By Maureen J. Long
The next morning a very hung over Alex Koenig limped out of his room. His head was pounding and he felt sick to his stomach. He saw his sister sitting on the sofa with her eyes closed, a cool cloth laying across her forehead. The Alpha News Network was on an a young man was giving the daily update for Ceres-II.
"Emma?" Alex called quietly.
Without opening her eyes she whispered, "Don’t ever speak to me again you... you... slime ball."
"Did Mom tell Dad yet?" He eased into the chair next to the sofa.
"You’re still living aren’t you?" She replied with sarcasm.
Alex knew his father would find out what happened and he was dreading the moment he would have to stand in front of his father and explain himself.
Helena entered the room already dressed for work. She noticed Alex sitting with Emma. He looked as pale as his sister.
"Well, I see you made the effort to get up," she said.
"I’m sorry Mom," he pleaded. "I suppose you’ll have to tell Dad?"
"No, I’m not going to tell him. You are." She glared down at him to make her point.
Alex cringed at the thought. "When will Dad be home?" he asked quietly.
"He’ll be home in a week. He’s gone to check things..." Before Helena could finish speaking she noticed that there was a story on the news about John’s visit. She reached and turned the volume up slightly hoping she didn’t aggravate Emma’s pounding head.
"Mom, who’s that lady? The one standing over by that column? I don’t remember her." Alex pointed to the screen.
Helena looked at the screen and recognized the woman immediately. It was Sarah Pulcher and there she stood making googoo eyes at John. Helena rolled her eyes and shook her head. Throughout the last 14 years she had lived with the knowledge of what Sarah had done to John. There had been times when she felt like killing her but those had been few and far between. Most of the time Helena just felt sorry for her.
"Mom?" Alex called waiting for an answer to his question.
"Her name is Sarah Pulcher. She used to live on Alpha and work in the Command Center but that was probably 10 years ago. Why do you want to know?"
"She called for Dad before he left. He wasn’t here so I offered to take a message. She acted strange and then refused to leave one. I didn’t know who she was but when I described her to dad he knew. He called her before he left."
"Oh he did, did he?" Helena hoped her disdain wasn’t apparent to her first born. She felt her anger rise. She trusted John and believed him when he told her about that night in his office, but there was still a small seed of doubt that always haunted her where Sarah was concerned.
"Yeah, he talked to he when he was packing to leave for C-2." Alex rose carefully from the sofa. "Well, I guess I’d better get going." He walked slowly toward the door "See ya later Em," he called as he opened the door.
"Bye space disease," she responded softly.
Helena touched Emma’s forehead with the flat part of her palm. Emma opened her blood shot eyes. "Mama," she called weakly "I don’t feel so good."
"It’s okay sweetheart, it wasn’t your fault." Helena moved her palm to touch Emma’s pale cheek. "Is this the first time this has happened?"
"No, Daddy and Alan let me have a beer once and it made me sick,"she confessed.
"Daddy and Alan, huh?"
"Yes ma’am."
"If it made you sick, why didn’t you tell me?"
"Because Daddy thought you might get mad. Are you mad?"
Helena was mad at John but she didn’t want Emma to think it was her fault. "Well, it’s something I’m going to have to ask Daddy about. I want you to come to the medical center later and let me do some tests, Emma. I think you might be allergic to alcohol."
"Okay Mama."
"Are you going to work today?"
"I think I can manage. I’ll have to take myself off the flight roster today. Was Alan mad? Did he think I was disgusting?"
Helena hugged her daughter tightly. "No I don’t think Alan thinks you are disgusting. Emma, I don’t want you to have anymore alcohol until we do the test, okay?"
"Don’t worry Mom, I’m not ever drinking that stuff again."
Maureen J. Long
January, 2000