Chapter Four
Diesel Grey entered the Supernova Supermarket on a mission to officially invite his eldest cousin, Beryl, to next week’s quarterly elder council meeting at the Big Bang Truck Stop’s underground facility.
When she arrived on Earth, he’d mentioned she’d eventually have to attend as the representative of her branch of the family, but he was certain she’d been overwhelmed with many other responsibilities since then. That happened when one moved two galaxies away from Alpha-Prime to start a new life.
But his first words had to do with the godawful sound the store’s ice machine was making.
Beryl said, “Hello to you, too, Diesel.” She then added, “As for my ice machine, well, it’s a work in progress. In fact, Jake here is going to help make a bracket to get rid of the banging noise. I need to call someone else to handle the grinding motor noises. Never a dull moment.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m sure you have it well in hand.”
“I don’t know about that, but I’m doing my best.”
“No doubt.” He smiled and tried to look reassuring. “Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about something.”
“Sure.” To Jake Jones, she said, “Call me when the bracket is ready and I’ll come and pick it up.”
“Excellent.” Jake nodded his farewell to the group and headed in the direction of the grocery carts, snagging one, dropping his toolbox in the basket and pushing it down the nearest aisle.
Diesel glanced at Deputy Sam Brody and wondered what the man was doing here.
When the Old Coot deputy made no move to leave, Diesel asked, “How are you settling in, Deputy Brody?”
Brody looked startled by the question. If Diesel had to guess, the man had been too busy staring at his cousin to pay attention to anything or anyone else.
“I’m settling in well. Thank you for asking.” To Beryl, he said, “I guess I better get going.” She appeared impervious to the moon-eyed gaze he sent her before making his way out through the supermarket’s sliding glass doors.
“Did you know Deputy Brody before moving here?” Diesel asked.
“Nope.” Beryl looked relieved that the deputy was gone.
“I see.”
“Do you?” Beryl flashed him a smirky smile.
“Yes. Do I need to intervene?”
“Nope. I’m fine. You don’t have to fight my battles for me, Diesel. But I appreciate that you always offer.”
Diesel shrugged. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
Beryl shook her head. “I won’t. But I still appreciate your willingness to stick up for me.”
“You are a member of my family, Beryl. That’s what family does—we all stick up for each other.
You’ve certainly done it for me.” Beryl and her brother, Mica, had done Diesel a huge favor during Alpha-Prime’s last Seven-Year Inspection when he’d been briefly incapacitated and Diesel would never forget it.
Beryl gave his arm a squeeze. “Okay. I’ll let you know if I can’t handle Deputy Brody. But I’m pretty sure he gets the picture now.”
“Good.”
Diesel was about to tell her why he was in the Supernova Supermarket when she asked, “What do you know about Jake Jones?”
Beryl looked ready to hang on every word he said.
“Not too much. He’s been in Alienn for about six months as the new owner of Dark Matter Metal & Leather. I haven’t been in his store, but I hear good things about it from others who have.”
“What about his recent hospital stay? What do you know about that?” Her serious, focused expression hadn’t dimmed.
“Well, I visited him in the hospital after he woke up because Cam was on leave with Ria and the baby.” He’d never seen his security-minded brother so proud of anything than when his first child had been born.
Cam’s baby would never spend a day in jeopardy if Cam had anything to do with it. And he did.
Beryl nodded. “Do you know what happened to him?”
Diesel shrugged. “No idea. Jake can’t remember what happened. Until he does, I’m afraid it’s a mystery. Did you know him before his accident?”
She shook her head. “No. I only met him today.” Jake pushed his grocery cart out of one aisle and turned down the next one.
Beryl’s eyes followed his every move as he shopped.
Diesel thought her perusal reminded him of when he’d fallen in love with his wife, Juliana.
He’d been unable to keep his eyes off her.
Good for Beryl. She deserved to find love again.
Diesel was glad she’d found someone she liked. He well knew she’d been through the wringer in the romance department. Diesel and several members of his branch of the family had been at her wedding on Alpha-Prime.
Well, the wedding that almost was, anyway.
He couldn’t imagine being left at the altar like she had been. It had been cruel.
Diesel could still see Beryl’s confused and forlorn expression when her groom-to-be watched her almost make it to the end of the aisle on her father’s arm before he shouted, “I can’t do this!” and ran out the side door of the church.
The last Diesel had heard, Beryl’s former groom-to-be married some rich Technician’s daughter less than a month later.
As with many couples on Alpha-Prime, Beryl and Henry Carrera’s match had been arranged when they were small children. Family gossip had it that Beryl and Henry had been good friends. They planned on making their arranged marriage work…until Henry changed his mind at the eleventh hour.
Diesel mentally shook his head. Not well done of the man, to his way of thinking. If he’d wanted out or had doubts, he should have said so long before they’d been in the middle of the ceremony with hundreds of spectators looking on.
In the aftermath of that debacle, gossip surged through the family grapevine as to the real reason Henry skipped out. The overall consensus was that the scandal involving Beryl’s uncle, Alrick Ashcraft, the year before her wedding contributed mightily to Henry’s hasty departure.
