Sunday is a day of rest for most people, but at Southern Michigan University, that Sunday was a day of relief. The events of the day before were a day behind them.

Perhaps the fact that Sunday dawned bright and clear, driving off the dismal overcast and drizzle of the day before helped to lift people’s spirits. There were still plenty of media people around, there were still camera crews, and there was still yellow police tape blocking the doors to the Community Services Center. There were still several police cars sitting around nearby, some of them inexplicably showing flashing lights. A crime scene crew was still going through the room where the shooting took place, trying to figure out the track of every bullet fired, but to what reason no one was quite sure. What had happened there the day before had happened, and that it was over was the most important part.

Over on the steps of Tottenhaven hall at seven in the morning, Susan was holding the promised press conference. After she’d gotten back to the Spearfish Lake House late the evening before, she’d gone up to Cody and Jan’s apartment to ask them to appear at the conference. “It’s just a guess,” she said. “But there’s a chance we can get you in and out before some of those people wake up.”

“Susan, I really don’t want to do it,” Cody told her. “But if you think it would be better then we can come.”

“If you don’t you’re going to have people bugging you incessantly, in places where we don’t have control like at a press conference,” she replied. “After that, you have the option of just saying that you’ve spoken to the press, and you said all you intend to say.”

“We were talking about it at dinner in Bradford last night,” he replied. “Alan, especially, suggested that I keep my remarks to a minimum. He said to say as little as possible, lots of yes’s and no’s, and don’t volunteer any information, especially about my feelings.”

“What you do is your choice, but it’s what I would recommend, too,” she said. “If you are asked about how you feel about it, just say something like, ‘I did what I had to do,’ and let it go at that. Don’t get a reputation for saying more than you absolutely have to, and maybe you won’t have to say much at all. This thing has gotten a lot of media attention, Cody. I’ll try to shield you from it where I can but there’s a limit to what I can do.”

“I’m just worried that we’re going to have media pounding on the door in the middle of the night, demanding an interview. Alan and Jack said they’d try to turn people away if it happens. If it gets to be too much of a problem, maybe I can call the station and get someone in uniform over there to keep them away. In fact, I’ll call down to the station to let them know it might happen.”

It turned out that it did happen, well after midnight too, and it was necessary to call the police to get an overzealous news crew off the lawn so everyone could get some sleep. As a result, no one in the Spearfish Lake House was in a very good mood when they got up the next morning, but Cody and Jan still agreed to go to the news conference. Susan was up before the rest of the house, getting preparations made, and this time those preparations included a couple of off-duty policemen, friends of Cody, to keep the press from again being too overzealous.

“I’m glad to see everyone is here at this hour,” Susan said to the crowd of news people – a crowd that included Brenda. “First, I have to say that as of half an hour ago, Elise Simpkins was reported to be in critical but stable condition at Hawthorne County Hospital. I’m no medical expert, but it sounds to me that it’s an improvement over the ‘very critical’ they were reporting yesterday. I have no further information on that.

“However, Cody and Janice Archer have agreed to meet with you right now. They are very reluctant to meet with any press, and don’t want things over-blown. They have asked me to pass along two items: first, that this will be the only time they will meet with the press today, and second, those rude idiots who were pounding on their front door at two-thirty this morning wanting an exclusive interview can just go on wanting. They will not speak with them under any circumstances, and if they show up at the house again they may be subject to arrest. I know Mr. Archer well enough to know that he doesn’t make promises like that lightly.”

“We’re sorry about that,” one of the reporters in the audience said. “But our news director told us to do it.”

“Please tell your news director from me that he is very rude and that you’re still out of luck,” Susan replied, really showing off her icy side. She was grinning inwardly; she’d be willing to bet that exchange would never see air time.

With that for a start, Susan introduced Cody and Jan. Of course, there were a ton of questions, some asked very rudely, but both Cody and Jan went a long way very quickly to show that they were not expecting to be television personalities. Their answers ran heavily to “Yes,” “No,” “I don’t know,” and occasionally, “That’s none of your business.”

After a while, realizing that they were not going to get much out of the two, the questions started to die down, and some of the questions even started to make some sense. “Ms. Archer,” one reporter asked. “What do your parents think of this?”

“I have no living parents,” she replied. “However, I consider Cody’s parents to be mine as well. We informed them yesterday about what happened and that we were both safe. They were very happy to hear it.”

