Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

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  “Lady Hawthorne,” Smythe, the house AI, materialized in front of her interrupting her musings about the evacuation and how it would affect her and her family as well as their estate’s retainers. The AI presented himself as a small balding, almost nondescript man who was smartly dressed, “Lord Kevin’s city office is on the com. They wonder if he is coming in today?”

  “He stayed in the city with Gladys last night.” Deloreswas Hawthorne sitting was sipping her late morning coffee. “Have they talked with Gladys?”

  “No. She’s can’t be gotten a hold of either!” Kevin’s office manager’s face was projected alongside Smythe’s image. “We’re concerned because I went to pay for a delivery out the petty cash fund and there nothing in it! We wanted to see if they knew anything about it. Now we can’t seem to get a hold of him or her.”

  She tried to remember when the last time she talked to her husband and their girlfriend. It was sometime late yesterday morning. “Let me try his private number.”

  She called Kevin’s privatein comnumber and got the expert system that handled wrong numbers and such. “The subscriber you are trying to contact is no longer in our service area.”

  She let the expert system repeat the message and hung up. She turned to back to the others and asked, “Was Kevin supposed to go off world today?”

  “No,” the office manager, “no he was going to take his seat in the lords today; but he never showed up there either!”

  She knew he wasn’t in the Lords. If he had been had been anywhere in the Trena Star System she would have at least got his voice mail. She wondered where he was.

  Lady Hawthorne thought about checking with her husband’s horse racing buddies, there had been some meets scheduled before the announcement, but none of them had been scheduled during the week of the announcement. There had been talk of canceling the meets that were scheduled later that summer but no decision had been made. She disconnected with Kevin’s office. Smythe faded out leaving the not quite thirty year old noble woman alone with her thoughts.

  the day room with her children, mussing over the disappearance of her husband. There wasn’t much she could do. The baby cried, breaking into her thoughts. As she picked him up out of the crib she kept in her day room and changed his diaper she wondered what had become of his father. She placed Billy back into crib and went to the kitchen to see about her other four children’s lunch. As she entered the kitchens, to see to her children’s lunch, (SShe had no nannies or nurses. She thought that it was much better for her five children if she was their primary care giver,) just she heard the cook savagely disconnect with someone he was talking to on the com.

  “That lousy no good impotent daughter of a dyslectic toaster!” the cooked yelled.

  “Cook what’s got you so upset?” Lady Hawthorne asked, chuckling, she had never met anyone who could curse without saying a foul word like cook could.

  “Oh,” the cook, an older pot belly, man with a beard that was nearly grey with a peppering of black through it, turned sheepishly to his lady and replied, “Oh the expert system at Ya’s wouldn’t take my order. Seems that the account was closed last night by his lordship, and they wouldn’t let me place my order because of it.”

  “Will they take cash?” Lady Hawthorne asked.

  “They said they would,” Cook replied.

  “Okay,” the noble woman left the kitchen and went to the office that she and Kevin used to manage their large estate from. She opened the safe where they kept several thousand crowns of paper currency. The safe was empty. Well not quite. Her husband left her a note.

  “Delores,” the note began, “Sorry to leave you. But I could only get me and Gladys off Trena. The pilot wouldn’t take any children. Hope you make it out.”

  She sat there and reread the note several times, hoping that she had read it wrong. When she realized she had not read it wrong and her husband of ten years had left her and the kids as well as his business she broke down and cried. She didn’t know long she cried before Cook came to see where she was. She showed him the note. When he saw the note he let loose with a string of profanity that Delores Hawthorn had never heard. It was in both Terrish, and Thonian.

  “Okay,” Lady Hawthorne spoke softly when her cook had cooled out, “How much of your order is absolutely needed and how much of it was just comfort food?”

  “Some comfort food but not much,” cook replied, “Most of it is things we don’t produce, flour, shortening, beverages.”

  “Okay, make some calls; see if we can barter a bit.” She said.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem,” The older man replied, “A couple of the guys have been putting out feelers for various things. Is there anything you don’t want to barter away?”

  “No,” Delores said then with some venom in her voice, “See if someone will take Kevin’s race horses If not we’ll slaughter them and feed them to the dogs!”

  “Yes Ma’am,” the retainer replied leaving Lady Hawthorne alone in the estates office with her thoughts.

  She went back to her day room and mused over what her husband and their lover had done to her and the family. found out that her husband of ten years had abandoned the family. She was furious with him. She was disappointed in her good friend. She had talked with Kevin about asking Gladys to join them in their marriage. She was contemplating all of this when her cooksteward came in.

