“That would be nice. But what if Paul thought that we were sleeping together?”
Bill chimed in. “Tough, let him think what he wants. Besides Mike is less likely to pound him into the ground than I am.”
“I’ll call my parents and let them know what I’m doing. It will be fine. I am a college graduate you know.”
“Ok, but I’d hate for you to have drive all the way over to my place. I’ve got a guest room that you can use.”
They discussed it and agreed that was the plan. As they were leaving, Julie pulled Mike aside and told him to watch Ellen, she had a bit more to drink than she normally did. He assured his sister that he would make sure that she was ok. Mike followed Ellen to her house.
After they left, Bill turned to Julie. “Five will get you ten that they’ll end up in the sack together.”
“You think my friend Ellen would screw my little brother?”
“Just pointing out that it would be good for her ego. And good for my buddy Mike.”
“You’re evil, Bill”
He smiled. “Let’s clean up and then go into the bedroom and screw.”
Julie smiled and nodded.
Once Ellen got home, she was feeling the effects of the wine. She was giddy and more than a little horny. Mike walked in this his bag and she went up to him and gave him a big hug and leaned on him. This had the normal effect on an 18-year-old. Ellen could feel his erection and it felt good. She kept hugging him and pressing into him. Mike dropped his bag and hugged her back. She looked at him. “Where do you want to sleep in the guest room or with me?”
That was all Mike needed. An hour later a very naked and very satisfied Ellen lay draped across and equally naked and happy Mike. He looked at her. “God, you’ve got the greatest boobs. You figured in a lot of my fantasies. I wasn’t the only one, a lot of Jack’s buddies thought you were hot too.”
“You like my body? That makes me feel good. When you get dumped like I did you start to wonder about whether or not you’re attractive or you’ve lost it.”
“I can assure you that you’ve still got it. As soon as I rest up a bit more, I intend to show you how much I mean that.”
“Oh, I like that. I have to thank your girlfriends for teaching you.” Suddenly she sat up. “Mike are you a virgin?”
“Was, I was a virgin.” Answered a laughing Mike.
Ellen started laughing to. “I popped one of my best friends little brother’s cherry.”
“Yes, you did, and you did an excellent job of it. You get an A plus plus plus for it.”
After more sex, they finally feel asleep. The next morning took some time getting out of bed as Ellen seemed to have some more pent-up sexual energy that needed to be released.
Once they finished breakfast, Mike started getting Paul’s stuff together under Ellen’s direction. Occasionally, they had to take a break because she became teary. This ticked Mike off. He’d always thought Paul was a jerk. You could leave somebody when it wasn’t working out. But to just up and leave her for some 18-year-old was just wrong. As far as he was concerned Ellen was better off. She’d recover and find somebody rather quickly; she was just too nice and good looking to go unappreciated for long.
Getting a shower to clean up proved to be a lot of fun as they washed each other’s backs and other things. Eventually they were clean and dry. Ellen ordered a pizza and started worrying about what it would do to her figure. Mike promised to help her work off any weight. They laughed and they talked about a lot of different topics. Then they watched some TV and went to bed. After a good bit of time they finally went to sleep. Ellen had set an early alarm so they could get Paul’s stuff ready. He could tell that she was up tight. A combination of worry, anger and sadness.
By 10AM Mike had all of Paul’s things in the driveway. A few minutes later Paul pulled up in a U-Haul van. He and his girlfriend got out. Mike was never overly impressed with Paul. He was average height and weight with thinning brown hair. His girlfriend was a bleached blonde with big tits, no bra, a couple of tats and piercings. From the way she looked, Mike thought she had more tits than brains. He couldn’t believe that Paul had thrown Ellen away for the bleached blonde. Paul was definitely screwed up. As the van was being loaded, Ellen stayed in the background. A couple of the neighbors looked on.
Paul started to mouth off at Ellen. Mike balled his fists and started towards Paul. He was a third-degree black belt and was just going to shut him up. When Paul saw him coming, he stopped running his mouth and Mike backed up to stand next to Ellen. Out of the corner of his eye, Mike had noticed that one of the neighbors had started towards Paul as well.
