Friday, September 23, 2011

Chapter 51: Getting Ready

I left the range, after allocating responsibilities to various people, including who should supervise what was happening. In most cases, this meant that one of my team that assisted in training normally, was running each exercise. Most of the guys took it in the spirit it was intended, following instruction quite easily, and those who didn't would be noted and I would probably excuse them from any operations.

I decided that this was a good time to make some administrative arrangements and made myself comfortable on a director's chair where I could be far enough away from what was happening to be out of ear-shot and close enough to still observe what was happening. Once I had settled down, I hauled out my phone and started calling.

I was looking for kit; I realised that with a private operation like this, I would have to provide all the kit myself that would normally be part of the issue if we were working officially. One of my major concerns was the possibility of injuries to any member of my team, so I started calling some connections.

One of my friends owned and operated a factory in Pinetown that made all the protective gear that I could want, and I tried him first. Once I had explained in general terms what I was doing, he was very sympathetic and I extracted a promise from him to donate some of his kit. When I hung up the phone, Daise gave me an enquiring look, and asked "What equipment is that guy going to provide, Rupert?"

"There are two main things I want from him," I answered. "An under clothing protective vest and a jacket that looks like a wind-breaker, but has ballistic protection. We can put plates into the jacket to provide protection against 7.62 rounds and it still doesn't look like a bullet-proof vest."

"Is his stuff that special?"

PASGT protection system Helmet

"I think it is. There's an amusing story that he tells. He was in the parking centre of a shopping lot in Pinetown, and saw some guy stopping his motor-bike. He noticed that the guy was wearing a helmet that he recognised as one that he had made. He asked the guy where he had gotten the helmet and the guy told him that he was just back from Afghanistan and he got the helmet there. Turns out that the helmet was made in Pinetown, exported to the USA, sent across to Afghan where this guy was issued it and then he brought it home and was wearing it not more than a klick away from where it was made."

Daise laughed. "That's amazing. Is his kit good though?"

"Yes. I've seen the tests that they do and if the bullets hit one of the plates, then they are stopped. The vest and jacket will only stop hand-gun rounds though. I figure wearing both the vest and the jacket will provide double protection, and adding the plates to the jacket will add some protection from rifle rounds. It won't stop everything, but it is certainly better than nothing. The real reason that I want his stuff though is that it doesn't look like anything other than normal clothing so the guys won't stand out."

"And what about me? Do I get to wear some of that stuff?"

"Yup. I asked him for a few sets made for women."

"Thank you darling," Daise said, and planted a kiss on my cheek.

I returned to my phone. There were a few other things I wanted to source.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Well… I’ve been away … :-)

For those of you who were wondering (all 2 and a half of you) why i haven’t been writing, it’s been a long stretch for me of real life interfering!

I was in the army for a while, first two months at Infantry School doing the Battalion Mortars Specialist course, of which a fair proportion was in the bush… and then on my return I took over as Alpha Company Commander for two and a half months, specifically to prepare the company for the combat readiness evaluation for deployment.

I’ve also just had the most delightful addition to my family, my third daughter Sophiah Rosanna, who has just turned one month old.

DSCF4171

In between all that, my cell phone got destroyed and I lost what I had been working on…

Last, and by no means least, I have been scurrying around trying to earn a living… :Sad smile

I just got a new notebook though, and I’m hoping to be able to start writing again.. so watch this space!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Chapter 50: Hand-Gun Range

Bettina, the third woman of my team, joined us as we moved to the range. Lisa stuck to her like glue, although I didn't consider her to be a member of the team.

The refresher on the range achieved my first objective very quickly, which was to drive home the fact that most soldiers shot really, really badly with hand-guns of any type. The problem is normally to get them to admit it, so that alternative arrangements can be made. I had learnt my lesson the hard way though, and knew that actions spoke much louder than words.

Most people who have shot hand-guns, have trained on a static range with paper targets. A lot of these, including professional soldiers, had not been formally trained at all, just taught themselves or picked up what they could from observation and trial and error.

Our range was designed to make the point instantly that this was not good enough. A person can be taught to shoot an assault-rifle sufficiently well in just a few weeks, that he can be considered a competent infanteer. It was my experience that the same was not true of hand guns. They involve completely different skills and abilities.

I took my team through the range first, so that we could get them out of the way, but also so that they wouldn't have any pressure on them as they wouldn't know what was good or bad.

