Chapter Six
Something was tickling Jeff's ear. He shook his head and took a drowsy swipe at it. The sun shone directly on his face through a small square window high in the hay barn. Squinting, he finally couldn't stand the brightness and forced himself to sit up. Opening his eyes, he saw Virgil and Scott sitting together on a hay bale. "Good morning, boys. Isn't it a little earlier for you to be up?"
"No," Scott answered. "Grandpa says anyone that is still in bed when the sun comes up on a farm is either sick or lazy."
Jeff shook his head and smiled. How many times had he heard his father say the very same thing to him when he was young? He glanced at his watch. O-seven hundred. Late by farm time. He had intended to help Grant with the morning routine, but he'd have to hurry now if he wanted to help out.
Stretching, he rubbed his neck trying to relieve the stiffness. I'm getting too old for this, he thought. Sleeping in the hay was something he'd sometimes when he was younger but now, heading on two decades of past injuries and accidents, the activity left him aching and sore. For a brief time, he wondered what he was doing out there but then he remembered the night before. The fight. He groaned and leaned forward. He was such a fool sometimes. Instead of calming Lucy and defusing the situation, he had pressed the detonation button and fired all the missiles.
"Grandma says breakfast is ready," Scott said, chewing on a stalk of hay.
"She wants to know why you slept in the barn, too," added Virgil.
Scott elbowed his younger brother in the ribs. The movement wasn't lost on Jeff. So his mother knew he was sleeping in the barn. He never could get anything by his mother he thought with a wry smile. She knew him too well.
"Is your mother up yet?"
Scott shook his head. "She doesn't feel good again so Grandma told us to let her sleep and don't be bothering her."
"She says that goes for you too, Dad," Virgil piped in. Again a poke from Scott coupled with a frown.
Virgil was clearly confused why Scott kept prodding him. "But that's what she said."
Jeff decided he would leave Lucy alone for a while. The words of their argument were still bouncing around in his head and it made him ill to think of it. Surely, she didn't mean what she said. He knew that he didn't mean what came out of his mouth. He said it in anger.
Jumping down from the hay, he brushed himself off before heading up back to the house with his two boys. If the morning was anything to go by, it was going to be a beautiful day. The sky was a deep blue and the sun shone pleasantly, drying the dewy grass and taking off the night time chill that had settled over the landscape only a few hours before. There was a sound of a motor, and Kenny passed by down the driveway on a tractor pulling a windrower.
The table was spread out with all the delicious things that Grandma could make: stacks of pancakes, a platter of bacon and home-grown pork sausages, fluffy scrambled eggs, and of course, homemade cinnamon rolls. Jeff sat down at the table in his usual place. Grandma sat across from her son and grandsons as they ate, watching them with pleasure. Next to her, John sat with a large napkin around his neck as he usually got more of his breakfast on his clothes than he did in his stomach.
When breakfast was over, the ever-industrious woman cleared the table and did the dishes, refusing help from Jeff when he offered. "Just sit there and keep me company," she said.
So he did. They talked about the farm, Grant's plans for the next year, the boys, Lucy's pregnancy, anything but the failed moon mission. She didn't bring it up and neither did he. When the final dish was dry and placed back in the cupboards, Ruth sat down next to her son and patted his arm.
"Now let's talk." Ruth was never one to mince words. She had waited until she was alone with her son to talk seriously. "Are you still going to start the business?"
Jeff leaned back into his chair and sighed. The cuckoo clock on the wall ticked steadily. "Yes, I'm still going to go ahead with the plans that we made."
Ruth nodded. "Good. We...Dad and I...were afraid that you'd stay on with NASA."
Jeff raised an eyebrow at the idea that Grant would be overly afraid of anything having to do with him and his plans for the future. The man was afraid of nothing, except perhaps hailstorms or other things that would affect crop production on the farm. Besides that, father and son had already battled it out over his career choices many years before when the son decided that following the father's footsteps in farming wasn't what he wanted. Grant had long been resigned that Jeff never would or could be a farmer.
"When are you going to start looking for a place close to Wichita?"
"Soon. I've still got some lose strings that I need to tie up in Florida."
"So you're all going back for a while?"
Jeff shifted in the chair. It suddenly felt hard and he wished he could stand up and pace up and down the length of the kitchen. "I'm going to fly back in a few days."
His mother pursed her lips and studied him. "What about Lucy and the boys?"
"I don't think she wants to go back with me." Jeff picked at one of the crocheted checkered placemats on the table. "We had a fight last night."
Ruth nodded. "I thought as much. We could hear you through the open window."
Jeff's face reddened at the thought of his parents hearing them and the words that were meant to be private.
