“So, Dave and Kayla are safely gone.” Laurie thought. “That’s good. Now, it’s time to finish the
preparations for our takeover before anyone else is killed.”
She pulled her pocket computer out and accessed the hidden part of the system. She posted the
information about the other four surviving stations and the survivors on Earth to the web, making it look
like the information came from Joe’s computer. She then logged on as “the disciple” and put some of
Dave’s teachings on a delayed posting. Laurie wasn’t about to allow the “Idle Rich” to discredit Dave
just because he wasn’t on the station anymore and couldn’t defend his teachings. She would defend
them for him.
“I don’t know how that stuff got posted.” Joe cried out. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Don’t give us that Joe.” Jack said. “We know the information came from you. We had a little
trouble following the path back to your computer and there’s no fingerprints or DNA but yours on it so
it had to be you. Why don’t you spare yourself any more pain and come clean. I’ll make you a deal,
you confess and state publicly that what you posted was a lie and we’ll give you enough sodium
pentothal to put you to sleep before we decompress you.”
“I’ve been telling you the truth.” Joe said. “Why can’t you believe me?”
“That’s not the right answer Joe.” Jack said as he signaled the torturers to resume their work.
Five hours later Joe was near death. Jack finally called a halt to the ineffective torture.
“We’re not going to get anything out of him this way and if we continue much longer he’ll die.” Jack
remarked. “I want him to be alive and conscious when we space him. I want him to know what we’re
doing to him.”
“You didn’t space that maintainer when she died.” Sam, one of the torturers said. “We ate her.”
“Of course we did.” Jack replied. “She was good food, Joe’s a seditionist so he gets spaced.”
They put Joe on a floating gurney and took him to the decompression room. They then put him in the
catapult and spaced him.
“I don’t know.” Ruby said. “It sounds awful risky to me. If they catch us, they’ll kill us and all our
kids.”
“What happens if we leave things the way they are?” Laurie asked her. “We’ll have to continue
having sex with whoever wants to have sex with us. Do you really like acting like you like it when
someone you despise decides they want to have sex with you? And our kids and us will be killed eaten
eventually if we don’t put a stop to it. Besides, we can do it. They’re not as all powerful as they think
they are.”
“Well, let me think about it.” Ruby answered. “There are some people that I’d like to stop having sex
with. Are you really sure we can do it?”
“With the programs Dave created before he left it’ll be a cinch.” Laurie assured her. “Let me know
real soon. We can’t let the ‘Idle Rich’ continue eating people. Dave was right about that, cannibalism is
wrong.”
As Ruby left Laurie started worrying that she might tell her friend in security about the revolution. She
put a tag on Ruby so she’d be alerted if Ruby did talk.
“Can we really do it?” Sally the maintainer asked. “They must have safeguards to protect themselves.
How are we supposed to overcome them?"
“Sure they have safeguards,” Laurie replied, “but their safeguards aren’t effective against what I can
do through the hidden part of the system. They’re powerless to stop me just like they were powerless
to stop Dave.”
“Didn’t they chase Dave off the station?” Sally challenged. “We all know he’s gone.”
“They didn’t chase him off the station.” Laurie answered. “He left even though they were trying to
catch him and space him. He got away. They didn’t succeed against him and they won’t succeed
against us.”
“I don’t know.” Sally expressed her reluctance. “I’d really like to stop them from killing anyone else
and I don’t like them dominating us or having sex with any of them that want to have sex with me but
it’s just too risky.”
Sally was the tenth maintainer that Laurie tried to recruit and the seventh one who turned her down.
She only needed five more but it looked like she wouldn’t get them. And the more people she talked to
the more likely that someone would turn her in. If they caught her, she and her daughter would become
non-breeding food animals and be scheduled to be butchered ASAP. Her grandchildren would also be
butchered ASAP.
Sally was walking down one of the maintenance passages when a couple of “Idle Rich” teens came
up to her. They didn’t say anything at first, they just both started fondling her. Sally really didn’t like the
kinky stuff and since one of the teens was a girl, this was definently kinky and looked like it would get a
lot kinkier.
“Hey, little maintainer, we’re going to your quarters with you.” the girl said as she stroked her crotch
with Sally’s hand.. “I’ve always wanted a girl to get oral with me while my boyfriend’s screwing her.”
Sally didn’t like the sound of this at all. She had no desire to have sex with either one of these pimple
faced kids and she sure didn’t want to “get oral” with any girl. That kind of thing turned her stomach.
