Ch 98
In the morning, Deek and Julie came down for breakfast. They smelled the delicious aromas of food in the air. The also saw Jackie carrying a bag of meat, headed for the front door. Louise was with her. Seeing them, Jackie called, "We're feeding the alligator, wanna come?"
Deek and Julie followed the girls out. "It comes up to the fence?" Julie asked.
Jackie opened the door. A quick scan of the yard and she pointed, "No, she's right there."
Deek then saw the full grown alligator lying in the yard. As they went out, the alligator got up and looked at them. "We're in the enclosure?" he asked.
Louise looked at his with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, it's called our yard."
Jackie walked over to the alligator and pulled out a chunk of meat. She raised a hand in the air, The alligator's mouth opened wide. She tossed it in.
SNAP
"So you guys are going to take over Dana's job, right?" Louise asked.
Deek nodded, "You know, it's dangerous to get this close to an alligator."
Jackie tossed it another chunk of meat. SNAP. "Naw, but you two should stay back, she doesn't know you yet."
Louise added, "Yeah, she only responds to people she knows. You don't want to get chased, she'd quick when she wants to be."
Julie winced as after it was fed, the Alligator went right up to Jackie and rubbed it's snout on her. Jackie squatted down and petted it's snout. "She is friendly to those she knows," Jackie told them. "Even protective. Dana showed us that it's her DNA being different from other alligators that allows her to recognize individuals. Her last batch of little ones also found by grabbing our hair when we're swimming, they can get a ride."
"They aren't so little any more," Louis added. "A tiny alligator going for a ride isn't a big deal. A three foot alligator latching onto your hair is a different story."
"Yeah, you think they're going to pull your hair right out," Jackie agreed.
"They do that, and don't bite you?" Julie asked.
Jackie stood up. "Let me get my tail, I'll go see if any are around."
"I'm coming too," Louise said.
Deek and Julie watched them go in the house, then realized they were out here alone, and the alligator was watching them.
"Maybe we should go in too," Deek said, looking at the alligator who was eyeing him.
After a minute of watching them, the alligator walked down the yard towards the dock. It went down the dock and off the end into the lake.
"It just comes and goes as it wants," Deek said.
"John did say that," Julie told him.
"Yeah, but usually, they are confined somehow."
Jackie and Louise went by in their bikinis, mermaid tails over their shoulders. "Come watch," Jackie said and waved to them.
Down on the dock, Jackie and Louise laid their tails out and sat down to get them on.
Daniel ran down to them. "Gotta get some pictures," he announced.
"Shall we pose?" Louise asked, grinning at him.
"Naw, just do a few jumps," Daniel replied.
"We're going to see if we can find some little gators," Jackie told him.
Daniel eyed her. "Why? Don't they get stuck in your hair?"
"We wanted to show our new Marine Biologists what they do," Jackie explained.
"Well don't forget to watch around you!" Daniel cautioned.
"We won't," both girls replied. Tails on, they stood up and jumped in the water.
"We just saw the alligator get in the lake, they are in the water with it," Deek said, looking worried.
Daniel pointed to the side. "She's over there, to the left near the bank. That's where her nest is."
Julie watched Jackie and Louise swim away under water. They had gone left. She could see them clearly. On the dock, she could see all the way to the bottom, the water was that clear. even what she guessed was 25 yards away, she could still see their shapes. For girls in mermaid tails they were swimming pretty fast.
Another shape came from the side, a long one. She couldn't make out what it was, but she didn't think it was an alligator. Jackie and Louise turned to join it. all three surfaced close to each other. The black hair, gray skin. "Deek, look!" Julie said and pointed.
She caught the sound of laughter, They pointed towards the dock, all three went back under and swam back to the dock. As they approached, Julie could see this third figure was not a girl in a mermaid tail. Jackie moved behind it as they surfaced only six feet or so out from the dock. Jackie lifted what Julie thought was a long clump of hair and turned it over to show a lighter belly. It was a two foot long alligator in this real Mer's hair. Jackie tickled the belly, the alligator let go.
"I think these gators think it's a sport to ride along holding onto someone's hair," Louise explained with a grin.
