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.Adoption Agent, See?	By : keithcompany Category: Titles in the Public Domain > Gulliver's Travels Views: 2450 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work fiction, based on Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. Any resemblance to person(s) living or dead is purely coincidental.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
Three books were found on the top of the second row of books on the top shelf. Jeana considered trying to drag them out, but they looked kind of old. Jerry placed them on the desk for her, arranged in the order they were published.

She knelt beside them, looking over the covers, running a hand along the yellowed edges. Daddy had left her quite a few things, but none from before he shrank. Nothing from his childhood.

She eased the cover open and found his signature on the first page. The grooves from the ballpoint were deep enough that she could feel them with her fingers. She almost expected her hand to come away stained, but the ink was long dry.

She pushed the book to the middle of the desk, under the lamp. She imagined him reading there. She turned to the first page.

There was a surprise on page sixteen. Daddy's signature. Much the same as the one behind the cover, she didn't understand why it was there.

She asked Jerry at dinner. They'd been taking all of Jerry's meals with him since Jeana had come out of her shell.   Of course, humans only ate three meals a day, so the Lilliputians still had two meals a day inside their little house.

She'd mentioned that her class was interested in hearing about humans. He was working his way through a cookbook he called 'comfort food,' showing her 'real' human food from before the Rediscovery.

Tonight was chili. She and Sue each had a bean marinated in an amazing sauce. Duffy was under the table, waiting for people to realize that they had too much food on their plates and seek his professional help.

"Jerry, is there something special about the number sixteen?"

"What? Sixteen what?"

"I dunno." She found a piece of onion on her plate, as thick as her forearm, as wide as both of her hands, and cooked to near-transparency. It tasted of spices she couldn't identify and garlic and cheese and...and...and STUFF.

"Well, why do you ask?" Sue asked her.

"Oh, Daddy signed the book on page sixteen. I was wondering if there was a superstition."

"Ah," Jerry said with a nod. "That means he came to own the book when he was sixteen."

Jeana looked up from her spoonful of bean. "What?"

"He'd always put his name on a page that matched his age," Jerry explained. "So he'd know when he got it."

"I.... I.... I...." Jeana couldn't speak.

Sue looked up at the chef. "I think she just realized that she's sixteen."

"I figured that," he said. "But does that mean she can't read the second book until she turns seventeen?"

"I don't know," Sue said. She turned away from the young woman. She and Jerry discussed some things they'd been up to at the age of sixteen.

Jeana sat, slightly ignored, almost in privacy, and thought about Daddy. As a person. As a young man taking care to mark his books to recognize his passage through the world. A teen, just like her. Well. Not just like.

"What was Daddy like at sixteen?" she asked.

Jerry barked a laugh. Duffy popped to his feet, thinking this was a signal. Jerry shook his head, then leaned down. "Jeana, do you know what a cherry bomb is?"

------

They stayed up late into the night, talking about John. Stuff he did as a child, what Sue knew of him when he emigrated and what Jeana remembered before he died.

And they got to Mom. "I remember," Jerry said. "I remember her sitting right where you are, telling me how sexy his blue freckles were."

"Blue?" Sue and Jeana asked. They tried to remember...

"The home-made fireworks," Jerry explained. "The explosion drove gunpowder into his skin." He gestured in the vicinity of his eyes. "Damn boy's lucky he didn't blind himself." He froze suddenly. "At least... At least, we thought he was lucky. At the time." He took a pull on his beer. "Oh, look at the time. We gotta get to bed."

"Like FUCK!" Jeana shouted. She jumped to her feet. Sue stared at her with wide eyes. Jerry's eyes looked like white caves she could climb into. She pointed at the spot she'd been sitting.

"I was remembering Daddy happily! Fondly! Without pain! DO you know..." She shook her head, then dropped the volume a bit. "Of course you do. You know. You know what it's like. Missing him. Knowing you'll never see him again. I was having a wonderful time.... Grandpa.

"I don't want to end the evening on a sudden reminder that he's dead. Okay? I want... I want... Tell me about.... Um..." She couldn’t think straight. And everything was blurry. And two huge hands were coming towards her, cupping around her.

