“Exactly,” Frank held out his hand and looked at Hal.
“That’s it?” Hal asked. “You’re making a big deal about two hours sleep. Go back to sleep after the meeting.”
“Can’t. Then it‘ll break up,” Frank said. “We have a meeting in … two hours.”
“We also have a meeting now.” Joe took the seat behind his desk. “Where is Ellen?”
There was a knock at the door.
Joe said, “Speak of the devil.”
“That isn’t nice,” Frank told him.
“Shut up, Frank,” Joe snapped.
“Ouch. Fuck. Testy.” Frank said.
“Yeah, well, you had two hours asleep and since you aren’t grumpy I’m getting it.”
Frank nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Yes it does,” Joe responded, then yelled at the door, “Come in.”
Ellen walked inside. “Hey, everyone.” She held a folder. “Sorry to gather you together but I have something …” Just as she started to take off her coat, she paused. “I called a family meeting, right?”
Joe nodded. “Yes, you did. Andrea couldn’t get away.”
“I understand that,” Ellen said. “But when I told you to call your sons, I thought you would.”
“I did.” Joe responded.
Hal added. “I even doubled up the call.”
Ellen folded her arms, “Then I should take it that Jimmy can’t be here either?”
Silence.
It was becoming a habit. The awkward moment of silence, the slight groan, then finally Joe’s hand slammed down to his desk.
“Goddamn it, we did it again.” Joe ran his hand across his face. “Okay. Idea. Let’s not have the meeting yet. Ellen can you come back?”
Ellen snickered. “What are you gonna do, get Jimmy, and pretend this never happened.”
“Yes.” Joe nodded.
“Fine.” Ellen raised here hands. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
“Good. Good.” Joe stood up. “Frank can you give him a call?”
“I don’t know his number,” Frank replied. “Robbie?”
Robbie shrugged. "Me either. Hal?”
Hal shook his head.
“Fine.” Joe walked to the file cabinet. He opened a drawn and pulled out a folder. “Recent phones given out …” He flipped through the pages. “Shit. We never gave him a phone. Okay, no problem. We’ll find him. Where’s he working today?”
Ellen raised her hand. “We’ve been trying to pin you down on that, Joe. You never gave him a job.”
“Yet?” Joe asked. “Housing?”
Everyone shook their head.
“Christ. Okay, everyone span out, let’s find Jimmy. Tell him there’s a brothers meeting and to be here in ten minutes.” Joe walked to the door. “And nobody mention this to him. Let’s pretend we never came here without him. Agreed.”
Hal, Frank, and Robbie nodded.
“Good. Let’s split up. He can’t be too hard to find.” Joe opened the door. He allowed for his sons to walk out and then he turned to Ellen. “And you don’t say anything about this to him Missy Jane.”
“I won’t.”
Joe started to leave but stopped. “And don’t sit at my desk.”
“I won’t.”
The door closed, Joe had left with the others.
Ellen mumbled to herself “Come back, yeah, right. I’ll wait.” She walked around the desk. "Don’t tell him. Yeah, right. Don’t sit down in my desk.” Ellen smiled and took Joe’s seat.
***
Josephine had made her famous ‘Glad’ cake, and Jason Godrichson indulged in a slice while in his lab. The moist white cake with creamy white icing, topped with nuts. He was glad she made the glad cake, and glad she gave him a piece early. He was not glad that Danny Hoi was in his lab, and had been for six hours.
No matter how many times Jason told him to finish up, Danny repeated, almost there. Just about done.
How many ‘almost theres’ and ‘Just about dones’ could one person take?
Pushing the warning time that Jason would have to heed in order to make the town meeting, He tapped Danny’s shoulder. “I’ll be leaving for the meeting. Finish up.”
“I’m almost there. Really, I am.”
“Danny. You’ve been almost there all day. Don’t you have a job?”
“Of course I do. But I have Jimmy Slagel doing it.”
“Hmm. I see.” Jason folded his arms. “I would have liked to work on that, you know.”
