“I’ll do that, Mr. Sharple. Don’t need any domestic troubles going on today.” When the camper pulled away and out of sight, he did drop to the ground. His knees were weak from driving for so long every day and having gotten away from Linda. Because that was what it felt like, he’d gotten away from her. Now here, today, he sat in a jail cell just waiting for Tom to tell him that things were set up on this end for him to be flying home to his little girl.

  They’d put him on a job that paid him real money after the first night. At first, he didn’t want to bother with working. Not because he didn’t want to work but because it had become a habit of his not to work. So when the officer was walking away, Alfred had called him back and told him he’d do it. So during the day, he was working at cleaning up the jail offices, answering the phone and doing just odd jobs around the place. It had been a great feeling for him to have some cash in his pocket. Also, to be able to buy his own lunch once a day and to get him some much-needed clothing. He didn’t want to be too much of an embarrassment to Lizzy when she picked him up at the airport on Monday night. Just one more sleep until then.

  He also had a brand-new driver’s license to use. It had been a surprise to him that he’d been able to pass the written part of the test with flying colors. He supposed that since he’d been using his skills as a driver to get them home from this trip had helped. Alfred had needed a little help on the driving part, however.

  He’d driven nothing but the camper for the last thirty years or so, and not that often and hadn’t any idea how to maneuver such a tiny thing as a car. But Tom had come through for him again, lending him not just a car to use to get used to it, but his son had taken him driving over the last few days to get him used to driving a car rather than that big old rig he’d been using. Alfred had a lot to be thankful for when it came to the captain of this small town he’d been living in for most of his life.

  “Alfred, your wife is here. She said that she’s sick of you not being at home, and she’s come here to get you out. I’m not sure how she expects that to happen, but there you have it. What do you want me to tell her?” He said that he’d been expecting her at some point. “Yeah, you said that yesterday. I hope you have a good speech worked out. She’s fit to be tied, I tell you.”

  He was as ready as he’d ever been to talk to his wife. Actually, they’d never been married, and that was going to be a part of his speech too. He was leaving her, and he was going to find his daughter and see if she’d take him into her heart after all this time. Alfred straightened up when he heard her bitching as she came down the long hallway toward where he was sitting. When she was standing in front of him, he almost didn’t recognize her. She’d not taken care of herself over the last few days, and she looked like she’d not even washed her face either.

  “I need you to come home with me. I can’t stand being on my own. Nobody will talk to me, and they won’t take care of me either. I don’t like it at all.” He told her that he wasn’t going back even when he got out. “Don’t be stupid, Alfred. You’re going to come back to me because I need you around. You being in this jail cell is causing me all kinds of trouble, and I don’t care for it. The people in the commune are starting to piss me off too. They said that I’m not nice. Why would they say that to me?”

  “Because you’re not nice. You never have been. I guess I knew that all along, but when you said those things to Lizzy, I knew then that you were worse than I ever imagined you to be. I’m not going back there to be with you, Linda. I’ve actually enjoyed being in this cell. It’s clean and fresh smelling. I get really good food to eat that I don’t have to fight you about because you don’t like it or want something else. The other day I got to read the entire newspaper, and it wasn’t months old. It was enjoyable to me.” She asked him where he thought that he was going to go, and she’d not follow him. “I’m going to see if Lizzy will put me up until I can find me a good job and work for a living. I’m sick of living the way that you insisted that we live when we first got together. And I might find me someone to date.”

  “You are not going anywhere, Alfred. You’ve made a commitment to me, and I’m going to hold you to it.” He asked her what that was, this commitment that she was talking about. “Being around for me when I need something. You’ve done it for this long, and I liked it. I’m not going to allow you—she’ll be having babies. Is that what you want? To be saddled with being a free sitter for the rest of your life? Christ, Alfred, you won’t last a day with them spitting up all over you and having to change shitty diapers. It’s not something that I wanted ever.”

  “Yes, you’ve made that clear when you talked to Lizzy. And I would consider myself a lucky man to be able to do all those things and more. I’d wear that spit up that you abhor so much as a badge of honor.” She told him she wasn’t going to put up with it. “Good. I wasn’t going to invite you anyway. And even if you were to figure out a way to get there, I’d hope that Lizzy has enough sense to not allow you anywhere near her or any precious babies she might have with that nice young man she’s in love with.”

  “We’ll see. I want you to come home with me now. I told you, I don’t like having to do for myself.” He didn’t even bother answering her but by laughing. “You won’t think this is so funny when I’m finished with you, Alfred. I plan on making your life a living hell when Lizzy, your so-called precious daughter, turns you away.”

  “You’ve already made my life a living hell, Linda and I think that Lizzy, unlike you would do, would welcome me with open arms.” Linda told him she was leaving, and he’d better not be leaving her alone. “You have a fun life. I know that’s what I’m going to do as soon as I get to Ohio and be with my precious daughter, as you called her.”

