I woke up at five, crap, perhaps in a week or so I'll get to sleep till six or later. Knowing I needed to exercise for my cardio rehab therapy, I put on shorts, kept on the T-shirt I slept in, and put on socks and my tennis shoes.
The morning was a little cooler after the scorching heat of the day before. Taking my pills was first, then I took off, walking slowly and built up speed for five minutes until I was walking at a fairly fast pace. I walked completely around the big park, ending up where there were some nice homes on a private street. I figured these houses were the owner's and family. I was back at the trailer, after a forty-five minute walk. I showered and shaved while some coffee was dripping.
Not knowing how long it was going to take, I ate a quick bowl of cereal, had a cup of coffee, and headed out. I stopped at the Seven Eleven out on highway forty-one to get some donuts, as requested by Sarah, and headed for downtown Tampa.
It was early enough that traffic wasn't too bad. I was able to park in the lot behind her building for two bucks and went around front to find out what floor her office was on. I took the elevator to the fourth floor and stepped out. The directions for numbers had me entering a dark office at eight. I said, "Hello, Ms. Perkins? Mark Robins here."
A voice from the back said, "Come on back, I'm making coffee. Did you bring donuts?"
I was laughing as I put the bag with a dozen donuts on the counter. The lady said, "You didn't have to get so many. Just one for me, and one for my secretary, was all I wanted. Now I'll have to have at least two. What do you want, a fat lawyer?"
I just smiled.
"Come into my office while the coffee is brewing. Janet will be in any second. I always beat her. She really doesn't start until eight thirty. Now where did I put those papers?"
Sarah read a bunch of stuff then asked, "Do you want to hurt her or do you just want a fair deal."
"Fair would be nice. I have no reason to want to her hurt. I don't think she should get everything though. I worked a long time for the money I sold the business for. When we remarried, we re-incorporated so it could be a woman owned or minority owned business, but she hasn't worked in the business for over fifteen years."
Sarah said while looking at the papers, "That shouldn't be a big deal. Fair is fair, so it should be at least 50/50 right down the middle. Now if you were some lady who was really crapped on by a sleaze husband, I would make the husband eat shit."
I nodded.
Sarah continued, "Look at these numbers as to the amount of the various accounts and the appraisal of your house. I've listed the vehicles you own, including the car now registered in Atlanta. We can exclude that if you want since that's your daughter's."
These were the numbers that I had given her. Luckily I had just checked balances of the personal and business accounts. I still had the receipts from the ATM machine outside the bank Monday morning. I fished those from my money clip and attached those. That got me thinking, she must have taken off Monday to do all this stuff. Oh, that's why she was early getting home. Not just to tell me we were splitting, she had not gone to work that day.
I mentioned to Sarah that by Monday evening, the accounts had me excluded already.
Sarah had me sign a bunch of papers that were mostly power of attorney. She looked up at me and asked, "Do you know the name of the guy she's seeing?"
I smiled and said, "I do. Now, that guy I'd like to hurt. He left a wife and three kids with nothing. He was such a sleaze that he had my wife object about me buying them milk and some groceries and mowing their lawn while she was trying to sell the house. She got nothing in the divorce because he didn't have anything. I'd bet he isn't paying child support either."
"Can you get hold of the ex-wife?"
"I sure can, I keep in touch to make sure she's okay and her kids are alright. She's staying with her folks right now, and is working at a clothing store. She's taking some night classes to become a dental hygienist. I hope she makes it."
"Get hold of her and have her call me. If I can, I can go back and get something off him. If nothing else, I'll put him in jail." She laughed, "I can be mean."
She shuffled the papers, tapped them together, and slid a paper clip over them. "Okay, you're done. If you get rich, I'll charge you accordingly, but you're already trying to help someone else, so we're probably gonna be even."
"How can you do all this pro bono work?"
