Steve
Thursday
Tiny, Sue's dad Ben, and I were in the helicopter shop with Bret and Carter. Tiny handed each of the two men a check and said, "That's exactly half each of all the numbers we agreed upon. If you two have some cross debt, handle it yourselves. We can put a fork in this deal."
Bret said, "You should have heard that asshole from Alcam when I told him I'd already sold out. He cussed and threatened me until I finally hung up on him. He called back and demanded to know who bought the place so he could call them to buy it. When I said, S&S, he just hung up. He knows you're not going to sell."
Carter said, "We've cleaned out our desks. I think we've both damn near given away our houses, so we are out of here. I'm on my way to a rental in Key West. As soon as I can find a place to buy, I'll be a permanent resident down there. I might even look for a boat, a small one like you have, Steve, a sailboat."
Bret said, "I'm going to Hawaii to work for S&S over there. Since you're going to handle helicopters over there, you need me. In the meantime, I'm going to find a cheap little grass shack and lay in the sun."
The two men, the former owners, got up and left. Ben said, "It's crazy to watch you, Steve. You just expand and take on new responsibilities constantly. I hope you make this work. You know you have to learn how to fly these things now."
I said, "I already have John looking for an instructor or two. I think there are a lot of us that will learn, and of course, we have to learn how to make more money with these crazy aircraft. Taxi service is fine, but there's more that we can do. I know those great big helicopters are expensive, but you can make good money lifting stuff to the top of buildings. I'll have to price some of the big ones."
Tiny thanked Ben for coming, then said to me, "Let me go over the numbers for this place with you. We should be able to keep this place black if we just do maintenance on the contracts we have. Let me show you."
We worked for an hour, then I called Jan to find out if they had any information about the men who had tried to sabotage S&S aircraft. Jan said, "Neither man is talking except to ask for their lawyer. Since they are both charged with murder and attempted murder of a federal judge, there is no bail. Their attorney can't even argue. We'll work on them every day until we get something. We do have some information on the driver that died. He is an employee of Alcam Helicopters in Orlando. The car is actually theirs and was assigned to the guy. The driver was supposed to be a chauffeur for the executives."
I asked, "How about the guy that I hit in the head?"
"He lived near Orlando, in Longview, but we can't find out too much about him. The office over there is pulling a warrant to search the house. The guy that you caught inside your building was a former employee of Alcam, but has been working out of the country in Panama for a couple of years. He's an experienced pilot and aircraft mechanic. He left the country to work down there after he was released from being held for suspicion of murder. Someone saw a helicopter drop a couple of things that looked like bodies out in the Atlantic. The chopper was identified and the log reflected this guy was flying. They never found a body, but that wouldn't be unusual, as it was when the sharks are in and feeding. Nothing could ever be proven. The more we investigate, Steve, the more this group over there is looking like we need to tear them apart."
"Thanks, Jan; I'm going to continue extra security for out here and at home. Get rid of those people for me. I don't need bullshit like that."
"The extra security is a good idea, Steve. I'll keep you posted. I know Chuck's group is working on the case with us as well. They go about it differently, so they might turn up something."
In the charter office, DeDe, sitting in her wheelchair, said, "Chuck took those two couples to Vegas for us this morning. He said he would combine some of his business too. He told me to solicit another fare coming back this way. I'm working on a few people in L.A. that are going to Key West. Hopefully, Chuck can pick them up and make some extra money for us."
"Chuck is really funny. He loves to fly, but he loves his job too. The guy will do about anything for anyone. Just look at his women, they idolize the guy."
"No different than your women, Steve," DeDe said.
"Yeah, but look how many he has. I only have four."
DeDe laughed, "You would have a dozen if you'd let Sue and Mercy have their way. You just don't want to have any more. I think Chuck just let it get out of hand before he knew what was up. He has an uncanny way of making people feel good about being around him. I'm even a groupie of his. Have you watched John? He loves Chuck as much as his lady does. They think he is really special."
"He is special, DeDe. I'm one of his groupies, along with all my women."
"Queer for him, huh?"
"No, but if I went that way, he would be high on my list," I said, almost laughing at how silly the conversation was getting.
