Chapter 5

Because they hadn't managed much sleep the night before, by the time the convention booths closed for the day, Jon and Tanisha were exhausted. They hadn't had much to eat all day, other than one or the other of them sneaking out to the lobby for some snack food. "We could call room service," Jon suggested as they cleaned up the booth and prepared it for the next day.

"I don't think so," Tanisha shook her head. "We'd be asleep when it got there."

"Yeah, that was what I was thinking. I wonder if the dining room is fairly quick."

"It was slower than somewhat last night, with all the convention people around," Angela told them. "If you want something quick, there's a Burger King up the street."

"That's a possibility," Jon replied. "But would you like to have dinner with us?"

"I hadn't planned on it," Angela said. "My friend from KLR Controls is here, we were going to get together."

"Have fun," Jon smiled. It was no secret around Lambdatron that Angela was a lesbian -- in fact, she was very out about it. It was also well known that part of the reason Angela liked to do these shows was the show coordinator from the other company also did girls, and they liked to hook up while on the road. In fact, the connection had brought no little business to Lambdatron from KLR. "Gonna party a little, huh?"

"With any kind of luck, party a lot," Angela grinned. "We may go to her room, but if we don't, then don't be surprised at what you hear from the other half of the suite."

"Enjoy yourself," Tanisha grinned. "At least someone here is going to be awake enough to enjoy themselves."

The Burger King proved to be just about as quick as they were in the mood for. It didn't take them long to eat, toss the trash, and be heading through the Chicago winter cold up to their room.

The room was in a suite; although it was in Lambdatron's name, originally it was to have been Jennlynn's room, with Angela next door. Now, Jennlynn and Will were in rooms registered to Jon and Tanisha in another hotel. That made Jon think: "I suppose we ought to call our room and check in with Jennlynn, just to be on the safe side."

"Call if you want to," Tanisha said, a touch on the irritable side. "I'm tired, I ache, I want a shower, and I want to get to sleep."

"I'll call," Jon replied, recognizing his wife's irritation -- it didn't happen very often, so was a touch notable. While she stripped off her clothes, he sat on the bed, picked the phone up off the stand, and called up the street to Will and Jennlynn's room.

After Will answered the phone Jon said, "I just thought I'd call and let you know we didn't see any press down at the booth today."

"Well, that's good news," Will told him. "I still ain't had the chance to watch the news much, but the hijacking yesterday is still at the top of the charts. It seems the press is a little confused and upset that Miz Swift managed to escape Biloxi without telling a soul, but no one seems to know where she's gone. I saw on CNN that my boss, Lieutenant Maitland, said he thought she'd gone to New Orleans, but he wasn't sure about that. I suspect General Ronstadt told him to say something like that, though."

"Nothing like a little false trail," Jon agreed. "So did you hang around town and watch TV today?"

"A little, not much," Will said. "Miz Swift and I have both always wanted to see the Museum of Science and Industry, so we went there. That's pretty interestin'. It was real neat to go through that U-boat. I can't believe people used to live like that."

"I know what you mean; I went through it as a kid," Jon replied. "I'm surprised Jennlynn went out in public, though."

"Oh, we did a little disguising, nothing out of the way," Will told him. "If you can, imagine Miz Swift with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearin' a sweatshirt and glasses, looking kinda sloppy. I didn't even hardly recognize her."

"I can't imagine it," Jon said truthfully. Jennlynn was always nicely dressed, and her spectacular hair was one of the more memorable things about her. "But anyway, glad you had a good time."

"Yeah, pretty good," Will agreed. "It's somethin' a little different for us to get together and do city-type things. Most of the time we've had a chance to do much together there's been horses involved, out in the desert someplace."

"I'm pretty much a city boy," Jon said. "But you know, that almost sounds like fun for a change."

"I've been on Air Force bases so much the last few years, it's a fun change for me, too," Will told him. "I will surely be glad to get back to bein' able to make my life doin' it. You folks had dinner yet?"

"Sort of, we went to the Burger King up the street. We're both exhausted and need to get some sleep."

"Well, we was sort of thinkin' we ought to get together for dinner with you or somethin'," Will told him. "But I don't guess it matters all that much tonight. Why don't you give a call after the show wraps up tomorrow night, and maybe we can get together somewhere. Don't even have to be room service, neither."

"Tomorrow night sounds good," Jon replied. "Right now I'm just hoping I can stay awake long enough to get out of the shower."

"Well, give us a call if you hear somethin'," Will said. "I'd expect that we'll be out and around somewhere tomorrow. You have a good night and a quiet day tomorrow now, hear?"

"You too, Will. See you tomorrow, maybe."