The Mer man, Julie guessed, Said something she didn't catch to Joan, waved at them with a semi webbed hand then dove down and swam away. Jackie held the alligator she'd taken off the Mer until he was gone, then let it go with a push away from her. He swam down towards the bottom.
"They've done it since they were hatchlings," Jackie said. "Now that they are getting bigger, it's becoming irritating."
"Jackie, look, Momma is on her nest," Louise pointed. "I think we're going to have more hatchings soon."
Jackie undulated faster and lifted herself up so she was waist high out of the water. "Yeah, looks like she's laying eggs. Since we're here, time to swim for a bit."
Jackie tipped back and dove backwards back in, going under with a splash if her tail. This time, she did swim away fast. Louise went with her.
"Got it!" Daniel said proudly. and showed Deek the picture he got of Jackie arched back just before the splashed down.
Already, Julie had lost track of them. They were down a while. "Don't they come up for air?" she asked.
"Probably in a couple minutes," Daniel told her.
What looked like a hundred yards out, Louise surfaced in a jump, clearing the water before she dove back in. Behind her, another Mer jumped out in a porpoise dive. Jackie then shot out of the water in a high arc and dove back in.
Deek watched the girls making jumps and said, "I guess we don't have to go to far to find them."
"Having fun?' Cameron asked as she came up to them.
Deek and Julie turned around to see her.
"Actually, yes," Julie beamed. Those two girls are out there swimming with Mers!"
"In an alligator infested lake," Deek added.
"It's good you got to meet Joan's alligator. Just remember, not all the alligators in this lake are so friendly. Especially the big ones are just hungry," Cameron cautioned. "Ready to go see your house and lab?"
"Yes, do we have a boat?"
"Right at your dock." Cameron replied.
Cameron drove them over to their house and introduced them to the terminator guard there. She took them in initially and showed them around inside, and down to the deep basement. After that, Cameron drove them to town to get some errands done. They needed clothes and food and their own car.
.
Outside hanging clothes together, Peggy asked Lily, "Have you decided?"
Lily nodded. "Yes, I want to be with you, but ..."
"We have to convince Johnny?"
"Yes."
"I've been working on it," Peggy said in a musing tone. "I've got an idea, and I'm sure it will work. There's another girl also that would really like to be with us. We're going back to the lake tonight. Tomorrow's the float party. Want to come?"
Lily eyed Peggy. "If Johnny has a hard time accepting me, I don't think any other girls have a chance. What is it you're planning?"
Peggy grew an impish grin. "Details later. With any luck, tomorrow night will go just like I want it to."
"Are you going to trick Johnny?" Lily asked intently.
Peggy winked. "You'll see."
.
JJ was out in the vineyard again, this time slowly rolling along as he spread fertilizer down. The Latino migrant worker beside him was kneeling backwards in his seat, making sure the mix poured down the chute smoothly as JJ drove along. This made the job easy, and much quicker than walking the rows. They got both sides of this row done by the time they used the four bags of fertilizer they brought. While JJ was out working in the field, Peggy was working at something else with Lily.
JJ drove back to the barn around noon. As usual aa table was set up so the workers coming back from the field could grab some lunch and have a break before they went back out. Right after he parked the bike, Peggy came over and handed JJ a lemonade and a Burrito.
"Here hon," she said happily. "I told Dad about the pigs you found in the vineyard. He wants someone to walk the fence, and note where we need fencing to help keep the pigs out. The only other one to go with you is Lily."
JJ took his food and grinned. "Thanks sweetie. This is another day of getting to know Lily then?"
"It is," she said firmly. "Johnny, I really need you to do this. Lily is a sweet girl."
"I know," he conceded.
Peggy came close and kissed him, then poked him in the chest, "Open you heart, stop seeing Lily as an intruder. She is someone who just wants love."
JJ opened his mouth to say he didn't see Lily as an intruder. In fact, that was just what he thought of her. "I'll try, OK, Sweetie?"
"Good," she said offered him a smile, then went over to help pass out other lunches.
