The Journey to Freedom: Path to WW3

Chapter LXX

My mother gave me a real kick toward cooking, which was that if I wanted to eat, I'd better know how to do it myself.

Daniel Craig

Two weeks have passed by and everything was going great. Eve and her mother planned out the wedding. I got the email from the owner of the land I wanted to buy in Montana. All the laptops came in. I had convinced Eve to let me build a safe room downstairs, which was no easy task but thanks to her dad, we were able to convince her. The twins were doing great, Jasmine and Lydia were a week away from finishing school. Mary's house was almost done. Nothing was going wrong until I got a call from the Joint chiefs of staff.

"Captain Santiago, I was wondering if you could swing by the office for your packet. I need to brief you on your mission and about your team." The Joint Chief says on the phone.

"I will be there tomorrow morning sir," I tell him and then hang up.

I call Eve to tell her that I got a call from the Chief and that he wanted to see me. She asks me what the meeting was about and I tell her that I was going to be briefed about the mission. She says ok and then tells me that she'll be home around 6 pm. I say ok and tell her that I love her. She says that she loves me back and we hang up the phones. I call Ruth and ask her if she can babysit the twins tomorrow because I needed to be at the Pentagon in the morning. She says ok and that she would be there when we leave. I thank her and hang up. I call my mom and ask her how the flower sales went and she tells me that they went well.

"Your grandfather called me and was wondering when you were going for the cars?" My mom asks.

I tell her that I was going in about three weeks after I finish my next mission.

"Where is your next mission mijo?" My mom asks.

I tell her that I have to go to Russia to save some POWs. She asked what that was and I tell her that POW stands for Prisoner Of War. She says ok and tells me to be careful and to come home as soon as everything was done. I say ok and tell her that I love her. She says that she loves me back and I can hear her sniffling, which meant that she was starting to cry. I hang up the phone and start to tear up because I never did like when she cried. I go next door and knock on the door.

"Hello, Mr. Santiago. How can I help you?" The teenage girl next door asks me.

I then reply "Suzie do you think that you can watch my daughters while I go to the store to get some groceries right quick?"

She says that she has to call her parents first to see if it was ok.

I say "Ok, if they say yes or no, let me know so that I can know."

She then says ok and I start walking back home. I upstairs and check on the girls. I see them watching Dragonball Z. They were watching the episode where Gohan was fighting cell. I sit down and see Gohan get hit in the face and Cell thinks that he's gotten faster and stronger than him. Gohan just looks at cell and Cell's face turns into fear. I hear a knock on the door and go downstairs to see who it was.

"Hey, Suzie! What did they say?" I ask her.

She tells me that her parents said that it was ok. I tell her that I was going to be out for about two hours, maybe less since it was almost rush hour traffic time. She says ok and puts her backpack on the dining room table. I go to the room and change my shirt.

"Mr. Santiago..." Suzie says while coming into the room and then she gasps.

I put my shirt on and she apologizes to me. I tell her that it was ok because there was nothing to see anyway. She asks me how I got all the scars on my back and I tell her how I got them. She says that I must've had a bad childhood. I tell her that I lived through it, so it wasn't that bad after all. She tells me that she was going to do her homework and that her parents were going to be home around 5:30 pm. I tell her that Eve was going to be home at 6 pm and that I needed to cook dinner before she got home. She asked me what I was going to cook and I tell her that I was going to cook Chile Rellenos. She asked me what that was in English and I tell her that translated it was stuffed peppers. She tells me that her mom has made them before and that they were really good. I ask her if her mom has made Mexican food before and she tells me that her mom goes to Youtube a lot to get recipes. I laugh and apologize to Suzie because I tell her that youtube really isn't a place to get recipes. I finish telling her that once I made the food, I would take them all a plate so that they can see that Youtube can't make a recipe unless it's done personally by hand and also youtube can't tell you how to make a proper meal just by giving you measurements.