by Bella Knight
Both Rota and Skuld clasped her arms. “Sister,” said Skuld. “That is good.”
“Good riding,” said Rota.
“Good riding,” said Wraith. They walked out with their packs, filled up their saddlebags, and left.
“So,” said Wraith, as she put her arm around his waist, and Saber put an arm around her shoulder, “should we have more sex?”
Saber laughed so loud, people could have heard him on the other side of the lake. “Woman, I can’t even roll up the sleeping bag. We’re sleeping in.”
“Fuck,” said Wraith. “I thought I’d get one more out of you.”
“Woman,” said Saber. “I can’t marry you if you kill me.”
They kissed and went to fall into bed as the sun kissed the top of the tent.
Vegas Time
It took two more days, but eventually, Ace was cleared to move, by ambulance, to Vegas. There was a private recovery hospital with a private wing the Iron Knights and law enforcement used to hide people. The patients were referred to by number, not name; everyone was “Smith” or “Jones.” So, Mr. Jones with shoulder immobilization and Mrs. Jones, recovering from a miscarriage, were in a special, private room. It was set up more like an actual bedroom, complete with a double hospital bed, a little sitting area with a couch and two recliners, and three cots lined up against the wall like sentinels.
Ace and Lily settled into the bed. They were allowed to wear either scrubs or sweats. Ace went for ancient sweats and Lily for maroon scrubs. They got situated and were both given pain shots to deal with pain from the two-and-a-half-hour trip from Vegas. They slept, and Numa brought them potato bacon soup and crusty bread and butter.
“Thank you so much,” said Lily, “I need real food.”
“I agree,” said Numa. “You’ll be able to move long before him, so let me show you what’s what. The fridge is half size. The microwave will take a whole chicken. I’ll keep the casserole contingent from bringing you tuna surprise.”
Lily barked out a laugh. “Bless you!” she said. “We’d throw that crap out, and it would get wasted. Probably piss someone off, too.”
Numa laughed. “Probably. I’ll be in charge of the fridge until you start giving me orders. We’ll start with soups and bread. We have tomato basil and grilled cheese, all ready to grill on this little grill plate, here, tomorrow. We’ve also got minestrone, clam chowder, and chicken tortilla. It’s all labeled in single serve containers. There’s more of those rolls, and biscuits in a can. And real butter, and goat cheese from the ladies, oh, and crackers.”
“Bless the goats,” said Lily.
“Yaaa,” bleated Ace, proving he was following along just fine. Lily and Numa laughed. “I also cheated and put frozen pizzas and burritos in the freezer.”
“Thank God for frozen food,” said Ace.
“Word,” said Lily, making Numa laugh.
“I even left you ice cream. The doctor said you can have the fruit bars, and I went to the frozen yogurt place and got single servings of every flavor they had. I’m partial to the peach-chocolate swirl myself.”
“Peanut butter rocks,’ said Lily.
“It does,” said Numa. “You’ve also got fruit juices, water, and milk.”
“Bless you,” said Lily.
“I wish I could reverse time,” said Numa. “I am just happy we could do something for you. The kids grew all the fruits and veggies in labeled containers in there. Feel free to freeze and reheat.”
“Tell everyone ‘hi’ for me,” said Lily.
“Will do,” said Numa. “The little fridge next to your bed has drinks, and snack packets in a basket on top.”
“I think I love you,” said Lily, in a pathetic over-the-top voice. Everyone laughed.
“If you need anything, buzz Kevin. He’s your nurse. But otherwise, here’s the remote.” Numa handed over the remote control to the flat-screen TV, to Ace.
“I have the power,” said Ace, making a muscle with his good arm. Lily laughed.
“Good night,” said Numa.
“Night,” said Ace and Lily. She shut the door.
“Thank fuck we’re finally alone,” said Ace.
“Whatever shall we do with our time, Mr. Smith?”
“What do you want to do, Mrs. Smith?”
“Watch Netflix,” she said, and she snatched the remote. He laughed and put his good arm around her.
The “bad” arm still had an IV with a steady drip of medication. He laid back, stunned at his weakness. He was exhausted, and all he’d done was wake up, get checked up and checked out, and moved in an ambulance to the new facility. Then eat. He felt Lily lay on his shoulder, and the first bar of the show she’d picked came on. He slept.
