Chapter 15: Cate and Gail Get Their Chance

Alex awoke in one of his favorite positions, lying flat on his back with a beautiful woman cuddled up on either side of him. He took in their faces and saw they seemed happy. He knew it was putting a strain on them both to keep pretending they weren't attracted to him for the last week. Unfortunately, he knew the act would have to continue for the indefinite future. He also knew that he and Gail could argue all they wanted to, but there was no way they'd be able to convince Cate to open up about their incestuous relationship. He figured they'd just have to weather these challenges on a day to day basis, and there didn't appear to be any quick fixes.

"So what's up, boss man?" Gail whispered to him, her head still nestled against his chest.

"You were awake?" he asked.

"Yeah, I was just enjoying cuddling with you before anything started. I noticed your heartbeat quickening, but I didn't want to disturb either you or the peaceful quiet until after you'd awakened."

"Speaking of peaceful quiet," Cate grumbled, nestling in a little tighter against her brother.

"Sorry," Gail whispered an apology, but it was for naught. After trying to settle back into her sleep, Cate finally gave up a few moments later. Feeling restless, she searched out Alex's crotch and wrapped her hand around his erection. However when he flinched she looked up, concerned.

"Sorry, but it's getting a little sore. I've been using it a bit much lately, and as much as I appreciate the attention, it's only made of plain old flesh and blood," he explained.

Feeling properly chastised, Cate removed her hand and leaned up, kissing her brother good morning.

"Sorry about that. We didn't mean to wear you out, but I appreciate you taking the time with us last night. I guess you'll have to take a sick day from your daily visit to Hannah's clinic, huh?"

"Yeah," Alex responded, ruffling Cate's hair, "I may be able to manage if I have to, but the idea of manhandling myself isn't something I'm looking forward to."

"We need to get moving," Gail warned them, stretching as she glanced up at her employer. "Sarah, Emma and their relatives said they were going to stop by this morning to fix us breakfast."

"Yeah, before we went to bed I also sent a message to Patricia and Rose and her boyfriend, so we'll have a few others as well," Alex replied.

"Rose?" Cate asked, getting confused when she didn't recognize the name. She knew there were a huge amount of faces to keep track of, but she'd been doing pretty good keeping up until then.

"I may not have mentioned her by name," he explained. "She arranged to record Albert's TV show yesterday. Or rather, her boyfriend did. I thought it would be good for us to review it to see what troubles we may have before we head out today."

"Well, you'd better get started before everyone gets here. If they come in before you have any clothes on I suspect your poor dick will get even more of a workout," Gail advised him. "I'll join you in a minute, I'm going to start the coffee machine so it'll be brewed by the time we finish."

So Alex and his sister reluctantly got up, although Cate's cute butt certainly got Alex moving as he followed it into the shower. He was midway through washing Gail's hair when the buzzer sounded announcing their visitors had arrived. He'd found his penis didn't hurt as much when it was jacked with a well sudsed hand.

"I'll get it, you two finish up," Cate offered, "I'm not going to get much more use out of this dick, so there's not much sense in me playing with it for much longer." They each laughed as Cate climbed naked and dripping out of the shower to go buzz their guests in.

"Just make sure—" Gail started to say as Alex was soaping up her butt.

"That I check to make sure who it is?" Cate finished for her. "Don't worry, Gail, I know how to do this by now."

By the time Alex and Gail finished showering, dried and dressed, they found the kitchen busy and the dining room table set when they entered the main room of the apartment. Everyone insisted on hugging Alex and the others as well. As focused as they were on Alex, the visitors recognized just how valuable Cate and Gail were in the whole process. Gail might not say a lot, since she was always on the lookout for potential trouble, but she had the practical experience with the visions and with the others in the community that she used to help the newbies. Although none of the other women here now were Seers, they'd still learned a lot from her experience.

