Stormwatch - Dirty Pool

© 2024 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

This story was crafted for the 2024 April Fools contest. It is a standalone story and leans on no other stories for its content, although for followers' enjoyment it will mention other characters. For those interested in the Stormwatch timeline, this story occurs fifteen months after

StormWatch - A Party of Four

and shortly after

StormWatch - The Love Boat

.

StormWatch - Dirty Pool

The Alberta Clipper sets sail for Buffalo

Beautiful Veronica Gravely was having lunch in the lunchroom of the Andalon Network Services building. She had just returned from a quick visit out west to spend time with friends they met on a cruise in January. Veronica was a stunningly beautiful woman with thick, flowing dark blond hair, which was sporting a new reddish tint. Slim, yet curvy, with large breasts. She was a former beauty pageant winner, and she looked the part. She had that classic beauty, a young Elizabeth Taylor beauty about her. A beauty that often stopped the thought processes in men, especially the thought processes in business adversaries, which she and her boss Anthony Freidman took advantage of with skill and ease.

Veronica was sitting alone, staring at an open tablet, seeing the words on the screen but not paying attention to them. She was the picture of loneliness as she slowly munched the salad her 24 year old stepmother packed for her. How many men in the lunchroom sneaking desirous glances at her would be shocked to find that if they sat down and talked with her, they would find that she was just one of the gang? She was raised by a single dad on a diet of softball in the street, football on the front lawn, and frisbee in the park. Despite her heart stopping beauty, Veronica was camping, fishing, cold beer, and listening to the Buffalo Bills on the radio while you raked the leaves. She truly was one of the guys if you gave her the chance.

"So, how was Minnesota?" asked Terri McCarthy as she sat down next to Veronica and nearly frightened her to death. Terri was a cute, bubbly computer technician with short black hair and "mousy" facial features. She worked for Veronica's husband Josh, building and deploying servers on the company network. When hearing that friends that they made on a cruise were pregnant, Veronica and Josh flew out to visit them in Minnesota. Veronica was back to work and Terri was back to her adoration of Veronica.

"It was cold," said Veronica, who was still trying to get over Terri's sudden appearance.

"I heard that about Minnesota. It's near Saskatchewan, right?" She picked a mushroom out of Veronica's salad and popped it into her mouth.

"No, it's near Ontario, and you should know that, you're Canadian," said Veronica as she longingly looked at the bag of chips that Terri opened. Salt and vinegar. They would go so good with a ham sub from Sorrentino's, thought Veronica.

"Can't be," said Terri as she took another slice of raw mushroom from Veronica's salad and left a salt and vinegar chip in front of Veronica as payment. "Minnesota is like a thousand miles away."

"That's right," said Veronica as she ate the chip and wished she had a Genesee Cream Ale to wash the chip and several of its buddies down. "Ontario goes all the way out to Manitoba."

"Whoa," said Terri, her eyes wide in shock at the size of her home province. Like many of her generation, Terri's command of geography was left up to Google Maps.

Just then, the owner and CEO of Andalon sat down at the table with Terri and Veronica. Anthony Friedman was a 'hands on' kind of manager. He let his supervisors supervise, but he was always in the know, especially when it came to the hardware of his company. He put a hand on Terri's shoulder and said, "How's that blade server for Winston Financial coming?"

"It's all configured. It's on the test stand now getting the Virtual Machines loaded up."

"There ya go. I knew you could do it." Smiling at Veronica, he asked, "How was Minnesota?"

"It was a blast, sir. Our friends Lanh and Kim-ly are so excited about their babies, and their older sister Tam pretends to be upset but she's hoping for a girl. All three sisters are pregnant at once. Wow." Veronica shook her head and smiled. "I'm really hoping we can get together with them for another cruise with Paul and Andi. We really hit it off." Paul and Andi were neighbors who owned a yacht, and they recently had a wonderful cruise on the neighbor's yacht and made some incredible friends.

"What is Mister Gravely doing?" asked Anthony. Josh had remained behind in Minnesota for a few extra days when Veronica returned to work.

"He's helping our friend Don rebuild the motor on an antique John Deere tractor," said Veronica as she packed up her lunch bag.

