29. Johree
JOHREE
The paparazzi were relentless. Those who made it through tried every trick in the book to get footage of Jesse and me, either for background to whatever they were sending to their viewers or by shouting questions, mostly at him.
Those who remained in orbit deluged the spaceport’s official comm channels to the point where Bob and Kaelor had to place them on an “ignore” list unless the call came from the personal comm of the commercial vessel they’d arrived on.
If it was a private one, they were completely out of luck.
Jesse was moving much more easily after his soak and application of the salve, but I had managed to convince him that we should remain at home. By sundown, the paparazzi had all but disappeared, returning to their vessels, no doubt to eat, sleep, and plan tomorrow’s mayhem.
Because of this, after our own late evening meal, followed by watching the latest vid release in a superhero franchise he followed involving a wealthy man who liked to dress up like a bat and right wrongs the local police were too inept to handle, we went outside to sit on the porch swing bots had replicated to hold Dragonii of my size and weight.
The light of the twin moons shone down undeterred by cloud cover, and the lack of light pollution gave us a fantastic view of not only the colony but also a dizzying array of stars.
“There, that one moves,” Jesse said, pointing.
“That’s the communications node,” Fethri replied from one of the two Dragonii-sized rocking chairs.
“Really? Cool. So that’s how we get all our comm calls and vids and alien internet and stuff.”
“Correct,” I said softly, using one foot to gently set the swing swaying again.
Jesse laid his head on my shoulder, and I nuzzled his hair gently, giving the hand I held in mine a gentle squeeze of affection.
“I wish it could always be like this,” he murmured.
“Just us, getting to enjoy each other’s company when it’s personal time.
No interruptions when we’re just wanting to go have a lookie-loo at a building site unofficially to watch the construction bots do their thing, or to be able to go to the market to trade for some of the fresh veggies and eggs ourselves if the fancy struck us.
Hell, even to get to go to the saloon now it’s all gussied up and running a tight ship, so we could enjoy a beer with our friends. ”
“We’ll be able to do that soon,” I promised him.
“The excitement will die down when someone new catches the press’s attention.
Pata and Father both promised that, from here on out, the only public announcements about our personal lives will be the ones you make on your streaming channel, unless it is to announce the arrival of a child. ”
“A child,” he repeated, sitting up straight. “Do you want to be a dad?”
“If that is what you also want, then yes. If not, then I am content with you and Buster.”
He gave me an irritated look.
“Oh, no. You are not putting this entirely on me. Answer me properly. Have you dreamed of being a father someday?”
I nodded silently.
“Thank you. I’m not against it. It’s just I never gave it much thought.
I never saw myself meeting someone who’d move out to rural Oklahoma and help me run the ranch, and I didn’t want to raise a kid alone.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I kinda thought I’d be the uncle who showed my sister’s kids how to ride, feed a rejected calf, and all that stuff and that someday, they’d be the ones to inherit the ranch from me. ”
He gave a sardonic laugh.
“Now they will anyway, once she gets around to popping out any babies, but it won’t be me teachin’ ’em a damn thing.”
He let out an angry huff.
“I wonder what they all thought about the whole royal wedding thing?”
Fethri and Kiprr exchanged uneasy glances.
“What?” Jesse demanded, noticing the looks. “You’ve seen or heard something, haven’t you?”
“Xeranos and Bob keep tabs on news and social media that have to do with you in case of potential threats and such things. There’s a clip where a reporter tracked down your father and his new wife and ambushed them at a rest stop in Arizona.”
“What?!”
I winced at the high pitch of his shout.
“Show me!”
Kiprr wordlessly picked up the tablet on the small table between the two rocking chairs, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it over.
Jesse stared down at it for a moment, licking his lips as he hesitated.
“You don’t have to see it unless you wish to,” I reminded him gently.
“No, I want to!”
He jabbed his finger hard against the screen to get the vid to play.
“Today we have an interesting bit of footage sent by the reporter on scene after their employer declined to air it, allegedly citing that it was gossip fodder and not actual news, upon which they emailed me immediately here at Team Jesse and Johree,” a woman’s voice said over a still image of a rest-stop building. She then began to play the shared clip.
“Why was your son Jesse living in a long-stay motel, having to clean offices at night instead of working back on the ranch?” a reporter from a national news channel shouted at them as they emerged from the covered area where the restrooms and vending machines were.
They each held a can of pop and several snacks.
Dad and Susie had the deer-in-the-headlights look.
“He didn’t have to!” Dad shouted at them.
“There was a miscommunication,” Susie said. “Something I said was repeated completely wrong to his father, and Jesse took it hard and left before his dad could get it straightened out.”
