Chapter 26
"Hurry up guys or we will be late" Barbara insisted, standing at the bottom of the stairs tapping her watch. She'd put the kids into their best outfits and gone to change herself, when she came down she had found them outside playing in the mud. Sighing she was secretly pleased that they felt safe enough to be slightly mischevious. It was a step up.
After telling them to go inside and get changed Barbara had counted to 10 in order to calm down. Everything had to be perfect, Daniel was coming home. Last night they'd made welcome home cakes, the night before that a welcome home banner. The kids were bouncing off the walls to welcome him home and had been for a whole week. If she heard Zona ask if it was time yet, or Timmy work out the hours again she'd scream, and now the time was here they were late.
The bedroom doors flew open, both kids ran down the stairs Timmy with shirt and black school trousers, Zona in a blue dress, her hair already plaited in 2 French plaits, blue bows at the end.
"Okay to the car" Barbara ordered.
They got to base with 10 minutes to spare. Barbara went to the reserved seating for officers, rank had its privilege.
"Now we can't hug him until he dismisses his men" Barbara warned, "We have to wait"
"I can hear them" Timmy said bouncing, as the drums began to come within ear shot,
"Me too" Zona added,
"I can see them there" Timmy pointed, jumping up and down to get the best view
"Is Captain dad there?" Zona asked, impatiently, she hated being small.
"I can't see him" Timmy complained, "No wait he is there" he pointed at Daniel who was dressed in his best uniform,
"I see him" Zona waved; he didn't wave back instead marching with his group. They waited with Barbara's hand on their shoulders until the group were dismissed.
"Go" she said not having to tell them twice as they sprinted over to him he caught them in a running jump hugging them closely.
"I missed you" Zona said
"I missed him more"
"Nu uh" Zona argued,
"Actually, I missed you both the most, more than all the stars in the universe. Were you good for mommy?" he asked
"Yeah, I got my orange belt" Timmy told him
"Me too" Zona joined in.
"Good job guys, I better not mess with you" he put the kids down as Barbara approached hugging his wife holding her tightly.
"I missed you" He whispered, kissing her holding her tightly,
"I missed you too"
"I have a meeting with the general tomorrow" he said frowning,
"Redeployment?" Barbara sighed, as he shrugged, they'd been in Baltimore for 18 months it was time to move, she just hoped the kids would be okay with it. "Just let me know, where we are going, somewhere warm this time" she requested, as if he had a choice.
"I'll tell that to General Pike" Daniel suggested, grinning, they both knew he wouldn't do that, "Let's go home"
Daniel pushed the door hoping he had good news, but not sure,
"Well, where are we going?" Barbara asked,
"huh"
"Your face, you get a look when we have to move, you have it now, so where are we going?"
"Guam" Daniel told her sighing,
"Guam, where is that? South Pacific?"
"Yeah, it has a large hospital, and an international school, I report there in 1 month." Daniel said nervously as he did every time, aware he was asking his family to uproot their whole lives to support his career.
"Then we better get started" was all Barbara said, "Shall we tell the kids together?"
"Of course," Daniel went to the back door, the kids were out in the garden, "Timmy, Zona can we see you in the kitchen?" he ordered, although phrased like a request it was clearly an order. They put away the soccer ball they had been playing with walking into the kitchen.
"Have a seat guys" Barbara requested sitting opposite holding Daniel's hand. "We have some news, do you remember when we adopted you, we told you about Daniel's job that we might have to move?" she asked, Timmy shrugged while Zona frowned,
"We are moving to Guam" Daniel blurted out,
"Where is Guam?" Zona asked, puzzled, was it a park or a house, how far was it.
"Where do we go?" Timmy questioned at the same time. He liked it here, it was safe, if mom and Captain dad were moving where would he and Zona go?
"Well, you would come with us, and Guam is an island in the South Pacific." Barbara explained,
"How do we get there?" Zona enquired,
"We would fly on a plane, we'd still do the same things as here, skating, playing with bikes, painting, we'd still eat hot food, no sandwiches" Barbara continued,
"What about Nick? And Karate?"
"Well Nick is moving too, his family is moving to Florida, and I'm sure there will be a karate instructor in Guam"
"What about horses?"
"They'd stay here with Gwen, but we can find new animals in Guam to say hello too" Daniel offered.
"But we can go with you?" Timmy asked again.
"Definitely, we will never leave you" Barbara promised,
"Pinky promise?" Zona asked sticking her finger out
"Pinky Promise" Barbara linked her pinky finger shaking Zona's little finger.
A month later they sat on the plane, it had been a long tearful goodbye, to Mabel and Edna, to Mrs Thomas and especially Gwen and the horses. Even now Zona's blue eyes were slightly red rimmed as she sat hugging doggie and horny tightly.
Zona and Timmy were both glued to the windows, as a nervous flyer Barbara was sat across the isle gripping onto the hand rests, while Daniel entertained the kids, the plane flew above the clouds Zona's nose pressed against the window.