JJ finished his burrito and half his drink when Lily came over to sit by him. "Hi, Johnny," she greeted with a big smile.
"Hey, Lily. Walk some fence with me this afternoon?"
Lily frowned, "Can't we ride a bike?"
"They are needed for running tools and material, and my truck can't go some of the places we need to go," he explained. "All we need to take is some orange ribbon to mark places that need to be worked on."
"Why not just work on them today?" she asked, watching him.
"Because we want to spend today finding them, so when we do work in them, we can get to the spots that need work faster. besides, carrying things like posts and fencing all around the perimeter is going to be extra work."
"OK."
JJ watched Lily. Her drink, like his was gone. "Ready to go?" he asked.
They got up, put their cups on the table and headed off.
Peggy watched them walk down to scan where the fence started at the edge of the driveway and begin their line walk.
Eddie came up beside her. "Do you think he'll accept Lily?" he asked quietly. "I mean, really accept her?"
"I'm hoping so," Peggy said softly. "let's Say Johnny is intense in everything he does."
Eddie eyed her. "He doesn't hurt you, does he?"
Peggy laughed. "No! Of course not. Let's just say some mornings I'm a little sore and find it hard to walk."
.
Walking the fence, Lily mis stepped once and almost tripped. Johnny quickly grabbed her hand to stead her. She did it again 'by accident', and he held her hand again, longer this time.
"I think I should keep a hold of you, just in case," he told her.
"Yes, please," Lily agreed. She liked that idea.
Walking along looking at fence that so far looked good, Lily got up the nerve to ask, "Johnny? Does it bother you we are so , umm, eager to be mated?"
JJ gave a half shrug. "Kinda. I thought Peggy was way too forward. By what she tells me, that's common with your people."
"It is. We're taught that if school is over and your still not in a family, you're not trying hard enough," Lily confirmed.
JJ shook his head. "We're not pressured either way. Well in my family we're not. There's some who push the thing of total independence, not relying on anyone. There's also various, shall we say accepted ways to form families. I don't really agree with that either. My parents had some trouble in college because my two Moms and Dad were married. See, it was only acceptable for one person to marry one other person. That was it. But, it was totally acceptable to divorce one person and move onto another, and no one would question that. That confuses me. To me, if you're married, you vowed to stay with that one person, not dump them off when you felt like it. If you didn't truly love them and want to be with them for the rest of your life, then don't marry them to begin with."
"Yeah," Lily agreed softly. "I do wish we weren't so pressure to form families."
"Well here, right now, you're not pressured to do anything," JJ said firmly. "As far as what YOU want for a relationship, don't let anyone tell you , 'You have to'. Seriously, Lily, if anyone tries to force you into anything, have them come see me. Or come get me. It might not be pretty, but I will straighten them out. You get to pick how and who you want to live your life with. No one else."
Lily gaped at him. Johnny was angry that anyone made her join a family. He was ready to protect her heart as well as keep her from harm, and she wasn't even his. He cared about her. He would not say it, but his anger at her not being able to choose her own path showed it. "I know what and who I want," Lily told him as she gazed at him.
JJ looked at her and stopped. She was casting him a loving gaze. Maybe he said a bit too much.
.
Jackie , Louise and now three young mers were having a great time just swimming and making jumps. Doing a tail stand to see where she was in the lake, Jackie heard clapping and a happy yell. She was only sixty of so yards off the opposite shore, and focusing on the sound and motion, she saw a girl sitting on a branch up a tree. from here, it looked like she had purple hair. Jackie waved to her and dove back in. Who was that?
Swimming closer to the shore, Jackie scrutinized the water for alligators. She didn't wand something to be bit off like happened to Joan. Satisfied if was safe for the moment she swam up to stand in waist deep water. Looking up at the girl that she could now see had rage of what used to be a nice blue dress, she waved. "Hi, who are you?"
The girl jumped down, showing she had no underwear. A little shorted than Jackie, she ran over to the shore to ratted off a long line of something Jackie couldn't understand.
"What?" Jackie asked.
