Stormwatch - Chapter 07

© 2025 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

This is an all new addition to the Stormwatch series. If you haven't read Stormwatch Chapter 1, through Stormwatch Chapter 6, please take this chance first. All chapters are listed in the correct reading order in the Stormwatch Series List. Chapters one and two are updates to existing chapters with 50% new material in each, and a corrected timeline. Chapters 3, through 6, are all new and hopefully they rekindle the joy of the series and expand on the story.

Welcome to autumn in small town Western New York, where the trees sing in vibrant colors, apple cider is the drink of choice and friends are just up the block. This is Josh and Veronica's first autumn together. Josh was coming to terms with his accomplishments and has realized that the recognition he received for them is a highly desirable prize.

For comments, questions, or merchandise, please contact the author.

Stormwatch Chapter 07

Black Autumn

Josh and Veronica had spent Saturday at Paul and Andi's house, helping with a project for Children's Sunday, the Sunday on Labor Day weekend. It was called Children's Sunday because schools in Erie County opened up on the Wednesday following Labor Day. Pastor John Jarecki would ask parents to give him the supply list the schools publish for their students. His brother Paul, owner and CEO of Jarecki Motors, supplies the equipment which is handed out on Children's Sunday. It's open to all children K through 12, but John believed in spoiling the kindergarten children. He believed that giving them a positive start will launch a positive scholastic career.

There was an assembly line at Paul and Andi Jarecki's house. Andi's mother Heather was putting the students' names on backpacks for the kindergarteners and tote bags for the rest with a Cricut device that made name tags. Then the bag would have a list attached and be passed around the big dining room table where friends and family members would have school supplies. When the bag or backpack came to them, they'd see if the teacher of that student required the items they had. If so, they'd put it in the bag, check off the list and hand the bag to the next station.

They had a stack of blue and neon pink backpacks, and Springville Congregational Church tote bags they needed to fill with school equipment. Josh and Veronica were helping along with Lucy Kosis and Gus Didomissio and many others. Josh had highlighters, pencil erasers, and Kleenex. Every backpack that was passed to him needed Kleenex, some needed pencil erasers, and only a few needed highlighters. He got a backpack with a list attached, looked for highlighters, pencil erasers, and Kleenex and if they were on the list, he put them in the backpack, checked off the item and passed the backpack to Lucy who had loose leaf folders, rulers, and band aids.

"How is Miss Yi doing?" Josh asked as Veronica handed him a backpack.

"She's trout fishing with Kenny right now," said Andi. "She's got a black eye and several bruises."

"How is Kenny doing?" asked Veronica.

"I think caring for Yi is helping him take his mind off of his problems," said Andi. Yi had been raped and robbed by Craig Larsson who took her business credit card, cash, and phone then tried to buy a high end shotgun at Johnson's feed store after he dumped Yi on the street.

"They're having some serious financial problems over there," said Paul. "The landlord keeps raising the rent on the building and their house, Kenny's entire family could all end up homeless and he's worried sick about it. I've offered to look at their rental agreement, lease, and business license but Dave Johnson is too proud." Years ago, when Paul took over Jarecki Motors from his ailing father he realized that his board certification as a cardiologist did little to help him sell cars, so he got a business law degree to help him, and he was damn good at finding loopholes and cheats in business agreements.

"Who's the landlord?" asked Josh.

"Wehrle Halloway," said Gus. "He and Dave Johnson used to be partners and somehow Wehrle ended up with the lease on the building and he's been nothing but a bastard to Dave and Angie Johnson ever since."

"Isn't he Craig Larson's uncle?" asked Josh as he eased a pack of Kleenex into the front pouch of a neon pink backpack.

"That's right, Craig is Wehrle Halloway's nephew," said Macy. "Craig works for Charles Lee. Both Lee and Halloway are buddies with Samael Windecker."

"A conspiracy of ignorance," muttered Josh.

Veronica shook her head as she put construction paper in a baby blue backpack. "Wehrle Halloway, Samael Windecker, Craig Larson, Frank Rosetti, Charles Lee... what happened to my little town? It's becoming scumbag central."

"Frank?" asked Andi, her eyes wide in terror. "Is Frank here?"

Josh gently placed his foot on top of Veronica's for a warning. Paul covered quickly and said, "I mentioned his name and the problems we've had in the past with him. He seems to fit in with that bunch." He didn't want Andi to panic. Frank Rosetti has numerous warrants out for his arrest. The Denver County DA in Colorado let him slip through their fingers with warrants for rape and unlawful restraint and a dozen others... all on video. But does Andi need to know that? Paul let her enjoy her day and he would tell her about Frank after church tomorrow. She'll want to stay locked up in the house, but that would be fine.

Josh helped carry the back packs out to Macy's SUV and piled them up in the back. This was something that Paul had done every year for the elementary school children of John's church. He provided them with a new backpack and school supplies based on the list of supplies their teacher published and the kid's parents gave to John or Macy. Andi found out and dug in wholeheartedly. Her girls were starting school this year. They're a year behind because of their tiny size, but intellectually they're far ahead of their peers.

After everything was packed, dinner was on John and Paul for all the helpers. "We want to thank you but we have plans," said Veronica.

"Date night!" said Josh, and he wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Where too?" asked John.

"We have tickets for The Outsiders, The Musical at Shae's Performing Art Center, so we're going to grab dinner downtown," said Veronica.

"T-shirt or tux?" asked Lucy, as she leaned back against Gus and smiled. Lucy couldn't believe that she found love this late in life, but here they were, she and Gus, as different as different could be, and madly loving it.

"Tuxedo!" said Veronica.

"With that damn medal," groaned Josh.

"You're wearing the medal?" cried Andi. "I want pictures!"

"Me too!" said Macy.

"Me three," said Paul.

"We're goin' to a show, not the prom," muttered Josh.

They walked the two blocks home, spent too much time showering and giggling, and then dressed up. "Ah never in my life woulda believed that I'd ever own a tux," said Josh as he put on the tux Veronica purchased for him.

"You look incredible in a tux. A real redneck James Bond," said Veronica as she pulled on a gold lame gown she danced in often.

"Please don't say Roger Moore or Daniel Craig," said Josh as he tied his bow tie. He practiced over and over and he was eventually able to tie it without looking up the instructions on YouTube.

"Nope, Sean Connery, From Russia With Love. I'd get so hot for him watching that movie with my dad," sighed Veronica.

"That is before he lost his hair," said Josh as Veronica tugged Josh's bow tie into position. She turned to their dresser and took a box out of the top drawer and opened it. In there was his medal of honor on the baby blue ribbon spangled with stars. She clearly wanted him to wear it with his tux, which was allowable by the US code.

"Seriously lil' darlin'?"

"For me?" she said and batted her big brown eyes. "You promised."

"Oh, all right. Here, you put it on."

With all due reverence, she put the ribbon around his neck and had him hold the medal right beneath the bow tie then she took a paper clip, folded the ribbon over behind his neck and held it in place with the paper clip and tucked it under his collar. The medal hung perfect under his bow tie. "Can we go now, dearie?"

"Wait." She took out her camera and held it out and arm's length and took a selfie of them standing in front of the living room fireplace. They looked spectacular together. Josh had let his hair grow out a bit from the military style he normally wore, and his beard was trimmed perfectly. Veronica was wearing her hair swept up in a stylish do, but it still touched her shoulders. He in his tux and she in her form flattering gown looked spectacular. Together, they looked like they were on the short list at the Oscars. Their smiles told the world of their love for each other, and Veronica immediately shared the picture with Andi and Macy.

"Don't forget to lock up," she said as they stepped out. After Thursday night and catching a peeping tom peering at them through the basement window, Veronica called a local alarm company. It's going to be two weeks, but in two weeks, they'll be secure. Until then, she was nervous. She wasn't nervous about somebody breaking in, she was nervous about Josh killing someone that broke in.

They got in her Lincoln Navigator and drove into Buffalo. It was date night, their night to dress up and do something awesome, and leave the routine world behind. They parked at the University of Buffalo and took the subway into the city, and stepped off the train on Franklin street.

They started date night with dinner at Che Ami on Franklin street in the Curtis Hotel. There they shared a rack of lamb with pistachio cruse, a cherry demi-glace, grilled fennel wedge and crispy roast potatoes with a basil pistou. Josh couldn't remember much about dinner because Veronica looked so beautiful. He was afraid to look down at his food, and the mirage would be gone. For Veronica, she had never felt so alive. She was wearing an old dress that barely fit her anymore, and if more of her breast spilled out, the cops would drag her off for lewd and lascivious exposure. But Josh's eyes weren't on her breasts, they were on hers, and she felt like a royal princess with the captain of the king's guard protecting her from all evil.

After that, they walked hand in hand to Shae's Performing Arts Center. It was just a couple of blocks up Franklin Ave. Together they looked like a couple from an old time musical come to life. Not Fred and Ginger, Fred Astaire was too skinny. Josh looked more like Gene Kelly, with a beard. They were headed to the beautiful old art deco style theater for the debut performance of The Outsiders, the musical.

For Veronica, the show was beautiful. It was the novel come to life. Veronica was overcome with every bit of the performance, from the singing to the obvious friendship the cast had with each other. The sets were not lavish, but they told the story; it was the outsiders come to life. Josh enjoyed it, but he hated gangs. Gangs had tormented him in his youth, but in upper middle class south Georgia Josh had a far different experience than Ponyboy had. Josh faced the Socs all by himself. There wasn't a passel of greasers to back up the silent, moody, broke kid who smelled like a shrimp boat.

He kept this to himself because Veronica was overwhelmed by the performance. It was all she could talk about as they rode the subway back to Amherst, where her SUV was parked. "I couldn't help crying when Johnny tells Ponyboy to 'stay gold' and dies. I think I cried harder tonight than I did watching the movie in junior high when I had such a crush on Johnny. What part did you like the most?" she asked.

Before he could respond, Josh received a salute from an old fellow wearing a hat that proclaimed him to be a Vietnam Veteran. "No, thank you sir," said Josh as he stood up, sharply returned the salute, and shook the fellow's hand.

"I've only seen pictures of those," said the old veteran and he pointed to the medal of honor Josh was wearing.

"Me too," said Josh. "Thank you for being there, it were a bit before my time."

"Do you mind if I ask how you got that?" asked the old guy.

Josh was silent for a long moment then said, "I was on an AC-130, we were over..."

"Stinger coming up!" shouted Lt. Booker Rafferty, the electronic warfare officer, call sign Librarian. "Flares Away!"

"It's not tracking them!" called Lt. Mort Goldthwait, the Electro Optics operator, call sign Mad Dog.

At the same moment, Josh got the ammo chute connected to the feed unit properly. He hooked up the firing control cable, then stood up and closed the GAU-12 circuit breaker. "Equalizer back online!" he shouted, but suddenly the plane lurched. There was a bright flash and all the lights went out. His intercom went silent, and he was thrown against the operator's booth. Smoke filled the ship and the roaring of the wind was all that he could hear...

... Josh realized he was back in Buffalo riding a subway. With a shaky sigh, he said, "I'm sorry."

"I understand, don't push yourself," said the old fellow. "There's a lot I can't talk about either."

A few minutes later they were at their Lincoln and Josh was still considering Veronica's talk of Johnny's death scene. To Josh, death scenes don't happen like that. One minute your life is set, the next minute somebody was missing. "Ah never had a movin' scene like that in my life. Mosta my death scenes were boring, so ah didn't get to worked up none."

"You never told me; how did you lose your parents?"

"Ah didn't lose 'em, I left 'em right where they belong."

"Seriously," said Veronica. "You never tell me anything. I always tell you about me and dad, you never talk about your childhood."

"Remember what ah said about 'that look' when I told you I had cancer? Same thing." When Josh told Veronica about his bout with cancer, she stopped looking at him like the man in her life, and more like a dying kitten she brought home to comfort until it died. The sad pitying looks drove Josh crazy.

"I won't give you that look... I want to know what makes my man tick."

"What's to tell? Ah had two folks and a sister and together they could out drink a fire hall. Ah was an unwanted child, an' they made sure ah was aware of that fact. Weren't a month go by that my sister didn't say, 'they never wanted you,' or 'you ruined everything.'" Josh sighed and stared at the road ahead. "Ah played every sport I could sign up for so ah didn't have to go home after school. When we didn't have school ah took swimmin' lessons and when I was old enough I worked on the shrimp boats."

"What did you do on the shrimp boats?" asked Veronica.

"Ah were a taint tosser," he said, like it was a common thing.

"A what?" she said with a whoop of laughter. She knew what a taint was on a woman. Josh called it that very special place that taint pussy and taint asshole. He called his bicycle seat The Taint Masher. A tosser was a masturbator, so taint tosser struck her as hilarious.

"That's what Captain Ed called me anyhow. They'd reel in the nets and spill everything on deck. I'd toss overboard anything taint shrimp. Not a lot of money but we ate good. Lots of flounder."

"Was it fun?" asked Veronica.

"No, ah hated every minute of it."

"So why did you do it?"

Josh shrugged. "ah hated every minute of being home worse." He was quiet for a long time then said, "My parents never hit me, but sometimes ah wish they did, then ah'd know if they cared or not. One afternoon at baseball practice my coach sent me home. My dad had died that morning, they just thought at four thirty that afternoon to tell me. The next year, my junior year, ah bought Grandpa. Ma hated that thing, but I didn't have to listen to her bitching long. I came home from school one day and she was dead."

"God, I'm sorry. Is that why you're so nice to children?"

"Sort of, ah never knew how to treat a child so ah guess ah'm trainin' myself up on the neighbors kids."

<><><><><>

"Where's my Equalizer?" came the demand from Captain Hal "Hailstorm" Rainey, the fire control officer of Ghost Rider Zero Four.

"We got a mess, working it." Josh had a real mess on his hands. A round jammed in the feed system of the GAU-12 Equalizer, the fierce 25mm Gatling gun and that caused a huge break in the high-speed ammo loading system. When he removed the feed chute, links and live rounds spilled everywhere and were laying all over the deck. He had to take apart the feed unit, and the broken round came out and spilled loose powder on the deck. He was racing the clock to reassemble the semi-disassembled feed unit and get it back on the gun.

He got the mess cleared from the feed unit and reattached it to the gun. Then he connected the ammo belt to the gun's feed unit. The damn thing wouldn't line up and with the jerking of the plane from the constant firing of the 105mm howitzer and the barking of the 30mm Bushmaster... there! He spun the gun slowly by hand until a live round spit out the exit chute. Now all he had to do was connect the ammo chute to the feed unit and... it wouldn't reach! It was a foot and a half too short and the more he tugged on it, the shorter it got. "Son of a bitch!"

"Just calm down and get it done," came the calm voice of the pilot, Major Emory Hancock. "One step at a..."

There was an ear splitting 'Thump' of air pressure changing and everything went dark. All lights on the gun deck went out, and the intercom was filled with a loud screeching that went silent with a click. Josh looked to his left and the tail of the big AC-130 was gone. He was looking at a moonless sky as the rushing wind sucked him out of the back of the aircraft, and now he was falling. He could see the forward half of the aircraft below him streaming smoke and bodies as it fell. A burning wing bent back, then tore off as Ghost Rider 04 plunged to its death.

His headphone crackled to life and Josh heard, "Where were you Hondo?" It was Hailstorm, the 'trigger man' of the ship. "I needed that gun. We'd be alive if I had that gun. I woulda shot that camel fucker with the stinger."

"I'm sorry," Josh shouted over the intercom. "I tried..."

"Your dicking around killed your team!"

Josh saw the ground rushing up at him, that barren, heartless desert reaching up to slap the life out of him. "I'm sorry..."

Josh hit the bedroom floor with a thump and a grunt and the shock jolted him awake. "Oh my god, are you ok?" cried Veronica as she joined him on the floor. Like Josh she was naked, and she began gently running her hands over him.

"I'm ok, give me a moment," he said. The urge to scream 'leave me alone' filled his head, but at the same time the urge to scream 'please hold me' filled his heart.

"This was a bad one, wasn't it?" she asked as she kissed his forehead and cheeks.

"I just fell out of bed. That's all."

"You were fighting and arguing with someone. Here, let me help you up."

"No, I'm fine," but he let her help him up. They settled in the big comfortable bed, and Josh remained sitting up, staring at the embers in the fireplace. They had made beautiful, passionate love by the light of the fire earlier. There should be no reason for his brain to rewind back seven years and playback the horrors of that night. "Are you sure this is what you want to do?" asked Josh. "Do you want to spend the rest of your life picking me up off the floor?"

"No," she said as she kissed his hip. "I want to spend the rest of my life looking back and saying, 'we got over it together.'"

"Good answer." He got up and put a couple of sticks of wood on the glowing embers, and returned to bed. When the wood finally burst into flames, Veronica was asleep, so he picked up his phone and hit the speed dial.

"Hey Hondo, or should I call you Bounce?"

"The gang changed my callsign from Hondo to Bounce when I got back from Wilford Hall, they had a big ceremony for it and everything. I guess it's official."

"Don't you ever sleep Bounce," came the familiar voice. Her Chicago accent was fading, but it was still Ellie.

"No. Not when I have you to wake up."

"What is it? Are you ok?"

Josh paused then said, "Ah jes got a touch of nerves. Ah gotta sing in church in a couple of hours..."

"Is that it? Singing in church?" asked Ellie.

"Yeah, ya know, all your friends and neighbors watching... it's nerve wracking."

"You wanna know what else is nerve wracking? The fact that you can't lie for shit," said Ellie.

"Ok, that's not the entire truth," said Josh. "Singing in front of people and playing the guitar too."

"Yeah, right. Guitar. Enough Josh. Emory sent me a link to your contest. I saw you hamming it up. I will get you for what you did to my favorite John Denver song."

"Ah ain't afraid of no one what can't run," said Josh.

"Now that's the Bounce I know. Are you really going to come down? I want to meet this saint that you're seeing... saint Veronica, right?"

"Saint?"

"Anyone that would put up with you has got to be a saint."

"Ah don't trust your taste Ellinor. If ah remember rat, ya liked Yesenia quite a bit."

"That was before she went super-slut," said Ellie. "Now if I see her on the street, I'll stick this pegleg of mine up her ass and break it off."

"You were always a sweet talker Ellie."

"Go to sleep Josh."

"Thanks honey, and ah forgive you for wakin' me up with your late night phone calls."

"Fuck you Josh."

"Fuck you Ellie."

He didn't talk about the dream that was tearing him up, but just hearing her voice... someone from the back end of Ghost Rider 04 is still alive... he saved somebody.

<><><><><>

Veronica woke up as the sun rose, and she saw Josh sitting in the "reading chair" next to the bedroom fireplace. She got up and kissed him on the forehead. "No sleep tonight?"

He sadly shook his head and pulled Veronica into his lap. "Ellie called me and woke me up."

"You are such a liar, you called her. You lie!" she said as she tried to get up, but Josh held her down and tickled her. "I'll call the police! Help!" she called as she kicked her perfect legs, but her laughter made her threats weak. They settled down and kissed, then got up, showered, dressed, and headed off to church.

