The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “You lost him?” Ellen’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, you lost him?”

  “He just took off, kept on running. We’ve been looking for him for two hours. Found him passed out up in the woods.”

  “Oh shit.” Ellen bent over the couch and pulled the blanket more on Dean.

  “He’ll be sick when he wakes up.”

  “I bet.”

  “Hey, El?” Frank softened his voice. “Are the babies sleeping?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s.” Frank winked and twitched his head to the stairs.

  “What?”

  Frank winked and twitched his head again.

  “What, you suddenly have Tourette Syndrome? What is this?” Ellen mocked his movements.

  Frank raised his eyebrows a couple times. “You know.” He leaned down to her to kiss her.

  “Yeah, right Frank.” Ellen stepped back. “Go home. You have field work today.”

  “You’re right. Night.” Frank leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Morning.”

  Frank walked to the door. “Oh, El ... when he wakes up, tell him he owes us that last dare.”

  “Which is?” Ellen asked.

  Frank snickered. “He has to help Jenny out with losing her virginity.”

  <><><><>

  “Can you be anymore pathetic?” William asked Dean, standing beside his son in the lab.

  “Probably,” Dean’s voice echoed.

  “This is embarrassing.”

  “Dad.” Dean turned on the water of the sink he hung over. He splashed his face. “I’m trying to throw up here.”

  “I see that.” William handed him a towel “You know, we were all drinking last night, Dean.”

  “I know.” Dean stood up.

  “And not one of us is non-functioning today.”

  “I know.” Dean dried his face. “God, I feel like shit. I swear I’ll never, never drink that much again.”

  “You didn’t have to.” William bitched at him.

  “Yeah, Dad. I did. Robbie Slagel was on my right. It was either drink or be humiliated.”

  “I have news for you, bright boy.” William gave a pat to Dean’s back. “Running around in your underwear and showing up passed out in the woods is pretty much as close to humiliation as you can get.”

  “Thanks.” Dean swayed his way over to the counter. “Can you believe the things Robbie dared me to do?”

  “And do you remember the last thing they dared you to do?”

  “Vaguely.” Dean rubbed his eyes. “Something about Jenny?” He questioned his father.

  “Yep. They dared you to run over to her house and take away her virginity.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “And guess what?” William smiled.

  “What?”

  “You did.”

  “No.” Dean was horrifically shocked. “No. Tell me I didn’t.”

  “How do you think you ended up in your underwear?” William flashed a grin. “Well, I’ll leave you to your work. I have to hit the fields and do some manual labor with ...” William snickered. “Miguel.” Leaving Dean in a state of suspended disbelief, William, laughing not only at his bad ethnic joke, but at his son’s gullibility as well, walked from the lab having a better morning than he imagined he would have.

  <><><><>

  The field house was one of the structures all set up and ready to go along with three of the five greenhouses. The Farming or Agricultural Division, as Stan and Dirk liked to call it, was the only division in Beginnings totally up and running and it had to be for survival.

  “The way it will go,” Joe explained to the farming pair, “is I know you guys are used to the cock-a-doodle-do starting time shit, but other things need done as well. So the men should be here late morning all except for Robbie. He’s setting up outside perimeters beyond our walls.”

  Stan nodded. “So we’ll have the hands we need?”

  “Yes.”

  “Dirk and I will have to start concentrating on the livestock we got. Flourish them like the fields. We pretty much have Miguel all trained to take over there.”

  “Excellent, Miguel in the fields, you two with livestock and greenhouses. We had a late start last year and still did good. I’m hoping for better things.”

  Dirk who looked like the picture book farmer, chewed on a piece of hay as he spoke slowly and annoyingly. “Gonna need some strength. If es-saul-rye wit chew Joe, we’d lie ta abuse dat big son of yours. At least until we get ourselves another mechanical plow.”

