MY MOTHER'S SON
Two hours after Lucas got the phone call about his mother, he sat stony faced on the couch staring out in deep thought. Miguel had returned to the boat about half an hour ago to advise the rest of the crew what had happened and to let Commander Ford know that he would be in charge of the vessel until short leave was up.
Bridger and Kristen were determined to stick with Lucas over this difficult time in his life. They knew that they would have to travel to the funeral with Lucas and then stay on for the wake and any other forced family reunions that needed to take place. Lucas would also have to stick around for the will reading and someone would need to be appointed to handle Cynthia's estate and assets.
The added difficulty for Bridger and Kristen was that they knew nothing at all about Cynthia or her family. They had not met any of them and Lucas never told them about them.
Bridger sat beside Lucas whilst he was on the couch, not talking, but just letting the teenager know that he was there if they needed him. Grief was something different for everybody. Some people screamed and shouted, others broke down and cried for days, some just tried to imagine that it never happened and that it would just go away like a bad dream.
None of them knew how Lucas felt about death. It wasn't a subject that was usually discussed. Lucas had cried but now just sat in silence lost in his own thoughts.
"You know it's strange Captain" Lucas finally said in a very low voice. He still had the odd tear running down his face on and off but for the most part he was getting himself under control. He was now sitting up on the couch with the blanket draped around his shoulders.
"What's strange Lucas?" Bridger now asked, truly wanting to know everything that Lucas was feeling with his sense of loss. He knew how hard it was to loose somebody close to you. When he had lost Robert and then Carol, Bridger felt like he had lost a part of him. It was an empty space that just seemed to linger inside you forever. Even time couldn't cover the vast void left behind sometimes.
"Here I am sitting here crying my eyes out over somebody I barely knew" Lucas said with a touch of cynicism in his words. "She never cared, or if she did she never told me. Now they tell me that she is dead. I don't know how she died but you would think it wouldn't matter at all to me."
"Sometimes you can forget you loved someone Lucas. Just because she didn't show you didn't mean she never loved you. A mother and son bonding is one that takes lot to break, even if the two have been separated for a long time. You probably never stopped loving her either. You just pushed the feelings aside because there has been so many other emotions to deal with." Kristen now said, trying to give the stricken boy some solace and comfort.
"I don't know if I am ready to deal with something like this right now" Lucas now said, getting of the couch and beginning to walk around the room.
"We will be right there for you pal. Whatever you need you just say it. We won't let you go through this thing alone." Bridger now said as he tried to reassure Lucas that everything would work out in the end.
"No you don't understand" Lucas now said, the anxiety clearly showing on his face. "If I go there, I have to face her family and probably some of my dad's. If I start having to deal with them then it only drags up the past again. You know that my past is something that I have been trying to forget. If I go to her place it's only going to resurface all over again." he now explained, running a nervous hand through his tussled blond hair.
"Just when I think I can walk away from it all and start my life over again and leave all of that behind me, something else sticks it right back in my face all over again and reopens old wounds." Lucas now said with a little annoyance.
"You don't have to go anywhere if you don't want to Lucas" Kristen replied. "I know it's your mother, but if you don't feel like facing your family, I am sure they will understand. We could come up with a plausible excuse for you and you could deal with things in your own time. All the legal stuff can wait too."
"No, it's not that I don't want to go. I do. Or rather I think I have to. But just thinking of her family puts my nerves on edge. You really don't know what they are like. You don't know what a lunatic family I came from before SeaQuest." Lucas answered.
"Do you want us to go with you?" Bridger now asked, not really intending for the teenager to go alone anyway.
"Would you? Would all of you?" he now asked, addressing the three of them including Ben Krieg.
"You mean you want me to come along too Lucas?" Ben now asked, a little surprised that the teenager was offering for him to come as well.
"More than you know. Once you meet some of my mother's family you'll see why. I might need a bodyguard or something from one or more of them. I am telling you they are absolutely crazy." Lucas now said in a joking tone.
"Seems as though you fit in perfectly to this family" Ben now said, trying to get the teenager to relax a little.
