Chapter 17

Before Marianne could say anything else, Allen waved his hand. “He startled the living shit out of me, is what he did!”

Several people, including both Dads, had come out when Marianne screamed. They saw Allen on the ground and came running over. I’d already given him a hand up before they got to us. Allen was laughing. “Damn, Cal, that’s one hell of a statement. Hey, I’m fine, everyone. I was having a man to man talk with Cal here, and, um, he told me some business news that startled me so badly, I just lost my balance and fell on my ass. It’s okay, really.”

Marianne had run over as well. “Are you sure, dear? You scared me, you know, after that incident last year.”

“I’ll be fine. That’s why I take the blood thinners now. No, I’m just not used to a 16-year-old telling me he’s spending tens of millions of dollars.”

Marianne looked at me. “Margie was saying something about some big business she was going to be doing next week, but she wasn’t too specific.”

“Simply because they’re not done deals; I shouldn’t have told you as much as I did, but you’re family. Please, PLEASE, keep that under your hat. Completely...” I didn’t move my head, only my eyes, but pointed them at Marianne.

“Industrial secrets. Not a problem. You know what? If Roger is pissed off at me for stuff I can’t control, screw him. I’ll come work for you.”

I held up a finger. “Hold that thought. Where’s Elroy? Oh, good, there you are. Who would I talk to, the Kansas Secretary of State, or the state Chamber of Commerce, to find out what businesses have been thinking of starting manufacturing plants here?”

“I’ll call John on Monday. Why? What are you thinking?”

“I’ll let you know after Thursday.” He nodded.

We made two more trips. By now it was starting to get dark, but all the things the girls had purchased had been brought in. “If everyone wants to go into town for dinner, I’m buying,” Elroy said.

Margie saved me. “Uncle Elroy, as much as we’d love to, let’s wait until Harry and Emily are home. We’ll be up early in the morning, getting our clothes out of the house, so we need to make an early night of it. And to be blunt, I’m looking forward to not having to rush in and out of a shower because four other people have to use it.”

Everyone was a little disappointed, but they understood. As soon as the last car was out of sight, and it was completely dark, I stationed Eve at one door, Beth at the other, so they wouldn’t close, and then spent four minutes bringing all of our clothes over. While I was doing that, Margie and Dora got my uniform ready. I checked with Mike, to see if there were any changes to the target list. He had a couple of small ones.

“Ladies, I’m almost afraid to tell you all to get a good night’s sleep. You’re going to see some things that aren’t ... nice.”

“What they did to my brother wasn’t nice. We all know you’re doing this, not for your own selfish gain, but for the future of the child growing in there, and the ones we’ll have growing inside of us eventually. And for the children unborn around the world.”

“I believe that’s the polite way to tell you to kick both their asses. It’s going to be tough to fight a war when you don’t have an army,” Margie fiercely said.

Before I tied my mask up, I gave all my girls a kiss. Margie looked in my eyes. “Get back here before morning. I want to wake up with you next to me.”

“I’ll be as quick as I can, love.”

“You don’t have to destroy all of them in one night,” she said.

“No, but it won’t hurt.” She nodded when I said that. “Don’t forget to feed Jethro and Spanky.” I took off for the south. It was much easier this time to get to altitude and speed, as I’d done this before. I stayed at altitude until I got to the northern border of Iraq.

I figured the first runway I got to, in Mosul, would let me know how things would go. I didn’t bother to stop, I simply came down and about 200 feet short of the northern end of the runway, I literally dove into the dirt, almost like I was swimming through it, my hands in front of me. I was also still going 400 miles per hour. I angled my hands like the blades on the plow that I’d picked up so many times, flinging chunks of concrete through the air like they were simple skipping stones. Once I hit the dirt at the other end of the runway, I rose into the air and made a tight loop. I noticed that I had slowed just slightly, so I was maybe only going 350 miles per hour when I made my second pass through the runway. The net result was that, in less than one second, Mosul no longer had a runway; it had a bunch of broken concrete that in most cases, was still flying through the air and hadn’t landed yet.