  “Abuse them both, by all means.” Joe was very congenial. He looked at his watch. “O.K., well, I have to finish looking at what needs repaired on the storage building in town and I’ll be back.” Joe started to walk away.

  Stan and Dirk looked to each other as they watched Joe leave.

  “Hmm.” Dirk let out a long thinking sound. “Dint I tell you he wouldn’t care ‘bout his son being a plow pull.”

  “You were right.”

  “An look, he dint even ask for nothin in return.”

  “Hell of a guy that Joe is.”

  Dirk nodded slowly in agreement. “Hell va guy.”

  <><><><>

  It wasn’t like Ellen to take a shower in the middle of the day. She usually was a morning cleaning person but she tired of waiting for Dean to return and she needed one badly. Ellen crowned herself the queen of the three minute shower. Having the child experience and the knowledge that you just don’t stay out of view for too long, she had it down to a science.

  She stood under the water’s stream for a pause enjoying the silence that the beating water gave her. The babies had whined and screamed all day. She was grateful that they quieted down when she got into the shower. She even stole an extra minute, knowing that they were sleeping.

  Shutting off the water, Ellen stepped out, immediately opened the bathroom door, listened for crying, heard it was quiet, and shut the door again. She quickly placed on her jeans and sweatshirt, towel dried her hair, and left the bathroom.

  Would it be possible? Were the babies still asleep? Maybe they would be out long enough for her to take a nap was what Ellen hoped. Checking and knowing she would do it without a sound, Ellen crept into the second bedroom, inching her way to the crib that both small twins shared.

  When she reached it, the towel dropped from her hand and her heart sunk. She flew to the crib and lifted the blanket. The babies, both of them, were gone.

  “Oh my God.” She breathed heavily then stopped. “O.K. Dean is downstairs.” Ready to kill him for not knocking on the door to tell her he was home, Ellen walked down the steps. “Dean?”

  Silence.

  “Dean?” She looked frantically around. There was no Dean and no babies. There also wasn’t that bag of Pampers Frank had picked up on the run. Ellen took deep breaths. She knew no one could have possibly snuck into Beginnings and kidnapped her children. Maybe Dean took them out, but why did he grab the entire bag of diapers?

  Getting concerned yet not completely worried, Ellen hurriedly slipped on her shoes and bolted from the house. She had her mind list of where she would check first and in her darting run, she heard one of them. It wasn’t a cry. It was more like a single whimper that quickly stopped.

  ‘Where’ she wondered as she jolted her head, looking around. That sound definitely came from the living section. Moving down the row of house she heard another whimper and Ellen pegged it.

  Outrage not only filled her gut but her face as well as she stared at Maggie and Jenny’s home. Through the screen door she saw Jenny pacing around with one of the twins.

  Without knocking, Ellen barged right in. “What the hell are you doing, Jenny?”

  “You weren’t paying attention to them.” Jenny cradled Billy while she fed him.

  “What!” Shock was all through Ellen’s tone. “I was in the shower.”

  “A good mother wouldn’t leave her children unattended.”

  “This is bullshit.” Ellen s
natched the baby from Jenny’s arms. Billy cried.

  “See.” Jenny pointed. “They don’t even like you. You aren’t an attentive mother, Ellen.”

  Ellen ignored her and searched out Alexandra.

  “Not like you were with your other children,” Jenny continued.

  She found the other baby in the dining room in the basinet. Ellen grabbed Alexandra as well and held both twins in her arms. She marched toward the door.

  “If you can’t care for them, you don’t deserve them.”

  Ellen spun. “Jenny. These are my children! You had no right to take them from their home!”

  “I was concerned.”

  “I’m their mother!”

  “You could care less.” Jenny marched to her. “You never hold them or touch them. Dean does all the work.”

  “I swear to God, Jenny, if my arms weren’t full right now, I’d punch you.”

  “You’re just angry.” Jenny folded her arms. “Because I refused to let you abuse them any further.”

