Nicci and I passed Ralph as we were on our way out. He was just coming in along with four of the guys from another detail.

“Hi Lynn, you look great as usual. Late lunch?”

“Yes, and thanks, I needed that.”

“I heard you’re going skiing with our favorite principal this afternoon.”

“Skiing? Thanks for the heads-up. I didn’t know what we were doing. I’ll be certain to take my stuff with me. I’ll have a couple of reports for you after lunch,” I yelled back, as Nicci and I went out the entrance hall door into the cold and the snow, the deep cool in that moderately sized, weather buffering room preparing us to expect the cold outside.

“Do we need the car?”

“I thought we might just walk the block, Lynn. I’d like to go to that little place on the corner and have a salad.”

“That sounds good.” I quickly agreed. It was far wiser not to talk but to just keep myself warm until we reached our destination.

Even with the traction overlays on my low pumps I didn’t have quite so good a grip on the sidewalk as did Nicci’s boots but I made it without any unforseen, or possibly foreseen mishaps. While eating we talked about men in general and continued to plan some of the Christmas party activities. I learned we needed to contact an alternate Santa this year as our regular had an out of town engagement at his niece’s house. He had given us the name and number for two alternates.

Nicci indicated the second name on the list, “I’m hoping for that second one in particular. He’s supposed to have a sleigh and eight reindeer that might thrill the kids and make for great pictures, I’ll call him when we get back. I won’t be surprised if we can’t get him though, he probably books months in advance but we can give it a try.”

“Also book him for next year on Christmas Eve afternoon, Nicci. Two hours should do it. See how he charges his time. For the reindeer, sleigh and him we could go up to 4K but don’t tell him that. Get all his info and let me know. Tell him we’ll let him know tomorrow morning unless there’s some kind of rush for it ... Your judgement ... ”

“I hope we get him, my six year old niece would love it.”

“Your niece?”

“My sister’s kid.”

“Anyone on staff have kids in the three to four year old range?”

“Sure, about a quarter to a third of the ones who are married. Half the staff are married with children.”

“Where have I been?”

“Busy.”

“Well, now I’ve got a three and a half year old to bring to the party.”

“They’ll welcome you and her with open arms. Just wait until she starts school. I hope you’re up on crayon , spelling and arithmetic. Oh, and you better practice jacks and jump rope too.”

“Nicci, she isn’t my daughter.”

“Uh huh ... Oh ... and review Aesop’s fables, the Brother’s Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.”

“Nicci, what are you trying to tell me?”

“Not a thing, Mommy. Not a thing.”

I folded my hands over my tummy, “Does it show?” I asked in jest.

“Not yet, Mommy.”

The waitress overheard that part of our conversation as she came over to pour us more coffee, “Congratulations. When’s it due?”

I replied, “She’s already arrived, I’m afraid,” which confused her and started Nicci laughing hysterically.

We paid for our salads, after leaving a tip for the waitress then cautiously made our way back to the office. I was in much less of a fog than I had been this morning. By two I finished my work, had a joint conference with Ralph and Nicci before I left the office in their capable hands.

The conference with Lucy only took forty minutes, twenty minutes of which was spent with Ralph bringing me up to speed while we tried to fit into Lucy’s schedule via a speaker-phone call. The conference with her took only ten minutes and then we spent ten more trying to act on her needs. Fortunately Ralph already had some of our European agents working on the problem.

It seems three of the suspects involved in the Munich massacre of September ‘72 were believed to be back in Europe and we were one of three agencies which was trying to track them. All data to be reported to our friends and what they did with it wasn’t our purview. We were just supposed to “find and track”.

One of the suspects was killed during the fourth day we were tailing the individuals. The other two departed Europe and were killed a few days later. That made me suspect our government was trading knowledge with a particular other agency but at least we didn’t have a direct link to them. As for Nicci and her role to play in future events, I was told I could bring her up to speed and if it was deemed necessary by those higher on the food chain than Lucy happened to be then she would let us know if the conscription of Nicci (full name, and social security number requested at the time of our conference call) was to occur so I could break the news to her gently.

After we finished our call I let Ralph update our European agents as I dashed home to pick up my ski stuff before driving myself to the safe house where James was being housed. Using my mobile, which I had charged while working in my office, I phoned in then waited for the tire spikes to retract and the gate to open so I could drive up to the house. I wondered briefly why they called them spikes when they were actually more like a claw designed to rip and shred not just puncture? As I reached the door I was greeted by a newbie who allowed me to go inside where it was warm before he halted me. He began patting me down as I looked at him strangely. A voice piped up, “What the hell are you doing, Jim? Trying to impress the boss?” The newbie looked around at the source of the voice,

“Just doing what I was told, boss.”

