From the Earth to the Moon Ch. 06

Author's note: Really nothing new to add. The next chapter will be the soiree and, after that, everything should be set up for some more interesting and intimate interactions. Same caveats apply as noted in earlier chapters!

*****

As James Davidson climbed into his waiting carriage, Maya Ramirez walked into her one room apartment, carrying a bag with a few goods from the market in her hand. As she closed the door behind her, she cried out, "Are you hungry, Alejandro?"

"How can you think of eating?" her younger brother shouted back. "Aren't you excited about tomorrow?"

Maya knew exactly what Alejandro was talking about, but decided to feign ignorance. "I don't think it's your birthday. It certainly isn't mine. And it's too early for Christmas."

Alejandro rolled his eyes. "It's the rocket launch!"

Maya laughed. "Yes, the big rocket launch. The one that will measure the ... the..." Maya was trying to remember the English word.

"The ether!"

"Yes, the ether," Maya said, forming her lips around the strange word. It was such a new concept that it had yet to make its way into her French Creole. "All these amazing things happening on our little island. And you," Maya added, taking Alejandro's face between her hands, much to his embarrassment, "will be very important in it one day."

Alejandro slipped from his sister's affectionate grasp, which made her laugh even more. "That's what Miss Waggoner says. She says that if we work hard and focus, that we can accomplish anything we want."

Maya beamed at her little brother, happy at his optimism and enthusiasm. "Then this Miss Wag-gon-er is a very wise woman." So many strange names, and so hard to fit her tongue around. But, Maya decided, she thoroughly approved of any woman who was giving her brother this opportunity, strange name or no.

"She arranged for someone from the rocket facilities to come to the school tomorrow for the launch, and to tell us everything that is happening. And tonight, they're having a celebration at the English compound, and they'll have fireworks..." Alejandro added, a hopeful tone in his voice.

"And you would like to stand outside and watch. I think we can do this," Maya said with a smile. "Why don't we stop by Allain's booth and buy some accras tonight, and walk over to the English compound?"

Alejandro hugged his sister tightly, feeling as if he was the luckiest boy alive. Maya looked in the broken piece of mirror hanging near the door, ran her hand through her hair before leading Alejandro out into the hall.

Maya froze when she saw the owner's agent coming down the hall, two burly men walking behind him. In an instant, she knew what they were here for. Turning to Alejandro, she said, "Go! Run!"

"Maya, I..."

Maya shoved Alejandro down toward the opposite end of the hall. "I said get out of here! Now!"

Alejandro ran to the stairwell at the end of the hall, looked back, and saw his sister facing the men, her knife in hand, as the three man were laughing and grinning.

It was a cold, hard fact of life that, under normal circumstances, Maya would have been all alone in defending her virtue. Of course, Maya was not complaining. She had been doing so for years. She was more than aware that a larger, more determined attacker could overcome her defenses; but she also knew that all she had to do was hurt her attacker so badly that the potential bodily damage she would do was a deterrent in and of itself. Even as the owner's agent cautiously approached her, his two allies flanking him, Maya was deciding which one of the flankers to attack. Her thought was that if one ally was wounded, both the allies might abandon the owner's agent, leaving Maya a battle she already knew.

When Maya sent her younger brother away, it never entered her mind to have him seek out help. In the part of Castries where Maya and her brother lived, the citizens learned to fend for themselves. Although a small, calculating part of Maya's brain might have sent Alejandro away so that she wouldn't have any distractions in the upcoming 'confrontation, ' the main reason she sent her brother away was because she didn't want her beloved brother hurt or exposed to what would happen to her if she lost.

Alejandro, for his part, was neither a coward nor a fool. Like all the children in the poorer parts of Castries, Alejandro had been exposed to the hard facts of life early on, and knew exactly what the three men planned to do with his sister. In other circumstances, Alejandro would have stayed, regardless of his sister's command to the contrary, and no doubt gotten badly hurt or possibly killed for his efforts.

