by Robert Boren
“What about the other time?”
“It was when I was twenty-two,” she said. “I’m ashamed of this one.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“No, fair is fair,” she said. “You told me about Deadwood.”
“Okay, it’s up to you,” Don said.
“It’s when I was doing sales and distribution of our moonshine,” she said. “I used to flirt with one of the customers. A big customer. Local underworld figure. I let him talk me into drinking some of the shine with him. He charmed me into it. You know what happened next.”
“You had an affair with a mobster?” Don asked. “Doesn’t sound like you.”
“It wasn’t like me. Amanda had a longer affair with this guy,” Sydney said. “He broke her heart, the bastard. You tell her you know about that and we’re done. Okay?”
“Why would I tell her that?” Don asked.
“Sorry. I’m ashamed about this. I’ve never told anybody about it. You deserve more credit.”
“You don’t have to go on,” Don said.
“I want to.” She looked into his eyes.
Don nodded, keeping eye contact. “I obviously know what happened. He got you pregnant. How long were you with this guy?”
“One time,” she said.
“He wouldn’t take responsibility?”
She laughed. “I didn’t tell him. Couldn’t believe I’d let him have me when I sobered up. I was so ashamed.”
“So what’d you do?”
“I got an abortion,” she said. “Amanda doesn’t know about that either, so hush up. I can never do that again. Ever. It messed me up for a long time.”
“You suffered through the whole thing by yourself?”
“What else could I do? My daddy would’ve disowned me. Probably would’ve gotten himself killed going after the mobster. He was bad news. Amanda was lucky to get away from him.”
“How do you know this guy didn’t tell Amanda?”
She chuckled. “Casey didn’t talk about stuff like that, and besides, it was ancient history by that time. Amanda got involved with him about ten years after I was with him.”
“Oh,” Don said. “How did that happen?”
“This guy bugged me all the time. He was constantly trying to get back into my pants. I wasn’t having it. I finally refused to service the account. Amanda ended up doing it. I felt guilty about that for a long time.”
Don sat silently for a moment, deep in thought.
“Did I just blow it with you?” she asked, eyes tearing up.
“No, of course not,” Don said. “Why would you think that?”
“Because of the abortion,” she whispered.
“You got taken advantage of,” Don said, “and had to deal with it all by yourself, at an age when you weren’t fully an adult. Would you want to be with me if I held that against you?”
“No, probably not,” she said.
“How do you want our relationship to go?” Don asked. “We should talk about that.”
“You want to go all the way with me,” she said. “I can tell. You’ll get me if you can have patience. I promise.”
“Don’t promise.”
“But how can you stand this?” she asked. “It’s hard enough for me. I came into your bed the other night, remember? I won’t do certain things with you because I know I won’t be able to stop myself.”
“Yes, I remember,” Don said. “Back to the topic. What do you want? How do you want to do this?”
Sydney laughed. “Men. You always have to make a plan. What are you suggesting?”
“I’m in love with you,” Don said. “I think it’s going to last. You’re in love with me too. I can tell.”
“I’ve told you,” she said.
Don smiled at her. “I knew before you said it. That gives us something to build on right there.”
“What do you mean?”
“If we last, and our love doesn’t diminish, there’s something we can do.”
“Exactly,” she said. “I don’t think it will diminish. That’s why I can promise.”
“You aren’t getting me,” Don said, staring at her.
“Shit, you’d marry me, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I’d do it right now, but I don’t think you’re ready yet. I’m willing to give it time.”
“I didn’t think you’d moved in that direction yet,” she said. “This changes things.”
“I hope I haven’t scared you away.”
“Oh, honey, that’s the last thing I’m feeling,” she said, hand touching his cheek. “I’d do it right now too. It’s a good thing we aren’t in Vegas.”
Don laughed. “Oh, you want an Elvis wedding, huh?”
“Shut up,” she said. “No. Can we wait until things settle down?”
“I won’t rush you,” Don said. “If we do this, it’ll be when we both want to. I don’t want you doing something you aren’t ready for just to make me happy.”
“But this is torture for you, isn’t it? Living with me, being in bed with me, and not getting to go all the way.” She smiled, using air quotes on “all the way.”
“It’s exciting. Maybe a little frustrating sometimes. That’s okay. I’m a grown-up.”
“We can do other things, if we both agree where the boundaries are,” she whispered. “You won’t go further than I want, even if I lose control?”
“No I won’t,” he said. “That gives me something to look forward to in the near term, perhaps. It’ll be enough for now.”
There was a knock on the door.
“Uh oh,” Sydney said.
“Yeah, we’re up,” Don said in a loud voice.
“Hey, dad, there’s a meeting starting in the clubhouse soon. They’re serving breakfast.”
“Okay, we’ll be there in a few minutes,” Don said.
“All right,” Alyssa said.
“Guess we’d better get out of bed,” Don said.
“Can we cuddle for a few more minutes?” Sydney asked, her soft warm body pressing against him.
“Is that a trick question?” he asked, sliding back under the covers next to her, his hands caressing her again.
“There,” she said, opening to him, moaning as he touched places he hadn’t before.