As always, 'the girls' clustered in the vestibule before the service, Andi Jarecki, Lucy Kosis, Macy Jarecki, Veronica von Köster and more. Andi Jarecki's mother Heather was there, her hand on her tiny daughter's shoulder. Like the other women, she was excited about Andi and Macy's babies, the due date now just two months away. Macy continued to insist that Andi had experience because of the twins, but Andi insisted, "Caesarian sections don't count as experience."

As they talked, Yi and Kenny entered. Yi was heavily made up and wearing oversize sunglasses to hide the black eye that Craig Larson gave her when he assaulted her on Thursday evening. Yi listened to the girls talk excitedly about the plans for Macy's nursery and listened to anything else that got her mind off the horror of her attack.

Yi was a fool. She was mad at Kenny and she couldn't even remember why, so when Craig asked her out, she said yes. Craig was drunk when he picked her up and it went downhill from there. She was home three hours later, raped, beaten, robbed, and when Kenny found out about it, he was angry, but not at Yi. He ran from the feed store to Jarecki's house and held her all night long as she cried away the pain and humiliation. The next day, he took her trout fishing, something he has no love for, but she absolutely loves.

Eventually, the entire crowd moved into the sanctuary and sat down. As usual, Andi, Paul, and the twins sat with Pastor John and Macy, and Heather was having a hard time believing that this delightful young man they had spent the last few days with was the pastor. He didn't wear a clerical collar or any vestments, and he had a black wife who was of impeccable academic standing! It's not that Heather was racist. She firmly believed that anyone in America could succeed, even black Canadians with a funny accent. Andi and Macy were working on Heather and she no longer winces when Macy calls her 'Mom.'

It was time to start the service. Paul Jarecki read the announcements and the worship leader, Dante Reese, along with the pianist Melissa Kraft, took their position. They led two worship songs, then Dante paused and said, "Josh? Would you like to join us?"

"Go get 'em tiger," Veronica whispered in his ear. He had been practicing constantly for this one song and was more nervous than Veronica had ever seen him. Even before the big contest, when his quartet was totally unprepared for being selected to perform in the final round, he was cool, calm, and collected compared to today.

Josh slowly rose and walked up to the front of the sanctuary and joined Dante and Melissa. Instead of standing at a microphone, he stepped behind them where several instruments were standing at the ready. He was supposed to pick up the 'church guitar' but instead he picked Paul Jarecki's beloved guitarone. A guitarone is a huge acoustic guitar with a deep bass voice. It's primarily a Mexican instrument, but Paul uses it to fill in as a bass. As Josh put a capo on the neck of the guitarone, Paul joined him, and picked up the 'church guitar' and put a capo on that instrument.

Josh finally stepped up to a microphone and said, "Ah'm concerned with the lack of classical music bein' played here. Ah'm here to educate y'all. The composer of this piece considered this a worship song, so that's why ah'm gonna enlighten y'all." Then he lifted the guitarone and played. He knew two notes, but that's all he needed. E. A. E. A. E. A... the two notes were a rhythmic meter and Paul and Melissa joined in as Josh began to sing in his deep baritone voice.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

I keep my eyes wide open all the time

I keep the ends out for the tie that binds

Because you're mine, I walk the line...

When he was done, he returned to his seat. Halfway there, his best friend rose and gave him a hug. "That was great, thanks Josh."

"Thanks for letting me do that in your church, pastor."

"I don't believe Paul let you use his precious guitarone," said John into Josh's ear.

"To be honest, we ain't rightly talked about it yet."

Laughing, the passionate pastor patted the battle-scarred veteran on the back and headed up to the pulpit to give his sermon. Three days ago, John had finally ridden the Maid of the Mist to the foot of Niagara Falls and he was still filled with the power and majesty of one of God's glorious creations. He hoped he could put the revelation he had into words properly.

Over the summer, John Jarecki and Josh Gravely became close friends. John saw Josh as a lost soul living in sin with another lost soul and he tried to 'save' Josh. But he soon realized that saving Josh was far beyond what he was trained for and let his wife Macy, a trained psychologist, do the hard work and John relaxed and let his friendship with Josh blossom.

Back in the vestibule, a dark figure watched through the window between the sanctuary and the vestibule as Pastor Jarecki waxed eloquently on the miracles of creation. He somehow made a connection between the might of Niagara Falls and the miracle of a child. "You can go in and sit down," offered Lars Hanson, the trustee that was performing security for the day. "It's going to be a long service, they're recognizing the kids heading off to school."

"No, I'm just church shopping," said the rumpled figure. "I want to make sure pastor Jarecki isn't a tv kind of pastor."

Lars was disappointed, but he tried not to show it. The stranger mispronounced Pastor John's last name. It shouldn't have rankled Lars. It was a common mistake for someone that isn't familiar with the eastern European community. The stranger pronounced John's last name Jar-ekey. It's pronounced yerret-ski.

"No one will ever accuse Pastor John of being in league with million-dollar preachers. He preaches the word and has taken an oath of poverty," said Lars.

"When is confession?" asked the rumpled man. To Lars, this guy looked like a gambler in the middle of a losing streak. Lars was addicted to gambling, so he knew all the signs. This fellow was hedging his bets on everything, including a choice of church. The fellow was short, soft, and greasy. Balding with black thinning hair and a bad comb over, three-day beard and that cheap suit. He's clearly been living in that suit. The guy's nose was broken in the past, probably from not paying his debts, and he smelled of cheap whiskey and cheaper cigars.

Lars fixed his smile. This unshaven man in a rumpled suit was another lapsed catholic. "We believe that confession is between you and God. If you need help, you can talk to Pastor John or Pastor Macy."

"Pastor Macy?"

"Yes, Pastor John's wife, she's an ordained pastor too. She's the black woman in the third row, she's in the beige dress."

"The pastor is married to a black woman?" The rumpled man stormed out of the vestibule muttering "you people are sick." You can call Andi's mother Heather racist if you want, but she doesn't hold a candle to Frank Rosetti.

Frank stormed back to his car and waited in the rented Toyota. The September sun was warm, probably one of the last shirt sleeve days of the year. Inside the church, John and Macy were happily handing out backpacks to the children of Springville Congregational Church. This would be their last childless Children's Day, and they were excited about their future.

Josh's hope that Andi's twins would clown Pastor John was fulfilled as Sandy held her backpack over her head and loudly proclaimed all the subjects she would take with her pink backpack, and her sister Madeline made an inventory of the back pack's contents, holding up each item shouting, "Crayons! Just what I needed! Ruler! I can measure now! Glue Sticks! I can..."

"You can sit down," said Andi sternly as she collected her girls and herded them back to their seats. When the laughter died down, the rest of the back packs were handed out, one more worship song was sung, and the congregation headed home. They stepped outside where Frank Rosetti was waiting.

Frank was leaning on the building next to the main door, still making his plans to kill Andi Roberts, now Andi Jarecki. Maybe he would take care of her and stab that bitch mother of hers. He eased his Bowie knife with an 8.75 inch blade out of its sheath. The blade was honed to a razor's edge, and he ran his thumb over the edge to admire it. It cost him forty bucks to get it sharpened razor sharp. He figured as the people came out, he could slide up to her and slide the knife between her ribs, then a few jabs in her mother and a few more in the surrounding folks to cause an uproar, then escape into the panicked crowd.

He waited by the door, and she didn't come out. He watched every person come out until the crowd dissipated, but he didn't see her or her close friends that he watched as they went into the church an hour earlier. He didn't look, but if he had peered inside the church, he would have seen them in the vestibule gathered around Lucy Kosis (another woman that Frank despised) and Gus Didomissio. Lucy just let their friends know that Gus had proposed to her and Lucy asked Andi to be her matron of honor, while Gus asked Paul to be his best man.

Frank returned to his rented Toyota and sat glumly, making plans for sneaking into their house and slitting her throat as she slept, when he saw her coming out of the church. She wasn't with her mother; she was with that cunt, Lucy! Frank hated "that damn Jew bitch," as he called her. And she was there at a Christian church... they'll let anyone in! Something inside of Frank snapped. He focused on Andi as she and Lucy chattered in the middle of the driveway under the overhang at the main entrance. Frank realized that he would never have another chance, so he slammed it into drive and hit the gas.

John and Macy were brimming with joy and excitement for their friends, Lucy and Gus, and they were looking forward to meeting with them and planning the wedding. John was almost in tears. He was so happy for their friends. Gus Didomissio was the first congregant that John and Macy met when they first came to Springville Congregational in response to a request for an interview. He was also the first congregant they counseled over the loss of a loved one. He had lost his wife shortly before they were hired. And now, so long after the horrible passing of his wife due to cancer, Gus had found love again. Gus and Lucy were so perfect for each other. Both were highly intelligent people, and both had a passionate love for hot cars. Lucy loved to run, swim, and bike, and Gus loved acting as her trainer. The issue that concerned John and Macy was that Gus was a devout Christian and Lucy was a devoutly agnostic Jew.

Then John heard an engine revving, and he looked. It was that beige Toyota Corolla that he and Macy saw after their last dinner at Giardini's with Paul and Andi. Now it was roaring across the lawn and was bearing down on Andi. John didn't think about the consequences when he dove for her. "ANDI!" he shouted, and the little blond turned the wrong way. She never saw the car bearing down on her. John reached her a split second before the car did and he shoved her.

Frank barreled across the lawn toward the front door of the church. He bounced over the rock garden that lined the driveway and headed right toward that fat blond. Pregnant again? Probably. Frank glanced to the right and saw that tall doctor that she married. He was staring at him and holding the twins by the hands. Then he saw a man appear from behind the tall doctor and he was running toward him. Frank felt something hit the Toyota hard and a bump as he ran over something, and he headed for the exit, but he was looking at the mirrors, watching the angry man running after him. For some reason, the running man terrified Frank. There was another rock garden on the other side of the doorways, but he wasn't paying attention. He was watching the hate filled man running after him. Frank hit the rock garden, and he was thrown to the steering wheel as the Toyota hit the rock garden and hung up on a large rock.

Andi didn't understand what was going on. She had been making wedding plans with Lucy and Lucy said, "Hang on, I have to give Gus his bible." Lucy turned to give Gus his bible when John started screaming at Andi. Both Lucy and Andi thought, "what was wrong with John?" He dove and shoved Andi hard and knocked her to the ground just as a car that Andi never saw roared by. John had pushed her out of the way, mostly. She felt a blinding pain in her left ankle as the car ran over her. But John was in front of the car and was hit hard. Andi saw him sail through the air and hit the driveway, then bounce and roll to a stop. Through her pain addled mind, it reminded her of Madeline's Strawberry Shortcake doll and how it flops around when she throws it.

Macy saw her husband dive forward and push Andi, but what Macy will see in her horror filled nightmares was John's body bouncing off the front of the car, then he was airborne, then he hit the ground and rolled on the pavement like a discarded rag doll. And then he was deathly still.

That's when the screaming started.

Dr. Lucy Kocis, known to her interns as the "Queen of the ER," immediately went into fighting mode. Seeing Andi writhe in agony, she mentally marked Andi as "Injured, functional" and dashed over to John. "I'm here John, let me take a look at you."

Josh Gravely and Veronica von Köster were there too. They had joined the conversation after the service and chatted with Gus and Lucy until everyone was almost gone. Just as they stepped outside of the church, the Toyota roared toward them. Josh saw Andi was going to be hit and possibly Lucy too, so he ran. Everything sank into slow motion. He was focused on the driver of the car, who wasn't watching where he was driving. The driver was looking at Paul and the twins. Out of the corner of his eye, Josh saw John's body bounce off the car and fly to the curb. Before John's body hit the ground, Josh had sentenced the driver of the car to death.

Time slowed to nearly a stop for Josh. While everyone else was trying to understand what had happened, Josh was moving. Josh knew he couldn't help the injured, and he wasn't the type to stand and scream. He kept his eye on the Toyota and saw that it was going to hit the rock garden. Hopefully, he'll catch the car and pull the driver out. The thought made him run harder.

It was the same damn car that was outside of their house on Friday night, spying on Andi and Paul's house. Josh was closing in on the Toyota as the driver tried to negotiate the curving driveway back into the parking lot, but his right front wheel got hung up in the rock garden. The Toyota got pulled onto the rocks, and was soon over-centered on huge rocks placed there by Gus when he built the church. Frank was stuck and Josh was within arm's reach of him.

Josh had no skill in healing human bodies, but he was very good at busting them up, so he crouched and moved toward the Toyota's driver side door. Josh had some anger issues. He wanted to work them out on somebody's face.

All the time this was going on, Paul was frozen in horror. He held the twin's hands as they squealed and screamed for their mommy. His mind went blank as the world churned and seethed around him. Macy's piercing, heart shattering shriek didn't even move him. Finally, Lucy's shout of "DOCTOR JARECKI! GET IN THE GAME GOD DAMN IT!"

That did it. As if he was waking from a deep sleep, Paul turned to his mother-in-law Heather. "Hold the twins," and he handed the weeping twins to the horror-stricken woman. "Take them inside." Then he turned to Veronica, who was brushing past him. Veronica was following Josh. She knew that look on his face and she had to stop him before he went to prison. Paul grabbed her arm and handed her his keys and said, "Go to my van and get my doctor's bag, it's right behind the driver's seat. We need it STAT!" Then he went and checked on Andi.

Josh peered into the Toyota's side window and recognized the driver. "Oh, it's you, the fucking pervert. Wanna take some more pictures? Be a man, step on out here chum."

The driver's window rolled down and Frank's arm extended, brandishing a snub-nose.38 caliber revolver. "Get back! I'll use it."

"Like fuck you will," snarled Josh. He didn't move. The door opened and Frank moved to get out and that's when Josh made his move. He grasped Frank's gun hand in a powerful grip and twisted hard, trying to snap his wrist and rip his hand off. In agony, Frank dropped the pistol, but Josh didn't let go. He pulled Frank out of the car and with his right hand, Josh grabbed Frank's neck and squeezed hard while he drove his knee into Frank's testicles.

Frank was in blinding pain and he realized he was in danger, but he didn't realize how much danger until Josh growled in his deep southern drawl, "Ah killed hundreds of men, an' each one had more fuckin' honor and dignity than you. Ah ain't going to blink when you die, you're just gonna be a shit stain on my boot."

Bob Alice, an off duty Town of Concord Police Department patrolman, a member of John's church for several years, ran up and flashed his badge. In horror, he realized Josh had lifted Frank off his feet by the throat. "You need to let him go."

"Ah was jus helpin' him outta his car officer."

"He's turning blue, he might die!" said the cop.

"What's yer point?" said Josh without taking his eyes from Frank's agonized glare.

"Let him go, I'll cuff him."

"If ah let him go he may pull another gun," said Josh as he gestured to Franks.38 laying on the rocks. "This here's the pervert that was taking pictures of Doctor Jarecki's house Friday night. We called it in and filed a complaint." Josh only loosened his grip on Frank when Officer Alice tightly cuffed Frank's wrists. "Doctor Jarecki told me this feller followed him from Niagara Falls to Cheektowaga on Thursday."

"I'm sure the detectives will be happy to meet this fellow." Officer Alice pulled his cellphone out and called the department requesting police and ambulance, but the sound of distant sirens told him that call had already been made. "Mister Gravely, I need you to step away."

"Ah'm just makin' sure he doesn't make a run for it, sir."

"He's not going anywhere while he's puking."

Just then, Josh was yanked aside and almost fell over backward. It was Gus Didomissio. Gus's Italian blood lust was up and there wasn't much to stop him. He was going to rip Frank Rosetti's head off. Bob Alice didn't recognize the danger Gus presented, but being a warrior, Josh recognized it, as did Frank Rosetti. "He's mine!" shouted Gus.

"Oh, hell no!" yelled Josh. "Ah caught him, ah get to kill him." He joined the struggle with Officer Alice, trying to keep Gus from killing Frank. Gus was incredibly strong, and he was manhandling Officer Alice and Josh. Years of hard labor as a carpenter honed Gus's strength to a fine edge, and Josh and Bob Alice were overpowered by him.

"Why are you protecting him?" bellowed Gus.

"Ah ain't protectin' him, ah'm tryin' to keep your dumb ass out of jail!"

Gus had the strength but Josh had combat training and he finally got Gus in a wrist lock hold and Gus paused. Josh was terrified that when Gus got his breath back, he was going to dropkick Josh over the car and stomp the life out of Rosetti.

"He killed John!" shouted Gus. "Let me at him."

"Killing this turd ain't no way to honor a good man like John," said Josh, who was so exhausted from his struggle with Gus that he felt like he was going to puke. "Ah'm already goin' ta hell, let me finish this piece a shit for you." Just then, Veronica ran up and put a hand on Gus's shoulder.

"Paul wants you, he asked me to get you back to the church. He said it's vitally important."

"Why?"

"I don't know, he and Lucy are busy working together on John. He wants you too, dear," she said to Josh.

"Why does he want me?"

"You speak French. Macy is hysterical and isn't grasping English and Paul keeps messing up. He told Macy that John was going to be puppy."

"Go help Paul, partner," panted Josh, and he released Gus. "Ah'll help Macy." Gus wordlessly walked back to the church and Josh collapsed to his knees in exhaustion next to where Frank Rosetti was kneeling.

"Gee what's wrong with that guy?" said Frank.

"You!" said Josh. Then, as an afterthought, he punched Frank in the back of the head. "Shut the fuck up!" The punch knocked Frank off balance, which caused him to fall forward and hit his head on the pavement.

"Gravely! I warned you!" said Officer Alice. "You sit right there and don't move!"

Josh looked up at Veronica and said, "You go, ah'll catch up later." The look of terror in Veronica's eyes struck horror in Josh's heart. She saw him at his worst; she saw him try to kill a man. She saw him hit a man chained up in handcuffs. Josh was sure he was going to get home and find his bags and Tigger set out on the curb. He couldn't blame her if she tossed him out.

An ambulance had pulled in and several cop cars wheeled into the parking lot. Two cop cars pulled over to where Josh was sitting. "Laying down boss!" said Josh, and he laid back and closed his eyes.

"Tired southern boy?" snickered Frank.

"Ah'm just imagining all the fun ah'm gonna have with your virgin asshole after they lock us in together. Seein' as you've been boned a few times by Paul Jarecki, you should be used to it by now."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"We're plannin' a git away cruise on that sweet boat he gave Andi fer Christmas. Ah'll send you a post card from the Bahamas an' tell you how nice it is."

"That's MY boat!" roared Frank as the cops hoisted him up and loaded him into a cop car.

"What a dumb ass," muttered Josh. "He couldn't afford the diesel it would take to get that thing out of the marina."

"What the hell you doing down there redneck?" came a familiar voice.

"Me? Waiting to be locked up, boss! Can you put me in the same cell as my buddy Frank? We're gettin' to be real close." Josh opened his eyes and recognized the cop looking down at him. It was Rick Hansen, a sergeant with the Town of Concord PD and the Sergeant of Arms at the VFW.

Rick helped him up and said, "You got Bob Alice pretty worked up, he wants to charge you with assaulting a prisoner."

"Me? Ah don't rightly remember that... ah ain't been gitn' much sleep lately. Ah do remember stoppin' his prisoner from runnin' off before Bob finished his donut and waddled over here. Ah also remember saving his prisoner's life when a six foot four monster attacked for runnin' over his apprentice carpenter."

