INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 3 - THE SPACE AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 8 – BE FAMOUS OR INFAMOUS...OR BOTH!

 

09:51 (Moscow Time)

Monday, April 16, 1951 ‘C’

Temporary office of the General Secretary of the Communist Party

Arsenal Building, The Kremlin

Moscow, Soviet Union

 

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the

Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev got up from behind his work desk to greet and shake hands with Marshal Georgii Zhukov and the head of the GRU6, Colonel General Viktor Smirnov, then invited them to sit with him around a low tea table, where an aide served them tea. Khrushchev waited until his two visitors had taken a first sip of their hot tea before asking them a question.

‘’So, what exactly happened a week ago in the Taiwan Strait, gentlemen?’’

‘’An utter Chinese debacle caused by the use of a new type of weapon by the Americans, Mister Secretary.’’ answered Smirnov. ‘’The Chinese leaders obviously badly underestimated the will of the Americans to defend the Nationalists in Taiwan and launched a rather amateurish attempt at an invasion of that island. Thankfully, one of our submarines tasked to patrol the Taiwan Strait was able to witness the battle between the Chinese and an American battle group led by the battleship USS MISSOURI and saw from a distance the main actions in that battle, then reported back to Vladivostok. My service has now been able to fully debrief the captain of that submarine.’’

‘’And what exactly did this submarine captain see, General Smirnov?’’

‘’That one American ship did nearly all the shooting, Mister Secretary, and it wasn’t the MISSOURI. It was one of its escort destroyers.’’

‘’A destroyer?’’ nearly exclaimed Khrushchev, surprised. ‘’The Chinese were defeated by a simple destroyer? How could that be? Are the Chinese this incompetent?’’

The last question from Khrushchev brought a thin smile on Smirnov’s face before he answered him.

 

6 GRU: Soviet military intelligence service.

‘’There was certainly a degree of ineptitude and military incompetence involved in that Chinese defeat, Mister Secretary, but that destroyer actually proved to be a lot more than just a ‘simple’ destroyer. Basically, that destroyer apparently was recently refitted in a significant way during a stay at a drydock in Hawaii. That refit apparently included the fitting of new weapon systems and radars to that destroyer, the USS LOWRY, an ALLEN M. SUMNER-Class destroyer launched in 1944. During the Battle of the Taiwan Strait, as the Americans now call that engagement, the LOWRY fired over 28 guided rockets, which then sank the four Chinese frigates leading their invasion fleet and shot down seventeen Chinese aircraft which were trying to attack the American battle group. Tried is the operative word here, Mister Secretary: the Chinese weren’t able to launch a single bomb or fire their guns at the Americans before they fled in panic. Apart from the aircraft shot down by the rockets from the LOWRY, three more Chinese aircraft were shot down by the defensive gunfire from the American ships, which used shells equipped with proximity fuses. The two really significant things about those American guided rockets were their range and their launch mode. The missiles which sank the Chinese frigates made direct first hits from a distance of about 170 kilometers, just as those ships were leaving port on the Chinese coast. This means not only that those new rockets had this much range but also that the new radars aboard that American destroyer were able to detect and precisely target the Chinese ships at such a distance. As for the missiles fired at the Chinese aircraft, the first of them destroyed its target at a distance of around sixty kilometers. As for their launch mode, those missiles were seen to rise at the vertical from the LOWRY before turning towards their targets.’’

‘’At the vertical? Are there rockets known to behave like that, General?’’

‘’Until recently? None, Mister Secretary. However, we have learned only a few weeks ago that the Hughes Aircraft Company, based in Los Angeles, recently tested a type of missile which is launched at the vertical before turning towards its target. Unfortunately, very little solid information is known about this new missile but the United States Navy is said to have ordered large quantities of that system, along with its associated radars. Here I must go back by about a year and remind you about the battle where our attempted invasion of Okinawa, in the Ryukyus, was beaten off by American planes from the Philippines. During that battle, the Americans, flying SABRE fighter jets, used for the first time a new type of air-to-air rocket and shot down 23 of our own Mig-15 fighter jets. We have since then learned that the missile they used at that time was also designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company. This is the same company which is producing the B-12 supersonic bomber which was used to bomb the Kremlin and kill Comrade Stalin and the members of the Praesidium. By the way, the pilot of that bomber, a young woman named Ingrid Weiss, also happens to own the Hughes Aircraft Company and is also its chief design engineer.’’ On hearing that, Nikita Khrushchev sat back on his sofa, a sober expression on his face.

