Space Pirates 3: Russel's Revenge, Amber Riel [nonfiction book recommendations .txt] 📗

Better than you thought you could do,” Zelda said, smiling.

          Ben returned the smile.  “You did too.”

          “Have you two decided on a name for the baby?” Olivia asked.

          “Well,” Zelda answered, “if it’s a boy then he’ll be Ben Adam Skull Junior because Ben wants to name our oldest son if we have any boys after him.”

          “And if it’s a girl,” Ben added, “then we’re going to name her Amy Lee-Anne Skull.”

          “You know,” John laughed, “that if ya’ll have a girl you’ll have to make sure none of those dogs get to her.  That is when she gets older.”

          “Man,” Ben joked, “if we have a daughter I’m going to be protective.”

          A horrible memory began to feel Olivia’s thoughts.  “Sounds like my dad before he left me and my mom.”  Her eyes began tearing up.  “I’m sorry about this.”  She stood up.  “Excuse me.”  She left, crying.

          Ben felt bad, not knowing what he had said that could have made Olivia cry.  “I should have said that differently.”

          “Yea,” Zelda and John agreed with a nod.

          “I’m going to go talk to her.”  John stood up and hurried after Olivia.

          “I didn’t know that was going to happen or I wouldn’t have said that.”

          Zelda knew that Ben wouldn’t have said anything if he had known.  She looked at him.  “That would explain why Olivia doesn’t trust anyone.”

 

 

          Olivia sat on the bed in her office, crying.  She remembered how her father was protective and abusive toward her and her mother then one day he left and never came back.  The worst part was she knew that he wasn’t dead but wished he was.  Donny looked at her as if he were asking her what was wrong and walked over to her.

          “Olivia, can I come in?” John called through the door, knocking.

          “Yea,” she answered as she wiped away tears.

          John walked into the room, closing the door behind him.  “What’s wrong, Olivia?” he asked, making his way over to Olivia and sitting next to her on the bed.

          “It’s what Ben said,” she answered, looking at the floor, “it made me think about what my dad did to me and my mom.  I know that Ben wouldn’t do that to Zelda because he loves her so much but my dad walked out on me and my mom.  He just left and never came back.  Then about a year or two later, I seen him on the news because he hit the lottery and he was with his new wife and their son on the Planet El.”

          John heard the anger in Olivia’s voice grow as she spoke.

          Olivia still avoided eye contact with him.  “That made me so mad.  I took a screw driver and threw it right into the TV.  I was a trouble child after that day.  Me and my mom would get into fights.”  She had blamed her mother for what her father had done but she knew better.  “One day, I was going to kill her when the cops came and dragged me out of the house.  My mom would come out every now and then…. She’d look at me and it was like she didn’t even recognize me.”  She knew the look her mother had given her was like her mother was looking at someone else.  Someone who wasn’t her daughter.  Olivia didn’t blame her mother for that though.  She blamed herself.  She was dead in her mother’s eyes.  “She still lives in that house and my dad is still on El with his new family.  I know that because I saw them a few times on each planet when we were there.  Please don’t feel bad for me, John,” she said, finally making eye contact with him, “because I have you and I know that in my heart that you love me.”

          John wrapped Olivia in his arms and held her.  He felt her pain.  “You’re right,” he told her.  “I love you more than anything.  I won’t do what your dad did and Ben won’t do that to Zelda.”

          Olivia leaned against his chest, finding comfort in his words.  “I know.”

          “How long was that before you became a pirate?”

          “About six years later of course by then,” Olivia kind of laughed, “I was already acting like one.”

          “Oh.”

News

          Russel sat at the small round table in his kitchen, drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.  “Leo Griffen has killed over ten billion pirates in the past year,” he read quietly to himself, smiling.  His son had actually beat his record of killing eight billion pirates in the past year.  Bounty hunters found that kind of thing to be something to brag about.  “That’s my boy….” He continued reading and lost his smile.  Anger began to stir into his emotions.  “Shocked Zelda Samara Griffen by his dad, Russel, admitting that they were her uncle and grandfather.  Why does everyone have to use her whole name?  She’s not special, just a pirate.”

          There was a knock on the door.

          “Come in!” he called.

          Keaton and Romano walked in, laughing.

          Russel looked over at them.  He wasn’t happy.  “What do you two want?”

          Keaton and Romano stopped laughing, growing nervous.  They were afraid.  “Should you tell him or should I?” Romano asked Keaton.

          “I,” Keaton started then changed his mind, “uh you should tell him.”

          “But why should I tell him?”

          “Because you asked….”