After I had briefed them on the range rules, and test their knowledge, I took them them through the course one at a time. This first course was a favourite of mine with strange things like pumpkins and oranges and water-filled plastic bottles hanging from strings. All designed to be highly visible when hit. A lot of them had movement built in, swinging and twisting in the breeze.

Daise was a lot more confident this time, having used her weapon in action, and managed to score a respectable 60% of possible. Alina and Bettina scored in the low forties, but the big surprise was Lisa.

I had no intention at first of even allowing her to shoot, but she insisted and her mother backed her up. I tried to offer her a smaller weapon, but she refused that too, insisting that she be given the opportunity equal to the adult's.

She turned out to be fairly slow, recovery from the recoil was hard on her, hurting her wrists, but she stuck it out and at the end of the course I was astounded and delighted that she had scored a full possible; 100%.

Once we had all gone through the course, I took my team aside to discuss their performance and put it into context for them. Normally, I had to explain to a very discouraged group that it was normal to fail the course; that's what it was designed for after all, but Lisa had screwed that up for me completely.

It worked out very well in another way though. Once all the men had been through the course, and not one of them had beaten Daise's score, the example of Lisa reinforced the idea that they could shoot these weapons as well as they could.

I made it clear to them that we would be running classes for all those who wished to attend them, and that they qualifying score on this range was 80%. Anything less than that and I didn't want to risk the collateral damage they might cause in an urban environment.

We broke for lunch after that, and I took the opportunity to greet someone that I had really hoped to see, but hadn't been sure would show up.

Jack is a short, quiet man. Completely unobtrusive and the antithesis of flamboyant. He was the person, however, who had designed and built the Special Forces Urban Warfare course on the Bluff, and ho had written the manual for the South African doctrine along the way. He also had the distinction of having been awarded the Honoris Crux, the SA decoration for valour equivalent to the American CMH or the British VC. He had retired from the army as a Major and gone on to fulfill his life-long dream of becoming a game-ranger.*

We discussed quietly what I hoped to achieve and Jack gave me some initial pointers before disappearing. I was able to extract a promise from him that he would visit a few times and help to evaluate and improve the program, and possible even present a class or two, but he wasn't prepared to commit to more than that, to my huge disappointment.

* Read the real life story of Major Jack Greeff, HC (rtd) in his book "A Greater Share of Honour" from http://justdone.co.za/shop/product.php?id_product=272

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Chapter 49: Marriage Proposal Squared

Satisfied that Gerrie was on the job, I returned to the crowd around the Urn and grabbed myself a mug of Rooibos tea. As I was adding sugar, Daise grabbed my arm and asked to speak to me. I nodded, told her to follow me and walked a short distance away from the crowd. When Alina spotted us, she hurried out to join us, and I noticed that Daise waited for her to catch up before she began speaking. "Rupert, we've been thinking," Daise began. I shuddered, hoping that this wasn't the beginning of a speech about 'it was nice to know you but...'

"No, I think you've got the wrong idea," Alina blurted when she saw the expression on my face. "Please just listen to what Daise has to say. She speaks for both of us on this."

"OK," I responded, "I'm listening." I schooled my face to try to prevent my feelings from reflecting quite so obviously, and turned slightly to face Daise, but ensuring I could keep an eye on Alina's expression at the same time.

"Well..." Daise began hesitantly, "You remember you and I spoke about marriage..."

"Yes?" I prompted gently, feeling my facial muscles freeze, and steeling myself for the worst.

"Well... Alina and I were talking this morning while you were out and we want to suggest something."

"Daise, please just tell me... The suspense is killing me. Do me the favour of putting me out of my misery quickly."

"Oh Rupert, it's just that Alina and I realised as we spoke that not only do we really love each other, but we both love you, and we wouldn't like to split up, but we wanted to know what you felt and we'll do whatever you want, but we would like to stay together and ..."

Daise trailed off, a little out of breath from her little speech, which she had made without seeming to pause for breath.

Now she lifted her eyes, which she had dropped down while she was talking, to look at my face. I could see that was more than slightly disconcerted to see the broad smile which was plastered there. I also noticed the hope blooming in Alina's expression, as I started grinning like a maniac.

"What are you smiling at Rupert?" Daise asked finally, unable to suppress a reciprocal smile of her own.