In the distance, she heard Sue force a yawn. "Oh, look AT the time. Yawn and yawn. I will be going to bed now." There were impacts as the agent jumped to chair and floor, then skittered over the floor towards the door.

Duffy woke up and followed her, just in case there was fetching she needed help with.

Grandpa lifted Jeana to his face. "I do know," he said. "But he's not gone. I see him in your face, Jeana. Your curiosity, your sense of humor, your..." He paused, his voice thick.

"John's not gone, Jeana. He's just really fucking quiet."

They both broke down crying then. The tears coasted to a stop and they had the most companionable silence Jeana could remember with another person.

Even if that person was a human.

Grandpa broke the mood with a small laugh. "He ever tell you about the time he told your grandmother to fuck off?"

"No..."

He lowered her to the table and made a big show of looking down the hallway to check Sue's progress. And poured a tiny bit of beer into the pitcher Sue had been drinking from.

Jeana giggled as he held a finger to his lips, then poured a little into her water glass.

"He was about five, and decided to build a treehouse," Jerry said. Jeana sipped the beer. It was warm, flat, and tasted like she imagined rat piss would.

And it was wonderful.

"His mom went outside to see where he was getting the lumber. And fell through the porch where he'd pried up some planks. Well, she came outta that madder than a cat in a washing machine..."

-------

Sue woke up the next morning to find herself alone. She slipped off the bed and looked around. There was noise in the stairwell.

She looked down the rail to see Jeana climbing...with climbing equipment. "Where are you going?"

"I was going to look in Daddy's dresser. See if..."

"If he left anything? Bag of marbles? Love letters?" Jeana nodded. "Porn?"

"What?"

"Porn, smut, girlie mags. He was a teenage boy. They're famous for squirreling away stuff like that."

"Ewww!"

She beckoned the girl up and took the rope and grappling hook from her. "You won't need these. But you will need adult supervision. Just in case."

They walked across the carpet to the base of one dresser. Jeana looked up at the imposing face of the six drawers. "We won't need climbing equipment?"

"Nope." Sue dropped to her knees and rolled under the façade. "Come on!" her voice called from the darkness. Then a flashlight snapped on.

From inside, the dresser had a lot more places to climb on. "And the good news," Sue said, "is that we reach the bottom drawer first."

"Where we're most likely to find anything hidden," Jeana nodded. Sue offered her hands and hefted the teen to the first cross brace.

The first drawer they checked was full of school work. Saved essays, some report cards, class pictures. Sue stood on the corner of a yearbook buried near the bottom. "Wanna see what your dad looked like at your age?"

"YEAH! But how?" She lifted a corner of a fold stacked on top of it. Nothing moved.

"Well, we have rope and pulleys," Sue said. "About two days effort to get the drawer open, then four days shoving paper over the side."

"Or we can ask Grandpa," Jeana laughed.

"Grandpa?" Sue smiled. "You got past that sir, Mr. Peterson and Jerry shit?" She took the girl into a warm hug. "That's great, Jeana."

"Well, I was drunk at the time," she demurred.

"Oh, you didn't drink enough beer to get drunk," Sue said. She turned and made her way to the edge of the drawer. Jeana stared at her suspiciously.

The next drawer was mostly socks. "Payday," Sue said. "Not too heavy to sweep aside, and no one will ever notice if the careful folding has been disturbed." They started digging down, then tunneling through the piles.

And found a box.

It was about twice as long as they stood. Wood and painted with scenes that Jeana thought of as vaguely Blefuscan.

"Chinese," Sue corrected. "This is a puzzle box!" She looked at it for a second. "Let's get Jerry."

Grandpa opened the first drawer and got out the yearbook.   He opened it on the desk. The other two looked over his wrist as he paged through it.

"That was the guy your father ran around with. He's an orbital mining engineer, last I heard." Later he pointed out which of the teams include John's picture. There were a few signatures that needed some idioms explained. And some that didn't.

