We were quiet as the soup was served and remained that way as we began to eat. A few minutes later more coffee was poured.

“The soup is excellent,” James offered to our waiter.

“Thank you, Sir.” The waiter beat a hasty retreat and we were alone again.

Well ... As alone as you can be with a party of eleven. At least James and I had our own table. Soon I had again forgotten our circumstances and I was just enjoying the date and the beginnings of conversation. It wasn’t long before we were lost in discussion.

“I’m not certain what it is I’m looking for, so exactly how to get there is still a bit of a mystery for me. What I would like to do is expand our little computer lab as well as add forensic capabilities. Not that I want dead bodies around but a lab that is fully capable of working with physical trace evidence as well as a computer system which is sophisticated enough to allow us to ascertain potential means of electronic intrusion and plug them both with hardware and perhaps software would be useful. Perhaps retinal scanners or fingerprint scanners, if such things exist, in order to prove identity. Of course that would be a bit of a problem for someone who has to go through it six or seven or more times a day.”

“I like the idea, Lynn. May I think about it and get back to you? Some form of computer security is already in our hoppers but I like this idea of extending it further. This could be a good seller for both my company and yours if we are able to find a way to implement it.”

“Possibly. I think it would help us obtain more contracts. I’m going to toss the idea across Phillip and Grace’s desks to see what they think.”

“Phillip and Grace?”

“Yes. They’re our computer people.”

“Could you give us a couple of weeks before you start throwing the idea around? I’m not trying to shut you out, but I would like the chance to see if we can come up with something as a concept, then I’ll get right back to you. It’s much more along the line of some of the stuff we do so maybe we could provide a little definition to the idea just to see how it meshes with your own ideas and business.”

I thought about that for a moment, “All right, James. How about until the New Year? That gives you nearly seven weeks to play with it. January and February are going to be busy months for us so December is a heavy prep month.”

I didn’t bother to mention that I believed almost anything told to Phillip would become national news in a matter of hours. That was just part of the reason I couldn’t put him into a position which gave him more authority. I couldn’t chance the information leaks especially if we were dealing with sensitive issues. He had lost more than one security clearance despite his prowess with information and technology. I had been thinking about replacing him or possibly creating a new department and then shifting most of the operation into it along with Grace despite the degrees and expertise Phillip held. I just ... didn’t want to make any waves at the moment. He was very knowledgeable, just ... terribly transparent as far as security went.

“Sounds good to me, Lynn. I consider this to be a joint venture so maybe some of my computer people could meet with your computer people and iron out some details after you and I get the preliminaries locked down. Besides, this will give me another reason to see you again other than Christmas.”

“Why don’t we just keep my people out of the loop for now? I would like to see what yours come up with without any collaboration at first.”

“Okay, Lynn. We can do that.”

I begged a few minutes to go out to the lobby pay phone where I dialed Nicci’s office number. Yes, I knew she wouldn’t be there. I left a message on her office answering machine so she would get it when she came in to work.

“Nicci? Lynn ... would you cancel my meeting with Phillip and Grace and reschedule it into the third week of January? Don’t bother to let them know I intended to talk with them nor the topic of conversation until I have the opportunity to reconsider this in January. I’m not going to be ready to discuss my ideas with them until then. James is going to see what his computer wizards can come up with as a concept. After he and I discuss it again, during the first week of January, then perhaps I’ll be ready to pull Phillip and Grace into the loop. Oh ... And would you get with the attorneys and obtain some non-disclosure agreements for me? Have them include instructions as to how to fill them out. Thanks Nicci.”

I wished the mobile phone was a lot smaller. Some day maybe one of those phones would be small enough to fit in my purse, of course then I might not be able to put anything else in there. I began to envision a telephone handset with an antenna. James smiled as I returned to explain the message I just left for Nicci,

“Putting us on the spot? Hard deadline.”

“For me, too. No, part of it is an in-house problem which I haven’t yet decided how to solve. Until then I think I want to keep this idea under wraps. Allowing your people to give it a little thought will mean it stays a secret for a while longer.”

“Got a sieve in your computer department, Lynn?”

I gave him a frown. “A little.”

