Chapter 73: Serendipity

Early-Mid Oct, 1986

AN ALIEN SPACESHIP NEAR GREG’S ISLAND

Bob POV:

WHAT THE FUCK?

One minute we’re all sitting around having a relaxing evening with our little friends, then suddenly, Mary, CJ and I are in some kind of a room in god-only-knows where!

To make matters worse, it seems our telepathy and psychic powers have been nullified or taken away. Whoever our captors are they’re really pissing me off! Oh yeah, AND scaring us shitless.

I’ve never felt more helpless in my whole life. I remember Ibera telling Monte and the rest of us about some kind of cage-like deal that could block telepathy. I’ve gotta guess it’s something like that’s what we’re being held in. My next guess is it might be Sintar’s ship. No telling how he figured out my bluff, but, he’d better hope I don’t get my hands on that big assed head of his or he’s a dead man! Or Alien.

I keep yelling but so far nobody’s answering or even shown us who or what they are. Could my boat really have pissed Sintar off that badly? It seemed like we’d parted on friendly terms and he seemed fine with us using the island as we saw fit.

Being held in silence is maddening.

Oh shit, what’s that smell? “Mary, I think they’re putting something in the air!? MARY...”

Oh God, Mary just passed out ... so did CJ ... and I’m feeling very punk. I’ve gotta try and hold on...

Lenny Swenson POV:

Ibera, Linda, Charlene, Sarah, Darren and I are all still in shock!

We were all watching the portal/viewer when all of a sudden, Bob, Mary and little CJ all started just floating up into the sky! Then, without warning, Charlie launches himself into the wormhole just as the shed we were sending entered.

Ibera screamed, “Oh NO, STOP CHARLIEEE...”

But, Charlie never heard her. He was already gone!

“What the hell just happened, Ibera?” I asked.

She was still in open-mouthed shock, “That ... that wormhole phase was only meant to send ‘things’ ... inanimate objects, special containers, like that shed! It was never meant to send people!”

“So, what’s going to happen to Charlie!?” I asked, incredulously.

“I don’t know! He could go either into the future or the past. I really have no idea!”

“Any idea how far?”

She shook her head, looking despondent now, “Three months? Three years ... three centuries? The time dilation/progression is so hyper-accelerated there’s just no way of knowing. Even the portal can’t calculate it!”

As we watched the viewer, we soon saw the shed appear. We watched for another 15 minutes, but no sign of Charlie.

Darren shouted, “Portal, go back 20 minutes and zoom out to any spaceship in the area ... please?”

Suddenly we saw a very odd, aggressive shaped vessel. Ibera cursed, “Those Gromorik bastards! How the hell did they know Bobby and Mary would be there!?”

I was confused, “But, those other aliens that Bob dealt with last time, weren’t they Triloks?”

“YES, but they’re just a bunch of gutless eggheads. They must have figured out that Bobby has psychic powers and contracted with the Gromoriks to abduct them. The Gromoriks have a huge bounty out for any psychically proficient beings so they can capture and study them!”

I gave Ibera the ‘father’ look, wondering why she was just now telling us that. I knew I had to warn Monte and Rex so they knew what the deal was.

“Ibera, do you have any idea where they might be taking them?”

She addressed the portal, “Project possible destination planets, having Gromorik bases, based on the direction of travel.”

A soft voice replied, “Insufficient data for positive projection. Ultra-warp engaged quickly, therefore indicating any of nearly 20 planets to be possible destinations.”

“Is Earth one of those possible destinations?” I asked.

“Negative, unless severe course deviation is taken.”

Ibera countered, “Is Gromorly on the list?”

Affirmative! Estimated ETA based on type of vessel... 4.67 Earth years at best available speed.”

“Thank you, portal.” She said with a small smile on her face.

I was curious, “What does that mean, Ibera, sweetie?”

She blew out a deep breath, “It means ... Charlie has got to appear before that! Trust me, Lenny, guys, we WILL do everything in our power to help them!”

“But, can’t you do anything to help them, now?“

She shook her head sadly, “There are over 1000 of those same types of vessels in the Gromoriks fleet. Without causing an inter-galactic war, we can’t just go stopping every vessel going in that direction! Besides, if Charlie ends up in the future, then goes back in time, he’s going to create an alternate reality when he rescues them. THAT would still mean that THIS ‘reality’s’ Bobby, Mary and CJ are still being held captive! Would you want that?”

