Chapter 12

Thursday, 14 Mar.

What a day yesterday was. I now know I have enemies, and I think I know who, but I will have to think on this some more. I know I can't let this go on too long before I have to put a stop to some of the threats against me. I figured that I would have to step in again with the Orthanians. I may just let Harlou blast the whole darn planet to cosmic dust and not worry about it anymore. I say that because they really piss me off. I mean, I'm not a vengeful person, but I do have my evil side too, just like everyone else. Now if they threaten my family or me again, or even Brenda or her family, then I may have to let my darker side do some real damage to them.

Enough doom and gloom, it's time to get up and go to school. I'm sure it will be a madhouse with people wanting to know how last night went.

I woke my sister and we got up, showered, and dressed, ready for school. We ate breakfast and headed for the bus stop. I stopped at Brad's driveway, and he and I were soon headed for Kaitlin's house. Surprisingly, the topic of conversation today was not about last night, but tonight's baseball game. Brad was to start against Llano tonight for the third of a three game series with them. They had won 5 -4 on Tuesday and 9-7 last night. Once Kaitlin joined us, she was so excited about the game last night where Brad hit a two run homer in the ninth to win the game. She and her parents had driven up to Llano for the game, mainly for her parents to meet Brad, but also to see them play. Her dad, Peter, had played pretty good baseball in college, but never made it to the minors.

I was mobbed when I arrived at school; Brenda had been talking to several of my entourage all the way to school about how last night's supper with Nathan was. She also relayed my part in all of this. Everyone assumed my talking with the men and women was through e-mails or on the phone, and I did not discourage that misconception. I said that I did receive the list from the doctor last night, and that I would be trying to match up addresses over this weekend so I could hand them out on Monday. I reminded the girls that I would not make lunch today as I had to go to work.

We made it to homeroom and my entourage left me to my own devises. Classes were about normal today and soon I was outside waiting for my Aunt Barbara. She let me drive to work again and we parted company. Since the weather was nice today, we conducted some more fire drills. The first drill, with section A, went perfectly; however Section C was a total disaster. There are 87 people in Section C, yet it took almost ten minutes to get everyone out. We had stragglers, we had people going to the wrong place, and we even found three ladies who went to the cafeteria. Needless to say, they would be disciplined for that little maneuver. Once we had everyone in the right place, their supervisor and Glenn had a long talk with the people about the importance of the drills and an orderly and quick exit. Glenn explained that if a fire had developed in their section, roughly half of the people in their section would have either been injured or killed in the fire. That one thing sobered up a lot of them, and they really started to pay attention to what was being said. Glenn ended the discussion with this statement, "There will be more fire drills at unannounced intervals for this section until you can get your act together. That also means decreased production for you if you keep messing up and dragging these drills out. So you hold your own fate in your hands. Now back to work."

Not much else happened and it was soon time to head home. Once there, I worked on trying to get parental permissions from all the under-aged students that wanted to write to our injured warriors. Then I set up a spreadsheet and tried to match people up. By the time Suzie dragged me off to bed, I had matched about twenty-five people up. There were fifty four names on my list from MSgt. Gloria Miller; forty-eight men and six women. Only three had their given names as an address, so we would have to get them to change that, or if not, their preference.

I had received parental permissions now for forty of my eighty-five student names, so I was trying to match up what I could. I think I would release the twenty-five matchups I already had and work on more this weekend. Tomorrow night wouldn't work, as that was the dance with Sam and her parents. I thought about all these things as I lay in bed trying to get to sleep.

I was just dropping off to sleep when I heard a faint voice in my head, and then it became a little louder. I answered whoever it was and found myself talking with Defendorship.

"Bob of Earth, can we speak again? If you are ready I will bring you to our ship so that we may speak of many things about my mission."

"Yes, Defendorship, You may bring me to your ship."

I arrived and found myself in a large room with a table and there were several Leptoe persons seated, along with several of the Orthanians too. Defendorship was at one end of the table, and it appeared to be Fleep at the other end. The table was pretty much divided depending upon their race. I greeted Defendorship and Fleep, and there was an open seat near Defendorship. I asked, however, if someone would trade seats with me so I could sit near the center of the table.

"Before we start this meeting, I would like to know why I am here and what we plan to accomplish."

An older person next to Defendorship spoke and said, "We are here to determine the conditions of the Leptoe surr ... er accord, regarding the scientists to be sent to their planet for study. I do not understand why a mere yearling must be in attendance to the ruling of this accord."

"I am Bob of Earth, and though I am a young man, I wield much power that you do not want to experience. May I ask who you are, Sir?"

"Yearling, I am Councilor Deepthought, and I am not accustomed to be threatened by such as you. Defendorship, send this being back to the crèche from where you found him!"

I had about had enough of the condescending manners of the Orthanians, so I searched for this person's mind and then entered easily. "Councilor Deepthought, I am not a yearling as you think and if I wanted, I could strike you dead right now, however I'm going to give you another chance to be civil so we can quickly conclude these proceedings. Otherwise, if you continue to annoy me, I will stop your heart or freeze your mind. Remember what I did to Orthanon, I can do that to you, or even much more. So, what's it going to be; death or civility?"

When I entered the councilor's mind he flinched and looked worried, now he was having trouble breathing properly. Two aides came over to him to assist, but he became calm after a couple of frantic minutes. He looked at me and said, "I apologize for the interruption. We can now proceed with this accord."

The next two hours were spent hammering out an accord that both sides, and myself, could live with. I added only minor issues, like oversight personnel from both sides and a time limit. I also offered some suggested lines of research to follow in order to determine how birth control could be accomplished on such a major scale. Soon, I was back in my own bed and cuddled up to my sister.

