Chapter 3

Betty felt much better the next morning. She was just exhausted from too much sex the night before. We had a quick breakfast of eggs, sausage, and toast. Harry called his boss and told him he had a major family emergency come up, and he’d need some time off. Not surprisingly, his boss told him to take all the time he needed, because he was fired.

I expected Betty to be more upset about that news than she was. Instead, she just looked at me and said, “That’ll free Dad up to help you with everything, won’t it?” When I nodded, she said with a smile, “Good. I want him to do whatever he can to help you, no matter what it takes.”

We headed into town afterwards. The first stop was at the Reno County Courthouse, so I could get the birth certificate copies I’d need for everything else. Judge Bannister had made arrangements, and even had the out of state forms ready and waiting in the Clerk’s Office for us. Harry simply paid a small fee, and we were set. With several of what the Clerk called true and certified copies in hand, we next went to the Department of Revenue.

A woman at the counter asked what we wanted. Harry told her we needed to see Wanda. That irritated her, but she went back into an office. I heard her say that some farm boy was out there and wanted to see Wanda.

Wanda was something to see. Probably 120 pounds, about 40 years old, and with the secondary sexual characteristics to make any man get an erection. She was also wearing clothes that accentuated them as well. High heeled shoes to make her calves stand out, high cut skirt, a blouse that was straining to break the buttons, along with two very pointed nipples poking at the fabric, and blonde hair that I could tell wasn’t natural.

She came up, glancing at me, ignoring Betty, then fastened her eyes on Harry. Her voice was sultry. “Howdy. I heard you were told to ask for me. I’m Wanda.”

Harry was sweating, even though it wasn’t hot inside the building. I could tell from his heart rate that he was attracted to this woman in a purely physical way. He also had a bit of trouble speaking.

I spoke up. “Hello, ma’am. I’m here to get my driver’s license.”

She spun her eyes at me. “Oh, yeah? What makes you think you needed me for that?”

I smiled. “You’re who Judge Bannister specifically told me to ask for.”

She instantly went from being a tramp to a professional. “Yes. Cal Lewis, isn’t it? I do need a copy of your birth certificate. Do you have one?” I handed it to her. “Thank you. This will take me about five minutes. The fee is twenty dollars. I’ll need you to sit over there, in that chair, so I can take your picture. Please look at the blue dot above the camera, and don’t smile.”

I followed her directions. There was a bright light that flashed. She was sitting at some kind of machine. It looked like a manual computer entry terminal. After doing a couple of things that I couldn’t see, a card came sliding out of the machine. “Let me double check this, to make sure the picture is good enough.” She looked at me, then at the card. “You’re good to go, Mister Lewis,” she said, handing me the card.

It read, State of Kansas Restricted License. “Since you just turned 16 last week, and happy belated birthday, in six months, you’ll be able to drive unrestricted. Don’t get any infractions between now and then, and you’ll be fine. This also means you can only drive from 5 am until 9 pm without a licensed driver in the car with you.”

She paused for a moment, glancing around. “What this realistically means is that, so long as you don’t get pulled over by the State Highway Patrol, you can drive anywhere in Reno, Harvey, Kingman, and Sedgewick Counties whenever you want to, and the rest of the state between 5 am and 9 pm. And yes, I know the Highway Patrol training center is here in this county, but they won’t bother you. Not with the special instructions on the back of the card.”

I flipped the driver’s license over. In the spot for restrictions and special instructions, it read, ‘Restricted License authorized by Judge Bannister’. I looked back up at her.

“Please don’t speed or otherwise abuse the privileges given to you by the Judge. You’ve got me curious as to why I was told to bring more than one buy-in on Friday. Now, you have a good day, and be careful.”

When we got back into the truck, Betty was trying to not be angry and failing. “What a slut! Why was she shaking her tits at you like that?”

Harry looked at me. I smiled, and responded, “Because it works on most men. I’m seeing applications of things I’ve only read about in some of your books, Harry. This was a blatant attempt at sex appeal. Wanda uses her body as a weapon against men. You saw how well it worked with Harry. But I didn’t break into a puddle of quivering goo, and I used the Judge as my weapon back, so she knew to switch it off with me. Interesting, to say the least.”

