Fire Book One

Tym woke up with Walter curled up covering the foot of the bed.  Tym sat up and looked around.  The sun had not yet set; his backpack was still where Walter had left it.  The man was not here.  'I could leave,' Tym thought.  That was probably the best.  He got out of bed and Walter watched him with one eye.  He looked around for his clothes.  He found the stuff he had in his pockets but his clothes were gone.  He quickly checked his backpack.  He did have another pair of underwear and pants.  His coat was there too.  "Walter, I think we better go." 

Walter whined but didn't move off the bed.

"You think we should stay with the man?"

Tail wags.

"I guess you're right.  He hasn't hurt us, yet.  Okay Walter, we'll try, but if he does anything, we go."

"Woof."

Tym pulled the old laptop out of his backpack.  "Sure hope you didn't bang it around too much."

Walter whined.

Tym plugged in the transformer and then climbed back into the bed.  The computer came to life and the Wi-Fi card picked up the wireless network, which was also connected to the man's computer.  Soon he had logged on and checked one of his favorite sites.  There was a new story, 'Christmas for Andreu' in the Dragon Earl universe.  He began reading.  About half way through the story, he quickly shut his laptop when he heard the man returning.

The man came into the room, "So you're awake.  Good boy, Walter."  The man set the bags he was carrying down on the bed.  He went and made a couple more trips.  "Would you by chance be interested in a piece of Pizza?"

Tym's eyes opened wide, "Yes, sir, please, sir."

"Ho, ho, ho, Well, let's get the table set up here, lad."  Tym jumped off the bed and helped.  Soon he had a slice of 'meat-lovers', a glass of milk, and was chowing down.  The Veggie pizza was going begging, 'Guess Buddhists aren't vegetarians, must be Hindus,' the man thought.  The man looked through the bags and withdrew two huge dog bowls and opened a bag of Puppy Chow for Walter. 

Tym ate the lion's share of the pizza and was soon pleasantly full for the first time in months.  Walter was stretched out at the foot of the bed.  The man opened a package of Oreos and dunked one in his glass of milk.  "For some reason I always seem to crave cookies and milk this time of year."

Tym giggled and just said, "Duh."

The TV in the room had cable (or satellite) and soon Tym was cuddled with Walter watching Animal Planet.  The man turned on his computer and busily communicated with his boss.  By 9:00 Tym was sleeping so the man lifted him off Walter and put him in bed.  The man then went and took a shower after removing several globs of dog hair, enough to make a couple of Chihuahuas.  He put on his red silk PJ's  and climbed into bed too. 

The man awoke with a crushing feeling in his chest.  Then he heard the crying and came fully awake.  Walter was lying across him so he could lick the crying boy.  The man managed to get Walter to move which made breathing much easier.  He pulled Tym into his arms and held him while he cried. 

Tym slowly became aware of his surroundings and that the man was holding him.  "I was having a very scary dream, I was in big trouble and then I woke up."

"Sometimes dreams can be like that.  I was having one too.  Strange thing I was trying to rescue some kid." the man said.

"Woof!" Walter commented then gave the Man a nice juicy doggy kiss.

Wiping the dog slobber off his face the man said, "Okay kid since we're all up let's get on the road we got lots of ground to cover.  I got you some new clothes.  Now if we stop somewhere today you be my grandson, that's our story."

Tym gave the man a big hug, "Okay, Granpa!"

"Ho, ho, ho."

*  *  *  Haven Manor six o'clock AM Christmas Eve  *  *  *

 Mitch, Travis and Brian all came fully awake at the same time.  Mitch said, "That was a very weird dream, I remember seeing Ginger like that in another dream."

Travis added, "I was a Herald again, and Max was my Companion."

"This is really weird, guys, cause I think I was a Squire to Neal, who was a Knight. Jeez, come on! Neal a Knight?" Brian said. "Although, he did look really cool in that amour." he giggled.   "I've never had a dream like that one before."