  “I’m angry because you took them without permission.”

  “Someone has to look out for their best interest.”

  Not wanting to argue anymore and seeing a brick wall with Jenny, Ellen pushed the screen door open with her body.

  Jenny flew out of the house after Ellen. “And don’t think I won’t do it again!”

  Ellen kept on moving. She marched with determination straight to center town and to the clinic. She knew Dean was still there and the lab was where she was certain she would find him. “Dean,” she called to him as she rounded the corner into the lab.

  “El” Dean turned around. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  “Jenny.” Ellen walked to him. “I was taking a shower and she took the babies.”

  “That was nice. You didn’t have to do that three minute thing, huh?” He leaned to kiss her and Ellen stepped back. “What’s wrong?”

  “No, Dean, you don’t understand. She took them. Took them! She snuck into our home and brought them to her house.”

  “Were they crying?”

  “What?” Ellen shook her head in disbelief. “Aren’t you hearing me? She took my babies. She was fuckin’ wrong, Dean, and she isn’t listening to me.”

  “O.K. She was wrong. I understand.”

  “Thank you.”

  “She probably just didn’t realize what she was doing was wrong.”

  “Dean!” Ellen screamed at him. “Don’t defend her.”

  “She’s a kid, El.”

  “And I am your wife. These are your children.”

  “What do you want me to do? Go over and yell at her?”

  “Yes!” Ellen nodded.

  “El, come on.”

  “Fine. Fuck you.” She marched to him and handed him both babies. “Take them.” She started to leave the lab.

  “Hey ... where are you going?”

  “To find someone to straighten her ass out. If someone doesn’t do it verbally, I’ll do it physically and this new community of Beginnings will be less one red headed, freckle face, nymphomaniac mommy wanna be.” She stormed out.

  “It had to be the snow, Joe.” George commented as they walked behind the back of a storage building. “It was pretty bad.”

  “Still.” Joe hunched down by the back of the building. “We can’t take a flood every time we get a heavy storm.” He stood up. “We’re going to have to seal this or maybe do a French drain around the edge.”

  “That might not be a bad idea,” George said.

  “Joe!” Ellen came flying behind the building.

  “What’s wrong?” Joe asked.

  “Jenny, Joe.” Ellen caught her breath. “She took my babies.”

  “What do you mean she took your babies?”

  “I was in the shower and she just came into the house and took them without my permission. She said that I was a terrible mother.”

  “You got them back right?”

  “Yes.” Ellen nodded.

  “Did you yell at her?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” Joe turned to speak to George again.

  “Joe!” Ellen yelled. “Something has to be done.”

  “What do you want me to do, Ellen? She took them. Yes, it was wrong. She’s eighteen years old and a little messed up at times. You got them back and yelled. What more can be done?”

  Ellen grunted. “Fine.” She stormed off. “Where’s Frank and Robbie.”

  “Robbie’s outside the walls. Frank may be at his office. But I don’t think ...” Giving a grumble and a fling of his hand when Ellen walked away, Joe returned to speaking to George.

  <><><><>

  Frank was sweaty and dirty. He groaned and rubbed his shoulder as he lowered into his chair in what would be his Security Office. “Man, am I sore.”

  Miguel sat in a chair across from him. “That was close to four hundred pounds you pulled today.”

  “That’s all?” Frank twitched his head. “I’m out of shape. All right. Where were we?”

  “Women.” Miguel stated.

  “Women, that’s right.”

  “I come to you Frank, because I think you know women.”

  “I do.” Frank rocked some in his chair. “So you’re pretty hung up on her.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you haven’t told her.”

  “Not to her face.” Miguel shook his head. “No.”

  “What do you mean, not to her face?”

  “I ... I leave her notes.” Miguel blushed. “Poems.”

  “Note and poems.” Frank laughed. “Oh you have to stop that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s a woman. She’ll expect that all the time.”