“That was probably one of Elspeth’s Psychology or Sociology books, I’m guessing. That shelf was hers, and I never could get rid of them.”

“I’m glad you didn’t. Betty, from what I’m guessing, this behavior is what you’ve seen at school, as well. The girls using their bodies to get ahead. I can tell from the physiology books that your body shape is a bit to the right of average for females. By not being what they consider ‘normal’, you don’t fit in with them, so they exclude you.”

She’d gone quiet as I started explaining sex appeal. Then when I got specific, she said, “I knew you were a genius. You’re exactly right, and you’ve never even met the kids at our school. Beanpole is one of the kinder insults.”

“I saw some of the family pictures. You’ve always been tall for your age. There are a number of possible reasons medically and genetically. Nothing you can control. And nothing that makes a difference to me.” That put a smile back on her face.

While we’d been talking, Harry had driven to an office building. “This is the Social Security Office. You’ll need an SSN so you can open a bank account. I think the Judge authorized you to get a temporary card and get a number assigned to you right away. Don’t be surprised at ... just about anything in here. This is a Federal government office and they’re not known for being speedy or even necessarily competent.”

Despite his concern, things went quickly. The Judge had signed orders regarding custody, explaining how I had been born at home, and otherwise covering everything that we needed. They told me my actual social security card would arrive in the mail in a couple of weeks, but gave me a temporary card with that number on it so I could open a bank account and enroll in school. I waited until I was back outside to ask what mail was, and why something would be in it.

Once it was explained, I understood. We primarily used electronic communication, so I was unfamiliar with this process. It made sense, though, since these people were so far behind, technologically.

That made me pause a moment. These people were now my people. It was all up to me from now on, one way or the other.

“Are you okay, Cal? You look like you just had an epiphany of some kind,” Betty said.

“To an extent, I think I did. You know, I’ve really just sort of been reacting ever since I woke up in space, while approaching this planet. It really sunk in to me, just now, what the both of you have been talking about. We don’t have time now, but ... when we get back to the house, I’d like to be alone for a while, if you don’t mind.”

Harry reached over, squeezed my shoulder. “I understand, Cal. You’ve not taken time to grieve. I ... I can’t know what you’re feeling inside, but I’ll be here for you, later, if you need me.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, you’re also right. We don’t have time, now. Welcome to the home of the Salthawks, Hutchinson High School.”

A very large parking lot filled with a tremendous number of vehicles was to our left. Just beyond that was a large building with a sign reading ‘Hutchinson Sports Arena’. On the right was a curved road with some places I recognized were for vehicle parking, which was where Harry pulled in.

“I presume that this is supposed to be due to the Kansas Jayhawks, and since there’s a lot of salt here, like the salt mine my ship is in.”

Betty laughed. “And it’s as stupid as it sounds. We also tend to suck in sports, which is why I think you’re going to be a bit of a shock around here. If you want to be involved, that is. It’s up to you.”

“Well, let’s go see what kind of fun and excitement I can bring here, getting signed in and up, today, since we’ll be going vehicle shopping in a bit.”

The three of us walked into the building. “Offices are here on the left. Auditorium on the right. That’s the freshman hallway up there, and they have the south gym.” Betty pointed through a window opposite where we’d come in. “Upper class are all over in those sections, especially in the two-story sections. Performing arts are over there, north gym is on the far side. Tennis courts, practice fields, and then the football field is up that way as well. Community College is just west of here, and you can earn credits there while going to school here. Some kids spend part of their day both places.”

A rather pointed male voice from behind a desk said, “Thank you for the geography lesson, Miss Watson. May I presume that, as your father is with you, you have a good reason why you didn’t even bother to call in this morning to say why you were going to be late?”

“I would presume that having deaths in the family that she was unaware of, as well as suddenly finding out that a family member she didn’t know existed and would now be attending here, as well as living with the family, might qualify as reasonable,” I said.

