© 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 14, please take this chance first. All chapters are listed in the correct reading order in the Stormwatch Series List. The Storm subseries of Chapters 13 thru 15 are 100% all new material.

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

Stormwatch Chapter 15

Aftermath

Chapter 21 - Concerns

Mayor-elect Adrianna Jarecki paced the hallway of Bertrand Chaffee Hospital; she was wearing big, clumpy snowmobile boots and a one-piece snowmobile suit that was too big for her. As she was pacing, she was followed by Kiko Yamanaka, who was chattering non-stop about a young man who was lying silent and unresponsive in the Critical Care Unit.

For her part, Andi was worried sick about Lucius Lawson; he was an outstanding teacher. In his one evening with the twins, he had them excited about advanced mathematics and started reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with them. She remembered the groaning from Sandy when she discovered that there were seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia. After thirty minutes with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Sandy started groaning that there weren't enough books in the Chronicles of Narnia. Luke lit a fire under those girls!

And now the flame was extinguished.

The chattering coming from Kiko was a cloud of noise that didn't resonate until Kiko grabbed Andi's arm and cried, "What do I do?"

"Do not ask me that question," snarled Andi. "I have to go home and tell my girls that the best teacher they ever had may be dead now because of a rich spoiled brat who decided to emotionally toy with him like a cat torturing a mouse." Andi turned on her heel and stormed away.

Kiko looked shocked; she thought, being a mother, that Andi would understand. Mothers understand things, right? She turned to Josh and Veronica, who were sitting in seats that lined the hallway. "What do I do?"

"Pray," said Josh.

Kiko looked around for the icons of her Shinto upbringing and said, "There's no altar, there's no kami dana!"

"If ya need them thangs to pray fer divine intervention, then ah suppose yer fucked."

"What do you mean?" said the panicking girl.

"Look," said Josh sternly. "They ain't nothin' ah kin say that you'd understand. You were born here," and he held his left hand about waist high. "Rich, pampered, wanting for nothing. All the best schools, the finest foods, and parents that would deny you nothing. Now, me, ah was born here," and he held his right hand two feet higher than his left. "Alcoholic minimum wage parents, single wide trailer, my folks drank themselves to death and ah were alone at sixteen. Ah worked on a stinking shrimp boat just to git something to eat. Everything ah am, or ah have, ah earned. Nothing was given to me."

"You think you're better than me?" she nearly screeched.

"What do you think?"

"I'm so sick of you self-righteous rednecks!" said Kiko, and she stormed off.

Earlier, while Paul's snowmobile and trailer hauling Luke and the two nurses headed to the hospital, Gus dropped off the chief of police that he was transporting at his home, then he dropped Lucy off at home. On his way to the hospital, he picked up John Jarecki, and they raced to the east side of the village. There in the hall near the ICU, Gus briefed John so that the pastor could go to work soothing frayed nerves. They were joined by Paul and Josh, and Josh was clearly so steamed up he didn't want to speak for fear of exploding.

"So the door of the cutter popped open and he fell out?" asked John. "Did it hit a bump? Did the latch break?"

"No, the latch is fine," said Josh. "Ah done fiddled and fucked with it for a half hour, it's fine. Ah will not accuse Dundee Motor Sports of giving me a defective cutter after ah hauled people all night long."

"You're saying he opened it?" said John. "Maybe it opened and he tried to pull it back but the slipstream yanked the door open and pulled him out."

"From what I saw that's exactly what happened," said Gus, who was trembling with the horror of what happened. "The door flew open and yanked him out... and... I couldn't avoid him; I went right over him!"

For a moment, Paul thought Gus was going to cry. He's seen Gus drop a heavy sledgehammer on his foot, and the guy didn't wince. But if someone else gets hurt, that's when you see the soft side of Gus Didomissio. He put his arm around his old friend. How is Gus going to deal with it when his son (or daughter #5) is born? He patted Gus on the chest and said, "it's ok, he's not hurt all that bad from your sled or cutter, they spread their weight out over a large surface area and the snow was soft, all you did was push him into the snow. He got hurt from hitting his head when he came out the door."

"So how did the door come open?" asked John.

"He opened it," said Josh.

John, Gus, and Paul stopped their discussion and stared at Josh. "He opened it?"

"He stepped outside to get away from that bitch," said Josh. "She had him wound so tight he probably forgot we were moving at forty miles per hour."

"How do you know that?" asked John, trying not to be angry at Josh for calling Kiko a bitch.

Josh looked like he was going to punch someone when he said, "She admitted to Veronica that she was pregnant, and he overheard on the Bluetooth system. On the way back we stopped and ah put him in the cutter with Kiko so they could talk. There was a Bluetooth microphone open and we heard it all. Luke was trying to be a loving man and a good father and she was so cold and nasty to him. He said I want to be a loving man and the best father I can be to our baby and she said, 'What makes you think it's yours?' Then he said, 'I need to get out of here' and the next thing I heard was his head banging into the doorframe as he got yanked out."

"Did he do that on purpose?" asked John. "Or did he not realize what he was doing?"

"He just needed to get away from that bitch," and with that Josh left to go peer in on Luke.

"Is Veronica here? I need to speak with her before I speak with Miss Yamanaka," said John.

"Follow me," said Paul, and he led John to the small room in which Veronica took refuge.

"Hey Ronnie," said John as he sat down next to Veronica. She was sitting in a hospital chair, leaning forward, holding her head in her hands.

"Please pastor... I'm not in the mood," said Veronica.

"Come on Ronnie, you know me, we can talk," said John, and he gently put a hand on her shoulder. "Tell me what you're feeling."

Veronica was silent for a long time, but when John asked her to speak a third time, she opened up with... "That cunt! That bitch! That whore! I heard every word she said to Luke and the only thing that saved her life was Josh!" When Veronica was done, John had no doubt at all in his mind what Veronica thought of Kiko.

"I understand your anger Ronnie..."

"Do you? DO YOU?" Ronnie nearly shrieked. "How can someone be so cavalier about a BABY!"

"Yes, I do. More than you'll ever know. Macy and I have never used birth control; we married late and wanted to get a start on our family right away. But it didn't happen. We miscarried three times, and you couldn't believe the pressure from people. Other pastors' wives were saying, 'Having kids is such a hassle.' We had parishioners who wanted to fire us because we didn't have children, and adopting is so expensive. So yes, I'm angry with Kiko also, but you're hurting yourself."

Veronica looked at John with a confused look. "They wanted to fire you? For not having kids?"

John nodded sadly. "Yes, a pastor is the shepherd of his flock, and we're free family counseling. How can I counsel you on problems with children and fully understand your issues if I don't have my own children?"

"Same way a priest does it, I guess," said Veronica.

"That's not the answer that the board of deacons of a protestant church wants to hear. I'd be a full time carpenter now if it wasn't for Paul. He railed at the board, then he volunteered to go out and make a half dozen babies and loan them to me. The head of the church board brought it up to the congregation, and Paul rose and defended me and when the smoke settled, Paul was the head of the church board."

Veronica looked at John and said, "I wish I had a brother like that."

"You do. Me, Paul, Gus, and I suppose even Anthony will be a brother figure for you too, but Josh is your big brother... with benefits I suppose."

"Now you just made it weird," groaned Veronica.

John just grinned and rubbed her shoulder. "What's wrong with weird between a husband and wife? Now I want you to apologize to Kiko for the words you've been using. I'm not making excuses for her, but she's a scared girl who suddenly realizes the cost of her actions."

"How do you know?" asked Veronica.

"Weren't you scared when you were in her position?" Veronica's blood turned to ice when he said that. Her ears were ringing with shock at his words because there's no way he could... "I know her dad," John was saying when Veronica came to her senses. "...Hanzou can be very stern. She's gotten herself in a jam and she's probably terrified of what he's going to say."

"I don't see why I should apologize; she earned everything I had to say," said a shaken Veronica.

John leaned in and said softly, "It's not for her, it's for you. You're a kind loving woman, this kind of thing leaves a stain on the soul. She's not Magda, she's a scared little girl who just watched the man she loves suffer from what she said. Go be the big sister she needs now."

"Ok, ok," and with a groan, Veronica got up and went off in search of Kiko. As she did, John went into the Critical Care Unit to check on Luke. The poor young man was still unconscious; his heart rate was about 52bpm, and his SpO2 percentage was 90. It should be higher than that. John knelt by Luke and whispered a prayer into his ear. Then he silently said a prayer for all those around Luke who were hurt by Luke's injury. Not just Kiko, Veronica, and Josh, but Paul, Andi, and the twins, and of course, Kiko and Luke's baby.

<><><><><>

Paul and Andi were sipping coffee in the mostly closed hospital cafeteria. Food service was strictly for patients, doctors, and nurses who were trapped by the snowstorm. Items like coffee and soft drinks were available for others. As they spoke, Paul's phone rang, and he looked at the screen; it was Yamanaka Electronics calling him. Odd. He answered the phone and heard a woman who spoke with an Asian accent. "Please hold for the chairman." There was a click before Paul could respond, then soft Asian themed music. Then a man came on the phone. "Paul! How are you weathering the storm?" The man sounded self-assured and powerful, and spoke perfect English with a slight Japanese accent. It could only be Hanzou Yamanaka, Kiko's father.

"Hello Hanzou. I have you on speaker, it's just myself and Andi on the phone and we're doing fine mostly. The snow has stopped and now it's time to dig out. Did you get any snow?"

"Hello Madam Mayor, and we didn't receive a flake. I'm sure you know why I called."

Paul nodded. Hanzou sounded gruff, but he was a caring father. "We're keeping an eye on Kiko and Luke. She's a little hysterical right now..."

"Of course she is, she's pregnant," huffed Hanzou.

Paul picked his words carefully; he didn't want to say something that would give away Kiko's condition, just in case Hanzou was fishing for information that Kiko wouldn't give him. "Is that something she told you?"

"Not in so many words. A father knows these things. In ten years you'll be dreading many of the things that your girls will say to you," said Hanzou gruffly. "Regardless, I want Kiko back at work. I won't excuse a bit of snow or a child to keep her from her job." Kiko was a director in the marketing department of Yamanaka Electronics, and she spent half of her time in Japan working on marketing their electronics there as well.

"It's going to be a few days for the roads to open..." started Paul, but Hanzou interrupted him.

"I will send a helicopter, where can they pick her up?"

"Hanzou, I want you to be able to get Kiko back to her desk, but the air over the storm hit areas are closed to commercial and private air traffic. It's rescue flights only until US 39 and US 219 are open. Your company has remote desktops; she can log in from any computer."

"I believe she is best at home."

"I agree, but with Luke unconscious, Kiko has to continue the work that Midori had him doing."

"Luke is unconscious? So that's what she was crying about..." Hanzou's voice softened. He would prefer that Kiko marry a Japanese businessman who graduated from Tokyo University, but with marriage rates and birth rates in Japan plummeting, Hanzou was just happy that she found a man he approved of, and secretly he was happy she was going to have a baby. He and Midori were almost sure they would not have any grandchildren, so they are secretly joyful at Kiko's predicament.

"Yes, he hit his head when we were coming back from Ellicottville and has been unconscious ever since." Paul shook his head; he lost three men in this incident. Josh will go nowhere until Luke is out of the critical care unit, and Gus has the shakes so bad he won't drive over 10 miles per hour. If Springville suddenly needed men, Paul was going to have to look elsewhere. He then chuckled at the irony of the situation. He spent all that time in the Air Force avoiding his rank, claiming that surgeons don't command anyone, and now here he was agonizing over personnel shortages.

"Could you take us off speaker, my friend?" asked Hanzou.

"It's just myself and Andi here."

"Missus Jarecki is mayor. She may not appreciate how some of our friends run their businesses."

Paul sighed and picked up his phone. "What is it, Hanzou?"

"It is Andalon, of course. Don Gismondi has his claws into the management of the company and driving down the value. Reliability is plummeting and customers are growing angry."

"I understand that Brandon Mitchell will be removed from his position, that should help."

"His job will go to two new hires, Arabella Catalano, she will be Vice President of Marketing, and her uncle gave her the same instructions he gave Brandon Mitchell." Paul could hear the controlled anger in Hanzou's voice when he went on to say, "Brandon was owned by money and blackmail, he was just a fool. Arabella is Don Gismondi's niece; she's family, a believer. But in marketing there is not much damage she can do. The new VP of Sales is Batyah Mandelbaum."

"So he's got Catalano the head of marketing, and Fabian Bernsdorf the head of production. That means you have to have assets inside Andalon if I know you," said Paul.

"Their VP of Legal, Emmitt Katzman, has been a Hirata family asset for several decades but he will be tied up with the mess that Brandon Mitchell has made with the staff of Andalon for years. Stan Dombrowski, VP of Financial and Accounting is not beholding to anyone, but his assistant Gefen Sharot is wise for her years; she will oversee Financial. She has been a Hirata family asset for years. Batyah Mandelbaum is Midori's close personal friend."

Paul thought that was funny: two Jewish business execs both secretly working for the Hirata family, an extremely powerful Japanese clan that even the Yakuza avoids. They practically own the underworld of Western New York and Southern Ontario, but their bread and butter was snapping up local firms and folding them into the Hirata clan's business dealings. Hanzou's wife, Midori, is a daughter of the Hirata clan and is still active in their actions. "With Emmit tied up cleaning up Mitchell's mess, that just leaves you with one asset in place." But Hanzou said nothing, and his silence spoke volumes. "... unless... you have a sleeper? Someone in power?" Paul was sure that Hanzou would not mention any names.

"A power not realized, my friend, but he wields it like a blade. An asset you may even recognize and want for your business. When all is said and done, I may let you have it."

Hanzou would not say the name over the phone, but Paul was sure that was a clue that he laid down. "My friend, when the roads open, please come and visit, I have a Bentley Continental GT Convertible that I want to sell you. We'll go for a ride."

"I cannot wait, my friend," said Hanzou. "Until then."

After Paul hung up, he shut off his phone and shoved it into Andi's backpack, then put her backpack outside the room. "What was that for?" demanded the incoming mayor.

"Cell phones can be remotely controlled and used as a monitoring device. If that makes you nervous about cell phones in your office, good." Paul took her hand and said, "There's cell phone jamming devices, which I suggest you use when discussing upcoming village contracts. As for Hanzou, there's a battle over the future of Andalon Data Systems. Neither side wants a successful Initial Public Offer, because that would drive the price up too high for a financial takeover."

"So Hanzou is trying to take over Andalon?" asked Andi.

"Hanzou? No. But he may end up running it. I have no idea if he likes that idea or not. What Brandon Mitchell did was part of the game, but he went overboard so he did a grand job of stalling the IPO and driving the price down. Somebody lost a chess piece when Brandon was taken off the board."

"Who lost a chess piece?" asked Andi, but Paul shook his head; he would not reveal the name. Maybe when she's settled into her job and knows who she can trust in Village Hall. "Does this have anything to do with Windecker?"

Paul rolled his eyes at the thought of Samael Windecker in the pocket of Don Pietro Salvino Gismondi. No, Gismondi doesn't like stupid, and Windecker, as they would say in the South, is an entire twelve-piece bucket of stupid. Who owns him? "To be honest, I don't know. I'm still not sure what was driving that entire thing..." Then a memory popped up... a half-built retirement community on the south side of Main Street... that wasn't a lawn they were installing, that was an enormous parking lot, like you'd see in front of a Super Walmart. Big Box stores are not allowed inside the village limits to protect local businesses, and they mostly work. Big Box stores are allowed on the frontage road of the two-nineteen expressway and on US 240 on the east side of town, but that's too far out of the village limits, so no one builds there. Did Windecker approve a building permit inside the village limits? "Double check all building permits that were signed by Windecker," said Paul.

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Chapter 22 - Dreams

GhostRider Zero Four sat on the cement pad of Latkhat Qadhara air base in East Africa. Of course, that was not the name of the base. Latkhat Qadhara means "Shit Stain" in Arabic, and it's probably not the proper term. If anything, it wasn't foul enough to describe the base. It smelled like diesel fumes and shit. But it's close enough to the real name for government work.

They didn't even send in a Red Bull team to prep the base for human habitation. It had a ramp, runway, fuel tanks, and several abandoned buildings where they could set up cots and sleep and take shelter from the sandstorms. That's all the administration wanted. These guys signed up to die anyhow, right? Why waste money on comfort for the troops if they're just going to die? The president's face graced many dartboards and urinal bowls.

The crew walked out to the plane and prepared to board. Josh called for his guys to line up. Being the ranking enlisted man on the combat deck, he was officially Poppa Bear. "Line up!" called Josh as Emory Hancock and Everett Jackson did their physical inspection of the AC-130. Josh insisted on a SAC style safety briefing under the left wing of GhostRider Zero Four, their bird. He read off the safety instructions from a laminated card; the same instructions he read every time. "Ok, let's go inventory our ammunition and prepare for flight."

Josh went forward on the cargo deck to check the GAU-12/U 25mm Gatling gun's feed system, the weakest part of the system. If something was going to break, it was the feed belts. Then he inspected the feed system on the Bushmaster 30mm chain gun. "What the hell?" he muttered as he checked his ammo. Everything was wrong... this was 40mm ammo! The guys were busy in the back, so Josh moved forward and jumped out the aircrew's exit door and walked back to the Bushmaster. "Son of a bitch," groaned Josh.

"What's up?" asked Emory Hancock, the pilot.

"That's a forty-millimeter barrel."

"Uh yeah. While we took a down-day yesterday, they upgraded the bushmaster to Forty Millimeter Super Shot. Didn't they tell you? It's a field test."

"Hell no, I'm just weapons. Why would they tell me? Have they bothered to test fire this gun with an aircraft mount?"

"Uh yeah," said Emory as he looked at his watch. "In about forty-five minutes we test it. Let's mount up."

The gun crew reviewed each round of ammunition for the M102 howitzer. "We got a problem here," said Craig, and Josh swung back aboard.

"What's up?"

"Half of these rounds are smoke charges."

Josh sighed. They were lucky to get any ammo at all. "We play the hand we're dealt," said Josh. "Hurry up, Emory has a date waiting for him."

"Oh? There's a new sheep on base?" said one of the Double Yous, which got the entire back end crew laughing.

"I just found my fire guard, hop out joker," said Josh, and Wayne hopped out to man the fire extinguisher. Now came the start-up procedures. Aircraft Commander Major Emory Hancock reviewed all switch settings and flight controls along with co-pilot Captain Everett Jackson as Everett, call sign Ratchet, read the checklist. With the engines started and safely spinning, Wayne moved the fire extinguisher away from the aircraft and rejoined the crew onboard as Everett called, "Checklist complete."

Finally, the pitch of the whirling props changed, and they were moving. Josh made a final check of every 105mm round, each ammo bin for the chain gun and the Gatling gun, and that each person was strapped down to their fold-up seat. The brakes howled as the ship stopped at the end of the runway, and Major Hancock, call sign Emerald, reviewed the final checklist.

"Flight deck."

"Ready," called the navigator.

"BMC."

"Ready," called the Fire Control Officer.

"Combat deck."

"Ready," said Josh as the props increased their tempo and started chewing the hot, dry East African air. Emory released the brakes, and with a heavy jolt, GhostRider Zero Four started to move. The heavy gunship struggled into the thin air and they were flying.

"Let's go be heroes," said Emory as they were airborne. "Oh, Poppa Bear, promotion results come out soon. You excited?"

"Not in the least," said Josh. "Let's go kill something, that always gives me a woody."

"Ellie says she'll fill in for Yesenia," laughed Wyatt, and Ellie Stadelmeyer started kidney punching him.

"Looks like Hellion wants a piece of Wyatt," laughed Wayne.

Just as Josh was about to scold the younger airmen for clowning around, Craig Zigler beat him to it. "A little intercom discipline please," he said in a cold, threatening voice.

Soon they were heading east to a Neolithic shit-hole named Eil Geradi where Iranian backed Houthi terrorists, ISIS terrorists, Al Qaeda terrorists, and Taliban terrorists were armed to the teeth with crap that some moron abandoned in Afghanistan. Josh wouldn't be surprised if the Mafia, the Crips, and the Bloods were down there waiting with the rest of the bad guys, looking for an oil tanker to slip by. Shipping needed to be protected, and Josh and crew were heading to the beach to protect it. Then came Captain Harold "Hal" Rainey's voice. "Let's give the Bushmaster a try, ready back there?"

"Ready," said Josh, as all eyes were glued to the Bushmaster.

