Blue Plague The Fall

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Chapter 14

  Bruce pulled the Tahoe into the driveway of the farm and up to the gate and pushed the remote to open the gate. Debbie, in the passenger seat, was talking to Mary and Danny in the backseat about the paintball game that they had played today at the paintball field. Bruce looked in the rearview mirror, saw Mike pulling up in the Excursion and Steve in his truck. Mary and Danny had jumped in with Bruce and Debbie as they left the paintball field. Jake had ridden with Mike and Nancy to be with Matt and David. The engaged couple was together in Steve’s truck bringing up the rear. The family had gotten up early, gotten chores done, and got ready to play paintball at a large professional field outside of Bossier. It was complete with urban areas, woodlands, and open fields spread over eighty acres. Since it was the first weekend of August, there were a lot of people at the field so the family got to remain on the same team all day. They had gotten to the field at 9 a.m. when it opened and had played for six hours straight. Everyone was sweaty and striped down to t-shirts and tiger-stripe BDU pants. The whole family wore tiger-stripe BDUs so they knew who was who during the game.

  Bruce knew he was going to be sore tomorrow with all the running and diving like a super action hero. Pulling forward after the gate opened, he drove up to the house and parked. As everyone got out, they met at the back to get their equipment bags. Mary and Danny were still talking away, never losing the conversation. It wasn’t that they did not like being around the girls after a game, but there had been several young boys playing today and that was the topic of discussion. A father should never have to listen to his little girls talking about how good some boy looked. These were words that Bruce could live the rest of his life and he would have no regrets if he never heard them again. If he heard Danny say “that boy was so fine” one more time, he was going to scream. To make it worse, Mary was agreeing with her.

  He opened the back and started to pass out equipment bags to his passengers except Debbie. He had learned long ago that was his job when they got home. Several times he looked over the marriage license, and nowhere in it did it say he was her bellhop. She would clean her own paintball gun and equipment, but she would not carry it inside. Once he purposely left her bag in the Tahoe, and as he was walking to the house she turned to him and said, “Forget something?” What did he say, being the big badass he was? “Ooops, baby, I’m sorry,” turning around to grab her equipment bag. Some battles were not worth fighting. He did not feel so bad when the second time the family had went to play paintball four years ago he saw Nancy tell Mike to grab her bag from the truck. It must be part of the stuff the priest said when they got married. There were a lot of words said, but all Bruce could remember was “til death do you part.” He should have paid better attention to the words that man had said to him.

  He looked over at Mike as he handed out bags from the back and, yes, he grabbed two, putting them over his shoulder. Everyone was heading into the house when Steve and Tonya got out of Steve’s truck. Bruce watched Steve reach into the bed of the truck, hauling out two bags and putting them over his shoulder. Tonya walked around the front of the truck, grabbing his hand, walking to the house with him. Bruce sat and thought it must be a rule that comes with engagement.

  Mike walked up to Bruce and said, “That was some fun today was it not, brother?”

  “Hell yeah, but the girls talked about those three teenage boys that were on the opposite team the whole way home,” Bruce stated. “It should be illegal for girls to talk about how good some boy looks when their daddy is around.”

  “Yes, I have to agree with you there,” Mike concurred. “I saw the way those three were watching them like wolves the entire time we were there. That is why I hunted them down every chance I got.”

  “Well, I did, too,” Bruce stated proudly. “I shot the one with the long blond hair five times in the face mask when we stormed the castle. Do you think he got the message?”

  “No, it was not until you yelled that next time you were going to put a bayonet on your paintball gun and cut out his liver,” Mike let him know.

  “You heard that?” asked Bruce.

  “I think everyone on the field heard it, Bruce. Debbie tried to hide like she did not know you. I was fixing to go and get you a bayonet, but Nancy told me she would use it on me if I did,” Mike informed him.

  “The girls must not have heard it then, because they did not say anything about it,” Bruce said.

  “Oh yes, they did. They went asking Nancy and Debbie to get control of the ‘crazy daddy’ because he was embarrassing them,” Mike informed Bruce.

  “When was this, and where was I?” Bruce demanded.

  “At the pro shop when we were refilling our air tanks before we went to the trench field. You were sitting at a table cleaning your gun, staring at the boys,” Mike let him know.

  “Well, at least I was protecting our girls,” Bruce said. “So now I’m crazy daddy,” Bruce replied proudly.

  “You have always been crazy daddy. But if you want to kill the boys, you can do it later. The girls asked if they could invite them over this evening to go swimming; Debbie and Nancy said they could,” Mike told him.

  “What?” said Bruce, with anger washing over his face.

  “Nancy and Debbie said it was for the way we treated the boys, embarrassing the girls. This was to make up for it,” Mike said, not too pleased.

  “I’m cleaning my gear and finding something to do in the shop,” Bruce stated flatly, opening the door to the house.

  “You can’t. Debbie volunteered you to cook hamburgers,” Mike said, grinning, following him in.

  “Why the hell are those smiling predators coming over here to drool over our daughters?” Bruce stated.

