When I woke in the morning, amid three women, I had Sue between Mercy and me on one side, with Mickey on the other side. I gave one of Sue's big nipples a suck, making her squirm, then moved over Mickey to get out. By the time I had made coffee, Mickey was in the shower. I peed then joined her. We had not even begun to play when Mercy came in with us. The attraction Mickey and Mercy had for each other was enough for me to be very aroused, but I was also smart enough to just quickly wash, give both a kiss, and get out of the shower.
I dressed in jeans, T-shirt, and loafers to be comfortable all day. As soon as I turned on the light, holding Nelda's birthday card in my hand, Glenda came, holding her cup and a card. Tiny and Ruth came with a card, then Shawna and Charlie. Every person who came had a birthday card. Nelda finally came to the patio.
"Some one stacked lots of vases of flowers outside my door. It took me a long time to put them in the house. They are just so beautiful. Whoever did it, thank you."
"Happy Birthday, Nelda," came from the entire group.
Once she was sitting, she was inundated with cards and hugs. It only took a minute before big tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Thank you, thank you," she said, as she dabbed her eyes with a hankie. "This is the best birthday I've had for a lot of years. I'm just so lucky."
The people leaving ate a quick sandwich, then I told everyone we were leaving for Cincinnati. Sue had gotten up to hug everyone before I loaded the luggage into the truck. I called out to the Aero Park and asked if the attendant could bring the 200 out to the ops building. He was happy to do it. Tips help. My sister, her family, and Mercy rode with me to the Aero Park, where I parked right at the plane, so it was easy to load the luggage.
I re-parked the truck then began the pre-flight outside inspection. I still used the flip chart so I wouldn't forget anything. Once I was satisfied, I pulled the chocks and climbed in, pulling up the stair and door combination. I went over the safety stuff on the card then sat in the left seat and began the inside checklist right through the startup procedure. As soon as everything was spinning good and checked out, I had permission to taxi and takeoff.
The first thing I did was to call in the flight plan as the air conditioning began pressurizing the cabin. It cooled down quickly. We were only at nineteen thousand today because of traffic, so we needed to get there and home before the big clouds began to build.
Two hours later, we were landing. I had called a limo to meet us at the private terminal. We unloaded the luggage and sent the family home. Mercy and I peed, refueled, grabbed some bottles of water and a couple of pieces of fruit, and were back in the air within forty minutes.
Just before we were getting ready to start up the engines, I had an idea. I called Ernie Wainwright and asked him if he would like to come out to the house tonight for a steak and some birthday cake of a friend of ours. He said that he would be there but without the woman he went out with sometimes. He said the woman and him were not really compatible.
Mercy looked at me and said, "Are you trying to play Cupid?"
I wanted to try to be home as close to noon as possible. We were wheels down and locked at twelve, parked by the fuel pumps by twelve thirty, with everything logged and the plane in the hands of the happy attendant, with a nice tip in his pocket.
We made it home for lunch just before one. Glenda and Alice had taken Nelda shopping. They had also made her a doctor's appointment for a physical. She had not been to a doc for over ten years because she didn't have the money.
Mercy and I ate, then we went to the Holiday Inn site to see how they were doing. The utilities were being dug in and the foundation was being formed before pouring. There were plumbers and electricians putting in the conduits for all of the water, power, and communication on the first floor. Darnel was checking the location of each item. He had his own survey transit and was double checking measurements. He was my kind of guy.
It looked like the pipes for the sewer were being put in for the hotel, as well as the buildings in the park. This was progress.
Mercy came with me to the shop and wanted to go back to see how Ryan was doing. Sandy had him polishing a head. He had been weighing and shaving parts earlier, so they were giving him a real lesson. He said it was really exciting when they finished an engine and everyone crowded around all of the instruments to see what the performance was. He said they told of having an engine that they had to completely tear down because it had a strange small vibration. He said that the cause had been a tiny piece of a rubber glove that had caught on a rod bearing. The girls had accused one of the gay guys of leaving his condom in there. Ryan was enjoying his time in the motor shop. A surprise was to see Michelle working with Shawna on a custom bike she was building instead of working with Sue's people. Michelle was bent over the bench, putting together a stator. Shawna saw me and smiled nodding her head at Michelle. Interesting.
