Chapter 22

Chuck was seated in the backyard passing the time by watching a couple of birds working together in building a nest. Watching them build a structure for the results of their mating reminded him that he was going to be married soon. He was looking forward to the event without the kind of nervousness that plagued many grooms.

There was only one downside – he wished his parents were still alive to see him get married. He wished his parents could have met Betsy. He was sure they would have loved her and adopted her like the daughter they never had. In fact, he could even imagine the kind of fuss his mother would have made over Betsy. His father would have winked at him and told him he’d done a fine job at finding a wife.

Caught up in the melancholy of missing his family, he sighed and watched the birds continue with their nesting activities.

Gary walked over to where Chuck was seated. He could tell that the young man was a little down and thought he could help by letting the guy talk about it.

“What’s the matter?”

Chuck shrugged his shoulders as if to dismiss the assertion that something was the matter. He replied, “Nothing.”

Gary wasn’t fooled. He sat down and yawned. The upcoming wedding was causing him all kinds of nightmares. There would be a lot of people there and who knew what could happen. His job was to expect the worst and hope for the best.

“You look a little down.”

“I was just wishing my parents were still alive to see me get married,” Chuck said.

Gary wondered how one is supposed to respond to a statement like that. There wasn’t much to be said other than sorry that your parents are dead. Putting something like that into words seemed just a little blunt and unfeeling. Instead, he said, “There’s nothing we can do about that.”

“I know.”

“I imagine they’re watching from above,” Gary said glancing up at the sky above.

He had no idea about Chuck’s religious beliefs. That wasn’t the kind of thing that cropped up all that often in casual conversations. He did know that they were going with a Druid wedding, so he just assumed that Chuck was a devote follower of some religion.

“I’m sure they are,” Chuck replied. “I know you didn’t come out here just to cheer me up. What’s up?”

“I just talked to Ben.”

“About what?” Chuck asked knowing that Gary had just given him an opening line.

Gary said, “There’s a guy on his way over here. He was over at your place asking about you.”

“Who?”

“A fellow by the name of Harry Mahoe.”

“Harry’s home?” Chuck exclaimed excitedly.

He had worried when the last batch of men returned from service overseas with Penny and Harry hadn’t been one of them. There were only two explanations that made sense to him, Harry had been killed or he had been left behind. He had basically given up all hope of ever seeing Harry after Penny had assured him that all of the men in Pakistan had pulled out.

When he had mentioned Harry to Alice’s son, George, there had been no recognition of the name. He had described the Hawaiian to him, and still there was not a trace of recognition. Of course, Chuck didn’t expect that George would know everyone who was over in that part of the world. Still, it would have been nice to have had some kind of news about his friend.

“I take it you know him,” Gary said.

“He’s my best friend. I’ve known him since we were five years old!” Chuck answered with a broad grin.

“I don’t recall his name being on the guest list for the wedding.”

Chuck said, “I thought he was dead or left behind when the military pulled out. He was over in Pakistan fighting the last of the warlords and didn’t come back with everyone else ... or at least not that I’d heard.”

“Maybe he wasn’t there at the time of the collapse,” Gary said.

“I suppose that’s possible,” Chuck said. “I can’t imagine him getting back home without stopping by.”

“Did you ever think he might not have known you were here?” Gary asked.

That question actually made Chuck pause. He couldn’t remember if he had ever told Harry that he had returned home to the island after his parents had died, but he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t mentioned it at least once. Communications had been rather difficult at the time, even with email. After the fall, there had been nothing from the front lines.

“That’s possible. We weren’t exchanging many emails around the time when I was moving from Austin to here,” Chuck said.

That had been a rather hectic time for him. He had lost his parents, moved out of his house in Austin, and taken over the store. He definitely remembered writing about his frustration in trying to meet Betsy. He remembered writing a lot about that although most of it was of the form, ‘she ran past again today and wouldn’t stop.’

Then it dawned on him that he had talked with Harry’s parents. In fact, he had sent Steve to meet with Harry’s whole family concerning the fish farms. They would have told Harry that he was here on the island.

“He’ll be here any minute now,” Gary said.

Chuck jumped up and headed towards the house. Upon entering the kitchen, he said, “Alice! Get out the beer. I’ve got a visitor!”

“Really?” Alice said glancing at where he had been.

