that she began stealing her mother's sleeping pills one by one until she had a means of suicide. Tam was able to get Lanh to give them up in exchange for a ride out to the Campbell's farm to see Don on a frigid winter day. "Yes," said Tam, "I remember," her mouth was so dry that the word came out sounding hoarse, she remembered that bottle of pills quite well.

He looked at Tam with such intensity that it scared her. "I have one now. If something happens to Lanh, I won't be far behind."

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Tam Nguyen-Johnson was depressed herself. She passionately loves large family get-togethers for the holidays, and she loves the huge task of putting them together. However, everyone in the family has a significant other and they can't ignore the in-laws, so for every year that was a Nguyen holiday, the other years were spent with in-laws. This year Tam's family was broken up too. Her oldest son Chip wanted to help Kim-ly at the farm and was spending Thanksgiving with her. Her middle son Liam was going to travel with his grandparents Mai and Duong, they were thinking of going to Hill City South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore. Jake's parents were in the south of France for the holidays (meaning until May) that left Tam with her husband Jake and their youngest son Arlo who was now almost four.

She was talking about that with Lanh recently, "Why don't the three of you come out here for Thanksgiving? We have spare bedrooms, we have a suite in the basement now, and Don would love to see you guys. He's been so grumpy this year."

"Maybe I could talk to him about his grumpiness," thought Tam, and without asking Jake she said, "Yes, we haven't gone anywhere in ages, this will be exciting."

Reservations were made, cars were rented, bags were packed, and the boys were shipped out leaving her alone with Jake and Arlo. It's been years since there were only two other people in the house with her, and the relative quiet was relaxing. She came back home from the University where she is chair of the Psychology department to find the house neat and orderly, something that she finds vitally necessary with a blind husband but virtually impossible with three boys.

Immediately upon entering the house Tam was attacked by a black-haired rocket powered moppet. "MOMMEEEE!" He wrapped his arms around her knees and started bouncing up and down. "Mommy home, mommy home, mommy home!" It was Arlo, their youngest boy, singing "Mommy Home" at the top of his lungs.

"What is with you honeybug?" She knew exactly what was up, Jake asked Arlo to let him know when mommy got home. With Arlo's lungs it was a sure bet that the whole neighborhood knew. "All right, all right, come here you," said Tam as she hoisted Arlo up into her arms for a wet sloppy kiddy kiss. Only when he got his welcome home kiss did the tyke stop his caroling.

"Hi mommeee," he sighed as he threw his arms around Tam's neck.

"Where's your daddy?"

"I dunno!" He shrugged and threw his hands up, but he had a broad smile on his face.

"You do too know, you stinker," Tam laughed.

"I no stinker, YOU a stinker!" He slapped his tiny hand on Tam's shoulder for emphasis.

Just then Tam saw a familiar bundle of white sticks on the floor, it was her husband's collapsible walking stick. "What's that on the floor?" gasped Tam in faux shock.

"Daddy eyes!" gasped Arlo.

Tam tried not to laugh, but Arlo's older brothers convinced Arlo that the white collapsible walking stick with a red end was their father's eyes. "Yes, Daddy's eyes. Go give it to him!" and she set the tyke down.

"K mommeee!" Arlo snatched up the folded stick then dashed off to the basement.

Tam followed him down the stairs and there was Jake folding laundry. "You didn't know where daddy was?" Arlo giggled and hid behind Jake's leg.

"Don't hide behind my leg you little sneak," scolded Jake. Tam gently touched Jake to let him know she was there, then wrapped her arms around him. Jake basked in her caress then turned in her arms to kiss her. "Is it time to go?" he asked as his fingers traced over her face. Like his brothers Arlo didn't think anything of their dad tracing his fingertips over his mom's face, they knew that's how he "sees" her, and the boys grew up loving the same touches from their dad.

"It's almost time," said Tam between kisses, "Shall we get going?"

"Go?" asked Arlo, his little dark brown eyes open wide in anticipation.

Tam smiled; her little boy loved going. It didn't matter where, as long as he had a few French fries and his apple juice, he'd go anywhere with mom and dad. Jake bent down and picked up Arlo and the three of them hugged reminding Tam and Jake of when it was just them and Chip, their oldest. The last time they hugged like this was when it was just Chip, Tam had just found out she was pregnant with Liam and they were telling him that he was going to be a big brother. "I know," said Tam. "Let's go visit Uncle Don and Aunt Lanh."

Arlo's eyes flew open wider, and his jaw dropped in surprise, Uncle Don? Don was his very favorite uncle; of his four uncles and five aunts he liked Don the most. Why? Tam was sure it was all the extra cuddling that Arlo got while Don was recovering from his accident in Saudi Arabia. Arlo liked the idea of visiting Don and Lanh so much all he could do was give his big happy grin and nod his head vigorously. Jake gently touched Arlo's face causing the little boy to grin even broader.

An hour later they were packed, in the van, Arlo was in Happy Meal heaven and Jake had his quarter pounder. "We there yet?" called out Arlo.

"Don't start!" warned Tam as they headed to the airport.

"His brothers taught him that," said Jake as he tried to steal a French fry from the child who eventually offered his dad a fry. "Thank you," said Jake.

"Wekim," responded Arlo.

"Are you ready to ride on an airplane?"

"AIRPLANE???" Arlo's face was a combination of fear and wonder, he's heard of airplanes and seen them on TV. The thought of riding on an airplane kept him wide awake for a full fifteen more minutes and then the comfort of his car seat and the warm air in the van put him to sleep.

Late November was frosty cold, but Lanh reported that the weather in Colorado was in the 50's, which for a Minnesotan is tropical. Tam made sure to pack swimsuits because she wanted to soak in Don and Lanh's hot tub in the cool weather. It was a two-hour drive to the airport and Arlo slept most of the way.

It was a bit of a challenge for Tam to get her two guys out of the van, get the luggage organized then a short walk through the shallow snow to the waiting area for the bus to the terminal. Arlo was in charge of pushing his own stroller to the bus stop, Tam hauled two suitcases and Jake followed her, one hand pulling a suitcase the other hand with his cane tap-tap-tapping all around him and against the suitcases she was pulling.

They didn't have to wait too long in the bus stop, which looked like a city bus stop but there was a heater which was nice considering it was 20 (-7 C) degrees. When the bus pulled up and the doors slid open, the driver saw Jake wearing his sunglasses at 7:00 PM on a dark night, he was tapping with his cane looking for the door and leading a toddler, the driver turned around to a full bus and yelled, "What's wrong with you people, get down there and help these folk!"

A young fellow in a camouflage uniform hopped out and immediately helped Tam with the baggage, "Thank you so much!" said Tam, "Are you Army?"

"Air Force ma'am, and it's a pleasure to help," he said as he helped Arlo with his stroller which contained his car seat.

"We're going to see my sister and her husband, he was in the Air Force until he got hurt by an airplane," said Tam.

"Uncle Don!" cried Arlo. He's known since birth that "Hurt by an airplane" means "Uncle Don."

"My goodness, what happened, if I may ask."

"He got blown over by an F-15."

"Ugghh, that's the worst," said the young Airman. "They briefed us about an incident in Saudi Arabia where two people were killed and a dozen injured. It's part of a flightline safety briefing."

"That was my brother-in-law," said Tam sadly as she pulled Arlo on her lap. "He was injured before this little guy was born and they learned to walk together."

Reaching the terminal, they piled off the bus and went inside and got in line and Airman Graham got in line with them. It turned out that Airman Graham was going to Buckley AFB in Aurora, Colorado and was on their same flight. As they stood in line Arlo began an animated conversation with his father complete with hand gestures. Tam leaned over and said, "Arlo honey, daddy can't see your hands, you have to use your words." She then turned to Airman Graham and said, "He's trying to describe you to his father, I hope you don't mind."

"No problem," chuckled the Airman who noticed that Arlo was standing in front of him looking up. "What is it little guy?"

"Do you taste good?" asked Arlo, which elicited a poorly suppressed burst of laughter from Jake.

"What?" laughed Graham.

Arlo launched into a long chattering explanation, but Tam rescued the airman by saying, "He was trying to explain your skin color to his dad and settled on chocolate, and his father, being a wise guy, asked Arlo if you taste good like chocolate."

"My wife says that I'm an acquired taste," said Graham to Arlo's expectant gaze.

The little boy turned to Tam, and she said, "That means yes, he tastes good."

Arlo immediately cheered up and turned to his dad, but then an agent from the airline came over and said, "We can take you over here." And with goodbyes to their new friend the Johnson family was checked in at a different ticket counter. As soon as they had their luggage checked in and their boarding passes in hand, a large golf cart appeared, and they were whisked away to TSA where they were given the pre-flight screening. The agent scared Arlo who was near tears when they were done, and Jake wasn't much help, being as obstinate as possible. From there another cart whisked them to the gate.

They had an hour to wait so while Jake entertained Arlo, Tam went to get some snacks. As they waited a connection was made in Arlo's mind and he began to cry. "What's the matter buddy?" Jake asked, but Arlo was crying too hard to get the words out. Jake pulled him up on his lap and held him close and tried to settle him down, but it did no good. When Tam arrived with the snacks Arlo was still weeping.

"What's wrong baby?" said Tam as Arlo crawled from Jake's lap to hers. The little guy leaned against his mother and pointed off into the distance.

"He's pointing at something, but I can't tell what it is, and he keeps talking about pain," said Jake. "I've never felt so useless," Jake muttered. All he could think was "my little boy needed me, and I couldn't help..."

"Shhhhh," said Tam patting Arlo but it was directed at both of her boys. Arlo settled down but a movement outside the terminal window caught his attention and he pointed again and cried, "PAIN!" he sniffed then wailed "Unka Donnnn!"

"Ohhhh, baby, that's a GOOD airplane out there, Uncle Don was hurt by a very, very bad airplane."

Arlo looked at Tam confused; his crying stopped, and he looked unsure. "Bad plane?"

"Yes, there's some very bad airplanes out there, and Uncle Don found the very worst bad airplane and he stopped it before it hurt anyone else." Arlo looked concerned but Tam continued. "It was a very, very good airplane that took Uncle Don to the doctor to get fixed. Another good airplane took Aunty Lanh to take care of him, and that very, very good airplane brought Don home from the doctor."

Arlo pointed to the window again and looked worried. "Pain."

"When you were inside mommy's tummy, we flew in a good airplane to visit Uncle Don when he was hurt, and then we flew in a good airplane home," said Tam.

"You have already flown in an airplane," said Jake.

Outside it was dark but you could see the marker lights of the airplanes as they taxied around. "Those are good airplanes, see the flashing lights on their wings and tails? That means they're happy." They got up and walked to the window to look at the planes. "See all the windows on the sides? You can see the people in the airplane. They got to fly, and they got snacks, and the airplane is happy that they're happy."

"People are in the plane's tummy?" Arlo asked, he was truly surprised.

"Yes, planes like it, it tickles," and she tickled his tummy. Arlo laughed and curled up trying to avoid the

tickles. "Should we go tickle the airplane's tummy?"

"Yeah, tickle!" grinned Arlo as they sat back down next to daddy.

"Is my happy boy feeling better?" Jake asked as Arlo climbed in his lap.

"Yes, we're happy that Uncle Don chased all the bad airplanes away, aren't we?" Arlo grinned and nodded. "Good, because it's time we get on our plane and tickle it's tummy!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Who the hell could be ringing our doorbell at midnight?" asked Don.

Lanh was sitting up reading, she was wearing her nerd glasses, the ones with the black frames that were way too big and made her look so cute and innocent. Lanh called these her "business" glasses, and when she's wearing them, she's so cute that Don always wants to 'get down to business.' "I dunno," she shrugged her shoulders and went back to her reading. "Are you going to get that? I'm in my nightgown."

Don, who was only wearing boxers, gave her a sideways look and said, "sure, I'll hop up and get dressed."

"Thank you dear." She completely missed the sarcasm, or she ignored it.

Don pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a T-Shirt that Duong gave him years ago that said "You can't scare me, I'm married to a Vietnamese woman," and headed out to the front door. The shadow on the door's lace curtains showed that whoever it was, wasn't very tall. The first thought that came to Don's mind was a very late trick-or-treater. Don opened the door and looked down; it was Arlo holding a plush toy that was a smiling airplane. The tyke cried "Unka Don!" and threw his arms around Don's knees.

"Arlo! My favorite youngest nephew!" Don picked the boy up then noticed Jake standing in the distance, Tam had to be nearby somewhere. Don guessed that when you're blind it's hard to tell if you're hiding or not. Don gestured to Jake to come in, he knew that Jake couldn't see his gesture, but Tam probably could see it wherever she was hiding. "Where did you leave your parents Arlo; did you leave them at home?"

Arlo gave him a big toothy grin and nodded his head vigorously, his baby-fine mop of ebony hair waved as he nodded.

"You come with me, you can sleep with Aunt Lanh and me, in the morning you can pick out which room is yours and we'll have your mom send your toys, ok?" Arlo nodded again but not as enthusiastically. "Lanh dear, we have a visitor, he wants to move in with us."

