by L. S. Wood
Commander Anderson and his wife, seeing Ann looking a little pale and nervous in her ways, stopped by for a moment to talk to her as they were getting ready to leave on their journey home on the bus which was supposed to be stopping momentarily out front of the facility for their departure.
“A little bit nervous, Lieutenant Mitchell?” “Yes, Sir, Commander Anderson. One hell of a lot nervous Sir, pardon my mouth Mrs. Anderson. This feels like I am here to meet some strange guy for the first time in my life and going out on a blind with him, and then, well the children.”
Commander Anderson’s wife spoke up to Ann with a light soft voice to ease her anxiety. “I hear you have two beautiful little girls who just cannot hardly wait to see you, dear. I mean you are waiting to see them aren’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am, I sure am. I am more nervous than an old wet hen caught out in the middle of the barnyard in a driving rainstorm next to the chicken coop with its doors locked with an old hungry fox snapping its jaws at her tail feathers with hunger. Maybe even a high wire performer doing his or her first walk across the high wire. I sure hope the girls remember me when they get here.”
“I am quite sure they all will my dear, I am sure they will.”
Commander Anderson broke out with a great big smile across his mostly stern face as he quickly glanced over Ann’s head, looking toward the main door to the lobby.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The Reunion
MOMMY, MOMMY, a little voice came echoing over to Ann from behind her from across the main lobby from a little girl who was just barely squeezing out into the main lobby from the rotating door.
Ann had not noticed the passenger bus that had just barely arrived out front of the building or the sound of the opening of the lobby door spinning that squeaked a little when it rotated around on its base.
Ann’s oldest girl, Amber, came running at her like a racecar flat out at high speed running across the main lobby toward her mommy who had been away so long from her reach. Ann turned hearing the little voice call out to her with welling up tears of joy in her bright blue eyes, as Amber jumped right up into her unsuspecting mother’s arms as Ann bent down to great her, almost knocking Ann over from having weary muscles from being in space so long without gravity.
Ben walked swiftly across the lobby floor toward his lovely wife while carrying shy little Sarah. She was holding her daddy very tight around his neck with her in his loving arms both smiling at Ann with pleasure written all over their happy looking faces. Ann wept profusely with happy tears seeing them there, having great feelings of joy rise up in her long aching heart for their closeness, along with tears of joy flowing profusely from her eyes for having her family back together once again as a whole.
“What is the matter Mommy,” asked her daughter Amber. “Why are you crying Mommy?” “Your mommy is crying happy tears. That is why your mommy is crying, sweetheart. I am all so very happy inside.” Ann held onto Amber squeezing her lovingly tight with emotion, and swiftly walked over to be with Ben and Sarah. She and Amber met them halfway across the floor toward the rotating door. First she kissed Ben, then Sarah, then Amber, then Ben, Sarah, and then Amber again. She could not have been happier than a little girl getting her very first new pony all her very own on her 6th birthday, or her first new puppy, kitten, or bunny rabbit for her very own.
Ben looked as good to her as did her two little children. Ben began at once to lovingly bust Ann about her short mission into outer space she had left them for a little over a year ago. “Boy, this was the shortest couple of day’s mission you have ever gone away on Ann!” Ann laughed a hearty laugh then burst into streaming tears of joy again, as she hugged Ben, Amber and Sara tight as she could holding Amber tight as she could without hurting her in her arms of joyful love.
“Why is mommy crying daddy? Is she all right daddy? Does she still love us the way you said she would?” “She is better than all right, sweetheart. I think your mommy loves you even more now than she did before she left. She loves you just like Daddy, Grammy, and Grandpa said she would. We are all right now, sweetheart. We are all just fine.”
They didn’t talk to one another again for about fifteen minutes it seemed. They just kissed holding onto each other tight for the longest time, smelling each other’s body perfumes of love they were emitting.
Commander Anderson and his wife, Becky, just happily stared over at the young loving family’s reunion from a distance, seeing and sensing the love that was flowing freely between Ann and her caring family. Ann composed herself just long enough to talk without crying. “Sorry guys. You must all be extremely tired from the many long hours’ journey you just finished traveling all that way down here from Vermont. So very far and such a long ride especially for you, Ben. You must be extremely exhausted from watching over these two little angels.”
“Not really, Ann. The children have been excellent all the way down here. They took turns looking out the windows of the bus and slept most of the rest of the time. Amber is a sweetheart. She has been like a little mother to Sarah and kept her busy playing with her when she got bored with all of the traveling. You should be very proud of her. The trip down from Vermont wasn’t as bad as you might think it could have been.”
“How about something good to eat, guys?” Ann asked. “What would you three like to have for lunch? We can go over and down into the officer’s club and lounge for a treat for you three. You can have anything on the chef’s menu your little hearts’ desire.
Oh, how wonderful it feels to have the three of you back in these tired arms once again! It has been way too long! Way, way, way too long!”