The girls and Darren were completely lost, but I sorta understood what she meant.

“No, I guess not. So, we’re just going to have to wait until Charlie shows up?”

“Yes, I think that would be wise. At least until we learn more. Zeus already knows about all this and has already mobilized every available resource to begin finding them! We just need to give Charlie and him a chance. For now, anyways.”

Linda, Sarah and Charlene all still looked stunned.

“Linda, do you guys all want to come home, to our place, for now?”

Linda had a strange look on her face as she looked at Sarah and Charlene.

Slowly, she began shaking her head, then faster before saying, “Thanks for the offer, Dad, but no. I can’t even pretend to know what’s really going on with all this, but I DO know one thing for certain. I am not going to let Charlie down! I need to get busy and finish designing Charlie’s and our dream home. Sarah, Charlene ... are you girls with me?”

Charlene and Sarah embraced Linda in an emphatic hug. Sarah smirked, “Dad, you know I love you. But, I’m with Linda and Charlene. The Three Amiga’s are going to do this! I firmly believe that, if we build it, they will all come ... HOME.”

Greg Sanders POV: IBERA’S DOMAIN, CHRISTMAS DAY, 1986

I can finally see people in the light up ahead.

Yes! I can almost reach out and be out of this damned wormhole. It’s been the longest three hours of my life. It was about 45 minutes ago when I received 5 ‘mental packets’ of messages! At first I thought I was hearing things, but, then I felt these messages almost slamming into my head!

I opened Jamie’s message first. She said she still loved me, but I was going to get slapped for being stupid! Then, she assured me she’d make up for it.

Then Bob told me I was going to be in for a bit of a shock, that a whole bunch of things had happened while I’d been away.

My little Mio said he really missed me and he’d been taking care of Tyler and keeping him out of trouble. (God, I love that kid. Almost as much as my own!)

Ed said he missed me and couldn’t wait to go back to the Island with me! Then he said ‘Shit has really changed’ and I ‘needed to be ready for some really bad news.’

That sounded ominous.

Mary said that Charlie really missed me and was so looking forward to seeing me again. She’d helped Tyler send a message where he told me how much he missed me and that he’d been learning all kinds of new things. Mary closed by also warning me that almost nothing was the same at home anymore and our ‘Family’ had grown, significantly. The thing is, she sounded somewhat sad for some reason. Hmmm?

When I finally exited the wormhole I was stunned to see that only Jamie, Tyler, Ed, Gracie and little Crystal were there to greet me.

And, they didn’t look overly glad to see me. Relieved maybe, but, not the joyous reception I was expecting.

I braced myself for Jamie’s slap, and ... it never came. I slowly opened one eye and she just rushed into my arms and began sobbing!

Ed was looking very sad and I began wondering if I wasn’t in some kind of an alternate reality or weird parallel universe or something.

I didn’t want to appear ungrateful, so I flashed, “Jamie, where is everybody?”

“Gone...” She flashed quietly, before looking at me through bloodshot eyes.

“Everybody!?”

She shook her head sadly, “Linda’s at the trailer with the twins and Sarah’s at Darren’s with Abby ... Emmy and Bill are still at her mother’s house in Glencoe with their kids.”

“Who’s Darren?” I asked before realizing she’d ended her summary.

“Oh NO. WHERE’S SALLY, CHARLIE, BOB, MARY AND CJ?” I shouted.

Now Ed and Gracie were crying too, “They’re all gone, Greg.” Ed lamented, “Sally was killed, four months ago, the same day all of us, except you, got back from our trip to the Island. Bob, Mary and CJ ... well, we’re still not sure, but, we think they were abducted by aliens, possibly Gromoriks, according to Ibera. And Charlie ... he tried to save them, but rushed into the wormhole too late and just fucking disappeared! Ibera still has no idea ‘when’ he may turn up. We can’t even be sure if he went forward or backward in time!!!”

“But, but, isn’t he still in a wormhole, like I was?”

