Galactic Axia Adventure 1: Escape to Destiny (6 page)

Frowning at them again, she finally concluded the call and turned her attention to the couple. “What may I do for you?” Ms. Hornbeck said with poised sweetness. Feigning the forgetfulness of old age, Mr. Hassel acted startled at her question.

Assuming he was both hard of hearing and probably a little senile, the director repeated her question, this time enunciating the words louder with exaggerated lip motions. “I said, may I help you?”

“You don’t have to holler,” answered Mr. Hassel. “We’re not deaf. We’re here to inquire about Delmar Eagleman.”

At the mention of Delmar’s name, Hornbeck’s expression clouded and she spoke quietly into the intercom. After a minute, the secretary of her assistant supervisor brought in a file and placed it on her desk. She perched her glasses on the end of her nose and opened the file. Peering down through her bifocals gave her the appearance of looking at something distasteful on her desk. After a minute, she closed the file and looked up.

“I see you’ve inquired before, Mr. Hassel,” she said tartly. “You know what the court said. What brings you here today?”

“I was wondering if there has been any change in your agency’s determination about the boy,” Mr. Hassel replied.

“We thoroughly investigated your accusations against his older brother and found the situation didn’t merit change. According to our evaluation, he is an exemplary citizen and doing an excellent job of caring for his younger brother,” she replied gruffly.

Mr. Hassel didn’t care to be called a liar but held his temper in check. “Are you sure?” he asked evenly.

“I most certainly am!” Prudence Hornbeck answered hotly. “I have the report from the investigator right here in the file!” She flipped the file open and stabbed a page with a bony index finger.

The tension in the room was broken when the assistant to the director came into the office. After a hurried conference, she and the director left the room.

Mr. Hassel slid forward in his seat and scanned the report, reading it upside down. He noticed the investigation had been made by telephone with the investigator asking Delmar’s older brother if anything was wrong. The response recorded was negative, followed by a comment from the investigator about nosey busybody neighbors. Mr. Hassel also noted that the report was dated over two months after he had filed the complaint. He slid back in his seat just as Hornbeck returned to the room.

“You’re still here?” she asked. It was obvious she wanted them to leave.

“We were just leaving,” answered Mr. Hassel. He and his wife stood. “Thank you for your time,” he added as they moved toward the door.

“The matter is closed, Mr. Hassel,” Hornbeck said curtly as the couple slid by. “Further interference by you will have serious repercussions!”

“I’m sure they will!” Mr. Hassel said, casting an angry glare at the director. He and Mrs. Hassel exited the building.

As soon as they were again in their ground car, Mrs. Hassel spoke her mind. “Of all the self-righteous, pompous, self-serving pinheads I’ve ever met!” she spat out. “What are you going to do about the way she treated us, Robert?”

“Exactly what I should have done long ago.”

He pressed the starter switch on the vehicle and drove in silence to the post office. Once there, he asked the clerk for a special delivery Imperial packet. After paying for the packet and a tablet of paper, he returned to the car. He took his pen and wrote several pages of notes about the situation and the treatment they received from the social agency.

At Robert’s request, Agnes took some of the extra paper and detailed their treatment by the agency. When they finished, Robert took the notes and sealed them in the packet. Addressing the outside, Robert went back into the post office and mailed the packet. Back at the ground car, he got in and sighed happily.

“Where did you send the packet, Robert?”

“Where it will do the most good, to the palace,” he replied and then told her the addressee.

“She was certainly right when she said that further interference would have serious repercussions!” Agnes said with a smile.

Inside the post office, the clerk placed the packet into a special canvas pouch. Soon it would be outbound on a journey that would not end until it landed in a certain red box.

∞∞∞

Floating down the street, Delmar was still staring at his graduation certificate. He brought himself back to the present and entered a small cafe where he and the Hassels had agreed to meet. He ordered coffee and sat just staring at the certificate. Without him noticing, the waitress brought his cup of coffee and set it down.

When the Hassels arrived, they found Delmar still staring at the certificate, a cup of cold, untouched coffee on the table. They quietly slid into the booth across from Delmar without him seeing them.

