Settling In
Alp and her sisters followed Damba along a path lined with scrub pines that wound through the sand dunes to their new home and away from the village. No one said a word but walked along with astonished looks on their faces, much as they had done in Bermuda. Everywhere they went a new experience awaited them, Alp realized. It was new for her as well, but at least she’d had some time out in the world back in West Virginia. She watched as one of her sisters would reach out to the person next to her and yank her sleeve, and then point to a tree or piece of shrubbery. It seemed like every new object was worthy of scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Alp was more impressed with Damba who seemed to be going out of his way to make their stay on his island as comfortable as possible despite the chief’s proclamation that they were to stay isolated from the village. She’d caught him more than once staring at her with a funny smile on his face. He’d even enrolled three of his friends to help clean and repair the Shunning House in preparation for their arrival.
Even so, the place looked like a strong breeze would blow it over like a house of cards. Like the huts of the village, the Shunning House walls were built with a skeleton of tree branches and driftwood coated with a mixture of mud and straw. The roof consisted of old faded grass with a mixture of fresh cuttings that Damba’s crew had used to make repairs to it. Someone had recently swept the hard packed earth floor to make it as clean as was possible for a dirt floor.
“Home sweet home,” Tina said as she pirouetted around the room.
“Oh, please. Your positive attitude makes me want to puke,” Tabitha said.
“Well, do it outside,” Mia replied as she gazed around at their new surroundings. “Compared to that storage room we’ve been locked up in for the last two days, this looks like a suite at the Ritz Carlton.”
“We’ll make it home,” Heather agreed. “Maybe we can find some fabric to make curtains for the windows. That would give us a bit more privacy.”
“You might order us up some glass for the windows while you’re at it,” Kirstin said as she stuck one hand through the opening to demonstrate.
“Oh, well. Fresh air will be good for us,” Tina said. “At least until winter arrives.”
“Where are the beds?” Connie asked looking around.
“Wherever you want them to be,” Alp answered as she entered the room behind them. “This is it; one large room. I’m sure it was plenty of room for one crazy promiscuous black woman. Not sure how all eight of us are going to fit in, but we’ll manage. I did notice some boards out back. Looks like they’ll fit over the windows, so we can use them at night or when it rains.”
She glanced at her sisters who were walking around their new home. For over four days, they had worn the same uniforms of white blouses and black pants. They all looked dirty and dingy. Somehow they’d have to figure out a way to clean their clothes. But what would they wear while their clothes were being washed?
She needn’t have worried. That evening as the sun set in the west, Damba and his three friends arrived with crates of food, mostly cans, dry goods, and three large bags.
“What’s in these?” Alp asked, poking at one of the bags.
Damba picked up the bag and dumped the contents out onto one of the crates.
“I brought some clothes for all of you. We get them from the mainland. Zunga, the man I spoke to you about that has the supply ship, brings them to us from a place there. I think it’s called the Salvation Army. Doesn’t seem like much of an army to me and the clothes aren’t anything fancy, but they’re clean, most of them don’t have holes, and they’ll be comfortable. Luckily, it doesn’t get very cold at night and right now it’s quite pleasant during the day. Hopefully, you can find some that will fit.”
“Well, girls, after we put the food away and throw something together for supper, we can have a fashion show. What do you say?” Alp said as she picked up a brightly colored shirt and held it to her chest and pirouetted around.
Everyone cheered. Well, almost everyone. Tabitha’s and Kristin’s reactions were much more subdued, but even they appeared to like the idea of getting out of their filthy clothes and into cleaner ones. Their new home was beginning to look not quite so hopeless.
Glancing over to the crates of food, Alp realized the sacrifice the people of Damba’s tribe had made to allow them to stay on the island even for a short time. She vowed to do everything in her power to make it up to them.
Before going to bed, she assigned herself and Tina to prepare the morning meal. While the meals wouldn’t be fancy at least it was good to know they wouldn’t starve on the island; not with Damba on their side.
It had been a whirlwind forty-eight hours as Chunk officially tied up the loose ends of an investigation that had dragged on for over two years, but it was finally over. Now he could put behind him Bio Vita Tech and all the headaches that the overzealous researchers there had caused him. At least that was his hope and intention. He tried to ignore the nagging feeling that kept slithering up from the back of his mind like a poisonous snake; the fear that things weren’t resolved, especially not the situation with the missing boy. But there was his family to consider. Although he had made numerous trips home over the last two years, the time had always been too short. Often, his mind had still been back at BVT, not to mention all the phone calls and emails that had distracted him while at home.
But now he was back with his family for good…well, at least until the next assignment. When he had filed for a few days of well deserved and needed R&R, he’d also requested that his next assignment be close enough so he could commute to it from home. His boss could be a S.O.B. at times but he was pretty sure he'd honor the request. After all, the bastard had a family of his own and understood the additional strain it could put on a career.
As Chunk entered his house, he sighed deeply and glanced at this watch. Still a couple hours before the kids would need to be picked up at school. Lucinda had taken a couple of days off from her office job so they’d have at least a little time to themselves to catch up. Maybe they'd do a little catching up in another much-neglected area of their relationship.
