Chapter 1

Note: When the conversation is telepathic, it is indicated by italic font.

It was a beautiful Monday morning in late June at Nancy and Bob’s estate also the home of N & R Security Services. When Joyce, Sally, Terry, Rusty and Sarah sat down for breakfast Sarah said, “You know it feels odd with only five of us in the house.”

Joyce said, “Well before you all joined us, usually there was just five of us, Adam, Mom, Dad, Sally and me. Although Rusty and others occasionally stayed over when working for N&R.

“Well it sure seems unusually quiet,” responded Sarah.

“I agree that breakfast is much more lively when the others are here,” added Sally. “With that in mind, I wonder how Zoe’s group is doing.”

Joyce said, “From what she said in her email, the tour is going really well, much better than the last one. She noted that this group had considerably more personality off stage than the previous one. They are very pleased with the cooperation from the performers and the crew.”

“Great,” exclaimed Rusty. “From what they said of the first group, they likely flunked social skills in kindergarten.”

“Mairia’s group has a break between summer school sessions next week and are planning on spending it here.”

“Great. It will be good to see them,” said Terry.

“Yes it will,” responded Sarah. “When I checked the schedule this morning, I realized that I will be the only one in the office till Joyce returns from her appointment.”

“Wow,” exclaimed Sally. “How did that happen? More importantly why didn’t we catch it before now.”

“Don’t know. The calendar shows, Rusty, Sally, and Terry at a customer. Bob, Nancy, Stan and Julia returning on Saturday. Shirley, Janice and Thomas return on Monday. Fortunately we don’t have any guests or document deliveries scheduled for the rest of this week.”

“I didn’t realize that,” responded Joyce, “or I wouldn’t have scheduled a meeting with the registrar for this morning. I could change it.”

“When do you think you will be back?” asked Sarah.

“The meeting shouldn’t take long, so a little after lunch.

“While not ideal, I think we should be okay.”

“Better yet, why don’t we close the office for the day,” responded Sally. “We’ve done that before. After you take care of the messages, switch the incoming calls on the primary lines go to the answering machine. All of us typically call the private line. Alternatively, we can text you.

“That will work. I’ll use the out of office message rather than our normal one.”

“Good idea.”

Rusty noted, “In thinking about it, this situation could be due to a change in this customers project and nobody noticed the impact on the calendar.”

“I can see that happening, especially with this customer,” responded Sally smiling.

“Oh, I just remembered,” said Joyce, “Adam will be home on leave in about a month. It will only be for a week or so, as it is between training sessions.”

“Great!” exclaimed everyone.

After glancing at the clock Rusty said, “We need to be leaving.”

“Me too,” added Joyce.

As they started to clear the table Sarah said, “I’ll take care of the dishes.”

Joyce, Sally, and Terry each gave Sarah a hug and kiss before leaving. Rusty was last and as he gave her a hug said, “Having only one person in the office has happened in the past but not recently. So like Sally suggested put up the closed sign and leave the lights off in the front. Be sure to maintain your awareness.”

Smiling she responded, “I know, but as you know my senses are a bit tingly.”

“Oh, no, not that,” responded Rusty with a smile then gave her a kiss. Which was interrupted by the sound of a horn. As he released her, “We’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“Good. Be careful.”

“You do the same.

After cleaning up the breakfast dishes, Sarah checked the status of the alarms for the various buildings. Seeing everything was set appropriately, she set the alarm for the house then then took the underground tunnel to the office. At the alarm pad she signed in, then left the perimeter alarm on.

In the reception area, Sarah checked that the entrance door was secured and that the closed sign was in the window. On exiting the reception area, she secured the door which activated the intrusion alarm for that area. At her desk, she changed the phone message as they agreed, then listened to the phone messages. As appropriate she converted each message to an email then sent them off to the appropriate person.

While she was considering which task to do next, she noticed the date on the calendar causing her to pause. After a moment she realized why it had distracted her. It was some eighteen months ago that she began living here and a little over twenty-one months since she met Alice, Judy, Janet and Jill.

She thought, “Well my life has certainly changed during that time. Now I have a very tight bond with Rusty, Sally, Terry, and Joyce that seems unbreakable. Then there are Alice, Judy, Janet, Jill, Bob, Nancy and quite a few others that are extremely close friends.”

After considering past events for a few moments she checked the clock. Seeing the time she decided to do a walk through before beginning to review the new scripts.

After putting on her belt and redirecting incoming calls on the private line to her cell, she walked through the building. She checked the doors, offices, rooms and windows as she went through.

From the public side, the building appeared to be a small warehouse with four truck doors, a warehouse entry door with an adjoining office. Two doors were for semi-trailers while the others were at step van height. There was a large lot in front of the building, which transitioned into the adjacent office’s parking lot, which was monitored with motion sensors. A fence hidden by shrubbery that blocked access to the sides of the building. Just inside the fence was a matrix of intrusion sensors. The area adjacent to the truck doors was designed to give the building a small appearance. From the estate side it had the facade of an old stable with thick stone walls.