“I see your exam went pretty well,” said Robert in a voice loud enough to break the boy’s concentration.

“Huh?” was all Delmar could think of to say, noticing them for the first time.

Delmar looked from one beaming face to the other and broke into a grin. He was still speechless when the waitress came over and Robert ordered for all of them. After she had gone, Mr. Hassel nodded to his wife and she pulled a small package out of her purse. Robert took it and handed it to the boy.

“Here, son,” he said quietly. “We want you to have this.”

Delmar looked at the package for a moment before unwrapping it. Inside was an old silver pocket watch. The inside cover was engraved with the words:
From the boys of the 653rd unit to a fine trooper.
Delmar looked up at the Hassels, his question written on his face.

“I received that watch when I was released from my old unit after being badly wounded,” Robert said. “My injuries never healed correctly, and although I could have continued to serve on active duty, my limitations could endanger my unit in a critical moment. Rather than take that risk, I accepted early retirement.”

Pausing a moment he went on. “The other troopers gave me that watch as their way of thanking me for keeping the faith and protecting their future. It was mine and now it’s yours.”

When they finished their late lunch, Mr. Hassel looked at his watch and motioned Agnes and Delmar to the door. Robert paid the bill as they passed the counter. Soon they were speeding enroute to the Hassel farm and arrived in time for Delmar to walk home without his brother being suspicious. Mrs. Hassel had Delmar leave the precious certificate with them for safekeeping, and with a hug sent the boy on his way.

“There he goes,” Robert said as he watched the boy start for home. “If our boys had lived, that’s what I would have wanted them to be.” Agnes came up behind him and slipped an arm around her husband. Together they watched until Delmar disappeared over the rise.

∞∞∞

When Delmar came through the door of the Eagleman farmhouse, Dorn hit him hard from behind and threw him to the floor. He tried to kick the door shut but it sprang back open, breaking a pane from the small inset window as it slammed against the wall. Broken shards of glass fell to the floor, some of the larger pieces breaking again.

Delmar could feel a trickle of blood running down the back of his neck. In the dim light of the room, he could see his brother, drunk with a broken bottle in his hand, towering over him. The rage in Dorn’s eyes was unmistakable. Delmar eased himself slowly along the floor to gain a defensible position.

“Where you been, you little snot!” Dorn screamed drunkenly at him. “You went and tried to cause trouble for me with the social agency, didn’t you?”

Delmar, confused by the accusation, knew that he had not seen anyone from the agency in several years. As his enraged brother drew closer, Delmar prepared for the worst.

“Don’t you try to run, you little son of a Red-tail! I’m gonna beat the tar out’ta you!”

Finally fed up with Dorn’s abuse, Delmar kicked outward and connected with his brother’s ankles, toppling the inebriated man. Falling to the floor, Dorn was unable to get a good hold on the faster boy.

Delmar twisted free of his drunken antagonist and leapt through the open door, running hard for the road. He dodged the thrown broken liquor bottle as he fled.

“You better run or I’ll kill you!” his brother screamed at him and slammed the door. The rest of the small window in the door shattered with the impact.

Delmar ran as fast he could, putting distance between himself and his dangerous brother. Fearing that Dorn might run him down from behind, he cut across several fields. He knew Dorn would look for him at the Hassels, so he decided to avoid their inviting sanctuary. Instead, he scrambled deep into a nearby wood and found temporary shelter in an abandoned shack. He secured his makeshift shelter and sank to the floor. How could such a perfect day have gone so wrong?

∞∞∞

Checking the outbuildings for the night, Robert Hassel was surprised to hear a ground vehicle roar into his driveway and slide to a halt. He hurried around the side of the house and saw Delmar’s older brother, drunk and enraged pounding on the front door with the palm of his hand.

“Where you hidin’ that no good little snot?” the man yelled at the door.

Before he could intervene, Robert heard the door open and saw the drunken man stagger backward. In the light of the porch lamp, he saw Agnes standing firmly in front of the large man with her rifle pointed squarely at his chest.

