"Satan, get thee behind me," he muttered and tucked the papers in an envelope.
He jumped when the phone rang.
"Parks, here."
"Louis! Get in here!"
Louis sighed and got up, carrying the report with him. What now? He thought. Things had been awful quiet for the past few weeks, but that Fred Aliger was still in town...
"Hey, Chief," he said when he opened Chief Lovell's office door and stuck his head inside.
"Come in, Parks. Have a seat."
Louis complied and braced himself for another ass-chewing.
Lovell held up a registered letter. "Look at this..." he said and handed the letter over to Louis.
Louis took it reluctantly expecting it to be the civil suit they had been waiting on from Maureen Fitzgerald.
He unfolded it and a check fell in his lap along with a black and gold business card.
"What's this?" he asked and looked at the card first. It was from a custom flagpole and monument company out of Houston. He sighed in relief and then turned the check over and his eyes bugged out. $75,000.00. A certified check drawn on the Magnolia Springs S & L and made out to the Veterans' Memorial Flagpole Fund/Louis Parks. His eyes skimmed down the zeroes and fell on the signature:
Peregrin Caelum Aliger, Esq.
Epilogue
Maureen couldn’t believe how much her life had changed in such a short time. Everyday was an adventure. She’d hardly had time to think. At first she had been insulted and angry to find that she was been so deceived, but then things had changed gradually as Perry’s brother had pursued her endlessly. He had been so romantic and so... loving. He had actually been even more interesting than Perry because he seemed more genuinely interested in her than Perry had been. But Fred would never possess that quality of innocence that had made Perry so adorable. She would never forget Peregrin Caelum Aliger and she hoped someday to see him again.
The small ferry across the bay at Tianjin near the Chinese capitol of Beijing was crowded, but the view of the mountains in the mist was breathtaking. The ruins of Yuanmingyuan Park were beautiful even though there was nothing left but ruins and The Temple of Heaven was indescribable with its round architecture and blue tiled, three story Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests where the ancient emperors supposed talked directly to Heaven. She could have spent days or even weeks just looking at it. Nothing built on the entire North American Continent could have begun to compare with it. She had suddenly understood Peregrin’s love for the city and the civilization that had built it. ‘Fred’ had found Peregrin’s home in one of the outlying areas of the city. Of course no one had been there except the old gardener. ‘Fred’ had easily passed himself off as his ‘brother’ and the gardener had asked no questions treating them with the greatest respect and providing them with everything they had needed as well as some things they had not. Maureen had been very reluctant to leave the wonderful house. In every room and every piece of furniture and object, she could feel Peregrin’s presence. It looked exactly as she had imagined it. She kept hoping against hope that he would appear, but neither he nor Angelica ever showed up while they were there. ‘Fred’ had finally convinced her that it was time to move on and they had taken a boat down the river to the China Sea.
They had left Beijing and were on their way south, around and down to the tip of Shandong Peninsula to Qindao. The mountain she wanted to visit, the one Perry had told her of where the Chinese Immortals lived, was on the same island and also known as Mt. Laoshan, the fairy mountain with magical waters.
Now a noisy flock of seabirds followed the low-slung ferry while tourists and children stood at the stern tossing up bits and pieces of bread and other food tidbits for them to grab from the air. She stood at the railing on the starboard side watching a school of bottle-nose dolphins looping and swirling alongside the boat. They were beautiful, fascinating animals with smooth gray skin. ‘Fred’ stood beside her watching the shimmering animals as they dove and broke the surface of the water again and again. One of the dolphins broke the surface in a long, graceful leap turning completely over before plunging back into the water with a tremendous splash that sent froth up and over the side of the boat almost completely soaking the tall blonde man beside her. He jumped back and let go a serious round of curses. She looked at him and laughed. With as much dignity as possible, he courageously stepped up to the railing again, while the children nearby giggled and pointed at him.
The dolphin that had ruined his clothes rolled alongside the boat very near to them and laid back in the water on its back with its white underbelly exposed for a few moments and then dove again before returning to stand on its tail flipping away in the gyrating fashion so typical of the trained animals she had seen at Sea World in San Antonio. It made the peculiar chattering sound, which sounded strangely like laughter and made all the spectators on their side of the boat clap with appreciation.
“Showboat.” She heard Fred mutter under his breath. “Always trying to get attention for yourself.”
Maureen frowned and looked back at the dolphin which returned to the side of the boat and floated with its head out of the water eying them as if it would speak to them at any moment.
She leaned over the side of the boat trying to reach its smooth skin.
“No...wait,” Fred grabbed hold of her arm. "Make him come to you."
The dolphin drifted nearer and raised its head to within arm’s length of her and she gasped in surprise at the sight of the deep violet eye that watched her with an amused expression as she touched its head just below the eye.
Maureen looked up at ‘Fred’ and he shrugged and smiled.
The dolphin rose up on its tail, gyrated backwards chattering and warbling again, sank into the water and came up once more to do a complete summersault before disappearing under the waves. A few seconds later it surfaced again, this time accompanied by a much smaller companion, the pair swam alongside the boat for a short distance before rolling onto their sides with their front flippers up as if waving to the couple on the ferry. Then they sank out of sight beneath the waves...
Author Biography:
Olivia Darnell is a life-long resident of Texas and considers herself a Texan first and everything else as secondary to that. She currently holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and has plans to someday pursue a Master's in Philosophy or Religious Studies. She is the mother of three grown children: two girls and a boy, grandmother of three: two boys and a girl and happily married for the past twenty-eight years. She has written several full length novels, trying her hand at sci-fi, action/adventure, ghost story, post-apocalyptic and romance. Her interests are varied and colorful. Her life experiences include military service, college, store clerking, secretarial, two entrepreneurial ventures into the restaurant business, teaching and then an unexpected career in public service working for the government. She is currently looking forward to full retirement early in 2010 when she plans to devote herself to a full time writing career, publishing and promoting her work. She can be reached with comments and/or questions at: [email protected]
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