5 comments/ 7789 views/ 14 favorites Modern Day Cavegirls By: TaLtos6 ****** This is about two women, but it's a little bigger than that. You won't see it in here much, but it's a part of a much larger story that I'm working on. That one's going to have to be a novella. One of the nice things about Lit is that you can usually find a category that you'd like to read. But the world isn't like that. The main story will have some different things going on in it. This will be one of them. There is going to be at least one and maybe two other parts that would fall under this category. But there'll be others which won't. There will be a couple of hetero relationships, and likely at least one gay male one. So you can see that I couldn't just put it in several categories, since people who wanted to read the whole thing would have to look for it. This is just a sampler, I guess, but it has a resolution. You just ought to know that these people are also running through the main story. So, the characters: Jodi-Lynn McLeod is a single mom working her ass off. Su-jin Kim is a bookkeeper who has hired on nearby and will begin work on Monday - this takes place on the Saturday, and she just arrived in town the afternoon before. She studied English and speaks it well - but that was in a classroom. She does well in real life, but if she's stressed, some of the smoothness often falls away because this isn't a classroom. This tendency will fade considerably as she spends more time in her new home. The rest are bit players, but Bobbi Sorrensson is Su-jin's new employer. She's a successful and hard-working pilot. Jane is Bobbi's younger adopted sister, also a pilot, but she will head up the company's agricultural division one day soon. Tyler is a little sweetheart and the young son of Jodi. I hope this is enjoyed. This is a totally fictional piece with no real individuals intended to be depicted. Likewise governments and service arms of governments. It's just a story. 0_o ******************* A large old farm outside of Angel Fire, New Mexico Tyler McLeod was something of a curious and inquisitive guy. The world looked shiny and new to him, just because it was a bright morning and also because it still was fairly shiny and new to him at just shy of a year and a half old. He was engrossed in looking at a bird at the moment. He didn't know what it was doing, but it was walking through the grass - and running for short distances once in a while too. He watched it lean down and then then straighten up, almost always with something to eat. He looked down and didn't see anything like that. He just saw the bottom of his playpen and some of his toys. He watched as his mother Jodi-Lynn Mcleod walked by, pushing the mower. "You be a good boy for Momma now, Tyler. I don't want to be doing it this way at all, but Miss Rose isn't here to watch you for me today. She and Mr. Sorrensson been real nice to us, lettin' us stay here with them. They're outta town on a little vacation but that don't change a thing for me. I gotta look after things." Tyler didn't mind at the moment. He went back to looking at the bird, but it had gone. He saw another one, or maybe the same one, but it was farther away. Then he looked at the sides of the playpen and the mesh netting and the things that held it up and stepped over there. ------------------------ Su-jin woke up and saw a sliver of the morning sun coming in through the window past the edge of the curtains. She looked at Jane and saw her sleeping soundly and decided against waking her first thing. She got out of bed and after a pee, she checked the fridge and the cupboard and decided that a cup of coffee might be a nice way to start things. She'd rarely ever had any back home, but ... She quietly filled the kettle and turned it on before she pulled a satin robe out of one of her suitcases and held it out. It might be a bit much for around here, but she hadn't noticed much of any activity through the windows. It was black satin where she would have wanted silk, but it was what she had for a housecoat here. There was a large, blood-red Chinese-style dragon over her shoulders and some writing, but it was in Korean and she doubted that anyone here would know or care much about the Luck Fighting Club. To Su-jin, it was a memory and little more, though now ... for some odd reason, with it on her shoulders again, it made her feel ... When the kettle clicked off, she made herself some instant coffee and looked back once at Jane's bare bottom on the bed. It was worth a soft smile. She opened the door and smiled at the new day. It was gorgeously sunny, maybe eight o'clock and she was here and she had someone who really cared about her and ... She ran out of things then and just sipped her coffee for a moment. She noticed that the lawn here was huge and well-tended. It looked like a golf course green that she'd seen once on TV. It looked even better than that, she decided, since it wasn't on TV. She looked around, wondering just how far this large lawn really went. She saw the big farmhouse then. She didn't know what farmhouses looked like here, but this one was huge to her mind. She couldn't even see the back of it for the trees there. She turned around and she could see the road out there, really out there. Then she saw the post. She stared at it for a while. It was just a single post standing up out of the ground in front of her house -the one that Bobbi had said was for her use. It stood maybe five feet tall and it was square-ish and about four inches thick with a wooden cap on the top to keep any rain out of the grain of the wood. There were a couple of holes bored right through it near the top. She wondered what it's purpose might be and came up with nothing. She looked down and there were the remains of an old wooden trough on the ground beside it. She walked over and touched the post and felt it's weathered texture for a moment before she pushed against it and felt it give a little bit. She pushed again and saw that it was firmly set into the ground, but it was old and the movement was from the wood of the post itself. She sipped her coffee and her mind would have gone on to wonder about other things in the morning sunlight but she looked at the post again and something clicked. She went back inside, grabbed the key to her house over there and looked in the bottom kitchen drawer, remembering something that she'd seen there the evening before. Rolls of tape, black cloth friction tape that looked a million years old, lots of it. She tried to pick one up and came up with a stack of at least six rolls. It was dusty and ancient. She doubted that Bobbi would mind, so she went back outside and began to apply it in a tight wrap, maybe eighteen inches long, starting at about the height of her shoulder and working down. As she did, she thought back and decided that she hadn't done anything in almost eight months. She finished the first roll and started in on the second after another sip of her coffee. She thought about some exercises and warm-ups as she went, setting the task in her mind, now that she'd begun. In all, she put six rolls on and the post was now primitively padded a little bit. She pressed in with a fingertip decided that it would do for now. Then she swallowed the last of her coffee and went in to change. Shorts, T-shirt, and the hair tie thing. She wondered what was different now, but when she came out, there was the sound that had begun as she'd applied the tape. She only knew that there was a motor involved. She didn't know what a gas lawnmower sounded like. After tying her hair, Su-jin began. Sit ups, pushups, squats and bends. Stretches as it went on and then back to the beginning. When she felt that she was ready, she began. -------------- Jodi didn't like mowing the lawn without Tyler being in sight. She'd stopped and gone back to check on him twice and everything had been fine. But it didn't take long before the uneasy feeling began again. She knew that some of it might be easily accounted for because of the horror movies that she used to watch forever. But that had been before. She didn't watch any at all now. She'd had enough terror-filled moments in her own life to last her a lifetime. That was the reason that a girl from Southeast Texas had spent half of all the money that she had in the world to buy a clapped-out old Buick and left Beaumont at seventeen with two weeks left to go until her due date to drive north and west. She'd had no one to turn to after her mother kicked her out when she couldn't hide the signs of her pregnancy anymore. Jodi-Lynn had worked shit jobs - whatever she could get and she saved as much as she possibly could, squeezing each freaking nickel hard enough before she parted with it to bring tears to Jefferson's eyes. She told no one about the money in her bank account and a little later, she was very glad that she'd been that secretive about it. Any daydreams that she might have had of making a life with Tyler's father had been beaten out of her - twice. She'd almost lost the baby the second time. She'd waited until he'd been put in jail and then she'd bought the Buick. The car had died across the road out in front of this farm not far from Angel Fire, New Mexico. No one told her that you had to put oil in a car once in a while. Now nineteen, she lived here, thanks to the generosity and good will of two people. She did yardwork for a living and it was growing, this little business of hers, though she cut the Sorrensson's lawns for nothing. She was ready to expand it soon and she had some plans on how to go about it. She had an old pickup truck and she had a couple of mowers and trimmers - all of them with plenty of oil in them. As well, and probably most importantly, she had one friend in the world near her own age and that was Jane. She came around the corner of the house and saw the empty playpen. ---------------- It was coming back much faster than she'd have thought. Su-jin worked her arms, punching and pounding the post. She danced, getting to know the feel of the rhythm again as she moved in and away, kicking, side-kicking, back-kicking, roundhouses, spinning back kicks, everything that she could think of, before moving in and using every striking technique that she knew a few times each, as fast as they would come to her mind. The only things that she really held back on were the kicks since she didn't want to risk a groin pull now. Her kicks would take a bit of time to come back and there was no quick way around that, but she at least tried everything. Just to see if she still had it. She found a rhythm. Not necessarily the right one at anywhere near the right speed, just a rhythm. Since she needed a center for today, she decided on one thing. The main thing for this, just to begin, was her rabbit punch. But not individual ones. This was light and quick hammering to get her shoulders involved since you had to pull the punches too, wanting to see if there was a real chance to get her speed back, knocking on the door just to clear out the shame and the hurt and the humiliation and the rage and the cobwebs. She danced forward, threw five alternating punches as fast as she was able at chest height and then lunged forward with a strike from the heel of her hand as she stepped in. Out. In. Punches. Out. Kick. Again. Again. Again. Repeat as necessary. This was going to hurt, but it was the price. It had always been the price. It was harder to do here and Su-jin already knew that it was because of the altitude. Angel Fire wasn't at sea level, far from it. People here were members of the mile-high club from their very first fumbling attempt at screwing. So the price had gone up a little, Su-jin thought. Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Bam. It felt good to her anyway. She didn't work on technique, not today, only on rhythm and repetition, only trying to raise and sustain an elevated heart rate to clear out the plumbing and the tubes, all centered around the blindingly fast and hard punches which had once almost been her trademark. Opponents who knew made sure never to leave her an opening over their hearts because she could just about stop them or at least, leave a very sore breastbone in her wake. They knew that - more often than not - that there would be a harder strike of some sort coming close behind if those punches got through their blocks. Those who didn't know ... would find themselves looking at the overhead lights. She decided that she wanted this back and she knew that she had a long way to go. This, this wasn't about anything. This was just walking up to the hill you were going to climb. This wasn't even beginning to climb. Jane got out of bed and grabbed her bathrobe. She didn't see Su-jin, but she sure as hell heard something outside. She walked to the window and looked out past the curtains. Her mouth fell open. Su-jin, the sweetest girl on the planet, was dancing on her toes - and beating the living shit out of the post where the foreman that Su-jin's house had been built for long ago used to tie up his horse. That beautiful face carried a sheen of slick sweat and at times if some was near her upper lip when she exhaled, it sent a spray of sweat outward from her in the sunshine as the long red and black hair flew behind her head and tested the tie of the ponytail. There was no sign of much exertion going on in that face. That face only looked intent, the eyes measuring distance and nothing more. Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Bam. Strike. Kick. Again and again and again. ----------------- Jodi ran, looking here and there as she did, calling Tyler's name over and over. She came around the corner of the farmhouse and saw the four old foreman's buildings. In front of the nearest one, most of a hundred yards away, she saw a woman hitting something in front of her. Tyler was standing next to her. ------------------- Jane focused outward and she saw Jodi coming over at a trot. She hadn't seen Tyler yet because Su-jin was in the way. She groaned as she remembered something that she really should have done last night. ------------------- Su-jin was about done and she was a little disappointed that she didn't last longer, but then she was long out of shape now. She tensed her stomach and felt with her hand and wanted to sigh. They might not have been as impressive as Jane's, but there had been a time ... Of course nobody had stolen her abs. She could feel them there. They just weren't as pronounced as they once had been. Oh well, only twenty million crunches and they'd find their way back, hopefully. She knew that she'd be stiff and sore and that she'd work through that later because she now felt better and she knew that she had to. With a human body, if you want to build something, you have to tear it down a little first. Renovations. She'd done it before. She was heading to the last series by what she felt. She thought that she'd just keep punching at the end and not stop until she found herself slowing down. After that, she thought about a spinning back kick to finish with. But then she thought about the old wood and she didn't want to break it if there was a chance of that. It was pretty nice to have found a usable punching block in the form of an old wooden post right outside her door. Maybe it had been a hint. So she just needed something to hit and not too hard. This would do nicely. As well, she hadn't looked directly, but she knew that Janey was looking at her and she felt bad about waking her. She hadn't thought that this would be that loud, so it must have been the sound carrying through the earth into the building. Finally, there was something telling her not to do the kick at the end. So she just stopped and looked back. There was a little boy standing there. Very little. And he was sucking his thumb as he looked up at her. Su-jin picked up her robe and pulled it on, leaving it untied as she sank to her knees and smiled at him as she panted a little. "Hello little friend." He was a perfect blend of Caucasian and African features. His skin was the color of dark golden honey under a shoulder-length mop of little golden curls and he regarded her with his light and very bright blue eyes. He was absolutely adorable. He looked at her long enough to form his opinion and then he held out his little hands and Su-jin picked him up. "What are you doing here?" she asked him and he made no reply. He only took his thumb out of his mouth and hugged her. His mother arrived then and Su-jin knew it by the sound of her running up and her shadow as it stretched out toward her. She stood up and gasped. The woman was about the same height or a little shorter and Su-jin got the impression of a person who was favored by the earth. She stood in cut-off jeans and her tanned legs were bare, ending in socks and workboots and she wore a yellow tube top. Her build was not lithe like her own. She was a little fuller and she had long and wavy blonde hair that looked to go to the middle of her back. The way that the sun shone on her back gave her a bit of a golden glow which Su-jin found very nice to see at that moment. Su-jin looked at the boy, nodding as she spoke, "You have so beautiful mother, little friend." The door of Jane's house opened and Jane stepped out, walking over, "Hey Jodi. This is Amy Kim. She's going to work for us starting Monday." "Hey, Jane, hello Amy," Jodi smiled as she held out her hand. Then she grinned at Jane, "Oooh! Nice hair, baby. Way to keep people guessing." Jane looked down, "You don't know the half of it." "She has a nice shirt too," Su-jin smiled. Jane raised a finger, "Don't you start, ok? What are you doing here, Jodi?" Jodi looked at her son, "I found that Tyler had escaped out of his playpen and after I got my heart started again I had to look all over for him and I found him here. What was that all about, what you were doing?" Su-jin shrugged, "Something I haven't done in a long time. I don't know why, but I found that old post and I just thought of doing it again. I didn't mean to wake Jane. I didn't think that far." She looked over, "And I'm sorry." Jane waved it off, "I should have been up before now. You never told me that you're a ... what was that about, exactly?" Su-jin shrugged again, "I have black belt in bookkeeping." "No shit," Jane grinned, "But really, what was that?" "Just a little training," Su-jin smiled, "I used to be amateur fighter in the women's division in Seoul. Many people there are so serious about it. I only did it for fun and I liked it. I stopped when ... well, you know, and after I came here, I had no way to start again and I didn't want to. Today, I don't know why, but I found this post and that it bends a little and I had the idea. Now I want to train again. Just for me. I lost all of my tone and after meeting you," she grinned, "I wanted a few muscles back too." Tyler began to squirm so that he could get to Su-jin's breasts under her T-shirt. She laughed, "Boobs work better here than they did in Seoul!" She hugged Tyler with a sigh, "My second day in Angel Fire, already have my first American boyfriend! He does not say much. I think he is strong and silent type." She lowered her head, "But you must stop, Tyler. Mother is right there. She will think that I am trying to make you into bad boy." Jodi rolled her eyes, "He already is one of those." Su-jin chuckled, "How can you stay angry with him? So beautiful child." Jodi pointed, "Yeah well, he takes after his father like that - along with his boob fascination. Right now, he thinks they're great toys, Amy. But you'd better pay attention or he'll surprise you. If he had his way, I'd still be his milk wagon. He's got his teeth and they work just great." Modern Day Cavegirls - Bobbi's Tale ***** Ok, this is gonna be a long one, sorry. And if you're looking for a quick dive into a girl love, I'm sorry for that too because this one takes a while to get there. The beginning is about a man who does some unusual things for a living. That leads him to meet a woman and that leads ... Oh, just read it and you'll figure it out. This is one of those things that I sometimes write that end up as not so well-defined for any one category, ok? So I'm aiming it where the result goes best. That's how it is with these folks. There's a backstory to this that's longer than I'd planned it to be. And by the end, it's what's wanted and needed by the characters, but there's still no big flashing "L" sign - but that's there all the same. Confused? Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Dang. 0_o ***************** ********* Peru Damian got to his feet after making sure that there was only the one part of him which had been injured in a minor way. Every once in a while down here, he'd encountered some slime or slickness on the rough stone floor and coming around the last bend; he'd slipped and gone down. His hip stung a little, but he was more concerned about his knees. His right knee was trying to tell him something but he saw no tear in his pants and a quick feel told him that everything was still where it was supposed to be. "A fucking idiot," he muttered quietly as he reached into the First Aid pouch on the strap of his backpack. "That's what I am for sure. Who the hell besides an idiot like me would even be here doing this?" He moved the LED flashlight to hold it in his teeth as he quickly unraveled a long olive drab cloth and stuffed it gently inside his shirt a little bit to hold it there as he worked since he'd need it in a little while. As expected, he thought, the flashlight tasted like shit and his memory went back to the places where he'd dropped it and the unidentifiable puddles of crap that it had landed in. He pushed the thought from his mind before he began to gag. He reached into the bag again, hoping that the surplus kit still contained some kind of disinfectant and that it hadn't either dried up or gone bad in the million years or so since it had been manufactured for use as an emergency kit to be stored in a tactical assault helicopter. That wasn't where he'd gotten it, he was just a fan of surplus stores. He came up with nothing. "Fuck," he whispered in disgust around the flashlight as he reached into the left cargo pocket of his pants and pulled out his old standby - a squeeze bottle of Bactine. In his careful and considered opinion, the stuff was pure gold. So far, in his odd line of work, it had worked on everything from bee stings to gunshot wounds - the less serious ones anyway. He also carried a small plastic bottle of Dettol but he rarely used it, since it stung like hot rivets in the smallest wound and it made him say even more bad words and he was trying to quit. He shook the Bactine a few times and flipped open the top. That done, he poured a liberal amount onto the freely bleeding gash on the back of his right hand, trying to wash the wound a little at the same time with the force of the squeeze on the bottle. It worked, sort of. He shook his hand a couple of times as though he was trying to get rid of something undesirable which was stuck to his fingers, like trying to get rid of a booger when he'd been a kid back in New Mexico. That worked a little as well. Sort of. He grabbed the cloth and after folding it quickly into a long roll and slipping the end in between his index and middle fingers, he began to wrap the injured hand a little tightly, though not too much. As he slipped his fingerless glove back on, he kept muttering. "I ever do shit like this again, I' m gonna want a lot more for it." He took the flashlight from between his teeth and shifted it to his left hand to begin walking back up the slope in the passage. After a few minutes, he was about to step back out into the relative brightness of the Peruvian forest. Relative, because it was fairly dim under the canopy of the forest. It was just a lot brighter than where he'd been for the past three hours. He straightened up a little too soon and he clipped his head on the rock overhang. Besides knocking his bush hat off, it caused him to bend down again in pain as he told himself that he'd now want even more to do something like this again. But he'd gotten the three sacred carved statues that he'd come here to get for his client and now he just had to get scarce in a bit of a hurry. Never a good thing to just hang around and congratulate yourself, he thought. That's when the really bad shit is liable to happen. He looked ahead, hopeful to see the teenaged kid who'd been his guide out here and he saw him alright, just not in the way that he'd have liked. The boy hung by his neck from a nearby tree about ten feet off the ground. Damian backed into the opening in the rock again as he stared for a minute. The boy couldn't have been older than eighteen. It didn't take Damian more than two thoughts to come to the knowledge that he likely wasn't alone here with the corpse of the kid who'd told him that he knew where the statues likely were and ... that the really bad shit was already happening. There was no way that the boy had taken the secret of the statues with him. He turned and tore off back down the passageway as a burst of automatic weapon fire chipped the ancient stone of the doorway where he'd been the second before. As he backtracked and tried to listen for the sounds of pursuit, he was looking for the other exit that he'd been told about. It was where the brief and general instructions that he'd been given back in Mexico City said that he could get inside. He'd said nothing of it and had only listened to the kid tell him where to get inside. Now he hoped that the boy hadn't known of the other way. It gave him something to hope for, anyway. As he came up to the other passage, he realized that he hadn't heard anyone coming after him. As soon as the thought registered in his mind, he heard the sounds of a pair of rocks skipping down the slope behind him. He felt the pit of his stomach as it fell. Nobody was going to throw rocks after him for damn certain, so those weren't rocks that he was listening to. Automatic weapons and now grenades. Who the fuck were these people, anyway? He hung a left and scrambled off that way as fast as he could go, counting off seconds - seven. Minus at least two. Five, four, three, two... The sound of the explosions was deafening and worse, he felt them reverberate in the stone floor. They faded after a few seconds, but the rumbling didn't. He kept running as he heard the crash from the other passageway behind him. The ceiling was falling in. -------------------- It was an hour later when he emerged after pushing a pair of small boulders away from the sliver of light that he'd seen at the end. Not knowing if there'd be another welcome for him here, Damian had been fairly slow and quiet about it. As he stepped into the light, he ran to the thickets as quietly as he could and he waited for a time for his pocket GPS to acquire enough satellites so that he could figure out which way that he ought to be walking. He reached the twenty-five year-old Nissan Pathfinder after more than an hour of careful walking and he pulled the tree branches off after first making sure that they hadn't been disturbed. He saw that something at least had been moved. A quick look underneath showed him the packet of plasitique. He yanked the wires from the charge and pulled the thing out to toss it into the undergrowth. He found the second one under the driver's seat and did the same before he climbed in and turned the key, hoping a little that there was no third charge. With the engine running, he backed out and tore off along the only path there, though he did pull off onto an even smaller one a little while after. That's when he saw them. Assholes, he thought. Assholes in pickup trucks. With guns. It didn't matter where he was sent or what the goods were, at some point, far more often than not, there'd be assholes with guns in pickup trucks there in his mirror. He had the most insane thought then and he groaned. It didn't make much of any difference. He'd do his best to get out of this in one piece and if he still had just a little luck anymore, he just might. In the middle of his day turning to pure shit, the memory that he'd forgotten to give Trish her birthday present the day before he'd left had come to him - the day before her birthday. He'd dropped it off on his way to the airport, leaving it for her to find when she got home from work with a nice card and his written apology for running out of time. AND he'd left a long-stemmed rose lying across the card. So he was a dead man regardless, he thought. As he downshifted and slammed the accelerator down, cranking the wheel to power-slide the thing around and hoping that the old beast had enough lungs left for this, Damian told himself that he'd for fucking sure want a lot more money before he ever agreed to do anything like this again. ---------- Tamanrasset, southern Algeria Malikah was thinking of closing up her little market stall a bit early and going home. She shook her head. Home was a little place in a village where she was a stranger, three quarters of an hour's walk away through the dust. She might not have known any better once upon a time, but from her present viewpoint, her home was little more than a hovel. She'd have to hide her wares in her home and then walk to the well to draw water - making several trips until she had enough to cook her evening meal with and pour a third of what was left into the big kettle to heat it near the fire. The remainder would go into the washtub. Long after her plain and unpretentious meal, and even after she sat by the only light to craft a few more pieces to offer for sale the next day, she'd look over and hope to see that the water in the kettle had begun to steam a little. Then she knew that she'd lock the door as best she could and struggle to get the kettle near the washtub and pour the contents in. It wouldn't be anywhere near as hot as she'd wish for it to be, but that would be her bath just before she went to bed. She looked down at the jewellery that she'd made and wondered again at the fruitlessness of running a small stall at the edge of a market in an almost nameless place near the edge of the Sahara in Algeria. No one knew when the fish were biting, she thought. No one could predict it when it happened. Sometimes, she'd be here thanking Allah for bringing the tourists to her stall. It happened sometimes that she was sold out by one in the afternoon and had to close because she had nothing left to sell anymore. Those were the good days, and they happened, just not all that often. Most days, she sold enough to get by on, and sometimes ... there were days like this one, where she hadn't sold even one thing all day and it seemed that her feet were already complaining to her and she hadn't even begun her long walk home yet. Malikah sighed to herself. This was the way that her life was to go, and she knew that. It was just ... She backed up until she felt the edge of the stool against her bottom and she slid onto it, looking at her feet. It was just that she'd had a chance once to do better for herself, but it had evaporated somehow when she hadn't been looking. She was Imouhar. It was what people like her called themselves, though the people around them called them Tuaregs. For as long as anyone could tell of the ancient past, they'd been nomads, though that was changing to an extent in the present day. By her blood, she was from one of the old tribal confederations in Mali. But she wasn't there. She lived here, where the people were more Berber than Tuareg. It was just another thing that set her apart here and to be set apart was to be alone. She was born in Mali and lived there for only ten years before her father had found a way to make some money so he'd brought his little family to live here. But her mother had died after hemorrhaging while giving birth to their second child. She'd passed in the back of a small pickup truck as her father was driving her to hospital. He'd raised Malikah alone and never married again. She didn't know what he'd done to earn his money back then when she was a little girl; she only knew that he was gone sometimes and she was placed in the care of some distant relations in another place now and then until he came back to get her. She'd been alone there too. They might have been relations of a sort, but she could never see it, now that she looked back. Whatever they were, they certainly weren't Imouhar. Something happened after that, and they were back here in this village, though it was a place that she'd never really gotten to know. Her father had never moved them back to Mali. He'd said that there was trouble there - that their people were rising up to fight for their independence and he didn't want to lose more than he already had. Her father had shown her where to go to get the little stones which she could easily shape and make into beads and he taught her how to drill them and the ways that she could fashion jewellery out of them. It was a little close to the blacksmithing that he could do, he'd said with a smile, you only had to hit things a lot less hard. Apparently, her father had saved at least enough money so that she could attend university in Algiers when she was old enough for it and she'd gone, happy to learn and expand her tiny horizons. As what she was, she was a little alone there as well, but she had made few friends and that was all that mattered to her. But the money had run out one day and knowing nothing of it, she'd had to return home. She'd had many questions for her father at the time, wanting to know how he'd come by the relative wealth that they'd enjoyed very frugally, and above all, why she'd had to come home partway through her final year of studies. But she'd never gotten to ask him the questions because when she arrived, she found that her father had died fifteen days before and nobody knew much of anything. And so, with nothing else to do with which she might make a living, she'd searched and found the old tools and things which went along with this craft. It was a living, but a very poor one - made all the worse by her having to live on alone in a place where she was not well known, not being from the Berber peoples. Everyone kept to themselves here. She'd never even made a single friend among the other children back when she was growing up. It was also made worse by the fact that she'd been away someplace else and she'd seen that this was a poor life. But there wasn't a thing that she could do about it. There was only one other option for her and she hated it. More than the curious customers which came to her stall, and far, far more numerous than the very occasional and supremely delighted clients who came back to ask her about fashioning something special as a custom order, ... What she faced more than anything were hopeful young men who came to enquire about something else. Given her social standing, Malikah knew that she'd make a rather poor bride, monetarily speaking. But that didn't cause too many of the hopefuls to turn away. She knew that she was pretty. She also knew that each day removed a little of her desirability in the eyes of those young men. But she had no desire to become a wife and mother. She saw many others who lived that life. There was not one single man out of all of the ones who came to try to chat her up a little awkwardly that she liked even a little. The same boys who'd looked right through her when they were children now wanted to get to know her? Really? The other thing was that she'd been to a place where the men treated women fairly well. That place was not here. And she was under no illusions. Even if she married a local, she'd still be an outsider. And what sort of man would want her for a wife if she was of a different people? She supposed that if she loved the man, it probably wouldn't matter that much to her. But marrying her would put a strain on the man's relations with his own family, wouldn't it? Malikah hadn't seen a man who she liked but that didn't mean that he didn't exist somewhere. Some men were cruel to their women. If that happened to her, there would be nowhere that she could turn for help or support. She just didn't think that she wanted to be the Tuareg wife of an Algerian of any kind and she saw other Imouhar only very seldom. The choice was looking her in the face more and more every single day, but she knew that to accept that would be the final stone around her neck. She might as well cut her throat right now. It was just as exciting a prospect to her. ------------- Minneapolis, MN Damian sat at his desk in the basement catacombs of the museum, working through the lists of the bills of lading which had accompanied the most recent shipments of small artifacts. For the most part they represented a small portion of the normal and regular trade of things such as this which went on between museums now and then. This particular shipment was causing him a little trouble, given that the description of the articles against what they looked like was taking up far too much of his time. He often had to stop and actually get up to go look through the packing material, trying to find something which matched the description. Most times, there would be a small and unobtrusive alphanumeric identifier painted on somewhere. But this shipment had come from a Middle Eastern source and he was having trouble making out the writing a lot of the time - if it was even there at all. Couldn't they have just taken a bunch of pictures and referenced them against the shipping list? He sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair for a moment. It caused him to notice that his neck was getting a little stiff, and that told him that he ought to look at the clock on the wall. 2AM, and he was still at it. That had to be enough for one day, he told himself as he stood up to stretch for a moment. He turned off his desk lamp and grabbing his jacket, he walked up the stairs, wished the slightly surprised night security guard a pleasant shift and walked out into the winds of a cold and rainy Minneapolis night. He'd just gotten his truck started and was buckling in when his phone picked up a text. He only noticed because the screen of his phone lit up. He turned the phone's ringtones back on then. He'd turned them off after getting at least seventeen missed call notifications - all from his girlfriend the evening before. Apparently, his forgetting to wish her a happy birthday and only leaving her gift and a card on her table on his way past to the airport couldn't have waited for her to express herself in person to him. He'd even offered to drop by for his turn tied to the whipping post. Damian sighed. He was still in deep over the birthday thing - though Trish kept the diamond necklace, never even acknowledging the gift or thanking him for it. Not a word about the rose either. It all seemed to be about giving him hell because he thought so little of her. Fuck, he thought, it was a diamond necklace and she wouldn't accept that he was in a hurry and was genuinely sorry? He briefly wondered just how dumb she thought that he was. In his book, if he did something wrong, then he could expect to be told - once only. He'd do his level best not to do it again. Modern Day Cavegirls - Bobbi's Tale But it had become rather clear to him that this was about asserting her dominance somehow. He'd been down this road with her twice before over other things that he'd done - or hadn't when he should have. It would necessitate his having to catch crap a lot of times - and it was a highly variable number and not less than ten, the way that he saw it. She'd even torn his ear off for a half an hour and then called back to start in again because she'd just remembered 'another thing'. It was curing his fascination over girls of Irish extraction. He was almost certain that he could find at least a slightly less expensive and painful fetish. He thought about where to go at this time of night for a coffee for the trip home as he read the text. 'Request meeting soonest - Faisal' Damian sat back for a moment and then he called his boss's line and left a message, saying that he'd worked very late and requested the next day off in lieu. Then he replied to the text saying that he had tomorrow wide open. Damian had just put the phone in his pocket and put his truck into gear when the reply came. "Jesus, Faisal old buddy, don't you ever need to sleep?" Damian asked the phone as he put the truck back into park and read the text that he had a meeting with the man at noon the following day. He thought about things for a moment, trying to see where things lay in the balance of his mind. Catch more shit from Trish... or make money doing something possibly barely legal which carried the unspoken danger of being life-threatening? He tried to re-order things and looked at it again. Catch life-threatening crap for nothing or make a ton of money to replace what he'd dropped on the necklace? He slid the little keyboard out on his phone and typed only 'K'. Then he put the truck in gear again and motored. -------------- Chicago, IL As the private elevator slowed to a stop, the elderly man refocused his gaze from looking out through the window to looking right at the reflection of the opposite wall behind him. The doors slid open and Damian Sorrensson stepped out in a scuffed-up and ancient-looking leather jacket wearing jeans and cowboy boots. "You must cut quite a dashing figure striding through the lobby of a banking building like this one dressed like that, Damian," the man smiled as he turned his wheelchair around to face his tall and lean-looking visitor. "Uh, ... sorry about that," Damian said with a disarming grin, "Your text said noon. I'd just gotten off work at 2AM when I got it. I hadn't even gotten home yet. From Minneapolis to Chicago is a bit of a drive and I had to sleep in there somewhere as well." The man nodded, "I apologize for the timing. I didn't think about it, really. I find that these days, I always seem to be in a bit of a rush. I have so many things that I wish and need to get done while I still have time. I don't seem to need very much sleep anymore and it makes me tend to forget that other people do." Damian said that it wasn't a problem, really, and then he looked over at the bar and pointed, "Uh, have you still got the coffeemaker on, Faisal? I'm kind of in need right now, you know? I've been good and I've never told a soul that the best Algerian coffee in Chicago is right here." "Go ahead," the man said with a chuckle, "I know you enough to have some made and waiting whenever you come to see me. It's not such a rare find anymore you know. There are a few Americans of Algerian descent here - all over the Midwest. I wouldn't mind a cup as well, if you'd bring me one. My thanks for the work with the statues last week, by the way. I was able to make a good return on my investment for them." He opened his desk drawer and removed a memory card and slid it across the gleaming oak surface, "And my thanks for the photographs as well." He watched as Damian walked over to sit down, pocketing the card as he did after setting Faisal's cup and saucer down in front of him. "I just thought that you ought to see where they were hidden. I don't know how old they are, but I was a little surprised to find evidence that they're still being utilized in some form of religious observances by somebody. That was real blood there, and it was pretty fresh. I guess I must have pissed them off pretty bad when I left with them." "I'd agree," Faisal said, "but that's not why I asked for you to come today." He shifted himself in the chair a little, "I'm an old man, Damian. I've made my livelihood in many ways, not all of them completely honestly, though that was a long time ago and far away from here. Once upon a time, I was just a poor young Algerian man with nothing. Like a lot of others, I came to be swept up in the nationalistic fervor when we all saw that there was the chance that we could get the French off our backs and our land. You are likely aware that 'Algerians' are a population of many groups. We were back then as well. It took a little while, but we were able to stop fighting with each other long enough to kick the French out after a hundred and fifty years of oppression at their hands. While that was going on all around me, I came to see a group of people who hated the French even more than the rest of us. I found them to be absolutely fearless men and I used some of them to my own ends here and there a long time ago. All of them are dead now. But I am coming to the end of my own life in the not too distant future, Damian, and it makes me try to think back to see if I've left anything undone which I might now want to rectify at this late stage of the game, so to speak. I've come up with three individuals. We are here today to talk about one of them. I'm afraid that I have a little more work for you." "That's fine, Faisal," Damian smiled, "I assume that I'll get the chance to make a little more coin out of it, so I'm good. What do I have to find and bring to you this time?" Faisal sat back and after a moment, he began to grin. It made Damian a little nervous, but he held his gaze on Faisal steadily. "Not what, Damian," Faisal smiled on, feeling just a little relieved already, "but who. This time out, you're going to bring me a person. I need to help her while I still have the ability to." Damian felt his jaw begin to open. "How, ... how am I supposed to bring a person to you? Is this ... you mean this is for the purpose of a visit or what have you got in mind? Is this for real? What I mean is; this is to be in a legitimate and legal way?" Faisal nodded, "Of course. I want her here so that I can begin to have her trained in some of the sorts of occupations that any western person might have the choice of to make their own way in the world. As it is, she lives in poverty and I feel that I am at least a little to blame for that. A man in my position can sometimes ... accumulate enemies, you might say. Her father died because it was found out that he'd worked for me on occasion. Since I am still here, I can only assume that his sense of loyalty to me exceeded the ability of whatever means were attempted to get information about me out of him. But I was only recently reminded that he had a daughter. I sent someone and through them, I learned of his daughter's whereabouts. She was far away at school when he was murdered and she only learned of her father's death on her return when she had to leave because the money stopped coming. Your role in this is to find your way to her, get her a passport and a visa to come here so that I can help her, and then bring her here. She might want to take what she'll learn and go back, or she might have other plans once she gets to that point. I will have done my part by then and it will be her choice. Your purpose will be to help and guide her as much as you can while she is here. You may consider it an ongoing job for me. This will take some time, so I've already arranged for you to begin a ... sabbatical from your job at the museum, you might say." "How am I supposed to find her, by the way?" Damian asked, "Just for starters." "I don't think that it will be too difficult, my friend," the old man smiled, "She lives in a village whose name you probably couldn't pronounce but I'll get you some directions, and she sells jewellery which she makes by hand in a little town not far away from that. She's about the only person of her ethnicity in that little place and she wears the traditional style of clothing of her people. She probably stands out like ..." "What's her ethnicity?" Damian asked, feeling a little strange to be using the word. "I did say that Algerians as a nation are made up of various groups," Faisal said as he opened his laptop and entered his password. He swung the PC around to face Damian. "This is one of them. They are not unique to my home country, living in at least four others on the continent as well. All but one of those five nations have borders inside the Sahara Desert. That is the common thing in their case." As he began to read, Damian also saw the pictures in the accompanying article and his mouth fell the rest of the way open that time. "Tuareg?" he asked, "I thought that was the name of a, ... Never mind," he sighed, shaking his head a little, "I think I'm about to show my ignorance." "Something which sets you apart to my mind, Damian, is that you are often aware of it when your understanding of something is lacking, which you then set about improving. That is how a man comes to know his world," Faisal smiled warmly. "The product that you have in your mind was named after a proud and fierce people who have thrived for thousands of years in a barren and trackless place where most people would perish." Damian was still reading, "So these people, ..." "They have been what some might call the Lords of the Sahara since time immemorial. They ran the caravans of commerce, transporting everything from camels to salt and many still do," Faisal nodded. "But one thing, Damian. Do not refer to her in direct conversation as a Tuareg. It is a word used by other peoples. Though it seems to have stuck, the word is really a corrupted French term and to some, it means 'abandoned by the gods'. She would refer to herself as 'Imouhar'. "My Arabic sucks, Faisal," Damian said, "Just telling you now." "I know and it's worse than that I'm afraid, since you speak the wrong kind for that place." The man smiled as he picked up a thin folder and laid it down next to Damian's elbow, "There is a photo in here which was taken in the marketplace where she spends most of her time. Besides her native Tamasheq which is the language of the Imouhar, she speaks several other languages. I would guess that her English is about on a par with your Arabic. You might try French. I believe that she can speak it well - better than you, for certain. You'll have to try to teach her a little more English than she knows, and do try to leave out the cursing that you're so good at, if you could." Damian tore his eyes from the page on the screen and he picked up the folder and opened it. Her skin was very dark, he thought, her eyes as well. "The photos on that site show different people. Same sort of clothing, but ..." The old man shook his head, "Too narrow a view. Depending on which tribal confederation and its location, their appearance can reflect either a Berber influence - and they are considered an offshoot somewhere far back and their language shows a similarity - or more to the south, a sub-Saharan one. You will note that regardless of their appearance, they wear the same style of clothing, their speech is all similar, though there are slight shifts from east to west and so, no matter what shade of skin they have, they are the same people. They've been called the 'Blue People' for the way that the indigo dye of their garments can sometimes color their skin. They are loosely Islamic and are not considered very devout by Islamic outsiders. They themselves might wish to argue the point. Originally, their beliefs were ... animistic. But they modified their belief system as first early Christianity and then Islam swept over them. These days, they're Muslims, but they manage to incorporate their age-old animistic tendencies in there as well." "Fine," Damian said with an overworked-sounding sigh, "I'll do it." "That's all?" Faisal asked, a little surprised, "I thought that I'd get more of a reaction from you." Damian looked up, "You told me not to curse." "That was meant for when you are with her," the man said, "I would have thought for certain that you'd - " Damian looked up again, "You didn't say anything about the degree of difficulty here." Faisal was a little mystified, "Degree of difficulty? How do you mean?" Damian laid the folder down and he tapped the photo with his finger, "Yeah. I'm American. People in that part of the world tend not to be overjoyed to see somebody like me. I assume that she'll be the same way. And she's fucking beautiful, Faisal. You know that, right? I'm in enough trouble with Trish as it is. I can't wait to see how she reacts to me 'helping and guiding' a woman around." He briefly explained his present difficulties. Faisal nodded and sat still for a moment, thinking. "Perhaps it is time that you found yourself a woman who could accept what it is that you do sometimes." Damian looked up, "I haven't told Trish about what I 'do sometimes' or who I work for. I've never told anyone that. My dad was the only one who ever knew. He's retired now and my mother has been dead for almost ten years." "My comment was only my expressing a thought, Damian, and I was referring to your - absences," Faisal said, "It wasn't a test." "I didn't think it was," the younger man said, "It's not looking too good as a long-term thing right now between me and Trish was what I meant by it." Faisal reached out and placed his hand on Damian's, "Can you take a little advice from an old man who has surrounded himself with beautiful women for as long as he could afford to?" Seeing Damian nod once, he smiled, "That little place that they have is completely interchangeable between the great majority of the women that you might come to know well enough for it. A relatively small number of them know how to use it very well - well enough to hold a man's interest forever. The trick is to separate those of that one group from the rest, and then to allow oneself the joy of their company in all other matters. I have never known even one like that who is not at least a very worthwhile companion. Have you ever heard the term 'dull woman'?" Damian nodded, "My mother would say that about a woman that she'd met and didn't like very much. I thought at first that it was only a description of some sort. I only learned later on that she said it as though it was an ... inescapable pronouncement." Faisal laughed then," Well the ones that I speak of are not dull and can never be - in anything. That has been my experience. Think a moment, Damian. In a pitch black room, and if she made no sounds, could you tell your 'Trish' from any of the other women that you've ever known intimately? Answer me honestly now." Damian considered the scenario as Faisal had laid it out. He looked up and answered honestly, "No." Actually, now that he thought about it that way, Damian knew that it wasn't correct. He really could tell Trish from the rest. Whether he could see them in the dark or not, most of his past lovers had at least shown an interest. Trish hadn't been overly enthusiastic any time that he mentioned it, now that he thought back. So ... what was he doing? Faisal sighed, "Then she belongs to the majority and she knows it. She knows that she can offer you nothing that some three and a half billion others cannot also offer. That is why she is the way that she is. You might not wish to hear it, but the truth is that she is killing whatever was between you by causing you to wonder why you need her." He laughed a little, "And you don't, of course. That is why she is terrified enough to screech at you until you give her what she fears - your absence when you finally realize it." He pointed to a painting on the wall which showed a pair of lovers on a bed, "One of several by that artist which I own. They were painted by a Frenchman named Dinet who lived among the Berbers for a large part of his life. Study the woman's expression as her lover holds her. Take a good look at it as you leave when we are finished here today. That woman is not one of the majority. That is the kind which you must seek for yourself and they are not as uncommon as you might think." He saw that Damian hadn't gotten it and he grinned once more, "Think back to that pitch black room at night. That woman there - in that painting - she and any of the others like her would leave no doubt in your mind. Love - whether emotional or physical - rewards what is given in a like manner." "You get what you give?" Damian asked. "Yes. Love and life are the same thing," Faisal said, "Why spend yours with a girl who only curses when she sees the dawn and gets up in a sour mood since she wasn't allowed to sleep longer because her man wanted her more than once the night before? A woman like that believes that she is doing her part only to lie there and allow your rude desires. Once it is over - to their relief - they think the worst task is done and want only to be left alone. Assuming that you are not a bore in a woman's bed, and even if you are, that is not love. Why make that your life as well? Do not ever even think to marry one like that. The wealth of many lawyers are built on those marriages." He pulled out a blank sheet of paper, "Now, about our terms for this job." Damian sighed silently, trying to remember what he'd told himself down in the bowels of an ancient temple in Peru. He wondered over something else as he did it. He was certain that Faisal had never met Trish or even laid eyes on her for that matter. Yet he'd pegged her pretty much right on the money. Right down to getting up in a foul mood, one shitty enough to cause him to regret coming over at all. And that was on a Sunday too, when she didn't have to get up. Faisal was right about another thing too. Trish was one lousy piece of ass. Damian did look at the painting on his way out of Faisal's office. He saw what his employer was referring to. He saw it clearly and he got it. Any fool with a mind and a heart would kill for a woman who looked at him like that. It changed his mood as he was going down in the elevator. His outlook darkened as he walked along the Chicago pavement. He saw nobody and nothing on crowded busy streets and by the time that he reached his truck, he wouldn't have been able to recall whether he'd actually crossed on green lights or just walked across all of those intersections without looking. He saw a coffee shop and walked in to get just a plain cup of coffee to sip on the first part of the trip home. He asked for a sleeve so that he wouldn't burn his hand carrying it the rest of the way. He got to his truck and getting in, he set the coffee in a cupholder and looked out through the windshield at nothing. It was worse that time for a couple of reasons, he guessed. He'd been trying and it had been a little while since he'd thought of her like this; someone who'd loved him like no other. Someone who knew him so well, just as he knew her to the same degree. He didn't need to be reminded even though Faisal knew nothing of it. He also kicked himself for mentioning the whole thing with Trish. There'd been no need to bring it up and anyway, he'd mentally tossed his relationship with her out the window as he'd driven from Minnesota. Damian asked himself if he owed her anything and since she wasn't there, he looked at it from his side and decided that he didn't. Modern Day Cavegirls - Bobbi's Tale Rationalizing, he knew that Trish had been an attempt at something normal. Now, he decided that if what Trish handed out was a normal relationship, he'd much rather slit his wrists if it was all the same with everyone. She wasn't worth a thought to him anymore. That wasn't why he felt the way that he did. He remembered the painting and the woman in it. He knew a woman like that. He'd loved her since ... He looked down and for the ten thousandth time, he knew that he couldn't ever have her. He thought of a girl with bright eyes, a wonderful smile that he knew every inch of and he remembered the way that she smelled from an inch away or less. The best friend that he'd ever had. He gave up then, since he couldn't drive like this. He hung his head and cried. ------------- In the three and a half years since, a lot of water had gone by under the bridge. Damian no longer worked at the museum. Faisal was even older and he now had full-time attendants for his care. Damian had indeed gone to Algeria and found Malikah, and it had been a hell of a thing, but he had managed to convince her that she had a benefactor who at the time was completely unknown to her. --------------- Three years earlier. She was upset. There was a man in her stall - a man that she knew only because he'd seen her six months ago, located her stall and pestered her at least twice a week about marrying him. There wasn't a thing about him that Malikah liked, his looks, the way that he spoke to her, most especially the way that he looked at her. He grew more insistent every time. Today, he wasn't even trying to show a level of civility. He was ordering her. The flap parted and another man walked in. He was different, she noticed and he looked intent, though she saw that when he looked at her, it softened and he nodded. He walked up and the other man drew back slightly, watching him with as much distaste as curiosity. The second man stepped a little closer and quietly said, "Francais?" Malikah blinked for a moment. She hadn't used French since leaving the university, but she nodded cautiously. She listened to him as he spoke briefly and she shook her head, "I do not know this man." The stranger nodded, "I am sorry that I do not speak Tamasheq. I speak some Arabic, but it is not the kind spoken here," he shrugged, "and my French is terrible." She nodded and he guessed that it was about his French. "You may not know the man I am speaking of, but he knows of you. Your deceased father worked for him once, just as I do now." He looked over his shoulder, "Is there a way to get rid of this fool? I have a letter for you to read which will explain better than I can say it." Malikah wanted to smile. She didn't know this man, but she liked the way that he was polite and direct. "He comes often," she said, "but he buys nothing. He is here to tell me that I am to be his bride. I do not like him and I have refused every way that I can think of, every time that he comes. Today he orders me. I was frightened before you came. Please do not leave now." The man asked, "You do not wish for him to be here? I think that we already agree on something." She shook her head. "I wish never to see him again. I get only headaches when he comes and after he is gone, my stomach is upset." The stranger asked, "I have seen no constables here. Are there any in this village?" She shook her head and the stranger smiled. The flap opened outward and the other man flew out, landing on his face in the dust. He came back with friends a little while later, but the result was the same - other than the one who bothered Malikah. When he landed, he didn't get up for a time. He'd been unconscious even before he was thrown out. With that done, the stranger looked at the others, most of whom were nursing bruised faces. He gestured for them to leave. They left. "I have heard of your jewellery where I come from," the stranger said as he handed Malikah the letter, "Please read this, if you would." He smiled, "And no matter what you decide, please give me a price for every piece that you have in your stall." She thought that he might be nuts, but she smiled at him, "It would take time to make a list with a price for each." He shrugged, "That is not what I meant. Give me a price for all of it. I wish to buy every piece." He gestured, "But please, read the letter first." Her eyes widened as she read it. She looked up, "This is truth?" He nodded, "As far as I know and believe. I did not know of you until a month ago when I was told to see you here. I have worked for that man for a time now, a few years. I am only his associate, but I can say that from what I know of him, he is fair in his dealings with others - especially with one to whom he believes that he owes a debt." He smiled, "Such as you, Malikah." "Why would he do this - what is said in this?" she asked. The stranger shrugged, "If it was anyone else, I would tell you that I do not know. But I know this man well. He is old now and he thinks that he has little time left to set unfinished things right. I did not know your father, but I know that he was held in esteem by this man. And I know that this man does what he can to help those who help him. He cannot help your father anymore, but he learned of you. He sent someone here to learn what could be known of you and he does not believe that you are living the sort of life which you might have had if your father had not died. He summoned me. I live more than five hundred kilometers from this man's offices. He told me of you and showed me a photograph. He told me to go and to do what I could to bring you to him. If you will allow me to do that, he will provide you with the means to make a better life. I do not know what that might mean to you, but he told me that the first thing would be to let you finish university in the United States. He knows that you did not have money to finish here." Malikah stared for a moment and then she smiled, "You are very persuasive." He laughed softly as he pointed to the tent flap, "I am sure that your admirers share your view. I ask only for a little of your trust." "My trust, you have," she said, "But we have not settled on a price for my jewellery." "Say the price and put it all in whatever bag that you brought it in," he said, "I will pay it and you will never come back here again." They walked out quickly, stepping around the man on the ground as people stared, since they looked nothing alike and the same might be said of the way that each one was dressed. He led her to a van. "I did not think that you were serious about the jewellery," she said, "Why?" He smiled, "Even if you did not agree to come, buying your jewellery was a way that I could do something for you to live better - if only for a time. If I have learned anything from this, it is to trust in the information that the man gives to me. You deserve better. And also, I do like the work that you do. I cannot wear it, since I am not a woman, but I am a very popular man and I have many women admirers." Malikah laughed, "You are a very strange man and at least one thing that you said is not true." "At least" he smiled, "but I will have fine gifts to give for several years now." -------------- "But ... I need it," she said from the back of the hovel where she lived. "Maybe so, Malikah," he said, "I have said that you can take your tools, so that you can make more jewellery. But the anvil stays here. I can buy five better anvils for what it would cost to bring that heavy thing onto an airplane." "What is your name?" she asked, "I need to know who it is that I curse when I cannot make jewellery because I had to leave the anvil which my poor father gave to me