Chuck
I opened my eyes, and listened to the sounds of my multiple bedmates sleeping. A glance at the clock said it was right at six, so it was time for me to get up.
Sliding from bed didn't wake anyone, so I pulled the covers up over all of the wonderful ladies and hopped to the bathroom. With that out of the way, I slipped on my peg and went out to form in the cool morning air.
There had been too many things lately that were conflicting. Since John and I had returned from that crazy hit, snipe, sanction, mission, or whatever you wanted to call it, all of the DC people have treated me with kid gloves. Hardly anyone called, and the only contact lately has been e-mail. Even the Marshal wasn't bugging me about budgets.
I still had some self doubts whether I had to neutralize the other shooter that was there. The mission is first and the man was an impediment to the mission. I was taught to accomplish the mission and do what is necessary for success. There was no way to sneak up on the guy and the noise of his gun going off would have been tragic. John and I might have even been caught.
No one supposedly knows what we did or where we did it. There are more than seven people who do, because the helicopter crew dropped and picked us up. The same crew was used for both, but that's three more. The supply guy knows we were going into the field for something, and the range officer knew that we were practicing for something kinky.
I've been working on trying to figure out who hired the shooter we found out there, but I have only established that the guy was a pro who worked for anyone with a buck. He was suspected in shootings all over the lower forty-eight, plus in half a dozen European countries. A couple of telephone numbers turned out to be just cell numbers that were limited use, throw away, gas station purchased cell phones. The guy's wallet had over three thousand dollars in it, plus a card with a key taped to the back. The card was for a bank in Huntsville, Arkansas, and the key looked like a safe deposit box key. I figured on checking that out the next time I flew near there.
Keeping John abreast of my investigation didn't seem important to him, as he said, "We did what we were asked to do, and even the Marshal acts like it never happened. No one else has brought it up, and I haven't even seen a blurb about it on any of the intelligence briefing statements."
I felt warmth near me as I stretched into a new position. Through half closed eyes, I observed Lisa and Wanda gracefully forming simultaneously. As I brought my last form to a close, I felt an emotion full of elation. With a smile, I was looking into Lisa's eyes. She smiled at me and looked down, with an almost embarrassed look on her face.
I held out my hand to invite her to walk back into the screen enclosure with me. Lisa took it, still with eyes lowered. When I walked toward the pool, Lisa hesitated, and then followed me. As I slipped off my T-shirt and shorts, about to slip off my peg, Lisa touched my arm and turned my face toward her.
She smiled at me with the softest smile a man could ever see. In near slow motion, Lisa pulled her T-shirt over her head to reveal her bronzed beauty. I was able to see her swollen, erect, nipples and how her stomach sunk in as she exhaled in excitement.
Lisa slowly unbuttoned her shorts, unzipped them, and let them fall to her feet. She was now nude as she stood with her arms to her side, with her palms out, facing me. God, she was beautiful.
I smiled, she smiled, and we met, body to body and kissed. When our kiss parted, we stepped into the water still holding each other. We began to swim side by side, gradually picking up speed, until we were driving ourselves as hard as we could. When we were both winded, we drifted to the side of the pool to catch our breath and to cling to each other, as well as to the security of the side of the pool.
Nancy and Judy swam up to us and encircled us in their arms. Judy said, "You two looked so beautiful when you were doing your forms, then something happened to both of you. You were standing together before you began to swim and there seemed to be some kind of energy that passed between you."
Nancy stroked Lisa's head, kissed her on the forehead, and said, "Lisa, Honey, you are so much like us it's as if we are all sisters. You love Chuck as much as we all do, but hold back just ever so slightly from him. It's almost as if you're afraid to give him that last little bit of yourself."
Lisa said, "Sometimes I'm just lost in how I feel about Chuck and even you guys. I used to only have my dad and my big black mama, but I've found so many special friends down here. Most of all, I've found Chuck, you girls, Tina, Wanda, and Chuck's friends out at that crazy trailer park. I'm more in love than I've ever been, and feel as if I'm just barely beginning. Strange, isn't it?"
Frieda had swum up to us and offered, "We are all just beginning. All of us, as a group, are growing, maturing, and becoming a unit, a family. I think you're feeling the security of being cared for by all of us. I know that I've felt so fulfilled lately, so secure and comfortable that I just float along, enjoying the day. Lisa, you are part of us, we all really do care for you."