  “I could write her notes of love for the rest of my life.”

  “You say that now but what about when she starts looking bad and her bitching gets on your nerves Huh?” Frank raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t think about that, did you?”

  There was a knock on Frank’s door and Ellen just walked right in. “Frank, sorry to bother you.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I need you to take care of something for me.”

  “Sure. What is it?” Frank leaned into the desk.

  “I need you to go and speak to Jenny.”

  “About?” Frank asked.

  “She took my babies, Frank. She came into the house while I was in the shower and took my babies.”

  “For real?” Frank asked.

  “Yes,” Ellen said in relief. “Can you just go tell her how wrong that was? She doesn’t want to believe me.”

  “El, come on.” Frank shook his head. “She probably was just trying to help that’s all. I bet she said ...”

  “Fuck it.” Ellen moved to the door again.

  “El. Wait.”

  “No.” She spun to face him harshly. “Fuck all of you. You want to defend her? I’m sick of this shit.”

  “El, I was trying to talk to you,”.

  “No, Frank,” Ellen scolded. “You were being a dick.” Ellen slammed the door when she walked out.

  Frank stared for a moment, scratched his head, shrugged, and sat back down. “Now where were we? Oh yes. Women.”

  <><><><>

  Henry had all intentions of staying out of the way when he hooked the new power line up to add spotlights to what would end up being a building full of division offices. He knew he was tall, but he didn’t think his legs had protruded so much that Ellen couldn’t see him. He felt the painful sear as her foot got caught up on him.

  Loudly, Ellen grunted as she stumbled and caught herself before she fell to the ground. “Henry! Watch where you’re going!”

  “Sorry.” Henry stood up. “El.”

  “What!” She spun in her full speed walk.

  “Everything all right?”

  “No!” Ellen screamed. “No it is not all right! Not like anyone cares!” She turned again.

  Henry had two choices. He could take the chance of not only verbally get
ting pelted by Ellen but physically as well or he could secure the fact that he wouldn’t be known as an insensitive prick and find out what was wrong. Brave and daring, Henry followed Ellen. “El, wait.”

  “What.” Her voice lowered in volume and it shook.

  “Something happened. Can I help?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Try me.”

  “I’d rather not. I’m tired of being humiliated today.” Ellen kept on walking.

  “I won’t make you feel that way. I promise.” Henry kept up with her. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s ... it’s ...” Ellen huffed. “It’s about Jenny.”

  Henry blinked. “Oh, El, That’s a nasty, nasty rumor going around. Really, Dean did not help Jenny lose her virginity.”

  “Huh?”

  “That’s what your mad about isn’t it?”

  “No.” Ellen shook her head. “I’m mad about Jenny. When I was in the shower, she came to my house, walked in, and took my babies.”

  “Took them? Just snatched them right up?”

  “Yes.”

  “She didn’t ask?”

  “No, she said I was ignoring them.”

  “Oh that is wrong El. That is so wrong. She shouldn’t have done that.”

  “I know,” Ellen spoke in relief. “I don’t know why I’m bothering you. No one else wants to hear. No one will go over and explain to her why it’s so wrong. They think she didn’t know. She knew Henry, and it isn’t sinking into her skull that she did something really wrong. Everyone’s attitude is, ‘oh well.’” Ellen tossed her hands up and started walking again. “And they’ll let it go when she does it again.”

  “She won’t do it again El.” Henry followed her some more.

  “Oh sure she will Henry. She threatened to.”

  “No, she won’t. Let’s go.” Henry grabbed Ellen’s hand and instead of him following her, he began to lead the way.

  Like the rush-feel of a hero riding onto the screen of a movie, that was how Ellen felt when Henry grabbed her hand and walked with her to Jenny’s house.

  Henry had a serious look about him Ellen had never seen. He knocked and waited for Jenny to call out. Henry opened the screen door and let Ellen go in first. He followed. “Jenny.”