Some Mysteries….
Set in Spring, 2010….Will Johnny, with Roy's help, solve an almost 40-year mystery?
Like a small child rushing to unwrap presents Christmas morning, John Gage headed eagerly for the barn.
He tried to stop the creaking noise that came with the barn door opening, in order not to wake the inhabitants. He walked over to one stall in particular and reclined his still-lean body on the wooden fence.
He smiled, watching mare and colt still sleeping. "You did a good job, Padme," he whispered at the mare, then turned to the colt. "And you too, Leia." With that, Johnny began to chuckle softly.
All four of Johnny and Millie Gage's children had named the family horses through the years. Currently the names reflected the fact that 16-year-old Annie Gage, their youngest, was a Star Wars nut. Johnny looked over at the other colt, already awake. He'd been born last year and was named – of course – Luke.
"Like your sister, Luke?" Johnny whispered and walked over to pat the young horse. As if in agreement, Luke snorted and gave a head nod.
Johnny smiled contentedly and let his thoughts drift.
It had been five years since he'd retired from the Los Angeles County Fire Department into the world of gentleman rancher and farmer. Long ago, in his final days as a paramedic at Station 51, he'd bought the ranch from Hector Murphy, one of the department's top tractor drivers – a driver who had helped save his life when he'd been bitten by that rattlesnake.
He'd invested in horses and – much to the surprise and amusement of his crewmates – chickens. After his promotion to captain and marriage to Millie, a garden was added.
Both careers – fireman and farmer - had paid off. A few years after Johnny became a captain, LA County finally decided that paramedics and rescue personnel needed divisions of their own. Working for – and with – his best friend, Roy DeSoto, John Gage was deputy chief of the paramedics – then became chief of rescue.
"How are they?"
Johnny's thoughts were interrupted by the question in the halting tone of his wife. Millie Gage, deaf all her life, communicated both verbally and with sign language.
Johnny turned, smiled at her and stretched out an arm to put it around her shoulders. Instinctively, Millie walked over, and they kissed.
"Very healthy," he signed at her. "I had the best midwife to help deliver," he added out loud.
Millie chuckled softly. "Well, they had the best paramedic in Los Angeles County," she signed back.
"That's true," he joked out loud.
Millie smiled, then said, "I'm glad Princess Leia is well." At the "Princess Leia" reference, Johnny rolled his eyes, which made his wife giggle again.
"Sweetheart, how did we decide that our children were going to name our horses?" he asked.
Millie rested her head on Johnny's shoulder. "It's better than when the twins named them."
Twins Chip and Amy Gage, as children, had named foals for the Smurfs. Brother and sister were now in their 20s and independent, but the recollections were fond for parents and children.
"Yeah," Johnny agreed verbally, and then signed, "Horses named for blue creatures…." prompting another laugh from his wife.
"Well, you gave them Indian names, too," Millie reminded him softly.
In fact, Johnny had taken names from his Seminole tradition. While Chip and Amy had called them "Papa Smurf" and so forth, Johnny had officially registered the horses with names such as "Lightning." He and Millie had sat down the children and explained to them that some living things had two names because of traditions; the children did, because they were part Seminole – as did their adopted brother Jason, who was entirely Seminole - and so the horses did, too.
Again, Millie broke into his thoughts. "Johnny?" She gently squeezed his hand.
He turned back to her. With auburn hair and a face dusted with light freckles, Millie Cooper hadn't been one of the local "knockouts" a young Johnny Gage had pursued.
They'd first met 35 years before, when she visited from St. Louis and joined other teachers of deaf students at Station 51 for first aid training. They struck up a friendship from the start, and Johnny had confided in her details about his Native American background he hadn't even told Roy. Nothing romantic developed until years later, after Johnny became a captain and Millie had moved to Los Angeles.
Oh, how he loved her.
"Tufoolapah," he mouthed at her - a Seminole word for "Butterfly," the nickname he'd given Millie so long ago - and leaned in to kiss her. Momentarily, the horses were forgotten as the couple acted, as they often did, like newlyweds, even after more than 30 years of marriage, four children and now a grandchild. Annie had already gone to school, so there was no chance of an interruption with her trademark "grrr-ross!" whenever she saw her parents kissing.
Reluctantly, Millie was the first to break it off. "Sorry," she signed. "I forgot. Roy and Joanne are coming for lunch today."
Johnny blew out a breath. "Oh. OK." He gave his wife a grin and wink that said, More to follow.
Millie smiled and concentrated gamely. "Roy says he has something to give you," she said aloud.
Now that had Johnny's full attention. "Oh, yeah?" he asked. She nodded.
He frowned, and Millie, amused, stepped back to "watch the show" of facial expressions on her husband's face, as the late Dixie McCall had told her so many years ago. Dear Dixie. We miss you so much.
"Whatwill he give me?" Johnny asked. "Did he borrow something from me?" Millie shrugged her shoulders.
"Did I borrow something from him – no that wouldn't fit, would it? Hmmm, let's see. It's not my birthday, it's not our anniversary…."
E! E! E! E!
Johnny was still pondering the issue of what Roy would give him a few hours later when the doorbell rang.
Roy DeSoto had retired from LA County almost a decade ago. His hair – what was left of it – was all white. Otherwise – beyond a pudgier waistline – he didn't look much different.
And his friendship with Johnny, now almost 40 years and the stuff of fire department legend, was the same, too.
"How are you, Johnny?"
"Great, Roy. Congratulate me. I'm a father again!"
As Joanne chuckled, Roy looked dubiously at Millie, who also laughed.
"The horses, Roy. The horses!" Johnny exclaimed with a grin.
"Oh…." Roy looked at his wife, who was still laughing.
"And you call Johnny gullible," Joanne said.
