Dayna and Sandy traded off pushing Second Home westward through the night; as dawn broke behind them they were on the Indiana Turnpike, getting close to Bradford. The sun was barely up when they found Dean's rig backed up in the driveway of Dave's new home. Emily had called ahead on her cell phone, and people were already arriving to help with the unloading and setting up. About all Dave and the boys had to do was stay out of the way -- no real problem for the boys, since they were pretty bushed after the excitement of staying up late the night before, and still asleep in the motor home.

For that matter, Dave was pretty beat himself, mostly from staying up much of the night talking with Dayna or Sandy, or occasionally joining in the card game that seemed nonstop since before they left New York. What with everything, he was a little slow on the uptake -- it seemed like there was something different with the house, but it didn't really penetrate until he realized he was smelling fresh paint.

That set him to looking around -- to discover more than just a little fresh paint, there was a lot of it. The house was definitely brighter than it had been a week ago. What was going to be the boys' room had been especially brightened up, with fresh colors and an especially childlike hand-painted wall mural. As he looked a little closer at other places around the house, he discovered several things he'd made mental notes about needing work but had already been fixed. The stove that had been in the kitchen on his last visit wasn't the old beater dating maybe from the '50s -- it was a brand new unit, the tags still on it. He'd made a mental note that he was going to have to get a new refrigerator, after his old one had gone to the dumpster in New York -- but the refrigerator here was brand new, also still with tags on it, although some one of the mob of people running around the house removed them as he watched.

The next time he saw Emily -- which wasn't long as she was all over the place directing this and that -- he asked her: "This house has had a lot of work done on it in the last few days. More of your doing, I presume?"

"I didn't have much to do with it," Emily shrugged. "After your mom called and told us you were going to make the move, I decided I'd better check it out and see if anything needed to be done. There was; it hadn't been cleaned in ages, I'd guess long before Maude died So, I called up Arnie and asked if he'd mind if we got it cleaned up a little. I was thinking just give it a good cleaning, maybe just touch up the paint and like that. I happened to mention it to Liz Austin, and she just basically took it from there. I guess she organized a workbee with some of the regulars out at the Chicago, and a few others."

"The new stove? The new refrigerator? How about them?"

"Oh, I guess she just talked someone into donating them," Emily shrugged casually. "I didn't ask. They weren't here when we left. After we decided to toss your old refrigerator, I called Liz and asked her to see what she could work out."

"Emily," Dave sighed. "Everybody is doing too much for me."

"Might be," Emily smiled. "But Dave, everyone feels terrible about what happened, not just to you but to all those people in New York. They want to help out some way, so it's hard to say no to them. Helping out someone from Bradford, someone they know, well, it's a lot more personal that way. You'll get a chance to pay it back some day, some way. When the time comes, just do it."

With that, Dave decided he was just along for the ride and let nature take its course -- at least it was less work that way. He hadn't packed up much of anything in New York, what with not going up to the apartment, and Emily or someone had their own packing methods so it was hard to tell what was in what box or bag. For that matter, he hadn't had much to do with organizing the apartment when he and Julie moved there, because Julie had done much of the work. He noticed boxes being unpacked, things being put away, and about all he could do was to hope things would be done in a logical method somehow.

And there was more: for example, at one point the dark, beautiful Sonja Tyler hunted him down and asked for his assistance. He followed her into the next room, to discover his desktop computer had been set up on his familiar desk in a small room off of the living room that had apparently been designated as his office. She had the back off the computer and was installing a modem -- she needed his logon password. He hadn't had a dialup account in New York; he had DSL, which wasn't yet available in Bradford, but by the time Sonja was finished he had an account with a local ISP.

Many hands make light work, and it didn't take long before Dave saw Dean get into the cab of the Kenworth and drive away with it, which he figured meant it must have been unloaded. About that time Emily introduced Dave to her daughter, Kayla. The girl proved to be twelve -- the oldest of all of the children of the members of the Class of '88 -- and while there was a family resemblance, she was already almost as tall as her mother, gangly looking the way some girls get before they shoot up and blossom. Even on this cool October day, she was barefoot. Emily offered Kayla's services as a short-term babysitter when needed, although later, when the girl was out of hearing, Emily added it would probably be best to find someone else if long evening hours were needed, at least until Kayla got a little older.

"She'd be good at keeping the boys out of your hair if you're around and need to do something else," Emily suggested. It proved to be a timely suggestion, because the boys were stirring about then, and Dave didn't want them under foot, so Kayla was put to keeping an eye on them in the motor home.