‘’Decidedly, this Ingrid Dows sounds like quite a dangerous person for us, General.’’

‘’Oh, she is even more dangerous than what I said to date would make you think, Mister Secretary.’’ said Smirnov, most serious. ‘’Stalin had ordered her killed a couple of years before that but that woman actually killed by herself in succession three teams of MGB assassins who tried to assassinate her. This Ingrid Dows also planned and led the air raids during the Great Patriotic War which killed in succession the Japanese high military leadership in Tokyo, then Hitler and his main Nazi followers in Berlin, feats which she followed on by bombing the Kremlin. She also happens to be the best American fighter pilot alive and has proved to be a master of strategy and air tactics.’’

‘’By Mother Mary! Do you have a picture of that female devil?’’ In answer, Smirnov opened his briefcase and extracted from it a file, which he then handed to Khrushchev.

‘’This is what we know about this Ingrid Dows, Mister Secretary. By the way, this copy is yours to keep.’’

‘’Thank you!’’ said Khrushchev before opening the file, which was classified ‘Secret’, and looked first at the large color picture of a beautiful young woman, nearly a teenager, which was clipped to one side of the file docket.

‘’Quite a beautiful and young woman, I must say. This Dows however appears very young for someone who achieved this much in her military career.’’

‘’She is actually 27-year-old, Mister Secretary. However, there are a few rather fantastic details about her in this file. I will let you read this file first, then will answer any question you may have about her.’’

‘’Very well, let’s see who that girl is.’’ said Khrushchev before starting the twenty or so pages of the report.

 

When the Soviet leader finished reading the content of the file, he gave an incredulous look at both Smirnov and Zhukov.

‘’This girl is simply unbelievable! Is this information solid?’’

‘’Very, Mister Secretary! This girl was not shy about her unique ability to remember her past incarnations, an ability she amply proved by being able to speak an unfathomable number of languages, both current and extinct. She also is what you would call in the United States ‘the talk of the town’, and not all of it complimentary.’’

‘’Uh, what do you mean by that, General Smirnov?’’

‘’That, unsurprisingly, her successes have also created a lot of jealousy and resentment against her, Mister Secretary. Her success at designing and then selling new, innovative aircraft, apart from bringing tons of production contracts to her Hughes Aircraft Company, also cut the grass from under the feet of many other American aircraft manufacturers, many of whom are now reduced to build under license aircraft designed by Dows. She is also vehemently opposed to the racism and racial segregation actually found in the United States, something that has made her quite unpopular with many American politicians, especially in the southern states, where much racism still exists. Others despise her for her socialist views and have even called her a closet Communist.’’

‘’What?’’ exclaimed Khrushchev, who had expected anything but that. ‘’This Dows is a Socialist, really? How so?’’

Smirnov thought over his answer for a moment before speaking again.

‘’Mister Secretary, don’t forget that this girl was educated by the Canadian time traveler, Nancy Laplante, who also adopted her while she was still a prisoner of war of the British. Now, from what we knew of her, Nancy Laplante could easily have been described as having socialist views by the standards of 1940 Great Britain. Apart from being incredibly brave and cunning, Nancy Laplante was also known to be in essence what most people would call a decent and humane person. Apparently, this Ingrid Dows is made in the same mold and is quite liberal in her thinking and values. She is involved in many works of charity, especially concerning poor and destitute American veterans. She is also said to be the most generous and caring employer in the United States, contrasting sharply with most of the big capitalists in that country. The employees at Hughes have the highest salaries paid to lower and middle rank workers in the American aircraft industries, with job benefits like paid leave, full health coverage and family support measures, benefits which are simply unheard of in other American companies. While all this would obviously impact her profit margin, she is basically said to not care about that, as long as she breaks at least even. As a result, she is attracting the best and most qualified people to her, something that is driving other aircraft manufacturing companies crazy.’’

‘’Well, I’ll be!’’ said Khrushchev, stunned by this. ‘’And what does she think about us and the Soviet Union?’’