"In three... two... one... round away."

The gun had jerked, but it didn't fire. "That's a really quiet gun," said Craig Zigler. "I kinda like it."

"Outlaw? A little help?" called Hal, and Craig shoved Josh forward. Back in crew training, Senior Airman Wayne Engler had called him Josey Wales because a drunk college girl on Fort Walton Beach had called Josh that name, and the guys had laughed about that for a week. "Of all the guys on this crew, she picked the married one!" groaned Wyatt Grady. "Outlaw Josey Redneck."

Outlaw stuck as a nickname. The younger troops called it a callsign, but in the back they don't use call signs. That's a game for pilots and pilot wannabees.

Josh found a jammed 40mm round in the feed belt and straightened it out. "Give it another shot Hal," said Josh.

"In three... two... one... round away."

There was a thump that could be felt through the entire airframe, and the plane jerked like he had fired a 105mm round. "That worked," said Josh. "You know about the M102 ammo we have?"

"What now?" groaned Hal.

"Half of it is smoke."

The stream of obscenities that came out of the Battle Management Center was both profound and mind-boggling in its color. For a captain, that man could swear like a 30-year Chief Master Sergeant. Smoke charges were useless to them. At best, they could set fire to a frame building with one, but that's about it.

As they neared the target area, they fell into their duties. Josh would oversee everything. This was Craig's evaluation flight. If Josh approved, Craig would be the team chief for the rest of the deployment. Craig, Wayne, and Wyatt would man the M102 Howitzer; Josh would evaluate the team and respond to any issues with the 25mm Gatling gun and the Bushmaster. What could go wrong?

"Target acquired." And the entire plane pitched to the left, going into the pylon turn.

"Roger, gun crew ready?"

"Gun crew ready," called Craig Zigler as the 25mm GAU-12 Equalizer roared to life and the Bushmaster coughed out round after round. "Round up!" called Craig as the breech of the M102 slammed closed and the barrel pointed down. The crew was a machine, each man moving in harmony with the other men. Even the loadmaster, Ellie Stadelmeyer, worked with the guys, picking up the spent brass that Wyatt tossed on the deck to cool. She hung the cooled brass in the spent brass rack as they fired round after round.

The Fire Control Officer, Hal "Hailstorm" Rainey, never had to wait for the M102 howitzer to be reloaded. The problem was with the Bushmaster. There had to be some issue with the new 40mm ammo chutes. These weren't the huge 40mm rounds they once hand loaded into the World War II vintage 40mm Bofors guns; this ammo was barely larger than the 30mm ammo used on the A-10. These Super Shot rounds had the power to propel the 40mm High Explosive round down the barrel and give someone on the ground a very bad day if the gun worked. Josh needed to figure out the feed problem. It jammed again, and Josh worked hard to clear the chute when it happened.

"SAM IN THE AIR!" cried Lieutenant Booker Rafferty, the electronic warfare officer.

"Craig!" shouted Josh as he jerked to wakefulness.

"It's ok, I'm right here," said Veronica. She wrapped her arms around her shaking, terrified husband. "Here, I'm dialing Helen."

"I don't need a shrink," said Josh as he began hyperventilating.

"Helen needs this for her notes," said Veronica as she dialed his phone with her left hand and put her right arm around him, holding him close. "Here's Helen, and she put the phone to Josh's ear.

"Josh? What's wrong?"

"Nothing... I fell asleep and had a dream, and when I woke up Veronica was calling you."

"She must have been concerned," said Doctor Lennox.

"You have enough people to worry about, I'm..."

"You're my primary concern. Just let me know what happened."

Josh sighed. Normal dreams fade quickly, but not these dreams; they stick with Josh for a while. "It was the usual, I was with GhostRider zero four on our last mission. We did the preflight then got in the air. We clowned around some, but when we got on target we started shooting. The Bushmaster was jamming so while I fixed it, someone yelled "SAM in the air," and I woke up."

Helen wrote fiercely, trying to be as precise as possible. Her notes on Josh are making an incredible study in displaced anger, Combat Exposure PTSD, survivor's guilt, and Imposter's Syndrome. "You just woke up? That's it? So why would Veronica call me?"

"We're in a hospital," said Josh in a mumble.

"Are you injured?"

"No."

"Was Luke injured?"

How the hell did she know about Luke? Josh looked over at Veronica, who was playing with his phone. "Yeah, it was Luke. How did you know?"

"Luke is the fellow on the back of your snowmobile, am I correct? Your picture is spreading and becoming quite popular."

Josh rolled his eyes. "Of course it's popular, ah have my helmet on, you can't see this mug of mine."

"What happened," asked Helen. "Did he fall off? Did he get hit?"

With a sigh of defeat, Josh groaned, "Yes."

"Well?"

"He was in the sled I was towing and he opened the door. It's a suicide door and the wind ripped the door open and yanked him out. He hit his head then was run over by a snowmobile towing a sled with the chief of police and his wife as passengers."

"Can I assume that he's being cared for now?" asked Helen.

"He's in the critical care unit... they don't know if he'll ever wake up."

"Josh, it isn't your fault..."

"Of course it is! Ah put him in that trailer! Ah carried him there and stuffed him in it to talk to that fiancée of his. She got him so fucked in the head that he jumped out... and ah knew he'd do something dumb like that."

And there it was, survivor's guilt tainting everything that he does. Helen continued to scribble in her notepad. "If he's being cared for, why don't you go home and get some rest?"

"He's my responsibility. We worked together for hours yesterday, digging people out, saving babies an' shit. Ah'm his mentor, his driver, his mission commander..." Josh had to stop. His voice tightened up and he couldn't speak without feeling the pain Luke was going through with that stupid girl. "Fuck," he groaned.

"I need you to relax. What's the term that only people on gunships use... shit happens? Is that the term? I'm sure you put him in that trailer hoping for the best result."

"Ah put a loaded gun to the boy's head," said Josh sadly. "He was so happy with her, even though she would drive him crazy, and when he officially proposed, she became his waifu. He was the king of the world, for one day..."

Helen paused in her note taking. "Waifu? Is that what you said? What's a waifu?"

"A waifu is an imaginary woman, a sweet loving anime character that only exists in your dreams. You know, she makes breakfast, packs your lunch, makes your home perfect, makes love to you any way you want, makes you feel like a king. Instead, she treated him like..." Disgusted, Josh handed the phone back to Veronica and walked away.

"I don't know what is going on," said Veronica to Helen. "I've never seen him this bad, this long before."

<><><><><>

It was the kisses. That woman could kiss like no other woman on earth. Yesenia gave Josh kisses that would last the entire three-month deployment. "What's with the grin?" asked Craig Zigler.

"I always get happy when I get a chance to kick your ass," said Josh. "Now get this load-out on board and strapped down."

The loadmaster, Sergeant Ellie Stadelmeyer, stood on the tail door of GhostRider Zero Four as the weapons troops prepared the ship for deployment. The barrels were taken off the GAU-12 Gatling gun and the Bushmaster chain gun, and they were being loaded on board. Craig was driving the MHU-83E/E bomb lift truck. It had forks on the lift arm and was hoisting equipment up to The Double Yous. Wyatt and Wayne took the crates from the forks and stored the equipment inside the AC-130 under the direct direction of Ellie.

Josh was on the ground working with the flight engineer, Master Sergeant Keith Jefferies. They were closing up the panels in the skin where the barrels of the smaller guns protruded when they flew in combat mode. It was hot under the blazing Florida sun, and they were working their asses off to get their bird ready for deployment.

"It looks funny without those two guns poking out."

Josh turned to see who had said that and discovered it was Major Emory Hancock. "Get used to it sir, the fighter mafia that's running the air farce wants to remove the crowd pleasers and go with just the M102 howitzer."

"I know," said Emory with a sigh, and he slapped the side of the old plane. "A one gun gunship... they want to turn this sweet old weapon of mass destruction into the oldest, slowest bomb truck in the sky."

"Ain't life grand," mumbled Josh. "They'd have themselves the finest ground support weapon in the sky and they decide to hang bombs on it."

"What do you guys have left to do?"

Josh ticked off the tasks left. "Secure these outside panels, bolt down the gun carriages, install the internal floor panels, and that should be it. The Double Yous and Ellie have the gun barrels and other gear secured; it's all her and Keith after that."

"You weapons guys and the Battle Management folks need to be at base ops with your mobility bags and your shot records at oh six thirty tomorrow morning, you take off at oh seven thirty."

"Kind of a rush job? We just got the orders day before yesterday," said Keith as he inspected the panel and insured every bolt holding it was secure.

"All of your questions will be answered at eight AM," said Major Hancock. "Keith, we take off right after them, so be at Squadron operations at oh six hundred for the briefing and preflight."

"Dinner tonight?" asked Keith Jefferies as he hoisted the last panel into place, and Josh put in the first screw.

"You betcha. Mariano wouldn't let us leave without a good-luck meal to send us off with," said Josh.

The entire crew met at Mariano's Real Tex-Mex, a pre-deployment tradition. Pitchers of margaritas were set out on the big table, and the aircrew commander, Major Emory Hancock, sat at the head of the table. Everyone brought their significant other, and Emory was the only officer at the table who was alone. Last year, while they were on a deployment to Afghanistan, his wife packed up the kids and ran off. Josh was there with his wife Yesenia; and as always, they were sitting next to Craig Zigler and his girlfriend Caroline Prager. As the waitresses set out baskets of chips and bowls of salsa, Yesenia suddenly screamed, "Caroline!"

Everyone stopped talking to see what was going on, and Yesenia was scrutinizing the ring on Caroline's finger. Craig just shrugged and announced, "She said yes." Then to Josh he asked, "Would you be my best man?"

"You know I will!" said Josh joyfully, and he patted Craig on the back. The entire crew and their partners broke into applause. Caroline was a cute young thing, blue-eyed and blond. She was a Florida beach girl and Craig was a California surfer dude, and they hit it off the moment they met, and Josh was happy for his friend.

"A toast!" said Emory, then he turned to his EWO, Booker Rafferty, and said, "Librarian, would you have a toast for the happy couple?"

"I'd be proud to," said Lieutenant Booker Rafferty, call sign Librarian. The lanky, handsome black man stood and raised his margarita glass. When everyone else raised theirs, in a panicked but restrained voice he said, "SAM IN THE AIR!"

Josh looked in fear at Yesenia, whose beautiful ebony hair was now dyed blond. Tattoos covered her arms, and she just walked away, her pregnant belly leading the way. Before Josh could make sense of that, there was a tremendous bang, and the lights went out. Smoke filled the air, and Josh gave up on the jammed up ammo chute on the Bushmaster and stumbled to the only light in the pitching and rolling combat deck, the gaping hole torn open just behind the M102. There on the deck was the lifeless body of Craig Zigler.

"Craig!" With a shout, Josh woke up and struggled to his feet. He had been sleeping, sitting on the floor in a corner, and suddenly all that coffee he had been drinking was coming up. He dashed to the nearest lavatory, almost knocking Kiko over as he ran. "What's up with him?" She asked nervously as John went to be with Josh.

Veronica sighed. What would a big sister do? She might as well try. "Come here and listen..."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 23 - RGA from a TBI

It didn't take Springville long to clear a two-lane path down the center of US 39 (Main Street) from the two-nineteen to Bertrand Chaffee Hospital to the east. Now came the hard part: digging out all the stranded and illegally parked cars. A huge parking lot that was built near the hospital with an illegal building permit was cleared, and cars that were stranded and parked on Main Street were moved to that lot. It was going to cost owners a hundred dollar fine plus the towing fee, plus storage fee to get their cars back because they were parked illegally on a snow emergency route. Cars that were trapped on the 219 were hauled there so the expressway could be plowed clear, and the owners were only charged a minimal towing fee.

Andi Jarecki and Veronica Gravely-von Köster pulled into Andi's house on Josh's snowmobile to see how the kids were feeling. The twins were excited to see their mommy, but they were jealous that she picked up Danny right away. "He's a little boy, he doesn't understand that Mommy has to work sometimes, and mommy needs to feed him."

"Did you feed us every day when we were babies?" asked Madeline as she watched Andi breast feed three month old Danny.

"Yes, every day," said Andi. The little guy was growing big, but he nursed much more gently than the twins did at his age. They were tiny, just holding on to life, and something told them that mommy's milk would save them, so they were ravenous.

Veronica watched happily as she sipped her coffee, hoping she would be able to do the same thing soon. She made a cup of coffee for Andi and sat down at the kitchen table when her phone rang. She dug her phone out and saw that it was a video call, but she wasn't sure who was calling. The caller ID said Judge Atherton, and she remembered that name coming up in several conversations, so she answered it. "Hello?"

"Veronica! You look as beautiful as you did when you were shooting for Donna Karan! I just called to introduce myself and thank you for everything you did on my dear friend Andi's election. We haven't met yet, I'm Nicholetta Atherton and I'll be seeing you very soon!"

"You are most welcome." The woman that Veronica was talking to was wearing a tube top, or was possibly topless, but it was clear she was relaxing in the tropical shade. Veronica could see sand and palm fronds, and she could hear waves splashing on the shore in the background. Judge Atherton was beautiful, and she was clearly in her sixties with long silver hair, and Veronica hoped she looked that good when she reached that age. "Politically things were crazy here and we needed Paul or Andi in the mayor's office. I just helped Andi with getting her word out to the village."

"Oh, you did much more than that! Have you selected a justice to swear Andi in?"

"Andi, did you pick a judge to swear you in yet?" asked Veronica.

"I was going to ask Judge Nicoletta when I got a chance," said Andi as she looked up from her trio of children.

"Here, say hi to the judge," said Veronica, and turned the phone around so the judge could see Andi.

"Oh my goodness he has grown!" cried the Judge. "I can't wait to see him! Is the ceremony still next week?"

"We're going to push it back another week," said Andi. "We need to dig out, we got nearly eight feet of snow over the weekend, and I just got Main Street open about an hour ago."

"You got Main Street open? Are you driving plow for the village?"

"The mayor was AWOL so Andi stepped in and handled the storm," said Veronica.

"It was mostly Paul and his friends," said Andi. "I just answered the phone and talked to TV reporters."

"That's eighty percent of the job!" said Nicoletta with a laugh. "You have to run interference so your men can get the work done."

"There's a video on YouTube about the rescue efforts," said Veronica. "It's called '2002 Never Again.'"

"That was their motto as they dug people out of cars and put them in hotels," said Andi. "I was wondering, would you be available to administer my oath of office?"

"I could honey, and I would dearly love to do it, but dear, I've been out of the game for a long time. You need to build up allies in the local government. I'll hold the book and you pick someone that can do Springville some good to administer your oath. I suggest either Jerry Barcelona, the Town of Concord supervisor, or Ed Rath, the Erie County executive. Don't go any higher than that. Your governor is a moron but her assistant is a nice guy. I've known Ed Rath for years, you need him on your side, and he was a good friend of the former mayor Dale Harvey." Then, in a stage whisper, she said, "and he hates Sammy Windecker!"

Andi laughed and said, "I miss you so much! I can't wait to see you!"

"Are they still going to let you come down to visit even after you've just taken your oath of office?" asked the judge.

"They owe me," said Andi. "I've been on the clock for the past four days and it's going to take another week to dig this village out. I'll be down there with Veronica and her husband Ephraim, and our friends from Minnesota."

"That's the spirit!"

<><><><><>

"You better pull your head out your ass," said Josh. "Your folks are going to be here in two days. I want you up and around by the time they show up." Luke was moved to a regular room; his life was no longer in danger, so it was just a matter of time for him to wake up. If he would wake up.

"Ok, we were studying the story of the world's first superhero. Dave." Josh opened the bible that John had loaned him and continued reading where he had left off earlier. "All the tribes of Israel came to Dave at Hebron, not the Hebron in Kentucky but the one near about twenty miles south of Jerusalem. They said, "We are your kin-folk. In the past, while Saul was running this place, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns..."

"What... what kind of priest are you?" groaned Luke in a dry, raspy voice.

Josh leaned forward and hit the nurse-call button. Then he looked at the Bible he had open and said to himself, "I'm keeping this one, it works!" Then to Luke he said, "Ah ain't no priest, ah'm an IT engineer. How are you? How do you feel?" he held his cup of water to Luke's lips so he could drink.

"Like I've got a full body headache," said Luke after a sip of water.

"Ya banged yer head pretty hard," said Luke. "You've been out of it for a while."

Luke was about to ask how long he's been out of it and he noticed Kiko. She was sleeping in a chair next to his bed and was completely at rest. "Isn't she beautiful? Even when she's asleep she's beautiful. Her eyes look like sweet smiles when they're closed like that." Then he looked at Josh and said, "I'm sorry, have we met? I'm Luke Lawson"

"Ah'm yer pilot, Josh, don't cha remember? We spent a whole day rescuing stuck travelers."

Luke chuckled, which only hurt his head. "I've never met you in my life sir, where are you from?"

"Me? Ah'm from a mystical land far to the south, a land of tall pines and high cotton."

"Alabama?"

Josh glared at Luke with murderous intent. "Ah truly should thrash you for that, young'n. Ah'm from the land of the great Okefenokee!"

"Mississippi?"

"Have you ever been south of Cheektowaga, boy?" demanded Josh.

"I went to a barbershop concert in Erie Pennsylvania."

"Who did you see?"

"It was a local chorus, and several quartets," said Luke, thinking hard. "I'm a nerd about that kind of thing. It was the Lake Shore Chorus, three quartets, the Form Fit Four, Pennsy, and a comedy quartet. I took Kiko. She only liked the comedy quartet."

"The Gentleman's Disagreement?"

"Yeah them! Were you at that concert?"

"Yes ah was, and ah'll have to agree with Kiko, the comedy quartet was the best, especially the baritone. He was..."

"LUKE!" shrieked Kiko at the top of her lungs. His voice woke her up, and she vaulted from the industrial strength reclining chair to Luke's bed in one leap. She landed straddling his waist, and she kissed and stroked his cheeks. "I'm so sorry! I'll never, ever talk like that again! I was wrong, terribly wrong. Please take me back and I'll be your waifu forever!"

"Ok, but what do you mean?"

"He doesn't remember," said Josh softly.

Just then a nurse, alerted by Kiko's shriek, stepped into the room. "Young lady! What are you doing?"

"He's awake! He's awake and talking!" cried Kiko as she bounced on his lap, which looked pornographic to Josh and the nurse.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to stop."

Josh patted Kiko on the shoulder and said, "Let them check Luke out, you git on your phone and tell everyone he's awake."

"Ok," she said.

Josh got out of the doctor's way as the doctor did a detailed physical check of Luke's body. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Um... looking for the mayor's house."

"Why did you want to go to the mayor's house?"

"She hired me to tutor her daughters."

"And who are those daughters?"

"I don't think I've met them yet."

"Think," said the doctor. "You spent an entire evening tutoring them in math and literature. The Jarecki's have a classroom set up for you."

"Doctor Jarecki offered you a full time job at Zoar Academy," said Josh.

Luke's eyes popped open wide. "He did?"

"Who is your next of kin?" asked the doctor.

"Why? Am I dying?" asked a now nervous Luke.

"No, we want to give them, and you, a rundown on your personal condition."

"I'm his fiancée," said Kiko, and Luke looked at her a little confused. They had been talking about it for a long time, but it's not official yet. Then he noticed the ring on her delicate finger... did he propose to the love of his life and forget the entire event?

"Ah'm sure the mayor and her husband would be interested in hearing about his condition because he was injured working for the village," said Josh.

The doctor nodded and said, "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I remember pulling up to the Jarecki's house, and I remember... little girls, is that right?"

"Yes dear, that's right. Do you remember their classroom?"

"No I'm sorry, after ringing the doorbell and two little girls answering the door, there's nothing until now. It's like the door opened and I found myself in a hospital." Luke looked like he was panicking.

"Ok, you have what we're classifying your condition as Retrograde Amnesia, it's short term amnesia and there's no reason that the memories won't come back. We want you to see a psychiatrist when the streets open up."

Josh stood and said, "We might have one for him, Doc, and I have transport to the Jarecki house where they are staying until they find a place of their own."

"I have a place," Luke said in a tiny voice.

<><><><><>

Bored with being trapped by the snow, Audrey topped off the gas and fired up the snow blower one more time. The snow had stopped, and the sun was coming out from behind the clouds, and this was either the end of the storm or the eye of the hurricane. She had to get the black asphalt of the driveway to show through and let the sun warm up the asphalt and melt away the remaining snow. She cleared away the snow from the driveway, the front walk, the sidewalk, and the section of street she had cleared out of boredom; she put the snow blower away. Then she broke out the snow shovel and shaved away that last half inch of snow, walking up and down the driveway, pushing the snow shovel like a plow, exposing the asphalt to the sun.

