“We need to put the ATV in the barn and put the guns back in the safe. Can you get this one? I’ll take the other one and the shot up posters.”
“I’m still amazed that your grandfather gave you the combination to the safe.”
“I don’t know. He always trusted me. I’m not complaining.”
“I’m also amazed that you won’t get in trouble for taking me shooting without your father here.”
“Ah, about that. It would probably be good if you didn’t tell anyone I took you shooting.”
“So you would get in trouble?”
“Yes, but it would be worth it.”
“I’m worth getting in trouble for?”
“Oh yeah!” Cody replied as Sarah smiled.
Cody opened the safe and started putting the guns back.
“Put that one over there.”
“Why do you have so many of the big ones that are the same?”
“Some of those aren’t quite the same. They’re kind of special. I’ll explain it next time we shoot. We need to get in the house and see if John and Ellen have killed each other yet.”
Cody closed and locked the safe. In the house, Cody and Sarah saw Ellen at the computer and John watching a movie. Sarah headed for the bathroom and Cody approached John. John looked up at Cody and yawned,
“Where have you been for so long?”
“Just riding with Sarah. How has it been?”
“After I got her on the computer so she could get on Facebook she has ignored me. So I’ve been watching DVD’s. How was it with Sarah?”
“Actually we had a lot of fun. She’s nothing like she used to be.”
“I wish I could say the same about Ellen. I’m sick of watching DVD’s and I can’t get on the computer unless I kick Ellen off.”
“How long has she been on Facebook?”
“Since you and Sarah left.”
“What a waste of time. Why didn’t you tell her you want to get on?”
“Because I don’t want to deal with her. This way she ignores me.”
“I see your point. I need to get something to eat and take a shower. It’s hot out there and I’m covered with dust. Is there anything to eat here?”
“Not really, just the fruit, salad stuff and chips we brought and that’s about gone. Mom said to go to that little restaurant when we get hungry. Do you want to take a shower first?”
“Sarah walked up.
“What’s going on?”
“We’re hungry. There is a little restaurant about 3 miles from here. Mom said to go there when we get hungry.”
“I’m starving but I’m also gross and sweaty.”
“Cody wants to take a shower first too. Hurry up and take one. I’m hungry.”
“Come on, Sarah, you can have the guest bathroom, I’ll use the master. I’ll make sure it’s stocked up for you.”
John finished watching his DVD and looked over at Ellen buried in the computer on Facebook, shook his head and walked into the master bedroom where Cody was taking a shower leaving the bedroom door open.
“So what’s Sarah like?” he asked.
“Cody heard John, turned around, looked through the clear glass at John and said,
“You know I’m naked in here.”
“Shut up, Cody. I’m your older brother. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. So what did you talk about?”
“She told me her mom is dying. We talked about life and the stuff in grandpa’s book.”
“Some of that stuff is pretty deep. What did she think of it?”
“It’s hard to tell. She was sure interested though. Why don’t we take the book when we go eat. At least it will give us something to talk about.”
“Good idea. I’m going to see if I can find it. Do you know where it is?”
“Probably in those bookshelves over there. Can you throw me a towel?”
“Sure, which bookshelf?”
“Try the lower one.”
Cody dried off and reached for his clothes just as Sarah walked in the open bedroom door. She couldn't see Cody at first and said to John, “I heard you talking about the book. Did you find it?”
She walked farther into the room as Cody frantically pulled on his boxers. As she came around the corner she spotted Cody standing in his boxers frozen and smiled at him.
“Sorry Cody, the door was open and I heard you guys talking. I’ll wait till you’re dressed,” she said and left the room.
John looked over and laughed at Cody.
“Good timing, she almost saw you naked.”
Cody was indignant, “Why didn’t you shut the door? She still saw me in my underwear.”
“When did you start caring about that? You always run around half dressed.”
He stared at Cody.
“Oh I get it. You like her, don’t you?”
“Shut up, John,” said Cody as he turned red.
“Actually I don’t blame you. She’s hot. I found the book. See you in the car. Don’t forget to put some pants on.”
Cody threw a shoe missing John and hitting the wall beside him as he walked out of the room laughing.
As the kids climbed into the Explorer to leave, John asked Cody,
“Did you lock up and turn off the lights?”
“Yes, Dad,” Cody said sarcastically
“Did you leave the AC on so it doesn’t get too hot before we get back?”
“No, I turned it off.”
“Get out and turn it back on. I don’t want to come home to a hot house.”
“What’s that” asked Sarah pointing out the window.
John looked over and spotted a dust devil coming at them and quickly took off spinning the wheels.
“What was that?” asked Ellen.
“It’s called a dust devil. It’s a miniature tornado that can form in the desert on hot days, except its not very powerful like a real tornado, however it can ruin the paint on the car. I guess the Air Conditioner can wait till we get back.”
