Chapter 3

I Would Love to Meet Your Family, If We Can Get Away

At about ten AM we checked out of the hotel and we were on the road. It was about a three hour trip to get to the Capital, so I figured I should call my sister-in-law, so I dialed her number. I knew asking Brenda to stay overnight, was a mere formality, but knowing my sister-in-law, one that needed to be observed. Still, I smiled to myself. I have four brothers, so by no coincidence, I have four sister-in-laws. While they are all very different people, they all have one thing in common: I am one of there favorite people in the whole world. My good old chivalrous streak had endeared me to all of them. I suspect that at least once in their lives, my brothers have heard the same comment from their wives: "Why can't you be more like Sam?" While I don't know this for sure concerning three of my sister-in-laws, I know Brenda has said it, because she had told me. When my Ex, Bethany told me she wanted a divorce, my "sisters" made it clear on no certain terms who they were siding with in the dispute. They almost went as far as having an intervention for Bethany, but I talked them out of it. Of course, despite being the youngest, Brenda was the ringleader.

"Hello Sam," came her chipper voice.

"Hi Bren. Do you and Dan have plans tonight?" I asked.

"Nope. Just Monday night TV."

"In the mood for some company?"

"You mean you're coming for a visit?!" she said in an excited voice.

"Yeah. If it's OK, I'd like to bring someone."

"You have a gal pal?!" asked Brenda in an even more excited voice.

"It's a long story, but the answer is, yes. Her name is Jennifer," I replied.

"It's about time!" she laughed. "What time should we expect you? Dan should be home by about five."

"We have some errands to run in the city, so we can aim to be there around then."

"Great, Dan will be quite excited!"

"I can't wait to see you two and my adorable nephew!"

We then exchanged affectionate goodbyes and I disconnected.

"Your sister-in-law seems to like you a lot," smiled Jen.

"What can I say? She has good taste," I boasted.

"I won't argue with that comment," as out came her crooked smile and I felt myself begin to get hard.

After willing away my erection with thoughts of baseball, we chatted aimlessly about things we liked and did not like. For the most part our level of compatibility was excellent, though I threatened to turn her on to jazz and she returned the threat with Enya.

By the time we got to the Capital it was just a bit past twelve-thirty and we were pretty hungry.

"I know a nice little restaurant which is open for lunch," I offered.

"We should probably just do fast food. I see a Sonic over there."

"I agreed. "You're right. The Federal Building should be open for several more hours, but we want to resolve as much of this as we can today."

I pulled into the driveway and found a parking place. As we were eating lunch, I noticed that Jen had an almost rapturous look on her face.

"You really like that hamburger," I said in between bites of my own.

"It tastes so good. In fact everything tastes really good."

"It's good as far as fast food hamburgers go, but you are savoring every bite as if it were prime rib," I noted.

"Honey, you have to understand that over the past couple of years, all I've had to eat were supplements and unflavored soy food" That's all love toys are required to eat," said Jen.

I felt terrible. Her existence over the last two years had been devoid not only of all the things that make life worth living, but simple things we all tend to take for granted ... I made a promise to myself that I would help her make up for lost time after she was safe.

The thought then crossed my mind. What we were doing by going to the Federal Building had an element of danger to it. If I went in with Jen, I could potentially be questioned and my identity could be discovered. My mind harkened back to a television show I used to watch called Nowhere Man. The main character was constantly fighting unseen forces, some actually within the government, in an attempt to get his identity back. As we were dealing with a device or entity this powerful, it was doubtful that it could exist without the involvement or help of some individuals in government and law enforcement. I further reasoned that the one thing that may have been keeping Jen safe was that they did not know who I was, so they could not find us. I decided to push my paranoia to the limit, because you are not really paranoid if someone really is out to get you.

"Sorry to change the subject on you but there are some things we need to do before we go to the Federal Building. This may sound crazy, but I don't think we can take any chances. It also may involve you doing things that you may feel uncomfortable doing," I said.

"If I can't trust you, then who can I trust? I'll do whatever you think is right."

About three hours later I was sitting in a rent-a-car a block around the corner from the Federal building. The car had tinted glass so it made it hard to see inside the vehicle. It took a while to get one of the particular parking spaces I wanted, but my tenacity won out. Jen had already arrived by cab about an hour ago as planned. I had turned my cell phone off, but we had purchased two pay-as-you-go cell phones under Jen's name and we each had one. She had called on one to tell me that she had arrived. About two and a half hours later I got another call on Jen's new cell. Since Jen was the only one who had the number I felt safe answering. Actually, it was not Jen.

