Chapter 8

That wasn’t our last stop. We made it out to US 50 and then turned left, going east. The road construction crews weren’t working today, but it was obvious they’d done a huge amount of work over the last few months. That took us to the corner of Kent, where we turned south onto what had been either gravel or dirt last year like so many of the other side roads here, but was now asphalt.

The site frontage on 50 and Kent was a parking lot still under construction that would be at least five hundred feet wide. There was a bunch of landscaping next, with berms and water features being sculpted into the land. It looked like the foundation was finished, and they were starting to put up some of the back and side walls for the two story building that would end up at close to two million square feet between both floors.

A larger sign than what we’d stood up during groundbreaking read, ‘Future site of the Howard and Vivian Kaufman Museum of Hollywood History.’ The landscaping past the south side of the parking lot rose into the air a good fifty feet above the parking lot, and there was a giant sign that read ‘HOLLYWOOD.’ It looked very similar to the one I’d seen in California.

“Wow!” Marcia exclaimed. “I knew we were going to put a sign up, but I didn’t know it’d seem that large!”

“It’s a matter of perspective,” Mike explained. “You can’t get this close to the sign in California. Those letters are forty-five feet tall, thirty some odd feet wide. This is two-thirds scale, so they’re only thirty feet tall and twenty feet wide, but we’re right here. Plus, at night, ours are illuminated. And yes, I had to know that, because we provide security just in case some jackass decides to tear them down.”

“For some reason, we’ve been tied up with all sorts of things around the world, so I haven’t paid as much attention to what’s going on here. Thanks, Mike.”

“Not a problem, Marcia. Let’s show them the headquarters building, and then get back to the barn,” Mike ordered the driver.

Our small convoy of two buses and one security vehicle then took the back roads around to where my original, smaller wind turbine was standing, only on a different tower than the one we’d originally installed. There was still a large trailer complex set up, but a three story office building was nearly complete behind that. The fountain in the pond behind the building was working, sending water shooting fifty feet into the air.

“Reinforced steel I-beam construction, cement walls, and energy efficient windows, along with security glass in all of them. Once it’s finished, and the trailers are out of the way, we’re going to put a small, relatively speaking, covered parking garage over there, so hail won’t destroy anyone’s vehicle. The building itself is designed to handle a direct hit from everything up to a medium strength F-5 tornado. All of the facilities we looked at today have multiple reinforced tornado shelters in them, although the Microsoft offices are just like this one, with Bill paying the difference between what you were providing and this level of safety construction,” Mike said.

“Very nice, all of it. Now, I’m probably going to commit a faux pas, but I do that at times. Can we go to our hotel, or wherever it is we’re staying, so we can get showers and some real rest, before we go back to the hospital this evening?”

“That’s the next stop, anyway. It’s your house. Allen and Marianne are simply living in it, and they’ll spend the weekend next door again, like last time.”

We pulled in to the driveway, and I got out of the bus. I was looking around, puzzled why Jethro didn’t come charging up like usual. “Where’s Jethro?”

Mike pointed over to a small flower garden that was new. “Spanky died in February, Jethro chased his last squirrel in April.”

Beth came up behind me. “Dad told me about it, but with everything else you had going on, I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you. We never did know how old he really was, he was a stray that showed up here about six years ago and decided to stick around. He wouldn’t come into the house, even in the coldest winter. He’d go in the barn, but that was it. I think he was happy with us, and that’s what’s important, because we were happy with him.”

I could feel the tears flowing down my cheeks, and I didn’t care. I walked over to the flower garden, bent over, and sniffed the blooms. I looked around the area, finally finding a couple of large rocks that would be appropriate. I picked them up and carried them over. I smoothed an area out on each one, then engraved ‘Spanky Miller’ in one, and ‘Jethro Watson’ in the other. Under each name, I also engraved, ‘Beloved pet, friend, and family member.’ Then I made sure each stone was positioned just right, and finally stood up.

I don’t know how long I stood there. Eventually, Beth and Hannah came out. They each took me by an arm, walked me into the house, took my clothes off, and then snuggled with me on the sofa.