Numa kept vigil. She’d just pretended to leave. She had them on a monitor, mostly for protection, and partially to keep track of their needs. She could turn the monitor off, of course, if sex entered the picture, but they were both in too much pain for that, both physically and mentally.
She had her own little room next door, complete with bed, TV, bathroom, and a little sitting room of her own. She had plenty of wool to card, now that the “goat girls” had rescued alpacas, or “half-size llamas,” to raise. Some idiot had nearly starved them. They were recuperating quickly, their soft fur growing back.
Nantan was more than happy to buy their fertilizer for killer compost he used for the potted plants. One had been shorn, and Numa had a lovely bag of soft llama fur to work with. Nantan grew hay for them, and they were happy and very docile. Aquene and Bianca were over the moon with alpaca love and were happy to help Jaci and Nova with them. The bags of fiber had been washed, and she had separated the coarser leg and belly fiber for rugs from the softer stuff. She carded the softer fiber and spun it on a small spinning wheel. She listened to her favorite podcasts while she spun.
When Ace and Lily were both asleep, she slipped into their room, turned off Netflix, and made sure they were covered by a sheet and a light blanket. She made sure they had plenty of water to drink in their cups with straws. The nurse slipped in to check the monitors and the flow of pain meds, nodding at Numa. He was carefully vetted, a wiry but strong Ex-Army nurse named T.J., with battlefield experience. The Iron Nights had finally ended their courtship with him successfully, and he was the proud owner of a nice Harley Lowrider. T.J. had wiry black hair, dark eyes, and dark skin tinted with red. Numa wondered which parent was Native, and from which nation, and which was of African or Caribbean descent.
T.J. followed Numa back to her room. “Love working here,” he said. Numa gave him a cup of coffee, which he accepted gracefully. “Less hospital, more homely. It’s like a plane. Why can’t all the seats be like business class, with some pods for the truly elite? Must people be stacked like cordwood? Same here. Why not an actual living space? Doesn’t make it less sterile.”
“I agree,” said Numa.
“They’re fine,” he said. “What they need is rest, pain meds, and a long, slow recovery.”
“We may need to hit Ace in the head with a rock to make that work,” said Numa.
“He has a wife to protect,” said T.J. “They used that on me when I lost the foot. I needed to heal to be a good husband for her. Now, I move nearly as well, even with big, heavy patients. Doesn’t slow me down, even with Tyler.”
“Who is Tyler?” asked Numa, sipping her own coffee.
“My son. He’s two, and a handful. Driving Jack, my husband, nuts. He is helpless during the temper tantrums.”
“Did you tell Tyler that he has big emotions, and he should just wait for them to go away?”
“I did,” said T.J., “but, he has a two-year-old’s sense of time. Everything is happening right now.”
“I’ve been riding herd on a ton of teens,” said Numa. “Kind of the same thing. Huge emotions, lots of drama over mostly nothing. They learn fast, though. We’ve got a farm, hydroponics, rescue horses.” She laughed. “I have a trading post on the Paiute res. The teens are providing the l
abor while I’m here, with my cousin Mica riding herd on them. Some of our former graduates are raising goats and now alpacas.”
“Ah,” he said. “So, the spinning…”
“So, the spinning,” she said. She pointed to a little webcam. “I’m walking them through on video, step by step, on how to card and spin. Nothing else to do, anyway. Those girls are going to be responsible for the next ones. The alpacas should have been shaven before summer. They’re rescues. We lost quite a bit of fiber due to matting. Idiots who had them before were negligent. Makes me mad enough to spit.” She laughed. “They spit at each other, you know. Don’t want to be nearby when they do it.”
T.J. smiled. “Here’s my cell number,” he said, handing her a card. “Or, press the call button in your room. The cell is for just talking. My partner is a weaver.”
“Dine?” asked Numa, the word for Navajo.
“Yes, both my mom and I are from St. Kitts. She’s got the most beautiful voice. Talking or singing, it’s like music. My dad took one look at her and fell like a stone.”
“Smart man,” said Numa. “Your partner may wish to buy the leg and belly fiber for rugs. It’s been washed, carded, and conditioned.” She handed up the bag. He stroked the fleece.
