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January 5, 2019, The scene starts out in Space. The starship "The Stern Winch" approaches Earth. There’s a cheesy theme musical piece, heavy on what sounds like the high school marching band has just been given new music and is doing a run-through, and a voice-over: “Captain’s Log, January 5, 2019. I’m in the Starship we borrowed from our parents. Our 2-day mission: to take my sister to her boyfriend’s mom an’ dad’s house because her ship is in for regular maintenance. While we do this, we’re gonna explore strange new deli salads, fried take-out, and maybe have some dessert.” The scene shows the ship approaching the cabin. It is cloaked, but from the distortion of the ground scene through the ship it’s obvious that it’s bigger than Heloise’s and Will’s ship. The scene changes to the bridge of the ship. Heloise and Will sit at the control panels where Sulu and Chekov sat on the Enterprise. Two people sit in back of them, and one of them is helping Will execute commands from the Captain. We see him point to a dial or lever and then Will operates the dial or lever. The one in back of Heloise doesn’t have to do anything, (Heloise is a pilot) so they kabbitz. They kabbitz in their Alien language, though. As it turns out everyone except Will is from Heloise’s family and, except when they talk to some people on earth, or Will talks, or someone talks to him, all the dialogue in the ship is in the Alien language, with subtitles. The people from Heloise’s family have reddish bronze skin and white/silver hair. They have elf ears, pointed at the top. The guy in the Captain’s chair looks like he could be Heloise’s older brother. He is. Two relatives stand at the science and communication stations. Suddenly, the bridge crew are jolted by something white that breaks apart hitting the screen in front. Two more white objects land. Will yells, “Captain! We’re getting snowballed!” Captain Heloise’s Brother snaps,(in Alien, with subtitles) “Take Evasive Action!” Heloise moves various levers and dials. Outside, the ship moves backwards and off to the side. More snowballs hit. The ship is very high up and maybe a block away from the cabin. It’s obvious that these are some sort of super-humans to be able to pelt the ship from that distance. The Alien next to Will asks, in the Alien language, with subtitles,“How are these humans hitting us?” “They’re humans in robotic bodies” says Will, in English, “The U.S. Government made them-without their permission- and sent them on dangerous missions into war zones. Heloise rescued them and brought them here to their friends’ cabin. It’s a big secret from the Government though. It’s real Hush-Hush!” The scene cuts to the patio area behind the cabin. Langly, Byers, and Frohike are behind a snow fort. They each are looking at the screen of their phone, and then they look up and throw a snowball that hits the invisible cloaked ship. Heloise says, “They’re anticipating our moves!” Will says, “Open up a Hailing Frequency!” Some one in back of him says, “Shouldn’t you try a snowing frequency?” No one opens anything. “Never mind, I’ll use my phone.” says Will, exhaling a huff of breath, “and knock off the wise guy remarks!" He sends a side eye look over to the people in back of him and also over to the side of the ship where the another two officers there smile impishly at him. Will finds a number on his contact list, taps it, and puts it on speaker. The scene shifts. Langly peeks over the top of the snow fort at the ship and answers his phone, on speaker, in English (with subtitles, maybe in Alien, because everyone is looking at the bottom of the screen now.) “Langly here, how may I direct your call?” he says sweetly. Frohike and Byers continue to throw snowballs. Will barks into his phone: “The is the Spaceship Stern Winch! Cease Fire! I repeat, Cease Fire!” “Some say fire, some say ice...” murmurs Byers, referencing Frost, as he throws another snowball. Frohike throws one as well, and we see them hit the invisible ship’s view screen. Langly says, “Surrender! We have a huge pile of snowballs! (points to a very large pile of snowballs) Resistance is futile!” Will turns to the Captain and wails, in Alien, with subtitles, “It’s true! and they can lob those things all day! They’re robots, y’know. Like a baseball pitching machine. All three of ‘em...just indefatigable…” The Captain has come over to Will’s station and motions for Will to hand him the phone, and he says, in English, “Ahoy, Robots! What are your terms for our surrender?” The Gunmen look from one to the other. They shrug. Apparently they hadn’t thought about any demands. “Wow,” says Langly, “Hard Question.” “We should probably ask for something though,” says Frohike. “I’ve got it...how ‘bout some warm water?” Says Byers. “That sounds good.” responds Langly. Frohike gives the idea a thumbs up. Langly says, “Our terms are you must bring each of us some water warmed to 140° Fahrenheit.” Will says, “I don’t know if I can get it that exact...” “Close enough is good!” says Byers into Langly’s phone. “Beam down with our water to the patio!” orders Langly, loudly. The Gunmen begin to high five each other and laugh behind the wall of the snow fort. We see their hands go up over the top and hear them hooting, “Woot!” The Captain returns to his chair and makes little “Come here?” motions to the crew. Heloise and the other crew go and confer at the Captain’s chair in the background “off mike” while in the foreground Will unscrews the lids and breaks the seal of three plastic containers of bottled water and sticks them in what is obviously a warming machine. He sets it, starts it and then it goes “Ding!” Will rescrews the lids, puts the bottles in a small shoulder bag, shoulders it, and he goes over to what looks like a transporter along with what looks like luggage. While he does this the Captain makes the universal hand signal for “sneaking” to the crew (the signal is, of course, one finger to the lips like a “shush” and then two fingers representing legs hopping. The hopping hand goes behind the other hand which is upright and looks like a wall.) The group all seem to be in agreement with whatever Heloise’s Brother was showing them. Heloise joins Will in the Transporter area and does the same hand signals while whispering to him. He responds with a delighted look on his face. He presses a button which closes the transporter door. They and the luggage appear on the patio. The three robots are already there, coming out from behind their snow fort. They all hug. The rest of the crew appear on the patio. Will and Heloise introduce everyone, in English. The subtitles have been turned off. “Welcome to Earth” says Frohike. “You have now played in snow.” Heloise’s Brother picks up the bag from where Will has set it down. He takes it over to the Gunmen and shows them the waters. He continues to walk and talk, motioning them to come with him.“So, Robots,” says Heloise’s brother who we learned goes by “Frank" (from François, he was born when his parents ship was directly over Paris, although that's just something of a family story. The hospital ship was still several galaxies away from Earth, and France, and Paris...) “What are these structures?” He points at the greenhouses. The Gunmen follow him and are also turned to look at where he points at the greenhouses. Frohike proudly explains, “These are greenhouses. They can be heated. They are a place to grow food when the temperatures are too cold to grow food outside in the ground. And of course sometimes there’s snow, too, like today.” While he has been saying this the rest of the crew has slipped behind the fort. They now control all the snowballs. Frank precipitates the attack by saying loudly, “Oh like this snow?” He scoops up some snow, balls it loosely, and lobs it at the Gunmen. The Gunmen are also hit from behind with their own snowballs. Frank runs over to the fort and joins his crew. “OK! You skunked us!” yells Langly.” Peace!” “Well,” says the Science Officer, a cousin of Heloise’s named Set, “Now you’ve played in snow.” The Gunmen brush snow off themselves and make faces at Set. His twin brother Rhett smiles with him. “After supper may we make a snow person?” asks the Communications Officer, Bellatrix, also a cousin to Heloise. Her brother Zed stands next to her and says, "Yes, May we?” “Sure, but now let’s go inside and say hello to Mom and Dad.” says Will. An interior shot establishes that Mulder and Scully have been watching this whole scene from the window and door of the Great Room. When the group starts towards the door, they quickly move to the kitchen and pick up some tool- a spoon, a potholder, whatever, and pretend to be busy there. The Aliens, Robots, and Will go in and go past the dining area where the table from the kitchen has been pulled in alongside the dining room table. There are settings for 12 -6 at each table, but the robot’s places have only a pretty decorated glass there. Will and Heloise introduce everyone and help Scully and Mulder prep for supper. They pour the warm waters into the Gunmen’s special glassware Scully bought for them at her church Christmas Bazaar. Mulder asks if he should warm up some more water for them (The Gunmen have learned that they like warm water when it’s winter.) and they say “Yes, please.” Mulder microwaves some water and fills a pitcher. Scully says a short Grace. Mulder and Scully have brought in a take out meal from their favorite fried chicken place and some Broccoli Salad and Mac “n” Cheese from the Deli at the supermarket. Last night Scully cut up three containers of some strawberries (from Central California) and macerated them in sugar to make a syrup. She also has made two pans of biscuits which are hot out of the oven and Mulder has whipped up containers of cream. Mmmm! Strawberry Shortcake, one of Will and Heloise’s favorite desserts. The also have vanilla ice cream and even chocolate sauce, if the shortcake doesn’t appeal to Heloise’s family members. After supper, they watch “Romeo and Juliet”, the 1996 version with Leonardo DiCaprio. Mulder and Scully give them the background of the movie. “The playwright, William Shakespeare, is considered to be the greatest writer in the English Language in all of Earth’s history. This is one of his plays and it’s a tragedy-a sad story. There are two families who don’t get along, and in fact they are enemies, but the son and daughter from each fall in love.” says Scully.” Mulder picks it up, “It’s been a very popular play here on earth for 400 years. It usually is done on a stage where actors who pretend to be the two families act out the story with an audience watching. Only in the last 100 years has there been the technology to record it on a stage set so we can watch it on a home device.” The group agrees to put off snowperson-making until after breakfast. After the movie Heloise and her family retire to the ship. Will goes up to the second floor of the cabin. Will calls Heloise and asks her to please bring him a glass of milk, and two cookies from the Cookie Jar in the cabin kitchen. She tells her brother Frank she is going to go do this, and leaves. She doesn’t return to the ship. Arabella and Zed giggle and whisper to each other. The others remain stoic, in the face of obvious nooky-making. 
The next day, Epiphany, 2019, The family has breakfast then everyone helps make not one but three snowpersons. Curiously, two are tall and one is a little shorter. We see Heloise’s brother do that “artist eye squinting and gesture” thing with his thumb and forefinger, at each of the Gunmen. It’s clearly caricature in snow. The Gunmen aren’t offended and stand next to their crystal doubles with the “artists” for photos the group can take back with them to their parents. Then the brother and cousins take off in their family ship, leaving Heloise and Will for a little vacation with the Cabinistas (Langly’s term for the people and robots living at the cabin) while their own ship gets an overhaul. The family will return next weekend and take them back to their ship. Will and Heloise spend the day with the Gunmen in the greenhouse, tending the plants. Of special interest to Heloise are some herbs and spices the Gunmen are growing from seeds Heloise has had sent from her planet. She plans to make some food for the Mulders and Will from recipes she learned from her mom, “A lot of the things I’ll have to get from the supermarket, but the spices and sauces will make the flavors pretty close to what my mom makes!” Heloise chirps excitedly. Back in September, Mulder and Bill Guilder ("Your Friendly Builder") got the necessary building permits for his company to to add on dormers and the three bedrooms and a bath up in the attic. Bill was able to oversee it off and on in the fall, and was able to push it to completion in December. Mulder and Scully have listed their condo for sale, and have moved their possessions from their condo to the cabin. So the cabin has a second floor now, and Scully and Mulder were able to invite Heloise and Will to stay there while their ship is getting maintenance. Scully gets called to work at the Mt. Weather facility where she is on part time medical staff, and has to work a little late. There’s nice dinner made by Mulder though. He has tried making enpanadas. The Gunmen helped. “In Mexico they are celebrating Three King’s Day,” says Mulder, “and they might be making these empanadas so maybe it could become a tradition here in our family, too. We’ll see!”Mulder says, “We’re going to start with a little change-up here. Instead of the usual blessing I’d like each of you to meditate to yourself about the gifts you’ve received this year and then maybe be thankful for everything. So everyone sits very quietly and thinks about what an astonishing year it really has been. Then Mulder says, quietly, “Mrs. Mulder has had some difficulty resuming asking for blessings since we got that very big blessing on Christmas Eve. She wonders if it’s greedy to ask for more.” Mulder shrugs, indicating he has no idea how to help her with this problem. It turns out he has come up with his own theory about the event. Mulder serves the empanadas, and bowls of thick blender-whipped salsa for dipping. There’s also a salad. Will and Heloise compliment Mulder and the Gunmen on “How tasty!” the empanadas are. “Yeah, this could be a tradition here!” says Will. Suddenly, Mulder asks Heloise an unusual question: “Heloise are you familiar with the Mexican custom of Posada? She says no, so Mulder explains, “Well, for several nights before Christmas Eve, a group of people from the local Catholic church travel from house to house in the community. They sing about the difficulty Joseph and Mary had looking for places to stay, when many people had to travel to where their family was from to be enrolled in the census ordered by the occupying force, the Romans. According to the story, they had to stay in a barn for animals, including the trough where the animals ate called a manger, and that's where their church founder Jesus was put when he slept after being born. Most times,there is a middle-aged man and a young woman-sometimes a teen-aged woman, and they are playing the role of Joseph and Mary. They visit a different house each night which represents the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Finally, on Christmas Eve, they go to a place where there is a “manger” set up.” Will interrupts, “So...just like Joseph and Mary finally ending up in a manger, in a a barn, really?” “Exactly, replies Mulder,. “So Heloise, do any other people than Earthlings have an event like a Posada?” Heloise is sort of surprised at the question, and thinks it over, then says, “Well, there is a religion I know about that has a lot of ideas and customs like here on Earth. We think some time long ago they stayed for at least several decades on Earth, and their children were brought up in an Earthly way. We don’t bring it up much, because we honestly don’t know what to make of it. They came back quite a while ago, but they are still very Earthly, and people just say :“Oh, them, people say, they are just being Earthly.” “Earthly?” says Will. ‘Oh it just means like Earth. Lots of people think I’ve gotten Earthly. I like being Earthly, though.” Heloise speaks very earnestly, and somewhat quickly now. “It depends on the person what they think about being Earthly.” There’s an overly casualness to this earnest over-explanation that makes all the natural-born Earthly people in the room think that being “Earthly” probably is a pretty big insult. “If you excuse me, I can go get my “phone” and I can look up some information on this topic.” She gets up and goes to where her pack is, and retrieves her phone. She takes a few moments to do the research. While she is out of the room, “Why all the grilling