Steve
We had eaten a great supper and were all relaxing on the patio when Wanda came to get me. She asked if we could go somewhere to talk. Not knowing what was up, I took her to Sue's offices in the other end of the trailer from the bedrooms.
Wanda and I sat down and she said, "Steve, I don't know what to do. I talked to Chuck this morning and he's been shot. Lisa, Nightfox, and him, were all shot. He says they're not too serious, but I'm not sure about that. When I called our base to see what he should do, I found out the entire unit, including the Station Chief, was killed in an explosion last night. I should tell Chuck's ladies, and I probably should tell Maria that Sam is hurt."
I looked at the shaken Wanda a second, and said, "If Chuck doesn't want to tell anyone, he has a reason. Don't alarm his women, and definitely don't alarm Maria. Nightfox will tell her the way he wants to. Let him do it. If they are all alive, be thankful. Go get John and have him comfort you. You could probably use a drink too, but don't betray a confidence. You know how to keep quiet."
Wanda nodded her head up and down and said, "Yeah, I do need a drink. Come on and pour me some good scotch, that'll help. I think John is still coming back on a charter. You know, I am looking forward to that sailing trip coming up, even if we don't sail the whole way with you."
We went out to the bar and I poured her some Johnny Walker Black. That should make her feel better. It does that for me, so I poured myself some.
Mercy came up to me and said, "Make me one of those. I need it after what Chuck and Lisa have been through. I don't know what they've been doing, but it's been serious. Those two are into something that's really scary lately. I really don't need this. Mom's even coming early because she thinks Chuck's getting in too deep. She doesn't know what he's into, but she's determined to get him out."
I said, "Both of you need to let Chuck do what he feels he should do. Chuck is a tough guy, and does some dangerous stuff. Nightfox and Lisa are apparently part of it, so let them be."
"It's hard to do, Steve," Mercy groaned. "Just look at little Maria. She's so lonely when Sam isn't around. The lady idolizes him. He does her, too, but he needs to be here. Man, Steve, the way I've felt lately, those three have been in some shit."
I hugged Mercy about the time Sue came up and said, "Settle her down, Steve. The lady has been bonkers these last few days. I sure hope Chuck and Lisa get back so she'll relax."
Mercy said, "And Sam Nightfox too. Just look how sad Maria looks. She really misses her man."
"That she does," Sue said, as she poured herself some Diet Coke with some rum to go with it.
Sue and Mercy were sitting next to me, when Juanita came up in front of me with her hands on her hips, "Will you look at this. You two are hogging him again." With that, she sat on my lap and gave me a kiss as she sat crossways with her legs out over Mercy's lap.
Mercy laughed, "We hog him so you just lay all over all of us? We'll get you later for this, Nita Dear."
"Oh, I hope so. We need some excitement around here."
Glenda hollered from the kitchen and family room sliding doorway, "Everyone get washed up. Supper is going to be on the table."
There wasn't a mad rush, but there was a general movement of women going in to help haul food to the tables and others to round up kids. There was the stampeding noise of little feet running through the house to get to the tables. It's really special to watch about fifty people gather for a meal like this. People are hauling food, others pouring milk and tea, still others assisting little ones in taller chairs so they can be level with the table.
When we were sitting, Phil stood and said, "Tonight, I think we need to give thanks for what we have. We should probably do this for every meal, but today is special. All of us are healthy, well-fed, clothed, and with the prospect that all of this will continue for the foreseeable future. Everyone we come into contact with seems to be able to make it and they seem to improve from where they were. I want to thank our maker for that gift. If you'll bow your heads, "Thank you, Father, for your generous gifts, and teach us to share with all others. Bless this meal, and give us the strength to do good and to help others. Amen."