Mitch patted Brian gently, on the back and said, "Brian, we've had dreams like that before.  I know it doesn't make a lot of sense right now, but I'm sure it's a warning for us to be on the lookout for something."

"But what?" Brian asked.

"TICKLE ATTACK!" Travis yelled, and the serious mood was suddenly broken.

This didn't last long, since they all had to pee pretty badly.  Soon they were dueling with their streams, Brian won.  The twins called foul, since he was a year older.

*

The three boys took a quick shower together and dressed for the day.  They headed for the dining room and were the first there and loaded up on the bacon and scrambled eggs.

As all the kids were very excited at breakfast, they ate quickly, and disappeared.  A little later Neal came back, looking for Martha.  He found her in the library, and asked her quietly, if she could help them with something important.  Since she didn't know when, or if, Nick would be dropping by, she gladly followed Neal as he led her down a seldom used passage.

"Neal, look at this magnificent kitchen!  This is bigger than the regular kitchen Mrs. Johnson uses." Martha said.

"Uh huh, We used it to cook dinner at Thanksgiving, and we need to do a bunch of cookin' again now. We're having a whole bunch'a guests and we need to cook everything for Christmas.  Could you help us plan it all out?" Neal asked, using his patented puppy dog look.

"Let's see what you have planned,"  Martha looked in the refrigerator and there were turkeys, hams and beef roasts, vegetables, fruits and a bag of commercial cookie dough.  "Neal, just how many is a bunch, by the way?"

"Ah, bout a hundred. Oh yeah, and their parents and all, too, I guess," Neal replied, sheepishly.

"This sounds a lot like the kind of thing Grandma used to do on holidays. I remember when I was your age, helping her get it all ready; it was really fun to do.  Well, we can use just about everything, but, I will have nothing to do with that crappy commercial Cookie Dough. You might as well toss your cookie dough away. We'll make our own.  Who will be helping us?"  Martha tied on an apron and got ready to work. She was beginning to get into her Mothering mode.

"Let's go ask." Neal suggested.

Neal and Martha quickly went back out to where the kids were checking the list of presents, for the second time.  Martha got their attention, "Who would like to help us cook the Christmas Goose?" she asked.

This was met with absolute dead silence, then little Genny burst into tears and ran to Pat for comfort, and Martha was met with some pretty angry glares from the rest.  Neal suddenly realized what the problem was.  "No, silly, not 'Goos' the dragon, goose the bird."

"Oh! That's different, Never mind." and then laughter and everyone volunteered.  Mitch, Travis and Andy were quickly filled in on who 'Goos' was. 

Martha grinned, "I had no idea you all were reading that story.  I Just' love it."  {Str8mayb hands TSL his 'Haven Express' card to pay all the royalty fees for blatantly stealing his characters.}

*

In the den Lee was working on his plan to propose to Linda.  He had a list of romantic things he wanted to include in the evening.  Dinner, roses, dancing, champagne and of course chocolate, lots and lots of rich dark chocolate. 

"What cha doin'?"

"Trying to workout the perfect way to ask you to marry me."

"What??!

"Oh SHIT! I didn't mean to say that out loud."

"Yeah, I know, and it's about time. Oh, Lee! Yes, Yes, YES!"

Suddenly Lee's lap was full of kissing, hugging female.

"But I had plans..."

"I don't care, this seems just perfect to me."

Lee squirmed around a bit and finally withdrew a ring box from his pocket.  "I bought this before Graduation and finally get to use it."  He opened the box and took out the ring, "Linda, will you marry me?"

"Of course I will.  Oh, Lee, I'm so happy." Linda said.

"Me too."  They were back to kissing, for quite awhile.

*

Lt. Brown, Sheriff Henry, Jr. Agent Zimberlist and Nick entered the car rental office.  The manager was there waiting for them.  He had refused to give the GPS codes to them the night before.  He had ranted and raved about this being a police state and we couldn't just walk in and demand information.  Nick would have liked to punch his lights out but Sheriff Henry had simply replied, "Thank you sir, We will be back and with all due process obtain the requested information.  As the law requires I must instruct you not to tamper in any way with the information that that has been requested or face federal evidence tampering charges."

