A continuing story.........

Richard puts his oversized T-shirt on over his head. Blossom was right, it was just getting good. He grabs his ball cap and heads for the window. The last thing he wants is a confrontation with Mr. and Mrs. Flower.

Richard tries to open the attic window, but as in most older houses, it has been painted shut. He tries banging on the sash with his fist to loosen the seal.

"Stop it!" Blossom hisses under her breath. "They'll hear you!"

Richard stands there, frantic, looking helpless.

"Here!" Blossom says. "Get in the closet!" She is a little embarrassed, looking back and forth from the photos of Justin Timberlake on the closet door to Richard, a pimple-faced teenager with red hair. Richard was so much more attractive two minutes ago.

Richard slides into the closet as noiselessly as he can manage, stumbling slightly over Blossom's Sketchers. A cockroach skittles across his foot. Richard shudders. "Roaches!," he thinks. "I can stand anything but that!"...

Christine the cockroach giggles. "Humans!" she thinks, "they're sooooo silly."

Hiama and Jen's dad-Roger are now best buddies and are bar hopping.

They enter a sleazy down town joint that has strippers, the bartender sets them up with drinks, Hiama explains to Roger his seeming lust for his daughter " Blossom reminded me of my first love, a curvy blonde beauty and being naturally shy and bashful I could never summon the courage to ask her out. Now I am wordly wise and more confident I guess I was trying to make up for lost time".

" Thass Ok buddie ", slurred Roger, the worse for wear, he didn't work out like Hiama and was teetering on the brink of incoherence.

" Lets let bygones be bygones and haveus another drink hic-Son me this one- you put ya money away hic "

Roger gets up to get his wallet out and promptly falls flat on his face on the floor, one of the strippers runs over to help and Hiama suddenly realises its Gloria Stits , his first love . She did not recognise Hiama who has matured to a 6 ft strapping man, no longer the slender young boy she once knew, Gloria flutters her eyelashes at him as she tends to Roger.

Just then from the juke box a song begins .....

" Silhouette, of a perfect frame,
Shadows of your smile, will always remain.
Beginners love, soon fades away
We go on...
I Will long as...

Long as I live, you will be my first love.
Oh baby you and only you.
Long as I live you will be my first love.
And I choose you again.

touching, HIAMA..............sweet

Why thank you kind lady

Don't tell me, let me guess...Gloria has since married and divorced and now goes by her married name, Sass.

You are so subtle, Hiama.

"Blossom?" calls Mrs. Flower from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yes, Mom" calls Blossom.

"We're home," calls Mr Flower, standing beside his wife, a smile on his face.

"OK," calls Blossom. "I'm watching a movie up here."

"OK," call Mr. and Mrs. Flower together. "We're going to bed early. Do you need anything before we go?"

"No, Mom, I'm fine." calls Blossom, "I'll go to bed when I get finished here. See you in the morning."

Running to the closet, Blossom finds Richard standing on top of a cardboard box filled with Christmas decorations.

"Richard," says Blossom. "What are you doing?"

"There's a cock roach in here," says Richard.

"Well, you can come out now," says Blossom. "My parents are going to bed early. They do that sometimes. Now where were we?"

Meantime in Amarillo..................

Nick and Sylvia are getting to know each other better. They've decided to stay over in Amarillo for another day. Life is good................

Back in the bar Hiama and Gloria, or Norma as her friends called her, had managed to get Roger off in a cab and he was well on his way home.

Hiama came clean and told Gloria who he was and how when they lived back in the old town he was madly in love with her, just never plucked up courage to tell her.

" Oh were you that cute little guy at the bus stop I used to see every morning, I always wondered if you'd say something to me "

Hiama asked Gloria when she got off from the bar, she replied at 1 am, he said he would be back to pick her up as he had a few things to do first. Their eyes met, the electricity between them was palpable, yes it was physical yet there was more than that, they couldn't stop smiling as if they alone in that seedy little bar had a secret that no one else knew.

They kissed and all the years seemed to melt away and time stood still, Hiama was the first to break away, he had things to sort out.

Blowing kisses to Gloria he left the bar, running up the steps out three at a time. Now he was not being chucked in jail he had to warn Jennifer and Missy of the impending doom before it was too late..........

(Aaarrggghh! Three different couples & who knows how many plot lines. The Queen of Organization has much work to do!...) :wink:

------------------------

Nick and Sylvia pull into a gas station on the outskirts of Amarillo. They've spent three blissful days in a motel in the dust town, completely unaware of their surroundings. Now Nick is ready to hit the road again. Sylvia isn't sure.

