© 2026 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 13, please take this chance first. All chapters are listed in the correct reading order in the Stormwatch Series List. The older stories with names will be included in the new series and then eliminated from the list.

Stormwatch Chapter 134

The Storm

Chapter 11 - The Tutor

"Awww, I don't want to!" whined Sandy Jarecki, and her twin sister Madeline nodded in agreement.

"That's exactly why you have to," demanded their mother, Andi. "Yes, we've had a bad time, but you used that to let your grades slip. You need to get your English and reading up to fourth grade level where you were at the beginning of the year."

"But we have to do school at home?" groaned Madeline.

"Do you want to do it here, or at Mister Lawson's house?" demanded Andi.

"During TV time?" groaned Sandy. The twins are only allowed to watch TV during specific hours, usually after dinner.

"You can live without TV every night," said Andi. "Even Miss Yi is doing school at night."

"She's teaching," said Madeline. "That's different. It's harder to learn."

"Yeah!" agreed Sandy. "Teaching is doing something you already know, learning is doing something you don't know."

"It makes my brain hurt," moaned Madeline, holding her head to keep it from exploding.

"You never say anything like this on Show and Tell day," their mother pointed out.

"Show and Tell is teaching!" insisted Sandy.

"Now you're being silly. Mister Lawson will be here any minute. Let's get your classroom ready." Just then Yi strolled into the kitchen and got a glass of ice water. "You're not going out tonight Yi?"

"No, Kenny is starting his plowing job tonight."

Paul limped into the kitchen on his cane and said, "Kenny didn't put a plow on the front of that beautiful '59 long bed GMC did he?"

"No, he's in Gus Didomissio's old 2002 F-250 with the V-plow and the drag plow. He's all excited and has been praying for snow."

"We're supposed to get snow tomorrow," said Andi.

"Have you been outside?" asked Yi.

Andi looked over at the side window, and it was dark, so she noticed nothing. That's when Sandy reached up and hit a light switch, and the floodlights on the garage came on, illuminating the snow squall. The snow was falling from the sky at an incredible rate. "I sure hope that Mister Lawson didn't try to come tonight," said Andi.

Just then, the front doorbell rang. "I'LL GET IT!" shouted the twins as they raced through the house.

"Girls stop!" called Andi. She turned to Yi and asked, "Could you?" and she handed Yi her three month old son and dashed off to keep up with her daughters.

Luke Lawson rang the doorbell of the huge, beautiful Victorian home, and the inner main door cracked open, and a tiny girl looked up at him. "Who are you?" the girl demanded. Behind her, another blond looked up at him, and her eyes grew wide. He could hear the second girl sigh.

"Hello ma'am, I'm Mister Lawson, I'm here to tutor Miss Sandra and Miss Madeline Jarecki. Are your daughters home?"

Luke's fiancée, who was standing behind him, groaned at the corniness of his salutation, but the twins almost swooned. The door slammed closed. "Smooth move Ex-Lax," said Kiko. Kiko Yamanaka was a beautiful, full-blooded Japanese woman, and she was exquisite in every way. Slim with an adorable figure, coal black almond-shaped eyes and long, straight black hair. She was anime character cute in an adorable way. Luke was just an average Joe with brown hair that refused to be tamed with a brush. Luke was a substitute teacher teaching night classes at the community college. He was terrified of talking to women, so Kiko decided to tease him, and somehow they fell in love.

The door opened again, and the diminutive mayor-elect of Springville opened the door. "Hello, I'm Andi Jarecki, and you've met my daughters. Come on in."

"I hope you don't mind," started Luke. "My fiancée is with and she could wait in the car if necessary."

"No, of course not. Come in." Andi led the couple into the house. "That's a cute jacket you have. It looks so warm!"

"It's called a hanten, and it is a traditional Japanese cold weather jacket. Of course only a few areas of Japan have weather like we have here," said Kiko.

They entered the kitchen, and Kiko saw Yi holding a baby. "Carlson," said Kiko.

"Yamanaka," said Yi coldly.

"Oh, you know each other," said Andi happily as the twins hopped excitedly and chattered madly in front of Luke.

"Yes, Miss Yamanaka is in my Monday evening class," said Yi.

"Miss Carlson told us that she is an executive chef on a yacht," said Kiko, with a snotty tone to her voice. She looked around the kitchen as if to say, 'This isn't a yacht.' She then looked at Danny and asked, "Is that your child MISS Carlson?"

"Oh, he's mine," said Andi as she took Danny from Yi. "Yi has worked some of the greatest boats out of Palm Beach and the Keys," said Andi.

"Don't forget the Obamas!" called Sandy from the basement stairs as she and Madeline urged Luke down to their classroom.

"Yes, the Bahamas," said Andi with a glare at her daughter. "She was working our boat when Paul made her an offer to be our executive chef here and governess for our girls. You might say we hired her away from ourselves. We'll be heading back out on the boat in a few weeks and Yi's fiancé will be her sous chef."

"You never said you were a home chef," said Kiko.

"We haven't gotten to that part of the curriculum. Would you like a coffee?" said Yi with false kindness.

"A cappuccino if that's not too much trouble," said Kiko as she took off her jacket and sat down at the kitchen table.

"I'm going to go get Mister Lawson started with the girls, I'll be right back," said Andi, and she followed them downstairs.

As Yi got the coffee ready, Kiko looked around the kitchen. "This is quite a gig, executive chef at home and on a yacht, and a governess, do you offer wet nurse services also?"

"It's called working for a living. Not everyone has had everything handed to them by mommy and daddy," said Yi sweetly, finishing the cappuccino and carrying it over to Kiko.

"Would you like one too?" asked Paul as he appeared and stepped up to the espresso machine.

Yi walked up to Paul and whispered, "She's going to have to stay here tonight, why did they come out?"

Paul put his arm around Yi and pulled her close. "Keep your friends close... Ya know what I mean sweetie? Go sit and I'll be right over."

Yi silently walked over to the kitchen table and sat down opposite Kiko as Paul made his magic over at the espresso machine. Finally, he put a teapot and a teacup on the table and then went back to the espresso machine and came back with Yi's cup of cappuccino. "This is a delightful house you have, Mister Jarecki," said Kiko finally.

"Oh, it's nothing like the cottage your folks built out in Clarence," said Paul. By cottage he was referring to the Yamanaka's ten bedroom, sixteen bath mansion on forty acres east of Williamsville.

"You've been out to mom and dad's house?"

"Oh yes. I was at the gala your folks held when the swimming pool was completed. Your dad and I disappeared for whiskey and cigars and your mom had a fit when she found us."

"That was you?" gasped Kiko.

"Oh yes, Midori had a fit, 'A cardiologist smoking cigars and drinking whiskey?' she was quite upset. I tried to tell her that it was the best cure to an affliction known as life, but she didn't buy it. Hanzou and I still get together for an adult beverage on occasion," said Paul. He didn't add that they did it at Paul's cabin, where Midori couldn't find them.

Kiko was in shock; nobody calls her parents by their first names, nobody but their peers, and people like that were few and far between. Especially for her mom. Midori is a powerful woman in Western New York and Southern Ontario. Her dad, Hanzou, was the sole owner of Yamanaka Electronics, a research and manufacturing company, but her mom had her own business that demanded respect from her employees and her clients. "May I ask what you do for a living Doctor Jarecki?"

He shrugged, sipped his cappuccino. "I get up in the morning, have breakfast with my wife, go into my office, and make sure my fifteen hundred employees are well paid. If I get a break I may sell your brother-in-law a new car, then I hop in a private jet and fly somewhere and buy a new car dealership."

"You know Takeshi?"

"Yes I do. We've been doing business together for several years now, ever since your father and I took him turkey hunting with us."

Yi could see the wheels turning in Kiko's head. "You really are that Paul."

"Yes, and your mother insisted Luke come out tonight and bring you so she can keep an eye on us."

"My mother would never..."

"Kiko, stop," said Paul, and he gently placed his hand on hers. "The events of the past year have made us an open family. You can ask any question you want. We have nothing to hide from your mother."

Kiko felt stunned. "You know what my mother does for a living?"

"Oh yes," said Paul. He was going to say more, but Andi came up and sat down next to Paul.

"Is the tea ready?" she asked, and when Paul assured her it was, she poured a cup of tea. "The girls are settled in and are madly in love with Mister Lawson. They may eventually learn something."

"Honey, do you remember Hanzou and Midori Yamanaka from the Christmas dinner? This is their daughter Kiko," said Paul.

"Oh, Izumi's younger sister! Welcome. I haven't seen your folks since just after our wedding. How are they doing?"

"I... uh... they're fine, thank you for asking."

"Look, they just closed the two-nineteen expressway. Looks like you're spending the night with us," said Andi cheerfully.

Yi finished her cappuccino and stood. "I'll go get Grandma's room ready."

Andi thought of the proximity of Grandma's room to the twins' room and said, "No, put them in Kat's room."

Yi tried not to frown. The room called Kat's room was almost permanently reserved for Andi's friend and favorite nurse, Katrina Mays, who would appear at a moment's notice whenever she could get time off from Colorado University Hospital. Yi wasn't happy because that room was right next to hers. "Yes, ma'am."

"If you'd like to stay and chat, I'll get it," said Andi.

"I'll get it," said Yi, moving toward the stairs.

"No, you stay and talk with your friend, I'll go get the room," said Andi, who got up and put her teacup in the sink. Yi sighed and went back to the espresso machine. Time for a mocha latte with a peppermint hammer. She made a mocha latte with an enormous splash of peppermint schnapps.

Yi sat down, and Paul turned to Kiko and said, "would you like a latte also? Yi's recipe is quite delicious."

"I don't think so," said Kiko as she glared at Yi, but Paul got up and made a mocha latte for Kiko. "No schnapps for me please," said Kiko.

"Ok, I'll just add some peppermint syrup so you can see what you're missing out on."

"Why is it that when a white person sees two Asian women, he immediately thinks we're friends?" asked Kiko.

"Paul would never make that mistake," said Yi as Paul placed the mocha latte in front of Kiko, then went upstairs to help Andi.

"Why do you say that?" asked Kiko.

"When he was living in Japan his wife went on a business trip to Korea and was murdered. Any fan-boy feelings he had for Asia ended," said Yi.

Kiko took a sip of her latte. "This is good... I should have asked for the schnapps."

<><><><><>

Mike von Köster sat in his recliner reading a murder mystery. He loved reading Andrew Klavan. The man had an incredible vocabulary, and he sent Mike back to the dictionary at least once per chapter. When Andrew was on a roll, Mike looked up words on every page.

Mike's apartment was warm and comfortable. He normally wore a cardigan sweater back at the Railroaders Retirement Home; it was needed there. But this room was perfect. Warm, cozy, a large bed, and a cute brunette snoring softly.

He sipped the hot coffee that Veronica brought down to him, and he was thankful that the girl was asleep on his bed; it kept Veronica from asking over and over, "Is your room ok? Is there anything you need?" She means well, but it gets tiring.

Just as he turned a page, he heard a small voice saying, "I'm sorry."

Mike looked up and saw Audrey sitting up on the bed with the Buffalo Bills blanket wrapped around her. "Sorry for what?" asked Mike.

"I fell asleep on your bed."

"Well, you're not Goldilocks and I'm not a big bad bear," said Mike.

"I was," said Audrey. "Goldilocks, I mean. They dyed my hair blond for a party in December. Miss Veronica fixed my hair for you. Sir."

"Ok, first, I'm not sir. I'm Mike. And you can come and talk to me anytime you want. I raised two beautiful girls, so I've developed a good ear for girl problems, ok?"

"I forget that you're Miss Veronica's dad. She's always been my idol."

"You know who's my idol?" asked Mike, and he leaned toward Audrey and motioned her to come closer. "Josh."

"Mister Gravely?"

"Oh yeah, war hero, cancer survivor, saved up his money and bought an old scout camp, raised seventeen million dollars for charity... that isn't nothin' compared to capturing that wild filly named Ronnie."

"Miss Veronica was wild?"

Mike put his finger to his lips and winked. "She was a wild child from hell sometimes. But she always got herself together for the pageant or photo shoot."

"I wonder if that's it..." said Audrey softly.

"Pardon?" asked Mike.

"Oh nothing. Something my father said a while ago."

Veronica poked her nose in the door and said, "Hey you two, are ya hungry yet?"

"Miss Thing just woke up, but I'm ready to eat," said Mike as he put the footrest down.

"I just need to get dressed," said Audrey, and wrapped in a Buffalo Bills blanket, she hurried off to the laundry room and got her clothing out of the drier than dashed into the bathroom to change.

"Dad, were you sitting here having a conversation with a naked woman?" asked Veronica.

"No, of course not," said Mike. "Things like that never happen to a guy like me."

A few minutes later, Mike was seated at the kitchen table as Veronica eased the tater tot hotdish out of the oven. "This is my friend Andi's recipe, I hope you like it. Her picky girls will eat this all day long."

"It sounds good already," said Mike as Audrey finally joined them.

"I'm sorry," said Audrey.

"Now what are you sorry about, little girl?" demanded Mike.

"It was just weird, sitting there naked, wrapped in a blanket talking to someone I just met."

Mike was silent for a moment, but Veronica walked past him, setting out plates. She nudged him with a hip and said, "You dog!"

"I think that is about enough for that subject," said Mike. "Where's Josh?"

"He went out to fill the gas cans before everything closes up. He should be back in a few minutes."

Audrey was nervous; she's never been in the south towns during the winter except for skiing down at Kissing Bridge and Holiday Valley in Ellicottville. "Is everything really going to close? Are we going to be trapped?"

"A little bit. The last time we had a big storm, Josh kept the driveway open so when the storm ended we weren't working our tails off to get out," said Veronica. "We'll light a fire in the fireplace and listen to music, roast marshmallows, just be silly."

"Did I miss anything?" asked Josh as he came in the back door.

"We just sat down to eat. Hurry up," said Veronica as she got up to kiss her husband.

"We're not going to save any for you," said Mike in a gruff tone.

"Be nice," demanded Audrey.

"Yes, ma'am," said Mike, causing Josh and Veronica to look at him in shock.

"I don't think we're going dancing tonight," said Josh as he sat down to a steaming plate of Tater Tot Hot Dish.

"Dancing?" said Mike and Audrey in unison.

"You don't think we put on that show at the company party without practicing, do ya?" asked Josh.

"We practiced three or four times a week at Paul and Andi's house or at the Crik-It House," said Veronica.

"Sounds like a country-western bar," said Mike. Then he turned to Audrey and said, "You should take me there."

Audrey looked embarrassed and squirmed in her seat. "I'm not old enough yet," she said in a tiny voice.

"When will you be old enough?" asked Mike. Audrey squirmed and hid her hands in her lap, her eyes glued to her plate, and her cheeks glowed crimson red, and she offered no answer.

"Thursday," said Veronica.

Mike thumped his fist on the table and turned to Audrey and said, "It's a date! We'll paint the town red! We'll hit the Crik-it House, and Worzils and..." He stopped when Audrey got up and fled the room. "What did I say?"

"You didn't say anything wrong," said Josh.

Veronica patted Mike's hand and said, "Audrey's parents are sick, twisted individuals who groomed their daughter to be a sexual play-thing. We thought it was to get political and business opponents in a compromising picture with their underage daughter. That was just part of the picture."

Nodding in agreement, Josh said, "They got off on watching their daughter seduce these people. At our company's holiday party, she dressed up just like her mother, and they sicced her on me."

Mike looked concerned and asked, "What happened?"

Josh shrugged. "I had just proposed to the love of my life; do you really think I'd throw that away for an hour with a cutie that acts like I'm her big brother? I like Audrey but I feel sorry for her. Nobody has done anything nice for Audrey without expecting some sort of payback."

Veronica looked guilty and said, "Hiring her is therapeutic. Having someone like you around can only help her. And I figured that it would be like having another daughter, but this one won't run away." Veronica started to get up, saying, "I'll go check on her."

"No you sit," said Mike, getting up. "She's my nurse, this is my job." He reached into the fridge and pulled out a twenty-ounce bottle of Loganberry juice, a Western New York favorite, then headed upstairs to do what he does best.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 12 - A Blizzard in Buffalo

Luke Lawson had never taught elementary school, so he was unprepared for what he found himself facing, but somehow he survived. He was quickly able to tell which twin was which even though they were identical; they dressed identically, and they did their hair identically. Their personalities often were polar opposites, and he quickly learned that the aggressive twin was Sandy. Madeline was the one who sat at her desk with her chin propped up on a hand, and she looked at him with dreamy eyes. When he asked a question, Sandy would jump up with an answer, right or wrong, it was an answer. Madeline would just bat her eyelids and sigh.

Luke pitied whoever was brave enough to marry one of them.

Andi mentioned that they were planning on homeschooling because the twins were so far advanced on the other students; then they discovered the Zoar Academy, which would customize the students' curriculum. The twins were in fourth grade math and they felt held back. They started the year in second grade English and were advanced to third grade, and they still felt held back, so they were working to take the final examination for fourth grade English, but when their dad was kidnapped, that kind of fell apart. Their big drawback was socialization skills. Being so diminutive, the twins were held back a year and never went to kindergarten. Now they spend half of their school day in kindergarten learning basic writing, color and shape recognition, and socializing.

The classroom was a nice setup with room for eight desks. They had a huge whiteboard that he could write on, put magnets on, and there was a projector he could show videos or project their workbook up on the screen. "We'll spend our first day together seeing what we need to work on. I'm going to guess we need practice handwriting and sentence formation." He projected a worksheet on the screen; it was about sharks, and immediately Sandy perked up. "We're going to find the main idea in this paragraph..."

"Sharks!" said Sandy brightly. "Do I win?"

"Actually we will talk about something cool about sharks. Sandy, could you read the first sentence?"

Sandy stood and instead of reading from her worksheet, she read from the worksheet projected on the board. "You probably know sharks have very sharp teeth, but did you know they never run out of them?" She sputtered and stuttered and had to sound out the word probably, but she did quite well for reading at the fourth grade level for the first time.

"Very good Sandy. Madeline, could you read the second sentence?"

Madeline stood and squinted at the screen. Then she picked up her worksheet and held it up to her nose and finally started reading very slowly, "If... a...shhhark..."

"Madeline, excuse me for a moment," said Luke. "Do you have glasses?"

"Uh huh!" she said, nodding brightly.

"Why don't you put them on and try again."

"Kay!" Then she and Sandy dashed out of the classroom and up the stairs. A couple of minutes later, they both raced down the stairs with brightly colored glasses. Madeline was wearing pink frames, and Sandy was wearing bright purple frames.

"I see you like pink Madeline," said Luke.

"No, I like purple." She said, then she read the worksheet flawlessly.

The twins went back and forth, each reading one sentence at a time. "Ok, very good. What was this worksheet all about. What was the main idea of the story?" asked Luke.

"Sharks!" cried Sandy.

"Shark TEETH!" cried Madeline.

"Sharks!"

"Teeth!"

"SHARKS!"

"TEETH!"

The twins were stopped by the piercing sound of a hockey referee's whistle. "Girls! If you want to fight you can have a snowball fight after we are done, now take your seats." The girls sat down and started muttering in a language all their own. Some may call it baby-talk, but they were speaking fluently with each other since birth, and possibly before. "Sandy, Madeline, it's my turn to talk. Yes Sandy, sharks were a part of the entire story, but it was about their teeth. Ok, everyone get out your pencils. I want you to write a sentence that summarizes the story."

Sandy and Madeline stared at him blankly, so he tried again. "Write one sentence that tells me what you think the most important part of the story was. Ready? You'll have ten minutes and when we're done we'll take a break and do show and tell."

The twins were done in less than five minutes; their only holdback was their lack of penmanship. The letters were misshapen and had difficulty staying on the line on the paper, but their reasoning was incredibly sound for a seven-year-old with half a year of formal schooling. They were still tiny; he thought they were four-years-old when they met.