"Well, um, ahem. That, uh, that girl is saying that, uh, that your father was... A good dance partner."

"Uh huh," Jeana said. "That makes perfect sense."

"You don't believe that, do you?" Sue stage-whispered.

"If no one's explained kissing to my grandfather yet," she replied in the same tone of voice, "I'm not going to be the first."

"Ahem!" Jerry said, turning the page quickly. "Oh, look, basketball championship!"

"In fact," Jeana teased. "I myself have....danced... a time or-"

"And there's your dad, up in the stands, cheering!" Jerry said urgently. He glanced at his watch. "Oh, look, I gotta to start the roast or it won't be ready until tomorrow." He fled.

"Naughty, naughty," Sue said absently. She lifted the pages to find John's high school nickname. "Hmmm. What do you suppose THAT refers to?"

"His... interest in binary counting?" Jeana guessed.

After dinner, the Lilliputians retired to the 'port while Jerry went to a regularly scheduled card game. He figured Jeana was too young for the language there and both were too small for the cigar smoke.

So they hit the dresser. With the school work drawer half open, they managed to lever the Chinese Box out of the sock drawer. Then slid it across a plastic folder of essays, and finally eased it to the floor.

Sue was describing puzzle boxes the entire way. They found one seam during handling, then pushed it under the bed.

And Sue turned to leave. Jeana looked up in surprise. "Aren't you...?" She waved at the box.

"You didn't ask Jerry's help in getting it. I figure whatever's in there is between you and your dad. If you can't open it, I'll help. Jerry'll help. But if you can...that's yours." Then she jogged over to their apartment and climbed inside.

------------

Jeana ended up sliding the box to the leg of the bed. She couldn't get enough leverage to slide the first panel without a backstop.

For the first half hour, all she learned how to do was slide half of one end panel a forearm's length out, then back again.

Then she thought, maybe the panel doesn't go further, but it has to be out to let something else move?

The final result, after three days, was to push the panel sideways, then hoist the box up on a sandal, push the entire end piece down, move the first panel further, move the entire end down again.

That moved it enough the front panel could slide open. The space inside had what she considered boy treasures. A couple of tigers eyes, a glass marble, and a leather sack with a very old coin.

Which was nice, and all, but not a major revelation about Daddy. She carried the coin back to the port and looked at it in strong light.

That was the subject of her next 'show and tell' for school. Holding the coin up so people could see it. "This is a Buffalo Nickel."

"Wow. That's money?"

"What's it worth?"

She was prepared for that question. And held a Jolly Rancher up to the camera. "That coin, the day it was minted, would have bought THIS MUCH candy."

"Whoa...."

Then she told them about the trip to the store to purchase a nickel's worth of candy. And Grandpa's offer to mail three of them to her school...

-------

She sat on the balcony and looked at the buffalo on the reverse of the coin. She tried to understand why Daddy would have saved it. There was a certain rarity to it, but was that it?

Was 1932 an important year?

Was he just fond of prairie ungulates?

Maybe it was his lucky 'flip for a decision' coin. She rolled it to the balcony and balanced it on the rail. Then swung her doubled fists from underneath to flip it.

"Heads I win," she muttered. It bounced twice on the carpet...then landed on its side and rolled.

She'd never seen anything so weird. She could barely walk over the shag. It should have barely landed flat, no way it could roll.

It went under the bed and out of sight.

"Huh..." she muttered. Then she leaped over the rail and jumped to the floor. It wasn't just under the edge. She went on further.

It had made it all the way to the far foot and leaned against one end of the puzzle box. She walked over and picked it up. "You want back in the treasure box? Okay." She eased it into the cavity and started to slide the lid shut.

That's when she really noticed how deep the space was. Or more importantly, how deep it wasn't.

It was shallow. There was easily as much of the box's interior unaccounted for as there was space in the storage compartment. The first compartment, she realized.

She ran her fingers across the wood at the edge of the space. There was a very slim divide.

After figuring out the previous mechanism, this took hardly any time to resolve. The whole end slid up and revealed a drawer.

