Author's Note - Thank you for your on-going reviews of this story.Thanks to my friend Water Phoenix for the research carried out. I hope you enjoy the story of the youngest Tracy son, the one you dislike the most! mcj
CHAPTER SIX - ALAN - THE WILD CHILD
Well there they go off into space in that magnificent red rocket ship that is known as Thunderbird Three. Two hundred and eight seven feet of pure power and speed has commenced its blast off from earth and the Astronaut who sits in control has now radioed to Scott that lift off is imminent. Scott Tracy sits at his Father's desk. The Apprentice is now totally in charge of International Rescue.
I stand at the doorway and watch as the sleek craft powers out of its hangar deep within the earth on its way to Thunderbird Five. Today is a special day. Not only is it my birthday but for the first time since he tested the ship at the beginning, my son Jeff is manning the controls of this extraordinary Thunderbird. His son John and his Chief Engineer Brains accompany him.
Normally John would be guiding the craft on its journey into space but today he has been asked by his Father to stand down to be the co-pilot.
Jeff Tracy has given in to his yearning to fly in space again.
John Tracy will learn a lot as he watches his Father at the controls. His Father was the best pilot in the business; exceptional and accurate with nerves of steel. John Tracy also has those skills but they are skills that he has learned. Only his Father and his eldest brother have been blessed with them naturally.
When Thunderbird Three returns, another son will be seated beside Jeff acting as his co-pilot. The skills of this son have also been learned and none of them without a major argument. This son could certainly learn more than a thing or two but he doesn't listen to his Father long enough to learn anything!
That other son is my grandson Alan. He is his Father's wild child and you will soon understand why.
I have no doubt he will leave Thunderbird Five arguing with his Father about wanting to pilot Thunderbird Three himself. He will point out quicker and what he believes are better ways to do everything his Father does. He will complain about being cooped up in the satellite for the past two weeks. He will whine that the journey is taking too long at the current speed and will insist his Father go faster. He will want to use the radio to check out the latest baseball scores. He will generally drive everyone on that craft to absolute distraction for the whole journey back to base.
When Thunderbird Three finally lands he will stride out of the rocket ship in a huff as he always does and reluctantly travel up to the villa on the same couch as his Father and his brother. He will still be arguing the point. Once he has returned from the hangar, he will fix his baby blue eyes straight ahead and stride with his usual arrogance into the lounge room.
Satisfied he has made his entrance, his will look at me and his whole face will change. The Tracy smile will light up and accentuate those blonde good looks and he will come to kiss his Grandma. It will be a kiss that looks brash to his Father but it doesn't fool me. It is a kiss of quiet love well hidden behind a brazen exterior.
I know Alan Tracy loves his Grandma and I certainly love that young man. He is the special Grandson I have raised from the beginning.
He will tell me he missed me, then pick me up and whirl me around until I ask him to stop. He will pull my glasses from my face and hold them out of my reach. His Father will rebuke him and tell him to grow up and leave his poor ageing Grandma alone. He will snap at his Father and then start arguing again about not being able to pilot Thunderbird Three.
His Father will roll his eyes and turn his back on him, giving up the argument. His brothers will raise their eyebrows at his never-ending aggravation of their Father and wait for the certain altercation that is to follow.
Everyone on Tracy Island has now heard the commotion and realizes what has happened.
Jeff Tracy's youngest son, the wild child, is home. The tornado that hit the Tracy family twenty-one years ago who has continued to create havoc and mayhem ever since the day he was found to be on the way.
After he's finished arguing with his Father, his blue eyes will then scan the room looking for something else.
Not finding what he is looking for, he will tell us he is going into the kitchen to find something to eat because the food was so bad in the satellite. He says he knows he will find something decent in the kitchen at least. The trouble is he thinks we all think he's talking about food. But we all know what he hopes to find in the kitchen or should we say whom?
Miss Tin-Tin Kyrano; his young lady.
As I watch Thunderbird Three disappear through the atmosphere and out of my view, I contemplate the scene I have just played out in my mind knowing its pretty well close to the mark. When he walks in here tonight to surprise me he'll be arguing, nothing surer. He'll kiss me and twirl me around, nothing surer. He'll look for the little Kyrano girl, nothing surer.
And then he'll disappear with her. Let me tell you right now, there isn't anything surer than that!
But I have a sneaking suspicion my young Grandson is completely unaware that his grandmother knows all about what's going on between the two of them and she is keeping an eye on them.
I think I need to keep more than a close eye on them at the moment.
The little Kyrano girl has been looking a bit anxious lately.
I may be wrong but I think that she has missed a month since he left to go to Thunderbird Five. They haven't been intimate for very long and they think no-one knows that they have but they have been together long enough for something to have happened.
As you can see, the name wild-child speaks for itself.
My youngest grandson is a Tracy son like his brothers; he is brave like his brothers, talented like his brothers. However when it comes down to being anything else like his brothers you can forget the comparison right now.
We don't know where in the heck we got him from. He drives this Father around the bend!
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THE WILD FATHER
Alan Shepherd Tracy caused more than just a little upset in the Tracy family when he was found to be on the way. He antagonized his Father right from the very beginning of his life.
Strangely enough, his story originally began back when I was visiting his two-month-old brother Gordon who had finally come home from hospital after his premature birth. Jeff was driving me to the house talking of his new little son when he suddenly remembered Lucy had given him an errand to run at the drug store.
"Wait here Mom." he said as he got out of the car, "It'll only take me a minute."
Sure enough within five minutes he handed me the packages and we were on our way.
"Needing things for the baby?" I asked in conversation.
"Yeah Lucy asked me to get a couple of tins of formula and some diapers while I was out. We sure go through them. I think I should have gone into the diaper business instead of aircraft parts."
I nodded and we both laughed.
"Still you won't have to worry any more." I said directly. "You did take my advice now didn't you Jeff?"
He looked at me with guilt.
"I'll get around to it Mom. I've just been really busy with the business and driving to and from the hospital to see the baby over the last eight weeks. I simply don't have the time to take a few days off to get it done."
I shook my head. He really did need to have himself seen to. Whatever they'd been using last time hadn't worked too well. If it had I wouldn't be on my way to see my fourth grandson!
I still remembered Grant's words about Jeff having more children than he planned if he didn't learn to control himself and let's face facts. He now had four instead of the planned three. What was to stop five or even six? Grant must have been turning in his grave at the thought of it.
"It's OK Mom, you don't have to worry." he assured me confidently. "Lucy's taking care of things at the moment. In fact she made me drive her straight from the maternity hospital to the drug store seven weeks ago to fill her prescription. I couldn't believe she took the first pill in the car-park right there in front of me. I think she was trying to tell me something!"
"Jeff!" I berated him. "That was too early for you to ask that poor little girl to worry about such things. What were you thinking?"
He smiled mischievously. Lucy's sense of fun had rubbed off on him over the years despite his reserved nature.
"Thinking? Gee Mom what's the problem? I let her unpack her bags first!" he joked.
"Jeff Tracy you should be ashamed of yourself!" I scolded and gave him a light hearted slap.
"Oh lighten up Mom! You know what's she's like with things like this. Remember when I wanted to have Virgil? I took me over eighteen months to talk her into going off those pills. I can tell you if she doesn't want any more babies, we won't be having them. I've learned that over the years with her if nothing else."
Jeff shouldn't have felt so reassured. I noticed where Lucy kept those pills of hers in the bathroom and many a night went by that I noticed she had been too tired to remember to take them.
Add my son to that mistake and you had a recipe for disaster.
Naturally the disaster came and it couldn't have come at a worse time for either of them.
By the time Lucy Tracy started to feel sick in the mornings again and began to worry why her cycles had not resumed after having her fourth son, it was too late. A fifth son was growing within her and she had to explain herself to Jeff.
Jeff, who had just mortgaged three quarters of his whole company to invest in Asia and would lose everything if he didn't proceed,. Explain that instead of being in Asia, she needed him to be in Boston to help her cope with yet another Tracy baby due only thirteen months after the last one. Explain that she had been too tired with the children and had forgotten to "take care of things" as she promised she would.
Well the argument happened and he pushed her to have a termination. Stubborn as ever, she refused and things between them suddenly went to bad and then plummeted to worse. He blamed her for her carelessness. She blamed him for her tiredness which had caused the mistake.
Devastated by the new pregnancy and his reaction to it, she threatened to leave him and take his sons with her. He worried himself sick then, knowing his headstrong young wife would do just that if he pushed her too far. He loved his little family too much to lose it and his business still took second place to the wife he adored and his four little boys. He forced himself to be happy about the new baby and agreed to suspend his operations temporarily. It broke the back of the Company and the future of the Tracy family lay in limbo as the result of it.
The wild child had made his presence felt already.
Jeff was furious with himself for failing to heed my well-intentioned advice.
Two weeks after he stormed out of the house in fury at the news, he was sat in the Doctor's Office. He forced himself to make the time. He wanted to be absolutely sure there wasn't ever going to be a sixth Tracy baby.
However Jeff, you left it too late. You had already made your wild child!
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WILD ARRIVAL
The arrival of my fifth Grandson was the most shattering day of Jeff's life as he lost the beloved mother of his children to a badly handled delivery and a caesarean section that went dreadfully wrong right in front of his eyes.
Alan had proven to be a wild child in the womb, turning himself inside out and back to front until he managed to wrap his cord good and proper around his neck. Unbeknown to the midwife during his delivery he was slowly suffocating inside Lucy as she laboured to give birth to him. By the time the midwife realized something was wrong there was little time to carefully handle the operation. The little baby needed to be delivered fast.
According to his Father, fast was not the word to describe the speed in which his son was brought into the world. Two minutes from the first incision, he was dragged from inside his exhausted mother in an asphyxiated state while Jeff sat terrified for them both in the corner of the room. His little son went to intensive care as the doctor feared permanent damage to his brain through lack of oxygen. His beloved wife went to intensive care with irreparable damage to her body.
Alan Shepherd Tracy nearly lost his life that day. Sadly for us all, his mother lost hers.
Lucy Tracy never got the chance to hold her fifth son in her arms. Unlike with Scott and Virgil she never had the opportunity to stroke his little face and marvel at its perfection. She never had the opportunity to be disappointed that he wasn't a little girl and then bond with him by offering her breast as she had done with John. Unlike Gordon she never had the opportunity to shed tears of worry at putting him through the trauma of a caesarean birth and then watch him struggle for his life in an incubator.
I promised her faithfully before she died that I would hold her little boy and love him for her. She knew I meant it and I did. I have never failed her to this day.
Sadly for our little Alan he spent the first week of his life being cared for by the nurses at the hospital. Boston had a large maternity unit and it was very understaffed. There was no time to give special consideration to the little Tracy baby who had lost his mother so tragically.
I still say that Alan learned all of his bad and untracy-like habits in that one week he lay in the hospital alone waiting for his Daddy to arrange his mother's funeral. I didn't have time to go to the hospital, not with so much else taking priority at that dreadful time. Jeff did check on the progress of his son each evening but the tiny newborn still spent his first days of life devoid of any kind of close contact.
