Chapter 15

Meka, Tutsie, and I had a nice ride down to the new barn. This would be the first time the horses and mules had used it but we didn't have any extra work to do, except for filling up their hayracks.

We were finished in no time and then the three of us headed to the house. Meka put Tutsie down for a bathroom break before we entered and when he was done we all walked in the back door on our own legs. Tutsie seemed to know that this was home and he sniffed around, getting familiar with his new digs I guess.

After a few minutes Meka came back with Tutsie slow trailing her and she asked me about the cartoons Janice had given her. I picked up Tutsie and we all went to the big truck to find them. I thought I knew right where they were.

Ten minutes later we were in my new office and I had Bob on the phone, asking him how to make them play.

"Just put the CD in the top drive and then click on My Computer, on the desk top," he said.

I didn't understand a bit of that so he went over it again, step by step this time. Doing it was easier than listening to him tell me how, and before you know it, the show was on. I even watched with her for a few minutes before I went to the kitchen to get her a Coke.

I could see that the movie held her attention completely, so I wandered out and explored around the house some more. Mostly to get familiar with where everything was.

Soon enough Ethel called and told me we should head her way since supper was about ready. Meka and I had a little contest of wills when we got to the garage. It wasn't much of one and we ended up with a negotiated settlement.

She wanted to go to George's house in the big truck and I wanted to go in my old pickup. She couldn't understand why we had to take that since she couldn't see out of it very well, and besides, it didn't have an airseat. She couldn't tell me that in so many words, but she has a way of getting her point across.

The motions she was making, imitating raising and lowering the airseat, reminded me that the Hum-V pickup had one too. It didn't rise as high as the Western Star's seat, of course, but I got her to try it and she liked it fine.

No doubt about it, Ethel was going to tempt hell out of Doctor Jorge at every meal, and if he lost any weight he was going to earn it. We had roast beef and cream potatoes tonight with apple pie and homemade ice cream for desert. Poor Jorge, he'd probably gain five pounds before morning.

Meka loved it all of course and apparently she thought that Tutsie needed a big meal to help him sleep, like she did. In the end I was afraid that we'd end up with a fuzzy stomach-with-legs instead of a dog. He really did seem to like the ice cream though.

I had a hell of a time getting Meka and Tutsie down to my house and in bed. At least Tutsie stayed awake long enough to do his business, but only just. I didn't bother with his box; I put them both into Meka's big new old bed. I hoped he could wake her if he needed to go out.

About two AM I learned that he was able to wake her, since she woke me too, to take them outside. Meka even made sure Tutsie was far from the front door before doing his job.

When we went back to bed Meka was awake enough to realize that she'd been sleeping in her own room, in her bed. This wouldn't fly for the rest of the night. She and Tutsie joined me for the duration.

I had a little trouble going back to sleep, but it wasn't because of my two companions. Something that I couldn't grasp was bothering me. I had a feeling that I'd left something undone and wracked my brain trying to figure out what it was.

Sure, there were plenty of things still to be done around the house. Hell, I hadn't even given my new operating room more than a glance. If I needed to help out someone that was injured, or wounded, I'd be opening every cabinet and drawer looking for what I needed.

But that wasn't it; I needed to get familiar with the medical stuff, sure. That wasn't what was keeping me up though. I kept getting fleeting glimpses of the weapons room and the firing range, but they didn't seem to be the point either. Finally I decided to spend time there tomorrow, making sure that I knew at least a little about everything I had. That must have been close enough because I dropped right off after that.

Meka was watching my face when I woke the next morning. Her smile was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes and the next thing I knew, a wet pink Tutsie tongue licked me right on the mouth. I couldn't help it, I laughed.

No matter what Meka and I needed to do in the bathroom, Tutsie came first. We took him out the front door again, Meka in her T-shirt that nearly reached her knees and me in my boxers. As soon as we walked out the door, a robe jumped right to the top of my buy one soon list. It was cold out this morning.

Visions of house-shoes came to my head too, since there was plenty of dew and my feet were wet within three steps. Meka gave me a little look and then glanced down at her moccasins. Apparently that was a poor slow in the head Daddy look.

Tutsie was thrilled for some reason and he was tearing all around, sniffing and running and then stopping to sniff again. I finally realized that this must be his first encounter with dew. He adored it.

Soon enough the urge hit him though and he was fertilizing the lawn that Ethel was determined to have out of this cow pasture. He gave it a good watering too and then did that stiff legged scratching around dogs sometimes do. Kind of an I'm acting like I'm covering up my mess thing.

We didn't really cut his parade short, but Meka and I both had some business of our own to tend to, soon. She picked him up and we went back in the house. I was glad that I now had my own bathroom.

Broken arm and all, Meka managed to dress herself and head for the kitchen before I could get myself dressed. I decided that she was just too smart for words when I found her waiting for the coffee maker to finish doing it things. She had my mug and hers ready for the day's first manna from the almighty Mr Coffee.

With Tutsie under one arm and my coffee mug in the other hand, Meka and I took off for the garage. I guess she was paying more attention to the differences between vehicles now, since she stopped at the Model A to give it a good looking at.

What the hell, I put her inside, handed her Tutsie, and got in myself. Now we'd see what They knew about cantankerous four cylinder engines. I pushed the spark advance lever all the way up to retard the timing, put it in neutral, and stepped on the starter's foot switch. At least it turned over smartly.

