© 2025 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

This is an all-new addition to the Stormwatch series. If you haven't read Stormwatch Chapter 1, through Stormwatch Chapter 8, please take this chance first. All chapters are listed in the correct reading order in the Stormwatch Series List. Chapters one and two are updates to existing chapters with 50% new material in each, and a corrected timeline. Chapters 3, through 8, are all new and hopefully they rekindle the joy of the series and expand on the story.

In Chapter 9, the shock waves of finding a toddler desperately trying to wake his dead mother take their toll on Josh, and it gets worse and his mental state threatens his relationship with Veronica.

For comments, questions, or merchandise, please contact the author.

Stormwatch Chapter 10

United

The roads out of Buffalo were empty as Josh and Veronica headed south. It seemed like Buffalo was in holiday recovery mode after that Andalon party last night. Luckily, Josh held himself as close to the promise of not drinking as possible. He had two glasses of wine to celebrate their engagement, but that was typical for Josh. He was a lousy drinker; he didn't drink to have a good time; he drank when he was having a bad time. Looking back on his life, he realized that he only drank a lot when he was planning to die. Now he was planning to live forever, with Veronica at his side.

Veronica's beautiful Lincoln Navigator was loaded with their clothes and two coolers. One cooler was filled with soft drinks, and the other was filled with food. Cold fried chicken, bread and cheese, and lunchmeat, condiments, and microwave popcorn. They were planning to take Veronica's dad on a picnic on New Year's Day.

Interstate 90 skirted the east edge of Lake Erie, and a wall of lake ice was building. Ice on the surface of the lake gets broken up by the waves and blown up on shore by the winter winds, and it piles up into an enormous wall. Sometimes the walls of ice are over six feet high. They looked at the ice walls in awe as I-90 continued southwest. "Do you mind if I sleep? I danced my legs off last night," said Veronica.

"The only people that wanted to dance with me was Emily and Audrey Mitchell."

"Frank Rollins wanted to dance with you too," said Veronica as she pulled a blanket over her.

"I like Frank but I guess I'm not modern enough to dance with Mitch's husband," said Josh with a sigh. Mitch was Veronica's dancing instructor and long-time partner in shows and pageants.

"How did you sleep last night?" asked Veronica.

"Same-old, same-old," said Josh sadly.

"Aww," Veronica sympathized. "The gunship?"

Josh sighed and said, "Cholly." He has nightmares of Cholly spending days in a tiny apartment with his dead mother. He had a box of Cheerios that he munched from, but Josh didn't think the poor kid ate all that much, and what did he drink? He was eighteen months old. And poor Amelia, she carried him all the way to John's church on two bad hips and was in so much pain she couldn't walk home; he had to carry her home, and she wept the whole way. Then the police investigation... "dead junkie" was all they said. It's no wonder Josh wakes up in tears.

As he drove, he reached behind the seats and pulled out a portfolio. "Remember what we talked about last month?"

"We talked about a lot of things last month," said Veronica without opening her eyes.

"Here," said Josh, and he placed the leather-bound folder on her lap.

"What is this?" she asked without making a move to open the folder. Josh was sure she didn't open her eyes either.

"A new year's present for your dad."

"This entire trip is a new year's present for dad," groaned Veronica as she opened her eyes. She pulled herself up to a sitting position. "Why are we pulling into a rest stop?"

"I have to go potty," said Josh, who had far too much coffee before sunrise. He pulled into a parking spot at the rest area and sat smiling at Veronica.

"We're almost there, dad is waiting for us."

Josh just reached over and tapped the portfolio. "Make sure Mike packs a tie."

"What?" She finally opened the folder and gasped. There in the folder, looking up at her, was an application for a State of Maryland marriage license.

"We have an appointment with Judge Roland Schmidt in Jefferson Maryland at 11:00 AM tomorrow morning." With that, Josh shut off the ignition and got out of the SUV.

The next document was an application to legally change her name... but there was one for Josh as well. "Hey!" cried Veronica. She got out of the Navigator and ran around the front and grabbed Josh by the front of his jacket with two mitten-covered hands. "We're getting married?"

"Uh huh. We talked about it at Thanksgiving dinner."

"But you... I... tomorrow? On New Years Eve? Our names too?"

"Yeah, that way we get to file jointly for this entire year and take advantage of the marriage bonus," said Josh.

"Why?" said Veronica as she pulled him close.

"Because even though I love you and you love me, Mike von Köster hates us sleeping together unmarried, John Jarecki hates us sleeping together unmarried, Macy doesn't complain but I know. And I hate being single, I want you..." He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence because Veronica pulled his lips to hers and slid her tongue into his mouth. They kissed passionately until they were interrupted by a giggle.

Veronica looked and saw that they were being watched by a pair of young children, who a tired-looking mother and father were trying to corral into their car. "We're getting married!" squealed Veronica.

This caused the tired-looking mother to say in a painful-sounding Brooklyn accent. "Good luck on ya!"

Josh and Veronica walked hand in hand up to the main building, Veronica's heart soaring. "What about the wedding in September under the trees?"

"We will still have it, we'll just call it something else. Sanctification? Renewal of Vows? John and Macy can't turn us down for that, can they?" asked Josh.

Veronica squeezed his hand. "And you have your blues, don't you?" Josh just smiled and turned to the men's room.

Back in the SUV, they were cruising southwest on I-90 and then got off in Erie, PA, and took the back roads to Mike's apartment. Veronica had a million excited questions. "What's a civil wedding like?"

"I don't know, never been to one."

"Is this legal? I mean, will New York recognize our marriage?" asked Veronica.

"You're silly," said Josh. "People running off for a quickie wedding or quickie divorce in Las Vegas isn't a meme, it happens. But just to be sure I had our lawyer check and make sure everything is cool."

"Paul? You told Paul we're getting married?"

"Don't worry, he's a lawyer, he can't tell anybody... except maybe Andi."

Veronica looked shocked. "He told Andi?"

"She's his wife," insisted Josh. "If I were privy to information like that, you'd be all over me for the information." He held Veronica's shaking hand. "We don't have to do this, we can wait until September."

"No, let's do it," said Veronica. "I want to be Missus Ephraim Joshua Gravely. How far is it to Jefferson from Harpers Ferry?"

"Not far, about ten miles in a straight line. We'll be Mister and Missus by this time tomorrow."

"Does daddy know we're going to Harpers Ferry?"

"He's going to, in about five minutes," said Josh as he pulled up to the Railroaders Memorial Nursing Home that Veronica's dad, Mike von Köster, lived in. Veronica tapped on the door to his apartment and called out, "Dad? Are you ready to go? Dad?"

He didn't answer, so she tried the door, and it opened. The room was tiny, much smaller than the room that Josh and Gus Didomissio made for him in the basement. It had a single bed, a tiny nightstand with a reading lamp and wind-up alarm clock. There was a small round table with two chairs, a three-drawer chest of drawers and a small wardrobe with two drawers at the bottom and no room for anything else. He had a small TV mounted to the wall he could watch from bed. "I didn't realize how bad it was," said Josh quietly.

"Come on dad, it's time to go," said Veronica.

Mike was sitting on the bed staring at his hands, muttering. "They're going to throw me out," said Mike.

Veronica crouched down in front of Mike and said, "good, then you come live with me."

"I can't impose," he said sadly.

"Daddy, we have a place ready for you," she said.

"This is all I have left from my pension." He was near tears himself.

"Nica, let us have the room for a minute," said Josh. Veronica looked at Josh, her face painted with confusion, but he crouched down next to Veronica and whispered, "It's a point of pride, let me talk. I know a bit about pride."

"Ok," she mumbled and left the room. Josh took one of the chairs and pulled it close to the bed and sat down on it backwards, resting his arms on the top of the chair's back.

"Mike, I need your help," he said, and Mike looked up at him in confusion. "I plan to spend the rest of my life making your daughter happy. My problem is that I'm kinda fucked up in the head. I'm not violent or anything, but I have these nightmares, and sometimes I need someone to talk to. A man. Us guys understand guys, and we can talk. Veronica tries but she's too sweet. My shrink is a woman too, and she don't understand guys other than what the book tells her. I need someone who'll tell me to pull my head out of my ass and enjoy doing it."

"You want verbal abuse?" asked Mike.

"No, I want someone that won't sugar coat the truth. That, and you understand Veronica better than I do. You'll be doing me a favor."

"I don't want to impose," he started, but Josh cut him off.

"Mike, last year Veronica and I raised seventeen million dollars for charity, and that ain't no shit. Putting an extra bowl of grits on the table is not going to be a problem. And I got something I'd like you to keep an eye on."

"What?"

Josh took out his phone, pulled up a photograph and handed it to Mike. "This is cabin number five."

Mike looked at the photo; it showed a beautiful log cabin sitting about ten feet back from the shore of a lake. It had a porch with a couple of wooden Adirondack chairs. There was a dock, a rowboat, a few fishing rods, and a campfire burning in a metal fire ring. It was everything Mike envisioned his retirement would bring him. "I can't put you out of your cabin."

"That's not our cabin, ours is this one," and he showed Mike a picture of cabin number one. It was like number five, but it was bigger. "It's at the other end of the lake. The lake is stocked with bass, perch, and brown trout along with sunnys and bluegill. If you want to shoot, we have deer, turkey, partridge, grouse, quail, ducks, geese, squirrel, anything you can put in a stewpot. We have a big ol' two-room suite in the basement that I just finished painting."

"Why?"

"Because you earned it." Josh got up and dug Mike's suitcase out of the wardrobe and put underwear, socks, shirts, trousers, and shoes in the suitcase. "Did I miss anything?"

"Where are we going?" asked Mike.

"Veronica told me there's two loves in your life, trains and American History. We're going to spend New Year's in a magical place that's made entirely of both.

"What, Harrisburg? Altoona?" asked Mike, but Josh just smiled. "Where?"

"Harrisburg and Altoona are great train spots, but not all that great historically. No, we're not going to be in Pennsylvania, but not far."

"Not... Harpers Ferry?"

"Yes sir," said Josh with a grin. "Then when we get back, we'll grab everything else and move you in where people love you."

"You don't have to," said Mike firmly.

"Look, I didn't have much for a father, he drank himself to death when I was a young teenager. So did my mom. I nearly followed them into their graves. Now I got a dad I can go fishing with. We will go fishing together, won't we?"

Mike looked up at Josh's expectant but worried smile and said, "Perch? I haven't hauled in a perch in ages." Mike stood and grabbed his coat. "I suppose I'll give it a try."

Mike wanted to grab Mike in a big hug, but that was Veronica's job. He put Mike's shaving kit in the suitcase and said, "You won't be hauling this up and down the hallway every morning, you'll have your own bathroom and walk-in shower."

"How did you know?" asked Mike.

"I've lived in dormitories too," said Josh. "Let's go make Veronica's day." They stepped out in the hall, and Veronica was standing out there looking extremely nervous.

Mike took her hands in his and said, "Honey, I know how much my moving in means to you, but..." he took a deep breath and said, "It means even more to this guy. So, I'll move in with ya... on my birthday."

Veronica squealed and threw her arms around her father and kissed his cheeks. "Thank you daddy, but that's the end of January. Why then?"

"I'm paid up here until then," said Mike. "Your mother didn't grab everything from me."

"No, just the money and the house," grumbled Veronica.

"I got the good stuff," said Mike. "I got you and Magda."

"Oh daddy." They walked out of the Railroaders Memorial Nursing Home with Josh leading the way, carrying Mike's bags. He was followed by Mike and Veronica as they walked with their arms around each other. "You're going to love Springville, daddy. The summers are warm, the autumns are beautiful, the winters aren't really that cold, just snowy."

"Cold enough for ice fishing?" asked Mike.

"Sometimes," said Josh. "If it's not cold enough to go out on the ice and you really want to do some ice fishing, you can do it off your dock. It's not that high up off the surface."

"It's a brand new dock," said Veronica. "It's nice and sturdy, it doesn't wiggle at all."

"Oh?" asked Mike. "How did you determine that?"

Veronica suddenly went silent. She was thinking of that warm night when they made love under the stars on that dock not long after it was completed by Anthony and the gang from Andalon built as a surprise for Josh while Josh was helping to raise money for the orphans. Her stalling may have caused Mike to guess what they were up to, but as he put Mike's bags in the back of her Navigator, Josh said, "Dancing."

"Dancing?" asked Mike suspiciously. "Is that what you call it now?"

"That's what your generation called it," said Josh with a smile.

"Touche."

"Honey," said Veronica. "Why don't you sit in the back and get a nap if you can. Daddy and I need to catch up."

"Yeah, it's been over four months since you've seen each other," said Josh. When Veronica gave him a scolding look, he said, "Just teasing! I think it's great when family can get together."

Veronica looked into Josh's eyes and saw the sadness of somebody who had been denied the one thing they had always wanted. She hugged Josh and whispered in his ear. "Twenty-four more hours and we will be a family. You, me, and daddy."

"Don't forget Magda and Jameson," said Josh.

"Yeah, I guess every family tree has to have a sour apple or two," said Veronica, trying to imitate Josh's South Georgia accent.

"Not bad, y' ain't gonna fool no one, but it's a good try honeychil'."

"Git in there and take a nap," she scolded and swatted him on the butt.

"Yes 'm," said Josh and he climbed in the back seat. There was a pillow and a blanket, and he was able to lean the passenger-side seat far back. He was nodding off as Veronica followed the map out of Erie, Pennsylvania, and headed south. The weather was typical of the lakeshore area. A mix of rain and sleet sputtered from the dark gray sky as they sailed south on I-79, listening to Josh's playlist of yacht rock music.

Veronica glanced over her shoulder and saw that Josh was asleep. That was an immense relief. He had been so worked up lately. Ever since that maniac attacked Andi and John Jarecki in front of the church and Josh almost killed him, he's been a bundle of nerves. He's been spending a lot of time over at Amelia Hernandez's house. "What's the matter?" asked Mike.

"Just worried about Josh," said Veronica. "Summer was so wonderful, but ever since September, it's been one thing after another. Just before Christmas, his friend rented a room to a young couple with a baby. Both parents died. The father was murdered; the mother died of an overdose; and we think that was murder as well."

"Dear God," groaned Mike.

"The little boy was trapped alone for two or three days with his dead mother. He's just the cutest, sweetest child. He speaks a little French and..." Veronica's eyes teared up. "He won't say it, but he wanted to adopt that baby."

"Did he try?"

Veronica shook her head sadly. "No. Our friends, our pastor and his wife, speak perfect French, and they immediately took in the boy. It broke his heart, but he never said a thing to me. He just let everything build up inside until he decided it was best if he just said goodbye."

"What do you mean?" asked Mike.

"He wanted to break up. I think actually..." Veronica looked back in the back seat to be sure that Josh was asleep. "I think if it wasn't for Ayato Tanaka talking him down off the ledge, he would have killed himself."

"Who is Ayato Tanaka?" asked Mike. "His psychologist?"

"His bartender."

Mike nodded in acknowledgment of the sage wisdom. "Same thing if he's a good bartender."

"He's an old maintenance officer from the Air Force, so I guess there's a connection with Josh somehow," said Veronica. She checked again to see if Josh was still sleeping. "He had a bad upbringing. He says that every time he hears a baby cry, he remembers his dad hitting him for crying."

"Jeez," groaned Mike. "And you want to have kids?"

"You should see him with the children!" gushed Veronica. "He was the star of show and tell. When Madeline said the former president gave Josh cancer, I thought the teacher was going to faint."

"The twins sound like a handful."

"Josh loves them. In the summer he teaches them swimming along with seven other kids. He loves to babysit their little brother, but he's mostly attached to the orphan, Cholly. He can identify with the little guy."

"Cholly," mumbled Josh in his sleep.

Josh's mumble made Veronica laugh. "Josh speaks terrible French, Cholly speaks terrible English. They were made for each other."

"What was this you said a few weeks ago, that Josh has a unique negotiating style?" asked Mike.

"Oh, several weeks ago he found that a potential client was stealing their internet access from another company and the contract fell through. The VP who lost the deal came storming into Josh's office demanding an explanation. Josh was sitting at his desk cleaning a pistol, so the conversation didn't go the way the VP wanted."

"Did he report Josh to the boss for having a gun at work?"

"Almost immediately, but it was the boss's gun. Josh was cleaning it for him."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

In the back seat, Josh dreamed one of those dreams that were disjointed and meaningless, exactly what his overtaxed mind needed -- the chance to relax and be silly. He remembered opening one eye occasionally and listening in on the conversation up front. The grand proposal was done in front of the entire company and posted on the web by dozens of coworkers; now it was time to relax and to get to know Mike.

Up in the front seats, Mike and Veronica were talking about 'the grand proposal.' "I never saw it coming, We practiced dozens of times cutting in and taking me from Mitch, he never once mentioned that he'd be wearing his blues," said Veronica as Mike watched a video of Veronica's dance with Mitch on her cell phone. He's seen her dance with Mitch a thousand times before, and he never grew tired of it. She looked so beautiful in her white gown, and Mitch looked so handsome in his US Army dress blues. When Josh stepped up in his dress blues and cut in, the look on Mitch's face when he saw Josh's ribbons was priceless.

Mike's head shook as he looked at the scene. "He really earned all those ribbons?"

"That and more. He said there's a few more from classified missions that he can't wear."

Then Mike saw the proposal. The look of surprise and joy on Veronica's face made his heart leap for her. "Does your mother know?" asked Mike.

"No," said Veronica firmly.

"Can I ask why?"

"I told her about Jameson, and she made sure to be part of his wedding to Magda without telling me. I didn't find out he ran off and married Magda until after he left me standing at the altar."

"I'm sorry for bringing it up, but what do you think she should have done?"

"You mean instead of being Magda's matron of honor when she married Jameson? How about telling me that Jameson knocked up Magda then step back and let us work it out."

Ellen was a beautiful woman, like her daughters Veronica and Magda. According to Veronica, sometime after Magda was born, Ellen grew to hate Mike because he wouldn't leave General Electric and move her and the girls to a "vital city" like New York or Los Angeles. When the girls were little, Ellen got involved with political issues. Anything that got Ellen marching in the streets and shouting slogans with mouth-foaming zeal was what Ellen loved most. Anything: save the snails, skelm's rights, tax breaks for sinistral Americans, pollution reform. Anything that could devolve into name-calling and hate-filled accusations was what Ellen loved most.

And the thing that Ellen hated the most was the military. She has marched in protests at dozens of military installations, but it didn't stop there. She got onto Ellsworth Air Force Base and was arrested as she walked across the ramp toward a B-1B Lancer with an axe in her hand. She was arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails at a missile silo in Wyoming. Never once did the realization that throwing firebombs at several nuclear warheads sitting on top of a giant and extremely flammable rocket booster was a dumb idea. Most recently, she made her way onto Fort Hood and camped out in the tank training area, where she almost got run over by an M1 Abrams tank. The tank crew came over a rise and saw her campsite at the last moment. The gunner was injured when the driver slammed on the brakes. The angry tank crew sewed her up in her sleeping bag to hold her until the MPs could get there.

Ellen had been arrested many times, and Veronica had bailed her mother out of jail three times, and each time, her mother failed to show up on her court date. Finally, Veronica had to stop enabling her mother and stopped bailing her out. Her mother cost her nearly ten thousand dollars in fines and court fees, so the gravy train had to come to a halt.

"How do you think Josh is going to handle your mother. They have to meet sometime," said Mike.

"He said he's going to throw her and Magda in the pond if they cause trouble or not show me the respect he requires."