Jon hung up the phone, just a little amused. Will could talk in good English -- they'd heard him on the plane early in the morning, and they knew from their discussion that he had an extension degree from the University of Maryland. But, this discussion showed that either his default way of speaking was cowboy, or he just liked to talk the way he'd learned growing up on a ranch in the middle of nowhere in Nevada.

By the time Jon was done talking with Will, Tanisha was getting out of the shower; Jon thought she must have been serious about wanting to get to bed since she'd done it that quickly. For that matter, he wasn't in the mood to waste time himself, so he stripped off his clothes and headed off for his turn under the shower head.

Tanisha was drying her hair in the nude when he walked into the bathroom. For once the sight of her nude body didn't instantly turn his thoughts to sex, since he was tired himself. "Good God, what a day," he said over the sound of the hair dryer.

"No fooling," she said. "I've felt achy and crappy all day, and that burger isn't setting too well with me. I hope I feel better in the morning."

"Me, too," he agreed, heading for the shower.

Tanisha was gone from the bathroom by the time he got out, and was in bed by the time he made it out of the bathroom. "Well, I guess the best you can say about this day was it worked out," he said as he got in the other side of the bed. "Boy, this has been a tough one, and it might have gone better if I hadn't sat up jawing with Mike from Phoenix to Biloxi."

"It's your own fault, then," she said, looking at him from under the covers. "You know, this is the first chance we've had all day to talk without anyone else around, but can you believe Jennlynn with a boyfriend?"

"I sure can't," he yawned. "I mean, I saw him with my own two eyes, but still! Jennlynn? This is our Jennlynn?"

"I guess it just goes to prove she's still a mystery, no matter how well we think we know her," Tanisha smiled. "I mean, will wonders ever cease?"

"Well, after the last couple days, we ought to know that surprises happen," Jon replied philosophically. "We've sure had enough of them. Well, one down, four to go."

"Yeah," Tanisha agreed. "I hadn't really planned on coming to this show, and I'm going to be glad to have it over with. It takes me a little time to get psyched up for these things and I didn't have it."

"Plus watching over our shoulders all the time," Jon agreed. "At least we didn't have any sign of the press bothering us, or any sign of Dad showing up, so that's about all we could ask for. I talked to Will; he doesn't have a lot of information, but I got the impression he's not real worried about the press finding them, at least yet. Now, what happens if Jennlynn comes and does the show and someone passes that word along, that's another story."

"Yeah," Tanisha agreed. "I really wish she'd just headed out to that cabin she has with Will and got away from everything for a few days to give this a chance to blow over."

"You know Jennlynn; she has her own agenda," Jon sighed. "Always has had, too. My guess is she thinks she at least needs to do it a little, so she can make herself think the world is what it always used to be. I don't think it is, and it wouldn't surprise me if she has a hard time getting used to the idea."

"It wouldn't surprise me," Tanisha agreed. "Usually when a major change comes on you quickly, it takes a while to come to grips with it and get used to it. Ask me, I've been there, and I know."

Twelve hours later Jon felt better when the travel alarm went off. Not perfect, but better. Human, anyway, which was a big improvement over the night before. It was tempting to ignore the alarm, roll right over and get some more sleep, but he knew he'd set the alarm to give them enough time to get up and get around, so there was no choice but to cave in to reality and get up.

First things first, though: a good morning kiss. He rolled over, to see Tanisha lying there, still out like a light, with the covers thrown back. "Hey babe," he said more cheerfully than he felt, "Time to rise and greet the dawn."

"And the hell with you, too," she mumbled. "What a miserable night."

"Didn't sleep well?" he asked conversationally.

"Not particularly," she said, a little more clearly now. "For whatever reason, I had to get up and pee what seemed like every fifteen minutes. And then, half the time I was drenched in sweat. God, I could use another few hours of quality sleep. I must be coming down with something."

"I hope not," he said. He knew well it was no fun being sick, especially sick out on the road. Fortunately, neither he nor Tanisha were the kind of people who got sick very often.

"Well, I hope not, too," she sighed. "This week is going to be tough enough, without being sick on top of it. Well, I guess there's nothing to do but do it."

"Works that way sometimes," he agreed. "Go ahead, use the can, I can wait."

"Don't have to right now," she sighed. "I was up and used it a few minutes ago."

"All right," he replied. "I guess I'd better be the one to face the music."

Jon was the kind of guy who managed to get in and out of the bathroom in the morning fairly quickly. It always took Tanisha a little longer, but he figured that went with being a woman. He was out of the bathroom in perhaps five minutes, and found Tanisha sitting on the bed, only partly dressed, and looking a little glum. "Still not with it, huh?" he asked.

"Not really," she sighed. "I guess we must have really thrown things together when we left home, though."