"Gus? You held back Gus Didomissio?" Rick looked around and said, "I can't lock up a hero for tripping over that dirt bag, but if we come for you, don't make it worse, ok?"

"Yes boss. Getting up boss." Josh walked over to the church and found Andi writhing in agony. Paul was trying to encourage her and said, "I'm here honey, we're going to be fine," before she finally opened her eyes.

"Danny! He's hurt!" wailed Andi, clutching her tummy.

"Why do you think he's hurt?" asked Paul as he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a stethoscope, then shoved his bag over to Lucy.

"He's kicking hard, he's hurt!" she started wailing.

"Ok hold still, be quiet so I can hear what he's saying," Paul listened to Andi's heart and lungs first, and she sounded healthy there, he was worried about a broken rib puncturing a lung, then he pulled up her dress and placed the chest piece of his stethoscope on her abdomen and for the first time he heard the heartbeat of his son without a sonogram's audio interference. His little heart was purring away fine, and it sounded like he was rolling around. Paul felt the little pushes he made against Andi's abdomen. Before, it was barely noticeable, but now these are fine and strong pushes. "He's ok, he's just worried about his mommy."

Paul turned to hand his stethoscope to Lucy and saw Macy kneeling next to her, weeping and crying over John's twisted, broken body. "Jean, s'il te plaît, réveille-toi!" (John please wake up!)

Josh finally arrived, crouched down next to Macy and whispered softly, "Marie-Claude, laisse Lucy travailler." (Marie-Claude, let Lucy work.) His French was horrible and his accent made him barely understandable to the panicked Canadian.

Her reaction was instant and heart breaking. "Non! Je ne peux pas être seule! Jean! Ne me quitte pas!" (No! I can't be alone! John! Don't leave me!)

Josh suddenly felt nauseous. How many widows did he make? How many women cried for their lost husbands thanks to him? He fought back the tears and said slowly, "Lucy est la meilleure, elle emmènera Jean à l'hôpital où ils le soigneront." (Lucy is the best, she'll get John to the hospital where they'll fix him) He spoke slowly because his French was awful and it had been a couple of years since he finished his course at Buff State.

Macy wept and clung to Josh and he urged her back a bit when the EMTs arrived with the backboard. "Lay it right here boys," said Lucy.

The EMT puffed up his chest and said, "Ma'am, you need to step aside and let us..."

Josh grabbed him by the upper arm and said quietly, "Buddy, that is Doctor Evangeline Kosis, board certified thoracic surgeon at the Emergency Department of Erie County Medical Center. Y'all just listen and do what she says and the life you save, may be your own."

The EMT saw the hate and anger burning in Josh's eyes but he snapped out of it when Lucy yelled, "HEY! We got work to do here Dale! Get with it!"

The redneck was right; he recognized her voice, and she knew him. He brought many 'customers' to her when she was working at ECMC. Not a great way to start the response. "What do we have?" asked the EMT.

"I have a fireman in my light!" snapped Lucy.

"Two victims," started Paul as he cleaned the dirt from an abrasion on Andi's arm. "Female victim, early thirties, initial examination revealed a fractured medial malleolus, talus, and calcaneus with possible fracture to the navicular, cuboid, and lateral cuneiform bones. She's six months pregnant and the fetus is viable."

Josh whispered in the fireman's ear, "Your life may depend on that fetus remaining viable."

"Josh, stop!" snapped Andi through her pain. "Let them do their jobs."

"Oh yeah, she's a doctor too. It would behoove you to listen to her."

"JOSH!"

"What! Somebody had to say it!"

Josh stayed with Macy, explaining in his heavily accented French what they were doing. Finally, they got John onto a stretcher and wheeled him over to the ambulance as a second ambulance arrived for Andi. "Macy, give me your keys and call me or Ronnie and we'll get what you need and come pick you up." She handed Josh her keys and steeled herself to climb into the ambulance with John once they got him set.

A cop came by and said to Paul, "do you have any questions?"

"Yeah, how does a man with multiple felony warrants out for him in Colorado wind up in New York, rent a car, stalk a family, and nearly kill several people?"

"We found no warrants for Gilberto Battaglia."

"What?" asked Paul.

"That's what's on his ID," said the cop, looking at Frank's driver's license. "We checked his wants and warrants and he wasn't listed. This is pre-real ID, but it's valid."

"Then it's a fake," groaned Andi. "Colorado was one of the first states issuing Real ID licenses."

The cop pulled his radio and called, "Dispatch, Fourteen seventy eight, request NCIC on Battaglia, Gilberto A. Four fifty five, seventh avenue northwest, Brighton Colorado."

Dispatch returned quickly. "Unit Fourteen seventy eight, Gilberto Battaglia... signal two March seventh, twenty twenty two."

"Fourteen seventy eight copy." The cop turned to Paul and said, "I apologize, you're right. Signal two means dead, he's been dead since covid."

"His real name is Frank Rosetti. You'll find out when you get him to the station, and you fingerprint him."

"You know him?" asked the cop.

"Yes, I know him. He's my wife's ex. Andi, Gus, and Ernie Kraft knows him."

"He's a sleazy, greasy useless jamoke," said Lucy. She was fighting hard to keep her anger down as she prepared John for the ambulance ride.

"Oh yeah, Doctor Kocis knows him also."

"Fuck," hissed the cop under his breath. "How do you spell Rosetti?"

"R-O-S-E-T-T-I," said Andi.

The cop made a call on his radio, "Dispatch Fourteen seventy eight, can you run an NCIC on a Frank Rosetti of Denver Colorado? One S two Ts..." he waited less than a minute when the dispatcher came back with the list.

"Fourteen seventy eight, Rosetti, Francesco G, wants and warrants... Rape in the third degree... assault... battery... solicitation... pimping... sex trafficking..."

"Roger dispatch." He turned to Paul and said, "We'll probably add attempted murder, attempted vehicular homicide, assaulting a law enforcement officer, unlawful possession of a firearm, and possession of category two narcotics and unlawful use of a state identification."

"Don't forget stalking," said Veronica. The cop looked at her oddly, and Veronica continued. "We caught him on Friday night taking pictures of people coming and going over at Doctor Jarecki's house."

The cop nodded and said on his radio, "The neighbors positively identify him as the person they reported on Friday night when he was casing the Jarecki residence."

"He was casing our house?" Paul demanded from Josh.

"Veronica showed him her attention getter," said Josh in his defense. "He decided to do something else."

"I think the camera we found in his possession will show premeditation, which will get him free room and board for an extremely long time."

Then Josh felt a tap on his shoulders and it was Paul. He looked like hell. "Here's my keys, can you get the kids home?"

"No problem," said Josh. Paul got in the ambulance with Andi and they wheeled out of the parking lot, lights flashing. The unreality of everything that had happened crashed down on Josh as the last cop car wheeled away. The only evidence that a near double murder happened was a rented Toyota and the police flatbed was getting ready to take it to the impound lot.

Josh walked into the church and found Yi, Kenny, Heather, and the twins sitting in a corner quietly weeping. He gave them Paul's keys and said, "He'll call when he finds something out. Do you need me to drive?"

"I can drive," said Heather, and they went out and headed toward the van.

Josh saw Paul's doctor bag sitting on the sidewalk, wide open. The last evidence that something happened. "Wait!" He grabbed the bag and zipped it up, and gave it to Heather. "This goes behind the driver's seat." She took the bag and nodded sadly and headed to the van with the children.

He went back into the church and saw where Gus had disappeared to. He was leading a prayer group. Josh looked at the men in a circle praying and he felt left out... hurt too badly... too alone... Josh still wanted to murder Frank. He wanted to tear Frank's beating heart out and stuff it in his mouth. He wanted to hear Frank's dying gasps and see the look of horror on Frank's face when he saw the gates of hell were flung wide open for him.

Josh realized he couldn't poison the prayers of those fine men with his black heart like he did with his relationship with Veronica, so he left.

<><><><><>

Veronica found Josh in the backyard. He had been picking leaves out of the rock garden and tossing them in the creek. The rock gardens were clear of leaves and he was staring into the creek. Veronica was reminded of a jumper up at Niagara Falls. The description she read of the look in his eye before he jumped matched the look she saw in Josh's eyes. "Come on," and she led him back to the house, and he followed her meekly. She led him to an Adirondack chair, and he sank into it. Veronica curled up in his lap and gave him little kisses. "Lucy says John is going to be ok, he's out of surgery now. They're going to keep him sedated for a few days so they can monitor him."

"Good."

"Andi only has a broken ankle, she goes in for surgery tomorrow and will be home soon," said Veronica.

"Better."

"You've been avoiding me."

"I'm avoiding everyone," said Josh.

"Why?" she asked, trying to calm Josh.

"Because y'all saw me for what ah really am, a blood thirsty murderous bastard."

"We were all angry, shocked and scared," said Veronica.

"Ah weren't. Ah knew exactly what ah was gonna do. Ah planned to chase him down and rip out his heart. Ah caught up with him and damn near strangled him to death in front of a cop. But ah come back to John and heard Macy cryin' and I realized that's what ah did for a livin'... I earned my keep makin' orphans. I slaughtered men and made women and babies cry. He weren't no better than me, just... ah did it from seven thousand feet up. Ah watched Lucy and Paul healing, putting bodies and lives back together from what my spiritual brother ripped apart."

"They're doctors, you're a warrior.

He stared off into the distance, not seeing anything. "What good am I?"

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Josh had a stump set up just for splitting firewood. He set the eighteen-inch slice of a log known as a round on it, then consider where to place the wedge, then with a couple of taps from the sledgehammer, he'd start the wedge. Once the wedge was set, he'd step back, grasp the sledgehammer's handle at the end, and take a swing that would make Jawn Henry proud. Over and over, Veronica watched slices of trees explode into pieces. Josh's anger drove that wedge through the round and into the stump. He'd then split the halves into quarters, and the quarters into eighths. With a big round he could split the wood into sixteenths. As he split the wood, he would toss the split pieces of firewood into the bucket of the front-end loader on Little John.

He had a woodshed back here by the cabins and another woodshed behind the main cabin, but this load was going in the back end of Spartacus, his jeep Gladiator pickup. He placed a large round on the stump; it was very heavy, but it was nicely dry. He picked up the sledgehammer, holding it right behind the eight-pound head, and set the wedge with a few taps, then stepped back. He glared at the shiny top of the wedge; it was mushrooming from the use he's given it over the past two years, and he imagined that the wedge was Frank Rosetti's broken nose. With a powerful swing, he drove the wedge into the round. He had to take three more swings and pry the round apart to complete the split, but that happens a lot with those big rounds.

He took a half round and set the wedge and stepped back. This time he pictured Bob Alice's whiny donut filled gut as the head of the wedge. He swung, and with a dull 'clank!' the wedge was driven through the round half. That left two big quarters. He may need to split them twice each because they're so big. He set the wedge again and this time he pictured Charles Lee when he swung. He split the wood cleanly with one swing and the wedge was driven through so fiercely it stuck in the stump. As he wiggled the wedge to get it out of the stump, Josh heard Veronica clearing her throat.

"Yes?" asked Josh.

"John needs you."

"He's awake?"

"Yes, and he wants to talk to you."

"He does?"

"Yes, now pick up your mess and get cleaned up, you're not going to the ICU all filthy."

"Yes, ma'am." Josh finished splitting that round, stacked all the wood in the bucket, then turned to pick up the wedge and the sledge. As he did that, Veronica hopped on Little John and drove off. "Every time..." grumbled Josh. He loved driving that tractor, but Veronica loved driving it even more.

<><><><><>

John was weak and pale. He had tubes and cables attached to him. Josh knew it was all monitoring and nurturing, but it still looked like a 1950s horror movie experiment. He pulled a chair up next to the bed and said, "John?"

John smiled and turned toward Josh, but he didn't open his eyes. "I had this dream that I was a catholic priest," he said in a whisper. "I dreamed I was saying confession, but every time I opened the curtain, it was you, and you spoke to me of the sins of the heart. Isn't that silly?"

"Yeah, hilarious," said Josh. That's exactly what he had been doing. He'd come over and while Macy went to eat, walk, or rest on a more comfortable sofa, Josh would talk to the unconscious pastor of his problems with killing so many people and almost killing Frank. He spent every moment he could in the hospital in the intensive care unit sitting next to John, confessing his sins, from beating up Martin Rolls in third grade to every live fire mission he flew. But John was sedated. He didn't hear a word. Or did he?

"Don't talk to me with these problems unless you're just shooting the breeze around the campfire," said Josh softly. "Talk to Doctor Lennox about everything that's bothering you, including Frank, that's what she's there for. I'm not exactly objective in that matter," said John with a weak cough.

"But Frank isn't PTSD related," insisted Josh.

"But it's something that bothers you, and that's her job. What did we say about compartmentalization?"

"Nuthin. At's the first time ah ever heard that chestnut."

"Oh. Well, we will. Josh, she's there for everything that goes on in your head. I can talk to you about sin and guilt and doubt, but let her fix the hard stuff... I'm not quite up to it."

"I will. Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Josh.

"There's a wedding I want you to go to. Macy hasn't done a wedding on her own in a very long time. She needs support."

"How did you find out about that?" asked Josh.

John actually heard about it from Josh during one of his late night confessions. "I have my ways. Just go and smile, hold her sheet music if she asks, and sing with her. You and she can do the Wedding Song so well... Tell Ron and Stacy it's a gift from me."

"Will do."

"And do me a favor, track down Dexter Humbolt and ask him what he has against my wife."

"And then...?" asked a confused Josh.

"You'll figure it out. You're a much better man then you give yourself credit for."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

The colors of autumn in Western New York were incredible, brilliant red and orange, yellow and green. In Zoar valley, the viewer was surrounded by colors and Veronica was overwhelmed by the colors. This was the first time she took time to enjoy them, and looking at the colors seemed to soothe Josh's nerves. The beautiful colors of autumn even entered the old wooden church that John and Macy had entered for the first time years ago. This time it was Macy standing up front.

Macy wore a light cream and coffee brown dress, Andi wore peach, pink, and yellow, and Yi wore crimson and brown. All three dresses were the same design. Veronica wore a beautiful gown in burnt umber with sienna trim, which caused many women to gasp. "I guess they don't know what I used to do for a living," she whispered to Josh, who was in his tuxedo.

Veronica was a little upset that he didn't wear his medal, but Josh simply said, "All salutes should be given to the bride. Ah'll wear it at my wedding, deal?"

"Deal," she chuckled.

Paul was there in his matching tuxedo, but he sat behind the pianist Melissa Kraft. He played guitar accompaniment.

Macy stepped out from the room behind the podium and stood alone in her beautiful new dress, and smiled. It was a bit of a shock to the congregation that Macy was performing the ceremony. They had never seen her do anything like this, and if she spoke during a service, it was to address the women of the congregation.

"Bon après-midi, good afternoon. Originally, my husband Jean was supposed to perform the ceremony, but he cannot make it." She placed her hand on her tummy and said, "I hope you don't mind if I brought our daughter instead." When the chuckles settled down, she continued. "Stacy and Ron love this beautiful old building and it means much to me as well; this is where they first met and I was there to watch. It is where I first met the wonderful people of Springville. When we mentioned to Ron and Stacy that John was not able to make it, Stacy asked me to fill in for him and I am overjoyed to do so. In case you wonder, I am an ordained minister and have a Ph. D. in theology, and I am the one that taught John how to perform wedding ceremonies at Divinity School."

Her statement raised a few chuckles and a smiling Macy gestured to the side, and Ron and his best man and groomsmen took their place. She whispered to the groom, Ron. "Smile, mon ami, your bride approaches and your journey begins." She said that, trying to get him to smile as the bridesmaids came down the aisle. In fact, she was there in the rickety old church when Ron and the bride Stacy met. He was the new kid in town and Stacy was the widow Angela's daughter. John was the new pastor and Macy was the pastor's wife who was still nervous about living in America. She looked at the boys in their tuxedos, simple black tuxedos that matched Josh and Paul. "You were so young when we met! What happened to you?" Macy whispered, which finally caused Ron to loosen up and smile.

Melissa had played a beautiful piano sonata as the bridesmaids entered, then finally the bridal march. Stacy was a sweet, slim girl with dark brunette hair that she wore down because Ron loved her hair so much. She looked radiant in her flowing white gown, and happily, she took her place at Ron's side.

"Bien-aimé, or as you say Dearly Beloved we are gathered to celebrate the union of Ron and Stacy. They met here in this beautiful old church as children and here is where they chose to seal their union. Jean was saddened that he could not be here for this moment, which meant so much to you, our first church children, that he arranged a small present for you."

Paul stepped up to the dias where a couple of microphones were set up and began playing an adagio on his guitar with a soft piano accompaniment from Melissa. Then, in her perfect, clear soprano voice, Macy began to sing.

He is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts...

She kept the tempo slow and stately, drawing it out into a moment that Ron and Stacy would always remember. Then at the beginning of the second verse, Josh, who stepped up to a microphone, quietly took up the melody.

Well, a man shall leave his mother and a woman leave her home...

When they hit the third verse, they sang in duet, Macy with the perfect melody and Josh singing baritone harmony. Their voices were magical, it was lyrical and sweet and every note they sang was perfectly on key. As the guitar filled the air with a rippling accompaniment, the piano swelled as they sang and their voices rang through the church.

Well then what's to be the reason for becoming a man and wife?

Ron and Stacy held hands and gazed into each other's eyes, both enraptured by Josh and Macy's magical rendition of the perfect wedding song. Josh and Macy occasionally sang some of the lyrics in French, as Stacy requested. The pastor gently placed her hands over her daughter sleeping in her womb and sang, "Il y a de l'amour, there is love."

For the first time in his life, Paul heard applause at a wedding. It started as a tentative clap and soon was polite but enthusiastic applause. Springville fell in love with Macy all over again. She turned to acknowledge Josh, but he was gone and so was Paul, so she turned back to the men and women of Springville that welcomed her into their hearts. This was a ceremony that would be remembered for a long time.

As the ceremony progressed, what Macy said was perfectly understood, but since she had a delightful French accent, it caused people to pay more attention to what she was saying. It was both unbelievable and delightful to have a pregnant black French Canadian pastor officiating their wedding and singing with that beautiful voice of hers. It was a day that Stacy and Ron and their families would remember forever.

In the church, along with the invited, were representatives of the church, the Head Deacon, Paul Jarecki and his wife. Also was the Co-Chair of the Church Board, Gus Didomissio, along with Lucy Kocis, and they were all amazed by Macy's presence and talent.

Afterwards, they gathered in the church's foyer and the happy couple posed for photographs on the steps outside, surrounded by trees that were showing their autumn colors. Angela, Stacy's mother, came up to Macy and said, "thank you so much! You were incredible! You should fill in for your husband while he is recovering."

"Merci beaucoup," sighed Macy, still shaking.

"How many hundreds of these have you done?" Angela asked.

Macy didn't answer. She looked terrified. "It was her first," said Andi.

"Your first?" gasped Angela.

"Non, second. My first was for ma petite belle-sœur (my little sister-in-law)."

