Caleb 76 - Beth
There were two weeks to the end of the term. Then we had a week's vacation before the next, and then after the Christmas break, my final, semester would began. Amanda, Mary, and my dates were a little less rigid since we were in our final year, but Ness, Melanie, and Sarah's dates were fixed. They were all in their first year of study.
The plan was for us to go up to the Ranch, although Sarah was going to her parents. They'd kind of guilted her into it and, although she wanted to see them, she didn't want to be apart from us, or more to the point be apart from Arnie for that long. Arnie had told her that he wouldn't be able to get the time off, to go on whatever trip her parents had planned, nor could he really afford it since he'd spent pretty much all of his savings on the engagement ring.
It had been decided, also, that Sarah and Arnie would go and meet Sarah's parents at the weekend. We'd offered to go with them for moral support, but Sarah and Arnie had talked it over and decided it might be better for them to go alone. I agreed, but let Sarah know that we'd be available if they changed their mind.
"How about," said Mary, "we go see Nana Babi. We've not seen her for some time."
"Great idea," said Louise. "She was asking about you guys the last time Josh and I went up there."
And so, it was decided. On Saturday, Sarah and Arnie would head up to see her parents, and we would go and visit with Nana Babi. Still, we had a week to get through before then, and I was just starting mine.
I got to the range in plenty of time to meet with my first client, the head chef from Coquine. He sat entranced as I worked on extracting all of his knowledge. He'd worked in a number of very famous kitchens, including Le Gavroche in London under Michelle Roux Jr. I determined to take as much from this man as I could possibly get.
My second client was a truck driver who used the range when he was in town. He wanted to lose weight. Driving long distances in a truck meant long hours simply sitting still and most trucks these days being very physically easy to drive. Also, the options in truck stops and diners sometimes made making healthy choices difficult.
I took the opportunity to learn how to drive a semi from him. It was far more difficult than most drivers made it look but I was confident that, with a little practice, I would be able to drive one should the need arise.
After lunch I headed to the old house to check on progress. The site was locked up and nothing was happening there. I presumed it would take a little while for Aaron to get things moving, although every delay was an annoyance. I should have gotten him to move faster, under the assumption that I could get the permits quicker, but that would have made things even more suspicious.
I drove back to the house and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on some schoolwork, for the want of something to do.
I was heading out to the flying school just as the rest of the household was coming home.
Reversing my truck out of the garage, I noted a car parked down the block. There were two men sitting in it. One in the front and one in the back. I wondered what they were up to. Gently I extended my awareness over them, only to be surprised. I couldn't sense the man in the back, only his driver who had no idea why he was currently sitting in a car with his boss watching a house. He didn't even know which house he was watching.
Something was definitely suspicious with these two, and I decided to circle around the block so I could take a more detailed look at them. As I turned the corner I got caught up in a small snarl of traffic, students all returning home at the same time, and by the time I'd circled the block the car was gone.
I called Dianna.
"Hey Caleb," she said, answering her phone.
I told her about the car, and the people in it.
"You couldn't sense one of the occupants?" she said.
"No," I said. "It was like he wasn't there."
"I've seen that once, maybe twice, before," she said. "Some people are simply born without the part of the brain that is sensitive to powers. Others become immune following some kind of head trauma. It's not common, but not unheard of."
"That aside," I said, "I'm not happy having someone watching our house,"
"Are you sure they were watching you?" she said.
"Not completely," I said. "But who else? We just got burned out, and the only other people on the street are students and a young family."
"Did you get a license plate?" she asked.
I replayed the memory in my head and told her the plate number. I described the people in the car to the best of my ability, but I hadn't really got a good look at them. They'd taken pains to be looking in the opposite direction when I got close enough to see them.
"I'll run the plate," she said, "and get back to you."
"Thanks," I said. "I've no desire to spend another two months in a hotel."
I was almost late for my flying lesson, having taken the detour and getting stuck in more traffic. Danny was at the school for a change, which surprised me.
"Am I flying patterns again?" I asked. He nodded.
"Is something the matter?" I asked him. He didn't seem his normal cheery self.
He sighed.
"Things are moving a bit quicker with Arnie and Sarah than I thought," he said. "That's why Arnie's not here. We kind of got into it."
"Got into it?" I asked.
"He's going to meet Sarah's parents this weekend," he said. "He asked me to cover his lessons Saturday."
"I knew that was a possibility," I said. "What's the problem?"
"I..." he began. Then he looked at me, looking a little lost. I pressed gently with my Empathy, prompting him to want to speak.
"He's all I have," he said finally. "All I have left of her."
"Her?"
"Beth. Arnie's mother," he replied.
I sat down on the chair opposite him, waiting.
"Arnie was very young when Beth died," he said. "It was so stupid. She had an earache. A damned earache, but we were starting a new business, and we were so busy. I was flying every hour and she was managing the office and looking after Arnie. When I wasn't teaching, I was flying charter for a friend of mine. She just kept popping painkillers and working through. Then one day, I came home and found her laying on the kitchen floor, unconscious. Arnie was asleep in bed.
"When we got to the hospital, they told me the news. She had a brain tumour. An acoustic neuroma. If we'd have gone to the doctors when the earache started, she'd probably have survived. But because we'd left it and left it, fluid had built up on her brain. Even then she might have survived, had I found her earlier but I'd been on a long flight, and she'd been on the floor some time. She'd been sick and some of that had gone into her lungs.
"They put her on a life support machine but, with the pressure in her head and the fact that her brain had been starved for oxygen for so long, she never woke up.
"After that it was just Arnie and me. For years I built the school, and he helped. He'd empty the trash, clean the office, file papers, and make appointments. It was hard at first but we built the school up together. It's as much his business as mine. I've been dreading him going off to commercial flight school because I knew I'd be on my own again. I thought I had more time.
"And then he met Sarah," he said. "Don't get me wrong, I like Sarah, she'd a lovely girl, and she seems to have her head screwed on too, but he's all wrapped up in her. She's his first real girlfriend and, all of a sudden, he's engaged. Next, he'll be wanting to move out and I'll have lost him completely."