Arlo turned and saw Lanh reading in bed and dove out of Don's arms. "Aunt Yaaaannnn!"

"Lanh," said Lanh, "Say it slowly..." She held up a finger showing that she meant Speech Pathologist business. Arlo has difficulty with pronouncing the letter L. "Lanh."

"Yan."

"My name is Lanh, LLLLLLLLLanh. Say it..."

"Yan."

"Oh you silly boy," Lanh began hugging and tickling the giggling moppet. Don joined in and Arlo squealed and laughed as his aunt and uncle tickled him. Their play only stopped when someone tapped on the bedroom door.

"Sshh! It's the cops," said Don and he covered Arlo with a blanket, "Pretend you're not here." When Arlo was covered Don said, "Come in!"

Tam led Jake into the room and said, "Hey, did anyone see a small child come through here?"

"Small child?" asked Don, "I don't rightly remember one... Can you describe it?"

"It's about this big, with black hair," said Tam holding her hands three feet apart.

"I think it's a girl," said Jake.

"I'm a BOY!" came a muffled shout from under the blanket.

"Well, we're going to have pizza," said Tam, "You're welcome to join us."

"PIZZA!" Cried Arlo as he threw off the blanket.

"There you are you stinker!" teased Tam as she scooped up Arlo.

"I no stinker, YOU a stinker!"

Don and Lanh watched Tam and her boys head off to the kitchen with not a little jealousy. They heard Tam laughing and Arlo giggling in the kitchen, and both thought, "that would be nice if it were us." Neither one made a move to get up until they heard a gentle tap-tap-tap coming down the hall followed by a gentle knock on the door. "Are you coming to join us?" asked Jake, then he added, "Please?"

Don and Lanh looked at each other and smiled sadly, they didn't want to intrude on Tam and Jake, but they were invited. "Ok, we'll be right there," said Josh as Lanh got up and put on a robe. "Do you mind if we invite Karole?"

"Not at all," said Jake as he tapped his way back to the kitchen. Lanh headed down the basement stairs and Don went to the kitchen to find Jake and Tam seated at the table with a large pie freshly delivered in the middle of the table. "We were surprised to find you had a booster chair," said Jake.

"It's not ours," said Don as Lanh emerged from the basement with Karole and Krissy.

"Kissy!" cried Arlo, but for her part Krissy didn't seem to remember Arlo which was to be expected being only 10 months old.

"Hey y'all," said a sleepy Karole who leaned over, and kissed Tam then let Jake touch her face. She did have to gently slap his hand away, it's an on-going struggle with them as his fingertips left her face, traveled down her neck edging lower and lower. "No peeking!"

"Just wanted you to know I still love you," retorted Jake. Their struggle came to a head this summer when he came upon Tam and Karole discussing Karole's new bikini and Tam asked Karole, "Don't you think that's a bit revealing?"

"I'd like to render an opinion," said Jake. His method of looking at Karole's bikini involved touching.

"Here, tell me what you think," said Karole and she handed the bikini to a very disappointed Jake. Score one for Karole, but now it was after midnight, and she was barely awake.

"We didn't realize that you were here," said Jake.

"They shut off my 'lectricity last week," groaned Karole. "Lanh and Don took us in."

"We shouldn't have woken you up," said Tam as Karole sat down.

"Nah, if ah heard y'all were here and Lanh didn't come git me, we woulda had words." Lanh nodded her agreement to that. They spent a half hour getting reacquainted and enjoying a midnight snack, then it was time to turn in. Karole and a sleeping Krissy returned to the suite in the basement and Don checked his phone, he received a text from Huy, Tam's younger brother. The text simply said, "Tam and Jake have an envelope for you."

"Huy said he sent an envelope for me with you?" Don wasn't expecting anything from Huy, even though he is Don's lawyer.

"Hang on a second," said Jake, and he took his glasses off and placed them on a table that was set up for him. Watch, wallet, glasses, keys, each one set out in a specific location, then he poured what coins he had in a dish for loose change. Jake didn't need the black lens glasses; sighted people needed his glasses. His eyes didn't focus, and they didn't point to wherever he was "looking" which was unnerving for sighted people, so he wore an old pair of glasses with the lenses painted black to hide his eyes. Jake rifled through his backpack and found an envelope and handed it to Don. "Huy said to carefully read these documents, everything is explained."

"Thanks Jake," said Don as he eased the documents partially out of the envelope. It looked like an agreement for power of attorney, a quick glance showed that Karole wanted Don to be able to hold power of attorney for her legal transactions if ever needed. "Thank you again," said Don as he returned to his room with Lanh. She was sitting up in bed reading the journal that she was looking at an hour ago when Tam and Jake arrived. "What do you make of this?" Don asked as he showed her the power of attorney documents.

"I think she's worried about Krissy's future," said Lanh. She wanted to make a joke about Karole driving Don's old rattle-trap pickup truck, but that felt flat even to her. "Let's wait on this until she gets home from work."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanksgiving was a delightful dinner with the five of them while Arlo and Krissy played in her playpen. It wasn't the rollicking family fests that Tam and Jake had become used to since they became engaged, but it reminded Don and Lanh of the Thanksgivings that they had in the military where friends gathered, and the menu was chosen at the last minute depending on what the base commissary had available.

After dinner Tam and Lanh were cleaning up the kitchen and were speaking with Kim-ly on speaker as they worked. The three were remembering days gone by when Tam and Kim-ly taught tiny young Lanh how to load the industrial dishwasher at their uncle's restaurant, after Don got a chance to say hi to his son Danh he went and sat with Jake and Karole and discussed the Power of Attorney papers. "Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Don. "This is something that can be abused."

"Ah've known you pert' near a year and a half," sighed Karole, "That's longer 'an any other man, includin' ma' daddy... ah juss... ah juss wanna know fer sure that Krissy will be taken care of." She grabbed Don's wrist, he could feel her shaking, "Ah usta sit up nights terrified what woulda become a me should m' momma go an' git herself kilt. Ah used to dream of living in an orphanage. Then ah heard there weren't such thing no more." Like Lanh, when Karole is emotionally charged her accent becomes more pronounced.

Jake was shocked not at what she said but how she said it. "You sound like you were looking forward to the idea of an orphanage."

"Well, yeah! When your life is one trailer after another and a string of drunk rednecks and hillbillies cummin' and going, and each one is just there to get drunk and get laid, life is uncertain. My momma had a string of beaus, an' as ah got older, they began ta eye me up. Ah lived in terror of which one was gonna..." She looked nervously from Don to Jake and back, "To me an orphanage was like a dorm where everyone was in the same boat, and we all became friends, and no one would be makin' fun of me 'cause I were so tall an' my momma was such a drunken slut."

The house went silent, even Krissy and Arlo went quiet when Karole said that. Don patted the back of Karole's hand and said, "There, you finally said it. How does it feel?"

"A lot better than I thought it would," grinned Karole.

"I don't understand," said Jake softly.

"Karole blamed the way her mom acted on herself," said Don.

"Ah did, ah blamed m'self. Ah thought that I was the cause o' her behavior. That's it, ah'm done talkin' about that woman!" said Karole, a sense of relief washed over her, "and I'll thank you fellas to never mention her around Krissy ever agin. All she needs to know about grandma is that she's a nice Asian lady what lives in Minnesota."

"Amen," said Don.

Jake leaned forward and gestured for Karole's hand. When she reached for his hand, he held it gently and said, "When you get to Minnesota, I will see to it that you will get psychological care to ensure the same fate doesn't fall on Krissy."

Karole looked shocked that someone could consider such a fate, "You really think that could happen?"

"It's very possible, simply making a declaration doesn't necessarily break the cycle of abuse," said Jake.

Karole thought about what he said, then turned to Don and said, "What do you think?"

Don cleared his throat, patted the Power of Attorney papers and said, "As your attorney-in-fact I advise you to take his advice and..."

"Oh stop!" Just then Tam and Lanh came in from the kitchen laughing. "What's so funny, y'all?" Karole asked them.

"Looks like they just made a joke about Kim-ly," said Don.

Lanh and Tam glared at Don while Karole said, "Why would you say that?"

"That was their "I just ripped on Kim-ly" laugh," said Jake.

Don nodded, "You'll get used to it... Ow!"

"Just be glad it was a tea towel," said Lanh as she curled up in his lap and they kissed.

"Did you hit me because I was wrong? or because I was right." asked Don.

"I hit you because you were there."

Once everyone was settled with their after-dinner coffee and pumpkin pie Don started to address everyone. "Jake, Tam, you really can't believe how much it meant to Lanh and me that you came out to join us..." Don started to get misty, the words catching in his throat. They had given up on Thanksgiving because this year has been so dreary. And when they shut off Karole's electricity it just got gloomier.

"And you were here for us," said Tam. "We were sitting in Bemidji, and everybody disappeared..." Tam tensed up, "even our boys were gone, neither of us has spent thanksgiving alone, you were our shelter, so we're even."

Karole looked at the two families on the edge of tears and barked, "Fer cryin' out loud, will all y'all jes hug an' git it over?" and before she realized what was happening Karole found herself gang-hugged by everyone at the table including Jake. In the mass of hands and arms she felt a hand getting closer to her breast than she was comfortable with and she yelled, "Jake! No peeking!" which broke up the hug fest into laughter.

"Ok," said Don as everyone sat down, "Are you girls going to do some shopping tomorrow?"

"You know it!" grinned Lanh who resumed her perch on Don's lap. She leaned in and nibbled on his earlobe sending a thrill straight to his cock that was trapped by the warmth of her tiny butt. She then whispered, "We're going toy shopping."

"Excellent choice!" Don grinned. "And you're off work Karole, are you going shopping too?"

"Ah don't know, it's not like a pair of fuzzy handcuffs would do me any good."

"Jake gets double milage out of them," said Tam, "they're also a blindfold for him."

As the laughter died down Jake complained, "That was uncalled for... it was true but uncalled for."

Tam nudged him in the shoulder, "there are a few drawbacks to sleeping with a blind man."

"Name one," Jake demanded.

"Not a lot of eye contact."

Jake laughed along with Don, Tam, and Kim-ly, then said, "Ok, true, but there's got to be a positive side too."

"Of course, there is!" said Tam, "You've never once asked me to do it with the lights on."

Again, the house rang with laughter and Don explained to Jake what she meant by that, then Don turned to Karole and said, "How about if Jake and I watch the kids, you girls go have fun in the morning. We meet up at the Wells Fargo at eleven, get these papers signed and notarized, then we'll go get lunch."

"Which Wells Fargo?" asked Karole.

"The one over by your work," said Don.

"Then we can go to lunch at Don Pollo's!" said Lanh. Karole shrugged, but Lanh loves the food there even though the only thing Mexican about the food is the name.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was Sunday morning and they all gathered for a goodbye breakfast at Coa de Jima, a Mexican restaurant in Brighton Colorado which was halfway to the airport. As they walked in they were greeted by a young hostess, the sixteen year old daughter of the owners, Lara. Don gave her a warm hug and said, "Ah! Bonjour mon ami!"

Lara replied, "Dzień dobry Panu Campbell."

"That was very good!" smiled Don. "Was that Russian?"

"Polish," grinned the Hispanic teenager. "Five for breakfast?"

"And two highchairs," said Don as Lara led them to a table.

"That was an interesting exchange," said Tam as they sat down. "What inspired that?"

Lanh rolled her eyes, "When we moved to Colorado everybody was speaking Spanish. Don never dealt with Spanish before except in Spain, so he decided that if they're going to say hello in a language he doesn't speak, he'll return the favor. Lara decided to play his silly game and it's a competition to use a different language every time we come here."

"She got me with Polish this morning," grinned Don as he ignored the menu, "I'm still waiting to drop xin chào on her." Don was hoping that saying, "good morning" in Vietnamese was his trump card in the battle of the greetings with Lara, or as he calls her, "Larry."

Breakfast was a fun get together, especially when Tam and Lanh started talking about taking Karole to 'Kink-O-Rama' the adult toy store. "That girl did nothing but laugh and blush," said Tam.

"So, what did you get?" Don asked over a plate of huevos rancheros.

"Nothing you need to know about," said Tam to her youngest brother.

"Same here," said Karole before Don could ask. She brought home a seven-inch vibrating dildo which Lanh said was a "Lonely Lady Pacifier" and had gotten her through several of Don's temporary assignments to other countries.

"Mah sex life really ain't much of a life," said Karole.

"You just need practice," said Tam and she purchased the dildo and some lubricant and gave it to Karole. Lanh and Tam purchased some other items for Don and Jake and also purchased some lingerie which caused Karole to ask,

"Why lingerie? Jake can't see it."

"No, but he can feel it, and the different textures," then Tam smiled, "Sometimes a girl just wants to feel pretty."

"Sometimes it helps," said Lanh. "Try dressing up for that beau that you tend to imagine." She didn't want to mention how many times she did that while Don was TDY somewhere.

