Like a bolt of lightning chapter 29

Chapter 29: New York, New Year part 2: it's beginning to look a lot like...


"Here she is, the home sweet home!", Damien said, and Sam and Archie both stood in awe of the home.  It was huge, with a facade of at least twenty metres, and it was positioned on top of a small hill, with a view over the river down below them, and surrounded by trees.  The front and back yard were large enough to play soccer in without fear of breaking a window, and the driveway was so long and steep it took them a full minute to get to the garage from the street.

"...I chose the wrong profession, clearly...", Sam said, her voice small and squeaky, and Archie was speechless for several seconds before muttering:

"...Oh man, this house can fit my fam'ly three times... mah nieces an' nephews, mah brothas an' their wives, an' my mom an' Pierre..."  He turned to Damien.  "Who'd you kill ta get a house like this, brotha?!"

"I assure you I didn't need to kill anyone...  My first job came with an apartment in New York, so I didn't have to pay rent.  I saved up all my money of the first five years of work and put it in this home... I have tenants, though – I only use the bottom floor, it has three bedrooms, a bathroom and a very large kitchen and dining room.  My tenant is an old friend – Samantha, you might still know him... Pieter Van Laenen?"

"Oh my god, Pieter's your tenant?!", Sam said excitedly, and suddenly Archie felt a bit suspicious.

"Uh, who's this Peter guy?", he asked, and Sam smiled to reassure him.

"Pieter is one of my pyrotech classmates from my first year of my studies abroad in Enschede, Holland.  He's Dutch – you write his name Pieter, P-I-E-T-E-R – and not only was he a year younger than me, he was like a little brother to me.  I used to tutor his English..."

"Well, he lives here now with his family – his wife's Neeltje Maanstra, and they have three kids – Yannick of four, and twin girls, Lies and An, of one.  He works for Neoplast too as our chief supervisor for polymer production... and he's just as curious about you as you are about him...", he added with a grin when he noticed his sister's expression of happiness.  "Come on in, they're probably still here – but they're going to leave tomorrow for a brief Christmas visit to their parents in Holland.  Archie, I'm sure you'll like them too – they're loveable people, and your brother Steve reminded me of Pieter..."  The three went inside the house, where Damien led them to the living room.  Once the door opened, they could hear the sound of a child's play.

"VRRRROOOOOOOMMM...  pweet pweet!  Oh!"  As the young boy looked up, noticing the strangers, he ran to his mother and hugged her tightly, causing her and her husband to look up in surprise.  However, their surprise turned to joy when they noticed who the visitor was.

"Sammie, wat leuk!!  Such a pleasure to see you again!", the man said – his voice was gritty and heavy, but his eyes were light and his features were boyishly rugged.  "Ik zie dat je een goeie vis aan de haak hebt geslagen...", he continued teasingly – Archie didn't understand what he said, but he heard the tone, and Sam's reply was just as jokingly spoken even if the language was foreign to him.

"Ja, hij is even geweldig als hij er uit ziet...  Pieter, Neeltje, this is my boyfriend, Archie Jessup.  We work together.  Archie, this is Pieter, and Neeltje, his wife, worked in the fireworks factory in Enschede as a chemist."

"Pleased to meet you, Archie!", they both said, shaking his hand – the woman even pulled him closer and placed three kisses on his cheeks, causing the scout to blush and Sam to chuckle.

"Archie clearly isn't used to being greeted like that...  Oh, I want to hear all about how you've been!  And your children...  hey, jij bent een grote jongen, he?  Aren't you a big boy?"

"Yannick isse grote jonge!  Yannick izza big boy!", he said, fluently bilingual, and Sam smiled as Neeltje explained they raised their children bilingual.

"Pieter moved to America two and a half years ago, and we were living apart until Pieter got promoted and I found out I was pregnant again... Damien remembered Pieter's name from your stories and offered for us all to come live here – I work in a research lab in New York City nowadays... and to tell you the truth, I like it much better than fireworks...", she said in a conspiratory tone, and Sam laughed.

"...I didn't even know you two were involved!  I need all the details...", she said, and the five of them started talking leisurely about their lives...


"I hope we can still see you when we come back!", Neeltje said as she put her twin girls in the car and made sure Yannick was in his children's seat, all three children's seatbelts fastened securely.

"Don't worry, you will – and then maybe you can teach me the recipe of that delicious cake we had for breakfast!", Sam said, waving as her old friends pulled out of the driveway and drove off – only when their car had rounded a bend did she stop waving and head back inside, where Archie was waiting in the doorway.  "...You're not still jealous, are you?", she asked, and her boyfriend chuckled.

"Nah... Damien was right, that Pieter guy's so much like Steve it's eerie.  Plus he loves his wife – didn't take his hands offa her shoulder all the time we were speakin' yestahday.  An' this mornin', she nearly sat on his lap...  He ain't interested in you."

"I can assure you he never was.", Sam said as she and her boyfriend went to the living room.

"By the way, what'd he say last night?  He said somethin' in Dutch an' then ya answered him right back...", the scout asked, stretching, and Sam laughed softly.

"He said I'd landed a good catch and I answered him that I had indeed."

"Too right ya did – an' me too.  's More, now that I caught someone 's good as you, I ain't never lettin' ya go again...", he said, placing a kiss on her cheek – her response was a passionate kiss that made them both feel out of breath.  "...Hey, we ain't gonna fool 'round in ya brotha's livin' room...", Archie said weakly, and Sam nodded.

"You're right, we're not going to do that.  Uh...  I honestly don't know what to do now – it's too early to start the preparations for tomorrow's meal, and there's not much to see in town, Damien said..."

"Speakin'a Damien, where's ya brotha now?", Archie said, and Sam smiled.

