Chapter 12: A Heartfelt Deposit or a Fisherman of Women

"So, what are the plans for today?" Gail asked as she served us some barebones coffee and eggs. She'd admitted to us that she was certainly no gourmet cook, only knowing how to do the bare minimum, but she seemed happy serving us, as she couldn't seem to wipe the smile off her face the entire time.

"I don't know about you, but I suggest we start the day with an invigorating bout of sex, just to make sure everyone is ready and raring to go today," Chalise cheekily suggested, her wide grin suggesting she was only teasing.

"I don't think so," Cate replied, a little dourly. Apparently the coffee hadn't reached her nervous system yet.

"There's not much point in even showing up today if he doesn't have little wigglers left when he gets to the clinic," Gail told her.

"So what's the plan?" Chalise asked, getting more serious since her little joke had fallen flat. "I'm new to this, so I really don't have a clue."

"Well, all the fertility clinics are situated on the west side of the city, so we should head there first," Gail explained. "It shouldn't present a problem since there aren't as many people there. It's more of a business community with a few nearby houses, but being a weekend there shouldn't be that many people around for Alex to trigger."

"After that we'll hit the downtown area for a couple of hours to see just how many people Alex attracts," Cate said, taking over the explanation. "This is mostly a test to see how well we've learned to handle these things. We've had a lot of time to think about it, so we should be a bit more organized than we were back in New Orleans. As you no doubt noticed last night."

"Yeah, I noticed the pamphlets," Gail commented. "Nice touch."

"It could potentially embarrass us if they get into the wrong hands, we've got to be careful giving them out. No dropping a bunch of them in a wind gust just when a news van pulls up," Cate warned us.

"Granted," Gail acknowledged. "So how long should this all take?"

"It depends," Cate said, shrugging as she took a bite of her toast. Gail might not have the best cooking skills, but she had all kinds of exotic English jams that Cate hadn't encountered before. "Alex's deposit shouldn't take long at all. We'll get there just as they open and hopefully disappear before it gets too busy. As far as how long we'll stay downtown, that's anyone's guess. It depends on how many people approach Alex and how well he handles them. If he gets overwhelmed we'll simply take off, just as we'll do if no one shows up.

"We've also never actually dealt directly with the Watchers before, so that's a whole new ballgame. We'll finally see how many we get in relation to each Seer we encounter. That should give us more of a feel for the actual numbers we're dealing with."

We'd discussed this previously at home and had formulated our basic approach. We'd decided to handle any Watchers immediately this time since we weren't likely to ever see them again, so striking while the iron was hot was important. That's why we were so ready the previous night. Basically Cate would give them the whole spiel about how they were part of a select 'people', and that they needed to learn about their abilities and how to use them. Shani had stopped off at a Kinko's the other day to run off a bunch of flyers we would hand out to them detailing who to contact, including Patricia in New Orleans, as well as Darice, Peter and David. Cate would also take their numbers for her own record. We still didn't want to give them our number just to protect ourselves, but Cate would eventually invite them down. We just wanted to make sure we weren't overwhelmed and could evaluate everyone on a one by one basis. Finally the pamphlet detailed how they should talk to their female relatives about their responsiveness to others, and to get any they suspected might have similar abilities involved with us. Overall it seemed like a nice presentation. I guess Shani got a lot of help in putting it together from Patricia, who'd had more experience in dealing with people in their community in New Orleans. Best of all it was printed on a very cheap paper, so it would start to fade soon in the sunlight and would essentially disintegrate when exposed to water. We paid extra for such cheap paper, by the way.

Everyone agreed with this assessment so we finished breakfast, cleaned up Gail's kitchen so it once again looked unlived in, and headed out to begin the day.

We got an early start and headed off to the Alice Lovett Center for Reproductive Medicine, situated by the St. Johns Mercy Medical Center just off Highways 64 and 270. It was a smaller complex that was situated between a park and a country club, so we thought we should attract a minimum of followers. We hoped to slip in and out quickly.

Walking in, I glanced at all the women sitting there, all basing their hopes on test tubes.

"And what are you here for?" I asked after having started a conversation with one pregnant woman. I hoped I wasn't getting too personal, but I was curious about what she was there for.