At the time when he should have been adjusting to the gentle touch and familiar smell of his mother he was being mechanically fed, winded, changed and put back in his crib. He was left to lay unattended in the corner of the nursery until the next time he was due for the same routine. He quickly learned if he wanted attention he had to make a fuss. So he decided to make a fuss about everything and he's been doing it ever since! I still say it. That week was the start of his undisciplined behaviour!
The first time I ever held my grandson was after we brought him home from the hospital after his mother's funeral. The first thing he did to his Father was upset him. I'd never heard a baby scream quite as hysterically as this one and I ran about frantically trying to prepare a bottle to quiet him while Jeff walked him up and down in a vain attempt to stop the noise.
I finally settled myself on the couch with this little boy of Lucy's and held him close to me to feed while Jeff attended to the other children. Despite the fact that he was a greedy baby and was drinking his bottle at record speed, he snuggled into my body desperately; his newborn instinct for human contact finally being satisfied. He buried himself so close to me that I couldn't even see him properly.
When he finally slept, I managed to get a good look at the youngest son of Jeff Tracy. He was certainly a cute little thing, about the same size as Virgil, but with no distinct resemblance to either of his parents. He looked like having the makings of blonde hair, which was a relief. I was starting to wonder if there were any other shades of colouring Jeff Tracy could produce with the same woman. I felt sad looking at the bruising that was still evident on his tiny face from his traumatic delivery. I stroked his little head and began thinking about just how heartbreaking this whole situation was for my son and how scared he must be feeling knowing he had to raise this baby on his own.
I had held myself together through the tragedy until that moment. I don't know what, but something happened inside me as I held that sweet little baby who would never see his mother smile at him. The magnitude of our family's loss suddenly came crashing in on me like a tidal wave causing me to let my guard down and cry for the first time since she had died. I cried for Lucy, for Jeff and for little Alan. Three people who never got to bond together as a family. I still say Alan would have been a different child if she had mothered him like his other brothers. Her love for her children had been so complete.
Suddenly the blue eyes flew open. The little face screwed up. The screaming started. He had found something else to complain about right at the time I was trying to sympathize with him. There was no time for me to keep crying with that din going on. I ran around frantically again trying to find where I had put the diapers. I finally attended to that problem only to have him protest then because he had a tummy ache from drinking his bottle too fast! By the time he settled down with that, it was time to feed him again.
This scene replayed itself in our household all day, every day, all night, and every night for months. He led us on one merry dance back then. He had no sleep. We had no sleep. We lived for every second day when he had exhausted himself so much that he slept for eight hours straight. Even then we checked on him anxiously to check he hadn't gone and died on us. Naturally when we did that we woke him up and the whole thing started all over again.
He wore his Father out totally back then. He wore me out too, but six weeks after he was born he gave me a special reason to forgive him.
As I held my little blonde grandson in the middle of one sleepless night he gave me that beautiful Tracy smile of his for the first time. It melted my heart.
Alan Tracy still wears his Father out and I still melt whenever I see that smile. It's magic.
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WILD NOTIONS
Well my name is Josie and I know I'm his grandmother but I have to say right here and now that whilst I've seen some wild youngsters in my time none were as wild as this youngest Tracy son. From the moment he walked to his Daddy, this child was into everything, causing havoc and upset amongst the whole household. He'd managed to do that well and truly before he walked I might say but it was worse now.
Alan had grown into a fine looking little toddler with huge baby blue eyes and flossy blonde hair with a hint of Lucy's curls. His smile was dazzling and instant. However mischief and mayhem was stamped across his forehead and his angelic looks didn't fool me for a minute. He loved his four brothers with a passion and the four of them reacted to their youngest brother in totally different ways.
Scott virtually adopted him as a son. He fed him and nursed him as a baby and for years if I ever needed to put him to bed late in the evening I knew where to look. I always found Alan asleep on the couch cradled in his eldest brother's arms, his little blonde head against Scott's strong young body. It was evidence of their close bond. Alan still turns to Scott most of the time in preference to his father if he is worried or needs advice about anything and Scott is always there.
Scott is always there for all of them.
Virgil loved him and seemed to be the only one who could get him to sit still for more than two minutes. I used to laugh watching Alan stop dead in his tracks when Virgil started to play the piano. "Music soothes the savage beast" I'd think to myself as I saw him calm down and sit quietly next to his brother to listen.
John was a different story altogether. I'm sure deep down inside he loved his little brother but John still associated Alan with the loss of his mother. Alan followed John around the house and John hated every minute of it. Blonde hair followed blonde. Blue eyes followed blue. But no relationship ever developed between them. John reluctantly accepted his little brother but his true feelings surfaced every now and then with an occasional resentful shove.
Gordon was the brother that he really attached himself to. Thirteen months apart, totally different in appearance and personality, the two of them bonded from the beginning and played together happily. They would often be found fast asleep together on the same bed, the blonde head resting against the red. I suppose that's natural when two are born so close together. That closeness still exists between them now. I know they talk about a great many things together especially the ladies but as a Grandma who's learned more than a thing or two from eavesdropping on them over the years I don't listen anymore!
Alan also revealed some of his not so lovable traits as he stared to grow. The whole family found out the hard way that our youngest little boy had inherited one mighty dangerous thing from his Grandfather; a very short fuse and one hell of a temper when anyone crossed him. He was Grant all over in that department and even Jeff commented how much like his father Alan was.
I knew then and there that these two were never going to get along if that was the case. Jeff had always obeyed his Father but he had never agreed with him.
It didn't take long for me to see how right I was about Jeff and his youngest son.
No matter what Jeff did to try and get some peace and quiet, Alan figured out a way of interrupting him. It didn't help that Jeff spent much of Alan's early years away from home rebuilding his business and the little boy missed him. He had a fascination with his Father and seemed to have some sort of sixth sense when it came to knowing when Jeff was tired, irritable and in no mood for him. Of course that was when Alan wanted to be with Daddy.
"Daddy, can you come and throw the ball to me?" the five year old would ask after Jeff had just returned from a gruelling week-long business trip in Japan and a long flight home cooped up alone in his small plane.
Poor Jeff would be attempting to eat his dinner and trying not to fall asleep at the table.
"Alan. Daddy's tired. I'm sorry." he would reply. "I throw it for you tomorrow I promise. I'll get up early if you like."
"Daddy why not now?" Alan would complain.
"No Alan. Not now." Jeff would reiterate firmly. "I said I'd throw it for you tomorrow."
"But Daddy I want you to do it now!" Alan would insist, not willing to take no for an answer.
"Stop it Alan!" Jeff would snap. "I said I would do it and I will."
Alan's eyes would darken and in a fit of temper he would sweep his father's dinner plate and cognac glass off the table with his hand.
"No Daddy. I said now!"
The plate, the expensive glass and its equally expensive contents would crash to the ground while Alan stood there defiantly wanting his own way. You can imagine Jeff's face can't you? All hell would break loose in the kitchen as you can imagine. After the inevitable caning that followed and despite tears threatening to spill over at any moment Alan would lift his chin defiantly and say to his Father.
"It didn't hurt anyway Daddy."
That was our five year old wild-child; defiant, temperamental and determined to get his own way.
But underneath the tough exterior of that little boy beat a very loving heart that simply missed his Daddy and just wanted to be with him. I could sense it. Grandmas know these things.
The next year, Alan had grown up enough to notice the significance of his birthday to the sadness that filled our home each year as his Father dwelled on losing his mother.
"Grandma, why is Daddy always so sad on my birthday?" he asked me, hurt that Jeff had spent most of his special day yet again moping around the house and locked up in his room after their visit to the cemetery.
"Daddy really misses your mommy sweetie." I replied carefully.
Alan knew about his mother dying and knew enough about how you felt if you missed someone with his father being away from him so much, but no other details about his mother had been given to him by anyone.
"But why does he only miss her on my birthday?"
I knew I had to answer this child. He would persist until he got what he wanted out of me.
"Daddy is upset because she died on your birthday sweetie."
"Oh." he said in a sad little voice which showed he understood.
He then made the mistake of sharing his new information about his mother with Gordon. The two of them were trying to put together their own picture of Lucille in their minds with bits of information reluctantly given up by their Father and brothers and any other information they could get their hands on.
Gordon listened to the information and then, much to my alarm said,
"I know. Johnny says you killed mommy Alan."
As I tore into the room to straighten that out quick smart, I saw little Alan's face fall. He looked at his older brother with hurt written all over him, not knowing whether to cry or explode.
"I wouldna done that." he quivered, his chin trembling and his face starting to redden. "I wouldn't hurt no-one"
"Johnny said you did." Gordon replied ever ready to upset his highly strung little brother. "He was crying after breakfast and when I asked him why he said it was because you killed mommy and he missed her. You go ask him yourself Alan."
"I will then." Alan flared. "He's lying. I wouldn't do nothin' like that to my mommy."
I sat the two of them down right then and there and told them in no uncertain terms that John was wrong to say that. Their Mommy had died on Alan's birthday because she was sick and the Doctors couldn't make her better again; not because Alan had done anything wrong. Alan did not look convinced and his worried little expression made me mighty mad at young John.
I made it my business to have a quiet word with that young man! For a quiet nine year old he surprised me when he said with a directness I could only attribute to his Father.
"Mommy died because she was hurt when she had Alan at the hospital not because she was sick Grandma. I heard Daddy say so a while back to Mr. Baillie. My Daddy wouldn't lie to anyone."
Kevin Baillie was a lawyer Jeff had invited over for dinner one night to give him advice on a company matter. The young go-getting lawyer had seen Jeff's five little boys and the conversation turned around to Lucy and how she had died. Baillie actively urged him to sue the hospital for what happened to Lucy but his words fell on deaf ears as far as Jeff was concerned. The past was done. No amount of money could bring Lucy back so what was the point.
However it appeared Mr. Baillie's words seemed to have fallen on the wrong ears as well. Young ears that really didn't understand about legal matters. Young ears that were attached to a young mouth that should have been kept shut.
Sadly for Alan, it appeared he had been nearby when I spoke to John. A six year old could not comprehend that it had been medical negligence that had killed his mother. A six year old could only comprehend that he had somehow badly hurt his mother and now all of his brothers didn't have her because of it. A little six year old blamed himself.
Alan never let on he had heard what his brother said but his behaviour should have given me a clue that something was up. But it didn't. Jeff and I were so used to the wild-child we thought that it was just the way he was.
The little boy became more uncontrollable than ever. He exploded faster over the simplest of things. He swung out at anyone who crossed him. More plates got swept from the table as the little face confronted his Father. More canings followed.
More and more his defiant retort of "It didn't hurt anyway Daddy" failed to fool his Grandma. I could see it hurt him all right and not just in the seat of his pants. The little face would crumble into unhappy tears when he thought Daddy wasn't looking. However he didn't realise Grandma still was.
His Father shook his head and wondered what on earth he had done to be given this wild child to raise.
