Steve
Ah, Wednesday morning! I was still half-asleep, but knew something was happening today.
I sat up straight and said, loud enough to disturb the sleep of the ladies next to me, "We're going sailing today!"
Mercy rolled over, looking up at me while stretching, and said, "Only because Chuck is back."
I asked, "He is? Did he call last night?"
"No, Silly, he came home while we were playing up at the hot tub. His girls should have called, and may have tried, but I think they were all just happy he was home."
Sue stretched and pinched Mercy on the tit, then tried to cover her massive nipples when Mercy tried to retaliate. Juanita then said, "Okay, girls, be nice. Enjoy the morning we are going to begin our special cruise."
Mickey sat up and said, "You know I'm excited. This will be my first big vacation anywhere."
Kathy rolled out of bed and grabbed my hand, pulling me with her toward the bathroom. She said, "Let's get a shower and greet everyone for breakfast."
We were showering, when our huge very oversized shower was quickly crowded with six of us in there. Mickey was rubbing her belly and asking, "Can you see it yet? Can you tell that I'm pregnant?"
Sue said, "I think we should run you over to the doc so you can start on some prenatal vitamins. He might want to do a sonogram already if you think you're over a month."
Mickey grinned and said, "Yeah, I'm over a month, probably two, at least. I really don't know what the date would be."
Breakfast on the patio was almost a party mood. Tiny and Abe had arrived home from Hawaii late last night, so they filled me in on the trip, along with what Crystal and Bear were up to. Tiny said, "Their golf weekends, along with the mainland shopping sprees, are going over much bigger than expected. They want to book as many as two hundred people a trip going over there for each tour. There are fewer people who want to go to the mainland, but it is still significant. We were able to resolve this issue with some direct charters with airlines. They are working with us so we can give the golf and holiday packages at really good rate. Their original idea was a good one, and it's working better than they expected."
Ruth told me, "We probably could have handled everything over the phone or on a video conference, but Crystal and Bear feel like they are more of a part of us now that we went over personally. You're going have to begin making more trips over there too, Steve, if for nothing else, to pass out a few 'attaboys' and 'attagirls' from the boss."
Abe said, "The new cart plant that we set up over there is producing at a good rate. I don't think we need to increase production as there is a limited market. Crystal has a couple of men on the two main islands that go to cart communities and hold repair days. They've been very successful gaining interest toward our carts. They take at least two carts with them every day, and almost always sell them at one of their stops. We're not going to get rich from the cart portion of our operation over there, but it is a profitable venture.
"Now, let me tell you about the S&S sales and repair dealership over there. We're not doing a lot in new sales for forklifts, but they are steady. The big dollars are coming from our sales and leases of generators, and on two islands, compressors. The dealership only has four outside men who cover both sales and warranty. That's enough, as they are able to canvas the businesses throughout the island chain. They are now working hotels and resorts individually. Hawaii has a decent power grid, but does suffer brownouts because of demand. Whole outages don't happen often, just enough that some emergency power is needed. The salesmen are working with some electrical contractors to install backup generators for the hotels.
"Another good thing we did over there is to create that rebuild shop. We're rebuilding generators, compressors, forklifts, and even a few of the heavy lifts. The shop is really producing some great numbers. That was one of the items that Tiny wanted to check on. He found out that the numbers are real. Crystal and Bear are doing a good job watching over all of the ventures and venues over there."
I asked, "What is the condition of the hotels and resorts? How are they doing?"
Tiny answered, "We didn't take a lot of time to go over books or to completely tour all of the hotels, but the ones we did visit are in good shape and the morale seems to be great in all of them. If the employees are happy, then our guests will be happy."
"It's good you were able to get back before I left," I said. "I was concerned about that, although I know we have more good people here that could have taken care of things."
Chuck and his family were having breakfast here on the patio this morning. I was happy to see that he and Lisa were back from wherever it was they were. It wouldn't have been good if we had to wait an extra day or two for him to get back. After watching the news last night, I kind of figured out where Chuck and Lisa had been, but that was like an all out war, not just an arrest or drug bust. I'm sure he'll tell us about it in time, but with stuff like that in your life, you just want to be at peace with the world.
