"Mistress, do me a kindness!
After much weary toil, I come to you,
And you are the first soul I have seen-I know
No others here."

"The Odyssey," Fitzgerald Translation, Book 6, Lines 188-191.
Used without permission.
 

MICHAEL:

August 23, 2001

Thank God it's Friday. I think.

We worked every night this week late, except Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we were all in our offices till after the monitors turned over the next day.

But on Friday, everyone kind of knocks off, unless something's real pressing (or Mulder has something for us to do, and in fact, he's kind of notable for hitting you on weekends). We got a lot done. We got an issue pretty much ready to ship out in a week or so. Just some proofing. Everybody's finished reading everyone's stuff for content. We're down to style now.

Style can wait, at least till tomorrow. I'll probably be the only one at it, because I got to be done before Monday and school starts up again.

But tonight, I'm gonna enjoy myself. Kelly's taking me out to dinner-I feel sort of funny about this (I've decided it's a Frohike thing-I mean, my dad and Jo, they're like just buds but he almost never lets her pay. We're weird that way). But Kelly's like, c'mon Michael, you always pay and you don't have any money and I want some Greek food and I want to treat you.

Okay, if you put it like that.

My fault, anyway. Well, really Dad's. He turned her on to Greek food. Since then, she's been craving Greek food. You'd think she was pregnant or something.

No. Don't even THINK that. Do NOT pass go, do not collect $200, don't even let your brain wander in that direction!

I've gotten real paranoid since Kelly told me what was on her mind.

It's not like we never did anything without protection. We're not stupid. And I'm in charge here, at least right now. And Kelly knows I'm right. Hey, I am.

We are not ready for the parental experience. Trust me on that one.

But tonight, we'll head out for dinner and then, we get Chateau Langly to ourselves. Kelly's in charge of feeding the cats this weekend, which is small payback for the glory of having an entire house to ourselves. Langly and Ally took Miranda and Patrick and Shelby up to Chesapeake for the weekend to go camping. I don't think Ally's ever said the words, "I want to go camping," but Langly was in such a godawful mood when he got home, and they didn't go on vacation this year, she said that they should pack up their gear and go. So they did. They'll have a good time, provided the kids don't kill each other on the way. Back seat of the Corolla is not the roomiest for three kids.

Should've hit Mulder up for the minivan. He'd of probably said yes. We got a surveillance van, but there's no room for people inside it to travel.

This also means I get Ally's Neon this weekend, which will be real useful for running to the auto parts store. I have GOT to get the 'Stang operational. I think I got Kelly's in pretty good shape. It hasn't died in at least 3 days now. I could hitch with her, but problem is, she works two afternoons a week in DC up at Georgetown, I'm down on campus in Anniston. Not gonna work. I need my beast of burden, preferably to do something other than eat up my available cash (of which there is not much). Plus insurance just came due, and I got a speeding ticket this summer-aargh! My rates doubled. This hurts. A lot. Basically, all the money I made this month from working on TMB went to my car insurance. For a car that barely even works.

I got to not think about car insurance. I just get depressed.

God, what would I do if I had to pay rent? Dad's been real righteous about that. And 976 numbers? Wouldn't call 'em anymore even if they were still around. Mostly because of Kelly-the real thing is always better-but also, I can't pay the freight.

The one good thing about tutoring, I get money for it. Not a lot, but it helps. And I did sign up for 25 hours. Bad from a time point of view, good from a money one.

I keep wondering how I'm gonna do two lab sciences, a night class, and 25 hours of tutoring along with working on TMB and doing all the other crap that needs doing.

I know. I'll just give up sleeping.

Least I don't have to study too hard. Never did. Long as I do the work, I can pretty much count on getting an A. At least so far, anyway.

Kelly says I'll change my mind in bio. I don't think so. Least I hope not.

Dad's still like this major crab, but he hasn't been quite so vocal about it last few days. We been too busy for him to do much bitching. And Byers, he can actually put Dad in his place-gently.

I'd like to know what kind of leverage he has right now, because I'd like some, thank you very much.

And tonight, I'm hanging out at the Chateau with Kelly. The only bite is, Dad says I better be home later tonight. No slumber parties at the Chateau.

Fine. But it'll be late. If he wants to wait up for me, his fault for doing it.

I'm still thinking about what Jo told me a few days back. Only person I told is Ally. Which is sort of like not telling anybody, because she doesn't blab. Next to Jo, she's got like the most closed mouth in the world.