  “Since you are cooking the food, I’m going to poison them, and the blame will be on you,” Mike said, laughing.

  “I can live with that,” Bruce said, laughing with Mike.

  Nancy came out of the kitchen into the den. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “What are you two laughing about?”

  “Nothing,” they replied together.

  “Yeah right. Those boys will be coming over here at six o’clock. That gives everyone two hours to get ready. Both of you will be on your best behavior. Do I make myself clear?” Nancy said to them, crossing her arms across her chest.

  “I never did or said anything to those boys today, baby,” Mike stated proudly.

  “Michael Collins, I saw you shoot Chandler, the blond, over twenty times while he was on the ground after he called ‘Hit.’ Then I saw you unload over forty shots into Scott, the one with black hair, after he called ‘Hit.’ To top it off, Gabe the brown-headed boy, after he grabbed our flag, you unloaded your entire hopper of paintballs on him, yelling ‘I’m giving Bruce his bayonet,’” Nancy almost shouted.

  Mike just stood there trying to look ashamed but not doing a very good job of it. “Well, can I explain my actions, please?”

  “No, you will not blow smoke up my ass.” Turning to look at Bruce, she said, “It’s because of both of your actions that Debbie and I invited the boys over here this afternoon. You two have to realize that they are not little girls anymore and let them make some judgment calls,” she finished, walking off into the kitchen.

  “Damn, I did not think anyone saw me,” Mike said quietly.

  “I see everything you do, Michael Collins,” Nancy yelled from the kitchen.

  “You married superwoman,” Bruce said in awe. “She sees and hears everything.”

  “There is another one in the kitchen also, Bruce Williams, and we will have our talk later,” Debbie yelled from the kitchen.

  Bruce looked at Mike, cringing at her voice, “Let’s go to the shop and clean the equipment before we get in more trouble,” he said.

  “Let’s lock the door too, just in case they get some ideas,” Mike said.

  Bruce led the way through the den and out the west patio door. There was no way they were walking through the kitchen. The shop was on the west
side of the property. It had a machine shop on one side and a garage on the other where all the vehicles were worked on. Bruce opened the door and walked in. Mike closed the door and, true to his word, locked the door. They put the equipment bags on a large metal table that was in the middle of the machine shop side. The table was twenty feet long and ten feet wide. Along the wall were a CNC mill, a lathe, band saw, vertical milling machine and a shaper. The entire building was eleven hundred square feet and was the duo’s hiding place when they were in trouble or just wanted to be alone.

  “Well, I guess we have no one to blame but ourselves,” Bruce stated. “Did you really do what Nancy said?”

  “Yeah, I really did not think that anyone saw me,” Mike admitted, looking at Bruce.

  “Why did you make me think that I was the only one dealing out punishment to the little devils?” Bruce asked.

  “One of us has to act civilized,” Mike answered.

  “Well, okay, but next time let me know, and I will make sure everyone is looking at me while you do some dirty work,” Bruce said in a diabolical tone.

  “Next time my ass, Nancy never uses my full name unless she is really pissed, in case you forgot,” Mike said, glancing at the door.

  “Yeah, but she never stays mad long,” Bruce pointed out.

  “Your sense of time is never appropriate. To me, when she is mad, it’s an eternity,” Mike informed him.

  Bruce opened the first bag and started to pull out his equipment and laid it out then opened the second and placed Debbie’s gear next to his and started to clean it. Mike, on the other side of the table, did the same. Breaking apart the first paintball gun, Bruce asked Mike, “Did you read the Internet this morning about the Congo?”

  “Yeah, some type of viral outbreak during a coup. They are always fighting about something over there. Of course, the great USA is sending young men into harm’s way. I did not see what type of viral outbreak they thought it was. The viruses that come from central Africa can be nasty. Ebola has a very high mortality rate. I just don’t like it when our troops have to face something like that,” Mike said.

  “No shit,” Bruce concurred. “Bullets are bad enough, but the viruses from there scare me. Remember the swine flu epidemic?” Bruce asked.

  “Yeah, everyone thought they were going to die. Stephanie told me swine flu was going to be nothing,” Mike answered.

  Stephanie was a research doctor they had met at the university. Her specialty was virology and genetic research, and she was good at it. It was four or five years ago Debbie had invited her out to the farm because she was always by herself. Stephanie jumped at the opportunity and quickly became a close friend of the family. They had taught her how to hunt, fish, and shoot guns. You only had to show her something once, and she was good at it. Looking at her, someone would think she was a supermodel and not a lab nerd. At five foot five, with auburn hair and water-blue eyes, she was a head turner. Stephanie really intimidated Bruce because of how smart she was in an area he knew nothing about. Bruce could care less what she looked like; he had his Debbie, and that was all he needed. Stephanie would start trying to explain some type of virus, and Bruce could only understand the conjunctions and minor verbs she used. The rest was above his head. Mike, Nancy, and Debbie just sat there listening and asking questions about her research.