"Um, Nick?" Sylvia asks. "Would you mind making one more stop before we go?"

"Depends," Nick says. "What do you have in mind?" Nick eyes his empty coffee cup, hoping Sylvia has a restaurant in mind. He is ravenously hungry.

"Well, I didn't mention this before, but this is my hometown. I grew up here, but I haven't been back in years. Would you mind terribly if we drove by my old house? I just want to see it again."

Nick agrees, and Sylvia gives him directions. When they reach the street she remembers, she says, "Just pull up to the curb over there. It's the house with the mailbox near the curb. That's right, the one that says 'Flowers' on it."

"Your last name is Flowers?" Nick asks, incredulously.

"Yes," Sylvia says, looking at the front porch. Suddenly the front door opens. "Oh dear, I hoped no one would be at home! Quick, let's go!"

But it is too late. Blossom has recognized her older sister and is running for the Jimmy, arms open wide. They will have to stop here for awhile.

Meanwhile, Hiama has reached the offices of Fox11News, and is on his way up to Missy's office.

Missy is cleaning out her desk, having been fired for missing so many days of work. She is not worried, though. She has a feeling she may be offered a job at the CIA by her old friend, Harold Nussbaum, once he has analyzed the ashes she sent.

"Hiama!" Missy exclaims. "What are you doing here?!"

Hiama takes two of the boxes from Missy's desk and says, "Let's go. We can take my car. It's waiting downstairs."

"Where are we going?" Missy asks.

"To your friend's office at the CIA, of course."

This was working out nicely, Missy thought.....

Very nice, Viz. You're a genius. All tidy and ready for more chaos later in the day. :-)

Alllllllmost ready, Lola! This should tie up more loose ends...(HofT would be proud.)

-----------------

Missy and Hiama sped down the freeway to meet Howard Nussbaum. Missy had called Howard on her cell phone to set up a meeting. Howard had suggested his office, and gave Missy a complicated set of directions. The CIA doesn't do anything simply, you know. After clearing eight security gates, they parked in the lot Nussbaum had told them to find. After being scanned at the metal detector in the foyer, they were directed to a private room where they were strip searched. Hiama, of course, enjoyed it enormously. A half hour later, they were standing in Nussbaum's corner office on the top floor.

"Shhhh," Howard whispers. He reaches for the remote on his desk and turns up the volume on his CD player. Even here, in the Director's office, someone would be listening. "Okay," he says. "We can talk now."

"Have you finished analyzing the ashes?" Missy asks.

"Yes. They are indeed human remains, as you said," Howard says. "But we're still unsure about the exact method of death."

"It was that Infidubla-thingy, you know," Missy says. "And his name was Derek," she adds wistfully.

Howard says, "We're quite aware of the Chronosynclastic Infidubla. In fact, that's how I got this job, remember? I have several departments working on the CI. We're still not sure how it happened, but we have a good lead...

"It seems that all information about the device that generated the Infidubla is classified. Top Top Top Secret. Not even the CIA can get their hands on it. Only the President knows all the details, and he doesn't fill us in on his plans much anymore. However, we do know this. The device was installed on an unmanned Eagle Eye helicopter/aircraft which was flown to the East Coast for deployment."

Missy's eyes narrow. Her reporter instincts are kicking in. "Isn't that the tilt rotor helicopter/aircraft that doesn't require a runway? It can land anywhere? If I remember correctly, it's used on a lot of intelligence missions...surveillance and recon, right?"

The Director nods. Hiama is amazed. This girl isn't as dumb as she looks!

"And...who would be directing the Eagle Eye's flight, if it wasn't the CIA?" Missy asks.

"Probably one of Rummy's men. We've got our eye on one of them. We're pretty sure he did it. Name's Mander...General Mander. Devious fellow."

"And...I am assuming the device would have to have been installed at the helicopter assembly plant, correct?"

Howard smiles. She is catching on. "That's right," he says.

"So, all we have to do is find the technician who installed it, and get him to talk. Right?"

"I'm way ahead of you," Howard says, heading for the door. "Follow me. I've got a plane ready to take us there now."

"Where are we going?" say Missy and Hiama at the same time.

"To the Bell Helicopter Textron plant in Amarillo, of course."

