This is the second chapter, chronologically in the life of Ericka McKann. The events here take place shortly after those in "New Year's Day Party". This touches on a number of themes, as the primary interaction is between an 18 year old white female and an older black male who is like family so mature, interracial or even incest/taboo themes are also present. There is a really long lead time.
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Patrick McKann Sr. officially started his new job, Assistant Police Chief in a small town near Cleveland on Monday after New Year's. And while his title was "Assistant" in truth he was the top cop. His boss, the Chief, was an appointed politician and he knew it. The Chief's job was to make the mayor, and the department, look good. Patrick's job was to head the police force and enable them to serve and protect the citizens. Erica was going to stay in Boston to finish out the school year before and join her father in Ohio in the summer. By then he needed to actually find a place she could call home.
For Ericka to finish the school year with her classmates she needed to find a place to stay in the district, they considered a number of possibilities, including her living on her own or with a stranger for a roommate but in the end they were really only two choices. One was that she could either live with an older cousin who was attending medical school. He already had two roommates in a 3 bedroom apartment. The other option was to let her stay with her "Uncle Steve" and "Aunt Sofia." In the end the idea that she would have her own room with them and not be sleeping on a living room couch sealed the deal. They moved into a 2 bedroom hoping to be able to fill the second room with a child of their own a couple of years ago but so far there was no luck.
Uncle Steve was actually 31 year old police sergeant Estivan Galvez. He and Patrick Sr had careers that kept intersecting. They were partners in a squad car for a couple of years and most recently Estivan was the swing shift duty sergeant in the precinct where Patrick was the lieutenant. There was a great deal of trust and respect between the men. Even so, Patrick was convinced that he married up with his wife Sofia. The child of a diplomat, Sophia served as an army officer. She spent most of her time in Natick where she and her staff were responsible for making sure soldiers overseas were getting the supplies they needed for back at base. Balancing budgets to make sure there were linens for the beds and cue sticks for the pool tables. She took her job seriously believing that a soldier who wasn't complaining about their bunk was more likely to be alert on the mission and more likely to get back to base and back home. Occasionally she would have to travel to a location to oversee a project, but mostly she commuted to a desk job like so many others, she just went to work in a uniform.
Since Estivan was working, it was Sophia who picked up Ericka at the airport. She had seen the girl grow up from when she was in braces and still saw that young girl before her, just taller. Sophia couldn't deny that Ericka was now a couple of inches taller than her, she wasn't that tall at the Fourth of July picnic. The two women spoke about the holidays and Ericka's classes and schedules. Sophia made some hot chocolate and they watched SportsCenter and waited up for Estivan to come home. At 11 Sophia had Ericka dress for bed while she prepared a light meal for Estivan. They watched the late news together as they waited for him. Once he arrived, Ericka gave him a gentle hug and went to bed. Sophia and Estivan talked while he ate. Ericka couldn't really hear what they were saying, but fell asleep to their voices.
In the morning Sophia was leaving for work just as Ericka was waking up. Uncle Steve was still asleep when she left for school and he left for work before she got home. After basketball practice, Ericka got home, ate a dinner Sophia made and then did her homework. By Wednesday it was almost routine, so she was surprised when Uncle Steve was there when she got home on Thursday and Sophia wasn't, but even cops get days off and Thursday-Friday was his weekend. Ericka sat at the kitchen table and started on her homework while Estivan was watching one of last week's Celtic's games that he recorded on the VCR. Sophia was kept late at the office. Uncle Steve ordered a pizza delivery for dinner. Sophia arrived home around 8pm, and heated up two of the 3 pizza slices left for her before she announced that she had orders. She was being considered for a promotion to major and needed to show ability with larger projects. She was heading to Augsburg, Germany for 12 of the next 13 weeks. She would be given 1 week leave to travel home. She needed to report 9pm a week from Saturday.
Orders being orders there was no fight about it - just a conversation to fully understand the impacts to their lives. Estivan asked Sophia to try to be home for Valentines Day. He didn't tell her that he got a very difficult dinner reservation for them back in October. She thought that would be difficult since that was early in the deployment. The next day they included Ericka in the conversation. She didn't want to move again to stay with her cousin and offered to be a help to Uncle Steve with cleaning, laundry and chores and it was agreed.
About two weeks after Sophia left Ericka spoke to her coach and teammates about quitting the team. She loved them all but it was just too much. The coach decided that instead she could be put on the injured list with fatigue. If things changed, she could come back to the team and after two weeks of solid practices she could even return to the game roster.
About a week after Patrick left Estivan saw that Erika was having no fun. On the morning of February 14th, she seemed particularly depressed and after a few questions he realized that she was upset because she was lonely and it was especially hard on the holiday since she didn't have a valentine. After she left for school he decided that he would surprise her by being her Valentine. He took the day off work and immediately set out trying to make the day a good one for her. He headed to the mall to find a card and a gift. He found a cute little card with puppies and a heart of chocolate pieces. He was about to walk out of the mall when he noticed a sign in the window of a lingerie shop, "Let our models show you what she'll look like." Checking his watch he saw that he still had a few hours before Erika got home from school he decided that it he'd like to see what some of these models looked like in sexy lingerie. He stepped into the store and asked for some help. "Who are you shopping for?" he was asked. He described Ericka as tall, fair skinned with long red hair, even longer legs and small boobs. A tall Asian girl picked up a long red wig and said that she would be happy to help. He sat in a lounge chair and watch as she put on one outfit after another increasing in their sexiness. It wasn't long before he lost track of time and was simply watching the beautiful woman in front of him dress herself for his enjoyment. After a while another woman came buy and asked if he liked what he was looking at, and he did. It was a read lace and chiffon baby doll with matching red panties that were simply two triangles of cloth that tied together on each hip with a ribbon. Almost before he realized it he pulled out his credit card and was walking out the store with the box all gift wrapped. He still had his dinner reservations. When Erika got home from school he met her at the door wearing a shirt and tie. He gave her the gifts he had bought and told her to put a dress and some makeup on because he was going to take her out for Valentine's Day.
Erika peeked into the box and saw the lingerie. It was the sexiest thing that she had ever seen and it made her feel so grown up that a real man would give her such a gift. At school that day the girls were talking about their boyfriends and what they were going to do for them on this special day. Erika listened as they one upped each other but hadn't really thought about since she didn't think that she was going to be spending this day with anyone. Erika got dressed quickly. She looked in her closet and she didn't have many dresses to choose from. The two dresses she had from last summer would be out of place in February and she didn't want to wear the red dress from New Year's day again so she chose a black dress she had from 2 years ago. At the time it was knee length and with the jacket over the spaghetti straps it was properly modest for the cop's funeral she was attending. Two years later she had grown several inches so the skirt was mid-thigh and the jacket wouldn't fit over her shoulders, but even so with pantyhose it was her best choice. She applied some make-up, added a pearl necklace Sophia said she could borrow and picked up a clutch before she was ready to go.
