"The state is sick.
You and your principles are to blame."

"Antigone," Translation by R.E. Braun. Lines 1170-1171. Used without permission.
 

MICHAEL:

Time to open presents.

We went all out for Mulder, so he'd better appreciate it.

"I'm not sure I should open these. They might explode," he says, looking at this huge bag of stuff we have for him. All of it neatly individually wrapped by Juliet, so it's like the wrapping is better than the gifts.

"Only if you're lucky," Dad tells him.

"So Frohike, how old are you gonna be, it's a couple weeks now?" Mulder's looking at him, old man of the bunch.

"None of your goddamn business." Dad's not real happy about being reminded how old he's getting, particularly not since he got sick. Guess I can't blame him.

He's sitting on the sofa with Martha, he's got his arm around her shoulder, she's got her head on his. She looks real tired, more tired than him, he doesn't seem too bad lately. He still sleeps more than he used to, but he's like a lot better than he was. He's gone back to the offices part of the time. Who knows. Maybe it's good for him.

I think Martha's good for him, actually. He's been lots happier since she's been around. And I got to admit, she's righteous. She never tries to push me out. I was real worried about that, that she'd wanna just move in and take over and then I'd have to leave, but she got her own place in DuPont Circle, Kelly and me are gonna help her move end of the month. Just add it to the list of things I got to do. She promised she'd teach me how to shoot, if I wanted to.

Right now I don't know if I want to or not.

Kelly and me are kind of sprawled out on the floor, Kelly's got her head on my knee, I'm sort of half sitting up because if I lie down I can't breathe for shit. It was righteous dope, but I'm paying for it now. Ally's on the sofa, Langly's got himself parked against her legs and keeps whining for her to rub his shoulders. He is such a spoiled brat. Byers and Juliet are stretching the bounds of PDA the farthest. Any closer and they'll have to remove their clothes and head for the bedroom. I know dope makes some people horny, but with these guys, I think EVERYTHING makes them horny. Skinner made it a point to steal Mulder's chair-you notice all these old guys, they got their own chairs?

I want one of my own.

And he's gloating, big time, over the chair, but nothing like Mrs. Scully, who's gloating because she won all our money. Mrs. Mulder bailed a long time ago. She put the kiddies to put then I think she put herself to bed. She looked real beat. And she seemed like she wasn't having a good time. Dr. Scully's two brothers bailed out, too, they had their kids with them and the kiddies got tired and wanted to go, so they didn't lose nearly so much money as we did.

Jo's almost asleep right now. Notice she sneaked out a few times during the card games. I think it was righteous of Langly to give her the dope. Mulder wanted some more a little while ago, and Langly's like, I don't have anymore, and Mulder says he's a greedy liar, but Langly's like, gave it to Jo, maybe she'll share. I think Mulder was way too embarrassed to ask her. I know I'd be.

I just hope Jo's getting better. I like having her around. She's a cool lady and she doesn't deserve this to happen to her. She never did anything to deserve this. Not ever.

I'm thinking deserving has nothing to do with anything anymore. Don't mean to sound cynical here. But I am.

Mulder pulls the first one out of the bag. They look so good gift wrapped. Better than they will unwrapped.

"Hmm, let's see...corn remover. You guys, you're too thoughtful." Mulder's cracking up.

"We know," Dad says, closing his eyes and leaning into Martha. I think he's fading on us. Any second now, he'll probably nod off and start snoring like a buzzsaw and then we'll have to move if we want to hear anything.

Second one. "Preparation H? How did you know?"

We all laugh. "Mulder, try a whole body application, then maybe you'll be less of a pain in the ass." Byers is giggling while he says this.

Ally's trying to sign all this while Mulder's unwrapping, he tries to sign and unwrap all the time together, and he's stoned. Makes for a pretty bizarre effect. And Dr. Scully thinks it's funny. I've never seen her laugh so much. She's having fun for a change. Kelly says she's not having much fun lately, but tonight she is.

"What's this? Frohike, this must be yours. Propecia, $10 off." Mulder holds out this coupon to him.

"Mulder, you're not 40 yet, and you won't make it you keep that up," Dad's got his eyes closed but he's still awake enough to hassle Mulder.

"And what else have we here? Ah, reading glasses, the Rite-Aid special half-glasses." He sticks them on and looks at Dr. Scully. "How do I look?"

She's trying to keep a straight face and it's not happening.

"And Depends? Could be useful next time I'm in flight-those airplane bathrooms are tough." He's having fun with this.