“Lovely,” he said.
“It’s not the highest quality. In a year, when all our animals have had better nutrition, it will be better. So, half the price of thirty dollars a pound, and that’s one and a half pounds.”
He took the money out of his wallet and handed it to her. He took the bag. “Don’t you want me to spin it?” she asked.
He laughed. “And interrupt her audiobook fun? Hell, no.” He stood up from the couch. “Have fun, and get hold of me at once if you see anything on your nanny cam there I should know.”
“I will, T.J.,” she said. He smiled and left quietly to check on his other patients, with his new bag of fleece in hand.
Ghost and Killa replaced her in the morning. She rested while they determined which lesbian couple would be the recipients of their surrogacy.
“Already got a few lined up,” said Killa, proudly.
“Good to know,” said Numa, putting a mask over her face and noise-canceling headphones in her ears. She was out like a light.
Killa and Ghost went next door to make breakfast for the couple when they started stirring. Killa helped Lily to the bathroom and into the shower. Once she got Lily out, she helped her put on new underwear and scrubs. She then blow-dried Lily’s hair and braided it in a loose braid to make it easier to manage. Lily was pale and sweating after the shower, so Ghost helped Killa half-carry her back to the bed.
T.J. gave Ace a sponge bath while Lily was in the shower, and he munched on a breakfast burrito as the doctor breezed in to check on the patients. Killa cut Lily’s breakfast burrito in half and put the other half back in the refrigerator. She was right; Lily ate little and fell asleep after her exam.
Ace groaned as the doctor looked him over. “The fracture is healing nicely,” he said, in a singsong voice. “And the antibiotics are working.”
He moaned. “I hate my life.”
“You not dead,” said Ghost.
“Good point,” said Ace. “And neither is my wife.”
“An’ Katya gonna have a baby for you. So, you gotta lie still and get well so’s you can pick up da kid when it come,” said Killa.
“Another good point,” said Ace. “I just hate being weak, and the pain sucks.”
“We can get ‘em up da meds,” said Ghost. “You jus’ need to get zoned out and sleep, like ya wife.”
“Another good idea,” said Ace. Ghost went out to call the doctor back in, and the dose was upped a little. That, along with more sleep meds, helped Ace fall back to sleep.
“Thought dey wouldn’t sleep,” said Ghost. “Now we gotta make a decision.”
“Les’ call da judge,” said Killa.
“We don’ talk all nice,” said Ghost.
“What did Bonnie say ‘bout dat?” asked Killa.
“We don’ crawl before nobody,” said Ghost. “’Kay. I call ‘em.”
Their surrogate broker called the judge for them. They got a call back twenty minutes later. “This is Judge Jannie Renault. Am I speaking to Ghost or Killa?”
“You don’ mind using our Nighthawks names?” asked Ghost. “An’ I be Ghost.”
“I am familiar with street names,” said the judge. “And, I am quite familiar with the Nighthawks. They tend to help us take out the trash, so to speak.”
Ghost shuddered. “De gang, the one dat abused dose dogs. Dey terrible. We rescued some of ‘em dogs.”
“Good to know,” said the judge, “and, you be what you are. We’re hiring you for your womb, not your grammar. I understand you’re both mechanics for the Nighthawks?”
“Work under Bonnie, she’s certified,” said Killa, into the speaker. “I’m Killa, but I not kill nobody. Kinda a joke to get us out of a si-chu-a-tion.”
“Good to know,” said the judge.
“Kind o’ ‘prentices,” said Ghost. “We put together Harleys from da kits, or make custom bikes. Bonnie got allus wearing masks an’ mechanic’s gloves now, sez we gotta be safe even before gettin’ knocked up.”
“Good woman,” said the judge. “Why are you doing this?”
“We wanna help other lesbians, and we not ready for da kids,” said Ghost. “We o’ready got dem underfoot at da club.”
“The homeschool,” said the judge. “I heard about that.”
“We done taught dem how to braid da hair. We creatin’ a course on mechanics for da older ones.” Ghost stopped. “We was worried, not done no teachin.’ But Bonnie say, dey gotta learn, so we gotta teach. Killa better wit dem than me.”
“What are you going to do with the money we pay you for being surrogates?” asked the judge.