Turning the switch to give the coil some juice, I hit the starter button again and it fired right up. After a couple of minutes to let it get warm, I gave the timing a little advance and damned if it didn't start Cadillacing. I could hear every cylinder hit individually and I knew as well as anyone that it was hard as hell to get a Model A's engine to do it.

I put it in gear, eased off the clutch, and we headed for the vacant big truck space, because its door was already on the way up. As soon as we were outside I hit the foot switch for the Klaxon and Meka screamed in delight as the Model A sounded off with its Ah-ooh-ga wail. Even Tutsie perked up and seemed to be grinning.

Meka wanted me to do it again, but I pointed toward George's house and I think she got the idea. When we pulled up near Ethel's back door, I gave them a good dose of it too. People were scrambling to get outside for a look in seconds.

"Where did that come from?" Ethel asked, since she was the first to reach us.

"It came back with the house, I just hadn't tried it yet," I said.

"I'm sure there's a story with it," she said, grinning.

"There are hundreds, but let's do the important part first," I said.

"The important part?" Wanda asked.

"Breakfast," Meka said, and everyone howled.

At the table it was apparent that Tutsie didn't know from the cooks, but he did have a firm grasp on who brought his food. Again he waited patiently while Meka broke up his sausage patty, crumbled up his bacon, and then slid the sunny-side-ups onto the top. Then he dug in with abandon. For a second I thought his wagging tail might throw him completely off his perch.

Meka laughed at him, said 'Ch'uht'uh dìitsi?' and turned to her own plate. I kept a straight face somehow and wondered what made twelve country people watch patiently while a poodle's breakfast was prepared.

After we were all stuffed, Meka and I took Tutsie outside, just in case the spirit moved him, and we had a pretty good audience for this event too. I was about to find Doctor Jorge and ask him for a few more words to work on, but I saw him disappearing down the road, in obvious exercising garb.

"I guess the Doc was serious about trimming off a few pounds," I said.

"Was he ever? Did you see what he had for breakfast?" Ethel asked.

"I didn't pay it any attention."

"All he ate was a big bowl of spoon size shredded wheat, in skim milk, and one hard boiled egg," Ethel said, clearly she'd been surprised.

"Ouch, it must have been torture to watch the rest of us pig out and have to settle for that," I said.

"That's what I thought too, but he didn't seem down about it," George said.

"I wish him well, but we can't change our ways just so's he can get a little weight off. He's a guest in my house, and a welcome one at that. I'll get him anything he wants to eat, but that don't mean everyone else has to eat it too," Ethel said, and as usual she made perfect sense.

Wanda and Ethel took over entertaining Meka and Tutsie until Doctor Jorge got done with his walk. I drove the Model A back down to the house and parked it. I wanted to head right for the armory but made myself take a look in my ad hoc hospital.

Aside from being considerably more capable, it was pretty much what I expected. It did have a few things that would make my first aid role easier; the first one I noticed was the autoclave. I was glad to have it, since sterilizing in a pot of boiling water wasn't nearly as effective. Personally, I hoped none of it was needed.

I made myself spend two hours going through my new health care facility, but when they were over I headed for the armory. When it came down to it, I just liked guns and weapons better than doctoring.

Inside it, I started looking around to see what I had besides weapons. Oddly enough, my first find was more related to the coyote and wolf hunting I'd been doing than to anything that had come up with my home's unusual trips. Or that was my first thought anyway.

They looked like a pair of old time motorcycle goggles to me, and I wondered what the hell they were for, especially after I saw there were over thirty pairs of them. Closer examination let me know they were more than just some type of safety glasses.

They had a type of soft padding to fit comfortably, but the frame around the lenses was bigger than it needed to be. It was almost like there had to be some sort of works in there next to the glass, or plastic of the lens.

I tried a pair on anyway and they were comfortable to wear. The elastic strap was already adjusted perfectly for my head somehow. It pulled the goggle's padding to a snug fit around my eyes without the annoying pressure those things can have when they're too tight.

I was disappointed at first since it seemed there was something wrong with the lenses. They were almost perfect, but looking through them gave me a feeling that they were off somehow. I can't explain it, the view through them just wasn't what you'd expect from clear glass.

All was explained, or most was, when I took them off. The big room was completely dark, and I do mean completely. There was no light in here anywhere. Not even the slightest glow from anything. It was the kind of dark you could only find if you were inside a deep hole in the ground or a cave, and of course that was just where I was.

Not really believing what I saw, I put the goggles back on anyway and could see perfectly. These weren't the night vision goggles I'd been looking for; they were magic see perfectly in total darkness goggles. Hell, they hadn't even been black and white like all night vision equipment I'd ever seen. I could see the normal color of everything just fine.

I took them off to total darkness again, setting them on the cabinet by feel, and the room's lights came back up when I did. I felt weak in the knees for a second and had to put my hand out to steady myself on the cabinet.

It was finally hitting home that I was interacting with someone or something that was otherworldly. It's a little strange that the other things hadn't given me this feeling so dramatically. Maybe it had all been so blatantly impossible that it didn't register.

It did now though, and the goggles had brought the point home. They were something that I knew was not within the reach of my world's technology.

Sure, we had night vision equipment, but not like this. Current night vision technology was good enough, usually, to get the job done. It let you see where you were going, or shooting, in the dark, but it was nothing like being able to see during daylight. These goggles were to my others night vision things as the sun was to a flashlight.