Ch 3 Taking It Easy

A week later, Phineas sat in front of the window and watched the rain coming down in hard sheets. It had been raining for 3 days straight and Jeff was pacing restlessly in the small room. "You've been pacing around all day, what's up?" he finally asked.

Jeff paused, there were just some things that Bogg couldn't understand, he thought to himself. What he finally said was, "I wish I had something to read."

"You've been reading since we got here," Bogg said in confusion, looking at all the books and magazines strewn around the room.

"Yeah," Jeff sighed, "I started a lot of books, but I don't know, I'm just not interested in them. I want one I can really enjoy. It's been a long time since I've read a really good book... one I can get lost in, like Oliver Twist or Huckleberry Finn or Sherlock Holmes."

"Oh," Phineas said.

"What's your favorite book?"

"I don't know," Bogg said drawing a blank. Reading wasn't one of his strengths. He hadn't even learned to read until he was plucked for Voyager School. He'd been 18 years old at the time and it was all he could do to learn to read their textbooks well enough to pass the classes. Reading for recreation wasn't something he had time for. "What did your parents like to read?" he asked. He knew he might be asking Jeff to remember something painful, but he felt at a loss about what to say.

Jeff paused, "well, see, that's the thing, I don't really know." He stopped again, "we used to go to the library a lot, they didn't own many books."

"Did they own any?"

"I only remember two books. They were on my dad's desk for awhile so I don't think they were from the library, but I don't think I'd want to read either of them," Jeff said sadly.

"What were they?"

"One was about how to kill birds, and the other..."

"How to what?" Phineas interrupted.

"I know, it's weird isn't it? I never understood it, I mean my dad was a birdwatcher, not a hunter..."

Bogg stared at Jeff and the silence stretched on. "What was the other?"

"The other one was called The Habit."

"You mean like a drug habit?"

Jeff shrugged, "I don't know, I guess, I mean what other kind of habit would someone write a book about?" Jeff turned toward the window, it had suddenly gotten dark, even though it was the middle of the day. "Isn't this weather ever going to break?" he asked.

Bogg sighed. Though he knew the cramped quarters were getting to Jeffrey, he was secretly glad to be forced to take it easy in a green zone with a warm bed to rest in. As his shoulder wound healed on the outside, and he got his strength back, he had the uncomfortable feeling that the knife had done some deeper damage. He'd been injured before, and he never remembered any joint movement taking so long to come back, and he still had quite a bit of pain, too. Yesterday he had removed the sling Jeff had fashioned for him out of fabric scraps and he'd started to exercise his shoulder a bit. The wound on the outside was almost completely healed, but he still found it difficult to move his arm in certain directions.

"Why don't you check the omni," he told Jeff. He was trying to get Jeff into the habit of checking it every day.

Jeff flipped it open and stared for a second before speaking. "Hey Bogg? What does an orange light mean?" he asked, showing it to his friend.

"We're being called back," Bogg said taking the omni from him and turning it over. Jeff watched as he hinged open a second cover underneath the first. Jeff's mouth fell open.

"How come you never showed me that before?" he asked, but Bogg was busy pushing a set of small buttons on the second screen. "What's wrong? Why would they call us?"

"Nothing's wrong," Bogg said as he looked up from the device and smiled, "it's a reunion of my voyager class." He showed the screen to Jeff, who scrutinized it.

"When do we go?" Jeff looked up from the device and asked excitedly.

"It starts in 3 days, and lasts for a week."

"A week? That's great!" Jeff exclaimed.

"I guess we'll be there for your birthday, too."

"Really?"

"Yep, you'll be 13 in a few days."

"But, how do you know it's my birthday? One day just seems like another, it's hard to keep track of the weeks and months. Even the seasons, I mean, we go from spring to winter and then summer, it's ..." Jeff paused.

"The omni keeps track."

"But we travel through time, how could we ever know?"

"Headquarters time goes forward at a steady rate. We each get a day older every day, even though we bounce back and forth through the cosmos," Bogg explained. "You can see the date here," he hinged the back open again and pointed to a set of numbers in the corner of the screen."

"105-09-26," Jeff read aloud, "what does it mean?"

"It means it's the one hundred and fifth year since people started voyaging, ninth month and twenty-sixth day, almost your birthday."

"105th year?"

"And I was in the class of 97, along with Olivia, Tom, Stan and the others. There were 23 of us."

"Wow, this is gonna be great! I can meet some more of your classmates and learn more about voyaging, and maybe you can even get your shoulder taken care of while we're there too."

"What do you mean, I'm fine," Phineas answered.

Jeff laughed, "didn't I once tell you, you can't kid a kidder? Who do you think you're fooling? I know it still hurts a lot sometimes. You can have a specialist look at it, maybe you need an operation."

"No way, it's fine!" Bogg answered immediately.

"But if it's not healing..."

"It's healing fine!" Bogg answered loudly.

Jeff paused, thinking, "you're scared to see a doctor aren't you."

"Of course not!"

"Bogg, thousands of people have operations every day, there's nothing to be scared of.."

"I'm not scared..."

"I've seen you do lots of things more dangerous than going to a doctor," Jeff continued with an amused tone and expression.

Bogg huffed, "everything you've seen me do, I've been in charge of... I knew what I could do and I did it. This wouldn't be the same, someone else would be doing something."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I wouldn't know what was going on because I'd be asleep."

Jeff paused uncertainly. He didn't see the big deal, but obviously Bogg was afraid he'd need an operation. "You might not even need an operation, maybe it just needs more time, or another treatment, " he finally said though he didn't believe it.

"That's right," Bogg said firmly.

Over the next 3 days, Bogg's shoulder did seem to improve a lot and he continued with gentle exercises and rest. Jeff asked him lots of questions about the reunion and Phineas was happy to explain what he could. He'd only been to one other, but when he explained the different activities and competitions, Jeffrey was excited.

"We can do the Basic Wilderness Training course together," Bogg told him.

"Haven't you taken that?"

"Yeah, they'll probably say I should take the refresher class, but I'll make up some reason to do the whole thing again with you."

Jeff smiled ear to ear. This would be the best birthday yet. He was going to meet lots of other voyagers and get some official training. It was true that Bogg had taught him a lot of things, but Jeff knew he wasn't a very good student. There were probably lots of things he didn't think of explaining to Jeff.

The next day, the rain stopped and Jeffrey was able to go outside and kick a ball around with the kids next door. When he wasn't playing, there was suddenly a lot to talk about as the date of the reunion got closer.

"So, who's your best friend?" Jeff asked Phineas two days later.

"Besides you?" Phineas answered with grin.

Jeff laughed, "I mean, who do you want to see most at the reunion?"

"Tom," Phineas answered immediately.

"What about Olivia?"

"Course, but you asked who I wanted to see the most."

"I wish I could get to know Tom better."

"Well, we leave tomorrow, so you'll probably get your wish pretty soon. Why don't you go out and play one last game of kickball before it gets dark," Phineas said motioning to the door.

"Can't, their mom won't let em out any more."

"Why not?"

"Some kid up the street is sick, so she's not letting any of them out to play. I talked to Jerry through the window and he's not sick at all, but he still can't come out. Moms can be so stupid sometimes," he hesitated as these words came out. His thoughts flew to his mother and he suddenly got quiet.

Phineas knew he had thought of his own mother. "Well, tomorrow there'll be a lot to do," he said, trying to distract him.

Author's Challenge: I know some of you like to guess about various things as a story unfolds. Can you guess which two books Jeff is remembering? Send me a PM with your guess and I'll tell you if it's correct, (just a little Voyagers! fun).