They slapped their papers on his desk and raced upstairs while Luke graded their papers. Except for the penmanship and Sandy's insistence that the sharks were really the stars and not the teeth, their work looked good. He went upstairs to talk to Paul and Andi and showed them the twins' work.

"So Sandy's insistence on the sharks being the main point is acceptable?" asked Andi.

"She's being rebellious, she decided sharks were the main point before we even read the text. What I'm concerned with is how well they worded their argument, and if this were a debate, Sandy might win."

"She doesn't lose many arguments," said Paul.

Luke pointed out the flaws in their writing and said, "They're having trouble with their penmanship; I'll keep working on that because it's really holding them back. I wonder how they would do if they could type."

Andi and Paul looked at each other, then Andi said, "Like laptops?"

"No sense in spending that kind of money. If we were to explore that, chrome books would be best."

"Chrome books?" chuckled Paul. "Mister Lawson, we can afford a couple of proper laptops."

"Sorry," said Luke. "That's my Tiorunda upbringing."

"You from Tiorunda? I grew up in Eighty Seven B, Wildwood Courts," said Paul.

"I'm still there in a basement studio in Sixty Seven A, about two blocks away," said Luke. "Sometimes I think I'm never going to escape Tiorunda."

"Isn't that something. I remember thinking I was going to get my degree and move out of that four-plex apartment and move into one of those duplex houses a block away," said Paul. "To me those duplex apartments were living in high cotton. Were you there when they came through and redid the locks so you didn't lock yourself in?"

"Oh yeah, my mom was furious about that," said Luke.

"My dad is the one that came through and fixed all the locks on every apartment on every four-plex."

"He did? Why?" asked Luke.

"Because when he and mom were out of work, trying to raise me and my kid brother, the apartment manager let them slide on rent every now and then. Times were hard, really hard... but we always had a roof over our heads. So when we had some money, dad paid back that kindness."

"Would you be the fellow that arranged free grocery delivery for the old and disabled in that neighborhood?" asked Luke.

"Now that's not something you go around asking and expect an honest answer at the same time," said Paul.

"By the way, where's Kiko?" asked Luke.

"She mentioned that she would never lower herself to eat a beef on weck, so Yi took her up to Worzils. It's a pub on the corner."

<><><><><>

Clickity-clickety-clickety-clickety-clickety-clickety-clickety... The air hockey game was fast and furious, with Yi up 3 to 2. The puck shot around the table at lightning speed and Yi and Kiko's eyes followed the bullet fast puck. The regulars watching the game were hoping for a blizzard party; they wanted Ayato to lock them in. KA-CHING! Kiko tied the game three to three.

Angry, Yi placed the puck on the table and fired a shot at Kiko's goal that nearly broke the sound barrier. Kiko blocked and returned the shot, and suddenly the fans on the air hockey table shut down, and the table played a silly tune. It timed out. Money changed hands among the spectators, and one old drunk was nearly weeping. "Oh jeez Stash," said Yi, "You act like the Stanley Cup was going back to Canada or something." She patted the retired steelworker on his back.

"I just never seen you lose before Yi!"

"I didn't lose... I just didn't win."

Just then Julissa came into the backroom and said, "Last call in fifteen minutes folks, closing up in a half hour!"

"It's barely..." She squinted at her wristwatch. "Eight o'clock!" said a clearly drunk Yi. "Two last call dinner specials!" shouted Yi as she led Kiko back to their booth.

"What's that?" asked Kiko Yamanaka.

"Ayato, tell her."

The bartender cleared his throat, and suddenly everyone around the bar stopped their conversations to listen. "Kimeruu~ekku rōru ni usugiri no rōsutobīfu o hasami, o ju to hōsuradisshu no konpōto o soete. Kiyoraka de sunda jeneshī kurīmu ēru o gurasuni ippai, goisshoni." Ayato squinted his eyes behind his thick glasses and bowed while the crowd around the bar applauded him.

"What did he say?" asked Kiko.

Yi plopped down in their booth and said, "I thought you spoke Japanese."

"I do, I speak Japanese, Japanese. He speaks California Japanese."

"He said, Roast beef sliced thin on kimmelweck with au jus and compote of horseradish accompanied by a glass of pure, clear Genesee Cream Ale," said Julissa as she placed the sandwiches and beer in front of the girls. The beers were served in the official Worzil's beer glass with the Worzil's logo.

"That's a take home souvenir," added Julissa.

"I can't," said Kiko, and she slid her beer to Yi. "I need ice water, or Coke Zero."

Julissa looked at Kiko, and her eyebrows went up a bit. "Coke Zero it is." She reached for Kiko's beer glass, but Yi grabbed it and glared at Julissa. "Jeez! Sorry yer majesty."

Before Julisa left, Yi tugged her sleeve. "Hey Julie. How are the boys doing?"

"Do not tell Josh or anyone, but I'm thinking high top twenty."

"Not top ten?" asked Yi.

"If they buckle down and learn their arrangements they might squeak into the top ten. They got the stage presence, Josh brought that with him, they just need to sing on key, every damn note." And Julissa wandered off to finish up last-minute orders.

"I'm going to Denver!" called Yi to the retreating Julissa. "You better make it worth my while!"

"What's that about?" asked Kiko as she bit into her sandwich, then rolled her eyes in delight.

"See? What did I tell you in class? Fancy cooking is all well and good, but you have to get the simple meals right before you tackle the complex meals."

"This is so good!" said Kiko, and she rolled her eyes. "The horseradish makes it!"

"Everything together makes it, the rare, thinly sliced roast beef, the pretzel salt and caraway seeds on the kimmelweck bun that's crunchy on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside. The au jus, not too much, and the horseradish, not too little, it's all notes in a single chord. As for Denver. Julissa is coaching an a cappella quartet for international competition and our neighbor sings lead."

"Is he good?" asked Kiko as Julissa set a glass of Coke Zero in front of her.

"I went to karaoke with him at the Legion hall and he sang Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin songs all night." Yi shook her head. "Never again. Not without two changes of panties."

"They're going to sing Innamorata," said Julissa from behind the bar.

Yi sighed and said, "I'm not going to survive!"

"What's Innamorata?"

"It's a Dean Martin Italian love song," said Yi. "I was dancing with Kenny while Josh sang." She just sighed and smiled.

"Who is Kenny?"

Yi decided that it was time to stop playing fair. She took out her phone and showed a picture of Kenny carrying Yi through the woods in his arms. He had his shirt off and his muscles were buffed from chopping firewood. Kiko actually drooled and chirped in surprise. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"Fiancé," said Yi, proud that she finally scored a point against this rich bitch.

<><><><><>

Audrey sat in her room, crying and packing her clothes. "I can't do this... I can't... it's wrong." Her hands shook as she packed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Audrey?" came Mike's voice.

"Please, leave me alone."

Mike turned the doorknob, but it was locked from the inside. "Let's see if she remembered," said Mike softly, and he reached up. There on the door casing should be the key. He ran his fingers along the upper molding and felt it, a long, slim sixpenny nail about three inches in length. He eased the nail into the hole in the middle of the doorknob, then pushed the nail head until he felt the lock release with a pop. Then he put the "key" back on top of the door casing. "I'm coming in," said Mike.

"No, don't," cried Audrey, but it was too late. She was closing up her suitcase and wearing all of her sweaters.

"Oh. We're moving. Hang on, let me get mine." And with that, Mike left. He went down to his apartment and picked up his duffel bag that he hadn't unpacked yet, and headed back upstairs.

Josh saw Mike head downstairs to his apartment, then return walking through the kitchen with a coat over one arm and his duffel bag slung over his shoulder. Josh stood and called out, "Mike? What's going on?"

"Shhh," said Veronica as she urged Josh to sit and finish his dinner. "Let Dad do what Dad does best. And when he's done, we pretend like we didn't notice."

With a shrug and a nod, Josh agreed and went back to eating. Upstairs, Mike knocked and entered Audrey's room again. "I locked that!" she said through her tears.

"Funny thing about bedroom doors," started Mike, but he never finished the statement. He tossed his bag next to hers and pulled on his jacket. "Where are we going?"

"We?" Audrey looked at Mike to see if he was kidding, but she only saw sincerity in his eyes. "No, you can't go with me, I'm a horrible person... I'm bad..."

"You think you're horrible? My wife of five years left me for the assistant manager of the local Mesmer's Dairy store. She left me for a milkman! How horrible do you have to be for that to happen? I hated myself for years, still do sometimes. God how I hate myself. The only thing kept me alive was caring for Veronica and Magda."

Audrey shook her head and said, "Just because someone does something nasty to you, doesn't mean you're awful."

"No?" Mike looked shocked at her revelation.

"No! Just because someone does something bad to you..." The reality of what he was doing hit her. "NO!"

"Then why are you awful?"

"Because... sometimes... some of the things I kinda liked."

"To be honest, I liked it when Ellen ran off. No more of her mouth, no more of her putting foolish ideas into my girls heads. And I could drink a beer with supper if I wanted."

"Were you lonely?" asked Audrey quietly.

"Horribly lonely," said Mike. "If there's anything worse than lonely, I don't ever want to find out what it is. Are you lonely?" Audrey sadly nodded her head. "That's us, two lonely people. Tell you what, let's pretend we're normal. We'll watch old movies, drink too much pop, and go dancing and when someone wants to cut in, we'll say, 'buzz off creep.'"

"My mom says dancing is like sex standing up."

"It can be. Or it can be hugging a friend and celebrating your reunion. Or maybe if you're lucky it can be like falling in love standing up. It will never replace fishing however."

That caused Audrey to giggle. "I like fishing."

"Me too. I taught Veronica to fish and I hear she's got a secret trout hole in Zoar Valley that guarantees supper every night. We should go find it."

"Yeah, we should find it."

Just then Tigger wandered into the room and hopped up on the bed, then settled in Audry's lap and purred contentedly. She stroked her hand down his back, and Mike asked, "Do you like cats?"

She smiled peacefully. "Yeah, we were never allowed to have any cats however. Mom said they were an anchor she didn't need tying her down. Do you like cats?"

"Somewhat. They'll never replace a well-trained Labrador Retriever, but they're fun to watch. Raising two girls one of their friends would occasionally show up with a box of kittens." He watched her peacefully petting Tigger, then asked, "I know a great movie about a cat. Want to see it?"

"Sure!"

Moments later Mike led Audrey through the kitchen; Tigger was bonelessly draped over Audrey's arm like a purse. They grabbed two cans of RC Cola from the fridge and an unpopped bag of microwave popcorn and headed downstairs. When they were out of earshot, Josh turned to Veronica and said, "He's good!"

"You don't know the half of it," said Veronica as she cleared dishes from the table. After the dishes were done, Josh and Veronica slipped downstairs and peered into Mike's living room. They found Mike and Audrey sitting on his futon couch eating microwave popcorn and watching The Philadelphia Story and Audrey was entranced by the black and white classic.

"He's really, really good," whispered Josh.

<><><><><>

Hanzou Yamanaka, the owner and CEO of Yamanaka Electronics, was relaxing in his den. It was a chilly evening in Clarence, New York, but they weren't going to get the storm that was hitting the south towns. A warm fire crackled in the fireplace, and Hanzou was bundled against the chill. He wore a traditional yukata robe, and over that, a hanten cotton jacket. On his feet, which always seemed cold, he wore western style wool socks. He was a handsome man in his early fifties, with classic Japanese features and a slight gray at the temples that his wife, Midori, loved.

As he read the Wall Street Journal, the sound of a throat clearing caught his attention; it was the butler and household manager, Mr. Saito. Saito had been Hanzou's household manager since before he moved his operations to the United States. Hanzou smiled at his old friend, always impeccably dressed in a black tuxedo. He addressed Mister Saito in Japanese. "Yoshi, my old friend. How may I help you?"

"Mister Jarecki is on the telephone for you," said Saito, and he handed Yamanaka a cell phone for which his company built the primary CPU chip.

"Thank you Yoshi," said Yamanaka, and Saito stepped back slightly behind Yamanaka and waited in case he would be needed. "Paul?" said Yamanaka into the phone. "How are you doing?" Almost every trace of his Japanese accent was gone.

"I'm fine, happy to be home after that ordeal," said Paul Jarecki.

"Are you being truthful? Every photograph I see of you and your lovely family, you're walking on a cane. Is there anything I can do?"

Paul sounded relieved. He was getting in touch with his old friends, and most were 100% behind him after the events in Portsmouth back in December. "Still getting over the cocktail of pharmaceuticals they fed me, and somewhere they cracked a hip so I need to get that replaced, but I'm home and with my girls, and my son." That wasn't a dig at Hanzou, who didn't have a son, and Paul was worried that it might sound like that.

"Marvelous. To what do I owe the honor of this call?" asked Hanzou.

"We're having our monthly blizzard down here and I just wanted you to know that your daughter is safe and will wait out the storm with us."

"I hope she is acting respectfully," sighed Hanzou. "She has an attitude at times."

"She did have issues with our chef, but they're getting along now." Paul held the phone up to Yi's bedroom door, and Hanzou could hear the girlish laughing and splashing. "A nice hot bath together is smoothing out the issues."

"Excellent." Then Hanzou sighed. "What are we going to do with Andalon Data Systems."

"We need to sit down and talk, you, me, and Midori."

"A winter day at the cabin my friend?" asked Hanzou. The simplicity and rustic nature of Paul's cabin was something that Hanzou loved.

"Let's make a plan, as soon as we dig out, we break bread and make plans for the future," said Paul.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 13 - Riding the Storm Out

"How are you doing Amy?" asked Josh.

"DON'T CALL ME AMY!" shouted Amelia Hernandez into the phone so loudly that Veronica could hear it on the other side of the living room. "How do you think I'm doing? I'm trapped in this doghouse with that crazy old man!"

"So everything is normal?" asked Josh as he built a small teepee of twigs in the fireplace and packed a few wads of newspaper under it, then set fire to the newspaper.

"Yeah, pretty much same-old, same-old," sighed Amelia.

"Look sweetheart, if you need anything at all, you call me. I got my snowmobile in town here and if I don't have what you need I will go knocking on doors. ¿Caprende?"

"You're just looking for an excuse to go hot-rodding around the village on that fancy sled of yours," said Amelia.

"Well... yeah. But it's for a good cause."

"Good night dear heart," said Amelia. "You tell that father-in-law of yours that I want him down here for a cup of coffee so I can let him know what he's in for. Him and that little nursey you found."

"Yes dear. Good night Amy."

"DON'T CALL ME AMY!" roared Amelia before hanging up.

"You really love to stir her up, don't you," said Veronica as she sat on the couch and watched Josh build the fire. He can have a roaring fire going in a matter of minutes, but when she tries to emulate his technique, she ends up with ash and the wind blowing smoke down the chimney into the living room.

"Just a little," said Josh as he put the andirons over the top of the little fire and piled on firewood. As Josh got the fire going, Veronica went downstairs and asked Mike if they wanted to come up and join them.

"We're watching a movie," said Mike.

"We'll put it on upstairs," said Veronica. "We have a fire going in the fireplace, we have the window you can watch the snowfall."

Mike and Audrey looked at each other, then they nodded. "Ok."

Veronica made a note of where the movie was paused, then they headed upstairs. Although the living room was a good size, it was nice and cozy. Veronica turned on the TV and found The Philadelphia Story and fast forwarded it to twenty minutes, where they had paused downstairs. She turned and saw that Mike and Audrey had already sat down in the reclining loveseat. Josh pulled Veronica down onto the couch with him, and they watched the show. "Honey?" whispered Veronica.

"Hmm?"

"I want popcorn too."

<><><><><>

The minute that Kiko Yamanaka saw the bathtub in Yi's bedroom, she fell in love with the tub. "Don't you have a big soaking tub at your house?" asked Yi.

"We have a big Japanese style tub," said Kiko. "It's not built for comfort, just for sitting in."

"I sit in here and do my make up," said Yi. "And it's fun to share. Come on, get your clothes off!" Yi was quite tipsy after the peppermint schnapps, three beers and two shots of apple schnapps at Worzils that Stash bought them for the hottest air hockey game on record. Kiko drank nothing but Coke Zero and ice water, and she stared at the tub as it filled with steaming water.

Yi turned on some music on her phone and a blue tooth speaker, then lit a few candles. "Come on you, get them clothes off."

"It looks like you're trying to seduce me," said Kiko.

"Well, ya know, out to sea for weeks on end on a boat filled with booze, coke, weed, and the dregs of Hollywood society, you pick up a few habits." She gave Kiko an evil grin, then yanked down her panties and shoved the slim beauty under the rainforest shower behind the bathtub. Both girls had nearly identical figures: slim with round, firm breasts, narrow waists, and round hips with cute, round ass cheeks. Both were perfect, slim hourglass figures; both had hard, expressive nipples.

"How come you don't wear a bra?" asked Kiko, as she watched Yi's soapy hands slide over her breasts. The Japanese princess often wore padded bras not for support but to hide her hard nipples.

"I do wear a bra when working here at the Jarecki house, or teaching at ECC," said Yi. "And I wear it for the exact same reason you do. "But I never wear one with Kenny; I want him to see how much I want him." Yi slowly passed her hands over her nipples. "You should learn to treat your man as a man and not as a pet."

"Huh?"

Yi cupped Kiko's chin and said, "Our men are hardworking, industrious, and generous with us. They will work themselves to death to keep us fed and warm, They will stand in line on the battlefield to protect us, but the minute you say, 'That's not enough, I demand more,' is the day you killed your man. He won't die immediately, but you killed his soul." Yi leaned forward and glared into Kiko's eyes. "You need to figure that out before you get married because you're dangerously close to killing Luke." She handed Kiko a bottle of liquid soap and said, "That's all I got to say about that. Here, wash my back," and she turned around and pulled her long ebony hair to the side.

"Wash your back?" asked Kiko nervously.

"Yeah, isn't that a Japanese thing?" asked Yi with a wicked sneer.

"It is in Japan!" But Kiko washed Yi's back, getting dangerously close to her cute little ass.

"My turn, turn around!" Yi washed Kiko's back from neck to her cute round ass cheeks, then they rinsed each other off before easing into the huge, six foot long, thirty inch wide tub.

"This is incredible!" gushed Kiko as she sank into the tub as deep as she could get. As the water reached up to her chin, she felt Yi grab her foot, and she freaked out. "DON'T TICKLE!"

"I'm not tickling!" insisted Yi.

"You are! It tickles!" squealed Kiko, which caused Yi to tickle for real.

"THIS is tickling!" said Yi, and Kiko whooped and squealed.

"Stop! It tickles!"

Then came a tap on the door, and they stopped their clowning around. "Let's keep it down in there," came Paul's voice. "The kids are in bed now."

"Sorry!" both Yi and Kiko said at the same time, but Yi didn't stop holding Kiko's foot. She gave Kiko a relaxing foot massage. "That's nice," groaned Kiko. "Do you do the same for Kenny?"

"Of course. He works very hard at his family's feed store lifting fifty pound sacks of feed all day long. We do it right here in the bathtub or out in Paul's hot tub. I also give him a back massage, and he does the same for me.

"Luke works three jobs," said Kiko sadly.

"See? What did I tell you?"

"He's also an artist, but he only draw me."

"That just means he loves you." Then Kiko started crying. "What's the matter?"

Kiko looked at the door, as if someone could hear her, then whispered in flawless Korean, "Imsinhan geos gat-ayo."

Yi's eyes bugged open, and she whispered, "Oh honey!" and she pulled Kiko close for a hug.

<><><><><>

The Philadelphia Story ended as it always has done since 1940, but this time watching it was different for Josh. "Keep an eye on the actors and their reactions to each other," said Mike. "When they filmed this, each scene was done with one take. There's a few flubs and ad libs here and there but they did a good job covering that up."