about Posadas?” asks Byers, quietly, to Mulder. “Yeah, pretty damn Earthly of you,” whispers Langly, The others smirk at this new-found put down. (From this point on, when Heloise isn’t around, “being Earthly” is the new all-purpose insult....as in “Get your Earthly butt out of here!”) She finds some pictures of the group she has described, which accompanies an article written in her planet’s script. The pictures are self-explanatory, though, as they show people in cleric’s robes baptizing infants and serving communion, and some show artwork of a figure carrying a cross. She passes her phone around. “Well,” says Mulder, answering Langly’s question, and summing up, “Maybe on Christmas Eve, maybe we were part of an intergalactic Posada and we didn’t even know it.” “But...wasn’t there an actual baby born?” counters Heloise. “Acting!” shouts Langly. with a dramatic upraised hand, recalling John Lovitz on SNL. “That would have been some awesome casting call,” supplies Byers. “One teen girl, pregnant, due end of December…” Heloise gives the lot of ‘em a look like they have actually taken leave of their senses. “I’m thinking, induce delivery, then beam ‘em down to our doorstep.” says Mulder, “And no I don’t know why, except that maybe they thought we would enjoy taking part.” “Well, that’s a very strange theory, Mr. Mulder!” says Heloise. She looks a little aghast. “One among many Mr. Mulder has had!” adds Frohike. “At one point he wanted us to believe there were Aliens around! He was a tad didactic...almost donnish, about the subject.” “Yes, I remember him wanting to believe that very thing! Aliens? Nonsense!” says Byers. “An Alien Posada is very Dada,” says Langly. “Picabia would have been wanted to be in on it.” Mulder likes that he’s getting some “back up” from the three. A troupe of actors from another planet is actually pretty damn mild...He has a flash back to his abduction, and being held in a contraption while he was experimented on...and then...and then...his brain pivots to his sister flying away, abducted from their house…and he has a feeling of sadness... He gets snapped back to the present when Will, says, indignantly, “Well, so in these Alien people’s eyes, this nice cabin is like a barn?” Mulder senses that Will has the wrong take-away, (or not, Hey-So Will and his family are “Earthly"? Who the Hell are these Aliens to be so snotty about life on Earth?) and he tries to pacify him with, “Maybe they expected to be led out to the tool shed, or something...we don’t know...” “Oh, Well, I mean, we had pretty primitive obstetric tools compared with even a rural hospital, so I’d just let it pass” This is Byers, trying to make a rational argument about comparative hospital instrument quality/quantity in the greater Galaxy area... . Frohike says,“Yeah, Will, don’t be mad at them. They’re actors...clearly a bunch of idiots. They probably had the wrong address.” And, from Langly, “Yeah those odd people down at the end of the road? The ones with all those signs out on their lawns?" Byers adds,"Do you know they have a grotto in their back yard? Statues and stuff. Very strange." Langly, again,"They’re probably where the manger was set up. Could be they’re Aliens. The group doing the Posada? Y’see, they were supposed to go there, but their GPS was doing what GPS does best. Completely failing at doing something easy.” Langly brings it around. Nicely. Mulder is reminded of why he likes these guys so much. At this point the dog gets excited and goes to the front door. Byers is already on his way outside and, now outside, is pretending to be checking the sky for snow, or something, and he waves to Scully and comes back in. Scully pulls into the space behind Frohike’s truck. She comes in and hangs up her “Go to Town Coat” on the coat tree. She removes her boots and puts them in the boot tray and puts on some slip-on rubber-soled shoes. (all of Scully's shoes are sensible shoes now that she's out of Washington, DC.) “Hi, what’s for supper?” she says. She quickly washes her hands at the sink, then slides into her set place at the table. Mulder brings over a platter with her first and everyone else’s second round of empanadas and starts it around the side where Humans and Alien sit. Will gets his mom a glass of soda. Scully takes her empanada and after a bite, she says “Olé!” and takes another from the plate. And some sauce. Mulder tells her, “We‘re doing some heretical thinking. My theory is that the couple that we saw on Christmas eve was a Posada. Play-acting by a group of Aliens from Heloise’s planet who lived here for a while and are Catholic. Scully gives him the same look Heloise gave the group earlier. “I delivered a baby from the woman. She wasn’t acting.” Scully gives the group an incredulous look. Heloise puts up both hands and says, “That’s what I said.” Will takes two empanadas and spoons some more salsa from the bowl. He seems satisfied that there are some people that are arguing against the whole idea of a Posada, so he doesn’t have to defend his idea that this would have been an outrageous act by some snotty Aliens, and also, the food is delicious. “Me too.” Everyone agrees that empanadas could be a tradition from now on, and “Even not just on Three King’s Day,” says Scully. From this point on, though, according to Langly, this will be known as the Obstetrical Theatrical Didactical Galactical Dada Posada Empanada Conspiracy Heresy GPS-ery The-o-ry. “It’s the first Conspiracy Theory of the New Year. Happy New Year, Gunmen.” Mulder raises his glass. All raise their glass and clink. Heloise says, “Wow. And, you know, that visit? It’s exactly why it was so good that I gave you that early warning device for your cabin and the out buildings! Suppose it had been the Unfriendlies!” After she and Mulder had installed the device, Heloise arranged to have it tested. Just to be sure it was going to perform correctly, she contacted one of her fellow Space Cadets (yes. That’s the translation of the name of young people of the organization she’s in! Tee-Hee, Shrug!) and that Cadet got permission to fly an “Unfriendly” craft... (captured in an earlier skirmish with the Unfriendlies, it has been disarmed and it’s used to hone maneuvers in practice fights)...out to the cabin. Every buzzer and bell Mulder, Scully, and Heloise have gets jingled, so they know it works. The Gunmen and Will miss the demo at the Cabin, but they are told they might get a message, and to just respond that they got it. Heloise at that moment is reminded that she should go over how it works: She says, “The warning actually comes in like a normal “you’ve got mail” notification-a ding or buzz, or if it’s a phone set to vibrate, then, that,” she says, “But it will persist until someone checks the mail, where there will be a warning and instructions. There will be a map of the cabin here and it will show you where the suspected trouble is coming from, and an estimate of the size and position of the invaders, and when they might arrive. And, it has you respond that you have received the warning.” Langly says, “Actually, when you tested it, we did get the notification, but we knew it was a test, so we just responded that we’d gotten the warning.” It’s at that moment when Heloise puts two and two together...”Wait a minute,” she says, using an Earthly phrase that denotes suspicion, “is this how you knew where to lob those snowballs?...I mean...we were cloaked…” As she is saying this, the scene shifts back to the snow fort and now we can see the Gunmen looking at their phones and tracking the family craft as it approaches. “I’m getting about 150 ft. up and...directly over the junction of this street to the main road…” says Byers to Langly and Frohike. “Wow this is a really big ship, it’s gonna be impossible to miss!” says Langly as he lobs the first snowball. The Gunmen start to lob more snowballs as the scene fades out. At the table, Heloise looks angrily at the Gunmen. They actually used her gift to throw snowballs! Frohike looks at Heloise, and coos, “Well, we needed to test the system. For ourselves..to make sure…” “Nice try! That’s bogus!” says Will. Langly points out that, “If it had been Unfriendlies, we would have been able to run, hide, or perhaps launch deterrents, to evade capture, so it was a really good test! It’s a wonderful device!” Langly suddenly has a little smirk on his face and says, “I assure you we got no pleasure out of pelting your ship with snowballs.” “Hmmm, Well, let me assure you that we got no pleasure in “getting you back” on the patio.” Will chirps rightbackatcha. Scully speaks up. She says, “Well, I think everyone had fun. We want Heloise’s family to know that when she comes to visit here, that we have a lot of fun.” “Yup!” says Langly. Byers, at this point, has traversed over to the television in the Great Room and calls out, “What’s your pleasure, folks?” Their discussion turns to which of several movies they might watch. They decide that Heloise might like to see an animated movie, Zootopia. “The animals act like humans, sometimes very silly, so it’s satire,” says Langly. “And everyone has fun!” says Will. After the movie, Scully brings Heloise up to one of the bedrooms. There's a teddy bear on the pillow, and Scully explains that "Sometimes children have little stuffed animals that they take around with them, even to bed, and when they grow up, sometimes they put the stuffed animal in their room as a cute decoration." Heloise nods and smiles. If she thinks that's Earthly, she doesn't let on. Everyone retires to their respective resting areas, Will needs some milk and cookies, etc. By the next weekend, Heloise's ship has gotten a thorough maintenance and cleaning, and Will and Heloise go back to their planetary adventures. Part Two Picture Credit: Pedro Furtato https://www.pexels.com/photo/crispy-empanadas-with-dipping-sauces-on-plate-28902899/ 
Tuesday, March 26 through Saturday March 30th, 2019, and the Cabinistas are celebrating a family version of “Independence Day.” It’s a five-day celebration, but it’s usually just said as “Wooshing Day” It’s the anniversary of Will and Heloise “liberating” the Gunmen from the U.S. Government. On the day when they got “Whooshed Up”, Mulder pan-fries some farm-fresh trout (with Heloise’s herbs!) and Scully has made a big fruit salad. Plus some cupcakes. The Mulders, Will, and Heloise have champagne, and the Gunmen are served sparkling water. Mulder takes his champagne glass and toasts Will and Heloise: “Our heroes!" Everyone clinks their glasses. Mulder bought some fireworks and they have been stored in the shed. After it gets dark, Will and Heloise, “the guests of honor” says Byers, are seated in the Adirondack chairs on the grassy knoll, wrapped in some afgans knitted by Frohike, and are treated to a short, but fine show of pyrotechnics by the Gunmen and Mulder. Scully sits inside on the couch with the Black Labrador and comforts her. Then the others come in for hot cocoa and hot water. Over supper on the second day of the celebration the three robots announce that they are opening up discussion about what they should be called. “The Lone Gunmen?...well that era is over. The government has released all they’re gonna release on that topic, and none of it made anything any more clear…” says Frohike. Actually Mulder and Scully had suggested to the three a few days ago that they should consider a new name because, as Mulder explains,”We were talking about you three the other day in public and we noticed heads were turning. We think it was because people were hearing the word 'gunmen'”. Scully adds, “It opens you up to the wrong kind of attention, if you know what I mean.” So the group, after mulling it over, had decided to take suggestions. “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” is, unfortunately, already taken,” says Byers. “I kind of fancy “The Three Caballeros”, says Langly, referencing the Disney movie. Mulder says, “The Three Wild and Crazy Guys”?, referencing Steve Martin and Dan Akroid, “Three Dog Knights?” "or, may I suggest, "The Three Paisanos?" says Mulder. Langly says, "Hmmm, Paisanos is getting pretty close!" "I like it, too," Frohike says, and continues, "I like Paisanos, but also Cumpari." "Ah, Goombahs!" says Byers. They decide they could be known as The Group Formerly Known As Lone Gunmen (GFKALG) or just The Group...or maybe The Goombahs. Mulder is delighted. He makes a gesture at the Group like "The Fonz" on "Happy Days" used to do and says, "Aaaaaay! Goombahs!" On Day Five of the “Wooshing Day”celebration, The Group is given a wonderful surprise gift from Heloise and the Elders. All three get whooshed up into the ship, supposedly to help Will pack up some Martian soil samples to be picked up by a supply ship which will take them back to Science Base but they are going to be surprised. Will shows them he has already packed the soil samples. Instead, in communication with the Robotics Team on Heloise’s planet, Will conducts a thorough examination of each of the three. He opens up all the panels that give access to their insides, and sends the pictures to her planet. He does some tests at the behest of the Robotics Team, using some special equipment that was brought to the ship by a supply ship. This is done so that, if one of the three has a mishap, “Well, say you’re doing a repair on one of the roofs, and you fall off!” says Will, “We would be able to put you back together correctly because we have the data from when you were in good operating order!” The Group sends the Elders and the Robotics team a message expressing their appreciation. … to which Langly adds, ”and Heloise says it’s covered by Obamacare, too!” To his surprise, the Elders and Robotics Team “get” the joke. Friday, May 17, 2019: Will has his Senior Prom. Mulder finds out about this the next day, Saturday, when Will joins him and Frohike in the Greenhouse in the morning. Will says that everyone attended the dance. Some people came as partners, but lots of folks went as singles. Will tells them that's it's sort of considered an old fashioned custom to only stay with your one partner. "We do a lot of line dancing, and everyone dances with everyone.The guys I hang out with- we all decided we'd try to dance with all the girls." The other gunmen walk by and rap on the glass as noon approaches. Everyone washes the dirt off their hands.and sits outside on the patio. Scully and Will bring out sandwiches, chips, and soda, and cups of water. Later Scully says Will told her about his prom, too: "He said they danced with all the lady teachers too." Mulder has a sudden vision of "The Oath of the Horatii" by David, and the three guys are pledging their dad, not to fight valiantly for their country, but that they "WILL" dance with Mrs. Hasenpfeffer, the ancient History teacher as well as dance with the young History teacher, Ms. Costa. May 20, 2019: Will passes his 18th birthday. Mr. Van De Camp reminds him that he must register with the Selective Service, which he does. The next weekend, He goes to a party with some of his friends from school at a friend's house in town. They have a pool. Sometime in between all the games in and out of the pool, Will is tempted to try some alcohol and he comes home noticeably impaired. Mr. Van De Camp expresses concern to Mrs. Van De Camp. While he is helping his mom with some heavy lifting later on Sunday, Marlena, Mrs. Van De Camp, says to Will that if he decides to drink, to call his dad and they will drive him and his car home. "It's the driving back that upset your dad" she says.She adds that they could meet at the end of the street so Will won't be razzed by the other guys.Saturday, May 25, 2019, Will is visiting for the weekend. He's driving out of town after having gone to the Home "n" Ranch store for supplies The Group needs, when there is a traffic tie-up. He soon sees the source of the problem: a little white-ish long-haired dog is running along the side side of the road, but sometimes running too close to traffic and people slow down, or even stop. When Will gets ahead of the dog he puts on his flashers and pulls over to the curb,gets out and puts his hand up for traffic to stop, Traffic does stop because they see he's going to call the dog. He opens his door and the pup jumps in. He waves at all the traffic and hops in himself and closes the door. They honk and wave as they go past. He carefully pulls out into the roadway and drives to the cabin. He calls ahead to Langly. "He or she?" asks Langly? "Ummmm, she," says Will. When he gets there he lets the other dog get to know the pup and accept it. Then the big dog shows the little dog how to use the dog door. Will goes outside and they are playing, and very well. The Group have been down in the field and they walk up onto the patio and greet the pup. Then they go to Will's truck and get their supplies.
