Chapt 2 Cont.

Continuing, trying to post smaller chunks to make it more readable.

Roxanne woke up sore.  After a long soak in her whirlpool tub, she got out and stood before the full-length mirror examining the damage.  Every tournament she came home with a new set of bruises.  Tall, thin, and curved only because she worked out, with brown hair that was destined to turn white before she turned 45.  Just like her mother, and grandmother.

Still sore around her ribs, she skipped a bra and put on an old tee-shirt, panties and shorts, and a pair of sandals.  Steven had cooked breakfast and left it for her, before taking the dogs for their morning run.  The kids were up and watching television in the basement.  Roxanne took her breakfast, went down, sat with them, and finished her breakfast as they watched the Mormon Choir broadcast.  She then gathered the dishes, and her children, and went back upstairs.  The dishes went in the dishwasher, and the kids got dressed.  Not being very religiously inclined, watching the choir and reading from the bible as a family several times a week was all the religion they engaged in.

When the children came back, she led them across the backyard to the barn.  Roxanne took them in the side door, and turned on the lights.  Other women have a craft room, or sewing room, or some other private place to be alone and be creative.  Roxanne had a garage in the barn behind her house.  It doubled as a workshop and an auto shop where she kept the car she was currently working on, or getting ready to sell.

Alex and Diana opened the main doors, as Roxanne put on a jumpsuit and boots.  Shortly the kids were also in jumpsuits.  With their help she put the Camero onto the lift and set about changing the oil and filters.

The feeling about something happening to her children soon nagged at the back of Roxanne’s mind.  So she wanted to keep her children close.  Having them help her here was one way to do that.

Caspian listened as the people here talked back and forth, and quickly recognized particulars of the language.  The dialect was a bit off, as was the vernacular.  But the language was the one he had learned.  Caspian reached into another pocket in his vest.  From this he pulled a small stone big enough to pinch between his thumb and two fingers.  Nonchalantly he worked the stone back and forth in his hand, concentrating on his memory recall techniques, and on the time he had spent on this planet.

The rangers had evidently decided to just let him sit there until he did something.  After an hour of their banter Caspian was beginning to understand the conversations, and the script on the posters and maps that hung on the walls.  Then a need hit him.  Time to see if his recall was right.  He cleared his throat.

“Where shall I locate the lavatory?”

The rangers turned as a man and looked at him.  The german shepherd lifted his head in notice at the movement.  The one at the map returned to it.  The first one Caspian met went back to his paperwork.  This left the woman.

She pointed her thumb at a doorway.  “Second on the left.”  She then went back to the computer she was doing something with.

Caspian stood, took off his cloak, and coat, and cargo vest.  He left these all on the chair.  Then he walked into the indicated doorway.  It had five closed doors, two on either side with one at the end.  The dog followed.  Caspian was not fully sure of what he had been told, but guessed correctly.

The lavatory brought clear memories back, mainly at how efficient they were compared to where he lived.  He finished, then spent several moments washing his hands, and several days growth on his face.  Caspian found the fresh water quite enjoyable.

He returned to his chair feeling much better.

“Now, how about lunch.”  He reached over the counter to where his stuff was.  The paranoia of the world also had returned forcefully, earlier.  So he pushed his belt and things aside, and dumped his food sack out.  He quickly put what he did not want back in.  Then started into a piece of fruit with his fruit knife.  That reduced to a core, he picked up a meat roll and munched through it, while sipping at his water skin.

The rangers intermittently watched him as they worked.  Finally the map man rolled his map away and put his tools in a drawer.  He then disappeared down the hall, and through the door on the end.