If only Jeff had realised what the problem was back then. The thought about his mother plagued Alan for years and he didn't confide in anyone. Thank goodness he's sorted it out with his Father now.
But as a Grandma who knows what's really underneath that arrogant, argumentative surface that is my grandson; I still say that Alan Tracy would have been a different person if he hadn't have lost his mother.
But he did. And the wild child was going to get even wilder yet.
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WILD ANTICS
Alan's close relationship with his brother Gordon was a good thing in many ways but in others it was a nightmare. For us that is. I've already told you about Gordon's practical jokes and Alan's role as his accomplice. The two of them made a formidable pair as they grew towards their teens.
They entered puberty within months of each other and one night Jeff sighed to me before dinner that it was time for him to give "that talk" yet again. He'd already gone through it three times and had decided that to save himself the grief of giving it another two times he'd give it to Gordon and Alan together.
Jeff had never been comfortable discussing sex with any of his sons. Lord knows why I thought to myself given the fact he had fathered five sons himself. Scott had listened with confusion at Jeff's first attempt which had been clumsy and all over the place, Virgil got a better version of it and could least understand what his Father was saying, and by the time he got to John, he'd just about got it down to a university lecture. John knew everything about himself and women within twenty minutes. Little did Jeff know what he was getting himself into with sons' numbers four and five!
I knew Jeff was going to be in trouble from the start when he called the two of them back after dinner and told them that he wanted to talk with them privately. Gordon was thirteen, Alan was twelve. Gordon knew what was coming. He'd been waiting for it with great expectation since his thirteenth birthday.
"Is it the sex talk Dad?" he asked with a wide mischievous grin. Alan had originally thought they were in for a caning for something and had opened his mouth to argue until he heard Gordon mention that. He looked at his Father with interest.
"Did you say you wanted me too Dad?" he asked and a grin bigger than his brother's stole across his features as his father nodded, reddened and looked across the table at me indicating he needed me to leave.
I made an excuse to get up from the table, muttering something about dishes to be done and laundry needing attention.
I know I shouldn't have listened to this but it was honestly hilarious and one of the most embarrassing moments of Jeff Tracy's entire life. I sat outside that dining room in silent hysteria from the moment my poor son opened his mouth and tried to explain to his two youngest sons about "life". I couldn't see their faces or how they were all interacting but the discussion was worth its weight in pure gold.
Jeff began with his usual throat clearing and dramatic silence; "Boys you're now thirteen and very soon you're going to see some changes in yourself."
"But I'm only twelve Dad." Alan interrupted.
"Alan you'll be thirteen in eight months."
"But I'm only twelve now." he interrupted again.
"OK you're only twelve but it won't be long before you'll see what I'm talking about."
"Will I still be twelve?" he interrupted the third time.
"Alan please keep quiet. I'm trying to talk to you."
"If it happens to him at twelve why didn't it happen to me at twelve?" Now it was Gordon's turn to interrupt.
"I didn't say it would happen to him at twelve did I?" Jeff asked. "I haven't even told either of you what's going to happen yet."
There was the dramatic silence again. The clearing of the throat again. He started again.
"Now as I said before. The two of you are going to see some changes in yourselves."
"Like what Dad?" Alan asked knowing full well what was coming next. He and Gordon had watched Scott, Virgil, and John before them and they knew exactly what was going to happen to them.
"Well, your voice is going to get deeper for one thing." he went on carefully, cringing at what was coming next. "And other parts of you will change."
"Yeah Alan maybe you'll grow a brain." Gordon teased getting his father off track again.
"Why don't you blow your brain out of your ass!" Alan retorted, knowing full well he wasn't allowed to speak like that in front of his Father.
"Don't say that Alan." Jeff admonished him. "Speak to your brother with respect."
"Anyway your ass is close enough to what Dad means anyway." Gordon joked.
"I know what Dad means!" Alan frowned. "I'm not stupid."
The dramatic silence again. Dear God Jeff I thought; please don't start from the beginning again.
"Now when that happens, there are going to be times when those parts will seem to be out of your control. Sometimes your thoughts might cause things to happen and sometimes nothing will. But you will definitely find you're going to be able to do things you could never do before."
"I hope I'm twelve when that happens." Alan exclaimed enthusiastically.
"You won't be twelve when that happens." Jeff said in a dead pan tone. "You'll probably be fourteen."
"I thought you said it happened at thirteen Dad!" Gordon said disappointed.
"No I said now that you're thirteen it might start to happen."
"But I'm only twelve." Alan chimed in.
"Boys!" Jeff snapped in frustration. "I'm trying to talk to you seriously."
"Were you fourteen?" Gordon asked his Father.
"I can't remember." Jeff replied curtly.
"Well you might have been thirteen then." Alan interrupted.
"I don't know what age I was boys but I know that I was certainly capable of it by the time I got to High School!" Jeff said exasperated.
Silence. "Oh Jeff what a mistake this was", I thought. I even started to wonder if I should go in like the cavalry and offer to save him from those two. The misery for him continued.
"Dad; are you going to tell us about girls too?" Alan asked.
I haven't told you about the relationship between our Alan and young Tin-Tin Kyrano yet but I will later on. Just take it from me that Tin-Tin was twelve too and Alan had noticed the changes in her little girl's body these past twelve months and had a fascination with them.
Jeff heaved an almighty sigh. "Yes I am Alan. I'm going to tell about girls and anything else you want to know if you give me the chance to get a word in edgewise."
"Tell us about the girls first." Gordon said. "And save the best till last."
"Girls are different to boys. "Jeff began and had to stop as both Alan and Gordon burst into uncontrollable laughter at his statement of the obvious. He must have glared at them as within ten seconds the laughter had subsided.
"That's the way nature intended it to be." he continued uncomfortably. "Girls bodies are made like they are so that boys like you will be attracted to them. And as I said before once that happens you could find yourself in a position where you feel certain urges."
Now it was Gordon's turn. "What sort of urges Dad?"
Silence again. My son Jeff may have been a wonderful business brain but he was no educator of young men in physical matters.
"Urges to be together." he finally said carefully.
"Do the girls feel the same urges then too?" Alan asked.
"Well I've never raised a daughter." Jeff admitted. "I don't know about when they feel them but girls do I suppose."
"I'm gonna ask Tin-Tin if she feels any urges." Alan said much to the absolute dismay of his Father.
"Indeed you won't!" Jeff threatened. "If you do, you'll get a caning from me!"
"How come she's changing anyway Dad? She's only twelve. Why do I have to be thirteen?"
"I don't know Alan. Girls change earlier than boys. They go through a lot more when they change than boys do."
"Like what Dad?" asked Gordon, for once in his life truly innocent.
"Gordon we're not talking about girls here, we're talking about boys." Jeff replied.
"No Dad you said we were talking about girls." Alan reminded him. "But anyway I know what happens to 'em."
Jeff went silent again, panic stricken at what this wild son of his was about to say.
"How do you know?" he frowned.
"Cos Tin-Tin's just got it for the first time a few weeks back."
"Got what Alan?" asked Gordon who knew nothing about that side of things and annoyed that Alan seemed to know more than he did.
"I'm not tellin' you. I promised her I wouldn't say anything. But I'm glad I'm not a girl."
"You're gonna tell me later." Gordon threatened. "Or I swear I'll beat your sorry ass."
"Watch your mouth Gordon..." Jeff started but he was cut short by his wild child.
"Gordo I'm not tellin'." Alan said stubbornly to his brother.
"Well I'll ask Tin-Tin then." Gordon said determinedly.
"The hell you will!" Alan burst out. "It's not somethin' she wants everyone to know about"
"Well you know." Gordon replied.
"I'm allowed to know. She's my friend." Alan snapped.
"Now both of you sit here and listen to me." Jeff exploded embarrassed beyond belief. "You'll say nothing about that to Tin-Tin. She's a young lady and has enough to worry about without the two of you asking her questions. I've got to tell you about all of this because it's serious for young men. Now keep quiet and let me say what I have to say."
The two of them quieted then and sat listening to the lecture. Until the how do you protect yourself part began. Jeff must have pulled out an example for them to see.
"Johnny's got some of those. " Gordon exclaimed. "They're in his drawer."
Alan had merely looked at his father and said disdainfully. "That's stupid. I'm not using that."
The lecture finally wound down until Jeff asked them if they had any questions to ask him. He winced as he waited. Finally it came and of course it came from the wild child.
"When did you have sex for the first time Dad?"
"When I had married your mother of course." Jeff lied as he left the room totally defeated and totally embarrassed.
I heard Alan say. "I'm not waiting until I'm that old."
There began the rumblings of the wild-child.
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WILD EXPERIENCES
True to his form, my grandson Alan did not wait until he was the age his Father "got married" to experience women. When his brother Gordon told him about his experience in the shower at the United States Swimming Championships, the fifteen year old actively sought his own first time. How do I know? It wasn't half obvious by the way he was looking at young Tin-Tin every minute of every day! After that night when Alan seemed to have such an intimate knowledge of young Tin-Tin's personal business, I watched him like a hawk at home. If he was looking for experience he certainly wasn't going to find it in that quarter!
Nevertheless he found it elsewhere and under the same circumstances as his brother John. It must go with the territory of being blonde or plain stupid I decided as Jeff tore out of the house like King Kong yet again after a call from the school principal. Alan had been caught out in full flight in the science lab, and not just with any student. It had to be the Principal's daughter. He was suspended as his brother was before him and Jeff spent nearly a whole week with that boy lecturing him from the time the sun came up to the time it went down. Fifteen years old; the youngest of all of them. I told Jeff it was disgraceful and he'd better do something about it.
Several months later he moved on to something else. Jeff had gone out of town on business and given Alan the job of sorting out all his engineering plans by the time he got back. It was no doubt a punishment for something and goodness knows what for but as the evening drew on I noticed that I hadn't seen Alan about. I remembered he had been given the task and thought he must be actually obeying his Father for a change. I worried he wasn't feeling well. Well I wasn't short of the mark!
I found that boy legless to say the least, feet up on the desk in his Father's study. Aircraft plans worth millions of dollars were in disarray around him. His Father's brand new bottle of bourbon was half empty.
"Hey there Josie." he had the nerve to say to me, "I'm just tidyin' up on the old man's plans. Wanna join me for a night cap?"
I saw red and barged into that study fuming like a volcano. I was not going to let this go on right under my nose.
"Night cap! I'll give you a night cap all right young man!" I roared, snatching up the bottle in one hand and Alan's ear in the other.
"Ow!" he complained and I told him I was glad that it hurt.
I railed at him. "If you think I'm too old to give you a good old fashioned lashing to your hind parts then you don't know me too well. I've never seen the likes of this. You're a disgrace Alan Tracy that's what. Now get yourself out of here now and into bed before I forget myself and forget I'm your Grandmother. Your Daddy will be furious if he finds out about this. "
I could imagine Jeff's reaction as I rolled the plans back into some semblance of order and tried to sort out his Office. I'd had enough of this young man's antics let me tell you. He had to be stopped and right now.