Unfortunately, she was a maintainer and didn’t have a choice so she reluctantly led the way.
They stayed all afternoon and night. Once they left, Sally broke down and cried for about an hour.
She then took a long shower but still didn’t feel clean. What they had her do was totally disgusting and
lasted much too long. She tried to pull herself together and failed. She called Laurie and asked her to
come over. It was obvious that the only way to prevent many repeats of last nights revolting activities
was to revolt against these sickening creatures.
Laurie walked in and took one look at Sally. That was enough, she knew something terrible had
happened. She held Sally in a friendly embrace and just let her cry. After about eleven minutes Sally
started telling Laurie about all the things those perverted teens made her do.
“It was horrible Laurie. I had to use my mouth on all her orifices and all his orifices too. I don’t think
I’ll ever get that nasty taste out of my mouth. I’m hungry but I don’t want to eat because the food will
taste like their orifices. If you still want me to help with your revolt, I’ll be glad to. I don’t ever want to
go through anything like that again.”
“We’ve all gone through stuff like that,” Laurie replied, “and none of us ever wanted to. That’s one
of the reasons for our revolution. Another is we don’t think people should be used as food animals,
especially not our children. They let us keep one daughter, big deal. They always make sure we have a
lot more kids than that and they use the others for food. We’re going to put a stop to that. I’m glad
you’re with us. With the original seven Dave recruited and the five I’ve managed to recruit we have
twelve people to start our revolution with. That’s just barely enough since we won’t have to fight very
many of them at once.”
“But there’s over five hundred of them.” Sally objected. “How can we fight just a few of them at a
time?”
“I have a program in the hidden part of the system that will allow me to lock all the doors on the
station.” Laurie answered. “And another program that’ll unlock one door at a time. We’ll lock down all
the doors in the areas they’re in and only unlock one room at a time. That way we’ll only have a few of
them to deal with at any one time. And we can always turn the tables on them and use the sleepy gas
they have to use against us against them.”
Ruby was scared. If Laurie caught her trying to fink on her she would kill her. But if she didn’t and
the “Idle Rich” won, they would torture her and then kill her very painfully. She just didn’t see how
Laurie could win against the “Idle Rich”, they had all the power.
“Hey, little maintainer, what are you doing here?” Jack asked. “There’s no maintenance tasks
scheduled for here right now. You didn’t get lost did you?”
“No Jack, I’m not lost.” Ruby replied. “I was looking for you. Laurie’s planning a revolt and I
thought you ought to know.”
“Interesting.” Jack said. “How did you find out?”
“Laurie tried to recruit me.” Ruby answered. “I told her I’d think about it. I didn’t want her to think
that I’d tell on her. She would’ve killed me. Please, don’t tell her that I told on her.”
“You don’t have to worry about Laurie any more.” Jack replied. “She’ll be taken care of and you’ll
be rewarded for your loyalty. What else can you tell me about Laurie’s plans?”
“Just that it’s supposed to happen real soon. She didn’t tell me any of the details. I hope there’s still
time to stop it. I don’t want anyone to get killed.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that.” Jack replied. “We’ll have to kill anyone who takes part in this
revolt. We don’t have any facilities for locking anyone up for more than a few hours.”
Laurie’s computer beeped at her, alerting her to a problem. She held up a hand to quiet Sally as she
accessed the monitoring program Dave installed for her so she wouldn’t be taken by surprise if a
problem arose. She watched as Ruby told Jack everything she knew about the revolution. She quickly
hit the three keystroke combination that locked every door on the station. “Ruby just told Jack
everything she knew.” Laurie told Sally. “So our revolution just started.”
Jack heard the doors close suddenly. He walked over to the nearest one and the telltale said that
there was vacuum on the other side. He pulled his computer out and checked with it. It showed
breaches in the skin of the station and in several interior walls as well. There was vacuum in all the
compartments surrounding the one he was in. The timing seemed suspicious to him so he tried to call
the security office but couldn’t get through.
He started feeling light-headed. Someone must have released the sleepy gas into this compartment.
He pulled out his filter mask and an injector containing a single dose of antidote for the sleepy gas. He
put the mask on and injected himself with the antidote. Soon his head cleared and he had the
satisfaction of watching Ruby’s head bounce off the deck when she crumpled under the influence of the
sleepy gas. He walked over to Ruby and kicked her in the head. “Slut, you warned me too late. When
this is over, you’re going to pay a terrible price for that.”