After Paul drove off a couple of the neighbors waved to Ellen and then went back inside. Mike said. “I think your neighbors were watching out for you.”
“I think your right.”
After they went inside Ellen looked at Mike. “Well this is interesting. What are we going to do Mr. Mulvaney?”
“Well that’s up to you. I go away to MIT in September. But if you want some companionship, I’d be thrilled to provide it.”
“You mean that you’ll squire me around and then fuck my brains loose?”
“Ah yeah” Mike managed to stammer out.
“You’re sweet Mike. I’d love to have you squire me around and take care of me in bed while I get my head on straight.”
“My pleasure, my pleasure.”
“I think you need to get home. I’m in a good place right now and I’ve got to get ready for work in the morning and if you stick around, we won’t get out of the bedroom.” She kissed Mike and he left.
He drove home in a bit daze. He’d slept with a woman, and not just anyone, but one he’d fantasied about as a teenager. When he reached home, he greeted his parents and gave them a brief rundown of what had happened. He omitted all the sex of course. Then he went up to his room.
His mother turned to his father. “I think your son is sleeping with Ellen.”
“What are you talking about and why is he now ‘my’ son?”
“It’s hard to explain but just from his actions. I suspect that he’s had sex and Ellen is the only candidate. It also makes sense. She was just dumped by her husband for a younger woman and Mike is an attractive young man. She might go for him to bolster her self-esteem, which is probably pretty low right now. And her husband was going to show up with this younger woman. Seems logical to me.”
“Ok, let’s assume you’re right. What do we do?” Asked a somewhat confused John.
“Oh nothing. I don’t see that it’s going to be an issue. Ellen is having an after-break-up fling. Mike is focused on MIT and his goals. This will be for a few weeks and then it’s over.”
His wife’s pronouncement that he didn’t need to do anything was a relief. He did think that if he was young and single, that Ellen would be somebody he’d like to hook up with. John was a smart enough husband not to mention it. He did hope that if it was true that it went well for both of them.
Later in the week Julie called her friend Ellen. “Hi, Ellen. I hate to ask this, but Bill and I have a bet about something. Bill says that you and Mike got it on. I say no way. So, which one of us wins?”
“Julie do you seriously think that I popped your little brother Mike’s cherry?’ Ellen answered in mock indignation.
Julie immediately recognized the sarcasm. “My God, you did sleep with him!” Then laughing she added “You slut you.”
“Yes, I did, and it was great. Put Paul to shame. And I intend to keep doing it until he goes to MIT.”
“Oh Jesus” Julie said. “Bill is going to be very happy tonight.”
“What’s the bet, Julie? Oh, is it something sexual, I hope?” asked Ellen
“None of your business slut.” Answered Julie laughing.
“Well I hope Bill enjoys it. You know you can’t get pregnant doing that.” Ellen managed to sputter out around her laughter.
“ELLEN!!” Screeched Julie, and then she broke up laughing.
“Julie, this is my after-breakup fling. It’s doing my confidence a world of good as well as, oh never mind. But I’m sure that he’ll go off to MIT happy with his summer and I’ll be happy as well. Not sure what to do about long-term relationships yet, especially after Paul. Having Mike with me when he showed up with his new girlfriend was a big help. Mike did keep Paul from mouthing off. Your little brother is the exact opposite of the skinny geek. He also was not very impressed with Paul’s girlfriend. Which sort of made me feel good.”
“You seem to have your head on straighter than it’s been on since Paul left.”
The two women continued to talk for a few more minutes. That night Bill collected on his bet and was very satisfied. Thank you, Mike, was one of his more coherent thoughts. Mike continued to see Ellen until he left for MIT. A lot of times these sorts of affairs are nothing but a mess. In this case it turned out well for both parties. Mike gained confidence with women and Ellen realized that she was still attractive and desirable. When Mike, left for MIT he confided to his sister Julie that Ellen would have a serious suitor in at most six months. She promised to make sure that she didn’t pick another loser like Paul.