The girl looked happy rattling it off a second time. Jackie noticed besides really odd colored hair, the girl had stubby cat-ear looking horns on the sides of her head. "You're got from around here, are you?" she asked.
The happy ragged girl clapped her hands in front of her and rattled off something else Jackie didn't have a clue what she was saying.
"Jackie, you shouldn't be so close to the shore!" Louise admonished as she swam up behind Jackie, searching for alligators.
Jackie decided to try something. She pointed to herself and said, "Jackie!" then pointed to the girl.
The girl's eyes lit up. Pointing to herself she said, "Nana!" then pointed to Jackie. "Jackie!"
"Yes," Jacki cheered. Nana cheered with her. OK, this girl might not be the smartest. Jackie also noticed movement on the land behind Nana. She saw a four foot long alligator head in the brush behind Nana.
"Nana!" Jackie called and motioned the girl closer as she looked at the alligator.
Nana turned to see the alligator was moving towards her. She let out a scared sounding squeak and ran in the water at Jackie.
Jackie grabbed Nana's hand and flung them both backwards. Jackie began swimming as fast as she could, the alligator lunged, mouth open. SNAP All his lunge got was a mouthful of water, he missed Nana's feet. Jackie swam away fast, he was HUGE!
Somehow, Jackie managed to hold Nana's head up out of the water as she swam, her tail splashing and one arm swimming, frantic to go faster. Louise came up on Nana's other side and gabbed her other arm. Jackie and Louise dug in and left the big alligator far behind them. A hundred yards out from shore, It stopped trying to chase them and turned around.
Jackie could see Nana was scared, but she didn't dare go back to that shore line. "Nana!" she said to get the girl's attention, and pointed across the lake.
Nana looked at her wide eyed and again, said something like she really meant it, and Jackie didn't catch a word of her gibberish.
A mermaid came up and asked Jackie why she drug the two legs out here into the lake. Jackie told her to keep her from getting eaten, they had to get her someplace safe like the dock. The mermaid swam ahead.
Nana said something else that made no sense whatsoever.
Louise was exhausted by the time they got to the dock. For some reason it was easy to hoist Nana up and on. Jackie jumped out and helped Louise up. They took their tails off, Nana sat nearby and babbled her words out happily.
"I wish I had a clue what she was saying," Jackie grumbled.
"It sounds Japanese," Louise offered.
"You know Japanese?" Jackie asked.
"No, it just sounds like anime," Louise told her.
"Maybe Mom will know." Jackie got up and offered Nana a hand. Nana smiled and stood up with her. Their gator pulled itself up, farther down on the dock, front paws on the dock and looked at them.
Seeing it, Nana screamed, turned and pushed Louise and Jackie off the end of the dock, back into the water. She then leaped high to the land end of the dock and ran up through the yard to hide behind Christine. The alligator watcher her go hide, then looked at the water. It slipped back down off the dock.
With no tail on, Jackie and Louise sank to the bottom. They walked to the posts holding the dock up and climbed them to get back to the surface. The alligator eyed them, watching them climb back up out of the water.
"Where'd she go?" Louise asked as she looked around.
Near the alligator, Jackie got a little boost up on the dock from it's snout. She looked over the yard and saw a warm spot behind Christine's left rear fender. "I think she needs to go for a swim now," she grumbled. She flung her tail over her shoulder and stomped up through the yard. Nana peeked her head out from behind Christine. She asked something in her odd language, then smiled.
Jackie grimaced a smile at her. Before she flung this girl back into the MIDDLE of the lake, she wanted to find out if Mom Delilah could understand her. She offered her hand. Nana jumped up and hugged her happily.
Wonderful, the girl knew how to disarm her anger. She let out a sigh and led Nana inside.
.
Inside, the fish girl that saved Nana took her into a large room where a woman looking much like her was noted them come in. They talked in their language, then the women scooted the girls off.
Nana bowed and said, "I'm Nana, I want to thank the fish girls for saving me, but I can't understand anyone here."
"Hello, Nana, I'm Delilah, the girl that saved you was our daughter Jackie, the other one is our daughter Louise."
Nana felt another happy rush. "You can speak normal!" she cried. "This is so great!"
