Auggie and Annie family and home part 13
Auggie walked through the room. The students were all busy with the task he had given them and he went from one desk to the next, checking whether everybody was getting along. He really started to like his job. At the beginning, he had been quite skeptical whether he would be a good teacher and he had feared to be in touch with so many blind people at a time because he sometimes still wanted to forget that he was different and that he could not see. But the job as an IT teacher was really rewarding and he liked most of the students.
While he was talking to the students, he heard his cell phone buzzing. He cautiously made his way across the room and grabbed the phone from his desk. He took the headset, to listen to the message and he was astonished. It was a message from Barber. They had found out more details about Garret and his friends. Obviously they were about to plan a meeting.
Bingo! Auggie thought.
Up til now, his job at the centre had really been rewarding. Not only that the students liked him, he had also made one step further into the right direction. His mission started to be a success and that relieved him.
After listening to the message Barber had sent him, he put the cell phone back into his messenger bag and started to think about the next step. He had to go to Langley and to talk in person with Barber, Hollman and Joan. He decided to take a cab to Langley after the last lesson. In an hour he would leave. He was curious what exactly Barber and the others from his team had found out.
A voice made Auggie come back to reality.
"Mr. Anderson, I have a question. Could you show me again how to change the settings of the screen reader?"
"Sure Liza" Auggie made his way to the second row, felt for the back of the third chair and seconds later his hands flew across the keyboard and he showed Liza what to do.
"You are such a good teacher" The young girl said. She was only 19 and had just lost her sight in a car accident.
"Thanks, I will take this as a compliment" Auggie smiled, before he walked back to his own desk. Then he felt for his tactile watch and checked the time. In 15 minutes he would be able to leave. He took out his phone again and made a call.
"Could you pick me up at the Rehab Centre for the Blind at 3:15 pm?"
"Sure" the young operator replied "I am going to send you a car. We will be right on time Mr. Anderson"
Half an hour later Auggie sat on the back seat of a yellow cab. He was curious what Barber and the other colleagues had found out.
Arriving in Langley, the driver opened the door for Auggie
"Can I help you Sir?" He asked politely.
"No, thank you. Just tell me where we stopped, so that I know which direction the entrance is"
"We are right in front of it. Should be about 50 m from here, straight on"
"Thanks" Auggie took out his wallet, paid the driver and set his cane in motion. Three minutes later, he walked into his office, where Barber was just typing on his keyboard.
"Hey buddy" Barber greeted him. As always chewing on some potato chips he had brought from home.
"Good to see you again. So to speak" Auggie smirke, felt for the edge of his round glass desk, folded his cane before he put it on the desk . "I am curious to learn what you have found out about my friend and colleague"
Barber swallowed the last of his chips crumbs before he continued
"Garret has made two calls. One yesterday night, and one today at 7:00 in the morning. He was talking in Arabic but I got Jonathan from SAD to translate for me. He speaks Arabic quite fluently. It looks like Garret is the contact for Sharif Al Sahid, a weapons dealer from Yemen. He seems to be involved into illegal weapons deals. It looks like a US guy named Phillip Michaelson uses Garret as a middle man between Al Sahid and himself. If Garret is caught, Michaelson will surely be denying that he knows him and Garret would be the one to blame."
"How can you be so sure?" Auggie asked
"Well, according to my research, Michaelson has a lot of dirt on his hands but nobody could ever find enough evidence against him to sue or prosecute him. He always finds somebody else to do the dirty jobs for him and HE makes the money, whilst the others end up in prison"
"So what have you planned now?" Auggie asked, turning a bit towards Barber, trying to meet his gaze.
"Well, I thought we will wait for the next few calls to get the details and the meeting point and then we will follow them secretly and try to catch them"
"I guess I should stop working at the centre now. We have bugged Garret´s phone and I am a bit unsure whether he will find out that I was behind all that. It would be safer if I came back to Langley" Auggie said.
"Maybe" Barber replied, watching Auggie´s skeptical expression. "Today is Thursday, I guess you would manage one more day at the centre before the weekend approaches"
"Yes, I will talk to the manager of the centre and she will surely be understanding. She said that I might resign as soon as I find something else. I mean, it was part of my cover to tell her that I am unemployed and that working at the centre is only an interim solution until I find a new job somewhere in IT"
"You are a real pro" Barber grinned and then he looked over to the door. "Joan is on her way" he said and seconds later, the glass door opened and Joan Campbell appeared in the door frame.