Jack started checking on conditions throughout the station. The only place he could find any
problems was in the section he was in. His computer showed an accidental release of sleepy gas in his
compartment. He ran a diagnostic check on his computer and it didn’t show anything wrong. He then
ran a diagnostic check on the main computer system and again it didn’t show anything wrong. He then
opened the tool drawer and got a screwdriver and a few other tools out. He placed the screwdriver
against the door he first checked and put his thumb against it and his ear against his thumb. He then
tapped the door with a hammer and heard an echo off the far wall of the adjoining compartment.
So, there was air in that compartment. The telltale and his computer were wrong about that. He
reran the diagnostic checks on a deeper level and again found nothing wrong with his computer or the
main computer system. There obviously was something wrong and they were giving him inaccurate
information.
He tried using his computer to gain access to the maintainer’s passageways. He wasn’t surprised that
it didn’t work. He pulled out some tools and, after fifteen minutes, managed to gain entrance into the
maintenance passage. He found himself facing two armed maintainers. Jack thought about trying to
overpower them but changed his mind when he heard a voice behind him saying, “I wouldn’t try that,
Jack. Just drop those tools and put your hands behind your back.”
“Jill, I thought you loved me.” Jack said as he carefully dropped the tools. “You sure acted like you
did when we made love.”
“We never made love Jack, we just had sex. I didn’t have any choice. I would have been killed if I
had refused or didn’t act like I really enjoyed it. Fact is, I didn’t like it at all. Now put your hands
behind your back like a good little boy.”
“Yes mama.” Jack replied as he complied.
Jack was only one of eleven security personnel who managed to avoid the effects of the sleepy gas.
Randy was the next most dangerous, he was the best programmer. He was also in the computer room
and had a guard with him. Randy was keyboarding furiously, trying to find a way through the firewall
Dave put around the hidden part of the system.
Laurie put yet another patch in place, stopping Randy again. She’d given the three teams she sent out
some programming keys that they could open doors with. Jill’s team just finished securing Jack and that
was good. Sally’s team still had three more compartments and a passageway to go through to get to
Randy and they had to secure the people they found on their way. It’s a good thing Laurie called the
other space stations, they needed plenty of help if they were going to secure the entire station.
Sally opened yet another door into a compartment with sleeping people in it. Her team got busy
securing the “Idle Rich” and “Administrators” who were there. Sally saw the two teen hoodlums that
made her do all those disgusting things yesterday. Two of her team members secured one of them
already and was securing the other one. It was all Sally could do to refrain from giving those putrid
troublemakers the antidote to the sleepy gas and stomping them senseless. After what they did to her,
she sure wanted to. The only thing that stopped her from giving in to that temptation was the urgent
need to stop Randy before he managed to get into the hidden part of the system.
A woman security guard was awake in the next compartment. Sally sent two of her teammates into
the maintenance passage so they could come out to the side of the security guard while she and Robyn
confronted her face to face.
Zoe heard some noise from the compartment to her back. She turned to face the door just as it
opened. Sally and Robyn were there, with their stunners pointed at her. She had her stunner pointed at
them too. “It looks like a stand-off.” she said.
“Not really,” Sue said from the side as she fired her stunner, rendering Zoe unconscious. They
quickly secured Zoe’s hands behind her and tied her firmly so she couldn’t work her way loose.
They entered the passage in front of the computer room where Randy was and secured the few
people there. “This is going to be tricky.” Sally told her team. “There’s two of them in there and they’re
both armed. Sue, I want you and Jeri to go back into the maintenance passage. Jeri, I want you to enter
from the access to the left of the door and Sue, I want you to enter from the access to the right rear of
the door. Robyn and I will enter through the door. Get into position and I’ll give a three, two, one
countdown. Set your stunners just below the lethal level.”
Sue and Jeri re-entered the last compartment, went into the maintenance passage and got into
position at their respective doors. “Ready, ready.” Sue and Jeri reported. Sally took position to the
right of the door and Robyn took position to the left. “Ready, three, two, one.”
On one they all opened their doors. Sally did a tumble roll into the room and fired at a very surprised
guard but not before he got a shot off that hit Robyn in the right arm, making her drop her stunner.
Randy got a shot off at Jeri, hitting her in the left leg. Both Jeri and Sue shot Randy, rendering him
unconscious.
Sally quickly gave Jeri and Robyn a shot that counteracted the worst of the effects of the stunner
blasts they took. Both Randy and his guard had their stunners set on lethal. She then called Laurie to
report neutralizing Randy and to report the casualties. “How bad are they?” Laurie asked.