"It was her first solo public ceremony," said Paul. "She actually taught John how to do weddings."

"Oui," said Macy. "I was his professor at université."

"She taught him so good he married her in front of their freshman class," said Paul.

"They should write a book about her and John's romance," said Gus. "They'll call it, 'Macy's Dream.'" He handed Angela a small book that contained a DVD of the wedding, a CD that contained the video files that were taken, and a small thumb drive with the video files. He handed Macy a thumb drive that contained the video files as well.

"We are having a gathering at the VFW hall if you would like to join us you are welcome," said Angela.

"We have an appointment over at Bertrand Chaffee hospital," replied Paul and with one more shake of Angela's hand, they left.

Not long later, they gathered in John's room, and he was sitting up. His bandages were re-arranged and there were fewer of them. His left eye was uncovered and filled with blood. "They said it will clear up, eventually. I can see out of it, but it's blurry. I'll need corrective lenses."

"You wear reading glasses, shouldn't be a problem," said Paul.

John blushed and looked down and Macy said, "He does not need reading glasses. They're a bit of a lie."

"What do you mean?" asked Gus.

"When we were interviewing for jobs he looked so boyish I asked him to put on reading glasses when reading something. It makes him look older," said Macy.

"I'm sorry, but we were getting desperate. Seven interviews and never a response back," said John.

"It's ok," said Paul. "Your glasses did something that the rest of your suit does. It draws favorable attention to you."

"To be honest, we had you picked halfway through your interview," said Gus. "We saw you as a fit."

"Where's Josh?" asked John.

"Don't know," said Gus. "He ducked out after his song was done and Ronnie disappeared after the wedding."

"She said they had an appointment after the wedding."

<><><><><>

"This is Williamsville," said Veronica.

"Cute!" said Josh as they drove through the center of the village. "It's bigger than Springville."

"No, it's just busier. Springville is over five square miles in size; Williamsville is only one square mile."

"So how come anyone with two nickels to rub together say they come from Williamsville?"

"Zip code. Somehow, 14221 became prestigious. A salesman in Ant's bull pen gets upset over people claiming to be from 'The Village' and he demands, 'do you pay village taxes?'"

They were so busy looking at all the quaint little shops that they missed where they were going to stop and had to turn around. Finally, they found it, a little store near the wide limestone block lined Ellicott Creek. They parked and got out and Josh held the door open and Veronica stepped in. Together, with Josh in his tux, and Veronica in her gown, they looked like James Bond and Vesper Lynd on a hot cassino date. A small man with white hair, a white moustache and a Jewish accent said, "Why all dressed up?"

"We just came from a wedding," said Veronica.

"And we want to get a start on ours," said Josh.

"Our neighbor Paul and Andi Jarecki said, 'Go see Mister Wetzel,'" said Veronica.

"'He's the best,' is what Paul tells everyone," said Josh.

"Oh my! So much business he sends me! And you finish each other's sentences. That's a good sign!"

"Paul sends you a lot of business Mister Wetzel?" asked Veronica.

"August and Evangeline were here on Tuesday. So! What cut of diamond would you desire?" asked Mister Wetzel as his wife came out to see the new customers.

"We have a diamond," said Veronica as Josh produced a ring box from his pocket. "I purchased it as an investment and I finally have a use for it."

"May I look?" asked Mister Wetzel. He took the ring out of the box, took out his jeweler's loupe, and began to inspect the stone. "Oh my, triple excellent cut... the color, the highest grade, clear as ice, absolutely colorless... may I ask how much you paid for this stone?"

"It was about eight thousand dollars," said Veronica, and Josh looked at her in shock. That's a third the price of their tractor.

"It is worth much more than that, so this was an excellent investment. One doesn't see a three carat ring of less quality going for that."

"It's two point five carat, isn't it?"

"Five hundred milligrams? No. I'm guessing closer to seven hundred milligrams. We would have to unmount it, clean and polish, and then weigh to determine exact weight. With a diamond like this I would suggest getting a suitable setting, but also a second ring with a lesser stone and wearing this one for special occasions."

"I've been wearing this one for years," said Veronica, now suddenly conscious of the stone she's been carrying.

"We must find the proper setting to show off this beautiful stone," said Mister Wetzel, and he began asking questions about the rings they like. Josh was not much help. To him, a ring was a simple band and not much more.

"This one here," said Veronica, "it is us." It was a beautiful creation that looked like silver and gold were braided together with roses and leaves made from pink and green Black Hills gold at the base of the setting. "That's us, two different people who come together for a single purpose and now our lives are one."

When Mister Wetzel looked at Josh, he said, "Whatever makes the lady happy, ah jess want a ring that reminds me that my wife is wearing the matching ring wherever she's at."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"So this guy, Frank Rosetti, he just goes nuts. No motive or nothing, and plows through a huge crowd hangin' around in front of the church. Only two people were injured, one was the pastor."

Mayor Samael Windecker looked at his brother-in-law, Richard Harvey. "That may border on telling the truth."

Dick shrugged. "It's a news release. Nobody believes the news anyhow unless it's sensational and the Buffalo Free Beacon will print anything. Since a pastor got run over, WBN Radio will be drooling over it. The other stations will be able to say it's a legit story after that and it will be all over every station in town."

"Ahh, college radio stations, where would we be without them? Is it something we can use for crowd control?"

"Definitely," said Dick Harvey. "This is the kind of thing that happens when you allow people to congregate without control."

"Just as long as it's on the air before the Jets game," said Samael. "We want the Jets barbeque gone."

Dick smiled. The Jets barbeque was a publicity stunt/charity fund raiser that was done by Worzil's Bar and Grille for years on the weekend of the Buffalo Bills - New York Jets game at "The Ralph." The game is always sold out so Ayato and Julissa have a Chiavetta's barbeque in their parking lot, and hungry Bills fans can just drive over, get their Chiavetta's fix, and be back in front of the TV in a matter of moments. Dick ignored the fact that proceeds go to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. "It will be gone. What's next."

"Dexter."

"How did that work?" asked the mayor.

"He went a bit overboard and got his stupid ass voted off the board."

"His job was to sew dissention, when he saw that the board was more united after Rosetti's attack, he got a little bit zealous," said Dick.

"What do you mean zealous?" demanded Samael.

"At the board meeting he called Pastor Jarecki's wife a nig..."

"I get the idea," moaned Samael, interrupting his brother-in-law. "And get that box back before Jarecki gets his hands on it."

"Anything else?" asked Dick.

"Who the fuck are The Heritage Brothers?" demanded Samael.

<><><><><>

When Paul brought Andi home, he had the house ready for her. He put a bed on the first floor in the library, wheelchair, shower chair, and a crane over the bed for her to reach up and pull herself up with. Yi was never far away, and her mom loved the living room so she was never far either. The twins practically moved into bed with Andi. And Paul was at work, or at the church, or with his brother John.

The twins weren't much of a bother; they lay next to her coloring and telling her about swimming with Miss Yi. They went swimming as much as possible because papa was going to cover the pool soon.

Josh helped Paul set up the library for Andi, John, and Macy. They were going to live with Paul and Andi until John was mobile enough to take care of his wife and his daughter. John was still in the hospital, but he would be released in a week or two. He was a bit saddened they wouldn't be able to practice dancing in the big, beautiful room. He remembered Christmas Dinners in here, all the tables set up and all the people sharing in the bounty. Last year, they invited Veronica, but he missed seeing her because the crowd was so big. What would he have said to her? Could he have told her then that he loved her? Could their year of sweet agony be done a month early, or would she have laughed and walked away?

He turned to Paul and said, "Doc, humor me, could you?"

"What do you have up your sleeve?"

"I'm trying to settle a question that's bouncing around in my head." He unfolded a card table and a couple of folding chairs, then he asked Paul, Andi, Macy and Veronica to sit at the table. He turned on the stereo and selected Christmas music, then disappeared into the kitchen and returned with glasses of water and placed drinks in front of each of the four sitting at the table. As he disappeared into the kitchen again, the twins wordlessly pushed two more folding chairs to the table and took up position next to their mother.

Josh returned with a paper plate covered with the twin's Cheetos. "Hey!" shouted Sandy, and Josh placed two Cheetos in front of each little girl.

"This is the best Christmas Party you've thrown since you first invited me," said Josh. "Ah ain't ever seen this room this crowded." He was standing behind Veronica who, like Andi and Macy, was wondering what he was doing. "We're all amazed that your brand new wife is putting up with our nonsense in only her first day of matrimony."

Paul realized what Josh was doing. He was pretending like this was last December's Boxing Day party, (which was held on Christmas because there was a Bills game on Boxing Day). "She's a party girl," said Paul. "What's up?"

"Just trying to say hi to everyone." He set his plate of Cheetos in front of Andi where the twins could get at it and Andi could control their snack intake. He took a couple of steps and stopped and looked genuinely shocked. "Miss von Köster! Ah didn't realize you and Doctor Jarecki were friends."

Veronica looked confused but Paul leaned over and whispered, "We don't know what's up but he's reliving the Christmas party."

Still confused, she said, "Yes, this is my first time here. I live just up second street."

"Ah... have a parcel of land across from Doc's farm and ah helped shoot some of dinner... well... just the squirrel."

"Squirrel?" laughed Veronica.

"It was in the stuffing..." Then Josh looked embarrassed and said, "Ah want to apologize for being so stand-offish at work. Ah know we are in different worlds... but... Miss von Köster, would you be offended if ah asked you out to dinner some evening? Ah've been dyin' to ask you since the day we met, but you're a company officer and ah'm just a wrench turner and... ah didn't want to embarrass you none in front of everyone. It's ok to say no, but when you guessed my Grandma's nick name for me ah thought ah died and went to heaven."

"Is that why you duck into the server room whenever I step into your office?" said Veronica as she rose and moved close to Josh.

"Yeah, and... well... ah gotta cool off my circuits from time to time but..." he looked down at the floor, then their eyes met. "Yeah. A good friend once told me we were in different leagues. You're like the starting pitcher for the Dodgers and I'm a benched left fielder for a pre-school T-ball team."

"You're the one that said that" said Paul.

"I knew it was one of us," said Josh, trying not to break the mood.

"I would be honored if you would ask me to dinner," said Veronica.

Josh looked genuinely shocked. "What say we go get a beef on weck over at Worzils and make plans for our future together?"

"You're moving awful quickly," said Veronica as she pulled on her jacket. "I love it."

"Oh, to be young and in love," said Paul. He turned his attention to Andi and the twins. All three had faces and fingers covered with cheese dust. "Really?"

"I get these cravings," said Andi innocently.

"It's his fault," said Macy, pointing at Josh as she licked the cheese dust off her fingers. "Shall we go?"

Josh assisted Macy to her feet and Veronica held her jacket open for her. They were going to drop Macy off at the hospital, and while she spent time alone with John they would get lunch, then go check in on John before doing something to celebrate the fall colors.

<><><><><>

As they sat in Worzil's enjoying a beef on weck, a baseball game was on TV, the run to the playoffs was in full swing and the local favorites, the Toronto Blue Jays, were starting to show life. "Ah don't understand them birds," said Josh. "The Bisons are their farm club and are always champions but when they get called up to Toronto they don't seem to make a difference."

"It's got to be management," said Veronica, who was a closet baseball fanatic. "Speaking of management, what are you going to do about Danebury Associates?"

Josh shrugged. Danebury Associates was a law firm downtown that sales signed to a big contract, but sales didn't add high-speed networking to the deal. "Ah'm thinking we start with strangling Brandon Mitchell. Ah kin set up something, they'll need an on-site data server that constantly updates the data farm on a 250k wireless link. Hopefully their info will be saved overnight before the workday starts."

"Won't that slow them down for retrieval from the server farm?"

"Yes it will. It's going to be a train wreck but that's Brandon's issue. I've been demanding since day one to allow me to see the contract to make sure we're selling them something that we can provide."

"That's horrible, the customer is going to freak out."

Josh leaned across the table and whispered, "Brandon Mitchell has been approving and selling these fucked up contracts since day one. He is either setting us up for failure, or he's..." the thought that Brandon Mitchell was robbing Andalon Data Systems blind popped into his head. If he was doing that, if he was getting kick back for these trash contracts that were so cut rate that Andalon was teetering on the edge of profitability, it would all make sense.

"What?" asked Veronica. "What were you going to say?"

"Uh, nothing. Why are we talking shop talk? Let's finish up, go see John, then go look at the leaves."

As they spoke, a Springville Park Patrol officer entered Worzils and looked around. He recognized Veronica and realized that she was sitting with Josh. He stepped up to their table and said, "Excuse me, from the mayor." And he handed Josh a folded piece of paper.

Josh unfolded the paper and read.

To: Efrum J. Gravly

Subject: Campaign Strategy Meeting

The mayoral election race strategy meeting will be held on Monday at 1:00 PM. Please arrive early and bring your best ideas.

Signed

Samael Windecker.

Josh folded up the paper and handed it back to the man in the green uniform. "Any message for the mayor?" asked the cop.

"I'm sorry officer but that message isn't for me, it was addressed to somebody else." Ignoring the cop, Josh turned back to Veronica and took her hands in his. "We can get some hot cider and go down to my favorite..."

"The mayor is going to be angry," said the cop.

"You're still here? Oh fer Christ sake, here!" and he handed the cop fifty cents. "Shall we go?" he asked Veronica.

"I'm all for going," she said, and they got up and pulled on their jackets.

"The mayor is going to be pissed," muttered the cop, looking at the coins in his hand.

"Then tell him to figure out who this EEEEfrum Gravy is and complain to him," said Josh as they headed out the door.

"What was that about?" asked Veronica.

"That dipshit mayor. He wants me to campaign for him but he misspelled my first and last name. How do you misspell Gravely?" They drove back to the hospital and made their way to the intensive care unit and found Macy whispering softly to John. The ICU nurse gave Josh a nasty look.

"Ah just want to say hi to my buddy." The nurse nodded, and Josh walked up to the hospital bed where his friend lay. Josh has seen men busted up severely, including himself, but John was by far the worst. "Hey buddy, welcome back." John had another round of surgery this morning and every time he came out of the anesthesia, he was more confused. Josh was terrified that John was losing memory functions with every bout of anesthesia.

John squinted and tried to focus, then, recognizing Josh, he smiled. "The one who did this..."

"He was Frank Rose... something. Andi's ex-husband. Don't you worry about him none. It's over."

"Did you..." John was trying to ask something but it wouldn't come out. Josh did everything but confess to murder in his late night confessions when John was asleep.

"Did ah kill him? No. Twern't not for trying, A cop showed up and spoiled my fun. Ah did lay hands on him, and ah'm sure he saw the light."

"Andi?"

"Andi is fine. She got a smushed up ankle, but she'll be up and around soon," said Josh. "The village is all a-twitter about a wedding the other Pastor Jarecki wrangled."

"She was incredible," said Veronica. "And her singing was amazing."

"I had help with that," said Macy softly.

"Aww, I wouldn't know nothin' about singing." Then he turned to John and asked, "How ya feeling sir?"

"Sir? Sir?" John was incredulous. Josh always called him "buddy." What was this sir stuff?

"Well, you..."

Just as Josh was about to explain himself, a male nurse in hospital scrubs came in and said, "Ok, step aside pal, I got work to do." He nudged Josh away from John's bed.

"Do you mind? We're talking here, pal," said Josh sarcastically, emphasizing the word pal, and pushed back on the nurse.

"Look redneck, I got work to do. Don't you have a goat to milk or something?"

As Josh was arguing with the nurse, a man with a huge handlebar mustache wearing a doctor's smock with a stethoscope around his neck and a head mirror strapped to his forehead stepped into the room. "Gentlemen please? I'm trying to save this man's life."

"Who are you?" asked Josh.

"I've never seen him before," said the male nurse.

Another man came into the room. This guy was wearing hospital pajamas. "Can't a guy get any sleep around here?"

"Fellas!" called Josh. "We got us two pastors and a beauty queen here, let's not argue."

Veronica rose to her feet and demanded, "why don't you guys shut up and sing?"

Then Josh and the other three shut up. They looked at each other, then they looked at Veronica, who was standing with her arms crossed. Then they turned to John and began singing 'Nearer My God To Thee' in four-part harmony. "His quartet does this all the time," Veronica whispered to Macy. "They think they're funny."

"All the time?"

"On our first date they sang to us at the Ellicott Manor in Lancaster," said Veronica. "They embarrassed the living hell out of me." Then she smiled and said, "it was so sweet."

'Nearer My God to Thee' changed to 'It is Well With my Soul' a hymn about pain and forgiveness. Macy was enchanted at the beauty of the four-part harmony and the harmonic fifth voice that could be heard when they hit the cord just right.

As the quartet finished the last note, Josh walked up to John and said, "pastor, you know I'm not a churchgoing man. In fact, the only reason I started going to your church was because I lost a bet to your brother Paul. All I know of the bible is that is says 'Greater love has no man than to give his life for his friends.' I've been on aircraft that were shot to shi... uh... shot up pretty bad, people hanging from safety straps. I know what goes through someone's mind at that moment. We want to think that the need to save your friends is foremost in our minds, but really it's nothing but terror. People tend to freeze up, but a true man jumps into action."

"Josh don't, it's ok," said John weakly, and he patted Josh's hand with his own splinted hand. "You answered the call too."

"No sir. You saved an entire family. You answered the call that most of us would fail to respond to and in the end we're all alive. You acted to save a life. Me? I tried to take one. Ah know my sins are vast and beyond count and it would take a God greater than I can imagine to forgive them all... I want you to know that anything you ask for is yours. Just tell me and I'll make it happen."

John didn't take the time to consider Josh's offer. He answered right away. "Bring your quartet to church on Sunday with no silly suits, that's all I'm going to ask of you."

Josh huddled with his quartet, and they spoke together for a few moments. Then Josh said, "No problem, what do you want us to sing?"

John leaned back and said, "I will leave that to my wife. I think Doctor Dagenais is ready to lead a service."

"Me? Doesn't the congregation have to vote?" asked Macy.

"That's just for permanent hires," said John weakly. "I'll speak with Paul and Gus and get the board's approval."

"You were spectacular at the wedding," said Veronica, hugging Macy. "I think a Sunday service should be a perfect fit for you."

"Believe it or not we're here for a reason," said Dick Daniels, the fellow dressed as a doctor. "And we're almost late." They said their goodbyes and with Josh and Veronica they headed to the children's ward where the comedy quartet caused laughter in the children for the next forty-five minutes.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Sunday's service was something incredibly special. Andi showed up in a wheelchair with the twins on her lap and her mother Heather always within arm's reach. The congregation was nervous. It's been weeks since John saved Andi's life, and the recent Church Board meeting broke down into a shouting match with vile accusations being leveled and a board member was tossed off the board. Springville Congregational church needed something to pull it together or they're going to lose the church. Paul couldn't let that happen to John.

The people filed in and as usual, Paul and Gus and several other board members were there at the door greeting people, and Macy stood next to Paul. There were also a few police officers who arrived in uniform. There were threats from what everyone considered being a nutcase, but the Town of Concord took the threats seriously.