Sarah said smiling, "A little while back, I made a great big fee suing a fat cat that was abusive. Now I still charge people, but I can do this stuff for women and you for free and enjoy it. Now get, I have work to do. Call me."
That reminded me, I needed a phone. On the way back to the park, I stopped at Wal-Mart and bought a cheap phone with a thousand minutes. That should be plenty for a long while
I used the new phone to call Sarah's office and gave the secretary the new number.
Back at the park, I was about to call the cable company for my own internet connection but instead, I used my laptop to see if I could figure out whose connection I was using. I couldn't without getting into their hard drive and I didn't want to do that. I would ask around and perhaps split it with them.
I decided to make up my PC and go to the used store to get what else I needed. I needed a new hard drive, another gig of ram, an external hard drive for backup, and a wireless network interface card. The computer store had a deal on a better, faster ready built box that was about the same price of the junk I was going to buy, so I bought it with a used LCD monitor and the external hard drive. I had to make an extra trip to get my used stuff back to the store as my trade-in.
The folks included a keyboard and mouse, so I was fixed.
At home, I set up everything and discovered the store had pre-loaded XP so all I had to do was load my old Office professional 97 and then download Firefox. I connected to the internet, downloaded what I needed, then set up an Excel spreadsheet for my budget. I figured I would just start a list and keep adding to it until I had everything that I needed.
I checked my yahoo account and Judy had forwarded several e-mails that were mostly spam. My sister forgot and sent stuff to my home address. There was note from Judy,
Mark,
I didn't mean for you to have to leave so fast. I thought we might have a last supper on Friday evening since I'm off Friday. Come by about six and we'll have a nice supper together and talk about our individual futures.
Judy
Whew! That was strange. That was as nice as she's written to me or talked to me in virtually years. I wondered what this was all about. I doubted it was really for my benefit.
Just for fun, I forwarded the note to Sarah Perkins telling her that I had received this today.
Someone was knocking on my door. An elderly gentleman was standing outside, so I went out. He introduced himself, "I'm Donald Krause. I live across the street there. I wanted to welcome you to the park. I heard you helped Betty."
"Yes Sir, I did."
"That was very nice of you. If you want, I'd love for you to see if you can make my old Mercury run better. It's missing something fierce. They want over a hundred dollars just to do a tune-up and you know they will find more. Come over and get it when you can look at it for me. My wife, Prissy, will wash and iron for you in return. How about it?"
"I'll look at your car for you, but your wife doesn't have to wash my clothes. I'm a big boy, I know how to do that."
"It'd make us feel better if you help us. We don't have much money; we're kind of short lately."
"No problem, Donald, or do people call you Don?"
"Either one, Prissy is the one who always calls me Donald."
"Let me get your car over here and let's see what needs to be done."
The car could hardly drive across the street it was running so bad. It only had thirty-four thousand miles, but that could be a hundred and thirty-four. The car was so clean and perfect, I'd bet on thirty-four.
After popping the hood and looking at the engine compartment, the problem was obvious. Squirrels or rats had gotten up into the engine compartment and chewed through most of the plug wires. I pulled a plug to find they were probably the originals. The oil looked like ink and the air filter was caked. Well, I guess I was going to have to spend some money. I ran next door to the auto parts store and bought, plugs, plug wires, a rotor cap, pcv valve, and gas, oil, and air filters. The auto parts guy showed me where the gas filter was on his computer diagram so I could find it.
The whole thing didn't take but about forty-five minutes. I remembered something else and went for some gas treatment for the fuel injectors as well as some gas rejuvenating additive. I was sure the gas was old. I poured the junk into the tank then took the car for a little drive. It ran good. I didn't need to do any timing adjustments, but ran it down the street and came back, noting the car was heating up.
Back in the driveway, I checked and found the two main radiator hoses were dry rotted, so I pulled the car to end of the street and pulled a water hose to it, letting it run while I loosened the petcock on the bottom of the radiator. Once the engine was flushed, I went back to the parts store to get anti-freeze and the two hoses. I put the car back together then went to Donald.
