The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans

by M. Evans

  Chapter 9

  Day -120: January 31th, 2017 World Population 7,345,131,375

  Shaun followed Ellie in the doorway and closed it behind them. Ellie looked at the array of red movie boxes, and reviewed the selection. "Shaun this is awesome! How'd you get so many good ones on a Friday?"

  Shaun came back in with the pizza boxes and two giant cups filled to the brim with pop. He was losing confidence with his balancing skills and murmured. "Pop, pop, get the pop! Gonna lose the pop!"

  Ellie tapped her chin and let Shaun sweat a second longer before helping him. "Which one did you spike, young Mr. Fox?"

  Shaun winked without missing a beat. "Spiking them? What are you talking about? I spiked them both, of course!"

  Ellie grabbed both drinks and set them down. She set up the blu ray player, disappeared into the kitchen, and returned with napkins and plates. Shaun looked at her as he hadn't for a second considered getting those when he was in there.

  Ellie looked over at Shaun. "Do you think tonight's the night?"

  Shaun shook his head. "I hope not. I could eat like this every weekend. Maybe he'll chicken out tonight."

  "He doesn't really seem like the chickening out type."

  "He isn't.... It's not in his DNA."

  "So is that why your dad beat you to telling me about how you feel about me, or are you lacking that gene?"

  Shaun about choked on his pizza and stared, wiping his face and lips. "He just didn't know I had you stowed away in my room! I was waiting 'til the right time! Besides, you do remember that you weren't interested, right?"

  Ellie took a deep breath and a drink of her pop. She met Shaun's eye. "You expect me to know what I want at all times? It's not like I can't change my mind."

  Shaun got as tight as a knot. He couldn't believe this might actually be happening. He wanted to grab the words back after he let them slip from his lips. "What about my dad and your mom? They're intending on making the two of us related!"

  Ellie shrugged and scooted closer to Shaun, wrapping her delicate arms around his neck. "Well, he hasn't done it yet." With that said she leaned into him, and gave him the first soft wet kiss of his young life.

  Shaun's eyes grew large and then closed them and let his worries melt away. He rested his hands on her sides because he wasn't sure what else he was allowed to do with them. She broke away smiling, looking down and a little embarrassed. "Well, Mr. Fox, what did you put in that drink?"

  Shaun smiled, turning red. "I think you came here this evening to seduce me!"

  "We'd best watch some of these movies in case your dad quizzes you later."

  Shaun smiled, picking up his dinner, and thought this was only the beginning and whatever comes of it he'll take.... This could be the best year of his life.

  Chapter 10

  Day -118: February 1st, 2017 World Population 7,345,344,345

  The next morning, Karen rolled over and rubbed her hand up Frank's smooth chest. Frank reached for her hand. "Good morning," he whispered.

  She sat up on her elbow brushing her hair from her face. "How'd you sleep?" She looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. "I can't believe we slept to nine!"

  Frank's eyes popped open and he sat up straight in a panic. "We never picked up Ellie! I hadn't meant for us to fall asleep!"

  Karen sighed and slipped out of bed knowing just as well they were in it deep. She was already up and sliding on a pair of jeans and looking for a shirt. Frank redressed in his clothes from the night before--everything that was crisp was now full of wrinkles having been thrown on the floor in the heat of the moment.

  Karen checked her phone and blushed. "We are so busted! Listen to this message from Ellie...."

  "Hi, mom. Thank you for picking me up last night.... Oh, wait! You went home without me and never picked me up! Hugs and kisses.... Don't worry--we have plenty of movies, food, and drink to keep us entertained and out of trouble for the rest of the night."

  Frank was fumbling with buttons on his shirt. "You don't think they got into any trouble do you, Karen?"

  "I don't know. Do you trust two teenagers in the same house overnight with no adult supervision?"

  Frank quit fumbling with the buttons and collected the items that had fell onto the floor. Karen, who had nothing to pack, was almost ready. She hit the remote start on Frank's pickup to get the snow covered windshield thawed. He got his last shoe on and they loaded into the truck. If it wasn't for how his son felt about Ellie, he wouldn't have been worried in the least.

