Here's chapter 14....
'Come on Johnny' Virgil urged softly, 'come on. Get back in contact.'
It had been a minute, he and Scott had been sitting in silence. Sparing a glance at his older brother, Virgil noted Scott's eyes were closed and he was slowly rocking.
'Come on.. come on' he murmured again, 'please....'
John would be fine, he was resilient, he never wanted anyone to take care of him, he preferred to take care of himself. He'd always been that way. Virgil just hoped to God that he was taking care of himself now.
Gordon looked at his watch, counting the seconds since John had been out of contact.
'75, oh where is he?' he thought to himself.
'76, come on John, come on John.'
'77, please John'
'78, help him mom, send him back safely'
'79, Oh God don't take him.'
Gordon tried not to think about the pain his hand was in. He just didn't have the heart to tell Alan how hard he was squeezing it.
Alan squeezed Gordon's hand as the feeling of dread grew. He needed John, they all did, he was the fiery, independent one, who went into a rage when you were picked on, but taught you not to fight, he looked after everyone else but hated to be looked after himself, he was the tough guy on campus, but wouldn't steal one of grandma's cookies for fear of upsetting her. He had been the closest to their mother, but the one to make the least fuss when she died. Oh yes they needed John.
'Where is he?' Alan asked loudly, unable to contain himself any longer.
Gordon looked over, his expression bleak and worried.
'I don't know' he answered truthfully.
Scott waited and waited, where was John? He was supposed to come back into contact over a minute ago, his mind leapt to all sorts of conclusions,
'Please' he prayed, 'please don't take my brother.'
God wouldn't be cruel enough to take their mother and John so young, Scott attempted to console himself. He just wouldn't. Immediately his mind wandered back to that fateful day.............
Jeff had come to find Scott, the eldest, 'the responsible one', before he told the others. Scott remembered thinking that the situation just felt horribly unreal when his father had told him.
'I'm so sorry son' he'd stammered , eyes red from crying, 'the truck hit her head on. Your mothers dead.'
It had been so final, so cruel. Scott had weeped in his father's arms and then from that day forward had become a surrogate parent to his brothers. His father had fallen apart and it had been up to Scott to hold everyone together.
He remembered the awfulness of telling his brothers their mother was dead and he remembered John's reaction.
Virgil and John had been sitting in the lounge, Virgil with Gordon who was then 6 on his knee. And John had Alan who was 4 on his back. When Scott entered the room both Virgil and John noticed the expression on his face and stared questioning looks on their own faces. Scott had felt terrible. They had all loved their mother so much, but it was to John he looked when he said the words. John had been the closest to Lucille, he and Gordon were a lot like their mother, in temprement. She had loved a joke and was very easy-going like Gordon, but if riled she was furious like John. John and his mother had a special relationship, they were both dreamers, they'd spend hours talking about nothing. Scott hadn't minded, he and Alan had a special relationship with their father as Scott was Jeff's heir and Alan could remember little of his mother. Gordon, Virgil (who had shared their mothers love of music) and John had been closer to their mother. No-one was left out.
'Mum's been in an accident.' Scott had said quietly, looking John in the eye.
John's 9 year old face creased in worry and confusion, 'is she alright?' he asked quietly.
'No Johnny' Scott had answered as carefully as he could, he was unsure how his brother would react. 'She died. I'm so sorry.' His own eyes welling in tears Scott had looked at each of his brothers.
Alan looked confused, unaffected. Scott knew he was too young to really understand.
Virgil looked horrified and pulled a hysterical Gordon to him. 'I want my mummy!' the 6 year old was shouting
John had just sat staring straight ahead of him, his face pale and expressionless, then he had slowly carried Alan over to Scott and walked from the room Leaving Scott to handle a crying 6 year old, a distraught 10 year old and a 4 year old, who kept saying,
'where's mummy, where's mummy..'
But John had come back just minutes later with their mother's jewellery box and Scott never forgot what he did. He opened it, let the sweet tune fill the air, took Gordon on his knee and gently sang the song their mother sang them all to sleep with.
'Lullaby and Goodnight with Angels so bright, and roses of red to pillow your head, slumber gently in peace in the dream land of sleep, slumber gently in peace in the dream land of sleep.'