"Dad shut the window," Ruth assured. "We aren't eavesdroppers, son."
Jeff was slightly mollified. "I know that, Ma. I guess we might have been a little louder than we realized. I'm sorry if we woke you up."
Ruth waved her hand. "Never mind that. I know it's not my business but I love you both. Don't you leave without putting things right." She squeezed Jeff's hand with her work-worn one.
"I don't know if I can do that." Jeff met his mother's gaze. It was the first time he had really looked her in the eye since he had come home. She knew him so well that he was afraid she'd see through his defenses and know just how much the mission and Eric's death had shaken him.
"Maybe Lucy's right. Maybe you shouldn't go."
Jeff took a deep breath. "So you did hear last night that I'm going back."
"No," Ruth said. "Lucy told me this morning."
"You're on her side." Jeff folded his arms and frowned.
"Don't be a child, Jefferson. This isn't about sides," his mother chided. "I want what's best for all of you. You, Lucy, and the boys mean everything to me and your father."
"It's only one more mission, Ma," Jeff said, unfolding his arms. "I've got to finish this mission. I can't just leave it undone."
The cuckoo clock struck nine and the little yellow bird popped out from behind the wooden door singing "cuckoo" and bobbing forward nine times. By the time the bird popped back into the clock, Jeff was smiling. It was all so ridiculous, him trying to be serious with the little bird repeating "cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo" in the background.
Ruth shook her head, laughing. "I guess he told you."
"I guess so," Jeff agreed. He let himself laugh and while it felt strange, it also felt good. He continued to smile at his mother. "Look, Ma, I'll be ok, really I will. I'll finish the mission and then I'll be back with my feet on the ground for good."
With one last pat on his arm, Ruth got up. The day's work waited for her and she was eager to start it now that she had her say with her son. "I believe you, son, but I'm not the one who needs convincing."
Jeff tapped on the closed door softly. He held a cup of tea made just the way she liked it as a peace offering. When no one answered, he opened the door and stepped into the room. Lucy lay in bed on her side, facing away from him toward the window. The soft white curtains rolled gently from the soft breeze blowing through the open window. The scent of flowers from the trellis on the side of the house perfumed the air as well as the smell of fresh cut grass.
Jeff hesitated, debating whether or not to disturb her. She looked peaceful curled up in the light cotton blanket with her hair spread out behind her and her one hand resting on the pillow under the side of her face. He decided against waking her up and was turning to leave when she called out to him.
"Don't go." She turned over in the bed. Her brown eyes were tired and red but her face had a calmness and peace as she smiled at him. He came to her and set the cup of tea on the bedside table. She patted on the bed next to her and he sat down on the bed. Leaning against the headboard, he put his arm around her and she moved closer to him. Reaching for his hand, she slowly traced a circle in his palm.
"Are you mad?" she finally asked, looking up searchingly in his eyes.
He shook his head. "Not at you. Just myself. Are you mad?"
"Not now."
Jeff waited, knowing she would continue talking when she was ready. He could hear a tractor off in the distance and the sound of the boys playing down below in the shade of the trees. A bumble bee bounced lazily off the window screen a couple of times and a cicada whirred in a tree top nearby. Jeff listened to the old wind-up clock on the dresser across the room tick steadily. It was the sound of time passing. Life passing. Jeff studied the ceiling. He remembered looking at the same ceiling light many years before.
"Did you ever hear the story of the Girl and the Snake?" Lucy asked. "My Father told me that story the day before we got married."
Jeff raised an eyebrow thinking of Lucy's father. The man had always been an enigma to him. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed native of the small Eastern European country of Moldavia had regarded Jeff with suspicion with at first. Lucy had been the apple of her father's eye and the man had been protective of her. It took a great deal of time before he trusted and accepted Jeff as his son-in-law. "I don't think I know that story," Jeff admitted.
"Do you want me to tell you?"
"Actually I would," Jeff admitted, curious as to why the man would chose that story to tell his daughter before she was married.
Lucy sat up and took a sip of tea. "A young girl walking along a mountain path to her grandmother's house heard a rustle at her feet. Looking down, she saw a snake, and the snake spoke to her. I am about to die, it's too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you. No, the girl said to the snake. I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. And if I pick you up, you will bite me and your bite is poisonous. No, no, the snake said. If you help me, you will be my best friend. I will treat you differently. The young girl sat down on a rock to rest and think things over. She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and she had to admit he was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen. She said to the snake, I believe you. I will save you. She then reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and continued toward her grandmother's house. Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her. How could you do this to me? she cried. You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you! You knew what I was when you picked me up, he hissed as he slithered away." Lucy took another drink from the cup. "That's it. Finis. The end."