  "What will we tell the kids?"

  Frank replied, "You really think they'll ask?"

  Karen's face went red thinking of Ellie and her missing gene which made her modesty filter sometimes very hard to control. "Well, I hope you aren't the shy type. She's only thirteen and I'm sure that she'll only get worse."

  Frank frowned as they came up to a stop sign. "How is that supposed to make me feel better!?"

  Karen shrugged. "Hell, if I knew it was more of a statement than anything, to tell you the truth, it didn't really make me feel much better, either."

  Frank fishtailed skidding into the driveway just waiting to be shoveled. Karen, for the life of her, wasn't sure what she was so nervous about. Ellie had told her it wasn't an issue, but Karen knew as well that teenage girls were anything but decisive about what and who they liked.

  Frank and Karen parked in the driveway and tried as quietly as possible to enter the house without waking up the teens. Their attempts at being quiet ensured they had hit every creak the old house had in it. They heard the television on and peered around the corner at the living room and saw Ellie's and Shaun's heads poking out from the couch.

  They were staring intently at a movie which neither of them knew. Ellie shouted above the film, "We'd better get dressed and put your dads booze away before they get home...!"

  Karen, in a tone only a mother could possess, yelled, "Ellie Gene Randall! You had better, for the sake of your own life, be kidding or so help me I will--"

  Both teens leapt to their feet dancing around pointing at their parents. "Francis," Shaun mocked, "do you have any idea what time it is! You missed curfew by about nine hours young man! Why Ellie and I have been worried sick about you two! Don't you two know how to use a phone? It's why we let you have one for the love of God!"

  Frank and Karen just stared at the overly dramatic, and completely dressed, flailing teens. Shaking their heads, they walked to the kitchen where the echoes of teen laughter followed them. Frank pulled out the coffee and a fresh filter and started brewing a strong giant pot. Karen saw how strong he was making it and inquired, "Apparently, you're hoping that you don't blink the rest of the weekend, huh?"

  Frank looked around the corner of the kitchen. "If people thought I was a workaholic before, I'm going to give it a new definition. I'm going to have Rogers, my assistant, help me with this. The research will be too much to do on my own--too important. If you need me I'll be there in a heartbeat, but I'll be working non-stop. I'm going to find my journals and get a plan together to modify the experiment to work. The basic structure that we had in Iraq is the key. It's the key to everything. I need you to stop in today--it will be less strange having you in there on a Saturday, and I'll make sure Rogers isn't around."

  "What do you need me to do, and why is it that Rogers can't be there?"

  "I need blood samples. It's what we need to fix. If we can get your CBC back up to what it should be, then we will know it's working."

  Karen came up behind and hugged him. "Good! For a second I thought you wanted my help. I was going to remind you I'm in accounting, not research and development."

  Shaun entered the kitchen rubbing his hair. "Developing what dad? Did they give you a new assignment at work?"

  Frank stammered and nodded. "Yes, Shaun. I need to get to work on it right away. They have a real tight timeline they're pushing me on. Supposedly our company isn't the only one that wants to get this out on the market before summer."

 
Shaun shrugged, disinterested already. "So you're saying it's the same as usual, huh?"

  Frank grabbed his thermos filling it to the brim. He thought about what Shaun said. "This one is pretty important son. I need you to give me a little leeway on this one, okay?"

  "Shaun," Karen interjected, "he told me about it last night, and this is the kind of thing that E&T should have been working on for years."

  Ellie saw this was going to get ugly quick if Shaun and his dad started fighting about being gone all the time. She looked around for a topic changer, and was practically hit in the face by the new diamond and gold ring on her mom's hand. She screamed, drawing everyone's attention and pointing at it. Shaun saw it and his shoulders sunk--something Frank didn't miss. Ellie hugged her mom. "Apparently, you had a reason to go out last night and celebrate!"

  Karen smiled, hugging her back. "Thanks, honey. It would seem that we're going to be one big happy family."

  "We're not rushing anything," Frank added. "We wanted to make sure to give you two time to adjust."