Scott had been mesmerised John had soothed them all , but he had sounded so unbelievably heart-broken. But he'd never cried, even at the funeral he'd never cried. And with time the pain seemed to ease for them all, but John had remained closed off and Scott couldn't recall him ever dealing with his mother's death. Scott vowed that if John got through this he'd make sure he talked to him about their mother.
'Please be ok Johnny' he whispered squeezing his eyes shut tightly and rocking slowly.
John felt like TB5 was being pulled in a thousand different directions , she was thrashing and spinning and John had to take a deep breath to gain his equilibrium, when the craft spun upside down. He almost cheered aloud when he felt himself slowly return steady. He'd done it, he was through the atmosphere.
He couldn't help himself , he let out a truimphant 'wahooooo!', and then radioed in with his brothers.
'Hey guys' he said, knowing they'd all be listening , 'you ought to try that ride, it's worse than the Spacer Racer at Ballmirth Beach!'
Gordon let out his breath in a whoosh, 'You goofball!' he said once he had calmed his heartbeat down.
'Hey watch who you're talkin to Kid.' John answered happily.
'I would if he bothered to radio in on time!' Gordon fired back with a laugh.
'Yeah Johnny' Alan replied, his grip relaxing on Gordon's hand, 'that was way over a minute, you must be losing your touch!'
'You wait till I get you two out of there' John said mockingly, 'I'm gonna kick some serious Tracy ass!'
'The only one you can kick is your own!' Gordon retorted cheekily, 'You're nearly as bad as Scott!' Though he knew that wasn't true, John was very strong, he worked out in TB5 in his spare time and he had a lot of it.
'Hey I resent that!' Scott managed to say weakly. Jeez his brothers were playing havoc with his heart strings today. He could not wait for the rescue to be over.
'Nah their right Scott!' Virgil said, relief written all over his face, 'I mean 28's a little old, next thing you know it'll be the big three oh and you might as well buy a cane!'
Scott chose to ignore Virgil's comment and decided to return it with a rude hand gesture. Virgil for once, shut up.
'Ok John.' Scott said authoratatively, 'what's your ETA?'
'ETA, 10 minutes Scott' John replied.
Gordon and Alan looked at each other and beamed, they had well over twenty minutes of air left. It seemed that they would be alright after all. It was then that Alan noticed Gordon's hand, it was red and bleeding.
'Gordo!' he exclaimed, 'what happened to your hand?'
Gordon looked at Alan with a smile, 'never say I don't do anything for you.' He answered softly.
Alan suddenly realised that it had been him who had hurt Gordon's hand.
'Oh I love you, you big idiot!' He said , exaggerating and squeezed Gordon hard.
'Friends again are we?' asked Scott's voice from the radio.
Virgil smiled as he listened to his brothers continue their banter. He was glad that John was going to be there soon. He didn't know how long TB2's fuel would continue to last, but he assumed that an hour and a half more and she would be empty. His heart was slowly regaining it's normal beat, when John hadn't got back in contact it had been really hairy and for a moment Virgil had feared he may lose the brother he stayed up to talk with and whinged about Scott's overprotective tendancies with. The brother he would gladly give his life for.
Sighing happily to himself as he looked out at the fiery ocean, he saw TB1continuing it's circling, still in flames. Most of her was a blackened mess, Virgil hoped that Scott would be kept distracted. He wouldn't want to see that sight.
8 minutes later Scott received a radio message from John
'ETA 2 minutes Scott' he said
'FAB John.' He replied.
Scott sat back in his chair and allowed himself the luxury of actually breathing normally again. He felt like he'd been holding his breath since the mission began, 2 long hours ago.
He propped his feet up on TB2's control panel as he let her run on auto- pilot, and shut his eyes.
He was almost relaxed when Virgil gave a loud gasp.
Whirling Scott spun to look at his brother. Virgil was staring in horror out of the window, Scott wondered what he was looking at and quickly went to join him.
'Virg..' he began, but he broke off as he saw what his brother was looking at.
TB1, or what remained of her a black, smouldering shell had stopped her flight, the engines had given out. She was dropping vertically nose down, like an out of control missile into the flaming sea.
A feeble-sounding 'No!' was all Scott could manage before she plunged into the area of ocean, he had last seen his brothers.
RMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, a loud groaning had Gordon and Alan's heads snapping upwards.
'What the hell....' Alan said to Gordon.
Gordon knew something was coming down at them, he had experience in the sea and knew it wasn't supposed to make sounds like that. He had just a split second to react.
'ALAN' he yelled running at his brother, 'GET DOWN!' With that he threw himself on top of Alan as fire reined down on them and the submarine imploded in on itself........
AHHHHHHHH! Well I figured I haven't done a cliffhanger for a while, still don't know how this story'll end , could go either way. I haven't decided.
Here it goes.....
WILL ALAN AND GORDON BE FLATTENED LIKE PANCAKES?
WILL JOHN ARRIVE IN TIME TO SAVE THEM?
HAS SCOTT'S OWN CRAFT KILLED HIS BROTHERS?
FIND OUT IN CHAPTER 15 OF 'THE TROUBLE WITH THE TRACYS'.
WOOHOO CHRISTMAS TIME PREVIEWS, MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU GUYS!
'NO, NO , NO , NOOOOOOOO!' Scott screamed as he got only static from the radio again. It was as if he crumbled in on himself and he slowly sank to the floor of TB2 and dissolved into floods of tears.
Virgil was horrified,
'SCOTT!' Virgil crouched down and shook his brother's shoulders, panic mirrored in his own eyes,
'YOU HAVE TO PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!'
'What Virg?' Scott pleaded, raising his tear-stained face to his brothers, 'I can't take any more of this, I can't help you all anymore, how can I help them?'
Virgil was lost for words, he didn't know what to do, but seeing Scott like this was killing him, Scott was always so together, he knew what to do. The man in front of him seemed like a stranger.
Over the sound of Scott's wrenching sobs he heard the familiar hum of TB5's thrusters. 'You're too late Johnny' he said to himself, 'you're too late.'
I WOULD LIKE MORE REVIEWS, YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LIKE THEM. THANKS YOU GUYS, YOU'RE ALL GREAT, ESPESCIALLY ALIEN AND CGRUBER WHO ALWAYS REVIEW, THANX GUYS YOUR COMMENTS ARE INVALUABLE!
'Come on Johnny' Virgil urged softly, 'come on. Get back in contact.'
It had been a minute, he and Scott had been sitting in silence. Sparing a glance at his older brother, Virgil noted Scott's eyes were closed and he was slowly rocking.
'Come on.. come on' he murmured again, 'please....'
John would be fine, he was resilient, he never wanted anyone to take care of him, he preferred to take care of himself. He'd always been that way. Virgil just hoped to God that he was taking care of himself now.
Gordon looked at his watch, counting the seconds since John had been out of contact.
'75, oh where is he?' he thought to himself.
'76, come on John, come on John.'
'77, please John'
'78, help him mom, send him back safely'
'79, Oh God don't take him.'
Gordon tried not to think about the pain his hand was in. He just didn't have the heart to tell Alan how hard he was squeezing it.
Alan squeezed Gordon's hand as the feeling of dread grew. He needed John, they all did, he was the fiery, independent one, who went into a rage when you were picked on, but taught you not to fight, he looked after everyone else but hated to be looked after himself, he was the tough guy on campus, but wouldn't steal one of grandma's cookies for fear of upsetting her. He had been the closest to their mother, but the one to make the least fuss when she died. Oh yes they needed John.
'Where is he?' Alan asked loudly, unable to contain himself any longer.
Gordon looked over, his expression bleak and worried.
'I don't know' he answered truthfully.
Scott waited and waited, where was John? He was supposed to come back into contact over a minute ago, his mind leapt to all sorts of conclusions,
'Please' he prayed, 'please don't take my brother.'
God wouldn't be cruel enough to take their mother and John so young, Scott attempted to console himself. He just wouldn't. Immediately his mind wandered back to that fateful day.............
Jeff had come to find Scott, the eldest, 'the responsible one', before he told the others. Scott remembered thinking that the situation just felt horribly unreal when his father had told him.
'I'm so sorry son' he'd stammered , eyes red from crying, 'the truck hit her head on. Your mothers dead.'
It had been so final, so cruel. Scott had weeped in his father's arms and then from that day forward had become a surrogate parent to his brothers. His father had fallen apart and it had been up to Scott to hold everyone together.