They feed the pup and the other dog early. The Group starts supper. Mulder and Scully are surprised and delighted when they come in from work. While Will was in the Ranch "N" Home store he found a nice gift for the people at the cabin. It's a flag display kit, including the hardware. The Group puts the hardware in place on the porch, and then they have to wait for Memorial Day, but The Group gets up extra early to set out the flag. Later they have a BBQ. The Van de Camps attend and Gus expresses admiration that Will found such a nice gift. Everyone agrees. Tuesday, June 11, 2019: Will and his two sets of parents attend Will’s graduation. They film it live for Heloise, up in the ship hovering near the cabin, and she CCs it to her relatives on their ship. In the reception time after the ceremony, Will tells everyone who asks that he will be taking online courses and working at his birth parents' farm. He says he’ll still be available on his e-mail, and gives that out. What he’ll really be doing will be working with Heloise on her ship. He will be taking courses “online” from her planet as part of his work in the Space Exploration Program. He’ll also take language courses and history courses to learn more about Heloise’s planet. Tuesday June 25, 2019: Supper time at the Cabin: Two of the Group, Langly and Byers, have been up in the “Office” with Will and Heloise this week. The ship has some robots that can be used to collect samples of substances in the Solar System, but The Group, who do not need protective wear in most circumstances, have been helping collect samples of the soil on Mars. “I don’t have to spend a lot of time lining up the scooping process, says Will, “I say, ‘some from there, please!’ and they can see where I mean!” "They are very helpful!” says Heloise to The Mulders, sitting with a before-dinner cocktail over at the table. Over the summer, 2019, everyone finds out that they must be very careful because there is a virus that is very contagious. There are announcements from governmental health agencies about precautions people should take. Mulder reports that one of the staff at the library was admitted to the hospital with the strange “Covid” sickness. He says, “some of the people are saying it’s some sort of hoax, but from what I heard about that guy...it’s made a believer out of me! They intubated him!” “Yes,” agrees Scully, “We’ve had in-services at work about it. It’s nothing to fool around with!” January 2020- May 2021: There is a terrible pandemic on Earth. Heloise and Will are told to stay aloft and not to visit Earth until there is a vaccine, and until the situation improves. Mulder is put on a will-call basis at the library. Scully is still on call at Mount Weather. Business is curtailed, so business computer use is down, and Byers is let go from his job. The Gallery is not making any sales, so they can't take any more pictures from Langly. Scully, Byers, and Langly do fiber arts, knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, and such, with Frohike. Scully now attends her adult church class via Zoom. The Ecumanical Services are halted. It's unknown if they will resume. Father Brennan tells his parishioners that he can hear confessions over the phone. Mulder and the Group step up to the task of being the "two or three", who "when gathered together in My Name, I will be among them" several times a week. Sometimes this occurs spontaneously when they are listening to the news after supper, such as when it is reported that morgues in several cities were so crowded with bodies, the cities brought in refrigerated trucks, or, when there was a report of mass graves being opened up for the burial of homeless indigents, family unknown. These people have no one to weep for them. Standing in the living room of the cabin, hundreds of miles away, Scully provides this small gesture of love for them. Scully adds an extra shift onto her schedule and she assists in the care of several cases of Covid which happen to some of the staff at Mount Weather. Deliveries to some of the restaurants are rescheduled at longer intervals, weekly deliveries become bi-weekly and some of those are cancelled. Babushka, in a mask, does all the shopping for the cabin. When she returns, she washes up with antibiotic soap in the greenhouse and wipes down anything she thinks needs wiping down before coming into the Cabin. Everyone enjoys Zoom calls with Will and Heloise in their office. Some of these calls are co-ordinated with the Van De Camps. Heloise and Will visit Heloise's family on their big ship a lot more then they might have otherwise. Heloise's mom calls often to the ship, knowing that Will has seen some bad news about the progress of the virus that she has also watched on her device, and she comforts him. Just about every time the supply ship arrives, there are baked goods from home. In the middle of all this on Thursday, March 26, 2020, there is a small celebration of "Wooshing Day". The Cabinistas hold a big Zoom meeting with Will and Heloise, the Van de Camps and Heloise's parents. The Humans and Aliens have champagne or Best Drink, and The Group has sparkling water. Shortly after this, Frohike, as Babushka, is out shopping and she decides to take "the long way home" simply because everyone has to stay at home so much. She is enjoying her ride, when she happens to notice a Garden Shop and Nursery that is open for business. She stops and makes a purchase which surprises her as much as anyone when she shows up at the cabin with the goods. She has bought several grapevine plants, which are promised to grow seedless table grapes. The proprietor, who is waiting on her, advises her of where she can purchase a pre-fabricated arbor.
Her purchase is warmly received. "Table grapes!" says Scully, "In an arbor! Wonderful!" The vines are still in large containers in the greenhouse. The Group orders the arbor online and decides to put it at the far end of the patio, but out a bit. They can run water lines to it easily There will be benches. At supper a few days later, the Group proposes that they find a corner on the property for an orchard. "The idea came up when we were deciding on a place for the grape arbor" says Byers. Frohike says, "We can grow cherry trees in this zone, as you know" Byers adds, "We might all enjoy the trees in blossom as well as the fruits."(Of course he's thinking of the famous cherry trees in Washington, DC.) Mulder already makes stewed apples in the slow cooker from time to time. He asks if they could also plant some of the types of apples he uses. Babushka says she will investigate what varieties can be grown best in their area and inquire at the nursery. This orchard plan-cherry and apple trees-is approved by everyone. Babushka finds varieties of apples that are recommended for cooking. The area for the orchard is prepared with irrigation lines connected to a solar pump near where the stream exits the property. The trees are delivered and planted by the nursery workers under the direction of Babushka, who has a plan of the property and points where the trees should be put. The plan is that there will be only a few trees for family consumption."We want to see if we can successfully grow the trees before we get any more." says Langly. The trees are pretty but, because they are very small, it is a meager blossom show and harvest. No one is discouraged. So far, the trees have been sucessfully transplanted from the containers. Over at the arbor,there are tiny grapes on the vines. They never quite make it to full size. Frohike experiments with pickling them. "Very unusual, even weird," says Mulder. The garden, though, produces a lot of vegetables this year, and Babushka is able to supply the Food Bank with what usually would be sold at the Farmer's Market. Success is declared. Unfortunately, in February, the restaurant next to the Food Bank has to close because of the shut-down. They owners put it up for sale. A group of undisclosed people meet and decide that there could be a second Food Kitchen, but this would be a restaurant that would extend the Food Kitchen's present task of teaching people to be short order cooks while they provide meals for the community. There is a back patio and garden area. The new plan is to offer the place for private parties-birthdays or anniversaries and other events- on a sliding scale of fees. The Group decides to convert a portion of the field far to the back of the property, which hasn't been used yet as a garden, to supply this new restaurant. Several farms in the area pledge a portion of their vegetable crop.They are able to fill staff from the prior restaurant plus several people who have been laid off from work in the community. Another Wooshing Day" celebration is repeated on Friday, March 26, 2021. People have been getting vaccinated and there is the promise that life will soon return to normal. "The President is proposing a lot of new bills to stimulate the economy" says Mulder. Byers adds, "One of the bills will stimulate growth in electric vehicles, so that's interesting to see happen." Mulder and Scully have a hybrid car, and wonder if they will have an electric vehicle someday, powered by the rooftop solar the Gunmen have devised for their house. Soon, the trees are covered in blossoms and the air is sweet in the fields. In May, there is a huge surprise when The Group discovers a swarm of bees has taken up residence under the eaves of the stair building which goes to the underground storage area (and prepper bunker.) They call a guy who sells honey at the Farmer's Market who keeps bees to see if they are his and he says they're not, but he quickly adds that if they want them removed, he will do so for free. Instead the group asks him where they can buy protective bee suits, smoke pots, hive boxes, and the other things bee-keepers need. "Well,I guess we have our own honey now." declares Frohike. The Group decides that the swarm may have been attracted by the flowering trees. On May 11, the Covid Pandemic was officially declared to be over. Will and Heloise can visit again. When they whoosh down from the ship, Will and Heloise often don't come right in the cabin, but take a walk over to look at and smell the trees. They begin to integrate a walk around the property to visit the field, the trees, and at the end of the fields, the bees.The dogs accompany them. Sometimes they take off their shoes and walk in the stream. Sometimes they walk through the grass that grows around the trees. It's a welcome change from sitting all day in the ship looking at screens. One day, while watching the bees in the hives, Langly comes out of the cabin, and over to them, and reminds them to make sure someone of The Group is in the field before they go over to the hives. They aren't wearing any protective clothes. "We want to be able to zoom over and get you out of there if the bees get frightened by something and attack." Will thanks him for this reminder and Langly goes back to the field to finish weeding. On their way back to the house, Will relates Bee and Robot facts. "The average bee can fly at about 15-20 miles per hour." "And robots?" asks Heloise. "Frohike says they tested them at the Naval base...Langly was fastest but they all tested at about 45mph." Heloise has learned an Earthly expression: "Cool!" she says. Part Three Picture Credit: Gabriel Mihalcea https://www.pexels.com/search/fireworks/ 
Tuesday, June 22, 2021: It's Supper time, and everyone is at the cabin. Life has returned to normal, mostly. Heloise and Will have collaborated on making a beef stew that uses herbs and spices grown in the greenhouse but the spices were grown from seeds from Heloise’s planet. “It tastes pretty close to my mom's!" says Heloise. The Mulders enjoy it. Scully says, "Some of the spices are like our spices, some are exotic-very interesting!” she says. “Thank you for making this!” Heloise extends her hand over at the Gunmen, “Well it’s really because they grew them so nicely for us!” The Group make sort-of bows while staying seated. Heloise and Will have come back from an extensive science voyage to collect information about the planet Jupiter. (She is working her way out from the center of the Solar System. Before Will joined her, Heloise had done exploration on Mercury, Venus, and was starting on Earth with another partner who was advanced to another position in another part of the Galaxy and then she was paired with William, who was very helpful for her study of Earth. They had finished their exploration of Mars in 2019.) Will and Heloise learn that many of the markets and restaurants have returned to business as usual. Frohike reports that they have added a small supermarket chain, “Rube’s Market”, to the list of places where they will bring their specialty vegetables and herbs. “We don’t know if this will engender another new greenhouse.” says Frohike. “It could. We’re finding out if there’s much of a demand for our product in this independent chain of ten stores. We’ll bring over the product, in bulk, to their distribution center. They will package the product in small containers. Then we’ll see if it sells.” “In other words, truck around, find out.” sums up Langly. Heloise has been biding her time. She had a long conversation with her parents last night. They have not met either the Mulders or the Van de Camps in person, although they have been introduced and had some pleasant chats on video calls. They are aware that Heloise's mom was very kind to Will during the Pandemic. Heloise says, "My parents have arranged to be in the area and have invited you two and the Van de Camps for a meeting on their ship. Scully says “Oh, My! I can’t wait to meet them in person! Heloise, does your mom have any pictures of you growing up? Did you do well at school? What is she proud of? Heloise hesitates and then blushes, “Oh, I used to get good grades at school-my teachers were wonderful- and of course, I placed early to be in the Space Exploration Program. They’re really proud of me having my own office now, at such a young age.” After supper they call the Van de Camps and they are thrilled as well. The meeting won’t take place for a few weeks. Scully asks Mrs. Van de Camp Marlena-Lena-if she will bring any photos of Will growing up and older photos of her family. Lena agrees. “I can bring some mementos, as well. Will was in Scouts, and won some awards at school. We’re very proud of him.” Scully will bring pictures of her family and Mulder’s. She wants to see all the pictures of Will growing up and his awards, and she wonders why she never thought before to ask to have Lena bring all these things. Well, it just seems like this is the perfect time to share! Tuesday, July 16, 2021: The time for the big tri-family visit has come. The Van de Camps arrive by Heloise’s ship. They have brought a box of mementos of Will growing up and they stow it in the guest quarters on the ship. Scully and Mulder move into another small bedroom. Heloise doesn’t anticipate that it will be an overnight journey, “just a few hours,” she says, “but you may rest here, if you care to...” The Gunmen will take care of the cabin and the dogs. “Have fun!” they say. Heloise's parents run a very large “business” which is in an enormous station in space. usually in orbit at a planet fairly far away from our solar System. They have a government contract to do regular maintenance and emergency repairs on government vehicles. For emergencies, they send out a vehicle which resembles, in function, a flatbed truck that a repair shop would use to bring a disabled vehicle in from the side of the road. This ship, The Stern Winch, is the ship Frank was using to bring Heloise and Will back to the Cabin while Heloise’s dad and the expert mechanics at his business went over every inch of his daughter’s government-issued ship. In a few hours, the group arrives at the family ship. It has the name Aphros on the side. "Aphros comes from Earth Language, Greek," Heloise explains, and it means "sea foam". When we have to go somewhere to take in ships to do maintenance or to repair, we move out of the heavily travelled lanes... sort of like when foam gets pushed into out of the way into places under or aside of docks. We try not to inconvenience traffic." They also learn that "Aphros" is the name of the ship, not the business. Spaced equidistant in fours places around the upper deck of the ship, but not in obstruction of any viewing screens, are four signs. They proclaim in their Bountiful Language, that this is "Al's Ship Repair", named for Heloise's dad, Alphonse. Beneath that, in smaller print, is the slogan "Ship Wrecked? Come See Al!" in several languages. Now, indeed, although the ships guest quarters are currently empty of customers, people needing repairs can actually stay at Al's and use a courtesy vehicle, or just use the courtesy vehicle to continue their business. The sign are retractable, and stored in small aerodynamic hatches in the ship's outer shell when the station travels, which doesn't happen often, but can be done. They enter one of the bays and dock there. Normally they would use shuttle craft for travel to and from ships and planets, but several of the Aphros' bays are not being used because they are here to have the family visit, not on business. After helping the Van de Camps and Mulders settle into their rooms, Heloise’s parents have “tea and snacks” for them, even though they have had lunch on the way there. “Well, My parents want to make sure you aren’t hungry!” says Heloise. “Dinner is later so don’t fill up too much!” They sit in a room which has a beautiful view of the Milky Way. Scully asks who made the delicious snacks and Heloise’s Mom, Avai (named for a famous Indian Poetess, Avvai, but with a shortened spelling,) says she did, and adds that she loves to bake any chance she gets (her role in the family business is sort of a compliance code officer. She makes sure that all the government rules and regulations are followed, but cooking and baking is her passion.) "Actually Will told us about your cookies from home during the Pandemic, and Heloise told us when we first met her how you love to cook,“ says Scully, and she takes a gift out of a bag she has brought out from their room to the tea. The gift is a large selection of the herbs and spices commonly used on Heloise’s planet, “These are fresh from the greenhouse.” says Scully, “Our friends who grow the herbs, spices, and vegetables, have, for a while, grown these so Heloise would feel “at home” with Earth’s food. Sometimes she makes us food she grew up with. Made by you.” Heloise adds,“I asked Miranda (to the Van de Camps and Mulders: "that's Frank's wife") to order seeds and send them on the supply ship.” After Avai looks this gift over and comments, "I will love to use these fresh herbs and spices!" she points out three spices that are "my favorites!" Heloise’s parents show the Van de Camps and Mulders around their huge ship via a small open cart. From a pressurized platform above the work area, Heloise’s parents proudly show a government ship being brought into one of the “bays" for regular maintenance, and how the expert mechanics go to work on it once the bay door has been re-closed and the area pressurized. The people dropping off the vehicle will be using a loaner ship to continue their work while the ship is being serviced. When Heloise’s parents leave, briefly, to help in another area, the head mechanic tells them, in an aside, with a limited English vocabulary that Heloise’s dad is “... a nice man...” and her mom is “...a sweet lady...” "...nice cakes... for everyone!" The man gestures to include all the workers in the bay. At that moment his family arrives by another small cart to pick him up after work. His son explains, in better English, (he's a language major at a university)that they’re going to another families’ quarters for dinner and a show of some sort using a device that is very much like a television set. From the description of the program, it’s closest to maybe the old Ed Sullivan show, a variety hour where there are acts of skill and grace. Mulder and Scully and the Van de Camps find out during this exchange that Will and Heloise often access these same types of programs on their own device after work, when they get time to relax. Mulder and Scully and The Van de Camps get a moment to reflect on how nicely things have worked out for Will. picture credit: frepic https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/futuristic-metal-sliding-spaceship-door_36533223.htm 
Will and Heloise have a special surprise for her parents, the Van de Camps, and the Mulders. They have enlisted the aid of both Heloise’s brother and The Group to elicit opinions of the idea of Will and Heloise “Getting engaged” with Heloise’s parents and with the Van de Camps, the last time the Van de Camps were over for a visit and they have subtly inserted the idea into conversations with The Mulders. Both Frank and The Group report that this is “an absolute “Go” all around.
