Demicore

Court Cases . Chapter 5

-"Phone calls? Loose provisions? It's been obvious for three weeks that Mom was going to pull through and be just fine and the provisions are still loose? Dad!" Sonya sank into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. Katlin and Erik exchanged what-the-hell-just-happened looks. And the smoke alarm went off alerting them that what was going to be the fried chicken for the sandwiches was quickly turning to charcoal. All three of them jumped up and started a flurry of motion around the kitchen grabbing the fire extinguishers, the lid to the skillet, the fire alarm and the windows.

When the smoke cleared and they all looked up, they saw Elizabeth leaning against the far wall with a smirk on her face, "A hundred some odd years later and you're still as absent minded as ever."

"How long have you been standing there?" Katlin and Sonya asked in unison.

"Why do you have something to hide?" she asked in reply, "Long enough to see you all dive for parts of the kitchen like you were trained by a special ops team and to hear your father swear at the state of the meal. Really, Erik, you're setting a poor example for your children."

They all burst into laughter. Even Elizabeth couldn't hold a straight face with that comment knowing that her children were at this point very much older than she herself was.

"So..." Erik searched his mind frantically trying to find something that would buy him some time to come up with a new plan for what to feed the four of them, "what brought you inside? I thought you were enjoying the rain."

"I smelled the smoke and wanted to make sure you didn't burn the house down. After all, it's on the old side."

Katlin took special note of how much Elizabeth was making cracks about time. "You smelled the smoke from out there? Early enough to see us diving for the fire extinguisher? Dad you really weren't kidding when you said Mom had a nose like a blood hound. Seriously. That's just weird." She tried to make light of the situation, but she did not believe that it had only been her nose that had brought Elizabeth in.

"How about peanut butter and jelly?" Sonya suggested, looking around the room and trying to read everyone's faces. Katlin was the one who had studied psychology for so many years, this should have been her job and yet, it looked to her like her mother was veiling something. If she were to admit to her herself, which she wouldn't do, she would have wondered why the veil seemed so visible to her - like it was almost tangible.

"I do believe we have plenty of peanut butter and the girls have gotten quite good at canning some home made jams from the wild blackberries we helped cultivate," Erik said as he started pulling the items from their respective places. Katlin got out the bread and knife.

"Wild blackberries that you cultivated?" Elizabeth asked, "Isn't that an oxymoron?"

"Not really. Wild blackberries are slightly different in size and shape than cultivated plants and they have slightly different needs as far as soil. We did much what your parents did when they brought the plants here from wherever. We planted them and encouraged them to grow however they would naturally. Since they did, we have reaped the fruits of that endeavor. The house here has become sort of a retreat for us, where we go when we need to reflect and can't elsewhere - which means that we do stuff like can and freeze food stuffs like you used to," Erik said, hardly stopping for a breath, hoping that she would accept his explanation.

Elizabeth smiled softly remembering having learned to can at her mother's side. A tear spilled over and ran down her cheek. Erik, for once, didn't have to ask what was wrong. He saw her looking at the pint size jar of blackberry jam and knew it was hitting her heart that her mother was not coming back. He walked over and slipped his arms around her, allowing her to lay her head on his shoulder and cry for a little while.

When she looked up at him she smiled softly again and told him, "The good thing about peanut butter sandwiches is that they are very good room temperature."

"I don't think they would be good wet, though," Katlin broke in, "so if you don't mind we will eat in here this afternoon."

The rain continued through the afternoon into the late evening. Erik made phone calls preparing some of the housing and such for Elizabeth's arrival. He asked the girls to make sure the hovercrafts were ready to go the next day. Then he turned to do the things he figured would be hardest: to explain to her what kind of differences there were in the rest of the world. As of yet, she hadn't accepted any of them.

"Elizabeth," he walked into the living room to find her sitting on the couch next to where her and her mother's bodies had lain so many years prior, "we need to talk." He sat down next to her, his demeanor as serious as it had been since she could remember. She smiled gently, sensing that a moment of truth had finally come but not sure what it would reveal.

"There have been so many changes to our great nation that you might not recognize it..." Erik began.

"The pioneers would not have known what to do with the civil rights movements, either. I expected that when I was forced to accept the time difference, why are you making such a big deal of it?" she asked, feeling like there was something else and not understanding why he seemed to be making such a mountain out of a molehill.

Erik just gazed at her for a few moments, remembering the solid rock her faith was actually built on and how much she could overcome if she believed. He thought of all the things she had accepted or started to accept in the past few weeks. "I almost forgot how strong you are sometimes," he told her with the hint of a smile playing at his lips. She blushed just a little.

"Ok, so... if we are going to prepare you for what's out there, I should start by telling you some of the big things that are different, shouldn't I?" Erik delved into the topic with fervor as though he were explaining a new invention to an intern thirsty for knowledge. They talked about the hovercraft they would be using to travel and how they were very useful, about the oil crisis and how they had learned to make engines that actually did run on alcohol and emit water, he got into the aftermath of the court cases and how the suits he filed against the government got national recognition.

The real changes started, he said, was when he started winning some of those cases. Anyone above the age of sixteen could now carry a weapon so long as they were proficient with it and did not have a criminal record. "Like Switzerland, only it isn't mandatory. This is, after all, the land of the free. It's optional - but we do have that option under the Second Amendment."

She laughed. He had always thought something like that should happen in the States. He looked like a kid in a candy store telling her about how they had put trial after trial in front of the Supreme Court - all financed because Katlin at 9 years old had discovered a knack for stocks. He admitted that they had not been looking for fame or to lead a movement like that, but that he did enjoy the lime light more than he thought he would - only because it was for a just cause, of course. They laughed at having had to go to court because Katlin was a child protégé. Several companies accused her of having inside information... then they met her and accused her father.

"More court cases?" Elizabeth asked in horrified amusement. "The girls must have known our judicial system inside out by the time they were teenagers!"

"Yes, but they also knew a couple of forms of martial arts, how to orate to a large crowd, and their associate's degrees, bachelor's soon to follow," he replied with pride.

"By the time they were teenagers?"

"Yes. You should have seen them in their 20's. It was fantastic..." he went on to talk about the kids more before finally getting back to how the world had changed since she knew it well. The morning sun found them asleep on the couch gently wrapped around each other.