There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 21

"I want Zoie and you to sleep late tomorrow morning. When you wake up Richard, Holden, and I will be gone. I'll file a restraining order keeping you out of the state of Alaska. You are not allowed to have any communications with me, until your seventeen years old."

"Was Delicious really that bad?"

"No she wasn't that bad, was she Gray?"

"Grayson Thyme, if you say one word, just one word, you'll be sleeping outside tonight."

"Does that answer your question Gordon? I'm not even allowed to say anything good about her, and I am muzzled before hand. I can't tell you what a bitch she was, and what a wonderful person she turned into after keeping her in isolation for six years. After intensive psychotherapy, massive amounts of therapeutic drugs, and using our own marijuana fields to keep our children mellow, she has become a perfect mother. I don't go to work because I have to; I go to work to escape from her. It's twelve hours of pure bliss, followed by four hours of yelling and screaming, until the police arrive at my home, because the neighbors can't take it anymore."

When he finished speaking about his beloved wife, everyone at the table was laughing, including Delicious.

I strolled out of my room at 11:30 PM, because I knew most of the guests would be getting ready to leave soon. Since I didn't get to see many of them for long periods of time I wanted to say a personal goodbye. Hannah insisted I do it from a wheelchair, which did not make me happy. As I said from the beginning, you just don't fight with Hannah, because you don't win.

I spent much of my time with William. How can you think a man enough for taking time out of his life to save your project? Using my own calculations it would be at least another six months before I could take over the part of the job he was doing for me. The scientific portion of my job other people were working on was proceeding, but with dubious results.

Time all we were fighting now was time. Fifteen months and there wasn't enough time. Soon, after the first of the year we would have to go on a seven-day week. If you need to a day off, take it. However, everyone would be scheduled for a seven-day workweek.

As I said goodbye to person after person, I got the sense that they were not pushing their fellow scientists hard enough to get the myriad of problems done in basic research that needed to be solved before we could move on to the more technical aspects of our journey. I thank goodness Gordon and I had not discussed the new advances we had talked about with making wormholes in the matter of the year or two after we left this earth. Instead of moving forward, they would have stopped thinking altogether.

If I got back to work by March, that left me nine months to get our project off the ground. I had an awful lot of work to do at home, and I was not completely healed enough to do it. I was still too tired too much of the time. I'd have a brilliant flash, and fall asleep before I could completely get it onto the computer. When I would wake up, I would have no idea what I was thinking about at the time. It was so disheartening I cried most of the time.

105. September 30^th 12:00:01 A.M.

Zoie pushed him into the room, and closed and locked the door. She had a predatory look on her face.

"Happy Birthday, birthday boy, if you don't start unwrapping your present now, I'll do it for you, but it won't be half as much fun."

"Little Miss are you giving me orders on my birthday?"

"GOSL are you hard of hearing? If you are, I'm sure a few more blows to your head will sure it."

"We agreed no more hitting."

"You were thinking of the wrong head."

"You are a nasty girl."

"This nasty girl is still fully dressed, and she wants to know why?"

"I'm going to make you stand there, and watch me get undressed. You are not to move, not a muscle. If you do, you'll find out what spanking is all about. Do you understand Miss Schneider? This is my birthday, and you are my birthday present. You will do exactly what I say, as I unwrap you."

"You are a real prick Gordon."

"Did I give you permission to speak?"

"You didn't say I couldn't speak."

"Do you have to use muscles to talk?"

"Yes."

"No more talking, unless I give you permission to talk."

Gordon did not torture her by undressing slowly. Within a minute, he was completely naked, and semi erect. That is how he tortured her. He took it in his hand and manipulated it until it was fully erect.

She licked her lips wanting to get a hold of it.

He circled around to the back of her dress and unbuttoned every button. He also unsnapped her bra. He insinuated his hands inside the dress, and under the cups of the bra, and held her bare breasts in his hands. He felt her shudder as his fingers rubbed over her nipples, and he knew her panties were now wet.

