Chapter 2

The storm buried the Springville area, but that was twenty miles south. Orchard Park got a few flurries here and there. It must have been bad because Miss von Köster always finds a way in to work when the storms are bad. She went to her home in Springville that first day and spent the long five-day weekend working from home. When she finally came back to work, she was happy and chipper.

Josh used to eat lunch at his desk at work until Anthony practically screamed at him back in September. “That lunch time is your lunch time, not mine. Go somewhere else to eat.”

“Where?”

“Gee, we have these things called restaurants,” said Terri McCarthy, who was passing by. It looked like Josh was getting his ass chewed by The Big Boss, and she couldn’t let an ass chewing slip by. She had to watch. Terri is a young Canadian girl of medium height and average weight, with straight jet black hair cut at shoulder length. She says she’s such a badass that she cuts her hair with a chain saw, and the jagged edges of her hairline make that claim seem plausible. She’s a brilliant technician, but she will say the strangest things just to get a reaction out of people. With her narrow eyes, pointed nose and slight buck teeth, she has the look of a mouse about her. She makes Josh crazy, but he enjoys having her around. She reminds him of the airmen he used to lead.

Ever since that day, Josh ate his lunch in the break room. Terri usually has lunch with her colleague Jennifer Combs, another field technician, and often they invite themselves to eat with Josh. Occasionally Veronica von Köster joins them, and when she does Josh finds himself tongue tied and embarrassed about his upbringing in the deep south. Josh usually just listens while the three girls chatter, and Veronica enjoys these lunches. She’s not expected to be some incredible business tycoon, or some elite snob. She can just be what she wants to be when chatting with Jen and Terry and Josh. But everything changed that Tuesday after the storm. Veronica was in a happy, joyful mood when she sat down with Terry, Jen, and Josh.

“Look at that rock!” gasped Terry. “You could throw that through a store window and break in!” The rock that Terry was gasping over was a 2.5 karat diamond ring on the third finger of Veronica’s left hand.

“Jameson and I finally set the date, we’re getting married on Valentine’s day” said Veronica, and the three girls squealed.

“I wish you all the happiness in the world,” said Josh. “That’s quite a...” just then his cell phone rang, and he picked it up. “Gravely ... it what? ... No, don’t touch anything, I’ll be right there.” He hung up the phone and began packing his lunch away. “Sorry ladies, duty calls. Miss von Köster, I wish you all the best.” He went straight to his office and found Cole and Rasheed loading VM Ware on a new server. “Hey guys, I have an appointment, my doc had a cancellation and she can get me in, see you tomorrow.”

Why did he suddenly feel so empty? There was nothing between Veronica and him. They occasionally ate lunch where he stuttered and stammered through a conversation like an idiot and it’s probably best she has a man that can at least speak to her. He got home and locked the door to his apartment, then opened a locked cabinet and pulled out his emergency stash, a bottle of Black Velvet Canadian Whiskey. He poured about six or eight ounces into a drinking glass, locked the bottle back up, then sat down in the recliner and let the News Reel play in his head.

The AC-130J Specter Gunship was an agent of death. The nose art on Josh’s ship was a cartoon Arab riding on a camel that was sprinting. The name of the gunship was “Why Die Tired?” from the gallows humor, “You can run, but why die tired?” The cabin was filling with smoke. Some goat fucking asshole down there shot them with a stinger. That horrible night over Buttfuckistan coming back, one bloody moment after another. He sipped his cheap whiskey until the glass was empty. He got up to get some more, but he had locked it in the cabinet and he was too blurry eyed to thumb in the combination.

Josh stumbled to his recliner and sat down, then grabbed his phone. He didn’t get a call earlier at lunch with Veronica and the girls. He just had his smartwatch locate his phone, which caused the phone to ring. The rest was play acting. This time, he made a real call. When a woman answered, he said, “Hello Hellinore.”

“You sound drunk, are you drunk Bounce?” asked Ellie.

“No. I’m fucking plastered.”

“She dumped you, didn’t she. That bitch!”

“No, I never got a chance to ask her out. The man of her dreams finally set a date to marry him.

“So just go out and have dinner like buddy-buddies,” said Ellie.

“You know I don’t work like that,” slurred Josh.

“MREs in a field hospital recovery room are not dinner, besides, you were single,” said Josh.

“So were you. You just didn’t know it yet,” said Ellie.

“Fuck me,” groaned Josh.

“Josh, you and I both know this isn’t the way to handle this. You gotta get back on the wagon, this isn’t helping you.”

“I locked it up and I can’t see the numbers on the lock to open the cabinet. I just took my last sip.”

“You need to find help Josh.”

“Who cares? Jus’ another soldier fucked in the head. It’s our job to die, right?”