Phil said, "Go ahead and eat." He paused, then continued, "A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with some people who said they were just about out of business. They were going to lay off the last of what had been nearly fifty employees. I had gone to see them as they weren't our customer and I wanted them to become one. The man and his wife poured their hearts out to me, telling me of how they had struggled to keep their business going but were just not making it. The man told me, 'Your lines have always looked good, but in good conscience I can't order anything now because there would no way I would be able to pay you.' I told him that we would give him a supply of our equipment for him to market on credit. We would consider it as being on consignment until he could get on his feet. We set him up with our way of doing business and gave him pointers as to how to market our goods."
Phil was grinning, "Well today, the man and his wife traveled from Jacksonville to Tampa to deliver a check to pay for most of the goods we consigned to him. He had an order with him for almost twice as much equipment to resupply. He told me that he had hired back six of his most recently laid off employees, and his company's future was once again looking up. The reason is not just our equipment being that much better, but there is a reason for him to be successful. It's S&S. That's us. Just having a relationship with S&S is a road to success. This company has something special to share. We have that proverbial four leaf clover to share. I'm thankful that we can help so many succeed."
Phil was almost in tears as he sat down next to Judy. She patted him on the arm and gave him a kiss on the cheek. There was silence for a few seconds, then everyone began applauding. We were applauding Phil and we were applauding each other and the significance of what Phil had said. S&S was a company that was a positive influence on those who did business with us.
Tiny and Ruth were grinning, as was Henry. I couldn't see everyone from where I was, but I'd bet even Abe was smiling at what Phil had said. The company did have a positive effect on our customers.
Sue said to me, "You know, one of my bigger customers just said the same thing. The buyer said that she hardly ever has to mark down any of our products because they didn't sell. She told me the only markdowns are one or two of an item in an odd size. She said they have consistently sold our basic blouses for several years now, and they are still selling well. We added what we call our business separates, which are suit separates, in four basic colors. These are skirts, pants, vests, and jackets that look very smart. We have made them to be very economical for our customers and have kept all but two colors the same, year around. We change the two colors for two seasons and that's it. We keep black, navy, and brown in stock all the time. The brown sells the least, but it is nice looking. The navy and black are always in demand. The buyer told me that her department was consistently one of the most successful departments in the chain."
"Your people do a good job, Sue. Your success is the quality. All of our success is our attitude. We all try to give our customers the best every day. That is our success."
Wes was near me and he said, "You know, I'm beginning to get that feeling out at the airpark. The guys building the LSAs are mostly retreads from other areas. They are so meticulous that I was a little impatient with them at first, but when they told me S&S only builds something that is perfect and when I talked to Jeff and Abe, I realized it was not only a motto, but a way of life. I think our attitude toward perfection spreads to our customers."
All this talk about our success had me smiling while enjoying a good meal. I thought to myself, 'Look around, look at these people. They came together one and two at a time, and now look at them. They are close friends, close business associates, working together, and living together. We need to see how we can help more people.'
After supper Tiny, Abe, Phil, and I were sipping some beer, when Tiny said, "Phil, you've got Steve all wound up now trying to figure out how to employ another million or so people. Your little speech was a good one and very moving. Henry and I may only be numbers people, but we've seen that same result with those we deal with. Look at the airpark and the boat charter business. Those are totally off the wall businesses that should be going belly up right now, and they are both healthy. We're not getting as many fishing charters, but enough to keep all the boats and captains fairly busy. The sailboats are all busy to the point I'm thinking of adding another small forty to fifty footer to rent out to execs that can sail. I think if we have one or two extra of those around with a price tag on them, we could probably sell a few each year."
I looked over at Tiny and said, "Well, what do you know? Now even Tiny is starting up new businesses in an economy that has the world by the balls."
Tiny said, "There is money out there, but not as much and not with the general public. If we had something for a guy to buy after he's fallen in love with it, why not make a buck on it. I think we can do it."
With smile, I slapped Tiny on the back, congratulating him again.
He said, "You know one of the things we are trying to do may not work out so well."
"What's that, Tiny?" I asked.