“I’m not the boss, she is. Sorry about that, Lynn. Some of the newbies don’t know you by sight yet,” he scowled at Jim who stepped back from me in confusion.

I held out my hand, “Welcome to the organization Jim. I’m Lynnette.”

He had this confused look on his face as he took my hand giving it a gentle shake.

I continued, “You must be one of the new hires from the past couple of weeks. Sorry I haven’t had time to meet you all by now but for this time of year we’ve been pretty busy. Married?”

“Huh?” Was his well thought out reply.

“Are you married?” I almost spelled out each word for him.

“Uh, no. I have a girlfriend. We’re talking about maybe next year if I do okay at the job.”

“Fair enough. I’ll pull your folder when I go back to the office. Anything special I should know? Anything which maybe isn’t in the folder yet?”

“I don’t think so ... I minored in computer science. I have a misdemeanor conviction for hacking, but I’m off probation and since it wasn’t a felony I’m still eligible to carry and do all the normal stuff. I was a kid when that happened.”

I looked at him thinking he was still a kid. God, I was beginning to feel old. I needed to raise a family soon. Twenty years of seeing them grow up would put me in my fifties. Those feelings I’d been suppressing these past couple of years must be those of impending motherhood. Cathy must be bringing them to the forefront now. I sighed. Maybe James really was seeing something I’d missed, except he looked like he was about three or four years younger than myself. Then and there I made myself a promise to learn his age.

I asked, “Is Jim any good on the computers?”

“He hasn’t been tried on them yet.”

“After this detail ends, pair him with Phillip for a couple of weeks. I want to know more and I want a supplementary report in his folder.”

My mind was looking forward to our full sanction in the European Theater and possible team members to add to our advance team which presently would be nearly all Europeans whom we were still in the process of hiring. The older agent nodded his head. The newbie stood there like he had been turned to stone.

“Speak any foreign languages?”

“Uh, er, yeah.”

I waited for a few seconds and then slowly lowered my head as I asked,
“Okayyy ... so what are they and how well do you speak them?”

“OH! Uh, French and Spanish.”

“And ... ?”

“Uh, just French and Spanish.”

“How well?”

“Oh, sorry. Uh, French is high school French. Never tried talking with a native speaker. Spanish is from Mexico but school taught. Pretty good at that. Probably have an accent but I understand it just fine.”

Just as I was saying, “Get that into his folder if it isn’t there already,” the front door opened and several agents entered with James in the middle.

“Hi Lynn,” greeted me from several sources, “The newbie try to feel you up yet?”

I looked back at the kid who’s face blushed.

“Ah, he did. Damn, and he’s still standing. Must be tougher than I thought.” one of the older agents said.

The kid blushed even redder.

“Good Afternoon, Lynnette. I’m pleased you’re here,” James shmoozed.

I made a point of smelling his breath, “have you been drinking?”

“Not a drop, as these gentlemen will attest. Not even with lunch.”

“That must be a first.”

“Aw, Lynnette. I thought we agreed, no fangs or claws, just two days of being nice to each other.”

“I am being nice, James. If I wasn’t, you’d be in the hospital.” I smiled before I took his arm leading him into the living room.

The confused newbie was asking, “Who’s Lynnette? I clue she works in the office, but what does she do?” which got him a big laugh from the older guys. James and I were talking having just sat down on the couch in the living room when someone finally told the newbie who I was. I heard him almost shout, “I was patting down the owner? Crap.”

I smiled then turned back to the conversation with James.

He had changed his mind about us skiing. This was due to two reasons: One, he had already put in four hours on the advanced slopes and; Two, it was beginning to snow more than just lightly. We opted for staying warm, safe, and talking. He excused himself long enough to go change, returning fifteen minutes later with that strange heavy suitcase he brought along. I call it strange because there was a connection on the side where the receptacle end of a power cord could be plugged.

He found a place for us to sit in the family room which was near an outlet, then opened the case taking out a long power cord which he placed into that socket then into the wall outlet. Returning, he raised an antenna which was about four or five feet long then began to fiddle with the switches and controls. That made me think of a ‘mad scientist’ playing in his laboratory. At first I thought this was some kind of extra large mobile but then I nixed that idea since it had what looked like a typewriter keyboard mounted in it. There was a TV screen in the lid that didn’t fit quite right, and I wondered how they did that since there was no room for the neck of the tube to stick out the back of the lid.