The reunion with her family went much better than she had imagined it could have possibly gone. Sarah was a little reluctant to go to her mother at first, but when she finally realized who Ann really was, she broke out into the biggest widest smile Ann could ever remember her having on her cute little face. She instantly put her little hands out to Ann, once again united as one big happy family.
Just prior to commander and his wife leaving for the bus, Ann introduced Ben to Commander Anderson and his wife Becky. She caught them just as they were about ready to leave out the revolving front doorway for home aboard the awaiting bus parked outside. The same bus Ben and their two children had just arrived on.
Sitting down and enjoying themselves together at last in the officers’ club’s dining hall, the two adults talked of the many experiences they both had gone through in the several long lonely past months of the last year gone by. Little talk about everything came hard at first, and mostly consisted of talk about the children’s welfare, then proceeded to get around to Ann’s parents. Ben finally talked about how everyone had all handled her being gone for such a long period of time and not so very well at times. Ben told Ann he and her family were all very sick, and worried she might never be able to come back home to them ever, if not never. He told her how the children would sit in their grandfather’s lap for hours, and he would tell them stories about her when she was just as little a girl like them and how stubborn she turned out to be as an adult teenager. He always laughed hearty right out loud when he told the two little ones stories of when she use to feed the little piglets, and how she would push them with her tiny hinny out of the way when she went to feed them their grub.
She would sometimes jump up on one of their backs to ride them around the pigpen like little ponies as they grew bigger and bigger out in the pigpen. He always kept your interest in their little hearts every night.
NASA, along with the Air Force had informed Ann’s family that the Shuttle Twitchel had safely coupled itself up with the International Space Station, but that was all they were able to tell them about anyone’s wellbeing.
They had no idea had anyone onboard the Twitchel was seriously injured by the big blast or not from the sudden infusion of massive neutrons into the atmosphere that shook the world, and possibly might have a
ffected them in space.
Reinforced repeatedly by all around them, they told Ann’s children that someday in the near future, their loving mother would safely return back home to them. But as time marched on, and days swiftly passed away turning days into weeks and weeks into months, they became harder and harder to convince their loving mommy was still alive, never mind ever coming back home to be with them again. Their many lonely days of missing their mother, turned into saddened weeks of loneliness for the girls, and their sad, sad weeks soon found their way into long doubtful months.
Too much precious time away from their precious mother had lapsed away especially for Amber, who would ask her father the question repeatedly over and over again like a broken record. When would her mommy finally be coming home? Day after day, she would ask repeatedly until that very special day. Even on the bus trip down to Florida to see her, she asked again. She was full of doubt and would not stop asking the question until the time she felt herself snuggled tightly in her mother’s arms once again.
Looking up from across the table at his little girl, Ben could see it in Amber’s face that she was the happiest little girl on the face of the planet he had ever seen. She continually gazed over at her mommy sitting across from her with glistening reflections of her love in her eyes and donning the biggest glimmering little shiny smile that could melt the Arctic Polar Cap!
It seemed to Ben that everything would soon be back to normal for them or almost back to normal. Their lives as normal as they could be now, for the world had changed and it would be their new world. The norm of normalcy was not the norm, nor was not the normal of norms the norm anymore on planet Earth.
Lying comfortably together in a bed that night for the first time in many a long and lonely anticipated night, the conversation between them drifted from a joyful conversation in reunion of their family to one of seriousness between the two. Ann’s military time of full duty was nearing its end, and her time was nearly there for her to re-up, and reenlist with the Air Force. The space agency network of science and research team, in their exploration in experiments into deep space which had now become the underground laboratories of the world.
Ben was worried sick. Ann would be ready and way too willing to want to reenlist up in the military for another stint of four more years of service to her country and stay with NASA no matter what. He yearned for her final answer of either a yes or a no, right then and there, as they lay in their bed together before she said another word to him about anything. With the girls both fast asleep, Ann did not give a damn about what he wanted to hear for she did not want to think another thought about anything in the world for the next few minutes but them making love together. With a glistening smile, and love shining in her beautiful eyes, Ann gently placed her soft petite hand up over Ben’s babbling mouth to quiet him as she threw her naked needy body up over and on top of his nakedness. Like a cat in heat on a hot tin roof, she was ready for him. It had been well over a year since being held tight in the arms of the man she loved, especially in as romantic setting as this furnished room was, never mind having been able to make love to the one she so dearly loved.
Both Ann and Ben went off happily into their own sound happy sleep for the first time in a very, very long time. They fell fast asleep contentedly snuggled tight in each other’s loving arms not having been able to do so in such a very long time. The two of them slept the night together like babies in a crib holding each other tight in a warm passionate sleeping way as if they had just taken sleeping pills to quiet their every need.
The next couple of days, Ann and her family spent it at the command center reintroducing themselves to one another, making their reunion a truly joyful and blissful one for Ann, Ben, Amber, and Sarah.
