Episode 121. Part 6
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Our business here is pretty much done as well. Nika boards our shuttle to fly back to the ranch. She’ll need to be there in case Nala and Kevin need her. Our shuttle has an incoming wave waiting for us. It’s Nala. She says that Kevin is en route to Vanderburg for treatment. Apparently the medicine he needs is there. All she needs now is to figure out a way to pay for it all.
Rina: They’re going to bill her? (A disgusted sigh) Oh, well, there was nothing in his word that she’d get it for free.
Nika fires up the shuttles engines and we fly back with her. When we’re at cruising altitude, Arden clears his throat.
Arden: So…Cargo.
Christian: No. (to Nika) How much time do you want to spend here? We could possibly get a short run, make it, come back. For you. Give you some time with your family.
Rina: If it’s a straight line, I’m sure I could fly it.
Nika: I’m willing to run things in-system, but that’s about it for the moment.
Christian: Okay. That’s fine.
Rina: (quietly) Why don’t we chase down the cargo and let her have time with her sister and her nephew?
And about her family….Arden clears his throat and tells Nika everything we found out about the pills and that Kevin had somehow ingested some of the pills. She takes it all in and flies on. It’s a quiet ride the rest of the way to the hospital.
When we arrive Arden checks in with the staff there and sees what he can do for Kevin at his end. Nika stays behind while Christian and Rina fly off in the shuttle to the ranch, thence to chase down the aforementioned cargo. Nika goes to Nala to explain how everything shook out as to Kevin’s care. She finds the waiting room graced by two more of the Johannsen clan—Ma Johannsen and Will Johannsen, brother of Lawrence. Beyond the waiting room, Nika finds Nala standing at the glass wall of Kevin’s room. Hugs are exchanged in greeting and Nala wants to know how Nika managed to get the proper care for Kevin.
Nala: How did you get the drugs? What did you do? How did you do that? I haven’t been able to get to a lawyer yet, I haven’t—
Nika: Don’t worry about it. We’re fine, we’re fine. It wasn’t as big a problem as I expected.
That’s an understatement, considering a few hours ago, Nika wasn’t sure she’d be alive to see her sister again.
Nala: (quietly) I don’t know what I could’ve done to get you in trouble. I—
Nika: You didn’t. It had nothing to do with you. It didn’t. It was Arden’s brother. He was using a little bit of his professional influence to get to his brother because they don’t speak. Have you told JJ and Tracy about Kevin’s treatments?
Nala: Yes, that this drug is supposed to help him…
Nika: Did you sell the whole herd?
Nala: We haven’t yet, we’re still working on the deals. And it’s not the whole herd, just most of it.
Nika: So what is going on with you and …(gestures back to the waiting room) …out there?
Nala: What do you mean?
Nika: (flustered) Lawrence and Mama Johannsen and…and Greg, no—who?—one of the other boys, you know, him. That one.
Nala: (puzzled)You mean William? What about him?
Nika: What is going on with you and Larry?
Nala: I don’t want anything to do with them, but if they’re … I guess….you know, they’re Kevin’s family, too, so I can’t shut them out entirely.
Nika: Well, they’ve never done anything to you. God, we were friends our whole life. (A beat) Nala…that drug that Kevin got into, the thing that caused all of this? It’s been a little chaotic here and we’ve been trying to get this information to you…Kevin found a pill bottle. Under the floor.
Nala: Pill bottle?
Nika: It was Trey’s. He’s on an anti-psychotic for PTSD after the war, that apparently he didn’t want to take. Not that I’m saying it in any way mitigates what happened between the three of us, but certainly it has nothing to do with Mama Johannsen and the brothers.
Nala stands silent, looking through the glass at her son. Then:
Nala: (turning) Well, they’re here….maybe they’re….
Nika: Maybe if Trey had kept taking his medication, he might have been the guy we grew up with.
Nala: (changes gears) All of this was because of the war? You went to the war. Lots of people went to the war. Not everybody—
Nika: No, not everybody did. But apparently he was…the way I understand what was explained to me was that he apparently took part in some kind of experimental soldier program, where they gave them… amped-up steroids or something.
Nala: He never said that, but he told me that they were using some special soldier, he always bragged about being…
Nika: Yeah. Well, basically it was an amped-up steroid of some kind, from what I gather, and it’s caused rage problems and, you know, basically psychotic breaks.
Nala: So what happened to him may have been caused by some kind of drug the military gave him?
Nika: You’ll have to ask Arden about that, because you know me—I’m not the medical person. But yeah, that’s basically what I understand. And apparently the treatment Kevin is getting even now is something that soldiers who were involved in that program are having to take, and it’s classified, which is why you couldn’t get it.
