Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (37 page)

“
No, you’re not,” Seth
said. “You’re going to let these two nice people out and hope you
haven’t traumatized them too much.”

“
Homeland Security is on
the way,” the Chief said.

“
I’ll bet,” Seth
said.

Like a hat trick, he turned to see MJ and
Colin Hargreaves come in the door. Shaking his head, Seth stepped
aside for Colin to wave his badge around. He had to keep from
laughing when the Chief all but bowed to Colin. When the Chief
turned to order someone to get Delphie and Sam, Colin rolled his
eyes and Seth laughed. The Chief gave Seth a dark look.

Sam came around the corner. He looked from
Seth to Colin and smiled.

“
Where’s Delphie?” Sam
asked. “If you’ve harmed her…”

“
You hear how threatening
he is?” the Captain asked.

MJ grabbed Sam and pushed him out of the
room.

“
Where’s Delphinium?” Seth
asked.

“
Detective O’Malley asked
you a question.” Colin stretched himself out to his entire six feet
five inches and towered over the Chief.

The Captain looked at Colin and turned to go
in the back. Two agents half carried, half dragged Delphie out.
Seth was about to rush forward when Colin held him back.

“
What’s wrong with her?”
Colin asked.

“
She fainted,” the Chief
said.

“
She had a stroke two
months ago,” Seth pushed past Colin. He kneeled down to Delphie.
“Delphie? Are you all right?”

Delphie saw Seth’s face and smiled.

“
Seth,” Delphie whispered.
“There’s terrible evil here. I’m trying not to look.”

“
Colin’s here,” Sam
said.

Delphie looked from Seth to Colin. She
smiled at Colin.

“
Girl this time,” she said
to Colin. “Helen, Hilary, Heidi, Hailey, Harmony.”

“
I was hoping so,” Colin
said. “Julie likes Heidi, but Harmony would be lovely
too.”

“
Let her go,” Seth
said.

The agents let go of Delphie’s arms. She
took a step forward and passed out.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and
TWELVE

Found family

Monday evening — 6:45 P.M. MDT

“
Ok,” Valerie said. “Let’s
go through it one more time.”

She and Delphie stood in a bathroom at DIA.
They kept getting interrupted as women wanted to take Valerie’s
picture or get an autograph. Valerie laughed and introduced Delphie
to them.

“
They’re going to put me in
the plastic cage,” Delphie said. “They have to because of what
happened before. But you’ll be there.”

“
I will,” Valerie
said.

“
Right,” Delphie
straightened her back. “I can do this.”

Valerie hugged Delphie tight to her.

“
You didn’t have to come
all this way,” Delphie said.

“
Yes, I did,” Valerie said.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help the first time.”

“
What did the movie people
say? What about Mike?”

“
Mike was ready to champion
his Delphie!” Valerie laughed. “And the movie people flew us here
to help. We’ve all been through this with TSA. Everyone has some
awful experience. They wanted me to help if I could. Especially
since it’s my fault.”

“
Your fault? How?” Delphie
asked.

“
I forgot to tell you that
the fancy Italian bras set off the metal detectors.”

“
I mostly never wear one,”
Delphie said.

“
You have since your
stroke,” Valerie said.

“
I have,” Delphie smiled.
“I wonder why.”

Valerie laughed.

“
We’re all treated like
cattle now,” a woman said to Delphie. “Don’t let them get to
you.”

“
Thanks,” Delphie nodded to
the woman. “My Valerie’s going to help me this time.”

“
Good for you,” the woman
nodded to Valerie and walked out of the restroom.

“
Are you ready?” Valerie
asked.

“
Ready,” Delphie
said.

They walked out of the restroom to meet a
very worried Sam and Mike. Sam held Delphie close.

“
Are you sure you’re up to
this?” Sam asked.

“
We had every scan in the
world,” Delphie said. “It was just stress and all these new meds
I’m on.”