We walked over to see how Jeff and Drew were doing with Crystal. Drew and Crystal were head first in a chassis the mechanic was working on. Crystal was pointing out how the driveshaft mid-bearing was wearing improperly because the U-joint was the wrong size. She was telling them that it wouldn't be long before the tranny seal would start leaking, and then the shaft bearing would probably freeze or the joint would break off. She said the whole thing would already have to be replaced, but the transmission was going to be rebuilt anyway, so it didn't matter. She pointed out how the inside left tires were wearing funny. She said it was probably a bad air brake release cylinder. They would need to look for the problem. Crystal obviously knew her trucks.
I asked Mercy what she thought of Crystal. She said, "That's more woman than I want. It's going to take a hell of a man to tame that one."
It's fun to watch the race day truck people go through the trucks. They have everything open so they can clean and restock. Some people are cleaning out the inside as others polish up the new bodies on the trucks. Most of our orders for the bodies had come from the race day trucks.
I asked Debbie how everything was going, and she said it was 'perfect, ' with a smile. I wasn't needed there, so Mercy and I went to the house to see if Sue wanted to use the gym. She did, so we all went for an hour, and while Sue went back to work on fashions, Mercy and I went to the pool. When DeDe and Star saw us, DeDe and asked me, "Do you have another girlfriend now? How come you keep bringing new ones around and you don't give me a chance."
"DeDe, we're just not meant to be. Sorry, Honey, you're built and all, but our schedules just don't match."
The two girls left and you could tell they were perturbed. Mercy said, "Those girls are not all that bad. They are both a little embarrassed they are dancers, but they both have good hearts."
"I know, Mercy, they just don't do it for me. I don't need any local talent when Sue keeps taking in strays like you and Mickey."
"Hold it there, Steve," Mercy said. "Your mind is what attracted me and made me want to be with you and Sue. And from what I heard, you were the one to bring Miss Mickey home. You can't blame Sue for your women problems."
"I didn't ask either one of you to stay, Sue did. She's the one who wants to keep the pet who followed me home."
Mercy punched me then challenged me to race some laps. We swam hard for fifteen minutes and went back to the house. Merlin and Misty were there, along with Ben and Beth. They were already getting into the good liquor early. I guess it was a good thing my sister left, Ben and Beth may need the big room.
Martin, Glenda, and Nelda came home from their shopping adventure. Glenda and Nelda both had some new things. I got Nelda a glass of iced tea, and began getting the steaks ready. I had bought forty good New York strips. They were all fairly thick and about twelve to fourteen ounces each. Some people would only eat a half of one, while most of the guys would easily eat a whole one and still want more.
Supper went pretty smooth. Forty steaks were just about right, considering several women shared one. Abe has a sixth sense about steak and eating. He and Alice showed up for supper as they were in town changing RVs. He had typed up separate appraisals of each RV he had rented so far. Abe was doing exactly what I had asked. He rated the mechanical characteristics; performance, ease of set up, auxiliary generator, all the tech stuff. Then he rated the inside: design, comfort, toys, cooking facilities, bathrooms, washer, dryer, and visibility from inside when riding and at a camp. We probably could have sold the analysis to a magazine. We wanted the information to make a good decision.
Sue thought inviting Ernie was a great idea. Ernie ended up sitting between Sue and Nelda, becoming fast friends. We found out Ernie was just a little under a year older than Nelda. It was a neat coincidence.
After supper, everyone gathered around Nelda and sang happy birthday. Then the fun began. Everyone, or every couple, had a gift for Nelda. None were large gaudy gifts. All were personal, something she could really use and enjoy. Sue and I gave her a television for her bedroom. She had an ancient one in her living room, but we gave her a nice one that could be put on a shelf that was in her home, just for its use. I'm sure Nelda used far more electricity having the TV on all night after that.
Nelda became so excited by all the attention that I was actually concerned. Sue was able to get her to take a little walk to calm down. Nelda told Sue that now, since she was eight-six, she might need to take it a little easy. They walked for over a half hour, then came back to have a huge cake with eighty-six candles. When Nelda blew at them, Merlin waved his hand and they all went out. She looked up at Sue and said, "I know my wish will come true and you'll have a grand baby boy."
We all had ice cream and cake. Everyone of us knew how precious life was by our association with Nelda. She was good for all of us.
Before Ernie left, he and Nelda took a short walk up the road and back. When they returned, they were both smiling. Nelda later told us that Ernie was going to come back out to see her soon. I told her to always invite him for supper and he would be here. He loved free food.