Wanda was sitting on the side of the pool next to us and said, "John's my guy, but I somehow feel I'm a part of all of you as well. I haven't enjoyed Chuck since I've had John, but I have been with all of you girls. I hope we can stay this close, I really like the way our family feels together."
We migrated inside to begin our day. When I got into the shower with Lisa, Tiani and Brandy got in with us. The two partners were all over Lisa this morning. Brandy said, "Lisa, you look so relaxed today. Did you guys make love out in the pool this morning?"
Lisa said, "No, I think Chuck and I made love while we were forming this morning. Something passed between us as we undressed to get into the pool. I think I made up my mind this morning that I am a part of this wild and crazy group of people. I now know that I am, and will be a part of it from now on."
Lisa picked up Tiani and said, "And you, you little twerp, I love you to pieces, even if you are a shit disturber."
"What? Me?" Tiani asked, in disbelief.
"Yes, you! You messed with me all night long, touching and teasing me. Between you and Brandy, I was smoking hot by the time I woke up this morning."
Brandy said, "Me too, but I didn't mean to be teasing you last night. I thought it was you and Tiani that were teasing me."
As Lisa put Tiani down, Tiani said, "I didn't mean to get everyone excited. I just felt all lovey for everyone, I wanted to touch and kiss everyone." Tiani crawled up Chuck's body as he balanced on one leg, "And you, Chuckster, I've been having a craving for you, and what ya got. We have to make some time for each other."
We finished showering and dressed. The girls were talking about getting together with Sue and Mercy again to talk about some property out at the park. They didn't openly say anything, but they were leading the charge to possibly wanting to move out there. Man, I really didn't want to give up this great place we lived in now.
When Jan and Don came down to eat breakfast with us, Jan asked me, "What have you been able to find out about this Alcam group from Orlando? I have a team over there trying to put faces and names together. So far, just about everyone we've identified has some kind of a record, or has been a person of interest in some major crime."
Wanda said, "I sent everything we had to DC to let the Marshal's office distribute inquiries. That's often the fastest way to get a dossier on a corporation or group."
Jan said, "We're going to get real close to them over the next few days and get a handle on what's going on. We need some more undercover people in the organization and are working on a few men right now."
Frieda was listening to the conversation and said, "There's a company by the name of Alcam that has been listing locally for various jobs. They contacted me to try to hire helicopter mechanics exiting the military. I sent them the forms to fill out for our records, but they haven't returned them. They call almost daily to see if we have anyone for them and I keep telling them they must complete their profile and be federally compliant before we recommend anyone to them. Now I wonder if there's a problem with the company, rather than them just being lazy and not filling out the forms. We have to check with the IRS to make sure they are current with withholding revenues. I don't usually check until the employer sends back their forms, but let me check for you, Jan. I'll call and let you know what I find out."
Lisa said, "The charter company has a whole bunch of short charters today. We have enough planes, but not enough pilots today. Chuck, it would be great if you can handle one. You need the flight time anyway."
Wanda said, "You don't have anything going today. Take a flight. It might be good for you to think through this mess Steve has with this Alcam Company."
As everyone got ready to leave, I called out to the charter office and DeDe answered the phone. "What are you doing back at work, DeDe? You should be home in bed, at least for a little while, anyway."
"No way, Chuck. I have to feel, and be, useful. I can do all this inside stuff so Star can be an air jockey while we're busy. I hope you're calling to help out today. We are really booked. We even have three little charters for 172s. Jimmy's crew has been turning the planes out continuously for two days, so we're about complete out here."
"I can do one for you, DeDe. How about something I can do some heavy thinking on?"
DeDe said, "I have just the one for you. It's a one-way to Texarkana. A railroad guy has to meet a train over there for some kind of special train they are putting together for the oil fields. You need to be out here by nine. You won't need a uniform, just come in your business clothes. You'll be flying ah, your own King Air. How about that, come make a buck while your plane is making a buck."
While I was still on the phone, Brandy asked, "I don't have anything special to do today, can I ride along?"
I asked DeDe, "Can I bring along my own right seat? Brandy needs the time."
"Sure, bring her. She can serve the passenger coffee."
Lisa was laughing, "We both are flying back empty. I'm taking a Lear to Long Island to drop off two couples that were down here to visit. I'll at least get back in time to do a second short flight up to Tallahassee. I can't believe how busy we are. It's really great, but still, very strange."
