by Richard Lord
He looks up at a figure holding something. His mind starts to realize it’s a projectile stun gun. Then he hears, “Now I go tell your buddy you’re here.” Renfield hears and looks up. It’s Johnson who said it to him. Renfield notes the familiar bars.
“This will be fun! He doesn’t even know you and you can’t just change things anymore. So now we find out how this really plays out.” Johnson stuns Renfield again through the metal bars. He holds the button down harder than it has to be and for a lot longer than it allows. Then he spits on Renfield’s motionless body as he walks away. “I’ll be back.”
Renfield looks up. His muscles are in agony, but he concentrates on fact. He wasn’t as old the first time. He looked younger. They can’t change things anymore so there is more to this. He clicks. Then feeling woozy he says to himself, “Now your office, that’s up for grabs, jerk!” He looks at the desk and sees the photo of Johnson, on a fishing trip, with three boys, smiling widely for the photo. He doesn’t know if that is relevant, but he starts opening the drawers as fast as he can and going through things that look personal, not official. He sees one file that has a label on it stating, ‘Stanley – School’. He grabs it opens it and notes that it’s an application to a private school. He clicks. By the river, he thinks to himself. “Stanley Johnson, huh? Ok, what’s my next move? I’ve got to find that kid but avoid Johnson.” Then it hits him, if Stanley was accepted to the private school he knows where he will be and when. He clicks.
Having done his homework assignment, Renfield clicks to Brady’s office.
“Let me guess, one more right? You do know Johnson is at it again. How did you get out? You didn’t tell him I can slightly remember did you?” Brady looks at Renfield and stands between him and his office window. “You need to be careful. I have people in and out of my office all day. You’re pushing your luck that you pop in here when no one else is here.”
“For one, why would I show my cards to the asshole on the other side of the table. He even commented that we haven’t met yet, so he’s a clueless jerk. I’m not asking you to fire him. It doesn’t help you or I. I’m just getting that off my chest.” Then as he passes over the ‘lunch bag’ he comments, “I don’t need a full tree this time. It didn’t help much with the last ones. With this one I know the tree. I just need to confirm a suspicion.” Renfield looks at Brady pressuring him with his eyes.
Brady grabs the ‘lunch bag’. “Well that certainly raises less flags with me. But, that’ll do. I’ll have the report back in hours. Get out of here.”
Renfield clicks and appears back in the same place that night. He sees the folder on Brady’s desk and grabs it. By the river, he reads it, in the morning sun. Then he clicks.
“You’re going to the party without me? I thought I was your escort?”
Tomorrow hears Adam’s voice from behind her and turns. “I thought you had stood me up.”
“Wow, so forgotten in five seconds or less?” Renfield replies.
Tomorrow walks towards him. “No, you know I can’t forget you, but when you do that, I never know how long you will be gone. Well to me anyway. How long have you been gone?” She takes his hand and with pride glowing in her face she advances to the party while listening for his explanation.
“You are a very smart woman!” Renfield replies and then he checks his suit considering that he had just picked it up at the dry cleaners.
“You smell fresh, but your hair has grown.” Tomorrow comments.
Adam reaches a hand to his head, “Ah, I didn’t think about that!” He stops while still holding her hand.
Tomorrow turns to him and says, “If after parties are the way you describe them, I doubt anyone will notice.”
Adam grins at her and says, “Good point!” Then he proceeds to follow her.
As they walk through the doors Tina lets out an ear piercing squeal of delight. Venetia moves to the makeshift center where they decided to make announcements from and says, “The teacher has arrived! Now, we can have the good stuff!” The crowd explodes into cheers, laughter, applause and in some cases all three.
Adam squeezes her hand and then whispers in her ear. “They love you, they really, really love you.” He grins at his own joke knowing she wouldn’t understand the reference, but knew she could hear how proud he was of her.
Tomorrow smiles at everyone. It makes her feel very good, but she turns to Adam anyway and says, “I think this was a mistake. At least I showed up, right? Can we leave now?”
