"Cat’s got both your tongues, eh?" he asked, yawning slightly and then put his hands behind his neck, stretching.
 
 

"No, just wondering what the next surprise is…who else is going to pop up before dinner?" Rollie replied, sarcastically.
 
 

Angie said nothing as she fought to fork a rolling grape on her plate and finally just plopped her fork down and sighed.
 
 

"I know you have this all worked out and know what’s going on, Dingo- but how about telling a poor wretch like me what’s happening?" Angie asked, putting her arms across her chest just after she pushed her plate back.
 
 

Dingo knew that body mechanism in his daughter-in-law…she was angry and rightly so, he thought with tenderness.
 
 

"Here’s the up and up, boys and girls…Suzie, aka, Ms. Kwan, has been feeling the hot breath of her terrorist father on the back of her neck. Apparently, the burial site in New York was opened and the body supposedly exhumed. Apparently, Alex Martel was not amused when her body was not found in the casket."
 
 

"How’d you know this? More yaps with the Feds, Pops?" Rollie asked, leaning back in his chair and then catching a side-way glance of Angie’s as she seemed to be studying him, his profile. He knew what she was thinking.
 
 

"Bloody paranoid, aren’t you, boy!" Dingo replied, chuckling, "no, as I told you, I met Suzie here in LA. I recognized her, knew she and you had been tight there and well, we got to talking and it was a nice time spent all and all."
 
 

"Is Rollie…Bastion’s father?" Angie blurted out; looking at her almost untouched plate and tightened her grips on her own arms.
 
 

"What? She told you, that he wasn’t, weren’t you here for that conversation?" Dingo asked, his face flushing slightly as Rollie shifted in his seat, looking from one uncomfortable person to the other.
 
 

"Angie, I know he looks a lot like Aidan in some respects…" Rollie began but Angie was tapping her foot on the ground and wouldn’t look at him just yet.
 
 

"I was talking to Dingo, Rollie. Seems like Dingo knows a whole lot more than he’s willing to spoon feed us."
 
 

"Look, so the tyke looks like Rollie when he was little a bit, so what? Suzie said he was not the father, and I believe her," Dingo reminded her.
 
 

"Why did I say that we would take him back to New York?" Angie muttered and then, stood up suddenly, "I need some fresh air…meet you at the car," she added and before anyone could protest, she left them there.
 
 

As she passed the court building and headed for the parking lot, a clown mime was winding his way around some children that had passed and was showcasing his talents for their amusement. As Angie passed, he made a face, mirroring her own.
 
 

"Back off, Ronald McDonald…" she warned him as he made a shocked expression and grinned then as the children laughed. Angie made a beeline for the car and waited. She hadn’t noticed that the clown’s face had suddenly changed into a serious expression and walked away hurriedly.
 
 

"Can we take you somewhere, drop you off?" she heard Rollie’s voice as she looked up and saw Dingo and him approaching the car.
 
 

"No, I have transport, over there…" he pointed to a late model BMW about fifty feet from Luce’s car.
 
 

"Thanks for what you did in there, that much I will say," Rollie said then as Dingo smiled and looked into the car at Angie, smacking the hood of the car as she jumped.
 
 

"Nice lunch, Angela…don’t fret so much. We have some interesting talks ahead, love…" he told her as she rolled her eyes and watched him walk off slowly, whistling some old tune.
 
 

Rollie got into the car as Angie started the engine. He put his hand over hers and forced her to turn the car off gently.
 
 

"Angie…I know you are upset, no more than I, you have to understand," Rollie was telling her.
 
 

"You don’t understand. I saw her at the airport, Rollie. I ran into her in the bathroom and didn’t even tell you. Funny, she pretended like she didn’t even know me and disappeared into the crowd," Angie replied, pulling off her jacket then as the heat of the day was starting to get to her.
 
 

"Are you jealous of her?"
 
 

"I’ve always been jealous of her, Rollie- that’s a pretty stupid question… remember, I had the opportunity of walking into the loft that morning and seeing her come down the stairs in your shirt. Do you remember that?"
 
 

"Uh, yeah…" he replied, his voice lowered and defeated.
 
 

"And well, who knows…maybe that’s when little Bastion was procreated for all we know!"
 
 

"Now, we don’t know that and besides, I had protection…"
 
 

"Uh huh, yep and we know how reliable that is, don’t we…"
 
 

Rollie hung his head and fumbled with his button on the bottom of his sport jacket.
 
 

"Angie, I don’t love Taia anymore…not like you think."
 
 

"I know that you love me, Rollie. But I also know, how much she hurt you the last time and yeah, even the time before that. You know, it’s possible to love two women at the same time."
 
 

"Sweetie, I thought I loved Taia only once, in Hong Kong…when I saw her again in New York, old feelings were there but it wasn’t the same. I realized then as I am telling you now, I loved someone else."
 
 

"Well, you were sure slow in telling that someone…"
 
 

"Runs in the family…"
 
 

"I’ll say…"
 
 

"He’s not telling us everything…"
 
 

"No kidding…he’s up to his eyeballs in some new con…"
 
 

"What will we do?"
 