"Do you know of somewhere we can all stay during the funeral and things Lucas?" Bridger now asked, thinking of some of the more practical arrangements that needed to be made tonight for the travel tomorrow.
"Oh don't worry about accommodation. We can stay at mom's house. It's huge, got something like 23 bedrooms and about 5 bathrooms. Plenty of room for all of us. I will ring Henry and tell him that we are coming. He can meet us at the airport and pick us all up."
Inwardly, Bridger and Ben both whistled at the extravagance of Cynthia's home. With Lucas being such a down to earth regular kid, it was hard to remember that he came from a background of money and power. There had never been any love and affection but plenty of money to buy material things and people. When he left, the awful memories of his childhood made Lucas want to forget all about the luxury he was afforded. Sometimes you could be the most filthiest rich of people when it came to money, but a pauper when it came to such things as feelings, understanding and love.
"Henry?" Kristen now asked in curiosity. They needed to start knowing who all these other people were in Lucas's life prior to SeaQuest.
"Mom's butler. He did everything for her. Besides, he is the only one I really trust out of any of the family. Strictly speaking he is not family, but he looked after me all the times I stayed there. He made it bearable through the tougher times with my father."
Ben had returned to the boat only long enough to pack some clothing and then returned to Bridger's house on the island to stay the night. It was going to be an early start in the morning so it was easier if they all left from the same place.
As Bridger opened the door for Ben when he returned, Lucas could be heard talking on the telephone to someone else. Krieg gave the Captain a questioning look to ask who it was.
"The butler fellow I think" Bridger mouthed back, keeping their voices down so as to catch as much of the conversation on the phone as possible.
"That's great Henry. I can't wait to see you again tomorrow. I just wished the timing and circumstances were better" the teenager now said to the caller on the other end of the line. "You just make sure that you use Uncle Walter to ward off all of the hoarders before I get there tomorrow. I don't want anything being taken or souvenired before we hear what mom's wishes were" he now added on a more serious note.
"See you at the airport Henry" Lucas now said and hung up.
"Everything okay Lucas?" Kristen asked as she noted a definite scowl on the teenager's face as he walked away from the telephone.
"Just goes to show you doesn't it that some people only hold money and possessions above all else" Lucas now really talking to himself before realising that he had said it out loud.
Lucas looked up to see blank looks on the faces of the other people in the room as if to say "What are you talking about Lucas?"
"Henry says that some of mom's family have turned up already and started fighting and haggling over what they are going to take from the house once the funeral is over. He says that he will make sure that nobody takes a brass dime from there until we talk to mom's lawyer and see what was written in her will." Lucas now explained. "I don't even know if mom had a legal will, especially after everything that has happened between her and my father. With the divorce she cleaned him out totally but I don't know what happened after he went to jail."
"Money and wealth seem to bring out the worst in some people Lucas" Bridger now commented. He knew that this was exactly the situation that Lucas was trying to avoid but it looked as though it was already happening before he even got there.
Bridger and Kristen awoke early the next morning and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Ben Krieg was also just getting up from his makeshift bed on the couch.
"He's outside on the patio" Ben said as he nodded his head towards the door. "I think he has been there most of the night. I remember waking up about 3.30am this morning and he was sitting there then" he now said with a touch of sadness in his voice. "I don't think he has gotten much sleep".
"I'll make some coffee before we go" Kristen now offered knowing that Bridger would want to go outside and talk to the distressed teenager.
Bridger didn't say anything but did like Kristen expected him to do and headed towards the front door and patio. He opened and closed the front door reasonably quietly so as not to startle Lucas.
When he got outside on the patio, he could see Lucas sitting on one of the wicker cane chairs, looking out over the ocean, lost deep in thought again.
"Lucas" Bridger said in a soft voice.
The teenager was startled slightly, and turned towards the sound of his name. He saw it was the Captain and quickly wiped the tears from his face away on his shirt sleeve.
"Hey, it's okay. You don't need to hide them from me" Bridger said in a gentle voice, putting a comforting arm around the boy's slim shoulders. He felt Lucas's body crumple from tiredness and stress into his embrace.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to burden you with all of this" Lucas finally said. He looked up at the Captain. Bridger could see the bloodshot eyes and tear-stained face.