That's when she saw a slim Asian girl come walking toward her over the snow. She was walking up the middle of Second Street, but it didn't look like she had snowshoes. The official snow total was over ninety-eight inches, but the snow was so heavy it packed itself down to sixty inches. Still, that's five feet of wet, heavy snow on the ground. The woman climbed down from atop the snow and said, "Are you Audrey?"

"Yes I am," said Audrey, leaning on her shovel.

"I'm Yi-jin, I'm the Jarecki's governess. Veronica says you're a nurse, is that true?"

"Yes she is," said Mike, coming up behind Audrey. "Best damn nurse there is."

"I'm still going to school," said Audrey.

"Have you dealt with..." Yi looked at a scrap of paper she pulled from her jacket pocket. "Retrograde amnesia?"

"RGA is caused by a TBI," said Audrey with a shrug. "A person loses memory from an hour to a couple of days prior to the TBI. It's that Luke guy, right?"

"Yeah, they want to pick your brain."

"I'm just a nursing student at a community college," said Audrey.

"You get the best education at a community college," growled Mike. "Ain't no one with tenure sitting on their fat ass letting their students do all the teaching." Audrey and Yi looked at Mike in shock, so he continued. "Veronica went to THE Ohio State, I saw those shysters in action. At least she got a sheepskin and an MBA out of the deal."

"Veronica asked you to come take a look at Luke and see what we can do about his condition."

Audrey looked at the snow, which was almost over the top of her head, and said, "I don't have snowshoes."

"Neither do I," said Yi as she lifted a foot to show that she was wearing hiking boots. "Just walk on the snowmobile tracks, they pack the snow down."

Audrey looked at Mike and said, "I'll be back in a half hour."

"I'm coming with you; I want to see how the rich live."

"Paul is the most uncommon rich man you'll ever meet," said Yi as she climbed up on the snowpack again. "He started from nothing, got his degrees with scholarships and military service. He's definitely not a stereotype rich man."

"Yeah, wait until he hears about Mike's assessment of universities," said Audrey as she and Mike followed Yi.

It felt odd being five feet taller. Audrey felt like she could climb into a second-story window, and many houses had to clear their front door by jumping out the upper-story window and digging down to the door. Many people created a Buffalo Fridge, which is when you open the back door and shove your beer bottles into the wall of snow that greets you when you open the door. Like Josh, Veronica and Audrey, the Jareckis cleared their driveway during the storm and now were reaping the benefit of their toil and relaxing while the rest of the village was digging.

They walked up the driveway of the huge Victorian palace that was the Jarecki's home and went to the back door. As they stepped up on the patio, a chocolate lab wearing a service dog vest burst out of the dog-door, followed by a huge black fur ball that was nearly as big. The black dog charged straight at Mike and almost knocked him over in its excitement. "Jolie! Sit nice!" scolded Yi. The chocolate lab came up to the black dog as if to scold it, then sat next to it. "This is Jolie, a four-month-old Newfoundland, and Wonka, a former police dog and Paul's best friend."

"Jolie is sweet, and very protective of the children. Don't make any sudden moves at the kids, no matter how much they deserve it," said Yi, as they entered the house and kicked off their shoes.

"That's a nice hot tub out there," said Mike.

"If you want to soak, feel free," said a tall man with a hawk-shape nose. "I'm Paul Jarecki, and I take it you're Veronica's dad Mike? Welcome! Take your coats off."

Mike was set off guard by Paul's friendly nature, and all he could sputter was, "Thank you."

"If it wasn't for your Veronica, that clown Sam Windecker would be the elected mayor right now," said Paul as he hung up Mike's jacket. "She saved the village, it's all up to Andi now."

"That's my girl," said Mike as he eyed the enormous kitchen. This kitchen seemed to be bigger than the first floor of Ronnie's house!

"Can I get you anything?" said Paul. "Pop? Beer? Iced tea? Coffee? Hot tea?" He seemed to be excited about something.

"Uh, a beer would be nice."

"Here you go, Labatt's Blue, official beer of the Buffalo Sabres," said Paul as he handed Mike a long neck bottle with a Buffalo Sabres emblem on the neck.

Audrey rose up on tip toes and whispered in Mike's ear, "just one."

"Yes, momma bear."

"I've been hoping I could get you over here, I'd like your opinion on something," and he led Mike downstairs.

Audrey looked around the kitchen nervously, but Yi said, "Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Then come on," she led Audrey through a beautifully appointed dining room into a parlor that was anything but modest. The room was furnished with French Provincial furniture, and a fire snapped in a beautiful fireplace. In front of the fireplace sat two twin girls, about four years old from what Audrey could estimate, pampering their big black Newfoundland dog. The enormous puppy was overjoyed to receive the attention, but was sweet and gentle to the girls. "Girls, where did Luke go?"

"They're in the living room," said one of the twins.

"They kicked us out," said the other twin, and they went back to brushing their puppy.

"This way," said Yi, and she led Audrey past the foot of the grandest staircase Audrey had ever seen into a living room that was plucked from 1950, maybe 1940. It was antique furniture, but not fancy; it was the working man's furniture. Yi whispered, "Paul made this room for his parents when they were ill and only had a couple years left. It's furnished the same way their very first living room was furnished."

On the couch sat a skinny young man with a bandage on his forehead. On one side of him sat Veronica, and on the other side was a pretty Asian woman about the same size and age as Yi. Josh sat in an easy chair, and he was clearly fighting sleep. A tall, beautiful, dark black woman and a short woman in her 30s with thick dark blond hair and a curvy body came up to Audrey. Both women were holding snoozing babies. "Hi, I'm Andi, Paul's wife. This is your patient, Luke Lawson."

Audrey looked again at the man. When he put on his glasses, it clicked in her mind. "Mister Lawson?!?" she gasped.

He looked at Audrey and smiled. "Miss Mitchell, what a surprise. I guess you know class is canceled tonight."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 24 - Egg Run

"Nice," said Mike as he watched Paul's Lionel trains race around the layout.

"This layout is for Danny and me," said Paul at nearly a shout. "From the noise these things make you can tell that these trains didn't run during the rescue." Behind him was the desk where he worked, dispatching rescue teams as Andi relayed calls for help from stranded motorists. "You're not impressed."

"Oh, not at all," said Mike. "I love model trains, and what you've done here is amazing." And Mike was right. The layout was big and complex; there were so many automated things on the layout, crossing arms, flashing lights, a little shack opened and a switchman came out and raised a lantern as the train approached. Everything a boy wanted for Christmas in 1950. "This is wonderful, but to me these are toys."

"You're absolutely right, they are toys. Lionel is the most successful toy in American history." Then Paul picked up a hand microphone from the desk behind him and offered it to Mike. "Are you sure I can't convince you to get your HAM license?"

"That's another rich man's hobby," said Mike. "I'd love to play but..."

"That's ok, I understand. You're a man of solid character, a railroad man with steel rails for veins. If it ain't real it ain't shit kinda thing, am I right?"

"I suppose..." Mike was wondering what Paul was getting at. He watched as Paul opened a cabinet mounted high on the wall, out of the reach of children, and took a key ring out of the cabinet and unlocked a door on the back wall of the room. As he opened the door, he turned to Mike with a smile, and suddenly Mike was afraid that Paul was trying to sell him a used car.

"I have exactly what you have been looking for," said Paul as he opened the door and threw the light switch, revealing the wonder inside. Mike's eyes grew wide as he drank in the sight of what had been locked away. "Am I right?" asked Paul with a grin.

<><><><><>

"You guys know each other?" asked a shocked Yi.

"Of course, she goes to ECC and is in Mister Larkin's English Lit class this semester," said Luke. "I covered for him when he was out last month."

"Jack London and Henry James," said Audrey with a dreamy sigh. "I got the wolf books because of that."

"Wolf books?" asked Yi quietly.

"Call of the Wild and White Fang," whispered Andi.

"There's plenty more out there," said Luke, and he paused, and an idea struck him. "Tales of the North might work at a fourth-grade level."

"Stick with Jungle Book," said Andi. "My girls love it."

Luke looked at Audrey and smiled. Audrey was sitting on the floor in that odd way that Kiko does, with her lower legs folded back under her, but she was not sitting directly on her ankles; she was sitting between them. It made Luke's knees ache to watch Kiko sit like that, but Kiko finds it comfortable. "So how can I help you, Miss Mitchell?"

Audrey looked at Yi, then at Veronica, and both women shrugged and gestured for her to proceed. "I understand you recently suffered a cerebral contusion?"

"Huh? Oh, this thump to my noggin? Yeah."

"Can you tell me what happened?" asked Audrey as she opened a Hello Kitty notebook and clicked her four-color pen.

"I don't remember. I'm told it was a snowmobile accident, but I've never ridden a snowmobile.

"What is the last thing that you reliably remember?"

"I remember arriving here and being greeted at the door by Sandy and Madeline," said Luke.

"That's progress!" cried Kiko, loud enough to cause Josh to wake up.

" I don't remember anything after that, there's flashes of digging snow but..." he shook his head. "Then I woke up in bed in the hospital. It's like falling asleep watching a TV show. Something was on but when I opened my eyes something else was on. I missed the show."

Kiko looked at Audrey with anxiety in her eyes. "Is that good?"

"It sounds like what I've read on Retrograde Amnesia due to a TBI," said Audrey as she wrote her notes. "However, I'm a nursing student, not a doctor. Do you remember talking to Paul about a job offer at Zoar Academy?"

"I don't remember the conversation, but I remember hearing that there's an opening at Zoar Academy. Is that normal?"

Audrey continued to write in her Hello Kitty notebook. "Yes, it's very normal. From what I've found online and, in my textbooks, your memories will return, they'll come back in bits and pieces. The actual trauma of hitting your head may not come back at all, or it may come back first. I suggest keeping that brain busy, word games like crossword puzzles and word search puzzles. Resume teaching the twins, math would be best..." A young pair of cheers was heard from the library where the twins were hiding and listening. The twins love math and hate English.

"How long is this going to take?" asked Kiko.

Audrey looked something up on her phone, then added to her notes the information that she found, then said, "Two weeks at the most, tonight at the soonest. Luke has been out for seventy-two hours; I'm not sure how that will count. I suggest that if there was some unresolved disagreements that will come back to Luke, you should take this time to discuss them in a calm, honest manner."

"You mean, like her engagement ring?" asked Luke. "I had planned something, but I'm sure it didn't happen."

"I'm sorry" said Kiko softly. "I found the ring and we talked... you were so tired and I guess I took advantage of that. I've been waiting so long." She pouted and her eyes filled with tears. "In Japan I am called a Christmas cake, I guess that's what was on my mind."

"I didn't realize," said Luke. "I didn't know it affected you being an American."

"I've got a dual citizenship," said Kiko, and she began to pull off her ring, but Luke stopped her.

"What do you mean Christmas cake?" asked Veronica.

Audrey looked at Veronica and said. "In Japan, getting a cake for Christmas is a tradition that everyone participates in. However nobody buys a Christmas cake after Christmas. A woman that is over twenty five years old and isn't taken in marriage is called a Christmas cake and the stigma means that she's past twenty five so nobody will have her." Then she turned to Kiko and asked, "Did I get that right?"

"That's right," sighed Kiko.

"I forgot about that," said Luke. "I suppose I should propose before April when you turn twenty six. It's just... here in America, we don't have Christmas cake. We have fruit cake." With that, he tickled Kiko, who squealed and writhed in his lap.

Audrey made a last note in her notebook and closed it. "I suggest that you two go somewhere quiet where you can be alone with each other. Luke, you take some Tylenol for that headache, and you two talk about anything that needs to be cleared up. Anything at all."

Kiko sighed, stood up, and took Luke's hands. "Come on, we have some talking to do." She led Luke out of the living room and up the grand staircase. When they were gone, Sandy, Madeline, Cholly, Jolie, and Cholly's puppy Chiot bounded into the room. Audrey was knocked over by the huge puppies, and they pounced, licking her face as she lay helpless under the huge puppies. The big black furballs were all over her, yipping in their deep baritone voices.

Finally, Audrey freed herself from the puppy attack, and she got up and sat on the couch where Luke had sat. The pretty black woman had Audrey's Hello Kitty notebook and was writing on the back page. "There, show that to your nursing instructor," said the woman in a delightful French accent. Audrey turned to the last page and read what the woman had written.

I observed Audrey Mitchell as she interviewed a subject suffering from RGA due to a TBI. Her manner was calm and professional as she explained to the patient the steps he should take as recovery continued. Her instructions to the subject were correct; her manner was professional, and she left the patient with the correct expectations for the recovery process. In addition, she suggested mental exercises that would improve his chances of a full recovery. I am impressed by the actions of this student, and I see a shining future for her in the medical field.

- Dr. Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais-Jarecki, Psy.D.

"You're a psychologist?" asked Audrey.

"Oui. It is one of the degrees I collected as I tried to fix my brain," said Macy. "Professionally I settled on theologian."

"Then why am I here?" asked Audrey.

Veronica leaned forward and said, "It's your father," she said with a sigh. "I don't trust anything he's touched; I may be the only woman at Andalon he didn't touch, but that's not for a lack of trying. Do you remember his black eye a couple of years ago? On the other hand, Josh trusts you and thinks you're an excellent nurse, and I trust his judgement, but Mike is my father, so, I wanted to see you in action while under a doctor's observation."

"Trust me, I would have stepped in if you had led Luke astray," said Macy. "But you handled the case admirably."

"I just told him what I found on the internet," said Audrey.

Macy leaned over and patted Audrey's knee. "You did more than that, you filtered out the garbage and gave Luke the correct information in a way that gave him hope, and you reminded Kiko that there was a problem she needed to fix."

"Well, I heard people talking, I didn't know what exactly went wrong, but Missus Gravely was quite upset with Kiko, so I assumed that there was some issues that needed to be discussed. I suggested that they take this opportunity to do that.

Macy nodded and patted Audrey's knee again. "You did an excellent job, and from what I hear, you're doing wonderful with Mister von Köster."

Audrey blushed; she was being praised by an actual doctor! "Thank you Doctor Dagenais-Jarecki, and Miss Veronica, I understand your trepidation with my father. I feel the same way."

"If I asked you for help while I work on the cleanup with your father's mess, would you be available?"

"How could I help?"

"Sitting for Katarina and Cholly when Yi and John are busy. Yi watches them while the twins are in school. It will only be once or twice a week."

Audrey looked at the doctor and said, "You remember that Mike is my priority. If something happens, I'll need to care for him first, and I don't think Tigger will put up with the dogs."

"John won't be far away, he works making cabinets and other furniture at Didomissio Construction, you will have his number, and Chiot stays in his kennel.

"I will want to make sure it's ok with Mike, but I don't think it will be a problem."

"And... I may need you when I conduct interviews, if that's ok. Taking notes, that kind of thing. We will do it here, and I'm sure Mister von Köster will have plenty to do. I'll pay you for your work," said Macy.

"Yeah! I'll be glad to do it."

Meanwhile, Yi was in the kitchen reviewing what she needed for dinner. Then she gasped, "Eggs! We haven't collected eggs since the roads closed. The chickens are probably up to their necks in eggs."

"Go ahead and take the snowmobile," said Andi as she peered into the kitchen.

"I wanna go! I wanna go!" cried the twins as they bounced up and down.

"We have the trailer, it's up to you," said Andi.

"Get your snowsuits on," said Yi with a sigh, and she gathered the cloth lined wicker baskets they collected eggs in.

"Here," said Andi as she handed Yi some egg crates. "If you have enough, give a half dozen or so to Brad and Dianna Clemmons and Gerry and Irma Hirsh. And take Audrey, she needs to learn the area if she's going to be watching Mike. Josh already has a cabin ready for Mike."

<><><><><>

"So this is what Luke fell off of?" asked Audrey as Yi drove the snowmobile down the steep and treacherous Zoar Valley Road. This was the quick way to the cabin. The road was a long, straight shot between several large corn fields, but the road was buried under eight feet of snow. The two rows of walnut trees, trees that replaced the elms that died off in the early 1960s, marked the sides of the road, as did many snowmobile tracks. The walnuts were 65 years old and were beautiful. They had thick trunks, and the branches spread over the road, shading it in the summer.

"Luke was in the trailer and fell out of that when he had an argument with Kiko," said Yi. "We think he was so upset he forgot he was in a trailer and stepped out to get away from Kiko."

"It must have been a pretty terrible argument," said Audrey. She was sitting behind Yi on Paul's black and pewter Ski-Doo Grand Touring LE Platinum 900 ACE Turbo, the Cadillac of snowmobiles. Behind them in the four seat snow coach were Sandy, Madeline, and Cholly, who was excited because he wanted to see the chickens.

"It was pretty bad. She's pregnant and he was trying to deal with that, then she said, 'What makes you think it's yours?' So he left, forgetting they were traveling about this fast. The door blew open and yanked him out and he hit his head."

"Damn," gasped Audrey. They sailed down the hill, every now and then calling back to the trailer on the Bluetooth intercom, "You kids ok back there?" and the answer was always the same.

"Faster!"

After the straight stretch between the fields, the road descended into the valley. It was the steepest road that Audrey had ever seen and refused to believe it was a road. She swore they were following a ledge down the face of a cliff. Finally, at the bottom of the scenic valley, the Ski-Doo raced across a short stretch of valley floor, and Yi pointed out there was a huge creek down there, but it was covered with snow. If you went over it, the snow might collapse into the flowing creek, trapping you. Then Yi dashed across what looked like an open field and charged up the steep side of the valley. It felt like they were clawing their way up a sheer cliff, but eventually the route evened off into a level field. "That climb is more fun in Josh's antique jeep, with the top off and the windshield folded down," said Yi. "And your shirt off."

"That's crazy," said Audrey. She couldn't picture doing something like that. Even though her parents raised her to be a slut, Audrey was rebellious, and she became a quiet, well-mannered young lady who was actively church shopping. Then again, feeling the wind against her breasts might be nice.

They buzzed along where the road should be, through five feet of snow below them. They finally turned at the end of a row of young pine trees and turned left between two standing poles. "We just drove over a gate that's three feet tall," said Yi as they followed a course away from Trevette Road toward a huge ancient barn. "Paul plans to spend a fortune to get the roof fixed on this barn," said Yi as they approached. There was an enormous barn that clearly stood fifty feet tall. It even had a big cupola, with a weathervane on top featuring a large copper rooster. They stopped next to a door, and a snow shovel and a scoop shovel were there by the door. Yi and Audrey got off the snowmobile and sank up to their waists in the snow.

"Shit," groaned Yi as they flailed their way through the snow to the side door. It didn't take them too long to dig the door open, but they had to dig a path to the snowmobile so they could get the children out. Sandy had thrown the cutter door open, and she was tossing the egg baskets and crates out onto the snow. "Stop that munchkin or I'll throw you into the snow," warned Yi.

"Mon Poulet!" called Cholly from inside the cutter.

"He wants to see the chickens," said Madeline.

"Just a minute," called Yi as she and Audrey worked the door open. Just as they got the barn door open, they heard an angry shout from one of the twins, then a loud shout.

"HELP!"

Audrey and Yi turned, and they found Madeline and Cholly peering out of the open sled door at Sandy, who had stepped out and sunk up to her armpits in the snow. "I told you to wait for me," huffed Yi, and she reached over Sandy and lifted Madeline, then Cholly, out of the sled before helping Sandy out of her predicament. "I told you to wait," scolded Yi as she freed Sandy from the snow, then dug out the boot that got stuck in the snow.

"I wanted to help," said Sandy in her defense.

"Here, carry this to help," said Yi, and she gave Sandy all the egg crates that she had tossed out of the sled. She then reached inside the barn and threw a switch, which turned on a dim light. "This is Paul and John's playhouse," said Yi as she led them past the orange Kubota tractor. "He has two tractors; the Kubota is his workhorse, the Ford over there is his baby. It's an antique, but it still runs like a dream." Off in the shadows of a different stall, Audrey could barely make out a small gray tractor. "This way," said Yi, and she led Audrey up a stairway made of heavy lumber to a hayloft.