“If you want to handle more government work then you’ll need to take care of it. The sooner the better, especially if your company continues to be involved with mine.”

“I know.” I sighed, “it’s just ... He’s been with us from the beginning of this company. I really hate to cut him out.”

“Since it’s a him we’re talking about, I take it that your leak is Phillip? Maybe you could tuck him into the development side of things. That would limit how much information he would have access to on a day to day basis as well as allow him to just brainstorm new ways to use what he already knows.”

“I don’t know. Maybe somewhere down the line your people could take a look at mine and give a gentle suggestion that I should divide my department. That would be a beginning toward isolating him. Then I could bring in new people slowly to build the portion of the department which is being run by Grace while I lead him off into a theoretical world, effectively isolating him. He is amazingly capable but...”

“That might work. Make him feel you’re taking greater advantage of his knowledge while you actually place him into a small room and close the door so he doesn’t know what’s going on outside his own little universe.”

“Exactly. I hate to do that but my company won’t be able to advance unless I do. On the other hand, I don’t want to lose his expertise.”

“Sometimes, decisions can be difficult to implement. If you want your company to grow then it might be necessary.”

Our conversation became lighter and we continued to chat during supper. James was correct, by the way, the soup was wonderful. By the end of the meal I was happily stuffed and had learned a lot about James’ private life, and he more about me and the years of contemplating my metamorphosis.
“So, why did you finally decide to go all the way?”

“I don’t believe it was like that. It’s more of a need to be whom I really am. I don’t know how to put it in words but this last week and a half has been like a fairy tale come true. I feel like I’m suddenly free to be me. I don’t think I could handle going back to Lyon again. I’m desperate to find a doctor and finish this then put the old me behind me. Then again, the old me is a part of the new me but the new me is the person I want the world to know. Somehow I need more time to try to find others out there as well as doctor’s who want to help as opposed to doctors who want to tell me I’m crazy and they can cure me. I want to grow real breasts and not have these things glued to my chest. And I want to be able to look at myself in a mirror and see me, not some travesty of nature. I’m not explaining this very well am I?”

“Actually, Lynn, I think you are explaining it quite well. Do you have a printer I could use?”

“A printer?”

I wondered what this could have to do with what we are discussing,

“Well yes, there are printers back at the office.”

“Good. I’ve done a bit of research while at the house you have at my disposal. The network has access to a growing library of information. I’ve found quite a lot of information and would like to give it to you. I’m afraid you can’t disclose how you learned about the information since it contains references to several government programs which are still involved in this sort of thing although they appear to be winding down. I would like to print some of it for you to read. Probably a hundred or so pages. Including a few pictures which aren’t all that good since they are basically facsimile images and are lacking in both grayscale and detail.

There are, however, a number of doctors who apparently specialize in assisting people like you to find the body to match your feelings. I don’t want to bias you so I would rather give you all the information so you can decide for yourself. It’s a new and wide open field with several doctors now moving into the private sector from previous government employment.”

“I ... You researched ... I don’t know what to say. Does the stuff look real?”

I asked in disgust, trying not to get my hopes up until I had a chance to read it.

“Did you read any of it, James?”

“A bit, here and there. It’s all new to me so I don’t understand some of the references except more by inference. I suppose it would mean much more to someone who has had to live with it.”

“Do they think people like me are crazy?”

“No. The concerned ones don’t. Neither do I. In fact, from what I think I understand, many who ... ” he searched for the word, “transition into being completed women are living happy, healthy, and fairly normal lives. Some have married, some have adopted children and are raising families. You need to read it all, it’s still very cutting edge and apparently the most recent stuff began with a very classified program of some kind which the military implemented roughly seven to ten years ago. There was one page which seemed to indicate some of those who were ... transitioned, were sent into other countries to act as spies of one kind or another.”

Now I was becoming excited. This reminded me of my own situation but I couldn’t tell James that, “could we print it tonight?”

“I would need to reach the information again in order to print it. Probably tomorrow at your office with one of the printers there connected to my suitcase terminal would be best.”

“Oh ... ” the thought of waiting another day or even another night deflated me.