Finally, Macy and Paul went to take their places as Melissa began playing the piano, and Dante Reese led the congregation in hymns. As usual, Paul rose to read the announcements. Being chairman of the board; he was in charge of what went on in the church and what was said from the pulpit. Some churches just run on Auto-pilot and they kind of did that here, but now with their pastor busted up, with one of them in a wheelchair, with a murderer at their door, leadership was needed.

"Good morning," Paul said as he usually did, and when the congregation responded, he said, "I have a gift for you from Pastor John. Josh, could you?"

Josh and his quartet lined up and sang Amazing Grace. They did an incredible job; it was so beautiful that there were tears in many eyes when they were finished. Then, at John's request, they sang the up tempo hymn 'I'll Fly Away.' The fun song got the audience clapping in rhythm and it allowed Josh's quartet to ham it up a bit. This was a good old southern revival meeting hymn meant to lift the spirits and get the blood flowing. Finally, the final cord of the song echoed through the church, both lifting spirits and eliciting happy applause.

As Josh and his quartet turned to exit the podium, Josh noticed someone in the congregation. Charles Lee, and the woman that was with him, was dressed more for a cocktail lounge than a church. Her low cut dress showed off more silicone enhanced flesh than should ever be seen in a church. That had to be his wife, Joyce Smith. What were they doing here? Josh sat glumly, trying to concentrate on what Paul was saying. He was thanking the special people that helped so much at the beginning of the month, Doctor Lucy Kosis who provided a master class in emergency medicine, Gus Didomissio who started a men's prayer group, Carol Snow who started a women's prayer group, both of which helped soothe the nerves of the witnesses, and he thanked Josh for keeping the culprit engaged until the police showed up.

Josh was so lost in thought about Charles that he missed much of Macy's first public sermon in English. After the service, he was watching Macy reunite with her former students and friends from École de Théologie Évangélique du Québec, who drove all the way from Montreal to be there at her first sermon. "Excuse me," came a voice in Josh's ear.

"No."

"Pardon?"

"You said excuse me, I said no. You are interrupting me." Josh turned, and it was Retired Colonel Charles Lee, vice commander of the local VFW. "This is a house of worship, the words I have for you are not fitting for this house. You know you're not supposed to be within five hundred feet of Veronica and me, so go away and don't bother me again." And he turned his back on Charles.

After the service, the quartet gathered at Sally Anne's in the B&O Railroad Depot Mall. This was the first chance that Maureen, Jacqui, Dorothy, and Veronica had to get together since the big contest. They chattered and laughed as Sally Anne herself came and set a fresh cup of cappuccino in front of Josh and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Sally! Please, Veronica is here," said Josh, but Sally Anne just responded with a wink and a saucy waggle of her eyebrows.

"What's up with that?" asked Dick, his handlebar mustache wagging as he ate his bagel.

"Nothing, we're just friends," said Josh.

"No," scolded Veronica. "Josh and his buddies saved this business and they each get a cup of cappuccino when they come in."

"And the kiss?" asked Sam Lux.

"That's just cause ah'm cute," said Josh.

"The guys had an idea to save the historical buildings of Springville and they formed the Heritage Brothers," said Veronica.

"We have a few investors and we plan to snag old buildings, refurbish them and open businesses in them," said Josh. "This is our first investment. They were going to tear this building down; can you believe it? That would end the farmers market and Sally Anne's. We are refurbishing the warehouse so two local gift stores will open before Christmas."

Just then the red lights started flashing and several men, boys and a few women got up and stepped out on the platform as a big Buffalo, Rochester, & Pittsburgh RR freight train rolled past the building. "That was John Jarecki's idea. He's a bit of a train nut," said Josh.

"Both John and his brother Paul are train nuts," said Veronica. "He's the one doing all the benchwork on Paul's train layout."

"True," agreed Josh with a nod.

As the train rumbled past and the rail fans returned to their seats, excitedly chattering about the "head end power," Charles Lee and his wife Joyce entered Sally Anne's and sat down at the table next to the Gentleman's Disagreement. "I'm sure you wouldn't object to talking here," said Charles.

Josh just nodded to Veronica, who got up and said, "I have to powder my nose, Maureen, could we talk?" Maureen McGreevy, "Mother Superior" got up and followed Veronica to the ladies' room. They were followed by Joyce.

Josh ignored Charles, who tried to contact Josh a few times. Instead, Josh ignored him and they talked about future plans for the Heritage Brothers. "We're looking at the Occidental Grain Elevator. They make great theme restaurants," said Josh. "Anyone that wants a fancy place to eat goes to The Red Mill in Orchard Park. A fancy restaurant here will increase our B&B vacationers." As he said that, he kept his eyes on the bathroom door.

Inside the woman's restroom Veronica's hands were shaking so badly that she was having problems dialing 9-1-1. "There's a woman following me, can you keep her busy?" she asked Maureen.

"I'd be happy to lassie," said Mother Superior.

"Nine One One, What's your emergency?"

"I... we have a restraining order against Charles Lee, he was peeping on my husband and I and now he's following me. He followed me to church and he's followed us to Sunday brunch."

As Veronica talked to the dispatcher, Maureen leaned against the stall door. Joyce Smith soon followed them in and began looking for Veronica. "Can I help ye lass?" asked Maureen in her thick Irish brogue.

"I'm looking for a woman..." Joyce started.

"That's usually a man's job, but to each their own I guess. You look to be the type." Maureen wasn't scared in the least of this tough-looking woman. Maureen raised seven righteous, rowdy boys, and she's working on raising a feisty lot of grandchildren. There's not a lot that can scare her, least of which is this silicone enhanced punk.

There was the sound of a flush, and Veronica came out of the stall. "I'm done now, thank you." And she walked over to the sinks followed by Joyce, who was followed by Maureen.

As Veronica washed her hands, Joyce grabbed Veronica's hair and yanked her head back. "I'm not playin' bitch." Suddenly, Joyce's head was yanked back by the hair painfully.

"I'm not playing either. I suggest you release my friend while you can still do it voluntarily," snarled Mother Superior. When Joyce released Veronica's hair, Maureen led her to the door, still holding her hair and said, "I suggest you find other playmates," and shoved her out of the ladies' room.

"Thank you," said a shaking Veronica.

"Tis not a problem," said Maureen. "I haven't had a bit of fun like that since our Davie got picked up for truancy." Then she saw the terror in Veronica's eyes. The poor woman was shaking in dread. "It weren't that bad," said the Irish grandmother. "She wasn't but a..." but she didn't get to finish her thought. Veronica burst into tears and trembled. "What's the matter lass? Is there something wrong?"

"She... when we were younger, she..." but that's all Veronica could get out.

"A bully was she?"

"Worse," was all Veronica could say. When she let the story out, she had Maureen near tears.

"Sweetheart, you have a good solid man at your side. You need to talk to him. You can't hide this. Understand?"

By the time they returned to the table, an officer from the Town of Concord Police Department was leading Charles away. He wasn't in handcuffs, but he was under arrest.

"What was that about?" asked Sally Anne as she watched Charles being led away.

"Restraining order violation," said Josh.

"For what?" asked Jacqui Daniels.

"He is a Peeping Tom," said Veronica. "He watched through the window as Josh and I..." then, still angry about getting followed and having her hair pulled, she found herself at a loss for words. "I guess he's not getting anything to keep him busy at home!" Veronica finally spouted, and she said it loud enough for everyone in the restaurant and especially Joyce to hear.

"Honey," said Josh, raising a scolding finger. "This isn't the time and the place. What would John say?"

"He'd be mad," she said, and she sat down and leaned sadly against Josh. "She pulled my hair."

"That's assault," said Dick.

"Then Maureen pulled her hair..." said Veronica.

"That's par for the course," said Maureen's husband Johnny.

"Ah apologize folks, ah think ah'm going to fix this on Tuesday evening."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"It's so pretty here!" gushed Veronica, as she and Josh hiked along Cattaraugus Creek. Only 20 feet wide, it's a good size creek for Western New York. Out west it would be a raging river, but here where the maples sing lullabies in sweet colors as the days shorten and winter approaches, it's just the right size.

Josh was leading Veronica to his favorite fishing spot, a curve in the creek that's hard to get to for everyone but the trout. "There's even a sand beach where if you're in the mood we can have us a bit of fun in the warm sun." He cupped her ass and squeezed, letting her know what kind of fun was in store. By the time they reached their objective, they were stunned to see that there was somebody already there. "I thought you said that this place was a secret," whispered Veronica.

"Well... ah guess folks found out about it somehow." They were downstream from the secret fishing spot that Paul and Josh harvest good size trout from on a regular basis.

"That's Kenny and Yi!" Veronica was right. The young, hard-working couple were fly-fishing, Kenny was working upstream and Yi was standing in the middle of the creek in thigh deep water casting downstream. It was a perfect day to be out. The sun was warm and waters of Cattaraugus Creek hadn't cooled off yet. Yi was wearing extremely short cut-off shorts and a tiny bikini top that highlighted her firm breasts rather than concealed them. Not having seen Yi deepwater fishing in the Atlantic, Veronica and Josh didn't realize how avid a fisherman she was. "Let's let them be," said Josh. His planned hiking route would take them right past Kenny and Yi.

"Wait, what are they talking about? Suck-cock-a-wee-ya?" said Veronica, trying to understand the conversation they were having.

"Oh, Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota, I was there a couple of times. Great walleye fishing."

"Fish on!" called Yi, and she began the gentle tug of war that it takes to land a trout that's inclined to spit out the hook. Kenny quickly reeled in his fly and grabbed the net, and waited for his beautiful Asian girlfriend to bring the fish to him. He scooped up the trout and Yi squealed with accomplishment. They measured the fish, then Yi held him up for a portrait with her, then gently released the trout back into the burbling creek.

She and Kenny washed their hands off in the creek, then Yi stood and said, "Pay up!"

'Clearly a fishing bet,' thought Veronica, then she watched in shock as Yi unbuttoned her shorts and stepped out of them. Standing with her slender legs wide, Kenny dropped to his knees and began to kiss. Yi began squeezing one bikini encased breast with one hand. Her other hand rested on Kenny's head, her fingers wound in his hair, holding him to his task. She looked up at the autumn sky and gasped from the pleasure Kenny was giving her.

Veronica slid her shorts down and off and kneeled down in the leaves, then she fell forward, head down, ass up. "Now Ephie! I need you now!" she whispered hoarsely.

Josh was ready, too. He was just as excited as Veronica. He dropped his jeans and boxers and lined up himself up with her sodden womanhood. He pushed in and found she was blazing hot and soaked. "Nicca!" he hissed, and she pushed back against him, pushing hard, taking everything he had and she pushed back for more. He grabbed her hips, and they made love, quietly at first, but he heard squeals from down on the creek bed. He saw Kenny was lying on his back on the sand bar and Yi was riding him cowgirl style, bouncing and squealing in excitement.

Josh went wild, driving into Veronica, harder and faster than ever before. The sight of the Asian beauty riding on Kenny spurred him on to harder and faster lovemaking. Somehow, the image of his Korean darling Hani came to mind. Would they have ended up like this if he showed her more affection? Josh watched Yi bouncing on Kenny's manhood as Veronica pushed back to him and... Josh was abruptly shocked. Did Yi just wink and blow him a kiss?

He heard Veronica gasp. She had lifted her head and parted the long grass and watched as Kenny rolled Yi over into the missionary position as they made love. He had hooked Yi's legs over his arms and her feet were pointing to the sky as they drove each other to ecstasy.

"Oh God Ephie!" Veronica cried as her climax crashed over her. She drove her ass back at Josh, who joined her in ecstasy with a strangled cry and held her tight against him. Wave after wave of bliss crashed over the lovers and they fell to their side, panting and gasping. They could still hear Yi's cries of delight as the younger couple continued their lovemaking like savages. Finally, Josh was able to catch his breath. "I think we should head back to the cabin," said Josh.

"Good idea."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"Mister Gravely? Anything from hardware?" asked Anthony. It was the Monday morning executive staff meeting and, to emphasize the importance of the hardware side of the company, Anthony Friedman invited Josh to 'vent' at these meetings.

Josh glanced at his notes. He actually had quite a bit to bring up, but some of it would set him off on a shouting rampage, and he didn't want to do that in the CEO's meeting. He mentioned the work he had scheduled in the field and how they were training the four new people. That led to one topic that he had to bring up and could he do it calmly? The new people that were hired weren't living up to his expectations. They showed up late; they showed little care for advancing their knowledge and they were allergic to work. While people like Terri and Jen and Rasheed could work all day, then come out to his lake and help with re-assembling a cabin until night, these kids had to be ordered to pick something up and put it away. Josh wanted to fire them all and start over.

"Fire all of them?" asked Anthony.

"Sir?"

"You said you wanted to fire all of them and start over."

"Did I say that out loud? I meant to say kill all of them and start over, sorry."

When the chuckling died down, Anthony said, "Problems with the new hires?"

Josh clenched his jaw and frowned. "Just let me lay hands on them and I'll have it straightened out. It should be no problem; they all have health coverage."

"No, sorry Josh. I've seen you in action, you even trained Terri, and you did that feat with a minimum of bloodshed," said Anthony. "If it will make you feel better you can fire one of them on Friday. It's got to be purely for performance related issues, and documented. Then use that as a training tool for the survivors."

"Any race? Any gender?" asked Josh.

"As long as your reasons are documented and Sophia in HR doesn't see a problem, do whatever it takes."

"Thank you," said Josh. "Letting one of these slackers go is going to be a great training tool." He turned to Veronica and said, "Could you have a word with one or two of the new hires and let them know I'm considering firing one or two of them for not picking up on how things are done around here? Let them know that I don't know that you're doing this behind my back."

Veronica nodded and asked, "Will this work?"

"It worked with Terri," he said.

Anthony glanced at his notes again and said, "Don't forget you have a meeting with your mayor at one pm."

Suddenly, the room grew dark for Josh. "Pardon?"

Anthony picked up a letter written on Village of Springville letterhead stationary. "Your presence is requested in a meeting with the Mayor of the Village of Springville regarding his reelection campaign."

"No."

"We are trying to land a contract with the village," said Brandon Mitchell.

"Count your silverware after dealing with that sleazy..." Josh bit his tongue. His distaste for Mayor Windecker was growing daily. He desperately looked for a way to change the topic of conversation. "That reminds me, I want to review all contracts before we have another fiasco like Danebury Associates."

"What about Danebury Associates?" demanded Brandon.

"One of your people sold them a sweet deal with several terabytes of storage, remote desktop access, and software support, but you didn't include bandwidth. They're sitting on an overburdened DSL line; there's no way I can support this contract on a choked network connection." Josh tried to remain calm, but he was angry.

Veronica sent him a signal to calm down and wrote a note, folded it and handed it to Stan Dombrowski to pass on to Josh. He opened the note, and it caused him to smile. It simply said, "Save it for the mayor."

<><><><><>

At 12:45, Josh took a seat in the Mayor's meeting room. He didn't sit at the table. He sat along the wall in the back corner and as the mayor and his lackies entered, they were talking about blocking off Howard avenue to prevent people from getting to the Chiavetta's Barbeque behind Worzil's Bar and Grille. Josh felt his blood begin to boil. The proceeds from this event go to a good charity, a charity that's helping keep him alive. Ayato must have done something to piss off that dumbshit mayor, thought Josh. He sent a text to Paul saying what the Mayor was going to do. "Can the Heritage Brothers help?" He got a text back from Paul a few moments later.

"Great idea. Swing by my office."

Mayor Windecker heard the clickety-click of Josh typing on his phone and turned. "Mister Gravely, please join us at the main table."

"Sorry," said Josh. "Just being in this room with Charles Lee is a violation of a restraining order. He's already violated it once; the next time means prison. I wouldn't want to bring trouble to the mayor's office." And with that, Josh got up to leave.

"Wait, we didn't get to the reason why I wanted you to join my campaign."

Josh stopped and turned to face Samael Windecker. "Ah know what you want. You want me to wear that big shiny medal of honor and pretend like I never would have received it if it wasn't for you. Ah don't like that damn thing in the first place. Ah hate saluting, and now ah got people saluting ME, so now I have to return salutes."

"Mister Gravely," said Mayor Windecker in his oily voice. "The congressional medal of honor..."

"It's the United States Air Force Medal Of Honor, NOT congressional. They ain't no honor in congress, just like your administration," snapped Josh. "Yeah, my kids get a free ride to West Point, Annapolis, or the Academy, but ah ain't got no kids. That thing represents honor, faith, courage, and fortitude, a whole raft full of things you ain't got, neither does your lap dog, Chucky Lee, and I'll be damned if I allow you to tarnish the reputation of that badge with your petty politics."

"No, Ephraim, that's not it at all," said Windecker, like a greased snake. "It's not about politics. I want you to join my campaign so the truth about your fiancée's sexual antics isn't made public."

Josh opened his mouth to say something, but then he changed his mind and simply said, "Good day, sir," and left.

<><><><><>

Josh walked into Jarecki Motors and walked up the stairs, stopping at the door that had an official sign that simply said "Boss." He knocked and heard a woman say "Enter," in accented English. He walked in and there were two desks facing the door, one was empty and had a name tag that said "Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais," that was Macy's desk, the other was manned by a very cute Asian and her name tag said, "Min Zhong Sun." She looked at him and smiled, "Mister Gravy?"

"Gravely," corrected Josh.

She tried again. "Gravry."

She clearly wasn't Korean. Most Koreans he knew had no problem with his name. "Call me Josh."

"Mister Josh, Mister Jarecki is waiting for you." And she got up and led him back into the hallway and down the hall to a small conference room where Paul and Gus and a familiar-looking man waited.

Josh sat down while the familiar-looking man talked with Gus and Paul. Paul had sent Josh strict instruction to remain quiet. If they vote, just vote with whatever Gus proposes. Stay quiet, follow Gus, and say nothing until after Paul says it's time to talk. It seemed like Paul was berating Gus. "You guys have one building, that's not much of a historical preservation society."

"We're planning to purchase the cattle auction," said Gus.

"What?" asked Paul. Josh had almost yelled, "what?" as well. He's never heard mention of the old cattle auction. It's a rundown series of steel barns and cattle pens used for trading dairy cattle. The ground it's on is nothing but cow shit and would need to be scraped and tested before it could be used for human activities. That could be sold off to spread on corn fields, but the buildings were a wreck and the wooden fencing wasn't worth kindling. It's a worthless ruin.

"We have backers that are eager to save it," said Gus. "I told them what it would cost and they said go for it." Gus shrugged his shoulders and continued. "I had my architect start working on it and he has high hopes."

"If you have that much faith in it, then yeah, go ahead and do it. I'll help but I'm over stretched and I don't see myself joining Heritage Brothers. Do you have any input Wehrle?"

"No, I agree, I don't think this group will amount to much, and one building? It's barely a start for a historical preservation society," said the familiar-looking man. "Count me out."

