Chapter 12

“You want me to do what?” asked Nathan with a hint of dismay in his voice.

“You heard me,” replied Ed without looking up from his work.

“I’m not a babysitter,” said the soldier, indignant that he should be asked to watch Beth on her field trip. The crazy jobs that Ed was giving him to perform were about to drive the soldier crazy.

Ed looked up and said, “I don’t expect you to babysit. I expect you to be a body guard.”

“Body guard?”

Folding his hands together, Ed said, “Maybe you aren’t aware that she has five parents and that together we control almost three billion dollars. That makes our children targets of people that have less than good intentions in this world.”

“Did you say billion, with a b?”

“Yes, I did,” replied Ed as he looked over at the soldier. He watched as a strange expression settled onto the young man’s face. He was hard pressed to describe what the expression conveyed.

Nathan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. For the past month, he had been around the family without even guessing how much they were worth. He had known that they had some money, but hadn’t thought about just how much money they had. He had thought that the wealthy were lazy, but the Carter Clan was anything except lazy. Even the children worked hard, pushing themselves to learn all that they could of the world around them. Ling was a perfectionist when it came to the martial arts, emphasizing mastery at each step of training. Kelly traveled extensively working for the nursing profession. Last month she had testified at a congressional committee addressing the working conditions and hours that nurses often worked within ill-managed hospitals. Linda was overseeing the production of another movie based on her children’s stories. Ed worked tirelessly for the school, his family, and his businesses.

“I’ll watch over her,” Nathan replied realizing that he was being asked to protect the daughter with his life if necessary.

“Thank you. I may be a religious figure, but that doesn’t mean I believe in an innate goodness in people. I’ve seen too many who are totally evil to believe that.”

“Yes, I can see that you have,” replied the soldier. In war, he had seen the best and worst of man. More than one person with whom he had served had discovered in the heat of battle that they possessed a greater cruelty within them than they had ever guessed while others had discovered a greater empathy for their fellow man than they wanted to admit.

“Spoken like a person that has seen too much,” commented Ed.

The comment struck a nerve in the soldier and his stomach twisted as he recognized the truth of the statement. Wanting to change subjects, Nathan asked, “Where are they going?”

“To a number of government agencies, including the CIA. They are taking a tour of the facilities,” answered Ed as he watched Nathan to gauge his reaction. He had learned that the CIA was very interested in hiring graduates from the school as intelligence analysts. Beth was going because she was interested in the architecture of the building.

Nathan sat back in his chair struggling to come to grips with going to the place where they had planned the mission that cost him a leg. Frowning, he asked, “You can’t find anyone else to take her there?”

“Consider it part of your therapy,” replied Ed. Sitting back in his chair, he looked over Captain Jones with a critical eye. He added, “You’ll have to train up to Ling’s standard before you leave, though.”

There was no way that Nathan was going to argue with Ed. Even though he hadn’t been at the Druid College for very long, he was far more advanced in his recovery than if he had remained at Bethesda. He asked, “Can you give me any good news?”

Ed smiled as he answered, “You get to wear your uniform for two days.”

“Really?”

“I doubt they would let you walk around there naked,” countered Ed with a grin as he imagined the Captain trying to get into the building naked. With a chuckle, he said, “Although I suppose that I could make a call to General Grey so that you could go there naked.”

Believing the Druid would actually carry out his threat, Nathan stood up and replied, “No thank you! I’ll wear my uniform.”

Ed watched as the captain walked away. His movements had become more graceful as a result of Ling’s training. Dressed, most people would be hard pressed to recognize that he didn’t have his leg. It would be better after Catherine finished the new artificial leg that she was developing.

When the soldier had reached the door, Ed said, “Go visit Catherine. She may require your help with a project of hers.”

“Okay,” replied the man with a shake of his head at the prospect of another project. He was trying hard to keep up with the little projects that Ed kept giving him, but half of the time he was out of his league. With a gruff snort, he realized that he had left his comfort zone the day he entered the college. He left the study before he could be given another assignment that he wouldn’t know how to do.