As Sarah walked through she thought, “This building never ceases to amaze me. A clever design yet very functional.” Before returning to her console, she found a towel and laid it on the seat of her chair. Sarah checked her email and site monitors before she began reviewing the scripts for a security installation.

Her attention to the scripts was interrupted by a tone signaling receipt of a text message. Joyce inquired whether she was comfortable with her stopping by Mairia’s on the way back.

Sarah responded, “Well I guess, but hurry back.”

Joyce quickly responded, “I will.”

Sarah smiled at seeing the response as she noticed that it was time for lunch. Before leaving for lunch she took another walk through the buildings then set the alarm before leaving.

On sitting down for lunch she wondered how the job was progressing. When they were near each other, she could easily share thoughts with Rusty and to some extent with Sally and Terry as could Rusty. If they weren’t near each other, they were careful so that they avoided startling them by interrupting their thoughts. When Rusty and her had a telepathic conversation with the potential to affect their three friends, they would verbalize it when there was an opportunity. They felt that doing otherwise, over time, had the potential to cause distrust. About the only time they tried to look at the thoughts of others was when their actions caused them concern. Even so they weren’t real sure how to interpret some concepts they saw, however knowing the persons intent or attitude toward them was useful.

She smiled as she pushed a thought to Rusty, “I love you. You are the most precious person in my life.”

“Hey, we’re trying to work,” said Rusty chuckling.

“I’m surprised you heard me.”

“Well thank you, I did. We feel the same about you. How is it going?”

“Boring. I’ve been reviewing the scripts that are in development. There are few instances that I don’t think they are quite right, so I highlighted my concerns.”

“Good. If you don’t think they are quite right then there is likely an issue.”

“How is the job coming?”

“Not as quickly as we planned but at the moment, we aren’t sure whether we can complete it today. Now, I need to focus elsewhere. We love you.”

“I love all of you.”

“I’ll tell them but I think they sensed your comment. We’ll call later.”

Sarah smiled for several minutes as she thought about what they had just done. Sharing their feelings through their link for each other far outweighed their ability to share them in words they verbally expressed.

It was late afternoon when Sarah’s daydream was interrupted by the phone ringing. She answered it on the third ring.

“We are on our way back,” said Sally.

“Good,” replied Sarah. “How did it go?”

“Well as noted earlier, we will be coming back tomorrow as there are still several items to finish.”

“Did we make a mistake in planning?”

“No. Not really. Some of the work was more difficult to accomplish than it appeared to be. In hindsight, we should have specified four people for the job.”

“Okay. I think I’ll tell the cooks that they can leave once dinner is ready. We can warm it up when you all get here.”

“That’s a good idea. Is Joyce there?”

“I don’t believe so. She texted me that she wanted to stop by Mairia’s. She indicated she didn’t plan on staying long, but...

Laughing she responded, “Agree, she likely lost track of time. See you soon.”

After disconnecting, Sarah told the cooks that they could leave as soon as dinner was ready to place on the table. They would take care of warming it up and cleanup.

Having been interrupted, she decided to do another walk through. As she was walking about, she thought, “I think I am doing this more for exercise.”

After checking the sensor log, she returned to reviewing the scripts for polling a site’s security sensors. This was interrupted when Rusty said, “It must be nice to sit around all day.”

Sarah screamed and jumped, “You scared me.”

“Sorry, didn’t you hear the chime?”

“No. Which is surprising since it is so quiet, the least little noise tends to interrupt your thoughts. Which usually results in you going back over the lines of script you just reviewed. We need to figure out how to avoid having just one person in the office. Our sensors give a lot of warning but we would still need to respond.”

“I agree,” said Rusty.

While Sarah and Rusty were hugging Sally started looking at the security logs.

Joyce walked in saying, “Sorry, I’m late.”

Before anyone could respond Sally said, “Crap. Sarah, you didn’t hear the gate opening alarm because the audible was turned off for the office. With you here by yourself, it should have been turned on.”

“I checked the settings this morning and everything appeared to be correctly set.”

“They were, except for that option. I’ll fix it and make the setting choice more obvious.” She then sat down at the console to alter the settings.

“Well that still doesn’t solve the basic issue of only one person being here. Anyway, dinner is waiting for us in the kitchen. The cooks told me it was ready so all we need to do is warm it up.”

“Good, I’m hungry.”

As they closed up the office Joyce asked, “How come you guys are so late?”

“Well I could ask you the same question,” responded Sarah.

“We thought we could finish the job today so delayed leaving so we could finish a few items. We are close but there are a few tasks to wrap up tomorrow,” responded Rusty.

“My visit to the registrar’s office didn’t last as long as I expected, which is why I texted Sarah about a brief visit with Mairia,” noted Joyce. “Obviously, I stayed longer than I intended.”

