The Inner Struggle: Beginnings Series Book 7 (24 page)

“I guess you’re right. Hey,” she smiled. “At least I have this to cheer him up if he gets upset.” She held up a disk case. “The program to those SUTs.”

“Let’s hope that Henry doesn’t get pissed since he has been working on that for eight months.”

“He’ll be relieved.” Ellen moved toward her steps. “Goodnight, Dean. Thanks for today.”

“Night El.” Slowly he learned forward and kissed her softly, “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” She stepped up one step. “Dean?”

“Yes.” He turned to face her.

“Are you happy that Henry and I aren’t really married?”

“Yes and no. No, because if Frank finds out he’s gonna screw up everything we have going. And yes, I love you El. I don’t want you married to anyone else.”

“Not even Henry?”

“Not even Henry.”

Ellen reached for the door. “What about Frank?”

“Night, El.” Dean smiled and kept walking.

Something told Ellen when she stepped into her home that it wasn’t going to go as planned. That something was Frank who stood up from the couch the second she walked in the door. “What’s going on?” She asked.

Henry slowly stood also. “Hey, El.” He walked to her. “How was quarantine?”

“Boring. How come no one came to visit me up there?” She asked. “Did you forget about me?”

“No.” Henry shook his head and led her to the couch. “El, there’s something I have to tell you.”

Ellen sat down. “Did someone die?”

“No.” Henry sat next to her. “El, remember how we got married on April Fool’s Day?”

“Henry.” Ellen tried to stop him to tell him she knew, but Henry kept talking.

“Well, we were fooled El. Reverend Bob never really married us. It was a joke. We aren’t married.”

Ellen gasped dramatically loud. “Oh no!”

“Yes.” Henry lowered his head.

“Oh no.”

Frank rolled his eyes at her reaction. “Enough.” He walked around the couch. “She knows Henry. This surprise thing is an act.”

Henry lifted his head. “You knew?”

“Yes, Henry. Dean told me.”

“Dean?” Henry sprang up. “Dean has a big mouth. He’s gone and told everyone in this community, I swear.” Henry stated to pace.

“Henry, calm down.” Ellen tried not to laugh. “It’s all right.”

“No it’s not all right, El. It sucks. It really sucks and to top it all off, Joe yelled at me.” Henry nodded once. “He yelled at me for yelling at Trish for opening her mouth.”

“Henry.” Ellen grabbed his arm to stop his circle walk. “It’s O.K. If you think about it, it’s really kind of funny.”

“Funny?!” Henry’s voice rose. “It’s not funny, El! I thought I was married to you. I’m not. There’s not one single thing funny about it.. Nothing.” With a turn of his heels, Henry stormed up the stairs, leaving the essence of his anger behind.

Frank whistled. “I think I’m out of here.”

“What did you do Frank?” Ellen asked him. “Torment him all day?”

“Who me?” Frank laid his hand on his chest. “El, I’m crushed. I’ve been very supportive of his moods.”

“You supportive?”

“Yeah. I’ve been a fuckin godsend. But . . .” Frank backed up to the door. “I’m tired of his menstrual moods so I’ll let you deal with him now.”

“Frank.” Ellen walked to him. “We found something out today.”

“What’s that?”

“Robbie and his men have one of the two strains from the future and while checking, we realized there was a third. Only one person in the future, oddly enough, had that isolated strain of the virus. One person.”

“Who was that?”

“Get this.” Ellen folded her arms. “Jenny Matoose.”

“I’m not real good with viruses and such, but that can’t happen, can it? One person have something different.”

“Nope.” Ellen shook her head.

“Well then, could someone have given it to her?” Frank asked.

“We think.”

Frank’s eyes widened in thought and then shifted to the steps when Henry appeared. “We’ll talk tomorrow El. Thanks for letting me know that.” He slid his hand across her face then he reached for the doorknob. “Let me know what else you come up with. Night, Henry.”

Ellen didn’t even know he was there. She turned around quickly after Frank left. “Henry?”

“I stormed up the steps, El. It was your clue to follow me.” He walked by her and sat on the couch.

“Henry.” Ellen joined him. “Please don’t be upset about this. We’re not married. So what?”

“But what if it’s a sign, El? Maybe we ended up not being married because we weren’t supposed to get married.”

“True.” Ellen thought about it. “Or . . . maybe we ended up not being married because we’re not supposed to be married now.”

“Whatever the reason, it sucks.” Henry tossed his hand outward. “I took our vows very seriously.”