"You're not doing anything that we wouldn't expect Lucas. You need to let out your emotions, not bottle them all up inside of you. Believe me. I tried to hide away from the world when I lost Robert and Carol and look where I ended up, living on a isolated island, hoping that nobody would ever come and find me again." Bridger now said, trying to give the boy some reassurance that the pain he was feeling was perfectly normal.
He wouldn't let Lucas shut himself out from everybody like he had tried to do. If Bill Noyce hadn't come and rescued him from his own despair and got him to join SeaQuest, he never would have met Kristen or the rest of the crew. He never would have met this gifted yet vulnerable young man sitting with him now and would have never known what it felt like to love somebody else again.
About an hour later, the three of them found themselves winging their way to Beverley Hills, Los Angeles. Lucas sat in the window seat and just stared out the window the whole trip. Ben on the other hand grumbled all the way about having to sit in the aisle seat. By the time the flight landed in Los Angeles at about lunch time, Kristen was ready to do him physical harm if she had to put up with his antics a minute longer.
Bridger stuck pretty close to Lucas as they walked out of the terminal gate and headed towards the baggage collection area. He left the kid standing on his own briefly while he and Ben went to grab the luggage from the revolving conveyor belt.
"Everybody freeze" came a low sounding voice from them all. That's exactly what Bridger, Ben and Kristen did for a moment while they tried to locate where the voice was coming from. Needless to say that a few other passengers had also stopped to see where the voice was coming from. They didn't know whether it was coming from airport staff or one of the security personnel in the airport or not.
Ben looked at Lucas and saw the kid lift his head towards where the voice was coming from. It was a little different though as they noticed the slight tugging of a smile on the corners of his mouth as he recognized the owner of the voice.
"I thought I told you to freeze Mr" the voice came again as Lucas now took a few steps forward. Bridger and Kristen relaxed slightly as they saw recognition on Lucas's face at the mystery voice. Other passengers had started to move about again and going about their own way.
Lucas now stopped in the middle of the terminal and was facing somebody dressed in a suit about 20 metres away from him. The pair of them looked as though they were about to have the last shoot out at the O.K. Corral all over again.
Lucas played along and put his hands in his pockets as though they were pistols in a gun-holster. He stood stony faced, trying to give the best Clint Eastwood impersonation he could. The other man was now taking on a similar pose.
"Do you feel lucky punk?" Lucas now said in a very poor Clint clichéd sounding voice.
"Damn right I feel lucky" came the curt reply from the other man. Then in the blink of an eye the pair of them had brought their hands out as though they had drawn guns on each other. Lucas blew the tops of his fingers as though he had fired the fatal bullet. The man in the suit clutched at his chest as though being mortally wounded and then did the final death scene before laying flat on the floor as it dead.
Ben found the whole act to be hysterical and even Bridger and Kristen had to chuckle at the antics being played out before them. It was only when Lucas found himself in familiar surroundings and with people that he totally trusted that he gave into his urges to be a kid again and did these crazy and outrageous things.
For a minute you could have been fooled by the young man into thinking that he was just here to have some fun and not here to attend the funeral of his mother.
Lucas walked over to the man who was still laying on the floor. The pair of them were getting strange looks from passers by would thought that they were totally nuts. He playfully kicked the man's leg as if to check whether he was dead or not. Lucas didn't notice the man open his eyes a crack to see where he was.
Without warning, the man's hand snaked out and grabbed at Lucas's ankle, yanking it from underneath him and sending the teenager to the floor. Lucas gave a startled yelp as he landed heavily on his behind.
"Why you....." he said and now started playfully punching into the man on the floor.
The two off them now got up and dusted themselves off and turned to face Ben and the others. They felt slightly embarrassed and saw the raised eyebrow expressions on the faces of the Captain and Kristen.
"Um Captain, Ben and Kristen, this is Henry Brown, mom's butler" Lucas now said as he did the formal introductions.
"Nice to meet you Mr Brown" Bridger now said in perfect politeness.
