Chapter 79

Zeke got the beers.

They were sitting around the big table in the workshop on stools, drink in hands, when Zeke said to Dallas, “Hey, Bro, do you know anyone who would like to run a freighter from Mars to Ceres Space Station?”

“Why?” Dallas asked.

“I have to do something with Louisa. Rod came back here in her, and she needs a Captain. I was thinking we could ship the Z3s and Z3As to Ceres as it is one of the main Space Stations in the asteroid belt.”

“What is a Z3A, Zeke,” Kyle asked.

“Oh, it’s like a Z4 but we remove a seat and install an expandable airlock. Wayne and I think it will be popular with the miners. We will have to remind them to not approach a station with the harpoons loaded. The runners that Burnie is making here won’t have them.”

“I came up with a new design for a bore sampler the miners can load instead of one of the harpoons. My scanner is good, but you can’t beat samples to get a true picture. The scanner doesn’t differentiate between isotopes of an element from the distances they work at.”

Kyle shook his head, “I know a few scientists who would chew off their left hands to get a hold of a bore sampler you can shoot from a small ship. They want to do carbon dating and close scans to determine where different rocks come from.”

“Oh, yeah. I suppose I could design a better handheld device that will scan the samples. My old one is a bit crude. The miners would probably like them, too. Actually, you could probably use them for scanning a crime scene too. They can detect human, plant and animal cells.”

Kyle looked at Lindsay and Dallas, “Is he always like this?”

Dallas and Lindsay laughed.

Dallas said, “When we were younger, Frank would piss Zeke off by calling him useless unless he was looking for rocks. Zeke would storm out to Vic’s machine shop, whip up some thingamajig, and then hand it to Frank and let him work out how it worked.”

“It nearly always related to something that Frank needed a tool for, or a problem he couldn’t solve because there wasn’t anything that could do what he wanted.”

“He could have said thanks once in a while,” groused Zeke.

“Yep, he could have, but that wasn’t his way, Zeke. Even so, you still made what he wanted when he needed it. I heard him go off at the men in the workshop one day. It was a couple of months after you left to go to University.”

“He wanted something made, but they didn’t have a clue how to do it. He ranted and raved. It was his final words that shook me. He told them they were all useless and you had made him one when you were fourteen. Apparently, the tool had gone missing, and he needed it.”

Zeke frowned, “Was that the expandable and locking hex wrench for the stupid bolts the men always stripped that you asked me for?”

“Yep. I slipped it into his toolbox. He never said anything, but I saw him lock it up in his ‘touch-it-and-die’ locker. All your thingamajigs went into that locker or the locked storeroom. The men had to beg before he would let them use them.”

“Silly, bastard. Dallas, if he had told me the men needed them, I’d have made more.”

Kyle shook his head, “No, you are missing the point, Zeke. He loved that you made them for him. He didn’t want every Tom, Dick, or Harry to have them. They were his, and special because you made them.”

Zeke dropped his head on his arms, and it was soon obvious he was crying. They heard his muffled voice say, “Why couldn’t he just tell me!”

Kyle rubbed his shoulder, “Some men just can’t, Zeke.”

Lindsay wrapped an arm around Zeke. Zeke turned into him and let him hug him until he settled down.

Zeke rested against Lindsay as he said, “I still can’t forgive Frank for all the hurt he caused my family.”

“No one is asking you to, Zeke. Can you tell us how he died?” Kyle asked.

Zeke nodded and told them the unvarnished truth.

Kyle was an unbiased arbitrator. He never knew Frank or the other players, so he had no feelings for them. Lindsay was biased in that he loved Zeke, but he was also pragmatic. He and Kyle dissected Zeke’s story.

Kyle agreeing with Akl about letting Frank put the item on first removed some of Zeke’s guilt. Zeke was relieved that Dallas didn’t blame him for his father’s demise. It had bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

The thought of Dallas turning against him was just not palatable.

Christmas dinner turned into a fun affair.

It seemed the family had done some venting and felt better. Carly turned out to be Patricia’s and Paul’s sounding board. Her mother was an indifferent parent, not an abusive one. Even so, her year on the streets of the Station gave her a different perspective of human nature at its best and worst.

Carly, Sabrina, and Paul got to hear Patricia’s side of what happened in the torture room. In many ways, they had the harder job of convincing Patricia that she couldn’t be Frank’s conscience or totally responsible for his actions and words.

Even so, they did ease her grief a little. Paul, not condemning her, helped her more than he knew. He had been Frank’s favourite. However, it had always been Zeke whom he looked up to and tried to emulate. He had feared his father.

It was Zeke who calmed his temper tantrums and who would listen and encourage him when he was little. Dallas was his twin, and he forgave him more readily and loved him unconditionally. However, Zeke would make him question his actions.

Paul also realised his mother had the harder job of keeping the peace. He respected her for it; now he was a bit older and wiser. He told her this as he packed his father’s clothes into the battered old suitcase that Frank had used.

They ended up hugging while sitting on the bed and sobbing with Carly and Sabrina soothing them. Paul even apologised for leaving without seeing her first. He explained that he feared his father’s reaction and that Frank would guilt him into staying.

Patricia accepted his apology and explained that she knew why he didn’t come home with Dallas when Zeke called her to tell her where Paul was going. The episode brought mother and son closer together, something they both needed and craved.