  “Myi Lady,” the chief stewardcook entered the lady’s day room. The room was more a family room, than a day room. Often the family would lounge in this room in only their pajamas and nightclothes. “Lord Kevin’s horses are gone. Well almost. Lord Hanover will give us 500 crowns for each of them. I kept the other horses; but got rid of the fifteen race horses.The grocer is on the line. He says he has problem with the account.”

  “Good!”What sort of problem?” Lady Hawthorne replied. Delores nodded. There had been a bitter rivalry between the two lords’ stables. asked wincing in pain as her youngest suckle a little harder as she breast fed him.“You did good! I would have thought we couldn’t get much more than 200 crowns a head. I know, but Hanover has lusted over Kevin’s race horses for years!”

  “He’ll be over in a while.” Cook said, “I’ll get Melisa to get the horses ready to go.”

  Melisa was Kevin’s trainer. “No, I’ll tell her. That’s the least I can do.”

  She put the baby to bed for his nap and went down to the stables. As she walked to the stables she realized the enormity of the issues before her. They didn’t have that many retainers. There were maybe a total of thirty retainers, the bulk of them working the livestock areas and the fields. It didn’t take many people to work her large estate as a lot of the farming operation was automated. She had five or so people working in her home, maybe ten or so working in the horse barns, and the rest splitting their time between the fields and barns. Some of them were members of the same family others had their wives, children, and spouses with them on the estate. All of them would need to be evacuated. She wondered how she was going to help them get to safety. She wouldn’t abandon them like her husband had. She couldn’t do that even if it was legal! Her morals wouldn’t let her even consider telling her retainers that they were on their own. When she got to the stables she found Melisa checking the horses.

  “Melisa a moment of your time,” Lady Hawthorne approached the trainer.

  “One second Milady,” the husky middle aged woman replied. She turned to a young man in his late teens that the noble woman recognized as one of Melisa’s sons, “Jaal when you put Storm Shadow in the paddock make sure you have up dated his papers. I don’t want Hanover to have any complaints about these animals when his trainer picks these animals up.”

  “You know about the deal we struck,” Delores asked.

  “Cook asked me to make it happen,” the trainer replied, “I was just about to come to you and suggest the very same thing. I am sorry Lady Hawthorne,” the trainer looked to her noble woman, “I just wish Lord Hawth
orne was here. He should have his butt kicked up around his ears. I knew something was up when I couldn’t get the supplements for the mares we have in fold. I should have come to you when I found the estate’s stable funds were gone.”

  “We’re finding out my dear husband has cleared out a lot of our accounts,” Lady Hawthorne dryly commented. “What are you going to do with the rest of the livestock?”

  “Haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Melissa answered. “Why?”

  “As we get closer to leaving we won’t have enough people to care for them,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “I am wondering what we should do for them.”

  “I won’t kill them,” Melissa remarked passionately.

  “I agree with that,” Lady Hawthorne nodded her agreement. “Besides the crown may need to harvest all the livestock to feed us until we evacuate.”

  “Most likely,” Melissa replied.

  “I’ll get with Jaal and see what we can work

  out,” Lady Hawthorne said.

  “Oh you have to sign the bill of sale for them,” the trainer suddenly reported.

  “Are they ready now?” The noble woman asked.

  “Give me an hour,” the trainer replied, “I’ll bring them up to the main house.”

  “Good enough,” The lady replied and left the stables.

  As she walked up to the main house her com rang. As she answered it the face of Carl Smothers, Lady Smothers’ husband, face floated over communicator. “What’s up Carl?”

  “Have you heard from Levitra today?” The lady’s spouse asked.

  “No,” Delores answered, “Should I?”

  “I haven’t seen or heard from Levitra in a couple of days,” Lincoln asked, “I was hoping that you had seen her. So far no one has. I think she’s left me!”

  The Smothers were not close friends, but were in the circle of people she and Kevin ran with. She had heard they were having some problems. The last she heard it had been getting better. She tried to remember how the Smothers supported themselves. Then she remembered Levitra was some sort of venture capitalist. He was a stay at home husband. They had no children that she could remember.

  “Are you okay,” Delores asked.

  “Oh yeah.” The older man replied, “Just mad as hell at her!”

  “Do you need anything?” the noble woman asked. If he needed anything she might not be able to help.

  “No,” the nobleman responded, “If I didn’t have my own accounts I would have been cleaned out. I’ll be okay. Sorry to bother you with my problems.”

  “If you need to talk, let me know,” Delores said.

  “Will do.” The nobleman said good bye and disconnected.

  Delores went up to the manor house and checked up on her kids. Her oldest was not out of school yet, nor his sister, her other two kids were playing in the day room. One of the maids was keeping an eye on them as she tidied the day room. The children looked up briefly as she entered the room. She looked around at the knick knacks and family mementos scattered on the shelves. She wondered how much of it she would be able to take with her. She plopped into her chair to ponder things. As she sat there the two children climbed up into her lap.