"Henry please" the butler now interrupted before anybody said anything else. "I am pleased to finally meet all of Lucas's friends. He has told me some about you. Not enough I am afraid though because our contact seems to be less frequent lately"
"Come on Henry, stop the chit-chat, let's get going." Lucas now barked at the older man. The butler however didn't even flinch and knew it all to be part of their playful, friendly natured way.
"Yes Sir" Henry now retorted as he came fully to attention and gave the teenager a full military salute.
Despite the reason they were here, Bridger and the others couldn't help but laugh along with the lines that were coming back and forth between the two friends. They soon came to realise how good a friendship they must have had in the past. They were at least grateful to know that somebody was there for Lucas when he was living at home.
The badgering between Lucas and Henry never stopped from the time they meet each other at the airport to the time, nor during the entire trip to Lucas's mothers house. It was all in good fun and Ben was almost laughing himself silly at times with the words they said to each other. It was good to see Lucas a little relaxed before the traumatic event of his mother's funeral to be held tomorrow.
Soon the car started heading down a long street filled with very expensive houses. Kristen and Bridger found themselves awing in wonder that Lucas had connections to such places. These were the houses that you saw for movie stars and other rich people.
The car now pulled into a very ornate circular driveway that had immaculately clipped lawns and gardens.
Lucas got out and found himself staring at the house in front of him. It brought back so many memories for him, good and bad. There were times he had run through this place laughing all the way when Henry was chasing him and then there were the other times were he would be curled in a ball and whimpering in pain on the floor just before his father delivered another blow to his beaten body for something trivial he had done.
Henry saw the troubled looking eyes and knew that the teenager had mixed feelings about the place. Just like his mother. There were a lot of good and bad memories about her too and now he was being forced to relive them all over again.
"I am here for you Lucas" Henry now said as he came to stand beside the teenager.
Ben and Kristen couldn't help but look at Bridger and note that the butler seemed to be taking over the role that the Captain had been doing for quite a while now. Bridger didn't mind at all though. It was only natural with something as tragic as this that Lucas might turn to someone else for support. If it wasn't him this time that was fine. Bridger was sure that he was still needed. He didn't think that Lucas had asked him to come along only to shut him out when they got there.
At the end of the day Bridger was certain that Lucas was going to need everyone of them to get over his mother's death.
"Everybody else is out at the moment Lucas so we don't need to worry about them for quite a while. I will take you all in and get you settled in your rooms and then we can sit down and talk about a few things" Henry now said in a more sullen tone. The laughter was gone now from his face and his eyes as he contemplated what he was going to have to tell them all very shortly.
"What's been going on here Henry? Tell me the truth" Lucas now asked as he turned to his friend for a source of honesty so he could start to try and understand why something like this had happened.
"Not out here. Let's just go inside and get settled first. There is much to talk about before tomorrow" Henry now said and started leading Lucas and his party towards the front door of the house.
Ben and Bridger had grabbed the luggage between then again and followed. As they neared the door though everyone could hear the distinct sound of a bugle blowing from somewhere in the distance. It was quite a way away and everybody had to listen intently before realising what was making the sound. It was almost like the bugle used on an old fashioned fox-hunt.
Lucas and Henry turned towards each other and swallowed hard, the teenager seeming to lose a little bit of his colour even.
"Oh no" Henry now said as he turned to the boy.
"Oh no" Lucas now repeated in agreement.
Ben, Kristen and Bridger just looked at the pair of them with confusion on their faces.
"The elephants are coming" Lucas now shouted and started running towards the side of the house.
"He's right you know" Henry now said to Ben and the others and then shouted his own "The elephants are coming" and started running after Lucas around the side of the house.
"What the hell are the elephants and why the hell are they coming?" Ben now asked Bridger as he continued to stare after Lucas and the butler. He was sure the stress had gotten to them both and they were just crazy.
TO BE CONTINUED.............
What are the elephants you might ask yourself..... You will have to keep reading. Just a bit of fun before the story really gets going. The next chapter will focus on the funeral and Lucas finding out that his mother was murdered. A whole cast of characters start to come into the picture from Cynthia's family and it becomes a process of elimination of who did what before any other mishaps begin happening.......
I am about to become a real bad Jessica Fletcher and solve the murder mystery. Was it the cook, the maid or the butler or the neighbour across the street?