“See.” Danny stood and returned. “If we want the new future program to work, we have allow me to finish what I start.”
“Perhaps we can go to the future to find out when exactly it is you finish, so I can stop getting upset.”
“Funny.” Danny smiled.
“I’m not trying to be.”
“Sure, you are.” Danny returned to his work. “And if the sequence matches up in the simulation program this time, we can … Ha!”
Jason nearly jumped from his skin. “What?”
“Guess what?”
“Let’s see. Since you’ve been repeatedly telling me you are almost done, you have figured it out?”
“Very good. I figured it out.”
“Excellent. Now let’s head to town for the meeting, it’s a long walk and its cold.”
“I have a jeep.”
“Then you may drive me.”
“But don’t you want to test it out?” Danny asked.
“We are. We’ll be testing it when Frank returns from Lodi.’
“No, no.” Danny shook his head. “We can’t wait that long. I really want to see if it works outside the simulation.”
“Danny …”
“Okay, your right. Don’t say it.” He held up his hand. “We really should run the simulation a bunch more times, then even, maybe test on an animal. Because, we really don’t know if it will work in real time. We send Frank and Robbie to the future, they may not come back.”
Jason looked serious at Danny, nodded once, then the corner of his mouth raised in a smile. “Would be kind of amusing.”
“What?” Danny asked. “Really, it wouldn’t be.”
“Sure it would. Could you imagine them pressing the remote, and pressing the remote.” Jason chuckled. “We’d eventually realize when they hadn’t returned in few seconds that an error occurred, we could then fix it and find them.”
“True. But, it’s still risky.”
Jason shrugged. “It’s science. They volunteered, they know the risks.”
“True. But, at least we have ten days to test and retest before they go,” Danny said, then noticed Jason shaking his head. “No, we don’t.”
“No, we have hours. I think we’ll test tonight.” He grinned.
Danny didn’t say anything at first, then he returned the smile. “Excellent.”
***
Joe returned to his office, a little baffled on where Jimmy was. Frank didn’t say, only that he had located him and they were all on their way.
Hal was arriving at the same time, and just as Joe reached for his door, Frank pulled up in a jeep with Jimmy and Robbie.
“What time is the meeting again?” Frank asked.
“Two hours.” Joe told him. “You can catch a nap if you want beforehand.”
“Depending how long this meeting is.”
“Well, it’s Ellen.” Joe opened the door. “How long can it be?”
Hal stepped in first. “Perhaps a little long considering she made herself at home in your desk.”
“You.” Joe pointed. “Up. Now. Thank you.” He walked over behind the desk and took his beat up chair before Ellen was even out of range.
Ellen smiled. “Jimmy, glad they … remembered to call you.”
“Of course, they did.” Jimmy said. “I mean, yeah, they were forgetting. But all is good now.”
Hal grinned. “All is good.”
Robbie finally entered the office, and he did so with a tired whine. “El, can we keep th
is short? I’m really tired.”
“I know you are, and this won’t take long.” Ellen pulled out a chair for Robbie.
Jimmy concerned, looked at Robbie. “Is there anything I can help you with today, Robbie, I’m only working in Mechanics.”
Robbie looked surprised, “You’re working in Mechanics. Really? I thought we uh had you elsewhere, didn’t we Frank.”
“Yeah, I thought you were in containment.”
“No.” Jimmy shook his head. “Mechanics. At least that’s what Danny said until next week. Thanks to Hal.” He gave a swat to Hal’s back. “I’ll be doing adult education in Bowman.”
Frank snorted a laugh. “Adult education? You’re teaching porn in Bowman?”
Hal grimaced. “Porn? No, Frank. Adult education. Reading, writing, arithmetic, you know things you still need educating on.” He sighed, then jolted view to Jimmy. “You’re teaching adult education in Bowman?”
“You didn’t know?” Jimmy asked. “Elliott said …”
“I uh, I knew.” Hal covered. “I was just shocked that Elliott told you about it.”
