Chapter 68: Where Do We Go from Here?

July, 1985

[Greg went back into the locker and pulled a lever, then flashed Dad, “Pops, just finish pulling the lever on the front of the cage and step away. It will all come apart so you can get to the bodies.”

“Thanks Son, we’ll be seeing you soon. I believe your family is on their way home.”]

We parked the truck and Bob’s van and went in the house to wait for our girls to get home. I was surprised when Bob asked, “So, where did you put our real cargo anyway?”

“You weren’t keeping track of our escapades?”

“I was trying, but, once you guys left the FBI’s substitute crew, I lost you. It’s like you and Greg put some kind of major block on everybody.”

I saw Greg with a crooked grin, “Charlie wasn’t aware, but I had this vision of how I could put like a communications blackout bubble around us. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I was hoping it would. I think only Mary and Jamie were allowed in, I see it worked.”

Bob was bemused, “I wish you could have told me. I was really getting worried not knowing where you were or if you were alright.”

Greg gave Bob a heartfelt hug, “I’m sorry Amigo. As soon as I realized Brad or ‘Butchie boy’ had a backdoor into my head, I worked on figuring out a way to shut him out. Unfortunately, to do that I had to shut everyone out. I HAVE figured out how to do it again. Once the girls get here, we’ll all get into my bubble and have some VERY serious discussions. I don’t know how long we’re going to be safe here.”

Bob looked confused, “Do you think Butch’s dad might come after us? How would he know where we live? Do either of you guys have any idea who he is?”

I exhaled deeply, “I didn’t recognize the guy who I think Butch’s dad was looking at. I think Mr Simon was the one whose reflection I saw in the refrigerator or whatever it was. I certainly know the dude was very bummed that he’d have to contact TJ to get the bodies back. We need to see if TJ can get them cremated. We DON’T need his dad seeing the wound that killed them!”

Bob huffed, “I don’t know that we want ANYBODY to see it. It looked like a laser killed them!” Bob paused, “Do you think Simon was looking through our eyes like we were his?”

“That’s a good question? I sure wish we knew more about what this ‘Simon’ is capable of. He said Butch was the strongest, but, we know how that works. We’ve misdirected questions just like he did.”

Mike, who’d just been listening said, “And I must say, you guys do that very nicely. It wasn’t until you gave me the ability that I had any idea what you guys could really do. I was still believing Jonah did everything!”

“Thanks for sharing that” I told him, “I hope you understand how much you need to keep your abilities a secret. As you can see, we DO get carried away sometimes. Between you, Jessica and Melody, you need to just keep it to yourselves and only use it to protect your crew. It MAY come in very useful someday. Oh, and speaking of Jessica and Melody. Where are they?”

He chuckled, “They’re at Stan’s house. I’m not sure what’s up with Melody. She seems like she’s in some kind of fog or something, were you guys really in Pennsylvania?”

“Oh God,” I said, “No we weren’t and I’ve gotta see her ASAP. I made her forget a bunch of stuff. Boy I hope she’ll forgive me.”

“Do you guys need for me to stay here for your little talk? Jessica needs to get to her school to get the scoop on getting tested and I need to help Tammy and Jessica get their stuff loaded on the truck. Can I take it now?”

“Sure, the insurance and rental forms are in the glove box. Helping your girls is far more important than waiting here. Just make sure you stop by before you head back.”

I handed him the keys then he told me, “Will do. I’m sure Jessica is going to want to bid you a nice farewell, if you know what I mean?” He was grinning.

“I do and YOU make sure you take good care of her!”

“That’s my life’s mission, Charlie. You never have to worry about that, trust me. I’ll see you guys later,” he said as he twirled the keys on his finger, headed out to the truck.

Less than an hour after Mike left, the front door burst open and all of our girls came running into our arms.

Mary was kissing me desperately as I was apologizing over and over again about how sorry I was for all the awful things I’d flashed from Iowa.

Mary smiled, then slapped me hesitantly in the face, “Now, will you get over it? I’m sorry, but that was from all of us. We knew you didn’t really mean it, even though we all cried for an hour after you said it. We cried because we knew YOU were crying having to say it all! I never believed you meant a word of it. You’re my soulmate Sugar Bear and what tore me up was what it was doing to you. I love you Charlie.”