behind." She got to take the anvil. ------------------ He got her to Algiers and from there, the problems began. Getting her an exit visa and a passport were real hairpullers to get done. The American embassy wasn't much help at first until Damian began to think outside the box. "I think that I know of a way, Malikah," he said at last, "but it will require a step which will seem drastic to you here, and less so after we arrive." He outlined what he's thought of and her eyebrows just about reached her hairline. They'd tried everything else, and finally she agreed. It only took a month and a half after that, but they were finally on a plane - where she hung on to his hand and almost crushed it over her nervousness and fear of flying. Well, it was an expensive suit that she was almost wringing off him before he took her hand. --------------- He'd been so busy, getting things lined up for Malikah so that she could get the rest of her education, and somewhere in that - completely unthought-of by either of them, she'd found something that she loved to do. Faisal did anything to encourage her as well as find ways for her to turn what was suddenly becoming a dream for her into reality. As shy as she could be, immersed as she was at college, she remembered the songs which her mother had taught her and also the ones that she'd listened to forever as she'd watched her father teach her or sometimes when he worked by himself. From that and the music courses that she'd taken, it had been a rapid step to learning to perform them in new ways while still retaining the flavoring but with more of a beat built in. It got her noticed and once Faisal learned of it, he called people that he knew and the same month that she'd finished her courses, he'd put things together for her to perform, even finding her musicians to back her and the management firm that he'd put her in touch with had provided professionals who could work out almost any problem while teaching her how to perform her music. It had happened so quickly. Malikah had come to rely on Damian for a lot of the things in her life. The trouble was, that she came to like him very much. She knew that he was getting paid to help her, but she could see that he'd do anything for her. She wanted to spend time with him and it was beyond plain that he felt the same way, but that was the end of the road as far as easy went. He had other commitments and Faisal kept Damian busy with them. She often didn't even know where on Earth he was. But Malikah was intelligent and she could be doggedly stubborn. She'd apologized to him many times for it, but he'd always laughed and said that it was something about her which he admired very much. He told her that she'd had a rotten life before - but he was certain that most people in that situation would have died, whereas she'd at least kept on going - if not well. One day, she remembered his words and she set about doing something that she knew had to be done. She called him and asked for a little of his time because she wanted to know his itinerary for the next month and a half to two months. "There is something which I wish to do and though I have tried and tried, we never find the time. Now you will tell me, and I will arrange an evening for us - if I must beg Faisal himself to release you for it. Putting it that way seemed to help and she got what she'd asked for. She studied it and found an opening, so she told him the date and once they'd agreed, she had called Faisal and he made sure that Damian would have no tasks from him for one day before the date and two days after. Damian didn't know what it was really about other than Malikah said she needed to see him in person, and that she'd done her best to clear his agenda for four days, so that it was at least possible. He came to her apartment on the first evening. He still didn't get it, but if Malikah needed something, he'd do what he needed to get it done for her. He called her on his way over and she said that she'd be waiting. She let him into a dimly lit apartment. He saw that she was dressed in the clothes of her people, something that he hadn't seen for a time. Since her arrival and enrollment at college, she'd more or less adopted western apparel for it's ease and the way that it helped her to fit in quickly. She led him to her dining room and though she still lived sparsely, she had more now than she'd ever had. He complimented her and she'd shaken her head as she served him a dinner that she'd spent days gathering the ingredients for. "These things, I owe to you and Faisal," she said. "I have had time to think on things and I can accept what Faisal said was due to me because of my loss. But that does not have much to do with you, Damian. Just as I have thought of everything else, I have thought of you and what you did for me. Do not try to laugh or smile in your handsome way and tell me that it was nothing. My heart is sad on almost the start of what has been planned for me. I am excited for that, but sad at the same time." She pointed to her desk, "You see the many papers there. Almost all of them relate to what I have had to do in order to have only this time with you. To me, it is wrong. What I will do and where I must go must happen, and it must happen in a certain time, I have been told. But it is wrong for you and I that it takes so much to get such little time." She sighed, and Damian saw that her eyes were wet. They ate the meal and it was wonderful to him and he said so. She thanked him and was still for a while longer. When the meal was finished he helped her with the plates and cutlery and then she pulled him to another room. "I was a poor girl," she said, "And in my life, I never saw a man like you. You searched for ways to speak to me which I now know are not the ways of your particular people. I have learned a little of your kind and I know that - by themselves - they do not speak French at all. This was something that you studied. Faisal told me that I was correct and he also told me that though you are not perfect in most, you speak pieces of seven languages besides your own. He told me that it was one of the reasons that he needed you - because you would do whatever was necessary to accomplish your task - even if it meant speaking your poor French to an Imhouar girl next to the desert so that you could take her away to a better place where she might make her life. And yet, though I have come to know much, it brings only sadness to me. I see the same thing in you and I know from it that you were not unaffected by our journey together. We struggle and we try, but I am about to fall into a wind which will take me everywhere and anywhere and all of it will only take me farther from you. You made jokes about how your white skin must seem ugly to me. Well I have never seen finer skin on a man - as long as it is on you. I was too frightened to look out of the window as we flew here. I looked at your hand and it said many things to me. It spoke to me of your strength and your will. Yet I saw and felt such warmth. I looked at how we are so very different. And I have never wanted to know hands like yours more than I do. This has not changed in me. I now believe that it never will. Soon, I doubt that we will see each other much at all, no matter how I might try to reach you so that I can talk to you. I appreciate how that one door will remain for me, no matter where you are on this world. But it is not what I need as much as I need something else. You need it too. I know this." She stepped away from him a little and she slowly pulled her clothing off to stand before him naked. "Please remove your clothing, Damian. We need this - what I have arranged for us. I have never found a better way to thank you, but that is not the most important thing here. Neither of us is Faisal. Yet ... She sighed and to Damian, it carried a slightly weary sound that made him come to her and hold her. He kissed her and it went on for a long time. When they drew apart, they both saw the tears on the other one's cheeks. And Malikah finished her thought. "We owe each other something. This is what we must do, my love. It is our right." They spent the entire four days together and other than brief periods afterward where they talked about things that he could help her with, it had never happened again. Malikah set out on her career and Damian went on in his. She had a hole in her heart and Damian now had two. Her first album had been recorded at the same time as she began to get airplay and internet notice. The timing couldn't have been better and everything had lined up hand in glove. Four months after that, Malikah was on her first tour opening for someone else while working on the material for the next offering, and the next year went past like a blur. ------------------ For Malikah, some things began to happen at a time when perhaps she was going too fast. Somehow, her music had gone from what might have been considered a niche market to the point where it had not exactly gone mainstream in the pop world, but it seemed to be knocking on the door in a large way - far too fast for her. There were now larger shows required of her in larger and larger venues. She found that there was a cost and it was to her quiet and rather simple way of living her life. She didn't have the background which many performers did. Malikah hadn't paid her dues slogging for months and years as she performed in small venues such as clubs. She didn't even know how much she was worth, but when she'd asked Damian one day, he said that he'd try to find out for her. It hadn't been that simple, so about two weeks later, in between tours; they'd gone together so that he could ask the things that she wanted to know. Damian wasn't with Malikah all of the time. She knew that she was one of his more important assignments for Faisal and his family, so when she called, he listened and she trusted him. What they learned of her wealth caused them both to sit and look at each other wide-eyed. He did put her in touch with a firm to manage her money for the long term. He'd explained it when she'd asked, saying that this fame that she had was a fickle thing and that few 'sensations' went more than a few years at it before they faded back into obscurity. She asked and he'd shrugged, telling her that he didn't know if it was out of their music or talent no longer being popular, or whether it was something sought for by then. Damian thought that he saw something in her expression then so he'd asked and she'd told him that for all of what had and was happening for her, she'd never had that burning need to become famous - or at least, as famous as she'd become. "I wish to stop for a time, Damian," she'd said, "My life is no longer my own. Can it be done?" He'd had to think about it and was quick to caution her. "The trouble is that the world goes on, Malikah. Most artists try to maximize the length of time that they're on the top, because at some point, they've figured out that it won't last forever regardless. If you step back for a little while, you might find that while you were resting, the next sensation has moved in and taken all the attention. I'm not suggesting that you keep at it because I don't see you every day and I've noticed that you do seem to be under a lot of strain these last few weeks." When he saw her unhappy nod of admission, he said, "Look, what Faisal wanted for you has happened and in a far bigger way than I'm sure that even he ever imagined. Now that you know how much you've got, you might want to decide to take the time away for your own good. I can help with that like anything else, but ... You know that you can always call me. Anytime, Malikah, I'll do whatever you need, ok?" ---------- On the road, somewhere near the west coast She'd just managed to hang on through the end of her second tour, but by then, she felt like an empty shell. She knew the importance of the little things, such as signing autographs, as an example. Malikah knew that it didn't matter how much her feet might hurt or how tired she was, that young girl in front of her waiting hopefully had likely gone to great lengths herself to be there. Interviews were a huge strain for her. Modern Day Cavegirls - Bobbi's Tale But even by the afternoon of the second last date in a different city, Malikah knew that she was near the end of her reserves and just wanted to walk away. It felt absurd to think about, but she couldn't even manage that without taking a beefy security guy with her to go for a walk. Damian felt like a lifeline to her and she called him from her dressing room almost on the verge of tears. "I need some time in a place where no one knows me. I want to be alone, I think, and then I want to go back to a simpler life for at least a time. Damian, everyone has helped me, but I have not learned how to make a place for me to live in peace. I have assistants and every day, there are more demands. At last I have found that they do not assist me so much as they tell me what I must do next for someone. I - I think I will go mad very soon." Damian spoke to her, doing his best to soothe her. "This tour is about done, isn't it?" "Yes" she said, "the last show is tomorrow night in Los Angeles. But they are already beginning to talk to me about the next one." "That's because you're in demand and they're trying to do all they can in that direction," he said, "Do you have any commitments after that? Are you obligated to put out any more albums?" "No," she said,"I listened to you about that. I specified that I would not accept a long deal. I just don't know where to turn now. If I go home, they will be at my door and the phone will ring and ring. I am sure that if I agree to another tour or another album, then I will fall into the wind and be blown from one place to another all over again. I want to be Malikah for a little time. Just Malikah - before I forget who she even was." Damian sighed, feeling a little of the strain that she was under, "I'll need a day to see what I can set up. I'll try to catch the redeye out there and we can maybe meet up before your show. If not, then I'll be waiting for you afterwards." They spoke for a little longer, Malikah feeling a little better to know that she had Damian in her corner and not out of a desire for personal gain. She wondered who he had to take care of him. They'd never had the time to even get to that, but she knew the likely answer. He didn't. She thought about him now and then anyway. She loved it when she could see him and he treated her so well, but there was always something that seemed to require his attention and no matter what her heart said to her during those times when she thought about it, he would only ever get so close to her after their four days together and she knew what it was. He'd never stopped hurting, the same way that she hadn't. Just like her, he'd needed those four days. In that time, their relationship had gone as far as they could take in their short time together. Then it had ended. She knew how her heart ached afterwards and she remembered the way that he'd looked. He'd looked like a man turning away from somebody that he loved to step off into oblivion. He'd never sounded quite the same on the phone ever since. She knew him enough to know that he'd given up. She'd asked him about it once, "What if I give up my music and you leave Faisal?" He'd sighed heavily, "Don't give up what so many people would kill to have, not for me, because I don't want that on my conscience. You need to ride it a little more, Malikah. Get what you can while you can. As for me, I make more working for Faisal than I can walk away from. As much as I hate a lot of it, I know that he won't live much longer and it'll be over. I think I'll just go back to my dad's farm and see what's left. Take care of him in his last years and take care of my niece. I can't see myself sitting on a tractor all day, but anything can happen. I guess." "Would you come for me?" she'd asked. Damian had looked down and sighed, "I know that I'd want to. But you're an accomplished artist now. I'm an ex-Marine helicopter pilot. Doesn't sound to me like we'd have much in common. These days, I try to tell myself that I don't believe in love, because I can't ever have it. Never have, and I can't see that I ever will. I just know it now, that's all. I can do a lot of things, but I've never been able to do that one. No matter what, I always end up walking down a dirt road in the cold rain kicking a rock. That's how I left home in New Mexico a long time ago. That's how I left your apartment in Chicago, only it was wet and rainy sidewalk that time. It hurt the same, just fresher, that's all. It took them both to their tears again when he'd kissed her and quietly told her to take care of herself. Malikah wiped her tears as the memory faded. She found that she was still looking forward to at least seeing him. Even if he was only going to be there to help her once again. ------------- Angel Fire, NM She'd heard the fuel truck coming and pushed the doors open before it had even stopped. "I'm looking for, ..." the man said, searching for the name on his clipboard, "... Robert Sorrensson - Quicksilver's Air." She rolled her eyes and looked at her watch, "Yeah, I'm from Quicksilver's Air. I need that thing filled and I can sign for the fuel." He apologized for being late, "I'm still a little new here. I've never had a delivery to this hangar before." "It's ok," she said, "You're pretty much right on time. I was just looking to see how much time I've got before I have to get going with something else." Down on one knee on top of the wing, she tilted her head a little to try to keep an eye open for the first signs of the rising fuel level. As she noticed the slightly increasing sluggishness in the way that it funneled in, she had her first clue that she was nearly there. She gave a quick thought to the time of year and tried to factor in the degree of likely expansion that could be expected later as the day heated up. "Did you fill up the truck first thing this morning?" she asked the driver. He'd normally be handling the fill-up for most customers, but the owners of warbirds were often among the pickiest people about sloshed fuel. "No," he replied, "I haven't filled it yet today. What's there is from yesterday, though I can guess why you're asking. The tank's still warm from being out in the sun all day yesterday so it won't expand much when it gets hot around here again." She nodded, not looking as she watched for the first signs of the rising fuel level again. As she saw it, she let the lever of the nozzle go and closed the filler cover before moving on to the next one. Christ, she thought, six tanks and that wasn't even counting the tip tanks at the ends of the wings that she wasn't going to have filled. 3882 gallons of aviation-grade gasoline. She sighed as she worked in the cost. Holy fuck ... Paper airplanes weren't near as much fun, but at least she could afford them. As she began to fill the next one, she felt the very beginnings of her sweat on her forehead. The day was going to be another scorcher for certain. She sighed. Her life was one long full dance card these days without the enjoyment of a partner to dance with. Who the hell had time? All that she seemed to be doing these days was the dancing part - as fast as she could, all day long and into the night more often than not. She'd even resurrected her old Palm Pilot - just so she could have even a hope of knowing where she should be at any given moment, because trying to manage her phone just pissed her off. She had her hands full just with her business and it left her pretty much nothing for anything else. She had to budget her time far in advance - even days ahead sometimes, and in her line of work, you'd better not forget a damn thing, because other than the cost of the lost work, there was another cost and that was lost work in the future, because there were always lot of other sharks out there ready to capitalize on what you'd overlooked. Her father was running the agricultural side of things and he wasn't ...well, he wasn't as available these days to help out on the transport side. So these days, she was often a one-girl show stretched way too thinly everywhere. But it was Thursday and the weekend was coming, and for the past two weeks, taking this little toy out of the toybox had been a thing to look forward to. It had been a hell of a thing to get done, but she'd actually managed to schedule two days off for herself. She smirked. Two days that most regular folks took for granted. She so needed this. And there was the other thing in it. She had no clue about where she'd find the time, but she did want to see if she could maybe work something out for a routine. She was far too late for most of them this year, but there had always been the tantalizing notion of picking up some income out on the airshow circuit. And hers was a rather unusual bird. The driver asked if he could handle the rest for her and she was about to decline when her cell phone began to clamor, so she nodded and shut off the nozzle to lay it carefully against the wing surface on a rag, taking her hand away slowly to see if it would stay. He was up the ladder there in a second and she stepped away to ease down before she answered it, a little annoyed with herself for forgetting to turn it off before she began to fuel up. The truck was grounded as was her aircraft, but still ... "Quicksilver's Air," she said automatically, but in the next second, she found herself grinning. "Damian! Aw Baby, you can't imagine how good it is to hear your voice. It's been ... ok, it's only been like forever. What's going on?" When she hung up ten minutes later, she stood there wondering. She just loved Damian to death and it had been so good to hear from him. She realized that she was still smiling and that her face hurt a little from it. Ok, she admitted to herself, she WANTED to love Damian to at least about halfway to death on those days when she was really feeling needier than usual. She supposed that he was just that sort of guy, considering. Of course, it wouldn't ever happen and she kicked herself for even having the kind of thoughts that now passed through her mind. Well considering that the thought wasn't perhaps the sort that she tended to have most times. Besides, they were related. There had been a time once long ago when they'd experimented, but that was youth and a ton of quiet desperation for them both. It was the lie that she could tell herself and not feel too badly about. She tried not to think about those days too much or she was good for about a half-hour of crying in a private place. But this request ... he'd made certain to tell her that her fees would be well-paid, but no matter how she looked at it, this was one hell of an unusual request. --------------- Los Angeles, CA The next morning Malikah called, but Damian didn't pick up. She worried a little and then finally called again after her crew had finished with the sound checks. She almost heaved a sigh to hear his voice then. "I'm on the ground at LAX," he said, "I'm waiting for the person that I called to help you get away, since some of this is gonna have to be a little uh, ... covert. Do your show and make an appearance if there's an after-show party, but DON'T go to the one they usually put on afterwards in a bar or something. Tell them that you've got a headache and have to take a pass. I'm having your luggage taken with you, so try to have it ready to go before you go on, ok? After the show, about a half an hour, I'd guess, I'll have some people there from Farmborough Security Services to get you out of the building. It's going to have to appear that you leave in one of their sedans. You will leave in one, but not the one that it looks like. They all look the same anyway, big, dark brown, Crown Victorias." "Where are we going?" Malikah asked and he laughed a little bit. "You said that you need some time away. You know that if you just try to do that yourself, they won't let you. Somebody will always be there wanting you to do this or that or talk when you don't want to. You'll need to tell your tour manager that you're stepping out and that you'll be making your own way home. Or if you want, I'll tell him for you if I can get there sometime during your show. I can give you the private time, but to do that Malikah, you need to disappear. That's what I'm working on at the moment. I know somebody who can make it happen. I just hope that we can pull this off without too much drama once they find that you're nowhere to be seen. You'll need to make a call to your management company to let them know that you're ok or they'll lose their minds." She got all of that, but, ... "Who is the someone that you mentioned? What will happen?" "You're going to get a chance to relax and calm down before you go back. Bobby will take you to a place where nobody will know you. It might not be luxurious with a pool and lots of places to shop, but I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't want that anyway." "Bobby?" He chuckled, "We go back a long way. Don't worry, just think of Bobby as somebody you can trust - something like what I am for you, but in a smaller place and I'm pretty sure that you'll have an interesting time and you know that I'll still be just a call away, no matter what." They hung up a few minutes later and Malikah didn't know what to make of it all. She only knew one thing; Damian wasn't looking for anything from her in a monetary sense. He'd told her time and again that she ought to cut more than a couple of the leeches from her staff. He wasn't on her payroll. He was paid by Faisal, doing what the old man needed him to do, and from what Damian had said, other than them and this Bobby guy, only Faisal knew of what would happen - whatever it was. ------------- When the show was over and the last encore played out, Malikah wanted to change into jeans and just tell everyone that she was taking a few days off and would be back in her Chicago condo before long. She got out of the clothes that she wore for the second half of her shows and just put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. For this tour, she'd always opened her shows dressed in fine yet culturally conservative attire. The second half had always been more upbeat and well, western in culture, yet it was overlayed onto the subtleties which had always been there for her. It made her stop and look at herself in the mirror for a moment. She was a little unsure of just who she was looking at these days. She'd always dressed conservatively in the way of her people - indeed the way that most people dressed there. It was clothing which she had after all and didn't need to buy. Western styles had always interested her, but at the time, it had always been more important that she had enough to eat and to buy the things that were needed. Now, living in the west herself, she was much more used to clothing styles here, though she still dressed to reflect her culture rather often. For this tour, her music had evolved a little and to reflect that, her management had gotten her someone to help with her wardrobe for the shows. Well, wanting success and a bit of a personal sort of change as well, she'd finally - though it had taken almost life and death arguments to convince her - Malikah had just acquiesced and gone with it all. That was why she was now looking at a woman whose appearance she liked, but getting past the ways of a lifetime was hard and she was still getting used to things - such as her hair. All of her life, she'd had long hair. She had a lot of Sub-Saharan features from her genetic make-up, and in her family, many of the people had fairly straight hair. The beauty consultant had taken one look at her and gone wild with joy. Malikah thought that the woman had lost her mind at the time. The result was a shaved head with the exception of a large patch at the top and toward the back. Her hair now had extensions in it and the whole had been braided in long thin ropes which hung down to her butt. Malikah smiled at her reflection. She'd have probably loved to see it on another person, and all in all she liked it, but it was still a shock to see herself in a mirror, even after months on tour. And getting into a simple T-shirt with that hair was a bit of a challenge which made her laugh a little sometimes. As she looked at the result, she hoped that this Bobby character could handle it. It caused her to have a thought where she hoped that he was like Damian. She threw that one away the next instant. She didn't care what he looked like. She wanted Damian. She still wanted Damian. She sighed. She still couldn't have Damian. She finished up, wanting to get this over with now. She knew that a lot of this was her stress and it caused her to feel a little guilty. Everyone on this tour with her had been so wonderful to be with and musically, it had been amazing, giving her so many ideas, but as she was, she just knew that she was missing a lot of everything out of the effort that it was taking to hold herself together one day at a time. She made the rounds and thanked everyone for their hard work and said that she looked forward to their next venture together. She slipped away then and true to his word, she saw Damian there with several large security types in dark suits and a younger-looking guy with longish hair wearing shades and looking a little like an undercover cop. It was all that she could do not to run to him and grab him to try to hustle him out of the building to someplace quiet enough to beg him to just try to disappear with her to another place and live there together. She didn't care where; she didn't give a damn about anything but him. Bur she knew that it couldn't ever happen. Damian was already into it with the tour manager, but he invoked Faisal's name and asked the guy just how much he wanted to be a part of Malikah's next tour. Malikah's luggage was already gone and after only a brief hug, she left with Damian and his men. But she didn't walk with them out to where there were three of the promised dark sedans waiting. She was escorted by him and the cool-looking one out of a different door to a fourth sedan, just like the rest and then they were gone, motoring quietly and heading for Highway 1. She looked out of the window. The hug from him had said a lot to her. She guessed that she must be to him like he was to her, a constant. She couldn't do anything about it, but at least he hadn't changed. "Bobby owns an air transport company out of New Mexico," Damian smiled, "They had a pickup to make out at LAX today anyway so this all lines up pretty well. That's where everybody else is going, but not us. We're headed out to Torrance Municipal instead. It's a smaller place and the paparazzi likely won't think to look there for you. You won't be flying on a big airliner. You'll be on Bobby's Twin Otter and it's already waiting for you out at Torrance." She looked up, not getting it, "Twin ... otter?" "It's a twin engine short take-off and landing utility aircraft suited for rough and short fields. There'll be a cooler on board with a few sodas and sandwiches plus some Middle Eastern food if you're hungry. We're just driving out there and you'll be heading out of the freight terminal there. It took a hell of a lot, but I managed to bypass the passenger side of things since Bobby is giving you a lift rather than hauling passengers. You'll just need to show some ID." "But where am I going?" Malikah asked, "I trust you for my little adventure here, but I would like to at least know something." "Of course," Damian smiled, "I didn't have much to be able to tell you at first because even I didn't know. I've been putting this together on the fly. But I've been on the phone to Bobby half a dozen times and I've at least got a little that I can tell you now. There's a shipment of medicine on the plane that's got to get to a small airport out at an Indian reservation and after that, you'll fly on to Angel Fire Airport - which is located a little conveniently near the town of Angel Fire, New Mexico. Modern Day Cavegirls - Bobbi's Tale Bobby would probably give you an argument about it being a vacation capital or anything, but that's where you'll be staying for the next little while as you unwind. That's where I go to unwind. You'll get to stay and live in a place with awesome scenery all around. Just not a lot of tourists. We couldn't do this there if it was winter. The place is a little famous as a ski destination." "I hoped that you would be there," Malikah said," but I know that even if mine slows down your life does not, I guess." He laughed, "No, it doesn't, I'm afraid, but I do know that you'll be in good hands. Bobby is my cousin." As Malikah considered it, the quiet young man held out a bottle of water, "I think that you would be thirsty after your performance." Malikah would have declined but the earnestness that she saw as his sunglasses slipped down his nose a little changed her mind and she accepted the water with a gracious nod and her quiet thanks. Faisal gives you some help now?" she asked Damian, who smiled and nodded, "This is Miyaz. I'm teaching him the ropes." "Miyaz," Mlikah repeated, looking at him a little more carefully as she picked up on a few of his features, "Where are you from? By the sound and from what I see, it is not Chicago." "I am Saudi by my birth," he said with a warm smile, "Now I learn to be like Damian." ================== Torrance Municipal Airport, CA As they walked into the main hall, Damian took Malikah to a lounge. Somewhat surprisingly for almost eleven at night on a Friday, there was only one person there as they walked in. Seated on a long couch next to an end table with a bunch of magazines on it was a person in a tan-colored summer-weight flight suit which was devoid of much in the way of markings of any kind other than a large logo across the back which read 'Quicksilver's Air Services'. A blue baseball cap was pulled down low on a head of short light brown hair which looked to have a slight reddish tone to it. They approached from the back and Damian chuckled as he looked over the person's shoulder at the magazine. "Still too cheap to actually BUY a copy of People magazine, huh Bobby?" The head snapped around and Malikah was amazed as the person stood up and after climbing right over the couch, threw her arms around Damian to hug him tightly enough to almost cause him to wheeze. 'Bobby' was a slightly tall and confident-looking woman with a peaches and cream complexion. Just her complexion caused Malikah to have to tell herself not to stare. She hadn't seen the feature before; not like this and not from this close up. The woman had a brilliant smile and bright aquamarine eyes. "Well if I'd known just how long you were gonna keep me here waiting, I'd have added the newsstand price of a copy to my fee. You're late, Damian." He looked at his watch and shrugged, "Three minutes." "Hey, three minutes and I've already gotten through the gossip page," the woman laughed and then the grin disappeared as she looked at Malikah. From Bobbi's point of view, the woman had an ethereal sort of beauty and it was obvious that there was little if any makeup to it at all. She was just ... Bobbi didn't know and couldn't have said right then, but she did have to make something of a conscious effort at remembering to breathe. There was leanness to her and still she filled out her T-shirt some, but it wasn't so much that to Bobbi. The woman had dark skin almost making it all the way to black in this light and yet, ... her lips looked to actually have gotten there, depending on the angle and there was no sign of lipstick. Her dark eyes were absolutely haunting in the way that they held Bobbi's in a lock once she'd looked at them. The moment lingered and Bobbi had to force herself away from it, beginning to feel quite foolish to have been staring the way that she must have been. She stuck out her hand and chuckled, "Damian didn't tell me that I'd be flying a freaking model or anything. I'm Bobbi Sorrensson, unfortunately related to Damian, but I try not to hold it against him." Malikah was still stuck. She'd never seen lips that light or eyes which almost sparkled and glowed the way that the ones before her did. It was another second and a half before she could even begin to respond. "I am Malikah," she smiled with a laugh at herself, "and I will tell you my last name, as soon as I can remember it, I think." They both had to laugh, finding themselves in a bit of a moment. They even knew what it was, too. Neither of them had ever seen anyone like the one that they were meeting. Malikah hadn't set out to do it, but the people who surrounded her were most often of Middle Eastern or North African extraction, if they weren't actually from those places. It had just worked out that way musically, other than two members of her touring band. She'd seen and met many, many white people before, but ... Bobbi's problem - not that she considered it much of one since that was where her business and the money was - was that she was stuck in New Mexico most of the time. She'd never really had the conscious thought of it, but most of the folks that she dealt with were either white or of North American Indian or Mexican extraction. For the most part, the vast majority of the blacks that she ran into tended to be out here whenever she came. She'd have managed it, but to think of a black person out where she lived would have required an effort. Mixed backgrounds aside, just over one percent of the people in Angel Fire were of North American Indian blood. Spanish or Latino backgrounds accounted for about twelve percent. Blacks came in at just under two tenths of one percent. That worked out to about two people in the whole damn place. She'd never noticed that before and she thought about it, wondering why that was - and she came to the decision that, tourists aside, black people just had way too much sense to want to live in a little town way the fuck out near a bunch of mountains in the middle of nowhere. Hell, she thought, she did as well, but it was home and it was where she made her living. Bobbi could honestly tell herself that she didn't hold anything against anyone in terms of their ethnicity. But right here, at this moment, she had a thought that her life and the nature of how she lived it could give her surprising moments such as this one, where she met somebody who was astoundingly beautiful and it hit her like a truck. She wondered for a brief instant if she'd be having this sort of reaction if her business was based in a more populous area and she supposed not - or maybe it wouldn't be this evident. But she did have one thought which was humorous to her as she glanced at Malikah again. It didn't matter. If she found herself living in Nigeria and she met this woman, she'd probably still be blown away. The thought left her with a bit of a realization. When she was a kid, Bobbi had learned that she could like people and that her likes and dislikes had more to do with the person than the paint job, so to speak. In the meantime, her travels before coming back home had brought her into contact with every 'flavor' of Americans, a few Canadians, some Brits, and a whole whack of Iraqis. Unless they were openly hostile in a war zone, Bobbi was pleased that she could still like people for their own sake. So it was a warm thought. "If I know Damian," Bobbi said, looking over at him, "he hasn't told either one of us nearly enough to know what's going on." "Well," Damian smiled, "Malikah is a performer, like I said, and she's just worn out these days. Her tour just finished like an hour ago and she called me to help her out of the rut. I figured that what she needed most was to just disappear. That's why I called you, Bobbi. I figured that you could just keep her out of sight and provide a little company as she unwinds a bit - " "I guess that it depends on what you want me to do as far as unwinding goes," Bobbi said, looking at them both. "I live a pretty busy life myself and I don't have much time for making drinks, if that's what you had in mind. I'm busy flying my ass off all over the Southwest most days." "I do not need drinks of any kind," Malikah said, "I just want some peace in a place where no one comes to ask me or tell me what they need or what I must do." "Fair enough," Bobbi said, "But I think I'm also supposed to sort of keep an eye on you to make sure that you're uh, ... unwinding, I guess. I wouldn't mind a bit of company if you think that you wouldn't mind sitting in an aircraft with me for ten flights a day, and I sure could use a little help at it too now and then, ... unloading and loading, mostly, but not much of anything heavy. Most places have people to do that for us." "It would be different for you," Damian said to Malikah, "You told me that you wanted time to get to know who you are again and in a plane in the air is a good place, I'd guess; good scenery and time to think." Mailikah shrugged with a smile which put Bobbi instantly at ease, "Why not?" "Oh thank God," Bobbi exhaled, "I thought for a minute there that I'd have to leave you with my kid sister. Not exactly the kind of thing that I'd think of in terms of relaxation. I love the girl to death, but I know that she'd probably annoy you with questions and not know that she was doing it." She thought about it for a second, "And that's if I can even find her. She's out spraying crops most of the time." "Spraying crops?" Malikah asked. Bobbi nodded, "You don't want to know much more than that. I mean, you could probably spend some of your time with Janey - but I don't imagine that you'd like flying a hundred miles an hour ten feet off the ground and then pulling straight up to turn and go back the other way - all day. Anyway," Bobbi smiled, "before I forget again, We've gotta get going. We have to fly some meds out to the Jacarilla Apache Nation tonight, so we've got a bit of a way to go before the work day's done yet and it was on my way anyway. Come on, uh, Malikah. We can get acquainted in the air on the way. I'll take one of your suitcases if you like." As Malikah bent to move one of them over to Bobbi, the braids of her long hair slid over her shoulder and hung far down with the motion. Bobbi caught it and grinned, "Whoa, I love that um, ... warrior princess look that you've got going on." As Malikah straightened, Bobbi kept grinning, "Really nice, Malikah. I wish I could do something like that, but the way that I live, I'm lucky if I get time to run hot water over a brush so that I can tame my bed-head most days." She pointed to her ball cap, "This actually serves a purpose." She looked over at Miyaz then and turned to her cousin, "And who IS this hot cutie, Damian? He doesn't say too much, but man, he really doesn't need to, does he?" He held out his hand and Bobbi shook it, "I am Miyaz," Bobbi watched as his shy smile turned a little wider in hopeful friendliness, "Damian's associate." Bobbi decided that she liked Miyaz right off the bat and she grinned, "Well, you just make sure that Damian brings you along the next time that he comes home for a visit. I don't mean to be rude guys, but the meter's running on the meds in my plane. Gotta go." She put the suitcase down and hugged Damian again, letting go just before he passed out. "I told you about Janey, right?" she whispered and Damian nodded once, "Good. She needs you. I just can't get there enough. Give her my love too." As Bobbi picked up the suitcase again, she smiled, "Only you would say that. Gawd, I love you Damian." They said goodbye to Damian and Miyaz as they walked out through the doors with Bobbi keeping an eye out for vehicular traffic as they made their way to the flight line. "So Damian said that you're a rock star or something like that?" Malikah shook her head, "I just began to make music in the way that I learned when I was a girl. I grew up in a very small place in Algeria. When I got here, I learned to do it right and also to record it. I have two albums out and the third is almost ready to offer to a record company, since I may change who I am with soon. After the first tour, I learned to add more western instruments to my music and from that, I have become FAR more popular. It happened so quickly. In fact, I could even say that I am a little too popular, since I never have any time for me anymore. I must always go here and be there and I am finding that if nothing changes for me, then soon I will want to go back to Algeria, where it was the other way around and nobody spoke to me very much." She looked over, "I hope that I do not sound like a spoiled celebrity. If I am one at all, it is also something which I have never sought. Damian told me that you live in Angel Fire. I have never heard of it, so it is my hope that it has never heard of me. I can see that you have not and I think I like that, Bobbi." Bobbi grinned," That doesn't mean all that much, Malikah. I'm too busy to have any time to listen to much of any music. Besides, I'm uncultured. If I DO listen to any, it's usually just country music. I'm glad to find out where you're from, though. That accent was driving me nuts trying to figure it out. I've been to the Middle East, but I've never heard anything like that. Now that I know, I can just enjoy it." The remark surprised Malikah, "You - you enjoy my accent? I have been trying to get rid of it." Bobbi shook her head, "Don't you dare. It's part of who you are. I find that you're quite likeable - amazingly so. Well, to me, anyhow. I have a feeling that some of that comes through in your music and how you perform it, maybe. I don't know that, obviously, since I've never seen you before or heard your music, but that's what I sort of sense about you. And I really like to listen to you talk." She saw the way that Malikah was looking at her and it made her laugh. "Well it beats listening to cowboys all to hell." She looked off in the other direction, "Here we are. Your limousine awaits." Malikah stared for a second and then she laughed, "This is more like the sort of airplane which I used to see at home. Not this exact thing, I am sure, but very similar." It was Bobbi's turn to stare for a moment, "Really? I don't know anything about Algeria, other than I think there's the Sahara Desert out there somewhere, isn't there?" Malikah nodded, "That is why I saw airplanes like this one. I didn't like the ride in the monster that I rode in when Damian brought me here. I think that my eyes stayed wide with fear the whole way. I have still not gotten used to flying that way, and I fly everywhere while on tour. At least most times it is on smaller jets, but I think that I like to see propellers spinning. I can understand them and it makes me feel better about flying. The other kind ... just noise and I am riding in a whale." Bobbi put down the suitcase she was carrying as she opened the door, "Well things happen a LOT slower on this one and unless it`s night time - like now - you can see way more scenery. Hand me your other suitcase and we can get going. I've already filed a flight plan, but I want to check on the weather in case I need to amend it or anything. Here, you can climb up and get in." After lifting the suitcases up and then sliding them forward a little, Bobbi climbed up after them and closed the cargo door. She pushed them to a spot where she had tie-downs and secured them. When she looked, Malikah was standing looking around at everything. "I should just find a place to sit?" she asked, pointing to the handful of seats. "You can, if you'd like," Bobbi nodded, "but if you don't mind, you can come sit up front with me as long as you don't touch anything up there. Where we're going there are mountains and our flight plan will take us over ten thousand feet to get over them. You never think of these things in a larger, pressurised plane since the system is automatic over seven thousand feet, but this one's not pressurised, so we'll be breathing oxygen from little hoses around our necks. If you sit up front, it'll be easier for me, and I know that I'd prefer that since it's easy to talk to you and I'd really like to, other than when I'm on the radios, or taking off. Or landing," she grinned, "But I find that most people don't have much to say then anyway." "Little hoses?" Malikah asked. Bobbi nodded, "It's not an issue at ten thousand and below, but much over that, your vision can be affected a little, and we're flying at night. If you fly much higher, say eighteen thousand and even lower than that for a lot of people, hypoxia becomes an issue and without either pressurization or oxygen up where airliners fly, you can die. We're not going really high anyway, so it's just a safety thing. Do you remember the little emergency demonstration that the stewardesses did on your flight to the states? Remember the hoses in the ceiling?" She smiled, "We won't be using anything even that complicated. It's just a little hose that ends up under your nose. This isn't NASA or anything." "Then I will sit there with you," Malikah laughed a little, "I have never ridden in the front of an airplane before." "Ok," Bobbi nodded, "and thank you. I don't know anything about your music or this fame that you don't seem to like all that much - though I think that I can sure understand it. I know that I'd never have the guts to get up and sing for people, even if I could - and I can't. At least not until after about six beers, or um, ... well four, anyway." She stepped over to a flight locker and opened it. "I think that we're about the same size or not far off. I might have an inch or so on you for height, but I think that's about it. I've got a clean flight suit here if you think that you want to relax. For just slouching around, there's not much that beats a flight suit - well, that's any form of clothing. Let me know if you're interested and I'll turn off the rear compartment lights while you get changed." Malikah looked over, "Changed?" Bobbi nodded, "That's the secret unless it's cold. I'm only wearing underwear under this. You don't have to or anything, but what I do for a living makes me something like a truck driver, and sometimes the things we move are a little dusty." Malikah smiled and said "Maybe later," which Bobbi took as her being polite in declining, but she didn't mind at all. "Ok," she said, "Please come forward and sit here," she said, indicating the right seat. "I'm gonna be a little busy with the radios and stuff for the next little while." Malikah nodded and sat down, looking at all of the switches and dials while wondering how anyone could know what it all was for and harder still, she supposed, know where something was located when it was needed. Bobbi turned a few things on and then she listened to the weather information for a minute. But that was for the greater Los Angeles area and there was something in there about a moving front, so she called for the weather where they were going to be flying to see if there had been any updates. Based on what she heard, Bobbi elected to re-file her flight plan as IFR - by the instruments and under the gaze of air traffic controllers. She called that in and decided to use the time to get the oxygen sorted out for her guest. Malikah watched as Bobbi made a few notes on a pad of paper and then switched the frequency of one radio. She opened a small compartment door and drew out a thin hose which reminded Malikah of the sort of thing that she'd seen used for aquariums. Bobbi produced a little plastic bag and tore it open. Taking the contents out, she fitted a piece of something to the hose and draped it over Malikah's shoulder. Modern Day Cavegirls - Dirty Love ****** This started as a chapter to take care of some loose ends - which generated a few more by the time that it was done. Ah well. Max gets a little more comfortable around other people and strangers every day. She just doesn't expect to get as close as she does to one of them. I reveal a little more about someone from a past chapter, a different side that Bobbi was sadly expecting but didn't think that it was her business to interfere over. I also introduce a couple of new characters in this, one who ought to just bite the bullet and get himself a new sound system for his car, and one who shares an odd connection with Su-jin. And then ... there's Susan. Sweet, lovely ash blonde Susan. Ok, don't get confused by the appearance of the two guys, it's just that ... how the heck to explain this? Let's just say that they kind of figure in with Su-jin's uh, evolutionary/anthropological theories. Sadly, there are some tears in this, so fasten your seatbelts. No, uh, tighter. Sorry for the bumps in the road. And again, this is a completely fictional piece. The people in it exist only in my little head hopefully, and no resemblance to anyone living, dead, or even slightly ill with sniffles on any part of the globe at all is intended. 0_o *********** Jodi looked up in surprise as the door opened and Su-jin walked in. It was the middle of the morning. "You take my phone again, "Su-jin said, "I said you shouldn't do it. You stealing from Bobbi." "Fuck off," Jodi snarled, "Bobbi's loaded. She can afford it." Su-jin shook her head and pointed through one wall, "She is not loaded. She live in smaller house than we do. She is trying to grow her business. Many people depend on her success. I depend on her success." "I don't give a rat's ass," Jodi said. "What the matter with you?" Su-jin asked, "You not the same anymore since you calling your mother. You go to work – sometimes, less and less. You losing customers since you never show up. I go to work too – every day. I come home, get Tyler, play with him and feed him. I do his washing. I do YOUR washing. I make dinner for you. You come home, yell at me when I say hi. What I do wrong THIS time, huh? Bother you while you busy using MY phone?" Bobbi walked in and grabbed the phone in Jodi's hand. "HEY! I'm on the freakin' PHONE here alright??" Jodi yelled, "Let go!" "It's not your phone," Bobbi said, "It's mine and I pay for it." Bobbi twisted her hand and Jodi gave up with a cry. "I'll call the cops." "Ok," Bobbi nodded, "you'll just have to use somebody else's phone to do it with, that's all. Actually, how about I call them for you? Rose is missing a lot of her things from just about the time that you lived on their kindness. You think I let you live here out of MY kind heart? My father and Rose asked me to so they could lock you out of the house. I got Su-jin the phone for business purposes. You seem to think that everybody just owes you something for nothing." She leaned down a little, "You cost me FORTY-SIX HOURS in straight long-distance charges this past month. All calls were placed to one number in Beaumont, Texas, registered to a person with your last name. And all of them were billed in daylight premium-charge time during weekdays. Oh, you WERE going to pay me back, weren't you? I can total up the charges for you, if you'd like. So when EXACTLY can I expect to get the funds back? Hearing no reply, but seeing one in Jodi's eyes, she pressed the disconnect button and looked up, "This was your last chance. You're out on your ass now." Su-jin stared in shock, "You steal from everybody! Better find way to make next payment on your truck. I gave you my first two paychecks. I give you nothing now." "This is all YOUR fault! My son talks fucking Korean because of you!" Jodi shouted as she jumped up and stomped toward Su-jin, "I'll tear your head off, you slant-eyed bitch!" She looked up from the floor a moment later, wondering how she'd gotten there. Her ass hurt and her arm hurt more. Su-jin's face had changed subtly and her voice was low and thick. "Tyler knows only one word in Korean. You never talk to him anymore – like you never talk to me. You never play with him. You want to hit me? You really are stupid. Come and do it. I let you hit me one time, Jodi. You will only hit me once. Then it MY turn. Is this what you want?" Jodi didn't say a word. "You spend Bobbi's money, talk on phone to shithead who raise you. You listen to HER now? You not worth my time. Tell yourself you have sexy fantasies. You lie to me. You even lie to yourself. Here," she said as she took the phone from Bobbi and slipped it into her pocket, "let me give you another one. This one take a lot of imagination – is TOTAL fantasy for you." She gritted her teeth, "Pretend you have someone who loves you." As she turned to go, she said, "I will come and go as I want until you are gone. I will not speak to you anymore. Do not try to stop me or steal any more from me. You already steal a dream from me. You are only poison." She looked as though she'd changed her mind and stomped her foot while drawing her fist back. Jodi almost cowered on the couch as Su-jin growled out a curt phrase in Korean and then she walked out. Bobbi looked at Jodi and shook her head, "Where is is written, in your little world, that just because you can make Su-jin cry, she can't or won't kick your ass across the road? You just can't really be that stupid. I'll give you until 5PM on Saturday. Be gone in that time or I'll call the Sherriff Monday morning to report Rose's missing jewellery. They'll go around to the pawn shops. What do you want to bet that after looking at a deputy who's holding YOUR picture that they might remember you?" She pointed out through the open door, "You've just pissed on the best thing that ever happened to you in your miserable, worthless life, but you don't have the brains to see it. You really needed help when you got here. My family reached out to you and gave it to you. We're all tired of having to wipe your spit from our hands, so get lost quick and see how long your own mother's goodwill lasts this time. I don't even care where you go, just get off my family's land and don't come back." Bobbi walked out and saw Su-jin standing outside looking down. She put her arm around her shoulders, "Come on, Su-jin. Sorry about the lesson, but there is such a thing as white trash and I can't wait to get it out of my house." "I am sad for little Tyler," Su-jin said in a small voice with a hint of a sniffle, "I love him. I will worry for him." "I know," Bobbi said with a heavy sigh, "But I doubt that there's anything that you can do but let him go. I'll miss him too. I think that he was the only reason that my folks didn't throw Jodi out on her ear after a month or two." She smiled as she walked, "What was that you said in Korean? I have no idea, but it looked a little cool, the way that you almost spit it in her face." Su-jin sighed, "It was me being very upset. Jodi say last thing to me that I ever expect." She looked up at Bobbi, "If you really want to know Bobbi, please forgive me. I was angry and hurt. I say terrible thing that I never say to anyone before." She looked down, "Was bad thing." Bobbi walked a little more with Su-jin on the way to her truck, "Ok, I have to know now. Su-jin, I'd probably forgive you anything. What did you say?" Su-jin looked up, "I say 'fuck off, stupid Round-eye.'" Bobbi blinked and it fell into place, the same thing from the other side. As she opened her truck door, she was laughing. ---------------------------------- Patterson Dillon had a couple of things to do before heading in to work and he was also trying to get the tape player to stop fighting him for long enough to get on-side just a little. For a change. He was unhappy. But then, he'd pretty much always been unhappy, so that was just the status quo anyway. He wasn't thinking about it but ... Back when he'd been about ten, he used to spend his summers on his grandparent's farm. Nice scenery, peaceful, boring most of the time. He used to just poke around and ride his bike a lot. He'd been looking at the dilapidated farmhouse on the next farm over and wanted to check it out and explore. He knew that he couldn't even ask to do that because it wouldn't be allowed. And anyway, the place was supposed to be haunted. But he kept looking over there anyway. He went over one morning when he knew that his grandparents would be busy. There was always a time like that about midmorning after breakfast. Nobody asked him where he was headed, so ... He'd just walked over there. He didn't take his bike because that would have caused the question of where he was going. It was a bit of a walk, but it was a sunny day so off he went. There wasn't much to see and the farmhouse was locked anyway. Patterson was just walking around the rear corner when he felt that someone was looking at him. He spun around and saw nobody. He felt a little funny and there was a touch of fear, but he told himself it was nothing. But the feeling came back almost instantly. He forced himself not to look and continued on, the feeling still there and unchanged. But as he was passing the spot at the end of the path to the barn where he could see inside the open doorway, he snapped his head around to look that way and ... He saw a boy, about his own age but a little larger, standing just inside and looking out at him. They looked at each other for a minute and then Patterson said hi. There was no response for a few seconds. Then the boy came running out toward him. Patterson took off running. He didn't know who and most especially why, but he was frightened, especially after the haunted part came back to him. Every time that he looked back the kid had closed the gap more. What made it all worse was that Patterson was running away from his grandparent's farm, headed in the wrong direction. It all ended in a small secluded hollow full of overgrown grass. Patterson was on his face and crying with the other boy kneeling over him. He kept crying when he felt a hand on his shoulder, trying to pull him over onto his back. That part ended several long minutes later when the boy leaned down and whispered into Patterson's ear, "Can't talk. I can't talk. I don't want to hurt you. I couldn't answer when you said hi. This is as loud as I can get." Patterson eventually got over his fright to some degree and he turned over. The boy was smiling, trying to look friendly. Patterson looked and he saw red hair, green eyes and freckles. Not what he'd have thought were ghostly features, exactly. The boy kept his smile on as they looked at each other for a moment and then he began to lean in, which raised some alarm in Patterson all over again. "P-please don't hurt me," he stammered. The boy shook his head and kept coming. Patterson never would have expected it but the boy only kissed him once. Patterson asked why and the other boy just shrugged and whispered, "I like you." It turned out that the boy, whose name was Pete, had been very ill two winters before and his throat had begun to close from the swelling. He's been rushed to the nearest hospital, but other than his heart almost exploding, the epinephrine that they'd given him hadn't opened the still-closing airway. They were going to open the airway by piercing his throat so that he could at least breathe, but at the instant that the incision had been begun, Pete had gone into severe convulsions. The airway was opened, but it had been too high, going in just under his larynx when he'd convulsed the first time at just the wrong instant and the scalpel cut a vocal chord. The incision had been closed afterward and there was a scar. But Pete could only whisper until he was finished growing and the final surgery could be done. So the conversation was quiet. Patterson learned that Pete had kissed him thinking that it might show that he wanted to be friendly and that Patterson's fear was over nothing. And also because he'd just wanted to. Pete lived on the next farm over and they became friends pretty much instantly after that. They'd both been lonely and wanted a friend and after that day, they spent every day together until Patterson had to go home at the end of the summer. They spent every summer together and in the winter, they wrote to each other. It had been Pete's mother's idea and it helped their penmanship. Everyone who saw them knew that there was an almost Huckleberry Finn sort of friendship between them. The summer that they'd turned eighteen was bittersweet for them, since Pete had an uncle who could help him find work on the oil platforms off the Alaskan coast. In the eight years that they'd known each other, Pete had grown into a tall and muscular young man and Patterson ... hadn't. Not so much, anyway. They still spent every minute that they could together and by then, their relationship had matured as well. Patterson was devastated by the time that September rolled around. He held it together outwardly, but he cried quietly in his room at home for months. He missed being in Pete's arms and he missed those kisses. He ached to feel Pete inside of him just once more, and to a small degree, he was never the same. They wrote to each other, but it faded out after a time and Patterson had no idea where in the world Pete was now. After a year of moping and working part time in pool maintenance, his mother suggested talking to someone who'd really never been in Patterson's life at all. But he made the call. He was gone the next day, driving for the horizon, headed west. He'd called his father and though he hadn't mentioned what had happened, he did say that he was done being a layabout and wanted to know about working with him at the aircraft engine facility. One thing led to the next and after a bit of college, he was the representative for that company in a small branch office at the Angel Fire airport. It was a position that could go nowhere, but then, with a little work and if he obtained and kept the interest of the two operators at that field, it might very well lead to something better. It didn't pay well to start and he'd had to live on the cheap for a time, so he rented the top floor of a used car dealership for a song and saved a ton in rent. It got hot in the summer and he never got the whole thing warm in the winter, but it was home. That was how he'd gotten here. He was twenty-five now and he lived alone. That was why he'd lived like the only monk in the abbey ever since. If he asked himself out loud – in an almost-whisper in front of the mirror, Patterson would tell himself that he was gay and that he was fine with it. It felt right to him and he'd never even tried to get to know any girls. He'd always thought that to even get into a conversation with one back in school only showed him the disadvantage that he was under, not knowing