Chapter 35

Crying Wolf and Desert Flower had arrived on the 16^th, and I picked them up after the press conference at the high school. We discussed the situation with the Feds over dinner at Mamma’s, and the patent situation over dessert. We decided to just list the lithium crystals and the three lasers and leave it at that. But we decided to file in every single jurisdiction we could find.

Well, the sun came up on the next morning, September 17, just like we all expected it to. The only difference was that when I peed on the stick, this time it told me I was officially pregnant. Finally.

I tidied up in the bathroom, spritzed myself from the tiny bottle of Chanel No. 5 – or as Rock called it channel five – and took off my robe. Launching myself at the bed, I landed with a naked thump that woke even Rock.

Bear, who had been watching me from the time I got out of bed to use the toilet, just said, “Morning, sweets. What’s got you riled up today? Could it be that plastic thing you’ve got clutched in your hand?”

Rock just said, “huhgmmf?” He’d need to get that dream of Miss August – or whoever – out of his head.

“I’m pregnant! Officially! See? Two blue lines. Now I can go to the clinic and let the world know.”

“Uhm...” said Bear. “Don’t you want to wait a bit? It’s awfully early. I mean it’s only been like a week.”

“Do you NOT believe in the Great Spirit, you heathen?” I replied with a haughty air. Not to mention the reader of next year’s newspapers. Which I wasn’t going to mention to anybody, ever. “It’s gonna work out fine.”

Rock was finally conscious. “So that means we can fuck, right?”

Get him up from his early morning dream and he’s READY to go. Which was actually what I had in mind.

“I hope so. For at least another six or eight months. When I start to expand to basketball size, we might have to adjust HOW we do it, ... but yeah! When I get to the stage where I look like I swallowed a hot air balloon, I don’t know. But ‘til then...” I leaned over and kissed Bear’s ear. “Just one at a time, please, fellas.”

Rock said, “You think your mouth is pregnant, yet?”

“I’ll be glad to take the southern approach,” Bear said. And he wrestled my hips around to a position of his liking.

“PIGS! You are a pair of stone age...” and then I couldn’t talk any more. I was busy, and except for switching positions several times, I stayed busy for a while.

Several hours later, at breakfast, I told Flower. I mean, I told her that I was pregnant, not about ... you know. Wolf was lifting a forkful of waffle to his mouth and he stopped dead, and looked at me. “Pregnant? Are you sure?” He seemed stunned.

“What’s so amazing, Dad? I am a woman, not a little mixed breed Indian waif. I am married, twice.” I looked at Rock and Bear. “I am sure I am pregnant. I have heard from the Spirits, and I can even see the two babies growing inside me. Remember what I did with Dark Wolf? Well, I can see inside my own body.”

“Two? There are more than one of them?”

“Yes. Two babies. One of each. And before you ask, I don’t know who is the father of which – and I’m never going to have them tested to find out. We’re just going to have two babies with one mother and two fathers.”

He’d put his bite of waffle down, but he resumed eating now. That was a relief. I couldn’t be comfortable when there was a chance of someone passing out from starvation. Despite Red’s warning, I knew that I was eating for three. But I was not going to blimp up. I was having fruit and eggs and vitamins. No carbs, except chocolate cake once a week – I didn’t mean one piece of cake. But it was just once a week.

So, after a little while to digest my dietary choices, I returned to the subject of my legal entanglements.

“What do I do about the Feds?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” he answered. “Ms Hot Stuff has filed a writ of no entrance. That’ll prevent them from coming into the reservation. It has a Navajo name, which will stump them for a while. It’s filed with the lowest Navajo court. Then it will get appealed to the Navajo Court of Appeals. Since several Justices are friends of ours, we can expect that to take several months. Then we’ll get a hearing and then it will be remanded to the lower court. And then we’ll have to tell them what’s in the fusion reaction.”

“You sure that’s the best course? Why not give them everything that’s in the patent application? They can get that anyway.”

“Do you think they’re actually smart enough to do that? I doubt they will do anything that isn’t in the legal documents. The patents are not officially in the records yet, and they can’t get a copy of a ‘patent applied for.’ Not officially. They can probably get a copy illegally, so they might find out about the lithium crystals. If so, they’ll find out there aren’t any dangerous materials.