your secret admirer

February 2082 - Cabe Deppiesse is 40, Ashlee is 42, Natalia is 12. (Charlie Roseland is 12, Chandler Price is 23, Orion Deppiesse is 48.) Last Update, June 2080.

Valentines day brings out the crazies, and Natalia thinks her best friend Hazel just might be one of them. Thank God they're too old for those stupid paper Valentines now, but Hazel is hell-bent on getting her first boyfriend. She wouldn't have even met Charlie Roseland if it weren't for Natalia. It wasn't like she was setting them up or anything, but they just happened to all sit at the same lunch table for the whole first half of the year, and then she got it in her head that Charlie might like to be her Valentine.

"Oh my God," Hazel says. "What's wrong with your friend?"

"What, now he's just my friend?" Natalia says.

"He won't go out with me?"

"Not everybody wants to go out with you, Hazel."

"Sure they do," she says.

"Hey, I figured it out," she says. "Are you gay?"

"No, I'm not gay!"

"What is it you don't like?" she says. "Wait, no, don't answer that, think about what you do like."

"I guess your hair is okay, I like dark hair."

"Hey, Natty-patty," Charlie says.

"Whatever," Hazel says. "I was only gonna to go out with your for a minute anyway."

"Seriously, can we go have lunch now?"

***

The restaurant is hard to keep staffed with good people. They move away, the kids go off to college. Alana Fortney was a devoted hostess and manager for twelve years, but luckily Chandler Price seems to be filling her shoes quite well, though his salary demands are extortionist!

It's because he has a business management degree from LCU, he says. He's worth more than the average restaurant employee. And to make his point, he calls one morning and says, "I'm not coming in today, you don't pay me enough to feel like I'm really important."

"What?" Ashlee says, "Chandler, don't be a baby, just come in and we'll talk about it."

Ashlee loves this place, it's really a passion of hers. A selfless passion, it seems, since she's really only breaking even at this point.

"Now what is this about?" she says.

Chandler says, "I have student loans to pay back, and electricity bills! I'd like to be able to shop somewhere other than Goodwill! I have a girlfriend I want to marry."

"How much do you want, Chandler?"

"$85 an hour."

"$85 and hour! For restaurant management! That's crazy!"

"That's an adequate living wage."

"And did you even study those cookbooks I gave you?"

He says, "Study?"

She's thinking, Sheesh, kids these days, such entitlement!

"You'll get $75 an hour for now," she says. "And $85 after you master stuffed golden trout."

Lucy is getting better at handling her trays, and has no outrageous demands about her paycheck, but she still has a knack for slightly inappropriate guest conversation, like recently, asking all of her older guests about their grandchildren. Some people choose not to have grandchildren, or might be offended that she thought they were old enough to have grandchildren. Maybe she needs to learn a little tact, or learn to talk about the weather?

But today, being Valentine's Day, Chandler has something special planned for his girlfriend, Jane, and he invites her in for the lunch shift.

He did spring for an actual diamond, though he seriously considered the cubic zirconia - they really make those things sparkly these days! But Mariah said, "She'll appreciate a diamond more, and it doesn't have to be big, but it really won't matter if she loves you." And Keri said, "If you buy her a cubic zirconia I'm gonna to smack you in the head!" And Luke said, "Don't be cheap, dude." And Jim said, "But he is cheap."

So Chandler managed to buy a quarter carat, and sat her right by the window so it would catch the light just enough to make it look big and sparkly!

You can open your eyes now, Chandler, she said yes.

***

Charlie walks his dad's dog after school sometimes, and he often walks by the Deppiesse house. Natalia thinks he's quite obnoxious, to tell the truth. Maybe she even despises him - she's not sure yet what to call this strange and very consuming feeling. He's so irritating, with the noogies, and flicking her nose. You know, they say when a boy pulls your hair, it means he likes you. She thought they were too old for hair-pulling, but instead of pulling his hair back, she just breaks out into the most ridiculous smile. She feels like her cheeks might burst! God, how can one girl be so cheesy? She can't even stand herself!

He says, "Hey, Natty-patty, is your dad home yet?"

She says, "Don't you have your own dad?"

"Yeah, but my dad's just a teacher. Your dad comes home in a helicopter."

Charlie likes history class. And he likes that she'll actually listen to him talk about history class, though Natalia would probably listen to him talk about anything and smile like she does. He wonders if her cheeks hurt?

"See," Charlie says. "Your dad is so much cooler than my dad!"

"What?!?" Natalia yells. "I didn't hear you!"

Or maybe he's only friends with her so he can talk to her dad? How many girls ever lost a guy to their dad? He is kind of cool though. Not many other dad's are military generals and Head of Defense in Lake County. Actually, none are. And you know, Charlie does really like history class. So they talk about war and recycling, and her dad actually listens. Maybe he always wanted a son or something.

But today, Cabe excuses himself, as he has an important phone call to make to his brother, Orion. Though, he could probably just walk across the street if he wanted.

Or maybe it isn't her dad, because here he is, still, after her dad has gone, staring at her like a blinded frog in the road. He says, "Do you know you have, like, perfect teeth?"

Natalia smiles. Cheese.

Craziest of all is something Natalia actually has no idea about. Cabe and Ashlee are actually trying to have another baby recently. Ashlee is forty-two, and Cabe is forty, and they know this is not likely to happen naturally, but they figure, why not try?

Maybe Cabe is feeling the primal desire to leave a little more of himself behind, maybe a son? Maybe Ashlee doesn't know if they'll get this chance again before she's really too old to try. Or maybe it's because she only has him for a little bit longer before he has to go. That was all he would tell her was that he might have to go soon, and it sounded serious. And how long would it be before he came back, if he came back at all, because sometimes they don't. It's a reality you have to live with as a military wife.

