**Falling Rain Blues, Little Willie Foster**
Ray idly sketched a plan for the final panel of his current comic on the back of a tour map for the Old Courthouse. Master Chief had assigned Ray and Colin to man the front desk for the afternoon but it was raining cats and dogs outside so almost no one had come in. All they had done for hours was watch the door and chew the fat. All Colin could talk about was the glimpse of Emma Slattery he'd gotten in the mess at lunch time. Ray hadn't seen her, but apparently she shared her dad's height and blond good looks.
Colin poked him. "Did you hear what I said?"
"Huh? What?" He looked up disoriented. He had been deep in thought, considering how to make it clear from his drawing that the evil fiend had been impaled by the very same sword that he'd used to terrorize the hero when he was just a child. One of the kids had penciled in an ending to his comic a few days ago. He should have been annoyed that they were messing with his sketch book, but they had written such a good story that he couldn't resist finishing the art to go with it.
"I was asking if you want to go check out that place up the street, Miss Kitty's? A bunch of guys are getting together to go and check it out tonight. I heard from a guy this morning that Slattery is renting a room there so maybe his pretty daughter will be make an appearance."
Ray turned his paper so he could shade in a bloodstain with the right shape strokes. "Ah, maybe another night. One of us has to hang out with the little kids and Dylan and Brie volunteered to help Mrs. Benson with the school pre-registration night at city hall."
Colin scowled. "The librarian is the one running that? I should have known. I still don't get why we are trying to get schools open. Do you really want to go back to school? School sucks."
Ray had spent summers working as a counselor with Colin for several years, but he'd never given much thought to what his life was like once summer ended. Ray used his finger to smudge some pencil into a cloud of evil soul leaving the villian on his final exhale. "You did graduate the 10th grade, right? Master Chief says we can just get a GED certificate. Everyone else has to go at least through the 10th grade 1st.
"Yeah, Yeah. I remember." But you know Miss Kitty's isn't really a boarding house, right? Get Kat to come over again. She can handle them. It will be fun. Besides, you need a little action. We can drink a little, maybe find a nice girl…" Colin put air quotes around the word nice.
"You want me to ask Kat to come over and stay with the kids so that we can go to a whorehouse? No way am I doing that. That chica hates my guts bad enough as it is. You can ask yourself, but I don't think that's going to go over well."
Colin shrugged and boosted himself up on the edge of the counter. "Your turn to stand." Ray tucked the paper back into his pocket. He'd work on that later. "Miller really wasn't kidding when he said half of service was just standing around, waiting for something to happen."
As Ray took his position at the front of the desk, the front doors opened, admitting a portly man that he recognized as the Mayor. Several people followed through the door in his wake, admitting a damp draft that brought goosebumps on his forearms. "Mr. Diaz!" He was shocked that the mayor recognized him, never mind remembered his name but then he noticed that the man was staring at his hastily printed USN nametag. "What are you doing here? I thought you ran an orphanage?"
Flustered, it was all he could do to stutter, "Well, we've got to earn our suppers somehow."
Colin stood up behind the desk. "Mr. Mayor, hello. Colin Wiedermeier." He stuck out his hand and the Mayor shook it while raising one brow toward Ray.
"Ah, Colin is part of our group. We're training so we can join the Navy when we turn 18."
Oliver turned toward his entourage. "This is the kid I was talking about the other day." Turning back toward Ray he asked "So, are you going to be pre-registering your group for school tonight? We need as accurate a count as possible so that we can figure out where to open first."
Ray wondered what he had been saying about him. Hopefully it wasn't "Hey guys, you'll never believe this guy who came to a city council meeting hoping no one would notice he was just a kid." He cleared his throat. "Ah, yes sir. We were just talking about that. We will be registering 12. The kids will be really glad to have school again." Of course, as he said it a new list of problems occurred to him. They would need book fees and uniforms and lunches every day. How the heck was he going to manage that?
Oliver nodded with a rueful smile. "Well, they are kids so I daresay they won't be too happy about it! But we're trying to round up enough teachers as soon as we can. Now," He jerked a thumb toward his entourage. "Can you direct us to where we're meeting Chandler today?"
Colin passed over a sheet of paper and Ray scanned the list of meetings. "Looks like the West Courtroom Sir. Right this way." Something looked familiar about the neat cursive listing the schedule but he couldn't quite place it.
He was half way back down the hall from the courtroom when it fell into place. "Hey Colin, hand me that schedule again." He scanned the page. Yes, those were the same flowing oval letters and pointed hooks as whoever had written in his book. "Did you write this out earlier today?" He held up the paper.
Colin looked at him like he had three heads. "Why would I do that? It came from Commander Foster-Green's office."
"What came from my office?" Commander Foster-Green was coming down the stairs just then, along with Chandler and few others.
He righted himself from where he was leaning over the desk on his elbows. They had been told not to salute until they were official, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to at least look respectful. "Uh, just this schedule Ma'am."
Kara smiled. "Oh yeah, I have Kat write those first thing every morning. Sorry if it's not too readable. We're trying to save paper and ink because we can't exactly just go on line and order more toner from Amazon."
Ray's brows narrowed involuntarily. Why would Kat be writing in his notebook? And then he actually cringed. Did she know it was his? Had she told Commander Foster-Green what he was drawing? Colin came to his rescue. "No problem with it Ma'am. It's been very helpful in directing people where to go. In fact, the mayor is waiting in the West Courtroom now."