"Master, it is complete and I will be right with you," said Jezebel on Jen's other new cell phone.

"Are you being followed?" I asked.

"Yes, Master. There appear to be two men following at a discreet distance."

"How far?"

"About twenty-five meters," she responded.

"Listen Jezebel, when you turn the corner, sprint as fast as you can to the white Lincoln parked about halfway down the road. The door will be unlocked. Jump in as quickly as possible"

"Yes Master, I will obey."

I had picked this parking spot with great care. I drove around for more than an hour to ensure that I would get a place in the vicinity of my target area There was an entrance to a parking garage just around the corner about thirty feet in front of where I was parked on the road. I turned my head back to see when she turned the corner. About a minute later, I saw Jen sprinting toward the rent-a-car and she jumped in. "Duck!" I whispered, as I listened to my own advice.

About thirty seconds after that, I saw the men she described turn the corner they became panicky; as if they were looking for something that was not where they expected it to be As they ran past the garage, they looked down the road and then they both turned back and ran into the garage entrance. I waited about ten seconds and then turned on the ignition and pulled out of my spot and down the road.

"Quickly Jezebel, remove the batteries from these phones."

"Yes, Master."

By the time we reached the car rental place, it was about six PM.

I quickly placed a call from a pay phone to Brenda.

"Hey Bren."

"Hey you. I've been trying to call you," said Brenda.

"My cell is dead so I'm calling from a pay phone," I fibbed.

"Are you still coming?"

"Of course, sis, we just got a little delayed. Hopefully we can see you in about half-an-hour."

"Dan is really excited to see you and we both are looking forward to meeting Jennifer."

"Looking forward to seeing you too. Bye," as I disconnected.

I quickly got back into my car which was parked at the rent-a-car place. Jezebel/Jen was already inside as we drove away.

"Jezebel, please let me speak to Jen."

"Yes, Master."

After the requisite pause, "Well that was exciting and a bit scary," said Jen

"I'm sorry that I had to put you through everything," I said.

"Well, you were right about practically everything. When I first got to the record area, I told them that I needed to obtain new ID's, as mine had all been stolen. When I explained that my fingerprints were on file, they told me that they should be able to help and they contacted the state records office about my birth certificate. About ten minutes later I was escorted up to the FBI office, because when my record was pulled, it had been 'red flagged'. I told them, our little cooked up story about my being kidnapped into sex slavery and that some Good Samaritan had helped me to escape and gave me the money to come here."

"So my name was never given?"

"No, though they did ask. I told them you didn't give it to me. When they asked me why I didn't go to the police, I told them that my pimp had told me that he had contacts in the police department and if I did, he'd find out about it and would kill my daughter. They asked me if I could identify my pimp in a mug book. I then told them that I was tired from my ordeal, and asked if I could come back later in the week. The agent in-charge agreed and gave me his card and I thanked him and left," said Jen.

Don't you mean 'Jezebel' when you said 'me' or 'I'," I observed.

"Yeah, whatever. I still told her what to say," said Jen with a pout.

"I just wanted to make sure it was Jezebel, because she would be the more convincing liar."

"Yeah, I suppose she would be," admitted Jen.

"Do you think they believed her?" I asked

"Not sure, but you can always ask her."

"I'll do that later. Right now I just want us to be us right now. So were you able to get a birth certificate?" I asked.

"Yes, it's here," she said holding up an envelope. " It was faxed over from the state record office, once my identity was confirmed. Oh, by the way, I have some change for you."

"What's mine is yours. Keep it," I smiled.

"It's only eight bucks. I'm in love with a big spender" laughed Jen.

"I've learned to be a cheapskate because me divorce wiped me out," I laughed.

"I wish I had your wife's attorney," said Jen wistfully.

"Bad subject. I'm sorry I brought it up," I realized I had a big mouth, as Jen got really quiet for a while.

I almost felt a sense of despair when I looked at her. Divorce was a painful experience for me. For the longest time, I felt unwanted. While I knew that Jen did not love Adam, I was sure she had feelings of depression over her divorce too; especially since hers was forced on her, without her knowledge or consent. Unfortunately, my little comment must have brought these negative feelings front and center.

