Chapter 1

Tina’s turn:

My daughter’s upset. No, not that happy little baby who’s over there pushing colorful blocks on the floor. My OTHER daughter, the irrepressible pTerridactyl.

How do I KNOW she’s upset? She’s over at the airfield, shooting landings in HER ultralight. No friends. No witnesses. She simply came in, announced her plans, and left.

Uncharacteristic. She’s usually gregarious. Not today. Her smile is usually a fixture. Not today. She’s usually got something academic on the slate. Not today.

Nope. Just “Tina, I think I’m gonna go fly. Just in the pattern.” She knows we’re usually around the airfield when she goes outside the pattern.

“Okay.” In retrospect, I should have asked her what’s on her mind. After all, I’m step-mom, big sister, and friend, all rolled into one.

Susan walked right in the front door. Oh, sure, she called first. She always does. We all end up at somebody’s house most mornings, letting the babies play together while we chat and drink coffee in a most proper and matronly fashion. I expect that Johanna and Donna will show up shortly as well. (YES! Cindy’s mom is more than ten years older than any of the rest of us, but little Elise is part of the community crèche)

Susan, though. “What’s wrong, Sis?”

“The pTerridactyl. She’s not herself. I dunno what...”

“What’re the symptoms?”

I ran down the list.

Johanna came through the door. Little Randall held a hand out, waving to JW and Kathy. They babbled at him and he babbled back. I need a translator. I’m sure they’re talking to each other, and it’s not the single syllable ‘Ma’ and ‘Da’ that they reserve for us.

I started to reprise the conversation, halted when Donna dropped Elise on the floor, then I replayed it for them.

“She’s twelve. You don’t think, maybe, first period?” Susan queried.

“Could be. No evidence, though,” I said. “And we’ve had that conversation.”

“Maybe she’s not actually bleeding yet.”

“Ohhhhh, god ... pTerridactyl with PMS,” Jo snorted. “Particle beam weapons may result.”

“Or,” Donna said with some finality, “All you young brides forget ONE thing...”

We turned to Donna.

“She’s got it bad over Jerry. He left last weekend. Graduated on the 10th. Hung around for three weeks. He left...”

That statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course. The graduation.

Cindy and Nikki had to be there, wearing their doctoral garb, because they had students graduating. Jerry wasn’t one of their students, but Terri made it plain that WE were supposed to be there, not because of Cindy or Nikki or any of several students she’d worked with, but because of JERRY.

Of course Jerry’s mom and dad were there for his graduation. Graduating college with a degree in mechanical engineering is a pretty big deal.

You can bet, though, in the aftermath that Terri made sure that she made her way to Jerry’s side.

“Mom. Dad. This is my boss, Terri Addison.”

I don’t think you could get two pair of eyebrows to raise higher.

“Your boss?” his mom managed to squeak.

“Not really, ma’am,” Terri corrected. “Jerry’s been part of my R&D team for a year and a half.”

That got her dad. “Son, you said you were doing R&D...”

“Was off-campus, non-academic, for fun. Terri and her bunch moved it under Auburn’s wing...”

“And Google’s. And the Department of Defense,” Terri added helpfully.

ME? I hit my phone. “Cindy, get yourself and your Cajun cohort over here. Terri just met Jerry Stengall’s parents.”

“Oh, lord,” Cindy blurted. “Where?”

“Southeast corner. We’ll be the ones with two bodies on the floor...”

“On the way.”

“Mister and Missus Stengall, I have the faculty leads for Jerry’s project...”

“OUR project,” Jerry corrected, and then he DID it. He put his hand on Terri’s shoulder. Pulled her to his side. She’s a foot shorter, maybe a bit more, but still, she slid right there against him, turned her face toward him and smiled. Smile? Mona Lisa is frowning, by comparison. “Terri’s a college student,” he continued.

“Cindy and Nikki are on their way here, Jerry.”

He laughed. “Mom and Dad, I told you about them. I told you about Terri and Rachel and Vicki. I don’t think you believed me.”

“Son, we didn’t understand,” his dad said. “I don’t know what we were thinking.”

“Pictures. I sent you pictures.”

His mom stepped in. “We thought it was nice that you were doing one of the science enrichment things with the library or something. You know, working with kids...”

“It was enriching, all right,” Jerry said. He was recipient of one of the larger stipend checks that got passed out when Hogwarts Technology Corporation flared up and dissolved.

“But we thought you were on a government research project,” his dad said.

“I was. That one wrapped up. Got picked up for this one, playing with Terri and her robots. Google and DoD picked HER up and she dragged me in.”

It was about that time that Cindy and Nikki shoved through the thinning crowd.

“Hi, Jerry,” Cindy said.

“Rescue me, Cindy,” Jerry laughed.

“Yeah. Jerry needs rescuing,” Terri said. She was still plastered against him, his hand on her shoulder. I don’t know if that was conscious on the part of the two of them.

“Cindy, Nikki. This is my Dad, Gerald Stengall Senior, and my mom, Alicia. Mom and Dad, this is Doctor Cindy Richards and Doctor Nikki Granger.”

“PhDs in physics, not medical,” Nikki added helpfully.

“Your robes. You two are serious.”

“They are,” jerry explained. “Research fellows at the National Labs.”