The man stepped out from behind the desk, pulling down on the sleeves of his jacket. He sniffed. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Uh, no, I believe Judge Bannister is the judge of that. Here are his written instructions to the school, for you to begin doing the appropriate paperwork to enroll me here. I’ll have to do testing to determine which levels of schooling will be acceptable to me. Can you go ahead and start making arrangements for that, so that tomorrow when I show up, I can get that out of the way? Due to my previous schooling, I’ll probably need to start with lower level classes on Civics and Kansas History, as I’m not from here. Otherwise, sciences, physics, astronomy, astrophysics, nuclear studies, chemistry, biochemistry, and whatever thermodynamics and advanced differential equations classes you have might be some good refreshers for me. These last few months have been rather traumatizing for me.”

The man’s eyes had started to glaze over when I went through some of the class names. He shook his head, as if to clear it, then blinked his eyes rapidly. “I see that you’re going to be one of those fun cases for me. Follow me.” He turned and started to walk away.

I stood still. He was about five steps away when he realized I wasn’t following. “Do you have a hearing problem, young man? I said, follow me.”

“Who are you? You’ve never introduced yourself, or explained why you have authority here. I am simply taking precautions; for all I know, you could be a child molester that’s hiding out in this building.”

“That will be enough sass from you! I’m the Assistant Principal here, in charge of managing the student body and maintaining control!”

“I can obviously see that you’re incapable of doing that, with yourself. Is there someone who is competent and actually able to operate logically? Since you have still failed to read the paperwork regarding my transfer into this school system.”

“I don’t CARE about the paperwork you have, young man! If you’re going to transfer into this school, you’ll do what I say, without argument! Is that understood? And you, Miss Watson, will be serving detention for failure to comply with the rules!” By this point, the volume of his voice had increased such that a couple of people were sticking their heads out of their offices.

“I don’t think so. I’m sorry, Sir. Come on, Harry, Betty. I’ll just have to call the Judge and tell him what happened today.”

From one of the offices, another man’s voice said, “Young man? Which Judge are you referring to?”

“Judge Elroy Bannister, Sir.”

“Mister Jenkins, there’s no reason for you to be involved in this. It’s under control.”

“Apparently not, Mister Baker. Otherwise I would not have had to interrupt my meeting to come out here, as I could hear your voice through the door. I’ve heard reports of your temper from parents, but have never had the pleasure of experiencing it in person. Now that I have done so, I find that I don’t particularly care for it. We are here to teach these students, not to terrorize them. Consider yourself under suspension, pending dismissal with cause. I quite assure you this will be the first topic at our September meeting. Clean your desk out and vacate the premises immediately.”

“But ... Superintendent...”

“Young man, I believe you mentioned you had some papers for us? I’m Barry Jenkins, the Superintendent of Schools for Hutchinson. I was meeting with Principal Anderson. If you would be so kind as to come in here, we’ll get this sorted out.”

“Of course, Sir.” I walked into the office, with Betty and Harry both trying to stifle laughter.

There was another man of a similar age as Mr. Jenkins in the office. He was sitting at a desk, filling out some paperwork. “I don’t think Baker knew about the microphone and speaker I had put in before school started this year, Barry. Not so much to monitor him, but just in case there was something nasty happening out there.”

“Things aren’t always what they seem, are they, Pete? Oh, this is Peter Anderson, he’s the Principal of HHS. Elroy said you’d be a pistol when you showed up.” Jenkins held out his hand. I took it and shook it.

“Cal Lewis, Sir. That’s short for California, which should tell you everything you need to know about certain things in my history.” I handed him the folder, which he passed on to Anderson.

“This is all in Pete’s court. This is his school. I’m just his boss, is all. So HE gets to be the one to schedule all those wonderful tests, so we can figure out exactly where to place you in our school system. If what I’ve seen so far is any indication, I just hope you don’t want my job.”

Anderson had flipped through the papers. “Based upon these, what or why exactly do you even need to attend this school?”

I shook my head. “I’ve had a rather ... unconventional ... education. As I attempted to explain previously, I am quite learned in the sciences. My social skills, especially with those in my own age range, may be ... no, are ... somewhat lacking.”

Anderson smiled. “If nothing else, this should be fun. Do you have some identification that I can make copies of, so I can get things rolling on our part?”