Jeff smiled wryly. "So I take it that I was the snake."
Lucy smiled. "Yes, you were the snake. But that wasn't the point of the story."
"What was the point? That your father didn't trust me and thought of me as a poisonous viper ready to strike his only daughter?" It was funny how the parents of all of his earlier girlfriends viewed him with great favor with no effort on his part, yet he had to prove himself over and over before he had won over his father-in-law.
Lucy shook her head. "No, that wasn't it at all. He wanted me to understand that you are who you are and that I wasn't going to change that."
"I think he meant more than that," Jeff replied, bemused.
"My Father thought very highly of you, Jeff. I know you never believed it, but he liked you. Maybe not at first, but later on he did. He told me so himself," she added, seeing the skepticism clearly on his face. "He said you were an honorable man. Honor and loyalty to family meant everything to him."
"You and the boys mean everything to me," Jeff bent down and kissed the top of her head, thinking of how much he loved her. Where would he be without this woman?
"We mean everything to you but you're still going to go on the mission." Lucy stated it without anger. She looked up at him, brown eyes twinkling. "Because you're a snake, I guess."
Jeff wasn't sure how to take her words and hesitated. Lucy pulled him close and kissed him softly. He kissed her back and at that moment he knew without a doubt all was forgiven.
"Just make sure you come back," Lucy whispered. "I don't know what we'd do without you."
Jeff kissed her again. "Don't worry. I'll come back. I'll never leave you. I promise."
Later that afternoon when Ruth returned from her trip to town, she handed Jeff a bundle of mail. "Bernie at the post office gave me this for you." Jeff unsnapped the rubber band around it and looked quickly through it. The mail mostly consisted of bills involving the rental of a warehouse and office space where he and Eric had planned to set up their fledgling business.
He paused over one of the letters addressed to Eric caught his eye. He looked at the return address. Judge's Investigative Services...Orlando, FL. Ripping it open, he scanned over the letter inside. It was an invoice for a thousand dollars for services rendered. Jeff thoughtfully refolded the letter and put it back in the envelope. Services for what? he wondered. Why would Eric hire a private investigator? he wondered. He could think of absolutely no reason why his friend would need such a person.
His musings were interrupted by his mother calling to him from the house. "Jeff, you have a call from someone from NASA named Brian Duncan."
Jeff went into Grant's little office off the kitchen to take the call in private. The old vid-phone was small and outdated so when the he turned on the screen there was a line of static directly across the middle of the administrator's face.
"Sorry to interrupt your leave, Colonel." The gray-haired scientist was apologetic.
"No problem," Jeff said, wondering what prompted the man to contact him. He rarely spoke to the assistant administrator. Usually General Austin communicated directly to him, though occasionally Dr. Bolden also contacted him. But Brian Duncan? Never.
"As soon as you come back I need to speak to you," Duncan said. "Privately."
Jeff noticed the beads of sweat on the older man's forehead and the way he kept glancing around him. "About what, if you don't mind telling me?"
"I need to see you in person."
Jeff was about to ask another question but Duncan again spoke, his voice laden with urgency. "Can you be here tomorrow?"
"I wasn't going to leave until..." Jeff began, not happy at the prospect of returning so soon. He wanted at least another day or two to spend with on the farm with his family.
"I need you to be here tomorrow, Colonel." Again, the hasty looks over his shoulder as if he feared some unknown person was listening in to their conversation. "Can you do that for me?"
"If I have to," Jeff said, irritated. "Should I come to your office?"
Duncan shook his head furiously. "No, no. Not here. I'll meet you by the fountain in Memorial Park at noon." With no more farewells or formalities of conversation, the communication cut off and the vid-phone's screen went blank.
Jeff's ire as well as his curiosity was piqued. What did the man want to discuss and why was he acting in such an odd way? As much as he hated to cut his stay short, he had to respond when duty called, even if it was in the form of meeting with an odd character like NASA's assistant administrator.
He stepped out of Grant's office. At least he had the rest of the day to spend with the family. He'd make the best of their time together before heading back to Florida. After all, it was probably the last time he'd see them before the moon mission. He and Lucy already had decided that she and the boys would stay on the farm until he came back.
Jeff wished that for once time would slow down and stop instead of rushing forward to the uncertain future. As much as he assured Lucy that all would work out, there was a part of him that wondered if he would fall to the same fate as his friend and become a victim of the hazards of space. Pushing the dark thoughts away, he headed out into the bright sunshine of the late summer day. Lucy and his boys were waiting for him and he was going to make the best of the time they had together.