He remembered the awfulness of telling his brothers their mother was dead and he remembered John's reaction.
Virgil and John had been sitting in the lounge, Virgil with Gordon who was then 6 on his knee. And John had Alan who was 4 on his back. When Scott entered the room both Virgil and John noticed the expression on his face and stared questioning looks on their own faces. Scott had felt terrible. They had all loved their mother so much, but it was to John he looked when he said the words. John had been the closest to Lucille, he and Gordon were a lot like their mother, in temprement. She had loved a joke and was very easy-going like Gordon, but if riled she was furious like John. John and his mother had a special relationship, they were both dreamers, they'd spend hours talking about nothing. Scott hadn't minded, he and Alan had a special relationship with their father as Scott was Jeff's heir and Alan could remember little of his mother. Gordon, Virgil (who had shared their mothers love of music) and John had been closer to their mother. No-one was left out.
'Mum's been in an accident.' Scott had said quietly, looking John in the eye.
John's 9 year old face creased in worry and confusion, 'is she alright?' he asked quietly.
'No Johnny' Scott had answered as carefully as he could, he was unsure how his brother would react. 'She died. I'm so sorry.' His own eyes welling in tears Scott had looked at each of his brothers.
Alan looked confused, unaffected. Scott knew he was too young to really understand.
Virgil looked horrified and pulled a hysterical Gordon to him. 'I want my mummy!' the 6 year old was shouting
John had just sat staring straight ahead of him, his face pale and expressionless, then he had slowly carried Alan over to Scott and walked from the room Leaving Scott to handle a crying 6 year old, a distraught 10 year old and a 4 year old, who kept saying,
'where's mummy, where's mummy..'
But John had come back just minutes later with their mother's jewellery box and Scott never forgot what he did. He opened it, let the sweet tune fill the air, took Gordon on his knee and gently sang the song their mother sang them all to sleep with.
'Lullaby and Goodnight with Angels so bright, and roses of red to pillow your head, slumber gently in peace in the dream land of sleep, slumber gently in peace in the dream land of sleep.'
Scott had been mesmerised John had soothed them all , but he had sounded so unbelievably heart-broken. But he'd never cried, even at the funeral he'd never cried. And with time the pain seemed to ease for them all, but John had remained closed off and Scott couldn't recall him ever dealing with his mother's death. Scott vowed that if John got through this he'd make sure he talked to him about their mother.
'Please be ok Johnny' he whispered squeezing his eyes shut tightly and rocking slowly.
John felt like TB5 was being pulled in a thousand different directions , she was thrashing and spinning and John had to take a deep breath to gain his equilibrium, when the craft spun upside down. He almost cheered aloud when he felt himself slowly return steady. He'd done it, he was through the atmosphere.
He couldn't help himself , he let out a truimphant 'wahooooo!', and then radioed in with his brothers.
'Hey guys' he said, knowing they'd all be listening , 'you ought to try that ride, it's worse than the Spacer Racer at Ballmirth Beach!'
Gordon let out his breath in a whoosh, 'You goofball!' he said once he had calmed his heartbeat down.
'Hey watch who you're talkin to Kid.' John answered happily.
'I would if he bothered to radio in on time!' Gordon fired back with a laugh.
'Yeah Johnny' Alan replied, his grip relaxing on Gordon's hand, 'that was way over a minute, you must be losing your touch!'
'You wait till I get you two out of there' John said mockingly, 'I'm gonna kick some serious Tracy ass!'
'The only one you can kick is your own!' Gordon retorted cheekily, 'You're nearly as bad as Scott!' Though he knew that wasn't true, John was very strong, he worked out in TB5 in his spare time and he had a lot of it.
'Hey I resent that!' Scott managed to say weakly. Jeez his brothers were playing havoc with his heart strings today. He could not wait for the rescue to be over.
'Nah their right Scott!' Virgil said, relief written all over his face, 'I mean 28's a little old, next thing you know it'll be the big three oh and you might as well buy a cane!'
Scott chose to ignore Virgil's comment and decided to return it with a rude hand gesture. Virgil for once, shut up.
'Ok John.' Scott said authoratatively, 'what's your ETA?'
'ETA, 10 minutes Scott' John replied.