I pulled out my new driver’s license and temporary social security card.

“Perfect!” He put them onto a copy machine, ran it, then handed me the originals. “I’ll expect you, outside my office, tomorrow morning at 7:45. We’ll handle the school lot parking permits for both of you then. For tomorrow, anyway, you both have permission to park out front, like you did today. Good luck in Wichita.”

Harry chuckled. “For some reason, I suspect Elroy may have told us a bit of a different story regarding the school than we were led to expect.”

“Mister Watson, how long have you known the Judge?”

“All my life. He and my dad were best friends during the war.”

“That’s probably why, then. To him, you’re family. He doesn’t particularly like some of the things done here, but the school and the county are in much better shape due to the things he’s done over the years. He’s the reason the Community College is literally right next door, same with the Sports Arena,” Anderson explained.

“I also apologize for the actions of Mister Baker. He’ll be off school property by the end of the day and not allowed back on ANY of the school property, which you’ll find is quite a bit more than you think. I’ve had my suspicions, but no proof until today. As the year is just starting, we’ll probably have no issue replacing him.”

“Pardon me for asking, but do you know why he has such a temper? The psychology texts I’ve read said there may be many reasons behind such an issue, but I’ve no real-world experience.”

Anderson laughed. “Oh, I am going to have so much fun tomorrow. And yes, I suspect that it goes back to Nam, but that was more than a decade ago. Thank you, and I look forward to having you in our school, Mister Lewis.”

He shook my hand, as did the superintendent. The three of us walked back out front. “Is it just me, or do the two of you feel like this was not how things would normally go for a transfer student?”

Betty laughed. “Oh, definitely. Baker was just being his usual asshole self. He’s been the assistant principal for the last couple of years. He’s been trying to run the school like it’s a concentration camp or...” She stopped, her eyes growing wide, and screamed.

A vehicle had pulled up in front. Walter Baker jumped out, with a pistol in his hand. “You fucking kids! No respect for your elders! Time to teach you a lesson!” Bringing the pistol up, he fired at Betty.

I started running for him slightly faster than normal, in case anyone was watching. But I used my speed to reach out with my left hand and catch the bullet as it flew by me. He shifted the pistol to shoot me. I brought my other hand up and caught that bullet. His eyes grew wide as he realized that nothing had happened. By this time, I was close enough to him. I had slipped both bullets into my shirt pocket using my speed, then gently, for me, hit the top of the pistol with my left hand, so it was pointed down and to the side. My right hand shot out, fingers pointed, hitting him right on the trachea.

He fell backwards to the ground, dropping the pistol, his hands reaching for his throat. I looked down at him. “Congratulations, Mister Baker. If you do not receive emergency medical treatment in approximately the next three minutes, you are now dead.”

From inside the school, three people came running out. “Cal, Betty, are you okay? Holy shit, I didn’t think Walt was completely mental!”

“Principal Anderson, I apologize but I reacted as per my training. Do any of you know how to do a tracheotomy? Otherwise, Mister Baker will be dead within three minutes.”

There was the sound of sirens approaching. It was a police car, as evidenced by the writing all over the vehicle. “What’s going on, I was just down the block and heard shots fired?”

“Do you have a pen? We need to do a tracheotomy on Walt or he’ll die!”

By this time, Baker had passed out from air loss. “SHIT!” The police officer ran to his car, pulled a box out of the trunk, and slammed it down next to Baker’s head. He opened it and pulled out thin surgical gloves and slipped them on, then unwrapped a sterile scalpel from it’s paper sheath, and grabbed a clear tube.

“Harry, Betty doesn’t need to see this,” I said. He nodded, taking her and turning her away. The police officer reached out, measured down just below the Adam’s Apple, and made a quick and quite bloody cut into his neck. The tube was curved. He slid it into the windpipe. There was some tape already attached, so he stuck that to Baker’s neck to hold the tube in place. Air could now be heard going in and out the tube.

“Fuck! That’s the first time I’ve ever had to do that since we got trained on it. Now, would someone care to tell me WHY I just had to do it?” Additional sirens could be heard, growing louder.

