Fook (18 page)

Jason just sighed. He knew that this
childish behavior wouldn’t end until Derek got what he wanted.
“That was the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen or done,” he
ad-libbed what he thought might satisfy his obnoxious roommate. “We
are the smartest fucking human beings to walk this orbiting ball of
stupidity and one day we will be considered gods amongst
sheep.”

Derek just stared at him confused. “Not
exactly what I was looking for, and unexpectedly a bit mean, but I
guess it’ll do.”

“Oh shut up,” Jason smiled as he returned to
the computer.

“At least admit one thing,” Derek
continued.

“If I do, will you leave me alone?”

“Probably not.”

"He may be obnoxious but at least he’s
honest,” Jason thought as the transfer finished and he began
processing the new data. “What?”

“The real reason you’re hesitant to go
back.”

“I told you. It might not be safe,” Jason
replied, his attention split between the new data and the
meaningless conversation in which he was being held prisoner.

“No, that’s not it,” Derek rebutted.

“Oh, okay. You tell me why then.”

“Sarah.”

“I told you that a relationship with someone
from the past is extremely dangerous and not worth the risk
involved.”

“Then why did we spend almost an hour trying
to convince the clerk, at the student store, that we’d lost our
student IDs and weren’t just pretending to be students in order to
buy the coat.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Jason protested as
he again focused his attention away from the conversation. “The
coat thing was all you.”

“Yeah, but I got the coat for you. Poor
Sarah is still standing on that corner, expecting us to bring it to
her.”

“First off, I never agreed to go on the
date, and second, we both know that she eventually went home, or to
class or somewhere. Then, later she probably graduated, got
married, started a family and right now is working as a pharmacist
somewhere.”

“Michigan.”

“What?”

“She lives in Michigan, has no kids and has
a relationship status of single,” Derek replied.

Confused, Jason turned to find Derek on his
phone. “How the hell did you find her Facebook page that quickly. I
swear, you’re like some sort of social media ninja.” He returned to
the computer.

“See, there’s no need for you to worry. You
wouldn’t be preventing her from having the children she apparently
wasn’t going to have anyway, and the husband, that you’d be
depriving of a meaningful relationship, doesn’t exist, so there’s
nothing to worry about,” Derek explained.

“How do you know she didn’t get
divorced?”

“Maybe she did,” Derek agreed. “You could be
saving her from making the biggest mistake of her life.”

“Unbelievable,” Jason muttered.

“Huh?”

“I said, you’re unbelievable. You always
find a way to turn a situation around and make is sound
so...positive,” Jason sighed.

“Well, that’s because I’m a positive guy,
which is why I’m confident that it won’t hurt for you to just go on
one date with her.”

Jason just turned and stared at Derek.

“Come on man!” Derek’s upbeat tone turned to
desperate plea. “She’s fucking beautiful. You’d be an idiot to pass
this up.”

“She
was
stunning,” Jason thought,
but beautiful or not, it was too dangerous. “You’re a smart guy,
Derek...maybe not right now...but you have your moments.”

“Thanks?” Derek replied confused.

“You know that I can’t do it. You know the
danger and we just can’t risk something like that.”

“Unbelievable, I go through all of that to
get you a date with what is probably the hottest woman you’ve ever
met...and still is by the way...” he flashed Sarah’s profile
picture on his phone, “...and you tell me you can’t go on one
simple date with her?”

Jason just stared at Derek as he completed
his rant, avoiding eye contact as he returned his attention to the
picture on the phone.

Looking up Derek saw that Jason was watching
him. he glanced back down at his phone and then back up at Jason.
“Alright, fine. I get it,” he finally gave in to Jason’s logic.
“You’re right. I understand the risk, but...just look at what
you’re giving up,” he flashed the phone again, this time holding it
up longer for Jason to see.

“Derek was right,” Jason thought. Even in
her early forties she was still stunning with her long blonde hair
blowing in the wind in what appeared to be a photo shot on a beach
somewhere.

“You’ve gotta promise me one thing though,”
Derek insisted as he returned the phone to his pocket.

“What’s that?”

“You, me and shots of whiskey at The
Belligerent Leprechaun tomorrow night.”

