Chapter 32: Exercise Break

"Your father is trapped in the Ukraine?" Becky asked.

"That's what he told me last night," I said. "He said some kind of intelligence agency arrested Valery and he lost some of the paperwork required to leave."

"Why the tour then?" Jason asked.

"I guess the band owes the unions some favors," I said. "My father said they would make sure he can travel back here with the band. Supposedly they use a choir and he'd be part of it when they fly here."

"Your father sings?" Jason screeched.

"Nope," I replied. "That's why the band must owe the union a huge favor."

"What do your sister and brother think about this?' Letty asked.

"Mike is far from here," I said. "Last I heard he had run to Chicago after that cop's wife died taking the poison they pretended was a CAP enhancement drug. I haven't told Matilda as she spent the night at Kelsey's."

Angelique started punching me in the chest. "Unca Mark, I want to go on the swings."

I looked around the room. Becky and Beatrice were smiling. "We do need to get out and exercise," Becky commented.

"Then why don't we all go?' I said. "We can rotate who watches this Angel while we work out."

There was a chorus of agreement. Becky and Beatrice stood up while behind me I could hear people walking out of the room. Angelique watched the others start to move and then jumped off my lap and started running toward the door. "Wait for me!" she cried as I stood up.

I reached the door and found Ashley and Lenore standing there with their hands clasped together. They immediately reached out and pulled me between them. I was facing Ashley and she kissed my lips before I was spun around to face Lenore who gave me a matching kiss.

We left the house with Jason, Letty and Angelique. Jason closed and locked the door as the garage door opened and a minivan pulled out. I could see Beatrice at the wheel while Becky rode in the passenger seat. Becky was talking on a cell phone as she approached, but hung up as we reached the door.

Jason and Letty immediately claimed the back seat and started making out. From the front I could hear Beatrice mutter. "I'm going to be a grandmother before I'm forty at this rate."

"You have three years before you are forty," Ashley said with a giggle. "You might have more than one grandchild by then."

"I just hope she gets to see them," I pointed out. "My mother might never get to see Matilda or me again. I hope I can write a message she will receive."

"Damn," Jason said. "That's harsh."

"Letty, has your mother ever heard from Julio?" I asked.

"No," Letty said. "I expect Julio is happy to be away from here."

I nodded as Beatrice drove us the short distance to the park. Jason noticed this and laughed. "Wait, we are supposed to be getting exercise, but we are riding in a car to get to where we will exercise. Why didn't we walk?"

Lenore giggled and pointed to Angelique who was sitting in her car seat right next to Jason. "Do you think she could have walked all the way here?" she asked.

"Mark would carry her," Jason said emphatically. "And she would have loved it."

Everyone laughed as Angelique looked around trying to figure out what was funny. I felt Lenore give my arm a gentle squeeze and turned to look at her.

"Is he right?" she asked.

I smiled. "Lenore, that little girl is adorable and sweet. She's fun to spend time with and her smile could melt most hearts. I carried her home yesterday."

"Wow," Jason whispered. "Was it only yesterday that we started all of this exercise?"

"I guess so," Ashley said. Beatrice had turned the minivan into the parking lot of the park. "Who's that?"

I looked up to see Sergeant O'Malley pacing back and forth on the sidewalk. Next to him a muscled man sat in a wheelchair. The Sergeant's companion was missing his right leg and it looked like his left leg stopped just above where his knee should have been. The man smiled as we started to tumble from the minivan.

"Mark, Jason," Sergeant O'Malley called out. "Where are Morgan, Kyle and Jessica?"

"Jessica will be here shortly," Becky said. "Kyle is at work, but Katelyn will bring by Kelsey and Matilda. Morgan has a house that needs to be ready for inspection next Friday so he isn't available."

Sergeant O'Malley nodded. "Well, it's good to see that you are continuing to exercise. You forgot to set a time though."

"We were going to work on that tonight," I said. "I don't think we've had a chance to all get together since yesterday."

"Don't let the need for everyone to know and participate prevent you from coming out here," Sergeant O'Malley said. "I know people who won't mind helping a bit and they can be here every morning all summer. I can introduce you to one today. Everyone this is Paul Bowman."

"Hello," my friends said in chorus.

Paul laughed. "You said they were polite. You didn't tell me that all the women would be glowing."

Jason and I looked at the ground as Angelique walked up to Paul. She stared at his missing legs and then up at him. "Where are your legs?" she asked.

"Angel!" Lenore called out, she stepped forward to grab her daughter, but Paul just shook his head.