“They’ll both live.” Sally answered. “No thanks to Randy and his guard. They had their stunners set
on lethal. I gave them the antidote shots and they’re taking their antioxidants. That’ll at least minimize
the damage. They’ll be out of action for a few hours but should be O.K. after that. Randy will probably
be brain damaged. Jeri and Sue both hit him with stunner fire and I don’t have any more stunner
antidote.”
“He and the rest of the ‘Idle Rich’ and ‘Administrators’ will have to stand trial for cannibalism
anyway.” Laurie replied, “ Our neighbors have laws against eating other people. Fortunately, there’s
only three security people left awake and everyone else will be asleep for several hours yet. Our
neighbors are sending help that will be here long before then. You can secure the people near you but
stick close to your wounded. I don’t want anything happening to them.”
“Well Dave,” Pete said, “your story about what things are like up there on that space station sure
seems accurate. Your maintainer friends just revolted against their oppressors and the story they tell
about conditions there sounds just like yours.”
“Laurie’s started her revolution already?” Dave asked. “It wasn’t scheduled to start for a few more
days. She must have tried to recruit Ruby. I tried to warn her that Ruby was too afraid of the ‘Idle
Rich’.”
“Your friend Laurie was smart enough to call for help.” Pete said. “We told the other space stations
what you said about how that station was being run and they were already preparing an invasion force
to take over there. Now they’re sending their troops a little early in response to Laurie’s request for
assistance. We’re sending some people too. You want to go along?”
“Sure, as long as I can come right back.” Dave answered. “I really don’t want to be away from
Kayla for very long. After the way everyone else on the station treated her she’s still not very
comfortable without me around and besides, I miss her when I’m not with her.”
“I sure don’t blame you for wanting to stay near her.” Pete said as he led the way to the ship they
were taking. “She’s a real looker and she sure seems to love you a lot.”
“Yeah, I guess I’m luckier than I deserve to be.” Dave replied as they rounded a corner and a ship
came in sight. “Is that the ship we’re taking? It looks like an atmospheric craft.”
“It’s a dual use air-space craft.” Pete replied. “We’ll take off on jets and then switch to rocket
engines once we gain some altitude. It takes a lot less fuel that way.”
“It works pretty good then, huh?”
“Yeah, it gets up to eighty thousand feet elevation and mach five on the jets then the rockets kick in
and boost it up into orbit. Once we’re in orbit we’ll do a little maneuvering and then we can rendezvous
with your station.”
A bus pulled up next to them and they climbed aboard. Dave was surprised to see it full of security
personnel in strange looking space suits. A man ans a woman were holding two suits out to Dave and
Pete. Pete took his and started climbing into it. It looked pretty straightforward so Dave took his and
followed suit.
“Be careful,” Pete warned him, “this is a fighting suit and some of the weapons are integral to the suit.
We don’t want you shooting yourself or someone else accidentally so don’t activate your suit yet.
You’ll need to turn it on before we get there so I’ll teach you how to safely operate it on the way up.”
They pulled up near the ship and found four other buses ahead of them. There were still a few people
getting out of the nearest bus and entering the ship. Dave estimated that there were fifty people on his
bus. If the other busses also had fifty people, then they were sending two hundred fifty people up to the
station.
“It looks like we’re sending about two hundred fifty people.” Dave guessed. “Are all four stations
sending that many people too?”
“No, we’re sending one hundred security people and one hundred sixty judges, lawyers and
administrators. The other stations are sending one hundred security people each and some experts on
running space stations. Your ‘Idle Rich’ and ‘Administrators’ are guilty of several crimes against
humanity. Crimes against humanity can be tried by any jurisdiction. Our laws are more strict on
cannibalism than any one else’s so we’ll try them. Don’t worry Dave, statutory rape isn’t a crime
against humanity, forcible rape is.”
“What’s the difference?” a worried Dave asked.
“Statutory rape is any time one of the parties is under the legal age of consent. That’s what you did
with Kayla. Forcible rape is any time that one of the parties didn’t have a choice. From what you and
Laurie both said, that’s the way most of the ‘free population’ treated the ‘maintainers, ‘pets’ and ‘food
animals’. You won’t be brought up on any charges. Your case has already been tried.”