"Hey, we went all out for you," Langly says.

"But wait, there's more," I say. And Mulder grabs into the bag, and there's a tube of Ben-Gay down there.

"Don't laugh. I could use this. I got kids," he says.

We also threw in this Dr. Seuss book, "You're Only Old Once," and Mulder thinks this is great, says he'll read it to his kiddies. And saw palmetto, for guy things, that's what Kelly says anyway, so we threw some in, and some Poli-Grip, and some hair dye. Mulder's loving it. He might not have thought it was so funny if he wasn't stoned, but who cares? He is now.

He turns to Dr. Scully. "So what'd you get me?"

She giggles at him. "What makes you think I got you something?"

He gives her this real hurt look. "You didn't get me a present?"

She licks her lower lip. "Oh, you'll get your present, Mulder."

Dad stands up. "I think that's our cue to get out of here. Goodnight all, thank you."

We all file out, and we say goodnight to Mulder and Dr. Scully, but it's like they don't even see us.

If she wasn't already knocked up, I swear to God, he'd take care of that tonight.
 

Kelly's yawning but in between yawns and sniffles she's still in a giggly mood. I stuff her into the back of Langly's Corolla.

"And come home tonight." Dad taps me on the shoulder as he and Martha are headed to the T-bird.

Oh fuck. I am gonna get my ass kicked.

Langly's like, I can't do this, he tells Ally she's driving. I don't think she had too many beers. Normally, I wouldn't wanna be with her driving after a party, but compared to some people here, she's not in bad shape.

Langly's like totally wheezing when we get in. "God, I can't breathe."

Ally clicks her tongue. ''And whose fault is that?" But she smiles at him.

"Hey, this party would've died without me."

"No, sweetheart, it would've died without your stash."

"What, are you saying that my warmth, charm and personality had nothing to do with it?"

Ally giggles. "I'll take the fifth on that."

"You're evil, woman."

"I try."

"Hey, Langly, that was decent of you, what you did for Jo," I tell him. Well, it was.

"Uh, yeah, sure." He's like sort of embarrassed.

"What'd you do for her?" Ally doesn't like know about this.

"Um...well...you know she's feeling real sick, so I sort of gave her the rest of my stash."

"Well, in view of the quality of said stash, I think that was very cool of you, babe." His wife reaches over and touches his hair.

"Yeah, it was nice stuff. Better than even the stuff I used to do in college."

"How much did you do in college?" I ask him.

"You mean homework or smoking?"

"Smoking, you jerk. I'm sure you didn't do homework." Langly's one of those guys I bet he didn't have to study too much. I hate people like that.

"Hey, I did homework! Used to when I had a math final, I'd drop acid the night before, it'd just make it so much more evident. Great study aid."

We all crack up, the idea of Langly dropping acid is just so...well, so Langly.

"I wonder what your employer would think if they were hearing this conversation," Ally says to him, she's laughing but we sort of go paranoid and quiet for a moment.

"Ally, they probably know more about me than I know about me, and what they don't know they make up. God, wish I had done acid. Chest hurts like hell." He leans back.

The three of us crash out for the rest of the drive. I hope Ally stayed awake.

**************************************************************************************************************************

Well, if she slept, she must've put the car on autopilot, because a little bit later, she's like, "Michael, we're at your house, time to get out."

"I left my car at your place."

"Get it tomorrow. I distinctly heard Papa Bear say to come home tonight." She yawns as she says it.

I wake Kelly up to kiss her goodnight. I was sort of hoping that we'd go back to Chateau Langly first, but I guess nothing doing right now. So I snuggle with Kelly for a couple minutes, she walks me to the door, and then we stand there for a few minutes kissing.

I mean, we couldn't have been out there for all that long, but then Dad opens the door and he's like, come on, unless you're giving a show for the neighbors already.

Hmm. Kelly and me, we could give the neighbors a real show. If we wanted to.

I walk Kelly back out to the Corolla and we kiss a few more minutes. Ally's finally like, guys, I wanna get home, sometime in this century.

The big kids. Always spoiling our fun.
 

Martha's in the bathroom when I get in, Dad's alone in the living room watching some old flick.

"Michael." He calls me as I try to make an escape to my room.

Oh boy. Here it comes.

"What?"

"Is Kelly all right?"

Uh-oh. This is his way of trying to find out what the hell we were doing tonight. Like he couldn't figure it out already.