Breakfast was a delightful meeting with family and friends and afterwards Don put Arlo in his car seat and said, "I'll call the airport and make sure you have the very best good airplane to take you home, ok?"

"When can I see you again?" Arlo pouted; he was close to tears.

"I'll tell you a secret," said Don and got really close to Arlo and said loud enough for Jake to hear, "This summer when I come home and we have a party, I will tell you when Aunt Lanh and I are moving home, OK? It's a secret, don't go around telling anybody."

"Ok!" said the smiling youngster.

After goodbyes had all been said and the car started backing out of the parking space, Tam stopped and eased the window down and announced, "Má wanted me to let you know that she will be down here for Christmas, and she wants the pink bedroom. Ta taaaa."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So, what did you get at the toy store?" asked Don as he lay atop their bed.

"Not before Christmas!" came the singsong reply from the bathroom.

"Awww, come on," whined Don. "I get to open them Christmas day in front of Karole and Krissy?"

"Karole already knows what they are, and Krissy won't care."

"Come on, give me a hint. Do I need to get batteries? Can you wear any of them out to a night club?" Don was talking himself into a case of blue balls.

"Yes, and yes," smiled Lanh from the bathroom. She was finishing up touching up her makeup and Don's words were working her into a state of excitement too.

"Is anything Bluetooth? Remote control?" That was always one of Don's horniest dreams, for Lanh to wear a remote-control vibrator and for him to sit in one of her lectures controlling the vibrator as she tried to lecture.

"One is," she said brightly. "And it can easily be used to stimulate a prostate."

Don's throbbing erection led the way as he came behind Lanh in the bathroom. "Dirty girl!" grinned Don. "I like the way you think." Lanh wasn't paying attention to what Don was doing as she was brushing her makeup. The only thing the sexy little Asian girl was wearing was her black rimmed "nerd glasses" which made her look ten times cuter than her wire rims. She gasped when she noticed his reflection in the mirror, but it was too late to do anything. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, his left hand cupping her small, firm right breast, his right hand circled her waist and eased through her soft black pubic hairs straight for her pussy.

"Seriously?" Lanh demanded as she continued touching up her makeup. "I have a date tonight I'll have you know."

"Hmm, who is it this time, an Art History professor? Are you that desperate for a nap?"

"No, tonight the Alpha Kappa Chi fraternity will be hazing their pledges," said Lanh. She brushed her face with a large makeup brush, "Or should I say that I will be hazing their pledges," grinned Lanh as she rose up on tiptoes so she could rub her tight little ass on Don's iron hard cock. Then in the sexiest voice she could muster said, "All of their pledges."

"You're going to go to your date a well fucked lady," said Don as his fingers began circling Lanh's clit. His left hand was rhythmically squeezing her right tit in time with the circles his right finger was describing between her labia.

"Oh, you fucker," she groaned. Their taunting and teasing had her nipples rock hard, those little traitors were practically screaming to Don "She's ready!" and Don could read her body's signals better than she could. Lanh grew up hating her tiny, weak body, whereas Don loved it and reveled in every tell-tale hint she unconsciously gave on how her body reacted to his attention.

Don's fingers drew rapid circles in her labia drawing ecstatic jolts of pleasure from her and in moments his fingers were covered with the evidence of her excitement. She shuddered and bit her lower lip as the pleasure grew in intensity causing Lanh's hips to rock from side to side. His cock was caught between her tight little ass cheeks and Lanh was stroking his cock with her little butt causing intense pleasure in Don. In return Don stopped and raised his right hand slowly, his fingers covered with the dew of her excitement. With mounting excitement Lanh watched the reflection as he slowly brought his fingers to his mouth and slowly licked his fingers clean, he groaned in delight as he did so. When Lanh grasped the vanity top for support, Don grabbed the makeup brush from her and began to brush it over her captive, erect right nipple.

The sensation of the smooth, sexy sable fur bristles of the makeup brush dashing back and forth over her nipple and areola were overpowering and she twisted and fought to get away. Don eased up on the brushing becoming gentler, he began using "happy little strokes," as he said. "Oh that's nice," sighed Lanh, approving of his technique. Leave it up to Don, he can turn almost anything into a sex toy. Lanh filed this away in her catalog of things to try on Don.

Soon he was rolling both of her nipples around with the palms of his hands, something that was overwhelming to Lanh. She gasped and leaned back against Don yet at the same time arching her back thrusting her breasts forward into his hands demanding firmer attention but in return receiving lighter sensations.

With a huff Lanh spun around to face Don, their eyes locked as she breathed deeply as if in anger, then slowly sank to her knees, the head of his cock tracing a line all the way from her belly button, up her chest, to her chin. Their eyes still locked as she took the head of his cock in her mouth and began to lave her tongue over the head of his cock, sucking gently. Soon she broke eye contact and began to concentrate on his cock. She began to take in a little bit more with every gulp, her tongue still active, it was now rubbing over the sensitive underside of his cock.

Now her hands moved from his cock and began to squeeze his ass cheeks and pull towards her mouth as she took his cock into her mouth. Don put his hands on hers and she grasped his wrists and placed his hands on the sides of her head. Don smiled; they hadn't played this game in a while. He gripped the sides of her head and began to move her mouth up and down the length of his cock. As he did this Lanh held her hands behind her back, totally submissive to her man.

He eased her head up and down his cock until he found that sweet spot, where her tongue massaged the most sensitive spot just south of the head. "Oh God yesssss," growled Don. "Right there."

In response, Lanh settled in and replied with her delicate tongue slithering back and forth across the most sensitive part of his cock causing waves of intense pleasure to rocket through him. She was gentle but determined in her efforts drawing waves of erotic sensations that caused him to occasionally jerk and double over with the intensity of the pleasure.

Soon he pulled her off of his cock which she reluctantly released with a pop from her mouth. "Up," he gently urged her, and when she was slow in responding, he scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom and plopped her down on the bed. She immediately rolled away and he had to chase her across the bed before she got away.

Now Lanh was all hands and giggling as she pushed him away at every turn. He tried to grasp her cute little breasts and she fought his hands away with "No, you had your chance." They giggled and wrestled, being careful not to wake the rest of the house. "No, no, no... you had your chance, and you blew it... hey no fair!" claimed Lanh as he started tickling her ribs.

She fought back at everything he tried until finally he was able to grab a slim ankle and hold on. She rolled from one side to the other, but he wouldn't loosen his grip. He was able to lean over and kiss her calf. "No biting!" she cried.

"I didn't bite you," claimed Don.

"Yes you did! I have teeth marks down there," pouted Lanh.

Don's eyes narrowed in what he hoped was a threatening glare. "Then I'm going to bite your pussy!"

"NO!" and suddenly they were wrestling again. "Stop biting me!" demanded Lanh as Don began to kiss his way up her leg. The closer he came to the junction of her legs, the more she fought, pushing away harder and harder, but Don fought valiantly and finally he was able to plant a kiss on her pussy and he swept his tongue up and lingered on her clit. "You win," she gasped, and instead of pushing his ravenous mouth away, she held his head in place like he did to her not long ago.

Don's tongue flickered rapidly over her clit, and she began her rapid climb to the orgasm. She ran her fingers through his hair and spread her legs open wider and wider, surrendering her vagina to her man. "Oh god em yêu, oh God!" she gasped as first one finger, then two fingers eased into her tiny pussy and began fucking her. She gasped and clutched at him as the tension built, then like a clock spring snapping her orgasm hit. She was flooded with waves of sweet relief and announced her cum with a strangled cry. Her soft thighs clamped on Don's head and her body shook like she was hooked up to 110 volts.

Wave after wave of relief from the sexual tension they built over the past hour washed over her and Lanh didn't even notice that Don worked himself free. He was able to turn her over, so she was laying face down on the bed and Don grabbed her hips and pulled her up so that she was shuddering from her climax with her face in her pillow and her ass high in the air.

Don knee walked between Lanh's legs and lubed his throbbing cock up with his saliva then lined it up with her pussy. She must have realized what was happening because she whimpered a little before he slid his cock into her all the way to the root. "Uhhhhgggghhh," groaned Lanh happily as she found herself packed full of Don's cock. "Why did you make me wait so long," she sighed as he began to fuck her.

"I thought you'd like the buildup," panted Don as his fucking began to speed up. The slapping of their bodies filled the air and Don and Lanh found themselves covered with her juices.

"Oh God that's good dick," Lanh groaned, and she pushed up on her elbows and tried to push back as Don's thrusting became frenzied.

"I'm going to cum in you chi yêu... I'm gonna cum!" gasped Don. His hips and cock were no longer under his control and is fucking took on a life of its own.

"Do it!" gasped Lanh, "cum in me!"

With a strangled growl Don came, his cock fired volley after volley into her and he continued to drive his cock into her, brushing her cervix with the head of his cock occasionally as he thrust maniacally. Finally, he gasped and collapsed on her back as she sagged to the bed. As his orgasm ended, he rolled to her side and kissed her. "God that was fun," he sighed.

Lanh lay next to him, and they curled their arms around each other. Then Lanh said, "Fun?"

"Yeah, fun. What else would you call it?"

"It was thrilling," suggested Lanh. "Sexy, romantic, exciting..."

"Yeah, like I said," said Don. "Fun!"

"God you can be a dick sometimes," she smiled, then she reached back and looked shocked. "How much did you cum in me? Holy crap!"

"I'm on it," he said, and he disappeared into the bathroom and came back with a damp warm washcloth and began to clean Lanh and the bedspread up.

"We're going to have to keep those balls of yours drained," sighed Lanh as they kissed after he cleaned her up.

"I agree," smiled Don as he helped Lanh off the bed, and they went to the bathroom to clean up. "While you wash up, I'm going to go get breakfast started," said Don.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Why so mopey today? It Christmas Eve!" Mai peered at her first son-in-law over the rim of her cup. She and Lanh had been up late last night wrapping gifts and drinking wine.

"I don't know mom, I've been feeling that something is wrong, it's really creepy." Don placed a plate of scrambled eggs, grits, and bacon in front of Mai.

As she investigated the grits with a fork Mai said, "Is your feeling dysphoria or is there something actually wrong?"

Don forgot that Mai helped her psychologist daughter Tam through eight years of study. "I don't know ma, it's just this very weird sense of foreboding." Just then Lanh came bopping into the kitchen, her body tingling from their morning workout.

"Mmmmm, you made me grits!" Lanh developed a liking for grits during their tenure in the USAF. Don never figured out how or why she learned to like them, they were never stationed in the south, and they rarely ate on base where grits were commonly served.

Mai smiled happily as Don and Lanh kissed. Even after being together for a decade and a half they still kiss like newlyweds, they kiss like they always want to head back to bed for another round of lovemaking. As Lanh sat down Don produced a plate of breakfast with a large dollop of grits for his tiny wife. Just as Lanh sat down, Karole emerged from the basement ready for work and carried Krissy up with her. Karole looked grumpy and tired while Krissy looked like she was ready to play. Don hoped he would have her ready for her first steps any day now.

"Give me a hug," Don said as he wrapped his arms around Karole and Krissy. Karole growled in sleepy discomfort while Krissy smacked her lips ready to give Don a juicy baby kiss. Breaking the hug, Don came away with Krissy and he slid her into her booster chair with practiced ease while Karole plopped down next to her and glared at the table with glazed over eyes. Moments later Don placed a plate of eggs, bacon, and grits in front of Karole and a bowl of grits thinned out with formula in front of Krissy. While Don poured coffee for Mai, Lanh, and Karole, Lanh began feeding the grits to Krissy.

"What do you two have going today?" asked Don, hoping and praying that they would say "We're going to spend the day here with you."

"We have a little more shopping to do," said Lanh. Don's shoulders sagged, "a little more shopping" for Lanh and Mai can go on for hours... many hours. Don took the coffee pot back into the kitchen and put it in the machine and started another pot and stared blankly at the filling carafe. He barely noticed the coffee machine; his mind was tied up with worry that he couldn't identify. As he tried to ascertain his discomfort his right hand gripped the edge of the cabinet tightly and was starting to shake violently. "This can't be happening," he muttered to himself. He had convinced Lanh that his panic attacks were over, those dreams were all in the past, now he's living one, one he can feel but he can't see.

"You ok?" asked Karole as she brought her breakfast dish in the kitchen, her unexpected question almost caused him to jump out of his skin.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Don lied. "Look, we never know when those two will come back so I'll drive you to work today and come get you when your shift is over." Both Don and Karole insisted that whoever watches Krissy has a car to take her to a doctor if a sudden need arises.

"Ah don't want Krissy ridin' in that ol' truck o' yours 'less it's an emergency. Ah smell all fumes in there."

Don smiled, it took context to determine what "all" meant to Karole, it was either a predeterminer to indicate the entire quantity as in "all y'all" or it meant "oil." He nodded, those fumes were getting bad, he had to agree with Karole. "If Lanh and Mai are not back you'll have to get an Uber." He pulled out his wallet and pulled out a card and extended it to Karole.

