Chapter 58: Helping Friends

Thursday, April 9, 1987

Darren POV:

Tomorrow, Friday, we’re having an emergency meeting with our ‘East Coast’ Family. It will be up at Ibera’s, even though I don’t think they necessarily want to party with us.

This came about because of a conversation Greg and I had with Linda, Sarah and Jamie over breakfast this morning.

You see, for the last three months something has felt ... off ... with them. They’ve only joined up with us 3 or 4 times since our big ‘Shower’ / Lovemaking session back in January. While nothing negative has ever been said, their ‘jobs’ excuse seems a bit lame.

So, while we were discussing that, Linda says, “Do you think this has something to do with us not getting them into the Family Charter? Like Charlie promised them?”

Greg’s eyes flew open, “Holy shit! Charlie invited them into the Charter and nobody told me!???”

Jamie was taken aback and answered nervously, “Um, yeah? It happened during the cruise when we took those kids to Stan’s Island. Charlie and Bob had teleported to Arizona to try and find a place to build a big house for all of us to live together. They took Sheila and Maggie to impersonate Linda and Mary in case they needed to sign any papers. Mary and Linda wanted to stay behind to be close to the rest of the Family. Also, because Maggie and Sheila wanted to checkout Sun City and Sun Lakes for their parents. It was like Fate, because if not for Sheila wanting to see Sun Lakes, we might not have our builders as part of our Family to be.”

Linda added, “Ummm, Charlene actually had more to do with that, but, before we get sidetracked, Charlie and Bob took a short ‘flight’ to look at the site. The second Mary and I, and well, the rest of us were looking through Charlie’s eyes, we ALL started screaming to buy it! Then, Charlie had Bob take his hand and he ‘envisioned’ what our house would look like on that site. Then, everyone saw that one whole wing was all bedrooms and he put on 4 of the bedrooms ‘for our East Coast cousins when they visit’. When they all got back, Monte told Charlie his ‘Clan of Cousins’ might need it sooner rather than later and asked if it could be ‘to live in’, not just ‘for when they visit’.”

Sarah nodded, “That’s when I felt Charlie’s heart swell to bursting with love for the eight of them. He told them he loved the idea and said he hoped they might consider going ‘all-in’ and invited them to join the Family Charter. He even had Bill outline all the details of what they needed to do as far as incorporating all their debts and assets. At first they couldn’t believe it, but, Charlie insisted he was serious and they all excitedly accepted his offer.”

Greg flipped out, “Jesus H Christ! No fucking wonder they’ve been acting weird!? We dropped the ball on that BIG TIME. We’ve gotta get Bill and Emmy back out here to get the paperwork ready and then FIX THIS immediately! If they end up leaving us because of this, Charlie will be heartbroken...” He ended, completely out of breath and looking disappointed.

I patted Greg on the back, “I don’t think that’s the only reason they’ve been acting strangely. There’s something else going on that they’re not telling us. As I’ve told you, they’ve been up at Ibera’s a lot and the only thing they’ve confided in me is their anxiousness for JB and Max to get back here.”

While I couldn’t be certain, I had a sneaky suspicion this had more to do with aliens than not being in the Family Charter yet. Greg’s observations were right-on as far their recent aloofness. But, I couldn’t tell him that Monte just didn’t want to teleport to us any more than absolutely necessary for some reason. That’s all Monte would tell me, however.

With Greg now being the Site-coordinator for our Hacienda’s construction, he rarely went with Ed and me anymore to watch our friends’ progress on Perdition Island.

This is what they’ve been up to...

They had ALL been busy compiling information from spying. It does, however, look like they’re going to be putting that information into action any day now.

Oh yeah, there was one humorous development with the prisoners.

Elmer is now back on the smaller island with Lola, Marcy, their kids and King Flombay! So, who did they replace him with to be King?

Hugo! He, Lugo, Fredo and Otis have proven they are super loyal and George gave all of them powers. He even gave Hugo ‘Chameleon’ so he could impersonate Elmer! They all got Teleportation, Bubble/Invisibility and TK too. It’s hilarious seeing Hugo as a 5’1” ‘midget’. His little girlfriend, Leah, loves it, because she can now kiss him without having to be picked up! They’re hoping that two of the other three will make good Kings for the other two kingdoms.

