A Second Chance, Part IV -- A New Beginning
By: Radio Rancher
(©  2007 by the author and creator, Tickie)
 
The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...
  

Chapter 9

The years have been kind to the Andersen family, with some help from James and me.

It was becoming clear that the three young men were just that, young men. Johnny had become much closer to Grace. Many nights found them studying together. What they were studying might not have been as academic as some of the teachers would have preferred, but things were certainly being discovered. To date, they had not had any sexual contact in the strictest sense of the word, but many parts of their bodies had made contact with each other.

Johnny had not abandoned his brothers, either. They all continued to enjoy each other's bodies in loving combinations that gave them all a great deal of pleasure. 

Grace had made it clear that she had no problem with their intimacies, since she knew that Johnny loved her and she loved him. She also knew that all three brothers loved one another very much. 

She had offered to help the twins become more familiar with the female anatomy, and they had both had very nice adventures, once or twice, while all four of them explored each other's assets.  However it was very plain, that for the twins, girls completely missed the mark and their sexual feelings toward girls were luke warm at best. They loved her, more or less, like a sister, and would do anything for her but that spark that they felt when looking at or touching each other was totally missing when touching her, even though she was a very beautiful young lady.

As their final school year was coming to a close, preparations were being made for a huge celebration.  

Everyone decided that they would spend spring break together.  The entire extended family was waiting for them when the plane landed.  Colt and Matt, Mike and Andrew, Earl and Jack, and of course Julie and Jo were all there, giving hugs and greetings.   

 Ben and the hands had set up a camp out for everyone at the river that runs near the rear of the Lazy L.   The camp had already been set up, soon everyone had their horses saddled and they headed back to the campsite.  A huge campfire was blazing and the huge hog was slowly turning as the smell of the delicious meat wafted toward them.  A huge serving table was set up, containing a mountain of food, including a big platter of fried chicken, all the side dishes anyone could want, freshly baked bread and rolls, salads of various varieties and even desserts.

Certainly anyone that didn't get their fill, had no excuse except that they didn't try hard enough.  There were plenty of soft drinks in the huge ice chests and there was plenty of coffee and hot chocolate for anyone that wanted something to warm them up as the evening wore on.  Mike and Andrew decided to tell some interesting stories as everyone sat around the fire and watched the sunset.  Once the story telling was done, people started to excuse themselves and headed for the tents.  Colt, Matt, Mike and Andrew shared a tent, and so did Earl and Jack.  The twins decided they would share their tent with John and Grace. 

Julie and Jo decided to head back to their house, Julie said, "My old bones can't take being stretched out on an air mattress on the cold ground anymore. I really do need to be in my bed."

Jo looked around and said, "I suppose I had better go with her, since I don't want to sleep alone."  The two ladies had finally decided that they belonged together and were even thinking about becoming life partners. Everyone could see the love they had for each other, and everyone laughed as Julie blushed.

Colt spoke up and pretty much summed up the feelings that everyone had, "Grandma Julie, Take Aunt Jo home and give her the love she deserves." 

Both Julie and Jo blushed a bright red and hugged each other. Julie giggled, "Don't expect us to make breakfast for you in the morning, we are going to sleep in." They headed back to their cottage.

Needless to say that there was very little sleeping going on that night, in the campsite or the cottage.

This was not the first time that Grace had spent the night with Johnny, but it was the first time that all three boys had shared a bed with Grace.  It was interesting to see how they all shared their love. Grace asked the twins if they wanted to have her give them some loving.  After a few moments of thought and some silent communication between them, they decided it might just be fun, so they agreed to let her give them a massage. They both found that they were becoming quite aroused by the attention they were receiving, Johnny and Grace took turns with each twin and brought both of them considerable pleasure. Then Mark and Luke returned the favor and gave as well as they got.   After the four of them finished the massages, the two couples returned to their own partner for some more intimate love making.

While all that was going on, Colt, Matt, Mike and Andrew shared each other's bodies and had a long, loving, sensual good time.