Jenkins said, “I had just fired Mister Baker, due to his temper. He ... didn’t take it well. Instead of cleaning out his desk like I supposed he would do, he went to his vehicle and returned with a firearm. Fortunately, he was a lousy shot, as he shot at both of these students, missing. In an attempt to defend themselves, our new transfer student hit him in the windpipe with his hand.”

“Damn. Unarmed, against a guy with a gun? That takes guts, kid.” He looked up. “We need a gurney here. I’ve done a tracheotomy; he’s got a collapsed windpipe. Shit! He’s also under arrest, too.”

Two more police cars pulled up. “What’ve you got, Ben?”

“Self-defense, Sarge. The man down got fired, blew his stack, started back in with a gun. He shot at these two kids and fortunately missed. This one hit him in the throat, put him down. Collapsed his windpipe, so I had to do a tracheotomy. I just told the crew he’s under arrest when he wakes up.”

The officer in charge nodded. He looked at the other officer that had arrived. “Jerry, ride in the wagon to the hospital, so he’s under custody the whole way. If he wakes up, see if you can get a statement, although with a tracheotomy, I’d guess not.” He looked at us. “Oh, Harry. Damn, Son, sorry to meet you again this way. Are you and Betty fine?”

“Thanks to my cousin’s son, Cal here, yes. He’s just come to live with us, his family all got killed a while back, and it took this long to track me down. Um, if you need any of the details for that for your report, talk to the Judge.”

The police sergeant’s eyes got a little wider. “Judge Bannister’s involved with things? I see.” He nodded, then looked at the others from the school. “Barry, Pete, did you see it?”

Both men nodded. Jenkins said, “I wondered how stable he was, I’d had reports. He was very confrontational when Harry brought his daughter in, with a signed note from Judge Bannister. I told him to clean out his desk, to consider himself suspended, pending termination. I honestly didn’t think he’d do this. Pete had started to walk me out of the school when we heard a gunshot from outside. We made it to the door in time to see Baker try to shoot Cal, and miss somehow, then Cal knocked the gun aside and hit him with a disabling blow.”

The sergeant looked at me, pulling out a notepad. “What’s your name, young man?”

“California Lewis, Sir. Um, I’ve had a bit of training in dealing with people that try to harm me, or someone I care about. My instructors always told me that the only fair fights are those in sporting events. The rest of the time, you can either be the victim, or you can be a survivor.” I looked over to where the ambulance crew had loaded Baker onto the gurney and were wheeling him to their vehicle.

“I’m a survivor.” I looked back at the sergeant. “I realize that you, or someone, will have a large amount of paperwork to do about this. For that, I apologize. I also know that someone is going to want a statement. What Superintendent Jenkins said is what happened. I don’t wish to be a problem for you, and we will certainly be available later without an issue, but Judge Bannister specifically called a Mister Eck in Wichita, to expect us this afternoon to purchase vehicles from him. I presume that you know where Harry lives. I live with him, and we’ll be home later this evening.”

The police sergeant just shook his head. “Be home by seven tonight. I’m sure that one of the detectives will want to talk to you, to take a statement. Or at least to sign the one he’ll have already typed up. Damn! I’m not upset with you, son. From what it sounds like, you’re a hero. It’s just with Elroy Bannister involved ... well, I think you get the picture.”

“Thank you, sergeant. Unless something drastic happens, I’m quite certain we’ll be home by seven.” I turned to Harry and Betty. “Ready to go car shopping?”

Once we were in the truck and safely away, Harry looked over at me. “Okay, how the hell did Walter Baker manage to miss you with his .45?”

“He didn’t. The first shot was aimed at Betty. I grabbed it from the air before it could hit and kill her. The second was aimed directly at me. I grabbed it as well, before it could hit me. That might have caused some issues that we didn’t need, if I had a hole in my shirt and not in my chest.” I pulled both bullets out of my pocket, holding them in the palm of my hand.

Betty leaned over, resting her head on my shoulder. “You ... you saved my life, Cal! You moved faster than a speeding bullet!”