When I woke up the next morning, Carrie and Holly were standing behind me, each with one hand on a shoulder, the other hand on my head. Helen was singing a soft lullaby from a chair, and Beth and Hannah were still by my side.

Everyone else was either eating breakfast or otherwise getting ready for the day. William came walking up to me. “Daddy sad. I sorry, can me help?”

I sat forward a little bit, holding my hand out. He took hold of it, and crawled up into my lap, wrapping his arms around my neck and giving me a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you, William, that does help.”

“Okay. Can I see new baby sister today?”

Diana said, “We’ll all be going in shortly, wombat. You’ll get to see Emily’s baby then.”

“Okay.” He started squirming down. “Come on, Daddy, eat.”

“From the mouths of babes,” I softly said. “Okay. Go ahead, I’ll be right in.” He ran over to where his mother had some eggs for him. “Thank you, girls. I should have a serious headache, I think.”

“I think you finally allowed your grief to come out last night. Holly and I helped with the sadness, so it didn’t totally overwhelm you. These were the first family members that you’ve lost since you’ve been here. And even though I didn’t know them like you did, anyone who says that a pet isn’t a loved family member doesn’t ever deserve to have a pet. Not even a water lorquat.”

“Funny, those were the only pets my parents ever let me have,” I said.

“What are those, anyway? I’ve heard you mention them several times,” Beth asked.

Carrie giggled. “Something like a cross between an eel and a goldfish. They would grow to whatever size enclosure they were in, and weren’t picky eaters, so kids couldn’t kill them by overfeeding them. Of course, you let one out of his bowl, into a big pond, and they’d start growing again. Funny thing, though, they wouldn’t hurt the person who fed them when they were little, so even when they’d get ... sorry, had to convert sizes ... about ten feet long or so, they’d still come up and let their owner pet them and feed them by hand.”

“A ten foot long fish?”

“Crossed with an eel, so about four feet around, too,” Carrie said.

“Thank you, all. I ... I feel a lot better,” I said.

Helen finished the tune, then nodded. “The Souls know what it’s like for those left behind. The one in you ... he’s so much older than any I’ve met. He was betrayed twice, once when his wives came here, and as you’ve learned about how Shiva managed to effectively destroy Star Home ... he had a huge amount of rage. That also helped make you more sensitive to being emotionally upset. I don’t know if he understands everything, but I think he’ll not ... interfere with you, emotionally, anymore.”

I blinked a couple of times.

“I know the three of you can talk with the souls within you, but I thought the ones within me, Margie, and Marcia were rather passive, just trying to reconnect was all. What I’m hearing you say is, it’s not because I’m still a teenager and watched my world ... metaphorically speaking, of course, since I was unconscious ... be destroyed, it’s because the soul within me that died about a quarter of a million years ago has made me a wreck.”

Eve floated a plate of bacon and eggs over to me with a glass of milk. I took them out of the air and started eating while she talked. “I mentioned to you before that you ought to be somewhat emotionally compromised. Your reaction to finding out that Jethro and Spanky were gone was considerably over and above the norm. Most of us have lost pets at some point. What I suspect happened is that your feelings towards the animals, and the actual loss you felt sort of put you into a positive feedback cycle. It wasn’t until Beth and Hannah both knew that you were getting very close to a complete meltdown that any of us actually realized exactly what was going on.

“Carrie and Holly are both healers, and with the assistance of Madalain and Lara, plus Helen’s knowledge of the Sacred Souls, they started working on you. It took all night, actually, but when you woke up just now, you should be better. As for why Margie and Marcia haven’t had this same feeling, my feeling is that when the wives came to Earth, they had the feeling ... women’s intuition, if you will ... that it was a one-way trip. We’ve found that they were both pregnant when they came here, which may or may not be one reason that the Slut is a slut. But I doubt that. That there weren’t additional trips by anyone else is what took them by surprise. The rest of it...”

She shook her head. “You know you’ve talked about the slab of granite, you’ve talked about the flower garden, but those stones for Spanky and Jethro are the only memorials you’ve actually made. I think there’s been a fear inside you, all along.”

