Chapter 69: Sudden Realizations

Early Oct, 1986

Charlie POV:

On Thursday, Bob, Linda and I went out to our new place to do a quick, preliminary layout of the 300’ x 400’ footprint of our new place.

We needed to see where we might put the new RV trailers that were to be delivered on Saturday morning.

We didn’t want them to be in the way of the construction crews.

The first thing we saw was that if we centered the new place perfectly on the flat area within the copse of palm trees, the existing house was going to be mostly inside the footprint! That meant that the existing sewer (septic) lines would need to be removed nearly first thing. That, then wouldn’t leave us anything for the RVs to use to drain their black and grey water tanks into.

Dammit!

We tried laying out an alternate footprint, moving it as far south as possible, yet not too close to the trees.

That was better, but since the surveyors had marked up the septic lines, tank and leechfield, it was still pretty close to the area that needed to be excavated.

George and Lillian were watching the movers empty their house and George came over to talk to us. He was in a great mood and asked us if we needed anything.

I asked how deep the septic line was right by the house. He said about three feet deep then dropped at 5% to the tank that was slightly north of the north line of the house. (150’ away)

That’s when I noticed the tank had a four inch round PVC pipe and cap just above ground level. I told him about our ‘discovery’ and he suggested we just cap the line out of the house and use the ‘cleanout’ to dump our waste into.

I realized if we moved the footprint West about 120’ the tank would then be 30’ clear of the footprint! It still wouldn’t be centered, but, there was plenty of room to do that and we could then move the footprint back North about halfway from where we now had it and closer to our ‘ideal’ location.

We did a third layout and it looked good. It also played well since the RVs would now be quite a bit farther away from the construction area, yet still be on the flat area.

We laid out where we wanted the trailers dropped and made notes to have an electrician come out and wire three 50-Amp outlets to plug the RVs into.

Then Bob asked a question that sent me into a tizzy.

“Charlie, if this place isn’t going to have a full basement, how is the plumbing going to work?”

I froze for a long minute.

“Awww Sheeeit!” I bemoaned, “I hadn’t even thought about that! I’ve always designed places with basements or crawlspaces. I’m going to have to talk to Mark, quickly. I have a feeling I’m going to have to have the entire place designed and all the sewer and water lines run, before they can even begin pouring the slab! Aaargh, it’s going to be weeks if not months before they’re even going to be able to start. Dammit!”

A quick trip and consult with Mark Steiner confirmed what I feared.

All of the underground sewer, at least, had to be completed before they could pour the slab. And the stub locations had to be exact, since once it was poured there would be no changes possible!

Now Linda and I were REALLY going to be under the gun.

The only bright spot was that because of the proposed layout, the house lent itself perfectly to possibly being built in ‘stages’. Mark suggested that, so we could have the living portion and the bedrooms completed then pour the slab for the other wing or wings. (The living room/kitchen/ dining room was all going to be in the westerly wing while the bedrooms were all going to be in the southerly wing.)

The thing was, those two areas had 75% of all the sewer/water locations!

It was still going to take forever.

It just meant we’d only have to concentrate on half of the house at a time.

I conferred with the entire clan, letting them know of my startling discovery and how it was going to wildly delay our hopeful ‘move-in’ date. Six months was now completely out the window and it was looking more like a year.

When I heard from our ‘East Coast’ contingent, they sounded ... weird. I know I may have sounded downhearted about the delay but I couldn’t make out what kind of tone they seemed to have. It was very tense-like.

Almost like they wanted to ask me something, only to have then swallowed their tongues.

Hmmmm.

Bob told me not to stress and rush anything since I WAS designing our ‘Dream Home’ and reminded me that ‘haste makes waste’! Mary and the girls told me not to worry, that it would all work out for the best.

I really wished that Greg was here, now.

He was about the only one who’d truly understand all these complications and I felt he would have some answers and suggestions that I could really use.

I felt strangely alone.

Even though I was surrounded by love, in this instance, my main ‘co-conspirator’, not to mention, friend, was nowhere around. It’d be over two more months before he’d be here and by then any input he might have would be too little and too late.

It also made me realize just how little experience I really had as an architect.

Larry was the main guy on the building we redesigned for Stan and he even did most of the structural part of Stan’s Dream House.

Did I bite off more than I could chew?

I almost wanted to cancel the RVs and consider other options.

After getting some lunch, we went back out to our property so I could get another look and start making notes of all the other things I needed to do.

Bob, Linda and I were now the only ones here.

Just as I felt a deep depression creeping into my psyche, Mary materialized by my side. “Come here, Sweetheart. Let me hold you for a minute. I think you need me?”