Tina appears juggling three glasses. She holds them out to Tomorrow. “Take one, girl!”
Tomorrow grans one and looks around seeing everyone else is holding one out waiting for her.
Tina moves to Renfield and says, “Well now, go on.”
Renfield looks at the glass and takes it. He whispers in Tina’s ear, but before he is done explaining, Venetia taps him on the back and says, “I’ll take that glass, want to trade?” Tina hands him her glass of seltzer and he notes she hadn’t drank from it. He thought to himself that she was extremely observant and planned ahead for the eventuality.
Adam leaned to Tomorrow. “Now is when you say something about good futures for everyone, etc., etc., blah, blah and all that. Hold up your glass, you’re the one the toast is to, but make it about everyone here.”
Tomorrow looked up at him. “I don’t know what to say. I’ve never done this. I read about it, but…” She trails her voice off as she looks out at all of the people looking at her, knowing their arms must be tiring from holding their glasses so high. She held her own glass high and yelled out, “Fresca, pura, perche no, lfie non aspetta intorno si rendono bene!”
At that everyone cheered and drank. Tomorrow looked up at Adam, “How’d I do?”
Adam spit out his seltzer with a bit of laughter as he leaned to her, “You did great! Although I highly doubt any of them speak Italian.” He laughed a bit more while looking out at the crowd that has resumed the chatter he has heard before. Different times, same thing. That was something she was changing right now and he knew it.
She looked at him, “Oh, well they must have liked it. They started cheering.”
Adam looked at her. He stopped laughing and he said, “Forever wouldn’t be enough time to teach you everything. Now do you want to dance, my dear?” He stared at her for a moment and said, in English, “Tomorrow, your toast was, ‘Fresh, pure, why not, life does not wait around. You make good.’ You were describing your own life. You are fascinating, woman!”
Tomorrow looked at Adam, “I’ve never danced.” She looks at the people dance and back to him.
“I was counting on that since I am pretty bad at it.” Renfield grabs her waist and ushers her to the floor. After a few minutes of mimicking those around them while also making up their own moves Tomorrow begins to laugh.
“I don’t think we should be doing this.” Tomorrow looks around trying to gauge the reactions in the room.
As the excitement sweeps from her face, replaced by a blush Renfield replies, “Probably not, but now we can’t say we never danced together! Let’s go find Tina and get into some fun.” Renfield held out his elbow and Tomorrow grabbed his arm above it. Then he thinks to her, “You do realize if we practiced we would so have an edge on the competition!”
Tomorrow thinks back, “Would that be cheating?”
Adam thinks in response, “Not if we have fun doing it, my dear!”
Tomorrow pulls on his arm so Adam stops as she says, “The practicing or the cheating? I know what you have in mind for the best way to practice.”
“As I knew that was the first thing you would think of too!” Renfield grins back at Tomorrow.
CHAPTER 28
“The day I know it all is the last for all.” -- from the Book of Brian
Tomorrow was practicing backflips when Renfield walked out to watch.
“Go on, I know you have some criticism.” Tomorrow looked at him and remarked.”
“No. Well, yeah. Conservation of ener
gy if it’s for a fight, don’t do it. If it’s for exercise, by all means.”
At the edge of their vision another was suddenly there. Both Renfield and Tomorrow turned to look as the figure approached. The man approached and Renfield did not move. He signaled with his hand for Tomorrow not to stir because he knew she could not hear either of their thoughts. The man leaned in and spoke to Renfield. Renfield nodded. The man vanished.
Renfield’s mood had obviously changed.
Tomorrow asked, “Who was he and what was that about, Adam?”
“I’ve told you before we are not the only ones. He was providing me a SITREP.”
“What situation was he reporting to you on?” Tomorrow moved towards him. Her eyes lowered as she tried to delicately get an answer from Adam.