By that time, Chuck was headed towards the front door intending to meet Harry at the driveway. This was the first time she’d ever seen him so excited. She wondered who it was that was stopping by.

It was several minutes later before Harry came walking up the driveway. The big man moved with a grace that was unexpected for a man of his size. He was of warrior stock and his time in the military had only emphasized those features. A lot of people who didn’t know him were somewhat afraid of him, but he had a heart as big as all outdoors.

The two men met in the middle of the driveway. They hugged and patted each other on the back without saying a word. It was the natural hug shared by two old friends who had not seen each other in years. There was none of that awkwardness exhibited by most men when hugging.

Chuck stepped back and said, “You’re looking good.”

“You’re still scrawny,” Harry said with a wink.

“Some things don’t change. You’re still big.”

“Being big isn’t always an advantage,” Harry said. A pained expression crossed his face and he added, “It often makes you the first person the bad guy shoots at.”

“I’ve been worried about you. I even asked Penny Vinter if she knew anything about you,” Chuck said.

Surprised, Harry asked, “You know Penny Vinter?”

“Yes.”

“I never had a chance to meet her.”

“You’ll be meeting her soon,” Chuck said with a grin.

“Why?”

Chuck answered, “She’s coming to my wedding.”

“You’re getting married?”

“Next Saturday,” Chuck answered.

Harry said, “I take it the runner finally stopped to talk to you.”

“She tripped,” Chuck said.

“That sounds about right. You always did have women falling all over themselves to meet you,” Harry said with a chuckle.

“Me? They were after you,” Chuck said.

“That’s right. You were my friend only because you could use me to get to the ladies,” Harry said with a twinkle in his eyes.

“You’re piling it on higher and deeper,” Chuck said. He shook his head and said, “What ever happened to that shy and retiring guy that I grew up with?”

“That’s a long story,” Harry said tiredly.

Seeing that this particular line of conversation was bringing Harry down, Chuck asked, “Do you want to tell it to me over a beer?”

“You’ve got beer?” Harry asked surprised by that little revelation.

His relatives had told him that it had been a while since anyone had had beer. They had even tried to barter for some to celebrate his return without any luck. He was surprised to learn that Chuck had some. It was one of those products that wasn’t getting distributed by the Fusion Foundation and normal shipping activities had not expanded sufficiently to bring that particular product into common distribution.

“Yes. I’d also like you to meet the staff,” Chuck said.

“Staff? You have staff?”

The idea that Chuck had people working for him was totally unexpected. He knew that Chuck was more or less a solitary figure who prided himself on being self-sufficient.

Chuck shrugged his shoulders somewhat embarrassed and answered, “I guess you could say that. They actually work for Betsy, or at least, most of them do.”

“Most.”

“I’ve got a woman who is helping me organize my companies,” Chuck admitted.

“You’re going to have to tell me what is going on in your life,” Harry said staring at his old friend.

Betsy was seated at the patio table chatting with Harry while Chuck was in the house recycling the beer he’d had earlier. They had been talking about Harry’s time in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He had been trying to express how difficult it was to live while knowing that there were folks ready to kill you while you were not in a position to tell friend from foe. There was a kind of stress in living that way that wore at one’s soul.

Harry said, “You can’t imagine what it was like living like that.”

“Yes, I can,” Betsy said.

Harry smiled indulgently, knowing that a pretty little girl like her probably thought that being surrounded by enemies who wanted to kill you was a lot like having a broken fingernail. Civilians just couldn’t understand what it was like being in a war zone.

He asked, “Were you in the military?”

“No. I was a little too hyper to be in the military and then I was a bit too busy to join once I calmed down a little,” Betsy answered.

Trying to stand at attention for more than fifteen seconds would have been a near impossibility for her at one time. She almost laughed at imagining herself double timing every drill. She knew that the military types wouldn’t have found it so amusing.

“You can’t understand what it’s like until you’ve been up to your ass in alligators,” Harry said.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Betsy said. “It’s not easy knowing that all hell can break loose at any time.”

Harry frowned. He was beginning to wonder what Chuck saw in her. She was some kind of Miss Know-it-all. He had always figured that Chuck was too smart to fall for someone like that. He started to reconsider Chuck’s invitation to be his best man at the wedding.