"The two of you have no idea how happy you have just made me," I managed to get out past the frog that had taken up residence in my throat. "I've been agonising over the very same thing.

I took Daise's hands in mine, looked deep into her eyes, and told her "You know I love you Daise." She sparkled with happiness as I bent my head down to kiss her deeply.

When I pulled back, Daise's eyes were closed and she had a blissful expression on her face.

I dropped Daise's hands, turned to Alina, and took up her hands in mine.

"I love you too Alina," I told her and proceeded to give her pretty much the same sort of kiss Daise had gotten. While we were kissing, I felt Daise's arms encircle both of us, and I thought I heard a faint sob of relief, but I couldn't be sure.

When we finally parted, and surfaced for air, it was to be greeted by applause and slightly ironic cheers. I laughed happily, and responded "That'll be enough from the peanut gallery please." All I got for my effort was more good-natured laughter.

I bent down and pulled the two women's heads close together, so I could talk quietly for their ears alone. "I love you both equally, and I wouldn't want any of us to be seperated from the others. When all this is over, maybe we can speak to the Sgt-Major's Induna about a Zulu wedding, where more than one wife is perfectly acceptable.

Daise and Alina looked stunned at this thought. I smiled and left them to follow me as I returned to join the crowd.

It took a few minutes, and not a few ribald comments, before everyone was settled again, and I could introduce Johnny. He proceeded to lay out the tentative block program for training over the next few days, as well as some suggestions for the teams of four that we had decided were the best combinations for operational purposes.

These 'bricks' of four would from then on train together and eventually deploy as a team, so we wanted to get the combinations right from the start.

Once Johnny was finished, we moved out for the first exercise, which was to get everyone through refresher training in various weapons, with an emphasis on safety-precautions and range orders.

It came as no surprise to me, of course, that my team consisted of the three women and me.

