JC: William Redman Carter
Noble Savage
Chapter 33
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2005

“Uh oh,” William said as he pulled into the driveway. Rock, Colt, 
Natalie, and Nicole were standing in the driveway with their arms 
crossed and a frown on their faces. They didn’t look too happy to 
see him. “I forgot about them.”

He turned off the motor and stepped out of the car. Looking at the 
four body guards, he asked, “How did you enjoy your vacation?”

“You dumped us in the middle of nowhere,” Colt said.

“Sorry about that,” William said. He glanced over at the front door 
to his house and saw Ling standing there, arms crossed, with a 
smile on her face. He decided it would have been better if she had 
come after him with frying pans.

“If you’d been killed, we’d never get another job in this business,” 
Rock said.

Tapping a foot on the driveway, Nicole said, “You are going to be 
a good boy from now on or else.”

Nodding her head in agreement, Natalie said, “You won’t like the 
or else.”

“You’re right. I was a bad boy and I promise to be much better 
from now on,” William said. He didn’t think they were going to 
buy that line for a minute.

“Somehow, I don’t believe you,” Nicole said.

Colt said, “You are a spoiled rotten kid. Your mother should have 
put you over her knee when you were a kid and paddled some 
sense into you.”

Nodding his head in agreement, Rock said, “We figured that you’d 
try to charm your way out of this.”

Face wrinkled in confusion, William asked, “What?”

“Since you’re still a minor, we asked Ling if we could paddle your 
bottom. She gave us her permission,” Natalie said. She held up a 
paddle and waved it around for him to see.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” William said. He looked at each body 
guard, one at a time, as if he’d never seen them before. 

“So turn around, drop your drawers, put your hands on the hood of 
your car, and brace yourself.” 

The absolute shock on William’s face was priceless. Colt and Rock 
burst out laughing at him. Nicole started giggling while Natalie 
shook her head. Seeing that the others had blown it, Natalie said, 
“Yeah, we are.”

Almost willing to swear that he could hear the Two-Sided One 
chuckling, William said, “I get it. It’s make fun of William time.”

Having a hard time talking because he was laughing too hard, 
Rock pointed to the house and said, “Lucy is waiting for you. Get 
in there before she blows a gasket.”

William watched them all laughing for a moment and then turned 
to head towards the door. When he made it to the front door, he 
paused to look at his mother and said, “You put them up to that, 
didn’t you?”

“Who me?”

“Yes, you.”

“Well, I should have put you over my knee and paddled your 
bottom,” Ling said with a smile. She wished that she had thought 
to record his reaction. After a second, she realized that the security 
camera had caught every minute of it. She added, “If you ever do 
that again, I will paddle your bottom.”

“I’m going to talk to Lucy. She still loves me,” William said in 
mock hurt and entered the house.

The reunion of William and Lucy started in the living room, but 
quickly moved up to the bedroom. They celebrated being together 
until late in the morning despite small breaks to take naps. 

A tired, but very sated, William sat at the table eating breakfast. He 
was nearly halfway done with it when his cell phone rang. He 
picked it up and answered. His sister Beth was on the phone and 
asked, “So did you get your bottom paddled?”

“Huh?”

“The video cut off and I was curious if you got your bottom 
paddled,” Beth answered with a laugh. She was pleased to be the 
one who was able to break the news to him.

“Video?” William asked with a sudden feeling of horror. He 
looked across the table and saw his mother calmly spreading jam 
on a piece of toast. The expression on her face was just a little too 
innocent to be believed.

“Momma Ling sent out this video of you coming home late. It 
ended when someone told you turn around, drop your pants, bend 
over, and brace yourself. So did your bottom get paddled?” 

The amusement in his sister’s voice was unmistakable. Afraid to 
ask the question, William asked, “Who is on the distribution list?”

“The whole family,” she said with a titter.  

“I’ll talk to you later after I’m done talking to Mother Ling,” 
William said glaring at his mother across the table.

“Be good or you’ll get another paddling.”

His sister hung up before he had a chance to say something in 
return. He closed his cell phone in time for it to ring again. He 
answered, “Hello.”

“Hey little brother. I heard that you got into a little trouble last 
night. So did they paddle your bottom?”