Chuck and all of his family were excited that our trip was going to get underway. He was talking with Dewey about the weather reports he had gotten from the internet. There was a pretty strong front that would probably pass us, and then stall around us, giving us six or seven days of heavy seas. Chuck was concerned about that portion of the trip. Dewey was telling him, "With a boat as large as yours, you'll know you're in heavy seas, but we'll be safe. Your boat can handle anything probably up to thirty, forty, and even fifty foot waves without too much trouble, and those are few and far between. That report was for seas up to twenty feet, so you know the boat will rock, but not bad. Some who might get motion sickness will probably have a problem, but we'll be fine."
Mercy said, "The kids are bigger now, and wait till you watch them in a storm. They push all the furniture to one side then roll back and forth on the floor with the motion of the boat. They get pretty crazy playing 'roll with the boat'."
Dewey's wife said, "When bad weather comes, our kids usually pile up in front of the TV and watch a movie. They don't seem to care or mind that much."
Frieda looked around at the other two mommies to be, and said, "Sure hope you two don't have any motion sickness problems. If we're going through a storm like that, I'm going to have to make sure we have plenty of Seven-Up and crackers. That might be more than my system can handle. I don't usually get motion sick, but too much is too much."
I told them all, "I'll bet we won't see any real bad seas. Even twenty foot waves aren't going to make us wallow around much. If the storm gets bad, we just turn into it and ride it out. The good part is that it will pass."
Sue was more upbeat, "We need some warm days so we can use that top deck for sunbathing. I just love the way it is so cozy up there. The best time ever to get some sun is when we're out on the water."
Brandy was talking to Chuck next to me, and I couldn't help but overhear, "Maria just doesn't want to come with us. She wants to stay home and take care of the house and take care of Lena and Tina. I think she's afraid of the seas after watching that TV program about those Alaskan crab fishermen."
Chuck asked, "Should I talk to her? Try to convince her to come along?"
"She might listen to you, but the person she would probably listen to would be Juanita." Brandy leaned over and said to me, "Can you have Juanita talk to Maria. She's afraid the storms will be too much for her, and she's now talking about staying home. We all want her to come with us. We've been planning on her going. All of her clothes are already on the boat."
"Sure," I said, "I'll talk to her and get Juanita to talk to her too. Let me get Nita now, we're going to be leaving pretty soon. The bus you chartered should be here in less than an hour."
I found Juanita helping the kids get the last of their stuff together. When I told her about Maria, she said, "Let me talk to her, Steve. She's told me a couple of times how she's looking forward to seeing Italy and the Vatican. She said she wants to see Ireland, too."
Nita went to find Maria and when I got back to the patio, Maria and Nita had Chuck over on one of the couches. Maria was hugging Chuck and smiling, so I guess that is a good sign. A few minutes later, Juanita came to me and said, "She really wanted to go but was afraid of the ocean. Chuck assured her she would be fine, and I told her how we had been in a bad storm before and we all sort of enjoyed it. She's coming."
Chuck got all of his people together so they could go get the last of their luggage. They left for their house in two carts.
Glenda and Martin had come to the patio this morning with a pull along piece of luggage. Glenda said it was the little toiletries they would need. All of their clothes were already on the boat. You could tell Martin was nervous. This would be the first time the couple had been away from the park in decades.
I helped clean up from breakfast, but Nancy and Susan were trying to chase me out of the kitchen. Susan said, "You just get yourself ready to go. Help get the kids out of their rooms and ready to get on the bus. They're all a little crazy with excitement right now."
The small bags with each kid's special stuff were out in the hallway, so I began hauling them out to the yard to load on the bus. Bonita was making trip after trip, until I asked her, "What all are you taking, Bonita?"
"I'm taking my guitars, and my music. I have my new violin and all of the video lessons I'm supposed to practice. You know, Daddy, I have a lot of things to take."
"Violin?" I asked, "When did you begin playing the violin?"
"When I heard all that beautiful Mozart and Beethoven music. I heard that country guy, Charlie Daniels, and I want to play like that too. I need to know how to play all kinds of instruments, not just the guitar and piano."