what to do or say or ... think, other than feeling uncomfortable and wanting to get away. So yeah, if he asked himself in an almost-whisper he'd admit it. But it would have to be on a Sunday in the early morning when he knew that there was no one else in the freaking building but him. Under any other circumstances, he'd deny it. It was quietly killing him to be lonely and one thing that he hated doing – and often did anyway – was to think that in his whole life, he'd had only one relationship with another living person. And that person had gone away. Patterson was unhappy. ------------------------ Max was motoring on her Harley, running a quick errand into town and back for Bobbi. It was only her second day, but she sooo loved her job. She wasn't thinking of it, but she was changing. Jane would have praised the hell out of her if it came up between them. She couldn't think of a time in the last year and some that she hadn't ridden these streets in at least a little fear, day or night. And there was something else. Max was feeling so much better now because of Jane and Bobbi. She felt like she belonged somewhere. Finally. Bobbi really was like what she imagined a much older sister to be like. She could look at you as an equal, but also, it seemed to be tinged with care. More often, she looked at you like you were her younger sibling and you could have her thoughts and guidance for nothing anytime that you asked. And if you really needed it and there wasn't anyone else around, you could have her hugs and a few soft kisses just about any time. Jane was someone that she needed a lot and she knew it. She always heard gentle encouragement from Jane and after a lifetime of being alone, it was so good to have that body against her even if they only slept. There comes a time as childhood begins to fade into adolescence when everybody suddenly sticks their head up to look around. Boys look for girls that they like and girls look for boys. Kids who are still confused or think they might prefer their own gender do that too, but with less chance and hope of success. But they do it anyway. Max had never done it, not in her life. The kids that she grew up with weren't exactly friendly to her and if they were or seemed to be, it often only meant there was some hook or trap waiting for her so that they could all laugh at her expense. Apparently, she was a lesbian now. She liked that, since it was softer to her most times – even with Jane. She didn't really take it as lightly as that, however. It was a kind of love that she could understand and take nourishment from inside of herself. She'd had experiences with men. Mostly bad ones where she'd been used because she'd drawn attention to herself out of the kind of pain that hunger really is – after you've eaten only air for about a week. She'd been gang-raped once and then thrown out with her clothes tossed out after her for asking for just a slice of bread on a cold night. She knew that she'd been lucky. There were two of them who'd told the others that they ought to kill her so nothing would come back to them. After some thought, it came to her that one of them was a little kinder. He was the one who reminded the others that it wasn't all that easy to make a body really disappear completely anymore. She'd grabbed her clothes and run off into the night, leaking semen out of everywhere and wanting a place where she could get dressed again and being thankful as she ran across the snow that she still had an extra pair of workboots in the trunk of her piggy, since she was now barefoot. At least she wasn't hungry anymore that night. All seven of them had come into her mouth at least once. Considering the circumstances .... She'd have preferred the bread. Her jaw wouldn't have hurt so much. Then she only had to wait and worry about being pregnant for the next three weeks until her period told her that she'd dodged the bullet. The truth be told, she much preferred trying to buy something with the offer of a blowjob, since even if she was cheated and got nothing, she'd at least have a tablespoon of protein in her stomach. Love? What the fuck was that? Though she now knew a little better. It was what she got from Jane and Bobbi and it felt wonderful. Bobbi knew, but Jane absolutely understood Max, allowing her to lie wrapped around her at night in any way. Jane had even told her why she understood – because she'd been a little thing without much love once and the need had never truly left her. But with that said, it wasn't as though Max was completely blind to men or anything. She was idling up to a red light, checking her mirrors and also looking around, since it was cheap insurance. Her Harley Servi-car was wider than a bike and so she wasn't in as much danger of being squeezed out of her lane. Still, it was worth looking around all the same. Modern Day Cavegirls - Dirty Love She saw someone in the next vehicle and she did a quick double-take. There was a man in the car next to her. He was a little older than she was; middle twenties maybe and he had a nice face framed by long, dark brown hair. Jesus, he was wearing a tie. He was fiddling with something as he kept looking up at the light to be ready when it changed. Nobody knew it or cared, but his car was pretty old and still had a tape player in it that worked. Once in a while. Sometimes. If the stars were lined up in a certain way and ... If you jiggled the tape door just right. It only did that the first time that you tried to use it. After that, it worked fine as long as you didn't turn either the tape player or the ignition off. Max looked ahead, waiting for the light. She looked over again for a second and saw that he was still fiddling with whatever it was. She looked straight ahead, flicking her eyes to the opposite light and seeing it as it turned red. She was about to begin to count to three and then feed in some gas and let out the clutch when she heard a snippet of an old Led Zeppelin song at top volume – loud enough for her to hear over her trike's motor easily. "Till the juice runs down my leg." ------------------------- Patterson dove for the volume control and he whipped it counter-clockwise far too hard. It turned the tape player off, and he cursed. Now he'd have to go through all of that shit all over again. He looked around to see if any pedestrians had heard it. There was an old woman who stood glaring at him before she walked off in a huff. He remembered where he was and looked in his mirror, worried about annoying the drivers of the cars behind him. There were no cars there. Nobody. Then he became aware of the sound of a motorcycle, clattering beside him on the other side and thumping out a beat like it was trying to say the word 'potato' over and over. Potato-potato-potato-potato-potato-potato – tato tato tato – Potato-potato-potato-potato-potato-potato --tato tato tato ... The next thing that he heard was the sound speed up into a quick 'rrrUUUmm' before telling him about the potato again. He looked and saw ... a young guy there with a boyish face, dressed in coveralls and wearing an ancient-looking leather jacket with a filthy sheepskin collar. He was wearing a helmet and Patterson could just see a little light brown hair sticking out of the helmet here and there. What he could see was thinness and grace as well as beauty. He'd never known that such a thing was possible. He looked really good to Patterson, seeming to be the paradigm of what Patterson wanted in a mate –without ever having known it before in his life. Actually, he looked to be pretty much what Patterson would have wanted in a friend – to be much more pragmatic about it. The eyes were a sparkling shade of darker green and those lips... There was a boner coming to Patterson in this, he just knew it already. That person was the most lovely androgynous being that Paterson had ever seen. Clean and ... dirty at the same time. Slightly bored-looking and also Interesting and inviting. He looked at those eyes again, sparkling with good humor and those lips. He stared as he watched those lips repeat the line slowly and then those lips ... They were blowing him a kiss. While he tried to process it all, he ran out of the ability to do that and think and most of all, wonder who this was. He absolutely knew that the words had been heard. Holy Hannah, he'd almost felt that kiss. The person laughed a little and they were gone. His erection was total now, straining against the fabric of his pants and feeling ... deliciously uncomfortable. He smiled, his day feeling much improved now – until the driver of the truck which had rolled up behind him, wanting to make a right turn shouted to indicate what he ought to do. It was something that Patterson had wished that he had the ability to do to himself for years. Patterson drove, looking everywhere for a silver gray Harley three-wheeler. He turned on the cassette player again at the next light and jiggled it and after a second he heard the potato thing again and looked to his right just as the next line blared. That lovely face was grinning and lip-syncing the words. "I'm gonna fall right out of bed." Patterson laughed and nodded, completely thrilled and fascinated now. The amazing creature on the old Harley winked at him. Nobody had ever winked at him – in his whole life. Unfortunately, he was in the through lane and this sweet being was making the right turn.... Max laughed to herself. That had been two minutes of fun. It didn't mean much more than that to her – although she did admit to herself that she'd never seen a man like that before. He was good-looking and even a bit handsome in his way. It was hard to tell, but he didn't look to be that big – which she liked. He had a thin, but really nice face and he looked a little ... Lost-looking. She gave her head a shake, not believing herself. She'd heard that same thing said about her forever and she STILL didn't know what they were talking about. It didn't matter. She'd never see him again and he was a guy. She asked herself when the last time was that a man had even been anything more than disinterested and harsh to her when she'd asked anybody anything. She couldn't understand it really and she didn't have the time to try to figure it out. She reminded herself that for sure, Bobbi hadn't sent her out here to blow kisses at anybody, so she'd better just get back with the program. She grinned again anyway. She'd never see him again but he was pretty cute. --------------------------------------------- Patterson wanted to just turn right across the other lane, but he saw the cruiser parked a little farther up the block. He would have liked to try to follow, but that would just make him seem like someone that he wasn't and never had been. So he just let it go with a smile and thought about work. -------------------------------------------- Su-jin' s phone rang at work on Wesdnesday about 11AM. It was Bobbi. "Meet me in the parking lot out front of the hangar. I'll be there in ten minutes to pick you up." Su-jin walked downstairs wondering what it was about. When Bobbi pulled up, she just said "Get in," and they were gone. Bobbi drove to a law office as she spoke. "Just listen, Su-jin. Jodi asked me for a few days longer. I don't know where it came from, but she suddenly saw some sense that must have come to her from God only knows where. I was there with some Sherriff's deputies and out of the blue, Jodi tells me that she knows that she can't possibly keep herself and Tyler alive and that it's not right to do it to him. She said that it's killing her to do, but she knows the best thing to do is to put him up for adoption – only she doesn't want to wait – and she wants you to raise him if you'll consider it. She had some of those legal forms that you buy at the bookstores! I told her that I'd call you, but you need to make a couple of decisions. If you want to adopt Tyler, I can help, but you know that you're going to need a higher income or you'll be in the same place that Jodi's in herself." Su-jin burst into tears, "Poor Jodi." After another moment, she began to weep, "Poor Tyler!" Bobbi shook her head, "Weren't you listening? Do you want to adopt Tyler or should we just let him go to Child Services so that they can find him somebody?" Su-jin looked up, "No! If Jodi-Lynn cannot do it, then I want him. I love Tyler!" Bobbi sighed, "That's what I thought that I was telling you. To do it this way is what's called private adoption, my attorney told me. A huge percentage of adoptions are done this way – but I was saying that you'd need more income." She put her hand on Su-jin's arm, "I can help with that too. You just have to tell me that you don't want to work for the agency anymore and work directly for me. That way, I can exercise my option with them and I have to pay them a fee to end the contract. Right now, I pay them money every week for your work. They take a chunk off the top and give you the rest. If I call the option, then you get it all, starting next week or the week after. There is no middleman then. I pay you directly, just like I pay everybody else. Do you want this, Su-jin? Do you want that little boy? We'd all help – you know we would. Hell, Rose loves him to death and until you get him into daycare, you can always bring him to work and he can be in his playpen for his naps and charm the socks off of everybody when he's not napping. I just gotta know. And unfortunately, I have to know now or fairly soon – which is one hell of a way to make life-changing decisions." They talked it over and Bobbi called her lawyer and told her to draw up the paperwork on the assumption that everyone would agree. She handed the phone to Su-jin so that she could clearly spell out her full name to the lawyer. While that happened, Bobbi drove them to Jodi's house. As Bobbi was talking with Jodi about the time considerations, Su-jin was almost beside herself, wondering if she'd been too hard on Jodi-Lynn. Tyler woke up from all of the commotion again and saw Su-jin. He tried to get to her, calling out "Umma" over and over hysterically until his throat sounded raw from screaming. Su-jin stood weeping, needing to pick him up, but ... Jodi looked over at Su-jin and nodded, "Take him for a little while. He'll calm down for you. He always does." One minute in Su-jin's arms and he was down to softly sobbing as he had his arms around Su-jin's neck. He didn't see it, but she was crying even as she soothed him and spoke to him. To Su-jin, this wasn't right – this whole business. She tried talking with Jodi, but Jodi only told her that she knew that she could only be in Beaumont for a time because she didn't know when Tyler's father's release date was and also staying with her mother came with a 'best before' date as well. "I don't know where I'll be going, Su-jin. I only know that it won't help either Tyler or me if he's with me. He's better off with you – anybody with eyes can see it. I think Bobbi's gonna need a few days to put this together and I need that time to get some idea of where I might go." She began to weep and walked away. Su-jin felt only worse, though Tyler felt better by then since he'd stopped crying. When she thought that she saw an opening, she went to Bobbi, "I don't know how it is done here, but can it not be so that I have ... I try to remember the word ... guardianship until Jodi comes back when things are better for her?" Bobbi said, "It's probably possible, but I don't think that it's what Jodi wants and if she ever does come back and demand that you give Tyler back, then you'd have to comply. What if it's in three years? How will Tyler be able to understand it? How will you feel to see him go? I sure don't think that you'll love him any less in that time. And let's face something here, Su-jin. Do you really think that she ever will get to that point? I have strong doubts. I'm not looking down on her for this, but the fact is that even when she's given a hand, she gets nasty after a while - as you now know well. Maybe it's something that she got from her mother, I sure don't know. Even Jane could only take her in small doses, not all the time. Janey had a dream – which is her airplane. Funds were allocated to the work to get it fixed up and recertified. It was a piss-pot full of money. As soon as Janey mentioned it, Jodi was pestering her for loans – which really meant that they'd never be paid back - which meant that Janey's plane would never be finished. But what came out of her mouth was the same as you heard yesterday. She told Janey that she could afford it – since she's loaded. Janey had the sense not to agree. That plane and the money was a gift as well as all of Janey's OWN money in the world too. Janey sprayed an awful lot of crops to pay for her dream. Jodi just wants everyone to pay for hers like they owe her anyway. As hard as I try, I can't see a good ending for her. Have you decided about your work contract? Look, just say the word, even if this falls through. I already know that you work hard for us. Why not get the full benefit and I'd be SO happy to tell the agency that we're finished. You work hard. You should get the full pay for that. Please allow me to do that for you at least. You already fit in here. I hear that all the time." Su-jin nodded, "Thank you, Bobbi. To hear it means so much to me. But this ... How will I do it?" Bobbi's face was wet as well, "It becomes your struggle – though as I said, there is no shortage of help for you here. The only other choices are general adoption, handled by the state or Jodi takes Tyler. Either way, you'll never see him again. Things like this become like looking at a scale and weighing things against each other – something that women's hearts just aren't suited for if what is being measured has a tie to their hearts. I can do it easily for my business. For this ... Su-jin I don't know what I'd do myself." She looked down, "I'd probably adopt him and at least have him in my life." Su-jin nodded, "I see it like that too. Call the agency whenever you want to, Bobbi. I want to work here and for Quicksilver's. If this can happen - that I get Tyler for my son, then I need to change my life once again. But I almost cannot think of a better reason." Bobbi nodded and walked back over to Jodi. Su-jin looked at Tyler, "Were you spying to see what you can know?" She hugged him tightly, "I don't know what to do, Tyler. It is a big, big thing." Tyler looked up and smiled, "Umma." Su-jin smiled, "It's not so simple, but thank you, little friend." She noticed a man standing not very far off, looking at her. He wore light gray coveralls. She'd seen him here earlier, before the talk with Bobbi. He'd been standing with his back to her, talking over his radio. The rear of the coveralls said. "Sherriff's Office" Under that in larger letters, it said, "TRU." He was looking at her now and she noticed many things in an instant. He looked to be what Su-jin would have said was 'American'. But there were details. His face said that, but it also said something else to her. His eyes were brown, like hers were. More than that – they were just like hers were, yet his hair ... blonde. She looked at his name tags. The one sewn on over his pocket said "Kim." His plastic name tag read "Kwang-jo Kim." She didn't know him, but many, many people shared that last name, so it meant nothing to her. He stepped a little closer and said in a low voice, "So, you will adopt the child?" Su-jin's eyes widened since he'd said it in Korean. She immediately thought of her 'uncle'. "Who are you?" she asked, "Who sent you?" He shook his head, "No one. I work for the Sherriff's Office here." Su-jin lifted her chin in his direction, "TRU? What is that?" He shrugged with a small smile. "Tactical Response Unit'," he said in what came to her as perfect, accent-free English, "I'm a cop. This here doesn't really merit my being here, but we were short-handed today and," he looked around with a little grin, "it's a small place. Sometimes I have to put on a different hat and be a regular cop. Will you have difficulty with the adoption? It's none of my business, but I thought that I heard something like that. He loves you, I see." Su-jin nodded and answered in their language, "I was ... living with his mother. She does not think that she can manage their lives anymore if she keeps him. She will have trouble managing her own life, I think." The trouble is that I have only been here a month and I do not earn so much myself – though I see that now I will get an increase whether I adopt Tyler or not." She looked at him for a moment, "Please pardon me, but ... you do not look ..." He nodded, "Korean mother, American father. I was born and grew up in our homeland." It caused him to smile a little and he ran his fingers through his hair as he went on, "My appearance has caused me nothing but trouble at home. I wanted to leave, but I took a little too long and I had to do my national service first, of course. The trouble was that I enjoyed it and I spent a few years longer than I had planned. Special Forces." Su-jin nodded, "Which unit? I know of seven brigades. There may be others which I have not heard of." He looked very surprised that she'd ask. "9th Special Forces 'Ghost' Brigade. Why?" Su-jin looked a bit cautious, "Tell me, did you enjoy your hand-to–hand training, once you reached that brigade?" He shook his head, "It was terrible. I almost quit and left the unit to go back to the regular army. But I thought about it and then I knew that it was what the instructor wanted me to do. He did not see me as a true Korean." He shrugged, "My face again." Su-jin nodded, "He wouldn't, of course." He looked a bit shocked and she hurriedly said, "I meant nothing in it personally, Kwang-jo. For myself, I find that I like the way that you look – even with blonde hair." She grinned, "Especially with blonde hair. But I know that man well. I fought against him for a long time." She looked away and saw that Tyler was dozing and she left a soft kiss on his head which didn't waken him. "He would not show you the courtesy of being what you obviously are to almost everyone else. He has very small eyes, Kwang-jo. They do not let him see what he should. To him, a man who looks the way that you do cannot be a true Korean just as someone like me cannot be anything but what he thinks that he sees. I know that he likes to host small ... informal parties for successful students. If you scored well, he would have invited you regardless. Then he would have hoped to hear from you to say that you could not attend for some reason and he would have been pleased." She saw the surprise in his face, "Yes! But I went, if only to annoy him. I hated him. I made sure that he could not fail me at anything - no matter what it took, just so I could have him behind me when I went on to a final position." Su-jin smiled, "Then you rise in my eyes. I hate him too for my own reasons. Tell me, did he ever mention his children?" Kwang-jo nodded, "Yes. He was very proud of his four sons and where they ended up – as though he had something to do with it. Why do you ask this?" Su-jin looked down and shook her head, "It means nothing. There was a fifth child." She looked up at the line of trees in the distance and drew a breath, "But that one is never mentioned. I am that child. The rest is a sad story that I will not tell with a child in my arms." He bowed, "I did not know. I am sorry." She shook her head gently and smiled, "My name is Kim Su-jin. And please tell me why your hair is that color, Kwang-jo. I like it and now I wonder." He reached for his hair again, "With it like this, I look a little more American. If I let it grow out, I still look like an American with maybe a Korean background. I just did it because I wanted to. But back home, with black hair ..." He shook his head, "It's a little funny, really. Here I look fine that way and it is me anyway. But there, I think that I look like a confused Korean man to people there." Su-jin laughed, "You don't look confused here, so you must be in the right place! That is how I feel here now also." Kwang-jo came a little nearer and he looked at Tyler. "He is a fine-looking boy," he whispered in Korean. "I see that you have left a little of the Orient behind you if you think that it is nothing for a Korean woman to adopt a child who carries nothing of herself in him. I like this too." Modern Day Cavegirls - Dirty Love Su-jin shrugged just a bit, "It does not matter. Love is often something which doesn't care about details. He knows the right word. That is all that matters." Kwang-jo nodded, "I heard him say it. I didn't know anything about all of these factors, but I heard it, so I knew that he called to you." He smiled, "I think that I understand the relationship that you might have had with his mother over there. It doesn't matter much to me, Su-jin. I would like to ask," he smiled warmly, " – and very humbly, now that I know of your ancestry if I could call you sometime. I have been here for over two years and you are the first person that I can speak Korean to – well, other than a Korean couple in a rented car who were lost in the winter. I can always treasure a friend, if you think that it would be alright." Su-jin looked up at Kwang-jo. By Korean standards, he was good-looking – if you didn't have her father's defective outlook. By American standards, she thought he looked pretty good too. The coveralls didn't hide the fact that he was well-built, but he didn't tower over her. And he was very likeable, now that they'd spoken for this long. But ... "I think that I would like that, Kwang-jo. But I wish for you to know that my relationship was a romantic one. I say this only so that you understand me a little better. If it changes your thoughts I would not blame you." He laughed! He had to step away until he had it in hand, but he really surprised her with it. "Tell me, Su-jin," he asked with a smile, "can two people not be friends – if there is nothing between them in romance? I am happy to meet you – regardless of the rest. It does not matter to me, though to show that I wish for us to be open, I like both." He shrugged, "It does me no good here either for all that. I have met no women who show me any interest at all beyond a first glance, and to look for men in this town?" He shook his head, "I have too much to lose in my career." He bowed just a little and smiled, "So now we know each other, yes?" Su-jin bowed the little bit that she was able, "Then I am very pleased, Kwang-jo." Tyler opened his eyes and raised his head from Su-jin's shoulder to regard Kwang-jo for a moment with his blue eyes. Then he did what he always seemed to do whenever he met someone. He reached out, "Hi." Su-jin smiled and handed Tyler to Kwang-jo to watch as they began an animated discussion at Tyler's level. It gave her time to think - well ... to TRY to think objectively. In a very real way, she hoped that something changed and that Jodi could suddenly see a way that she could keep Tyler. But Su-jin seemed to realise after a moment that it wasn't likely to happen and so she had to think of a life with a young adopted son and whether she could even do it. She guessed that she could and knew that she loved Tyler more than enough to want to. Looking at them, Su-jin thought that having Kwang-jo for a friend would certainly help Tyler to learn English, since she guessed that his wouldn't change the way that hers sometimes did when she was stressed. Bobbi walked over and grinned, seeing the way that the police officer and the little boy were laughing and smiling. "I keep having these thoughts the longer that I know you," she said quietly, "You just seem to draw people to you somehow." Su-jin looked over, "I don't think that I can agree with you, Bobbi. If it was me who drew him, I think that it would also be me there in his arms – but it is not." Bobbi didn't turn her head, "Is that what you'd want, Su-jin?" Su-jin shook her head, "So far, Kwang-jo seems like a good man to me. I have never sought a man in my life. He would like to offer his friendship and I think that I can accept it – but he knows how I am. I made it clear to him. I have just never met a man who seems so likable to me as he is. I guess that I will learn about him soon enough. We like each other enough to try to start a friendship." --------------------------------------------- On Thursday afternoon the day was already deep into stupid hot if you were out on the highway. The road which stretched out in front of you was little more than a dark, shimmering, and indistinct ribbon. It was worse if you were in a vehicle which had no working air-conditioning. At the very least, you were under a roof. You might not be enjoying the cool air which came out of the vents in an air-conditioned car, but at least the sun wasn't trying to light you up. Max sat a little forward on the big, wide seat on her Servi-car. It was an interesting position, slightly uncomfortable for a man since you were really sitting on the long leather horn of the seat. It made you pay attention, though it wouldn't take long for a male to want to be sitting on something more comfortable. It was also a little uncomfortable to females though in a different way, since the engine down below was a frame-mounted V-twin which brought out an interesting variety of vibrations to your labia and yet never provided the logical progression of giving you something more a little higher where it really mattered. You could always lean forward a long way to improve the sensations, but then it was a Servi-car and it left you looking like you were a kamikaze dying to get someplace desperately for a piss. So either way it was unsatisfactory in the long run, though it was necessary now since there were two riders perched on that seat. Doing it this way let Jane sit behind Max as they made their way from Angel Fire to Santa Fe. The road was interesting, but not as interesting today as it might have been if it wasn't such a scorcher of a day. Two hours. Two hours and ninety-odd miles, each way. Yeah. They didn't have a roof and they didn't have air-conditioning. What they did have – other than the sun trying to bake them was miles and miles of sun-fried asphalt and the steady blast of superheated air coming straight at you. It was enough to almost curl your eyelashes up enough to fall right off. Max was getting the brunt of the effect since she was out front. She would have gotten even more, but Bobbi had heard of the trip and questioned their sanity. Jane's phone began to vibrate and she reached to answer it. "What the hell are you two doing?" It was Bobbi and Jane sighed, "I told you, we're going to Santa Fe to get – " "I know that," Bobbi snapped as she listened to the roar of the wind over the connection, "Tell Max to pull over. I'm right behind you." Jane looked back and waved while Max signalled and geared down to pull off the road. Bobbi was on them before they'd even gotten off. "Turn around and go back," she said, "I need you both to be at work tomorrow. With all of your skin still on your bodies. Riding through everything short of open flame isn't wise out here today. So turn around and head back to the hangar. Call this Maya woman up and tell her to meet us with the bike at Santa Fe Muni. We'll fly it back and that way, I've still got both of my sisters – even the new one." Max looked over with a curious grin. "Yeah," Bobbi smirked, "I can't let you do this. Your new sister warranty isn't even up yet. I don't want to void it." ------------------------------------- An hour later, they were in the air and headed for Santa Fe. They were out of the mountains and were letting down to their cruise altitude of eleven thousand in the Twin Otter. At this altitude, the air was a lot cooler. "Just as an observation," Bobbi said to Max over the intercom, "the way that I see it, a motorcycle – or a trike – which has only one seat, probably wasn't designed to handle the load of a passenger. That additional load probably wouldn't matter much most times. I noticed – now that I know you Max, and so I now look at your vehicle - that your back tires are pretty much shot. Again, it might not mean anything most days and in most places. Seeing that made me think of your engine oil. You probably haven't been able to do the normal maintenance for the past while, since that would mean money that you probably didn't have. We can take care of all of those things – all of that stuff – but not today. Sorry to say, but I know you now and that means that I get to ask the silly questions sometimes, like 'are you both out of your fucking minds?' Janey wouldn't think of operating an aircraft that wasn't fit for the job. A vehicle with worn-out tires, carrying a little too much weight on a super-hot day makes about as much sense as a woman kneeling naked with her ass up in the air on a city sidewalk holding up a FUCK ME sign. You might not get exactly what you had in mind, is all I'm saying. I'm sorry to sound like grandma here, but I care about you both. Don't do things like this without thinking first. I've got more than enough reasons to have my hair go gray early." Jane was flying right seat, being the co-pilot. She looked off to her right as she spoke, "Grandma NEVER used to talk like that, Bobbi." She looked over and seeing Bobbi's expression, her smile faded instantly, "Sorry." Even so, she had to struggle with it and lost for a few seconds here and there. Bobbi kept looking ahead, but also, she looked across a few times. "You're not supposed to be sitting there with a shit-eating grin while I'm lecturing you. It's in the rules." "I know," Jane groaned with the effort, "I keep having trouble with the visual, I'm sorry." She burst out laughing three seconds later. ----------------------------- Since they weren't using the cargo facilities, they had to settle for being way the hell out in General Aviation Parking again. Jane was off searching for Maya who was probably waiting in the freaking parking lot while Bobbi sat with Max as they shared a cold soda. "So how do you like the job?" Bobbi asked Max. "It's great," Max smiled, "I really like it. Jimmy cracks me up all the time and even so, he always has things to teach me. There's just so much to know. And it's a lot of work, but he's patient and he's always ready to help if I need it." Bobbi nodded, "Just wait, it's not the weekend yet. That can get pretty boring sometimes." She sighed, "And I'm kicking myself a little. I think that I probably put off hiring for that job too long. I should have listened to Jimmy a long time ago." Bobbi put her hand on Max' arm and Max looked, so Bobbi passed over the soda, "I think you're doing well, and I've heard very positive things about you from quite a few at work. So guess what that means in my nutty life?" Max sat with her eyebrows raised, thinking. She drew a blank and shrugged at Bobbi. Bobbi threw up her hands. "It means that we just start getting you trained, you like the job, the job likes you – and then something else happens. I'll probably get the official word tomorrow, but a little bird at the bank told me that my financing changes have been approved. Almost all of that means very little to you Max, except for one thing. We can get started on the Norseman restoration. So that means that poor Jimmy is going to lose his lovely paduan learner for a while." Max looked down and smirked, "Lovely, right." Bobbi groaned, "Do you often have these bouts of not believing what is obvious to others? Those were Jimmy's words." Max took a sip from the soda and handed it to Bobbi with a nod, "Yeah. It's not that I don't believe it when I hear things like that, Bobbi. It's that I tend to doubt what I hear a lot. Up until just days ago, I never heard a single compliment over the way that I looked in my life since I've been on my own. I believe that I only ever heard things like 'You look really nice' from my parents – since from the time that my father got sick, I've never heard that even one time until now. Of course, living the way that I have been means that most of the time, I looked like somebody who would, at the very least, swipe the change from your last four trips through the drive-through at the coffee shop, since you left it right there in plain sight in your unlocked truck." Max reached into her pants pocket and produced a twenty which she handed to Bobbi. Bobbi looked back with raised eyebrows. Max shrugged, "I think you must get the same things every time. The change I find in your truck every day is the same amount. I used a little to get myself coffee twice off the coffee truck at work and the guy made that bill out of the pile that I gave him so I could give you that back. I dunno what happened. But now I hear nice things about my looks – ok, especially now that I got my hair cut by somebody else. I hope you all don't mind too much if it takes me a little time to adjust – 'cause to me, it's fucking weird." She smiled at Bobbi, "I only take it at full value if I hear it from you or Jane. That's when it means something to me – a lot. So thanks." Jane stepped around the side of the plane, "'Kay, open the cargo door and Max, please help me with the ramp." A long, tall woman with sleek black hair down to her butt walked up with two men who were pushing a customized motorcycle between them. Bobbi stared at the bike as her mouth drifted open, "Wow ... " She looked from one end to the other, "Fucking ... wow." The woman held out her hand, "I'm Maya – and you can't know how good it is to hear someone say something like that about one of my babies. I usually only get to hear things like this at shows and I don't get to very many." Bobbi grabbed Maya's hand and shook her head with a smile, "I'm Bobbi. I never look at bikes anymore. The customs that I see are ... not well done and even if they are, they're all something I've seen a lot of before. Other than that, the hogs are all stock with a few OEM bits bolted on and one crotchrocket looks pretty much like the next. What you've done here ... gorgeous." "Thank you," Maya smiled with a little bow before she looked around, "So you're Max?" Max was standing off to the side with her hands jammed into her hip pockets. She took one hand out and held it up, "That's me." Maya smiled, "I hear that you have a Yamaha 650 twin – real old." Max shrugged, "Yeah. It was given to me by Jane, but I haven't done anyth-" Maya was shaking her head, "If you haven't started anything with it yet – please don't. Sell it to me. I'll give you plenty good cash for it now that they're hard to find – or maybe you might like one something like it that I've already got built up." It started a conversation that ended with Maya saying that she'd come with a truck to get the Yamaha on a particular day. The talk turned then to Jane and Maya's expression grew serious as she pointed to the bike as her manner of speech showed her old connection to the streets. "Listen Chica, this thing is no toy, ok? The engine is a 1200 Harley like they put in their own bikes, but that's where it ends. This girl here, she's for real, and she don' like only going from one coffeeshop to the next. She likes road, see? She was born to the road – not the street. Gas? She wants only Hi-test. Actually, what would really make her happy is aviation gas, so if you can find any, give her a treat once in a while. The tank is almost dry since you told me you're flying it home. This sweet thing, she started life as a Buell White Lightning and she's juiced. She got the Thunderstorm heads and honey, she got the cams to max it all, so that's like a Harley that's actually awake and on beans all the time. This rolls like no Harley you ever rode, trust me. This girl don' waddle and she don' slouch. You can actually corner. You get these tires hot, they get sticky. You get them sticky and you can corner with your knees down, you won't drag nothing. I looked at the firmware and I made a few changes for the fuel injection profile with these pipes so forget about fuel economy. That went out the window with the stock pipes. She runs a little rich to keep things like valves and valve seats from burning up. Between the throttle and the fuel injectors, there's a little black box. It's there to make sure that you get that mixture. Don' touch it. Jou mess with that, jou gotta bring her home to Mama Maya to untangle what chou done. The downside of that it that she shakes like a sick dog when she's idling at lights. If it bothers you, just pretend like she's panting. Don' just nod at me. This is no cruiser, ok? You ride her hard; she'll tell you she's a happy girl. What that means to you is that you gon' feel like you been someplace and back on a fast horse, not some lazy hog with loud pipes. You said you wanted drag pipes – so you got drag pipes. Real ones, not like the dealers sell. I bent them up custom myself. If you're under the revs where she comes on the cams, it's not bad. She's like Glinda the Good Witch of the North. No attitude and she purrs like a leopard with a down low grumble, see? You don' do the stupid blip the throttle thing with this one, comprende? Fuel injection – that's why it's there. That shit went out with the trash a long time ago. You'll just piss her off." Maya nodded as she held up a finger and she spoke slowly for emphasis, "Chica, you get this girl on the cams and you'll meet her other side – and then she's pure Wicked Witch of the West, honey." She smirked and pointed to the little art scene on the back of the gas tank, "Hence the name. You'll feel it when it happens and everybody in TOWN gonna know, trust me. You play like that at night and anybody can see that the pipes are not factory. Little blue flames you can see in the dark. She's worth a fat ticket right there, so use your pretty head. And while I'm thinking of it, remember; those are open pipes – do NOT take this bike off road and into anything like dry grass or bush – not with those pipes. They give way bigger tickets for starting grass fires. Ok, last thing. The engine has new sleeves and rings so jou gotta complete the break in. I did most of it for you, so I think you might only have maybe two hundred miles to go. Until then, you keep her like the good witch. Only the good witch, comprende? I did the loud part for you out on Highway 25. So you get to know each other while you finish the break in miles. She'll be due for an oil change within two hundred after that and you want to do that to get rid of the oil pan full of tiny chips from the break-in." Jane nodded and they helped get the bike into the Twin Otter and strapped down. Bobbi gave Maya preliminary directions for when she came to look at the Yamaha and they parted company as Jane jumped into the co-pilot's chair and began to set up for the engine starts. -------------------------------- "What do you think?" Jane asked Max as they sat outside the coffeeshop on their way back home hours after landing, "I like it. Everything feels right to me and I'm just getting used to feeling like I'm riding some beast that's always a little hungry." Max nodded, "I like it. The seat is pretty good and the way that I always end up against your back is my favorite part. I get to hold on to you and feel a little proud, like I'm the one with a secret." Jane chuckled, "Not that much of a secret, the way you always sneak your hand to my boob when you think you can get away with it." "Meh," Max sighed, "Fringe benefits. I am a little glad that we stopped off at home so I could ride my trike a little tonight. I like riding with you, but it feels more like home on my piggy." "Yeah well, maybe you oughta hide it when Maya comes to see the Yamaha. She might get ideas about doing your trike too and then you'd have no wheels." "Doubt it," Max smirked. "Just wait until she pulls out her bankroll in front of you," Jane said, "She can be hard to resist if she's waving that around." Max shook her head like it never would happen. She looked over the other way, noticing some motion, "Who is that? Modern Day Cavegirls - Dirty Love Do you know her? You know everybody in this burg, right?" Jane nodded, "That's Suzi, my oldest friend. We were tykes together and I owe her a lot, just for being my friend back then." She smiled and leaned over, "Here she comes. Watch her walk." Max looked and groaned, "Holy ... Does she even know she's doing that?" "Nope," Jane smiled, "that's just how she is." She heaved a deep sigh, "I've been secretly in love with her for probably forever. That girl there is the one crush that I've never gotten over since I went to school and came back crying every day for the way that all of the kids treated me. Her house is where the bus dropped us, since my dad could have been anywhere and Bobbi wasn't home from school yet herself. Until I was over it, I used to stand in her yard in her arms as I bawled my eyes out every fucking day. She was the only one who never teased me and always cared. We were five years old. Since I knew about myself, I've always had a few dirty little dreams about her, but I never dared to show how I felt and her friendship was never anything that I'd ever want to lose. We don't get to see each other anywhere near like what I think we deserve anymore. She's why we're here, actually. I saw her last week at the grocery store there across the street where she works and I promised to meet up with her this week. And it's this week, so that works out." Susan walked over and stared, "Hey Janey. Is this yours?" Jane nodded, "Hi Suzi. Yeah, this is my new baby. You like?" Susan grinned, "I love it! Holy crap, it looks like an orange fireball standing still." She stared a little longer, "Is there actually one painted part anywhere on it that DOESN'T have flames on it?" "I dunno honestly," Jane shrugged, "I haven't had to wash it yet. I won't really know until then, I guess. Oh, I'm being rude. This is Max. Max, meet Suzi. We go way back, almost to our Pampers days." Susan had been aware of Max and was about to ask anyway, but now she didn't have to. "Hey Max," she smiled, "good to meet you." Max nodded with a sigh, "Likewise. I'm here doing the faithful sidekick thing, flying in support of Jane, All-American superhero and devil-may-care-flying fool. It's a hell of a job, but it pays the rent." Jane almost spilled the last of her coffee from laughing, "What she means is – that we work together." "Crap," Max muttered, "I like it my way better. Look, I'm gonna go get another coffee. Can I get you one Suzi? Boss?" They both nodded and Suzi smiled, "I'll have a small regular please, Max." As Max went in through the doors, Susan smiled at Jane. "Whoa, we actually get to see each other. Hasn't happened in a while, but for last week." Jane nodded, "That's something that I want to change, Suzi. I was thinking about it after seeing you last week and it just feels wrong to me. We've been friends forever. I don't want to wake up suddenly one day and realize that I don't even know where you are anymore. It's probably my fault, but I think we deserve better and I'm sorry for not keeping up like I should." "It's ok," Susan smiled, "It's not like when we were kids. There's always something pulling you when you're grown up. I guess it must be obvious that I really miss you these days. I don't think that I can remember when I've needed a friend more." Susan looked at Jane for a moment in hesitation and then she just blurted out, "Listen. I know I was stupid back when we were kids and I lost you for a long time over what I said. I've always been afraid to lose you again and whenever I don't see you in a while, I worry so much that it's finally happened." Jane shook her head, "Hasn't happened yet so stop worrying. So what's new with you? I haven't seen you in a long while other than just that little while last week." She sighed with a soft smile, "Translation: something's bothering my old friend, so I need to know what it is and if I can help at all." Suzi shrugged, "You're never around much anymore. I started going out with Brett about a year and a half ago. It only took me a little while to know that it was a mistake and after that, it took almost a year to get the idea into his thick skull that we were done. I actually think that he believes that I'll come to my senses any day now. He's at my house now more than I am. I've been taking every shift that I can get so that I can move out. He comes to pick me up from work and for the last month straight, I don't even look at him and just walk all the way. Him being the possessive jerk that he is, he keeps idling along beside me – unless a cop shows up and then he's gone, but he comes back after. The one time that he got any kind of hint, it took me flagging the cop down to tell him that I did NOT want to be stalked all the way home from work and then followed inside my own home. Brett got a talking to, but he was back the next night." She looked into Janey's eyes with a pleading expression. "Janey? If I mean anything to you at all, please, please take me home with you? Let me stay the night at least? All I ever hear about at home is that I should get back together with Brett and how I ought to be making my life in a better way that to just work as a part-time cashier. They've been leaning on me for like six months solid. I tell them that I can't really support myself, so I'm not gonna ever support Brett – and I don't intend to. But they aren't listening to me. If I could get better work, I'd do it of course and the whole Brett thing just makes me want to vomit. It took me so long to get rid of him – and I only tried to be polite, like I only said 'Fuck off and die' every single time, you know, not wanting to be rude or anything. It really hurts, the way that he has my folks wrapped around his pinky. My dad loves him since he used to play 'foop'baw'. Well if there's anybody with a severe lack of ambition, it's that tub of lard." "You mean the football star from back in high school?" Jane asked, "I haven't seen him since then, I guess." Susan rolled her eyes, "You wouldn't since he never gets up off his ass. He glommed onto my parents and just about lives with us now. He also looks way different now since he got his Budweiser face. He lost his 'foop'baw' scholarship at State and they threw him out since he couldn't meet their minimums anymore because he doesn't train and only showed up IF he felt like it. Now he's leeching off my folks. He just watches our TV and eats our food." Jane chuckled, "You know, I like the way that you say that. Foop'baw." "Yeah well, I've grown an allergy to the whole fucking thing," Susan scowled. She looked down, "Hard to believe that I gave my virginity to that lump. When we were together, he must have lasted a good ... oh, ninety whole seconds or so and I never felt a thing. I just got crushed and got to smell beer breath until he groaned. Then I had him leaking out of me after that. It might have meant something if he was worth anything at all. I could see myself liking it then. As it was, it was just a rude reminder that something unpleasant actually happened. These days, I work every shift I can get just to save up some money to move out. If my idiot parents want him so bad over me, let them have him. I just want to get away from there for a few days at least – before I do the whole Lizzie Borden thing one night and hack them all to pieces while laughing maniacally the whole fucking time. I've already caught myself looking at sound ratings – shopping for my Stealth chainsaw. Please?" Jane nodded, "Ok, you can stay with me for a little while. If you're willing to do about any kind of work, I'll talk to Bobbi and see if she's got anything for you. Is that bag something that's gotta get to your parent's house?" Susan shook her head, "Not really. About all that's in here is a frozen chicken casserole I was gonna have for dinner when I got home. That and some Italian loaf bread. I bought one of those tiny fridges and a microwave, so I don't really ever need to leave my room much unless it's to go to the john. About half the time when I get back, old Beerbreath is in there waiting for me with lovesick eyes and I have to almost threaten his life to get him outta there." She sighed, "I just gotta get away." Max came back and handed out the coffees before she sat down on a parking curb. "Suzi's going to be staying for a few days," Jane said with a smile, "Could she put her frozen dinner in the trunk of your piggy?" "Sure," Max smiled as she got up to take the bag from Suzi, "All donations gratefully accepted. We take all major credit cards too." Suzi smiled, "Is she always like this?" "Pretty much," Jane chuckled, "Lately anyway." Suzi looked back and forth, "Um, are you two ... uh...?" Max shrugged, "Kinda-sorta, you know ... sometimes." "Unless we're not," Jane added. Max nodded, "Unless we're not." She sighed like it was a bad thing, "Once in a while, anyway." Jane grinned, since it was the game, "'A while' being a fairly short interval, of course. So it happens ..." "A fair bit," Max smiled a little challengingly. Jane leaned her head against Suzi's shoulder, "All the fucking time. Please come to our house, Suzi. I need you to save me – really!" Susan laughed, "You guys are nuts!" Jane groaned, "Yeah – but don't ask us what kind. We just get into fist fights then." She looked up, "You don't mind?" Susan shook her head, "No, not at all. At least you get to have fun and I'd love to just be with you for that!" She looked at the trike, "That looks like it would be fun to ride too." Max shrugged, "It's really old, but it's mine and it's paid for. It used to be not much more than a pile of parts on the floor. I built it back up with my father before he died and it got me all the way here from Pittsburgh in the dead of winter. I nearly froze to death, but I made it here. It's not fast at all and it's only got a three-speed hand shift with a suicide clutch, but it means a lot to me." She looked at Jane, "I was thinking that if Maya gives me very much for the Yamaha, maybe I could use it for her to do something about fixing up my trike." Jane nodded, "Dangerous thinking, but I kind of like it. Maybe once it's all over with, we could ride together and I might be able to get to a higher gear than third now and then." "Probably," Max said before she stuck her tongue out at Jane. It went like that until they were done their coffees. "Time to saddle up," Jane smiled, "Max has my spare helmet in the trunk, Suzi. You can wear that. Which one do you want to ride on?" Susan grinned, "Tough choice really. I'll go with you Janey. Maybe I can get a ride with Max sometime." "That sounds a little like you might be with us for a time," Jane smiled softly. Before Susan could say anything, Max muttered, "Please God, just this once and I promise I'll be good forEVer." Susan laughed, "What did you say?" Max looked startled, "Me? Oh, nothing really. I only said 'God I don't know the way home from here', that's all." "Are you sure that you want to come home with us?" Jane asked. Suzi nodded and leaned in a little, "I've been thinking about making a change for the longest time – well trying to and hoping that it might be the right thing for me. I just know that in this town, it's gotta be better for me than what I've been doing." She looked around, "What choice is there? Sir Belchalot or some broken-down cowboy wannabe. I'd rather try it with you and your faithful sidekick. I like the thought a hell of a lot better, just saying. At least you guys laugh a lot together and ... and you've been on my mind a lot lately." Max snapped her head around. "Suzi? Could you uh ... repeat that part about ... you know, 'and your faithful sidekick'? I think I'd really like to hear – " "And your CUTE and faithful sidekick," Susan grinned. She looked at Jane, "I'm being silly, but I think I'd like that, if I had a clue about what to do." "Hey," Max grinned, "I give lessons!" She looked down for a moment, "Or ... I'd love to give lessons! The first one's free – kind of an introductory thing, y'know?" Jane looked down, "I am so glad that there's nobody around to hear any of this." Max folded out her kickstarter and jumped the Harley back to life before sitting to do up her helmet straps. Jane unfolded the passenger pegs, got on her bike and lifted the sidestand, holding it still so that Susan could get on. Her thumb was just heading for the starter button when she noticed the car sidling toward them from the grocery store lot with the driver's window sliding down. Jane had trouble for a second until she recognised the driver, but she motioned to Max to get going and Max pulled out. "Where are you going?" Brett asked Susan pointedly. Susan said, "Get lost. Where I'm going is none of your concern. Leave me alone and go watch a game on the couch with my dad. He won't even notice when you jerk off to your locker room memories. Should only take a minute." He looked argumentative, so Jane reached for Suzi's hand and put it over her own breast. "We're gonna fuck our little minds away, all night long. Jane leaned a little, "I think that unless you're really as thick as horse shit, there might be a clue in there for you. If I gotta spell it out for you, you had your chance. Suzi's mine now. So, why don't you go try something a little different? Go fuck a football." She punched the starter and there was no point trying to even talk anymore. Jane hit first gear and they were gone. Knowing a little about possessiveness in some people, Jane kept glancing at her mirrors. She ducked into an alley and rode to the other end, watching both ways to see if they were being followed. Suzi tapped Jane's shoulder, "Did you really mean that? What you said?" Jane smiled in her helmet, wishing for once that Suzi could see her face, "Not if it's not what you'd want." She felt Suzi's hand, still where she'd put it as it squeezed just a little, "It's what I'd at least like to know about." -------------------------------------- Nobody said a word about it as they ate the casserole and the bread. They had a great time, laughing about just about anything. But at last, things grew quiet and Max stood up. "I think that I'll go head out for a bit of a walk to let you guys find your way alone first." She looked at Suzi, "I'm probably being selfishly hopeful, but thank you for what you said." "Will you come back later?" Suzi asked and Max nodded, "Sure. I just think that you need to talk with Jane some more first, that's all." Max left and went to stand outside, wondering about where to go for this fabled walk while the two inside sorted it out. She liked Suzi a lot, but she didn't think that a threesome right out of the gate could be anything but a little unsettling if you've never even done it before. She smiled to herself. It was a nice thought, though. ---------------------------------- Suzi looked at Jane and smiled as she got up to sit next to her, "I really have had thoughts of being with you a lot lately." "Suzi," Jane sighed, "I've wanted to be alone with you like this forever, since at least the end of 6th grade and probably before. I had no idea about it other than kissing, but it's what I've always wanted and was afraid to have. I don't want to reopen anything, but when we were apart, it was really because I was frightened over telling you how I felt inside and you – well, you didn't react well. The only thing that I knew to do was to withdraw and hide. And cry a lot over losing my best friend." Susan put her arms around Jane and pulled herself close, "Janey honey, you didn't lose me. You never lost me. I just knew that in that one moment, that I'd hurt you so deep by blurting out what needed to be kept tight by your closest friend – but I failed the test because I was an idiot. I couldn't find you and whenever I called, they told me that you'd gone out. You wouldn't come near me at school and I was miserable. I was sorry. Janey, I've been sorry for over ten years, but we've never been the way that we used to be ever since. Look, I've known about you since you told me, right? I'm here now because I want to be with you and not just once in a while. I want to be in your life again as a main character. I just don't know the way that it's done, that's all. I don't have any trouble over it. I want to do that with you. I'm willing to learn because I know that it has to be good and I want to be against you and never let you go The whole Brett thing is just what's going on in my shitty life right now and it can't last forever. But I can. We can. This – whatever it is – it can last at least a long time." She kissed Jane softly for a moment and pulled back to look into Jane's eyes, "I want you. I think that I've always wanted you – I just didn't know what that meant back then and once I did finally know, we weren't the same anymore, so I've always thought that I broke us somehow." She reached up and touched Jane's cheek softly. "I look at you and I see someone so strong – so much stronger than I am. Look at you. You've got this thing inside of you that you keep hidden from most of the world because it's how things are for you. You were a pilot before either one of us could drive a car legally. That wasn't good enough for you and look at you now. You're almost half of a company. You own that rocket outside and if I know anything about you, you bought it cash. I've paid attention, Janey. How could I not? You've always been really important to me. I know that you own your own plane. At nineteen years of age. Goddammit, that takes singular determination and courage, things that I've always known that you have one hell of a lot of. Me? I've done everything right, just like I was supposed to. It hasn't gotten me very far at all. Janey, I'm here now and I've just given up. I'd do anything to be with you much more than only saying hi when you come in to pick up some deodorant and a little food. That's not good enough for me anymore. Please tell me that there's at least a little room left in your life for me. That's all that I'd ever want anymore." Jane smiled softly, "You know, I keep seeing us back before we knew anything. I used to love it when we did what we weren't supposed to." She snorted softly, "Such horror, huh? We never did a thing during our sleepovers as kids. But I've never been able to forget how we'd lie in one bed, holding on to each other, talking in whispers and kissing a little sometimes until there was a danger of falling asleep, so we'd split up so we wouldn't be found together in the morning. I've had daydreams about it for years. I was always cognizant that we didn't do anything but what we did – lie there holding on and whispering about anything. It wasn't about what we whispered about, it was the whispering itself. Though in my daydreams, we weren't wearing anything and we were grown to the point in time that I was having that particular daydream. I think it was like that because it was what I wanted all the way as I was growing up." She chuckled, "And I don't think that I've grown up about that one thing even yet." "Do you remember the last time that you had that daydream?" Suzi asked, "When was it? I'd at least like to know when I had my last chance to make things right. If I can't have anything else, that's still what I'd like to do with you." Jane hugged Suzi a little tighter, "I have that little daydream at least once a day, not matter what I'm doing." She kissed Suzi softly, "So if that's your measuring stick, you haven't lost me yet. I had that daydream this morning – as I was calculating the rate of application that I'd need. But ... do you think that you'd like to do that now?" Modern Day Cavegirls - Dirty Love Suzi sighed and held on tight, whispering into Jane's ear, "Yes. I don't care about anything anymore. I'm sure now. Take me to bed and do whatever you want with me. Teach me what I need to know. Just hold me close and whisper to me." She kissed Jane's ear, "I'll walk with you and hold your hand anytime and anywhere – as long as we can have this. If you want someone beside you for your life, Jesus, Janey pick me." Jane's phone rang and she reached for it. Suzi looked at Jane's clothed body during the motion and had an odd thought. Jane was beautiful. That much was what she'd always known. But here, like this, the thought came to her that she really wanted to be held against that body and she wondered why it had always been there as a small want. She only knew that it had become a bigger one to her lately, around the time when she felt that she was being displaced by Brett in her own home and that it had been extending to her whole life. She hadn't had a conscious thought that she needed Jane to get her out of the mud she was stuck in; it hadn't been that way at all. But she knew how Jane was and she knew that Jane was always alone most of the time. She knew that she herself was terribly unhappy. Maybe Jane was alone because she couldn't have the one that she wanted and then Suzi knew. But it had taken an awfully long time to get here. She hoped that this worked between them and though she admittedly knew little, or thought that she did, she didn't care because she was determined to know. What she did know was that she wanted Jane and if it could be that way, then she wanted her for the long term. She didn't know what she'd do for a job, but ... "Ok," Bobbi said over the phone, "I've had a couple of calls from Damian all day. He needs for me to make somebody disappear by taking her to Angel Fire. I haven't got a clue who she is. I've gotta make my drop at the Apache strip on the way back and we'll probably get in late. I'm heading out now. I'll pick her up tomorrow evening and be home later tomorrow night. So you've gotta take over for me tomorrow and get everybody started on their busy days. I've checked the board and you're clear for pretty much all the way to halfway into next week, and we'll meet up or I'll call so I know how it's going. Think you can do all that, Janey?" "Yeah," Jane said, "I know it's getting late but I was just gonna call you about something else, though maybe it can wait. All the rest, I'll handle Bobbi, don't worry." "Tell me anyway," Bobbi asked and Jane could hear her smile as she said it. "Well remember how you're gonna be wanting Max to spend time in the shed and work out a plan to move the Norseman? Suzi's here with me. She's got some odd things going on at her house and she needed to get away. She asked me and she's here with me now." Jane smiled, "I seem to be living the nice ending that I've dreamed of all of my life, but that's really secondary to my question. Do you think we can have Suzi work to learn to handle our line while Max steps out of the job? She needs the work and it would help her to get enough together to move out and be on her own." "Is she there with you?" Bobbi asked and Jane told her yes. "Put her on please and I'll ask her myself. I need for her to know what's involved in that job." Jane passed over the phone, "Bobbi wants to talk with you about a possible job." Suzi took the phone, "Hey Bobbi." Bobbi laughed a little, "Hi Suzi, I only have a couple of questions for you. I don't have time to help with your troubles at home at the moment since I'm busy myself, but you know how I am and we can get into it when I get back, so don't worry, honey. You know I'll help if I can. If I know you – and I have all of your life – you would probably be in this place now anyway. I do have a job. It involves fueling and moving aircraft with machines as well as doing small maintenance checks like daily ones. I have somebody who can and will train you well for that job and it's full time and there are some weekends needed at premium time, of course. I'm not running a grocery store. Think you can handle that? Say yes any time now." Suzi looked over at Jane, who nodded, "Yes, Bobbi. I can handle that." "Fucking awesome," Bobbi sighed in a bit of relief, "I had Max in that spot, but now I need her doing something else. In the long run, I can't see the harm in having two line boys – which is what the job is traditionally called. I'll tell Jane to have Amy sign you on Monday morning and get you fitted out with uniforms while she's at it. Ok, last thing. Susan Horseman, are you there trying to seduce my kid sister? And is it going at all well at this point?" Susan was shocked, but she looked at Jane who'd been close enough to overhear anyway. Jane was nodding with bright eyes and a wide smile, batting her eyelashes at a tremendous rate. Suzi could almost feel the breeze from them. She laughed, "I believe that it is, yes. We're talking and we're alone if that's what you mean." Bobbi looked at her watch and groaned, "Not good enough, Suzi. You need to pick up the pace a little and keep her the hell away from shiny objects or you'll just lose her attention. My suggestions – go to the fridge and get a couple of bottles of beer since it'll save you having to get them later. Bring them back and set them down on the table. She'll stare at them and ask you what it's about and at that point, she'll be distracted and not looking at you, since the labels on that brand are made of shiny foil. You need to get her locked up tight in your sights, girl. So while she's looking at the bottles you take your top off and I'd say that you'd be home free after that. She won't even know what day it is. She's been in love with you since you two were five or six years old. Remember when she told you about how she felt inside? That was her pushing herself toward you. You were kids and you couldn't have understood it then, but I knew and I've ached that you two might get where you now are for a long time. You got all that? 