“Things important to him. So about the backflip maneuver.” Adam tried to grin off the conversation.
Tomorrow pressed, “What he called you. That is the titled of the person that Venetia and Tina said the books told them to look for.”
Adam shrugged, “Was it?” He gestured with his thumb to the place the man was standing, “He probably spoke wrong.”
“Both of you blocked your minds to me as soon as he appeared. But he spoke and I can hear.” Tomorrow points out.
“More than you would care to. You seem annoyed at times, by my snoring.” Renfield laughed and gestured for her to continue to exercise. At that, he signals with is eyes how much he cares about her.
“You know what I meant”, she replies.
“Hmm, we can’t listen to everyone all the time every moment. You know this.” Renfield replied.
“I was focused on you, Adam. I would have heard if you weren’t blocking. Before, whoever that was showed up, your focus was on me.” Tomorrow pointed out as she bent over in front of him to being a forward flip.
Adam grinned and said, “As it always will be. But sometimes there are things I have to attend to. Like my crazy lover disappearing to go save the world.”
Tomorrow stood back up and exclaimed, “Touché”
Adam laughed and said, “Yeah, I saw that! Pretty nice if you ask me!”
Tomorrow let go of pushing him on the conversation about what just happened. She knew he would avoid her questions if he deemed it important to or for her safety. She thought to herself, “The bad thing about an over protective lover was that he’s over protective. However, the good thing about an over protective lover is that he is extremely protective.” That thought made her feel comfort with Adam that she never felt growing up.
CHAPTER 29
“If you live long enough, you start to appreciate it. Odd since you grow older and can interact with life less and less as the days count by.” -- from the Book of Amelia
She awoke and looked around with her eyeballs, unwilling to test raising her head. She was in her bed. She had no memory of getting in it. She felt around and behind her was an object. “Adam.” She thought and she smiled. Then she felt herself realizing she was naked. She smiled again. She to closed her eyes to simply breathe in the moment, then she felt him move. She turned without raising her head from her pillow. She couldn’t help but think how much she loved the idea of pillows. “Before you say it, no, I don’t remember, but I’ll assume you are responsible for me being naked and, well”, her mind searched for the right word to use, “satisfied.”
He laughed and said, “If it wasn’t me, I’d be angry right now. It’ll come to you. You were rather insistent! I didn’t particularly mind.”
Tomorrow thought about the night before then she said, “Oh my Lords, I can’t believe I did that!”
Adam laughed. “What do you want for breakfast? How does that work around here anyway?”
“Oh, they bring me something. Did I mention to Venetia or Tina that I needed to double my rations while you are here?”
“No, but I’m sure they figured that out.” He stepped out of the bed and then asked. “What are the facility arrangements? I wasn’t sure so I’ve been holding that water for quite a while.”
Tomorrow sat up slightly and pointed to a chamber pot. “You leave it outside the door, but we’re going to have to share. That’s another thing I should mention to Tina or Venetia.” She rubs at her eyes as she sees him begin to use the pot and then she sits up suddenly, “Adam!”
He turns quickly, his mind ablaze trying to hear the presence of anyone else.
“It just occurred to me. I don’t have rights to this room anymore. I don’t have a job.” She looked down at her own hands as if the answer to her suddenly realized plight was within them.
Adam crawled back in to the bed with her and said, “Relax. I am sure those two have something else planned for you to do. They really do like you. That was obvious. They wouldn’t leave you without something to do to earn your keep. Plus, I can be helpful too. Just don’t ask how.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“Are you sure? I’m not even sure it’s okay to be in here?” Tomorrow’s voice started to have a note of panic.
“You are the first royal teacher! Do you think there aren’t other to teach? They may not require all of the things you taught Amelia and Conan, but there are people having kids around here all the time. After last night I’m pretty sure you know what brings that on!” Adam leaned to her again and kissed her and then asked, “What time to they bring something by to eat?”
Tomorrow considered what he had said while she looked at the clock. “It’s out there now. If there is anything to come.”