A red bead gave her fingers purchase and she braced her feet against the box itself. The drawer slid out easily. There was a lid over that, which took a bit more pulling.

And a very, very flat space was revealed.

Just enough for a picture. The back of a human snapshot lay before her. This was double-hidden. Very important to Daddy. She reached gently down.

And paused. She vowed that she would not be disappointed if it was stupid. Daddy had been a teen at least once. It might be a picture of his favorite dirty graffiti. Or a cheerleader suffering a wardrobe malfunction. She took a deep breath and pried it up.

Her eyes took a second to focus, to make sense of the picture.

It was Mom.

Well, the very young woman that would be Mom some day. She wore a light dress...and she sat in a palm. And smiled at the camera.

Jeana looked a little closer. She wasn't smiling for the camera... There was more than a little twinkle in that view, a declaration of loves shared, promises of attentions to come.   If anything, she was smiling at the cameraman. Who had to be Daddy.

The picture blurred as tears welled up. "Dammit," she muttered, wiping furiously. Well, at least it wasn't a picture of him lighting his own farts.

------------

Grandpa wasn't terribly talkative one night. He made a simple dinner of hot dogs and store-bought potato salad. The girls sat beside one bun, drilling slices out of the dog, dipping them in ketchup, mustard or relish.

He sipped a beer and tossed dogs to a subdued Denny. That was the most frightening part. Denny got everything he wanted to eat, but kept to the corner by the door, tail down and ears flat.

Without a word, Jerry stood and walked into the TV room. Sue and Jeana looked at each other then started to follow. The clink of glass on glass made Sue stop.

"He's drinking," she said. "And he didn’t offer me any."

"What?" Jeana asked. "Is that significant? Are you staying up drinking with him?"

"Shush. He's just an excellent host. Something's wrong." She led the way across the table and down to the floor. They jogged into the bedroom and into the 'port.

"Should we help him?" Jeana asked. Sue shook her head.

"I don't know that we can," she said. "Let's just keep our heads down for a while."

A whine drew their attention to the window. A somber terrier stood outside. He had no ball, just whimpers.

"Are you scared, fellow?" Sue asked. She reached for his ears and calmed him down. He curled up across their front door and slept.

Jeana called up some assigned reading and stared at the screen for a while. A thud shook the Lilliport and she sat up.

She noticed the day's calendar was active. That only happened when the new day started.

She realized she'd slept through the night. It was some time after midnight on the- Oh, Egg! She knew the date!

And Lilliput was across the International Dateline. So if today was... Then Yesterday was Jerry's... Oh, GOD!

She shot up the stairs. If Duffy was over the door, she could still get out and...

The teen skidded to a stop on the roof. The bedroom door was open and Jerry knelt on the floor. He had a liquor bottle in his hand. And he'd been crying.

"Grandpa," she called. "Grandpa, I know! Okay? I know!"

"I loved him, Jenny," he mumbled.

"I know, Grandpa. And he loved you."

"He loved your mother more."

"NO!" she protested. "No, Daddy loved you both. He told me. He said he loved everybody in his life JUST as much."

"He went to live with her," he pointed out. And took a sip. "And that's okay. No, no, girl, it really is. I raised him to be a man, start a family."

There was a whirring under Jeana's feet. She tried to imagine what in the 'port could cause that. The only thing she could think of was the ventilation. But why would that kick on?

"So, that's okay? It's okay, Grandpa?"

"Sure. He was. I failed him."

"No, sir! No! You didn't have anything to do with the folding! Or the day it wore off!"

Jerry waved that angrily aside. "Not that. The day after! I failed him."

"When... The day after he died?" She didn't understand. "I don't understand!" she shouted.

"Your mom called. Told me what happened. What she saw. The mess he... The mass that came back at... The blood." He dropped lower and breathed on her. The breath was a physical force. Her eyes watered. The whirring stopped and something... Like a turbine? What the hell?

"She said you both cried, then you..." Cut her off, she didn't finish.

"I told her he died because of her," he moaned.

"Oh, god-scramble," she muttered.