The other guests arrived just before breakfast was served, and it was quite a feast. The women had been warned about Alex's appetite, so they'd prepared a substantial amount. Although Cate constantly had to worry about taking care of Alex, she was grateful that someone else was pushing him to eat for a change. She got tired being the 'pushy broad'. She hardly wanted to switch from incestuous sister to bitching mother, so she tried to not nag too much, but it was hard motivating Alex to take proper care of himself. For as concerned as he was with everyone else, he wasn't as focused on his own health.

As enjoyable as breakfast was, everyone was anxious to see what had happened yesterday. So while the girls hurriedly cleaned up the dishes, Alex being refused admittance to the kitchen after Cate informed the others how helpless he was in there, Rose and her boyfriend Brian set up the laptop they'd brought along with them to display the video. Fortunately it had a large screen so everyone could see, even if they had to pack in to get only a partial view.

The recording and the presentation by Albert Rodriguez were quite professional and well done. Albert presented a folksy face, dressing just as eccentrically as always, which seemed to be his signature. He recapped the stories that he'd previous reported about Alex some months back, before describing the stories that had been circulating about his return. He finished with a description of Alex's miraculous healing of Mattie, which was presented just as Alex had planned, as a positive feel-good story that showed it was hardly a miracle cure, merely an improvement on a bad situation. He followed it up with an interview of Mattie, where she explained what she could and couldn't see, leaving out any mention of her seeing auras. When asked about Alex, always referred to as 'the supposed Angel', she was positive but not overflowing. Alex thought she did an excellent job of it, as she made it sound quite ordinary despite what it had done for her.

Albert then went on, describing what had been happening as a result of these events. He showed the clip that Cate had shot of the protest crowd confronting Mattie, then it switched to other videos that Alex hadn't seen, showing other church protests. There were signs proclaiming "No Atheist is going to tell me who is saved", "Only those that believe can be truly saved", and "God doesn't speak to nonbelievers".

Patricia spoke up, saying that most of the videos were recorded by the various Watchers and Seers who'd been assigned to watch the protests.

Most of the protests were peaceful—apart from the one Alex, Cate and Gail had witnessed—although the language tended to be angry and more hate filled more than loving or forgiving. After showing several sequences and brief interviews with the participants, Albert provided a summary, telling everyone that "this Angel doesn't seem to be hurting anyone or forcing his views on anyone. In fact, he seems to be reluctant to even express his own views. Yet the organized reactions to him are hardly as Christian as this atheistic Angel's has been. They've shown themselves to be defensive, reactionary and unwilling to consider any views other than their own. Frankly, I see troubles ahead when these groups finally start to interact with the growing presence of Alexandrians (as he referred to Alex's followers). As peaceful as I've found this particular Angel to be, I can't assume his many followers will allow themselves to be pushed around for long."

After the show ended they each sat and thought about what they'd seen. It was hardly the hard hitting exposé that everyone had feared, and it was directed much more against the established churches than it was against Alex and his followers, but the reactions of the protesters disturbed everyone watching. Alex took Albert's words to heart. These people could present a very real threat to his many followers, and he wasn't sure how to prevent the inevitable encounters that were sure to develop in the coming months.

Brian then showed some more videos that had been collected by Patricia and Alex's people. These showed even more confrontations than the TV broadcast had, including several between church members and innocent bystanders, some escalating into shoving and shouting matches. It didn't exactly make Alex feel very warm and fuzzy.

When it was over, Brian helped dissipate some of their frustration by taking their minds off the issue, as he offered Alex a copy of the DVD and offered to upload the video to Cate's iPad for later viewing.

"I thought you couldn't do that?" Cate asked.

"Well, the way they're set up by default, if you plug them into anything other than your home computer it'll erase everything on it. But I can reset that behavior so all you have to do is drag and drop anything you want onto it. Just don't try to Sync it to anyone else's computer," he warned her.