--------------------------------

On the plane, Howard Nussbaum, Director of the CIA, lays out a series of documents for Missy and Hiama. The Department of Defense has a number of operatives working under false names at the Bell plant, he tells them. He holds up an 8"x 10" photo of an ordinary looking guy with black-rimmed glasses and a receding hairline...the kind you could pass on the street and not even realize was there.

"This is our guy," Nussbaum tells them. "He's the technician who installed the Chronosynclastic Infidubla device. He works in the maintenance bay."

Missy is taking notes. On the photograph, the technician/undercover agent's name badge is clearly visible. Missy writes down the name on her notepad: Gerald Flowers.

Hiama picks up the accompanying dossier and opens it.

NAME: Gerald Flowers
AGE: 47
LOCATION: 911 Sunnylane Drive, Amarillo, Texas
DATES OF SERVICE: 1978-present
FAMILY BACKGROUND: Wife, Candy (age 45, homemaker)
Daughter, Sylvia (age 23, whereabouts unknown)
Daughter, Blossom (age 15, student at Amarillo West Highschool)
Son, Frederick (age 9, student at Lyndon Johnson Elementary School)......

wow!

Candice Flower is on her way to visit her mother in the nursing home. It's been a very difficult and trying day. This morning the nursing home director had called and said Candy's mother had been talking rudely to her physical therapist and was refusing to eat.

Candy had not wanted to return the call. Only recently Candy's mom had been living in the Flower household. But she had required continuous care and the care giver had been a very annoying woman, disrupting the free flow of the family and causing the children to hide in their rooms or to go elsewhere to do whatever kids do these days. Sylvia had left home a couple of years before and hadn't been heard of since. Candy catches her breath slightly as she wonders if her daughter is dead or alive.

Arriving at the home, Candy makes her way to her mother's room. She finds her mother in bed, looking like a naughty little girl, except for the wrinkled skin and near blindness in her once bright eyes.

"Hi Mom," says Candy, as she takes a seat in her mother's wheel chair, the only chair in her mother's side of the small room.

"Oh, Candy, it's my little Candy," says Mom, smiling.

"What have you been up to?" asks Candy.

"Oh, nothing," replies her mom.

"They tell me you're not eating your food," says Candy, jumping right in.

"Yuck, I don't want any food. It all tastes nasty," says Mom, "but I will have one of those pickles in that jar over there in the drawer of that dresser, if you don't mind. I've been craving pickles ever since I saw you eating one the other day. No one would give me one."

Candy has heard her mother tell this story at least 20 times in the last four weeks.

Turning to the bulletin board on the wall beside her bed, as Candy hands her a pickle, Mom points to a photo of Candy, Gerald and the kids taken 7 years before. "Look at that little girl," Mom says, as she points to Candy's face. "Aren't those beautiful little cheeks? That's my baby."

"It's a nice family photo, isn't it Mom?" asks Candy, feeling uncomfortable, but touched. Still she knows what's coming next.

"When are you coming to take me home?" asks Mom.

"Mom, I can't take you home, says Candy. We've talked about it. You need more care than I can provide at home. Is this place so bad?"

"I hate this place," says Mom, frowning and looking pathetically sad. "I want Gerald to come and take me home. You don't have room for me anymore?"

"Mom, we still have the room, you know that. We've talked about this," says Candy, feeling like the selfish little brat she fears herself to be. At the same time, Candy knows how thoroughly she and her sisters have researched the nursing home scene. This was an excellent home, chosen for the highly competent, well trained and exceedingly patient staff and stability of care. With this thought, Candy feels frustrated and a bit angry with her mother, then the guilt again.

The evening nurse comes in with bedtime meds for Mom's roommate, an easy going, very kindly woman of about Mom's age.

"I see it's your bed time. I'll go and come back later when you have more time," says Candy, as she recognizes that she waited so late to visit because she didn't want to stay too long.

Kissing her mother, Candy says good by. As she makes her way down the hall, Candy stops by the nursing station and asks if the director will call her again tomorrow.

"I think she needs an anti-depressant," says Candy to herself as she starts the car and turns it toward her home, thankful she's not the one staying in this place............yet.

(Lola: that was an awesome piece of "fiction" writing. We spent 1999 where you just put Candy. Thanks for sharing "Candy's" emotions) -johnboy

wow! (backatcha!) That was incredible!

Candy it is. I've edited my last post. (I'm waiting to see what Hiama will do, and how Dys will get Nick outta there.)

