Much later, Per watched as she flicked her ash in the general direction of the ashtray on the bedside table. "Disgusting things." He commented. "Why don’t you quit?"
"Okay," Sam agreed amicably.
"When?" He asked, surprised at how easy that had been.
"Soon," she replied, lighting another.
Chapter 13
The next morning was glorious. A true precursor of summer. This was Happy’s favorite time of year. His old body didn’t ache as much in the warmer months.
"Course, you know what this means," he grumbled to Spike as they both munched their breakfast bacon, "damn tourists will be here again soon."
"Oh well," he said sensibly to his comrade, "can’t have the good without taking the bad, I suppose." He shoved the last of the bacon into his mouth and wiped his greasy hands on his pant legs. "Time to do the breakfast dishes, boy."
From the depths of the Chevy’s trunk Happy pulled a crumpled trash bag out and neatly disposed of the used paper plates. Cramming his ancient cap onto his head, he and Spike headed for Wanda’s place and their usual morning cup of coffee.
Sam leaned on the railing in the bow watching the water furiously churn under the running ferry. There was no denying it. She felt wonderful this morning.
Stealthily, she had showered and dressed as Per lay sleeping. She had barely made it to the early ferry to Bass Harbor on time. The few residents who were headed to their jobs on the mainland were just loading their vehicles when she had arrived.
Sam quickly became chilled in the early morning crossing. She climbed back into her car and turned the heater on full blast for a few minutes. Soon, all thoughts of last night departed as she started to focus on the meeting that lay ahead of her in Boston.
Sam was nervous. No about presenting her data but about what they would do with it. Unquestionably, she knew that both Washington and the military would be heavily represented at this afternoon’s conference. Would they consider these recent findings a possible breech of national security? Since discovering the findings earlier in the week, Sam had been totally caught up in the excitement and amazement of it all. Not once had she considered this a safety issue. God knows, she reasoned, that she of all people certainly had a right to be concerned. For the remainder of her life she would carry with her the emotional scars from her encounter with those faceless beings. However, Sam had no concrete evidence to prove that these recent signals were in any way related to what had happened to her. It’s a big universe out there, she thought sensibly.
Just because alien transmissions have been isolated and identified it certainly doesn’t mean that there is any danger of imminent harm. Okay, she warned herself, don’t start thinking like Kevin Dodge. That’s not a good way to make new friends.
Wanda groaned audibly as she sank into the kitchen chair across the table from Happy.
"Know who I was thinking about this morning, Hap?" She continued without waiting for an answer. "The English brothers."
Happy just sat there looking puzzled.
"Come on, Hap. You remember those boys ..... the twins, Millard and Milton English." It didn’t take much to get exasperated with Happy.
Immediately, Happy’s expression cleared. "Jesus, the English twins. Haven’t thought of those two in years. What the hell made you think of them, Wanda?"
"Don’t really know." shrugged Wanda, "must be getting old. I’m starting to spend a lot of time these days thinking back over my life and the people I’ve known."
She took a sip of her coffee. "Which twin was it, Hap, who had the problem? Do you remember?"
"Oh sure," replied Happy firmly, bobbing his head up and down. "That would be Milton. Never met anyone who could tuck it away like that boy could." He couldn’t help himself, there was admiration in his voice when he spoke. "Finally killed him in the end, though. Christ, his liver must have been completely pickled through and through."
They both sat silently for a few moments, then Happy said, "I was there the day they took Milton to the hospital on the mainland. Pronounced dead, he was, by the time the ferry docked at Bass Harbor. We got him loaded into the waiting ambulance and they were just about to slam the doors shut when old Milt sits straight up, sheet flying away from his face! "Bring rum, boys!" he yells, as they close the doors on him. Jesus, the driver of that ambulance almost shit himself!" Happy roared with laughter at the memory. "Damnedest thing I ever saw!
Course, Milton died for good on the way to the hospital."
Happy, his body practically doubled over from laughter, had tears streaming down his craggy face. He fished around in his back pant’s pocket for his handkerchief.
Finding it, he proceeded to blot his eyes and wipe the tears from his face.
When Happy’s laughter had subsided, Wanda asked, "What ever happened to his brother, Millard?"
Happy looked up with surprise. "Why, Wanda, don’t you remember? Millard moved away to New Hampshire and became a Baptist minister. Last I heard, he had his own Sunday morning radio show down there."
He gave his eyes one last, good swipe with the bandanna. As he bent over to stuff it back into his pocket, something fell out of his left eye and tumbled with a clink onto the kitchen table.
"What the FUCK is that?" Happy pushed himself away from the table so fast that his chair almost went over backwards.
Wanda leaned forward, picking the strange object up and held it in her hand turning it over curiously. She put on the reading glasses that were hanging around her neck for a closer look.
It was smaller than a dime, round in shape and slightly concave. It’s color was milky white and it vaguely reminded Wanda of marbles they used to play with as children ...... only this one had been broken in half. The sides of this thing, though, had been smoothed and, as she peered more closely, she could see a tiny hole that ran all the way through the center of it. No doubt about it, whatever this thing was, it was machine made.
"Jesus Jumping Up," exclaimed a badly shaken Happy, "what the hell is it and just what the HELL was it doing in my goddamn eye?" He poked at the object suspiciously, as if he were afraid it would bite him.
In the kitchen on the other side of the house, Martha wasn’t scrambling the morning eggs for her family ..... she was beating them.
Kevin shook his head as he watched her scurry about from sink to stove, slamming everything in her path. His wife had been this way ever since she’d gone over to Sam’s the morning before.
"Would you calm down?" He said, giving her a friendly swat on her butt on his way to the breakfast table. "Sam is just fine."
"Sam is not fine, you idiot!" Martha replied hotly, slapping an overflowing plate of eggs, sausage and toast down in front of him. "Something’s happened."
"Well, maybe she’s finally found her little green men." Chuckling at his sudden flash of wit, Kevin began to devour his breakfast.
Chapter 14
"Gentlemen," Jake Gorham said solemnly, "may I present Dr. Samantha Coley."
Sam was escorted into the conference room by the plain clothed security guard who had been standing at attention outside in the corridor where she had been impatiently waiting for the past hour.
Why am I not surprised to be the only woman in this room? Sam silently asked herself.
As she placed her attache case on the spacious mahogany table, she quickly looked around the room at the nine faces turned expectantly towards her. Not counting Jake, there were two SETI representatives that she recognized. The remainder of the group were made up of suits and military.
Rapidly realizing her ex-boss was not about to waste valuable time with social introductions, Sam set about giving a brief overview of her findings.
She talked and answered intense questions for the next four hours. Time seemed to pass by in a blur. When finished, she was politely asked to remove herself from the room. Jake walked with her down the hall to the row of elevators.