Everyone was on their after supper coffee, so James called for our check putting it all on his AMEX. We filed out to our cars in the cold which was compounded by a light snow then drove back to the safe house. The usual games were played with the tire spikes before the gate opened and we drove inside. The gate and spikes were returned to normal eventually being buried or covered by the light snow. We needed to do something about that one set of spikes which always seemed to freeze up when it got cold. Better drainage or something ... with maybe a low power heater to keep it from freezing.

Once inside, I got right down to discussing as much of the material as James could remember, but he still preferred that I read it tomorrow for myself. I kept him up talking until well past midnight.

“Lynn. Come on, let’s get some sleep. It’s nearly two o’clock in the morning. I don’t care if tomorrow is Saturday.”

“But this is so interesting. I wish I’d know all this five years ago ... Hell, I wish I’d known all this twenty years ago.”

“Twenty years ago half or more of this information didn’t exist. Lynn, come on. Some of it is information that isn’t even supposed to be available to the public. That’s probably why I’m finding it on the government side of things. Come, get a few hours sleep then we’ll print it tomorrow morning and you can start looking at it then. I mean ... when we wake up and go to your office.”

“James, talking about this is like giving water and food to a dying woman. I want to know it all right away ... ”

James came over and took my hand, “Lynn. Come to bed and sleep or I’ll paddle your pretty behind.”

“You and whose army?”

“Lynn, please. Just come sleep. You can cuddle all you want and I won’t take advantage of you. Just take off your skirt and sweater so they don’t wrinkle and come to bed.”

I sighed, then got up from the chair where I had been sitting as we talked, still trying to pry more information out of him as we went upstairs to the bedroom. There I walked over to the chair near my side of the bed, unzipped my skirt, stepped out of it and carefully laid it across the chair. I removed my sweater as James looked at me, “God, you have gorgeous legs.”

“Only my legs?”

“No ... the rest of you is gorgeous too.”

I gave him a small curtsey before I removed my camisole placing it over my sweater, then dropped the half slip placing it with my skirt. I debated about the bra but decide nothing else was coming off. Shutting off the light I crawled into bed beside him. Twice in two days. What are you thinking girl?

“Don’t you dare snag my hose.”

We’d been laying there a couple of minutes when he quietly started talking,

“Lynn, have you ever thought about getting married, maybe raising a family?”

Where was this coming from?

“Been there, done that. Biggest mistake of my life. We were together fifteen months before we separated. We divorced six months after that ... still has hooks into me for 3K a month. That’s a lot of money.”

“Sorry, what was he like?”

“She. What was she like? Seemed nice enough. Guess she was, actually, but she couldn’t handle my becoming Lynnette once in a while. Oh, she laughed with me and we went out together shopping. She took pictures of me changing and now they are in some safety deposit box and her lawyer is after me to raise her monthly extortion to six grand since my business has taken off. I don’t need that kind of shit again and her original extortion almost caused my company to fold since she got an additional lump sum of a hundred grand in addition to the monthly she had been getting after she went to court telling them I had a successful business. They looked at the present assets but didn’t consider the loans I took out to get those assets. I was barely able to afford the hundred grand at the time. The court had previously awarded her ten years at three grand a month, which was exorbitant, or until she remarried, whichever came first. She has a live-in boy friend who’s a doctor but she is holding off marrying him until she has gotten every cent she can out of me.”

“That was another lifetime, Lynn. You’re someone else now.”

“Blackmail is blackmail, James. Proving it is the problem.”

“Who’s her lawyer?”

“Some sleazeball.”

“Does he know about the pictures she’s using to support her extortion? He could lose his license.”

“He’d have to know, wouldn’t he? She sends me copies and the next day he’s in my office asking for more money.”

“Not necessarily. Do you have the photos?”

“I burned them.”

“The next time she sends any, save them and the envelope they came in. They’re evidence that she’s blackmailing you. The courts today are beginning to become more accepting of someone’s need to alter their perceived sex so once you’re actually making the change then what she’s doing can come around to bite her and her lawyer. At least some of the courts are more accepting. It depends on the judge, I think. Eventually it will probably be more mainstream.”

