Chapter 21

Even though Jon and Tanisha had been apartment dwellers and didn't think they'd accumulated much stuff, it seemed like a lot over the last weeks of May before moving day arrived. For more than a month they'd been packing this box and that one, which Jon then hauled down to a pile near the front door. By the time it reached the point that it seemed as if they were living out of suitcases at best, the pile had gotten rather intimidating.

Much the same thing was going on at Ben and Joy's apartment across the street, except that it was a larger pile than Jon and Tanisha's; it was a smaller apartment, and a year before Jon and Tanisha had helped their friends haul belongings from Joy's apartment to Ben's. With double everything, some things of Joy's were still in boxes unopened for over a year.

On top of that, both couples decided it was probably better to keep most of the furniture they'd accumulated, rather than just toss it; the new houses were enough bigger that most of it could be of use here and there. All that added up to a lot of volume to get moved, way too much to be dealt with in their cars. Jon and Ben had agreed the only way the four of them could deal with it would be to rent a truck and do it themselves. It would still be a lot of work, especially with Tanisha only about a month from her due date, and it was understood that she wouldn't be helping with any of the heavy stuff.

The move would be on the Saturday before Memorial Day, and Jon was getting worried about it. Then, in the last days, Jon got a call from his mother asking if they'd like a little help dealing with the move; she and Al could break free for a day, even though it was the height of tripping season for Canyon Tours. "Sure," he told her, "The more, the merrier."

"Good," she replied. "I'll have Al bring the pickup. That'll save you having to rent a truck."

When Jon opened the door on Saturday morning with Ben and Joy already present, it shouldn't have surprised him to see more than Al and Karin standing outside. Crystal and Preach were there, along with the rest of Crystal's rafting crew: Nanci and her quasi-boyfriend Kevin, another Canyon Tours boatman, and two swampers he'd never met before! As he stood there shaking his head, another pickup towing a box utility trailer pulled in, and Jon shook his head some more as Joy's parents got out and joined the throng.

"Mom," he protested half-heartedly. "I know this move is a big deal but it's not that big a deal."

"Well, it was just going to be Al and me," she grinned. "But your sisters decided they wanted to help out."

With that big of a crew they went through the townhouse in one fast and furious hour, and, finally, the place had been stripped to the bare walls. While the rest of the crew waited outside, Jon and Tanisha took one last pass through the place, just to make sure nothing had been overlooked or left behind. "You know," Jon said at one point. "In a way it's hard to leave. We've spent three years here, and a lot has happened to us in that time."

"Yeah," she replied, "We came here with nothing but each other and only what we could get in the Monte Carlo, with nothing but the hopes that this would be a good and safe place for us. It's been all of that, and it's going to be hard to get used to not being here."

"True," he nodded, "But our hopes worked out beyond our wildest dreams, didn't they?"

"Yeah, they did," she smiled. "I sure never expected any of this when you took me out of St. Louis that time. Never, ever, and look how it turned out. Let's get out of here before we get sickening."

Moving into the new house was a little more complicated since the boxes and furniture and things had to be hauled to the rooms where they would be needed; some new furniture had already been delivered and set in place. With that many hands, it didn't take long before they were heading back to Ben and Joy's apartment to do the same thing all over again, but by noon the process was complete and all that was left was the unpacking and settling in. Somewhere along in there, several boxes of pizzas appeared, and the first backyard party at the new house consisted of going through them like a swarm of locusts. There was enough, but barely. Canyon Tours employees were active folks and didn't believe in letting food go to waste.

Shortly after they finished the pizzas, Crystal announced that she and the crew needed to be headed back to Flagstaff. If they worked late they could get the food bought and packed for their next three-week river trip and still have time for church in the morning before they headed for the river. Al and Karin told them they'd be back in Flag along in the evening, and were planning on helping with the final loading in the morning and on the crew bus for the trip to Lee's Ferry.

It was clear that getting unpacked and settled in was going to be a long process. At least they'd have the extra day of Memorial Day weekend to work on it although the whole thing would most likely take months to complete, but they worked at it all afternoon and into the evening, until Al and Karin left for the long drive back to Flagstaff. By then they were tired, Tanisha especially so, and since the bed had been made they decided that enough was enough for one day.

They were pleased to find that the shower was indeed big enough for both of them, and Jon was able to enjoy his latest sensual pleasure of washing down Tanisha's expanded belly, where his daughter waited to be born. Not long after that, they were in bed, dedicating the house to themselves in their own special way.

"You know," Tanisha said as they were cuddled together afterwards. "There's one special thing about this place. Now that we have our own house, you won't have to gag me to keep from disturbing the neighbors when you tie me to the bed and tickle me like you used to do."