“I sort of suspected that would happen. When did you return?” asked Sarah.

“I came in the back way maybe ten minutes before I entered the office.”

“So that audible didn’t work either,” said Sarah.

“What?”

“I was proofing scripts and I didn’t hear our truck enter the estate. It turns out the audible had been turned off in the office.”

“I heard the chime in the house just before I came over. Oh, we are having visitors this weekend.”

“Visitors?” said Terry. “When did you hear that?”

“Yep, believe it or not, Jill and Janet will be here tomorrow morning late, along with Judy. It was in an email I received this afternoon.”

“Interesting,” said Sarah. “I wasn’t aware of that as I haven’t checked email since this morning.”

“Oh, my,” laughed Joyce, “you’ve just lost your hip status.”

“I’ll have you know we are not into instant gratification so we don’t jump every time the message bell dings,” responded Sally with a smile. “As to Judy, I am surprised Alice let Judy come as those two are almost linked at the hip.”

“Well it’s no different than you guys,” said Joyce.

“You better include yourself in that group, besides we aren’t that bad.”

“Rusty, should I tell them about my dream? The context of the dream seems very close.”

“I don’t see why not. It would make everybody a bit more alert.”

“The underlying reason for my concern about office staffing is due to a reoccurring dream. It’s not a new one and I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before. It doesn’t occur every night but has reoccurred numerous times. Afterward, I can remember some of the detail from the more frequent parts but it is hazy. Besides me, I am certain that Rusty, Terry, Sally and probably Joyce are in it. There are others that I sort of recognize. It seems to take place at a remote tropical location perhaps on an island. From what I saw of us, our appearance differs some from how we look now. In the last dream, there seemed to be more women associated with us, but I only saw shadows. There were other people there and the number seemed to be larger than the last time the dream occurred. Some of the additional people resembled people I know. Some people at the location had similar builds to ours, but with much longer hair and what looked like a mane running down their backs. During the dreams, I’ve never felt any concern about our safety or freedom to act. Some of it was strange enough, that I’m not sure I understood what I saw.”

Sally and Terry looked thoughtful.

With a smile Joyce said, “Reading science fiction again, I see.” Her comment caused everyone to chuckle.

“It does sound like that doesn’t it.”

Sally said, “Sarah, if you have the dream tonight see if you can focus on details. If it occurs we could discuss it over breakfast. In any case, write it down and leave it in an envelope, with a note on it saying, ‘If you’ve found this then open it.’”

“Okay.”

Joyce said, “I plan to be in the office tomorrow.”

Sarah said, “I am surprised Alice is letting Judy come tomorrow with Jill and Janet. It will very good to see them again.”

“Well from what I understand,” said Joyce, “they now have several trained staff members to help with the clinic side of the club.”

“That’s right. Now I remember Judy talking about that. When I was there, I remember her being quite frazzled at times especially when Jill and Janet were out of action. Jill and Janet seemed to be more relaxed the last times we were there.”

“Why don’t we get an earlier start tomorrow?” asked Rusty.

“Suits me,” said Terry. “Doing that should have us back before lunch time.”

“In that case, we need to get some sleep,” said Sarah. “It will be nice to have Jill, Janet and Judy around for the rest of the week. I’m pretty sure we won’t get much rest after they arrive.”

“Sure, we will,” replied Sally.

“Just how are you defining rest?”

“Cuddling. Hugging. Those are relaxing.”

“So that is all you’re going to do.”

“I didn’t say that, but you can if you want. Between bouts of relaxing, I intend to get my ashes hauled several times.”

“Are you saying the physical side of our relationship isn’t enough?”

“Absolutely not. I just like the shared feelings that come from physically sharing our appreciation of our very close friends.”

“I agree with you,” responded Sarah as she pulled Sally into a hug and giving her a kiss.

Joyce smiled as she watched Sarah and Sally share their affection. When the kissing paused, she said, “Now that you guys are back with us, I just remembered a couple of other items. Mom called to see how we were doing. Although I think you know this but Zoe checked in. She indicated that the tour is going smoother than the last one as the performers are more normal. Shirley called with their flight information confirming that they would return on Sunday. I called Al and gave him the flight details.”

“I wonder why I didn’t hear those calls.”

“They were on the house phone as it was after hours.

“Do you think they are anxious to be back?”

“Oh. Yes. Definitely,” said Joyce. “When I talked to Mom, I could hear the yearning in the tone of her voice.”

“Well it will be good to have them back home,” said Sarah.

It was a little before 6 AM when Sarah, Sally, Terry, Joyce and Rusty sat down to breakfast.

“It sure is quiet around here with just us,” said Joyce.

“Are you surprised?” inquired Sally. “Cause its just like yesterday.”

“Well it just seems too quiet. I’ll be glad when everyone returns.”

Chapter 2 »