“I—”

“—No! You have no say in the matter,” Derek
interjected before Jason could decline. “I’m going to get you laid
my friend because whatever backup you have in your piping down
there...,” he motioned to Jason’s crotch, “...is causing you to
make some piss poor decisions.”

Jason knew better than to argue. Derek had
made the declaration, so it was decided. He knew exactly how the
night would go though. They’d go to the bar and meet two relatively
attractive women. But, instead of getting his chance at one of
them, Derek would get drunk and, if he didn’t bang them both in the
bathroom, he’d bring them back to the dorm, leaving Jason with a
choice, run off to the lab for a night of number crunching or lie
awake listening to the sounds of the ménage á trois taking place
only ten feet from his bed. He did have a lot of data to sift
through, so maybe that plan wasn’t so bad after all.

“Fine,” Jason agreed, looking forward to the
likely productive evening.

“Good. It’s settled then,” Derek declared.
“Now, I’m going to bed. They don’t tell you in movies but time
travel really takes a lot out of you. You coming?”

“No, I’m going to get started on this. I’ll
be up in a bit.”

“Well, don’t be too late honey. Time travel
apparently makes you horny as well,” Derek joked as he used his
hand, tongue and cheek to mime a blow-job before laughing and
disappearing through the door.

Not surprised by Derek’s vulgar humor,
especially when floating on cloud-nine, Jason just smiled and
returned to the thousands of lines of data on the screen.

NINETEEN

“I’m home!,” Phil announced as he walked through the
front door to his daughter standing at the foot of the stairs, arms
crossed with the look of a parent who just caught their teenage son
sneaking back into the house in the middle of the night.

“Where have you been?”

“You knew that I had to go into Boston for
that convention today. It took longer than expected. I’m sorry I
didn’t call,” Phil apologized for his tardiness. “What’s that
smell?” he suddenly noticed the surprisingly pleasant aroma of
non-burnt food, lingering in the air.

“I cooked you dinner,” Katie grinned.

Instantly he dreaded the culinary crime
scene that awaited him in the kitchen. He wasn’t sure that the
stove could take another one of his daughter’s meals. Kissing her
on the cheek, he made his way down the hall, Katie following close
behind. Rounding the corner, he was glad to see the kitchen still
intact and remarkably clean. Then he spotted the bucket of KFC on
the dining room table and three empty plates in front of the
surrounding chairs. Laughing he turned. “Cooked, huh?”

“You were late, I had to reheat the sides a
couple of times. That counts.”

“Thank you sweetheart. That was very
thoughtful. I’m sorry I’m late.”

“That’s okay,” she smiled, giving her father
a hug.

Looking over his daughter’s head with his
arms around her, “What’s with the third plate?”

“Miss Moore was over for a bit.”

Phil broke the embrace. “Katie,” he
playfully scolded.

“What?” she smiled. “Miss Moore is hot, Dad.
Besides, she really likes you.”

“I thought we talked about this. You can’t
keep trying to set me up with every single woman in town.”

“Miss Moore lives just outside of Cannon,
Dad; in Dalton.”

“You know what I mean,” Phil smiled.

“You deserve to be happy too Dad.”

“I am happy. I have two of the most
important people right here,” he placed one hand on his daughter’s
shoulder and the other on her stomach.

“Beyond this I mean,” Katie looked past the
sweet remark to remain on point. “I mean, you deserve to find love
again. You can’t keep running away from the chance to be happy
again. Mom wouldn’t have wanted it that way and you know it.”

“I know sweetheart and you’re right. I
should get back out there. Trust me. I want to love again but you
have to understand that it has to happen on my own terms and when
I’m ready. Right now my focus is on you and that precious little
girl in there. Right now, that’s all the love I need. I promise
you, when I’m ready, you’ll be the first to know and then you can
fix me up with whomever you see fit. Deal?”

“Deal,” Katie smiled.

“So how was your day?” he changed the
subject as he began building a plate of food from the containers on
the table.

“Mark asked me to the junior prom today,”
she replied.

Caught off guard, Phil froze, the chicken
leg in his hand hovering only inches from the plate on which he’d
intended to place it.