“Well, yeah. I was talking to Elliot about how I didn’t have a job yet, and he said he was surprised you forgot to tell me about the teaching position.”
“I’m busy.” Hal said.
“Totally understand.” Jimmy said.
Ellen drew attention. “Can we start? There’s things I want to do before the cool meeting today. Frank, you have your speech ready.”
Frank patted his shirt pocket. “Right here.”
“Wait.” Joe held up his hand? “Why is Frank speaking at the meeting? I was having Jason speak because it deals with the meteor.”
Frank answered, “Even though I was the one that spoke about it last meeting, I’m not gonna be there to talk about the meteor. I’m there to talk about the monster.”
“Christ,” Joe grumbled. “No one knows about the monster. If people did know it’s limited.”
Jimmy asked. “What monster?”
“Don’t worry about it” Joe told him. “So, you can tuck that speech away.”
Hal added, “It’s probably the same speech he gave the last two meetings.”
“No.” Frank said sharp. “I wrote a new one, and I think people need to know about what we’re gonna do about this monster.”
“If they ask, I’ll let you speak.” Joe said.
“Yes.” Frank clenched his fist. “Go on, El.”
“Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “As you know, poor Henry was attacked last night and shaved bald.”
Frank chuckled. “Sorry.”
“It’s funny.” Ellen smiled “Anyhow, as requested by Frank, I scraped under Henry’s nails. I examined what I found, and … there was definitely a large amount of skin under Henry’s nails.”
“You’re kidding.” Joe said surprised. “So, we match up that skin we find our mutilator.”
“Not … necessarily.” Ellen held up her hand. “It is possible, Henry scratched someone in the heat of passion.”
Joe groaned.
Ellen continued. “And if that’s the case, we’ll match up to Henry’s lover.”
“All right, enough.” Joe grumbled.
“And it can be used as a line of defense for our mutilator.” Ellen said. “If the mutilator wants to plead not guilty. He or she can say they were with Henry.”
Joe asked, “Can you match it up?”
“I can try. I’m pretty certain I can.” Ellen replied. “But I will have to wait until after things calm down and I won’t get disturbed. I don’t want the mutilator to know we got a skin sample.”
Joe nodded. “Understandable. Good work. Is that all.”
“One more thing.” Ellen held up a finger. “I think Frank knows exactly who Henry scratched.”
Frank’s mouth dropped open. “I do not know who Henry slept with.”
Hal, perturbed, spoke, “No, Frank, you imbecile, she is saying you know who the mutilator is.”
“Did you say that, El?” Frank asked.
“I think you know who the mutilator is.” Ellen said. “I know you. And for as brilliant as you are Frank …” She paused went everyone snickered. “You wouldn’t have made me check under Henry’s nails unless you saw someone with scratches. I didn’t do it on anyone else. So did you? Did you see this person? Who do you think the mutilator is?”
Joe rose slightly, “Yes, Frank, who?”
“Uh …” Frank stammered. “Wait.” He grabbed his headset and brought ht microphone to his mouth. “What was that, Greg? Got it. On my way.” Frank rushed to the door. “Got to go. There’s an emergency at the back gate. See ya at the meeting.” He flew out.
Joe exhaled with the slamming of the door. “One of these days my son is going to have to learn, if he’s going to lie about getting a radio call, then he has to lie better.”
Jimmy spoke up, “In Frank’s defense, how do we know it wasn’t an emergency.”
“How?” Joe asked. “He said Greg called, right? Well, Greg died last year. You’re right, Ellen.” Joe sat down. “He knows.”
Ellen bit her bottom lip. Frank had his suspicions, but she didn’t want Joe to know so did she. And if they were both right, then confirming was going to be easy.
***
Mike’s mood was evident. So much so, everyone avoided him at the bar. Keeping a distance and avoidance was necessary. In the corner of Mel’s Tavern, Mike claimed the pool table.
When he broke the balls he sent them scattering violently.
A man with something on his mind.