Ellie hates it when Josh gets drunk. “I’m not going to argue with a drunk. Go sleep it off and call me tomorrow.”

“I will. I love ya Hellie.”

“Love ya Bounce.”

Josh normally gets an update from his buddy Paul on storms that hit Springville, but he didn’t hear anything from Paul during this last storm and he began to wonder if Paul ‘ate his gun’ in a fit of loneliness, but then out of the blue, Paul called and invited him to dinner. It was a good thing that Paul waited until Thursday. If he asked Josh yesterday when he was hung over, he would have puked. “Sure, see you soon.”

Josh had been to Paul’s cabin scores of times. After a long day of work on one of Josh’s cabins or in Paul and his brother John’s huge garden and everyone was too tired to cook, they would go into town for dinner, but he’s never been to Paul’s house. He’s seen it through the trees from the parking lot of Worzil’s Bar and Grille, but he’s never been to Paul’s house.

That evening he drove out to Springville and damn! They got buried in the weekend storm! Easily four feet of snow was over the entire village, which somehow still got dressed up in its Christmas best. Evergreen wreaths and red ribbons decorated every lamp post in the village and garlands of lights were strung across Main Street. Johnson’s Feed Store was lit up like a Christmas tree and a few blocks up Main Street was Worzil’s Bar & Grille. As usual, Ayato Tanaka, owner of Worzil’s decorated with decorations left over from the 1940s. He turned there and up Howard Avenue a couple of blocks to that huge Victorian mansion that Paul had been dumping money into.

This was Josh’s first visit to Casa del Jarecki, and he was shocked at the size of the big, beautiful house. The huge Victorian was lit up with beautiful multi-colored Christmas lights that twinkled, flashed, chased each other, then rested on warm gold before starting over. The ornate iron fence that surrounded the front yard was decorated with evergreen garland and lights that were synched with the lights on the house. In the huge front window, a stately blue spruce stood, decorated to the nines. With a gentle snowfall drifting down from the heavens, the house was a Christmas fantasy.

Josh parked in front of the garage behind the house, got out, and walked past the hot tub. It sat under a canopy and had been shoveled out so obviously it’s been used recently. “I shoulda brought a swimming suit,” said Josh with a sigh. A soak in the hot tub would help with these residual aches. Somewhere under that field of snow called a back yard was a built in pool. Paul Jarecki’s brother John had invited Josh to a few pool parties held by his church, but Josh wasn’t a “joiner.” Alone was his natural state of mind.

As he approached the kitchen door, the flap on the dog door exploded outward and Paul’s beautiful chocolate lab, Wonka, burst out and dashed up to Josh. Wonka had half a dozen stick-on Christmas ribbons stuck to him here and there. “What’s going on, boy? Is Paul wrapping you up for Christmas?”

Wonka reared up and put his paws on Josh’s chest and looked into Josh’s eyes, then with a ‘Woof!’ he dashed back into the house. Josh chuckled and stepped up on the back patio and Wonka poked his nose out the dog door clearly checking to see if Josh was following, then ducked back into the kitchen. “I ain’t never seen Wonka actin’ like that,” muttered Josh and he walked into the kitchen. Paul once told him, “No need to knock, just walk in.”

“Who are you?” demanded a tiny blond girl.

Josh looked down at the tiny girl standing defiantly in front of him. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I asked first!”

“I am Prince Ephraim Yashua Gravely, lord of all I survey,” said Josh in a deep voice that he hoped would terrify the urchin. “And who are you?”

“Sandy. Now take those snowy shoes off!”

“Yes ma’am.” Josh took off his boots, and when he stood up, he saw that there were two of them. “Who are you?”

“SANDY! I told you!”

“No, the other one.”

“She’s my sister Madeline but she doesn’t talk to strange people.”

“Are you saying I’m strange?”

“Yes.”

Josh switched tactics. “Is there a doctor in the house?”

“Yes,” said Madeline. She looked up at Josh in what could only be called awe.

“Which one?” demanded Sandy.

“There’s more than one?”

“Mommy’s a doctor,” said Madeline.

“So is poppa Paul,” added Sandy.

“Poppa Paul?” asked Josh, completely startled. “I would like to speak with Doctor Poppa Paul.”

“He’s upstairs playing’ with mommy,” said Sandy, then with a squeal, the two little girls ran off through the enormous house, Wonka tagging along with them, barking happily.

Josh tried to let that sink in. “Poppa Paul?” Doctor Paul Jarecki’s wife died almost ten years ago. If they had any kids, they’d be much larger than those two. Maybe Paul is a fast worker. His father left him a handful of car dealerships and he’s up to a dozen now. Maybe he’s renting a few kids to impress a client. Nah, if you could rent kids, Josh’s folks would have rented him out on a long-term basis decades ago.