by H. L. Wegley
She’d asked where, but Lex wouldn’t tell her.
Now she stood beside him on the dock shifting her feet as a fortysomething couple with four kids walked their way.
“You sure this is a good idea, Lex? After all we did steal their boat and leave them marooned.”
“I talked to the guy. I think he’s okay with meeting us. He doesn’t know what we’re up to, but he does know who we are, what we did, and that I want to apologize.”
“I hope you get your message across before he punches you out.”
“What makes you think he could punch me out, oh, bride of little faith?”
“Well, he’s not smiling.”
The family was only ten yards away and walking out onto the dock.
“He will be. I guarantee it.”
“If you say so.”
Lex stuck out a hand. “Hello, Mr. Jackson.”
Mr. Jackson took his hand and nodded.
“And Ms. Jackson,” Lex said.
“That’s the man that stole the Billy Boy,” a girl about nine said.
Lex knelt eye-to-eye with the girl. “I’m really sorry about taking your boat. But, you see, those FBI men that came were actually criminals trying to kill us. So it really was an emergency.” Lex stood. “We only intended to borrow your boat but, unfortunately, we couldn’t bring it back. The FBI blew it up.”
“What did they use?” Mr. Jackson said. “One of those Hellfire Missiles?”
“That’s pretty close,” Lex said. “It was a thermobaric RPG. Makes a big fireball and a big explosion. But, since the government was responsible, President Gramm said the DOJ had to pay for it.”
Jackson’s eyebrows pinched. “President Gramm? You sure about all of this?”
Gemma stepped beside Lex. “Yes. We saw the president about three weeks ago. He feels badly that all this happened on his watch.”
“Hon,” Mrs. Jackson said. “Maybe we can believe some of that crud they print in the paper.” She studied Gemma for a moment. “Ms. Saint is that a bridal tiara your wearing?”
“Yes. As of today, I am Mrs. James. We’re just beginning our honeymoon.”
“I wouldn’t want to punch a guy out while he’s on his honeymoon,” Mr. Jackson said. “Unless he blew up my boat, or something terrible like that.”
“Maybe you should tell him the rest,” Gemma said. She looked up at Lex. “Well, either that or, what is it men say … put up your dukes?”
“Gemma.” Lex glanced at her, shook his head, and pulled the keys out of the biggest pocket of his cargo shorts. “Here are the keys to your new boat. A brand new Bayliner. Same basic features as the, uh, Billy Boy, but a year newer.” He slid some folded papers out of another pocket. “And here’s the title, free and clear.”
Gemma met Mrs. Jackson’s gaze. “I know this isn’t really compensation for losing six weeks of summertime boating, but—”
“Oh, I think it will do.” Mr. Jackson smiled for the first time. “The boat was insured. Our insurance company, after we haggled a bit, paid off what we owed. So getting a boat free and clear gives us an extra twenty thousand dollars. I think that’s more than enough compensation for losing six weeks of boat usage.”
It was done. Everyone seemed satisfied. Nobody punched anybody. Even the kids were smiling as Lex and Gemma walked to the slip where their honeymoon cottage was moored.
“Jeremy and Jennifer Jackson,” Lex said. “They must love alliteration. All their kids’ names start with Js too.”
“I rather like alliteration myself. Gemma James. It has a nice ring to it.”
“You could have held on to your last name. Just think, you could have been Gemma Saint-James.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
“Here’s the boat.”
“Lex, are you finally going to tell me where we’re spending our wedding night?”
“Lake Billy Chinook.”
She jabbed his shoulder. “Be more specific.”
“Okay. There’s this inlet, our own private cove, just big enough for one boat to anchor in. We’ll be mostly hidden from anyone passing by on the lake. We can see the sunrise in the morning from the bedroom window. But being tucked in against the bluff on the west side of the lake, the night begins early.”
“Early is good. How far is this little inlet? I don’t want to wait forever, you know.”
“Twenty minutes after we leave the marina, we’ll be anchoring in that inlet.”
“So it will be around 3:00 p.m.?”
“Yeah. That means—”
“It means that it’ll still be around one-hundred degrees. The boat doesn’t have air conditioning. We might need a swim to cool us off.”
“I thought you didn’t like being in water.”
“I don’t like my head going under but, after what you made me do to get to that cave, I can stay under for a few seconds before I get claustrophobic.”
“Good. There’s a rock we can dive from by the boat.”
“Correction. There’s a rock we can jump from. I don’t do dives.”
“Then maybe it’s time to learn.”
“Lex … I think we have enough on the agenda to learn. Changing the subject, what was Caleb asking you about just before we left.”
“Uh, that’s not really changing the subject, Gemma.”
“Oh. I see. What did you tell them?”
“You know how they get when they start the inquisition. They fire questions at you like bullets from those M4s the Fibbies shot at us. Each question feeds logically off the previous question and some part of the answer. They don’t stop until—”
“Until you stop them. Please tell me that’s what you did.”
“Yeah. But one thing was clear. They didn’t think we needed three-and-a-half days to get used to being married. I think they just wanted to be here with us.”