Then I had my epiphany. I already knew that I had fallen in love with Jen. My heart ached at watching her so blue. It was not how I wanted to do it, but I saw my hands hit the turn signal and my foot moved from the gas pedal to the brakes. "I can't have you bummed out when you meet my family. So I have to find a way to make you happy."

"Good luck with that," she frowned. "Where are we going?"

"To a parking lot," I said, smiling at her.

I then pulled the car over quickly into a strip mall parking lot and parked in an out of the way place.

"We can't do it here," laughed Jen, assuming sex.

"No we can't, but I can do something else, but you will need to get out of the car first."

"OK," she said quizzically.

Once we were both out of the car, I ran around to the passenger side and quickly kissed her passionately. She returned the kiss eagerly. I then broke the kiss and dropped to one knee. Jen gasped.

"Jen Porter, will you marry me?" I asked nervously.

"Yes!" screamed Jen as she pulled me of the ground and into her arms giving me another searing kiss.

When we got back on the road I smiled at her.

"So you're in a better mood now?" I laughed

"You mean you tricked me?" frowned Jen, giving me a dirty look.

"No. I really want to marry you! I was going to wait, but I figured why bother. I know that I want to be with you, I just wasn't sure that you'd say 'yes'," I said.

"I love you. Why would I say no?" asked Jen.

"We only met about a day and a half ago. I wouldn't blame you for wanting to wait, at least until we got out of this mess."

"I know what I want. I want you. If you want to wait, I certainly would understand..." began Jen.

"And take a chance of losing you; not likely. You're everything I've ever wanted in a wife."

"You mean a homeless fugitive?" laughed Jen.

I laughed. Her joke only proved that she got me in a way that no other woman ever had.

"The real reason I proposed was that if we got caught and went to prison, we could always have conjugal visits."

We both began to laugh so hard that I almost ran us off the road. I figured we should cut back on the jokes for the time being.

About ten minutes later, I pulled into Dan's driveway and we climbed out of the car. Both Dan and Brenda came out of the house smiling at me as we all exchanged greetings and hugs. I was very close to my family. We all grew up together all five guys within a seven year span. As Dan was the youngest, and I was the oldest, I felt that I needed to keep him from getting picked on, so we got pretty close. He was even the best man at my wedding.

"Guys, I would like to introduce you to Miss Jennifer Porter, the love of my life."

"Hi Jennifer! I must say you've made the right choice. Sam's a keeper. I know he's head-over –heels because it's written all over his face," said Brenda as she hugged Jen.

"Thanks, I feel the same way about him if you couldn't tell. By the way Brenda, please call me Jen/"

"Only if you call me Bren," laughed Brenda.

"Look out, we have Bren and Jen," laughed Dan.

"Has a nice ring doesn't it?" I asked.

"See, we're destined to be sisters," laughed Brenda.

"Bren ... ixne on the arriageme," said a frustrated Dan.

"Oh, come on Dan! I can see he loves her and that she loves him too. So, my best guy pal Sam, when are you going to get off your butt and propose?"

"Brenda!" exclaimed Dan.

"That's OK, bro. I have an answer for her. Bren, I proposed to Jen ten minutes ago and she said 'Yes'!"

At that point, my sweet and cute sister-in-law went completely berserk and started screaming and then hugging everything in sight: Namely, Jen and me. I looked at Jen apologetically, but she just smiled and hugged Brenda back. Dan of course was used to his wife's outbursts. He just smiled at me. "Nice choice bro, she's cute."

"We have to go out and celebrate!" exclaimed Brenda.

"OK, but not until I get to see my little nephew," I smiled

"It was a little too cold outside, so we left him in his playpen," said Brenda.

We followed Brenda and Dan into their Dutch Colonial home. We found Daniel Samuel Borden who was about eighteen months old, playing with his favorite stuffed animal. Actually, he was gnawing it like a dog with bone. I sat down on the floor to get a better look. "Teething huh?" I smiled.

"That's my big boy. Come see your Uncle Sam and Your Aunt Jen." Brenda picked little Danny out of the playpen.

Brenda put him right next to me and he crawled up on my legs. I held him steady. "It's been a long time since I saw you, little guy. You were only eight months then," I smiled as I was talking to someone who could not understand a word I was saying, but did not care. He was just too darn cute.

After we had played with my nephew for a little while Brenda smiled at me. "Why don't you and my big strong husband bring in your bags?"

"Actually we're traveling a little light," I smiled.

"No time to pack," added Jen.

"OK, what's going on with you two?" said the Dan who was able to talk.