"Sometimes a battered veteran needs to spend time with his brothers," said Ant and Anthony was known to his friends.

Both Don Campbell and Josh Gravely were seriously wounded veterans, and they bonded the moment they met on the cruise months ago. When Andi, Paul, Josh, and Veronica went to visit Don and his wife Lanh on their dairy farm, Don mentioned he was rebuilding a 1940 John Deere model A tractor and Josh jumped in to help and after that Veronica didn't see her husband except when he and Don took meal breaks from their labor of love. Now Veronica knows what to get Josh for his birthday.

"They really do," said Veronica. "He and Josh were talking about a family campout this summer."

"I'm happy to hear that," said Anthony. Ant and Josh had become good friends since Ant hired him, and Anthony was worried about Josh's emotional wellbeing occasionally. As he stood to leave, Ant said, "Mrs. Gravely, our one o'clock is now our one forty-five. Any problems with that?"

Veronica opened the leather cover of her tablet and glanced at their schedule. "For once, this works out better than originally scheduled." Veronica was Anthony's executive assistant, and she had as much say in the company as any of the vice presidents.

"See you then, oh, and Terri, do you think you can pull StormWatch this weekend?"

Stormwatch was a pain in the ass, but it was paid overtime even for salary workers. A manager in the hardware department would stay overnight during bad weather and monitor the 'server farm' and keep the emergency exits clear. If there was any problem with frozen pipes, blocked exits, hung servers, power outages, or anything that would affect their customers' experience, the person with the bright orange StormWatch access badge did everything they could do to get it fixed.

"Stormwatch?" asked Terri. "Isn't that for managers?"

Ant stroked his chin. "Let's talk about that in my office." Looking even more terrified than she did earlier when she thought Yi was an HR Headhunter, she followed Anthony into his office.

As the door closed behind Terri, Veronica got up and dashed to the open office area where over a dozen programmers worked. "Mateo, come on. You're needed."

Without questioning the beautiful company officer, Mateo Buran logged off his workstation and followed Veronica. When Mrs. Gravely talks, you listen. She led Mateo to the main entrance waiting area where several comfortable chairs and couches were arranged outside of "Officer Row." Five offices were set up in a row. The CEO, Veronica's office, then the Vice Presidents of Sales, VP of Accounting, and VP of Legal. "Stand right here and wait," said Veronica, then she and Yi backed away and stood off to the side. A couple of minutes later, Anthony's door opened and put an end to Mateo's confusion.

Terri backed out of the office saying, "Yes sir, I will sir, and thank you sir!" Then she turned and saw her boyfriend standing there waiting for her and she squealed at the top of her lungs and flew into his arms. "Ijustgotapromotion!" she cried "I'mJosh'sassistant inchargeofserverdeployemnt!" The words came too fast for human comprehension.

"Slow down!" laughed Mateo. Mateo was a laid-back young man. He was practically the opposite of Terri. Where she was bubbly and easily excitable, Mateo was calm and deliberate in everything he did. While Terri loved the pressure and hard work of deploying a new server or bringing a customer online for the first time, Mateo loved nothing better than line after line of properly formatted computer code.

"I got a promotion!" gushed Terri. "I'm the assistant manager of server development and deployment."

"Congratulations!" he said, and he picked her up and spun around with her.

"I have Stormwatch this weekend. We're supposed to have an Alberta Clipper," she said with a frown.

"Alberta is on the other side of the continent," said Mateo.

"It is? I thought it was near Montana. Anyhow, an Alberta Clipper is what they call it when the jet stream dips down and kicks your ass, eh?" said Terri, a true ditz.

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Veronica had a busy day. It was a lot of work getting back up to speed after nearly a week off. Normally when she takes time off, she keeps updated with the company business, but spending a week on a dairy farm and hanging out in their friends' Pho restaurant was just so nice and peaceful, she didn't want to get back involved with the pressure of Andalon until she had to. She ended up paying for that relaxation with a gigantic stack of work that was waiting for her. She received several text messages from Josh throughout the day, letting her know the progress on the tractor motor.

