“Absolutely,” Tana replied cheerfully, “although it would be more fun if they were awake.”
“Trust me when I say you would rather they were sleeping! Their colds have made them so cranky that they haven’t been much fun to be around!”
“Okay, I’ll be right over,” Tana said as she disconnected the call.
Within a few moments, there was a knock on the front door. Alena smiled as she opened the door, welcomed her neighbor into the house, and said, “I really appreciate you doing this without any notice.”
“Sure, no problem,” she easily replied. She took off her coat and hung it on the rack by the door. They started to walk toward the living room when she asked Alena, “Do you have any instructions for me regarding your little patients?”
“I don’t expect them to wake up, but if they do, then it would be just the usual dose of epeny for each of them. I left it on the kitchen counter should you need it.”
Just then Kyelon came around the corner, and he squealed with delight when he saw Tana. Somehow he had managed to escape getting the cold, and he was bored with inactivity. He came running up and hugged Tana’s knees then he turned his face up to her, raised his hands upward, and demanded in his cute baby voice, “Up.”
Tana smiled as she bent down and reached under his arms to easily lift him up onto her hip. She asked him, “Have you been your Mommy’s helper with your brother and sisters while they’ve been sick?”
Kyelon smiled as he nodded his head firmly up and down. “I’ve been real good,” he replied, “Mommy wants me to go to the market, but I want to stay home with you. Can I?” He was snuggled into her side and very pleased with himself.
“Let’s just ask your Mommy, shall we?” Tana replied as she looked over to Alena.
Looking at the two of them settled together in the entryway, Alena shrugged with resignation and had to admit, “It will probably go faster if I just have Jena in the stroller to worry about.”
Kyelon smiled from ear to ear as his little legs kicked with glee on either side of Tana. “Yippee,” he squealed, “Let’s go play.”
“Just one second, little guy,” she smiled at Kyelon and looked over at Alena, “Do you need any help getting Jena ready to go?”
“No, no, go have fun with Kyelon. It will just take me a couple minutes to gather together everything I need to get out of here,” Alena replied as they parted ways at the living room. Alena continued on to the kitchen where she got the stroller and baby bag out of the kitchen closet and her shopping list off of the counter. She retraced her steps with all her accouterments back to the living room where Tana and Kyelon had joined Jena already playing on the floor.
Tana saw her coming and gathered Jena up with her play blanket. She took the two steps to where Alena had settled on the couch to make sure everything she might need was already in the baby bag. Tana placed Jena in the stroller and made sure her blankets were securely around the six-mesan-old little girl. Tickling her little tummy, Tana smiled and said to Jena, “You be a good little girl for your Mommy while you’re with her at the market.”
“Thank you,” Alena said to Tana as she leaned over from the couch. She settled the baby bag into the basket on the bottom of the stroller and then she stood up to leave. Alena pushed the stroller through the living room toward the front door.
Tana rushed ahead of her to open the door for both of them. She stood in the doorway and waved as she watched Alena wheel the stroller down the sidewalk. Kyelon had joined Tana at the door and held her hand. “Take your time at the market,” she called after the pair, “I’ve got everything taken care of here.”
Alena waved back and said to the couple, “Thanks again. I hope I won’t be too long. Be good for Tana, Kyelon!”
It had been days since she had been able to get to the market and Alena desperately needed food supplies. She lengthened her stride and was grateful that she only had Jena to look after at the market. Kyelon was a well-mannered child, but he was a boy who tended to get his little fingers into almost everything.
Alena’s trip took almost fifteen minutes at her brisk pace. She smiled to see that the gentle roll of the stroller had lulled Jena to sleep. It had been time for Jena’s nap anyway, which was another reason Alena had wanted to go to the market right away. If delayed, Jena could become overstimulated and then she had a hard time settling down to nap. Alena did not have to worry about the noise in the marketplace as Jena was used to the racket of four other children in the house. As it was, once Jena was out she slept so soundly that almost nothing could wake her up until she was good and ready to be awake.
With most of her concentration now on shopping, Alena began looking over the products of the different vendors. She worked her way through the rows and haggled for most of the items on her list. Within about ten minutes, Alena had worked her way over to the vendor who was also her patient. She smiled and called out to the woman, “Bistea, how are you feeling?”
Bistea turned to the sound of her name and smiled when she realized it was Alena calling out to her. “Doing great,” she replied and waved hello with her left hand as her other arm was firmly bandaged to her side. “I’ll be happy to get this strapping off sometime soon,” she added with grim resignation.
“If you have a few moments, I could take a look at it. You never know, it might be healed already.” Not wanting to seem too overbearing, Alena settled her newest purchase into the baby bag and waited for a reply from Bistea.
Bistea smiled with relief and said, “I couldn’t think of a better time than right this moment!” She turned to her youngest daughter and directed, “Watch the booth for a few minutes while I get my arm checked out by Alena.” She received a nod of consent from her daughter and then she moved to the back edge of her stall to allow Alena enough light and space to adequately inspect her arm.