"Ah can't take that."

"Karole, it's a cash card, it's got a hundred bucks on it and it's nearly expired. Take it or I'm going to put it in Krissy's Christmas stocking, and you'll have to spend it."

Karole was about to refuse the card when she looked in Don's eyes and saw the same agonized confusion that was turning her entire soul sour. She wanted to throw her arms around him and beg him to tell her that it was going to be all right even if they both knew it was a lie. Instead, she took the card and whispered, "Thank you," and went to find her purse.

Ten minutes later they were heading to Loveland Colorado and the offices of Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting. When he pulled up to drop her off, she gave Don a strange look and said, "Would you be angry if I quit?"

"This job is eating you alive, I wish you would," he hoped that she could see his eyes begging "Please quit!"

Just as she was about to say something a very large black man came up behind her and leaned into the window, "You can't stop here, you need to move along."

Don put the truck in gear and started to move as Karole practically shouted "Marly, please!" at the guy as she slammed the door closed. When Don got back home Mai and Lanh were almost ready to leave without him.

"Gotta go!" called Lanh as she and Mai came out the front door, "Krissy is in her playpen, see you later!" and they hurried past Don. Don turned and grabbed Lanh by the sleeve of her jacket and pulled hard, causing her to whip around and she looked shocked, "What?"

"I'm sorry, I just..." and he gave her a slow, passionate kiss, the kind of kiss that goes on and on, the kiss where your tongues explore each other's tongues, where your souls join in and the kiss becomes a loving, spiritual expression of joy.

"Wow!" gasped Lanh after the kiss, "What was that for?"

As he was about to answer a thought slipped into his mind that said, 'I want our last kiss to be memorable' and his stomach twisted in terror. He finally said, "There's more where that came from if you come home soon."

Lanh smiled and waggled her eyebrows behind those black framed glasses that make her so cute and innocent looking, it reminded Don of when they were gawky teenagers and so much in young love. "I'll be back for more, and with a kiss she and her mom were off.

Krissy spent the morning being cranky, her constant crying and complaining echoed Don's mood and they made each other feel worse. She was following him around the house crying like a wounded puppy but he couldn't find anything wrong with her. Because she was working Don couldn't reach out to Karole unless there was an emergency so he tried to reach out to Mai and Lanh, but they didn't answer their phones. He finally called his stepmother Sandy, she's raised four girls and a half dozen grandchildren, she had to know what was going on with this child. "It's Krissy, she's crawling around crying, she's constantly wet, the only time she's happy is in the bathtub."

Sandy chuckled; she was pretty sure what it was already. "Does she have a fever?"

"A little, not much."

Sandy gestured to Kim-ly to come listen, she's going to need to know this in about four months. "Hold on Don, I think Kim-ly is going to need to know this too." Kim-ly showed up with Danh in her arms followed by Ralph and the new guy, RJ. "Ok Don, this is really important. Is Krissy drooling?"

"She sure is, I'm worried about her getting dehydrated, the front of her romper is soaked!" Don sounded really worried, and he was. The way things were going today he was terrified that she was terminally ill.

"Ok, you need to wash your hands really, really well. Hot water! We don't want the baby catching anything."

"Ok, now what?" Don sounded terrified.

"Very gently put the tip of your finger in her mouth, can you do that?" Kim-ly and Ralph immediately figured out what was going on, RJ never had a baby in his life, so he was just as befuddled as Don was.

"Yes, she's trying to bite my finger."

"That's a good sign, it really is. "Now, run your finger across her gums, top and bottom, see if you can feel anything," said Sandy trying to suppress a smile.

"Ok, she keeps trying to bite me... hey... oh my god! She's got a tooth coming in!" He craned his neck and looked at her top gum and saw a small, fine white line. "I can see it!" Don was elated, something good happened today!

"There you go daddy; your little boy should be doing the same thing soon."

Don's excitement just plummeted, his boy was going to need him soon and he wouldn't be there for him. Don realized that he was the worst father ever. The best he could do was care for Krissy. "What do I do now?"

"Give her something cool to chew on, you should have some teething toys, I told Karole to put some in the refrigerator. If you can't find one, slice a pickle lengthwise and let her gnaw on that," said Sandy.

Kim-ly recoiled, "Pickle? Eww! Babies don't eat pickles."

"Sure, they do," said Sandy. "They're going to drool and make faces anyhow, might as well give them a reason to do it."

Don couldn't find a teething ring, so he split a pickle and gave it to Krissy. She stuck it in her mouth and made a horrible face, but she started gnawing on the pickle. "I think she likes it," said Don. "It seems to be helping. I'm going to go look for teething rings. Thank you so much mom."

It helped so much to get something to relieve Krissy's teething pain, now if he could just hear Lanh's voice. His calls were going straight to voice mail which means she probably forgot to charge up her phone again, and Mai just isn't answering which he can't figure out. He couldn't believe he was alone on Christmas Eve, where the hell was Lanh? He should be taking joy in watching Krissy graduate from baby to toddler, she's teething now, she's almost able to stand up by herself, she's attempting her first step, she's just a syllable away from her first word, and Don felt so lonely he was nauseous.

Don tried to keep busy, he made Christmas Cookies as Krissy watched, gnawing on a teething ring that he found in Karole's refrigerator downstairs. While the cookies cooled, he read Christmas stories to Krissy and eventually he had to put her down for her nap. Then, as she slept, he put a podcast on his phone and eased into the hot tub to relax, but that haunting feeling of dread made even this uncomfortable.

As four o'clock neared, Don received a text from Karole that said she had to work some overtime. Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting was famous for their volunteer overtime program. You could volunteer to work overtime, or you could volunteer to work somewhere else. Don couldn't believe that Karole had to work late today, it was Christmas Eve! They gave her the day off on Friday after Thanksgiving saying that it sent a bad message to the shoppers and retail outlets to have bill collectors making calls on Black Friday, but it was ok for bill collectors to harass people on Christmas Eve. What kind of jerk thinks like that? Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, that's who.

Don and Lanh had hoped to go to Minnesota to spend Christmas with the family, but at the last minute both Lanh and Karole ended up having to work. Lanh's mom, Mai, had flown out to be with them for Christmas but Duong had to stay behind, Rosa was sick, so Duong had to stay behind and manage the restaurant.

At least Mai came out, it made Lanh and Karole so happy to have mom there for Christmas. In fact, Lanh's shopping extravaganza was winding down, the last gift she needed to purchase was a very ornate cigar box. The box was decorated with inlaid wood, something that Don really loves. He brought back tons of inlaid wood items from Turkey and this box looked like it would look perfect with his other souvenirs. Don doesn't smoke cigars, but she wanted a very, very special box for a gift she knew that he would love.

When they got to Lanh's SUV she put an envelope in the cigar box and smiled, "Fits perfectly."

"Look at time! We should go home," insisted Mai.

"Wow, it is late... I know, we can go to Don Pollo's and wait for Karole to get off work then take her home," said Lanh as she typed a text to Karole that they would wait for her at Don Pollo's into her phone and hit send. Unfortunately, they were in an area of very poor cell coverage and Lanh's phone was very low on charge, it finally expired before it was able to get the message out.

"I sent message to Don too," said Mai and they climbed into Lanh's SUV and headed off to Don Pollo's, land of the half price happy hour house margaritas.

Karole got six collection calls completed during her overtime, she was as cold and demanding as she could possibly sound and her southern accent was coming on strong, her calls started out with "Happy holidays, here at Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting our records show that you owe us four hundred twenty six dollars and thirty seven cents, will you be paying with check or credit card?" and usually end with, "And a merry Christmas to you from Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, the people who care." She was supposed to downplay the company name, but Karole made sure everyone that answered the phone heard the words Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting at least four times. What are they going to do, fire her from a job she hates?

Karole logged out of the computer system then she went through the drawers of her desk. There was nothing here to indicate that she ever worked here except for a picture of Krissy which she now dropped into her purse, then she got up, shrugged on her jacket and left.

Don finished up The Caterpillars Christmas, Arlo's favorite book, and wished that Danh and Arlo was here to read with him and Krissy. He looked over to see that Krissy was now asleep, but she fell asleep with her face down and her little butt up in the air, like she was crawling and gave out halfway to wherever it was that she wanted to go, her beautiful blond tresses covering her face. Finally, a second nap today - bonus! He picked up the sleepy baby and placed her in her play yard and covered her with her favorite blanket and made sure a teething ring to chew on was available when she woke up.

Don noticed that the music stopped so he picked up his phone which was blue tooth connected to the stereo and noticed that he had gotten a message, it was from Mai saying that they were going to Don Pollo's for a drink and bring Karole home. Maybe Nordy's for dinner? Nordy's is a large barbeque restaurant in Loveland. That would be good. Don tried to call Mai but as usual she wasn't answering. It was probably pretty loud over at Don Pollo's.

Don was right, it was tremendously loud. There was a loud group of people there from across the parking lot from Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting and they were drunk. One of the managers was buying popularity with the employees by plying them with drinks on the company account. Bradley Davis was a team leader for Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, his dad was a frat brother with company founder Halvar Torgeson, and it seemed like Bradley could get away with anything. Like using the company expense account to throw a party for his favorite workers over there.

Bradly was just at the edge of seeing double but right now he saw something that really interested him. Covered with spilled nachos, Bradley Davis stood on a bench to lead a rousing, drunken rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Rain Deer when he spotted Lanh sitting not too far from the party. "Ya know gang, Mexican is ok, but I'm going to try a little Chinese," and he hopped down, fell to his knees, then got back up to the jeers of his subordinates. He poured himself a large margarita from the pitcher and staggered over to where Mai and Lanh were talking. As Bradley got near to them, they switched to Vietnamese, but he didn't seem to notice that he was being ignored. He finally said, "Hey ladies I'm Bradley. We're having a little Christmas party; would you care to join us?"

Lanh tried not to puke. She looked away from him, purposely refusing to look at him or meet his eyes and said to Mai, "Đó là ông chủ của Karole." (That's Karole's boss) She smiled sweetly to her mother and said, "Cô ấy cho tôi xem một bức ảnh của anh ấy!" (She showed me a picture of him) and she nodded to emphasize to Mai that she was sure of who it was.

Mai looked up at Bradley and smiled sweetly then said, "Biến đi." (Go away)

"I'm in charge of all those people, they think I'm pretty awesome," said Bradley with a belch.

Lanh simply said, "Tôi không." (I don't)

Seeing Lanh and Mai's drinks he slurred, "We have pitchers of margaritas, come and join us."

Mai said, "Làm ơn để tôi yên." (Please leave me alone)

"No hablas" sneered Bradley.

"She said to leave us alone," said Lanh now getting annoyed by the drunken sot.

Someone started a spirited mariachi song on the juke box and Bradley grinned, "Come on lil' girl, let's dance!" and he grabbed Lanh's arm and started to pull her out of the booth.

"NO!" shrieked Lanh as Bradley got her free from the booth. Suddenly a bright flash of light blinded Bradley, he looked and saw that the older Asian woman had just took his picture and now she laid her phone down and drew a.38 snub nose revolver from her purse.

"The next flash you see will be the last..."

Bradley dropped Lanh's arm and held his hands up, "OK!...Jeez lady!" He backed away with his hands up and returned to his party grumbling.

"Are you ok?" Mai asked, "we can go home right now if you want."

"I'm ok," Lanh replied. "He was just a drunk, I can deal with them." She opened her hand and revealed to Mai that she had a switchblade in her free hand. Lanh put the switchblade back in her purse and glanced at her watch, it was much later than she expected.

Across the parking lot from Don Pollo's, Karole was waiting outside of her office building in the rain for her ride home. Tired of being cold and wet she went back inside to wait for her Uber that was now ten minutes late. She stepped through the doors and turned around looking out onto the bleak Loveland Colorado parking lot, soon to be covered with a fine layer of ice. She was almost glad that the bank repossessed her pickup truck. It would get her home safely in this weather, but she couldn't afford gas for that beast. What about an electric car? Karole scoffed, why not just get a Rolls Royce? She couldn't afford an electric car let alone the extensive wiring job on the house needed to build a charging station.

As she looked out on the bleak, cold world a deep voice rumbled behind her. "Come on Miss Krigbaum, you know that no one is allowed to loiter in the lobby." She looked over her shoulder and there was Marly, the huge, as black as night security guard. He was bearing down on her like a battleship charging toward an errant rowboat. His name was John Wilson, but he was called Marly by the bill collectors of Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting because of the unlit Marlboro hanging from his lips from the hour of 4:30 PM when management left, till whatever hour Marly left.

"Marly, it's raining outside, ah'm just waiting for my Uber, it will be here any time now."

"I can't let you do that Karole. You know that" he implored. Then he recited his script, "the lobby is for customer use only."

"Ok, ah'm goin'," she groaned.

"Why don't you go across the lot to Don Pollo's for the office party?" asked Marly.

"Slam back a bunch of tequila in a room full of people ah detest working with? Not a brilliant career move."