  She turned away from him and walked about ten steps before telling him that she was leaving. Alfred laid down on his cot, wondering why it had taken him so long to realize what sort of person Linda was. When she told him that she was at the door, he smiled. Yes, he thought for sure he was going to enjoy his new life to the fullest and never look back. When he heard her screaming at him, he knew that she’d not give up. But he was all right with that. He wasn’t going to be here to listen to her anymore.

  Just as he was dozing off, he was awakened by one of the officers. He told him that there was a phone call for him from a Mr. Barkley Strong. Worried that his daughter had changed her mind. He decided right then and there that he still wasn’t going back to Linda. His little taste of freedom was too fresh, too right for him to ever think he’d be even reasonably happy with her again. Being taken to the phone, he said hello and was surprised by the laughter coming from the other end.

  “I’m so sorry to be calling you now, Al, but I wanted to let you know what time the flight out is for you tomorrow. It’s a late one, I’m sorry about that, but they said you’d be taken to the airport with a police escort. Also, I should have done this before now, but there is a cell phone going to be delivered to you there in the morning. They’re supposed to have programmed it with my number as well as Clay and Lizzy’s cell phone. I did tell you that they got married, didn’t I?” He said that he had. “Good. It was all my other son’s idea, but I’ll let them talk to you when you get here. They’ll be with us at the airport to pick you up. I have to tell you, Al, I’m about as excited as I have been for a while. Is there anything else I can do for you before you leave?”

  “No.” Alfred felt his eyes fill with tears. His heart was so full at that moment. “You’ve done so much for me that I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to repay you all. I’m overwhelmed by your generosity and faith in me.”

  “You just make our little Lizzy happy, and we’ll think you’ve done all right with yourself. I did hear from Tom that you had a run-in with Linda today. I’m sorry to hear that. When you’re here, you’ll be just fine. Just fine indeed.” He asked him about the job he was looking into for him. “Everything is all set up. I’ve gotten a few houses lined up for you. Most of them we own already so that won’t be so hard on you when you arrive. I know that Lizzy and Clay both want you to stay with them for a bit. Lizzy is being really insistent about it, too, so I’d not argue too hard with her.”

  “I won’t. I’m going to count myself lucky every day.” After they chatted a bit more about the trip, they disconnected the call. He sat there thinking about the incredible things that had happened in the course of just a few days.

  Alfred would never forget this help he’d been getting, and he was, as he’d been asked to do, going to pay it forward as much as he could for the rest of his life. Yes, he thought, he was a very lucky man to have such a wonderful family helping him out with him having a life that involved him seeing his daughter and any children that she might well have.

  Chapter 7

  Clay felt like a new man. Of course, it could be because he was in love. Or it could have been all the sex he was having. Maybe, he thought with a smile, it was a combination of both of those. But he knew that being in love with the most wonderful wife in the world was everything to him.

  When they’d returned home this morning, he’d gotten right to work on a couple of projects he’d put on hold. Now, with the time to clear his mind, he knew what the issue was that he was having and couldn’t wait to get to work on them. His job suddenly had new meaning for him too.

  Then, out of nowhere, this agent who said he’d been sent here to look after him showed up at his door. In the three hours he’d been here, he’d done nothing but bitch and moan about how Clay wasn’t doing as he was told. Like he worked for him or something.

  “You have the specs that I need?” He told Agent Williams that he would work on them in a bit. “Perhaps if you weren’t daydreaming so much, you’d have them done by now. I’m a busy man, Mr. Strong, and I don’t like having to wait on you to get your head out of the sunshine and working on this job.” Clay turned to look at the man behind him.

  “You do realize that I’m not working on your project, don’t you? I mean, does this even look like the specs that you demanded that I give my full attention to? I told you when you showed up at my office this morning at six o’clock that I’m too busy to work on projects for the government. I need jobs that pay my bills.” The man snorted and told him he had more money than sense. “Perhaps. But that’s your opinion, and it’s none of your business why I’m working on things that I want to work on. I’m a busy man too, and I told you several times now that I have no intentions of working on projects that come from that office.”

  “It’s your American duty to do what I tell you to do.” Clay just stared at him before bursting out laughing. “You won’t think this is so funny when I have you taken away in irons, young man. You get that project started, or I’ll be making some phone calls.”

  “Make them. The phone is over there on my desk.” Clay bent over the work he’d been playing around with for the last two hours. It wasn’t anything but a project that he’d already given up on ever getting to work several years ago. He was just playing with it to piss the man off that had demanded he works for him. He was just about ready to put the tool down and go into the house for some lunch when he realized why it had never worked the way he’d wanted it to. There was a small washer missing.

  He was searching for the washer when he heard something shatter. The agent had actually taken his tool and smashed it on the floor. Then he had the nerve to keep crushing it with his booted foot. Clay thought he was acting like a spoiled child.

  “There. Now that that project is finished, you can get your ass busy with what I want done. See how I handled that? I made it so that you could work and not worry with that other shit that you’ve been dicking around with for the last few hours.” Clay didn’t say anything as he picked up the pieces off the floor. “You’re going to piss me off more than I am right now if you work on that thing anymore. I’m telling you right now, jerk face, I’m in charge right now, and you’d better be doing what I tell you to do. Or else.”

