Chapter 249: Leaving Tapato

Saturday, August 21, 1971

To tell you how tired I was, even Mikeya beat me out of bed this morning. In fact, I soon found out that she and Kalani had both left hours ago. It seems that I had slept so late, the normal breakfast bar that was usually served in the Residence was no longer there and all the family had gone to lunch over at the hotel. So I made my way across the Imperial Gardens and found my administrative team at a table in the hotel restaurant.

“Mind if I join you?” I asked.

“We were going to wake you earlier, but Kalani issued a royal decree that all princes of the realm could sleep as late as they wanted to today!” Grace said cheerfully.

“And we’re just getting started on this mound of paperwork that seems to have accumulated while we were gone,” Adriana said.

“Which we didn’t expect because we thought that someone told us we would return within minutes of when we left,” Vickie added.

“Sorry about that. I’m still trying to get a handle on this interdimensional travel stuff myself,” I told them. “Any idea what I still need to do before we leave?”

“Go eat some lunch and talk to the others. We’ll call you when we have everything sorted out and ready for you to sign,” Grace told me. “Today is your last full day on Tapato. Tomorrow, we’ll pack up and fly out to Burbank. There, we’ll refuel, drop off this flight crew and pick up the next one, and then fly to New York. We have to leave Tapato by 8:30pm, Sunday to arrive in New York for our 2:30pm landing slot on Monday afternoon.”

“You are going to have to decide where you are going to base your aviation company so we can set it up. Either New York, which is more expensive because of real estate prices and taxes, or maybe Tennessee, which would be closer when you get to school and less expensive,” Vickie added.

“You also need to decide what to do with Bohdan. He’s still down at the jail. And you need to pick up the passports for Aiziel and Rie’ka. They’re over at the Services house. Mikeya said she put a rush on them, so they should be ready, but you have to sign for them,” Adriana said.

“Also, Kalani asked to see you around four-thirty. She said to contact her then and she would tell you where to meet her,” Grace said.

“Where are Kalani and Mikeya today?” I asked, mostly out of curiosity.

“They and Liz are busy in meetings with all the new vendors today,” Vickie explained.

It looks like I was going to be busy this afternoon as well.

I found Rie’ka at a table with Aida and Lydia. Trealyn was with them also and they were giggling like a bunch of little girls.

“Wait! They are a bunch of little girls!” I thought to myself.

“Just wait until you figure out what they’re giggling about!” Ileana thought to me. Seems that Vickie had me connected to all the others.

It didn’t take long for me to find out. I had barely sit down with Ileana and Abby and ordered myself a sandwich when here they came, trapsing over to our table in a group.

“Ileana?” Aida asked. “May we ask Michael a question?”

Ileana smiled at me as if to say ‘I warned you!’ and flicked her hand to the girls in a ‘be my guest’ sort of manner.

“Which one is best? When you lick a girl’s nipples or her coochie?” Aida asked with considerable aplomb.

“For the GIRL! Which one is best for the girl!” Trealyn corrected her.

“WHAT?” I cried out inside my brain, whipping my head around looking for Ivana in terror. “She’s not old enough to be discussing something like that!”

“You know? I don’t think that he was that scared of that giant dragon!” Shelby chimed in from across the room.

“What about the angry alien bitch?” Eve added. “He was pretty scared of her.”

“Naw. He was more like ... pissed off at her messing up his reception at the reservation that night,” Hanna said, piling on.

“You’re right. For some reason, Trealyn just terrifies the poor boy to death,” Izzy contributed.

“But ... But I thought Michael was a god?” Rie’ka sputtered. “And nothing terrifies a god!”

I could see where this lunch was headed. Fortunately, the waitress brought my lunch at that moment, so I grabbed my sandwich and headed out the door.

“Awww. He didn’t answer our question,” Aida whined.

“It should be an interesting plane ride home,” Ileana thought to the others.

“You can see the future, too?” Aiziel, my alien seer, asked Ileana.

I shuddered as I realized that they were probably right. I had no idea what I was facing. And all the rest of the girls with a special connection to me were having way too much fun with my predicament. It would most definitely be an interesting ride home.

I wolfed down my sandwich as I trotted over to the Services building to pick up the passports. While I was there, I was going to talk to someone about an idea I had for Bohdan. I had decided that I had wasted enough energy on Bohdan, so the simplest thing to do was get rid of him. Since I didn’t want his death on my hands, I decided to give him to someone who wanted him. The US Government.