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Chapter One
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Directly continued from the end of A New Jeopardy... A YOOK BY
ANY OTHER NAME (NOTE: “YOOK” is my shorthand for “Eucalyptus” and is pronounced exactly as the first syllable of that and not like 'book') Chapter one: Conversations with Jocelyn Himself stood there a long moment, the flats of his palms resting on either side of the door frame, his head shaking slightly from side to side in disbelief. In his bed, propped up on about six soft pillows and with a fat, quilted comforter halfway up his chest, lay Maximus...smiling at him. Joimus, one of Jocelyn's shawls draped about her shoulders, sat, feet tucked up under her, atop the comforter near the General's knees. She let the book she had been reading aloud to him rest on her lap as she, too, smiled broadly at the figure in the doorway. "Welcome home," she said, then smiling even more widely, added, "we've been waiting for you." ************************************************* Surprising
everybody, Sid lunged down the crowded hallway, shoving Johnny into
the wall, almost making Ando fall. Darting quickly under Himself's
right arm, he burst into the bedroom... then stopped cold in his
tracks when he saw the duo on the bed. He stood there, staring
silently, then began to blink rapidly, turned on his heel and
hurried quickly out the back door. Bunny followed, finding him
standing in the driveway, leaning forward, his hands planted on his
thighs, his eyes squeezed tightly closed. He seemed to be struggling
for breath. She had never seen him like this. Somehow she knew he
needed to be alone, so she sat quietly on the porch steps, waiting.  Joimus and Maximus stared blankly at one another. "What just happened?" she asked Himself as he stepped into the room. Having been Sid, Himself had some idea, but all he said was, "It's...Sid," and shrugged his shoulders. Bright sunlight streamed through the window, backlighting Joimus as she sat on his bed, giving her a strange, glowing appearance. He reached his hand toward her, needing to touch her, to feel for himself her solidity, yet at the same time, hesitant. He curled his fingers back and she laughed lightly. "It's all right, you know. We're really here." His eyes moved to Maximus and that aching, lopped-off part of his being reattached with an almost audible swoosh. Taking the General's hand in his own, he smiled when his grip was returned. Still holding it, he shook his head from side to side again. "I thought...this time... for sure...." "I know," Maximus replied, then added, "Close." It was a thing he had been known to say when others had inquired after thinking him dead. The rest of
the cast could hold themselves in check no longer and the full
complement of them in the hallway poured into the bedroom, filling
it wall to wall. "What happened when you went through the clouds?" Question after question flew across the room. Himself finally said loudly, "All in good time! All in good time!" and the crowd quieted a bit. Jack had said nothing. He stood near the head of the bed, just looking, then reached out and softly cupped his hand over Maximus' shoulder. "Glad you're back," he said, his voice low and with the suggestion of a crack in it.
Jocelyn came out on the porch, drying her hands on a dish towel, and sat down on the step beside Bunny. "He's always been a complicated one, that Sid," she said, cocking her head slightly as she turned to look at Bunny. Studying Bunny's lovely English face, she couldn't help but note the gleam of tears in her eyes. "I 'spect loving him is a bit of a...," she searched for the right word, "unique... experience, now isn't it?" She smiled warmly at the younger woman. Bunny was so disarmed by Jocelyn's openness that a tear dripped down her cheek. "No one really...knows," she said, her voice trembling a bit as she turned back to study the still gasping Sid.
Jocelyn, too, watched him for a bit. "My, but Russ was handsome!" she laughed. "Don't get me wrong. He's handsome still, but I always thought there was something special about ol' Sid." At that, Bunny's lips curved into a little smile. Suddenly it dawned on her that Himself's mother had known all along that Maximus and Joimus were there. She turned a half amused/half puzzled gaze on Jocelyn, who, reading her expression, let out a loud laugh. "With a son such as mine," she chortled, "I've come to expect just about anything." She shook her head from side to side exactly as Himself was doing in the bedroom. "But even I, "she added, "was surprised when the two of them popped up in his bed like that!" Bunny's
eyes widened a bit more. "They just...popped up?" she
repeated.
"Yep! Like kernels of hot corn," she laughed. "I went in there to dust a bit and got the surprise of my life." She shook her head again. "So I was sort of expecting Russ to show up before long." Suddenly her face changed and this soft, maternal expression washed over her features. Looking seriously at Bunny she said, "I can't tell you what it's like for me...as a mother...to see all of Russ lined up like that, all the way from Johnny to Teller." She rested her hand on her chest, closed her eyes, and smiled an almost mystic smile filled with both yearning and satisfaction. At the sound of footsteps, she opened them again. Sid was walking toward the nearest pasture, almost running. "He's trying to leave himself behind," Jocelyn commented. She patted Bunny's hand. "Don't let him leave you behind in the process." Sid vaulted
the fence easily, circling to the left of a small herd of cattle.
"I think the man needs you," were her final words as she
got to her feet, giving her towel a straightening flap before going
back inside the house. Through the screen door she added, "I'd
follow him...not too close, but I'd sure keep my eye on that one
right now." Standing
quickly at her entrance, he said, "Oh, good day, Mrs.
Crowe."