I made another tight turn above ground, then flew through the four dozen fighters that were on the ground. I banked hard right, to the military base. I dove through the ammunition bunkers that were there, destroying them, then coming up and curving around, and flew through all of the armored vehicles that I could see. My mental clock told me that an entire minute had elapsed. I increased my altitude to 1,000 feet, my speed almost instantly right at Mach 3. It took less than 2 minutes to get to Erbil, and because I had learned to spread my elbows, only a single pass down the runway was needed to destroy it, leaving me more time to destroy the military aircraft present.

Four minutes later, I was leaving the airfield at Kirkuk; it now in the same shape as the other two. I hit 1,000 feet and headed northwest. It was time to share my gifts with their neighbors. 8 minutes later, I descended upon Tabriz. They had two, very nice and large runways, along with a lot of military equipment. Two minutes later, I was rising from Tabriz, leaving everything military a smoking ruin. My next target was Hamadan, which only had one runway. Three minutes, and I was on my way to Kermanshah. This would be interesting, because not only were there two large runways present, they also had attack helicopters, which didn’t really need runways.

My total time, including travel, was just over five minutes. Some of the helicopters were trying to take off; the word had made it that there was some kind of attack going on. They didn’t make it. It was then time to go mess with their neighbor again. Baghdad had a very large, very nice, airport. There were anti-aircraft guns firing blindly into the sky, helicopters circling, and several jets at altitude, trying to find something to shoot. Due to the sheer size of the multiple runways there, it took me almost four seconds to destroy all of them. I spent more time flying through all the hangers and airplanes on the ground, plus all the ammunition bunkers. It looked like almost an entire armored division was parked just north of the airport. As tough as a tank is, my hands were stronger. They were parked in nice rows, too, which made it much easier for me to simply bust through one row of 40 of them, turn, and blast through another 40. Less than a minute later, more than 200 tanks were now scrap metal.

I chuckled, thinking that Elroy could turn a nice profit off them. Either way, the net result was that in less than 5 minutes, the Iraqi army and air force units stationed at Baghdad had been reduced to rubble and scrap, including those that had been in the air. Over the course of the next hour, I skipped back and forth between the countries, destroying their runways and military aircraft. I took out the other two airports near Tehran as well, but in a pointed statement that I hoped they understood, the furthest south I went was their Omidiyeh airfield. I doubt that either side particularly liked it when I next went after their navies. The Iraq port of Umm Qasr became smoking rubble, and I figured that my last thing to do, before leaving my mark, was to deal with Iran. What that meant was completely destroying both the civilian and the military portions of the port of Bandar Abbas, including their tanker and freighter loading facilities, and all of the Iranian navy that was at their port further east of there, at Kolāhi.

I had spent a total of two and a half hours, and I was done destroying things. My next step was simple, but at the same time, the most crucial. I found a spot in Iran about 10 miles inside their border, dug into the sand in Farsi half a mile tall, End the Fighting. I did the same in Iraq, about 10 miles inside THEIR border, only this time in Arabic. I made sure in both cases that someone saw me making the words. After that, I started flying home.

I was about halfway home when I had an idea. I changed course, for Bern, Switzerland. I hoped the Swiss would forgive me, and more importantly, Elroy. It was a couple of minutes after 8 in the morning, local time, when I arrived, about a thousand feet in the air above where Elfenstrasse turned off of Thunstrasse. The owners of the cars parked along the street weren’t going to be happy. I watched for a few seconds, to make sure I wasn’t going to wreck someone turning off of Thunstrasse, then dropped to the ground.

Because this was the embassy area, there was a police box right at the corner, with two police officers standing watch. They both looked at me with surprise on their faces. One of them said, “Where did you come from?”

I replied to him, in the same German that he’d spoken, “I have come from above, with a message for two peoples here. I apologize to you in advance for what I must do. It is time to end the fighting.”

The other asked, “Wait, what?”

Before either of them could move, I picked up the box they were standing in and moved it across the street, to the middle of Steinerstrasse. I then dodged between two cars to cross again, bent down, and peeled up about a three-foot-wide section of the road, where the pedestrian crossing on Elfenstrasse was marked. I ran down the street, ripped the gate from the Iranian embassy drive, and in Farsi script four feet tall, wrote End the Fighting, in the middle of the street. The Iraqi embassy was just a little bit further south on the same street. Both of their gates and the street got the same treatment, this time in Arabic. Just to make my point, I carved ‘Beendet die Kämpfe’ into the street where Beatustrasse met Elfenstrasse, right across from the second Iraqi gate.