“I don’t know what you want but you have exactly ten seconds to leave my property!” she said, her voice hard.

His eyes wide with surprise, the man fell off the porch and lurched back to his truck. When he hesitated getting in, Agnes put a shot into the fence post next to him.

“Git, I said!” she yelled, “and don’t ever come back!”

Dorn leapt behind the controls and the vehicle spewed gravel as it reversed its course down the driveway. As soon as the truck was gone, Robert joined his wife on the porch.

“Good shot, Agnes,” he said, “but now I have to repair the fence post.”

Emptying the spent cartridge from the chamber, Agnes fed a fresh round in and cycled the weapon. “You know what I think, Robert? I think Delmar’s in trouble.”

“It’s obvious he isn’t at home or his drunken brother wouldn’t have come here looking for him. Wherever that boy is tonight, he’s going to be awful lonely.”

The couple remained quiet for a moment. They could still hear the noise from Dorn’s racing ground vehicle in the distance. After it finally faded, Agnes said, “We’ll go look for him at first light before his brother sleeps off his booze.”

“Sure wish I could help him tonight though,” replied her husband as they walked into the house.

Chapter Five

Early the next morning the Hassels were up at first light and ready to begin their search. Robert tried to think of how he would run if he were in Delmar’s situation. Naturally, he would leave the roads to avoid the danger of being run down. Taking to the fields would be a wise choice because of the difference in physical fitness between Delmar and his overweight brother.

The difficult part of the search would be determining how far Delmar would run before hiding. The boy had both good stamina and motivation, so he could have run quite a distance in a relatively short time. After several fruitless hours of searching, the Hassels decided to head for home.

“Robert,” Agnes said, “I don’t like the thought of that boy being out there alone and hungry.”

“I know what you mean, honey,” replied her husband, “but there’s not much we can do until he shows up.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a ground car pulling into the driveway. Robert looked out the window to see a police vehicle in the lane. As the officer stepped onto the porch, Robert opened the door and stepped out, Agnes just behind him.

“Morning, sir. Ma’am,” the officer greeted them.

“What’s up, officer?” Robert asked.

“We have a complaint against you for threatening a neighbor with a gun last night,” the officer said.

“That’s true officer,” Robert returned. “He was drunk and acting in a threatening manner toward my wife.”

“Is that true, ma’am?” asked the officer, looking at the small woman.

“Yes sir,” Agnes replied. “I told him to get off our property.”

“Did you shoot at him, sir?” the man asked Robert.

“No sir.”

“I shot at him,” Agnes spoke up. “When he hesitated, I put a slug into the fence post next to him.” She pointed at the blasted fence post near the officer’s ground car. The officer stepped off the porch and examined the fence post. He then returned to the porch and stood silently before the older couple.

“Well ma’am,” he began, “a complaint was filed, and we’re required by law to investigate. I’m going to have to give you a warning and charge you with assault.”

“What!” the couple exclaimed together. “What do you mean?”

“That’s right, folks,” he said. “As investigating officer I consider you, ma’am, as presenting a deadly hazard to innocent fence posts,” he added with a smile.

When the couple remained speechless, the officer continued, “I hereby place you into the custody of your husband and require you to perform two hours of target practice.” Robert and Agnes both let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the officer.

“What about the complaint?” asked Robert.

“We know the party who issued the complaint and have for some time,” the officer said. “In fact, he was almost too drunk to file the complaint. Officially, we had to investigate his complaint and I was the lucky one sent out to do it.”

“Why do you say you’re the lucky one, officer?” Robert asked.

“Because I’m the one who gets to ask for some of Miss Agnes’ famous apple pie.”

“Well then, let’s go inside,” invited Robert, holding the door for Agnes and the officer. Agnes stopped abruptly and turned again to the officer, her nose buried halfway up his chest.

“What are you going to say on your report?” she asked as she stepped back, a worried expression on her face.

“That the shooting was justified,” he answered. “Half the guys down at the station would like to run Dorn in, but can’t. In fact, they’re somewhat disappointed that you didn’t bag the scum. How could you miss?”