“John, I wish they had. This is far worse,” William said slumping 
in his seat. He wondered who would be the next one to call. He 
glanced over at his mother and noticed her innocent expression as 
she took a bite from her toast. 

After a few minutes of small talk, John hung up. William looked 
across the table and said, “You sent out the video to the whole 
family.”

Colt, Natalie, and Nicole burst out laughing. They had watched the 
security tapes with Ling afterwards and had enjoyed the look on 
his face tremendously. Rock said, “Ling, I’m almost tempted to 
give back the raise you gave us.”

Ling smiled at Rock and turned back to face William. With a very 
large smile, she said, “That will teach you to call forward your 
phone to me.”

Lucy asked, “What video?”

“You might want to check your email. I’m sure that you were on 
the distribution list,” Ling answered.

After breakfast, William survived the laughter from Lucy who 
thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. While he had 
been confronting the bodyguards, she had been in the bathroom 
putting the finishing touches on her makeup and had been totally 
unaware of what was going on outside. He had assumed she had 
seen the entire episode. 

Lucy had just settled down when his mother Linda called. Her first 
comment was, “My baby was a bad little boy. Maybe I should 
paddle your bottom too.”

“Oh, mom.”

“You drove Ling crazy,” Linda said with a hint of a smile in her 
voice.

“She loved the challenge,” William countered knowing that it was 
a true statement. He had to take extreme measures not to be found 
by her.

Linda laughed and said, “She did indeed.”

It was later when Ed called that the tone became a lot more serious. 
When William answered the phone, his father said, “I take it the 
video has embarrassed you.”

“Yes,” William said.

“You may not realize how much your absence embarrassed your 
mother.”

William was silent for a moment and then said, “She forced me 
into that position.”

Laughing at his son’s avoidance of blame, Ed said, “Yes, she did. 
That doesn’t change the fact that you disappeared on her and she 
couldn’t find you. Her mission in this family has been to protect us 
and you put her in a position where she couldn’t do that for several 
months.”

William nodded until he realized that his father couldn’t see the 
gesture over the telephone. He said, “You’re right.”

“You might want to find some way to fix things up with her,” Ed 
said. He knew that William knew exactly what to say to Ling, but 
that it would be hard for him to say the words.

“I’ll take care of it,” William replied. 

“I know you will. Of course, you are going to have to let her have 
a little fun for the moment,” Ed said with a chuckle. 

“Did you enjoy the video?”

“Tremendously. I think that is the first time in your life that I’ve 
seen you surprised by something,” Ed answered.

“I hadn’t thought about that. It is the first time I’ve ever been 
embarrassed like this.”

“So you’ve learned two lessons from this. Don’t embarrass Ling 
and humility. Let’s add a third lesson and I’ll hang up.”

Frowning, William asked, “Third lesson?”

“You don’t control everything just because you can see some of 
the future,” Ed answered and then hung up the phone.

William stared at the phone for almost a full minute while he 
considered his father’s parting words. He wondered if that was 
what he had been doing for most of his life. Was he trying to 
control everything because he could see elements of the future? It 
was a disturbing thought. He closed the cell phone and put it in his 
pocket. 

The best call of the day was the last call and it was from his little 
brother, Eddie. Eddie had started the conversation by saying, “Are 
you okay, William? I was so worried when I saw that video.”

Touched by the concern, William replied, “I’m fine, just a little 
embarrassed.”

“Did it hurt?”

“They didn’t spank me. It was just a little joke.”

“Oh good, but I don’t think it was a very funny joke,” Eddie 
commented in a very serious voice. He could imagine getting a 
spanking and didn’t like the idea of that at all, particularly if Ling 
was the one doing it. Linda and Kelly were too soft to make it hurt, 
but Ling or Claire would make sure that he would remember it. He 
wasn’t sure about the bodyguards, but assumed they were more 
like Ling than Linda.

“It may have been a bad joke, but it was a good lesson,” William 
said.

“Well, I’m just glad that you weren’t hurt. I called to let you know 
that I hoped you felt okay.”