Delilah smiled and asked, "Nana, where did you come from?"
Nana winced. "Nana's not suppose to tell. Papa said to go far away and live happily, but Nana doesn't know where that is, so Nana's been searching for a long time looking for far away," she said in a near whine.
Delilah pursed her lips for a moment, then asked, "Did everyone speak normal when you left your Papa?"
Nana nodded. "They did. Much has happened since then, and I keep looking for far away, but I can't find it!"
Delilah snorted out a chuckle. "Dear, believe me, you have found far away from where you started."
"I have?" Nana asked brightly, beaming Delilah a bright smile.
Looking at Nana's ruined dress and how thin she looked, Delilah asked, "When a the last time you ate something?"
Nana frowned and put a finger to her lip. "Two days ago, Nana get in the back of a store and found a box of bananas. Someone yelled at Nana, so Nana ran away, but Nana got a few bananas."
Delilah shook her head. "OK, Nana come in the kitchen, I'll fix you something to eat."
"Really!" Nana asked brightly. "Nana can eat here?"
"You can dear, come with me."
"Nana is so happy Nana has finally found Far Away!"
.
* Yes folks, Nana from the anime Elfen Lied, has finally found 'Far Away' that Kurama told her to go to.*
.
Dressed in regular clothes, Louise met Jackie coming out of her room. "How did she do that?" she asked.
Jackie grumbled, "I don't know, but it's my turn to push her off the dock!"
"Jackie, think! She pushed us both off at the same time! Who do you know who could even push one of us that far?" Louise asked.
Jackie frowned. "OK, so she's real strong."
"But not heavy like we are," Louise said. "Look at what she did. You just saved her from one alligator, right? We swam her across the lake, She saw our alligator and pushed us off the dock, I think trying to save us from another one. She didn't know any better."
Jackie frowned. That did make sense. "Spoil sport," she grumbled. "Let's go see if Mom is able to figure out what she was blabbering about."
.
JJ found a place where the bottom board had been broken. He tied an orange ribbon to the post.
"Did a pig do that?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, probably. We need to put up some electric fence. They will bull through just about anything, but a good shock makes not want to try it again," he explained. After he was done, he didn't think about it, but Lily's hand was clasped with his as they walked along.
Getting close to the swamp, JJ scanned for heat sources. He heard some splashing, and a big clump of swamp grass moved. He stopped to watch it and held Lily back. "Shh," he said softly.
The clump moved again. JJ let go of Lily's hand to pull his gun.
"What is it?" Lily asked in a soft whisper.
"Don't know. Walk behind me, quietly," he whispered back.
Another splash, this one louder. A pig squealed out in pain, another burst out squealing in fear and ran at them. He saw an alligator tail whip out, the pained squeal stopped. He drew down on the pig coming at them. It was a hundred pounder or so. It was coming straight on, he aimed and shot. The pig tumbled to a stop. It kicked once and laid still.
"Got him. They other one's gator meat." JJ said and put his gun away. He drew his knife. Coming up to the pig, he saw he'd hit it with a grazing shot on it's head. Maybe knocked out, and not dead.
Eager to help him, Lily walked a little closer and grabbed it's back legs to turn it on it's back. He put the knife away to reach for his gun to finish it off and the pig woke up. The instant it's eyes opened, it squealed loudly and kicked at Lily, then shot up and ran back into the swamp.
Lily let go and wailed out a scream. She fell back on her butt and burst out crying. JJ hurried to her and hugged her. "It's Ok, it's OK," he said. She buried herself in his chest and cried.
"Just a scare, you're OK," he told her again. She'd knocked her hat off, He petted her hair as he held her. "You're safe, it's OK," He cooed again.
Lily moved around and clung to him in a tight hug. "It wasn't dead!" she cried.
JJ suppressed a grin. "I noticed. Come on, we gotta get up."
Lily got up with him and kept her tight hold. "My heart's beating so fast, I though I was gonna get bit!"
"It just ran away, it's OK now, you're safe," he assured her. He also noted it felt nice holding Lily. He ran a hand up and down her back for comfort. Real nice. OK he had to stop thinking about that. He loosened his hold. "Lily, I can take you back if you want."