The next morning as he sat sheepishly at the breakfast table nursing one mighty sore head, I banged about the kitchen making my displeasure clearly known.
"Grandma, I'm really sorry about last night." he murmured, his face as pale as a dead mans ghost.
Sorry? Humph! I'd give him sorry!
I banged down a glass of home made hangover remedy on the table. It had always helped Grant and I didn't mind it myself when it was warranted.
"Drink that." I directed in a tone not to be argued with.
"I can't Grandma." he moaned. "I'll lose it I swear."
"Drink it!" I demanded and sat down opposite him as he did so. I looked him in the eye and grabbed his arm in a fierce grasp.
"Now you listen here to me good and proper Alan Tracy. You're a youngster out of control at the moment. First the women, now the drink. None of it's right and I'm not going to sit back here and see you ruin yourself for anyone. Your poor little mother entrusted you to me before she died and I'm damned if I'm going to let her down. You cut all this damned nonsense out this very minute or I swear you'll know what it's like to really deal with me. You got that young man?"
"Yes ma'am" he replied without lifting his head.
"I mean it young man." I glared.
"I know you do ma'am."
Well he might have gotten the point about the women and the drink but there was always another vice that this wild child could rustle up to tempt himself. He didn't settle down. Instead, he developed a passion for fast cars. Newly through his Driver's test he decided to see what it was like to break the sound barrier. Naturally he did it in his Father's brand new Porsche. You can imagine Jeff's face as the New York Police Department knocked on the door at two o'clock in the morning to return his precious Porsche and his not so precious at that moment teenage son requesting he be told to take more care on the road and carry his licence.
His Father had exploded right there and then on the spot. He thought Alan had been in bed but no, Alan had taken the keys and gone out in the middle of the night without a word.
"What the hell are you trying to prove Alan?" he fumed as his son stood, head down yet again, in front of him. "You can't just play things by the rules can you? Just once in your entire life would be a damned blessing for me! Can't you make my life less of a strain? I just don't understand you."
"I'm investing in my career Dad." he replied.
"Career? What career?"
"I'm not trying to give you grief Dad." he said matter-of factly. "I want to go on the circuit as a racing car driver after High School and I need to practice. Racing's the career I want. There's money to be made and good times to be had. I'm serious."
Oh dear, I thought watching Jeff's face turn six shades of scarlet. When did this ever end?
Racing car Driver? Somehow it just didn't seem to cut it up there with the careers his other sons had followed.
Jeff put his foot down like he'd never done before.
"What a load of rubbish. That's not a career. It's an excuse to do nothing and why doesn't it surprise me that it's you that's thought of it? Alan I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you. You're going to College." he said making it very clear there would be no argument. "Colorado is where you are headed and I've already looked at the course of study you should take. Jet Propulsion Engineering looks about right for you."
"But Dad that's not Me." he argued. "I'm not going there."
Jeff was yelling now.
"Nothing I suggest is ever you. I'm telling you that you are going there unless you come up with a better career option and then I'll discuss it with you."
"But with racing I can make more money than you can in one year Dad." he kept on. "I'm fast and I'm good."
At sixteen fast enough to make more than Jeff's annual profits of six billion dollars per year? Wow! He must be fast. He was also stupid if he thought his Father would listen to that kind of talk.
"Hear me again Alan. You're on your way to Colorado." he said and turned away. End of story!
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The next year Jeff personally took that wild son of his to Colorado to begin his course of study. He warned him he expected results. His brother's achievements were pointed out. The wild child reluctantly listened knowing his Father meant business.
But he wanted to be on the race-track where life was fast. It didn't take him long to find Parola Sans was nearby. It didn't take him long to make himself know there.
His grades in College were bad and there was only one explanation Alan could give his Father. What we thought was his week-end pastime turned out to be his full time study. Alan had only been at one class at College each week for a full year but he'd won quite a bit at Parola Sans.
Well the wild child was confronted by the wild father and later by his equally wild eldest brother who flew from Nevada to Colorado to sort him out. Scott complained to me vehemently about the way his brother was turning out. I thought he only meant cutting classes. It turned out Alan was also leading a wild life on campus.
"Grandma I'm worried about him." Scott confided now a full military man like his father and with high expectations of himself and others. "He's with a different girl every night. Out on the drink until all hours of the morning. I think Dad should pull him out of college and just let him race before he ruins himself completely."
I considered Scott's words but I had to admit life wouldn't be any different if Alan was on the racing circuit, it would probably be worse. We'd have no control over him at all then. I told Scott my thoughts. He nodded and said he guessed I was right. He offered to go back to Colorado and try to talk to him again before their Father killed him.
Then all of a sudden something happened to our wild child. Something that made him stop cutting classes, stop wanting to be with a different girl each night, stop drinking until all hours of the morning and finally start applying himself to his studies.
That something had been under his nose for ten years and she suddenly hit him right between the eyes during his last college vacation.
Miss Tin-Tin Kyrano.
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WILDLY IN LOVE
If you met young Tin-Tin Kyrano you would wonder how such a shy, sweet, pretty little thing could have possibly tamed our wild child. She came to our home when she was nine years old and had grown up next to my grandson. He was her closest friend and the two of them had no secrets from each other. I guess you gathered that when Alan knew so much about Tin-Tin becoming a woman. I'm still not happy he knew about that I might say and I still don't know how he found out. I just know Tin-Tin wouldn't have told him. She had been traumatised enough herself when it happened without telling that young devil about it.
They grew into teenagers together and as I said before I saw how Alan looked at her when he was fifteen and worried that he would abuse her trust in an attempt to gain experience in his wild ways. Strangely enough despite my worries he didn't appear to want to compromise their friendship. It obviously ran deep between them; almost like family and Tin-Tin was like a part of our family.
I noticed however that he started giving her the occasional sideways glance again in his senior year of High School. It was a glance I knew well. He was obviously attracted to her but he knew he couldn't have her in the way he wanted. He hid his feelings behind a mask of jokes and teasing. I noticed things were pretty well mutual if sideways looks were anything to gauge it by. She would often look at him shyly when she thought no-one was looking. I didn't know whether to get uneasy again or not.
Fortunately they went off to college and only saw each other in the vacations. The sideways glances were still there from both of them but our wild child was too busy worrying about racing around a track like a rat on a wheel to do anything about it.
However when they returned from college for their final vacation I don't know what the heck happened but something did. All of a sudden they seemed to want to spend a mighty long amount of time together. Alone.
I know my grandson. I know how he thinks. I could see he had fallen for the little Kyrano girl. It now remained to be seen as to what he intended to do about it; his usual fast and furious loving or something more. It turns out he's chosen something more and I am very pleased about that. She is a beautiful girl and would make him a lovely wife.
Jeff Tracy owes that little girl a lot. What ever she did to his wild son that during vacation turned him around, not completely as I doubt anyone will ever be able to do that, but enough to get him through College.
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INTERNATIONAL RESCUE
When Alan finished College, he was immediately summoned back home to talk to his Father. His Father wanted him to undertake space training. He wanted him to be a part of International Rescue and couldn't commence operations until he had a reliable Astronaut. He wanted Alan to be that Astronaut.
I couldn't believe he had selected the son that was the least like him to follow in his own footsteps. I could see the wild child thinking, "I don't want to be an Astronaut" and feared Jeff would get the same reply as Gordon had given him.
Strangely enough he didn't. Alan agreed to do as his Father wanted without argument for the first time in his life and entered the training programme immediately. His training was to be specialised but brief and it was to be complemented by on the job training by his Father and brother John. It turned out that when Alan Tracy applied himself he was quite a capable young man and his Father was impressed with his progress. But he still argued as his Father trained him wanting to take any short cut he could. What's new!
Now he pilots Thunderbird Three and rotates with John in Thunderbird Five. He loves the vastness of space and the speed of his Thunderbird. He pilots Thunderbird One when the need arises much to the worry of his eldest brother who knows how brazen he is. His wild child ways often hamper International Rescue as he has no hesitation to go straight in or fear of anything. His older brothers constantly have to watch over him to ensure they don't have to rescue him as well but sometimes that wildness is just what those older brothers of his need. Alan will always push himself and his craft as fast as his Father wants. Sometimes he pushes too fast for his own safety.
But Jeff, the master in space, is wary. He knows Alan is still very young and still very wild and he needs to learn.
I'm taking a deep breath.
Thunderbird Three landed back here over half an hour ago. We'll see how right I am shall we? Here comes the couch now. I'd better stand in my usual spot.
What's that I hear? The voice of the wild child!
"Dad, if you'd only see things my way for once you'd know I'm right!"
How unusual. He's arguing with his Father!
"If only you'd listen to me you'd be a better Astronaut for it Alan."
How unusual. His Father sounds exasperated.
There he is. He has just strode in. He is looking around. His eyes rest on me. He is giving me his dazzling smile. He's coming towards me.
"Surprise Grandma your favourite Grandson is home!" he says mischievously as he hugs me tight. It almost feels the same as that little newborn baby who once needed to snuggle so close to his Grandma trying to feel that someone loved him.
"What are you doing here darling?" I ask him with "surprise".
"There's no show without the star." he replies. "So here I am."
He kisses my cheek and as he does he whispers quietly so only I can hear.
"You knew about this all along didn't you Grandma?"
He sees my answer in my eyes and smiles. I feel my feet leave the floor and the floor spin around. Oh no. Please don't Alan! I've had one too many scotches already.
"Alan put your Grandmother down this instant! She's seventy five now for goodness sake." How unusual. His father is rebuking him.
My feet are now on the floor but my glasses are off my face. How unusual, I think as I reach up to try to retrieve them.
"I swear to God you will never grow up boy!" That's Jeff again. How unusual.
"Give me a break Dad. Grandma doesn't mind do you?" he says putting my glasses on my face and kissing my cheek.
Before I can reply Alan has started to argue with his Father again. How unusual.
"Now as I was saying Dad. I'm the pilot of that baby not you. I know that…."
"Alan I'm not going to argue with you any longer. It's your Grandmother's birthday and like the rest of us I'm sure that she doesn't want to listen to you."
Jeff has given up on the argument. How unusual.
I watch as those blue eyes scan the room. I know what's coming next.
"I'm starved. The food up in that satellite is nothing like yours Grandma. I'm going into the kitchen to find something decent to eat."
Well young man that something isn't in the kitchen right now. She's downstairs in the cellar with her Father selecting the wines for the party.
"Let me tell you there's nothing in there you want young man." I tell him as our eyes meet.
"Grandma, I don't know what you're talking about." he says naively.
How unusual. He's looking for his little lady and he thinks I don't know!
The party is going to start soon and none of these Tracy men really know the stories I have been telling about them. It's probably just as well they don't.
However I look affectionately in the direction where my youngest grandson has gone and think about that beautiful little English girl who asked me to love her little baby for her just before she died all those years ago.
Lucy. I have loved and guided your little boy for you as you wanted. I know he turned out to be your wild child but you'd be proud of your youngest son today despite of it.
I am and despite the hard times he's given him, I think your Jeff is too.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````Author's Note - This story was always intended to intertwine with Commitment. Please review.
