Tenure Track (17 page)

Jane stared at the closing shot of Mandy. She looked so . . . happy. Such a contrast with the devastated girl in the entry just three months later. So much can change in three months. The spark of something new and magical fades into something old and boring, perhaps even dangerous.
What had transpired between these two entries?

She was still engrossed in the webisodes when Dennis stuck his head in the office door, startling her. “Hey Mom, we need some more Romulan ale. I’m just gonna run down the street real quick.”

“
We have plenty of sodas,” she pointed out.

“
Not any that’re blue!” he replied indignantly, already walking out the door with car keys in hand.

Jane just turned back to the screen, muttering to herself, “Blue . . . okay.”

What Jane did not know was that, shortly after settling down in front of the TV and calling in a pizza order, Dennis had received a frantic cell phone call from his sister. Dana’s speech was slurred and she sounded out of breath. “Dennis, you gotta come get me. I was at a party with Tiff and somebody called Coach. Then the cops came. I need your help!”

Dennis was flabbergasted. “What happened to Tiffany?”

“
She took off. Bitch! I flew outta window and ran down the golf course. I’m at the, uh, . . . 16
^th
hole on the Forest Green Course. There’s kids scatterin’ everywhere. Come and get me ‘fore I’m busted.”

Dennis snapped the phone shut and turned to his friends. “Gentleman,” he said, authoritatively, “Captain Picard has been called out to an emergency rescue mission. You must protect the
Enterprise
in my absence.”

“
What’s up?” Chris asked.

“
That’s classified, but I can tell you that it involves Commander Troi. Whatever you do,” he instructed, lowering his voice, “do not let the Borg Queen know about this. Do you understand?”

“
Yes, Captain,” they replied in unison. Dennis knew that they would comply, especially if it meant helping Dana.

He raised his right hand in the classic Vulcan split-fingered salute. “Live long and prosper.”

As his friends returned the salute, Dennis slipped out of the room and told his lie about Romulan ale. Once outside, he texted Dana, just to let her know that he was on his way. Twenty minutes later, he was parking Jane’s Cruiser along the road on the eastside of the Forest Green Golf Course. Across the course, he could see an array of flashing police lights. Holding a small flashlight, he scooted towards the edge of a wire fence, bending down low.

“
Dana!” he whispered frantically. From out of a nearby clump of trees he heard a rustling noise, followed by the sight of his sister stumbling out of the foliage to meet him.

“
Dennis, I’m so glad you’re here!” Even through the fencing he could smell the stench of alcohol and vomit.

“
Man, Dana, you stink!”

“
Oh, fuck you, Dennis, just get me outta here!” He definitely knew she was drunk, since he had never heard her use the f-word before.

He quickly cut an escape hatch in the fencing with a pair of wire cutters pulled from a toolbox in the trunk. As she slid through, Dana’s left arm caught on the wire, slicing through the sleeve of her university rugby shirt and across a long streak of flesh. As she cried out in pain, Dennis instinctively placed a hand over her mouth. In the near distance he heard a dog bark in response to her cry. Dana dropped to her knees and began to sob.

“
Is it that bad? Let me see,” Dennis asked, taking a look at her arm. “’Just a scratch. Your shirt’s in worse shape than your arm.”

Dennis placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and helped her walk to the car. As she carefully sat in the passenger’s side, Dennis pulled out the first aid kit that Jane kept beneath the driver’s seat. He gently pulled back his sister’s sleeve and cleaned the wound, drying it with a puff of breath as Dana shuddered in the chilly night air.

“
There ya go,” he said, rubbing an oversize band-aid into place. “Good as new. Now aren’t ya glad you’ve got a Boy Scout around? Always prepared! ‘Just don’t barf in Mom’s car. I didn’t get my Puke badge yet. That’s for Venture Scouts.” He smiled comfortingly at his sister as she managed to laugh a little through her tears. The next thing Dennis knew, Dana was throwing her arms around his neck and holding onto him tightly, sobbing into his chest.

“
Hey, hey,” he said, patting her back. “It’s okay. We’ll get ya home and sneak ya in without the Borg ever knowin’. I’ll take care of it. We Starfleet captains can handle anything. I’ll just teleport you straight into your bed. ‘Kay?”

This time Dana could not even muster a giggle. As she sobbed louder, he realized there had to be more to this situation than just getting drunk and almost getting caught. He knew this was not the first time his sister had tried alcohol, nor even her first time being buzzed, although he had never before seen her this intoxicated.

After crying it out for a few moments, Dana finally broke down and confessed all of her sins for the night. Dennis immediately understood what it meant, though he knew no one else would. He also knew that all he could do at that moment was to hold his wombmate and reassure her that everything would be alright. As they held one another, his cell phone rang. Glancing at the screen, he grimaced, “Shit, it’s the Borg Queen.”

Feeling the panic rise in Dana’s body, he tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. . . . Hi Mom!” he greeted cheerfully.