She shook her head. "No, I can keep going."
"Sure?"
She nodded.
JJ picked her hat up and put it back on her head. "Well, Miss Pig Wrangler, let's see what other trouble we can get into, shall we?"
She looked up to see his grinning at her. "It's not funny!" she cried.
"You'll see the humor in it later." He clasped her hand and led at a slow walk.
"I was really scared," she insisted.
"I saw that."
She frowned at him. "So if I wasn't really in danger, why'd you hold me?"
"Because you were scared."
"My back's a little sore now," she grumbled.
JJ let go of her hand to rub her back low. "Down here?"
"Yes, thanks," she said and leaned a little into him. A short ways later, Lily thought about what happened. Johnny had held her tight. He petted her. That felt real good. She pondered how to get him to do that when she wasn't scared out of her wits.
.
The new Marine Biologists were settled and immersed in reading Dana's notes. Cameron returned home to check on her China progress. Hearing Delilah talking to someone in Japanese, she went into the kitchen to see Delilah sitting across the table from a strange girl that had horns and purple hair. An empty plate and a bowl was in front of her.
"Who's this?" Cameron asked.
Delilah explained in English. "This is Nana, a girl Jackie and Joan saved from getting eaten by an alligator. Cam, this kid is a sad story. She won't tell me exactly what happened, but her father kicked her out and told her to go far away. Far away like she started out in Japan. She thought Far Away was a place, and she's been searching for it. She's on her own, stealing food and finding places to sleep where she can. From what I can decypher, she's been wandering for at least a year, probably longer. We can't let her keep wandering her life away."
Cameron looked at Nana who was watching her. In Japanese, she asked, "Nana, do you like it here?"
Nana beamed, "Nana does! Delilah can talk so Nana understands, and the fish girls were nice to Nana, and now you can talk to Nana too, and Nana got to eat a real meal! Nana likes it here in Far Away!"
"Ragged, starving, no education and abandoned," Cameron stated.
"That sums it up," Delilah agreed.
"Nana, would you like Delilah and myself to be your new mothers?"
"Yes!" Nana cried and got up to run over and hug Cameron. "Nana never had a mother, and now Nana gets to have two!" she cried happily, tears leaking out of her eyes. "Will Nana get a new Papa too?'
"You will."
In a near scream, Nana cried, "Nana loves Far Away!" Then she did break down and cry in joy.
"I'll find you a room, Nana," Cameron said, not as cheerful. From what she was seeing, Nana was born differently and her father had kicked her out. If she ever met him, he was going to be in great pain. She should pursue that.
Delilah took care of showing Nana around the house and started teaching her basic English words. Since Joan never used her bedroom any more, Cameron put Nana in it. She let Delilah now, then got on the computer and hacked into Japan's network to see if she could figure out where Nana came from.
It would help if she had a last name, or at least an area to focus on.
.
Cameron called to the sheriff's office to let him know the thief he was to look for for stealing bananas from the grocery store was a homeless girl that they were going to take care of. If needed, she'd buy the bananas the girl had taken.
A talk with Nana, and Cameron discovered That right after Nana got out of the 'floating bed' her papa had put her in. Nana had found some people to live with briefly. She got the names. Kouta, Nyu, Lucy, Mayu, Yuka. The house they had was called the Maple inn. What Cameron got was that there were ones who wanted to kill Nana, so Kouta told Nana to run far away. Knowing her papa had told her that, Nana finally did, so her new friends would not be endangered by people coming for Nana. At least, that's what Cameorn understood. She still didn't get a city name, but by mentioning sea and a beach, at least Cameron knew it was on the coast.
"Nana, did you notice where the sun was in the mornings?" Cameron asked.
Nana Nodded. "It came up over the water and went down behind the mountains."
"Was it cold there, did you ever see it snow?" Cameron asked.
Nana shook her head. "It rained hard sometimes. Nana's never seen snow."
OK, so far Cameorn had narrowed down the search tremendously.
