Chapter 2 - Ronda 3:18
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(4PM, Pacific time)
At the Triton household, Kenny's son Zakk had spent a whole 2 hours playing Battlefield online, and it was getting a bit later in the day and the sun was going down, giving them the perfect time to start working on the back patio.
"Zakk, you wanna go out and help me? We gotta get the patio this evening." asked Kenny.
"When?" replied Zakk.
"Right now...you keep playing these video games all the time, you're gonna miss out on the summer." replied Kenny.
"So what? I can swim anytime. This game might only be online for another year." replied Zakk.
"That's not the reply I was hoping for, son." Kenny sat down beside his son to watch him play. His son was getting wasted at Battlefield.
"I need someone to help me sand the boards tonight." Kenny added.
"Can I do it later?" asked Zakk.
"When's later?" asked Kenny.
"When you get back from the Rona." replied Zakk.
Kenny got a smile on his face, and figured he could use a bit of nutritional influence on his son to get him off the video games.
"Well, I was hoping you could come with me to get the wood and nails, but heck, I guess i'll have to get Subway for myself."
Zakk hit the options button on the playstation controller and put it down.
"Can I get a footlong?" asked Zakk
"And 10 bucks an hour." Kenny smiled.
"That's less than minimum wage!" replied Zakk.
"Well, you got to take into account, taxes, room and board, EI, the fact I have to feed you, diesel for the truck, it's all taken out from your pay, leaving you with 10$ an hour."
18$ an hour at that point was considered minimum wage.
"That's not fair at all!" complained Zakk.
"Hey, what can I say? I'm just another corrupt landowner." Kenny smiled.
"You say that all the time, dad!" Replied Zakk, implying that his dad had heard it somewhere, and had copied it repeatedly.
"You wanna make some cash and give me a hand? C'mon, get in the truck." Kenny got up and got some gloves to go collect the wood.
By the time Kenny got back to the truck, his son was already waiting to get in. Kenny unlocked the door and went to the driver's seat and buckled in. He turned the ignition over, and the stereo came to life with Ozzy Osbourne singing "I don't know." from the Blizzard of Ozz album along with the old dependable diesel Chevrolet engine.
"This is old..." Zakk commented on Ozzy Osbourne.
"It's Ozzy man! Freakin' Ozzy man!" Kenny joked in an english accent "Would you like some tea?"
"Girls drink tea." replied Zakk.
Kenny knew a girl who would have a nice reply to that, but he hadn't seen her in 13 years and had long since put her out of his mind.
"I drink tea and i'm not a girl." Kenny pulled the truck out onto the road and drove it to Chilliwack to go to the Rona and get some wood and nails.
"So are we gonna get the wood first or supper first?" asked Zakk.
"I'm hungry, let's get supper first." replied Kenny
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(7PM, Eastern Time)
In a blood lab in Miami, a very experienced nurse was having a hard time taking blood samples from a young girl, who was kicking and screaming in the chair.
"Really?" The nurse was facing the table, and turned to reveal an ageless face that had remained that way for over 100 years.
The nurse in question, was Diana Prince. Well, she was at one point. She left her old name behind to become Diana Kent, spouse to Clark Kent. She was in her nurse scrubs, and had her hair tied back in a ponytail and had her work glasses on.
"Teresa, it's going to hurt but only for a second." said the mother to the girl, holding her in the chair.
"Only a second...I promise i'll be very gentle." Diana prepared the needle.
The girl cried herself as Diana slowly put the needle into her arm to draw a sample of blood for a test the girl needed. Diana was as quick as she could be, and got out the right amount.
"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" asked Diana
Diana left the room with the blood sample while another nurse applied a band-aid to the young girl's arm. She approached a doctor with the blood.
"Teresa's?" asked the doctor.
"Yes. Needles. They never do get over them, do they?" asked Diana.
"I wish. I'll get this down to the analyzing lab." the doctor took the blood sample away.