Ellen went silent. “Henry, we didn’t take any vows.”

“We didn’t?” Henry gave an odd look. “I thought we did. You’re right.” He snapped his finger. “So then we should get married and you know what, El? Let’s get married for real. I mean instead of in Reverend Bob’s living room.”

“Henry, listen …”

“We should have known right there when he waived those stupid marriage classes. When do you want to do this?”

“Henry …”

“You want to wait until the Robbie crisis is over, don’t you?” He stared at her. “You … you don’t want to get married again for real?”

Ellen lowered her head. “It was a spontaneous decision to get married in the first place, a way for me to help Dean without Frank getting in the way. But, Henry, Dean doesn’t want Frank to know that and now Frank is in the way so the whole point of it is moot anyhow.”

“I thought you wanted to marry me.”

“Henry … I love you as my friend. We did this to help Dean. It wasn’t for real.” She stepped to him. “You know this right?”

“We have a child, El.”

“We didn’t know that when we made the choice to sneak off. It’s a sign, Henry. It wasn’t going to be a marriage forever.”

Henry drew silent. His jaw twitched back and forth.

“You’re upset.”

“No, I just … yes. I don’t know why. It’s me. I have a headache. I’m going to bed.” He turned and walked to the stairs.

“Henry …”

Henry said no more. He just ascended the stairs.

Ellen, like before, stayed in the living room. She didn’t follow Henry up the stairs. She just let him be.

Why he didn’t see it his first pass through to the kitchen, Henry didn’t know. Maybe it was because the house was so dark and his focus was on making a cup of coffee. But he saw it as he walked from the kitchen. The steam from the coffee nearly burnt his nostrils as he paused to see it on the dining room table.

Wrapped in a cloth, its five inch by five inch size sat there staring at him. Henry’s name was placed on a piece of paper in front of it. For as badly as he wanted to unwrap it, Henry unfolded the note with his name on. ‘From Ellen’, it read, ‘Henry, you were pretty down last night. I thought you’d like to start this day off better.’ When did Ellen place the gift there? Was it there all night? Ellen must have seriously napped in quarantine if she stayed up past him.

His heart told him what it was, but Henry couldn’t wait to see it. And there it was, the Cyborg-genic Lobel Programming written on the front of the plastic case. Flipping it open to see the round disk for himself--not that staring at the shiny object would tell him anything--another note fell out. A small one, merely saying ‘Hank, I think this is it. Robbie.’

Henry stared at that disk for the longest time, his mind wandering to how long it would take him to learn the program and what all it entailed. Would the program work with the way Henry hooked up the microchip? All of the answers to those questions and any he ever had on what exactly they could program the SUT to do lay in the palm of his hand. But unfortunately, those answers would have to wait. He had a full schedule in Mechanics. Henry knew if he sat at that computer and played with that program, no one would find him.

After he took a long drink of his hot coffee, Henry flipped over the note Ellen gave him, grabbed a pen, and wrote ‘thank you’ on the blank side. He shut the cover to the disk, picked up Robbie’s little note, and placed them both in his utility bag. Carrying that bag, his tool bag, and his coffee, Henry left his house that morning, as usual, before the rising sun. Like Ellen had hoped, he did have a better start to this day.

<><><><>

The moans, possibly cries of pain woke Robbie from the sleep that was long overdue. How long did he sleep? One hour? Two? Not much because, like the long night that rested behind him, the day was starting out the same. The sounds of the day surrounded him, drowned out by the cries of those who suffered at the hands of an illness Robbie was at a loss to ease.

Rubbing his eyes, he stood up and let the fogginess clear from his mind. He thought of his new routine, wiping down of the fevered, administering of pain reliever, along with the compassion and patience he felt himself losing. Everything he did was another painful step in a battle he wasn’t ready to face. As Robbie moved to his men, he saw yet another stumbling block that took him back. Though he expected it, like the virus, he wasn’t ready for it. It became even more of a scary sight as Robbie stood in the just breaking day. He stood now the only healthy remaining man. Greg and the original two exposed had slipped from their remission back to the plague they had thought they beat. At that moment Robbie realized what remission really meant. Though it gave Greg and the two men time to rest and rebuild their strength, it also gave the virus time to do that as well. The virus was proving to be the strongest of them all, because it shook Greg’s body, and now was ravaging it far more violently than it had done in the first round of the fight.

<><><><>

“You know, Henry, I think this is actually a good idea.” Frank walked quickly down the row of houses. “Don’t you?”