JULES
Two hours after Lucas got the phone call about his mother, he sat stony faced on the couch staring out in deep thought. Miguel had returned to the boat about half an hour ago to advise the rest of the crew what had happened and to let Commander Ford know that he would be in charge of the vessel until short leave was up.
Bridger and Kristen were determined to stick with Lucas over this difficult time in his life. They knew that they would have to travel to the funeral with Lucas and then stay on for the wake and any other forced family reunions that needed to take place. Lucas would also have to stick around for the will reading and someone would need to be appointed to handle Cynthia's estate and assets.
The added difficulty for Bridger and Kristen was that they knew nothing at all about Cynthia or her family. They had not met any of them and Lucas never told them about them.
Bridger sat beside Lucas whilst he was on the couch, not talking, but just letting the teenager know that he was there if they needed him. Grief was something different for everybody. Some people screamed and shouted, others broke down and cried for days, some just tried to imagine that it never happened and that it would just go away like a bad dream.
None of them knew how Lucas felt about death. It wasn't a subject that was usually discussed. Lucas had cried but now just sat in silence lost in his own thoughts.
"You know it's strange Captain" Lucas finally said in a very low voice. He still had the odd tear running down his face on and off but for the most part he was getting himself under control. He was now sitting up on the couch with the blanket draped around his shoulders.
"What's strange Lucas?" Bridger now asked, truly wanting to know everything that Lucas was feeling with his sense of loss. He knew how hard it was to loose somebody close to you. When he had lost Robert and then Carol, Bridger felt like he had lost a part of him. It was an empty space that just seemed to linger inside you forever. Even time couldn't cover the vast void left behind sometimes.
"Here I am sitting here crying my eyes out over somebody I barely knew" Lucas said with a touch of cynicism in his words. "She never cared, or if she did she never told me. Now they tell me that she is dead. I don't know how she died but you would think it wouldn't matter at all to me."
"Sometimes you can forget you loved someone Lucas. Just because she didn't show you didn't mean she never loved you. A mother and son bonding is one that takes lot to break, even if the two have been separated for a long time. You probably never stopped loving her either. You just pushed the feelings aside because there has been so many other emotions to deal with." Kristen now said, trying to give the stricken boy some solace and comfort.
"I don't know if I am ready to deal with something like this right now" Lucas now said, getting of the couch and beginning to walk around the room.
"We will be right there for you pal. Whatever you need you just say it. We won't let you go through this thing alone." Bridger now said as he tried to reassure Lucas that everything would work out in the end.
"No you don't understand" Lucas now said, the anxiety clearly showing on his face. "If I go there, I have to face her family and probably some of my dad's. If I start having to deal with them then it only drags up the past again. You know that my past is something that I have been trying to forget. If I go to her place it's only going to resurface all over again." he now explained, running a nervous hand through his tussled blond hair.
"Just when I think I can walk away from it all and start my life over again and leave all of that behind me, something else sticks it right back in my face all over again and reopens old wounds." Lucas now said with a little annoyance.
"You don't have to go anywhere if you don't want to Lucas" Kristen replied. "I know it's your mother, but if you don't feel like facing your family, I am sure they will understand. We could come up with a plausible excuse for you and you could deal with things in your own time. All the legal stuff can wait too."
"No, it's not that I don't want to go. I do. Or rather I think I have to. But just thinking of her family puts my nerves on edge. You really don't know what they are like. You don't know what a lunatic family I came from before SeaQuest." Lucas answered.
"Do you want us to go with you?" Bridger now asked, not really intending for the teenager to go alone anyway.
"Would you? Would all of you?" he now asked, addressing the three of them including Ben Krieg.
"You mean you want me to come along too Lucas?" Ben now asked, a little surprised that the teenager was offering for him to come as well.
"More than you know. Once you meet some of my mother's family you'll see why. I might need a bodyguard or something from one or more of them. I am telling you they are absolutely crazy." Lucas now said in a joking tone.
"Seems as though you fit in perfectly to this family" Ben now said, trying to get the teenager to relax a little.
"Do you know of somewhere we can all stay during the funeral and things Lucas?" Bridger now asked, thinking of some of the more practical arrangements that needed to be made tonight for the travel tomorrow.