He moved to the front, kissed her, slipped the dress and bra over our shoulders, and let them slide to the floor. He bit her earlobe and said, "I would swear you packed more than one pair of panties. I was supposed to unwrapped that part separately"

Zoie smiled, but did not answer. Her fluids were dripping down her legs, faster than a leaky faucet.

"If I don't get you into bed soon, we are going to have a flood in this room."

He pulled down the comforter and the top sheet, and found a note from his mother. He read it, and showed it to Zoie.

"Don't worry about the sheet kids. I have a mattress protector underneath so no harm will come to the mattress itself. Go slow, enjoy yourselves, and remember it does not have to happen in one night, Mom."

Gordon looked at Zoie. "I loved you from the moment I saw you. Would you do me the honor of taking my virginity."

Zoie didn't answer and it took Gordon a minute to realize why.

"You are free of all your restrictions, you may resume all your normal activity."

"You are no good son of a bitch Gordon Luck."

"Yes, I agree with you, but I do have one saving grace; I love you."

"Don't you dare throw that in my face; it's not fair. Your mother warned me that you use logic as a weapon, and you are so smart you can get away with it. I have the same problem you have; I love you. I'll make you a deal, I'll take your virginity, if you'll take mine at the same time."

"I accept, because I love you, and for no other reason."

"If you had any other reason, you would be walking around like a chipmunk, regardless of our agreement."

"May I take you to bed now?"

"We've been talking for so long, I thought we were going to do it standing up."

"Someone is looking for her first spanking."

"Why do I think you have spankings on your mind. I think you are a pervert in the making."

"We haven't started on the normal stuff, and you think I'm a pervert in the making already. This is going to be an interesting marriage."

"Interesting, and a lot of fun."

****************

No one saw Zoie or Gordon all day Sunday. I heard them because their room was adjacent to mine, and every once in a while I would hear them use the bathroom, and the shower. To keep them from starving, Jen put a tray of food on my wheelchair and blocked their door with it. When the tray was empty, she would refill it, and wait.

To everyone's surprise, Gordon was ready for his run to work at 5:50 AM Monday morning, looking bright eyed and bushy tailed. He even made it to work three minutes faster than he normally did.

Monty said, "If I knew sex was the only thing holding you back, I would've given you Janet months ago."

Janet said, "Thanks but I don't take on dwarfs."

Monty told Janet Gordon's size

"Bullshit!"

Monty shook her head and told her the CVS story.

"Why is it always the innocent looking ones that carry huge clubs?"

***************

106. New Ideas

Zoie couldn't help walking around the house with a smile on her face, and a blush on her cheeks. Everyone knew what she and Gordon were up to all day Sunday, and no one broached the subject, because it was a private matter between them. If she was in school, she could talk to her classmates about it and tell them how wonderful it was. How do you talk to your future mother-in-law about sex. She didn't get to see Delicious very often, and there was still that age difference between them.

She finished her work for the virtual school and decided to check on me. As luck would have it, Zoie came to my rescue.

She came into my room and found me asleep at my laptop computer. It was in such a precarious position she decided to move it into a safer position.

I woke up as soon as I felt it moving.

"What are you doing Zoie?"

"I'm sorry I woke you dad. You were asleep, and your computer was about to fall off. I didn't want it to break. I tried to move it without waking you, but it didn't work."

"It's okay. Sometimes I get so tired I fall asleep while I'm putting equations on the computer. I get so tired typing my eyes just close."

"Why don't you do what my dad does, and like doctors do when they are very busy. Record everything that you are thinking about and have someone with technical knowledge transcribe it for you. You always have the recorded version as a backup to make sure the transcription is correct, but you don't have to spend all that time and effort typing it out. You can speak faster than you can type, and you can think faster than you can speak. You will be way ahead of where you want to be in the end."

"Would you get Jennifer in here for me Zoie."

A moment later, both women were in my room.

"Zoie come here."

"Watch this Jennifer."

"I grabbed Zoie and gave her a huge kiss. When I finished she was totally flustered."