As it got late, folks began to go home. I took Nelda home and made sure she was comfortable with her new TV in the bedroom. The cable was already installed there. All I had to do was hook it up and plug it in. There were batteries included for the remote, so Nelda was instantly ready to fall asleep with the TV on the first night.
When I came home, Sue, Mercy, and Mickey were waiting for me with some kind of chocolate drink that they said was guaranteed to relax me. It damned near knocked me on my ass. We sat together and talked as a group until it was time to put me to bed. They did put me to bed, very nicely.
The big day was here. The first building of the new business park was complete. The Perkins was opening. We were invited to the pre-opening gala when the new cooks and waitresses experiment on invited guests. It's kind of a tradition that the tradesmen get a free meal at the dry run opening. The entire park crew was coming, in addition to the tradesmen and contractor. Ernie was accompanying Nelda to the restaurant. They were rapidly becoming a couple.
Everyone ordered from the main menu, but most took the hint and ordered the special. Perkins doesn't serve alcohol, so there was no beer with this meal. Sue was happy that there was a place close by that she could come for that midnight snack she craved so often. Shawna, Debbie, and Hanna were in total agreement.
As time had passed, Charlie, Hank, Jim, and I had traveled without our babes more often. It was surprising that Sandy, Mandy, and often Mickey, wanted to ride behind Charlie, Jim, or Hank instead of riding their own bikes. The sidecar was in use often with Mickey or Mercy riding in the sidecar and/or behind me. I don't know what the protocol was, but they figured it out. Sue was becoming content to sit at home and wait for us to come home to attend to her. The two girls never let her even consider that they would attempt to become my favorite. Sue was always shown she was first in my heart and first in my desire.
The next big deal was when the Holiday Inn Express opened. A hotel opening happens without a lot of fanfare. We came up with a manager who had experience and had a desire to make a place like ours enjoyable and profitable. We instantly had deals going with every business within ten to fifteen minutes of us. We would enlarge that area later but we wanted to concentrate on the local businesses.
The body fabrication shop was almost done. The fiberglass shop was complete and already casting body parts that were even superior to the parts cast at the original shop. The chassis area was huge and being staffed by as many genuine diesel truck mechanics as we could find or steal. We had so many back orders that when we began calling the customers in, they had to re-arrange their schedules. It takes a minimum of a week to pull the old body off, rebuild the chassis, then but the body back on. Actually that's really fast for that much work. During the time the work is being done, we put the customer up in the Holiday Inn.
There are shuttles that go into the city, and of course, there is the Perkins across the street. Hap figured out that a bunch of truckers at a Holiday Inn would probably like to go to a titty bar while they were waiting.
Son-of-a-gun if a no-liquor titty bar didn't open up down the road, staffed by a bunch of ladies that were easily recognizable if you went to the bike club compound often. The cops kept a close eye on the place, making sure the girls weren't selling more than lap dances. I'm sure many men with fat wallets were treated to more than a lap dance.
Hap's men were warned not to get out of hand and to make sure that there wasn't any wholesale prostitution going on in the hotel. The restaurant did a good business with the dancers and guys treating dancers to a meal. It's times like these that you understand why a lot of bikers have more than one lady. You might have one at home to tend the house, a traveling babe to ride behind you and give some relief when it was requested, a party babe that was available for a club function, and then there was the babe with the money panties. She might dance, hustle a little, or probably escort. Either way, she brought home some cash in order to get the attention of the biker and all his babes. Sometimes you had more than one woman in one of the categories, depending on your age or your club status. It was a pretty simple system. Did you ever wonder why there are so many babes who want to hang around nasty old bikers? Amazing, isn't it?
The business park was gradually taking shape. As the bodybuilding shop came together, the dealership was becoming recognizable. We had a deal with multiple vendors for the dealership. We had agreements with International, Peterbilt, Freightliner, Volvo, Mack, and Kenworth. They all wanted us to represent them, but all of them were apprehensive of our body business. None wanted to work with us to sell just the chassis.
Crystal began a campaign to get the trucking companies to compare bodies. We would buy a truck, do a straight conversion with a like sleeper, then run the exact same weight trailers for a specified distance. We wanted them to help us prove whether we were an improvement or not. We thought two new trucks would do the trick.