The cavernous hayloft had enough space to park a dozen cars inside easily. There were a couple of trailers and other tractor implements parked in there. One end had a stack of hay bales, and near the center of the hayloft, an enclosed room was created. "How does he get the trailers and stuff in here?" asked Audrey.

"There's a big dirt embankment on the side of the barn; you can drive in here through that door over there," said Yi. They could hear clucking coming from the room that was next to the side entry door that Yi had pointed out. Sandy and Madeline were looking through a double-hung window into the room and pointing out the chickens to Cholly. "That's Paul and John's livestock. There's room for two dozen chickens, maybe more. There're automatic feeders and water so the chickens can subsist by their own. Normally we're up here all weekend long and swing by daily to collect eggs. The girls must have a few there for us."

They opened the door, and the smell was horrible, but the twins and Yi were used to it, or at least they expected it. To Audrey and Cholly, it was overpowering. The chickens were indignant and weren't happy at all to have people in their home. "Get a garbage bag, these chickens have some stinky straw," said Yi, and the twins set to the job. Yi showed Audrey how to chase the chickens out of their coop and collect the eggs so the twins could change the straw. Cholly found himself in the corner surrounded by chickens who were interested in his bright red boots.

"They like you Cholly!" said Madeline. "They want you to give them names."

In the end, Cholly named the chickens "Arrête, Laisse‑moi, and Va‑t'en." (Stop, Leave Me Alone, and Go Away)

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 25 - 1971

Mike von Köster reviewed his waybills and eyed the clock; he was called for a 1:00 AM departure on the Waterloo Ore Turn. He eased the power down the ladder track of Waterloo Yard and gently made the coupling to his train, then he reviewed the cars. This was a milk run. Thirty ore cars loaded with taconite bound for Buffalo and a string of 29 empties to return to Waterloo. His power was a pair of well-worn SD-9 locomotives delivering a total of 3,500 horsepower. It wasn't much power, but it was all downhill according to the system map.

Mike put on his headset and keyed the two-way radio that was clipped to his belt. "Waterloo Dispatch, this is Thirty-Nine Seventy-Nine West. I have thirty loads of taconite for the docks at Buffalo Harbor, my brake check is complete, we are ready to go."

A moment later came the response from the dispatcher. "Thirty-Nine Seventy-Nine West, advance to CP Seventeen then proceed to Buffalo governed by signal indication."

"Roger dispatch, pull forward to CP Seventeen, then proceed to Buffalo governed by signal indication."

"Track warrant zero-one-zero-five is in effect, dispatch out."

"Thirty-Nine Seventy-Nine West out." Mike waited; in a few moments he would be on the main line of the Waterloo and Western railroad, hauling a long, heavy train from the hills of Central New York to the Buffalo waterfront. He almost missed it when, ahead of him, the red signal light changed to green. He advanced the throttle and ran out the slack. He monitored his caboose, waiting for the call of "motion in the caboose." This is how you keep your train in one piece. There's no busted knuckles and pulled drawbars if you ease open the throttle and wait for the slack to run out before giving it the gas. There's six inches of slack per car, with thirty cars that means his locomotive will move forward fifteen feet before the caboose starts to move. He threw the ladder track switch to direct his train to Control Point Seventeen, the end of Waterloo Yard, then crawled over the switch and down to CP17.

Mike had never run a train before, but he knew the rules. Slow to a walk when approaching a red block, then stop an engine's length from the signal. He gently brought the train to a stop, and the SD9s growled, ready to dig in and pull. The engines rumbled; occasionally the air compressor kicked in and pumped air into the air reservoirs. Occasionally the reservoir bleed would blow off the accumulated moisture with a chuff.

He watched the points of the turn-out ahead of him move, remotely thrown by the dispatcher, lining the track from WY Bypass to the main line. The bright red light changed from red to green with an amber light below, warning him that the next signal would not be green. He blew the horn twice, signifying "Brakes up" then started ringing the locomotive's bell. As his train slowly eased forward, Mike stood trackside by the ladder track switch to throw it after the caboose passed over it. He threw the switch, and as his caboose passed over the CP17 switch, he called, "Dispatch, Thirty-Nine Seventy-Nine West. We are clear of Waterloo Yard and are on the main."

"Roger, Thirty-Nine Seventy-Nine West. Have a good trip. Dispatch out."

"Thirty-Nine Seventy-Nine West, out." Mike adjusted his headset, then grabbed his clipboard and stepped through the doorway to catch up with his train. There it was, on a bridge crossing over the Erie Canal. Down on the canal, a cargo barge lazed along with several workers up on the deck sunning themselves, nearing the bridge. Their team of two mules on the mule path, connected by a doubletree connected to the long towrope, pulled the barge as it passed under a spreading maple tree. A backup team of mules relaxed on the barge deck, waiting their turn to tow the barge. It was a beautiful pastoral scene rendered perfectly in 1/87 scale. Mules stopped towing barges on the Erie in 1918, but that clearly doesn't matter in John and Paul's world. Mike studied the water of the canal closely; how did they make it look so real? This had to be plastic resin.

Andi poked her head through the doorway to the dispatcher's office and said, "That was a good departure, I wish I could get some other engineers to call in properly," she said, clearly indicating Paul and John who were operating trains on other portions of the huge HO scale train layout. The moment that Paul opened the door to this layout room, Mike found himself in heaven on earth. The HO scale Waterloo and Western Railroad was a product of love that Paul, John, Gus, and other model railroaders have been working on since Paul bought the house. The layout works its way around the large room; and there's plenty of hidden track and hidden staging yards that help make the experience realistic for the viewer and the train operators.

The layout was set in Western New York in 1971. Paul chose that year because there were so many cool railroads still in existence back then. You could still see New York Central locomotives even though the Penn Central had swallowed it up. The B&O was still chugging through Springville, NY, and Amtrak had just started and was using passenger equipment from all over the US. Paul could put any passenger locomotive on any train, and in 1971 it would be right. These were the days of the "Amtrak Rainbow."

"Our normal dispatcher never complains about our procedure," said John as he worked the "yard job" over at Geneseo Yard. Mike's train was an end to end run, east to west, then at Buffalo, pick up the empty ore cars and return to Waterloo Yard on the east end. It was a great run for a new engineer, easy to run, and it familiarized you with the layout. You simply had to look at the signals that were mounted next to the tracks and obey them. Stop for red, go for green, go slow for amber. This was Paul and John's world, an HO scale train layout that filled an immense room. The scenery on half of the big layout was complete, but as you continued from east to west, the scenery faded until the train was traveling on track on bare plywood.

The west end of the layout was Buffalo, and the transition from country and farmland to city was abrupt, but it was like that in real life also, up until the current date. Interstate 90 traveled parallel to the coast of Lake Erie. On the east side of the 90 was pastureland and villages; west of that was urban decay and closed steel mills. Paul and John wanted to show that in their train layout, but in the HO scale world, abrupt changes in scenery like that are common because space is at a premium. In Western New York, the scenery had been like that for decades.

"This is truly amazing," said Mike as he studied the wireless controller in his hand. This was ultra-modern model railroading. Each locomotive had a computer chip connected to a sound card, to the lights, and to the motor. In the old world, every locomotive ran on DC power off the transformer, so they all ran in the same direction at the same speed. Digital model railroading allowed locomotives to move independently; it gave them sound, and it allowed for collisions, or as modelers called them, a "Cornfield Meet." This was heaven on earth to Mike, who grew up around trains and built locomotives for a living.

Mike eased his train onto a passing siding, drew up to a stop, dimmed his headlamp, and waited for the on-coming passenger train. Digital model railroading also allowed the computer that controlled the layout to operate trains by itself. Paul had two passenger trains programmed into each operating session, and they had priority over all other trains on the layout. "Just amazing," gasped Mike as an "Amtrak Rainbow" eased by with a Western Pacific F7, a Penn Central F7B, and a Delaware and Hudson F9 pulling a consist of passenger cars from the Illinois Central, the Soo Line, the Great Northern, the Santa Fe, the Union Pacific, the New York Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Lehigh Valley. A true Amtrak rainbow.

<><><><><>

Upstairs, Luke and Kiko were trying to iron out their problems. Kiko sat at the end of their bed and looked forlorn. "I don't know what to say, it was horrible what I said."

"What did you say?"

"You're going to hate me," said Kiko as she fought back the tears.

Luke leaned toward Kiko and said, "No, I'm not going to hate you. I may be upset, I may be disappointed, but I could never hate you." She looked at Luke with tear-filled eyes as he continued. "I have waited so long for you; you were my very first true love and you will be my only lover. You can tell me and know that at worse, you'll break my heart. If you want to leave me, it's ok," said Luke softly. "I've spent my life alone; I'm used to it. If it will make you happy then go." This caused Kiko to cry even harder.

She finally calmed down and said, "I'm scared, and when I'm scared, I do stupid things."

Luke placed the pillows against the headboard of the bed and sat leaning against the pillows. "Come here and sit with me," he said softly. Nervously Kiko crawled to him, then sat leaning back against him. She was tense, and he could feel that, so he just held her gently and hoped that their mutual warmth would help her realize that he was here for her.

"I miss us," she said softly.

"I'm here for you," he whispered.

"It's not you, it's me... I screw everything up... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she whimpered over and over.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh. It's ok. We will be fine if we are together, no matter what it is."

"It's horrible. I'm horrible. I should go..." and she tried to get up to leave, but Luke wouldn't let her. He held her in place until she stopped struggling. It was odd; she was a black belt in Judo and she could snap him like a twig if she tried, but in his arms she was soft and frail.

"I love you, there's nothing to worry about from me."

"Then my father..." she whimpered, but the consequences were too horrible to imagine.

"Please, tell me," he whispered.

"I'm pregnant. I'm going to have a baby in September."

Luke was silent for a moment, then as she turned to protest, he pressed his lips against hers. She was going to cry out when his tongue slithered into her mouth and danced with her tongue. Kiko wanted to shove him away. She wanted to jump up and scream, "I'm having a baby! What is wrong with you?" but instead she melted in his arms. For the first time since she realized that she had missed her period, she felt safe and secure. It was his arms that made her feel so safe. "You're not angry?"

"No. Should I be angry?"

"But a baby will ruin everything!"

"What? What could a baby possibly ruin. Your education is complete, my education is complete, you have a great job, I might have a job at Zoar Valley, what could a baby ruin?"

"You make everything sound so easy," she said with a sad whimper.

"The hardest part is telling your father and I'll do that. After that, it's all just life. We raise our children and love them dearly."

"You knew, you heard me talking to Veronica... You asked me about the baby, you said you were going to be the best father you could possibly be, and I was so awful to you! I said, 'what makes you think you're the father?' that's when you... you..."

She was fighting back the tears, but Luke said, "That's ok, it's over now. You were scared and trying to be a tough girl. I'm here and we're going to get through this together."

"Why?" demanded Kiko. "Why are you so good to me?"

"Because I love you. I've waited my entire life to meet you."

Luke held her close as she shuddered and cried, and soon he was crying with her.

<><><><><>

FBI Special Agent Josey Kersey sat in the waiting area of the director's office, wondering what monkey wrench was about to be tossed into the machinery of his career. Lately, he had been investigating a corruption case in Fort Sumner, New Mexico's NASA Balloon Flight Facility. It was nauseating. The head of the facility skimmed fifteen hundred bucks from the budget and blew it on a Christmas party for all eight employees and their families.

Josey couldn't blame him; the Fort Sumner facility was in the center of hundreds of miles of nothing. El Capitan, a solitary mountain 175 miles southwest of the facility, could be clearly seen from the balloon launch ramp. There was nothing for 175 miles to block the view, and many young people from Los Angeles and New York couldn't handle the solitary life of being a NASA scientist on the ass-end of nowhere. Retention was the primary problem that the Fort Sumner NASA Balloon Facility had. Their staff took one look and realized that the glowing light on the eastern horizon was from Dallas, 450 miles away, and they went in search of better jobs. No wonder why the facility manager skimmed some beer money for the troops from the budget; it was cheaper than training a new scientist.

The next thing Josey knew was that he was yanked out to Greenbriar, Maryland, where the head of the FBI had moved his office. The J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW was empty and scheduled for demolition, and almost all of the eleven thousand FBI officers in Washington DC had been put out in the field and assigned to cases.

A woman stuck her head out of an office and said, "Special Agent Kersey."

Josey rose and tugged his jacket straight. "Yes?"

"The director will see you now." She led him through an outer office where a dozen people worked, clattering away at laptops and desktop PCs. She opened a door adorned with a simple nameplate and motioned Josey into the office. Director Sharma rose and stepped around his desk to greet Josey.

"Agent Kersey, have a seat." Josey sat down, and the director leaned back against his desk. "How was New Mexico?"

"To be honest sir, it sucked. I found nothing down there that would require FBI intervention."

"Good, we didn't expect anything," said Director Sharma.

Josey's jaw dropped. "Pardon?"

"Senator Kroc complained that a rogue FBI agent was making life difficult for him. Therefore you were reassigned because we needed you to suddenly be somewhere else. A shit job in East Nowhere New Mexico would give Senator Kroc the impression that we kicked your ass off the case and closed it up. Officially that case is resolved, you are on a new case."

"What case is that?" asked Josey.

"You are going to some little hick village in rural Buffalo to observe the inauguration of their new mayor and provide security."

Josey wanted to say, "You're fucking kidding me!" but this was Dipak Sharma, director of the FBI and a close, personal friend of the President of the United States. Director Sharma was the former head of the Secret Service; he's run his own security and investigation company for twenty years, and Sharma Analysis was known to find anything it looked for. It's also said that he's one of the top fast-pitch softball pitchers in the nation. "Yes sir," was all that Josey could say.

"Good, because this election caught the attention of Senator Alvin Kroc, and he will be attending the inauguration," said Director Sharma. He let that sink in for a moment and was rewarded with the light of realization on Josey's face.

"What is the senator from New Hampshire doing in some upstate village?" asked Agent Kersey.

"Exactly." Dipak reached over and pressed a switch on his desk, and Josey could hear the door locks clicking and the room darkened as the venetian blinds slammed closed. "The rest of this briefing is classified."

"Yes sir," said Josey, as on the wall behind Dipak's desk a map of Western New York appeared. "Oh shit," he said softly.

"You are familiar with Springville? My file on you says you are familiar with Paul Jarecki."

"Yes sir, he was there in Portsmouth, it was his car dealership that we operated out of."

"Senator Alvin Kroc of New Hampshire will be there at the inauguration. Neither of the New York senators will be there, because to them New York ends at the north tip of Manhattan Island. So why does Alvin Kroc attend? I want to know why. You and your team will provide FBI security, and if anything happens to Mayor Jarecki, Paul Jarecki will have your throat and I will let him take it."

"Isn't Paul the mayor? He spoke about running while we were in Portsmouth," said a confused Josey.

"Paul was kidnapped in January and missed his chance to run. His wife ran in his place and won. You will ensure that Doctor Adrianna Jarecki is sworn in and that no bullet holes open anywhere on anyone in her election committee."

"Will do, sir."

"Also, a member of her committee is a recipient of the Medal of Honor, there will be no American war heroes dying on your watch. Do I make myself clear?" demanded Director Sharma.

"Yes sir." This sounded like a proper assignment to Agent Kersey. He couldn't wait to see Paul again, and the hero had to be that Josh fellow. He spoke to him once before.

"While you are there providing security for Mayor Jarecki's inauguration, you will also conduct an investigation into the deaths of several people that surrounded Senator Alvin Kroc. The senator's junior assistant, a former Air Force F-15 pilot Dennis Howe and his wife Séraphine Lévesque were working in Senator Kroc's office and they disappeared from the Senator's New Hampshire office and turned up dead in a village in western New York. Dennis's father, Gillford, was involved with the Portsmouth Slave Trade, and he died in prison. His wife, Solène Howe, ran off to France and was killed by fentanyl poisoning. I want to know how two of your informants were murdered under the watchful eyes of FBI agents Vic Bronson and Al Stanford. Do I make myself clear?"

"Eagle and Sparrow," said Josey sadly. "Sir, I was pulled off this case months ago."

"Well, I'm pulling you back on it. When you complete your investigation, I expect a minimum of three people in prison, two FBI agents and a US Senator. Anything more than that is gravy and much appreciated."

"I am going to need my files from my previous investigation in this matter," said Josey as he studied the map of the area.

"It appears that your files in that have been lost," said Dipak, then he handed Josey a thick envelope full of documents. "Luckily someone in the records office smelled a rat and made copies."

Josey looked through the envelope that was originally titled Portsmouth Slave Trade Follow-up. "These are the originals," he said, confused.

"Yes, isn't that odd. It appears that the office copies of your notes were lost and the originals were secured by someone who was not affiliated with Alvin Kroc." Dipak grinned at Josey, and Josey wondered what it was like to have a beer with the director of the FBI.

"So who's on my team?" asked Special Agent Kersey.

"Agents Vic Bronson and Al Stanford..."

"The Jelly Roll Patrol?" Josey gasped, interrupting the director.

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer," said Dipak. "You can pick three other agents; I don't care what they are currently doing. You will also have a foreign national on your team. He's emotionally involved in this, so keep an eye on him."

Josey was terrified of whom the director was talking about. "You mean..."

Dipak nodded and said, "Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale Commandant Pierre Lévesque. His wife Valériane and his daughters Marcelline and Josianne will be with him. How you decide to involve Pierre is up to you, but from what I hear, he's a cop's cop. You have four days to assemble your team and get your plan together then you are on your way to Wonderful Western New York."

<><><><><>

Andi was primarily the dispatcher, controlling the layout, throwing switches, giving trains priority, and this appealed to her; she enjoyed running the show. Macy eventually came downstairs and was teaching Andi how to dispatch. Macy had been playing dispatcher for several years. The dispatcher sits in the outer room by the Lionel layout where Paul sat and dispatched the rescue teams.

"So this is where everyone went!" said Yi as she and Audrey came downstairs and looked into Paul's miniature world.

"It's boring," said Sandy as she climbed onto the big couch in the media room with Madeline and Cholly.

"Yeah, boring," agreed Madeline.

"Tains!" said Cholly as he slid off the couch and dashed into the train room. John grabbed Cholly before he could get under the layout and yank a wire loose, and swung the lad up onto his shoulders. He found a spare controller that wasn't programmed into any locomotives and handed it to Cholly, who "helped" Daddy with his train.

And there was Mike, a look of comfortable joy on his face; he was the happiest Audrey had ever seen him. "Looks like I found something for Mike to do when I have a night class," said Audrey.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 26 - After the Storm

Josh hated the sudden, drastic changes in Western New York's weather. During the previous week it snowed with a ferocity that Josh had never seen before. Now all it did was rain. That was a plus because the snow was rapidly disappearing under the constant assault of rainwater. After the frigid rain started melting the snow away, a plow came down Second Street and cleared the street, but it blocked their clean driveway with an enormous pile of slushy ice. "Ah done worked muh ass to the bone to keep the driveway clear and look at that!" growled Josh.

"You worked your ass to the bone?" said Veronica with a stifled giggle.

"To the bone!" He pulled on his parka and went out to the garage and started the snow blower. "Ah hope this is the last time ah fire this beast up before October." He pulled up the parka hood to keep the rain out of his eyes and slowly approached the enormous pile of slush. As he approached, he thought of the consequences of not clearing this out now. If this pile of slush and ice chunks were still blocking the driveway tonight, it would freeze solid and they wouldn't get out of the driveway before spring.

He came up to the pile, and the snow blower dug in and stalled. "Fuck," swore Josh under his breath, and he began inspecting the machine. The exit chute was plugged solidly with ice, and so was the front auger. Veronica had strapped a billy club to the handlebars for just such an occasion. He removed the exit chute to clear it of ice. It felt like it weighed a ton because of all the ice and slush in it, and he cleared the chute with the billy club. Before putting the chute back on, he cleared the rear auger with the truncheon, then reinstalled the chute, then started up the motor, ready to try it again.

As he was about to put the snow blower in gear, Veronica came up behind Josh and tapped him on the shoulder. "Let me show you how," she said. "This takes a woman's touch."

With a sarcastic bow, Josh stepped aside, and Veronica took over. First, she raised the deflector on the chute; the deflector directs the ejected snow downward, but she tilted it all the way back. "You want a clear path for the slush," she said over the roar of the engine. Then she pulled the lever to engage the augers, and the remaining slush flew from the chute. "Now we can get to work," and she approached the mountain of slush and attacked it inch by inch. She'd move in two or three inches, and slush would flow from the chute and splatter on the side of the driveway. She carefully directed the stream of slush to the side, and when the stream stopped, she moved the snow blower forward another three inches and waited for the stream of slush to stop.