"Trying to open up business up in Alaska is not going to be that easy. Everyone up there seems to have their hand out. It's like Chicago, but without the unions. The Chicago method is to milk you a little at a time, kind of like an ongoing tax, but up in Alaska we're dealing with people that want a big kickback to do any kind of business."
Tiny got himself another beer and sat back down. "For instance, we found a great location in Anchorage that I thought might work, but we needed to do some heavy remodeling. When I got a couple of contractors to bid on the work, they both kept listing a big chunk of money as bear grease. When I asked what that was, I was told that you have to grease the palms of the city officials to get any kind of building permits. Without a little here and a little there, it won't get approved. We found out that in order to get a fire hydrant, you have to pay off the permitting people, the fire marshal, and the local city commissioner. Without the fire hydrant, you have to tear down the building. Parking lots are the same way, but that is a real scam. We have had to sign a year contract for snow removal for the parking lot. They don't push the snow aside, you have to have it picked up and hauled out of town. It just so happens that the commissioner has a snow removal company."
Henry said, "The reason everything up there costs so much isn't because of the cost of shipping it up there. It's because it costs so much to do business up there and to sell it."
I asked, "Maybe we shouldn't be up there. Perhaps opening dealerships up there isn't a good idea."
Tiny offered, "Oh, it's a good idea and it will be profitable, especially selling to the oil companies. The more we get our feet in the door with the oil companies, the more they will come to us in the lower forty-eight and to export to their out of country rigs."
"Well," I said, thinking about it, "I suppose that just about keeps us from building a factory up there. We might have to increase the size of the reservation plant up in Montana. We should check to see how much more manpower there is available up there."
Sue was with us now and said, "We ship a lot of basics up there and we ship a lot of some of the camouflage stuff to Wal-Mart for up there. Our insulated coveralls are very popular too. Since we don't have any outlets up there, we don't get involved in the politics. I'm sure glad of that."
Tiny said, "Why don't you get Dewey and go up there to get a feel of how business is done up there. That'll give you an idea of how aggressive you might want to be up there. If you decide to pull out, so be it."
I said, "Darn, I would hate to be one of the employment problems up there. I'd rather be one of the solutions. But, yeah, I should go up there. I'll call Dewey and see if he wants to make a trip. I should probably get Chuck to come with me so we can check out the holdings we have up there now. I wonder why we haven't heard about this wheeling and dealing before. With the hotels we have up there and the construction of hotels, I'll bet we're being hit up constantly.
Brandy came over to us and said, "I just heard from Chuck and Lisa. They said they will be home tomorrow. They said they are finished with what they had to do. I wonder if they know anything about that motor home full of federal agents that were blown up by terrorists up there. Sure hope they weren't anywhere near when that happened."
Abe said, "Yeah, I saw that on the news. That thing was totally blown apart. They only showed it that one time and haven't shown the mess it was again on television. I guess it was too gross for people to see."
Mercy quietly said, "I'll bet Chuck knows a lot more about it than he'll ever say. I'd bet on that."
I frowned at Mercy so she wouldn't expound.
Little Maria was gathering her kids. She came over and said, "Sam is coming home tomorrow. He says he's going to be home for a long time now. Isn't that great? I get to keep my man around now."
Wanda looked at me rolling her eyes. No one else saw her, so no harm, no foul.
As the evening progressed, everyone was pretty content and happy that everything would be back to normal soon. Chuck's collection of women headed home, chattering excitedly about him and Lisa returning.
When it was time for bed, I joined my ladies, plus Mickey, in the bedroom after using the bathroom. The ladies were in a mood tonight and were ganging up on Mickey. Mercy pulled away and smiled at me, holding up her arms, "Come here, Husband. Come join me or us. We all need you, but I think you should make Mickey feel good first."
That was the beginning of a lot of play with all of them. I lasted a long time, but not nearly long enough. Thank goodness they enjoyed carrying on with me as an audience of one.