"I hear ya." A smile crossed Marly's normally impassive face. Of the dozens of people that work here, Marly is the only person that Karole likes. "Karole, I have to ask you to step outside, it means both of our jobs."

"Sorry Marly. Hey, can ah bum a smoke offa you?" Marly eased a pack of Marlboro Red from his pocket and with an expert flick of the wrist he extended a cigarette halfway from the pack a offered it to Karole. "Thanks Marly," she said as she took the proffered smoke, "Got a light?"

Marly extended to her a small butane lighter, but he refused to release it when she tried to take it. The waiting room around them faded to black, the only thing she could see now was Marly who implored, "Karole, you have to let go of the hate, it will become an anchor chain around your neck."

"It's all ah have left," she responded, suddenly scared of the one man she has ever met that was taller than her. "Why are you bothering me?"

"It is required of every man," Marley replied, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life..."

"Yeah, yeah, ah know the rest," sneered Karole, "Every English teacher ah ever had required me to do a report on a Christmas Carol because of my name." Her southern accent began to copy a British accent as she said, "And if that spirit goes not forth in life it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world - oh, woe is me! Yadda yadda yadda, ah heard it all before. What cha gonna do, sic a buncha ghosts on me?"

His eyes narrowed as he softly growled, "You will be visited by two spirits and one ghost, their visit means more to you and your son than you could believe..."

"Screw that!" demanded Karole, "Scrooge was right "What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books..." well, Ah balanced my books and ah got jack shit! Ah got nuttin for my daughter, and next week ah won't have a roof over ma haid!"

The intensity faded from his eyes and the color returned to the room. "Karole, please..." he said softly.

Panicked by his sudden change of personality without explanation Karole was finally able to pluck the lighter from his huge fingers and she put distance between herself and the guard as fast as possible. She flicked the lighter then lit her cigarette as she walked to the exit. The doors opened automatically, and she turned and tossed the lighter back to Marly. "There's no smoking in the lobby," he called out, shaking his head as if to clear the cobwebs.

"I don't smoke," said Karole, emitting a cloud of smoke. That was mostly true, she doesn't smoke, unless she needs a quick buzz and then a rare coffin nail works wonders. "And ah don't got no son."

Across the parking lot they were whoopin' it up at Don Pollo's Margarita Bar, a semi-successful Mexican restaurant for people who have never eaten Mexican food, it's food that looks Mexican. Don and Lanh Campbell opened Karole up to a whole world of food, including Mexican and Karole discovered that there's nothing like good Mexican food. And Don Pollo's is nothing like good Mexican food.

There's no sign of her Uber and she's freezing. What was up with Marly? He didn't even know the script, it was three ghosts, not two spirits and a ghost. She muttered and complained to herself about Marly's strange revelation, in the end Scrooge was right, Marly must have had something for lunch that didn't agree with him, "...an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you..."

Karole realized that a drop of rain almost put her cigarette out, she's not a smoker so she didn't know to cup the stogie in her hand to keep it dry. She puffed it back to life and muttered, "I only lie to myself," a rule she tries to live by.

She pulled her phone out and started to dial, hoping, praying to hear his voice. Or maybe Mai, Karole loves Mai who constantly demands that Karole drop everything and move to Minnesota to help Rosa run the family restaurant, and Karole wishes she could say yes. But Don is here in Colorado...

"Hello, Don? Hey, I'm running a bit late, the Uber is late and..."

"It's ok, we're reading stories," said Don. Karole could hear Krissy's babbling in the background, she's 11 months old and getting closer every day to speaking. "Listen, why don't you..."

Karole was distracted because the rain had turned to snow like someone threw a switch, the cold miserable drizzle became a beautiful, gentle snowfall with perfectly shaped flakes fluttering gently from the sky. The snowflakes swirled around her giving Karole the feeling that she was living in a snow globe. Don would love this; she thought as she gazed at the swirling flakes. They reminded her of the only place she ever felt at home, Minnesota. She chuckled; he would call this Christmas snow; however, she knew that in the twenty miles between their two locations the weather patterns could be vastly different.

Smiling for the first time today she noticed that the snowflakes had stopped, they were hovering in midair. She reached out to touch one and before she touched the snowflake, she felt a sudden jolt go through her. Not an electric shock, but like someone bumped her in the back. It was followed in rapid succession by ten more jolts and then someone appeared next to her. Surprised at the sudden appearance her feet slipped out from under her and Karole dropped to her hands and knees, her cell phone landed on the ground in front of her and Don was talking to her. She realized that she hadn't heard a word he said and was trying to look up at the person who appeared when the apparition spoke.

"Ok, let's get this started. We need to get this right; this is the last chance we get," said the specter which had a familiar, haunting appearance...

"Karole?" Don looked at his phone, it showed that he was still connected to Karole. He heard a clattering like she dropped the phone, then he heard an occasional gasp or yelp.

Twenty miles away and sixteen years ago Karole was being exposed to a past that brought tears to her eyes, she saw the courtship of Don and Lanh from the day they met until the day they met her. She saw the pain they survived together and the good times that they enjoyed always together, and their love - so much love! Could there be a bit of that love for her? A spirit of herself from her past revealed how Don and Lanh built a life together, traveled the world, educated themselves, and made love with a passion that Karole didn't believe possible.

A spirit from Karole's future joined the spirit of Karole's past showed Karole scenes that amazed and shocked her. The spirits revealed two versions of her future, one so horrific that it will give her nightmares until the day it comes true, and one so beautiful she will weep and pray it comes true for years to come, and all she has to do to guarantee that either one of those futures happens is nothing. All she has to do is stay here and smoke her cigarette and all that love that Don has reserved for Lanh could be hers.

The thought sickened her more than the nicotine rush ever could. She spent days viewing Don and Lanh's past, months viewing her potential futures, but mere seconds had actually passed but that's all it took to make up her mind, the price was too great, there had to be a third option.

"Karole? Are you ok?" Don was starting to wonder if Karole was having an attack... or maybe she was being attacked... then it sounded like she was arguing with someone... two other women were arguing with her is what it sounded like... then suddenly Karole shrieked "Where is Lanh?"

There was a clap of silent thunder that rolled through the house, Don and Krissy felt it rather than heard it... something changed... something very big changed. They looked at each other in shock and suddenly Krissy was very scared. Karole's screamed question hung in the air between them, "Where is Lanh?"

"She's over at Don Pollo having a drink with her mom," said Don. "They were shopping and decided to have a margarita. Mai said she texted you."

Karole realized she was on her hands and knees in front of Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, she was looking at her dropped phone which was still on the speaker setting. Now the snowflakes which had been hanging motionless started falling again. "Don? Is that you?"

"Well, duh! We've were talking and you went silent for a moment," said Don. Krissy grabbed the phone off the coffee table and started jabbering into the phone, she was relieved and excited to hear her mommy.

"Oh, babydoll, let mommy talk to Mister Don."

"Momma!" said Krissy speaking her first word, the word her Mr. Don taught her for Christmas.

"Oh baby, I love you too babydoll! Don, call Lanh! Tell her to stay there, I'll be right over."

"I think her phone is dead, my calls are going to voice mail," said Don, "She's as bad as you for charging her phone."

"Call Mai, call Don Pollo's, tell them to hold her, I'm on my way, it's important." Karole tried to get up, but everything was covered with a fine smooth layer of ice, her feet kept sliding on the ice, that earlier rain froze up and the whole area is a giant skating rink now, she saw cars sliding, trying to stop and slamming into parked cars. She jammed her phone into her purse and her fingers touched something that Lanh had put in there when she was pregnant with Krissy and was having trouble walking in the snow.

"Here, when it gets slippery, put these on over your shoes," Lanh told her. "I learned this in Germany from our landlady Frau Grolisch. They look funny but I could walk up an ice-covered hill with them!" Karole could still remember the smile on Lanh's face when she shoved the "snow tires" into her purse where they lay buried in Karole's large purse for a year. Karole remembered Frau Grolisch from her trip into Don and Lanh's past, and she never steered the young American couple wrong. Karole reached into her large purse and pulled out a pair of woolen hunting socks.

Now is no time to be a fashion model, Karole pulled the socks on over her flats as quickly as possible then tried to get up, and she found that Lanh was right, the wool socks actually stuck to the ice. She gathered up her purse and headed out across the skating rink slick parking lot as fast as she dared and when she found that she could walk fast, she started to run.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Fortified with a margarita and a half each, Mai and Lanh realized it was after five PM, they had promised to be home long before five. "Are you ready má? We should get going."

"These people," started Mai, she waved her hand toward the Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting holiday party over by the bar. "They are điên say!" (crazy drunk) laughed Mai who was feeling the tequila herself.

"I think those are the people Karole works with. I can see why she chose not to come to the party," said Lanh. As a military wife, she's seen some crazy parties. Military people need to blow off steam on occasion, and sometimes it's not pretty.

"You should pack her up and send her to me!" said Mai. Karole has proved herself to be a great waitress and business is so good at their noodle shop that they need more help. Karole has filled in as a waitress every time she comes to visit with Don and Lanh, even when she was pregnant with Krissy. Mai's customers constantly ask for "the waitress that sounds like a truck driver."

"That's my Christmas present to Don and Karole!" said Lanh as she pulled on her parka, "I got the position at Bemidji State! UNC said that they will release me from my contract at the end of this semester, we'll be home by June!"

"Tuyệt!" (Wonderful!) cried Mai, she is happiest when all of her chicks are near her. "Donovan will be ecstatic!" He really wants to come home, but he promised Lanh that he would support her, and Colorado is where her profession has led her...

"Karole needs to come too," said Lanh, "if I have to drag her kicking and screaming the whole way to Minnesota!" She led Mai through the holiday revelers that were now packing Don Pollo's before Happy Hour was over. The house margaritas there are pretty nasty, but after 3 or 4 you don't notice how bad they are. Lanh started creating a checklist for what she needs to do for the move home in her head then paused and said, "Mom, can you call Don? My phone is dead."

"Again," sighed Mai as she dug out her phone and saw that there were seven missed calls.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bradley Davis was able to get away with all kinds of inexcusable behaviors at work and yet he keeps his job. He shows up to work drunk, he's disrespectful to customers, and he's an utter drag on employee morale, but he is a riot at parties.

Right now, Brad was still stinging from the rejection that Lanh gave him, and he was still cursing that "chink bitch" to anyone that would listen. He was so drunk that he was seeing double, but he promised to show these "pilgrims" that moved to Colorado recently how to have fun on the ice. The "Californiacs" who just moved to Colorado from L.A. and San Diego were terrified of driving in the snow, but Brad was going to teach them. He was going to instruct them on the fine art of "The Donut."

He got behind the wheel of his fully restored 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible - 18 feet, 8 inches long (5.69 meters), 5,153 lbs of Detroit iron, 500 cubic inch (8.2 liter) V8 engine harnessing 235 horses. Fully adjustable leather seats with six preset positions, and an actual 8-Track tape player, if you can't get laid in this love shack on wheels, you can't get laid! What the hell, it's 32 degrees, (0 C) so it's barely chilly. As the Big 500 started to pump out warm air he lowered the ragtop and eased the beast out of its parking berth. It's show time...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From across the parking lot Karole saw the top of Bradley's land yacht rising up like a sail and she realized that she didn't have much time. She was running hard and gave up on trying to run like the Olympians she's seen on TV. Turns were handled by slamming into cars and ricocheting off the car into the direction she wants to go, but she's got to go faster... faster!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mai finally got through to Don but it was hard to dial a phone and keep up with Lanh as Lanh bulldozed her way through the crowd of people who had gathered in front of Don Pollo's to watch Bradley Davis' version of A Miracle on Ice... Don finally picked up and Mai could hear Krissy's whining over her teething pains. "Don? It Mai, Lanh want you to know that we are heading home now, too many drunk here! Guy is spinning his car in circles on the ice."

Don chuckled, just like Lanh, when she gets excited or stressed Mai's Vietnamese accent gets very pronounced. When he got a chance to speak, he said, "Karole called, she said to wait, she's walking over from work, she should be there soon."

That was when Mai started screaming "Lanh! Dừng lại! Dừng lại!" (Stop! Stop!)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The big Cadillac spun in graceful circles somehow missing the other cars in the parking lot. Karole had to admit that Bradley Davis was pretty good at handling that car on ice, but she kept running, she wasn't going to stop until she reached Lanh, who was probably in that crowd of people in front of Don Pollo's. Then the unthinkable happened, the titty pink caddy hit a dry patch and its slow spiral turned into an arrow straight trajectory aimed straight at the mob of drunks in front of Don Pollo's.

Karole saw her at the last moment, the sea of drunks parted as Bradley's Caddy headed straight toward them, but Lanh didn't notice, her mind was filled with the joy of being able to go home. Karole could hear Mai screaming at Lanh and far too late Lanh finally noticed. The tiny Asian was unable to move properly on the ice, it was too slick to turn around. She looked up just in time to see the acre of Detroit steel that was bearing down on her to kill her. The look of terrified understanding on Lanh's face told the entire story, Lanh now knew that she was about to die.

