“Point taken.” Frank laid Nick down. “Confused.”
Henry looked for Alexandra. “They’re not confused Frank. I’ll show you. Alex. What’s your dad’s name?”
“Which one? I have two,” she said.
Frank bobbed his head as if to say, ‘need more be said?’
Henry continued, “Alex, would you like to only have one dad?”
“One dad? That’s silly, Uncle Henry.” Like Ellen, she waved him off. “No one has one Dad.”
“But if you could, would you like to?”
“No. You need two dads. One to teach you smart things and one to teach you fun things.”
Henry smiled at Frank who looked pleased with the answer. “There you have it, Frank.”
“There I have it.” He sat down next to Henry. “The only thing I can’t figure out is what fun things Dean teaches. I think she’s confused.”
“So are you,” Henry said.
“No, I know who the fun parent is and it isn’t Dean or Ellen. They get too annoyed too easily with these kids.”
“You’re a good father, Frank.”
“I haven’t always been. Ask Johnny. Maybe that’s why I try so hard to be . . . to be . . .”
“To be the father to every available kid in Beginning?”
“Not every kid. Just the ones closely connected to Ellen.” His eyes shifted back toward the cradle.
“You’re going to be a big part of Nick’s life, Frank.”
“I know.”
“For as much as you share responsibility with Dean, that is how much you’ll share with me, if not more, Frank. I’m not good with this kid thing. At least not yet.”
“You’ll get there, Henry.”
“I’m sure I will. But for now, you’ll have the reigns. Nick needs to be where his mother is. I have a feeling,” Henry paused and looked down to Nick, “before long, she’ll be here all the time with you.”
Frank liked the sound of that and he felt it in his heart. But knowing Ellen, he’d believe it, when it actually happened.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
JULY 20
Frank grunted. He huffed and he grew more irritated by the second during his training on what seemed to be a really hot morning. “No. No. No!” He blasted. “What did I tell you? Don’t lock your knees. If you lock your knees you’ll pass out. Face forward too. I won’t stop you either because you have been warned. Got that?”
Little Joey, looking so much like Frank with his nearly shaved head, nodded. “Yes, Dad.”
“Good and Marcus,” Frank pointed at him, “I know you understand me. No locking them knees.”
Marcus sort of growled a friendly growl that let Frank know he understood him.
“All right.” Frank stepped back. “Enough for today. Good job. Go ahead back in the house.” Frank pointed ahead to his front door.
“Training them early?” Joe sneaked up behind him.
“Trying. They’re tough. Can’t start too soon.”
“What about Billy?”
“Billy is Dean and like Dean, if the old military was back, when Billy grew up he’d sap out and be an officer or something.”
“You know some people didn’t think of officers as people who sapped out.”
“Obviously those people weren’t enlisted men, were they?”
“You have a point.”
“So what’s up?” Frank asked as they headed to the house.
“Two things. One, why aren’t you working?”
“I’m going to work, just later. Dan is doing my rounds. I wanted to get them off to school today. With Henry, who knows what they’ll look like? Besides, I was tired. Fuckin Henry talked my ear off all night.”
“He’ll do that. He wonders why that baby doesn’t sleep. A small payback from all of us, I guess.”
“Pay back to Henry?” Frank laughed as he walked into the house. “Well if it’s a Henry payback, I’m paying the debt.”
“Second reason.” Joe followed him into the house. “Can you spare an hour this afternoon? Jason needs to see you over at containment.”
“He hates me.”
“Yeah, well, we all can’t be part of the Frank fan club, can we?”
“I guess not,” Frank shrugged. “His loss.” Frank walked to the kitchen. “I’ll come over, say around one after I finish my mid-morning rounds.”
“Sounds good.” Joe checked out his watch. “Now I’d better find Henry. There’s something he needs to fix and I didn’t want to put the req in the requisition box.”
“Why?” Frank asked as he poured a cup of coffee.
“Because of where he has to fix it…the mobile.”