Lars was searching for Mike, not that finding the big man in Lodi was difficult, but Lars was avoiding him too. Their last conversation was about the meteor, and Mike stormed out, telling Lars, “I run this town, not you.”
Lars had to calm down as well.
He did and sought out Mike.
After a loud crack of cue ball meets pool ball, Lars cleared his throat and approached the table. “IF you are here to gather balls, I don’t believe you need them, Mike Manis, you have enough balls.”
Mike, leaning over the table, cue stick in hand, peered up at Lars through the tops of his eyes “Is that a dig.”
“Yes.”
“Dig taken.” Mike took a shot. “But not warranted.”
“Ah, Mike, you’ve not a clue what I’m throwing a dig to you about.”
“No?” Mike walked around the table looking for a shot. “It’s about the meteor and my decision not to move.”
Lars blinked. “Well I guess you do have an idea then.”
“Come on, Lars.”
“No, you come on Mike. The dig was warranted. I tried to speak to you about this last night. But you said …”
“I run this town.”
“Bingo.” Lars pointed “You may be the law but you are not the God. Who are you Mike Manis to make such choices with the lives of these men? You didn’t do so when it was time to vote on what to do with the Society? No. You gave them a vote. But now, a meteor could change our climate, change our lives, cause us to possibly, I don’t know …” Lars fluttered his lips. “Die from cold and starvation. Beginnings offers a solution and you decline. Without, without giving your town a choice.”
“It’s not gonna happen.”
“You don’t know.”
Mike cracked shot. “It’s not gonna happen!”
“You pig headed son of a bitch!” Lars snapped.
Mike slammed down the cue stick.
A scuffle of chairs were heard and the bar drew silent.
Lars pointed. “You are not a scientist. You don’t know. And the only reason you want to stay put is because you fear it will make it look as if you are finding a reason to run from the Society.”
“That’s not the reason.”
“Then give me a damn good reason, Mike because saying it’s not gonna happen, doesn’t cut it.”
“Lars,” Mike dropped his voice, ran his hand over his face and walked closer to Lars. “The Soc
iety warned us. Challenged us. If we run …”
“Run. No, move.”
“Same difference. If we move, we are giving the Society what they wanted, and in a sense surrendering.”
Lars chuckled. “I highly doubt George sees you as surrendering... If we move, where do we move?”
“Near Beginnings.”
“Therefore, becoming a part of Beginnings.”
Mike nodded.
“I have news for you, Mike. You think The Society hates us, we would be joining forces with their number one enemy. They wanted us with them, and we go to their enemy.” Lars chuckled. “That’s not a surrender, that’s’ a slap in the face.”
Mike shook his head. “I don’t see it as that.”
Lars laid his hand on the pool table as he spoke. “That’s fine. You don’t see it as that. But, Mike Manis, you do need to see the threat that is coming. The one that is not the Society. And you also need to see, that as a leader, you need to let your people make a choice in a life and death situation, not be forced to live and die with an ego choice.”
“Ego choice?”
“Ego choice.” Lars placed his hands in his pockets, “And that’s all I’m going to say. Find me when you come to your senses. Good evening Mike.” Lars took a step and tuned, “One more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Like with the game of pool, you’re taking chances and shots. Sometimes Mike, the unexpected can happen and you just can’t play games anymore. You’re forced to do something else. Night.”
Mike grumbled. He watched Lars walk away and out of the bar. He mumbled, “Ego Choice. And what the hell was that game talk about?” as he leaned down to the table to take a shot, then Mike stopped. “Son of a bitch.” He set the cue stick down. “He stole the fuckin’ cue ball.”
***
Henry could have claimed the bald look as a fashion statement and newest rage had he not been tattooed on the head as well. Ellen told him it would eventually grow in and cover the tattoo. Bentley said he could make him a wig. But Danny came up with the fashion look Henry sported and the idea to make it all work.
At first Henry spoke to Ellen about it, then he went to Elliott. Elliott told him, “I am certain the Captain wouldn’t mind under these circumstances.”
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