‘’That, while she hated Comrade Stalin’s guts, along with those who followed him, she has no particular animosity against the Russian people. In fact, one of her past incarnations was as a Ukrainian woman in the Sixteenth Century. While she is definitely an opponent to us, and a very dangerous one, she can’t be called an evil or despicable person.’’

Khrushchev took a moment to digest that before asking a question addressed to both Smirnov and Zhukov.

‘’So, what do we do about her to counter her moves, gentlemen? Should we try again to kill her, like Comrade Stalin tried to do three times?’’

‘’No!’’ was Marshal Zhukov’s immediate answer. ‘’She may be our enemy but she is also an enemy I can respect. She in fact could have earned our national gratitude by the way she killed Hitler and his clique in 1944 and helped free us from the Nazi threat. Her opposition to us was about our past political system of internal repression and about Stalin’s raw ambition for power. She bombed the Kremlin and killed Stalin after he tried to invade Okinawa as a prelude to grabbing the whole of Japan. The attempt by the Chinese to invade Taiwan, apart from being quite amateurish in execution, was a sure way to provoke the United States. Well, maybe we should calm down the waters a bit while we concentrate on strengthening our country’s economy and overall capabilities, instead of wanting to pursue more conquests, which are now more problematic than ever. The Red Army should concentrate on protecting the Soviet Union, not on conquering the rest of the World.’’

‘’I would agree with Marshal Zhukov on this, Mister Secretary.’’ added Smirnov. ‘’Let’s study what this Ingrid Dows does and how she does it and we may learn many valuable lessons from that.’’

If said to the late Joseph Stalin, those words would have been met with fury. However, by the usual standards of Soviet leadership, Nikita Khrushchev could be described as a reasonable, down-to-Earth man of modest origin, who had also fought at the front as a political commissar during the siege of Stalingrad during World War 2. He knew first-hand what wars brought, especially to the lower people. He thus nodded his head at the words from Zhukov and Smirnov.

‘’Very well! I will take the time to study this file in detail and to draw appropriate conclusions from the past recent developments. Thank you again for coming to me with this information and your counsels, gentlemen.’’

The trio then rose from their sofas and exchanged handshakes before the two military men left Khrushchev’s office, which he used as a temporary one until the Senate and Praesidium buildings could be rebuilt. Now alone, Khrushchev returned to sit behind his work desk and opened again the file given to him by Smirnov, staring for a long moment at the picture of Ingrid Dows.

‘’So beautiful, yet so dangerous...’’

 

10:40 (California Time)

Wednesday, April 25, 1951 ‘C’

Hughes Corporation headquarters

7000 Romaine Street, Hollywood

Los Angeles, California, USA

 

‘’So, what do you think, girls?’’

‘’I love it, Ingrid!’’ answered Hedy Lamarr, as she eyed the large publicity poster held by Ingrid. ‘’The fastest car in the United States, designed by the fastest person in the World. Drive into the future in a Hughes SPRINT.’’ she said while reading aloud the slogan on the poster. ‘’You also look really good, wearing your flight suit and helmet while standing next to your car. The SPRINT should sell like hot cakes with such a publicity poster, especially here in Hollywood.’’

‘’I also think so, Ingrid.’’ added Katharine Hepburn. ‘’Its price is a bit stiff for the average American but it is obviously a car targeting the more well-to-do. Hollywood celebrities will no doubt become enamored of your car, Ingrid. So, when is series production due to start in Commerce?’’

‘’In about two weeks, once the new tooling is in place and the workers there finish training on the SPRINT’s design and mechanical features. Also under training right now are quite a few car mechanics employed by the concession garages and showrooms of the Willys-Overland brand situated around the country. It wouldn’t make much sense in selling cars which would then have no places to maintain and repair them, right?’’

‘’Indeed! What about the police highway patrol car variant of the SPRINT, the INTERCEPTOR? Any luck yet in securing a contract with a police department, Ingrid?’’

‘’I am presently in talks with the California Highway Patrol, which is showing an intense interest in my Hughes INTERCEPTOR. However, the biggest battle will be to convince the California legislature to fund the buying of new patrol police cars. In that, I expect some negative lobbying against me from the big car manufacturers, who would love to steal such a contract from me.’’