A elderly lady came to the door and smiled at me, "You're Mark, aren't you. People call me Prissy. Won't you come in?"
"I'm done with the car, Ma'am. Perhaps Donald and you would like to take a drive. It should run fine."
"I saw you take it out then do some more to it. What was so bad on it?"
"Well the worst thing was that the car isn't used enough. The other bad thing is that squirrels were eating up the wiring. You need to feed the squirrels some kind of treat that will keep them away."
"We've had to start doing that. They were eating the telephone and cable wire from underneath the house. We haven't seen any lately. I know there are so many we'll always have them, but I'll just keep feeding them."
"Good, here's your keys. Tell Don the car's ready to roll."
"I will, Mark, thank you so much. Now you be sure to bring your dirty clothes over here so I can wash and iron them for you. That will make me feel a lot better."
I just smiled and said, "Yes, Ma'am." Old folks have pride too.
I cleaned up my tools and put everything away then cleaned myself up in clean jeans and shirt. I got the receipts together and wrote Donald and Prissy Krause on a note and paper clipped them all together.
Thinking that Martin may help me meet this guy who pays for parts, I walked over to Betty's and found her sitting out on her little patio. "Hi, Betty. I want to go see Martin. Could you tell me where he lives?"
"He's two streets over, the third house from the end on our side of the street. You can't miss it because of Steve Sharp's place. The Sharps have a huge home with a big patio. Martin may even be over there. If no one is home, go to the patio and go in and ask for him. You'll probably see him and Glenda sucking up a beer sitting on the glider."
I began to leave as Betty said, "Wait a minute, I'll walk over with you. I want to tell Steve and Sue how nice you were to help me out with my car."
"Don't tell them that. I did it as a favor to you."
"They need to know. They like to know the folks that live out here."
We walked around to the entrance to the street where Martin lived and walked down. It was right at lunch time and golf carts were buzzing down the street, stopping just ahead in a group by a large manufactured office building. The closer we got, the more it looked like a manufactured home and not an office. As we passed by, I could see a huge patio with a lot of people at tables. We were almost to Martin's trailer when he called us from a patio door. "Hey, Mark, Betty, come over here. Mark, you have to meet Steve and his family. They're just back from sailing all the way to Hawaii and back. They're showing pictures on the TV while we eat lunch."
I got up closer and said, "We'll come back after lunch, Martin. I didn't mean to interrupt a meal."
"Shoot, your not interrupting anything. Everyone comes to eat here. Come on in before the soup gets cold."
I was really embarrassed. Just the way to meet a nice guy you want to put the arm on. Mooch lunch.
Martin pulled me right over to a nice looking guy sitting between two very nice looking women. One looked at you as if she could see through you, and the other was pure sweetness with Grand Canyon cleavage. Martin said, "Steve, Sue, Mercy, everybody, this Mark Robins. He just moved in and has already been helping people. Yesterday, he fixed up Betty's car and today, I heard he was fixing Don and Prissy Krause's car."
Steve stood and stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Mark. Good to see you, Betty, you never come over. Sit, have some lunch. We always have enough."
It looked like they did, so as people cleared out a space across from Steve, Betty and I sat. Martin said, "This is my wonderful wife, Glenda,. She's responsible for a lot of good eating around here."
I stood and shook hands with the nice older lady. Glenda said, "Betty, have you found a single guy you can chase?"
"Sort of, Glenda, he's a little young, I might have to throw him back. Shirley and Caroline think he's just about right for pickin' though."
I was blushing when the lady named Mercy who kept looking inside my head said, "Don't listen to those ladies. They love to tease men. If you let them you'll have a red face all the time."
Steve asked, "Do you work or are you retired?"
"Well, I had a business, but I sold it with the intention of retiring, but something came up that's going to require me to find a job. I have a line on a couple."