It’s going to get crowded on that little island!

Now, as for what’s been going on here at home...

The first half of the house is now completely framed and it appears they will have the last pieces of sheathing on the roof trusses either today or tomorrow. It would be amazing if I hadn’t noticed that Greg and Glenn had been using their ‘TK’ to really expedite the process. That, and they’ve had all three crews out here almost every day.

About Glenn...

When we told Monte about Glenn’s ‘advanced education’ he immediately wanted to convince Glenn to join his secret organization. The weird thing was, when we also told him that Greg, Ed and I had it too, he said he didn’t want to take us away from the Family just yet. When I asked him why, he only said he didn’t want to leave the Family unprotected right now. And to that end, Ibera gave us little Zeus and Hera to give to the kids.

The kids were over the moon to have their first ever pets!

When Jaime was afraid they’d get underfoot with our builders, Linda giggled, “Oh Sis, don’t worry about that! These two are the smartest and best behaved little dogs you’ve ever seen. They will keep our little ones from getting underfoot!”

When Jaimie, Grace and Charlene ‘heard’ Zeus and Hera talking to them they were flabbergasted!

Then, Jamie’s eyes lit up, “Whoa! Are these the same little dogs we saw up at Ibera’s!? You know, the ones Ibera gave to Blaine and Naomi’s group? Zeus’s voice sounds very familiar!”

I smiled, nodding, “Yes, they are! So you see, you have nothing to worry about. They definitely won’t get ‘under foot’! And, they’ll help keep the kids safe, too.”

Little Abby was the first of the kids to realize she could actually ‘talk’ to them. Little Hera became her new best friend. She kept reassuring Abby that nobody had forgotten about her CJ. Hera would sit and patiently let Abby tell her all about her ‘big brother’ and how much she missed him.

It also seemed like the girls were now far more interested in playing with Hera than watching the builders. The boys, Eric and Tyler, who were very interested in watching the house being built, did take breaks a bit more often to play ‘fetch’ with little Zeus. They too soon figured out Zeus could talk to them, especially when Zeus kept them from wanting to get too close to the ‘action’. And asking our builders too many questions. The guys tried to pretend they didn’t mind the questions, but, were also glad when they realized what Zeus was doing.

William Monte POV:

We just received an urgent ‘telepathic’ message from Greg. He said that it was extremely important that I and the rest of our ‘East Coast clan’ get together this Friday (tomorrow). He said that we could have the meeting up at Ibera’s so we wouldn’t have to teleport to Arizona first. Whatever it’s about must be important, because he said it would be up to us as to whether or not we ‘engaged’ with the rest of our extended family.

I’m pretty sure this has something to do with the fact that over the last few months we haven’t spent hardly any time with them. I don’t know how to tell them that we miss them just as much as they obviously missed us. The thing is, ETCETERA is right in the middle of the process of vetting me and Bruce. Our sudden disappearance would trigger untold red flags.

Major General Hendershot is getting ready to retire and I’m being groomed to take his place at that time. He will be one of the very few to be allowed to retire without any repercussions.

And I really want that spot. As soon as my vetting is complete, I’m to begin getting briefed on the most ‘Top Secret’ things having to do with the joint ‘spaceship’ building venture. Like, how and why it came about in the first place!

The good thing is, by meeting the family up at Ibera’s, we can do it immediately after work. That way, we’ll be back so quickly no one should notice we’ve even gone anywhere.

I also really need to talk with Glenn some more.

With our new ‘spaceship’ and its crew having been delayed on Perdition Island, I could really use his new talents as soon as possible. I talked to him a couple weeks ago and he was very eager to make the move. However, he was still hesitant to start until the new Hacienda was a least fully framed and under roof.

Greg assured me that would be nearly completed by tomorrow, also. The only thing Glenn wasn’t going to like would be that he would need to stay with us for at least a month, while he was being vetted.