‘’Yeah! You are not exactly popular in the corporate boardrooms in Detroit these days.’’ said Hedy. ‘’Do you have any other car projects in mind at this time, Ingrid?’’

‘’Well, I always have new projects of all kinds in mind, Hedy, be they about aircraft, missiles, avionics or cars. To answer you, I am seriously considering designing an off-road, robust car which could be used by ranchers, farmers, hunters and campers. That kind of car would fall just right in helping Willys to give a worthy successor to its JEEP. I am howev er still thinking about a nice name for it.’’

‘’How about the Hughes CAMPER?’’ suggested Katharine, making Ingrid grimace.

‘’That sounds a bit too unglamorous, Kate.’’

‘’What about the Hughes EXPEDITION, Ingrid? That would resume its use well.’’

‘’Hedy, you are a genius!’’ exclaimed at once Ingrid, enthusiastic, making Hedy roll her eyes.

‘’Don’t I know that already! People keep calling me a genius but I prefer to think of myself as a fun-loving girl with common sense.’’

‘’For being fun-loving, you certainly fill the bill, Hedy.’’ sneakily said Katharine, making Hedy pull out her tongue at her.

‘’Fuck you, Kate!’’

‘’Any time, Hedy.’’

‘’Hey, since we were talking about making some publicity for my SPRINT, how about we go all three of us to the Ciro’s nightclub tonight, to have some fun together? I could have my little Hien baby-sat by Madam Nguyen.’’

‘’Now, that’s a great idea!’’ said at once Hedy Lamarr. ‘’Let’s rock the Sunset Strip tonight and find for ourselves some nice-looking men to bring here afterwards! I wouldn’t mind bagging someone like Clark Gable or Peter Lawford.’’

19:46 (California Time)

The Ciro’s Nightclub, 8433 Sunset Boulevard

West Hollywood

 

This being a Wednesday evening, Ingrid had expected to find a fairly low attendance at the Ciro’s Nightclub and she was proven right by the numerous empty parking spots near the club along Sunset Boulevard, which would normally be quite full during weekends. She was able to park her Hughes SPRINT in a spot less than twenty meters from the front door of the club and was stepping out of her car with Hedy Lamarr and Katharine Hepburn when she saw a taxi stop in front of the club’s main door, time to let off a customer. Ingrid noticed at once that the taxi’s customer, a most handsome man in his early to mid thirties, was using a pair of crutches. She thus hurried to him as the man was about to get to the club’s front door, where there was no doorman on duty at that time.

‘’Let me open and hold the front door for you, mister.’’

‘’Thank you! You are most kind, miss.’’

After passing the door, the man turned around to thank again Ingrid but hesitated while staring at her.

‘’Er, excuse me, miss, should I know you? I saw your face somewhere before.’’ That made Ingrid smile as she answered him while presenting her right hand for a shake.

‘’You most probably saw my face in some newspaper: I have made the front pages a few times during the past years. Ingrid Dows, at your service.’’ The man’s face illuminated at once on hearing her name.

‘’THE General Ingrid Dows, our top fighter pilot in the war?’’

‘’That’s me, mister. Say, would you like to share a table with me and my two friends tonight?’’

The man had a disbelieving look at Hedy and Katharine, who were now entering the club, then looked back at Ingrid.

‘’I get to be with you and with the famous Hedy Lamarr and Katharine Hepburn? This must be a dream come true.’’

‘’Nah, that’s just reality, mister. It’s also called ‘luck’. Let’s go pay our admission fee, so that we could get a table near the stage.’’

The four of them did so at the reception counter next to the coatroom, then walked into the large showroom of the club. As Ingrid was heading with the man towards one of the still empty tables, Katharine suddenly showed joy as she spotted a mature man sitting at the bar on one side of the room.

‘’I see Spencer Tracy at the bar! If you will excuse me, I will go provide company to him.’’

‘’Have fun, Kate.’’ said Ingrid, who knew about the long story of affection between Katharine and Spencer Tracy. It was then the turn of Hedy to exclaim herself on seeing someone sitting alone at a table while watching the young female singer performing on the stage.

‘’Clark Gable is here tonight! He looks lonely, so I will go see him.’’