“Found us a real sweet condo, near the club,” said Ghost. “Fixer-upper. Dem methheads be dere, holes in da walls. Da home inspector say it be still good, jus’ need a lotta work.”
“We real-good at da work,” said Killa. “Bonnie say, slackers get nowhere, we get somewhere.”
“Where is the condo?” Ghost gave her the address. They heard typing as she looked it up. “Reasonable price,” said the judge. “Here’s the deal. I gotta meet you, with my wife. I will say this. If we meet, and it all works out, if you have two babies for my wife and I, we’ll buy the house for you, free and clear.”
“We can do dat,” said Ghost. “We can eben get pregnant at da same time.”
“Let’s think about that one,” said the judge. “We’ve already got embryos ready to go, and they plant more than one at the same time. Don’t want to end up with five at once.”
Ghost laughed. “Our sista Katya jus’ had two. She tole us she made fo’ havin’ em. Popped ‘em out de minute de midwife showed up at de hospital. Ivy almost had ta play catch. We good wit’ more than one. Da doctor say we be doin’ fine.”
“So, no drugs, alcohol, other substances?” asked the judge.
“Bonnie usually lets us have a beer sometime, but she says, fucked up mechanic be de one wit’ no fingers.”
“We already had no beers for a week,” said Killa. “We know da drill. Goin’ off da cola, dat be a little harder.”
“Excellent,” said the judge. “I’ll feed you anything you want, tonight. Seven okay?”
“How ‘bout the Sonic near da club?” asked Ghost.
“Perfect,” said the judge, “my wife, Sondra, she loves their cheese sticks. See you then.”
“See ya, judge,” said Ghost.
Ghost and Killa hugged each other. “We gonna do dis?” asked Ghost.
“Free condo?” asked Killa. “Hell to da yes.”
They stole pizza pockets for lunch out of the fridge, and some juice. Ace slept on as Lily woke up. Killa helped her to the bathroom, then Lily ate the rest of her breakfast burrito and drank lime water. She watched a comedy, received more pain meds, and zonked back out.
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Nantan took the afternoon shift. “Thought you was busy wif da teens,” said Ghost.
“Already picked everything, believe it or not,” he said. “They’re on rabbit and rooster duty. Just got a chicken coop. They chose a mix of breeds. They also just got a rabbit hutch and are raising angora rabbits.”
“Why da rabbits?” asked Killa.
“They have beautiful, expensive fur that they molt four times a year. You collect and sell the fur, and it doesn’t hurt the rabbits. They’re docile, and the kids love them. We got four, and we expect to fill the hutch before long. It’s more like a rabbit condo, actually.”
“We good wif da dogs,” said Ghost. “We gotta go. Got a three-wheeler to weld, and a judge to see.”
“A judge?” asked Nantan.
“We gonna be surrogates,” said Ghost, proudly.
Nantan nodded. “If things go as well as they seem to be going with my boyfriend, in a couple years if you’re still doing it, we may be hiring you.”
“We work wif da lesbians who can’t have da kids,” said Ghost. “Maybe we work wif da gay guys later.”
“We’ll think ‘bout it,” said Killa. They hugged Nantan and left.
Ghost and Killa told Bonnie about the judge, and the offer to pay off the condo. “I’ll spot you for the down payment,” she said. “You should have most of it if you’re saving like I taught you.”
“Yeah,” said Killa. “Got most of it. But we don’ qualify for no loan.”
“Don’t need one. Just get a contract from the judge with cash payments to show the buyer. If that doesn’t work, I’ll co-sign. You pay it off, and get my name taken off of it.”
Ghost and Killa both teared up. “You would do dat fo us?” asked Ghost.
“Why the fuck not?” asked Bonnie. “Now, get that silver three-wheeler built. Now. Owner’s having a cow waiting on it.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” said Killa and Ghost.
They took a snack break around three, then went back to their tiny apartment around six, to shower. They made it to Sonic in plenty of time. They sat down at a little table and ordered their drinks.
The judge was a tall, gamine woman, with short gray hair and huge black glasses that made her green eyes look huge. Her wife, Sondra, had kind brown eyes and wavy brown hair that tended to fall into her eyes. Both women spoke clearly. Sondra waved her hands when she spoke.