But the American school had instilled a sense of optimism in Alejandro. He didn't want to abandon his sister, but neither did he think he could effectively help her. So Alejandro ran down the stairs and out of the building, trying to come up with some plan that would force a squadron of colonial police to follow him back to his building. Not that the section of Castries Alejandro lived in either wanted or expected help from St. Lucia's colonial police; but Alejandro's reasoning was that, if confronted with the ongoing assault on his sister, the police would have to do something.

Then Fate provide Alejandro a better plan. Alejandro's apartment building was located not too far behind a string of market stalls that lined part of the thoroughfare from the American Emporium Hotel to India House. As Alejandro ran up to the street, looking for the police, he spotted the carriage carrying one James Davidson, American ethernaut.

---

Without a doubt James Davidson was Kenny's favorite customer.

Ironically, part of the reason Kenny liked the American was that the American rarely ever used Kenny's services. Anyone and everyone on St. Lucia knew that its recent growth was due to the Edison Moon Project and that, for all practical purposes, James Davidson was the face of the Moon Project. And yet the man considered himself as just one of the crowd. Which was quite different from many of Kenny's normal customers, minor merchants and bureaucrats who were quite full of themselves and who were usually very stingy with their gratuities. Which again was not James Davidson.

The American usually only hired Kenny's carriage for important functions, when one was expected to arrive under the power of a horse-drawn vehicle, and not one's own legs, even if the legs had as long a stride as James Davidson's did.

It had startled Kenny the first time James had asked to ride on the forward seat, but the two had had a very interesting discussion about their experiences with horses, and Kenny looked forward to the next time the American ethernaut would ride with him and the far-ranging conversations the ride would produce.

"Well, I cannot say that I approve of this cable car you tell me that they are operating in your country," Kenny was saying, "if for no other reason than I think it will put me and my horses out of business."

"Right now, Kenny, it's only in the city of San Francisco, and just in one very hilly part of the city. But I would not be surprised to see one in Castries within the next ten to twenty years." James tapped his upper lip with his finger, lost for a moment in thought. Technically, his only job was to train the ethernauts for their eventual ascension into the ether. But James was an inventor and innovator himself, if on a lesser scale than Edison. Which meant James spent a good deal of his time helping the various projects under the Edison umbrella on St. Lucia to mesh, and sometimes James saw other opportunities as well.

"Kenny, I'd like to hire you again three nights from now, for a couple of hours. I want to get this launch accomplished first, but I have an idea, and I'd like to get you involved in it."

Kenny just shook his head and laughed. "You Americans, always thinking. I wonder where that will leave our world when my grandchildren are running it?"

Before James could respond, a young boy dashed straight for their carriage, shouting "Mr. Davidson! Mr. Davidson! Help me!"

Alejandro dashed to the main thoroughfare, looking for one of the colonial police and trying to think of a story or lie or action that would get one or more of the constables to chase after him. Then Alejandro spotted the American ethernaut!

Like most of the boys on St. Lucia, regardless of their social or economic background, Alejandro knew everything about the Edison Moon Project, including the head of its ethernaut corps, James Davidson. Undoubtedly, in a few years, one of the companies that made baseball cards in the United States would make cards for the ethernaut corps, but boys like Alejandro didn't need them. They already knew all the facts about their heroes (or at least the more palatable facts).

To see his hero riding in the front of a carriage, right when Alejandro came running up to the thoroughfare, seemed to be a gift in and of itself. If it had been any other American or European, Alejandro would not have bothered, expecting only a beating from the driver for showing the insolence of running up to a carriage. But this was an ethernaut! The ethernaut!

So without a second thought, Alejandro ran to the carriage, shouting for help.

To Kenny's credit, he reached for his whip to "shoo" Alejandro off.

That is to say, Kenny was an experienced carriage driver who was used to chasing off the street urchins that would approach his passengers and beg for small coins. Such was Kenny's reputation among the street children that he didn't even have to reach for his horse whip. Just the sight of his carriage was enough for the youngsters to look elsewhere.

James laid a hand lightly on Kenny's lower arm. "It's OK, Kenny. What's the problem, son?" James asked Alejandro.

"My sister is in trouble. There are three men who are ... who are..."