DeDe asked, "I heard he might move out to the park, is that right?"
"Yep," I said, "I think they agreed to buy some land and build out where the other houses are. Chuck has a huge group that lives with him, so he feels he needs a giant place. He could probably do with what Sue and I have, but I think he's a house person."
"That'll be cool; I really like the women that hang around with him. It will also put Lisa closer to here again. You know Chuck stole Lisa from the nudie park, don't you?"
"I didn't know that. How did he steal her?"
DeDe smiled, "He wiggled into her heart while she wasn't looking. She was flying him all the time and she was giving him lessons. That's all it took. She was a goner as soon as they began playing music together. She used to live with a pretty loose group of women and the guy that owns Park place. She's still friends with all the women, but isn't real tight with Tom Parks. Tom's wife said that Lisa was never really into men until she met Chuck."
I asked, "Tom Parks wife is that lady named Zena, right?"
"Right," DeDe said. "She's good looking and so is that redhead that lives with them. I think Tom is like you and has a couple of women. You see that tiny blonde, Joanie, out at Park Place all the time. She is one of Tom's and Zena's women."
"Interesting," I said, not really all that interested. I have enough going on without knowing more about Tom Parks.
I walked over to Wes' office to see how he was doing with his design. He was waiting while a huge blueprint printer was finishing a giant sheet of paper. Wes said, "I have all the plans for the first two designs so Jeff can get started. I went over the plans with him to get his opinion of stress levels and additional support. He agrees with me and according to all my calculations, these little birds should be tough ones."
"Besides the air coupe, what do you have?"
Wes showed me a couple of drawings and said, "This is sort of like that LSA that is some type of camper. I'm making it stronger, lighter, and with more things to make camping easier. I'm putting hydraulically settable pontoons on it for guys that might go fishing. We are going to be close on weight, but it just won't have a large fuel capacity when it's fully loaded. I've made it very flyable. It should have a great glide distance and should be easy to set down on water. It won't handle high winds on the water, but then, LSAs don't handle high winds well anyway. They're just too light."
"Wes, did you rework the biplane plans? Jeff said you wouldn't let him start on the casting and molding until you modified some things."
Wes said, "I did. I never did like the way the wing braces are designed. Now I have both wings centrally supported with the fuselage setting on a wing that is continuous from end to end. The top wing comes in two pieces, but the bottom wing is all one piece and can come off the fuselage for transport. The new plans for the plane makes it simpler, have fewer parts, and it should be more aerodynamic. I can't wait to see how low the stall speed is. I'll bet with any wind at all we can get it down to about twenty knots ground speed." (Note: In reality stall speed only has to do with airspeed and is not affected by wind.)
"Wow," I said, "That's really slow. Hope it works out."
Wes said, "I want to fly one with one of Abe's bigger engines. I'll bet the plane is a rocket. Probably really fast and should be able to do cartwheels if we want. The aircrafts I design are strong and can take some heavy stress for aerobatics."
"Well, we'll all have to be careful with these things and make sure we don't get too crazy."
Wes said, "Yeah, we will. Hey, these are all printed out. I'm going to run them over to Jeff."
I said, "I'm going that way. I can take them if you want."
"Naw, I have to talk him into doing the camper. I didn't tell him about it yet. Since he likes to fish, I'll bet he'll want to learn to fly just to use one like it. If nothing else, it will be a great kit plane."
I went into the maintenance hangar and found Jimmy with a bunch of men around him. He was showing them how to do a maintenance procedure on a turbine. He had his old and new men, plus the guys from the helicopter shop. I guess Jimmy has found his niche as a leader and teacher. His dad would be real proud.
Since it was close to lunch time, I stopped at home for lunch and the gym. Sue met me with a loving kiss, saying, "Kathy and Mercy are with Chuck's women. His ladies all took off today to work on designing their new house. What they showed me may take more than the six lots you said you would sell them."
"He's on the end nearest the lake so he could probably have another two lots wider, and as many as ten deeper, if he wants. I just didn't want to have a big fence that close to the natural area where the cypress swamp begins. You know he's going to want a big fence. His ladies spend a lot of time in the sun nude. I'm glad we're getting him and he's not building a place in the nature park."
