by Rob Mclean
John saw Samuel’s eyes flick to Eloise. He then looked wide-eyed at John before busily returning to making the coffee. John kept watching Samuel as he handed John his coffee. ‘He knows,’ John’s father’s voice rang in his head.
The PA’s eyes stayed lowered, but his normally pasty white cheeks were flushed. How much did this man know of his boss’s plans to get pregnant? Surely they hadn’t discussed it, but in John’s assessment, Samuel looked guilty.
“Now isn’t the best time,” John said, throwing Eloise a pointed glance towards Samuel.
“You may be right,” she said as she waved Samuel away. He scurried out quickly, shutting the door behind him, seemingly glad to be escaping John’s scrutiny. John opened the door again, then turned back to see Eloise laughing.
“You don’t think I am going to seduce you here, in my office? Do you?”
“Yes.”
Eloise just shook her head and chuckled. “Not my style. When we spend the night together, it will be in a much nicer, much more comfortable place than this.”
John couldn’t imagine being comfortable anywhere with her. “Won’t be happening,” he stated. “Are we done?”
“Oh, I think it will,” she countered with a sly grin. No matter how many different ways he thought about it, he couldn’t see what made her sound so confident, unless she hoped to win him with sheer arrogance.
She put her coffee down and leaned over her desk to type on her laptop. Was she deliberately showing cleavage? The slit up the side of her skirt showed her silk stocking tops as she postured. John dragged his eyes away, determinedly staring out the window.
“Now that the alien has peacefully returned, things are looking up, don’t you think?” Eloise asked. If she noticed that he was trying to ignore her, she covered it with a smile.
“Things aren’t so peaceful in the Middle-East. Plus there are a lot of protests across the country.”
“Which is all good news for us at BlackSky, isn’t it?” Eloise smiled.
“Which is all the more reason for a vital team member, such as yourself, to stay at work.” He gave her a flat stare. “Isn’t it?”
“You’re absolutely right.” She stood and straightened her skirt. Her hands ran over gym toned hips. She smiled when she saw John watching. “Oh, I won’t miss out on any work. I plan to employ a wet-nurse and nannies. I shouldn’t be away more than a fortnight.”
John envisioned some pampered kid surrounded by expensive toys and carers, sent to exclusive kindergartens and schools, but all the time brought up in a sterile world, devoid of any real human affections. He groped about for a way to make her see that he wouldn’t be a party to that sort of upbringing and that she shouldn’t either.
“Look, things have changed so much over the last few weeks. The world’s going nuts. It’s been turned upside down. It’s being split into Godheads and Heathens, the Righteous and the rest, the sheep and the goats. Where do you see things in nine months’ time?”
“Sheep and goats?” Eloise looked up from her laptop and gave John a curious look. “Wherever did you get such a quaint phrase from?
“It’s not mine. It’s Biblical. My girlfriend’s a Christian.”
Eloise stood and crossed her arms. “Dump her.”
“Pardon?”
“Dump her. She’s bad career decision.”
John stood speechless. Was she giving him personal advice based on her own wants and needs, or was she advising him in her capacity as his line supervisor?
“And as far as nine months’ time,” she continued, “I see the stubbornly old-fashioned religious troglodytes, living in state sanctioned, technology-free enclosures, while we, the enlightened modern majority travel among the stars.”
“Shouldn’t you at least wait until after the referendum thing is over? That way you can see where everything’s going.”
“Does that mean you’ll do it then?” A hopeful smile spread across her face.
“No, not me. I’m sure you have a plan B lined up. I just mean that you should wait at least until then, for whoever ‘plan B’ is.”
“There is no plan B,” she said, her eyes sparkled with self-assurance. “I don’t intend to fail with plan A.”
“Then I’d suggest a professional development course on coping with failure,” John said before marching out the door.