“I love them so much, Lex. And I’ll be glad to show them … after three-and-a-half days of getting used to being married.”
“Did you see what Jarrod and Lindy, at the office, gave us for a wedding card?”
“No. I didn’t have much time to look at gifts or cards.”
“Well, they made up and printed out a special newspaper using all the articles from The American Motto that they thought we’d be interested in—things we missed over the past week.”
“This week did get a bit hectic. Statements to the police and the FBI about Max Carr. Then we had to avoid the media, which drove the reporters into a frenzy. Then there was getting ready for our wedding and my parents coming from Texas.”
“Make you a deal, sweetheart.”
“You already made a deal today, buddy. And it was the best one you’ve ever made.” Gemma walked down the dock doing her best imitation of a fashion model.
Lex caught up with her and curled an arm around her waist. “And I thought I’d married a humble little introvert, someone mild-mannered, subservient … well, she’s like that until she loses her temper.”
“You’re about to make that happen, Lex. Subservient?”
“Back to the deal. I’ll show you how to steer the boat. You take the wheel on the way to the cove, and I’ll read you all the news we missed this week. I’ll completely catch us up in twenty minutes flat.”
“As long as it’s good news. Nothing unpleasant, okay?”
“Only the good news. It’s a deal.”
Lex stepped through the opening in the railing and onto the deck of their houseboat.
He stretched out a hand to help her.
After Gemma stepped onto the deck, Lex scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the cabin, where their suitcases sat beside their bed.
He set her on her feet and kissed her.
But it wasn’t a kiss like their first, by the river. And not like the movie-protocol kiss. It was a kiss full of promise for much, much more. “Lex, sweetheart, let’s go find that cove.”
He slipped a folded newspaper out of the pocket of his small suitcase. “I’ll back out of
here then the wheel’s yours.”
The temperature of Lex’s kiss had been warm, but the temperature inside the cabin had been suffocating. Probably near one-hundred-ten degrees.
Gemma took the news paper from Lex and fanned herself while he freed the boat from the dock and fired up the engine.
“It will cool as soon as we’re moving across the water. The air above the lake is ten to fifteen degrees cooler than the air temperature at the shore, and the breeze we create will make it a pleasant eighty or so.”
A few moments later, the boat headed out into the lake.
Gemma moved to Lex’s side and let the gentle breeze ripple her hair and cool her neck.
Lex took the newspaper and scanned the first page.
She took the wheel and looked across the broad expanse of blue-green water. The snow-capped tip of Mount Jefferson jutted up from the western horizon. Cliffs several hundred feet high stood to their left and their right.
The incredible setting drove home the reality of Gemma’s blessings. They had replaced the lie of Gemma’s jinx. And those blessings started with three people she loved more than life, though she prayed she wouldn’t have to prove it again any time soon.
In one four-day span of time, God had orchestrated events that turned Gemma’s life in an entirely new direction. Then He had confirmed it was the way she should go. The end result, God had met Gemma Saint’s deepest needs, restoring much more than she thought she had lost by being forced into WITSEC.
“It’s all yours, Gemma.” Lex’s voice brought her back to the boat and the lake. “Don’t run us aground.”
“Which is worse, running a boat aground or getting it blown to smithereens like you did.”
Lex ignored her comment and started reading. “Marsh McDowell is free and back at the helm of U. S. News Network. The FBI dropped all charges.”
Gemma glanced at Lex who had his head buried in the paper. “That’s what the president said would happen.”
“And Marsh testified early this week about certain members of the DOJ conspiring with a handful of senators to influence a presidential election.”
“When that hit the mainstream media, I’ll bet there were repercussions,” Gemma said.
Lex nodded. “I know some papers that probably lost half their subscriptions. With the nation polarized nearly fifty-fifty between two opposing political ideologies, Marsh thinks the conspiracy might have worked and, get this, he credits you as being instrumental in stopping it. My wife saved our democratic republic. Who’d have thought—” He looked at her in a strange way she’d never seen before.
There was something that went beyond the gaga eyes Lex sometimes displayed when he looked at her. His eyes were honoring her.
Well, that’s what it felt like. And it was a look the Melissa’s of this world would probably never see from a man.
She smiled at Lex. “Their conspiracy failed and everyone they tried to kill is alive, while only one member of the FBI team survived, Walker, and he’s nearly blind.”
Lex blew out a sigh. “The DOJ took it on the chin again. They have to pay reparations for all losses to private parties impacted by the conspiracy. For Marsh, this includes his legal fees and his loss of business. For the Jacksons, it included their new boat.”
How were they going to clean up the DOJ, especially an organization like the FBI?
“Listen to this, Gemma. Some FBI agents have secretly asked the House Judiciary Committee to subpoena them, so they can testify about deep-state actors without fear of reprisal by their superiors.”
That was the answer to the problem. The FBI would have to clean up itself, inside out. “You know, if there aren’t enough good agents left, the FBI will be incurably sick.”
“But it wasn’t the rank and file that were the problem,” Lex said. “Well, not for the most part. It was the leadership.”
