Thank you all for the hits and story alerts and reviews. I am touched and amazed that so many people are reading my story. I hope that as I continue to deliver a piece you all enjoy reading. Thank you to my beta reader, girlwithoutfear, for her great punctuation and spelling skills. I couldn't do this without your care and input, sweetie, you are the best.
Family Matters
Chapter Two
He couldn't get away for Christmas; for whatever reason the world had a tendency to teeter on the brink of annihilation when so many members of the human race spoke of peace on Earth, good will toward men. Auggie did his bit for the human race by taking over other agent's shifts at Christmas to let the married men have time with their families; it was the least he could do if the world came to an end. This year, however, he almost wished the world had come to an end. This year, for the first time in five years, Auggie Anderson was going to Chicago.
If getting there is half the fun, maybe it was time to start pounding his head against the bulkhead of the plane. Somewhere in coach someone was torturing babies; that was the only explanation for the noise coming from the back. And his seat mate, his three hundred pounds of sweating, swearing, alcohol-swilling waste-of-skin seatmate, started arguing with the flight attendants before the doors were locked and didn't stop until he fell into an alcohol-induced coma. Auggie was beginning to wonder if paying extra for a first class seat from Dulles to O'Hare was really worth it.
0o0o0
"Will someone answer the door?" Ephraim Anderson called up from his basement office when he heard the doorbell ring a third time.
"I'm not s'posed to open the door by myself," his four year old son, Ethan, called from the TV room.
Ephraim trudged up the stairs. "Okay, I'll get it, it's not like I was doing anything important like balancing the check book." Not bothering to look through the peep hole, he just opened the door. "Whatever you're selling, we got it."
"That's one hell of a greeting, Butch."
Ephraim Anderson did a double take when he heard his old nickname and finally registered who the wet, snow covered occupant of his front step was. "Auggie? What the hell are you doing here?"
"Freezing my ass off, aren't you going to invite me in?"
Ephraim pulled his little brother out of the cold and into a large, enveloping hug while kicking the front door shut with his foot.
He leaned back and looked his baby brother up and down. "Auggie, what finally got your ass out of Washington?"
"Dad."
Ephraim rolled his eyes as he led Auggie into the kitchen, "What has the old busybody done now?"
"He's decided to come to Washington and straighten out my life. Now what did I do to deserve that?"
Ephraim placed Auggie's hand on the top of one of the kitchen chairs and then started a pot of coffee.
"You were born to Albert and Barbara Anderson and you joined the army. Bad, bad Auggie joined the military industrial complex."
"Hardy-har-har Butch, how does that explain why Cy was in the navy or Greg in the Coast Guard and didn't get the grief that I got."
Another voice cut in, "That's because they weren't the baby of the family."
Auggie grinned so broadly it almost split his face, "Joanne, good to see you. Why haven't you left Butch for something better yet?"
Joanne Anderson, his pretty, round-faced sister-in-law, came over and kissed the top of Auggie's head as she slipped her youngest child, Daniel Albert Anderson, into his arms. "If you brother didn't make such pretty babies I'd leave in a second." She smiled as she watched Auggie arrange her little boy against his shoulder. "So Bert decided to visit you in Washington? Oh, Lord, that man is trying to arrange the life of all his sons."
Auggie frowned. "What's going on and why have I been kept in the dark, if you'll pardon the expression."
Ephraim joined the couple at the table, "Dad's been an even bigger pain than usual. He's trying to get Cyril to quit the public defenders' office and join some downtown law firm. He says Cy can't support a family on what he makes... of course he wants Cindy to quit her accountant job and become a stay at home wife and mother."
"And we know that's not going to happen," Joanne added as she poured the coffee. "You still take this black?"
"Yeah, thanks. That still leaves Greg and Tom."
"Greg is teaching at the University of Chicago, a den of pinko idealists full of subversive beliefs. I think Dad is afraid another Joe McCarthy is about to swoop down and jail all the Commies in Illinois. Tom, of course, is every parent's wet dream."
"My son, the doctor," the three adults chimed almost in harmony before they all laughed.
"Except that Tommy still hasn't married Hannah and is 'gasp' living in sin." Joanne stage whispered.
"And don't forget me, Ephraim Anderson, one of Chicago's finest working in computer crimes. I don't even leave the office most days and Dad still manages to make it sound like I'll be shot by some dangerous white collar criminal because I ferret out embezzling and insider trading on confiscated hard drives. Sending those rough, tough accountants to 'club fed' prisons is dangerous work; I might get a paper cut. Dear old Dad is not happy with any of us." Butch looked at his brother, Auggie, as he rocked two month old Danny to sleep. "Kid, you look good holding a baby. You haven't even met our oldest, Ethan, yet and he's long past being a baby."
"My job keeps me busy," Auggie leaned into his shoulder to smell the sweet scent of clean baby. "Where is your other boy?"
"Probably watching TV or playing with the computer." Joanne groused, "He's pure Anderson, too smart for his own good. Wait until I tell him he gets to share his room with Uncle Auggie."
"Hey, I can afford a hotel room; you don't have to toss your kid out of his bed."
"Oh no, you aren't leaving here before I call everyone and get them here to see you aren't a figment of our imaginations. I bet there are some Andersons who have forgotten what you look like."
"I look like the milkman," Auggie laughed. "That's what Grampa always told me. There haven't been milkmen in Glencoe in over fifty years but Mom managed to find one just to make sure I was skinny enough to get beat up by all my brothers."
"That's not true; we would have beaten you up anyway. What good is it being older if you can't torture the younger sibs? And don't argue with my wife, kid, she'll get what she wants in the end. So relax and accept you're beaten; as the Borg say resistance is futile."
Auggie knew when to quit, "I always knew you were an alien, Joanne. I just didn't know you were here to conquer the world."
0o0o0
Auggie woke up the next morning because small fingers were touching his eye lids. He kept them shut and listened.
"He don't look weird."
"Shut up, Bobby. Mommy says we have to let him sleep. He traveled all the way from Washinkton all alone."
"Frankie," the stage whisper was almost louder than the other young voices, "I don't remember an Uncle Auggie."
"That's 'cause he never visits. I don't think he likes us."
"He took my big boy bed last night," that voice had to be Ethan, "I ended up in Danny's crib and Danny was in the cradle in Mommy and Daddy's room."
"Don't touch his eyes," a new voice piped in. "He got blinded and I bet his eyes are glass or something now. They got sploded clear out of his head."
The little fingers pulled his eye lid up, "they look real, Andy. I bet that's just a story Uncle Greg told you."
Auggie opened his eyes and sat up in the bed. The sound of scampering feet, shrieks and giggles told him all the nephews had run out of the room.
"Boys, what did I tell you about waking your Uncle Auggie," the voice of Joanne came in from the hall way. "Auggie, are you decent?"
"I'm always decent, Jo, and I have pajamas on too."
"Cy and Greg are here and I don't think they want to see you in your jammies so get dressed. The coffee is still hot and there are fresh bagels so hurry up before they're all gone."
By the time Auggie made it down the stairs only Tom Anderson hadn't arrived. It wasn't likely he was going to show up.
"Well, if it isn't an Anderson brother's reunion, now that the lost sheep has returned." Auggie barely had time to breathe before he was engulfed by his older brothers. Hugs, noogies, slaps on the back and ass told him he was back in the arms of his childhood tormentors again. The fact they were treating him the same way they always treated him made Auggie Anderson feel truly at home.
TBC