The Inner Struggle: Beginnings Series Book 7 (21 page)

Henry leaned into Ellen when Frank left. “You shouldn’t have said anything.”

“So what, Henry. Frank will forget about it.” She looked up when she saw Frank standing at the table. “What’s wrong?”

“You have a visitor, El.” Frank obviously tried to hide his snicker.

“A visitor?” Ellen slowly stood up and apprehensively peeked around the bend of the dining room to see Jenny standing by the living room door. “Sit down Frank. I’ll be back.” Planting on a fake smile, Ellen walked to the living room. “Jenny.”

“Ellen.” Jenny folded her arms and did that flip of her hair thing she always did.

“How come your here? You’re not mad because I took your cake are you?”

“No, Joe told me how you gave it to him to soften the blow of your failing to get my help.”

“Repeat that?” Ellen stopped paying attention somewhere in her long explanation.

“I spoke to Joe and if you’re really interested in being a part and like every other woman in Beginnings, you can prove it.”

“Sure.” Ellen threw her hands up. “How?”

“You can come to our weekly Moon Lodge meeting.”

Ellen’s eyes shifted in confusion. “Moon Lodge? What is a weekly Moon Lodge meeting?”

“All of us adult women get together once a week, usually on Fridays.”

“So it’s a weekly bitch about men session huh?” Ellen smiled. “Oh I think I would like . . .”

“No.” Jenny coldly stopped her, rolling her eyes at Ellen. “We don’t call them bitch sessions. We call them support meetings. We discuss problems in the relationships that we juggle. We share remedies, solutions . . .”

“Recipes?”

“Ellen.”

“Sorry.” Ellen snickered. “Are these new?”

“No, we’ve been doing them for over a year. I think now probably close to two years, ever since understanding started.”

“And every woman attends?”

“Everyone one but you.”

“Why is that? Was I busy?”

“No Ellen. We didn’t tell you and frankly, no one wanted you to come.”

“Oh I find that hard to believe. Some women like me. Trish and Melissa like me. Josephine likes me. Andrea . . .”

“Short list.”

Ellen tried to ignore the Jenny sarcasm. After all, if she lashed back out at Jenny then she would defeat her purpose of being close to her. “O.K. it is a short list. I’m honored to be invited. I can’t wait. Is it this Friday?”

“Yes,” Jenny told her.

“So seeing how it’s called the Moon Lodge meeting, do I show up when the moon is out?”

“No, it’s called Moon Lodge because that is what Native American Indian women called their menstrual cycle and they had a special house for when they did that.”

“Menstrual cycle.” Ellen tried not to giggle. “Do we have on be on our period to attend? Because I’m not on my period right now.”

“Ellen.” With such annoyance Jenny said Ellen’s name. “Just be there at seven if you want to come.” She walked to the door. “And bring a finger food but not rice cakes.”

“Got it.” Ellen followed her to the door. “I’m very excited about this. You should try to be nicer to me, Jenny.

“Ellen, the only reason you know about this is because Joe came to me. I trust Joe. I wouldn’t let you into these meetings if I was putting my trust in you because a part of me still feels you’re up to something.”

“Never.” Ellen held the door open for her. “Bye, Jenny.” Once Jenny was safely out, Ellen shut the door and let her body shudder a few times. “Yuck.” She shuddered as she went back into the dining room. “Hey, you guys are done eating? How rude.” She sat down at the table. “Guess what, Frank? The women in this community have a weekly women’s support meeting and I’ve been invited to attend this Friday’s.”

“No kidding?” Frank patted her hand. “Good job. Are these new?”

“No.” Ellen shook her head. “They’ve had them for two years. No one wanted me to come.” She shrugged and ate.

Henry’s mouth dropped open. “Aw El, that’s terrible. I feel really bad. That isn’t nice of them. See, no wonder I don’t like many women in this community. They are so mean.”

“They are ,Henry. Jenny says no one likes me.”

“I like you, El.”

“Thank you, Henry.”

“Enough.” Frank halted them before they could go into a Henry and Ellen babble frenzy. “So you’re gonna go?”

“Oh sure, if I want to get close to Jenny I will. Get this Frank, they’re called Moon Lodge meetings.”

“Moon Lodge?” Frank titled his head in question. “Do they start until the moon comes out?”

“No, Moon Lodge is a native American Indian thing. The Indian women called their periods Moon cycles.”