"Well, thank you fellows for your time," said Gus. "Come on Josh, let me show you my dream car." He led a still silent Josh down to the showroom where a 1966 Ford GT40 Mk II was sitting in its Ferrari stomping glory. The only American-made sports car to win at Le Mans (Take that Corvette!) Next to it, sitting nose to nose, was a 2023 Ford GT Mk IV, itself a proven winner winning at Le Mans in the GTE Classic in 2016, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Dan Gurney, A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bruce McLaren, Ken Miles, Carol Shelby, so many great names came to Gus's mind as he gave a still silent Josh a tour of the great cars.

"Paul has friends in the nebulous levels of the Ford Motor Company," said Gus. "They let him show off their cars... Josh? Are you with me little buddy?"

"Oh, right. Ford. I'm a Jeep kind of guy."

"Ford made Jeeps in World War Two," said Gus.

"They made the GPW, Grandpa is an MB made by Willys-Overland with an Auburn body."

"They're identical," said Gus.

"I'd know the difference," said Josh. He was still acting morose and Gus was worrying. Josh doesn't hold back. If there's something on his mind, it would soon be on everybody's mind after an outburst or two.

Just then, they saw Wehrle Holloway and Paul walk up to the front door. Paul was being incredibly nice to him, slapping him on the shoulder and laughing at a joke he told. "Do you need a lift home Wehrle? I can have our limo take you home."

"I have a driver waiting for me," said the fat bastard. (Kenny Johnson's nickname for him) "I'll take you up on it next time."

Paul went back up to his office and Gus returned to his lecture on Ford racing history when the cute little Asian appeared behind them and said, "Mister Paul would like to speak with you."

"Thank you Miss Sun," said Gus and he led Josh, who was still deep in thought, upstairs to Paul's office. Paul poured all three of them a beer, more a signal that it was time to forget about work, than as a refreshment.

The things that Samael said echoed over in Josh's mind. Josh knew Veronica had a checkered past, but she never spoke about it, and Josh never pressed her on the issue. He loved her and trusted her and Josh was sure that if it was important, she would say something. Whatever Samael had on Veronica probably came from Charles Lee, who got it from Joyce. He was rattled out of his revere by Paul saying, "JOSH!" when Josh finally responded, Paul said, "dude you didn't hear a word I said."

"Sorry, what was it?"

"What kind of beer is this?" asked Paul.

"It's a game we play called Stump the Drunk," said Gus. "Paul gives us a beer and places a fifty on the table. If you can guess the beer you get the fifty. I say that this is San Miguel Especial."

"I don't know," said Josh sadly. "There's so many little craft breweries out there..."

"It's not a little craft brewery," said Paul. "But it is a foreign beer."

Josh studied his beer. The head remained a good long time, and it smelled of hops and malt barley. A light golden color, clear and consistent. He took a sip, then had a longer drink, then he said, "Kirin Ichiban."

"Here you go," sighed Paul and he slid the fifty across the desk to Josh.

"Wait, I've been playing nearly ten years and he gets it on first try?" demanded Gus, but Josh just shrugged.

"I lived on this stuff for my last six months in Korea," said Josh. "I was going to see if it got me before the cancer did. What was all this crap with the cattle auction lot? If you two want to buy that, count me out."

"Hush!" warned Paul. "We're not going to buy it, but I want to see what Wehrle Holloway does if he thinks the Heritage Brothers want it. I'm guessing he's going to snap it up quietly and try to bump up the price that the Heritage Brothers would have to pay if they wanted it as much as Gus put on."

"So, we're not interested in the cattle auction lot?" asked Josh.

"No way," said Gus. "The only person I know who could use that is Davis Johnson. He could use the storage space. This was a little play acting to convince Wehrle that Paul is not associated with us."

"I like that, and if Wehrle thinks you're not part of our boy band, Samael will think the same thing soon. Are we planning to buy something?" asked Josh.

"Next spring, we're going to purchase the Occidental Grain Elevator and put a restaurant in the lower house. Then we're going to purchase and restore the old Springville Congregational Church building," said Paul. "This village had several of those wood framed church buildings but that's the last one. The kids love it for weddings, so we want to make sure it's there for them."

"So why am I here?" asked Josh.

"You know why. Hang on," said Paul and he dialed a number and finally Julissa Tanaka answered the phone. "Worzil's Bar and Grille."

"Julissa, this is Paul Jarecki, Gus Didomissio, and Josh Gravely, do you have Ayato handy, we want to talk to the both of you."

"He can hear you, go ahead."

Josh and Paul looked at each other. Of course, he could hear them. With Ayato's hearing, he could be in Josh's home and still hear the phone conversation four blocks away. "Look guys, I was at a meeting with Windecker and they're going to do anything they can to shut down your Jets game barbeque."

"Why? How?" sputtered Julissa. The Jets Game Barbeque was a Springville tradition and all the proceeds went to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. It was a big fund raiser for the clinic.

"Why? I don't know," said Josh. "How they do it is easy, they're going to close down Howard avenue between main and first street for whatever bullshit reason they can come up with." Julissa frowned. Howard avenue was the only access customers had to the back lot where the barbeque was held.

"This is what we're going to do," said Paul. "The Heritage Brothers LLC wants to become a shining light in the eyes of the people of Springville. They own the B&O Railroad Depot Mall and the big lot where the farmers market is held. Josh and Gus are both members of that LLC and they want to move your barbeque to the Farmers Market. We're going to get the American Legion and the VFW and use their event licenses. This is going to be a big event. There's no stopping it. We're going to have all the good stuff, Chiavettas, beer, big screen TV, drive through chicken, the works."

"Does it still say Worzil's Bar and Grille at the top of the bill?" asked Ayato.

"Sure does as far as I'm concerned," said Gus.

"Swing by tonight and we'll start hammering out the details," said Julissa. "And keep it quiet. Let him find out when the posters go up."

After the call, Josh sat looking at his hands. "Thanks for letting me know what Mister Windecker was up to..." said Paul, but he noticed something was wrong. "Josh?... are you all right Josh?"

Josh seemed to come out of his stupor. "I don't know. Probably not."

"What's the matter?"

"Windecker wants me to campaign for him, he wants me to appear with the medal of honor, and if I don't he's going to reveal something about Veronica's past."

"Do you mind my asking what it is?" asked Paul.

"I don't know what it is. He said, 'I want you to join my campaign so the truth about your fiancée's sexual antics isn't made public.'" Josh looked utterly devastated.

"If he revealed something, would you stop loving her?" asked Paul.

"No, of course not."

"Then what's the problem?"

"What is that going to do to her position at Adoption Advocates and Andalon Data systems?" asked a nervous Josh.

"I'm hoping Anthony lets her go," said Paul. "So are a dozen other business owners in the area. She's developed a reputation for doing an incredible job. I'm desperately looking for a Chief Operating Officer, Macy needs a break, I have several large dealerships I'm trying to fold into the company. "I have plenty of work for her. Who cares what she did ten years ago? Who cares what she did last night?"

"Really?"

"Talk to her, let her know what Windecker is up to, be the man she needs. Problem solved," said Paul with a grin. "I shoulda been a shrink." He reached down for his service dog, Wonka, but Wonka wasn't there. The traitorous mutt has become the Twins' dog. Maybe they should get a puppy for the twins so Paul could get his dog back.

"What about church?" asked Josh.

Paul shook his head sadly because Josh was still new at this. "Andi's ex, the guy you almost killed, he was horrible. He would tie Andi to a hotel bed wearing only a blindfold and let guys he lost to in poker have their way with her. When we were on our honeymoon he dumped video of that on the internet. When we got back to church they welcomed us with open arms. John's church isn't a museum of saints; it's an ER for us sinners."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that everyone has skeletons in their closets. Go talk to John and Macy, I think she knows Charles Lee's wife, then talk to Veronica before you make your next move."

<><><><><>

When Veronica got home from work, the first thing she noticed was that Josh had something for dinner baking in the oven and was trying to clean up the kitchen. "How was your meeting with the mayor?" she asked cheerfully.

"We have to talk," said Josh.

"Oh no, you didn't punch him, did you?"

"No, I didn't punch him... yet. Let's go sit down."

"Uh oh, what happened?" asked Veronica as she hung up her jacket. Josh led her to the living room. "Did you get another goldfish?" She looked and saw Pancho had a new friend in his fish tank. A pudgy, bug-eyed black thing. "What is that?"

"It's a Black Moor, my friend Squeaky always had one, they were her constant companion. She said they helped her keep her sanity,"

"Isn't Tigger helping?" she asked, both amused and concerned.

"Tigger is being a prima dona."

They settled down in the couch and Veronica said, "Talk to me. What happened today."

"A lot of bad..." Josh suddenly cheered up. "We should move. We could go to Cheektowaga or Orchard Park, let's just go and start our own story somewhere. We can get a place close to work where nobody knows us."

"What happened?" Veronica demanded.

Josh felt the one beer he drank this afternoon threaten to come up. "I want you to know that I love you more than I ever knew possible and I will be there at your side until you tire of me and tell me to leave."

"What is going on in your head?" she demanded. "Did you get in a fight with Windecker?"

"I spent an entire ten minutes in the presence of Samael Windecker. I told him that I wasn't going to campaign for him wearing my medal of honor. He said, 'I want you to join my campaign so the truth about your fiancée's sexual antics isn't made public.'" Josh felt Veronica tighten up and she whimpered softly. "You know that I don't care what you did before we met, but give me some idea what he's talking about. I need to know so I can plan a defense."

Veronica started whimpering, and she tried to turn away from Josh, but he wouldn't let her. Finally, she said, "I'm sick."

"What do you mean?"

"I like sex too much," she said softly. "I have several lovers and I've told them that I found my forever lover... all but Rhiannon." She fought back the tears. "You are my true and only love, but Rhiannon is still there in case the need for..."

"That's not anything that he can use against you," said Josh. "We're not married and being affectionate with a side lover is not earth shattering."

"They were all women..."

"So?"

"That doesn't bother you?" she gasped. When Josh shook his head, she continued. "I haven't had a male lover other than you and Jameson." She tightened up and said what she's been hiding from Josh for so long... "I like women, I've had dozens of female lovers... I like to watch, I love to watch you masturbate, it gets me flaming hot... and I like to be watched... Especially when we're outdoors. When we're making love in the woods I imagine a hiker hiding behind a tree watching us... Sometimes when you're going down on me, I imagine it's Rhiannon making love to me and you're watching, holding my hand..." The tears of shame welled up as the truth came out.

Josh didn't say anything. He just hugged her tight and gave her little kisses until she stopped fighting and kissed back. He was embarrassed to admit it, especially with her tears, but her confession was the hottest thing he could imagine. "Look darling," he finally said. "That's not much for him to threaten us with. I would kind of like to..."

"That's not it," said Veronica. "I'm very discrete, most of my lovers are in Pennsylvania and Canada. But when I started modeling, it was different. At first I was suddenly very popular and I let it go to my head. I met a model named Dominique Guillaume and I called her old. She didn't like that and tried to get me fired or dropped from shoots. When I found out what she was doing, I called her old and lame."

"She didn't like that?"

"No, she and four other girls raped me." Veronica told Josh about how Dominique and her team had assaulted her over and over. "She told me, 'I'm going to fuck you until you like it,' and she did... Macy tried to warn me about Dominique, but I thought I knew better, and in the end I learned the hard way. It never stopped, I couldn't get away, after every shoot I found myself somewhere tied up with a vibrator inside me, two girls sucking on my breasts, and someone sitting on my face. And then one day I realized I couldn't get enough, they did so many things to me, I joined their group and I loved it.."

She wept on Josh's shoulder for a long time. When she calmed down, Josh asked her, "How long did that go on?"

"It felt like forever, but one day it stopped, and they never touched me again."

"That's odd," said Josh. "Any reason why?"

"I don't know," said Veronica. "Maybe I was too old. When I turned eighteen, they went looking for a new girl to torment."

"They did all that to you before the age of eighteen?"

Veronica didn't say anything for a while but she nodded. Finally, she spoke. "It's been so hard trying to hide it from daddy, he was so proud of me," and she started to cry again.

"If this is what Sam Windecker has, how did he get it?"

"That bitch, Dominique Guillaume, her real name is Joyce, she's Charles Lee's wife."

"Ok shhh, Nicca, it's going to be ok. It's time for me to get back in the game."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"Let's go sweetheart, our destiny awaits!" said Josh cheerfully as he held the door of his Jeep pickup open.

"Keep your fucking shirt on, wing nut!" snarled Amelia Hernandez as she climbed into the truck and Josh put the pullman stool in the back seat. "I ain't Cinderella and this ain't no punkin carriage."

"You understand what we're going to do, right?" asked Josh.

"It's been a long time coming, but Chuckie has it coming to him," said Amelia. "You know what he did in the Army? Supply. His entire career was in supply. The only place he deployed to was the chow hall. And he walks around all puffed up like some real-life GI Joe sort of hero."

"Now be kind, it must be tough to have your balls locked up in your wife's purse."

"Huh, some wife," said Amelia. "She's the reason he moved to Springville."

"Really? How's that?" asked Josh as they pulled into the VFW parking lot and pulled into the spot reserved for Medal of Honor recipients.

"She demanded they move to Springville. He had to drive to Tonawanda every day for work until he retired last fall."

"When did they move here?" asked Josh.

"It was right after the princess bought her house on Second Street," said Amelia as Josh helped her out of the truck. That got gears Josh didn't like spinning in his head. Joyce, the woman that raped Veronica, followed her to Springville.

"How did Veronica not see her?" asked Josh.

"Oh, Veronica didn't go out much before she met you. She just worked on her house and went to work."

"I suppose Joyce sat in the park and watched Veronica," Josh muttered.

"I wouldn't know, and I don't rightly care. Just as long as those two that are renting my room keep their brat quiet," snarled Amelia.

They took their usual seats at the bar and Josh ordered two of the "Good stuff" (Molson's Golden draft). As they sat and sipped their beers, Charles Lee came up and said, "Mister Gravely, I'm not violating the Restraining order, I've been asked by the mayor to show you this." and he handed his phone to Josh. There was a photo of several naked women in a bed cavorting, and the one in the middle was a young Veronica von Köster. "I've been asked to send you a copy."

Josh handed the phone back and said, "Thank you, I don't need a copy. Tell the mayor I got the message." He turned to Amelia and said, "Ready sweetheart?"

"Hang on." She drained her beer and held up a finger to the bar tender. "One more. Put it on my date's tab."

"You're killing me Amelia. Let's go." She followed him into the meeting room where the VFW Post board was meeting.

"All Rise!" came the call from Rick Hansen, the sergeant-at-arms. Everyone in the room that was capable to stand, rose and removed whatever hats they were wearing and said the pledge of allegiance, then recited the VFW general orders and sat down. Up front sat the commander, Dale Lomis presided over the meeting. They reviewed the minutes of the last meeting, treasurer's report, and the reports from the various committees. As the meeting went on, Dale looked at Josh and occasionally smiled. Josh just figured he was happy to have a medal of honor recipient in the meeting.

After what seemed like hours to Josh, they got to the new business. There were some official items that needed to be discussed, then Dale called, "are there any items of new business from the floor." Amelia raised her hand and slowly stood up. "The chair recognizes Captain Amelia Hernandez. What do you have for us today ma'am?"

"I move that the Vice Commander be removed from office for cause."

The room went silent, then burst into confused and angry discussion. Dale banged his gavel several times until order returned. "We have a motion on the floor. Do I hear a second?"

"For terms of discussion I will second the motion," called a voice from the back of the room.

"The chair recognizes lieutenant colonel Ayato Tanaka. The motion has been seconded, and is now open for discussion. What do you have for us Captain?"

Amelia raised her hand and pointed a gnarled finger at an angry Charles Lee. "He's a PERVERT! Throw him out!"

"Amelia, I'm sure you..."

"He's a peeping tom! He was arrested peering in Sergeant Gravely's window while he was shtuping his fiancée!"

Dale looked at Josh in shock. This is the first time he heard of this. "Josh, is this true?"

"Yes it is. He was caught in the act by a police officer responding to a previous complaint and pleaded no contest to illegal invasion of privacy," said Josh. "He got a five thousand dollar fine, eighty hours of community service and a five hundred foot restraining order which he has knowingly violated multiple times."

There was a lot of murmuring going on, but Dale handled it calmly. "Is there anything else?"

"This doesn't warrant expulsion," said Arnold Erhart, a friend of Charles. "Ok, he screwed up, he paid his dues. We all screw up."

Josh stood again. "He's got child porn on his phone. He showed me at the bar this evening."

"WAIT A MINUTE!" roared Charles Lee. "That's my wife and your fiancée and..."

"My fiancée was sixteen at the time and did not consent to the photos or your wife," said Josh. "Joyce was twenty five." The room went silent.

"Hearing no more discussion," said Dale Lomis with a tap of the gavel. "All in favor of unseating the vice commander for just cause signify now by saying aye."

It was a unanimous decision and a silent Charles Lee removed himself from proceedings. "Do we have any other new business? Amelia?" he pointed to the spun up former nurse sitting next to Josh.

"I move that we fill the vacancy on the board with Master Sergeant Ephraim Gravely."

"Second!" shouted someone in the back.

"Third!" shouted someone who had a few beers before the meeting.

"Hang on... can we do this?" The president looked through the constitution of the VFW and found a replacement option. "Ok, Josh, are you willing to fulfill the remainder of the former vice commander's term?"

"Just answer me this honestly," said Josh. "Do you want me sitting up there or do you want my fucking medal up there?"

Dale stared at him, then said. "There's no question, we want your fucking medal up here. You're a bit of a grouch, but it's a package deal."

Josh grimaced and said, "Well... you're honest. I can't turn down an honest man, so I'll do it if elected."

Josh was elected in a landslide, and took his position at the front table with the rest of the directors. Before he sat down, he pointed to Ayato. "I can't make the motion from up here, so you're going to have to do it."

"Gotcha boss. I move that the VFW assists the Heritage Brothers and Worzil's Bar and Grille for the Jets Game Fund Raiser." Someone seconded the motion and it was open for discussion.

"The Chicken Barbeque on the day of the Jets game is a south towns tradition," started Josh. "Folks from all over come for the chicken dinner, especially if the Bills win. The village is closing Howard Avenue that weekend for repairs or something so Worzils is moving the party to the Farmers Market and the new owners of that area, the Heritage Brothers, want to make it a big event. Tomorrow night Paul Jarecki is going to propose to the Legion to assist, and right now Macy Jarecki is proposing to the fire department begging for their support also."

"Why is she asking the Fire Department?" asked the commander Dale Lomis. He attends John's church.

"Because John is the unofficial chaplain of Springville Hose Company," came a voice from the back of the room. It was the veteran who seconded his nomination, Paul Jarecki. "He's always been crazy about firemen."

<><><><><>

"Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!" came the voice from the radio. "This is your old pal Shane Brother Shane on WYSL Fourteen Ninety telling you about a great South Towns tradition that's getting bigger every year! The annual Bills/Jets stomping at The Ralph sells out every year, but you can show your support by cruising out to the Old Farmers Market in Springville. Our friends at Worzils Bar and Grill and their partners at Chiavettas Chicken and Catering, the Springville VFW and American Legion, are having a drive-thru barbeque. Just pull through and get your full meal featuring Western New York's own Chiavetta chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad and Momma Chiavetta's prize winning coleslaw. That's an entire half of a chicken done to savory perfection on a charcoal grill and all the sides for one low price. Or you can stay and watch the game on the big screen TV and hang out with me and the gang. All proceeds go to support the Roswell Institute. Meet me there, this Sunday from noon until the last chicken has flown the coop! Now, back to the hits of yesteryear! This is Danny and the Juniors, At The Hop!"