James nodded and climbed down off the carriage. "Lead the way, son."

Kenny shouted, "Mr. Davidson, wait! You can't go!"

"I'll be right back, Kenny. Wait for me!" Then James disappeared into the crowd, heading for a nearby building.

It didn't occur to James that he might be heading into a trap. But it certainly did to Kenny. Since the boy knew Mr. Davidson's name, Kenny assumed the boy might have allies who had decided that the Moon Project might pay well for the return of its top ethernaut. Fortunately, there was a constabulary station nearby where Kenny's brother-in-law was posted. Kenny quickly got the carriage going, hoping he could get help to his favorite customer in time.

Meanwhile, James followed the running Alejandro through the milling crowd to a building that had a look of being both brand new and dilapidated. As Alejandro ran through the halls and up the stairs, doors were narrowly cracked open and then immediately slammed shut. James found himself in a hall with a low ceiling. At the end of the hall was a group of three men corralling a young woman into a corner.

One of the men in the back heard James and Alejandro enter the hall and brought it to the attention of the owner's agent. Turning around to see the American and Maya's brother, the owner's agent grinned. "You're in the wrong place, Doos. Leave now."

James peeled off his jacket, tossing it to Alejandro. "Back into the stairwell now," he ordered Alejandro. Without a second thought, James launched himself into the fight.

It was not just a matter of James being an experienced fighter, though he was that. Nor was it the fact that James had more than a few inches and a few pounds of muscle on each of the three men, though he had that as well. But James was an American who had wandered into a fairly poor section of Castries, and the three men honestly thought that James, having seen three armed men in a strange hallway, would run away. Truth be told, if the three men hadn't been occupied with the task of separating Maya from her virtue, they would have undoubtedly set upon James for whatever valuables he had on him, as well as for the general sport.

The first man went down with a hard punch to his kidney. The second man, seeing the first go down, spun around, his knife slashing around in an arch. James jumped back just in time, but still had his shirt and undershirt cut by the knife's tip. The second man advanced on James, jabbing at him with his knife. On one particular jab, the second man extended his arm too far, and was rewarded with James grabbing the man's wrist with one hand while James used his other hand to slam the knife wielder's elbow. The ensuing pain made the second man drop his knife. James moved in quickly and dropped the second man with a series of blows to his torso.

This left the owner's agent in the untenable position of being between an advancing James and a knife wielding Maya. The owner's agent made a rush past James to the stairwell, shouting "I want that bitch out of her room now. Now!" The owner's agent scrambled past a startled Alejandro as he rushed down the stairs.

James turned toward the young woman he had just rescued to see murder in her eyes, the knife in her hand being waved back and forth, and definitely held with more expertise than the two men moaning on the floor had shown.

Holding his hands up, palms toward her, James said, "Um, I'm with the cavalry?"

Alejandro came rushing out of the stairwell, placing himself between his sister and the American ethernaut. A rather lengthy exchange in French Creole took place between Alejandro and his sister, with Alejandro pointing and smiling at James, and Maya giving James looks of suspicious scrutiny. Eventually, Alejandro must have convinced his sister that James wasn't a new villain, because she put away her knife and gave James a curt nod and a heavily accented "Thank you."

Alejandro was in heaven. The American ethernaut he had come to idolize was here, right outside of his home, and had saved his sister. It was like a tale from the Story Papers, or one of the dime novels from America that Alejandro occasionally got to read in the American school.

James was looking down at himself and saw a thin red line had soaked the front of his ripped shirt. Maybe I can get Kenny to take me back to the hotel and then deliver my apologies to Lady Brent for an unexpected delay, he thought to himself. As James pondered his next step, he saw Alejandro's eyes go wide and the young woman take a defensive stance. Expecting the third man he had fought to be returning with reinforcements, James turned around and tensed, preparing for a fight. Instead, the sight he saw made him breath a sigh of relief. Kenny was entering the hall with four uniformed members of St. Lucia's colonial police in trail.

"Mr. Davidson, I am sure your suit was in much better shape when you left my carriage earlier," Kenny said jokingly, though the relief he felt was clear on his face.