Brandy changed into a very conservative pants suit that looked nice. The whole house emptied out quickly as we all left to do those things we needed to do. When we got to the airpark, I pulled my briefcase from the car, then had a thought and emptied my sports bag, except for the shooter's big envelope of stuff, which I brought with me.
Brandy and I did the preflight and were ready for our passenger. When he came, we boarded him, closed the door, and I began the startup checklist while Brandy did the safety talk. When she sat and strapped in, she took the checklist from me and I pointed to where I was. I was watching gauges as the engines spooled up to power. While waiting at that point, I called in a flight plan and was assigned close to a straight through at twenty-four thousand feet. That meant we would need some heat.
Once aloft, Brandy started coffee while I went through all the normal checks to assure myself that all was right. I was still a little apprehensive after the guy was caught screwing with the planes. The mechanics had found nearly all the 172s had damaged control cables and damaged main power connections. Surprisingly, none of the 150s were damaged. The Lears and King Airs were left undamaged, but the Cessna Citation had a wrench taped to the intake shroud of both turbines. That would have blown both engines as the vibrations loosened the tape. Both G5s had landing gear that would have crumpled on landing. They also had tools taped to the intake shrouds.
Our flight was a little bumpy from a lot of big cumulus clouds along a front coming through, but not so bad as to make it unpleasant. It was raining when we set down in Texarkana, and what made it worse was it was about forty degrees and windy. The wind chill was probably around thirty degrees and wet.
We refueled and I told Brandy, "Since we're close, I'm going to stop over at Huntsville on the way back. I want to check out something for an investigation I'm doing. It's a secure thing, so I'm going to let you go shopping or stay around the plane, whatever you want to do."
She said, "I'm curious, but you go do what you have to do, and I'll see if there's a mall nearby. Call me on my cell when you're ready to leave."
Once down in Huntsville, we both took cabs, but in two different directions. Brandy went to a mall and I went to a bank, carrying my big gym bag. I looked at the stuff from the pocket of the shooter and realized I could probably pass for the guy if I shaved off my beard. If I did that, I could probably skate without having to show my deputy ID or get a search warrant. The card had the hand printed number one twenty-two on it, along with the key, so what I wanted to ask for was box one twenty-two.
Inside the small branch bank, I went to the lady at a desk near the door and asked for the box. She requested ID, so I gave her the license, saving the passport in case she wanted more. The lady said, "You look much nicer without the beard. Let me take you back to the vault. We'll get the box, and I'll put you in a private room."
In the vault area where the safe deposit boxes were, the lady brought me to a very wide and deep box area and put her key in. She pointed to the other key slot and said, "Put your key in and turn it, then the box will slide out. I'll get you a cart for the box. You have one of the big ones."
I turned the key and she pulled the box out a little. The lady brought a nice cart that the box would just slide onto, straight from the slot. I could tell the box was heavy, but not exactly how heavy. I followed the lady who was pushing the box to a small room with a small desk and two chairs. She left saying, "When you're through, come get me and we'll put your box back in the vault. I think you might need to make a payment on your account soon. You never did give us the automatic withdrawal card."
With the door closed, I lifted the top of the box and just stared. The box was full of cash. Bundles of hundreds, but when I lifted out a couple of bundles, I saw,,,,, Holy shit. Gold, gold bars. I began trying to count the cash first. There were thirty-two big bundles of all older hundreds. It looked like five hundred bills to a bundle, over a million and a half in hundreds. The gold bars were small and each had a 100 stamped on it so I had to think that meant a 100 grams to a bar. Let's see a hundred grams is a little over three ounces. A quick count looked like over three hundred of the little bars. There were two other items in the box, two pistols. One looked like a twenty-two with a silencer on it, and the other looked like a nine millimeter. I didn't touch either one.
Well, if I wanted to empty the box, I would need a piece of strong luggage. There was a Target in the back of this plaza and they would probably have luggage. I could empty out the box and take it all back to Tampa and then decide on what to do with it. This person was a non-entity, so if I emptied the box and put it in another box somewhere else, at least I could secure it.
I put everything back into the box and wiped it down just for my own satisfaction. I pushed the cart out of the room and got the attention of the bank rep and said, "I need to go get something. I'll be back in a little while."
The lady asked, "Would you like to take care of your box rent right now or sign a card for auto-withdrawal?"
"How about I do that when I come back? I'll only be a few minutes."