Chapter 15
The exchange with his boss was worrying John. It kept playing on his mind more than he wanted to admit. He considered telling someone in Human Resources about what was essentially sexual harassment, but he felt they would break some ribs laughing at him. Worse still, word might get back to his squad about how he wouldn’t ‘do’ his beautiful boss. They would give him hell over it, but that would be nothing compared to the fury of a publicly scorned woman.
When he had told Jarred about it, his brother listened with his head tilted the way John knew he did when he was both listening and thinking at the same time.
“Don’t worry about it man,” he said with a shake of his ginger head. “Unless they’ve changed how biology works, I don’t think she can physically make you do something you don’t want to do.” With that, he went back to studying exo-planets on the alien visitor’s website.
John knew he should have found his brother’s logic reassuring, but a restless voice of doubt kept replaying his dream of Eloise.
“And you don’t want to, do you?” Jarred asked from behind his laptop.
“Nah, no way.”
“Of course, if you need a stunt double,” Jarred grinned from behind his laptop, “I’d be happy to take one for the team.”
“Don’t think she’s that desperate, but thanks,” John said, grabbing his keys. “You sure you don’t want to come?”
Jarred had told John that the alien visitor had announced that they would be putting on a night-time atmospheric display to celebrate ‘world peace’, whatever that meant. They hadn’t given many specifics, but said only that it would be visible across the entire night-side of the planet.
“Nah, I got stuff to do. If it’s any good, I’ll catch it on the news.”
“Whatever it is, it’ll be better in real life.”
“Nope. I went to the football once. That was better on TV.”
John knew Jarred had socio-phobic tendencies, but to choose to do some work on the Human Consciousness Project rather than watching a display of alien technology just sounded to him like sour grapes.
When John suggested that, Jarred simply said, “Look, everyone knows that the aliens have better technologies. I don’t need to waste my time having my nose rubbed in it.”
“Like I said, sour grapes.”
“I haven’t seen anything like our Human Consciousness Project from them. It may be the one and only area where we’re ahead of them. I’d be negligent in my duties as a human being if I didn’t stay back and work on this.”
John nodded. That sounded more like the Jarred he knew.
“So what ‘work’ are you doing exactly?”
Jarred sat up straighter, he always liked to talk about his work. “I’m looking into the synergistic effects that optimally paired-bonded humans have over random pairings.”
“Pardon?”
“To see if couples in love get a better score on the R.N.G.s”
“Oh, okay,” John said, trying not to let his surprise show. Where did Jarred, of all people, get an idea like that?
“Maybe you and Angela would like to participate?”
“Uh, sure…” John faltered, “but I’m not sure if she feels the same way about me…”
“Well, if I’m right with my theory that compatible people in love combine their mind energies better, then we would find out.” Jarred spoke as a scientist and without a trace of malice.
“If you need more subjects for your experiment, then maybe you should come along and talk to Christie and Aaron?”
“Nah, you can ask them for me.” Jarred quickly rejected the idea. “Besides, where would I sit?”
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He had a point. Since asking Angela along, somehow Aaron and Christie had got themselves invited too. John didn’t mind too much. Having a pair of chaperones come along would help him keep his feeling for Angela under control, even if they were all over each other like randy schoolkids.
“Okay, have fun,” John said as he left.
He picked Angela from her house. Her parents were busy with a palliative care nurse who was attending to Geoff as part of her rounds. It didn’t stop her mother from giving them some dire warnings about lining up like lemmings and exposing themselves to whatever evil was being dished up by the so-called alien. John just nodded and promised that he’d have Angela home before dawn. That earned him a playful punch on the arm from Angela.
They met up with Christie and Aaron at the church. John had to knock on their car window to get them to disengage and notice that there were other people in the car-park.
Christie hugged Angela with her usual enthusiasm. Aaron gave John a knowing grin by way of greeting. “Good timing, man,” Aaron said dryly. John couldn’t tell if he was annoyed, frustrated, relieved or just plain sarcastic.