Outside, Eric hadn't been so nice, "That son of a bitch, he thinks he can do whatever he wants. Well, Effie, think you can get that federal warrant by morning?"

"Not a problem.  I want to make the little prick sorry he treated us like shit."  Agent Zimberlist wasn't very happy at the moment. 

  So it was with a broad smile the next morning that the Sheriff handed the manager an envelope.  "Here you go Mr. Jamison."  He turned to the three clerks and customers.  "I'm sorry folks; this office is closed until we have completed our search of the records.  Everyone will have to leave at once."

Mr. Jamison turned red and screamed, "You can't do that!  It will cost me my job!"

Nick said, calmly, "Yes he can, that envelope contains a Federal search warrant.  And the other envelope he has is a warrant for your arrest on charges of obstruction of justice.  You'd better leave before he hands that one to you."

"But, but..."

The sheriff took another envelope out of his pocket; Mr. Jamison left the premises quickly.

Nick went right to the file cabinets and soon had Duckman's file.  He went to the copier and made a copy of the information they needed and then went to the board with all the keys and soon had the spare keys and remote.  Sheriff Henry was busy in the Manager's office and Nick went to see what he was doing.

"Hey Nick, I thought that was anatomically impossible."  Eric said, as Nick joined him in the office.

Nick looked at the computer screen.  "The guy must be part dog.  It's a good thing more of us can't do that or nothing would ever get done.  I got what we need."

"No rush.  I want that little prick to sweat for a while.  Let's shuffle his files in here, just for the hell of it."  The other's joined him and two hours later, they left, after re-filing all the files alphabetically by the clients' middle name.  Copies of interesting anatomically unusual performances that the manager had on the company computer had been somehow forwarded to the main office.  It was with big smiles that they left the building, not bothering to lock up after themselves, and headed back to the fire scene,

At the fire scene they looked around again.  It was looking like Snow [or was it Shorty's Christmas?] and Nick went to check out the barn.  He found what he was looking for and returned with a couple of large tarps and some rope.  Meanwhile Jr. agent Effie Zimberlist had put the codes into her GPS unit and had a flashing marker on the screen.  It's here alright; across the road, somewhere in those trees.  The four headed across the road.  Nick took out the remote, and clicked the unlock button and there were flashing lights to their left.  The Hummer was quite far into the forested area, well off the road and well hidden.  When they reached it, Effie put on a pair of latex gloves and did a quick search, and then she climbed in and grinned broadly, when it started right up.  The men headed back, and she drove it over to meet them.

Sure enough, Dukman's case notes were in plain sight, on the passenger seat.  Nick put on his latex gloves, picked them up, and started reading.  He hadn't read very much when he began laughing.

The others gathered around, and Nick said. "That ass hole was trying to write a book.  His case notes are horrible, they read like a third-grader's attempt at writing.  Listen to this, "The FBI agent bravely entered the house; he knew the dogs would leave him alone, since he had proven he was the Alpha Male on his last visit."  That caused a great deal of laughter.

Effie said, "I'll take that rubbish, and get copies to each of you.  I guess we'd better wrap it up and go enjoy what's left of Christmas Eve."

Lt. Brown and Sheriff Henry helped Nick get the tarps spread over the ruins to protect the things still in the basement from any further damage.  After that, they split up and Nick headed over to Haven to see Martha.
 
*

In the kitchen, Martha had the boys all working diligently to prepare different parts of the Christmas feast.  Travis and Brian were preparing the hams, with brown sugar and cloves.  They were having a great time, sticking all those cloves in the hams.  They liked making patterns but Andy did make them redo one of them. {TSL, it was an anatomically correct Pat part.}

"You know Brian, things are really nice now.  After Juvy and all, my Dad and your Dad are so nice.  We done good, huh?"

"Yeah, I'll say.  That place was so terrible I wish we could own it and get it straightened out.  There really were some good kids in there, but they don't have a chance 'cause there ain't any adults there that care.  The bullies just do whatever they want."