“You think so?”

“Pretty certain. Have your lawyers get affidavits from some doctors. They should know what to do or you could ask the doctors for a good lawyer. Don’t you have identification in your female name? That should go a long way toward convincing a judge. Hire an investigator, find out where your ex has a safety deposit box and serve a warrant on the contents as a part of discovery. Fight back, you have rights and her lawyer will drop her like a hot rock if he’s honest. Have your lawyers call him and have a talk with him.”

We lay there quietly for a few minutes.

“Lynn?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry. You are really a nice woman and it upsets me that you’re going through this shit. If you need someone to talk to, please ... count me as someone who cares and who will listen, okay?”

I didn’t answer, but lay there for a minute thinking before turning and cuddling against him. He put his arm around me and my tears began to drop to the pillow as I dropped off to a troubled sleep. His hand was gently rubbing my shoulder and arm even as sleep overtook me.

When I awakened the next morning, I saw James sitting in a chair working with his suitcase again.

“Good Morning, Glory.”

I looked at him in perplexity.

“Morning Glory ... a beautiful flower?” he adds.

“Oh. Okay.” Feeling anything but. I made my way into the bathroom
exiting a few minutes later to dress. I had my half slip, skirt and camisole on and was beginning to pull on my sweater as I walked behind him to glance at that screen in his suitcase. I was pulling my hair up out of the sweater as I saw Cathy in her pajamas and robe, eating her breakfast.

“Good Morning, Cathy.” I cheerfully called out.

Her head turned to look at the monitor and her face lit up, Good Morning Mommy ... I mean ... Lynn ... Sorry,” her face was sad again.

“That’s okay, baby. You can call me Mommy if you wish.” Her face brightened a bit.

“But you won’t be my Mommy, will you?” Terribly perceptive for such a young girl.

“Not exactly, sweetheart. But I’ll try to be there for you, anyway. Maybe sort of a temporary Mommy until a permanent one comes along, okay?”

She was quiet for a bit as she thought that one over, “Okay ... Mommy.”
I smiled at her and she smiled back. I winked and blew her a kiss and she was happy again doing the same back to me with a slight lack of coordination but lots of enthusiasm. Looking off camera, “Nana, I have a Mommy again.”

It’s difficult to remember she is only three and a half. I felt so sorry for her as she needed to be more mature than her years. I leaned down and whispered in James ear, “couldn’t she come and be with us until Monday?”

“Cathy, Mommy would like to know if you would like to come here until Monday?”

“Oh, Yes!”

“Okay, finish your breakfast, and have Nana help you pack, and the two of you can come and stay here through the rest of the weekend. I’ll have the plane readied so in an hour or two you can leave. That way you’ll be here before noon.”

Cathy was trying to shovel her food in now.

I added, “Cathy, be a lady. Eat slowly and chew your food. Dainty bites, and remember to finish your milk.”

She slowed down and through a half full mouth, “Okay, Mommy,” she used a finger to prevent a wayward piece of toast from exiting her mouth as she answered.

“James, I need to do some shopping for food and supplies before she arrives. Will you have the guys call me and let me know when to pick her up? I want to meet her at the airport. Tell the guys we will be staying at my place for the weekend.”

He nodded his head, yes. I said goodbye to Cathy before locating and slipping on my shoes then began to hunt for my purse. After a little thought I remembered my purse was downstairs so I went down to find someone to drive me home so I could check on the battery charges and pick up my car.
A newbie was assigned to take me home. Once we arrived he checked my house before leaving. Back in his car, he slipped and slid out the gate then on down the street. I reset the alarm after the gate closed then went to turn on the driveway and walk heaters setting the timer to four hours. Both power meters showed the batteries to still be up over ninety percent so I click on only one generator then wandered up to change clothes. Something warm and casual for the day’s activities. Wanting to leave the house heat up, I went back out to activate heat for a second wind generator resetting them to charge both sets of batteries if a good wind came up while I was out. Half an hour after arriving at the house I was on my way out again headed for the grocery. This afternoon I would take Cathy out for some new clothing and sleepwear.

