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Lori felt her voice rising and reeled herself back in. How ironic, she thought. After a lifetime of owning a bad temper, Duane had become the calm person, and she felt herself turning into a Fury.

“Lori,” Frank finally said, “I thought I made myself clear the other night.”

“Actually, Frank, you didn’t. What you said was that you couldn’t say anything. And that was couched in terms of your ‘mission’ and who you are. Well, I know who you are so we can go on from there. Maybe you can’t really talk about your mission, although I don’t believe that. What I really would like to know, what doesn’t make sense to me is, what are the damn rules? There have to be some rules. You can’t just waltz in, touch our lives like you have, and then waltz right back out the door. That’s not right, and I won’t stand for it.”

“Lori—”

“I’m not finished. What I’m really mad about is Elaine. She loves you. Jeez, we all love you, but she is in love with you. What are the rules about that? How can you let that happen and just boogie on down the road?”

“Lori, there aren’t any rules about that. It has never happened to me.”

“There’s no rule because there is no precedent? What kind of bullshit is that? There has to be a guideline or something.”

“There is. It is not supposed to happen.”

“Well, it has happened. What are you going to do about it?”

“I am going to leave as soon as the new crew arrives.”

“Damn it all, Frank,” Lori screamed, “that’s just what I’m talking about. You can’t do that. Don’t you have any feelings? Don’t you care anything about Elaine?”

Frank was silent for a long time. Lori gave him some time, which was only
reasonable, even though Frank was not being reasonable in her estimation. Finally she demanded, “Well?”

“I love her.”

“Big deal. I bet you love everybody. You probably even love me even though I’m being horrible to you right now. But you deserve it.”

“Enough, Lori.” Frank said sharply. “I’m in love with her. Okay?”

It was the first bit of temperament Frank had ever shown in her presence. Lori was much encouraged because it meant that maybe, just possibly, she was getting through to him.

“So you’re just going to run away and forget about her and you think she’ll forget all about you. Is that it?”

Frank fell silent again. He really didn’t have an answer that was either acceptable or defensible.

“Frank, here is what I think,” Lori went on. “The fact that this has happened, and has never happened before, so you say, has to be some sort of sign. I mean, isn’t that a reasonable conclusion? If it were me, just a little ol’ normal human being here, I would take it as a sign that the rules need to be changed, or better, maybe even have changed.”

“You don’t know what you are saying.”

“I do too know what I’m saying. I might not know what I’m talking about, but that’s different. Haven’t you even bothered to ask?”

Frank had not “asked,” of course. The thought had not even occurred to him, be it because the very concept was so preposterous as to beggar belief, or be it because centuries of selfless service had rendered him incapable of entertaining a selfish request.

Lori correctly took his silence as a “no”. She stood up and stretched her legs. “Well, I don’t know what rules you are bound by, but I do know that they don’t apply to me. So I am going to ‘ask’. Before I go to bed tonight, I am going to get down on my knees and ‘ask’ just like I did when I was a little girl. You probably can’t even remember when you were a little boy, but if you have anything left of the brains God gave you, you’d do the same. Now I’m going home and tell Duane what a fool Frank Daceasy is.”

Frank stood up, took Lori in his arms and embraced her. “Thank you for caring about me, Lori,” he said simply.

Lori’s anger at the unrighteousness of the situation, her frustration at Frank’s seeming passivity or unwillingness to be proactive about his own life, her heartfelt empathy for Elaine, and a strong love for her fellow man, all finally merged in a flood of very human tears. She held him tightly, then wiped her cheeks on his shirt shoulder and pushed him away. She said, “See you in the morning, dummy.”

After she left, Frank sat down on the log and poked at the remains of his meal. The intensity of his confrontation with Lori prevented him from noticing that one of the barred owl pair living in the nearby woods had stopped by and had witnessed the last part of the exchange with no small interest.

“May you be full and safe,” the owl called out. “The female seemed ruffled. Was she molting?”

“Go away,” Frank clarified.

The owl gave that short coughing hoot, spread its wings, and flapped silently into the night in search of other sport.