All four of our girls are planning to assure him that between the four of them he wouldn’t have to spend any nights alone.

I managed to contact JB and Max and they assured me they should be enroute to Earth within the next week or so. I would’ve offered our help if it wasn’t for the fact that by going to Perdition Island we would be sending up the same red flag by simply disappearing for that amount of time.

Even though we would technically be going from Ibera’s, through a wormhole, the time dilation would still be nearly 1:1. Even tomorrow’s short trip to Ibera’s, we were still going to deploy our ‘we’re still at home’ diversions that Rex and Bruce rigged up for us. They put our curtains, the TV, and certain lights on timers so they would open or turn on every hour or so, giving the illusion we were still home.

Yeah, that’s how closely we are being watched. That’s why it was almost comical that we had to reassure Greg that all eight of us were more than willing to engage in some fun with the rest of the family.

We really do miss spending nights in the trailers making love with the rest of our family.

JB POV: Perdition Island Day 125

Operation: ‘Major League Switch-a-roo’ has been a rousing success so far!

For the last 1½ months of planet time our little trios have been very busy.

Lonnie and I started off with Andrew, checking out the far northern and southern areas, trying to see how things were done there. It didn’t take us long to realize the people inhabiting these areas were mostly just small clans and slavery, while present, only existed in a few of them. The fact was, none of the slaves were children. Nearly all of them were captives of another clan who had attacked them. Therefore, while Wanda, Max and Steve were gathering information on, what we termed the ‘Co-Op-2.0’, Lonnie and I decided to go with Farquhar and the accountant to see how taxes were collected.

Here’s what we discovered three weeks ago...

Most of the people residing in the first area we came across were what you might call ‘sharecroppers’ like we had back in the 19^th century right after slavery ended. The accountant had his book that listed all of the different families, by head of household. Word was sent out a day in advance for all of them to bring their taxes to the place they had always been collected.

Right off the bat, the first poor guy showed up, stated his name and the accountant told him his taxes were two Lardos (Like $250-Earth Money).

Now that may not sound like a lot, but I had a feeling that to these people it was probably 60 to 80 percent of what they made for the entire year. I decided to get into this guy’s head to see what he was thinking.

My stomach tightened when his first thought was that he was going to have to give the King another one of his children! He told us he only had about one Lardo. Before the accountant could say anything, I asked the guy, straight up, “Sir, how much do you think you made last year?”

He looked up at me, blinked a couple times then said, “I am not sure, you see, I had to buy a new horse to plow my fields and that cost me almost two Midlogs ($150). Then, with what they charge at the King’s store, and what little they give us for our crops, I was just barely able to break even after that.”

The accountant just shook his head then said, snidely, “That is not my problem. You know what you must do to make up the difference.”

“Please sir, can’t I make up the difference with perhaps a couple of my best pigs and maybe four chickens? I only have three children left and my youngest is only two and not yet able to work in the fields all day.”

When the accountant started to chuckle, I clamped my hand hard on his shoulder and said, “This year, as long as you’re being honest with us, I think we’re going to lower your taxes to two Midlogs. ($100) Will that be okay?”

The guy was wide-eyed and nodding quickly, “Yes, oh yes! Thank you for being lenient with me this year. Hopefully I’ll have the entire amount next year.”

The accountant gave me a very dirty look like I’d just been suckered into something. He scoffed, “This is not how the King does things! He is going to be most upset if you continue to let these peasants get off so lightly.”

I looked at him crossly, “Good, guess what, I’m going to recommend to the King that we start doing things a bit differently. And that starts today. That’s the reason my friend and I have come with you this year. King Flombay wishes to become more well-liked amongst his citizenry and this is how we’re going to do it.”

He blustered, “Well, what about my share of the taxes? He always gives me one out of every three new slaves he gets.”

I grinned at him, evilly, “You’re going to find, my friend, that your pay will no longer include any slaves. We’ll discuss your pay later, for now, let’s continue, shall we?”

