High Noon on Jefferson (scifi story): Chapter Fifteen

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Dad's house was pretty awesome when I was growing up. It is still, but it had so many strange details that were fun to find that he had put in. Whether it was a bas relief of some real or fantastical event or a tucked away statue out in the forest on the land grant for the farm or some secret room in the house, barn domes or just hidden away on the land, it was always something for kids to find and have fun with. When I turned into a teenager, it was, at first something I lost interest in. However, Dad still persisted and added more things to his place. That was probably for my brother and his friends or so I thought.

However, he added something more for me. That surprised me. And it had to be a very recent addition. That left me rather suspicious. Especially given what it was: it was a small cottage away from the main house.

Dad unveiled it over dinner. We had borscht stew: a thickened, spicy variation on borscht he had concocted. It was delicious. Over the dessert, some homemade faux mince meat pie made from cranberries, raisins and orange peel, he offered to let us stay at the main house if we wished or the "casita del sol." I had looked at him rather blankly at the time. What was he talking about?! He and Khiara shared a twinkly look when they glanced at each other that almost made me gag. He told us he'd show us after we finished.

Tom had eaten his mince meat pie with deep suspicion and fear. He was wondering what sort of meat was actually lurking in it. There wasn't any. Dad could make the mince meat with actually ox tail, but he rarely did so. His was vegetarian, not vegan. Tom wasn't sure. And I wasn't sure he wasn't waiting to make some sort of snarky or goofy, inappropriate comment. I'd prepared my snarkastic weaponry but he never said anything. I think he just didn't care for it. Not everything is everyone's cup of tea. Or slice of pie.

Dad had us all zip up for outside and off we went. We walked about a half kilometer away from the animal domes on a cobble stone path I had never seen before. I'd been here half my life and more, yet here was a well worn, or appeared to be well worn, path that didn't appear new that was certainly new to me. I was being weirded out on so many levels by that. Where had this come from? How did I not know it was here? I glanced at Khiara and wondered if she was a magical witch or something or able to alter the very fabric of reality or something. Dad did many things, but neither of those were in his repertoire.

At the the end of our walk, there was a stream, which weirded me further. There hadn't been one on the main part of the property before. Dad had intentionally made sure the berms we had crossed were set so any flooding would go around the property. His house was up on a mound so even if the berms were overtopped for whatever reason, the house would have been just fine. Yet, here was a stream. It's mere existence defeated the whole purpose of the ringing berm and the hill Dad's house existed on.

I was dumbfounded and shocked. So shocked I failed to see what was on the other side: a small cottage. In fact, there was bridge across from the bizarrely existing stone path from the house to the cottage directly.

Dad led us across the bridge, made of earth wood! to the cottage. There he twinkled and point to the plaque above the door: Casita del Sol. The little house of the sun. He'd made it for me.

It was not large, but larger than many places people lived on Earth. It was around 90 square meters including the small loft. for gosh sakes, it's like 964 square feet. Earther Americans! The metric system has been around for 300 years! When are you going to adopt it! It had a little kitchenette and a nice bathroom. It was really cool and based off things I'd liked, Immies and stories and old time movies. It even had a waterwheel for an electrical generator. That was cool but wildly antiquated. The mix of modern and antiquated was the best part though. It was amazing and yet...why?!

Dad turned and pointed to Khiara. And Khiara explained.

She wanted to give me a gift. She knew I wanted more freedom and wasn't entirely comfortable at the house - she tactfully didn't say why she thought that - so she'd suggested to my Dad they make me a little cottage to call my own. The stream was artificial. In a pinch, she'd put in a gate for a stream through the berm, but it was a gate that would close if the power was turned off. Dad and Khiara had made the stream bed by catastrophically flash flooding part of the farm so it would make it like Scablands back on Earth. Once a potential stream bed was identified, they'd purposefully eroded the land to make the bed. Where they found a small waterfall along the new stream, they sited the cottage.

And Khiara wanted me to feel comfortable and have my own space and to come out more often.

Had it been any other time, I would have 'awwwwwed.' The cottage was cute and private and was seemingly like an ultimate olive branch to a teenager.

However!

I was here thinking Dad was doing something wildly illegal with his new girlfriend that I was not very comfortable with. And now they had a place to put me outside of the main house. Even more than ever, even more than when I had seen Dad outside in shorts when I was spying with the drone, even more than when they greeted us while dressed in their leathers, I felt my Dad and his girlfriend were acting like they were covering up something: they had a way to make sure I was not in the main house where they were.

I didn't even look to my friends. I said thank you and smiled from ear to ear.

Thank you so much for the amazing gift and, of course, we would love to stay there. I even gave her a hug. It was an awkward one, ok? Both of us didn't feel super comfortable with it. I thought it was a necessity though. My hug with Dad was far, far more genuine.

He seemed happy. She seemed relieved.

Then it struck me. Maybe DAD was not the evil doer. Maybe KHIARA was.

hmmm.

Dad and Khiara left. I looked to my friends. We almost nodded as one. Veena started looking around for bugs and cameras with Rosa helping. Tom, Jackie and I started unpacking. We had a lot to do and little time to do it in before Maven might show up.

If she was not already lurking nearby.