"And Jameson?"

Veronica just smiled. "He promised me he'd take Jameson across his knee if he acted up."

<><><><><>

Josh opened his eyes. The odd silence in the car worried him. The soft conversation that had lulled him to sleep earlier was gone. Had Mike and Veronica left? He looked at the tree branches passing overhead so they were still moving, but he didn't see Veronica in the driver's seat. Startled, he cried out and sat up. They were still purring along I-79, but he was alone in the Lincoln. Veronica and Mike were gone. "Honey?" called Josh. Maybe she was invisible. She had to be invisible. They were still moving along at 70 miles per hour with nobody in the driver's seat? It's impossible. "Mike?" he called, but there was no answer.

Now Josh was getting scared; he was careening along at 70 mph in the back seat with nobody driving. It's insane. He sat up and leaned forward between the seats, and there was nobody up front. He looked behind the center seats, and there were just luggage and the coolers.

With a shout of terror, Josh worked his way into the front seat and somehow got into the driver's seat and took control of the SUV before it slammed into the back of a beige Toyota sedan. He leaned on the brake as two children peered at him from the back seat of the Toyota. "Gotta get off," he muttered, and saw that an exit was coming up, a rest stop.

Josh coasted into the rest stop, his body shaking, a cold sweat covering his face. He wheeled into the handicapped parking spot, and he remembered a line from Johnny Dangerously. Joe Piscopo was the bad guy, Danny Vermin. He had parked in a handicapped parking spot in 1933 Chicago. "Hey boss, you gotta be handicapped to park here," said a henchman, to which Joe Piscopo said, "I am handicapped, I'm psychotic."

"It's fitting," said Josh softly, and he leaned his head against the steering wheel and he began to shake. He waited a long time until the shaking subsided. Slowly, he got out of the Lincoln and walked on wobbly legs to the men's room in the main building. He walked up to a urinal, fished out his cock and relieved his bladder. With that finished, he walked over to a sink, washed his hand then turned to a blow dryer to dry them. That's when he heard the child crying. "Cholly?" It sounded like Cholly!

Josh walked to the entrance of the men's room and looked around. He sighed with relief when he heard nothing, but his relief was short-lived. "Maman!" shrieked Cholly. Josh looked around; the cry came from behind him. Somebody has Cholly! He turned around and dashed back into the men's room, and suddenly he was in a dark kitchen. "Maman!" the tyke shrieked in horror.

Josh looked around. He was in Amelia Hernandez's kitchen, but it was her old kitchen, before they helped remodel it. "Cholly?" he called.

"Maman! Maman!" wept Cholly.

Josh dashed through the kitchen, through the ancient living room and into the tiny room in the back. Poor little Cholly knelt on the floor, shaking and hitting the woman lying against the back door of the shotgun-style house, trying to wake her up. Josh scooped up Cholly, who tried to throw himself out of Josh's arms. "Cholly, it's me, Uncle Josh, I'll take care of you."

"MAMAN!" the tiny boy shrieked as he tried to reach out to the body on the floor... but it wasn't his mother, the beautiful blond Seraphine Lavesque. Josh was familiar with the body on the floor. The woman on the floor was short but the embodiment of a tough chick. She was a scrapper, a fighter, a woman that wasn't afraid to roll up her sleeves and take on the hardest tasks. She had her dark hair pinned up, ready for work. The body before him was wearing a flight suit... and her left leg was missing. The leg of the flight suit was pinned up, and a pair of crutches lay on the floor.

The horror of what he saw overwhelmed Josh, and he began shaking. Cholly continued to cry, but now it was because Josh was squeezing him to his chest. Finally, the terror released its hold on Josh, and he screamed, "ELLIE!"

The body was Ellinor Stadelmeyer, the loadmaster on his last mission. She was alive; he had saved her. He damn near died trying to save her, but he pulled her in the plane, put a tourniquet on her mangled leg and stopped the bleeding. And now she's dead! It can't be! "ELLIE!" he shouted, but he couldn't catch his breath... Cholly was smothering him... he couldn't move...

Josh's eyes flew open, and he was in Veronica's SUV, seat-belted in the back seat, with the pillow over his face. He sat up and looked around in shock. Veronica and Mike were not in the Lincoln, and it was parked in a rest area. He saw Veronica and Mike walking into the main building for a potty break, but that didn't ease his nerves. He pulled out his phone and, with shaking hands, dialed the number he swore he would stop dialing.

"What's up Pappy?" came the familiar voice.

"Ellie! Oh god how are you doing? Please say you're ok."

"No, I'm not but I'll be fine in a few months. I got a doc and everything is cool."

"Tell me what is it," said Josh as the relief of hearing Ellie's voice washed over him. "Your doc, is he good?"

"SHE is awesome and it's girl stuff so that's all I'm going to say, you nosey old freak. How are YOU doing?" The laughter in Ellie's voice did more to relax him than a dozen meetings with Doctor Lennox, his shrink.

"I had a horrible dream..." He told her the story of Seraphine's death and little Cholly surviving for days with only the corpse of his mother to keep him company."

"But, there's more," said Ellie. "What is it, Pappy?"

"This time you were the dead woman keeping him company."

"Hmmm," said Ellie. "Well... I promise not to die without your permission, but if I do, I'll leave any children in the area to you."

"That's pretty close to being funny, Ellie," sighed Josh.

"How's the pretty lady?" asked Ellie. "I got the picture of you proposing at the party. Hell, I want to propose to her myself!" Ellie never said she was a lesbian, but Josh had suspicions.

"You better be quick about it; we're getting married tomorrow."

"WHAT? You are? Dude!" laughed Ellie. "If you don't go for it, I will. Why tomorrow? Isn't that kind of sudden? Did ya knock her up?"

"No, I did not knock her up. We've been talking marriage for about ten months," said Josh. "I figured New Years Eve, and we're going to need a tax break after hauling in all that money for charity."

"I don't want to hear it," said Ellie. "Give her a stroke or two for me tomorrow night, will ya?"

"Why can't shrinks work as good as talking to you?"

"You've talked me in from the ledge a few times yourself big guy. Now go get her tiger."

"Thanks sweetie."

Josh hung up and walked to the main building in the rest stop, and he saw Mike waiting for Veronica. "You're awake," said Mike with a smile.

"I hope my snoring didn't keep you and Veronica awake," said Josh as he approached the men's room. He paused, looking through the open doorway and studying it to see if there were any signs of Amelia's kitchen. Then he slowly entered. What he didn't notice was Veronica watching him from the entrance to the women's room.

"I'll meet you at the car dad," she said, then waited for Josh to come out.

Josh finally came out of the men's room, and he looked nervous. "Are you ok?" Veronica asked.

Josh frowned. He won't lie to Veronica, but she knows about the dreams; she lives with them. It makes no sense to hide the dreams, but somehow his pride wants him to hide them. He wants Veronica more than he wants his pride, so he said, "Yeah, I'm better now. I had a dream."

"Tell me," said Veronica.

"Most of it is gone by now, but I dreamed that I woke up alone in the car, and it was moving. Drove it here, and went to the bathroom, but the bathroom was Amelia's house and Cholly was there trying to wake up his mother, but it wasn't his mother, it was Ellie."

"Oh wow, what did you do?" asked Veronica.

"I called Ellie, she had a good laugh over my misery, as usual," said Josh.

"You laugh at her dreams," said Veronica as they walked hand-in-hand to the Lincoln and opened the back of the SUV. "Would you like a drink daddy?"

"Root beer would be good," he said.

"We got your poison right here," said Josh as Veronica dug out a can of zero-sugar root beer and put a can koozie on the can, then Josh handed the can to Mike. They had to hide this can because Mike took his root beer seriously, and he might not enjoy a zero-sugar drink. When Josh handed Mike the can, Mike studied the Buffalo Bills Mafia koozie for a bit and then opened the root beer. He sipped it but didn't say a word about it, and soon they were on the road.

They were now traveling southeast, skirting Pittsburgh and heading into some of the most beautiful country Mike had ever seen. "Look! Route 219!" cried Veronica as they came up to the interchange. "Down here they call it the Flight 93 Memorial Highway."

"The two nineteen goes all the way into Maryland," said Josh as he looked it up on his phone.

"I wonder how long it would take to get here on the two-nineteen," mused Veronica as they continued to cruise east on I-76. The countryside got more challenging, and they found themselves approaching a tunnel.

"I don't go underground," said Josh. "Hardy is waiting for me there..."

"Oh stop!" said Veronica, and she reached back between the seats and swatted Josh on the knee.

"Just warning you," said Josh. "If we come out of the tunnel and I'm not here, you'll know Hardy exists."

"If you keep that up, you won't have to worry about Hardy, I will throw you out," snapped Veronica.

"Just sayin'."

"What is this Hardy stuff?" asked Mike.

"Oh, the only TV he watches is silly Japanese cartoons..."

"Anime," corrected Josh.

"Hit him for me please Daddy? My arm is getting tired. Anyhow Hardy is an evil goddess or some silly thing." Then to Josh she said, "And Hardy is a lesbian, so you don't have a chance."

"Ah-HA! I knew you were watching!" said Josh with a laugh.

"You guys are silly," said Mike.

They eased into the tunnel, which had a 55mph speed limit, and Veronica was impressed at how long the tunnel was. "Six thousand feet long," said Mike. "It was built for the South Pennsylvania Railroad which was a Cornelius Vanderbilt and New York Central plan to drive the Pennsylvania Railroad broke..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," moaned Veronica. "And the Pennsylvania built the West Shore parallel with the New York Central to drive that broke."

Josh was surprised. "You know about the West Shore Line and the South Pennsy?"

"I am a railroaders daughter," said Veronica. "You're going to need to know that."

"No, that's fine. You need to come to Paul's house when we have an operating session on his layout," said Josh with a new sense of astonishment for this woman.

"I don't play trains," said Veronica.

"I do!" said Mike. "What does he have?"

"He's got two layouts in his basement. In his radio room there's a Lionel layout for his kids, in the other third of the basement is an HO layout set in 1955 so he can run steam and diesel."

"Does he allow visitors?"

"He loves visitors," said Josh.

"Straight DC? Handheld throttles?"

"It's DCC with wireless remote throttles. He can run six trains at one time, but it's a bit crowded with six. He's got a buddy from Orchard Park that likes to dispatch and he can get six trains running smoothly, along with switchers in the yards," said Josh.

Mike looked like he had died and gone to heaven. Veronica was lost when it came to model railroading. When Paul and Josh talk about it, she and Andi disappear into the parlor and play with the baby.

Now the countryside was getting rough, hilly and mountainous. It was amazing how the Pennsylvania Turnpike made it through such country, but it was chiseled out of living rock starting in 1881 and opened as a road in 1940.

The most confusing part of the trip was the interchange between the eastbound I-76 and the southbound I-70. There was no interchange to the southbound I-70. They had to take I-70 North to Breezewood, PA, where they found a Bob Evans and stopped for lunch. "I love this place," said Josh as they sat down. "It's like home here."

"Bob Evans is from South Georgia?"

"No but they cook that way," said Josh. When the waitress came, he asked for a large order of hash browns à la carte, two eggs over very, very easy, à la carte, a bowl of sausage gravy, and an order of sausage links. Veronica got a western omelet, and Mike got the blueberry banana oatmeal. When their orders came, Josh took the eggs and eased them off their plate onto the mountain of hash browns, then poured the sausage gravy over the whole concoction.

"What do you call that?" asked Mike.

"We called it an FU All To Hell," said Josh as he sipped his coffee and rolled up his sleeves. "It is a middle finger raised directly in the face of Satan. He missed me again." Josh dug into his meal with delight.

"Pardon?"

"When Josh was flying their missions ended around sunrise. They had been flying all night and working hard so they'd go to the chow hall and eat this," said Veronica. Josh didn't say anything because his breakfast was so delicious he didn't pause eating, but he did nod in agreement with Veronica.

"You were busy when you were flying on a C-130?" asked Mike. He was picturing guys running around, shifting cargo and tying it down.

"Daddy, I said AC-130, it's a gunship. It's full of cannons and guns."

"Really?" asked Mike. "I'd like to learn more about that."

"It's mostly blowing up people who deserve it. Sometimes blowing up people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. When we get to West Virginia I'd like to hear about the trains there."

"The railroad history in that town is rich and varied. This is a chance of a lifetime for me."

"Why are you smiling?" said Josh to Veronica between bites of his meal.

"Oh, I'm just happy I have my men around me. Paul said he was taking an entire week off, so Andi must be so happy."

"I'm sure she is," said Josh as he finished and placed his credit card on the tray that the waitress brought.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

In Nouméa, New Caledonia, Valériane Lévesque cautiously opened an email from a United States email address that she was not familiar with. She had her anti-virus program scan the email, and when she received a report that it was safe, she opened it up. Her biggest worry was that, being from the United States, it would be written in English, but she HAD to open it. The subject was Noël à Chamonix, Chamonix's Christmas. When she opened it, she found quickly that it was written in perfect French.

Dear Valériane and Pierre

We have never met. My name is Veronica von Köster, and the family that Chamonix adopted are close friends and neighbors. I am writing this to assure you that Chamonix had a wonderful Christmas. I included a link to a video my fiancé assembled for you to watch and download if you desire. I am not sending this to sway any decisions you may make concerning Chamonix. His adoptive parents have sadly realized that you are his only actual relatives and will abide by any decision you make. Here in the US we have a saying, 'blood is thicker than water' meaning that relatives, family, are closer and more important than acquaintances.

Sadly, Cholly has no relatives on his father's side of his family who would take him. Dennis's father is in prison and his mother has disappeared. We think she is in France. Only one person here knew Dennis. Dr. Paul Jarecki, he is the brother of John Jarecki the man now sheltering Chamonix. He was close to Dennis in the Air Force. Paul's wife, Melony, flew with Dennis, and Paul was a good friend. He is utterly shattered over the loss. My fiancé is a close friend of the woman who found Chamonix and Séraphine, and he was there when Dennis was found. Josh too is shattered over losing what he calls, "A friend I didn't get the chance to meet."

You may notice that I called Chamonix 'Cholly,' Paul Jarecki's twin daughters have adopted Chamonix as their baby brother and named him Cholly, and they refuse to accept any correction, and he seems to love being called Cholly. You will see them playing with Cholly in the video. I added narrative to the video so you will know who you are seeing and their relationship to Cholly.

I hope you come to visit. We have room to put you and your girls up in Paul's house, (It's big and beautiful and very spacious) and if you would like, my fiancé owns a section of forest with a lake and several cabins and you can stay in one of the cabins and enjoy camping in the woods. As for language, Cholly's adoptive parents both speak fluent French (French Canadian) I speak fluent Parisian French, and my fiancé speaks what is best called "pidgin French" but Cholly understands every word.

Thank you, and I hope we can meet someday as friends,

Veronica

Valériane nervously clicked the link, and soon a beautiful woman with warm hazel eyes, large breasts, and thick dark blond hair appeared on the screen and began speaking French in a Parisian accent. "Bonjour Valériane et Pierre, I am Veronica von Köster. It was a busy holiday season here in Springville, New York. We hope it will be more relaxing over the New Year. Josh pieced this video together from different sources for you, and we hope you enjoy this."

Pierre came home and found Valériane more cheerful than she had been for weeks, even though her eyes were full of tears. "How are you today?"

"We were sent a new video of Chamonix," she said happily. She had connected her laptop to the big television in the living room. "As soon as the girls are ready."

"Ah, movie night," said Pierre as he sat down on the sofa with Valériane. Soon their remaining daughters Marcelline and Josianne appeared with a large bowl of popcorn and tumblers filled with soft drink. "Popcorn and cola?" asked Pierre.

"That's how you watch an American movie," said Josianne with all the assurance her fourteen years can sum up. The family was excited; their mother assured them that the video was happy and something they needed to watch. "Who is that!" gasped Josianne as Veronica appeared on the screen and gave the introduction. "They hired a Parisian movie star?" To Josianne, there is no one more beautiful and well-mannered than a Parisian movie star.

"No, she is very American," said Valériane.

"She must be a famous actress," said Marcelline, who was also transfixed by Veronica.

"Then ask her," said Valériane. "I have her email address."

"Can we?" gasped Josianne.

"Shh - after the movie," scolded Pierre. For the next forty-five minutes, they were treated to the sight of Cholly's Christmas in Springville. Before the holiday began, they saw two little blond girls pulling Cholly on a plastic saucer through the snow. They ended up at an outdoor ice rink where the little girls put on ice skates and hit the ice with the ferocity of a pair of NHL players. Cholly followed but stood still on the ice. A young Asian woman put Cholly's saucer on the ice, and Cholly sat down, and the Asian woman pulled Cholly around the ice rink as Veronica narrated the event.

"Yi is the governess for the two girls, Sandy and Madeline and like Cholly she is new to the cold north. She has a special place in her heart for Cholly. The entire village does. Moments after he was found the call went out for clothing, diapers and cold weather clothing, and we were inundated with generosity."

The scene shifted to Cholly sitting in the lap of a black woman. Cholly was holding a little black girl who was barely two months old. The woman said, "When Cholly came into our lives I was shocked. How could this happen in my little village? I stopped worrying about it because here was a little boy who needed love. I was having postnatal problems accepting my daughter, but Cholly opened my heart. He showed me what it was like to love a child, and thanks to Cholly I was able to love my daughter the way she deserves."

There were videos of Cholly on Christmas morning at his own home with John, Macy and two month old Katarina. Cholly was opening her presents and showing them to the baby. Marcelline and Josianne cooed, "How cute!"

Pierre watched as his grandson became a big brother to Katarina. Cholly got a little aggressive with a toy trying to get Katarina to play, but Macy corrected Cholly, teaching him that the baby will play when she gets older. Cholly gave Katarina a kiss and said, "Je suis désolé." (I'm sorry)

Pierre looked at Valériane, and the sweet but sad look in her eyes told him the same thing he realized: they can't take the boy away from this family.

The next scenes were at Paul and Andi Jarecki's enormous house, where Cholly opened a box that was covered with holes. When he got it open, the largest puppy they had ever seen poked its nose out. "CHIOT!" cried Cholly, and he hugged and rolled around with the black Newfoundland puppy. Tussling and laughing, Cholly cried, "Chiot!" over and over as he played and laughed with the puppy. One of his blond cousins asked him what he named his puppy, and Cholly said, "Chiot!" proudly.

"He named his puppy Puppy!" laughed Josianne.

"He's just a little boy," said Valériane.

Cholly lifted the huge puppy, which was a strain for the child, but Chiot hung limp in his arms, happy to be in the arms of his boy, tail wagging as Cholly strained under the weight of the big happy fur ball. A cut scene showed Cholly napping with Katarina and Chiot.

The scene changed to Paul and Andi Jarecki sitting in front of a fireplace with Cholly on Andi's lap and Chiot in his lap. The fireplace was decorated beautifully for Christmas. They spoke English, but Veronica translated. "It may be presumptuous to give a puppy to Chamonix, but we know the joy a well-trained dog can bring to a family. If you choose to move Cholly to New Caledonia, we ask only two things: that his dog go with him, and that John and Macy be allowed to visit."

The next scene was of Paul and John sitting in a home office with a big circular window circled by Christmas lights overlooking a snow-covered park. This was Paul's home office in the attic. Paul spoke, but John didn't translate; Veronica translated off-screen. "I am Paul Jarecki, John's brother, and I represent him as an attorney. I've been asked to say the hard part. Cholly has many emotional issues, having watched his parents die and having been locked up with Séraphine, he came to us in very bad emotional shape. It looks like he was abused at some point. We are equipped to deal with those issues. Macy is a Doctor of Psychology and is working with him constantly. She is getting peer assistance from specialists, and he's making phenomenal progress."

