“No. Just yourself. I’ll introduce you. The meeting is generally where anyone on the council with an issue or discussion point regarding alien business will speak. We’ll chat about it and that’s it. It’s not too painful. Usually, it lasts only about an hour or so.”
“Okay. Good. I’ll be there.” She put her pen down and got to her feet. When he remained seated, she cautiously asked, “Is that it?”
Diesel shrugged. He’d love to know how she was really doing. “I guess so.”
She sat back down in her chair. “Do you want to think about it for a minute?”
He smiled. “If you need any help—with anything—I hope you’ll let me know. Or any of us cousins. You know we’d be there with bells on to help, right?”
She grinned. “I know. Each and every one of you and your spouses have said that to all of us cousins. We appreciate how welcoming you’ve been to us.”
“We mean it. We want you and your siblings to be happy and to thrive here on Earth.”
“And I deeply appreciate it. All of us Ashcraft siblings do.”
Diesel nodded and slowly stood up. He’d taken up enough of her time. She had a crazy ice machine that sounded like it was about to blow a gasket. He needed to get out of her hair.
“Thanks for meeting with me and good luck with your ice machine.”
“Right. That reminds me, I need to make another phone call. My repair guy. Fair warning—you might be the lucky winner of several bags of ice at the Big Bang Truck Stop later on during the repairs.” She pushed out a long sigh, but a smile appeared on her face and she started to stand.
“Don’t get up on my account,” Diesel said, putting a hand on the door handle. “I can see myself out of the store. You get back to work. And I’ll happily accept your bags of ice on behalf of the upstairs truck stop, but we’ll give them back when your ice machine is fixed.”
“Thanks, Diesel. See you soon.”
He left her office, closing the door behind him as she picked up the phone on her desk.
Diesel headed out of the store via the aisle with coffee, tea and other assorted breakfast items just as Jake Jones turned the corner with his partly filled grocery cart.
He paused to chat with the man, who apparently hadn’t recovered his memories. “Jake, how are you doing? Getting back into the swing of your unremembered life?”
Jake’s smile was rueful. “Yes. And I’m doing well. I don’t remember a thing, but at least now I have two weeks of memories.” He shrugged, but the smile never left his face. Everything Diesel had learned about Jake Jones said he was a laidback, quiet man who led a simple life, working on his metal and leather projects. Even with no memories, that was how he came across.
While Jake seemed happy, Diesel would be out of his mind not knowing a single thing about his past beyond a couple of weeks. He didn’t know if Jake was doing anything to restore his memories and decided it wasn’t his business. He wouldn’t inquire further.
“Glad to hear it, Jake. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please let me know.” It was the same thing he’d told Jake when he’d visited him at the hospital, and he truly meant it.
“Thanks, Diesel. I will.”
Diesel continued on his way, returning the cashier’s wave as he walked past her.
He hoped the meeting he’d just invited Beryl to would be as quiet and boring as it usually was. One of the elders was radically opposed to change and adding a new member to the council might set him off. Mr. Gris always seemed to be one of the biggest contenders to be the destroyer of Diesel’s very last nerve.
Diesel made a mental note to warn the elder before the meeting soperhapshe’d be more inviting to Beryl on her first visit to the quarterly elder council meeting.
Diesel pushed out a sigh. It was unlikely the elder would be moved to be civil instead of grumpy, but he lived in hope.
Chapter Five
Beryl picked up the phone to call the ice machine repairman. She was glad she was still sitting. She figured she’d need to be seated when she heard how much it was going to cost. She wasn’t far wrong. Mr. Dobbins promised to stop by the Supernova Supermarket in a couple of hours to take a look. He made a point of telling her she was lucky he had a light day with any openings at all. She didn’t feel lucky. But she thanked him for agreeing to come on the same day she called.
The ice machine taken care—or as much as it could be—she promptly turned her attention to the rest of her schedule. The night before, Mica had mentioned that he wanted her to help at the mine if she had time. She’d told him, “Don’t count on it,” because she would be busy all day. And her schedule hadn’t even factored in the noisy ice machine.
Beryl typically didn’t have extra time to spend at the bauxite mine, but she tried to be there for at least part of one day out of every week.
However, today wasnotthat day.
There was a large dry goods shipment due in the next hour, on top of all the regular deliveries the store received each day. She had a full day plus the added fun of the ice machine repair guy fitting her in. She suspected it wouldn’t be cheap.