‘’Any excuse will do, Hedy.’’ replied Ingrid, amused, who then looked at the man with his crutches. ‘’Well, it seems that we will have this table to ourselves, after all, now that my two friends have hunted down preys of their own.’’ Her male companion had a chuckle at that as he got to the table and took a chair, with Ingrid sitting in the next chair, which faced the stage.

‘’I am afraid that your own prey tonight won’t prove to be much of a dancer, Miss Dows.’’

‘’Please, just call me Ingrid. And you are?’’

‘’Oh, excuse my lack of manners: I completely forgot to present myself. My name is John Fitzgerald Kennedy and I am a congressman representing the Eleventh District of Massachusetts. What? Is something wrong?’’

‘’Uh, no, not at all.’’ answered Ingrid, who quickly recovered from her surprise and flashed a smile to the one who would become President of the United States in less than ten years...if this timeline’s history followed that of the original timeline known to Nancy Laplante. However, Timeline ‘C’ was already quite different from Timeline ‘A’, so about anything could happen concerning John F. Kennedy. Still, the fact remained that the politician was an extremely handsome man and that she had come to the Ciro’s with her two friends to have fun. She took the time to ask a waitress for drinks, with John Kennedy, who asked for a rhum cocktail, surprised by her choice of a straight Coca Cola.

‘’You’re a tea-totaler, Ingrid?’’

‘’No, I do drink on occasions but I am driving tonight. Drinking and driving should never mix.’’

‘’A very sensible philosophy indeed, which I wholly approve.’’

‘’Thank you! Could I ask you if you had an accident which put you in crutches?’’

‘’I wish it was that simple, Ingrid. In truth, I have been suffering from back pains since a young age and was recently diagnosed with having Addison’s Disease, where parts of my suprarenal glands have stopped producing cortisone. As a result I suffer from chronic fatigue and back pains. While there are medications which can help me somewhat, I am afraid that this is a lifetime condition .’’

‘’Oh, I am sorry to hear that, John. So, if you are a congressman from Massachusetts, what are you doing here in Los Angeles, if I may ask?’’

‘’Oh, it’s really simple: I came for a few days to escape the present cold and humidity in Boston, which is not helping my back. And you, Ingrid? Do you live here in Los Angeles?’’

‘’I do! Me, Hedy and Katharine inherited the fortune and industrial empire of Howard Hughes after he was killed by Soviet agents bent on killing me. I was wounded then but poor Howard got hit by stray bullets.’’

‘’I do remember that story now. Howard Hughes was a great man and his loss was a tragic one.’’

‘’Indeed! Me and my two friends still grieve him. We only found after his death that he had couched us in his last will, something that came as an absolute surprise to us.’’

‘’But I suppose that many around were more than ready to suggest that you and your friends somehow pushed him to include you in his last will, right? This is after all Hollywood, the city of gossips and scandals.’’

‘’Is it ever!’’ said Ingrid, rolling her eyes. ‘’However, me and my friends decided early on to ignore the poisoned tongues around and to concentrate on managing and directing Howard’s business empire as efficiently as possible and with the good and welfare of our employees in mind. Without bragging, we can say that the employees at Hughes are probably the best treated ones in the United States, irrespective of their race, ethnicity or beliefs.’’

John Kennedy nodded his head in approval at those words, then stared into Ingrid’s eyes with a mix of admiration and curiosity.

‘’Ingrid, you are definitely what anyone would call a person of exception. What you have accomplished to date at your young age is incredible, especially considering that you are a woman engaged in occupations too often considered as men’s domains. A military fighter pilot, a general officer, an aircraft designer and a billionaire industrialist. Many people must be jealous of you.’’

‘’Oh, they’re a big crowd of those indeed, John. However, I recently added a new title to my pedigree, one that I am most proud of: that of ‘mother’. I adopted some two years ago a young Vietnamese girl I first met in Paris, where she was living with a Vietnamese family which had saved her from marauding Japanese soldiers who killed her parents and siblings in Indochina. Her name is Hien and she is now nine years-old.’’

‘’Oh, that’s sweet! Tell me more about her.’’

 

Ingrid was most happy to do so and she told to John the story of how she had found Hien in Paris, how she had adopted her after bringing her to the United States and about her recent visit to French Indochina. The part about marauding Japanese soldiers still infesting the jungles of Indochina made John frown.

‘’These bastards still refuse to give up after all these years? And the French can’t get rid of them?’’

