Ch 119
"Come on guys! Everyone who's coming to see Louise play, let's go!" Joan called.
Joan, Allison and Bob were going to see Louise play in her first big concert. Jackie and Daniel were coming, so were JJ, Peggy and Lily. To hear 'their song' being played live, Kouta and Kaede were coming also. Nana and Mayu didn't want to be let out, and Yuka was scared to be here left here along in case the alligator got back in the house. She went out front once after the incident on the couch and it opened it' s mouth and hissed at her.
Joan, Bob and Allison had their Bronco with Nana and Mayu in the back seat, Jackie drove Daniel, Kouta, Kaede and Yuka in Christine, JJ and his girls took his pickup. They went down to the furniture factory to see if Sonya was coming. Unfortunately, she had many orders to get out, so she had to stay, but wished Louise the best.
They were part of a long line of cars headed for Johnson City. Many people in town had relatives in the concert and wanted to see this performance. It was a good flow of traffic, all the drivers were thinking about parking spots when they got there.
.
George Lupin was also in Johnson City. He's found his sister and her family living there. So far, her family had not ran into any trouble. She was happy he found her as well, she had a daughter and two sons she had no hope of finding mates for. Georges' son and daughter were like a god-sent to her. His daughter and son would ensure their line went on. Only one of her boys would need to go away, searching for a mate.
From talking to his mate on the phone, George knew Jason was going to be in this concert, and could meet his sister's daughter today. They all decided to go to the concert and meet him after the performance.
.
Karen was in the long line to get to the box office when she smelled someone familiar. Up ahead, she saw them. "Dad!" she cried and waved.
George turned back. "Karen? Come meet your family!"
Karen ran to him and gave him a hug and was happy to see her cousins. Better yet, she had two boys to chose from! They had a happy meeting together as the Connor clan got their tickets and went inside.
.
"It's a good thing we used that shortcut," Jackie beamed. "We were some of the first in line!"
"At least we didn't get stuck, but I think a couple people are going to be mad we drove through their yards," JJ said.
"Details, details, we got here, didn't we?' Allison asked.
"That was fun," Kaede said, grinning. "I never thought chicken's feather flew off so easily."
"They went all over the place," Nana agreed. "At least no one hit the chicken coup."
"We got good seats down front," Joan beamed, noting there were still front row seating left, and right in front of the piano.
.
Karen happily sat with her family, between the two prospective boys. George sat with his sister, her daughter on his other side. hey had to wait a while for the theater to fill up, but then the curtain's opened. He was quick to point out Jason with his violin. "He's right there, the violin closest to the piano."
"He's cute!" The girl gushed.
George was happy to hear that.
The music started with a light flute, then built with violins, piano then drums as the tune picked up it's pace. After that a vigorous rendition of Beethoven's 5th was played, followed by Ride of the Valkyries, then the 1812 overture. George knew kids today didn't listen listen to music like this, there were no guitars, wailing voices or stupid looking 'dance' moves. This was just good music washing over you and somehow making life seem worthwhile.
At the end a singer in a full opera type gown came out. She sang as they played a song he'd never heard before. It was an opera piece, he was sure, she was singing in Latin. The piece they played was beautiful. Only his son and the pianist played as the woman sang. The tone of the music was somber, yet joyful at the same time as the singer sang loud and clearly in an almost begging tone. When a chorus joined in to sing in deep mournful tones, he felt himself choke up a bit. He had to find out what this song was called. He wanted to get his own copy of it.
At the end of the song, a woman on the front row, pink haired, jumped up and cried "Arigato!" and bowed to the stage. George also noticed she had small horns on her head. What was that? A man got up with her and they applauded. The musicians did go silent. More of the first row jumped up to give a standing ovation, and it spread like a wave. Soon the whole room was on their feet applauding. The Musicians bowed and the curtains closed.
The house lights came on and girls from the first row, including the pink haired horned one, headed for the side door. That was a good idea. "Let's go meet Jason coming out," George said. They all agreed. Karen about forced her way out of the row to head for the side door. The boys followed her, his sister's daughter trailing behind them.
.