As I walked out of the bank, I noticed their ATM on the wall. Thinking about the wallet, I went up to the ATM and put the Visa card into the slot. When it asked for the password, I put in the four numbers that were written in the brown leather wallet where the card had been. Bingo. I asked for a balance of the checking, and it printed out a piece of paper that said there was fifty-two thousand, five hundred and thirty-nine dollars in there. I asked for the amount within the savings account to find out there was another two-hundred fifteen thousand in that. This was getting interesting. I withdrew a hundred cash for the luggage and left for Target.
I kept thinking that I was being video recorded by the security cameras everywhere, but that wasn't a big deal as this guy is a non-entity. When I had run the guy, the name and social security number didn't match up to any known person. So this was an alias anyway. I needed to check the account information to see if there had been any other activity on the account. The guy could have a wife and kids that depended on him and the money. That twenty-two told the story though. That was the preferred gun of a hit man. They put the muzzle up to the back of the head of the hit and pulled the trigger. A twenty-two short wouldn't go completely through the head and would rattle around in the skull, killing the victim instantly. They often locked the carriage slide so it wouldn't eject the brass. If they didn't, you could bet they loaded the gun with rubber gloves. I need some of those for this operation.
At Target, I bought a very sturdy flight bag with big wheels. That should be perfect. Between that and my gym bag, I should have enough room for everything. I also went to the pharmacy area and bought a small box of rubber gloves. I went into the restroom there and used the toilet, washed my hands, and put a couple extra hand towels in my pocket.
While I was at Target, I looked at the back of the Visa card to see what the guy's signature looked like. Easy enough, the only thing he did strange was he didn't finish the capital S for Stephen and he didn't put a tail on the 's' in Peters. The P wasn't a real good script P either. When I went out of the store, I used the store receipt to practice writing the name a couple of times. Looked good to me. They probably wouldn't check the signature card for the auto withdrawal card anyway.
Outside the store, I went to the bank of pay phones and took four big telephone books and put them into my gym bag. Luckily no one was using the phones so I probably wasn't observed, except for the ever present video security cameras.
When I went back into the bank, the clerk had the auto withdrawal card already made out. She pointed at the quarterly amount and then where to sign. I smiled and signed the card. Son-of-a-gun, she whipped out a signature card gave the two signatures a cursory glance, smiled and said, "Thank you, now you won't have to worry about remembering to send us box rental fees."
We went through the procedure of getting the box and going to the room. With gloves on, I emptied the box in five minutes stacking the gold bars evenly, using some of the bundles of cash to cushion them against the sides. I put the two handguns in the middle of everything, as those two pieces needed to have the numbers checked and maybe disappear.
On the bottom of the box were four sets of identification, with a rubber band around each of them. Each set had a driver's license, passport, Visa card with a good expiration date, and a business card with a bank's name on it. Each card had a four-digit number written on it and had a safety deposit box key taped to the back. I guess I needed to check out four more identities.
There was also a large brown envelope on the bottom of the box. Inside was a bunch of printed ledgers, and some notes that I would have to study to understand.
I put the IDs into my gym bag that had most of the bundled hundreds and wiped down the box real well. To finish, I put the telephone books into the box, and closed and locked the lid.
Outside, I had the clerk help with the box and I lifted it from below with my knuckles while she fit the box into the slot and pushed it closed. We both turned our key and I thanked her for helping me. I saw a brochure on her desk for internet banking. I picked one up and the lady said that all of the instructions were in the brochure. She also said the account password would be the same as the debit card. She said that was another reason to change passwords often. She was very nice as I left the bank. I guess she knew of my accounts and considered me a good depositor.
I had to wait at the Target for a few minutes to get another taxi, but did get one that quickly took me to the airport. There I loaded my stuff into the plane's luggage area before I called Brandy.
"All done, do you want me to meet you and get something to eat?"
"No, I already bought some subs for us. Get some Cokes and we'll eat on the way back. I found some darling baby blankets. The girls will love them. I'll see you in a few."
Now I had to get hold of John and discuss this with him. This is going to get crazy. Between the gold and the cash, there was probably near three million. That's a lot of money.
Brandy came out of the operations building with a bunch of bags, happily walking toward me. She gave me a kiss and said, "I did get a few other things besides the baby blanket, but you know women, we love to shop."
I had taken care of our airport charges and we prepared the plane, got it going, and took off from Huntsville. The flight back was uneventful and fast. We ate our subs and chatted the whole way. We did discuss the possibility of building a home and moving out to the park. I said we would have to have a total group discussion on that. We agreed to get everyone together to talk about it. When we landed, DeDe said for me taxi up to the office and come in.
