Auggie and Annie family and home part 12
Auggie had taken a day off at the centre. He used that day to get to Langley and to talk to Joan and his colleagues in person. He got out of the taxi, unfolded his cane and walked to the door. Entering the holy halls of the CIA he swept his cane back and forth and walked directly to the DPD. Eric Barber was sitting at his desk. He had already started with the surveillance of Garret Mason and Auggie was curious to hear what his colleague and buddy had found out.
„Hey Auggie, good to see you here again" Barber said, munching on a cheese toast.
„Good to be back" Auggie replied and walked towards Barber. He felt for the edge of the desk and leaned against it, holding his cane vertically and resting his hands on top.
„Have you got any news for me my friend?"
„Yes, indeed I have"
Auggie heard the sound of rustling of paper and a second later Barber read to him a list of names. Garret had made a variety of phone calls. Most of them were not of importance but one call had gotten Barber interested. Garret had made a call to an Arabic guy named Ahmed Ben Alid. Barber´s and Hollman´s research had brought more interesting facts and results. Ben Alid was a well known weapons dealer and had already been involved in a couple of dirty business in the far and middle east. However, it was still unclear how Garret had gotten involved in all of that. Maybe in a few days they would know more. Until then they had to be patient.
„Looks like we are getting closer" Auggie said, happy that the phone with the bug inside had proved to be helpful.
„You are still a great spy, despite..." Barber said and then he stopped.
„You can say it" Auggie replied „You wanted to say....despite being blind....right?"
„Yeah, but I did not want to sound rude" Barber apologized
„It is not rude, it is just a fact and being a blind spy is not so easy" and then with a grin he added „I guess there are not so many of that kind in the USA and elsewhere"
An hour later, Auggie was back at home. He wanted to use the day for things he usually had not so much time for. First he wanted to go to the gym. He walked into the bedroom, grabbed a t-shirt, a pair of trainers and sweatpants and put it into his backpack. He added some shower gel and a towel before he walked down the stairs again. Then he grabbed his cane and his leather jacket and made his way to the bus stop.
Ten minutes later the bus arrived. Auggie found the door with the tip of his cane, held the cane vertically to count the stairs, showed the ticket to the driver and searched for a free seat.
The bus was almost empty at that time and it did not take long until he arrived. He was a member of the fitness club and could visit as often as he liked per week. The last weeks however had been busy and he had not found much time for his physical workout.
Auggie made his way to the locker room. He was alone in the room and started to change. Then he felt for the lockers and counted the doors. The 5th locker was empty. He inserted a coin, put his clothes and backpack in and added his neatly folded cane. He did not need it at the gym and he knew his way around perfectly.
His first stop was the treadmill. After a minute or so Auggie had found his rhythm and then he heard somebody else arrive, taking the treadmill nex to his.
The young lady looked over to Auggie and seemed to be particularly fond of what she saw.
Auggie´s light-grey tank top clearly showed his well developed muscles and his dark hair curled around his forehead and his neck. Auggie did not take notice of the lady, instead kept on running concentrating on his rhythm.
The lady started running as well but once in a while she looked over to Auggie, wondering why he would not respond with a glance over to her. After 5 minutes or so she started talking to Auggie.
„Is this your regular place for workouts? I have not seen you before." She said, still taking in Auggie´s posture and his whole appearance.
„I am a regular guest here, yes...but I have not been here for a while...too much work." He said, turning slightly his head into the direction of the female voice.
„I see..." The lady said. She was in her early 30´s and had blond hair that she had put up in a ponytail. She was slim, had blue eyes and was not very tall. She wore a blue t-shirt and light-blue sweatpants combined with white trainers.
„I became a member here about three weeks ago. I have been here a few times but your face did not seem familiar" She added.
„Well I have been a member here for 4 years already but sometimes the job does not allow to come here every week, too much work" Auggie explained.
And to maintain his cover Auggie said „I am a teacher for IT"
„I am a nurse at the University hospital. It is not always easy either. With all the different patients and really rare and scary conditions, but I like my job. Could not imagine to do anything else"
„That is good" Auggie replied and got off the treadmill. He grabbed his towel, slung it around his neck and felt his way to the bench to start weight-lifting.
Only then, the blond lady noticed that Auggie could not see and she stared at him in disbelief with her eyes and her mouth open wide.
Auggie started lifting weights and enjoyed the physical activity. The weeks at the rehab centre had not let him enough spare time for his workouts, but he needed this distraction to feel good and to relax. This was one of the few things that had not changed after his accident and injury in Iraq. After around 90 minutes Auggie was soaked with sweat and exhausted but he felt good. He grabbed his towel and slowly walked towards the locker room. When he got there he trailed his hand along the lockers, counted and found the 5th one, opened it, grabbed his shower gel and walked over to the adjacent room where the showers and restrooms were located.