Of course it wasn’t long before the subject came up of Cody having to shoot Jan’s father and brother. He acknowledged that it had happened, that he’d had little choice in the matter, and had not been prosecuted for reasons of self-defense and preventing a felony. Janice told them a little more, but not much. “The story Ms. McMahon told you yesterday is correct in all respects,” she said. “I see no need to get into the personal and trying details.”

“And with that, I think it’s time we brought this to a close,” Susan told the reporters. “I promised Mr. and Ms. Archer I wasn’t going to let this go on all day, and I’ll keep that promise. That concludes the formal part of the news conference. Like yesterday, I will be available after the news conference for individual interviews, especially in German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin if they are desired. I will also hold a brief press conference here at three this afternoon, but I doubt there will be any breaking news other than possible updates on Ms. Simpkins, if any are available.”

There were, of course, reporters who hadn’t gotten enough and continued to pester Cody and Jan with questions, but accompanied by Cody’s two officer friends, the pair disappeared into Tottenhaven Hall. Cody and Jan went on out the back door toward the Spearfish Lake House, while Susan drew the attention of the media out front.

“Wow,” one reporter asked Susan casually, “They don’t say much, do they?”

“They’re actually warm and friendly people,” she replied. “But they are on the shy side and are very private people. They don’t want to be media celebrities. As Mr. Archer said, they did what they had to do.”

*   *   *

A little later that morning, Alan and Summer were doing something they thought they would never do: dressed in presentable clothing, they attended the morning service at Hawthorne First United Methodist Church.

They were amazed at the friendly greeting they received. Reverend Fowler’s sermon was essentially what he had outlined to them in the day before, about the fellowship of believers of all faiths, and how love ought to triumph over hate. The reverend went on to tell the story of the two young Wiccans he’d met outside the hospital the day before, praying to their Goddess for the life of their fellow believer. “I told them at the time that I didn’t care Who they were praying to or how they were doing it,” he said. “But that the important part was that they were praying. Christians, Wiccans, Moslems, Jews, or whatever, believers deserve the respect of each other.”

Alan and Summer were pretty much anonymous until toward the end of the sermon. “I wanted to demonstrate to you the fellowship of all believers of whatever faith,” Reverend Fowler said. “And I want to introduce to you two faithful young people, who have the courage of their convictions, who survived the shooting at the university yesterday, and who, in the time of need of one of their fellows, reached out to their Goddess to ask for Her help. Fellow Methodists, I’d like you to give a warm welcome to Alan Jahnke and Summer Trevetheck, the faithful young people I just mentioned. Alan, Summer, please stand to greet your fellow believers.”

Applause is not common in a Methodist church, but this time a rather embarrassed Alan and Summer received it. To top it off, Reverend Fowler asked them to stand with him at the back of the church to greet the congregation as they filed out. There were handshakes, hugs, and congratulations, all of which amazed them. It was a very heady experience for the two, who had been very used to hiding their faith from Christians – a faith that Reed had attacked the day before.

“You know,” Alan said afterwards as they were waiting for the shuttle bus to take them back to campus. “There went a hell of a lot of work down the tubes.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know that I have the heart to call the game Witches versus Christians after this morning.”

“Yeah, you might be right at that,” she said. “That was totally, and I mean totally, the opposite of what I would have expected even a few days ago. I suppose we can go back to Witches versus Inquisitors, though.”

“Well, maybe. The hell of it is that you and I know what we really meant when we used that title. Either way, it seems pretty disrespectful. In fact, in light of what Reverend Fowler said today, I can’t help but wonder if it’s disrespectful to the Goddess.”

“When you put it that way, I think you have a point,” she replied thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s just as well. I think we’d better put it on the back burner for a while, or just drop it. The Goddess is a lot more important to me than a game, and it’s not like we don’t have other things to do.”

*   *   *

Although they were starting to get used to it now, Jack and Vixen still felt crowded in the two-bedroom apartment, and it wasn’t often that they were in the apartment by themselves, with Alan and Summer guaranteed to be gone for a couple hours.

That morning they’d gotten up and joined their friends in watching one of the Sunday morning news shows, which had a lot of coverage of the shooting the day before. They knew essentially everything that had gone on in the room and were curious about how it would be covered. From their own knowledge they saw that the network got a lot right, but they got a lot wrong, too.