"Oh don't worry about accommodation. We can stay at mom's house. It's huge, got something like 23 bedrooms and about 5 bathrooms. Plenty of room for all of us. I will ring Henry and tell him that we are coming. He can meet us at the airport and pick us all up."
Inwardly, Bridger and Ben both whistled at the extravagance of Cynthia's home. With Lucas being such a down to earth regular kid, it was hard to remember that he came from a background of money and power. There had never been any love and affection but plenty of money to buy material things and people. When he left, the awful memories of his childhood made Lucas want to forget all about the luxury he was afforded. Sometimes you could be the most filthiest rich of people when it came to money, but a pauper when it came to such things as feelings, understanding and love.
"Henry?" Kristen now asked in curiosity. They needed to start knowing who all these other people were in Lucas's life prior to SeaQuest.
"Mom's butler. He did everything for her. Besides, he is the only one I really trust out of any of the family. Strictly speaking he is not family, but he looked after me all the times I stayed there. He made it bearable through the tougher times with my father."
Ben had returned to the boat only long enough to pack some clothing and then returned to Bridger's house on the island to stay the night. It was going to be an early start in the morning so it was easier if they all left from the same place.
As Bridger opened the door for Ben when he returned, Lucas could be heard talking on the telephone to someone else. Krieg gave the Captain a questioning look to ask who it was.
"The butler fellow I think" Bridger mouthed back, keeping their voices down so as to catch as much of the conversation on the phone as possible.
"That's great Henry. I can't wait to see you again tomorrow. I just wished the timing and circumstances were better" the teenager now said to the caller on the other end of the line. "You just make sure that you use Uncle Walter to ward off all of the hoarders before I get there tomorrow. I don't want anything being taken or souvenired before we hear what mom's wishes were" he now added on a more serious note.
"See you at the airport Henry" Lucas now said and hung up.
"Everything okay Lucas?" Kristen asked as she noted a definite scowl on the teenager's face as he walked away from the telephone.
"Just goes to show you doesn't it that some people only hold money and possessions above all else" Lucas now really talking to himself before realising that he had said it out loud.
Lucas looked up to see blank looks on the faces of the other people in the room as if to say "What are you talking about Lucas?"
"Henry says that some of mom's family have turned up already and started fighting and haggling over what they are going to take from the house once the funeral is over. He says that he will make sure that nobody takes a brass dime from there until we talk to mom's lawyer and see what was written in her will." Lucas now explained. "I don't even know if mom had a legal will, especially after everything that has happened between her and my father. With the divorce she cleaned him out totally but I don't know what happened after he went to jail."
"Money and wealth seem to bring out the worst in some people Lucas" Bridger now commented. He knew that this was exactly the situation that Lucas was trying to avoid but it looked as though it was already happening before he even got there.
Bridger and Kristen awoke early the next morning and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Ben Krieg was also just getting up from his makeshift bed on the couch.
"He's outside on the patio" Ben said as he nodded his head towards the door. "I think he has been there most of the night. I remember waking up about 3.30am this morning and he was sitting there then" he now said with a touch of sadness in his voice. "I don't think he has gotten much sleep".
"I'll make some coffee before we go" Kristen now offered knowing that Bridger would want to go outside and talk to the distressed teenager.
Bridger didn't say anything but did like Kristen expected him to do and headed towards the front door and patio. He opened and closed the front door reasonably quietly so as not to startle Lucas.
When he got outside on the patio, he could see Lucas sitting on one of the wicker cane chairs, looking out over the ocean, lost deep in thought again.
"Lucas" Bridger said in a soft voice.
The teenager was startled slightly, and turned towards the sound of his name. He saw it was the Captain and quickly wiped the tears from his face away on his shirt sleeve.
"Hey, it's okay. You don't need to hide them from me" Bridger said in a gentle voice, putting a comforting arm around the boy's slim shoulders. He felt Lucas's body crumple from tiredness and stress into his embrace.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to burden you with all of this" Lucas finally said. He looked up at the Captain. Bridger could see the bloodshot eyes and tear-stained face.