I was standing there, scratching my head. "How does stuff like that happen and I don't know about it?" I thought to myself.
There was a steady stream of kids finishing getting what they wanted to take, then heading out to wait for the bus. Mickey came with her little suitcase and gave me a quick kiss on the way by. Juanita had a silly grin on her face as she passed by, so I went into the bedroom to see what was going on. Sue and Mercy were holding some funny looking toys and discussing what to take.
I asked, "Do you guys think I'm going to break down and you need some backup?"
Mercy turned toward me, blushing, "We use these with each other, you know, we like to play with each other, and we were trying to decide which ones will be the most fun to ah, ah, use when we play with Chuck's girls."
Sue was grinning her crooked grin, "Perhaps we'll let him watch one time. That'll let him know what we do and why these are important."
As she zipped up her small case, Kathy said, "Those two are probably the horniest two women on the face of the earth. I swear they could play twenty-four hours a day and still be ready for more."
As Kathy was leaving, Mercy said, "Yeah, but you sure are in the middle of things when they heat up. Take that big one, Sue; that's Kathy's favorite."
I grabbed my bag and the gun case I wanted to take along. Chuck has a huge arsenal on board, but I wanted to have what I liked if something came up. I'm sure we wouldn't need anything for the trip. The last time we went over there, there wasn't even a hint of trouble.
As I left the room, I said, "Better hurry, that bus is going to be here any minute."
The two girls were zipping up their bags as I said that, and both said together, "We're coming." Then Sue giggled and whispered, "Not yet but we're going to come a lot on this trip." The two girls really began giggling then.
A big bus was parking in front of the yard at that moment. The driver got out and opened the luggage compartment doors for all of our bags and last minute items.
Two carts came up to the side of the house with all of Chuck's people on them. Wanda and John were with them, and I remembered that they wanted to go over with us, but were going to fly back from the Riviera so they would be back at least two weeks earlier than we would.
They brought all of their last minute bags with them and loaded them onto the bus, then Chuck came over to me and said, "Man, I am like a kid. I'm so excited that I have to pee every fifteen minutes. This is going to be really something."
Dewey, Sheila, Sheena, and kids all came out the patio door and began loading their stuff onto the bus. The kids were all being giddy and nuts because of the excitement. As people finished putting their stuff in the luggage area of the bus, they began finding seats inside.
Tiny called me back into the patio, and as Chuck walked in, he waved us over. Tiny said, "Come and let me give you two a toast." He poured from one of our special bottles, said 'good luck' to us and we chugged our toast. I was happy to go, but always felt bad leaving such a good friend behind.
Soon there was only Chuck, me, and the bus driver outside the bus, with Tiny and Ruth standing there to wish us goodbye. I climbed up on the bus and said, "Everyone look around to make sure everyone who is supposed to be going is on the bus. I see all my kids and all of Dewey's, so that's taken care of, but are all the adults here?"
After everyone looked at each other back and forth, Sue said, "I think everyone is here."
Brandy said, "Even Maria. We're all glad she's coming with us."
I took a deep breath and told the driver, "Let's do it."
He closed the door and I sat on one of the front seats, next to Kathy. As soon as we cleared the front gate, I asked her, "So, when did Bonita begin violin lessons?"
Kathy kind of chuckled, "That was last week. She told me she wanted to learn to play the violin. When I told her that it might be more difficult than she thought, she said, "Mrs. Carnahan has been showing me how to play and is going to let me use hers on our boat trip. She also found a whole bunch of music and some videos for me to learn with."
"Steve," Kathy said, "Bonita showed me what she had learned already and she played scales for me naming each note and telling me the differences on where her fingers were going. She was playing four complete octaves. I didn't even know there was that kind of range on a violin. I'm telling you, Bonita is going to need some special tutoring soon. I don't know what will be the right thing to do, but I don't want to waste that talent."
"Amazing," I said, with a shake of my head. "It's hard to believe how fast she learns instruments. I've watched her teaching the other kids how to play the guitar, and I was watching her teach Trixie beginning piano. Dixie told me that Bonita is teaching her too, so when does she have time to play like a kid? I know she likes the motocross, and she does go play ball sometimes, but does she have enough play time?"