"I promise to try to keep your carriage clean when I get back in it, Kenny," James replied, shaking Kenny's hand vigorously. "And I see you've brought friends."

Kenny nodded,then gestured to the man leading the group of policeman. "Mr. Davidson, may I introduce you to my brother-in-law, Sergeant Lesmond?"

The police sergeant took James' proffered hand. "I must say, it is an honor to meet the man they say will one day walk on the face of the moon."

"We're still a little while away from that goal, but I hope tomorrow will be a successful first step," James replied with a grin.

"You speak for everyone on St. Lucia, I think. And my men and I were very happy to make sure the chief of the Moon Project's ethernauts is safe after having lost his way and wandered into this situation after the disturbance had occurred."

The slow and deliberate way that the Sergeant phrased the last sentence made James look over at Kenny, who was staring intently at James and giving a subtle nod of his head. "Yes, I was buying something for the lady I am escorting to the party tonight and found myself disoriented. I had hoped to get directions back to the main thoroughfare when I came upon this scene. At some point before I got here, I must have stumbled and injured myself."

The sergeant smiled broadly. "The agent of the owner of this building said that the two men on the floor became angry about something and got into a fight with each other. He was initially unclear about some of the details, but I and my men were able to help him remember all of the facts. It's good that there are no misunderstandings, especially considering that you hold such a prestigious position at the Moon Project, and the owner of this building that the agent works for is an English nobleman who has invested greatly in the prosperity of my island."

In other words, James realized, there were people that the Sergeant did not want to embarrass, and so wanted to create an event that James was not directly involved in. An event that no one had to take official notice of. James looked at Kenny, then at the young boy who had asked for his help for his sister, and then back at the sergeant.

Not the way I would want to handle it, but I guess it'll have to do, James decided. For now, anyway.

"Well, I'll have to take your word on that, Sergeant. When I got here, these men were already stretched out on the floor."

Sergeant Lesmond smiled broadly. "Well, it is probably for the best that you did not enter the hallway while the fight was in progress. I am afraid, though, I do have an unpleasant duty that I must perform. Fortunately, it does not involve you."

"Oh?" James responded, immediately alert.

"The agent of the owner advised me that before the fight between these two men occurred, he had planned to evict this young woman and her brother from their room."

James stood there, stunned as conversations erupted around him. The young boy had immediately translated the Sergeant's pronouncement to his sister, who started excitedly talking at the Sergeant in rapid fire French Creole. The sergeant began replying in the same language. What James had thought was a spur of the moment 'adventure' in which he got to save the 'damsel in distress' before he went to his own birthday party was turning into a full blown tragedy. Had he made things worse by coming here?

As James stood silently by as more voices entered into the emotional fray, he couldn't help but notice the hands of the young boy's older sister as she was gesturing toward her room and then at the colonial police. There were callouses on her fingers, a specific type of callous, that made him think of a recent conversation he had with Lady Brent...

James was brought out of his reverie by the young boy tugging on his shirt. "Please, Mr. Davidson, can you not talk to the lapolis?"

James knelt down in front of the boy, seeing the mixture of fear and hope in his eyes. "What's your name, son?"

"Alejandro, Mr. Davidson."

"What does your sister do for a living?"

"She sews uniforms, sir. For the merchant sailors and sometimes for the sailors on the big ships, sir."

Maya was so focused on her argument with the police and insisting she had paid her rent to the end of the month and should not have to move that she had not noticed the conversation that her brother was having with the American. When she did notice, she spat out to Alejandro to step away from the American, and asked what the American was saying to him.

Alejandro said he wanted to know about her sewing.

This momentarily stunned Maya, who directed her younger brother to ask why the American was interested in her sewing.

This led to an extended conversation between Maya and the American, with Alejandro acting as translator. The American asked Maya about her experience and knowledge with various styles of dresses common among the American and European women. The rest of the men watched on, curious as to where this conversation would lead.

"Alejandro," James said, a smile on his face, "tell your sister I have a solution to her problem."