“I tried to keep them as intact as I could. I anticipate that late tonight, I’ll fly back over here and give them both a flick, so they end up embedded somewhere innocuously in the building of the school, to show how poor a marksman that Baker was. Otherwise, the police will probably do a lot of searching, trying to figure out how he could have missed at that range. Especially since he wouldn’t have, as both were center of mass shots and would have killed us, otherwise.”

Betty shivered, I thought in fear. I was wrong. “Dad, keep your eyes on the road and shut your ears for a bit. I’m going to reward my savior.”

With one hand, she pulled the zipper on my pants down, then fished my cock out. Harry reached out and turned the radio up a bit. Her mouth engulfed me, quickly bringing me to full hardness. It only took me about five minutes of her tongue and lips working on my cock for me to reach the point of no return, her mouth felt so good. When I fired my load into her mouth, once again she swallowed all of it down.

Harry simply reached down into the door pocket and pulled out some napkins, handing them to Betty. She used them to clean me off and to wipe a couple of drops off that were on her face that had leaked out.

“I was expecting you to give him a kiss. That’s not exactly the reward I thought you’d give him. You’ve gone from being a total wallflower and shy girl to ... something quite a bit different in the last couple of days. I still remember you putting a gown on before you’d take your underwear off. Mind you, I’m not ... too upset, but we are out in public, even if we are on the road.”

“Dad ... this may sound ... almost perverted, but I just HAD to do something. Knowing that Cal literally saved my life, I felt ... well, it was either do that, or pull my pants down and fuck him right here and now. And I knew that couldn’t happen.”

I’d recovered a bit from my surprise, as well as the pleasure. “Harry, it may surprise you that this isn’t too uncommon, according to the textbooks I read. The human body sends adrenaline out, in preparation for fight or flight. Then when there IS a fight of some kind, afterwards the realization of being alive can trigger intense sexual desires.”

“You know, that almost makes sense. Let me think about this for a while, okay?” Other than the radio playing something that some people might consider to be music, with the occasional interruption for commercials, it was pretty quiet in the truck. We got to the edge of Wichita and Harry pulled in at a gas station.

“Piss and poop break and we need to fill the truck up. Cal, you first, then finish this up so I can go. Betty, when you’re done, get us some cokes and some snacks.”

I hurried to the bathroom and relieved my bladder. I made it back to the truck. Harry said, “I’ll be a couple minutes, I definitely have to take a dump.” He handed me some money to cover things.

I finished filling the truck up, then went inside. Betty had three drinks and some candy bars for us. “Is Dad okay?”, she asked, as we walked back out after I paid.

“He said he had to take a dump, which I presume is slang for a bowel movement.” I glanced towards the bathroom door. Harry was, indeed, sitting on the toilet. But he wasn’t moving his bowels, he was furiously masturbating. I realized WHY he was doing that; he’d also been excited by the fight and by what he’d then witnessed his daughter do to me. With no outlet for relief, he had to take things into his own hand.

“Another symptom of the adrenaline dump can be sudden bowel movements. I’m sure that Harry will be fine in a few minutes.”

Betty took a sip of her coke, then looked at me, biting her lower lip. “Um, Cal ... before Dad gets back, I ... um ... I want to tell you something. I think I’m in love with you.”

I nodded. “Also, not an uncommon reaction. Betty, right now I have feelings of deep affection for you. I do not know if that is what you call love or not. I’m not saying that it’s not, I just don’t know. My feelings inside ... towards you, about you ... when I say I just don’t know, that’s exactly what I mean. I’m not playing with your emotions. I have a very strong suspicion that you and I are going to be together for a long time. But we’ve known each other for three days. Does that make sense to you?”

“Actually, it does. Girls follow their hearts; guys follow their minds. My talks with Dad let me know in my head how important you were going to be in the world. Today, you literally taking a bullet for me, showed me in my heart how important you are for my world.” She looked up, seeing Harry coming back. “Dad looks a little red in the face, do you think he’s okay?”

“I’m certain he is. Can we finish this later, maybe tonight?” She leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh, yeah!”

“All right, kids, if we’re all good, let’s get going.” Harry climbed in and we headed out. About ten minutes later, we pulled up in a large parking lot.

“Wow, this must be a popular place. Where do all the people go when they’ve parked their vehicles here?”