Randall’s Family Grows
Randall was working in his office and his two daughters were running around. Juliana’s first child was a girl, who they named Christiana. She was going to look something like her father, dark hair and brown eyes, but with her mother’s lively personality. Both he and Juliana were amazed when she became pregnant less than two years after the birth of their first child. Their second child was also a girl named Catrina. She was going to the spitting image of her mother, blonde hair and blue eyes.
A year ago, King Harold had retired and left the running of the kingdom to Randall’s father Fredricke. That meant Randall had taken over his father’s responsibilities. That included running the guard. The guard consisted of around eight thousand individuals. They were tasked with keeping the peace and patrolling the roads. The patrols were to deter bandits and to help travelers. Armaments on Cornu weren’t that advanced. Up until about three hundred years ago, the main weapon was the matchlock musket. Then three hundred years ago, a wounded man stumbled through a gate in Tandor. He made it to one of the villages, where he died. The man was armed with a Kentucky Long Rifle, a flintlock weapon. The mechanism was a much better solution than the matchlock. Artisans and gunmakers on Cornu were able to copy it. The flintlock replaced the matchlock within a hundred years. Flintlock pistols had been developed as a matchlock pistol was possible, but not all that useful. Now the main armament of the guard was a flintlock musket, saber and flintlock pistol. In the cities, when they were doing police work, a six-foot pick replaced the musket.
The rifle was slower to load and required more maintenance. So, it wasn’t adopted by the guard. However, its longer range and accuracy was a godsend to hunters and people charged with protecting livestock against predators. The large predators of the Pleistocene still roamed the planet. Many of the apex predators on the home world were secondary predators on this. Also, the big prey animals, like bison and wild cattle were dangerous. The extra range of the rifle added additional safety to the hunt. Most hunters carried two rifles, both loaded. If they were being attacked, there was no chance to reload the rifle for a second shot.
The guard was stationed in major cities and then in outposts throughout the kingdom. Nordport had fifteen hundred guardsmen to patrol the city and the countryside. Great Falls and Midport had a thousand each. The three other major cities had seven hundred and fifty. The remainder were spread in garrisons around the kingdom. Randall couldn’t see any reason to increase the size of the guard. The only real threat they faced was from the occasional bandit raid. All the other duties were more of a police nature. Keeping the peace, investigating burglaries and the occasional murder.
Four years earlier he had added a second wife, Serverna. She was the daughter of a prominent merchant. Juliana had seen him eying the young girl at several functions. She teased him about her good naturedly. Then Juliana set out to meet the young woman and take her measure. She found her to be intelligent and quite charming the two women hit it off. Juliana mentioned the young woman to Randall’s mothers. They met her and quickly approved. Then arrangements were made for Randall to spend more time with the young woman. When it became apparent that there was an attraction between the two a betrothal was arranged. Since this was a second wife the betrothal period was short, and soon Serverna joined Randall’s household.
9/11
Downtown New York City.
September 11th, 2001 was a pleasant fall day. John Mulvaney shared his commute with two other neighbors, Tom Jones and Peter Simon. All three men worked in finance, Wall Street as it was known. Tom worked for a big bond house in the North Tower of World Trade Center. His office was on the 96th floor. Great view he said, if only he had time to look at it. Tom and his wife Betty had two teenagers both younger than John’s Mike. Peter was the youngest he and his wife had two younger kids. One was in grade school the other a toddler. He worked at a wealth management company in mid-town. The three men took turns weekly driving to the train station, well actually their wives did the driving. This week was John’s turn. Mary, drove the three men, who were usually quiet because it was still early in the morning, to the train station in Montclair. It was right off Bloomfield Avenue. They all took New Jersey Transit, the old Erie-Lackawanna, into Hoboken. At the station in Montclair, they all bought papers. John bought the Wall Street Journal, Tom the New York Times and Peter the Financial Times. During the train ride they would switch off.