The kids drove away as Joseph and Abdul came over the hill behind the house.
“That’s the only house that’s close. The real estate agent said they only come in the winter time. Let’s check to make sure this isn’t where the kids came from.”
Joseph got out and started inspecting around the house while Abdul checked the barn. Joseph got back to the jeep and asked,
“See anything?”
“No, the barn is locked and I don’t see any tracks in the dirt.”
“You wouldn’t see any. A dust devil just came through as we came over the hill.”
“I don’t think anyone has been here in months. The lights are off and the AC is not running. No one would be here without the AC running on a day like this. I don’t know where those kids on the ATV are from, but they aren’t staying here. They are probably camping way out in the desert. Either way they can’t hurt us now. Let’s go back to the compound and get ready for tonight.”
Chapter 25
San Marino is a beautiful community of large homes on tree lined streets nestled between the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains and Los Angeles. The large trees lining the streets remind one of old communities in the Eastern United States. The movie Father of the Bride was filmed there. One of the families that lived in this area was the Longs. The parents were looking forward to the Fourth of July celebration with their three children, but first there was a business dinner with some very important Asian clients that would go far into the evening. They had arranged for a very responsible 16 year old girl to stay with their three children. Knowing how late the dinner might last, they made arrangements for her to stay overnight in their spare bedroom. The three children Aaron age 11, Nancy age 7 and Tommy age 5 were thrilled. Cindy was the most fun babysitter they ever had and this time she would probably stay the night. Aaron was especially thrilled as he had a crush on Cindy. Mr. and Mrs. Long were going
out the door saying goodbye to their children,
“OK kids, you know we will be back late. Listen to Cindy and we will see you in the morning.”
The parents got in the car and drove off waving to their kids and Cindy. “He really has a crush on her, doesn’t he,” said Mr. Long.
“Oh yeah, as only an eleven year old boy could for an older girl.”
Later that night the kids were watching a movie, eating popcorn and spread out on the floor and sofa. Aaron left to get something to drink and came back to find Nancy in his spot. He reached down and grabbed Nancy roughly and pulled her up. She immediately started crying. Aaron started to say something to her and was interrupted by Cindy.
“Aaron, why don’t you sit over here?” she said and motioned to the spot beside her on the sofa.”
Aaron looked over at Cindy curled on the sofa with her legs tucked under her and leaning against the side.
“OK” he said, and slid in next to her.
She put her arm around him, pulled him against her and whispered softly in his ear,
“Isn’t this better than fighting?”
Aaron moved over and settled in cuddling against her before replying,
“Yeah, it is.”
Cindy put the younger kids to bed and was sitting on the sofa with Aaron watching TV when the phone rang. Mrs. Long was on the phone checking in.
“How is everything Cindy? Are the kids being good?”
Cindy looked over at Aaron and smiled.
“Your kids are great. I never have a problem with them.”
“That’s good to hear. I was a little worried about Aaron. I sure you have noticed he has a crush on you. I was worried what he might do to get your attention.”
“He’s fine. Don’t worry at all. I have two little brothers. I know just how to handle him.”
“That’s great. We love having you for a babysitter. The bad news is, we are going to be very late. The Asian businessmen haven’t adjusted to our time yet and they want to keep meeting. This is very important to our company so we have to make it work. We are going to be here through most of the night.”
“That’s okay, Mrs. Long. We thought this might happen. I’m set up in the spare bedroom. I’ll just see you in the morning.”
“You’re the best, Cindy.
Chapter 26
“So what kind of restaurant are we going to?” asked Ellen.
“The only one that’s out here,” replied John.
“I mean what kind of food do they serve. Is it organic?”
Cody and Sarah were in the backseat, Cody looked at Sarah and rolled his eyes before replying to Ellen,
“Ellen, it’s the only restaurant for miles. You’ll have to make do.”
“That’s not acceptable, I always eat organic. Do they have a vegan menu?”
“Ellen this is ranch country. They have meat and fried food and maybe a salad. You have to adapt.”
“I don’t want to adapt. I want to go back to New York City,” Ellen whined.
“Let’s wait until you see what they have. Besides I want to talk about the book John and Cody’s grandfather wrote.” interrupted Sarah.
“What book?”
“Cody’s been telling me about it. It talks about life and dying and things like that.”
Ellen spun around in the seat and confronted Sarah.
“Did you tell them about Mom?”
“Yeah, so what. I want to talk about it instead of bottling it up. They have some interesting ideas from this book. If you don’t want to talk about it, fine. But I do.”
“Okay, here’s the restaurant. We can talk inside.”
The restaurant was a slightly remodeled version of a 50’s diner with an old jukebox, red vinyl seats and a lot of chrome. Ellen stopped in the parking lot and just stared at the inside through the window. John opened the door for Sarah and Cody and looked back at Ellen standing in the middle of the parking lot.