"Hey Auggie, good to see you again" Joan smiled, came a bit closer and patted Auggie´s right shoulder. "Have you already heard the good news?"
"Yeah, Eric has just read me in. I am glad that my efforts paid off. I guess my job at the centre is now done. I will resign on Monday. I don´t want to raise any sort of suspicion. We got what we wanted and that is the basic thing. Funny, that I really started to like my job as a teacher. I would not have guessed that it would be such a pleasure to teach other people and to help them."
"You have lots of talents" Joan Campbell said and Auggie could hear the smile in her voice.
"I have to leave now. Annie and I want to go shopping. I need some new shoes. Do you know where she is?"
"She is at the Smithonian today. I thought today was the right time to show up there and to maintain her cover as a museum clerk . I guess she will be back in half an hour. So if you would like to wait for her, you don´t need a taxi ride back home."
"Thanks Joan. I will wait for her then". Then Auggie grabbed a second chair, pulled it a bit closer and sat down at his desk next to Barber who had continued typing. It was a strange feeling for Auggie to a guest in his own office. But in a few days, he would be back and Barber would move over to his old desk next door.
Auggie listened to Barber typing and chatted with him. After around twenty minutes the door opened and Annie entered.
"Hey Darling" She walked over to Auggie, kissed him and pulled him into a warm embrace.
"Are you done for today?" Auggie asked, rising from his chair. He felt for his cane on his desk and unfolded it.
"Let´s go" he said and Annie offered him her arm and led him out of the office. Twenty minutes later, they were back home.
Jeremy was already waiting for them. His babysitter had picked him up from school and he was sitting at the kitchen table with a dinosaur puzzle.
"Mummy, Daddy..." Jeremy jumped off the chair and ran towards his parents. "We have walked through the forest and I have collected wonderful leaves and many chestnuts"
"Sounds like a wonderful day" Annie said and hugged her son tightly before she took off her coat and put her purse on the dresser in the corridor.
"Miss Williams said that in two weeks we should bring our father to school one morning if it is possible. We are supposed to talk about our father´s job"
Annie gasped and touched Auggie´s hand with the back of hers. Auggie smiled into her direction. Of course they could not tell the kids at school what Auggie did for a living.
"Will you come with me Daddy?" Jeremy asked with a pleading look that was of course lost on Auggie.
"Sure, I will come with you to school" He said and nudged Annie with his elbow.
Later in bed Annie said "Have you already thought about what you are going to tell the kids at school?"
"Of course" Auggie felt for Annie´s shoulder, wrapped his right arm around her and pulled her closer. She snuggled into his embrace and continued
"So what are you going to tell them at school?"
"Well, that is simple. I am in charge of the IT department in a big company. That is not even a lie. I just leave out the name of my employer" Auggie smirked and placed a soft kiss on Annie´s forehead. Then, Annie switched off the lights and snuggled down into Auggie´s arms before she fell asleep.
The next morning at the breakfast table, Auggie was very quiet. He was lost in thought, cradling his coffee mug with his hands. Annie looked up from her newspaper, gave him a questioning look and asked
„What is going on with you today, you seem to be miles away? Anything wrong?"
„No, not really, it is just...I need to resign at the centre today and I was just thinking how much I have learned to love that job. I mean...I am...I was able to give something back, I could do something for others who are in my position. It felt good not always to be the one in need. If you know what I mean."
„Of course" Annie swallowed. She knew how hard it was for her husband to talk about his feelings. He kept his emotions usually close to his vest and did not let others in, not even her, despite being his wife.
„On the other hand...coming back to the centre has also brought back lots of things and emotions that I had buried deep inside myself. I did not expect them to come to the surface again. I mean...I have been blind fore more than 9 years and I thought I had come to terms with my life...but now...seeing, meeting all these students, talking to them, has caused me to think of how I felt, when I was in rehab there and a lot of the anger, the fear, the insecurity and the frustration I felt back then came back to my mind and that scares me"
Now Annie put the newspaper down, and reached for Auggie´s hand with her left. She wrapped her hand around his and said
„You don´t need to feel ashamed for these feelings. I know, how much you hate to show vulnerability but after all we are all human and there is nothing bad about showing how you feel."
„Thank you my Darling" Auggie now got up from the table and pulled Annie into an embrace before he kissed her. „I cannot feel grateful enough to have found you" He said.