They climbed into John’s car. As expected, Aaron and Christie sat in the back and resumed their snogging. John tried to ignore them as they drove along the Foothill Freeway across town to Highland. They had the radio on and John listened as Angela and Christie talked.
Angela turned around to tell Christie about how Chelsea had called her soon after church to tell her to take two weeks off. “At first she said that it was because business was slow, on account of the alien, but when I questioned her, she ended up saying that she couldn’t bear to even look at me.”
John rubbed her shoulder, hoping to let her know he was sympathetic.
“I can’t understand why she hates me. I thought we were friends.” Angela’s eyes welled with tears. She dug around in her shoulder-bag while Christie patted her back.
“She’s your friend and she loves you,” Christie said, looking to Aaron for support.
He just shrugged. Christie frowned at him, prompting him to add, “Yeah, we all do. It’ll be okay.” But John could hear that his words were hollow. He hadn’t known Angela even as long as John had, so how could he sound genuine?
“You dumped her brother and betrayed her friendship,” John said as gently as he could. No point avoiding the issue, he thought.
Angela spun to face John. “I didn’t…” she stopped, pursed her lips and took a steadying breath. “I didn’t mean to hurt Chelsea. I thought we could still be friends.”
“She’s possibly getting hell from her parents too,” Christie added. “Two weeks off is probably the best for everyone.”
Angela turned to face the front again. Her head drooped and she fiddled with her tissue, pulling it to shreds. John patted Angela’s knee before putting his hand over hers. She gave him a weak smile.
On the radio, the music was interrupted by reports of spectacular meteor showers in the night skies sporadically over Europe and the East-Coast of the U.S. The announcers speculated amongst themselves ‘was this part of the aliens ‘World Peace’ celebrations?’ Without any answers, the music came back on. Although his passengers didn’t say anything, John was keen to get up the mountain and see things for himself.
They turned up the 330 to climb up through the almost bare hills of the western end of the San Bernardino National Forest. The setting sun lit up the hills with a warm orange glow that made the already arid ground look even drier. Black shadows lengthened from the valleys and ravines as they drove, swallowing up the blackened stumps, left over from the previous summer’s wild-fires.
After the freeway, the single lane, double yellow lined winding road was slow going, but after almost half an hour of leisurely driving, they came to the town of Running Springs. It was getting towards dusk and the streetlights were coming on.
On the car stereo, more reports were coming in about similar intense meteor showers over India, South Africa and Nigeria.
“Hope we get to see something,” John said. “Sounds like it might be worth coming up the hill for.”
“Getting hungry back here, man,” was all Aaron said. “Anyone see a Macca’s?”
“Didn’t you bring anything?” Angela asked. Christie gave an apologetic shrug and Aaron just looked lost.
John recalled that Aaron and Christie had only themselves when he picked them up. He had brought a picnic hamper, with the idea of having a romantic meal under the stars with Angela, but he doubted there was enough food for everyone.
They were almost through the small township, when Christie, who had been flicking through her phone, said, “There’s one at Lake Arrowhead. Take the eighteen on the left, about eight miles.” She held up her phone, for John to see.
“Nah, there must be something here, closer,” Aaron said, peering out the windows. The township had fallen behind and John didn’t want to turn around and drive eight miles there and eight miles back along a narrow winding road with it getting darker. He was with Aaron on this.
“We’ll go to the next town…” John said. He knew that the turn-off to Keller Peak was along this road somewhere. Jarred had suggested they might go there to get a good view of the sky without too much light pollution and still not have to travel too far. John scanned the passing scenery as he drove.
“There’s a diner up ahead,” Christie said, consulting her phone, “On the left.”
Moments later, they pulled up at the Deep Creek roadside diner. Smells of Mexican food drifted across the still air of the car-park. John went to look at the menu by the front door, but Aaron pushed past him.