Jerry’s dad looked like he was working hard to process the data. “Wait. Cindy Richards. Weren’t you on the news a few weeks ago? Some kind of flying thing?”

Cindy curtsied. She carries off ‘whimsical’ well. “That, too. But Jerry’s been an invaluable part of a couple of R&D efforts. I wanted to keep him.” She shifted her eyes from Jerry’s parents to meet Terri’s.

Now Alan and a couple of Dans showed up. More introductions. “Do you folks have a schedule to meet, or dinner plans?” Dan 1.0 asked.

“Noooo,” Jerry’s mom said.

“Why don’t you join us at the community. We’ll whip something up.”

“It’s worth it, Mom,” Jerry said.

“C’mon,” Cindy said. “Follow us.”

“I know the way,” Jerry said.

“Mom,” Terri said to me, “Can I ride with Jerry and his folks?”

“Sure,” I said. What I didn’t know was that Jerry’s folks were in ONE car, and Jerry was in his own.

Both cars showed up at the same time at the pavilion, so there was no time for ACTUAL hanky-panky.

As far as food, you have to know we threw some stuff together. Chicken and sausage Jambalaya. We have an accelerated version that works well if you throw three Cajuns into a big kitchen. Potato salad.

Good time.

That should have been a sign, but sometimes I guess I ignore signs.

Jerry left Auburn for a real job at an engineering house in Houston. That was a week, more like ten days ago.

Today I’m sitting in my living room looking at the 3Sigma Mommy Club and I’m wondering.

I have Jerry Stengall’s cellphone number. “I’ll be back,” I told the group. “I need to make a phone call.” And I went into the bedroom.

The phone rang several times before Jerry’s voice came through.

“Hello, Tina. What’s up?”

“Life goes on, Jerry. How about you?”

“I’m a gofer with a degree, Tina. I should’ve made my first day some time in January. I’m the new guy. You can imagine how it goes.”

“I can. All the drudgery nobody else wants.” I was being patient. Wanted to see who broached the ‘T-word’.

He did. “Terri gets a news report every day,” he said.

“And that’s the reason I called.”

“I guessed that sooner or later, somebody would call. Actually, I thought Alan. Or I’d be walking out of the door after work and never hear the gunshot that put the bullet in my brain.”

“Why would he do that, Jerry? You and Terri...”

“She kissed me, Tina. ONE time. I freaked. Very gently, because I ... I love Terri ... But I still freaked. We had a talk. That was in November. Since then ... No, Tina. I would NEVER...”

“I just wonder, Jerry. She’s my Terri. Daughter. Baby sister. Whatever.”

“Oh, geez, Tina ... You know I’m ... I’m kind of a geek. I’m not some frat-boy horndog. Just thinking about what would happen if me ‘n’ Terri actually DID anything, that scares the crap out of me.”

“W-w-wait. You LOVE Terri?”

“Gosh. I think I do.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her that I had to go away for work, that I would always hold her in my heart, that I would come back and visit, and if 3Sigma had an opening for me, I’d be there, but there were many years between now and any day we might be able to be together...”

“Be together...” I repeated.

“Yes, and I left that statement open. Tina, you know Terri. She’s neat. Cute as hell for a pre-teen. But that mind. That mind is NOT eleven or twelve. Nobody that stands up in a meeting of engineers and researchers and says ‘make sure we leave handles in the software to let us exploit advances in the hardware’ is eleven years old.”

“She’s twelve now.”

“God, don’t I know.” He sighed. “Tina, since I took this job, several people have tried to fix me up with somebody. Every time I think about that, I get this picture of Terri’s face in my mind, what it would look like if I hurt her.”

“My gosh...”

“Worse, though,” he said, “is finding out that Terri was sitting somewhere with a guy of an acceptable age to hers, and she was...”

“Welcome to being in love,” I said.

“I know, right?”

“Have you talked since you left?”

“No. Emails only. They route through the 3Sigma server.”

“No Gmail?”

“I am as honorable as I can be, Tina. I wouldn’t go behind your back. Neither would Terri, so it’s there on the server if somebody wanted to go back and retrieve the whole track.”

“Thank you,” I said. “But, Jerry...”

“Yes?”

“I’ve got a daughter that’s going through some things. I’m ... We’re gonna do everything we can from this end. But if you think that you could call and talk to her without crashing BOTH your psyches, I would not be against that. I am going to talk to Alan. I know how he’ll feel.”

“Tina, I have a lot of respect for you and Alan. Make that ‘for the whole community’. Stable marriages. You know how rare that is, these days. I know guys have hit on every ONE of you and I know you’re all virtuous women, just like I learned in church. But I look at Cindy and Dan or Nikki and the other Dan or, for heaven’s sake, Dana and Ed, and then I look at Terri ... My heart breaks sometime...”

“I think I understand.”

He sighed heavily. “So you don’t mind if we talk on the phone?”

“No.”

“What’s she doing right now?”

“She’s in one of her happy places – playing around the airfield in her ultralight.”

“See! That’s what I mean, Tina. NOT normal. What kind of kid has her own plane?”

“I know.”

“I’ll call ‘er this evening.”

“Step lightly, Jerry. You’re dealing with something very precious there, and her daddy’s a combat veteran.”