I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “If I put up a memorial, then I’m finally letting go, because I know they’re actually gone. If I don’t do it, then maybe, just maybe, it hasn’t happened.” I took a drink of milk, then nodded. “You getting your Master’s or Doctorate? That’s just curiosity on my part, because I’ve purposely not followed what you’ve been doing, so you wouldn’t think I was interfering. I know you mentioned to Yagyu that you just figured out your doctoral thesis.”

She grinned. “I guess you’ll find out in a couple of weeks.”

“Totally unrelated to anything that’s happened since last night, that’s a rather nifty way to avoid getting grease on your fingers or dirtying up silverware,” Diana said.

“Oh, feeding myself using telekinesis? Yeah, when your hands are otherwise full holding the glass and plate, it works.” I gave Beth and Hannah big kisses, then leaned my head back. “Carrie, Holly, thank you. No big kisses for you, though.”

“Not from you, anyway,” Holly said. At my look, she giggled. “And that’s all I’ll get from Toby is kisses. It’s okay, we know!”

“Speaking of Toby...”

“He’s out practicing with his pistol, with Sayel and Yagyu supervising,” Jennifer said. “The State of California won’t let him practice, which is really stupid in my opinion, but what do I know? I’m only his mother.”

“Yeah, but you’re married to that infamous scofflaw, just like we are, Mom. You know what’s really stupid? The four of us, if we didn’t have the Federal permits, couldn’t carry our pistols, either. Granted, Cal doesn’t ever carry his, because ... you know, he’s Cal ... but until we’re eighteen, we’re messing with their laws everyday.”

“Don’t all of you have some version of diplomatic immunity, courtesy of being my wives? Or has that never come up?”

“Oh, it has,” Beth said. “Just in general conversation, though, not that we’ve ever tried to do anything out there. It wouldn’t matter so far as Toby, or the girls are concerned. He’s Jennifer’s son, not yours, and the three of them ... well, I think Mister T’s comment fits the poor fool that messes with them.”

“Not so silly question. What about someone using a tranquilizer dart?” I asked.

“Dora, throw that knife at me, at about the speed of a bullet,” Holly said.

Dora picked up the bread knife and gave it a toss at Holly’s leg.

At the same time it would have hit her arm, her ring flared and it bounced off. “Since we have to have these to communicate with each other, we figured that we may as well use the rest of the features they have available.” Holly smacked herself on the forehead. “Yes, Cally, we’re all dumb! He didn’t think about it because you can shoot him and it just bounces off, normally. Ladies, with the exception of those that can get shot and not get hurt, would you all please gather round, while we activate your shivalingam?”

“This’ll take us a couple of minutes each,” Carrie said. They each started working on one of the shivalingam worn by my wives.

Eve walked over. “Effectively bulletproof, eh?”

I shrugged. “These things didn’t come with an instruction manual. I bet when we get home, Mycroft is going to figuratively kick himself for not mentioning it. If he even knew about it, that is.”

“I’m going to tell you something that I think you probably already figured out. While we can share this knowledge with Mike, and our personal security teams, I don’t think you should pass this one to Hugo,” Beth said.

Mike showed up with Cally a few minutes later. “She already told me. Since this is all alien technology, and it’s not your alien technology, it’s not even her alien technology, I’m pretty much just going with just ... get them activated. Anything to protect you and the family is my number one priority.”

“Take me out of the equation, and I completely agree with you, Mike.” I frowned. “What’d you feed Cally for breakfast this morning?”

“Oh. Hon, you didn’t get all of it off your cheek.”

“Thanks, Dad.” She wiped her cheek off, then went back to helping activate Mina’s shivalingam.

“Belgian waffles with peanut butter, syrup, strawberries, and whipped cream. It’s not what you call a clean food.”

We finally made it back to the hospital by ten. I got to introduce Harry to Diana and the children, as he hadn’t met them yet. We stayed for a couple of hours, then left so that Emily could get a nap while Elaine was sleeping off her afternoon feeding. She was going to get to come home tomorrow if things went well today.

Once we got back to our house, the kids changed and went swimming. After finding out how little they were actually needed in Hutchinson, Sayel and Yagyu met with William Dangu. The three of them were going to split up the ‘toys’ that had come home from France and simply spend some time together.