“Periods? El, do you have to be on your period to go? Are you gonna lie?”

Ellen giggled. “Don’t be silly Frank. They only call the meetings that. I have to bring a finger food. Henry, can you make me some rice cakes?”

“Sure El.” Henry picked up his plate and Frank’s. “El, I’m gonna have some wine. Do you want some?”

“I’ll have some, thanks Henry.”

“Frank?” Henry stuck his head out of the kitchen doorway. “Wine?”

“Um.” Frank shifted his eyes to Ellen. “You know what Henry, no I’m fine thanks.”

Ellen smiled widely and laid her hand on his. “Frank, I’m proud of you.” She leaned over to him and kissed him. “Very proud.”

“See, I told you I could be good. You be a Jenny friend. I don’t drink.” He stood up and ran his hand over the back of her head as he went into the kitchen. He saw Henry just staring at him.

“Frank,” Henry said his name with such scold. “You’ve been drinking all night.”

“Shut up Henry,” Frank said in a whisper as he grabbed a glass for some water. “Just, just do this for me and don’t say anything. O.K.?” He took Ellen’s glass of wine that Henry had just poured. “Thanks.” Holding his water, Frank took a sip from Ellen’s wine, placed a smile back on his face, and rejoined Ellen at the table.

It was starting off to be one of the longest days of Dean’s life and it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. Packing up everything they would be taking to Robbie, getting it to the hanger, grabbing the bio-suits and gear from the mobile lab, and getting that there as well. He was glad Ellen showed up to help Johnny with everything by the helicopter or else they would be running late. Dean had to have one more meeting with Joe--which he did--and two more stops in town, one for more note material to take to the mobile lab, and a short stop at history to insert the trip into the computers. Dean didn’t plan on that. He thought the trip out was highly secretive. It was but Joe said it had to be documented somewhere, even if coded. So he and Dean decided that it would be worded ‘virus prototype experiment visit. See Dean’s files.’ Good enough.

For as much as he had to do for a simple one hour visit out to Robbie and his men, Dean was getting it done and staying calm. Of course he still was baffled by why Frank kept jumping out at him from around every corner and yelling ‘boo’ trying to startle him. Dean just chalked that up to another Frank immature behavioral tactic and ignored him.

Dean made it to history, his last stop. He was happy that Trish was there. She tended to sleep in too much during her pregnancy. He went inside. “Morning Trish.”

“Hi Dean,” Trish sat up and smiled at him, “what brings you to history this morning?”

“I have to make an entry.”

“Oh. Hmm.” Trish pulled out what looked like an appointment book and flipped a page. “You’re not mentioned.”

“It was a last minute thing.”

“Joe usually lets me know.”

“I just spoke to Joe. He said to come down and make the entry.”

“I see.” Trish picked up her glasses and put them on as if she wasn’t wearing them the first time, she may have missed it. She looked through the book again.

“It’s not going to be in there, Trish. He just told me about it. And . . .” Dean walked closer to the desk, “where did you get this? We don’t make these.”

“Isn’t this pretty?” She closed the purple vinyl book. “Cole brought it back the last metals run two weeks ago. I think he likes me.” She giggled.

“Swell. Can I just tell you the entry?”

“Do you know today’s password? I can’t make the entry without today’s password.”

“Yes.” Dean slowed in his words. “I know today’s password. Joe told me.”

“Good.” Trish spoke perkily and very slowly took a form from the drawer. She picked up a pen. “Let’s see if this writes.” She scribbled, nothing. She grabbed another pen . . . slowly.

“Trish, I’m in a hurry.”

“Patience, Dean.” She tried her pen. “There, it works. Now before I fill out the request, what’s the password?”

Dean cleared his throat. “Yabba-Dabba-Doo.”

“Very good. I thought of that myself.” She readied to write. “What is it?”

“Virus prototype experiment visit. See Dean’s files. Put it in at eight-thirty a.m. today.”

Trish wrote and spoke it as she did. “See . . . Dean’s . . . files.” She made a hard period sound with her pen. “What’s this supposed to mean.”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Well, I can’t make the entry. I have to clear it with Joe, just so you know.”

“That’s fine. Thanks.” Dean started to leave and he stopped. “Oh hey, by the way, someone told me you control the understanding rule book.”

“I do. I have the original one with the amendments handwritten in it. Then I have the one I worked on myself to make it really look neat.”