"This is so good!" sighed Audrey. "It's even better than color movies."

"It's better than anything filmed today," grumbled Josh. Finally, when Tracy Lord realized she still loved her ex-husband and remarried C.K. Dexter Haven, Josh got up and said, "I'm going to go do the driveway."

"Going anywhere?" asked Audrey.

"No, but if this is a big blizzard, I am not going to want to shovel six feet of snow tomorrow. When we get a foot or two of snow, I go out and do the driveway and the sidewalks."

"Show me!" said Audrey.

"Get your snowsuit on, let's go."

In about fifteen minutes, Audrey got the snowsuit on that Josh and Veronica got for her in case they needed to work outside or use the snowmobile. "Why do you take the key out and put it in the house?" asked Audrey.

"So it doesn't get stolen."

"Isn't the garage locked?"

Josh looked at her, then finally said, "Ok, the first thing is to plug the electric starter into the wall and then into the snow blower..." He showed her the starting procedure and how to operate the augers, the chute, and the wheel drive mechanism.

"Cute! It's got tire chains!" cried Audrey as she put the roaring beast into gear. Her next surprise was when Josh reached for the control panel, threw a switch, and the headlights came on. "SWEET!" Audrey cried over the roar of the motor. She got started, and he showed her to clear the front of the garage, then he closed the door.

"When you're near either our house or the neighbor's house, make sure the chute is pointing down so you don't throw a rock through a window."

"Kay!" She was off, and she did an excellent job. Josh kept an eye on her as he shoveled off the stairs on the front porch and rear deck, then walked around the rear of the house and shoveled off the basement exit area in case Mike had to get out of his apartment in a hurry.

Inside the house, Mike watched Audrey as she cleared the driveway and front sidewalks. His face, which to Veronica only showed age and boredom, now showed anxiety. Veronica stepped up next to him and handed him a cup of tea. "You ok daddy?"

"I'm fine," he answered gruffly. He took the tea and sipped it. One of her weird herbal teas. "Thank you."

"Looks like you have a new baby bird," said Veronica as she kissed her father's cheek. Mike always called Magda and Veronica his baby birds, and his job was to make sure they were strong enough to fly when they left the nest.

Mike shook his head sadly. "She never had a proper nest to grow in."

"Are you going to fix that?" asked Veronica.

"Isn't that what men do? Fix things that other men wrecked?"

"Her dad wrecked so many things," said Veronica as they watched Josh and Audrey working outside on that dark, snowy night.

<><><><><>

Detective Lieutenant Ralph Conway brushed the snow off the shoulders of his crumpled, aging trench coat. He hates wearing it, but it's all about image. He has a nice insulated Gore Tex full length trench coat that looks like a formal overcoat, but the problem is that it looks like a formal overcoat. Right now, the image is more important than his comfort.

The big storm is south of where Detective Conway was standing. It's hitting everything south of Orchard Park to the Pennsylvania state line. He shuddered, thinking about the predicted 84 inches of snow over the weekend. It's been a long time since he sat through a hammering like that.

He wished Springville good luck, then walked up the driveway to the front walk. On the front stoop of the fancy North Amherst "McMansion" the detective leaned on the doorbell. He rang the bell for a long time before the door opened.

Brandon Mitchell was angry when he yanked his front door open. "Mister Brandon Mitchell?" asked the fellow on Brandon and Emily Mitchell's front step. To Brandon, he reeked of cop. Even his beat-up Chevy Caprice parked at the curb shrieked "cop."

"What do you want?" demanded Brandon.

"Pietro Gismondi, he's also called Don Gismondi."

"Never heard of him," snarled Brandon Mitchel. Then both men heard Emily Mitchell screaming, "YES! OH GOD YES! FUCK ME!" the sound of bedsprings squeaking filled the air. "We have a movie on upstairs," said Brandon.

"Sounds like you're missing the good part," the cop said with a grin. He reminded Brandon of the detective in the movie The Cheap Detective. Old, rumpled trench coat, reeking of cheap cigars and cheaper whiskey, but this one was a real cop. He flashed an Erie County Sheriff's Department badge and said, "Detective Lieutenant Ralph Conway."

"I don't know who you are either. Now get off my property."

"You and I know it's not your property, not unless the little lady is working on a mortgage agreement upstairs."

"Fuck you, get out of here." Brandon tried to shut the door on the detective's foot, but that was when Marco Spada came down the stairs, buckling his belt and pulling his jacket on. Tall, dark, and greasy, Marco Spada was a ladies' man for ladies with a self-respect deficit. He was handsome if you liked your men with hate-filled eyes, a 24 hour five o'clock shadow, and reeking of garlic.

"You two dancin' or what?" demanded Marco. "Ya mind if I cut in on you ladies? I need ta git the fuck outta here." Brandon stepped aside, letting Marco out, but Detective Conway didn't move an inch, forcing Marco to shove against him. That could have been taken as an assault on a law enforcement officer. As he left, Marco looked both Brandon and Ralph up and down, then left without another word.

"And there you have it," said Ralph. "Marco Spada, capo in the Gismondi family saw you talking to a cop. Your life expectancy is now measured in hours. You had better tell the missus she's going to be getting that dick twenty-four seven real soon."

"You bastard!" and Brandon took a swing at the detective, but the cop grabbed his wrist and stopped the punch cold.

"In twenty-four hours the Town of Amherst PD is going to come here with a warrant for your arrest on multiple charges of rape and sodomy. If you're still alive when they get here you will be hauled before an Orchard Park magistrate who will find you guilty before the grand jury has a chance to form up. There's people that don't want you talking in front of a judge, lawyers, a jury, and a court full of reporters. Remember Epstein? You're going to commit suicide in an Orchard Park jail cell in a way that will make coroners vomit when you hit their slab."

"What do you want?" demanded Brandon.

"What do you think of Dickenson North Dakota?" asked the detective.

"What? I've never heard of the place."

"You're going to love it, wide open spaces, hunting, fishing, your debt to Marco Spada and Pietro Gismondi completely gone. AND you're just a few hours away from Vegas where they will not be looking for Bob and Sally Voeller."

"I need to think about it." Brandon Mitchell tried to hide the smile. Witness protection! All he will have to do is give a sworn statement about his knowledge of Pietro Gismondi, which was nothing, and Marco Spada, which will put the bastard away forever.

"You have three hours, after midnight this offer turns into a pumpkin." Detective Conway handed Brandon a card. "Time, tide, and this offer from the FBI wait for no man." With that, the cheap detective walked away. He did his job; he was seen chatting with Mitchell, then he made the offer. Brandon Mitchell may not live until midnight, but if he does, it's a good offer.

<><><><><>

Luke Lawson looked at the stacks of information he had on the twins. They were certified geniuses; they were doing math at a middle school level, and they will read at a fourth-grade level soon, but their socialization skills are falling short of a kindergarten level. In their elementary school classes, they're either boisterous to the point of being disruptive, or they're utterly withdrawn and not communicating at all.

"Their mother is worried about their conduct in school; I believe there's no cause for concern," said Paul Jarecki. "What do you think?"

"I can understand their mother's cause for concern," said Luke. "Tell me why you believe there's nothing to worry about."

"They're geniuses," said Paul. "They communicate with each other on a different level, and they use that as a weapon, and they see no reason to invite anyone else into their conversations, so a normal person would consider their socialization abnormal."

"Well, you're both right," said Luke. "My major was in child psychology, and they have many of the hallmarks of advanced intellect. They do need to upgrade their social interactions because right now, normal interaction with children their age is a foreign language to them. What they need most, however, is not social interaction schooling but proper guidance."

"Their mother is dead set on them becoming one hundred percent Normal," said Paul.

"That's not going to happen. Let's shoot for seventy five percent and concentrate on intellectual guidance. Let me put it this way," said Luke. "Guided properly they could design a warp drive engine. Not guided properly, they could spend their adult life trying to invent a tribble. Get what I'm saying?"

"You say that intellectual guidance is their primary need. Am I right?"

"Exactly," said Luke. "I like what you're doing with them. Even at this age you're reading them a story every night. It sews togetherness. Too many people just say, 'go to bed' without taking their eyes from the TV screen. You folks don't even turn on the TV."

"Would you consider holding a cram school?" asked Paul.

"Cram school?" Luke searched his memory, and he heard that word pop up in several anime shows that he's watched.

"Your fiancée may know what that is. I know several parents in this area who are academically inclined and want to go beyond what Zoar Academy is offering. Just a thought, but it would put more money in your pocket. But wait, there's more... I know for a fact they are looking for a full time position as a social studies teacher at Zoar Academy. From what I've seen so far, I would be more than happy to pull a string or two. Springville is a truly nice place to live and you can keep an eye on Josh Gravely von Köster for your mother-in-law."

"What? I don't... Missus Yamanaka wouldn't..." and he continued to sputter.

Paul just stood up and said, "Just think about what I said. You can take the steady work, the cram school, or both. I'm going to plow the driveway then go to bed. Breakfast and coffee at oh seven thirty."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 14 - Stormwatch

This wasn't a blizzard; a blizzard is a storm with winds of at least 35 miles per hour and blowing or drifting snow that reduces visibility to a quarter mile or less, and it must last at least three hours. The falling snow doesn't matter; there is such a thing in the prairie provinces of Canada and the midwestern states of the US called ground blizzards where the wind blows the snow that fell previously. Josh experienced one when he was a young airman stationed at Minot Air Force Base.

This storm doesn't compare with that ground blizzard. This storm was a lot of snow falling. There was no wind, and the temperature wasn't exceedingly cold; it's just that a lot of snow was coming straight down. Lake effect storms out of Lake Erie are like Hell's Windshield Wiper. They stretch up to sixty miles to the east, but north and south the storm may only be ten miles wide. Then the storm moves north and south like a monstrous windshield wiper, leaving death in its wake.

Those who mutter and moan about the global temperature rising by tenths of an occasional degree causing imaginary calamity are utterly ignorant of what a frozen hell can do to the human population. While crops can be found to grow in warmer temperatures, nothing grows in frozen land. Not crops, not trees, not humans. Not newborn infants. Never newborn little boys. Cold is one of the deadliest threats the universe can throw at humans, and Michael von Köster was painfully aware of that, more than anyone ever knew.

This storm was moving, but just barely. It was venting its wrath on Silver Creek, then straight out to Springville and beyond to Danville. The swath over 60 miles long west to east was twenty miles wide north to south, and the snow was heavy and wet. Mike watched with anxiety through the billiard room windows as Audrey cheerfully cleared the driveway. Then he watched her clear the snow from the front sidewalk from the front windows. He anxiously waited for her to return to the warmth of the house and met her at the back door. Audrey came in and changed out of her snow suit but she was soaked in sweat. "Are you ok?" asked Mike. He grabbed her hands, which were cold, and gently rubbed them to warm them up. "Do they hurt?"

"Yeah, my hands are really cold," said Audrey, but Mike's attention made her nervous.

"Come here," and Mike quickly led her to the kitchen sink where he turned on the faucet and got a lukewarm flow going. His actions confused Audrey; it was as if her icy hands had caused an emergency. Once the flowing water was at the temperature he liked, he eased her hands under the flow. "How does that feel?"

A nervous Audrey said, "It's nice." And it was nice. Warmer water would overexcite the cold nerve endings and cause pain. This felt perfect. She wondered if she could trust Mike, if he was safe to spend time with, and to talk to him about her fears.

Mike looked through the kitchen looking for a towel for Audrey's hands, but he could not find one. He muttered and grew more anxious, then cried out in exasperation. Audrey looked at Mike strangely and said, "What's a space blanket?"

Audrey could see a million emotions pass through Mike's features, then averting his eyes from hers, he said, "Get a warm shower before bed, not too hot, it will dry out your skin." Without another word, he headed downstairs. Audrey watched him go in confusion, then she went to look for Veronica, but she was in the bedroom with Josh. With a sigh, the young nurse went and got her pajamas, which were also the hospital scrubs she wears to class, and a robe, then went to take a shower, but her soap and hair products were still downstairs because she likes to use Mike's shower. She headed back downstairs and found the barn door that separates Mike's apartment from the laundry room closed.

Audrey knocked on the door, then peered in. "Mike?" but there was no answer. "Mister von Köster?" She entered his apartment and saw that the sitting room was dark, as was the bedroom; he wasn't in either room. The only place left was that bathroom, but a quick check showed he wasn't in there either. Then she saw light coming from under the furnace room door. Maybe there was a water leak, and he was working on it. Maybe the water heater was broken, or the furnace was broken. Maybe...

She peered in, and in the dim light of the single bulb in the furnace room, she saw Mike, on his knees, shuddering, a rosary clenched in his hands. She heard him whispering and fingering the beads; he was praying the rosary. What should she do? She couldn't interrupt him, and she couldn't join him; she didn't know how. She was taught to laugh at people who did things like that. "Praying to the flying spaghetti monster" her father called it.

She realized more and more that her father was wrong about a lot of things. Maybe he was wrong about this, too? Wordlessly, she returned to the bathroom and took a shower, then after drying off and putting on her scrubs, she went to check on Mike. He was in bed now, laying on his side facing the wall. "Mister von Köster?" but he didn't respond. Audrey decided to remain in case he needed something, so she sat down on his recliner and pulled the fleece Buffalo Bills blanket over her, and was soon fast asleep.

<><><><><>

"Well?" asked a giggly Kiko Yamanaka. "How was your first night as a private tutor?" She was lying in the full size bed with the comforter pulled up to her chin.

"It was quite successful," said Luke. He wanted to talk to her about the offers that Paul had extended to him, but he wanted to get ready for bed first. "I don't have any pajamas," said Luke.

"Go take a quick shower and I'll find you something for tonight," said Kiko. Luke gave her a little kiss and disappeared into the bathroom and ran the shower, and took off his jacket, tie, shirt, and trousers. He looked back on his life for the past sixteen months and couldn't believe what was happening. Kiko was a student in the first class he ever taught as a professional educator. He was teaching a class at the local community college, and he'll teach anything he can find a teacher's guidebook for. Have opening, will teach.

On their first night of class, she started calling him Sensei loudly. Miss Yamanaka is beautiful, and the first time he looked at her, he was in love. All semester long they were inseparable, and when she saw his drawings, she offered to pose for him. When he started drawing Kiko, his drawing took on a new life, a new love. He met her folks on April Fool's Day, and she got him good. She brightly introduced him to her folks and told them she was going to have his baby. He thought they were going to kill him until he found out it was all a big April Fools joke.

But then came the longest period of Luke's life. She went off to Japan for the summer, and they wrote each other letters. She sent him a sheet of pre-printed address stickers to get the letter to her at her grandmother's house. She would send pictures of Grandma's traditional Japanese house and Zen garden, and Luke, the lifelong otaku, was jealous and lonely. When she got home from Japan, she was so busy with school and working for her father that they barely had time for each other. He was busy also; he was picking up classes anywhere he could, and when he was lucky, he would substitute all day at Cheektowaga Central (the best paying school in Western New York) and he was teaching evening classes regularly at Erie County Community College. Their sex life was hit or miss, but they loved each other passionately.

But now! He just realized that they were going to sleep together in the same bed! They've never spent an entire night together, and he so wanted to hold Kiko Yamanaka all night long. She was the woman who kept him entranced for over a year. They gave each other their virginity a year ago, and he wanted to marry her. He walked out of the bathroom wearing a towel, and Kiko was asleep! She was lying on her side; her back to him, and she was taking up much of the bed.

"Kiko? Honey?" She didn't move. He sighed and turned the light off and reached for a pillow. He just planned to throw it on the floor and sleep there. But the moment he touched the pillow, Kiko rolled over and pulled off his towel. He tried to pull back, but one of her delicate hands cupped his balls. "Mmmm, koibito," she moaned softly. Koibito means lover, but he was never sure how she meant it because she was always looking at his cock when she said it.

Her delicate little mouth closed over his cock and she suckled the head of his shaft, her tongue circling and flickering over the circumcised head. The sensations were incredible. Luke was awash in erotic bliss from her dancing, flickering tongue. Kiko fell in love with Luke's cock the first time she saw it. It was the first erect male cock she had ever seen, and something inside of her said "Soreda!" (That's the one!)

She took more and more of his cock in her mouth while she made cute little sounds of delight each time his cock head hit the back of her mouth and penetrated a little bit further. While she was pleasuring her man with her mouth, her hands urged him onto the bed until they were lying side by side. Doubt still raced through Luke's head. She was quite sleepy; would she be angry with him in the morning for taking advantage of the situation?

He wanted to be good, but the delightful scent of her pussy, just inches away, erased all doubts. If she were going to be angry, there was nothing he could do about it, so he had better enjoy it. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rolled onto his back. "Hai!" (yes) she happily whispered, and she pushed her waist back until she felt her pussy lips touch his mouth. Then she groaned as his tongue flickered over her clit and a finger slid in and out of her pussy. With a groan, she swallowed his cock as deeply as she could.

The lovers drove each other out of their minds with pleasure as they worked their newfound talents on each other. Kiko panted as she stroked his cock with her hand and licked his balls while his tongue danced on her clit at the same time three fingers slid in and out of her pussy while his pinky plundered her asshole.

She couldn't take in anymore. She sat up and spun around and lowered her pussy on his cock. It took them a little while to get everything lined up, and soon she felt that incredible sensation of being stretched open by her man's cock. "So long!" she gasped.

"Nah, I'm just average..." started Luke.

"It's been so long, silly," she said as she mashed her clit against his groin. His cock head was brushing against her cervix. It's long enough.

"We need to make time for ourselves," gasped Luke as Kiko pinched his nipples and grinned down at him. He reached up and returned the gesture and pinched her hard nipples.

"Harder," she hissed. "Harder!" Her hips moved of their own accord, and Kiko began to fuck her man.

Next door in Yi's room, she had just finished cleaning the bathtub when she heard the gasps and bed creaking from next door. She was still turned on from the silly play she had with the mirror image of her slim, sexy body, and she had planned to finish up by herself anyhow...

She got in the tub, and next to her were the controls. To her, they looked like plumbing designed by a steampunk anime freak. She set the water temperature with the hand shower and set it to massage. Then, hooking her heels on the sides of the tub, opening herself wide, she aimed the stream at her pussy and went out of her mind. The sensations roared through her body, and she was soaring to orgasm much quicker than she had expected. As the lovers in the room next to her pounded themselves to nirvana, Yi followed them with her hand shower. Yi shrieked and cried out for her lover, Kenny. Her muscles tightened up, and she found herself gripping her phone, which was on the reading tray next to her. She slammed the phone down and came with a singing cry of joy.

Yi came to herself and got out of the tub on wobbly legs. That was the worst part of that tub was getting out after a mind warping orgasm like that. She dried off and heard the bedsprings start up again next door. "Newbies," she said with a grin. She climbed into bed and checked to see if there was a message from Kenny. There was, it simply said, "Thinking of you." She realized that she had triggered the camera and had taken a selfie while she was masturbating. It showed from her nipples to her thighs, and you could see her ebony tuft of pubic hair and the stream of water hitting her cunt. She sent it to Kenny with the text, "Thinking of you too."

Kiko looked into Luke's eyes and whispered, "Yes!"

"Yes what?"

"Yes, this!" and she showed Luke the little jewelry box that was on the nightstand. "This fell out of your pants pocket."

"Then I suppose I had better ask properly," said Luke. "My darling Kiko, you mean the entire world to me, and now my world is coming together. I have a full time teaching position open and now I can be the man you can be proud of. Would you make my world complete and be my wife?"

"Yes!" and she kissed him passionately, rubbing her naked body against his.

"I was hoping to find a more romantic setting to ask," said Luke as he slid the ring onto Kiko's finger.

"This isn't romantic?" She lifted herself up and brushed her nipples across his sparse chest hair. "I can't wait to marry you," said Kiko, then silently added, 'the sooner the better.'

