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"Laura says they'll be ready to close in the next day or two." Jessica said. They had just finished breakfast and she was checking her email while Alex looked at the website logs. "Sounds good. Today's what... Tuesday. Maybe we can get in before the weekend." "I'll tell her any day is good then. Let me see what Harry has for us." Alex downloaded the logs and ran them through a filter, began researching the IP addresses of some that looked interesting. When they finished they went out on the back deck and Alex lit a cigar and stood by the rail smoking, Jessica sitting in a chair watching the birds and an occasional squirrel or two. "I shouldn't be smoking cigars and you with nothing to to," Alex said. "but I don't suppose you'd want to take it up." "You want me to?" she asked with a smile. "Nah, somehow wouldn't seem right. At least you can have a drink with me at night." "That's enough. We don't have anything on for today, unless Harry has something. What do you want to do?" "Go see Scott and Michelle, if they're not busy. Better yet, give Jennifer a call, see if she wants to get together. She's in this, like it or not. See what she's up to." "I do need to call her," Jessica said. "I worry about her. She seems not to have many connections here. I'll call her and see what's up."
"OK, Harry has some things to discuss," Jessica said. She had spoken briefly with both Harry and Michelle. "Harry says if the closing is this week we'll work around it. He wants all of us to get together - Jennifer, Elizabeth, and us - and discuss some things. Jen is open to having lunch or dinner one day, she's flexible within twenty-four hours. Michelle said come on up, and bring some of your favorite guns." "Sounds good," Alex said. "See if she can do something tomorrow. "OK, let me give her a call." Alex continued looking through the logs while Jessica called. "Tomorrow night's good," Jessica said after speaking with Jennifer. "She's OK with wherever we want to go." "Cool. Might as well do the 501. Maybe we should be members. I'm guessing Harry is." "I'd guess he is," Jessica replied. "He seems to be tight with them." "Well, let's pick out some guns."
Scott and Michelle were preparing lunch when they arrived, and Jessica joined Michelle in finishing while Scott and Alex took a smoke break. Afterwards they repaired to the range for some shooting. "What'd you bring?" Scott asked as Alex and set their bags on the table. "Some stuff I found interesting," Alex replied. "I'm beginning to remember a some of these. This one, for example." Alex pulled a pair of revolvers and laid them on the table. "The Bulldogs," Scott said. "Yeah man, you liked that undercover for carry better than the .38." "I brought one of my .40 carbines." Alex said. "I seem to have a pretty good supply of ammo for it." "Yeah, that's one of our favorites, all of the Mantis regulars have them. Have you looked at your loading setup yet?" "Looked at it is about all," Alex said. "I haven't done anything with it." "Give me a holler if you need any help." "What's Mantis?" asked Alex. "Part of our prepper group. We need to get you back in there - I kept them updated on your situation." "Mantis sounds interesting." "Some interesting guys," Scott said. "Some former military, pretty hardcase. We work with some other groups around the country, preparing for things... things outside just prepping." Sounds interesting all right. "I see." "We've missed you. If you feel up to it, we still have weekly meetings just for Mantis. It'd probably help you get back in your old groove." "I'm pretty flexible these days," Alex said, "now I'm retired. Let me know when the next one is." "They're usually on Thursday. Next week sound good?" "That'll work. Unless we're closing the sale that day. But it should be this week." They spent the next two hours or so shooting. Michelle and Jessica enjoyed shooting Alex's carbine and an old M1 carbine Scott had brought. "Gilbert had one of these," Alex remarked. "I noticed I have a couple in my collection." "Yeah," Scott said, "I've got a couple too. Back in the '80s we were buying these for a couple hundred each. Now you do good to get one under a thousand. Quite a few of us old-timers have them." Alex was pleased with his performance. With the .44s he required only a few shots to put all five in the ten ring with the one with the longer barrel. With the snub he had to concentrate to get them all in. That's at 20 yards though. Not bad. After policing the brass and packing their gear they went to the house. Scott showed Alex around his workshop and Alex spent some time with the reloading equipment. Scott loaded up one of the machines and talked him through loading a hundred rounds of .40 caliber. "Looks like you've still got it," he said. "Just need some practice." Yeah. Things look good. Wonder if Brenda's Indian medicine is going to help. Be nice if I could have it all back. I think. |
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