  Instead of saying a word, really, he had no idea what he’d say to the man. He put the pieces back on his workbench. Going to his desk, he picked up his phone and made a call that he never had in all his life thought that he’d be making. He called the President of the United States. And on his personal line. When Brock answered, Clay went right to the heart of the issue he was having.

  “Hello, sir. This is Clay Strong. I have an agent here by the name of Williams. He just destroyed a very important project that I was working on because he is demanding that I work for him. I believe that I made it perfectly clear that I’m not going to work on any projects for NASA.” Brock asked him if he could speak to the agent. “Yes, but I’m going to be compensated for him destroying something that I’ve been working on for a long time. Not only that, but if he sticks around me much longer, I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands and tell my father.”

  “You just let me handle this man for you, Clay. I’m glad that you called me.” When Clay told the agent that he was wanted on the phone, his first reaction was to tell Clay to fuck off. “Clay, are you there? Put me on speaker, please. I’d like for you to hear what I have to say to this man too.”

  Sitting down at his desk, he put the phone on speaker as he was asked to do. When Brock started speaking, Williams asked if he was fucking serious. That no one could just call up the President.

  “Though he did, didn’t he. Now, this is what is going to happen. And you had better believe it when I tell you that you’re going to comply, or you’ll be out of a job just as quickly as Becker was. Right now, you’re going to give Clay whatever he deems a good price for the project that you’ve ruined, adding an additional one hundred percent to the amount because I know this man well enough to know that he’ll undervalue what he’s been working on. Are you hearing me, Williams?” He said that he was, but he didn’t no more believe that he was the president than Clay wasn’t going to do what he told him to do. “I don’t know what to do to prove it—hang on a moment. Clay, can you call me back on a video chat? I suppose letting this moron see me is the only way that I’m going to convince him that he’s an idiot.”

  After hanging up, Williams started laughing. “This is going to be good, I think. You’re going to what, say you can’t make the connection or something? I love this. The limits that you’ve gone to in order to get out of a job that I want you to do is amazing. All this could have been over with had you just done what I told you in the first place. It’s going to suck to be you when I call in an audit for you and your entire family, don’t you think?”

  The connection was made on his computer, and as soon as the president’s face appeared on the screen, Williams laughed all the harder. It wasn’t until Brock started speaking that Williams started to realize Clay thought that he was fucked.

  After getting assurances that Williams now believed that he was indeed speaking to the president, he began by saying that he’d only been doing his job in getting young Clay to work with them.

  “I don’t remember giving anyone any authority to go to his place of work and berate him, not to mention destroying his property in order for him to—we’d be lucky after your bullshit that he ever returns calls from us when we actually do need him for an emergency. Christ man, do you have any idea how valuable this man is to us?” He said that was why he’d been working so hard by bringing him into the fold. “Really? That’s the way that you make a person want to work for us? By what your actions were today? It’s no small wonder that we have anyone working for us if that’s the tactic that you’ve been using. You and Becker must have been the best of friends, I’m thinking.”

  “Yes, we were. But I think that it’s Clay’s duty as an American citizen to do what I tell him.” Clay just shook his head. “I don’t have any idea why he thought bothering you about this was the way to go. He should have just done what I wanted, and we’d be done by now. But no, he had to work on something less important than what I wanted.”

  “Did you ask him what he was working on, Williams?” He said that he didn’t because it wasn’t NASA related. “I see. For all you know, he could have been working on a project that I asked him to do for me. I didn’t, but since you went there, bothering him as I said before in his own place of business, you didn’t think to ask him about what he was doing. Just destroyed his equipment and demanded, not asked but demanded, that he do what you tell him. I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you can’t do that to anyone. It’s, first of all, not nice, and you have no authority to make demands of people simply because you want to.”

  “I know what my job entails, sir. I’m to make things work so that we’re not behind in our pursuit of working way ahead of other countries.” Brock told Williams that all the other countries were working together. “Propaganda. That’s all that is. And as president, I would think that you’d be well aware of nonsense like that.”

  Clay just stared at the man. His thinking process was that all the people that worked for NASA were a bit off their noodles. As the two men spoke, his cell phone rang. He moved away from the computer to talk to his dad.

  “Son, there are four cruisers in your yard right now. The only reason that I’m aware of it is your mother and I were coming to visit you.” He asked him if he’d spoken to them. “Yes, they want us to direct them to your workshop. Is that all right? I don’t know what’s going on, but I do feel a bit better just talking to you.”

  “Yes, I’m fine. I don’t know what’s going on either, but I have a pretty good idea. Let them know where I am and that I’m with an agent by the name of Williams. That’s all I know right now. Oh, and he’s talking to Brock Wisecarver.” Dad asked if he’d called the president. “Yes. I was having some trouble with Williams when he destroyed one of my projects. Not only that, but he’s treating me like I’m stupid. So I called him to get him out of my hair.”