‘’John, jungle warfare is a tough, difficult and costly business, especially when you are hunting for small groups which use guerrilla tactics. There are thousands of such hardcore Japanese soldiers still infesting the jungles and hills of the Philippines, despite years of efforts by our troops and those of the Filipinos. What I wish that our government would do, instead of periodically conducting some large-scale training exercises in the United States, using blank ammunition, would be to send three or four infantry divisions to the Philippines on a mission to systematically track, surround and wipe out those Japanese fanatics for good. In fact, I may just counsel that to President Dewey and Secretary of Defense Eisenhower the next time I visit Washington. There is nothing like real combat to hone the skills of our soldiers.’’

‘’You counsel President Dewey regularly?’’

‘’Not regularly but frequently enough, when a national security problem raises its head.’’

‘’Then, you are even more of an exceptional woman than I thought, Ingrid: women who have influence in Washington are most rare indeed.’’

‘’And what does the Congress think about a woman like me, John?’’ asked Ingrid, a malicious smile on her lips. ‘’You must hear what your fellow congressmen think about various things, no?’’

‘’Uh, some of what they say may shock or anger you, Ingrid.’’

‘’Go ahead, John: I have a thick skin.’’

‘’Very well! Apart from the collection of stupid misogynistic remarks you probably expected, some congressmen call you a ‘Socialist’ or, worse, a ‘Communist’. Representatives from the southern states are particularly prone to call you that, mostly thanks to your reputed opposition to racism and to your ‘liberal’ ideas. I did point to some of those bigoted idiots that you did more to serve and defend the nation than the lot of them put together ever did.’’

‘’Thank you for that, John.’’

‘’I was too happy to shut the mouths of those old fossils, so no need to thank me for that, Ingrid.’’

 

The next hour or so went by quite quickly, with Ingrid and John exchanging opinions and souvenirs, including their respective war experiences, while watching a succession of singers and musicians performing on the stage. At one point, Katharine came to their table with Spencer Tracy, to speak to her in a low voice.

‘’Do you mind if I leave you now, Ingrid? Spencer is a bit drunk and I am going to drive him back to his hotel in his car.’’

‘’Go right ahead, Kate. I will manage by myself here.’’

Katharine threw her an amused look after eyeing John Kennedy.

‘’I am sure you will, Ingrid. See you tomorrow.’’

‘’Have a good night...both of you.’’

The ex-actress smiled at that reply, then left with Spencer Tracy. When Ingrid looked towards the table where Hedy was with Clark Gable, it was to find both of those gone: they must have left the club unnoticed by her while she was conversing with John.

‘’Well, it seems that both of my friends abandoned me here with you. Maybe we should move to my house, so that I could drink some alcohol there with you, without risking to cause an accident.’’

‘’That sounds like a nice idea, Ingrid.’’ replied John, not believing his luck.

When the duo walked out of the club, it was to find a small crowd of passersby looking closely at Ingrid’s car, with some trying to peer inside through the closed windows. John himself was stricken by the futuristic lines of her car.

‘’My God, Ingrid! Where did you find this car? Is it a Ferrari?’’

‘’A Ferrari? Hell no! This is a Hughes SPRINT and I designed it. It is due to go on sale across the United States in a few weeks and will be available at Willys car dealerships. COULD YOU PLEASE STAND ASIDE, PEOPLE?’’ The admirers did step away with some regrets but stayed close by as she and John took place in the SPRINT. The interior and instruments panel drew at once a whistle from John.

‘’Wow! This car looks positively fabulous.’’

‘’Its performance are also fabulous, John, but I won’t be able to demonstrate them to you tonight: if I do, I would probably collect the biggest speeding ticket possible.’’

‘’And how fast can this car go?’’

‘’Oh, it reached a speed on trial of nearly 200 miles per hour.’’

‘’TWO-HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR?! Hell, what kind of engine do you have in this beast, Ingrid?’’

‘’A Lycoming air-cooled flat-eight producing 360 horsepower, with a six-speed manual transmission. You also can get it with an optional semi-automatic six-speed transmission.’’

As she said that, she started her engine and made it roar a couple of time before rolling out of her parking spot, watched by the fascinated onlookers.