They watched as Cody and Jan were interviewed live at the news conference. They’d known from the night before that the couple planned to not say any more than they had to, but the curtness they displayed surprised even them. “I can’t blame them,” Vixen commented. “They’re nice people, and we know that they’re not like that at all.”

“You’re right,” Jack agreed, “and I can’t blame them for wanting to keep their private lives private either.”

Eventually Alan and Summer left for church – something Jack and Vixen had never expected to see in their lives. Jack and Vixen were courteous about it, and may have waited as much as two or three minutes before heading to the bedroom, shedding clothes along the way. Though they tried to keep the noise down, they definitely enjoyed themselves.

Some time later they were partly under the covers, nude of course, just talking about things. “Jack,” Vixen said distantly, with little to indicate she’d been thinking about it. “Thank you.”

“Thank me for what?”

“For covering me yesterday when that idiot was shooting. Jack, I know we care a lot about each other, but that showed me just how much you care deep down inside.”

“Vixen, I love you, and you know that. But maybe you’re right, it showed even me just how much I do love you.”

“Jack, I’ve often wondered what you see in me, other than a fellow birder. I’m not pretty, and even though they’re better I still have more zits on my face than I’d like to see. I’m skinny and, uh, well, let’s face it, my boobs aren’t much bigger than yours. You could have showed interest in any of the girls around the school instead, and I’m sure some of them would have jumped at it, so why did you pick me?”

“I’m not sure about that part of it,” he smiled. “Actually, I didn’t do much of the picking. We pretty much fell together, but once we did I realized there was a kindred spirit there. Vixen, you may not think you’re beautiful, but you are to me. That’s all that counts in my book. It’s a lot deeper than a physical attraction, a lot deeper than plumage, a lot deeper than your face. It’s what’s behind your face that counts with me.”

“I still don’t understand it but maybe I shouldn’t complain, either,” she replied. “You know, if I had the money I think I’d get implants in my chest, just to make me more attractive to you.”

“You don’t have to do it for me. I like you the way you are, and that includes your chest. However, if you think it would improve the image you have of yourself, I wouldn’t complain if you did it. Just not big ones, say, like Summer’s, please. It wouldn’t look right.”

“I wouldn’t want that. I’d think they’d get in the way. I just want to look in the mirror and be able to see that I have boobs. I can’t get implants right now anyway. We both have better things to spend the money on.”

“Yeah, we do, and let’s face it, we’ve still got a lot of school in front of us. But you know, I’m glad we decided to come here. I would really rather not have gone through that yesterday, but unexpected things usually happen in life, and that one could have been a heck of a lot worse. I guess we have to accept what happened, not let it get us down, and get on with our lives.”

“Expect the unexpected,” she smiled. “You know, being birders, we have to be ready for the unexpected to happen. Like when we’re watching bird feeders, with all the normal local birds, and then suddenly some western exotic shows up out of nowhere. We have to be ready for it.”

“I don’t think I was ready for what happened yesterday, but I think I did all right. Cody and Jan, though, they were ready. It’s what they’ve trained for, and they’ve been around that kind of thing before. Don’t get me wrong, I like them and I’m glad they’re my friends, but I think I’d rather be ready for some odd bird to show up.”

“I would, too,” she said. “Jack, roll onto your back.”

“Sure,” he replied. “Why?”

“Mostly because I want to get on top of you, plug you into me, and just enjoy being there without working at it. I like the feeling, Jack. You know, it’s only about a year since we did it the first time?”

“Yeah, it would have to be something about like that,” he agreed as he rolled over to do what Vixen wanted. “I don’t remember the date for sure. It would show up in my bird notebook, though. It was the day we went to Seney Wildlife Refuge.”

“You think of it in terms of birding?” she giggled as she climbed on top of him. She could see he was ready for her, and she quickly made use of it. “That’s better,” she added as she settled into position.

“Not everything,” he replied. “In case you’re wondering I like that feeling, too.”

“I know you do, and I want to feel it a lot more, say for the next fifty years or so.”

“I don’t plan on doing anything else, Vixen. It was hard enough to figure out that we were meant for each other, and I wouldn’t want to start the hunt all over again. You realize this idea of becoming professional birders may only be a dream, don’t you?”

“I’ve always known that.”

