While Patten headed home, I headed inside the cabin that Molly and I owned. I hoped that the conversation I had had with the man had explained things. I didn’t honestly expect things to be “rosy” between us. I merely hoped he understood that much of what I did wasn’t for myself. It was for Molly, who was working on dinner as I entered.
“George…” she called from the kitchen.
“It’s me,” I answered, “how are things?”
“Okay,” Molly answered, “dinner will take a little while yet…”
Even though Molly couldn’t see me through the walls, I nodded. With the sheer volume of meat that Molly and I were required to eat to feed our metabolisms, cooking took awhile. Neither of us really complained about it though. Those things were part of the issues that we had long since accepted.
“Did you have a good day?” Molly asked as I came around the stairs and entered the kitchen.
“It was productive, I suppose,” I sighed, “Barnes and I didn’t catch the guys that were out there with their little Meth Lab…”
“You didn’t catch them and the day was productive?”
“They haven’t set up a replacement lab,” I answered, “at least not one that we’ve found or been alerted to…”
There was a brief silence for a moment.
“The bigger thing, I think would be resolving some of the issues with Mr. Patten,” I commented, “He met me at the station as I got off.”
“I thought I heard you talking to someone,” Molly turned gave me a small hug, “how did it go?”
“Better then I could expect,” I shrugged, “no fighting, no slander… he mostly wanted to know a bit more about me and why I do what I do… so I told him. That’s all that really happened.”
“Well… hopefully you’ll get along now,” Molly shrugged, “he may have his points on your temper, but we both know you are a good man… err… tiger. Mr. Patten seems to be very much the same… a good man. He really cares for the kids.”
“Yes,” I nodded, “I’ve gathered that much. He intends to campaign for Tabby.”
“Good,” Molly answered, “Because after everything Hireman pulled… Tabby’s going to need all the help she can get.”
+++++++++++++++++++++
Patten’s report to the newspaper was on the paper’s “Education” section, which consisted of a couple of pages of school related news in the paper as a whole. The Columbia Falls Daily wasn’t a big paper. It’s overall size was about the same size as a section from bigger papers, although to a great extent, the internet was killing print media as a whole. I sometimes wondered if newspapers would just go entirely digital sooner or later and forget “paper” editions altogether.
The report wasn’t much more then a footnote really, but it did give a countering voice to the BS that Hireman had unleashed in the first debate. How well it would work, would probably be up for debate for awhile. And Molly and I couldn’t get into that debate directly. As a teacher, Molly was higher up the chain of command from where she had been as an aide, but she still had to adhere to the policies of the school board, which Hireman lead and controlled. Now, Patten and most of the other school board members would probably turn on him for recording the meetings without telling anyone, but that might only insure gridlock until Hireman was voted out or more agreeable board members to him were voted in…
And as a police officer, I was not even in the picture for the debate. I could voice my opinion, but that wouldn’t shape policy in anyway. The only way that could happen would be if Officer Howard staged a coup and turned the town into a “police state” of sorts, which I was certain he wouldn’t do. No policeman I’d ever met advocated such a policy. My father didn’t. The officers under his command didn’t. Jacki didn’t. And the officers in the Columbia Falls Police Department didn’t. And that meant the only way we could affect any change would be to vote in the coming November elections.
And I accepted that. Hopefully the elections would come and things would be set right. I wished Molly a good day and made my way into work. Officer Barnes was again waiting for me as I arrived at the station.
“Morning, George,” he said politely as I clocked in.
“Morning,” I replied, “any information come in our drug dealers during the night… or are we still in the dark?”
“As to where they went?” Officer Barnes sighed, “we’re still in the dark there, I’m afraid. Rancher only found the site of their lab… and the tracks that you found went into thick grass where a lot of the guy’s cattle moved about in and essentially vanished… and the fumes from the lab itself were enough to mess with your nose.”
“If you thought it smelled nasty to you, be glad you don’t have my nose,” I told him.
