Mom didn't come home for nearly two weeks. Meanwhile Grandpa, who handled all the email, called me into his office alone.
"Am I in trouble?"
"Lee," he said, "You know you are not supposed to give anyone our email addresses, or our phone number, or where we live without permission, don't you?"
"Yes."
"And you've never done that?"
"No."
"Are you sure that's what you want to say?"
"I haven't done any of those things."
He shook his head. "Then why do I have email for you?"
"I dunno," I'm sure I replied. "Who sent it?"
"Somebody who calls himself 'Big Al.' Do you have a friend who calls himself that? Do you know anyone at all who calls himself that?"
I shook my head. "What did he say? Something bad?"
Grandpa swiveled around and brought up the message on his screen, and let me read it, or try to read it. I didn't understand a lot of it. In fact, I probably wouldn't understand it today. Big Al's technospeak is hard even for other geeks to decipher sometimes. But I'm getting ahead of the story again; I didn't know who 'Big Al' was, yet.
However, I was able to get something out of it, once I got past the bits where Big Al explained how she got the files she sent me and what she did to them. There were pictures, and even a little video.
Grandpa muttered, "You've never told me about anyone called 'Liliput' or 'Screaming Mimi' or 'Hairy Neri'--"
"Neri? That's Nereid." I figured that one out because it was the title of a picture with just her in it.
"Oh? Who is she?" my grandfather asked.
"She came with my stepmom and her sisters when they visited. They can't speak very good English, so she came along to help."
"This one?" He pointed.
"Yes."
"She's about your age, isn't she . . . does she belong to your stepmother or her sisters?"
"No," I said. "Her mother is Michiru."
Grandpa's mouth fell open, because there was Nereid in another picture with her mother. I really didn't know Michiru was so famous then, but Grandpa sure did. Soon he had a lot more questions for me.
My Mom didn’t come back until just before I saw the family court judge. Grandpa said he had found a good lawyer before the hearing, but the lady who was working for my father didn’t take very long to swat down everything Grandpa’s lawyer said. Soon there was a lot of whispering, to Mom and Grandma (Grandpa wasn’t there) and to the judge, and then I went into the judge’s office alone. He asked me if I wanted to stay with my Dad or my Mom. I said I’d like to stay with both of them.
“That’s not possible,” the judge said. “Your father and mother aren’t going to live together any more.”
“I know that,” I told him. “I mean, I’d like to stay with Dad for awhile. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”
“Oh. Well, let’s start out with this weekend.
Mom wasn’t too happy about that, when she found out.
I went back to Grandma and Grandpa’s after that, which was only a couple of days. My Mom stayed over. The next day, I guess when she was calmed down enough, she talked to me about Dad and his new wife. She didn’t know much about her. She asked me “Is she younger?” I said I didn’t know how old she was, although Nereid said she was much older than she looked. She asked me who Nereid was. I was surprised she didn’t know from Grandpa, but I told her she was the daughter of one of Besu’s friends. My Mom asked me, “How did this Besu meet your father?” I told him she had met him playing pool, and I told how Besu had giggled and blushed when she said that and wouldn’t say any more. Maybe that was a mistake. Then my mother asked the big one: “Do you like her?” I said she was all right or something like that, but she knew from the way I’d been talking about her and her sisters that I liked her a lot. What kid of eight (almost nine) wouldn’t like a visit Besu, ParaPara, Juno, and Sera? They were just about a four-ring circus all by themselves.
I knew nothing about their other important points, but I would start finding out very soon . . .
My grandfather drove us down, Mom, Grandma, and me. I think if Mom had still had her car and any money, she would have taken me—that is, taken me somewhere else, so I wouldn’t have gone. But then, Besu would have come looking, and maybe that would have been worse.
But it started out as a pretty good day for me. Grandma and Grandma lived in Laurel then, which is north of Washington. My Dad’s housing was far down a peninsula. Traffic was about as bad as usual for a Friday afternoon, so I got bored and went to sleep. When I woke up, we still weren’t there, but we were in some town I’d never been in before and we stopped at a restaurant for a “pit stop,” if you know what I mean. Grandma and Grandpa and Mom had coffee and I had a small root beer float. Maybe it was a Dairy Queen, but I’m not sure. Anyway, any day when I could get ice cream without something like Brussels sprouts before it was a good day when I was eight (almost nine.)
It was still a pretty long time before we got to where we were going. Mom had been pretty quiet until then, but when she saw Luxor, the town outside the old base, she started making remarks. Grandpa started to say something about the Philippines but Grandma stopped him.
There wasn’t a lot of Luxor before we were on the old base. There wasn’t anyone at the gate, so we drove around until Grandma made Grandpa stop and ask directions. Then we found Intrepid Drive, where Besu was living with my Dad. Out in front of the house, there was quite a collection of people. I recognized Sere, Juno and Nereid, but none of the others. I stayed outside to see who these people were while Grandma, Grandpa and Mom more or less ran into the house, probably to get rid of the coffee. I didn’t need to use the bathroom yet.
“Hi, I’m Big Al,” one of them said, shaking my hand. Big Al was shorter than Besu and was wearing a big sweatshirt.
“Her name is really ‘Alcyone,’” said Nereid, sounding a tiny big annoyed, maybe.
“Alcyone Umino,” said Big Al.
“You’re a girl!” I said.
“Yeah. I’m a girl,” said Big Al, sounding a little more than a tiny bit annoyed, definitely.
It seemed like a good time to go inside.
The house was laid out with the living room in front, the kitchen and dining area in back, and bedrooms upstairs. I navigated with Nereid through the living room, where I could smell tension. Mom was being quiet; my grandparents seemed to be doing most of the talking when I came in. Dad wasn't there. Besu was flanked by ParaPara and a woman who had to be Al's mother. I would get to know Naru very well indeed later, but all I got at this time was a short introduction by Al, who had trailed us. We went into the kitchen, where Sarah was cooking. Nereid introduced me, explaining her relationship--they had half sisters in common. It was an odd relationship, but I knew other kids with approximately the same kind of family blending.
(More to come.)