Chapter 28

Epilog ... or perhaps the beginning of another story?

"Mrs. Flintkote! No!" said Cassie Hero Caretaker. "You can not go by yourself!"

"The Portal let me through ... again," Sultry was beside herself, "And I don't have a Sapphire!"

"We're working on that," said Mr. Ceiling.

"What have you found so far?" Sultry wanted to know.

"Nothing," Ceiling whined, "Not a damn thing. There is no reason, and you've been coming here five years."

Cassie said, "And we keep sending you back. "Sultry. I know it's hard. Imagine how I feel."

"We both know he's not dead," Sultry cried, "I want my husband back."

"I want my Hero Jack," cried Cassie.

They were more than girls now, Sultry was almost 35 but she looked as fresh as she did at 18. Cassie ... well ... who knows how old a Cassandrian Hero Caretaker is? Cassie looked exactly the same age as the first time Jack brought Sultry and the Powers that Be through that same door that Sultry just came through.

Remember, Polly Caretaker was over 300 Earth years old and still spry enough to host Cassandra in the Morning.

Cassie and Sultry fell together and cried like only bereft lovers can. They both loved the same man ... and ... if truth be known ... each other. The restorative has a way of erasing Earth taboos. Sultry and Cassie had entertained themselves more than a few times during the seven years Sultry and Jack had gone adventuring on Chaos. The Reward was almost as much fun as the chase.

Sultry was twenty five on the day Jack went by himself.

For the past few years, Jack and Sultry had been cutting back on missions. When they first started going to Chaos together, it had been every three weeks, then once a month.

Jack got involved with his investments and Sultry was asked to be on the board of a couple of charities. Even though it was just fifteen minutes of Earth time it was getting more difficult to remember what came next in their Earth lives.

They were down to two a year when they got ready for the next one. The portal wouldn't let Sultry in because she was pregnant. Pregnant for the first time after seven years of trying and the Portal refused her.

"Go, Jack. I'll sit here and read for the next fifteen minutes." She was deep into her chapter when the baby moved. It might not have been the first time but it was the first time she felt it. It was wonderful ... and with unerring accuracy ... the kick landed on her bladder.

"Brat!" she cradled her belly and headed for the bathroom. She looked longingly at the tub and acting on a whim she ran a bath. She looked at her watch.

"I've got time."

It was full dark and the water was almost cold when she woke. She looked at her A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar Watch ... it was stopped. A. Lange & Söhne watches NEVER stopped.

Dripping, chattering, shivering, she ran to the closet. No Jack. The bedroom was next ... no Jack. She had just time to put on a robe when she cramped...

"Oh God! No!"

The phone was in the kitchen ... she made it ... she dialed O.

"Operator."

"I have an emergency, Operator."

"Dial 911," and she hung up.

911

"911," it was the same damn operator.

"I need help." Sultry said. "I'm pregnant and I'm having cramps."

"You should call your doctor," said the operator.

911

"911," same damn stupid operator.

"I need an ambulance at the big house on the hill at Frogmorton, VA."

"Stay on the line."

"Yes ma'am." A second severe cramp shot through her groin. "Oh God."

A male voice came on the line. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm pregnant and I'm having severe cramps. I need help. My husband is away." Sultry said. "And no, I can't call him."

"How many weeks?"

"I don't know?"

"Guess."

Sultry counted back to her last period. She was aghast. "Twenty seven," she said.

"Has your water broke?"

"No ... ooooohhh."

"Hold on. Help is on the way."

Frogmorton isn't on any map but the ambulance passed through Grundy. The gas station attendant knew the house on the hill. He called his boss.

"Close up and lead them," he said. "That's Sultry. Jack must be away. Go ... just go. I'll do the close out."

Jack and Sultry were "people" in the mountain community. (Believe me ... it's a big deal.)

"You're to follow me," Ollie the attendant said to the ambulance driver.

The driver nodded.

"How fast is that thing?"

"On these roads? 55."