"Me too," Sue said. "I'm really glad to have his ladies out here. With them all having babies, we'll be getting a second batch around here soon. Kathy said she thinks Angie is pregnant. That will be cool to have more babies around."
"It would be lonely without the kids. We have so many that I'm always afraid I don't spend enough time with each of them."
"You do fine. They all know we love them. They all snuggle up to you, even your rough and tough boys. The girls are all daddy's little girls, but they are all so very independent. I suppose they take after both of us."
"I hope that's a good thing," I said, as I ate lunch.
I asked, "How's your new accountant working out with Henry, the Moleson guy?"
"He's doing great. He just about has the military invoices straightened out. He said we needed to invoice in smaller increments so the supply folks can pay us with credit cards. That way we can be paid faster and there is less hassle from everyone. He has us almost caught up. He should be less than thirty days by this time next week."
"Wow, that's great. That'll really help the cash flow. Now that you have Wal-Mart, Sears, Penny's, and Dillards up to date, you must be cash rich. Time to start another factory."
"Nothing right now, Honey. We're going to just expand our production on what we make good money on right now. If we do this right, everyone keeps on working and we can keep training new people to just handle the normal turnover. Everything is running so smoothly, it's time for us to take another long vacation. I'm getting anxious."
"It would be nice to do right now, but we have some problems with some folks on the other end of I-4 that we have to work out. Chuck and Jan are working on it, so it shouldn't be too long. We'll know something soon."
Sue kissed me, "Well start planning, Husband. The kids even said it's been too long since we've been sailing. If nothing else, we need to take a boat out for a long weekend."
"That we can do, but it's so much work for just a couple of days," I said. "It's like we just get going and its over."
"That's why we need the long vacation, Honey. It's time. Get this thing in Orlando handled. If you can't do that, go buy them out and tell them to go to the islands. Maybe that's what you should do anyway. Confront them, say boo! And see if they flinch."
"I'll wait to see what Jan and Chuck find out."
We went to the gym and took the time to go up to the pool and gossip with the ladies. It's always fun to hear the latest inside the park gossip. Everyone has fun talking about what they know about someone else. Nothing gets past all these women. Together, they have a better intelligence network than the CIA.
My day was going pretty good.
Back in the shop, I got with Abe to go over his tests on the composite plates Jeff had been making. The comparisons were for weight, bulk, durability, and our quest for making them bulletproof. Abe showed me four separate plates. All four were fairly thin and light. A lot lighter and thinner than I figured we would develop.
Abe set up the four plates and explained, "Each plate was fired on from four hundred, two hundred, and one hundred yards with a fifty caliber. You can see this one has a hole in it at two hundred yards. It might be a weak spot, but we'll toss this one anyway. The other three all withstood the round at the three distances. This one with the least indentation was additionally tested with a forty-four magnum from ten feet. It deflected the round, with a dangerous ricochet. Jeff made me a Humvee body out of this material. We took it to the range and shot the hell out of it.
We strapped some glass jugs of water in the engine and passenger compartments, then blew up what would be considered a strong IED under it. The glass jugs remained intact. I think we're ready to propose that we make the bodies for whoever has the contract for building vehicles."
I thought for a few seconds then said, "Let's get Phil to go sell our product. He needs to get them down here so we can do the same demonstration for the buyers. If no one works with us, we'll build a vehicle and try to sell it to the military ourselves. How expensive is it to build a Humvee body out of that composite?"
"More than regular fiberglass, but cheaper than you would think. Jeff has this down to a science. He says the little girl studying metallurgy at USF is really sharp and helped him put the correct fibers together. They're working together, even while she's still going to school. She's going to be valuable."
"That's good to know, Abe. It's great to begin having some new blood, new talent coming along. Just look at Ben; the kid is really smart and just loves working with Dennis in R&D."
Abe said, "He has some neat ideas on engines too. I think he and Mark have the answer to one of my turbocharger problems. The kid has a head on his shoulders."
I left Abe thinking we could really hit a home run with some product like Jeff had developed. We could also build bodies for those drones that fly over areas of high ground fire. This would allow the drone to fly lower and slower, getting even more pictures and getting better targets. Yes sir, we need to get to the manufacturers right away.
