Chapter 20

Late on Sunday afternoon Will dropped Jennifer back off at Skyhook. After a long and lingering kiss, she got aboard, got the engines going, and started back for Phoenix.

It had been a good weekend, although the topic of the lottery winnings hung over both of them. They didn’t talk about the prospects much, but she thought about them, and it was clear he was thinking about them too. At least as far as she was concerned, she wanted to be sure she had her own thoughts in order before making any proposals to Will.

Once she had Skyhook in the air and heading back toward Arizona, she realized that this would be a good time to get her thoughts mostly sorted out without being interrupted, and not having to risk revealing herself to Will before she was ready.

It had been clear even before she married Will that sooner or later he would be getting out of the Air Force and that he had every intention of moving back up to the Bar H Bar, but that had been off in a far-distant future she really hadn’t contemplated. Even his announcement almost a year before that he planned on getting out of the Air Force if they didn’t send him to someplace decent for his next duty station hadn’t made things seem much more real to her.

But now it did.

It had always seemed likely that his next assignment would take him overseas again, possibly to the Persian Gulf, but possibly not, too. She knew that the Air Force tended to alternate stateside and overseas assignments, at least in his field, so now it seemed more likely than ever that he would be getting out of the service early next year whether he had his twenty years in or not. That meant that in about eight months he’d be out of the service and ready to head back to the Bar H Bar.

She liked the ranch – she really did. It was peaceful there, and beautiful in its own way. She had enjoyed every minute she’d spent there with him over the years, and some of the best times of her life had been there, both at the cabin and elsewhere on the ranch. But the ten days she had spent there with Norma, Ellen, and Robin had been the first time that she hadn’t fully enjoyed herself.

There was no one thing that had made her feel that way, and she really couldn’t blame any of it on the others, but it had been more than a little boring for her. There really hadn’t been much to do, other than to fly someone somewhere when it was needed, and the time had dragged badly. She hadn’t been able to get out on hikes to clear her mind and enjoy the place very often. In the end, while she couldn’t admit it to her friend she’d been hardly less happy than Norma had been when the two of them got into Magic Carpet and flew away.

While she’d never been totally enthused at the idea of living at the ranch, what came out of that experience was that she was now even less thrilled with the idea. Yes, the big new house that she and Will had discussed and planned for over a year would take a lot of the edge off of it. They hadn’t done anything about it yet since they didn’t have any idea of when it would be needed, but now that seemed to be soon. The lack of things to do might be helped by the idea of putting in the satellite-based communications, and that would allow her to continue her job at Lambdatron on at least a part-time basis. But the house and the communications would mean bringing the modern world into the Bar H Bar in a way that seemed like it would ruin some of the magic the place had for her.

Perhaps it would be all right for someone like Ellen, but somehow Jennifer couldn’t believe that she wouldn’t go nuts having to live out in that loneliness. She’d understood that from the beginning, which was why they were talking about grading a new airstrip at the main ranch building. It would mean that she could fly Songbird or some other fairly fast plane in and out of there, making it easier to spend the time in Phoenix that she needed to spend there.

That was another thing the ten days at the ranch with the other women had pointed out: she would have responsibilities in Phoenix that she didn’t want to give up. Though Robin’s rescue had been troublesome, it had also proved worthwhile, and Jennifer didn’t want to turn her back on the barely started Hearts of Gold organization. There was so much she could do to make it a success, even if she wasn’t a counselor – but she would clearly not be able to do as much if she had to commute frequently from the Bar H Bar to Phoenix to do them. She could see having to make two or three round trips each week to get everything done, and probably having to spend a couple of nights a week in Phoenix, if not more.

Was that really any better than commuting to Mississippi in Skyhook every second or third weekend? Yes, she would be spending more time with Will, and more frequently, but at the bottom line wasn’t it still pretty much the same thing?

What would happen if some emergency blew up with Hearts of Gold or her other interests like Lambdatron or Skyhook Aviation that would mean she’d have to spend even more time in Phoenix? Unexpected things could easily come along, and their experience with Robin had proved it.

While she liked the idea of living at the ranch up to a point, there was a limit. She enjoyed getting out and riding horses of course, but only so much of it could be done, and that limited the appeal. Besides – and she hardly dared think it – what would happen if she had to be busy with things at Lambdatron and Skyhook Aviation and Hearts of Gold when her hands were also needed at the ranch? If it happened – and it was bound to happen sooner or later – would it cause resentment from Ellen and Duane and Will? That could cause problems, to say the least. Once in a while might be all right, but it also seemed likely that it could be more than once in a while.

She had said right along that when Will moved up to the Bar H Bar she would be there with him. He was her husband, after all, and she felt she owed him that duty, but it appealed to her less and less as time went by.