Alena pushed the stroller to the front side of the booth as there was not enough room for both herself and the stroller in the space between the booths. She edged herself through the narrow gap and smiled at Bistea as she started to gently unwrap the bandages holding her arm in place. With experienced hands, Alena spent a few minutes gently probing the entire arm for any signs of tenderness or of improper healing.
She ran her healing crystal up one side of Bistea’s arm and down the other looking for any blips which might indicate a bad healing. Seeing a red area on Bistea’s arm, she took some numbing cream from her front pocket and applied a small amount of cream to the area of her arm where the bone had been exposed through the skin. Alena handed the vial of ointment to Bistea and instructed, “Use this salve on the red area several times a day until the redness disappears.”
Feeling satisfied with the progress of her patient, Alena assured Bistea that she could resume her normal activities as long as her arm did not start to hurt or swell. Bistea nodded and smiled with relief at Alena’s prognosis. Alena patted the newly healed arm in farewell as she began to wedge herself back between the two booths. “Feel free to call me if you have questions,” Alena said as she reached the stroller. She automatically looked down to check on the sleeping baby only to discover a pile of empty blankets.
“Jena!” she cried loudly. She looked around frantically for the small child to see if she were crawling on the ground. She turned to the daughter watching the both and shrieked, “Did you see where my baby went?”
The little girl looked terrified and shook her head mutely.
“Jena!” Alena screamed again. By now, people at the market were starting to realize there was a problem. They were looking in Alena’s direction, and some of the other mothers began to move toward her. “Has anyone seen a six-mesan-old girl? She was just in this stroller, and now she’s missing! Please, anyone, please help me find my little girl!” Alena felt panic rising in her heart and she had to firmly stamp it down so she could focus on finding Jena. Of course, she has to be somewhere nearby, she thought rationally, she just crawled away. Someone is bound to say they see her in just a few mome
nts now that they know she’s missing.
There was a frantic but organized search of the entire marketplace and yet there was no sign of Jena. Someone had the foresight to contact the authorities. It was not until Alena was answering questions from two public officials that the desperateness of the situation started to affect Alena’s thinking. I’ve lost Jena, she thought. What will I tell Amanda if she ever comes back? Here’s the one daughter I was able to keep track of. I lost the other one at the marketplace. She had not answered the last couple of questions, she was unable to concentrate on anything except her misery.
The next thing she knew Bryon was drawing her into his arms. She did not even think about how he had come to be there before she wrapped her arms around his waist and starting sobbing uncontrollably, repeatedly saying, “I lost Jena! I lost Jena! I lost Jena!”
“It’s okay, Alena,” Bryon soothed as he held her tightly and stroked her back rhythmically, “We’ll find her shortly. She has to be nearby.”
Reason slowly returned to Alena, and she realized she did not know how Bryon had known to come to the marketplace. She asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Bistea contacted my office while you were frantically searching the stalls. She told me you needed me right away and luckily I was in the office. If you can, will you please tell me what’s happened?”
Alena described the events both before and after Jena’s disappearance as best she could. Bryon nodded but never interrupted. He put his arm around her shoulder and steered her back toward the authorities who were now questioning the people in the marketplace. They both listened as one person after another had said they did not see anything unusual. Finally, one person seemed to remember an average-sized man leaving the marketplace rather hurriedly. The only strange thing about the man was that he was unknown to the woman who had seen him. Nothing more was really known as people came and went from the marketplace rather regularly.
Alena turned to Bryon hopefully and said, “Do you think that mystery man found Jena and wanted to take her to our home?”
“Maybe,” Bryon replied without conviction but wanting to keep Alena calm, “Why don’t I take you home, and we can see?”
Bryon turned to the authority and said, “I’m going to take my wife home, and then I’ll return immediately.”
The official nodded curtly as he finished writing his summaries in his notepad. He turned to another patron and started asking more questions as Bryon grabbed the stroller handle with one hand and kept Alena securely beside him with the other.
They walked even faster home. Alena kept saying she thought Jena was safe at home, and they had to hurry. They were almost running by the time they reached their house. Together, they burst through the front door. Tana looked up in surprise to see the two harried-looking people in the doorway to the living room. Alena cried, “Where’s Jena?”
Tana looked confused and answered, “She was with you, Alena. Remember?”
Kyelon looked at his parents’ stressed expressions and started to cry. He did not like seeing the blatant fear on their faces. He felt Tana pull him into an embrace as he continued to sob quietly. “It’s okay, Kyelon, we’ll get this figured out,” Tana said to him as she rubbed his back and returned the look of fear to both Bryon and Alena.
Bryon suddenly nodded confirmation of his suspicions and turned to Alena and said, “You stay here in case anyone calls or comes over. I’ll go back to the marketplace with the telepod and see if I can see anything from the air.”
Alena nodded and sobbed, “Hurry, Bryon, bring Jena home!”
Bryon kissed her cheek and optimistically declared, “I’ll be back before you know it!” He strode out the front door with purposeful steps. Bryon did not like the train of thought his mind started taking. He definitely did not want Alena to know he was fairly sure that the unknown man seen leaving the marketplace would probably turn out to be Petre MacVeen.