Things were winding down a little by then, and it didn't seem like there was much left to do. While Dave remembered a lot of the people helping out from when he'd grown up in Bradford, there were faces strange to him, too. The list didn't include Reverend Swift and his wife, Rebecca -- Jennlynn's folks -- who were busy with a few other people with pots and bags and boxes of food on the porch. As the work wound down, people began to gather on the lawn in front of the house, and finally Emily got up on the porch and asked for everyone's attention.

"I don't know what to say," she told them. "I guess I just want to thank everyone for coming and helping out with Dave Patterson's 'welcome home' party. Dave, I told you the other day that while you may think of yourself as a New Yorker, you're really one of us, and we don't intend to let you forget it."

"I think you've accomplished that," Dave said rather loudly, speaking to Emily but loud enough the crowd could hear it, then turned to face the crowd. "It has been astounding to see the way everyone has given of their time and money to be nice to an old Bradford kid. I'm literally beyond words more than 'thank you' to describe how I feel about the way everything has been done for me. I've mostly talked to Emily and know she's responsible for some of it, but I know many people have been involved in ways I'll probably never know." He stopped, took a deep breath, and continued. "I'm going to have my hands full with picking up the pieces and making a new life with the way everything has changed over the past few weeks, but I know it will be easier because I have friends to take care of me. Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you."

Emily spoke up again. "Dave, the truth is I'm not responsible for most of what happened in getting this done. People have just seen a need and dealt with it. I didn't know Archie and Becky Swift and the Disciples of the Savior Church were making lunch for everyone, and I certainly didn't plan it. In fact, I only found out about it in the last half hour. Like a lot of people, they saw a need and dealt with it. So, I'd like to thank them as well. Reverend Swift, would you like to say a few words before we eat?"

Dave knew from past history that Reverend Swift could be long winded, but he did keep it short today -- it had, after all, been a dozen years since Dave had seen the preacher. He wondered if being estranged from his daughter might have a little to do with it, but knew better than to ask.

In any case the prayer was soon over. Dave and the boys were invited to be first in line to eat. The lunch was simple -- sloppy joes, chips, potato salad, baked beans, apple cider. But, under the circumstances, again eating simple food standing up on the lawn with people he used to know, people he'd like to know better -- yes, fellow Bradfordites -- made it taste better than anything he could have imagined in New York. Julie probably would not have appreciated it, Dave knew, but then she was an eastern girl, a city girl, while Emily had it right -- these were his people, his roots. He was glad to be back home, even with how much he was going to miss Shae -- the big woman had grown on him a lot in the last two and a half weeks. Maybe coming back to Bradford was going to work out.

People evaporated quickly after lunch. As they were leaving, Dave had many invitations to dinner and offers that if he needed anything, to just ask. Pretty soon it was down to just JoAnne, Emily, Kayla, the boys, and him. "I think I'm going to head for home and grab a nap," Emily told him. "I didn't sleep much last night. Too much gin rummy and catch-up talking, I guess."

"I'm with you on that," Dave agreed. "Lots of old times to get caught up on. I don't know how I'm keeping my eyes open. The boys, at least, got some pretty good sleep."

"I could stand a nap myself," JoAnne agreed.

"Dave, why don't you just let Kayla watch the boys and go get a nap yourself?" Emily suggested.

"Sure, I can do that," Kayla smiled. "There's a playground right up the street; they can try out the swings and stuff."

Dave started to protest that an adult really should be with them if they went to the playground, but stopped himself in time. This was Bradford, after all, not New York. "That'll be fine," he smiled. "They usually have naps themselves in the afternoon, but their schedule has been all loused up, too. You might try putting them down for a while in a couple hours, just on general principles."

With that, Kayla took the two boys by the hand and headed for the nearby park -- Dave knew exactly where it was, as he'd played there when he was their age -- while JoAnne and Emily headed for home. He was alone in his new house for the first time and knew it was going to be strange. He was tempted to reflect on it, but really was just too tired.

He headed upstairs to the master bedroom, at least the room where all his clothes and stuff had been taken. The closet door was open, and the closet seemed nearly empty without Julie's stuff in it, but somehow that fact of life was easier to deal with in this strange place. He turned toward the bed, and only now realized it wasn't the small double bed that had seemed cramped in the room in the apartment, but a brand-new king-size, with new bedding. He'd wondered how well he was going to be able to sleep in the old bed without Julie there -- and now he wouldn't have to. He wondered where the old bed had gone. He'd seen someone carry it upstairs, maybe it was in another room, or the attic; it didn't matter, and thankfully he wasn't going to have to deal with the issue of sleeping in it. Emily's idea? His mother's? Shae or Eve's? Someone else's? Who knew? Mentally he thanked whoever had been so thoughtful.