Diesel thought Henry should have been thrashed for his cowardly actions, but it wasn’t considered protocol in upper-crust Alpha-Prime to punish the groom.
Beryl had suffered the brunt of the fallout.
It was completely unfair, to Diesel’s way of thinking, and one of the many reasons he was glad he lived on Earth.
He suspected the aftermath of Beryl’s failed wedding was the driving force behind his Ashcraft cousins’ decision to move to Earth.
Beryl turned her attention back to Diesel as soon as Jake was out of view. “What are you here for again?”
“Oh. Yes. I wanted to invite you to the—” he stopped talking the instant he realized he was about to disclose semi-alien business in public. “Could we go to your office?”
“Sure.”
Diesel followed Beryl to her office at the back of the store, where she closed the door behind them and he settled into a seat in front of her neatly appointed desk.
“I wanted to invite you to the belowstairs quarterly elders council meeting next week. I would have reminded you of the invitation sooner, but I forgot. It used to be a monthly meeting but now it’s quarterly. Sometimes the date sneaks up on me.”
“While I appreciate the invitation, why me?” Beryl asked, gaze narrowed in suspicion. He didn’t blame her. He had no love of meetings himself.
Diesel cleared his throat. “Well, as part-owner of both the Bauxite mine and the Supernova Supermarket, and the eldest in your family, you are the logical choice to be the Ashcraft representative at the meeting.”
One eyebrow rose, as if she didn’t know why being born first meant she had to be the sacrificial lamb, or rather, family representative. He understood that, too.
Giving in to the inevitable, she nodded. “Okay. What day?”
Diesel told her and she wrote it down on a calendar on her desk. “Got it. Do I need to bring anything?”
“No. Just yourself. I’ll introduce you. The meeting is generally where anyone on the council with an issue or discussion point regarding alien business will speak. We’ll chat about it and that’s it. It’s not too painful. Usually, it lasts only about an hour or so.”
“Okay. Good. I’ll be there.” She put her pen down and got to her feet. When he remained seated, she cautiously asked, “Is that it?”
Diesel shrugged. He’d love to know how she was really doing. “I guess so.”
She sat back down in her chair. “Do you want to think about it for a minute?”
He smiled. “If you need any help—with anything—I hope you’ll let me know. Or any of us cousins. You know we’d be there with bells on to help, right?”
She grinned. “I know. Each and every one of you and your spouses have said that to all of us cousins. We appreciate how welcoming you’ve been to us.”
“We mean it. We want you and your siblings to be happy and to thrive here on Earth.”
“And I deeply appreciate it. All of us Ashcraft siblings do.”
Diesel nodded and slowly stood up. He’d taken up enough of her time. She had a crazy ice machine that sounded like it was about to blow a gasket. He needed to get out of her hair.
“Thanks for meeting with me and good luck with your ice machine.”
“Right. That reminds me, I need to make another phone call. My repair guy. Fair warning—you might be the lucky winner of several bags of ice at the Big Bang Truck Stop later on during the repairs.” She pushed out a long sigh, but a smile appeared on her face and she started to stand.
“Don’t get up on my account,” Diesel said, putting a hand on the door handle. “I can see myself out of the store. You get back to work. And I’ll happily accept your bags of ice on behalf of the upstairs truck stop, but we’ll give them back when your ice machine is fixed.”
“Thanks, Diesel. See you soon.”
He left her office, closing the door behind him as she picked up the phone on her desk.
Diesel headed out of the store via the aisle with coffee, tea and other assorted breakfast items just as Jake Jones turned the corner with his partly filled grocery cart.
He paused to chat with the man, who apparently hadn’t recovered his memories. “Jake, how are you doing? Getting back into the swing of your unremembered life?”
Jake’s smile was rueful. “Yes. And I’m doing well.
I don’t remember a thing, but at least now I have two weeks of memories.
” He shrugged, but the smile never left his face.
Everything Diesel had learned about Jake Jones said he was a laidback, quiet man who led a simple life, working on his metal and leather projects.
Even with no memories, that was how he came across.
While Jake seemed happy, Diesel would be out of his mind not knowing a single thing about his past beyond a couple of weeks. He didn’t know if Jake was doing anything to restore his memories and decided it wasn’t his business. He wouldn’t inquire further.
“Glad to hear it, Jake. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please let me know.” It was the same thing he’d told Jake when he’d visited him at the hospital, and he truly meant it.
“Thanks, Diesel. I will.”
Diesel continued on his way, returning the cashier’s wave as he walked past her.
He hoped the meeting he’d just invited Beryl to would be as quiet and boring as it usually was.
One of the elders was radically opposed to change and adding a new member to the council might set him off.
Mr. Gris always seemed to be one of the biggest contenders to be the destroyer of Diesel’s very last nerve.
Diesel made a mental note to warn the elder before the meeting so perhaps he’d be more inviting to Beryl on her first visit to the quarterly elder council meeting.
Diesel pushed out a sigh. It was unlikely the elder would be moved to be civil instead of grumpy, but he lived in hope.