Kathy said, "To her, playing music is play time. Teaching the others is fun for her too, because she also gets to play. She doesn't watch much TV, and like you said, she does go play ball with the other kids all the time. I think watching her on this trip is going to be fun. This will give us a chance to observe her more than we normally do. It's also going to be even more fun for her since Chuck and Lisa are going to be with us."
I just nodded thinking of how special this trip was going to be.
Missy and Beth were behind us, and Beth said to me, "You need to get Chuck to take you down to his island off Costa Rica. That place is really something. The lady that gave Chuck the island, Julie, is really nice, but then you probably know that already. Talk to him about it and maybe you guys can go down there soon."
I was almost laughing, so Sue asked me, "What's so funny?"
"We haven't even sailed yet and Beth is talking about going down to Chuck's new place in Costa Rica. If this keeps up, we'll have to sell out to someone willing to keep track of the business."
Sue said, "We could probably just about let our people run things if we wanted to. You, and all of us, can travel to wherever we want and get away with it. There's the Keys, Alaska, Hawaii, now Costa Rica, and anywhere in the whole world in one of our boats. You know we can do it anytime."
"It is something to think about, isn't it? Traveling is fun, but I still enjoy being home and involved in the businesses. You know, we have a lot of people who depend on us. Our input is necessary."
Sue said, "I know, but it would be nice to get away more often. Sailing is the most fun, but we do have the availability to fly anywhere we want. That's a good thing, and fast too. Sailing takes a while to get somewhere, but flying is really fast. It's like immediate gratification."
I said, "Just think about it, we can fly down to Costa Rica in two and half hours, but it takes four days to sail there if we go straight through and don't anchor at night. I think that some of our trips will have to be by air just so we can get there and back quicker."
Mercy said, "We need the time together on the boat too, though. When we sail, everything seems to go into slow motion and we all seem so happy and content. Maybe that's just me and my love of sailing, but it is so serene out on the water most of the time."
"We'll just have to make more time for both sailing and flying to areas we want to visit," I said, smiling. "I'm sure we can get a group together to go almost anytime."
At the yacht club, it took us a half-hour to haul everything from the bus to the boat. Our crews from the other boats had the covers off the sails and the main salon, with the generator already running and the shore connections released.
Dewey and I were getting ready to board the boat when Dewey pointed at the boat's stern and said, "There's more than just the Lucky Lady written there." The words "Lucky Lady" were domed over another word in script.
I was puzzled and asked Dewey, "What does Seraglio mean?"
Dewey was chuckling, "That's a Turkish word for harem, the location or palace of the women of the harem. When did Chuck add that?"
I said, "He must have had that done when the name was painted. This is the first I knew about it."
As Dewey and I crossed the boarding ramp he said, "Considering the three of us and the amount of women on board, I suppose that is an appropriate name."
I just grinned and nodded in agreement.
I think every passenger was lined up at the railing when Chuck hollered to release the line up front, then repeated the command for the aft line. He slowly motored away from the slip, turning to head out the channel toward the gulf. As soon as we were in the channel, people began moving about, stowing the lines and preparing for the open sea.
As we turned out into the gulf at nine in the morning, Chuck began raising sail in the order Dewey had instructed him. There was a crowd of people surrounding Chuck, watching him as he raised the sails. With a nice fifteen to twenty knot breeze from the northwest, the boat keeled a little, but picked up speed and was soon traveling at that magic twelve to fourteen knots. The sea was perfect, with only small swells raised by the slightly gusting breeze.
We would be making the turn around Key West sometime in the middle of the night and heading out into the Atlantic. It would take thirteen to fourteen days to get to Ireland, depending on the weather, so we would be settling into a traveling routine pretty fast.
The folks joining us in Ireland would have a nice sail to Italy as it would take about seven days. The trip back to the Riviera was two or three days, so everyone would get some good sailing time to relax and enjoy the trip.