I was about to back away a bit just in case it or he decided to do something strange as the screen in the lid slowly lit up like a TV would if it didn’t have that ‘instant on’ feature some of the newer sets were offering. I thought it was kind of funny he would carry a TV with him everywhere he went but then TVs didn’t have that keyboard either. He caught me staring at the screen.

“The reason that looks so strange is because it’s a replacement screen and doesn’t quite fit where the original was located. The case was dropped once and the screen shattered. These side beam screens are a lot more fragile than the ones they use which have the neck located behind them.”

Some kind of weird list began to appear on the screen and he started tapping in selections on the keyboard. Finally a scene appeared on the screen and what looked like a home movie began flickering for us to watch. We spent the next couple of hours watching his home movies taken of Cathy, some of which were with her mother. I have no idea how all that film could have been kept inside the suitcase. Maybe it was all microfilm of some kind. At first I thought the whole thing it might be a video player but he never changed any reels. The quality wasn’t terrific but the movies were easy to make out if you pulled back from the screen a bit. After I gave it a little thought, he never changed the reels of film either. I wondered how that was done. One movie would end and he would tap some more keys then another would begin.

He provided a running commentary as we watched. He, obviously, was very proud of his daughter and it wasn’t an act, he really did love her. When he forgot he was all grown up, they had a lot of fun playing at games she wanted to play. He even held Rebecca for her while she poured “tea”. He held Rebecca, not well, but held her. I think he is one of these fathers who would hold their newborn upside down unless shown how to do it, and then he might do it anyway just because he was so nervous. Watching the movies, I placed Cathy’s intellectual development at somewhere around six or seven maybe a stretch at eight, so she was roughly twice as far along as her chronological years would indicate. I needed to adjust the presents we were going to obtain for her for Christmas. Some to appeal to her age and some to her intellect.

James and I ate supper at the house, giving his suitcase time to cool a bit while it remained connected to the power outlet. That allowed it’s fan to continue running while the rest of it was off. I noted the case got pretty warm when it was in use. Partway through supper, he went back to the other room to collect the case again, lugging it into the dining room where he carefully placed it on the buffet. I was gritting my teeth as he did it afraid the weight of his case might crack the inch thick marble top but it held up well and he placed his case down gently which thankfully didn’t scratch my marble. Even so I had gritted my teeth as I saw the case landing on the thirteen thousand dollar slab of marble. Maybe I shouldn’t spend so much money on making the safe houses look quite so nice. Then again, we did frequently have people staying in them who had enough money that they expected the quality of presence that sort of thing offered.

He played with the keys again and was soon rewarded with an image of his daughter eating her supper at home. She brightened when she glanced off to the side and, I presume, saw us on some other suitcase or something like it. She waved at us while she looked to the side. That shocked the hell out of me. Somehow we were actually looking at each other and she had to be back at their home. The three of us engaged in a light conversation just as though we were a real family sitting together at the dining table although the sound wasn’t all that good, nor that loud. Sometimes the image broke up a bit, sort of like TV used to do back in the fifties when the tuner knob wasn't quite set right. That made me think about TV now and how spoiled I was since all I had to do now was set the selector to the channel number.

Shortly after we finished our meal, my mobile began ringing for the third time this evening. I finally picked up the case then wandered into another room to open it and return the call.

“Lynn? Nicci! I’ve been trying to reach you all evening. We need to act now if we want that new Santa with the reindeer. He’s all booked up except for noon to four the day before Christmas. He spends two hours with the kids and the first and fourth hours are spent in set up and tear down. The cost is three grand for the two hours with the kids.”

“Okay with me. Lock him in. Nicci? Ask him if he is has any time just prior to or immediately following that noon booking, if so, ask him if he would make it ten to four or noon to six or whatever with four hours with the kids for a total of six grand? If he won’t or can’t then accept the four hours at three grand. Also see if we can prebook him for next year both three weeks prior to Christmas to interview the kids and again on Christmas morning from eight to noon to hand out presents instead of the afternoon before.”

“Got it. I’ll call you back later.”

“Just leave it on my answering machine at home and I’ll pick it up when I get there. Thanks Nicci. Anything else shaking?”

“That Senator has been doing a lot of checking, or at least he has someone checking. We’ve had three more calls from friendly sources.”

“Put him on our hot list and start a folder. I’ll try to remember everything that was said and get it to you tomorrow. Tell Phillip and Grace to start in on him and assign a couple of our other researchers. I want to know why he’s so interested in our business so quickly.”

“Can do. How’s the jerk?”