Paul continued. "Since getting Chiot, he has begun to sleep through the night. Macy is keeping records in French, so if you take him to New Caledonia, the records of the work she has done with him will be readily available. However, Cholly is a United States citizen. This may cause legal difficulties. We want to make sure that Cholly's final disposition is fair, and peaceful. I'm not saying we will cause problems, but the US State Department may have its own ideas, so you may need legal services."

The next scene was of Cholly with the twin girls in a hen house collecting chicken eggs, and off camera, Veronica explained how Cholly was learning to deal with the chickens. One pecked him, and he shouted, "Mauvais poulet!" (Bad Chicken!) then later he was carrying a basket full of eggs out of a huge ancient barn singing with the twins "Alouette, gentille alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai."

"Shouldn't they be singing about chickens?" asked Marcelline.

The last scene was of Veronica sitting next to Josh with Cholly sitting on Josh's lap and Chiot lying across Cholly's lap. Veronica had a second Newfoundland puppy on her lap, and they were sitting in a log cabin. The puppy in Veronica's lap was lazily licking Chiot's nose. "This is Josh..." started Veronica.

"Unka Josh!" cried Cholly, and he patted Josh's leg.

"And this is Chiot's litter mate Jolie, she belongs to the twins Sandy and Madeline..."

"Sandy and Madeline," said Cholly happily.

"He doesn't take to new people readily, John, Paul, and Josh are the only men he will come near, and he only likes Macy, Andi, and Yi..."

"Tata Yi!" (Auntie Yi) cried Cholly.

"Cholly, come sit on my lap," said Veronica.

"No," said the little boy firmly.

"He'll come around. Please send us videos of grandma, grandpa and any aunts and uncles so your meeting won't be a surprise. I hope this video helps; we will continue to send videos so you can see how your grandson is growing. I am speaking for myself only, but from what I see, John and Macy love this little man dearly. Our first meeting was traumatic for everyone involved and it brought them close together. They want to see everything resolved so there are no broken hearts for anyone. Please keep the lines of communication open and Josh will be putting together another video very soon."

The last ten minutes of the video were of still pictures of Cholly in different situations. Many were taken in a church with Cholly in Macy or John's arms, meeting people. One picture showed Cholly standing next to John at the podium as John preached his Sunday sermon. John had braces on both legs, and Cholly stood next to him, clutching John's leg brace with one hand and nervously sucking his thumb on his other hand. "John is a priest?" asked Josianne.

Pierre chuckled and remembered an earlier email he had received. "Almost. He was in seminary and had a crisis of faith. He then taught himself French so he could attend class at a divinity school in Montreal. There he met Macy, she was his instructor and they married on his last day of class."

"Our little boy is being raised by a man of God," said Valériane.

"He can still be my nephew if I'm catholic, right?" asked Josianne.

"He will be your nephew regardless of anything," said Pierre. He had never seen his youngest daughter so worried about something.

"But he will still go to heaven if he dies won't he?" asked Marcelline in a slight panic.

"Of course he will," said Valériane. "His mother is waiting there for him." And with that, she jumped up and fled from the room in tears.

"You should apologize to momma," scolded Josianne.

"It's ok," said Pierre. "Momma is still overwhelmed by everything. I'll see to her."

"Poppa, are we bringing Chamonix here?" asked Marcelline.

"That is the problem," said Pierre as he got up and headed to the bedroom to comfort his wife. "We all want to see him and hold him. We want to love him but do we want to raise him? Your mother and I raised three babies and we're out of practice. It's a troublesome question."

"Can we go to America and see him? Does everyone speak French like the Jareckis?" asked Josianne.

"Call them in the morning on January second. It will be in the evening on New Years day there."

"Can we call the movie star?" asked Marcelline.

"If you'd like."

<><><><><>

After a Bob Evans brunch that couldn't be beat, Josh drove, and they followed I-70 south through Crystal Springs, Amaranth, and Warfordsburg, then across the state line into Maryland, where their route took them through rugged hill country paralleling the West Virginia Border. As they headed east following the border, the country mellowed to rolling hills and gentle farms. "It's like over by John and Macy's house," said Veronica.

"Really?" asked Josh.

"He's your best friend and you don't know what the view out his back door is like?"

"We're usually in the basement playing wood wacker and putting together Christmas presents. Did you see the rocking chairs he made?" gushed Josh.

"They're pretty nice," said Veronica. John made four rocking chairs, one each for his brother Paul and himself and one for each of their wives.

"That was a replica of his grandfather's rocking chair that he made from a snapshot taken in 1951."

"I know, but he does all his work at Gus's shop," said Veronica from the back seat.

"We made a surprise for Macy," said Josh. "We built a meeting room in the basement where she can conduct women's ministry meetings and bible study classes."

"Licking Creek Road," said Mike. They were making the time fly by finding funny names of places and things.

"Licking Creek Hiker Biker Campsite," added Veronica.

"Beaver Creek," said Josh.

"That's not funny," said Mike.

Josh smiled and said, "No, but its proximity to Licking Creek..."

"JOSH!" Veronica swatted his arm.

Finally, I-70 brought them into Frederick, Maryland, where they turned onto US 340 and headed west. "Here's Jefferson!" said Veronica happily as they passed the village. Then suddenly they were across the West Virginia border, and weaving through the rolling low mountains, and crossing the Potomac River. The trees were bare, but the country was still breathtaking. "We have to come back here in the summer!" gushed Veronica.

"Wow," gasped Josh. Josh was born a flatlander; the only mountains he ever saw were from a distance. The hills of the "south towns" of Western New York were pretty, but nothing like this. They had crossed over the Potomac River to the south side, but they needed to cross over again to get to the town of Harpers Ferry and Harpers Ferry National Park. They crossed the Shenandoah River and entered Harpers Ferry.

Mike was sitting in the back seat and was silent as they drove slowly through town. Up front, Josh and Veronica held hands. "This is where our life begins," said Josh softly. When he said that, a thrill ran through Veronica. She brought his hand up to her lips and kissed it.

"Eighteen more hours," she whispered. Then she realized that she hadn't heard from Mike since they had crossed into West Virginia. "You ok back there dad?"

"This... this is incredible..." he spoke with the reverence a believer would use when entering a grand cathedral. "Five battles took place here between 1861 and 1865. Six battles if you count John Brown's raid in 1859. John Brown led 22 men on a raid to the armory that was over there, it's gone now. They were hoping to capture weapons to arm the slaves. Colonel Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart, still in the US Army, led 86 United States Marines to put down John Brown's attempted slave revolt. Brown's abolitionists holed up in that three-stall fire engine house right there, and on October 18th Lee's men got off the train and stormed the firehouse. It was over in a couple of hours."

"Wow," was all Josh could say.

"The village changed hands eight times during the war," continued Mike. "The B&O railroad and the bridges over the rivers made Harper's Ferry a highly valuable location. Lee's invasion of Maryland and his Gettysburg invasion both came through here, and the Union Army moved south through here. Almost nothing of 1859 Harpers Ferry still exists. Everything was flattened during the war."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

They finally arrived at the Ferry's Inn; a hotel made from several vintage stone homes that were built next to each other in 1890 and were now joined by walkways to make one hotel from the three buildings. They had two adjoining rooms that were a delight to Veronica. Beds with brass headboards, tin plate ceilings, and were filled with antique lamps and baskets. The baths were modern but still had a 19th-century feel to them. The rooms were small, but they were warm and cozy. The main room had a queen-size bed and a sofa sleeper. The second room next door was small. The bed was a full-size mattress that took up most of the room. There was a reading nook in the corner and not much else. It shared a bathroom with their master bedroom.

"Well, who is going to sleep where?" asked Veronica.

Mike turned to Josh and said, "Humor an old father, Veronica can take the main bed, I'll take the sofa sleeper, and you can take the other room." To Veronica and Mike's surprise, Josh agreed.

"If this will make you happy, I'm all for it," said Josh. "But after we're married..."

"I know. She's all yours from that point on," said Mike.

"Good, I'm going to take a nap, why don't you guys go out and explore?" said Veronica.

"As you wish," and the guys pulled their coats on and headed out. Josh knew where Mike wanted to go; they were only a couple of blocks away from the historic train station. The building was beautiful. It was a red clapboard single-stage building with wide eaves over the platform and black trim. A separate baggage building and the business end of the station had a two-story observation tower.

Mike stood on the platform. The station was on a sweeping dual-tracked curve; looking left, the tracks swept around the northern hill and off to the west. Looking to the right, the tracks crossed a double-track bridge spanning the Potomac River and disappeared into a tunnel through a small mountain named Maryland Heights.

"I can just picture the Baltimore and Ohio's Columbian pulling into the station," said Mike as he studied the distant tunnel. "Their F units were beautiful. They had the most beautiful paint scheme on the rails. It was light blue over royal blue with a wide black stripe down the middle of the royal blue. The stripe was trimmed with gold and the lettering for Baltimore and Ohio was in gold also. The color combinations ran the length of the train. It was dignity in motion." Mike sighed happily and fingered the DSLR that Veronica had given him for Christmas a few years ago.

"F unit?" asked Josh. He was pretty sure what Mike meant, but he wanted to hear Mike's description. That's what dads are for.

"An F unit is a streamlined diesel locomotive. Look up B&O F7 on that fancy phone of yours."

Josh looked it up and saw a streamlined locomotive like one that Paul Jarecki runs on the Lionel train he sets up under the Christmas tree in his house, but the B&O locomotive looked regal in its deep blue and black paint scheme. "That's awesome, did you build these?"

"No, the F-units were all built by EMD, a division of General Motors, I was at the General Electric Erie plant. There was a cab unit called the U20, but that never sold and it was before my time."

"What about this one?" asked Josh. He showed Mike a streamlined locomotive he found online. "The Erie Built?"

Mike chuckled and answered without looking at the photograph that Josh had found. "That was a beautiful cab unit that was designed by Fairbanks-Morse. It had a Fairbanks-Morse diesel prime mover built in Beloit, Wisconsin, but the body, and electrical system was built by GE at my plant back in 1947."

"Oh, so you missed the fun, eh?"

"Not much fun, the engine was an opposed piston diesel engine. It worked great in a submarine snorting cool sea-level air, but up in the high deserts of the American west, the air was too hot and the air-pressure was too light for them. They would have to be turbocharged to work properly but that was still new technology back then."

Mike and Josh walked along the walking path above the banks of the Potomac River until they reached the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah. There they studied the ancient, crumbling pilings of railroad bridges that are now lost to war and the ravages of time. They watched a fisherman occasionally pull a fish out of the Shenandoah and toss it back. The sun was warm, but the air was brisk. It was a wonderful afternoon, just two guys out exploring an area that played a vital role in the country's history.

Josh caught sight of a café, the Cannonball Express. "Care for a cup of coffee, Mike?"

"My treat," said Mike.

"No, I'll buy."

"I'm the dad."

"I'm the one with a job."

Mike grinned at Josh and said, "You win."

<><><><><>

Veronica had napped for a little while and then got up to explore. The hotel had a little coffee shop in the lobby, and she walked in, and a familiar face caught her eye. "Mary Beth?"

A dark-haired woman in her late twenties was seated with three other women. She looked up and gasped, "Veronica?"

"It's so good to see you!" said Veronica when they hugged. It was Mary Beth Westover; they met backstage at Kleinhans Music Hall during the barbershop quartet contest. Mary Beth's husband, Gene, sings in Pennsy, a quartet made up of guys from several towns in western Pennsylvania, and they won the competition that Josh and his quartet took third place in.

"I thought I'd never see you again when the boys said they stopped competing. Girls, this is Veronica Gravely, her husband sings baritone for the Gentlemen's Disagreement."

"Oh hi! Come join us!" said a pretty blond who appeared to be thirty.

"Veronica, this is Judy, Hope and Olivia." All three women were in the late twenties, except for Olivia, who was in her early thirties. Clearly, Pennsy was a younger quartet. Josh would be the oldest member, while in the Gentlemen's Disagreement he's half as old as the guys.

"I think I saw each of you passing. It was my first event, and I was so lost. Oh, and it's not Veronica Gravely... yet." She flashed her engagement ring, causing the girls to gush over the 2.5 karat diamond.

"When is it going to be?" asked Olivia, a slim woman with chestnut hair and massive breasts.

"Soon, we're keeping the date secret until we tell my dad. So, are you girls here for a quartet vacation or are the guys singing?"

"We're raising money for the International Championship. The guys are singing tonight and tomorrow night at the Town Center," said Mary Beth. "You should come with; the guys would love to see Josh again."

"You know, I met his quartet on our first date," said Veronica with a twinkle of merriment in her eyes. She had much more lavish and refined first dates, but none as memorable and as fun as that day in the snow with Josh.

"Really?" asked Olivia. "And you're still seeing him?" which caused the girls to laugh. The sense of humor of the Gentlemen's Disagreement was legendary. They were one of those quartets who saw it as most important to make people laugh before making music.

Veronica told them about Josh's setting up a serenade for their first date, but the lead had a coughing fit and walked away, so Josh had to sing lead for them. "I didn't know it at the time but it was his quartet and they pranked him."

The girls roared with laughter, and Mary Beth's husband Eric, who arrived during the story, joined in the laughter. "That's how quartets work, never give a sucker an even break."

Veronica took out her phone and said, "I took up ballroom dancing years ago and I still dance with my coach at the company party. Josh took advantage of our tradition." She showed the video of her dancing with Mitch, then Josh showed up in uniform and cut in, then proposed.

"He proposed in front of the entire company?" gushed Mary Beth.

"Every employee and their wives or dates, or both in one case."

"What if you had said no?" asked Judy.

"When I saw him in his Air Force dress blues with all those ribbons and medals and stripes, I could not have said no to anything," said Veronica with a wag of her eyebrows.

"You're so bad!" said Hope with a laugh.

Eric looked at a photo of Josh and Veronica carefully and said, "He's not worried about someone accusing him of stolen valor with all that fruit salad on his uniform?"

Veronica shook her head no. "It happens so in the breast pocket of his uniform jacket is his DD form 214 which lists all the unclassified awards he earned. He's earned every one of those ribbons."

"What did he do in the air force?" asked Dan Griffith, another member of Eric's quartet, looking over his shoulder.

"He was a crew member on an AC-130 gunship. He was flying for ten years I think he said. Mostly on combat missions."

"That'll do it."

"Please come to our show tonight, the food is great and the show is amazing," said Eric. "There's going to be a lot of good music tonight."

"I miss barbershop music in the house. Josh used to have the guys out to the house constantly when they were preparing for the contest," said Veronica.

"The Gentlemen's Disagreement was the only quartet I ever saw that was rooting against themselves," said another man, who had just arrived. "How ya doing Veronica? Where's Josh?"

"Hi Gene, I'm doing really good now," said Veronica, and she rose to hug the fellow who just arrived. She showed him her engagement ring and said, "Josh and my dad are out looking at Harpers Ferry. My dad's a history buff and a railroader."

"They get along?"

"They're crazy about each other," said Veronica. "Sometimes I feel like an outsider." She got up and looped her purse over her shoulder. "I need to go get cleaned up. It was so good seeing you all again."

"We'll reserve a table for you," said Gene as Veronica waved goodbye.

Gene sat down, and his wife, Mary Beth, said, "Did you know that Josh serenaded her with his quartet on their first date?"

"Did he really?" he asked. He's known Josh on and off through contests and conventions, and it wouldn't surprise him.

"You wouldn't believe what his own quartet did to him!" gushed Hope. She told the boys what the Gentlemen's Disagreement did to Josh, and the boys laughed, but they looked at each other and grew silent.

"We should do it to him also; he'll love the joke. He may be the one," said Eric.

"But he's a baritone," said the Pennsy baritone, Dan Griffith.

"He's got the range," said Mary Beth, who, as a Sweet Adeline, was a barbershopper as well. "Let's give it a try, and if we like his sound, we'll ask for another song and if it works, we'll give you a thumbs up and you can make an offer."

<><><><><>

Josh, Veronica, and Mike entered the Town Center. The exterior was a big solid stone building; the interior was a big open room with huge hand-hewn beams holding the upper floors up. "It reminds me of John's library," said Veronica. "Not the decor or the beams but the wide-open feeling that was still folksy."

The far end of the room had a small stage that would be perfect for a small chorus, high school band, or a quartet with a sound shell behind them. The stage was set up for a band; it appeared to be a ten-piece band. They would play tomorrow night on New Year's Eve after the quartet sang.

They were led to a small table set for four people that was next to a large table set for eight people. The rest of the tables were set for couples or four people. Josh was seated with his back toward the large table, so he didn't notice the quartet when they and their wives came in and sat down. The dinner was like all the banquets that Josh had been to, with a choice of some form of chicken or a vegetarian meal that they chose as they came in. The event was to raise money for a restoration project in the glorious old town, so Josh was happy to spend the money.

As they sat and waited for their meals, Josh and Mike raved about their discoveries. "There's a railroad line that comes out of the mountain then goes through the national park, and it's elevated on wooden trestles, like a model train!" declared Josh.

"There is a prototype for everything," said Mike. "I've seen CSX remove a turnout, rails, frogs, points, and ties, all in one piece, then load it on its side on a flatcar and ship it off. You could do the same thing with an HO scale Atlas switch and put it on your layout, but most modelers would laugh you out of the hobby."

Veronica was lost with all the railroad jargon, but her men were happy, and for some reason a thrill of excitement went through her when she realized that Josh and Mike were truly her men. Soon she would have them (and Tigger) together in her home, and they would be a family. All of them, and a son or two, and that would make it a dream come true.

Josh sat facing Veronica, and the quartet Pennsy with their wives sat at the table behind him. They sat down quietly and chatted softly, but they ate fast. They were to sing during dessert and coffee. "Did you hear what Dick Daniels did to Josh on his first date with Veronica?" whispered Eric.

"What?" asked Dan. Dan was a big fan of Josh. His southern humor made Gentlemen's Disagreement the success it was, but Dan couldn't wait to hear what the boys pulled on Josh.

"The quartet was going to serenade Veronica, but Dick just walked away. He faked a coughing fit and left, so Josh had to sing for Veronica."

"She probably melted," sighed Olivia.

"She's a tough chick, but she doesn't have a defense for that aw shuckin' southern drawl," said Alex.

"No, she does not," said Mary Beth with a chuckle, then she softened. "Veronica misses the life, her house filled with music and the girls gathered in her sunroom for coffee while the guys sang. She mentioned that the girls only get together once a month now that the holiday shows are over."

"We can fix that for her," said Gene. He kissed Mary Beth on the cheek, and the guys got up to sing.

"What the..." gasped Josh when he saw the four members of Pennsy get up to sing. He turned around and saw Hope, Olivia, Judy, and Mary Beth at the table behind him. They smiled and waved at him, and he blew them a kiss and turned back to Veronica. "Did you know they were there?"

"Uh huh."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"You didn't ask."

Mike roared with laughter as Josh rested his forehead on the table and groaned.

Pennsy lined up as the unseen announcer said, "Tonight, Town Center is proud to present the musical stylings of the regional champion a cappella quartet, Pennsy." They opened with the song that almost everyone knows, the song "Bear Necessities" from Disney's animated film, The Jungle Book.