Ibera was shaking her head, “No Greg, he went into an extremely tight window before I could tell him to stop! It’s different from your case. The wormhole is empty now, or I’d know where and when he was. I’m sorry.” Now she was crying, too.

Shit, now I’m sure this has to be an alternate universe. This can’t be happening. And if it did, it could all be MY fault!

I felt the room spinning and I think I passed out.

When I came too, I was on a bed with Jamie and Ibera sitting next to me.

I just looked at them, “Please ... tell me I just had a really bad dream?”

Jamie shook her head, sadly, “I’d love to tell you that sweetheart, but I’d be lying. I’d love to tell you some good news, but, there really isn’t any.”

She started crying again, “You’ve missed so much, I don’t even know where to start trying to tell you about everything that’s happened!”

I engaged her in a tender hug, “Let’s just go home then, and you can start at the beginning, okay?”

She nodded and we all slowly stood up.

I probably should’ve taken her hand, but, I just went ahead and popped home.

Or at least were home used to be the last time I’d been there.

Instead of finding myself in our living room, I found myself standing in a damned hole in the ground! When I looked around, I found that it was actually a foundation for a basement. It had been snowing and there was about three inches of snow covering everything. I flew up, out of the basement, to where our front yard used to be.

As I looked around, I saw where Ed’s, ours and Bill’s houses used to be.

The only things there now were three barren foundations.

I looked across the street at where Rex and Jeremy’s house was only to see it was completely dark and none of the snow going up to the house or the driveway had ever been disturbed. When I looked across the foundation into our backyard, I could see the indentation where our pool used to be.

Everything was just ... GONE.

I knew this was the right place. But now, with the snow cover, frigid temperatures and the snow that was still falling it was the most surreal thing I’d ever experienced before. The rest of the neighborhood was decorated in Christmas lights, only adding to the surrealistic quality of the scene. I was becoming overwhelmed with a sense of melancholy ... and dread.

Then, Jamie spoke softly from behind me, “I’m sorry Greg. I felt you needed to see this for yourself to even begin to understand what you’re going to hear later.”

We embraced in a tender but very intense hug and she kissed me with a kind of intense, desperate, passion I’d never experienced with her before.

It felt like it was just her and me against the world right now.

The three people that we were the closest to in the entire world were gone. Then there was my little Mio and Sally who, between the two of them were also causing my heart to break, just for them. Knowing that all five of them were gone made me feel like ... I didn’t know if I’d ever get over it.

After a long few minutes, Jamie and I slowly, grudgingly, separated after a last short kiss.

We were both shivering when she took my hand so she could guide me to our new home.

When I looked around, now, I was nearly mesmerized by a vastly different scene.

Even more surreal, but beautiful ... and warm.

We were standing on the top of a hill or rise surrounded by a copse of palm trees. The temperature felt like it must’ve been around 70 degrees under a clear, starlit sky. There was a full moon lighting the mountains that nearly surrounded the entire area. She pointed at three RV trailers that were set up in kind of a horseshoe, all facing toward the inside.

I recognized our fifth wheel. It had the door facing West, toward where we were walking. We stopped at the first trailer which looked to be a brand-new Toy-hauler. Jamie opened the door and we walked inside.

Linda, Gracie, Sarah, Ed and some guy I didn’t recognize were sitting around a large table back in the open, garage-area of the trailer. The unfamiliar guy immediately stood up and reached to shake my hand.

Sarah said, “Greg, I’d like you to meet Darren. Darren, this is Greg.”

The guy shook my hand firmly but not aggressively. He had a kind smile and I immediately took a liking to him. Linda said the kids were all in bed, asleep in their bunks.

Darren smiled and motioned for me to follow him.

We tiptoed up to a curtain that he quietly slid open a little ways, revealing the kids. They were all sleeping on the bottom bunk in a sort of puppy pile. When I noticed that little Mio wasn’t with them I started to get emotional again.

Darren put his hand on my shoulder and whispered, “I’m missing little CJ nearly as much you, my friend. I didn’t get to know him as well as you did, but, the little guy wormed his way straight into my heart. I know exactly what you’re thinking, so don’t think you’re alone, okay?”

When I saw his eyes becoming moist too, I couldn’t help but pull him into a bro hug.

