Chapter 12: Absent Dads

~~ November - Week 47 ~~

When Robert entered the room that he was allocated, he was at first surprised by the size of it.

Then he noted a strange alcove in the corner and found it had a little bed in it. Below the bed was obviously a pet basket, which had a faint piggy smell. He grinned, as this was obviously Sean and Lee’s room.

When he turned back to the entrance, he noticed a little dragon displayed on the monitor screen. He was fascinated and sat down to look at the creature. He swore it was looking at him and seemed to be pacing up and down as if it was looking into a camera on the other side.

Then he heard his sons voice say, “Drako get away from the crystal, you nutty dragon.”

He watched as his son bent down and the baby dragon happily climbed upon his shoulder and snuggled into his neck. He heard the dragon make a chirp and a gurgled noise and then Sean looked at him.

He grinned, “Hi, son.” Robert drank in the sight of his son. Damn, he looked fit and healthy. He even had a faint glow about him.

Sean sat and grinned back at him, “Hey dad, you look great for an old guy. How’s Mum?”

“She is fine but misses you. Son, where are you? That young man Ivan said you didn’t come back with the ship,” he asked, concerned. He hadn’t thought the boy was lying as he could normally tell when people were.

“Nope I’m not on the ship dad I’m about 20 light-years away on Harmony. We have our own island called Watson Island and Lee and Jim have set up this really awesome base for us wizards.”

“She hooked up a Crystal ball into the comm’s systems in the ship so she could contact the Captain and monitor the ship. On the bench should be a type of communicator for you, it looks like a ring. If you put that on, you can call me direct. How cool is that?” Sean told him.

“Okay,” Robert said and picked up the ring on the bench. “How do I use this?” he asked. He found it fit on his middle finger of his right hand perfectly.

He felt a little strange after he did but dismissed it as the excitement of seeing Sean again. They had always been close, and he still missed him when he was away on missions.

“Tap twice to call, say my name and wait until I answer. Then tap once to hang-up dad. You can use it like any ordinary comm-unit.”

Robert nodded and looked at his son again. “Is that really a baby dragon sitting on your shoulder?” he asked. He was still fascinated with the little creature.

“Oh, sorry Dad, Drako this is my dad, your Grandpa Watson. Dad, this is Drako. He loves watching in the crystal and tells me if anyone is in the room it is tuned too. Fortunately, he hasn’t worked out how to change locations, or I’d never get him away from it.”

Poor Robert absorbed this. Then he asked, “What’s all this stuff about wizards? And how the hell can I be talking to you?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story have you got time?” Sean asked.

“I’ll make time. Hang on, I have a couple of other people who might like to hear this story too. I’ll just get them,” Robert said.

“Okay, I’ll feed Drako and get him out of my hair,” Sean said.

Robert laughed as the little dragon had hold of a braid of Sean’s hair obviously meant for him to hold onto. He commed Pete and Antonio and told them to come to his room. He found the ring worked for them too. A couple of minutes later, they came in.

“Hey!” Antonio said, “How come you got the biggest room?”

Robert grinned, “My son and daughter-in-law wanted a safe place to talk to me, and this is their room.”

The two guys parked themselves on the couch and looked at Robert, “So what’s going on, Robert?” Pete asked.

Sean came back, sat down and looked at the men. “Holy crap, Lee and Kyle are going to freak when they get here,” he said.

“Why what’s up, son?” Robert asked.

“Well, as far as she knew her dad was dead. And I’m pretty damn sure Kyle has never met his or at least he didn’t know who he was,” Sean said nodding to the two men with his father.

“You know who these men are?” Robert asked in surprise. Sean hadn’t been home often since he went into business with Pete and Antonio. So, he didn’t think they had met.

Sean grinned, “Don’t know them from a bar of soap dad, but I sure can tell you who their kids are.”

“You are a very perceptive young man. Yes, I’m Lee’s father. I’m currently called Pete Smith, and this is Antonio Dioli, Kyle’s father.”

Sean flashed a picture up on the screen, and the men saw five people in it. They heard him say, “The young woman is Debora, and the other guy is Tony. They are Kyle’s husband and wife.”

“Debora is carrying Tony’s daughter and Kyle’s son. Lee is carrying my daughter. The girls are due in about ten weeks of Utopian time. Anyone else notices a family resemblance?”