In the office, DeDe asked, "We have a box of parts that need to be up in Savannah, can you fly them up there real quick? The dealer up there is willing to pay a premium to get them right away. Do it for me, Chuck, we can make a good buck doing it."
Brandy said, "I really don't want to fly anymore today. Can I get a ride either out to the park or home?"
DeDe said, "Ruth is here and about to leave. She'll drop you at either place. I'll call her to make sure she doesn't leave without you."
Brandy kissed me and asked, "You don't mind do you? I want to do some stuff with Mercy while I have the chance."
DeDe had one of the guys shove the big box of parts into the plane while I refueled. After a quick preflight, I was in the air to Savannah. I used the radio frequency I was given to contact the dealer, and he said he would meet me so I wouldn't even have to shut down unless I wanted to. As soon as I landed and parked, a truck was at the door. The man grabbed the big box, and I closed and locked the door again. Back in my seat, I could see the truck was gone, so I called for taxi instructions.
Less than an hour later, I was parking in front of the hangar. I moved my suitcase and gym bag to the trunk of my car and made sure that DeDe didn't have another errand for me to run. She did say, "If you want, you could fly a couple high rollers out to Vegas for me. Two couples are hot to get out there. Want to?"
"No," I said, "I'm sure you have others who will take the trip."
"Not really, but I understand. I just hate to turn down business, especially business that'll pay like that trip."
I asked, "Is my Lear here?"
DeDe said, "Both of them are, your newest one should have been prepped already. Think you might do that? It really pays well."
"Tell you what, call the customer and ask if they might consider going in the morning. That will give me a chance to get some rest and take care of a couple of things."
DeDe was on the phone in an instant. She was smiling and paused, covering he mouthpiece asking me, "How early can you leave? Both couples would like to go early. They said morning would be even better."
"Anytime after six, DeDe."
She was back on the phone and when she hung up she said, "They said they want to leave at eight, so you be here about seven thirty. The aircraft will be ready. I love it when a plan comes together. The charter service is going to have one of its best months ever."
This would work out, as one of the safe deposit boxes was in a bank in Vegas. I would look up where it was in conjunction to the airport.
I had time to get to the office to do something I needed to do there. Once in my office, I called John and said, "Do you have time for a secure call? If not, I can come get you and you can come with me for a day."
"Make the secure call, but I'll take a rain check on visiting for a day or so."
I had to go to the station to use the phone in Sarge's office. He wasn't there and Sarah wasn't in her office. I called John and told him about finding cash in a safe deposit box. I didn't mention the gold yet for some reason, but wanted to tell him about the guns and other IDs.
John said, "Tell you what, work on the other IDs and see if you can come up with a match. You know, so far this guy doesn't exist and we weren't really there, so now we have a problem of what to do with the cash. Do me a favor, put it in a safe deposit box somewhere and don't tell me where. This might be a gift. I really don't know how to account for it. We can't turn it in as we don't have a case, and we can't divulge how we came to have it. Shit, Chuck, we might have to take a vacation. You should go to South America and buy airplanes. That would be an easy way to launder the money. Just bring the planes back here and use them for charter or sell them after a while. I'll have to tell you about another deal like this. You'll shit. Ah, do me a favor and try to make a trip up here to get me and my family next week. You can take me somewhere that's warm without phones. I think I'll put in for some vacation. I think I have about three months saved up. Call me this weekend and let me know."
That didn't help, but I figured he wouldn't have an answer. He told me what I had already thought to do. I called the bank branch office out by the trailer park and asked them about safety deposit box sizes. They had a drawer that sounded like the same size as the one in Huntsville. I figured on just putting the cash and gold in there for the time being.
I used my identification program to run each of the identities I had, and didn't come up with a hit on any of them. The social security numbers actually came up with the correct names, but with notations that the subject was deceased. The date of birth on the passport and driver's license was off by many years. The states issuing the driver's licenses indicated the licenses were all good. I used Google earth to find the house addresses and decided that I needed to do some more investigating. While in Vegas, I would check the house to see what the deal was.
One of the banks and addresses was in Naples. That would be another one I could get to fast. Since all of the pictures were the same, I should be able to pass for the person, but without the heavy beard. My eyes and nose looked like the same guy. Our height and weight was about right. As long as I could copy the signature, I should be able to clean out the safe deposit boxes without drawing attention.