So at dinner in the family quarters, before Avai goes to get the dessert,(Oooh, cake!) while everyone is talking about the cabin, and the auto repair business, and the family farm, Will takes Heloise’s hand under the table and slips on a beautiful diamond ring. Will clears his throat, and says they have an announcement. The three family groups look over to them and Heloise brings her hand out. It’s a real sparkler. All three women take turns holding Heloise’s hand and oohing and ahhhing. Heloise’s father goes to a small metal cabinet and brings back two very large (like a jeroboam size) bottles of what they call “Best Drink”. And then goes and gets eight glasses from the pantry. He opens both bottles up and pours everyone the first round. He distributes these. He goes back to his seat but stays standing, then lifts his glass. Everyone does likewise. He says, “To My Darling Heloise and Her Brave Will: You are true friends and wonderful children. May your marriage fulfill all your dreams! To you!" Everyone clinks glasses. Mulder turns his phone around. He’s called Langly. At the cabin, The Group are also standing and they clink their water glasses, filled with sparkling water, together. They say “Good for you! We love you both!” They take spoons and begin to make rapid clinking sounds, and yell “Kiss!, Kiss! Kiss!" And the humans aboard the Aphros begin to clink their glasses and yell this as well. So Will and Heloise kiss, making a big “smacking” sound into the phone. Everyone laughs. The “Best Drink” is fermented, and bubbly, and just sweet enough. It’s made from a type of berry. Hellova kick, too. Mulder makes a note to himself to ask if he can get some of this stuff. One of the best times for weddings on Bountiful (Heloise's planet) is in what would be the winter months on the northern Hemisphere on Earth. The Earth parents say that an after Christmas Wedding might be very nice. They set a time in January: Tuesday, January the 18, 2022 so it’s after Three Kings Day. It may bump up against the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday some years, but it’s when Heloise’s parents can make it with appointments they already have scheduled. They also know they have to schedule the place they want for the ceremony and reception a long time in advance. They think six months ought to be enough. Heloise’s parents spend the next morning arranging the wedding with their spiritual advisor. Then they begin to discuss a reception, with a meal, and a cake! Marlena Van de Camp says she has given Avai the recipe for a wedding cake: a spice cake with cream frosting-”Oh, my! It’s super delicious!” she says. They reserve the place for the wedding and reception. (Will and Heloise will also make an appointment with a Justice of the Peace and be already legally married in an “Earthly” ceremony before the religious ceremony. Any wedding notices to the local paper and marriage announcements to friends or family will only note the civil ceremony, and be short on details other than the names and date.) “If anybody is miffed about not being invited, well, we’re not putting on the wedding, so we’ll just shrug and say we missed them, too!” says Lena. In the afternoon, at another tea time, Heloise’s parents relate a story about their family history. In Alphonse's family, there were three members, two brothers and a male cousin, who lived in a religious community in the USA in the mid-1800s. These communities were experimental communities. Everyone shared resources and work. The three men were observing life on Earth. They were “very attracted to the ideals of the group” says Heloise’s father. The group was a splinter of the main group, and operated in Connecticut. The three young men observing the community, had realized that there weren’t enough men born into the community to do the farming and ranching chores. They wanted to help out. Also there were women there who had no prospective suitors for what the community called “propagative love“ which was sex with the hope of conceiving children. The young men married and had children with three very lovely young ladies. Heloise’s father says, “They went to great lengths to be a part of the Earth community.” They underwent an operation to change their ears to round ears, like Earthly people. They gave up their comfortable life on our planet to do hard farm work.” The family history records that these were happy families. Eventually, in their lifetimes, the community dissolved in the wake of a terrible tornado. Some children opted to come to our planet. The others went their own way. “Our family doesn't have any information on them. They’re somewhere out there being good Americans, or good citizens of some other country. We just don’t know.” Back in their room, Mulder tells Scully that Heloise’s parents’ message, which was “cleverly” embedded in this story, is that marriages between their daughter and Mulder’s and Scully’s son can be very happy -and produce children. Of course, everyone also knows that Mr. Mulder is the product of an Alien and his mother. So they are all assured that this marriage can work. “No mules here!” says Mulder sticking his thumbs under imaginary suspenders to Scully. She rolls her eyes, and kindly passes on any references to jackasses. “Yes they can breed. How nice.” and makes an “Pow! Upside the head!” gesture at him, but, he’s right of course. It has to be considered. They want grandchildren. Of note here is that when some children were born to descendants of these men, they had to have an "ear job" to make their ears like human ears. It turns out this procedure is not much more involved than a bris. Recovery using the advanced medical techniques available, is within 24 hours. The medical team involved usually has been sent to do this from the Alien's planet. It's usually recorded as a home birth, even though it takes place on a medical spaceship. It turns out there's no law you have to rush to the local hospital. After the third day, everyone goes back to Earth on Heloise’s ship. Langly greets them, “The dogs, I think, missed you. I thought maybe they wouldn’t eat, but, um No. They contained their sorrow.” Will, Heloise, and Scully set up the appointment for the civil marriage by a Justice well in advance of the ceremony date being proposed for the ceremony in Heloise’s community. The Bride and Groom wear special robes on Heloise’s planet, and Avai will get them some, but Scully and Heloise go out almost immediately and get some simple (but timeless) clothes they will wear for the civil ceremony. Will and Mulder will have on business suits. Scully advises Heloise that she will need a trousseau. “Have you discussed a Honeymoon Trip?” She asks. It turns out that Will and Heloise might like to go for a trip to some of the places which afford a nice view of the Milky Way. Heloise’s parents help arrange for Will and Heloise to visit a place they recommend, and they can use one of the loaner ships. With a second trip, Heloise has added in some more nice dressy clothes to her wardrobe of look-alike uniforms... Picture credit: Sergei Tokarev on Unsplash 
Sunday, January 16, 2022: The Van De Camps and the Mulders are back aboard the Aphros and are on their way to Bountiful. Will and Heloise are going to be married at an Art Center, in two days, in the atrium of the building, where there is a lovely garden area. “It’s a very popular place to be married!” says Heloise. The Earthlings find out that Heloise's parents have a very small place like an apartment on the planet, but they mostly stay on the business ship when they do business on the planet, so everyone will remain of the business ship and take the shuttle down for the ceremony. One of the cousins will record parts of the ceremony and send it to The Group’s phones back on Earth, where they are busy with the fields, and the dogs. Will and Heloise, the Van de Camps, the Mulders and all the family members will get a copy along with “stills” to be put in a memento book. One family member who will not be attending is Heloise's younger sister, Bridgette. She also is in the Government Space Exploration Service and is with a science team in another galaxy. At this time they have come upon a populated planet undergoing a catastrophic event. A meteor crashed into their planet, a sending off vast clouds of dust into the atmosphere. (Yes, this is like the event that killed off the dinosaurs. It's very serious.) Their crops failed because the dust blocks sunlight from their sun. The team has shifted into emergency mode, bringing in food from their outposts, and also bringing in large machines which, mounted on ships, will vacuum up the dust and collect it to be returned to the surface of the planet. They want to not have to evacuate everyone from the planet, although that is an option. Right now they do evacuate non-emergency people, and the equivalent of volunteer firefighters are helping restore their planet. Bridgette is able to send off a video of herself at the controls of one of the machines removing the dust. She makes a joke about always being a better vacuumer than Heloise. (Heloise laughs and says "It's true! She liked operating all the cleaning machines in our apartment!") She promises a visit "when the planet is stabilized, but...it could take years! I love you Sis! Send me some wedding pics?" Mulder and Scully learn that one of the people Heloise looks forward to seeing is Elder Adele. “Elder Adele is the leader who recommended Heloise and then Bridgette, for the Space Cadet Program.” Frank tells them, “She is very special to Heloise and Bridgette. Elder Adele has been instrumental in arranging for the ceremony to be conducted by Elder Maxine, a renowned cleric. Elder Adele and Elder Rom -he’s Heloise’s local cleric, will also do parts of the ceremony!” Mulder says, “Ah, so Elder Adele- her role is analogous to a Senator recommending some person that’s graduating high school to go to one of the military colleges: West Point or Annapolis, or the Air Force one...”.”Well, Yes, but probably not officiate at their marriage.” adds Scully, pointing out a difference. “But the military or government part-yes.” Frank agrees with that part of the analogy. The Earth parental group is also given ceremonial robes which they may wear. Mulder declares that he’s waited his whole life to wear a “Space Mu-Mu, like Jor-El in Superman.” He puts on the robe part, and says, loudly, to Scully “Neither I nor my wife will try to escape Krypton…” She eye-rolls. Scully has brought a beautiful dress for herself and a dark suit for Mulder. They may decide to take off the ceremonial robes for the reception, if they care to. Unnecessarily, perhaps, Scully reminds Mulder that, "You have to be wearing other clothes underneath..." The Earth parental group is fascinated to watch the music being played as guests arrive. They watch from an anteroom, as they will not enter until they all will join Heloise’s parents and they will escort both the Bride and the Groom in to stand before the Clerics, and then they will go sit as a parental group. When Heloise and her parents arrive, Heloise's mom goes over to Mrs. Van De Camp and lets her know that the wedding cake is the spice cake recipe. She adds, "I practiced it several times, and it should be just right!" The instruments do sound sort of like how they look: there are stringed instruments and others that operate like brasses and woodwinds, maybe... Mulder says “Wow, lots of percussion instruments!” Scully warns Mulder that he’d “better not request anything, if you know what’s good for you.” From that point on, Gus and Mulder whisper back and forth the name of some tunes that they aren’t allowed to request. “I bet the drummer knows “Wipeout,” says Gus-Mr. Van de Camp. Mulder sends a text message to The Group, “I heard they were going to play banned music; I wanted them to play “Louie, Louie” Ohhh...band music? Well, that’s very different! Never mind…” Mulder and Gus have finished singing "Lola" very softly and have embarked upon "Let's Spend the Night Together", while they wait for the ceremony to begin, when Heloise’s cousins Bellatrix and Zed come over to sit right next to, as Mulder puts it, “the Earthly part of the Parental Group”. Their voices trail off in the instrumental part, and now as the ceremony starts, they listen as the cousins begin to do a running translation of the ceremony as Zed and she record it. Thanks to Bellatrix and Zed, the Mulders and the Van de Camps are able to appreciate how lovely the ceremony is. Even though Mulder has taken courses in the Alien language, there are layers of meaning to each part of the ceremony, and Bellatrix and Zed explain all these several meanings. Towards the end of the ceremony there is a part where the bride and groom are praised and Heloise's Cleric, Elder Rom, tells the guests personal stories from him and others, augmented with artifacts such as school reports and diplomas, about Heloise. Some are even from when she was a toddler and from pre-school. Everyone is entertained. Then he tells some facts and stories about William. Mrs. Van De Camp has let Elder Rom borrow pictures from her photo album and items from her scrapbook about William. Once again, Will is described as being “brave” and rescuing his friends from being held against their will. The Earthly group discuss this later, and conclude that Will is seen as an example of how good the Earthlings can be. It comes out later, however, that it goes further than that. Apparently a political issue of the day for the beings on Bountiful is whether to become more involved with resisting the “Unfriendlies” and the plans to collude with unscrupulous Earthlings. The two groups could be described as "isolationists" on one side who do not want to get "involved" and "helpers" who want to work behind the scenes to keep the Unfriendlies from colonizing Earth. Mulder and Scully are surprised to find out that the marriage of their son, the son of “supporters” into one of the most prominent families who support more help for the Earthlings is actually seen as a political arrangement as well as just two cadets in love. Mulder says, “Wheels within wheels…” Also Heloise points out that Elder Adele, if you look close, "She has false ears on. Probably just for the ceremony. She’s obviously had an "ear job.” says Heloise. “When someone has had an “ear job” either way-it’s apparent because of the way the ears look. They just look different-from either human ears or our ears." She adds, "There have been far more ear jobs to make our ears round than to make Earthling ears like ours, of course." Speaking of Elder Adele, she says, "She goes around and helps people on Earth. That’s why she may have gotten an ear job. She’s my hero and the hero of my brother and all our cousins. Elder Maxine, and Elder Rom, they're our heroes, too. They are on the side of helping Earthlings, like my parents.“ Picture Credit: Orrery on Pixabay https://pixabay.com/vectors/orrery-armillary-sphere-astronomy-5660828/ 