“I feel a lot better because you called,” William said. It was the 
truth. It was nice to know that his little brother worried about him. 
Eddie had hung up after a little update about what was going on in 
his life and how he was doing in school. The conversation had left 
William feeling a lot better. By that time, the entire family had 
called with comments about the video and he could relax knowing 
that there would be no more calls about the matter.

It was late at night and William was seated at the patio table 
looking up at the stars. He took a drag off his cigarette and 
watched the smoke drift to the heavens when he exhaled. Lucy was 
seated next to him, watching him as he worked through whatever 
was in his mind. She knew that when he was in such an 
introspective mood that it was best not to disturb him. She turned 
to Ling and asked, “What are your plans?”

“I’m going home tomorrow,” Ling said. Seeing the look of 
disappointment on Lucy’s face, she reached over and patted the 
young woman on the hand in a gesture of affection. She said, “You 
and William have some time to make up. You’ve been separated 
for a long time and you don’t need your future mother-in-law 
getting in the way.”

“I was hoping that we could go shopping together,” Lucy said.

“I’ve been here off and on for three months. Why would you want 
to go shopping now?” 

“You were concerned about William,” Lucy answered. 

Sitting back, Ling realized that she had not been a very good guest. 
Each of the past few visits had been inquisitions about William’s 
location. She smiled as an idea came to her. She asked, “How 
about you and I fly to New York tomorrow morning and hit some 
expensive shops along Fifth Avenue?”

“You want to go to New York?”

“Yes, just you and I will go. We’ll hit some shops, grab lunch at 
some nice restaurant, and maybe take in a show,” Ling suggested 
getting excited by the idea. 

“Sounds like fun,” Lucy said with a smile. She wondered if they 
would have some sort of high end lingerie shop where she could 
pick up a little surprise for William.

“I’ll make the arrangements for a private plane to fly us there first 
thing in the morning. It shouldn’t take more than an hour and a half 
to get to New York. We should be there in time for when the shops 
open,” Ling said getting into the idea of going shopping. Beth, 
Betsy, and Susan weren’t the kind of girls that enjoyed a good 
shopping excursion. 

Although she had a class in the afternoon, Lucy decided that she 
could miss it. The chance to go shopping in New York was just too 
good to pass up. Grinning, she said, “It’s a deal.”

Standing up, Ling said, “Let me make the arrangements.”

William interrupted, “Before you go, there are a few things I’d like 
to say to you.”

Raising an eyebrow, Ling looked at William trying to guess what 
he was going to say. She hoped he was going to apologize. She 
returned to her seat and asked, “What?”

“I’d like to thank you.”

Ling stared at William wondering why he was thanking her. 
Confused, she asked, “For what?”

“How many people could hide from you for over three months?”

“Until you skipped out on us, I would have said no one,” Ling 
snorted as she answered. She couldn’t believe that he was turning 
this into another chance to rub her nose in how he had been able to 
hide from her.

“Yes. Yet the only reason that I was able to do that was because of 
the things you had taught me about covering my trail from 
pursuers. You are a very good teacher.”

Sitting up a little straighter at the unexpected praise, Ling said, 
“You bet.”

“If anyone else was looking for me, do you think they would have 
much of a chance of catching me?” William asked in a speculative 
tone of voice.

“They’d have no chance at all.”

Nodding his head in a simple bow to Ling, William said, “So I’m 
thanking you for having taught me how to evade any potential 
pursuers.”

“You’re welcome,” Ling said realizing there was an element of 
truth to what he was saying. If anyone was to go after William, he 
knew how to disappear and stay hidden. There were no doubts 
about that at this point.

“I’d also like to apologize to you for having played a few tricks on 
you.”

“You mean like call forwarding your phone to mine? Or like 
calling a bridge that you had located within this house?”

“Yes. I was wrong to do that,” William said. 

Curious as to why he felt that way, she asked, “What was so wrong 
about it?”

“I was showing off. I was not being respectful of you,” William 
answered.

“I accept your apology,” Ling said pleased that he acknowledged 
that of everything that he had done, his rubbing her nose in it had 
been the worst.

William lit another cigarette and exhaled the smoke to the sky. He 
said, “There’s more.”