I was with Chuck and Dewey at the helm as they were discussing how to set everything up for whoever was sailing at night. Chuck thought he might want to stay outside on his watch unless it was raining or got real cold. Dewey felt the same, but did say, "That bridge area you have set up in there is first class. Everything is within reach, including video monitors of the key rigging points. It looks like one of the stations at NASA for the space shuttle."
This was it, we were on our way.
Chuck
There was a large, heavy, weight on my gut. Something heavy was bouncing on me. "Get up, get up, we're leaving today."
Frieda was sitting on my stomach, bouncing up and down. I said, "Better be careful or you'll shake those kids right out of there."
"That'll never be a problem," Frieda grinned. "They were wrestling all night anyway. They're going to be night owls the way they like to move around at night. We'll have to work to get them to sleep at night."
All of the girls were up and smiling, so I slid to the side of the bed and hopped to the bathroom for a shower.
It's a good thing we had a huge shower room built, with so many shower heads pointing from each end, and overhead if you wanted, in addition to regular height shower heads. Everyone can get wet and wash at the same time. Surprisingly, we were in and out of the shower quick this morning. We all sort of cleaned up as we left. While the girls all went to their private rooms to finish dressing, I shaved, and dressed in the nice cedar lined combination closet/dressing room.
I put my shaving stuff into the bag I was going to carry, along with my peg, my sports leg, and even my spare leg. I was going to be prepared if something happened to one of my leg. With the last of my stuff packed, I opened up my special armament suitcase and checked it out. The fifty, the 308, and the fold up MP5 were all there, along with enough ammo for the weapons. I had my armor vest and my field vest in the case too, so if I had to do anything, I could carry what I would need.
Out in the kitchen, Taiying and Sing had coffee ready, but said that we would eat breakfast at the patio. All of our bags were by the door in the family room next to where the carts were parked.
I suggested, "Let's go over and eat breakfast first, then we'll come back and pick up the bags and anything you might have forgotten."
We loaded up into two carts and headed to Steve's.
There was a party atmosphere, a real bon voyage party for those that were leaving. Lena and Tina were with us for breakfast, but had early days for school and at the hospital, so they gave everyone kisses and hugs before leaving.
Brandy said to me, "You know Maria is thinking about staying here. She thinks she needs to stay to take care of Tina and Lena and she's saying something about bad weather. I tried to tell her that we really want her to come with us. I hope you don't mind, but I asked Steve if he would have Juanita talk to her."
It wasn't fifteen minutes later that Juanita and Maria came to me and we sat on a couch to talk. Maria looked up at me, "I do want to go with you on your sailing trip, but I'm worried that Tina and Lena will need someone to help them, to take care of them. That's why I thought I should stay."
I hugged Maria to me and said, "Maria, the girls are trying to make you a part of our family and really do want you to come with us. I want you to see the Vatican, and I know you'll love the Irish folks we're friends with. You know that Juanita would miss having her little sister along with her."
Maria's eyes got big and she looked at Juanita, "Oh Nita, I would miss being with you too. I will go; I really don't want to miss the time with all of my big new family. This will be special because it will be like Nita's family and our family will be one. Even Mr. Dewey's family will be a part of us. I will go."
Maria hugged me and teared up a little before she kissed me and turned to Juanita to give her a hug. "Thank you, Juanita, you are like a big sister to me. We will have a wonderful time."
Brandy came over to confirm that our group was going to remain intact and left to huddle with Sue and Mercy about something else. Lisa came to me and said, "Do I perceive you have resolved Maria's hesitation to leave?"
"Yeah," I said, "She's coming with us. She was just having a guilty conscience about leaving Lena and Tina alone."
Lisa said, "They can take care of themselves, but I can already tell you, momma said she was going to make sure the house stayed in shape while we were gone. She'll watch out for the girls."
I told Lisa, "From what I've seen, she's been taking Glenda's place with the food preparation a lot lately. I'm glad she's enjoying herself and becoming a part of the family."
"You don't have to worry about her, Chuck, momma loves to cook and she loves to take care of people. This is a dream come true for her. She has so many new friends, and her girls are now a part of all of the activities here. Thank you for bringing her here; it was the best thing that's happened to her."