"I meant... I MEANT, his love for her... He risked it all for her. FOR her. Because of HIS LOVE for her, he went through the risk. He accepted it." He leaned back, his shoulder against the wall. "I meant to ease her mind. She shouldn't feel guilty. Not her fault. No one's fault.

"I don't blame her. I was... I'd been drinking. Thought it was great idea.   Tell her no fault." He mumbled incoherently for a bit.

Jeana thought about jumping to the floor and trying to comfort him. She wasn't sure it was safe to approach, though.

That's when he made a fist. He slugged the table by the door. "So MAD! Should just die! Could killa self." He drew back his hand to slam something.

The turbines that Jeana heard reached a fever pitch. Then there was a sharp 'PHUT' of a weapon release. A large dart sailed over and struck Jerry's chest.

He sank like a doll without strings. The fist relaxed, the arm dropped and he slid down the doorway to lay across the floor.

Duffy rose up sheepishly and went to sniff his master. He whined, then lay his head on Jerry's chest and lay down.

Jeana leaned over the railing to see a gun barrel retracting. "Sue? Did you just shoot my grandfather? With a tranquilizer?"

"I thought he could use some tranquility," she said.

Jeana turned and walked down the stairs. Sue was folding a weapon control panel away behind the fridge. "I didn't know these things were equipped with offensive weaponry."

"Offensive? No, what are you thinking about?" She snapped the cover in place. Jeana stared at it, unsure she'd even be able to find the panel again. "Defensive... Now that's a completely different issue."

She jerked her head towards Jerry. "Any idea what that was all about?"

"Today's the day Daddy unfolded," Jeana said.

"Ah." The man outside started to snore. Duffy joined him. They rushed to find their heavy-duty earplugs.

---------

"Good thing about Lilliputian roommates," Jerry muttered the next day. "Voices are easy to hear on a hangover." He moved slowly around the kitchen. "But damn, it doesn't usually hurt this much."

Jeana hacked off some bacon strip and glared at the other woman. Sue shrugged. "Giant go smash in vicinity of my ward," she said softly. "Giant goes down."

She raised her voice to call to their host. "Bacon's done perfect, Jerry!"

"Oh, I can make bacon in my sleep," he said. He winced and lifted a hand to his forehead. "I kinda wish I had..."

"Grandpa, is there any sort of photomonger in town?" Jeana asked. Jerry blinked.

"She means a photographers."

"Sure, why?" he asked.

"I... I want to make a copy of a picture I found," Jeana said.

"Of your mom?" Jerry asked. Then it was Jeana's turn to blink. Jerry shrugged. "Your dad showed it to me once. I, uh... I've been trying to find it. Figured I'd send it to your mother, if she didn't already have it."

"I.... I found it."

"Under John's porn," Sue said. Jeana blushed, though she hadn't found any sign of such a thing.

"Nope," Jerry said. "John himself cleaned that all out the day before he brought his girlfriend over."

"Just out of where he thought she could reach," Sue insisted. Jerry shook his head. So did Jeana.

"Daddy was very paranoid about offending Mom," she said. "Probably tried to throw out Grandpa's porn, too."

Jerry laughed but wouldn't say yea or nay.

After breakfast they went to a photographer and got the pic professionally copied, resized and glassed. Jerry got a copy, they put one in the Lilliport and the original was placed carefully in shipping-safe frame.

Jerry showed them around town. Mostly a tour of places John had gotten in trouble. "That I knew about," Jerry said darkly."

Jerry stopped at a friend's ice cream parlor where they got two free sundaes for bringing in the first Lilliputians. Jerry nibbled his while the girls shoveled at theirs.

"Dad didn't bring Mom here?"

"No," her grandfather said. "Your mother's lactose intolerant."

"No, she's not," Jeana said.

"But maybe her dress was," Sue offered. She gestured at the fudge and caramel stains on Jeana's shirt.

"Hey! These toppings are hard to control!"

"I'm not having difficulty," Sue pointed out. About then, the whipped cream at the top gave way, dumping a syrup-coated cherry down onto Sue's head.