The next day was busy from the beginning. It seemed that Crystal was on the phone from the moment she woke up in Hawaii. Bear and her had made some deals with local hotels similar to our prior suggestions, and were scheduling gulf extravaganzas. They combined these with trips for island people to the mainland, so the airplane was paid for both ways. As soon as they started a couple of trips, more and more hotels wanted in on the deal, and they were flying back and forth daily in chartered aircraft. Crystal wanted Tiny's man to work up numbers for them to lease more aircraft instead of paying high charter rates. They also wanted higher density aircraft so more people could come at once.
I gave Tiny what information I had and told him to work on it. If he had to go to Hawaii to go, but to work it out because if we can make money during this recession, we needed to take every advantage of it. Tiny reported back that he felt he needed a lot more information and needed to make sure that this wasn't just a bubble. He had Phil convinced that they both needed to go in order to make sure of the traffic. This required both Ruth's and Judy's attention so the four were making plans for a business (yeah, right!) trip to Hawaii to get the facts straight. I thought it would be good for them to do it now before the upcoming sailing adventure.
Abe came to see me, and said he thought he should look into how the local shop's maintenance departments were doing over there. He said that the rebuilding was down and he might be able to stimulate some business. He thought he and Alice would make a good addition to the expedition. I wondered how many more would figure out what was happening and decide to go to.
DeDe called me in the afternoon and asked, "What do you think, Steve. Should we send these folks over in a Lear or send them commercial. Chuck still has a Lear out, but his other one, the long range 55C isn't chartered. He's supposed to be back today, so we would have that bird back. If he's going to be in town, his Citation would be available. Jimmy has it back on line."
I laughed, "Send them in the 55C, DeDe. Let them have a taste of luxury for the trip. With six of them, it won't be crowded."
DeDe said, "Six? How about ten? Jeff and his wife, plus Jimmy and Angie. That's going to just about max out the Lear."
I said, "The Lear can't make it that far with a full load like that. When Chuck gets back, see if you can use his Citation. They won't be gone longer than a week, and you can use Jimmy for one of the pilots. You will need two for that long of a flight. If the Citation isn't available, use the 737 with the luxury seating. Shoot, why not. These guys are our executives."
DeDe was laughing, "I'll look at both ways and ask Chuck. The Citation would be faster, so it would be a good choice. I'll let you know, Steve."
About four, Chuck called, "Hey, Steve, we're back and I guess I'll see you at the patio. I just wanted to warn you, ah, Lisa, Sam, and I were hurt up in Detroit. Not bad, but we were damaged a little. Sam's the worst, and will be on crutches for a couple of months. I'm going to have to wear my hair like you do. Perhaps Glenda will help me with it."
"So what happened up there, Buddy? Can you talk about it?"
"The public version is that we were involved in a small skirmish with some terrorists and some of the collateral damage was to a mobile office motor home that was blown up, killing about twenty feds. The three of us were damaged in the other part of the skirmish."
I said, "I can tell there was more than that. A lot more, but you can't talk about it. I'm glad you survived and are okay. Have you told your menagerie yet?"
"They all know, and as usual, are not happy about both Lisa and I getting hurt. They are talking to Lisa right now about getting out of whatever she's involved in that would get her hurt like this. They will only glare at me in passing." Chuck was chuckling, "They'll get over it. It's nothing we haven't dealt with before."
"Thanks for the warning, Chuck. Have you talked to Mercy? She's been going nuts. Her mom is even coming in from California, if she isn't already here."
"Not yet, Steve," Chuck said. "I'll go over there and see her in a little bit. I have some drinking to catch up on. I think I'm due."
"Get over there then, and I'll leave right now and meet you. We'll celebrate another battle won. Bring Lisa, she probably needs a stiff one too, in more than one way too."
Chuck
Author's note: (short POV change)
We both laughed at his joke and hung up. Peaches came in the door and gave me a hug. She put her hand on my head where the bandage was and said, "You are so bad, Chuck. Someone said my Lisa is hurt too. Did you allow that to happen?"