“Are you coming Ellen?”
Ellen stared back at John and said,
“There is no way I am eating in there.”
John looked at her and then in the restaurant at Sarah and Cody taking a seat, shrugged his shoulders and let the door close.
Sarah and Cody looked at John walking over shaking his head and asked where Ellen was.
“Apparently this is not her first choice of restaurants.”
Sarah said, “I don’t care anymore, she can come in and eat or stand out there in the parking lot.”
A minute later Ellen slowly walked in and slid in the booth beside John.
Sarah said to Ellen,
“They have lots of salads. You should be able to find something you like.”
“I bet it’s not organic though.”
John and Cody rolled their eyes as the waitress came over.
Ellen asked, “Is your produce organic?”
The waitress loomed over Ellen.
“Honey, this isn’t the big city. It comes off a truck and we eat it.”
“Just give me the salad with dressing on the side.”
“I’ll take the special with onion rings,” said Sarah.
Cody looked at Sarah and then the waitress, “Me too”.
“Make it three,” said John.
Ellen rolled her eyes, “I can’t believe you are going to eat that Sarah.”
“Whatever,” said Sarah. “Let’s get the book out.”
Cody opened the book and Sarah said, “I’ve been thinking about what you said about life forces and I have to admit it makes sense that something makes your body alive and then it leaves and your body is dead. But where did it come from and what happens to it after we die. Who made all this happen? Are we alone out here? Is this like the men in flying saucers or something?”
“Not really,” said Cody. “But my grandfather didn’t think we were alone either. Something had to create or organize all of this. He and a lot of others called it intelligent design.”
“What actually is intelligent design? Wasn’t that banned from being taught in schools?”
“No, you’re confusing creationism with intelligent design.”
“What’s the difference?”
Cody started reading parts from the book.
“Creationists try to take what is in the Bible account of creation and then prove or support it with evidence found in nature. People that support intelligent design, began with natural evidence and eventually concluded that there has to be something more than random selection to account for the evidence that exists. The book spends some time with this, but to keep it simple life is just too complex to have occurred randomly. Take something like your eye. You need all these parts working together for it to be useful. The eyeball with cornea, lens, the receptors on the back of the eyeball, the pupil that opens and closes, the optic nerve that transmits information, the visual cortex. All these have to function together for the eye to be useful. Everything would have to come together at the same time for an eye to become useful. If any little part was missing the eye would be useless. It’s just too complicated to be random. There is no way everything started off in some primeval soup and advanced to what we are without some kind of direction or guidance.”
“I thought the argument was that given an infinite amount of time, anything could happen randomly?”
“Even if all of this didn’t violate the second law of thermodynamics, we don’t have an infinite amount of time. The argument my grandfather used was if you had an infinite number of monkeys typing on typewriters for an infinite amount of time, you could eventually reproduce an encyclopedia. But you don’t have an infinite amount of time or monkeys. Everything is finite and it’s just too complex. As complex as an encyclopedia is, life is much more complex. It just doesn’t make sense that it could happen randomly, something had to drive it, or direct it or make it happen.”
“Did he ever figure out what the driving force was?”
??
?He had some ideas.”
Her gaze was thoughtful. “Did he think we are alone? Is this planet the only thing that was created?”
“Do you mean created like in the Bible?”
“I guess.”
“He said the original words used in the Bible don’t mean create the way we think of create. The original words they used mean to organize. So if you wanted to go the religion route, be aware that it actually says it was organized, not created from nothing. But he didn’t go the religion route. He tried to explain everything scientifically.”
“Okay Cody, but you aren’t answering my question. Are we alone, or are there others out there?”
“The only way to know for sure if there are others, is if we had contact with them. However this is something to think about. We have received a lot of information the last few years, especially after the Hubble telescope started working. The scientists now say there are 400 to 600 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy that our sun is a part of and there are at least 200 billion other galaxies. When you do the math the numbers are incomprehensible. They calculated that there are more than 100 stars for every grain of sand on all the beaches in the world. Now they are discovering planets around these stars. Do you really think that we are alone and all this just happened randomly?” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t. There has to be some overall plan and reason for all of it.”
Sarah thought for a minute. “What’s this second law you mentioned?”
Cody kept skimming the book looking for the parts he remembered.
“The second law of thermodynamics. It says things don’t naturally change to a more complex state but go to a simpler state. If you build a sandcastle on the beach and leave it overnight it turns into a pile of sand, not a more elaborate intricate castle. If anything is left alone, it degenerates or decays into something less complex. It’s only if something is guiding or directing something or it’s alive that it goes to a higher state. Something is behind everything, guiding it along. That’s what the scientists like my grandfather concluded. They call it intelligent design. They just aren’t sure what all the purposes are.”
“The food’s here,” said John. “Let’s eat. I can only handle so much of this at a time.”