Louise and Jason knew their families were here. "I saw Dad here," Jason explained. "I'm sure I can convince him to make Karen leave you alone."
"That would be great, and good for you," Louise agreed. "She needs to understand you deserve a life. Come meet my family."
Jason jumped ahead to get the side exit door. "After you," he said and opened it.
"Thank ..." Louise never got out her thank you to him. In the crowd on the other side, she saw her family there, but much closer in a blur of motion was Karen, charging. She grabbed Louise around the throat and knocked her backwards onto the floor.
Karen got to growl out," I'll teach you..."
Upon seeing Louise get knocked down in a strangle hold, Jackie, the closest, jumped over to grab Karen by the back of her neck with one hand and grab her forearm with the other hand. Jackie crushed the girl's forearm and pulled her up off Louise to throw her back out the door.
Seeing their prospective mate flying back at them, the boys caught her. "You will pay for that!" one yelled and charged. He was blocked into the wall by Joan. She rammed into him hard enough to crack the wall. Seeing another girl try to race by, Joan clotheslined her , then as she fell, kicked her back in the direction she came from. Another boy charged, She used the stunned boy she'd hit the wall with to slam into him, knocking him back.
JJ, Jackie, Joan, Bob and Allison made a line between Louise and these attackers. The attackers lined up facing them, snarling.
Jackie motioned them on. "Come on, JUMP! I could use the exercise!"
"You've attacked the wrong people! Wipe that snarl off your face or I'll do it for you." Joan stated in a heavy tone.
"STOP IT!" a man bellowed and strode forward. George recognized Joan Connor, the football player, and Jackie Connor, who was also known to be pretty indestructible. There were also a lot of Connors here. He didn't know why Karen had attack them, but he did know she, and all the kids would be at least very seriously injured if this kept up. He forced his way in between the two groups and roared, "BEHAVE YOURSELVES!" He glanced at each side and asked, "What happened?"
Louise was helped up by Jason. Jason said, "Dad, Karen attacked Louise here. Louise hasn't done anything, but Karen came screaming at her and tried to choke her."
Holding her broken arm, Karen barked, "That blonde girl broke my arm!"
"I can break the other one too," Jackie replied, showing her red eyes at Karen.
"I said stop it!" George snapped at Jackie. He then glowered at Karen. "Well? Why'd you do that?"
"Jason shouldn't be talking to her, or even looking at her!" Karen wailed.
George pointed to the exit. "Boys, get her out of here and take care of her." He then looked at Louise who was now standing with Jason's arm around her. "Louise? are you all right?"
"Yes, sir. I have done nothing to deserve being attacked like that," Louise said in an angry tone. "It happens again and I won't hold back!"
George nodded. "I believe you. Jason, come meet your cousins, then we need to have a talk."
"Yes Dad. This whole thing was Karen's fault."
"I'm well aware of that. Let's go," George said firmly. He knew it would be proper to apologize, but at the moment he wanted to get his clan out of here before someone wound up dead. His daughter had angered just about the worst people possible. He wanted to find out what caused it.
"Sure you're OK?" Jason asked Louise.
"I'm fine, go on."
They watched the Lupin family walk up out of the theater. Jackie then beamed Louise a smile. "Next time tell us if there's going to be a rumble after the show! It's not good to fight in formal clothes."
"I think we should wait a minute or two, then leave ourselves," Joan said. She also noticed Kaede was frowning at them. Right, she didn't get a chance to do any fighting.
.
George got them all back to his sister's house. He knew Karen's arm was going to heal. the deep bruises on her neck were already fading. Still if she or any of them had received an instantly fatal injury, it would be fatal.
Once inside, George stated, "Everyone, sit down!"
He walked over to where Karen was being held by one of the boys who was frowning deeply. "We should have killed them!"
"How were you going to to that?" George asked in a hard tone. "Karen made a surprise attack, she was thrown off like a wet rag! You charged in and were slammed into a wall, the same girl stopped your sister and kicked her back, then you were thrown into your brother to knock both of you back. Get this! They were Connors, cyborgs. Their insides are metal, you can't kill them but sure as HELL can kill all of you! Karen, what was that all about? Why did you attack that girl?"