"Sort of, Peaches, she's okay and I can assure you it won't happen again. That's the end of her being around stuff like that."
"Good," Peaches said, gruffly, "It better be."
She went off to find Lisa.
Tina came into the kitchen, wearing her doctor stuff with her stethoscope around her neck. She gave me a hug and kiss before saying, "I have to go to work, but I'll be home in the morning. Stick around a little so you can put me to bed. You and Lisa can do that for me. I've really missed you guys, and this six to six shift is killing me. It's hard to sleep during the day and I have no time to study. I'm learning a lot, but this is still a killer shift."
We kissed again and she went looking for Lisa. In seconds, she was back and looking at my head. She said, "I should look at that. Lisa said it was deep enough that they X-rayed you to make sure there were no bone fragments in there. How about I check it and re-apply a new bandage?"
"Do it tomorrow morning, Tina. I'm fine and it'll give it a little longer to heal or to get worse, so you'll have a reason to mess with it."
Tina smiled, "Okay, I'm sure the cute doc that showed you her tits while she sewed you up did a good job." She shook her head and said, "How do you do that? You get shot and a doctor and nurse are both showing their titties to you. Amazing."
I said, "It was Lisa's fault. She told them to do it. I had nothing to do with it, except to enjoy it. Who would expect a doctor to do that? And the little nurse, the doc shamed her into joining her. Like I said, I had nothing to do with it."
Tina, grabbed her backpack, gave me another hug and kiss, and left. It was early, but she may be heading to the patio to get something to eat before going to work.
Taiying was at the sink and looked over at me. She said, "Sing and I have missed you and Lisa. We understand about the dangers some have to be subjected to, but please be careful. These women depend on you. You will be a father soon and you will be needed. Sing and I, as well as Maria, depend on you too. Be careful, okay?"
I smiled at her and nodded. She went back to doing whatever she was doing.
Frieda came in and sat on my lap. "Okay, Daddy, you're grounded. No more mixing it up with bad guys for a while. I think it's what, six weeks healing time for a concussion?"
"I'm sure it's not that long, but we'll see," I said, trying to brush off the admonition. "When I'm needed, I'm needed."
Frieda came back with, "Well, father of my twins, we need you more right now. Do you know, I'm nearly down to the last trimester. So are Nancy and Judy, but I think I'll hatch first. Don't you think you could put off some of the hairy stuff for three or four months while we get these kids on the ground?"
"I think I can do that. I don't like that stuff either. I'm ready for a vacation."
One by one, the ladies came in to see me, making up with me about getting hurt, and making me promise to stay out of danger. They all wanted me to quit doing whatever it was that I was doing, but I didn't commit to any of that. I just kept them happy by saying I wouldn't be traveling into any danger for a while.
Lisa had a long sleeve blouse on that covered up her bandage. It didn't look out of place on her, as she often had her long sleeve flight uniform on.
We loaded up, and all of us went to the patio. Maria, Sing, and Taiying had made up several trays of nachos. There were four trays of mild, two trays of hot or sort of hot, and one tray that said 'Danger.' I couldn't wait to try some. I'm sure I was going to have to beat Kathy and Mercy off to get any.
When we walked in, Mercy, Kathy, Juanita, and Glenda all gathered around Lisa and me. They were all giving us hugs and kisses. I was surprised that Glenda was so friendly. She said, "You're just like Steve, always into something, always staying just barely out of danger. You have to learn to duck, though."
I was at the bar making Mojitos for Mercy, Kathy, Juanita, Brandy, and Tiani, when Steve came in. He said, "You look good back there making drinks. You're hired. Stick around and you might make some tips."
Tiani said, "If he sticks around, he might get a little of my prime..."
From the door, a redheaded Shawna hollered, "I have dibs on that moniker. I've got the prime pussy around here and can prove it. Just line 'em up, and I'll knock 'em off."