“What about that handful of senators you mentioned?”
“I was just getting to that. The Senate is considering using Article 1 Section 5 to expel two members who knew about the conspiracy and said nothing. Get this, expelling a senator, has happened only fifteen times in the country’s history.”
“Other than trying to fill openings in the DOJ, what’s President Gramm been up to?”
“That’s where I was headed. He’s running for a second term.”
“That’s great. We need him to bat cleanup for us.”
“Looks like that’s what he’s doing. He fired the Attorney General and nominated a replacement. A quick approval is expected. And he fired the Director of the FBI, so Gramm has two top Bureau positions to fill. He wants to take his time and not make any mistakes, so he appointed two FBI agents from the ranks to be interim director and deputy director.”
“It’s hard to remember what it was like two months ago when our nation was oblivious to the treachery in DC.”
“Well, the nation is aware, now. One article says there is speculation that several indictments have already been drafted against at least five conspirators and, after the FBI agents testify, the number is expected to double or triple.”
“Lex, we’re coming to the end of the Crooked River branch of the lake. Do I go west, or around this point and head south?”
“Swing around the point and go south. Our cove is only about five minutes from here.”
She turned the wheel slowly to her left and headed into the Deschutes River branch of the lake.
She steered away from the high cliff on her left and moved into the middle of the channel. “It sounds like the government is well on the way to having the wheels of justice trued up. Maybe this unpleasant episode in our nation’s history is almost over.”
* * *
Lex looked at Gemma standing at the wheel, wind whipping her dark curls against her perfectly sculpted face, and against her neck and her bare shoulders. His wife, and the mother of his boys, was a ferocious mama bear who would sacrifice her life for those she loved, a woman who loved deeply, with the kind of commitment Lex had sought and not found until that day, two months ago, when she knocked on his door.
“Lex, I said I think this unpleasant episode is almost over.”
“I heard you. But, Gemma, there’s a pleasant episode in our history that’s only beginning. And off to your right, about two o’clock … there’s our cove.”
“That didn’t take long.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want it to take long. That early was good.”
“I did say that. But … is everything working out the way you want it, Lex?”
“Gemma, it’s a little late for having second thoughts. What are you asking?”
“Everything happened so fast.”
“Yeah. Just the way the boys wanted it.”
“That’s what I mean. Lex … do you think … I mean it’s not possible the twins could have … manipulated us a bit … is it?”
“They latched right onto you as soon as they realized I wasn’t letting some dangerous lady into our house. But manipulated? I’m afraid you’re going to have to get used to that feeling. The boys are experts at getting what they want through devious means.”
“But they didn’t set us up, did they?”
“Would it really matter?”
“No. I love you, Lex. That’s what matters.”
Gemma glanced his way with a strange, almost frightened look in her wide eyes. “Sweetheart, would you take the wheel and park us in the cove. There’s something I have to do.”
“Are you okay, Gemma?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute.” She walked down the deck toward the aft of the boat.
“Where are you going?”
“I just had this feeling that … it’s probably not possible, but I wouldn’t put it past them.”
“Wouldn’t put what past whom?”
“I’m just making sure those two boys aren’t hiding in their bedroom in back.”
“How would they have gotten to the marina? Besides, KC wouldn’t have let them go.�
��
“That’s the thing, Lex. If they were determined, KC might not have been able to stop them.”
The End
Author’s Notes
Alright, alright! Caleb and Joshua were not hiding on the houseboat. They stayed with KC. They did have a plan to get to the houseboat, and it might have worked, but they knew their new parents wanted some time alone.
However, when Lex and Gemma pick up the boys, they’re going to demand a lot of Gemma’s time—a sharp contrast to her time alone with Lex, but also the kind of time that brings deep satisfaction to a mother’s heart.
Back to Lake Billy Chinook, that blue-green body of water with three fingers radiating out from the Round Butte Dam—my first introduction to the lake came from an afternoon boat tour given to my wife and me by my brother-in-law’s sister, Linda, and her husband, Jerry Fladoos. We explored the entire shoreline by motorboat, zipping at high speed between points of interest.
The tour began in the mouth of Crooked River Canyon, which is lined with four- to eight-hundred-foot-high cliffs. The cliff on the west side also borders the east side of the Deschutes River branch of the lake.
Bridges that cross the lake near the mouths of these two rivers provide access to the west shore of the lake for those coming from the Madras area or travelers driving Highway 97, which is the main north-south highway through Eastern Oregon. The winding road that crosses the two bridges is lined with some serious cliffs that can send a flatlander’s heart into a driving percussion solo. My wife, Babe, though she grew up in mountainous Southern Oregon, says about that road, “Never again.”
However, the bridges give access to a remote area where many people own cabins, cabins with no power or running water. The land here is semi-arid, but close enough to the Cascades that there are many stands of pine trees.
Unfortunately, this high plateau provides a great spot for cloud-to-ground lightning when the monsoon air sneaks in the back door from the Southwestern U.S. Each year wildfires, mostly set by lightning, destroy several vacation homes.