Wanda had a few things for me to look at and sign. I told her I was flying to Vegas tomorrow. She said I could stop in at the station out there as they had a new ACE I could see. That was a good idea and justified me renting a car. It also gave the Marshal's Service a free ride for me.
I left to go to the branch bank by the park early enough so I could get the box rented and all of the junk in it. I looked funny wheeling my bag and carrying the gym bag in. The bank rep didn't look surprised and helped me quickly get everything signed. We went back to the boxes and putting the large box on a rolling stand, she ushered me into another little room with a small table and a chair.
This box was exactly like the box in Huntsville, so I put everything back into it the same way, except I didn't put the identities and envelope in it, nor did I put the guns in. I closed and locked the box and wheeled the box back out to be taken back to the vault where we slid the box in place. I had taken precautions and used rubber gloves to handle the box, as well as wiping everything down. No sense in having my prints everywhere too. Actually, the only problems with the money would be explaining where it came from, and how to pay taxes on it.
I drove to Steve's place and walked onto the patio and found Steve sitting with all five of my women, plus Tina and Lena. Steve waved me over and said, "Get something to drink and come listen. I've been explaining a few things about the park to the girls. You might as well listen in."
Instead of a beer, I built a tall Beefeaters and sat next to Steve. He was saying, "You see, you would have your own area, an enclosed area with plenty of room for a place that would have multiple living areas, as well as a private pool area for all of you. You would have to work on a design so everyone would have their own private space, and also where you would put places for boarders like Wanda and John, or Jan and her guy. You could probably even have more people than that if you wanted. What I'm saying is that you guys could have all the privacy you could possible want, and still be right here, a few seconds away by cart from the patio. Abe says it takes less than a minute to get here."
Frieda said, "I'd love to live closer to all you folks. Sue, Mercy, Kathy, Juanita, and all the girls could just hop in a cart and come over to see us. That would be great."
Nancy said, "It would be neat to live out by Deanna. We've become real good friends."
Tiani didn't look convinced, but said, "As long as I can have a room or small private apartment just like I have now, that wouldn't be bad. I know I spend most of my time on Chuck's lap, but I like to have a place of my own."
Brandy said, "You know we could sell the house and get a lot for it. It would go either into our big account or we could divide it into smaller accounts."
I said, "Ah, I know I can get money for my place, but this place Steve is proposing is going to be huge. It's going to cost a lot of money."
Steve smiled, "You know I'm just going to use your profits from the Hawaii properties to build this thing. I'll overcharge you for the land and the building and come out pretty good. You don't read your statements from the hotels, do you?"
When I shook my head 'no, ' Steve said, "I'll get the sheets and we'll let Tiny explain them to you. What I'm getting at is that Chuck can afford to give you all a home out here. If you feel more secure keeping your home in town, keep it and rent it out, but let Chuck provide for you out here."
Judy said, "I like the idea of keeping the house and renting it out. If we have to modify it for someone to lease it, we can, but if we keep it, we'll have it in case something happens with Chuck. It probably won't, but we would have the security of having it."
Nancy said, "I like that idea. We should begin designing what we want out here, though. We'll make it a castle or something like that. Each of us can have a tower."
Sue had come up and was sitting on the arm of the chair I was sitting in. She said, "So, Chuck, do you feel like we're ganging up on you? It is a great idea for you to be close."
I just nodded. It didn't look like I would be able to get out of this, anyway. I said, "Okay, girls, you still don't have an opinion from Lisa, Wanda, and Jan. The other thing is, we'll probably have to help Steve expand the width of the patio another five or ten feet."
Steve said, "Maybe another five feet. Any more than that and we'll begin losing too much of the yard."
Sue said, "There's enough room for a lot more table area now. We have all that room on the other side of the bar that really isn't used. I want to put another pool table there and some arcade games like pinball or shuffleboard, and a foosball table."
Steve said, "Get all of them. Ask the beer driver where we can get them. He'll know."
As the patio filled up with happy people for the evening, I thought that it might not be bad to be out here with our friends. I still wanted to have some meals at home. Steaks, or something like that, grilled on our own grille. I liked having a family meal. I guess the patio was just a larger family meal. How in the world will they plan for that many more people?
Kathy's son, Ben, was talking about this semester at school. He said, "At least I have someone to go to school with in the mornings some of the time. Gerry goes in the mornings, but doesn't have any afternoon classes. We'll end up having to drive separately two days a week."