'Cause I'm in the air right now and I can't come over to give you pointers tonight." Susan laughed and said that she'd do it. "Out fucking standing!" Bobbi said, "You guys have always needed to be together. I've known that for years. Please put Janey on the phone so I can growl at her for a minute." When Jane came on the line. Bobbi said, "Here's your chance. Don't screw this up, since it only took forever to get this far. I don't have either the patience or the longevity for another lap on the Janey-and-Suzi-go-round. Make her happy. Let her make you happy. And this is what I was talking about before – do not just forget about Max. Ok, I might see you Saturday for a few minutes. Even I if I don't, you get Su-jin to sign Susan on and have her call to get the uniform guy in to get her measured. You got all that?" Jane chuckled, "Yeah, I got it, thanks Bobbi. Goodnight." Night sweetie, "Bobbi said and she hung up and looked out through her windshield and sighed. Jane was staring with a soft smile. While Bobbi had been speaking to Jane, Susan had brought the beers and taken off her clothes. "I don't have ghost flames and I'm not all orange, thank God, but I'm hoping that you might see how serious I am." Jane pulled Suzi down onto her lap and she kissed her before she hugged her tightly, "As far as this goes, I was yours when you said you've really had thoughts of being with me lately." ------------------------------ This was the most god-awful night that Su-jin could imagine. Bobbi had called her hours ago and informed her that the adoption was a go if the papers were signed all-around the next day. She'd mentioned that her attorney or one of her many minions would be present at a certain time for this. Su-jin had protested and asked, "Doesn't it take time? In my country, I have read of couples waiting for years to be approved. How can this happen so quickly here?" Bobbi had stressed the difference between the types of adoption. "Private adoptions aren't subject to social workers needing to prove that they're diligent and dutiful. A good lawyer is always more diligent than almost any civil servant because they have to be. You never hear about it, but over forty percent of the total number of adoptions in this country happen this way as private agreements." That had been hours ago and Su-jin was still upset. And it was worse because that she knew that Jodi was naturally more upset. Su-jin felt a little like a thief. She'd needed to talk to somebody – even if they were just breathing and listening at the other end. But Jane was out somewhere and Bobbi had to fly to Los Angeles that evening. She'd called Kwang-jo. In his calm voice, she heard something for her that she needed to hear. The trouble was that there was no way that anyone could have calmed her completely and she knew it. But he had listened and even made the right noises at the appropriate times. Given that he was a man and taking her general opinion of men at large into account, she was a little reluctantly impressed – as well as thankful. He did offer her things which surprised her when he'd said that he'd give her two things which might give her a little bit of comfort. He'd provide his schedule to her, so that she knew when he was on duty over the next month or so until he got his next one and gave it to her as well. He also gave her three telephone numbers in addition to the one that she already had. "You might have to fiddle with phones," he'd said, "but as much as I can, you will be able to reach me if you need to. If you can't, then I will be in the middle of something and I will still get the message that you called. I promise that I will call you back. No one with a heart could pass though this and feel nothing – or only one side of it. Sometimes, talk is needed. I will try. But even so, I will always listen." She was thankful for that. Earlier in the day, they'd managed to meet up in town for lunch and in spite of what she had going on in her head and her heart, Su-jin enjoyed it. Kwang-jo had meant what he'd said about being a friend. The way that it was going, she felt that in some ways, Kwang-jo was like a male Ji-soo to her, but without the uncertainty which Ji-soo had always lived under. But she was still a ball of nervous energy with nowhere to dissipate. She looked in the fridge and saw a couple of bottles of beer. One or two of them might offer her the only chance at getting any sleep at all tonight. Maybe a bottle of beer and a little fresh air, she thought. ----------------------------------- Max was still outside. She'd wandered over to where her trike was and thrown her leg over the seat to sit in the saddle. Overall, she was happy. She leaned back so that her back was against the top of the box there and she sighed. She heard a sound after a minute and looked to find it's source in the darkness. There was a figure there, struggling with something a little and cursing quietly under her breath. Max leaned forward and the old leather seat squeaked a little bit just once. The figure looked up. "Hi," Max said quietly. She figured it might be a good opening. "Oh, hi," the person said, "I have trouble with beer bottle." She grunted for a moment, "Stupid thing. It piss me off little bit." Max leaned forward, trying to see better, "Amy? Is that you?" "Yes," Su-jin laughed a little as she stepped closer, "Who are you?" "It's me, Max." Su-jin walked up, "Hi! I wanted to meet you all week, but I never get time." Max stood up on the footboards of the trike and reached into her pocket, "I've got an opener." "That's good," Su-ji smiled, "I have a bottle." The problem was solved instantly and Su-jin held out the opened bottle, "Want some?" Max nodded and sipped a little before she handed it back. "You hide pretty good, Maxine," Su-jin said, "We live so close, but I never see you here either. I get ... determined today, but you weren't home. Gone somewhere with Jane, I think." Max nodded, "We went to Santa Fe. Jane wanted to pick up her new bike. Please, call me Max." "Ok, then you call me Su-jin, please. Deal?" Max grinned, "Sure." Su-jin saw the orange bike in the darkness, "Look pretty good. Fast, I think." Max nodded as she took the offered bottle again, "Too fast. I can't keep up with my old piggy here. Jane always has to slow up and wait for me to catch up." Su-jin stepped closer and looked at the trike, "This is nice, Max. Look older maybe, but I like it. Classy, I think. What are you doing here in the dark?" Max shrugged, "I was going to go for a walk, but I've been here for a little while now and ... I haven't thought of anywhere to walk yet." Su-jin nodded, "I wanted to go to sleep, but I already know that it won't happen for me. I was with Jodi before and I love her little boy too. But we are apart now and she will leave soon. It is crazy to me, but she does not want to take her son where she goes." She looked at Max with a troubled expression, "I leaned that I can adopt Tyler. Max, I am so upset now. Jodi is crying. Tyler will cry a lot soon – I am close to crying too. I feel like I riding crazy ride or something, like dream that is not good and not horrible – just lousy. I think that I can have Tyler for my son and I want him so much, but it will hurt Jodi forever, I think." She looked down, "That is why I am here. I want world to stop. I need to think, but I have thought of everything and it is still the same thing." Max nodded, "Do you love him?" Su-jin nodded, "Yes. Max, that is the only thing that I know like I know my name." Max smiled, "Then love him. I don't know Jodi at all. I think that she didn't plan to make him, it just happened. From when he was born to now, she's done her best, but maybe she knows that her best won't help them both." She held out her hand, "I've wanted to meet you all week. The closest that I got was to stand almost next to you when Bobbi introduced us to everyone. Do you want to go for a walk?" Su-jin nodded, "Yes. I think that I need to." She took Max' hand and they set out, just ambling along with the bottle being passed between them. "A while ago," Max said, "As I was heading south and trying to get away from the winter. I was starving." She looked over at Su-jin, "I don't mean that I missed two meals and I was hungry. I mean really starving, where I had to sit behind the windshield of my piggy doubled over in a ball and crying, it hurt so bad. I couldn't really stop because I had no place to be where it was warm. I saw a big house and ... I don't know, I just thought that maybe I could go there and ask for a little bread. Looking back now, I know that it was a mistake, but it was very hard to think straight then. I was led into a room because the man who opened the door said that he would give me food." She looked down and hesitated then as Su-jin waited. Finally she said, "Nobody gave me anything. They pulled my clothes off me and they all had fun for hours – seven men." She wiped a tear from one of her eyes and said, "I was very lucky. They threw me out into the snow naked, but none of them hit me and I was alive. For the next few weeks, I worried about what I'd do if they made me pregnant. I was starving all by myself, what would I do with a baby? As bad as it was for me, I would have given that baby up for adoption. What happened to make that baby wouldn't be the child's fault and it would have at least a chance that I couldn't give him or her. If I looked at it that way, I thought that doing that would be the only gift that I could give. I don't know what Jodi's situation is, but maybe she knows that her son will have a better life with you." She looked over, "I don't think that she believes that you're a greedy person who will take advantage of her bad luck. I also don't think that she sees you as one of those people who want a child because they'd like to see what it is to have a child. Most of those people shouldn't have children. Children aren't a hobby. I believe that Jodi's thought about it and sees that you would do anything for that boy – so to give him to you – maybe she sees it as the best gift that she can give to him." Su-jin stopped and stared at Max, "You ... you poor girl." She hugged Max tightly and a little later, Max returned the hug. She didn't understand everything that Su-jin said against her shoulder, but it was something about men and she shook her head, "I'm not big on guys, but not every one is an asshole. Some of the biggest assholes that I ever met were girls. That's how the world is. My father was a good man – and he couldn't have been the only one in the world." She sighed and looked into Su-jin's eyes with a weak little wry smile, "Assholes have no gender. They're just assholes. I'm supposed to be planning out how to do a million things to fix up a really old plane. Bobbi and Jane want to do that for a man who is really important to them both. I can't imagine that he's an asshole if they love him that much." Su-jin nodded, "I didn't mean it like ALL are like that. But sometimes to me ... when I think of it, there are some who can do the job for many. My father is one like that. Biggest asshole I ever see." She looked around, "Where is Jane? You are together with her?" Max shrugged, "Sometimes. I don't know how to say it so you can understand, Su-jin. Jane and I are ... we're like the same thing. Sometimes we NEED to be together, sometimes, not so much. It's only been a few days really. Right now, Jane has a chance with her friend from when they were kids together. I know that she's always wanted – or had a hope, maybe – of being with her old friend Suzi. I didn't know a thing about it until a couple of hours ago. We were waiting for her, but I didn't know then." Max smiled at Su-jin, "Then I saw Suzi so I asked if Jane knew her and just in the way that she told me and by the look in her face, I knew that there was something there in her chest for Suzi and it was old, Su-jin, from a long time ago." She shrugged and smiled, "And Suzi turned out to be a very sweet, nice girl, too. I don't know what went wrong if it did, but I'm kind of hoping that they can make it this time." Max looked at Su-jin, "I think that Suzi might have agreed to be with both of us – but she's never been with even one girl before, so I thought the best thing for me to do was to go for now." She smiled, "They knew each other as children. I don't want to get in the way, Su-jin. Does that make any sense at all?" Su-jin smiled and nodded, "I think you are very good friend to think like this. Max. It is hard lesson for Jane, I think." Max smiled, "I heard a little about it. I know that she was very sorry for a long time for it. I also heard that she was pretty happy to talk to you about it the other day. She told me about it and she said that it felt good to have at least a chance to be friends again. She just hasn't seen Jodi yet." Su-jin sighed, "She will not have chance if she wait very much longer. Jodi will leave soon. It was good for me when I start with Jodi, but she changed very soon after. Even so, I was happy when I come home and get Tyler from Rose in house and I play with him and feed him and we have fun. So good boy. I wait for Jodi-Lynn come home and I try to make everything better for her. But she is tired and I understand." She shrugged, "Then she get mean to me, but it was good before for a little while and I liked it." "I have something a little like that too," Max smiled, "but Jane is never mad at me for anything. Sometimes she flies until almost dark, but not every day so far. When she gets back to the hangar, I've been gone for hours. I have my wheels there so I don't have to wait. Anyway, she has her e-bike and she takes it to work so she can ride home. Modern Day Cavegirls - Happy Friday ******** See, this is one or the reasons that the timeline in this thing is a little tangled. This is set on the same day that Bobbi is out at LAX and in the evening will meet Malikah. Some of this recently appeared here in the Erotic Couplings category. I just need to get this section up to speed. If you've been following this, you might recall how Max saw Patterson at a traffic light in town. Some of that is here, so you might want to scan ahead if you need to. It's kind of a big day for Su-jinn. I just wanted to get the whole thing in for this category so nobody gets left in the dust. Uh, more than they already are, thanks to me not numbering things. Sorry. 0_o ************** Jane called Su-jin a bit before 6:00 AM and after the good morning pleasantries, she asked for Max. "Hey, I'm so glad that you didn't end up going back to the loft," Jane said, "Thank you for ..." "'Sokay," Max said, "No worries, I stayed with Su-jin. I just wanted so much to give you guys the best shot. Everything ok? Did the love potion work?" "Yes!" Jane said with a chuckle, "What love potion? Where did you get a lov-" She heard Jane blow air past her lips for a second, "A figure of speech. Listen Boss, don't you think that if I HAD a love lotion at all, that I might have used it once or twice on the way down from the frozen wastes of Pennsylvania to improve my lot in life?" "Does Pennsylvania have frozen wastes?" Jane asked. "They fucking do in winter if you're on a trike with only a cop winter windshield and leg guards to hide behind," Max grumbled, "What's up?" "Bobbi's not gonna be in and she usually gives Su-jin a ride. I was wondering if -" "Got it covered, Boss," Max smiled as a naked Su-jin walked past her and stopped on the way from her shower to blow Max a kiss before she got to work tying her hair into a long pony tail - and it was going to require the use of about six ties at least. "Can I ask you guys for a huge favor?" Jane smiled, "I need to exploit you for your Servi-car today. Could you stop and -" "A coffee run, right?" Max sighed, "Donuts too?" Jane's voice turned a little plaintive, "Yeah. Pleeeease?" Max was shaking her head, though only Su-jin could see it, "Don't you think it's a little cheap to try to buy everybody's good will in the morning with coffee and donuts? You have absolutely no shame at all, do you?" Jane chuckled, "Not if it gets me what I want and it's always worked so far. So willya do it?" Su-jin stood bent over, looking in her wallet while Max sat happily stunned, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh." The spell was broken when Su-jin stood up and held out a pair of twenties. "Max?" Jane called, "You ok?" Max took the bills with a sigh, "Never better, Chief. Consider it done." "So did you end up on her couch?" Jane probed. "A gentleman never speaks of things such as this," Max said dryly, "It is not correct." Jane groaned, "Last time I looked, Max Honey, you weren't exactly -" Su-jin was smiling into her mirror back at Max, easily close enough to hear both sides of the conversation in the quiet room. She nodded. "I stayed with Su-jin," Max repeated, "We don't know much about what's gonna happen, but she's asked me to stay with her and it saved me from begging her shamelessly, for which I am very grateful," She winked at Su-jin. "I remain at your service." She chuckled as Su-jin began to laugh softly, "Once in a while, she's willing to allow it if you have need of me or if I need your help - which is much more likely." Jane was silent for a moment, "Please tell Su-jin that I owe her. Please tell her that she's wonderful." Su-jin finished up her pony tail and looked back, "Jane, you owe me nothing, just be my friend." She laughed a little, "Forget about Max. She tell me I am wonderful all the time." -------- Max took the last tray of take-out coffees very carefully from Su-jin and set it down inside the Harley's trunk with the others. She was wearing her coveralls, standing on the back bumper and the motion caused her to be bent nearly double as she moved a small tarpaulin to act as a cushion so that the cups all remained upright in a turn. Back in the shop and in cars and pickup trucks lined up in the drive-through lane, men sat a little spellbound with their jaws in their laps, some with their tongues there as well. "If I have to be here to get looked at," Su-jin grumbled quietly, "it is another thing that I can love about these suits." Max straightened up and got down to close the lid, "It doesn't really matter. Some guys have imaginations powerful enough to come very close to being X-Ray vision. They're just built that way and they can't help it. Doesn't mean anything bad, it's more like a curse they can't help. It gets in the way. She smiled, "You want to see widespread carnage? You just kiss me right here in front of them - and I am kidding." Su-jin chuckled from the image in her head, and then she smiled widely. "Here comes Kwang-jo! He is a new friend of mine. I thought of mentioning him to you last night, but I forgot completely. Please forgive me, but I want to use him for a moment. Maybe break some hearts." Su-jin stepped forward a little to meet Kwang-jo as he came up to them and she took his hands in hers, "Please, would it be improper to hug you, Kwang-jo?" He smiled, "Not if it is not excessi-" Su-jin threw her arms around his neck and got to her toes to hug him. "Thank you for our talk last night," she whispered, "You really helped me. You are helping me feel better right now. I felt like I am standing on a stage in front of so many men. The women who come here drive through for what they want. My friend Max has her machine here, but ... too much work to put everything inside the back." She let go and stepped back a little, "Kwang-jo Kim, this is Maxine Klein. She works with me and she will room with me too. Max, this is Kwang-jo, he is -" Max chuckled as she held out her hand, "Yeah, he is. Good to meet you, Kwang-jo," she grinned. As they drove off five minutes later, they had to wait for a light. Max turned her head back a little, "Well Holy Mother of Toilet Seat, Su-jin. Where did you find him? You're amazing. For a girl who doesn't often think of them, you sure have great taste in men." She held out her left hand and shook it a little, as though she'd burned her fingers. Su-jin shrugged, but she was smiling, "I met him on Wednesday, over at Jodi's. We talked and he likes Tyler. He just offered his friendship to me because he was happy to meet someone that he could speak Korean with. He lets me talk to him when I worry about adopting Tyler. I think he is a good man. He knows about me and it is alright. I thought, why can I not have a friend like him?" Max laughed a little, "Please have a friend like him. Shit, I'd give a lot to see you two next to each other in clothes and not overalls. Do you know what he is? Like his job?" "He said he is tactical response," Su-jin said, "Sounds mysterious to me. I know that he was in the Special Forces in Korea. His brigade deals with reconnaissance a lot of the time, I think. Lots of quiet sneaking around, but I am not sure of these things." "He's a SWAT cop, here" Max said, "He probably won't ever get fat in his job, and I doubt that he spends much time handing out traffic tickets. I think I can see why you like him. He's just ... I think he's a great guy. I only met him and it was two minutes, but that's what I got from him." Su-jin had a thought, "You may see him a lot, I think. I feel the same things from him as I do from you. I feel good to be near friends like you and him. It is something that I like very much. I have not had close friends in a long time. Here, I find so many good people. Before I forget again, ask me tonight for a story. I have a good one for you." Max nodded as the light turned green and they moved on. -------- Max and Su-jin were just getting their helmets off in the parking lot when they heard Jane coming from a long way off and they just waited for her. As she got closer they looked and saw that Jane had a passenger. Max opened the trunk of her Servi-Car and carefully began to lift out trays of coffee. Susan climbed off as soon as Jane stopped and nodded back that it was safe. "I'm gonna do the morning meeting thing and Su-jin, if it's possible - since I don't know your agenda, could we all meet in your office right afterward? Us four here? And by the way, this is Susan Horseman, Su-jin. She's my oldest and dearest friend in the world. She's visiting here today, but she'll be starting with us next Monday. Suzi, please meet Su-jin Kim, our lady of the financial crystal ball." Su-jin thought for a moment and then she nodded, "Sure Jane." She stepped over and held out her hand, "My name is Su-jin, but if it gives you trouble, please call me Amy instead. I'm happy to meet you, Susan." Susan smiled, "Thank you, Su-jin. Good to meet you too." "Actually," Su-jin grinned, "If you don't have to be in the meeting, why not stay with me? I have lots of chairs upstairs. People think that bookkeepers always need to be sitting, so I have big chair budget." She held up a finger, "More importantly, I have a coffee machine that Bobbi and I share. So when these are finished," she indicated the ones in the trays that they both now held," we can stay awake by having another one." --------- Jane looked out at everybody in the shop. They looked back at her. She grinned a little helplessly and they laughed. She waited for a moment and then she smiled and lifted her hand, "Hey, it's Friday. I'm busting to say - what could go wrong now? But I won't because I've just gotten over having my butt burned off from the last time that I said it. Let's just be pleased that we got here. Our fearless leader Bobbi won't be in today, since she had to leave for LAX to deliver a shipment there and I know that she probably won't get back here until the wee hours tomorrow due to other pickups and deliveries. I've handed out your assignments for today as I know them. Note the last four words there." She smiled, "But - I'm Jane, so that means that some of them might be wrong. So if you disagree because you were already on something else and I missed it, please let me know, ok? I don't want to dump a lot of confusion on people who already know what they're doing but I do want to know if there's a problem beforehand. Anybody see a problem on their sheet?" Nobody said anything and Jane let her hand with her list drop down as she grinned, "C'mon, I got it right? That's never happened before." "Whoa," one man said as he looked at his sheet. He stepped over to another man and after looking at the second man's sheet together; they exchanged sheets and looked at Jane with nods. She laughed, "You guys are awesome!" Jimmy Weisskopf put up his hand, "Janey? Hey, who do I get on the line today? I heard that I'm gonna lose Max there for a while." Jane nodded, "Bobbi told me that she's pretty sure that she's got the funds in the bag for the new project, but as far as I'm aware, that hasn't happened yet officially. So today, it's still gonna be Mighty Max. Could be that way on Monday too, I dunno yet." One of the men laughed quietly, "Mighty Max?" The guy next to him nudged a little, "Who do you think brought all of those donuts and coffees over there on the bench?" The first one grinned, "Right. Mighty Max." He sighed loudly, "My hero." "Oh!" Jane exclaimed quietly. She half-turned to Max so that Jimmy could listen in, "I almost forgot. Sometime, midmorning or so as far as I know, Patterson will come to check out the Norseman's engine. He's our engine guy and he works for Tempest Av Engines. We don't know at all, but we think that after all this time, the one up there is more than likely pooched. He'll just be here to look under the cowling and take down some data, maybe give us an idea about if he's got an engine like that or if we'll have to rebuild the one in it. So you'll need to be available if and when he does show to take him up to the shed and show him to the old bird. I'll call down to Jimmy if I know he's here. In the meantime," she smiled to everyone, "Mighty Ms. Maxine was kind enough to agree to my request, so she and Amy brought in coffee and donuts for you all via Harley-Davidson Servi-car express hot delivery. No spilling on the shop drawings and no fights over the donuts. Enjoy, ok? Just make them disappear and try to slurp cautiously since this is a work environment and there's no checkbox that I'm aware of on the accident report form for that kind of injury. The liquid burns one is too vague. Have a great day and I'll be wandering around anyway if anybody needs me." ---------- They gathered in Su-jin's office and sat down. "I was talking to Bobbi last night," Jane said to Su-jin. "She asked me to ask you to call the uniform guy in for Monday. Suzi here is gonna take over for Max while she's working on the Norseman restoration. If there are any forms that you can fill in for her without dating them until Monday, I'd say go ahead." She looked a little uncertain for a moment, "I don't know how it's done in the accounting world, but whenever the right time is for it, maybe think about setting up an account number that things for the Norseman can be charged to. Is that the way it goes?" Su-jin nodded with a smile, "Yes, not bad, Jane. I will also assign a block of purchase order numbers to it so that things can be paid for easily. But I am curious now. Max showed me this big old plane last night. What will it be used for when the work is complete?" Jane shrugged, "I would think that it's going to be for tasks that it would be suited for - and also, it's for Damian." "Damian?" Su-jin asked, "Who is this? Does he work for us? I have not met -" Jane shook her head, "He's a partner. Since Quicksilver's was founded, he's had some involvement occasionally, but it's never been his main thing because of his employment. He works for someone else most often. But this has always been his goal, once he was finished. He's family and also, he's been an investor when it was needed early on. He's my cousin, Bobbi's too. That's about all that I can tell you, other than to say that the next time that he comes home, I'd be very happy to introduce you, Su-jin. Bobbi keeps him informed about what's going on all the time. He knows that we have a great bookkeeper. He knows that I found Max in the shed." She smiled, "He likes these things. We haven't told him about the Norseman yet because we want it to be a surprise for him." "Oh for Pete's sake, Janey," Suzi said, "You're making him out to be a super mystery when Su-jin only asked who he is." She looked at Su-jin, "Damian's a man. He was born here in Angel Fire, on the Sorrensson farm, just like Bobbi was, only it was one lot over, since that's where his family was then. His father's still there, running the farms. Damian left town after Bobbi did. She came back first from the Air Force. Damian works somewhere else. He's a good man. I remember when he and Bobbi used to come to get Janey after they got home from school every day. He looks like he'd be Bobbi's big brother, only ... bigger in some ways. You'll know him when you meet him." Su-jin's desk phone rang and she picked it up. There was a short conversation, but she looked concerned as it went on. Finally, she said goodbye and hung up. She looked at Jane, "That was Bobbi's lawyer. Jodi began to tell her associate that she has changed her mind about Tyler. I was a little bit glad in a way to hear that, but sad for myself." She looked down, "But Bobbi knew that this might happen if Jodi found out that Bobbi was out of town and her lawyer told Jodi that it was her choice, but that she now has to leave as soon as possible, since the extension was only in place to allow for the adoption. So she was back to being out by 5 PM tomorrow." She shook her head, "So now Jodi wishes for it to go ahead again. I cannot understand her. If he was my son, I would take him and go, not make deals and try to break them afterward. The lawyer said that Jodi was informed that if she wished, she could contact the county services and Tyler could go there if it was something about me that Jodi had trouble with. But Jodi said no, that she would keep to the agreement now and that she wanted Tyler to be with me." She looked up with a weak smile, "I now officially have a headache. Does anyone have anything?" Suzi nodded, reaching for her shoulder bag, "I've got some Tylenol, Su-jin." Su-jin had just swallowed the capsules and washed them down with some coffee when the phone rang again. When she hung up, she seemed almost upset again, "They ask that I go there to sign the papers. Jodi is ready to sign. I said that maybe now is not a good time, but the lawyer say it should be now." Jane said, "Come on, Su-jin, I'll drive you there in Bobbi's truck." "Can I come too?" Suzi Said and Jane nodded, "Sure." ------------------- When they arrived, one of the lawyer's associates took Su-jin aside and showed her the papers, "Please sign where I've put sticky tabs, Ms. Kim, but not until I direct you to. Ms. McLeod will need to sign either today or Monday. This agreement is conditional on a time frame, since Bobbi Sorrensson was very specific about it." She looked at Su-jin, "This is about adopting that little boy to you, and we all understand that. But Bobbi wants very much for Ms. McLeod to be gone. That is her goal in this. She was quite clear that the time extension exists solely to allow for the placement of the boy into your care. These are really two agreements, but the overriding one is the one with the clock attached to it. Usually, there is some monetary transfer to these adoption agreements." Su-jin was stunned, "But ... I don't - I can't -" The associate smiled, "It's alright, Ms. Kim. Bobbi has seen to everything. Ms. McLeod will be paid the sum of five thousand dollars by you which Bobbi has provided for me to give to you when you sign. You are to give it right back to me and it will be held in trust and not given over until Ms. McLeod gives you the child after the rest is complete with her signature. This way, Bobbi will have Ms. McLeod's signature that she received the moneys and Ms. McLeod will have funds to leave with. The money is a gift to you from Bobbi and her father and Rose Sorrensson. They've all seen that you love Tyler very much and would give him a better home than was possible by his mother. She's only allowed an extension into next week if these papers are signed off. If it goes past Monday, Bobbi will get the police involved regardless since some of Rose Sorrensson's jewellery was found in a pawn shop in town. She will be filing charges with the Sherriff's Office here at that time. The clerk in that store has indicated that it was Jodi who pawned the item there based on the photo which was presented to him. In order to avoid being arrested, Ms. McLeod must agree and then leave. "So any way that this goes now, Jodi can either give Tyler to Su-jin or the county takes him since she'll probably be in jail for at least some time, depending on whether anybody posts her bail," Jane said. "I'm sorry," the associate said, "Who are you, please?" "I'm Jane Sorrensson, Bobbi's sister. Sorry if I was being rude or anything," Jane said, "I'll just uh, step over there and keep my nose where it belongs, if it's all the same to you, Ma'am." Su-jin thought it over, "So if Jodi does not sign today, but says that she will sign on Monday, then she can stay here over the weekend. If she signs today, she can stay for a week more. If she does not sign on Monday, then all of these things will happen, yes?" Modern Day Cavegirls - Happy Friday The associate nodded, "That's correct. Ms. McLeod has overstayed her welcome as far as Bobbi and her family are concerned." "Can I go to speak to Jodi - or is that not possible?" Su-jin asked her. "It probably wouldn't be wise," the woman said. "I'll go for you since I'm not involved directly," Jane said, "What do you want me to say?" ---------------- Jane came back and asked for the papers. The associate told her that she'd have to come along to witness the signing. Su-jin didn't know whether she ought to be hopeful or just miserable. She decided that miserable over all of this was probably the correct thing here. She watched as Jane and the legal associate came back a few minutes later. The associate's face was blank. Jane looked annoyed. "It's off," Jane said with a tone of disgust, "She wants twenty-five thousand and she stood there waiting like she expected the lawyer there to just pull it out of her ass. Sorry Su-jin, but I can't see this - " Jodi was there all of a sudden, "Ok, I'll sign," she said. "That way," Jane said angrily as she pointed to the lawyer, "It's her you have to convince. I haven't got any part in this." Su-jin just raised her hands and shook her head as she turned away. As much as she loved Tyler, she was about to decline herself. ----------------------- Thirty-five minutes later, Jodi was driving away as Su-jin watched. Behind her, the house was a huge mess, since Su-jin hadn't been there since Tuesday. Among the items discarded by Jodi were the laptop and the tablet PC that Su-jin had bought for her. Neither one had been touched since that day. Tyler was still sleeping, having gone down for his nap and Su-jin felt awful. She looked and found that at least there were diapers and food to get by on for a couple of days. Su-jin didn't really know what to do. She looked at Jane and Suzi, "Please, wait here. I need to get something out of my house." They nodded, feeling for Su-jin. Su-jin opened the door to her house and walked in, she looked around and found Max' pack of dried-out, half-crushed cigarettes. Picking them up, she walked to where Jane stood and asked for the keys to Bobbi's truck. Jane blinked at her and handed them over. From there, Su-jin put the ignition switch in the truck to the accessory position and punched the cigar lighter, hoping that it wasn't one of the things which weren't working. With a cigarette lit a minute later, she walked back and handed Jane the keys. Jane's eyebrows rose to nearly her hairline. "I am prioritizing and ... rationalizing," Su-jin growled, "Not have anything left anymore. For next ten minutes, please look after my son if he wakes up. I trying ... " She sighed, "Trying not to cry. I have Tyler. I have SO big mess from greedy Bitch Girl. I should be happy now." She groaned, "I feel like I have just bought my child - with someone else's money. How I can feel happy?" She sat down on the porch and leaned back against the railing. She took a puff and looked at the cigarette for a moment. "This is one shit day for Su-jin." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She felt it as Jane sat beside her and said, "Move your head. I want to put my arm around you." Su-jin did it and took another puff. "Why?" Jane chuckled," Because you're amazing me again. I am so proud to know you, Su-jin." She pulled out her phone, "I gotta check in with Bobbi. You want to tell her anything?" Su-jin's eyes were closed again, "Tell her what you need to, Jane. Let me talk to her after. Last thing. Thank you for being my friend." Jane looked over, "Thanks for being mine too." She leaned over and kissed Su-jin on the lips softly and Su-jin understood it completely. She noticed Suzi next to her on the other side and she sighed when Suzi took her hand to hold, "I need more Tylenol, a fresh package of mild cigarettes, and lots of beer. And weekend off. That the really important one. But instead, I will smoke one more and throw these shit things away. Then I will stand up and begin to clean house." Jane shook her head, "Nope. You're gonna sit here, we'll get Tyler's fold-up playpen, that cool backpack to carry him in and we'll take all of the Tyler stuff to your place. You're not going to live here until we clean it - all of us for you, and even then, not til we change the locks. I can't believe Jodi. She leaves everything and just drives off. She acted like, with five grand in her pocket, she can always get new stuff. She keeps thinking like that, she's gonna be broke in a week or less. Good thing I asked her for Tyler's car seat." She called Bobbi and told her it was done and that Jodi was gone. After their conversation, she handed Su-jin the phone. "Thank you Bobbi," Su-jin said, "But you do so much for me, I do not know where to start." Bobbi laughed, "Honey, it was my pleasure. You work so hard for me and we all love you to death. Tyler needs a mom and he picked you the first time that he laid his little eyes on you." Su-jin chuckled tiredly, "Bobbi, he bit my boob. Not great welcome into his life for me, but I love him so much." Bobbi chuckled, "Well, at least you didn't have to push him out of you. You want to pay me back Su-jin, take me to dinner or you know what? Make me a dinner of Korean food. I've never had that. I'll take that as payment, ok?" Su-jin smiled, "Ok, but you have to tell me when in next two weeks or so. I need notice to prepare something. Deal?" "Deal," Bobbi smiled, "I used to ache when I thought of that boy being raised by Jodi. If I can have just one more thing, please let me be a part of his life. Tell him I'm his Aunt Bobbi, ok? That would really make me happy." "Sure," Su-jin smiled into the phone. "I wanted to tell you, but you are not here. I don't think it matters, but Max will live with me now. Jane told you she is with Suzi. I meet her today and I really like her. Max needed place to sleep so ... she sleep with me. We will try. I think it work ok. I filled out everything for Suzi to start on Monday and called uniform company like you wanted. When will you be home?" "Sometime tomorrow," Bobbi said, "I might need until Sunday to get some real sleep, though. I'll try to see you and Max and TYLER then. I'm glad about you and Max, too." -------------- "This is the part that I am afraid of," Su-jin whispered, "How long before he misses Jodi? How bad will it be? I don't know anything." "We can keep him busy for a while," Jane said, "We'll take him to work and he can stare at everything. I can take him to the ramp and he can watch the planes with me for a little while. With any luck, he might not notice that Jodi's not here until after you put him down for the night. By tomorrow, that's already a day gone, so who knows?" Tyler was pleased to see Su-jin when they woke him. She changed him and gave him a bottle with fruit juice in it and they all walked to the truck. He was curious and seemed to notice Jane for the first time then, but he was happy, remembering her from before maybe and they drove to the airport. -------- Tyler loved being in his playpen in Su-jin's office too. She shrugged when Max stopped by, "He acts like it is HIS office," Su-jin chuckled, "When anybody comes, he stands up and wants to see them. So good boy." Suzi was smitten at her first look at Tyler back at the house. Now, he had a lock on her heart too, "Awww, he's adorable!" For his part, Tyler stood in his playpen, sucking on his bottle like it was a ten dollar cigar. He considered Suzi in a managerial way it seemed, and then he reached for her. Suzi picked him up and hugged him, so he began to talk to her, but none of the phrases that he knew really covered "I like you" really properly, but he didn't much care. Jane was passing through the office at the time and she just chuckled, "Another conquest. That kid can snag a woman's heart from forty feet. I can't wait for him to hit his teenage years. Better get ready, Su-jin, it's probably gonna be a little ugly, all the girls trying to get his attention at school." Max had a different game plan, however. She took Tyler out of his playpen and sat him down on the carpet with her. While he looked at her, she found a couple of his toy trucks and set them down between them. She lay down completely, right at his level and then she started pushing one truck around, doing the sound effects as she went. Tyler was delighted! He was right with her and they had a blast together while Su-jin gave up all hope of getting anything done anymore and watched them with tears of laughter in her eyes. "How did you know that he would want to play like that?" She asked Max, who was trying her hand at changing him afterward. Max shrugged, "We've got some things in common, that's all." Suzi was fascinated as she watched Tyler go when he was set down again. He walked over to his toys and began to zoom them around. She looked at Max and asked, "Such as?" Max shrugged, "I don't know what I want to be when I grow up either." Jane's phone went off and she keyed the mike button, "Yeah Jimmy." "Patterson's here. Can you get Max to come down or what should I do?" Max was already walking toward the glass door then, but she recoiled and came back. Jane saw the look and keyed her mike, "Wait one." Jimmy double-clicked to acknowledge and he waited. "What's the matter?" Max groaned, "Bobbi sent me into town on an errand on Tuesday. I was stopped at a light and that guy there was beside me. He was screwing with his tape player or something and out of nowhere this Led Zeppelin song started blasting out at top volume about juice running down somebody's leg. I heard it and I thought it was funny. There was nobody around, so when he looked at me, I just smiled and blew him a kiss after mouthing the words to him. Then I left. The next light, he got the tape thing working again but it was still the same song, so I sang along about falling out of bed while he was staring at me and we laughed about it. Then I buggered off and forgot about the whole thing. I didn't know who he was, but now he's here!" She looked down, "But this is for Bobbi, so I gotta go, I guess." Su-jin was up and walking over, "I have to see this man who makes you do these things. Might be fun or something." Max pointed and Su-jin nodded, "He's cute! Ok, you do your thing. I'm good." She said as she walked back to her desk. Jane and Suzi began to laugh and even Max smiled over it. Max was still smiling, "Do my thing?" Su-jin hadn't gotten around her desk by then but she just threw up her arms and danced a little because she felt a lot better now over getting Tyler, "Do what ya wanna do." "I'd rather stay and watch more of that," Max chuckled. "Ok," she sighed, thinking about having to meet Patterson, "the Ice Princess Cometh," and she walked to the door thinking of maintaining her distance. Jane keyed her mike," Max is gonna meet Patterson at the farm, Jimmy. Tell him that I'm coming down and I'll lead him there before I head out to grab a few things for Su-jin." "'Kay.'" Jimmy replied. Jane looked over at Max, "I can stick around a little if you want once we all get there. Bobbi and I always try to spend a little time with Patterson whenever he comes. He always looks so lonely, and we just like him. Once you get past his shyness and draw him out a little, he's a nice guy. We don't know it of course, but we always get the thought that being with us always makes his day. I've seen him when he gets here and he's all looking down and even sad. But when he leaves if we fuss over him a little bit, he's almost springing with every step. I've never figured out why he's like that, but if it is because he's lonely, it's just wrong to me. And you'd better believe that he knows his business. If he was any better at his job, you wouldn't even have to help him get the cowling off. He could just tell you everything from about ten feet away." Max looked at Suzi, "Can I borrow Jane for about twenty minutes?" Suzi was sitting with Tyler and she nodded, "Sure, Max." Jane keyed her phone and told Jimmy that she'd be down to lead him to where the old plane was. ---------- Su-jin was sitting with Tyler, thinking that her day had really picked up at last. She was feeling much better about everything now and if there was any trouble, well she'd just handle it. Her eyes widened as a thought came to her and she pulled out her phone. Kwang-jo picked up on the second ring and Su-jin told him that she'd gotten Tyler and had him in her office at work. Su-jin told him about the nerve-wracking progress of the delaying and the dealing and then it was suddenly over. She mentioned that the house looked like a warzone and that she had a huge cleanup awaiting her. Kwang-jo didn't hesitate and offered to help. She was little surprised and said that some of her friends had also offered, so Kwan-jo suggested that they make a day of it and he offered to bring something, asking if she had a barbecue. So they talked about it and it became a project. ------------ Patterson was standing near the open door to wait for Jane when he thought that he heard the Harley start and looking back though the doorway, he saw the mystery man as he backed it out of the parking spot. Without a look back, the trike rolled off. Patterson sighed just before Jane walked up with the smile that he always got from her and he felt a little better then. At least he knew that his guesses over the past few days had been correct. He wanted to shake his head. Fat lot of good his guesses would do. He was stuck very firmly in his closet and he knew it. ----------- "It's right up there in that big shed, Patterson," Jane pointed, "I'll meet you up there in a minute. I live just over there and I'm just gonna check my messages to see if there's anything from Bobbi." He nodded and turned toward the old rutted path. He saw the old trike there as he'd pulled in and he wondered now, but he was here to do something, so he thought that he could wonder later on his own time. ------- Jane met Max as she came out of the door to Su-jin's place, "Where did you disappear to?" Max shrugged, "Had to pee when I got here. All that coffee, y'know?" Jane nodded, but she also knew that Max was usually nervous about being near men that she didn't know at all - which probably covered most of the male surface population, anyway. She understood. "You ok now?" "Yeah," Max sighed, "I just want to get the feeling stupid part over with." --------- Patterson was walking up the hill toward the shed and Max and Jane were behind him. He hadn't noticed them yet. Jane called out, "Hey Patterson, wait up!" He stopped and turned around. Max looked down at her feet as she walked. Since Tuesday, Paterson had three days to wonder every so often who that person on the Harley was. He wasn't one of those fools who obsessed over a lot of things, but with a social schedule as ... absolutely empty as his was, he had time to think. Even if he didn't want to. He recalled seeing the coveralls and by Thursday morning, he'd gotten past the leather jacket and wondered if there was a large logo across the back of those coveralls. It had come to him when he was at the bank behind a Quicksilver's employee who wore his coverall into town. As he'd pulled into the lot today, he'd looked around and - there it was - the silver-gray Harley trike. Now he was looking at Jane walking toward him and he liked that. But now he was looking at the figure walking next to Jane. He saw the coveralls, but then everybody wore them back at the hangar. He noticed the brown hair too and the overall build. With all of the cold, calculating thought processes that the human penis can bring to bear on anything, Patterson felt the twitch and sighed inwardly. Not now. Please not ... not now. But as they approached, he got the message over the internal intercom. 'Yup. Now. Deal with it, Jocko. We're going to action stations with or without you.' Patterson held his red metal toolbox in front of himself, like it was a lunchbox and he was waiting for the bus. Jane gave no sign that she'd seen anything, but as he watched, Patterson saw those sea-green eyes come up and look at him. The act of tightening of his groin muscles once was something that was ... just, semi-preventable, but in an erect male, it always felt a little good to do it. He fought the small urge. And he lost. There was no outwardly visible sign that anything had happened because he was clothed after all and he had the toolbox in the way. But if it was any more ridiculous, there would have been an audible clang, since the tip of his dick was now ready to fight it's way through the underwear and the zipper and the red steel that was blocking it. He switched hands on the handle of the toolbox, trying to think ahead to the inevitable introduction followed by the handshake. "Hey Patterson," Jane smiled, "This is Maxine Klein. She's gonna be working on dealing with getting the Norseman out of the mess on the other side of this door here. After that, she'll be playing a large role in it's restoration. Max, this is Patterson Dillon of Tempest Av Engines, they're our prime supplier of rebuilt piston engines." Max stopped in front of Patterson and held out her hand as Jane stepped past to open the door. Patterson was wondering if he'd heard the name properly. This was a woman? A moment later, Patterson was intrigued - but without meaning to, Max brought the reality of this back. He greeted Jane in his usual heartfelt and slightly shy manner and then he held his hand out to Max. As she shook Patterson's hand, Max looked down and Patterson wanted to run away. "Nice tool ... box," Max said quietly. She stepped past him, wondering how she could save this. She hadn't meant to embarrass him, but ... it had been a bit of a surprise. Most men that she ever met weren't ready to wave the flag quite that quickly. As in - it hadn't ever happened before and the line was out of her mouth before she'd even known it. "I saw you in town the other day," she said, wanting to make conversation and then realizing that it was ... Oh fuck it, she told herself, Just try to get past this. "I was having a bit of trouble with the cassette player in my car - which is prehistoric," he said. "I didn't mind," she looked back a little, "I've always had a thing for that song." Right, she told herself. You try to sound cheery and you make it worse. Fucking awesome, Maxine. She led him to the old Norseman, but he tripped over two large blocks of cast iron, since he was looking at her coverall-covered ass, which was as lean as the rest of her so it was a stretch to do. Even bringing the overrated X-Ray vision into play didn't work, since there weren't enough visual cues to connect any dots. The second time, he dropped the toolbox and hearing the crash, Max turned back instantly and knelt on one knee to help, before the box opened and spilled tools everywhere. Her efforts caused her to reach for the handle and her hand grazed the lump in his pants. Patterson groaned. Max looked into his eyes and smiled because she couldn't help it. She doubted that he'd see it the way that she did, but she thought it was just funny, one of those little awkward comedies that happen sometimes. Doing that turned her eyes on without her meaning it and Patterson was almost lost. Max looked back at Jane and said there was nothing wrong, but Patterson had dropped his toolbox and she was giving him a little help picking it up. She was a little proud of herself at sidestepping the obvious little joke about her giving him a hand. Modern Day Cavegirls - Happy Friday "It's ok, Patterson," she smiled, "I'm sorry that I didn't warn you about all the old shit in here." She reached for the bulge and smiled, "You've gotta be more careful in here, ok?" He nodded and Max gave in to letting her little grin out as she squeezed it just a bit. Max was well aware of why Patterson had tripped. You can't navigate a junkyard while you're holding a toolbox over your junk. She wanted to give her head a shake. She was stuck wanting him to feel a little better because she didn't know him and he was obviously not the kind of jerk that she'd grown to hate with a passion. He was just an awkward and very shy man, trapped in a situation. She remembered what Jane had said about him and if he was that lonely, well it wasn't her problem, though she could understand. And he was cute. And he had a boner and it was only making all of this worse for him, though she didn't mind it. In spite of himself and his troubles, he was a little interesting to her. "Here it is," Jane said, indicating the old aircraft as they reached her, "Where is the manufacturer's plate that you need to see?" Patterson felt a little better, since his over-interested dick felt like it was calming down. He'd really liked Max - back when she was a man - as far as he'd been aware. He had this little wondering back-thought going on in his head, asking himself why he'd had the reaction and why it had continued after he'd learned of Max' gender. He didn't normally spring a cast-iron hard on just because he was near somebody - even if he had an interest, and for sure, it hadn't ever happened over a female. But he answered Jane's question, "There ought to be one in the cabin that I'll need some of the info from, but the main one will be under the cowling, so I'll need to get that off, or at least some of it. There ought to be the operator manuals in the cabin too." He looked around at the plane, "Bobbi told me that this one was originally a military one. The manuals for those ones usually weren't as good. We'll have to see." "Can I leave you with Max?" Jane asked, "I've got to check on the guys back in the shop. I'm filling in for Bobbi today and I don't have that knack that she's got. One of them runs into a problem and she seems to know it before it happens and she's right there or on her way and she tells him what she wants and that's it. Most of them don't need me at all, they can figure it out for themselves, but there are one or two ..." "We're good, Jane," Patterson said and so Jane nodded and walked away. As soon as the door to the outside closed, Max was in front of Patterson. "Listen Patterson," she said, "I'm very sorry if I caused you to feel uncomfortable or anything. The thing at the traffic lights in town was just me feeling good and suddenly finding out that the source came from your car and ..." She shrugged, "I just felt good and I think that we got to share a laugh between us." Patterson nodded, wondering why he didn't feel like distancing himself from this female - since it was always the way that he felt. He didn't usually feel the way that he had in school before anymore. Now he just felt... nothing. It had never occurred to him that it was alright to feel nothing, depending, of course, but talking to Max was sure a lot easier than having his teeth drilled. "I don't know what that was about back there outside, but I did figure out why a man might want to carry his toolbox the way that you were. It's alright." He looked down, "It just happened. It's a guy thing, but there's no off switch for it. Once it happens, I'm stuck until it gives up." "Holding your toolbox," Max said with a little smile. Patterson nodded, "Yeah. And sometimes wishing that I had a toolbox to be holding there. Having to wear summerweight slacks makes it worse, but I'm not supposed to wear jeans." "Jeans would help?" Max asked. Patteron nodded, "Not completely, but some, yes." Max laughed a little, "You've gotta try to see it from a girl's side. We don't get that ... I dunno, runaway anything, so it's a little ... kind of disconcerting to hear a guy say that there's no control for it that you can just shut down." He nodded, "I'm not sure that it would do me any good anyway. I wasn't exactly able to get my stereo to shut up as quick as I wanted." Max stood with her head down, her hand over her mouth chuckling. "What did I say?" He asked. Max began to laugh, while trying not to and she turned to grin at him, "I've always had trouble with visuals. I just had one where a man stands there and - " She stood with her back bent backwards a little with her arms in a position of some sort of alarm. "Oh no!" She walked stiffly like a man with no knees, "Gangway! Rampant dick syndrome! Ah! NOOOO! A revolving door! What'll I do? Help!" Patterson laughed and nodded and Max was almost doubled over, laughing. She straightened up and grinned at Patterson a little bit. She looked at him just as he was nodding, "Something like ... that. Christ, I've never even thought of a revolving door." "Well it's a hazard then I guess," Max smiled, "you wander into one of those at a time like that and BAM! You're one of us - but without the opposite replacement parts." She looked at him and saw the way that he was looking back and she just knew something about him without knowing how she knew it. It came as a surprise to her to find that she liked him more for it. She had a sudden thought come to her that he was somehow the kind of man that she didn't feel like stepping away from out of feeling uncomfortable and nervous. It was a shock for her to notice that for once, that feeling was absent completely and she felt relaxed and even pleased to be near him. That was a huge first to her. She wanted to explore it. Noticing that she had his gaze locked, she turned her eyes on and smiled. "Put the toolbox down." He looked at her like she was speaking Polish or something. "Put it down." He began to bend his knees, looking at her like she had a gun on him. He set it down and let go of the handle to stand straight again. "Step back, away from the toolbox," Max said quietly, "I need a little room." He took two steps back, looking over his shoulder as he did. When he looked ahead again, Max was right there. She put her arms around his neck and leaned in. Their kiss was shocking and really exhilarating to Patterson - an almost palpable and independent thing, like it existed in spite of him. He'd been totally unprepared and it took him a second to respond, wondering why he did. But he did, and Max was thrilled. She kissed him hard and needfully, needing to hear his quiet moan as her kiss took him away. She pulled back for a moment and waited for his eyes to open. When they did, she drew her right hand back and watched as he gasped because his flagging dick had all but finally gotten the message that there was nothing coming to it. But it surged in Max' hand, happy beyond belief for the attention now, not sharing it's owner's concern over what was happening to him. Max was just thankful that his pants left her the space for this. She lunged for him again and laid another kiss on him that took away the breath which was just returning to him. He wondered if he was going to pass out. But there was enough air still in his lungs for him to groan loudly and Max drew back with a smile that made him feel like he was superman or something - a completely new feeling. "I hope that it goes without saying that I like you a lot," she smiled as her hand caressed him. Patterson nodded, "But ... why?" Max leaned in and began to groan softly into his neck as she kissed him there, "Because I've never met anyone like you before. I've never liked most of the men I've ever had any dealings with. I just lose every time, no matter what. But you're different." She pulled back, "I like that. I'd bet that this isn't even anything that you ever knew that you wanted - but it wants you, believe me. Look," she said, "We're obviously not supposed to be doing this. It probably contravenes codes of conduct to our employers big time. But we're alone here Patterson. Nobody can see us here. So we can do what you came here to do in a little while. I've just gotta make a bit of a statement to you here, that's all - and we can talk about it later." Max tried to sink to her knees, but ended up sitting on the toolbox - which was handy as hell - and it took her seconds to get Patterson's dick out and into her willing hands as he stared in disbelief. She liked this a lot and she checked, but her memory told her that she had permission for this. Out of likely anyone in the room, she knew what Su-jin was telling her when she'd said it. Max kissed Patterson's rock hard dick and licked the end. There was seminal fluid there and when she tasted it, she moaned softly and began. Patterson groaned, but it came out like much more of a tortured, whimpering thing and Max was absolutely thrilled, knowing now beyond any doubt that she was a truly strange animal to him and that he'd never gotten much from anyone before in his sweet life. She didn't know how exactly, but she intended to fix that for him. She went at this like a pro - since she had more than the background for it. This wasn't sucking a little half-heartedly on a man who didn't know any better because you needed to keep him locked up until you had his ring on your finger before it became only an annual birthday gift to him - if that. This also wasn't some hooker doing what she was being paid to do. Max didn't know shit about those things. She'd learned this from needing food or gas money or just a quiet place to sleep out of the cold wind, from being desperate to stay alive. From managing to keep her wits about her and doing this well and not letting her fear rise up very much so that it was obvious. She'd learned this - getting her technique down really well - because more than once ... She'd had to do this in an alleyway on her knees with a pistol pointed at her head. She pushed those thoughts back and sucked him in deeply and getting up on her knees a little higher, she overrode her gag reflex and sucked him in deeply enough so that her lips and nose were buried in Patterson's soft pubic hair and she moaned to let him know that she loved it. She smelled the scent of his soap from his morning shower When she drew back, she looked up and saw that his eyes were wide in shock and she had to fight down her want to laugh. So she did it again, going in all the way so that his cock was in as far as it would go - where the act of her swallowing nothing around the head almost drove him to his knees. Then she pulled back and let him watch her worship him a little. To her surprise, it really wasn't a show for him. She really was enjoying him. She reached for his hand with hers and after holding his fingers in hers as she