Becoming the Storm
46 Vandal
“WHO ARE THE TOP talk show hosts in the country?” I demanded.
“Do you mean besides Elaine Frost?” Hannah asked. “Why?”
“Put her on the list. I know she gets scheduled pretty far out, but maybe she’ll have a cancellation. Who’s that lady in Chicago?”
“Rae-Rae. Brian, what are you planning?” Rose asked.
“What did we do when Heaven was being stalked so much that she was afraid to be seen? We made a celebrity out of her and put her in the spotlight. We made her so accessible she was no longer news. I want to be on every talk show in the country. Radio and television. Five minutes to speak out about campus violence and respect for others. I need to start a foundation. Maybe I can work with Janice Gifford. What are the most common causes of violence on campus? I need Nikki to do some writing for me.”
“Whoa, cowboy! Let us catch up. What’s your purpose?” Hannah asked.
“That fucker vandalized her grave!” I shouted. I’d been out to the River of Life early this morning and found the stones overturned, gravel thrown all over everyplace, the rakes broken, and horse manure thrown into the garden. The only good thing was that the infrared security cameras Monte installed after the interview with Roslyn had worked flawlessly. We had the whole thing on tape. Of course, night vision being what it was, details of the guy’s face weren’t clear. Monte had shown the tape to the Sheriff and was in town getting prints made of the clearest shots. I was going to send the prints to every tabloid in the country and if one dared to print the pictures the bastard had taken when he was finished, I would sue them for everything I could. “I am going to hunt him and bring him to ground,” I growled. “I’m going to do it in his own world.”
“Nikki!” Elaine shouted, even though Nikki wasn’t that far away. “We need words for Brian.”
“I’ve got the article ready to go with the photos,” Nikki said, coming out of the computer room. “Jennifer is getting them ready to go.”
“Brian needs a variety of two-minute statements with which he can promote an anti-violence campaign on national talk shows while decrying the vandalism of the bad guy,” Elaine said.
“How is Sam doing?” I asked.
“I saw her head into the studio with April and Jason,” Danielle said. “It was a good idea for you to send her out alone. She needed to be the focal point to make this statement. They are in the studio editing now and will have it ready to broadcast by noon.”
“That really needs to be in the hands of our syndicate before he can possibly get something printed,” I growled.
“Love of my life, it will be there,” Dani said. She pulled my hands to her tummy and I leaned against her. My lover and my daughter were having a combined calming effect on me. I looked up to see everyone who could reach her touching Dani.
“I’ve got Rae-Rae,” Angela said, stepping into the room from the kitchen. “Brian, you need to pack a bag and head for Chicago. She starts taping her show at eleven tomorrow morning. They’ll give you five minutes. She saw the CEN special Friday and had you on her list to call.”
“If I leave in an hour, I can be in Chicago for dinner,” I said.
“I’m okay with you driving, but you need to take someone with you. You might have to fly to the next destination. You know most of them tape in LA or New York,” Rose said.
“Josh has that pesky job,” Cassie said. “Mary and I could go with him. He should take Danielle, too. If he has to fly someplace, Mary and I will drive back, but Dani should be with him everywhere.”
“I’ll take care of packing. You keep working,” Mary said. She ran for the stairs.
“Wait for a couple of hours before you leave. It won’t make a difference if you don’t get to Chicago until eight or nine tonight,” Hannah said. “Now that the sheriff is finished, we’re going to go clean up the River of Life. Everyone in the clan and village is going out and we’re taping it.”
“I have a hotel reservation for you a couple blocks from Rae-Rae’s studio,” Whitney said from the kitchen. “It’s guaranteed for late arrival.”
“Then let’s go to the River,” I said giving Danielle a gentle squeeze.
He’d really done a number in it. We knelt in the gravel first, fifty of us, and picked horse turds out of it. We collected other detritus as well. A cigarette butt. Sticks and leaves. Rocks that had not been part of the stream. The sheriff had collected the whiskey bottle to dust for prints. April and Jason were back out there with us filming as we smoothed the gravel with our hands and turned the stones in the River upright where they’d been knocked over. Then we surrounded the River and picked up the loose gravel along the shore where he’d scattered it. We carried it back to the River.
I doubt that we got every stone, but every stone in the short grass had been returned to the garden. Del came out and trimmed the hedge. Where they could be saved, he staked up broken branches the vandal had stomped through. In two hours, with fifty of us working, we restored the damage it had taken one person two hours to inflict. Larry brought new and repaired rakes and we took turns smoothing the stones and creating ripples in the current as we worked. When we finished, we were all tired, but we were all much more peaceful, as well.
I showered, kissed my lovers and got in the back seat of the Suburban with Dani while Cassie headed us toward Chicago.
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