Porter Read online

Allie and her mom put their hands up. Her dad called out, “I’m coming out of the kitchen.” After an OK from the policeman he stepped out of the kitchen with his hands up too.

  Allie rode in the ambulance with Stephen and her dad. Stephen was admitted to the hospital and taken away for a CAT scan. They x-rayed Allie’s leg in the ED, gave her some antibiotics and turned Allie and her dad back over to the police for questioning. X-rays had shown that Dr. Dans nose was broken but they taped a splint over it and set him up to fix it the next day. Her mother had already been questioned and released back to stay with Stephen. Allie and her dad were questioned for about an hour or so and then they took a taxi to the hospital to find that Stephen was sitting up and talking, though still a little confused about what had happened.

  Later as they went down to the hospital cafeteria, Allie’s dad said, “I want you to know that I’m very proud of you, Allie. It amazed me how you kept your cool when you were dealing with those guys.”

  “You aren’t mad that I didn’t tell you I could make ports again”?

  He chuckled, “No. I’ve always thought you probably could do it all along but just didn’t want to because I was such a pest. I think I deserved it. And now I can see that a port has terrible potential as a weapon, not just as a useful technology so I guess I’ll give up on it.” He paused, then, “I also wanted to tell you how wonderful I think your success with ‘Eve of Destruction’ is. You have two amazing talents and personally, I think your music is astonishing.”

  Allie and her mom both stopped in their tracks. Her mom said, “You knew?!”

  Allie said, “You’ve listened to our music?!”

  He shrugged, “Sure, I’ve got both CDs and I went to two of your concerts when I was in Buffalo for a meeting last summer. It felt really cool, being in that crowd, knowing I was ‘Eva’s’ dad.”

  Allie’s mom said plaintively, “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “You didn’t know? And here I thought I was the oblivious one.”