,CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Rachel and the children had arrived. They came ahead of Frederick and his family and soon the others came. The waiting room was getting very noisy and full.

Antonio was talking to the Fabrizio lawyer, mostly shoptalk about the amount of time they had before getting their own practice, the school they went, their specialty, until getting to the point.

"Schools," he said, not finances, but schools. Jarod might not know it, and Miss Parker would refuse to know it, but Dominants often got their wealth from their victims in the past. His father and mother probably thought they got it by the methods used since 1998, co-operation, and treaties. It was said, "The graves of the Sapiens fill the coffers of the Dominants and the children of the Dominants reap the benefits." .

Schools for Dominant children were an issue and hard to get into to, the Sapien schools, that is. There was a waiting list for the best schools.

But that was not important now. If needs be, they could send the children to The Dominant School in Connecticut although neither Jarod nor Miss Parker wanted to be separated from their children.

Miss Parker was talking to a priest phone when Jarod came out of the elevator, and she knew right away. "She's dead, isn't she?"

"Yes." He stepped aside to let Zoe's family through, but a nun stopped them.

"We"ll get the body ready for viewing room," she said. "I don't think the children will want to see their mother as she is."

"We'll join you later," said Miss Parker. "This is Father Ambrose. He'll be performing the baptism."

"Don't worry," said the Father, "this happens all the time."

"Thank you," said Jarod imagining a ceremony much like the wedding chapels in Las Vegas where tons of parents waited in line for the priest to speed through the ceremony with, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Next?"

However, it was not like that. The baptism took an hour that coincided probably with the preparation of Zoe's body and was a necessity since often parents brought their infants up to say good-bye to the deceased, forgetting that this was a hospital with germs.

Jarod had watched The Godfather One and Two, in fact, he watched them several times when he was on the run, and half expected, that as the Priest said, "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost' several men with Tommy guns would climb up the steps of everyone of the Centre Satellites, and blast away.

However Broots did not rush through the door and screaming, "Miss Parker, Miss Parker, did you hear the news? They're killing everybody."

Well Broots was here and besides even if such a thing happened, no one would know until they were at that location and saw half the police of that particular country milling around. It was a nice thought, but one that needed perusal another time. Right now, the baptismal ceremony was almost over.

"I baptize you Johann Matthew, Lisa Margaret, Colin Ethan, and Catherina Violetta Angela in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." The priest sprinkled the infants and finished in Latin, making the sign of the cross, and assuring the parents, by his confidence, that if their children suddenly died, they would immediately be in Heaven.

Antonio Waldo Lambourni Angela stood by as their godfather and Debbie as their godmother.

After the service, one of the members of the Woman's Auxiliary informed them of the catering service and special events such as baptism of multiple births were no cost. She also pointed out the location. "Just give us a holla and we'll be ready," she said with a smile.

"Holla?" whispered Miss Parker.

"An attempt to put us at ease," said Jarod. He stood in front of a line of people all saying congratulations, and ahs to the babies. It wasn't like this at Blue Cove, but then these children had no threat of being put down in the sublevels nor of Raines or Lyle suddenly snuffing out their lives during the middle of the night.

The older children did like getting picked up, and people telling that they were so cute.

However, things had to end and once again, they walked over to the hospital and on learning Zoe's body was almost ready went into the waiting room, that had a picture of Jesus and Mary both radiating down on a woman dressed in black who cried with painted tears as well as numerous booklets on death, dying, and surviving. There was a small restroom, as well as four jugs of water, the Vulgate, plus for the Protestants, a King James Bible. And since this was a Roman Catholic Hospital, several pamphlets on converting to that belief.

The couches were utilitarian beige with pastel flowers entwined in moss green leaves and the chairs padded with the same material. There was also a crib for the children and one of the nuns brought in another one so there would not be a scrabble.

"Do they have a radio?" asked Jeremiah, looking around for possible weapons to use in his mischief and all the adults followed him either by looks or by moving their seats to his location.

The orderlies brought in Zoe's body, and everyone said their farewells, along with the usual crying and sobbing or looking appropriately sad.

She looked as if she were sleeping.

The Fabrizios kept a close watch on Francesco, Gabriella, and Luigi.

"They're not going to let you get close to them, Jarod," whispered Miss Parker.

"Zoe promised us custody." He left the group, going over to the parents who tried to block his way. They were getting prepared for a scene or rather wishing to start one.

"With my daughter dead, now you want to take my grandchildren away?" asked Mrs. Fabriozio.

"Zoe wanted them to see the village in Italy where your grandparents came from."

"But they're too little and we never got to see them." .

"Never?"

Jarod turned to see the older Mrs. Fabriozio approaching, her face red with anger.

"Never?" she repeated, "I wrote you numerous times, made phone calls, but you never showed up. You didn't care about your own daughters, just figured that getting Don Carproza's approval was more important than getting a decent job."

"But the State had no right to take them away from us," said Mr. Fabriozio.

"The State had every right. Inviting that creep to your apartment, knowing that he was a child molester, why I doubt even the Don would've approved. Now you listen to me. The Angelas are going to take the children to Italy. They can take them to Australia if they wanted, just so you cannot corrupt them as you tried to do to Zoe."