brushed the tops of his knuckles with her thumb for a minute, she took his hand and placed it on the back of her head, just before she licked the underside of the tip slowly with a groan - which he thrilled her with by joining in. She'd been careful, guessing about him and she didn't want him to blow off in thirty-two seconds. She'd made him last for over five minutes, but she knew that he couldn't take much more - not in a first go. So Max pulled back and gave him another little show of the way that she made love to him so that he could see it, savoring him and running her lips and tongue over him as she looked into his eyes. She pulled back, licked her lips and smiled , "Hang on to your socks, cutie. I'm gonna take all that you can give me right now - and before you ask me why, it's because I really, really want it from you." Patterson didn't know what sort of response that she wanted from him in this - or if any was required from him. He thought that he must look like an idiot - but he nodded to her. Max couldn't keep the smile from her face, "God, you're fantastic just to watch right now." She opened her mouth and held onto his ass as she dove deep. Her swallowing around his dick took him to Paradise within a minute and he cried out several times as he spurted. Max thought that she just might cry over it. He was amazing to her. Since he was already blasting, she drew back so that she could get some and she savored it, knowing that he was watching her. When she'd gotten it all, he watched as she got back up, smiled that soft little smile to him one time and then took him into her arms and kissed the life right out of him - or tried to, anyway. She jammed her tongue into his mouth, going after his in a big way and once she had him still and groaning, she pushed as much of his come back into his mouth as she could, adding most of the spit that was in her mouth to it, and she held him that way, one of her hands drifting down to hold onto his ass tightly until it was done. Even before she left him go - even before he'd finished swallowing his own seed, Max knew beyond any doubt that he was hers, just from the way that he melted into her once he knew what she was giving him. She allowed him the dazed way that he looked at her. She guessed that he wouldn't know what to say once he had any control back. Max leaned in and rubbed her wet cheek over his and sighed, "I really loved doing that for you, Patterson. I think that I can guess that you've swallowed your own come before and to me, that's a really nice thought. We're gonna be spending a bit of time in here, you and me over the next while, I'd guess. But I want you to know that I'd do that for you almost any time. That wasn't just a one-off thing." She pulled back and he looked dazed, but he nodded, "Thank you, Max." Max smiled, "No, thank you, Patterson. I mean that. C'mon, before we lose too much more time. Let's get what you came for. If there's anything that you need from me, just let me know." She giggled a little, "And if there isn't, I'm just gonna stand here and admire you all afternoon." He stared at her and finally, he laughed a little and nodded as he picked up the toolbox and pulled out a notepad and a pen. ----------- As they got close to the door, Max stopped Patterson. "Please, can I have your phone number?" He nodded and wrote it down on a page of his notepad, tearing it off to give to her. "I ... I don't know what to say, Max. I've never... had anything happen to me like that before." Max nodded, "It's ok. I'm sure that most people haven't either. I just saw somebody again that I really liked the first time that I saw him and I knew that I had a chance to make you mine." He looked at her a little curiously and she grinned with her hand on her hip in an exaggerated way, "Are you gonna tell me that you're not mine now?" Max looked like she knew that it was a foregone conclusion and she was a little certain that it was. She'd heard what Jane had said of Patterson and she thought that she had a pretty good clue as to why he always looked unhappy. There was just this little bit of uncertainty right here, so that's why she'd laid it out in front of him this way. It was unusual for her in the extreme, but then so was giving a man that she'd only just met a blowjob like she meant it. Which, surprisingly enough, she really had. He stood there and she counted silently. She didn't even get to six before he nodded. "Well that's the way that I saw it, "she smiled. "Now I just want to see if we can get it someplace into being a real thing, because we don't know each other. I hope that you're not ... attached to anyone. I can guess that you aren't but I don't know it so I'm hoping. I am attached - to another girl - but that doesn't mean much for this. She gave me her permission for this. So I'm gonna do what I can to keep both of you happy and, once I get you calm enough to even think about it, it's my hope that you can meet her and she can meet you. But this - what we did today - Patterson, it's my real hope that you can accept it. I won't ever mistreat you and all I want is the same thing back, ok?" She gave him a count of three and then she grinned with a slightly shy and very hopeful expression, "Please?" He chuckled and she knew that she had him then, so she grabbed him and laid a good one on him, really meaning it. He still looked dazed when she pulled away and she smiled at him a little proudly. "That's to let you know how I feel about you." Patterson smiled and Max felt happy. They opened the door and walked down the path together. "Does this make you my girl, Max?" he asked quietly, "I'm just asking, but I've never had one before." Max nodded, "Yes. As much as I can be, I guess." She sighed, "I've never had a boyfriend either, not a real one, anyway." "Well..." he began as he thought about it, "what kind have you had before?" She groaned and looked down, "The truth is ugly Patterson. The only ones that I've had - and I mean the ones who've meant anything to me at all - they were the quiet kind that just hum when I shove them into me. Those relationships are the easiest ones to manage, since there IS a switch on those ones. You must know the kind that I'm talking about, right? I think it's the same kind that you've probably had: quiet ones who hum while you shove them -" He nodded, "Yeah. But I prefer to sit on them then, most times." Max groaned, "Oh God, I hope that you'll let me see that one day. I'd love to watch that." He looked over and she nodded, "I really mean that." Patterson found himself smiling, "I know. I'm just wondering at myself that I admitted that to you." She leaned against him, but carefully so that it looked accidental, "I like that about you, Patterson. When I go to sleep tonight, I'm gonna remember it as a very nice thought to me. Max took a deep breath for courage and then she asked quietly as they neared the place where they'd parked their vehicles, "Can I please call you tonight?" He nodded as he put his toolbox on the floor of his car on the passenger side and Max almost danced over to her Harley. She had a ton of questions for Su-jin now, as well as a few that she needed to ask herself, but overall. This sure was getting to be a red letter day in her book. As they drove back to the airport, Patterson wondered over the way that he felt. Holy crap. A girl. A beautiful girl who obviously liked him. He could barely process it all. He only knew that it was a fantastic feeling. -------------- As soon as Max got back to the hangar, she checked in with Jimmy to see if there was anything that needed doing. Jimmy grinned the way that he always did and said 'Not a thing' - which he liked about it personally since it was Friday and all. "Bobbi would probably throw a fit if she was here, though. Almost everybody has gone up to the office one at a time to see Su-jin's little kid. The little guy's amazing. Kind of reminds me of me when I was that age." Max looked over with her lip curling up into a doubting smile, "You can remember back when you were a year and a half old?" "Nah," Jimmy sighed, "I just remember my mom saying that to anybody who'd listen whenever the photo album made the rounds." Max chuckled, but she thought that she saw something there in Jimmy's face. "Is something going on, or is there anything wrong at all? You look a little different to me today." He shook his head, "Nope. Well, I got a haircut yesterday, thanks for noticing." Max shook her head, "Ok man, but just so you know, I was the only child of a man who used to cover all of his misfortunes with a good thick layer. All of my family's troubles - all of his misfortunes in business, personal life - everything. I only got to hear how it really was twice - when my mother was dying and later when he'd been told that his cancer was terminal. Modern Day Cavegirls - Happy Friday I've got a really good male bullshit detector, Jimmy. I don't give a flying fuck what it is, if you need to talk, you just come to me, ok? I might be kind of little, but I've got wide shoulders - you just can't see 'em. I won't tell anybody." Jimmy looked at Max for a second, but then his embedded grin faded some. "Thanks Max. It's not for publication, but my wife told me last night that she wants a divorce. It's never happened to me - well, I guess I'm gonna find out all about it real soon." He turned to walk away, but Max grabbed his sleeve. "Jimmy? I'm kind of in shock, but ... well, I feel for you. One thing though. You've got the weekend to think about it, but you might want to keep your vacation time in pencil. You might need a little time, just saying. And if it comes to that, then pick your moment and talk to Bobbi. Anybody knows that she thinks the world of you, man. Ok?" Jimmy nodded, "Good advice. Thanks." Max smiled, "No charge - well, today anyway since it's Friday and all." That got Max a cautious smile and then Jimmy had his regular grin back on. Max ran up the stairs and into Su-jinn's office. She slowed instantly when she saw that Tyler was napping. Su-jinn was sitting at her desk looking at her new son with a smile which was beginning to irritate her, since it seemed to be a little stuck there. Max went over to her and kissed her. "How did your thing go?" Su-jinn asked and Max almost laughed out loud. "First of all, thank you, Baby. Do you really want to know?" Su-jinn nodded, "Yes. My day is complete mess, but I am happy. I want to hear EVERYthing! Start to finish. No details left out - please. No names changed, not innocent ... what do they say? Protect nobody! I need good story if you have fun." Max leaned in - even though the office had nobody else in it, which Su-jinn loved - and she began to whisper into Su-jinn's ear. It took a little while, but Max enjoyed it - especially the parts where Su-jinn's eyes went wide. "Really? You do this Max?" She chuckled a little happily, "You SO dirty girl. No wonder I love you." Max whispered more and Su-jinn sat back with a grin, "Tonight, when we get home, I want to ask questions if I can. I have never done this," she shrugged, "Never wanted to, either." She sighed, "In some ways, it is maybe thing that many girls should know, I think." Max was mystified, "Why? I mean, if you're all about girls, why would you ever want to know about that?" Su-jinn's expression grew a little serious for a moment, "I can try a little to explain it, but really, I don't know myself - everything yet. I don't know if it make sense to anyone." She mentioned that Kwang-jo had offered to help with the clean-up of the other house and that they were thinking of making a day of it with everyone who might want to help. "Kwang-Jo wants to make barbeque and I am thinking of making some Korean things to go with everything. Burgers, hot dogs, all kinds of food." She sighed, "He is so good man. Knows when to make party out of shitty thing. Wants to turn Tyler's bad thing into celebration." She sighed, "Look Max. I cannot say how I feel; only that he is great friend. I love you already. You know this. Why you want to do what you did? Because you like this Patterson, yes? That can be all that you need for a reason. Maybe I want to know how it is done. Maybe I want to make Kwang-jo to feel good." She groaned, "Not know much more than that. I don't even know if I really want to. It is not something I would think to do. But he helped me - even knowing me. Should I stand behind fence when I want to do something for him?" She looked at Max, "This is not something that I can just give a gift card and then feel right in myself. I need to think some more." Max looked at Su-jin with a soft smile. Su-jinn saw it and looked back with a curious expression. Max just shook her head, her smile remaining and she hugged Su-jinn. "Who the hell knows? I only know that I love you and that little guy over there. I'm not sure that we need anything else, but as weird as it sounds, what you're feeling makes a little sense to me. But then, we're just a pair of tarts who can have a shitload of fun with only beer bottles, right?" Su-Jinn smiled, but after a moment, she was doing her absolute best not to pee herself while not laughing her ass off above the bare minimum. Tyler woke up and seeing them, he got to his feet and walked to the side of his pen, holding out his arms. "I got this," Max smiled as she went to him and picked him up. "Hey Tyler, Didja have a good nap? It's me, Max." Tyler laughed and hugged her. He looked over her shoulder at Su-jinn. "M-MAA-ks!" Su-Jinn's pen clattered to her desk and onto the floor from there. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane I'm kicking myself. This really should have been posted BEFORE the first Modern Day Cavegirls chapter. This happens the day before Su-jin meets Jodi. If you've read that chapter, then you've seen Su-jin's personality come out of her shame and unhappiness. In this, she's just arrived in New Mexico with not much more in her pocket than a little lint. She'd been terribly unhappy and felt misery and carried a ton of guilt. About the last person that she's ready to believe in is herself. All of that shows in this chapter. She laughs because she's dying to laugh for the first time in so long. She's uncertain and emotional and she's looking for somebody to give her just once chance - so the fighter part of her persona is so well-hidden that she's almost forgotten by Su-jin herself. 0_o ************* Downtown Business District, Baltimore, Maryland She was still a little nervous toward the end of the video interview though overall, she felt that it had gone well - a little surprisingly so, considering her newness to things here. As it went on, Su-jin was felt much more comfortable, feeling that she'd gotten to know and understand the client's needs more and more. And though there had been some awkwardness at the beginning, she'd come to even like the client that she was speaking with so she now felt even more hopeful to succeed. At one point, the woman just chuckled and said, "Ms. Kim, to be honest here, I'm up to my eyes in things that need doing and very few of them have very much to do with anything that I know much about. I can run my business and doing that requires that I sometimes have to hunt work down to get it. Doing that leaves me less time to pull my hair out as I try to do what I've finally decided that I need help for. As well, the biggest part of my business involves aircraft and to earn any money, those aircraft need to be in the air and flying. We're still a little small and so I'm one of the pilots - and I can't do what I need you for while I'm flying." The woman smiled over the internet connection, "So what I'm saying is, I very much need your help, and from our talking here and the examples that we've talked about, I think we can come to some arrangement." They went on to discuss some of the terms - the ones which the agency wasn't in charge of - such as travelling expenses for Su-jin to get there and how she was to do it and whom to call once she'd arrived - and that was only to get to the nearest large airport. From there, she'd be met and flown even further into who knows where. Her accommodations would be provided in the form of a small house not far from where she'd work, which sounded a little odd until the client explained that the original business - which was still going there - was a large farm. "We've been farming here for generations - over a hundred and twenty years," the client said, "As I'm sure you know, farming almost anywhere on Earth has changed a great deal over that time. As it grew originally, there was a lot of manual labor involved and for that we needed people. In the 1920s and 30s, there was a large migrant workforce available due to the upheaval of what they call the Great Depression. Our farm would hire these people and provide housing and food as well as pay. But as we grew larger and as more efficient ways of farming became available, we didn't need all of those workers. By that time, most of them were either back in the work force or they were in the armed forces since there was a war on. The bunkhouses stood vacant for many years and we demolished all of them years ago. But there are still four buildings there in addition to the farmhouse, and they're not the bunkhouses. They were built as homes for the foremen and their families, since they stayed all year round. The houses are a little small and they're old, but they have been maintained and improved. I live in one of them myself, so you and I will be neighbors because you will live in one of the other ones. Your morning commute will be about one mile and it is a pleasant walk. I know that because I've been walking it almost all of my life. I was born only a few hundred feet from where you'll be staying. We're not far from the local airport or the town. Actually, you'll be working at our offices in our hangar at the airport. You could walk or somebody here could drive you if you wanted to go shopping." She chuckled, "We even have bicycles around here somewhere. Trust me, getting around here is no problem. We get some snow in the winter, but it's not very cold and there's probably less than where you are now and we have a lot of mountains. If you put those things together, you'll see that our community is a little known as a good place if you like skiing. She smiled, "We do get a lot of celebrities here in the wintertime." The agency representative asked about the choice of airport and the client shrugged, "It depends on how Ms. Kim wants to come. The largest airport with direct service by all the major carriers would be Albuquerque International." Before she could say anything else, the representative said that it sounded best to her. The client tilted her head, "How do you know what I was about to say? I hadn't said a thing about the other choices. Do you think that you know a thing about my business? At all? If Ms. Kim flies into Albuquerque, she'd need to catch a smaller flight to get to us and there are no regionals flying to our airport. We're about it - all there is - and we fly out of it, besides one other company, but they don't provide more than air taxi service anyway. We don't like that option for the simple reason that Albuquerque's an international airport and that's why it's landing fees are correspondingly high. So if we don't meet her there, she'd still have to catch a local flight for the last 120 miles." She rolled her eyes, "Larry's executive transport flying out of the ass-end of Albuquerque terminal from the trailer that's also the hair care center there or some nonsense - and they'd back charge her for the landing fee that they had to pay. They're not going to charge her a hundred bucks to fly her out to us if they have to pay two hundred just to land on the way back, are they? She could fly into Las Vegas, but it leaves us with having to pay a higher landing fee the same as at Albuquerque. So that you understand what I'm trying to avoid here, flying into an expensive airport with no goods to make money on hurts, though we'd do it if there was no other option. I suggest flying into Santa Fe Municipal since it has service by some common American carriers. It's about sixty miles or so from us, about the same as Las Vegas, but the fees are better for us and it's not such a huge place to get lost in. She could take a bus from there, but that would most definitely mean a longer trip over roads. I have no idea how often a bus goes from Santa Fe to Angel Fire these days, I only know that it does, since I've ridden it before myself now and then. We would very much prefer to fly out to get her in order to make her feel welcome." She leaned forward and made it clear that she was speaking to the representative and not to Su-jin. "I called you to supply for my needs. I've agreed to pay your fees. Don't presume to tell me how to arrange to pick Ms. Kim up. Making aircraft appear when they need to be someplace is what I do. You just stick to whatever you think that you might be good at and we'll get along fine." She outlined her suggestions to Su-jin and they agreed with no fuss and she said that she'd email details and phone numbers within the next day. --------------- It was a little different, Su-jin guessed and the place was ... well as far as she knew, it might as well be on the other side of the moon - which wasn't a completely undesirable thing to Su-jin right now. She was a bookkeeper as well as an accountant, though she wasn't certified for more than the first one on this continent yet and she knew those things inside and out. though doing that work in a western office and in the ways that it was done here would be a little new, though not a problem to her way of thinking. She'd also studied English and she was very thankful for it now. It hadn't really been her plan to come here, however, though now she liked living here overall. But one city is alike to another - even if it is nothing much like Seoul. She got used to city life as a child, but she was feeling a little ... well, 'harried' might not be a bad word for it, she guessed. She'd originally come from the country to the city as a child with her family. She'd lived a normal life there and liked growing up there. As much as she'd been able to afford following the fashions, she thought of herself as a fairly trendy young woman who was pretty popular. She hadn't liked it as a child, but she had four brothers and no sisters. They all grew up to be tanks - good-sized men - whereas she had somehow inherited the 'diminutive gene' or something. She only stood about five foot eight in western units and she was ... Ok, she wasn't wasp thin. She had a build more like a lean Caucasian woman, but even that wasn't completely correct. It was just more like what fit for a description. People told her that she was lovely, but she also knew that she had a ... an understated muscular build. And there was that other thing. She didn't know why or how or anything, but as she grew up, she began to realize that she was more attracted to girls than boys. No idea what had happened there, but she knew that it was so. To herself, she didn't mind it much, since it felt right to her. But finding people like herself had been tough - really tough. And as well, ... it had been her downfall, if one wanted to call it that. In Korean culture, it was nothing for girls to hug each other and walk holding hands. It was just what was done and it had been like that for ... well who knew? Pretty well all girls who were friends did that and no one even saw it because that was the way. Girls who were much closer - someone like Su-jin had wanted to be with another girl had it pretty easy, one might think. Well, once you had somebody like that for yourself. That was the trouble. Su-jin knew somebody and as their friendship deepened, she struggled a little inside of herself, being a little shy, but she could never take the step required. She'd thought about it and decided one day to give it a shot and then watched for a suitable opening. It had happened at a party just after her paid working internship was done. They'd been drinking a little bit and dancing together a whole lot - even the slow dances so Su-jin took it as a little silent encouragement. In a loud place and a dark corner, she kissed her friend in a way that to her seemed fairly harmless and with a little luck, might tell her where she stood. The overture - and it really hadn't been that much of one, other than touching a clothed breast for several milliseconds during a kiss - was rebuffed instantly and very loudly. As well, another girl had gotten a flash picture with her phone. Su-jin tried to withdraw, but the other girl kept making it into a mountain, something out of all proportion to Su-jin's mind. She left as soon as she could, very upset over it all and wanting the whole thing to be forgotten. But it wasn't. Worse, many of her friends lived near her and she was known in the neighborhood. After the party, she was known for something else - again, out of proportion with everything. Word of it reached her family, since many of her numerous relations worked together and from there it snowballed crazily. Her parents yelled at her. Her brothers, once they'd heard of it, distanced themselves. Before this, there had been young men who'd shown interest. She hadn't responded very much, but there had always been the 'Plan B' which was that eventually, if nothing worked out otherwise, she could have picked a nice young man and gotten married and all of that. Not anymore. Her father told her one night that perhaps the best thing might be for her to go back to live with her relations in the country. Another option which he favored would be to immigrate to the United States, he said. There were relations of her mother's there near Baltimore and her uncle - a very far stretch of the term - had offered a job helping him in his business. That was when Su-jin knew that it was a more serious nightmare than even she'd thought if they were reaching that far away to send her. Her mother had been upset, but it was passing. Her father had been angry and it remained. The 'uncle' would sponsor her. Money would be exchanged. Money. Some family. Some uncle. She went, wanting to be away from everything and all of it. Other people had gone there and made good. She was resolute after she left. She'd do alright too, she decided. The job turned out to be working in a convenience store in a shitty neighborhood so the uncle's kids wouldn't have to. The three times that she'd been robbed had all but been blamed on her by this asshole uncle. Knowing no one and having no inside connections to anything at all, Su-jin had sought out the agency. They offered temporary and permanent positions, some on contract. She'd spent a bit of time there, trying to learn of the equivalency of her skills and seeing what might be out there. It was sooner than she'd expected to have to do it, but she'd be on her own, cutting all ties with the uncle and probably ruining something for her family back home. She didn't care anymore. She'd kissed another girl when she'd been a little drunk - that was it. Her former friend had been a lot more inebriated. What was the big deal? She STILL didn't know. She could have taken 'no' for an answer. So when the agency had sent her an email that there had been some interest, she got up her courage and went. It led to her eventually 'meeting' the client over the internet in her interview. It was something. It felt like something to her. She decided to go. She tried to find the place on a map, but it wasn't until she'd searched specifically online that she'd gotten results that told her something. Hmm, New Mexico. Wow. That is ... out of the way, she thought. Still it was a job and on her own terms. The client had seemed to like her and she felt that she liked the client. Whatever happened, it was bound to be an experience. ----------------------- West of Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, over Jack Lee Lake The horizon tilted a little more before she leveled out. Jane was up here to unwind and it felt great. She felt like she owned a little of the nice landscape that she could see all around and below her. She didn't own any of it of course, but she owned Tina and that made everything all right. Tina was a Piper PA-36 Pawnee Brave 375. She was old, built in 1978. As well, she'd had a long and varied past. The Piper Pawnee and all of the related variants were agricultural aircraft and as such, they tended to live the kind of hard lives which they'd been built for. Tina had been a tug once, used to pull advertising banners through the sky around New York City. She'd also been a glider towplane in her life at times, used to tow gliders up into the sky where they released themselves to soar freely - while Tina and others like her spiraled down and landed quickly so that they could make more money by hauling another glider skyward. And sometimes - several times - Tina had been a cropduster. But that was a while ago now. Tina had been a birthday present earlier this year from the two closest people in Jane's life. At the time, she'd looked more like a retirement home for barn mice. There hadn't been much wrong with Tina when she'd been put into storage. But the son of her previous owner had sold her off cheap since she looked like hell with wings then. But to a girl from very humble beginnings, she was the dream. Jane had spent every spare minute that she could, working on until late in the evening, long after everyone had gone home, helping with the repairs. And the overhaul. And the re-fit. And the sweeping out of the many mouse nests, the removal of a dead and long-dried swallow carcass and ... oh yeah, the two very active hornet's nests. Who could forget that enjoyment? A lot of it was shitty work, but they formed their bond from it, Tina and Jane. The patient had been ... patient as the doctors and surgeons worked. Jane the intern helped where she could. Tina seemed to notice. The remains of the corroded spray system had been removed as well as the tanks and hoppers for the chemicals that she used to lay down by the mile. Her very sparse instrumentation had gone into the dumpster for the most part since it was beyond hope and 'as new' refurbished (and certified) items were installed and added to. She'd been purely a stick and rudder plane then and she still was, though there were now altitude and heading holds available at the touch of a finger. Now Tina even had an aviation-grade GPS. She'd had a fold-down jump seat in the cockpit since the beginning, but that had needed reupholstery just like the other one. Jane had spent hours sweating in almost a HazMat suit, cleaning everything over and over to be sure that the residues of the pesticides were completely gone. If Jane had her way, Tina was never going to have to sniff that crap anymore. Her flight certification had long expired and a major overhaul of Tina's engine was required. The wheels and tires were tossed so she now wore fat and spiffy tundra tires, able to leap um, gopher holes and work from rough airstrips. She'd been bright white before and she still was, though now the paint was new. There had once been a single yellow stripe which ran along both sides from Tina's nose to her tail. That was gone now - replaced by an even wider stripe of bright, girly pink. With ghost flames. And at the rear of the forward cowling just in front of the brand new side cockpit windows - each side, there were a few blades of grass painted on, right where it said "Tiny Tina!" with a little daisy next to it. All of it had come together like butter as the reward for Jane's years of hard work and study. Jane had been made out of perhaps the worst reason. She'd been the barbed hook to hold her mother within reach of her father's money. He was considered fairly worthless by his own family for a number of reasons. About the only thing that he'd ever done right was to learn to drive transports so that he could make his money, almost never coming home, which suited his layabout wife just fine. Once Jane was out of the bag, so to speak, his wife had pretty much ignored her - as much as was possible. But the infant did have her cousins. A boy and a girl. They were eight years old and staunch best friends between them when Jane was born and they were cousins all around - the boy to the girl, and both of them to Jane. They came to see her at the hospital after she'd been born and they'd been head over heels over each other ever since - all of them once Jane was old enough to figure it out. Along the way, life for Jane had gotten a little worse before it had gotten better, but in the end, thanks mostly to the boy and the girl, she'd been taken from her mother by the county and adopted by the girl's father - Jane's grandfather. So Jane had gotten a promotion to be the girl's adopted sister and her young life improved immeasurably from it. When she was grown, the sister formed a company with her father. It provided crop spraying service from one side and hauled freight on the other. The boy was something of a mystery as far as what he did, though if he was asked, he'd say that he was a trouble-shooter for an elderly businessman and he spent most of his time in far-flung places solving last minute difficulties which prevented business deals from coming together. That was the truth and what he did was legal. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane 02 ******* This thing has a few things going on concurrently so it's a little tough at the start to define what happened first in the format of a linear story. But I understand the frustration that some have experienced. So I'd say that in terms of the timeline, then Modern Day Cavegirls - Bobbi's Story is first, since the background with Damian happened long before anything. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane ought to be read next and Modern Day Cavegirls would be last. Probably not simple, but I think that'll work. Now this one. Yikes. This chapter opens much later, maybe a month after Malikah came to stay with Bobbi. But most of the chapter is set on the afternoon of the day that Su-jin meets Jodi. So that I don't lose anybody, it happens on the first page below. Sorry about all this and from now on, I'll just go back to writing chapter one, chapter two, etc. 0_o ************** Jane turned to leave the grocery store just at closing time and she heaved a small sigh of relief. She'd been out doing some aerial application all day and about halfway through the afternoon, it suddenly came to her that she had no food in the house. She could have just called Bobbi, but she hadn't wanted to -- just in case Bobbi took the oversight as something that might be indicative of a lack of foresight, if Jane was going to handle the agricultural division one day soon. And the rest of the afternoon, Jane had given it some thought and decided that it probably did at that, so she was determined to pay more attention to mundane matters. And of course, she was trying to come up with a path forward -- such as what she was going to eat that night. As it worked out, the timing still fit and she was able to head back in time, put the Air Tractor to bed and get her paperwork done before the jumped onto her e-bike and zipped over to town. By then, it was a little after eight and she knew that the place closed at nine. The day had been a warm one and Jane was looking forward to a long shower to wash off the long day's sweat and then cool off before she ate her dinner. She didn't see very much of Jodi-Lynn these days and she only caught brief glimpses of Su-jin at work. Unless she had some issue, she didn't spend a lot of time in the offices and while she might get the Agricultural division one day soon, the fact of the matter was that she was the only Ag pilot unless her father was flying. So just as Bobbi ran the transport side pretty much as a single operator, Jane herself was now a one-girl show too. Bobbi was a little scarce these days as well, but Jane knew the reason for that. When her sister wasn't flying or driving her business forward, she was maximizing what time she might have with Malikah before the singer had to return to Chicago. At the store, she checked out at Susan's aisle -- since Susan was good enough to wait for her to finish her shopping before closing up. Now it was Jane's turn to wait so they could talk. It had been a while. Susan was one of those girls who just seemed to radiate beauty. She was ash blonde and willowy with a healthy complexion like God just noticed her being born one day and waved at her or something. Jane had always held the belief that if Suzi wasn't here in this place, but was in London, or Paris, or New York, she'd be a model by now. It wasn't until later that Janey had figured out that agencies only need a very few models like that. They weren't dangerous or wild-looking enough, she supposed. Jane and Susan were near the same age and they'd been friends forever but for a gap when they were about eleven or twelve. Their friendship actually predated their naming conventions. Bobbi still called her sister Janey, and there was maybe her father as well. Everybody else called her Jane. But between themselves, they were still Janey and Suzi to each other and that was fine. "So what's it like, having a star around the place?" Suzi asked and Janey shrugged, "I hardly ever see her, to tell you the truth, Suzi. I didn't know much of anything about it when she came to stay for a while. I've run into her a couple of times and I really like her, though. It's a little like you're seeing the world through her eyes when you talk with her about anything -- at least out here. She's got this really interested viewpoint that you just have to like." "Don't you mean an interesting viewpoint? Suzi offered. Janey shook her head, "No. I meant it that way, the way I said it. Malikah sees everything here as new to her, and if you're talking to her at the time that it kicks in, you just get taken along in a way. I really like that. Like ... Well, we've been here all of our lives, so we look out and we don't even see the mountains at all. But she can't miss them every time. I went for a walk with her one time, because she asked me to so that she didn't get lost. How the hell can you get lost here? Anyway, we just ended up near the outskirts of town, facing the airport and she told me that the scenery between where we were and the mountains looked like a place to her called the Sahel, and of course, I didn't know what she was talking about. I looked it up later and her description to me made it make more sense. Like I'm sure that she considers the Sahara to be more of an entity and a home than just a desert." Janey turned to Suzi, "If you think about it, well I think that's where the magic in her music comes from -- from that way of looking at things." "Whoa," Suzi laughed, as she put her pen down from balancing her till. She reached out and put her hands on Janey's shoulders, "Are you sure you're really Janey Sorrensson and not some clone living in her place? That was a little deep." Jane shrugged, "Yeah, it's me." Suzi laughed a little more and pressed down gently with her hands. "What are you doing? Janey asked, starting to grin. "I'm trying to save my friend's life, is all," Suzi laughed, "'Cause if you're NOT a clone, then you're liable to float away on me, talking like that." She removed her hands, "Anyway, I love her to death now. She promised me her second album and also a DVD of one of the concert dates on her tour and she kept her promise -- coming up to me right in the store alone one day last week. They shoot them at every show. The one she gave me was shot in Philadelphia." "So what's it like?" Janey asked. "She warned me that it might be boring, since the camera angle never changes," Suzi said, "But she's wrong, because if you watch it like that, you get the feeling that you're in the band, since that's the way that they all see each other when they play. You just lose sight of Malikah a few times in the second half of the show. That's when she really lets go and pours it on and sometimes she's right at the edge of the stage, talking to the people down at the front." "I'd really like to watch that some time," Janey said, "if you wouldn't mind lending it to me someday." "Sure," Suzi smiled as she put the till cash into a burlap, lockable pouch and walked to put the pouch into the cash drop box. "I didn't think that you liked her stuff that much. Me? I could listen to her albums over and over ... since I have." "It's different when you know the person a little," Janey said, "I can't even describe it, really. She's just so ... Malikah. I've never met anyone like her in my life. You know those people who ... How to say this? Those people -- they might be related to you or they might not be -- the ones who just hug you and you don't want it and all you wanna do is get clear of them and then run like hell?" Suzi nodded, laughing, "I know!" Jane's smile faded then, "Malikah is like that -- only she's the only one that I've ever met who makes you want to hug her back because you want even more. She's not like the others that you just want to get away from. They've always felt to me like they wanted to take something from me. Malikah feels like she's giving to you." The few others of the store staff were gone now, each one saying a quiet goodnight to Suzi and Janey as they walked to the front doors slowly. "Bet it feels nice," Suzi said, "that she and Bobbi are together." Janey looked at Suzi who just chuckled, "Come on Janey, We've known each other all of our lives. I don't know how it came to me, exactly, but I just knew about Bobbi one day. From the second that they walked in here together -- and they weren't all over each other or anything -- I knew that Malikah was Zinzi and I knew that something had started between them. I think they make a great couple and I'd bet that it's just what your sister needs more than anything. I've always admired her for her strength and her drive to do what she does." Janey nodded, "It is nice in a way. With Malikah around, Bobbi is ... wait for it ... Bobbi is almost serene. It was a little unsettling to see at first. She's waiting for Damian to come back home to Angel Fire. That's the last step in her plan for the company. She figures he'll be done with whatever he's doing in about a year." They chatted a little longer and then Jane had to go, but she promised that they'd get together over the next week. She loaded her stuff onto her e-bike and nailed the throttle to get to the farm. Jane had a ... well, a dirty little secret hidden there -- not that it had been the plan, exactly. ----------------- A few weeks before - on the day of the whole blow-up with Sujin and after repeatedly getting both barrels from Bobbi, Jane had been miserable and she blamed herself. She didn't want to go anywhere or even be seen by anyone who knew her. She just wanted to be left alone to feel shitty. After Su-jin had gone to town in Jodi's truck, Jane had gone for a bit of an aimlessly wandering walk and she ended up near the old machinery shed of the farm. There was the old loft in there above everything and years ago, Jane had cleaned about half of it out. The reason for doing that was lost to antiquity if anyone asked her about it. Really, she'd wanted a bit of room to play in. So she'd moved a ton of old things and swept for what had seemed like a week before she put her drum kit up there along with an old stereo which had a cassette player that still worked. She'd liked it up there, and then she'd found an old bedframe and a mattress. She'd gotten some cleaner and went to town and after that, she had a place to play in a different way -- without the constant threat of interruptions which always seemed to happen while living in the farmhouse. But life moved on and she wasn't fourteen anymore either. Bobbi had come home from the Air Force and life had been busy ever since with getting the company started and all. That day, Jane just wanted to go up there to see if there was anything that the mice hadn't carted off since anyone had gone there. She thought about the bed and then had a slight hope that it was still there and not ruined. The loft was not closed off to the outside world completely. She figured that the chances were slim, but she wanted to go anyway, hoping that it wasn't' too hot up there to sit and feel stupid for a while as she cried. As she came near to the man door and not the huge one, Jane thought that she heard clicking -- rapid clicking like you'd hear if someone was using a ratchet to turn a socket on a bolt. She stood still and listened, sure now that it was what she was hearing. She knew that Rose and her father were out of town. So who ...? She tried to open the door, but found that the small hasp was in place on the inside, so she fished in her pocket for her pocketknife and slipped it in through the crack. When she pushed up, the hasp came off, but it made a sound. She opened the door quickly and stepped inside. Too bad it was dim in there and she was coming from the full New Mexican daylight. She couldn't see much of anything -- but she heard the running steps over the hardpacked dirt floor. She said nothing. She only listened to get the direction and waited for her eyes to adjust. When she could see a little, she stepped forward and looked around. She had a hell of a time keeping her eyeballs in her head for a little while. There was tons of ancient farming equipment in there. There always had been for longer than Jane had been alive -- a lot longer. City folks have always made jokes about how farmers tend to be frugal -- so they never throw anything away. Need a new tractor? Well get one, but don't scrap the old one, not if it still runs a little. You never know when you might need the old girl one day, right? Jane didn't miss the fact that the tires were all inflated on every one. To illustrate and perhaps show how rural frugality worked, the first ancestor of the famous Ford F-150 had a different name way back, but it hadn't been offered for sale as a street vehicle. Most of them weren't sold through car dealers. Most of them were sold by Ford farm equipment dealers -- who'd had to haggle and deal with tight-fisted farmers who were there to buy a farm vehicle. That's why those first ones only came with one brake light and one windshield wiper -- because the farmers just couldn't see the sense in spending money for the other one. This huge old shed was full of all of the old machinery from the farm. What Jane was looking at was three long-dead tractors moved in a row and looking like they could be fired up and rolled out the big door to make a few dozen go-rounds pulling a plough set or maybe a baler. She began to explore very quietly, trying to listen as she did and wondering just what the hell ...? Not many people knew of it, but due to Jane's humble beginnings, the man that she thought of as her father was actually her grandfather since he'd adopted her to raise himself because one of his own sons -- Jane's real father - wasn't worth spit. Her grandfather had served in Vietnam as an Air Force pilot for a time. Her great-grandfather had been in his grave before she'd been born and he'd been a Navy pilot in the war. Jane had heard the tale from her grandfather about how there were legends of mean-spirited little things known as gremlins who seemed to delight in fucking over aircraft -- usually late at night - to make them unserviceable, meaning not fit to fly and fight. But she'd never heard of them in a civilian context, not that she believed a word of the legend. So who had done what she was looking at now? A reverse gremlin? One who liked to fix things instead of fucking them over? It didn't make sense. She turned a little and almost fell over. There was the old Norseman, a rough bush transport plane that her great-grandfather had bought as surplus after the war and never used much. It was the single largest thing in the building with its wings looming everything else. The last time that she'd even looked at it, it did not look like it had flown through Hell. It looked like Hell had come looking to find it. Now? It looked a little tired, but not much and there wasn't a lot of dust on it, either. She walked that way and saw that the tires weren't flat and that they were not the ones that she remembered which had been flat for decades. They were the spares that she knew had been in here under tarpaulins. She walked up to it and reached for the door handle. The last time that she'd even been this close, she'd been a girl who'd loved to climb up and sit in the dirty old pilot's seat and pretend for hours, peering through the grimy glass over the faded old instruments. Well the instruments were still faded -- but there was no dust at all inside the aircraft and a few repairs had been made. She got out again and looked around, finally deciding to say something. She called out, asking who was there and she heard a very quiet gasp. Next, she heard footsteps running again toward the large door at the back, and Jane tore off in that direction. As she ran, she heard sounds like someone trying to start another piece of machinery and she knew that it was a motorcycle. There weren't any rideable motorcycles stored in here, as far as she knew. When she neared the back, she saw a person kicking over an old Harley-Davidson Servi-car, the three-wheeler that was used by many businesses long ago and Jane knew enough about bikes in general to know that it had been out of production since the 1960s. The engine started just as Jane came abreast of the vehicle, ten yards off to the side. She wanted to see the person, but she knew that she didn't have time right then. Because she knew what that person was trying to do and even what they'd do next. When the Harley idled evenly, the person jumped off and ran to the big rear door to open it and get away. But they found Jane standing there with her foot holding down the lock so that the door couldn't be opened. At first glance in the dim shed, she thought the person was a raggedly-looking boy, but she only got the one look. Realizing that the way out was gone; the figure spun and ran back the other way, all the way to the other end and out of the door there. Jane stood with her mouth open. Who was that? And above all, why? But Jane wasn't stupid. The Harley wasn't one of the large beasts that they made today. It was only a 750, not a 1200 or even larger. She looked down at the tops of those cylinders. It was a knucklehead, so that meant that it was even older. And it was running. She knew why too. The idea was to leave the trike running and dash out of the other door, hoping that Jane would run that way, then a quick run back to open the door and ... Jane turned the ignition off and she pocketed the key with a small smile. 'Nice try,' she thought. After that, she went to the rough-hewn wooden stairs which led to the loft and walked up. What light there was up here during the daytime came in partially through the screened-over ventilation covers out on the roof. Most of it came in through the gaps which had grown between the old planks of the roof, where the shingles had fallen off. There had been no gaps when the building was built, but over time, the old wood shrank a little and now bars of light alternated with wide stripes of dimness on the wooden floor below. She saw the bed and also that it was being used at night since it was wearing clean-looking sheets. There were a few magazines lying around, bike mags, and some old Popular Mechanics which must have belonged to her great-grandfather way back. There were also a couple of skin mags and it made her smile to see them there. They were the kind favored by old men and teenagers forever, probably contributing to the sustained success of the pulp and paper industry in a major way. Just from tissue sales. She hadn't gotten a clear look at all, but she now doubted that he was an old man. Well, a very freaking quick old man to be able to haul ass out of there the way that he did, if he was. She looked around a little more; there wasn't a lot of garbage lying around. Actually, it was neater than the way that she remembered seeing it the last time that she'd been up here. Jane was intrigued now. Whoever this had been, they'd found things that she hadn't when she was looking for furnishings in this shed. There was a small and ancient nightstand next to the bed, old but clean and dust-free. She stepped over and opened the drawer and saw ... something which made her smile. A steely dan lying in a clean shop rag. She pushed the drawer closed. Jane thought that the person might still be a boy -- but she kind of doubted it now. She turned around as she heard slow and careful footsteps coming up the creaky wooden stairs and she waited. The creaking stopped and there was only silence then, while whoever this was stood at the top of the stairs and looked at her, though she couldn't see even a shape out that far in this light while Jane stood in a square of light under one of the vent covers. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane 02 Jane said nothing and didn't move. She only waited. After what felt like about five full minutes, the person walked forward and Jane watched as they passed through the thin bars of light from above. Each bar broken by the silhouette brought a little more definition as the mysterious one came. Jane thought that she'd been wrong and that it was actually a boy or a young man for a moment. But there were details which told the truth, no matter what. The eyes were not like a boy's -- unless there was something ... The hair was a light brown -- the part that she could see clearly in the bar of light. It was cut somewhat like a boy's style, she thought, but then she saw that it was ragged and it made sense. This person had cut their hair themselves, leaving just a little at the back which was collar length or a little longer. The build was too thin for almost any boy. Also, the build betrayed her even still, skinny and bone-thin or not. The hips were very slim, but they were there, noticeable whenever she took another slow, careful, and worried step. It was the kind of build which boys never have and not many girls have either, Jane decided. The placement of the hips was just about equidistant between the feet and the shoulders, giving her a long, thin torso. There were workboots on those feet, old ones to be sure. The pants were black jeans -- also old, but they didn't look very dirty. Jane saw an open plaid shirt over those thin shoulders overtop of a mostly-clean, old green T-shirt which read 'Red Hot Chili Peppers'. Jane looked, though not too hard. She didn't need to. This was a girl -- Who was absolutely flat-chested. She could make out only what had to be slightly puffy nipples from the way that the shirt hung. There were no breasts there at all to disturb the way that the shirt hung over her, completely straight down but for two small bumps. No matter how rail-thin they might have been, those boys in Jane's memory who had a build a little similar to this girl, Jane hadn't seen one yet who had puffy nipples. No matter how thin or underdeveloped -- or even weak -- those boys might have been made, she'd never seen a single one whose chest didn't change the way that a T- shirt hung -- not like this, for damn sure. Jane scowled a little and walked to a wooden chair. Picking it up, she walked back and set it down. "Sit." The other person didn't move. "Ok," Jane said, her voice and expression deadpan, "Please sit." There was no response. Jane sat down with a frustrated sigh on the edge of the bed facing the chair. She reached into her pocket and produced the key to the old Harley trike down below. She held it up high over her head so that the girl could see it clearly and she saw a slight look of despair flicker across that face. "Just so you know," Jane said quietly, "I've had an absolutely shit-filled day so far. And I'm told that I often don't exhibit a great deal of patience or even much wisdom either, like I was told just today, not even an hour ago, the last time. And sorry to say, that's at the very fucking best of times." She looked around herself for a moment, "I cleaned this loft out a long time ago to use as a place where I could be alone. I haven't been in here for a few years now. I doubt that any of my family has either, since you're here and all. In my great-grandaddy's day, you'd be looking at the business end of his scattergun right about now. To be completely honest with you, I came here today for the same reason I did all that time ago. I came here to cry, where no one would see me and know that I was crying. Today has been just one long shit show, just one more little reminder to me that I'm an idiot -- just in case I'd forgotten." She looked around, "But I found miracles in here today. Naturally, I'm curious. I don't know you from anybody, but to me it looks like you worked a few major wonders in here and I want to know why. I'm not upset at what you've done -- if it was all you. I know that you must have been trespassing in here for some time now. I don't think that I even mind that very much. I'm not going to hurt you and I don't think that I'm gonna call the cops -- unless you give me a reason to." She looked at those eyes dead on, "But I'm gonna get some answers now or I'll throw this fucking key over the railing there and it'll fall only God knows where among all the old mechanical ruin in this shed. Good luck finding it in anything under about a week if you ever even find it at all." She pointed at the chair, "Now please. Sit your sweet, skinny little ass down and talk to me." Jane still heard nothing and she shook her head. She held up the key higher and drew her arm back, "And they tell me I'M stupid ..." There was a gasp and a wavering little cry which almost broke her heart to hear. "NOOOO!!" And after a moment, Jane finally heard the voice. It was soft when it came and it carried a hint of quiet desperation -- as well as a hint of nearly silent, almost breathless fear. "Please Miss ... please don't throw that key. My trike is all I've got a-and -- please, ... please don't. Please give it back to me and I'll go and never come back. I'm sorry for everything, for even being in here." She swallowed once after a pause, "Do you like girls? You can fuck me if you want to. I'll do anything you want. I just have to have that ... PLEASE?" Jane pointed at the chair with her other hand, "Here. Sit right fucking here, girly. This is getting way too close to those sick games that some people play because they like to boss the ones they care about around. And I don't even know you. I fucking HATE that shit. Look kid," she sighed tiredly, "I wasn't lying about why I came here. But now I just want to talk to you. Why did it have to come to this? Are you afraid of me or something? I told you that I'm not gonna hurt you. Why can't we just sit and talk? I'm not gonna even chase you out of here or anything, but I need to hear more and first, I need to know why, that's all. Ok, if everything has to be a deal to you, I'll tell you what. You come here and sit down. I promise that I'll only talk to you. I might even WANT you to stay, if you would. You tell me what I want to know, and I'll hand you your key. After that, you can run away if you think that you need to. I won't even look to see which way you go. I'll probably just do what I came here for. Probably for a little longer even, if you do leave." "Why?" the voice asked. Jane sighed, "Because it'll just prove to me how much of an asshole I really must be if I can't even convince somebody that I don't mean them any harm, ok?" She came a few steps closer and stopped. "My pants ... the crotch is torn out of them. I'm ... sorry." Jane nodded, "Then sit so that I can't see, but please ... come the rest of the way here and sit with me." The girl came very slowly and eventually sat slowly down and looked at Jane. Jane saw someone who was in need of a good, hot, long-assed bath, though she could tell that there had been some large effort made at cleanliness. "Where do you wash yourself? You live in this shed and it's hot a lot of the time since it's summer. Yet you don't smell, so that tells me that you're a clean person -- as much as you can be in a place like this with nothing." The girl looked down, "There's a tap downstairs. I use that." Jane nodded, remembering now. "That's just a cold water tap. It probably just pours out rusty water for the first five minutes." The girl nodded. Jane shook her head for a moment, "What's your name? I don't need your last name, but I want a name for this talk here, so give me one -- and I don't care at the moment if you lie to me or not -- though I wish that you wouldn't." The girl nodded, "My -- my name is Maxine." Jane smiled a little, "I hope that it's your true name, Maxine, because I really like it. My name is Jane." She leaned forward a little carefully so as not to spook Maxine, "I'm gonna guess that you're homeless and that you've been here for a time." Maxine nodded, "About ... Early in the spring, maybe the beginning of April. Last year. All I have is my trike, like I said. I rode down through a lot of snow up in Pennsylvania. By the time that I got here, I was real sick. I came in here because I needed to hide my trike and me -- at least until I was better. When the sun shone it was nice and warm in here and I felt better. So I just --- stayed." Jane nodded, "I guess it's a little hard to tell the date. I doubt there's a calendar in here that's any newer than about 1949. How do you get gas? You siphon it?" Maxine nodded and Jane groaned and shook her head again, "Fuck, that's gotta be a hard way to go. I suppose that you steal what you need and shoplift when you have to and you can't avoid it?" Maxine gave the expected nod. "Why haven't you taken some of the old worn-out parts lying around in here to sell as scrap -- or have you?" Jane asked. "Can't," Maxine said, "They want to see ID there. My licence is from outta state. They won't accept it." Jane looked over at the clothes and everything for a moment, but she was careful that it was not long enough to cause the girl to squirm or feel uncomfortable. "Ok, here's a tough one, but I hope that you answer it honestly -- are you wanted by anyone in a law enforcement capacity for any crime?" Maxine shook her head, "No. Not yet, I don't think." "'Kay," Jane said, "You don't have to answer this one if you really don't want to, but where the hell are you from, Maxine?" She thought about it for a minute, "Pittsburgh?" Jane nodded, "Wow." She looked at her hand and handed the key over. Maxine asked why. Jane shrugged, "I just remembered that I still had it. I was gonna give it to you before -- and before you ask, I was hoping that you might want to trust me just a little, though I'd absolutely understand if you couldn't." "Was that all that you wanted to ask me, Jane?" Maxine asked. Jane shook her head, "No, I've got one or two more and that's about it. I still want to know why you did all of this. My great-grandfather must be smiling his ass off if he can see what you've done in here to his old beasts of burden." She pointed to the Norseman, "And what you've done there is freaking amazing and it's given me ideas. That's why I wanted to know why. I used to sit in that old bird and daydream when I was little. To see it like that -- what you've done ... well I'm about on my ass over it." "I don't have a job" Maxine said quietly, "But I do know how to do stuff and fix stuff. My Dad was a mechanic before he got sick and died and he taught me everything he knew. I just wish that I knew what he'd forgotten to tell me. I guess that I wanted something to do." "Well," Jane smiled, "You sure did it well, Maxine." Maxine seemed to like that and she smiled a little. Jane found that she liked Maxine, now that she knew a little about her. She thought that Maxine was far past pretty in a lot of ways. But there was something about her that struck Jane as ... a little feral, somehow. She guessed that there might be trust issues, maybe. If there were, she told herself, she didn't think that she could blame this girl either. The rest of the time, she looked just a little ... well, slightly lost and Jane actually thought that it looked very sweet on her when it was there. "Can I ask you something, Jane?" Jane nodded, "Sure. Go ahead." Maxine looked a little uncomfortable for a moment, "Why were you going to cry?" Jane looked a little pained for a moment and then she looked up, "Well, I guess that like maybe four billion out of however many billion people there are on the world at the moment, I'm lonely. What I do for a living doesn't help it much, but I love what I do all the same. I wasn't born here on this farm. My mother didn't do a thing to take care of me, I mean at all, not that I can remember anyway, since I was a tot at the time. I've been told that she just used to change my dirty diaper in the morning, shovel food into my mouth and leave me alone in a playpen all day while she watched TV in another room. I'd scream if anybody touched my bottom, since it was covered in sores. The county took me away and I was adopted here. I was a little like an animal then and before I could fit in at all; I needed therapists and help learning how to walk and talk and everything. I was still a little slow by the time I went to school and the other kids just laughed at me all the time. I was Janey the Retard to them." She shrugged, "I got over it eventually. But as loved as I am by my family now, I'm usually always feeling lonely. I can't help that and sometimes it feels like I'm living my life under a cloud that's not over everybody else." She tried to smile a little, "You came pretty close there, when you were afraid over your key, but you were right. I do like girls." She sighed heavily, "I had a thing with someone once in a while that I really ought to have cherished a little bit -- but you never really know what you have until after you throw it away. It's a little complicated, but I lost what I had because I met somebody yesterday and I pretty much ruined any chance that I might have had with that girl too and ... " She inhaled, looking a little tired and worn and she looked at Maxine as she let it out. "And it's all my fault and I know that now. But it doesn't change how I feel inside one bit. Once again, Janey the Retard failed at something that lots of people succeed at every day." Maxine looked down, "I know how that feels, I guess. I was always the smallest mouse of a girl in my grade -- almost all the way through school. My parents didn't have much money, so a lot of the time what I wore to school was the same thing that I'd worn the day before. It wasn't ever dirty, though. My Mom would wash my clothes every night. But the other kids noticed it and then it got around that I was poor, and they made fun of me for that and I used to stutter because I was afraid to speak, since I'd get made fun of whenever I did. My mom died when I was fifteen and for some reason, I just started growing like crazy before my sixteenth birthday. My dad was trying to hold his business together, so there were no clothes for me. I took every after-school job I could find and I bought some clothes when I could with my pay. When my dad died, I was barely eighteen and he cried when I sat with him." She looked off into the shadows of the loft for a moment, "He was so sorry that he couldn't leave me much of anything. I told him that he left me the most important things, anyway. I found my trike in some piles of junk at an auction and he and I rebuilt it from the ground up and I learned a lot just from that. After he passed on, I was thinking of trying to make a go of it on my own, but I found out that Dad owed so many people money that by the time that I settled up -- and I was short by over three thousand dollars, there was no hope. So I couldn't pay the last bills and I was out of ideas with the rent due in two days -- that I didn't have. I emptied the last of my money out of my bank account and then I just saddled up and rode away." She sighed, "Now I'm here with nothing. But I remember how it feels to be laughed at." She looked down at her boots and looked up for just a moment before she cast her eyes down again, "Does this mean that you don't want to fuck me?" Jane's mouth fell open for a moment like there was nothing holding it closed. She looked and saw that Maxine hadn't seen it, so she shut it quick. "Where in the world did that come from?" she asked, "Maxine, I wouldn't do that for anything -- if it meant holding your key over your head so that I could use you. I'm not like that." Maxine nodded, "I was just wondering. Whenever I see a choice in front of me, all of the options are lousy ones. There's never anything nice to me in anything. I was hoping that you didn't want to use me, but ..." She looked up, "Do you think that you might want to -- I mean if I wash first, of course? I don't have any tits, but I'll try hard for you." Jane laughed at the way it was said, and as Maxine watched, the smile faded into a warm look, "I'd absolutely love to -- but I want two things from you first -- if you think it's ok." Maxine was almost successful in hiding the way that she was thrilled inside. She got up and went to sit beside Jane. "Alright," she smiled back, "What?" Jane felt really hopeful for some reason that she didn't understand at the moment, but right then, she didn't care anyway. "First," she said, "I'd like it if you didn't just leave. I don't want you to go. I think I can give you a better place to stay than this old shed -- and we'll figure out something for you somehow." Maxine didn't know what it was about, but if it meant that she didn't have to hide out like a barn mouse in a machinery shed -- she thought that she just might agree to anything. Especially if it meant not living in a drafty old place with no heat again. She nodded and said "ok," in a very soft voice that thrilled Jane. "What's the other thing?" Jane moved to turn toward Maxine more and they looked at each other for a long moment before Jane took Maxine in her arms and kissed her very slowly, as softly as she could. Maxine looked dazed but she smiled, "I -- I was gonna say that I don't think that I've ever been kissed like that by anyone -- but now I'm sure." She grinned, "I haven't." Jane chuckled and she reached to touch Maxine's cheek and her hair, "You're so beautiful." Maxine was about to laugh in a doubtful way, but she saw the look on Jane's face. "Even here, in this old place, living as you have -- and that probably means in a very hard way -- you're amazing to me. Just the look on your face -- like you're just feeling a little lost is worth the world to me, because you still have that." She shook her head slowly, "Please, don't ever lose that." Maxine stared at Jane and they ended up locked together again, sighing and letting little moans escape them. Maxine broke away slowly to look down at her hand for a moment. "What's wrong?" Jane asked and Maxine looked back a little sheepishly. "Nothing. Nothing in the world for once, Jane. I just wanted to make sure that my hand was clean." She reached for Jane's breast then and they held each other for a time before Jane eased Maxine down onto the bed. Breaking the kiss, Jane got to her knees as Maxine crawled backward up the bed a bit, watching as Jane removed her clothes. "I ... I think that I maybe ought to wash," she said. Jane shook her head, "No, it's ok. The only thing that I smell on you is warm skin and bar soap." She thought for a moment and understood, "Ok, you go wash and I'll wait for you here." Maxine was gone the next second, running to get to the stairs. Jane felt a small stab of fear that she was now going to hear that old Harley clatter to life again just before she heard the door over there open and get to hear Maxine ride away. She could understand it, but it didn't happen. She heard the cold water tap running downstairs instead. When she heard the creak of the old steps, she looked and saw the dark outline of Maxine again, coming up the stairs with her clothes in her hands. All that she had on was her T-shirt, now wet from being pulled on over damp skin. When she'd put the clothes in a pile on the chair, Maxine turned around, looking like she might pass out if she saw or heard the wrong thing now. Jane sighed with a smile, "Gawd, you're amazing." Maxine looked a little uncomfortable again, "My tits ..." Jane wasn't listening as she pulled Maxine onto the bed. She had the shirt up and off the other girl within two seconds. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane 02 "Are wonderful," she sighed, reaching out to touch and begin her caresses, "I don't know what you're talking about," she smiled, leaning down. "These beauties are awesome." Maxine closed her eyes as Jane began to love her little tits, meaning all of it -- her words as well as the things that she was trying to say with her mouth. "I -- I don't really know how to fuck with another girl," Maxine said quietly, "Though it's really what I've wanted forever. Should I just let you lie on me or what?" Jane smiled looking down, "Something like that. You've got the wrong kind of girlie magazines in here. They're just for men to jerk off with -- so nothing real needs to be in them at all. From what you said just now, "I'd guess that you must mean something like this." She got onto Maxine, who spread her legs in response and there were two bodies pressing themselves against each other slowly in the heat of the loft as Maxine found that it felt better to her if she rolled her hips in time. Maxine found her hands and arms reaching for Jane and she looked up whenever she could. She shook her head a little once, "You're the beautiful one, Jane. I've seen you around, you know, "she smiled up, "I didn't know who you were, but I saw you in town and almost crashed my trike into a truck stopped at a light." Jane grinned and lowered her head to kiss Maxine's neck, "Oh shut up. And don't you cry to me about your boobs again, you hear me? I LOVE them!" After a few minutes where they'd sped up or tried to change a few things, Maxine rolled Jane off so that they were on their sides and they seemed to have the same thoughts, laughing as their hands crashed into each other in between them. Maxine hugged Jane tightly for a moment and whispered as she looked at Jane's face. "What was the other thing you were going to ask? You never said it." Jane stopped and looked into Maxine's eyes, "Could I please ... would you mind if I called you Max?" Maxine kissed Jane softly and moved her fingers so that Jane's eyes closed and she groaned. "I've never liked my name," Maxine said, "Somewhere in grade 7, they all used to call me Maxi-pad. But I think that I'd love it no matter what you call me. I like to hear my name from you." Outside, the sun beat down on the old roof and up in the loft the temperature rose a little more as the afternoon went on. Jane made love to Max with a feeling inside of her that surprised her. She lay a little off-center over Max's thigh while her own rubbed up against Max. Their heads were turned so that they faced each other and they left little kisses when they weren't feeling the big thrills for a minute. Jane's hand was over one of Maxine's nipples, grazing her thumb against it, waiting for the next time that Max closed her eyes in time to what she was doing with her knee. When it happened, she pulled and pinched a little and Max inhaled so hard that Jane thought that she was going to be almost thrown off, but Max kept arching her back as she cried out until she fell back down, gasping for breath. After a few minutes, Max looked over, "Thank you," she whispered hoarsely, "that was ... " "That was the most amazing, most erotic thing that I've ever seen in my life, "Jane whispered back, "I came pretty good myself from rubbing on your leg as I watched." Max had trouble at first and she knew that it was her own issues over trusting anyone, since up to now since she'd been on her own, she hadn't met anyone worth trusting. But she knew that this felt different -- well, other than Jane was the very first girl that she'd ever been to bed with. Jane seemed to surprise her about every other minute, and perhaps the biggest thing ... Jane couldn't get enough of her little tits. She'd have thought it was insane -- if she didn't like it so much. Less than an hour and Jane had it down -- something that Max wouldn't have thought to exist. Jane did something -- and it wasn't always the same thing -- but she felt a sort of connection being established as though there was something electric that she could feel in both of her nipples simultaneously. From there, they both sent the same thing to her crotch and she was almost howling in her joy. She looked over at Jane, wondering who had been right and who was wrong -- Jane or everybody else. She made her decision then, deciding that Jane was being honest so if she said that she was beautiful, then she'd believe it and she finally felt better about herself. Not all at once in one moment, but she knew that Jane was right. She was all over this wild girl in a heartbeat, needing her -- just to have her against her skin. Only that and it was enough -- just to draw another completely free and relaxed breath. ------------------- Jane was on her side with one leg up as Maxine kept her two middle fingers moving. She was holding Max's head to her breast as she sucked softly. Jane heard something -- or she thought that she did. She raised her head, giving it a slight shake to dislodge the beads of sweat which threatened to run into her eyes, "Did you say something, Max?" It was a bit of a moment -- one that Jane was sure that she'd never forget, or at least, she hoped that she wouldn't. The light came down onto them looking like it shone down from Heaven itself and if you looked, you could see little dust particles illuminated by the sunbeams as they floated slowly through the air. It was murderously hot in the loft, but the two of them didn't much care. For their own reasons, this was something that each of them needed very much right now and the heat seemed to keep their passion fueled in a strange way where if they'd been asked beforehand, both would probably say that they didn't like screwing when it was hot -- especially this hot. And were you crazy for even asking or what? Now? Maybe it was synergy or some such ten-dollar word. They didn't know and more importantly, they were beyond caring. Max lifted her head with a soft groan and Jane felt her heart almost crash to a stop in her chest. Maxine's hair was way beyond only being a mess. It was sweaty and stuck down in some places while standing up in others. Her sweet face ran with sweat and she lifted one hand to wipe away what she could before wanting to wipe it against her own body somewhere, but she looked as though she wasn't sure where. Max still had that slightly lost look, only now it also carried something lustful there as Jane watched spellbound. Max's pretty green eyes looked a bit unfocused for just a second before they locked onto Jane's with a smile. Her voice sounded shot-out. "What? Oh. Yeah. I did. I said thank you for not letting me get away like I'd wanted to. This with you ... I'm so ..." She ran out of words and reached for her own face again to wipe a wet streak which ran from under one eye down her cheek. She looked at her wet fingers for a moment and Jane seized her wrist. Max watched as Jane brought the hand to her mouth. "You make me this way," Jane groaned in a strange tone. She licked Max's fingers before she began to slip each one into her mouth to suck them clean and Max moaned softly to see it. "Other than one, I've been to bed with another girl a very few times and I liked it. But none of them were like you to me. Not one. Max, you make me so hungry. I love this. I want you again." Maxine moved onto Jane and they began humping again, but it didn't last longer than a few minutes before Jane pushed Max onto her back and knelt over her. Max looked up and their eyes locked for long over a minute as their bodies both put out sweat. They didn't make a move, neither one. They only looked at each other. Jane sagged down a little so that she could reach and Max felt her long fingers in her hair. She whimpered a little, and then gave in to what she felt. She wanted to ... Max didn't want to look away from those eyes, but ... She turned her head and kissed the inside of Jane's thigh, licking it quickly and then she was back to looking into the eyes again. Jane had allowed the movement and now looked down smiling. "Max, you sweet little beauty," she sighed as her thumb stroked Max's ear, "Do you like this? I mean, do you like me?" Max nodded, "I've never had anything like this." She reached up with one hand and caressed Jane's breast, "I never knew it could be like this -- I mean, with anyone. I ... I feel like I've found ... you -- what I need -- it's ... it's you!" Jane nodded, "I know. Something about me and you ... I dunno. I've never felt ..." She shook her head a little as if to push away what she felt if only for a moment, "We understand each other on the inside. I'm gonna help you, Max - and you're gonna help me too." Max was looking at the underside of Jane's other breast, but her gaze lifted higher so that she was back to being in that gaze again, "I know. I don't want to run anymore." Jane's eyes were wet and Max watched as a silvery droplet plummeted toward her to land on her forehead. Jane smiled softly, "You won't have to." She lowered herself slowly as she lifted Max' head until those sweet lips were against her cleft. Max opened her mouth without any hesitation at all and began at something that she'd never done before. She remembered bedding down in some bleak and rather unsavory places, as alone as she could get, since by definition, being alone meant that there wasn't anyone who could hurt you. She remembered weeping night after night. She'd always felt alone her whole childhood when she wasn't safe at home with the parents who'd loved her. But something had gone wrong and at the end, it was just Maxine, all by herself, and feeling like she wasn't much more than a little brown-furred mouse being hunted by the world at large. She opened her eyes and looked up at the Goddess Jane. That was sure pushing things and it would have been worth a smile to Max if she hadn't been busy. But she knew what Jane meant. She felt it too and right now, she wanted ... if not to step out of the shadows, to at least walk toward the light and stand at the edge to look out with honesty and not feel the little nameless fear which always seemed to be there in her. That had been missing since this wild thing had gotten onto her ancient bed to teach her how one loved another if there was nothing hidden. --------------------- From the loft, two sweat slicked girls made their way down the path to the farmhouse. It was early evening by then and they both liked to look at each other in the cast of the late day sun. Jane said, "Out of everything that you've done in the shed, which was the one that you enjoyed doing the most?" Maxine smiled, "The plane. I liked that one the best -- and I spent a lot of time sitting in it daydreaming, since I can pay the price to daydream anytime I want to." Jane nodded, "Me too. That's what I always used to do when I was a little girl -- though at first, I had to stand on the seat so that I could see, so it doubled as a ship for me sometimes." "Where are we going?" Maxine asked and Jane pointed, "To that house. I grew up there. Nobody's changed a thing in my old room and I was thinking that I've just got to have a shit-ton of clothes that are probably your size or pretty close. You can take whatever you like, Max. For damn sure, you won't have to worry about how you sit down. But the main thing is that there's a swimming pool where we can cool off." ----------------------------- Maxine sort of had doubts about the clothes, but she liked what she saw to her surprise. There were three pairs of jeans which fit her fairly well and lots of tops that didn't look dated, since by her own admission, Jane didn't care much about trends. "I'm not handing you all my throwaway stuff here out of your circumstances," Jane said, hoping that she could avoid the whole thing, "But you need something to wear like now, Max." To herself, Jane would have happily dragged Maxine off to buy her some clothes, but she didn't know how to even broach the topic to a girl who had lived the way that she had, so she wanted a little time to see where this might go as well. For now, she was pleased, since they seemed to fit easily together. She found an old backpack from her school days and they filled it up. -------------------------------- "I don't have a bathing suit," Maxine said as they looked out at the deserted pool under the stars just after the last of the sun's glow had faded in the west. Jane turned on only half of the pool lighting. "So?" Jane smiled, "There's nobody home and there won't be anybody coming tonight. We can skinny dip. Come on." They swam around and they were quiet about it and they often just stopped to stand in front of each other with smiles. "Ok, I've gotta confess something," Jane said, "I wanted to do this so that I could look at you some more." Maxine laughed, having lost much of her shyness, "I thought so. But it's what I hoped for, since I'd get to look at you too. Kind of silly, huh?" Jane nodded, "Might be, but I don't care. I love to look at you like this. The light makes you glow a little bit and I think it suits you. Are you getting hungry yet?" Maxine shrugged, "I dunno, I might be -- either that or I want you to do me again." She looked at Jane and her serious face evaporated as she smiled, "Just joking. Why?" Jane shrugged, "I was thinking that we could go for pizza or have it delivered to my place. Your choice." ---------------------------- It turned out to be a night in at Jane's and they ate the pizza with a couple of beers. "I need to ask you something," Maxine began. Jane laughed, since it was the same thing that she'd been about to say, "What?" "I found an old motorcycle in the shed a while back. It looked to me like there had been another one there as well, but it was gone. I just saw the marks where it stood once on it's stand." Jane nodded, "Actually, it has something to do with what I was about to ask. My father used to have a bike many years ago. It was simple, dependable and cheap -- three things dear to his heart. But nothing lasts forever and as his bike aged, he looked around to get a parts donor, since it was tough to get parts anymore. I took the one that's missing and fixed it up and I rode it for a while. Anyway, why were you asking?" Maxine wanted to fix the bike up and Jane told her to go ahead with her blessing and she offered to help if Max needed it. Then Jane spoke about a bike that she'd bought and now wanted to pick up. "I've wanted it for so long and now it's finally finished and ready to pick up. I was wondering if you'd mind riding me to Santa Fe, one afternoon next week. I've got the info on it and I'll have insurance on it by then. We could go down on your trike and come back together." Maxine liked it and Jane opened her laptop to send an email to the bike shop. After that, she showed Maxine the picture that she'd gotten of the thing in the email telling her that it was ready. She picked up her phone then and smiled at Maxine, "Now I just gotta do something for you." ------------------------------------ Bobbi walked up the path to the shed in the morning sunshine. She saw Jane waiting there as agreed and made her way over. "I hope that you've got one hell of a good reason to ask me to get up from my warm bed to come and meet you here on my only day off in the last three weeks." Jane smiled, "Well since you put it that way, I don't know now. Seems to me that I've messed enough things up around here lately. I just hope now that what I've got to show you makes you happy enough to forget about disowning me -- at least temporarily." Bobbi shook her head and put her arm around Jane, "I'm sorry that I hollered at you so much yesterday. Looking back on it all, you probably deserved the first blast out of me over what happened. But Su-jin is ok with it, so I guess that if anything, you probably hurt whatever relationship that you ought to be having at work with her more than anything else. So you ought to work on fixing what you can there. I didn't just hire her for me. She's an asset to be used by both Transport and Ag divisions, so you need to patch it up if you can. So with that said, you probably DIDN'T deserve the other seven blasts that I gave you over it. Please forgive me, Janey, but I was really upset. Now, why are we standing here?" Jane smiled and led Bobbi to the door, "There's something here that I thought you'd want to see." She led Bobbi through and Bobbi stared at the tractors for a moment before her eyes found the old bush plane. "The last time that I saw that, I was trying to think up a way to sell it. It looked like shit. What happened? And how did these old things get fixed up?" Jane waved her hand back and forth as she shook her head, "Later. Take a look inside." Bobbi stood and stared, looking everywhere around the interior. She turned and saw Jane wearing a little grin, "Kinda makes you think about calling for an FAA inspector to come down and give you recommendations about getting that thing airworthy, doesn't it?" Bobbi nodded, "The engine's probably rusted up, but Patterson could probably get us one at a good price." She got out and stepped away a little, looking back with a sigh, "That old thing has been sitting here for so long. I used to come out here when --" Jane nodded, "I know, when you were a girl to get into it and daydream about flying it for hours. I used to do the same thing. Now I think that it's just waiting -- maybe holding it's breath a little. " She grinned, "I think now that the old boy is trying to impress you, Bobbi -- hoping that he might have just one more chance. Great-granddad bought it in hopes of feeling the joy of flying again, but he never used it much because he never found the time. I know that, over the years, there were three of us who used to sit in that old guy, wishing and dreaming. We all did it at different times, but I know that we all did it, just the same. One of us isn't here yet, but Bobbi, he used to dream maybe harder than anyone, because his father has always been just a dour old bastard who treated his own son like shit and was so quick to blame him for the slightest thing. That old bird there was Damian's escape- even if it could only fly in Damian's mind." Bobbi looked down, "I know it. If I looked for him and couldn't find him anywhere else, then I knew where he'd be -- and if I found him in here all alone, I never bothered him then." She looked up, "In this generation of our family, for the first time, there are three pilots. The one to fly first isn't back here yet, that's all. Maybe you're right. We have our dreams, you and me. Maybe it's time for me to talk to the banker about something a little different. Maybe we can do something for the man who's always been there for us. The size of the amounts might have been a lot bigger, but more than once it was Damian who sent home what was needed to keep Quicksilver's flying. How did it ... who? ... Somebody spent a lot of time at this. Who did this, Janey?" "Bingo!" Jane grinned, "Come on. She's waiting to meet you -- scared to death if I know her at all. I found her in here yesterday. She's been living here for a year and a half all alone up in the loft, frying in the summer and freezing in the winter. She's used a little cold water to wash with, but she never used much of any electrical power for fear of being discovered other than a microwave. She was always too scared to use even one bare light bulb in here at night for fear that somebody might see the light through all the gaps in the old boards. She did all of the repairs that you saw out of being bored and knowing how." Bobbi nodded, "Well I guess that I've gotta meet her then." Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane 02 She began to walk up the aisle that led to the loft with Jane beside her, but Jane grabbed her hand and Bobbi stopped then to look back with a questioning expression. "Sorry," Jane said quietly, "I wasn't done talking. You need to know something. There's a girl up there in the loft, probably wringing her hands right now. All of my life, you and Damian have been pretty much everything to me. Between us, we were cousins and siblings at the same time. You probably saved my life when I was an infant by drawing attention to the neglect you saw. You were only kids yourselves, but Bobbi, you were more like my parents a lot of the time too. If I don't owe all of it to you, then the greater part of who I am is because of you both. When I needed it in my confusion, you stepped out of your own closet and into mine to help me understand myself in our long talks. Then you did the right thing and stepped back out. When I was old enough and still feeling like a ball of tightly-wound and live wires ready to explode, you took me to your bed and taught me what I needed to know. I know there are times when you need me just as much and I don't ever want that to end. The next time that he was home, Damian listened to us and he taught me too. It's a very personal and private thing, but in my heart, I'm so proud that I gave myself to him that night while you were there to help in any way that you could." She looked up and Bobbi saw some of the famous determination that they all shared in those eyes, "Now for once, I'm gonna tell you something and I need for you to know that I'm not asking this time." She pointed toward the loft, "I understand that girl up there, Bobbi. I probably understand her better than anyone ever could. I'm very likely the only person in the world who she'd even let get that close -- close enough for me to know what and who I was looking at. I know what she's never had but always needed -- and it only took me one day to know. Max is not my girlfriend -- though we are falling in love the same way that you and I are in love. She's the same animal that I am, and more than anything, she needs a sister and a family, because if she has that, she'll thrive on it. Now I'm here to tell you that she'll have it from me -- though I'll probably need your understanding and help at it. If I get nothing from you, she'll have it from me anyway, but I'm hoping that ..." Jane wound down and sighed, "I'm hoping that you'll see it in her when you meet her." Bobbi looked at Jane for over a minute in silence before she spoke. "Alright," she said, "I get it. Now I absolutely need to meet this girl. You stay here. I want to talk to Max alone." ------------------------------------- Max looked up as she heard the stairs creaking and she waited. She'd heard the low talking going on down there. She didn't know what was said, but she felt as though she might be given a chance, and it was what drove her now. She saw a woman standing at the top of the stairs looking at her. All that she saw was a silhouette which did not move. Max got to her feet and stood on only barely shaking knees, only waiting -- when really, what she wanted to do was to run for her life. She took a slightly deep breath, remembering what Jane had said to her. Sometimes fear is the worst, most useless thing. Sometimes the bravest thing that you can do is also the best, but it can require the biggest step. You have to throw the bones and wait for them to stop. Bobbi stepped forward slowly, not out of wanting to drag this out or anything. She was fairly cognisant of what this girl must be feeling, but she was impressed -- very impressed. That someone like this had done the things that she had while the winter winds blew around -- and partially through this old place ... The snows had melted and the summer came and this girl had done what she needed to live alone and then sweated in isolation as she set things right around her when no one knew of it. Because she had nothing else and knew no one. Bobbi looked for a moment longer, wanting to feel what came to her from it. There was an incredibly lovely and very lost-looking girl there, not thirty feet away, standing naked in a pool of bright sunshine. If she'd been in one of her more humorous moments, Bobbi would have wondered where the fucking choir of angels were. She smiled to herself as she marvelled at the sight, guessing that maybe the choir just happened to be on their break or something. Everything about this lost wonder radiated absolute cleanliness, as though it had always been wanted, but until this morning had never been completely achieved in this old and dirty farming shed. As the moment went on, from thirty feet away, Bobbi smelled no fear. What she smelled was soap. She saw the long torso over nice legs and the very small breasts -- an idea really, little more than nipples alone could convey of their purpose there. There was wiriness to that body, a leanness which had not been given over to turn into hardness yet out of poor luck and circumstance. The softness remained, even still. The girl was still there, and Bobbi knew what Jane had seen in her too. She stood probably only an inch or so shorter than Jane and she doubted that she weighed more than a gram over about a hundred pounds. The slightly lost-looking face holding her gaze steadily showed little more than slight hope. Bobbi knew what this was. This Max was showing herself -- all that she was, for better or worse. She hadn't wanted to be seen in her smelly ragged clothes, for she knew that she was better than that and Bobbi knew it at once. She also didn't want to seem like a beggar to be standing there in clothing that Bobbi would have known at once to see. She didn't want to be seen as anything other than what she was, and Bobbi was one of the probably very few people alive who would understand it on sight. Poor beyond belief, this girl was standing in plain view to say that this was her, all that she was and it was a very powerful thing to Bobbi. She smiled warmly. Little Max was also a little bit mighty in her eyes. She stepped forward and walked up to Max with a smile, "I uh ... I came here to meet my apparently long-lost and very definitely beautiful other kid sister." Max looked up and Bobbi watched as her words landed someplace deep inside that thin chest. Max began to smile as her eyes grew wet at the same time. She reached out and Bobbi took her into her arms. The brown hair smelled clean and fresh and the soft sobs that she heard took nothing away from the power that Bobbi felt. Because for all the hurt that this person must have had done to her, her purity hadn't been dimmed, once she knew that she could stand in the light of their eyes. "Have you eaten anything today?" Bobbi whispered, and Max shook her head, "No. I'm not hungry yet. I'm fine, Bobbi. Jane told me about you and that you'd come to see me." Bobbi nodded, "Please stay with Jane at her house because I think that you need each other. I already have something for you to work at -- when you're not working miracles with old machinery and aircraft." She pulled back, "It's a real job that I've been fighting with myself over because ... well, because I'm cheap, that's why. I need a line boy in the worst way. That's just what they call it. I know that you're shy. Do you think that you can handle getting taught the ropes by a handsome young married man who can't stop smiling any more than he can stop breathing?" Max nodded, "I can do anything." It caused Bobbi to laugh a little softly, "I'm coming to learn that about you." ------------------------------ It might have been expected, but then maybe not by some. The sun kept trying to set the old roof on fire with the heat that it poured into everything, but there was no response -- other than the fact that not even a bird could perch on it for much more than a minute. The real heat was inside, there on the bed. Bobbi Sorrensson was being kept there, trapped in her breathlessness as two wild things worked at pleasing her. If she only could, she'd have told them that she WAS pleased -- insanely so, but ... The best that she could do, even when she had the breath for it would have been to sigh. They wouldn't have listened to her anyway. There were three naked bodies lying in the pool of diffused sunshine today. When she had the chance, Bobbi held Max down and Jane would join her, kissing Max hard and often, trading off as both of them made love to that thin body that seemed to spur them just to look at for more than a moment. Max was in the middle and her cheeks and jaws were wet with saliva, since nobody would give her the time or the space to reach up and wipe it away. Bobbi grabbed her jaw and kissed her feverishly while Jane looked on for the moment, both of them with one hand each between Max's spread legs. When Bobbi pulled away, Jane was on Max then while Max's thin hips bucked over and over. ---------------------------- Bobbi drew back a bit, leaving a soft kiss on Max' light lips as she began to make her slow pilgrimage, working her way down, leaving kisses and little nips and bites over her throat and the side of her neck, skipping lightly over collarbones and on down to join Jane at those nipples for a time. Max showed her appreciation by moaning out their names, her hips twitching in hopefulness which came more from the body than the mind, since there was nothing being done to her there at the moment. Bobbi groaned to lick her way down over that thin belly, which was drawn back in ticklishness a few times as she worked her way to the navel and began laying a wide stripe of spit down as she headed toward her goal. She settled in then, lying down on her front, reaching for those slim hips which just seemed to fit so well with everything else about Max. She took a moment to look at a perfect mound and cleft, nestled in soft brown fur. As she leaned forward, lowering her head, Bobbi began to worship the new member of her family. She'd heard and understood what Jane had told her and she knew what had been meant. The only offering that she made to Jane was to point out that she understood it, but that it would make a hard thing even harder to do if either one wanted someone to love properly, since that person would need to accept that one -- either of these beautiful wild girls came as a set of two. Not what most people wanted. Jane had sighed and nodded that she understood. Max' ribcage heaved as Bobbi slipped her tongue in deep right at the outset before settling in to make love to Max. She was purposely as wet as she could be so that some ran down in between those cheeks. As she licked and sucked, pulling out the lips, one at a time, she paused once to wet her fingers and then she was back at it, leaning in to help Jane hold Max down as her finger slid into her anus. She looked up and waited for a moment until she saw Max' green eyes there looking back. Bobbi smiled then, "It's probably gonna sound stupid, like something out of a cult movie someplace, but ..." She kissed the lips in front of her face and smiled up, "Welcome sister." ------------------------------- Max looked up at Bobbi who was over her on her hands and knees while Jane fucked her sister with Max's dildo and licked her ass. Max was lying on her back teasing Bobbi's breasts and nipples with her hands. "Hey, can one of you guys shave me sometime?" Max asked straight out of the blue, "I'm a little nervous about doing it the first time, but you've both survived it." Bobbi's eyes opened and Jane stopped. They stared at her and Max looked from one to the other, "What?" It wasn't a big thing. It was just the moment. But they all laughed at each other anyway. ---------------------------------- "Jesus," Max whispered as she sat with Jane, watching as Bobbi stepped slowly up the steps out of the pool, "You guys are the most beautiful women that I've ever seen in my life." "Oh," Bobbi smiled as she walked over; hearing it, "Don't sell yourself short, Max. There might be some fools of either gender who might absolutely NEED a girl with permanent flotation devices, but you're a pretty cool drink of water yourself." She grinned a little, "And we might just be related somehow anyway. I haven't figured it out and I'm not about to try, but I've seen your boobs now, haven't I?" Max looked down, "What are you talking about? I sure haven't got anything like you." Jane shook her head, "It's too dark here so you're not getting it." "Getting what?" Max asked. She felt Bobbi's fingertip on her nipple and looked up. Bobbi was grinning, "A slightly rare thing that we all have." She poked very gently, "Your girls are just as pale as ours." ------------------------------- Jimmy looked pleased. Slightly shocked but pleased all the same as he stood listening to Bobbi the next morning just before the morning meeting. "So one thing that I've noticed is that Maxine can be a little shy right out of the box, but just give her some encouragement and you'll see her come around in a big way once she gets her hands on things. I do know you Jimmy. So try a little not to tease her until you see that she's reached that point, ok? This is gonna be quite different for Maxine, but you've been asking me for some help for months. Maxine is my answer to you -- just to prove that I have been listening, ok?" Jimmy nodded, "I get it and thanks, Bobbi. We're doing nothing but getting busier these last months so she's really gonna be welcome -- and busy." Bobbi called to get everyone's attention. "Good morning all," she smiled, "Happy Monday, if there is such a thing. Today is gonna be a little different, I guess. I can't ever remember that we've had two new people start with us on the same day -- I guess because that's never happened before, huh? Standing here on my right is Ms. Amy Kim. She's our new financial type, since she has very bravely volunteered to try to unravel the very tangled ball of twine that passes for proper accounting here. She comes to us from Seoul, South Korea by way of Baltimore. Starting today, you'll be seeing her if you've got an issue with your paycheck. On my left is Ms. Maxine Klein, who hails from Pennsylvania and is starting with us as our new line girl, helping and learning from Jimmy." "Our slightly older line girl," someone said and even Jimmy laughed. Bobbi went on, "Because of Maxine, I'll be away at the bank for some time this morning, and if I'm just a little successful in my arm-wrestling match, there'll be a new project here in the shop very soon, a Noorduyn Norseman IV, built in 1944 and flown by the U.S. Army Air Forces -- so just by that name, you know it's old. It was purchased as surplus after the war and it's been sitting very quietly ever since -- until now. Maxine may not know much about doing line work here on our ramp just yet, but she's already begun the restoration work on the Norseman. If I can make it happen, she'll be able to do more than the minor miracles that she already has with not much more than nothing and elbow grease. Please make me as proud as you always do and help to make our two new members feel welcome and at home as they take up their new responsibilities." Su-jin almost beamed because before the meeting, she'd gotten a chance to meet a few of her new coworkers and she was already beginning to feel even better to have come. Max had been looking around before, telling herself the same thing that Jane was trying to tell her -- that this was the way that they were here and not to get freaked out when somebody -- like Jimmy -- came bounding up to her. She hadn't really known where to look as Bobbi had been speaking, but by the end, Max felt a lot better. This wasn't like way back in school. Now she just had to learn the way to pull a huge (to her) aircraft around without tipping it over or ripping a wing off from getting snagged on the hangar door and things ought to work out fine. If her knees would just stop quivering. Su-jin turned to head back up to her new office, but she found Jane standing slightly in her way, holding up her hand. "Can I please talk with you a minute, Su-jin? Please?" Su-jin nodded, "Sure." "I want to say that I'm sorry in person for what happened," Jane said earnestly, "It was stupid and selfish as you pointed out. I'm very sorry and if I ever get to actually see Jodi one time, I'll tell her the same thing, only more, since she was the one who was hurt more by my thoughtlessness." Su-jin smiled, "I can tell her to come see you, Jane. I'm not upset anymore." She shrugged, "Actually, the only reason that I was that upset is because of how I felt over all of the time from when I left. I should have just told you never mind and walked out or something like that. I'm sorry too that I make so much noise. I would be very happy if we can still be friends and Jodi is the same. We have been missing you, Jane." She chuckled, "Also want to meet quiet new neighbor Maxine. So nice name. Where you meet so many beautiful women, huh?" Please do not feel bad any longer. We talk at lunch, ok?" They parted then and Jane felt a lot better. Now she only needed to figure out what she was going to do first today. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane Almost all of the time. In the US, anyway. With nobody yelling at her and with the help of the other two, Jane excelled at school. Her grandfather did what he could, but it had really been the boy and the girl who had taught Jane to walk and talk, ride a bicycle and use rollerblades. It was nineteen years later and they still behaved like three people who'd grown up in the same family. And they still loved each other to death. Like the older pair, Jane had grown up on the same two adjacent farms. She was no stranger to hard work and it held no fear for her. That, her family genetics, and her love of playing the drums got her the muscular build. Jane wasn't more than five nine and she didn't look like a bodybuilder. But she wasn't a stick girl either. She'd gotten her pilot's license just four days after her sixteenth birthday. In the three and a half years since, she'd also gotten her instrument rating as well as her multi-engine and night ratings. Jane had a job waiting for her. To that end, it was the reason that she was here in the Southeast. She was about to start the last week of her crop dusting course. Her grandfather had done the job for decades with nothing. Jane wanted certification. Her thoughts returned to Tina as she descended to three hundred feet over the water. Cars held no fascination to Jane. Aircraft did. Tina was Jane's sports car. Agricultural aircraft are slow compared to a lot of others. They don't need to be fast to do what they do. Tina had a high-compression engine and she could cruise at one hundred and thirty-six miles an hour. Not exactly a rocket, but Jane didn't care. She could fly four hundred and fifty-two miles in three hours and twenty minutes at that speed in her own aircraft. Not bad for a nineteen year-old. The hoppers and tanks had been taken out and the space was used for cargo - specifically, Jane's clothing, her books, and her e-bike while she was here for her course. So agricultural aircraft are slow. But they're built strong to withstand heavy stresses, like flying flat-out with your tires in the weeds to pull straight up and come around to do the next swath in the opposite direction. All the damned day long. Tiny Tina was a relatively small aircraft with a wingspan of just under thirty-nine feet, but she was one tough little bitch. Jane liked that about her. She thought that if she'd ever seen him, Tina would probably have liked the cropduster in those animated movies about planes. They looked a lot alike. But overall, Tina liked girl planes, mostly. Because Jane liked girl ... uh, girls. Mostly. She came around to head due south toward Monroe Regional Airport. Once on the ground and with Tina parked, Jane pulled out her e-bike and rode off to get something to eat for lunch before heading to her hair dresser appointment. She liked what she saw in the mirror back at the hotel later on. When Jane had come here, she'd had long, very slightly wavy, light brown hair with a reddish tinge to it. It went with the peaches and cream complexion and she was a little tired of it. She found that she was the only female in the small class of nine. She wore her flight suit to class and out on the flight line, but it didn't help to minimize the garbage that she had to hear. Over the next weeks, she'd had to endure the most insipid come-ons from two of the others. She mentioned it to one of the instructors, telling him that she'd paid good money and the noises were taking the shine off her day - every day. It was also taking the shine off her impression of the school in general. Nothing had changed, so now Jane didn't have that long hair anymore. And she'd found a T-shirt place that offered to print anything on your shirt. Her hair was one-eighth of an inch long everywhere on her head, but the top. There, it was most of an inch long and at the front, maybe two inches long. What was on her head had been dyed black. What was on top was white-blonde and spiked to stand up. When she walked in on Monday morning, she didn't hear much of anything for once. She'd left the flight suit at the hotel. She wore jeans - tight jeans with work boots. Between the hair and the jeans there was her tight-fitting tank top - brilliant pink. The words on the shirt read, "If you're a man here to hit on me, then I'M A LESBIAN." Below that, it read, "If you're a woman here to hit on me, please tell me that you're shaved." They stared a little at her biceps, not as big as they had perhaps, but not bad for a girl. One of the two bright bulbs said, "Hey, you know what? I'm a lesbian too!" Jane regarded him with a straight face and one raised eyebrow for a count of three, "Well I'd already guessed that you were dickless weeks ago. If it helps your confusion any, you're an overweight and obnoxious cracker who's a disgrace to all the good men in the South. I'd just about bet money that no matter what your Momma tells you on Mother's Day, deep down inside - she probably wishes that she'd been a lesbian back when it mattered." ------------------------- By the end of the week, Jane had her certification. Actually, it had happened by ten on the Friday morning. She ducked out of the little celebration that the school put on and biked to the hotel to get packed. She was almost done when her phone rang. "Hey Bobbi," she smiled, "I got it done. I'm just finished packing. I just want to have a quick shower and then I'm off to the airport to head home. I can probably be there by five if I don't dawdle too much." She heard the woman chuckle, "You sound pleased and I always like that, Janey. I was going to ask you for a favor. I just don't know if you can get here any quicker. You remember when I said that I was looking for some help with our books and in the office?" "Yeah," Jane nodded, "did you find somebody?" "I did," Bobbi said, "She's on her way now. I just spoke with her. She called me from the cab on the way to the airport about five minutes ago. Is there any way that you could pick her up at Santa Fe Muni? She could sit in Tina's jump seat for the ride back. Her flight ought to get there by six or so. I'd owe you if you could." Jane sighed, "I've got the jump seat, but Tina's stuffed with my clothes, my bike and my books. There's a little room left but she's gotta be bringing some luggage, right? I doubt I could jam in a full-sized suitcase in the locker and once there's somebody in the jump seat, there's no room at all in the cockpit." She chuckled, "Even if she did agree to sit on my lap." Bobbi groaned, "Crap, you're right. I've been in the air all morning myself and I just got in. I wasn't expecting to hear from her today, so the Otter's down for it's monthly as of two hours ago, and I can't just have it put back together for this. Ok, just fly home with a little less dawdling. If you don't mind too much, could you fly right seat in the Caribou when we go get her and left seat on the way back? I want to spend a little time talking with her. We'll all head into town after for dinner. Would that be alright?" Jane smiled, "I dunnooooo ... I'd have said no ordinarily, but it just happens that 'dinner' is the magic word today, so I'm in. I'll see you at the hangar then." ---------------------- There was almost no headwind which surprised Jane and she made good time, getting to the company ramp by a little before five. She shut down and left everything in her plane and walked into the hangar for a pee and then met up with Bobbi just as the fuel truck was pulling away. Bobbi hugged Jane since though she'd been flying back on weekends; it had still been a week. But she stepped back and stared for a moment and then grinned, "Look at you! What happened to all that hair? " Jane shrugged, "I got tired of the two idiots in the class hitting on me constantly. I was also looking for a change, so ..." "Well you found one," Bobbi laughed, "It's a little severe, but I like it a lot on you. Did it help any?" "I guess," Jane said, "I took them both to be a couple of real asses, the kind that figure that if they hit on every woman, they gotta luck out sooner or later. It won't help in their case, though. Not unless the woman is using the Helen Keller method to meet men." She looked at her watch, "Hey, we ought to be cranking if we're gonna have a hope." Bobbi nodded and asked one of the hands to get the plane turned around with a mule. Jimmy Weiskopf hooked up and laughed at Jane, "Nice Janey! Very nice. Now I know why I can't get a date with you. Thanks for uh, clearing that up for me." "This has nothing to do with it, Gorgeous," Jane laughed out of the co-pilot's window, "To get a date, you've actually gotta ask me. Oh, and it would improve your chances a LOT if you were SINGLE!" "Shit," Jimmy grinned. "Yeah," Jane laughed, "Tell Donna I said hi and that I hope she appreciates her fantastic luck." He laughed some more as he got unhitched and sped off on the low tractor to get out of the way. ------------------ In the air and climbing, Jane was busy with a lot of the things that flying a plane like the Caribou just required from the co-pilot in that phase of a flight since she was there and all. A Caribou could be flown by one, but it could be a stretch to get to some things that way. So here she was handling the radios and the landing gear as well as the flaps for Bobbi. At the moment, she was set and all that remained was just the raising the flaps the last bit when Bobbi called for it. She did get a few seconds now and then to talk to Bobbi. "So? Are ya gonna tell me about the new girl?" Bobbi chuckled, "I'll tell you what I know. She's sure that she can help. That's all that I needed to hear, Janey. Other than that, she's on a contract through that agency. The little that I know about her I got from her resume and by squinting at my laptop screen during her interview. Her birthplace didn't mean a thing to me, but I saw that she grew up in Seoul, so I'm guessing that she's a pretty urban girl. She's ... a little older than you I'd guess, maybe twenty-one, twenty-two. I'd say that it's hard to tell, but I don't want to sound like a racist or anything. It was hard to judge her age and it wasn't important to me. I just know that we stared at each other nervously for the first couple of minutes but after that, she interviewed well - really well. I was impressed." "Wait," Jane said, "what do you mean?" Bobbi shrugged, "The video wasn't the best that day - when I'd have wanted it to be. I just saw a young Oriental woman. Her resume said she was from South Korea. She's got plenty of accreditation and experience for the job, just nothing yet on this side of the ocean. I just wonder if I was clear enough when I said that this isn't maybe the kind of job that she's probably used to. I hope she's not expecting an office tower. The best I can do is the top floor offices in our hangar - though the stairs can seem a little long to me some days, depending. I also got that she seemed to be a bit shy, so I'm a little worried about her coming here. I'd hate it if she turned out to be incredibly good but didn't like it here because she felt isolated. That's why I want to take her to dinner to make her feel welcome. She speaks English pretty well, though it's not as smooth as it might be if she was here for a few years. She's got a green card and she's been here for seven months." Bobbi smiled over, "So is there anything else you'd want to know, Sherlock?" Jane shrugged, "As long as you're happy that she can do the job for us, I'm good, Bobbi. What's her name?" "Gonna give me a challenge, huh?" Bobbi grinned, "I'll have you know that once I knew that she was on her way, I've been carrying a piece of paper with me all day to make sure that I had it right myself. You ready?" Bobbi was leveling off at their planned altitude and Jane nodded, "Shoot." Bobbi grinned, "Amy." Jane laughed, "I thought it was gonna be something hard." Bobbi nodded, "It IS hard, well, all of her names. But for our purposes, her name is Kim Su-jin. Kim is her last name. It's the most popular last name in Korea. About a third of the people there have it." Jane looked over, "So her first name is - " "Su-jin," Bobbi smiled. Jane shook her head, "So how the hell do you get Amy out of that? Is that their way of saying Amy or something?" Bobbi shook her head, "Sorry Einstein, it's just a western name that she picked to make it easy for people like us. Lots of Oriental people who come here choose an English name for that reason." Jane tried it and she smiled, "I like Su-jin, actually. I kind of think that's an awesome first name, but I hear what you're saying. I'll stick to Amy if I forget." "Sooo," Bobbi began, "Can I ask you to help her and show her around some? I mean, a tour of the whole town and area shouldn't take more than about a half hour, aside from the driving from one side to the other. I want her to feel included right from the start." Jane looked over and laughed, "I knew there was something coming up in there somewhere. I'd call it a deal - if I can have the weekend off. I just got back from crop duster land. Is there anything on the board for this weekend for spraying?" "No," Bobbi smiled, "Lucky you. Ok, it's a deal. Take her under your wing and do what you can to get her moved in and shown around. I really need this to work, Janey." They landed and took up a slot in General Aviation parking. Unfortunately, it was out pretty far since it was Friday afternoon and evening. Bobbi headed off at a fast walk, since she was worried that they were a few minutes late. Jane did a little thinking and was glad that she'd brought her flight helmet along. She used it for when she flew Tina because the Tina's cockpit was a little narrow and it sometimes helped the old noggin during quick maneuvers if she wore it. On the way over, she'd used one of the headphone sets in the Caribou. But there were only two of them, and it got loud on the Caribou's flight deck with the engines running. She took the headphones off and searched for a moment before she found the alcohol wipes and worked over the headset for Amy's use. After that, she looked at the position of the sun and popped open the top hatch, climbing out to sit on the wing up there for a little fresh air. She hadn't needed the assholes in her class, but overall, she did manage to enjoy the course and she'd learned a lot too. It was a bit warm up there, so she unzipped her flight suit to get a little air and she leaned back against the side of the fuselage, thinking that if Amy hadn't been coming this weekend, she could be up for a little sun tanning up here. Ah well. ----------------- Amy's flight had come in a few minutes late as well and she was just walking with her two drag-alongs and her carry-on bag. She went a little slowly this time. Her arrival in the states had been under circumstances which had prevented any real looking around. One minute she was walking pretty much as she was right now and the next, her 'uncle' had shown up and then it was a high-speed dash for no reason other than the wanted to get the hell out of there and back to making money. She didn't know a thing about Santa Fe, but she liked the way that the airport terminal looked to her. It took her a little while to notice that someone was calling her name. They were paging her by her proper name to go to the information counter. She looked around and made a guess and headed in that direction. Then she saw Ms. Sorrenson there waiting for her with a big smile. She put her carry-on down and held out her hand, "Hello, Ms. -" "Bobbi," the woman grinned as she grabbed Amy's hand, "Please just call me Bobbi. It's really good to see you again, Amy. How was your flight?" They chatted as they walked and Amy felt better already. She'd spent the past two days with butterflies filling her stomach. It had all taken a lot of subterfuge, getting away when no one else was at her uncle's home. As far as she was concerned, he could die and rot for constantly reminding her that he was doing her a favor by charging her rent at a lower rate. She wondered what the hell he was talking about. It wasn't like he was running a hotel. And it took most of her tiny pay to make the rent. She was also done with her family. A drunken kiss with a tightly-wound drama queen wasn't worth what had happened in her book. It had all been ridiculous. But it had changed her life, no matter what. She thought about someone else that she'd once known and forced her thoughts away. Now wasn't the time for more recriminations. They neared the doors out to the ramp and things looked a little odd to Amy, but Bobbi explained to her that for the last part of her journey, she still had one more ride on an airplane in the place of a taxicab. "I've got to apologize for the transportation today," Bobbi said, "If I'd known that it was going to be today, I'd have brought an aircraft which has a nice interior and decent airline seats. But you said that it would be a little sudden when you'd call and I've tried to respect that, Amy." She chuckled, "That plane is now in for it's monthly checks so I can't fly you in style today. I tried to get Janey to pick you up, since she was coming home from a course in Arkansas today, but now I'm a little pleased that she didn't have the space on her plane for you and your luggage on top of hers and everything else. We came with our Caribou. We could probably haul you and all of your earthly possessions in one trip." Amy got most of it, but didn't really have a reply. She had pretty much all of her earthly possessions with her right now. They walked on, with Bobbi pulling one suitcase and Amy with the rest. "The ... scenery here is very nice," Amy said, "I expected more ... flatness? Who is Janey?" "My kid sister" Bobbi smiled, "She'll be flying the plane on the way back so you and I can talk." ----------------- Jane was a little bored. She was sitting cross-legged on top of the fuselage now, looking in the direction of the terminal and enjoying the curious feeling of having her bottom warmed by the metal. After a while, she thought that she saw Bobbi off in the distance and she reached into one of her cargo pockets for the compact binoculars that she almost always carried whenever she flew. It turned out that it was Bobbi out there, so she looked at the other person. Bobbi had mentioned that she'd told Amy on the phone that she ought to just dress for comfort, and that jeans would be absolutely fine. She'd also smiled at Jane and said that she didn't really expect to see Amy dressed like that. "She's new in the country and she was probably raised very properly. Put those things together and I'd lay my money on her showing up in a business suit anyway, no matter what I'd said." Jane smiled as she looked through the binoculars. Shoes that were probably getting Amy's feet to tell her that they'd be fine without all of this walking forever over miles of pavement. And there it was too - the charcoal-grey business jacket over a matching business skirt. Dang, Jane thought, white blouse and everything. She tried to get a better view of Amy. What she saw actually pleased and astounded her a little bit. Amy turned out to be pretty lovely actually - as far as looking at her through the lenses of binoculars went. She seemed pleasantly trim and Jane wondered if she ran or worked out. As long as she was ogling, she told herself, she checked out Amy's legs and really liked what she saw. She watched as Amy turned her head to speak to Bobbi. Her hair was so long and ... Janey blinked for a moment. So long and it was in two colours. Black and red. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane Huh. She climbed back inside and shut the hatch before getting things set up for their departure. ------------------ Amy stared at the aircraft. She thought that maybe it was impolite and so she tried not to stare at it. And then she stared at the aircraft anyway. It was large and white overall with an attractive paint scheme and it was large, Amy thought. It wasn't ugly, but it wasn't a graceful-looking thing either, since it was so ... "It is big!" Amy said, "There is only me and my luggage." Bobbi laughed a little, "The plane I wanted for this is being serviced. Jane's' is too small. It's not a long flight in this and it's a lot better than having you bounce around in a bus or in my old truck. It would take over an hour like that." Jane was standing holding the side door open and beckoning to Amy with a friendly-looking smile, so they handed her the suitcases and everything. Amy stopped and stared at the other woman for a moment. "I'm Jane," she smiled and held out her hand. Amy was just a tad slow to extend hers, but at the last second, she grabbed Jane's hand and shook it warmly. "I am Amy. I see your shirt there inside this suit you wear. What is a -" She looked again, "What is a lesbian?" Jane looked down and realized that she hadn't pulled up her zipper over her tank top. With it only open a little way those three words were all that were visible. One would need to look hard to see the rest. On the other hand, one wouldn't need to look very hard at all to see the expression on Bobbi's face. Jane pulled up her zipper, "I'm sorry, Su-jin. I'm very sorry that you had to see that. I was on a course to learn something and there were men there who were always ... I had the shirt made to anger them. I'd explain, but I think that you might have trouble understanding my bad explanation. Please try to forget it. Please don't think badly of Bobbi. I forgot I was wearing this shirt and Bobbi didn't know." Amy turned to look from one to the other, "I am not upset or ... annoyed or anything. I do not know what this means so I cannot be annoyed, can I?" She looked at Bobbi, "I do not wish to begin here with things like this. I think Jane has done something wrong and she is sorry. Can it not be forgotten?" Bobbi nodded, "I'm very sorry also, Amy. I'm not sure that I can explain it any better than Jane could. But that word means a woman who likes other women better than men. Janey wore it to her class to show the men that she had no interest in them. It doesn't mean that she is like that." "I see," Amy said with a smile, "Now I understand it. I think that I even like it if it worked, what you wanted to do." She smiled at Jane specifically, "And thank you for trying to say my name, Jane. You were very close, almost perfect." She looked inside the aircraft, "Where must I sit?" They helped her inside and the skirt was a bit of a problem for a moment since the aircraft was a bit tall to step into, but Jane put one hand against the side of the door and held her other one out to Amy. Amy saw the very interested and slightly challenging look in Jane's eye and grabbed her hand for the pull inside. Bobbi directed Amy to a seat at the rear of the flight deck where there was a place for headphones. Jane had been surprised at the strength she felt in Amy, but she said nothing. She looked at Amy's business suit and thought for a moment before she got to work getting them moving. The cut and style seemed to look a little ... old to her. The quick flash of thigh that she'd just glimpsed while helping Amy up wasn't helping much. Jane handed Amy the headset, "When the engines are running, it's very loud in here, Su-jin. I know that Bobbi wants to talk to you, so I have these for you to use. Everything in this plane works, but this one is a working plane so things can be a little dirty. I cleaned those off with alcohol while I was waiting for you to come with Bobbi." Amy smiled and looked at the headset. Jane looked at Bobbi and held up her palms, "Sorry Bobbi. I'm really sorry." Bobbi just nodded, saying nothing. Jane turned away and put on her helmet. Bobbi showed Amy how to strap in as Jane looked after the rest. When Bobbi had Amy put her headset on, Amy heard Jane speaking to the tower. One of the engines started then and Amy was happy to be wearing the things. With both engines running, they began to taxi toward the active runway. "It's Friday," Bobbi said, "and I've given Janey the weekend off so that she can help get you settled in and show you around. You won't start work until Monday morning, so just try to find your way and please rely on Janey for help and to guide you in anything. Jane called for two-thirds flaps and then they were in the run-up slot and the engines roared for a few moments. There was no other traffic for the moment, so they were given take-off clearance almost instantly. Jane had everything configured for a short take-off and they were airborne in only 1200 feet and they climbed away as they turned to head toward Angel Fire Airport. Bobbi apologized that she couldn't sit and face Amy the whole time, since Jane needed her for a few things. Jane smirked to herself. She'd already asked twice and Bobbi had missed it, so she reached over and hit the landing gear retracts and the gear whined up as the doors closed over them. While Bobbi and Amy talked about the town and her residence with them, Jane decided that she'd done enough to mess things up, so she reached to raise the flaps one notch. As they got near to their desired altitude, Jane retracted the last notch of flaps and she adjusted the pitch on the propeller blades while throttling back a little so they could cruise a little more quietly. "She is a very good pilot, I think," Amy smiled. Jane heard it over the intercom and she said, "I'm just trying to do what I can so that maybe I can live a little longer, Su-jin. Nothing unusual here. I'm in trouble with Bobbi and I'm just being a little sister who is sorry that she did something wrong, that's all." Amy laughed and Bobbi even smiled. ---------------- Back at the ramp in front of their hangar, Jane disappeared for a moment and then she was back with her suitcase and the rest of the things from her course. She put them in the back of Bobbi's truck with Amy's luggage. The hangar was closed and being that it was Friday, Bobbi thought that everyone must have taken off as soon as they were off the ramp and she didn't blame them one bit. "I'll meet you at the house," Jane said. "I'm gonna ride my e-bike back. I don't want it sliding around back there and it's not supposed to be on it's side because of the battery. I wouldn't understand all that stuff that you guys are talking about anyway." As she rode away, Jane was thinking about Su-jin and she decided that she liked her, shyness, over-politeness and all. She still felt awful over forgetting about 'lesbian' shirt, but it was there now, so ... She also decided that she could understand Bobbi's concern. She wanted Su-jin to feel included so that she might begin to feel comfortable and at-home with them. She decided that she'd do all that she could. Besides, if she was going to be taking over more and more of the agricultural side, having Su-jin around was bound to make her own life easier and she liked that idea a whole lot. It was only about a mile to the farm. Unless they were stupid, most folks drove it at thirty miles an hour. E-bikes top out at about that speed so by the time that she pulled up, Bobbi had gotten Su-jin to the house set aside for her use. She hadn't even handed over the key yet as Jane put her bike on it's stand and plugged it in over at her house. She had an idea then and she ran inside her own bungalow. It took her less than a minute to find what she was looking for and then she walked to Su-jin's place and stepped inside. "Here," she smiled when they looked at her, "Bobbi has had these made for me forever. I kept outgrowing them before I wore one out. I'm hoping that this one might fit you. It's clean. We all wear them everywhere and I thought that you might like to be comfortable after your trip here." Su-jin looked very surprised as she took the flight suit to look at it. "Janey's often right about a lot of things, "Bobbi smiled, "and I was going to mention it to you. This is our company uniform, though there are really two different kinds. They look pretty much the same anyway. Each one comes in two flavors - summer and winter. The ground crew wear something more like coveralls and the aircrew wear flight suits like that one. Around here, this is how we dress. The clothing is tough and your fine business suit there doesn't get ruined because you came downstairs to talk to somebody about their paycheck. You won't have dry cleaning bills and you won't need to buy office wear either. I'll have the uniform guy in on Monday to get you measured up. You get four of them and two ball caps. We pay for them and the uniforms and they get laundered once a week. You just throw the dirty ones in the bin when you leave every day. It won't be hard to make four last the week. The clean ones arrive overnight between Monday and Tuesday. The ball caps are your responsibility to wash, so don't ever put one in the bin because you won't ever see it again. Guys like to wear ball caps. Lots of girls do too, but what you'll love them for are those days when you didn't get time to wash your hair or if you're me, you have serious bed-head that you don't have time to deal with. They're perfect for that. I find that it's good for morale and it looks way better than looking at a bunch of aviation technicians in raggedy-assed jeans that are stained and torn. Everybody looks neat and it helps to look the same as everybody else around here. Clients and customers like dealing with a company whose people always look sharp. If you need to step out to go into town and it's not important or anything, you can wear your flight suit as long as it's clean. Everybody around here knows us anyway." Amy was surprised, "Really?" Bobbi nodded, "You're not aircrew or ground crew, but it seems a little strange to me that you'd be the only person who needs to buy and wear business attire way out in the hangar. Most of your time will be spent around there anyway. You'll probably have to go and look for one of us or the other and an aircraft hangar is no place for a nice business suit like that one." She threw up her hands, "Heck, even I don't ever wear business attire unless I'm going to the bank for a business loan. The last time I went like that, the loans manager laughed at me and said that he could guess what I was there for since I never wear that. I only wear these flight suits most often. As I said, they're tough, but they're also really comfortable to wear." "What do I wear underneath, a blouse, or ...?" "Just your undergarments Amy. You can add a T-shirt underneath if you want and you're not Janey. She's not allowed to wear a T-shirt under her flight suit anymore." She looked at Jane, "Just kidding sort of, until I forget about today. This isn't to be worn over anything, Amy. This is what you wear. Many companies in Asia and America do this. I'm surprised that you seem not to know about it." Amy nodded then, "One of my brothers used to work for an electronics company. I know what you mean now." Bobbi smiled, "Anyway please, try this one on when you get a minute. You can wear running shoes then and your feet will be happier too. We're only going into town. Most people around here know us to see us, so you won't be out of place in that. People would think you're a pilot. Amy." Amy was very self-conscious about the old business suit, but it was all the business wear that she had. She made a decision then, liking that they all wore the same thing and it gave her a chance to fit in as well as get out of the dated-looking suit. She excused herself and walked into the bedroom to change and when she came out, she was all smiles. "This - I like it. It fits very well and - It's very comfortable." Jane was about to compliment Amy on her two-tone hair until she remembered that Bobbi had said that she'd been in the country for seven months. She glanced at Amy's long hair and figured that the edge between the colours looked a little too ragged to be recent and the length of the black hair looked to be about right. She could only think of one reason why a woman would dye her hair and then not do anything while it grew out. Amy's hair looked really healthy so there was only the one explanation. "I've got an idea," she grinned and ran out of the door. She was back in seconds, "You need this thinga-ma-bob." Amy looked over, "Pardon?" "Thinga-ma-jig ... ma-doodle ... thingie." She waved the article, "I don't know what it's called." "Hair clip," Bobbi smiled, "spring-loaded hair claw ... heck, I don't know what they're called either." "Yeah," Jane nodded as she stood behind Amy, gathered her hair into a long pony tail and applied the clip. The black and red combination looked pretty good then. Amy went to check it out and she liked it. She just undid it and put it back after a quick brushing. While that went on, Jane looked at Bobbi, "It took me a while. The two color hair. She probably doesn't have much money, Bobbi." "Way ahead of you, Janey," Bobbi whispered with a smile. They piled into Bobbi's truck and drove to town. Bobbi's phone went off and she took the call. With Bobbi on the phone, Jane leaned toward Amy, "I wanted to put you more at ease with the hair clip thing. I was afraid that you wouldn't have come to dinner." Amy looked at her like a scared rabbit. Her hair had been bothering her and she'd already pretty much decided to take a pass on dinner. She just couldn't bear to pay to have it cut before she left, not since she was coming all this way with almost nothing. Jane shook her head, "Listen Su-jin, Bobbi wants your help very much. She will be your boss. But I'm not your boss and we can be a lot more friendly. She told me once that people, when they come here from somewhere else; they usually bring the money that they have saved from before the trip, so that they have something to get started with. I don't know why, but I ... " She held her hand to her own chest, "I had a feeling that you might not have a lot of money to begin with. You don't seem to be the kind of girl who would dye her hair and then just grow it out without doing something else. You didn't cut it or anything. That's why I thought of the hair clip. Please, if you need anything Su-ijn, it's just like Bobbi said. Call me for anything that you need. I'm like Bobbi. This place is where I come from and believe me, I know everybody. I'll always try to help, ok?" Amy nodded slowly, "I have almost nothing, Janey. I saw a cheaper flight to the same place, so I have what is left from the money that Bobbi sent to the agency for me to travel on that I will give back and I have one hundred and six dollars of my own. That is all." She suddenly looked embarrassed. If Janey could guess things like that ... Amy looked even more ashamed. "My business suit, it belonged to my mother before she was married. I couldn't afford to buy one. She gave it to me when I left home to go to America." Jane nodded, though she motioned to Amy with her other hand to keep it quiet, "It's ok, Su-jin. It's alright. You don't know it, but Bobbi and me; we're about the last ones who would look down on you for anything. I was serious. If you're stuck somehow, I want you to talk to me first, or call me or whatever. I'll do what I can." She smiled, "Besides, I'm really important to Bobbi. She'd do anything to help me. She already has. Many, many times." She reached for Amy's hand and pulled it down onto the seat between them before she took Amy's hand in hers. "You'll get a company phone tomorrow. Su-jin, the first number on your list should be mine. I don't care if you need help to understand what's written on a box of breakfast cereal, your first call should be to me until you get settled. I'm mostly the ag pilot when I'm not flying with Bobbi. I have a little more time and Bobbi told me to do whatever you need." She turned a little in her seat, "This is a small place. I went to school with some of the people who work here for us. I know that it looks very different to you. That's ok, Su-jin. We all help each other here. You already have a friend here." Dinner went well and they all had a good time getting to know each other. Amy liked the food and she tried a bottle of Mexican beer that the place kept on hand. "This is very good too," she smiled. "I like it after a long hot day," Bobbi smiled, "It goes down so well." She made bit of a comical face, "Then I have to decide if I'm going anywhere or doing anything important. If not," she grinned, "then I have another one." Amy excused herself to go to the washroom and Jane took the opportunity to talk to Bobbi, "I was right. She's only got about a hundred bucks, not counting what she's saved you in changing her routing to get here. She'll give that back." "No she won't," Bobbi smiled as she set her beer down, "That she saved some just tells me that I found the right girl for the job. Keep doing what you can - anything to help her out. I've got such a good feeling about this." Amy returned and she was grinning, "I met two women in the washroom. They knew where I will be working! They said that they went to school with you, Bobbi. I like this small place already. People are friendly here. You only have to smile and they talk to you." Bobbi grinned, "People in a city just walk around and try not to make eye contact. In small towns, if you meet someone going the other way, it's considered a little bit rude not to say hello as you pass each other. It's a big difference that I've always liked. It kind of lets you know where you are." There were a very few awkward moments, such as when they were about to exchange phone numbers. Amy's had been a pay as you go that she got from one of her uncle's kids, since he'd outgrown it. "It was almost out of time when I was in the taxi and I don't know where to buy more time for it here." Bobbi shook her head, "Don't worry about it Amy. Throw that one away. I planned on getting you one anyway. I just forgot." She looked at Jane, "Maybe bring Amy into town tomorrow and get her a phone that can do point-to-point and see about a laptop as well." She handed over a card, "You know the shop I mean. Use the company account there and bring me the bill so I can write it off." Jane nodded and pocketed the card, "Any particular brand or model for the laptop?" "Whatever Amy figures that she'll need." Bobbi smiled. She turned to Amy, "I don't know what you saw during your interview, but when I wasn't looking at your image wobbling around now and then, I kept seeing a little imaginary sign that said it was time to get a better one. I figure that you'll need one with a ton of ram, since I know you'll be stretching the copy of Excel on it really thinly." Amy looked like she didn't understand, but Jane smiled, "Lots of Excel sheets open at once." "Ah," Amy smiled as she nodded emphatically, "Yes. Always." ---------------- From there, it was back to the farm and they were in Amy's house talking over a few more of the same brand of beer. "Please don't spend a lot of your money in redecorating," Bobbi said, "If you've got a green thumb - I mean if you like to garden, tell Jane and we'll see what we can do. I might like your idea and I've been thinking about doing SOMEthing with these four places for a long time. There's nothing wrong with them, but they were made in a cookie-cutter style back then - so every one looks the same as the rest or almost the same. I think they need something, but I'm not sure what it is." Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane "I like to garden," Amy smiled, "Maybe I think of something. A little lattice and lots of green." "Speaking of green," Bobbi said as she nodded her agreement, "I'd like to know if you think you'd like the job, Amy. I've tried to tell you all I could think of this evening. I guess I need to know if it's the kind of thing that you'd like as a job here. I have the option to turn this into a full-time job with the agency. That means that I'd have to pay them a fee and then you work for us and not for the agency." Amy nodded, "I want the job, Bobbi. I also need it, but that is another matter. I want to work here." Bobbi looked relieved. "You wouldn't know anything about it, but a long time ago, I used to work for them. Not on a contract basis as you are. I was just a temporary worker to them and they treated us all like dirt and paid us very little, but I needed the job that badly then. I was eighteen and broke, and a long way from home. I left here - the only home I'd ever known until then with a broken heart on top of everything else - one that would never heal completely and though it's better now, it's still a little broken. I hired on at the agency and I did my best for them because that's the way I was raised to work. No matter what, they always let me know that I was just a little less than nothing to them. When I couldn't work any harder and realized that I was working myself to death for shit pay because they took almost half, I joined the Air Force and never looked back." She nodded with a cold look on her face, "I don't trust them. I never have and I never will. They're the same bastards that they were to me all that time ago and it makes my skin crawl to have any dealings with them. They like to point to their success, but it's all been on the backs of poor people. But I knew that they were probably the quickest for my search for help. I'm very glad that I went to them - because you came and I like you so much already." She took another sip of her beer and smiled, "I don't know if you noticed it, but I tried to be nice to you because I was impressed and I knew that we could get along and work together. I was also almost, but not quite a bitch to the agency representative as often as I could be. If she was worth anything, she wouldn't be working there." Amy nodded, "She say that you very hard to make happy." Bobbi chuckled, "And now that you know me a little bit, what do you think?" Amy shook her head, "No." "That was just me trying to make things hard for her," Bobbi said, "I wanted to make things simple for you. You're the reason I called them. I didn't know you and never heard of you. But I just knew that they had somebody like you who shouldn't be making them rich for one minute more than you needed to. While we were having our interview, I decided that you should be working for me, not them. I just didn't know if you'd like to be here. This is a long way from Seoul and even Baltimore." She grinned, "That's why I'm giving you Janey to help you get your feet down and find your way. I'd want to say 'What could go wrong?' but I know how she feels already and it was an honest mistake." She thought for a moment, "I don't know what you might know about professional sports like basketball and baseball and like that, but when those professional players work out a contract with the owner of a team, they sometimes get signing bonuses - something extra for hiring on. When all this was a pair of really large working farms - long before I was even born, my grandfather and great-grandfather used to keep records of all their workers. If a good man came back the next year, he'd get a little something extra - just for coming back. That was how you kept the best workers for your farm. You showed them that you knew what they meant to you. Sometimes, you had to just feel what somebody else might be feeling and those ones, he helped first, if it felt right to him." She reached into the cargo pocket of her flight suit and took out an envelope. "This is not for the agency to know about. It's only between you and me. If they knew about it, they'd try to get their mitts on some of it at least and they'd probably tell you that it's their due." She shook her head, "It's not. They're dealing with me as the president of Quicksilver's Air. This isn't the same thing. This is just the same thing that my great-grandfather used to do for his workers personally, and back in the day, it came out of the pocket of his overalls and not the farm." She smiled warmly then, "If he was here, he'd understand right away. I've heard from a lot of people whose fathers and grandfathers used to work here when there was a depression. Working here got a lot of people back on their feet when there wasn't much else. Sometimes a man's pride or the way that he was raised made him think to refuse. Great-granddaddy would point to their boots, worn out from looking for work, or the trousers that were more worn out then wearable in decent company. Sometimes he'd see the man's woman out by the road with their wagon, a tired-looking mule, and a few hungry children. He would just quietly say. 'If you start today or tomorrow, you get paid on Friday. What are they going to eat until then? This isn't pay. This isn't a loan. This is for coming to work here and to get what you need to begin here properly. This is what's needed now. Get what you need with this and come back to start tomorrow.' He would say 'This is between men." Bobbi smiled, "But I think that he'd still understand if it's between women right here. This is what's needed now. This is something that the agency would never think of doing. It's a gift to you from me for saying yes, you'll try the job. That's why it's not a cheque. It's a little cash to help you get started here, far from where you know anyone. I remember how that feels, to not know anyone. I don't think that you've got a lot here with you and you'll be needing something at least. You work for Quicksilver's Air through the agency until we decide together that you want the job permanently. That can happen any time during the next six months." Amy reached into the envelope and pulled out a few bills as her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "That's from us, Amy, not Quicksilver's Air." Amy pulled it all out. It was twenty bills - two thousand dollars in hundreds. She slowly looked up and across the coffee table. She burst into tears immediately. Bobbi was stunned, "Amy, what's wrong?" Amy hung onto Jane, burying her face against Jane's shoulder as she bawled. Jane shifted to hold her and Amy was against her chest. Jane looked up and Bobbi pointed, "Zipper. She's got her poor face against your suit zipper." Jane nodded and in a second, she'd fixed it. Amy was hiding her face against Jane's pink 'I'M A LESBIAN' tank top. Jane lowered her head, "Su-jin ... Su-jin, did we do anything wrong? We wanted to help." Amy shook her head, but kept crying. After a minute, she tried to speak, but it took a few tries before she really got anywhere with it. Jane kept her head down, kept trying to soothe and calm whatever this was and ... And without really meaning to or even being aware that she was doing it very much at all, she kissed the top of the rim of Su-jin's ear very softly a few times, telling her that it was alright. She stopped when she became aware of it and hoped that Su-jin hadn't noticed. It took a while, because at first, all they got was "Thank you - hoo - hoo." Bobbi left and came back with tissues and Jane offered them singly. Amy took them and blew her nose and wiped her eyes and then began all over again. Eventually, she calmed enough and slowly at first and with a lot of sobs and sniffles, she told them about it. It shouldn't have happened that way and Bobbi and Jane were astounded when they'd heard it all. They were furious that Amy was being used by this strange greedy uncle who was probably no real relation. It took a lot longer for Amy to explain that she'd been sent there because of something that she'd done that had gotten around in no time, thanks to cellular technology and the incredible speed that word of mouth could travel at. She didn't tell them what it was that had caused the whole thing because it was too stupid to Amy to even tell of it and she'd have been more embarrassed as well. They just nodded and let it go. But they didn't think it was right to send a daughter away for anything and under those circumstances where this dubious relative could take money to give their shame a home - and then charge her rent which she could barely afford to pay. It was beyond belief. The more that Su-jin tried to explain it, the worse her English got. Jane didn't know if Bobbi understood it, but she sure could. It took no thought at all to her. "It was nothing, what I did to cause this to myself," Amy said very quietly, "a drunken ... gesture between two drunk people at a party. I did not kill anyone," she said, "I only make a fool of myself where someone could take picture and post it to internet. The one I think was my friend, she scream like I killing her. My brothers - all four - never speak to me again. Not once. No boys who liked me speak to me either. Nobody speak to me. Only one friend, but her mother hear of it and chase me from house when I visit. My father stay angry and he arrange this - to come here to live in America. To throw his shame into ocean. My mother calmed down, but she never forgive me. She give me suit, because she could not wear it anymore anyway. She say I should use it to find work. But they send me away. I cannot forget. I ask for my mother's forgiveness and she shake her head and tell me to find my life somewhere else. I never think to go to America. I was happy in Seoul. The last thing that I say to her was ... I know what I will stay away from - a life like you. You are not happy, I say. How you can be happy? You work like dog for one man - make four more. You work for them all. You die working. Tell yourself you happy working for grandchildren." She began to sob once more. In the middle of it, she whispered, "I say to her, 'When grandchildren don't care about you, remember me.'" Jane began to cry. Amy calmed down again in less time. She sighed and took a minute so that her English skills could come back to her, "I was not angry and upset anymore," she said slowly. "I was only sad." She looked at them with her eyes brimming. "If I had a child, it is forever. Not to throw away if I don't like what he does." She fell silent for a time. "I came here with little. Everything seems strange to me, but it is not at the same time. It is a life that I think I can make here." She looked up at Bobbi, who sat on the other side of Jane now, feeding her tissues as well, "I know that I can help you, Bobbi. I cannot say anything but my thanks. And you did not know, but you have gave - given me so much and I have done nothing but come to you." She nodded, "Your ancestors should be proud - both of you. I want your job for me." Neither of them knew what to say. But they smiled and nodded. "Will you be alright here tonight, Amy?" Bobbi asked and Amy nodded and shrugged at the same time, "I think I will. I was thinking that I have never lived anywhere that I was alone in a house. I can do it." Bobbi looked at Jane, "It might be better if Amy sleeps here tonight at least." Jane nodded as she wiped her nose with a tissue, "I had no idea ..." She looked at Amy, "Please sleep at my house tonight, Su-jin. You won't be alone then. I don't want you to be alone. The bed's larger and I can even sleep on the couch in the living room. I've done it enough from falling asleep when I studied." They knew how much the thought affected Amy when she looked at Jane and nodded, saying thanks again. "Only today, I find friends. I have not had friend in almost a year. No one speak to me in Seoul that I knew, and when I came to Baltimore, it was same." She looked off across the room, "I was ... I do not know the word, fashionable? I made my hair red and sometimes I had crazy fun when I didn't have to study. I go dancing with my friends. But ... they were not my friends. I came here with nothing, only money to show officers that I had money. After that, I had to gave - give my money to uncle." She spoke quietly and she didn't cry outwardly, but her tears ran almost silently then. "I ... hated my hair. I had nothing, no money to make it right and no money to cut it. Uncle say he get lady to cut for me, but after rent, I had no money." She turned to Jane, looking from her to Bobbi for a moment, "You know almost nothing from what happen to me. But I come here and ... I do not even KNOW you and you are friends to me." She looked at Jane, "You see it in me, that I have nothing." She looked at Bobbi, "You too." She sighed, "I think maybe nobody knows. I think maybe women look ... see more, but ... I can change nothing so ..." Jane reached and put her arm around Amy, "So what? I wasn't looking to laugh. None of it was bad and I'm not like that. I talked to Bobbi and we guessed. That's not a crime, not to have the best because you moved your life halfway around the world and now you're making it over - or you would - if somebody would just give you a chance. Bobbi said that she wanted you right away from the interview. She said you interviewed so well and you know what we want and you can do it. Get the clothes later." She sniffled, "We can get your hair fixed tomorrow. You show me what you've got for clothes and we can get a few things that you can mix and match. You came all this way because you HAD to - no choice," she said, "You can't see it because you're living it, but to me," she smiled, touching her own chest, "you've got a lot of courage, Su-jin. Come on, let's get your things and we can see what we've got to work with just to start." Amy nodded and Bobbi wished them a good night, "I want to text Damian and tell him about today. You guys get a phone no matter what tomorrow and call me so I can get the number. I'll catch up with you tomorrow sometime." Amy hugged Bobbi and thanked her. They knew it was sincere, because she looked like she was going to cry again. ------------------ After getting Amy's things to bring them to Jane's place - since it wasn't far at all, they sat on the couch together. Jane was looking at the two full bottles left. "If you think you're not going to get drunk or anything, I think that we should just take those two there and make a toast to you and your new life - your own way," she smiled. Amy agreed and they set to the task. Afterward, Jane said, "And also, it means that I can get all of the bottles out of here," she said, "I don't drink that much if I'm here alone. I buy a six-pack and then two months later, I find that I've got to throw two or three out because they're past their date." "I can ask you something?" Amy said and Jane nodded, "Sure. Ask me anything, Su-jin." "Bobbi uses my name Amy," Su-jin said, "Why do you say 'Su-jin'?" Jane turned her head and smiled, "That's an easy one. I like your name. Bobbi told me your name when we flew down to pick you up. I don't have anything against Amy as a name. I just think that 'Su-jin' is better. I think it's a cool name. I also want to keep using it so I have it just right, like you say it. Why do you call me Janey instead of Jane?" Su-jin wondered if it was wrong, "I can't say 'Janey'?" Jane nodded, "You can use it. I don't mind. I don't think that there's a rule about using it. Mostly, it's just a few people who call me that; my father, my uncle, Bobbi and Damian. You'll meet him soon - and I'm sure that you'll like him, too. So that's about the whole list. They're all important people to me. You can use it because we're friends and I like to hear it from you. If it has a meaning, 'Janey' is 'Jane', but smaller, like a little girl. That's what I used to be, so that's what they called me then. Now I'm Jane - all grown up - to most people." "Is it also for ...?" Su-jin struggled a little. "It's what's called a diminutive, Su-jin. That means that it can also be used in an affectionate way. Any other questions?" Su-jin nodded, "I have to ask ... carefully. Can ..." she looked to be stuck. "If we're friends," Jane began, "I don't know how it goes in Korea, but here if we're friends, then friends can ask each other anything." Su-jin nodded, "Can I read your shirt? I wanted to see it since the airport." Jane pulled her flight suit together and put on a high and quavering girl's voice, "No my shirt!" Su-jin laughed. Jane reached into her pockets and took out all of the stuff in them, including the binoculars and set it all down on the coffee table in a somewhat orderly pile. She stood up then and worked her arms out of her sleeves, pulling the flight suit down a little and tying the sleeves around her waist. She turned to face Su-jin and waited while nothing happened. Su-jin was staring at her biceps. "Hey, I thought this was about my shirt," Jane laughed, "You didn't say anything about my arms. Not fair." Su-jin beamed and her reply was immediate, "Can I see your shirt - and your arms?" While Jane rolled her eyes, she reached out and touched a bicep with a smiling nod, "Nice!" Jane rolled her eyes again, "The shirt ..." Su-jin grinned and read the whole shirt, "I do not understand." "Do you know what 'hit on' means?" Jane asked, "it means that you might like someone that you meet or see and you say things to them to flirt - ah, to try to talk with them. Girls and boys both do it, boys more, I guess - because they're boys, I dunno. The shirt means that if you're a boy and you just want to talk stupid to me, then I'm a lesbian, because that would mean that I don't want to talk to you. Remember that where I was, there were men who just wouldn't shut up for days - weeks. I got the shirt because I was tired of it. Do you understand that part, Su-jin? A lesbian wouldn't care about men at all. That's what men think, mostly." "Ah," Su-jin said, leaning in a little to read, "now the second part." Jane groaned, "I am so freaking sorry that I even had the idea for this." She drew a deep breath. "Ok, I want to know something, Su-jin. I wouldn't want to embarrass you in any way here. The rest is more ... sexual." Su-jin had been looking at Jane's flat stomach, since she'd thought that she'd seen it move under the tight shirt, but she had no Idea how to go about asking about getting a look at that. She looked at Jane's face, "You mean ... dirty?" Jane almost laughed, but she managed not to. Su-jin had sounded so nice when she'd said it that way. She nodded, "Yeah, it's a little dirty. Are you ok with that?" Su-jin nodded happily, "Yes. I like dirty!" She got another look at Jane's moving stomach as Jane laughed herself almost to her knees. "Ok. What the shirt means is that I might not be a lesbian, but if a stupid man tries to talk to me, then I'm saying that I am one so he can stop right away. I'm not interested. The second part means that if it's a woman who is asking me, then I want to know if she's shaved. I thought that putting that part in would bother the men." Su-jin was working it out. Jane felt a little dumber about the shirt. She liked Su-jin and didn't think the shirt was worth her trying so hard to get it since she was from a different culture. Su-jin looked up and mimicked shaving her face, "Like man?" Jane wanted to hide under the couch then. She shook her head, "No, the second part is for women, remember?" She pretended to be shaving her pubes. Su-jin's eyes widened and she laughed and laughed, finally getting it. Modern Day Cavegirls - Jane "Wait," Su-jin began and Jane groaned, almost being able to predict this next one. "Shirt means that if a woman asks you, then you hope she is shaved because you want to see?" Jane smiled, "Yes, I guess. If I'm going to see that part of a woman, then I'd like it better if she was shaved there." Su-jin thought about it. She was tempted, but she always felt that she had to be so careful because it could sometimes be so easy to get things wrong across another language. "Shirt does not mean that you ARE lesbian," she said, "but it means that you COULD be one, right?" Ok, now Jane was smiling. "Yes! And I'm sorry that I had the idea to get the shirt made - and sorry that I didn't close my zipper. I really embarrassed Bobbi because of it." She smiled wider then,"And I'm also sorry that you had to work so hard because of our languages, Su-jin. I love to talk with you, but my stupid shirt just made it too hard for a silly joke." She reached for her beer and tilted it up. "I am not shaved," Su-jin said quietly. "And ... I think I am a lesbian." The bottle almost squirted right out of Jane's hand. It brightened Su-jin's mood and she thought Jane's gymnastics to try to save the bottle were hilarious. Jane got it under control without spilling a drop and she looked over, "Seriously?" Su-jin was silently cursing herself because she suddenly realized that if Jane wasn't like that, then she'd just trapped herself with the last sentence. She sighed and nodded, "I always think that girls looked better to me. I had one friend who was not really my friend that night at party. I ... thinking about it all the time. I wanted to know if she liked me the same way. I thought that she did." She looked down, "All of this - what happened, all of it was ..." Jane sat down next to Su-jin quickly, not wanting her to feel badly again. "I don't know much about Korean culture, Su-jin. But I think that I'm beginning to really, finally understand. I meant what I said. I feel inside me that I'm your friend. I want to be your friend. So you should know something about me. It doesn't matter what I am, lesbian or not. If I'm your friend, then I don't tell anyone something what you tell me in private. Friends - the important kind, anyway - we keep each other's secrets. But like anywhere, I guess, you have to be careful that you know what kind of friends that you have. That's not something to just tell another girl that you sit next to at lunch. What you just said - that you think you're a lesbian ... Su-jin, even if I was a lesbian and the streets were FULL of lesbians, I wouldn't ever tell anyone what you said to me. Friends don't do that." Su-jin nodded, "I thought ... everyone is drunk. She is drunk. I am drunk. Maybe it was time to try." Her face showed that there was still something painful in it for her. Jane was about to tell her that it was ok, and not to worry about it. "I hugged her. Girls hug and holding hands in Korea everywhere. It is not important. Nobody care. I hug her and I ... " She sighed, "I kiss her because I wanted to know how it was like. She kiss back and I touch her." She pointed to her breast. "Someone take phone picture." She hung her head and sobbed. "Everybody there know us." Jane knew what was coming and she reached for the tissue box to have it handy. She put her arm around Su-jin and she shook her head, "So just from a kiss and a cellphone and a bunch of shitty airhead girls, your life is blown to hell." She shook her head as Su-jin began to cry again softly. Su-jin was back to having her face against that fucking pink shirt again. Jane was ready to burn it. She shifted a little to sit more onto the couch and she just told Su-jin to hug her. After that, she just put her arms around Su-jin and stroked her back. After a while, she let go and placed a tissue into Su-jin's hand. Su-jin looked up a little later, "Are you one?" Jane laughed softly, "Before I answer that, I want to know something. Are we friends, Su-jin? We only met today. This past while, I've been so busy and over the last couple of years, the few friends around here that I used to have all left town. Not one of them knew how I felt inside me. I met you today and I knew right away that I wanted to know you. I saw you coming down the row of planes with Bobbi and I suddenly knew that if I could, I'd like to have you for my friend. It has nothing to do with your job. All I care about is that you succeed - and be my friend." She smiled, "I don't think that's ever happened to me since I was a little girl. When you're a little girl, you can just like somebody. That's why I wanted you to feel reassured, and it's why I whispered to you in Bobbi's truck. It's why I held your hand and said what I did. Even without all the things that you've had on your mind, I thought that coming here probably wouldn't be easy. Now I know that you felt that you had only one choice and that was to come and take the job. I knew what I would have done when I was a little girl, so I did that today. I told you that you had a friend in me. So now, I guess that I want to hear yo-" Su-jin threw her arms around Jane's neck and hugged her tightly. "Yes!" she whispered against Jane's ear, "I have same feeling when I see you in the plane." They both just hung on and though neither one could see it, they were both smiling. After the moment, they sat together and sipped their beers. Jane knew that Su-jin felt better, but she also knew that she was waiting for an answer. "This isn't Korea," she said, "but there are still things that get in the way. Growing up here is like being a goldfish in a clear glass bowl. This is a very small place and everybody knows everybody else. They've known me, or known about me all of their lives, just like I've known them. So something that you do around here can become what you're known for to everybody." She sighed, "So just imagine that you're a girl who likes girls and wants to know a little more about it. Imagine that you saw a girl that you suddenly wanted to get to know like that. I guess it's the same thing where you come from." Su-jin nodded sadly. "So yeah, Su-jin, I'm a lesbian, but I'd say that it's not a hundred percent. I don't think that it even has to be. Everybody these days needs to be able to say things absolutely - which is a little stupid to me. We're people, so that means that I don't have to like wearing blue socks as much as you might like that - but we both might like to wear blues socks anyway. You probably don't know where the word came from. There's an island in Greece called Lesbos." She smiled, "Everybody on it is a Lesbian because that's the word that really means someone who lives there or came from there. It doesn't mean that they like only girls. Even the men there - since they live there - are Lesbians. There was a famous poet there long ago. Her writings were well known and a lot of them were political criticisms. But she's not known for that. She's known because she liked women. Her name was Sappho. Today, a relationship between a pair of women is often called a Sapphic one because of her name. As far as anyone knows, she was like that her whole life." Jane grinned a little, "But it's also well-known that Sappho had a daughter. You can't be a pure lesbian and do that - not the way that everybody tends to think now, that if you're like that, then you HAVE to hate men. I sure don't. I just like girls a lot more. But I can also appreciate a good-looking man." Jane smiled just a little and nodded, "So for your question, I'm a lesbian almost all of the time. I have my moments where I might want a man, but they're a little rare for me. Mostly, I like girls. I always have. And as far as I know, nobody around here knows that about me but a very few people in my family and now you. Though I guess that I sure didn't help things when I had all my hair cut off last week." She rolled her eyes, "But then I'm also known to push things a little every now and then. I figure that a person can look any way that they want. It's sure easier to wear my flight helmet like this." Su-jin raised her head and looked at Jane, "How did you learn so much of it?" Jane thought it was funny, "Well, what else are you gonna do if you're a girl like me in a place like this? I looked it up in the library at school and on the web." She smiled a bit more, "You know something? I wish that I was in Korea that night. I wish that I was at that awful party where everyone pretends to be your friend while they're really not. I wish that I could have known you before today. I'd have walked up and told you that you could just kiss me if you really wanted to know about it." She sighed as she looked at Su-jin - who was just about staring, though she didn't want to. "You're such a beautiful girl to me. I couldn't have NOT wanted to know you when I saw you today." She shrugged, "It's probably for the best that I didn't know you and been at that lousy party. I'd just have embarrassed you, most likely." "I do not understand," Su-jin said, "If I knew you and you were there, I would be happy and proud." "I dunno," Jane grinned, "I don't think that I'd have been there dressed like everybody else. I'm not a really hip and with-it kind of girl. I never cared about fashion much. I'd have been there in torn jeans and cowboy boots. If I let you kiss me and one person took our picture, I'd have shoved their big-assed Android phone right down their throat, probably sideways." She sighed again very sadly, "I've just never been good at playing nice when I'm angry." Su-jin stared and then she laughed and it lasted for a time. Jane decided that she loved to hear Su-jin laugh. The moment passed and Su-jin sipped the last of her beer and set the bottle down, "I would like to see it - at that party." "Anyway," Jane smiled, "You're here and you have a new job and I'm very happy. But we'd better try to get some sleep. I think we'll be pretty busy tomorrow, getting your hair fixed and a phone and a laptop and all. We're gonna need to get your things unpacked too. You can have my bed. I'll sleep on the couch." Su-jin got up and looked into Jane's bedroom. "But you have so large bed. Bobbi said you came from far away today. You need good sleep. I will sleep on couch - the couch," she said as she corrected herself. Jane shook her head, "You're my guest tonight. You take the bed." Su-jin looked a little adamant for a second, but it passed. "I am your guest. Lots of room in bed. Please, Janey ... I would feel ... bad." Jane looked down and shook her head, "I never should have told you about my name. You're already using the name against me, aren't you?" Su-jin nodded, "Yes." She smiled and Jane just gave up. "Ok." Jane gathered up the empty bottles and put them in the cardboard carrier and took them to the kitchen while Su-jin went to the bathroom. "Leave the light on in there when you're done," Jane called over, "so you can see your way in case you need to go during the night." "What do you put on when you sleep?" Su-jin asked. Jane shrugged, "I guess for tonight, I'll find a big T-shirt. I've got a couple around here someplace for that." Su-jin was opening one of her suitcases and she looked back, "For tonight? What does this mean?" Jane shrugged, "Well if it's not cold, and it's not that time of the month, I usually don't wear anything. You could just not worry and wear your bra and underwear tonight, if it makes things easier for you. You wouldn't have to dig around in your luggage then." Su-jin looked thoughtful for a moment. It intrigued Jane to see it and so she just asked. "What are you thinking so deeply about? We're just going to bed and we've got to get some sleep." Su-jin said, "Coming here is strange. I mean to America. Everything can be the same, but it is still different. People are the same. They sleep in beds, not on the wall. That is what I want to say." She pointed at Jane, "If you were going to sleep in your home here, and I was not here ..." Jane shrugged again, "It's late. I'd just come in and get into bed naked. That's just how I like to sleep best. But -" "Then I will sleep naked," Su-jin nodded, not even smiling. "I did that when I live with my family. When I was not little girl anymore, I liked that. I had room for me. I have not slept that way since I came here to this country. It feels wrong to me how I sleep in Baltimore." She smiled, "And I have friend now. I do not need much room, Janey. I will not disturb you." She shrugged, "I have friend and we trust each other. I want to show this, that I ... friends with you. I'm sorry, I don't know better words sometimes. Can we?" Jane nodded, getting it, "Sure, Su-jin." She laughed after a second, "I think that I'm always gonna remember it when I hug you goodnight." Su-jin smiled and nodded, "Me too, Janey." Jane did her best not to look when Su-jin began to work at getting the flight suit off - and it was a bit of work, since the fabric was heavy and she was unfamiliar with it. "Not so hard when I put it on," she muttered to herself, "I take it off a little twice to go to bathroom. Why so hard now?" "I can help," Jane offered, "It's something that you just learn by doing it every day." Su-jin nodded, "Please help. I feel trapped." Jane stepped over, "The first thing is to pull the zipper all the way down. You won't have much freedom to get it off if you don't." Once Su-jin did that, Jane stepped behind her, "Now, the next thing is to grab one cuff while you get the same shoulder out. Once you've got that, the rest is easy." She took Su-jin's left hand and moved it to her right wrist, "Ok, grab here." Since it was the first time, Jane helped by pushing the suit from Su-jin's right shoulder. "Now you can pull your arm out." Su-jin had it then and she stood in her underwear looking at Jane. "What comes next?" Jane laughed, "I'm a dummy. I should have told you to take your running shoes off first." She got to her knees and untied the laces. "Here. You can lean on me and I'll pull them off for you." It was a bit of comedy anyway and neither of them minded, since they were laughing. "Now you can just sit on the couch and pull your legs out," Jane smiled, doing her best not to look straight ahead. Su-jin had really nice legs and such slim hips. She was a little surprised at herself. If she'd been thinking of it, she might have thought that Su-jin's hips might have looked like hers did when she was a girl. That was there, but only a little bit. What she saw were really nice looking hips. She also caught the six-pack on that stomach and wondered a little bit - though all of this sure explained the strength that she'd felt when she'd helped Su-jin up to board the plane. She stood up and moved away so that she could bend down and take off her work boots, "You know what? I'm not really sure how to say this, but to me ... " She pulled off her boots after getting the laces loose so quickly and automatically that Su-jin was surprised. The suit came the rest of the way off Jane easily. "To me, it's a little like ..." She shrugged again, "We are the same species, Su-jin. We're both human, right? But we're made very differently to each other. Think about cats. Not the kind that you might have in your house, the big kind." She set her flight suit down on the couch and pointed to herself, "Me, I might be like ... well, not the biggest kind, not like a lion or maybe a jaguar. I think I might be a little like a snow leopard - just for what I'm trying to say. They're leopards, but not the biggest kind. I'm not all big, bunched muscles like a lion. That's what I mean. If you were a big cat, you'd be a different one." Su-jin smiled, "Which one?" Jane grinned, "You'd be a cheetah." "I do not know these names," Su-jin said, "I know what a lion is. My family name means lion. Kim mean lion." "I'll show you on the internet tomorrow," Jane smiled, "Once you see what I mean, I'm sure you'd agree. A cheetah is lighter, thinner. Very lean. It has to be like that to survive. It's the fastest animal alive on Earth. They can do sixty miles an hour, with bursts even faster if they need it. They don't catch their prey, Su-jin. They're too smart for that." Su-jin was fascinated, "No? How do they eat then?" Jane chuckled, "Because they're so light, they're a little delicate, so they don't just run up and bash their dinners down and they don't grab on either. They might get hurt that way." She smiled, "They use their heads and think. They run close enough and at just the right second, they reach out and trip the animal they're chasing. Then they stop and go back and a fast squeeze over the throat to hold on and they wait for the animal to die. You're like that to me; slim, very nice to look at. SO beautiful." She wiggled her eyebrows, "VERY sexy." Su-jin laughed, "I have no stripes or dots." Jane nodded, "Well I never said that it was a PERFECT analogy," she said as the pulled her tank top over her head, "It's just what came to me." Su-jin was stunned. She suddenly knew why she'd seen Jane's stomach move a little. Jane had well-developed abdominal muscles. When she stood still, you almost couldn't see them. You just knew that they were there. But when she leaned to one side or did much of anything really, you couldn't miss them at all. Jane had small and perfect breasts which fit her build absolutely, with slightly small and very lightly colored nipples, almost as light as her skin. Kind of breathtaking to a girl like Su-jin. Jane didn't seem to notice that Su-jin was staring. She just worked her panties down and pulled them off. Su-jin knew a couple of things in that instant. She'd liked Jane from the first moment and she appreciated her caring. She'd noticed it when Jane began to cry when she was telling her story. It was no little thing to her. Somewhere in her mind, she knew that she felt strongly attracted to her and she wasn't even surprised when it had come to her. But she'd determined this part by saying that she wanted to sleep in the same bed. She had hopes, as vague as they were to her, since she was almost totally inexperienced. But this right here was the moment of truth. She decided to forget her normal ways, since they'd really never been anything more than hindrances to make her what she was raised to be like. Those people were out of her life now. She bent down as she pulled her panties off. It gave her the second or so to prepare herself for the next part. It was a little funny to her, thinking that she needed this. But she dialled her small courage all the way up and straightened back up to reach behind herself and undo her bra. She had it off in a second and they looked at each other. Jane looked to be at a loss for words, so Su-jin shrugged and giggled a little bit. "Very nice!" she grinned, and it broke the tension perfectly. She gasped, and pointed with a smile, "You ARE shaved." Jane nodded, "I read about it once and the next time that I was feeling a little um, dirty as you say, I bought some shaving cream and a better razor. I took that all home and that night, I had a hot bath and just did my best. I found that I really liked how it felt to me and I did feel pretty sexy about it, so I've just kept doing it. I've never really had a big bush. I'd say that it was much closer to what you've got there - and that's pretty nice to see, Su-jin. If I can't get a shaved one, then I want one like your sweet thing. But on me, I like it bare. It feels nicer that way to me." She stepped toward the bed, but Su-jin was there, "You said that I can kiss you if we were at party. Can we? I ... I really want to try this." Modern Day Cavegirls "You're cutting the grass with him in a playpen?" Jane asked, and then she nodded, "Oh yeah, Dad and Rose are out of town. Sorry, I've been away too. Why not leave him here with us while you finish the lawn worry-free? Look, you know he's already stolen Amy's heart. What's the worst that could happen?" "aaaaaaaAAAAAAHH!" "That," Jodi pointed with a sad smile. "Eventually, he gets frustrated - just like his father. If he can't get your top open, he tries to push it out of the way. If that doesn't work and if he can find your nipple ... " She got Tyler off Su-jin's breast and took him back. He started fussing immediately, but one hot glare from Jodi and he began to cry. "I don't know what it is," Jane said, "but somewhere in all of the changes that happen to a woman on the way to becoming a mother, from somewhere, the weapons are bestowed upon her. She gets 'the look', the sound and she gets the name thing." "What is the name thing?" Su-jin asked as she rubbed her sore boob. Jodi smiled as Jane explained, "If you're being a little shit and you won't stop after repeated warnings, a mom will invoke your name - all of it spoken clearly and deliberately - every name you have and the long form, too. That's the last warning. It's all fire and brimstone after that." Jodi nodded with a chuckle, "Tyler was a good baby and he really is turning into a great little boy. But sometimes everyone just needs to be told. I didn't say a word; I just shot him that look. It never worked worth spit on his father." She looked at Su-jin, "I heard you say that you're from Seoul. That's South Korea, right? Do mothers do that there?" "Oh yes," Su-jin said, nodding with big eyes, "But Korean names go family name first - and I have several names. If my mother said all of them - everything - " She shrugged, "You hear her start and it feels like it take about a half hour, but if she say it, you are very close. Watch how you answer then. She hear it wrong, she think there is something ... not respectful in your voice, game over. Best thing is you say sorry, put hands up and step away from kiddie car." They laughed at that. "Pardon my asking," Jodi said, "but does she call you Amy then too?" Su-jin shook her head with a grin, "No. My mother never knew that I am Amy. I took this name when I came here. Sometimes American people have trouble with names from somewhere else. I pick Amy to make it easy for them." She smiled at Jodi, "You are friend of Jane, so I like you too. Please use my real name - if you want to. My name is Su-jin." "Thank you," Jodi smiled. Jane laughed, "Go on. Say it. I want to hear you say it one time. It's a short name, and it shouldn't be tough, but there's a sound to it the way that she says it and I can get close - and she even says that I've got it right, but I know that I'm not quite there yet. I keep trying though." "Su-jin" Jodi said, "Did I get it right?" Su-jin nodded. "Not even close," Jane grinned, "She's just saying that to be polite. But I know that it'll drive you a little nuts trying." ---------------------- Jane had Tyler as they walked inside. Jodi was headed back to finish the mowing and then she'd drop by for Tyler. "So that's it?" Jane smiled, "Full-on love, here and gone in five minutes? I guess it's all over but the crying." "I want to do that," Su-jin replied looking down at her injured boob, "It hurts. But he is so ... He is only a little baby boy. I will forgive him in time." Jane nodded, "Any second now." "Jodi is very nice," Su-jin smiled, "I could like her right away." Jane nodded as she sat down with Tyler on her lap, knowing that he'd be wanting down in a minute, "She's not one of my original friends from school. Those ones are all gone and I never hear from any of them. She showed up here last year when her old car gave up on her right across the road. Her boyfriend knocked her up and -" She saw the look and said, "He made her pregnant. Her mother sounds to me like one of those really righteous religious types and she cut Jodi loose, swelling belly and all. With nowhere else to go, Jodi tried to make a go of it with her boyfriend." She sighed, "She gave that up after he put her in the hospital the second time. Anyway, she was desperate by the time that they put her boyfriend in jail. She had a little money saved up, about fifteen hundred altogether, so she decided not to be there when the bastard got out of jail. She bought an old car and drove as far away as she could. Angel Fire is as far as she got. She had Tyler maybe the second day after that. My Dad and his girlfriend took her in and she's doing a little better every day now. She's starting her landscaping business properly soon. We just hit it off and I do whatever I can for her. I like her a lot and I guess that I'm a little protective of her, knowing what she's been through." Su-jin looked over and Jane looked a little uncomfortable, "Now that I think about it, I really should have told you about Jodi last night." She shrugged, "I wasn't going to tell her about me, the way that I am. I figured that not telling people about me has always worked out ok for me. We'd hang out together and I'd help with Tyler to give Jodi a break. One evening, she just looked at me and TOLD me that I like girls more than boys. She said that she could see that I liked boys, but she knew that I was more attracted to girls. I asked her how she knew that and she gave me that sweet Texas drawl and said that it wasn't hard. We'd go someplace and she'd notice that I was checking out the women. So I admitted it to her and she said that she was fine with it. Life went on. About a week later ..." She looked at Su-jin, "Look. None of us are old women yet, ok? I was feeling a little needy that night. But I wouldn't have ever said anything to her. We were in here, having a few beers after Tyler was down for the night. Jodi mentioned that her boyfriend was a rotten prick, but there were nights when she missed him while she was alone in her bed. It got me thinking, so I asked her if ... deep down inside, she was missing that one man specifically, like did she still love him? Or was it just that she needed a man? She couldn't answer for a few minutes and I guess that I expected that, so I just waited. I mean, if I'd seen that she was still hurting, I'd have moved us off the topic instantly. She finally told me that she did still love him in a way, but that she'd learned that breathing was better than being with a psychopath. She was just sad about that. Then she told me that it wasn't the main issue. So I asked her what that was. She shrugged and seemed to squirm around on the couch next to me for a minute and then she told me that since she's gotten here, she's tried to talk to men - just talk to them socially, not flirting, not letting then get stupid, just talking. She said that she knows that there are really great men out there somewhere, but her problem seemed to be finding a way to come out from hiding from them. I asked her what that meant and she told me that she WANTED to get to know a man, but she had no courage left to do it with anymore. When she forced herself to take a chance and actually go out on a date - and she told me who it was, and I knew him to be a really nice guy. I mean, look at her. She's a real doll. Any man with a heart and a brain would know to take good care of a woman like that. She told me that he really liked Tyler and that Tyler was really happy to meet anybody. I was sure that she'd made a good start at least. But she told me that it fizzled pretty quickly. Once they'd gotten to know each other enough to get beyond a goodnight kiss, Jodi was terrified all over again. She said that when they held each other, she found that she really didn't want to. She told me that she really wanted to hide. So it didn't work out. I suggested that she ought to maybe find a psychiatrist to talk to about it - and she asked me what money should she use for that. I actually felt really awful for her when I thought about it. I didn't have any other answers for her. After that, she waited a little while and said that what she wanted was to be held close by someone that she could trust, someone who she knew absolutely cared about her." Jane smiled then, "How do you think that I got so good at catching a flying beer bottle that's gotten away from me? I wasn't prepared for the next thing that she said at all. She said "I mean someone like you, Jane. I can trust you with Tyler, with anything. So if you don't think that I look too bad for it could you please maybe think about me and you sometime? I don't think that I'm like you necessarily, but I've been thinking about you a lot and maybe we could have a little fun together if it goes ok." She looked at Su-jin and almost laughed, "You look like you're about ready to fall off your chair. Is it the suspense or what?" "I don't know," Su-jin replied with a little laugh at herself, "but this story is fascinating to me because I know you and I've met Jodi. Now I have to know how it ended." Jane shrugged and said, "It hasn't ended. I've thought about it over a long time. I still can't honestly say that I know that she's any different. Maybe there was always something there - maybe it was something that she'd never dealt with in herself - I mean, consider what her mother must have been like. Maybe she was frightened by any thoughts that she might have had and just repressed it, I don't know. If you grew up in a place where there was somebody telling you that you were surely going to Hell for anything that you did wrong, how do you face having thoughts about somebody who's the same sex as you? But since then, we do sometimes get together and fool around. It's not the way that you and I seem to want to go about it. I mean, there's no fireworks like that and the passion is at a lower level. I'm very conscious that it's what she needs from me and she's had enough of being thrown around to last a lifetime. I just try to be somebody that her heart needs as well as her body. I don't think that she wants that kind of a relationship with me on a permanent basis. I just think that sometimes she needs me that way. I don't mind it. To me, she's beautiful and we're close friends. We can say anything to each other and we enjoy spending time with each other. It's been like that for about six months. Thinking about what we said to each other last night, I guess I want you to think about us and tell me if you still want to be my friend, or if we shouldn't be together or what your thoughts are on the whole deal. And Su-jin, I'll understand and accept whatever you decide." She looked down and found that Tyler was nodding, so she carried him to the bed and laid him down. Su-jin watched as she kissed him and told him that she loved him very softly as she covered him with the blanket. She came back then and sat down, waiting for Su-jin's reaction. She didn't look down and she didn't look away. "I don't know what to say," Su-jin said quietly. "I like her. I liked her at once. I like Tyler. I have something inside me that wishes for me to say that it is alright - that I can accept this. So, I accept this." She looked down, "But you should have told me right at the start last night." Jane nodded, "I know. I - I don't even know why I didn't think of it. I really wish that I'd thought of it and told you." "I wish that too," Su-jin said quietly, "Very much." She got up and began to put her things into her suitcases again. Jane had a feeling that this might be the result, but there was nothing that she could do to change what had already happened. "Su-jin, wait. You just said that you accepted it." There was a hint coming for Jane, though she didn't get it yet. It was the smoothness of Su-jin's English - or the lack of it - as the case may be. Su-jin struggled to the door and set one