Fulcrums of the Universe: A TESS NOVEL #2

by Randy Moffat

  She laughed a bit sadly to humor me, then stopped; then she was suddenly looking a bit stricken as she tried to reorient to her new world and said good bye to a part of her. She was struggling with it all and glanced about momentarily as if she might find some kind of reprieve. Then she flicked her eyes about a few more times. Looking for a way out no doubt. Denial. I liked her more at that moment than I ever had. She was fighting destiny until she had to finally give in to it. She had guts. A fighter. I couldn’t help much with the denial though and waited.

  I smiled down at her instead. I would just have to be there for her. A MacMoran rock. Total role reversal.

  “Look at the bright side. Come the rainy season when you go out walking with me we can synchronize our limps together.” I said brightly.

  I’d had my leg bone badly shattered by bullets in my Army days back in the dim past. I still dragged that leg a bit especially when wet weather set in. She looked up at me seriously and I looked back with reserved amusement and simple kindness on my face making damn sure there was absolutely no trace of pity. I tried to exude just the right hormones to remind her that whatever the future held I wasn’t going anywhere. She visibly gathered herself at the stench of them.

  As always she surprised me.

  “So all these levers in the body… levers balance on a fulcrum right?”

  I wrinkled my forehead.

  “Yes… . certainly?”

  “So it’s Latin right. Is the plural of fulcrum… fulcra? Or fulcrums?”

  I laughed freely for the first time. It would take a while but she was going to be all right.

  “How the hell should I know? I only got a ‘D’ in Latin. All I could think about was girls.”

  “Girls?” She asked dangerously. Female reflex. She was all woman.

  “Well… not girls… . one girl actually… not a girl there you understand… in school… I certainly had no interest in any specific girls in that school… hated them actually… wanted nothing to do with them… at all… ever. No. It was more of a hypothetical girl actually. An imaginary girl. A kind of ‘girl’ ideal. A dream girl. A girl I might one day meet in the future.” I paused carefully. “And did.” I finished by meeting her eyes with smile lines at the corners of mine. She looked at me and her nostrils tightened a tiny bit in stifled amusement. I hoped.

  “Kiss me.” She demanded seriously then.

  I did. Thoroughly and without any trace of hurry. It seemed to cheer her up. I know it did me. Leg or no leg those were her lips.

  “And the other bad news?” She asked warily a few minutes later after we’d necked quietly a while.

  “Oh…” I said. “Well… frankly its worse than anything as trivial as a missing leg. The other bad news is that… frankly… you look like hell! Hospitals clearly don’t agree with you. Perhaps its these fluorescents…”

  As soon as I said it she smacked my shoulder. Then her hand finished the move by making an unconscious and abortive gesture towards her hair that so many women make when absently concerned about their looks… . but I caught her hand and intertwined my fingers through hers and kissed each finger instead. I leaned in then, placing my face inches from hers and met her eyes squarely. Then with every erg of tenderness in me I whispered. “I love you, Maureen Fankle O’Hara… and it’s entirely appropriate that you should look like hell… .” I paused, pouring all the feelings I could into my words, “. . . you’ve just been through hell. I just want it clear in your head right here and right now that there is at least one man in this universe who thinks you are one hell of a broad…”

  Then I kissed her deeply because I wanted to… and to back up my words…

  Kisses are good. The true levers of the heart.

  Fin

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Randy Moffat is a man of some parts. This is his second published novel under this nom du plume in this series. Many more are written so if you like this one search for sequels and others at book sellers everywhere in the future. Money is an excellent form of flattery so if you really liked it then buy his other books and then leave a nice review on the booksellers webpage. If you care, Randy Moffat has been a professional soldier and aviator for more than 30 years and is a graduate of numerous foreign policy experiments by the United States of America over those years which he—“would rank against any university degree program anywhere.” A wood carver he has been called the “Greatest artist in wood living in the United States today.” He is also a teacher, programmer, diver, world traveler who looking back has been to an awful lot of places on this globe and enjoys a good wine with his meals. Now you know.

  LIST OF TERMS USED IN THIS NOVEL

  ABC—American Born Chinese

  Apophenia—Finding patterns where there are no patterns. Human’s are evolutionarily hard wired for this. Rapid mental pattern finding is a survival characteristic. Survival causes pattern finding to be a constant in humans, finding patterns everywhere… even where none exist. A biological explanation for much paranoia, conspiracy theories, magic, and religion for that matter.