In the meantime, my Indian wives decided that it was time to clean both houses whether they needed it or not. I told Saryu, “Hon, the eight of you, I consider you my wives in all but name, and once Shiva is dealt with, if you wish, you’ll all have my children. You’re not my servants and slaves.”

She smiled at me. “But we are, Master. Not just the eight of us, but all seventeen of us. We are servants of your heart, slaves to your love. We are all so much more than we would have ever been without you in our lives, none of us can imagine anything else. The nine of us that have a full, western education or more, are able to assist you in many ways that are not of home. Eventually, the eight of us should have that as well, and we hope you will allow us to help then. Until that day, as I have said before, you are the remover of obstacles, the scientist, the intellect, the wise, the compassionate protector.”

I leaned back against the wall, crossing my arms. “I’m actually truly curious now, because we’ve been together for some time now. With all my faults, my failings, and everything that you’ve witnessed, why do you still consider me an avatar of Vishnu and Ganesha?”

“You have said you are the Guardian of the Planet, is this not correct? While our senior wives that you have given your powers to were unable to use them without shivalingam, you still had yours. Have we not witnessed you create many new wonders that did not exist in this world before you made them?”

Jasveer spoke up then. “My sister Saryu, of the eight of us, I am the only Sikh. We could coexist with our Punjabi cousins because they are family, but I was not raised with any of your religions. Our conflicts were, as so many have been, caused by people not from our area imposing their wills upon all of us. When you saved Missus Gandhi, you said that Waheguru was not the previous Messenger, and that you were not a god or an avatar. Yet you dispel the darkness of ignorance, and bestow the light of truth, knowledge, and enlightenment. That is what the Wondrous Lord would do. You have given my people our own land under your benevolent rule. My Master, how could any of us consider you otherwise?”

“I presume you know what happened with Missus Gandhi due to your sisters sharing that with you.” They all nodded. “I have listened to and heard your words, and this is actually something I don’t have to consider for very long at all. Regarding your future, when we return to California, other than when we are all traveling, the eight of you will engage in studies between now and the end of this year. You will work out, between the eight of you, duties to help care for the children that will be born that will not interfere with your studying. I wish for all of you to test, to find out what level of learning you are at, so we can get all of you, as you called it, a full, western education. That will take time for you to complete, but that shall be your primary job. We shall reevaluate after the first of the year, as I anticipate that Jennifer will need a full-time caddie again.” That got a smile from Jasveer.

“I will state that I do not, myself, believe that I am a living avatar of Vishnu, Ganesha, or Krishna, nor do I consider myself Waheguru. Please note that I am not discounting the possibility, simply that I don’t personally think so. The biggest issue, the concern with that is simple. Obviously, I have powers and abilities that could make someone think that I am a god. I have no desire to ever consider myself one. This planet has already suffered enough from someone who decided that he was a god. I hope you understand why I’m saying that as I do. I do love you, each of you, and all of you. You are my wives, my partners in this world and beyond, and you are all sacred to me.”

They were all frozen in place for several seconds. Finally, Beth got up, walked over to where I was still leaned up against the wall, and put both her hands against the wall on either side of my head. “I’m closest to your height, so this is from all of us.” She leaned forward, molding her body to mine and kissing me. She was grinding her groin against mine while allowing her tongue to claim control over mine. Neither one of us were hugging or otherwise touching each other with our hands.

About five minutes later, we finally broke apart. She stared into my eyes. “The reason that was from all of us is that we simply don’t have time to molest you properly, more’s the shame. Otherwise, I don’t think any of us would make it out of the house in time to fly back to California, even.” She had a smirk on her face.

“And yes, we’ll all make sure to change panties and air the house out. We know it has to smell like a cat house in here about now.” Beth then got down on her knees, unzipping my pants and pulling me out while she did so. “We can’t have you in pain all afternoon, and as excited as you are, conscious control may not be enough.”

With that, she took me in her mouth. After the grinding, plus everything else I’d felt and could smell and watch as the others were touching themselves, it didn’t take long at all. Eve and Dora came over to clean me up with their tongues, while Beth got up and shared my semen with Hannah and Diana.

