Thad thought, "Oh, they'll learnhow to sink soon enough!"
It was a Thursday night, and asideform the surf pounding the shore it was quiet, way too quiet for mytastes at the time.
"It's been a while," I said toGarrison. "Do you still know how to do this?" I asked, wanting myprotector to start doing just that.
Gary ignored my barb andexplained, "We have to kill all three of them, but they only haveto kill you to end each fight. I'll occupy Thaddeus and you goafter those rambunctious twins. Use their enthusiasm againstthem."
I then looked out into thedistance and asked, "What about your daughter?"
"The only way she'll learn is toget killed a few times."
I asked, "When are you going tohave the talk with her?"
And before he could answer me,Sharon had zipped over and interjected, "The talk about what? Monalready gave me that talk!" she huffed, trying to make me believethat she was mature and ready for anything.
We both weren't in the mood tomake a big deal about it, so Gary replied, "You are a protector,and we have to protect Mr. Hartwell over here, who happens to be avampire!"
I played my part by revealing myfangs and wings, which caused her to gasp and step back at first,but then she wondered about her father and asked, "What can youdo?"
Gary rolled his eyes, almostresenting being treated like some carnival freak. So he stood upand revealed his evolutionary tract: wolf, hippopotamus, Orcakiller whale and bottlenose dolphin. He turned back into his humanform and then sat down on an Adirondack chair and challenged, "Nowyou."
All of the confidence and falsebravado drained from Sharon's being as I was able to see her forwho she really was for the first time, an inexperienced teenagegirl.
Her face turned red after a fewseconds of holding her breath and trying to force a turn to one ofher other personas. Gary was about to stand up and play the part ofthe instructive, yet impatient parent, but as usual, I took theled.
"Attack me!" I said to Garyinternally over and over again, but he refused to comply. I pushedhim and yelled "Attack me!" again and he finally understood what Iwas doing, so he came at me with a clenched fist. His aggressionmust have caused some kind of instantaneous chemical reaction,because Sharon turned into a snarling wolf and then jumped into theair as a dolphin and poked him away from me with her nose. Heobviously wasn't appreciative of the deflection, although part ofhim was proud to finally have another member of his lineage in thefamily business.
Gary turned into a whale andrested on top of his dolphin daughter until she realized that shecould also turn into a whale, thus producing a protector stalemate.Gary turned back into his human form and the so di Sharon, as theysat in the sand.
"That was fun" she exuberantlyyelled.
Gary looked at me and saidinternally, "Just wait and see how much fun she has at the end of asharpened blade in a few hours!"
And I thought to myself, "It willhappen so fast that she probably won't even remember her firsttime!"
Meanwhile, down in the farm inKansas, Thaddeus was trying to summon the strength to tell his wifethat they had to move from their 30-acre haven.
"The kids can work a farm like no10 people I have ever seen!" Mary Brewster gushed as she foldedsome laundry, there was always dirty twin laundry.
"We have to move!" Thad blurtedout, as the pressure of the moment finally percolated.
Mary laughed as she continued tofold clothes she had just removed from the line.
"You've been out in the sun toolong!"
And then she noticed a seriouslook on his face, which was a similar look on her father's facebefore he went off to war.
A chill ran down and back up herspine, "Is there a war that's about to start that I don't knowabout?"
Thad showed no external reactionto that question, because a war was about to hit the play buttonafter years of being on pause, and their kids would be enlistingright behind him.
"I found out this week that wehave an abundance of chemicals in the soil that could be harmful toour health."
Thad was telling the truth, but itwas something he had known for quite some time. He had knowinglyput his wife's health at risk because he knew that he and the kidswere in no immediate danger.
"Oh my gosh. What are we going todo? We have just enough money to live on, but not to move," shestated as the family's bookkeeper.
While Thad and his counterpartGary appeared to spend much of their time reclining, Thad had takenup robbing banks while Gary sold lobsters and other seafood tolocal restaurants for immense profits. This creating accountingproduced some impressive off-balance sheet financing.
Short of telling Mary about hisvery lucrative late-night hobby, Thad had to bring her to theshallow end of the pool with swimmies.
"My new employer, a hospital, isgoing to pay for us to move."
Thad couldn't believe he said theword "hospital!" His first thoughts were builder and then bank, butthen he thought about blood and the word "hospital" breached hislips.
Mary cocked her head andquestioned, "A hospital? What are you going to do in ahospital?"
This time, Thaddeus said the firstthing that came into his mind, "There are opening a new blood bankand they want me to manage the operations."
Mary was going to question herhusband's credentials to manage blood abut remembered how calm andefficient he always was around it. She continued with small talk asshe became more comfortable with the idea.
"Remember that time I bumped myhead in the barn and blood was everywhere? You were so calm andeven stitched up the gash in my head. What is a bloodbank?"
"It's like a regular bank withblood," Thad replied and then went a little deeper. "People of allblood types put blood aside for other people in need of atransfusion."
Now, this was in the days beforethe internet, which made it much easier to find jobs in differentareas of the country and world.
"How did you even know of theposition?"
"A friend of mine on the EastCoast sent me a telegraph specifying his interest in having memanage the clinic. I
