There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 26

"Is there a secret to your happy marriage?"

"In truth, our marriage started out on the rocks. Then we made a very good decision for ourselves. We divorced our parents. I told my parents to take a hike because they were destroying my marriage. He told his parents the same thing. That was nearly 11 years ago, and we have been in heaven since."

"You have to get your husband's tea."

"He doesn't drink tea. He just does that to talk to me."

"Amazing. Will you get me those paper towels now, I have some cleaning to do."

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

They landed in Austin and a big black limousine pulled up as the steps were put into place. The girls were so excited to see another limousine they ran down the steps and jumped into the back. Sandra had that little bag with her that she was carrying down the steps and a man offered her his arm to help her down. When she reached the bottom step, and turned to say thank you, Joseph said, "Hello, I remember you."

She didn't know what got into her, but she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. It was returned in full measure.

Adrian walked down the steps holding her husband's arm and said loud enough for her to hear, "It couldn't be that."

"Did you miss me?"

"Joseph, if I start crying here, I won't be able to stop. Let's go to the girls."

He entered the limousine, and asked, "Is there room for an old man in here?"

The girls were all over him, screaming and shouting like children do.

"Is anyone hungry? Remember it's an hour earlier here than it is at home."

"Dad, does that mean my stomach doesn't know that it's hungry or not?"

"No, it's just tomorrow morning you're going to want to eat breakfast at 5 AM, and I'm not getting up with you."

"Aren't we staying at a hotel?"

"No you're staying with me."

"Oh no a bachelor pad."

"Ladies, I am a Doctor, and I must keep up my reputation as a Doctor. This is not your normal bachelors. This is a high class bachelor."

"Mom, I have the feeling are going shopping tomorrow."

"Ladies there are no shopping trips scheduled on this vacation. There is a little sightseeing, and a lot of talking between your mother and I. I have no idea what I'm going to do to the two of you, but I'm sure you're not going to be happy with it. Maybe I'll make you candy stripers for the weekend. You can clean bedpans and change diapers and do all sorts of nasty things."

"Mom peed in the airplane."

"Oh God."

"What's so unusual about that. That's what they have bathrooms for."

"Mom did it in her seat."

"Really, how interesting. Are we having bladder problems dear?"

"After I kill Rebecca, I will say in my defense the pilot was attempting to set some sort of record in a brand-new aircraft. We went from the ground to 58,000 feet in just under 12 minutes. It was as if we were pointed straight up, and I was scared to death. I told the girls they were going to clean it up, and you should have heard the screams and excuses that went with it. 'Candy Striping' sounds perfect for them; especially the bedpans."

Then 'Candy Striping' it will be, and I have the perfect nurse to keep an eye on them."

"Please dad this was supposed to be a vacation."

"Who told you this was supposed to be a vacation?"

"We were coming to see you. We thought it was going to be a vacation."

"When you lived here was there ever anything to do?"

"No."

"It hasn't changed. Is it any better in Montpelier?"

"No, we just have more trees."

Joseph picked up the phone and spoke to the driver.

"Frankie, see if we can get permission to go to the NEST please."

"Why would we want to see a bird in a nest."

"Because this is a very big bird."

The phone buzzed and he picked it up. In a moment smiled. Thank you Frankie.

"We have unlimited access to the nest. Guides will be there to show us around.

Debbie said, "This must be a huge nest if you need guides to show you around."

"It certainly is."

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

They took the turn on the access road, and Joseph said to everyone, "Don't be afraid of the guns. These men are all trained agents, and they are here to protect the scientists."

Sandra said, "Joe, where are you taking us?"

"Don't you ever read the newspaper?"

As they approached the security fence, the guns were pointed towards the ground, but in the direction of the car. All the windows came down, and the agents looked inside.

"Hello Doctor Finch, who are these nice people?"

These are my daughter's Deborah, and Rebecca. This is my former wife Sandra. We are going to take a look around."

"Remember, single file or we will take you out of the sand."

"I will warn them when we get out of the car."