About 15 seconds had elapsed from when I’d first picked up the police box. One of the officers had exited and was running across Thunstrasse. The other was in the box, on his radio, screaming for reinforcements. I picked the box up again, then flew it back where it had been originally located.

“My apologies again, gentlemen. I didn’t want you, as innocents, to be injured by any debris that might have been kicked up.” A couple of car alarms were going off from where they’d been hit by the flying gates.

“Stop where you are! You’re under arrest!” the second officer yelled at me. He had his weapon drawn and was pointing it at me.

I laughed. “How can you arrest a Messenger from Above?” I took off, straight up. My acceleration rate was such that I broke the sound barrier maybe 30 feet up. The sonic boom definitely caught everyone’s attention in Bern. By 2:30 in the morning, I had landed at home, and was washing some road tar off my hands.

When I walked into our home, the three younger girls were on the sectional, Margie was in the recliner. They were all wearing regular sleep shirts. “I’m glad you didn’t hurt either of the police officers. Messenger from Above. I like it. You didn’t claim to be from God or Allah, just from above, which isn’t a lie.”

“I didn’t know you spoke German,” I quietly said, as the others were still asleep.

“I don’t. But you do.” She shook her head. “I saw ... all of it. I went to sleep early, so I could know and see what you had to do. This is going to sound ... callous, because I’d like to not see anyone hurt, but unless I missed something, I doubt if there were more than a couple of dozen people killed, even with everything you did. And those were all pilots or soldiers. Good lord, when you were busting through those tanks, punching through the sides of them! That was more impressive, to me, than digging up the runways. I had to laugh when you said Uncle Elroy could turn a nice profit off the metal.”

I had been stripping my clothes, so they could go into the wash. When she said that, I stopped. “Um, Margie? I didn’t say that. I thought it, but I didn’t say it out loud.”

“Oh. I heard it, loud and clear. Odd. I was disappointed when you were flying home, I know I was asleep, but I was thinking if you’d make a statement where everyone could see it, maybe in Switzerland, and then you turned and went to Bern like I’d thought, I was so happy.”

“I don’t know what to think right now. We need to discuss things, maybe on the flight next week? I think when you’re asleep and I’m not, you’re not just hearing and seeing what I’m seeing, but we’re communicating, somehow, on a much deeper level.”

Her eyes widened. “It’s possible, I suppose. Put those in the other room, and come back here, I want to snuggle with you, so I wake up next to you in the morning.”

“Just curious, we have two king sized beds in there.”

“We’re not sleeping in them until we can sleep with you in them. Tonight, my love.” As the chair was oversized, once I was in shorts, I got into the chair with her.

We were already awake and just finishing up breakfast when the phone rang. “We’re going to have to do something about the volume. Three of them at once is too much,” Margie said. Eve was the closest and answered.

“Hello? Good morn ... he’s at the table, we’re just finishing up ... okay, hang on.” She covered the mouthpiece. “Elroy, and he sounds angry.” She pointed at me.

“Good morning, Grandpa! You’re our first official caller. Why don’t you just come out and become our first official visitor that’s not part of moving in; we’ll have a fresh pot of coffee ready for you, talk to you later, bye.” I hung up the phone.

Margie broke into giggles, quickly followed by the others doing the same. Beth got an evil look on her face. “Ladies, normally I would say let’s get dressed. But let’s not. Sleep shirts, no bra, but we do wear panties. No need to totally give Uncle Elroy a heart attack, Dora.”

It was barely fifteen minutes later when the doorbell rang. Eve had been watching out the window, and saw Elroy pull up. She was ready, pulling her sleep shirt up, so that I could suck on each of her nipples, making them fully hard and erect. She dropped it back down, then opened the door. “Good morning, Elroy. Won’t you come in?”

He stopped in his tracks, blinking rapidly. His voice cracked a little when he said, “Yes, of course, thank ... you.” He had a hitch in his speech when Eve turned. Her sleep shirt was shorter in the back, so the bottom of her panties and her butt cheeks were showing.