“More?” Ling asked thinking that he had covered all that needed to 
be said. She was sure that he wasn’t going to apologize for running 
off. 

“Yes. I was also irritated with you.”

“Why?”

William held up the cigarette and examined the glowing red 
ember. In the dark, it managed to cast just enough light to give his 
fingers a reddish hue. He said, “Well, we had discussed the need 
for me to work in private on the dissertation. No matter what I 
said, you ignored me and went on with your plans to saddle me 
with two bodyguards. You never once considered my needs in this 
matter.”

The accusation was well founded and Ling knew it. She said, “I 
guess so.”

“I felt that I had to leave in the manner that I did.”

“I can see how you could have felt that way,” Ling said. She had to 
admit that it had become a game with her during the days up to his 
departure. She had known that he was going to skip, but she didn’t 
believe that he could stay hidden. She shrugged and said, “You 
knew that I expected you to run off.”

“Yes, I knew. In a way, it became a game to me.”

“Same here,” Ling answered with a smile.

Lucy, who had been an active participant in this venture, said, 
“Same here.”

Ling looked over at Lucy affectionately and said, “Actually, I was 
rather proud of the way you stood up to me in defense of William. 
Not many people are willing to stand up to the mean Ling Manchu, 
sister of the evil Dr. Fu Manchu.”

Lucy laughed at the joke, but said, “If I thought for one minute that 
he was in danger, I would have told you where he was. Even if all I 
had was a bad dream, I would have been on the telephone before 
you could say William Redman Carter.”

“I know,” Ling said fully aware of how much Lucy loved William. 
There was no doubt in her mind that Lucy would move mountains 
to protect William. She knew that Lucy was lucky in the sense that 
William needed very little protection. The past few months had 
demonstrated that to her.

“I counted on that,” William said. 

Ling asked, “You counted on that?”

“She’s my one true love. We’re connected,” William said with a 
shrug of his shoulders. He knew that if anything bad happened to 
him that she would know it.

“I guess I’ll try to take your needs into consideration in the future.”

“And I’ll try not to be so stubborn in the future,” William said with 
a nod in Ling’s direction. 

Ling stood up and went over to where William was seated. She 
hugged him and, with real tears in her eyes, said, “My little boy 
isn’t a little boy any longer. It’s hard letting go.”

William hugged her back and said, “I love you, Momma Ling.”

Lucy watched the exchange with tears in her eyes. Even though 
she wasn’t married yet, she wondered what it would be like to 
watch her children leave the nest. That day was far in the future. It 
struck her that Ling had probably felt that way about William until 
the day she realized that she wasn’t going to find him. 

Ling went into the house to freshen up and make arrangements for 
the day trip to New York with Lucy. Once she stepped into the 
house, she smiled and decided that she was going to watch the 
video one more time. At least in it, he was a little boy even if it 
was for just a moment.

“That was sweet,” Lucy said.

“Daddy Ed said something that made me think.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that I couldn’t control the future just because I could see 
some of it. He’s right about that. He was also right to suggest that 
I’ve been doing just that,” William said.

“There is nothing wrong with acting on what you know will 
happen,” Lucy said.

“There isn’t?”

“While you may see more of the future and see it clearer than 
most, everyone else gets little glimpses of it. We act on it because 
we know that if we don’t act on what we believe is going to 
happen, we usually get into trouble. You have to act on what you 
see if you want to avoid bad things from happening,” Lucy said.

“Perhaps you’re right.”

“You know I am. The real problem is that you depend on being 
able to see the future. I think your father was telling you that you 
can’t control the future because you can’t see all of the future.”

“I’ll have to think about it.”

Lucy sat back in her chair and watched William for a minute as he 
played with the cigarette butts in the ashtray. She decided to give 
him a nudge before going in to see how Ling was doing with 
making the arrangements for the next day. While standing up from 
her chair, she said, “You sure didn’t see last night coming.”

She went into the house after giving him a kiss. He watched her go 
into the house appreciating the sway of her hips as she walked 
away from him. He rubbed his chin as he returned to his thoughts. 
A line from a Clint Eastwood movie came to mind, ‘A man’s gotta 
know his limitations.’ He decided there was a lot of truth in that 
statement.