Sam looked over Delphie’s shoulder at
Valerie and she winked at him.

“
Remember Jake said we
didn’t…,” Sam started.

“
I want to do this,”
Delphie said. “I want to be the girl who can fly anywhere. What
will I do when Val has her baby? If I can’t fly, I won’t ever see
her.”

“
Ok, ok,” Sam said. “Let’s
get in line.”

Taking her hand, Sam and Delphie walked
behind Mike and Valerie toward the A concourse. They took the long
moving sidewalks to the inevitable security line. Valerie turned
around at the line.

“
How come you’re not doing
your psychic defense?” Valerie whispered.

“
Psychic defense?” Delphie
whispered back.

“
You know, suit of light?
Or the circle of white light?” Valerie asked. “You taught me to do
it when I was teased in grade school.”

“
I… I forgot,” Delphie
said. “But you’re right. That’s what happened. I got
flooded.”

Without much effort, Delphie breathed in
white light and allowed it to fill the space around her body. She
smiled at Valerie when her suit of light was in place.

“
Here we go,” Sam
said.

He gave their boarding passes to the officer
at the gate. The man took a look at them. Valerie touched his arm.
He flushed at her movie star smile.

“
She’s never ever flown
before,” Valerie said. “Is there a way to get a little special
care?”

“
We have a notice about her
here,” the man said. “I guess there was an incident this
morning?”

“
That’s all right,” Valerie
said. “We know you need to do your job.”

Delphie went through the scanners and was
waved into the plastic corral. Valerie went behind her and the
machine went off. Within moments, Valerie was behind the clear
plastic corral. People stopped to take her picture. She waved and
posed. A few minutes later, Julie Hargreaves joined them in the
corral.

“
I always forget about the
bra thing,” Julie said. “Hi Val, Delphie.”

“
I thought Colin said you
were leaving this afternoon,” Delphie said.

“
We changed our flight,”
Julie said. Leaning forward, she whispered, “We didn’t want to miss
out on the fun.”

“
Show the baby bump,” a man
yelled from outside the plastic corral.

The passengers turned to look as Valerie
stuck out her belly for the camera. The man took three pictures
from his iPhone. Passengers began digging through their bags to
take photos of Valerie in the corral. The TSA officers started
pushing people to get them to move along. A frantic call came over
the intercom for a female TSA officer.

“
Wave to Paddie and Colin,”
Julie said.

They waved to the little boy and his father
as they walked by the plastic corral.

“
It’s kind of warm in
here,” Valerie said. “Do we know why we’re on display?”

Looking at Valerie, Delphie laughed.

“
Colin said they have to
have a woman scan us,” Julie said. “That’s why it takes so long.
There aren’t a lot of women
officers
.”

People continued to stop for Valerie. She
posed and laughed. After ten minutes, a woman appeared. The woman
looked at Delphie, and then Valerie. Her eyes stopped at Julie. The
TSA officer’s eyes flicked from Valerie to the woman who’d stopped
to take her photo on the other side of the plastic. The officer
laughed.

“
One at a time,” she
said.

“
Ok, we’ll be right here,”
Valerie said.

Within minutes, they found Sam, Mike, Colin
and little Paddie. Julie picked up Paddie. They were on their way
toward the plane.

“
And that’s that,” Valerie
said. “Pretty easy.”

“
What will I do next time?”
Delphie asked.

“
I’ll come and get you,”
Valerie said.

“
What about when the baby
comes?” Delphie asked.

“
We’ll work it out,”
Valerie said.

Delphie linked elbows with Valerie and they
walked to the concourse. Mike and Valerie waited for them until
they were on the plane. Sam and Delphie took their seats in first
class. Delphie leaned back into the seat. She’d finally done it.
She was on her way to Mexico.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday morning — 8:35 A.M.

“
How come you’re not at
school?” Charlie asked. “Nash left a while ago.”

He walked into the living room where Noelle
was drawing a picture.