Betty opened her mouth when I wish she wouldn't, "Mark's wife is divorcing him and kicked him out of the house and took all of their money. That's what happened to a good man."
I rolled my eyes and said, "It will work out. I found some representation this morning that should help."
Steve said, "Well, that's too bad, but perhaps good for us. Thank you for helping those folks. If you will give me the bills for the parts for those folks, I'll reimburse you. Martin just gave me the bills on Betty's car. I understand you even fixed her air. Her shop said it needed a new compressor, what did you do to it?"
"That would be nice if you would reimburse me for the parts. I don't mind the time, but I'm on a rather limited budget. The only problem with her air was the compressor belt. Of course, there may be something I didn't see, but that's all I found so far."
Betty said, "I took the car over to the mall this morning and it drove perfectly and the air froze me out. Mark did a great job helping me out. He's going to be great for us older folks."
Sue said, "You have to give the man a chance to have a job, Betty. He needs to work to make some money. Make sure you tell people he'll help, but he can't do this all day, everyday."
After taking a bite, Sue looked at me and asked, "What kind of business did you have, Mark?"
"I had a communications business. My company did and still does sell and service business telephone systems. Our market was mostly attorneys and doctors. We had some industrial accounts, but mostly professional offices."
Steve asked, "What are you going to look for?"
"I thought I would go over to Publix and see if they need someone. Perhaps Wal-Mart, or someplace like that. I can't do a lot physically. I'm not in that great of shape. I'm healthy and all, I just have some restrictions I have to live with."
Glenda said, "Wasn't that you out walking real early this morning."
"Yes it was, Glenda, that's part of my cardiac rehab. It's been a few years now so it must be working. Walking is almost my only exercise."
Steve asked, "Do you know anything about small engines? You know like lawn mower engines or these golf cart engines?"
"I rebuilt a golf cart one time for myself a long time ago. Most of the small engines are fairly easy unless they have a proprietary ignition or something."
"You might go over to our golf cart factory and see if they need anyone. They are always looking for warranty techs to go down to places like Sun City and some other golf cart communities. You can work by the hour or subcontract."
"I'll go over there later this afternoon and ask. I need to get my resume back in order. I haven't had one for thirty plus years. There won't be that much to add."
Steve asked, "What do you do for fun, Mark?"
"I play pool a couple of nights a week in a league, I mess with an ancient motorcycle, and I toy with some ideas in my workshop when I have time."
"What kind of ideas, Mark?" Steve was smiling, curious.
"I've been working on an idea for a solid state ignition for small motors that would be more dependable. I also have a couple of gas saving ideas that I want to try out on some vehicles. I just putter."
"You should show our R&D people your ideas. They might be able to help you test and improve them. They would still be your ideas, but we might be a buyer for them. We market some weird stuff. You'll have to go over there to see what they play with. You'll also need to go down to the main shop and see it. That's my pride and joy. We started down the street at the storage facility and grew from there."
I smiled and said, "Seems I've read a few articles about your company. Ah, your wife Sue has a clothing company, right?"
Sue smiled a dazzling smile, "I sure do. We started right here in the trailer park as a mail order company. Now we're really big with several big factories right here in town."
I asked, "Isn't the recession hurting your business? Can you keep the factories busy?"
"We make a lot of clothing that would be considered staples. We also make clothes for people that are hard to fit. We make a lot of clothing under contract for the military here in the United States and several other countries. We actually have had to turn down uniform business. We just sold too much."
"That's wonderful. How about you, Steve, how are your businesses doing?"
Steve said, "Happily, we haven't laid off anyone in any country, but we've had to use people all over the place and we haven't hired for retiring employees or those who have moved away. So far, so good, as our orders are still decent, just not as strong. We have such a variety of businesses that one picks up the other."
I was finishing my sandwich and took a drink of the ice tea given me. Steve said, "Say, come by later. About five and have a beer or drink with us. Stay and have supper. You'll love all the folks that come. A real menagerie of folks. It's a blast to meet them all. You'll love them."