Josh sang along softly. He was familiar with the song because he had seen Pennsy perform several times, and they were an incredible quartet. Then the lead, Eric, acted as MC and introduced the members of the quartet, then Pennsy went into their routine. Much of their music was 1950s do-wop, and they would throw in an occasional show tune. Josh listened intently, and he picked out the baritone part in the songs. "Stop," said Veronica, and she nudged Josh.

"Stop what?"

"You were singing along with them." She smiled and put her hand on his.

"Sorry."

Pennsy finished the song they were singing, then the lead, Eric, stepped up to the microphone and said, "A friend of ours is here with us, Josh Gravely. Josh sings baritone for one of the funniest quartets you have ever heard, the Gentlemen's Disagreement. And we were just told that Josh finally asked the prettiest person in the world to marry him. What did you tell him Ronnie?"

Veronica held up her left hand to show off her engagement ring and blushed. "Look at that rock!" said the bass singer Gene. "I'd say yes for that too!"

The quartet moved closer to Josh and Veronica's table, and Eric said, "I think we should sing a song for this couple, what do you think?"

"No, that's ok," said Josh, but nobody heard him because the audience was clapping so loudly. Pennsy tuned up in the key of c, then started singing.

Let me call...

Then Eric started coughing and in a dry voice said, "Gotta get some tea," and he left.

"We did this about a year ago," said Josh.

"Just relax," said Veronica. "Let them have some fun."

"Can anyone here sing?" called out their baritone Dan Griffith.

"He can sing," said Veronica, and she pointed at Josh.

"No, I mean actual songs..." said Dan. "Anyone? Anyone at all?" which got the entire audience laughing.

As Dan started going from table to table looking for a singer, Alex and Gene, along with their wives, got the audience chanting "Josh! Josh! Josh!"

Shaking his head, Josh stood up and stepped into position with Pennsy. "You're singing lead, right?" asked Gene.

"Right," said Josh. "Give me an A."

"A?" asked Gene with the circular harmonica known as a pitchpipe near his lips.

"You ask a baritone to sing lead, you sing at a lower key," said Josh with a stern look followed by a smile and a wink. "Hit it Smedley."

They tuned up at a lower pitch and sang "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." Veronica blushed and swooned just like she did a year ago when Josh sang to her for the first time. Pennsy along with Josh sounded wonderful, and this time was much more intimate and meaningful. The last time they were new lovers, celebrating their discovery of each other. Now they're just hours away from binding their lives together forever.

Josh crouched in front of her and held her hands as he sang, the rest of the quartet clustered around him and crooned the harmony of the song. When the final chord was done, they received thunderous applause and a standing ovation. While Josh and Veronica kissed, the three remaining members of Pennsy looked over to the table where their wives were clapping and smiling. Hope, Olivia, Judy and Mary Beth nodded and held up one finger showing they wanted to hear one more song.

Pennsy backed up to the little stage again, and Dan said, "Come on up, Josh. Give us one more song," but Josh had sat down with Veronica. "Come on up."

"Go on," said Veronica. "You sound great with them."

"They're trying to recruit me," whispered Josh. "This is an audition."

"So? You love singing."

"We'll talk."

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Josh found himself somewhere he never expected to be, standing in front of two hundred people in a barbershop quartet that he had never sung with in his life. "Ok, what do we want to sing?"

"Let's do Country Roads," said Alex, a young Hispanic man. He was also an incredible tenor who could hit any note they needed. "We know it your way, and we know it the right way, your choice." That caused laughter throughout the audience.

"You guys know it my way? Let's give them all a surprise." He turned to the audience, turned up his South Georgia accent and said, "Ah've been singing with a comedy quartet for years, and we've competed against Pennsy, and we got to know each other. Years ago when this ol' country boy moved to Buffalo, New York, ah met a completely different brand of animal - the Buffalonian - and ah wrote a little song about them with the help of John Denver."

The quartet tuned up, and Josh started...

Almost heaven, western New York

Snowbelt blizzard, Allegheny River.

Life is sweet there -- Sabers, Bisons, Bills

Beef on weck with Genny,

Friday fish fry thrills

Country roads, take me home,

to the place I belong!

Western New York, snowstorm drama

Take me home, country road!

For the first time, Josh had to sing a solo with the quartet behind him providing background harmony in front of an audience. He had forgotten this part, but in practice with the Gentlemen's Disagreement they would switch out singing the solo portion. An audience makes all the difference when you're singing. However, he was very familiar with the song, and it was fun, and when the audience started laughing, it was even more fun. Their final chords were incredible; every note was sung clearly and perfectly on key. The harmonic fifth note that a barbershop chord creates was loud and clear and rang through the Town Center hall, and the audience gave them a standing ovation.

Eric appeared from wherever he was hiding and stepped out front and said, "Thank you! We're going to take a break and be back with music from the fifties, sixties, and seventies." Pennsy headed for the side room where they took their breaks, and Josh tried to get back to Veronica, but she was already sitting at the Pennsy women's table along with Mike. They were engaged in an animated conversation. Josh was right; this was an audition.

He joined Pennsy in the break room and asked, "Ok guys, what's the story? Am I being Shang-Hie'd?"

"It's me," said Eric. "I've got a vascular condition, and I can't sing a full program anymore." Josh was shocked to see Eric with an oxygen tank and a nasal cannula.

"Oh, shit Eric, I didn't know," said Josh as he sat down. "When did this come on?"

"Last year," said Eric, "I don't know how I made it through the contest up in Buffalo."

Meanwhile, out at the table, the "Pennsy Girls" were talking to Veronica. "Eric has a condition; he can't take the work that it's going to take to get to Denver. He can't finish this show here without taking a break," said his wife, Olivia. "Right now, he's on oxygen getting ready for the second half of the show."

"The guys were so happy to see Josh," said Mary Beth. "They believe he would be a great replacement for Eric."

"But what about Eric?" asked Veronica. "He's worked so hard to get this far."

"He's going to train his replacement and coach the quartet," said Olivia.

"If Josh agrees to this, he's going to want to clear it with Johnny, Dick and Sam," said Veronica. She was worried if she would become an outcast from the Gentlemen's Women. "He'll have to talk to his boss..."

"And his fiancée," said Mike.

"Oh, I know he's going to talk to me," said Veronica. "I loved preparing for the championships; I want to go to Denver."

Back in the break room, Josh was laying down his demands. "If ah agree, ah want y'all to camp out at my lake. Ah'll have cabins for you. It's a team building thing. Bring the girls and we'll do it a couple of times. Ah will also need you for a fund raiser ah do there an... shit... "

"What's wrong?" asked Eric.

"Ah just realized ah would have to sing with two different quartets at the fund raiser."

"Are you saying that you can't do it?" asked Alex.

"Ah didn't say that" said Josh. He realized he had just been challenged.

Alex, Eric, Dan, and Gene looked at each other and nodded; it sounded interesting.

"And I want another coach," continued Josh. "Eric, I know your credentials, but I trust Julissa Tanaka. She's the musical director of the Buffalo Gals chorus. She dragged us kicking and screaming to third place when she helped Gentlemen's Disagreement."

"I don't know Julissa," said Eric, "but if you think she can be a help I'm all for it."

"Ok, and regardless of how I decide, you owe me," said Josh, which caused the guys to chuckle. One trick like they pulled on Josh deserves another. "Tomorrow morning at eleven, meet me at the Jefferson County Courthouse about ten miles east on 340. I'd like you to sing a song there, and it's a surprise for someone so don't go blabbing to anyone including the Pennsy Gals."

Josh returned to his seat, and Veronica leaned over and kissed him. "Well? Did they ask you?"

"Yep, I told them I'm not going to answer before tomorrow."

"Aww," said Veronica with a pout. "Why not?"

"I have something to do tomorrow morning that takes priority over everything. We'll talk and then I'll give them my answer."

Pennsy did another outstanding set, and Josh was terrified that he wasn't good enough and that he would ruin their chances at the International Championships in Denver.

Finally, Eric stepped forward. He was panting a little bit, and Josh could tell he was having difficulty breathing. Eric smiled at the audience and said, "What did you think of our little trick we pulled on Josh earlier?" There was a lot of applause, then Eric said, "That was real, he's down here from Buffalo for New Year's and we bumped into each other. He wasn't expecting that trick, and the killer is, his own quartet did that to him on his first date with Ronnie a year ago."

When the laughter died down, Eric said, "Josh, I want to make up for that. Come on up here." When Josh got up and joined the quartet, Eric shook his hand and patted him on the shoulder, then left. Josh watched him walk off with a look of shock on his face, causing the audience to roar with laughter. Then Josh turned to the audience and said, "I've never sung with these guys before and this is what happens when barber shoppers sing together the first time." He turned to the quartet. "What do you want to sing?"

"You're the lead, you pick."

"Ok, let's do, Whiskey River."

"Don't know it," said Alex.

"Lida Rose?"

Dan shook his head sadly. "Don't know it."

"Old Pair of Shoes?"

Gene shrugged and said, "Don't know it."

Josh turned back to the audience, who were all chuckling. "This is exactly what happens. But there's something all barber shoppers love to do. Tags. We may not know the entire song, but chances are we know the climatic chords, which we call tags." He turned back to the quartet and said, "Lilly Marlene." And they grinned with glee. Lilly Marlene was a song from World War One, and the barbershop version has a huge, complex final set of chords. Most barber shoppers know the tag to Lilly Marlene.

Josh was showing off; it takes some serious lung power for the lead to hold the note through the entire tag. He took a deep breath and let it fly; "Mar-LAAAAANE!" He hit that note and sang it bright and clear. He held it for a long time while Alex, Dan, and Gene followed up with "Lill-lee-Mar-Laaaane!" in a complex shifting of chords. When they hit their final notes, Josh signaled them to hold the chord and to bring up the volume slowly until they were belting it out. The fifth voice created harmonically rang through the hall as they held that note. When they were almost completely out of breath, he gave a cut sign and they stopped perfectly.

When they were done, the audience wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded beautiful, and they realized that something important had just happened. Veronica and the Pennsy girls were stunned. They've heard the Lilly Marlane tag sung over and over, but not as well or as powerfully. The Pennsy girls were on their feet applauding their guys; even Eric came out of the break room to applaud. From that they went into two barbershop classics: "I Want a Girl (Just like the girl that married dear old dad)," and Goodbye my Coney Island Baby. Both were fun, happy songs, and the guys did incredibly well for never having practiced enough to perform them in front of an audience.

They chatted a bit, and Josh realized he didn't know their closing number. "Y'all got Auld Lang Syne, let's close with that."

"Let's do it," said the tenor Alex. He was the guy who picked the songs they would perform.

Josh turned back to the audience and said, "On behalf of the Town Center event center and Pennsy, we want to wish you all the best for the coming year." With that, they broke into Auld Lang Syne. Eric joined them and stood next to Josh, coaching him through their arrangement of the song. The audience joined in, which kind of drowned out their harmony, but the tag on the end of the song was complex and beautiful. Josh's first thought was that he had to get with Eric to learn this arrangement before tomorrow night; his second thought was that he had already made his decision.

When the final chord was over, people were congratulating them on stage. The entire quartet had never had an experience like that. Usually, the crowds wait until after the show and give the guys a chance to change out of their performance outfits and wipe off the makeup. This crowd was delighted with their performance, but if there were any complaints, they were, "y'all need to add a bit a country to yer act."

"Ah dun tol' 'em that," said Josh. "Ah gotta work some Waylon an' Willie into the act."

"Well, what do you think?" asked Eric.

"Ah'll give you my final decision tomorrow," replied Josh. "Ah have to say, the guys sound good together. It's a real good tonal match."

"And you fit in with their sound. I think you and the guys have a future together."

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Josh, Veronica and Mike returned to the hotel, and Josh sat on Veronica's bed leaning back on the headboard while she sat next to him looking through a railroad magazine that Mike brought and Mike was sitting on the sofa playing solitaire on Veronica's smart phone. Josh wanted to call Johnny McGreevy, Dick Daniels, and Sam Lux, the members of Gentlemen's Disagreement, and talk to each of them. He started with Sam Lux, whom he had known the longest. "Hey Sam, I have something I want to bounce off of you."

"What is it?" asked Sam. "Are you and Ronnie finally tying the knot?"

Without thinking, Josh said, "Yeah, but that's not why I called. We went to see Pennsy perform tonight and their lead, Eric Kraus has to pull back for health reasons and..."

"They want you to sing with them?" asked Sam with a chuckle. "The vultures moved in quickly."

"What? No, it's not like that. We're down in West Virginia on a brief vacation and they were here at a sing-date. They asked if I would sing lead, and we did a couple of songs together."

Sam was stern; he was like a father figure to Josh. He actually poached Josh from another quartet to form the Gentlemen's Disagreement. "Think about it. They didn't ask you to sing baritone and let Dan Griffith take over as lead; they want you front and center, and they obviously think you can do it. I say, go for it. You got the voice; you got the energy. I say do it."

"You think I can do it Sam? Be honest."

"Josh, we both know you can do it. The fact that they picked you to lead the quartet shows that they know you can do it too." Then Sam's voice softened. "Dick, Johnny, and I are all twice your age; we're done except for Christmas shows and your fundraiser. Go out there and have some fun and make a name for yourself."

"What did Sam say?" asked Veronica when Josh ended the call.

"He said to go for it. He said that typically they'd either look for another lead or they would move Dan to lead and ask me to replace him as baritone, so they clearly respect what I've got."

"I've told you that! This is easier than starting your own quartet."

"Yeah," sighed Josh. "You're right."

"So what's wrong?" asked Veronica. She kissed his cheek because he looked so depressed.

"I don't think Sam is going to show up for practice anymore." He sighed and called Johnny McGreevy. Josh wasn't on speaker, but little did either of them know that due to his slip-up when talking to Sam, calls were flashing back and forth between the Gentlemen's Ladies.

Johnny McGreevy was overjoyed that Josh had been offered a spot on a champion quartet. The old Irishman said, "Ah, gotta admit, I'm gettin' on a bit, I am. Reckon I'll be hangin' up me singin' after the fundraiser, so I will."

"Seriously Johnny? I never thought I'd ever hear you say that."

"Jaysus, Josh," said the old steelworker with a laugh. "I'm pushin' eighty, aye? I just don't be havin' the get-up-and-go that you young bucks do, ya know?"

"It's not going to be barbershop without you harassing me every week Johnny."

Johnny sighed and said, "Ah, sure look-it, Josh, there'll always be some lad coddin' ya. The more so once you're hitched, like."

"What did Johnny say?" asked Veronica.

"Johnny said he's quitting after the fund raiser," said Josh sadly. "He can't put in the work... I don't think he'll be coming back to the chorus meetings either." Chorus meetings were chorus practices but also social gatherings.

Josh's next call was to Dick Daniels, who was ready for him. "So you're running off on us, eh?"

"Aw Dick, it's not like that," groaned Josh.

"Hey, kid, relax. It's time you flew the coop. We were holding you back."

"We made it to number three!" said Josh.

"Yes, and you got us there," said Dick. "I want you to take Pennsy to Denver and come back with gold, copy?"

"Aww jeez, Dick, I don't want to do it this way."

"Josh, we love you kid, and we'll always be there to tell you how to do it wrong. You got a gift, a talent on loan from God. Go share it with the world."

"You're done with singing too?" asked Josh sadly.

"Pretty much. Time is catching up with me son. It was never a chore before, but damn, that contest took it out of me."

Josh had to admit that Dick was right. Back when they pranked Josh and Veronica on their first date, Dick Daniels had just a few gray hairs, and his handlebar mustache was jet black. He looked much younger than his true age. Now his hair is solid white. He skipped right past the salt and pepper stage. "Thanks Dick, now there's only one more person I have to talk to."

"Ronnie? I'd think she'd be all in on it, she loved doing our hair and makeup," said Dick.

"Not her, me."

He ended the call and sat quietly staring at the opposite wall until Veronica nudged him. "Hey."

"Hm?" He looked at Veronica and frowned sadly. "Dick is quitting too."

"Honey, it's ok. They were doing it for a long time and they're tired," said Veronica as she leaned against Josh.

"Did I do this to them? If I didn't drive so hard maybe they'd still be singing."

"And how horrible would you feel when Eric Kraus came to you and asked for help when Dick and the boys wanted to keep going?"

Josh frowned. "Maybe they were lying to me to get me to look for another quartet."

Veronica closed her teeth on his earlobe as she closed his hand around his phone. She released his earlobe and traced the tip of her tongue around his ear. "You go into your room and give Rod Daniels a call. He's the guy who got you singing. You need to talk to him."

"If you insist," replied Josh with a deep sigh, and he got up and headed over to his room through the bathroom connection.

Veronica sat worrying about Josh for a short while when Mike announced, "This phone of yours is awful noisy."

"What do you mean?"

"It's constantly beeping." He showed it to Veronica. One glance showed her that her phone was being blown up with messages from The Gentlemen's Women. "They want to know why you didn't tell them," said Mike.

"Here, use my work phone, nobody will interrupt your game." Veronica unlocked her work phone and started Mike's favorite solitaire game. "I need to talk to your future son-in-law."

In the other room, Josh called Rod Daniels, and a child answered the phone. "Hello Lana, can I speak to your father?"

"Why?" asked the child.

"I need to speak to him about barbershop quartets."

"Daddy's not in a quartet."

That's when Josh heard a familiar voice demanding the phone. "Hello?" came a familiar voice.

As Veronica poked her nose in the door, Deanna got the phone away from her daughter Lana. "Hi I'm a family man and I'd like to buy a minivan."

"Minivan, ha! I could see you in a..." The words that Josh used when he called himself a family man struck Deanna. "Did you and Veronica finally get married?"

"Almost, we're officially engaged and we plan to have a civil ceremony soon, then a sanctification ceremony later."

"Oh, I'm so excited for you!" cried Deanna. "Have you set a date yet?"

"Well, we have to talk to Pastors John and Macy to finalize everything, but I'll let you know. In the meantime, I'll send you a link to a video of the proposal."

"So, what can I do for you, Bounce?"

Josh chuckled; he hadn't heard his old call sign in ages. "I need to talk to Rod, it's a barbershop question."

"Is that Rod and Deanna?" asked Veronica, and Josh nodded while he waited for Deanna to round up Rod. "I'll send her a link to the video."

Finally, Rod came on the line and said, "Hello?"

"Rod, you got me into this mess, maybe you can tell me what to do."

"What mess?"

"Barber shopping." Josh told Rod about Eric Kraus's illness and how they asked him to join the quartet. Rod listened intently and finally occasionally asked for clarification at one point or another, until Josh finished the story and said, "what should I do?"

"Josh, I don't see what the problem is," declared Rod. "You are in a quartet that's been around for a while and you earned a name for yourself, but your other quartet members want to relax. Another quartet needs a singer in a bad way or they have to forfeit their position in the International championship. If they forfeit then quartet number two, the Mellow Tones, moves up to number one for your division at International, and quartet number three moves up to number two and goes to international... who was number three again?"

"The Gentleman's Disagreement," groaned Josh as Veronica sat down next to him. "So, you're saying that either way I'm going to International."

"It sounds that way," said Rod. "I know a thousand men who would love to be in your position."

Josh put his arm around Veronica and cupped her breast and said, "I'm sure there's a lot more."

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Josh woke up alone in a small bed in a tiny room. It's been ages since he had slept alone, and he didn't like it. He was used to Veronica's warmth, her smell, her soft purring as she slept. She would sleep on her left side with Josh cuddling behind her and Tigger curled up on the bed in front of her. If it was a chilly night, Tigger would climb under the covers and lie there purring loudly.