"Where are the people?" She asked,
"What people?" Daniel replied confused
"The people that go to heaven, where are they?" She asked her eyes peeled, she had been hoping to see her mammy when they went into the clouds as everyone knew heaven was in the sky,
"Oh sweetie" Daniel reached over lifting her over Timmy, cuddling her on his lap. "That's not how heaven works, when people die, their souls go to heaven but it's a lot higher up than an aeroplane can fly,"
"Oh" Zona said the disappointment evident in her voice, she'd really been hoping to see her mamma just for a moment, tell her how happy she was, and to see her face, she'd never seen her face before, daddy hadn't allowed her to see any photos, she wasn't worth it. Wasn't allowed to see the face of the person she had killed and now she was on a plane for the first time ever going to a strange new place, it was overwhelming and scary.
"What are you thinking, sport?" Daniel asked, worried about the frowning on his daughter, he brushed her hair out of her face, as Barbara looked over, placing her hand on her daughter's arm. Zona bit her lip, unsure how to express all these very adult feelings, instead she felt tears running down her face as she burst into tears. Daniel quickly hugged her tightly, holding his little girl until she fell asleep in his arms. He glanced at his wife who was just as worried and concerned as he was and his son who just like his wife was staring at the both of them, lost.
Despite his arms aching he remained as still as he sat with his daughter sleeping across his chest. She needed him to be strong, and that's what he could be.
She stirred a few hours later her blue eyes blinking open,
"Hey sleepy head" Daniel greeted, helping her to sit up, passing her over to Barbara, he'd been desperate for the toilet for over 2 hours but hadn't moved for fear of disturbing his daughter.
"How you feeling, dear?" Barbara questioned her sleepy daughter, brushing the hair from her face. "You got pretty upset earlier, you want to talk about it?" Barbara asked, Zona shook her head no, she really didn't want to talk about it, she still wasn't sure what she was upset about. Tabling that talk for later, instead she reached into her bag pulling out a bag of chocolate buttons, "would you like some chocolate, it makes everything better" she passed one to Timmy and the other to Zona watching as they tore into the packets. "I have colouring to" she offered, pulling out the workbook. Both kids cheered as they began colouring the pictures, Barbara checked her watch only 2 hours to go before they had to change planes in Toyoko before finally getting to Guam.
They arrived in Guam to 31 degree's heat hitting them as soon as the plane door opened, they quickly made it through passport control finding an enlisted member from base waiting to take them to their new home collapsing exhaustedly into their beds, glad the military had set up at least the very basics for them.
The next morning as normal Daniel was up first, he went downstairs, starting to unpack their suitcases, it wasn't long before he heard footsteps, sure enough it was Zona.
"Morning sport, I suppose you want breakfast?" he guessed, Zona nodded. Daniel opened the kitchen cupboards to find them empty. "Okay looks like you and me are on shopping duty," he suggested, "Grab your skates, we have a mission, to find food and save our family from the hungry monster" he ordered, this way he could get a run in and they could explore the local area, try find the base or local shop. Zona paused by the unpacked suitcases, not sure where her skates were, or even if the skates had made it into the flying cases not the shipping boxes.
"They are in the closest" Daniel pointed; Zona ran over pulling them on. Together they went out on a mission to find food.
They left the base running and skating along the path in the direction the guard recommended finding a local fruit stall. Daniel brought 2 of everything, he could make a great fruit salad for breakfast, and it would challenge the kids. From melon to star apples, to breadfruit. As he'd been around the world, he was use to prepping various fruits. They returned home to find Barbara awake she was finishing the unpacking just their belongings just the basics they had brought with them, the rest was being shipped and would take 6 weeks. Everything else had been gifted to charity or left in the house as a gift to the next family who lived there.
With the bags unpacked they began to explore the island that was now home, the first stop was the beach.
"Woah, look its moving" Zona said pointing at the waves, Barbara and Daniel looked at each other in surprise,
"Is this your first time at the beach?" Daniel asked, kicking himself, there previous father couldn't even be bothered to feed them let alone take them to the coast or on vacation. Both children nodded fixated on the water.
"Do either of you know how to swim?" Barbara questioned, both kids shook their heads no, learning to swim hadn't been high on their agenda. "Okay then we will teach you until then I don't want either of you in the water unless Daniel or myself are with you, this is really important," Barbara said, both children nodded.
"They need swimsuits" Daniel suggested as they pulled up at the main town where there were some shops,
"And we need groceries" Barbara added,
"Shops it is" Daniel decided driving away from the beach towards what looked like a shopping area. Instead of the large shops they were used to there were several little shops and market stalls.
"Let's go" Barbara said glad neither child was a fussy eater, there wasn't a bottle of ketchup in sight. Nevertheless, she managed to find some bits she was familiar with enough to make a few meals, she'd then start talking to the other families on base to get recipe recommendations.
Next, they grabbed swimsuits and arm bands, the plan to start swimming lessons that afternoon. They had lunch heading to the beach, the people next door recommending a local beach with a little current and great views.