“Most definitely. I had my doubts when we first talked about it.”

“Me too.” Frank toted a duffel bag and adjusted it. “But I think this is for the best.”

“It is Frank and I’m glad Ellen is going to be staying with you and the kids, especially Nick’s first week home.”

“How did she seem to you about it?”

“Fine. We talked about it before, you know, we found out about the marriage. So … it was the plan.” Henry told him. “But you know when Nick is with me, you are more than welcome to be over.”

“And vice versa.”

“Thanks Frank.”

“No, Henry.” Frank stopped walking. “Thank you.” Frank took on a serious look. “You could have put up a fuss about her moving in for a little bit, but you didn’t. Thanks for letting her.”

“It’s not that I’m letting her, Frank. I don’t really have a choice, if you think about it. Especially now.”

“I’m sorry about that. You seem really down.”

“Nah, I’m fine. It’s all good.”

Frank reached for his front door, and walked in. “El, is he sleeping?”

Ellen quickly looked back from the couch. “I don’t know.” She looked over at the small cradle a few feet from her. “Out.”

“El.” Frank laid the duffel bag down. “Aren’t you holding him?”

“No, Frank. Look at all this work. I’m recalculating formulas and going over future history files. He’s sleeping. Why would I hold him?” She turned her head to see Henry move toward her, stepping over the duffel bag center living room. “Hi, Henry. Is that my bag?”

“Yep.” Henry walked to her and then went to the cradle with Frank. “What’s he doing Frank?”

“Sleeping again.” Frank looked back at Ellen. “When did he eat last?”

Ellen let out an annoyance breath. “About ten minutes after your last visit an hour ago. Why are you guys back?”

Frank held his hand out. “To bring you your clothes and see Nick because he’s not in the clinic anymore.” Frank leaned down into the cradle. “I think he needs exercise, Henry.”

“Exercise, Frank?”

“Oh sure. When you hold a baby this small, it works their muscles just as much as you and I would running.”

“No shit. Maybe we should hold him.”

Ellen watched them linger over the cradle. “I’m gonna take my bag up. Frank, which room has room for my clothes?”

“Uh . . .” Frank looked at her than quickly to the baby. “My room.”

“Well I’ll just . . .” Ellen backed up to the steps with her bag. “Take this heavy bag . . .” She was ignored. Henry and Frank took the baby from the cradle. “Take this upstairs. Fuck it.” Giving up and admitting defeat at the hands of the tiny new addition, Ellen took the bag upstairs and into Frank’s bedroom.

She slowed down the moment she stepped inside. Frank had cleaned it up well. She took her bag and laid it on the bed. The second her hand released the handle, Ellen found herself staring down at that bed in a daze of familiarity. She smiled and ran her hand lightly across the pillow in a warmth of remembrance.

Breathing outward her reminiscence, she unzipped the bag and looked at the clothes Frank had packed for her, so neatly, tightly folded too. She reached down for the four shirts he had placed on top so as not to wrinkle and she carried them over to the dresser. “Now let’s see how much room you left me, Frank.” She opened the top drawer to the right expecting to see it half empty, and it wasn’t. It was filled to the top like it had been when Ellen lived there before. Wondering if he had done so, Ellen reached to the drawer next to it and discovered Frank had. He rearranged the drawers like they used to be when Ellen lived there.

Placing the tee-shirts in the drawer neatly, Ellen closed it and turned to walk to her bag again. A step or two into it, it dawned on her that the last time she was in that dresser was also the time she found that hidden bottle of moonshine.

It hadn’t been that long ago that she found it and that Frank had promised to control his drinking. Shrugging off her curiosity, Ellen finished going to the duffel bag and she pulled out the small stack of shorts. Thinking how well Frank packed for her, she took them to the dresser and laid them on top. Reaching for the second drawer, Ellen’s hands hesitated. A part of her wondered and had to know if Frank was keeping his word. Ellen moved her hand to the second drawer on the left. Gripping the handles she pulled it open and as she did, she jumped at the soft call of her name.

“El?” Frank stepped into the bedroom. “You all right?”

“Just putting my clothes away. What are you doing here?”

“I have to go back to work. I wanted to say good bye. Henry’s alone down there so don’t be too long.”

“I won’t.” She smiled “See you tonight?”

“See you tonight.” Frank backed up to the door and then he stopped. “Oh El, just in case I forget to tell you, and even though it’s short term, it’s good to have you back.” He moved to her laying his hand on her face. “Thanks El. I promise you, you won’t regret this.”