Half an hour later, when everyone was relatively presentable again, the eight still went over to clean Emily and Harry’s house. Dora figured she’d spend the evening with her parents, and Eve went with her. Margie decided to enjoy the pool again, which seemed to be a hit with all of the expectant mothers. With the kids staying here, Beth and I went into town to check out the carnival and just be Hutchinson people for a while.

Beth and I wore our high school jackets. Mine was a little tight, because I’d grown an inch since graduation, but my arms weren’t longer and my chest was almost the same size. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention and hadn’t realized they’d never shipped my truck or the girls’ vehicles to California, only the vehicles owned by the adults. We got into my truck, which started right away.

I stopped at the guard shack. “Obviously, we’re local, so no one’s following us, right?”

“Of course, Mister Lewis. This is Hutchinson. Anyone tries to hurt you here, the crowd will tear them apart faster than Sayel or Yagyu could.”

“Good. Um, I’m curious about something. I rather obviously hadn’t noticed, but why weren’t our vehicles shipped out west?”

“They’re not company owned, like your sports cars. You’re still minors, so they’re all registered in the names of parents or guardians. That was a security complication that Mike decided he didn’t need, especially since we had jeeps and Suburbans out there, because out there you’re really NOT running around by yourself.”

“Damn. I hate it when something like that actually makes sense.”

“We understand, Sir. It’s part and parcel of not only being who you are, but what you represent as well. We know that a kidnapper wouldn’t survive the attempt, and they’re not going to try anything here. Out there ... it’s not Kansas.”

“Thank you. We’ll be back, we’re going to go check out the carnival.”

He grinned. “It’s not as big as the State Fair, but it’s not bad. They’ve got some different rides and attractions that normal carnivals don’t, but a lot of the same.”

While I was driving into town, I asked Beth, “So, you’re in my head. What am I thinking?”

“We need a vacation back here. I agree. Commencement is June 16^th, so hopefully Margie doesn’t deliver on the stage. They’re giving her another degree in addition to the ones that we’re getting. Your football practice starts the middle of July, so you’ll be tied up with that for eight hours a day. Somewhere in that month, we need to visit Peru and Nepal, and at the same time, you’re going to be worthless for a week after Margie has your son, because we know better.”

“I am?”

We were waiting on a traffic light, so I turned to look at her. The look she gave me was withering. “Cal, my Love, not only do I know what you always need, I’m a woman, for which we’re both thankful, and more importantly, I’m mentally tied to two women who have given birth. Do you really want to go there?”

The light changed to green and I looked forward again. “No, let’s simply assume that I surrender, and that takes care of that.”

“Good. Of the two locations, Machapuchare is more important. I actually think all you need to do is fly to Peru with Peace and a dozen shivalingam, and whatever is there not only won’t bother you, it’ll join you. You can go do that next weekend, even. But Nepal? I think the four of us need to visit there as a group, and we need to take a real team with us. Ones that know our abilities, but can also back us up with, or against, the locals. That was his home.”

I parked the truck in one of the south lots, got out, opened the door for her, and we held hands, just two teenagers walking to the entrance of the Fairgrounds.

“We’ll take Pacific and four jeeps,” I said. “It’s just too far to chance for a single hop. We’ll go from Moffett to Yakutsk, in the Soviet Union. That’s a nine hour flight, forty-five hundred miles. Refuel there, and it’s only thirty-one hundred to Tribhuvan in Kathmandu from there. That way, if they won’t let us refuel, we’ll have enough to make it back to Yakutsk. With refueling and such, sixteen hours one way. It’s about five hours by road from Kathmandu to Pokhara, which is the closest city. We’ll spend the night there, because we’ll have about six miles of crappy roads, worse than what we have here, then a four mile hike, just to get to the base of the mountain.”

“Sounds like fun. You know what else sounds like fun? Let’s go on some of these rides and forget about shit for a while and just enjoy the sun, and being teenagers.”

“Cotton candy and elephant ears, too!” I said.

