As the Eagle Flies. J. D. Oliver

I know about hormones, I’ve had a lot of practice in corralling them. My hormones? Nope, I’m not going to slow them down one little bit. I’m married, I don’t have to anymore.”

      “You had better not slow them down, they belong to me now.” Faith said, as she snuggled up close. Alita blew bubbles and giggled.

      This was one of those moments when everything was perfect. A person doesn’t have very many of them in life. The Devil sees to that. My mother said that the Bible said to oppose the Devil and he would flee from you. I had been trying to do that all of my life, but it seems like he would come back around and bite me in the butt. This time I was going to ambush him.

      How was I going to do that? They say that nature abhors a vacuum, but Mom told me that the Devil loves a vacuum. If you had a empty brain, he was sure to fill it. I guess the trick is, to keep it full. But full of what?

      That I didn’t know, exactly that is. But what I did know; was that family could take up a big share of that space. And now I had one, a ready made one. Perhaps it would be enough…..

      Dad and Felicia got back the next day. They both had good suntans. They had taken a Taxi from Santa Fe. Turns out they had stopped in Abiquiu to see Gail. When they had left for their honeymoon they had told Gail where they would be staying, not us. Anyway, she had called them; turns out some high priced lawyers had shown up with some papers that claimed that their clients had a claim on the Rancho.

      “Gail told us that she was sure they were counterfeit. But that it was just a smoke screen for something else, she didn’t know what.” Dad said.

      “Yes,” Felicia said, “my lawyers said not to worry about it. But I can’t help thinking that these people wouldn’t go to all of that trouble; if they didn’t have something up their sleeve.”

      I said, “Who are these people, did Gail know?”

      “Well, yes and no. It was a company, ‘Fantasies Incorporated.’ From Los Angeles. It was signed by a man named Dipper Tick.” Felicia said.

      “Dipper Tick, you have to be kidding.” I said.

      “No, that was the name on the papers. Gail said that she took the papers, but didn’t file them, she just put them in her desk drawer.” Dad said.

      “Well is the guy still in town?” I asked.

      “She thinks he is, at the Bed and Bug; it’s a bed and breakfast place on the edge of town.” Felicia said.

      “Bed and Bug? You mean they have bed bugs?” I asked.

      “No, it’s owned by another one of Gail’s cousins, he just named it that for a joke.” Felicia added.

      “How many cousins does Gail have anyway?” I asked.

      “I don’t know for sure, I think a lot of them she just calls her cousins. But most of the Navajo are closely related anyhow.” Felicia said.

      I sat there thinking. For some reason I had a flash back to my younger years, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. My Grandfather was a Medicine Man. He taught me a lot, mostly on how to be observant. That’s what a Medicine Man did anyway; observe everything around him. Especially nature. They never practiced magic; anymore than Nature itself did. Granted nature is somewhat of a miracle in itself. Again, that’s all he did was observe and practice what he saw.

      And that’s what he taught me; take advantage of everything around you. Like I already told you about being shot down in Iraq, and how I was able to stay in the shadows. I looked at Felicia and said,

      “Would it be alright with you if I did a little investigating of this Dipper Tick?”

      “I suppose, but they could be dangerous, you might get hurt.” Felicia said, looking at my father.

      Dad said, “Don’t worry about Clay, he can take care of himself; he’s hell on wheels.”

      Faith spoke up, “Hey lets slow down a bit, if Clay is going to go poking around, I’m going with him, we’re a team. There is more than enough breast milk in the Fridge, Grandma can watch her for a few hours.”

      Felicia said, “Are you sure Honey, you haven’t been too active lately?”

      “Yes, I’m sure. You forget I was a basketball all star, plus I was also very good in gymnastics. I can handle myself.” Faith said, as she got up and started pacing the room.

      The phone rang, it was Gail, turns out we didn’t have to go see this Dipper Tick this night; cause he had checked out and went to Santa Fe. Faith stopped her pacing and said,

      “That doesn’t change anything, we can go to Santa Fe, can’t we?”

      “Yeah sure, sweetheart, but not tonight and when we do, we’ll be gone more than overnight, what about Alita?” I said.

      “Well, we’ll... we’ll, just take her with us, that’s what.” Faith said, with a stubborn set to her jaw.

      “Yes, we can. All I want to do is just poke around a little anyway. What better cover than having my family with me. We’ll make it like a holiday, it’ll be fun.” I wasn’t as upbeat as I sounded, the best laid plans of mice and men always have a way of getting messed up. I guess you could call that Murphy’s Law. But in knowing that you can be forearmed.

      Dad cleared his throat, “Just what kind of poking around are you planning on?”

      “All I want to find out; is who’s all back of this business, ‘Fantasies Incorporated’. Is it just this Dipper Tick or are more people involved?”

      “Well, can’t a lot of that be found out on the… What do they call it? I know, the Internet.” Dad said.

      “Yeah, I guess, but I’m sure Gail can do that for us.” I said.

      “Gail? Why her, I know all about computer’s; you forget I went to College and I like to think I’m a modern girl, or woman now, I guess, since I have a baby and on my second husband.”

      “And your last husband by the way, but not your last baby, I plan on giving you several more.” I said. “But if you want to you can get on that box of transistors tonight or do you want to wait till morning?”

      “I can wait till morning. I had other things planned this night, you know, I, uh, told you about it?” She nervously glanced at Felicia.

      Felicia smiled, “Don’t be embarrassed, Karl and I, have the same thing planned. For every night the rest of lives; that’s the goal anyway. Of course that might change when we get old; like in our nineties.” Then she took Dad’s hand and they disappeared into their private little world; their bedroom.

      Faith looked at me and smiled and crooking her finger she beckoned me to follow her. She didn’t have to ask me twice.

      Alita was already asleep in her crib, we both stood there looking down at her. “Faith,” I said, “just how old is she, I figured she was about four or five months old?”

      “She’s six months, in fact I think we’re going to have to start feeding her some solid food, you know, baby food in a jar.”

      “Yeah, good idea. I sure don’t know anything about babies, but I guess we’ll learn together.” I said.

      “Well, it’s a good thing that I did a lot of baby setting; I’m not a complete dunce about it, you know.”

      “I didn’t mean to say that you were. I’m sorry if it came out that way. You’ll have to forgive me, it’s just that having a baby is so new to me, plus also a pretty wife like you. So I might make a few blunders along the way.” I said, as I picked Faith up and took her to bed.

      “You haven’t made any blunders so far,” Faith said with a moan.

      While Faith was getting things together the next morning, I went out and checked the pickup over. The ranch had their own gasoline tanks, so I