Kenworth and International were the only ones who offered to compete. We bought two tractors from each company. We converted one by just changing the body and maintaining the dash and instruments. We built out the sleeper to the exact specs of the original. We had to add about six hundred pounds of weight to match the other tractor as new manufacturer's product was steel and fiberglass, and ours was all fiberglass. The run was from Tampa to St. Louis and return. They each pulled about fifteen tons of freight. This was a pure cost situation with two experienced drivers. The one who drove one truck to St. Louis, would drive the other back. We lost some advantage by having to make up the cab weight but I was still confident our body would get better mileage.
I anticipated that the factory truck would be treated to special technical tweaks before we took off. As soon as we chose trucks, I had our mechanics tear our truck apart and make it perfect. Sandy and Mandy had diesel knowledge and made a race car engine out of the diesel. It was going to be as good as it could get.
The two trucks took two days to drive to St. Louis. The drivers switched cabs then drove back. The rides would be the same as they both had the dual air ride seats. The tanks would be the same as they were both original equipment. The trannys were both geared the same. All of the steering and brakes were identical factory systems.
When they hit our old yard, where we were going to tear them down, the tanks were topped off to evaluate exactly how much fuel was consumed. From that point it was easy. Just divide one number into another. The international rep didn't believe the numbers. He checked the extra weight sitting in the dog house of our truck then came back to look at the numbers. Our body produced 2.1 miles to the gallon more than the factory model. When he reported this, several engineers from the factory came to look at what we had done. They gigged us on radiator cooling capacity but we disproved their concern. They couldn't believe we had carried an additional five hundred pounds of weight, but it was still in the sleeper. They took the truck out on the road and drove it. They hooked the trailer up and drove it. They just didn't want to believe our patented idea was working.
We repeated the experiment with Kenworth. They didn't give us a choice of tractors so we tore this one down and let the girls do their magic on the motor. They said the quality of the build sucked. They felt like the motor was almost sabotaged. I didn't care because I had Sandy and Mandy to check the transmission gearing and the motor. When we weighed out the Kenworth, it was remarkably lighter than our cab had been. We discovered they were using a new aluminum body. No matter. We asked about their gearing but they wouldn't divulge what they were using. Crystal said the standard gearing that we had was as good as it got, so we trusted her expertise and got the truck ready. Their sleeper was not completed so we left ours a shell too.
Four days later, the two trucks were sitting side by side while the Kenworth engineers and Drew were calculating numbers. Our truck beat theirs by one point eight miles to the gallon. Drew figured if we had been apples to apples, like we were with International, we would be over two, possibly three miles to the gallon.
The Kenworth engineers wanted our engineering designs. We said we would be happy to sell it to them. They felt we should give them our research and technology. We owned the trucks so we finished both of our conversions and put them on our new showroom floor. Crystal promised that we would have orders for them within a month.
We actually had orders for all four within three days. International wanted both trucks back, at our conversion price of course, and Kenworth wanted their own truck back as it had been an experimental body and tranny. We made them buy both, which they did. We promised to warranty them just like anyone else.
Crystal was stunned. Her dealership had sold four trucks in the first week. But the big problem was that it left her without merchandise. Freightliner people heard of our tests and declined to sell us new tractors. Our deal with Volvo was pretty good and they delivered two day cabs and two sleepers in their hardiest over the road configuration.
We did the straight conversion, using all of Volvos equipment and gauges. We put a five year warranty on all conversion parts, and left the three hundred thousand mile factory warranty on the truck. We did change all of their trashy seats to the new air-ride seats. That made the truck very desirable. We were getting great money for the take off body and sleepers for wreck replacement parts.
We used all of the data we recorded from the two tests, complete with movies, photographs, and written testimonials from the two drivers to advertise. Crystal began selling about ten trucks a month. The big deal was she was selling about the same amount of conversions a month, and her service department was gaining a great reputation. Truckers enjoyed a day or two of leisure at the Holiday Inn with the heated swimming pool and small Tiki bar that my manager installed after we took over the hotel. The liquor license was a bitch to get, but then our booze volume wasn't going to be high.
The restaurant was going great serving nearly sixty percent of capacity every day.
Just as the RV dealership was being completed in early December, Sue decided she should have her baby. One evening, as we were all having a good time on the patio, Sue, Shawna, Debbie, and Hanna were comparing waddles. The whole place was laughing so hard it probably caused Sue to go into labor.
Right in the middle of a waddle, Sue grabbed her tummy and a large puddle appeared under her. As she groaned, but didn't collapse, Nelda was next to her holding her up saying, "Your water broke, Honey, it's time for your baby." We were ready. Mercy grabbed Sue's hospital bag and Mickey opened her big car door for Sue and me to ride in the back.