Robert looked at his friends then at the picture again and laughed. They had to join in, as it was obvious as the noses on their faces and the hair on their heads, whose kids they were.

Just then, two people appeared behind Sean. Lee came forward and kissed his cheek then looked into the crystal. Sean had to grab her and pull her into his lap as she collapsed.

The men heard her take several deep breathes and then she looked at the crystal again. She was pale as if she had seen a ghost.

Antonio could see his son’s knuckles go white on the back of Sean’s chair. He watched, as his son sat never taking his eyes off him.

“Sorry pumpkin, I didn’t mean for us to be reunited like this,” Pete said. “Good lord, I can’t believe how beautiful you are. Your mother would have been so proud of you, sweetie.” He blinked through the tears in his eyes and had to wipe his face.

Kyle looked at his father. “So, what’s your excuse?” he said stonily to his father.

Antonio nodded his head, fully understanding how his son felt. “Pete here and I were on a mission in America and needed some escorts, and your mothers were working part-time for a company that provided pretty ladies.”

“They weren’t prostitutes, just companions okay. So anyway, they became our dates for a big party, and one thing led to another. I had to go on a follow-up mission, but Pete had to stay, and he kept seeing Helen.”

He wiped his own face and went on, “I got injured badly on the mission. By the time I got back to America, Pete and Helen had left, and I couldn’t find Kylee.”

“Son, I looked and looked, but she had disappeared. I didn’t know about you until I received a letter from your lawyer telling me she had died and that I had a son.”

“I was married and living in Italy and didn’t wish to uproot you, so I didn’t contact you, but I’ve been following your career son. I even read the letter you wrote to the committee to get Lee on the ship. I guessed she was special to you, so I got it overruled.”

Pete took over, “I met Antonio and Robert about thirty-five years ago when I was their commanding officer. We met back up about ten years ago, and we have been business partners ever since.”

“The day I met you, Kyle, I so wanted to talk to about your father, but he had just gotten married, and your mother said no, it would upset you too much, so I kept mum.”

He looked at his daughter, “Lee, pumpkin, I’m sorry I dumped you with my folks, but I was in a bad place for a long time after your mum went. I couldn’t offer you what you needed, and your grandparents and I decided you were better off where you were.”

Kyle came back angrily, “So now we are wizards and own a couple of planets, you want to know about us?”

“Kyle,” Robert came back sharply. “They don’t know anything about what is going on with you guys. Other than you have stirred up a hornet’s nest here. That’s why I called them in here. Shit, even I don’t understand half of what Sean told me in the communication he sent me.”

“I just did what he asked me to do. I didn’t even realise the woman he had married was Pete’s daughter or that you were Antonio’s son and her cousin. We only found this out an hour ago when that nice young man, Ivan, told us.”

“He’s telling the truth, Kyle,” Lee said and reached out and took his hand. They watched as Sean also placed a hand on Kyle’s back and rubbed it. It was apparent that the three were tied closely together.

This made all the men feel good that their kids were there for each other, as they had been for years.

“Holy crap!” exclaimed Pete; he was looking at Lee’s tummy. “I’m going to be a bloody grandfather.” Everyone laughed. That it had only just truly registered with him that his daughter was pregnant.

“Apparently, we are all old fogies now,” laughed Robert.

Lee looked at the three men. ‘Strange they didn’t look old at all. They all looked as if they were barely hitting their forties,’ she thought. She knew they had to be at least in their mid to late fifties.

Antonio pipped up, “Hang on Kyle, what’s this about having a husband and a wife, and she is expecting twins one for each of you, I didn’t know that could happen?”

The three younger people all laughed. Kyle said with a big grin, “Apparently, it’s a wizard thing. We are not alone. Two of the other wizards that are married in triads like mine have done it as well.”

“How about we back up on the wizard thing and you guys explain this to us?” Robert said.

“One question first,” Lee said. “Dad, the accident that mum and Kylee were involved in, was there anything special going on in that factory?”

“No,” Pete said warily. “Why?”

“Well Kyle and I have both known for a long time we weren’t ordinary. We thought it may have to do with the factory incident since both mum and Kylee got sick afterwards, and before they had us,” Lee said.

The three men looked at each other. Pete said, “Actually, we think it was us initially. We used to do some really strange missions.”