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NEXT CHAPTER - "THINKING OF JOSIE - OUR GRANDMA." ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
CHAPTER SIX - ALAN - THE WILD CHILD
Well there they go off into space in that magnificent red rocket ship that is known as Thunderbird Three. Two hundred and eight seven feet of pure power and speed has commenced its blast off from earth and the Astronaut who sits in control has now radioed to Scott that lift off is imminent. Scott Tracy sits at his Father's desk. The Apprentice is now totally in charge of International Rescue.
I stand at the doorway and watch as the sleek craft powers out of its hangar deep within the earth on its way to Thunderbird Five. Today is a special day. Not only is it my birthday but for the first time since he tested the ship at the beginning, my son Jeff is manning the controls of this extraordinary Thunderbird. His son John and his Chief Engineer Brains accompany him.
Normally John would be guiding the craft on its journey into space but today he has been asked by his Father to stand down to be the co-pilot.
Jeff Tracy has given in to his yearning to fly in space again.
John Tracy will learn a lot as he watches his Father at the controls. His Father was the best pilot in the business; exceptional and accurate with nerves of steel. John Tracy also has those skills but they are skills that he has learned. Only his Father and his eldest brother have been blessed with them naturally.
When Thunderbird Three returns, another son will be seated beside Jeff acting as his co-pilot. The skills of this son have also been learned and none of them without a major argument. This son could certainly learn more than a thing or two but he doesn't listen to his Father long enough to learn anything!
That other son is my grandson Alan. He is his Father's wild child and you will soon understand why.
I have no doubt he will leave Thunderbird Five arguing with his Father about wanting to pilot Thunderbird Three himself. He will point out quicker and what he believes are better ways to do everything his Father does. He will complain about being cooped up in the satellite for the past two weeks. He will whine that the journey is taking too long at the current speed and will insist his Father go faster. He will want to use the radio to check out the latest baseball scores. He will generally drive everyone on that craft to absolute distraction for the whole journey back to base.
When Thunderbird Three finally lands he will stride out of the rocket ship in a huff as he always does and reluctantly travel up to the villa on the same couch as his Father and his brother. He will still be arguing the point. Once he has returned from the hangar, he will fix his baby blue eyes straight ahead and stride with his usual arrogance into the lounge room.
Satisfied he has made his entrance, his will look at me and his whole face will change. The Tracy smile will light up and accentuate those blonde good looks and he will come to kiss his Grandma. It will be a kiss that looks brash to his Father but it doesn't fool me. It is a kiss of quiet love well hidden behind a brazen exterior.
I know Alan Tracy loves his Grandma and I certainly love that young man. He is the special Grandson I have raised from the beginning.
He will tell me he missed me, then pick me up and whirl me around until I ask him to stop. He will pull my glasses from my face and hold them out of my reach. His Father will rebuke him and tell him to grow up and leave his poor ageing Grandma alone. He will snap at his Father and then start arguing again about not being able to pilot Thunderbird Three.
His Father will roll his eyes and turn his back on him, giving up the argument. His brothers will raise their eyebrows at his never-ending aggravation of their Father and wait for the certain altercation that is to follow.
Everyone on Tracy Island has now heard the commotion and realizes what has happened.
Jeff Tracy's youngest son, the wild child, is home. The tornado that hit the Tracy family twenty-one years ago who has continued to create havoc and mayhem ever since the day he was found to be on the way.
After he's finished arguing with his Father, his blue eyes will then scan the room looking for something else.
Not finding what he is looking for, he will tell us he is going into the kitchen to find something to eat because the food was so bad in the satellite. He says he knows he will find something decent in the kitchen at least. The trouble is he thinks we all think he's talking about food. But we all know what he hopes to find in the kitchen or should we say whom?
Miss Tin-Tin Kyrano; his young lady.
As I watch Thunderbird Three disappear through the atmosphere and out of my view, I contemplate the scene I have just played out in my mind knowing its pretty well close to the mark. When he walks in here tonight to surprise me he'll be arguing, nothing surer. He'll kiss me and twirl me around, nothing surer. He'll look for the little Kyrano girl, nothing surer.
And then he'll disappear with her. Let me tell you right now, there isn't anything surer than that!
But I have a sneaking suspicion my young Grandson is completely unaware that his grandmother knows all about what's going on between the two of them and she is keeping an eye on them.
I think I need to keep more than a close eye on them at the moment.
The little Kyrano girl has been looking a bit anxious lately.
I may be wrong but I think that she has missed a month since he left to go to Thunderbird Five. They haven't been intimate for very long and they think no-one knows that they have but they have been together long enough for something to have happened.
As you can see, the name wild-child speaks for itself.
My youngest grandson is a Tracy son like his brothers; he is brave like his brothers, talented like his brothers. However when it comes down to being anything else like his brothers you can forget the comparison right now.
We don't know where in the heck we got him from. He drives this Father around the bend!
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THE WILD FATHER
Alan Shepherd Tracy caused more than just a little upset in the Tracy family when he was found to be on the way. He antagonized his Father right from the very beginning of his life.
Strangely enough, his story originally began back when I was visiting his two-month-old brother Gordon who had finally come home from hospital after his premature birth. Jeff was driving me to the house talking of his new little son when he suddenly remembered Lucy had given him an errand to run at the drug store.
"Wait here Mom." he said as he got out of the car, "It'll only take me a minute."
Sure enough within five minutes he handed me the packages and we were on our way.
"Needing things for the baby?" I asked in conversation.
"Yeah Lucy asked me to get a couple of tins of formula and some diapers while I was out. We sure go through them. I think I should have gone into the diaper business instead of aircraft parts."
I nodded and we both laughed.
"Still you won't have to worry any more." I said directly. "You did take my advice now didn't you Jeff?"
He looked at me with guilt.
"I'll get around to it Mom. I've just been really busy with the business and driving to and from the hospital to see the baby over the last eight weeks. I simply don't have the time to take a few days off to get it done."
I shook my head. He really did need to have himself seen to. Whatever they'd been using last time hadn't worked too well. If it had I wouldn't be on my way to see my fourth grandson!
I still remembered Grant's words about Jeff having more children than he planned if he didn't learn to control himself and let's face facts. He now had four instead of the planned three. What was to stop five or even six? Grant must have been turning in his grave at the thought of it.
"It's OK Mom, you don't have to worry." he assured me confidently. "Lucy's taking care of things at the moment. In fact she made me drive her straight from the maternity hospital to the drug store seven weeks ago to fill her prescription. I couldn't believe she took the first pill in the car-park right there in front of me. I think she was trying to tell me something!"
"Jeff!" I berated him. "That was too early for you to ask that poor little girl to worry about such things. What were you thinking?"
He smiled mischievously. Lucy's sense of fun had rubbed off on him over the years despite his reserved nature.
"Thinking? Gee Mom what's the problem? I let her unpack her bags first!" he joked.
"Jeff Tracy you should be ashamed of yourself!" I scolded and gave him a light hearted slap.
"Oh lighten up Mom! You know what's she's like with things like this. Remember when I wanted to have Virgil? I took me over eighteen months to talk her into going off those pills. I can tell you if she doesn't want any more babies, we won't be having them. I've learned that over the years with her if nothing else."
Jeff shouldn't have felt so reassured. I noticed where Lucy kept those pills of hers in the bathroom and many a night went by that I noticed she had been too tired to remember to take them.
Add my son to that mistake and you had a recipe for disaster.
Naturally the disaster came and it couldn't have come at a worse time for either of them.
By the time Lucy Tracy started to feel sick in the mornings again and began to worry why her cycles had not resumed after having her fourth son, it was too late. A fifth son was growing within her and she had to explain herself to Jeff.
Jeff, who had just mortgaged three quarters of his whole company to invest in Asia and would lose everything if he didn't proceed,. Explain that instead of being in Asia, she needed him to be in Boston to help her cope with yet another Tracy baby due only thirteen months after the last one. Explain that she had been too tired with the children and had forgotten to "take care of things" as she promised she would.
Well the argument happened and he pushed her to have a termination. Stubborn as ever, she refused and things between them suddenly went to bad and then plummeted to worse. He blamed her for her carelessness. She blamed him for her tiredness which had caused the mistake.
Devastated by the new pregnancy and his reaction to it, she threatened to leave him and take his sons with her. He worried himself sick then, knowing his headstrong young wife would do just that if he pushed her too far. He loved his little family too much to lose it and his business still took second place to the wife he adored and his four little boys. He forced himself to be happy about the new baby and agreed to suspend his operations temporarily. It broke the back of the Company and the future of the Tracy family lay in limbo as the result of it.
The wild child had made his presence felt already.
Jeff was furious with himself for failing to heed my well-intentioned advice.
Two weeks after he stormed out of the house in fury at the news, he was sat in the Doctor's Office. He forced himself to make the time. He wanted to be absolutely sure there wasn't ever going to be a sixth Tracy baby.
However Jeff, you left it too late. You had already made your wild child!
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WILD ARRIVAL
The arrival of my fifth Grandson was the most shattering day of Jeff's life as he lost the beloved mother of his children to a badly handled delivery and a caesarean section that went dreadfully wrong right in front of his eyes.
Alan had proven to be a wild child in the womb, turning himself inside out and back to front until he managed to wrap his cord good and proper around his neck. Unbeknown to the midwife during his delivery he was slowly suffocating inside Lucy as she laboured to give birth to him. By the time the midwife realized something was wrong there was little time to carefully handle the operation. The little baby needed to be delivered fast.
According to his Father, fast was not the word to describe the speed in which his son was brought into the world. Two minutes from the first incision, he was dragged from inside his exhausted mother in an asphyxiated state while Jeff sat terrified for them both in the corner of the room. His little son went to intensive care as the doctor feared permanent damage to his brain through lack of oxygen. His beloved wife went to intensive care with irreparable damage to her body.
Alan Shepherd Tracy nearly lost his life that day. Sadly for us all, his mother lost hers.
Lucy Tracy never got the chance to hold her fifth son in her arms. Unlike with Scott and Virgil she never had the opportunity to stroke his little face and marvel at its perfection. She never had the opportunity to be disappointed that he wasn't a little girl and then bond with him by offering her breast as she had done with John. Unlike Gordon she never had the opportunity to shed tears of worry at putting him through the trauma of a caesarean birth and then watch him struggle for his life in an incubator.
I promised her faithfully before she died that I would hold her little boy and love him for her. She knew I meant it and I did. I have never failed her to this day.
Sadly for our little Alan he spent the first week of his life being cared for by the nurses at the hospital. Boston had a large maternity unit and it was very understaffed. There was no time to give special consideration to the little Tracy baby who had lost his mother so tragically.
I still say that Alan learned all of his bad and untracy-like habits in that one week he lay in the hospital alone waiting for his Daddy to arrange his mother's funeral. I didn't have time to go to the hospital, not with so much else taking priority at that dreadful time. Jeff did check on the progress of his son each evening but the tiny newborn still spent his first days of life devoid of any kind of close contact.