"A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo . . . and doesn't." - Mark Twain Monday, March 21, 2022 The scene starts with a drone’s eye view of the cabin, coming in from the fields and to the back door of the cabin. From inside the cabin comes...banjo music. It’s that Banjo music, the two dueling instruments from “Deliverance.” The camera comes inside to the Great Room and then we see Mulder (on guitar) and Will (on banjo) learning to play the piece. “We’re adjusting to life in the back hills of Virginny.” explains Mulder as Scully comes into the room. But, of course, that's just what he would tell one of his neighbors, and Scully knows he's just practicing his story. When the wedding was over, and everyone was at the reception, also held in a large function room at the art center, Mulder was delighted to find out that Will actually knew the band. He was surprised that Will and the Group often "jammed" with these musicians while they had downtime out on the ship-like waiting for a scientific process to finish, they would get some instruments out of the room off to the side of the bridge, and contact whoever in the band was free at the moment, and exchange some songs, and song ideas. And of course, there was more to it than even that. This band was made up of earth children with stories similar to Will's...some were half aliens, some were just orphans who didn't know much about their parents. In all cases, they had been contacted by the good Aliens (in some cases, it was owing to Elder Adele's tireless commitment to helping young people who she thought would do well in a program of studies about other worlds and other beings), and offered the same opportunity to work on a ship in the cadet program, and that's how they came to know about one another. Long ago, they had decided they would make a band. Enthusiasm would substitute for talent, or so they thought, but they were surprised to find that they were considered "good" by critics who hardly would have spared them out of sympathy. "They could have been very harsh, but I guess they think we show promise!" laughs their keyboardist, Thalia. They had decided on the name "Earthen Vessels" for the band. One of them came across the phrase in his "Intro to Earth Theologies" class. When Mulder retired, he took up learning to play the guitar, and Will encouraged him with the idea that he also could join in on the "jam sessions" via computer in the cabin. Mulder also has studied the Aliens' language, taken several courses, in fact, and that turns out to be a very good thing as he can follow the conversations during the practice sessions. Some of the band members are from other places on Earth. Their common language is the Alien language. This particular afternoon, Mulder and Will are working on the famous duet just for their own entertainment. Both are speaking both languages. Scully’s got her “Going to Town” coat on. She and Heloise are going shopping, again. Mulder says, “So, are you and Heloise going to break our budget today?” Scully laughs and says,”Maybe...I do want to take her to some of the nice stores and if we see some other things like a blouse or pants, well, I think we should get her some more nice clothes for casual visiting. I like her uniform, but it really does look, well, like a uniform… people at the Wilson’s resort are are going to think that’s pretty strange! She needs more of a selection of clothes, but she needs a swimsuit most of all.” “Here she’s coming to our solar system, and she doesn’t bring a swimsuit? Advanced civilization? Hah! Don’t they have any pool parties where she comes from?” says Mulder. Scully says, “Luckily I can still use my swimsuit from our Bahamas trip, and y’know, we don’t actually know what they do on their planet! All we know about is out on their ships! They might have indoor pools at all their houses.” Heloise enters the room from the patio. She also has a “Going to Town” coat, which was her Christmas gift from the Mulders, along with some low heeled boots. “Is this the new coat from Christmas?” says Mulder “Yes! It’s got a nice warm lining.” says Scully. Heloise picks up the cue and unzips the coat and turns the front inside out, showing off the lining, and inadvertently, her uniform. It’s a nice enough uniform, but yeah, the uniform is all wrong for an indoor pool party with the Wilsons (from the library staff) at The Pines, a posh Senior Resort. Scully and Heloise enter into a two-story mall building A montage of scenes show them looking at swimsuits and Heloise going into the dressing room with three swimsuits. She comes out wearing one, obviously the one she likes best. Scully and Heloise are at the counter and then scully has a bag with their purchase in it. They look at pants and blouses. Then Scully has some more bags. They are at the car now with four shopping bags. The next scene shows them at a restaurant having lunch. All while shopping, Heloise has kept her knit hat on, even while showing Scully her swimsuit. Now, though, in the restaurant, she removes the hat and stuffs the hat and her gloves into the pocket of her coat which she has laid on the bench seat of the booth she and Scully are in. The waitress comes over with two glasses of water. The waitress stops, mouth open, “Oh Wow!” she says , “are those your real ears? I mean, not the fake ones?” Heloise smiles and says “Yep! I’ve had an ear job.“ “Whoa, those are great!” says the waitress, whose nametag says she’s Elaine. “Did you have them done locally?” “No I don’t know where a person here would go to have it done here. Mine were done way up in Canada near Hudson Bay.” says Heloise. “My whole family did them, so we could do Cos-play.” “Like Elves?” Says Elaine. “Yes, Romulans and Vulcans, too!” says Heloise. “Ohhh!Trekies!” says Elaine. Later Heloise catches Elaine whispering to another waitress, who also is open-mouthed when she takes a look at Heloise. Then she giggles and smiles. They have Coquilles St. Jaques served on the shells with tarragon leaves garnish. It’s very delicately flavored and it does remind Scully that she doesn’t have the same fine restaurant choices now that she lives out in the tullies...She can hear the Banjo Music from this morning playing in her head... The young woman who comes around with the dessert cart has also been advised to take a good look at Heloise’s ears, it seems. Scully is amused with how Heloise “with her ‘ear-job story’ has taken being different and made it something to be wished for,” as she explains later to Mulder. While they were out, Will and Mulder went online to a practice session with "Earthen Vessels" and they do a run through of a song they plan to play at a gig their agent has gotten them. It's on a prime time show which features music groups. Saturday, March 26th,2022: It's the week-long celebration of the Anniversary of The Group being Whooshed Up and brought to the Cabin. The celebration once again features some fish with spices from Heloise's planet. Scully made some cupcakes and The Group has some sparkling water. Tuesday March 28, 2022 There’s a long stream that runs along through the trees the base of several nearby mountains and it runs onto the Mulder’s land (the road dead-ends with their property (with a wide space, so garbage trucks and snowplows can easily turn around)) Along the stream there’s a group of beavers who make little ponds for themselves, and they have done that here, but it’s abandoned at this point. One day the dogs come over to where The Group are working and act like they want The Group to come see something. Indeed. There are a pair of ducks on the pond, over where there’s a stand of wild rice. The Lab barks at them and Langly shushes her, and calms her down with praise and petting. The shepherd is also very interested in the ducks. It turns out that the shepherd has decided that they’re her ducks. The little shepherd takes to sleeping near the pond, outside, at least for a few hours, every night. Byers brings her out a dog bed. The Wooshing Celebration won't have any fireworks this year, as that might scare the ducks, not to mention 'Rooni', the new dog. The ducks stay around and the Group decides to make a duckhouse up nearer the knoll. “One half is for ducks the other is for dogs,” explains Byers. The group puts straw inside for a nest and the ducks, Guadalupe and Art Ducko, move in. On the dog side, Frohike has sewn a square dog bed that fits exactly inside the dog side. It has a zippered washable outer cover. On the Duck side the whole top opens up like the hood of a car, so the dirty straw can be removed and the floor can be washed out with a mop.
Every morning at Breakfast, there is a Duck Report by The Group. Soon they report that there are now seven duck eggs and the straw bedding seems to be adequate for Guadalupe, the moma duck, to nestle the eggs into. Prudently, The Group posts signs saying no hunting or fishing on the land. Tuesday April 5, 2022, Will has some good news. He has received a letter from a small, private university located near enough to commute to classes there in his truck. "I think I'm going to take some science, some history, maybe some sociology courses. I've studied history courses about Heloise's planet. I want to know more about our planet, too. History is a required course for freshmen." He will start classes the next fall. That evening, Mulder and Scully are attending a birthday party for (retired) Walter Skinner at his house in the DC suburbs. His children and grandchildren are there. The children and their parents all go out to play and the Mulders and Skinner are suddenly all alone at the party table. Skinner asks them if they ever found out about "that strange kid, showed up, said he was your son? Mulder says, "No, he's a mystery." "Well, I think I know what the story is," says Skinner. Mulder and Scully wait, They want to know the story about that kid! "I get a lot of the gossip, still, you know. The gossip says that The Smoking Guy hired this actor to pretend he was your son...made it out like it was a joke. Huge Joke. Verrrry funny." "Har Har", says Mulder dryly." I hope the kid survived, then." Later Mulder and Scully discuss this, and Scully wonders if his plan was to have one of them shoot "their own son". "It's pretty chilling that he might have thought to fill our lives with grief and regret." "I hope 
Monday, April 15, 2022: An aerial view of the cabin as if from a camera mounted on a drone approaching from above. Now we follow Scully on the inside of the cabin as she delivers some towels to a closet near an open door to a small bathroom. She pulls two small wastepaper basket size bags out of a box of bags and pulls up a full bag out of a wastepaper basket in the bathroom, ties off the loops and puts a new bag in. She goes down the hall, and we can see two other doors. She enters a bedroom and replaces the wastepaper basket liner in that room as well. Through a window, we see that she is on the second floor. She looks out at some figures we assume are The Group working in a field and smiles. She goes down a staircase into a large room with living room furniture, including a large screen TV. She goes through that room to the back and out over a patio, through a fence gate, to a wheeled trash bin in a driveway. The bunkhouse is in back. Beyond that are greenhouses. She goes back inside through the living room area-we see the other side now, with the fancy dining table and chairs, and then to a kitchen. The less fancy table has been moved back to a place by the window. She takes out various pots and utensils, and puts them on the counter top of the kitchen, She goes into a pantry and comes back out with some jars of home-canned food. She turns on a radio to a jazz station. The scene switches to a library. We see the outside of a big building with the name of the library, and then an interior shot of what is obviously the materials check-out counter. People stand at stacks in the background. The interior shot switches to Mulder standing at a computer where an older man sits. He’s doing his taxes online. Mulder is instructing the man. The man appears to be ready to send it and and he clicks a few places on the keyboard and with the mouse, then he says “Ah, there it goes... Great! Thanks.” Mulder moves over past two unoccupied computers and stops to ask a lady and her son, both on computers in the row, if they are “doing OK?” They affirm that they are “OK!” Mulder checks in with two students from the local community college doing their term paper. They says that they are reluctant to do any more work on their paper. Only the two of them have shown up to work on the paper “There are supposed to be five of us working on it!” Mulder doesn’t say anything but from his experience with these group papers, only two ever do the work, but the other three show up to get the grade. He goes up to a computer set off from the rows of computers, It’s obviously the “staff computer” and he sits and taps on the computer keyboard. It should be noted that Mulder always gets his taxes done early. He tries to figure it so it comes out even. Some years it’s been pretty close, but always erring on the side where he gets a small refund. Mulder gets a call on his cellphone. He answers it and we see the guy who has called standing near his panel truck with "O'Conner Plumbing" and a phone and web address under that. It’s William O’Connor, a local plumber, who volunteers with the youth of the community. He goes to St. Pat’s where the Mulders attend. Mulder calls him “Bill.” Bill asks Mulder if he can cover him at practice today. “I just got a call, and it’s an emergency. It’s a one bathroom house with four kids! So, I’m gonna hafta miss this practice!” he says. He seems a little disappointed, and we soon see why. The next scene shows first a school, then a baseball field, and then, Mulder instructing a bench full of energetic middle school-age boys. He’s still in his “Library Computer Lab” clothes, and not in any sort of “Gym Coach” clothes. The boys sit fidgeting and elbowing each other, and are generally being very distracted, but it looks like they’re having fun. Nonetheless, it looks like Mulder probably needs to keep them on “a short leash” as the saying goes. The scene switches to show Heloise and Will in their “office.” As the scene expands, we see Will and Heloise sitting in front of an instrument panel and a wide screen. It is a smaller version of the family ship we saw before. They discuss some experiments Will has been doing over in the on-board science laboratory. Heloise uses a tablet with a keyboard connected to the instrument panel. We see that the keys have characters on them which are not English, (Latin), script, even though they discuss “experiments” on “atmosphere samples” in English. At one point Heloise refers to what she is doing as “making this report.” She’s obviously translating as she writes the report in the strange script. They finish the report, and she taps some places on the tablet and says, “Report sent, 4:59 Eastern Standard Time”, and then, “Aerial Docking Mode Completed”, and as she says these things, first she taps the machine off, then she reaches across the space between them and runs her fingers over Will’s hand in a very intimate way. Will smiles and says, with a laugh, “Wow, Heloise, that’s what we call ‘multi-tasking’ here on Earth!” and Heloise giggles. The ring set on her left hand is sparkly. The scene switches back to Scully in the kitchen of the cabin. She’s got something cooking on the stove. Will and Heloise knock, then walk into the cabin, with Heloise calling, ”Yoo-hoo, Mom? Dad?” The “office’ is parked overhead, and cloaked, but Scully has been expecting them to (literally) appear at the back door of the cabin for some while now, it being late afternoon on Monday. The two have switched their work week to correspond to Mulder and Scully’s work week, and this is the start of Mulder, Scully, Will, and Heloise’s “weekend”. It corresponds to Friday night. The dogs have met them and they are greeting the dogs: they walk, talk, and fuss with the dogs. Heloise comes over to Scully in the foreground while Will in the background goes to the pantry and comes out with two little bowls of kibble and he puts these in each dog’s place on either side of a water dish, and he changes a small envelope type device to show "Dinner" and "Monday". Heloise says, “We had an interesting week. We may have gotten some new information for Science Base to argue over for a few years.