The driveway was just beginning to show a hint of thawing; the walk and the stairs were a little better off but would probably still be treacherous for another hour, it was pretty cold out. I set the alarm then backed out of the garage using the control to close the door. Driving out, I left the gate open, this trip. One wind generator was turning slowly, the other one looked like it was trying but needed further thawing before it ... Nope, there it went. Four kilowatts ... That was probably about a quarter of what was being used. I might need to activate the other two generators when I returned unless the wind picked up a bit.

Driving to the store was a typical winter experience even with the snow tires. Fifteen minutes later I was in the store accompanied here and there by possibly five or six other early morning shoppers. As a precaution, I was stocking up on everything since I would be feeding the crew each day at least for the weekend. I also picked up some more grind, and some hot chocolate mix for Cathy as well as three gallons of milk. For the guys, six pies and eight gallons of ice cream as well as five pounds each of a half dozen luncheon meats and eight loaves of bread. The bread might make it into tomorrow. I remembered how much the moochers ate the last time a two day stay at my house occurred. I was thinking Jeff had a tape-worm, he was always eating a sandwich. The sandwich thought reminded me to pick up two gallons of mustard, two of ketchup, one of mayonnaise, and one of pickle relish. At this rate I’d need a second cart. At least the guys were trained to wash their own dishes when they were at my place. I was certain the old hands would let the newbies know the procedure. I moved from the Deli and on to the meat department.

There I picked out five large roasts, two hams, nine pounds of shrimp, that would probably be gone in a half a meal, and about twenty pounds of chicken as well as cleaned them out of ground beef and hot dogs. Moving back up the line to dairy/ poultry area again, I grabbed three flats of eggs which, hopefully, would be enough to last through the week end. My cart was becoming difficult to push. The other women were looking at my cart as though they thought I was crazy.

One older lady stopped for a moment, “Don’t you think that’s a bit much, dear?”

I smiled at her, “I’m having twelve guests in over the weekend.”

She looked again, frowning, “Good Luck, dear.” and toddled off pushing her cart which had six items in it.

I finished my rounds of the store with a trip down an aisle where I picked out flour, sugar, and artificial sweeteners before changing aisles to check on the cookies. Before I was finished I had six packages each of eight different kinds.

Rolling the cart full to the checkout allowed me to learn the extent of the damage and nearly a hundred ninety dollars later I was on my way to the car. I needed to begin watching for coupons if I was going to do this very often. As I was walking past the displays of books something caught my eye and I paused. That was my second big mistake.

Another twenty-eight dollars and eighty-three cents later I was departing with a few more story books. By the time I reached my car again, snow was falling lightly with a hint of becoming heavier, the wind gusting enough that my two wind generators might be putting out close to five Kilowatts apiece. I would probably still need to turn on the other two so I could turn on more heat in the house and in the drive and walks while the batteries continued to charge. I didn’t have a clue as to what a kilowatt was but I had filed away in my memory what the company had said when they installed the system.

“During the summer you’ll likely use up to fifteen kilowatts a day but during the winter you will go over twenty and probably hit twenty five a day.”

Since the batteries couldn’t be overcharged due to some sort of sensing system in the chargers I felt it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, the meters in the garage or my bedroom would show me if power was going into or coming out of the batteries and all I had to do was turn on another generator if I wanted to charge them. I tried not to worry about what to do if all the generators were on and there was still power coming out of the batteries. So far, that hadn’t happened.

I began loading my car with my treasures before pushing the empty cart into one of the snowdrifts that used to be a cart repository. Perhaps it still was but the pile of snow was covering them if they were there.

Eventually I got into the car and started the engine. After the engine warmed for a minute or two, I was able to begin my journey back to the house.

Upon arrival, I found both generators were turning faithfully and the driveway could be easily seen. My mobile rang as I pulled into the garage, after I parked I answered to learn it was my guys who had just departed breakfast for their journey to my house. That explained why they weren’t here when I arrived home. Now I began the fun and games of moving all the food into the house and placing it into the various refrigerator, freezer, bread box, pantry, and what-have-you locations so it would be ready for inhuman consumption. No, not a mistake, inhuman ... normal people couldn’t possibly eat all this in only one weekend, not even twelve of them.
I was still putting things away when they arrived. Disabling the perimeter alarm, I buzzed the door to let them in.