  As she held children in her lap she continued to reflect on what had happened. As she thought about her situation, she wondered what would become of her and her kids.

  “Lord Hawthorne cleaned out the household and Estate accounts and there is no money in them. The grocer won’t accept credit right now. The store’s AI wont let me talk to a live person and is quite instant on cash only transactions.”

  “I see,” Lady Hawthorne replied. She was greatly upset about her husband’s abandonment of her and her kids. She had known for a while that her husband and Gladys, his secretary, shared his bed in the city. Gladys, who was one good looking lady, had stood in for her when she was pregnant at some functions when she couldn’t. She and Gladys were good friends and had often shared Kevin’s bed with him. Now she was sorry she had discussed with Kevin the idea of inviting Gladys to be their wife and had come to a decision to do so. Her kids already called her Momma Gladys.

  Trena domestic laws were designed to ensure the raising of children in safe environments. It had long been found that families of multiple partners and spouses were often the best to raise children in, as there was usually an adult present when children needed one. It wasn’t uncommon for some families to have six or seven adults living together with teno raise ten or fifteen children as part of the family. The crown didn’t care how a family was formed, as long as the children were safe, and if the union fell apart for one reason or another (which they seldom did) the crown insured that the spouses all were fairly and equitably treated and the children were cared for. Trena had one of the lowest divorce rates in the universe, mostly due to their less restrictive views on marriage. She was furious with her friend and lover. It was one thing to take her man it was another to take him and not leave anything behind to support his children. She had expected to leave the planet of her birth with her spouses and theirher five kids later in the year. She didn’t expect to be abandoned by both her best friend, and the father of her children.

  Though her husband had cleaned out many of the estate accounts, She looked to the Steward, a life long employee knowing he needed guidance and said, “How much of that food was comfort stuff, and not needed.”

  Lady Hawthorne wasn’t all that concerned about making ends meet.

  “Some but not much,” The steward said, “Most of it was things we don’t produce, flour, shortening, beverages.”

  “Okay, make some calls; see if we can barter a bit.” She said, “See if some one will take Kevin’s Race horse in trade for a couple months of supplies. If not we’ll slaughter it feed the dogs!”

  “Yes Ma’am,” he said.

  Lady Hawthorne wasn’t worried about utilities theHer family’s estate like many homes on Trena was fairly self-sufficient they had little need to buy things from grocers. Mostly they purchased things that the estate didn’t produce itself. Mostly things like flour, machinery parts, medicine, and clothing. had their own utility plant that provided power to the entire three thousand acre estate. No the only thing she was worried about was feeding her family and the people who depended on her. It then occurred to her that she had been hearing rumors for days that some of the other great lords and ladies spouses had closed their tent in the middle of the night and left. It dawned on her there may be others in her same boat. With the baby now sound asleep in her arms she put him in the crib near the rocking chair and turned to the phone. She called the Palace and asked to speak with Marshal Wilson. She knew that she could support her family and the people who depended on her with what she had left. She was still concerned about her people. What the crown was planning and how it would affect her people. Surprisingly she wasn’t that upset about losing the estate. It was her husband’s, not hers. He had inherited from his father when he had died. Kevin was an only child and the soul inheritor of his father. Delores had married her husband shortly after they had both finished college. She had been an agribusiness major, he had been business major. So when they had married she had become part owner of the estate. Although she had warm memories of her time on the estate, she could walk away from it with little to no hard feelings when she did. If she had any concerns it was the thought of leaving all the livestock behind to be massacred by the falling asteroids.

  She was having quiet lunch several days later, when the communicator chimed for attention. She answered the device and found Lady Redford calling.

  “Deloris,” the old noble woman called seeing her, “Did you hear about. Logan Kerth?”

  "No,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “Isn’t he in real estate?”

  “He was,” Redford replied, “he hasn’t been heard from for several days. Katrina thinks he’s left the planet, leaving her behind!”

  “Why is that?” Delores asked.

  “He’s cleaned out their joint accounts.
Katrina says she completely broke! I’ve loaned her some money; but we can’t do that forever. What happens if me and Fred are evacuated before she is?”

  Though Deloris didn’t know the Kerth’s that well, (she thought their kids went to the same school as her oldest,) she didn’t hesitate as she said, “Tell her that if she wants, she can stay with me, we have plenty of room, and plenty of food.”

  “I will,” Lady Redford concluded the call.

  Lady Redford’s call wasn’t the first one she had taken telling her that so and so had left their wife or husband behind, their spouse sometimes leaving the family behind. She made a decision and called the palace.