The quartet went to see the horses, then back to the house.
"They look good, Johnny," Roy said.
"Thanks," replied Johnny, touched. As always, his best friend's word meant a great deal.
"Roy…" Joanne began with a reminding tone.
Roy looked at his wife with a smile. "Right," he said, and turned back to Johnny. "I have something for you."
"Let's go back to the house," Millie said.
Before heading back to the main house, Roy and Joanne stopped at their car – still the small, classic, 1960s Porsche – and removed a small bag. There was no label.
Johnny and Millie watched as the other couple handled the bag. "Did you borrow something from me?" Johnny couldn't help asking.
Roy frowned. "No, I don't think so."
Johnny grinned. "Then what's in the bag?"
Now Roy chuckled. "You'll see."
They headed inside the house into the living room and sat down. Roy handed Johnny the bag. "Go ahead," he said.
Johnny opened it, looked inside and began to laugh. He reached in a long arm.
Out came a box, somewhat orange in color, with the words "Adam-12: Season Four."
As Roy and Joanne joined Johnny in the laughter, Millie had a puzzled look.
"Have you told Millie what happened?" asked Roy, who noticed the look.
Johnny grinned. "Nope." He put an arm around his wife and looked at her.
"Sweetheart, as the granddaughter and wife of firemen, you know that we haven't had the chance to sit down to do much during a shift-" Johnny began.
Now Millie understood. "Including watching a television show," she said.
"Right. There was this one episode of 'Adam-12' that drove me nuts."
"That's an understatement," Roy broke in.
Johnny turned to his friend. "Roy, I can tell the story."
"So tell."
Joanne and Millie looked at each other with grins. Some things never changed – thank goodness.
Both verbally and through signs, Johnny told his wife about the night Station 51 got called out during the episode to rescue the office building thief who had gotten himself caught in an air conditioning shaft.
"That's almost better than the episode, isn't it?" Millie asked with a chuckle.
"That's what Dixie said," Johnny responded, then smiled while remembering her.
"That was also the night Johnny had to stay at Rampart because of his radiation exposure," Roy added soberly.
Millie had learned about that years ago, from Johnny himself. She squeezed her husband's hand; he returned the gesture.
"And Roy called Joanne to find out what happened in the episode, but poor Chris had fallen out of bed," Johnny signed to her. Millie gasped. Chris DeSoto, now in his 40s, was a battalion chief with LA County's Urban Search and Rescue as well as a husband and father.
Joanne chuckled at Johnny's storytelling.
"So we never got to watch the episode," Johnny continued out loud.
"And that's not the end of the story," Roy added. "When it was time for repeats-"
"Roy!"
Roy leaned back and threw up his arms. The wives grinned again. They knew how their husbands could be at telling stories, whether it was about their rescues, their work on the old fire engine or anything else.
Johnny spoke and signed with emphasis.
"So that's not the end of the story," Johnny parroted Roy in a way that had both women – with difficulty – fighting off laughter. "When the episode was repeated that summer, I was off on the Date From Hell."
"Which nurse was it?" Joanne asked.
Johnny shook his head. "What difference does it make?" he asked. His expression changed and he smiled at his wife. "It's the kind of date that makes me happy I later met Millie – well, everything makes me happy I met you. I just wish you'd been there that night."
Millie giggled. "I'm not so sure you'd really think so," she said. "I was 18 years old and I'd just graduated from high school in St. Louis. Anyway, so you couldn't see the episode."
Johnny looked at the box set. "Until now, I guess," he said. His expression changed and he smiled at Roy. "Thanks."
Roy grinned back. "You're welcome."
They were all silent for a moment, until Joanne asked, "So are we going to watch this?"
Johnny chuckled, opened the box set and got the correct disk as Millie turned on the equipment.
"Here goes," Johnny said as he popped the disk into the DVD player.
Which promptly spit it out.
"Huh," Johnny exclaimed, caught the disk and repeated the process – with the same result.
"Aw, man…." Johnny muttered.
Roy stood up. "Let me see," he said, and took the disk from Johnny. He looked it over and under for scratches. "I don't see anything," he said, and he tried inserting the disk.
Same result.
"Let me see that," muttered Johnny, taking the disk again. He looked it over, the same as Roy had.
"Maybe it's a time code problem or something," Roy said.
"Try another disk," Millie suggested.
"Makes sense," Roy agreed.
Roy took another disk from the set and inserted it. It began playing without any problems.
"Maybe some dust or something," Johnny said. He ejected the disk and tried the other one. It popped out again.
"Oh, for crying out loud…." came from Johnny.
"Do you have something else that you can try?" Joanne asked.
Johnny looked around and grabbed the first thing he saw – one of the "Star Wars" movies.
"Johnny, no," Millie began. "Remember Annie."
"Yeah…yeah. She'll probably disown us," Johnny joked, and picked up another movie. It also played without incident.
"I can take it back," Roy offered. "They'll exchange it." He began to collect the discs.
"What're you doing?" Johnny asked.
"I'm gonna take them back," Roy said.
"Nah. Forget it."
Roy frowned; the two wives exchanged a glance. "What do you mean, 'Forget it?'"
"Some mysteries should stay unsolved," Johnny said.
Roy looked at him in disbelief. "But you always wanted to see the end of the episode!"
"Yeah, but I figure if all of this is going on, maybe I shouldn't."
"How do you figure that?"
"Well, all this stuff has been working against my seeing the episode," Johnny responded. "All those calls, then a bad date, now a bad disc."
"In a 40-year time frame…." Joanne added.
"And now lunch," Millie broke in with a grin. "It's ready."
Her words were immediately followed by a tell-tale – and well-known – rumble in Johnny's stomach. The two couples laughed.
"And some things are no mystery!" Roy concluded.
THE END