"You're not doing anything that we wouldn't expect Lucas. You need to let out your emotions, not bottle them all up inside of you. Believe me. I tried to hide away from the world when I lost Robert and Carol and look where I ended up, living on a isolated island, hoping that nobody would ever come and find me again." Bridger now said, trying to give the boy some reassurance that the pain he was feeling was perfectly normal.
He wouldn't let Lucas shut himself out from everybody like he had tried to do. If Bill Noyce hadn't come and rescued him from his own despair and got him to join SeaQuest, he never would have met Kristen or the rest of the crew. He never would have met this gifted yet vulnerable young man sitting with him now and would have never known what it felt like to love somebody else again.
About an hour later, the three of them found themselves winging their way to Beverley Hills, Los Angeles. Lucas sat in the window seat and just stared out the window the whole trip. Ben on the other hand grumbled all the way about having to sit in the aisle seat. By the time the flight landed in Los Angeles at about lunch time, Kristen was ready to do him physical harm if she had to put up with his antics a minute longer.
Bridger stuck pretty close to Lucas as they walked out of the terminal gate and headed towards the baggage collection area. He left the kid standing on his own briefly while he and Ben went to grab the luggage from the revolving conveyor belt.
"Everybody freeze" came a low sounding voice from them all. That's exactly what Bridger, Ben and Kristen did for a moment while they tried to locate where the voice was coming from. Needless to say that a few other passengers had also stopped to see where the voice was coming from. They didn't know whether it was coming from airport staff or one of the security personnel in the airport or not.
Ben looked at Lucas and saw the kid lift his head towards where the voice was coming from. It was a little different though as they noticed the slight tugging of a smile on the corners of his mouth as he recognized the owner of the voice.
"I thought I told you to freeze Mr" the voice came again as Lucas now took a few steps forward. Bridger and Kristen relaxed slightly as they saw recognition on Lucas's face at the mystery voice. Other passengers had started to move about again and going about their own way.
Lucas now stopped in the middle of the terminal and was facing somebody dressed in a suit about 20 metres away from him. The pair of them looked as though they were about to have the last shoot out at the O.K. Corral all over again.
Lucas played along and put his hands in his pockets as though they were pistols in a gun-holster. He stood stony faced, trying to give the best Clint Eastwood impersonation he could. The other man was now taking on a similar pose.
"Do you feel lucky punk?" Lucas now said in a very poor Clint clichéd sounding voice.
"Damn right I feel lucky" came the curt reply from the other man. Then in the blink of an eye the pair of them had brought their hands out as though they had drawn guns on each other. Lucas blew the tops of his fingers as though he had fired the fatal bullet. The man in the suit clutched at his chest as though being mortally wounded and then did the final death scene before laying flat on the floor as it dead.
Ben found the whole act to be hysterical and even Bridger and Kristen had to chuckle at the antics being played out before them. It was only when Lucas found himself in familiar surroundings and with people that he totally trusted that he gave into his urges to be a kid again and did these crazy and outrageous things.
For a minute you could have been fooled by the young man into thinking that he was just here to have some fun and not here to attend the funeral of his mother.
Lucas walked over to the man who was still laying on the floor. The pair of them were getting strange looks from passers by would thought that they were totally nuts. He playfully kicked the man's leg as if to check whether he was dead or not. Lucas didn't notice the man open his eyes a crack to see where he was.
Without warning, the man's hand snaked out and grabbed at Lucas's ankle, yanking it from underneath him and sending the teenager to the floor. Lucas gave a startled yelp as he landed heavily on his behind.
"Why you....." he said and now started playfully punching into the man on the floor.
The two off them now got up and dusted themselves off and turned to face Ben and the others. They felt slightly embarrassed and saw the raised eyebrow expressions on the faces of the Captain and Kristen.
"Um Captain, Ben and Kristen, this is Henry Brown, mom's butler" Lucas now said as he did the formal introductions.
"Nice to meet you Mr Brown" Bridger now said in perfect politeness.
"Henry please" the butler now interrupted before anybody said anything else. "I am pleased to finally meet all of Lucas's friends. He has told me some about you. Not enough I am afraid though because our contact seems to be less frequent lately"
"Come on Henry, stop the chit-chat, let's get going." Lucas now barked at the older man. The butler however didn't even flinch and knew it all to be part of their playful, friendly natured way.