<><><><><>

"You're still here?" demanded Sandy the next morning.

"Yes, I'm still here," said Luke. "Maybe we can do some Pudgy Elves today."

"What?" asked Sandy and Madeline.

"It's something you need to know for bigger mathematical equations," said Kiko.

"Bigger math?" The twins sounded excited. They were tired of the repetitious fourth-grade math and didn't realize there was an entire math world out there for them to discover. They were setting dishes for morning breakfast, and the big kitchen table was going to be full because Yi announced that Kenny, Gus, and Lucy would join them. Paul and Yi were working together to create a meal of French toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon.

"Is Unka John and Aunt Macy coming?" asked Madeline.

"No, they don't have a snowmobile and it's Saturday. Uncle John is getting ready for church," said Andi as she came into the kitchen holding Danny. The little guy had his breakfast and was curious about all the activity, so he was wide-eyed and looking around. Both twins climbed up on a chair to give their little brother a kiss, then went back to setting the table. Their Newfoundland puppy was following Paul's chocolate lab around like a giant baby duckling, and Kiko dropped to her knees to pet Jolie, the puppy.

"Is Unka Josh and Aunty Ronica coming?" asked Sandy.

"No, Miss Veronica's father just moved in and they're spending time together.

"Awww! She said she'd dance for us!" whined Madeline.

"She's busy, she'll dance for you later." Then Andi turned and there was Luke and Kiko standing next to her, looking at Danny over her shoulder. "Would you care to do me a favor and hold Danny for me?"

Kiko looked like someone had just offered her ten-year-old self a pony. "I'd love to!" Andi gently put her three month old baby in Kiko's arms while Luke stood behind her, holding her close. They were wearing matching tracksuits, gray with brightly colored panels on the arms and legs. Kiko's suit featured pink, and Luke's suit featured turquoise. "Give me your phone," said Andi, and she took Luke's phone and took pictures of the couple holding Danny. "Should I send a copy to Midori?"

"She'd love that," said Paul from his position on the stove. "She's all about grandchildren."

"I didn't know that" said Luke, while Kiko was adoring the little boy in her arms.

"She gave up on my sister Izumi and her husband Hanzo," said Kiko. "Izumi is too busy teaching law and her husband Hanzou is too busy climbing mountains. He's skiing in Montana right now." That was mostly true. Hanzou was meeting a business associate in Montana, and when he got the money (or blood) from the business associate, Hanzou will probably go skiing.

Just then came the roaring of snowmobile engines, and two sleds came up the driveway that Paul had cleared before starting breakfast. "They're here!" cried the twins, who were hopping up and down at the kitchen windows.

Soon three people entered the kitchen, having just taken off their one piece snowmobile suits. "Kiko, Luke, this is my fiancé, Kenny." Then she growled at the big, handsome fellow. "He should be sleeping; he was up plowing snow all night. Kenny, this is Luke, he's the twins new tutor and his future fiancée Kiko." Then Andi introduced Gus and Lucy to Luke and Kiko.

"Luke teaches at ECC and we're trying to get him to consider a position at Zoar Academy," said Paul.

Kenny studied Luke up and down. Luke had never felt so skinny and so slight in his life. Kenny smiled and shook hands with Luke. Then the big guy turned to Yi and said, "Aren't these the track suits I got you for Christmas?"

"Yeah, don't they fit them nice?" said Yi happily.

Now Luke felt even smaller. He and Kiko were the same size. He was searching his mind for something to say when Paul said, "You leave home boy alone. He grew up two blocks from John and I."

"Tiorunda? Good man!" laughed Kenny, and he patted Luke on the back.

"Get to the table!" called Paul. "Breakfast time!"

They gathered at the big table and just as Luke and Kiko were set to announce their engagement, Lucy stood up and said, "Oh, Madam Mayor, I have for you an early inauguration gift," and she handed Andi a box that normally encloses a fine pen set.

"Ah, something I can veto my first tax increase with?" she said with a grin, then opening the box, Andi froze. Then she screamed at the top of her lungs and threw herself at Lucy, hugging her best friend. Gus picked up the item that the still laughing Andi dropped and handed it to Paul, who looked at it and smiled. A positive pregnancy test.

"I'm going to be even happier when we test positive," Luke whispered in Kiko's ear. She was still holding Danny, and Luke was holding her close. "We can give them our news later." He kissed her cheek in front of other people, something the staid Japanese woman avoided at all costs, but for some reason, as she watched Lucy and Andi celebrate, Kiko looked terrified.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 15 - Stormy Weather

Mike von Köster's eyes opened, and he saw Audrey sitting in the recliner, looking at him with a worried look in her eyes. "Why are you here?" asked Mike.

"I want to help," said Audrey.

"That's nice, thank you, but I'm beyond help. I raised my girls, and now I'm done. No more."

"More. There's more in there that you're denying."

"Enough little girl, I need to go to the bathroom," and he tried to get up, but she hopped out of the chair and landed on the bed to his right. His left side was toward the wall. He couldn't get out from under the blanket on his right because she was kneeling on the blanket, pinning it to the mattress. The blankets on his left side were tucked in deep under the mattress, then the bed was shoved tight against the wall. He realized that Audrey had done this to him. "You need to let me up or you'll be changing sheets on this bed."

"I'm trained to do that. I can do it while you're asleep and not wake you," said Audrey. "Tell me what's bothering you. You were anxious about something then you said space blankets. When I asked about them you got mad at me and walked away. Now tell me, what's bothering you about space blankets?"

Mike sighed and said, "It's a Mother Goose poem...

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost;

For want of a horse, the rider was lost;

For want of a rider, the battle was lost;

For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost;

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

It means that small things lead to large consequences. Now can I get up?"

"This is all due to Richard the Thirds death at the battle of Bosworth? You're saying that your horseshoe nail is a space blanket? Were you on Apollo thirteen?" Audrey wasn't being a wiseass; she was truly confused.

Mike fought to get out from under the blankets, then sighed when he failed. "No, I was not an astronaut. I've never flown on anything. I couldn't. What if the plane crashed, who would take care of Magda and Veronica?"

"What does this have to do with a space blanket?"

Mike darkened and looked at her fiercely. "It's not a story for young ears."

"Young ears? YOUNG EARS? Do you want to know what my father gave me for my thirteenth birthday? HIS DICK!" She grabbed her breasts and squeezed as hard as she could through the sweatshirt she was wearing. "I haven't had young ears for almost ten years! When my father saw these things starting to grow he decided that I was ready for him. My Father!" She looked at Mike with anger blazing in her eyes. "I should have chopped these damn things off! But they just kept growing until that's all that people see when they meet me!" she was panting, eyes blazing with rage. Then, finally, in a cold, dead voice, she said, "I think I can handle a story about a blanket."

Shocked, Mike said, "I'm so sorry for your pain..."

"I don't care about my pain. It's over. I killed my father. Now tell me about your story."

"Veronica was three so she doesn't remember it... I had a 1984 Dodge Aries wagon, a station wagon, and a piece of crap. I hated that car but Ellen thought it was most practical with the girls, and Toby on the way... I always kept a survival kit, emergency heaters, space blankets and receiving blankets to wrap Veronica and Magda in."

"What's a space blanket?" asked Audrey.

"It's a sheet of aluminized Mylar. They are light sheets of plastic that reflect ninety percent of your body heat back to you. After about ten minutes they get really warm. I always had several in the car for the girls in case that piece of junk stalled in cold weather but Ellen cleaned out the car and left them in the garage and didn't tell me."

Mike was silent for a long time; his eyes grew misty and tears welled up. He finally continued, "Toby was two weeks old and we had gone into the hospital because Toby had a cough and we were worried. I was horribly sick and we barely had money to pay for Toby. I was so sick I couldn't drive on the way home. To make a long story short on the way home the car died and the wind was coming in off the lake. Ellen said, 'I will get help,' and she left. It got colder and colder and I lost a lot of heat in the car searching for the emergency equipment. I tore that car apart looking for something to keep Toby warm... I still have nightmares about it."

Mike lay shuddering, remembering the hell he had gone through. Of how he desperately wrapped Toby in newspaper and his jacket... "What happened?" asked Audrey.

"I took Toby and wrapped my coat around him and held him close... was over a day before someone stopped to check on us, he never had a chance... I woke up in the hospital... I was told that I almost died from pneumonia and hypothermia, and Toby was gone. I still think about that little boy slipping away while I lay there helpless..." The old man broke down in tears that came thirty-five years too late. "I couldn't save my boy..." he cried in agony.

Audrey lay down with Mike and wept with him, for Toby, for her lost girlhood, for all the pain they both endured. Tigger hopped up on the bed and wormed his way between them. The sun was lightening the sky when they began to talk again. "What happened with Ellen?" asked Audrey.

"I don't know, I remember her saying that if I had died she would have had insurance money, and then she left. She walked out on me and the girls and cold little Toby..." Mike gulped back the tears as he spoke. "I told everyone that she ran off with the milkman, it's less embarrassing than what really happened... she walked off and left me to die with our little boy..."

Audrey and Mike clung to each other on the bed, weeping and wishing they were dead because that would be the one sure way of releasing them from this pain that was tearing them up inside. Finally, Mike said, "You said that you killed your father?"

Audrey nodded coldly. "He owes Pietro Gismondi a ton of money. He's a big mafia dude or something and my father won a lot of money in Vegas to pay him back. After he tried to force me into sleeping with Josh I found the money he won in Vegas and donated it to a woman's shelter."

Mike sighed and said, "That will do it."

<><><><><>

Josh hopped off his snowmobile and unstrapped the snow shovel he had on the trailer behind the snowmobile and shoveled away the drift of snow that blocked the front door of 25 Argentine Drive. It was quite a pile, and he had been working hard for half an hour before he had a path chiseled out that would allow Amelia and Dexter a way out of the house in case of emergencies. Then he went back to the snowmobile and started the snowblower. He had a trailer made from two toboggans lashed side by side, and he had the snow blower strapped down to that.

In fifteen minutes, he had the front walk cleared to the front porch, the sidewalk on the front of the house, the sidewalk on the east side of the house along Merriweather Avenue, then a path to the back door. He got the snow blower back on the makeshift trailer, then he went to the front door and knocked on it. "Are you done making all that racket out there?" demanded Amelia.

"Yes, it's me, I wanted to make sure you could get out if that five star meal you make for Dexter bursts into flame."

"Very funny. How much do ya want for that?"

"Cup of coffee should do it," said Josh.

"I ain't got no to-go cups so ya better come in," growled Amelia, and she tottered her way back to the kitchen where she was working on the day's crossword puzzle. "Ain't no newspaper delivery during the storm, so I had to go up to the IGA to get me a book..." said Amelia as she tapped the crossword puzzle book she was working on. "These things were written for seven year olds."

"I see you got one for Dexter also," said Josh.

"Gotta keep your brain working if you want to stay sharp. It's a shame no one plays Pinochle anymore. That's a good one to keep your brain moving."

"I think Veronica's dad Mike plays. Maybe we can get a game going."

"With who for a fourth, YOU?" said Amelia with a laugh as she placed a cup of Folger's in front of Josh.

"I know Veronica plays, so you and Dex against Mike and Veronica? That will be fun. I can bring them over on the snowmobile."

"I'm not set up for company," groused Amelia.

"Then I'll pick you guys up and bring you over to our house for a day of Pinochle," said Josh. "You know, Pinochle used to be the card game of the USAF; maybe we can find a few players over at the legion hall when this storm is over."

"The storm isn't the issue," said Amelia. "It's the snow it leaves behind. That pretty little mayor elect has got a shit-storm of work to do if she wants to un-fuck this village after what Sammy Windecker did to us."

"What do you mean?"

"He slashed the budget for the roads department and moved all of that money over to the gestapo he made with the parks department. Not only don't we have maintenance on the heavy equipment to clear the streets, but we also don't have anyone to drive it. He laid them all off."

"Does Andi know this?"

"She had better, she had to put up with it when her youngest was born and the entire village was shut down."

<><><><><>

The snow returned as Josh left and headed over to Andi's house, and Josh stopped in to see what Madam Mayor was doing about snow removal. Breakfast was over, and she stepped out to the mudroom to talk to him. "I was just talking to Amelia Hernandez, and she said that the entire village government has abandoned their responsibilities."

"There's nothing I can do; I'm not mayor yet," said Andi. "Mister Windecker has the reins of power for a few more weeks."

"According to Amelia Hernandez, Mister Windecker is in the Bahamas." Both Andi and Josh were saying "Mister Windecker" so they didn't end up saying "That miserable chiseling cock-sucker Samael Windecker" in front of the kids.

Andi looked at Josh oddly and picked up her phone and dialed the village clerk, Anna Nussbaum. "Miss Anna, is it true that Samael is out of town?"

"Yes he is. He probably won't be back before your inauguration," said Anna Nussbaum. She's been the village clerk for decades and knows more about Springville than most people know about their own families.

"And the head of the village board, Chris Schreier, is he up to this challenge?" Chris was 83 years old and rarely came to board meetings. He was to act as mayor when the real mayor was unavailable.

"Chris passed away yesterday. He was in Bertrand Chafee, and your brother-in-law, Pastor John, was with him when he passed." Sally-Anne has been the Village Clerk for almost forty years, and she knew the village books better than anyone. "There is a law on the books, it's never been tried before but I do not think anyone would have a problem if you took over."

"Now what do I do," groaned Andi as she looked at Paul for help.

"This is a rural town; we put the word out that we need folks with bobcats and front end loaders like our Kubota. You put the head of roads in charge and back him up," said Paul as he hugged Andi. "You have good people; your job is to let them do their jobs."

"Isn't Main Street a snow emergency street?" asked Josh.

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"That it needs to be plowed from curb to curb the way it used to be. It's probably packed with parked cars, so we're going to need tow truck drivers to haul them away. Every one of them. The fines for parking on a snow emergency street could help pay for snow removal. It's time to get back to law and order." Then Josh smiled, "You have a battalion of park patrolmen also."

Andi huffed. "What am I going to do with all those park patrolmen?"

Josh's grin broadened. "Didn't Mister Windecker say that the entire village was a park?"

"Yes... and?" said Paul with a grin. He realized that Josh was onto something.

"Is it not part of the Park Patrol's job to ensure that the walkways are all clear? Ya know, sidewalks are walkways too." It was snow filled sidewalks that convinced Paul to run for mayor in the first place.

Just then, Luke Lawson came upstairs from the basement and he overheard the conversation being held. He stepped into the kitchen to hear Josh talk about letting the park patrol use any means available, like ATVs with plows. Then Paul turned to him and said, "Oh Luke, this is Josh Gravely-von Köster, he's our neighbor and he's Andi's idea guy."

"Oh, ah jes come up with ideas that other folks have too much common sense to say out loud."

"Josh, this is Luke Lawson, he's tutoring the twins and we're coming up with all kinds of ideas for this fellow. Can you use him?"

Josh eyed Luke up and down. The young teacher was as skinny as a fence post and wore glasses thick enough to be a pair of sealed beam headlights. Josh then said, "Not unless someone breaks a shovel handle." Then he saw the shocked look on Luke's face and slapped him on the shoulder. "Ah'm jes funnin' with ya... or didn't ya know you were slim? Tell you what, come to my place this summer. We'll do some fishin' and have an old-school low country boil, put some meat on these bones. What cha say?"

"Low country boil?" Luke was completely confused.

Yi overheard Josh and said, "Say yes!"

"Huh? I don't understand."

"Sensei!" cried Yi. "Low country boil is the greatest outdoor food on earth!"

"Oh no, she's got you saying it now?" groaned Luke. "I'm sorry but I appear to be the only one in the room that doesn't know what a low country boil is."

"Don't worry Sensei, ah'll teach y'all. We ought-a have us a low country boil to kick off the fund raiser. We're gonna feed what, about thirty people. We'll need them little tiny ten gauge potatoes, corn on the cob, smoked sausage, and craw-dads. You boil that up in a bucket fulla water and a whole can of Old Bay, at the last minute you throw in the mudbugs. Then you drain off the water and dump it all out on the table and the folks come pick what they want. MMMM good! You're the teacher, you figure out how much we need. Who's the cute Japanese chick?"

Shocked at the sudden change of subject, Kiko squealed in indignation, and Luke said, "How did you know she's Japanese?"

"By the way she's not Korean." Josh bowed to Kiko and said, "I'm sorry if we haven't been introduced, I'm Ephraim Gravely. And you are Kiko Yamanaka?"

"Yes, how did you know?" asked Kiko.

Josh tapped his temple and said, "Ancient Chinese secret."

"Git the hell out of here," said Yi, kicking Josh in the butt.

"Yer right, ah gotta go. Madam Mayor, if ah was you, ah'd tell Richard Harvey that you expect all of his men, especially those that want to stay out of prison, to show up with a shovel in their hand. Let's see if he can do his job." Josh headed outside with Yi threatening his life the whole way.

"Who was that?" asked Luke, as he looked out the window and watched Yi and Josh hug before Josh got on his snowmobile. "Friend? Neighbor? Employee?"

"He's our neighbor," said Paul. "He's probably one of the most decorated military men alive."

"Do he and Yi hate each other?" asked Kiko.

"No, not in the least. Josh is a military man and Yi is the daughter of a military man," explained Paul. "She was raised among Air Force and Coast Guard men and they speak their minds. It sounds rough but it makes them comfortable."

"What is a mud bug?" asked Luke as Yi came back inside the house.

"Don't worry about them, they're pretty rare up here. We'll use shrimp instead," said Yi.

"But what is it?" asked Luke.

"It's a craw-dad," said Yi. "Up here they're called crayfish. Think of a tiny freshwater lobster."

Just then, the updated weather report came on the TV; they were predicting eight feet of snow for the Springville area.

"It's incredible that you came out to tutor the twins, but damn! You're not going home for a while" said Kenny.

"Yes... I suppose I should have looked at the weather reports for more than Cheektowaga before heading down here," said Luke.

"Still, you stayed and didn't try to drive home in this mess."

They chatted for a few minutes, and Luke decided this was a nice guy and mentioned it to Kiko, and said something like, "nicer than Josh."

"What, you didn't like Josh? He's full of bluster and bad jokes but he's just a big old teddy bear," said Yi. "You'll see as you get to know him. The only thing he hates is incompetent managers put in positions that could harm people."

"He's cute," said Kiko, causing Luke to look at her in shock.

"It's starting to snow again," said Andi. She was looking out the window while holding three month old Danny. "It's just like when I was stuck in the snow a year ago and Paul came out to help me." She was marveling in her head about all the amazing things that had happened to her in that year. However, her words had a different meaning for Luke.

"I hope nobody is stuck in the snow," said Luke.

Andi took her phone and called an old friend. "Sergeant Montgomery, this is Andi Jarecki. Has the Town of Concord Police Department received any calls from stranded motorists?"

Paul turned to Kenny and said, "I know that look in her eye. Let's get ready."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 16 - Riders on the Storm

Chief Buckley of the Town of Concord Police Department was sitting in his office. He only lives a couple of blocks away, so he snowshoed in to work and he even took his turn at the 911 lines for a couple of hours. His phone rang, and he saw that it was Maxwell's cell phone calling him. "What's up Dave?"

"Chief, I have the mayor of Springville on the line and..."

"It's about time. Where is that ass? I've been waiting for him to call." Reed Buckley was in a quandary. This storm is quite narrow, but it's dumping feet of snow on Springville, Concord, Sardinia, and Arcade, yet the mayor of Springville and the town supervisor of Concord were silent.

"Windecker is in the Bahamas, we think. No, this is Andi Jarecki, she's taking over."

"Doctor Jarecki? Put her through." The chief of police heard the click and then said, "Doctor Jarecki, I'm so glad to hear from you."

"It's just Andi, Chief. Chief, in accordance with Town ordnance 251, paragraph A, sub paragraph three alpha, I am taking emergency control of the government of Springville and surrounding land and declaring a snow emergency."