Sarah was gently crying when she came into my arms, “I didn’t understand at first. Mary just told us not to talk and to hurry and get out of here. When we got up to your Dad’s cabin, she finally whispered the whole story to me. That’s when it all made sense and I immediately forgave you too. I love you, my hero and I want your baby to start growing in me as soon as we can make one. Can we start tonight? I know I just stopped taking the pill and it may not take right away, but I need you to love me with that intent. Please?”

“I’d love nothing more. You know it’ll be the first time I’ve ever purposely TRIED to get anyone pregnant. When I gave Mary our baby, we weren’t actually trying to! It didn’t make it any less magical though.”

I was trying to be enthralled with Sarah’s announcement, but, I still had a slew of very serious things on my mind. Even as I hugged Sarah, Dad flashed, “Guys, we’ve got a problem. We can’t just cremate the bodies, because protocol states we have to have the bodies autopsied.”

“Then we’re in real trouble. How are we going to explain the damages?”

“TJ has an idea. We’re going to move the bodies somewhere that won’t lead back to you ... or Jonah.”

TJ cut in, “I WILL NOT hang you guys out to dry! Thanks to you, we brought down La Madrina’s entire operation. We only sustained two casualties besides the Agent injured with your side of the operation. We have the boss lady herself in custody along with 25 of her top people. THEY lost 40 of their soldiers in the takedown. I would like to know, someday, what you did to these two guys though.”

“I’m not sure myself, TJ. It wasn’t intentional.”

Dad finished, “Guys, I know you’re going to need to go back to work, but see if you can make arrangements for one more day off. We need to figure some things out. The guy that you saw when Simon called you is none other than Johnny, from Tucson. I have to get a hold of Joshua and keep him quiet and safe.”

“Dad, do you have any idea who Simon is? Johnny’s been keeping some things from Joshua, that’s for certain. I sure as hell hope you’re not still planning on going down there to work with him!”

“We’ll talk about that Son. Just make the arrangements like I asked and we’ll talk later.”

I was going to have a hard time concentrating on anything until we get this whole thing figured out. My ambivalence about my job was pulling my heartstrings nearly as much as what I had done to the girls.

Mary sensed my feelings and was gently leading me to our bedroom. “You’re not in this thing alone, Sugar Bear. Don’t shut us out again, please? We girls are not defenseless anymore. I know you. Don’t fret about things that are in the past. Sarah and I have done a lot of talking these last few days. You’re going to have to get used to including us when things get hairy. We’re a Family, Charlie, and we love you just as much as you love us.”

We shed our clothes and we made gentle love to each other for over an hour. Just as I felt myself about to cum, she giggled, “Sarah? It’s your turn, come on in here and get your first dose of baby juice. It’s going to be a big one!”

Sarah was looking delectable as she was seductively taking Mary’s place in my arms. “Give us our daughter, Charlie,” she said as she lay down and spread her legs wide. “I’ve never wanted anything more than this in my whole life. Before you came into my life, I didn’t think I’d ever be a mother. Please, give the three of us a little daughter to go with your son.”

By the time I was all the way inside her, I was ready to explode. I’d been holding back so long, I only lasted a few seconds before I was screaming my love for her and filling her to overflowing with my seed. I tried not to laugh as she stuffed 3 pillows under her cute little butt, to try and keep my seed from leaking out. She giggled as Mary was looking at her dripping pussy, “Don’t go sucking it all out of me! You CAN lick up the stuff that leaked out if you want though. Hee-hee.”

The three of us shared Mary’s clean-up of Sarah in a sensuous three-way kiss. I wondered how Mary was so certain we were having a son.

“I just know, Sugar Bear. I also believe you just shot our daughter into Sarah, too.”

Sarah giggled again, “But we ARE going to do it again tonight. What’s more, you can leave your warm plug in me all night too!”

I chuckled as I pulled both of my lovers together to snuggle. We must have fallen asleep, because when I woke up, I was alone in the bed.

When I sat down at the kitchen table, Jamie and Linda were glowing just like Mary and Sarah. Linda grinned, “Greg and Bob are still napping, Boss. I see you did your husbandly duties with Sarah and Mary.”