There's no snow this February, so they make a sandcastle out of slushy sand. It's really not much different than trying to build a snowman.

"It's Valentine's Day, isn't it?" Cabe says. "I'm sorry, I didn't buy anything. It just completely slipped my mind."

Ashlee is thinking she'd settle for a kiss. He is getting a little bit better at this romance business. And you know, you can't hold a grudge if your husband forgets Valentine's Day because he's trying to save the planet. You just can't.

So happy Valentine's Day, Ashlee.

Charlie is still here, though his mom says he has to start coming home for dinner more often. He says, "Hey you should invite me over sometime when it's not so cold and maybe we could swim."

Natalia says, "Okay."

He says, "Have you ever kissed anybody before?"

"No," she says, and she's thinking, Oh my God, why is he asking?

"Fiona says she's kissed a bunch of people," he says.

"No she hasn't," Natalia says. "She's kissed, like two. Why, you want to kiss Fiona?"

"No!" he says.

"You want to kiss Hazel?"

He says, "No."

"Oh," she says, and she smiles. Cheese.

He says, "I have to go home now."

"Yeah," she says. "You probably forgot you had a home."

She wonders if she should say Happy Valentine's Day. It's not like they're going out, but you can say it to friends, right?

But she doesn't, and instead, he reaches up to pull her pigtail, not in a mean way, but more like he doesn't know what else to do. And then she thinks he might actually hug her!

But it isn't a hug. He doesn't say "Happy Valentine's Day" either, but what he does say is, "See ya' later, Natty-patty."

Cabe did actually call his brother, and he did say that they needed to talk, but he didn't mean immediately. Cabe says, "It's Valentine's Day! Why aren't you with Violet?"

Orion says, "She started her next novel. You know, creative genius and all. She's not speaking to anyone right now."

Ashlee says to Cabe, "It's okay, I'm gonna take a bath. Don't stay out too long, if you know what I mean..."

Helping his brother search for aliens is maybe not as crazy as it seems. There is life out there, that much they know. There is a multitude of life, of all varieties, some of it intelligent, and some of it not. Naturally, Orion is curious about where he came from, and as both of them are very smart, and Cabe has access to military intelligence files, they've been able to piece together a few things.

First, there were the stories their father told them when they were young. The incredible stories they would grow up to doubt, of the abduction, the planet he was taken to, somewhere in the direction of the Cassiopeia constellation. Cabe has since looked for such a planet - it could be one of an infinite number of them, and they were too young to ask for any more details.

There is the logic they have worked out, that these aliens only abduct men to impregnate and return them completely unharmed, which would imply that they don't mean to interfere with us or our own reproduction, but perhaps do it out of some kind of necessity. Maybe it's the only way they can sustain their species.

And finally there is military intelligence, the fact that Orion is the only verified half-breed living on this planet. They've been looking, and there are no others. How do they explain that? Well, there are a LOT of planets in the universe, what are the chances that his particular race would come back here again? Maybe to spread them out increases their chance for survival?

Of course, most of what they're doing here isn't official duty. So what does Cabe do exactly, as the sitting Head of Defense in Lake County? Cabe has a lot of things on his mind lately. The world has not seen war for a very long time, not even in Cabe's own lifetime. So he looks out for all threats, whether from this planet, or outside of it. He's looking out for his brother, because sometimes the worst threats are the ones we create out of fear.

"Look here," Cabe says. "We thought it was a satellite. We thought it was failing and that we'd have to shoot it down."

Orion looks through the telescope. "It's not a satellite," he says.

"No, it's not." Cabe says. "We're calling them scouts. They behave kind of like ants. We found one first, then there were two. Over a few weeks, now we've tracked twelve of them."

"Wow," Orion says. "What are you saying?"

"Listen," Cabe says. "You know my job is confidential, and you know I can't disclose information to anyone, but I have to tell you this. They're sending more. We think they might be hostile. We don't know what they want, but the thing is, we're going to have to send troops out there."

Orion still hasn't said a word, but listens, wide-eyed as Cabe continues, "We're going to have to go public with this eventually, and things could get tough for you guys - I mean, you and the kids. Because people, when they find out, they won't know the difference, they won't know that these aren't your people we're fighting with. And we'll try to educate them, that there are so many different races out there, but you know how people can get, when they're scared or angry. But most people don't know, right? About where you come from?"

"The eyes. Right, well, we can tell people it's genetic maybe? That's not entirely untrue, you could say it's a pigmentation disorder? It doesn't have to mean anything."

"People gossip," Orion says.

"Yes, they do," Cabe says.

Orion sighs. "So the conflict is unavoidable then?"

"The way it looks," Cabe says. "Yes, we think so. We have to be preemptive at this point. Nobody knows this, Orion. Nobody outside of the highest level military and intelligence, and the information can't go public for a few months still. I think we're going to war."

Orion says, "So why are you telling me this? What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know yet," Cabe says. "Nothing right now. Just, be careful."

***

notes: Cabe and Ashlee didn't get pregnant, by the way. They both rolled up the want for it, so I figured I'd let them try, but they're not going to go through any crazy business to get pregnant or anything. I might pop back in a couple months, (before Cabe leaves...), and let them try again though.

So... since Cabe is our head of defense in Lakeside Heights, I feel it fitting that he knows a little more than the other residents know, like next round's random events that I've already rolled. You'll find out more as the rest of Lakeside Heights finds out more ;)

And I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I've always imagined that my fictional town of Lakeside Heights lies along the shores of Lake Michigan somewhere. Just a random piece of trivia for you :)