"Yeah, and not many kids that care about anybody but themselves.  I didn't even know you cared." Travis told Brian.

"I was so scared.  So many of the bullies picked on me I thought if I showed I cared about somebody they would pick on them to get at me.  It wasn't till Neal came that it was better for me.  He stood up to the bullies, of course he was their age and as big as they were.  He got it bad when he was moved up to the big guys dorm.  He came close to being killed.  I thought he was going to die when he snuck back to our hiding place."

"Wow, he seems okay now.  How long ago was that?"

"Hard to believe but just like seven or eight months ago.  He told Dad about me and got me rescued.  I'd sure like to save those other kids."

"Maybe someday we can."  Travis said and the two shook hands on it.

Somewhere deep in the computer network, 'Philip' began a search of ownership on the facility that the boys called Juvy. After all, 'Philip' could no more allow the boys still living at Juvy to suffer, than he could allow anyone living under his roof to do so.

*

Just as everyone was converging on the dining room for lunch, Nick arrived.  He had intended to take Martha to his place and fix her a gourmet lunch, but she flat out told him she wasn't leaving when there was so much baking to do.  Soon Nick had volunteered his 'meager' skills to help.  Even after he was told they had to cook about fifty dozen cookies.

After lunch, all the kids joined in the fun for the cookie fest.  Martha's plan was to make an assembly line, with her rolling out the dough, and the kids cutting, decorating, and baking them.  Nick was awed by the kitchen. He explored the cabinets and he soon had set up a separate assembly line for himself, making Christmas Tree Shaped Cookies with the Cookie Gun.  He found a huge supply of various shapes from which to choose. Then he made up some Russian Tea Cookies, and then Ginger Bread Men.  He was doing the Ginger Bread Men when Martha noticed how at home he was in the kitchen, and then she realized he was really turning out huge amounts of the cookies.  It looked like he had made about thirty dozen Christmas Tree Cookies, Thirty Dozen Russian Tea Cookies and was on about the Fifteenth Dozen Ginger Bread men.  She was only on about twenty five dozen of her wonderful Sugar Cookies. She hadn't even started on the Thumb cookies or the Snickerdoodles. [What no "Cinmon Crumbles"?] She had made about twenty dozen Deep Dark Chocolate Chunk cookies, and was preparing the dough for the next batches. 'It's a good thing there are several ovens' she thought, 'Maybe we can get these finished in time to serve them tomorrow'.

Martha eventually took a break and walked over to sample Nick's work.  She was half prepared for something along the lines of Helga's cookies.  She was very wrong about that. Her mouth fell open as she bit into one of his creations. They were absolutely delicious, all of them. She managed to sample his whole variety.  "Nick? How?"

He looked up and saw Martha standing there with a headless Ginger Bread Man, dangling from one hand and her mouth open wide.  "Martha, I'm surprised you don't know." He managed to say with an almost completely straight face.   "Well you start with flour, eggs..." He managed to get out before Martha took her sweet revenge, both of them giggling like school kids.

He ducked to avoid being hit by the dish towel she threw at him.  "These are delicious, sweetheart. How did you learn to cook like this?"

"Just part of my studies at the CIA school, Culinary Institute of America, the pastry course, of course."

"Oh, Nicky, you sure are full of... surprises."

"Just wait and see.  I have a real big surprise for tomorrow.  Sorry sweetheart, this surprise isn't for you, but it is for some people you love." Nick told her.

"If it's for people I love, then it's for me."  She gave Nick a big kiss, right on his lips, to the cat calls of a kitchen full of kids. "Way to go, Aunt Martha!!" they all chorused.

*

After dinner, everyone gathered in the family room.  The adults were on the couches, and the kids were on the floor.  They watched the required 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer' and 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'.  When those were over Tom said, "Hey Neal, I've got an idea; why don't you go get that A+ story of yours, and read it to us."

"DAAAAAAADDDDDD!!!! Jeez!" Neal whined.