On the third day, Ann, Sarah, Amber, and Ben, boarded a northbound passenger bus like Commander Anderson and his wife had done just days before. This would bring Ann and her family all the way back home to Lunenburg, Vermont. Then Ben would drive them up to her father’s farm where her parents were patiently, or not so patiently, awaiting her return. They would have liked the safe return of their only daughter back to them well over a year ago. They were both anxiously waiting to hold her again in their loving arms once again.
The second bus ride home for the children proved to be a worse one for their attitudes of sweet calmness as had the first one been down to Florida.
It had only been a very short three long days since they had last spent those many long hour on the bus trip south from Vermont. They had had something very important to look forward to back then on their first long trip, but had nothing quite as exciting for this trip back home as seeing their mommy back home.
Ann was extremely concerned for the children’s wellbeing and comfort as it weighted heavily on her mind while watching the two little babies of hers becoming more restless and sadder with the thought of the long journey back home. She told them how excited Grammy and Grandpa were for them to be back home with them to quiet them down.
She tried playing silly little games of counting different animals along the way which soon became old hat to them by not seeing animals the way things once were on planet Earth. The slow tedious bus ride back home for her family, showed Ann just how different life on planet Earth had become since she left over a year ago. Not that all of these changes had come from being gone so long, but had changed the way people lived their everyday lives because of the disaster that had taken place. The invasion of neutrons had changed just about everything that had been modern on the face of the earth at the time, especially the way Ann remembered it being before she left on her mission.
This new way of life she was hearing about of people living underground was becoming the new way of life for most people who still wanted to enjoy the many comforts of life like before. These lucky few people had enjoyed the many comforts of electrically operated equipment at their ready fingertips all their lives, and with many still lucky enough to have wealth, could afford the extreme pleasures of building these new dream homes beneath the crust of the earth, and living down there like kings and queens. The remaining worldly inhabitants, not affording these types of electrical suitable homes confined to the surface of earth, went without and would have to survive the best way they knew how to in their new environment.
Enjoying any night out on the town in these new days, people spent most their time underground in facilities permitting people to enjoy the modern-day conveniences of an old style life. The new life style above ground now spent like days of old, modern-day pioneers living out of doors in the countryside, enjoying the pleasures of open fires. Using the fire to see at night and to cook their meals the old fashioned way, with wood burning stoves, whilst lighting up the dark of nightlife with oil fired lanterns, along with coal fired stoves and wood burning furnaces for their winter’s heat, along with hurricane candle units for some light to read bye.
Many lights around the world already converted back to their old original old-fashioned oil and gas fired lanterns in lighting up the dark of night in streets and buildings alike. New old fashion ways of old, for all had been used in lighting up the dark over a hundred and fifty years or so ago, using Whale oil for fuel, but now with the convinces of copper, steel, and plastic piping, they piped in natural gas.
People of the new modern day today are using gas to cook with, to light up the dark, and heat their homes. These are among the few conveniences these lucky people today’s modern-day conveniences have in not needing electricity to run them. All they had to do was install gas-fired lights in their homes for lighting in the nighttime. The unfortunate others of the world have to use old messy oil fired lanterns with messy wicks that make soot stains on everyone’s walls and ceilings. Many people of the day started using soot free candles instead for their oil lights at night, making breathing easier for most, especially the ones who have experienced breathing problems.
All along the long way home, Ann watched as sout
hern farmers were out in their fields plowing, harrowing, while most used their horses doing what gas powered tractors use to do. The lucky farmers were the ones previously out-fitted with their own diesel-powered tractors who are now the elite farmers of modern day farmers. Some unlucky farmers were the ones out in the fields with their cows, goats, donkeys, and their children doing what a horse should have been doing out there instead. They also spotted hundreds of people out in fields along the way with hoes and shovels in hand, plowing the soil of the earth for survival. Others were planting seeds for food for their very needy families.
Things sure were different on planet Earth now than they had been before or at least they sure as hell seemed to be to her. Ann was just caught up in a state of awe looking at the differences that had taken place in just over a year. The roadways were almost vacant of any vehicles of any kind, compared to the last time she traveled along the busy highways on the earth.
All the hustle and bustle of traffic of cars trucks and busses was gone, with only a very few trucks on the roads hauling needy goods of wares and food from city to city and across the country. The railroad systems across the country were slowly improving and getting back to normal as normal could be at this time.
Huge diesel power driven locomotive engines driving big electrical turbines to generate enormous amounts of electricity to drive the trains’ truck unit forward and backward were history. Some of these trains the railroads outfitted with some sort of direct drive reduction, geared down truck units with clutches to push the big trains along using their diesel engines. These new trains are not as powerful as the old ones, but they still do their jobs. It just takes a little longer for them to commute from point a to point b, especially some of the old time steam locomotives of yesterday year that had to be put back into service from the many tour train attractions around the country.