The ship they were headed for was a large delta wing aircraft with a heat-resistant coating. It was
ninety eight meters long and about as wide. It certainly looked impressive to Dave. They walked up the
ramp and entered the ship. Most of the seats were already taken so Dave and Pete found two empty
seats. Four minutes later, they were airborne.
So far the trip seemed real smooth, a lot better than his and Kayla’s trip down from the station. They
were accelerating fast, about one g., at least that’s what it seemed like to Dave. Soon, they were at
eighty thousand feet and Dave felt a slight, fraction of a second drop in acceleration as the jets shut
down and the rocket engines took over. The pilot pointed the nose of the ship straight up and increased
the acceleration to four g’s. Over the next few minutes, the ship leveled out and the acceleration
decreased, then stopped, they were in space.
This was only Dave’s second experience with weightlessness. He wasn’t sure if he liked it, his
stomach felt kind of queasy. He didn’t really notice any discomfort before, maybe that’s because he
was too busy trying to get them down in one piece. This time, someone else was piloting and he had
plenty if time with no distractions. It wasn’t too bad, just a minor discomfort. He could live with it.
“You look like you could use a distraction.” Pete said. “Now would probably be a good time to
teach you how to operate that suit you’re wearing. It would certainly take your mind off that motion
sickness you’re suffering.”
“Yeah, it’s not too bad,” Dave replied, “but I sure could use a distraction right now.”
“You’d think someone who grew up in space wouldn’t have any trouble with weightlessness.” Pete
said. “I mean, didn’t you get used to it a long time ago?”
“I grew up on a space station with artificial gravity.” Dave answered. “My first experience with
weightlessness was two days ago when Kayla and I escaped.”
Pete spent the rest of the trip teaching Dave how to operate his security suit. It sure took Dave’s
mind off his queasy stomach and that was a relief. It also made the time go faster and kept Dave from
worrying about his friends on the station. The first indication Dave had that they were near the station
was the clang when the ship attached itself to one of the station’s entry ports.
Three of the other ships were there ahead of them so when they entered the station they saw
prisoners being herded into rooms where they could be detained. Dave was sent to the main computer
control room. The security people were dispersed to places that hadn’t been secured yet and the legal
teams were shown to the quarters they would use during their stay.
When Dave walked into the computer room he saw a very tired Laurie at a computer console. Three
other maintainers were looking overwhelmed at some other consoles and there were some other people
Dave didn’t recognize looking lost at other consoles.
“Hey, Laurie. Dave greeted. “Everybody here looks a bit overwhelmed.”
“Dave!” Laurie jumped out of her seat and threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re here.
None of us can seem to figure out how to run this thing. The things you taught me worked great but
there’s so much here that goes beyond that and its got all of us stumped, even the experts from the
other stations.”
“Let me take a look.” Dave sat down at an unused console. He quickly scanned the system, looking
to see what Laurie and her friends had done. He found a lot of things they tried and “deleted.” What
they apparently didn’t know was that the hidden part of the system kept a record of what was done
and it showed Dave everything they tried. “Some of this stuff looks a lot like the stuff I saw on Earth. It
won’t work on this system.”
“How do you know?” one of the strangers bristled defensively. “What makes you such an expert on
this system?”
“This is the system I grew up with” Dave answered. “I hacked my way into it when I was seven and
have been using it every since.”
“He taught me everything I know about it” Laurie interjected. “And I’ve been running circles around
you three.”
“She’s got you there, Jim.” one of the other strangers said. “My name’s Joe and if you can show us
how this system operates, we’d be forever grateful.”
Dave spent the next several days teaching classes on the hidden system. Laurie sent for Kayla and
she rejoined Dave. They were married by station law and started living together again. That made them
both very happy.
Phil was sickened by what he saw in this abattoir. He’d helped butcher animals before but these
were people. Most of them very beautiful young ladies with their stomachs cut open and their guts
ripped out. He didn’t like that at all. A lot of the people he passed didn’t have any clothes on. The
people who had been running this place said that they didn’t waste clothes on food animals so they
were naked. He walked down a passage and came to a fully clothed person regaining consciousness.
He secured the man and asked him what was on the other side of the door he’d been guarding.
“That’s our killing room, it’s where we painlessly kill our food animals.” the man replied. “Who’re
you? I’ve never seen you before. I thought I knew everyone on the station.”
“You’re going to see a lot of people you’ve never seen before,” Phil replied, “but not for long. What
you’ve been doing here is criminal and the penalty for your crime is death.”
Phil opened the door. There was a very beautiful girl lying naked on the floor, still alive and just
regaining consciousness. At first he thought she was only about ten or eleven because she was so short.