At the time when he should have been adjusting to the gentle touch and familiar smell of his mother he was being mechanically fed, winded, changed and put back in his crib. He was left to lay unattended in the corner of the nursery until the next time he was due for the same routine. He quickly learned if he wanted attention he had to make a fuss. So he decided to make a fuss about everything and he's been doing it ever since! I still say it. That week was the start of his undisciplined behaviour!
The first time I ever held my grandson was after we brought him home from the hospital after his mother's funeral. The first thing he did to his Father was upset him. I'd never heard a baby scream quite as hysterically as this one and I ran about frantically trying to prepare a bottle to quiet him while Jeff walked him up and down in a vain attempt to stop the noise.
I finally settled myself on the couch with this little boy of Lucy's and held him close to me to feed while Jeff attended to the other children. Despite the fact that he was a greedy baby and was drinking his bottle at record speed, he snuggled into my body desperately; his newborn instinct for human contact finally being satisfied. He buried himself so close to me that I couldn't even see him properly.
When he finally slept, I managed to get a good look at the youngest son of Jeff Tracy. He was certainly a cute little thing, about the same size as Virgil, but with no distinct resemblance to either of his parents. He looked like having the makings of blonde hair, which was a relief. I was starting to wonder if there were any other shades of colouring Jeff Tracy could produce with the same woman. I felt sad looking at the bruising that was still evident on his tiny face from his traumatic delivery. I stroked his little head and began thinking about just how heartbreaking this whole situation was for my son and how scared he must be feeling knowing he had to raise this baby on his own.
I had held myself together through the tragedy until that moment. I don't know what, but something happened inside me as I held that sweet little baby who would never see his mother smile at him. The magnitude of our family's loss suddenly came crashing in on me like a tidal wave causing me to let my guard down and cry for the first time since she had died. I cried for Lucy, for Jeff and for little Alan. Three people who never got to bond together as a family. I still say Alan would have been a different child if she had mothered him like his other brothers. Her love for her children had been so complete.
Suddenly the blue eyes flew open. The little face screwed up. The screaming started. He had found something else to complain about right at the time I was trying to sympathize with him. There was no time for me to keep crying with that din going on. I ran around frantically again trying to find where I had put the diapers. I finally attended to that problem only to have him protest then because he had a tummy ache from drinking his bottle too fast! By the time he settled down with that, it was time to feed him again.
This scene replayed itself in our household all day, every day, all night, and every night for months. He led us on one merry dance back then. He had no sleep. We had no sleep. We lived for every second day when he had exhausted himself so much that he slept for eight hours straight. Even then we checked on him anxiously to check he hadn't gone and died on us. Naturally when we did that we woke him up and the whole thing started all over again.
He wore his Father out totally back then. He wore me out too, but six weeks after he was born he gave me a special reason to forgive him.
As I held my little blonde grandson in the middle of one sleepless night he gave me that beautiful Tracy smile of his for the first time. It melted my heart.
Alan Tracy still wears his Father out and I still melt whenever I see that smile. It's magic.
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WILD NOTIONS
Well my name is Josie and I know I'm his grandmother but I have to say right here and now that whilst I've seen some wild youngsters in my time none were as wild as this youngest Tracy son. From the moment he walked to his Daddy, this child was into everything, causing havoc and upset amongst the whole household. He'd managed to do that well and truly before he walked I might say but it was worse now.
Alan had grown into a fine looking little toddler with huge baby blue eyes and flossy blonde hair with a hint of Lucy's curls. His smile was dazzling and instant. However mischief and mayhem was stamped across his forehead and his angelic looks didn't fool me for a minute. He loved his four brothers with a passion and the four of them reacted to their youngest brother in totally different ways.
Scott virtually adopted him as a son. He fed him and nursed him as a baby and for years if I ever needed to put him to bed late in the evening I knew where to look. I always found Alan asleep on the couch cradled in his eldest brother's arms, his little blonde head against Scott's strong young body. It was evidence of their close bond. Alan still turns to Scott most of the time in preference to his father if he is worried or needs advice about anything and Scott is always there.
Scott is always there for all of them.
Virgil loved him and seemed to be the only one who could get him to sit still for more than two minutes. I used to laugh watching Alan stop dead in his tracks when Virgil started to play the piano. "Music soothes the savage beast" I'd think to myself as I saw him calm down and sit quietly next to his brother to listen.
John was a different story altogether. I'm sure deep down inside he loved his little brother but John still associated Alan with the loss of his mother. Alan followed John around the house and John hated every minute of it. Blonde hair followed blonde. Blue eyes followed blue. But no relationship ever developed between them. John reluctantly accepted his little brother but his true feelings surfaced every now and then with an occasional resentful shove.
Gordon was the brother that he really attached himself to. Thirteen months apart, totally different in appearance and personality, the two of them bonded from the beginning and played together happily. They would often be found fast asleep together on the same bed, the blonde head resting against the red. I suppose that's natural when two are born so close together. That closeness still exists between them now. I know they talk about a great many things together especially the ladies but as a Grandma who's learned more than a thing or two from eavesdropping on them over the years I don't listen anymore!
Alan also revealed some of his not so lovable traits as he stared to grow. The whole family found out the hard way that our youngest little boy had inherited one mighty dangerous thing from his Grandfather; a very short fuse and one hell of a temper when anyone crossed him. He was Grant all over in that department and even Jeff commented how much like his father Alan was.
I knew then and there that these two were never going to get along if that was the case. Jeff had always obeyed his Father but he had never agreed with him.
It didn't take long for me to see how right I was about Jeff and his youngest son.
No matter what Jeff did to try and get some peace and quiet, Alan figured out a way of interrupting him. It didn't help that Jeff spent much of Alan's early years away from home rebuilding his business and the little boy missed him. He had a fascination with his Father and seemed to have some sort of sixth sense when it came to knowing when Jeff was tired, irritable and in no mood for him. Of course that was when Alan wanted to be with Daddy.
"Daddy, can you come and throw the ball to me?" the five year old would ask after Jeff had just returned from a gruelling week-long business trip in Japan and a long flight home cooped up alone in his small plane.
Poor Jeff would be attempting to eat his dinner and trying not to fall asleep at the table.
"Alan. Daddy's tired. I'm sorry." he would reply. "I throw it for you tomorrow I promise. I'll get up early if you like."
"Daddy why not now?" Alan would complain.
"No Alan. Not now." Jeff would reiterate firmly. "I said I'd throw it for you tomorrow."
"But Daddy I want you to do it now!" Alan would insist, not willing to take no for an answer.
"Stop it Alan!" Jeff would snap. "I said I would do it and I will."
Alan's eyes would darken and in a fit of temper he would sweep his father's dinner plate and cognac glass off the table with his hand.
"No Daddy. I said now!"
The plate, the expensive glass and its equally expensive contents would crash to the ground while Alan stood there defiantly wanting his own way. You can imagine Jeff's face can't you? All hell would break loose in the kitchen as you can imagine. After the inevitable caning that followed and despite tears threatening to spill over at any moment Alan would lift his chin defiantly and say to his Father.
"It didn't hurt anyway Daddy."
That was our five year old wild-child; defiant, temperamental and determined to get his own way.
But underneath the tough exterior of that little boy beat a very loving heart that simply missed his Daddy and just wanted to be with him. I could sense it. Grandmas know these things.
The next year, Alan had grown up enough to notice the significance of his birthday to the sadness that filled our home each year as his Father dwelled on losing his mother.
"Grandma, why is Daddy always so sad on my birthday?" he asked me, hurt that Jeff had spent most of his special day yet again moping around the house and locked up in his room after their visit to the cemetery.
"Daddy really misses your mommy sweetie." I replied carefully.
Alan knew about his mother dying and knew enough about how you felt if you missed someone with his father being away from him so much, but no other details about his mother had been given to him by anyone.
"But why does he only miss her on my birthday?"
I knew I had to answer this child. He would persist until he got what he wanted out of me.
"Daddy is upset because she died on your birthday sweetie."
"Oh." he said in a sad little voice which showed he understood.
He then made the mistake of sharing his new information about his mother with Gordon. The two of them were trying to put together their own picture of Lucille in their minds with bits of information reluctantly given up by their Father and brothers and any other information they could get their hands on.
Gordon listened to the information and then, much to my alarm said,
"I know. Johnny says you killed mommy Alan."
As I tore into the room to straighten that out quick smart, I saw little Alan's face fall. He looked at his older brother with hurt written all over him, not knowing whether to cry or explode.
"I wouldna done that." he quivered, his chin trembling and his face starting to redden. "I wouldn't hurt no-one"
"Johnny said you did." Gordon replied ever ready to upset his highly strung little brother. "He was crying after breakfast and when I asked him why he said it was because you killed mommy and he missed her. You go ask him yourself Alan."
"I will then." Alan flared. "He's lying. I wouldn't do nothin' like that to my mommy."
I sat the two of them down right then and there and told them in no uncertain terms that John was wrong to say that. Their Mommy had died on Alan's birthday because she was sick and the Doctors couldn't make her better again; not because Alan had done anything wrong. Alan did not look convinced and his worried little expression made me mighty mad at young John.
I made it my business to have a quiet word with that young man! For a quiet nine year old he surprised me when he said with a directness I could only attribute to his Father.
"Mommy died because she was hurt when she had Alan at the hospital not because she was sick Grandma. I heard Daddy say so a while back to Mr. Baillie. My Daddy wouldn't lie to anyone."
Kevin Baillie was a lawyer Jeff had invited over for dinner one night to give him advice on a company matter. The young go-getting lawyer had seen Jeff's five little boys and the conversation turned around to Lucy and how she had died. Baillie actively urged him to sue the hospital for what happened to Lucy but his words fell on deaf ears as far as Jeff was concerned. The past was done. No amount of money could bring Lucy back so what was the point.
However it appeared Mr. Baillie's words seemed to have fallen on the wrong ears as well. Young ears that really didn't understand about legal matters. Young ears that were attached to a young mouth that should have been kept shut.
Sadly for Alan, it appeared he had been nearby when I spoke to John. A six year old could not comprehend that it had been medical negligence that had killed his mother. A six year old could only comprehend that he had somehow badly hurt his mother and now all of his brothers didn't have her because of it. A little six year old blamed himself.
Alan never let on he had heard what his brother said but his behaviour should have given me a clue that something was up. But it didn't. Jeff and I were so used to the wild-child we thought that it was just the way he was.
The little boy became more uncontrollable than ever. He exploded faster over the simplest of things. He swung out at anyone who crossed him. More plates got swept from the table as the little face confronted his Father. More canings followed.
More and more his defiant retort of "It didn't hurt anyway Daddy" failed to fool his Grandma. I could see it hurt him all right and not just in the seat of his pants. The little face would crumble into unhappy tears when he thought Daddy wasn't looking. However he didn't realise Grandma still was.
His Father shook his head and wondered what on earth he had done to be given this wild child to raise.
If only Jeff had realised what the problem was back then. The thought about his mother plagued Alan for years and he didn't confide in anyone. Thank goodness he's sorted it out with his Father now.