I now felt a kinship with him. What could’ve been an awkward situation between the two of us had turned into the start of a friendship. I realized I was going to need that, especially with the absence of my two ‘brothers’.

Linda handed me a tall glass full of bourbon with a few ice cubes. When I looked at Darren, he was eyeballing my drink.

He grinned and asked Linda, “That looks good, do you think you might fix one of those for me?”

I grinned and slapped him on the shoulder, “A man after my own heart. A fellow bourbon drinker can’t be all bad ... I’ve always said... that!”

The rest of the evening saw all of us drinking, somewhat heavily, as they began filling me in on some of what I’d missed.

They made me understand that Darren was not a ‘Johnny-come-lately’, but had been intimately involved with the whole family for quite some time. They also explained why Emmy and Bill had been staying with Emmy’s parents.

As the conversation progressed, I asked, “You know, we should probably just build ourselves a nice big house on this property!?”

There was silence for a good 10 seconds before everyone broke out laughing.

I was scratching my head, wondering what was so funny when Linda popped off, “Gee, I wonder why we never thought of that?”

Jamie patted me on the knee, “That’s why Charlie, Mary, Bob and Linda bought this place, to start with! Charlie and Linda were designing our dream house ... right before everything happened.”

Things were awkward for a second before Linda added, “Luckily, Charlie and I had a complete concept drawing finished before he disappeared. Charlie, in your absence, had been working with a structural engineer, named Mark Steiner, with Jeffries and Associates.

“Unbeknownst to me, when we got back after Charlie, Bob, Mary and CJ disappeared, Al Jeffries had called Sam, our old boss back in Aurora. Shortly after I got back, I wanted to talk to Mark and when I went in to meet him, who should be standing there with him?

Our old friend Larry Jones!

He and Becky had been talking about moving out here to get away from the nasty winters in Chicago. He volunteered to come out and help Mark and me finish the plans! He, Mark and I are almost done now. Right after New Year’s we want to get with the builder that we’ve already picked out and hopefully we can break ground by the middle of January.”

I was flabbergasted. I felt bad that I hadn’t had any input in our new home.

I was chagrined that it was entirely my fault!

When Linda rolled out the concept plan, I instantly realized I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Charlie and Linda hadn’t just designed a house; this was going to be a true hacienda in every sense of the word. At first I was stunned by the sheer number of bedrooms. Then I saw where Charlie had penciled in the names of who all the bedrooms belonged to and I remembered Mary’s message that our family had grown.

I saw a few names that I had no idea who they were.

I had a feeling I knew who Willie was, but I had no idea who Maggie, Bruce or Diane were. I also noticed that Charlie and Mary’s bedroom had someone named Charlene written in it under theirs. I was glad to see Emmy and Bill had a room, as did their kids.

I was actually beginning to get excited about the whole thing now.

Right up until the point where I realized that Charlie, Bob and Mary may not be around to enjoy it with us, not to mention CJ and Sally.

I felt myself starting to get melancholy again.

My sweetheart, Jamie, noticed and told everyone she felt that I’d learned enough for tonight, that I needed some time to rest to try and absorb everything I’d learned so far.

She said that since nobody was using our old fifth wheel trailer yet, she wanted us to go there so we’d have a little privacy.

Thankfully, that didn’t appear to hurt anyone’s feelings and the two of us headed off for a little alone time.

I decided I needed a shower since I hadn’t bathed in over 4 months! She checked to make sure we had towels and I understood why she wanted us to come here. Our old RV had two showers, one of which was large enough for two people! (That’s almost unheard of in any but the highest-end RVs.)

After a tender, mutually attentive shower, we fell into bed. She was looking at me intensely, “I really need something, Baby...”

She told me to roll onto my stomach.

‘Ahh, she wants to give me a massage!’

SLAPPP!!!

“OWWW! ... What was that for!?” I screeched as I rolled onto my back to cover my stinging ass.

“It was your dumb-ass that caused this mess, so your dumb-ass needed to pay for it! I didn’t want you to be ready!”

‘And here I thought she may have forgiven me?’

“You know I still love you, right Baby?”

“Well, I guess it was better late than never? And I still love you too!”

She then took my cock in her warm hands then slowly eased it into her hot, inviting mouth and made love to it.

She made love to ME through my cock!