Chapter 48: First Briefing

The next morning I was up before the sun. I took a long relaxing run around the lake to stretch my muscles and work some of the kinks out of my body. It had been a while since I had run, and I knew that the next while would stress me, and while I normally didn't like running, it was neccessary to start getting myself ready. When I returned to the room, both the girls were up and dressed. I heard their voices coming from the veranda, and when I tried to eavesdrop, was thwarted by the fact that they seemed to be chatting in Russian. I popped into the shower and got rid of the sweat then joined them for a light breakfast. After breakfast, we walked over the ridge to the training area. I was surprised and pleased to see that we had a number of new faces. Well, old faces actually, some of whom I hadn't seen for a long time. It was clear that the drums were beating. I grabbed a mug of coffee, and joined the crowd standing and chatting in the early morning, greeting those that had arrived overnight and just enjoying the sight of the mist slowly dissipating as the sun slowly heated the air. I waited until the last few stragglers joined us from the lodge, brushing off the few enquiries about what was going on until we had a full compliment. "Right," I called to get everyone's attention once I was ready, "let's get this show on the road." Everyone took seats on the benches around the tables on the veranda of the barracks-room, and settled down. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm an old NCO who went across to the dark side, which means that I have both the wits of an NCO and the extra half I got with my commission..." I paused for the expected chuckles and groans, then continued, "This is not an official operation and in fact has no connection with any organisation at all, it is purely a private fight." I could see on at least half of the faces a polite disbelief, but decided to let it go. I would talk to each man individually as things went on to clarify the situation. "What I have in mind is that we start with some refresher training and conditioning. In addition, there are probably a lot of you who haven't done 'Urban in Durban' so some of what we will do will be completely new. In any event, we need to get everyone operating on the same wavelength. Some of the stuff we'll do will be brand new, even to those of you who have done Urban before. We have some people with great experience both old and new, a lot of the new stuff picked up in Iraq from the Pommies and Yanks, and one old instructor that I think will add some very valuable input. While this is going on, we will wait for some decent INT and then start moving the training up from general stuff to OPS specific. Concerns, Questions, Problems?" "What's the actual situation. I just heard that there was a possible fight... " asked a voice from the back. "Thanks for coming anyway Mannie," I greeted, "I'll give you a summary after this of what's been going on. Anything else?" I waited, but there were no more questions. I guessed that those who had questions decided that they would wait to hear what the situation was. None of the men who were here hadn't been around the block a few times. It took me just under an hour to go over everything that had happened, dealing with a variety of questions for clarity and more detail as I went. When I was finished, there was a period of silence while those who hadn't been involved digested what they had heard. I could see that what I had told them had intrigued some, and I got the feeling that they were caught up in the same feelings of disgust and smoldering anger that I was feeling. After looking around for a few minutes, I decided to get the ball rolling. "I'd like to introduce you to someone that most of you don't know and ask him to talk a little about his experiences. he's going to be here for a while to see if he can add any value to what we do. This is Jurgen and he has a story to tell us." At the mention of his name, Jurgen got up and walked over to stand next to me. He started talking in his rather thick German accent. "I'm eighty-seven years old and I've lived here in South Africa for almost fourty years. When I was sixteen, I left school to join the German army. I lived in Munich at the time. I went with the Army to Stalingrad and back." There was a deafening silence. These men knew what was behind those few words. "I made sergeant during the battle but I don't know exactly what I can contribute. I met Rupert some months ago, and we found that we were soldiers of different countries, different wars and different generations, but we still had something in common. After a few beers, he got me to tell him my story. It's not something I have told to anyone else. All my family knows about it is that I still have nightmares sometimes and wake up in the middle of the night." There were a few nods and I could see that what I had seen in Jurgen was also apparent to a lot of those listening. He proceeded to tell his story, and although it was bare of much detail, for those who had experience, that was enough. When he was finished, he sat down, the strain of talking about his experiences obvious. "I called Jurgen yesterday, and asked him to spend some time with us. He will observe and sit in on our planning. I think it's about time for tea." Some throats were cleared as everyone got up and started milling around, grabbing something to drink and chatting about what they had heard. I left them there and went to find Gerrie. He had set himself up in the little room just off the barracks-room, and I was not surprised to see that the walls were already covered with maps and diagrams, and that there were three computer monitors that I could see, with at least seven computers set up. He was busy at a keyboard, and Kate was seated next to him, at another computer. From what I could see, she was browsing the web while he was busy with something completely imcomprehensible. "Howzit Gerrie," I greated him, "anything useful yet?" Gerrie was startled and turned to face me. Kate turned as well, and got a faint blush on her face when she saw me glance at the rumpled bedclothes on the bed against the wall. I smiled at her and waited for Gerrie. "Yes," Gerrie answered, oblivious to the silent exchange, "I'm making some progress, but nothing really concrete yet." "Give me a 'for example' please, ' I asked. "Well, I've traced the ownership of the club that you told me about, and it has no reference to this Dimitri at all, jsut what must be the previous owners, but I got hold of some friends in the Metro Police and they were very happy to let me have a run down of what they know and suspect about the man. I've got Kate on some Russian boards though and she's been very useful there, picking up all kinds of rumours and hints. Seems our man's ex-military alright. An officer. Captain when he left. We'll need to put some electronic bugs onto him and his crew as soon as possible though to get something about what he's doing now. He seems to keep everything behind front-men so it's hard to get much else." "Ok. That sounds like the first order of business then. You tell me what you need and I'll put it together." Gerrie handed me a printed list wordlessly and turned back to his computer. I smiled at Kate and left them to their own devices. Most of you know my story about short chapters and writing on my cell phone yadda yadda... I am also posting this story at http://mailorderbride.penhouse.co.za where there is often additional information such as appropriate photos etc. Update your vote for: "Mail-Order Bride" Technical Merit: Spelling, grammar and overall readability Plot: Creativity, storyline and character development Personal Appeal: Story's emotional and/or intellectual impact on you This story is in your library. to remove from library completely Or to adjust bookmark settings (type, list, etc...) To Be Continued... Go to BoonDock’s Blog Posted: 2009-02-12 Last Modified: 2010-03-22 / 08:58:08 pm Version: 2.00 If you enjoyed this work, take a moment to email the author. Your comments are their only payment. Name: (optional) Email: boondock@storiesonline.org To: BoonDock Subject: Mail-Order Bride Message: Home - My Library - Top [Bookmark Next Chapter] - More Info

