C H A P T E R     E L E V E N
 
 
 

        Juliet came in out of the dark and settled down on the deep
packed-down snow at Truchas, Orgasm and the other horses and
dogs racing out in front of the Mooney for the last few hundred
feet of rollout, and they slid up to the barn and shut down as Maria
and Julian, up from their Yucatan ranch, came out of their cabin.
        Jess and Kit pulled off their night vision goggles and piled out
with Flee and BR, then hugged with Ri and Jul before pushing
their ship into the barn and going arms in arms to their pards' cabin.
        Everybody yelled "SURPRISE!" as Kit walked in and he was
totally taken by surprise. Yep, t'was his birthday. And everyone
was there, even some of the family from Kentucky. He wouldn't
admit his age, just saying it didn't make any difference as he smiled
Jessy's direction, but there were only 25 candles on the cake to
make him feel better.
        They took turns playing Maria's piano - the one from Kit - and
filled in with other instruments as they sang some of their favorite
songs. Then Wiley and Orv, in their inimatable way, began grilling
"Buffalo" about how he had managed to stay out of trouble with the
government, considering, for starters, all the drugs; and, amidst the
cryptic explanations and laughs, they heard a plane fly in. They
rushed outside and our guys were dumbfounded to see Cincy with a
woman somewhat younger than he and two other young women -
agent-looking women in black suits - all hopping out of that Mooney.
As they welcomed the old agent and his companions - the older
woman Cincy's wife - the two black-suited young ladies got behind
Kit and cuffed him, to the startlements and protests from the others!
        Kit was feeling like it could be deep do-do time for him, he
relates. Those young ladies took him back inside, sat him in a chair
and started to pepper him with questions on his past activities. He
was having a hard time coming up with answers and Jess, Flee and
others were trying to make up cover stories. But then one of the
suited ladies turned on the CD player they had brought and both of
those girls started dancing and stripping in front of the Codester, then
giving him lap dances after decuffing him. Everyone was guffawing
away as Kit tried to keep his cool and Wiley and Orv explained the
dancing girls arrangement with Cincy, another old war bud, they all
found out.
        Well, the party raged on and Kit and Cincy had some words
later about charges being dropped by secret Presidential pardon and
such. Then, much later, after Cincy, wife and dancing girls had left in
their Mooney and the others were starting to head for bed, Maria and
Julian walked Jessy and Kit outside for some words.
        Out on the porch, Jul started, "uh...'meegs...you know the
cup?"
        "The one from the mine...?" Jess asked back.
        "Si, mi corazon, la mina," Jul answered her.
        "It is the cup," Maria added quietly.
        "Yes, Ri...it's the cup..." Kit said, as perplexed as Jess.
        "El Salvador's," Jul continued, and he and Ria made the sign
of the cross.
        "Huh?!" Jess came back, stunned. Kit was just as startled.
        "When He came to America...after His cruxifixion," Jul said as
he and his wife made the sign again. "He had our cup...."
        "How in...how do you know that?!" Kit asked in disbelief.
        "Them..." Julian answered as he and Ri looked past the guys,
nodding for them to turn around. They jumped when they did.
        "Easy, guys, it's just us," Lioneagle smiled, he and Goldenswan
walking toward them from the yard. They all hugged after the guys
descended the porch to meet the spirits out in the snow. Well, Kit
and Jess were in thrall, awe, epiphany, ecstasy and anything else
you can think of. They had a bunch of questions, but LE quieted
them, saying, "we'll let you figure out what to do with the cup....We
don't want to have to explain it to some museum..." and smiled
again.
        "But..." and Jess searched for words. Werdz. That darn
gossamer stuff. And there they stood, mightily, out on the snow,
hugging in a circle, Heart and the other horses coming around them.
Then LE and Swan motioned toward Jess's and Kit's cabin, so they
all sashayed toward the kitchen door. Flee and BR were watching
from a window inside Ri's and Jul's cabin, getting excited about the
orgy to come, and the six outside popped inside the other cabin and
Kit relogged the fires in the hearths.
        Jess noticed something funny with Pute, though, when she
went into the bedroom. They had left the Chippys in "touch" with
each other and Pute just had "YES! YES!..." and other wild words
filling his entire screen, no matter what Jess keyed on his pad.
        "Looks like a hard drive crash," Kit told her as he came to look,
quietly chortling.
        "NO!...he's not...GONE...is he?!" Jess began to despair.
        "No, honey. I don't think ole Zippy's zorched....I think Cy can
revive 'm..." and worked the keys of both computers for a few
seconds, then turned to everyone and asked what they wanted to
drink or smoke or whatever. And they were all soon taking off their
clothes as Flee and BR came in to join them.
 
 
 

        Swan and Lion woke Jess and Kit, the others asleep in the
feathers, and motioned for our heros to follow. They went outside,
all naked, the stars everywhere up there at that altitude out there
where they were, and the spirits walked them over to behind the
barn, Jess and Kitto feeling enough warmth from their friends that
they weren't cold, despite the sub-freezing air and snow.
        She and Kit saw the craft, but didn't believe their eyes. It was
round and glowing, elliptical and like, pulsating. Their friends walked
them up to it, took them inside, made them comfortable and Swan
said, "we'd like to show you more of the world" as Lioneagle started
up the ship and quietly took them up and out of the Earth's
atmosphere and gravity, then past the moon.
        "Well...that's all right by us...deephearts....Right, Quixote?"
Jess answered, very deep in reverence and awe.
        Kit just exhaled a breath while he raised his brows and smiled,
figuring it was all a dream, as he and Jess sat and hugged and
watched the Earth become a point of light, then the Sun another
star in the sovereign sky, the both of them feeling that they couldn't
wait to share it with Flece, BR and the others.