Nala: A person….a drug can’t change you like that.
Nika: Oh, yes it can.
Mike Carter, for one.
Nala: Then you know—?
Nika: Let’s just say I’ve seen some things these past couple of years. (A beat) Trey was a bully, but the thing that always threw me about it was he would never have laid hands on you. He’s loved you since we were, like, two. The fact that he ever laid hands on you, especially when you were pregnant, shocked the hell out of me. It sure explains an awful lot of things. Maybe it explains some of the crap he threw at me in that last week after daddy died.
Nala: Since the last….
Nika: It doesn’t excuse anything, Nala.
Nala: I gotta…gotta go see…
Nala looks away and steps aside, holding in her upset.
Nika: I don’t know what’s going on between you and Larry Johannsen, but—and it’s not my business—if you don’t want to tell me, don’t tell me. But don’t keep Kevin away from them. I don’t think he deserves that.
Nala: Well…(very quietly) they can see him.
Nika: Look, I’m gonna stop and tell them, too. See if they have a better idea of what happened. It might help them.
Nala: Okay.
Nala moves away and stands alone, pulling herself together. Nika sighs and leaves her sister, and goes back into the waiting room to tell the Johannsens what has happened.
Meanwhile, Arden’s going over the records, double-checking Kevin’s treatment: it looks as if the medicines just appeared out of nowhere and at the present, the Johannsens are paying for the treatment. He makes note of it and reads on.
The Johannsens stand as Nika enters the waiting room and Mama Johannsen leans heavily on her cane. Mama’s voice is reedy with age, but her eyes and her mind are still sharp.
Mama: Nika, dear?
Nika: (softly) Mrs. Johannsen.
Mama: It’s been a long time.
Nika: Yes, Ma’am.
Mama: You should visit your sister more often. I mean, you’re never here.
Nika: Yes, Ma’am, I should.
And so begins the crow-eating. Nika swallows her pride and takes a big damn bite, and shows the Johannsen matriarch proper respect. She wishes the woman no ill and does what she can to mend the fences between her family and theirs.
Nika: A little hard to do, given all that’s happened.
Mama: (relenting) Well….what’s done is done.
Nika: I don’t know if Nala or my friend Arden had a chance to tell you, but they learned what the problem was.
Mama: What do you mean?
Nika: It wasn’t a heavy metal. It wasn’t anything in the water. It was a drug. Kevin found a pill bottle of Trey’s and took the medication.
Mama: What sort of drug?
Oh, God, how to say it? Nika looks Mama Johannsen in the eye and takes a deep breath, and tells her the truth
Nika: An anti-psychotic. That apparently he wasn’t taking.
The prescription was for fifty pills. We found thirty-eight. God knows how many Kevin ate, or how many Trey had taken before hiding the meds under the floorboards.
Nika: At best guess, Mrs. Johannsen, maybe he didn’t like the side effects of the pills, maybe he thought he could handle it. I don’t know.
Mama: But he kept the pills.
Nika: They were under a floorboard in the house.
Mama: So what makes you think he wasn’t taking them?
Nika: Because they were under a floorboard in the house, and it was a floorboard that only Kevin’s fingers were able to get to. There’s only about 38 pills in the bottle.
Mama: But you were able to get to them.
Nika: No, Kevin got to them. My friends searched the house high and low and they found the floorboard.
Mama: And somehow they were able to get it open.
Nika: It was loose. It was loose enough for Kevin to get to them.
Mama: But why do you assume that Trey couldn’t have been gettin’ to them? He was a proud boy. Maybe he didn’t want Nala to know he was taking them.
Nika: I suppose that’s possible, Ma’am. But considering what the medication was supposed to do and what it’s supposed to treat, my friend’s best guess is he wasn’t taking them. Because it was supposed to treat the kind of rage that Trey was showing to my sister.
Arden had quietly slipped into the room during this exchange and now stands off to the side, ready to back Nika up. Mama Johannsen looks at him and asks him directly:
Mama: Is this treatment 100% effective in this?
Arden: It depends on the doctor and the medication involved and the person. I don’t know Trey, so I do not know if it was 100% effective. Generally? All the time? No, it’s not 100% effective.
Nika: But I know that Trey, before the war, would never have laid hands on Nala.
Arden: The pill bottle was open and the pills were spilled into the bottom of the hole we found them in, which doesn’t sound like they were being taken care of.
Nika: It’s entirely possible he was taking them and they weren’t working for him. I don’t know, Ma’am. But I’m… just letting you know that whatever it was, maybe it really wasn’t what Trey was thinking.