The ambulance turned and followed. The State Trooper pulled in front of the ambulance and turned on his lights. Ollie, the station attendant, didn't stop.

Pretty soon the ambulance personnel were in contact with the trooper.

The pretty lights flashed and flickered on the snow. They turned left on 610 and left again on the dirt.

"Frogmorton, VA?" The trooper said over his mike.

"Never heard of it," came the response.

"OOOF!"

"Trouble?"

"Terrible road."

"Up there, they all are."

They found Sultry on the kitchen floor. The telephone was by her head but she wasn't talking.

The note on her table said;

Jack, complications. Hospital. Sultry.

She was on the gurney and out the door in seconds.

Picking up the phone, "Trooper Cash here. She's on the way to the hospital."

The other end asked something.

"Yes, sir. We do that." He would have liked to add which hospital to the note but he didn't know.

The trooper checked the doors and windows, turned down the heat, locked up, and walked the perimeter. The 1500 gallon LPG tank was full, the tracks from the delivery truck hadn't crusted yet so the fill up might have happened while the phone was busy.

Sultry spent the next nine weeks, flat on her back in the maternity ward at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The Mercy Flight bill almost bought the University a new helicopter. Knoxville was only facility that would see her through this trying pregnancy.

John Walter (JW), Cynthia Mae, and Surprise Melody Flintkote were born on April First, 1977.

Actually, Cynthia Mae was born March 30th. She was oldest.

JW was born at the stroke of midnight.

Surprise Me was the April Fool.

It was an almost sad occasion.

There was no Jack.

No dead Jack.

No alive Jack.

No Jack.

The Law Offices in Frogmorton spent two years of interest, Seven hundred thirty thousand dollars on Sultry's hospital stay and another fifty thou on the mercy flights, with not a single murmur or complaint. After the physical therapy and the live in nurse the total was slightly over a million two.

After the discharge, the lawyer sicced the forensic accountants on the hospital books. They were still digging five years later. It wasn't that they didn't find anything ... they just hadn't found anything that related to Sultry.

When Sultry took back her house she began teaching the children. Breast feeding came with Matter of Britain, Matter of France, Historia Regum Britanniae, The Death of Arthur, Book of Chivalry, Song of Roland, Cantar de Mio Cid, The Twelve of England, the Knight's Tale, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Book of the Coutier.

She read them Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Swordsmanship and Japanese Martial Arts while they spit pablum and pooped.

They heard mathematics, spelling, grammar, and gardening, identification of weeds and mushrooms, while learning to walk.

When they were three and four, she read them the Marine Corps Officers Manual ... geography, history and open ocean navigation.

Sultry was delving into subjects she never knew existed. She soaked it up like a sponge. Her babies reacted to it like their mother.

She hired foreign nationals to act as nannies on the condition that they never speak English in the presence of the children. She wanted the kids to learn other languages and from one year old to about seven is the best time to do it. Kids know and make all the sounds ... they eliminate the ones they never hear used.

It worked, soon the children were translating what their nannies were saying for their mom.

When they were five, they went to school. They were sent home the first day along with a letter from the superintendent.

Mrs. Flintkote. We can teach your children nothing. They are rude, unruly, and impossible. They seem to feel that they know more than their teachers. There has to be some medication they can take to calm them down. The Virginia Department of Social Services has been contacted.

Two weeks later the CPS showed up at the door. The children were in the circular drive lawn practicing their katas. There wasn't a peep out of them ... just smooth motion and grace.

Sultry was, at that very moment, calling her father.

"Sultry Wench Flintkote?"

"And you are?"

"Connie Pringle, Children's Protective Services, Virginia Department of Social Services. There's been a complaint."

"Identification?"

"Look, Mrs. Flintkote. Don't make this any harder than it needs be."

"I'm not. You SAY you're CPS of the VDSS ... but I don't know you, so ... I need to see some identification."

The County Sheriff's Suburban motored up the horrid drive and parked directly behind the CPS Ford.