I discovered that nearly every family gave us some version of the same story. I knew we needed to check out this ‘Kings store’, because I had a feeling that could very well be part of these people’s problem. Most of the people that we collected from were honest and offered the most they felt they could afford. There were a few, however, that had made considerably more than the rest and were indeed trying to cop an excuse as to why they couldn’t pay.

I also discovered that the other 10 places that we stopped to collect taxes their stories, too, were nearly the same. Our accountant friend was becoming more and more surly, realizing whatever deal he had going with the old King Flombay was coming to an abrupt end. By my count, he would have acquired at last 50 or more children by now.

Finally, we came to a fairly good sized town and things really became interesting.

We’d just finished setting up our little table when the first guy came strolling up, confidently. He was fairly well dressed. “Good day Mister Stackmore, how many new slaves do you have for me today?”

My accountant (Mister Stackmore?) Nervously said, “I’m afraid we don’t have any, this year, yet, Mr Smythe. It seems, my two friends here have informed me that the King will no longer be accepting slaves as payment for their taxes.”

At first, this fool, Mister Smythe, started blustering then realized just how much bigger Lonnie and I were than him. His eyes grew wide as he looked back and forth between the accountant and us. Then, he smirked and began walking away. I had to chuckle when Lonnie hollered at him, “Hey, you, Mister Smythe, just how much money did you make last year?”

He slowly turned around and said, calmly, “That sir, is none of your business. Has your accountant not told you, I don’t pay taxes! The King should pay me!”

Just as the idiot started turning back away again Lonnie hollered at him, “Hey, asshole, I didn’t say you could leave yet! My friend asked you a question, if you don’t want me to beat you to a bloody pulp, you’ll answer him!”

Just as he started to look around, I noticed 5 relatively large dudes coming this way. Unfortunately for them, the tallest one just barely stood five foot six! It only took one look at me and Lonnie for them to stop and consider what they were about to get into. Especially when they noticed Lonnie put his hand on the grip of his four foot ‘machete-sword’.

When Mister Smythe saw them stopping he shouted, “Well get over here, dammit, can you not see these two have embarrassed me?”

I chuckled then whispered to Mister Smythe, “I’m sure going to hate to see my friend here carve those guys up like a bunch of chickens if they’re foolish enough to try attacking us.”

Smythe took one look at Lonnie’s sword which was now about three inches higher in the scabbard. That’s when he noticed just how sharp it looked. He quickly croaked out, “Go back to our ranch, boys. It appears these gentlemen and I are having a slight misunderstanding about some things. We’ll talk about it when I get home.”

It was comical the way they turned tail and began walking away much faster than they had been walking toward us. One of them even wiped sweat from his brow. That’s when I grinned at Mister Smythe, “Now, back to my question, just how much money did you make this year?”

He was hesitating until he saw Lonnie draw his sword another couple inches higher its scabbard. He put his hands up, pleading, “I honestly do not know! I have never had to pay taxes before. But, I would have to guess I made somewhere around 25 Filords? ($12,500)”

I grinned at him, “I think it’s only fair that we charge you the same percentage that all the rest of the farmers and other citizens have to pay, which is around 50 percent of what they make. So, that means you would owe us about 12 and half Filords! ($6250) However, since the King is in the process of changing that percentage, this year, we’re only going to charge you six Filords plus one Lardo.” ($3125)

He started blustering, “I do not have that much money with me, I’m afraid.”

I chuckled and pointed down the street, “Well, there’s a bank, right over there. We’re going to be here a while, so go and get it to pay what you owe!”

He huffed, then turned and started heading for the bank.

I chuckled and said, loud enough for him to hear, “And don’t get lost! What Mister Stackmore didn’t tell you was that anyone who tries to get away without paying their taxes is subject to a huge penalty.”

He turned around and looked at us, with loathing in his eyes, “Just what kind of penalty might you be talking about?”

“Your tax amount times 10! If you cannot pay, immediately, we will seize all of your land, sell it to the highest bidder and give you back what’s left. So, make darn sure you don’t get lost!”

What the fool didn’t realize was I’d already summoned Annie and Max and appraised them of the situation.