          Keaton and Romano didn’t realize how aggravated Russel was becoming toward them.  “Just tell me,” he told them, ticked off.

          “Okay,” Romano replied.  “But you’re not going to be happy.  We let the pirates get away one Twister.”

          Russel’s face turned dark red from anger and steam began shooting out of his ears and nose.  “It’s on Twister,” he corrected, knowing that was the least of his problems, “and what do you mean you let them get away?”

          Romano was too afraid to answer.  “It’s not that we let them get away.  I mean they just got away from us.”

          “Yea,” Keaton agreed just as afraid.

          Leo wondered into the house, hitting Keaton with the door.

          “Ow!”

          “Don’t stand next to the door, you idiot,” Leo told him.

          “What’s going on, Leo?” Russel asked.

          It didn’t take long for Leo to realize that his father was furious.  He smiled.  “I found out that the Black Velvet and the White Rose are coming back here.  We can finally kill everyone from both crews but we must keep Zelda alive so that way Magma can kill her herself but we have to get Magma out of jail for that.”

          The anger subsided as Russel smiled at the news.  “Good plan,” he told Leo, “but who cares if that witch wants to kill Zelda and kill her ourselves and do you know if the cops are following them?”

          “Nope.  Just the pirates.”

          “Good.  Let’s go and welcome our guests.”  The smile on Russel’s face grew. 

Communication

          Aaron, John, and Ben stood around in the kitchen of the Black velvet.  Aaron worked on a radio, fixing it to where they could communicate with the cops.  Ben and John talked while they watched him work.  Both Ben and John held a bottle of rum.

          “Aaron,” Ben said, taking a sip of his rum, “that device you made to tell a baby’s gender didn’t work.  I tried it, and I think it’s broken.”

          “That’s weird.”  Aaron had been listening while he worked.  “I was sure that it worked.”

          “What are you doing to that radio?” John asked.

          “I’m trying to make it to where we can communicate with the cops,” Aaron answered.  When he finished, he turned it on to test it.  He smiled when he heard Gregory’s voice over the speaker.

          “Who is this?” Gregory’s voice asked.  “Over.”

          “Hey, Gregory.  It’s Aaron from the Black Velvet.  Over.”

          Ben and John walked over to Aaron and the radio, amazed.  They listened to the conversation Aaron and their brother had.

          “Oh…. Well, what’s going on?  Is everything okay?  Over.”

          “Nothing’s going on and everything’s okay.  I’m just checking to make sure this works.  Over.”

          “Okay.  Well, see you guys later.  Over.”

          “Copy that.  Over.”  Aaron stepped away from the radio, proud of his achievement.

          “That was awesome,” John spoke, still amazed.

          “Can you make one for me?” Ben asked.

          “I’m going to go tell Captain Olivia and Zelda.  I think that they’d like it.”  Aaron left.

          Ben and John couldn’t keep their hands away from the radio.  They had to play with the new toy.  They acted like two little kids with a brand new toy car they got for Christmas.  “This is cool,” Ben told his brother.

          “I know…. Watch this.”  John started speaking into the radio like a radio reporter.  “Hey, everyone.  It’s John Skull here and you’re listening to the BV 100.8…. And now here’s the guest star and my brother, Ben Skull.”

          “Hello.”  Ben took over the radio.  “It’s good to be here, John.  I always wanted to be on the radio and this is a dream come true…. Let me tell you….”

          John took the radio back.  “It’s good to have you here, man…. And now we’re going to take a break so we hope you enjoy Maroon 5’s She Will be loved.”  He began singing when Aaron, Olivia, and Zelda had walked into the room.

          Aaron pointed to the radio.  “It’s right….” He noticed that Ben and John were playing with it.  “What are you two doing?  You’re going to break it.”  He hurried over to them and snatched it away from them, worried that they would destroy the only means of communication they had.  “I thought that I was going to have to keep it from Peter and Ryan but I guess that I’ll have to keep it from you two as well.”

          Ben laughed.  “We were having fun.”

          “Is that the radio?” Olivia asked.

          “That’s cool,” Zelda said.  “Can you show us how it works?”

          “That depends…. Are you going to act like your husband?” Aaron asked.

          Zelda smiled and caught eye contact with Ben.  “No.”

          “Okay.”  Aaron showed Olivia and Zelda how the radio worked, explaining how it functioned.

          “That’s cool, Aaron,” Olivia told him.

          “Thanks, captain.”

          “Yea.  It’s cooler than the tracking device that you made for Shawn to put on Zelda’s ship,” John agreed with Olivia.

          Zelda was ticked off.  “There’s a tracking on my ship?”

          “I wasn’t going to say anything,” Olivia admitting, “but