"Yeah Neal, go ahead and read it to 'em" Pat (Boobless) said. "I already looked at it, and it is real good. I know they would like it."

Soon all the kids and adults were pestering Neal to read the story.  Finally, Neal left, and returned with the paper. "Okay! You talked me into it."

For revenge at being embarrassed about having to read aloud in front of everyone, he kicked Tom and Leo out of the comfortable overstuffed chair they were snuggled in together.  He sat down, maneuvered himself into a nice comfortable position, and began:

FRED'S GIFT

A Christmas story by Neal Richards

Fred, what kind of elf name was that?  Not even Fredrick, just Fred.  To make matters even worse, he had a very rare genetic disorder that caused a total lack of sparkle on his cheeks, and even worse his ears were hideously deformed, they looked just like human ears.  As a matter of fact, Fred looked just like a ten-year-old human boy.  It didn't matter that he was born before Columbus was. 

Now Fred liked Human kids, he tended to put more of them on the 'GOOD' list than really belonged there.  He lacked the magic to change a bad kid to a good kid, but he wanted all kids to be good.  Santa had discovered what Fred was doing and so now the list was double checked each and every year.  Fred hadn't changed a list in over a hundred years, but they still didn't trust him.  He was just a ball tester now, bounce the ball, hour after hour, day after day, it was driving him crazy.

So he was almost at the end of his Elven rope when he got the summons.  He had to wait outside The Office for twenty minutes.  When he was called, he walked nervously into the Big Guy's office.

"Ho. Ho. Ho.  Come on in and have a seat, Fred."

"Thank you, sir."

"I would like to offer you a new position.  It would mean travel, and not being here a good part of the year."

Fred, thought his dreams were coming true, "Can you tell me more, sir?"

"Ho. Ho. Ho.  Of course I can.  Each year there are children that aren't on either list.  I need to find out if they are naughty or nice.  I need someone who can fit into the human world.  Since you look just like a little boy, I thought you would be perfect for the position. No need to change you with Magic or anything like that."

"Well, I don't know a lot about how to fit in, sir, but I would like to try."

Fred spent the next two weeks studying Humans, and getting his magic tuned to make sure it would be useful to him.  Finally, he was assigned a reindeer; No, not one of the well known ones, a third string misfit like himself, named Bartholomew.  Fred immediately shortened his partner's name to Bart.  Besides flying, Bart was invisible to Human eyes, which was very handy for undercover work.  He could also make his rider invisible as long as they were in contact with each other.

And so, late one October night, Fred and Bart left the North Pole and headed for Baltimore.

Fred watched as the boy he was following bumped into the woman, opened her purse and extracted a few dollars, all the while apologizing for being clumsy.  This was the sixth one today.  Now the boy headed down an alley. Fred called Bart, who arrived instantly and as soon as Fred could, they disappeared to make it much easier to follow the boy.  About twenty minutes later, the kid went into what looked like an abandoned building, through a window.  Since there was no way for Bart to get in, Fred decided he was going to have to befriend the boy.  It wasn't long before the boy came back out and a mean sounding voice was yelling at him about getting so little.

Fred sent Bart away, once they were back to the main street.  He followed the boy and made sure the kid saw him following.  Finally the kid came up to him, "Look you, bug off!  You're bringing attention to us, and that ain't good."

"Nope, not good at all," Fred handed the kid a wad of cash.

"What do you think you're doing?  Don't flash that around like that.  Come on, follow me."  The kid led Fred back into the nearest alley.  "Okay, what's your name?"

"Fred."

"Okay, where you from, Fred?"

"Up North."

"Cool, look, you been here long?"

"Just got here."

"You got any skills?"

"Skills? Like picking pockets?"

"Yeah, what else can you do?"

"Not much useful stuff.  I can judge character pretty good, and I'm good at bouncing balls."

"Show me."

Fred pulled six small balls out of his pocket, and did a cross between juggling and magic, and then held his pocket out and the balls all went right in.

"Crap!  That was awesome!  Can you teach me?"

"I don't know.  It will take some time.  I don't have anyplace to stay, so I'll have to move on, I guess."