“I’m in the kitchen,” I replied to their query as to my location.

They did a sweep of the house determining that everything was fine, pretty much as they expected since it was my home. James informed me Cathy’s flight should be landing about ten o’clock which puzzled me for a moment until I remembered Cathy was an hour ahead of us so her flight which would only take about an hour and a half would likely land roughly a half hour after it took off; at least as far as local clocks went. I could see where instantaneous travel all the way around the world might be a bit unsettling should it ever come to pass. Imagine departing at midnight, to arrive immediately at noon of the previous or next day, Ouch.

A little later James and I departed in my Volvo, with one chase car in tow, arriving at the airport moments before we saw the Gulfstream touching down. It came across the tarmac and in only a few minutes was before us with the door opening, soon Cathy and Rebecca were hurrying across to us.

This time I was ready for , “Mommy” as she wrapped herself around me before I lifted her. The guys collected the luggage, stowing it in the chase car’s trunk while the four of us climbed into my Volvo. The pilots walked into the building as James told me arrangements had been made for them. Our little two car procession drove out the general aviation gate then I took us shopping for some things for Cathy.

While there, we also checked out the toys and books. The toys didn’t hold much interest but she latched onto three books of which I already had two. I explained I had those waiting for her at home and asked her to pick two others. She could read a little and would start to practice printing soon.

Ahead of her age group, or at least ahead of where we were when we were her age. I suppose children now are more advanced in things. When do they get to be children? Phillip told me that some day soon everyone would be walking around with a computer in their pocket and children wouldn’t be able to do anything without them. Now that was just plain scary. I wondered how long it would be before we were plugged into the pocket sized computers we would be carrying around?

As we exited the store and as walked back to the car Cathy slipped and fell. My heart started pounding and I was down next to her in a flash, checking her and fussing over her until I was certain she was okay. I hugged her tight before we continue to the car her hand firmly grasping mine. I helped her into the car then suddenly was aware that I might need a car seat for her. She looked so small and vulnerable sitting there with the seat belt on.
Cathy wanted to look at one of her books while in the car so I let her pick one and her Nanny gave it to her. She had begun reading with some help from the Nanny before the car even made it out of the lot. Twenty minutes later we were pulling into my garage. I was happy with the driveway which was wet but clear of snow and ice. Cathy’s book was interrupted for now, as we began taking things inside. Discovering that I had turned on all the heaters but hadn’t remembered it, I clicked off half the heaters to reduce power consumption but continued some heating of the driveway, walks and stairs. The timer was once again set to five hours.

Inside, we began putting things away then called for delivery of eight pizza’s for lunch which would allow them to arrive just about the right time. Reflecting on our impending power needs as I turned up the heat settings for the rest of the house to seventy degrees, I decided that called for another trip to the garage where I clicked on the heaters for the other two wind generators thus eventually adding them into the fray. Peripheral and house batteries were both at eighty percent with an estimated forty percent usage facing them. With all four generators and the continuing wind we should hold our own and if the wind picked up a little more we would even be placing a charge into the batteries. If it got up to twenty miles per hour I might need to shut down one generator if the automatics didn’t do it for me. As it was, occasional gusts showed a ten kilowatt charge rate and normal wind speeds were showing a two kilowatt drain. It was still a drain overall but the opportunity for increased winds and charge was there.

Returning to the kitchen with Cathy tagging along, I put out two loaves of bread and enough luncheon meats and lettuce for thirty, plus several pint containers of the condiments ladled from the gallon containers. The warning that pizza’s were due to arrive in about 40 minutes was given along with the notice that there were sandwich makings in the kitchen for those who were interested. I started both of the twenty cup coffee pots using the fresh grind, and began to heat water for tea in the eight cup pot reminding the guys they were responsible for cleaning their own dishes and, “Use the coasters. I will not have stains on my antique furniture.”