Her face and body looked older than that and she had stretch marks so he revised his estimate of her
age upwards. He was short himself, only one point four six meters. She looked like she was about one
point three seven meters.
He picked her up carefully and carried her out of this place of death. She looked up at him and
asked, “are you an angel?”
“What makes you think I’m an angel?”
“I was killed and the first thing I see is you.”
“You weren’t killed,” Phil replied, “and no one’s ever accused me of being an angel before. I’m
afraid I’m very human, just like you.”
“I’m still alive?”
“Yes, I’m very happy to say, you are. My name’s Phil. What’s yours?”
“My owner calls me Ranny.” she replied. “You’re handsome.”
“I’m glad you think so.” Phil said. “But you don’t have an owner any more. There’s been some
changes on this station. No more food animals. Eating other humans is illegal. So is having sex with
someone who doesn’t want to have sex with you. You’re now free. You can be with whoever you
want to be with.”
“I’m not going to be killed and eaten?”
“No, such things aren’t allowed any more.” Phil reassured her. ‘Even if they were, I wouldn’t let
anyone kill you. I like you too much for that.”
“I like you too, Phil” Ranny replied as they entered a bedroom. “Is this your bedroom? Are we going
to have sex now?”
“No, this isn’t my bedroom and we’re not going to have sex now.” Phil told her. “If you’re sure it’s
what you want, we can get married and then have sex. You can have your pick of any single man now.
You don’t have to settle for the first handsome face you see. Right now, I’ll send one of my friends in
with some clothes for you and she’ll help you get dressed. I’ll be right outside waiting for you. By the
way, it’s obvious you have children, where are they?”
“My oldest daughter is with my former owner and the other two are down in the creche where they
keep the non-breeding food animals. My baby is only one month old.”
“I’ll see what I can do about getting them for you. Wait here and Suzie will be in soon with some
clothes for you.”
“But I’ve never worn clothes before. The man who owned me said clothes were just wasted on food
animals.”
“He doesn’t own you anymore and clothes are appropriate now for everyone. Suzie’ll be in soon”
“Don’t you like me without clothes?” she asked.
“Darlin’, you’re beautiful without clothes but you can’t run around in public that way.”
“Well then, I’ll wear clothes in public but not when we’re alone together.”
“I suppose you’ll want me to take my clothes off when we’re alone together too.”
“Of course.” Ranny answered. “Do you think you could find my baby fast? My tits are full of milk
and they hurt.”
Phil pulled out his computer and punched some keys. “Suzie, do you think you can find a month old
baby that belongs to Ranny down in that creche we found earlier? Ranny’s full of milk and hurting. She
needs some clothes too. She’s pretty small. A little shorter than me and very nicely proportioned. She’s
not used to wearing clothes so loose fitting would be better than tight. Thanks loads, cousin.” he turned
off his computer and looked at Ranny, “Bye for now, Darlin’, I’ll see you real soon.”
He closed the door behind himself and got his computer out again and punched a different set of
keys. “Security? Yes, this is Phil Ryan, up from Earth. I’m trying to track down a little girl belonging to
a young lady who was a food animal. Her name is Ranny and she’s about sixteen. Her little girl is
probably about three. Someone’s bringing her down here already? Great. Thanks.”
Phil waited impatiently, wanting to see Ranny immediately and wanting her children to get here. He
was curious to see what they looked like and he wanted her relieved of her worries about them.
“Hey, Phil where you want this little one?” a female voice said from behind him. “She’s been crying
for her mother ever since she woke up.”
“Oh, hi Joan.” Phil greeted the new arrival. “So this is Ranny’s daughter? She sure is beautiful, just
like her mother. Ranny’s in there. Waiting for some clothes.”
“And of course you’ve seen her without any clothes on?” Joan chided.
“Someone had to bring her here out of that abattoir and she didn’t have any clothes on there. She
thought I was an angel. They already had her in the killing chamber when the sleepy gas knocked her
out and she thought she was dead. Now she wants to marry me and I’m not going to turn her down.
This may be crazy since I haven’t known her for even an hour yet, but I love her.”
“How long does it take to fall in love?” Joan asked. “That’s one of the mysteries that’ll never be
solved. I knew my husband for almost a week before I fell in love with him but we couldn’t have spent
more than twenty minutes together during that time. I’ll just take this little one to her mother and have a
talk with her. She needs someone to set her straight about you.”
(Continued) |