Josh shook his head. This was going to take all day, and the rain was soaking into his parka. He went back to the garage and returned with a garden spade. This slush and ice were far too heavy for a snow shovel or even a scoop shovel. He needed a weapon to attack this, and the garden spade was just what he needed. While Veronica slowly cleared a path through the wall of slush on her side of the driveway, Josh attacked the east side of the driveway with the garden spade.

It took them an hour to clear the mountain of slush, and by the time they were done, they were both soaked to the skin. They returned to the garage and cleared the remaining snow off Audrey's car, put the snow blower away, then went into the house. In the kitchen, Audrey and Mike had newspaper spread over the table, and Mike had a piece of packing foam in front of him. He had some twigs that were about two and a half inches long. He had painted all the twigs white, and now that they were dry, he was painting black spots on them with a tiny, fine tip paint brush. Audry would take the branch, glue a tangle of fibers to the top, then dip the top in white glue, then dip it into a bowl with finely shredded green upholstery foam, then plant the other end into the packing foam so the creation would dry.

"What are you making?" asked Veronica.

"Birch trees," said Audrey brightly.

Mike continued to paint his current tree as he said, "For Paul and John's train layout. I volunteered to make a birch grove."

Josh was looking at the foam with all the white twigs sticking up, wondering what they were up to. When Mike said birch grove, the twigs turned into a birch grove for Josh, and he couldn't unsee it. "Nice," said Josh. "Ah ain't no modeler, but ah can truly see what y'all are bringing together. How tall are them trees."

"These trees are two and three quarters inches, that makes them twenty HO scale feet tall." Then Mike looked at Josh and Veronica. "You two are soaked to the skin! Get out of those wet things and put on some dry clothes! You'll catch your death..."

Audrey gasped when she saw how wet they were. "Go downstairs now and put those clothes in the washer and get in the shower. I'll bring down your robes."

Josh and Veronica looked at each other, then Josh turned to Audrey and said, "Yes mom," but neither of them actually moved.

"Go!" demanded Mike. "Don't make her repeat herself!"

Veronica fought to keep from laughing. "Yes dad," and they both headed downstairs.

"And don't be dripping on my carpet!" shouted Mike after them. Then he turned to Audrey and said, "It don't matter how old they get, they never change."

Audrey sighed and nodded in agreement. After all, she spent the past twelve years raising her parents. From the age of eight, Audrey was painfully aware of who the most emotionally mature one in the family was. She finished up the tree she was working on, then headed upstairs to get Josh and Veronica's robes.

Down in the basement, Josh and Veronica finally realized how cold they were. All the physical activity of fighting against that immense wall of ice kept them warm. Now that they've stopped the hard work, the icy rain that their clothing had soaked up was sapping their body heat. In the laundry room, they pulled off their sodden parkas and stuffed them into the washing machine, then they started peeling off their clothing.

Veronica began shivering uncontrollably; her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't grasp the hem of her sweatshirt or the waistband of her pants. Josh realized he had to get her out of those damp clothes fast before she succumbed to hypothermia. He's never been one to strip her quickly; he normally peels off her clothing slowly, layer by layer, gently revealing the perfection that lies beneath each stratum of cotton and silk.

This was not the time to dawdle. He grabbed the bottom hem of her Buffalo Sabres sweatshirt and ripped it up over her head, taking the t-shirt with it. Then he grabbed the waistband of her sweatpants and ripped them down to her ankles. "Lift your foot." She lifted her foot, and he freed that leg from the sweatpants and two socks. "Lift your other foot," and when she did, he got the sweatpants and socks off. Separating the two pairs of socks she wore, he threw all that into the washing machine. Then he peeled down her panties.

He stood and realized she wasn't wearing a bra, which is normal; she doesn't wear a bra when working outdoors or doing housework. How is it possible that he revealed her glorious breasts and didn't pause to admire their allure? These are breasts that professional photographers all over the world begged to record for posterity. It wasn't unusual to see a model's breasts backstage at a fashion show; the girls were always in some stage of undress as they changed from one outfit to another, but Veronica was a pro and turning aside the moment a camera was raised backstage. Wouldn't those photographers ache to know that some redneck from the Georgia swamps had a hard drive full of pictures of her naked glory?

Her breasts were so much firmer than normal, and her nipples were crinkled so tightly that it looked painful, and all Josh wanted to do was suckle those tight nubbins of pleasure. But that will come later. He led her to the big shower stall and turned on the shower to warm up. "I'll be right back," and he turned to pull off his own wet clothing, which was harder than he realized. As a kid growing up in the swamps, he was constantly in and out of almost every pond and creek in St. Mary's Georgia, and always diving into the mouth of the St. Mary's river, and often he was fully clothed, but taking off wet clothes in scalding hot Georgia and ice-cold Springville were two different things. His clothes didn't want to come off; they clung to his skin like Velcro.

When Audrey came downstairs, she hung their robes up by the shower and turned to leave, but she noticed they didn't have towels. She grabbed a couple of towels and set them on the bench outside the shower stall. They didn't have the curtains pulled, and it was hard to avoid the sight of Josh and Veronica. They clung to each other as if they would fall off the face of the earth if they let go. Josh had his big, brawny arms around Veronica, who molded her body to Josh. Unbidden, Audrey's eyes trailed down to Josh's muscular ass, and she wondered how powerfully that ass could drive a cock into her. The opportunity she missed at the Andalon party!

She shook her head to clear it, then silently hurried up the stairs and sat down next to Mike. She resumed working on the trees, but her hands were trembling. "Everything ok little one? You can talk to me."

The image of Veronica and Josh filled Audrey's mind. That's what she wanted: someone she could cling to when she needed him. Someone with a ready smile, strong arms, and, as her mother put it, a pile driving ass. She finally said, "I'm just envious of what Veronica and Josh have."

Mike patted her hand and said, "Aren't we all."

"You're lonely too?" then Audrey blushed when she realized she had said that out loud.

"Of course. I'm getting to that age when you start saying goodbye to friends for the last time."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud," said Audrey, blushing fiercely.

"That's ok. Honey I raised two girls by myself, both are outstanding successes in their chosen fields, I know that sometimes you just need someone to talk to."

"I just need someone," said Audrey. "Don't say 'there's a young man out there for you, I don't like boys my age."

"I guess boys notice your breasts and they never see your eyes. Am I right?"

Audrey huffed and planted another complete tree in their forest. "That's about the size of it. To them I'm just a life support system for a pair of boobs."

"Their loss," said Mike as he gently painted the black dots on a twig. "They're missing a marvel of the ages in those eyes of yours."

"Me?"

"Someday you'll find someone and I'm guessing that you'll find your breasts will be a great way to tell him that you want a bit more than hand holding. Until then just relax, you'll find someone," said Mike as he handed her another tree.

Just then a refreshed-looking Josh and Veronica slipped through the kitchen wearing matching robes. Josh was leading Veronica by the hand, and they were heading upstairs. Audrey glued a small wad of tangled fibers to the top of the tree to give it the illusion of branches, then rolled it in the glue, then in the shredded green foam to give the illusion of leaves. "You said both of your girls were outstanding successes in their chosen fields. I've seen Veronica at work, what does your other daughter do?"

"Magda?" asked Mike as he carefully painted black dots on the tree trunk to represent the dark sap from where a branch came off. "She is probably the world's finest pain in the ass." Audrey looked at Mike in shock. "Damn good thief too," he said as he inspected his recent tree at arm's length. "She cleaned out my retirement savings account and skipped town with Veronica's fiancé quick as a wink. She was setting up house in Hawaii before I knew what hit me."

"You're proud of her for that?" said a shocked Audrey.

Mike handed her his tree, and for a moment their hands touched, and their eyes met. "Hell no, I want to kick her ass..." He picked up another twig and raised his paintbrush to paint a few more spots. "I do have to admit, she did a good job of it."

<><><><><>

Josh and Veronica climbed into bed and snuggled close. "Ah'm beginnin' to see the wisdom in bein' a snowbird," said Josh.

"What? One minor storm and you want to run off to Florida."

"Ain't no one ever froze to death in Florida unless they fell in a vat of margaritas headfirst."

She nudged his robe open and scratched a fingernail around his nipple, knowing that would get him going. Their eyes met, and he gave her a half smile. "You wanna start something with your dad right downstairs?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," and she pinched his nipple, which caused shocks to run through his body. She pulled him close for a kiss, shoved her tongue into his mouth, fucking his mouth with her tongue. With a growl he responded and began pulling off her robe, and she replied in kind. Quickly they were both naked; she grasped his wrists and had him pinned to the bed and her breasts dangling just out of reach of his mouth, her hot, wet pussy sliding on his thick, throbbing pole. He would snap at her breasts, and she would twist a shoulder to yank it out of the way, but he was wily. He snapped at her left tit, then her right tit, then her left tit, over and over, building a rhythm. But then he snapped at her right tit twice, and she mistakenly pulled her left breast out of the way, and he latched on. She squealed at the sudden shock as his teeth captured her hard nipple.

She pulled back, but he didn't release her breast. Her pulling back stretched her tit out, his teeth holding her nipple. She pulled back until the pain became perfect. The sensuous aching was a perfect duet with the feeling of her clit strumming against his wet cock, but she spent too much time paying attention to the feelings that were arising and not to his arms, and suddenly, he was free. He flipped her over, and she was flat on her back. Josh's mouth closed over her pussy and she let out a guttural groan of pleasure. If this were a wrestling match, she would have lost right there.

When she first made love to Josh in Anthony's office, she discovered that he was a virtuoso. He could play her body like the finest Stradivarius, and he could ring her like a bell with climax after climax. He was a perfectionist and slowly guided her to orgasm, insuring that her mind was awash in pleasure. He always treated her kindly and insured that in the end she was panting in utter exhaustion and her pussy and tits were throbbing from the attention they received. But sometimes a girl likes her man to be a MAN, and Josh was ready to fulfill those needs too. He grabbed her waist and slid her to the edge of the bed until her ass was right at the edge, then he knelt down and began to lick and suckle on her clit.

"Take it easy!" she gasped as he feasted on her pussy, but she didn't sound very forceful. He continued to drive her out of her mind. She lifted her knees, spreading herself wide open for him, and soon she was rewarded with two fingers sliding in and out of her quim. He was merciless, gently driving Veronica out of her mind. She was soon crooning and sighing as he drove her senseless with pleasure. She pinched and twirled her nipples as he finger fucked her sweet pussy and licked her clit.

The door opened slightly, and a curious Tigger glanced in and saw Veronica sprawled out on the bed, her perfect breasts swollen with pleasure, her fingers tangled in Josh's hair, guiding him on. That didn't interest Tigger, and he wandered off, but it did interest Audrey. She had come upstairs to grab fresh towels to replace the towels Josh and Veronica had used in Mike's shower, and she saw Tigger, and then she glanced at what Tigger had seen, and her eyes grew wide. Veronica was in the throes of a mind shattering climax. Her body shook as wave after wave of blessed sexual bliss crashed over her.

Audrey was frozen in the hallway as Veronica came. Veronica tried to hold back her cries of delight, but gasps and whimpers of ecstasy squeaked out as her relentless husband brought her to a shuddering orgasm. Audrey watched in envy as spasms of pleasure wracked Veronica's body, her breasts wobbling with each shudder of pleasure.

Audrey tried to leave, but Josh climbed over Veronica's prone body and knelt over her, and lowered his balls into her waiting mouth. Her eyes grew wide as Veronica suckled Josh's balls... it looked so hot to Audrey. She was taught many ways to pleasure a man, and that was one of her favorites. Then she gasped as Veronica's hand came up and cupped Josh's ass cheeks, squeezing, kneading, then a finger slipped between those cheeks and drove into his ass. With a grunt, Josh began stroking his cock as his wife searched for the male g-spot. "Oh God! I'm not going to last!" he growled. "Where do you want my cum? On your tits?"

That sounded so hot! So nasty! All Veronica could do was whimper around his balls.

" In your pussy?"

That sounded just as good, and she groaned and writhed her approval.

"In your mouth?"

Veronica nodded at the last option and Josh said in a strangled voice, "Here it comes..." He pulled his balls out of her mouth and lowered his cockhead to her lips. Veronica took the swollen head of Josh's cock into her mouth and be began cumming immediately. He groaned and shuddered and fired spurt after spurt into her mouth, and Audrey saw it all. She saw his cock twitching with each spurt; she saw Veronica swallow his seed, and she saw Veronica's middle finger continue to plunder Josh's asshole.

It was all too much for Audrey; she wanted a man's love; she wanted to be his playmate; she wanted to feel his balls in her mouth and his ass squeeze her finger. As quietly as possible, she dashed downstairs, put the towels she had collected on the towel rack, then locked herself in Mike's water closet. She didn't even sit down; she pulled down her sweats pants and leaned against the wall with one hand, and strummed her pussy with the other. Within minutes her fingers were stroking her clit and relief was nearly instantaneous. The image of Josh kneeling over Veronica, stroking his cock while she suckled his balls and massaged his prostate filled Audrey's mind as she came. It was one of the most powerful orgasms she had ever had, and she sank to her knees, gasping as she came.

A few minutes later, she sat down next to Mike and went back to making trees; there were only twenty more to do. "Are you ok?" asked Mike.

"Me? Oh... yes. Why do you ask?"

"You look flushed."

"Oh," said Audrey, blushing again. "It's just... newlyweds, you know? They get a bit noisy." There, some of the truth is all he gets, but that should work.

"If they're that noisy, you can sleep on my futon. That CPAP Doctor Andi ordered for me will be here soon so that should take care of any snoring."

"I might do that," said the embarrassed nurse.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 27 - Back to Work

"Who the hell are you?" demanded Mark Post as Josh walked into the office. Mark was being sarcastic because Josh had been working from home for so long.

"Ah heared y'all had a job opening," said Josh, pouring himself a cup from Mark's Mr. Coffee. "Ah kin shovel coal and wash winders if y'all need a handyman aroun' here."

"You've been awful busy since you decided to take a week off," said Mark. "The go-pack for new customers is a hit with Mister Friedman."

"You say it like it's not a hit with other people," said Josh.

Josh came up with the idea of a go-pack, a pre-staged series of devices that could be shipped together and installed at a new customer's site and get them on-line quickly. All they needed was a clean ten gig fiber connection, and they were on the air with a complete backup system. The go-pack contained two storage servers, one on-site, and one in the rack at the Andalon data center. The local company would backup their data to the server in its data room, and it would automatically encrypt and compress the data and send it to its dedicated server in Andalon's data center. Small companies could develop a partnership with one or more other small companies and share server space on a single account. A company could lease a huge chunk of data space at Andalon and sub-let a portion of their data space to another company. Josh could envision out-of-state companies doing this because Andalon's sales team will saturate local companies and undercut someone trying to sub-let part of their space.

"Close the door," said Mark without looking from his bank of monitors. Mark's job was to maintain and upgrade the wide-area-network, and he had a bank of six monitors showing him the entire network from end to end. Mark was as paranoid as a person who will leave their house in the morning can be. Mark Post believes that the 1969 moon landing was staged to draw attention away from the 1969 UFO landing in New Mexico. According to Mark, man didn't actually land on the moon until Apollo Fifteen through Apollo Twenty Six, when UFO technology could be put to use. He also believes that SpaceX missions at Vandenberg AFB are resupply missions to the moon bases that have been built and in operation since 1989.

Then again, just because he's paranoid doesn't mean he's wrong.

Josh closed the door and sat down. Mark sent an extensive file to his old dot matrix printer, which is incredibly noisy and slow, and Mark kept it to befuddle any listening devices that could have been planted in his office. He held out a wooden box, inviting Josh to put his phone in the box, then he set the box on the printer. There's no way the phone's microphone would pick up anything over the sound of that noisy, ancient printer.

"We have new people on the board and you may not be popular with them," he said so softly Josh could barely hear him. He wrote three names on a single piece of paper. "Brandon has disappeared, we don't know where he and his wife and daughter have disappeared to." As Mark said that he tapped the first name on the list, Pietro Gismondi, a well-known Mafia kingpin in Western New York. He specializes in drugs, loan sharking, and eating up financially unstable companies, then squeezing every dollar he can get out of them before selling their hollow husks.

Was Mark telling Josh that Brandon was working for Pietro Gismondi? Was he inferring that Pietro Gismondi kidnapped Brandon? Josh decided not to mention Audrey's new residence, just in case Mark was right on count #2. "Who replaced Brandon?" Josh asked.

"Two people. The VP of Sales is Batya Mandelbaum, an old friend of Mister Friedman," said Mark softly. His pencil moved to the second name on the list, Midori Yamanaka. Was she related to Luke's girlfriend?

"You mentioned two people. Who else?"

"Arabella Catalano is the new VP of Marketing." The pencil moved back to Pietro Gismondi.

"Who can I trust on the board?" asked Josh.

"Emmitt Katzman," said Mark. "He's a good man." The pencil moved to Midori Yamanaka. "Emmit Katzman has a new assistant," said Mark.

"Ok, who is his assistant?"

"Ryoko O'Brien," said Mark. The pencil moved to the third name on the list, Yashima Hirata.

"Never heard of him," said Josh, hoping Mark understood that he meant both Ryoko O'Brien and Yashima Hirata.

Josh shook his head. Something weird was going on, who was Midori Yamanaka and Yashima Hirata? Are they people to avoid? He knew quite a bit about Pietro Gismondi, and if Mark indicated that Brandon Mitchell was tied up with Pietro Gismondi, that would explain a lot of Brandon's actions. "I had better go check in with Fabian," said Josh, and he started to get up, but Mark grabbed his arm and pointed to Pietro Gismondi.

Josh looked at Mark in shock. Was he implying that their boss, Fabian Bernsdorf, the VP of Operations, was owned by a mafia don? Mark simply took the sheet of paper and put it in his shredder. Then he handed Josh his phone and said, "Say hi to Fabian for me."

Outside the office, Josh took out his phone and typed Yashima Hirata into the search engine and groaned as he read what came up. He cleared his screen and sent a text to Veronica, "We need to talk." He didn't expect an answer right away; they both knew she would be busy when she came into work. Josh was able to get a lot of work done when he wasn't shoveling snow or rescuing stuck travelers, but Veronica didn't have the opportunity to get as much done as Josh did.

He strolled into the maintenance area, and the entire gang was there, waiting for him. As he stepped into the maintenance room, everyone broke into applause. "Hail the Conquering Hero!" cried Nick's floor supervisor, Rasheed Davis.

"Thank you, thank you," said Josh, waving.

"In honor of your accomplishments during the great February storm, we'd like to present you with this," said Terri McCarthy, and she handed Josh a golden snow shovel. It was a regular, cheap aluminum snow shovel, but had been painted gold.

"That's a nice paint job," said Josh, admiring his shovel.

"We gave it a coat of paint every day that you took off," said Terri.

Jen Combs took the clipboard off the wall before Josh could get to it. Josh held his hand out for the clipboard and said, "You've been running the show while I was gone?"

"I've been trying," said Jen. "Unfortunately Rasheed and I were ordered not to join the staff meeting."

Josh snagged the clipboard out of Jen Combs' hand and flipped through the work orders. As he read the notes that were entered in each ticket, he realized nothing got done. Customers have been waiting for days for a technician to show up. "Jen, what is going on here?"

"We've been grounded," she said. "We've been setting up offices for the new people."

"That's it. Listen up folks! Everyone hits the field. Jen, set up the teams and get out in the field and find out what your customers need. Team leaders start making your calls, let the folks know you're on the way. Rasheed, where are we with Saint Patrick high school?"

"Nothing was done; we were taken off that job also. We have half a dozen workstations we need to build, and two servers need to be set up and configured," said Rasheed.

"You get the workstations, I'll get the servers," said Josh. "Rasheed, put every soul you can teach to turn a screwdriver to work. Jen, we have to get Saint Patrick's High School 100% up and running by tomorrow or we lose this contract. Let's get on it people!" His folks had a new sense of value as they prepared to get to work.

"What about meetings with Doctor Jarecki?" asked Jen softly. Several of Brandon's victims have meetings with Macy Jarecki.

"We'll do that too, even if I have to drive Macy out to your work site." Nick shook his head; so much work was ignored while he was gone. "If you can get a free soul, send two people out to Saint Patrick and do a final site survey. When the hardware is ready I'll send Rasheed out there to get this installation complete today."