"I want to meet him," said Veronica as she and Josh danced in the living room to the old 50s classic. She was trying to teach Josh how to dance the Western Swing, which would go well with At The Hop, but they didn't have room for that.

"He's a nut, he drives in drag races and is friends with Gus and Lucy," said Josh. "Are you ready to go?"

"Let's head out." They pulled on their jackets, and Josh gave Tigger a pat on the head. Then they stepped out into the cool, brisk night air. They needed to practice dancing, but where Veronica usually practices, the big library room at Paul Jarecki's house was now a recovery room for John and Andi Jarecki. Paul put a king size bed in there for Macy and John, along with other furniture that would be needed by Macy, Andi, and the home nurse that Paul hired to help with Andi and John's recovery.

September was over, and October started with a riot of the last colors of autumn. It grew dark earlier than they were used to, and the entire village was preparing for another hard winter. They walked along Howard Avenue to Main Street, crossed over to the village hall, and followed Main Street east for a few blocks. There was a very light rain that pasted the leaves to the sidewalk.

"I've got a question that's kind of weird," said Josh.

"What is it?"

"When you found out Charles Lee was watching us playing in the basement, you got angry, but when you found out that Yi saw us making love on Cattaraugus Creek while we watched them, you got turned on, what's the difference?" Admitting her kinks to Josh loosened Veronica up and when Yi mentioned to Veronica that she saw her and Josh making love in the bushes while she rode on Kenny's shaft, Veronica returned to the house so turned on that she practically raped Josh.

Veronica thought for a moment, then said, "I think it all comes down to privacy. Our basement is in our house; we have an expectation of privacy. In Zoar Valley we don't. We're out in the open..."

"Wild animals?" asked Josh.

"Kind of," said Veronica, and she started to blush. With her female lovers, she was satisfied, but she could only think of herself as a wild animal with Josh... and sometimes Rhiannon.

"Ok, inside no peeky, outside wild kingdom," said Josh.

"Not exactly, let's say we have people over to the house and we sneak off to the bedroom to make love, and someone picks the lock on the bedroom door and opens it to watch us, that's an invasion of our privacy. However, if we had gone off to the kitchen where there are no doors and they came into the kitchen to watch us make love, that would be hot because we almost invited them to come watch."

"I think I get it," said Josh as he opened the door to the Cricket House, a local bar that had a large dance floor. It was a quiet night, and the DJ was taking the occasional request, but mostly he was playing mix-tapes for the dozen or so patrons.

"Hey Billy!" said Veronica as she waved to the DJ, who smiled and waved back at her. Then she found her coach Mitch, and his husband Frank Rollins. She waved to them as Josh asked her if she wanted a drink. "Just a glass of wine please."

"Please don't mention my medal to Mitch and Frank," Josh begged as she unzipped her jacket.

"Why not? It's a great honor."

"Mitch is ate up enough to be saluting me whenever he sees me. I'm getting tired of it."

"Ok, ok. I won't."

Josh got three beers and a glass of wine that he carried over to the table and set the drinks out. "Skillfully done sergeant!" said Mitch.

"Well, at the NCO club we weren't waited on hand and foot. We had to learn to fend for ourselves. How ya doing Mitch, Frank," said Josh as he shook hands with the guys.

"I hear congratulations are in order," said Frank.

Josh fought the urge to glance sideways at Veronica and simply said, "Oh? How so?"

"We hear you got some revenge on your peeping tom and got him removed from office at the VFW," said Mitch with a sly grin.

"They just wanted a fully disabled combat veteran to bow and scrape to," said Josh. "I didn't take any pleasure in tossing him off the board."

"Yes you did," said Veronica.

"Yes I did," chuckled Josh. "If he hadn't shown me that picture, I would have chickened out at the last minute."

"What are we going to work on tonight?" asked Mitch.

"I need to concentrate on the basics," said Veronica. "It's been so hectic this past summer. Get the right rhythm down, feel the flow of the dance."

"Here you go my lady," said Mitch and he handed Veronica the script he drew up for their dance. As she studied the script, Josh tried to read over her shoulder, and it was the most unintelligible thing he had ever read. It was a column of RBO and LBI and RFO and things like "Swing counter to RBO on fifth beat. 3 turn to RFI on 6th beat lift free leg on 7th beat..."

"Confused?" asked Frank. "I've been living with it for years and it's still Greek to me."

Just then, the DJ played a nice country two-step and Veronica stood up and turned to Josh. "Shut up and dance with me."

Josh shrugged his shoulder and said to Frank, "This woman is my destiny," and he joined her on the dance floor.

"They're so corny," chuckled Mitch. "They're perfect for each other."

"I see that," said Frank.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

It was a cool October evening and Josh and Veronica were sitting in their favorite booth at Worzil's having their Friday fish fry. Neither were catholic, and the catholic church gave up on the Friday fast decades ago, but a tradition was set, and in a town like Buffalo, traditions die hard. As they ate, Paul and Andi Jarecki and the twins came in and walked over to say hi. Josh said, "Hey, how ya doin'?"

"We're giving John and Macy some alone time in the house for a few hours," said Paul.

"Don't tell me he's feeling good enough to get up a game of slap and tickle!" grinned Ayato from over at the bar, and his wife, Julissa, thwapped him on the ass with a bar towel.

"You're so uncouth," said Veronica. "He's probably doing Pastor things."

"According to Macy, slap and tickle falls under Pastor things," said Andi. Slap and Tickle was a euphemism that Josh uses for sex. They probably weren't doing anything like that. John was still busted up pretty badly from being hit over a month ago and was still bed bound. The pain had to be unbearable for him.

Josh noticed that both of the twins were wearing glasses. "Hey, you!" said Josh as he hauled a giggling Madeline up onto his lap. "What are these on your face?"

"Grasses!" cried Madeline.

"Grasses. Do you wear them to hide behind?" asked Josh.

"She wears them to see better!" cried Sandy. "I wear them to look better." In truth, Sandy was wearing plain glass glasses, and she wore them so Madeline didn't feel singled out.

"They work!" said Josh. "She used to be blurry, now she's in focus. I hear you wore out another teacher."

"Uh huh," nodded Madeline happily. Their first kindergarten teacher, Miss Flannigan, didn't last long. She kept testing and pushing the twins on math and reading comprehension, but when the twins started correcting her work, she immediately suggested that they be moved to Zoar Academy, a private school for exceptional children.

"What does your momma have under her coat?" whispered Josh. "It looks like she's stealing typewriters."

"A baby," said Madeline shyly.

"A baby! Are you sure? I don't hear no baby. Babies cry. I don't hear a baby crying."

"It's in her tummy," said Madeline. "It's our baby bruver."

"If he's in her tummy, how can he breathe?"

"A 'bilical!" insisted Madeline.

"A what?" Josh was pretty sure she tried to say umbilical.

"A bilical!" cried Sandy. "It plugs into the baby's tummy right there!" she hoisted her dress, showing off her belly button. Then she pinched her nose and said, "His nose don't work yet!"

Madeline nodded. "When momma breathes Danny gets some air too."

"What happens when the baby poops?" asked Josh.

"BABIES DON'T POOP!" shouted Madeline and Sandy.

"Not inside mommy," said Sandy. "He has to get borned and learn how to poop!"

"The bilical sends stuff back to Mommy so she poops for him," said Madeline as if she were addressing a three-year-old.

"His butt don't work yet," said Sandy with all the sage wisdom of her five years.

"Yep, you're ready for Zoar Academy," said Josh and he set Madeline back on the floor. The twins dashed off to watch the shuffle bowling game in progress. "They know more about babies than I do."

"That is quite a pair of little ladies you have," sighed Veronica as she watched Sandy and Madeline push chairs over to the vintage shuffle bowling arcade machine. But for Veronica, the genuine wonder was how Josh worked with the kids. He was crazy about children and he helped Marj Friedman with her youngest boys, David and Morgan, who were both younger than the twins. He spent hours over the summer teaching them to swim. He taught their older brothers and sisters also, and he had most of them to the point where they could swim all the way across his lake. They had to do that to be able to swim outside of his roped off area in the lake.

Paul wheeled Andi in her wheelchair up to a table next to Josh and Veronica so they could chat over dinner. Andi could walk a bit, but being pregnant with a smashed ankle and a steel rod and several plates in her ankle, Paul insisted on pushing her everywhere in her wheelchair. "So is Miss Yi cooking dinner for John and Macy?" asked Josh while Julissa Tanaka set out fish fries for Paul and Andi and fish-wiches for the twins.

"Nope, they're holed up somewhere," said Paul.

"I think Yi is going to come out wearing a ring!" said Andi. She was excited for Yi. The poor girl has been having problems with men since she started grade school. Things changed for her when she moved to New York, and everyone in town said that Kenny Johnson was the one for her. "Girls, come eat!"

The twins dashed back, but instead of sitting with their parents; they lined up in front of Josh and looked up at him with a pleading look in their eyes. "What y'all want, darlings," asked Josh.

"Madeline wants you," said Sandy.

"Ah'm sorry darling, but ah'm taken. Ah promised myself to Miss Veronica."

"Not that!" shouted Sandy and she swatted Josh's arm. "She wants you for show and tell."

"We thought and we thought and we couldn't think of anything for show and tell, then Mister Tanaka said you'd be the best thing for show and tell on Wednesday," said a suddenly shy Madeline.

"That's right neighborly of Mister Tanaka," said Josh, and he glared at Ayato, who was behind the bar grinning at him. "What do you have for show and tell?" he asked Sandy.

"I dunno."

"Tell you what, ah got a whole passel of stuff you can show off while Madeline tells your classmates how wonderful I am, deal?"

"Deal!" shouted an excited Sandy, and the twins dashed to their seats at the table with their parents. Josh didn't know it, but he set a precedence for anyone that the twins thought was interesting enough to drag over to Zoar Academy and show off.

<><><><><>

Word got out at Andalon Data Systems that Josh was going to be used as a Show and Tell prop at a kindergarten class. The entire work force loved the idea that grouchy ol' Redneck was going to address a kindergarten class. Most of the men of Andalon didn't see Josh playing with the children at the fund raiser in June or the big company picnic in August. Only Veronica, Marjorie, and Anthony seemed to know Josh's talent for dealing with children.

"Hey Josh, what are you going to do next week? Recess monitor?" kidded Terri McCarthy.

"Cafeteria Lunch lady," snarled Josh. "How is that switch coming along for Danebury Associates?"

"Almost ready," said Terri.

Josh took a look at the contract paperwork and noticed something. "I'll be right back," he said, and he stepped out of the office. Josh learned a long time ago that a determined gait, a set jaw, and a clipboard would get you through any crowd of people without being touched, prodded, or interrupted. He went to the sales area and found Eric Kraus, the salesman that signed up Danebury Associates.

"I'll be right with you," said Eric as he put his cell phone to his ear.

Josh doubted he had someone on the line. He was probably pretending to be working a client, so he didn't have to talk to Josh. It was well known in the sales bullpen that Josh didn't like salesmen because of some of the crappy contracts that they've signed. Josh waited impatiently, then he started going through some of the paperwork on Eric's desk and found what he was looking for. The contact number for Danebury Associates. He dialed the number and when someone answered with "Danebury Associates," a transformation came over Josh.

He became a nice guy.

"Hello, this is Joshua Gravely with the technology department of Andalon Data Systems. Is Mister Castinetti available?" Julius Castinetti was the name on the contract. Josh was put on hold for a few moments and a gruff sounding man came on the line. "Mister Castinetti, this is Joshua Gravely, head of the technology department at Andalon Data Systems. I would like to find out when you would have time for a site survey so we can get started on the installation."

"I wasn't told anything about a site survey," growled Julius.

"We need to see what we have to work with so we can customize your installation."

"We're free any time today," said an unhappy sounding Julius.

"Fine, I'll be over personally with one of my top engineers and Mister Kraus will be along to go over the contract with us. See you in a couple!" Then Mister Nice guy disappeared. "Kraus, you're with me. Come on."

"I'm on a call."

"It's a cell phone, bring it with you. Come. Now." and he stormed off to the hardware section.

On the other side of the reception area, Veronica and Anthony watched with poorly concealed amusement. "Sounds like Josh isn't happy with Eric," said Ant.

"If he's lucky he'll only get away with a spanking," said Veronica.

"Spanking?"

Veronica whispered in Anthony's ear. "It hurts sooo good." Then she walked into her office, leaving Anthony to wonder what his executive assistant and his head of technology were doing at night.

Minutes later Josh and Eric Kraus were headed downtown, where Danebury Associates was located. It was in the Liberty National building on Main Street. The Liberty National building predates the Empire State Building in New York City by sixteen years. The building was twenty-two stories tall, which for Buffalo was quite tall. In its time, it was a great building and the dual peak was crowned with a pair of replica Statues of Liberty. Danebury Associates was on the fourteenth floor of the building and they weren't great looking offices. The hallways looked well maintained and modern, but in the offices of Danebury Associates, there was little work done in the offices. The walls were painted an institutional green, and the walls had that depressing dimpled appearance that comes with ten or more coats of paint.

The office furniture was easily over 50 years old, institutional gray metal desks, chairs and filing cabinets that even the military gave up on in the mid-1970s. There were one or two "motivational" posters on the wall, but other than that, the walls were bare except for artless calendars and large face analog clocks. To Josh it was a soul-crushing atmosphere. It was so depressing that Terri McCarthy couldn't bring herself to make a lighthearted comment. Terri always has something funny to say about the job she's working on, but this place was too disheartening for her to come up with a witticism. She finally whispered to Josh, "People aren't employed here, they're sentenced here."

As they looked around, their salesman, Eric Kraus, was talking to Julius Castinetti, a partner in the law firm of Danebury, Perkins, and Roth. Danebury, Perkins, and Roth was a power firm but unlike most law firms, they didn't go by their primary name, mostly because they diversified. The different branches of Danebury, Perkins, and Roth worked on differing legal matters and used differing names. Their injury/accident lawsuits were handled by a series of offices working under the name Danebury Associates. And yes, they chased ambulances. Julius Castinetti looked like someone who put people into ambulances professionally, for the mob. He was short, nearly spherical, with thin black hair plastered to his head in a bad comb-over. He was one of those guys with a permanent five o'clock shadow and didn't believe that no-smoking rules applied to him and his dollar fifty cigars.

"Wadda ya wanna look at?" Julius demanded.

"Just your network, and I want to inventory your computers," said Josh.

"Wise dat?" spat Julius.

"Well sir, you're upgrading to a well tuned remote desktop solution, I need to know what kind of computers you're running so I can tune our remote desktop server to work with your system."

Julius put a stub of a cigar in his mouth and simply said, "huh," as if he didn't believe Josh.

"If you could tell me where your electronics closet is," said Josh.

"We ain't got one uh doze."

"Where does your internet come from?"

Julius just shrugged. "It's Wi-Fi. It's everywhere."

"Thank you, we'll get started, and be out of your hair in a few minutes." Then Josh turned to Terri. "Look for whatever they got. I heard it was a DSL line, try to find the modem and the Wi-Fi router."

"Gotcha boss," said Terri.

"Don't put your backpack down," whispered Josh. "We may need to leave quickly." Terri smiled when she heard that. It could only mean that Josh was getting ready to piss somebody off.

"I'm on it," said Terri.

As Terri checked every office and closet for the Wi-Fi router, Josh counted up computers. They were old relics, and they were home PCs, not office machines. Old Hewlett Packard Pavilion, Compaq Presario, Dell Dimension, there was even a Gateway Select 1400. Josh had never seen a computer with a floppy disk drive in use in a business before this. "Excuse me," he said to a secretary in a side office. "What operating system are you using?"

"Windows Seven," she said without looking up.

"Funny," said Josh with a chuckle. "No, really what..." he realized these computers were made for Windows 95. They had to be "klooged" to get Windows 7 to work on them. It had to be the ancient word processer they used. Law offices don't like to upgrade their word processors; they set up their templates for the legal documents they create and leave everything alone. Josh didn't know enough about Windows 7 to research the network configuration, so he had to ask for help. "Can you show me your Wi-Fi connection settings, and I'll be out of your hair."

"Sure," she said and brought up the settings and Josh took a picture of the settings and studied the photo he took. He looked at the Wi-Fi configuration and asked, "You have a network sharing agreement with Wholesome Distributers?"

She just shrugged one shoulder and kept on typing. "Who knows around here? We're a satellite from the office in Pittsburgh. As long as it's cheap, we don't touch nothing around here."

"Ok. Thank you. I think I can start designing a networking solution for you."

"Yeah, sure," she said sourly, and went back to typing.

Josh went back out to the office and found Terri. "I got everything, let's head back."

"Gotcha boss," said Terri and they gathered up Eric and headed for the elevator. At the elevator there was a building directory, and he searched for Wholesome Distributing, and he found it. When the elevator arrived, it was empty, so Josh hit the button for the 15th floor. "Why are we going up?"

"I found their Wi-Fi router," said Josh. "Hold the elevator for me." He walked over to Wholesome Distributing, which sat directly above Danebury Associates. He entered the nicely appointed office and when the receptionist asked if she could help him, Josh said, "Can I talk to your IT guy?"

"Our IT guy works in the Amherst office, but we can call him. What is this about?" she asked.

"The office below is upgrading their on-line storage and that's going to drive usage up. I want to see if your IT system can support it."

"How does that affect us?" she asked.

"They use your Wi-Fi system and this upgrade is going to put a heavy load on it." The receptionist wasn't a dummy; she got on her laptop and checked the Wi-Fi system and found more than twice the number of systems logged in than should exist. Josh could tell she saw the problem.

"I'm going to have to reach out to him," she said as she reached for her phone without taking her eyes off her screen.

"Have him give me a call, I think we need to talk," said Josh and he slid his business card across the counter to her. Then he beat a hasty retreat. He ducked in the elevator and said, "Ground floor - crash dive!"

"What did you do?" said Terri with a huge grin as she mashed the ground floor button.

"I let the cat out of the bag. Eric, turn off your cell phone. If Julius calls I want him to speak to Mister Mitchell."

"Is it bad?" asked Terri, excited that her boss may have started something serious.

"I'll brief you when we're in the truck."

The elevator wasn't very fast; it was quite an old elevator to begin with and they had to make two stops on the way down. They walked quickly to the truck and took the surface streets to the 190, which got them out of the city. "Ok, they were poaching the Wi-Fi signal from Wholesome Distribution. If that was something agreed upon by both companies, then it was no big deal. I went to Wholesome Distribution and informed them that Danebury was going to increase their load on the system so if they didn't have permission, Wholesome is going to at the very least change the Wi-Fi password and reboot the router."

Terri sat in the backseat grinning. "That's my boss. When you need a hammer, Redneck brings a jackhammer."

"What are you saying?" asked Eric.

"I'm saying that if Danebury didn't have a usage agreement with Wholesome Distribution, they will no longer have internet access," said Josh with a grim smile.