“Hey dear, I’m home,” he called as he walked down the hall lined with family photos to the kitchen. Something was smelling yummy. Maybe it was some of Lucinda’s homemade chili. He could really get into a bowl or two of that. Throw some diced onions and sprinkle a good coating of that smelly rat cheese on it. His mouth started to water at the thought of a good home cooked meal. Might even break out one of those German beers he’d been keeping for…As he entered the kitchen and saw his wife sitting at the table, tears streaming down her face, all thoughts of eating disappeared.
“What’s wrong, hon? Are you okay?”
Lucinda wiped her cheek with the sleeve of her blouse. She was still a handsome woman. At forty-five, she could easily pass for late thirties. She had made it a point to stay in shape after the babies had arrived, and she could still fill out a pair of jeans like nobodies’ business. She had her black hair tied back with a patterned scarf. Her makeup had begun to run, but her ruby lips, pursed in a pout at the moment, still looked inviting. But thoughts of sex had flown out with his appetite when Chunk saw the tears. There was something about a woman crying that made his blood run cold and his defense mechanisms go into overdrive.
He sat down beside her and patted her hand, noticing it trembled slightly. “Tell me, what is it? Are the children okay? Is it your mother?”
Lucinda shook her head and sniffled. “No, the kids are fine, and you know my mom’s too mean to have anything wrong with her.”
Chunk smiled at her attempt at humor. Her comment about his mother-in-law was just too close to the truth for him to laugh.
“Then what is it? Tell me.”
“I saw him again,” Lucinda said, wiping her other cheek. “At the grocery store about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Him, who?”
“The boy that was at the kids’ school the other day. You know, I t
old you about him. He has a burn mark on one side of his face.”
Chunk felt a shiver begin to start at his torso and run up his back but decided it was better to not make a big deal of it. He had no way of knowing if the stranger’s appearance had any connection to him or the Bio Vita case.
“Well, we all have to eat,” he replied, continuing to pat his wife’s hand. “Maybe he was just shopping for groceries.”
“That’s the thing,” Lucinda snapped. “He didn’t have a basket or cart. He just stood there staring at me…at me and only me, and he had this, I don’t know, sadistic smile on his face. It was creepy. I had run down to get a few more items for the chili. But when I ran into him, it freaked me out so bad, I left my cart sitting in the middle of the aisle, ran to the car, locked myself in, and drove home. But on the way out of the parking lot I saw him again standing on the sidewalk. He waved at me. Chunk, I think he’s stalking me!”
Chunk’s blood boiled at the thought that some young punk would have the nerve to bother a member of his family. Who was he kidding? This wasn’t some random kid from the neighborhood or even someone from one of his other cases. Hell, he’d only been involved in one case for the past two years. And one of the people involved with that case had a thing about fire. Chunk had thought the boy had even been a victim of a fire of his own making. No, there was no doubt in Chunk’s mind who was frightening his wife. It could only be Mel.
It took several minutes for Lucinda to calm down and stop crying. When she did, she glanced at the kitchen clock. “Oh my, I need to get cleaned up. I have an appointment to take Misha to the doctors.”
“Is she still having headaches?” Chunk asked, relieved to see his wife had calmed down.
“Yes,” Lucinda replied as she pulled a tissue from her pocket to blow her nose. “And her eye exam was normal, so the optometrist recommended we take her to a doctor.”
Lucinda rose from the table to get ready for her appointment.
“Maybe I’m just imagining all this, but…” She left the thought hanging.
“It’s probably nothing,” Chunk offered. The last thing he needed right now was more worries at home. He was home to rest and take it easy for a while.
But after Lucinda left, Chunk continued to sit at the table mulling over what had just happened. Maybe it was nothing, he tried to convince himself, but that nagging thought about the missing boy kept slithering back to the forefront. Maybe it wasn’t Mel, but whoever it was bugging his wife; it had to stop. Somehow, he’d have to intervene and stop the young kid from harassing his family, but as he sat there another thought crept in.
His years of investigative training took over. The BVT case wasn’t closed. Oh, the paperwork was in, but that didn’t make it closed to Chunk, despite how hard he tried to close the case in his mind. As long as even one of the Kindred might still be alive the case was still open. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he’d never been completely convinced the other members of the Kindred had died out there in the Atlantic either. And if they hadn’t died, then there was one person that could lead him to them. And that person was right here in his neighborhood.
Seeds
In the morning as the sun slipped into the eastern sky, Alp and Tina arose to prepare breakfast while the rest of the Kindred continued to sleep. Everyone was exhausted from the stress of the last few days which was why she’d assigned herself and Tina to the first breakfast duty. She knew Tina wouldn’t complain and would find some positive spin on the day.
As the two of them rummaged through their supplies looking for something that might resemble breakfast fare, Tina came across a box containing small cloth packets, each one tied with a string.
“What are these?” Tina asked holding up one of the packets. “Spices?”
“I doubt it,” Alp said and she walked over and picked one of the packets out of the box. She opened one. “They’re seeds. I guess we’re supposed to use them to grow our own food.”