"Thanks Colin. See you later Ray." She crossed in front of the desk headed for the west hallway but paused, pulling her jacket closed around her. "When you guys see Kat tonight, could you tell her I said thanks again, for taking Emma Slattery and showing her around?"
Colin waved. "Sure thing."
After she'd disappeared behind the heavy wooden door of the courtroom Ray ticked the side of Colin's head.
"Hey! What was that for?"
"You don't just say sure thing to a Commander. You say Yes Ma'am."
"Oh for goodness sakes Ray, stop taking this so seriously. She knows us, we know her. Heck, she was passing on a personal message through us. I don't think she was offended."
Something Lieutenant Mejia had said the other night during their lessons rang in his ear. "Haven't you ever heard that it's easier to make good habits than break bad ones?"
"Jeez Ray, take a chill pill." Colin rolled his eyes and tipped back in his chair. "Now back to the business at hand. So the lovely yet bitchy Ms. Nolan is the babelicious Emma Slattery's newest BFF. I think we could use this to our advantage."
Ray had a sneaking feeling where Colin was going with this. "You mean your advantage?"
"Well, yeah." Colin admitted with a self satisfied smirk. "I'm not the guy who voluntarily saddled himself with 14 dependents after all." He put his arms behind his head and gave the chair a little swivel. "Besides, look at me, our children will golden Adonises."
Ray turned back toward the front doors, wishing that the day would end. Tomorrow was Sunday, the only day Master Chief gave them a break from PT, and he was looking forward to at least an extra hour of sleep. "If I were you Colin, I would forget that any of the officers have daughters and just focus on doing well in training."
Colin scoffed at the idea. "What's the point of doing anything if we have to live like monks? I for one would like some female company, if you know what I mean. You do know what I mean, right?"
"Of course I know what you mean. But I think there's more important stuff going on in the world right now than your quest to get laid."
"Something is wrong with you Ray. There's nothing int he world more important than that. The way I see it, the Earth needs to be repopulated. It is our duty to get with the ladies man!"
A booming voice interrupted them. "Mr. Diaz, Mr. Wiedermeijer! So nice to see you again." Commander Slattery emerged from the East hallway. "I see Master Chief has taken you in hand."
Colin was quick to reply. "Yes Sir. He's got us working every afternoon Sir."
Slattery scanned their unofficial uniforms. "Very good. I am here to relieve one of you from duty. As you know, my daughters and ex-wife have arrived in town with me. I need some help tonight, moving out so that they can use my rooms in the Radisson. Do you think you can carry some boxes for me? I've got to head over to the police headquarters and catch up on the issues with river trade since I've been gone. If you miss dinner I am sure Miss Kitty can scrape something up for you."
"Sure I can do it." Colin elbowed in front of him with a smirk of self satisfaction. "Do you think you can handle things here all by yourself Ray?" Ray knew it would be impolite to roll his eyes while talking with Slattery, but Colin was practically bouncing on his heels.
God he'd love to clock Colin on the nose, but knowing the kid, he'd manage to turn a black eye into something the ladies would fawn over. Plus, hitting him was unlikely to go over well with Slattery. "Sure, I got this." What he heck, let Colin wear himself out carrying boxes. Ray had enough of that while cleaning apartments this morning. Besides, he did not have time to go chasing after girls, even if they were as hot as Colin described. Tall blonds weren't his type anyway.
He settled back down behind the desk and reached for a pencil. He glanced at the schedule to confirm that there weren't any more meetings scheduled for the day. It was already 1610 hours after all. He had two hours to kill and no one to chat with now so he began setting up a panel of rectangles to frame a comic on his paper. He bet Kat would be able to write an amusing text for the image of Colin making a fool of himself over Slattery's daughter so he began to shade in the panels.
The swoosh of the outer door admitting someone out of the rain brought him up for air nearly two hours later. He was surprised to see that it was dark outside already. He glanced back at his drawing. What had started as the freckles the covered the redheaded Colin from head to toe had turned into a the smattering across the nose of none other than his earstwhile babysitter. Embarrassed, He quickly folded the paper and shoved it in his pocket.
"I'm here to let you go home." Lee Li shook water from an umbrella before leaning it against the side of the desk. He looked around the quiet building. A few people like Chandler and Lieutenant Foster-Green were still working upstairs, but mostly it was empty. Something in his expression gave Ray pause. He really should go to try to meet the kids for dinner before they terrorized Kat so much that she wouldn't come back tomorrow but..
"You sure you're ok here alone?" Ray had heard about Li's mother, and although he didn't know Lee or Betty Li much at all, he sympathized for the guy. Heck, he'd teared up about his own mother at least twice today and he had already assumed she was gone for months now.
Lee shooed Ray away from the desk chair and slumped into it. "Yeah, Rob is coming in as soon as he finishes helping Colin get Slattery's family get moved into the hotel." Ray wished he could see that. Colin and Rob would be falling all over themselves to get Emma's attention. Lee lifted a book. The cover was in Chinese. "Yeah I'll be fine. I found this at the library this morning, Scaring the Tigers." He looked down at the book and although he smiled, it didn't meet his eyes. "It's one my mother used to read to me all the time. My Chinese is pretty rusty so I'm hoping I remember the story well enough to work my way through it. You go have dinner with your family."
With his family…that did sound nice. "Well, alright." He reached over the desk and wrote the hotel's number and his room number on a post-it. "Just give me a call if Rob doesn't show. I can always come back over."
Lee already had his nose in the book. "Sure Ray. Seriously, I'll be fine. But, Uh, thanks man."
