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He drew her to the door by the hand, firm and yet gentle.
The usually gruff captain led her inside.
"Mom, we got company!" he shouted, standing in the living room.
The living room overflowed with brocade upholstered furniture that had lace
doilies pinned to the arms. Akee's eyes roved over everything, from the
polished coffee tables in dark stained oak to the side tables with more
doilies on them.
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114
Someone evidently loved lace as much as Noawhane loved embroidery.
His mother appeared out of a side room and smiled at them. She was a plump,
elderly woman of late middle years with graying hair, a fondness for woolen
cardigans and a tendency not to walk so much as bustle. "Who've you brought
this time, Aristotle?"
He hugged her and then stepped back with a gesture at
Akee. "Mom, this is Akee. Akee, my mother Lillian Sinclair."
"Akee, I've heard so much about you." Lillian extended her hand to the little
Nabaren.
Akee glanced at Lillian's hand uncertainly, and then took it.
They shook. "Masaee."
"I told you she wouldn't bite you." Aristotle grinned.
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Lillian's eyes widened and she glared at her son. "Bite?
Don't even joke about biting! You'll scare the poor thing half to death."
Akee looked from one to the other, feeling more uncertain than ever.
Lillian took Akee's hand and led her upstairs. "Don't listen to that big
buffoon of a son of mine. He's entirely too coarse.
Just like his father, God rest him. You'll want to freshen up."
She pointed out the door to the bathroom. "And you'll have the guest bedroom."
Lillian led her into a spacious room with green spreads on a double bed. "Now
get yourself all fixed up while I get us some food going."
By the time that Akee finally fell into bed, she had decided that Lillian was
the strangest human she had ever known
but the nicest.
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
by Janrae Frank, Phil Smith
115
* * * *
Lillian had got up well ahead of her son and had snacks, sandwiches, and sodas
packed in a small cooler when they stumbled out of bed.
"Mom, we're not going to stay for breakfast. We need to get to Fort Laurie
ASAP..." Sinclair saw the cooler sitting on the kitchen table. "Aww, mom. You
didn't have to do this."
Lillian patted Sinclair's cheek affectionately. "I knew you'd run off. Your
stomachs are going to be growling before you get there."
Sinclair allowed himself a cup of strong coffee, and then loaded the cooler
into the front seat under Akee's feet. They tore out of Gasden, the little
neighborhood near Fort
Necessity, and roared down the highway toward Fort Laurie.
As soon as they were in the clear, Sinclair extended his hand to Akee with an
emphatic shake. "Drink and then sandwich."
Akee supplied him.
"And you get yourself something too, Akee. Mom probably packed enough for the
platoon."
When they reached Fort Laurie, they drove another twenty minutes to Dwight
Green Military Hospital. There, Sinclair and
Akee found Lieutenant Trence Haslett sitting in the waiting area. Known to his
friends in Major Jayce's company, and thus the entire company, as Lieutenant
Trence, he had served as their medical officer for two years. Though barely
out of his twenties, the past eight hours in theater had aged him
dramatically, leaving his chin covered with stubble, his short blonde hair in
a sweat-dampened scruffy mess and his eyes
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
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116
red-rimmed. He sat slumped in a chair, his right side half-
draped over the metal arm.
"How's the Major?"
Akee peered around Sinclair as he faced the medic.
Trence stirred sluggishly, rubbed his face, and then pressed the inner corners
of his eyes. "He came out of theater an hour ago; we nearly lost him twice. My
guess is they'll try to force a desk job on him after this. They won't let him
go back to the front now. You know what they're like."
"They do that, then this whole damn operation is FUBAR."
Sinclair looked grim. "Hell, the entire war would have ended more than ten
years ago if the Fox hadn't turned it around."
"I know. I've seen that for myself. I believe it."
"You weren't there then."
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Trence groaned, massaging his temples. "Give it a rest, Sinclair. I'm
altogether too tired to argue this, especially when I agree with you."
Sinclair recognized a man at least as stubborn as himself.
"You need a drink."
"You're damn right I do. However, I think the first one would knock me down."
"Why don't we go find out?"
Trence coughed up an exhausted, slightly bitter chuckle and the three of them
filed out.
* * * *
Tirtuu was at his wits' end. His fight with Akee had rattled him badly, and
the lengthy grilling Captain Sinclair had given him while they waited for evac
to arrive had left his nerves
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
by Janrae Frank, Phil Smith
117
jangling. He had concealed his motives as best he could and stuck to his
well-rehearsed cover story: he had arranged to meet Major-Saee at a previously
arranged time and place, and knew nothing about any snipers. When questioned
about any other details, Tirtuu played dumb, simply replying "Tirtuu no know
nothing." He had hoped to pin the blame on Akee, but knew he could not expect
any such accusation to stick.
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