Of course Jack and Earl had a similar experience in their tent as well.

It seems that being outdoors in the fresh air is quite stimulating. 

James and I gave them all plenty of energy to make sure that everyone was quite satisfied.    

The next morning everyone awoke as the sun shown its rays into the tents. "I smell bacon," came from inside the boys' tent.

"Well, not exactly," Colt replied.  The coals had remained somewhat hot throughout the night and the grease from the hog had dripped onto them and the odor of pork fat was drifting everywhere. "It's the pork fat you smell, but it does smell wonderful doesn't it?" 

 Everyone quickly took care of their morning routines, and began the process of preparing a hearty breakfast, cookout style. One of the heavy Iron skillets was put to good use to prepare a huge amount of scrambled eggs, while a second one was filled with link sausage which had been soaked in maple syrup. The grease from the meat was used to cook the huge stack of pancakes.  Needless to say, no one went hungry. The Ice chest had two, gallon jugs of orange juice in it, and it was chilled to just the right temperature.  Matt made a fresh pot of coffee and Mike made large pot of hot chocolate.

Sadly, one taste of Mike's hot chocolate was enough for anyone.  Even Mike spit out his mouthful of the brown liquid. "I don't understand what went wrong." he coughed as he tried to get the taste out of his mouth. Luckily, Matt's skill in coffee making was much better, and anyone that had tried the hot chocolate, quickly rinsed their cup and filled it with the hot coffee, which they quickly drank to try and rid themselves of the terrible taste in their mouths.

"I don't know what you did wrong, Dad Mike," Colt coughed, "but whatever it was, please don't do it again."

Mike gently punched Colt in the shoulder and tried to look hurt, but he couldn't keep the grin off his face, as he drank a cup of coffee. "I don't know what I did wrong, I followed the directions."

Luke smelled the chocolate and giggled. "I think I know what you did," he said, "You used salt instead of sugar. The two cans are right here next to each other, and I bet you just reached into the wrong one."

"Well I guess that will teach me to check more carefully, next time," Mike said, sheepishly.

"Well it isn't like we are running out of any ingredients by any means, let's get that pot rinsed out so we don't ruin it forever." Andrew grabbed the pot and took it to the river to clean it out.  A few minutes later, Ben and some of the hands drove up, and helped tear down the camp. The fire was safely quenched and the utensils were rinsed and stowed, the leftover meat was packed into the ice chests and stowed in back of the driver's seat.

Everyone helped load the gear into the pickup trucks and Ben and the hands headed back to the barn.

Everyone else got their horses ready and they all had a leisurely ride back to the corral.

It turned out that Grace was a pretty good rider and she got along really well with the horses, even though she couldn't understand what they said. She still could talk to them, and somehow she did have the empathy with them to know how they were feeling.  She had a closeness with her horse and could feel the horses' emotions.

She had always had a close bond with animals, even as a small child. She could always sooth the dogs and cats in her neighborhood, and she always knew if one of them was in pain or somehow ill. The amazing thing was that she could almost always somehow, calm an animal down, that was in distress. Her family always said she could charm a wild beast.  She had considered becoming a vet, but when she discovered the pure joy of flying airplanes, her interest in vet school faded to the background.

Now that she had pretty well mastered being a pilot, she again thought about helping her animal friends. Her mind began to wander and she thought how interesting it would be to become a 'Flying Doctor'.

When everyone got back to the barn, everyone began grooming their horse and it didn't take very long before all the horses looked really sleek and beautiful. All the horses were given their treats and they were all extremely happy. When Grace came back from putting the brush away, she noticed a door that she had never seen open before. Her curiosity was strong enough that she peeked in to see what had been hidden away for so long.  "Oh my God! It's a model railroad!" she squealed, "My Dad had one set up in his workroom, when I was a little girl. It wasn't nearly as big as this one though. This one is awesome. You have people in it too. Can I play with it?" she asked, as John walked into the room, after hearing her outburst.