He had to talk to the authorities to start a search immediately! Entering the garage, Bryon keyed the door to open. The start up sequence had never seemed to take as long as it did that time and Bryon was cursing under his breath at every delay. Bryon concentrated on the coordinates for the marketplace and within moments, he was hovering over the busy square.
He was thrilled to see there were several officials in search of Jena fanning out from the last known location. Bryon scanned the streets swiftly himself before he decided to land outside the general area and talk to an authority about his suspicions. The telepod settled onto the ground just as Bryon keyed the door open and jumped out. Striding over to the official, he introduced himself as Jena’s father. The official’s expression changed from confrontational to comforting in a matter of seconds.
“I think I know who took Jena,” Bryon declared.
“Really,” the authority said noncommittally, “Do you have a name of the suspected person?”
“Petre MacVeen,” Bryon replied dejectedly.
“Oh,” was the authority’s response as he wrote the name on his notepad. “Excuse me while I let my boss know.” The officer turned slightly and raised his radio to his mouth, clicked the talk button, and said, “The suspect for the abduction of Jena is possibly Petre MacVeen.”
“That son of a bitch,” came the rapid reply over the radio. “We’ll keep our eyes open for that son-of-a…. Thanks for the update. Carry on then.”
“Will do,” the official beside Bryon replied and hung the radio back at his side as he turned back to Bryon. “We will continue our search for Petre from the ground. There are several officials on every street leading from the marketplace. We do not take child abductions lightly around here so we hope to have her found before dark.”
Bryon nodded as he agreed with the officer’s statements. Knowing the ground was being well covered, Bryon offered, “I think I’ll do an aerial search in my telepod.”
“Do you have a radio in your ‘pod?”
“Absolutely!”
“Should you see anything suspicious, the authorities are using channel 7-4-6 for this search. Let us know your coordinates right away and we will get on the scene immediately.”
“Thanks, I’ll enter that into my ‘pod as soon as I get back in there.” Bryon returned rapidly to his telepod. Since he had left the door open, he was able to immediately enter the unit and settle into the operator’s seat. He issued the start up sequence and waited for the communication devices to activate before he entered the code which the authorities were using. As he lifted up into the air, he could hear the various authorities issuing the ‘all clear’ for each street that was successfully searched without finding any sign of Jena.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Petre rushed away from the market square. He had Jena tucked under his jacket in an awkward position. The last thing he needed was for the girl to wake up and start crying so he lengthened his stride. Within fifteen minutes he found himself in front of Ninan’s home. He could not believe there was no pursuit. Could his luck be changing? Everything seemed to be working out perfectly for him since he had met Jesisca. The only thing which had not worked out was keeping Jesisca as his wife. Oh well, he thought, I guess I can’t have everything!
Walking through Ninan’s front door, he kicked it shut behind him. He figured he would have some time before he would need to leave. He wanted to get to know his daughter. Pulling her out from under his jacket he first noticed the blonde ringlets on her head. They were adorably cute.
Even though he had never considered having children, just knowing this one was his he was fascinated by every detail. Her eyelashes were unusually long as they rested on her plump, rosy cheeks and he wondered about her eye color. She had a cute little nub for a nose. He reached out and touched her tightly balled fist noticing the cute little buds of her fingernails. Her hand flew open at his touch startling him into jarring her whole body. She slept through it all.
He smiled down at her and then realized he had a huge problem. In his one-track-minded obsession to acquire
his daughter, he forgot to plan for after he had her. He needed baby supplies, and he was going to need them as soon as she woke up. Not wanting to leave her, he reluctantly set her down on the couch and raced into the kitchen to see if there was anything in there which a baby might eat.
The ice box contained a jar of milk which he set on the kitchen counter to let it get to room temperature. He did not think a baby would want to have cold milk. Not really knowing what to look for, he opened the cupboards and found some crackers. Those have possibilities, he thought to himself as he added them to the counter beside the milk. Some bread also found its way to the counter as well as tomatoes and carrots.
He raced back to the living room to check on Jena. She had not moved from where he had placed her. He walked across the living room toward the bedrooms and looked in all of the cupboards and drawers for anything which may be useful in caring for a baby. Finally, he came to a cabinet containing towels. He realized then that he was going to have to change dirty clouts. His nose wrinkled at the nasty thought, but he shook his head and grabbed the entire stack of towels and set them on the couch next to Jena.
He then checked the bedrooms for anything else which might be handy. Nothing more seemed appropriate for taking care of an infant. He walked back to the living room and picked up the stack of towels. Then he changed his mind and took one towel off of the stack and put it back on the couch. With the remaining towels, he returned to the kitchen and grabbed as much food as he could carry and took them all out to the garage to put into the telepod.
He went back to the kitchen and picked up the remaining food and moved it out to the telepod in a second trip. The milk almost spilled as he was setting it down and he realized he would need some sort of cup or bottle for Jena to be able to drink out of. He did not think she would want to drink it straight from the jar like he was used to doing. He rummaged through the kitchen cupboards until he found a small plasfilm cup. Thinking this was the better option than glass, he took that out to the telepod as well.
Ascension Discovery Page 39