“Kind of nice, actually. We’ve been watching home movies of Cathy growing up. Leave a memo on my desk to look for some appropriate presents for her.”

“Presents for a four year old, got it.”

“No ... Presents for Cathy. Intellectually I’d place her more at about seven or eight despite her physical age.”

“Ahh ... Only child, over taught, and expected to be an adult presents?”

“Something like that, but with some of the one’s to remind her to be a little girl too.”

“This is bad, I’m beginning to like the jerk.”

“Me too, Nicci. Lock in Santa and go home. See you tomorrow morning.”

“I am home. As I said, I’ve been trying to reach you for a while. It's seven thirty. Bye, Boss.”

I clicked my phone back into standby then elected to attach and plug in the charger once again since I didn’t do it last night and only had a few hours of charge on it from at the office today. When I returned to the dining room I discovered James was getting up from his now empty coffee cup and going over to pick up the suitcase so he could walk into the living room where I had just completed my conversation with Nicci. We went back to watching home movies as we continued to talk.

“So that’s her mother. What was she like?”

“Nothing like you, if that’s what you’re wondering... We met in college while I was completing my doctorate in computer science. She was just completing her bachelors in humanities and I was in my last year at the college as well as working the first year of my business.”

I already knew a little about this from the background check Phillip, Grace, Joanne and Tom had managed to find during their investigations. That coupled with information my other people had been able to extract from here and there helped to fill in the picture.

“How did you find the time?”

He laughed, “It wasn’t easy. I was eating, drinking and sleeping computers but somehow she was always there and we went out together for an hour here or an hour there. She was vivacious, always working the crowd. She made certain the right people knew about the direction of my research and she was instrumental in securing grants to help with the funding. After she finished her degree we spent a year working together and finally spent a night in bed. We were married a month later. We were in love, happy and the business was beginning to take off. It occupied us for a couple of years until Amanda wound up pregnant. I was scared to death but excited as well ... I wanted the business to be further along so we could have a fairy tale life but it was okay. I wanted a family... I want a family.”

“What happened?”

“We... We worked very hard to bring the business up more quickly. By now I had more than two dozen employees and we were creating code for some of the big boys. One of the more popular multi-faceted applications used in business is entirely our work although we were a sub-contractor so it’s marketed under the name of the company which paid us to develop the applications. They own the code outright so they have made several changes to the original by now. Some bad, mostly good.”

“What about Amanda and Cathy?”

He was silent for a bit. Finally he began talking again, a little more subdued and pensive.

“Amanda had a difficult time of it during the birth. At one point it was touch and go but she made it and came home with our baby girl a couple of weeks later. Cathy was marvelous and you could see how much Amanda loved her. The movies show that, too. Cathy became precocious, Amanda’s doing, she somehow could instill knowledge into the baby and Cathy was able to recognize each of us very quickly. She seldom cried but was bubbly and interested in absolutely everything. Toy’s could hold her interest for hours. She would fall asleep playing and wake up continuing as though the nap was just a lull. We couldn’t help but love her.”

I was about to pointedly ask what happened when he continued.

“Amanda was sick a lot after the birth, so we knew something was wrong. The doctors tested and tested but couldn’t find anything. Six months after the birth she had a radical hysterectomy. It didn’t help, and she continued to go downhill. She died a little after Cathy was a year old. Now Cathy fixates on any woman who’s hair is a similar colour.”

A sudden change of direction occurred as he asked, “Is that your real hair or is it a wig?”

“This is a fall, my own hair is the same colour and they were woven together just the other day. In about three or four months I will need to have it changed and, if it’s recoverable, it could be woven into my own hair again for another three to four months. Eventually my own hair will grow out to this length. My own hair is only about 9 to 10 inches long at the moment.”

“It’s very convincing. When you told me in your conference room that you weren’t a female, I couldn’t believe it. That’s why I wanted to kiss you, so I could decide. It convinced me you were female but for some reason wanted me to think you weren’t. Completely fooled me.”

“That wasn’t my intent.”

“I understand. Amanda was five years younger than myself. At a guess I’d say you’re maybe two years older?”

“I’m twenty nine.”

“I’m only one year younger then... I’m sorry I put you through all that crap I handed out. I’m afraid I don’t have many social graces even though I did learn to network. Amanda was a good teacher.”

He went into another quiet time and I could see the wistful memories flickering behind his eyes. He came around again after thirty or forty seconds.

“I hope I’m not being a bore or worse.”

“Actually James, no you’re not. I’m interested in hearing all this. So you had decided on an older woman for your next wife? Or did you think someone like me would be a safer choice?”