"She's after Jason!"
"She is NOT!" Jason cried. "Dad, Louise did with me like she does with anyone. She saw I was sad and was just trying to help. Louise helps everyone she can, she's like that. She's nice! All she wanted to do was talk to me and help however she could. Karen went nuts when she saw Louise near me."
"This Louise ever try to kiss you?" George asked.
"No! Dad, she just wants to be friends. All the way here on the bus she sat by me to talk to me about many things. She knows my mate has been picked for me, Louise is in no way a threat to us unless someone here keeps attacking her!" Jason explained loudly.
"You are in this music group together?" George asked.
"We both are in the same group, yes, it's the only one in Driftwood," Jason replied.
George shook his head and glared at Karen. "This shouldn't have happened. There is nothing wrong with Jason having friends outside the family. Your over-reaction has put our family in danger, Karen. If this gets back to the Sheriff, he will see we lied when we said there would be no problems from us. Then we'll have to find a new place to live AGAIN!" George paced a bit then asked his sister, "Maybe it's time Karen lives here with her prospective mates."
His sister nodded. "That will keep her away from trouble. My daughter Rachel should probably go live with you so she can get closer to Jason, also."
"Rachel?" George asked.
Rachel looked at Jason and blushed. "I'm fine with that."
"Then that's what we'll do," George said.
.
Election day was two days away. The ex-senator and the vice president who'd gotten kicked out of office were both campaigning hard. There were people who came in TV and media supporting John Connor, but not a word from Connor himself. The only sight of him the news caught was John and his wives talking to a red haired woman and a couple men as they walked inside the White House. The red head was identified as Catherine Weaver, the CEO of Zeira, a huge corporation, one man was the secretary of the Navy, the other was not identified.
Before they went into a room, The blonde wife whispered to John, he nodded, and she came back towards the camera. Excited to get some news, the reporter met her.
As she came up to them, the reporter asked, "Mrs. Connor, can you tell us why Mr. Connor has not talked to anyone about the election?"
Delilah smiled and said, "John isn't interested in the election. He doesn't want to be president. He, like myself and Cameron, was to see a president get elected so we can turn this mess over to an elected President. We've done plenty of public service. Some under extreme circumstances."
"Until he was picked to be Administrator, we've never heard of John Connor," the reporter replied. "Only yourself and Cameron are even known to the public."
"That's the way we like it," Delilah told him. "People know us for our charity concerts and the Movies and TV show we made when we had a break from other things. The serious things we do are usually classified. No one knows how we stopped a world-wide nuclear disaster, or how the day Cameron had Joan, she she left the hospital so she could join us on a mission. It's not well know John has a Presidential Medal of Freedom, as does his mother, and we all have Presidential Civilian Medals we earned fighting for our country. Myself and Cameron have been recognized by the nation of Japan as Samurai. We even got official battle Katanas during the ceremony. There are many things we did that will never come to light. One thing none of us want, is to be stuck playing politics. John was asked to take on the Administrator role due to the fact people trusted him to ensure our system of democracy stays intact, and is returned to what it should be. A government of and for the people."
"What can you tell me about the sudden decision by 42 states to remove the previous elected officials?"
"It wasn't sudden," Delilah stated. "This has been building for a while. When the former President choked the economy and caused the loss of thousands of Jobs, then had mutated rats made to be sent to non-complying states to cause destruction and death, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. He played dirty games against his opponents. That is not the President's job. He was supposed to watch out for Americans, you know, provide for the common defense and welfare, not send a ruinous plague against the very people he was representing."
"There are many who are up in arms about the new second amendment. Basically, anyone who has a firearm of any type is allowed to carry it."
"Yes, the constitution now states any law abiding citizen can carry a weapon. What of it?"
"Don't you think that's dangerous?" he asked.
Delilah shook her head. "It's been proven if a criminal wants to get a weapon, they will. They don't follow laws. Why should people who just want to protect themselves and their families, be the ones who are restricted in carrying a weapon?"
"Do you carry a weapon?" he asked.
"I do. I'm always armed."
"You carry a gun here, inside the White House?" he asked in disbelief.