Diana sighed and looked out a nearby window at the growing metropolis that was Miami. She had spent 13 years in Florida, living a normal life, and had not taken the identity of Wonder Woman in that time...the last time she was ever Wonder Woman, was when her and Superman left the airstrip in texas.
There was a part of it that she truly missed, but at the same time, being a normal civilian for once in her life was great. When the police drove down the road, she didn't follow them to see how Wonder Woman could help. She didn't have to worry about crime. she was just a commonplace woman.
She also had submitted herself to Clark and became his wife. And as she was taught, if she were to submit to a man, her powers would be taken from her. After 80 years of being a superhero to a world she thought didn't deserve her anymore, she didn't care if her powers disappeared. She didn't even care to see if her powers really had disappeared anyways. She was more than content to live with someone she loved more than any other man.
The house she and clarked lived in for 13 years was a really nice set-up for anyone, and both parents had good paying jobs for what it was worth. They wanted to make sure their kids had the best possible upbringing they could have, and had been doing things frugally, and only would take the odd vacation. maybe they would go to a Marlins game every so often, but for the most part, Diana kept to herself and to her family.
One thing she couldn't shed was her beautiful, youthful image. Having children did put some wrinkles on the corners of her eyes, but she still looked the same as when Steve Trevor and her met in Themyscira in 1941.
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(4:30 PM, Pacific Time)
On the dock at Cultus Lake, Ronda was sitting on a towel, sunbathing in her bikini, face down reading a gossip magazine and listening to teen pop music. She thought she was all alone, but she didn't know there were 3 boys in the bushes, watching her.
"That's a pretty girl." said one of the boys.
"So pretty." said another.
The biggest kid in the group was a 12 year old with a white dress shirt tucked into some half-slacks. He wasn't a very street-wise kid, but that's because he was living up somewhere in the mountains with a group of people that caused the cottage that Kenny moved his family into to be so cheap.
"I'm going to get her." said the oldest boy, walking out to the dock.
The boy had fallen in lust with Ronda. She was a very well endowed young lady, and her long brunette hair was curling up in the sun after taking a swim.
The boy walked out of the trees with the other boys following him. They came out to Ronda on the dock. Ronda was able to see them, and she didn't mince words.
"What do you want?" she asked, turning onto her back.
"I just wanna say you're a babe, you know that?" the young boy tried to speak with some confidence, but Ronda could see right through it.
"Piss off." replied Ronda, turning back onto her flat belly to her magazine.
The boy wasn't very saavy about how to talk to girls, and his instinct told him to sneak up on Ronda...and pull on her bikini string. She saw it coming, and that she didn't take lying down. She got right up and got mad.
"You pervert!" She pushed the boy away while checking to make sure her bikini was still tied up around her back. Luckily it was, and she wouldn't have to fix it.
"C'mon...I like you." said the boy.
"You're a creep. Get the hell off my family's dock!" Ronda pointed to the trees.
"Hey...you're on my father's turf. And in New Bountiful...it's my father's rules."
New Bountiful. Anyone from British Columbia knew about the original Bountiful, and how it was a place where any sense of holiness died with lust and misunderstandings about God.
"Oh, god! This is private property, piss off or i'll call the police!" Ronda shot back.
The boys obviously were taught not to be scared of the cops. Their fathers were always wielding shotguns and other weapons and warned anyone who wasn't one of them to leave their family alone.
"Hey...you believe in god?" The boy replied
"What does that matter, creeper?" replied Ronda
"God said in Colossians 3:18 that women must submit to men, it says so in the bible!"
Oh, that was it. Even if Ronda didn't know the bible as well as most, it was misquoting the bible like that, that really, really pissed her off.
"Talk about your Colossians 3:18...guess what? Ronda 3:18 says I just whooped your ass!"
And with that, Ronda took a swing, and hit the boy square in the face, knocking him off the dock and into the water. she turned to the other boys, who all of the sudden, began to run away.