"I was working to help build a factory when a wall brace broke," the man said calmly. "The falling debris crushed my legs."

"Did it hurt?" Angelique asked.

I rushed forward and knelt by the little girl. "Angel," I said softly. "Mister Bowman might feel uncomfortable talking about it."

"No," Paul said using his hands to move the wheelchair forward so he could put a hand on Angelique's head and ruffle her hair. "She is innocent. Anyone looking at me will wonder. And yes, dear child, I was in a lot of pain when I lost my legs."

"I'm sorry," Angelique said. "I wish I could help. Mommy could try to kiss it and make it better."

"She better not," I muttered as Lenore gasped. I looked over at the black-haired beauty's face was bright red.

Sergeant O'Malley laughed. "That girl is going to be a spitfire someday."

"Is that a bad thing?" Angelique asked him innocently.

I heard a car pull into the parking lot and come to a halt without turning into a parking space. Doors were opened and then quickly closed. I turned to look and saw Matilda and Kelsey running toward us as a white import sedan drove away.

"Mark!" both girls cried.

I remembered the paper that I had put in my pocket. I pulled out the second one with the messages for my family and carefully tore it to separate the pieces. Once it was free I waved it towards Matilda. "Matti, some mail arrived. You have something to read."

My sister ran up to me and looked at the piece of paper. "That's only a part of a sheet," she pointed out.

"The letter had sections for different people," I said. "This section is for your eyes only."

Matilda took the piece of paper, but folded it and started to slip it into a pocket of the shorts she was wearing. "Who is it from? Daddy?" she snarled.

"Dear Daddy is stuck in the Ukraine," I informed my sister. "The people he was with ran into some intelligence officers and were arrested. He's hiding out and looking for a way to return home. Besides I'm not sure he knows how to write."

"Then who is it?" Matilda asked. "It can't be our grandparents. They refuse to talk to anyone in the family."

"Mom," I said simply.

"I thought your mother had been picked up," Sergeant O'Malley said.

"She did," I replied as a black SUV pulled into the parking lot and parked in the stall next to the minivan. "From what part of the letter said, the letter was scanned and transmitted as data. They printed it out on Earth and forwarded it to me."

Matilda gasped and pulled the paper back out of her pocket. She opened it. I watched her eyes as they scanned back and forth over the text. Another gasp escaped her throat and then she collapsed to the ground crying.

I dropped to my knees to put an arm around her. Jessica ran up to join us. "Tillie?" she asked worriedly.

"Mother loves me. She really does love me," my sister said between sods.

"Mark?" Jessica asked me.

"We received a letter from Mom," I told my friend. "Part was for Matilda's eyes only and she just read it."

"Your mother?" Kelsey gasped out.

"He said that when he handed her the note," Jason said pointing toward Sergeant O'Malley.

"I'm sorry," Kelsey said. "I was trying to figure out who the new man is. I didn't even notice. But how did she write to you? I thought she had been picked up weeks ago."

"Almost ten weeks," I said. "Her letter made it clear she is now a concubine. The return address is to a Sergeant Rex Morrison. What she did say is that they were going to digitize what she wrote and then print it out once the file reached Earth."

"Easier to send an E-mail," Paul said.

"I'm not sure how computer literate my mother is," I said. "And I know she didn't know my e-mail address. Of course, the letter arrived at Ashley's home rather than mine, so it's clear the alien military knows what's happening on Earth."

"Is that a bad thing?' Sergeant O'Malley asked.

"Mark? Where is Mom?" Matilda asked.

"She said she's on a planet. The name appears to be Poseidon. Why they used a Greek God I can't say," I commented.

"Maybe it's a water world?" Jessica pondered. "That would explain the name."

"Mother did not say much, and I think she had not really seen the planet. From what she said the letter was going to travel back to Earth on the transport that took them to their new home," I mentioned.

Jessica slapped her forehead with an open palm. "I'm an idiot!"

"What?" Kathy asked her. "You are not an idiot!" The young woman wrapped her arms around my friend. "Jessica, you have been so successful, how can you be an idiot."

Jessica dropped he hand and entwined her fingers with Kathy's. "Mark," she said to me. "I had been trying to track information on pickups and couldn't understand the pattern. What you just said explains it. They must try to fill a transport that's in orbit and then send it to a new colony the instant its full. If the transports return immediately that would explain why the pattern isn't consistent. There are periods of no pickups probably because a ship filled faster than expected and the next one has not arrived after its last run."

"No way," Jason said. "There has to be more to it than that."