Jeana laughed until she was having trouble breathing. Jerry smiled and tried to help wipe the older woman clean. She sputtered and fought to breathe through the thick coating.

Then Jerry started laughing. Sue couldn't hold it in for long and joined him.

"Better go into the ladies' room," Jerry advised.

"We have a shower back in the port," Jeana said.

"I’m not walking into Duffy's house," Sue pointed out, "smelling like syrup. No. Even if he doesn't eat me, he'll lick me half to death."

That set Jerry off again. The countergirl carefully collected Sue in an empty glass bowl and carried her, still laughing, to the bathroom.

---------

Jerry rubbed his aching forehead, then suggested a drive to Idaho Falls the next weekend. "After I recover. There's... Well, not much to see, there," he said. "A few power plants. The first city to be powered by a nuclear pile. The waterfall. The, uh, the spaceship power plant project."

"Aren't there some Lilliputian engineers on the SPPP?" Sue asked.

"Oh, there might be," he replied.

"Like, the second largest concentration of Lilliputian personnel in the United States?" she went on.

"So..." Jeana guessed, "there might be a LittleBit store?"

"I think there's a whole mall," Jerry said. "If you were interested in spending time with people that didn't all tower overhead?"

"Where will you be?" Jeana asked her grandfather.

"They have a movie theatre," he said. "I'll drop you guys off and come back later."

"You sure?" she pressed. "I don't want you bored for my sake."

"He can be bored," Sue said. "I need to buy some lingerie." Jerry choked on his coffee. Sue smiled. "My panties are all... threadbare. I need something new to slide up my legs and over-"

"SUE! Are you flirting with my grandfather?"

"I think she's punishing me for getting drunk with a young adult in the house," Jerry said.

"Close enough," Sue said softly. Jeana didn't know if she was scandalized or horrified. Or both!

"Well," Jerry was saying, "I certainly deserved it." He got up and started to do the dishes. Sue smiled at the back of his head.

Jeana's eyes bugged at the expression. Sue WAS flirting! Sue caught Jeana's expression and merely shrugged.

--------

The Lilliputian Mall turned out to be a store in a human shopping mall. The stores got a break on their rent by being an attraction. The entire mall was on display, like a big ant farm.

Most stores kept part of their floor space visible to humans, though the windows were one-way mirrors. They had signs, "This Wall Transparent To The Biggies."

That kept shoppers and shopkeepers from feeling like they were under a microscope, but still warned people not to use the outer walls to adjust their bras or anything.

Most stores were partitioned so customers could completely avoid human scrutiny. The ones aimed at a younger demographic tended to flaunt their display status. The hip, urban store with drug-themed, sex-themed, indie and skeelie rock-artist-themed goods, Spinster's, actually had a totally transparent outer wall and on inner partitions.

Even half of their changing rooms were against the outer wall. Skeels showed their disdain for human examination by stripping naked in there at any opportunity, even to try on a new wristwatch.

Jeana wasn't quite ready to even go into that store. Sue shrugged and took her into Victoriette's Secrets. "Think your grandfather would like one of-"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! Do NOT make me think of my grandfather as a sexualized being, I beg of you."

"Okay," Sue said. "Think Duffy would like this peppermint flavored underwe-"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!"

The Food Court was a little expensive, but it was literally a taste of home. Lilliput crops would not grow anywhere but the islands, and the domesticated animals were almost as difficult.

Undomesticated animals were a different story. Lillirats had nearly replaced cockroaches in Charleston. Authorities of both scales had put a stop to any fauna leaving the islands.

But dead ones were okay and the women enjoyed some comfort food.

After a few hours, they had their packages sorted and were headed for the exit to meet Jerry.

Then two of The Guard stepped up, flashed ID and said, "Jeana Peterson? You need to come with us."

"Not without a much better introduction," Sue growled.

"Shut up, miss," one of the Guardsmen told her. "This is Crown business." Sue's head ducked down and she lowered her shopping bags.

"Are you going to fold him in half like the black ops guys do on TV?" Jeana asked.