They drove another few minutes until the spacecraft came into view.

"What is that daddy?"

"That is the egg. Welcome to the NEST."

"No shit!"

"Deborah, watch your mouth."

"When we get out of the car everyone moves single file. Follow me exactly, because if you don't you will fall down eight feet into sand. There are traps all over here to keep intruders from getting to the egg. I don't want any of you to break your neck, especially your mother. You two I can replace but your mother I can't. How are we going to walk?"

They repeated, "Single file behind you."

"Very good, let's go."

They were halfway across when an agent yelled, "Did they tell you they change the pattern Doc?"

"It doesn't matter to me, I've made love to my wife in the sand before."

That earned him smack from Sandra. It did happen, but it was many years ago when he was still in school.

When they were in the clear, he took Sandra's hand and pulled her to the side. He introduced the girls to two of the agents and told them they were going to be there guides to the inside of the spaceship.

Rebecca said, "Dad, this isn't a spaceship, the design is all wrong."

Joe said, "What is a spaceship supposed to look like?"

"It's like NASA, with big rockets on the bottom, and a big point he knows at the top where the astronauts sit to go to the moon."

"This spacecraft has already flown, and a NASA aircraft filmed every inch of it, and every moment it was in the air. I was inside it while it happened. All the technology is new, and so advanced that on December 25 of this year it is leaving on a trip that it will never come back from. Between 60 and 70 brave people are going to leave this universe and travel to another, and another. They will sleep for many years and stasis units, because of the huge distances between galaxies. They are taking seeds to plant for food, in dirt that will be on board, and also dirt on planets they hoped to discover that could maintain life like a ours. They will send messages back continuously, but it could take generations for those messages to get back to us. This spaceship will fly faster than the speed of light. NASA's spacecraft only fly at 25,000 miles per hour. This spacecraft was built at a cost of $350 billion of private investor money. The government's program is running in excess of $1 trillion. Why don't you go with these men and see what the future looks like inside."

As he stood up Sandy said, "Joe, you're going?"

"I want to, but I won't go without my wife and my children."

"I just peed on an airplane that was going fast. What would I do on something that was moving at the speed of light?"

"Nothing, your asshole would be puckered so tight, nothing could get out."

"Joseph stop fooling with me. Is this thing safe?"

"You wouldn't believe how safe it is. You would not believe how strong it is. Everything is the best ever made. Nearly 700 patents have gone into the making of this spacecraft. Scientists as young as five years old have made breakthroughs that you would not believe. A 13-year-old boy has a patent on a nuclear fusion engine. It is the future of clean energy on earth. When they had him on television to do an interview it was supposed to be for one hour. People from around the world called in demanding that it continue. Sponsors had no problem with it. When it was over the Nielsen ratings were above the Super Bowl. Can you imagine how many people watched a 13-year-old boy talk about nuclear fusion."

"Don't make a decision yet, we have a lot of talking to do first. Let's go inside."

Nearly 2 hours later, they met outside. The girls were enthusiastic about going, but Joe wanted to calm them down. What two girls like you do on the spaceship like that. It doesn't have a pointy nose. It doesn't have rockets underneath it. And the girls definitely are not astronaut material. Maybe they could clean bathrooms."

The answer was perfect. "YUCK, for everyone?"

"How else are you going to earn your keep on the spacecraft?"

It is very expensive."

"Mom said you won the lottery. Would you pay for us?"

"I guess I could, actually I know I could, if I had gotten a letter or an email in the last three months from my daughters."

"We started 100 times dad, and cried every time. Why would we write to you and make you more depressed than you already are."

"I think we are very late for dinner."

Note: I know this is a little long, but I leave tomorrow for my favorite place in the central United States. My reservations are made, my bed is ready, and the strings on the back of that wonderful hospital nightgown are already opening. I am told this is the big one, so I go into it with great hope, and greater desperation. I will be back in five weeks, and I will start writing for you again, one way, or the other. Bob/Prolonged_Debut10