She sighed heavily. "I'm having a very difficult pregnancy," she confessed. "I've got terribly morning sickness, I can't gain weight, and we're worried about losing the baby." It was clear from her response that she was desperate to talk to someone about this, making me wonder whether she had a partner to help her through this.

"Well, I hope this is the visit that makes all the difference," I offered. Just then she grabbed her belly, looking distressed and glancing at the receptionists' window.

"Baby kicking, gas or something more serious?" I asked, hoping to find a way to assist, but not sure how to direct the conversation that way.

"A little of all three, I'm afraid," she admitted, giving a little burp.

"Do you mind?" I asked, motioning towards her belly.

"No, go ahead. I get asked that all the time. It really doesn't bother me as much as it does some women."

I smiled at that, finally seeing my chance. Leaning forward, I briefly ran my hand over her bulge and gave it a quick burst of energy. I had no idea if it would help, but I figured it wouldn't do any harm and it just might give the tiny thing enough strength to manage through the difficulties it faced before it came to turn. When I turned away Cate, Chalise and Gail were all looking at me with goofy expressions. They didn't say it, but they each had "Ahhh" written all over them.

'I hadn't really been looking at it previously, so I didn't really notice what may have been wrong with it, but her fetus looks decidedly better now, ' Gail assured me.

'Thanks. That's what I was hoping for.'

The clinic was as difficult as we'd expected. They insisted on all the restrictions we'd anticipated, and complained even though we had a notarized letter from both my parents naming Gail as the responsible party in this regard.

"You know, we really don't like taking such action for unmarried teens," the receptionist responded, scowling at Chalise and I while chewing a wad of gum.

"Look, this isn't our ideal of a romantic way to start a new life," I explained, trying to win her over to our side, "but I'm planning to join the army on my eighteenth birthday in a few weeks, and I'm likely to be sent immediately to Afghanistan. Chalise's father refuses to allow us to marry, and she's too young at the moment anyway. We're both worried that I may be fatally wounded during my tour and we wanted to be sure there was something left of our relationship if we're never able to consummate our relationship."

"Yeah, I'm sure you haven't been 'consummating' your brains out already," the receptionist scoffed, shooting us another dirty look before finally accepting my paperwork and passing me a small bottle for my little donation.

It was a little lonely in the little room all by myself, but they had a very interesting collection of pornography for my perusal. I glanced at it, just for the ideas you understand, but had a better time simply remembering the last couple of nights and the recent memories of all the women who loved me dearly to provide the proper motivation for making my offering. Of course Chalise had offered to help, but the staff frowns on such things; something about sample contamination from saliva or something.

When I came back out with my samples the receptionist not so happily accepted it.

"You know," I began, "I was just idly wondering; what would happen if someone I specified ahead of time wanted to partake of my deposit if I wasn't around? Would there be a specific problem with that?" The receptionist arched her eyebrow at me.

"And would this theoretical person have a specific name?" she asked.

"Several names actually. I've got a list, although I'm sure Chalise and my mother would like to add to it over time; whether I'm here to make suggestions or not." She looked quite surprised now.

"You've got several lovers all wanting babies from you if you pass away?"

"Correct," I said, nodding at her, "at least in theory, although I haven't necessarily met them all yet. But Chalise won't hold that against them, and my Mom rather likes the idea of LOTS of grandkids, regardless of who produces them. Not that she won't love their mothers as well," I hurriedly assured her.

"I'm beginning to think there's a little more to your story than you told us," she argued.

"Still, you can't refuse my deposit. I have a signed contract," I smilingly informed her. "I was just interested in the specifics concerning withdrawals?" Both Chalise and Gail walked up and stood on either side of me, putting their arms around me and asked the receptionist what was up.

"I was just asking about the withdrawal restrictions," I informed them.

"Oh good, I was worried about that," Gail enthusiastically responded.

"Yeah, her and a bunch of our friends," Chalise echoed.

Cate choose that moment to join the party.

"Is this bum giving you a hard time about withdrawals?" she asked the poor receptionist.

"Well yes, he—"

"That's good, because I've got a whole list of girls and women he hasn't gotten to yet, and there's surely a whole bunch more we'll meet soon, given we have enough time," she enthused.