Tiny had some numbers he wanted to show me on the new biplane kit. He said he didn't put the figures together, one of his men did. He said he agreed with the numbers though. Tiny said, "Complete, with an engine, tires, and all parts, unpainted, we can get this out the door for right at twenty-seven five. That is really cheap. If we were to load it a little more, we could beef up our reinsurance. That would be good because this will be a higher risk. Someone else will be doing the labor and they may not be as exacting as we would be."
That's easy then, Tiny, make it thirty or thirty-five. That's still cheap. For a fast little biplane that will be a real quality machine, that's a deal. You can make some additional money financing the package. You can even break up the package where they come and buy the engine later. I see you have stands and everything built into the price. Is that good?"
"Sure that's good, Steve," Tiny said. "If they don't have the recommended stands, they may not get everything to fit right while they build it. This will give them what they need."
"Have you seen Wes' idea of an LSA camper? I'd like to see what kind of price we'll have on that one."
"I'm working on it myself. I think it's cute. Jeff gave me some preliminary numbers, so I'll work it out. I'm doing the same thing with Wes' air coupe. He's really trimmed it down to be very inexpensive to put together. I'll have both of those numbers by tomorrow, Friday."
I said, "I told Abe to give Phil the boost to go sell the military contractors our ability to build vehicle and drone bodies that are very bulletproof. You need to help him when he gets a hot prospect. The dollar and cents stuff will be in manufacturing, so there can't be a price schedule."
"I knew the day would come when we were going to be making stuff for other companies to manufacture. I suppose it's a good way to stay in business. I just like us to be the whole manufacturer instead of a supplier."
"I know what you mean, Tiny, it's always nice to put your name on the product, but this will be good. Oh, how have we done on the composite boat hull? I know it's strong enough, but have we been able to resist barnacles yet?"
"Not yet, but we're working on it. Jeff said his composite is tough enough to withstand sandblasting, but we have to scrape them and everything else. Composites aren't the answer unless they can resist barnacles."
I said, "I'm sure he'll keep working. Say, get that new girl, Gerry, to work on the problem with you and Jeff. Abe did say she helped Jeff already."
"I'll do that. I heard that she had been a dancer at the Mons while she's been going to school. That's neat. I understand your Ben thinks she's neat too."
"Oh, that is the girl Ben took us down to the Mons to see one night. She was really hot on stage. Sue thinks she's really something. As long as she can help with some of our problems, she's wonderful. I'm going to go back out to the airpark. I'll talk to you later. Oh, we may have to make a quick trip to Hawaii. Bear and Crystal say they have a couple of ideas they want to put to us and don't want to do it over the phone."
"Hey, I'm up for a trip to Hawaii, just give the word. You know we'll have to take half the park with us. Go buy a 747 or an Airbus so we can all go."
"Probably should, but we'll just keep it down to a few. You know, G5 size."
I left Tiny and headed out to the airpark. I had an idea for Jimmy and wanted to run it by him. I had remembered another detail and called Ruth while on the way. "Ruth, can you call our security guy and have him install video security in and on the helicopter hangar?"
"It'll be done right away, Steve. I knew you were making the deal. I should have already called. I'll get it done," Ruth said.
At the charter maintenance hangar, I found Jimmy working on the front struts of a G5. He was cursing the damage the guy had done to his aircraft. All aircraft here belonged to Jimmy, he only let us charter and fly them. At least that is what it seems like. "Jimmy, you know the way you did the tear down on the wrecked 172?"
"You mean with video?"
"Right, you took video of the entire operation."
"So?"
"How about doing that on all of your procedures so we can sell them to other mechanics? You're probably the most exacting and detailed mechanic around. If we had videos of you working on each problem and on each aircraft, people could buy them to learn to work on aircraft correctly."
"There are already videos, but they're a waste of money. Too dark, the techs don't explain what they're doing, etc. Not a good idea."
"Jimmy, I watched you do that procedure this morning on the turbine. You detailed and explained each step. If we had video of you doing it that way we could sell it."