"No," Delilah raised her arm to the side and morphed out a plasma canon. "I don't need a powder gun."
"What is that?"
"Mark 2 plasma canon. I've got one in the other arm also. If a threat come after me or my family, they will be very sorry," Delilah stated. "I'm a cyborg, they are built into me." She reformed her arm back into a normal forearm and hand.
"All cyborgs have those?" he asked weakly.
"Most do. Others have a different nasty surprise for anyone who attacks them. My point is, people should be able to protect themselves. Criminals, those who are out to hurt others for their own gain, want victims, not a fight."
"You don't think people will be scared of you, knowing you have those?" he asked.
"The only one who should be scared are the ones who intend to do harm," Delilah said firmly. "We don't harm the innocent. If anything, we help protect them, and have been doing so. I think you and everyone should be much more concerned about the homeless problems in some cities. In places, it's getting bad. Where's the concern from these environmentalist groups about masses of people defecating in the streets? That is a big health hazard, yet hardly a word is said about it. It is also a spawning ground for criminal activity, not to mention those who die quietly in their make shift shelter and only when their body begins to smell, does anyone do anything about it. Who stands up for those poor people? Why is this situation being all but ignored?"
"We came to talk about issues of politics."
"So you are satisfied the homeless continue to go all but unnoticed, just stepped around? That their misery should not be a political issue?" Delilah asked.
"I didn't say that."
"Your attitude does," Delilah replied. "A popular controversy is all you can focus on. Forget the real problems facing this country. Did you know if half, just half of the political contributions went towards solving the homeless crisis instead of propping up politicians to get them in office, could remove the homeless problem from one big city? Even if they have to go to rehab for a while, or be put in an institution, they would be far better off. The sidewalk would also be cleaner, and maybe, just maybe, many of those people would be able to get back on their feet. But that is not a concern worthy of serious attention, is it?"
The reporter shifted in place. "Camera off, let's go." he said. He turned to leave.
Delilah called to him, "That's fine, I recorded everything. It will make the news."
The reporter spun. "You can't do that!"
Delilah cast him a fake smile. "Already did. Have a nice day."
.
The day before the election, NY and California both stated they could and would not comply with verifiable paper ballots. John told them fine, then votes from those states would not be counted. The press went wild. A court in California ruled the paper ballot demand was unconstitutional. John went on several national TV stations and stated the terms for federal voting from the new constitution requiring verifiable paper ballots. California's court ruling was unconstitutional. Asked about who would be counting the ballots since there was no vice president, John informed them Cameron would be. Furious protesters in California took to the streets and destroyed more buildings and caused many injuries.
John watched the election carefully. Thankfully, on Election day, the Texas Senator won, the ex-vice president only took one state. John got two. John was more than ready for his replacement to come to the white House and get sworn in. He unhappily found that wasn't going to happen for another six weeks. The man was still coming next week, to begin the briefings, but could do nothing 'official' yet.
John decided if it was something the man wanted, John would do it for him.
The congressional winners were taking office in three weeks to refill both houses. In NY, one of the lifetime representatives got re-elected. Coming to Washington, she was sent home due to her term limits were far exceeded. NY officials encouraged people to react by protesting and rioting. In NY more places were destroyed and people injured or killed. While this was going on, many copies of the constitution went out to be posted, and eventually sent to every home.
.
In Driftwood, the Driftwood orchestra as they were now officially named, met to begin expanding their music selections. Louise coaxed Jackie to come, she wanted them to learn how to play November Rain for the summer festival. Jackie came and brought Delilah's electric guitar wit her, since they didn't have one.
Rachel wanted to see a practice, so she came along with Jason. She's loved that concert they did. Everyone was on stage, here and there instruments played short tunes at random, but it was a mush of music, noting coordinated.
Looking at her music sheets on her piano, Louise didn't see them come in. He noticed Jackie by the conductor.
"We need to add a few Beatles tunes too, like The long and winding road, Sargent Pepper, Something, and some other instrumental songs , and don't forget Living on a Prayer!" Jackie said eagerly.
"In time!" he replied firmly. "let's get one down before we get started on others."