"Go on and threaten Imperial Agent Suellellee one more time," the second Guardsman told the first. He blanched. The second kept on talking. "Miss Jeana, Agent Suellellee, if you would come with us to our office, we've been told that you need to contact Home. It's about your mother."

-----------

Jeana's knees were weak as they entered the Guard office. The desk Captain glanced down and saw Sue helping her walk through the door.

"Recall the guards," he muttered into a microphone. "They found her." He rushed down from his station to offer Jeana a chair. "Did my idiots make it clear to you that this is NOT bad news?"

"No." Sue's voice could have frightened a human cat at that moment. "They said the only details they had were about her mother."

"Good news?" Jeana asked, looking hopeful. The Captain ignored the Imperial agent as she turned to have a short discussion with his Guardsmen. If they'd caused unnecessary apprehension in this poor girl, he would leave them to her.

"We got word, the hospital and the Palace are trying to get a hold of you." He crouched down by her knee and pat it. "Your mom's okay. They need to wake her up for some tests, earlier than they'd planned."

"Yeah, they mentioned... But not for..." She glanced at her watch for the date. "I need to get back there."

"Well, that would be the reason people are trying to find you," he said cheerfully. "They figure they can either wake her up and explain why you're not there, or they can make sure you're the first person she sees."

He shrugged. "There's probably some medical reason to keep patients happy and calm, rather than agitated and lonely, but what do I know, eh?"

"So she's okay," Jeana smiled. "In fact... If she's healing faster than they expected..."

"I'm sure that's it," he said. He pat her again and stood. "So, there'll be a pilot from the Base here in about twenty minutes. There's an Imperial jump jet to take you to the Chreschtandille Air Base, then someone'll get you to the hospital.

"They say she'll be up for about a week, then a Royal plane'll bring you back."

"Oh, but I have to-" She paused as a loud smack sounded from someplace down the hall. She looked around and noticed that no one else was in the lobby. "Sue?"

"Just some interdepartmental training in manners," the Captain said. "She'll be done in a moment."

"Okay," Jeana shrugged. "But I have to tell my grandfather!"

"We found you by calling his cell," he explained. "He's on a bench outside, waiting." He looked back and forth, then leaned down. "I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight until you're on the jump jet.

"So. Do NOT go out that door, down the hall in the direction marked 'Fire Escape,' and down the stairs. You only have twenty minutes until the jet lands on the roof, so...."

He stood and turned to his desk just as Sue came back into the lobby. She looked a little less angry. The Captain approved of Imperial Agents being less angry. He gave her a nod and kept on walking.

"Where are you going?" He was facing the wrong direction to be able to swear he knew who was going and who was talking about it.

"To say goodbye to Grandpa!"

"Goodbye?"

"Come on, I'll explain on the way!"

He refused to look around to see if anyone had disobeyed his order. He had some Guardsmen to calibrate, just in case Sue had left anything to him.

--------

"No, it's GOOD news!" Jeana told her grandfather. "They're waking her up and they want me there and there's a jump jet and we'll go home, and when she's ready we'll come back."

"You're both going?" Jerry asked. "But they said..."

"Jump jets have one passenger, Jeana," Sue said.

"Oh."

"I'll, uh, I'll just stay at Jerry's," Sue said. "We'll meet you at the airport when you come back. You'll be in Lilliputian custody at all times, just not mine."

"I.... I'll miss you, then," she told the agent. Sue took her into a hug. She looked up at Jerry. "And, well, Grandpa, I'll, uh..."

"You'll miss Duffy," he said. "And he'll, uh, he'll miss you, too, Jeana."

A skylight in the mall's roof opened up. The humans were treated to the rare sight of a jump jet coming down to land on the Lillimall.

"Gotta go!" Sue shouted. Jerry picked the two up and carried them to the fire exit. He put them down on the platform. Sue opened the door and stepped inside, coming to a halt as Jeana paused. She stared up at her grandfather, feeling there should be some closure, but unable to think of what.

"Tell your mom I said...." Jerry said vaguely.