They immediately teleported just overhead, invisibly, and were going to follow this asshole to see where he went and who he talked to. Thankfully, we already discussed this, which was why they were able to respond so quickly. I had a feeling this clown was one of the members of the Co-op 2.0 and I had a sneaking suspicion he was going to lead us to some of his buddies.

The next guy was the owner of the General Store. When he stepped up the accountant said, “Your taxes are two Filords, but, since my two big friends have informed me that we’re only charging half this year, that will be just one Filord.”

The shopkeeper smiled and pulled the coin out of his pocket, setting it on the table. He thanked us for our revised tax amount but then said, almost to himself, “Now I just wonder how much Smythe and his friends are going to raise my taxes to them?”

I think I startled him when I asked, “Hold on a second, just how much do you pay Smythe and how often?”

He looked at me a bit fearfully, but then said, “Two Lardos ($250) per month?”

I squinted my eyes, “Just how many of these other shop owners and businessmen are forced to pay them? And does everyone pay the same?”

I noticed my accountant furiously shaking his head, imploring him not to answer. I’d had enough of his bullshit and snatched him up by the back of his shirt, “I asked this nice gentleman a question. If he gives me an honest answer, I’m seriously considering giving him this year’s taxes back, just for telling me what I want to know!”

The shopkeeper’s eyes flew open and a grin spread across his face, “I believe every businessman or store owner pays them taxes. I think all of the amounts are slightly different, however.”

From looking into his mind, I realized he told me the truth, but left out the part about ‘it was what the Co-op felt they could afford’. Just looking up and down the street, I realized that Mister Smythe had lied his ass off about how much he’d made last year. The accountant’s book said that Smythe owned a large ranch, which would explain why he needed so many slaves.

I winked at the guy then said, as I slid his large coin back to him, “There you go, that’s what happens when people tell me the truth. It’s just that, next time, don’t leave out the part that the amount is just what the business owner can afford, okay?”

His eyes shot open and he gasped, “Oh my, I am sorry I did not say that. You must be one of the King’s Wizards!?”

I winked at him again, “Do me a favor, my friend. Keep that idea to yourself, okay? Because, with any luck, the only taxes you’ll be paying next year will be to the King, if I have any say about it!”

I swear to God, he was smiling from ear-to-ear, “Oh yes sir! I will not say a word to anyone. Not even my wife!”

We collected taxes from four more of the shopkeepers, getting much the same story and results. I didn’t want to tell them that the amount they were probably going to have to pay next year would be somewhat higher than what we charged them this year, or were going to charge. I could also tell our accountant dude was beginning to sweat bullets, and it wasn’t because it was so hot outside.

I made sure he was writing everything down so I could go over it later, in private. That’s when I noticed our Mister Smythe slowly walking back this way. I chuckled to myself when I noticed several of the storekeepers giving him dirty looks as they passed by.

Smythe tried to cut in line. I purposely pissed him off by telling him we would get to him when it was his turn. Thankfully, the three people in front of him were simply citizens who worked for the various shops. They were all very happy when they learned their tax amount had been cut in half.

Nearly every one of them also wanted me to thank the King for his benevolence.

When Smythe got up to the table, he slapped down the seven coins angrily, “There you go, you bloody thieves. You can tell the King, that this is not the end of this!”

The fool made the mistake of looking into my eyes and the bastard was planning on making all that money back by increasing his taxes to all the shopkeepers. That’s also when I learned that he had lied his ass off about knowing how much he made last year. Altogether, he was hoping I never discovered he made nearly 200 Filords! ($100,000)

I think I’ve been hanging around Maggie a bit too much because I couldn’t help but push him to state the truth in front of everyone that was here. I could tell he was fighting me when I simply asked, “So Mister Smythe, before I hit you with that outrageous penalty for lying about how much DID you make last year, would you like to tell me the truth?”

“Aaargh! Okay, alright! I didn’t tell you about the taxes I’ve been charging all the shopkeepers! Shit, why am I telling you this? AAAARGH, oh God, my head hurts. I only told you how much I thought I made from my ranch. The total amount from the taxes was... 197 Filords.”