Last night they had sat up a long time talking about their future -- at work, at the lake, with the quartet, and even with children. Veronica even agreed to let Josh take time away from work to watch the children while she made the big bucks. And they talked about why Dottie Lux told Maureen McGreevy and Jaquie Daniels that they were getting married. "Honestly," said Josh. "I called Sam and he said, 'you guys getting married or something' and I said yeah. That's it."

"Why did you tell him that?"

"Because we are getting married." He held her hand up and pointed to the ring. "We're engaged."

"You sure you still want to?" she asked shyly.

"More than you'll ever know."

He pulled her into his arms and tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away. "Not until we're married. Now get some sleep, and tomorrow you can sleep with a married woman." She gave him a kiss and held him as he fell asleep.

Josh rose around seven thirty and showered and trimmed his beard and put on dark blue slacks and a white button-down shirt and by the time he was ready, Veronica and Mike were waiting for him in the lobby coffee shop. "Ready for breakfast?" asked Josh.

"I want to try the Cannonball Express again," said Mike. "The breakfast menu looked awesome."

"That sounds like a restaurant you'd pick," said Veronica as they pulled on their winter coats and headed out the door. The weather was warm compared to what they were used to in Buffalo, and they walked the four blocks to the café that had a good size crowd. As they entered, four guys stood up and waved. It was Alex Rodriguez, Eric Kraus, Dan Griffith, and Gene Westover, the guys of Pennsy. They had a few tables pushed together, and their wives, Hope, Olivia, Judy, and Mary Beth, were there too.

"Come join us," said Olivia.

"Well... ok..." said Veronica as the waitress already had a table pushed in place so Mike, Josh and Veronica could join the gang.

"Have you made up your mind?" asked Alex as the menus were handed to Josh, Veronica and Mike. All the breakfast specials were named after famous trains.

Veronica and Mike nodded their heads behind Josh's back as Josh said, "Let's talk about it after we're done."

"Ok, no problem," said Alex.

"What are you going to sing tonight?" asked Veronica.

"We'll have to find something we're all familiar with quick," said Dan.

"We'll have time," said Josh as he looked through the menu. When the waitress arrived with coffee, Josh said, "I'll have the Old 97, over easy, hash browns, sausage patties and a side of grits."

"I'll go with the Capitol Limited," said Mike. "Crispy bacon and real maple syrup if you have it."

"I'll have the Pennsylvania limited," said Veronica. "Eggs poached on toast and a side of cottage cheese. Do you guys know bumpity bump?"

Eric started grinning. "My Wife the Dancer? Is that what you mean?"

"Yes," said Veronica brightly. She nudged Josh and said, "A bit appropriate wouldn't you say?"

"Thank you dear," grumbled Josh into his coffee cup.

"Oh? Is there a story here?" asked Olivia.

Josh was silent, so Mike filled in for him. "My darling daughter studied ball room dance for decades," said Mike.

"Yeah, we know that song," said the bass Gene. "We haven't done it in a while, why don't we discuss that later."

"Thank you," said Josh with a yawn.

"He was up all night long talking with the boys in Gentlemen's Disagreement," said Veronica.

"What's the big deal?" asked Mike. "You offer him a chance to sing with you and he acts like he's buying a house or something."

"It's a big thing," said Eric. "I know guys who jumped from one quartet to another without saying a word, and the guys from his old quartet won't speak to the guy who left them. It's like a stab in the back if you're a competition quartet."

"Happens all the time," said Dan.

His wife, Judy, nodded. "Josh, you did the right thing. My brother would hop from quartet to quartet now nobody will sing with him."

"Brother?" asked Mike.

"Her dad was a barbershopper," said Dan, and he held Judy's hand. "We met at a practice; she came with her dad and her brother one evening and we've been together ever since."

"Wow," sighed Veronica.

"A chorus is a family, a quartet even more so," said Olivia. "You don't know how much it hurt Eric to have to tell the guys he can't sing anymore. It tore him up."

"It tore all the boys up," said Hope Rodriguez. "They didn't expect to win the divisional championship and suddenly Eric has a life-threatening condition."

"They didn't sing for weeks," said Mary Beth Westover. "They were afraid of hurting Eric..."

The stories of how Eric's disease put Pennsy into a tailspin tore at Josh. Olivia is right. When you put four guys together and they work hard at something, anything, they become a family. A weapon's load crew on a B-52 was like that... a hard-rocking gun crew on an AC-130 is exactly like that. The minute he associated it with a gun crew; Josh's mind was made up. "I'll do it," said Josh as his breakfast came. "I have a bit of work to catch up on at home, but we'll work out a practice schedule and start getting ready for Denver."

There was cheering and back-patting as Josh and Veronica were welcomed into the Pennsy family.

Mike leaned over to Veronica and asked, "Is it always this crazy?"

Veronica leaned over to her dad and said, "Imagine your team is heading into the world series and they lost their only pitcher, and a great pitcher just appears as you're starting to search."

The gang ate their breakfast and chatted excitedly about a thousand things. Pennsy suddenly had a future and maybe even a chance to win at Denver. "What would you like to do with the quartet?" asked Alex.

"I would like the quartet to lighten up, add a little humor," said Josh. He ate a bit of grits and added, "I'm not saying to become a comedy quartet but audiences don't like a dour bunch of guys who don't interact with them."

"We're a contest quartet," insisted Alex. "We need to concentrate on the judges."

"If we don't raise money, we won't be able to see the judges." Josh dabbed up some yolk with his toast. "We're not going to get sing dates if we become known as the Pennsy sourpusses." He ate the toast and then added, "The Pennsy was the standard railroad of the world. Let's use that. There's a ton of railroad songs out there."

Excited talk continued; they were discussing costumes to wear during performances when Veronica said, "Look at the time."

"Holy smoke," said Josh. "We got to get going."

"We should too," said Eric, and everyone got up and pulled on their jackets.

They were heading for the door, but Josh stood in the way and said, "Guys, we're a quartet. How do we say goodbye?" Everyone looked at him a bit confused, then Josh said, "Happy trails." He pointed to Alex and said, "Give me a b." Alex blew a b on the pitchpipe and Josh began to sing; soon the entire quartet joined in the old Dale Evans and Roy Rogers song.

Happy trails to you until we meet again

Happy trails to you; keep smiling until then

Who cares about the clouds when we're together?

Just sing a song, and bring the sunny weather

Happy trails to you, 'til we meet again

The entire restaurant stopped all conversation to listen to the four-part harmony, and the waitresses blushed as they were serenaded. When the song ended, there was glad applause throughout the entire café. "And that's how you make a name for your quartet," said Josh as they headed out the door.

<><><><><>

In the courtroom, there was a trial of no consequence. It was a property line dispute between a farmer and a housing developer, and Judge Roland Schmidt was bored with all the arguments. He finally slammed his gavel on his bench and declared, "Until a state-licensed surveyor marks the boundary line and bring his survey results to this court, this court action will be on hold." He turned to the developer. "Since you are the one that is disputing the boundary line, you will obtain the new survey." He slammed the gavel again.

"But your honor!" gasped the lawyer for the developer.

"You heard me, now run along and get a new property survey. People are waiting." When the lawyers and the developer had left, the judge turned to his clerk. "What do we have next, Mac?"

"Your very favorite thing, your honor," and the clerk handed Judge Schmidt a folder.

Roland reviewed the documents in the folder and smiled. "Ah! Everything seems to be in order, Mister Gravely and Miss von Köster. Would you like to do this here or in my chambers?"

"Here is fine, your honor," said Josh as he took off his overcoat to show his USAF uniform beneath. Veronica removed her coat to show her immaculate white sequin-covered dancing gown.

"What's going on here?" asked Mike. He looked at Josh and Veronica in shock.

"We're getting married daddy," said Veronica. "You should start taking pictures."

"This is a civil ceremony, we're going to sanctify our wedding under the trees in September with Pastor Macy," said Josh. He handed Mike a pair of wedding rings and said, "can you be father of the bride and best man at the same time?"

"Get a picture of us together daddy," said Veronica as Mike stared in shock at his daughter and her hero fiancé. Josh smiled and pulled Veronica close. She had her hair swept up and a white rose in her hair. She produced a small bouquet of white and peach roses. Mike's eyes filled with tears as his girl, his firstborn, his steadfast darling prepared to finally take a man. He raised his camera, but his hands were shaking so badly he couldn't take the shot.

"I can do that for you," said Eric Kraus as he and the rest of Pennsy and the Pennsy girls entered the courtroom.

"Yeah, thanks," mumbled Mike as he fought back the tears.

"Get in there, I want a picture of you with them," said Eric.

His heart bursting with pride. Mike stood between Veronica and Josh as Eric took picture after picture. Veronica kissed Mike and whispered, "It's not often that a girl invites her dad along when she elopes."

Mike suddenly became overwhelmed with a wave of nostalgia. He remembered the first time he had held Veronica. She was so tiny, so beautiful. He never wanted to let her go. He was almost relieved when that lowlife Jameson dumped her for Magda. Magda was his contrary daughter. If Veronica wanted something, Magda would always take it from her, but Veronica was always so sweet. She let Magda have whatever she wanted and went to find something better.

"Josh is a good man, darling," said Mike. "You hold him tight and never let go. He'll do everything he can to make your life as perfect as it can be."

"I know," whispered Veronica. "I knew the day I met him."

Meanwhile, Judge Schmidt came down from behind his bench and said, "Congratulations Sergeant Gravely, however we need to talk."

"Is there a problem your honor?"

"It's these ribbons and badges. I know they let veterans wear the uniform after they retire, but son, some things just aren't done."

"What things, your honor?"

The judge seemed to hide some anger. "I'm talking stolen valor son. We take that very seriously in my court room. Why don't you go take off some of those ribbons and medals you didn't earn and we'll start over on the right foot."

"Oh, this thing," said Josh, and he tapped the Medal of Honor hanging at his throat.

"Sergeant, I was a JAG officer in the navy for twenty eight years I know what a Medal of Honor looks like, but I've never met someone with the brass to wear one he didn't earn in all that time."

"Sir, I'm only wearing it because we're getting married. She likes to see me in my blues," said Josh in a conspiratorial whisper. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out his DD Form 214AF and handed it to the judge. "Please don't tell her I have two more rows of ribbons to wear. They're such a pain to get on straight with the wings and parachute badge."

Judge Schmidt stared at Josh's Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. He had never seen a Medal of Honor listed on a discharge certificate before. The judge's jaw dropped. "I do apologize; I've never met an out-and-out hero before." Just then, Veronica stepped up to Josh and handed the judge her phone. "What is this, ma'am?" It was a photograph of Josh and a bunch of fellows standing around a sign on a wall. It was a small sign, so it was hard to read.

"That's the day the local American Legion Hall was named in his honor," said Veronica with a sweet smile.

"That's the reason for that other bit of business was put in front of you, your honor," said Josh.

"Again, I apologize." He turned to Josh, and United States Navy Captain (Retired) Roland L. Schmidt gave United States Air Force Master Sergeant (Retired) Ephraim J. Gravely a sharp salute that Josh returned with a salute and then a handshake. "Looks like everyone is ready; we even have a choir," said Judge Schmidt. "Shall we get started? Sergeant, if you will stand here by me..."

When Josh stood next to the judge, Roland opened his book and began the ceremony. "We are gathered here today to witness and celebrate the union of Ephraim Joshua Gravely and Veronica Althea von Köster in marriage. This is a moment of joy and commitment, where two people declare their intention to share life's journey together. Does someone escort the bride?"

"I do, your honor," said Mike. The strong, seasoned locomotive builder's voice shuddered with emotion.

"Thank you sir," said Judge Roland. "Miss von Köster if you will join us?" Veronica handed her bouquet to Mike, then stepped next to Josh, and the judge continued. "Now turn to your fiancée, hold their hands and look in their eyes." Josh and Veronica looked at each other and smiled nervously. "Do you Joshua take Veronica to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, to love and support, in sickness and health, forsaking all others from this day forward?"

Josh sighed happily. "I do, your honor."

"And you, Veronica, do you take Joshua to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and support, in sickness and health, forsaking all others from this day forward?"

"I do," said Veronica.

"Josh, I understand you have vows prepared? You may read them now."

Josh didn't need to read them; he had memorized them months ago and kept them fresh in his mind for today. "Darling Nicca, from the moment I laid eyes on you, my world and everything in it became yours. Today, I vow to walk beside you hand in hand, through every season of life. I promise to listen with compassion, speak with honesty, and love you with the love that holds fast in storm and stillness. You are my haven, my heart, my forever. I will love, honor, and cherish you and our children--every day, in every way, until the sun finally sets and I am called home."

"Veronica, your vows?"

"Dearest Ephie, you are my laughter in the quiet, my anchor in the wild. I vow to cherish the wonder of you--to celebrate your dreams, cradle your fears, and dance with you through the ordinary and the extraordinary. I promise to be your partner in mischief, your refuge in sorrow, your fiercest believer and mother of your children. With every breath, I choose you--not just today, but in every tomorrow we build together."

"The rings?" asked Judge Schmidt, and Mike stepped forward and handed Josh and Veronica the rings. Then the judge continued. "This ring is a symbol of your love and commitment. As you place it on each other's finger, may it remind you of the promises you make today."

As Josh and Veronica placed the rings on each other's fingers, Pennsy, along with Eric once again singing lead, began to sing a song from 1901.

Heart of my heart I love you

Life would be naught without you

Light of my life my darling

I love you, I love you.

I can forget you never

From you I ne'r can sever

Say you'll be mine forever

I love you (only you)

"By the authority vested in me by the State of Maryland, I now pronounce you married. You may seal your vows with a kiss," said Judge Schmidt happily.

Josh and Veronica fell into each other's arms. It's over! Their year of glancing at each other secretly, followed by a year of courtship was over, they were now one. Their kiss was radiant with their love.

"Friends," said Judge Schmidt. His smile simply glowed, and he put a hand on Josh and Veronica's shoulders. "May I introduce, Mister and Mrs. Gravely-von Köster."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"Come on darling, we're married now." Josh's fingers slid up Veronica's thighs, getting closer and closer to her pussy.

"Behave, rascal," she whispered. She put her hand on his, but she did nothing to stop him.

"It's been two whole days!" he whispered softly.

"Is that all you want me for? Sex, sex, sex! That's all you men want," whispered Veronica in Josh's ear.

"What's your point?"

"My point is that we're in a restaurant having lunch with the judge and his wife," hissed Veronica in Josh's ear. She clutched his crotch and whispered, "behave!"

They were in a restaurant with the judge and his wife, and Judge Schmidt was telling a sea story about his time on a carrier. "So, there I was aboard the Big Stick, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, halfway through a deployment, and I got called to the bridge for what the XO called a 'legal emergency.' I ran up to the bridge, all the way assuming it was a fight over money, a sailor accused of theft, maybe malingering, there had been a rash of that and the captain wanted to crack down on it. Nope.

Turns out, a flock of about two dozen seagulls had landed on the flight deck before morning ops got rolling and refused to leave. The deck crew tried shooing them, spraying them with a fire hose, even bribing them with leftover breakfast sausage. Nothing worked. The birds were parked like they owned the place -- right on the number one and number two catapults, and the newer, kinder Navy of the time frowned on animal cruelty.

The Air Boss, not known for his patience, declared the seagulls a 'foreign obstruction' and wanted to launch jets, anyway. He suggested pulling a plane up to the catapults and turning around and blowing them off the deck with jet blast. The CO was overcautious and asked me: 'Can we legally remove the birds?'

I blinked. 'Sir, I'm a JAG. I prosecute sailors, not seabirds.'

He didn't laugh.

So, I spent the next hour researching Navy regs, environmental law, and migratory bird treaties -- all while the seagulls took a nap on the forward flight deck. Eventually, I ruled that we could gently relocate them without violating federal bird law, but we couldn't touch them.

While I was researching, the Boatswain's Mate came up with a suggestion that my research approved. He played a recording of AC/DC's Hell's Bells at full blast through a bullhorn, and the seagulls took off like they owed someone money.

The CO turned to me and said, 'Well done, Counselor. You've just won your first case against a bird.'

I still list it on my résumé: United States v. Stubborn Seagulls -- dismissed with prejudice."

"That is a riot, sir," said Alex, who did four years as an aircraft mechanic in the navy. "My CO would have launched anyhow."

"You were in during combat operations," said the judge. "I was aboard ship during a lull in navy combat. It was a different world. Seeing those medals and badges I don't think Mister von Köster got much rest."

"We were busy," said Josh. "When I got to gunships I figured, 'ok, the big battles are over, I can fly around in circles and shoot paper targets on the ground. Life didn't work out like that. We found all kinds of skirmishes and terrorists that needed ventilation so we stayed busy."

"Can I ask why you changed your name?" asked the baritone Dan Griffith.

"Yes you can ask," said Josh, but he said nothing after that.

"Stop being a jerk," said Veronica, and she gave him an elbow. "He's waiting for you to ask after you asked permission to ask."

"I have plenty of reasons why I changed my name," Josh said finally. "First and foremost, I was married before, and it didn't work out. I never really felt the attachment with her that I feel with Veronica. I chose to celebrate the love I feel for her by combining our names. The other reason is not as joyful."

"We might as well find out now," said Dan.

Josh frowned and in a faraway voice he said, "I was born dirt poor to white trash in the southern armpit of Georgia in an ancient mobile home that disgusted me. I worked the shrimp boats out of Saint Mary's as soon as I could, just to get out of the house. Sorting bugs, fish, and seaweed from angry shrimp was a blessing. When I got too old to go to swimming lessons in the summer, I would fail classes on purpose just so I would have to go to summer school and I would be out of that house. My folks both drank themselves to death before I turned fifteen, and my older sister was supposed to take me in, but we both refused, so Gravely wasn't a name I was attached to. Then I got this damn thing," said Josh as he tapped his Medal of Honor. "I was just some guy flying missions, and when we got hit, I did what needed to be done. Some other guy was the hero, not me, I failed miserably."

"Ephie, no. You saved Ellie," said Veronica softly, but she knew he wouldn't listen; he was too far away.

Josh stopped as the memory of his best friend's dead body haunted him. Finally, he continued, "I went to Korea and did what needed to be done. Some other guy set production and flight readiness records... not me. I didn't even finish my tour and was sent home early, abandoning my men. They even accused him of leading the Gentlemen's Disagreement to third place... that wasn't me, I just sang and clowned around. The only thing I ever accomplished was not dying."

"Ephie, stop," said Veronica softly.

"They need to know what they're getting into," said Josh. "I didn't die when my father beat me in his drunken rages, I didn't die on the shrimp boat in a huge storm, I didn't die on the gunship when they hit us with a missile, I didn't die from cancer when I was in a remote location in Korea. Some other guy was a hero; I'm just a survivor. If they want to call that other guy Gravely, that's fine, I'll take the name of a man I truly admire, and maybe we'll go fishing together this spring."

"Ephie, stop," said Veronica too quietly to be heard.

"Michael von Köster, he's what I call a hero. He worked his ass off to raise two beautiful girls by himself and built the locomotives that help feed the nation..."

Veronica touched Josh's chin, turned his head toward her and said, "You are the man I picked, I want to live with you and raise your children, I want to grow old in a wooden cabin with you. I don't care who you are or aren't."

They kissed, and Josh smiled. "Fellas, if I ever get morose like that, just toss me a dose of Veronica. She knows what needs to be said." He cleared his throat and said, "I suppose I owe you a story... I once had a hand in nuking Korea."