  Shaun's face was turning three shades of red. He was feeling sick to his stomach and thinking that his start to things getting better was short-lived. He sat on the couch looking at the messy living room from the night before, and decided it was probably best to get things picked up.

  Frank offered to drive the girls home. He took his box from the attic which had his military medical journals with detailed notes in it with him, along with the coffee. After the drive, he walked the girls up to their front door.

  Ellie grinned. "Now, don't you kids sit out here kissing all day! Karen has got a ton of chores and homework to do if she wants to go to the sock hop tonight!"

  Karen turned around peering at her daughter. "You aren't even close to the right decade, smart ass! Get inside! And I'm not that old!"

  Frank gave her a long passionate kiss and an even longer hug, and whispered, "I love you more than anything." He took a deep breath and continued, "... And I'm going to save you. I know it."

  Karen squeezed his arm and felt a small amount of relief for the first time since getting the news a week ago. "I know you will."

  Frank smiled again. "Why don't you catch a shower and get something to eat, and meet me at the lab as soon as you can? I need blood work to be able to start, but take your time. I have hours of reading ahead of me. I'm going to have to bring Rogers completely up to speed as well."

  "Do you really think that he'll help you?"

  Frank shook his head. "The greedy little bastard will never need to work again when this works."

  "You think the cure to cancer would catch on?"

  "Are you kidding? It would make Bill Gates look like a hobo! I'm just sorry I didn't keep pursuing it years ago. Maybe I'd have saved millions of people by now."

  Karen showered and made scrambled cheesy eggs with ham as Ellie hit the shower next. When breakfast was ready, Ellie sat down and opened a can of cola to match her mother's mug of coffee. "So, how was last night, mom? I want all of the details!"

  Her mom stared at her. "You know, sometimes you're so weird. You're aware that you're thirteen, not thirty, right?"

  "You love me for it! And did you want to explain to me what being a thirty-year-old is like, mother?"

  Karen smiled. "I love you more and more every day." She proceeded to tell Ellie about the romantic fancy restaurant, the delicious meal and about the dessert tray. She mentioned how wonderful everything was and how happy she was when Frank proposed. She had decided she would withhold some of the details from Ellie until need be. She couldn't bring herself to tell her daughter she had cancer, even after Frank mentioned he thought he could save her. She had to tweak her engagement story or Ellie would have known.

  Ellie clapped her hands. "Oh, that sounds so romantic, mom! I can only imagine how happy you must be!"

  Karen wiped her lips. "You know, I can honestly say that I feel a new hope for life and the future, Ellie."

  Ellie had a little smile. "Wow. You must have had a really great time. No wonder you didn't pick me up last night!"

  "Ellie Randall! We aren't supposed to have conversations like this until you're at least twenty! Thirty would be better!"

  "Oh, the talks we will get to have! It'll be awesome!"

  Karen stood up, grabbed her keys and coffee, walked around the table to Ellie's side and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Have a good day, honey. Don't rush growing up, baby. Be good, please!"

  Ellie shrugged non-committally. "It's too early in the day to make a decision like that. Are you going to be home today or is tonight your turn to sleep at the Fox household?"

  "Frank is starting that new project today, so there probably won't be too many episodes like last night."

  ****

  Ellie heard the garage door going up and noticed that her mom's purse was lying on the counter. She grabbed it and ran for the garage. The garage door just finished going down as she got up to it. She sighed hoping her mom wouldn't need it. She sent a text letting her know she forgot it, but heard a phone buzzing after she sent the text--her mother also left her cell at home.

  Ellie looked around the kitchen and thought she'd clean it up. She put the plates in the sink and cleaned up the leftover mess. The Saturday sirens started blaring the fire department made sure every week that the tornado sirens were up and in working order, regardless of the time of year. She grabbed her phone and texted Shaun, "Adel's being invaded! Russians?"

  Shaun sent back a winking smiley face. ";-) I'm pretty sure it's just Saturday. You want to go see a movie today if the Ruskies don't take control?"

  Ellie flirted back, "I don't know you and I seem to get into all kinds of trouble when we watch movies together."

  "Only the good kind of trouble, I'll be a perfect gentleman."