Sue said, "They'll love you for helping those old folks. The hardest thing we have to do is to look after all the older folks out here. They're so damned independent they don't want your direct help, but if you do like you're doing, they'll be grateful forever."
Mercy said, "I think Mark is willing to help anyone, aren't you, Mark? We just need to help him have enough to keep him happy."
I looked at Mercy with a smile and wondered if she were some kind of mind reader or mentalist. Betty said, "I do need to get back, Mark. Shirley and I go up to the pool in the afternoon and today is a great day for it."
Glenda said, "Mark, put your swimsuit on and go up to the pool with us bunch of gossips. You'll be fresh gossip for all of them. Lie out in the sun and get some color. All the ladies will want to put oil on you."
When I rolled my eyes, Steve said, "After I go to the gym, I go up there and lay out for about a half hour everyday of the week. It keeps my color and makes me feel good. I swim afterwards so I get a little more exercise."
Sue said, "You should come up. There are a lot of nice looking ladies to look at."
Steve said, "Mercy, Kathy, Juanita, and Sue included. There's Beth and Missy too, but they don't go up all the time."
"Thank you, folks, for making me so welcome. It is a real pleasure to meet you."
"Whether you come up to pool or not, be sure to come over for a beer and supper tonight. It's a command performance." Steve took the receipts that I had for Don and Prissy and said, "I'll have your check here for these and Betty's, so you have to come."
I left with a smile as this had been a really unexpected meeting. As we walked out, Martin came out and said, "Let me give you a quick ride over to your place, Betty, so you can get up to the pool. Wouldn't want you to miss out on the gabfest up there."
"Oh, Martin, we're not that bad. We just talk, that's all."
"Talk, and talk, and talk and talk. Glenda just loves it."
Back home, I was entering some more items on my budget spreadsheet when Betty and Shirley knocked on my door. They said, "Are you coming with us?"
"Do you think I really should? I'm not in that great of shape. I've a little belly and some handles on the side. I'm no young guy."
"Who's looking for a young guy? Come on, you old fogey. Get your swimsuit on and come with us. You may not be able to do this every day but you can today. You might find more people to help."
Just what I needed.
I changed quickly and put a T-shirt on to cover my chest where you could see my pacemaker. When we got to the pool area, the ladies began introducing me to a dozen women with ages from the late thirties up to Mrs. Henderson who had just celebrated her ninety-first birthday. I just love old people. Thinking comically that I "are" one of those, but I really do love the really old girl's spunk.
When Mrs. Henderson said, "Come lay down on this lounge next to me. I'll put some oil on your back' Honey." I was a goner. I was in love.
I said, "Mrs. Henderson, I would love to, but I came up with Betty and Shirley. I should stay with them, don't you think?"
"If you're a gentleman the answer is yes. But if you're me and want your company, the answer is lie down right here."
Betty came over and said, "Stay here with the lady, Mark. She just wants to get her hands on you."
I lay down on the lounger and was told quickly to take off my T-shirt. She told me to lie down on my stomach then she proceeded to give me a wonderful delicate massage over all of my back and legs. She said, "You should wear a skimpier suit so I can get at more of you." She actually giggled. She lay on her stomach and handed me the lotion. She said, "Be gentle, Honey, my skin is a little thin."
I took a long while to gently apply the oil. She moaned several times from the attention. I put some lotion on my face, forehead, and my front. I lay down on my back and enjoyed a little sun that way, then turned on my stomach to get some sun on my back. Mrs. Henderson asked, "Can you help me turn over, Honey. I need a few minutes on my back, and then I'll be done for the day."
I gently helped her to kneel then lay on her back. She was pretty spry for ninety-one. She asked me lots of questions until a younger lady came over and said, "Hilly, come on, it's time to go home. You've had a lot of sun today." I had sat up and she extended her hand to me to let me help her up. She got up and was very agile. She put her sandals and a swim robe on and picked up her purse. She said to me, "I hope you come up and visit with me often. It was sweet of you to stay with me today."