"You know, Brian," Alex said, "Rose mentioned earlier that you're having a hard time finding a decent job. If you can apply your knowhow about getting everyday electronics to work, I suspect we've got a fair number of people in our community who could use your services. If you use that to boost your training, possibly taking a few courses, you could probably parlay it into a fulltime job opportunity."

Brian, an older man probably in his 30s or 40s (older to Alex at least), seemed surprised by the offer. He looked at Rose, a younger woman who looked excitedly at him. She was happy Alex was including him, since she'd been having some trouble convincing him this whole 'movement' thing was legitimate.

"Wow, that's quite an offer. I don't know what I've done to deserve it but—"

"What you've done to deserve it is demonstrate that you know what you're doing, as well as how helpful you can be to people who want to figure this stuff out. I'm sure there's a sizable market for that kind of expertise. If this isn't quite your cup of tea, you can use it temporarily to get started on something else. Either way, you'll help those that could use your experience, and yourself as well."

"Well, thanks. I can hardly refuse an offer like that. Part of my problem getting hired is that my skills aren't quite up to date enough for a professional job, but I could certainly help out here and there, and if I could take specialized training I could really establish myself."

"Good, then consider yourself hired. I'm sure Patricia can spread the word about your services. I'm sure there are quite a few people needing their devices updated, and I know everyone would appreciate a copy of these broadcasts. In fact, let me know how much you want to charge for copies of this CD. I've got a bunch of people I'd like to mail it off to right off the bat."

Alex turned to Patricia to get her input. "What do you think, Patricia?"

"I'm sure I can find several things he can help with, as well as several other people he can help. In fact, if you could take a look at my van today, I'd appreciate it. There's no telling when we'll have to leave, and there's still some things that don't have all the bugs worked out of them. Plus, once word gets out like Alex says, there's sure to be a lot of people looking for some able bodied assistance."

"Man, it looks like I'm going to be employed again, only now it's on my own terms as I'll be self-employed. I never expected Rose's little fascination would work out well for me. When she started talking about Angels controlling her life I was getting really nervous, but this has worked out quite well for both of us."

"Well I'm always glad to hear that. I believe in families and friends, and I believe in helping both as long as it's not counterproductive. I hope you consider yourself one of us now." Alex asked.

"Oh, yes, I certainly do. I can't say I quite understand it all yet, I mean, a nonreligious Angel with no message who just wants to help people, it just doesn't sound very traditional."

Alex laughed, "Well, no one has ever accused me of being traditional."

"So what do you think?" Gail asked, returning the conversation to the topic at hand. "Are you getting nervous or do you want to keep plugging away?"

Alex considered this as he watched everyone else's reactions. However each person was watching him to see how he'd react. He knew he had to lead, so he made his decision.

"No, no one knows me, so there isn't any real threat. We'll have to spread the word to try to avoid confrontations, while quietly trying to get the word out that we're harmless, but there's no reason for me to run away at the moment. However, the same restrictions apply. I don't think it's a good idea for me to walk the streets with a large entourage of women around me."

"Well, I'll tell you what, if we aren't going to run away, I'd like you to speak to a few of the girls watching the various churches around town, just to show your appreciation for what they're going through," Patricia told Alex. "That way you can get their input firsthand. I've also got another couple of women that are looking forward to getting pregnant, and more than a few who'd love a chance at you, some who'd love a chance to get intimate with you, but most just want to spend some time with you in any way they can. Let me get busy and I'll arrange a lunch meeting."

Soon everyone started getting ready, either packing up their things or making arrangements. Because of Alex's stipulations, they decided to leave at different times, which gave Alex time to spend with each of the people before Alex, Cate and Gail found themselves alone and ready to head out themselves.

"That took a while, I figure if we stroll casually we can enjoy the city again and just be on time for our lunch meeting," Alex suggested, so they set out, Alex and Cate once again arm in arm like the lovers they were, with Gail trying to surreptitiously follow them.