“Wow,” he whispered, kissing her hard, the two of them molded together.
Her hands started to move on him, in ways she’d avoided before. Don’s body tensed up, and then he was trembling. “You’re going further.”
“You want me to stop?”
“No, not yet. I’ll control myself. Why already?”
She giggled. “I’ve almost got you on the hook. Doesn’t hurt to give you something to think about.”
He laughed, but only for a second.
Chapter 11 – The Wind
A multitude of people were streaming into the clubhouse. It was standing room only inside, an overflow building on the veranda and the flat ground around it. Brushy opened the front windows wide and blocked the double doors open.
“Hope you can all hear,” he said. “We’ll pass the word to anybody who can’t catch everything.”
Pat was up on stage by the podium, Jason, Kyle, Kate, Francis, Cindy, and Dirk on the stage with them, most of the remaining core group up front inside the clubhouse.
“Where’s your dad?” Chloe asked.
Alyssa snickered. “Probably having play-time with Sydney.”
“There they are,” Chloe said. “On the veranda, looking in the window. They missed the food.”
“There’s so many people here,” Alyssa said. “Wow.”
There was a loud tapping on the microphone, then Pat stepped up to it.
“Everybody hear me?”
“Hell yeah,” somebody yelled from the back of the room.
“We can hear you on the veranda,” Don shouted through the window. “Don’t know how far out into the crowd it’ll go.”
“We’ll do our best to spread the word around,” Pat said. �
�Hope the fire department doesn’t show up here.”
A smattering of laughter floated around the crowd. Pat nodded to Jason, who walked up to the mike, the others gathering around.
“Welcome,” Jason said. “Sorry we don’t have quite enough room.”
“Should’ve brought the rodeo bleachers,” Jake said. People around him laughed.
“What’s that?” somebody from the veranda asked.
“Jake said he should’ve brought the rodeo bleachers here,” Jason said into the microphone.
“Oh,” the man yelled back. “Good idea.”
“Water under the bridge,” Jake yelled. “Go ahead, Jason.”
He nodded. “Okay, here’s the situation as we know it right now. There’s a growing enemy force in Glenrio, on the New Mexico border. We think they know where we are. They’ve been monitoring social media.”
“How many we talking about?” somebody shouted from the back.
“According to the last satellite picture, we guestimate about twelve thousand,” Jason said.
“We got more people than that,” somebody from the back yelled. “Only about half the Dallas people are here so far. The total group, last time I checked, was over twenty thousand.”
“We’ve got a good solid fifteen thousand in our group,” Jax yelled. “And more on the way after those nasty pictures.”
“What nasty pictures?” Jason asked.
“You guys haven’t heard about that yet?” Jax asked. “It was all over social media this morning. I saw it about twenty minutes ago.”
“Our social media team hasn’t gotten started yet today,” Jason said. “After this room gets cleared out a little we’ll get started again. Right, Don and Sydney?”
“Right,” Don yelled from the window. “Got a late start. Sorry, folks. What’d you see?”
“Pictures from San Marcos,” Jax yelled. “Beheaded girls.”
“That’s just more terror, like what they did with nerve gas in Denver yesterday,” Curt said.
“No, you don’t get it,” Jax said. “This was released by the patriots that settled the score. They put a picture of the girls on the page, and below that pictures of Islamists who had been mauled to death by two big Rottweilers, and pictures of blown up Islamists on the battle field.”
“Well then, I want to shake their hands,” Curt said.
“We’ll check it out when we get the social media team fired up,” Don said.
“If you don’t have a strong stomach, I wouldn’t look at it,” Jax said. “At least it’s a good recruiting tool.”
“So, what are the plans?” Jax yelled.
“We have two actions coming,” Jason yelled. “The enemy forces massing in Glenrio are planning to attack us here. We need to take them on, preferably closer to where they are than to here.”
“So we’re gonna go get them,” Daisy said.
“Yep, we’re gonna go get them,” Jason said. “Our main objective isn’t that force, though. It’s the huge supply depot and way station just outside of Santa Fe. We need to take that out, and then shut down the enemy supply route leading there. It’s I-25, coming north from the El Paso area.”
“We doing both at the same time?” Don asked.
“We’ll attack the enemy position in Glenrio, and during the battle some of us will slip west on I-40. We’ll take route 285 north to the Santa Fe area.”
“You know exactly where this depot is?” Jax asked.
“It’s right next to a place called El Dorado,” Kyle said into the mic.
“Actually it’s a little before that,” Kate said. “I was looking at the map this morning before we came over here. It’s right by a place called Thumb Trailhead.”
“I know that area,” Jax said. “El Dorado is a big suburb of Santa Fe. Giant housing development. Premium place. Large lots, New Mexico architecture. That trailhead you’re talking about is the gateway into some pretty rugged territory.”
“Yeah, the depot is out there a few miles,” Kate said, “but it’s on a dirt road that looks pretty decent.”
“That area is flat as a pancake,” Jax said. “Most of it, anyway. Might be hard to sneak in without being seen. The dirt road have a name?”
“Yeah, it’s New Moon Overlook,” Kate said.