Jimmy said, "We would need someone with a handheld camera and plenty of good light so they could get close in on some things. I could like it, Steve. I could train new guys that way. It would save time. I wouldn't have to be over their heads and could test them later to make sure they understood like I do now anyway."
"I'll get Star to get you a cameraman and you dictate the schedule. Get a good wireless lapel mike so it picks up your voice real well. We'll find another source of revenue right here where we're making some bucks now. We'll make up for what we spent going over all our aircraft."
"That was expensive, Steve. I rented thirty-four mechanics, but we got the job done quickly. I also hired some of them. With the helicopter shop next door, I'm going to be spread pretty thin. The guy over there they call Tank, is a good mechanic. The others listen to him. He thinks I know more than he does, but he's wrong. I think he should be the lead guy over there."
"If you think so, Jimmy, tell him. Use him to get the work done, but be available for questions. You've learned to lead, so do it."
"You amaze me, Steve. You give a kid the chance to be the boss over all this. You sure have some guts. I'll bust my butt for you, but like I say, you sure have some guts."
I slapped Jimmy on the back and turned away, smiling, as I think we found a way to make some good bucks with the video idea.
In the charter office, I told DeDe to tell Star to see me tonight. She said she would tell her. DeDe also said, "You know we have three charters to Hawaii. What's the deal with us getting these long charters? It's really great. We need that third G5 back that we returned to the leasing company."
"Call them, DeDe, and ask if they have it back or do they have something newer for us. You know that old G5 lease was too expensive. That's why Tiny said to let the lease end and get rid of the aircraft. Our lease didn't give us a chance to renegotiate for a better price. We had to keep paying the higher price, even though we were leasing other planes cheaper. Go ahead, if you think we'll use it. Get us another one. Have Tiny work out the lease."
DeDe was smiling as I climbed into my truck and headed home. That's as much damage as I can do today.
I was finished, or at least I thought so, until I was safely inside the patio drawing a beer into a nice icy mug. Just as the foam head domed over the sides of the glass, Juanita was standing next to me and said quietly, "Do you really want Chuck to live out here? Will that really be all right?"
I looked at Juanita and asked, "What do you mean, Nita, why wouldn't I want Chuck out here?"
Juanita looked confused for a second, then with very stern look on her face, said, "I know Mercy loves you more than anything on this earth, but you know how Mercy and Chuck are. They talk to each other in their heads. They have secrets. You know, Steve, they are probably making love in each other's head."
"Have you asked Mercy about this?"
"Heavens no, Steve, mi marido, I could not do that. I would be questioning her love for you and I know it is great. I'm just afraid they will do something within their minds and later it will be with their bodies."
"But, Juanita, we have all made love together. Chuck has made you sing to the stars and I've watched."
"That is different. We were in a state of lust and love. We all felt special at those times."
Taking the luscious Latino into my arms, I said, "Juanita, I think my whole family loves Chuck and his whole family. If it were in my power, I'd add onto our house and move them all in here. That would be a crazy house, wouldn't it, Nita? Mercy and her mother have taught Chuck to use a gift he has. They can talk to each other. Chuck has the same abilities that Mercy and Missy do. He can see into others' minds. He doesn't use his ability much, but he's done it with me before to tell me something he felt was important. He does talk with Mercy and Missy because they can communicate at a different level than most other people. I don't think Chuck will try to put horns on me, or try to steal Mercy. As a matter of fact, I would trust Chuck with any of you and any of my children. Chuck is that proverbial 'one among thousands' who you can trust implicitly."
"I don't know what implicitly means, Steve, but it sounds like you do trust him. I just don't want anything to happen to our family. It is so perfect, but always so delicate. That we women get along is special. It's because of our love for you, Steve. Of course it is because of our love of Sue, Mercy, and Kathy. I guess we all do love each other. But, Chuck? Do I love him the way Mercy does? Does Sue love Chuck that way too? Kathy?"
"Nita, Honey, we all love Chuck. If he did not have all those women, I would make him live with us and we would all share him. I might even have to get Jim to teach me how to love a man."
Juanita looked at me, shocked, and when I grinned she said, "Oh you!" then smacked me on the shoulder. We hugged, then I made her a Mojito and we talked of other things.