"I know you have no idea why I did that, so I will tell you. Your idea is absolutely brilliant. I have geniuses around me day and night and no one thought about recording the things I'm thinking of. Jen, I want you to take Zoie to RadioShack or Best Buy and get me three or four high-end recorders with enough extra discs, or tapes, and batteries to last me six months."

Jennifer said, "I would suspect you want this done now?"

"Two hours ago would be better."

"I feel sorry for you Zoie. Gordon is just like his father."

"Gordon told me he six inches shorter."

"You and I are going to have to talk about a few things young lady."

"I'm so happy you said that, because I have so many questions."

"What did I just step into this time?"

"Shopping ladies, quickly; get a purchase order number from Stephano, and have a wonderful time. Jennifer you leave in two minutes. You can be ready to leave in twenty minutes Zoie that is the normal time delay for my wife."

"You really don't want to get well do you Even? It can be arranged you know."

"Dear, if 'The Good Luck' is not off the ground a year from Christmas, you will be a widow. I know what my sister said, but if I fail at this effort, I would rather be dead than wake up on the twenty-sixth and still be earthbound."

"Don't you ever say that again Doctor Luck. You and I will talk more about that when I get home."

"I have said all I'm going to say about that subject. The discussion is closed."

"Like hell it is."

****************

Dycke and his engineers arrived in Glen Falls to review the computer readouts and survey the 'Beauty Box.' Laura nearly emasculated their chief engineer when he called their design 'Primitive.' It took three people to get her off him.

"Primitive my ass you condescending son of a bitch. For a first attempt, this is genius. It took four years of our lives to prove stasis was possible, and almost another year to put this together correctly. You may be able to make it out of better materials, but if you dare call this wonderful machine 'Primitive' again, you will never be able to use your voice ever again."

"I'm sorry Miss Valentino, I meant no insult. I was describing the layout of the hardware underneath the box. You have too many components producing heat close together. They could cause the computer to malfunction. They have to be separated, or a cooling device added to the design to keep the computer from overheating. It could cause a timing delay, or an outright failure of the computer because it may overheat."

"Shit, the box did open over three hours later than it was programmed to, and we didn't know why. That could've been the reason for the failure."

"We can run a test at our facility to see how much heat the components release, and how much the computer absorbed. We will factor that over the course of the year and see what we come up with."

"That would be helpful, because if we sleep too long we could pass the planet we are aiming at and drift off into unknown space."

Dycke said, "If you guys let that happen with my daughter on board, you are out of the job."

"How will you know we missed boss?"

"That Michael is need to know information, and you don't need to know."

"Oh hell, I hate when he says that to me. He has something in the works that is so secret it will scare the shit out of the competition."

"I'll give you a hint. Doctor Luck and his son Gordon told me to open my own bank, because if it works I will need it to store my money in."

"That's the one thing you need boss, more money. I think you have more of it in liquid assets, then the US Treasury Department."

"After Zoie and Gordon get married, and I have the exclusive rights to the Fusion Reactor, I will have more money than the Treasury Department."

Patti said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you Dycke, but you will not have exclusive rights to the Fusion Reactor. All the investors will have a part of it."

"How do you figure that out Patti? Gordon is not an investor."

"Gordon is Even Luck's son. He used company property to come up with, and solve his equations. He is protected by our security force twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Therefore, by extension, he is part of Even Luck's investment in our venture, and a very important one at that. We have all recouped more than we have invested in this project already because of the innovations our scientists have discovered over the last seven years. Now is not the time to get greedy Dycke, you can open your bank, and instead of putting over $1 trillion into it because of a single invention, you can put $50 billion into it, and be happy."

"How do you know the Fusion Reactor would bring in over $1 trillion?"

"What does my husband do Dycke?"

"I never see him. He's always buried under a ton of paper. I don't know how that man survives. Does he know how to use a computer?"

"Yes he does, but he's more comfortable with a pen in his hand."

"Who is coming with us to verify the testing we do on the chamber?"

"I'm going to send the girls down with you. I'm going to close up the house and spend some time with Stephano."