I smirked at him, “I know that! And I’m going to give you a choice. You can give all that money back to those you collected it from, or you can give it all to me, today! And just so that you know, starting today, the ONLY one around here who is allowed to collect taxes will be the King! If I discover that you, or anyone else is charging these poor shopkeepers what really amounts to protection money, I will claim your ranch and leave you with nothing, do you hear me!?”

Now he was trembling, “Okay, all right, I’ll give it all back! And I promise not to attempt to collect anymore in the future. Would that make you happy so you’ll leave me alone?”

I grinned and patted him on the shoulder, condescendingly, “Very good Mister Smythe. Now I believe we understand each other. I hope you have a good day and just know, I’m going to check with the shop owners in about a week to make sure that you followed through with your promise!”

I had to bite back a chuckle as he was mumbling under his breath how he couldn’t believe he’d agreed to that.

Little did he know, that my two ‘family spies’ fully intended on being his shadow for the next couple weeks or so.

Since this town was a good hour’s carriage ride from the castle, we decided to call it a day and headed home. About halfway there, the accountant had stewed enough and said, threateningly, “You know that Mister Smythe has no intention of doing what you told him, don’t you? You have no idea the hornet’s nest you just kicked over. That man has five or six friends that are just as wealthy and powerful as he is. I do not want to be with you when you try to confront them the way you just did Mister Smythe. I just know that they are going to blame me for at least some of this.”

I smirked at him, “Well then, for your own safety, maybe you should tell us ALL ABOUT his ‘5 or 6 friends’! Hmmm?”

Lonnie chuffed, “Yeah, like who they are and where we might find them!?”

Stackmore’s eyes widened in terror, “If I tell you that, the King will not be the only one who will find himself dead. Smythe and his friends can put together an army of killers that even the King’s Royal guard will not be able to stop. I’m telling you, you have no idea what you’re dealing with!”

Lonnie gave me the look that suggested I may need to use my lightning bolts, once again.

I chuckled and telepathically conveyed, “A man’s gotta do, with a man’s gotta do, right?”

The look on Stackmore’s face displayed incredulousness when Lonnie broke out laughing, apparently for no reason.

“What is so funny? I am dead serious about Smythe and his friends.”

Still laughing, Lonnie said, “You have no idea what really happened to the Kings, Royal guard when they confronted my friend, JB here, up at the mine, do you?”

Stackmore was shaking his head, “No, I have no idea. All I know is General Fumbrall came back and said they had all just disappeared?”

Farquhar, who had been quiet all this time, gasped, “Oh dear! Um, Mister Stackmore, if Mister JB is who I think he is, Smythe’s men are the ones that have no idea what will happen to them! You see, I was told by the General’s support crew that in a matter of a few seconds, 60 of his best men simply disappeared into small wisps of smoke! I have noticed our two, big friends have become increasingly angry with you! So, if you would like my suggestion, perhaps you need to think about who your friends really are? Mister Lonnie, Mister JB, I hereby pledge my loyalty to you, just as I have to that of the King.”

Lonnie patted Farquhar on his shoulder, “Thank you. What you do not know is that Mister JB was hoping to never have to do anything like that again. However, you are correct in assuming, that it if Smythe and his friends send their men anywhere near the castle, JB will not hesitate to do it again, to protect all of his friends!”

For the first time all day Farquhar actually cracked a smile.

Then he chuckled, “You’re quite welcome, Mister Lonnie. Unlike Mister Stackmore, I do know which side my bread is buttered on, if you know what I mean?”

Now both Lonnie and I were laughing and patting him on the back.

Stackmore was now looking at all three of us when it’s like some light went on in his head. He stammered for a second, “OH NO, so the two of you really are those powerful Wizards that Wizard Wanda told me about?”

Farquhar was comical the way he was grinning, nodding and pointing at us.

Our stunned accountant continued, “Well then, first, let me apologize for the incredible pain in the ass I have been to you all day. Because I have always found Lieutenant Farquhar to be truthful I would be a fool to doubt him now. As you may have guessed, I indeed know nearly everything of Smythe and his cronies. And, and, will you really protect me if I tell you everything?”