 

With the Ciro’s Nightclub being only a few kilometers from the Hughes Mansion in Beverley Hills, it took them only minutes to arrive at the big residence. Once her car was parked in the multi-spot garage, Ingrid led John up to the upper floor, where she found the faithful Madam Nguyen sitting in a rocking chair set near the door of Hien’s bedroom. Ingrid gave the 54-year-old woman a grateful smile as she gently pressed in her hands a twenty-dollar bill and spoke to her in Vietnamese.

‘’Thank you so much for caring for my little Hien, Madam Nguyen. Any problem with her tonight?’’

‘’None, Ingrid: Hien is a real angel. She went to bed twenty minutes ago, after taking her shower and brushing her teeth.’’

‘’Excellent! I will take it over from you now. Have a good night, Madam Nguyen.’’

‘’And thank you for your generosity, Ingrid. You are the best employer I ever had.’’

On that, the mature Vietnamese woman walked away, heading for her own personal suite. John nodded his head while watching her go, impressed by Ingrid’s language skills.

‘’I see that the stories about you remembering your past incarnations are true, Ingrid. How many languages can you speak?’’

‘’Sixty-eight at last count, most of them extinct or forgotten by now. I can also remember and practice all of my past skills, both as a woman and as a man. Now, let’s be quiet: I am going in to show you my little Hien. Leave your crutches here and use me as a support while we walk in.’’

Doing as little noise as possible and walking slowly while John rested his left hand on her right shoulder as a support, Ingrid went to Hien’s bed, where her nine-year-old adopted daughter was sleeping peacefully. Both she and John admired the child in silence for a few seconds before they exited the bedroom and silently closed back its door. Facing John, Ingrid whispered to him while caressing his face with both hands.

‘’I will need to take a shower, in order to get rid of that damn tobacco smoke. Would you mind helping me soap my back, John?’’

‘’I would be most pleased to help you, Ingrid.’’ answered John before both exchanged a long kiss.

 

Going together to Ingrid’s suite, they undressed each other while exchanging more kisses and caresses, then went to her private bathroom to have a shower. There, John proved to have strong but gentle hands and thoroughly aroused her while soaping her back and buttocks. When the soap on her was rinsed, she took turn in soaping and rubbing John’s back, massaging it to help him with his chronic back pain. She was still massaging his back and buttocks when her eyes widened and she hesitated for a moment: both of her hands were now glowing faintly, while John let out a moan.

‘’Yes, that’s great, Ingrid: I feel my back pain disappearing with your massage.’’

‘’Uh, my pleasure, John.’’ could only say Ingrid while her mind went into full speed mode. She had not consciously wished to heal his back and this was the first time ever that she saw her hands glow like this. Could this be one of the powers she had developed along with her ability to remembering her past incarnations? She already knew that she possessed to a degree the powers of telepathy and empathy, on top of being much stronger and tougher than a normal woman. What or who could have changed her like this? Could this be one of the results of her brain having been somewhat reconnected in a mysterious way? What else could she do out of the ordinary? Being unable to find an answer to these questions, she continued massaging John’s back until her hands stopped glowing after a minute or so. When they stepped out of the bathtub to dry each other out, John looked down at her with near reverence.

‘’I don’t feel any remaining pain in my back, Ingrid. Your massage was fantastic.’’

‘’I am glad to have helped you like this, John. How about we go to bed now and learn more about each other?’’

‘’How could I refuse such an offer, Ingrid.’’ replied John before hugging her naked body and kissing her.

 

06:12 (California Time)

Thursday, April 26, 1951 ‘C’

Ingrid’s bedroom

 

Ingrid was awakened by a hand caressing her hair and slowly opened her eyes, to then see Hien’s face near to her face. The girl then whispered to her in Vietnamese.

‘’Mommy, could you prepare breakfast for me: I’m hungry.’’

‘’Sure, my little angel. Give me a minute to put on a bathrobe.’’ Slowly getting up from bed in order not to wake up John, Ingrid went to her closet and put on a woolen bathrobe and a pair of slippers, then walked out of her suite to go down with Hien to the kitchen of the mansion. There, she spent a few minutes frying two eggs and some bacon and then added a toast with jam to the breakfast meal she served to Hien. As the girl was eating her meal, John showed up at the door of the dining room, wearing one of the pajamas and bathrobes Ingrid kept in her suite for her male night visitors.