“ They report to an organization on Heloise’s home planet called Science Base (more or less, translated from their language) Heloise says, “The scientists there are divided into about three groups, each having a different theory about the age of Jupiter, the fifth planet in this star system. We might have given them some data to argue about. I hope so. It’s fascinating to read about what they think.” Will relates that The Group visited aboard the ship during the week, to help them gather samples of Jupiter's atmosphere in a "space Walk" venture outside the ship. Heloise looks over to the front door and says, “I don’t see Dad’s Dress Jacket.” She refers to the coat-tree near the front door. Mulder keeps his “Go to Town” jacket there, and his ”I’m at home” jacket on the pegs near the back door leading to the patio. “His Leisure Jacket is here, however." observes Heloise. “Oh he got called in to work to fill in-Mr. Landon is sick again, I guess-” answers Scully. “-but he also was asked to go fill in for Coach O’Conner, too, today. He will have to stay in his work clothes, though. He’ll be in later than usual.” The Group, well, actually only Frohike as Babushka, were using their truck that day, and Scully was also scheduled to do some work at her part time job at Mt. Weather, so Mulder had to use Will’s truck to go to the library and fill in for the other Computer Lab worker. When Heloise and Will are out doing field work, they don’t need the truck. Most of the time they are gone for 3 or four days at a time, so they were happy to let Mulder use the truck. Scully and Mulder usually do shopping on Tuesdays, and attend morning Mass and then Adult Class at their church, St. Patrick’s, on Wednesdays. They have to be there very early, but Scully is a very dutiful observer of her religion. So the are up very early most Tuesdays and very, very early most Wednesdays, and today they were up early as well. It was busier than usual! Out in the far end of the field, The Group look up, point and grin. The cloaked ship distorts the sky enough so you can see it if you know what you are looking for. Frohike made a quick run to deliver some fresh herbs to Rube’s Market distribution center. but was back mid-morning. Byers is taking a turn on the rototiller while Langly casts the vegetable seeds and Frohike uses a hoe to cover over the seeds. The forecast is for some rain in the next two to three days, so they are planting, and, have gotten most of it done. Langly shouts above the noise of the rototiller, and says “Они вернулись с работы!” (“They are home from work!”) As usual, The Group converse in Russian while they work, to keep their skills up. Will gets Heloise and himself some soda from the refrigerator. Then he takes takes a seat at the table while Heloise looks at the stew. “What’s in this ? It smells good!” says Heloise. “This is a stew with some bacon-that is made from pigs and and beef-that’s from cows-but bought from the supermarket,(Scully picks up the empty styrofoam trays with the price label on the opened clear plastic wrapper) browned with chopped onions and garlic from the field but stored in the root cellar, (now Scully points to ingredients on the counter) with salt shaken from the shaker, here, and pepper ground in the pepper mill, here, and then I added some dried lentils (picks op the plastic bag) I soaked yesterday, and boiled today, plus some potatoes, carrots, and rutabaga from the root cellar plus some of the tomatoes from the greenhouse, Also some parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, and oregano. from the greenhouse.” This might sound like over-explaining, but Scully knows Heloise is a little scared that people will think she’s suspect if she doesn’t know how Earthlings prepare their food. It wouldn’t help to explain that some newly-wed women don’t know how to cook because their mom always did the cooking.“I got some sliced-we call it Italian, like from the country Italy- bread from the bakery in town, after my adult class at St. Pat’s.” Outside, The Group clean the rototiller and the hoe and store everything in the tool shed along the side of the cabin. They get some clean clothes and sneakers, wave through the window, and then wait outside while taking a turn in the showers and dumping their dirty clothes in the hamper. Soon they’re all nicely washed up and ready for their glass of water, which Will gets for each as they take a seat at the table. Then Langly gets up and goes out to the front of the cabin and pretends to be looking at the weeds, or something, and waves to Mulder when he arrives. Also the dogs have begun to be very excited. Mulder pulls Will’s truck into the space beside Frohike’s truck. The dogs go back to the back door. As Mulder comes in from the baseball practice, Scully mentally checks how much pain-relieving ointment is left in the tube from the last time he filled in for Bill, who is 20 years younger than Mulder. She thinks there is still plenty left. but thinks she will add it to the shopping list. Mulder puts his “going to town“ jacket on the coat tree and goes over and, embracing her, gives Scully a smooch. He deliberately makes it long and slobberly and makes some disgusting, almost pornographic, little noises, and the group at the table starts to complain loudly. “Eeeeewww! says Frohike. “Ohh, Noooo! Ugh!”, says Byers. “Thatsth Dethpicable!” says Langly like Daffy Duck in the Warner Brothers Cartoons. “Get a room!” yells Will, while Frohike puts his hands up to fend the scene off: “Ick, ick, ick!” and, from the first outburst, Heloise is giggling with her hands over her eyes. Will also puts his hands over her eyes. “Think of the children!” he pleads. Scully breaks the clutch, once, then has to go back and re-unattach Mulder’s hands again, then a third time, with a final little “Stay!” motion. She gives the group an eyeroll about this little bit of play-acting, and turns off the burner under the stew. She gathers flatware from the drawer, and sets the table, or actually she brings over the flatware, and Will passes the utensils around for the humans. She brings a pitcher of water to the table for The Group. She brings the bread basket over, and a butter dish, a salt shaker and pepper mill from the counter. She calls the humans to line up and she ladles out some stew in big bowls for each on the counter and she asks each one “Say When!” Each person actually has their own unique bowl. There’s a big fund-raising event at the local community college each year, and the ceramics department has students make a nice bowl, and the bowls are set up in the Student Union with a sales person over near one of the doors. Sales of the bowls benefit the soup kitchen, a part of the Food Bank, in town. These were Christmas presents last year. Scully looks at her own bowl, and thinks “That is so pretty!” Then Scully ladles some stew for herself and joins them at the table. After Scully says a Grace, Mulder retells a funny story he heard from some of the boys about how the boys got into trouble at school. “The moral of the story,” says Mulder, “is: don’t make fun of the way the Vice Principal walks, or, if you do, don’t do it where the Principal can see you.” Mulder has learned how the Vice Principal walks and he demonstrates it in the space between the kitchen and the Great Room. “It is kinda funny... but it’s mean,” says Scully to everyone, “so, no, we shouldn’t do that. No.” Mulder suggests later to The Group that Scully’s display of wokeness was probably for Heloise’s benefit. “I think Scully is still worried about creating a good impression on Heloise. She likes having her as a daughter-in-law, and she doesn’t want us to screw it up somehow...” The Group tell what they got planted. In addition to long time favorites, there are some new plants developed by the seed companies. “It’s hard to resist,” says Byers. “The companies make them sound so nice.” Mulder is in good spirits. The boys did very well at practice. Mulder told them another story. It was the story of the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004. “Mulder knows so many baseball stories,” thought Scully. “He’s like a Hallmark store, one for every occasion....” He could select just the right one and stop at just the right place for the meaning to be embedded...embedded?… engraved… Scully thought back to her High School Latin Teacher, Mr. Stone. He would say, “Engrave this on the fleshy tablets of your mind!” to tell the class that this was something important-maybe something Caesar or the Gracchi Brothers had said or done and it had changed History, or it could have been something about the imperative case. Scully hopes that what Mulder always tells these boys will be engraved on their minds. Mr. O’Conner has asked him to bring it up when he can’t be there. It’s made up of the letters that spell “watch” so it is a mnemonic device. It says: W — Watch your Words A — Watch your Actions. T — Watch your Thoughts. C — Watch your Companions. H — Watch your Habits. Scully knows he reminds them of this every time he subs in for Bill, just as he was asked to do. The boys were also told by Bill that Mr. Mulder worked for the FBI and had to fight “some very tough bad guys, murderers an' mobsters.” and when Mr. Mulder "tells you to keep outta trouble, he isn't just “airin’ platitudes that he read somewhere.” adding that, “Not that you can’t learn somethin' from readin’!” There has been some sad news lately of some boys ganging up on other students after school, and beating the victim, sometimes very badly. Scully hopes that the boys who do this aren’t on Mr. O’Connor’s team. You don’t have to talk to Mr. O’Connor for too long to hear, “I think the world o’ those guys!” and that he wants to see them grow up to be “fine citizens.” Mulder is somewhat relieved to have a new group from the ones last year. The first time he met Bill O'Connor, Mulder had noticed the limp, of course. Most of the time Mr. O'Connor drove straight from work in his panel truck, but one day Mulder sees him go to his personal car in the lot after Mass and he notes the purple heart license plate and thinks he probably should find out more about Mr. O'Connor. When he does ask one of the boys on the team, he realizes that now and maybe forever, he's "the guy who didn't know about Coach O'Connor." You win some, you lose some, some are rained ou... "and Cheez! He didn't know about Coach? ...how he saved his whole platoon??" Apparently being new to the area is no excuse, becau.... "Hasn't he ever gone to the Veteran's Day Parade and seen the first car?" Mulder writes on his calendar of scenes of Blue Ridge Mountains which hangs from a picture hanger on the pantry door, on the November page, the Day 11 block: Parade:10:00 Main St. The humans are finishing their stew. They’re using the crunchy bread as sop for the gravy base. Will says his adopted family, who have a family farm, have a family motto which posits that: “There’s no such thing as too much gravy.” Heloise clears the bowls and plates as Will puts items back in the refrigerator, such as the butter, the water pitcher, and the left-over stew, in a large plastic container. Langly helps load the dishwasher. Tuesday, May 3, 2022: The Internet is abuzz with the news that the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs VS Jackson Women's Health Organization has been leaked, and Roe VS Wade had been overruled. Mulder was made aware of this at his lunchbreak. (He was subbing in for Mr. Landon again.) The Librarians, Mrs. Poole and Ms. Garrahy, were very sad. Mrs. Poole recounted from her experiences: "My mom and my older sister would go to women's health rallies. They wanted to end back-alley abortions by making medically assisted abortions legal. I would tag along. It was a big deal in our family when Roe VS Wade was announced...49 years ago! Well,I never thought I'd have to start in with this again!" Mulder is really grateful for the "head's up". When he gets home he finds that The Group has taken over making supper. Scully is online and on the phone, getting information. It's clear she's not going to just let this pass by her without doing something. Mulder slides in next to her at her laptop over at the desk in the family room. "Did you hear?" She asks, quietly. "Yeah, it's a pretty hot topic at the library." Scully nods as she types in a search. Mulder notices that she's open on a page listing women's clinics. At dinner Scully announces that she intends to apply to do some part-time work at one of the clinics. "I don't know where yet, although there's a clinic in Leesburg that seems very attractive. I would be able to visit our old friends in the DC area more often, maybe. A two-fer!" June 28, 2022. Scully announces at supper that she had been hired on a "will call" basis at a clinic in Leesburg. "It's taken the clinics a little while to sort all this out." She says. No one asks her what she will be called to do on "will call". It seems obvious though that there might be a lot more unfortunate endings to pregnancies. Scully mentions that she visited Dr. Davies, the Coroner of Arlington County. They already knew each other from many X-Files cases. From where the Mulders are, their closest neighboring state, West Virginia, has a total ban on abortions. Mulder recounts this for Mrs. Poole. She sends congratulations to Scully on her new job. "I don't envy her,though! says Mrs. Poole "It's going to be crazy until all this gets settled." Mulder knows that if it's going to be crazy, the people at the clinics are lucky to have Scully to call on. "She handles crazy better than anybody..." reflects Mulder, thinking of some of the stranger X-Files cases they have solved. Tuesday, October 4, 2022. The Group is in the orchard, picking apples, when they all look up and over to the patio area. The Pixel has arrived, unscheduled. Langly says, “Они вернулись с работы!” (“They are home from work!”) As usual, The Group converse in Russian while they work, to keep their skills up. Will and Heloise whoosh onto the patio, and quickly go ionto the back of the cabin. It has become a routine with the young couple that they walk over to the orchard when they arrive, so seeing that they have rushed into the cabin, The Group climbs down from their ladders, and hurries over to the cabin to see what is going on. Both Mulder and Scully are home at the cabin, doing some light housework. Mulder meets the group at the door inside. "It's Bridgette," says Mulder in a quiet but distressed voice. "Out at that planet she was working on. There was an terrible accident with the machine she was using. She's being taken to the hospital." Scully cradles Heloise in the kitchen, their two chairs pulled together. Heloise is on a device which is like a phone but larger, like a tablet. Scully and Heloise are talking with Avai on the Aphros. Avai is packing a suitcase to go down with Al to their planet's surface and then to their apartment so they will be there when Bridgette arrives (it will be several hours until she is expected to arrive. She was "stabilized" at a medical center on an outpost station. This took several hours. Avai and Al did not call Heloise right away. It was a very serious accident, an explosion of the vacuum machine Bridgette was using from her ship. Avai and Al went to their Spiritual Center down on the planet during this time period. Then when they heard from the medical center that Bridgette would survive, but was being transported to the hospiral, they returned to their ship and called Heloise. Will looks pale. He expects he will have to pilot The Pixel beck to Heloise's planet, which he's not done before. Then they get a call from Frank. He's on his way to pick them up. When Will, Heloise and Frank arrive at the hospital, Bridgette is in the first of many, many surgeries. The doctor says it will be a very long recovery. They have not had to amputate, but there will be extensive reconstruction of her arms and legs. They hope she will regain full use of all her limbs, but there are no guarantees. Also, there was a fire. The doctor does not add anything after this. Elder Adele arrives. She expresses how much she appreciates the work the team is doing to save the people on the planet where Bridgette was working. "They are all heroes. Then she says, "I love Bridgette so much!" and "I know she'll be all right." Will and Heloise spend a month on the Aphros. He gets to know her family very well, and Bridgette begins to recover. She does not have full use of her arms and legs. Elder Adele says if she soes not recoiver the full use of her arms and legs, she will be assigned to a role in the Space Service where that will not be a problem. The greater problem are the burn injuries. The doctors think she will never look the same. She is actually allowed to visit Earth during the Holidays! Framk brings her in a ship equipped for transporting a sick or injured person. She is in a space version of a wheelchair. They are having their Three Kings Celebration. Mulder makes his specialty-empanadas with sauces. Then Frank takes her back to the Apros.The prognosis is that Bridgette will regain the use of all her limbs. "Elder Adele will help her find the right place to continue her job of exploring our wonderous universe. Elder Adele always knows just what to do." says Heloise. Photo Credit: Josh Sorenson on Unsplash- https://unsplash.com/s/photos/computer-room 
