Chapter 80: She Devil

Saturday, June 5, 1971

I scanned for Randi. She was talking to Vickie, and getting ready to step into the shower.

“Wait! Come do that in my bathroom. I need one, too!” I thought to her.

Randi paused, then thought, “Okay! I’ll be right there!”

Vickie laughed. “You probably should put on a robe or something. I don’t think everyone has gone to bed yet!” she told Randi, who was grabbing her toiletries off the counter, and throwing them back in her travel bag.

“By the way, Vickie, there’s been a change of plans. It looks like Nicky and Amy are coming with us,” I thought to her.

“Really? I’m glad! I know Nicky was dreading being separated from you. I don’t think she has totally dealt with her parents’ deaths yet,” she thought back.

I paused to consider what Vickie said. I hadn’t been aware of my sister’s sensitivity to her parent’s deaths until the bus ride home. While Vickie, obviously, had been aware for some time. I wondered what it meant?

“It means, dufus, that she actually talked about it with me!” Vickie thought, laughing at me.

“Oh!” I said. “I guess that would explain it.”

“You are such a guy!” Vickie said, still laughing at me.

“Okay! I give!” I told her, laughing with her at my obviously male-oriented thought process. That’s what I mean about women. They process information so much differently than guys.

Finding out Nicky was upset, I had looked for ways to solve it. While Vickie and Nicky had known about it longer, it hadn’t been an earth-shattering ‘end-of-the-world’ issue that even needed a solution. Oh, well!

“By-the-way, Amy is really confused about all the empathic stuff. If Nicky needs help, would you mind helping her explain it?” I asked Vickie.

“I don’t mind. Is Nicky going to explain it to her tonight?” Vickie asked.

“I don’t know. But if I was guessing, I’d say she is. You’ll need to touch base with Nicky on that, though,” I told her.

“Okay,” she replied. I could hear her checking, and for a moment I heard Nicky’s thoughts as Vickie connected with her. “They’re talking about it now. Let me go, so I can throw on a robe and go see if Nicky wants me to help. If we need you, I’ll let you know. But don’t worry. I think we can handle it.”

“I’m sure you can,” I replied. “Just make sure Amy knows to keep it a secret. I wouldn’t want her mom or anyone else to know. I’ll see you at breakfast.”

“Good night, Michael. Sweet dreams!” she said laughing.

I had been brushing my teeth at the bathroom sink while I chatted in my mind with Vickie. Suddenly a pair of young arms encircled me from behind.

“Thank you,” Randi said.

“For...?”

“For making time for me tonight!” she replied. “Especially after what happened the other night.”

“Oh...?” I asked, not really sure what she was referring to.

“Yeah. They came to me again,” she said. “The last night we were on the train. It’s the same ones that came to me in my dreams before. They said basically the same things. That you had a purpose. A mission. And if I wanted to help you, I should focus on learning everything I can about something they called ‘treaty law’. Do you know what that means?”

I just stood and looked at her in the mirror as I finished brushing my teeth. Randi still had her arms wrapped around me, with her chin resting on my shoulder, looking back at me in the mirror as she asked the question.

I scanned her and saw that her hormones were causing her to be engrossed with my naked body and her libido, more than she was thinking about her dream. So I asked her what she thought it meant. I was trying to get her to focus on it more, without being too obvious.

“It was pretty clear that they were giving me a choice. But it was like they wanted a decision from me,” she said.

“You keep saying ‘they’, could you tell anything about who it was?” I asked.

“Not really. I just got the impression that there was more than one ... something talking to me. And they didn’t have a voice, not like when you ‘think’ things to me. It was more like feelings with ideas attached. And while the concept was ... well, incomplete, the choice seemed to be clear. Like it was the most important thing,” Randi tried to explain.

“So ... it sounds like they are giving you a choice on whether to help me reach this ... ah ... mission they seem to have for me,” I said. “How do you feel about it?”