“
Dennis!” Jane scolded. “Where are you? You said you were just going down the street. Your friends said you came back, but left again. I didn’t hear you.” He would have to thank Chris and Duncan on the good save to credibly stretch the time of his absence.

“
Well, they didn’t have the blue stuff I wanted at any of the stores in the neighborhood, so I came back. Then Dana called. Her ride ditched her at a party and she cut her arm, so she asked me to pick her up.”

“
Is she hurt badly?” Jane asked, expressing an appropriate tone of motherly worry. “And why didn’t you tell me?”

“
Sorry, Mom. She asked me not to. She didn’t want you to worry or try to come get her. You know how it is.” Dennis squeezed his sister’s shoulder with his free hand and held his breath, hoping his fibs were believable.

“
Are you with Dana now?” Jane asked.

“
Yeah—“

“
Let me speak to her,” she cut off.

He quietly handed the phone to his twin, silently mouthing, “Be cool.”

“
Hi Mom,” Dana said softly, trying not to let her voice crack. Dennis rubbed her shoulders supportively as she spoke.

“
Are you okay, Sweetie?” the mother asked. “Dennis said you hurt yourself.”

“
Uh, yeah, some stupid thing. I don’t think it’s bad. It really hurts, though,” she said, new tears slowly falling from her eyes.

Hearing the distress in her daughter’s voice, Jane assumed that she was crying from pain. That indicated the injury must be serious, since physical pain rarely ever bothered Dana. Dennis took the phone from his sister’s hand.

“
Hey Mom, we’re usin’ up minutes here. We’ll tell you all about it when we get home, okay? Oh, and I think we’re near a store that might have some Romulan ale, so I’ll just make a quick stop on the way. Thanks, bye!”

He hung up quickly, praying that she would not call him back. Immediately the phone rang again. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the screen. Chris.

“
Yeah, Klingon?” Dennis answered.

“
Dude, your mom’s lookin’ for ya. Better teleport back here at warp speed.”

“
Check. Borg Queen already made contact. Have deflected close inspection. Stick to your cover story. Text if communication needed. Picard out.”

Dana stared at her brother through bleary eyes. “Don’t you guys ever talk to each other like normal people?”

“
Hey, we’re not normal people. We’re Trekkies, and the Klingons may have just saved your butt, so don’t knock it.”

On the way home, Dennis ran into a big box grocery store for some blue-colored punch, strong breath mints, a double espresso, and a university rugby shirt that closely matched the one Dana was wearing, now splattered with dried vomit and blood. After Dana removed her old shirt in the backseat, he tossed it in a dumpster, then cut a matching rip in the new one before she put it on, explaining that he wanted the tear to match her injury. Realizing that his own shirt smelled of vomit and alcohol from Dana’s sobbing hugs, he took it off. He had been wearing a T-shirt underneath with an open windbreaker on top. Now he just had on the T-shirt and jacket. He figured his mother might not notice his change of clothes, and since he was responsible for washing the next batch of laundry he could cover his tracks. Dennis helped wash Dana’s face as she combed through her long brown hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. “It’s okay to look like you’ve been crying, but not like you’ve been drunk, okay? So think ‘sad sober person,’” he directed.

As he worked to erase all signs of her previous inebriation, Dennis went over their cover story for her injury. Some of the kids were horsing around in the backyard. She was trying to ride piggyback on another girl’s shoulders when she fell and sliced her arm on some wire garden fencing. He needed something that sounded just stupid enough to be plausible. As they pulled onto their street and went over their cover story again, Dana looked at her rescuer in awe. “You really need to join the CIA.”

“
Not enough money. Space exploration’s more fun,” he replied bluntly.

By the time they entered the house, the two espressos had overcome the most obvious signs of intoxication. Dana already had her sleeve rolled up, exposing her bandaged wound. It had stopped bleeding, but blood had soaked completely through the bandage, making the wound look much worse than it was, perfect for their plot.

Jane immediately met them at the door. From the corner of his eye, Dennis saw Chris and Duncan peering out from the rec room.

“
Finally!” Jane sighed as she grabbed Dana’s arm firmly, but tenderly. “Dana, that looks awful! Do we need to take you to the emergency room?”

“
No, Mom. It looks worse than it is. ‘Just a scratch. It’s not deep at all.”

‘
Well, I want to take a look.” Jane ushered Dana into the downstairs bathroom to change the bandage and inspect the scratch more closely. While she was occupied, Dennis dashed into the laundry room and tossed his shirt into the washing machine, followed by an entire basket of dirty clothes. He quickly threw in some washing powder and turned the machine on. Suddenly remembering to cover all bases, he dashed to the bathroom. By this time Dana had her bandage off and Jane was cleaning out the scratch again. Standing outside the open bathroom door, Dennis yelled, “Hey Dana, give me your shirt and I’ll wash it for ya. Ya got blood on mine.”