“Come on in, Uncle Elroy. I’ve a cup of coffee here, just for you.” Beth was behind the kitchen counter, holding the cup of coffee at her breast level. I’d given her nipples a quick suck as well. She came around from behind the counter, holding the cup out for him. Her sleep shirt was short on her, so the bottom half of the front of her panties were showing.

Dora stepped around as well. “I don’t recall, do you take cream in your coffee?” Her shirt was about two sizes too small for her top. Her larger breasts and pokey nipples were threatening to simply rip through the fabric. And because she was larger up top, that meant the front of her panties were showing, with the bottom of her black heart visible in contrast to her skin through the fabric.

Elroy closed his eyes. “Cal, you are a despicable, evil, and horrendously devious son of a bitch. You have progressed WELL past the devious bastard standard. Now, get all this young flesh out of here, before I burst a blood vessel.”

“Uncle Elroy, is that any way to talk to the father of my unborn child?”

“Margaret Ann Miller, I will talk to my grandson any damned way I want to.” The girls all giggled at that.

“I’m right here, Elroy.” He opened his eyes. I was standing right in front of him, with two girls on one side, two on the other, all four of them facing away and bent forward, so their panty clad butts were facing Elroy. “Let’s face it, Elroy. We’ve got a swimming pool outside, and you’re going to see them in their swimsuits at some point.”

“Fine!” He paused for a moment, then grinned. “I will admit that, if I had this sight waiting for me at home, I’d for damned sure be home every night.” He deeply sighed. “Now, go put something slightly more decent on, while I calmly discuss some things.”

They stood up, laughing, then each of them walked by Elroy, giving him a kiss on the cheek, as they went to the end of the house where their clothes were.

“Okay, I’ll take that coffee now.” He took the cup off the counter and moved to the table. “Son of a bitch, I had a very nice, righteous fury, all worked up, and damn it, you just took all of my high dudgeon away from me.”

“You’re welcome. You’ll live longer, if you don’t stress out too much, you know. Don’t worry about the things you can’t control,”

He took a sip. “We really didn’t have time to talk about this last night. So, Margaret managed to get pregnant, right away. I would have thought the two of you would have been more responsible than that.”

“Politely, Harry had provided condoms for me, when he figured out that I would have not just Beth, but Dora and Eve, as my ladies. The thing is, all three of them are on the pill, to help regulate their periods. So, I’ve not used one with them. With Margie, um, things got a little out of control for both of us. Something about a hayloft that women find romantic. I didn’t think that was really going to happen, quite like it did, and that’s on me. Margie, very bluntly, said she’d never thought she’d find someone that matched her intellectually, and so hadn’t ever bothered to take birth control, since her periods were regular as clockwork.”

“That’s for damned sure,” she said, coming back in from getting dressed. “I’m sorry, you old goat, but it was funny watching you.”

“You know, I’d just gotten used to Harry getting married to Emily. What am I going to have to get used to, as far as you’re concerned?”

“Nothing. Presuming things go well, in just under nine months, I’ll have a baby, and life for us will go on.” She sat down after pouring herself a fresh cup of coffee. The other three girls came out and started rinsing the dishes and getting things put away.

“Were you serious last night, about a new factory here in town?”

“Certainly. That’s why I asked you to do some research for me. One thing I’ve noted is that Kansas seems to have an abundance of flat land, as well as wind. Surely, someone is manufacturing wind turbines, to take advantage of that. Both of a size that are good for homeowners, as well as a size for industrial power generation.”

He frowned. “You’re right, but with the cost of electricity right now, I’m not sure if we can make it economical.”

“It doesn’t have to be economical right now. In fact, it won’t hurt if there are some accrued losses built up by 1994. I really have no desire to deal with capital gains tax on a billion dollars, so having some losses to offset that would be nice.”

That got him to blink. “Did you say billion, with a B?”

Margie nodded. “I’m thinking closer to one and a half.” she said. “We’re still playing with the numbers and the projections, based upon the US and world economy growth. It could be more, but I doubt it’ll be much, if any, less. Mind you, that’s just all stock, and doesn’t take into account what we’re doing next week, either. Presuming that Cal is right ... and I have no reason to think otherwise ... the numbers are going to be much higher.”

