What sleeps in the deep

Ch 17: The Right Turn

As everyone made their way to the mess hall, it was apparent that Stella felt out of place. It was as if the excitement, the banter and the joy of some new friendships echoed around her. She felt stagnant as she sat there with her tray of food while everyone around was lively and active around her. As if deep in thought she was abruptly interrupted when Kilo tapped her shoulder. 

"Huh?"

"Hey you. Haven't seen you all day. You okay?"

"Yeah, It was just so long. I'm feeling tired already."

"If you wanna take a break, you can go back to your room to rest. I'll save your food."

"Its alright Kilo, gotta go back to that meeting once lunch is over."

"Right, about that- what happened?"

"I was in a room full of scared adults. Highly connected ones at that! Kilo these people plan on blasting those things. There's got to be a better way."

Luis then barges in and called out for Stella, "Hey Stella! Have you met these guys? Those first introductions we had back there didn't do them justice." 

As the newer members walked by the table and sat with the rest of Stella's team. They all waited for each of them to be presented by Luis and each shared something about themselves. 

The sibling mechanics were born in New York and come from a large Italian family. Their father taught these two everything he knew about machinery since he started out fixing trucks and moved onto planes.  As a matter of fact their father met their mother while he was on the job. There was an issue with a plane and it required emergency repair because the plane couldn't take off everyone on board had to evacuate. With his blue overalls and dirty toolbox he bumped into his future wife. With a school teacher mother and a mechanic father both believed in teaching. One day while her mother was teaching Nicky to sew she started crying complaining that Nick gets to go with her father to the mechanic shop. So her mother let her daughter go with her father and brother to show her how rough the job was. The three worked together since, they bond so much through their tinkering that one Christmas when the furnace stopped working the three got down there to fix it and all the mother could do was make some cookies and cold milk. The whole family had the best Christmas in their basement. 

The doctor was African american born in Alabama. Scottie's [short for Prescott Richardson] family counted on his success in school and a football scholarship is what got him into university. He was always large for his age; but he was never as aggressive as the other boys. He would stand up for the nerds that always got picked on in school. One day Scottie went to the school nurse to get some band-aids for the teacher, the nurse felt overwhelmed and didn't know how to help a cheerleader who was having a panic attack. When he saw the nurse leave to attend another student he approached the girl and talked to her. He passed her a paper bag and then kept on calming her down. The cheerleader was able to get out of her episode and hugged him before getting back to class. This was where he discovered his passion- he enjoyed helping people. Once he graduated from medical school his mother and his grandmother were the proudest ones cheering him on as he picked up his diploma. His father couldn't attend his graduation because of his stroke. He went on to show his father his accomplishment in the hospital. But, the next day his father passed away in his sleep. He always felt the need to do his work with excellence for his family- especially his father. 

The demolition guy came from a mixed family. His father was an exchange student from Japan traveling to America to study. While on spring break his friends all decided to make a trip down to Mexico. While enjoying the local restaurants and beaches he bumped into a local Mexican girl with a big bag full of groceries. After helping her he got to know her ranch and horses. For this girl his father made frequent trips back. Until he married her. When R.J [full name Ricardo Joaquin Hayashi] was born he was nothing but trouble. To keep him out of any school fights or problems he would care for the horses. One day there were some coyotes trying to get to the horses and desperately finding a way to fend them off he found some fireworks. He lit a stick of fireworks and like a bomb threw it at the group of coyotes. Then in red blazes with sparkles he experienced ecstasy for the first time. [He was 14 yrs old then.] He explored his passions further when he enlisted at the age of 18 yrs- making him the best demolition expert in his field.