Gordon and Alan looked at each other and beamed, they had well over twenty minutes of air left. It seemed that they would be alright after all. It was then that Alan noticed Gordon's hand, it was red and bleeding.
'Gordo!' he exclaimed, 'what happened to your hand?'
Gordon looked at Alan with a smile, 'never say I don't do anything for you.' He answered softly.
Alan suddenly realised that it had been him who had hurt Gordon's hand.
'Oh I love you, you big idiot!' He said , exaggerating and squeezed Gordon hard.
'Friends again are we?' asked Scott's voice from the radio.
Virgil smiled as he listened to his brothers continue their banter. He was glad that John was going to be there soon. He didn't know how long TB2's fuel would continue to last, but he assumed that an hour and a half more and she would be empty. His heart was slowly regaining it's normal beat, when John hadn't got back in contact it had been really hairy and for a moment Virgil had feared he may lose the brother he stayed up to talk with and whinged about Scott's overprotective tendancies with. The brother he would gladly give his life for.
Sighing happily to himself as he looked out at the fiery ocean, he saw TB1continuing it's circling, still in flames. Most of her was a blackened mess, Virgil hoped that Scott would be kept distracted. He wouldn't want to see that sight.
8 minutes later Scott received a radio message from John
'ETA 2 minutes Scott' he said
'FAB John.' He replied.
Scott sat back in his chair and allowed himself the luxury of actually breathing normally again. He felt like he'd been holding his breath since the mission began, 2 long hours ago.
He propped his feet up on TB2's control panel as he let her run on auto- pilot, and shut his eyes.
He was almost relaxed when Virgil gave a loud gasp.
Whirling Scott spun to look at his brother. Virgil was staring in horror out of the window, Scott wondered what he was looking at and quickly went to join him.
'Virg..' he began, but he broke off as he saw what his brother was looking at.
TB1, or what remained of her a black, smouldering shell had stopped her flight, the engines had given out. She was dropping vertically nose down, like an out of control missile into the flaming sea.
A feeble-sounding 'No!' was all Scott could manage before she plunged into the area of ocean, he had last seen his brothers.
RMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, a loud groaning had Gordon and Alan's heads snapping upwards.
'What the hell....' Alan said to Gordon.
Gordon knew something was coming down at them, he had experience in the sea and knew it wasn't supposed to make sounds like that. He had just a split second to react.
'ALAN' he yelled running at his brother, 'GET DOWN!' With that he threw himself on top of Alan as fire reined down on them and the submarine imploded in on itself........
AHHHHHHHH! Well I figured I haven't done a cliffhanger for a while, still don't know how this story'll end , could go either way. I haven't decided.
Here it goes.....
WILL ALAN AND GORDON BE FLATTENED LIKE PANCAKES?
WILL JOHN ARRIVE IN TIME TO SAVE THEM?
HAS SCOTT'S OWN CRAFT KILLED HIS BROTHERS?
FIND OUT IN CHAPTER 15 OF 'THE TROUBLE WITH THE TRACYS'.
WOOHOO CHRISTMAS TIME PREVIEWS, MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU GUYS!
'NO, NO , NO , NOOOOOOOO!' Scott screamed as he got only static from the radio again. It was as if he crumbled in on himself and he slowly sank to the floor of TB2 and dissolved into floods of tears.
Virgil was horrified,
'SCOTT!' Virgil crouched down and shook his brother's shoulders, panic mirrored in his own eyes,
'YOU HAVE TO PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!'
'What Virg?' Scott pleaded, raising his tear-stained face to his brothers, 'I can't take any more of this, I can't help you all anymore, how can I help them?'
Virgil was lost for words, he didn't know what to do, but seeing Scott like this was killing him, Scott was always so together, he knew what to do. The man in front of him seemed like a stranger.
Over the sound of Scott's wrenching sobs he heard the familiar hum of TB5's thrusters. 'You're too late Johnny' he said to himself, 'you're too late.'
I WOULD LIKE MORE REVIEWS, YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LIKE THEM. THANKS YOU GUYS, YOU'RE ALL GREAT, ESPESCIALLY ALIEN AND CGRUBER WHO ALWAYS REVIEW, THANX GUYS YOUR COMMENTS ARE INVALUABLE!