Chapter Two

I think I know now what’s been making me sad
It’s a yearning for my own back yard
I realize maybe I was wrong to leave
I swallow my silly country pride
Going home, running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Going home, running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I was born
Gasoline Alley
Rod Stewart

Daniel Jackson pulled into the driveway just before sunset. Traffic on the highway was murder! It was Friday and people were trying to get home or out of town for the weekend. In an effort to ease his frustration and his growling stomach Daniel pulled over to a diner and had a burger and fries while he watched the traffic pass by on the highway. Soon the rush was over and the road was clearer at least he wouldn’t have that to contend with. The rest of the ride home had gone smoothly.

Calla really did look terrible last night. For all her flash and razzle-dazzle and everything Andrew F. Hartley was trying to turn Calla into she just looked lost and sick to his eyes. Daniel wondered if between him, David and that little stop at the sex club, if last night hadn’t pushed her too far. She didn’t trust David she had no reason to but Calla didn’t seem to mind talking to him well not too much anyway. That didn’t mean she believed anything he said. Other than Calla no one was more surprised than Daniel when David blurted out that he loved her. The stunned look on her face was priceless and he imagined that, wherever he’d been at the time, there was a similar look on his face as well. Two brothers falling for the same woman it was so cliché. And David of all people! That didn’t make David’s words any the less true. In fact, when he heard them, Daniel knew David was telling the hard truth. Over the years whatever essence of David remained in Daniel whatever part of him Calla couldn’t extract had looked out through Daniel’s eyes over thirteen years and found a home, a family and a love. Just like Daniel had. Why should David be different?

The house was empty. Colleen, Nick and Annie were all work. Annie would be home first she usually got back to the house just after six, Nick would follow her around 6:30 and then Colleen would come in the door a little after 7:00.

Walking through the foyer and wanting a drink, just a small one, he tossed his keys down on the telephone table and saw the lights on the answering machine blinking. He rolled through the caller-id to see who’d called and a strange number came up one he almost he didn’t recognize.

Calla.

The light on his box was blinking. He hit the button but got nothing but silence, he thought he heard her breathing maybe she was crying but she didn’t say anything and it soon went dead. Daniel hit the buttons for the kids’ boxes but those messages were nothing more than friends wanting to get together on a Friday night. Daniel’s box was the default box so when Calla didn’t make a selection, or maybe she HAD, she was put through to his line. Remembering he’d forgotten to turn it back on after the flight, Daniel fished the cell phone out of his pocket and found he had three missed calls. One was from each of the kids and the other was the same silence he heard on the answering machine and Callas’ number was connected to it.

I told you Danny. Now call her back.

Daniel punched the buttons on his cell phone and was told his call couldn’t go through. Didn’t she believe him last night? Didn’t she check to see if he was telling the truth?

He tried to reach her on the house line and got the same result. Daniel thumbed through the caller-id again, she called a half hour ago. If he hadn’t stopped for that burger or if he’d remembered to turn the fucking cell phone back on he might have gotten one of those calls. Daniels’ mind was racing at a thousand feet per second and he needed something to calm him down. Not a drink.

The newspaper was sitting on the coffee table and he walked over, picked it up and sat down in the chair hoping the crossword puzzle would make his thoughts slow down enough to allow him to think.

1 Across--Shovel

4 Across—No Place Like____

The front door opened and Annie walked in. “Hi, Doctor J.” She said happily and then shyly added, “How are ya?”

Annie always called him “Doctor J”, it was kind of cute and he liked it but he did try to get her to call him Dad or Daniel or something like that. “She’s not here.”

“Sorry. How’d it go?” Annie sat down on the couch and looked at him with hopeful sympathetic eyes. “Did you see her?” Just about more than anyone else in the family it was Annie who was worried about her mother in-law’s health. Having dealt with and taken care of her own heroin and other drug addicted mother she knew the ravages and toll it took on the addicted person and those who loved them.

“I’m not sure.” Daniel put down the crossword puzzle he’d haphazardly been working on to ease his mind. “I saw her we talked a little.”

Doctor J didn’t seem to want to elaborate Annie gave him a smile. “I’ll go start some dinner,” she told him and walked away.

Daniel went back to the crossword puzzle he’d been trying to start hoping it would take his mind off his troubles long enough to allow him to think.

2 Down—Appease

3 Down-Paradise

8Across—Am

9 Across-Assistant

10 Across-No More

11 Across—Devil