“What the hell can they possibly break at the mobile?” Frank wondered as he set down his pot of coffee.
“Something in the trailer which works in Henry’s favor, except he can have no contact with Dean, Ellen, or Robbie. I can’t say he’d want to contact them. Robbie said this morning he’s going nuts. Ellen and Dean bicker constantly. And quit smiling about that.”
“Sorry.” Frank raised his mug to his lips. “So why are we hiding the fact that Henry has to go to the mobile?”
“I just don’t want people to panic, that’s all.” Joe began to leave. “Don’t forget about this afternoon.”
“What about it?” Frank asked as he followed Joe out.
“One o’clock.”
“O.K.” He moved to the door with Joe. “One o’clock for what?”
“Frank!” Joe barked. “Containment. Be there. It’s important.”
“Got it.” Frank held the door open for Joe. “Even though he hates me.”
“Well go there just to irk him.” Joe saw a smile hit Frank. “I thought you’d like that.” Joe stepped from the home. “Oh and by the way. You wanted to get the kids off to school. What makes you think you know more than Henry?”
“I do. I’ve been doing it longer.”
“Really. Then why aren’t they there when school started an hour ago.”
“Fuck.” Frank heard his father snicker as the door shut. Hurriedly, he headed up the steps to wake all the kids up. He slowed mid stairs when a part of his mind flashed to his and his father’s conversation. “What the hell do I have to go to containment for?” Scratching his head, Frank shrugged and headed the rest of the way up the stairs. He figured he’d find out when he got there at the time that they decided. But some reason, Frank forgot what that was.
<><><><>
Ellen’s hands stayed firmly on her hips, her head went side to side, and her body moved as much as her words did in her raised tone she threw at Dean. “It’s no wonder your ass was never promoted past First Lieutenant. They probably figured you would never know if they did anyhow, so why waste the promotion.”
Dean shook his head trying not to laugh in anger at her. “Where the hell is that insult coming from?”
“Your lack of knowledge.”
“My lack of knowledge about what?”
“Office products.”
“Oh there it is.” He held his hand out. “Thank you Ellen. Thank you very much for explaining that to me. Here I always wondered why I never made captain. What is it that I don’t know?”
“This.” She held up a small stack of reports. “You paper clipped them wrong.”
“I did what!?” His questioned reflected how ridiculous he though she was.
“Clipped them wrong.” She slammed the papers. “Any moron knows that the big side of the clip goes in the back, not the front.”
“And any moron knows that it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.”
Somewhere, maybe it was the constant turning of his head, maybe it was the remnants of his illness, but somewhere Robbie began to get dizzy. “You guys have me confused.” He held up his pencil. “By saying, ‘any moron’ does that constitute mean things said. I need to know if I’m going to complete Ellen’s list properly.” He saw them both turn their heads to him. “I’ll mark that down as a ‘yes’. I’ll stick it under ‘mean things De
an said’ right under where it states Dean insulted my penis.”
Dean’s mouth dropped open. “I never said anything to you about . . . forget it. Slagel mentality.”
Robbie held his pencil up. “Dean . . . insulted . . . . Robbie’s . . . intelligence.” He marked the end of the sentence with a hard dot. “Wow, this is fun. El, I hate to interrupt this ping pong match of insults that’s been going on for . . .” He looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes. But I would have at least thought you’d put it on hold to talk to Henry.”
Taking her stares from Dean, Ellen looked to the window. “He’s not there.”
“No.” Robbie said. “He’s in the trailer fixing that bad outlet that sparked on you twice.”
“Henry’s here?” Ellen smiled. “Why didn’t he come over? Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He's probably not allowed?” Robbie guessed. “Ask Dean. He knew.”
Ellen saw red. “You knew!? Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“First of all,” Dean spoke defensively, “I don’t have to explain myself. Second, I didn’t want you to know because I didn’t want you two to get close or touch because God knows if you did that, he’d be here in quarantine with us for twelve hours. It’s bad enough I put up with you. I don’t need to put up with that constant, rambling, female-style, old lady gossiping you two do.”
“Oh really?”
“Really.” He laid his hand on the counter leaning close.
“Watch this.” With speed, and before Dean knew it, Ellen flew from the mobile lab. “Henry!” She raced, hearing Dean chase after her. His tennis shoes thumping against the floor at the same speed as hers. “Henry.”
“Hey El.” Henry stood by the sink, the outlet exposed. “Don’t come too close or else . . .” He knew exactly why Dean screamed loudly ‘no!’ when Ellen threw her arms around his neck, and cut off his words when she placed her lips directly to his. “Oh my God, El.” Henry stepped back. “Why did you do that? Now I’m . . . I’m . . . .” He grinned. “I’m in here with you for twelve hours.”
Ellen smiled too. “Isn’t that great Henry?”
“Yeah I missed you.” He looked at Dean who folded his arms. “Isn’t that great Dean? We’ll have fun.”
“Swell.” Ready to kill Ellen, Dean tossed his hands in the air in a give-up fashion and spun to leave the kitchen nearly walking into Robbie who still held the notebook. “What are you doing, Robbie?”
“Keeping score.” He closed the notebook. “Dean, she’s winning now.”
<><><><>
Dean tried to work, he really did. He kept trying to block out the conversation that went on and on, but despite his head being buried in the computer, their voices kept intruding. No matter how many times he let out that huffing breath, slammed his hands, or even turned around to tell them to shut up, Ellen and Henry kept going. To make matters worse, Robbie would egg them on. A form of Robbie entertainment, Dean deducted. How anyone one could derive that much pleasure out of irritating people was beyond Dean. At least Henry and Ellen sort of did it unintentionally, but Robbie actually planned sometimes on ways to do it.
Dean had to stop working. This time it had nothing to do with the chattering. It had everything to do with his eyes. He sat staring forward pretending to work, while sitting in total darkness. Did they notice? Would they? It was the first time in three hours Dean actually wanted them to keep talking because as long as Ellen and Henry kept their conversation up, they didn’t notice what went on around them. If they didn’t notice, surely Robbie wouldn’t. Robbie--like everyone else--was to be like Dean was at that moment . . . in the dark.
With the ceasing of chattering, there was total silence. Dean began to panic. Either they figured out what was happening and they were staring at him like some freak or he just went deaf as well. Why did they stop talking? Are my eyes rolling funny? Shit. Dean tried to figure out what was going on without asking. Then he heard the simultaneous whines from Robbie, Ellen, and Henry. Dean wanted more than anything to ask what was going on but he couldn’t do that.
“Aw El,” Henry griped. “No. Stay here.”
“I have to Henry.” Ellen spoke perkily, squeaking her chair as she stood up.
“Please, please, please don’t.”
“Henry, I have to.” Tapping him on the cheek, she moved to the window. “I’ll be back.”
Hard, Henry plopped his elbows on the table, and like a child, covered his ears with his hands causing his hair to stand up and out on the sides of his head. “Let me know when it’s over with.”
Ellen picked up her radio. “Jenny.” She stood closer hoping to block Henry’s view of her.
“Hi Ellen.” Jenny shifted to her right. “Why is Henry in there?”
“Oh.” Ellen spoke so annoyed-like. “Dean’s fault. He was so happy to see Henry, he kissed him.”
“You’re kidding?” Jenny seemed shocked.
“No. And he’s supposed to be the big scientist. To think, he was just asking me today why I thought he never got promoted past lieutenant.”
“He really should have known better.”
“Call it reaching for affection, Jenny.” Ellen looked back at Dean to get a charge out of his irritation, but he kept his back to her. “Anyhow, Jenny, how come you came up?”
“Ben finished his preliminary sketches of the bridesmaid dresses.” She held them up. “What do you think? We need your approval.”
Ellen peered through the window to closely check out the drawings of the dresses. “Not bad. What color?”
“Blue.”
“Figures. Good. I like . . . Except . . . can we lose the bow on the backside.”
“My sentiments exactly.” Jenny tucked the sketches under her arm. “Nothing worse than having a large rear-end with a large bow on it to match.”
“Couldn’t have said it better.”
“I should be going. Ben said he’ll have the shell of the dresses done in a week so we can start the fittings. If you hear from John, I wasn’t up here.”
This grasped Ellen attention. “Why? Aren’t you supposed to be here?”
“He just gets a little weird when I mention I’m going to be here, so I’d rather him not know. He isn’t happy about us talking now, Ellen. He also isn’t happy about you joining the women’s group.”
“So neither is Henry. That makes it even. But now . . . “ Ellen held her hand back. “I should go talk to him because he’s here and it really drives Dean nuts.”
“You do that then. But don’t drive him too nuts. You still have a few days left in quarantine.”
“True. Bye Jenny.” Waiting for Jenny to leave and for her to yell across her radio a long goodbye to Henry, Ellen walked back over to the section of the lab where Robbie, Henry, and Dean were. Dean’s back was still to them. “Sorry Henry.”
“Just promise me, El, promise me you won’t stay friends with her when this whole thing is said and done.”
“I promise you, Henry.”
“I bet Frank is going crazy. I have to get back there to help him with the kids.”
“Oh Henry.” Ellen pulled up a stool and sat next to him. “I bet you’re a wonderful help.”
“I am, El. Guess what I learned how to do?”
“What’s that?”
“Burp a baby,” Henry said with a nod. “Yeah. Only I can’t figure out if the child really needs help in burping or if it is some sort of secret sick parent thing to torture your children when they keep you up all night.”
“They do look tortured when you burp them.”
“And they leak badly if you don’t.”
“It’s a no win situation like being here with Dean.” She hid her giggle when Henry snickered. “See.”
“I see.” Henry spun around to look at Dean. “And why is he being so snippy today?”
“He always is anymore. He’s being very mean. Remember how he was when we were in quarantine before? Nasty.”
“Oh you aren’t kidding. And he was jealous too,
El. Don’t forget jealous,” Henry told her then looked to Robbie. “Robbie, you’re lucky that he’s not being that way with you. Or is he?”
“He is.” Robbie said. “In fact Henry, he sunk as low as to include me in one of his and Ellen’s arguments and he insulted me. No, wait, he insulted my penis.”
Dean wanted to spin around in his own defense but his eyes weren’t fully back yet so unfortunately, he had to stay with his back facing them. It was driving Dean nuts and he was counting down the minutes until Henry left. He held high hopes when Henry failed to come to the lab that he was actually avoiding Ellen. But if that was the case, it was a short lived phase. One Dean wished would return. There was too much work to do and Henry wasn’t making it easy.
<><><><>
Seven people weren’t many to be in containment, but even seven people made noise. They moved, they breathed, and they acted like human beings, not zombies. So why, when Joe walked into the skills room of containment, did he find those seven people like that, sitting straight up in a circle of chairs? None of them moved. None of them spoke and nor did they even acknowledged Joe when he walked into the room. Jason was the only one who moved. He stood walking slowly around the men. His one arm draped across his waist, the other hand rubbed his chin. There was a weird enjoyment look on Godrichson’s face, one that Joe couldn’t understand. Yes, he too enjoyed the quiet moment that was rare in containment but seeing the vision before Joe actually gave him the creeps. What had Jason done to them? “Jason,” Joe whispered
“Oh hi Joe.” Jason was taken from his deep staring thought. “Just on time.”
“I’m frightened, Jason. What the hell did you give these people? Some new drug?”
“Who them?” Jason pointed. “No. I did it, Joe.”
“Did what?”
“I learned the art of hypnosis and rather well if I might add.”
“Well, that certainly is a useful skill to have in Beginnings,” Joe said with sarcasm.
“It is when you need to jar someone’s memory like your ape-like son has been asking me to do for Dean.”
“Oh shit,” Joe remembered. “It’s been so long I had forgotten about it.”
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 271