  Bèi jǐng lí xiāng—Chinese: “Leaving home” to a foreign land. Idiomatically “Being forced to leave one’s home (for a remote place).” Nothing familiar anywhere.

  CCP—Chinese Communist Party. Rulers of China since the days when they drove Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT military remnants and party faithful onto Taiwan in 1949. See Guomindang.

  Fort Zinderneuf—If you have no idea what this reference means you need to watch more old movies. Start with Beau Geste . . . either the 1939 original or the 1966 remake.

  Gormless—Scottish. Meaning essentially ‘Clueless.’ More broadly perhaps ‘A bit stupid or slow.’

  Guomindang (Also in English—Kuomintang (KMT))—The Nationalist Government of China that actually won the Chinese revolution, fought the bulk of the war with Japan in WWII and then finally lost the Chinese Civil War to the CCP. A war that ended roughly in 1949 with them holding only Taiwan and a few small islands in the Taiwan Straits.

  HUD—American Military Acronym. HUD = Head’s Up Display. Several weapons systems, including some Aircraft now allow the pilot to look ahead, but still “see” system’s status information like fuel, altitude et al projected on the windscreen.

  Lǎo gǔdǒng—Chinese. Ancient. Antique. Antediluvian.

  Lǎowángù—Chinese. An old arrogant man. A Stick-in-the-mud.

  Politicrati—Made up. OK… don’t bother Googling. I ‘coined’ this one here. Meant to imply a combination of Political powers that of being an Illiterati. (See Gormless)

  Rub’al-Khali—A desert that fills much of central Saudi Arbia

  Rads—Old measurement of radiation absorbed; measured in Jules per Kilogram. Related to Roentgens which is essentially a total measurement for radiation dosage. As we study nuclear war less and less the Rad is being replaced by the Gray (Gy).

  Swiven—A Middle English word we need to bring back. It indicates the post or past tense of swive which means to copulate with. Thus to be swiven is, as my old medieval literature professor used to say, to be “all f**ked out.” A state which modern usage lacks a single word for, though the experience is well known… and often uniquely pleasant.

  Schwerpunkt—German. From Clausewitz. Meaning ‘Center Point’ and indicating in military operations that which is a primary target or focus of military actions overall since it is that which is critical to an enemy’s continued resistance. Once the Schwerpunkt is achieved the enemy will, in theory stop fighting.

  Shufti—A quick look or to reconnoiter. Legend holds it this entered English from Arabic speaking market places where dirty post card sellers would whisper the word and flash their wares to English soldiers. As in “Spppttt! Soldier! Shufti! Shufti!”

  TEMPEST—A U.S. government code word for building a nominal Faraday cage into a building space to create a counter-intelligence measure that preven
ts many forms of electronic espionage by containing electric or electromagnetic radiation emanations from electronic equipment. Kind of like lining a room with that stuff in the window of your microwave—which is in itself a Faraday Cage.

  Thanatos—Greek Mythology—Natural spirit or personification of death.

  Tianamen square—A Ming Dynasty gate to the forbidden city whose square is best known in recent memory as the focal point of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 where a pro-democracy movement ended with the declaration of martial law in the capital and the death many civilians. Chinese forces of reaction were energized by it.

  Transuranic—Materials with atomic numbers higher than uranium on the periodic table of elements. The general fear is that it will be contaminated with alpha emitting transuranic radio nuclides possessing half-lives greater than 20 years—though intense Gamma radiation can also be problematical.

  WILCO—Military short talk for “Will Comply.” A slang remnant of WWII still broadly used person to person and over radio communications.

  Yangguizi—Chinese: Term for Caucasians considered by many to be non-complimentary. Essentially its meaning is ‘Ocean Ghost.’ A broadened reference to ‘uncivilized’ tribes that would cross Chinese borders. Such barbarians were ‘ghosts’ to the locals. The new ones were coming from the sea rather than land. Thus ‘Ocean.’

  Yi Sun Shin—Korean naval commander famous for his victories against the Japanese navy during the Korean Imjin wars (1592-1597). Admired by all sides as a Nelson-like figure and is generally credited with innovations in Asian warfare like the use of armored “turtle ships.”