But as a Grandma who knows what's really underneath that arrogant, argumentative surface that is my grandson; I still say that Alan Tracy would have been a different person if he hadn't have lost his mother.
But he did. And the wild child was going to get even wilder yet.
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WILD ANTICS
Alan's close relationship with his brother Gordon was a good thing in many ways but in others it was a nightmare. For us that is. I've already told you about Gordon's practical jokes and Alan's role as his accomplice. The two of them made a formidable pair as they grew towards their teens.
They entered puberty within months of each other and one night Jeff sighed to me before dinner that it was time for him to give "that talk" yet again. He'd already gone through it three times and had decided that to save himself the grief of giving it another two times he'd give it to Gordon and Alan together.
Jeff had never been comfortable discussing sex with any of his sons. Lord knows why I thought to myself given the fact he had fathered five sons himself. Scott had listened with confusion at Jeff's first attempt which had been clumsy and all over the place, Virgil got a better version of it and could least understand what his Father was saying, and by the time he got to John, he'd just about got it down to a university lecture. John knew everything about himself and women within twenty minutes. Little did Jeff know what he was getting himself into with sons' numbers four and five!
I knew Jeff was going to be in trouble from the start when he called the two of them back after dinner and told them that he wanted to talk with them privately. Gordon was thirteen, Alan was twelve. Gordon knew what was coming. He'd been waiting for it with great expectation since his thirteenth birthday.
"Is it the sex talk Dad?" he asked with a wide mischievous grin. Alan had originally thought they were in for a caning for something and had opened his mouth to argue until he heard Gordon mention that. He looked at his Father with interest.
"Did you say you wanted me too Dad?" he asked and a grin bigger than his brother's stole across his features as his father nodded, reddened and looked across the table at me indicating he needed me to leave.
I made an excuse to get up from the table, muttering something about dishes to be done and laundry needing attention.
I know I shouldn't have listened to this but it was honestly hilarious and one of the most embarrassing moments of Jeff Tracy's entire life. I sat outside that dining room in silent hysteria from the moment my poor son opened his mouth and tried to explain to his two youngest sons about "life". I couldn't see their faces or how they were all interacting but the discussion was worth its weight in pure gold.
Jeff began with his usual throat clearing and dramatic silence; "Boys you're now thirteen and very soon you're going to see some changes in yourself."
"But I'm only twelve Dad." Alan interrupted.
"Alan you'll be thirteen in eight months."
"But I'm only twelve now." he interrupted again.
"OK you're only twelve but it won't be long before you'll see what I'm talking about."
"Will I still be twelve?" he interrupted the third time.
"Alan please keep quiet. I'm trying to talk to you."
"If it happens to him at twelve why didn't it happen to me at twelve?" Now it was Gordon's turn to interrupt.
"I didn't say it would happen to him at twelve did I?" Jeff asked. "I haven't even told either of you what's going to happen yet."
There was the dramatic silence again. The clearing of the throat again. He started again.
"Now as I said before. The two of you are going to see some changes in yourselves."
"Like what Dad?" Alan asked knowing full well what was coming next. He and Gordon had watched Scott, Virgil, and John before them and they knew exactly what was going to happen to them.
"Well, your voice is going to get deeper for one thing." he went on carefully, cringing at what was coming next. "And other parts of you will change."
"Yeah Alan maybe you'll grow a brain." Gordon teased getting his father off track again.
"Why don't you blow your brain out of your ass!" Alan retorted, knowing full well he wasn't allowed to speak like that in front of his Father.
"Don't say that Alan." Jeff admonished him. "Speak to your brother with respect."
"Anyway your ass is close enough to what Dad means anyway." Gordon joked.
"I know what Dad means!" Alan frowned. "I'm not stupid."
The dramatic silence again. Dear God Jeff I thought; please don't start from the beginning again.
"Now when that happens, there are going to be times when those parts will seem to be out of your control. Sometimes your thoughts might cause things to happen and sometimes nothing will. But you will definitely find you're going to be able to do things you could never do before."
"I hope I'm twelve when that happens." Alan exclaimed enthusiastically.
"You won't be twelve when that happens." Jeff said in a dead pan tone. "You'll probably be fourteen."
"I thought you said it happened at thirteen Dad!" Gordon said disappointed.
"No I said now that you're thirteen it might start to happen."
"But I'm only twelve." Alan chimed in.
"Boys!" Jeff snapped in frustration. "I'm trying to talk to you seriously."
"Were you fourteen?" Gordon asked his Father.
"I can't remember." Jeff replied curtly.
"Well you might have been thirteen then." Alan interrupted.
"I don't know what age I was boys but I know that I was certainly capable of it by the time I got to High School!" Jeff said exasperated.
Silence. "Oh Jeff what a mistake this was", I thought. I even started to wonder if I should go in like the cavalry and offer to save him from those two. The misery for him continued.
"Dad; are you going to tell us about girls too?" Alan asked.
I haven't told you about the relationship between our Alan and young Tin-Tin Kyrano yet but I will later on. Just take it from me that Tin-Tin was twelve too and Alan had noticed the changes in her little girl's body these past twelve months and had a fascination with them.
Jeff heaved an almighty sigh. "Yes I am Alan. I'm going to tell about girls and anything else you want to know if you give me the chance to get a word in edgewise."
"Tell us about the girls first." Gordon said. "And save the best till last."
"Girls are different to boys. "Jeff began and had to stop as both Alan and Gordon burst into uncontrollable laughter at his statement of the obvious. He must have glared at them as within ten seconds the laughter had subsided.
"That's the way nature intended it to be." he continued uncomfortably. "Girls bodies are made like they are so that boys like you will be attracted to them. And as I said before once that happens you could find yourself in a position where you feel certain urges."
Now it was Gordon's turn. "What sort of urges Dad?"
Silence again. My son Jeff may have been a wonderful business brain but he was no educator of young men in physical matters.
"Urges to be together." he finally said carefully.
"Do the girls feel the same urges then too?" Alan asked.
"Well I've never raised a daughter." Jeff admitted. "I don't know about when they feel them but girls do I suppose."
"I'm gonna ask Tin-Tin if she feels any urges." Alan said much to the absolute dismay of his Father.
"Indeed you won't!" Jeff threatened. "If you do, you'll get a caning from me!"
"How come she's changing anyway Dad? She's only twelve. Why do I have to be thirteen?"
"I don't know Alan. Girls change earlier than boys. They go through a lot more when they change than boys do."
"Like what Dad?" asked Gordon, for once in his life truly innocent.
"Gordon we're not talking about girls here, we're talking about boys." Jeff replied.
"No Dad you said we were talking about girls." Alan reminded him. "But anyway I know what happens to 'em."
Jeff went silent again, panic stricken at what this wild son of his was about to say.
"How do you know?" he frowned.
"Cos Tin-Tin's just got it for the first time a few weeks back."
"Got what Alan?" asked Gordon who knew nothing about that side of things and annoyed that Alan seemed to know more than he did.
"I'm not tellin' you. I promised her I wouldn't say anything. But I'm glad I'm not a girl."
"You're gonna tell me later." Gordon threatened. "Or I swear I'll beat your sorry ass."
"Watch your mouth Gordon..." Jeff started but he was cut short by his wild child.
"Gordo I'm not tellin'." Alan said stubbornly to his brother.
"Well I'll ask Tin-Tin then." Gordon said determinedly.
"The hell you will!" Alan burst out. "It's not somethin' she wants everyone to know about"
"Well you know." Gordon replied.
"I'm allowed to know. She's my friend." Alan snapped.
"Now both of you sit here and listen to me." Jeff exploded embarrassed beyond belief. "You'll say nothing about that to Tin-Tin. She's a young lady and has enough to worry about without the two of you asking her questions. I've got to tell you about all of this because it's serious for young men. Now keep quiet and let me say what I have to say."
The two of them quieted then and sat listening to the lecture. Until the how do you protect yourself part began. Jeff must have pulled out an example for them to see.
"Johnny's got some of those. " Gordon exclaimed. "They're in his drawer."
Alan had merely looked at his father and said disdainfully. "That's stupid. I'm not using that."
The lecture finally wound down until Jeff asked them if they had any questions to ask him. He winced as he waited. Finally it came and of course it came from the wild child.
"When did you have sex for the first time Dad?"
"When I had married your mother of course." Jeff lied as he left the room totally defeated and totally embarrassed.
I heard Alan say. "I'm not waiting until I'm that old."
There began the rumblings of the wild-child.
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WILD EXPERIENCES
True to his form, my grandson Alan did not wait until he was the age his Father "got married" to experience women. When his brother Gordon told him about his experience in the shower at the United States Swimming Championships, the fifteen year old actively sought his own first time. How do I know? It wasn't half obvious by the way he was looking at young Tin-Tin every minute of every day! After that night when Alan seemed to have such an intimate knowledge of young Tin-Tin's personal business, I watched him like a hawk at home. If he was looking for experience he certainly wasn't going to find it in that quarter!
Nevertheless he found it elsewhere and under the same circumstances as his brother John. It must go with the territory of being blonde or plain stupid I decided as Jeff tore out of the house like King Kong yet again after a call from the school principal. Alan had been caught out in full flight in the science lab, and not just with any student. It had to be the Principal's daughter. He was suspended as his brother was before him and Jeff spent nearly a whole week with that boy lecturing him from the time the sun came up to the time it went down. Fifteen years old; the youngest of all of them. I told Jeff it was disgraceful and he'd better do something about it.
Several months later he moved on to something else. Jeff had gone out of town on business and given Alan the job of sorting out all his engineering plans by the time he got back. It was no doubt a punishment for something and goodness knows what for but as the evening drew on I noticed that I hadn't seen Alan about. I remembered he had been given the task and thought he must be actually obeying his Father for a change. I worried he wasn't feeling well. Well I wasn't short of the mark!
I found that boy legless to say the least, feet up on the desk in his Father's study. Aircraft plans worth millions of dollars were in disarray around him. His Father's brand new bottle of bourbon was half empty.
"Hey there Josie." he had the nerve to say to me, "I'm just tidyin' up on the old man's plans. Wanna join me for a night cap?"
I saw red and barged into that study fuming like a volcano. I was not going to let this go on right under my nose.
"Night cap! I'll give you a night cap all right young man!" I roared, snatching up the bottle in one hand and Alan's ear in the other.
"Ow!" he complained and I told him I was glad that it hurt.
I railed at him. "If you think I'm too old to give you a good old fashioned lashing to your hind parts then you don't know me too well. I've never seen the likes of this. You're a disgrace Alan Tracy that's what. Now get yourself out of here now and into bed before I forget myself and forget I'm your Grandmother. Your Daddy will be furious if he finds out about this. "
I could imagine Jeff's reaction as I rolled the plans back into some semblance of order and tried to sort out his Office. I'd had enough of this young man's antics let me tell you. He had to be stopped and right now.
The next morning as he sat sheepishly at the breakfast table nursing one mighty sore head, I banged about the kitchen making my displeasure clearly known.