Steve whispered, "It must be Friday. The zoo is getting rowdy early."
I smiled as I poured myself a tall Beefeaters and reached for a piece of celery that was in a dish on the bar. Steve was taking a drink from his Beefeaters, and snaking too, when Sue came in. She made over Lisa for a few minutes, then came to me for a hug. She pushed her trip Zs into my chest, which made me look down into the Grand Canyon of cleavage. You just can't help but gawk at the amount of mammary flesh the woman has.
She gave me a kiss then went to Steve and repeated the process. Steve was as bad as I was, and took a long look at the display offered. He got his hug and Sue was gone. He looked at me and said, "I see them everyday, and I still marvel at them. God, they are wonderful." We both laughed at our perversion.
Lisa said, "I love those things, too. I could spend hours playing with them. I suppose I'm as perverted as you two."
We laughed harder.
Mercy came around the outside of the group, with Kathy following her. Mercy was carrying the tray of nachos that had the 'Danger' sign. She put it on the bar and told Kathy, "Pour three mugs of beer and let's sample these. Maria said they were hotter than little Maria makes them. I want to test them."
The three of us dug in, pulling out a crunchy nacho chip then scooping up a mixture of cheese, special sauce, with habañeros and jalopeños. They were perfect. The spicy heat snuck up on you and consumed your mouth and tongue. The three of us were stuffing them into our mouths as the tears were running down our faces. These were delicious.
Taiying came over to us and marveled, "I love hot spicy food, but I can't even begin to eat that. Maria said that if she made it so hot she can't eat it, that they would be perfect for you. Look at all of you; it's so spicy that you're crying."
Mercy coughed and said, "Oh, they are so good. These are perfect." We three had to have another icy beer while eating the nachos. We had our fill for a while and went back to having our regular drinks.
Sam and little Maria came in with her kids. Sam was on crutches and was being smothered by his Maria. He made his way to the bar and Maria saw the nachos and dipped a chip into the gooey mixture. She ate one and closed her eyes because it was so hot. She said, "Oh my, your Maria made them better than me."
Sam didn't realize what was happening, and before Maria could stop him, he dunked a chip and shoved it into his mouth. Seconds later, he let out an "Ahhhh, that is hot. Holy smokes, what is that made of?"
Maria told Sam, kiss me quick, that will help. They kissed for a couple of minutes, until Kathy commented, "Get a room."
Mercy got Sam a glass of iced tea and handed it to him. Sam drained the glass and had a glazed look in his eyes. "Man, that is some potent stuff. Is anyone really eating that stuff?"
Mercy said, "Kathy, Chuck, and I already ate over half of it. A few others will like it too, so we're saving it for them. There's some of the wimpier sauce on the tables."
Little Maria grinned at Sam and said, "It is hot. I'm sorry I didn't warn you. I liked the cure though." The little Mexican girl grinned real big while hanging onto Sam on his crutches.
Steve
Author's note: (POV change, back to Steve)
While we were at the bar, I asked Chuck, "Some folks need to make a trip to Hawaii. What do you say about letting them use the Citation? It has the range, but it will be gone for at least a week."
Chuck said, "That shouldn't be a problem. I can't fly for at least a week. My partner here flew me back. I'll get checked out in a week to make sure I don't have any lingering effects from getting hit on the head."
Sue said, "Chuck, you should go with them. You need to check on your investments over there anyway."
"That's okay, I think I'll hang around home and rest for a few days. I'll do some desk flying for a while. I think I can handle that and stay out of trouble."
An older version of Mercy came up to Chuck at the bar. I know Missy well, and I could see she had an anxious look. She gave Chuck a hug and said softly, "When you get a chance, I want to talk to you a little, maybe you too, Lisa."
Chuck said, "How about we get together tomorrow? If you haven't had the tour of our house, you should come over and we'll give you the guided tour of the place."