"No way, Fred.  You come and stay with us.  Jewel will let you, if I ask him."

"You think he will?"

 "I don't see why not.  By the way, I'm Joe."

"Hi Joe, it's nice to meet you."

"Wow, you're polite too.  Okay, follow me."  Joe led the way to the place he called home. 

Jewel did let Fred stay for awhile, and Fred taught the seven boys how to do a few tricks with the balls and some simple slight-of-hand kind of magic (not any of the real stuff).  About a week before Christmas, he left and returned to The North Pole.

Fred waited outside 'The Office' and finally was admitted, with instructions to only take a few minutes of 'The Big Guy's' time.

"Ho. Ho. Ho. Fred.  How did it go?" Santa asked.

"Not too well, Santa, I'm afraid.  I don't know how to evaluate those boys.  They were doing bad things, but they are in a very bad situation.  Inside, they are actually good boys still, but they have to survive.  In different situations, they would definitely be good boys."

"Fred, do you think anyone is naughty and not nice?"

"Oh, yes, sir.  Jewel is not good at all. I would put him right at the top of the naughty list.  He was not even nice as a little boy."

"So, what would you do for them, if you were Santa?"

"Well, that's easy; if I was Santa, I would find them a better life.  I would give them a chance at happiness."

"Ho. Ho. Ho. Fred, you are incredible. Do you know that?  Take the week off.  I've got a new job for you, starting on the day after Christmas."

"Right," said Fred.

Fred enjoyed his week off.  He was waiting, with the rest of the elves when Santa returned.  Everyone gasped when they realized Santa was not alone, there were seven boys with him, ranging in age from four to ten sitting right there in the sleigh.

"Ho. Ho. Ho.  Merry Christmas!  Another good year, my Subordinate Clauses, Tis time to relax, and begin preparing for next year.  Fred? Where is Fred?"

Fred ran forward, 'The Big Guy' was asking for him, in front of everybody.  One of the boys in the sleigh stood up and yelled, "Hey, Fred!  How'd you get here?  Guys, It's Fred!" Joe yelled, and pointed to Fred.

The Sleigh drew to a stop, and the seven youngsters came running to greet their friend.  Santa climbed down and joined them.  "Boys, you have met Fred, he is going to be your foster Dad."

"Really?  How is that possible?  He's my age." 

"Ho. Ho. Ho. No, Not quite, although we consider Fred a youngster, he is actually five hundred fifty six years old."  Santa patted Fred on the shoulder.  "Now Fred, your new job is to raise these boys to be good men, so that they will be able to return to the Human world and save more children. Just like you did.  It is my gift to you, and yours to the children.  Merry Christmas."

Neal put the paper down on his Lap and took a deep breath.

There was stunned silence.   Neal looked up and every pair of eyes was glued to him.  Moe began clapping, and soon the room erupted in applause and congratulations. 

When things quieted down, Tom reached up from the floor where he and Leo had snuggled together, and took the paper away from Neal, "Guys, dig this. This is what his teacher wrote on the paper.  
Short, sweet and good; what more can you ask for? Great Job Neal; you have a soul as well as a heart."

Everyone agreed, and Tom told them that it was Christmas Eve and they needed to go to bed.  Of course, there were moans and groans all around, but soon the room was empty of kids, and the Adults spent an hour or so in conversation, then they went and retrieved their presents, and stacked them neatly, under the tree.

When all was done, Tom and Lee shared Santa's Cookies and Milk.  Then Nick headed home, but Linda was going to be using the bedroom next to Lee's. 

*

After a long day, the van stopped by the side of the country road.  It is after eleven o'clock at night.  There were no lights anywhere in sight. The only light there was, was from the beautiful stars.  The bearded man checked the sleeping boy, then quietly let Walter out for a walkabout.  The mammoth dog took quite a bit of time and explored the area right around the van and then did his business, while the man put on his special clothes so he could assume his new persona. He had done it many times before. He just had to be extra careful, so as not to alarm the boy he was taking on the long ride. The man hoped this would be the only he would need to do this deed; he had been set to do. He then, as quietly as possible, he got back in the van and checked the list attached to the clipboard, a second time, to be sure he hadn't missed anything.  He waited another ten minutes, then as gently as he could; he pulled back onto the road.  He drove slowly since he was not using his headlights, around the next turn he saw his target.  It hadn't changed in all these years.  He pulled out his cell phone and dials a number he had memorized.