That evening she got home to her dad, Mike, his twenty-four-year-old nurse/lover/wife Audrey and their son, Mike Jr., and reacquainted herself with her normal life, but without Josh. Four month old Mike Jr. was happy to see his big sister, and they ended up falling asleep together on the couch and had to be awakened for dinner. "You didn't have to make dinner for me," said Veronica as Audrey gently roused her.

"I didn't. Your dad wanted to make you dinner. He says he misses cooking for you."

"That's so sweet. I missed you guys."

"You were only gone a week," said her dad as Audrey took the sleeping baby and they sat down to dinner. "It's not like you were swept off to Oz or something."

"It's just so different from what I do, it kind of is like Oz." then she thought about the property that she and her husband owns, a cabin in the woods far from the maddening city. "But it was also very familiar."

The next couple of days at work she was slammed, rarely getting home before 7 or 8 PM. Audrey would have dinner made for her, but she insisted that Audrey and Mike eat at a respectable hour and not wait for her.

"Josh will be home tomorrow. I'm going to pick him up at the airport after work," said Veronica. "We will probably have dinner in town."

"We'll be gone by the time you get home," said Mike as he cradled Little Mike. "Your Aunts Darla and Lana want to see their newest nephew."

"Your sisters finally got over the shock of having a sister-in-law a third of their age?" asked Veronica.

"I guess so," said Audrey. "But I'm still worried." The young mother looked anxious.

"Don't worry," said Veronica. "Life happens. Nothing is perfect. If Darla gets snotty, ask her when her parents' wedding was."

"When?" gushed Audrey.

"About two months after she was born," said Mike as he patted the hand of his young wife. "We are

not

the black sheep of the family."

"You guys fit right in. How long are you staying down there? The weather is supposed to turn crappy on Friday."

"Till Monday or Tuesday," said Mike.

Erie, Pennsylvania, was only about an hour and a half away, but Veronica worried about her dad. He's had a rough life and she and Josh wanted to make his remaining years memorable. (Which Audrey was doing nicely) It's not a hard winter drive, but she said, "if you need any help at all, I want you to call me." Veronica noticed they weren't taking her seriously. "I'm sincere! I don't want to see my kid brother freeze to death."

Veronica's relationship with her dad Mike, his wife Audrey, and their baby, Little Mike, was interesting. Her Dad, Mike, was a retired welder, and his wife, Veronica's mother, left him when Veronica was young, and cleaned out their bank accounts. The only thing that she left behind for Mike was a mortgage on an ancient house and two young girls to raise, Veronica and her older sister Magda. When Mike retired, he lost the house and moved into a nursing home, but Veronica's mom took every dime from his pension fund and the nursing home kicked him out. He was left disabled and homeless. Veronica's fiancé, Josh, immediately insisted on taking Mike into their home and caring for him.

The moment he said that, Veronica knew deep in her heart that she had chosen the right man.

Not long after that, a VP of Sales and Marketing, Brandon Mitchell and his wife Emily, tried to use Veronica in their very kinky lifestyle like they did to their daughter Audrey. They were trying to manipulate Andalon's IPO so the Mafia would take ownership of Andalon and, in return the Mitchell's gambling debts would disappear. But Veronica was on to them. She asked the VP and his wife to talk, and they met at a hotel where Brandon and Emily tried to use Veronica as a sex slave. However, Veronica had the room bugged and cops were waiting in the attached rooms and the Mitchells were arrested. Brandon had a lot of information on the Mafia that the feds wanted, so they spilled their guts and went into witness protection with their daughter Audrey.

Before all this, Audrey was like Veronica's kid sister: she was constantly at the Andalon office. She was her father's gofer, but she spent most of her time following Veronica around and running errands for her. She and Veronica became very close friends and when Veronica found that Audrey's parents were using her for a sex toy, Veronica was devastated. After Audrey 'escaped' from witness protection, she returned to college and continued her nursing classes, and did amazingly well. Veronica and Josh hired her to care for Mike, and the two fell in love. Audrey became Mike's lover, and before Little Mike was born, she became his wife. "This doesn't bother you?" Veronica recently asked Josh.

He just grinned at her and said, "What, that my retired father-in-law married his twenty-four-year-old nurse and now I'm changing my brother-in-law's diaper? Girl, I'm from South Georgia, of course it's unusual. I'm used to the bride being a close relative."

