Chapter 35
Stop Saying That!
The door slammed.
General, three points, nothing but net.
He told me Robert would be mad when he got home.
He was mad.
I didn’t think he would be.
Oh, he always gets upset when I claim we are first cousins, but he really should expect it by now.
“Lee Ann, I don’t even know where to begin.”
I handed him two aspirin.
“Thanks.”
He’s not really shouting.
I’m not sure if I know that look on his face at all.
“How the hell do you know a General?”
Seriously, after everything that had happened, that is his first question.
“I told you.
He came to my class yesterday.”
“No. No. He was acting like he knows you.”
“Yes. I met him yesterday.”
I paused, and considered what he was looking for.
I gave a teaspoon of information.
I was hoping it would clarify my actions earlier.
“The general is from Alabama too.”
“What does that have to do with anything?
Wait… do you know him from Alabama?
Is that how he knows you?”
“No.
I met him for the first time yesterday.
I told you all about it.
In my classroom, remember?”
“The colonel was insulting the general when he said that about me and Alabama.
That’s why I said what I did.”
“Lee Ann, I don’t care about that.
Wait, you seriously have to stop telling people we’re first cousins.
It’s just weird.”
“How do you know the general?
He was talking to you like you were friends.”
“Well, I guess we are friends. I met him yesterday.”
“People don’t get that close in one day.”
There is so much I want to say that I know you will never understand.
“Then I must be lying.”
“Make me understand.”
I stared.
You don’t believe any of this.
“There’s nothing to understand.
I met him yesterday and he’s a friend now.
It’s that simple.”
“The colonel is really pissed about the cruise.”
“He shouldn’t have made a joke about being from Alabama then.”
“The general doesn’t care about that.
The colonel had me in his office this whole time!
There’s a certificate for riding that destroyer through the canal.
He wants that certificate.
Now, we are getting it and he’s not.
He’s pulling my duty.”
“He kept questioning me about you and the general and your relationship.”
“I’m not that kind of friends with the general.”
“The colonel is pulling my duty.
He is going to make me miserable for the next two years!”
A bit more information.
He won’t believe it.
“The general told me to tell you not to worry about the colonel because he was transferring him to Guam in three weeks.”
“There is no way you can know that.”
And there it is.
Disbelief.
“A general wouldn’t say that to a civilian.
That would be classified.
He’s restricted from telling a civilian anything like that.
It would be a violation.”
“I have over two more years here with that colonel!”
“Three weeks.”
“Stop it! You can’t know that.”
“Tomorrow is going to suck.
I don’t want to go.
Can’t we just run late or something?
He said if we aren’t there at 7, then they leave without us.”
“Are you kidding?
The colonel is pulling my duty because we are going!
Of course we are going.”
“Well, he’s not pulling my duty. Or the kids.”
“Lee Ann, don’t do that. We’re all going tomorrow.”
Patrick will have a blast.
Jane can bring her music and books.I really don’t want to do this
Daniel's Den 