“I don’t know how it will help getting things going any quicker.” I told her, dejectedly, “But, I’d never refuse your hugs and maybe a kiss?”

She put her arms around me and as her sparkling, blue eyes captured mine, the most wonderful sense of love and tranquility filled my soul. Then, it felt like all the negative feelings I’d just had seemed to slowly drift away! They were being replaced by the most amazing sense of confidence and enthusiasm I’ve ever had before.

Then I felt a familiar stirring in my groin.

Suddenly I had the most intense orgasm I’d ever felt! I was breathlessly moaning and just before I filled my shorts with a deluge of cum, Mary pulled them down and sucked my cock deep into her loving throat!

She had used her ‘Mental’ healing ability to cure my melancholy. Oh my God!

It’s like I could hear the ‘Rocky’ theme begin playing in my head and I was about to beat the crap out of Clubber Lang in the ‘Rematch’!

The clarity I was feeling was amazing. New tactics and designs were rushing into my mind like a flood.

I looked down at those beautiful blue eyes twinkling up at me as she swallowed the last of my ‘enthusiastic explosion’.

“I love you Mary ... God I love you!” I chuckled, “You just healed me and it felt amazing! I didn’t think I’d ever get to experience a ‘happy ending’ ... till you gave me this one, just when I needed it most.”

She pulled up my shorts then shared my spend with me in a passionate kiss that we hadn’t engaged in for far too long.

She knew what I’d just thought, “Charlie, sometimes you don’t realize all the help you DO have when you need it. Nobody feels like you let them down, just because you didn’t know everything about everything. We all love you and even if it takes two years to get our new home built, we’ll figure everything out ... together. Okay?”

I was in tears, “I know. Sometimes I just feel bad when things don’t go the way I planned. Especially after telling everybody how I thought things would go. I don’t accept failure very well, I’m afraid.”

Mary giggled cutely, “And just who said you failed? Hmmm? Every journey begins with the first step. Don’t be trying to take the 100^th step right after the first! Okay?” She giggled again, “And like Bob said, ‘haste makes waste’! Take your time and let the rest of us support you by doing the things we know how to do.”

Bob chuckled, “At the risk of making you feel further abandoned, since you and Linda have so much to do ... would it bother you if I and a few others went up to Greg’s planet for a few days?”

I sighed and smiled at him, “And just who were you thinking of taking with you?”

Mary giggled, “Me, our two kids, Jamie, Tyler, Gracie, Eddie and little Crystal?”

“I felt it might be a good idea so we don’t let Greg down.” Bob added, “Should we take the twins with us too?”

Linda shook her head, “No. It might be a good idea to separate some of the kids once in a while so they realize they can’t always be together. Charlie and I can always use our doppelgängers to keep an eye on Eric and Olivia if we have to.”

“That just gave me an idea,” I said, “I think Linda and I should take the kids to our special 13^th dimension home. We could do our work there! Since I could always communicate with Mary and Jamie, it wouldn’t matter where Linda and I stayed. I would also like to see if, with our enhanced abilities, maybe I could communicate with you guys up on Greg’s planet?”

Bob was grinning, “That’s the ticket, Big Brother. Since Bill, Emmy and their kids are all up at Emmy’s parent’s house in Glencoe, we’ll be giving Dad and the rest of the parents a break. That will also let you and Linda get into some major zones if you work in your 13^th dimension place. If the kids take a two-hour nap, that would give you and Linda like two whole days’ worth of time to work where you wouldn’t have to worry about them.”

Ideas were flooding my head so fast I couldn’t wait for them to leave! “Okay, you guys gather up your crew and have fun. Oh, have you figured out how you’re going to get all the kids into the portal?”

Bob chuckled, “Heck yeah! We’ll go the same way Darren and those guys are sending the prisoners to the planet. Only the boat we’re going to go on will have a motor and a whole lotta gasoline!”

Now I was laughing, “I should’ve known. It really is a great idea and what the heck, you might have some fun with a boat, don’t you think?”

They all grinned at me and Linda for a second before popping to who knows where to get ready.

They WERE planning on being back tonight, since Mary and Bob both needed to be here for the closing.

I called Charlene, mentally and asked how everything else was going.

I told her that we may want to spend at least tonight with her, depending on whether or not everything got done on Friday. (Tomorrow)

She told us she talked to the title company and everything was set to close first thing tomorrow morning. The surveyors assured her that their survey would be finished later this evening, so it would be available to be picked up at their office. She told us she would handle that and have everything ready. I asked her to get us at least five extra copies of the topographic survey so Linda and I could use that to begin designing our new home.

