Author's note.
Nearly at 60 chapters, and still I haven't reached the culmination of this part of the story. Now I've discovered Caleb's two, nay, three new siblings, you may wonder if I ever will. I have to say, I'm wondering the same thing.
I guess we'll find out together.
My thanks as always to my amazing editor Dr Mark, and to my discord Overlord TheSwiss, and to all of you for sticking with it for so long.
Caleb 59 - Family
The next week started pretty much as every week so far had done. I decided to go out for a run and noticed that Tom Prichard's light was on in his house.
I'd never noticed if there was a Mrs. Pritchard and wondered about that. Did he live alone or was there a long-suffering wife hiding inside being constantly 'controlled' by her controlling husband? Had I made her life even more unbearable by eliminating his control of the neighborhood? I did think about trying to find out but then decided that if there was, it was none of my concern. Unless she specifically came to me for help, and I had no reason to think that she even existed let alone would do so, then I'd leave well enough alone.
I covered about ten miles that morning and arrived back at the house feeling energized and ready to face the week.
I was in the kitchen making breakfast when Marcia arrived.
"I see that your asshole neighbor is getting a security system installed," she said. I raised an eyebrow then went to the front door to see for myself.
As Marcia had said there was a van from a security company parked on his drive, and they appeared to be installing cameras on the front of his house. It was a strange configuration though as there was one covering his front door, one covering the driveway and his car, and then a third being fitted. I had a sneaky suspicion what this camera was going to be tasked to do, especially since it seemed to be a different type of camera to the other ones. The third camera had a longer lens.
Marcia told me that the bathroom fittings, showers, and toilets were due to be delivered that morning. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to stay at home in order to help her bring all the stuff inside, get it unboxed, and ready for fitting.
Melanie also was going to be around to help, so when the stuff arrived it took us little time to get it all inside and unboxed, with all the packaging being loaded onto Marcia's van for disposal. By the time we had everything unboxed and ready to go, it was coming up lunchtime.
We spent the next couple of hours researching how we could get Melanie her GED. Apparently it wasn't too difficult. She could sign up online, even take the four exams online as long as she had a decent computer, a quiet space, and good internet connection. We decided to go buy her a good laptop for her to work on and also for when she was ready to do any further study - if that's what she wanted to do. If everything went smoothly, we might even get her enrolled into PSU before this semester was over. I had no qualms with her catching up on the work, I would be more than happy to get her all caught up on her first semester even if she was unable to do it herself.
In the end, I'd decided not to take her amulet off on the previous Sunday, deciding to wait just one more week, although I'd not told Melanie just yet. Her body was pretty much back to what it should have been due to a combination of a good diet, some exercise, and some assistance from my Healing. She was looking good.
We found a very decent laptop that she liked, and we took it home and got her set up in the living room. She started to work through the GED registration, filled out all the required details, and got set up for taking the exams. By the time she was through with that, the girls had arrived home and I was getting ready to go for my flying lesson.
I arrived at the airport about a quarter of five.
Arnie was just coming out of the office as I walked up.
"Dad's running a few minutes late," he said. "He asked if you wanted to prep the plane with me, assuming you don't mind having a kid instructor?"
I grinned at him. "As long as I don't have to change your diaper mid-way through, I think I can handle it."
"No promises," he said. "Let's go and do the external checks."
He stood by and watched as I completed the external checks of the aircraft, running through the checklist with me. Once again, I added in the extra checks that Gerry had always considered worth doing, even though they were not on the checklist.
Just as I was finishing up his father appeared. He looked flustered.
"Sorry," he said. "Meeting went on longer than I thought it would. Are we all prepped and ready to go?"
"All external checks are complete," I said. "And I didn't have to change his diaper even once."
Danny looked at me, eyebrow raised, but didn't respond. Arnie just grinned.
I climbed into the cockpit and waited for Danny to take his seat, then we began the internal pre-flight. We, or rather I, flew around the area doing various required maneuvers for two and a half hours. Danny and I made small talk between steep turns and stalls.
When I got home, I'd had an email. Or rather, several emails.
Hi Caleb,
I was wondering, or rather Connie was wondering, if, when I get my amulet removed, you could be there?
The FBI lady said it would be Okay, or if you didn't mind, we could even do it at your place. You did invite us over after all?
Let me know.
E
Almost immediately after, there was a mail from Maggie.
Hi Caleb.
I've been contacted by both of John's other children. Ephraim wants to have you there when his amulet is removed, and I think that's a great idea. Also, Sarah wanted more information about you. Since you'd said that you wanted to get to know her, I did have a conversation with her. I think they are planning to come see you this weekend.