She and the lady left the pool, so I went over to lay out with Betty and Shirley who were in some serious discussions with some other ladies. A nice looking lady in her late sixties said, "That lady who just took Mrs. Henderson home is her granddaughter, another widow. She's amazing, isn't she?"
I just smiled and lay down on my stomach to get some more sun. Three hands began oiling my back again. I had my eyes closed and said, "You three know this is heaven and I'll want to know each of you more intimately."
"Be still my heart," Shirley said.
Betty said, "Now he's flirting, how nice."
The new lady said, "I'm Caroline, I live just up the street from you. Don't be a stranger from my bed, ah, I mean door."
The three ladies were giggling.
Sue, Mercy, Kathy, and Juanita all came to the pool with Steve and some other guy with a fake leg. Looking at the four women was going to cause my pacemaker to overload. Shirley even said, "Are you waking up in that swimsuit?"
There was so much flesh, I didn't know where to look first. Ah, that's what dreams are made of. I took some good mental pictures and was laying back when Mercy walked over to us and said, "Would you help oil us, Mark?"
Betty and Shirley said, "Get up, take advantage of the opportunity."
I did get up and while Steve and the other guy were being oiled by Kathy and Juanita, I did Mercy and Sue. Sue even told me, don't let my buns burn. Rub some oil on them. When Kathy and Juanita lay down, Kathy said, "Now do us. You have to do our fronts too."
Both of these women were a treat. Juanita was very voluptuous with just the right amount of dark skinned padding to make you daydream. She said to me, "Make sure you do my bottom so I don't burn. Rub it real good."
She was wearing something close to a T-back and I did rub the exposed cheeks real good.
Kathy had me do her back, legs, and bottom then flipped over so quickly that her top didn't follow. Holy smokes, she had large breasts. I waited patiently as she put her top back on, tucking her large breasts into the cups. I spread oil on her as she grinned. I said softly, "You're a tease sometimes."
Steve said, "More than sometimes, Mark. Hey, Mark, this is Chuck Johnson. He's a Deputy U.S. Marshal, a friend of ours. A great person to know. Chuck, this is Mark Robins. He just moved out here."
We shook hands and I felt that Chuck was like Mercy, he could look inside me. I smiled then went back to lie down. As I passed Sue, she was handling her monster breasts and looked up at me and said, "You should probably oil these, Mark. They'll burn, worse than Kathy's."
Mercy said, "Stop teasing him, Sue. He's only human."
Sue grinned and giggled a little, but didn't quit manipulating her big boobs.
I stayed for another fifteen minutes on both sides, then got up to swim. As I dove in, Steve and Chuck dove in and began swimming some fast laps. I just kept up my leisurely pace while the young guys winded themselves. They were in great shape.
I was drying off when I told the ladies, "I can't just lay here doing nothing. I have to go do something. I need to go check on that job at the golf cart factory."
The ladies sat up and smiled at me. They all had their tops loose, almost falling off, just a millimeter from showing nipple. If I could get a hard on, I would be knocking people down. Jesus, these ladies were teases.
Caroline said she would walk back with me and buckled up and put on her light swim robe. We walked back to our street to find that Caroline lived in the house just on the other side of Betty. As I left her, she touched my arm and said, "You should visit. I'm very friendly and I do understand older gentlemen. I'm sure we could enjoy each other."
That was so direct, but so appealing, that I hugged her to me and said, "That's one hell of an invitation, Caroline. I think I should give this separation stuff a little time to sink in. Thank you, though, and know that I will want to spend some time just enjoying each other's closeness."
Caroline actually shivered. "Oh my, you're making me into Jell-O. Get out of here before I attack you right here on the porch."
We smiled at each other before I walked to my trailer. As I opened my door, my cell phone was ringing.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious