“Are you done?” Henry said, words shaking. “Can ... can we talk? Please. I screwed up. I did. I was angry, hurt, and I screwed up. And ...”
“I don’t care. I really ...” Frank tossed his cigarette and walked by Henry. “Just don’t care.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
AUGUST 1
Her anticipation for the return of her telephone was borderline greater than the impending arrival of her first child. Singing the ‘Silly’ song in her own country-music mode, Trish made her way to Mechanics. It was eight a.m. Saturday, so where was her phone? After she had dropped it off the day before, she informed Mechanics seven times that she needed her phone back. It wasn’t even one of those silly requisitions she put in either. It was a real one.
Figuring one of two things would happen, Trish went to Mechanics. Either she would get her phone back or she would hurry them along by frightening Scott into fixing that problem.
“Hello?” Trish called out, opening the door to Mechanics. “Scott? John? Henry? Robbie?” Shrugging, she stepped inside. No one was around. Wanting to leave them a note with a piece of her mind, demanding the return of her phone, Trish searched for paper to write it on. As her hand reached across the bench table, she spotted three phones in the ‘return’ box in Scott’s work area. Three requisitions lay on top.
Peeking at the requisitions, she saw one of the phones was indeed hers, fixed and ready to go. But which one? They all looked alike. Using what she deducted as reasonable thinking, Trish chanted her way through ‘eeny-meany-miney-mo’ and grabbed the last one her finger landed on.
Happy with the return of her communication ability, Trish carried the phone with her and headed back down to History before the rush, she waited for every morning, hit.
<><><><>
Golf.
George was more grateful than anything to find out that not only was it a perfect sunny day, but his people had also finished with the first nine holes on the Former Quantico golf course. How long he had waited to play a round and he would get his chance, but business was first.
“Five minutes after three.” He slammed down a paper in front of his Communications leader in command room. “Contact John Matoose starting at five minutes after three and repeat it until he picks up. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do you have for me?”
Turning from his Morse code area, Steward handed a stack of papers to George. “We decoded these this morning, sir.”
“Give me a briefing on them.” George removed his glasses from his pocket, placed them on, and skimmed the reports from his outside areas.
“Basically, sir, weather is getting bad in North Carolina. They’re expecting a hurricane to hit there within the next few days. One of our larger outdoor camps is there. What should they do?”
“How many live there? Refresh my memory.”
Steward gave a guessing face. “That’s not my area, sir, probably six, six-hundred fifty.”
“Hmm.” George looked over the report. “Signal back to them to send out a scouting party farther east. Find a safer area, bolt down the camp as tight as they can get it, take supplies, and move out until the danger passes.”
“Will do.” Steward wrote it down. “Got word from Charlotte. They have repaired the old steam engines. They’re ready when we are.”
“Signal them back.” George grabbed a pen and began to write. “Let them know that the messenger should be arriving with our mail today. The reports on the mining crews in West Virginia, we’ll fill them in on that. Until the mining begins, we’ll go on and run a shipment of what they had in reserve coal down to them.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Anything else pressing?”
“No, sir.”
“All right.” George pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. “Between three and three thirty Montana time, you make these calls, you and your men. I need Farming Areas Three, Seventeen, and Twenty-Two, on the line with answers about where their weekly crop reports are. This is our first real harvest, and I have a load of men ready to go to that canning facility. I have to let them know what to expect in preparations for fall and winter.”
“I’ll take care of that.” Steward took the paper George handed him.
“What time does your shift end?” George asked.
“Seven p.m., sir.”
“So you’ll still be around when the answers come in.” George looked at his watch. “All right, I’m off to the golf course. Stop by my house when you’re done, with some answers for me. But one thing, Stew.”
“What’s that, sir?” Steward started to return to his work.
“Find me the instant you get through to John Matoose, hear?” Getting his agreement from Steward, George, glad that his business for the day was on hold, headed off to the golf course he had waited so long to play. It would feel good to get out there and not think about Beginnings, John Matoose, or anything that had to deal with the western part of the country, at least not for nine holes worth of time.
<><><><>
It was an unusual sight for John Matoose when he walked into his home for his Saturday morning break for breakfast with his family. Jenny, in the kitchen, was wearing a robe as she cooked. Jenny had never—not been fully dressed when they shared his break. Was she sick? Stopping to kiss his baby daughter, who sat patiently in her highchair in the dining room awaiting her breakfast as she drank from a bottle, John walked up to behind Jenny, kissing her on the cheek. “Not feeling well?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m fine.” Jenny tucked her hair behind her ear as she scrambled the eggs. “I’m a little behind today, sorry.”
“No problem. Did you sleep in?”
“You could say that. I think I finally fell asleep around five this morning.”
“Why were you up so late?”
Jenny shrugged.
“Jen?”
She turned off the burner, removing the pan from the hot element. “John, I just feel so bad about last night. I feel so responsible.”
“Don’t.” John reached for the plates in the cupboard. “You tried, Jenny. You gave it your best shot to stop the situation.”
“What went wrong? How did it get to that point?”
“I’ll tell you how. Henry was drunk and angry. And Bev, you know the way she is.”
“She totally took out of context what we as women have been trying to accomplish.”
“There’s always one.” John saw how down his wife looked. “You cannot let this get to you.”
“I can’t help it. I feel as if I were the one Henry betrayed. Maybe because I held out hope that at the last minutes they would make up.”
“Not now they won’t, especially now that Ellen knows.”
“Oh no.”
“Jenny.”
“No, John.” Jenny began to dish out breakfast. “It wasn’t right. I will apologize to her for being there and not stopping it. She’ll hate me again, I know she will.”
“Why do you care if she hates you?”
“But we’ve been trying,” Jenny spoke emotionally. “We have really been trying. Ellen and I were making progress. With her being someone I have known since I was six years old, I wanted to work it out with her. I really did.” She lifted the plates. “And now, I can forget about that.”
John watched Jenny carry the plates slowly to the dining room, sit down at the table, and wipe her hands down her face. Jenny looked as if she had just lost her best friend. As weird as it seemed to John, he had to wonder if perhaps Jenny was worried about losing someone she actually wanted to be that best friend.
<><><><>
There was a lump in Henry’s throat that hesitated his swallowing as he walked into Warehouse Seven. Slowly he walked, with that frightened feeling he hadn’t had since he was a child who got a bad grade and his mother sent him to speak to his father. In an essence, it was nearly the same thing at that moment walking through the warehouse, looking for Joe who had summoned h
im. He didn’t exactly know why. Henry could only assume it had to do with his behavior the night before. It was no longer a secret, if it had been, Bev made sure everyone knew. She acted to Henry like a schoolgirl, and they were now this ‘new’ couple.
When Henry walked in, Joe was counting blankets on the bottom shelf. A clipboard in his hand, pencil in his mouth, he spoke to Henry without facing him, “Is that you, Henry?”
“Uh ... yeah, Joe.” Henry took an apprehensive step to him. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yep.”
Henry was so nervous. He placed his hands in his pockets while his heart beat faster and faster.
“I need you to figure out sometime today when we can have a mechanical meeting. I’m gonna be in here for another hour or so then I have to take Danny around Beginnings,” Joe told him.
“A mechanical meeting? For what?” Henry asked.
“I want to see what we can do and who we can get to ease that load you have backed up in there.” Joe set down the clipboard and stood with a grunt. “I was there this morning. And I counted seventy-two reqs sitting in the in box, waiting to be looked at.”
“I know, Joe, we got hit this week really bad,” Henry told him.
“I figured as much. So pull the meeting together, maybe before we all head off to the field for the game. We’ll sit down together, divide them up, and read through them to see what is important, trivial, and so forth. We’ll see what Mechanics can do or if we need to put on someone else. Sound good?”
“Sounds good.”
“Thanks.” Joe picked his clipboard back up and returned to bending down at the bottom shelf. “Henry? Why are you still here?”
“Is that all, Joe?”
“Yep.” Joe cleared his throat and counted.
“There’s nothing else you want to talk to me about?”
“Nope.”
“Not even about last night?” Henry was certain Joe knew.
“Nope.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Were you expecting me to?” Joe continued in his counting.
“Yeah I was.”
“Well you’re not getting it from me.”
“Do you hate me?”
Joe lifted his head from his clipboard. “No I don’t hate you, Henry. I’m disappointed in you but I don’t hate you.”
“Thanks, Joe.” Henry backed up and turned around. “Joe? Can you ... can you tell me anything I can do?”
“There’s not much you can do.” Joe stopped counting and stood. “What’s done is done, Henry. You weren’t married to her. I think the reason other people are so up-in-arms is because they didn’t know that you two weren’t going to really marry. They thought this was a rough spot and then you went with Bev. That’s why people see this as wrong. Ellen, sees it as wrong because you puppy-dog her to be her friend and her companion, proclaim your love, and then in a drunken binge, you easily ... well, you know. In the scheme of things, you’re a single man, you did nothing wrong. How you went about it, was where you made your mistake. No one has the right to get mad at you about this. Really, if you think about it. In my eyes, and from what you both told me, you and Ellen weren’t a real couple. Why my daughter is so angry with you, and this goes before the incident, I don’t know.” Joe paused. “Is there something I should know?”
Henry stared at Joe. There was a lot that Joe didn’t know, one big thing, but Henry wasn’t going to tell Joe. Not him. Not ever. He simply shook his head.
“Then just move on with it. It’ll get better.” Joe returned to his position on the floor and started counting as if Henry wasn’t there.
To Henry, Joe made a lot of sense. But if he really did nothing wrong, then why did he feel so poorly.
<><><><>
“Twelve,” Ellen stated, counting the chalk in the supply closet of the skills room.
“Twelve?” Robbie questioned that. “That’s it?”
“That’s it. God, I hate the first of the month.”
“El, we had twenty-five pieces of chalk last month.”
“And now we have twelve. I’m telling you, Os-Oscar has been eating them.”
“Did you tell Dean this?” Robbie questioned.
“Why would I tell Dean that?”
“Because if Os-Oscar is eating the chalk, he obviously has a deficiency somewhere in his body.”
Ellen swayed her head to Robbie. “His brain, Robbie. Can we stop now? I’m tired of counting. We have until Tuesday.”
Robbie looked down at his watch. “Yeah. I have to get to Mechanics. We are swamped in there.”
“You aren’t taking Danny out of here and showing him around?” Ellen asked as she locked up the supply closet, followed Robbie out of the skills room, and down the hall.
“That’s my Dad’s duty today. He’ll be here shortly, I’m guessing. Good luck with that.” He moved to the door and stopped before pressing in the security code. “See you later.” He winked and then left.
Placing her hands behind her back, Ellen started to stroll to her office to finish her stupid reports and bide the rest of her shift time in Containment. It was quiet and she didn’t want it to be that way. Quiet times always made her think. So she retracted her steps and went to the men’s quarters. “Hey.” She knocked on the archway.
Danny stood up from the bed, so neat, so clean. “Is it time?”
“No, we have to wait for slow-poke Joe. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out with me in my office until I end my shift or Joe gets here, whichever is first.”
“I’d like that.” Danny walked to her. “I have my stuff all packed up.”
“I see that.” Ellen walked down the hall with him. “Great hair.”
“Thanks.” Danny ran his hand over the back of his hair. “So what’s it like outside?”
“You mean Beginnings?” Ellen walked into her office first.
“No, I mean the weather.”
“Oh it’s hot. It’s August you know. Have a seat.” She pulled the chair closer to her desk and walked behind to take her own seat. Just as she lowered herself completely, she stopped. “Shit.”
“What?” Danny looked at the door to where she stared. John Matoose stood there.
“Ellen.” John walked in. “Can I talk to you?”
“No. I don’t like you, John.”
“And I don’t like you, but this isn’t about our difficulties. This is about my wife.”
“What about her?” Ellen spoke with attitude. “I didn’t say anything about her or to her.”
“Just make sure it stays that way.”
“Oh, John, go away.”
“I’m serious, Ellen,” he spoke strongly.
“I am too. Leave.”
“Not before you hear me out.” He pointed. “I have my wife at home right now crying her eyes out, sick to her stomach because she thought she failed last night.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She feels bad, Ellen, really bad about what happened with Henry. She was there and she blames herself for not being able to stop it. I just don’t want you making her feel any worse when she approaches you about it.”
“I won’t say anything but thank you.”
“I appreciate it. Henry ... Henry was out of control.” John stepped back. “That’s all.”
Danny watched Ellen just staring at the door that John left through. “You can tell me it’s none of my business, but ... what happened last night?”
“I guess it won’t be a secret if John knows.” Ellen turned her view finally from that door, back to Danny.
“Henry was with somebody else?”
Ellen’s eyes widened. “Boy, news travels fast.”
“No.” Danny shook his head with a laugh. “Good guess on my part. Typical male move. Can I ask a really stupid question?”
“Sure.”
“I thought there weren’t that many women here. I thought they were all taken. How did Henry get one?”
“That’s a really easy qu
estion to answer. He was with Bev. Bev uses it as a tool, and Henry is on Council. There is a certain power-thing with that. I suppose if he wanted to, he could have been with someone else a while ago. He just didn’t want anything to do with Survivor women. In fact, the only Original here that even touches Survivors is Jenny.”
“Why is that?” Danny asked, a tone of offence took over his voice.
“I guess we just have our certain little click.” Ellen shrugged. “We don’t let anyone in.”
“Oh, I see.” Danny nodded.
“But I really want to make an exception to my personal rules with you. I like you. I can see us being friends outside of these Containment walls. I want to be friends outside of Containment with you.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, El. Some of the others in here were talking about how bad I’m gonna feel when I get out because I spend a lot of time in here with you. They said that they heard you really don’t bother much with us once we’re out.”
“Honestly? No, I don’t. And they don’t bother much with me after the first few weeks of adjustment are over with. But that’s OK. But it won’t be that way with you, Danny Hoi.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear that. Can I say one thing about the ‘Henry’ situation?”
“Sure.”
“I only know the relationship from what you have told me and what I have seen. It was, and I stress was, a great friendship. You were holding on to Henry so you wouldn’t have to choose, and you could freely help Dean. Now that’s done with, you need to be with the right man.”
Frank stood outside that office door, listening before he walked in, really knowing where Danny was going. His presence was unknown to either of them in the office.
Ellen snickered and folded her hands. “OK, who is right?”
“You want my honest opinion?”
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 309