"That sounds like a good story," said Judge Schmidt.

"I ran the weapons section for the 80th Fighter Squadron in Korea. We sent most of our pilots and planes off to Okinawa for an exercise. While they were gone we let the younger fliers drop some live ordnance. One young pilot flew a pair of 2000 pound bombs for the first time ever. It was a very cold day on the bombing range, I heard it was about ten degrees. He dropped his first bomb and it hit and went off and that big fireball shot up in the air sucking all the rocks and debris up behind it as it rose. This butter-bar comes around hard to see if he hit, and all he sees is this enormous mushroom cloud rising within fifty miles of the DMZ and freaks the hell out. He jettisoned his other bomb and skedaddled back to home base, brown stains covering the southern portions of his flight suit."

Josh was loosening up, and Veronica was whispering encouragement in his ear. She had heard this story once before, and it was one of her favorites. "So, Roger Ramjet, All America Hero, hits the runway hard enough to set off the Over-G sensor and roars into his parking space. They had to push his plane back into the shelter and he's cursing the whole time because they wouldn't put the ladder up so he could get out. Finally, he gets out and storms up to my buddy Wedge, my expediter. Wedge had to check each plane that landed for expended munitions, and this one released two Mark 84 bombs and four impulse carts. But the lieutenant is screaming at Wedge about the nuke he dropped within sight of North Korea. Poor Wedge couldn't get a word in edge-wise, and a couple of yards away was the squadron commander, laughing his ass off at poor Wedge."

"What did you do?" asked Judge Schmidt.

"Wedge gave me his clipboard and walked away all pissed off, so I went up to the lieutenant and said, 'I'm in charge of the weapons flight, is there anything I can help you with?' and he went spastic again. I'm like 'uh huh, uh huh, uh huh,' and writing things on the clipboard. Then I said, 'you're absolutely positive it was a nuke?' he screamed, 'of course it was!' I wrote some more then said, 'We're going to need that bomb back.'"

"What did he do?" asked Gene Westover, the bass.

"He freaked out and I said, 'Sir, you signed for it during your preflight, you are responsible for that bomb. You weren't cleared to release a nuke; so... I need it back.' He shrieked like a schoolgirl and started shaking so I said, 'Look, over there, the commander is right there, he'll understand, he's a nice guy, come on, I'll go with you.' We get over to the commander and he's laughing so hard that tears are running down his cheeks and he says, 'Gravely, I know it's fun but you have to stop f---ing with my lieutenants.'"

The judge loved it; there's nothing better than a story about messing with a junior officer. "That's hilarious! Where did you get that story from?"

"It really happened!" said Josh. "I did more than sing karaoke there."

"Speaking of karaoke, what's that song you used to sing over there?" asked Veronica as the waitress brought lunch - fresh made Maryland crab cakes. "You haven't sung it for a long time."

"I sang that song to you hoping you to marry me," said Josh. "I sang a lot of old Dean Martin songs at Karaoke Night at the club." He thought for a moment and then began to sing the Dean Martin song from the Martin/Lewis movie Artists and Models.

If our lips should meet, Innamorata

Kiss me, kiss me sweet Innamorata

Hold me close and say you're mine

With a love as warm as wine

Everyone paused. It was like Josh was channeling the spirit of Dean Martin. His high baritone voice echoed Dean Martin's low tenor voice, and the sweet, romantic song seemed perfect for barbershop harmony. As Josh sang, the other four guys joined in and, one by one, they found their notes and the harmony was born.

I'm at heaven's door, Innamorata

Want you more and more, Innamorata

You're a symphony, a very beautiful sonata, my Innamorata

Say that you're my sweetheart, my love

You're a symphony, a very beautiful sonata, my Innamorata

Say that you're my sweetheart, my one and only sweetheart

Say that you're my sweetheart, my love

By the time they hit the last note, they were all on key and finished with a big major chord. They looked at each other in surprise. "That's the one," said Alex.

"Someone find an arrangement," said Eric. He was sure he had seen musical history born. A long-forgotten Dean Martin song put to harmony, and it worked. They could add plenty of minor chords, a key change or two... this was the contest song they were looking for!

"Ain't no arrangements in the database," said Dan as he searched on his phone.

"None," agreed his wife, Judy, who was looking through another database.

"An original," said Gene. "We can take an original to Denver if we get a music arrangement that meets the judges criteria."

"That was amazing," gushed Mike. "I could never sing like that."

"Tell you what, when you move in with us, I'll take you to the chorus practices and you can learn with a dozen guys to hide behind."

"That's the best way to learn," said Eric.

Gene nodded in agreement. "That's how we all started."

The judge and his wife watched in amazement as these amateur singers harmonized a seventy-year-old song and prepared to perform it in international competition.

<><><><><>

"I can't get through to the Jarecki's," said Veronica, looking at her cell phone.

"Both families?" asked Josh as he took off his dress blues and inspected them for the show tonight.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask Andi to send the girls over to make sure Tigger had food and water and when I call their house Andi answers and says that she's got to keep the line open. So, I called Macy to see if she knows what's going on, but she didn't answer."

"It's a holiday," said Josh. "Maybe Paul is out doing business, and she wants him to pick up something for the party with the girls tonight."

"Yeah, I hope so," said Veronica. "I hope it's not..." she let an unspoken accusation of infidelity hang in the air.

"No! Not Paul!" insisted Josh.

"I'm just worried about his new COO, Ming Sun," said Veronica. "She's incredibly pretty and Paul is a rich, powerful man."

"Paul does not see himself as a rich and powerful man. He sees himself as an average guy who sells cars and happens to have a big house. Everything he does is for Andi and the kids."

Veronica looked at Josh as if he were young and naïve. "Just because he's a family man doesn't prevent a wandering eye."

"No, but his history does. He's been through the same hell as me. He knew that Melony was cheating on him because the commander of her deployment told God and everyone under oath she was cheating on him. Paul didn't know that scumbag raped her and killed her, he had to find out in court. I was better off, I came back after being gone over nine months to find my six month pregnant wife blowing her boyfriend. At least I knew. I will never put someone through the hell I went through. Never."

"Are you sure Paul feels the same way?"

"Positive, we talked about it for hours in his cabin before he met Andi and after."

"What if he caught Andi cheating on him?"

"If Paul came home and found Andi cheating on him, he'd go out on the front lawn and blow his head off."

"What about you?" asked Veronica.

"Ronnie!" scolded her father. He was sitting on the sofa sleeper reading a book. "Is that an appropriate question on your wedding day? Maybe just making sure it never comes down to that would be more appropriate."

"You're right daddy, sorry sweetheart. Give me your pants and I'll iron them while you're practicing with the boys," said Veronica.

"It's my uniform, I maintain my uniform," insisted Josh.

"And I'll press that bow tie of yours, and leave your shirt, I'll take care of that too." She folded down the courtesy ironing board that was mounted in the closet and warmed up the steam iron.

"Please don't," said Josh sadly. "It's my uniform, I'm responsible for its appearance."

Veronica realized that this was important to Josh, but she wanted to be part of his life now. "Please. Let me do it. I want to help, to be a part of your life. If I mess it up, we'll spray some water on it and you can re-press it."

Josh hugged Veronica and said, "I'm sorry; it's a responsibility thing. I once saw a man who outranked me get dinged in an inspection, and all he did was complain about his wife ruining his uniform. I swore I would never do that, so I've done my own uniforms since that time."

They kissed, and she said, "I understand. I just want to help."

"Ok, for you I will make an exception, and when we get back to Springville, I will personally clean and press your gown."

"You will?" She asked, her elegant eyebrows shot up.

"I'll take it to Mr. Sing's dry cleaners."

"Deal, now go practice, Mister Gravely-von Köster" she said with one more lasting kiss.

"Yes Missus Gravely-von Köster." He pulled on his favorite t-shirt that said, "DISABLED VETERAN - Heavily Medicated For Your Safety" and a pair of sweatpants and went to the adjoining building where the guys were going to practice.

"You're not going dad?"

"No, I want to spend time with Missus Gravely-von Köster." He turned the page of his magazine as Veronica started ironing Josh's trousers. "What are the children's names going to be? Gravely-von Köster is kind of long for a little kid to take to school."

"It will just be von Köster."

"So you're going to let Josh's family name die?"

"Yep, he thinks that's for the best. There's an uncle out there somewhere he says, but Josh is sure he drank himself to death already. He wants the family curse to end now."

Just then, there was a knock at the door. "Door's open!"

"Can we come in?" said Mary Beth Westover.

"Come on in," called out Veronica without looking up from her ironing.

"Ironing the hubby's uniform?" asked Olivia Kraus. "He's domesticated you already."

"I thought you were some big time executive at his workplace," said Hope Rodriguez.

"Doesn't mean I don't know how to iron," said Veronica, who was wearing one of Josh's t-shirts and a pair of stretch pants. "I had to fight for this honor."

"Fight to iron his uniform?" asked Judy Griffith.

"He wouldn't let me touch it, he says it's his responsibility."

"What kind of iron do you have at home?" asked Mary Beth.

"It's a nice one, a Beautural. t's 1800 watt," said Veronica as she hung Josh's trousers on a wooden hanger.

"I still have my mom's old Proctor Silex," sighed Hope.

"I hate ironing, everything we have is permanent press, my iron is dying of loneliness," said Judy.

"I don't know, there's something about a sharp crease in a pair of trousers," said Veronica as she started to iron Josh's bow tie.

"I think I'm going to watch the guys practice," said Mike, and he folded his magazine and left.

As soon as he was gone, Mary Beth said, "that took longer than I expected."

"Dad has a tolerance for girl talk," said Veronica with a laugh. "He raised two of us by himself."

"Now we can talk!" said Hope with a grin, and the Pennsy Girls leaned in to learn about their new member.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

The crowd for the New Year's Eve program was much bigger than the night before, and again, Pennsy wowed the crowd. To be honest, you have to enjoy Barbershop Harmony before shelling out money for a ticket to a show; it's not something most people will go see simply to see a show. And this was a small town, so Josh didn't expect a big turnout, but there had to be three hundred people there eating standard banquet fare and loving the music. The tables were set up with the usual New Year's Eve hats and horns, confetti, masks and champagne flutes. Josh wasn't the type to go out for New Year's Eve, or as his dad called it, "Amateur Hour." He preferred to stay at home, but Pennsy was getting paid good money for this night.

Josh had made Johnny McGreevy's "magic elixir" for the guys, hoping that it would help make singing easier for Eric. The elixir was honey, lemonade, and whiskey, heated up and kept in a thermos. It loosened up strained vocal cords, and Josh hoped that relieving the strain on his vocal cords would help Eric sing as he fought his unnamed vascular condition.

Finally, as they finished their collection of Elvis Presley songs, they neared the skit. "I understand that this day is a popular day to get married," said Eric. "Is anyone here celebrating an anniversary today?" About six couples raised their hands, and Eric smiled. "This song is for you," and they sang the barbershop classic 'Heart of my Heart.' Like all Tin Pan Alley songs written in the dawn of the 20th century, it was quick; they rarely last more than a minute because they were written for two pages of sheet music.

When the applause died, Eric then asked, "Is there anyone that was married today? Anyone?" Veronica raised her hand, but they were in the audience's corner, so Eric pretended he didn't notice until Hope, at the Pennsy Girls' table, shouted, "Over there!" and pointed to Josh and Veronica. That was primarily to get everyone looking at Josh and Veronica's table.

"Oh, yes. You two were married today?" and Eric held his microphone up to Veronica.

"Yes," she said shyly.

"Why today of all days?" he asked.

She said timidly, "The tax credit," which caused the audience to laugh.

"Oh, come on! Like they're the only one!" Eric scolded the audience, which got huge laughter. He would never have done that before, but Josh coached him on it. Most barbershop quartets interact little with their audience, but the great quartets play with their audience; they befriend and have fun with their audience. Humorously scolding an audience makes them confederates in what comes next.

"We would like to sing you a special song, would that be ok?" asked Eric, and as nervously as possible, Veronica said, "Yes."

They tuned up, then they started to sing. They got two words into "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" when Eric started coughing. He said, "I need some tea for this throat, you guys finish up without me," and he handed the microphone to Alex and left. The guys watched in stunned shock as their lead singer left, which caused the audience to roar with laughter.

Finally, nervously, Alex raised the microphone and timidly said, "Is there a singer in the house?" which produced even more laughter.

"He can sing!" said Veronica.

"You sure?" asked Alex. "He doesn't look like it. He's kinda puny. If it's not too late, I can introduce you to my cousin Hernando..." That's when Josh stood up in his uniform and glared down at Alex. Alex was a small guy, and next to him Josh looked huge. Alex looked up at Josh, then down at Veronica and whispered into the microphone, "I'll get you Hernando's number... just in case..."

"Stop that," said Gene, and he grabbed the microphone from Alex. "We want to sing Let Me Call You Sweetheart; do you know that song?" Josh just slowly nodded. Gene sighed, shrugged and blew the pitch pipe, and they sang. Their harmony was perfect, and the age-old song filled the hall. Many men joined in the singing as the romantic old song performed its magic, and when the song was over, the audience applauded loudly.

"Come on up and sing with us," said Alex, then to the audience he said, "What do ya think? Should we give him a try?" Josh followed Alex, Dan and Gene to center stage and took his position between Alex and Dan. "What's your name Sergeant?"

Josh glared at Alex and said, "Josh."

"Where are you from?"

"Buffalo," snarled Josh. His grouchy demeanor got laughter from the audience, as did the absurdity of someone with a southern accent claiming to be from Buffalo.

"Do you know Country Roads?"

"Ah shore do," said Josh, his southern accent coming out at full force. "Ah know it th' rat way, an' ah know it Buffalo style."

"Buffalo style?"

"Yea. It's kinda spicy." That brought even more laughter.

Alex turned to the audience as he put the mic back on the stand. "What do you think folks, the right way or Buffalo style?" Buffalo style was the big winner. Gene blew his pitch pipe, and they started singing Take Me Home, Country Roads, Buffalo Style.

Almost heaven, western New York

Snowbelt blizzard, Allegheny River...

The audience loved Buffalo style even though most didn't know the inside jokes about life in Buffalo. They laughed and, in the end, they cheered the utter silliness of it all.

"Thank you very much! We're going to take a break and be right back," and the guys dragged Josh backstage with them. In the backstage break room, the quartet looked at each other in shock, this was beyond what they had ever experienced before at a sing date or in the divisional competition. The audience was hanging on every word and every note.

"You had them eating out of your hands!" gasped Eric as he patted Josh on the back.

"No, we had them eating out of OUR hands," said Josh as he dug around in the fridge for a bottle of water.

"I can't believe the crowd, they're loving it!" gasped Gene.

"They're loving US!" cried Eric.

Josh half-sat on a table and opened a water bottle and watched the gang gasping at the audience's reaction. "Y'all got the arrangements and the pipes, the district competition proved that. But just singing and walking off stage isn't a show. Now we work on drawing the audience in."

"You were right!" cried Dan as he shook Josh's shoulders from behind. "Just draw them in and they're part of the show!"

Veronica and Mike entered the room, and Veronica ran to Josh with a squeal of pride. "You guys were amazing!"

"We were amazing for ten minutes," said Josh. "We still have another forty-five minutes to go, then the band takes over and we have Auld Lang Syne at midnight."

"Just amazing," said Mike as Veronica peppered Josh's face with kisses.

"Ok, let's calm down folks," said Eric. "We don't have a solid script for the rest of the show."

"We can do a few visual jokes," said Josh, and he showed them a few.

"This is all good and everything," said Eric, his voice dripping with ill-concealed anger, "but I don't want to change this quartet into a comedy quartet." He turned to Josh and said, "If that's what you want to do, we can keep looking for a lead."

"You're absolutely right," said Josh. "Performing comedy and being rock solid on the arrangement is incredibly hard. But to be brutally honest, Pennsy has a reputation for being cold to the audience. I don't want a comedy quartet but I would like to warm up Pennsy with interaction and little skits between the songs."

Dan, the youngest member of Pennsy, stepped forward and said, "Eric, you know I respect you and I've learned so much from you, but we're here to entertain. I hear it over and over that our shows are for barbershop connoisseurs and not the general public. I want to have fun while we sing. I think we can entertain between songs too."

"Do you all feel that way?" demanded Eric. Veronica noticed that he was shaking and sweating.

The other three members of Pennsy nodded. "It's not a repudiation of you or your training," said Alex. "But we won the district championship, yet we're booking fewer sing-dates. We need to start making money, and if that means we have to make the crowd laugh, that's what we're going to have to do."

"It's fun," said Gene. "That's why I started singing. I love getting the music as close to perfect as possible but hearing the crowd laugh... it makes all the work worthwhile."

Veronica and Eric's wife Olivia went up to Eric, and Veronica whispered in his ear, "They're right, let them have fun. It's their first international, so getting them worked up into a panic is counterproductive. Trust me, I know performance and competition. They need to go into the judging process loose and happy, not wound up and terrified of making a mistake." Mike glared at Veronica, but she said, "Trust me, I've been in more beauty pageants and ballroom dancing competitions than I can count."

"He's afraid that he can't finish the show," said Olivia. "Honey, friends of Josh are here, they can help."

"I just talked to them," said Veronica. "When you go out, introduce Josh and announce that he's joining Pennsy, and when someone objects, just go with the flow."

<><><><><>

Back on stage, the quartet lined up with Josh standing in line with them. "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce retired United States Air Force Master Sergeant Joshua Gravely." When the crowd applauded, Josh noticed a familiar face in the crowd. Was that Dottie Lux? Eric continued. "I need to take some time off from singing and Josh has volunteered..."

"I OBJECT!" called a voice from the audience.

"You can't object, this is a barbershop quartet!" insisted Eric.

Three men rose from a table in the back and made their way onto the stage. It was Dick Daniels, Johnny McGreevy, and Sam Lux, the Gentlemen's Disagreement. "He's our baritone, he sings with us!" said Dick as he moved next to Josh.

"He volunteered to sing with us!" insisted Eric, playing along nicely. "He's going to be our lead." Each man grabbed an arm and started pulling Josh from side to side.

"He's ours!"

"He promised!"

"We saw him first!"

"Stop!" shouted Josh. He pulled his arms free and cried, "Stop! I just got married."

"Married?" asked Dick, who looked genuinely shocked. "Who would marry you?"

Veronica sidled up to Josh and pulled his arm around her while Sam blew a note on his pitch pipe. At the sound of the single note, Josh acted as if he suddenly had an idea. He smiled and held a finger up, then began to sing, and the Gentlemen's Disagreement sang with him.

I met a girl who told me she's a dancer

A prettier girl I've never seen before

I went to the theater to see her

What a SHOCK! when I opened up the door...

She was dancing the Bump. Bump. Bumpity Bump!

The audience was going, going wild...

As they sang, Veronica did something she had always wanted to do whenever she heard that song. She stepped forward and danced her own version of the Bumpity Bump. The audience howled as she danced around and teased the old men of the Gentlemen's Disagreement one by one.

When I get home each night about five

She's got that radio onnnnn -

She starts moving all around the kitchen floor

The neighbors peeking in screaming "More, more, more!"

They asked if I'd sell tickets at my front door

To watch her dance the Bumpity Bump!

When they hit the final chord, she ended up in front of Josh, his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight. The audience went wild as they sang the light-hearted song.