"Yes Sir" Henry now retorted as he came fully to attention and gave the teenager a full military salute.
Despite the reason they were here, Bridger and the others couldn't help but laugh along with the lines that were coming back and forth between the two friends. They soon came to realise how good a friendship they must have had in the past. They were at least grateful to know that somebody was there for Lucas when he was living at home.
The badgering between Lucas and Henry never stopped from the time they meet each other at the airport to the time, nor during the entire trip to Lucas's mothers house. It was all in good fun and Ben was almost laughing himself silly at times with the words they said to each other. It was good to see Lucas a little relaxed before the traumatic event of his mother's funeral to be held tomorrow.
Soon the car started heading down a long street filled with very expensive houses. Kristen and Bridger found themselves awing in wonder that Lucas had connections to such places. These were the houses that you saw for movie stars and other rich people.
The car now pulled into a very ornate circular driveway that had immaculately clipped lawns and gardens.
Lucas got out and found himself staring at the house in front of him. It brought back so many memories for him, good and bad. There were times he had run through this place laughing all the way when Henry was chasing him and then there were the other times were he would be curled in a ball and whimpering in pain on the floor just before his father delivered another blow to his beaten body for something trivial he had done.
Henry saw the troubled looking eyes and knew that the teenager had mixed feelings about the place. Just like his mother. There were a lot of good and bad memories about her too and now he was being forced to relive them all over again.
"I am here for you Lucas" Henry now said as he came to stand beside the teenager.
Ben and Kristen couldn't help but look at Bridger and note that the butler seemed to be taking over the role that the Captain had been doing for quite a while now. Bridger didn't mind at all though. It was only natural with something as tragic as this that Lucas might turn to someone else for support. If it wasn't him this time that was fine. Bridger was sure that he was still needed. He didn't think that Lucas had asked him to come along only to shut him out when they got there.
At the end of the day Bridger was certain that Lucas was going to need everyone of them to get over his mother's death.
"Everybody else is out at the moment Lucas so we don't need to worry about them for quite a while. I will take you all in and get you settled in your rooms and then we can sit down and talk about a few things" Henry now said in a more sullen tone. The laughter was gone now from his face and his eyes as he contemplated what he was going to have to tell them all very shortly.
"What's been going on here Henry? Tell me the truth" Lucas now asked as he turned to his friend for a source of honesty so he could start to try and understand why something like this had happened.
"Not out here. Let's just go inside and get settled first. There is much to talk about before tomorrow" Henry now said and started leading Lucas and his party towards the front door of the house.
Ben and Bridger had grabbed the luggage between then again and followed. As they neared the door though everyone could hear the distinct sound of a bugle blowing from somewhere in the distance. It was quite a way away and everybody had to listen intently before realising what was making the sound. It was almost like the bugle used on an old fashioned fox-hunt.
Lucas and Henry turned towards each other and swallowed hard, the teenager seeming to lose a little bit of his colour even.
"Oh no" Henry now said as he turned to the boy.
"Oh no" Lucas now repeated in agreement.
Ben, Kristen and Bridger just looked at the pair of them with confusion on their faces.
"The elephants are coming" Lucas now shouted and started running towards the side of the house.
"He's right you know" Henry now said to Ben and the others and then shouted his own "The elephants are coming" and started running after Lucas around the side of the house.
"What the hell are the elephants and why the hell are they coming?" Ben now asked Bridger as he continued to stare after Lucas and the butler. He was sure the stress had gotten to them both and they were just crazy.
TO BE CONTINUED.............
What are the elephants you might ask yourself..... You will have to keep reading. Just a bit of fun before the story really gets going. The next chapter will focus on the funeral and Lucas finding out that his mother was murdered. A whole cast of characters start to come into the picture from Cynthia's family and it becomes a process of elimination of who did what before any other mishaps begin happening.......
I am about to become a real bad Jessica Fletcher and solve the murder mystery. Was it the cook, the maid or the butler or the neighbour across the street?
JULES