I was in a half nervous, half excited mood as I made my way to Bandhavgarh Cabin that evening. Nervous because I had never been on television before in any way that I really noticed. But excited because Ronald and Robert were probably right about them following Officer Barnes and I over the next seven days would give other Animal-People some hope that they could succeed, despite the problems faced.
Of course, I was still certain that a lot of my success was do to the successes Molly had had, but I was sure I could come up with some way to mention her. Maybe some mention that not all heroes are the ones you expect.
I almost made it to the outskirts of town when a lone car came up behind me as I went.
“Need a ride home, George?” came Officer Jenkins’ voice from inside the vehicle.
I turned to see that it was the car that she and Officer Barnes carpooled into work in from their home. Officer Barnes was driving while Officer Jenkins was in the passenger seat.
“No, I’m good,” I answered, wondering why they were pursuing me to offer me a ride home.
By this time, most people knew that Molly and I walked everywhere when we were on our own. And we would continue to do so until someone came up with a model of car that would be big enough for us. And yet my partner and his girlfriend had followed behind and caught up with me.
“Are you sure?” Officer Jenkins asked, “we’re headed to your cabin anyway.”
“You’re headed to Bandhavgarh?” I wondered as I then stopped walking. Officer Barnes stopped the car as I did so.
“To pick up Megan,” Officer Jenkins nodded.
That made me even more curious. Megan Jenkins was Officer Jenkins’ daughter by a fellow officer in Spokane, Washington. She had recently become a tiger cub after receiving a blood transfusion from Molly. She still lived with Officer Jenkins and Officer Barnes, but I was willing to give them as much help as I could to help them help her deal with the instincts that would surely be there. So far, everything on that front appeared to be going well. It was then that I decided to accept the ride.
“According to my mother, she asked to go home with Molly when the Summer Sun program let out,” Officer Jenkins explained, “and by that, she meant your home.”
“This is new,” I commented, “it’s the first time I ever remember a student ever wanting to go home with a teacher.”
“None of the other kids have done that?” Officer Barnes asked.
“Not that I know of,” I shrugged from the backseat as he began driving again.
We rolled along quietly until I saw the cabin that Molly and I lived in. As I got out, I soon heard the reason why Megan had apparently wanted to come up to Bandhavgarh. A chorus of short “rars” and splashes were easily heard from our backyard. Megan had learned of our pool and wanted a swim.
Jenkins and Barnes followed me as I went in through the front door and down the center hallway to the backyard. Once in the backyard, I was able to confirm that Megan had wanted a swim. Splashing about in the middle of the pool in a special swimsuit was Megan Jenkins. Molly was swimming nearby in her own swimsuit, one that had been made by Rathik and his wife.
“Look mommy!” Megan called out when she saw us approach, “a pool!”
She hopped up and down in the pool for emphasis.
“I can see that,” Officer Jenkins commented, “but it is time to go home now, dear.”
“Awwww!” Megan complained, “Do I have to?”
“It’s getting close to dinner time,” Officer Barnes told her.
“We could eat with George and Molly,” Megan protested.
Recognizing that it was time to go, Molly stopped her leisurely laps around the pool and stood up.
“We don’t have the things to balance out your parent’s diet,” Molly told her, “and I’d think they’d be mighty sad if you didn’t eat with them?”
“Couldn’t you give them blood?” Megan asked.
“Not unless they needed it and our blood types match,” Molly caught Megan under the arms, “which isn’t likely.”
Molly then lifted Megan up and set her in the grass. She didn’t look like she liked her swimming time being over, but she moved over to where Molly had hang a towel and began to dry her fur off.
“And I’m sure you can come out and visit on other days and swim,” Molly told her.
“And have a party?” Megan asked as Molly climbed out of the pool.
“Maybe,” Molly chuckled.
“It’s a nice looking pool you and George have,” Officer Jenkins said to Molly while Officer Barnes collected Megan’s normal clothes.
“Yes,” Molly nodded, “I got it to give George and a I way to get out of the heat. Megan learned we had it and wanted a swim. It was fine with me so long as it was okay with the family.”
“It’s no problem, Mrs. Wayne,” Officer Barnes spoke, “if it keeps her out of trouble and entertained in the afternoon/evening… it’s perfectly fine with us.”