"What did you say? You're leaving the ranch for more than a week?"

"Leave her alone Mister Schneider, when she told us she was going, it took us a week to get up off the floor," Anna said. "She's not even packing her psychiatrist to go with her."

"That will be enough out of you Anna."

"I'll keep her in line mom. We will leave right after we see you get on our airplane heading for Austin."

Patti said, "I'm not leaving for three or four days."

Payne replied, "We are in no hurry, we will wait until you leave."

"You don't believe I'm going to visit my husband do you."

"Mother with your track record I would say the odds on you're leaving to see dad are no better than twenty to one."

"Put your money where your mouth is young ladies, and guests, because I am leaving to see my husband."

"You have to put a time limit on it. You could see him for the launch next year."

"I will be in Temple Texas in three days."

"That's worth a $100 that," Laura said.

Anna agreed, as well as Payne.

"You're not going to bet against me Dycke?"

"Why would I bet against a winner?"

"How do you know I'm going?"

"You would go now just to piss off your daughters. If Robert was here, he would have wanted to raise the bet to $1000. You would have walked to Texas just to piss him off."

"Dycke you know me too well."

*************

"Hello Margaret, this Patti Valentino can I speak to Dan for a moment please?"

"He's a little unhappy this morning Patti so be careful."

"What's going on down there that's making him unhappy?"

"I've been trying to get him to marry me for years now. I love him, and he loves me, but he's obstinate. He won't do it just on the principle of marriage. He doesn't want to be tied down. A few weeks ago, he told me he hated me. I told him I was going to have his paychecks diverted to the wrong bank, or the wrong bank account. I also told him that the government believed he was being overpaid and they wanted their money back, and he would receive a letter in the mail within two weeks. He got that letter two days ago. It's from a friend of mine in Pennsylvania. He doesn't know it, but I have his paycheck in my desk drawer. He is not happy today."

"I can't understand why he would be angry with you Margaret. You are just doing what a woman in love would do to catch her man. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"His sister's name is Sarah. Tell him you just got your invitation in the mail to the wedding for her, and keep your ear away from the phone."

"This should be a lot of fun Margaret. Hold on to your seat."

"General Morgan, Mrs. Valentino on line 3 for you."

"Good morning Patti how is everything up there?"

"You dog you, you kept everything secret. Congratulations, I had no idea. I just got the invitation from her sister Sarah to your wedding. How long have you and Margaret been seeing each other?"

"Margaret, I'm going to kill you. Did you send Patti a wedding announcement?"

"Have you changed your mind Dan? Are you asking me to marry you?"

"I most certainly am not asking you for anything. I want to know how she got a wedding announcement."

"You know I don't have that kind of power Dan. I can't get your paychecks stopped, and I can't possibly have the government look into your financial background to see if you are overpaid. I just can't do those things because I was a lowly secretary."

"I'm looking into that Margaret, I'll have you in jail before nightfall."

"Dan do you remember me; I'm the one on the telephone?"

"I'm sorry Patti, what can I do for you?"

"First Sarah said your wedding is on Valentine's Day. Can I free up this Valentine's Day from my calendar or not?"

There was a long pause

"Dan, did you hear me; can I take this Valentine's Day wedding off my calendar?"

"Yes take it off. I'd rather kill her then get married to her."

"I have the feeling you're lying to yourself like I lied to myself long time ago Dan. You have no idea what Stephano and I went through before we got married. If you want to talk about hell, we went through it twice even though we both knew we love each other."

"Why did you call Patti?"

"I'm coming down for at least a month. I wanted to know if it was safe for Jemma and Patrick to do the same."

"Yes it is but I need the flight crew to take some precautions. Write this down for me and give it to them."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Isn't that illegal?"

"What is your name again?"

"I got your message Dan. I'm not scrubbing out the Valentine's Day wedding. For some reason I think you going to change her mind. Believe it or not she's too good for you."

"Don't you dare say that to me. There is no woman on this earth too good for me."

"Would you like me to list ten in under ten seconds."