“I have no idea of what we’re going to do if we can’t achieve it, but at least we’ll be able to do it together.”

“That’s what I want to do, Jack. What’s more, after yesterday I’ll always know that you’re ready to cover me if you have to. That’s a nice feeling, Jack, and as long as I have it, I think we’ll be able to make things work.”

*   *   *

Susan was a while making it back to the Spearfish Lake House. There were a number of follow-up interviews to be done, but otherwise there wasn’t a great deal happening. After the news conference that morning, it was clear that several crews were pulling out, and more seemed likely to do so soon. It had been a big one-day news event, but the day had moved on and the people who were left were just picking up the scraps. Cody and Jan’s unwillingness to participate in a media circus had helped with that.

As soon as Susan got back to the house, she went right up to Cody and Jan’s apartment. “Thanks for doing that, you two,” she said as Jan served her coffee in the living room. “I realize that was a huge pain in the neck for both of you, but it could have been a whole lot worse.”

“It could have been a hell of a lot better,” Cody snorted. “Some of those idiots – well, they’re really idiots. They just don’t know when to quit.”

“Very true. The more you give, the more they’ll try for. You didn’t give them very much and made it clear there was no more to get out of you. That won’t end the problem but will ease it a little.”

“Susan, I’m sure glad you were looking out for us,” Jan said. “Some of those questions got very personal, and I didn’t think it was right that they should be prying like that.”

“I don’t think so either, especially in a crowd scene like that. It’s far too easy to grab the sensational part, even if it is hurtful. You have to think of what telling a person’s story is going to do to them. That’s something Dad taught me clear back to when I was a little girl.”

“I’ve met your dad, but I don’t know him that well,” she replied. “He seemed like a nice man, though.”

“I think he is,” Susan said. “But now, with all that said, I also have to say that I do think your story needs to be told as people can learn from it. There are several ways that it’s very inspirational, and I don’t want to see that message get lost. But today was not the time, nor the place to tell it.”

“Susan,” Cody said. “I can tell you’re trying to tell us something.”

“I am,” she said. “There’s someone here today who I think can tell your story, tell it respectfully and sensitively. I know she’s capable of it, since I’ve seen her do it before. I’m not asking you to allow her to be the one to tell your story, but I would like you to talk to her with no promises being made. I don’t know her well, but I know Dad thinks very highly of her, and I trust Dad in such things. Cody, Jan, you know who Carole Carter is, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Jan replied. “Carole Hunt is her married name though. She spent a lot of time helping Cody and me get things back together after Cody rescued me.”

“You know about Carole wearing handcuffs for six years, don’t you?”

“We know about it,” Cody replied. “I never saw it, it was before we moved to Spearfish Lake, but she talked about it with us. There were several life lessons that came out of that.”

“Did you ever read the book about Carole, Wendy, and a Record-Herald reporter named Brenda Hodunk?”

“Yeah, sure. Carole gave us a copy, we have it over there on the bookshelf.”

“You remember that Brenda wore handcuffs for two months, and wrote a very sensitive story about her experience? It won her a national award.”

“Yeah,” Jan grinned. “We know that Wendy wrote the book. Cody and I don’t know her very well, but Carole introduced us one time.”

“Brenda Hodunk is now a reporter from World News Network, and was at the news conference this morning. She wasn’t one of those people making asses of themselves. She was just standing back and watching the proceedings. Now, as I said, I don’t know Brenda well, but I’ve seen some of the excellent features she’s produced. Dad thinks very well of her. What I’d like you to do is talk with her casually, and totally off the record. You don’t even have to talk about yesterday or how Cody rescued you, Jan. No promises have been made, and you’ll have to be the ones to make up your minds.”

“I’m very reluctant,” Cody admitted, “but we owe you the favor.”

“Thank you,” Susan smiled. “I want to keep this casual. One thought I had is to get the residents of the house together down in my apartment this afternoon. I understand Logan is a resident now, too?”

“He will be,” Cody smiled. “Jack and Alan promised to go over to the dorm and help him with his stuff after – and you’re not going to believe this – after Alan gets back from church.”

“That’s a little hard to believe,” Susan said, “but I want Alan and Summer to sit and talk with her, too. And I’m going to invite Laura Delacroix. I promised a news conference this afternoon at three but I don’t think it’ll last too long. How about pizza in my apartment about five?”

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