“Really?” Tina said. “Cool. I’d put Connie in charge of that.”
“Why Connie?” Alp asked as she retied the packet and placed it back in the box. She counted ten different packs which should be plenty to start a good size garden.
“Oh, back at Bio Vita she’d been given a small, sickly African violet by one of the nurses. Within a short time, she had it blooming. I think she must have a green thumb or something.”
Or something, Alp thought. Did her sisters have such simple things as ‘green thumbs’ or was this Connie’s power coming into its own? In either case Tina’s suggestion made sense, so after breakfast, a bland meal of bread, water and boiled rice, Alp gave the box of seeds to Connie.
Connie was the smallest of the sisters, standing a couple inches shorter than the average and three or four inches shorter than Tabitha. She had a sweet, pixie-like face with full lips and a small mouth that was a perfect fit for her other small features except her eyes that were large and brilliantly blue. She wore her hair medium in length under a straw hat that looked like she had borrowed from a scarecrow but that she had found in one of the bags of clothes. To Alp, it made Connie’s look that much cuter.
The young girl stared at the box of seeds, then looked back to Alp. “You know, wearing this hat doesn’t mean I know the first thing about gardening.”
“I know,” Alp replied, “But your reputation for a green thumb is legendary among the sisters. I heard about your African violet.”
Connie nodded. “And you think because I was able to keep that one plant from dying that I’m some master gardener?”
“Yes, at least better than any of the other sisters. We’ll all pitch in with the work, but I’m putting you in charge.”
“Okay, I’ll give it a shot.” Connie turned to leave then turned back to Alp.
“You know what I did with that violet had nothing to do with my thumb, right? I did essentially the same thing that I did when I learned to levitate.”
“And what was that?”
“It’s a little hard to explain but it’s mostly a matter of transferring energy from one place to another. In the case of the plant, I simply assisted the process of the energy transfer from the sun rays to the plant. When I levitated…” Connie paused, struggling to describe what she’d done. “I sorta reversed the gravitation that was pulling me to the earth to a push me away instead.”
“Can you do that with any form of energy?” Alp asked.
Connie shrugged. “I don’t know; not yet. Those were the two main ways I’ve tried it.”
“You know you may be the most powerful of all of us,” Alp said.
Connie beamed. “Well, I don’t know about that. I’m not very good at either one yet, but this gardening project will give me a good opportunity to practice. Besides, it would be nice to have something to eat besides just canned goods and rice.”
As Lionel navigated Flip’s wheelchair through the front door of Yu-Lung’s Chinese Pagoda, Mrs. Yu threw her hands up with a delighted scream and rushed from behind the counter to help them in the door. Not a bad welcome for Flip’s first outing away from Bio Vita Tech since awakening from his coma, Lionel thought.
“Mr. Flip, it’s been so long since our humble restaurant has been graced by your presence. Please come in, come in.” Flip smiled and started to rise from his chair.
“No, no. You sit. I come to you,” Mrs. Yu said as she bent down and gave Flip a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then rising, she glanced at Lionel. “Hello Dr. Adam. It is good to see you as well, of course. Please come in. I will bring you tea and menus. Perhaps a table would be preferred over your customary booth?”
Lionel nodded and followed Mrs. Yu to a corner table where she promptly removed one of the chairs so Lionel could wheel Flip’s chair in its place.
“How’s it feel to be back in the world after all this time?” Lionel asked as they finally got situated with tea and menus in front of them.
“Strange,” Flip replied as he opened the menu. “But a good strange
. Almost like I was visiting another planet. It’s hard to describe. You know last time I was here I was single and with no real ties to anything. Now…well, it’s all different.”
“Well, technically you’re still single,” Lionel replied. “That is unless Denise and you have snuck off and tied the knot without me knowing it.”
“No, we’ve not done that, though the subject has come up. We’re just not ready yet.”
Lionel looked up from his menu at the comment, a puzzled look on his face.
“Oh, I don’t mean that we don’t love each other. We do, madly. But, well, until we know something about, well, you know…”
“About the children?” Lionel finished for him.
“Yes, exactly,” Flip said. “I mean, ideally we’d like them to be able to attend our wedding, but if that’s not possible, we at least need to know…” He left the sentence hanging again.
“I understand, Flip, I really do. Bridgette and I feel much the same way. Here comes Mrs. Yu. Do you want our regular?”
Flip gazed down at the menu again. “No, today I’m going to try something new…something I’ve never had before. After all, we don’t know how much time we have on earth do we? Let’s explore everything we can.”
Lionel laughed. “My, my, our Mr. MacDougal has turned into a philosopher.”
“And what’s wrong with a little philosophy from time to time? If you’ll recall, I aced Philosophy 101.”
“Yeah, but that’s because you were sleeping with the professor if my memory serves me.”
“That’s true,” Flip replied. He looked up and smiled at Mrs. Yu. “What would you recommend? I want to try something new and exotic.”
“My husband would be most pleased to prepare you a very special meal. Would you prefer beef, chicken or seafood?”
“Seafood sounds good. Lionel, will you join me on this culinary adventure.”
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