"Thank you Madam Mayor," said the Chief of Police with a sigh. NOW he can get to work. "I only have a snow cat and one sled at my disposal."

"I'm getting together a list of volunteers who will dig out stranded motorists, right now I have four sleds with three trailers. I'm expecting more, but the sleds I have are all communicating on the ham bands." She turned to Paul and said, "Where's the best place for my command post?"

"Media room, downstairs," said Paul. And he headed downstairs to his radio room.

"I'm getting set up," said Andi to Chief Buckley. "You can reach me directly at my personal cell, 716-555-0804."

"Will do, Madam Mayor. I will implement the Snow Emergency checklist."

After she hung up, she called Veronica. "Honey, I need your communications skills. Can Josh bring you over right away?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"I just took over the village and declared a snow emergency. I need to get the word out to all TV and Radio stations."

"Will do." Veronica hung up the phone and turned to Josh, who was still panting from their morning quickie. "Madam Mayor wants us."

"I was just over there."

"Now you can take me back, let's go."

"You know if I take you there, they will put my happy ass to work," complained Josh.

Veronica turned to Josh and grinned. She ran an elegant fingernail around his nipple, then headed south. "I'll owe you," said Veronica as her hand cupped his balls. "I got to keep these fellows drained." She leaned in and gave him a kiss that seemed to go on forever.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You women are all alike, seven or eight quickies and you're off with the girls to boast and brag," grumbled Josh, quoting Young Frankenstein.

"Come on! Your mayor calls." Soon they were trooping downstairs, Josh wearing his blue poly thermal underwear and a set of pants from a tracksuit. "How are we doing Nurse Mitchell?" asked Josh.

Audrey had her laptop open and was taking Mike's blood pressure. "One forty over eighty-two. Close to good. We'll work on that. We'll find a healthier snack for you to munch on at two AM."

"Guys. We're going over to Andi's house, she says she needs Veronica's help. She'll probably rope me into something too," said Josh, and he went outside to gas up the Yamaha sled.

"You going to be ok going over there?" asked Mike.

"It's just two blocks. Andi's number is here on the shopping list," said Veronica as she wrote it on the small whiteboard on the fridge door. "Only call this if you can't get through to my phone, ok? And keep the TV tuned to the local channels; they will tell you what is going on." Outside Josh's big Yamaha SRX roared to life, and Veronica pulled on her helmet.

"You ready?" came Josh's voice over the helmet speakers.

"Coming out now." Veronica left the house, pulled the door closed and climbed onto the back of the purring sled as Josh waited for her. He never goosed the throttle when she was getting on, something the other riders did when waiting for their wives or girlfriends to climb on. Josh always said that was rude. She wrapped her arms around Josh and cried, "I'm ready!" He patted her hands to make sure she was holding on, then they eased out of the driveway and into the swirling snow.

<><><><><>

Andi was in her command post, which a few hours earlier had been the twins' classroom. She was seated at the teacher's desk with a phone to her ear, writing on her legal pad, saying, "Uh huh... uh huh... uh huh... ok, let them know we are going to get someone to them. Who's next?"

Behind her Yi stood and read over her shoulder and marked on the board the items that Andi had on her legal pad. Stuck motorists were marked up in red, requests for transport to the hospital were marked in blue, and requests for food were marked in black. If a sled driver was assigned to a task, their name and mobile number were marked on the board in green.

Josh and Veronica were led downstairs by Sandy and Madeline (after being scolded to take off their boots). Veronica went into Andi's command post, and Josh went into Paul's radio room, which also housed his train layouts. "QST, QST, QST, This is the Springville Amateur Radio Association K2SNY calling QST. The mayor of Springville has declared a snow emergency for the village of Springville, and the supervisor of the Town of Concord has done the same for the town. This net is to help those who need help, if any member of SARA wishes to participate in rescue efforts on snowmobile please acknowledge with your call signs now."

Kiko turned to Josh and said, "do you have a call sign?"

"N0AFV," said Josh.

"Who is your rider?" she asked as she marked Josh up as K2SNY Mobile 5 on the whiteboard over Paul's radio setup.

"I don't need one," said Josh as he inspected the HO scale train layout.

"Nobody rides alone!" shouted Andi from the next room.

"Damn those mom ears," groaned Josh quietly.

"You have Luke," said Kiko, and she pointed to Luke as he struggled into a snowmobile suit.

"Little Big Man! Let's ride partner!" called Josh happily.

Luke groaned; he had been given Yi's snowmobile suit, and it felt big on him, and it was bright pink. When Josh saw the pink suit, he just chuckled. Luke had a matching helmet, but Josh tossed him Veronica's neon turquoise helmet. "It has blue tooth; we can talk to each other." Then Josh nodded and smiled, "And if you fall off, it won't be hard to find you in that get up."

"Thank you," mumbled Luke as he fiddled with the chin strap of the helmet.

"Do you have a trailer?" asked Kiko.

"I have a toboggan, it works."

"Not to haul rescues. Swing by Dundee Motor Sports, they're donating some cutters to the cause. Go get one and let us know when Mobile Five is ready."

"On my way," said Josh.

"If you find someone that is experiencing a medical issue and needs fast transport to Bertrand Chafee, use the q-code QRRR to clear the net for your traffic."

"Got it," said Josh, and he led Luke up the stairs.

"Q triple R?" asked Luke.

"It's an old school, morse code signal that means land SOS." Just as they entered the kitchen, Gus Didomissio and John Jarecki came in from outside. "John!" said Josh as he hugged his friend.

"Who's wearing Yi's suit?"

"John, this is Rook Rawson, he's the twins tutor."

"It's Luke," groaned Luke as he shook hands with John.

"Don't take Josh seriously if he's not yelling at you," said John with a grin. "But when he yells, listen up."

"We're going to go save some lives and be heroes 'n shit," said Josh as he patted John on the back. "You wood whackers enjoy your coffee break and try a cupcake."

"Get outta here you wing nut," laughed Gus, and he slapped Josh on the back hard enough to knock him off balance.

"Who was that?" asked Luke as he and Josh sped off through the swirling snow.

"John is Paul's kid brother, he's my pastor and my carpenter. He works for Gus Didomissio, who happens to be Navy. Hang on." Josh keyed up his microphone. "Net control this is Kilo 2 Sierra November Damn Yankee Mobile 5, November Zero Alpha Foxtrot Victor operator. We are en route to Dundee Motor Sports to pick up our trailer."

Then Luke heard. "Roger, you are en route Mobile Five, You have been pre-announced in. Be sure to pick up the fire department first aid kit and review your phonetic alphabet."

"Ah stand corrected. Mobile Five off the air at Dundee Motor Sports." And they roared into the big sports dealer. A garage door opened, and a fellow in a yellow safety vest waved them into a maintenance bay.

"What was that with the phonetic alphabet? " asked Luke.

"Ah was sixteen years old when I discovered that damn yankee was two words." They pulled off their helmets and reviewed the contents of the bright orange first aid kit that one of the mechanics handed them. It had the usual collection of bandages and wraps, a small collection of analgesics, a blood pressure tester, a pulse oximeter, a digital thermometer, a small flashlight, and a collection of small tools, including bandage scissors. Most important were a dozen or so space blankets and baby wraps.

"What's a baby wrap?"

"It's a mylar sleeve, like a hot pocket crisper sleeve. They call them a burrito bag. You slide the baby into this and it reflects the baby's body heat back."

"How did you learn all this first aid stuff?" asked Luke.

Suddenly the fire went out of Josh's eyes. He took a deep, shuddering breath and said, "The hard way." With that, he went silent and locked the first aid kit lid closed.

The mechanics tested the hitch they had mounted on Josh's sled, then dragged a tow-behind sled to it and coupled it up. This wasn't the utility tub that Josh used to haul firewood with; this was what many called a cutter, a tow-behind passenger sled designed for two passengers. It was locally manufactured with a heavy duty suspension on two large skis, and the passenger compartment was an egg-shaped cockpit with large suicide-doors that would comfortably fit two adults. It also had a storage compartment in the rear. Large windows on the front and side doors gave the passengers a view of the world around them. "You're good to go!" shouted a mechanic.

Josh and Luke put the first aid kit in the rear compartment of the cutter, then climbed onto the big Yamaha and fired up the engine. Before they put on their helmets, the manager of Dundee Motor Sports came up to Josh and said, "No more 2002, right?"

"Damn right," said Josh with a fist bump. He put on his helmet, patted Luke's hands to make sure he was holding on tight, then they eased out the rear door of the shop and headed out to Main Street.

"What did he mean by 2002?" asked Luke.

"Back in 2002 we had a blizzard in Amherst that trapped people on the 90, the 190, and the 290. About half a dozen trapped people died." Josh keyed up his mic and called, "November Zero, Air Force Veteran, back on the air, whatcha got for us net control?"

<><><><><>

"This is WKBW Channel 7 with News you can use. I'm Cindy Prescott and this hour, the mayor elect of Springville has taken the reins and declared a snow emergency. With this we go to Stan Porter in Orchard Park. Stan?" The scene shifted to a gentle snow north of Springville in Orchard Park. Behind the news announcer was a line of black clouds and a huge new car lot.

"Cindy, we're here in Orchard Park because the highways south into Springville are closed. They have up to four feet of snow with another forty eight inches expected by this time tomorrow. You can see the black clouds behind me but also you can see this car lot. The owner of Jarecki motors Paul Jarecki and his wife, the mayor elect of Springville, Doctor Adrianna Roberts are working along with dozens to save their village. A reported eight teams of workers on snowmobiles are inspecting every single car stuck in the snow and are digging out anyone trapped inside."

"Stan, we have to interrupt, we're getting a briefing from the mayor elect herself."

Suddenly the scene changed, and Andi was seen standing in front of a burgundy red curtain. This was the curtain in her basement that covers their enormous TV screen. "As of eleven AM this morning, I was able to determine that there was no elected official in a position to take command of this emergency, so in accordance with Town of Concord and Village of Springville law, as mayor elect, I stepped forward and declared a snow emergency. The response has been overwhelming. People from all over southern Erie County have literally crawled out from under the snow to help. We currently have six teams digging stranded motorists out of their stuck cars and transporting them to one of four motels or, if needed, to Bertrand Chafee Hospital. Another two sleds are currently running needed food and medicine to trapped residents." Andi saw on the laptop in front of her that one of the reporters on the Zoom call was flashing, meaning that Veronica had tagged that reporter as having a worthwhile question. "Ken Burns from WWIV, what's your question Ken?"

"There's dozens of people in your area that have snowmobiles, why are you only depending on eight? And what happened to your mayor?"

"I'll answer the second question first. I don't know. Nobody has heard from him since my husband was rescued. As for your first question, the weather conditions out there are life threatening. Each sled has two people on it and they're towing an enclosed trailer; many were donated by Dundee Motor Sports. Every sled has at least one amateur radio operator who has had training in emergency communication. They come into the fire hall on a regular basis for a physical checkup to ensure their health and a hot drink. If you could hear their radio transmissions, they're so precise, it sounds like NASA over where my husband is controlling the radio net."

Just then they could hear Yi in the background shout. "Bertrand Chafee called, we have an abandoned baby inbound!"

"What was that?" asked the reporter whose Zoom window was still unmuted.

Andi fought back tears as she said, "It is one of those things that should never happen..."

<><><><><>

"Are you ready ma'am?" asked Josh.

"Please don't, I weigh far too much," said the middle-aged woman.

"Well only one of us has snowshoes so..." With that, Josh scooped the lady out of the passenger seat of the trapped car and carried her around the back of the car and to the trailer behind the snowmobile. Then he carefully eased her into the trailer, where she sat stunned next to her husband. "Ok, y'all, you can hold hands, but I advise saving the serious smooching for the motel, ok?" said Josh as he and Luke unfolded the hospital blanket and draped it across their knees. "Y'all got everything? Need any medicines or stuff like that?"

"No we're good, just hungry."

"Ok, we'll get you to the motel and we'll give you a set of military rations for dinner. Mm-mm good!"

"Are you being sarcastic?" asked the woman.

"Yes ma'am, ah shore am!" and he closed the cutter door and secured it.

Luke was already in place on the seat, and when Josh put on his helmet, he heard, "I don't believe you carried her through that snow!"

"Ah hope ya took notes son, because it's your turn next."

"You're not my father," said an indignant Luke.

Josh chuckled and said, "Ah wuz abbreviating." Then he keyed up his mic. "Net control, K2SNY Mobile five is ready to transport two adults in good health, where are we going?"

"Mobile five, take them to the Zoar Valley Inn. On your way, about six cars ahead of you there's a silver Lexus, Pennsylvania License plate Able Lima Charlie 3218, there is a medicine bag on the front seat, can you transport that to room 103 at the Zoar Valley inn?"

"Roger dat! We are pulling up to the Lexus now." Then he said to Luke, "Can you get that boss man?"

"I will," and Luke slid off from behind Josh. The snow was tamped down from the rescue of the passengers earlier, so Luke didn't need snowshoes. He yanked the driver's door open; the window on that door had a circle of red spray paint, indicating that the car had been checked. He crawled in and found the medicine bag that had been left behind, and he heard a squeak from the back seat. He looked and in horror saw a child in an infant seat. "JOSH!!!"

"What's the matter son?" asked Josh when he saw Luke climb all the way into the car.

"There's a baby in the back seat!"

Josh leapt off the snowmobile, grabbed his folding shovel and began digging out the rear door like a madman. "I'm-a comin' for ya youngin', I'm-a comin'," said Josh over and over as he dug out the rear door. He pulled open the door and saw the baby slowly turn toward him and begin to pant, winding up to a scream. Luke was leaning over the front seat, trying to get the baby out of the infant seat, but he couldn't unfasten the child seat restraints. "Get me a burrito bag out of the first aid kit!" shouted Josh as he unbuckled the baby from the car seat and lifted the child out.

"Oh God she's freezing!" Josh hugged and kissed the baby until Luke could get a "Burrito Bag" open. A Burrito Bag is an aluminized Mylar bag made to slide a baby into. The bag will reflect ninety percent of the baby's body heat back at the baby. The little one got fussy as Josh put her in the bag. "Was there a hat in there? She needs a hat."

"No hat," said Luke.

"Then grab the kid's baby bag and let's get going."

"There's no baby bag," said a worried Luke.

"There's always a baby bag! What the fuck? Saddle up, let's ride." Josh unzipped his one-piece suit and eased the bagged baby into his suit and carefully zipped it back up. "Ready?"

"Let's go."

"Net Control, this is Kilo Two Sierra November Yankee Mobile Five calling Quebec Romeo, Romeo, Romeo. We are enroute to Bertrand Chafee with one infant on board. Approximately two months old, suffering from hypothermia. Request Peeds ER to meet me at the door. We also need Law Enforcement at the hospital."

"Roger Mobile Five, Main Street has been groomed by the village, proceed safely with all due haste. Bertrand Chaffee has been notified. Where's that couple we sent you to get?"

"They're in the cutter right behind me Net Control." Then, off the air, Josh said to Luke, "When we get to the hospital I'll take the baby in, you make apologies to our passengers."

"Gotcha."

"You're catching on." Then he shut off his microphone and started singing to the baby. "Hang on Molly, Molly hang on, come on come on... Hang on Molly hang on..."

They roared into the hospital; Josh made another call to Net Control, "We need Law Enforcement here at the hospital and when we get to the Zoar Valley Inn we're going to need Law Enforcement there."

"Roger Mobile five."

Josh pulled forward enough for the trailer to clear the ER door, then shut off the sled and dashed into the hospital where a pediatric doctor and nurse were waiting. Josh carefully unzipped his suit and eased the mylar wrapped baby out of his snowmobile suit. She wasn't moving; her eyes were closed, and Josh couldn't tell if she was breathing. "What's her name?" asked the nurse.

Josh was struggling to hold back the tears. He barely acknowledged the nurse as he watched the pediatric team unwrap the baby. "I was calling her Molly, ya know, the unsinkable Molly Brown. Don't know who she is or where she came from. We found her abandoned in a car. The couple who were in the car are staying in the Zoar Valley Inn."

Luke opened the door to the trailer and said, "We have a situation that may take a bit to clear up, why not come in and warm up before we head to your motel?"

"Sure, what happened?"

"We found a baby in that last car," said Luke.

"Is that why the big guy was digging so hard!" gushed the middle-aged woman.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 17 - Any Port in a Storm

"K2SNY Mobile Five, Net Control."

It was the fifth time that Paul called for Josh and still no answer, and he was getting worried. Luke was worried as well. They were sitting in the lobby of the Days Inn, and Josh was unconscious or asleep. They dropped off the Middle-Aged couple at the Zoar Valley Inn and watched three cops jump off the huge snowcat, then storm into room 103 and drag off the two women that abandoned baby Molly. In addition to kidnapping and child endangerment, they were charged with possession with intent to sell over two kilograms of fentanyl and cocaine. That was what the police found in the large medicine bag that Luke found in the car where Molly had been left.

Then it was back to work.

How many hours was it? Back and forth to US219, dig out a stranded motorist, whisk them to one of the motels in town, then dig out someone else and rush them to the hospital. They also transported people from the hospital after they were released to a motel. And they transported folks in the motels to residential homes that opened their spare bedrooms to the stranded motorists.

They had quite a load that last time; it took two sleds to haul the entire family. Gus and John took Dad and the two girls, while Josh and Luke hauled Mom and her three boys. As the boys got out of the cutter, Josh said, "Y'all didn't leave nothin' behind, did ya?"

"Didn't leave ANYTHING!" corrected a six-year-old boy.

Josh reached into the cutter and produced an Iron Man action figure. "Then this must be mine."

"Hey!" and the boy snatched the toy out of Josh's hand and dashed into the hotel.

"What about our car?" asked the father.

"Call town of Concord PD with your license number and they will tell you when the road will be cleared," said Josh.

Inside the Day's Inn, the motel staff offered Luke and Josh a cup of coffee and a bottle of water, and Josh slam-chugged the water. Then he sat down and immediately fell fast asleep. Luke tried to nap also, but his entire body was shuddering.

"K2SNY Mobile Five, Net Control."

Luke pulled his little handheld radio from his pocket; it was a birthday gift from his folks, a Chinese Baofeng UV-5R, a cheap, low-powered radio that's so inexpensive most HAMs have two or three of them as emergency back-up radios. A new Baofeng can cost less than the cost of taking the HAM license. For Luke's family, it was a major expense.

"This is Mobile Five, KN2GSJ operator. Go ahead Net Control."

Paul was exhausted, but he knew he's never heard that callsign before. He turned to his laptop and looked up the callsign he had been given... it was legitimate. It was issued to Luke Lawson about six months ago, and Luke had an Extra Class license, the highest rating an amateur radio operator can have.

"When you finish at the Days Inn, you're needed at Bertrand Chaffee ER."

"Roger, we'll be there shortly. KN2GSJ monitoring."

Josh opened one eye and said, "Was that your first QSO?"

Luke scanned his memory for HAM Radio Q-Codes. QSO means direct communication, so speaking to someone on the radio would be a QSO. "Uh yeah. I never keyed up the radio before; I wasn't sure if I had it programmed properly."

"When the war's over, talk to Paul," said Josh. "He can load your Baofeng up with all the local repeaters and simplex freqs. You need some HF experience also. Paul has a couple nice rigs you can practice on." Josh stood up and finished the lukewarm coffee and said, "Did ya get a nap?"

"No," groaned Luke as he zipped up his snowmobile suit.

"It's a skill you need to learn. Grab a nap anytime you can."

"Did you learn that on gunships?" asked Luke as they headed out to their snowmobile. The motel staff gave them a hero's farewell, clapping and waving as they headed out the door.

"Nah, I learned that on the shrimp boats." They climbed onto the sled and headed out. "Uhura, contact net control give them our status."