Molly began to towel off herself as Megan finished drying her fur… or at least shaking the worst of the water out of her fur. Once Megan was dry, she dutifully came up to Officer Barnes and took his hand.
“Can you swim well, daddy?” Megan asked Officer Barnes.
“I feel I do alright,” Officer Barnes smiled.
Molly and I followed the Barnes/Jenkins family back through the house and to our front porch. From there we waived good by as Megan got into the backseat and they drove back into town.
“And so the Wayne Family Water Park is now open for business,” I quipped to her.
“And what is the main feature of this water park?” Molly asked, a slight teasing tone to her voice.
“For me, it’s the cute lifeguard,” I teased back and pulled Molly into a hug.
Molly only chuckled and nuzzled me back as I nuzzled her.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The next week went fairly quietly. The filming for “Frontier Force” with either Robert Reynolds and Ronald Jay largely went quietly. For the most part the calls we got were relatively routine. Both of the National Geographic Channel cameramen said that while the calls were not as exciting as others, these routine calls were usually the bulk of what the series covered.
Over the course of the week, Molly and I continued to follow the campaign between Tabitha Choir and Wayne Hireman. People continued to write letters to the Columbia Falls newspaper. A couple in Hireman’s favor repeated Hireman’s lines of protecting the students by firing or oppressing Molly. Their wording was fairly tactful, but the message they conveyed were fairly obvious. But there were still a lot of letters that were against Hireman being reelected. They mostly focused on calling Hireman a liar.
Both candidates made a couple of token appearances or two in which they made their main points to be made on various subjects. Tabby’s best points came on the sort of “civil rights” issues related to tolerating Molly as a teacher. Hireman seemed to do best on other points that had nothing to do with Molly’s place in the school district.
“So how do the polls stand?” I asked Molly one evening as we settled down to dinner.
“Pretty much tied up,” Molly answered with a shrug, “it looks like they’ve got a mathematician calculating everything.”
I slowly nodded as Molly then set the paper down. Our morning had been rushed and I didn’t have the time to look though the paper that morning.
“Hopefully Tabby will be ready for when they have the next debate,” I told her.
“I’m sure she will,” Molly nodded, “I’ve seen Mr. Patten with her at the couple of appearances she’s made.”
“Sort of a campaign manager,” I commented, “was Clemens with him?”
“No, I think he’s gone back to Florida, by now,” Molly answered, “or is at least on his way back to Florida by now.”
“Hopefully things go well for him,” I told her.
Molly nodded in agreement.
“So, how has all the filming gone with these National Geographic guys?” Molly asked as she placed the platter of meat that we would eat from on the table and sat down in the chair opposite me.
“It’s still going fairly well,” I commented, “Nothing real exciting has gone on… but that may be for the best. If we end up with some major confrontation they could get hurt…”
“You could get hurt too, George,” Molly pointed out.
“I know,” I sighed, “but it’s my job to risk my life. Not theirs…”
Molly nodded. She knew the work that any policeman did could be dangerous, and so far the only time when it looked like my line of work troubled her was during Williams’ attack on the school when I told her the place he bombed was the station. Other then that, she seemed to be okay with it… or at least tolerated it.
“Do they say anything while they’re riding along with you and Officer Barnes?” Molly asked, “the John Madden of Cops shows so to speak?”
“No, not really,” I answered, “if anyone gives commentary on our patrols, its usually Officer Barnes or me. Mostly explaining what is going on for what will be the viewing audience will need to know.”
“Ah-ha,” Molly nodded.
Their work had gone well. They did little that truly got in the way of the work that Officer Barnes and I had to do. The worst of it was usually when Ronald or Robert turned the camera to film me in the backseat and some reflected light from the lens of the camera caught my eye, but even that wasn’t too big of a problem.
“Do you think it’ll work out?” Molly wondered after a moment.
“Hope so,” I shrugged, “it’ll be a while before it actually goes on television, but I’d suppose if it helps the other Animal People out there… as misguided as they are or taking the Serum… doing this will be worth it.”