The receptionist started to stammer about something but a professional looking middle aged woman in a doctor's gown walked up at that point.

"Is there a problem, Linda?"

"These people have a very unusual request," Linda told her.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Alice Lovett. I'm the director and owner of this clinic. I hear you have a potentially large number of people interested in your, uh, deposit?" she asked us politely. It was clear she'd overheard the previous conversation with the receptionist.

"Yeah, here's a list of all the people authorized to approve anyone wishing to get access to it. I have no idea how many there may be, or how soon they may or may not be interested, but there could potentially be quite a few," I told her.

"Uh, a single sample won't actually last very—"

"I plan on stopping back in every now and then to make additional deposits. We'll also be doing the same at other clinics around the country, in case you have any recommendations for other clinics that take the same care of the samples that you do. We'd really rather not have a large corporation controlling who has access to the samples if we can avoid it."

"Wow, you certainly seem to have a lot of, uh, fans. You're sure you're serious? You aren't just pulling my leg?" she asked us.

"Deadly serious," I answered her, looking her dead in the eyes the way Gail had taught me. "Which is the reason I want to make sure we have this all worked out in advance."

"You do realize, while there isn't a fee for private storage of your sperm, there is for withdrawal and implantation. There could be a fair amount of money involved with that many women," she advised us.

"That would be the responsibility of each of the women," Cate informed her. "Though I have no doubt they'd have no problem paying it if they could afford to."

"And you're really serious?" she asked again.

"Absolutely," I assured her.

"Am I also to assume the whole story of you joining the Army and going to Afghanistan is a bunch of hooey?" she asked, looking me in the eye with a hint of a smile to hers.

"Hey, we had to make it sound good," I told her. "We figured you might not accept it otherwise."

"All right, I'll take you at your word. For some reason I believe you that this isn't just some fraternity hazing or something. Yes, if your lady friends wants to have access to your sperm they will be able to, as long as your family agrees. That is until you officially reach 18 years of age. After that we can use your list of numbers to call for confirmation of anyone's claim." We all smiled and thanked her, then made out exit, figuring they'd have a good story to tell all their friends.

Walking out of the fertility clinic Cate spotted a couple of more Watchers looking at us from inside the main lobby of the hospital, so we walked over and I introduced ourselves. They were apologetic about disturbing me but I insisted they were the most important thing I had at the moment, and Cate got busy giving them their information. It turned out they didn't know each other. One was a receptionist for the hospital in billing and the other was visiting someone, but they were both eager to receive our information. While we were talking Chalise ran off somewhere, but when we were finishing up with them she joined us so we could leave.

"I ran back and gave the doctor and receptionist a number to call if anyone comes looking for you," she explained. "I figure, being this close to the Highway, you'll likely attract a couple who may take a while to find the location."

I gave her a kiss and thanked her. That's why it's always good to have intelligent people around you, to cover for when you can't think of all the possible contingencies that may develop. She also did the same to the receptionist inside the medical center.

We sat around a little coffee shop that Gail had selected along the Gateway Mall, a one block park that ran from the St. Louis arch right through the heart of the city. It held quite a few tourists, being a Saturday, but probably not many locals other than the workers nearby. It afforded us a nice view and we could observe everyone coming and going.

There were several universities nearby, although most of them were farther west of us. There was also the America's Center convention center and Busch Stadium nearby, although the Cardinals only played in the evenings. But I didn't think anyone from either facility would have an easy time accessing us, so I figured we were mostly looking at tourists.

There was no fear of being accessible to people, as we were in the open in a freely accessible spot, so I felt secure we'd attract anyone who was nearby. If we didn't attract anyone we could always try another location some other time, but for now we were just testing the waters to see how we handled people in an urban environment after being able to plan it for a while. It was essentially a test run for my summer tour.