"Oh, stop!" she said as she slugged Josh. But his taking it in stride with gentle humor did more to ease her nerves than anything else.

She took Little Mike from Audrey's arms and cuddled her little brother. Josh was in Minnesota milking cows and rebuilding a two-cylinder John Deere engine and Veronica never felt so alone in her life.

"We'll be fine, and you'll have the entire house to yourself," said Big Mike.

"You guys need to go as soon as possible," said Veronica. "I don't want you guys on the road when this weather front hits."

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Josh Gravely alighted from United Airlines flight 617 in a surprisingly good mood. The flight actually landed in Buffalo early, and during the flight Josh didn't jump out of the emergency exit at thirty thousand feet. That's always the sign of a good flight.

The first thing he did when he got off the plane was take out his cell phone and make a quick call. "How did it go Ephraim?" came the female voice in his ear buds.

"It went great! Minneapolis to Chicago was a pain, but I didn't get really involved in the puzzle first. But Chicago to Buffalo was awesome. I was so deep into the puzzle that I didn't notice the flight at all."

"That's great," said Dr. Helen Lennox. "All we have to do is get that mind of yours focused on something other than flying."

"Aww, y'all jes try'n to learn this good ol' boy to talk 'American good." Josh had added his deep baritone southern drawl. Josh Gravely was tall and good looking, his dark brown hair was still cropped military style and his beard was trimmed close. He glanced through his book of New York Times crossword puzzles one last time, then stuffed it in his backpack. "Thank you for your encouragement, doc. I'm guessing I'll be making that flight again in December."

"Just because you're not flying, don't give up on your crossword puzzles. They're great mind exercises," said Helen, Josh's psychologist. "But this isn't a cure. This is just a trick to keep your mind busy. Your subconscious can catch on at any moment." Josh has had an issue with flying ever since he had, as he puts it, an AC-130 shot out from under him. He lost a good friend and almost died as he rescued another friend, then was seriously wounded in a very rough landing. After that incident Josh became afraid to fly. He would get drunk before his flight, but as his fear and psychosis worsened, the alcohol made it worse. Eventually he was convinced to speak to Dr. Lennox, and she was able to help him deal with his terror. This was the first solo flight he's taken since he was still in the Air Force and was shipped home from his assignment in Korea.

"Thank you again, doc. You saved an entire planeload of people from my usual theatrics." He pocketed his phone and, dragging his carry-on, he hurried to the main terminal. He stepped outside and waited for Veronica, who was just now pulling into the airport. Soon Josh's "Almost Olive Drab" Jeep Gladiator pickup truck stopped, and he threw his bags in the back of the truck. There at the cab, an exhausted-looking Veronica awaited him. "Oh, my poor baby," crooned Josh as he took her in his arms. They kissed passionately and held each other close. It was the longest separation of their relationship, and it was painful for both of them.

They kissed among the swirling snow in the freezing temperatures. "God, I missed you Nica," said Josh between kisses.

"I'm so happy you're home, Effi," purred Veronica. Their pet names, Nica and Effi, were pet names that their grandmothers used for them, and it was the subject of the first conversation they ever had. These love names bound them together and just hearing Josh call her Nica rekindled her already blazing love for him. Josh led Veronica to the passenger side of the truck and held the cab door open for her.

"Hungry?" he asked.

"Famished," said Veronica. She was so busy with work that she missed breakfast and lunch.

"I know a place not far that I've been dying to try," said Josh and he put the Jeep pickup in gear, and they were off. They drove north on Cayuga road through some of the oldest houses in the town of Amherst, New York. "So did Anthony accept my proposal to promote Terri?" asked Josh.

"He promoted her on Tuesday. As I was talking with Terri, he called her into his office and told her. She's pulling Stormwatch this weekend."

"Do you think she'll convince Mateo to stop in on Saturday?" chuckled Josh. Terri was like a daughter to him, and it was fun to watch her grow into her job and mature as an engineer. They turned onto Main Street in Williamsville and, just a couple of blocks away, they stopped at the oldest building in the village, the Eagle House.