"That's a mob firm!" hissed Eric.

"Sucks to be them," said Josh as he headed back to Andalon Data Systems and merged on to US 90.

<><><><><>

"Ok, Sandy and Madeline, are you ready for show and tell?" asked Missus Zimmerman. She was well aware of the reputation Sandy and Madeline have for stressing teachers even before they entered Zoar Academy. It's like they knew what she had planned for that day, and if they considered the subject matter beneath them, they came prepared to disrupt everything. She wondered if they acted the same way in third grade math and second grade reading. But show and tell, they lived for. They usually brought people they admired, and Sandy would show and tell one side of their story, and Madeline showed the other side.

On the first day of Show and Tell, they showed their stepfather, Paul Jarecki. Sandy talked about his car dealerships and the law degree he had to insure his dealerships ran smoothly. Madeline spoke about his medical and military career - a flight surgeon in the USAF and a cardiologist in the VA. What an amazing man.

Their next show and tell featured their governess, who was a chef who made it to the final round of the TV show Chopped. Their governess was also a deep-sea fisherman, and the twins had a photo of the "sailor fish" that Miss Yi caught on their "cruise to the Obamas."

Today they had a couple of people, a man and a woman. "Madeline, would you like to go first?"

"Sandy needs to go first," said Madeline. "That's how we practiced."

Mrs. Zimmerman closed her eyes. They practice show and tell. Lord have mercy on their other teachers. "Ok. Sandy, what do you have for show and tell?"

The little blond moppet led the man to the front of the classroom where they stood. He carried a large box and a framed picture and set them on Mrs. Zimmerman's desk, then stood at attention, facing the kids. Sandy cleared her throat and gave the man a look that clearly said, You only have one job here! "'scuse me," he said, and he pulled what looked like a jewelry box out of his pocket and opened it, and displayed a military medal on a baby blue ribbon that was in the box. "This is a medal of honor!" cried Sandy. "It is the greatest medal in the world... and the Air Force!"

Sandy led the man around the classroom, and he held the box for the kids to look at while she explained the Medal of Honor. "When he has babies they can go to the Air Force School!"

"Academy," the man corrected. "Air Force Academy."

"Yeah, that place," said Sandy. "And West Point! And Canoe U.!" That cause Mrs. Zimmerman to laugh out loud.

"She means Annapolis, the Naval academy," corrected Josh.

"I figured that out," said Mrs. Zimmerman. "The twins tend to repeat things said in jest as fact."

"I know, I caught that this summer," said Josh as he wiped something off the medal that was left by the last little hand to touch it.

"... and everybody has to salute who ever wears the medal!" Sandy continued with her briefing.

"What's a salute?" asked one of Sandy's classmates.

"It's fancy waving!" Sandy said cheerfully. She then saluted comically. "You see it in the movies."

"That's quite an award," said Mrs. Zimmerman. "Where did you get it from?" She was expecting to hear that it was his father's or uncle's or he stumbled across it in a pawn shop, which was most likely.

"A fellow in Washington gave it to me," said Josh, and he turned over the framed portrait showing the former president awarding the medal to Josh.

"Is that you and... the..." Mrs. Zimmerman was at a loss for words. These twins, they did it again! How can they find such accomplished people in this sleepy little country village?

"I didn't vote for him, and you wouldn't believe what he did to my name."

"Sandy, don't you think you should introduce the honored soldier that earned this medal?"

"That's Madeline's job!" said Sandy with a pout that caused her classmates to laugh.

"Madeline?" said Mrs. Zimmerman with a sigh.

Madeline was standing at the back of the room where the beautiful woman stood and video recorded the entire proceedings. As Madeline approached him, he opened the box and took his 1:48 model of an AC-130W out of the box and held it up for the kids to see. "This is our neighbor Josh and this is a GUNSHIP!" said Madeline with a shout. "It has... uhh... GUNS!"

Josh pointed out the guns on the model. "Here is a Gatling gun, it's a fast machine gun. This is a 30mm bushmaster, it's a small but very accurate cannon, and this is the one-oh-five millimeter howitzer, a gigantic cannon."

"Mister Josh used to fly on those! His planes were bigger than this one because he had fourteen people helping him look for bad guys!"

"And you got a medal of honor for flying in the gunship?" asked Mrs. Zimmerman. She wasn't harassing Josh, but the twins, like all kindergarteners, have a habit of burying the lede.

"We were hit, much of what happened I'm still dealing with," said Josh, hoping that she understood he would not answer many questions if pressed. "I put out the fires, administered first aid, stored the loose ammo, and strapped down everyone but me before we crashed. When we stopped I got the injured out of the plane through the hole that was blown in the side."

"Were you injured?" asked Mrs. Zimmerman.

"Yeah, I was hospitalized for a month after..."

"He caught cancer!" said Madeline brightly. "He says he caught it from this guy," and she pointed to the president in his award ceremony photo.

"Thank you for sharing that, Madeline," groaned Josh. "My aircrew commander wrote me up for this medal for the things I did, and he fully expected it to be downgraded. We all did. I guess some committee members somewhere liked what he wrote."

"Ephie," came a warning growl from Veronica. She absolutely hates it when he puts down his accomplishments, even though she hasn't heard the full story.

"Who else did you bring, Madeline?" said Mrs. Zimmerman, pointing to Veronica.

"Oh, that's just Miss Veronica. She was Miss America," said Madeline, as she headed back to her chair.

Josh saw the shocked look on the overwhelmed teacher and scolded, "Madeline! You know that's not true!"

"Sorreeee!" said Madeline huffily.

As Josh put his model and photo away, he said, "She came in tenth... Missus Zimmerman, are you ok?"

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Brandon Mitchell was angry. Danebury Associates had canceled their contract and were threatening legal action, and he wanted Josh to pay. He stormed into Josh's office and shouted, "Gravely! We have to talk."

"You're doing a pretty crappy job of it Mister Mitchell. Talking is usually done at a lower volume with a normal colored face."

"You son of a bitch, because of YOU we lost Danebury Associates."

"That's hardly my fault," said Josh and he opened a box revealing a gun cleaning kit and he pulled a.40 caliber pistol out of his desk drawer. As they spoke, he disassembled the pistol. The body of the pistol was colored in desert digital camouflage. "Unlike other people in this organization, I followed the rules. I opened the checklist and did an initial site survey."

"And later that day they lost internet!" roared Brandon.

"They never had internet. They were stealing access to the internet from Wholesome Distributors, who changed their password and locked Danebury's computers out of their system, and fired the person who sold the password to their system to Julius Castinetti. All I did was track down the source of their access and ask IT if their network would handle the increased load like it says to do in our site survey checklist. Being theft and getting locked out isn't my problem." He cleaned the pistol as he spoke.

"Do you realize how much you cost this company?"

"I know how much it would have cost us if we proceeded with the installation without verifying the clients existing connectivity," said Josh as he continued to clean and lubricate the pistol. "It would have cost us in man hours setting up Danebury, and then when they started choking Wholesome's connectivity, Wholesome would have traced that back to us and sued." He reassembled the pistol and tested the slide. "And when Danebury had all their documentation loaded on our server but couldn't reach it because their network was choked, what do you think the mob would have done?"

Brandon froze when Josh mentioned the mob. To Josh, Danebury Associates reeked of something wrong. The only people that would hire scumbag lawyers like Julius Castinetti were the mob or the FBI trying to infiltrate the mob. "Who they are is not our problem," sputtered Brandon.

"Regardless, you failed to do a site survey before the contract was signed. If you had done the survey you would have discovered that none of their computers are compatible with Windows 11 which is required for our remote desktop environment. None of the computers had an actual Network Interface card. They all had aftermarket Wi-Fi adapters. And you would have found that their office did not have network connectivity to reach back to our data center. Now you have to explain to Big Julie that you never should have offered them a contract in the first place."

Josh aimed the gun at a picture hanging on the wall. It was a shot of his old aircrew commander, Emory Hancock, Emory's beautiful wife, Christy, and their newborn son, Joshua. What was he aiming at? Emory? Christy? Baby Josh? Or was he aiming at his reflection? He learned a long time ago, you never aim a gun at someone you don't intend to kill. Only then did he realize Brandon was talking to him. "Pardon?"

"I said why do you have a gun?" demanded the company vice president for sales.

"If you keep signing contracts with mob businesses, I'm going to have to arm all of my people when they go out to the field." Brandon turned to leave but Josh said, "one other thing. If a Fed shows up with a warrant for some scumbag's data, he's getting it. There's three kinds of data I detest: mob finances, child porn, and human trafficking data. If I find any of that on my servers, I'm coming to you for an explanation. And I will get it. Believe that." He roughly shoved the pistol into a leather holster for emphasis.

<><><><><>

"He threatened you?" asked Anthony.

"Yeah he did, that crazy redneck hick pulled a gun on me. I warned you against hiring him. I'm not saying that veterans are crazy, they just don't understand how to conduct themselves," said Brandon Mitchell.

"Oh? And I suppose you want me to lay off the six veterans that work in the sales department?" asked Anthony.

"Six?"

"You didn't know that you had six military veterans working directly for you?"

Brandon tried to hide the fact that he was shocked. Was Anthony right? Were there a half dozen veterans in the sales department? "I try not to interfere in a person's background and personal foibles. That's HR's job. I only worry about results."

"Good, because the pre-deployment checklist guarantees results and prevents me from having to rescind a contract after it's been signed," snarled Anthony.

"I'm sick of Gravely waving that thing in my face like it was the gospel. It's a piece of crap," Brandon insisted.

"Then if you find an error or inconsistency in the checklist, take it up with the author and get it corrected," snapped Anthony.

"And who the hell is the author of that piece of shit?" said Brandon, demanding a response from Anthony. But he didn't get a response from Anthony. He heard someone else in the room.

"I wrote it," said Josh.

Brandon whirled and saw Josh sitting on Anthony's couch with a huge grin on his face. "How long have you been sitting there?"

Josh stood and shrugged. "Ever since 'that crazy redneck hick pulled a gun on me' lie."

"Are you calling me a liar?" demanded Brandon.

Josh ignored him. He walked past Brandon and stepped up to Anthony's desk. "Here's your gun back, chief. I adjusted the sights and I found some waxy buildup gumming up the slide. Try a better cleaning oil, I used Ballistol and it cleaned right up," and Josh laid the.40 caliber desert digital camo pistol on Anthony's desk. "We're having a party at Worzil's tonight, we have a ton of stuff to celebrate, and we've been saving it up for when John Jarecki was able to attend. It starts at six."

"I don't think I'm going to make it," said Anthony. "Give John and Macy my best and tell him I'll say another Mi Sheberach for him at synagogue on Saturday."

"They've said them at the church board meetings for the past two months," said Veronica as she tugged Josh into her connecting office. Her statement surprised Anthony. Mi Sheberach was the Jewish prayer for healing, and it was odd that a Christian faith would recite that prayer, but then the Jarecki Brothers were free thinkers.

Anthony turned to Brandon and said, "One more screw-up and you're gone." Brandon tried to protest, but Anthony simply said, "I've had it. What the hell happened to you? You were such a great salesman, but lately you've been acting foolish, signing questionable customers and ignoring challenges. I want you out of the field and managing your salesmen."

"The IPO," started Brandon weakly.

"Screw the IPO," said Anthony. The Initial Public Offering was scheduled for this coming spring and Brandon felt he had a shield. They would not release a vice president before the company started being publicly traded. It would send a terrible message to Wall Street. "I'll push back the IPO a year if this company isn't sparkling clean," said Anthony. "I've been letting my departments run without intervention to see where the weak points are. This fight you picked with Mark Post, Josh Gravely and the Technology side is our biggest weak point. You should be working hand in hand with Josh and his troops, learning our product. Instead, you pick a fight. That's not how you sell technology."

"You're picking that punk redneck over me?" demanded Brandon. "He doesn't even play golf." Brandon looks down on anyone that doesn't have a country club membership. Everyone knows the golf course is where business takes place.

"Do not force me to make that choice," said Anthony. To him, the choice was obvious: the team of Mark Post, Josh Gravely, Jen Combs, and Rasheed Davis and their co-workers far outweighed the downward spiral of Brandon Mitchell's failing salesmanship. "Brandon, you were my top man for years, but since January, you've been spiraling downward. It seems like you forgot how to get the valuable clients and instead are merely grasping for numbers. We're looking for clients that want to grow with us, clients that want to stress technology to the limits. Instead, you're bringing in not just the low hanging fruit but the crap that fell from the tree and lay rotting on the ground. Danebury Associates? Ambulance chasers! Silvestri Financial? It's a mob front! I shudder to think what kind of data they would store on our servers."

Brandon panicked for a moment. Did he know? Marco Spada wanted server space on all the major data storage firms in Western New York and he had gotten into every firm but Andalon Data Systems, and it's Brandon's job to bring Andalon under the Spada umbrella. Why? Brandon didn't know or care why "Gentleman Marco" wanted access to everyone's data systems; all he knew was that he owed Marco Spada a lot of money. To get Marco into Andalon, he had to land a contract with one of Marco's affiliates. Unfortunately for Brandon, all of Marco's affiliate firms were crap. Nothing that would pass the smell test when it was time to sign a contract. He almost got Danebury Associates through.

Unfortunately for Marco, Brandon didn't know technology, nor did he know anything about 'data scrubbing.' Nor did he know that Mark Post was 'data scrubbing' every client that Brandon Mitchell had been involved with. It was just a matter of time.

<><><><><>

"So what's the big deal?" asked Josh as Veronica drove home from work. She practically dragged him out of the office by the nuts and they wheeled out of the parking lot like the start of a Grand Prix race.

"I don't know, but I got a text from Angie and she begged us to be there at Worzil's, she said something really big was happening and she wanted all their friends to be there."

"Let me guess, Yi got tired of waiting, conked Kenny over the head with a club and dragged him to a justice of the peace."

Veronica made a show of thinking about it but said, "No. She said this was really big. And it's an enormous surprise."

"Did she give you a hint what it was?" asked Josh as he caught up on his emails with his work cell phone. He also carried a personal cell phone. There was only one email and two text messages on it, and they were all from Veronica. Wait, he just got a text from an unknown number. "Please hurry! We can't wait! Angi (Kenny's Mom)"

"She seems excited," said Kenny, and he read the text to Veronica.

"Tell her we just pulled off the two nineteen and will be there in seconds."

"Let me guess, one of the girls is going to have a baby," said Josh, referring to Kenny's sisters.

"One is pregnant and one just had a baby so I don't think that's it."

"Maybe Yi is going to have a baby," suggested Josh.

"With Andi and Macy due any day now? Paul would go crazy."

"Yeah! Cool, huh?" grinned Josh.

They pulled into Worzil's parking lot and walked up to the front door with Josh muttering that Tigger gets angry when he comes home from work late. The front windows were covered with Halloween designed advertisements from the local beer distributors and a few older ads from when Elvira did some Halloween ads for Coors. Inside, the bar was decorated with all forms of Halloween decorations, mostly fake spider webs, accordion paper spiders, cardboard witches on brooms, and Julissa was dressed up like a witch. "Party is in the back," said Ayato, as he put a beer and a glass of wine on the bar for Josh and Veronica.

"It's nice when your local bar tender remembers your favorites," said Josh.

"That's why I'm here," said Ayato with a huge grin. "The party is in the back."

"Thank you kindly sir," said Josh and he gave Veronica her wine and they headed toward the back. There was a booth behind the bar which was normally used for storage, but tonight it housed Kenny and Yi, and they were currently kissing. Josh looked through the doorway and Dave and Angi Johnson were having a mortgage burning ceremony.

"It's finally all ours!" said Dave, and he explained how his former business partner Wehrle Halloway screwed him out of his own business, but Kenny reviewed the books and saw things he didn't understand so he hired a forensic accountant who found where Halloway was screwing Dave Johnson. It was cleverly hidden, but in the end, Wehrle was caught and given the option to return the business and any money owed to Dave and Angi or spend up to twenty years in prison. To make up for the shortfall, Wehrle Halloway turned over the Cattle Auction lot he bought, hoping to screw the Heritage brothers. This gave Johnson's Feed Store needed storage space so they could expand their main store.

The gang of friends cheered as Dave and Angi burned their mortgage (or a cunning copy thereof) over a steel trash barrel. Josh saw Kenny at the bar talking to two women, one a vivacious woman in her mid-forties, and the other a stunning, sexy woman in her mid-sixties, but could pass for her mid-twenties under the right lighting conditions. Something about her looked familiar.

Josh walked out to the bar, and it hit... clear as a bell.

Master Sergeant Ephriam J. Gravely sat at the bar in the NCO club at Kunsan Air Base. He sipped a gin and tonic, looking at where his life led him... Behind him, he had sadness, loss, and pain. Ahead of him, he had cancer and loneliness. He pushed his empty glass back at the bar tender and said, "Make this one a double, and easy on the tonic water. I'm trying to lose weight."

"Oh?" she asked the skinny man. "How much are you trying to lose?"

"All of it." Josh sipped his drink and looked at the bar stool to his right where Craig would show up when he was drunk enough. The stool was still empty and Craig was still dead. Josh took a big gulp of his drink. It was mostly gin. Then he mumbled, "Fuck it... fuck it all," and he wished for death.

"Hey, buddy. It's not that bad," said the female bartender as she leaned across the bar. Her nametag said 'Maxine.'

"No? What do you know Maxine? This has been the worst year of my life. I was shot down, my best friend died, my wife had someone else's baby, my girlfriend disappeared without a word, the girl I had before her is going to marry my old commander, the Air Force is going to throw me out, and I got cancer. Tell me how that's not that bad Maxine! Tell me how great that is!"

"You're not dead yet. It's not fun being dead," said Maxine. "Ask Craig. He'll tell you that the best time he had was being alive with you. You keep fighting redneck. It's going to take a while but soon you're going to have a wonderful, wonderful life."

"Yeah right," groaned Josh. "How do you know."

"Betcha fifty bucks," said Maxine. "When we meet again, if your life isn't a whole lot better, I'll pay you fifty dollars."

"Yeah right," said Josh again, and he stared at his drink. He finally finished it and called out to the bar tender, but it was a guy. "What happened to the other bar tender, Maxine?"

"Who?" asked the guy whose name tag said 'Vern.'

"Maxine, blond, big tits, round butt, mixes a hell of a gin and tonic."

"Buddy, I've been working here all afternoon alone. There's no Maxine here, and the only female bartender we have is six two, black, and a short timer, she's in the dorm packing to ship out in three days."

Josh decided he was too tired to fight. "'nuther gin and tonic please."

"Last one, you've had plenty, ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure sure." Josh didn't argue. When the bartender at an NCO club cut you off, any backlash or arguing will land you in the brig.

"She was right," said Craig softly from the stool next to him. "Dead isn't fun." Josh didn't even look, he just lay his head on the bar and he screamed until the first sergeant came to take him back to the dorm.

"Hey Josh," said Kenny as he put his arm around Josh's shoulders. "This is a friend of mine..."

"Maxine!" gasped Josh.

"Well, redneck!" said the older woman with a big smile. "Do I owe you some money?"