One of the things that Will had been looking forward to when they were finally able to live together was to have children. Jennifer wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about the idea as Will was, at least partly because a lot of the load of that decision was going to fall on her, rather than on him. But if she were to have children she wanted to be a good mother and to do right by them, which in this circumstance meant staying home with them much of the time. That would mean that she was right back in the middle of the question of being stuck out in the middle of nowhere at the ranch, this time with the possibility of small children driving her nuts and no opportunity to get away from them for a breather.

So the idea of having children was much like the question of moving up to the ranch – something that had been out there in a distant somewhere that wasn’t quite as distant any more. In fact, it seemed terrifyingly close at hand. She was going to have to accept it, or . . .

. . . or what?

The alternative seemed too dismal to contemplate.

It was just too bad that there seemed to be no middle ground, no way that would satisfy both her and Will, but if there was one, she couldn’t see it. About the only thing she could see was that she’d have to go along with what had been promised, to move up to the ranch with him and get going on having children. That had to be done in any case in the next few years if she was going to do it at all.

Damn it, she wanted to spend her life with Will – but would it be worth the price that it seemed she was going to have to pay?

As Skyhook raced westward it didn’t get her any closer to answering that question. She doubted she would be able to answer it very soon anyway. And, whatever the outcome was, she knew she didn’t want to let Will know of her doubts.

At least there were things to do in Phoenix that took a little of the immediacy away from the problem, although it was still lying there and the future was growing closer day by day.

Things turned busy at Lambdatron again with a couple of new projects, and that ate up a lot of her time, including some evenings and weekends. It wasn’t so busy that she was unable to meet with Norma on a couple different occasions. They had indeed learned a lot from the episode with Robin; working from Norma’s notes of the discussion in Magic Carpet on the way back from the ranch gave them several things to work on.

One morning shortly after her return from Mississippi, Jennifer had a call from George, up at the Redlite Ranch. “So what’s up, George?” she asked.

“I thought I’d call you to tell you that while everything isn’t taken care of yet, it looks like Lonnie is going to be a guest of the Nevada state prison system for a while.”

“Wow, that was quick!” Jennifer exclaimed. “I thought it would take months.”

“I’m a little surprised that it came down that quickly myself. I guess it got made pretty clear to him that he was looking at five years and that the security tapes from here made it a slam dunk. So he was real happy to take a plea bargain that will only give him a couple of years, given good behavior. I don’t think he’s capable of that, but there you go.”

“Off the streets for a couple of years is a couple of years, but I’d be a little concerned that he’ll still go after Robin to get even when he gets out.”

“Well, yeah. That was my concern, too. But here’s the deal. If Robin is willing to testify, the prosecutor is willing to throw the statutory rape charge at him, along with a couple of other things. Since that’s something completely different than tearing this place up, it’s not double jeopardy, so he thinks he’s got a pretty good case. And then, there’s also the potential of Mann Act charges if he can get the feds interested. So with her and us helping the system along he may not be outside for a long, long time. The key is getting Robin to testify against him, which is going to complicate things a lot. Do you think she’d be up for it?”

“I’m going to say that she probably is, especially if her testimony is held off until after she turns eighteen, which is only a few weeks off. Norma, Ellen, and I agree that we’d really rather not have some idiot from children’s services getting involved and throwing their weight around when we have her in a pretty good situation already. She’s staying on the Bar H Bar with Will’s family, and the last I heard she was doing pretty well and learning a lot about horses.”

“So things have been cleared up with her a lot, then?”

“Again, I can’t say for sure since I haven’t seen her in a week or so, but I’ve got to go up that way in a couple of days to pick up Liz and take her out to the ranch for Robin’s checkup. I can run the idea past her then and see what she says.”

“All right, I’ll sit on talking to the prosecutor until I hear back from you. Since Lonnie’s going to be on ice for a while I don’t see a huge need to rush things, but the prosecutor may be thinking something different.”

Later in the week, Jennifer flew Magic Carpet to Las Vegas, where she picked up Liz and took her on to the ranch. After Jennifer’s talk with Norma the week before, she decided to try to sound out Liz a little, to see if she might be interested in a move to Phoenix, where she could be available to Hearts of Gold. Recruiting Liz was not one of those things that had to be done to get the operation going, but they had concluded that they would need some competent and understanding medical contacts; Liz had already proved to be one.

Nothing was settled in the relatively short flight to the main ranch at the Bar H Bar, but it sounded to Jennifer like Liz was open to the idea, so it was at least worthy of more discussion.