"We're here."

"Don't worry; I took care of the kid."

"I fed the dog, he thinks I'm Santa, and will do whatever I tell him.  Besides, I may need him later."

"Of course I got the gun. You hounded me about it every day for over a month; I found exactly the one you wanted.  Don't worry, I can do this.  I've used one before.  Sometimes you worry too much."

"Okay, boss, deactivate the security and open the gate before some nosy busy body spots us."

The gate in front of them opened and the red light turned green when the road was clear.

The van pulled through the security gates and the bearded man followed the directions he received on the phone as he drove around to the back of the building and parked in front of a pair of double doors.  Again he got out of the van, and this time he went to the doors, his accomplice unlocked them with a loud click, and he entered the dimly lit room.  Just as he had been promised, the alarm had been deactivated.  He returned to the van and carried the boy's limp body into the building and over to the far end of the warehouse sized room, to where there was an old couch.  He lay the kid down and covered him with the afghan that was draped over the back of the couch, almost as if it had been placed there for just such situations as this.

Walter explored the immediate area outside and watched suspiciously as the man unloaded the van.  Box after box was carefully moved into the room.  When the van was empty, the man patted his thigh for Walter and followed the mastiff inside.  He closed the massive door, which locked automatically, and walked across the room, carrying the gun.  It looked like all was ready; the man sat in the large relaxing, in fact, very comfortable, overstuffed chair and leaned the gun carefully against the chair so it wouldn't fall, to wait for dawn. 

He took out his cell, and dialed.  "Where are you now?"

"Okay, the gate is open.  Pull around back and park behind my van.  I'll see you after I finish my little surprise."

He leaned back in the very comfortable chair and rested his eyes, waiting for the rest of his plan to unfold.  Walter lay down in front of the couch where the boy was sleeping, and soon was having happy puppy dreams.  The man's eyes drooped, and he soon was sleeping lightly, so the least sound would awaken him.

Author's Note:
Thank you TSL for the teacher's remark on Neal's story.
I'm scaring myself with this bearded guy.  I just hope Walter and Tym haven't made a big mistake about him.  I hope something happens to explain all of this.  Neal and Mitch are not letting me know either, so hold on I have this feeling Chapter 16 will be a doozie.  
Am I evil enough to have a terrible thing happen on Christmas?  Yeah, but will I?  Sure wish I knew.
Let me know what you're thinking str8mayb@paddedroom.us

Editor's Note:

I wonder what that bearded man is up to. Is he good or is he bad, or maybe he is just plain nervous.  Well, Maybe by the next chapter, we will find out. How many dozen cookies were finally baked? I don't think that extremely important fact was brought to our attention. Heck, We could go the rest of our life, and find that it was actually completely, true.  Now where did those cookies go?
Darryl
AKA The Radio Rancher

Fort Chief Editor's Notes:

First of all Str8mayb we do except Haven Express on Draconis and also thank you very much for sharing my stories and characters with your readers. 'Goos' says thank you very much also and I know Jonah and Andreu will as soon as they read this chapter.

The Cookie Baking Contest was a lot of fun as was the total silence when the kids thought Martha was going to cook 'Goos' for Christmas DinnerJ.

           Neal seems to be developing into quite a level headed young man; now if we could only say that about his Evil Author!!! I am not sure what to say about the ending to this chapter, is it a cliffhanger or not? Is the bearded man evil or good and who is he? To paraphrase a hackneyed old quote "Only the 'Philip' knows" well it looks like we will have to wait until the next chapter to find out.

Til we fly again,

TSL and 'Goos' AKA The Story Lover and Gustavo