Luke had his helmet on, and his radio wasn't Bluetooth capable. "Sorry captain. My com systems are down," said Luke with a chuckle.

"Yer catchin' on, son. Net Control, K2SNY mobile five is enroute to Bertrand Chafee."

"Net control copies," said an exhausted Paul Jarecki, and he leaned back in his chair. It was late; Josh and Luke were one of two sleds still operating. Gus and John were taking their last couple to the hospital with low grade hypothermia. Paul would have loved to have spent the day out there with his friends, helping travelers and neighbors, but what he was doing was essential. Clear, professional communication was needed as much as the snowmobiles that roared up and down Main Street for the past eight hours.

And the ICS Form 214. Every communication with the mobile units, every event they reported, everything that happened in the mayor's command post was annotated on the ICS Form 214. Paul was up to page 13 when Mayor Elect Jarecki came up behind him and purred in his ear, "What do you say we go upstairs and fuck?"

"Not until my guys are home safe."

She was disappointed, but it was exactly what she wanted to hear. "Ok, when they get home you put them in the steam room and warm them up, close out the 214 and join me."

"Will do," said Paul, and he started collecting his notes, getting ready to finalize the ICS 214 report. There were only two sleds left out there tonight. He reached for the microphone for what he hoped was the last time that day. "Mobile 3, Mobile 5, Net control..."

"Mobile 3"

"Mobile 5"

"Once you're done with your current tasking, return to Howard Ave QTH for final brief."

"Three copies."

"Five copies."

"Those guys," said Andi. "So professional sounding. Did Windecker have anything like this to use?"

"Yes," said Paul. "And he insulted us, called us schoolboys with walkie-talkies, and turned down our offer to assist."

"I want an Emergency Operations Center," said Andi. "Not big like what the county has, but small, for us down here in the south towns. We're up in the hills away from the lakes, and our travel can be cut off in the blink of an eye. We have farm families that can sustain themselves, but what if they need something like medicine? I don't trust the county to respond rapidly."

"Nor do I Madam Mayor."

<><><><><>

The streets were deserted; only cars parked on the sides of Main Street were visible, and they were covered up to their hoods in snow. The last rescued couple was headed to Bertrand Chafee Hospital. They had three teams dig them out; they had slid off the side of the road and were completely covered with snow until Gus and John found them and dug them out. "Good rescue, Mobile three," called Paul.

"Thank you kindly," said John. Gus was driving and John was the "GOB" (Guy On Back. Something Josh started.) Gus still doesn't have his HAM license, but he'll fix that soon. His wife, Lucy, made a bet that she could make a baby faster than he could get a call sign, and she's got a two-month lead on him. "How many folks did you dig out?"

"I don't know, I think your brother was counting. What are our scores Paul?"

Net control came on and said, "I don't remember, Madam Mayor ran off with my paperwork." They didn't hear Andi swat Paul with the paperwork he accused her of running off with. Paul didn't want it to turn into a contest; he wanted proper rescues. If you spent all day with one rescue, it didn't matter as long as everyone was safe.

"Mobile three, coming up on your right wing," said Josh as he fell into formation on the right side and just behind Gus and John's sled. They were even with Gus and John's trailer, and they saw the couple in the trailer waving at them, and it looked like there was a small child waving in there as well. There was a flash as the woman took a picture of Josh and Luke riding 10 feet away from them. Gus let the speed creep up to fifty miles per hour. The snow on Main Street was groomed smooth by the Police Department's snowcat, which let the eight snowmobiles race up and down Main Street as fast as they wanted to go.

They were still in formation as they pulled onto the hospital grounds, but Josh fell back and moved over to Gus's left wing as Gus pulled into the emergency entrance.

ER personnel whisked the family away from Gus's cutter, then Gus pulled forward to clear the ER entrance for any other sled that was out there. While there was no ban on other folks riding their sleds, but there was a call to coordinate any emergency operation with the Office of the Mayor. Gus, Josh and John walked into the ER in a row, talking like the old friends that they were, while Luke followed along behind.

"Mister Gravely?" asked the nurse at the reception desk.

"It's Gravely-von Köster now," said Josh. "Y'all need me?"

"How would you like to meet Heather Woodstock, the little girl you rescued."

"Ah jes brought her in, it were Mister Lawson what saved her life," said Josh, and he pulled Luke up to the desk. Luke had unzipped the top of his snowmobile suit and worked his arms out of it, then tied the arms off at his waist so he didn't look like a pink anime monster strutting through the hospital.

"I just found her, you got her out, then kept her warm and brought her in."

"Let my buddy Luke hold her, he's never seen a baby before," said Josh.

"Yes I have!" lied Luke. He was just terrified because Kiko's father, Hanzou Yamanaka, had privately threatened to kill Luke if he got Kiko pregnant. In the end, Josh ended up holding Heather Woodstock. She was beautiful; she was perfection. Josh started singing to her again, the song he sang on the snowmobile when he thought she was dying. It went to the tune of Hang On Sloopy, but he sang it to Molly. She smiled as Josh sang, then sneezed. "Anyone have a snot sucker? She's got an oyster in her nose."

"You mean a Briggs Bulb?" asked a smiling pediatric nurse, who handed the bulb to Josh.

"You're so crude," said Luke.

"You think I'm crude? Watch this," said Josh as he squeezed the suction ball and put the aspirator in Heather's nostril, and released the bulb. The little girl looked shocked at suddenly having her sinuses sucked clear, and she gave Josh a big smile. John and Gus joined them, and the camera flashes went off as the doctors and nurses recorded their first kidnapping happy ending.

"Mommy and daddy will be up here tomorrow to get their baby," said the head of pediatrics.

Josh gazed into Molly/Heather's crystal blue eyes and said, "The roads won't be open yet."

"The state is keeping Interstate 90 open so they can get to Orchard Park."

"Get with the mayor elect and make your plans, she'll make something happen." Then Josh reluctantly handed "Molly" back to the nurses, then turned to Luke. "Let's go find a sunset to ride off into."

"Let's saddle up pard," said Luke as they zipped up their snowmobile suits.

As the doors slid open to let them out, Josh turned to Luke and said, "I think you're going to work out, kiddo."

<><><><><>

Josh woke up on the huge couch in Jarecki's media room. The big burgundy curtains were drawn back, revealing Paul's huge high-definition projection screen. Cartoon girls were dancing around in sailor uniforms and waving magic wands. The twins, Sandy and Madeline, were watching and bouncing with excitement. He remembered entering the house but not coming downstairs. He checked under the blanket, and he definitely didn't remember taking his clothes off. "What is this?" groaned Josh.

"She's Sailor Moon!" shouted the twins in unison.

Josh tried to focus, then asked the exact wrong question. "Which one?"

"That one! And that one is Sailor Venus, that one is Sailor Mars and that one is Sailor Jupiter, and the boy is Tuxedo Mask, and the cat is Luna!"

Josh noticed the 1980s style of art that the anime used and groaned. This cartoon was older than he was. He pulled the blanket over his head and tried to go back to sleep. He faintly heard Veronica call, "Is he up yet?"

"Yeah!" called Sandy.

"He's grumpy," said Madeline.

"Tell him to go get a shower and put on his clean thermals."

Josh was suddenly being rocked by the twins who were demanding, "You're Stinky!" and "Go shower. Aunty Ronica says so!" In retaliation, he tickled the twins until they were squealing, then he wrapped the blanket around himself and headed to Paul and Andi's gym, where the greatest shower in the world awaited.

The shower that Gus installed for Paul showered from three directions: above, in front, and below, spraying up from the floor. According to Paul, if a girl put the floor nozzles on full blast and crouched over them, she'd have no need for a man, ever again. Josh went to the control panel and typed in his pin and the right-hand shower sprang to life with his favorite settings: a warm rain from all directions and a forceful direct spray from the hand shower. Before he stepped into the spray, he hit the steam generator button.

As he lathered his hair, which was now far too long, he felt a pair of hands sliding over his back. They reached around and began washing his cock and balls while he felt large, firm breasts pressing against his back. He turned around and there was Veronica standing gloriously nude. Josh looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her shapely figure, especially her round breasts. "Dear God, you're beautiful," he whispered as their lips met.

Finally, their kiss ended, and he began kissing her long, slender neck. "I am afraid I have competition for your love," she said sadly.

He stopped kissing and murmured, "That skinny little thing? Koko? Don't be silly."

"It's Kiko, and no, I'm talking about Heather." Josh continued to kiss her neck and run his hands over her moist skin. "You're not saying anything," she cautioned.

"What can I say? When you're right, you're right." What could Josh say? When his eyes met those sparkling blue eyes of the tiny girl, he was lost. She was his queen, and anything that she wanted, all she had to do was say the word, and it was Josh's quest to satisfy his queen's desires.

"You!" gasped Veronica, and she pushed Josh to the wooden bench that lined the two station shower. "This is for being such a good hero," and her mouth descended on his cock. Josh groaned loudly as the warm, moist nirvana of Veronica's mouth swallowed his throbbing manhood. As her mouth rose and fell on his cock, taking more with every swallow, a mechanical chuffing could be heard, and with a loud hiss the shower filled with steam.

It was a race to see what would finish Josh off first: the hot, wet steam, or Veronica's hot, wet mouth, and Veronica played to win. One hand cradled his balls, the other explored his tight anus. All he could do was whimper at the delightful torture and lift his hips to give her access. Then her finger slid deep inside him and touched something that short-circuited Josh's brain. He came with a roar, filling her mouth over and over. The sensations filled his mind as he shuddered at her toying with him. Heather was momentarily forgotten as his hips jerked of their own accord, fucking Veronica's lovely mouth.

Josh's climax seemed to go on forever, leaving him shuddering and weak, and Veronica knew exactly what she had done to him. He sat back, panting, his head swimming, the steam swirling. Veronica had become a champion fellatrix in her modeling days. Every rich man she ever met wanted to fuck her, and she didn't return the desire. But a blowjob from a high-end model was always a worthwhile exchange. She could get a man to cum in less than a minute or draw out his pleasure all night long. However, with Josh, she really wanted to have sex with him, so a blow job was to get his blood boiling, and soon he was fucking them both out of their minds.

Veronica's greatest worry was that Josh found out about her sexual history. He has told her much of his history, but he has never asked Veronica. He said it didn't matter to him; as far as he was concerned, her sexual history started on a stormy, snowy night stuck at the Andalon Data Center with him.

They sat together in the steam, covered in sweat and panting as the moist heat opened up their pores and raised their internal body temperature. Josh kissed her again with a passion that sometimes scared Veronica, even after a blowjob. It didn't seem to matter that he came in her mouth. The steam jets finally ended, and silence filled the steam room/shower room. "Has Madam Mayor planned how to return Molly?"

"Who?"

"Heather. When we found her we didn't know her name so I called her Molly, after the Unsinkable Molly Brown. I sang Hang On Sloopy to her and she seemed to like it."

"I'm supposed to be getting you dressed so you can come up and talk to Andi about it. "

Josh got up, his head swimming from the steam. He hit a button combination on the control panel, and cool, reinvigorating water sprinkled down from the ceiling. Veronica fought a bit, but when the cool water hit, it felt so good. "Up in North Dakota during the winter, I'd go to the gym after work and sit in the steam for as long as I could stand it, then I'd walk outside wearing only my gym shorts. It really felt awesome."

"How cold was it?"

"Minus forty." Veronica gave a squeak of shock, but she's heard about the sauna rituals of the Nordic countries, so Josh's cool down was not that unusual. They were dressed and walked upstairs hand-in-hand in a matter of minutes.

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Chapter 18 - Debrief

It was a jolly crew in Andi and Paul's kitchen that morning. The twins were finished with their anime and seated at the table, banging their spoons and forks together, chanting "Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!" Yi was getting the griddle ready to make breakfast and had an oven full of bacon roasting to crispy perfection. Josh manned the espresso machine in Paul's absence. "Where's net control?" asked Josh as he prepared a cappuccino for Veronica.

"He's still asleep," said Andi. "He worked himself too hard yesterday."

"He should have had another ham spelling him at net control," said Josh. "It can be tough." Andi and Josh both glared at Yi.

"I'm studying!" she said as she stirred pancake batter. Yi once had a ham license, but she let it lapse and now she has to re-test to get back on the air.

"Can you believe that Luke made extra class on his first time testing?" gushed Josh.

Veronica looked surprised; she knew how hard Josh studied to get his general class license. "How did he do that?"

"He tested for tech and when he passed they offered him the general test for free, and when he passed that, they offered him the extra class test and he passed that as well."

"I've only seen one other person do that," said a bleary-eyed Paul as he sat down. "He was a real scatterbrain."

"It was YOU!" said Andi as she gave Paul a kiss. Mayor Elect Andi was nursing three month old Danny as her husband kissed her. Josh gave them each a decaf Americano, which was their morning brew.

"I guessed every one of those questions on the general test," said Luke as he and Kiko walked into the kitchen. She pulled back a chair for him and insisted that he sit down.

"You knew the answers," insisted Kiko. "Don't sell yourself short Sensei." She didn't say 'sensei' scornfully, playfully, or angrily, like she has since they first met, but she used a polite and respectful tone. Then she leaned over and whispered something in his ear that caused the young teacher to blush crimson red. Kiko straightened up and said, "I'll get your breakfast for you darling."

"I can get my own breakfast," insisted Luke, but Kiko would hear nothing of it. When Luke tried to get up, she pushed him back down.

"This is my job, Sensei, you relax." Kiko walked over to Josh and said, "Luke would like a latte and an orange juice." Then to Yi she said, "Luke will have three pancakes and bacon, extra crispy."

"What is going on with her?" asked Veronica to Luke as Josh steamed the milk for Luke's latte.

"I proposed night before last and she's been like this ever since," said a confused Luke.

"Hell, ah don't remember squat of last night nor the night before," grumbled Josh. "Did you just dream you proposed?"

Veronica was just as confused as Josh, so she asked, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"When I was showering she found the ring in my pocket and..." started Luke, but Kiko took over.

"He still proposed," said Kiko, "and he was so sweet, but yesterday Doctor Lucy had news too, so we decided not to steal her thunder."

"Oh! That's so thoughtful!" cried Andi, and she got up and wrapped her arms around Kiko. What Kiko said next was lost as Andi, Veronica, Yi, and the twins surrounded Kiko and gushed over her ring. It was a simple ring with a small stone, but it's a ring that a schoolteacher could afford, and they crooned over it like it was the five hundred karat Star of India.

"She's been mother hen to me since," said Luke.

Josh chuckled and handed Luke his coffee and orange juice. "You better get used to it."

Luke looked confused. "Day before yesterday she was calling me a moron for driving to Springville in the snow, now she's calling me a hero for going out to ride around and risk my life."

"Day before yesterday she was your friend, your student, and your number one critic," said Josh. "When you put that ring on her finger she became your real life waifu." A waifu is a term that fans of Japanese culture, primarily anime and manga (comic books), call their ideal imaginary partner. Japanese women try to become their husband's waifu when their relationship goes from dating to permanent.

"Josh is right," said Paul as he scanned the news on his tablet. "Japanese wives are sweet and loving and treat their husbands like a monarch. The more you fight back the more they bury you in concern." Then he chuckled and held up his tablet. The screen was filled with the picture of Josh and Luke roaring down Main Street, leaning into the blowing snow. The picture was taken by the last couple that Gus and John transported to the hospital. They were cruising alongside Josh and Luke when the picture was taken. The headline read "Local Heros Save Lives in Springville Lake Effect Storm."

On the kitchen TV were shaky video streams and dozens of photographs of the sleds and rescue teams in action, mostly taken by the trapped people as they were being rescued, then uploaded online when they were safe. The reporter was speaking with Andi on the telephone, an interview which had been recorded earlier. As they spoke, an image of Andi at the teacher's desk with the whiteboard filled with data behind her; that was followed by an image of Paul at his VHF radio speaking into a microphone. Yi turned up the sound and they could hear the newsreader ask, "You set up a fully functional village emergency command post in your basement, in a matter of a few minutes, is that right?"

"Yes, the office I was working in was originally a storeroom, it's now a classroom for our daughters. Their tutor was trapped in our home by the storm and he was the person that found an abandoned baby in a stranded car."

"Mayor Jarecki, how is it that a baby was left behind? A team rescued the kidnappers, unwittingly I must add, but they left the baby behind?"

"That's a sad story and I will not hold the first rescue team responsible. They did ask the two women about the baby seat, because it would take a lot of shoveling to get to it. The infant seat was facing rearward behind the driver's seat, so the rescuers could not see into the seat which was covered with blankets. Only when Luke Lawson, on his first ever snow emergency dispatch crawled deep into the car to retrieve a medicine bag did he notice movement in the seat. He and Josh Gravely-von Köster dug out the child and transported her as quickly as possible to the Hospital where she was identified via birth footprints and DNA, and the family notified. We will reunite the baby with her family this afternoon."

"An amazing story. How many rescues did your teams conduct?"

"We had seventy six rescues including Baby Molly, which is what the rescuers called her. That's an average of at least twelve rescues for the six two person teams, which included digging out the car, doing a quick medical check of all rescued parties, and transport to the hotel, home, or hospital. Each team was required to warm up and get a checkup at the fire hall hourly. We also had two teams that ran medications and food to homebound people throughout the day until requests stopped coming in."

The interview switched to the chief of police, who was overjoyed. "The mayor elect set up a professional response in a matter of minutes. She sent us a video feed of her whiteboard so we could see as the rescues progressed. Luckily not a single caller requested on-scene EMTs, but we were ready if that call came in."

"Chief, what caused this calamity?" asked the news reader.

"Just the fact that the storm hit us without warning, then sat on top of Springville for a full day like the storm of 2002 stalled over Amherst. We were blessed that it didn't hit north or south of us, then we'd have people stranded miles from help."

By the time the chief was finished with his interview and the morning news went back to the Buffalo Sabres' latest victory, breakfast was ready. Cheers went up as Josh and Yi carried the platters of pancakes and bacon to the table, the bowls of "Twin Churned" butter, and the jars of home harvested and made maple syrup. Just as they were about to dig in, Josh called, "Slow your roll friends and neighbors. Deacon Jarecki, could we have a word of grace?"

Paul looked around the table at the smiling faces he recently thought he'd never see again and realized that he was fighting back tears. "Friends, not long ago I thought I would never sit among you again. Can we join hands and remember how blessed we are to be here?"

Kiko was a little confused. She was raised traditionally Japanese, and they always gave thanks before and after a meal, but it's one word, "Itadakimasu" which means "I humbly receive this meal." After eating, they say "Gochisou sama," which means "Thank you for the meal," They thank the cooks and whoever bought the food, and they fold their hands similar to Christians, but joining hands?

"It's ok, honey, it's not embarrassing," whispered Luke, but what would he know? Is he a Japanese woman who must keep up appearances and protect herself? Then he added, "It's not a sign of affection, it's a sign of unity." She nodded and slowly reached out for Josh's hand, and Paul started.

"Father in heaven we gather to praise your name, to thank you for your blessings, and to thank you for blessing us with the chance to save our friends and neighbors, many of whom we never met. My daughters would like to thank you for this meal."

Paul nodded to the twins, who nodded to each other, then they shouted in unison, "Rub-a-dub-dub! Thanks for the grub! YAY GOD!"

That caused Kiko to laugh, which she thought to be rude, so she stifled her laughter, but Paul saw her. "It's ok to laugh. Food is made to be enjoyed. Friends were given to us to enjoy, and little kids are all part of the blessing."

"You said this was twin churned butter?" asked Kiko as she put pancakes and bacon on Luke's plate before she put them on hers.

"I churned it!" said Sandy.

"Me too!" cried Madeline.

"They really like to churn butter," said Andi. "One of the first things Yi did when we hired her was she taught the girls to churn butter."

"And make bread bowls," said Sandy.

"And stooo!" they cried together.