Exhausted beyond anything she ever did before in her life, Karole put on a final burst of speed. Her wool socks were getting gummed up with ice, snow and water, and started to slip but she still had some traction left, hopefully enough and she dove.

Karole's shoulder caught Lanh right in the gut and drove her back into Mai, and both mother and daughter went down as Karole went under the car instead of Lanh. The car slammed into a security post in front of Don Pollo's and came to a halt, the engine immediately died, and Lanh was showered with hot anti-freeze, her screams of pain drown out Karole's muttered apologies to her children, "Mommy's sorry Krissy... Mister Don will be a good daddy for you..." as she weakened and slipped into unconsciousness she whispered "Mommy's sorry Reggie..."

Don was trying to find out from Mai what was going on and Krissy was shrieking in horror, it's like she realized what happened to her mother. Was she able to know what was occurring? Don turned to look at Krissy, he was almost ready to yell at her to quiet down when he saw it... Krissy was standing up next to the coffee table, crying her little eyes out, her tiny heart breaking, but there next to her, was a ghostly image, it was Karole wearing a red robe trimmed with white borders like Santa Claus, and she was whispering to Krissy, "Be a good girl for Mister Don, he's going to be your daddy..."

Don froze and the phone fell out of his hand. He squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head then looked again and the image was gone but the voice continued while Krissy's little heart broke over and over.

Lanh looked at her best friend, the woman she loved most in the world, through tear filled eyes. Karole's twisted body was just inches from her, and Lanh could almost see the life seeping out of Karole. She heard her mother saying through her own tears, "Lanh, em bé (my baby), here is your Donovan," and Mai held her phone next to Lanh's head which was pinned between Mai's leg and the bumper of the car.

"Lanh, em yêu (my love), I love you, I'm coming for you," wept Don. "I'm on my way now!"

"Help," was all Lanh could say. Her voice was shaking, and it terrified Don as he gathered up what he needed and scooped up Krissy. The terrified wails of the baby as he put Krissy in her car seat almost drowned out what Lanh said.

"I'm coming for you em yêu!" In a matter of moments, he was up to speed on US 34 racing toward Loveland, four-way flashers warning traffic that their health was not his concern. A pill bottle in his pocket filled to the brim with saved oxycodone tablets show that his own health was not his concern either. If Lanh goes, he's not going to be far behind.

"Karole, she save me," gasped Lanh, her Vietnamese accent was making her English hard to understand, luckily Don has had over a decade to learn. "She hurt..." and Lanh burst into tears.

"Tell her like you did for me when I was hurt, tell her to stay with us, tell her how much we love her, tell her we are going to take care of her..." Suddenly Mai was talking.

"Help coming, hear sirens..."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bill Hutchinson was an off-duty fireman with the Loveland Colorado Fire Rescue Authority, his primary area of authority was rescue specialist in the Big Thompson Canyon west of Loveland near Estes Park, the gateway to the Rocky Mountain National Park. People tend to get themselves in all kinds of predicaments and if that doesn't keep him busy enough, the Big Thompson Canyon has a history of life-threatening floods that roar down from the mountains through the Big Thompson Canyon washing everything down the canyon in its fury.

Bill had one more item to get for tonight's Hutchinson Family Christmas Eve, a pint of sherbet and as he pulled in the shopping mall to hit the King Soopers supermarket, he saw a crowd of people over by Don Pollo's. Great, just where he wanted to drive to get to King Sooper. He started plotting out a different route through the icy parking lot when his radio came alive.

"Rescue 12, Rescue 27, Ambulance 1, please respond. Single vehicle accident outside of Don Pollo restaurant. Report of multiple victims trapped."

Bill groaned, his chief is going to kill him, he's got so much overtime logged this month he'll be able to send his kid to Harvard... if he ever gets born. His wife is a week overdue and they're going to induce labor if Bill Junior doesn't make an appearance for Christmas. He grabbed his hand-held radio and keyed the PTT button. "Rescue Unit 43, badge number 2771 is on scene." He got out of his Bronco and started slipping on the ice. Shit!

"Officer 2771, please evaluate and report," came the voice of Larimer County dispatch.

"Responding units be advised, it appears that this area received some freezing rain, the paved surfaces are very slippery. There appear to be multiple fender benders in the area."

"Rescue 12 copy."

"Rescue 27 copy."

Bill grabbed the big first aid kit out of his truck and headed over to the crowd. These people were plastered, and he practically had to fight his way through to the scene of the accident. He saw a middle age Asian woman laying on her back, a small pool of blood slowly growing around her head. Her leg was trapped under another Asian woman, younger, who was half under the car. It looked like her leg was being crushed by the front wheel. Then he looked under the car to ascertain the injuries to the young Asian woman and saw that there was a third woman under the car. "Save her first," gasped the younger Asian woman. "She tried to save me; she has a baby..."

"It's ok ma'am, I'm here for all of you." He turned to the blond trapped under the car, she was whimpering in pain, but Bill heard someone else, the voice of a fourth woman, she was whispering to the blond, "...it's ok now, just relax, Bill will save you..."

Who was that? And how did she know my name?!? Bill was stunned, for the first time in twenty years of rescue he was shocked. He finally grabbed his radio and called "Dispatch this is Officer 2771, we have three victims here, one female mid-twenties, one female early thirties, one female mid-sixties..."

"I fifty-nine!" shouted Mai.

"I'm sorry dear," said Bill with a smile as he emerged from under the car... where do we start? Visible injuries first. He looked around and noticed two Larimer County Sheriffs elbowing their way through the crowd. "Deputy!" called Bill. "I need one of you to grab a couple of sandbags out of my truck, I need the other one to start moving this crowd back."

He was bandaging Mai's head when the deputy arrived with the sandbags. "Scatter sand all around and under the car, we need some traction here, but don't get any on our victims!"

"Help her," whimpered Lanh weakly, "don't worry about me..." and she started crying.

"We have plenty of people, we're going to help you all." Then he turned his attention back to Mai, "are you ok momma?"

"Don't worry about me, help my girls."

As he was securing Mai's bandage he asked, "Are you from around here momma?"

"No, I from very far away... very far."

"Where's that?" he asked as he eased her head back down.

"Minnesota."

Bill almost laughed, he was expecting to hear China or Korea. "Me too, I'm from St. Cloud. Uff da! Us Minnesotan's gotta stick together, we gotta help each other, eh?"

"Uff da," said Mai weakly, trying not to cry. "Help my girls and I will make you some lefse," Mai worked so hard to hold back the tears. "Please?"

Bill smiled at the brave woman, "Uff da" is a Norwegian term which means the equivalent of "Oh shit" and can be considered the "battle cry" of Minnesota and North Dakota and Lefse is best described as a Norwegian tortilla and is known to Minnesotans as the food of the Gods. "You get that lefse roller ready momma, we're all getting out of here soon." He then went over to his truck and got a highlift jack, the sand that the deputy was sprinkling was a godsend. "Do you have one of these?" he asked the deputy showing him the highlift.

"Roger dat," said the deputy and he grabbed one off of their SUV. The jacks look like old-fashioned bumper jacks on steroids, Don and his dad Ralph have one that they use for pulling fence posts back on the farm. The deputy sheriff and Bill Hutchenson put one on either side of the Cadillac and slowly, click by click, began to lift the weight of the car off of the victims. As the car started coming up, Bradley Davis started to move, it looked like he was starting to wake up.

"Deputy, these jacks are not going to be very stable," said Bill Hutchinson. He pointed to Bradley Davis and said, "if he starts moving, you're going to have to shoot him."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Don arrived on scene and the parking lot was filled with emergency vehicles, news vans, and gawkers. He parked his old Chevy S10, scooped up Krissy, and headed over to the center of the activities. A cop tried to hold him back, but Don said, "That's my wife in there, Krissy's mom is there."

"Momma!" wept Krissy.

The cop looked at the little girl that Don was holding and looked skeptical, as far as he knew all the women involved were Asian, this blond-haired, green-eyed baby couldn't have a relative involved. The cop saw the desperation in Don's face and said, "I can't let you in, but step over to the ambulance, if anyone tells you to leave tell them I told you it was OK."

Don made note of the cop's name from his uniform then nodded and stepped over to the ambulance and introduced himself. Because of all the fender benders that had happened because of the ice covering everything, the ambulance and rescue trucks couldn't get close to the incident scene.

"We've already transported one to Mercy General," said a member of the ambulance crew.

"Was she Asian? Was she a blond?" Don was getting desperate.

"We don't know fella, that was another ambulance crew, but I can ask, hang on." The EMT went forward in the ambulance and started to make some radio calls.

Don tried to get closer to the rescue efforts, but the on-scene commander wouldn't let him in the cordoned off area. "That's my wife in there!" cried Don.

"Then let us help her," said the fireman.

Don understood but he needed to be near Lanh. He could see several firemen crouched around the front of a huge old Cadillac convertible that was lifted up with huge bumper jacks like the one he uses on the farm to pull fence posts and sapling stumps. He heard Lanh's high pitch cry of pain and terror and suddenly Don flashed back sixteen years

"Không phải anh! Không phải anh!" Lan's shriek of terror filled 17-year-old Don's ears, he didn't know that she was crying "Not you! Not you!" all he knew was that Lanh was terrified and in pain and she needed him. He was in computer class and her cries of terror clutched at his heart and squeezed tight. He jumped up and dashed out into the hallway, his class followed him. They knew someone was going to get a beating and it was probably going to be Don, and they wanted to watch.

Don dashed down the hallway toward her shrieks of terror and saw Joshua Grimes, he had ripped open Lanh's blouse and now he saw Joshua slap Lanh's face. Don's vision went red with rage, how dare they touch my love! Without thinking, Don put his head down and charged headlong into the biggest, strongest, angriest bully in high school. Don body slammed Grimes into the lockers, freeing Lanh from the ape's grip.

"Lanh! Run!" was all Don got out before Grimes proceeded to beat Don to a bloody pulp while his entire class stood by stupidly and watched. The beating Don took went on for a full ten minutes, a beating that gave Lanh nightmares for years to come and it put Don out of school for weeks, but all he would say was "Lanh! Run!" He took the beating quietly knowing that Lanh was safe.

And now he was ready to take whatever pain they could dish out if only to save Lanh, but he couldn't. He had a baby in his arms, they weren't trying to hurt Lanh, they were trying to help her, there was nothing he could do for her. Everything in him said to run to her but all he could do was press against the wide yellow tape that proclaimed in bold black letters, "Accident Scene - Do Not Cross" and shout "LANH! I'M HERE FOR YOU!"

She cried out one more time, this time Don could see that it was the rescue crew lifting her and the back-board onto the stretcher. He watched the stretcher come closer and closer to him slowly; he could hear Lanh whimpering as they approached. Finally, the stretcher carrying Lanh came up to the ambulance and Don called "Lanh! I'm right here! Em yêu! "I'm here!" At the same time Krissy reached for Lanh and started crying. His beautiful wife looked so banged up and bandaged, her cute nerd glasses were broken, the EMT had hooked them on the neck of her blouse.

When Lanh heard him call her sweetheart in Vietnamese, she tried to turn to look but she was strapped down and unable to do anything but rotate her eyes. "Chi yêu," she gasped. She was about to say something when Krissy saw her and wailed "Momma!" and all three started crying. As they loaded Lanh into the ambulance she said, "Help Karole!"

Don was torn, he wanted to follow Lanh, but Lanh asked him to stay for Karole. He promised he would ensure Karole was removed from under the car and watched sadly as Lanh's ambulance pulled away.

He could see the rescue team jack up the caddie even more. Soon Don could see that Karole was being slid out from under the car but then the EMTs started working on her and they were there for a long time. As another ambulance backed into position Don watched with mounting sorrow and anger as the EMTs by the Cadillac transferred Karole's motionless body to a stretcher then covered her up, strapped her down then wheeled her to the ambulance.

"Karole! We're here for you!" called Don as the gurney came up to the ambulance, "we love you Karole!" but there was no reaction. As they raised her gurney up to fit in the ambulance Don pulled back the blanket that covered Krissy's little face. "Krissy is here for you too, we love you."

Krissy was scared of what she saw but she must have realized it was her mommy, she spat out her teething pacifier and cried "Momma!" followed by tears, not the whiny shrieks of a wet or hungry baby, but the painful cries of a tiny heart being broken as the love of her life was carried away. Don couldn't hold back either and cried, "Karole, I love you!"

Karole's perfect green eye, the one not covered by a bandage, popped open in surprise, then filled with tears. Don's eyes and Karole's unbandaged eye stayed locked to each other as she was eased into the ambulance. "Are you the husband?" asked an ambulance driver.

Don suddenly realized he had no idea what he was, neighbor was an accurate description, but it wasn't complete. Finally, he said, "I'm her stepbrother." Now that she gave him power of attorney, he could even say that he's now Karole's father if he wanted, he's got that legal power. He started to climb in the side door of the ambulance, "We're coming with," he said firmly.