"She seemed much more, well, giddy than usual."

"She's fine. She was having fun."

"I'll bet."

"Dad, what's your problem here?"

"No problem. I'm just glad to see that you avoided temptation, that's all. You were one of the few."

He said what?

Oh God.

You're kidding. I fooled Melvin Frohike.

I'm gonna have to calendar this. The one time in my life I fooled my dad. He has no idea!

I have to stifle myself to keep from cracking up as I head for my room.

**************************************************************************************************************************

ALLY:

October 12, 2001

Darling husband is now paying for his revelry the night before. He can barely breathe. I'm actually tempted to call Dana or Martha to get over here and see what they think, should I take him in. I don't want to. He doesn't want to. On the other hand, we don't have much spare oxygen lying around.

So I fluff up about ten thousand pillows and stick them behind him so he's not lying flat, it seems to help but he's really tired and drained out. He's not getting up today. If he tries to travel any farther than the bathroom I will get one of those electronic collars you put on dogs and hook it to him, sounding the alarm should he foolishly attempt to be ambitious. And it's Sunday. He doesn't work on Sunday, and he's not doing the magazine today. I inform him of this, and he's sick enough that he doesn't argue with me. This in itself is a little scary.

I love Sunday. I read the papers nice and slow, sit around, drink coffee, smoke, relax. The kids aren't up yet. Miranda must've let Patrick stay up till some ungodly hour; we found both of them asleep on the sofa when we got home.

It'd be a great morning for Bloody Marys, and I've got a real taste for them-unfortunately, no vodka. I haven't kept vodka in the house since my mother died. I can't bring myself to buy a bottle of Absolut. This is very weird.

It's around ten a.m. when the gate buzzer sounds. I'm mystified. If we have company at this hour on Sunday, it's people who know the code for the gate. And I don't recall having invited anyone over.

"Yes?" I don't want to wake anyone up.

"We're here to see Mr. Langly."

The voices are familiar, and I can see on the visual it's the same two guys in the same dark Taurus who were here last week.

They can't take a hint, can they?

"He's asleep. And it's Sunday."

"We're well aware of what day it is, ma'am."

"Then go home."

"Ma'am, we need to see your husband."

"No, you don't."

"Perhaps we could send Major Zupancic over if you don't believe us."

"Ooh, I'm scared." I will not let these bastards interfere with a day that's rightfully ours.

"Ma'am, we'd appreciate your cooperation."

"But you won't get it."

"Perhaps we could disable the gate."

"Good luck." Although if they do that, it's going to cost a fortune to repair, and even if I am an heiress to a small fortune, I'd prefer to waste my money on other things.

Still, I am determined to send these people away.

"Ma'am, if you don't cooperate, we'll be forced to send the MP's over."

What? As in military police?

What the hell is going on here?

"Fine. I'll be out in a moment."

"We need to see your husband, ma'am, not you."

"He's sick."

"That's why we're here."

"So leave him alone. Come back tomorrow."

"Ma'am-" I seem to have stumbled over somebody as stubborn as I am.

"Ally, what's going on?" Langly's wheezing and coughing behind me, still clad only in sweatpants and a sling, hair askew and glasses placed on slightly lopsided.

"Just some unwanted visitors," I tell him.

"Like who?"

"Like your employer."

"Oh fuck. Let 'em in."

"What?!"

"I said, let 'em in!"

What the hell has gotten into him? He never used to be like this. Now it's as if he's become a consummate G-man.

And I'm not liking it very much.

"Fine. You deal with it."

Damned if I'm going to.
 

"Langly, what the hell is going on?" I demand when he's back inside. And it's cold out there, and he didn't put anything over his shoulders. I'm beginning to think the man has a death wish.

"Got some work to do." Just the trip up the walk winded him. "Hey Ally. When these guys come by, do me a favor. Don't hassle 'em. Just play nice and let 'em in. Okay?" He doesn't look too happy with me.

"Langly, it's Sunday! Jesus Christ!"

"Yeah, well, they said it was urgent."

"Langly, everything with them is fucking urgent! I'm tired of this! I'm tired of that they won't even let you get well!"

He rolls his eyes. "Ally, don't be giving me shit about this, okay? Really. I don't need it."

"God, Langly, you are the last person I ever expected to become a government drone!"

That pisses him off. I should cut my losses and back off now.

I don't, of course. I'm stupid, I'm stubborn, and I have red hair. Three strikes against me right there.