Course, only scary thing about Ally, she does tell Langly stuff (sometimes). I hope she doesn't go off one night when she's real drunk and tell him, because it's like, we might as well publish it. But she's generally cool about stuff, even when she's ripped. Mostly she just gets silly. And from what I've overheard, horny.

She's so bummed. I feel so bad for her. She really wanted to go back to school. She wanted it bad. And now, she doesn't have it. She's gone to the school, sent e-mails, called everybody and anybody, and she couldn't find out anything except what she got told in that lame excuse for a letter. I think even Langly might feel a little bad for her, even though he really didn't want her to go. He knew she did. And he's kind of a selfish bastard sometimes, but he really loves her. He wants her to be happy. And he knows it's bad to fuck with a redhead.

Maybe she needed to get out of Dodge as much as she said he did. I know they took a huge cooler of beer and two bottles of Jose, because I saw them pack. I bet those bottles come back empty. ALL of them.

Dad's taken off, he and Jo were gonna rent some flicks and get Chinese takeout. The prof and Juliet are probably screaming at their realtor (Byers's newest habit). Either that, or they're home spoiling their kitty cat. God, that is the most spoiled cat. I thought Ally spoiled her cats bad. She's got nothing on these guys.

One thing I miss around here is the dog. Tiny died this summer. She was old and sick, but she was like the coolest mutt. She was a real dog (read: not one of those ugly little rat dogs-I don't think of them as dogs, anyway), and she thought I was great. Sometimes you need somebody to think you're great.

Ally says that Miranda wants a Jack Russell terrier. You know, those dogs like Eddie in Frasier. She's thinking about giving her one for her birthday. That would be cool. Jack Russells are smart. They're real dogs, too.

I want to get a cat, but haven't had time. And I feel bad because I'm not home much. I mean, I think you have a pet, you should spend time with it. I'd like a dog, too, but best I can do is get Dad to agree to a cat. I was sort of surprised, because cats make Dad nervous. That's silly. Cats are awesome. Actually, all animals are awesome. I love them. Someday, I want to live in a place where Kelly and me can have lots of dogs and cats. And Kelly wants an iguana. Me, I like soft, furry creatures you can  pet, but she thinks iguanas are cool, too. So hell. We'll get an iguana. Just so long as I can have a big dog and some cats, too. And maybe a bird. I like macaws and cockatiels a lot. African gray wing parrots are fun, too. I had a roommate for a little while, he had this African gray wing named Austin (after Steve Austin, the six-million-dollar man), and he'd taught it to say
'fuck you' anytime anyone walked in the room. Needless to say, the whole time I lived with him (okay, it was only three months), dude never had a date. But I liked Austin. I liked Austin a lot better than I liked my roommate.

I used to really hate people. I don't hate them so much anymore, but sometimes it bugs me how much I need them. I like animals better. It's so much easier to get along with them.

On the other hand, I'm not a sicko. I couldn't see ever having sex with one. Sorry, I find NOTHING attractive about barnyard animals, at least in that way.

(I had to make that clear. Sorry. The Frohikes are weird, damn weird, but we're not gross. Well, I'll speak for myself. I don't know what Dad's up to these days).

Just waiting for Kelly to get back from DC. Getting out of DC on Friday night, it sucks. But once she's here, it'll be great.

I got no idea what we're gonna do when we finish up the condoms we got from the prof. Maybe I'll start my own manufacturing plant.

Sure. And I'm six-five and look like Fabio.

Christ.

Don't make me become celibate. I don't think I can do it. Shit, I don't think Kelly can do it. I have no intentions of giving up sex with Kelly.

And I got no intentions of suffering the consequences. Not on no degree, no car, no major, and $250 bucks a week, plus whatever I can get at TMB.

I keep thinking...maybe Dad's got a stash somewhere.

Who am I kidding? He hasn't slept with a woman in YEARS. Not since Dee. I bet he hasn't screwed anything other than his hand in that long.

You'd think by now, he'd have just said, fuck it, that's not part of my life...oh sure. Not. He's a Frohike.

I hope I die old and really horny, and I bet he does too.

But I'm sort of glad he hasn't found anyone. Well, not anyone he can get his hands on, anyway. It's sort of sad. All the single women in the Tri-State area, and Dad has to have the hots for a married one.

But at least this keeps her out of my house.

I haven't told Kelly about it. Not that we've had a hell of a lot of time for ANYTHING the past three nights. Semester hasn't even started, I already feel like a pack mule. I can't wait to see how I feel next Friday night.