Alex was discussing the religious protests with a couple of women in a nice restaurant. They were there with Patricia, and since it was only those few Gail was seated with them this time.

"Well, the protests are really isolated," Tracy said.

"That's right," Harriet, or 'Harry' as she liked to be called, replied. "Right now they don't know who you are or what you stand for, so they're basically just protesting the idea."

"And the idea they're most upset by is that God would select an atheist to spread his message. That seemed to be the biggest tipping point. Most of these people have been taught their whole lives that the only way into heaven is through acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal savior, and now you're turning that concept on its head. So the choice for them is to either accept everything they've ever believed is wrong, or get angry with it. Frankly, getting angry is the easier choice."

"Most of the placards were focused on the atheism issue," Harry added.

"Once again, I don't care if people want to believe in Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha or the Tooth Fairy, but I guess they have no way of knowing that," Alex said, sighing in frustration. Composing himself, he continued. "How widespread are the protests?" he asked, trying to get to the central issue.

"Oh, they aren't," Harry answered. "There are only four churches with any activity, and out of those, there are only a relatively small number of people that are taking a stand on it."

"The main ones in the city are at the Cathedral, which you saw, a big Episcopal church to the west of here, and two mega-churches, which is strange since they're both non-denominational, meaning they've got no established creed they follow," Tracy explained.

"Yeah, but if people feel their belief system is being threatened, they're not about to question their own inconsistencies," Alex said, echoing what everyone was thinking. "Do the people seem particularly angry? I mean, are they likely to act out on it? Are they threatening anyone at the rallies?"

"Not yet. Apparently the one Mattie was at was the only one where they accosted anyone, and that was only because they saw a blind woman and assumed, correctly, that she was the one that you'd healed."

"I didn't heal her," Alex repeated tiredly.

"Call it what you want," Cate said, "when you restore sight to the sightless, you've got to expect that kind of response." Alex simply grunted, but Harry went ahead and answered his question.

"Again, they didn't really have anyone to direct their attentions at, so it's been mostly vague shouting into the void. But I suspect if they had a face, or worse, a series of faces, they might just boil over."

"The priest at the Catholic cathedral has a good sense about him. He helped organize the rally when several members of his church complained to him, but he's stressing the established line of acceptance, forgiveness and following the teachings of Christ. However, the protests at the two evangelical churches are being led by their respective church leaders, who are using it to proselytize about the evils of modern society, so they seem a bit angrier."

"There was talk of focusing their protests here, in 'the heart of the beast' as one described the French Quarter, since it was reported that your followers seem to be concentrated here," Harry added. "We've continued watching, and the rally in Jackson Square Park is bigger today, but not that much larger. If those four groups combined, their interactions might have unexpected results."

"Tell me about it," Alex groaned. "Well, I'm glad you've been keeping such a careful watch over these for me, it really means a lot to me," Alex told them.

"Yeah, the other girls couldn't get away to join us today, after all, we need the few Watchers we have so they can keep us apprised of what's going on," Tracy said.

"Well, let them know that I really appreciate it," Alex said. "And thanks for getting the word out to everyone about not overreacting to these events," he told Patricia. She simply gave him a weak smile, not entirely sure they could control everyone's responses for much longer, especially not if they left and the various members were here on their own.

They started talking about other things, since Alex continued to be fascinated with each of the people he met. He asked both girls about themselves, about their hobbies, jobs and families while they finished off their lunches. They were almost done when Alex got the latest surprise.

'Alex? This is Margaret. I came down to the French Quarter for lunch so I could catch up on what's been going on. I thought you'd want to know that there have been several trucks from the various national broadcast companies setting up here.'

'Hey, Margaret, thanks for keeping me informed. When did they get here?'

'Apparently the first one pulled in about a half hour ago, but everyone was nervous about calling Patricia about it, so when they saw me they told me so I could let you know about it directly. Since then another two have pulled up.'

'Which networks?' Alex asked.