"Ally, they don't ask you to work unless something needs doing-"

"And they've got something that needs doing 24/7!" My frustration has surfaced. "Jesus, Langly, do you even know what this is about?"

He shakes his head. "No. But..." he sits down cross-legged on the floor. "Ally, I don't like to tell you a lot about this stuff, I think it's better you don't know all that much. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you got to know more than you do. Maybe then you'd understand."

I soften a bit at the sight of him, sitting there, eyes downcast, and he's a total mess.

I think about this. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, you know." And he doesn't.

"Well...okay. Here's the deal. You know, I get something encrypted, and I'm like the first go round. I write the algorithm, okay? I program it. But after that, my system's like I have to pass it to the next player."

"Okay. So you never know what's really happening."

"Nope. That's the idea."

"And you can live with that."

He looks at me, and a mischievous smile passes over his sweet features. A loud burst of soggy coughing intersperses his next words. "Nope. That's why I've been doing a little sidework, if you will."

Now I'm really nervous. "That could be dangerous...if they find out..."

"They won't find out." He shakes his head adamantly.

"You're sure of that."

"Well, for one thing, just swept for bugs yesterday."

I may be one of a very small number of married women in America whose husbands sweep for bugs in their home...and nowadays think nothing of it.

I'm so far away from where I started.

"Ally...you know, we don't like the way things are, right?"

"No kidding."

"So...here's my chance to maybe, you know, make some changes?"

Now I really feel cold.

"What kind of changes, sweetheart?"

He grins at me, coughs for about five minutes-God, is he ever going to get better?-and finally speaks.

"Ally my girl. You like math."

"I do. Not the way you do, but-"

"Well, my girl, I think it's time you learned a little cryptography."

Now I'm downright scared. "You're kidding."

"Nah. Would I kid you about that?"

"Langly, you hate the way I do math."

"Well, I mean, doesn't work for me. But sometimes, I mean, you take another approach, then maybe you see stuff that you didn't see before."

"Like when you used to drop acid before an exam."

"Yeah, kind of like that, but not exactly. And I'm kind of stuck on a couple things. Maybe a different set of eyes, they can see stuff-"

"Don't you think you should ask Byers or Frohike? They'd have to better at this than me."

He shakes his locks. "Got them doing other stuff. Ally girl, you know I'd never do anything if I thought it was gonna hurt you or the kiddies, right?"

"No, I don't think you would."

"And you know I can't leave this job."

"So I'm aware."

"So, why not use it for the right things? I mean, I could be real bummed about all this...or I could make it happen. Use it for good stuff."

"What kind of good stuff?"

"I'm not sure yet. But I will."

"Don't you ever get scared, Langly? Doesn't it ever bother you that we're so...naked out there?"

"Well, duh! And that's one of the things we're gonna change. Might take a while. Hell, it will take a while. But we're gonna make it happen, one way or another."

"Oh no, is this where the Malcolm X speech comes in?"

"You mean, by any means necessary? No. I think by any necessary means is more like it." He coughs again, this time he's spitting up stuff. I decide that the first time I see blood, if I do, he's hospitalized. I don't this time. "Ally, what kind of world do you wanna live in?"

"Wow. What kind of world do I want to live in? Let's see. I want...I want to live where my kids are safe. Where my husband and I are free to love each other any way we choose. Where we can live and work where we wish. Where our privacy is sacrosanct. Where the only things that matter are the things that matter."

He nods. "I think that's what we all want. We being us, people we know. Obviously not everyone shares the vision."

"No, that much is apparent in our leadership. You know what's amazing to me, sweetheart? I want to know, why does the public tolerate this? What happened to the spirit of the American public? Has everyone's will just been killed off?"

"That's what I wanna know. And I'm gonna find out."

I'm skeptical that he can learn all he wants to know. There's probably so much...and it's buried so deep...

"Langly, I used to have a certain idea of how the world worked. And then one day, that idea was kicked hard in the kneecaps, and I feel like I'm barely standing."

He shakes his head. "No, Ally girl, you're not like that. You're okay. You really are."

"I don't know...sometimes I feel as if I'm still in the rabbit hole."

"You mean you're not?"

"Langly, you're evil."

"No, seriously. It's always, you ever noticed, truth really is stranger?"

I look at him carefully. He looks so vulnerable there, and yet there is a tough certainty in those pale, red-rimmed eyes.

I kneel down next to him. "Just don't ever let this truth be a stranger."

We kiss.

END OF PART 78