"Grandma, I'm really sorry about last night." he murmured, his face as pale as a dead mans ghost.
Sorry? Humph! I'd give him sorry!
I banged down a glass of home made hangover remedy on the table. It had always helped Grant and I didn't mind it myself when it was warranted.
"Drink that." I directed in a tone not to be argued with.
"I can't Grandma." he moaned. "I'll lose it I swear."
"Drink it!" I demanded and sat down opposite him as he did so. I looked him in the eye and grabbed his arm in a fierce grasp.
"Now you listen here to me good and proper Alan Tracy. You're a youngster out of control at the moment. First the women, now the drink. None of it's right and I'm not going to sit back here and see you ruin yourself for anyone. Your poor little mother entrusted you to me before she died and I'm damned if I'm going to let her down. You cut all this damned nonsense out this very minute or I swear you'll know what it's like to really deal with me. You got that young man?"
"Yes ma'am" he replied without lifting his head.
"I mean it young man." I glared.
"I know you do ma'am."
Well he might have gotten the point about the women and the drink but there was always another vice that this wild child could rustle up to tempt himself. He didn't settle down. Instead, he developed a passion for fast cars. Newly through his Driver's test he decided to see what it was like to break the sound barrier. Naturally he did it in his Father's brand new Porsche. You can imagine Jeff's face as the New York Police Department knocked on the door at two o'clock in the morning to return his precious Porsche and his not so precious at that moment teenage son requesting he be told to take more care on the road and carry his licence.
His Father had exploded right there and then on the spot. He thought Alan had been in bed but no, Alan had taken the keys and gone out in the middle of the night without a word.
"What the hell are you trying to prove Alan?" he fumed as his son stood, head down yet again, in front of him. "You can't just play things by the rules can you? Just once in your entire life would be a damned blessing for me! Can't you make my life less of a strain? I just don't understand you."
"I'm investing in my career Dad." he replied.
"Career? What career?"
"I'm not trying to give you grief Dad." he said matter-of factly. "I want to go on the circuit as a racing car driver after High School and I need to practice. Racing's the career I want. There's money to be made and good times to be had. I'm serious."
Oh dear, I thought watching Jeff's face turn six shades of scarlet. When did this ever end?
Racing car Driver? Somehow it just didn't seem to cut it up there with the careers his other sons had followed.
Jeff put his foot down like he'd never done before.
"What a load of rubbish. That's not a career. It's an excuse to do nothing and why doesn't it surprise me that it's you that's thought of it? Alan I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you. You're going to College." he said making it very clear there would be no argument. "Colorado is where you are headed and I've already looked at the course of study you should take. Jet Propulsion Engineering looks about right for you."
"But Dad that's not Me." he argued. "I'm not going there."
Jeff was yelling now.
"Nothing I suggest is ever you. I'm telling you that you are going there unless you come up with a better career option and then I'll discuss it with you."
"But with racing I can make more money than you can in one year Dad." he kept on. "I'm fast and I'm good."
At sixteen fast enough to make more than Jeff's annual profits of six billion dollars per year? Wow! He must be fast. He was also stupid if he thought his Father would listen to that kind of talk.
"Hear me again Alan. You're on your way to Colorado." he said and turned away. End of story!
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The next year Jeff personally took that wild son of his to Colorado to begin his course of study. He warned him he expected results. His brother's achievements were pointed out. The wild child reluctantly listened knowing his Father meant business.
But he wanted to be on the race-track where life was fast. It didn't take him long to find Parola Sans was nearby. It didn't take him long to make himself know there.
His grades in College were bad and there was only one explanation Alan could give his Father. What we thought was his week-end pastime turned out to be his full time study. Alan had only been at one class at College each week for a full year but he'd won quite a bit at Parola Sans.
Well the wild child was confronted by the wild father and later by his equally wild eldest brother who flew from Nevada to Colorado to sort him out. Scott complained to me vehemently about the way his brother was turning out. I thought he only meant cutting classes. It turned out Alan was also leading a wild life on campus.
"Grandma I'm worried about him." Scott confided now a full military man like his father and with high expectations of himself and others. "He's with a different girl every night. Out on the drink until all hours of the morning. I think Dad should pull him out of college and just let him race before he ruins himself completely."
I considered Scott's words but I had to admit life wouldn't be any different if Alan was on the racing circuit, it would probably be worse. We'd have no control over him at all then. I told Scott my thoughts. He nodded and said he guessed I was right. He offered to go back to Colorado and try to talk to him again before their Father killed him.
Then all of a sudden something happened to our wild child. Something that made him stop cutting classes, stop wanting to be with a different girl each night, stop drinking until all hours of the morning and finally start applying himself to his studies.
That something had been under his nose for ten years and she suddenly hit him right between the eyes during his last college vacation.
Miss Tin-Tin Kyrano.
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WILDLY IN LOVE
If you met young Tin-Tin Kyrano you would wonder how such a shy, sweet, pretty little thing could have possibly tamed our wild child. She came to our home when she was nine years old and had grown up next to my grandson. He was her closest friend and the two of them had no secrets from each other. I guess you gathered that when Alan knew so much about Tin-Tin becoming a woman. I'm still not happy he knew about that I might say and I still don't know how he found out. I just know Tin-Tin wouldn't have told him. She had been traumatised enough herself when it happened without telling that young devil about it.
They grew into teenagers together and as I said before I saw how Alan looked at her when he was fifteen and worried that he would abuse her trust in an attempt to gain experience in his wild ways. Strangely enough despite my worries he didn't appear to want to compromise their friendship. It obviously ran deep between them; almost like family and Tin-Tin was like a part of our family.
I noticed however that he started giving her the occasional sideways glance again in his senior year of High School. It was a glance I knew well. He was obviously attracted to her but he knew he couldn't have her in the way he wanted. He hid his feelings behind a mask of jokes and teasing. I noticed things were pretty well mutual if sideways looks were anything to gauge it by. She would often look at him shyly when she thought no-one was looking. I didn't know whether to get uneasy again or not.
Fortunately they went off to college and only saw each other in the vacations. The sideways glances were still there from both of them but our wild child was too busy worrying about racing around a track like a rat on a wheel to do anything about it.
However when they returned from college for their final vacation I don't know what the heck happened but something did. All of a sudden they seemed to want to spend a mighty long amount of time together. Alone.
I know my grandson. I know how he thinks. I could see he had fallen for the little Kyrano girl. It now remained to be seen as to what he intended to do about it; his usual fast and furious loving or something more. It turns out he's chosen something more and I am very pleased about that. She is a beautiful girl and would make him a lovely wife.
Jeff Tracy owes that little girl a lot. What ever she did to his wild son that during vacation turned him around, not completely as I doubt anyone will ever be able to do that, but enough to get him through College.
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INTERNATIONAL RESCUE
When Alan finished College, he was immediately summoned back home to talk to his Father. His Father wanted him to undertake space training. He wanted him to be a part of International Rescue and couldn't commence operations until he had a reliable Astronaut. He wanted Alan to be that Astronaut.
I couldn't believe he had selected the son that was the least like him to follow in his own footsteps. I could see the wild child thinking, "I don't want to be an Astronaut" and feared Jeff would get the same reply as Gordon had given him.
Strangely enough he didn't. Alan agreed to do as his Father wanted without argument for the first time in his life and entered the training programme immediately. His training was to be specialised but brief and it was to be complemented by on the job training by his Father and brother John. It turned out that when Alan Tracy applied himself he was quite a capable young man and his Father was impressed with his progress. But he still argued as his Father trained him wanting to take any short cut he could. What's new!
Now he pilots Thunderbird Three and rotates with John in Thunderbird Five. He loves the vastness of space and the speed of his Thunderbird. He pilots Thunderbird One when the need arises much to the worry of his eldest brother who knows how brazen he is. His wild child ways often hamper International Rescue as he has no hesitation to go straight in or fear of anything. His older brothers constantly have to watch over him to ensure they don't have to rescue him as well but sometimes that wildness is just what those older brothers of his need. Alan will always push himself and his craft as fast as his Father wants. Sometimes he pushes too fast for his own safety.
But Jeff, the master in space, is wary. He knows Alan is still very young and still very wild and he needs to learn.
I'm taking a deep breath.
Thunderbird Three landed back here over half an hour ago. We'll see how right I am shall we? Here comes the couch now. I'd better stand in my usual spot.
What's that I hear? The voice of the wild child!
"Dad, if you'd only see things my way for once you'd know I'm right!"
How unusual. He's arguing with his Father!
"If only you'd listen to me you'd be a better Astronaut for it Alan."
How unusual. His Father sounds exasperated.
There he is. He has just strode in. He is looking around. His eyes rest on me. He is giving me his dazzling smile. He's coming towards me.
"Surprise Grandma your favourite Grandson is home!" he says mischievously as he hugs me tight. It almost feels the same as that little newborn baby who once needed to snuggle so close to his Grandma trying to feel that someone loved him.
"What are you doing here darling?" I ask him with "surprise".
"There's no show without the star." he replies. "So here I am."
He kisses my cheek and as he does he whispers quietly so only I can hear.
"You knew about this all along didn't you Grandma?"
He sees my answer in my eyes and smiles. I feel my feet leave the floor and the floor spin around. Oh no. Please don't Alan! I've had one too many scotches already.
"Alan put your Grandmother down this instant! She's seventy five now for goodness sake." How unusual. His father is rebuking him.
My feet are now on the floor but my glasses are off my face. How unusual, I think as I reach up to try to retrieve them.
"I swear to God you will never grow up boy!" That's Jeff again. How unusual.
"Give me a break Dad. Grandma doesn't mind do you?" he says putting my glasses on my face and kissing my cheek.
Before I can reply Alan has started to argue with his Father again. How unusual.
"Now as I was saying Dad. I'm the pilot of that baby not you. I know that…."
"Alan I'm not going to argue with you any longer. It's your Grandmother's birthday and like the rest of us I'm sure that she doesn't want to listen to you."
Jeff has given up on the argument. How unusual.
I watch as those blue eyes scan the room. I know what's coming next.
"I'm starved. The food up in that satellite is nothing like yours Grandma. I'm going into the kitchen to find something decent to eat."
Well young man that something isn't in the kitchen right now. She's downstairs in the cellar with her Father selecting the wines for the party.
"Let me tell you there's nothing in there you want young man." I tell him as our eyes meet.
"Grandma, I don't know what you're talking about." he says naively.
How unusual. He's looking for his little lady and he thinks I don't know!
The party is going to start soon and none of these Tracy men really know the stories I have been telling about them. It's probably just as well they don't.
However I look affectionately in the direction where my youngest grandson has gone and think about that beautiful little English girl who asked me to love her little baby for her just before she died all those years ago.
Lucy. I have loved and guided your little boy for you as you wanted. I know he turned out to be your wild child but you'd be proud of your youngest son today despite of it.
I am and despite the hard times he's given him, I think your Jeff is too.
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NEXT CHAPTER - "THINKING OF JOSIE - OUR GRANDMA." ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````