“And I couldn’t because I couldn’t find where he’d gone! Our own wedding day came, and I missed having my son stand there with me, which cut deep. We didn’t leave on our own honeymoon until we saw the news that he’d gotten himself mate-matched and had left Earth.”
They managed to gain enough ground to reach their RV’s passenger-side door.
“When you found out, why didn’t you reach out so you could fix things? Were you angry that he married an alien? A male alien, at that, even if he is a prince?”
My father looked stricken then.
“I might not have been a rainbow-flag-waving supporter, but no, I could never be angry about him finding his soul mate, ’cause that’s what the Mylos do by all accounts. If your soul mate is in the database, they find ’em for you.”
“Him getting mate-matched made us re-evaluate a lot of things we’d thought about the Mylos and Dragonii, as well as LGBT matters,” Susie said, taking Dad’s can of Dr Pepper from him so he could open her door for her.
She got in as quickly as she could and, after setting down the things in her hands, closed the door while Dad made a break for the driver’s side. They followed him.
“What does that mean?” the reporter pressed.
“It means we both reckon it’s not a case of love the sinner and hate the sin, as God doesn’t make mistakes!” Dad replied angrily, reaching his door and slamming it closed.
The cameraman turned to show the driveway behind the RV. A Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office patrol car pulled in behind them, having come in through the exit, and a deputy got out.
“We’ve had a report of a couple here being harassed,” he said.
“I can see you are members of the press and so free to ask questions and do your reporting and all that, but your van is not only blocking access to the rest stop, but the way you’re parked is preventing these folks from leaving, and that is illegal. ”
The reporter glared at him but made a cutting motion to the cameraman, and the video ended.
“And there you have it, raw footage taken at a rest stop a few miles from Phoenix, Arizona,” the vid streamer’s voice-over said.
“Jesse, if you ever see this, whatever happened, it looks like it wasn’t what you thought it was, and your dad and his wife would love to reconnect.
And that’s all for this week’s vid. Next week, I have a reaction vid to share, as I and several members of the public are caught on camera watching the wedding of the millennium.
Until next week, sending out vibes of love and support. ”
The vid ended.
“We have a fan channel?” Jesse said, looking astounded.
“Several,” Fethri sighed. “You both have so many fans on Earth that several leading porcelain manufacturers and textile makers have deluged the Office of Trade with contract requests to manufacture wedding memorabilia.”
“That’s insane.”
“It’s not just Earth, either,” Kiprr said.
Jesse handed him the tablet, then swiped a hand down his face.
“If we let some of them make that shit, do you think it would make things better or worse?”
“It could ease up on the pressure as fans get their fix without more news coverage.”
“Okay, but any money earned has to go toward the colony’s needs,” Jesse said, then, glancing up at me, added, “if that’s okay with you.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “Bob?”
“Yes, Johree?”
“Please ask the Office of Trade to forward the best candidates for wedding memorabilia contracts. We want not only high-end items but also those that can be mass-produced at a price nearly anyone could afford, without sacrificing quality.”
“Will do! And… message sent.”
“What about your father?” Fethri asked.
“I need to think on that. Susie said something that got me to thinking. She said Dad was told she said something. Not that she’d told Dad, but someone else had.”
He glowered.
“Something tells me that little birdie was Lauren, though Dad is at fault for not checking and for bein’ willing to go along with it.”
I kissed his temple, placing a finger under his chin to turn his head toward me.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. If you want to leave them all to stew in their own mess, then that’s perfectly fine. If you want to see if you can forge a new relationship or repair the broken one, I’ll be by your side to navigate that path too.”
“We all will,” Kiprr promised.
“You better believe it. We’re not just your guards. We’ve been friends with Johree since we were toddlers, so you’re family, just like he is.”
“Thanks. I dunno what I want yet, except to get my horses here and go film some footage of Gryk’s wheat field being harvested.
He sent me an invitation to do so and is planning on doing it tomorrow.
Y’all have machines different from our combines back on Earth, so I reckon a lot of my viewers will be real interested in that.
The ones who follow it for the colony content, anyway. ”
Kiprr grinned.
“A new delegation has arrived to meet with Bob and do their little ceremony. The outer spaceport wall has been outfitted as you suggested for the Bob-ening matters, so it will occur quite publicly.”
“Drawing the paparazzi!” Jesse laughed.
“If we ride out in an enclosed flitter across the fields while they’re distracted, you should be able to get your footage without being mobbed,” Fethri mused.
I nodded.
That sounded like a good plan.
“Okay, let’s do it. I’ll comm Gryk tomorrow and let him know we’re on.”