Jen handed out work to her team while Josh led Rasheed's back-office team to the storeroom to break out the equipment needed to set up six laptops as workstations in the "learning lab" at Saint Patrick. Then Josh muscled two heavy storage servers onto a rolling cart and headed to his office to set them up. He opened his office door, and everything was gone. "WHAT THE FUCK!" shouted Josh.

"What is all the yelling about?" demanded Fabian Bernsdorf.

"Where is all my equipment?" demanded Josh.

"It's in your office," said Fabian as he sat down behind the desk that used to be Josh's desk and adjusted a framed photo.

"Where is my office?" said Josh, trembling with anger.

"It's in the office I used to use. This one is much bigger, more befitting of a corporate vice president."

"Oh." Josh smiled and left without another word.

Veronica bumped into Josh as he pushed the heavy cart across the carpeted reception area. "Where are you going with that?" asked Veronica.

"My new office," said Josh. "Fabian had everyone in production drop contracted work orders to help re-arrange offices. He decided my office was bigger and plunked his ass in there." He opened the door to the one person office and saw boxes of his stuff on the desk. "I need to get these servers up and running by noon," he said as he dug out a 48 port switch and set it on top of the servers and began stringing network cables between the servers.

"Are you going to be at the staff meeting?"

"When these things begin their hard drive configuration, I'll have an hour to kick back and let them cook," said Josh. He glanced at his watch and said, "I should make it."

<><><><><>

Veronica spent the morning catching up with Marjory and the events of the past week at Adoption Advocates. Even though Veronica was working from home, there was quite a bit of work she couldn't do without coming into the office. Much of it was state legal requirements for adoption. She was working hard to catch up so that she could make it to the staff meeting.

"What is that horrible noise?" asked someone in Anthony's office, and then Veronica noticed it: the ear piercing howling of dozens of small, ultra-high flow fans that live inside Josh's server cases. She should have seen it coming. As she walked to the meeting room, the noise got louder. It filled the entire reception area and the entire office area. She walked past Josh's new office, and he was standing next to the servers. He had two lap-tops open on top of them and was wearing a pair of "mouse ears" hearing protection headphones.

The noise was unbearable in the meeting room, and when they closed the door, it didn't help much; the office that Josh was working in was right next to the meeting room. Josh carefully monitored the progress of the server setup. It was a complicated process, and it needed to be conducted exactly according to the checklist he had created. Any interruption would require a complete wipe of the server's memory and a restart, all that time wasted. Worse, one or more hard drives could have sectors corrupted and need to be replaced.

When the process got to the hard drive configuration, a long, drawn out automated process, Josh headed next door into the staff meeting, still wearing the headsets. "What the hell are you doing over there?" demanded a woman whom Josh had never seen before.

"Pardon?"

"I said, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?" she shrieked.

Josh tapped his headset and shrugged, and said, "You're welcome?"

"Mister Gravely-von Köster, what is going on?" asked Anthony in a normal speaking voice.

"Oh. I'm configuring the servers for the Saint Patrick's High School contract, which has to be done by close of business tomorrow." He chuckled and said, "My people were pulled from that contract to move offices and assemble furniture, giving me twenty-eight hours to do a weeks' worth of work. Cool huh?"

"How can you be so flippant about losing a contract?" demanded Fabian.

"You're the one that caused this and you sit there pretending you don't know anything. It's almost like you were setting me up to fail."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" demanded Fabian. "If we lose that contract it's all on you!"

Josh opened a folder and slid a piece of paper across the table to Anthony. "Here's an email that I sent to Mister Bernsdorf reminding him that the gang needed to prioritize Saint Patrick High School, and you can see his response was 'no problem.'" He slid another page to Ant and said, "Here's an email where I asked how Saint Patrick High School was coming, and his reply was, 'we're almost complete.'" Josh took another page out and slid it to Anthony. "Here's an email from my floor manager who went to Mister Bernsdorf demanding that his people get to work on Saint Patrick high school and Mister Bernsdorf told him, 'There's plenty of time, don't worry about that.' Instead he had my people move my office next door so I had to do my work out here, so you're all stuck with me. I suggest you may want to get some ear protection."

"There's nowhere else you can work?" shrieked the woman.

"No ma'am, every inch of workspace is occupied with people making up for Fabians failure as a manager."

"We will have no more of that!" demanded Emmitt Katzman, the VP of Legal.

Josh smiled and said, "Give me fifteen minutes alone with Mister Bernsdorf and I'll guarantee you won't hear of his failures ever again."

"Gravely! MY OFFICE NOW!" demanded Anthony.

Josh got up and scattered the copies of the emails he had to put up with while trying to dig out of the storm across the table for members of the board to read for themselves, and left. He went to the other office and checked the servers. One server only had four hard drives, so it was finished and he shut it down. The other server had thirty-two hard drives, and it was going to be a long time before it was complete. Then he stormed into Anthony's office. There was someone behind Anthony's desk, and it was the last person Josh would have expected to see here at Andalon.

"John?"

John Jarecki looked up from the document he was reading and said, "Josh, close the door and sit down please."

"What are you doing here?" said Josh.

"I brought Macy down to do interviews; she's talking to your people right now. You and I need to talk about the future of Andalon."

"The way Andalon is going, there's going to be no future," said Josh sadly.

"You may be right, and the hard part is that in the end, it's all going to be up to you and Lois Frankel."

"Me and Lois? She hates me, I'm a straight male. I'm her enemy."

"That doesn't mean she won't work with you. Lois can write just about any software for anything a customer wants, you can put together the hardware and network to make her software work. Anthony's entire plan revolves around you two and your teams."

"Did Anthony tell you this?" asked Josh.

"Not directly. Let's just say that I have overheard conversations that neither of us were invited to hear."

"You didn't hear this in confession, did you?"

John chuckled. "Confession? Seriously? We're Congregationalists; we don't work that way."

"I'm so tired," groaned Josh. "Not just from shoveling snow. I hate coming to work anymore. If it wasn't that fucking dick Brandon... pardon my French, pastor. If it wasn't Mon-sewer Mitchell, it was Mon-sewer Bernsdorf screwin' up the works, and I have to fight to get anything done. We're never going to have an IPO."

"No you're not. There's two factions that are fighting for control over Andalon Data Systems. One just wants the assets and some of the people. The other just wants to suck every dime they can get out of Andalon, then close up shop and sell off the assets. Making Andalon Data Systems a publicly traded company would push Andalon out of their reach. Both have agents in this building actively working to prevent an IPO from happening."

Josh shook his head and looked at his hands in his lap. "Midori Yamanaka and Pietro Gismondi."

John tried to hide his surprise that Josh knew who was trying to carve up Andalon Data Systems. "Yes and no. Missus Yamanaka is merely a means to an end, but don't cross her. She is the eldest daughter of Yashima Hirata. Her job is to keep Andalon out of Gismondi hands."

Josh sighed; he was caught in a tug of war between the mafia and the yakuza. "I'm guessing that Gismondi has Mitchell and Bernsdorf inside here, tearing the place apart."

"I never said that" said John.

"You're not denying it either." Josh's words just made John shrug. "Why are you doing this? You're a pastor, not a secret agent."

"You're an important part of my flock," said John. "Maybe even a sheepdog helping me guide my flock. You have an incredible talent on loan from God, and I want to see you use that talent to the best of your abilities. If the road gets dark, I want you to remember where you can find me, ok?"

"If I sit down and talk with you, how do I know you're not going to tell other people what we talked about?"

"If we sit down to talk and you tell me something, it goes to the grave with me. That is unless you say something like 'Paul needs to know this information.' Paul would soon get the information, but he'd never know how I got it."

"So... you got this information from someone to tell me and..."

"What information?" said John. When Josh grimaced, John said, "Josh, you have to keep Andalon open and profitable. Ant started this company to fund Adoption Advocates, and we need them and their lawyers to keep Cholly here in the US. His grandparents are on their way here from New Caledonia."

For the first time in their friendship, Josh saw the fear in John's eyes. The pastor was terrified that he would lose his son.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 28 - Back to Work II

Paul limped into Jarecki motors leaning heavily on his walking stick. "I want to say hi to the gang first thing this morning, then I'll head up," said Paul to Melissa Kraft, his executive assistant. He handed her Wonka's leash, and she led Paul's dog up to the office. Melissa was still filling in while Macy was on maternity leave. Macy also has work at Andalon counseling the employees who were assaulted by Brandon Mitchell, so Melissa may be here even longer than expected.

The salesmen turned and cheered Paul as he came in. "The first gentleman of Springville," they called him. "I was hoping to call you Mister Mayor soon," said a salesman.

"When Andi runs for governor, I'll try doing mayor again," said Paul. "Did Pops make it in?" Wayne "Pops" Morgan was the head of the detailing department, and he was trapped like many other people. Pops lived off old 219 near South Boston, NY, which is still being cleared.

"Not yet," said Jakob Hennessy, the executive director of the Orchard Park dealership. "We haven't heard from him. I sent Dave Mayer out to check on him."

"I hope he's ok," said Paul. Pops had been living alone on a small farm since his wife died two years before.

"You and me both," said Eugene Currey, the head of the Body Shop. "How ya doing bossman?"

"I've had better years, but Andi and I are going to take the boat out soon and relax. I'm hoping that this next trip to Florida is better than the last one where I was wrapped up in a carpet and thrown in a swamp."

"Is it true that you knew one of the men that rescued you?" asked Joe Hamilton, the head of the service department.

"No, my neighbor Josh knew one of the fellows and the guy's wife," said Paul as he shook hands with Joe. "My exec is going to get with you later, I want to have a zoom meeting with all the heads of service of the Mercedes and Ferrari dealerships to go over the new factory bulletins, cool?"

"Hell, I think I'm the only one that speaks English," groaned Joe. He was teasing Paul for his habit of hiring people away from Mercedes and Ferrari to run his service shops.

"Oh? You bothered to show up for work finally?" came a woman's voice. Paul turned and saw a tiny, beautiful Asian woman, his Chief Operating Officer, Min Zhong Sun. Paul had hired her to be his executive assistant when Macy announced she would request maternity leave, and Min did such an outstanding job that he made her the COO.

"Yeah, my tour of the Midwest took a bit out of me," said Paul as he hugged his COO.

"I was so worried about you," whispered Min.

"Thank you, everyone's prayers saw me through."

"Ok," said Min as she backed off and straightened up Paul's Team Honda racing jacket. "We have meetings with a representative of Ford Racing first thing, then at ten we need to talk to some musician, then I head out to Philadelphia and you have lunch with your wife, and after that you have a meeting with someone that's blocked to me," she said as she looked at her phone.

"It's a personal meeting; it's blocked to everyone except Andi."

"Oh, a little afternoon delight?" asked Min, wagging her perfect eyebrows.

"I wish. Where's our Ford representative?"

"He's over there, drooling on your car."

"Let's go," said Paul. Ford was up to something, and they wanted Paul to play along. They walked up to the front window mini-showroom where Paul's Mustang sat. "Like my car?"

"This is a beauty," said the man in a Ford Racing team jacket. "You say it's yours?"

"Yes it is. It's my daily driver in the summer," said Paul. He held out his hand. "Paul Jarecki owner and CEO of Jarecki motors. This is my Chief Operating Officer, Min Sun." Instead of shaking hands, Min bowed to this fellow. A signal to Paul that she didn't trust him.

"Jules Fisher, Ford Racing Dealership Representative for the Northeast."

"And what do we owe this visit from the factory to?" asked Paul.

"We understand that we sent you four brand new Mustang Mach E GT cars and you sent them back without offloading them from the truck."

"Yes, they didn't meet my standards," said Paul.

"What do you mean?"

Paul handed his cane to Min, who smiled and stepped back. He got into his Mustang and turned the key. It's been almost two months since Paul had a chance to do this, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it. He fired up the big 1971 Mustang Mach 1 and let it warm up a bit. Then, when he saw the temperature needle begin to climb, he put his foot into it, and that Boss 429 V8 bellowed its mating cry. The roar filled the dealership, telling every employee that the boss was back. The sound was marvelously loud; it filled every crevice of the building and echoed across the new car lot. The entire building rang with the song of raw power.

Min squealed and giggled with joy as the surrounding air shuddered with the sheer power that the Mustang was holding back. After what seemed like ages, the bellowing roar dropped to a deep throated rumble, then silence returned. Then a different sound filled the air as every employee of Paul's was called into the showroom by that sweet, sweet song, and they began clapping, cheering, and whistling. Paul stepped out of the Mustang and said, "Those Mach E geldings wouldn't do that."

Jules winced. He had been hearing that more and more; the all-electric Mustang Mach E being called a gelding. "I've heard that complaint about the Mach E cars."

Paul patted his car and said, "I bought this used when I pinned on Lieutenant Colonel and I spent quite a bit of money bringing it up to specs. Of course my dad would have done that for free if I had just come home when he asked, but I got to know my car. When I eventually came home he turned the family business over to me and said, 'Don't waste your time selling toasters, they're dangerous and the fad won't last.'"

"Dangerous?"

"The standard EV is far heavier than a standard automobile and causes significant road wear, if the battery pack is breached it will release toxic flammable gases, the EVs put a strain on our grid, if a battery catches fire..."

"It's not a perfect system," said Jules. "But we're here to talk about Philadelphia."

"I can give you thirty minutes, then I have an appointment," said Paul, and he led Jules up to his office where Wonka greeted him happily.

"I don't know if that loud car scared him or if he wants to go for a ride," said Melissa.

"Melissa, when my ten o'clock gets here, please come get me."

"Do you mind if I practice? I'll turn the volume down," asked Melissa.

"Melissa, you know the rules of music in this office," scolded Paul.

"Yes sir," she said as Paul, Jules, and Min disappeared into Paul's office.

"You have rules on music in the office?" asked Jules.

"Yes," said Paul as he sat down and pointed to his guitar and guitarone hanging on the wall. "If she plays something I know, she's not allowed to laugh when I join in and flub it all up. You heard about Philadelphia?"

"Yes! The word is out that Jarecki Motors is moving into the Philadelphia market and we want to piggyback in with you," said Jules.

"Good, I'm getting tired of selling high end German sedans because Ford refuses to make one. Tell me you're going to give me a luxury sports sedan."

"I have something better, the Lincoln Aviator," said Jules with a huge grin, which faded when Paul and Min just looked at him with no reaction.

"It's a fancy Ford Escape," said Min.

Paul shook his head sadly. "Look, Jules, Philly is a Premier Lot like Portsmouth, Burlington, Albany, and Orchard Park. I sell Aviators at my Ford dealers, not at a Premier Lot. That is where Ferrari's go to find their forever home. Bentleys fly off the lot. It's where Honda S2000's kick everything that Ford makes every damn day. Min has an idea that she's going to sell, an idea you guys had and forgot about."

"What?"

"Take an F-150 with all the bells and whistles, upgrade the entertainment system, put in synchronized interior lights, add video players to the head rests, upgrade the upholstery, carpet, suspension, wheels, grill and paint and I can double the price of your F-150 and people will be begging me to sell them one."

"You can't do that," gasped Jules.

"Yes we can, and you have to support the warranty," said Paul. "Your sales contract clearly states that customizations made by an authorized Ford dealer..."

"Ok!" cried Jules. "What do you want? For reals?"

"A dozen Mustang GTD and a GT Mk IV with the long tail body to put in Min's showroom."

"Anything else? The Shroud of Turin? A Piece of the True Cross?" said Jules in defeat.

"The GTD's will do fine," said Min. This was a car worth selling. The Mustang GTD is a track-day monster. Supercharged 5.2 Liter V8 pumping out 815 horsepower. Its top track speed is 202 MPH, and the official time around the Nürburgring was six minutes, 40.835 seconds the first American production car to break the seven-minute barrier at the Nürburgring and is currently the fourth-fastest production sports car to do so.

Jules tapped on his phone and said with a sigh, "I can only promise six GTDs but we can put the GT Mk IV and a '67 GT-40 in your show room for a month."

Ming and Paul looked at each other; she almost leaped out of her chair; she was hoping for one GTD and Ford promised six!

Jules left, a broken man, unable to sell a single E-car or Lincoln, but instead he gave away the farm.

<><><><><>

Andi got Danny out of the back seat of her new Audi A6 sedan. Paul wanted to give her a new car, something with all wheel drive, but she was so tiny, getting in and out of an SUV was difficult for her, especially with the baby. The Audi has Quattro® all-wheel drive and is perfect on icy Springville streets. It's also roomy enough to seat the baby in the center of the rear seat, which would separate the twins, which can be a blessing when they get feisty.

She carried Danny in his baby carrier and had a bag slung on her shoulder filled with all sorts of baby equipment. Bottles, burp rags, diapers, spare sleepers for leaks, and a spare bra and blouse for her for the same reason. Danny was holding a tiny figure which looked like an elf or some creature like that. The fact that he was holding it made Andi extremely happy because babies learn to grasp items between three and six months old, and Danny just turned 3 months old last week. He's above average!

"Danny's here!" cried Donna Gesner, a middle-aged saleswoman and a member of the million dollars in sales club. All salesmen who weren't engaged came to see the boss's son. "He's getting so big!" gasped Donna as she peered in on Danny.

"He seems to like the attention," said a dark-haired young man. "Are they like that when they're born?"

Next to him, a pretty blond woman tugged at his arm. "Billy, stop!" Then to Andi she said, "We're expecting our first, and he gets excited whenever he sees a baby."

"It's quite all right, my husband was the same way when Danny was born, and Paul's a doctor."

"Can you show us where Paul is? I think he wants to talk to me."

Andi was getting worried; this guy sounded a bit crazy. "Billy!" his wife scolded. Then the pretty blond said, "We have an appointment to meet with the owner of this place."

Suddenly their names popped into Andi's head. "Are you Bill and Stéphanie Dubois?"

"Yes, guilty as charged," said Stéphanie, the pretty blond.

Andi was relieved; this was Bill Dubois, a musical maverick. Leader of the top jazz foursome in the nation, the Bill Dubois Quartet. She heard that he was a bit odd, and this certainly qualified him. "Yes, Paul is excited to meet you, I'm..."

"Mayor Adrianna," said Billy without looking up from Danny. Danny was now holding Billy's finger, and that fascinated Billy to no end. "He's got fingernails!"

"Billy thinks differently than most people," said Stéphanie. "He doesn't have much for a filter. Ideas roar in and out of his head, but when he's playing, he's laser focused."

Andi had heard that about Bill Dubois, a musical savant who can play almost any instrument and, in his mid-twenties, was building a musical reputation in Western New York for classical, jazz, and big band swing. He's most famous for his twenty piece band, the Bill Dubois Project, and is introducing big band music to a new generation.

"Let me show you to Paul's office," said Andi, and she led Bill and Stéphanie up the stairs to Paul's office. She walked into the outer office when Melissa was getting ready to play on her keyboard. Melissa instantly recognized Billy and started to get up, but Billy stopped her.

"Don't get up... play something in C."

Melissa was instantly nervous. She knew who Bill Dubois was, and even though she occasionally plays for the Buffalo Philharmonic, she was nervous. "Ok... is C Major fine?" When Billy nodded, she played Bach's Prelude in C Major. It was a beautiful piece that tinkled gently up and down the octave. As she played, Billy pulled a harmonica out of his pocket and began playing along with her. He was playing the same notes her left hand was playing, but he was playing softly two octaves higher. It added a note of sweetness to the magical sounding piece.

As they drew to an end of their duet, Paul and Min stepped out of the inner office with a surprised Ford factory representative with them. "Mister Dubois! Thank you for coming. I see you met my executive assistant, Melissa Kraft. She plays the keyboard for us at church, and she occasionally fills in at the Buffalo Philharmonic."

"Did you play there in December?" asked Billy.

"Yes, I filled in for their regular pianist Maggie Altman."

"I knew it!" gasped Billy. He turned to Stéphanie and said, "She's the one! Didn't I say that she had the feel? That she was one with the music more than the regular player."

"Yes you did," said Stéphanie. Her husband never ceases to surprise her. He mentioned that the pianist playing at the concert had a better feel for the music. Billy will classify musicians as either someone who lives and breathes the music and has an actual feel for the sound, or someone who just plays an instrument. He's constantly on the outlook for the former.

"Let's do another!" said Billy excitedly.

"Let's do a favorite from church," said Melissa. "Paul, get your guitarone."

"A what?" said Billy with a laugh, then Paul reemerged from his office with his guitarone.