Chuck returned to the patio and took a seat next to Betsy. He asked, “What were you talking about while I was gone?”

“He was showing me your baby pictures,” Betsy said with a smile.

Chuck was lucky he wasn’t drinking something or else it would have flown out his nose. That was the last thing he expected Betsy to say. Harry laughed at the expression on Chuck’s face.

“Really? I didn’t know he had any,” Chuck finally managed to say.

“He was telling me about how rough it was there,” Betsy said.

Chuck said, “I can’t imagine what it would be like to live like that. I know you know what it’s like, but I really can’t imagine it.”

“What do you mean she knows what it’s like?” Harry asked.

Chuck pointed to the band of gold on Betsy’s arm and said, “She’s a servant of the Two-Sided One.”

“Oh,” Harry said staring at the torque on her arm.

It seemed that throughout the discussion little things, most of them important, kept emerging that required him to revise his opinion of her. Then he thought about it a little more. He’d never heard of any of the servants of the Gods and Goddesses to wear a torque.

Rather than be confrontational about it, he said, “Maybe she does know what it’s like.”

Betsy said, “I wasn’t crawling around in the dirt like you were, but I have been surrounded by bad guys wanting to kill me.”

“Okay,” Harry said pegging her as a tough girl wanna-be.

Betsy said, “So getting back to your story, you followed that group from Pakistan into Afghanistan before catching up to them.”

“Yes. It took us a month to locate them. It’s really rough terrain and they were holed up in a cave in the mountains. There are too many places to hide there.”

“I’ve heard that. Last time I talked with Georgia, she was reminiscing about her time there with Oscar. That’s a real rough area,” Betsy said nodding her head.

“Oscar? Oscar Meyers?” Chuck asked.

“Yes,” Betsy answered. “He and my brother were friends. My brother is watching over his widows.”

“Our Colonel trained under him and Georgia,” Harry said.

He had thanked God every day for the knowledge his Colonel had given them in how to deal with the enemy. That knowledge had saved his life on several occasions.

“They trained a lot of people,” Betsy said.

“Yes,” Harry said.

It dawned on him that nobody had seen Oscar’s widows since the day he had been sacrificed in Israel. He figured she was name dropping again.

“Continue with your story,” Betsy said.

“We caught up to them in the mountains and fought it out. There were heavy casualties on our side, but we prevailed in the end. The enemy was wiped out. Of course, we were a long way from where we were supposed to be. That’s when we found out about the economic collapse.”

Chuck wondered what Harry must have thought when he learned that the American economy had fallen apart while he was stuck in some out of the way spot in the world. It must have been devastating.

He asked, “How did you get back here?”

Harry said, “We ended up driving into Turkey through Iran. That was an adventure that was almost as dangerous as fighting the rebels.

“We stayed a few days in Istanbul while trying to figure out how to get home. From there, we took a ship to Naples. We had to swap our truck for the fare. After a bit of wrangling with some fishermen, we ended up going to Marseilles. That cost us our grenade launcher. After working a couple of weeks working as security at the train station, we were able to take a train to Paris.

“Paris was a mess. There were riots in the streets and buildings were burning. Fortunately, we found an American guy holed up in a hotel. He was scared to death of the riots that were going on in Paris. It was a reasonable fear. A lot of people in Europe are blaming America for the collapse.

“Anyway, he had a jet parked at one of the airports and was looking for bodyguards to escort him to it. He took us back to the states with him. We flew into a small airport in North Carolina.

“Once there, a couple of us traded some of the guns we had taken from the enemy to get a car. We drove across the country to Los Angeles dropping people off along the way. I got on a boat and made my way home.”

“What kind of boat?”

“It was a garbage scow,” Harry said. “It had to be one of the ugliest boats I’ve ever seen, but I really appreciated the ride.”

“A garbage scow?” Chuck asked glancing over at Betsy who was grinning and nodding her head.

“Yes. Believe it or not, that was the only part of the trip that didn’t cost me anything. The guy just welcomed me aboard.”

For Harry, that had been the best part of the trip. The man had even gone out of his way to drop him off at Ni’thau after learning that was where he was headed. He wished he could have done something to repay the man, but he didn’t have anything.

Betsy laughed. “That was my boat. I’m the only one who has a garbage scow traveling from Los Angeles to here.”