  Protein transference, RNA scripture, and words like that made Bruce feel stupid because he had no idea how it worked. As a nurse, he knew about DNA and RNA, he even knew how the AIDS virus worked from college. Just the nuts and bolts, not the actual inner working; that was Greek to him. He had tried to read books about it when Stephanie was here at the house just so he would not be the only person left out of the conversations when it turned to her work. Everyone else at the house loved it when she talked about it; even the kids would sit down and listen.

  Almost two years ago, she had taken a job at the CDC in Atlanta. It was a good move on her part, but the family hated seeing her leave. Stephanie still came back five or six times a year, spending a few weeks each time with the family. This year, she was here during crawfish season and went crawfishing with the family. Last month, she even went to the new property in North Dakota to help out. Nancy and Debbie loved her; they said the only reason she was single was that men were intimidated by her intelligence. Mike had said that was bullshit, but Bruce did not say anything. She used words he could not even find in a dictionary. So he agreed with the wives, only to himself of course.

  Bruce was not dumb by any standards, but the micro worlds of viruses were way over his head. He was at least glad he knew people who could understand them. When Stephanie had explained the swine flu and then the West Nile virus to Mike, Nancy, and Debbie, they all said there was nothing to worry about. So Bruce did not worry about it.

  “Well, what is your take on this virus?” Bruce asked Mike.

  “Don’t have enough info yet. Nancy and Debbie talk to Stephanie every day on Facebook, and if something is bad, she will let us know,” Mike said.

  “Yeah, if you can understand what the fuck she is saying,” Bruce mumbled under his breath.

  “What did you say?” Mike asked, taking apart his second paintball gun.

  “At least it’s in the middle of a jungle on the opposite side of the globe,” Bruce quickly said to cover his mumbling.

  “It only takes one person to carry it to an international airport, and if the virus is highly communicable, then the rest of the world is at risk. That was proven with the last flu outbreak in 2007; it was around the world in ten days. That strain of H1 only had a 40 percent communicable level,” Mike informed Bruce, looking over at him, wiping down the paintball gun with a rag.

  “That means if someone was infected and was around ten people, and they were exposed, only four would actually get it right?” Bruce asked.

  “Yeah, more or less,” Mike said. Well, at least he’d learned something from those books he tried to read before they put him to sleep, Bruce thought.

  “What are we going to do about the boys coming over here?” Bruce asked, looking up at Mike.

  “Just play along. Let’s not piss the wives off anymore today,” Mike stated.

  “Okay, we can always pay the boys to beat them up later,” Bruce pointed out, putting equipment back into the bags. The knee and elbow pads he brushed off with an old toothbrush along with the tactical paintball vest. The mask was wiped down, and he sprayed defogger on both lenses inside and out. Then he laid everything neatly in each bag.

  A knock sounded at the door, and Bruce looked over at the monitor at the head of the table. A video camera was mounted above the door, and he saw Steve at the door. He walked over and opened the door and let Steve in. “Your mom send you?” Bruce asked.

  “Yeah, she said you two have sulked enough. It is time to come in and get cleaned up. You have to start the grill soon, she said,” Steve said, relaying instructions to Bruce.

  “Okay,” Bruce said. “Have you two set a date yet?”

  “Yes,” Steve replied, “March 10 next year.”

  “Mike and I get to throw you a bachelor party, son,” Bruce said proudly.

  Steve became stiff. “Both moms said you both got out of hand at each of your parties, and you two did not even know each other yet. They told me you two can’t do the party.”

  “Have no idea what you are talking about,” Mike said. “We will arrange it, and if somebody has to get into trouble, then it will be us.”

  “Okay,” Steve said, laughing.

  “How much did you spend on the ring?” Bruce asked.

  “Twelve hundred dollars,” Steve replied.

  “You could have asked me for some more you know? I didn’t need to know what it was for son,” Bruce told him.

  “I know that, Dad,” he said. “But Tonya is like Mom and Mama Nancy––she is not much for jewelry. She is already talking about going into town and getting her some BDUs and a pistol of her own like the rest of the family,” Steve said proudly.


  “I was just saying you did not need to spend your money. I would have given it to you,” Bruce said. “So if I can’t give you some money, take Tonya down to the basement and let her pick out a pistol that she likes. Then take her to the storage container with all the extra BDUs and get her a set of each,” Bruce told him.

  “Thanks, Dad. I will go get her now and let her get some BDUs,” Steve said, hugging his dad.

  One storage unit was filled with extra boots, BDUs, cold-weather gear, old clothes, and other gear. No food was stored in it, just combat gear and camping supplies. They bought lots of used military gear and kept a variety of sizes. The rest the family sold on eBay. They had actually made some pretty good money doing this.

  Mike walked up to Steve. “Tonya is a good girl. I am very proud of you,” he said, wrapping him in a bear hug. “If you need anything, you will let me know? I won’t tell your dad,” he promised.

  “You keep secrets worse than him,” Steve said, laughing.

  Mike turned and picked up his two equipment bags and put them over his shoulder, heading for the door. “You are probably right, but I’m prettier,” he said, walking out.

  Bruce laughed, grabbing his bags, “Only a Marine would say he was pretty son, remember that,” Bruce said, following Mike out with Steve in tow.