After all the tension I’d just been under, I exploded in her wonderful mouth in a matter of seconds. It was one of the most intense and longest lasting orgasms I think I’d ever had. I must have spurted 10 times, each one feeling more intense than the one before.

I told her I loved her and without another word went down on her. I’ve always been gentle, but tonight I wanted to be all that and still show her how much I loved and missed her, too.

Her sweet pussy tasted like fresh peach nectar, maybe even sweeter. I was in no hurry, even though she was thrashing around, urging me to lick harder and faster. I reached up and tweaked her nipples, really hard, and felt her sweet milk squirting on my arms as I continued my erotically languorous oral pace.

I really wanted to taste her forever, but when her cries threatened to wake the dead, I stopped and thrust my hard cock in her all the way to the hilt. As much as I prefer to make love slowly, I knew that now wasn’t the time for that. She was begging for me to fuck her and fuck her hard, so I complied. I fucked her like I hadn’t fucked in months. (Which I hadn’t?)

The harder I banged against her cervix, the deeper and harder she begged me to go. She had her legs up on my shoulders and when I felt myself cumming again, I just pushed into her as hard as I could and held it there!

She came, squirted, moaned, came again, then screamed one last time before going limp.

I rolled us on our sides.

We managed to stay joined until I awoke in the middle of a most vivid dream.

Charlie was in a spaceship, streaking thru space. Somehow he’d found Mary, CJ and Bob and was racing to rescue them!

Then I started laughing...

Somehow my subconscious must have gotten confused with the movie, ‘Back to the Future’. I swore I saw Charlie wearing the exact same ridiculous looking device on his head that Doc Brown was wearing when Marty first found him back in 1955!

That woke me up. Then Jamie wanted to know why I was laughing, since I’d wakened her too.

I told her about my dream and she wondered if it might be one of my ‘premonitions’?

“I don’t know ... I might have thought so if it wasn’t for that goofy helmet Charlie was wearing! I think it was just my subconscious blowing off steam.”

“Are you feeling better, Greg?”

I kissed her sweetly, “Yes, at least a little. What time is it? It looks like it’s starting to get light outside.”

She pointed at a small clock by the bed. It was 6:45AM. Jamie helped me fix some coffee and we got dressed in robes and went outside where a few director’s chairs were set up. It was a little chilly, but considering it was Dec 26^th, it wasn’t too bad. We were sitting by the front of the other 5^th wheel and when the sun poked up between the trailers and hit us, it felt wonderful!

We darn sure wouldn’t be doing this in Illinois!

I could smell mesquite. And lemon? There was a slight breeze coming from the east and when I stood up and looked, there was a small orchard only about 600 yards away!

I asked Jamie, “Whose trees are those!?”

She smiled, “Ours!”

I was stunned. I looked around in wonder, “Baby, just how much land do we own!?”

She looked to be deep in thought, “Charlie said we had an eighth of a section? Whatever that means.”

I quickly looked back at the orchard, then all around, “HOLY SHIT! ARE YOU KIDDING? An eighth of a section is 80 freaking acres! That’s bigger than the entire subdivision we used to live in!”

Linda had come out and heard me ranting, “So, Charlie and Bob done good?”

“Oh heck yeah! How many millions did this cost!?”

Linda shook her head, grinning, “Would you believe just $225,000? Lock, stock and barrel?”

I was gobsmacked, “That’s unbelievable. That’s only $80,000 more than our old house!”

“There used to be an old farmhouse about 80 feet behind the Toy-hauler. We had that torn down a few weeks ago. We’re still using the old septic tank and leach field for our trailers. We’re going to have city sewer and water piped in when we start building our new place. We’re also planning on keeping the well for irrigating the orchard and filling the pools.”

Linda showed me around the property, pointing out the obvious boundary points. When she asked me if I’d go with her, Charlene and Larry on Friday, January 2^nd to talk to the builder I had an epiphany of sorts.

Even though I didn’t know who Charlene was, exactly, I realized that our project was at the point where my expertise would really come into play.

Linda told me that Charlie had planned on asking me to help oversee the project with him when I finally returned home. Even though commercial buildings were my forte, our ‘hacienda/mansion’ damn near qualified. I just didn’t want to step on our builder’s toes. But, I figured maybe if I worked with him, eventually, I could use that to get back into the swing of things.