Jax got a wide grin on his face. “Oh, really now? That area does have some hills. They don’t call it an overlook for nothing. This is good. Let’s get together and check out Google Earth on a larger screen.”
“Yes, let’s do that after the meeting,” Jason said.
“When do we attack?” somebody asked from the back.
“We’re not sure yet,” Jason said. “Could be later today. We’ve got a conference call coming up with the Governor and his staff in about an hour, and they should have the latest intel and satellite photos for us by then. If there’s things you can do to get ready, I’d do it right after we’re done here.”
“What kinds of things?” somebody asked.
“Figuring out who’s riding with whom, loading your guns, getting food, water, and other things put into your vehicles,” Kyle said. “That sort of thing. Oh, and spreading the word on what we’re talking about here to those who couldn’t make the meeting.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jax said. “I’d add that people should be checking out Google Earth to familiarize themselves with both the Glenrio area and the area around Thumb Trailhead.”
“That’s damn good advice,” Curt said. “We need to figure out the logistics on the armed vehicles, too.”
“Yeah, some of them will get towed to the battle site in Glenrio,” Cindy said, “and then we’ll have to hitch them up again to drag them to the Santa Fe area. That’s a long way.”
“Sure is,” Curt said. “I’ll lead a team to start working that. We about done?”
“We’re done,” Jason said. “Unless there are any more questions.”
“We all going to participate in this conference call?” Jax asked.
“All are welcome,” Jason said, “but we do have a facilities problem. It’ll be hard for everybody to be close enough to hear.”
“Maybe each group should send a rep,” Kyle said.
“That’s a good idea,” Don said.
“Clancy and I almost have our audio-visual stuff hooked up,” Moe said from on stage behind them. “We should be ready within the hour. That makes the entire room viable.”
“That’s great,” Pat said. “I’ll make sure the big coffee pot is full of fresh coffee.”
“Excellent,” Jax said. “I’m going to do my thing. See you all in a while.” There were murmurs of agreement around the crowd, and it disbursed.
Jason watched them as they left, then shut off the microphone. “I can’t believe how many people we have now.”
“Seriously,” Junior said, walking up with Rachel, Kelly, and Brenda.
“Well, pencil neck, don’t relax just yet,” Curt said. “We’re up against a nasty enemy. We’d better make sure we know which way the wind is blowing, after what those bastards did in Denver.”
“He’s right about that,” Eric said, walking to the stage with Kim. “I’ve been looking into that already. It’s not great for us. At least in Glenrio.”
“Oh, crap, what are you saying?” Cindy asked.
“The wind blows straight east down I-40,” Eric said. “Most of the time, anyway.”
“Shit,” Curt said.
“Do you think they can see us in real time?” Junior asked.
“That’s a good question,” Kyle said.
“I think we’d better assume that they can until we find out different,” Junior said, “and that ought to impact our strategy.”
“They used artillery to deliver the gas in Denver,” Jason said. “Don’t know how much range they have with the equipment in Glenrio or El Dorado.”
“Well, if the winds are the way Eric says they are, then we need to be west of their base,” Curt said. “Any good ways to get west of Glenrio without being detec
ted?”
Junior laughed.
“You think this is funny, pencil neck?” Curt asked.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Junior said. “Who says we need to go to them? Why are we in such a big hurry? We ought to draw them into Texas.”
“You mean just sit here and let them attack us at the park?” Pat asked.
“Nope,” Junior said. “Find a place we can hide out to the north and south of I-40. Watch them go past us, then get behind them and blow them away.”
Jason laughed. “Dammit, Junior. There you go again.”
“You think he’s crazy?” Kelly asked. “Doesn’t sound like it to me.”
“No, just the opposite,” Jason said. “Junior has a way of looking past what we all think is a problem and coming up with an alternative.”
“Thanks,” Junior said.
“Okay, I get it,” Curt said.
“This has a couple of benefits,” Cindy said. “We should be able to neutralize their nerve gas capability this way, plus we should be able to tell if they can see us, too, without committing ourselves to a frontal assault.”
“Yep,” Junior said, “and if they see us, they’ll have to drive troop transport trucks over nasty terrain, right into our off-road capable battle vehicles and our huge numbers advantage. Might actually be easier if they see us and try to attack us.”
“What if they get a little to the north-west or south-west of us and start lobbing nerve gas rounds?” Cindy asked.
“We’ll need scouts along the road to keep an eye on them,” Jason said. “If they get ready to take pot-shots, we hammer them.”
“Sounds like a job for the barracuda and the other off-roaders,” Curt said.
“That’d do it,” Junior said. “The only thing that worries me a little is wind direction. It doesn’t stay constant all the time. We’re working off what the most likely direction is, but you never really know.”
“Hell, it could rain and ruin their ability to use the gas at all,” Eric said.
Jason’s phone rang. He looked at it. “Shit, it’s Ramsey.”
“Want to hook it up to the audio-visual?” Moe asked. “We’re ready for a test.”
“Okay, but let me answer it first,” he said, putting the phone to his ear.
“Hi, Chief.”
“Jason. You with the rest of the group?”