Mama: Maybe Trey was trying to take care of this and just not…succeeding.
Arden: People that are prescribed this medication are usually suffering a side effect from the war, post-traumatic stress disorder.
Not entirely true. But for Mama’s sake, Arden’s shaving the truth. Nika steps in and clarifies.
Nika: It was a drug prescribed for someone in his condition. He was apparently exposed to something during the war that caused this emotional problem, and so this drug was given as an anti-psychotic to the people who were exposed to it.
Mama: What was he exposed to?
Nika: I don’t know. I know that it’s classified enough that it took some doing to get medication for Kevin.
Arden: It’s a classified treatment by the Alliance military.
Mama: So he was given some sort of…?
Arden: Super soldier drug.
Standing next to Mama Johannsen, Lawrence Johannsens’ expression is classic oh-crap-really?!
Mama slowly sits back down and considers it.
Mama: Actually, that makes a certain amount of sense. We noticed some changes involved here.
Nika: Well, that’s kinda what I was getting at, Mrs. Johannsen, just to say to you that I—.
Mama: Our family’s from a long line of soldiers, but something like this has never happened. The war…affects us all.
Arden: It still affects us all.
Mama: And now it’s affected my grandson.
Nika: (sincerely) Hopefully, it stops there.
Rina’s standing some feet off to the side and murmurs to herself: It never stops there.
Nika looks at the Johannsen boys next.
Nika: D’you mind if I ask you why y’all’re tryin’ to buy my sister out?
Lawrence: Is that the way she put it?
Nika: Not really. She hasn’t exactly spoken to me about it. What’s going on?
Lawrence: Well, I hate to tell you this, but your sister hasn’t been running the ranch the way that—especially with the medical bills, your ranch is gonna be gone. In a matter of months, probably. We’re tryin’ to keep it alive. We’d love for you to be part of the family…Again.
Nika: And what conditions are you putting on this?
Lawrence: Just our… generosity.
Arden: I think I’ll be at the nurses’ station if you need me.
And Arden makes a quick exit toward the rear of the waiting room.
Nika: You know my daddy’d roll over in his grave if we sold out.
Lawrence: (quietly) Well, there are other ways.
Nika: Such as?
Lawrence: Why’n’t you ask your sister?
And it finally clicks for Nika. Why Larry Johannsen was with Nala in the waiting room, why he never seemed to leave her side. It wasn’t an intimidation tactic at all, it was something else. Nika gives him a good hard Oh, no you didn’t! look and the chagrin on Larry’s face is all the answer she needs.
Nika: (dangerously low) You are not leanin’ on Nala. You’re gonna take my sister, you’re gonna tell her the ranch will be hers if she sleeps with you?
Mama Johannsen stirs at this, shocked at the vulgarity, but Nika doesn’t give a damn.
Nika: (continuing) Or if she marries you? And that’s what you’re getting’ at?
Arden and the nurses at the other end of the room turn around at this last, delivered loudly in umbrage. Christian keeps his seat and watches everything with a keen eye. Rina drifts over and Lawrence straightens.
Lawrence: Now, it ain’t like that at all.
Nika: (Yeah, right) Really?
Rina: (to Nika) Do you want me to shoot him?
Lawrence knows a threat when he hears it but refuses to back down. But he also knows that right now, his word means exactly jack shit to Nika.
Lawrence: You really gotta talk to your sister about that.
Nika steps back.
Nika: Just for the record, Nala only owns 35% of the ranch. The other 35% is mine and 30% belongs to JJ in trust. So even if you do get that part of it, y’ain’t gettin’ the rest of it.
Arden: Who’s the trust holder?
Nika: Nala and I.
William Johannsen speaks up for the first time, backing his family’s side of it.
William: You Earharts are all the same—stubborn like a mule.
Nika: (Damn straight!) Stubborn like a mule.
Everyone glares, fists clenched, with feelings running high. Then from behind, we hear Christian drawl into the charged silence.
Christian: I’m guessing the farm is run down because you’ve been letting Nala make the decisions.
Nika: (calming down) Then we need a foreman.
Lawrence: Well….she’s been busy with the medical bills.
Christian gets up out of the chair and joins the rest of us.
Christian: How long has Kevin been sick?
Lawrence: Not very long, but when you’re on the farm economy, a hospital stay will wipe you out.
Nika gusts a sigh and abruptly leaves the room. She heads for the back, where the wards lay, to see Kevin one last time. Nala comes out to the waiting room and at the sight of her sister, Nika stops and just gives her The Look, the one siblings use on each other that says Oh no, you didn’t! She doesn’t give Nala a chance to evade but asks her point blank in front of everyone.