Sunday, January 8, 2023: At supper, Heloise announces that she has been doing research into Earth's customs, and has found out that many places online have lists of traditional anniversary gifts. It's everyone else's turn to smile politely and not disparage this as something the gift companies promote. Heloise does a lot of research into Earth's customs. She wants to "fit in" and not appear as "strange"."It says the first year anniversary is paper." says Heloise. "What does that mean?" Scully says, "Well, it means if Will wants to get you a gift, it should be made of paper." Now Scully realizes she has "painted herself into a corner" as the Earthly expression goes, because she can't think of anything made of paper that would be a nice gift for Will to get Heloise. (OK, Yeah, a book, yawn.) She shoots a look over at Mulder. He gives her a look with a hand motion that conveys that "I've got this." "Will and I talked about this, actually." says Mulder, "I asked him what you two were planning for your anniversary." Will picks up his end. "Yeah, it's not like diamonds or gold. Paper is very do-able." "Oh," says Heloise, "Yes! Gold is for the 50th and diamonds are for the 75th Anniversaries." Will is suddenly very glad he'll have time to save up for those. Mulder isn't making stuff up. Mulder spends the week between Christmas and New Year's Day every year writing in birthdays and anniversaries on a calendar he gifts himself each year. He especially noted that there would be a first year anniversary for Will and Heloise. So Mulder had asked Will about what they would be doing on their anniversary, and suggested Will come down to the library "to get some ideas," Will already is planning to come to the library. When Will comes to the library on Monday, Mulder takes him over and sits him down at a table and then goes to the computer room and brings back several books he's selected. Mulder indicates that there are plenty of other books also suitable and goes back to the computer room saying they will break for lunch at 11:30. When Mulder returns at 11:32, Will sits with one book. The others have been returned to the cart. Mulder takes a look at the book Will has, then returns all the other books to their place on the shelf. Over lunch at a small cafe, they discuss the next step. Will drives to an Art Supply store. The clerk, Leila, takes him to the paper drawers and assists him in making a selection. He buys several handmade papers. He also buys a pad of practice paper, a bottle of ink, and a calligraphy pen. He figures 6 days ought to be enough time to do what he wants to do. On Sunday, at supper, Mulder blandly asks Will how the anniversary plans are coming along. Will says "Well, the only thing that isn't all set is where we will have our anniversary dinner." Mulder grasps the meaning of "all set" and gives Will a big smile. Heloise says, "We were looking around at French restaurants in Washington, DC, but then we conferred with my mom and dad and dad made us reservations at Bistro Paul Bert. He gave Will a card to use for money." Scully and Mulder register momentary confusion. Then they both say "Ah!" at pretty much the same time. Scully asks, "How long will you be there? Will you be at a hotel? Heloise says, "We are planning to be there Monday through Wednesday, with our anniversary dinner on Wednesday. We'll be back on Thursday morning if you need us here for anything. We'll probably just stay onboard the ship at night. Dad says the view of Paris at night from a ship is wonderful!" Monday January 15, 2023 Heloise and Will go to several museums,and eat at a cafe which looks out at the Eiffel Tower. Then they mostly wander through the streets, buy food from street vendors, eat in parks, by fountains, and other public places, as well as up in the ship. They take time to visit Heloise's Uncle André, her mom's older brother. He and his companion René have an apartment in Paris and they arrange to be there to visit with Heloise and Will. "Mom and us children would visit with them on school breaks," recalls Heloise. "They took us to Disneyland in Paris several times!" "Oh, I remember them from the wedding!" says Will. "They gave us the television-like device for our bedroom. That was a nice gift!" Heloise calls both of them "Uncle." Heloise says, "Uncle André is retired now but he used to work for a company that made very advanced devices. He invented the device I gave everyone at the cabin -the one that monitors any and all approaching traffic." she continues, "Of course the device started out as a military surveillance device, and it proved invaluable when the Unfriendlies wanted to see if they could take over our military outposts. We were ready for them every time, so they just left us alone and went on to Earth. Well, so then the company explored marketing it as a security device for places other than military outposts. Dad has one of the devices on his service station." The Uncles are delighted to see them on Tuesday afternoon. The Uncles make a delicious Coq au Vin, with "Best Drink" for Will and Heloise on Tuesday night. The Uncles have printed out menus and wine lists and play act as though they are the staff of a fancy restaurant. They figure, quite correctly, that Will doesn't have much experience with ordering french foods and drinks, and they want him to be comfortable on their big night out. They are also, of course, hilariously funny.(Yes.Déjà Vu? La Cage aux Folles. Zut Alores!) <>p>Wednesday, January 18, 2923: At a candlelight dinner at Bistro Paul Bert, after the main course plates have been cleared, and before the dessert cart comes around, Will hands Heloise a very big off-white envelope. Inside is a paper with deckled edges. On it, in neat script, is the following:My Dearest Heloise, Thank you for a wonderful year of marriage. Like Janus, I look back and look forward. Like Croesus, I am rich. You may be surprised to know that I am using someone else's words for my gift. This poem is part of our Earth culture. It was written by one of the best poetesses of the English Language. Her husband loved that she had a dark complexion for an English Lady, and affectionately called her "My Little Portugese." Sometimes when I look at you, Heloise, I think there must be some precious metal somehow embedded in your skin, you glow so beautifully, especially in candlelight. So here is a poem from "the Portugese" to her husband. There is a space, and then this:Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways By Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43742/sonnets-from-the-portuguese-43-how-do-i-love-thee-let-me-count-the-ways Picture Credit:Dennis Kummeron Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/aerial-photography-of-city-52gEprMkp7M 
"There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it." - Mary Wilson Little Monday, January 22, 2024: It's Will and Heloise's second Anniversary, and Will is ready this time, too, with a "cotton" gift. He has asked The Group to help him make a Cross Stitch for Heloise, using cotton floss. It is of her favorite quote, something she has heard her father say:
Mulder finds a piece of bread from last night and after getting the butter from the refrigerator, takes a place setting knife from the drawer and butters the bread, and eats it over the sink, a practice which is also very Earthly-like... He gets a cup of coffee and sits at the window which overlooks the driveway. Soon The Group come out to the driveway carrying boxes of produce that will be delivered to several restaurants. They also make deliveries on Fridays, and in summer, they bring their produce to the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. Mulder knows that each load has been picked, washed, and packed very carefully. Frohike insists that the customers notice how nice everything is. Mulder thinks if it’s also a tad of a slice of a bit of a smidge of an obsessive-compulsive disorder, Eh...that’s OK. The vegetables and fruit for Mulder’s consumption are just as carefully picked, washed, and packed, too. Will comes downstairs also in a robe and finds the last piece of crunchy bread and butters it and he also eats it Earthly-like, over the sink while Mulder uses the downstairs bathroom. Then Will gets himself a cup of coffee and sits across from Mulder’s coffee cup. Mulder comes out and sits at his coffee cup and they both are watching the Gunmen out in the driveway load the truck. The gunmen move at high speed and that’s always fun to watch, so they watch. The truck is quickly loaded, to state the obvious. Frohike goes back to get dressed up as Babushka. He and Will are visiting the restaurants. When they get to each place, Babushka just sits and watches over everything in the truck while Will brings the produce into each restaurant. Now, after loading the truck in the driveway, there’s a problem. The truck is hemmed in. On one side is Will’s truck, where Mulder put it when he came in last night. Off to the other side are the wheeled trash and recycling barrels. There are several recycling barrels, so it will be an annoying chore to move them all. In back of the truck is Mulder and Scully’s car, where Scully parked it, as she was the last one back home. Mulder thinks he’ll have to get his key and move it but no. Byers stands in front and Langly stands in back and they lift the car out of the way off to the side that has the barrels. They lift the full-size car above shoulder level to clear the barrels. Then Byers gets in the truck and backs up the truck and parks it in front of the house, facing in the direction they will go, but up on the lawn. Then he retakes his position and he and Langly move the car back onto the driveway, just as it was before. Neither Mulder or Will says anything. Then Scully comes out in her robe and finds a new loaf of crunchy bread in the breadbox and gets out two slices. She puts them on a plate and comes over to the table. She retrieves the knife from the sink, and brings the butter dish over to the table. The toaster is plugged in below the window, but it is at the window end of the table, where Mulder and Will are seated at the window. Mulder stands up and gestures to Will to do as he does. He has both hands under the toaster. Will does this also and together, front and back, they pick up and move the toaster across to the end of the table where Scully has her plate with the two slices of bread. They lift the toaster shoulder high to clear the butter dish. Scully sees that both Mulder and Will think this is somehow hilariously funny. She says, in a severe tone of voice, “Whatever this is, it’s too early.” She puts the bread into the slots and pushes the lever down, then goes and gets herself a cup of coffee and gets a new quarter of butter out and she unwraps the new quarter and puts in the butter dish and then folds the wax paper up and throws the the wax paper and also the empty bread bag the last crusty loaf came in, into the trash and then she gets out some some jelly from the refrigerator and a small spoon from the flatware drawer, and the bamboo tongs from a steel cannister on the counter which has several tools in it, while the toaster toasts her bread. When it pops up, she pulls the toast out onto her plate with the bamboo tongs and begins to spread butter and jelly on it, then Mulder and Will once again rise up and, putting their hands under the edges of the toaster, lift it high over the butter dish, and put it back on the other end of the table, just as it was. For some reason this is hilarious, again, so Scully just ignores all the giggling and snorting, and eats her toast. Will gets up and brings the carafe over and refills his mom’s and his cups with more coffee. Mulder nods to Will as he does this, acknowledging how Will is so helpful to his mom, and says, “Breakfast at The Mulders...it’s like a well-oiled machine!” This gets a smirk from Will and a studied non-response from Scully. Will finishes his coffee and goes back up stairs and gets ready to go in to town to deliver all the produce to the restaurants and The Group come in, sans Babushka, who is still is getting ready. When they get to town, Will gets more breakfast at the drive-through of one of the fast food places. The 2/3 Group reports on the ducks. At first it was just about Guadalupe and Art Ducko, but now the report includes 2Quack, Drake, Lady QuaQua, LuckyDucky, Canvas, Dabne, and Dick Van, (Surname of all: Duck.) The dogs are down by the pond getting muddy while the male duck, Art Ducko, takes a swim. The 2/3 Group has put out more duck food, but the ducklings still get a lesson in intercepting any crickets or grasshoppers heading across the yard. Will and Babushka take off in the truck. The Mulders have eggs in a cup, with cut up beef cotto salami. The 2/3 Group have a glass of water. Mulder and Scully bring over their laptop and tablet. Byers pushes his chair over to look at Mulder’s laptop. Langly moves in next to Scully at the tablet. They compare news stories. Sometimes they find that where one news outlet is harshly critical of a public figure, another news outlet “both sides” the story. It bothers Mulder and Scully when their former place of employment, the FBI, is criticized "...for operating," declares Mulder, “in exactly the same way it has always operated- going after crooks, mobsters, and robbers!” “Well, says Scully, with a smirk, "You can hardly expect the crooks, mobsters, and robbers to like being gone after!” Mulder and Scully finish looking at the news of the day, and go get dressed. The 2/3 Group continue looking at favorite sites. They turn the devices around to show each other a funny picture or cartoon. Looking at their favorite "Internet collection sites" is a favorite part of their Monday "weekend". They send some of the funny stuff to Frohike's phone so he can share it with Will as they make deliveries. Picture Credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/toaster-toast-bread-food-2617854/ Picture Credit: https://www.alattefood.com/easy-coconut-macaroons/ 