I flashed Dad to give him a heads up on everything the family was planning on doing. He said they had no problem keeping Eric and Olivia until we got our RVs set up, making sure we understood they had no problem keeping them longer if needed.

Little did he know it would probably be some time before the RVs even got used.

Charlene hooked us up with an electrician that we met on-site just before 3:00PM.

He managed to get our three 50-amp outlets fastened to a pole near where we were planned on putting the trailers.

When Linda and I returned to Charlene’s condo, Bob, Mary, Sarah and Darren were already there. Charlene told us there was a Chinese take-out place that delivered. She pulled out a menu when everyone agreed that would be a good idea for dinner. Everyone picked out their favorite entrée to share and we ordered a dozen eggrolls and a large wonton soup for everyone to share also.

It was pretty good, except that their Lo Mein couldn’t hold a candle to Mama Sans! Bob and Mary agreed and Sarah told Darren she would take him there, since Lo Mein was his favorite dish also. (He thought the stuff we’d just eaten was better than the stuff he usually had.)

Darren told us about everything that happened today with the prisoners. He told me how Vincent’s four kids had been forced to give up their dinners for the ‘white slop’ that Lola and her daughters were given, because of their attitudes.

I thought that was karmic justice.

After all, Mario, the oldest of the four, had been the one that killed Sally, so I didn’t really feel sorry for them.

Then Darren told us something that gave me pause.

First, he apologized for Brad having ‘saved’ them from the injustice that Elmer had perpetrated on them, since he didn’t know anything about who killed Sally. But, then he explained how, after a lengthy conversation with Mario and Marcella’s two oldest kids, Markus and Sonny, it seemed to him that Vincent’s four kids were nothing more than Elmer and Vincent’s pawns.

Darren told us how Marcus explained, “Most of the time, my four cousins had no idea why they were doing any of the things that they were forced to do. It was just to do as they were told or suffer the consequences!”

Darren went on to tell us that before Brad let them go their own way, it appeared all four of them had been beaten. The youngest, Lolita, who I discovered was only 17, had been beaten the worst.

When he told me that they were the first ones scheduled to go in the morning, I asked him if he could delay that for a bit. I wanted to talk to Mario, myself. The night they were questioned by Monte and Maggie, everyone was in a hurry to get as much information as quickly as we could. It’s possible, they didn’t get the whole story.

I wanted to know for myself exactly why Mario killed Sally and how it went down. I also had questions as to why Sally didn’t defend herself when she could have.

Darren understood and told me he didn’t think that would be any problem, since there were still two groups besides them that needed to go. He would just start with Franklin’s group, and then the rest of Elmer’s group if I wasn’t up there yet.

He told us some of the funny stories about different things, especially how Jasmine Tran and Annie Hunt had apologized to Ibera. Annie was very reluctant at first but it seemed like Franklin and Maxwell Lester had made her see the light. Then how the group of five assassins asked for all this stuff to make weapons out of only to forget many of the crucial pieces. Then, how they landed on the beach in the middle of a tropical downpour!

Bob and I laughed, “It sucked to be them!”

Everyone was in a good mood and we all began jockeying for position to see who was going to sleep with whom tonight.

Suddenly, Big Willie’s icon popped into my head, “Charlie, we’ve got a major problem that has just come up. Could you and Bob please join us up at Ibera’s, ASAP, like right now?”

“I suppose, just how big of a problem is this?”

“Have you ever heard of Defcon-1?”

“Yeah, isn’t that like when all the nuclear missiles are in the air?”

I could feel Willie huff, “Yeah, this isn’t exactly Defcon-1, but it’s way past Defcon-2!”

“What about Mary, Sarah and Linda, they’re going to want to know what’s going on, if Mary doesn’t already.” I chuckled, “If you know what I mean?”

I could feel him choke back a chuckle, “Yeah Buddy, I know exactly what you mean! My Maggie is every bit as bad as your Mary is!”

I felt both Mary and Sarah giggling in my head.

I had Willie’s icon in my head, which should have meant we were on a private line. However, right next to Willie’s icon were a certain brunette and redhead’s icons peeking around it and giggling! Mary flashed that no one else had heard us except Bob who was in on the conversation from the start.

Willie continued, “Charlie, this really is extremely serious. It’s so serious I can’t even say anymore until we get up to Ibera’s. Try to explain that this just may be the case where they’re better off not knowing. Please?”

I knew the instant that Mary, Sarah and Linda heard that, (Yeah, Linda was in Bob’s had too!) there was going to be at least some discussion before Bob and I could leave.

