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Stories from the Verse
In Version
Chapter 17: Beam 164
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 217
The white-haired man pondered sleeping arrangements. The sprawling two-story colonial had four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. It was tempting to take the master bedroom, with its own bathroom, for himself, but he now had the problem of accommodating both wives. He couldn’t put them in the same room together; he certainly couldn’t put them together in the same room with himself, and if he gave himself a private room both of them would wonder why he didn’t want her with him.
With a sigh, he resolved the matter.
“Bron, Bob, the three of us will share the large front room. Sophie, you get the corner room with the front window. Ashleigh, the back room is yours. Share the bathrooms; no one is sleeping in the master bedroom, so there’s no worries about waking somebody up if you need to use it. There’s a shower in the smaller bathroom, and a shower and tub in the larger one.”
It occurred to him that Ashleigh had probably never seen a shower. Not exactly that–they had them in the villas which they had occupied, but they hadn’t actually used them. Well, she’ll figure it out.
“Why aren’t you with me?” Sophia demanded. He sort of expected that, and he had an answer but didn’t want Ashleigh to hear it.
“We can discuss it tomorrow. Right now we’ve had a difficult and tiring day, we don’t know whether we are going to get through the night unaccosted, and we need to get some rest with a minimum of bickering. Dawn, take whatever position and make whatever rounds you think best, but try not to disturb anyone who is sleeping unless there is a problem. And I think don’t go outside without finding me first. Good?”
Once more not waiting for an answer he grabbed his gear and headed for his room. He laid out his bedding on the bed nearest the door. Bob would sleep levitating in the corner, so the two beds would be enough for himself and Bron.
He did another round, checking doors. He even looked in the garage, which was filled with the usual garage junk and space for a missing car.
Returning upstairs, he noted that everyone was settled. Then he knocked on Sophia’s door and let himself in.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped.
At his peril ignoring the dangerous tone in her voice, he said, “I’m yours tonight. I just don’t want Ashleigh to know.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #478: Character Conflicts. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