Friday, Mar. 15

Boy, go without a couple of hours sleep and you feel like crap the next day. I really was dragging today. I dug deep within myself and tried to carry on. Once at school, I let Bob2 take over and tried to get some rest. I did get some rest before lunch and it was a good thing I did, as I was mobbed at our table. I got fifteen more people who wanted to write to servicemen. So I did hand out the matches I had assigned to those students who were at lunch.

Of course, another topic was the top news, the St. Patrick's Day dance tonight. I let Sam know I would pick her up at 6:00 PM so we could stop by a restaurant of her choice before the dance. After our meal, my mom would drive us to the dance, and her parents could take her home. Mr. Carter was vigorously opposed to my taking Sam to the dance, but Mrs. Carter intervened and allowed us some time, with my mother as a chaperone, instead of one of them. Boy, we were both very glad that she intervened. That essentially gave us about an hour of no hovering parental observation. I mean Mom wouldn't be right on top of us so we could talk about just about anything. We might even get to kiss without constant interruptions.

The rest of the afternoon went by very quickly. I ran home from the bus stop, showered and dressed very nicely in dress slacks and nice forest green shirt, I even had a dark green tie if needed. I even got my black blazer out of my closet, just in case. I knew from overhearing some of the girls talking all week that Sam had gone out and gotten a special dress for the dance. So I wanted to be prepared to dress up, if need be.

I checked with my sister to see if I looked alright, and I got a whistle, a bear hug, and a toe twister of a kiss. "I'm jealous and envious of Sam tonight. You look good enough to eat. Maybe I need to take your edge off before you go, big brother. We don't want you embarrassing yourself or Sam all night."

"Squirt, although I really appreciate the offer, I think I'll decline. I want Samantha to know how I feel about her and if I don't show it, she might be disappointed. Besides, if I don't react to Sam, I think her mother would feel let down after all the trouble she has gone through to make Samantha be desirable for tonight. I think a new dress, hairdo, and makeup are the order of the day for her. I'll let you know what Sam looks like either by direct connection or I will capture her form on my camera. I think I should do that anyway so I can have a permanent picture to remind me of this night."

"You're right, this may be Sam's only chance for a prom type of picture. Why not have Mom bring her camera and take pictures? I'm sure mom would like some too."

I had just finished getting the camera from the dining room cabinet, when Mom came in the back door. I got whistled at again and I gave her the camera. She had to take several pictures of me, then had Suzie take a couple of her and I together. We then left for town to pick Sam up.

We arrived at the Carter home right at 6:00 PM. I rang the door bell, with my mother slightly behind me, as Jack answered the door. "Good evening, Mr. Carter, I'm here to pick Samantha up for the dance, is she ready?"

"Good evening, Mr. Roberts, and Mrs. Roberts, please come in. Samantha is just about ready; you look very nice tonight, Mr. Roberts. Mrs. Roberts; I'm Jack Carter, it's so nice to meet you."

"Kristen Roberts, Jack, but most people call me Kris. You have a lovely home, Jack."

About that time, Mrs. Naomi Carter came into the room and introductions were made. Jack had retrieved his camera from the coffee table, and then came 'the entrance.' A vision of pure loveliness entered the room. Sam wore a pale green strapless evening dress. Her hair was down and slightly curled. Her hair framed her face as she was beaming, and looked to be an angel in pale green.

Sam is about 5'-6", 125 pounds, and probably a 36-24-34 figure. She has very light brown hair, almost a blond highlighted color, and hazel eyes. Her oval face was perfectly accented with light makeup and rouged cheeks with an off-red lipstick that screamed 'kiss me.' She twirled for us and the room spun for me as I absorbed her loveliness.

I reacted just like any red-blooded male, I hardened immediately and the look on my face could only be described as dreamy and awe, all mixed into one. I stood there like a fish out of water, mouth gaping and eyes wide, trying and not quite able to take in the beauty that stood before me. Jack and Mom were snapping pictures of both of us, right where we stood. Sam was not in much better shape than I was, although she, like most beautiful women, didn't seem to be so gawky at it. I finally broke my reverie and said, "Samantha, you are a vision from heaven. You look too good for me; I hope you will allow me to escort your loveliness to the dance."

"I would be greatly honored to accompany you to the dance and it is I who am the lucky one tonight. I will be the talk of the dance, being escorted by a real American hero."

About this time, the Carters and my mom were posing us for pictures. I could not get over how nice Jack was being to me tonight. I knew I had won Naomi over when we went to dinner the other night, but Jack always made me think he was just tolerating me as a necessary evil for his daughter's sake. Tonight, he seemed to actually approve of me being with his daughter. The change that had come over him was almost scary. But then too, he may actually be seeing his daughter for what she is, a beautiful young girl, not just a genius mind like he and his wife are.

We were finally able to extract ourselves from the photo-op, and I said, "We need to get going if we are going to eat before we go to the dance."

Jack apologized and said, "Of course, please take care of our daughter and we will see you at the dance."

Mom, Sam, and I left then, and I asked Sam where she would like to eat.

"Actually, Bob, I'm not sure I could eat right now, I have too many butterflies and I don't want to get anything on my dress due to my clumsiness. I hope that's all right?"

"Sam just to be in your presence tonight is more than enough for me. You are breathtakingly beautiful, and I will be honored to be your escort tonight. I just hope I can keep the other guys from stealing you tonight."

"Believe me, Bob, you are the only one I want to dance with tonight. None of those other guys were ever nice enough before, so why should I let them be nice now."

I asked my mom to drive us to the back of her office parking lot so we could just talk. Sam and I were in the back seat of the Journey and could be close. We held hands once we were situated in the car, and when we arrived at the parking lot, we unbuckled and moved closer to each other. My mother said, "It's such a nice night, I think I'll take a long walk to stretch my legs. Too much sitting at work, you know," and left the car.