I'd spoken with Chalise ahead of time, telling her she was free to watch, but she wasn't to interfere no matter what she witnessed. If things went well we'd probably make introductions, but that was for later. For now we were focusing solely on the women who we hoped would show up. Cate was sitting with me at a table within eyesight of anyone approaching, not that we thought anyone would have any trouble spotting me in a crowded theater in absolute darkness. Chalise and Gail were both sitting at different tables in order to avoid intimidating the shier Watchers. We each had something to keep us entertained from the coffee bar, and we all had reading assignments or books to read. Gail was sitting off to the side where she could watch the area for any signs of trouble, just like the security expert she was.

We'd arrived a bit after 10, so we had a little while until lunchtime. It was still early but there was already a good stream of people around us. It wasn't long before we observed a couple of Watchers observing us, so Cate got up and approached one. They talked for a bit and she eventually brought her by the table to introduce me and allow us to talk. After we'd done this with a couple people throughout the early morning, Chalise started introducing herself to them when Cate was busy. While spotting them with the naked eye was difficult, even for the Seers, when they were around me they were pretty easy to spot.

Cate would give them our prepared spiel, get their names and phone numbers and give them their pamphlet, carefully telling them to keep it private, and to destroy it after they and their families had read it. All in all it wasn't an overly difficult assignment, sitting around drinking lattes and talking to people.

Things progressed like this, with us doing a steady business with Watchers showing up, but we had no signs of any Seers. We sat and waited, and waited some more, but there just didn't seem to be any. I guess I'd overestimated how many we might encounter. Chalise volunteered to run back and forth bringing us coffees and biscotti, but that task was soon taken over by a few of the Watchers we'd already talked to who were more than happy to assist us in any way they could. I'm sure the coffee shop was enjoying the increased business we were giving them, but I was beginning to wonder just how long we'd have to sit for one of the Seers to show up. I figured it would take a while for anyone nearby to notice me, since there weren't many of them compared to the Watchers.

It was 11:42, and we were starting to think about lunch when we heard a shout and turned to see a woman stumbling out of a cab that had pulled up at the corner, not far from where we sat. She ran for us, but quickly saw that the area where we were seated was separated by a small wall. Several of the nearby Waters got up to intercede, but I waved them back, letting them know we'd handle it.

It took her a little while to figure out how to gain access to us via the coffee shop, so we were ready when she finally found us. She emerged from the coffee shop, blathering incessantly and ran to Cate and I, who were sharing the same table with several empty latte cups scattered about. She threw herself into my lap, happily sobbing as she buried her face between my thighs, not far from my crotch. They never fail to make a scene!

Ignoring the pointed looks of those scattered around us, I gently lifted her face and looked into her eyes. She reacted in the typical manner, however holding her face firmly in my hands minimized her physical reaction. Her eyes dilated and went glassy and it took a few seconds before she seemed to get her bearings. While this was happening I tried to make out what she'd been babbling about and took in her appearance. She was pretty enough, although she was a little older and a bit heavier set than the others had been. She had reddish brown hair with fair skin and eyes, and a hopeful delighted expression.

Once her eyes refocused I figured her ranting would resume and I wasn't disappointed. "Oh Jesus," she announced, "you've come back, resurrected to carry me away to heaven." I was about to try my stereotypical self-depreciation when she went on. "I knew the country was in trouble, but I had no idea that it was the end time of the Apocalypse. I knew Obama was a Muslim, but I didn't stop to consider he was the antichrist! It all makes so much sense now; that's why our church has been supporting the Israelis, because Israel is supposed to be unified before you returned."

"Uh, I think you're a little confused," I told her, still holding her face in my hands, which prevented her from getting overly demonstrative. "What makes you think I'm here in accordance with the apocalypse?"

"Why else would you be here? The whole world has gone to hell, niggers is running everything, decent white folk can't get anything anymore, everything is going wrong. Surely there's nothing left but the apocalypse," she told me with great earnestness. My automatic response was to back away from this hateful response, but what that accomplished was I pushed her away from me.

'Should I do something?' Gail asked, noticing my distress.

'No, but this lady is trouble. She's out of control and will likely end up exposing us! I've got to get out of here, ' I told her before attempting to deal with the woman.

"Look lady, I hate to disappoint you but—"

"Oh, I don't mind if you don't carry me away to heaven yet. I figured if it was time for us all to go we'd all have been lifted into the air at the same time. I figure you've got a special role to fill, I—"