"I will," she promised. Then the jet's engines cut off and Sue yanked her into the hall. Jerry cleared his throat, then went back to sit, waiting for Sue to return.

----------

Jeana's pilot welcomed her, briefed her on the safety features of the Flimnap class jump jet, made her promise three times not to touch any controls, and promised her a quick and safe ride home. Then swore the entire flight.

There was no direct communication after takeoff, but between the vulgarity and the profanity, Jeana inferred that flying on biggie lands was dangerous.

Birds wouldn't get sucked into the engines, they'd sheer off the entire wing. Bugs would get sucked into the engines. So would dust, pollen, hail, airborne seeds and baby spiders.

Lt. Fefell kept a hearty string of swears going at every contact on the impact warning screen. It was a harrowing five hours over the human-occupied terrain. Jeana was afraid to interrupt the lieutenant, sure the slightest distraction would doom them both.

She watched as the distraught woman fought the controls and called on gods and demons alike. Then they passed the shore and the air lanes cleared enough for careful use of the autopilot.

Jeana saw the indicator on her panel, AUTOPLT ENGD. Fefell lowered her head once, took a deep breath, then apparently forgot the entire afternoon. "So. What are you studying in school?" she asked in a cheerful voice.

"Statistics," Jeana replied. "How, uh, how dangerous is Jump Jet travel? Over giants?"

"What? It's a walk in the park! Worry more about getting to the hospital. Streets in Plips are insane!"

Jeana watched an albatross overhead and wondered what Fefell would consider dangerous flying...

----------

Someone from the doctors' practice was waiting with a limo. She hardly touched ground before she was escorted to her mother's bedside.

Then she waited in the corner of the room until the waking procedure was completed. Doctor Geexie eased Jeana into position and stepped back.

Mom opened her eyes to find her daughter waiting patiently, smiling. She smiled back. "Hey. What's the date?"

"You say I'm not old enough to date," Jeana replied. "But if I am, there's a really cute guy at Reception..."

Her mother reached out and they held hands for a moment. A nurse stepped forward to ask some questions, then the doctor explained the progress of the treatment.

Mother and daughter held hands the entire time.

After all the medical speeches, status and tests were completed, they had some minutes alone until the results came back.

"So? Where have you been staying?" Mom asked.

"Gr... Grandpa's."

"Grand...?" Mom asked.

"Grandpa. Dad's dad. In Montana. I'm, uh, I'm staying in Dad's room." Mom stared. "But the Queen's got me fixed up with a Lilliport, and I'm in school every day, and I play fetch with Duffy-"

"Duffy? I remember a Dusty. Surely Dusty's not still alive that was..."

"Arumparum year ago," Jeana said, the standard euphemism for her mother's age.

"Arumparum and a day," Mom said. "Duffy must be Dusty's replacement."

Jeana stared, waiting for a reaction. "So, then, how's your grandfather?"

"Regretful," Jeana said. Mom nodded.

"What does he regret?" Her expression was cold, inflexible. Distant. Jeana crossed her fingers and started to talk quickly.

"He wasn't... The last thing he said to you? He says he didn't mean what he thinks you heard."

"What does he think..." Mom paused and waved that away. "What did he MEAN to say?"

"That Daddy accepted the risk. Because he loved you. Grandpa doesn't want you to feel guilty about it. He feels guilty about hurting you, but not about Daddy's death. And says you shouldn't. Oh!"

Before Mom could react to that, she remembered her wallet sized copy. She brought that out. "This was all I had on me when the jump jet came. But the original... Grandpa has gotten it framed and when I come back to stay, I'll bring it."

Mom stared at the photo. "Oh... Oh, my."

"Grandpa's been looking everywhere for that picture. But I found it. Well, Sue and I."

"Suellellee?"

"Yeah! You know her?"

"Yeah.... Well, your father did." She placed a hand over the picture. "John told me that was a hidden camera.   I never believed him. I thought he was just being... John."

"What were you doing?" Jeana asked. Mom smiled and started talking about her trip to Montana...
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