"I don't think they have enough transports," Jessica said. "My read on pickups shows they can sweep up just over one hundred new soldiers in three to four hours if they stage multiple pickups. If they are only running two pickups at a time, it rarely takes more than nine hours. Right now the pattern is that we have a flurry of pickups on each weekend, then none until Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday can be busy, but not every week and there hasn't been a Friday morning pickup yet. It also explains why two weeks ago there was a pickup at a diner in Boise that somehow netted seventy soldiers all at once and then no more pickups that weekend."

"Seventy?" Becky asked.

Jessica nodded. "There was a rodeo in town and the place was packed. I did hear a rumor that more than a few of the people picked up didn't have all the concubines they were supposed to have. But the stories never said how that was resolved."

Sergeant O'Malley was paying a bit too much attention to the discussion so I clapped my hands. "Well, this is interesting, but we are here to exercise. We have a date with some water slides a week from next Thursday and I'm sure the ladies want to get into bikini shape."

"I don't even own a bikini," Kelsey said scornfully. "Even if my parents would let me go."

"They should," I said. "And I'm pretty sure we have a bikini for you. Ashley filled a shopping bag with them yesterday."

"Dude!" Jason shouted. "You stole girl's swimsuits! I never knew you were that much of a perv."

Ashley burst out laughing. "We purchased them. Although some idiot woman at the mall kept trying to get Mark in trouble. She was upset that he was standing inside the store."

"Which store?" Beatrice asked.

"Beach Gear for Babes," I said softly. "And I think we got suits for you and Becky as well."

"Mark!" Matilda screamed. "I can't wear a suit you picked out for me."

"I didn't, ' I said. "I never went more than ten feet into the store. The clerk guessed I have a qualifying CAP score and tried to vamp me. I spent several minutes avoiding her until the crazy lady showed up with security."

"And then all hell broke loose," Ashley said.

I shook my head and turned to Sergeant O'Malley. "Perhaps we should get started."

The Sergeant snorted, but nodded. "You, Jason and Jessica go with Paul. I'll get the ladies doing some aerobic training."

Paul grabbed the large wheels on his chair. He made the contraption spin like a top and then headed down the sidewalk toward a small exercise course set up in the park. He moved quickly and I had to jog to keep up with him.

Paul halted at the edge of the exercise area. He pointed to a strange construction. It had three padded benches, but the benches were sitting at an angle and at the top there was a padded series of pipes shaped like a T coming out of the centerline of the board. "You can stretch now, or between exercises. I've heard some people say it helps reduce injury, and other studies say it has no effect, so I'll leave it up to you. Do let me know if you start hurting. Meanwhile, these are for performing sit-ups. You'll lay on the bench with your feet under the crosspiece. I expect at least twenty. And you can see that there are three different angles on the benches. The steeper angles require more effort."

I moved to the bench with a medium slope and climbed into position. The padding was a little slick. Once I had my feet secure under the crosspiece I lay back. "I thought that doing this was bad for your back," I commented.

"If you rush and allow your back to fall fast you'll get hurt," Paul agreed. "You won't be doing that. I want controlled sit ups. Don't just fall backwards once your finish moving forward. This is a steady motion. Now stop talking and start exercising. It seems your friends want the same bench."

I put my hands behind my head and started the first sit-up. Paul immediately started counting. "That's one! Good form, keep the elbows moving slowly along with your body, don't just slam your back onto the pad. Two. Keep going. Three."

I tried to block out his words a bit. The slope made each sit up a bit more difficult and after I finished fifteen I was starting to sweat. At twenty my right hand slipped when I lay back and I had to pull my hands from behind my head to reposition them. Paul did not take the pause kindly.

"What is this? Are you on a vacation? A healthy young man should do at least fifty and you are stopping at twenty. Do you want to be a soldier or a corpse? Give me more effort!"

I resumed the sit ups. My hair was becoming soaked and slick, making it difficult to keep my hands behind my head. I struggled through ten more and then lay down on the bench with my chest heaving as I tried to suck in enough air for one more.

Paul was not impressed by my effort. "Is that all? Thirty? Sergeant O'Malley tells me that you are going places. Right now that seems to be direct to the morgue."

I gritted my teeth and tried to raise my body one more time, but my exhausted muscles refused to budge. My shoulders remained on the bench surface as I lifted my head and then dropped it back down defeated by my fatigue.

Jason and Jessica came up and looked down at me. "That looked tough," Jason said.

I slipped my right leg out from under the crosspiece and placed my foot on the ground. This gave me enough leverage to sit up and pull my other leg free. Jessica helped me stand up and step away and then looked at Jason. "Ladies first?" she inquired.