"Don't be so damn sure," he teased. "I'm not about to do it as close to your due date as you are, and after that we won't want to wake up our little Barbie doll."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she sighed. "Nothing is ever quite perfect, is it?"

"Oh, I'll find the chance every now and then," he snickered. "You love it, you know you love it, and that makes me love doing it to you. I don't tell you that I love you enough, Tanisha. I never expected my life to work out this way, but I'm not complaining."

"Me either, Jon. Me either."

They had the house pretty well organized by the time they went back to work on Tuesday. They'd be a long time finishing the project, but most things had found a place and they were starting to get settled in.

There was some paperwork to do in the front office, and they were busy with it when Jim Bricklin walked in. "Got some more news," he announced.

"Jim, I hate to say it," Jon said, "But every time you say that I start to get a little worried."

"Oh, I think this will be interesting," Jim smiled. "I pretty well expected that they weren't going to be able to make the Hammerstrom charges stick, and they didn't. Kwame got released last Wednesday."

"So now we're back to looking over our shoulders, right?"

"I doubt it," he smiled. "It seems that while Kwame was away for a while, Shantel decided she'd had her fill of him. It took her a while, but she really did a number on him after making up her mind to go through with it. One of our operatives got this secondhand, but it seems that she took over the church service the Sunday before, and basically she told the whole congregation that not only did she believe the charges were true, she told them a lot of other stuff that he'd been involved in. She told them that the best thing all of them could do was to follow her out the door. She and the kids went out, got in the car, and left. No one has officially seen her since."

"Officially?" Tanisha grinned.

"Well, I don't officially know it, but apparently another of our operatives was working on his own time to help get things set up," Jim laughed. "He's on vacation and I'd be willing to guess he's not alone. It seems that before she left, Shantel cleaned out the bank accounts, threw all the church records and computers in a dumpster, and then left all the doors to the house and the church unlocked and wide open. Let's just say that Kwame didn't have much to come home to when he came home."

Tanisha shook her head. "In that neighborhood? With her pumping things up? I'll bet there wasn't much left."

"Right," Bricklin grinned. "Right down to the copper pipes out of the walls. There's no way he's coming after you until he finds Shantel, which I sincerely doubt he's going to do."

"You know and you're not saying, right?" Jon grinned.

"Well, I don't know, and I'm not saying," the older man grinned. "However I will say that there probably were some Halloran resources used. Best of all, his power base is all but gone, and he's going to have some real fun with the IRS over those missing records. I doubt you're even going to cross his mind."

"I sort of hate to see things end like that," Tanisha shook her head. "Dad worked hard to build all that up and Kwame wasted it. I know Dad did some good, but Kwame was just a leech. I guess it's the logical thing to expect, but still." She shook her head again and said, "At least he can't do much more harm around there for a while."

"Well, because of the security aspects of it we'll still keep an eye on him from time to time, but I'd expect it will be a while before he gets his head above water enough to do anything. Oh, Clemmens is going away for a while over the assault on the Fredericks woman, thanks to carrying a gun and his priors, so maybe the city has a job opening for your brother."

Tanisha's due date of July first came and went without either of them worrying about it -- it had been at best an approximation anyway. As it turned out her water broke early on the morning of the fourth, so Jon took her to the hospital. It proved to be a fairly easy delivery, although real, serious contractions didn't set in until late in the day. The young Barbara Chladek came into the world right after dark, as a nearby fireworks display filled the sky with light and sound. As Tanisha took Barbara into her arms for the first time, she smiled at Jon and said, "You know, Jon, that could be a problem."

"What?"

"Is she going to grow up thinking the fireworks are for her birthday?"

"As far as I'm concerned, they are."

For more than one reason -- Tanisha's pregnancy being the big one -- Jon and Tanisha hadn't planned to hold an open house for their new home until after Barbara arrived, when they could combine the event with a sort-of baby shower. The Canyon Tours tripping schedule, which dictated Crystal, Preach, and Nanci's availability, meant that it was along in July before it could be held.

Phoenix gets uncomfortably hot in the summer, but people tend to get used to it, and there was plenty of shade around the pool in the back yard. The Canyon Tours people present preferred it outside -- it can get very hot in the Grand Canyon at that time of year and they found the shaded pool area to be comfortable, indeed. However, those people who worked inside preferred the powerful air conditioning in the house, including many people from Lambdatron. There was lots of oohing and aahing over the little girl, just adding to the fun.

"So," Angela smiled, "Is she a good baby?"

"Very good," Tanisha replied as she held Barbara in her arms. "She still usually gets us up in the middle of the night, but occasionally she stays down for the night."