Molly nodded to that.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The last day of filming for the series brought a little bit of excitement, although not the kind that most expected. Officer Barnes and I were on or morning patrol when a call came in that was more of a nuisance call then any sort of crime. Robert was the cameraman that day, and Officer Barnes had to recheck with the dispatch officer.
“Say again, what is the problem?” Officer Barnes asked.
“It’s a deer in a gas station,” the dispatch officer answered, “of the four legged variety. Not an Animal-Person. Owner came in from one direction, opened everything up and unlocked all the doors… young doe then came from a different area and walked in through the automatic doors. The deer then panicked when the owner came out of the bathroom and trashed the place. It somehow managed to miss anything that would lead it out. The owner is at the cashier and the deer is cowering near the back of the convenience area.”
Officer Barnes then got the address of the gas station again and vectored us toward it. He then glanced to Robert sitting beside him.
“We apparently have a deer at a gas station,” Officer Barnes then managed to quip, “hopefully it’s paid for everything.”
We arrived to find that the place had attracted a lot of attention. People had come and parked if only to see a mundane deer in the gas station.
“Okay now… clear out, give us some room,” Officer Barnes urged the crowd as we parked close to the door that the deer had earlier gone through.
They backed off a little, but a little boy came up to me as I got out.
“You aren’t going to eat it, are you?” he asked, clearly wanting the deer to go free.
“No,” I answered nervously, “it’ll be okay.”
The boy then backed off to a parent. At that time, the gas station manager came out.
“Where is the animal control guys?” he wondered, “I got a deer in there. Not a robber.”
“They apparently sent us, sir,” Officer Barnes answered, “where is it?”
“Still in the back of the customer area,” the manager answered, “it’s thoroughly wrecked the place. Stuff is knocked over and all over the floor… it’ll take me all day to get things looking remotely right.”
“Can you chase it out?” I wondered.
“Every time I’ve tried it either reared back and swung its forelegs at me, or stopped short of triggering the automatic doors,” the manager grumbled.
“Maybe if the doors were already open…” Officer Barnes mused, “do you have something like a spare cinder block or something?”
“I think so, why do you ask?” the manager then asked.
“Because we can send Officer Wayne in to flush the deer out,” Officer Barnes answered, “we can place the cinderblock on the weight sensor on the outside and hold the doors open. The deer will recognize Officer Wayne as a predator and flee out the door and should go around and back into the hills behind your gas station.”
“You think it’ll work?” the manager asked.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” I commented, “the only other answer would be to tranquilize it and carry it out.”
Robert kept filming as the manager went around a corner and came back with a cinderblock that he had had around the back of the station for some reason. It was then placed in the center of the pad in front of the door. The weight of the block held it open. It was then my turn.
“Try to maintain some presence out here,” I suggested to Officer Barnes, “we don’t want it to bolt straight out and into traffic.”
Officer Barnes nodded as I made my way in. The deer’s scent was strong as I entered the gas station’s customer area, and something about its scent screamed in the back of my mind that the deer was afraid. Not that that would make the manager any happier. The deer had made a mess of things as I made my way in.
I accidentally stepped on a bag of Doritos, which made a “pop” as my weight broke the air tight seals. It also crushed all the chips in the bag. It didn’t really hurt my feet, but it did startle the deer, which had apparently laid down behind one of the shelves that it had knocked over in its earlier attempts to flee.
“Okay now, Bambi, back to the forest with you,” I said to the deer, even though the deer there was a doe, not a buck as the Disney deer was.
The deer stood there shaking for a few moments as I tried to make my way around toppled counters and avoid crushing too much of the manager’s merchandise. As I finally got closer, it finally bolted. Graceful would have been the last word used to describe the deer’s flight. There were so many things on the floor that the deer wasn’t fully able to get traction on the floor’s surface with its hooves and it slipped and slid into multiple fallen isle racks before finally getting into a clear spot.
Wanting to get the deer to leave the station, I made a standing jump toward where the deer was. I managed to make the jump, though I had to land on all fours to do so, but the move had the desired result. The doe ran out the open door, hurdled the cinderblock and then veered out and around the gas station and bounded out into the hills behind it, it’s tail raised in alarm.
I came out slowly and glanced to Robert who was still filming.
“You never know what you’ll have to do out on the “frontier”,” I said with a chuckle.