Nika: (angrily) Please tell me you did not take one of Trey’s brothers to bed.
There’s no word or exclamation from Mama Johannsen at this statement—either the woman is too wearied by the shocks of the day or perhaps she knows more than she’s letting on. Nala fetches up short in the face of Nika’s ire. Nika takes her silence as affirmation.
Nika: REALLY? (A beat) Really, Nala?
Nala edges crabwise along the wall and eyes Lawrence standing next to Mama. She draws breath and addresses her sister.
Nala: (kinda-sorta, yeah) Well…
Nika’s eyes widen and she holds up a hand to forestall any more from her sister.
Nika: Okay, now that says it all right there. Do you love him?
Nala: You know the red heifer?
Nika’s thrown by the non sequitur, but goes with it.
Nika: Yeah.
Nala: Well, she was calvin’ again and havin’ struggles. Larry heard about it from our foreman and so we rode out to take care her—.
Nika: That’s all I need to know. So I’m askin’ ya: Do you love him?
Nala: I wasn’t going to do anything else because of what his family did to us, but—.
Nika: But do you love him?
Nala: (softly) I don’t know…
Nika: Do you just like him?
Nala: I haven’t—
Nika: Did you tell him you were sleeping with him because you just liked him? Because you loved him? Or—
Nala: — I —
Nika: —did you just sleep with him and then run off because you were scared to death? WHAT?
Nala: I couldn’t—couldn’t admit it.
Nika: Admit what?
Nala: The brother of the—the—
Nika: I sent letters! I sent letters from the middle of deep space, and then you don’t tell me these things?
Oh, Nika’s just fit to be tied.
Nika: When did you stop telling me these things? Oh, my God….
Just tied….
Nala: (indignant, now) So, if I wave you and say, “Maybe the brother of the man who tried to kill us may be someone I’m interested in, you’d say, “Oh that’s fine, sweetheart. You go ahead with followin’ your heart”?
Nika: Actually I might!
The rest of us just keep our mouths shut and our eyes open, no one being willing to get between the two sisters as they wrangle out the issue.
Nika: Larry’s not a bad guy…he’s kinduva geek, but…(waves her hands wide)
Nala: Well…
Both the sisters run out of steam and just stare at each other, at a loss. Christian says wryly into the sudden quiet:
Christian: You have this way of just passing judgment on men, I’ve noticed.
Rina: And you thought I was bad.
Christian: I’m too girly, he’s a geek, Arden’s a—
Arden: You don’t even wanna know!
Christian: (agreeing) No, I really don’t.
The self-deprecating humor breaks the tension between the two sisters and Nala sighs and smiles wanly at her twin.
Nala: I knew I wouldn’t have your blessin’, so I didn’t—.
Nika: You don’t need my blessing. I just want you to talk to me. I wondered why I wasn’t getting any letters.
Nala: You’re travelin’ all over the Verse, probably…you know, hookin’ up with your fancy Companion and Doctor boyfriends—
Christian: (interrupting)—Here’s a heaping big bowl of guilt.—
Nika: Oh, please!
Nala:—and your…starship Captains over on the—
Nika: Eatin’ paste half the time—
Nala: Out here on the plains it’s just…a different kinda life. You don’t remember what it’s like out here.
Nika: You were the one that told me to go. I would’a stayed.
Nala: Well, I dunno. I’m thinkin’ about it. You know, if this wasn’t Trey’s fault, then it’s wrong for me to keep blamin’ their family. And Larry…Larry’s a good man.
Nika: I never blamed their family to start with.
Nala: Now, he was here through thick and thin when it came to Kevin.
Christian: And here’s the second bowl of guilt.
Nala: He convinced his family to pay for everything and I wouldn’t let him, but…
And there it is.
Nika: Are you willin’ to let him take the ranch?
Nala: What do you mean, take the ranch?
Nika: Well that sure sounds like what’s goin’ on.
Nala: When I married his brother, did they take the ranch then?
Um…no. Nika grows quiet as she gets her head around it.
Rina: (sighs) Good point.
Arden: Here’s a third bowl.
Christian: No, that was the “I was stupid” bowl.
Rina: Hey, now wait a minute. It’s not fair. (indicating Nala) She kicked her out.
Nika: (recovering, wryly) She did in fact. Nicely and sweetly because, you know, I wasn’t happy at home…
Christian: For her own good. But just because it was for her own good, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t resentful.
Nika: (to Nala) Did you want me to stay?