“Mark?” he bought himself some time to
recover as he continued filling his plate.

He knew who Mark was. He was the youngest of
the three Fossy kids. As far as he could recall he was a decent
kid, kept to himself and didn’t really cause any problems. The same
couldn’t be said for his older brother’s however.

“You know Mark, Daddy.”

“Yeah, I remember Mark. So, did you say
yes?” he asked, all the while “please say no, please say no” was
looping through his mind.

They’d had enough problems with boys lately,
namely Jordan McCandlis, the fifteen year old father of the little
angel currently inhabiting his daughter’s womb. When his mother
found out that he’d gotten Katie pregnant, she’d shipped him off to
live with his father somewhere in California. They hadn’t heard
from him since, but frequent encounters with Miss McCandlis in town
never seemed to get any less uncomfortable.

“I said yes, Daddy.”

“Damn,” he thought as he turned with a smile
and a plate full of food for the microwave. “That’s great
dear.”

“I know what you’re thinking Daddy and you
have nothing to worry about.”

“What could I have to worry about?” he
commented, glancing at his daughter’s stomach and instantly wishing
that he hadn’t.

“I’m sorry about Jordan and this,” her
nervous happiness grew hostile.

“No, sweetie,” he put the plate down, moving
closer to his daughter. “I didn’t mea…”

“I know,” she lowered her head. “I didn’t
mean to get upset.”

Placing a finger under her chin, Phil lifted
his daughter’s gaze to meet his. “I love you very much, and while
this isn’t exactly the situation that I wanted for you, I’m still
very proud of you and wouldn’t want things to be any different.
Now, tell me about Mark.”

Looking into her father’s eyes she could
tell that he was being genuine. Early on in the pregnancy they’d
had their blowouts. They’d said everything that needed to be said
and had even gone into family counseling to help work through the
less than ideal situation. Quickly they’d come to the conclusion
that yelling and fighting wasn’t good for anyone, so they’d agreed
that, whenever a situation turned negative or angry words were
about to be exchanged, they would both just take a breath,
acknowledge each other’s sides and move on. It had proved an
effective method for dealing with things.

“Sooo?” he awaited a response.

“He was so sweet, Daddy. I knew what he was
going to ask. He’d already asked me last week but I’d said no.”

“Last week?” Phil thought. This was news to
him.

“I just couldn’t say no this time. Remember
that dress we saw in the store a while back?”

“The pink one?”

“Uh, ha. I told him about it and he
remembered and bought it for me.

“He’s a crafty one,” he thought. Maybe he
would have to take a closer look at the third Fossy kid after
all.

“And not just that, he also found a tiny one
for little Isabella. Oh, that’s right. I didn’t tell you yet. I’m
thinking Isabella for a name.”

New boy, new dresses, baby names; there was
way too much information being thrown his way.

“Anyway, he’s really nice and there’s
nothing for you to worry about so don’t go being big, mean mister
cop if you see him around town. He already knows you're a cop and I
told him you were really a big softy and not to worry.”

“Well, that’s emasculating,” he thought.

“Do you want to see the dress?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Daddy,” she scolded.

“Of course I do, where is it?”

“It’s upstairs, I’ll be right back,” she
exclaimed as she hopped in place, then ran for the stairs.

Phil returned to the microwave, but instead
of inserting his plate, he stared at the machine, wondering if he
could fit his head inside and still manage to turn it on.

TWENTY

Disarmed

Ty stared at the single word on the
transmitter in his hand. If everything was functioning as planned,
the Nesbit’s new alarm system displayed ‘active’ on every control
panel, even though he had just deactivated it from almost a block
away.

“Now remember Ty,” Grandma Ushi continued to
offer advice from the back seat of the car. “In and out. Don’t let
them know you there.”

“Yes, Grandma,” he responded, somewhat
annoyed. He knew what he was doing. He’d been watching the Nesbit’s
for weeks now. He knew their patterns. He knew their habits. This
being his grandmother’s first time however, she apparently felt
that it was her duty to point out every potential situation,
unaware that a solution for nearly every scenario had already been
carefully considered.