I called the doc and he said he would meet us at the maternity entrance at women's hospital across from St. Joseph's Hospital down on Martin Luther King formerly known as Buffalo Ave.
When we arrived, Sue said she was having some pretty good contractions. After the doctor checked her, he said she was nearing ten centimeters so it shouldn't be long. After a near riot, Mickey and Mercy were allowed to accompany me into the birthing room. Sue looked pretty serene, saying this was what our marriage really meant. She said she was so happy to give me a son.
Sue contracted. I helped her breathe right, and coached her through some heavy contractions. Finally, the doc said she should push, I watched as first the head slid out, then the shoulders, and the body followed easily. The baby gave a startled cry as soon as he was out of the womb. He was laid on Sue's stomach as the doc clamped off the cord and handed me the scissors. I clipped, he tied and the baby was instantly taken to be weighed, measured, partially cleaned, then positioned again on Sue's stomach and chest. The little sucker was long, a lot longer and bigger than he should have been for having such a little lady for a momma.
Sue was crying big tears of happiness. I kept giving her kisses and touches until the baby was in her arms. She looked down at him and said, "I love you, little Stevie. Your momma loves you."
I watched the gentleness of the doctor as he performed the removal of the placenta. That kind of caring came only from pride of the work he performed. He said it looked like Sue would be fine and the birth was textbook. He would look at her in a few hours, but she should be fine.
Sue said, "That hurt, a lot. I'm glad our son is here. I hope our daughter is easier."
Sue had not uttered one word that she hurt the entire time she was giving birth. I handed my cell phone to Mercy and asked her to call home to tell everyone the news. Mickey said she didn't think anyone was there. She thought they were all in the waiting room.
They took the baby and shooed me out while they cleaned Sue and the baby up. They said they would come and get me in a few minutes. The three of us walked out into the waiting room, telling everyone about the eight pound four ounce kid that was twenty-six inches long. He was really big for the size Sue was.
Shawna looked down at her belly, while caressing her stomach on both sides and said, "I'm going to take up smoking to stunt your growth."
Martin came over to me to shake my hand and said, "Now you have twenty years of commitment and responsibility. Time for you to settle down. But you're doing fine the way you are."
When I could go back in to see Sue, Beth begged me to help her get in to see Sue and the baby. I asked the duty nurse about Mercy, Mickey, and Beth. She looked at me long and hard. I'll let you guys in two at a time. Why don't you just keep changing the visitors so you can be with your wife and baby?
I motioned for Beth and we went into Sue's room. Sue was nursing the baby. I was stunned. The intimacy of the act of Sue nursing our baby was paralyzing. It was a picture that should be painted by a master for the world to view and contemplate for ages to come.
Sue said he was truly my son the way he latched onto a nipple and immediately began sucking. She said the nurse told her many babies have to be coaxed into nursing. Little Stevie wasn't going to have any trouble. He only sucked for a minute then fell asleep at Sue's breast. Since she was partially sitting up, she moved the baby higher and gently patted his back. After a minute or so he did give a tiny burp. His first chance to nurse. His first burp. Amazing.
Beth wanted to hold him so bad, but Sue said to let him sleep as Stevie had a big day so far. He wasn't going to sleep long so he needed to sleep as long as he could. Sue asked me, are you going to be able to take me home tomorrow?
My reply was instant, "Of course I will. There is nothing in this world that will keep me from being with you two for a few days. You'll get tired of me hanging around."
Sue said, "What I meant is, are all these other people going to let you be the dad. I think our friends all want to help too."
I swapped people for an hour until the nurse told me that it was time for mom and baby to have some peaceful time together. She said Sue needed her rest, and would be woken up regularly to feed the baby.
We all went home to congregate on the patio. Tiny and Charlie had bottles of champagne that they opened and poured into those plastic glasses that you usually only see at New Years. We toasted the baby, they toasted me, we toasted Sue, then finally I toasted all the friends who were there to share these special moments.
I called my sister and brother with the news. Mercy called her folks with the news. I called Dewey to see if I could catch him. When he answered I told him about the baby and he told me, "We're going to have one too. I'm going to want you to be my best man real soon. Can you come up or do you want me to come down. I told him I would let him know soon.
That night when the place settled down and the patio was turned off for the night, I lay between two ladies thinking of my Sue and the baby. I wondered how his mom was going to explain all of these aunts. I went to sleep with a head on each shoulder and the two ladies lying against me.