Cameron did a search for the Maple Inn. She found three. One was way north in Supporo, that couldn't be it. There was one in Kyoto, whish was on southern Japan, but not on the coast. She called the one in Kamakura. It was getting late here so it should be daytime there. Someone picked up.
"Mushi Mishi."
Hearing a male voice, she asked, "Is this Kouta?"
"Hai. who is this please?"
"Cameron Connor. Do you know a purple haired girl named Nana?"
There was a pause, "Ahh I know a couple girls named Nana."
"This one has purple hair and horns on her head. You can't miss her. She told me you told her to go far away to escape those men after her."
His voice then became animated. "Nana? You found Nana? Is she safe? How is Nana? Where is Nana?"
"She's better now that she had a place to stay and she's eating every day. We're in Texas. Can you tell me who it was that was after Nana?"
"Some army guys. They're mostly gone now. We don't like to talk about that. Is Nana there?"
Cameron yelled out, "Nana! Kouta wants to talk to you!" To Kouta she said, "Give her a moment. Delilah was working on teaching Nana English."
Running feet sounded and Nana appeared. "Kouta? where's Kouta?" she asked in a near panicked breath.
Cameron put the phone on speaker and set it down, "I have him on the Phone. Talk, he'll hear you."
Nana sat down and eyed the phone. "Kouta? Kouta Nana made it! Nana found Far Away!"
"I'm happy for you, Nana. What, Yes, Mayu, I have Nana on the phone..."
A new voice came on. "Nana? Nana are you OK, where are you?"
"Hi Mayu, Nana is at Far away!" Nana said happily. "How is Mayu?"
"I'm going to school, everyone is fine now once all the trouble stopped. Nana, there is no place called Far Away, where are you?"
"Yes there is, Mayu, Nana's here!"
Cameron offered, "Mayu Nana is here in Texas."
"Texas," Mayu mussed, then asked, "You mean Texas with all the big cattle, horses and gun shoot outs?"
"Nana hasn't seen much of that, Nana almost got eaten by an alligator, Jackie saved Nana and swam Nana across a lake. Jackie is one of the fish girls."
"Huh?"
"Mayu," Cameron said, "We live near a lake. We found Nana and Jackie and Louise brought her home. They did get her away from the alligator. Do any of you there know who is was who was after Nana?"
The voice changed, "Cameron, it's Kouta again. All we know it was SAT soldiers who were after Nana and Lucy."
"Lucy is in danger too?" Cameron asked.
"Not so much any more. We stay low profile and Lucy's horns were knocked off. As far as we know, most of those men, and that facility is gone now," Kouta explained.
By what he was saying, whatever happened was all over now. Cameron said, "Kouta, can Nana go back you the Maple Inn if she wants to? Nana, do you want to go back there?"
Cameron heard a hesitation from Kouta as he said, "Nana and Mayu are good friends, we do miss Nana."
Nana looked at Cameron. "It will take a long time for Nana to go all the way back. Nana doesn't want to walk so far for a while."
"Nana, you won't be walking, you'll be flying," Cameron explained.
Nana cast Cameron a confused look. "Nana can't fly."
"I will get you on a plane that does," Cameron told her. "Or if Kouta and his family want to see you, I can have them flown here to see you."
"Umm, Cameron, I am not sure if it would be safe for Nana to come back here," Kouta said.
"Do you want to see Nana?"
"I cannot afford a big plane ticket like that."
"I didn't ask you to pay, Kouta, I asked of you wanted to come see Nana," Cameron stated.
In the background, Mayu pleaded, "Can we go see Nana?"
Cameron got the military information for Japan up on the computer and got the General's office. "Kouta, I am going to ask my contact in Japan to arraign a flight to Austin, Texas and back for you and your family if you want to come. Let me give you the information. Don't worry about paying for the flights, I will take care of that."
"You would do that?"
"I am doing that, right now. Just decide if and when you want to take the trip."
"Cameron is nice, isn't she Kouta?" Nana said happily.
"Yeah, When I call, who do I say referred me?"
"The Samurais Connor."
"Samaurai? Connor?"
"Yes, both of us, Cameron and Delilah."
.