‘’Good morning, Ingrid! I must say that the smell coming from the kitchen attracted me to here.’’

‘’Then, sit down next to Hien while I prepare something for both you and me. How do you like your eggs?’’

‘’Over easy, please.’’

‘’Eggs, bacon and toasts coming up!’’

As Ingrid got busy again around the kitchen, John sat next to Hien and smiled to her while offering his right hand for a shake.

‘’Hello, Hien! My name is John, John Kennedy.’’

‘’Pleased to meet you, mister.’’ replied Hien in her now fluent English while shaking his hand. ‘’How long have you been a friend of Mommy?’’

‘’Uh, just for one night.’’ answered John, making Hien smile.

‘’Mommy has many new friends she invites home from time to time, mister. Hedy also regularly brings home new friends.’’

‘’Oh?!’’ said John, amused. ‘’And do you also bring boys home from time to time?’’

His joke actually attracted an answer that many Americans would have found shocking.

‘’No, not yet: Mommy says that I should wait a few more years before doing that.’’ John wrung his hand while looking up at Ingrid, who was standing next to the oven.

‘’Wow! You really have a liberal mind, Ingrid.’’

‘’It is better for Hien to learn gradually from me rather than learning the brutal way from meeting the wrong boy, John. I truly believe that sex education should be taught to teenagers in the United States: it could prevent a lot of avoidable emotional tragedies. What we have right now is mostly a lot of religious hypocrisy and misogynistic notions.’’

‘’I’ll buy that. By the way, your massage yesterday evening worked miracles for my back: I don’t feel back pains anymore and feel more energetic.’’

‘’Glad to have been of help, John.’’

 

Some ten minutes later, as both Hien and John were still eating and with Ingrid now sitting in front of her own plate of bacon and eggs, Hedy Lamarr entered the kitchen...with Clark Gable in tow. John couldn’t help have a chuckle then.

‘’My, this is indeed a very liberal house.’’

‘’It is also a happy house.’’ replied Hedy before shaking hands with him. ‘’Good morning, mister. I’m Hedy Lamarr and you probably could recognize my friend, Clark Gable.’’

‘’I did! John F. Kennedy, at your service. Hello, Mister Gable!’’

‘’Please, just call me ‘Clark’. Uh, aren’t you a congressman, by chance?’’

‘’Correct! I represent the Eleventh District in Massachusetts and am a Democrat.’’

‘’Well, I am a Republican but I won’t hold that against you, Congressman Kennedy: some could actually accuse me of being in bed with a Democrat.’’

‘’Too true! So, are you presently working on a new movie, Clark?’’

‘’I am presently reading through the proposed script for a movie to be produced by RKO. However, I can’t tell you anything about it: my RKO7 boss is right here with me and she wouldn’t like hearing me blabbing about her future movie.’’ John eyed at once Hedy Lamarr with some surprise.

‘’You manage RKO Pictures, Miss Lamarr?’’

‘’I own and manage RKO Pictures, Mister Kennedy.’’ corrected Hedy. ‘’I inherited it from Howard Hughes, along with the Hughes Tools Company, his real estate and his stock market holdings, while Ingrid got Hughes Aircraft and Katharine Hepburn runs Air Fifinella, on top of regularly helping Ingrid to test fly the newest aircraft and helicopters Hughes Aircraft produces.’’

John Kennedy looked at Hedy, then at Ingrid, renewed respect in his eyes.

‘’What a trio you girls make! You must have tons of people jealous of your successes.’’

‘’That goes without saying, Mister Kennedy. The United States has more than its fair share of sexist bigots. Well, time for me to prepare a good breakfast for Clark and me: we both have work to do today.’’

‘’So do I.’’ said Ingrid. ‘’I also will have to drop Hien at her school. John, you are welcome to spend the rest of your vacation here, instead of returning to your hotel.’’

‘’Hum, to either stay here with a beautiful and most extraordinary girl or to return to my hotel room. That is a difficult decision indeed.’’

That caused an instant quorus of laughs around the kitchen.

 

7 RKO: Also known as RKO Pictures. Now defunct American film production company founded in 1929 and dissolved in 1959. Howard Hughes acquired it in 1948. Its two most famous movies were ‘King Kong’ and ‘Citizen Kane’.