I learned there wasn’t much of a difference between regular carnival rides and State Fair rides. Interestingly enough, the food trucks and stands seemed to have better corn dogs and elephant ears, although they were a little more expensive. I asked one of the food workers that was taking a smoke break why. He told me it was the age of the grease. As a carnival, they’re only in a spot for three or four days, while at a Fair, they may be in the same spot for two full weeks. While they filter their grease while at a Fair, they still use the same stuff for two weeks. At a carnival, they have to use new grease every time they set up, due to health inspections and codes when they set up anywhere other than the smallest towns. I thanked him for that trivia and gave him five bucks just for his time.

They had games set up just like at the State Fair.

“You know, I won all the prizes last time. I think it’s only fair that you win some, don’t you?”

Beth grinned. “You know, Toby has all sorts of them, but William and Harry don’t. I bet the girls would like something, too.”

It wasn’t long before I almost regretted my challenge. First, she shot out the star using the BB gun. Then she completed the basketball shots, much to the chagrin of that barker. The dart throw was funny, because the darts they’d handed her were dull. They weren’t when they went flying towards the balloons that coincidentally had the biggest prize numbers hidden behind them. The corked softball somehow managed to knock over the weighted milk bottles more than once. We had the most fun at the ring toss game, because there were lots of people trying it. Within a fifteen minute span, more than twenty people had won some of the top prizes at the game.

I had a giant panda sitting on my shoulders with the legs around my neck. My left hand was holding the giant dolphin and killer whale stuffed animals by the tails, with their bodies resting against the panda. I had a giant kangaroo by the tail in my right hand, and was trying to figure out where to carry the next animal she won when I heard a man’s voice say, “Here, you helped us, we can help you with those, Son.”

I felt hands taking the dolphin and whale, which freed up my left hand when Beth came up from the tent with a huge teddy bear. “Here you go, Cal, I think I’ve just...” Her pause made me turn and look at who had helped me.

Two older couples were standing there, the men having hold of the animals. One of the men said, “You definitely had your hands full there. Glad we could help you with that burden, it’s the least we could do.”

I politely nodded at them. “Gentlemen, you’re looking well since the last time we met.”

One of the women turned to the man next to her and said, “You didn’t tell me you knew Mister Lewis.”

He smiled. “It was during an unfortunate time in our lives, my dear. He and this young lady provided the proper motivation and assistance to us when we needed it the most.”

“I think simple encouragement, as well as a hand up, was what both of you needed. You’ll have to forgive me, Ma’am, but I don’t know everyone in town,” I said.

“Of course not. Everyone knows you, from what you’ve done to help Hutchinson. I’m Gwendolyn Masters. I went to church with Jennifer Patrick ... well, now Jennifer Lewis, of course,” the woman on the left said.

The other woman nodded. “We both did. I’m Olivia Thomas. Both of our husbands have been gone for several years. We met these two during Christmas services at our church, and have been at least casually dating since ... well, Valentine’s Day, actually.”

Gwendolyn asked, “So, how do you know Randall and Martin?”

I chuckled. “Well, I don’t know what they’ve told you about their past specifically...”

Randall said, “We’ve told them about how we’re both widowers, and had some issues. We just said we ran into a benefactor that gave us some good advice about coming to this little town in Kansas and helped us get here, and that’s all.”

Martin nodded his agreement.

“That’s pretty much it, Miss Masters. You’re aware ... huh, I think the whole town is aware ... that some of my business dealings took me out of town, before I finally left to attend college. I even had to miss a couple of football games because of them. We met Randall and Martin and through no fault of their own, they needed some assistance. Many men in their situation would have just given up. But their tenacity, their spirit, well, it told me that they were the kind of men we needed here. I took a chance, gave them a gift that they’ll never have to repay, and simply hoped that they would be able to start a new life.”

Olivia sniffed a little, holding back tears. “We know they had gone through some rough times. They’re both good men.”

“Then it seems that I made a wise decision in helping them, doesn’t it?”

Martin chuckled. “You told us then that you found our company quite refreshing. To the people we were with at the time, you appeared to be quite different than what you are, which is ... one of the nicest, most caring, and compassionate men on Earth. You and this young lady did exactly what you said you’d do after you left us, and neither of you had any idea just how much that really meant to Randall and me. Well, in a sense, I think you did. In any event, that’s why we’re here in Hutchinson now.”