 

"We’ll wait, and when he thinks he has us, just where he wants us, we’ll pounce!" Rollie told her, his hands lifted up and out like claws of a tiger.
 
 

"Did he tell you what he told the judge…?" Angie asked, smiling slightly.
 
 

"No…but it could only be more outlandish than what actually happened, wouldn’t you think?"
 
 

"What it must have been, to sway that old judge!" Angie exclaimed, reddening again as Rollie laughed heartily.
 
 

"So, are you okay with this helping Taia bit? Because, we can still say no, you know..." he told her, putting a finger under her chin as she looked at him, her heart skipping a beat as she thought of Taia again.
 
 

"Yes, I’m okay with it."
 
 

"Okay then, let’s go find Lucinda then and dig into her business. Is she going to marry Vanduran or what?"
 
 

"I need to get her alone…"
 
 

"You do!"
 
 

She smiled impishly and he suddenly kissed her, almost abruptly, pulling away with the top of her lip coyly between his lips.
 
 

"Oh no! None of that!" she warned him as she pulled away and licked her lips.
 
 

"We do have some unfinished business…"
 
 

"Yeah, well- I’m thinking about that and I have to let you know that the waterbed sorta scares me…"
 
 

"Why?"
 
 

"With our luck, it will spring a leak and we’d drown. They’d find us there, together, the lava lamp going, the mirrored ceiling and well, the final sordid ending to our trip to LA."
 
 

"You have a vivid imagination, Angela…"
 
 

"Yeah, it works on a lot of reality leaks…"
 
 

"That bed has a story, I bet!" Angie added, pulling out of the parking lot.
 
 

"Yeah, I bet. Luce probably bought it from an old hippie…"
 
 

"It’s huge!"
 
 

"Sweetie, it’s not the size of the boat that floats, it’s the motion of the ocean…"
 
 

"You’re unreal…"
 
 

"You’re the woman of my dreams…"
 
 

"Stop that before we wind up in traffic court next..." Angie warned him as his hand shimmied up her skirt.
 
 

"You’re free!" Lucinda squealed, hugging Angie as Captain Vanduran smiled and scratched his head.
 
 

"How much of a fine?" he asked Rollie.
 
 

"Nada, zip…" Rollie answered, pretending that he had just teed off.
 
 

Marvin Vanduran was curious indeed with this bit of news.
 
 

"I don’t understand…"
 
 

"My lawyer got us off…" Rollie explained further.
 
 

"Your lawyer?" Vanduran and Lucinda both asked in unison.
 
 

"Name of Reginald Harcourt…"
 
 

"Should I know that name?" Vanduran asked, holding his chin with his hand, puzzled.
 
 

"Oh Gawd! Rollie’s father!" Lucinda said, chuckling and put her hand through Rollie’s arm.
 
 

"He’s a lawyer?" Vanduran asked, his eyebrows crossing in surprise.
 
 

"On occasion," Rollie answered, and quickly looked around the set, his mind scanning the equipment, the set-up and actually, looking around for Mark Rappaport.
 
 

Angie looked at Lucinda with a sudden curiosity, pulling her away from Rollie and out of Vanduran’s hearing;
 
 

"So, we really do like the guest room, Luce. It has some rather interesting vibrations!"
 
 

"OH, I just KNEW you would pick up on him!" Lucinda said with glee, jumping up and down.
 
 

"Who?"
 
 

"Jim Morrison, silly!"
 
 

"Who?"
 
 

"You know, Jim Morrison…the Doors…!" Lucinda exclaimed, and squeezed her hand.
 
 

"I don’t get it, the guy is dead like what, almost twenty-five years?…what’s he got to do with our room?"
 
 

"Hey, not just the room, baby- the whole house! It was his pad in the late sixties, Angie!"
 
 

"What?"
 
 

"Yep, and there was some original furniture and stuff as well…" Luce added, her eyes widening.
 
 

"Ah, the mirrors on the ceiling…and let me guess, the lava lamp…" Angie deduced, with a grin.
 
 

"Oh yeah, but that’s not the best! Get this! You’re sleeping in his love nest!"
 
 

Luce’s eyes were absolutely shining as Angie stood before her, her mouth opened wide.
 
 

Rollie walked over, seeing the two women deep in conversation. He wondered if Lucinda was telling Angie if she was marrying Vanduran and he stepped forward. Seeing Angie’s face, he was slightly puzzled.
 
 

"Hey, what’s the news…?" he asked, cheerfully.
 
 

Angie closed her mouth and looked at him with a strange expression on her face before she told him. It was as if she had become possessed with what Luce had told her;
 
 

"Dig it, Rol. We’re sleeping in Jim Morrison’s bed- far out!" she told him with eerie cheer.
 
 

Rollie blinked, baffled and definitely not digging it, as Lucinda nodded in confirmed exaltation.
 
 

"Great, just great…" he said, through clenched teeth.