“Can I borrow one until tomorrow?”

“You mean like a library book?” Trish asked.

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“They don’t leave history,” Trish stated.

“I need to read them. I’m interested and I’m gonna have some time in my lab. Come on, Trish, no one will know. Be nice.”

“If I lend you one, you aren’t going to try to make changes in it like Frank did when he came by to see one.”

“No,” Dean laughed. “Frank came by to see one?”

“Oh sure,” she said, “about two weeks ago. He was being funny.”

“Frank, funny?”

“Yep. He wanted to say that I forgot to add the amendment that it is all right to kill the secondary relationship male at any time during the understanding or after.” She laughed. “But I knew he was fibbing. So what do you need the understanding rules for? Need to brush up for your understanding with Henry?”

“You can say so, but no one is supposed to know about it.”

“That’s nice of you to have the understanding with Henry. I’ll let you borrow the book.” Trish stood from her desk, grunting and then waddled her pregnant body to the file cabinet. “He’ll be a good secondary relationship for Ellen.”

“Secondary?” Dean shook his head. “No primary.”

“Secondary, right? Aren’t you going to be the primary? I hope.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’ve always wanted you and Ellen back together.”

“Let me let you in on a secret, me too. But being the primary relationship will be a little impossible seeing how she’s married to Henry.”

Trish handed him the rule book. “What do you mean?”

“Henry and Ellen are married.”

“No they aren’t.”

“Yes they are.”

“No, they aren’t Dean,” Trish was insistent. “I mean I would know. I am the warden of history. If someone gets married, I get the paper work. Reverend Bob always files it with me in a timely manner. I even make a special trip in on Saturdays if anyone gets married. It’s not a marriage if Reverend Bob doesn’t give me the official papers and trust me, I never got any papers on Ellen and Henry.”

“There has to be some mistake. They said they got married April first.”

“There you have it. But we can go check just in case my memory is messed up. I doubt it though.” Scooting to the back history room, Trish led Dean in there. She moaned as she sat down at the computer and quickly pulled up marriages. “Let’s see, this is all the marriages and dedications done this year. You say April first?”

“Yes.” Dean peered over her shoulder.

“Nothing.” Trish clicked on the keyboard. “Let’s go ahead a few days to see if Bob forgot to file. The second . . . nope. Third, no. Fourth . . .” More clicks. “Not in here. See Dean. Not married.” She spun the tall stool to face him and saw the wide grin on his face.

“This is great.” Dean folded his arms and nodded. “Oh I’m gonna kill her for lying to me.” He smiled wider then it dropped. “Shit. Trish, do me a favor. Whatever you do.” He laid his hands on her shoulder, “don’t, I repeat, don’t tell Frank what you just told me.”

“Why?”

“Just don’t. Please. Not yet.” Dean backed up holding that understanding rule book. “I’ll let you know when it’s safe.” He darted out and ran back in. “Thanks. You made my day.” He gave her a wink and took off running from history.

Dean knew the first thing he was going to do. As soon as he had Ellen alone in quarantine, he was going to let her have it. A part of Dean wasn’t mad at all but he should have been. The whole deceit thing was overshadowed by the fact that Ellen and Henry were not really married. Then again, the fear of what Frank would do if he found out crept into his thoughts as well. With his head down in the Dean ‘don’t talk to me I’m in a rush’ mode, he paced himself quickly through town.

“Morning, Dean.”

Just to be cordial Dean replied back, “Morning.” His head rose to see who it was and he stopped cold. “Reverend Bob.” Another huge grin ripped across Dean’s face. “Just the man I wanted to see this morning. You have a second?”

“Sure.” Reverend Bob looked at his watch. “just a second. Just kidding, what is it?”

“To be on the safe side.”

“Huh?”

Dean waved his hand. “I’m talking to myself. But, did you by chance marry Ellen and Henry?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Thanks.” Dean started walking again and again he stopped cold when he heard an ‘uh-oh’ from behind him. Afraid, Dean turned back to Reverend Bob. “What’s uh-oh?”

“Well . . . Nah.” He closed his eyes and shook his head.

“What?”

“Well, they did come to me and asked me to marry them. It was April Fool’s Day and I thought it was a joke. Especially when they said they wanted the super-duper speedo wedding. Yeah, that’s what they called it.”