"I know, but that's stuff I learned how to play with mom's guitar." she said defensively.
"Be patient," he told her. He then noticed Jason came in with a girl. he pointed his baton at her. "Jason, can she sing?"
Rachel said, "I have..."
"Great! we're going to need more backup singers. If you're game come up on stage. Over there, see the line of girls in the back?"
Rachel beamed at Jason. "Can I?"
Jason motioned to the stage Rachel leaped up and on and ran back to the other girls.
"Miss?" what's your name?" the conductor asked.
"I'm Rachel Lupin!"
"Rachel, the first time we go through this song, just listen and get familiar with the tone and flow."
"OK!"
He then tapped his baton on the music stand in front of him. "Listen up everyone! November Rain is a complex song and has fast shifts in the flow and the instruments, including a few solos. Watch your music sheet and watch me, Louise, you'll be singing at the piano. Jackie, do not stand up on the piano, save that for the performance. Now, everyone get ready. Remember! your parts are in black, the red notes are for you to follow the music so you can pick your parts up quickly."
He then held his arms out to the sides and waved his baton at Louise.
Louise began playing, shortly, violins and flutes picked up. Rachel listened, it was a nice, mellow beginning. A soft drum rumble (almost like a rainstorm) sounded, then the drums played. not long after that, Jackie began playing her guitar. As more of the orchestra joined in, Louise began singing.
When I look into your eyes , I see a love restrained,
The backup girls with her sang out a long 'Ooooh'.
Rachel bobbed her head as the song went on. She got the rhythm and when the backups were singing their 'oooh's'. To her, it almost sounded like a soft wolf howl. So far the 'solo's were Jackie playing the guitar, while Louise and the drums kept going. The song built in intensity as it went on, and when the violins let out long notes, the music died out. Rachel thought the song was over, then Louise began on the piano again, violins played, Jackie on the guitar, and then the music exploded, Jackie playing out wailing notes on the guitar. Then everyone who could, backups included began singing again. Loud.
Don't ya think that ya need somebody
Don't ya think that ya need someone
Everybody needs somebody
You're not the only one!
You're not the only one!
As they sang that, the girl beside her held up 4 fingers as the music seemed to rage through the auditorium to completely fill their world. Rachel got it. They sang the same thing again three more times, the girl put a finger down each time they did, Rachel joined them.
Wow! That was more intense than Rachel thought it would be. She'd been part of it too! It gave her a heady feeling. She wanted to do it again!
When it was quiet except for the ringing in her hears, the conductor tapped on his music stand with his baton again. "That was not bad for our first try. Not bad at all. Watch your music sheets closely, Like I said shifts are fast, be sure to start and stop when you're supposed to. During the last set of verses, everyone, sing like you're personally telling it to the person by the door in the back. Is everyone ready to try again?"
Rachel nodded vigorously. This time through, she did the 'oooooh's with the other girls, letting out soft howls. Then a little louder ones when it was time. On the last verses, she sang loud like she wanted the world to hear it. They finished the song.
Again the conductor tapped his baton on the music stand. "That was better, and much richer sound from the backup. Rachel, you got the backup down?"
"I do!" she cheered.
"All right, we'll take a break, then come back for another practice."
As they put instruments down to leave the stage, Rachel got beside Jason and said, "That was soooo great And I can't believe the sounds Jackie was making on that guitar! No wonder you like playing!"
They both noticed Jackie run over to the multiple drummer and the base player, they nodded and stayed at their instruments as everyone else filed off the stage. Jackie ran back and picked up her guitar. The stage mostly cleared, Jackie began playing the opening to Sweet Child of Mine. They others joined in and she sang it.
Off the stage now, Rachel watched. "She is really good with that thing!"
"No doubt," Jason agreed. "Probably learned from her mother, Delilah. Louise doesn't miss a note with her piano playing either. " He grinned and added, "I watched Jackie fence too, she's a master with a sword. I think they put their all into anything they do."
Once the trio was done, they got applause.
Louise came up to Jason. "Hey Jason, girlfriend?" she asked.
"Yeah," Jason beamed, " This is Rachel!" he then paused and sheepishly asked, "Can we forget what happened after the last concert?"