“How much?”

“Maybe five, six times larger. We’re figuring anywhere from five to eight billion. Now, mind you, that’s putting another $50 million out there, so we’ll just have to see.”

“Good lord. Damn straight, you want some losses. I’ll get on the phone, first thing in the morning.” He shook his head. “But, that’s not why I came out here. That was very artfully done, distracting me like that. Now, what the hell did you do last night?”

“Okay, I admit it.” He looked shocked at my statement. “The girls and I waited until all of you left, then moved the rest of their clothes over here, from the other house. That way, we’d be totally out of there, before Emily and Harry get back.”

“Fine, you’re going to be that way. What do you know about what I saw on TV this morning? Face the Nation and Meet the Press were both talking about it. They even showed leaked footage from a security camera.”

“I don’t know anything about that. We won’t have cable until tomorrow at some time. Getting a good night’s sleep, then a good breakfast after working so hard yesterday while moving, were our priorities this morning.”

“That, and playing a joke on you, Uncle Elroy,” Beth said from the sectional, where she and the others were sitting, reading school books.

He looked up at her. “Watch out for old dogs, young lady. You never know when we might have a bite left in us.” He blinked. “Hang on. Last time I checked, the three of you were finishing all of your school work before you were even done for the day. Why are you all studying hard right now?”

“So that we can test out of our senior year, at the end of this year,” Dora said. “That way, next year, we can all take classes at HCC and earn our Associates, so we’re not that far behind our Cal.”

He opened his mouth, then shut it. “Keep up the good work, ladies.” Turning back to me, he said, “Okay, fine. On the Sunday morning news shows, they were reporting that something major seems to have happened in Iran and Iraq during the night. Massive explosions reported from both countries, decimating their air forces and destroying their navies. In addition, they had footage from a camera in Switzerland, showing someone landing, picking up a police box, moving it, then destroying the street in front of both the Iraqi and Iranian embassies. Apparently, there were words carved into the street, the same in all three instances, just in different languages. End the fighting. Then the video showed the person picking the police box up again, putting it back where it originally was, and claiming to be a messenger from god, before flying off again.”

“That sounds very strange. Wow, I wonder if they’ll listen to that messenger, and maybe end their war. Although, if someone was trying to end a war, I doubt they’d say they were from god. Probably, they just said they were from above, would be my guess. But I wouldn’t know, I didn’t hear what was said, obviously.” I smiled.

Elroy sat in his chair, quietly sipping his coffee. When his cup was empty, Margie got up, refilled hers and his, got me another glass of orange juice without speaking, and then sat back down. A solid five minutes went by, without anyone saying anything.

I could see the laughter in Margie’s eyes.

Elroy finally said, “Cal, I’m actually curious about something, now. Margie, would you bring me a new, clean glass, without touching it yourself? I mean, use a rag, when you bring it here.” She got up and did so. “Cal, please wipe your hands off, on that rag, then simply and easily, with one hand, pick that glass up, hold it for a few seconds, then set it back down again.”

I did so. He carefully picked the glass up, looking at it. He placed his fingers on it for the same length of time, then looked at it. He even put a bit of breath on it, fogging it a little. “May I see your hand, please? Palm up.” I held it out for him. “Interesting. You don’t seem to leave the normal oils, when you touch things. I can obviously see that you have fingerprints, but you don’t seem to leave the sweat and oil that most people do. That might be a good thing, especially if you grab things with your bare hands. I’d be careful about that.”

He leaned back in his chair. “Have you given thought to names yet? Or told Allen and Marianne?”

I shook my head. “Allen told me, for the record, that he’s unhappy about things. Off the record, he knows that geniuses such as Margie will do what they will do. He’s not that keen on my living with the girls, but he did call me amazing. And I haven’t told them; I doubt Margie has, either.”

“No. And no, on thinking of baby names. That will come, later, when we know if it’s a boy or a girl. Unrelated, we forgot bar stools for the counter, throw rugs or mats for the kitchen, and we still have to bring my exercise equipment over. Also, dish soap, as well as things for the dishwasher, fabric softener, and just the usual list of household products that every home has. I can’t believe I forgot to get scrub brushes for the toilets.”