The rest of the show was the two quartets on stage, the Gentlemen's Disagreement performing a comedy song, then Josh would walk over to Pennsy and sing a more sincere song with them, then go back to the Gentlemen's Disagreement for a silly song. When it came time to wind up, both quartets joined to sing the theme song and motto of the Barbershop Harmony Society: Keep The Whole World Singing.

As the crowd rose to their feet to applaud the impromptu celebration of music, Josh waved to the girls to join the men on stage and Josh called out, "Please, a big had for the Gentlemen's Women and the Pennsy Girls, they make this whole thing possible!" All the wives were on stage and taking a bow with the guys, and then they headed to the back room. The audience demanded an encore, but nothing this evening was planned. They sang Keep the Whole World Singing because every barbershopper knows it; it's sung at every meeting. "We all know one they'll love," said Josh. "Let's do it the right way this time."

The two quartets lined up for an encore, and it started with Josh singing a solo.

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River...

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

As they did that, the band began to quietly set up behind them. As the two quartets and most of the audience sang Take Me Home, Country Roads, Veronica met with the leader of the band and made a request.

With the encore complete, the quartet headed into the backstage breakroom, except for Josh and Veronica, who stayed on the stage area. Finally, the band started up with a special request, and they played the Sinatra classic, Fly Me To The Moon, the first song that Josh and Veronica ever danced the foxtrot to. Veronica taught him that step in Jarecki's library, so they remained on the stage, and danced to the live music.

The audience thought that was part of the entertainment and watched the highly decorated veteran bow to the beautiful fashion model, then they began to dance flawlessly to the ten-piece band's version of the timeless classic. They looked so elegant, so happy, so much in love as Josh whirled her around. The band's vocalist sang and did a fair job of the old enduring piece.

"You know, it's only ten o'clock," said Josh as he danced with his bride.

"What are you saying?" she asked innocently.

"We could run off to our room and consummate our union."

"But it was a civil ceremony, I don't think the rules apply."

"After your bumpity bump, I think everyone here wants to get back to their room and do some consummating."

"You're so easy to convince," said Veronica with a smile.

They danced and spun around the dance floor, her sequined gown flashing under the lights. Josh led her in steps she didn't realize he was ready for yet, and all too soon the song came to an end and the crowd applauded their dancing skills. Josh and Veronica turned to face the audience and bowed. Then they saw both quartets over by the breakroom applauding also, so they bowed to their friends, then without an explanation they left. They walked through the crowd, thanking them for their applause, then got their coats and left.

"Where are they going?" demanded Johnny McGreevy.

"Well, they did get married this morning," said Eric.

"The hell you say!"

"No really, they did," said Gene. "We were there and sang for their ceremony."

"And they didn't tell us," said Dick Daniels.

"Hell, they didn't tell me and I was a part of the whole thing," groused Mike.

"Let's go talk barbershop," said Sam Lux, and they retreated into the breakroom to discuss Pennsy's plans for the future with Josh.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"How did you convince the guys to come down from Buffalo?" asked Josh.

"I didn't! Sam asked you if we were getting married and you said 'Yeah, but that's not why I called,' Sam was on speaker and Dottie heard, so she called Jaquie and Maureen and eventually they called me while you were in the other room talking to Rod so they decided to come down and watch the show and you know the guys, they wouldn't..."

Josh stopped her explanation with a kiss. "You are amazing," he sighed as they entered their room. "You took a simple civil ceremony and covered all the bases. Our friends were all here except for the Jarecki clan. Did you even do old/new/borrowed/blue?"

She pointed to her left ear, where she wore a ruby stud earring. "Something old. This was my grandmothers." She pointed to her right ear; she was wearing an emerald stud earring that Josh gave her for Christmas. "Something new." She reached into her clutch purse and pulled out a challenge coin that she had "borrowed" from Josh's collection. "Something borrowed," then she clutched his balls through his slacks. "Something blue."

"That doesn't count."

"In that case, I'm wearing something blue," she said. "It's your mission to find it, sergeant."

"Hmmm," he pulled off their coats, and pulled her close for a long, sweet kiss that grew with intensity as they kissed. Their tongues danced and twined together as their passions flared. They pulled each other tighter and began pulling at each other's clothing. When they ended the kiss, Josh said, "I didn't find any blue fillings."

"You are so goofy," said Veronica as she fought with his belt buckle. "What level of hell was this made in?"

"Here, let me show you," and he showed her how to slide the bar to the left, releasing the belt, and he had the belt undone.

Her next struggle was with the slide fastener on the trousers. "Who came up with this nightmare design?" she groused.

"The good part is that it's a uniform. You now know how to get into the pants of every man in the Army, Air Force, and Space Force," said Josh as he pulled the shoulders of her dress down. "No bra?" he said happily as her firm breasts came into view, and they were adorned with something blue. She was wearing nipple jewelry. Fine silver chains dangled from her erect nipples, coaxing Josh to look closer.

"Not in a dress with no back. Everything is held in place with sticky tape." She arched her back, exposing the delicate chains dangling from her nipples, the end of each chain adorned with a small orb of blue lapis lazuli.

"Did Mike help you put this on?"

Veronica smiled wistfully and said, "Not the jewelry, but he did help with the dress. He's done that for years but he didn't realize it was his last time dressing me for a show."

Josh suddenly remembered holding three-day-old Mateo Ezequiel, Yesenia's child; he would be eight years old now. But holding that small infant in his arms made a tremendous impact on Josh. He realized that regardless of the pain that baby's mother caused him, Josh couldn't hold it against tiny Mateo, and all too soon he realized it would be the last time he would ever hold the little boy. "Men don't take last times very well."

"Girls don't either, but we have lifetimes of firsts ahead of us," she said as her dress pooled on the ground at her feet.

"No panties either?" asked Josh as she stood before him and unbuttoned his shirt and removed the bow tie. USAF semiformal blues are their regular blues worn with a white shirt and bow tie. She took his jacket and hung it on a wooden hanger and put it in the closet, and while she did that, Josh drank in the sight of her smooth back, her narrow waist, her round hips and deliciously rounded ass. He picked up her dress and handed it to her as she hung that up. "These go to the cleaners on Monday and then will be put in storage for the next time they're needed."

Veronica turned back to Josh and helped him strip down, then she led him to the bathroom, where a hot shower was waiting. They stepped into the shower and gently lathered each other up. "You look so sharp in that uniform with a beard," said Veronica. "Why can't you have a beard on active duty?"

"Because your gas-mask or oxygen-mask won't seal with a beard. Wearing a beard is like a privilege for retirees.

"That makes more sense than saying, 'It's against regulations,'" said Veronica as she nipped at his nipple with her pearly white teeth.

"Missus Gravely-von Köster," said Josh with a playful growl, and he held Veronica as tight as he could in a bear hug.

"Is it me or is it your new quartet?" she asked as she kneaded his firm ass.

"You don't know how important it is to me that you enjoy the other women and help the quartet. You share my interests and hobbies; you understand what I say when you ask how work went; you don't mind hiking through a forest and swimming in a pond. It's so refreshing after other relationships I've had." He kissed her sweetly and passionately, then they shut off the shower and dried off.

"Relationships like Yesenia?"

"Yeah, her."

"And Hani?"

Josh paused for a moment. He hadn't thought of Hani in a long time. "Compared to what we have, Hani wasn't much of a relationship. We could barely communicate; we had different tastes in everything; we just enjoyed being close to each other. Then one day she disappeared and I never heard from her again."

Veronica sat on the bed, and Josh lit a few candles they had brought with to add some romantic light to the room. Their golden glow did indeed add a romantic warmth, and their flickering in the air currents coming from the furnace made the shadows gently dance. "What do you think happened to her?" asked Veronica.

"I don't know. I hope she had a Korean boyfriend and he's treating her kindly," said Josh. "She had talked about wanting to go see Gwangju..." The Spotify holiday mix he was playing was playing Auld Lang Syne, a mournful, heart breaking version and he didn't want to think of the people he lost over the years, but their faces kept coming to him. Those girls he used then dumped in Florida, Hani disappearing without a word, Craig and Wayne both dead, Andi and John being horribly run over by a car, Séraphine poisoned to death with fentanyl, Dennis Howe shot and dumped on the side of the road, and poor Cholly left to starve to death... Sometimes their ghosts haunt him, accusing him, demanding to know why he didn't prevent their agony.

The sudden helpless look on Josh's face told Veronica everything she needed to know. She had to get his mind off of the past. "Come here," growled Veronica, and she pulled Josh to stand in front of her. His cock was limp due to the morose images that crept into this happy day. "Let me see what I can do," she said, and she took his limp cock into her mouth. Veronica considered herself a master at this, and she never blamed a man for a limp cock. She dated quite a few men who couldn't get it up, and despite the name "boner" the human is one of the few mammals that do not have a penis bone helping him along.

As she gently suckled his cock, she cradled his balls in one soft hand; her other hand reached around and ever so gently brushed over his taut ass cheeks. For Josh, the sensations were exquisite. He shivered with pleasure, and she soon felt his cock harden in her mouth. Soon she could feel the beating of his heart through his rock-hard cock. She slowly pulled her mouth off his cock and looked up into his eyes and said, "We're going to be all right." Then she pulled him down to her lap.

"I love doing this," said Veronica as she reached around Josh's waist and began stroking his hard cock. With her other hand, she covered his mouth so he couldn't talk. "I don't know why, but ever since I heard the term reach-around, I've been crazy about it."

This was a new one for Josh. He was being dominated by his new wife, and he was loving it! The feeling that she was in control was thrilling. Not because he felt a need to be dominated, or that he was the submissive type, he just loved the fact that he didn't have to be the perfect lover. She was in charge, so he could relax and enjoy the ride.

"I love you Ephie," said Veronica softly into his ear as she stroked his hard cock. "I've loved you since the day we first laid eyes on each other. I've been waiting two years for today and I want you to know, it's been perfect." She knew he was enjoying it by the way that he was oozing pre-cum. "I'm not the dominant type, you know I like it when you tie me up and use me as your sex toy, but sometimes I like to be the top myself. Is it okay with you if I dominate you occasionally?"

Josh nodded, but he didn't feel dominated. He felt her breasts at his back, her warm lap under his ass, her talented tongue dancing around and in his ear, her gentle hand on his mouth pulling him close, and her soft hand stroking up and down his cock. He felt loved and desired. He felt warm and secure in the arms of the partner he had always dreamed about, and she was pleasuring him. He sighed and relaxed happily.

"Oh husband, my love," she whispered in his ear softly. Then, her tone of voice became stern. "You're just going to sit there and let me do all the work?"

"Uh huh," he mumbled into her hand and nodded affirmatively.

"Just for that," and she squeezed his cock hard. In a flash, he had turned the tables. He twisted out of her embrace and pushed her onto her back. He ended up kneeling over her, his knees on either side of her waist, and he was tickling the helpless blond. She twisted from side to side trying to avoid his tickling fingers, but he knew her too well. He knew all her ticklish spots, and when he got her squealing and laughing she was helpless.

"Stop! You'll wake the neighbors!" she squealed.

"I'm being perfectly silent," Josh insisted, but he wasn't sure if she heard him over her own laughter.

"Don't! Please!" she said between gasps and giggles. Her sides were beginning to hurt from laughing so much.

"As you wish Nicca," said Josh, and suddenly the tickling stopped and he climbed off of her. Just as Veronica relaxed, she felt his tongue slide up the length of her sex from her perineum over her labia to her clit, and she knew she was under his control now. There was nothing she wanted more at that moment than to be loved by her man.

"Oh Ephie," she said with a sigh, and she writhed in boneless pleasure as he began worshiping at her vagina. His tongue slithered deep into her pussy as he drove her to higher and higher levels of euphoria. She ran her fingers through his hair as he licked and suckled her pussy, and she grunted in pleasure when he lashed her clit with his waggling tongue and drove two fingers into her sodden depths.

"I am going to spend the rest of my life loving you, Nicca... my Nicca."

Veronica gasped at those words. They shot right to her core and lit a fire in her heart that glowed merrily. How many times had she wished she could have heard those exact words, and finally when she heard them, the feeling was more than she could have imagined. The orgasm that Josh was driving her to crashed over her like a tremendous wave breaking on a rocky shore. She shook and jerked as jolts of euphoria coursed through her. She had her feet planted on the mattress and her shuddering hips rose, straining to get closer to Josh's hungry mouth that was driving her crazy. Then, with a sudden explosion of bliss, her thighs clamped closed on Josh's head, trapping him in her carnal clutch.

Only her feet, shoulders and head touched the mattress, and her hands clutched his head as wave after wave of pure ecstasy overpowered Veronica's nervous system. Then, with one tremendous explosion of ecstasy, her orgasm shook her like a rag doll. "EPHIE!" she shrieked. Then she suddenly tightened up, gritted her teeth and froze in that position, then she went limp and dropped to the mattress.

When Veronica's eyes fluttered open, she saw Josh lying next to her on his side, studying her with a shit-eating grin on his face. "How long was it this time?" she asked as she tried to orient herself.

Josh took his watch off the nightstand. "Eight minutes. You just set a record."

"You're pretty damn proud of yourself, aren't you?" scolded Veronica.

"Yeah," said Josh, trying not to laugh. "Damn proud."

"I'm proud of you too," she said as she pulled Josh to her for a kiss. "No man has ever done that before. Not even close."

"How about women?" asked Josh. They were married now; there was no reason to hide anything.

She looked reluctant to answer, then finally said, "No, not as consistently as you, and not for eight minutes, not even close."

"So I beat the lesbian record?" he said, that grin broadening.

"YOU...!" She shoved Josh over onto his back and climbed over him, her pussy settling down on his hard cock. "Yes," she finally answered. "Don't be smug."

"I want a t-shirt that says, 'Better pussy licker than a lez...OW!'"

"You deserve that," snarled Veronica as she pinched and twisted his nipple.

"You're funny. I think I'll keep you forever," said Josh as he pulled her down for a kiss.

When their lips parted, Veronica pushed herself up to a seated position and said, "A wedding present for my husband," and smiling, she began to move her hips forward and back, sliding her damp pussy over the sensitive underside of his cock. This was one of Josh's favorites. Josh calls it the Pussy Slide or the Camel Toe Glide. The feeling of her warm, wet pussy lips gliding fore and back on his cock was exquisite, and he could cum from this treatment. For Veronica, the feeling of her pussy, labia, and clit being dragged over the lubricated length of his hard cock was sending her back up on a climb to another orgasm.

She looked down and expected to see his eyes locked on her dangling, swinging breasts, something he really enjoys. Instead, his eyes were looking up at her, waiting for her to look down at him. He smiled up at her and said, "I'm so happy and blessed to have you as my wife."

Something joyful surged through Veronica. It was a love she never felt before, an all-encompassing passion. Until that very moment, Veronica was sure the greatest love in her life was her dad Mike, but now her love of Josh far exceeds that. With a yelp of joy, she fell forward, and their lips met. Josh clung tight to his wife, and they rolled over with him on top. They were both so close to orgasm they couldn't wait. They both fumbled until his cock was inside her.

How many times had they made love in the past? Josh had no idea. Some weekends at the cabin were so sex-soaked that he doubted they ever got anything else done. But somehow, this very first time with Missus Veronica A. Gravely-von Köster was different. Both were so filled with joy that the moment they had waited for their entire lives, the one true love, was here! They made love, with eyes filled with tears of joy, hearts beating wildly.

"I'm going to cum Nicca," gasped Josh.

"Cum in me Ephie," cried Veronica. She was cumming herself, her arms and legs wrapped around Josh, clasping him tightly. She too had an epiphany when she realized the man inside of her was more than just Josh; he was Mister Ephraim J. Gravely-von Köster, her mate, the father of her children and her protector and partner for life. Weeping great sobs of joy, she clutched him as he roared his pleasure and relief and fired jet after jet of life-creating semen into her vagina.

They clung to each other, kissing gently as they returned to earth, their breathing and heartbeats returning to normal. Then she noticed he was shuddering. "Are you crying?" she asked.

"No."

"You are, what's wrong?"

"I am just so happy to be here with you... and I got to wondering what it would be like if you were waiting for me to come home instead of Yesenia." He took a deep, shuddering breath and said, "I know, it's silly."

"It's not silly," said Veronica. "I would have gone to you in the hospital, and when you got home your Jeep would have been waiting. And when you went to Korea, I would have snuck into the dorm like your squeaky friend did."

That made Josh chuckle. "She's not my squeaky friend; she's my friend Squeaky. She's going to be on our honeymoon cruise with Paul and Andi. You're going to love her."

"Honeymoon cruise? I don't think it's a honeymoon cruise," said Veronica as she snuggled close and rested her head on his shoulder.

"It is now," said Josh.

Veronica reached over to pull Josh's arm over her when she noticed the time on his wristwatch. She pulled his hand closer to make sure. "It's almost eleven thirty! We got to get going." She jumped up and dashed into the bathroom as Josh pulled on his underwear and trousers. From behind the door he could hear her cry, "You must have cum a gallon in me!"

"Well, you did say..."

"Just don't!"

He pulled on a necktie with the old barbershop harmony organization logo on it. The logo was a barber pole with a harp behind it and a banner in front displaying the letters S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. It's one of the four ties he owns, a straight tie and a bow tie for his uniform and a black bow tie for his tuxedo. Veronica saw the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. logo and smiled. She loved the skit that the Gentlemen's Disagreement put together to explain S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A.

Josh laid her business outfit on the bed, and she dressed quickly, and they dashed out and were in the backstage breakroom before eleven thirty.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"Well, well, well, you're back," said Johnny McGreevy.

Josh shook his head and patted his chest. "My front." There were groans from the assembled group, and Josh said, "Hey, they loved that in Baltimore."

"They don't love anything in Baltimore," snarled Dick Daniels. "Where were you guys?"

Josh and Veronica looked at each other, then looked back at Dick. "You really don't know?"

"We were all here waiting for you to finish dancing and you never came back here," demanded Dick.

"Well... when momma robin and daddy bumble bee really, really love each other..." started Veronica.

"They got married," said Sam. "It's their wedding night."

"They had to concentrate their marriage," said Johnny, whose skill at malapropisms was legendary.

"What's up?" Josh asked Eric, "What do we have planned?"

As Eric explained to Josh what the plans were for the rest of the evening, Veronica turned to Olivia, Eric's wife. "You haven't told Josh why Eric is stepping down, have you."

"Would it make a difference?" asked Olivia.

"Yes, it would," said Veronica. Then quietly she said, "Josh is a cancer survivor. It's the reason why the Air Force put him out."

"I didn't know that" said Olivia wistfully. "Was it lung cancer?"

"No, it was osteosarcoma, bone cancer."

"It's not the same," said Olivia. "This is lung cancer; he can't sing anymore. Singing is his world, and it's being taken away..."

Veronica put her hands on the small woman's shoulders and turned Olivia to face her. "Josh's cancer took everything away from him. He finally found a job he loved after being grounded, and it was taken away. He was in Korea with a Korean girlfriend, and they sent him stateside, so he lost his girlfriend and his home. They put him out of the military, and when he got out of the hospital, he had nothing but his truck. He moved to Buffalo and somehow he made it on his own. Eric has so much more; he has you, he has all the guys, and all the Pennsy Girls. We're going to be there every step of the way, understand?"

Olivia looked up at Veronica, her eyes full of tears. It was clear to Veronica that Olivia didn't believe her, so Veronica continued, "Honey, we are family. It's what family does, ok?" Olivia nodded and then rested her head on Veronica's shoulder. As she settled Olivia's nerves, she looked up and saw Maureen McGreevy, Mother Superior, watching with a glow of approval. She walked over to Veronica and patted her on the back.