of her bags down so that she could open the door. "I accept this - like I accept what happen me in Seoul, like I accept EVERYTHING happen to me that I cannot change." "Where are you going?" Jane asked. "To my house," Su-jin replied. "Can't we talk?" Jane asked. Su-jin shook her head, "What for? You said that you accept what I decide. This is what I decide. So, accept it. I do not know anyone here and I need you to show me place to get hair dyed. I need you to get me phone and laptop, like Bobbi said." She looked back and Jane saw her tears again, but this time, it was from what Jane had done - or more correctly hadn't done. "That is all I need from you." Her voice began to sound rough, following closely behind her ability to use English smoothly, since that was going to hell in a hand basket very quickly. "I not need you make me feel like fool. I do that myself - everywhere I go." Jane got to her feet and began to step over, but Su-jin held up her hand, "STOP!" Jane froze. She saw a different look on Su-jin's face then. It was similar to what had been there when she was working over the old post. There was intensity and little else. If there were other emotions there, they were being well-shrouded. "I see now," she said coldly. "You not care about other people but Jane." Jane stood still and slowly shook her head. "YES!" Su-jin almost shouted. It surprised Jane to see that there was still more coldness that could be applied - and Su-jin was adding it right now. "You doing it now!" she hissed loudly. "You doing it again, right now. You not know what I talking about - so I am right. Jane cares only herself." Jane felt a little of the fire of her indignation rising up. "What the hell are you talking about?" But Su-jin wasn't having any of it, "You make sounds, pretty sounds like you care. You don't give shit, Jane. If you care, then you think before you do anything but you don't. What you think Jodi doing now?" Jane shrugged, "She's cutting the rest of the lawn for my father. When she's done, she'll come back here to get Tyler." The response was a short but vehement flood of Korean spoken to the floor and the expression on Su-jin's face left little doubt about whether it had been something very nice. She looked up and glared, "You hear cutting machine now? Are you sure you really woman? I have brothers like you." She pointed behind herself to the door, "Jodi is crying. I not even KNOW her and I see it in face. She wait, that's all. She wait to walk away to cut grass. Then she cry, where no one will see. Jodi love you - and you bring me here. You come out, have only robe. What you THINK she thinks?" Su-jin's voice stayed at the same level, but it sunk low in frequency so that she almost growled, "Forget it. Leave me alone. Do not talk to me. I do not need anything from you." She opened the door. Jodi stood there with her hand slightly outstretched as though she'd been reaching for the doorknob. She looked like she'd been flash-frozen rigidly into place. Her cheeks were wet with the proof that Su-jin had been right on the money. Jodi regained her ability to move right then and she walked past Su-jin to where her son sat crying. She picked him up and walked out, bursting into tears again as she did. There was more Korean now from Su-jin, but it was much quieter. She was angry with herself for a lot of things, but right then; it was that she'd been loud enough to have been heard easily through the door. She hurried with her things and said, "Jodi, please. I need your help." Jodi slowed down, though she didn't look back and Su-jin caught up with her easily. "I sorry, and my English goes bad when I mad. Here is key. Can you help me to get inside? Afraid I will drop everything soon." Jodi looked down and saw the key in Su-jin's hand, even as she held onto one suitcase. She took the key and Su-jin whispered her thanks. They reached the small porch of Su-jin's house and Jodi managed to get the door unlocked and open for Su-jin. "Come inside. Please, Jodi." They made it inside and Su-jin put her things down, where one suitcase fell open on the spot. Jodi stood holding Tyler. She leaned her head onto his and wept. Su-jin had nothing else, so she hugged them both and let Jodi cry. Somewhere in it, Su-jin realized something fairly inconsequential and that was that Jodi was about two inches shorter than she was. Then she realized that she liked that. Then she wondered why she did and then she wondered why she was thinking these things at all. "I'm sorry," she said in a half-whisper, "I was angry. I should have guessed that you might be there." "It's ok," Jodi whispered after a moment, "I think this was coming for a while. I guess that I was needier than Jane." Su-jin looked down at the side of Jodi's face, the little of it that she could see anyway, "You really love her, don't you?" Jodi nodded and sobbed a little more, "I guess it was a little one-sided. I got here and had Tyler and we met and she helped me, and somewhere in there, I grew a crush. I never did anything with another girl before and to me, it was safe and it felt good. So I sort of began to love Jane. I think that in there, what I felt became more than what she did. Su-jin tried, "Maybe you could ... " She hesitated as she realized that she really didn't have much of a clue about offering advice to an American in an American relationship - in America. She'd have been stretching the bounds of her experience with successful relationships if this was Korea. "Maybe you could talk to her," she said, "try to fix it." Jodi sighed, "There's nothing much to fix. Su-jin, there can't have been much there in the first place if she doesn't think and has a girl over for the night. I only live thirty feet away. By what you said - that I heard, and I'm sorry about overhearing - she didn't say anything about me either, so I guess that tells me about where I stand. Of course that won't be her version." She put Tyler down and he began to explore the contents of Su-jin's open suitcase. Jodi returned to stand in front of Su-jin again. "The thing about Jane that I noticed a few times is that she wants what she doesn't have. I think it came to me a little bit late, but once she has it - she wants something else. I think now that when we'd get together, there was a difference to what we each wanted. We both wanted sex, but I also wanted her to love me. I think now that she just didn't have anything on the go then, that's all." It took a couple of minutes, but Su-jin felt Jodi's arms move and then she felt her hands around her waist. "I - Is - this alright, Su-jin? And thanks very much for the hugs, "Jodi whispered, "This feels nice to me." Su-jin nodded as she put her arms around Jodi's shoulders, "Yes, It feels nice to me too, but I'm still sweaty from jumping around out there." "So?" Jodi chuckled and it ended in a sniffle, "I'm covered in dust, pollen spores, and grass clippings. I think I like it. I'm just praying a little right now that you don't have any allergies." "I don't, I think," Su-jin said. She sighed, "And even if I did, I could buy medicine for that. It is not my real problem." Jodi looked up, "What is, then?" Su-jin sighed again, not being able to help it, "I think that today, I have just realized that I am like a leaf. Something happened to me in Korea and what I did shamed my family. It was something that was made so large by other people. I still don't think that what happened was worth the things that were caused by it. But the result was the same. I am like a leaf thrown into a large river by the wind, and I am floating down the current with no control over it. If I have any control, it has only happened lately. My family threw me away and sent me here to America where I didn't want to go. Modern Day Cavegirls Just before that, I learned that my oldest friend had always wanted us to be lovers. But that can never be now. My heart hurts anyway. I was sent here, and I lived unhappily until now - it is better now because I took a job working for Jane's sister. Last night ... I should have known. I felt happy and let myself feel that way. I thought, in the middle of everything, I have found a girl who wants me for myself. She was just busier than I would have thought, and I feel like a fool again. I never thought about airplanes, Jodi. They were things that I saw from the ground and if I thought of them, I imagined that they were taking people away to be happy." She shook her head just a tiny bit and sighed again. "I have ridden on an airplane three times in my life now. Each time, they take me farther from where I wanted to be. Really, I want to be back there, but I cannot go, and it is more than this. I want to be there before this sadness happened to me. But I can change nothing, so I must find my way and live where I am now. And a little leaf floating on a river can only float for so long. Sooner or later, they all sink, every one of them." Jodi looked up, "That's really very beautiful - though it's awfully sad at the same time. I've felt like that forever, now that I've heard you say that. But in my case, it was just a Texas tornado and there isn't any water. It's all just dust. What are you going to do now?" Su-jin frowned a little, "What I must do. I have to live, so I will do my job for Bobbi. Maybe I can even like it. I probably have to have dealings with Jane, but I don't want to. For now, I need to have all of my hair dyed black again or I will look like an idiot on Monday. I also need to get to the computer store that Bobbi buys her phones and computers from so that I can get the things that I need to do the job. I wanted to be finished or almost finished by this time." She groaned, "How will I find this store? How to get there, I do not know. And my hair ..." she shook her head. "I can help you," Jodi said, "I've got some things to say to Jane, but it won't take long. I'll ask her what the name of the store is, and I'll ask her for Bobbi's number. Don't you worry about the hair dye. I'll buy you some and I'll dye your hair for you." Su-jin nodded, "Thank you, but I have no car and no license. Should I ask Jane to call for a taxi?" Jodi shook her head, "I've got a truck and I need to go into town anyway to get a little food. You wait right here - and try to keep Inspector Gadget there out of your stuff. I'll come right back and we can go to town." She was almost at the door when she stopped and looked back, "Did you mean what you said to Tyler - about him having a beautiful mother?" Su-jin nodded with a bit of surprise showing on her face that it was in question at all, "Yes, I see you that way. So beautiful, a child from nature. I thought that you must have ... love from the earth. You look so - like you fit with it more than most people." She smiled, "Look at your boy. So beautiful child. I see you in his face, his hair and how he is made. These things, I see in you too. Not always, but beautiful woman make beautiful child." Jodi came back and kissed Su-jin on the cheek and only for an instant. "Thank you, Su-jin. That's the nicest thing that anybody's ever said to me." Then she was gone. Su-jin stared at the closed door for a moment before her hand came up to touch her cheek in surprise. She looked down at Tyler who sat holding up some of her underwear. He looked up at her and she shrugged. Tyler laughed. ------------------------ He was laughing when Jodi came back. She stared. Su-jin was in a low squat with her legs far apart. She was moving side to side slowly with a slight grimace coming to her face now and then. "What are you doing?" Jodi asked. "My muscles and tendons are tightening," Su-jin said, "I didn't try too hard, that bad for ..." She indicated her groin muscles with her hand. "I didn't want to force them and now I don't want them to tighten or maybe it takes two - three days before I can try again." She stood up straight and looked at the bathroom doorjamb for a moment. "I could stretch for far before." She stepped over to it and stood in the doorway at the other side of it. Looking up at the top corner, she slowly raised her right foot, as though she was preparing to kick. But she didn't. She slowly extended her leg and reached with her foot for that spot. She was a little shy of making it, so she lowered her foot and moved her other one a little closer this time. Trying again, she got nearer and then she slowly pushed herself so that her crotch spread a little wider as she relaxed into it and at the same time, her foot rose a little higher along the doorframe. Jodi couldn't believe it, "How do you do that?" "Only one way," Su-jin smiled, "Lots of work." She pushed herself a little more and then stopped suddenly, exhaling gently and making it sound as though she was whispering "ha," over and over again. She'd reached the limit for today and only stood there testing it, "Ha, ha, ha, ha." She worked her way back to standing once more before she repeated the whole thing with her left foot. "That the end," she said, "one millimetre more and I tear something. But not so tight muscles now." "I've never seen anybody do something like that, "Jodi said. Su-jin laughed softly, "Before, when I fighting and in shape, I could stand with foot against edge and have other foot against top. My legs were against the edge of frame all the way, no space." She smiled, "I do it once when I was alone and I was naked. I wanted to see if legs were all the way against door frame. I was looking at mirror on back of other door to see how it looked." She chuckled, "I start to laugh then. I almost hurt myself. That is not good way to have body when you laugh." "Why were you laughing?" Jodi asked chuckling as well. Su-jin's eye grew large, "I didn't think. I was only thinking to see how well I was doing. I not think until I could see me like that. Legs all the way and touching the doorfame." She pointed toward her crotch, "This against doorframe too." She started to laugh from the memory. "Looked like I was stuck against wall." After their laughter, Jodi asked, "Couldn't you just do that on the floor? Wouldn't it be easier then?" Su-jin nodded, "In some ways yes. But using floor there is danger. You slip and you tear something for sure." ------------------- "What did you say to Jane?" Su-jin asked as they drove in the truck with Tyler in his car seat pointing things out to Su-jin. He might also just have been zooming his hands through the air. They couldn't tell. "Or is this private?" "Some," Jodi said, "A little bit anyway. I went over there to give her a piece of my mind, but she was crying then and I didn't see the point anymore. I asked her for the things that you wanted and she even gave me a card that Bobbi gave her to use. She said that you just use it like a credit card to pay for the things that you need to get and hand the card and the bill of sale to Bobbi on Monday. She looked up Bobbi's number on her phone and she wrote it down for me to give you later when you're ready to call." "She was crying?" Su-jin asked, "I thought that she might be sorry, a little for me and I had hoped much more for you, but I didn't think that it was worth that to Jane. She did not say that she was sorry to me." "Oh it is worth it," Jodi said, a little sadly, "Bobbi had called her to ask why she hadn't heard from you yet and was there something wrong. Jane told her what happened. She left me out of it, because I don't think that Bobbi knew about her and me. I just heard the last part of the call when I walked in. Jane was crying and I could hear that Bobbi was about losing her mind. I think I know what it was about too. You can't hire somebody and then take them to bed. I'm sure it happens all the time, but you're not supposed to." "But I didn't go to bed with Bobbi," Su-jin said, confused now. "It might have come close," Jodi said, "Bobbi was about to make Jane the head of the agricultural division to take over from her Dad so he can retire. I know it hasn't happened yet is all - and I'm not sure because I didn't hear that part, but I think that now it won't happen for a while. Bobbi and her father built that business and to her, it's the greatest work of her life. She won't let anything threaten it while she's breathing. Like I said, I'm not really sure, but I think that Bobbi might have taken that little toy away from Jane's fingers, since she doesn't seem to be able to keep one thing from clouding another like business and getting laid. I'm not happy about seeing Jane cry, but it might be what she needs to help her see clearly." "What is 'getting laid'?" Su-jin asked. "It means sex," Jodi said. Su-jin looked ahead blankly and said, "Oh. Did you give ... what did you call it, a piece of your mind?" Su-jin asked, "Many English sayings are so confusing to me. Why give a piece of mind so easily, I was thinking. Can only do that so many times and then what?" Jodi shook her head, though she laughed, "I would have - if she hadn't been crying hard. Really, I just wanted to say that seeing her with someone who obviously had been there overnight where she was comfortable enough in the morning to wear only a robe that wasn't even done up all the way just told me that I was being used and I didn't like it. I said that I'd expected to remain a friend if what we had wasn't love or at least pretty mutual. That was about it." She pulled into a strip mall and pointed at one store. "That's where you need to go, Su-jin. Jane told me to remind you about the phone - that it should have point to point ability so that Bobbi can get you anywhere around here instantly. She said the laptop is up to you because you'd know what you'd need. I haven't got a clue. I've used computers before, but I've never owned one. I know I'll have to get one when Tyler needs one, but ... that's about it." Su-jin shook her head, "Jane told me that you were starting a business. How soon, Jodi?" Jodi thought about it ,"Within the next half-year, I'd say. I want to do it when business is slow - like in the winter when I'll have time. Why?" "I think that you need a computer now to get familiar," Su-jin said. The problem is that you can't write it off the same way that Bobbi can. I would have to check, because I'm from Korea and not America, but I think that when you do set up your business, you can claim things that you needed to have just to start. So If you bought a computer before the business, then you could claim it as one of those things. We can talk about it later. I like to garden and you are a gardener. You think of starting your business and I am a bookkeeper. I see a fit so we can help each other. You already have a phone?" "Yeah," Jodi said, "It's not much though. I got it so my other customers can get a hold of me." "Can you send text messages on it?" Su-jin asked, "I will buy a cheap pay as you go one if they have any there. I want you and I to be able to talk without the minutes showing up on Bobbi's statement." "Don't you trust her or something?" Jodi asked. Su-jin nodded, "I do, at least until she gives me a reason why I shouldn't. She has been very good to me, but I want to be able to reach you on my own phone." Jodi looked over, "Jane also said to say that she's really sorry." Su-jin blew past her lips, "Does that make you feel better? I don't care that she said that. Did she say that she is sorry to you, Jodi?" Jodi nodded, "Yes. I just nodded, I left it lying there. I know that the whole thing wasn't as important to her as it was to me. It just wasn't right." Su-jin nodded, "If it wasn't important then she should have let you know that, I think. It wasn't important to tell you - or me that there was someone else." She had a thought and looked over, "She was away somewhere. Some weeks, I think." Jodi nodded, "She as in Arkansas for a course. She came back most weekends." "Did she let you know which weekends that she would be back?" Su-jin asked. Jodi shook her head, No. I'd try to see if she was home by looking." Su-jin sighed, "Then it was not love to her. I only knew that it was love to you, Jodi. I saw it in your eyes. That's why I was so angry. I don't know her much, but I think that she has always had anything she want. Life is not so wonderful and nice when you are alone and far from people you know. I know this lesson. I was girl who like go dancing and have fun. I trust too easy. After what happened to me, I do not give trust so easy anymore." She threw up her hands, "I still did it again last night. I must be too stupid to learn my own lesson. But I know this; I am not important to anyone. No one know me, no one care. All friends gone. But I am still me. If I give trust, then it is from only an unimportant person. But if it broken, I will not give again. We meet yesterday, but Jane said she wants to be friends with me. " She shrugged, "She will cry until the winds change or the clouds move. Maybe someone will give her present to make her feel better. She has already forgotten it. But I will remember." Su-jin smiled, "Oooh, so dark and angry. I do not mean it like that, Jodi. I mean I learn from my mistake. Try to anyway. Far away in Korea, my family go on, friends forget about me. I forget about them too. I have no family now." She smiled, "I start again, fresh start." Jodi pulled into a parking spot and looked at Su-jin, "I'm gonna do my shopping, and I'll meet you either here or in the store. I'll also get the hair dye if I can to save time. You can pay me back later." She pulled Tyler from his seat and put him into his stroller as Su-jin walked around. "Su-jin, I like this. I really like just being with you. I'm so glad that I met you today. I'm not sure what it is about you - whether it's just because you're from another place in the world or what, exactly. I'm kind of hoping that it's something about your personality that I haven't seen in another person before, but whatever it is, I really enjoy it." "Thank you," Su-jin smiled, "It's good to hear that. I just thought that I was stranger here that people just put up with. You have what I think they call a sunny disposition and I am attracted by it. Being with you is very nice to me." "I wanted to tell you something on the way here, "Jodi smiled, "but every time that I thought of it, something else came up and it slipped my mind again. You said that you wanted me to use your name and I like it so much. I never had much family, but my Momma told me once that when there were a lot of us, we tended to give our children double-barrelled names, the first and second names liked by a hyphen. It was just sort of a custom where we were from once upon a time. So Tyler here, his name is Tyler-Thomas McLeod. My name is Jodi-Lynn McLeod. I could never get Jane to remember, but I'm hoping that -" Su-jin grinned, "My name is like that, Jodi-Lynn. I will use it from now on." Jodi had been bent over trying to get Tyler to hold still long enough to get him buckled in. It might have gone faster if she hadn't been looking up at Su-jin the whole time. In the past eight months, Su-jin had never felt much like her old self at all. But today, just like the post in front of her house, she felt somehow like this feeling in her was like a sign and she liked it and felt some of her nature coming back at last. She knew the way that Jodi felt about a lot of things because if it wasn't already plain, she'd tell you in her pleasant way. She already felt like more of a friend than Jane had to her and the difference was pretty much absolute. Su-jin wasn't normally given to have what-the-hell moments but she was having one right now. She looked around a little covertly and then she bent down and kissed Jodi-Lynn on the lips quickly. Jodi-Lynn stared up with her mouth open. Su-jin put on a shocked expression with her hand covering her open mouth and even tossed in a wink before she began to laugh. Jodi-Lynn laughed too and when she stood up, she was beaming as she turned to head into the grocery store. Su-jin even knew what it was. It was a bittersweet thing to her, but it was a real moment. Jodi-Lynn McLeod didn't look much like Ji-soo, other than in a few common features like height and overall shape. The hair was far different, and not only in color and length. Ji-soo didn't have breasts shaped like Jodi-Lynn's and her legs didn't look anything like Jodi-Lynn's But Su-jin was thinking more along the lines of what sort of person Jodi-Lynn was, not really looking to make physical comparisons because they weren't important. In a strong way, Su-jin felt as though she'd regained a friend of the same standing to her heart - it was that easy to tell. They had similar personalities, cultural differences notwithstanding and there was something else that Su-jin had seen. Both women were the same in their temperaments - exactly the same. They bore the misfortunes in their lives stoically and for a close friend, once they had that friend - they were the most staunch in their loyalties that anyone could ever be. They weren't the same person - not at all. Su-jin ached a little, because when she'd had the chance at the agency, she'd emailed Ji-soo many, many times and hadn't ever gotten a reply. As sad as it was to Su-jin, she felt that she had a clue about why that might be. It might be right out of a corny movie, but long before Su-jin had gone away, Ji-soo had always maintained an almost daily presence on her Facebook page. When she'd looked while at the agency, Su-jin had almost wept and had hung on until she'd left to go to work at the crappy convenience store. She'd wept all the way on the bus, most of her shift and the whole next night and day. Ji-soo had made the last update to her page about a week after Su-jin had left. All that it said was, "Today my sadness ends." Su-jin felt that she knew exactly what that meant. To have found someone like Jodi-Lynn, Su-jin felt that, like the old wooden post, she was being given another chance. One that she was determined not to ever waste or even take lightly. She just wanted to enjoy the sunshine of that smile and be the friend of someone who was a little unconditional about how they felt when they liked someone. -------------------- Tyler was well-behaved normally for a little boy. He was being especially well-behaved today it seemed to Jodi. She was a little surprised, but was happy to see it as she shopped. Jodi had always been the sort of girl who liked to look for the good in people. It wasn't out of anything other than a well-meaning interest. She knew that she wasn't necessarily the brightest bulb in the box and at times when she'd felt overcome with the hardships of her life, she sometimes castigated herself over it, wishing that she'd been born smarter or better-looking, or whatnot, but it didn't last long most times. She'd never known her father and didn't know a thing about him other than what her mother had told her - that he was a mean, low-down prick of a man who'd sweet-talked her legs apart and run off once he'd rung her bell, so to speak. But Jodi had long-ago come to the conclusion that he'd probably just had enough of her shrilling. She knew that she certainly had. She'd sometimes wondered where they'd come from, her mother and her. She didn't know of any relations at all. As she'd grown, she'd seen something in her mother which had alarmed her as a little girl. It was all out of a child's observations and she knew that, but there was a main theme. Modern Day Cavegirls Somewhere in her past, Jodi's mother might or must have come from a very devout family. If she guessed that her mother's upbringing had been supremely strict, then it might make sense - the horrific things that her mother had said were going to happen to her because she'd been intimate with a man - cursed creatures that they could oftentimes be. Her mother had often spoken of the need for a good person to stay that way by living a decent life and going to church and reading the scriptures. But over time, Jodi had seen that her mother never went to any church at all. She just worked and came home and was miserable - pretty much all without her Good Book being very far out of her reach. As she'd gotten older, she'd gotten even worse. Anything new, technologically speaking was instantly denounced as just another thing that was sent by Satan to tempt Christians away from their moral lives. Everything was 'the devil'. In retrospect, Jodi knew that she was well-rid of her poisonous tongue. She'd always longed for a real family. But like all of the other things that she'd learned to get along without, Jodi had just accepted that she didn't have one of those. Her one shot at love had been pretty questionable and Jodi herself now knew that. The times when she'd been in Jane's arms had felt wonderful and she now knew that it had been as she'd said to Su-jin - one-sided. But she liked Su-jin a lot. She had trouble with English the odd time, but so what? She was really beautiful, very smart and she seemed to like her as well. She didn't know where it was going - or if it WAS even going anywhere or even needed to. She had sort of a hope that it might, but one thing that she did know was that she really liked being with Su-jin, just over the short time of this one day. They seemed to have some things in common, not that they were things to be desired. Both of them had no families and they were trying to make their lives in places far from where they'd begun. Ok, it was a LOT farther for Su-jin, all the way from around the world. She couldn't even imagine herself making a trip like that, but then Su-jin seemed to be able to just handle things like that. She'd needed to go someplace else and she'd just done it. Jodi knew enough to see that it hadn't been what she'd wanted to do or anything, but Jesus Murphy, she'd done it by herself. Jodi thought that for sure, if it had been her she'd have been a wet bundle in a bag before she'd have gotten much of anywhere. Something else that Jodi had thought that she'd noticed was that Su-jin didn't seem to mind that Jodi was just a girl. She wasn't a scientist or a pilot like Jane, she was just a working girl trying to scrape along for herself and her little son - and Su-jin seemed to like that about her. She had a little trouble putting that together in her mind. She was a little ... quietly defensive about herself but at the same time, she could - to herself, that is - admit that though she'd been a grade A student as a girl, that had faded once Jodi had some so-called friends who'd taken her along in their drifting ways of skipping classes to get a little high. She didn't blame those girls - which she no longer knew or even cared to - she blamed herself for the troubles that followed. She also knew that she was now living with the results of that time in her life and likely always would. She was a Grade Eleven dropout with few prospects and a very young child. She was stuck working her ass off to get by and it had all been self-inflicted. Su-jin probably would have given her an argument over it, but Jodi saw Su-jin as a shining star in a few ways and none of it even mattered anyway. She just liked Su-jin a lot. She thought about Su-jin again and smiled to herself. Her super-quick kiss had been startling and Jodi had really appreciated the gesture. She knew what it had been instantly. Just one girl doing something for the hell of it for another - just to make her smile. She looked down at her little shopping list, still smiling to herself. The only time that anyone had ever stolen a kiss from her, it was another girl. Don't that beat all, she thought. ----------------- Su-jin was almost done at the shop by the time that Jodi-Lynn pushed her cart to her truck and put the groceries onto the floor in the back of the crew cab. She ran to bring the cart back with little Tyler squealing and laughing in joy for the fast trip. After that, she just took his hand and they walked to the computer store. Su-jin was just waiting for the operating system on her laptop to finish loading the latest updates. It wasn't as bad as it might have been, since Bobbi had called the shop earlier to brief them on what would be needed. The choices had been narrowed down in their conversation to only two, both of which were rather high-end units. The owner had flipped a coin and begun downloading the updates for that one PC and he'd been correct, since that was the one that Su-jin had chosen. While she'd been waiting, Su-jin had looked around and made a couple of purchases for herself. She'd unboxed one of them and as long as she was waiting anyway, she'd charged the pre-charged battery to top it up and she'd read the manual. It didn't take long and she put it back in the box. Tyler spotted Su-jin from right across the store and he toddled over as fast as Jodi-Lynn would let him go. Su-jin heard him and turned, getting to one knee to wait for him. She hugged him and fussed over him, laughing to see him so happy. She looked up at Jodi-Lynn and thought that she looked amazing pretty much anywhere - even in florescent lighting. Jodi-Lynn smiled, "I got him wound up for you when I had him in the empty cart from putting the groceries in the truck. I ran him back to get rid of the cart and to hear him, you'd have thought that he was in the Number One slot in a NASCAR race. How's it going in here?" "Almost ready," Su-jin smiled, "Bobbi called here today and they decided that there were two that I'd probably pick one out of. He guessed and started loading that one - and he knows his business, because that one was the one that I chose! I also have the phone, so I can call Bobbi any time I want." The owner came out of the back holding the laptop. Su-jin handed him the carrying bag that she'd chosen and in a minute, Su-jin was ready to go. "Pete," she said, "can you tell me if there is a coffee shop in town that offers free WiFi?" He nodded and spoke of two that were good. Su-jin looked at Jodi-Lynn and asked if either one of them were on their way. "Sure," she'd said, "But what's WiFi?" Su-jin smiled, "It's today's lesson in computers. I want to go there if you don't mind and we will be there for only a half an hour. Can we do it?" Jodi-Lynn shrugged and then she nodded. Out in the truck, Su-jin explained what WiFi was. "You can use it free at the coffee shop. You can access the internet, get your Email, check the website that you don't have yet, look at your Facebook page, get a look at the news and the weather - everything." "Sounds great," Jodi-Lynn said, "only I don't have a computer to do that with." Su-jin smiled, "One thing about today. I mean, about the age that we live in. Things are changing so quickly everywhere. The laptop I bought comes with an operating system, but since it arrived at the store back there, that system has been improved. I was waiting for the changes to be loaded on my laptop. That's what took the longest time." She laughed quietly, "And while you were shopping, you received a gift. I'll show you when we get there." Jodi-Lynn was nervous about things like that, since she had no way to reciprocate. But Su-jin wasn't done talking yet. "While I waited, I had time to think. I have REALLY long hair. If I have anything done at a hairdresser's shop, they charge extra for everything. You know this." Jodi-Lynn nodded, "That's why I wanted to dye your hair for you. I've done it before and you'd save a ton of money. But- " "And then," Su-jin held up a finger to get Jodi-Lynn to let her finish, "I saw a few things around me. I saw a laptop, about three to four years old for sale used. I also saw a tablet PC. It was marked as a clearance item - because it was probably out of date by about seven minutes or something. I looked at the price and decided that since you were going to save me money, I could do something with the money for you. I bought the tablet for you from me for suggesting dyeing my hair. There is probably not much difference in the price. Next, I added an SD card for storage and I even bought a tiny little computer mouse to go with it if you get tired of having to wipe the screen of the tablet all day." Jodi was beginning to look horrified, "But I can't pay you back." Su-jin explained it again, "Really, I am paying YOU back for helping me, Jodi-Lynn. Look at it that way." ------------------- "What do I do with it?" Jodi-Lynn asked in the coffee shop. Five minutes later, she was amazed as Su-jin showed her. "You don't need this keyboard if you don't like using it, but I prefer them like this with a keyboard since I can type faster that way than with the toy finger keyboard." They set up an email account and several other things. Su-jin was mindful not to let Jodi-Lynn feel left behind. Actually, she'd been pleased that her friend had gotten time with the PCs at her high school, so it wasn't like coming at things from scratch. "Watch this," she smiled and in seconds, she pointed to the screen, "See right there? The fourth dot? That's where you live seen from a satellite." She looked past Jodi-Lynn at Tyler who was about face-deep into a chocolate donut. "This is a time when you would want to be taking pictures of Tyler. But I can guess that like me, you have no camera." Jodi-Lynn looked at her son and nodded with a sigh. "This tablet has two cameras. You can do all of the things that I said while having a cup of coffee right here with him in a high chair on the other side of the table. Whenever you want, you can take a picture of him being cute and then go right back to reading the news." She accessed the forward camera, moved the tablet a little and took Tyler's' picture as he grinned with chocolate all over his face. Jodi-Lynn's mouth fell open. "Tablet cameras aren't the best, and they're probably a little bit harder to use to get a great picture than the cameras in almost all phones now. But you can do it without much trouble as you saw. As a matter of fact, you and I can talk between my laptop and your tablet just like we are now, looking at each other the whole time. The other camera looks at you and I see that. Does Bobbi ever take her laptop home with her?" Jodi-Lynn nodded, "Yeah, I've seen her with it lots of times." Su-jin nodded, "Good, because I can see me doing the same thing, so there is probably a wireless network at the farmhouse as a guess. I need to talk to Bobbi about it. I might even be able to get you access as well. You won't need much, and you can use this at home too. Now about the other laptop. I got it for pretty much nothing and it's yours now." Jodi-Lynn couldn't believe it, "H-how?" Su-jin grinned a little, "I'm a bookkeeper and an accountant. I just don't have my accountant's papers here yet. But that doesn't change a few things, Jodi-Lynn." She held up a finger, "One, I am not from here. I come from Asia. What I've noticed here is that you all just pay the price that is asked whenever you buy anything here. But I have seen no signs that bargaining is not permitted. Where I come from, we haggle over anything and everything. If somebody wants to buy a car, they pick one they like and can afford, and the next thing that they do is look at it very hard. They want to see a tiny scratch. They want see that one muffler is a tiny bit higher than the other one, and if they see those things, they use them in their negotiations to buy the car by bargaining to lower the price. That's how it's done all over Asia, almost no matter the country or the item. Two. The laptop out there in your truck cost Bobbi thousands of dollars. I thought about it and I guessed that there must be a pretty good profit margin in that laptop. So I mentioned that and the price of the phone - and the margin on that. Then I mentioned that I'd just bought a tablet that was on sale and probably wouldn't have sold quickly because it wasn't the latest fuzzy pink version with kittens all over it. This is not Los Angeles. I said that I bought it because I happened to be in the store to even see it. Then I asked about the used laptop and we bargained." She smiled, "Didn't you say that today is your birthday?" Jodi-Lynn shook her head, "No, my birthday isn't until -" "Right!", Su-jin laughed, "Happy Birthday!" Jodi-Lynn groaned, "But I can't just take all this stuff for nothing, Su-jin. Thank you, and I don't want to sound ungrateful but -" "I didn't say anything about nothing," Su-jin said. "Now, just sit back and sip your coffee for a moment and listen to me - please, Jodi-Lynn. I am trying to make this something that you can swallow without choking because it is important to me. Pick one thing, the laptop or the tablet, I do not care. Just pick one. Um, now please." Jodi-Lynn pointed at the tablet half-heartedly. Su-jin nodded, "Thank you. That one, we will call your birthday present. The laptop, we will bargain for." She leaned a little closer, "What I want for the laptop is for you to use part of the coming winter months to go to school in your spare time. I can guess that you did not complete your high school education, and the reason for that is sitting right there almost finished his donut. So, you can do it by taking what is probably offered here as adult education. That's why you need Bobbi to allow you to use the internet access from the house. You will now tell me that you cannot lose all of that time - and I will tell you that it doesn't take much time once you are an adult. You learn by yourself at your own speed without the interruptions and wasted time that happens in any high school anywhere in the world. What takes a year there, will take you two months at the most. You need to do this now, since you are young - not when you are in your forties. Do this, and the laptop is yours to begin your business - and I want you to be using it before then anyway." She held out her hand, "Do we have a deal?" "Will you stay here - and can I come to you if I need help or anything? Jodi-Lynn asked. Su-jin nodded, "Of course. I would be disappointed if you didn't." Jodi-Lynn grabbed Su-jin's hand, "You weren't kidding about that haggling stuff, were you?" "No," Su-jin smiled, "I am serious. That's what we do. May I show you something on the internet?" Jodi-Lynn nodded and Su-jin leaned a little to get to the keyboard. She re-opened the browser and looked across, "This is a secret, Jodi-Lynn. Please don't tell anyone about what I will show you. I am not this person anymore, ok?" Jodi-Lynn nodded and Su-jin hit the enter key. She plugged in the mouse, "I have to use this now. I don't want to smear your screen with my fingertips, and the rest is all in Korean. This keyboard doesn't match up well, I don't think." She worked her way through a few pages and then she sat back, "Here is a friend you might know." The contrast was a little blown for about a quarter of the shot because of the bright lights when the photo was taken. There was a young woman in the photo and Jodi-Lynn leaned in a little to stare. Her face looked different for a moment because of the mouthguard in her mouth. Her hands were both held up and she wore a cut-off tank top over a sports bra. Her face was sweaty and carried a jubilant expression. But there were sprays of what looked like blood on her shirt. It was hard to tell from the shot. The young woman looked supremely happy. And though it was open, she wore a black satin robe with a familiar-looking Chinese-style dragon in blood red crawling down over her shoulder. Jodi whipped her head around and looked at Su-jin, who nodded, "About a year ago. It was semi-final match and I win it by a knockout in fifth round. By about quarter-finals it all get hard and really serious. It almost not sport anymore then. The final match is ... vicious." Jodi-Lynn heard the shift in Su-jin's speech and she knew that there was something personal here or Su-jin would have continued speaking as she had before. She stared again. She could see the muscles in Su-jin's thighs as well as a very well-defined six-pack peeking out from under the bottom edge of the shirt. "Boxing?" Su-jin shook her head, "Free-style. Anything goes but martial arts weapons. I used some Tae-Kwando, a little Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, little bit Monkey-style Kung-Fu, and anything else if it work. She was tough fight. I will speak little bit slowly, Jodi-Lynn. I want my English to work, so ... slow. I wasn't like a lot of people who are in that sport. Many try to make a living at it. People bet like crazy on this. I wasn't there for that." She pointed to her face in the shot, "You will see why if you look at my face for long enough." "You look ridiculously happy," Jodi-Lynn said quietly. Su-jin nodded, "I was. I was there to prove something to someone. I never wanted to win the title, though I guess that I had a good chance at it, maybe better than the rest. But the one that I would fight for the title was a harder girl that me and just after this was taken, I looked down at what I did to someone to get to this moment. Every match on the way to this point was fought harder than the last. There is more at stake at every step. I saw how far I would go to win - how far I would go and what I would do to prove that person was wrong about me. I saw a broken girl and I knew that it was too far. It is serious by this level." Su-jin paused to calm herself, telling herself that it was long ago. "I didn't like it then - also I knew that even if I fight for the title to a draw, I would look like the girl on the mat in front of me that you cannot see. They carried her away just after this. If I lost, there was chance that I be dead or worse." She looked at Jodi-Lynn, "There is something here for you to know about me. It is why I show this to you. I was fighting to make one person understand something about me that he should have known since I was ... I don't know, ten years old? Six? I never stop, Jodi-Lynn. That is how I am. I never give up. I never stop. Never. This night, I saw that he knew - so I did not need to fight for the final. I withdrew the next day. But If I did not see what I was looking for on that one person's face that night, I would have gone on to fight the title match. For this one thing, I would have fought to the end. For that one person, and for this, I might die, but I would have fought. And he finally knew how much I loved him. Before I left Korea, I would have died for that one man. This was taken at the ... I guess that you would say the moment of triumph for me. I knew that I had succeeded for someone to finally believe in me. But this style of fighting is not like what you see here. This isn't even like ... what is it called here? UFC?" Things are allowed there that are not allowed outside of Asia. I put a girl in the hospital to win. She was trying very hard to put me there to win. To me, it was too much. It is a match, not a war." She looked down, "For the first time in my life, my father was proud of me." Jodi-Lynn stared, "Your ... father? You did this for your father?" Su-jin nodded. Jodi-Lynn couldn't believe it. "How ... where did you learn to fight like that?" Su-jin shrugged, "I was the only girl in my family. I have four brothers and I am the youngest. They all grew large and I ... didn't. Modern Day Cavegirls Two of them are Korean Naval commandos now. The other two are in the Korean Special Forces. My father is a hand-to-hand combat instructor with one battalion of the Special Forces where I come from. We lived in the country when I was born, but we moved to the city when he was transferred nearby. He is feared by his students - but not by me. I fought with him all of my life so that he would even look at me. When I was old enough, I read all of his books - all of his notes. I watched everything I could." She took a moment to let the feelings in her settle and then she began again. "Obviously I wasn't as strong as my brothers and my father always told me that I am a girl and it is not for girls to fight. I was always the obedient daughter, but I still had to survive growing up against four brothers. Nobody defended me against them. I could scream with agony and my mother would do nothing. She treated her sons like princes, so I knew that I was alone." She looked away across the coffee shop, "I hope that she is happy now. When my father goes to work, she is in an empty house that she made for herself." Jodi-Lynn looked at her, "Do you mean that, or ..." Su-jin looked back, "No. She told me to make my life somewhere else. So here I am. I don't care if she is happy or not. I will never see her again." She smiled a little, "I remember one time that I spoke against my father when he told me what I was to be because I am a girl. It was in his office at home and I yelled at him that he was wrong. I made him angry enough to slap me, but he couldn't catch me. I almost destroyed his office. He said that I couldn't fight and I told him that he was wrong. I told him that I WOULD fight and I would win. I am not large - but I am strong for my weight and very fast. Without his permission, I began anyway. I fought in my weight class and also the one above mine. He was furious with me and didn't speak to me for months. He thought that he was punishing me. I thought it was normal for us. I think that he believed that I would embarrass him. I did it over three years. The beginning of the last year was when I decided that I was ready to compete seriously. I went to university and I fought at night. I got high grades and I won fights. He didn't care if he even knew. Then if he saw me, he asked me how badly I was losing. I asked him if he saw any marks on my face. He pointed to the bruises on my arms and my legs, since I was always wearing shorts when I trained in my room. I laughed at him. 'Show me YOUR arms. You say what you like,' I told him, 'I am still right and you are wrong.' He had bruises on his arms and legs quite often. That comes with the job. I think that was when he knew that I was serious and not only playing. When this picture was taken, he came to watch me and I know that I surprised him very much. He was proud of me. He said that to me. I told him that I was ready to become his daughter again. For a short time, a large copy of that photograph held place of honor on his wall. My worthless brothers hated me for it. I didn't care. I told them to ... I told them to fuck off. I did something that they did not dare to even think about. I stood up to my father all of my life and I won. But by that time, I had changed, Jodi-Lynn. After seeing the cost to losers, I decide that I could do that to someone - but not without a reason. Winning title was not good reason to me. She sighed as she looked at her own face in the shot. "It lasted a few months after this. My father wanted me to keep fighting and I didn't want to anymore. Really, I knew that nothing changed for him. When I was just a girl to him, I was something less than my brothers. After what I'd done, he saw me differently, but for the wrong reasons." Su-jin sighed, "I knew other people my age. Nobody I knew had a father like mine. A son was everything to him and a daughter ... not so much." She pointed at Tyler, "If Tyler does well at anything, you would be proud FOR him, not so much for yourself. My father was more worried with how what I did made him look. In my eyes, it made him seem a little smaller to me. Then I did something which shamed my family. I was sent to live in Baltmore. I left there because I was about to kill the false uncle who sponsored me to come. The arrangement that my father had made was not what he said. I was cheated, but I had to live in it. I had no money. I couldn't complain to my father - he wouldn't have cared. My mother also. So I found a job and I came here. My family does not love me anymore and now I do not care. I am here." She closed the browser and looked at Jodi-Lynn, "I am here and you need to understand something, Jodi-Lynn. If it is not war and it is not combat, then life is still competition. Your business will compete against the others here which offer the same services. You will compete against other people even if you do not want to. This little boy right here is why you must succeed. But you will not do it alone. I don't even know what I can do to help you, but I will try. So you will finish at least your high school and I will help with what I am good at. I will always help you if you need it." "Why?" Jodi-Lynn asked, "We only met today." Su-jin looked down, "Do you really wish to know?" Jodi-Lynn nodded and Su-jin sighed. When she spoke, her words came out slowly and with care. "Because I am nothing anymore. Because I am a leaf, lost on so big river." She looked down at her coffee cup and spoke with the effort showing on her face and her voice sounded raw. Because I am more than seven thousand miles from where there was once someone who loved me very much, Jodi-Lynn. But there is no one there like that for me anymore and I cannot go back. We ... best friends since we were ten years old. While I was training, I see very little of her. I not know that she had problems that I should have known if I was a proper friend. I almost forget about her. As I go on and went higher, I became ... popular. I had many friends, but none like Ji-soo. When my own troubles begin, I had no friends anymore. I went to visit Ji-soo before I left to say goodbye. She told me then that she always loved me. All through the time we were growing up, she wanted to be lovers with me. It was what she had always ached for, what she dream of to happen for her. For us. I learned of this ... " She looked down, "The day before I was to leave for America. If I had known before, I would not have done any fighting. I would have leave home to be with her. Ji-soo begged me to stay - she said that we could go to other city and live there - any other city. I was already upset and after what she said, I was also confused." Her voice cracked a little, "So I did wrong thing again and obey my father. I don't know why. I think that I was raised to be that way. I was old enough, I should have just left." Jodi-Lynn watched as Su-jin lowered her head, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Her voice sounded so small and anguished, "She begged me." Jodi looked around and grabbed all the napkins that she could lay her hands on easily and she started feeding them to Su-jin. She really didn't know what to say that wouldn't make this worse. Su-jin lifted her head ten minutes later and wiped her eyes again. "I was alone in Baltimore, working in a convenience store, using all of my small pay just to pay the rent on only my small room. I was being cheated and used. I had no computer and no way to use the internet. I spent seven months thinking every day about what I should have done for the only true friend that I have ever had, but nothing could change it. I went to an employment agency and there, I could use a computer. I sent many emails to Ji-soo and got no replies." She drew a deep and tired-sounding breath. "I now believe that her sorrow became too much for her. I saw her last entry on her Facebook page. 'Today my sadness ends' It was made the week after I left and there are no entries since that day. I believe that she is dead and if I am correct, then the blame is mine. I am alone here and I can do what I must to live. At least it is better than Baltimore. This is a nice place, but it does not feel like my home and it never can, until I find a reason to want to go on. So, I want to help you because I need to have a friend to care about." She groaned, "Because I need a friend - someone - to care about me. You and I are leaves, Jodi-Lynn. Jane told me a little of your story. You have no family and you try to do what is impossible for your little son. I have no family and unless I am hungry or thirsty, I have no reason to want to take another breath. I believe that we need each other. I want to believe that we can help each other. I will be your bookkeeper for nothing because I have decided that you are the kind of person that I wish so strongly to have as a friend, because you need me to help and I need you to give me a reason to like being where I am now. Being the bookkeeper of an airplane company will not do that for me. I probably have less than you for at least a while, but I know that you need these things. If someone gave you the money, you would never buy them. So I bought them. I want you to succeed and I want to be the friend to you that I should have been to ji-soo. In my culture, often the thickest walls are the ones that girls build around their hearts to hold their secrets. If I had been there for Ji-soo, she would have told me sooner, before the last day. I would have seen it before. She did not tell me because I was always busy, so she held it in her heart and hurt and hoped in silence." She wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands. "It will not bring her back, but it is a chance for me to do what is right when I can for once BEFORE I do the wrong thing.." She handed Tyler a piece of her donut and his eyes lit up. "Besides," she smiled weakly, "You are the mother of my young boyfriend. We live next door to each other and I like you so much. I NEED to have a friend here." Jodi-Lynn put her hand on Su-jin's, "Then you've got one. I need that too AND I need a whole hell of a lot of other things, help being pretty much right on up there on the list." ----------------- Bobbi Sorensson picked up on the first ring. As soon as she recognised Su-jin's voice, she was apologizing. Su-jin tried for a while to get past it and finally she could make herself understood. "It's alright Bobbi," she said, "There was no harm done. I was upset because I didn't know about the other person, but it doesn't change anything for me and I hope that it doesn't change anything for you either." She listened for a while, and made faces at Tyler to pass the time. Jodi sat with a smile on her face watching. "Yes, it all works and I'm very happy with the laptop. Thank you very much for that. I just would like to get a few things, but I still have time for that this afternoon. There shouldn't be any problems." "Ok, I'll be waiting at your door at 6:30 then." "Yes. I can't wait to get started. See you Monday. Bye." She hung up and looked at Jodi-Lynn. "I need one more coffee, if you don't mind. Where can I get a pair of workboots around here? I don't mind at all, now that I know about it, but I need them for work. ----------------- She had the work boots, just a pair made for comfort with the right protection in case she dropped her coffee mug, she guessed. She also had a better pair of jeans and a cheap, but nice pair of Mexican-style cowboy boots. "I don't know why I wanted them," Su-jin grumbled. "I do," Jodi-Lynn smiled, "Because you always thought they looked cool before you came here. Now you're here and they probably cost less here than in Seoul, the real ones, anyway. Because once you break them in, you'll always want to wear them." She looked back for a moment as they walked. "What are you looking at?" Sh-jin asked, almost turning around. "And because," Jodi-L-ynn smiled, "I just like how they make your ass look even better. I actually didn't think it was possible." They were walking back to the truck, each of them holding one of Tyler's hands and they were swinging him forward every other step, which he thought was the perfect way to go. "He ought to be really cranky by this time," Jodi-Lynn said. "He will be," Su-jin smiled, "As soon as he notices that his arms have gotten longer from stretching." "You're looking a lot happier," Jodi-Lynn said. "I am," Su-jin smiled, "Now I can start to like this place." She looked around, "It's pretty nice when you're not miserable." They got into the truck and Su-jin sat in the front with Jodi-Lynn. It was almost six o'clock and most of the stores in the second strip mall they'd gone to were closed by that time. The place looked almost deserted. "So I'm gonna cook up a couple for those steaks that I bought on sale on the grille out back for supper," Jodi-Lynn said, "That sound ok?" Su-jin nodded, "I just can't understand eating that much meat. Each one is enough to feed a family where I come from." "Never mind, Su-jin," Jodi-Lynn smiled, "You're back in training, you said. You're gonna need the protein." She looked around and didn't see a soul. Jodi-Lynn half-turned in her seat to back out and then she looked at Su-jin for a brief moment. When Su-jin looked back at her, she threw the gearshift back into Park. "What?" Su-jin asked, "Is something wrong?" Jodi-Lynn shook her head, "No. I was just thinking about what you said about wanting to be a friend to me like you said you should have been to poor Ji-soo." She looked for a second longer and then she grabbed Su-jin and planted a good one on her, full on the mouth. Su-jin looked dazed and Jodi-Lynn laughed a she put her sunglasses back on and threw the truck into reverse and backed out. She didn't say anything until after they were a couple of blocks farther along. "You feel better now?" She asked. Su-jin nodded and then she gasped and stared off into the distance. "Look! They have mountains here!" Jodi-Lynn laughed, "I'll take that as a yes then." She reached over and took Su-jin's hand. Su-jin looked at her for a long moment and then she felt Su-jin's fingers close around her own. --------------- "But you might spill and ruin this shirt," Su-jin said, looking at an old plaid flannel shirt. Jodi-Lynn rolled her eyes, "This old thing was a shirt of my mother's. I used to have her wear it while I was dyeing her hair to cover the gray - that she used to tell me I put there on her head. I don't mind. I don't even know what's still holding it together to tell you the truth. I use it for housework in the winter, mostly." She held it out, "Now you take off your jeans and your bra Su-jin, and you put this on. I'll dye your hair and when I say it's time, you head to the shower to wash your hair. And don't you dare give me an argument on this. Your hair is crazy long, girl. In case you missed it before, I'm here to tell you that it's halfway PAST your sweet little ass. Do you really want to try to get those things off before you get in the shower - with more than three and a half feet of freshly-dyed wet black hair swinging around? It's too long to cover with a towel - that I don't have enough of anyway. I don't have a towel that I can sacrifice to black hair dye. We both have long hair. There's no such thing as too many towels if there are two of us. We might as well just paint the whole floor black tomorrow to cover what you'll probably fling around in there. And another thing. I'm telling you now, hair this long is a menace to dye, so when you think you're about done, you tell me and I'll get in there with you to make sure it's all rinsed out, since you don't have eyes in the back of your skull." Su-jin looked over, "But -" Jodi-Lynn took a page from Su-jin's book and held up a finger. Su-jin stopped. Jodi-Lynn looked at her finger for a moment, "Dang, this works pretty good on you too." She looked at Su-jin, "Listen, we both need a shower anyway after this morning and the hot water tank in here isn't more than fifty gallons and I doubt that it's even that big. You want to get clean, don'tcha?" Su-jin nodded with wide eyes, "I thought it was only Korean mothers who could argue like this." Jodi-Lynn laughed, "No Baby, HELL no." It took a lot of dye. It took a lot of effort, too. Su-jin felt funny and she knew that she was imagining the little drips of black hair dye running down. She hoped. But she was good, sitting still in the kitchen as Jodi-Lynn chattered. She sighed and Jodi-Lynn said, "What? Am I talking you ears off? I'm sorry Su-jin, I'll try to pipe down some." "No,"Su-jin smiled, "Please don't stop. The way that you speak is like music to me. I enjoy it, Jodi-Lynn. I hear that it is a little different from the way that people here speak. I like your way better. I sighed because I am happy." "You do?" Jodi-Lynn chuckled, "I never thought I'd hear something like that. It probably sounds different since it's just a plain old East Texas drawl on the other side of West Texas and into New Mexico here. Why do you like it?" "Your voice has a small musical tone," Su-jin said, "and the accent brings it out more to my ear somehow. It is charming to me and in one way, it soothes me and at other times ... I don't know. I think it's wonderful. I wish that I could talk like you." She rolled her eyes, "But the way that my English can change when I am upset would make your accent sound crazy, I think." "It might," Jodi Lynn allowed, "Most folks around here don't understand me when I get upset, either. Ok, it's time. You scoot into the bathroom now." Su-jin stood under the shower rinsing the excess dye away. She could feel it at the beginning, but as it want on a little, it was harder to tell. Jodi-Lynn had a pulsating shower nozzle and it felt so good as the water beat down on her. Jodi-Lynn stood in the bathroom looking on through the vinyl curtain, "Su-jin?" There was no response, so ... "SU-JIN?" That seemed to break whatever spell had been at work and Su-jin answered. "What happened there?" Jodi-Lynn asked, "You looked like you were a little stuck for minute." "I was," Su-jin smiled back a little as she faced forward, "the shower felt so nice to me. My shoulders are stiff." Jodi-Lynn pulled the curtain aside as she stepped in. "I'll take care of them in a minute. Let me just see how the dye took at the ends and all. I'm obviously not worried about the hair on your head, since that was the black part anyway. I just want to get a look out at the ends more, see if we got all the red." Su-jin felt her hair being lifted a little. "Should be alright," Jodi-Lynn said, "Looks good and solid black in here. The final test will be when it's dry, of course. How bad are your muscles?" "They're not too bad," Su-jin said, "It is about what I would expect for a first try, coming back from so long with no training. But a little every day, and it will be gone. I am not doing this to fight this time. I like the way that it feels to be in shape, and I want to get these back." She turned around with her hand on her abdominal muscles but they stopped and looked at each other for a moment. Su-jin broke it first with her smiling sigh and right then, Jodi-Lynn learned the answer to the question that she'd been scared to death to ask and she was happy and relieved to see that Su-jin loved her body - since it was more than a little obvious. "We should wash quickly," she said, "and both of us should wash our hair also." The way that it went, Jodi-Lynn washed her hair more at the top and Su-jin took care of the long part. Their hands met in the middle sometimes but it seemed to work fairly well.