Missy smiled, "That would be great. I really do want to talk to you privately for a few minutes, please."
The place was soon packed with the usual Friday evening revelry. There wasn't a bunch of announcements to make, but there were some new faces there. Chuck asked about a few, and I didn't even know one couple. Phil brought them to me and introduced them, "Steve, this is Mr. And Mrs. Dormfelter, Jason and Rebecca. These are the folks I was talking about last night at supper. I brought them tonight, since they were still in town, to see how we live."
Rebecca was a lady in her forties that still looked good. She had a big smile on a face that showed some stress lines. Jason was also in his forties and was losing his hair. Judy and Ruth took Rebecca off to the house while Jason joined us at the bar. Henry made Jason a drink and we were all soon in a good conversation. When Jason asked about the 'Danger' sign over the nacho dip, he was warned that it was extremely potent.
When Jason dunked a chip and put into his mouth, he slowly crunched up the spicy chip. You could see a smile form on his lips, and he said, "For this, I need a beer. Hang on a sec, I have to get Becky."
Jason came back, dragging Rebecca, and said, "You're not going to believe how good these are. I'll get you a beer, but you have to have some."
Jason came from the tap while Rebecca was crunching up a chip dunked into the goo. Her eyes flashed open to big round saucers and she exclaimed, "Wow! That is really good stuff. I have to have that recipe." Both Jason and Rebecca were scooping liberal amounts of the fire sauce onto chips and stuffing them into their mouths. They had the same problem that Mercy, Kathy and Chuck had. The sauce is so hot their tears were mixing with the chip.
Mercy commented, "Look at another couple who like that stuff. We have another hot wing taster. You two will have to come for some weekend wings one time soon."
Supper tonight was prime rib. The kids were served first, then the adults began being served. The meal was something special, asparagus with a sauce, along with some kind of mildly spicy rice. This was a great night to entertain a dealer. Some of our newer pilots were here with their wives and families, so we did have a nice collection of people.
After supper, Abe and Alice, along with Glenda and Martin, were in the gliders at one end of the patio while there was a large gathering around the bar. I noticed Bonita spirit Lisa and Chuck away and soon the three of them appeared at the family room's open sliding doorway with the piano and a couple of guitars. Chuck had a microphone connected to a guitar speaker, and announced, "Bonita has been practicing a couple of pieces and wants to perform for you. Lisa and I are going to give her some accompaniment to enhance what she's playing. Some of you may not recognize some of what you will hear, but those at least fifty and older will enjoy this."
Bonita spoke into the microphone near her mouth, "This is the more traditional version of the song I'm going to do. It's not the Boz Scaggs version."
I wondered how she would have ever heard of Boz Scaggs. The girl is amazing.
Bonita began singing, "I saw the harbor lights, they only told me we were parting. Those same old harbor lights that brought you to me."
My goodness, is that my little girl. Bonita was playing chords on her guitar while singing. She had her eyes closed as she sang beautifully, with a voice much older than her years. Chuck was playing the keyboard softly and Lisa was grinning at Bonita as she picked out the melody.
There was a hush over the patio as my little girl sang. She went through the lyrics, then they did some gentle instrumentals, then did the lyrics all the way through again. When she finished, everyone applauded loud and long.
Kathy was next to me and was holding my arm. "Can you believe we made something like that? She's our own little "Who's got talent?"
I could only nod because of the lump in my throat.
They played and Bonita sang, "Close your eyes and slip away," then the three of them did a very steamy version of "Smoke gets in your eyes." They were really good. When that was over, Chuck said, "Our protégé has been practicing these songs for you and waited for Lisa and me to come home. I'm sure glad we did, so she could get them out of her system. Isn't it great for her to choose these old gentle songs? You gotta love it, I know I do."
Chuck grinned and looked at Lisa, "The last thing we're going to do is really out of the past. Bonita heard this while listening to a CD of oldies and has been bugging Lisa and me do it together. We're going to add some background, but the group originally recorded this without anything. We've practiced this a little, but not nearly enough. Hopefully, we'll do this piece justice."