'Two of the main three so far, ABC and NBC. The other one is for Fox News, ' Margaret answered him. Alex couldn't help but groan at the idea of Fox News getting involved. He had nothing against the station itself, but with the way they tended to pillory anyone who didn't agree with them, he could only imagine how they'd report this. Especially since he'd be perceived as challenging the established Christian churches, which formed a large and vocal percentage of their market.

Alex turned to Harry, preparing to tell her to convey a message to those observing the protests, but then he remembered she hadn't been boosted yet, so he turned instead to Patricia, who he figured would also know who was involved.

"Contact whoever is at the downtown rally and see if there are any news crews there. Apparently there are several news trucks from the larger broadcasters near here."

Alex could tell from how Patricia's eyes suddenly lost their focus that she was talking to someone, so he returned to his own conversation, despite the look of concern he was getting from everyone.

'What are they up to? Are they doing anything I should be concerned with at the moment?' he asked.

'Well, the two new ones are still setting up, ' Margaret answered immediately. 'I think the one from Fox is getting coffee at the moment, but the NBC one has started interviewing people on the street already.'

'OK, there's not much we can do about that. At least they aren't heading to the rally in the park. Do our people around there know how to respond?'

'Yeah, we've all been told how you want us to handle this. They've been practicing interviewing each other just so they won't be caught by surprise. It also appears they're simply reacting to what was broadcast on the TV yesterday, as none of them has sought out Peter's shop. Mr. Rodriguez knows about it, but I don't think any of these people do as yet, at least.'

'That's one good thing at least. It sounds like the networks haven't gotten Albert to reveal anything he didn't say on the air to them, ' Alex replied as he turned to hear what Patricia had to tell him. Seeing he was ready, she told him there weren't any trucks there yet, but they'd noticed some of the organizers getting phone calls recently, and there had been a flurry of activity afterwards.

"Damn, that means they've probably been alerted. Keep me informed, and have whoever is watching them contact me immediately if they try anything," Alex informed her.

"Will do," Patricia assured him. "Actually there's a group there including Jenny Cox and her husband, but the main Seer for the group is Kristi Nichols, who I believe you already know."

"Yeah," Alex smiled, "I'm pretty familiar with her." He ended his communications with Margaret and he quickly discussed what they could do about the situation with the whole table, but no one had any ideas. After all, they had the right to do whatever they wanted to, and so far no one had done anything illegal.

"Just make sure our people have cell phones that can record anything stupid they do that will help cast them in a bad light if necessary," Alex told the others. "Our only hope of quieting this storm is to show it's out of tune with typical attitudes. So far they've sounded so misogynistic they've been hurting themselves, but with this new level of interest, even bad attention is likely to be seen as good publicity by them."

Gail and Cate argued that Alex's best course of action would be to lie low, and that he could best do that holed up at the apartment. Alex was ready to agree when Patricia spoke up.

"Before you go and hide, I have another couple of girls for you to meet today. I assume you took it easy yesterday, so hopefully your sperm is back at their full strength." When Alex blushed guiltily she simply smirked, having expected no less. She motioned someone, and soon a couple of nervous women entered the small side room they were dining in.

Since the two women had supposedly already been activated by Alex's mass activation in the part, they didn't react when they first made eye contact with Alex, but they both seemed both anxious and nervous about approaching him. One appeared at first glance to be of somewhat Asian extraction, while the other was another black girl. Alex smiled to himself as he thought that was only to be expected, since New Orleans had a sizable black population. Something he was aware that he might not see as much of as he traveled west, especially if you discounted the larger cities.

"This is Amanda Li," Patricia said, introducing the Asian looking older woman, "and this is Becky Roe," she said, indicating the black girl with red hair.

"Becky Roe? I like your first name, after all, my sister shares the same name, but is that roe as in fish eggs?" Alex laughed, hardly able to keep the smile off his face.