John’s workday was from 8:30 AM until 4:30 PM, so that it caught the start of the market at 9 AM and the end at 4 PM. The other men had similar schedules. He always tried to get to work by 8:15 AM at the latest. That way he could prepare for the daily strategy meeting that went from 8:30 until 9. The train pulled into Hoboken terminal at 7:50 AM. From the platform, the three men walked to the stairs down to the path. John and Tom took the train to World Trade Center, Peter headed to 33rd street. The train was jammed and John rode standing up until they came to the final stop at World Trade some fifteen minutes later. From there it was walk to the South Tower and ride the elevator to the 56th floor.
At 8:46 the strategy meeting was well underway. They were concentrating on interest rate movements, the prime rate, LIBOR and the Federal Funds Rate. Dave Martin, the young economist assigned to the group was going over the expectations. He was a recent PhD from the University of Chicago, which along with Harvard, MIT, Wharton and Berkeley were the top schools for economists. He was confined to a wheelchair because he’d done a tour in the Army prior to getting his PhD. He stepped on a Serbian mine and lost both his legs below the knees. As he was finishing up, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower. The noise was deafening, and everyone rushed to the windows to see what happened. The entire room was in shock. A plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers.
John was one of the first to come out of it. He knew that it wasn’t an accident. His first instinct was to get everybody to safety. “OK everybody, grab what you can, wallets, purses whatever. Don’t worry about laptops or anything else we need to get out of here. We'll take the stairs in the Northeast corner, there that way!” pointing in the direction of the stairs. “Don’t stop for anybody. You get out of the building and head towards St Paul’s Chapel, we’ll meet there. Let’s move people this isn’t a drill, this is life and death!” He looked at Dave, “Dave you need to risk the elevators. I think you’ve got time to get to the bottom.” Two of the younger guys volunteered to go with him. “Get as far down as you can, if the elevator stops get out the emergency exit at the top.”
“Don’t worry boss
we’ll get down. And if we have to, we’ll boost Dave up to the exit. He’ll have no trouble hauling his butt out. He can bench press more than either of us, we work out together.”
“Right see you at St Paul’s, and pray for the poor souls in the North Tower.” At that moment he thought of his friend Tom and prayed that death would be merciful. He had no doubt he was either dead or soon would be. He shook that off and made sure Dave and his two companions got to the elevators and on their way. He then headed for the stairs. After he got down to basement where it exited, there were a couple of security guards trying to get everybody to go back in. He saw some of his employees hesitating. “Keep going, get out of here. If they hit the North Tower, they’ll probably try for the this one as well. Better that we stand around for an hour or so than stay there and turn into crispy critters. Go!”
One of the guards looked at John “Sir, the building is asking everyone to stay calm and return to your offices this is just a terrible accident.”
“Bullshit, that was no accident, airliners just don’t fly into buildings. Now get out of my peoples’ way. Everybody you send back up could be going back into a death trap.” John looked around “Are we missing anybody?” When all he got were negatives, he moved passed the guards. They hadn’t even made it the few blocks to St Paul’s, when United Airlines Flight 175 flew low over the harbor and slammed into the North Tower.
When they got to St Paul’s, Dave and the other two young men, were staring at the towers, in shock. There were other people there as well. Many of the women and a few of the men were crying. Looking back John could guess that the towers were done for. He got his people together. “OK, we’re obviously not going back to work. The market probably isn’t going to stay open. We need to get on our way. The Path is shut down for sure. I don’t know about the subways, they may or may not be running. If they are, they won’t be for long. Has anybody been able to get through on their phones?” There were negative head shakes from a few people. “We’re going to have to make our way home. I’m going to head for South Sea Seaport, maybe I can catch a ferry to Jersey. If you live in Jersey, I suggest you come with me. If you live in Staten Island head to battery park and the ferry. What’s everybody else going to do?”
Through the Gate: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 1 Page 13