"Done," Louise assured him. "It was a misunderstanding. Hi Rachel."
"Hi Louise. I'm glad you're not mad at us," Rachel offered.
"Forget it" Louise told her. "Jackie, come meet Rachel!"
Jackie jumped off the stage and looked around. "Jason, your sister's not here, is she? I got a good happy on, I don't want have to fight and ruin it."
"She moved, Rachel came to live with us," he told her.
"Great! Let's go get a snack! Hey Rachel, I'm Jackie."
They headed out to the snack bar, talking about their music. Rachel was glad Jason had friends like these. By how easily Louise and Jackie talked with them, she was seeing they could be her friends too. Why hadn't Karen seen that?
.
By the end of their practice day, Rachel bore a smile and a nice buzz in her head from the music. Tomorrow Jackie was taking her boat out to join up with Sonya and Mark's boat for a party on the big lake.
"We're bringing our tails and everyone's that home is going to be there. Wanna come?" Jackie asked brightly.
"There's a nice quiet cove we go out and park in," Louise explained. "There's even some ruins under water if you want to go down and look."
Jason nodded and looked at Rachel.
"OK, we've never been on a boat before. is there enough room?"
Jackie nodded. "Sure! Our parents are still in Washington, and Joan, Allison and Bob are off playing football. Bob and Allison's parent's probably won't come, there will be plenty of room for us."
Rachel hummed and let out soft howls as she walked home with Jason. Getting inside, she cried, "Uncle George, guess what we did today! I just didn't watch Jason play in the big band, I was in it too!"
"You did?" George asked.
"Yes! I was a backup singer and the song we played was really awesome!" she beamed. "And Jackie Connor, the one with the blonde hair, she played a guitar like ... wow!"
George chuckled. "So I take it you had a good time and there were no fights?"
"We had a great time, and Louise and Jackie invited us to a party in their boats on the big lake! Can we go? Can we?"
George could see Rachel was overflowing with excitement. He was mildly surprised she didn't take wolf form and go tearing off for a run.
"Dad? Rachel's never been on a boat before," Jason offered, "And I really would like to see this boat of Jackie's also. For all the people coming, I don't think it's a rowboat."
"We've seen several larger boats at that lake," George reminded him. "Remember going on that run up there and chasing down those pigs?"
"Yeah, that was fun," Jason agreed. "Lots of exercise and dinner! Those porkers really tried hard to get away too. Wish we could do that more often."
"Only in the off season, we don't want to be seen," George said firmly.
"Yeah," Jason agreed sadly.
.
Although Kouta and Lucy had other plans, Yuka, Nana and Mayu wanted to go to the 'lake party'. By now, All of them were learning English fairly well. Sonya was able to get away from the factory, Mark had the day off, so did his sister's family.
Knowing the lake fairly well, Mark picked out a long cove near the northwestern side in a hilly area that was unoccupied, one of the few places that was still wild due to it was hard to get there on land. His family drove up to the dock where their boats were tied up, and loaded up the pontoon boat for the day's trip.
Jackie took Daniel, Nana, Mayu and Yuka in Christine. Louise stopped by Jason's house in Cameron's purple Jeep to Collect Jason and Rachel. They arrived at the parking lot for the dock to see Sonya's big black Excursion already there. IN getting out and unloading the supplies they brought, Jason and Rachel looked down on the dock and the boats floating on each side.
"Those are big," Jason noted. The one was flat topped sitting on pontoons. The other one looked like something one would see on the ocean.
Rachel asked, "Jackie, Which one's yours?"
"On the left, the one on the right is Mark and Sonya's," Jackie explained. She also noted her crew was coming up the path. Help, great! With everyone loaded down with coolers, groceries, mermaid tails and a few flats of drinks, they trooped down to the boats.
Rachel gaped upon seeing Sonya. She's never seen anyone that tall before, the woman was a giant!
Everyone was introduced. Mark explained he was going to lead them to another cove in a fairly isolated section of the lake. They all got on their boats, Jason and Rachel boated Jackie's boat with her, Louise, Yuka, Nana and Mayu. Jackie showed Jason and Rachel into the cabin as the Captain cast off.