Chuck's five ladies and a very tall young lady came in the door with Sue and Mercy. Lena is so tall, while the others, except Frieda, are all so short that Lena looks abnormal. She follows the other girls as if on a leash. Sue and Mercy came up to me for a kiss and a hug. While Sue was kissing me, Mercy looked at me, then at Juanita. She went to Juanita and hugged her. She whispered into Juanita's ear and I could see tears in Juanita's eyes. The two girls hugged tightly with Juanita's head on Mercy's shoulder. They stayed like that for a minute, then stood straight. Juanita said, "I'm sorry, Mercy, I just didn't want anything bad to happen to us."
Mercy smiled and said, "Nothing will ever happen to us, my Nita. We are a special family. We do let others in sometimes. These ladies are part of a family that we will let in. We will all enjoy being closer."
Sue said, "These women really worked at designing a house today. As a matter of fact, they designed about ten thousand square feet of house and another bunch of square footage for a garage, multiple guest quarters, a huge recording studio for Chuck and Lisa, along with lots of fun things for little kids. They have a huge playroom with skylights for a kids' playroom. I think they are going to have the most spoiled children in the area. They will be loved though."
I asked, "Who is working on the place with you? Who is the architect?"
Brandy said, "Our friend, Tom Parks. The man is a genius when it comes to design. We would say what we wanted, he would sketch it, and then draw a rough draft. As he was sketching, he would say stuff like, 'Wouldn't skylights be great there, ' or 'you could have a stone area there as it will be so heavy in traffic.' The man is a genius."
"How do you know Tom Parks?" This was strange.
"We met him out at the naturist park," Brandy said. "Chuck knows him and his wife, Zena, from work. They eat lunch together a lot. Tom said he wanted to help us design our next house, so I called him."
"So where are some of these drawings?"
Brandy said, "I'll go get them, but I wanted to wait and show Chuck. Tom said he would make more drawings and work on the floor plan. He said he would do the blueprints when we agreed on all the floor plans and elevations, whatever 'elevations' means."
I smiled, "Sounds like you guys are excited."
The dark Nancy said, "We even have a couple of places you could call mother-in-law apartments, but in this case they are cottages. When my mother wants to stay over, we'll have a place for her."
Tiani said, "We all had our say about the house and Tom put in all the things that each of us wants. The person who hasn't had the chance yet is Chuck, but we put in stuff for him everywhere. We even put grab bars in the bathroom and shower for him. You know he can use his peg to take a shower, but he usually does it on one foot. He can balance on one foot for hours."
They were all so excited, I was excited for them. Brandy asked the three pregnant ladies, "Do you want some juice or anything?"
They all had some juice while little Tiani made some Mojitos for Brandy and her. She made a very light one for Lena and cautioned her, "Don't tell your mother I gave you this. She would be mad."
Lena said, "I don't ever drink when I shouldn't anyway. I used to see what it did to Millie. She used to do stupid stuff when she got drunk. She's lucky to have Jonah who watches out for her now."
Sue came in and said, "Chuck's going to be late. He had the chance to go pick up another fare. Since he was already in Las Vegas, he went to Los Angeles to pick up someone on their way to Key West. He'll be in late tonight."
You could see the faces fall on the girls. Brandy said, "We'll just corner him in the morning and show him how far we got. Metarie said we could take off another day, so we will. We'll get this ready for the builder."
She turned to me and said, "Steve, if you need someone to pay you for the land, I can do that very quickly so there's no holdup to build the house."
"If Chuck say's he'll buy it and pay me, he will. I trust him."
Juanita was grinning and said, "Steve trusts Chuck with his whole family, each and every one of us."
Mercy was still with us, and laughed. The party continued on the patio.
The girls stayed to eat and were called by Lisa who said she was just going to go straight home. She said she was really tired from a long day. When they left, everyone noticed we lost some of the energy that had been with us tonight. The kids loved the girls, and all of our group seemed to have adopted them. They were really a strange bunch to fit in so well.
In bed that night, my four were discussing how crazy it was going to be when all the new babies came. They happily wanted to practice making babies that they would not be having any more of. It was a very loving evening.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious
Last one through — Deenara2000