Chapter 14: Gorillas
*While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. – Angela Schwindt*
After Tru left, Reese drove around to the back and parked in the owners spot. He didn’t usually do this, but there was something that he needed to check on.
He slipped in through the employee entrance and took the stairs up to the third floor. Two IGYS guards sat at a monitor display watching the various screens.
“Any issues?”
“None here.” Clayton reported. “Constellations had a fight. Parties have been removed.”
“Good.” Reese replied as he headed for the door marked private. Entering his code on the keypad, he opened the door and crossed the office. The second door required another code before opening.
The apartment was tucked away and hidden for a reason. Reese was here to make sure that it was ready to be used if needed.
It was one of the charities that he supported. The Family Advocacy Center had a side that many did not know about. One that he and several others supported off the books.
He checked the bedrooms and made sure that there was bedding and linens available. The smart TV ran through the restaurants internet but Wi-Fi was not available in here. Once inside, the only way to communicate was through the landlines and panic button.
The back portion of the roof was enclosed in green house glass. A wooden play set with a slide, two swings and a small fort sat in the center. It was something that one of the advocates had mentioned. The kids needed a place to play. Cabin fever set in quick with young children.
Approving of everything, Reese went back through the office and then the security office. He wished the men a good night and headed for the stairs.
“Are we expecting company?” Clayton asked.
“Not to my knowledge. I’ll let you know if it changes.”
Down in the kitchen, he spoke with the kitchen manager and head chef. After a few minutes, he started to leave. With a new berry lava cake with ice cream puck and sauces on the side.
With the dessert secured in the passenger seat he headed back home. He knew that Michelle was supposed to call tonight. There were a few more months until she would be home. Dean couldn’t wait for her mom to get back.
Reese walked into his sisters house and found Dean watching a teen slasher movie. They were her obsession. Not the story line, they were all pretty much the same. Not the acting, in her opinion they were all bad.
Definitely not the survival skills. Those fell into two categories. Sex. Or sheer dumb luck.
No, what she liked were the special effects. The graphics. The mechanics. The puppetry. The sounds.
“Did you know-?”
“I brought you a loaded berry lava cake.” He cut her off before she could tell him that they used bendy straws or tin foil or whatever it was that would forever be stuck in his head and ruin the next movie for him.
She laughed as she accepted the box from him. “OK, I promise I won’t tell you any of the special effects.”
“Thank you.” He sat down next to her and placed a fatherly arm around her shoulders.
“How was your date?”
He laughed as she leaned into him. “I had a blind date with Tru.”
“What! Aunt Gina set you up with your ex? That’s funny!”
“We only dated for a few weeks.” He pointed out as she offered him a strawberry, his favorite and her least.
“Mom called. They are having to move because of gorillas.”
“Gorillas or guerrillas?”
“I always say go-rill-ah because it’s easier to deal with.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Love you, little princess.”
“Love you, too, Uncle Owen.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “When I was little, I always pictured an army of gorillas. It made it easier when they would talk about stuff like that.”
Resting his chin on top of her head, he smiled as he pictured it through a child’s mind.
“It still does.” She whispered and he heard the tears and fear in her voice.
Dean sat the box on the coffee table and crawled into his lap. He held her close and let her cry. So often she acted like such an adult that it was easy to forget that she was still a child.
A child who had already lost one parent. And the other parent felt pulled to help halfway around the world.
“She’ll be home soon.”
“February.” Dean mumbled into his chest.
“And then you can go back to be an irritating teenage daughter and spoiled niece.”
“I know it’s just nerves or something. But I keep feeling like she’s not coming back this time.”
“That’s all it is, sweetheart.” He assured her gently. “Sometimes when I was deployed, I would get the same feeling.”
Reese squeezed her tight and kissed the top of her head.
“My sister is too damn stubborn not to come home to you.”
“My dad didn’t come home.” Dean whispered.
There it was. Her fear that her mom would die just like her dad did. It was a reasonable fear. Michelle was now in the same country that Dean’s dad died in.
Michelle had avoided the middle east for this very reason. But another uprising sent all available doctors to Syria.
“Baby, she’s going to come home. You realize,” he grinned, “your mother could mean mug those guerrillas and they would surrender?”
“And go clean their rooms.” She added with a grin of her own.
“Exactly.”
“I love you, Uncle O.”
“I love you, too, princess.”
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