The lear jet containing Nussbaum, Missy and Hiama taxies off the runway at Amarillo International. They get in a blacked out stretch which takes interstate 40 straight to tiltrotor drive. On the way to the Bell plant they see the V-22 Osprey undergoing low flying trials, it sure is a fantastic sight.

Hiama is astonished that his beloved Blossom's father is mixed up in all this business, he is not sure if he has forgiven him for taking Blossom out singing and dancing at Cafe 101, sometimes it got a little out of hand. Hiama's behaviour pales into insignificance compared to Blossom's father's heinous crimes however and he is still coming to terms with this revelation when he takes Blossom's photo out of his wallet.

Blossom may only have been 15 years on this planet but how many years had she been on the planet bounteous perfection before that. She made grown men weep and pray for rain to dampen their ardour. How much does she know or is she as much in the dark as the rest of us he wondered to himself.

Missy asked Howard Nussbaum what the plan was once they arrived at the plant.

" I intend to ask the plant supervisor to get Gerald Blossom up to his office under the pretext of vacation entitlements, as he has been at the plant here and before in Mexico for some years he is due an increase of a few days and will not smell a rat. We can then plant a device on him and monitor his movements, we are after Mr Big here not just the foot soldiers "

The three of them arrive at the plant and are shown to the office of Heronimus B Satsenpfeffer the third senior Vice President of Bell Helicopter. As they drink their decaf and eat their donuts Heronimus explains why the Vector-22 osprey is so important to the future of the Country. Missy and Hiama are astonised at what the plant manager tells them. It seems that with the unbelievable abilities of the tiltrotor that a small group of determined people could use the Chronosynclastic Infidubla to hold the Country to ransom.

The tannoy booms out " Flowers to Mr Satsenpfeffer's office "

The four of them await his arrival.............................

As Candy pulls her car into the over crowded garage, she's listening for the gazillionth time to her CD..........Joe Cocker
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress..........
As she slowly steps out of her car, she notices the back door from the garage ajar........
There's a voice......familiar, sweet.......it brings back memories of a child on a play ground saying, "Mommy, let's never go home......."

Candy can't believe her eyes. It's her darling Sylvia, her firstborn, standing at the kitchen counter. She has been gone for three years, no contact.

Tears well up in Candy's eyes. Words are beyond her. She walks over to her daughter and touches the precious one tentatively on the arm, needing that physical touch to reassure her. It's almost too much to believe. Every nerve ending in Candy's body is screaming for an embrace...to hold her now-grown child, to stroke her hair, to never let her go.

But Candy knows better than to indulge these feelings. The arm she touched was soft and warm, but rigid. Better tread lightly here.

"Sylvia. You came back."

"Just for a visit, Mom. Can't stay."

"I know."

Sylvia wants to stay. Sometimes late at night, she picks up the telephone and punches in the numbers, longing for a familiar, loving voice to comfort her. But she always hangs up before anyone answers. Better not to reopen old wounds.

"Dad's not home, is he?" Sylvia asks nervously.

"No, of course not. He's at work," her mother answers. "We have plenty of time to talk. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?"

Nick shuffles over to meet the mother. This isn't his kind of scene. Candy can see he isn't comfortable here and suggests he help himself to a beer in the fridge. Nick grabs two cans and flees to the back porch.

"Rather quiet type, isn't he?" Candy says, motioning toward the porch.

"Well, we really hadn't intended to come. I just wanted to see the house again."

"It's alright, Syl." Candy knows how uncomfortable this is for her daughter. Ever since that confrontation between Sylvia and her father three years ago, nothing has been the same.

Sylvia never explained it all to her mother. She was afraid to. She had found the key to a locked bottom drawer in her dad's desk in the study. In the drawer were papers, travel receipts, passports, a loaded revolver. All the passports were in different names, but all had the same picture...her father...the man she had known her entire life as Gerald Flowers.

Sylvia began to put the pieces together. All those last-minute business trips to "conventions." The three different colors of hair dye in her father's medicine cabinet. All the late-night unexplained telephone calls. Her father had always had a convenient explanation, and Sylvia knew her mother didn't question such things. She believed in him completely.

Sylvia had confronted her father a week later. He tried to deny it, of course, but he knew Sylvia was too smart to believe his alibis. She had always been the brightest of his children. Gerald didn't know what to do. There had been no training for such a situation.

And so, her trust irretrievably broken, there had been no alternative for Sylvia but to leave...

Better, realjohnboy?