The three got there heads together by the microphone and I saw them count off,
"Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, be, doobe, dum.
Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, be, doobe, dum.
Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, be, doobe, dum.
Wah, wah, wah, wah, ah."
Beth was near me and said, "That's "Come go with me." That was by the Del Vikings. Bonita was listening to my CD's at the house on Bayshore. She asked to take it home and I let her. Oh my goodness, they are really good."
They really did the song well. I had heard it a lot when I was little, so I was familiar with the song. They did a good job with it.
When they were done, everyone applauded loud and long again. Little Bonita stood and bowed at Chuck's and Lisa's urging. Once again, they had surprised us with something special. Chuck and Lisa should get away from all that stuff that was dangerous and just do music.
I sat back smiling, holding an emotional Kathy, peacefully basking in our little girl's accomplishments.
When Chuck and crew were about to leave, Chuck told me, "I'll see you in the morning. Let's go see the boat and talk about our schedule."
"Sounds like a plan," I told Chuck, while patting him on the back. "We'll all go over with the girls and they can tell us about how we're prepared. I'll get one of those party buses so we can go together."
I watched as they climbed into two big carts and headed to their house.
In a little while, only Beth and I were at the bar on the patio. The place was cleaned up, the big coffee pot ready, the lights were down low, with the only the overhead fans slowly turning.
Beth said, "This has been a nice night. Ben had a great time and I think he is even looking forward to meeting us in Italy. I'm not going to miss a minute of the entire adventure, if you don't mind. This is going to be a lot of fun with everyone along. It's going to be chilly out in the Atlantic, but if the sun is out, it shouldn't be too bad. We need to do something like this before the water heats up and storms begin."
"Yeah," I said, "It should be good sailing weather too. We should still have the good winds all the way over, and we'll get the beginning of tropical winds on the way back. As far as seeing everyone, we will try to get it all done, but it's going to be busy. We'll probably be working on the final schedule tomorrow evening. Make sure you take notes so you'll know when to have Ben come join us."
"I'll tell him and he'll join us. He's getting mellower in his old age. He isn't old, but he acts like it sometimes. He's made enough money that it isn't as important to him any longer. He now knows he has more than enough and has enough to share a lot with those that need it. You've been a good example for him, Steve. Between you and Chuck, he's been doing a lot more charity stuff than ever before, and he's happier too."
I got up and stretched, "Let's go to bed before one of them comes to get me."
"Is that an offer, young man? We'll need to use a different room than mine. Ben is in there, probably asleep."
"Oh Beth, don't tease. You go in there and wake him up while I go see if I can excite your daughter."
Beth hugged me and gave me a soft kiss. We shut everything down and went inside, locking the doors. Beth went to her room and I went to the big bedroom in the rear.
Five women were sitting cross-legged on the bed. They were surrounding a little girl in the middle. Bonita was telling them, "Chuck told me to practice it and I did. I wrote down all the words to that song of Gramma's because I really liked the way it sounded. Lisa and Chuck practiced with me tonight and we got it down really fast. That's how we did it."
Kathy said, "Well, you really did well. Now you need to get to bed, you little imp. No more staying up late. Daddy will put you to bed."
I leaned over, scooped Bonita up, and walked down the hall to her room. I put her in her bed, pulled up the covers, and kissed her forehead. When I left, I think she was already sleeping.
In the room the five were still sitting in their powwow. I brushed my teeth, used the john, and washed a little. When I re-entered the room, Sue and Juanita had a space between them, so I knew where to begin. We had a good time enjoying each other until I had kisses and hugs, as well as some other activities with all five women. Mickey was still very demanding. The lights were out, and we made love softly and gently, until I don't even remember falling asleep.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious
Additional Helicopter Knowledge by Rotorhead
Last one through - Deenara2000