"Wow," Jason said as they went down inside. "You have bedrooms in here too?"
"Yup, this boat was made to do long trips on the ocean. With enough supplies, we could spend weeks on the water," Jackie explained. "All the service stuff, water and fuel tanks are in the next deck down."
"Service stuff?" Jason asked.
"Yeah, the fresh water tank, dirty water tanks, fuel tanks, storage batteries, all the pumps, electrical breaker box, you know stuff like that," Jackie explained. "Engine room is in the back of the boat."
"You have everything here," Rachel said looking around.
The Captain came down. "Miss Connor, we are headed for a cove up on the north west side of the lake. There we will tie up with Mark's boat and deploy the anchor."
"Thank you, Captain," Jackie said. They exchanged bows.
Jason shook his head. "This boat must have been a boatload of money to buy."
"Actually, I got it for saving some people's lives," Jackie told him. "What really cost a lot was fixing it up. See, it was sinking and they were on it. I had to go out, plug the hole where it was leaking then push them to shore so they could get off."
"Why was it sinking?" Rachel asked.
"The motor blew and put a big hole in it," Jackie explained. "I also found other leaks they didn't even know about. Most of the bottom was full of water. The man who helped us said that guy didn't take care of it, he didn't even know the bottom deck was there!"
"Everything is fixed now, right?" Jason asked.
"Oh yeah, and the crew inspect everything to make sire everything works," Jackie said with a head bob.
.
It took them a half hour to get to the cove. On deck, they all watched the trees on either shore as they crept in. Nothing but trees on hillsides. No houses or other signs of civilization.
"This is a pretty place," Yuka said.
"Tails!" Nana said happily and grabbed her mermaid tail.
Jason and Rachel stared when Nana sat down, pulled her lower legs, just above her knees off and wiggled into her mermaid tail. The boats slowed to a stop, The Captain slid up next to the pontoon boat.
From the pontoon boat, Sonya clapped her hands and said, "No swimming beyond the end of the cove!"
Louise laughed and said, "Yeah, we don't want another boat-faced Bob!"
"We can run here!" Rachel said with a gleam in her eye.
"We can," Jason agreed. He then noticed small wavelets farther up in the cove. He scrutinized the bank they were coming from. "Hey, there's pigs up there."
"We could use them for Allie Gator!" Nana said.
"Yeah, we could, if we can drive them into the water, that would be perfect," Louise agreed.
"Hey guys, I got a plan," Jackie said with a smirk.
Getting the rowboat off the cabin, they got of down off the back so Jason and Rachel could row over to the shore and sneak up behind the pigs to scare them into the water. They then Jackie and Louise put their mermaid tails on and slipped off the back.
Getting to the shore, Jason used a tree to tie the rowboat up. He and Rachel took their clothes off. Jason grinned at Rachel. "You look really nice!" he beamed.
Rachel blushed. "Thank you! Let's go sneak up behind those pigs and get some." They shifted to wolf form and ran uphill to get behind the pigs at the shoreline as Nana, Jackie and Louise swam under water to get in front of the pigs.
Sneaking up on the half dozen pigs, only three were full grown. Jason noted long shapes under the water. He and Rachel charged, growling and barking loudly.
Jackie's plan worked. Surprised by the attacking wolves, the pigs jumped into the water to swim to the other side. when the adult pigs jumped in squealing, the little ones did also. Two adult pics were pulled under, then the third one was, followed by four piglets going under. After a moment, air bubbles came back up. Then Nana did, taking a breath. The last piglets turned back for the shore as they squealed out in terror. Coming close to the bank, Rachel jumped out and grabbed on, Jason grabbed another. The last one swam away from the bank and got pulled under.
Rachel and Jason ate their catches. The mermaids swam back to the boat most of the way under water to be sure all the rest of the pigs were drowned.
Back at the boat, Nana lifted herself up and piled the dead pigs on the back, then added Jackie and Louise's pigs to join the pile. She then got back in the water and swam.
Wolves ran, mermaids swam. they all had a good day out here in this cove.