“What time are your sister and husband due in?”

“Their plane lands at Kansas City at noon. I don’t expect them before 3 at the earliest, more likely 4,” Beth said. “That’ll give us time to vacuum the floor over there, and make sure things are as organized as we can get them.”

Elroy nodded. “Thank you for the coffee. I can see that I’m preventing you from doing some things you need to finish up, getting things from your old house, and shopping. Have a good rest of the morning, and if I won’t be in the way, I’ll stop in again a little after 3. You all may need a good lawyer then.”

“Sure. Are you going to bring one with you?” Everyone laughed at what Margie said. Once Elroy was out the door, the girls put their books up, looking at Margie. “Beth, you and I, to my house, to get things. Dora, Eve, to Walmart. You know what the kitchen and bathrooms need, get everything. I have a great vacuum cleaner, we won’t need that, but brooms, a new mop, all the household chemicals. Would you believe we forgot to get toilet paper, a trash can, and trash bags? We’ll need small cans for the bedrooms, too.”

“We’ve got it under control, sister. We’ll take the Jeep; it has more room in it. We’ll get groceries, too.”

“I know what I’m doing,” I said. “Everything that doesn’t need to be in the house, in the shipping container. And then clean the house, top to bottom.”

“Girls, once you’re back from Walmart, please start on an easy, relaxing dinner, for 8, please. The five of us, Elroy, Emily and Harry. Thanks.”

Dora nodded. “Got it. I’ll make it really easy and casual. Hot dogs, burgers, chips, pop, simple things.”

“Sounds Good. Let’s get to it.”

I quickly put the shelving units together that we’d purchased, moved a few things around in our house, then went over to Harry’s place. I told Mike what I was doing, then took the spaceship parts out of the shipping container and moved them to the shop side of our garage. Then I brought the extra dressers and mattresses down. We had another clothes rack in the barn, not assembled. I took it back over, put it up. I realized I’d forgotten to get MY own clothes over, so I brought those and my dresser over. I grabbed Margie’s dresser as well, so she could get her clothes changed, or do with it what she wanted. The other girls had moved their own clothes, so all of their dressers and chests were empty.

Once that was done, I moved Emily’s clothes from the master bedroom into what used to be my room. I figured they’d turn Beth’s room into a nursery. It really did take me nearly two hours to get everything moved, arranged, and cleaned. But once I was done, the inside of the house was spotless. The only signs that something was amiss were the two computers and desks in the living room.

Turns out that was just enough time, because I could almost swear the girls were all telepathic with each other. Both vehicles pulled in, less than a minute apart. I got to play pack mule again. Margie was embarrassed at all the things she had forgotten, like shower curtains and bath mats. Eve and Dora said they’d just each taken a cart, went in two different directions, and met back up front, then got two more carts. They considered it to be incredible fun. Beth and Margie had the truck full of artwork, the stationary bicycle, and a huge amount of just extra things.

“Oh, thank you for bringing my dresser over. I knew you got my hanging clothes, and I’d brought some underwear over, but I forgot the rest last night. By the way, Beth and I were talking while we were working. She saw everything you did, heard what you said and what was said to you, but didn’t understand it.”

Eve said, “Dora and I compared notes, too. We saw most of what happened, I think. If it makes any sense at all, it was clearer than it was last time, but not crystal clear, like we can see you now. And neither of us heard anything, although we could tell you were speaking to that police officer.”

“Do ... any of you have an issue with what’s going on? When I saw you pull in almost at the same time, I thought for a minute you must be telepathic between yourselves.”

They looked at each other, then at me. In unison, they said, “We are,” then started back doing what they’d been doing.

“Okay. All right, what else do you need me to do?”

Margie shook her head. “Damn, you’re too easy. We’re kidding!” She was laughing.

Eve and Dora were shaking their heads. “Um, sis ... we’re not,” Eve said. “Not to the point of knowing what you’re specifically thinking, but Dora and I can sort of pick up the vibes from you and Beth. You’re much stronger than she is, but ever since we did that meditation with Cal, we’ve been ... I don’t know, attuned, I guess, is the phrase ... to each other. And now, to you.”