I was shaking my head, smiling, “I sense a conspiracy here. My brothers and I never stood a chance, did we ladies?”

They all giggled together, “Nope!”

Greg and Bob schlepped in to join us. Bob smirked, “Something tells me this place is going to be crawling with babies soon!”

A grinning Greg added, “I can’t wait to be a daddy! Charlie, we’ve really gotta consider winding down our jobs and think about coming up with a new plan. It’s not like we need the money anymore.”

“I hear ya, but, I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t working. I love my job and really love working with Linda. I could possibly go into business for myself, but what would you guys do?”

Greg paused, “I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind playing my new guitar a lot more. Maybe we could get a band together? I bet Bob would be up for that.”

“You know, that would be fun.” Bob mused, “I wouldn’t mind closing up the shop. Since I don’t have any employees, I wouldn’t be hurting anyone. I just need to finish up the few jobs that I have going. Playing music would sure be fun.”

Mary and Jamie were grinning at each other just before they jumped up and ran over to the new mini upright grand piano Bob had bought. They started playing the theme from “Cheers” and were giggling at the stunned look on our faces.

Bob, Greg, Linda and I were floored. Jamie smirked, ‘We’re not nearly as good as the pixies, but, Mary and I used to play together all the time when we were in Junior High. I think with a little more practice we could play with you guys. This IS a wonderful piano. We know exactly how Andie and Cathy fell in love with this!”

Suddenly I heard a saxophone playing and Sarah came waltzing up from the basement. She had a tenor sax that was wailing a jazzy tune. She winked at Mary and Jamie, “Do you think I could play with you guys too?”

I snatched her up and spun her around, staring flabbergasted at all three of them, “You all never even hinted you had any musical talent before. Why haven’t you told us till now?”

Mary had an innocent grin, “Like you guys, we’ve just been too busy to even think about it. When we got home, Jamie and I couldn’t resist trying out the new piano. It’s like it was just sitting there calling us! Then Sarah told us she could play sax. Jessica gave her that Tenor sax when we were helping her pack her things. It’s her old one.”

I could only shake my head, “This is unbelievable! We’re a musical Family! If we could just find a bass player, we’d be all set.”

I heard Gracie’s voice, “Ed plays bass and I can play the flute and clarinet! Hee-hee, and Bill plays rhythm guitar and Sally plays the organ!”

Bob was floored, “HOLY SHIT. We can be the first nekkid blues/jazz band ever! This has to be Fate. We HAVE to start playing on our Saturday night get-togethers. This could be EPIC!”

It wouldn’t have taken much to get a jam session going, but we all had things to do.

I told Linda I was going to call Sam. She smiled, “I already did! He had a feeling we’d need some more time off. He knows what happened on the boat. He said to take as much time as we needed. But, he DOES want to have a serious talk with both of us.”

That sounded ominous.

Mary and Gracie flashed Tom and Jim Gregory then giggled. “They said Dad had already alerted them that we needed another day off, so we’re good.”

Jamie came back and said her boss wasn’t happy, but she really didn’t care. “I just insisted I needed the time and that was that.”

Sarah was grinning, “Harry said I could have the time off, IF Charlie and Linda promise to talk to him about designing his ‘Dream House’. I told him I’d see what I could do.”

Greg wasn’t happy at all. “Tim just said I needed to be there tomorrow or start looking for another job. I guess a couple things got screwed up last week because he couldn’t be everywhere all the time. I’m going to have a decision to make ... What did you guys say you wanted to call our band?”

I hugged my friend. I knew how he felt and what he was thinking, because I was thinking the same things. Having money, whether you want it to or not, changes things. Having supernatural abilities does so even more. My family was about to have to tackle the tough decisions these factors caused.

Ed and Gracie came over, sensing our boggle. They were also just glad we made it home. It was nearly dinnertime and we were all starving. Dad flashed that he wouldn’t be over until at least 7:30PM, so we opted to go to the Manor for dinner.

Time for me to face Jimmy’s wrath.

As soon as we walked in Jimmy came running up to me. I braced, but was shocked when he hugged me, “Oh Charlie! You’ve made my sweet Tammy thee happiest girl in all these worlds!”