Chapter 47: INT OPS

Bettina was subdued the during the rest of the tour of the facilities, but Lisa bounced right back and got into everything. I noticed more than one fond grin directed her way by the guys, and figured out that Lisa would probably have more than one father-figure in her life. All good in my opinion. I noticed that Daise and Alina seemed to be very intimidated by the high obstacles on the obstacle course, looking up at the wooden structure with some trepidation. Well, not to worry, the whole idea of the course was to build confidence in their ability to handle themselves as well as in the team to look after each other. Once we had toured all the various facilities close to the barracks, we returned to the Lodge for lunch. The food was excellent as usual, the conversation mostly light. Just as we were finishing, I got a call from Gill, Roy's ex-wife, to tell me that the doctors had given permission for Roy to leave the hospital as long as he promised to spend time in bed recovering at home. I was very happy to hear this and immediately told Gill that I would prefer her to bring him and their daughter out to the Lodge to stay for as long as necessary. Gill seemed relieved by the offer, and said she would discuss it with Roy. I felt pretty confident that they would be out to stay in a couple of days. When I got off the phone, Daise and Alina made noises about spending some time hanging around the pool, and a lot of the rest decided that was a good idea. It wasn't long before we were changed and lying on loungers at the pool-side. I made no bones about the fact that I thought this was a fantastic opportunity to admire the sleek, sexy forms of the females in their bikinis. We'd been there about an hour and a half when Gerrie arrived. I noticed his Harley arriving, no-one could have missed the noise, and knew he'd be out to join us once he was settled. "What was that?" Alina asked in response to the noise. "Gerrie is a Harley Davidson Motorbike fanatic," I told her. "There are lots of people who buy new bikes now and think that they are some kind of heroes because they own one. Gerrie is different. He really knows and loves the bikes. He has one that he rescued from the scrapheap. It was a World War II vintage bike. When he got it, everything was either rusted solid, or rusted away. He took it apart and not only rebuilt it, he actually recreated the whole thing. Building the engine from scratch. If you have a few weeks spare, ask him to talk about his bikes." "I'll give that a miss, I think," Alina laughed. "Actually, Gerrie is really shy. He probably won't even talk to you unless you get him talking about his beloved bikes." Gerrie appeared about twenty minutes later and pulled up an outdoors chaise-lounge next to me. I introduced him around, but he greeted all the others perfunctorily before focusing on me. "Rupert," he began earnestly, "I've been hearing all kinds of crazy things. If half of them are true..." "Probably less than that," I interrupted. "Let me summarise what has happened for you." I gave Gerrie a concise summary of the events and actions of the last few days, starting with my contact with Daise. Gerrie listened, as he always does, with total concentration and without interrupting once. He was a really scary guy to deal with in some ways. He had an eidetic memory and could recite conversations verbatim from twenty years back, which was probably why he had never been married. Most women don't like their husbands to be able to recite chapter and verse of their words from the last argument they had had. Gerrie was interested in information. He was the perfect military intelligence NCO, able to collate and analyse vast amounts of data in his head. He was ran the computer systems of a major insurance company as his day job, but he had been allocated to a Commando after completing his National Service and worked as the Intelligence Clerk in their OPS Room at the beginning. It didn't take the Int Officer long to discover his talents though, and he was soon the senior NCO responsibile for Intelligence for the Unit, collecting information from members of the Commando when they reported for duty and branching out more and more into an intelligence collection role. Within five years, he was invited by the Police and all the other Army Units to brief them on a regular basis. He consistently refused a commission though, claiming that he liked to actually work for his pay. "Rupert, I'm really glad you called me," Gerrie told me when I finished my summary, "You've been blundering around in the dark as usual. I'm sure I can pull something together to get you the information you need." "Great Gerrie. Welcome aboard," I told him as a great weight lifted from my shoulders. "Whatever you need, just let me know and I'll see what I can do to get it for you. I thought that we could set up an OPS room and Int Office near the barracks, and you can brief us as you get information and feed it into our training." "Sounds like a plan. I'll get started on that now," Gerrie declared, and then disappeared. I knew that he would have more information than I could shake a stick at in no time at all. Katy climbed out of the pool and sat on her chair, before looking around and saying something quietly to Bettina. "Rupert," Bettina called, "Katy was wondering what happened to your friend, the one who just arrived." She had a smile on her face that she carefully hid from Katy, keeping her head turned towards me. "He Mysterpeared", I told her. "Mysterpeared?" I laughed. "That's a word my daughter made up when she was four or so ... means 'Mysteriously Disappeared'" I told her. "Oh. Ok. But where did he Mysterpeared to?" "He'll probably be down near the barracks," I answered her, watching Kate's intense concentration on our conversation. I thought that if Kate had a romantic interest in Gerrie, it would do both of them the world of good. "Kate," I said, "Could you do me a favour please?" "Sure Rupert," Kate replied standing up and walking closer, "do you want me to fetch you something?" "Actually, no. I'm just concerned about Gerrie. He gets very distracted when he's busy. I was wondering if you could find him and offer to help him. Use that as an excuse to make sure that he looks after himself, eats regularly that sort of thing." "Sure Rupert," Kate said quietly, trying to hide her blush. I wondered how she had ever been caught up in Dimitri's world, although I could see the attraction her demure, submissive nature would have to clients of his establishments. She disappeared quickly, wrapping a kikoi around her hips and walking quickly through the lodge. As Kate disappeared, Bettina burst out laughing. "Thanks Rupert, that was perfect. She couldn't take her eyes of Gerrie from the moment he first appeared. I think it'll be good for her to get together with someone like him. He seems like a good man." "He is. Is she OK though? We never followed up with a doctor's visit for her." "She seems to be fine. When we were getting changed she told me that she wasn't really even sore any more. Chris is better than he thinks, better in some ways than a doctor I think." "True. I'd choose him, or any Ops-Medic, over a doctor to treat my wounds any day." Supper time rolled around very quickly. The long lazy afternoon had been perfect to unwind and allow everyone some time to get their heads straight. After supper, we retreated to our room, with almost unseemly haste when Daise pointed out that both her and Alina had gotten a little sunburnt and needed some Aloe-Vera cream spread all over their bodies to ease the burn. Chapter 48 Home - My Library - Top [Bookmark Next Chapter] - More Info

