Chapter 11

Jeff started to remove Little One from his back as Jill sat slumped in the chair, but Diana put a restraining hand on his arm. "Wait, Baby."

"What? Why?" Jeff said, frowning. "Jill's obviously sick. Little One can get started on her while she's out, or sleeping, or whatever she's doing," he whispered back. "And Caitlin just told me..."

"Her pulse is really high..." Caitlin started.

"Bill and Kathy need to see her like this," Diana broke in. "I think Jill has just fainted from being weak, plus the relief of finally getting here. And yeah, I know there are probably some major things wrong with her. I'm not saying to not treat her, just wait a few minutes. I'll bet there is a real story behind her trip, too. Apparently she has stolen money, and someone has helped her already. Why don't you have Little One read her, or whatever it is she does, but ask her to wait on treating Jill unless there is something immediately life threatening? If someone has drugged and hypnotized her to take her away from Bill, then Bill and Kathy need to see her the way she is — not healed."

Caitlin sighed, realizing Diana's logic, but the nurse in her wanted to do whatever it took to heal Jill — now. She bit her lip, waiting, however.

Jeff took a breath, then slowly let it out. "Yeah, you're right. Hearing a story like that, even with her looking like she had been dragged through a knothole backwards, is going to be hard for Bill and Kathy to swallow. Having a perfectly healthy woman tell that tale..." he trailed the sentence off as he tried to communicate with Little One.

Jeff moved Jill to a couch and covered her with a blanket to conceal Little One while all but Diana left — Caitlin to put her emergency bag away, and the other wives to finish chores. After a while, the Healer pushed the blanket aside, so Jeff returned her to his shoulders with his shirt again covering her. "That was an experience," he laughed to Diana.

"I was afraid you would have a problem with Little One," Diana said.

"Yeah, her purpose in life is to be a healer for Primes — I think. That has boiled down to just me. She's become accustomed to healing anyone that I put her on, though. Telling her to diagnose, but not heal, caused her to send me emotions that I'm not sure I've ever felt before. I'm reasonably certain that my trying to explain to her why we wanted to wait, if we could without endangering Jill further ... well, let's just say that I fell short on my translation.

"I think Little One finally took it on faith, essentially saying that if that's what the Prime wanted, then that's the way it would be. That didn't make me feel really good, but I guess I'll have to live with it. I think she did something to make Jill feel a little better and fixed something so food would digest. Little One said whatever else she did was also critical to do now."

"So, we're just going to sit here and wait for Bill and Kathy to come back?"

"Well, it was your idea," Jeff said, grinning at her. "Got a better one? If we call them and tell them that we need them to come home, they'll be curious — at the least. I think it would just be better to wait. They didn't say anything about going anywhere else, did they?"

"No," Diana said, squeezing his hand, "but they are newlyweds. No telling what they'll decide to do. And sooner or later, the Henson's are going to come up for air," she giggled.

"Oh, shit," Jeff laughed. "That conjures up a picture, all right. One of Dave with his head buried between his wife's legs — any one of them — then him raising up, red-faced, to get a breath of air before diving back to it."

"So, what's wrong with that?" Diana said snuggling closer. "You could be doing the same thing while we wait. Jill looks like she is going to sleep for a while, thanks to Little One."

Jeff couldn't quite decide whether Diana was kidding or not. "Oh, yeah. Great introduction to the Matthews family if she should wake up and catch me eating pussy ten feet away, not to say anything about Kim or Linda coming in. And, we've already been caught by Margaret and Frank."

"Yeah. That was fun. Margaret sounded like one of the girls, the way she was squealing."

The girls aren't the only ones who squeal, Jeff thought, but wasn't foolish enough to say it aloud.

Linda rushed into the living room. "Where's Arlene? I want to ask her some..." she said as she focused on the figure on the couch.

"Mom?" she hesitantly said, then stronger, "Mom!" as she made up her mind that the person lying there really was her mother. Linda threw a questioning look at Diana and Jeff even as her course changed and her rush turned into a lunge for the few steps to get to her mother. Coming to a sliding stop on her knees, she grabbed the awakening woman in a hug.

"Mom. Mom. Oh, Mom! What are you doing here? You've come back to us. Oh, thank God!" Linda exclaimed.

Jill, jarred from the deep Healer-induced sleep by her daughter who was trying to make two people become one with the strength of her hug, fought for clarity of mind to say something, but only managed to mumble, "Baby." Struggling to sit up with the now-sobbing Linda hanging on, Jill almost fell off the couch.

Jeff, watching and fighting back sympathetic tears, thought, I've seen women cry before — many times, but these two could give lessons. And they've carried on a complete conversation without saying half a dozen words, he marveled as the two held each other sobbing, gasping out each other's names and a brief question or two.

Then, finally, Linda focused, "Where have you been? Why did you divorce Daddy? What happened to you? Why are you so skinny? Are you okay?" Linda machine-gunned the words.