"It's spelled the same, but actually it's Roe as in the old English Ro, meaning a deer," she explained, growing more comfortable being able to explain herself, despite Alex's poking fun at her name.

"Well, it seems fitting, after all, your hair color is actually close to that of a deer's," he told her. "I like it." He regarded her for a moment as they spoke, quickly trying to evaluate her in the few seconds he had to look her over before such a look would generate questions. She had very fair skin and a nose straighter than Lekesia's had been. Although she had a fuller figure than many of Alex's girls, she was well under Brandy's size and she had thinner lips.

He then turned and regarded Amanda. Her hair, unlike Becky's, was jet black and mostly straight. She had an easy assured smile, with a wide nose and prominent cheeks. He motioned for them both to sit down and they did so happily.

"Did Patricia at least allow you to eat?" Alex asked. "Why she insists on keeping everyone a surprise until the right moment is beyond me. If you had joined us we could have at least have eaten together."

"And we wouldn't have gotten anything else done," Patricia reminded him. "I've seen how focused you get whenever you meet someone new. I wanted your whole attention on what's happening. Now that we've finished, you can go ahead and distract yourself as much as you want," she teased.

"If you don't mind," Tracy said as she and Harry stood up, "we think we'll join the others watching over the news crews. If they split up, they'll likely need a few more Seers who can track each of them," she explained. Alex stood as well, and hugged each woman, thanking them profusely for what they'd been doing for him. They blushed prettily at his praise, but it was apparent that they were eating his attention up, and they each walked away with a new spring in their steps. Cate simply shook her head at the effect her formerly shy brother had on the women in his life.

"Now where was I?" Alex asked as he sat down again. "Oh yes, I was going to tell you both just how beautiful you are. You can't see my face well enough to tell, but I'm pretty homely myself," he teased. That produced the typical response, as they both hurried to reassure him, not having gotten used to his sense of humor.

"Oh, no, we can see from your aura that your beauty is much more than skin deep," Becky assured him. "You've got a beauty to you that goes beyond your looks, and even incorporates more than your amazing abilities."

"She's right," Amanda told him. "Even though there aren't many pictures of you floating around, the other Seers share mental images of you between themselves so they'll always remember what you look like. Although you have the quintessential looks of a youth not quite finished growing into his adult body, you are hardly unattractive."

"Well, thanks," Alex replied, blushing at the unexpected praise he'd received from his own self-depreciating joke. "Anyway, tell me a little about yourself. I take it from your description that you both already know most of what being a Seer entails, and have already spoken with at least a few of the crew up in Carbondale?"

"Oh, yes, Patricia spoke to each of us both before and after our activation in the park," Becky told him. "She also took us through using telepathy, and connected each of us with someone who could assist us. She connected me to Shani, which I understand since we're both black, but I don't think she understood how different Jamaicans are from the typical American blacks."

"Yeah, you've got to stop making such stereotypical associations," Amanda told Patricia. "She connected me to Anh, and although we're both Asian, that is one weird lady. I've lived in America my entire life, so when she started in on her Vietnamese mysticism I almost lost it."

"I'll take that in consideration," Patricia told her as Alex, Cate and Gail all broke into giggles, "but it was a split second decision."

"Yeah, Anh takes a little getting used to, but she's a sweetheart, and she manages to convey a lot of information pretty quickly," Cate told her. "Actually, I'm not so convinced she really believes a lot of what she says, as much as she's found that people accept what she says when they don't take it as seriously."

"She told me something about a tiny chick being tossed out of its nest onto foreign soil," Amanda said, "and how although that was its new home, that it would always think like a bird and not like the other animals on the forest floor. She concluded that I needed to learn to fly amongst my own kind. Frankly I had no idea if she was talking about my being Chinese, being an American immigrant, or being a Seer."

"Yeah, that sounds like our Anh," Cate replied, smiling. "She always takes the long way to making a point, and even then you have to think about what she said, since you're never sure if she understands what she's talking about."