"It's a Mexican bass guitar," said Paul. "My brother John and I played together years ago and he said that we needed a bass. I wanted a wood body acoustic bass guitar and I found the guitarone."

"You need to hear Paul, his brother John, and John's wife Macy when they play together," said Andi. "They can move a body to tears on Memorial day when they play Ashokan Farewell in the park."

Without warning, Melissa broke into song, playing an up-tempo southern revival hymn. "Some glad morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away..."

Paul's bass guitar blended in nicely, adding a deep, joyful note to the song, and Billy's harmonica danced through the song, adding a melody line. When they concluded the hymn, Billy broke into a huge grin. "That was fun!" cried Billy as the crowd that had gathered in the hall applauded.

A few moments later, Paul, Billy, Stéphanie, Min, and Andi settled down in Paul's office. "I want to say first of all, Billy is a bit different; he's a musical savant, but if the subject at hand is not music, it can be confusing to Billy," said Stéphanie. "I love him with all my heart and soul; we've been together since fifth grade..."

"Kindergarten," insisted Billy, as he let Danny hold his finger again.

"We met in kindergarten, you thought I was icky until the fifth grade," Stéphanie reminded Billy.

"I was kidding," said Billy, never taking his eyes off Danny, who was looking up at him.

"Billy is fully functional, academically, when he applies himself he is incredible, but he does get distracted. Also, when he's not playing, he likes to be called Billy, but when he's getting serious about his music, he likes to be called Bill."

"Demands," said Billy, not looking up from the baby.

"I understand," said Paul. "I spoke to Doctor Macy about this and she told me a little bit of what to expect when we sit down to talk."

"Wait, you spoke to Billy's psychiatrist?" Stéphanie looked angry, but Billy didn't seem to care. He was hypnotized by the baby.

"Yes, trust me, she didn't reveal anything Billy said to her or anything about why she's seeing him, I just asked as a friend."

"I don't understand how you would know that Billy is seeing Doctor Dagenais," demanded Stéphanie.

"This is probably the best way to put it," said Paul. He picked up the remote control, and the big TV on the wall played a recording of Paul, John, and Macy playing Ashokan Farewell on Memorial Day in the park gazebo. Macy's violin sang the bittersweet melody while John on guitar and Paul on the bass guitar accompanied her lilting fiddle.

"Doctor Macy is a musician?" asked Billy happily.

Paul nodded to Billy. "Musician, pastor, and psychologist and we love her dearly. When you call Doctor Dagenais and John answers the phone, you're speaking to my brother."

"There's Sandy and Madeline!" said Billy as the video showed Sandy and Madeline break away from Andi and run up to the white gazebo and stand with Paul, John, and Macy.

"Looks like the kids made an impression on Billy," said Min.

"We met Sandy and Madeline at the lake, the big party," said Billy.

"He never forgets a face," said Stéphanie. "We met Doctor Macy at a big party outside of Springville, a big fund raiser. She was pregnant and she said her sister was too."

"That was me," said Andi. "Macy and I are sisters-in-law, but we're as close as any actual sisters."

"Why do you want a clarinet player?" asked Billy. Danny was asleep, and Billy was ready to talk business.

"I want to make an offer to you; I want your band. I need music for a series of television ads that will be shown in Philadelphia, Portsmouth New Hampshire, Burlington Vermont, and Albany New York. I will also buy ad time in New York City."

"Nothing local?"

"No, I have an a cappella quartet for the local ads," said Paul. "They're going to International competition and I want them to get a lot of local exposure in Buffalo and Erie. Let me show you." Paul put on a video of Country Roads. It was from a practice session, and the audio quality was poor, but their talent was clear as they belted out 'Take Me Home, Country Roads.'

"Like the funny guys at the fund raiser?"

"The Gentlemen's Disagreement? Their baritone, our neighbor Josh, is now singing lead for Country Roads."

"Show me more," said Billy as he got up and placed himself where the sound from the soundbar was optimal.

"I don't have a lot; they just started singing together. Here's the first time they sang together." Paul put on the video that Veronica sent to Andi, of all the fun they had in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Billy was mesmerized, and he studied every chord, every note. He was fascinated by a video of the guys in a diner turning a minor Dean Martin song into barbershop harmony. Then there was a scene of Josh and Veronica dancing together; he was in his uniform and she was in her white ballroom gown. The band was playing Fly Me to the Moon as they danced.

"What is this?" asked Billy as they danced.

"That's Josh and Veronica, our neighbors, that's their wedding night, New Years Eve," said Andi. "She competed in the Miss America pageant and her talent was ballroom dancing."

Billy suddenly became Bill Dubois, the musical cutthroat. "I want them," he said in a forceful voice. "I want him in my band I want them dancing on my stage."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 29 - Puzzle Pieces

Julissa Tanaka was getting ready for the lunch rush; it was going to be big. Springville was finally open for business after the big storm, and Ayato put a big sign out front advertising a Lunch Special of beef on weck, French fries, and a draft beer (or pop). She was in the kitchen slicing an entire joint of beef wafer thin, and dropping the thin slices into a large pot of au jus. She had the fryer hot and ready, and the buns split and waiting for the customers. As the locals came in for lunch, her phone rang. "Worzil's Bar and Grille," she said into the Bluetooth earbuds.

"Julissa, it's Paul, are you going to see Josh tonight?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I just got out of a meeting with Bill Dubois and..."

"THE Bill Dubois?" Julissa shouted. She was Bill's Number One Fan. She has all of his recordings; she's been to all of his concerts. She's been to the Buffalo Philharmonic when he played Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major. She was downtown at the Blue Note West when he played there with the Bill Dubois Quartet, and he swapped back and forth all night between sax and clarinet, and of course, his New Year's Big Band Bash at the Statler Waldorf. "Did you just call to brag?"

"No, look, I told Bill that currently I'm Josh's legal advisor and you are his manager..."

"Ok, we kind of do that, but why did you tell that to Bill Dubois?"

"He wants Josh. He wants Josh to do his Rat Pack thing and sing with the band and he wants Veronica to show up and dance with Josh."

"Josh is busy. Maybe after Internationals he'll have time but..."

"I told him that," said Paul. "He wouldn't back down. He told me to tell you that he was going to help you coach the quartet."

"Wait, does he know Barbershop Harmony?"

"He said he will by the time we get back from our cruise."

Julissa didn't know whether to jump up and down and scream like a teenage fangirl or worry that Bill Dubois - THE Bill Dubois - would take Country Roads away from her and, at worst, win everything. "Can you tell him I want to meet with him and talk Barbershop?"

"Actually he and his wife are headed to you and should be there any minute now."

"Thanks Paul, I was just going to..." Before she could complete her sentence, Ayato stuck his head in the kitchen.

"You'll never guess who just stepped into our bar!" Ayato was a huge fan of the Bill Dubois Project as well.

Julissa said, "Bill Dubois?"

"Yeah, he just came in and asked for you."

"Of course he did. I've got a ton of work to do and I'm dressed like a scullery maid." Julissa sighed and said, "Is Candy in yet?" Candy was a waitress/cook that has worked there for years.

"Both Candy and Danielle are here, I'll put Candy back here and have Danielle help me out front while you talk to Mister Dubois."

"Thanks sweetie," she said, and she gave Ayato a kiss. What a team we make, she thought to herself. I work for the Police Department, coach a quartet, and barely find time to work here, and Ayato loves this place. He'll run it by himself all day and night. She took off her apron and washed her hands, then headed out to the front area where she found Bill Dubois and a pretty blond. "You wish to speak to me?"

"Yes," said the blond, "Paul Jarecki told us to speak to you about Country Roads. I'm Stéphanie Dubois. We want to know what you think about Country Roads performing with the Bill Dubois Project."

"They're an a cappella quartet," said Julissa, "I'd hate to think what a big band behind them would do to their harmony, and the key changes and..."

"We understand, but Billy heard them sing, and he wants to do something with them, especially Josh."

"I don't want to say no, it's not my decision to make, in the long run, it's theirs. They're excited about getting sponsorships, none of them have ever had sponsorships before."

"If they sing with us, they'll be in more ads, which means more money," said Stéphanie.

"No, not with us," said Billy, who truly understands that a band behind a quartet can startle a quartet used to singing with a silent background. "We record a tag, then we video the quartet in their tuxedos in front of a green screen, then we overlay that over the band and sync everything up."

"You know about tags?" asked Julissa.

"Paul showed us... I'll know more by the time we meet the guys," said Billy. Then he turned to Stéphanie and said, "Can I have a Genny? I haven't had one in a long time."

"Yes, just one," said Stéphanie with a smile.

"I'll get it for you," said Julissa, but Billy shook his head.

"Stay and teach me Barbershop." He patted the seat next to him as Ayato brought Billy his beer. As usual, Ayato was listening intently from across the room.

<><><><><>

"Isn't Josh coming?" asked Andi as she, Paul, John, Macy, and Veronica sat down to eat lunch. They were at Macy's favorite lunch restaurant in Orchard Park, Ted's Jumbo Red Hots. Ted's has been a Buffalo tradition for 99 years and is not going anywhere soon. Ted's is a chain "fast food" restaurant, but it keeps the spirit of 1927 when Greek immigrant Theodore Spiro Liaros moved the cooking out of the back room kitchen to an out front grill where the customer could watch Ted craft their meal. Macy fell in love with Ted's because they grill everything over a hardwood charcoal fire, right there on the other side of the counter like Subway pieces together a sandwich. Each location is neat and clean, and the food is incredible.

Paul and John both had a foot-long Sahlen's hotdog with the best French fries in Western New York. Veronica had an all-beef dog with potato salad, and Andi and Macy split a double cheeseburger, and they shared a "split" which is a half order of onion rings and a half order of shoestring French fries. It was simple food done perfectly.

Veronica stared at her meal and tried to hold back her frustration. She and Josh don't get to have dinner together very often, and another opportunity was lost because of Fabian Bernsdorf. "No, he's out with his team trying to save a contract."

"Oh no, what happened?" asked Macy.

"Nothing happened. His people were directed to do other things while we were snowbound. When we showed up today Josh realized nothing was done and he had 28 hours to complete a week's worth of work to save the contract." Veronica looked like she was going to cry. The look of betrayal on Josh's face when he left to go help his people stung her badly. The joy he used to have when he worked there was gone. "I think he needs to go," she whispered.

"I will take him in a heartbeat," said Paul. "I need a wide area network manager."

"I thought you were coming to Andalon," said Veronica.

"I was..." Paul looked grim.

"I know," said Veronica. "No need to explain." Word of the management troubles at Andalon was leaking out, and Andalon was quickly becoming a pariah. Most customers were trapped in Andalon's business model, and it would cost them more to get out than it would to stay, so they were quietly riding the storm out, hoping that calmer heads would prevail. If Josh went, he would be snatched up in a matter of minutes, but everyone would follow; his entire team would walk, and the dream would end.

"Maybe it is good he is not here," said Macy. "We need to talk about people that he doesn't like."

John frowned as he bit into his hotdog. "What's the matter," asked Paul. "Does the cook have hair on his arms?"

"No, that's not it," said John with a rueful smile. What Paul meant was an old Western New York truism. Young men and women working over the hot charcoal fire at Ted's eventually find the hair burned off their knuckles and forearms, so it's said that if the cook has hair on his arms, he's inexperienced. "I had a talk with Josh while Macy was talking with an employee."

"And?" said Veronica, trying to get some word out of John about what Josh was feeling.

John sighed and said, "I think the best thing for him is work. The VP of Production needs to step back and let Josh be Josh."

"Fabian won't bother with the programmers," said Veronica. "He's scared of Lois."

"He needs to be scared of Josh." With that, John grew quiet.

Andi turned to Veronica and said, "Who's coming to watch the show?"

Veronica flipped open her notebook and read what she's discovered. "Governor Helen Momzer will be there," her pronouncement drew groans from everyone at the table. "Vice Governor Fabrizio Scola will be there as well." That brought sighs of relief. Fabby was actually a nice guy, while Helen was an unpleasant walking troll. Being a seller of high-powered automobiles, Paul has had scuffles with her office. "Ed Rath, the county executive can't wait, there was no love lost between him and Sam Windecker. Same with Jerry Barcelona, the Town of Concord Supervisor."

"That's good, Ed and Jerry are good men," said Paul to Andi. "You can learn a lot from them."

Veronica continued, "Both New York senators, David Levine and Mariana Weizmann have something else to do, House member Tony Lo Biondo from Buffalo also has something to do, but Luke Hopkins who is running against him in November is more than happy to be there. And, I have a feeling that Judge Atherton is already here, she should be calling you any time now, and..." Veronica looked at her list again. "Senator Alvin Kroc has publicly announced he will be there."

"Who is that?" asked Andi. "State senator?"

"No, he's the US Senator from New Hampshire." Veronica looked at Paul and said, "I hear the occasional rumor about you and Alvin Kroc."

"No comment."

"Oh really?" asked Veronica.

Paul shrugged and considered his French fry. "Trust me, it's better that way."

"I... I don't know if I can handle this," said a suddenly terrified Andi. "These people are sharks; I'm just a goldfish let loose in a pond."

"I'll be with you every step of the way," said Veronica. "These people are making a big deal out of you, but when we find out why, they're going to lose interest quickly."

"Nicoletta will be here," said John. "I'm sure she'll have plenty of wisdom, but having seen you in action, I strongly suggest let Andi be Andi."

"Even if that means going into private practice?"

"Absolutely," said Paul. "You and Lucy back together? It's like a dream come true!"

Veronica made some notes in her notebook. "Maybe announcing that you're resigning from the VA so you can spend more time in Springville," she said as she wrote. "That's worth some points."

Andi looked confused. "Points? The election is over."

"The election is never over. Personally, I'm ready for a week on your boat."

"The girls will not be happy," said Macy.

Andi sighed. The twins will not be happy, but they'll get over it soon enough. They will stay with Grandma and Grandpa Driscol and John and Macy at the Jupiter House in Jupiter while Mom and Dad and their buddies go on a long, boring cruise on a big boat.

John smiled and said, "the twins will take one look at the fancy pool that Paul installed, and they won't think twice about the boat."

Paul nodded in agreement, "Take them sailing and let them hold a rope so they think they're participating. If they have their life jackets on, let them jump off the boat. They like to think they got away with something."

"So we meet up with you where?" asked Veronica.

"You fly into Jacksonville then take a commuter hop to Jupiter," said Paul.

"Commuter hop, right." Veronica had a sudden sense of dread.

<><><><><>

When Paul got back to his office, he saw a glistening Bently Silver Spur pull up. He recognized the car because he personally sold it to Hanzou Yamanaka. Paul waited for Hanzou to get out, and as he got near, Paul bowed, saying, "Konnichiwa Yamanaka-sama."

Hanzou returned the bow, then said in perfect English, "Paul, where the hell did that come from?"

"Well, your daughter has been living in my house for the past week, it kind of rubs off."

"I hope she's not made herself more of a headache than she already has."

"It's fine," said Paul. "In fact, Luke is at a job interview with the Zoar Valley Academy; it's a private school for gifted and special needs students. They have several openings, and I'm sure he would be a good fit in any of the openings." They got up to Paul's office where Wonka was waiting sadly for Paul. When Paul entered, Wonka stood and stepped next to Paul and leaned on Paul's leg. "Oh, you poor boy. I'm back, it's ok." He petted Wonka and told Hanzou, "This is his way of telling me he missed me. He's been like this since he was shot."

"This is the one? I heard about a dog trying to rescue you and getting shot."

"He's my hero, I'm not his first person to be attacked, unfortunately his policeman didn't survive." He looked up and turned to Melissa at her desk and said, "Any calls?"

"Yes, a Mister Kersey is in town and will stop by later in the afternoon," said Melissa. "And Mister Lawson called; he just got out of the interview and is heading this way."

"Ok, good, that will give us a couple of minutes. Can I offer you something to drink?" said Paul as they entered his inner office.

"No, I think that will come later," said Hanzou as he sank into a chair. "Tell me, as a friend, how badly did Kiko and Luke mess up their lives?"

"Very badly, but personally, I believe they dug themselves out admirably." When Hanzou looked unconvinced, Paul continued. "Trust me, I'm someone who knows how to screw up a life. Speaking of screwed up, what is your intention for Andalon."

Hanzou sighed. "Yashima Hirata believes that Andalon can and will build him an uncrackable network."

Paul could just imagine what Yashima Hirata would want in an uncrackable network. Hirata handles much of the illegal opioid traffic in the Northeast US and Canada. "There's no such thing; any door can be jimmied open."

Hanzou shrugged. "Yashima has convinced himself it can be built, and that Andalon has the people and the infrastructure to make it happen."

"What if they don't want to support his business activities."

Hanzou shook his head sadly in answer. "They will comply. I know my father-in-law."

"No." Paul's jaw dropped. "Hanzou, tell me it's not so. I can't do business with Yamanaka Electronics if people like Yashima Hirata is involved."

"Yamanaka Electronics is clean," said Hanzou firmly. "I founded my company before Midori and I married."

"But what about when you were dating, there must have been some pressure from Yashima," said Paul.

Hanzou chuckled. "You do not understand, my friend. This was Japan; my parents and her parents were both dentou, which means very old-fashioned. This was omiai, an arranged marriage. We met at our wedding ceremony, which was held on her eighteenth birthday. We wore red formal kimonos and said our first words to each other sometime after the ceremony was done."

"That sounds like something that happens in an anime," said Paul.

"That is real life in Japan, and it still happens. After the ceremony we spent much of our wedding night in a hotel room watching anime and eating western food. I truly did not know what her father did for a living until we moved to New York and I heard about it from a local policeman."

"Damn," said Paul, who was truly astonished that arranged marriages still occurred in the modern post-war era. "I need to tell you this Hanzou, Anthony Friedman is a friend of mine, and I'm going to do whatever I can to keep Andalon Data Systems profitable. His money goes to Adoption Advocates which is currently helping my brother adopt a child."

"I know that my friend, and I personally want to keep it running as it ran six months ago, and it will remain that way, if we can work together to keep the other party away." By "other party" Hanzou was speaking of Don Gismondi, the mafioso that wants to gut Andalon for its assets. Hanzou continued saying, "I have heard that you want Bounce Two Seven in your employ. On the other hand I want him on my team. Either way, he needs to remain my unnamed asset." Hanzou sat back and waited for realization to spread over Paul's face.

"Bounce..." Paul remembered that from... "Josh? Josh is your unnamed asset?"

"Better yet, he doesn't realize he is. His task is to neutralize every bad decision that Fabian Bernsdorf makes. And he will do it without realizing he's being controlled. When he's done, he'll have a bright future at Yamanaka Electronics."

"You want Josh?"

"Yes I do," said Hanzou with a knowing nod of the head.

"Hanzou, he's a rogue player, he doesn't follow direction, and he's disrespectful. Why do you want him?"

"Because he gets the job done, always. Nothing stands in his way. Why do you want him? I know you won't put up with nonsense like he enjoys."

Paul set his jaw and said quietly, "Because I know the pain he carries."

<><><><><>

Luke and Kiko walked up the flight of stairs that the salesman told them to climb, and they walked past Paul Jarecki's office twice because they were expecting something grand to show where the owner works, but the sign on Paul's door just says "Paul Jarecki" and nothing more. "It's closed up," said Luke.

"He said come up when we get here," said Kiko. "We're here."

"Yes..." and summoning his courage, Luke opened the door, and they stepped in to see a pretty, elegant looking woman with long silver hair wearing a fashionable dress that hid her slim figure. She was busy and her Casio keyboard and the volume was turned down so far that the nearly silent clatter of the keys hid the sound of Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp Minor. She came to the end of the piece and turned to Luke.

"May I help you?"

"Mister Jarecki asked us to come here when I was done with my interview..." Luke's voice faded off under the curious gaze from Melissa.

"Please have a seat," and she indicated a loveseat there in her outer office. Luke and Kiko sat down nervously as Melissa glanced at her watch. It was two twenty in the afternoon. She pressed a button on her phone and said, "Mister Jarecki, your two-fifteen is here."

Soon Paul emerged from his personal office, leading Wonka and seeing Luke and Kiko, he smiled brightly. "Ah, Mister Lawson, Miss Yamanaka, are you ready to talk about the future?" Nervously, both nodded. "I need to step out for a moment. Go ahead and step into my office and I'll be back in a few moments." He turned to Melissa and said, "Missus Kraft, if you would join me?" She rose and joined Paul, and they left.