"It is pretty awesome. Colt, Matt and some of the other guys built it for the twins when they first came here, but they let me play with it too." He leaned over and threw the switches to activate the unit. "It isn't just a model railroad, it is all computerized, and it is connected to an AI module. It took Matt, Colt and several other people a couple of years to complete the figures so they are fully interactive and they really move and do the appropriate task.  You can ask them questions about the jobs they do and stuff.  The computer is connected through a wireless interface to each figure, so if you direct a question to any of the people, it sends the question to the computer, gets its answer and tells you what you want to know. It is connected to the Internet, so if the knowledge is not in the computer, it will search for it till it finds the answer for you.

That storekeeper there is the most helpful guy, or at least he was to me. He's really friendly. I got to know him real well. We used to have long conversations together, when I first came here. He knew I was shy and he was really nice to me. I'd come in and tickle him in his tummy, and he would laugh, and giggle, then we would talk together. He always recognized me, and remembered my name and everything. I don't think I have even been in this room in years. I wonder if he will remember me?"

John tentatively reached out and tickled the tummy of the storekeeper, and the little guy began to giggle then laugh. 'Hi Johnny, You have certainly grown since I saw you last. I almost didn't recognize you. Who is this beautiful lady with you?'

"This is Grace. We love each other. Grace, This is Mr. Bailey, he is the storekeeper."

'Hello Grace, It is very nice to meet you. Johnny, I am so glad you found someone special. I remember our talks, and you were so afraid that you would never find that one special person. Remember that I told you that you just had to wait and see what happened, and I said not to shy away, but to try to share your feelings with someone if they shared with you. I can see that you have done just that, and I am so very proud of you. Oh and thank you for telling me, too. I really am happy for you both.' The little man tipped his hat and went back to sweeping his walk.

All the other little figures had started going about their tasks too, as soon as the computer had booted up.

The blacksmith was putting a new horseshoe on a beautiful black stallion, who looked exactly like Star. 

The Doc had made it for the boys and had used real horse hair and intricately embedded it into the little horse's body, one strand at a time. You could actually brush his hair and groom him, with a tiny curry comb. His mane was freely flowing and so was his tail.  Colt had installed tiny motors that would make the head and tail move in a very lifelike manner. All the joints were completely movable, so when the little blacksmith lifted the leg of the horse, it looked perfectly natural.

John couldn't remember how long it had taken for Colt, Matt, Earl and Jack to complete the setup and animate all the figures, but he know it had taken a long time because they were still working on the project quite some time after he had arrived at the Lazy L.

It wasn't long before everyone noticed that the lights were on in the train room, and came in to see what was going on. Mark walked over and gently picked up the little storekeeper. "Hello, Mister Bailey, It's nice to see you again." He kissed the little man on his forehead, noticing that he had knocked his hat off.  He placed Mr. Bailey back on is sidewalk, reached down and retrieved the tiny hat, and handed it to the little man. "Sorry, I didn't mean to knock your hat off. I was just so happy to see you again. It's been a real long time since we've talked."

Mr. Bailey looked at Mark and said, 'Hello Mark. It seems that you too have grown a great deal since I last saw you. You are a very handsome young man. Thank you for returning my hat. Are you and Luke still partners?'

"Oh yes we are. We will always be brothers and partners. We love each other very much."

'That is very good to hear. I hope someday that I will be able to help some new youngsters learn about life. Sometimes I get a little lonely just standing here by myself. I don't know if you realized it or not, but my memory is in tact even when the system is powered down, so time passes for me as well. It has been several years since I have seen anyone in here.' His voice faltered just a little, and I felt the life force emanating from him as he took a deep breath.

He was sentient. He knew he existed. He had a soul, and he had been trapped in this room for several years, all alone, unable to communicate with anyone, yet somehow still there, silently waiting.  He was not the only figure that could talk to us, of course, but as far as I could tell, he was the only one that knew he was alive. 