He didn't bother stripping, just took off his shoes and collapsed on the bed. This whole last day and a half had been a totally unexpected experience, but it had put New York behind him much more easily and thoroughly than he could have dreamed . . .

It didn't take him long to get to sleep, and except for a bit of a nap in the motor home the previous night, for the first time in days it was without the help of tranquilizers or sleeping pills.

He woke up in a couple hours, still tired but subconsciously knowing he didn't want to totally screw up his sleep pattern, and also that he needed to look in on the boys. When he thought about it later, he was more than a little surprised to realize he hadn't dreamed about the towers going down and Julie's last words, but instead about a day perhaps fifteen years before. He and a bunch of the other '88s were out at Mandy Paxton's on a hot summer day. Scott, Aaron Heisler, Andy Baker, and some other guys, along with Mandy, Shae, Emily, Dayna, Vicky, and some other girls. For whatever reasons, the girls had decided to take their bikini tops off if the guys would follow a "look but not touch" policy . . .

The dream rambled here and there with nothing really happening, but then, it had never happened in real life, at least not when he was present. Reflecting on the dream made him think he remembered rumors of an all-girl nude swimming party out there, but as far as he knew the rumors were pretty much among the guys, and he had no idea if it had ever really happened.

He got up, echoes of the dream and the rumors going through his head as he walked down the hall, to find both of the boys out cold on their beds and looking like they might stay that way for a while. He headed downstairs quietly, to discover Kayla similarly asleep on the sofa -- the one from the apartment; Emily or whoever hadn't replaced everything. He headed on into his office, a tiny room just inside the front door. There was no telling what it might have once been used for; it seemed too small to be a bedroom or a parlor. Whatever its purpose must have once been, it looked like it would make a good workroom for him. He closed the door, to try to avoid disturbing Kayla's nap, and booted up the computer to see if Sonja's new dialup connection really worked while thoughts of the rumor from his dream still bounced around in his mind. It would have been fun, long ago, before everything had happened, a little innocent teenage skinny-dipping. Too bad he hadn't been a part of it . . .

The imaginary nude Shae made him think of the real live one. He'd meant to call her earlier, but in the rush and the exhaustion he hadn't done it. Now was a good time; he hadn't actually gotten online yet and only had a single telephone line, something he realized he might have to think about changing. He picked up the phone next to the computer and dialed her number from memory, imagining the phone ringing in her ocean-view apartment he'd left less than a day before.

"Well, Dave," she laughed when she heard his voice, "Long time, no see!"

"I'd planned on calling you a little earlier to let you know we got in all right," he apologized, explaining how it had been a mob scene when they unloaded, and then how he really needed a nap.

"I know," she replied. "Emily called me a couple hours ago and said you were pretty out of it. So, are things all set up?"

"I'm pretty amazed to say that they are," he told her. "There's even some basic groceries in the kitchen, milk, bread, cereal, lunch meat and snacks, so we're good for a while. I guess I'll have to go grocery shopping in the next couple days."

"Are you going to be all right cooking for yourself and the boys?"

"I should be. Julie's strong point wasn't cooking so I did a lot of it."

"So far, so good, then," he heard her smile.

"Pretty much," he told her. "Of course, so much has been happening that I really haven't had much time to think about it." He didn't want to head down the road of examining his feelings, so changed the subject. "Hey, I just had an unusual dream, and it left me with kind of an odd question for you. Is there any truth to the rumor that you and Mandy and maybe a few other girls had a skinny-dipping party out at Mandy's one time, maybe early high school years?"

"We had more than one," she laughed. "The first one was the summer between our freshman and sophomore years, I think. It started out as kind of a truth-or-dare thing. Everybody was embarrassed as hell, and we only did it once that summer. Then, the next summer, a bunch of girls were hanging around out there and no guys. We were doing something, not swimming, it was right after school was out and the water was cool, when someone suggested going swimming. Nobody had thought to bring swimsuits, but I piped up and said we didn't need suits, we were all girls anyway and we'd done it the previous summer, then stripped down and jumped in. It wasn't long before everyone else was in the pool nude, too. After that, if it was just girls and Mandy's folks weren't around, we usually swam nude, tanned nude, and like that."