Besides, this WAS going to be our ‘Dream Home’ and I wasn’t about to let Charlie down by not getting fully involved.

I finally decided to ask about Charlene.

Last night we didn’t get into much about her, other than Sarah telling me she was her cousin and would be away, visiting family, till New Year’s Eve.

Linda explained that she was our Realtor, Charlie and Mary’s lover, as well as Sarah’s cousin. Charlie had invited her to join our family right before everything went sideways. Poor Charlene had been there, up at Ibera’s and was quite shaken with Charlie’s sudden disappearance. Charlie had already given her telepathy, so I knew she needed to be considered part of the family.

Jamie and Linda were giggling when I asked them to tell me more about her.

Linda pinched my cheek, teasingly, “Charlie was sure you’d like her, Greggie Poo.”

I smirked, “But, I don’t even know what she looks like!”

Jamie was just posing and called Sarah to join her. Now the two of them were posing along with little Sissy (Abby) standing and posing in between them.

I just looked at them with a look of obvious frustration on my face. And they just kept giggling!

“Girls, don’t any of you at least have a picture of her?”

I could tell Sarah and Jamie were up to something.

Jamie smirked, cutely, “Well, Huggy Bear, why don’t you ‘call out’ to her!? We told you she has telepathy, you goof!”

I huffed, “Okay! Fine, I’ll do it!”

I flashed, “Charlene Grayson, my name is Greg, can you hear me?”

After a second I heard, “Oooh, you’ve got a sexy voice, Greg. Charlie told me all about you. I can’t wait to see you when I get back...”

“Aaargh, Charlene, I see you’ve obviously figured out how to tease me, too.” I flashed with a sickly sweet mental voice. “But, nobody will tell me what you look like!”

“Well, no one has ever said I’m hideously ugly, if that helps? Giggle.”

Yep, she definitely knows how to tease and the girls are now all giggling even more!

“Okay, I guess I’m just going to have to wait and embarrass myself by unashamedly ogling you when we finally meet?”

I felt her tittering in my head, “Oh, I think I’m going to like you, Greggie, why don’t you look through my eyes for just a second?”

I smacked my forehead and closed my eyes. She must have been looking in a full length mirror. “Oh. My. God, Charlene! You’re absolutely beautiful!”

I felt like I was going to swallow my tongue. I may have been drooling, too. She looked like Sarah’s ‘Amazon’ twin! With bigger tits and even more freckles than Jamie!

“You’re too kind ... do you even like my freckles? Kids used to tease me when Sarah and I were younger.”

“I can’t wait to find and kiss every single one of them, my dear!”

Sarah cut in, giggling even harder, “And he’s NOT kidding, Char. This warped man has a ‘freckled-red-head’ fetish, we think. I TOLD you he was going to go all gaga over you!”

“Sarabande, ummm. Could you come and get me? I think I need to be with you guys. I really miss all of you!”

Now I smirked at Sarah. I just LOVE new nicknames!

“Sarabande’?” I whispered, trying to stifle a chuckle or three.

She hit me! Right on my shoulder!

“Charlene, would you mind if I come with her?” I asked sweetly.

“Sure, just give me a minute to go outside. I’m not ready for you to ‘meet the parents’ quite yet, okay?”

Sarah nodded at me to just agree for now.

“See you soon, Char!” I told her.

... And that’s how I met the newest member of our family.

Greg POV: DIARY ENTRY—New Year’s Eve, 1987

Dear Diary,

This has been a very busy, interesting and constructive year!

I can’t say enough about Robertson Construction, especially the three, three-man crews that have done the majority of the work, so far, on our hacienda. Linda and Charlene told me about the incident that Charlie felt cemented his decision to use Craig Robertson’s company, even though this was the biggest project they’d ever undertaken.

Each crew has a woman on it and anyone who thinks women can’t do construction has never watched these guys work! I watched them closely since I was given the job as site-coordinator.

I’d asked Craig Robertson if he minded if I assisted whoever was going to supervise and coordinate the crews, since that was what I’d gone to college to do. He more or less interviewed me and even checked with my old boss who gave me a great reference, noting I was let go due to reasons beyond my control.