“I don’t care what they’ve got,” he said, but added quietly as an aside so only John could hear. ‘I’m hungry enough to eat the crotch outta dead ferret.”
John just shook his head and held the door open for the girls. The diner was on the small side, but cosy in a faux Mexican ranch style. There were less than a dozen tables, but a petite blonde waitress met them and directed them to a window booth. John wanted to get take-away. He didn’t want to miss out on the ‘sky-show’ as the media were calling it, but he was quickly out-voted when he suggested it.
“Order for me,” Christie said with a grin at Aaron as she grabbed Angela’s hand. “We’re off to the rest-room.”
John looked to Angela. “Oh, okay,” she said with visible hesitation. “Get me something healthy.”
Aaron watched the girls closely as they went. “Man, what a pair of sweet cheeks. I don’t know how you do that ‘Vow’ thing. I think I’d die.”
“It ain’t easy,” John conceded.
“But you must be doing something, right?” Aaron gave John a knowing look while he jerked his fist back and forth under the table.
“Ain’t doing that either.” John’s eyes narrowed, but Aaron didn’t falter.
“Oh, come on. There’s only two types of guys. Wankers and liars. Which one are you?” Aaron’s grin spread his goatee wide. John considered spreading it wider with his fist.
“Neither,” John growled. He wasn’t about to share his dreams with this guy.
“Oh, sure,” Aaron said dismissively. “Whatever you say, man.” He leaned back in the booth and studied the menu.
John looked over to the rest-rooms and checked the time on his phone. He knew why girls took so long in the rest-room, but he was sure his ears were burning only because of Aaron’s questions.
“Hey, is it true?” Aaron looked up from his menu. “You, know about losing it if you don’t use it?” Aaron chuckled to himself. “Does it shrivel up?”
“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear,” John said with an even voice. “You don’t have a seeing-eye dog, for example.”
“Ha, that’s better,” Aaron smiled widely. “The big tough guy does have a sense of humour after all.”
John was trying to think of some clever put-down in reply when the waitress returned to take their order.
“Do you have any ferrets?” John asked.
“Preferably dead.”
The little blonde waitress gave John a flat stare and chewed her gum loudly.
“For him,” John added.
She took one look at Aaron’s grinning face and said, “I guess we could rustle up a couple of road-kill raccoons, just for you, honey.”
“Now there’s real mountain hospitality,” Aaron’s grin twisted and changed as he looked the waitress over. “You know, I’m not a mountain man, but I could be into mounting women.”
“Yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before,” the waitress scowled.
“Sorry,” John said, “you’ll have to excuse him. They haven’t got his meds right yet.” He gave Aaron a disapproving look.
“Yeah, whatever,” the waitress had her pen poised. “You ready to order?”
John ordered two burgers and a salad. Aaron went for enchiladas and deep-fried tacos. John got a coffee and bottled water for Angela. Aaron ordered soft-drinks.
After she left, John asked, “What’s with you and the whole sleaze act? You’re with Christie. You wouldn’t ditch her and hook up with that waitress…”
“Amber,” Aaron said. “Her name tag said ‘Amber.’”
“Whatever,” John waved the interruption away. “What’s the go?”
“Just sussin’ things out, you know,” Aaron ran his fingers through his hair, “like, checking my credit rating. No harm in that.”
“No harm? Just as long as she puts the roach in your food, not mine.”
“Nah, she wouldn’t do that,” Aaron shook his head. “Besides some girls like the attention.”
“And how does that fit into the whole Christian thing?”
Aaron shook his head as if he’d been woken suddenly and gave John a blank look. “It doesn’t.”
“So you’re not a proper Christian then?”
“Who is?” Aaron shrugged, then seeing John’s confused expression, added, “Oh I believe there’s a God, or Supreme Being or whatever you want to call it, but as for the rest of the Bible…” Aaron scratched his head. “Well, you can’t take it all literally; otherwise you’d have to be killing anyone who disagreed or you thought might lead you astray.”