"So, the rumors were true, huh? When I got to thinking about it I realized that some tall exhibitionistic blonde I knew mighthave had something to do with it."

"You guessed right," she laughed again. "I was out there quite a bit the next summer, maybe not as much as the year before because that was the summer I was hanging out with Eve, and we were going to Chicago a lot. Well, one day Mandy invited Sally Hanson out, I don't know why. You remember Sally?"

"Oh, yes," Dave replied, none too enthusiastically. She was pretty good looking, but was very stuck-up, rather religious and overbearing about it. "I don't remember you or Emily or anyone saying anything about what's happened to her."

"Apparently she's one of the ones who just disappeared," Shae told him. "Not that I mind, either. Anyway, she got there late. Everybody was in the pool or catching some rays, nude of course, and she just about shit her swimsuit, which was a one-piece with a skirt, no less. Then she threw a shit fit, left, and blabbed all over the school when we got back in the fall."

Dave shook his head. The story sounded just like his memory of Sally. "You have to wonder why Mandy invited her," he grinned.

"Mandy never said; she just said Sally was a yappy little brat for spreading the rumor. Actually, I've sort of wondered if it wasn't what Mandy had in mind in the first place, just to make life a little more interesting."

"Sounds like Mandy," Dave agreed. "She liked to stir things up once in a while. So, I suppose you got teased about it, too,"

"Not much," Shae laughed. "That was the fall Denis and I were hanging out all the time, and you know the rumors going around about our supposed romance. A little skinny-dipping was nothing compared to that."

"I guess," Dave laughed, remembering the time well. His memory of those years had sharpened up a little, what with hanging around with some of his friends from high school, and then hearing Eve's story. Partly as a tease, he asked, "So, did you ever do any mixed skinny-dipping?"

"Not in high school," she replied. "A bunch of us got a little drunk one night my sophomore year in college, got into a truth-or-dare thing again and did a nude invasion of the college pool. It was late and no one was around, so we didn't get caught, which was a good thing or the administration probably would have thrown a shit fit. Then, when I was down in South Carolina, a girl I worked with was a serious nudist, and she took me to her club a few times. After I moved up here, I went over to Gunnison Beach on Sandy Hook; that's the largest nude beach on the Atlantic, and it was a ball. I had to cut it out when I got involved with the show, though. Maybe I'll get to do it again someday."

"Never tried it," Dave laughed. "Back when we were going together, a couple times I teased Julie about going over to check out Gunnison, but she just about turned green at the suggestion."

"Sounds to me like she must have tried it once with someone else and got seriously embarrassed."

"That's what I think," Dave laughed, pleased to be happy about a memory of Julie. "Or at least something pretty similar. You've met Julie's parents, they're pretty straight and more than a little bit of it rubbed off on her."

"Well, maybe sometime I'll have to take you to a nude beach so you can try it out," Shae laughed. "I'd be with you so you wouldn't have to worry about anyone looking at you."

"Might have to do that," Dave purred, his mind immediately exploring the thought of a thoroughly nude Shae on the sand of some beach. It would be an interesting sight, all right -- and yes, she would seriously draw attention, not just from him, either.

They teased each other back and forth a little about the topic, with Dave realizing Shae had drawn him quickly away from thoughts of Julie, leaving him with some pleasant ones. After a while the topic drifted elsewhere, mostly Dave relating about how Emily had had the house all redone and how people had set things up for him so well. He commented how it would probably be a while before he found where everything had been put, and even finding something simple like a spoon or a coffee cup could be a real adventure. She told him she was sort of going through the same thing. She'd had a number of people living with her for the last two and a half weeks, and while people had been pretty good about cleaning up after themselves, a lot of things had been put away in places she didn't normally put them. She'd already had a couple adventures finding things and expected more.

It was a pleasant conversation with a woman who had proved to be a true friend, and who Dave was beginning to realize might be more than just a friend in the future. Finally, she asked, "Are the boys there?"

"No, they were sleeping when I came down," he told her, explaining they had gotten a little over-tired the previous night, and he'd told Kayla to put them down for a while when they started acting like they needed it.

"Well, darn," Shae said in obvious disappointment. "I sort of wanted to talk to them. Tell you what: do you have a speakerphone there?"

"This is one."

"Good! How about just before bedtime you give me a call, and I'll tell them both a story?"

"I think they'd like that," Dave smiled. "I heard them mention their Aunt Shae a lot today."