“I know I won’t, Frank.” Before Ellen could say anymore, Frank had wrapped his arms around her and embraced her tightly and she returned it.

“I’d better go.” Stepping back, Frank kissed Ellen on the cheek. “See you tonight.” He walked to the door. “Please pay attention to Nick.”

Just as she was about to say ‘I will’, Frank winked and then left.

Ellen stood there before that dresser with Frank’s drawer still half opened. She knew Frank was gone and she knew where she was just seconds before he walked in. Right there and then, she was grateful for the interruption. “What was I thinking? I trust Frank. I trust him.” Grabbing her shorts that were stacked on the dresser, she opened her own drawer. Even if it was something so minor as checking out his drawer, Ellen felt guilty, because she was checking up on Frank and she had never done that before. Without hesitation she shut Frank’s partially open drawer. But had she looked down, she would have seen that the bottle that she dumped and threw out not long ago, was simply replaced by another and tucked in the side of that drawer.

<><><><>

‘Where was Dean?’ Joe questioned in his mind as he looked at his watch while he waited for him in his office. Could Dean ever be on time for anything? They were to call Robbie from the office close to twenty minutes earlier. Joe would have called himself, but Dean was supposed to give Robbie instructions on some medical procedure or something. Rubbing his eyes which felt strained from looking at food projections and preliminary work ups for a metal run in two weeks, Joe felt his elbow hit his ashtray. It toppled to the floor. “Shit.” Bending down sideways from his chair to pick it up, Joe heard the door to his office open. “Bout goddamn time you . . .” He sat up and shut up when he saw it wasn’t Dean who walked in. “Yes?”

Ben from fabrics walked in first, Todd, a much bigger man, was behind him. Both of them stood before Joe’s desk a foot apart with arms crossed.

“What?” Joe barked. “Are you gonna stare down at me or say something?”

Ben let out a sighing sound, “Joe, you have to do something about us working together.” He spoke so femininely, his hand flying about.

“Like what?” Joe asked.

“We can’t work together, Joe,” Ben continued. “I can’t work with this man.”

“You can’t work with me?” Todd stomped his foot with an open mouth gasp. “Me? You can’t work with me?

“That’s what I said.”

“Who’s the one who’s being a baby about all of this?” Todd pointed. “You.”

“Me?”

“Yes you. Big baby, crying because you don’t have your way. Oh the grass is always greener now, isn’t it?” Todd nodded his head. “But when you see you can’t pasture that field what do you do? You come running home. Well I don’t want you and because of that, you don’t want to work with me.”

“I could work with you, Todd, but you stopped treating me with the respect I deserve. Like today when I mixed up that new shade of blue dye, what did you do? You criticized.”

“I did not!” Todd strongly objected. “I merely stated it was a weak color.”

“Criticized.” Ben faced Joe. “He criticized.”

“Why are you bringing Mr. Slagel into this? You think he can put you somewhere else? What can you do? I can field, but I’m not fielding. No-no.”

“Joe, do you hear how he talks to me? Lack of respect. I can’t take it, Joe. I cannot work with this beast anymore.”

“Beast? I’ll have you know for two years I treated you pretty damn good. I was . . .” Todd stopped yelling when the door opened and Dean walked in. With an extended hand, he pointed at him. “YOU!” He scolded toward Dean. “This is all your fault. We wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for you.”

Dean looked at them and at Joe, then he turned around and walked back out the door.

Joe stood up from his desk. “No. Request denied. I am not putting either of you anywhere else but in fabrics. Tough. You aren’t together anymore. Tough, deal with it, work around it.” He walked to them and led them to his door. “If I didn’t give new work to my daughter and Dean when they broke up, I’m not giving it to you. Out.” He opened the door. “Don’t bother me with this again. Go . . . go to Henry. He’s on council and he’ll listen.” As they stepped out, Joe shut the door. “Christ. And they scared away Dean too.” Shaking his head, he went back to his desk, looked at the ashes on the floor, and sat back down. As he did, the door opened back up and Dean came in.

“Is it safe, Joe?” He shut the door in a sneaky manner.

“What kind of trouble did you start between them two?” Joe grabbed a cigarette and lit it.

“Must you smoke?” Dean fake coughed and sat down. “It wasn’t me. It was Ellen. She told… never mind. Are we going to call Robbie now?”

“I’ve talked to him twice.” Joe pushed his work aside and pulled out his phone. “He’s going a little crazy. He hasn’t a clue how to take this blood right, especially when they’re convulsing.”