"Tosh!" she laughed, "None of that 'Mrs. Crowe' stuff out of you now." She looked at him so grand in his uniform and all, a completely maternal light in her eyes. Then as her brow knit in a deep crease, he took a startled step backwards. "Is there anything wrong?" he asked, truly concerned by her expression. "I'd say so!" she replied firmly. "Take that shirt off right this second!" "Excuse me?" he stammered. "The shirt," she repeated, "give me the shirt." His right hand flew unconsciously to his chest. "My...shirt?" She laughed affectionately at his motion. "A Captain can't be goin' about with his ruffles ripped off, now can he?" He looked down. He had completely forgotten about that. "What happened to them?" she asked, really curious. "Stephen needed bandages for Maximus' leg wounds," he explained. "Stephen? Is he here with you?" "Truly, I do not know," Jack said. "I haven't seen him since the eag..., er, since our arrival. It may be possible that he is Charles at the moment." "That
would, indeed, explain why I haven't noticed him," she
chuckled. "How is Nash doing these days?" she asked. "He has Franki watching out for him...as well as Charles. She's quite good at it." "Is she now?" Jocelyn smiled. "It seems the lot of you have someone doing that." His face sagged a bit. "What is it, Jack?" she asked, quick concern on her face. And so it was that they sat side by side on the couch as Jack explained how Juditha had mysteriously disappeared from Epidom, leaving no trace, and that he had been...unaccompanied...for quite some epis now. "That
won't last," she pronounced with some assurance.
"I
have it on the best authority," she smiled. "Count on
it." She stood, looking down at him. "Now...give me your
shirt." "Mum," he said finally, "tell me how they came to be here." She stopped
her mending and turned the swivel chair to face him. He smiled a bit and nodded. Slowly, almost deliberately, she licked her lower lip. "Russ," she said, "how did YOU come to be here?" He closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. She had him. "Look at me, Russ," she continued. "I heard no car engines. How DID you get here?" Levelly now, his seagreen eyes looked into his mother's. He swallowed a couple of times before saying, "You know of epis?" "I'm learning," she replied, adding, "I've heard rumors...stories...impossible things, for some time now." "It
was eagles," he sighed.
"Eagles?" she repeated. He closed his eyes again. "Giant golden eagles." "Not bald eagles?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Does it matter?" he said, looking at her again. "Not really," she replied. "I guess as far as giant eagles go, golden will do as well as bald." She sat back in her chair a bit, releasing his hands, which he kept on his knees. "Why eagles?" "We...we...needed a way out and...and...they just...came." "They came? From where?" "From...from wherever it is that giant eagles come from." "You
have no idea, do you?" "You
told me you were making movies. Were you not? Are not Jack and Jim
proof that you were?"
"I was, Mum, I WAS," his voice rose a bit, "but not like you think...not at all like you think." She looked at him, silent, waiting. "After I left Mexico there were...kidnappings and...and... tombs. Then Jack was poisoned and Maximus lost his memory and we were all on a sheep station...." "Sheep
station! And you didn't come home?" she frowned.
"I couldn't, Mum, I had to track down Joimus in Arabia after that and then it was time to film Cinderella Man only the pigeons wouldn't let us and after the tornadoes in The Village we got stuck in the chocolate factory and then the Polar Express crashed and the eagles took us away from the Night Owl." "Well," she said, a rather strange expression on her face, "now that makes sense." He lay back on the bed, folding his forearms across his eyes, his feet still on the floor. Her gaze centered in on the bit of cuff on his right wrist. It had scorch marks. "You were in a fire?"
"On Droogheeda," he sighed, sitting back up again. "And this is what you've worn since?" "Sometimes I didn't even have this," he said, his hand touching his remaining piece of collar. "What about those napkins sticking out of your waistband?" "These?" he said, pulling one of them free. "It was cold...after the train wrecked in the snow. And I hadn't really gotten warm from hanging off the side of the passenger car before that." "And napkins were all you had?" "The Night Owl didn't have tablecloths." "Bud let you go into the Night Owl?" "He was fetching Stephen. He didn't know." "Epis
don't sound very...safe," she said.
"They're not, Mum, they're not at all." "Can you at least get on a new shirt now that you are home?" He smiled a bit tiredly. "I think that's allowed." Suddenly he
remembered. "You haven't told me how Maximus and "It wasn't eagles," she said, adding, "at least not that I know of." "That doesn't mean it wasn't," he stated wearily. "They were on an eagle the last I saw of them." "Were they? And what were they doing there?" "You want to know?" "I wouldn't have asked, " she said, making an upward gesture with both hands. "They were plunging straight toward the earth from the sun." She looked at him, unblinking. "You asked," he shrugged. "What
sort of mind comes up with this stuff?" she wondered, shaking
her head.
"That," he said, copying her gesture, "is truly best left unanswered." "This is all I know," she continued. "I went into your bedroom to dust a bit. I figured you might be coming home soon what with Eucalyptus scheduled to start shooting in February. And when I opened the door...there they were. " "In my
bed?"
"Yes, sound asleep as newborn babes they were and all cuddled into one another like spoons." She smiled at the memory of it. "Of course I recognized Maximus right off, so I figured you'd invited him and he'd brought his lady along." "And...and...he was all right?" "Why wouldn't he be?" "He was dying, Mum. The last I saw of him he was nearly dead." "From the plunge?" "From the train wreck, Mum. It rolled down a mountain in the snow. He was thrown out and a tiger cage landed on him." "There
were tigers on the Polar Express?"
He stood. "I need to go talk with them, Mum." "Fine," she said, rolling herself back to the sewing machine. "But get into a decent shirt." As she began sewing the ruffles again, she muttered under her breath, "Tigers on the Polar Express! I never!" Hearing the door shut behind her son, a sudden thought struck her. Why, she wondered, had she not thought it strange...at all...that Russell's characters were actually here, actually all present at the same time? What was the matter with her? "Epis!" she said, her eyes narrowing. "They must be contagious." Scooting herself over in front of a full-length mirror, she studied her reflection. Her hands held a long strip of Napoleonic sea captain ruffling material. "I'm infected," she pronounced...then she burst out laughing. It might be fun. And, well, she'd never had 26 Russes all here at once. Just wait till Terry got home!
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