Chapter 8

The big news for our family was that Billy had been invited to a Halloween party hosted by the parents of another student in Billy's class. He had a date with a girl whom he especially liked, so he was very happy with the prospect. He even had a great costume: he was going as a mercenary soldier, and he would be wearing his regular combat uniform. He was able to borrow a toy pistol with holster to complete his outfit. His date, Helen Murphy, was going dressed as a Barbie Doll. The way she was built, that was the perfect costume!

He picked her up in his pickup at 7:00, and they managed to make it to the party by 7:45 without too much disarray to her costume. The party was mostly dancing with snacks and soft drinks presided over by the parents who were also acting as chaperones. There was no large punch bowl, so there was no opportunity to spike the drinks with alcohol. Some of the kids were disappointed at that, but that was a pro forma kind of thing and none left the party in disgust.

It was close to midnight when the trouble started. The party was about to break up, and most of the kids were tired and ready to call it a night. The parents happened to be in the kitchen cleaning up from the food preparation when three young men came in through the back door. They were all brandishing knives, and the two parents were shocked into submission by the sudden invasion.

The parents were tied up and gagged, but otherwise unharmed. The invaders were after drugs that they were sure the kids were carrying. Specifically, they were looking for marijuana because they had already smoked all that they originally had. They burst in on the few kids left at the party and demanded any drugs that the kids were carrying.

None of the party goers had any drugs with them, but a few did have some in their cars. However, they were not about to mention them for various sound reasons. This pissed off the invaders, and they didn't believe the kids. They decided to search the kids for hidden stashes, and they were naturally disappointed when turned out pockets revealed nothing that the young men were interested in.

Then, one of the men had a brainstorm: the drugs were being carried by the women. They were still brandishing their knives, but no one had been hurt as yet. However, the one with the brainstorm decided to strip off a girl's costume so that he could find the drugs she must be hiding under there.

By pure accident, he happened to pick Helen Murphy as his first target. He grabbed her right arm with his left hand and tried to slip his knife down her chest between her breasts. His intent was to cut her clothes off, and he selected that as the easiest way to accomplish his aim. Well that was his last mistake of the night.

Billy reacted by hitting the man's right wrist with the edge of his hand and shattering the bones. The knife went flying, and the man screamed in pain. He tried to keep from falling by continuing to hold on to Helen's arm. That made her stagger, and Billy reacted by breaking his other wrist. The man fainted from the pain.

The other two men reacted with extreme stupidity. Both of them tried to attack Billy with their knives. By this time, Billy had been taught how to defend against knife attacks by some of the best in the world. He disarmed both men almost literally! There were now four more broken bones in the room and three men were lying on the floor.

Helen had wisely stayed out of the way while Billy was dealing with the knife wielders, but she now grabbed him in a bear hug and wouldn't let go. Meanwhile, the daughter of the parents rushed to the kitchen to report what had happened. She saw her parents tied up and stopped long enough to cut them loose. After a few seconds of explanation, her father called 911. It was not long after that two cops showed up.

They spent a lot of time interviewing Billy because all of the other attendees had pointed him out as the hero of the evening. After about an hour of questioning, most of it repetitive, they decided that Billy and Helen could go home. They did not go straight home because Helen needed more reassuring, and then her costume had to be reset into place. However, they finally reached Helen's home and she insisted that Billy go in with her to confront her parents in explaining why she was so late in returning from the party.

Of course, her mother did not believe her, partially because they had not been as careful as they might have been in getting Helen's clothes properly reset. Anyway, she called the hosts of the party and relaxed when she was told that they events reported by Helen and Billy were vouched for. At that point, Billy suddenly became the hero of the hour.

Well, it was another hour before he could leave for home. When he came in, we jumped on him for keeping his date out so late on what was nominally a school night. He explained what had happened, and we all congratulated him. Mary was especially profuse in her praise, and this both surprised and embarrassed Billy.

Since none of us needed sleep, even Johnny was showing signs of that, we were able to spend the rest of the night talking about the adventure. We broke up in time for the kids to dress for school and to eat breakfast. Billy drove by to pick up Helen for school, and that was when he was told that she was still so shook up that she was skipping school for the day. Okay, he went on to school, and word of his heroism had proceeded him. Again, Billy basked in the adulation of most of the students. Naturally, there were a few kids who did not like Billy for his popularity, but he was able to ignore them.

This was a Friday, and the whole thing had cooled down by Monday, so school had returned to normal for Billy. The one exception was that Helen now seemed to worship the ground that Billy walked on. He was torn between embarrassment at the attention and pride and joy at the attention. In any case, it was not long before Billy and Helen became an item.

Uh-oh, as part of her infatuation with Billy, Helen set out to seduce him. He held out for close to two months, but she finally broke him down. Fortunately, he did remember what I had said about the Pill not necessarily being adequate protection, so they did use a condom. Of course, Helen objected, but Billy stuck to his guns, and Helen never came into contact with his semen.

The romance ran on like that for the rest of the school year, but they were both Seniors, and graduated in the spring. Helen's parents thought that she was too young and immature to lock onto a future mate so early, so they took Helen on an extended vacation away from Phoenix and Billy. That seemed to kill the ardor Helen was holding for Billy, which was the purpose of the trip. Come the fall, Helen went to college at a fancy place in New England, and the two never saw each other again. Everybody at our end, even Billy, was relieved by that.

During Billy's final school year, we had several adventures fighting ISIL, both by ourselves and in conjunction with Ralph's people. When summer came, none of us had solid plans, so I asked Ralph if he had anything for us to do. We were especially looking for something that would let us brush up on our Arabic. He had nothing at the moment, but he did suggest that we take a "vacation" in the Middle East. Specifically, he suggested that we take a look at Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

We could travel as exactly what we were, Americans who could speak Arabic. That was such a novelty that we might be able to tap information sources that were closed to the average investigator. That sounded like fun, so we accepted the challenge. It did not take us long to get set up for the trip, and we took off for Kuwait City on June 27^th.

Oh, my God! That was a murderous trip. We flew toward the west, figuring that we were closer going that way. Well, we might have been, but we spent so much time on one airplane or another that we began to hate the whole idea. Johnny was the only one who enjoyed the trip, because he spent practically the whole time in Liz's lap or pressed against her chest. We could already hardly wait to return home!