Not sure what to expect, Luke and Kiko got up and stepped into Paul's inner office. Inside there was a multitude of items; each was a hint to who Paul Jarecki truly was. The wall to their left was covered with photographs of his family and friends, his guitar and guitarone, the wall to the right was a bookshelf packed to the ceiling with medical and legal tomes, and next to the door they just entered sat Hanzou Yamanaka.

They were both startled, but Luke knew what to say and do; he and Kiko had been talking about this moment for days, they just didn't expect it to happen so quickly. Luke bowed deeply and said, "Mister Yamanaka, Kiko and I are going to get married. She is pregnant and we want to do the right thing and raise our son or daughter in a loving family. I have just been accepted onto the staff of the Zoar Valley Academy and we are actively looking for a home to raise our children."

There it was, short, blunt, and honest. Luke and Kiko held their traditional bows, and Hanzou got over his shock. He knew it was coming, the way those two loved each other, but can his spoiled little girl Kiko truly fulfill the role of wife and mother? Will she stay in her job at Yamanaka Electronics? "Stand and look me in the eye," growled Hanzou. When Luke and Kiko rose, Hanzou said, "I notice you didn't ask me for permission to marry my daughter."

"No sir, but we do ask for your blessing."

'The kid finally grew a pair,' Hanzou thought to himself. He slowly rose as the thought of a grandchild danced in his head. "Come. We have much to talk about." As they left the office, Hanzou said, "Luke, call your parents, invite them to my house for dinner. And Kiko, let me handle your mother."

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Chapter 30 - Madam Mayor

Erie County Executive Ed Rath smiled at Andi as Judge Atherton introduced her to Ed on the stage that was set up in front of the village hall. It was about 29 degrees and gently snowing, a snow that the twins insisted was left over from Christmas. "I'm so glad you got this situation cleared up. How are you and your husband doing?" he asked as they chatted before the ceremony began.

"A lot better than I expected. He's getting help from a specialist and he's slowly going back to work."

"Darling, I must introduce you to the governor," said Judge Nicoleta Atherton as she tugged Andi to the next person in line. "Governor Momzer, this is your newest village mayor, Doctor Adriana Jarecki. Andi, this is Governor Helen Momzer."

To Andi, the governor was a bitter-looking woman. She looked like she clearly hated being there and would much rather be in a Manhattan penthouse, but her campaign advisor insisted being in this cow town that nobody ever heard of because it would make her look like she was 'one of the people.' She couldn't stand the people... Screw the people! She had bigger fish to fry. She was going to announce a run for the White House soon. "Jarecki... any relation to Cecil Jarecki?"

"He was my father-in-law, ma'am. I truly wish I had the chance to meet him."

"I never liked him," muttered the governor.

"I'm sure the feeling was mutual, ma'am," but Governor Momzer didn't seem to understand what Andi said.

"That pretty much tells you what she's like in a nutshell," whispered Nicoleta as she urged Andi aside. "She's as sharp as a grape. If you need any help from Albany, don't talk to her. She won't understand what you're saying. Talk to this guy." She introduced Andi to a tall, handsome, black man. "Madam Mayor, this is Lieutenant Governor Fabrizio Scola. He can get stuff done."

Andi chuckled, "Italian?"

The lieutenant governor smiled and said, "Ey! There's a bit of goombah in everyone on the east side."

Andi heard that before and said, "You're from Buffalo?"

"Lovejoy district. Right next to Tiorunda."

"That's where Paul grew up!"

"Yes, I know. We were practically neighbors," said Lieutenant Governor Scola. "Your in-laws were incredible people. My dad worked for Cecil. It broke my dad's heart when they lost their home just a few houses down the street from us. The company was broke, but Cecil didn't lay off anyone except the guy who caused the financial problems, everyone else got their paychecks. To me, that's class. Paul and John have the same kind of class I hear. If Paul and John can teach you anything to bring to this job, it's that this job is not about you; it's about your people."

"You'll have to come over for dinner some evening," said Andi. "Some night there's no hockey on TV so my husband will join us."

"It would be my honor, Madam Mayor, but if there's a Sabres game on, I'll be watching with Doctor Paul."

Nicoleta led Andi to the next person in line. "Andi, this is Senator Alvin Kroc of New Hampshire."

Andi shook hands with the gray-haired man and said, "I'm honored. Neither of the senators nor representatives from New York attended. I feel special that you are here. Are you considering retiring here? We have some beautiful homes available."

"Thank you, Madam Mayor, but I am here visiting a friend," and that's all he would say.

Nicoleta led Andi away from the crush of political creatures. "Stay away from him. He's a shark. He calls himself a national socialist."

"Isn't that what the Nazis called themselves?"

"You play this game well for a beginner."

"I spent years in a hospital setting learning politics there," said Andi, as they rejoined Paul, Danny, and the twins.

The twins were trying to behave, but the snow was coming down so slowly and straight that they just had to catch snowflakes on their tongues. The twins were looking up, spinning slowly, trying to catch the biggest snowflake they could get. Cholly was with them, and he was slowly catching on to the rules of this game. He leaned his head back to catch a snowflake, and the face of Samael Windecker entered his line of vision.

The little guy started to shake, and he froze up in fear, but when Windecker leaned over to pick him up, Cholly started to shriek in terror. "Maman! Maman!" he cried over and over. "Maman NO!" The tiny boy dashed over to Macy and began pushing her legs, trying to push her back. All the time he looked back over his shoulder at Windecker in terror. "Maman GO!"

Detective Klafka stepped up to Mayor Windecker and said softly, "You're very lucky you didn't touch that boy. His father is ready to press charges, but I don't think you would have lasted that long."

"I was just trying to comfort him," said Samael Windecker with a wiseass grin.

"Did you see that?" whispered Julissa to Ayato from the side of the platform.

"He was saying mammon, or whatever it was," said Ayato.

"It's French for mama," said Paul, who was so angry he could scream. Paul realized Cholly was trying to save his new mother. Paul believed he knew who had forced pure fentanyl into that poor woman's mouth, killing her. Paul was also sure he knew who shot Cholly's father, his friend Dennis Howe, to death.

"Did you see what Cholly did? he wasn't hiding or looking for reassurance," said Julissa. "He was trying to protect her. He was pushing her away from Windecker."

Paul nodded grimly, but Ayato said, "He probably saw Windecker and his wrecking crew shoving their way into Paul's house a couple of times."

"No, he was home with John and Macy... he saw something else that scared him," muttered Julissa. She took her notebook out of her pocket and leafed through it, looking for something that might make a connection in her mind. She didn't know that Paul had it figured out already.

Finally, it was time. The high school band played the Star-Spangled Banner with Macy and Josh singing, and the crowd listened in silence, then went wild as they finished. It was noon on a Tuesday, but it seemed like the entire village was here. All the schools were let out so the school kids could watch.

Then Josh, in full uniform, led a color guard from the Ephraim J. Gravely American Legion Post. With practiced precision, they stopped at the flagpole. With firemen and police in dress uniform saluting, they raised the flag as the band played "To the Colors."

Usually, the village inauguration happens indoors and few people attend, but there was so much interest that the village clerk, Anna Krebs, who was also in charge of the ceremony, decided to hold it outside, then spent a week praying for warm weather. Twenty-nine degrees is freezing, but to the hardy people of Western New York, it's not cold.

Concord Police Chief Reed Buckley stepped up to the microphone and said, "If you would bow your head for the invocation." He stepped aside as John helped an old friend to the microphone. Andi burst into tears when she saw Father Juan Peña of St. Aloysius Catholic Church step up to the microphone. He took a bullet for her girls, shot by a corrupt FBI agent, yet Andi still felt guilty over that.

Father Juan started his invocation; his voice was weak, but his spirit was still strong. As he said a prayer of thanks for Andi's election, a man came up to Veronica and nudged her. She turned to look at him, and she had never seen this man before. "For you, from Brandon," he said, and he handed her a small envelope. It was a greeting card of some sort. Wordlessly she snatched it from his hand and stuffed it into her purse, and turned her attention to Father Juan.

When Father Juan was done, the crowd went wild. Father Juan was a Springville icon, and his shooting was the low point of the Windecker era. Seeing him again, up front, ready to serve his village, gave everyone hope. "WE LOVE YOU FATHER JUAN!" shouted the kids of Springville Middle School.

"I love you too," said Father Juan. "Now behave! My friend Ed needs to talk." His introduction for the County Executive caused the entire crowd to laugh. Father Juan was back, and he was in form!

The top man in Erie County, the County Executive Officer Ed Rath, stepped up to the microphone. "When my friend Mayor Hardey suddenly retired, I was saddened. What was going to become of the sweet little village of Springville? Will someone with Mayor Hardey's vision of a peaceful hamlet in the hills of the southern tier step forward and take his place? Or will it become a fast-paced suburb filled with big box stores and neighbors that move in and out as fast as realtors can sell their houses?"

That was clearly a knife in the back of Samael Windecker. He looked around the crowd and smiled. "Paul Jarecki heard the call and stepped forward. Paul's been here for quite a while. He restored a beautiful Victorian mansion, he erects a skating rink in Howard Avenue park every winter, and he spends countless hours helping fix up the Argentine neighborhood. But Paul was kidnapped. Have you determined a reason yet?" Mr. Rath turned to the Chief of the Town of Concord police department. Actually, they had a reason; they had several reasons, and they were sure that there were more reasons to come, so he lied by sadly shaking his head no.

Ed resumed his speech. "The entire county held its breath as we waited. Policemen scoured the nation looking for Paul, but in the wake of Dr. Jarecki's disappearance, his young wife, with a new child in her arms, Adrianna Jarecki, herself a doctor too, stepped forward and took up her husband's fallen sword and shield. The village charter says that you must be a resident of Springville for a year before you can hold the office of mayor. I personally checked the records and am happy to announce that this is Andi's sixty first week of residence, and this newcomer won the election by over a four to one ratio."

The village cheered and whistled. The applause was muted because everyone was wearing mittens and gloves. "I am bursting at the seams with pride to be able to say, Doctor Jarecki, would you step forward to take your oath of office?" As Andi stepped forward, the crowd went wild with cheering and shouting. The cheers became a chant: "Ann-DEE! Ann-DEE! Ann-DEE!"

It took a few moments for the crowd to settle down, but eventually, calm resumed. While Paul proudly stood by her side holding Danny, and the girls stood in front of her. John produced a bible, and Andi rested her hand on his bible and followed the County Executive in her oath.

I Adrianna Louisa Jarecki do solemnly swear that I shall support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I shall faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Mayor of the Village of Springville, New York, so help me God.

The high school band broke into a rousing rendition of the Springville High School fight song. Like many high schools, their fight song was based on a college fight song, and this struck home for one man in the audience. "That's Glory Glory! The Bulldog fight song!" gasped Josh. Suddenly, he burst into tears.

"What the matter Ephie?" whispered Veronica, as Josh wept.

"Ah'm home. Ah truly got me a home." That was all he could say, and Veronica held him tight.

Andi gave a fine speech about how a city girl from out west accidentally found a new home thanks to a lake effect blizzard. "I'm sure that in time I will learn to hate those storms, but they gave me a new home, a wonderful husband and a father for my girls. And friends! I've made so many wonderful, beautiful friends! The first people I met were Brad and Dianna Clemmons and Gerry and Irma Hirsch, who got up early one morning and dug my car out of a ditch. Three hours later, I walked into church and was swamped with love and friendship, and came out with a sister. Springville saved me. You wonderful people lifted me out of my loneliness and depression and gave me a home filled with love. I pledge to dedicate my life to returning the favor."

After her speech, Andi ceremonially entered Village Hall with her family, Dale Miller, the head of the Village Board, and Ed Rath, the county executive. As they walked in, they passed Samael Windecker, who was walking out. He had that damn goofy grin on his face, but he walked past without saying a word.

Andi was led to her new office, which was barren. Nothing hung on the walls; the two flag stands that would hold the US flag and the flag of New York were empty, and the maps and certificates that covered the walls were gone.

"Did Danny poop?" asked Madeline.

"It smells like poop in here!" Sandy said angrily.

Paul and Andi looked at each other. The twins were right. There was a whiff of poop in the air, but it wasn't from Danny. Then there was a scream of terror from behind the mayor's desk, and Paul looked to see the twins staring into an open desk drawer. "POOP!" they shrieked. Paul looked, and sure enough, someone had left a huge turd in Andi's desk drawer.

Andi turned to the Chief of Police, Reed Buckley, and said, "Sir, is there anything that we can do about this?"

Captain Buckly grimaced. He knew that something like this would happen. He made a quick call to dispatch, and Andi was startled by the codes, signals, and numbers that passed for police communications. "I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, but we will have the culprit locked up in a few moments. I don't think that Mister Windecker realized that this room is wired for sound and video."

"Where? I don't see any cameras," said Andi.

"In each corner, micro lenses on a fiber optic feed line," said Anna Krebs. "Mayor Hardey had them installed when a few companies tried to muscle into the village and a couple of meetings got hot."

Paul urged the twins out of the office, and as they stepped out, detectives Klafka and Gaulin arrived. "Don't go in there," said Sandy. "There's POOP!"

"It's gross!" added Madeline, with all the appropriate sound effects needed to get the point across.

<><><><><>

The traditional post inaugural prayer meeting was held at the old wooden Springville Congregational Church, the ancient building in which John first spoke when he came to Springville. The building was ancient by modern standards, one hundred and sixty years old, and was now on the National Register of Historic Buildings. Because of its historic status, anyone can use the church for prayer services, weddings, and memorial services. Funeral services were near impossible because the front steps are too steep to carry a casket up or down, and the casket can get away from you on the side ramp. John and Macy perform at least one wedding a month there, and most of their weddings are couples from Orchard Park who want a quaint venue. Wedding pictures on the front steps and inside are a big draw too, and all proceeds go to the building maintenance fund.

"We should go to church here," said Sandy as the 'first family' ascended the steps for the traditional prayer service. "It's cool."

"Uh huh," said Madeline in agreement. "If you beep, it makes an echo."

This confused Gus, who held the door open, but Lucy whispered in his ear, "When they were younger, I taught them to say beep instead of fart." Gus was still chuckling when Macy started her homily.

Macy stood at the antique lectern and delivered a beautiful homily on love, faith, and forgiveness. She reviewed the trials and tribulations that Andi and Paul had suffered, along with the blessings they were given as they made a life together. As she spoke, Cholly strolled out on stage in his little suit with coat and tie, and he stood at Macy's side like he was part of the service.

For his part, John was busy with a fussy Katarina, and he didn't notice his little boy walk up to Macy. At first, he thought the boy was missing, but then he saw Cholly standing next to Macy, clutching her skirt with one hand and watching the audience with huge terror-filled eyes. As John was about to grab Cholly, Madeline noticed her cousin. He had just noticed that so many people were looking at him. The room was filled with faces, and they were in the back, up high on the balcony. He was beginning to feel threatened by the sea of eyes that were staring at him.

"I'll get him Unka John," said Madeline, and she hopped down off the pew and walked up to Cholly and took his hand. "Come on Cholly, I'll sit with you," and she led him back to John and sat with Cholly through the prayer meeting.

To close the meeting, at Andi's request, Country Roads stepped out, tuned up softly like they were going to sing a sweet hymn, and they softly started:

Almost heaven, western New York

Snowbelt blizzard, Allegheny River.

Life is sweet there, Sabers, Bisons, Bills

Beef on weck with Genny,

Friday fish fry thrills

Country Roads, take me home,

to the place I belong!

Western New York, snowstorm trauma

Take me home, Country Roads!

<><><><><>

After the meeting, Aunt Macy gave Madeline a kiss and said, "Thank you for helping Cholly. That was very sweet."

"It was my turn," said Madeline.

"You and Sandy take turns helping Cholly?" asked Macy in surprise.

"He's very needy," said Madeline.

The three main churches of Springville hosted a luncheon in the fellowship hall of the Springville Congregational Church because it was the largest space available. Veronica and Josh arrived a bit late after being held up talking to Anthony and Marjory Friedman in the parking lot. "Enough shop talk, let's go eat," said Josh.

"I don't know," said Anthony as he eyed the cross out front.

"Come on," said Veronica. "It's a simple potluck but..."

"Potluck?" That changed everything for Anthony. "I love potluck! You don't see them very often in our synagogue." In the fellowship hall, the women's ministry was following Macy's lead and setting up the serving line, but everyone was milling around looking for the new mayor. Paul and Gus were at the entrance, greeting people and guiding them to their seats. Ant peered at the bundle that Paul was holding and said, "That's not Cholly, is it?"

"No! Don't be silly," said Marge. "This must be Daniel."

"It's ok if you call him Danny," said Sandy as she appeared at Paul's side.

"He can't spell yet, so he doesn't know the difference," said Madeline.

"And these are Andi's little prodigies," said Veronica.

Sandy and Madeline looked at each other, trying to determine if they enjoyed being called that, and Paul said, "Prodigy means you're smart."

"Oh. That's us."

"Show them where we're sitting, please," said Paul.

"K!" the twins said cheerfully, and they led Josh and Veronica to a large round table.

Paul and John placed Katarina and Danny in highchairs side by side, and the cousins began squeaking and slapping their chair trays. "Where's the new mayor?" asked Anthony.

"She's in the kitchen with the girls," said John. Then he put Cholly in a highchair without a tray and pushed the chair up to the table, and the little guy started chattering to Josh and Veronica.

Lucy was sitting with Anthony, explaining how the Christian church compares with a Jewish synagogue. "We would like to get help from a cantor or a rabbi for Passover," said John as he was pulled into the conversation.

"What, you're going to have a seder?" asked Anthony, who was a cantor.

"Yes, I think it's important to celebrate our roots."

"Roots? What roots?" chuckled Anthony. "You have all makes and models of people here, but Jews? I don't see any."

"Psafset achad," (You missed one) said Lucy in Hebrew.

"A very wise rabbi once said that Judaism is the root, and Christianity is a vine that sprung from the root," said John. "My people need to be reminded of that occasionally."

Anthony smiled. He liked this guy. "I think I can help."

Meanwhile, the twins were getting bored trying to make the babies laugh. "Make them laugh, Uncle Josh!" cried Sandy and Madeline.

"Ok, but if their mommas raise a fuss I'm blaming you," said Josh, and he got up and grabbed a can of whipped cream from the dessert table and went to the two babies that were chattering at each other. He sprayed a tiny mound of whipped cream on each of their trays. Both Katarina and Danny investigated the tiny pile of foam, finally prodding it and tasting it. When they tasted the whipped cream, both babies squealed in delight and tried to pick up the foam, making a mess.

When Andi finally emerged from the kitchen along with Veronica, Macy and Marj, the babies were a laughing, squealing mess. Josh would put a tiny spray of whipped cream where their trays met, and Danny and Kat would try to grab it as fast as possible, and their hands would get tangled trying to pick up the foam. "What are you doing?"

"Ah'm teachin' the tots to play together."

Andi shook her head sadly. "Thank you, now go sit with your singing buddies." Then she and Macy cleaned up their babies. "And you just watched?" demanded Macy.

"Yeah, it was fascinating," said John. "They were playing together instead of sitting next to each other crying."

The luncheon went on as expected. Andi was questioned mercilessly by the press and other politicians. "You were working in the kitchen at your own inaugural celebration?"

"I am still a member of the women's ministry of this church. I enjoy putting these potluck dinners on."

"It gives her first crack at the tater tot hot dish," said Paul, who is well aware of Andi's love for the dish.

After they were finished eating, Country Roads got up and began singing their newest songs. Veronica and the Pennsy Girls moved closer together so they could talk as the guys sang. While they sang a beautiful rendition of Wayfaring Stranger, Veronica remembered the card that a stranger had given her. She opened it and it looked like an invitation to a dinner party or some such thing. She opened the card and saw what it read:

Netta says, "Hi Mom!"

With a stifled cry of shock, Veronica dashed from the room. Josh didn't notice because he wasn't facing the Pennsy Girls' table at the time. Hope Rodriguez tried to send hand signals to Josh, but he wasn't catching on.

As that drama unfolded, a pleasant-looking family was escorted to the "Jarecki Table" by FBI agent Josey Kersey. They stood out from the Western New Yorkers; tanned and looking like they had just come in from the beach. "Mayor Jarecki, Pastor Jarecki, Andi, Macy, may I introduce Pierre, Valériane, Marcelline, and Josianne Lévesque who are joining us from New Caledonia."

Andi smiled and rose to shake hands, but Macy began weeping. "Please... please don't take my boy."

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