Chapter 46: Who's your Daddy

The barracks room was a pretty rude shock after the luxury of the rooms in the lodge. It was a long building with rows of double-bunk beds extending down either side, at right-angles to the walls. There were twenty-five double bunks down each wall, enough place to house a hundred people. Each end of the building had toilets, showers and basins. The showers were open, with no partitions and the toilets were seperated only by low walls between them; no doors. I could see that the girls were curious about the place. "Like our new accommodation?" I asked and laughed as the girls turned on me with looks of dismay on their faces. "We'll move in here in a day or two, once things are organised. That is those of you who want to go through the training with us." I watched as Daise quickly made up her mind. Her expression cleared and she nodded at me, accepting that where I was, she wanted to be. Alina followed her lead. Bettina was obviously in two minds and Katy just seemed shy. "There's no pressure. If you don't want to join in, you can continue to live in the lodge. There's space there. I just want us to focus, and living together here, working and training together will build the team. We'll also do things at odd hours, and it's just easier. We are also hoping for a bunch more guys to join us, and we couldn't host them all in the lodge, never mind that we would have to turn away paying guests if we did so." Katy and Alina whispered together for a while, and I wasn't surprised when Katy told me that she would like to try to be part of what we would be doing. "Rupert," Bettina said finally, "I wouldn't mind being involved, but..." she rolled her eyes in Lisa's direction and shrugged. "Yes, I thought it might be difficult for you," I told her, "this is not exactly the best place for a child." Like all children, Lisa had long ears, especially when she thought that the adults might be discussing something that would effect her. She turned on her mother, a thunderous expression on her face. "Mom," she declared, "I'm almost eight. I'm not a baby any more. I want to be with Rupert and do this stuff." Bettina looked at me, and I shrugged, amused. Lisa watched this interaction, and then rocked my world. She reached out and took my hand. "Rupert," she said in a small voice, "I don't have a Daddy to look after me, will you be my Daddy?" Of course I had no defence against an appeal like that. I dropped to a knee and wrapped her in my arms. It had started out as a pretence, and as a way to get her own way, but when I hugged her, she started sobbing and clung to me fiercely. I looked up at Bettina and saw she had tears in her eyes too. She shrugged and nodded at me, and I bowed my head, putting my mouth right next to Lisa's ear. "Of course I will Darling, I'll look after you. You don't need to worry," I said quietly. I had surprising difficulty talking with the huge lump in my throat. "You better give your Mom a hug, I think she needs one." Lisa whirled around and Bettina swept her up into a crushing embrace, the two of them walking off to talk. Chapter 47 Home - My Library - Top [Bookmark Next Chapter] - More Info