I almost choked on my teeth, “You’re not upset she isn’t coming back to work here?”

“Oh, we will miss her, that for sure, but you didna know?”

“Know what?”

She ees in love with my long lost nephew! She brings Charles in here and she say she is going to marry heem! He is such a good man. His daddy ees my cousin. I haven’t seen Charles in many years. He and Tammy have a very good job on a cruise ship now. You are her hero and now she has her a fine husband to be. I could not be happier. Thank you my friend.”

Well, at least SOMEONE was happy with the aftermath of our cruise. Jimmy told everyone that we were to be treated like royalty. Then, right after we had our drinks, Jodie, Tammy’s friend came in and gave me a hug and a kiss. She was grinning, “Tammy and her new fiancé said I could get a job as the bartender on that yacht you guys were on!” Shriek, “I guess her new boss, Melody is coming in tomorrow to give me all the details. I can’t wait! I finally get out of Illinois. No more frozen tundra winters.”

Mary smirked, “Did Tammy tell you exactly what kind of cruises they were?”

Jodie was blushing cutely, “Oh yes,” she whispered,” and she says there’s this cute hunk named Arnold who doesn’t really have a girlfriend. I can’t wait to meet him! AND she says everybody goes naked all the time and there’s no limit on how many other guys (and girls) I can be with too!”

We had a lively dinner and arrived home just in time to meet Dad, TJ and Janet. Ed and Gracie had been out of the loop since we left Nashville and put on a communications blackout. They were amazed when they heard how I bored a hole through Brad/Butch’s head with just my mind. (And finger?)

Dad wanted to know the details, but not before Greg employed his ‘Blackout Bubble’ around us all.

Once he said we were good, I explained, “Well, I had Greg stand next to me holding my hand to boost my power. We did that because we didn’t want Butch overpowering me and putting me in his mind trap. That whole thing he did to Greg was past scary. We discovered Mike has the same ability to boost power like Greg does, so he was behind Greg, hugging him. Then, when I focused on trying to get control of his mind, this bolt of lightning, for lack of a better description, shot out of my finger, shooting clean through Butch and Benjamin, who was standing directly behind Butch, trying to boost Butch’s power.”

Dad shivered, “Did you also know it went through a double wall, a garage door and a 2-foot diameter tree?”

I nodded, then Dad continued, “So Mike’s ‘boost’ made that happen?”

Greg interjected, “Yes, I think so, but it WASN’T his fault. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I felt the wild increase in power I was giving Charlie and couldn’t warn him in time. Before I could tell him to be careful, ZAP! And it was over. It was just that fast.”

“Please leave Mike completely out of this,” I asked Dad, “he’s just discovering his abilities and he was more shocked than Greg and I were.”

TJ chuckled, “Don’t worry guys, as far as anyone is concerned, Mike was never there. We’re not looking to blame anyone, but we HAVE GOT to figure out what happened. Here’s what we’ve done. We found a bunch of pipe in those wooden crates. When we dismantled Greg’s ‘cage’ we staged the scene to make it look like they impaled each other with pieces of pipe. The pipe appeared to have been cut with a torch and had very jagged edges. We bludgeoned both of them several times to get flesh and even bone inside the pipe, before forcing the pipe into their heads. We did substantially more damage than your ‘lightning’ did, so even though there will still be questions, it hopefully won’t be as startling as seeing two laser holes!”

I looked at Dad, somewhat concernedly, “You KNOW Simon or whoever he is, KNOWS his sons didn’t kill each other. I’m willing to wager he’ll attempt to claim the bodies, too. Do you have any idea who Simon is?”

“I think so”, Dad said tentatively, “There was a clairvoyant who was pretty cocky who I always felt was sandbagging us. He seemed to know more about what people were thinking than he let on. When he wanted to grandstand he would always say, ‘And Simon says... ‘ before telling us whatever it was he wanted to say. His name was Sherman Leeman. He was very close to Johnny Fitsimmons. I suspect that Sherman may have been ‘chemically enhanced’ with drug therapy that Johnny was working on to enhance the brains sensitivity. It was supposedly able to even make a person mutate on a molecular level.