I didn't know Gerry, but everyone else seemed to know her. The university semester must be about half over, so people should be planning on spring break pretty soon. I wonder where the cool place to go now is.
I was sampling some pretzels when Lisa came to sit with me. As soon as Lisa sat down, Tina came to sit with us, which meant Tiani came and sat on my lap. Lisa said, "I heard you guys talked about building a home out here. It would be neat to live close to these guys."
Tina said, "I would like to be closer to mom and dad. It's nice to be so close to Dennis, but I miss being near the folks. So what are we going to do about Dennis and Marie? Are you going to keep the other house and just rent it out?"
"Not really, Tina," I said, "my thought was to build a big enough place so we could all live together as we are now. Everyone could still have a private area like you do now, but we'll be out here. We could participate here at the patio and still have our own place." I nodded toward Dennis, "You and Marie are kind of like my family."
Dennis said, "I know. I sometimes feel guilty about the way I like being with everyone at home, you know, your house instead of out here."
Tina laughed, "Me too. I keep thinking it would be nice to live at home, but I wouldn't give up being with you guys. You all are my family too. I know Jan and Don feel that way. They tell me all the time that it isn't much fun when we're not there. That's why I've made them come out here to be with us. They like it out here now."
I said, "We still need to have a family or home meeting about this. We'll do it right away. I want to make sure we're not screwing up what we have now."
Brandy said, "As nice as your new area is, Chuck, it would be nice to have more space. We girls could have closets, rooms, or something off a main area just for us. You could still have your office area, and you and Lisa could have a giant studio for your instruments. You could even build it separate from the main house so you could be as noisy as you would want to be."
Wanda and John had come to join us. John said, "It would be nice to be closer to the airpark. I can be out there in five minutes from here. It takes twenty to twenty-five minutes from the house now, and that's in good traffic."
Wanda said, "It's really not any farther to the office from here than it is from the house now. I suppose it wouldn't be a problem for all of us that work downtown."
"You know," Lisa said, "we need to make sure we have plenty of room for visitors. We all have friends from somewhere else that we would like to have visit. We need to make sure we have the extra room like Sue and Steve do. Steve's and your friend, Dewey, could stay with us some time when they visit. My folks from Atlanta could stay too. I'm sure we all have someone. I just want to say that if we build something, we should build it big enough to take care of all our needs. I like the idea of having our own music studio. We could make it into a recording studio too. Maybe even do some of our own music productions. That would be a fun hobby, but mostly, we would have a place to really let it out without feeling guilty about all the noise."
Every time someone opened their mouth, I kept thinking, we're closer and closer to just moving out here. I thought real hard, "Mercy, you win, make it happen so I don't have to worry about making up my mind. Where are you, Mercy?"
"Right behind you, Chuck, you don't have to yell."
Lisa looked at her then me with a question on her face, then shrugged her shoulders. I softly said in my mind, "I love you, Lisa, relax."
I could see Lisa's body relax. She turned and smiled at me. Mercy poked me in my back and told me mentally, "You're sneaky now, aren't you?"
I said aloud, "Hey, it works."
By the end of the evening, the girls were sketching ideas of how a house should be built to handle all of our custom pairings and groupings. I'm sure it will get crazy when they get with an architect.
At home later, when we were all lying in the huge bed, Brandy said, "I think we'll get a bed that's a little wider than this one. We'll have to have a really big bedroom for it too. I like that we swap places at night sometimes. Everyone wants to sleep next to Chuck and he only has two sides."
Tiani said, "Brandy, you're as bad as I am, and you are always sleeping on top of Chuck, so he actually has three sides." That brought a chuckle from everyone.
From a far side of the bed, Lena said, "I like the big bed because I can sneak in and Chuck doesn't know I'm here."
I sat up and said, "I guess it's okay to visit, Lena, but no swapping places with someone next to me. You know the rules. No sexy stuff with the landlord."
Lena asked, "Am I still going to have a place, still be a part of your household?"
Tiani said, "You sure will. We'll even plan for enough room for your sister, Tina, too. Just because you can't share Chuck in the sack doesn't mean you can't be with him and us the rest of the time."
The really tall girl giggled and said, "That's good. One of these days, we'll get him drunk and I'll take advantage of him."
When the goodnights started, the girls were trying to do something like the old TV program, "The Waltons." They began to say goodnight to everyone. I was probably sound asleep by the time they finished.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious
Last one through — Deenara2000