They talked for another few minutes, then Dave glanced at the clock, to realize three quarters of an hour had gone by almost in a blink. Shae was fun to talk to, and there was almost always something to talk about. Finally, though, he had to tell her he didn't want the boys to sleep too long this afternoon or there would be hell to pay getting them to bed tonight -- and he wanted them to have a good night's sleep since they would be starting their new school in the morning.

"Yeah, I suppose," Shae replied. "Talk to you later, Dave."

Dave was sorry to hang up the phone. It had been an enjoyable conversation, and he expected it wouldn't be the last long, friendly phone call he had with the tall blonde. He could already see his phone bill was going to be interesting.

The boys were still asleep when Dave got off the phone, although Kayla was stirring. Through a little bit of teasing, he managed to establish that she'd needed a nap, too -- she didn't want her folks to know, but she'd taken advantage of her folks being gone for two nights to get some serious Internet time in, and it had gone late both nights. The two of them got the boys up and running, then he told Kayla he thought he could handle it from there, and she might as well head on home. They talked it over a bit, and Dave began to realize she would be handy to have around after school at times, before his mother got off work, just to keep the boys out of trouble while he worked in the office. They agreed it needed some looking into once things got settled down a little.

Kayla couldn't have had much more than time to get home when the phone rang. Not surprisingly, it was Emily. "Kayla said you didn't have any plans for supper tonight," she said. "It's a nice night and we were thinking about grilling some hot dogs in the back yard. Would you and your mom and the boys like to come over?"

"Can't speak for Mom," Dave told her. "But it sounds good to me."

"All right, I'll call her," Emily replied. "Let's shoot for around six."

The Holst family proved to have a small but crowded back yard. There was a nice deck on the back of the house, and an above-ground pool. Between the location of the house on the edge of town -- it backed up to a corn field -- and the fencing to either side, it was very private and looked like a good spot if someone wanted to swim or sunbathe in the nude. Even with Shae's revelation and their discussion earlier, knowing Emily had been a part of the deal, Dave knew not to ask about it.

Dave did think to ask about Sally Hanson, but Emily just shook her head. "She went away to college out west somewhere," she replied. "I guess I saw her in the store two or three times in the next few years, but then her folks moved away, and I haven't heard a word about her since." Apparently even Emily's powers weren't unlimited.

Dave had already met everyone in the family but the son, JJ, a year younger than Kayla, but now he did. JJ was an interesting boy, still short of puberty and as full of life as any boy that age; despite the age difference, Tyler and Cameron got along well with him; it seemed clear that he was going to get called into the looking-after-the-boys chore, too.

The whole group of them had a nice discussion about nothing in particular, along with some nice grilled hot dogs, more baked beans, and chips. As the sun was getting low, Dave said he'd better be getting the boys to bed since they had school the next day, and the three of them walked the few blocks back to their house. He had the boys get their pajamas on and then come down to his little office, where he called Shae again. They talked for a few minutes, and once the boys got settled down, she told them a nice story about a farmer and his horses and how the horses thought the farmer was working too hard and they wanted to do what they could to help. Dave didn't know if she was making it up, or reading it, or if it was something from the show, but Shae was a good storyteller, and he got caught up in it just about as much as the boys.

After it was done, the boys asked Shae for another story, but she had to put them off -- but with a question: "Would you boys like me to call and tell you another story tomorrow night?" The boys, of course, were enthusiastic about the notion, and Shae promised to call about the same time the next night, although she warned them she might not be able to tell them a story every night. "I'll see you soon," she promised before telling the boys to head off to bed.

The boys headed for the bedroom, and Dave promised to be up to tuck them in before long, then stayed on the phone with Shae for a few minutes. "You tell a good story," he told Shae.

"I like to think I'm pretty good at it," she replied warmly. "I thought the general idea of that story up this afternoon after we had our phone call, but I didn't get the details down until I was telling it. I wonder if I ought to write it down?"

"Might not be a bad idea," he replied. "I thought it must have been something from the show."

"No, they tend to be a little too politically correct for some of the details I threw in," she sighed. "I sometimes wonder about that. I mean, who in their right mind would tell a kid something from Grimm's Fairy Tales for a bedtime story? But sometimes I think things have gone a little too far toward sweetness and light, too."

"Can't argue with you there," he agreed. "But if we get started talking about it we'll go at it for a while, and I really do need to get the boys tucked in. Big day for them tomorrow, new school and all."

"I suppose," she sighed with obvious disappointment. "Well, talk to you tomorrow, Dave, and like the boys, I'll be seeing you soon."

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