They arrived at the beach having already changed into swimsuits at home, Daniel took Timmy into the water, while Barbara helped Arizona. They got the children kicking their legs, and paddling, by the time it was evening Timmy was swimming on his own and Zona was down to only one floatie.
"Can we come to the beach every day?" Zona asked, her face red from the sun,
"Yeah" Timmy agreed,
"Well not every day, you have school in 2 days but we can come a lot" Daniel promised. "Now let's go home and eat"
Not needing to be asked twice both kids ran up to the car. Unsurprisingly after dinner both kids were asleep on the sofa. Daniel lifted them up one by one carrying them upstairs to the bedroom, this time they were sharing a room, something both children were delighted by. Daniel and Barbara were hoping it would help Zona's separation issues to have Timmy in the room with him and it would keep her in her own bed. Edna had suggested it. Although they had time they had to try ease the dependency, but they needed to do something before they hit puberty otherwise it would get awkward. With both children asleep Daniel and Barbara settled down for a glass of wine and a beer.
The next morning Daniel and Zona were up early, running and skating in a different direction. Daniel's idea was to try and explore as much of the island as possible. With the sun shining, Daniel and Barbara sent the kids outside to play while they began trying to decorate and clean the house.
Silence from outside drew there attention, Barbara raised an eyebrow at Daniel, he shrugged carrying on with making the beds. Barbara sighed grabbing the camera, but they'd had the children long enough to know silence was bad, silence was suspicious.
She opened the back door. Both kids were sat on the grass, drinking imaginary tea, in between them was a pale brown snake, about 2 metres long was curled up on the table, both children less than 30 cm away from it. Barbara recognised it instantly as Brown tree snake,
"Look mom this is Mrs Slithers, she wanted a tea party" Zona told her excitedly. "She doesn't like sandwiches either"
"I can see that, why don't we go inside and get some real tea, I bet she'd love that" Barbara suggested, trying to get the children away from the poisonous snake without alarming either them or the snake.
"Can Mrs Slithers come?" Zona asked, reaching forwards to grab the snake to bring her inside.
"No" Barbara launched forwards grabbing her arms before she could touch it, "we don't touch snakes, they could bite us" she lectured, lifting her up placing her onto her hip. She clung to her like a monkey.
"But Mrs Slithers is a friendly snake" Timmy told her, pouting, turning his blue eyes onto her. Barbara ignored the puppy eyes, instead moving towards him and the snake.
"Timmy don't touch it either," Barbara reached out grabbing his hand, unfortunately getting too close to the snake. The snake woke, going into strike position launching for the nearest human. In a split-second decision Barbara had to decide who it would bite, Timmy or herself. She turned his hand, making sure hers was on the outside.
"Ow" she moaned feeling the 2 fangs piercing her skin. The snake recoiled waiting to strike again, Barbara didn't let it grabbing Timmy lifting him as well as Zona running into the house while the snake slithered off.
"Mom" Zona cried tears running down her face,
"It's okay Zona" Barbara hissed feeling the venom spreading up her arm, "I'm okay" she promised,
"We killed mom, we killed mommy" she sobbed as Barbara placed her on the floor next to Timmy in order to immobilise her arm as Daniel walked in hearing the chaos.
He found Barbara by the sink pale and moaning bleeding from her hand, as she washed it under the cold running water. Timmy standing defensively in front of a hysterical Zona who was curled into a ball crying on the floor.
"Snake bite" Barbara hissed, "I'm okay, get the kids" she ordered. She'd read up on Guam in preparation for starting shifts at the hospital and knew the snake was only deadly in rare cases, normally young children, for adults it mostly caused pain, inflammation and occasionally infection.
Daniel nodded, he trusted Barbara when she said she'd be okay, at least for now,
"Timmy, Zona it's okay," he reassured approaching them slowly.
"Mrs Slithers didn't mean it, Zona and I we didn't mean it, we didn't want to kill mommy, we didn't mean to, we are sorry, really sorry" Timmy sobbed, just as hysterical as Zona, the only difference was he was standing.
"I know, and nobody is in trouble, nobody is angry, and mommy isn't going to die" Daniel promised,
"Please, we didn't mean it" Timmy said again. Daniel launched forwards grabbing him and Zona, sitting on the floor pulling them both onto his lap. Both children tensed ready for a beating, instead Daniel pulled them to his chest holding them both in a hug, refusing to let them wiggle out of it until they stopped crying and fighting him, instead they both held onto him for dear life as he gently stroked their hair, and told them how much he loved them. Once Barbara had taken some pain relief she knelt and joined them in the hug, one armed. Holding them all closely until they'd calmed down and stopped crying.
"I love you my special boy and special girl. Nobody is mad and nobody is going to die, we are family. Families don't hurt each other. Families don't get mad if there is an accident" Barbara said not letting go until both children were calm. "Well Doctor Zona, it looks like we might be checking out the local hospital sooner than expected" Barbara said, looking at her swelling hand.
"Yay" Zona danced, she loved spending time at the hospital, while Timmy and Daniel winced, neither really liked hospitals but they'd go and be brave.
What did ya think? I'm glad you liked the onshots. life will be sped up more slightly