Ed returned to his work on his book wondering if anyone would really be interested in reading it when he was finished writing it. More than a dozen requests had arrived asking him to publish a reference book detailing the geology and mineralogy of the American Southwest. He didn’t feel as if his knowledge of the area was anything outstanding, but others disagreed with him. His problem now was trying to organize the material in a cogent fashion.

The cell phone in his pocket sounded, disrupting his concentration. He answered it, “Hello?”

From behind him, he heard Betsy giggle as she said, “Hi, Daddy Ed. It’s time to eat.”

Spinning around to catch her, she jumped back staying out of his grasp. With a giggle, she said, “You’re so slow. You’re going to have to be faster than that to catch me.”

Ed chuckled as he replied, “You make it so hard to give you a hug.”

Betsy jumped into his open arms. Almost as soon as he closed arms around her, she was wiggling to get away. She loved hugs, but could hardly stay still long enough to receive a proper one. Rather than try to force her way out of his arms, she said, “We better get to lunch.”

Ed released his daughter and watched as she sped out of the room with a backward wave. Giving her the cell phone had not improved their ability to track her, but they could at least communicate with her. She still tended to track people down when she wanted to talk to them. Ed was sure that a social worker would be shocked that so many parents were unable to physically watch over just one child, but they had never tried babysitting a tornado.

Realizing that he should join the others for lunch, he straightened the papers on his desk so that he could work on which ever project required his attention. He looked at the stack of work projects on his desk with a sigh. Papers concerning taxes, businesses, his geology trip for the school, his book, and other legal matters were neatly piled and were awaiting his attention. He wondered if that represented the rest of his life. Every day he had to spend three hours dealing with items that couldn’t wait. Disheartened by the thought of the work ahead of him, he left his study and made his way to the first year dining room.

Little John was talking on a cell phone and greeted his father with a grin when Ed showed up at the dining room. The young man winked at his father before turning his back and dropping his voice so that he couldn’t be overheard. Ed didn’t need to ask with whom Little John was talking. There was only one person he ever called, and she was Susan Grundy.

Greeting the rest of the family, Ed took his place at the table. As he reached for the menu, Betsy announced, “Little John has a girl friend.”

Nodding his head, Ed said, “I know. I was there when he met her.”

In most families, a little sister making a comment about an older brother having a girlfriend would have resulted in a scene. Around the table, this particular family nodded their agreement with her assessment. Little John reacted by making an Okay gesture, thumb and forefinger in a circle with the remaining fingers straight.

Betsy asked, “Is she nice?”

Beth answered, “Of course she’s nice. Little John wouldn’t like her if she weren’t nice. The real question is, is she is pretty.”

“She’s pretty,” replied Ed knowing that Betsy was going to express the question in a second.

Turning back to face his father, Little John asked, “Could I use the house for guests?”

“What house?”

“The one across the street. Dr. Grundy is willing to come up for a visit with Susan and it would be great to have them stay there,” answered Little John in a voice that conveyed hopeful pleading.

“Why not have them stay on campus?” asked Kelly without thinking through her question.

“Ah, that might be a problem. I’m not sure how they’ll react to the nudity on campus,” answered Little John. He didn’t want Susan’s father thinking that he had invited them just to see his daughter naked.

“Okay, invite them to use the house,” replied Ed. He could understand how difficult it would be to invite the young girl to the campus. The idea of Mrs. Grundy surrounded by naked people brought a grin to his face. He wondered if she was at all like the famous woman of fact and fiction.

The young man turned away and resumed his conversation on the cell phone. William watched his brother with a sad expression. Beth had her friend, John, and now Little John had Susan. Despite her overactive nature, Betsy was going to grow up normally with lots of friends her own age. He was happy for his siblings, but was sad that it would be many more years before he would find someone for himself.

Linda watched her son and asked, “What’s the matter William?”

“I have so much to do before I find a companion,” answered William with a sigh. Noticing the attention being given to him, he changed the subject. “I think I would like the fried shrimp for lunch.”