I put Bob’s and the three girls’ icons in my head and drew three circles around it, slamming the door shut on everyone else. “Listen ladies, whatever this is about has got all of our friends spooked. I’ll let you girls stay in my head, but, Sarah will have to ‘relay’ off of Mary since we’re going up to Ibera’s. Just be thankful our friends don’t realize Mary, Linda and I can communicate between dimensions. If they did, they may not even invite Bob and I for whatever it is that’s going on. Will that be okay?”

I breathed a sigh of relief when Mary said, “Yes, Sugar Bear, I know you could’ve kicked us out of your head if you really wanted to. We’ll all stay here and try to keep Darren and Charlene from asking too many questions. Do you think this has something to do with the prisoners?”

“I don’t know. It might, but I think the main reason they want to go to Ibera’s is to keep this a total secret from everyone. Right now, your guess is as good as mine!”

With that, Bob and I said we had someplace we had to be, then we both teleported directly to Ibera’s.

William Monte POV:

Maggie had just asked, in total bewilderment, “Do you guys think that Ibera is a Chaemarian?”

Rex looked pensive, “Look guys, let’s not jump to conclusions, okay? One thing’s for certain, we now have to get Charlie and Bob involved in this. Let’s face it, we have no idea how Ibera is going to react if we just come out and ask her if she’s a Chaemarian. We also don’t know whether or not she’d even tell us the truth. We all know how much Ibera loves and trusts Bob. Having him there just might put her at ease enough to level with us.”

Sheila nodded, “If Ibera really is a Chaemarian, she may know a hell of a lot more about what’s really going on than what’s in all those files put together. That’s why I agree with Rex. Bob and Charlie, besides deserving to know what’s going on, may be able to add things to our discussion that we may never have thought of.”

They all looked at me and told me to make the call.

I put Charlie’s icon in my head, ““Charlie, we’ve got a major problem that has just come up. Could you and Bob please join us up at Ibera’s, ASAP, like right now?”

I had to do some ‘tap dancing around’, trying to get him to understand how serious this was and that we really didn’t want them to bring anyone else with them.

There were a few humorous moments when I realized that even by using our icons, Mary would be right there along with him. I knew that, because Maggie’s sweet face was right next to Charlie’s icon, giggling and winking at me!

That’s why I felt that it was best not to say anything until after we got up to Ibera’s. While I was sure Mary would never say anything, the less she knew about everything the better.

At least until we got everything figured out.

I was never so glad Charlie had told us that you can’t communicate telepathically between dimensions!

The eight of us had just arrived and greeted a cheerful Ibera when Bob and Charlie showed up. The eleven of us sat down and we all ‘conjured’ ourselves up something to drink.

Bob was sitting with his arm around Ibera, “Okay guys. You’ve got us up here, now, what’s going on?”

Everyone was looking at me and I suddenly didn’t know where to start. “Um, Bob and Charlie, do you guys believe ... in aliens and UFOs?”

Bob laughed while Charlie tried to hide his chuckling, “Uh, yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Since I’ve already met two different species of aliens!”

Okay, so this was awkward.

Of course he had and I saw it right here on Ibera’s portal! So, I decided to rephrase, “What I meant was, did you guys know that as many as three different species of aliens have visited Earth and many of the UFO sightings are real, and a secret branch of the CIA has been covering it all up? Since the late 1930’s?”

Ahhh yes, now I got their attention. While not totally shocked, both of them were more than mildly surprised.

Charlie and Bob both looked at Ibera before Charlie said, “I’ve always wondered about that. I mean, it only makes sense that we’re not the only intelligent beings in the entire universe. I guess it wasn’t until Bob’s run in with that alien, Sintar, up on Greg’s planet, that I really took it seriously. Because of the nature of this meeting, I have to assume you’ve discovered something that pertains to that and is troubling you?”

Thankfully Rex came to my rescue, “Yes, we have. I’ve gotta tell you, there’s a whole lot more going on than the American public would ever believe. Monte found a series of extremely top-secret files that we believe Chen stole from a shadow organization known as ‘ETCETERA’. In it, we found documented proof that an alien species, known as the Greyzarisans, were the ones who crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, in what became known as the ‘Roswell Incident’. At that time, the CIA was tasked with gathering everything, including three dead Greyzarisans, and transporting them all to an area known as ‘S-4’ which is just south of Area 51 in Nevada.

“But, that wasn’t the first time the CIA and the military had done that. The first time was in a place in Missouri called Cape Girardeau. It happened in 1941 and they also recovered quite a bit of a badly damage spacecraft and three bodies, supposedly the pilot and two others. It was at that time that a group known as the Majestic 12 or ‘MJ-12’, was originally formed. They were ETCETERA’s predecessor.”