Probably want to fall into bed...and sleep.

Christ, I'm getting old! This is disgusting!

I should just get used to not sleeping. I mean, I never get enough, most nights. Haven't had more than six hours sleep at night since I had surgery. And six hours? That's a great night these days. Most nights, it's like four or five.

I'm fucking exhausted.

Not too exhausted to be horny, though. Seems like I can be horny 24/7, whether I'm sleepy or hungry or tired or have work to do...hell, I was horny when I had pneumonia, for God's sake. I admit I lost a couple days on the appendectomy. When your guts hurt that much, you don't think about it. But it stops hurting, well, it sort of boomerangs on you. Then all you wanna do
is fuck.

I can tell I haven't had sex for days now. I'm dying here.

Kelly's not in the middle of her period, is she? Because she hates sex during her period. I don't mind it much, so long as you bring the towel, but she feels real uncomfortable and achy and just doesn't want to deal with it. By the time she's in the clear, I'm about ready to maul her. I'm trying to think. She's reasonably predictable, and I sort of have it calendared on the computer, I have cry days and no-cry days. Forewarned is forearmed. Or so they say.

I have it bad. I mean, you follow your girlfriend's cycle, for god's sake, you got it in the worst way.

She is so awesome. I can't wait for her to get here.

Finally she gets there. Her car sounds okay. I kept it alive another day.

She just about jumps into my arms and she's only three inches shorter than me and I think I outweigh her by about thirty pounds, so not much size difference, she nearly knocks me over.

She can knock me over any time she wants. She does, anyway. And she doesn't have to do anything but be there.

She wraps her legs around my waist. I'm tempted to ask her if she wants dessert first, but she says, she's ready to eat, she's starving. But not before I get this incredible long warm kiss.

I still remember our first kiss. New Year's Eve, Dad's and my living room. It was real soft. So warm. And every time I kiss her, it's like, I get to feel warm and soft all over again.

And we've done a lot more than kiss since then. It was at the shore we came together.

I can't even describe how great it was. I never felt so good, so alive, so happy, so complete.

Except in the times we've done it since. Those have all been so great, too.

I discovered a lot of other things I like with her. I like sitting in the spa with her (and sex in the spa is pretty cool, too, provided you don't have interruptions. Which at Chateau Langly, can be real tough). I like having dinner with her. I like just hanging out and watching videos and cartoons with her. I like sleeping (I mean, actually sleeping) in the same bed with her.

Goddamn my dad, making me come home tonight.

I should just tell him to fuck off, but he can also tell me I can sleep in the street.

I don't know why I put up with his shit.

Actually, I do, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

I put up with it because he's my lifeline. He takes care of me. He gives me a place to live. And he does love me.

He also rags on me all the fucking time, and I'm tired of it. It's like, there're a lot of things I'd like to tell him about.

Like that creepy guy I saw the night I registered for classes. He really freaked me seven ways to Sunday. But I know if I tell my dad, he'll just go ballistic on me, and yell at me, even if it's not my fault. That's how he is these days.

God, maybe he should go out and get laid. He might be calmer.

I checked his pills this morning. I don't think he's taking them. Looks like he's got a lot more than he should. And doesn't look like he filled a scrip since June.

This is not good. Much as he's a real pain in the ass, I don't want him getting sick again. I mean, he's my dad. And I love him.

He just makes it so damn hard sometimes. I bet he says the same thing about me.

I mean, I know I make it hard. I really do. I'm a pain in the ass myself. But I'm trying so fucking hard, and it's like he gives me no credit. None!

In the meantime, I'm having this bizarre thought...what if Martha was going to jump up on him the same way Kelly jumped up on me?

She'd probably kill him, or at least knock his back out. And I checked up on her.

She's 43. She's a MSN in nursing and she's got a bunch of credits towards her PhD, but she hasn't been able to study because of her husband, who's a mess from what looks like being in the Gulf War, where he was in special forces. She's a Carolina girl, North and South. Raised not all that far from where we went to the shore. I saw her pic, and now I sort of remember her. She was one of Byers's nurses when he was in real bad shape, and she was at Ally and Langly's wedding. She danced with my dad, I think. I don't know if her husband was there or not, but I'm guessing not, since he's supposed to be in real bad shape. Trying to remember who all came to Ally and Langly's wedding is useless. Let's just say there were more people there than there are in some towns in the rural parts of Virginia.