  "Well in that case forget it."

  Shaun returned, "Meet you in an hour at your place?"

  Ellie replied, "Don't take too long making yourself handsome."

  "LOL, I'm handsome all day long!"

  Ellie sat the phone down on the counter and looked at her mom's purse sitting there laying sideways and open. She noticed a red stamp on an envelope that said "Medical & Confidential". She didn't usually snoop through her mom's stuff, but her mom never kept anything from her, and she had an hour to kill. For a minute, while opening it, she actually thought maybe her mom was pregnant. She thought to herself that would be freaking insane! She didn't really have any intentions of being a big sister but wouldn't look down on the idea.

  She looked at the papers and every line made her a bit more curious. She read a description which made absolutely no sense to her using unfamiliar terms. She scanned over the paper and only one thing really stuck out.

  Bone cancer--level five.

  The word cancer hit her like a sledgehammer. She put the paper back down with shaking hands and looked around the empty house. She couldn't help but think about Shaun and his late mother. The tears flowed freely, and she called E&T but couldn't get a hold of her mom.

  She couldn't believe her mom was going through this alone and hadn't told her yet. At the same time she couldn't see her getting engaged to Frank last night if her mom thought the illness was serious. There was no way she would put someone through that, but sometimes love is blind. Even worse she couldn't think of a way to bring this up which wasn't short of telling her mom how she had completely invaded her personal privacy. She didn't think her mom would get mad, but she didn't want to instigate the conversation either. She wished she hadn't made plans with Shaun now.

  ****

  Karen headed straight up to the office. She went to check her cell and realized she'd forgotten it along with her purse. She was hoping Frank wouldn't need to see any of the medical papers, but knew she could make copies of them when she got home and send them directly by email. She didn't have any idea how he was going to do this, but knew he would try anything. She loved him so much it really did seem like this was a match made in heaven. The fact he might have
the ability to save her felt like she had a guardian angel looking out for her.

  She kept thinking about Ellie, worried she might go through her purse if she needed money for anything. She couldn't think about how upset her daughter would be if she saw the medical papers. She made a decision right there and then to make sure to talk to her soon--she didn't want it to be more awkward than it needed to be.

  She came up behind Frank and gave him a kiss on the back of his head. There were three empty foam cups lying side by side on the desk and a half eaten bag of donuts lying on its side. Karen said, "You must be good because I've heard only the sloppiest scientists ever discover anything. Please don't tell me you keep that sexy body so finely tuned eating like this."

  Frank looked up smiling, took off his black reading glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He stood grabbing a cup. "Let's walk down to the coffee machine. I have a double bag brewing and I'm ready for a refill. I try to eat healthy, usually, but when a vending machine is going to be breakfast, lunch, and supper, one tends not to be too picky. The cafeteria isn't open on the weekends."

  "Well, as long as I'm feeling among the living, I'll make sure to bring you meals every so often. I got to keep my man strong so you don't get sick. We need to take care of ourselves."

  Frank nodded. "Home cooked food would be great! I'd be even more grateful to know that Shaun would have some warm meals every so often. He is pretty self-reliant, but he would never ask you for help. To tell you the truth, I hate being gone away all the time from the house, but it just seems like we can't get along to save our lives sometimes."

  Karen frowned. "Is it me?"

  "No! It's not you, personally. It's Ellie--he likes her and he thinks I'm ruining his chances."

  "It's always money or love right?"

  Frank nodded leaning into kiss her. "I told him already that there wouldn't be any discussion about it. A teenage crush comes and goes, but that true love can't be passed on."

  "Well, how did he take that?"

  "Poorly, but he's young and I think that he's going to come around eventually. He isn't really the type to talk about how he feels." Frank, forgetting his coffee, pointed to the seat next to a row of syringes and other blood collecting materials. "What I want to do is take a half a pint, and then every seven days we'll take your CBC results. It's all we need to verify that it's not getting worse. I want you to get on a heavy vitamin regimen. You can take these," he continued, pointing at some small bottles. "I have them all showing what dosage you need and how often. It won't stop the cancer but should take care of anything else you could possibly get."