"He's in his study – the third bedroom, he turned it in his workplace-away-from-the-office...  I could always go and knock on his door to ask if there's something we could do..."  She walked off, leaving Archie to marvel again at the interior of his soon to be brother-in-law's home as he had the previous evening.  It was all luxurious without looking opulent – the couches were not leather but regular fabric and wood, the table was simple, the paintings elegant and the fireplace looking like it was used often.  Yet the details missed – Damien probably didn't mind the details, but Archie grinned as he thought how his mother minded the little things like the right vase, a lace doily underneath a picture frame, or even the placement of the pillows on the couches.  'I nevah thought 'bout that, but maybe that's what women do, puttin' details in men's lives...  Man, Damien needs a lady in his life!'  He was startled out of his thoughts when Sam came in again, smiling.

"Was he in a meetin' or somethin'?", Archie asked with a grin, and Sam rolled her eyes.

"He excused himself from a teleconference with some of the supervisors he oversees...  He wanted us to take care of something very important...", she said, and when Archie looked nonplussed, she took his hand and pulled him to the hallway, where there were now several large boxes.

"...Uh, what's the idea here?", the scout asked, and the pyro chuckled.

"Want to set the Christmas Tree with me?"  Archie's face lit up with joy and affection mingled.

"Course I do!  Man, I can't believe I didn't notice ya brotha didn't have one standin' around yet!!  Uh, where'd he want it?"

"Oh, actually there's two... a large one for the dining room, and a smaller one for the living room.  We can decorate them together... he has all the ornaments and everything."  Archie chuckled, opening the largest box to find an artificial tree in bits and pieces.  The manual for setting it up, however, was in Japanese, and he groaned.  "...Can't make heads or tails of it either, hm?  Don't worry, we have the entire day to figure out these trees..."

"I ain't spendin' all day on puttin' fake branches into a fake tree!", the scout said loudly, but he picked up several of the branches and one of the larger pieces, setting to work.  Together with Sam – and in between a lot of fooling around with the pieces, like holding a swordfight with some of the larger branches – they managed to get the large tree set up in the dining room.  It was two metres high, towering above Archie who whistled appreciatively.  "Man, this Christmas tree might put mom's ta shame!  ...When I was little, like, dad always got us a tree that almost didn't fit in tha dinin' room!  After he left, my mom insisted on a smaller tree, but nevah anythin' less than six feet tall... she had ta ask Rick or Dave ta put in tha star each year, that was always hilarious..."  He sighed.  "'s tha first year I ain't home for Christmas..."

"I could find out if I can rent a car in town and we can drive over on Boxing Day, Boston's only three hours away or something – and Damien won't mind, I'm sure...", Sam said soothingly as she opened the box with ornaments, taking out a long tinsel garland.  But to her infinite surprise, Archie shrugged.

"I'm spendin' Christmas with tha woman I love – I think I can cope missin' mom.  ...But it ain't no bad idea, ya could always ask Damien if ya can borrow his car or somethin'...  Now, lessee what we got!  Ooh, tinsel garlands!"  The two played around with the ornaments as well while decorating the tree, and in the end they admired their work – a huge tree topped with a star, with gold and silver garlands streaming down it and with baubles hanging off almost every branch.  The steel stand was conveniently hidden underneath a fluffy blanket that looked like a snowy mound.

"...Oh, this tree's beautiful...", Sam said, sounding thoroughly pleased, and Archie put his arm around his girlfriend's waist, pulling her into him for a soft kiss, which she returned eagerly.  "I love you, Archie...", she sighed, placing her head on his shoulder, and he leaned into her as he answered.

"Mmm, love ya too, hun...  Now let's go build us 'notha tree in ya brotha's livin' room!", he said enthusiastically, and Sam chuckled as she followed him.


"...You two outdid yourselves...", Damien said that evening after their meal – it had turned out that his kitchen was top notch, with every piece of equipment a cook could ever need, and Sam had put the full extent of her cooking skills to use in making them a wonderful meal that they finished completely.  "I haven't seen a tree that well decorated in years – not even at home...  Sam, are you certain you want to cook the Christmas meal all by yourself?  I could ask my housekeeper over to help you – miss Havish lives only five minutes away..."

"Dude, ya got a housekeeper?", Archie said, surprised, and Damien nodded.

"Being a successful businessman means you don't have much time to do household work and chores – fortunately it also means you make enough money to pay someone to do it for you.  Miss Havish does my laundry and cleans the house, and her son Brent is my gardener and does my chores.  She adores my kitchen."  He then snickered.  "She also adores me, and she makes it her business to spoil me.  Last month, she baked me a cake so big it wouldn't fit in the refrigerator!"

"Sounds like she's coddling you just like nana Mary used to...  If your housekeeper wants to help, she can, but I don't want to pull her away from her own preparations.", Sam said with a soft grin, picking up the dirty plates and putting them in Damien's dishwasher.  She then remembered what she and her boyfriend had talked about and approached her brother again.  "...Say, uh, Damien...  Archie and I were wondering if there's any place to rent a car in town.  He misses his family and since Boston's not really that far away from here..."

"Oh... no, I'm afraid there's no car rental in Newburgh...", Damien said, shaking his head softly.  "...And before either of you asks, you can't borrow my car, it's a company car and I have to justify each mile I drive with it."

"Aw shit...", the scout cursed, and Sam sighed.  However, just as she intended to ask whether they could travel by bus or train, Archie spoke up again.  "...Too bad, guess I'll just haveta call tha home front sometime...  So, Sam, love, what's for dessert?"

"Well... if Damien has some ice cream, I could make you some sundaes...", she answered, grinning as she recognised his turning to a different subject as an attempt to take his mind off the disappointment.  'Guess he got his hopes up...', she mused, sighing as she dug a large tub of ice cream out of the freezer.