The water from the shower had a refreshing impact after the workout and Auggie quickly got dressed, packed his bag and walked over to the cafeteria to get a coffee before leaving. Sweeping his cane in an arc before him, he found a free table and waited for the waitress to arrive.
Seconds later, the middle-aged woman took his order and shortly after returned with Auggie´s coffee. Auggie felt for the cup and took a sip. He was a bit lost in thought when all of a sudden a female voice next to him said
„May I take a seat?"
First , Auggie was a bit confused, then he realized that the voice belonged to the young lady who had talked to him before.
„Of course" he replied feeling for his cup and taking the next sip of black coffee.
„We talked at the gym, right?"
Auggie asked, assuming that the lady had realized he was blind.
„Yeah, we did. I actually did not immediately realize that you are..." and then she stopped...looking over to Auggie who had got the verbal cue already and finished the sentence for her.
„You mean that I am blind"
„Yes, I did not want to be rude"
„Calling me blind is not rude, it is a fact I cannot deny" Auggie said and a little smile played around his lips.
„Have you always been blind"
„No, I was a soldier and lost my sight in a bomb attack in Iraq"
„Sounds scary"
„Yes, it was. I was the only one who survived, all my other buddies died"
„To be honest I have never met a blind person and so I did not know how to react."
„Don´t worry, you did nothing wrong. When I first met my wife she had never met a blind person before either but she quickly adapted to my sometimes very special needs. But I need to go now. I have to pick up my son from school"
„It was nice to talk to you" The blond lady said, when Auggie rose from his chair and grabbed his backpack and his cane. He left the money for his coffee on the table before he made his way to the door.
About 45 minutes later he arrived at Jeremy´s school. One kid after the other left the school building and after a while Auggie heard his son´s voice.
„Daddy, Daddy...I am here"
Then Auggie made a few steps forward into the direction of Jeremy´s voice and opened his arms.
„Hey champion, how was school today?"
„It was good. We have written our first dictation and I did pretty well Mrs. Williams said"
Jeremy was proud when he told Auggie about his first English dictation.
„Sound like a pretty successful day" Auggie said and took Jeremy´s hand, about to leave, when he heard the voice of a kid next to him.
„Hello Mr. Anderson. I really liked it to use your cane. That was really interesting last week"
That was Kevin´s voice. Auggie´s lesson at school had made a huge impression on the cheeky little boy.
„I am glad you liked it. Maybe now you can understand better what it is like when you cannot see"
Auggie answered and started to walk.
Back home again, Annie was already there. She had had a hard day in Langley and was a bit in a bad mood. She had argued with Joan about a mission that had gone wrong. Now, she was busy in the kitchen and about to push a homemade Pizza with cheese, onions, Salami and peppers into the oven.
„Hmm...Pizza" Jeremy looked into the oven „One of my favourite dishes"
„Yeah I know and your Dad and I like it, too"
"Can I have orange juice with my Pizza?"
" I am afraid there isn´t any left, you drank the last glass yesterday evening. I have to do some shopping tomorrow, but you can have apple juice"
Annie said, turning towards the fridge and grabbing a bottle with juice.
"I like apple juice, too"
Jeremy said, before he ran up the stairs and put his school bag onto his desk.
"Did you get any further with your mission" Annie asked
"I guess so. Barber has found out about a few calls Garret has made, we have to keep digging until we get to the bottom of the whole thing"
The kitchen was already filled with the scent of fresh Pizza and Annie started to lay the table whilst Auggie opened a bottle of white wine and got to glasses from the shelf above the sink.
Ten minutes later the kitchen timer beeped and Annie pulled the Pizza out of the oven.
"Come down, dinner is ready" Auggie called and seconds later Jeremy came down the stairs with his favourite dinosaur in his hand
"What did dinosaurs eat?" Jeremy asked
"Hmm...depends on the type of dinosaur. Some of them were vegetarians and just ate things like plants and vegetables and others would eat meat and smaller animals"
"And this one?" Jeremy held up his favourite dinosaur and handed it over to Auggie
"Well, to be honest I don´t know what type of dinosaur that is, they all look the same to me" Auggie said after he had assessed the rubber animal with his sensitive fingertips. Now Annie looked over from the kitchen counter where she was cutting Pizza pieces
"I don´t know either, but maybe we can find a picture of that dinosaur on the internet and find out what kind of dinosaur that is"
She said and carried a huge plate with Pizza slices to the dining table and set it right in the middle.
As usual, Jeremy sat on a chair with a huge cushion, that made it easier for him to reach the table.
"Hmm..that is good" Jeremy said, his mouth still full of Pizza.
Auggie slowly felt for the bottle on the table and started pouring a glass of wine for Annie and one for himself. He put his finger on the rim of the glass, checking when it was filled.
"I agree to my son" he said after the first bite "The Pizza is great"