The EMT stopped him and shook his head, "No, it's not pretty, the little one should not see this," and the EMT ran a trembling finger up Krissy's tiny tear-stained cheek. "We're transporting her to Mercy General with the other two," and the ambulance left with lights flashing and siren blaring. As the ambulance left, Don's shoulders slumped, his mind was numb, his heart was shattered, his hand curled around the pill bottle in his pocket.

He walked toward the car that almost killed Lanh and may have killed Karole; the police were leading the drunk that was driving away in handcuffs. Don positioned himself so that they would lead the drunk right to him, and he got a good long look at the bastard that ruined his life. When they neared Don, the drunk slurred, "Wha da fuck you lookin' at?"

"You have a beef with him fella?" the sheriff asked.

"Nah, I have a lawyer to do that for me," said Don so softly the cop barely heard him. Then he turned and there was a fireman, he was covered in blood and anti-freeze, and he looked exhausted. Don realized that he owed his entire life from this moment forward to this man, but when he tried to put his heart into his words all he could say was, "Thank you for saving my..." His throat tightened up and the words wouldn't come.

"Are you her husband?"

"I'm married to the Asian, the blond is my..." again he was trapped for a word, until today he had never thought to describe his relationship with Karole, finally he said, "stepsister."

The fireman saw the shattered soul reflected in Don's eyes. "Good luck man, I wish you nothing but the best," how do you say Merry Christmas to a man who almost lost everything?

Don thanked him again for saving the three women who mean the most to him, then he turned and there was a TV camera in his face, an eager looking Hispanic girl breathlessly asked him, "Was that your wife under that car?"

"Yes... and she still is my wife."

"Can I ask you a few questions? I'm Norma Rodriguez from Action New 34 and the entire front range is talking about this story."

"Sure, I guess, I'm Don Campbell, this is Krissy and..."

The reporter held her hand to her ear as she listened to instructions from her director back at the studio. "I'm sorry but they want to lead with this, can you do this live?"

"Sure," said Don. Rather than ask him questions and find out background for the upcoming interview, the reporterette, as Don thought of her, turned and started adjusting her makeup. Now his distaste for news was reaching new highs, they were looking to make money off of his agony. Out of habit he took out his phone and looked at it as he waited for the news reporter. His phone was packed with notices of calls and messages, but he had turned off the ringer... then he noticed that there was a text from Mai, it was a picture of a guy dragging Lanh out of a booth at Don Pollo's by the wrist, the text from Mai said he came from the company that Karole worked for, she went on to say that Lanh told her that he was Karole's boss... Don looked again... it was the guy that hit Lanh!

"Ok, we're going live in 3... 2... Christmas Eve sorrow as two Weld County women were hit by a car outside of a popular Larimar County night club, I'm Norma Rodriguez live and on scene..." The lights dimmed and Norma turned to Don and said, "They'll be coming back to us in thirty seconds, can you handle it?"

"Night club? They were here for lunch!"

"It's just a name," said Norma, clearly disliking the fact that someone who is not a journalist has an opinion contrary to her own. "Anything else?"

"There were three women, my wife, her mother, my stepsister."

"Ok, we'll cover that, and we're back in 4... 3..." She lifted her microphone and said "I'm Norma Rodriguez on scene where a Christmas Eve tragedy nearly claimed the lives of three women here outside of Don Pollo's restaurant, I have with me Don Campbell, husband of one of the women that was critically injured. Don? What are you feeling right now?"

Feeling like that was a stupid fucking question. "Norma, my feelings pale in comparison with Krissy's feelings right now. This is Krissy's first Christmas, Krissy got her first tooth today, and Krissy said her first word today, but she may never see her mother alive again..." Norma was thinking to herself 'what a score! This guy is a natural! and using the kid like this! Don looked into the camera and said, "This little angel's first Christmas was shattered by the actions of a drunk member of management at Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting."

He said that on live TV? Norma was shocked. She sputtered and stuttered for a moment, but the Action News 34 News Director pulled the report back at the studio immediately losing Norma her chance at a network posting. "How could you say that?" she shrieked as the director said, "We're clear," in her earpiece.

"Let me show you something," Don turned his phone so she could see the picture Mai sent him. "That's the guy who hit my wife, her mother, and Krissy's mother. He assaulted my wife inside the restaurant and then ran her over outside of the restaurant moments later. There. I just handed you a huge fucking story and I have a nasty feeling you're going to sit on it. Unless you plan to expose this asshole just leave me and my family alone. If you want more information out of me, speak to my lawyer." And he turned on his heel and left. Master Sergeant Campbell was back, and he was done taking shit from people.

Twenty minutes later Don pulled up in front of their house... he could no longer call it a home; he was beginning to hate this house. He had swapped out his little chevy for Lanh's big SUV there in the parking lot and drove home in the 3-year-old Nissan Armada. Krissy was soaked and she was probably hungry, so they dashed into the house and got her a couple of sleepers, and an actual jacket. Don was in such a hurry when they left for the accident, he had just wrapped her in a blanket. They're going to be in the hospital for a while, so he prepared accordingly.

He filled Krissy's bag with diapers, clothes, formula, blankets, bottles and whatever toys he could find then headed toward the hospital in Lanh's SUV. As they left the driveway the phone rang, and Don went to hang up, but he hit the wrong button. It wasn't his phone that rang, it was Lanh's cell phone account that was linked to the internal cell phone on the Armada. "Why don't you answer your phone?" said the voice that called him.

"Kim-ly, I'll give you three guesses and I dare you to get it wrong." Don's emotions were so torn up that he didn't want to speak to anyone about anything, but he almost cried with relief to hear Kim-ly's voice.

"I'm sorry but no one's heard a word since Mai called an hour and a half ago."

"Oh God, has it only been an hour... I'm not doing this very well... and I have Krissy. How did Lanh handle it when I got blown up?"

"She had the whole base helping her and compared to her, you're crushing it. What's going on?"

Don stopped and rested his forehead on the steering wheel. "They're all at Mercy General Hospital, everyone but me. They just got Karole out from under the car about thirty minutes ago. Then I got interviewed on live TV and blamed everything on a company called Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting."

"Ok, Huy is driving down to the airport to hop the redeye with Dad right now, you're definitely going to need a lawyer. Tam will be coming with Sandy and Ralph a bit later... you sound like shit."

"I love you too," said Don as he put the SUV back in gear and headed toward Mercy General. It was snowing now.

"Really, you sound like crap, when's the last time you ate?"

"I don't know ummm..." he looked at his watch. "Twenty-five hours ago."

"Ok, I need you to pull into a Mickey D's, you need a QPC and a large Sprite. STAT."

"No fries?"

"Do not think I'm kidding you, I'm an accountant, I know things. You need carbs and sugar, so you need fries too. Get some fries for Krissy, she needs to get something nice for her first Christmas. Kids love fries."

Don choked back the emotions that were flooding his senses and he realized again that not only was Krissy's first Christmas ruined, he was missing his son's first Christmas. His hand sought out the pill bottle in his pocket and he said, "Thank you darling, I love you sis."

"I love you too little brother," after they said their goodbyes, Kim-ly hung up the phone and fought back the tears. Echoes of what happened to Don three years ago were hitting her as hard as they were hitting Don. She looked at her dad in the front seat and he looked like he was the one that was run over. He aged twenty years in one evening, he and Mai met even younger than Don and Lanh were when they met and except for one stint in the military he and Mai have never been separated. Huy looked back at Kim-ly and said, "Are you ok?"

"Keep your eyes on the road and no, I'm just as fucked up as everyone else." Huy's car raced west to Grand Forks where they were able to get a flight to Denver. It cost four times what a flight out of Minneapolis would cost, but it was closer and Huy had points to pay for the tickets.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Don and Lanh spent Christmas Eve, their most precious day in their calendar, in the hospital. Lanh had a crushed leg, broken ribs, and a broken wrist, and maybe more. CT scans were scheduled for tomorrow and surgery scheduled for the day after Christmas. Mai hit her head when she fell and was being held for observation. Don was sitting in the recliner next to Lanh's bed, she had surgery scheduled on her femur on the day after Christmas. Mai was laying on the couch in Lanh's room, she had a room nearby, but she refused to remain in bed while her daughter was injured so the fold down couch in Lanh's room was made up for her. Right now, they're waiting for word on Karole's condition, she's been in emergency surgery for four hours. Little Krissy finally cried herself to sleep on Don's lap. Lanh groaned in pain as Don sat by her side, holding her hand, shocked at the turn their Christmas Eve took.

Don quietly whispered, "Happy anniversary... Lanh à, em yêu chi."

She was a little confused, then remembered that those were the first words he had ever spoke in Vietnamese seventeen years ago. Lanh's brother Bao had convinced him that it was what a boy tells a girl when he gives her a nice present. It really means "Lanh, I love you." Poor sixteen-year-old Lanh was caught completely off guard, here was her very first boyfriend, they only met three weeks previously, and now he was professing his love for her.

Through the pain she remembered her response to him that Christmas day so very long ago... "Cảm ơn bạn," Vietnamese for thank you. Well... what else could she say? He was bowing politely and deeply and was offering her a gift as politely as possible. If she had said anything else, he would have been insulted. He clearly didn't understand what he had said, her brother Bao, Kim-ly's twin brother had taught Don that Vietnamese term and played a prank on him. He had meant to embarrass the young teens and he did a good job of it.

Lanh tried not to cry as she squeezed his hand and murmured "Cảm ơn bạn, Donovon à, chi yêu em." (Thank you, I love you)

"This must be what it was like for you when I was injured in Saudi Arabia," whispered Don. "The waiting and not knowing is horrible."

"No," said Lanh, "I was on an airplane and people brought me coffee." Her attempt at humor fell flat. She leaned toward him, and he leaned toward her, and they sat with their heads touching until she whimpered, "ow."

"Is there anything I can get you? Do you want coffee?" Don asked. Lanh once said that coffee was the cure for all evils.

"No, I want some of those pills in your pocket."

"You know about that?" Don was surprised she knew about his stash that he kept hidden in a small safe in a closet. He thought it was set on a shelf too high for the tiny woman to reach.

"Uh huh... ow." She tried to nod but her neck ached so much from being compressed she was in a neck brace, and it hurt to try to move it.

Don looked and felt guilty as hell, but he was honest with her. "Ok, I admit it, I have an exit strategy. If you go, I won't be far behind."

"You can't go now," said Lanh. "Krissy needs you... Danh needs you."

Don just sighed, she was right, someone has to care for Krissy now, there's no one there for her... he's a daddy now... "I'm still going to follow you, so you can't go anywhere."

Lanh tried to laugh, "Put it all on me? Is that how we roll now? ow ow ow"

"That's how we roll," said Don, happy that Lanh is showing a bit of humor now, but he felt awful that it hurt her.

"I think reminding Karole of all the good times we had helped her when... when she was under... under the..." Lanh started weeping trying desperately to do it quietly, trying urgently not to wake Krissy. She finally said, "I think it helped."

"I've never told this to anyone," said Don very softly. "When I was in that truck being crushed, I heard a voice reminding me of you and reminding me of our love and telling me that you were waiting for me... I think that was your angel and she helped me stay alive. I heard her today talking to Krissy."

Lanh suddenly stiffened, "I heard her too... she was telling Karole to remember about us and Krissy, but also someone named Norma, and someone named Reggie."

There was a tap at the door and a nurse poked her nose in. "Knock knock," the nurse said quietly. "Is Mrs. Nguyen here?"

"I'm right here," said Mai from the couch beneath the window.

"Oh good, the night shift said you were a hard one to keep track of, I have your meds for you," and she wheeled a small table in the room with her. She poured Mai a cup of water and handed her a small cup full of pills. Mai sat up and took her pills, then she remained sitting up and watched Lanh and Don.

The nurse turned around to Lanh and said, "we have your meds here for you too." She had a cup of water with a straw and fed Lan her pills one at a time. When she was done the nurse explained how to order breakfast with their system then left.

She returned an hour later to check in on Lanh and Mai and found them both asleep. Krissy was fully asleep too but Don was sitting, awake, staring at the wall wondering where it all went so horribly wrong. "Mister Campbell?"

"Yes?" Don replied without turning.

"Miss Krigbaum is out of recovery if you want to see her."

"Ok," Don said quietly. His arm and leg where Krissy sat was completely asleep, she cried herself unconscious hours ago. Slowly he got up and tried moving around, his back hurt from all the insanity of the evening. He slowly stood up and realized that he should have had that shattered hip replaced two years ago. A hip replacement at twenty-nine? That's just not right. He stifled the groans and stood then whispered, "Where is she?"

"She's in the ICU. You can't take the little one, she has to stay up here."

Don felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest, he also felt guilty for feeling relief that he couldn't go talk to Karole right now. He started to slowly ease his way into that recliner when Mai whispered, "I'll watch her."

Don almost said that polite "That's ok, I'll wait," but wait for what? Don muscled his way back to standing and carried the limp little moppet to Mai and laid her down next to her new grandmother.