“And what did you do?” Dean asked him.

“Well I said, ‘do you both?’ They both said ‘yes’. Then I said ‘done.’” He shrugged. “They couldn’t have possibly thought they got married could they? I mean, it was April Fool’s Day. This was Henry and Ellen and . . . oh no.”

Dean closed his eyes with a slow nodding head. “They actually believe you married them.”

“Now they can’t be that dumb. Can they?” He saw Dean still nodding his head. “Damn.”

“Since they thought it, are they?”

“No.” Reverend Bob shook his head. “No, we have procedures, marriage classes to follow and papers to file with history. We try to keep it very legal so there is a sense of seriousness about it. If we don’t, people will think they can get married as much as they want, whenever they want. I have to talk to them.”

“Wait.” Dean held up his hand. “Ellen and I are busy in the lab until tonight. Don’t say anything, not yet. Let me talk to her first. Can you do that? Keep it from Henry and most of all, from Frank.”

“Frank,” Reverend Bob shuddered. “If he thinks they’re married, he’s just going to start all kinds of trouble when he finds out they aren’t.”

“Exactly.”

“I feel awful, I really do.”

“We’ll work something out.” Dean checked out the time and saw how much he had spent of it talking. “I have to run.” He darted back. “Remember, nothing to Henry or Frank yet. Thanks.” Holding up his hand to wave, Dean turned quickly to run. Just as he rounded the last building on his way to the hanger, Frank jumped out again with another loud ‘boo’. Flipping off a laughing Frank, Dean ignored him and continued on, grateful for two things. One, he wouldn’t have to deal with Frank for twelve hours, and two, he knew something Frank didn’t know.

<><><><>

Robbie heard the Beginnings’ helicopter hovering but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He didn’t have anyone who could run over the grade for whatever they were dropping off. Even Greg and the two others that were in remission were weak and the remaining men, all ten had fallen victims to the new plague.

The silence captured Robbie’s attention. There was no sound of a helicopter at all. The engines stopped. Was he that wrapped up in wiping down the fevered body of Marty to not even hear? A ‘no’ answer came to him. When through the corner of his eyes, he saw them, two people looking more like spacemen in the blue suits they wore, the people from Beginnings. But somehow from the size of them both, Robbie knew who it was.

Dropping the cloth into the pail of water, Robbie rose up to his feet, facing Ellen and Dean as they walked closer to him. “Ellen.” He set down the pail and took off in a trot their way. “El!”

Placing the case she held on the ground, Ellen hurried to him. Through the head set in the suit she wore she heard Dean tell her. ‘Leave the suit on, El.’ He knew her too well. “Robbie.” Ellen switched on the external speaker. “Robbie.” She reached him, her hands gripping tightly to his arms, wanting so bad to embrace him but knowing it would be an awkward hold with the suit.

“El.” He hunched down to her level peering into her face mask. “What are you doing?”

“I told you that you wouldn’t be alone. You’re not.”

“God, it’s so good to see you.” Robbie smiled “Thank you guys for coming. Why are you here though?”

Dean held up the case he brought. “We came with a prototype we need to give those who are sick.”

“That’s everyone but me plus Greg and them who are in remission. Everyone has it now, Dean.”

Dean motioned his head up the hill. “Are they up there?”

“Yeah.” Robbie watched Dean head up that way and then Robbie grabbed Ellen’s gloved hand.

“How are you handling this, Robbie?”

“I’m doing all right.” He took a shivering breath. “I’m tough.”

“That you are.” She walked with him.

“El? Before you go, remind me to give you all the souvenirs I found for you. They’re small, but I got you a few.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.” Ellen stopped walking and stood before him. “You always bring me gifts whenever you come home. You’re not home, Robbie. I want you to give them to me when you come home.” She smiled at him. “Now I’ll talk to you later. Rest. We’re here.” She released his hand, took a few steps backwards, and then went to join Dean.

“When I come home,” Robbie spoke softly to himself, shaking his head. He ran his hand across his sweaty and dirty forehead then watched Dean and Ellen as they approached each man who lay ill, not far from where Robbie stood. Standing there watching them for a short while was rest enough. When Robbie stopped, he started to think and Robbie didn’t want to think. He had to stay busy to keep his mind focused on helping his men. Even though he was weary and worn out and in need of the break he could have had, Robbie trudged forward to help Dean and Ellen.