“Oh God, no... WAIT... ” he nearly panicked, “that didn’t come out the way I meant it. I like you... as a person. Damn... I like you as a woman, too. Why can’t I get this right?”

I nodded my acceptance of the compliment, however left handed.

“Aw, crap. I’m mucking this up. I told you I don’t have many social graces... especially when dealing with a woman. I admit, I thought you were... are... a woman. And I also knew Cathy would like you because of the colour of your hair and then she would begin to like your personality. You’re alive, vibrant... you seem to cheer a room and are easy going while still very businesslike. Different from Amanda but the same in some ways. Cathy likes you and she lets you know what she thinks. God, sometimes I think she must be an adult. If she doesn’t like someone then she likely never will. Yes, when I thought you were a female the thought also crossed my mind more than once that you could possibly take the job of being a mother to her... ”

“Take the job? Is that how you think of it? Being a Mother isn’t a job, James. And neither is being a Father. If it’s a job, then the child won’t receive the love she needs to grow and mature properly. Food, rest and exercise help her body to grow, but love helps her soul to grow. Someone, to whom it is a job, can’t give the love needed to nourish the soul nor the mind of the child, and it takes a lot of love.”

“I know. I understand that. It’s just an unfortunate choice of words on my part. Again, because of my poor social graces. I’m at my wit’s end. She has gone without a mother for nearly two and a half years and I’m at a bad time in the development of my company. We have a radical new concept in software and hardware which we are developing and which we are about to demonstrate to both the government and the military. We have a contract with the government to provide... Well... We are acting in a software support capacity on a... special project. As a result, my time is consumed and will be for at least six more months. I need more time with my daughter but I need it with my business too. It’s very difficult.”

“I understand, James. My own company is going through some serious expansion pains just now. We are moving into three new cities and have added roughly forty-five percent to the size of our staff in just the last four months. We hope to double in size again within the next year. We are likely less than four months from moving into Europe, in fact we are already hiring and working there but the company has no real presence there yet. Just like you, my time isn’t my own. Then on top of all that I decided to finally switch to being the real me and I’m trying to get that started. It isn’t easy.”

“When did you make the change in public?”

“The same day we came to your office and then you came to mine and kissed me.”

“It was a pretty nice kiss.”

“Thank-you. It was a bit of a surprise for me.”

“Lynn... Would you... mind... if I had another?”

I began to reply, “I don’t think that would be... ” when he leaned over, lacing his lips on mine.

I stopped talking as my eyes once again went wide for a moment then closed once again of their own volition. This time my arms went around his neck and his folded around my waist. I’m not certain how long we stayed like that, there were several small breaks for air, but we didn’t draw back even when we finished kissing. We stood there just holding on to each other relishing the warmth of the physical contact, our foreheads touching even if our lips weren’t any longer.

“Wow,” escaped my lips quietly. I started to pull away but he just held on for a few more seconds or so. I was thinking about going for another kiss that was a bit more substantial if there was such a thing, as he began to release me placing his hand up against the side of my face, lightly touching me as I pressed my face into his hand. He was looking into my eyes intently. I wondered briefly why I hadn’t ever felt this sort of thing when I kissed a girl. Was I Gay? His hand left my face but he continued to stare into my eyes. His were actually quite pretty when he was smiling.

“Christmas?” he asked quietly.

“What?” I asked even more quietly.

“We may come for Christmas?”

I began to gather my wits, “Oh... Yes... Christmas. I’m hiring a new Santa Claus for this year’s party. I think Cathy will enjoy him. The party is all about the kids.”

“That would be nice. Could we spend a little time together, too?”

“Well... of course. It would be a bit difficult not to be together since we will all be in the same house.”

“I think that will be nice. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Me too,” I whispered, then began to wonder exactly what I was looking forward to. Why didn’t even come into the equation until much later.

“James... ”

“Yes?”

“I... ” leaning forward I put my arms around his neck again and my lips on his as I closed my eyes and began to kiss him again. His arms automatically went around me once more. His lips tasted really nice. I could smell his aftershave and suddenly realised I was kissing a man - and I liked it. His tongue touched my lips, I opened my mouth slightly so my tongue could touch his and we explored. It was like an electric shock was going through my body. Wow... I... I... He...

All characters in this work have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relationship whatsoever to anyone or anything bearing the same name or names. The characters contained herein are not even distantly inspired by any specific individuals known or unknown to the author. All incidents described or alluded to within this work are pure invention. No affiliations, involvements or gender assignations due to the use of any images contained within this work are to be implied, intended or inferred.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

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