Not bad looking. Kind of cute, actually. My dad's type-short, dark hair, glasses, freckles. And big tits.

Believe it or not, she looks a little like my mom. And like Dee, in a way. Dee had redder hair, at least in the pictures my dad has of her.

That is so Dad. It's like, name a restaurant, pick his meal. Same with women, I guess. He likes a certain type. He likes tits. And apparently he goes in for freckles, too. The short part doesn't surprise me, since he's not exactly a giant.

Dee wasn't a nurse, but this lady's a nurse, just like my mom. Maybe my dad figures they know nurse tricks. I don't know. My mom knows nurse tricks, and I wouldn't want her trying any of them on me.

She's also got a real sick husband, no money in the bank, a ton of debt, creditors on her back, a house in Baltimore that's falling apart, and she was working, according to her police records, as a phone sex operator for a while, when she got busted...

I bet you anything that's how my dad met her. I mean, that would be so Dad. He doesn't think I know he used to call the 900 numbers, like he doesn't think I know about his downloads. (I happen to know he's got a few saved to his hard drive. Like the mud-wrestling twins. I actually found him sleeping in the chair one night and he'd forgotten to take it down. I saved him the embarrassment of having to explain to his virgin son-uh huh, that's a good one but that's what he thinks-about his latest 'screen saver').

She sounds like a nice lady with a ton of problems. Just what Dad needs in his life right now, somebody with more troubles than him. That'd really be great. I can see my education going right out the window, because Dad can't resist a damsel in distress.

The one thing I'm grateful for: She's not named Bambi. I think at least half the girls on the phone sex lines and in the porn sites are named Bambi. This makes me feel better in one way, worse in another. It's like if she was Bambi, she'd be somebody Dad might think about, but never go nuts over. He'd get a hard on, get over it, and then on to the next download.

That sounds perverted, but I can't say anything. Been there, done that.

And I keep thinking, phone sex ops, I bet they never go out with clients. They probably make fun of them after they hang up.

Besides, if she's married, that's one good thing about my dad. He'll keep his hands off. For somebody who's been divorced and sort of widowed, he's like real firm on the idea that you don't fuck with someone else's marriage. I mean, he thought Langly and Ally trying to have a kid was really screwed up, and he said it to me, but he'd never say it to them. He figured it was their problem, and he'd just be there for them when it went bad. Which it did.

I wonder how they feel now that they got Patrick. They seem to love the little guy like crazy. Which is good, because he's a cute kid, and amazingly smart and funny, but he'd make anyone crazy. Sometimes he makes me crazy, and I'm not even with him all that much.

Even Miranda's good to him. She gets pissed off at him, just like Les used to get pissed off at me, but she's also real good to him most times. She's not the asshole big sister I figured she'd be.

Maybe it's just because she's getting older, but Miranda isn't as much of a bitch as she used to be. Either that, or I'm just used to her. But she seems a little nicer this summer. She was real mean to Ally and Langly when they were pregnant, and I think she felt real bad when they lost the kid. She doesn't even insult me all the time.

And she and Kelly, they're like buds. They hang together. Maybe she figures Kelly's cool, and if Kelly doesn't think I'm such an asshole, maybe I'm not. I'm not sure how this works between women. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.

I think the prof had the worst summer of all. Started off with Juliet getting hurt, and it's been pretty terrible ever since. And he got arrested. I mean, the prof! Langly or even my dad, not such a big shock-hell, they've been arrested. And charged. And convicted. But Byers? That was like so weird. I guess he has a rich dad, and his dad called in some favors and got him a light sentence, but from what I know, I think Byers did the right thing. Somebody ever does anything like that to Kelly, they'll be lucky to keep breathing.

But tonight's good. It's just Kelly and me, and everyone else is out of our hair. The kitties are all fed, and we can bail.
 

I love Greek food, so does Kelly. We pig out on grape leaves and pastisio and black olives and goat cheese. We get incredibly stuffed. And it's great, because it doesn't cost a fortune to eat here. Plus we get saffron rice, I'd almost kill for saffron rice. Great stuff.

It's a good thing I like swimming, because I love to eat, and like my dad, I have a tendency to pile it on in the middle. I don't know what's gonna happen in the winter. Maybe I'll have to make time to go to the pool at school.

Sure. In my incredible amount of free time.

You know what? I'm not gonna sweat it tonight.

Because we've paid the check...and the Chateau is ours.

Coolness.

END OF PART 10