Chapter 16

It’s life, ya know. Wake up in a new world every day. Change is damn near the only constant. The letter in the mail, the phone call, the can of chili on the floor.

The flat tire, now there’s a life-changer.

The letter: Greetings from the President. Erk!

The phone: John. It’s George. You know how I’m always to work early? Yeah. Well, it’s boarded up. Nobody there.

The can: Help! I can’t get up!

The tire: You’re late. Again. I’ve hired a new guy.

“Fleeing the United States? What for?”

“Mom killed the president and blew up the Oval Office.”

“Why did you have to flee? You’re just kids.”

“President Foley,” I said. As if that explained it. It did.

“Bill is in now,” said the Master Chief.

“We know, he’s rescinded the warrants.”

“Let me make another call,” he said.

He did.

“Master Chief Anderson, put me through to the Ambassador.”

Ooo, the big guns. Chief Anderson is more than he appears.

He shooed us. Wave of the hand, “Shoo.”

We shooed to the hall, got accosted a couple of times, explained, had the accoster open the door, back out, red faced and resume his/her original pursuit. We twiddled, sat against the wall, stood against the wall and were bored.

If we had known how long this would take we’d have had a nap.

The door opened. A hand beckoned. We reentered.

There were a ton of things that could have happened, but we never expected what did happen.

“I just got off the phone with President Clinton. You have dual citizenship. The bossman at the base has orders to fix your boat. We’re to put you up, feed and water you and treat you like royalty, just kidding about the royal part. I have to get you to Personnel and get you ID’ed.”

The longer he talked the farther up my eyebrows went. Cyn’s did the same.

“Holy Shit!” just like the duo we are.

Off we went.

Shuttled from pillar to post and back. We were checked in and in and in. Stamped, inspected, fingerprinted, injected and neglected. We languished outside office after office while the Chief explained. Finally recognized as legal, we found ourselves ensconced in a HOUSE. Not BOQ (Bachelor Officers Quarters), a real honest to God four bedroom six bath red brick house with fancy wood furniture and shiny hardwood floors. There was a carved wood plank with two stars on it in front of a parking space. That was gone when we came out to go to dinner at the O Club. Instead, there was a VISITOR ONLY sign.

This was WAY more than we expected. Zoe and Malcolm were already seated at our table. They both had a neck lanyard with a GUEST card on it.

“Where have you two been?” Zoe wasn’t asking, she was demanding.