"There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia." -Kurt Vonnegut The Mulders go into town to do shopping. Mulder has some items he wants to get at The Ranch 'N' Home Store. Scully is doing a shopping at the Food Tiger supermarket and pharmacy store, located in the same Mall. Mulder is driving, and he drops Scully off in front of the supermarket. In the home store, Mulder, having found what he came for, is going up and down all the aisles. He likes to find out what new things have been invented for homeowners to buy. He drifts through some doors into the garden area and finds a big display of outdoor grills. They are beyond his budget (and really, he has a perfectly adequate and portable round grill that stands on three legs. It has wheels on two of the legs. It cleans and stores easily.) The big grills have a whole lot of features that are very enticing, though, so he lingers. He daydreams ahead to the time when he imagines there will be grandchildren and playdates, and having other parents over for a cookout. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a big grill? After enjoying himself with these fanciful imaginings, he goes to the checkout, buys the few small inexpensive items he came for, and goes back out to the car. He drives back to the supermarket and parks there. He plans to go inside, find Scully, and help her get the items on her list. As he gets out of the driver’s side, he becomes aware of a lot of commotion over at the supermarket. Suddenly there are sirens from two directions getting louder. He stops his action. Now he sees people beginning to come out, yelling and running, from the supermarket. There’s the unmistakable sound of a gunshot, and then two more shots. He ducks back into the car, unlocks the glove box, and takes out his gun. He retrieves his holster from under his seat. He sprints to the door but is stopped by two men waving him down. “Don’t go in!” one shouts, “There’s a guy with a gun! He’s shooting people!” People are going from one car to the next, using the cars to shield themselves from bullets, although no bullets seem to be coming out from the supermarket. Mulder stops in back of a SUV to think about what his action plan is, and two police cars pull up in front of the two front entrances/exits to the building. They direct people to move back behind some cars, people who, for some reason, aren’t taking cover. Mulder is always amazed to see some people stand around at some scene like this. It’s as if they think it’s on their big screen TV instead of a very real and dangerous situation right in front of them. There is the sound of three more gunshots. He is suddenly aware that there are siren sounds coming from the back of the building. He takes off down a long column of cars, crouching to keep level with the top of the cars. More gunshots. Then he uses a row of cars, at right angles to the first line, to shield him as he goes to where the police are at the back. There are three police vehicles there and four EMT vehicles. He hurries up to one of the policemen standing at a EMT vehicle, helping the medic pull out a gurney, and begins to explain that his wife is in there and he’s a retired FBI Special Agent, and, she works for Mount Weather, etc. when Scully walks out the back door with her hands raised. Mulder screams “Scully!” and takes off to her, and she half-turns, but she looks dazed and confused when he scoops her up and makes the turn back to the EMT and to an awaiting gurney. Scully has blood on her face, hands, and clothes. Mulder finds his handkerchief, neatly folded, inside of his jacket, and he grabs a bottle of water someone has left on the bumper of the vehicle, wets his handkerchief, begins to wipe Scully’s hands. He re-folds the cloth, and assists her to wipe off her face. The policeman asks Scully a few questions, but he tries to stay out of the way while the EMT person preps Scully for transport. He most certainly knows about that adrenaline thing where it can take up to several hours for someone to know exactly where or even “if” they’ve been injured. She’ll be thoroughly examined at the local hospital. “Are you shot?” “No.” “Any injuries?” “No.” (This would turn out to be the adrenaline talking, her face tells a different story as she has a cut near her hairline, and a black eye, but no serious injuries.) “How many shooters?” “One... shooter... the Security Guard... in the store... has him... subdued... in Deli.. Mr. Kapoor,...Assistant Manager, still ...inside...helped me...find the back door.“ The police man immediately reports all of this to his superior officer: that the shooter is secured by the Security Guard, and the Assistant Manager is inside, and can help the officers. Scully leans over past Mulder to speak to the policeman, “There are people ... in the aisles. Some... (stops, re-phrases her sentence)...wounded...need help.” “Yes, Ma’am. Thank you.” Police have already begun to cautiously enter the building. The radios of the EMT personnel all around them begin to give directions to where the people shot are. Mulder thinks it’s somewhat surreal for these people to be located in the baking aisle, or found in condiments. He keeps that to himself. Mulder finds a place near Scully but out of the medic’s way in the ambulance. It would turn out with a more leisurely retelling in the local paper, that “The Assistant Manager, Mr. Kapoor, had come up on the assailant and was struggling with him. A customer, Ms. Dana Mulder, was able to help Mr. Kapoor disarm the shooter. Then the store security agent, D'Andre James, used zip ties to hold the assailant until the police arrived.” Three people were killed in this shooting. Ten were injured. Names are being withheld, etc. Scully actually knows the Assistant Manager, Mr. Kapoor. She once asked Mr. Kapoor to have a special order made up for her. There was an Indian doctor, Dr. Samra, who worked with her and he was retiring. Mr. Kapoor said he was delighted to oversee the supermarket deli department making some party food for a special order. Scully only recognized some of the dishes but it was delicious and Dr. Samra, who Scully “adored” was pleased, so the party was very successful, in her opinion. She usually greets Mr. Kapoor when she sees him, but not today. Today, in lieu of a cheery greeting, she kicked a gun out of his assailant's hand. In the very more leisurely re-telling, the police searched the apartment of the guy, now identified as Phillip Calderone, who works at the Pentagon and lives in the DC area, and while they found The Source (a well-known conspiracy theorist site) bookmarked on his laptop, as well as other extreme political sites, they didn’t find anything that gave them any insight into why this guy did this in a supermarket in a city over near the Blue Mountain Range. Mugshot of Philip Calderone Mulder finds out about the three people being dead from another person in the E.R. Waiting Room. Mulder calls Will. He explains there has been “an incident” at the shopping mall. He is surprised that Will knows about the shootings, and that he was about to call him. At the last stop, delivering to one of the supermarkets, the person there asked if he had any stops at that supermarket. Will says “No” and looks quizzical, and the guy says, “Well, there’s a shooter there. Don’t go there unless you have to.” Will knows that’s where his mom shops, so he is about to call Mulder and then Mulder calls him. Mulder explains that, “Yes there was a shooter in the supermarket. It’s terrible! Some people were killed! Mom and and the Assistant Manager were the ones responsible for disarming the shooter, and then the Security Guard tied him up, but we’re over in the ER at the hospital near the campus. (Will was taken there once after a traffic accident but his injuries were not serious.) The police and EMT people thought it would be a good idea to have the ER look your mom over, make sure she’s really all right.” Will says, “What should I do now?” Mulder says “Where are you ?” and Will says “Rube’s Market, on Rt. 11...” and Mulder says “Oh, OK...I’m going to take a picture of this shopping list and send it? Please pick up what you can there? Then, maybe you could come get us and take us back to the car. Thanks.” Supper is a somber affair. Mulder gets out some frozen Masc "N" Cheese and microwaves it. Despite Will picking up food, that’s all he has the energy to do. Frohike makes a salad. The Group does all the serving and clean-up. They are especially attentive to Scully. In the middle of the meal, Scully says,"He punched me in the face, twice." Mulder already knows this. Her face is swollen, the cut is still raw looking, the black eye is in full boom, and they did a cat scan of her head at the hospital. The Group just stares at her. Later in the bunkhouse, The Group agrees that they will take over making supper and all the other household chores for a while. They also will take shifts not leaving her alone in case she needs medical attention again. Frohike says, of her comment, "Was she making excuses for not having supper ready?" He shakes his head. Several days later, Mulder and Scully take the opportunity to analyze what happened, and their response, to determine if there could be improvements. At present they keep one gun locked in the car and one gun locked in the bedroom. They decide that it was useful for Mulder to have his gun available, even though he didn't need to use it. "Well, I didn't rush the place, guns blazing, but I wouldn't have liked it if I couldn't have done that..." says Mulder. (Of note: After the Lone Gunmen (now The Group) took up residence in the bunkhouse, Mulder stopped taking his gun with him to check the place out when they pulled up to the cabin. The presence of the robotic humans on the property,(and standing there in the front yard waving) even over in the bunkhouse, seemed to keep the wild animals away from the house and garbage cans. Well, except for the ducks. The dogs are glad of it, too. The beavers moved out, leaving the pond, but there's peep-toads, occasionally some fish, stands of wild rice and rushes, and various insects, just the way a pond ought to be. The morning of his arraignment, Philip Calderone is found dead in his cell. Rumors abound. Mulder and Scully go to church that Sunday. Mulder and Scully find out that friends at their church are privy to the mostly unpublished part of the incident, where Scully assisted in the apprehension of the dangerous villain. After greeting Father Brennan on the way out of church, people come over to where they are. Some just quickly press Scully's hand in their own. Some hug. Some thank her. Scully goes into the County Coroner’s office dressed in her “forensic science” scrubs. The Coroner opens the drawers where the bodiy of Calderone is, then we see her with a body on the slab taking part in a dissection with the Coroner. He knows she was there and he hopes she will notice something that sheds some light on why this guy attacked people shgopping in a supermarket. Now Mulder and Scully are sitting before the High Council of Elders on Bountiful. The Council also is interested in making some sort of sense of this event. Scully gives them all the facts she knows. It’s a very bare report, very unsatisfactory. They express appreciation, however, and say that they are going to meet together and think if they can come up with some way to help close the case. Scully has gone to her job at the Mt. Weather Facility. Scully comes home very tired. Supper begins as a is a somber affair. Will and Heloise are home from the Solar System. They try to cheer Scully up with reports on the state of the Kuiper Belt -the ring of frozen ice objects. Mulder makes jokes. Scully struggles to smile. Normally she would be hanging on every word, but not tonight. There was no rhyme nor reason she could discover to explain the shootings. The Group made a many-layered lasagna, with a green salad. The Group do all the serving and clean-up. Somewhere in the middle, they all turn into Mafia. Frohike sits as the Godfather, making gestures with his hands, ordering his Goombahs, Langly and Byers, to do tasks. "What's a matter you?" He roars at them. Will starts to say something and he shouts "You shutta you face!" Will answers, "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to ME?" with finger pointing. Then Mulder begins a finger snapping up-tempo rendition of "Fly Me To The Moon". Mulder directs this song at Scully. "Hey, that was like you an' Dean Martin were twin brothers, separated at birth," says Goombah Langly... Scully giggles, accepts their tribute, and dinner is returned to the good time it was before the shooting incident. Photo Credit: Peter Conrad on Upsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/a-metal-fence-5ee5bCQV2iY?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash 
"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult." - E. B. White Once again in the High Council chamber, now Mulder and Scully sit behind Will and Heloise. Elder Adele sits with Heloise and Will. She holds Heloise’s hand. The High Council has concluded that it will fund a team to be trained as law enforcement officers, and then they will investigate, and, depending, may arrest any alien or human who is working to overthrow Earth governments. “It depends on the government or person, or group. If they are working with the Unfriendlies, they can be arrested!” says High Council Leader Ness. He reminds everyone that working with the Unfriendlies is against the law on their planet, as well as against the law under The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Then he announces that Will and Heloise have consented to become the first members of the team. Their assigned area is Washington, DC. The audience and Scully and Mulder, who sit with Bridgette, now out of her wheelchair, applaud. Elder Adele guides Will and Heloise up to the dais where they are greeted, embraced, and thanked by the Elders. The new Agents will work from their mobile office ship but they eventually get a second office above the new garage at the cabin. The garage office has a balcony facing towards the back of the lot. There are screening materials to keep hikers from observing them getting whooshed up from the balcony when they need to go somewhere in the ship. Photo Credit: NASA Hubble Space Telescope https://unsplash.com/photos/a-spiral-galaxy-with-stars-in-the-background-fcjwz1FukuU The End So, yeah, X-Files TNG here. Thanks for visiting my site! Suggestions on how to make any of this more accurate, please send this information to me at leilafile@hotmail.com. Also if you want to see the X-Files with the characters who've returned and the characters who are from another planet, all in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains,on your T.V. (or maybe in a movie?) and you get the chance to suggest this site to someone making a re-dux, please suggest it.I would love to be a creative consultant or whatever it's called when you just make up stuff and they put it on TV or in a movie. Fun! Corrections? Additions? leilafile@hotmail.com
Click here to go to About The Opening Sequences 
Leila Reveals The Future!
Leila's Myth Arc Click here to go to Leila's Myth-Arc! Yes! I have a Myth-Arc! This is a collection of stories featuringThe Lone Gunmen. They are illustrated. Click here to go to a Re-creation of the Original Homepage of The Lone Gunmen site Click here to go to A Hunter Thompson Weekend Click here to go to The Three Moscateers Click here to go to one of the two different treatments of the ending of the story My Friend Flicker which has Scully/Doggett and A Wild Hair Day, the continuation of the story of Flicker, with Doggett/SecondAgent Click here to see one of two different treatments of the ending of the story My Friend Flicker, which is a Scully/Mulder story and then there is This Case is Closed, which is the continuation of the story of Flicker, with Scully/Mulder Click here to go to A Cruise To Nowhere
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Tuesday, April 16, 2024: Mulder wakes early to hear Will in the shower in the second floor bathroom. Mulder throws on a robe and goes to the kitchen where the pre-programmed coffee maker is doing it’s job. Mulder gives it a surreptitious little salute. “Works fine the first time” he says, sotto voce, “very Earthly...” He has been accompanied by the two dogs, Rani and ‘Rooni (short for Macaroon. Her fur looks pretty much like the delicious treat,) who have been up for quite a while. He goes to the pantry and comes back out with two little bowls of kibble. He sets those down in each dog’s “place” on either side of the water dish. Both dogs noisily eat their kibble. He gets each of them a dog biscuit which advertises that it cleans dogs’ teeth while they chew it. Even though this is officially Will’s job, the dogs are happy to be fed by any person in the Cabinista. Mulder turns a little paper envelope to "Tuesday" and "Breakfast" to show that he has fed them, so the dogs don't get fed by anybody else until supper time. (Dogs will lie about this, you know.) The dogs go outside through the back door which has a dog door in it.