Nala: No, I want you to stay now, but now things are different. You’re different, Nika, you’re not gonna wanna be out here, peeling dust off’a ya every day, seeing the same old stars under your sky. Will you be able to hear those damn songs of yours?
Nika takes a breath and lets it out.
Nika: Not yet.
Nala: You’re always welcome…when you think you’re ready.
Nika: It’s maybe closer than you think, but not yet.
Nala: I ain’t you.
Nika: I never said you were.
Nala: (wistfully) I could use some … normality.
Nika: I could use some’a that normality myself.
Both women ignore the jokes that exchange sets off with the crew: Us? Normal? Are you kidding?
Nala: You say that, but it ain’t true. You’re flyin’ around in your fancy spaceship—
Nika: What fancy spaceship? That thing is a hunk’a junk. And then some.
Rina bites her tongue. Now is not the time to say anything contrary.
Nala: What are you talkin’ about? You can go anywhere in the Verse you want.
Nika: So can you.
Nala: Uhn-uhn. It’s not for me.
Nika: Just because I’m out there, it doesn’t mean you can’t write me and tell me to come home if you need me to. I will drop everything and come home. Always, ever.
Nala: (sighing) I dunno. I think a part’a me thought this would—well, it happened so fast, it was hard to…
Nika: Oh, I don’t care if you’re doin’ Larry. Come on, he’s a good guy. See, I’m now just paranoid and bitchy and so I just accused him of tryin’ to take the ranch. Now I gotta go apologize again and dammit, you know how I hate to do that.
Paranoid, bitchy, and hates to apologize. Isn’t that Rina’s job description?
Nala: Well, it suits you.
Nika: Yeah, well, I guess it does.
Nala: You know what Daddy used to say.
Nika: “That was just rude.”
Nika starts to laugh and the tension in the room drains away.
Nika: Yeah, that was just rude.
Nala: Nothin’ humbles like an apology.
Nika: We’re gonna stick it out til Kevin’s all better, and we’ll see where we stand and how the ranch is lookin’. And then you and I can decide what you want to do.
Nala: Tell you what. You get some saddle sores—.
Nika: Oh, man! You mean I gotta go round up the last of the cattle?
Nala: (sobering) So, do you think it would be all right to take a loan from them?
Nala nods toward the Johannsens in the waiting area, who are watching all of this with interest but staying quiet.
Nala: That’s the way they phrased it. I mean, they would offer it as a gift, but maybe that’s too much at my end. I don’t think they have any interest in our spread.
Nika: Let’s talk to them about a loan. I’ll go apologize and eat crow one more time. I’m startin’ to like crow a lot.
Nika turns around and crosses the waiting room, and with everyone looking on, does just that. It takes a fair amount of crow-eating but in the end the matter is sorted out. The Johannsens are more than willing to let the past remain in the past and start fresh. The loan is arranged and the ranch is saved. Nala and Larry look considerably more comfortable around Nika, and Nika realizes how much strain they’d suffered to keep their relationship a secret from her. For his part, Christian gets a kick out of needling Nika for missing the obvious.
Nika: No, I really didn’t know, Christian. Maybe I should’ve, but I didn’t.
Christian: Larry may love his nephew, but why did you think he was in the hospital, looking amazingly miserable?
Nika: I was a little too busy being scared to death, I didn’t pay attention.
Rina ticks off the salient points on her fingers.
Rina: Okay, let me sum up. The ranch is saved, the boy is saved, and we’re on the hook.
Arden: What hook?
Rina: Swordsman’s hook.
Christian: Honestly, no. Arden’s on the hook. We’re choosing to dangle there with him. We can leave at any time. He doesn’t care about us.
Arden: True enough.
Nika: True enough.
Rina: We can’t leave him to dangle all alone. He’ll get us all killed.
Christian allows that this could be true but reiterates, saying Arden is on the hook and we’re all just hanging on to him. He’s the only one actually skewered.
But even so, the situation with the ranch and Kevin, and Nala and Larry have been taken care of. Everyone’s happy.
Rina: I wouldn’t say that.
We are all leaving the hospital as a group, business concluded for the nonce, and Arden turns around to Rina as they gain the entrance.
Arden: Why not? Who’s not happy?
Rina: (snorting) When have you ever seen me happy?
Arden: (eyeroll) Yeah, but you’re different.
Rina: Damn straight.
She cuffs him lightly on the shoulder as we walk off into the night, three families joined by blood and by association, all talking over our combined and individual prospects, making plans for the immediate future. There are still bumps in the road ahead, wrinkles in the landscape that need ironing out.
But for now, things are smooth enough… and it’s all we need.
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