The boy who was punched into the water had gone from a pervert to a crying, sniveling little pussycat. He crawled out of the lake and ran away crying, holding his bloody nose.
"I'm gonna tell my dad!" said the boy, crying and running away.
Ronda took a moment to let her anger escape, then came the descent into sadness. Ronda ran off the dock and into the cottage, past her mother, who had seen the whole thing unfold.
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(8:15 PM, Eastern time)
Back in Florida, That old, mint condition powder blue 1973 mercedes 450SL came cruising home while the sun set in the west. It was a perfect picture, the paradise that Diana had envisioned.
She drove the car up the driveway and parked it beside the family SUV, a white 2030 Chevrolet Suburban. The first thing that came to greet her at the doorway was Clark, and they gave each other the "welcome home" kiss.
"Did you enjoy your day off?" asked Diana
"I did. Didn't catch anything, though." Replied Clark, who had become an avid fisherman to pass the time. He might have caught a pampano or a tuna, maybe even a marlin. He had bought himself a boat and would take it out every so often, but the price of gas made that a treat for a special occasion.
"Too bad." Diana creaked her way into the house after her brutal, body beating 8-hour shift at the hospital. "Did the kids eat yet?" she asked
"Steve and I had noodles and veggies. Rose is sleeping over at the Montana's." Clark replied, following his wife into the kitchen.
"Again? She sure sleeps over there a lot." Diana went to the fridge to pour herself a glass of white wine, her favorite beverage after a hard day of work, or when she was stressed out.
Something else was on Clark's mind. "Diana, our son hit another kid today."
"What?" Diana gasped, and stopped pouring the wine.
"It was about you. Some kid was talking about you in a way he didn't like and he hit him." replied Clark.
"Oh...the joys of being a mother." Diana left the room to go and talk to her son, who was sitting at the family computer playing Command & Conquer, and was blaring "Hell March" on the headphones.
"Hey Steve." Diana poked her son, who took off the headphones, and turned to look at his mother.
"Hey mom." Steve paused the game and went to give his mom a hug.
"I heard about today." Said Diana while her son let go of the hug.
"Am I in trouble?" asked Steve, a little worried his mom was going to chew him out.
"No, I just want to talk to you, is all." Diana replied calmly.
"Oh, great." Steve replied.
"Yes, great. Give me a second." Diana went back to the kitchen and grabbed her wine and brought it back to talk with her son.
"Now dad tells me that you hit this kid over something he said about me?" asked Diana.
"Yeah." replied Steve.
"Did I hear what this kid said about me?" asked Diana, taking a sip of her wine.
"No, but you weren't there to defend yourself." replied Steve.
"Listen." Diana put her hand on her son's shoulder. "What I don't hear doesn't hurt me. You shouldn't listen either. It's listening to things that people say that makes us go crazy, like the internet."
"Why are you so scared of the internet!" replied Steve, who was commenting on the fact that the family had no internet access in their home at all. That was to keep themselves off the grid, and for the kids not to see the identities of Superman or Wonder Woman and wonder why they looked so alike. Diana knew one day, their kids would find out, and that's what scared her, but she could only hope she'd be ready for it.
"None of your business, Steve. We just don't need it." replied Diana.
It had been a neverending debate between parents and offspring as to why the Kent family was off the grid in the phonebook and didn't use the internet. It was because Diana and Clark didn't want to be found by anyone. Even though by now, Diana had gotten long over the things she had seen on that night in Washington, and was willing to have her arms open to any old friends who came to visit. Once in a while, Bruce Wayne came over and talked with his old friends, but that was a big rarity.
"None of my business." Steve rolled his eyes.
"We'll do something together tommorow, alright?" Asked Diana.
"Sure." Steve gritted.
The poor young man was troubled alright, and it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed with the truth, but only at the right time.
And maybe, the right time would come soon enough.
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