Jeff nudged Diana, shifting his eyes to the TV that had just come on. "Computer! Mute sound," he said a split second before the computer announced the return of Bill and Kathy — this time with only text on the screen, though.

"Oh, my," Diana worried. "Kathy isn't going to take this well. What are we going to do?" she whispered to her husband.

"Search me? Probably, there isn't much we can do except maybe referee a bit."

"It's only been a couple of weeks since the divorce. It isn't final yet, is it?"

"I don't think it can be unless the lawyers have done something on some type of fast track thing. Even then, I would think that it would take longer."

"Well, Jill said she hadn't come here to cause trouble. She just wanted to tell Bill and Linda what happened. But Jeff, if she were drugged and hypnotized, then she was an unwilling participant in everything, including the divorce. Oh, crap. This complicates things. Would the judge nullify his divorce ruling when he finds out what happened? Do they do anything like that?"

"Well, I don't know. From what we've seen on TV lately, judges — at least some of them — do most anything they want to. It might take an agreement by both Bill and Jill to change things, or the better part of six months for the divorce to become final if they do nothing. And who says that Bill will want to stop it — hell, or Jill, for that matter. She seemed to accept the responsibility for her own actions in the same breath that she said she was drugged and hypnotized."

"If she's even telling the truth," Diana interjected.

"Well, I'm not as good at it as Quinton or Fred, but I didn't feel anything from her that felt like a lie. I think she's telling the truth. And if she is, well ... this Doctor Ingles has some answering to do. And I'm not talking about suing him or having him arrested — well, at least by conventional means," he mysteriously said. "But this still doesn't make sense. Well, it does in a way. But there's got to be a lot more to it."

After a moment, "She's a beautiful woman," he said as they watched mother and daughter, a little calmer, now quietly talking, "but Ingles risked a lot by drugging her. There's bound to be more to this. We'll just have to wait and get the whole story, at least as much of it as Jill knows. Then we'll go from there."

Buying the laptops didn't take as long as purchasing the cameras. Fred knew what he wanted and the women deferred to him.

"We can use the Internet and a word processor, plus keeping our farm records with the computer at home, but we know very little about laptops," Carla said.

Back in the car just before he pulled out of the parking lot, Fred turned so that he could talk to the women. "I don't know whether you two want to go with me or not. I can drop you by the RV..."

"Brenda's grave," Carla broke in as she figured out what he was going to say. "And of course we want to go with you. We wouldn't have it any other way."

"We're definitely going with you," Jessica said as she leaned forward to touch Fred's shoulder.

"Good. Thank you. You two being with me will make it easier. First, I need to stop by the florist, though. She always loved roses..." he said chopping the sentence off before the lump in his throat made his voice break.

But then there was a bump in Fred's road.

Brenda, this is going to be hard on me, Fred thought.

"Hard on you? What about me? I vote no. Give the roses to your women. I don't want to go anywhere near the graveyard where my body is buried. Let's get started toward Callaway Gardens."

A frown creased Fred's forehead as he thought, Brenda, I have to go visit your grave. I buried my soul mate there...

"You buried my body there. Not my soul. I still have that ... Well, at least, I think I do. I can't see myself, and I can't go anywhere, but I'm still me. Well, sort of. I first thought I was just a memory in your mind, then I became stronger. But, whatever I am, I know that I don't want to visit my grave."

Brenda, Baby, I've got to do this...

"All right. But don't expect me to like it. How would you like to look at your grave?"

"What did she say?" Jessica questioned. "We know that you've been talking to her."

"You don't want to know," Fred tried.

"Bullshit," Carla said. "Out with it."

"She doesn't want to go to the cemetery."

"Well, that's a no-brainer," Carla said, stifling a giggle. "So we're not going?"

"Yes, we're going. I have to go. It wouldn't be right to be this close and not go."

"So, she isn't pleased?" Jessica asked, grinning at her mother out of Fred's sight.

"I don't want to talk about it," Fred said as he started the Cruiser.

"So we're going to Wal-Mart to buy roses?" Carla said just to tease.

Fred caught on that they were messing with him, but answered truthfully. "I'm going to the flower shop where I always bought her roses. They have the best ones that I've ever found."

A few minutes later, Fred walked out of the shop with two dozen red roses in a large vase. After wedging them in the back so they wouldn't fall over, he went back into the store. Returning a moment later carrying two separate vases, each containing a dozen roses, he handed a vase of flowers to each of the women.

"I couldn't forget you two," he said.

That got him kisses and smiles.

Thirty minutes later, a somber group got out of the car at the cemetery. Fred, deep in thought, opened the hatch and took out the large vase, turning toward where he knew Brenda's grave was. The women gave him a moment, then followed carrying their vases also, intending to give him some alone time at the grave, but Fred stopped and waited for them.