I looked at my watch and said, "Let's get everyone together and get to the house and back with our bags. It's almost time for the bus. I'm getting excited."
Lisa smiled at me and gave me a hug, "Me too, this is going to be a really special vacation."
It didn't take long to gather the ladies and to head to the house. We piled all of our last minute small bags on the carts to take back to Steve's. While we were packing, Nightfox came in on his crutches, "Hey, Partner, have a good trip and keep in touch."
I told Sam, "Make sure you see the doc when you're supposed to, and get well. When you start your physical therapy, make sure you do it religiously."
"You don't have to worry about that," Nightfox said. "Maria is going to push me to stay healthy. The problem will be when it's time to go back to work."
I suggested, "While you're recovering, check with Dennis while he's here, to see what kind of program you could get into that would support you and your new family if you didn't work for the Service. You know, it might be time for you to consider a different line of work."
Sam almost hung his head, "Yeah, I know. I've thought about that a lot since Detroit, coming that close does make you think. You need to do some thinking on that same subject."
Ignoring the comment, I made another suggestion, "You know you might check with Homeland Security to see if they need any Air Marshals. You're already a sworn Deputy, so you would qualify for that. There's a lot of traveling, but not a very high danger level."
Nightfox smiled, "I might do that. I have a lot of thinking to do, don't I?"
We shook hands and I went to tell Lisa to take her equipment case. I pulled mine from the closet, verified what was in it, and took it out to the golf cart.
Brandy was being her usual 'Ms. in Charge' and making sure everyone had their bags loaded. It was time, so we rode back to Steve's and found the big bus being loaded. We stored our stuff in the luggage area of the bus and I watched as all those from our house began boarding the bus.
I walked inside with Steve as Tiny waved us over and said, "Just the men for my toast." Tiny poured a shot of something for Steve, himself, and me, and raised his glass. "To a great trip that is fun, successful, and safe." We three downed our glasses.
Oh my, that was some good scotch. Probably some single malt that should be in a safe.
I shook Tiny's hand and promised him I would look after everyone. Sure hope I don't have to.
Steve and I watched as what appeared to be the last people boarded the bus. We walked to the door and climbed up. Steve looked around and said, "Make sure everyone is accounted for. We're on our way. Sue, Mercy, Kathy, count the kids one more time." That got a laugh from everyone.
Steve turned to the bus driver and said, "Head 'em out."
At the yacht club, we unloaded all of the luggage and got it aboard and down to the various levels it was supposed to be on. As soon as the bus was stripped and checked, I talked to Steve's charter crew people who were standing by the lines. I asked one guy, "Is the generator on yet?"
He said, "Already started and powering the boat. As soon as you start the engines, you'll see the lights flicker. The shore connections are all taken down; we're ready for you to cast off."
I watched as Steve and Dewey lifted the boarding ramp and let it slide into its holder. While that was happening, I had the engine started and warming. Steve waved at me, so I yelled for the lines to be released back to us. Mercy was up front and Dewey was aft.
Almost as if we were a military group, every person on board was lining the railing, waving at the people we were leaving on the dock.
Putting the boat into gear was simple, but I had to take a big breath before doing it. We began moving from the slip. As soon as Dewey hollered we were clear of the slip, I began turning the big boat into the channel to head toward the gulf.
Steve said something and I jumped. I didn't know he was right there with me. By the time we were clearing the end of the channel and heading into the gulf, Dewey, Mercy, Sue, Kathy, Juanita, Brandy, Freida, Nancy, and Lisa were all around the helm. They watched me as I began making sail. We all cheered when the two big mains were raised, then as I trimmed the rest of the sails, they all watched as each sheet of sail billowed out with the wind.
I was smiling as I shut down the diesel engines and the boat became quiet, except for the snapping of the rigging and the sound of the water alongside the boat. Every person around the helm was quiet, listening. Even the others on the boat were silent, listening. We were all listening to the sounds of our vacation beginning.
Almost as if by some signal, everyone on board began cheering. We were on our way.
Before Another Beginning
Primary Editing by Pepere
Proofing and Continuity by Sagacious
Helicopter and Legal Knowledge by Rotorhead
Last one through - Deenara2000