“
We have a late start
today,” Noelle said. “The school year’s winding down. We do this
before we transition to summer school.”

“
You go to school year
round?” Charlie asked. “That sucks.”

“
I don’t mind,” Noelle
said. “Daddy works. Nash and Teddy are working this summer. I work
on my school work too. I bet they could get you a job so you could
work too.”

“
Why would I want to work?”
Charlie asked.

“
Why wouldn’t you?” Noelle
asked. “I’m going to work when I don’t go to school. I’ll make
money and buy pretty shoes like Mrs. Jill has.”

“
There’s easier ways to
make money than working,” Charlie said.

“
But not legal ones,” Aden
said.

“
Where’s Sandy?” Charlie
asked.

“
At the salon,” Aden said.
“I’m home to take you to the eye doctor this morning. Noelle has a
check up and the doctor was able to squeeze you in,
Charlie.”

“
Oh,” Charlie said. “Noelle
wears glasses.”

“
My birth mother, Nuala,
broke my cheekbone and hurt my eye,” Noelle said. “I have to wear
glasses to read.”

“
I have to wear glasses to
read too,” Charlie said.

“
See,” Noelle beamed at
him. “I knew you were my brother all along.”

“
Wouldn’t I be more like
you’re Uncle?” Charlie asked.

“
Nope,” Noelle said.
“You’re my found brother. Daddy’s found son.”

Aden raised his eyebrows at Noelle.

“
But I’m your Mom’s
brother,” Charlie said.

“
No,” Noelle said. “She’s
your found Mom; like she’s my found Mom. That’s how it
works.”

“
Let’s get ready to go,”
Aden said. “Clean T-shirt Charlie. Noelle can you put this
away?”

“
I’m almost done,” Noelle
said. “Can you help so I can finish?”

“
Sure.”

Aden bent down to pick up some of Noelle’s
pastels. He looked around for the storage box.

“
They go in my artists
supply bin over there,” Noelle said. “Mom got it for
me.”

Aden set the pastels in the open drawer of a
plastic container. The container had a handle and was perfect for
all of Noelle’s art supplies. He smiled. Sandy’s little thoughtful
touches made their life work.

“
There, I’m done,” Noelle
held up her picture. “Isn’t she pretty?”

Noelle held up a picture of a blue and
purple Goddess fairy. Her beautiful face held a peaceful and kind
expression.

“
She’s beautiful,” Aden
said.

“
She’s Charlie’s fairy,”
Noelle said. “Here you go, Charlie.”

Noelle gave the picture to Charlie and went
to wash her hands. Charlie looked down at the picture and back at
Aden.

“
Noelle’s really good,”
Charlie said.

“
We don’t know where she
gets it,” Aden said. “She has a real talent for art. She takes
classes after school and stuff. Mike’s going to work with her this
summer.”

“
That’s your fairy,
Charlie,” Noelle came from the bathroom with her book
bag.

“
My fairy?” Charlie
asked.

“
So you won’t get
nightmares,” Noelle said. “You just hang it over your
bed.”

Charlie was so touched he didn’t know what
to say. He looked from the drawing to Noelle.

“
Daddy, do we have time to
do it now?”

“
If we can find tape,” Aden
said.

“
It’s in my box,” Noelle
said. “In the top compartment.”

Noelle ran to her art supply box and took
out the clear tape. She followed Charlie to his closet room and
helped him hang the picture.

“
See!” Noelle said. “Don’t
you feel better already?”

Charlie nodded.

“
Time to go,” Aden
said.

“
Do we get to have lunch
too?” Noelle asked.

While Charlie stared at the picture, Aden
and Noelle walked down the hallway. Aden stopped at the door to
look.

“
Come along, son,” Aden
said.

Charlie looked up at Aden. He flushed. He
wanted to say something about his Dad, his real Dad. But looking
into Aden’s eyes, he saw something he hadn’t seen in a long time –
compassion. He ran down the hall to Aden.