Officer Barnes nodded, “all the same, though, it means we’re going to have to wait it out until we can get some identification beyond what their shoes looked like. Lots of guys wear shoes that leave tracks like the ones you found… it’d be too big a net if you catch my drift.”
I nodded, “I was just hoping, I suppose that some stuff had come in.”
Officer Barnes nodded and then moved toward the station’s back door, “something will turn up eventually. These drug guys are not the smartest of crooks. Eventually they’ll screw up, and either we’ll get them or someone else will. Anyway… we have our patrol to get to.”
I nodded and followed him out.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
And the day proved to be a rather quiet one. Most of what we had were various routine stops and one guy who flagged us down for directions. He was apparently from Canada and was looking for a relative in the area and wanted directions to another small town to the west of Columbia Falls. How he got lost, I didn’t know, but we did give him the directions he asked for.
We also checked with the rancher again, to make sure that the drug dealers hadn’t set up a replacement lab for the one he’d uncovered earlier. He reported that he hadn’t seen any other activity on his land, and his neighbors hadn’t reported any either. It would mean the hunt for them would go on, but I supposed that this case would be one where patience and vigilance would be a virtue.
When I returned home, I found Molly placing a printed out photograph on a bookshelf we had in our living room. It looked like a brown scaled lizard man in a black jacket and black shorts.
“What’s that, Molly?” I asked curiously as I came in.
“Something Mr. Patten gave me today, actually,” Molly responded, “he said this was the actual photo of his cousin…”
“Clemens…” I spoke and looked at the photo again, “he told me his cousin became a snake-person… snakes don’t have arms or legs…”
“Yes,” Molly nodded, “but from what he told me, the Animatrix Serum apparently can’t remove limbs that are already there. Humans have arms and legs, so they wouldn’t just fall off because he took the serum with the DNA of an animal without those limbs.”
I looked at the photograph again. Clemens did clearly have the features of the African Rock Python, but with the obvious additions of his arms and legs that he had when he was human.
“He also told me to tell you that he apologizes for not showing you the actual photo yesterday,” Molly continued, “he told me that most of the photos Clemens had sent him he felt to be not appropriate to show other people… mostly related to things Clemens does when he’s not working…”
“Did he say what that was?” I wondered.
“No, and I didn’t ask,” Molly shrugged, “similar to how neither of us tell anyone else how good we are in bed.”
“Most tend to hear us anyway,” I gave a slight chuckle, “but you’re right… I guess this shows I’m not super great at science…”
“Pardon?”
“I had thought that his arms and legs would be retracted into him when he took the serum,” I answered, “the bones and flesh moved to provide the material for the tail…”
“He told me that the tail developed just like our muscle mass did,” Molly spoke, “he burned a lot of energy in transforming and bought a young pig from a farmer down there and ate it to replenish his energy… just like you and I had to eat a lot when we first transformed.”
I nodded. The issue with Clemens appeared to be along the same lines that were odd and weird to me in relation to how the Animatrix Serum affected people. Molly and I never would have taken the serum voluntarily, but we had both agreed to accept that some people did. Maybe as more and more people became Animal-People, the rather racist issues that had sprung up after Molly’s transformation would wither away. Although, looking at the picture then raised another curious question from me.
“Is he still warm blooded or is he cold blooded now?” I asked.
“Mr. Patten didn’t say,” Molly answered, “he only explained why he still has arms and legs and that the photos he had of Clemens before now were not appropriate. And that apparently, the photo he showed you yesterday was to give you the idea about what he looks like… in relation to other pythons, I suppose… though a lot of snakes look the same to me.”
“Out here, I’d think it should be your ears to pay attention to,” I shrugged, “make sure the snake doesn’t have a rattle.”
Molly nodded, “but that would be with mundane snakes… not snake people.”
“Of course.”
“He also told me that he is coming up here in a few days,” Molly added, “I suppose they’re still fairly close. He told me that his cousin might actually be curious about meeting us.”
“I see.”
