Chapter 1

Sultry: Another country heard from: We'll just have to see.

The new used refurbished double needle commercial Singer sewing machine was a little more complicated than the Baby Singer. The set up took a week. The long arm Singer came with a short Levi's table ... for both machines. Sultry and Aaron Shingle both wondered how Levi's had used them.

Many calls were made.

Eventually, Levi's admitted that the Singer machines that they had sold were part of an experimental batch that the company hoped would make bell bottom jeans ... in vogue in 1963 to 1977 ... easier to sew. They didn't. The machines weren't used ... they were new old stock. and somewhere in the huge Levi's plant the original tables were stored.

"No! We don't want the short arm tables back." The speaker on the phone was adamant. We'll find the correct tables and drop ship them to Frogmorton."

That drew a laugh from Aaron. "Send them by rail to Elkhorn City, Kentucky and we'll pick 'em up there. It'll be quicker."

Levi's hadn't sent the tables when it was testing time.

Sultry flew the Cessna 140A Patroller from Cedarville, Kentucky down to Bristol, Virginia for her triplets testing. Margaret, the director picked them up from the family flying farmer field, corner Flame and Dominion. Nice little patch of grass.

"It'll be handy," said Margaret over the phone to Sultry, "It's our backyard. Harold has his license and the neighbor is impressed. I'll take a personal day and bring you in."

"Margaret..."

"It's no trouble, Sultry. Of course, Harold will probably try and cadge a right seat familiarization flight for his logbook. He learned on a Cessna 150 and never flew a taildragger. Mr. Walcott, the neighbor, will probably want to give it a try too. For his logbook. He hasn't bought a plane yet and the rent is eating into his back pocket."

Harold was Margaret's husband and a new pilot. He had a restored German Focke-Wulf FW149d trainer.

"Oh, Sultry ... that's a beautiful aircraft," Margaret said. "Maybe ... might you..."

"Yes, Margaret."

That got Sultry another hug. "We have an interesting situation. The children are to be tested at the high school in separate classrooms."

"Separate classrooms?" Sultry said, "That's got to be expensive. What about?"

"Ms. Pringle? She has been removed upstairs, so to speak ... she's in Richmond ... she reached the height of her incompetence."

"They aren't the only ones being tested. Half the children in Special Education are being tested too. Someone in the Virginia Education Association has decided that "Special" means the lower left side of the Bell Curve. They want the lower right side of the curve in classes to match their testing. Some parents are up in arms about it."

"We will see," said Sultry. "I may have tutors ... or homeschool. You do have to admit Frogmorton is 'difficult' in the winter."

Cynthia Mae astounded her proctors.

"This will never do," the head proctor said.

"What's the matter?" Margaret asked.

"We brought the normal tests for smart five year olds. We were still passing them out when Cynthia Flintkote handed hers back ... finished. She smiled sweetly and asked, 'What else did you bring?' I was ready to admonish her when I glanced at her test ... it was answered in PEN in Cursive. I could see there wasn't a single mistake. So I said, 'Please take your seat Miss... , ' 'Flintkote, ' she said. 'Miss Flintkote. I'll find another test.'"

"And?" said Margaret, making the universal hand movements that signified "More".

"I thought I would surely stump her with the 8th grade final test. The one they take to graduate to High school."

Margaret was intrigued, "What happened?"

"That three hour test took a little over forty-five minutes." He was looking a little harried now.

"Have you met her mother?"

"We're supposed to be impartial, Mrs. Hamilton. It would color our perception if we met the parents."

"What's the most difficult test you brought?"

"That would be the CLEP. It's new. Very difficult. I took it and had a hard time passing and I have a doctorate."

"CLEP?"

"College Level Examination Program. Colleges are just beginning to use it. A student is given college credit for what he or she already knows. It generally takes several days and it's graded by a select board of professors nation-wide."

"The Flintkote triplets ... yes ... three of them ... are scheduled for a week. You really should meet their mother. Go give the test to Cindymae and come with me."

"Just let her take it?"

"Yup," Margaret said. "She won't cheat."

So ... Cynthia Mae was handed an impossible bundle of the same numbered papers, instructed to NOT put her name on them ... they would be graded using the number as an identification mark. While he was at it, he discovered where the remaining Flintkote children were and handed their proctors a CLEP for both of them.

Girding his loins, he prepared to meet Mrs. Flintkote. He expected a battleaxe.

"Sultry, Doctor Anderson. He's the Head Proctor for the Examination."

"Doctor Anderson. Sultry Wench Flintkote, high school graduate, licensed pilot, and the mother of your nemesis."

"You can't be more than 20 ... who taught the children?"

"Thank you," she blushed. "I'm thirty and I taught them ... did I do something wrong? Oh ... I admit I had help with the languages, but other than that ... I'm the guilty party."

"Languages?" Dr. Anderson asked. "What languages?"

"Umh," Sultry started ticking off on her fingers, "Hilda ... she was German, very bossy, she didn't last very long. So their German isn't great.

"Yvette, she was French, Parisian. Lovely girl. Married an Ambassador. Their French is flawless.

"Svetlana, she was a Muscovite Russian. We're pretty sure she was KGB. She disappeared after she tried to defect.

"Amaterasu, she was Japanese ... such a doll. They had her for almost a year before she had to leave. They speak fluent Japanese.