The change that had come over Robin in little more than a week since she’d last seen her was awesome to behold. She seemed to be fitting into ranch life very well! She admitted that it was a lot of work and sometimes she didn’t get to work with the horses as much as she would like, but she enjoyed the life and didn’t miss civilization in general or Burbank in particular very much. It looked like she could be a fixture at the ranch for a long time, although she did express some interest in finishing high school, perhaps in a school somewhere relatively nearby as Will and his sister had done, or perhaps by correspondence.

It had not escaped Jennifer that if she wound up having to move up to the Bar H Bar that it seemed likely she would get to know Robin a lot better – after all, the girl was closer to Jennifer’s age than she was to Ellen’s.

In any case, Liz checked her over carefully. She was healing well and didn’t have much to complain about. The last blood test that Liz had done had been promising, but it was a week old now, so Liz took another one to see how the girl was coming in her battle with STDs, and gave her more antibiotics as a general precaution.

When that was all over with, Jennifer sat down with Robin and explained what she had learned from George about the prosecutor wanting to charge Lonnie. While it looked as if he were going away to prison for a while, if she were willing to testify against him he might well be looking at a much longer stay.

“I think I’d better do it,” the girl said without hesitation. “Lonnie seemed like a nice guy when I first met him, but he really proved to be a jerk. He hurt me a lot, and I’m still having nightmares about some of the things he did to me or had others do to me. But at least now, when I have those nightmares, I can wake up and realize that I’m here at the ranch, he’s a long ways away, and he can’t hurt me anymore. I guess I am worried about what happens when he gets out of jail if he decides to find me again.”

“I can’t say it wouldn’t happen,” Jennifer told her. “But you’d be pretty hard for him to find now, since not many people know you’re here and we’re not going to tell anyone, but that might not keep him from trying in a couple of years.”

“It would be better if he could be in jail for longer since I wouldn’t have to worry about him as much. I don’t know that I want to see him again, even in a courtroom, but if that’s what it takes, I’m willing to do it. Besides, if I don’t do it, he might hurt some other girl.”

“I’m pretty sure it won’t be right away, but it probably will still be this year sometime,” Jennifer told her. “I’ll pass the word along that you’re willing to testify against him and we’ll have to see what happens from there. I don’t know if I’ll know anything when I bring Dr. Wardell back to see you next week, but I might and I’ll let you know.”

They left it at that, but when Liz and Jennifer got back into Magic Carpet and took off from the rough track that served as a landing strip at the ranch, Liz commented, “I think it’d do her some good to testify against Lonnie in court. I didn’t hear everything you and Norma and Ellen heard, but it sounds to me like he put her through hell on earth.”

“He did, and if she does testify against him, he’s going to learn in prison what ‘nasty, brutish, and short’ means.”

“Yes, I hear that people like him have a tough time in jail.”

“True,” Jennifer frowned, “and he’ll get what he deserves. The hell of it is that there are so many other guys taking advantage of girls like her that we can’t get to and help. At least we’ll have taken one off the street so he won’t pull that kind of stuff on some other girl for a while.”

Of course, George was happy to hear the news the next day, and told Jennifer that he’d let her know what the prosecutor said. At a minimum she was going to have to bring Robin to his office or arrange for some other meeting place in order to prepare for the testimony, but that might not be in the near future.

A couple of days later Jennifer got another call from Brenda at WNN. “All right,” Brenda told her, “it looks like the project is a go, but there are some things that need to be ironed out and of course there are some higher-ups who want to put their two cents’ worth in. I’ve been in touch with an organization here in New York that works with girls working the street, and I think I’ll be able to have some girls to interview here, so that’s probably a third of the program. What we’re talking about at the moment is something where you and I will be sort of co-hosts, and we’ll be interviewing girls in various parts of the country and doing different things. Is that something like what you had in mind?”

“Pretty much,” Jennifer told her. “Right at the moment I don’t think it would be a good idea to talk about the book I’m still working on, and we probably shouldn’t mention Hearts of Gold since it’s still not actually in operation. In fact, that makes me think that I sure would like to meet with those people working with the street hookers in New York, and the woman I’m working with would probably like to be along with us when we meet them, too.”

“I’m sure we could arrange that. I think we want to shoot the core interviews, just you and me, here in the studio, and then we can go on location for the actual interviews with the girls. I think I can get the network to spring for flying both of you here for a couple of days to work on it.”

“I try to not fly commercial if I can help it, and I think after the hijacking you know why. If you want to give us the cost of the airline tickets, I’m willing to fly her up there.”

“I’ll see if I can get it approved. The network has a discount deal on air fares, but I’m sure it will open some eyes when they find out who’s planning on flying herself in.”