+++++++++++++++++++
The next few days went by quietly. Molly continued her work with school’s Summer Sun program. It was essentially a “babysitting” service the school ran, but it gave Molly work for the summer, and despite Hireman’s tricks, the kids still loved the Tiger-Lady. On a couple of my patrols with Officer Barnes, we went by the school where the Summer Sun program was being done, and occasionally saw Molly indulging the kids in games of tag and such as they played with her tail… using it as a sort of bola. Even the older kids seemed to like her.
Officer Barnes and I continued our patrols. The drug dealers didn’t make their catastrophic mistake yet, and all we could really do was to keep looking. And that we did do. I hoped that our work would be enough to get them to give up, but that would probably be too much optimistic thinking on my part.
And, of course, the race between Tabby and Wayne Hireman for the School District Superintendent’s spot continued on. People sent in their letters to the paper’s editor in response to the debate, or Patten’s report. Rathik and his family sent in their opinion on Hireman’s attack. They found it to be a distraction from the real issues and from their few interactions with Molly and I, found it hard to believe that we were really as bad Hireman claimed… if we were bad at all.
And the Catholic Priest/Minister/”Father” who had married Molly and I, wrote in his own letter. He made no direct suggestion on policy, but did state that concealing the truth of one’s actions for their own political purposes to be a violation of any moral code, and thus surrendered any ground he had to claim that his policies were “morally virtuous”.
But there were still plenty of letters that backed Hireman’s position. Some seemed to have some trust in Molly, but still believed Hireman’s security measures were necessary as a “just in case” scenario. It puzzled me as to how people could see trying to fire Molly at every opportunity could be seen as a “just in case” scenario at all, but I supposed that was just the way things were. Molly and I would vote for Tabby when November came and hopefully, so would the rest of Columbia Falls.
The school district’s second debate was coming up soon, and Molly and I had privately agreed to attend to give Tabby all the support we could give. Again the debate was held in the building where the School Board normally met. As Molly and I approached, we were met by Joseph Patten and his cousin. Clemens moved relatively slowly, largely slithering on the roughly eight feet of tail that was on the ground. His legs were held almost to the sides of his tail and weren’t really being used while he moved forward. We met them both at the door, and as he stopped, Clemens did move his legs forward to stand on.
“Good evening,” Clemens said politely and offered me his hand, the same size as it had been when he was human, likely, “thissssssss musssssssst be George and Molly Wayne.”
Molly and I both blinked in surprise. Neither of us expected the hissing nature of his voice. After a moment we did shake his hand. It was entirely covered in scales that were light brown with dark brown mottles on the dorsal side of the limb. His finger nails were gone, though it also looked like the scales that were there in place of them were larger then the rest of them… similar to how the scales on many snake species’ heads were bigger then the scales on the rest of their bodies.
“You will have to forgive my hisssssssssssing,” Clemens then continued, “I did not get to keep a human-like tongue.”
Molly and I then watched as the forked tongue that was typical of many reptile species came out and tasted the air. It was Molly who responded first.
“It’s alright, I suppose,” Molly quipped, “if something really irritates George and I and we let a tiger’s vocalization slip into human speech… we’d tend to put a lot of “r”s into what we’re saying.”
“Or if we’re advertising for Frosted Flakes,” I shrugged, “which we can’t eat.”
“True,” Clemens nodded, “You are here for the debate?”
“Yes,” Molly nodded, “Tabby and her husband are good friends of ours. We’re here to support her.”
“Asssssssssss isssssssss my cousssssssssssin,” Clemens nodded, “ssssssssso I sssssssuppossssssssse we sssssssshould go in.”
“Yes, we should,” Patten nodded, “the conference of African reptiles and Asian mammals can continue at a more appropriate time.”
Patten then politely opened the door for his cousin as he moved his legs back to balance on his tail again.
“You don’t use your legs to walk?” Molly asked.
“They aren’t sssssstrong enough to pull eight feet of tail over the ground,” Clemens answered, “but the tail has plenty of musssssscccccccccccle for me to move without using them.”
“Ah,” Molly replied as we followed them in.