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* * *
Little Tom glanced over again as Wendy closed in on the bevy, then looked away as his eyes burned from the sun shining off her long blonde hair. You'd figure sooner or later they'd learn. He pulled his glasses off again and took another swipe at his eyes.
«What the hell's wrong now, Tommy?» asked his father.
«Nothin', Dad.»
«Allergies?»
«No, just the sun. I should have brought my shades.»
«With all I paid for custom sunglasses, you think you would. Stop a Posleen shotgun blast.»
«Yep,» said Little Tom with an unheard sigh at his dad's total cluelessness. «Pity about the rest of my face, mind you.»
His dad laughed and went back to berating his sister. At nine she was already a star athlete and well on the way to erasing Big Tom's shame at having a computer geek for a son. Big Tom unconsciously checked the Glock behind his back as a high, thin line of cirrus clouds swept across the sun.
«Could come any time,» he commented just as unconsciously.
«Yep. Anytime,» Little Tom agreed. Another sigh and rolled eyes. «Dad, can I go home now?»
«No. We need to stay here and show our support for Sally.»
«Dad, Sally's got enough confidence for three of us. She knows we support her. I've got homework and I have to get in two hours range time so I can be in the tournament next week. When am I going to be able to?»
«After the game,» answered his father with a frown.
«After the game you are taking Sally and her friends out for sundaes,» answered Little Tom with the sort of remorseless logic that always got him in trouble. «You will expect me to participate in that as well. After sundaes we will convey Sally's friends to their various residences. We will return home at approximately nine p.m. You will maintain lights out for ten p.m. I repeat . . .»
«Tommy,» Big Tom growled.
«Shut up.»
«More or less. You are going to show your support or you can kiss any goddamn computer game tournament good-bye.»
Little Tom took a deep breath. «Yes, sir!» he snapped, crossing his arms and tapping one boot.
«When is this damn tournament, anyway?» asked his father.
«Next Saturday, three p.m. until it finishes,» said Little Tom, knowing he was in for it.
«You're supposed to be participating in a Youth Militia exercise that night!»
«Chief Jordan excused me,» said Little Tom with another roll of the eyes. «I've outgrown the local militia, Dad. Besides, the tournament counts as tactical exercises for military prep credit.»
«Who says?» asked Big Tom with a snort of disgust at the asinine idea. As if sitting in front of a computer playing shoot-'em-up games could be considered real combat training.
«Fleet,» answered Tommy. «They count national standing in Death Valley toward military pre-training.»
«Well, I don't. You need to know what the real thing is like, not a Virtual fairy tale. You're going on the Youth Militia exercise.»
«Dad!»
«No means no.»
«Okay, no means fucking no,» said the son furiously. «In that case, what is my motivation for watching this softball bullshit, O Great Master of All Things Military?»
«Watch your mouth, mister!»
«Dad, you are a fuckin' dinosaur!» the teenager finally exploded. «I am damned if I'm going to be in any Ground Force unit! I am going to be Fleet Strike or nothing! And Youth Militia does not count towards Fleet! I don't mind you acting like I've got two heads and a tail because I don't measure up to your ideal son, but you are not going to screw up my chances of getting into Fleet!»
«You had better calm down and get a civil tongue in your head or you're going to be grounded for the rest of the school year!»
Little Tom met his father's eyes fiercely but he knew the old man would never back down now. With the other parents listening it was going to be a point of pride, something that his father had in overabundance. His eyes closed and his face worked in anger as he tried to control himself. Finally he opened his eyes.
«I am going to go catch a ride home,» he snarled at his father. «And then I am going to cap targets for a couple of hours. And I suspect I am not going to miss.»
«Get out of here,» his father husked and dismissed him from his attention.
He stepped out of the crowd of parents and started looking for someone, anyone who had a car. As he did he saw the coach of the opposing team charge onto the field towards the umpire.
* * *
Wendy waited carefully as Ted warmed to expounding about himself. Until his breakup with Morgen he had been the quietest of all the football players. His humility was rapidly slipping away under the onslaught of female attention and since there was not much he could think of to talk about except football the focus was on recent games.
«Then I handed off to Wally and he ran . . .» he continued.
«Thirty-two yards for a touchdown,» interjected Wendy.
«Yeah,» he said, momentarily stymied.
«You were down by more than seven, so you decided to go for the double point rather than try for a touchdown and a field goal.»
«Uh-huh.»
«So you threw to Joh
«Yeah?»
«It looked like Jerry Washington was in the open and you had to throw past a safety to get to Joh
«You know,» he said, chagrined, «Wally, the big son of a bitch, was blocking, was in the way, I couldn't see past him. Everybody asked me that, afterwards, especially Jerry. He was really pissed.» He turned towards her as the conversation finally turned to something he could talk about.
«You need to do something about that. That explains the same problem on the next series when you got intercepted,» she said with a toss of her hair. She personally thought it was her best feature and decided that subliminally showing it off would help.
«What,» he asked, laughing, «you doing a piece for the school newspaper?»
«No,» she answered, «do you think we need a better sports section?»
«Oh,» he started to respond, «I think the school . . .»
«What is that bozo doing?» asked one of the suddenly snubbed coterie, watching the coach of the opposing team apparently charging the umpire.
* * *
«For she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellllow, which nobody can deny!» «Woof! Woof!»
The chorus of male, female and canine voices rang through the Fredericksburg Public Safety Building and out the open windows into the splendid autumn sunshine. A mob of happy faces in jumpsuits and body armor–bulked uniforms were gathered around a conference table to celebrate the thirtieth a
«Speech! Speech!» cried the usual joker at the back.
«Speech! Speech!»
«Okay! Okay!» said the slight gray-haired female as she stepped up to the head of the table. Her blue, patch-covered coverall bore the nametag «Wilson» over her left breast. One side of her face and the back of her hand on the same side bore the stigma of replaced skin, slick and shiny, but her electric blue eyes were undimmed by age and untrammeled by care. «If I can get you guys to just shut up for once it'll be worth it.»
She looked around at the sea of young faces and suddenly gri
«No, really,» she continued in a normal voice, shaking her head. «I just want to say that the last thirty years are what living is all about. I don't know how people who don't like their jobs get up in the morning. Every damned day I wake up and spring out of bed more ready to come to work than the last.» That the job had eaten two marriages and left her without children she carefully did not mention. There were balances in any life and on the scale she was willing to accept her portion.