A few days later Norma and Jennifer flew Skyhook to Teterboro Airport outside of New York City, where Brenda and a network executive met them. It was a busy two days to put together what looked like some pretty casual interviews, both in the studio and with a couple of girls at the operation in New York that worked with street prostitutes. Norma was involved with the pre-interviews, and was able to point out areas that needed to be explored, and all in all it went pretty well.

That didn’t end the project; there were plans in the works to shoot other segments at a later date, and some of those were a little fuzzy. “It’s probably going to be at least the end of the year before this gets on the air,” Brenda told them, “so we’ll have to see what happens when it happens.”

Finally, when everything was as done for the moment as it was likely to get, Jennifer and Norma got back aboard Skyhook and started back for Phoenix. “I have to give those women at the mission where we interviewed those girls credit for trying,” Norma commented once Jennifer had them well out of the crowded airways near the city. “Actually, I think they’re doing pretty good and we can learn a few things from them. But the other thing I think where they fall down is that they’re not taking advantage of the experience of the girls who have made it out.”

“I noticed that,” Jennifer agreed. “Maybe it’s the best they can do, but somehow, as much as they’ve worked with those girls, they’re still looking at it from the outside and not from having been there.”

“I still think the key to recovery is to get the girl out of the environment and away from the pressures that drive them to sex work in the first place, and they’re really not doing that. That’s why I think we need to have our halfway house or retreat or whatever you call it well away from the life but staffed with people who know from experience what the problems they’re facing are. That’s one we’re going to have to crack before we can open for business. Your vacation cabin up at the ranch worked well in a pinch, but it’s not going to work for us in practice.”

“Are you making any progress on that?”

“I’ve looked at some places but nothing has really struck me as being perfect. There are neighbors too close, or it’s too easy to find, or the building really doesn’t strike me as what I want, or zoning issues, and half a dozen other things. I’d really rather there are no close neighbors at all, no one who can figure out what we’re up to, and maybe raise a stink that might give some pimp who’s lost his girl some idea of where to find her. But there are still plenty of places out there, and sooner or later the right thing will come up.”

“How about staff? How are you coming on that?”

“That’s still up in the air, too. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to have to do most of the counseling until I can come up with someone else who’s qualified. But we’re also going to have to come up with people who for want of a better word I’d have to call housemothers, someone who can hold a girl’s hand when I’m not around. I do have a couple leads on that, but nothing is definite on it.”

“The last time I talked to Liz she seemed interested in helping out on the medical side, but that’s not a done deal yet.”

“It would be great if we could get her aboard. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Jennifer, the people we need are out there. We just need to find them. We’re getting closer to being ready to open up, but we’re not quite there yet. I’ll tell you what, though. I’m glad we had that experience with Robin, because that sharpened my thinking on a lot of things.”

In the same period of a few weeks Jennifer made a couple more runs to see Will in Biloxi. They had a good time, of course, and not just in bed. It was always good to eat Claudia’s Cajun cooking, or to try out some of the other local specialties. They took advantage of the beaches, and once took a boat ride out to an island in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. On another day, they got into Skyhook and made a visit to her parents in Bradford; it had been a couple years since she’d been willing to risk a visit. It went well, and while she and Will agreed that it had to be done, everything was uncomfortable enough that they reasoned it wasn’t something that had to be repeated anytime soon.

On another occasion, Jennifer spent some time watching from a distance as Will worked with the troubled horse he’d been so concerned with, and reflected that he enjoyed doing that about as much as he enjoyed anything.

There was surprisingly little discussion about what to do with Will’s lottery winnings, or moving up to the ranch. Even the plans for the house, often a feature of their discussions on past weekends for most of a year, only came up obliquely. Although nothing had been said, it was clear that there was some tension about the subject that neither of them really wanted to bring up.

As she flew back to Phoenix, Jennifer thought about that issue, and resolved that it was going to have to be brought out into the open before things got too much further. Perhaps he had sensed that she really didn’t want to move out to the Bar H Bar, and was trying to keep things from blowing up between them. If that was the case, they were going to have to talk things out, and once again she realized that if he wanted to move up to the ranch, she would have to go with him as she had promised. If that were the case, unless things were handled carefully, there were bound to be some hurt feelings, either hers or his – but this had gone on long enough.

One day later that week she was sitting in her office at Lambdatron, ostensibly working but actually pondering how she wanted to approach him when the phone on her desk rang. Stifling her usual obscenity at being interrupted while in the middle of a thought, she picked it up to discover that it was Will. “How you doin’ today, Miz Hoffman?” he asked.

“Oh, I’ve had better days, and I’ve had worse,” she admitted. “Is there something happening? It’s not like you to call me in the middle of the day.”

“Yeah, there is. I got my orders.”

Oh, shit, she thought. Here’s where everything quits being theoretical. “And?”

“They’re sending me to Luke.”

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