"Where did you get the syrup from," asked Kiko as she poured it on her fiancé's pancakes.

"My brother and I made it," said Paul. "We have several acres of Sugar Maples and every spring we tap the trees and boil down the sap."

"Sticky, sticky, sticky," chanted the twins.

"It's kind of a party," said Andi. "It's where John's wife and I truly were able to get to know each other, and we became sisters. We were both pregnant, and we were nesting with each other and sharing stories." She remembered Macy's greatest fear. Macy confessed to Andi that she had been drugged with LSD in her modeling days, and John had been drugged with LSD by Paul's first wife's sister at Paul and Melony's wedding. Macy was terrified that if someone in the congregation found out, they would be voted out of the church. It was also when Paul discovered that his wife's commander raped her and gave her a Plan B pill, which she was allergic to, and died. That weekend was very important to Andi.

"That was when Kenny and I started dating," said Yi.

"Kenny, the big guy, right?" asked Kiko as she fed bites of pancakes to Luke. "Say aaahhh," with each bite.

"Do you want me to show you another picture? This one is hotter."

"NO!" said Kiko, causing everyone to laugh. Kiko remembered who Kenny was. She had plans for Luke. She was going to fatten him up some, then build him up in the judo dojo. Kiko and her two sisters all have black belts. They turned her sister's husband, Takeshi, from a jolly, round otaku into a solid judo master, and he was worse off than Luke when Izumi brought him home to meet Mom and Dad.

The talk at the table was light and fun as the snow swirled around outside. The snow continued to pile up, but AccuWeather said it would be over in six more hours. Finally, Luke asked, "How are we getting Molly home to her mother?"

"The plan has changed, instead of meeting up with us to the north in South Boston, we go south to Ellicottville." Paul nodded sadly. His first wife was buried there. They had planned to get out of the military when their tour of Okinawa was done and buy a house in Ellicottville. They'd visit Paul's folks and brother on weekends, and in the winter she'd teach Paul to ski. Unfortunately, a colonel with a desire to fuck Paul's wife ruined everything. Paul considers Andi his reward for not killing himself and everyone who flew with Melony.

"So is Molly going to ride in the snowcat to Ellicottville?" asked Josh.

"No, that will take hours and have to be refilled there and then again when it gets back here," said Andi. "I'd like to take three sleds with cutters. Paul and I taking the nurses with Molly... I mean Heather! You got me saying it now," scolded Andi. "I want another sled with Gus and Lucy taking Captain Buckley and his wife, and I want Josh and Luke along with Kiko and Veronica in the trailer. There's probably going to be a lot of news coverage, and I want recognition for the people who worked so hard yesterday."

"I will have your suit all washed and pressed in time to leave, darling," said a newly attentive Kiko.

"I suppose we should run home and change," said Josh. "What time are we leaving?"

"Let's meet up at the hospital at one," said Paul.

<><><><><>

When Josh and Veronica got home, Audrey and Mike were sitting at the kitchen table, and Audrey was going over Mike's insurance and union benefits on her laptop. "Oh, you're home. Did you have fun?" asked Mike without looking up from the laptop.

"We were a bit busy," said Josh. "Ronnie was working for Andi and I was out scooting around on the sled."

"Mm-hmh," mumbled Mike, nodding affirmatively at Josh's remark.

Josh looked around for Tigger; his cat usually greeted him whenever he stepped in the door. "Is Tigger around? Is he ok?"

"He's right here," said Audrey, lifting Tigger from her lap. The cat was obviously enjoying the 24/7 attention he was receiving from Audrey and Mike.

"Ok, I'm going to change and rest, or something..." mumbled Josh, and he headed downstairs, stuffed his snowmobile suit in the washing machine and set the cycle, then headed upstairs for their bedroom. He opened the door and found the bedroom decorated with crepe paper streamers and a huge print of the pacing shot of himself and Luke racing down Main Street at midnight in the blowing snow. Beneath that was a sign that said, "Hail the Heros!"

Veronica stood in the doorway and chuckled as Josh gazed at the memorial that had been put up. "I think dad and Audrey are proud of you and what you did."

"It wasn't just me, there was a dozen other guys out there."

Veronica shook her head and said, "You and Luke had the most rescues of anyone. You skipped warm-up breaks, health checks, and meal breaks to get those people out. You stopped twice, once for gas and once because your body needed a rest and you passed out."

"Ah took a nap."

"You passed out, I know you Ephie, and you're no good to me dead. I don't want to end up a pregnant widow because you were too busy saving someone else."

Josh looked at Veronica in shock. "Are you...?" He left the question unsaid.

"No, I'm not, and I won't be if you end up killing yourself." She firmly pulled Josh to her and said, "Ephie, I want you around for a long time. I want to be the wife that Kiko is trying to be. You and I both work our asses off, and we're dangerously close to dying childless and alone."

"Ah'm sorry darlin' but sometimes..." Josh frowned and started again. "Sometimes when ah realize that there are so many people I could have saved, it breaks my heart, it really does. Especially when there's people walkin' around out there that ah could have saved lives by putting in a grave."

"Ok, stop. You're not Judge Ephraim and this is Springville, not Mega-City One. Judge Dredd was a comic book character; you're Josh the poker player. You play the cards you're dealt. Comprende?"

Josh squeezed his eyes closed. He knows so many people that he should have saved, but didn't. He didn't save Craig Zigler; he didn't save Wayne Engler; he didn't save Wyatt Grady. For that reason, he won't let anyone call him Josey. That was the inspiration for the callsign that Craig, Wayne, and Wyatt gave him when they first started flying together, and they're gone, so Outlaw is gone. Their flight commander, Emory Hancock, called him 'bounce' when he bounced around the gun deck on their hard landing, so Bounce 27 was his callsign as far as anyone knows. He sighed, folks working aft of the cockpit don't use their callsigns, anyway.

Then the image of all those girls at work! He couldn't protect them from that bastard, Brandon Mitchell. Even his daughter was that bastard's prey. And Rasheed... and Cole Reagan... Then he thought of Dennis and Séraphine Howe and the thought of them murdered in Amelia's house; that thought broke his heart more than his gun crew... and poor Cholly...

"You need a nap," said Veronica, breaking through the fog. "You overworked yourself and you're sleep deprived."

"No, I got to log in and..."

"No! There's nothing to log into. It's Sunday, the rescues are over and the data center is closed. Monday morning Rasheed will take over and do what needs to be done and you can work remotely from bed if you want. It will probably be Wednesday before you can get to work." She pushed Josh back onto the bed and pulled his fleece Georgia Bulldogs blanket over them. "I'll keep an eye on your snowmobile suit in the laundry and wake you when it's time to go."

"I'm not tired," groaned Josh. He searched his mind for an excuse to get up and do something, but he had fallen asleep before he found what it was he was looking for.

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Chapter 19 - Unsinkable

The air in Amelia Hernandez's tiny house smelled like blood, rancid and metallic. The kitchen was a disaster. The floor was covered with uncooked oatmeal and the remains of a box of Lucky Charms. The lower cabinets were opened and everything was pulled out because someone was looking for something. The refrigerator was covered with tiny handprints; someone little was trying to get in. It was an old refrigerator; there was a latch that was released by pressing a large button that the little person couldn't reach.

The ghost of Ephraim Gravely moved silently through the house to the back room where little Chamonix shrieked and patted his mother's body, trying to wake her up. The little boy had found some edible cereal and brought her two tiny handfuls, and placed them at his mother's mouth. But Séraphine Lévesque-Howe will never eat again. Her lifeless eyes looked up at Ephraim, accusing him of being careless and failing to save her tiny family.

The spirit of Ephraim passed through the door to find Mayor Samael Windecker, former VFW Post Vice Commander Charles Lee, Chief of the Park Patrol Richard Harvey, and park patrol cop Derrick Oglethorpe taking turns beating Dennis Howe with nightsticks and baseball bats. "Where is it?" they screamed after every hit. Dennis looked up at the ghost of Ephraim and gasped, "love my son for me."

"I do, Dennis, I love him dearly."

A look of peace spread over Dennis's beaten face. He opened his mouth to say something more, but Samael Windecker, stoned out of his skull, pulled out a pistol and pumped five rounds into Dennis.

"You fucking idiot!" hissed someone in a limousine parked on the street, and Josh recognized him... it was Senator Alvin Kroc.

"Now for that bitch!" giggled Samael Windecker, and he stumbled into the house.

Ephraim returned to the house to watch beautiful Séraphine push her tiny son under the bed, then Samael came in and lifted the gun. It only clicked; he had his five shots, and he was out. She shrieked at him in French, but Windecker dropped his gun on the floor and took something out of his pocket and shoved it in Séraphine's mouth.

Ephraim tried to choke Windecker, but he was pulled outside where the senator pointed to the thugs and yelled, "Get rid of that before the blood soaks into the ground!" Charles Lee, Dick Harvey, and Derrick Oglethorpe picked up Dennis Howe's broken body and threw the remains of a dedicated F15 pilot into the trunk of the senator's car.

Ephraim wanted to move toward the car and throttle the senator, but he couldn't move. He fought against whatever was holding him back when a body slammed into the ground in front of him. He recognized the desert brown Nomex flight suit and looked closer. Ephraim's spirit eyes bugged open wide, and he shrieked in horror when he saw that the body that fell from the sky was Ellie Stadelmeyer. "Ellie!" cried the spirit of Ephraim, and he drew near the broken body, whose blood began to mingle with Dennis Howe's blood.

Her eyes opened and focused on Ephraim and said, "Love your daughter Josh. She's waiting for you."

Suddenly Ephraim was falling. It seemed like he was falling forever and he felt lost. Was he falling up? Was he falling down? Where was he... Images flashed through his mind... Joshua Hancock, as beautiful as his mother Christy, smiling like his daddy Emory... Mateo Ezequiel, the first infant he ever held, the son he would never have... Faith Daniels, Rod and Deanna's beautiful, beautiful daughter... Katarina Jarecki and her cousin Daniel, perfect in every way... Heather Woodstock who...

With a sudden slam, Josh landed on the bedroom floor. He cried out in shock and he began looking for Ellie. She was right here! "Ellie!" He searched around the bedroom floor and under the bed. Maybe she was in the closet. "Ellie!"

Downstairs, Veronica was chatting in the kitchen with Audrey and Mike, and she glanced at her watch. "It's about time to get Josh up for the trip." That's when she heard the thump and Josh call out for Ellie. "Oh no," she groaned, and she dashed up the stairs and found Josh searching the floor for something. The bedcovers were pulled half off the bed when he fell, and he was looking on the floor under the covers. She knelt next to Josh, who was frantically searching under the bed. "I'm here Josh. It's ok."

"Ellie! She was just here!" Josh looked up at Veronica and his eyes were spinning with panic. "My daughter! She said... my daughter!" With that, he ducked under the bed and began reaching as far under the bed as he could, but all he found was Tigger's stash of toys.

Veronica actually fought to get Josh to sit up and look in her eyes. His eyes were wild with terror; something had really spooked him badly. "Cholly! Is Cholly ok?" he gasped over and over.

"Cholly is fine, I just got off the phone with Macy ten minutes ago. They're all doing fine. I'm worried about you."

"I saw it all, I saw how Cholly's mother and father were killed but it was all backwards... all backwards... all backwards..."

There was something important to Josh going on, but Veronica couldn't understand it. She held him as close as he would allow, but at the same time dialed his phone. "Hello, Doctor Lennox? Josh is having issues; I can't figure out what is going on with him... here." She handed the phone to Josh and said, "Here, it's Helen, she wants to talk." Veronica found out that if you tell Josh that he needs to talk to a shrink, he'll clam up like a periwinkle on a rock, but if you say that the shrink wants to talk to you he'll chat with her all day long.

"Doctor Lennox? I had this dream... I saw how Dennis and Séraphine Howe were killed, but I saw it all backwards."

"What do you mean backwards?" asked the Psychiatrist.

"I saw how their son who was alone in the house dug around for food, he was little and he tried to feed his mother..." Josh felt the tears welling up. "He was sixteen months old, and he tried to wake her and feed her Lucky Charms." That's when the horror of what the little boy lived through hit, and Josh wept harder than he had in a very long time...

<><><><><>

They met up at the hospital, three fancy sleds with their cutters bearing the brightly colored logo of Dundee Motor Sports. Josh and Luke were on Josh's big, fast, blue and silver Yamaha Sidewinder SRX. In the cutter, Veronica and Kiko wore Bluetooth headsets so they could talk to Josh and Luke. Then came Gus and Lucy on their black and neon green Arctic Cat Pantera 9000, a high-powered luxury cruiser. Behind them in the cutter rode Reed Buckley, Town of Concord PD chief, and his wife, Lila.

The final sled in the parade pulled up to the hospital ER door, allowing the nurses to climb in carrying Heather Woodstock. They were being towed by Paul and Andi on Paul's new black and pewter Ski-Doo Grand Touring LE Platinum 900 ACE Turbo. This was the Mercedes Benz of the snowmobile world. And their cutter was a royal blue factory built Equinox SnowCoach MPV with room for four and built in heating and Bluetooth communication.

The nurses boarded Paul and Andi's comfortable cutter, and Paul made sure that the door was latched properly (the twins could open it too easily) then he opened the rear door of the cutter and pulled out a three foot by five foot American flag and mounted that on a mast on the right rear of the cutter, and on the left rear he mounted the bright green flag of Springville. The flag was as green as a sprouting cornfield and, centered on the flag, was the seal of the village.

"Very pretty!" said Gus on the HAM radio. "Will those be on the lead vehicle when the cruisers roll?"

Paul chuckled as he gunned his engine then keyed his radio and said, "Convoy lead to all convoy units, QSY to one four six dot five two oh."

Josh turned his handheld radio to 146.520 and called out, "November Zero Air Force Veteran on five twenty simplex."

"Kilo Bravo Zero Lima Victor Zulu on simplex. We will be holding phonetic alphabet lessons on February fifteenth."

"Busted!" called Lucy, as she laughed and pointed at Josh.

"Do you want the lead?" asked Paul. Josh had mentioned taking the lead on the trip down to Ellicottville.

"Roger dat. I need a quick stop on the way."

"Lead on Yamaha," called Gus, and Josh began to move. He eased in front of Paul and Andi and made a big, easy circle to the left until they were lined up with the exit drive of the hospital, about five feet below them. They had received 98 inches of snow over the past two and a half days, over eight feet, and it compressed down to about five feet, but it's not a record. The record for Springville is over 120 inches from a three day long storm in 1942.

"Let's go, Eskimo!" called Andi, and Josh opened the throttle. They chattered back and forth good-naturedly as they eased onto Main street then headed west through the center of the village. With engines roaring and flags flying, they purred up Main Street at a stately twenty miles per hour. Residents were out in force, shoveling clear the entrances to their businesses and homes. Several businesses, including Johnson's Feed and Worzil's Bar and Grill, had huge handmade signs saying, "WE ARE OPEN!" Folks waved when they recognized their new mayor on the second snowmobile.

"Is Andi waving back?" Veronica asked over the blue tooth.

Josh and Luke turned around and said, "I can't see, she's behind Paul. Hang on a second." Then Josh keyed his radio. "KA2ACU, N0AFV, can you see if Paul's passenger is waving to her people?"

"Nah, it doesn't look like it from here."

"KN4JPN, you need to do the Miss America thing," scolded Josh.

"Ok, ok," said Andi, and she began waving to the shovelers like she was riding on a parade float. The people of Springville responded happily as their mayor-elect cruised by. Other snowmobilers fell into line behind them, and at one point there were over a dozen snowmobiles cruising through the village.

The storm had spent its fury, and the snow was slacking off, and now came the hard part: digging out. Andi spoke with her head of the Department of Public Works, and he knew what he was doing. Her only instruction to him was, "I moved the Parks Patrol under you. Use them as you want, and let me know if you need any help."

As they neared the 219 Expressway overpass, they could see front-end loaders beginning to clear a path down the center of Main Street. It was slow going, but soon the path would widen and more equipment could join in on the digging efforts. The snow would be dumped into the upper Cattaraugus Creek valley and Spooner's Gulch, but first they had to dig a path that would allow dump trucks to do just that.

Before getting to the 219, they turned left onto Church Street and cruised past the Springville Congregational Church. When they passed the church, they saw that the church entryways were shoveled out: both the new church and the old wooden church. John held services online earlier that day, and Josh was asleep during the sermon. Actually, so was John. He had pre-recorded the sermon. He records practice sermons, and Macy played the latest practice sermon back on their YouTube channel.

The convoy stopped in front of John and Macy's beautiful farmhouse, and Josh clipped on his snowshoes. "I'll be right back," he said to Luke, and he crunched up to the house as Macy stepped out on the porch with Katarina in her arms and Cholly at her side, clinging to her apron. She looked like a farmwife from days gone by, regardless of the color of her skin. Her long black hair fluttered in the breeze as Josh approached. Cholly clung more tightly to Macy's apron as he saw a tall man with a full-face helmet approaching. To Cholly, he looked like the giant robots that the twins watched on TV.

"What's going on?" Kiko asked Veronica.

"Josh made a promise to give Cholly a kiss, so he's doing it," said Veronica.

Josh took off his helmet and crouched down, and Cholly's face lit up with joy. "DOSH!" and the little guy tossed himself at Josh. Then he started chattering in his pidgin French, and all Josh could get out of it was "moter" French for ride.

"I just wanted to stop and see my little buddy. We'll go for a ride later, ok? In the forest?"

"For-ay! For-ay!" That was much closer to Forêt, forest. Cholly wrapped his arms around Josh and hugged his hero as tightly as possible. "Do you give daddy nice hugs like this?" asked Josh.

"Uh huh!" said Cholly cheerfully.

"I see your English is coming along." Josh gave Cholly one more kiss, then set him back down. "How is John?"

"He's finally asleep," said Macy with a sigh. "He would not lay down until he was sure everyone was cared for."

"Tell him I said hi," said Josh as he pulled his helmet back on and headed back to the snowmobile.

"What was that all about?" asked Luke as Josh stashed his snowshoes and got back in the driver's seat.

"The little guy is an orphan that our pastor is adopting." Josh stood on his foot pegs and waved to Paul and Gus like he was a mounted soldier leading a calvary charge.

"How do you know that little boy?" asked Luke.

Josh wanted to tell him to shut up, but instead he settled on, "I am the one that found his father's body."

<><><><><>

The drive south was beautiful. The passengers took picture after picture of barns and houses buried in snow, forests shaking off the heavy layer of snow. It was less than a twenty-mile drive and Veronica kept the excited parents of Heather Woodstock appraised of their journey via cell phone. The sleds were cold, but the girls were dressed warmly. Yi loaned Kiko and Luke her cold weather gear, and this time Luke was dressed in dark blue rather than pink.

"It's so beautiful down here," said Kiko as they continued through the farm country. "Daddy always complains about city life, this looks more like home."

"Japan?" asked Veronica, who thought Japan was all city.

"Clarence. He built a nice house out there and that's where I grew up, in a Japanese garden, educated by tutors because Daddy couldn't find a school that required uniforms."

"Uniforms?" Veronica was shocked by that.

"Yeah, uniforms," said Kiko. "Ninety percent of all schools in Japan require uniforms. I went to a middle school there for a year, and I wore a sailor suit. In high school it was a pleated skirt, a white blouse with a tie tab and a tan sweater."

"Doesn't that hamper your freedom of expression?" asked Veronica.

Kiko looked at her oddly. "We have art class."

"Didn't you want to wear something different to school?"

"Sometimes, but the nice thing about wearing a uniform is that you never stand in front of your closet saying, 'what am I going to wear today?' You know exactly what to wear and you put it on and you just saved maybe twenty minutes of guessing."

Veronica thought back and said, "When I was modeling it was kind of like that. I knew what I would wear AT work, so I could show up to work in my pajamas if I wanted, they were going to dress me, do my hair and makeup, and lead me to the studio."