I poured Cathy a mix of chocolate and regular milk which she began to consume with great enthusiasm. She had been following me around all this time but once she had her glass of milk she took it into the other room so she could dig out one of the story books while she drank her milk. The next thing I knew she was sitting with ‘Mr. Bear’ having the story read to her as she continued to drink her milk, giggling at his antics while he attempted to animate the story for her. He does really good vocal impersonations of a dwarf or an evil queen.

Now that things were a bit more organized I began to do some of the long range preparations for supper. First in for preparation was one of the roasts, I spent about half an hour preparing it before it went into one of the ovens to begin slow cooking. Watching how the luncheon meats were disappearing was shocking of itself but once the pizza’s arrived I began to worry that my shopping trip might have only allowed me to obtain half the supplies I might need this week-end. The subsequent devouring of the pizza’s, of which I am partially at fault having consumed three slices myself clued me that the guys probably hadn’t eaten in the past week in anticipation of eating here these two days. That said, I decided to prep a second roast. See, I told you all the food I bought was unlikely to last the weekend.

During the next hour I prepared everything else, with Cathy’s help as she was happy to be with me and doing something women do together. The Nanny even got involved and appeared to be a good cook, or at least she knew how to do things. James wandered in and bumbled about for about twenty minutes before wandering out again, in general he was a help but, like most men, he wasn’t all that comfortable in the kitchen, especially around three women who were working and talking together. I suppose he felt a little like the fourth wheel on a tricycle.

The supper table was set early, we made room for fourteen. I wandered in to check on the guys in the observation room, which was essentially the electronic command center for the house. All the cameras fed here first and the gate and other defense mechanisms could be controlled from here whenever we had a large party in the house. One of the secondary battery monitors and wind-generator controls like the one in the garage was in here as well. Wind had picked up so despite my cooking which used a large amount of power and the heating of the drive and walks which used even more, the batteries were up to eighty-eight and ninety-two percent respectively with close to a fifteen kilowatt charge rate on top of that.

I clicked off one of the generators so the rapid charge would slow lessening the chance of damaging any of the batteries. The carafe filled with coffee plus a container of sugar, some artificial sweeteners and some cream in a second container was left for them along with the remnants of the sandwich makings and some of the pizza as I warned them that supper was nearly ready then made my way back to the living room. I let the other guys know the battery banks liquid levels were due to be checked and asked if some of them could do it. Three of them, two old pros and a newbie they corralled into learning the procedures, headed for the cellar returning about forty minutes later.

“Lynn, you’ll need to order more distilled water. You’re down to just less than a five gallon bottle. There are four empties down there now. We put the empties on the lift so you’ll just need to raise them whenever.”

“Thank-you, I’ll put them on my Monday list.”

I wondered why the batteries always seem to use more water during the Winter than they did during the Summer? Giving thought to ordering the water I decided I’d order eight bottles from Sparkletts and pay the extra deposits. Hopefully that would be enough water to make it through the winter.

Finally all my hostess duties had been completed except for pulling out more Danish to begin thawing for morning and starting a third pot of coffee. I don’t know where the guys put all this. That gave me a moments pause so I went to the downstairs bathroom and checked toilet paper. The roll was down to half and there were no spares so I went back up and grabbed a four pack bringing it down to place in one of the drawers as back up. Finishing that, I sought out Cathy. I could hear squeals of joy outside which led me to the back window where I saw Cathy, James and three of the agents in a snowball fight. I grabbed my rabbit coat and boots and rushed out to join Cathy as a teammate.

Her Father soon allied himself with us and it was three against three. James and I kept up our bombardment as Cathy landed a small snowball on ‘Mr. Bear’ who shook and roared, “I’ll get you, me pretties,” giving a strange cackle which I guess was supposed to be some maniacal laugh.

Cathy started laughing as she piled together another snowball. He was about to retaliate when the three of us each landed a snowball on him which caused him to retreat to the porch before we began a furious onslaught against the remaining two. They surrendered quickly, then the men all went inside to get warm while Cathy and I began to build a snowman. Cathy had been strangely untouched by any snowballs. Fifteen minutes later we were inside as well, getting warm and making hot chocolate with marshmallows for Cathy.

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.
Chapter image (helicopter) public domain.

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

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