North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

MPR

Ken relaxed and started to talk. "As near as I can tell, my wife and daughter have been gone for four days as of today. Maybe longer. That is how long I have known. You know how my work is, Morgan. It has not changed all that much since you and I dated. Office time intermixed with field time. Even if we are looking at geographic data from core samples and seismic imaging, I go to be sure the data is being collected correctly. Yes: We have specialists, but every time there is turnover on the field team, or we are in a new location with new geographic challenges, I want to be sure we are doing it right. Sinking a borehole is expensive too, so it's cheaper to have me go there and look than sink a bunch of useless holes."

"I remember." Morgan said.

"I came back from a trip out to West Texas to look at some possibilities for new natural gas extraction. The romantic world of a geologist. Teach geology or work for Big Oil. There are not that many jobs for people that just want to do the science without finding ways to take stuff out of Earth. It is always about money. For Big Oil and for me. I have a family to take care of. Insurance needed. You know how it works. So: I travel."

I like Ken a lot better all of a sudden. A frustrated scientist making a buck to support his family.

"Cherlynn and Danielle, my daughter, are nowhere in the house when I get back home from the trip. Cherlynn's car is there, in the garage. They are not anywhere. I figure they must be over at a neighbors' house or something, so I try to call Cherlynn and get no answer. I get a message about the subscriber not being available. These days, I think that means that her phone is off because otherwise, the phone would connect to something somewhere. Houston is covered in cell phone towers. I figure she forgot to charge her phone or something. There is no note. No missing clothes. Nothing like that. They have to be nearby."

Ken paused. Frowned. "Cherlynn knows a lot of the neighbors. One thing I like about Houston is that it is an ethnic melting pot. No one we knew cared that I am white, and she is black. Houston is weird that way. There are places where people go and align, you know? A gay club. A black club. All upwardly mobile urban professionals: The hipsters. That is the club scene. There are neighborhoods like that too. In our deeply middle-class neighborhood, it's all cool. That is why we chose to live there. There are all sorts of mixed ethnicities couples and families. Lots of Hispanic/white couples. Other black/white too. Every combination. Japanese. Chinese. Ethnic Jewish. A Vietnamese family. Two Indian families. India Indians, not Apache, or technically half Apache like you."

"Very common in Houston." Morgan agreed. "The closest Native American tribe is the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe over in Polk County. To be Native American is sort of here and there, as my mother was. On the other hand, the high-tech part of the Houston economy, as well as the medical center, has attracted a large group of Indians. Many are second and third generation. There are some good size Hindu Temples out on the Westside." Morgan said.

"Exactly why we picked this area of town to live in. We don't stick out like a sore thumb, and we don't have what happened to you happen to us. Houston has its fair share of bigots and xenophobes and so forth. Most of them are self-segregated too."

"Sam and I caught a murder case in a trailer park once. White woman killed a black woman because the white woman was angry economic circumstance forced her to live in the mixed trailer park." Morgan said.

Sam remembered. "Only reason we were there is the woman tried to hide the evidence. Ugly stabbing with no witnesses at night. Dumb. Left a blood trail. The only reason Morgan and I were there was that they needed some extra help in that precinct."

"Sorry: Go on. You just reminded me of that aspect of the town. Where I went when I was on a date with DeWayne or Wendell was dictated to some degree by that. While I did not care what others thought at the same time it is a downer on a date to have to deal with white bullshit. I got enough of that at work." Morgan said.