"You were a model?" gasped Kiko. She looked harder at Veronica and said, "Yeah, I recognize you I think. Was it fun? Was it really cool?"

"To be honest it was boring. You sit there for hours while they paint your face and do your hair. Nobody ever has enough hair so they put hair extensions in your hair. Then you wait and wait and wait and when the photographer is ready he takes his pictures, then he complains about something. They touch up your hair and clothes; he takes more pictures and then you go back to whatever you were wearing before. I got a degree because I spent most of my waiting time studying."

"I was so mean to Sensei," said Kiko sadly.

"For what?"

"When I introduced him to my folks, we had just started to be... you know... active." Kiko was blushing fiercely. "My family has a vicious sense of humor and the joke was for me to tell mom and dad I was going to have his baby."

"That's a joke?"

"Well, it was April Fools day, my birthday, and in Japan, when you are going steady, it's almost an engagement. The punchline was "Someday, when we're married," and the moment I say that the family all starts laughing and welcoming Luke... but when I said that, I realized, I wanted to marry him. I wanted to have his baby. I had to wait almost a full year for him to officially ask."

"You think your folks are going to be angry?"

"Dad already read Luke the riot act but..."

"But what?"

"I think I'm going to have his baby for real..." The slim young woman broke down into tears, and Veronica held her close.

"Does he know?"

"I haven't told him yet," and Kiko began to cry even harder. Veronica did everything she could to comfort the weeping young woman. This wasn't the first issue like this that she had to deal with. It happened all the time in the modeling world, and Veronica was mother hen to many of the new girls.

Up on the Yamaha, Josh turned off the blue tooth. Somehow one of the girls left their microphone open, allowing Josh and Luke to hear every word. "Oh god, what am I going to do?" gasped Luke.

"It's ok," said Josh. "It's time to be a man. You suck it up and do what needs to be done."

"I don't know what to do!" cried Luke.

"Hang on a second Luke." He keyed up his ham radio and said, "We're about a mile out, Paul, take the lead, I'll drop back and cover the guest of honor." Josh shook his head; he almost said, 'maid of honor.'

"Roger you plan to drop back," said Paul. "KB0LVZ monitoring."

"N0AFV." And with that, Josh eased to the right and cut back on the throttle and let Paul and Andi slide past. Then he fell in behind Gus. "Oh, riding in their path through the snow is much smoother." Up ahead they could see a crowd waiting in a cleared parking lot, signs saying, "Welcome Home Heather" and the waiting parents watching them approach with binoculars. "Do you see that up there? Do you see those parents waiting for their baby? Can you imagine the hell they've been through? If you didn't see their baby, it would have frozen to death."

"What does that have to do with me?" said Luke.

"Everything! You now have another baby to save. We'll talk later. Just suck it up for five more minutes. Try to keep your cool."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 20 - Some Jokes Aren't Funny

"You ready?" asked Josh.

"No."

"Look, you can do it. She said she thought she was pregnant; she ain't certain 'bout it. Maybe she just missed a period, ya never know. It happens, believe me. You don't know nothin' fer sure until the doctor says so, ok? Now smile and pretend the world is still a happy place. Suck it up like you did on the first day you met Kiko." They swung off Josh's snowmobile and walked back to the cutter and opened the doors, releasing Veronica and Kiko. They walked to the front of the Yamaha snowmobile and waited for Andi and the nurses to approach the nervous parents, Dale and Nina Woodstock.

When everyone was lined up, Andi said, "On behalf of the Village of Springville, and the town of Concord we would like to return your little runaway." Cameras clicked as the nurses uncovered the baby's face, and for a moment Josh was sure they had brought the wrong baby, but it was Heather Woodstock. Nina was so overwhelmed that her baby was back that her legs gave out and her husband had to prop her up. "Did you rescue her?" asked Dale Woodstock.

"No, I was in a warm basement office listening to the teams talk on the radio. It was team five that rescued her, Josh and Luke," and Andi gestured for Josh and Luke to come forward. Josh practically dragged Luke forward with him; the poor guy was so terribly lost in his own world he didn't know what was happening around him. "Heather was hidden under blankets by the kidnappers. Luke went back in the car to retrieve a bag and he noticed the baby move. Josh dug out the back door of the car and got Heather out. They put her in a mylar bag to preserve her body heat and Josh carried her inside his snowmobile suit."

"Kind of like a baby kangaroo," said Josh as he shook hands with the relieved parents. "She was safe and warm and I sang to her as we headed to the hospital."

"I don't know how to thank you," said Dale Woodstock as his wife wept over their recovered infant.

"Don't waste your time worrying about thanking us, we were just doing what needed to be done," said Josh. "Just love your baby, keep her happy, healthy, and educated."

Everyone shook hands, and it was time for the reporters to ask questions. Andi spoke for a while on her plans for weather emergencies in the future, primarily increased mobility for the Town of Concord police department. Gus spoke at length about how the Springville Amateur Radio Association stands ready to support Mayor Jarecki in anything she may need. When the reporters asked Luke about his role in the rescue, he just mumbled something unintelligible. Josh covered for him and said, "Luke is new to all this, he was just saying how awesome our net control was, making sure that every reported stranded motorist was rescued."

That allowed Andi and Gus to gush over Paul for a little while. Meanwhile, Josh led Luke away and said, "You need to get it together son. Your child deserves better than this."

"You're right, I just don't know what I'm going to do."

"WE. It's not what you are going to do, it's what WE are going to do. Everything is WE for the rest of your life. It's only You, when you can't come to a mutual decision. You will make the decision and You will suffer the consequences. You need to let her know that she's not alone, that you're there to protect and nurture both of them," said Josh, trying to keep from scolding Luke. "You've got a job offer on the table; you need to make a success of that. You've got a side gig with the richest guy in town, you need to make Paul and Andi's kids geniuses so they'll love you, and you have a beautiful fiancée. You can do it Luke; you just need to dig in and try. Ok? Just like yesterday, the first car was the hardest, we were terrified of fucking up, but soon as we got to know what we were doing it became fun, right?"

"Yeah," said Luke.

Over at the gaggle of reporters, Paul looked unsettled. He didn't want to be there; he considered Ellicottville one of the biggest failures of his life. From where he was standing, he could see the big farmhouse that was the Bed and Breakfast where he and Melony stayed for a week as they hiked in the hills and swam naked in Great Valley Creek. They went tubing down Elk Creek and made love under the stars. Melony loved it here. Ellicottville in the summer was beautiful; it was trees and hills and flowers and birds singing. Just six more years in uniform and it all would have been theirs.

If it wasn't for that one bastard, Buzz Blecher, Paul would be living happily here with Melony. Probably practicing medicine and patching skiers' broken bones. Right now their oldest child would be in his or her teens and studying to join the Air Force or become a doctor, or maybe an Olympic skier. Sunday dinner with Mom and Dad, and John and Macy. A half dozen kids running around mom and dad's house making mom the happiest woman in the world... instead Katarina Jarecki died without a grandchild.

The memory of sitting on that shady front porch with Mom and Melony knitting, Dad reading the paper, and Paul playing guitar with John on that warm summer day. Paul could still hear the mallard ducks quacking in the duck pond behind the house across the street. He and Melony would soon be leaving for Okinawa, and John would soon head for Montreal and the École de Théologie Évangélique du Québec, where Macy was waiting for him.

The lost plans and loves made Paul seethe with anger and regret. But somehow all that pain that Blecher caused led to Andi. Here she was, the tiny mother of three. When Paul lost another dream, becoming mayor, she stepped in and made his dream become real, just because it was his dream and she shared that dream. And here she was, killing it.

<><><><><>

John Jarecki awoke late; it was well past noon... on a SUNDAY! It's his actual workday; he normally got up at six, rehearsed his sermon several times in the basement so he wouldn't wake anyone, then made a wonderful breakfast for Macy and Cholly. Usually Cholly was awake at that time, so John would tell him, "Va dire à maman que le petit-déjeuner est presque prêt." (Go tell mama that breakfast is ready) The little moppet would scamper off followed by a giant black fuzzball named Chiot to wake Macy.

John slowly woke up. Then he looked at the clock. It was one PM, and Macy was standing over him, looking down smiling. "Chéri, pourquoi m'as-tu laissé dormir si tard?" (Darling, why did you let me sleep so late?)

"I think you need some rest, you were out rescuing until midnight."

"Midnight?" John shook his head. "I swore it was maybe seven, seven thirty."

"You were working late with Gus as usual." She fluffed up a couple of pillows and sat down next to John. "How do you feel?"

"Uggh," groaned John. "I feel like I spent the day in a cement mixer filled with bricks, but I got to share the gospel with a few rescues, so it was all worth it."

"Did you get any converts?"

"A wise theologian once told me never to count conversions, just spread the word and get back to work."

"Such a wise professor," said Macy with a smile as she leaned in to kiss her best student. Of course, she was that theologian he was speaking of. "I was thinking, as a reward, we will spend the day doing what you love to do most in bed."

John smiled and wagged an eyebrow at his beautiful wife, his gift from God, more beautiful than any Nubian Queen could ever be. "It's been a while since we did that," he said.

Macy leaned over and whispered in his ear, "I can't wait." Then she said, "sit up, you know how I like it."

"Yes dear," and John sat up and Macy put the fluffed pillows behind his back.

"I'm going to get ready; I'll be right back." Macy left the master bedroom while John fluffed up the pillows next to him. Then he heard her footsteps coming up the hall. His six foot two inch tall, beautiful wife has big feet, but they are narrow and delicate, and he could spend an evening massaging them if she would let him. Then he heard the scurrying of paw prints, and suddenly they were there. Macy sat down and reclined next to him; she was wearing her soft, delicate flannel robe. She laid their daughter Katarina between them, then Cholly scrambled up the doggy steps at the foot of the bed, followed by Chiot, Cholly's Newfoundland puppy. The dog was getting huge even though he was four months old. At sixty pounds in weight, Chiot was already ten pounds larger than his female littermate, Jolie, who lives at Paul and Andi's house.

Andi got the massive dogs because they were protective of children, and with everything that has happened recently, she saw a guard dog in each Jarecki household as a necessity. Now Chiot, which means Puppy in French, was a member of the household. This past Christmas, Cholly had just become a member of John and Macy's house and was having serious emotional issues. But a young boy and a young dog? It was a match made in heaven, and Chiot was the perfect gift for a heartbroken little boy.

The family snuggled together, and John pressed the button on the TV remote, and a dramatic Wagnerian opera started. Shadow figures raised a spear to the stormy skies above as the orchestra played, then all became quiet and the tenor in the Viking costume sang, "Be vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits..." It was John and Macy's favorite cartoons, What's Opera Doc?

Macy chuckled and Cholly giggled while little Katarina tugged infant handfuls of Chiot's hair. Macy leaned over and kissed John and said, "Je t'aime."

"Je t'aime aussi." This was heaven; it was John's very favorite thing to do in bed.

<><><><><>

The mayors were having a chat about their future plans. Larry Sloan had been mayor of Ellicottville for several years and, by all accounts, was a successful mayor. He had watched the disaster unfold in Springville over the past year. The strange and unlawful changes that Samael Windecker implemented in Springville terrified the smaller villages of the south towns. They were afraid that if Windecker could get away with the nightmare that he inflicted on Springville, other mayors would try to do the same thing. "I assure you that justice will catch up with Mister Windecker," said Andi. "The village has been keeping a close eye on him and they're aching to press charges."

"Is that so?"

Andi just smiled and nodded. She didn't know who she could trust yet. If Larry Sloan was a confederate of Samael Windecker, the former mayor may just take off and try to escape justice. "People weren't happy with the parking situation on Main Street." That was all she would reveal before they got Samael in handcuffs, which she hoped would be part of her inaugural celebration. "I want to think about positive things. I come from Denver, and we have bicycle marathons all over the place. How about a ride from Ellicottville to Springville on Dutch Hill road, then back to Ellicottville down 240 to 242."

"Jeez, how do we handle that?" asked Larry.

The first thing that came to Andi's mind was the easiest answer. "Chiavetta's. I'm sure you'd like the endpoints to be Ellicottville, that would boost summer trade. Then next year we'll swap and Springville will be end point." The hills in Western New York may look impressive, but compared to a bike rally known as the Triple By-Pass from Golden to Vale and back, anything that Andi could come up with would be nothing. She nudged Lucy and said, "Let's hear those ideas."

"I want to see a marathon that would include Zoar Valley Road," said Lucy. She was two months along in her pregnancy, so she wouldn't be running, but she would ride her bike.

Meanwhile, Josh had pulled Luke and Kiko aside and was talking to them about anything that didn't have to do with being pregnant. "In June I hold a fundraiser for local charities and I was wondering if you'd be interested in helping with it."

"Maybe," mumbled Kiko.

"Don't know," muttered Luke.

"Ah need folks that would lead the nature walks, they were really popular with the kids last year," said Josh. "This year we'll put more signs out for the kids. The signs will point to a tree and say what it is, they'll point to other things like porcupine gnawing and owl nests. After this storm, there should be a lot of cool things."

"Maybe," mumbled Luke.

"Don't know," muttered Kiko.

"Y'all think about it. Ah think y'all would enjoy a cabin to yer selves, ya know? A nice warm fire in the fireplace, a romantic dinner under the trees, fireflies near the brook. Cabin number eleven would be a perfect getaway nest."

"Maybe," mumbled Kiko.

"Don't know," muttered Luke.

Shaking his head, Josh gave up on these two and turned to find Veronica, who was talking to one of the nurses who carried Heather down to Ellicottville. Recognizing Josh, the nurse asked, "How come you didn't want to hand Heather to her parents?"

"Ah think lettin' the mayor get the spotlight was the proper way to go," said Josh. "We never woulda found her in time if Mayor J. didn't put us out on the road."

Veronica nudged Josh aside and said, "You didn't want to give Molly away, did you."

"Ah think you're right, 'bout that," said Josh, trying not to look at Heather, who was overjoyed to be in her mother's arms. The man who called her Molly was long forgotten.

"What's with Luke?" asked Veronica. "He looks like he's afraid to talk to Kiko."

Josh pulled Veronica close, then said softly, "we heard the conversation you had with Kiko. One of y'all had your mic open and the Bluetooth was on."

"Oh no," gasped Veronica. She went pale white when Josh said that. That isn't the way to find out that your fiancée thinks she's pregnant.

"I've been trying to get his blood up, get him ready to accept fatherhood, to be the man and care for his wife and child." Josh shook his head sadly. "I don't know if I did it right but the poor guy is a mess."

"What about Kiko?" demanded Veronica.

"Ah kin understand her wantin' to talk about it to someone she respects, but ah truly believe that the first one she should talk to is the father... unless she already has and now has to confront Luke."

Veronica's eyes flew wide open. "Do you honestly think that's what happened?"

"Ah don't know what happened, an' neither does Luke," said Josh.

"You're taking his side!" insisted Veronica.

"Ah'm not taking anybody's side, ah just want those damn fool kids to quit dancing around and talk to each other. Once they do that, this whole thing will be settled."

"Keep your voice down!" hissed Veronica.

Josh glared at Veronica, then he pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her, then gave her a kiss. He held her tight, and she fought as his tongue searched for her tongue. Then at some point she softened and began to enjoy the kiss. She grasped Josh as he grasped her, and the kiss grew hot. It seemed to go on forever, their tongues dancing together, their lips pressed against each other, their desire growing. Finally, they pulled back, and Josh could see that Veronica's eyes were spinning with passion.

"Jeezuz guys, get a room, will ya?" said Lucy.

"Oh, that's just his way of preventing an argument," said Veronica. Then she slugged his arm. "Cheater!" and she dashed out of reach, giggling.

<><><><><>

Paul and Andi were leading the way north, back to Springville. The sun was shining and reflecting off the pure white snow, making it hard to focus on distant points without sunglasses, but the storm was finally over. Josh was bringing up the rear, and he had Luke sitting on the snowmobile with him. "Did you speak with Kiko?"

"I..." then Luke felt the fear well up inside him. "No, I didn't..."

Josh keyed up his microphone and called, "Yo Paul. I have to stop for one minute. Y'all keep going, ah'll catch up on ya."

"Roger that," said Paul. "You take the lead when you get back."

"Roger," said Josh, and he brought the sled to a stop.

"What are you doing?" asked Luke.

"Every rider has to get in the chute and set down on that bull at some point in their life, cowboy. Today's the day." He got off the sled and hoisted the skinny schoolteacher over his shoulder and carried him back to the cutter. "I'm going to need that helmet for Veronica."

It wasn't easy because the snow was so deep, but he opened the cutter door and said, "Honey, ah think Luke needs to sit in the back for a while."

Veronica nodded knowingly and climbed out of the cutter while Josh put Luke in the tow-behind sled. Soon they were back on the road and catching up to Paul and Gus. "Do you think they'll work it out?" asked Veronica.

"I truly doubt it," said Josh sadly.

"I wonder if that Bluetooth headset still has an open microphone," wondered Veronica, and she reached for the switch that would turn on the Bluetooth link to the trailer.

In the tow-behind sled, both Luke and Kiko were silently dying. The ride in the cutter was actually nicer than Luke expected, but it was a bit on the noisy side. Every bump resonated and clanged against the body of the cutter like a drum. Finally, Luke took a deep breath and said, "I don't know what happened but a microphone was open and I heard the conversation you had with Veronica."

Kiko had been at some form of peace with herself. She was going to get a test kit from the drugstore when they got home. She would worry about it then. She didn't want to talk about it, and she didn't believe that thing about the Bluetooth system. "I don't know what Veronica told you but we just talked about stuff... girl stuff."

"I just want you to know that I am here for you. Anything you need..."

"I don't need anything," said Kiko. She didn't know what she needed; she didn't know anything anymore. What is Daddy going to say?

Luke took her hand and cradled it in his, and knelt on the floor of the sled, facing her. "I want to do everything I can to help and to..."

"I don't need you," said Kiko, and she yanked her hand back. When she did that, to Luke it felt like a knife stabbing him in the heart. "I don't know what Veronica told you but I'm fine. I don't need you and I don't need any of your friends. I'm FINE."

Luke didn't know women enough to know that when they dig their heels in, it's best just to relax, let them think, and try again later. He soldiered on, praying silently that the Kiko he knew would return to him. "You told Veronica you thought you were pregnant."

"Well, I'm not, ok? It was a joke, like we played on my parents on April Fools. Remember?" said Kiko haughtily.

"I remember," said Luke, his voice shaking as the terror rose in him. "We didn't play a joke on your parents; you and your parents played a joke on me." What was going on? What was she doing? Luke just wanted her back in his arms, but she was so cold.

"Well... we're telling a joke again, ok? Get over it."

"What the hell is she doing?" demanded Veronica. "Stop so I can go back there and beat the living shit out of her."

Luke tried one last time. "Look, I'm just saying that I'm here for you, anything you need, support, love, money, anything. I want to be a loving, supporting man to you and the best father I can possibly be to our baby."

Kiko looked at Luke coldly and said, "What makes you think you're the father?"

Luke's life just imploded on him. The past year and a half of love was a lie? "I need to get out of here," said Luke. "I need to be alone..."

He was so torn apart emotionally that he failed to recognize they were moving quickly over the southern New York snow. He grabbed the door handle, thumbed the lock, and gave it a twist. Unfortunately, this was a rear hinge door, also known as a suicide door. The warning label on the handle warning you about opening it while moving doesn't work with eyes filled with tears of sorrow and humiliation. They were doing about thirty miles an hour, and the door caught the wind stream and flew open, yanking Luke out of the cutter. His head slammed into the door frame as the door flew open and threw Luke directly in the path of Gus and Lucy's sled.

"LUKE!" Kiko shrieked as she watched the man she loved disappear under the skis and track of Gus's huge snowmobile.