"Aye, you'll make a fine Mother Superior you will." It was then that Veronica realized her position. Pennsy was a young quartet; she and Josh were older than everyone else in the group. This made Josh the lead singer and the quartet leader; even Eric was looking to him for direction. Meanwhile, Veronica realized that she was the Mother Superior of the Pennsy Girls.

It was time, and the Gentlemen's Disagreement strutted out on stage one last time. They weren't in costume, but they performed often in their street clothes, so this was nothing new. "Ah HA!" cried Dick Daniels. "You're wearing the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. tie. I started singing when the Barbershop Harmony Society was known as S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A." He pronounced the abbreviation "speb-squaw"

Josh smiled brightly and said, "That stands for the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America!"

Dick, Johnny, and Sam said in unison, "It means, Some People, Especially Baritones, Should Quit Singing All together" which caused Josh to pout. They then sang a comedy salute to the 'Chairborne Infantry' the "nonners" that grease the wheels of the military without getting their hands dirty. It started,

Off we go into the office yonder.

Off we go into Excel...

When they were finished with the re-written Air Force Song, Dick stepped forward and said, "Our young friend Josh is an Air Force veteran, you saw him in his uniform earlier. He earned all those medals and ribbons flying combat missions in Air Force gunships, and we'd like to salute him and all men and women who fly into danger for us." They sang a beautiful harmonization of the unofficial gunship theme song "Ghost Riders in the Sky."

An old cowboy went riding out

One dark and windy day...

The members of Pennsy listened in shock. Their version of Ghost Riders was the best a cappella version they had ever heard, and it was still pure barbershop. "If they sang that at Kleinhans they would have won," gasped Eric.

"They didn't want to win," said Veronica, who overheard him. "They were aiming for fourth place and were shocked to take third."

"I've never heard of a quartet that was rooting against itself," said Eric.

On stage, the boys finished up Ghost Riders, and Dick stepped forward and said, "Our decorated veteran, Josh would like to do a salute to the newest branch of the armed forces, the United States Space Force!" He stepped back in line and Josh blew a note on his pitch pipe. All four men took a deep breath and stopped.

They looked at each other in confusion, and Sam stepped forward and said, "Does anyone know the Space Force song?" Then they went into a huddle and then lined up again. Dick blew the pitch pipe, and they began to sing.

Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars...

They stopped and looked at each other and shook their heads... that wasn't it, so they tried another.

She packed my bags last night pre-flight...

Zero hour, 9:00 a.m...

They stopped, shrugged and then looked at each other. Then they started another song:

Ground Control to Major Tom...

Ground Control to Major Tom...

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

The laughter filled the Town Center, and even the band members, who came out of their break room to watch, were lining the wall laughing.

"I got it! I got it!" cried Josh, and he showed his phone to the guys, who slapped their foreheads and then nodded in agreement. With broad grins, they lined up and began to sing...

Would you like to swing on a star?

Carry moonbeams home in a jar?

And be better off than you are?

Or would you rather be a mule?

This time they sang the song all the way through with humorous gestures to illustrate the mule, pig, fish and monkey mentioned in the song and finished to thunderous applause. Finally, Dick stepped forward and said, "On behalf of the men of the Gentlemen's Disagreement, and our wives who stick with our silliness through thick and thin, we thank you. As the last moments of the year slip away, we announce with heavy hearts that this was the last public performance of The Gentlemen's Disagreement."

As he said that, Pennsy lined up on the other side of the stage. "Sadly," started Eric, "I'm going to have to retire from singing, so tonight may have been the last performance of Pennsy... unless..." When he said that, the Gentlemen's Disagreement leaned forward and turned their heads, obviously pantomiming rapt attention to what Eric was saying. The Gentlemen's Disagreement looked at each other, then made a fist with their right hand and brought it down on their left palm three times - the start of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Josh put forward a rock; everyone else put forward paper.

Dick pantomimed casting Josh out, sternly pointing at Pennsy. Josh walked across the stage acting dejected and sorrowful. With his head down and his feet dragging, he was the face of dejection until he looked up and saw Pennsy urging him on like they were calling a puppy to come to them. Josh joined up with them, and they sang the Tin Pan Alley song "Wait 'till The Sun Shines Nelly" a simple old song with wonderful major chords that rang through the rafters. "On behalf of the Town Center event center, the Gentlemen's Disagreement, and Pennsy, we want to wish you all the best for the coming year which starts in ten! Nine! Eight!..." The crowd joined in the countdown until they all shouted, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

As the band played a fanfare, Josh found Veronica in the melee and held her tight. When their lips parted, Josh smiled and said, "Nicca my love, this will be the greatest year ever."

Veronica nodded and said, "I pray it will," but her heart was filled with ominous dread. A year is a long time, and some horrible things can happen. She opened her mouth to say something, but both quartets began to sing.

Should Auld Acquaintance be forgot

and never brought to mind

Should Auld Acquaintance be forgot

and days of Auld Lang Syne

For Auld Lang Syne, my dear

For Auld Lang Syne

We'll take a cup of kindness yet

for days of Auld Lang Syne

<><><><><>

Josh and Veronica returned to the hotel, but Mike stayed at the party. They made love after returning to their room. It was gentle and loving, a celebration of their marriage, and they soon drifted off to sleep in each other's arms.

Josh woke up with a sore throat. It's been a long time since he sang that much, and it's only going to get worse with the competition coming up in late summer. Veronica was up; she was sitting up reading a book in the nude, which looked especially sexy. "Hey," she said softly. "What 'cha doin?"

"Enjoying the scenery. Have I ever told you how beautiful you are naked?"

"I'm not sure, remind me."

Josh began kissing her side and then started tracing a line of kisses down her side. "I love your ribs... your tummy... your hips... your thighs... your calves... oh, your poor feet!"

"What's wrong with my feet?" asked Veronica, not looking up from her book.

"They're all bruised."

"Well yeah, we were dancing with the wrong shoes yesterday."

"I'm sorry..." started Josh.

"I am too, but I'm mostly hungry. Let's go eat." She scrambled out of bed and reached for her bra.

"There's no need for that," said Josh.

"What do you mean... oh... that..." Josh had come up behind her and cupped her breasts and was holding them for her. "That may not be practical."

"I don't see a problem," said Josh with a shrug.

"I'm sure you tried the same thing with Yesenia?" asked Veronica.

"Oh hell no, I had to use both hands just to corral one of them puppies and there was plenty of leftovers spillin' out the side. If I wanted to play handbra I'd have to call in a couple of guys to help."

For some reason, that struck Veronica as funny, and she started to laugh while she was trying to put on her clothes. "Go see if your father-in-law wants to join us for breakfast."

"Ok," and Josh went into the bathroom and knocked on the door to Mike's room. "Hey Mike!" he called. "We're going to get some breakfast, wanna join us?"

Josh heard rustling bedcovers and a very feminine giggle, then Mike said, "We'll be down in a little bit, you head out and we'll catch up." Then Josh heard a feminine "Shhh!" There was some whispering, then Josh said, "I'll handle Ronnie. See you in a bit."

Josh returned to Veronica and pulled on his clothing. "What did he say?"

"He said head out and he'll catch up with us."

"Ok."

They pulled on their coats and headed out. About halfway to the Cannonball Express Diner, Josh said, "I wasn't entirely truthful."

"What do you mean?"

"Your dad didn't say, 'I'll meet you there,' he said 'we will meet you there.'"

"We?" Veronica looked shocked.

"Yes, I believe he had a woman in there with him."

"Ephriam!" she snapped. "That's my father you're talking about!"

"Nicca," said Josh. "He's a grown man."

"My father would never do anything like that!" she demanded.

"Nicca, think... he waited all this time for you and your sister Magda to find happiness and get married. Maybe it's time for him to find some happiness too."

Veronica whirled around, ready to shout, then she softened. "You're right," she sighed. "Daddy wasn't meant to be alone." She clung to Josh's arm as they walked. "He was always making sure I was happy, he never worried about himself."

"Because he was a dad. He handed that responsibility to me yesterday."

"Is it your job to keep me happy?" asked Veronica with a bat of her eyelashes.

"Keep you happy, satisfied, fed, and busy." They entered the Cannonball Express, and the place was almost deserted compared to yesterday.

"Take a seat anywhere," said Marie, the head waitress. "Rose is running a little late this morning, she's on her way."

"Ok, thanks." They took a small table in the middle of the floor, in case the gang showed up they could push tables together. It was a good choice because, two by two, the gang from the Gentlemen's Disagreement and Pennsy arrived and pushed the tables together. Talk was lively and cheerful, and occasionally the eight barbershoppers would suddenly sing a tag.

"There's Rose!" sighed Marie as she handed out menus and poured coffee. All turned to see the shapely young waitress enter the restaurant with...

"Daddy?!?" cried Veronica, which caused gales of laughter. "Daddy! How could you?" demanded Veronica as Mike sat down next to her.

"Well..." her father took her hand and looked in her eyes and said, "when mommy bird and daddy bee..." the rest of what he said was drowned in gales of laughter from the two quartets and their wives.

"Daddy..." Veronica pouted.

Dick Daniels leaned over and said, "You have to admit, that was funny as hell."

"You men, you're all the same," huffed Veronica.

"That is a true statement," said Sam Lux as he sipped his coffee.

At the other end of the table, Alex and Hope Rodruguez watched the clowning, and Alex asked his wife, "Will Pennsy ever be that comfortable with each other?"

"Those guys have been singing together for over six years," said Hope. "Give it time, and a lot of working together."

At the same time, Dick Daniels was talking with Eric Kraus. "You need to be in charge of training and quality, let Josh be the leader of the quartet, let him stage the shows, and his wife is a retired fashion model, she can do the costumes and makeup. You just need to make sure the guys know their parts."

"What about that Japanese woman that Josh mentioned?"

"Julissa? The only Japanese in her is her husband. She's good, she's the musical director of the Buffalo Gals chorus, because of her, they get top scores in musicality. She helped us a lot, she's probably the reason we went from twenty first to third place in one year. She and Josh made a Sweet Adeline quartet out of four amateurs in a couple of weeks. We then did some street caroling and were on the news."

"I'm worried," said Eric.

"Don't," said Dick. "You worry about getting better so you can rejoin the quartet. Don't worry, Josh will step aside when you're ready."

"I'm not going to be ready," said Eric. "This was my swan song. I've got the big C."

"Talk to Josh, he is a cancer survivor also."

Meanwhile, Veronica stormed over to the lunch counter where Rose was working. "You..."

"Oh hi!" said Rose. "You must be Veronica. Mikey said you'd want to talk." She was cheerful and showed no fear whatsoever.

"Mikey? I never..."

"He's so grateful you brought him down here for your wedding. He gets so lonely in that retirement home they put him in."

"He... uh..."

"I get so lonely since mom died, but Mikey was so wonderful to me last night, I really think he made a difference."

"He's always been sweet like that," said a blushing Veronica.

"I don't believe in fate or karma or anything like that, but it was nice that we found each other. We're going out to dinner tonight!"

<><><><><>

The Gentlemen's Disagreement made their farewells after breakfast, and the new friends from Pennsy made their way home not long after. Eric and Olivia were the last to leave. Josh and Eric went for a walk along old Main Street looking at the historical buildings. "I need to tell you something."

"Is it about your cancer?" asked Josh.

"How did you know?"

"It's just how us cancer victims are. You could have ebola and you wouldn't have a problem telling me. For some reason we cancer patients are afraid of the reaction of those around us. Let me guess, you didn't tell me about it because you didn't want me to feel obligated to take over Pennsy."

Eric sighed, "Yeah, that was it in a nutshell."

"Ok, I'm here. I want to lighten up the act a little bit and work in more railroad songs. I want to use the Pennsylvania keystone as our symbol and I want to help you any way I can. If that means going over our arrangements with you while you do your chemo, that's what I'll do. Deal?"

"Deal." They shook hands, and then Josh pulled Eric in for a hug. As they hugged, a car pulled up alongside them. It was Olivia and Veronica in Olivia's car.

Olivia leaned out of the window and called out, "You ready honey?"

"Yeah, I think I'm ready to go," said Eric, and Veronica got out of the car, and Eric got in.

Josh said as Eric pulled on his seatbelt, "you got my number, call if you need anything!"

"Will do... and Josh, thanks for caring for my boys."

As Olivia and Eric drove off, Josh had an overwhelming feeling that he would never see Eric again, that his next meeting with Pennsy was going to be a tear-filled event.

The rest of the day was spent sightseeing through Harpers Ferry with Mike. He had read up on this town and was acting as tour guide, and at one point during the walking lecture, they ended up and an ancient stone house built on the side of Bolivar's Heights. Mike went up and rang the doorbell, and Rose came out and joined in the walking tour.

That night the four had dinner together at a little mom and pop restaurant that Rose said the tourists walk past daily. The restaurant was made in an old residential house, and the room they were seated in used to be someone's parlor. "Have you ever seen anything like this?" asked Rose.

"Schwabl's," said Josh and Veronica in unison.

"What?"

"Schwabl's is a restaurant set up in a house just like this and its menu is local cuisine, just like this," said Veronica. "You have fried chicken or fried green tomatoes; Schwabl's has beef on kümmelweck or haddock fish fry."

"The food here is incredible," said Mike. "Thanks for bringing us here."

"This was incredible," said Veronica as she tasted some of Mike's dinner. "I've never had it before."

Rose looked at her oddly. "It's just regular southern cooking and ah suspect you have a southern husband, hasn't he made you chicken and waffles yet?"

"If he can't cook it over an open fire, Mister Gravely-von Köster prefers to dabble in Asian food," said Veronica.

"A proper southern meal is one meat, and three veg," said Josh as he enjoyed his first liver and onions meal in ages. It was the best thing he could cook as a teen because liver was so cheap. "Ah git tired of openin' all them cans."

"That's just silly," giggled Rose.

"Serious! You can't walk into Wegman's and grab a can of flat beans, or field peas, or greens of any kind but spinach."

"Wha, that's jes uncivilized," said Rose trying to imitate a southern debutante. They laughed and chuckled and, slowly, Veronica got used to the idea that her dad took a lover. She wasn't happy, but she saw a smile on her dad like she hadn't seen since she was a little girl.

After dinner, Mike and Rose went off into the night, where Rose gave Mike a personal tour of Harpers Ferry. Veronica and Josh returned to their room and made love again and then fell asleep in each other's arms.

<><><><><>

They made good time driving home that Sunday morning. Veronica drove at first, and she tried as hard as she could, but Veronica couldn't get any more information about Rose from Mike. "You seem mighty curious over what Rose and I were up to," said Mike.

"Yes, I am... I'm just looking out for you daddy. Women today are different from when you and mom were married."

"Yes they are," said Mike. He was enjoying this; it was fun watching Veronica sputter and stutter as she dug for information.

"It's not just STDs anymore, she can get into your account and steal..."

"I ain't got one," said Mike.

"Pictures of you could be smeared all over social media and..."

"At my age? That would be kinda cool," chuckled Mike.

"Daddy, she's what you call a..."

"...a cheetah," said Mike.

"I thought they were called gerbil."

Mike chuckled and said, "Rose hasn't been a gerbil for four years. She's legal."

"Then what do they call men your age that go for girls Rose's age?" demanded Veronica.

"They're called 'men.'"

"Daddy!"

"Honey, Rose wanted someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't be judgmental."

"So that's it? You just talked?" Veronica was stunned.

"Do I ask what you and Josh have been up to for the past year?" asked Mike as he looked for videos on Veronica's phone. "You're a grown adult so I let you have your privacy knowing that if you had a problem, you could turn to me at any time. I ask for the same respect."

"I'm sorry daddy, I just worry sometimes. You're in a self-appointed exile.

"I'll only be there 30 more days then I'm all your problem. Right now my room and board is all paid for by General Electric," said Josh. "It's part of my severance for being forced to retire."

Veronica frowned. Mike was forced to retire because of a series of heart attacks, and he was put in the Railroaders Home because it's a nursing home. She and Josh were going to have to find a nurse for him when he moves in. Before she could say anything, Josh reached over the seat and handed Mike his phone. "Here's pictures of your room and your cabin."

Mike scrolled through the pictures and was shocked; it was all so beautiful. The bedroom, the bathroom and shower, the study. Then the sunroom on the back of Veronica's house, the backyard with the stream and bridge and yard furniture under the shade of a huge willow. Then the cabin, so snug and cozy, right on the lake, a dock. "It's too..."

"The boat doesn't come with it, but we can find you a nice old jon boat, or maybe we'll build one. Yeah, I'll get with John Jarecki and we'll start to nail one together for you."

"No, please," sputtered Mike. "It's all too much."

Josh patted Mike on the shoulder and said, "On Friday you gave me the greatest gift a man could give another man, your daughter. This is barely compensation for that gift."

<><><><><>

It was about six PM when they rolled into Springville. Josh had expected more snow while they were gone, but it looks like there was warmth that melted the snow, then bitter cold which froze everything solid. They rolled down Main Street, and the Christmas lights were still on, then they turned up Howard avenue and the first thing that Josh noticed was that the Christmas lights on Paul's house were turned off. Paul is a Christmas freak; he leaves his lights blazing until the twelfth day of Christmas, January sixth. Then as they approached, there were a few Town of Concord police cars parked out front, and two cops stood guarding the entrance to the big house. "What the fuck," whispered Josh as they rolled past.

Pulling into their driveway, they saw that everything else looked okay. Their own Christmas lights were on, and the house looked secure. Josh unlocked the back door and held the door open for Veronica, but as she stepped toward the door, Josh scooped her up in his arms. "Don't! You'll hurt yourself!" she cried.

"The proprieties must be observed, Missus Gravely-von Köster," and Josh carried Veronica across the threshold. He set her down, and they kissed, and while they kissed, Tigger writhed around their ankles, purring and whirring his happiness. Josh reached down to pet him, but Tigger went back into his Independent Cat mode and disappeared down the stairs into the basement.

After hauling their bags into the house, they strolled up the street to have dinner at Worzil's Bar and Grille and maybe talk barbershop with Julissa. As they neared Jarecki's strangely dark house, Josh said, "I want to stop in and see what's going on." Veronica nodded her agreement as she studied the dark house.

They turned up the driveway toward the back door as usual, but a town cop stopped them. "What business do you have?"

"We're here to see Paul and Andi."

"Why?" demanded the cop.

"We're friends and neighbors and we want to say hi," said Josh.

"We want to tell Andi about our wedding," said Veronica.

The cop turned to his left and said into the microphone on his left shoulder, "Unit two three, we have neighbors that want to visit."

"Who is it?" came a female voice that Josh was sure was Julissa Tanaka, but she was kicked off the force years ago.

The cop turned to Veronica for their names, and she said, "Josh and Veronica. We live on second street."

"Josh and Veronica from Second street."

There was a long pause, then the woman said, "Tell them to come in the back, I'll meet them there."

Josh looked at Veronica in confusion, then they walked up the driveway holding hands and mounted the steps to the back patio. John and Macy's van was in the driveway, as was the White Whale, Paul Jarecki's huge pickup truck. They were about to ring the doorbell when the back door opened. Paul's big, happy chocolate lab was nowhere to be found. Wonka was always there to greet Josh. Even more confusing, it was Julissa who opened the door. "Come in, take your shoes off."

"Jules, what is going on around here?"

Once they were in and the door closed, Julissa said, "Paul has been kidnapped."