Adam could hear her mind and he knew she was actually physically holding her breath. Not in a kid way, but she certainly was not breathing in or out. He listened to her breathing as much as her mind. He walked to the door opened it and retrieved the tray. He set it on her table. “See, you’re still considered.” He took the top off of it and noted that there was one meal inside. He considered that neither Tina or Venetia was in any shape to consider the additional occupant, last night, and even if they had, it was certainly doubtful that they would have remembered to tell someone. He lifted the plate to take it to Tomorrow. That was when he noted that under it was a letter. He put his body between himself and the letter so that Tomorrow wouldn’t know he was reading it. He could see it was a decree and began wondering if he had misjudged and given Tomorrow false hopes. He read quickly then looked at the plate. Then he smiled and picked up the plate and walked to the bed with plate and letter in hand. He places the plat in the curvature of her body can crawled in the bed next to her, sliding the letter under her pillow while she was distracted. “You’re trying to decide to eat or piss in camp first.”
Tomorrow gave him a look that was half a smile and half a frown.
“Just go, I got food.” Adam said.
She returned and grabbed a grape and plucked it into her mouth. Then she said, “Did you eat any of it?”
“A piece of melon that was delightful. I was waiting for you.” Unable to continue the suspense he said, “Well there are now two pieces of news and the question I tried to ask you last night.” He reached his hand under her pillow and produced the letter. “Read.”
Tomorrow read the letter. As she went through each sentence, her eyes grew wider. At one point, she actually gasped and put her hand to her mouth.
Adam watched her and smiled.
Tomorrow turned to him, “So what do I do with that? I’ve never really bought anything, except the chairs and clothes.
Adam responded, “Well first, you want to pick that up and put it in a bank. Do you have banks yet?”
Tomorrow said, “Yes, I taught the kids the basics of economy, but I never thought I’d be part of it.”
Adam laughed. “Okay good. Then put it in there and think about it and plan it before you spend it.”
She turned to him and said, “I’ve never had anything to hold on to.”
“Now you do.” Adam replied noting that he was included in her statement.
“So what is the other news?” Tomorrow asked while picking at
the slab of meat on the plate. And then reaching to tear it and hold up a large piece for Adam to chew.
Adam took a bite and then said, “You eat. This breakfast is for you, but thank you for sharing.”
“Adam, I can tell when you are craving meat. You start to get a certain look in your eye. Plus, it’s cow.” Tomorrow pointed out.
“This I have heard before. Am I that easy to read?” He asks.
“Just go on and tell me! Also, eat the meat, I will eat the rest. The meat is the only part you really want anyway and we both know it.” Tomorrow looks at him and then opens her eyes wide in frustration. “Okay, eat the meat and then tell me. But don’t just look at me.”
Adam reached down took a bite of meat, chewed and then said, “I know her your father is now. At first I thought he was the brother of the two who created Brian and Persistence with my daughters but then tried to kill them. I still don’t know what that was about. I could hear their intentions and besides the normal young man’s intentions they were not considering that option when they…” Adam stops and his eyes go down. Then he raises his head to see her again and continues, “Anyway, I suppose that’s not who it your father is. His father is a real asshole. So be glad. That leaves a puzzle to be solved. He’s an asshole, but he was their asshole. Your father is not blood to me. He’s an asshole too, but he was once a friend.”
Tomorrow listened to his words, but she also felt his mind at the same time. “I’m sorry Adam.”
“I’m not. Well at least I don’t think I am. If it weren’t for that asshole, I would never had Brian and Persistence in my life and I damned sure wouldn’t have you in my life and that would have made my world a lot smaller.” Adam picked up the rest of the meat and put it in his mouth and chewed, hard.
“That’s where you went last night after I asked you about them. You did it for me.” Tomorrow locked at Adam’s mouth.
Adam said, “Trying to steal my cow, woman?”
She laughed. “Okay. So what was the question?”