The abrupt change in subject threw Linda for a minute, but she recovered. Even though she was wondering what he had to do before finding a companion, she said, “The fried shrimp would be good.”

Linda looked over at Ed with a pleading look on her face. Ed noticed, but wondered what she wanted him to do. After a minute of thought, he finally said, “William, in two weeks I’m going back to Arizona. Would you like to come with me for a week?”

“Yes, that would be good,” replied the boy. Most of his life had been spent away from the desert, but he enjoyed his visits there tremendously. The dry desert seemed to resonate with his spirit in a manner that was very different from the campus environment.

“Yes, I think we’ll go rock hunting,” commented Ed as he looked at William. It would be nice to show his son the ways of the desert. He added, “A week in the desert will do us both some good.”

Little John ended his conversation on the cell phone and announced, “Susan and her parents will be arriving Friday afternoon.”

Smiling at her son, Kelly said, “So we finally get to meet the mystery girl.”

“Mystery girl?” asked Little John confused by the label. He had done nothing except talk about her and wondered how she could possibly be a mystery to anyone in the family.

As the others discussed Susan with Little John, Ed pulled out his cell phone and called the house. Mary Gold answered the phone. As always, the sound of her voice was a surprise. He recovered and made the arrangements for his trip to Arizona. He included Nathan in his plans for the trip. The soldier would probably enjoy a week away from the confines of the college.

Once he had finished his arrangements, the waitress asked him, “What are you having today, Ed?”

“Caesar Salad with Shrimp,” answered Ed wanting to have a lighter lunch than normal. He looked over the waitress and added, “You’ve lost a little weight.”

“Yeah. I’ve been working out a little and started a diet,” replied the waitress. She had started on a diet designed for her by one of the Druids and it was working. A number of other employees on campus had started practicing Tai Chi before their shift and she had joined the group. The results weren’t immediately observable, but over the past week she had noticed that her clothes were a little looser and some of the patches of cellulite had disappeared.

“We’ll you’re looking good. I hope your husband noticed it,” commented Ed. It amazed him how the employees on campus were changing.

The comment about hoping that her husband noticed that she had lost weight surprised the woman. She still wasn’t used to people making such personal comments even though it was much more common on the campus. She looked at him and said, “A couple of months ago you asked me if the town was changing. I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but the town seems a lot calmer over the past two or three years.”

“Calmer?”

“Yes, much calmer. It’s like people don’t argue any more. My husband had a flat tire the other day and two people stopped to help him fix it. Lots of little things like that happen, now,” explained the waitress.

The fifth and sixth years were allowed trips into town on the weekends. The first time the students had shown up in town there were a couple of incidents in which the locals treated them with more than a little hostility. For the last six months, there hadn’t been a single incident of that nature. He asked, “What do the town’s folk think of the students here?”

“At first, a lot of people were afraid that they were going to try to change people’s religion. You don’t mess around with people’s religion in these parts. Of course, the kids didn’t do anything like that. When a couple of them even helped repair one of the local churches, that really set people to talking. Since then, I guess the town has just kind of accepted them,” answered the woman.

“What had happened to the church?” asked Ed curious about what had happened and wondering why he hadn’t been given the opportunity to contribute a little money to its repair.

“Oh, it was damaged a bit in one of the storms. The wind had blown part of the roof off.”

Ed had not been aware that any of the students had helped repair any churches in the area. He was pleased to learn that they were contributing in some fashion, however little, to the community. Talking to himself, he mused, “Interesting.”

The waitress frowned at his muttering and then asked, “They won’t get into trouble for doing that, will they?”

“Of course not. Why should they get into trouble for helping?”

“It was a Christian Church,” she answered worried that she had talked out of turn. She’d never seen a Druid get upset, but there was always a first time.

“I’m a strong supporter of the Churches back home,” countered Ed trying to put her at ease.

“But, you’re a Druid. I thought that meant you couldn’t be Christian.”

Chuckling at her misunderstanding of the nature of Druids, Ed explained, “A good church helps its people. Why should I stand in the way of that even if I’m not Christian? That wouldn’t be right. I’d rather help a church do good deeds.”