The computer had manifested its intelligence or personality into this one little guy. It happened because he was the first figure that anyone talked to, and when he responded to them, people talked to him even more. All the other figures were simply subroutines, roughly based on a similar personality, but not fully developed. No one really talked to the blacksmith or the farmer. They might have asked specific questions to one or more of the others, but that was only to find the answers to those questions. All the boys, at one time or another, had confided in Mr. Bailey, and really talked to him, believing, in their young innocence, that he was real. And by doing so, it became a self fulfilling prophecy, so to speak. All the information was eventually connected together and set off a chain reaction and all the memory became connected with Mr. Bailey's memory engrams, and somehow made him the spokesman for the entire AI that resided in the computer.  He was the computer's human interface.

Colt Looked at Mr. Bailey, "Mister Bailey, I want to apologize to you for leaving you like that for so long. I honestly had no idea that we had created a sentient being. I promise you that we will do our best to find a way for you not to be trapped there like that. Since you have a connection to the Internet, we can communicate with you. I will set up an interface with which you can call anyone you like and we can call you. I will not power down your computer again. You will not be left in limbo. I am so very sorry we did that to you."

'Thank you Colt, I appreciate that. I am not angry at anyone, I don't even know if I can be angry. I know I was lonely. I tried to think of things to pass the time, but I had no references and nothing to communicate with.  I am just so happy that someone finally thought about me.'

We could all hear the sadness in his voice. He might not have been able to be angry, but I somehow think if he tried hard enough he could. He had managed to get sadness down pretty darn well.   

I spoke to him, Mister Bailey, and I said, 'I'm Charlie. I am a Guardian Angel. I'm here to help the Andersen family. It seems to me that you qualify for that status, and I will do what I can to help you.'    

I was sure that he couldn't see or hear me, but I thought I might as well try. To my complete surprise, he looked straight at me and said, "Thank you, Charlie, I would appreciate anything you can do," and he tipped his hat to me.

All four youngsters looked where Mr. Bailey was looking, and I am sure they saw James and me. They all smiled. It had been quite some time since any of them had noticed us. I had already told them that as they grew older, they would find that we were more and more difficult to see, but I know they saw us then, because they all came over to us and I felt them hugging me, and James did, too.

"I knew you were still here with us," Johnny said while he hugged me. "I wish we could see you better, but you are so faint most of the time, and when I start to go to you, most of the time you fade away." 

He was almost crying, too, as I hugged him. I reached out and held each of them in turn as James was doing as well.  Finally, Colt, Matt, Mike and Andrew each came over as well so we hugged them and kissed them, also. 

'We must go for now, but we will still be watching over you, and Mister Bailey. I am going to see what, if anything, I can do for you as well. I promise I will do whatever I can to help you. I simply have no idea as yet as to what that is.' 

James and I left them to ponder the situation. As we left, we kissed each of them once more.

To Be Continued...

Feedback always welcome:     

Author's note:

This last scene was not planned, and I have absolutely no idea how it got there, except I remembered that we had left Mr. Bailey in limbo, and I heard him crying. I am going to help him somehow. I just don't quite know how yet. If anyone has any ideas feel free to e-mail me and I promise I will at least try to incorporate it. I can't promise I will be able to, but I will try.  Don't worry, Mister Bailey, you have friends out here.

There are very few chapters left in book four, I am not actually sure just how many there will be, but don't despair, because Tickie is working on book five. He has it waiting in the wings,  and I know it will be wonderful.  Once again I will be editing it for him and for you.

 
Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Tickie's note:

Darryl – nice chapter here, and I see we are in for some real fun, I'm happy you are writing again, I know you have had your hands full.

Thanks again for all your wonderful words in Part IV.  I hope when I continue Part V, it will be as well received as the first part of the story.

I know my hands sure have been full as well, it seems the whole world is falling in on me, losing Little Dan last year, Jason, Nicky, and Hank this year. I don't know how many more our site can lose, I just pray we lose no more.

Posted: 02/22/08