"Don't lose her," teased Don with a playful smile. "I just signed the papers on her."

"Papers?" asked a confused Mai.

"Last month Karole asked me to sign a power of attorney," Don whispered. "It's like she saw this coming." He watched as Krissy sighed in contentment and snuggled up to Mai.

"Just like her Aunt Tam," Mai said. "She used to snuggle so good."

"I would think that Lanh was the good snuggler," Don smiled, "she is now."

"When Lanh snuggled, she was hiding out of fear," said Mai, "she was so little... she was tiny and afraid of everything."

Don looked at Lanh, bandaged and splinted, her right leg and left hand elevated, he remembered how terrified she was of everything after Joshua Grimes attacked her. She never felt comfortable about being in that school ever again, she was terrified about everything, but she eventually regained her courage before they returned from Germany. Don remembered how strong she was, even after they learned they couldn't have children, she got over the shock and stood tall, she practically owned Korea, and she ran the spouses' clubs like she was the base commander. She was so strong when he got so horribly injured himself, she was there for him to lean on, now he had to be there for her. Then he remembered the spouses' clubs. He unplugged Lanh's phone from the charger and looked up in her contacts and found Annie #1 and dialed the number.

The phone was answered on second ring. "You had better be one of Santa's fucking elves to be calling at this time of the morning on December twenty fifth!"

"Yeah, that's me Royce. Ho ho ho. Is Annie available?"

"That depends Campbell, what do you plan to do to her?"

"Something you've never been able to get her to do, cook dinner."

"That's cold Campbell, cold sick and kinky. And I'm going to watch. God damn it's good to hear your voice son, when are you coming down here? That ocean is getting over stocked, we need to do some fishing."

Don almost wept with relief when he heard the familiar grouchy voice of Chief Master Sergeant Royce Brown. "As soon as we can Chief, first I need to talk to Annie." Don knew the moment he said Chief that he fucked up. Chief Brown hates being called Chief now that he's been promoted from Chief Brown to Mister Brown.

"Oh, we're using titles, are we? Let me see if the lady of the house is in. Missus Brown? Doctor Campbell would like to speak with you." After a moment of muffled speaking Annie Brown came on the phone. "Don? What's wrong?"

Don almost asked what made her think something was wrong, but it was five o'clock in the morning in Florida, no one except drunks and people in trouble call across the country at this time on Christmas morning. "I'm sorry Annie, I hate having to call whenever there's a problem, but Lanh got runover by a car."

Annie is a potential relative of Lanh; they are both from the Vietnamese Nguyen family and grew close in Germany and are still close as sisters. She thought Don was kidding, or at least exaggerating when he said she got run over. Don gave a quick rundown of what happened and included his TV interview just to show that Doctor Campbell is just as capable as Airman Campbell at sticking his foot in his mouth and getting into trouble. "Oh my God Donovan! What do you want me to do? I can be there in twenty-four hours..."

"No Annie, I just want to know when you can talk to Lanh, we don't want to interrupt any family things you have going, I don't know how she's going to be feeling either."

"We're just having a quiet day at home; the girls won't be here until tomorrow evening."

Don sighed, Annie and Royce had two daughters, both USAF officers, one is a B-1 pilot, the other is a captain in logistics. They met with Lanh and Don and taught them how to snorkel and catch scallops. "Say hi to Jia and Xuan for me, I'm sorry we haven't been able to get down there... you know the usual excuses."

"We do... life is like shit, it happens," said Annie. Annie is a beautiful, elegant daughter of a Vietnamese scholar, and over 30 years of living with Royce has maximized the number of four-letter words in her vocabulary.

After saying goodbye to Annie, Don leaned over and kissed Mai on the forehead. "Keep an eye on our little girls," and he headed off to the ICU.

There in the ICU he met with her surgeon who was exhausted and was looking to head home. "Are you her husband?"

"No, you'll probably be seeing my wife on boxing day," said Don as he unfolded copies of the power of attorney that he brought from home. He suspected that he may need them to get answers regarding Karole's hospitalization. "Lanh was in the same accident."

"Over at Don Pollo's?" asked Doctor Lansford.

"Yeah, that was..." he wanted to say "my girls" but it suddenly hurt too much to talk.

"Was that you on the news last night?" Doctor Lansford sounded excited, but Don felt nauseous.

"Yes, I was a bit upset. The man that run them over had attacked my wife earlier in the evening."

"Dear God," whispered a nurse who was nearby.

"Doc, Karole has a baby, she's eleven months old... is she going to..." Don couldn't form the words, they just wouldn't come, and Doctor Lansford just shrugged his shoulders.

"It's all up to her now," said the doctor hoarsely. Don's misery was getting to him. "We'll know in the next twenty-four hours."

The nurse led Don into an ICU section where eight beds were arranged in a semi-circle around a central nurse's station separated by curtains. Don wasn't prepared for what he saw, she was covered in bandages, splints, and casts. She was intubated and connected to a respirator, wires and tubes emerged from her bandages and connected to machines and bags of fluids. Every inch of her body except for one closed eye, a cheek, and some toes was covered with bandages "I'm so sorry," gasped Don, "I tried to get to you, but they wouldn't let me in the area. They made me wait by the ambulance..." He was trying his hardest not to cry but she looked so horrible, so broken...

He leaned close and whispered, "I don't know what happened but when you talked to me on the phone it was like, there was a change, I could feel it, even Krissy could feel it."

He sat down on a chair next to Karole and continued to talk, "I don't know what happened, but it sounded like you were arguing with somebody, and I felt a change come over everything, it's like our life got bumped into a new alignment... Did you do something?"

He leaned forward, elbows on knees, holding his aching head. "How did we get here my friend? I still remember the day I first saw you, you were getting out of the car and walking up to your house... so beautiful! I thought to myself that you were the most beautiful businesswoman I've ever seen, I really thought you were the realtor, then I realized that you were wearing scrubs. God, I miss seeing you in scrubs, your ass is so beautiful in scrubs. It really is... and such a beautiful hourglass figure.

"Lanh believes in angels and when she first saw you, she thought you were an angel, she fainted right there on the front lawn. I almost fainted when we went over to meet you, you were wearing that tank top, my God! You were so beautiful, and hot! I could barely breathe... You had no idea how hard I had to work to maintain eye contact. Lanh noticed though. She chewed me out for staring at your nipples later that night, then she said, "Do you think she noticed we were both drooling over her nipples at the same time?"

"I couldn't believe we became good friends, when Jayce attacked you that warm day, I got to play the hero and protect you, I used to do that all the time for Lanh when we were kids in school but after I got hurt, she made me stop, but for you she let me do it. Don't worry, if Jayce got past Kim-ly and me, Lanh always carries a switchblade she picked up in Italy, Jayce wouldn't have got past that.

"I couldn't believe it when I got to watch you carry Krissy, you moaned and complained that you were fat and ugly the whole time, but to me you were a walking miracle, and I am pretty sure that is when I fell in love with you. I told Lanh the night Krissy was born that I did, and she said, "What took you so long to admit it?"

"Her dad's customers love you too, Mr. Mach, my old coach, he tells me that if you were a student right now, he'd go back to coaching girls' volleyball... and he hated coaching girls' volleyball. You are that beautiful! Mrs. Farstad and Mrs. Grady think you're the most wonderful person they have ever met; they want you to come by every chance you get when we move home. And dad's new farm-hand RJ thinks you're just as cute as a newborn heifer, which is pretty high praise from RJ.

"Thank you so much for letting me help deliver Krissy, I know you could have told me to go away and have a nurse who knew what she was doing take over, but I got to see the birth of the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen in my life. And when we laid her on your chest and she saw your face for the first time, I couldn't believe her smile when she recognized you, Lanh and I cried, it was such a beautiful moment, it was so beautiful and so painful because we will never experience it, and since high school that's all we wanted to do was to have children of our own."

Don talked until his throat was dry, he became frustrated because the words were coming out all wrong then he suddenly felt like screaming. The urge was overwhelming, it took a huge effort of his will to keep from screaming at her. It didn't come out as a scream, but it came out angrily. "Why? Why did you do this? Lanh and I are expendable, we don't have babies to raise, we can't even have babies! You and Kim-ly, you are both parents, you have beautiful, beautiful babies that love you, that need you... we should be protecting you!"

Don was shaking now. "You know you saved the both of us," he said softly, "Lanh and me." He pulled his bottle full of oxycodone out of his pocket and shook it. The bottle was so full it barely made a sound. "This is my exit, if something happens to Lanh, I will eat this entire bottle. Lanh has a switch blade, when I die, she's going to open her wrists.

"If that car had hit Lanh and killed her, I would have killed myself before you came home to get Krissy..." He was exhausted and of course Karole hadn't heard a word, but inside of her, deep down, her sleeping consciousness generated two spirits, one from the past and one from the future, but this time was different.

Twelve times in the past the spirits went forth from Karole's broken heart to right a wrong, this time the spirits came forth on that dark and horrible Christmas morning and realized that their work was done, the twelfth pair of spirits did not secure Don as a lover for Karole after Lanh died which is what happened over and over in Don's nightmares. The eleven previous hauntings ended in failure for Karole and Krissy, but thanks to Karole demanding the truth the twelfth pair of spirits there will be no Drunken Karole drinking her life away as she slid into a morass of loneliness.

The twelfth pair of spirits revealed their plan to Karole who turned and saved the friend she loved so much. In reality the plan never would have worked, Karole never knew that if Lanh had died, Don would have killed himself and Karole would have ended up drinking herself to death in loneliness, neglecting Krissy and sentencing her to a horrific death also.

As Karole edged closer to death, the one man she ever truly loved whispered in her ear, "Don't leave me, please Karole, fight. I need you... I love you." Don gently kissed the cheek that somehow escaped tape and bandages and whispered, "I love you; I'll be back soon." He stood up and saw a possible shadow that shouldn't be there, a faint hint of a phantasm that had no obvious source. And there, behind the ECG equipment another faint shade that could be the phantasm's associate with the purple tinted hair ends. He stood proud and straight at the end of the bed containing his beloved friend and Master Sergeant Campbell emerged.

"You two, I can see you there, I saw one of you earlier tonight. Enough! Leave me, my wife, and Krissy alone. You two will now focus all of your energy on Karole. I don't know how you do it, and I don't care, just get it done, because if she goes, you go." He glared at the wall behind the headboard, and he was sure he saw a shadow move closer to another shadow. "Your orders are this, in approximately three hundred and ninety days we will be throwing Krissy her second birthday party. Karole will be on her feet and we will take her ice skating. You have your work cut out for you." And with that he turned around and walked out past the nurse's station.

"You gave her orders to get better?" asked one of the nurses.

The steel evaporated from Don's spine, he sagged and said, "Tell me why it won't work," then he headed out to the hallway. He leaned against the wall and covered his face with trembling hands and slid slowly down the wall, his body shuddering, fighting desperately to hold back the cry of agony.

It was still dark when Duong, Huy, and Kim-ly arrived at Mercy General to find Mai holding a small sleeping girl, and Lanh entirely unconscious. The three gasped when they saw Lanh's condition and started to ask questions, but Mai put her finger to her lips and gestured to Krissy, "she just fell asleep again."

"Where's Don?" asked Kim-ly softly.

"ICU," said Mai.

Duong remained behind with his wife, he sat on the bed with her and held her close as they snuggled with Krissy. They were up to eight grandchildren now and he marveled at how small they used to be as he stroked Krissy's golden hair.

Kim-ly and Huy rode the elevator down to the ground floor in silence, the sight of Lanh's injuries shocked them, but Mai had indicated that Karole was much, much worse than Lanh. They followed the overhead signs that led them to the ICU and there in the hallway was a figure squatting by the entry to the ICU. "It's Don!" gasped Huy and they ran as fast as they could to their brother-in-law. He appeared to be in the beginning of a nervous breakdown, his body trembled as he fought to hold back the horror before he went back in to be with Karole again.

Kim-ly knelt and kissed Don's tear-soaked cheek and slid his son, Danh, into his arms. At first thinking the little tyke was Krissy, Don almost pushed the baby away, but seeing his thick, black hair and his mommy's almond shaped dark brown eyes he gasped "Danh!" Danh gave Don a huge, happy, toothless smile and Don wept with joy, "My little boy, I miss you so much!"

Watching the father and son reunion brought joyful smiles to Kim-ly and Huy. Don was so close to a complete meltdown but reuniting with his little boy restored Don's spirit. "I brought Danh here because I thought he needed his daddy," said Kim-ly.

Huy watched and knew exactly what was happening with Don, as a lawyer he's had some rough days that were resolved by a child's caress. "Sometimes it's the daddy that needs the little boy."

______________________________

For those of you that remember the opening to Chapter One, you know that this is clearly not the end of the story, and side stories are still in the mill. The story of Don and Lanh's senior prom is nearly complete and there's a reunion in the works that may surprise some of my readers.

Disclaimer: Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting is not a representation of any company in particular but is a representation of those companies out there that consider their employees to be tools to be thrown away when worn out