“I’m not sure. I talked a little to Candy about it. She said they also showed up in her dreams Thursday night too, and she told me about what they planned for her. The only difference I could figure is that I’m not in love with you and she is. So she didn’t really think of what they told her as a choice. I think that could be because she’s already made her choice to be with you forever. And ... well ... I haven’t,” Randi explained.

“What do you want to do, Randi?” I asked her.

“If you’re talking about what I want to do with my life, as in a career, I haven’t really decided. I didn’t have anything specific in mind until the first dream, but since then, I find myself really liking the idea of studying law. I talked to Daddy about it, and he was excited. But he said that international law ... he says that’s what treaty law is, the laws between countries that we have treaties with ... is complex, and takes lots of college. He also said that there are not many women who pursue it and that it might be hard. But if I study and apply myself, that I should find it very rewarding,” she told me.

I tried to remember the last time I had scanned Randi to any depth. It had been before my last visit with the Old One. Now, I can do it deeper and more thoroughly, I guess you could say. So tonight, I could read things about her I never had before.

For instance, Randi was cautious, and only liked situations where she was in control. She also liked the glamorous side of life, especially being seen as successful and in control of her life. She wasn’t afraid of hard work, but she didn’t like to waste her time or energy on anything. That included relationships, and anything else that didn’t give her recognition for what she did. In other words, her self-image was very closely tied to what she did, more than who she was.

Studying international law appealed to her sense of control and attention. The idea of working hard to buck what has been a male-dominated profession appealed to her as well. The idea of specializing in treaty law, which would put her in a narrow niche, within the legal profession, also had appeal. Provided it would give her the status and rewards, both personally and financially, that she sought.

As for me, I could sense that she didn’t love me. And that was okay with me, because I didn’t love her either. At least not like Candy or Ileana. I did love her as a special person in my life, though. And I was committed to helping her and protecting her every way I could.

“Could treaty law also deal with the treaties between the United States and Native American tribes?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it. I suppose it could, I guess. Why do you ask?”

“Well, as you know, I have committed to helping Kalani’s small nation, and that would probably be an area that might fall under treaty law. At least I could see where that specialty would be important in the future,” I said, thinking out loud to Randi.

“Yeah! I could see that,” she agreed.

“But as you also know, I have committed to helping Rose and Eve’s tribal nation. That’s why I asked the question. And I think I could see treaty law being very important there in the future!” I stated.

“Really? What are you planning?” she asked.

As we talked, we had walked ... well, actually, she led me ... back into the bedroom, and we were now sitting next to each other on the loveseat.

“I wasn’t really ready to discuss my plans yet. They still have a lot of holes in them,” I said hesitantly.

Randi just looked at me as she said, “That’s okay, I wasn’t meaning to pry.”

“It’s not that. It’s just that I shared them with Grace last week, and then she left me, and well, I guess maybe I’m a little gun shy,” I said.

Outside of the pain from Grace’s departure, I couldn’t come up with another reason not to, so finally, I capitulated and began to fill Randi in on my sketchy plans.

“A casino? On an Indian reservation?” she asked incredulously. “Where in the world did you come up with an idea like that?”

I patiently walked her through the logic, carefully trying to avoid demonstrating any advanced knowledge of the future.

“Believe it or not, it will be harder to get the Bureau of Indian Affairs to let us locate one of the Wagner manufacturing plants there, than it will be the casino.”

“The Bureau of Indian Affairs? They control where Wagner can locate?” she asked.

“They control land use on the reservation. That is changing, but the gist of it is that states can’t collect taxes if the facility is on the Reservation. So we either have to negotiate a deal with the state, or locate adjacent to the Reservation,” I explained.

“I’m beginning to see why treaty law would be a separate specialty,” Randi replied thoughtfully. “And a casino would definitely generate the money they seem to need so bad.”

“However, a casino is not the best answer for them long term. It would provide revenue for infrastructure improvements, so it helps raise the quality of life. But without information, people still make bad decisions, no matter how much money they have,” I told her.