Emend by EclipseChapter 2
- 3 years ago
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July 21, 1976
Sean McCray sat at the table next to Tim. He was still feeling a little stung by the dressing down he had gotten from Benny and tended to keep his distance from him. Yet, he had to admit that the kids had delivered more than what they had contracted to pay him and his sister. After paying the commission to the real estate company, he was personally getting $6,911 out of the sale. This was more than he had expected after learning about the real condition of the house.
The closing was scheduled for 10:00 and it was still ten minutes before the hour. The buyers, a young couple, sat at the table anxiously waiting for the lawyers to arrive. This was their first house, and putting up the money for the down payment and fees had wiped out nearly every dime they had. They were a little confused by the mass of people on the other side of the table. There were two elderly couples and two couples who were definitely younger than they were. The younger people looked like teenagers.
When the lawyers finally arrived, the closing started. There was a bewildering stack of papers to sign for the young couple purchasing the house. They had to deal with a mortgage and all of the paperwork that encompassed. The closing took 45 minutes. The young couple left short of cash, but with a set of keys to a house in their hands.
Sean McCray and his sister were each given a check for $6,911. After seeing the condition of the house after they had finished remodeling it, he was convinced that the kids were responsible for more than half the price that they had received for it. He was convinced that he would have been lucky to sell the house for $5,000. The original $18,000 he had demanded was a pipe dream and was the reason the house sat there for so long without an offer.
After clearing his throat, Sean said, “I have to say this, you kids delivered more than you promised. I’m really impressed with what you did to our old home. I think my parents would have been shocked to see it fixed up like that.”
“Thank you,” Tim said.
“We had better get back to the house and let you kids get on with your business. I wish you a lot of luck, although I think you’re the kind of folks who make their own luck.”
“We try.”
Sean stood and shook everyone’s hand before he and his wife left. His sister stayed behind. She said, “I did have my doubts when I first met you. You quickly erased those doubts, and I’m happy that my faith in you was not misplaced.”
“Thanks.”
“Besides, I owe you for straightening out my brother. We actually sat down and talked about my days out in California.”
“I’m glad,” Cathy said. “You should tell your story to more people. You did something special out there and a lot of women need a role model.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Benny said, “You really should tell your story. Cathy is right. A lot of young women need to understand what you achieved.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll seriously consider it. Well, I’ll, let you get back to work. Thanks a lot.”
“You’re welcome.”
Once they were gone, Tim, Benny, Cathy and Sandra remained behind. They had another closing at 11:00. The representative from the bank was running late and it would probably be 11:15 before he would show.
Cynthia said, “Two closings in one day for me. That’s a personal record.”
“Particularly considering the kinds of properties that jerk you work for has given you,” Cathy said.
Cathy was still offended by the guy who had tried to steal this sale away from Cynthia. Although she understood why it was done, she was irritated that Cynthia had to split the commission with the real estate company. Her payday was $855.00 for the lead house. It would be a mere $420 for the shit house. For the day, she would bring in $1275 which was a good payday. She was lucky that the real estate company was listed as the seller agency for both properties. If not, her commission would have been half of that.
Cynthia was more than ready to strike out on her own. Her boss was a sexist jerk. When someone would make an initial appointment to met with an agent of the agency, he would check a little of background of the couple and route the sale to the agent he felt was in line for the sale. He did have his favorites. His opinion was that men always needed the sale since they had families to support. She was just a woman and her needs were frivolous. She could get by without buying another frilly dress. As a result, she always got the least likely prospects. Of course, that was why she had ended up with Two Guys Working as her customer. Her boss had misjudged them. Her commission on that sale had been $270. That was ball park for most of her commissions.
Cynthia was doing well to make as much as Cathy. She was given empty lots, lots with condemned buildings on them, and repossessed properties. She was only given those properties when a customer specified an interest in that kind of property up front. This was her first sale of a property that was over $20,000. The only reason she had been allowed to make the sale was that Two Guys Working told her boss that she was going to be their agent and they wouldn’t accept anyone else. She really owed Tim and Benny big time for that.
The representative from the bank finally showed up. The closing took half the time of the previous one. There was no mortgage. It was a simple exchange of money for property. The bank walked away happy at having sold a property that had been on the books for far too long. It had been particularly embarrassing to the bank to discover that the property had been used as a marijuana farm. The arrests of a low ranking detective and a patrolman from the local police force had created a lot of publicity.
Cathy distributed checks to herself and to Sandra for $348.75 which was the remainder of their share of the sale after investing the majority of it in the shit house. The two girls flew out of there to stop by the bank, deposit their checks, and head over to the car dealership. They were buying cars!
Tim, Benny, and Cynthia were left in the conference room of the real estate office talking about the details of the sale. Her boss stepped in the office acting like a proud peacock. He congratulated them on their sale and their purchase. He more or less ignored Cynthia.
“I’ve got to admit that the ‘little lady’ came through for us. It was nice seeing her handle such a big sale all by herself.”
Tim could see Cynthia getting angry. Then he glanced over at Benny. His friend was furious.
As a general rule, Benny didn’t notice the people around him. He had a hard time remembering names because the people attached to them made little to no impact on him. He honestly wouldn’t be able to tell you if the clerk at the convenience store today was the same person who was there yesterday. He just didn’t see them beyond a human-like figure. It took someone with a very strong personality or someone who had done something nice for him to be remembered.
This kind of obliviousness to the people around him was typically a bad thing as far as most people were concerned. People liked to be noticed. There was one thing very positive thing that could be said of him: he had absolutely no prejudice based on race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. He was blind to those kinds of things.
In a cold hard voice, Benny said, “You are a complete and total asshole.”
“What makes you think you can talk to me like that, you damned little punk?”
“Tim, explain it to him.”
“I am going to speak as a businessman for a moment. A sale is a sale. Small or large, the sale is a sale. With each sale Cynthia has made, she has brought money into your company. We’ve made the majority of our money with $3.00 and $4.00 sales. We’ve made a lot of those sales. As a result, we’ve made a lot of money. The fact that you don’t appreciate some of the sales your people make demonstrates your lack of business acumen.
“I’m going to speak as a customer for a moment. We bought an office, a half interest in a house, we sold a house, and we bought another house through your firm. Each time, Cynthia has handled the sale. As customers we are not happy to see the person we’ve worked with belittled. This is not the first time you’ve undermined her in our presence. Frankly, that leaves a foul taste in our mouths.
“I am going to speak as a human being for a moment. What you said about the ‘little lady’ was rude. She’s not a ‘little lady.’ She’s an employee. She works for you. You belittled her in a public setting. You cast doubt on her abilities. Those are the actions of despicable person.
“That’s what makes Benny think he can say that to you. He’s just being truthful. You are a complete and total asshole.”
The comment about how much business they had done with his firm penetrated his anger enough to stay his reply. Instead, he turned around and stormed out of the office. He slammed the door behind him.
“When do you get your license?”
“The application is in. I’m just waiting for the official reply.”
“How long do you think it will be?”
“A couple of days. It’s probably already in the mail.”
“Do you have any more closings scheduled?”
“None.”
“We have an office for you,” Tim said.
“I’ll take it. Let me get my stuff and last paycheck. I’ll leave with you.”
They were waiting in the conference room for a little less than a minute when they heard yelling from the office area. They left the conference room. Cynthia’s boss was screaming at her. He was even threatening to not pay her.
Once again, Tim wished he had a cell phone. A video recording of this would be extremely valuable. It would also be nice to call a lawyer and let him listen in on this. In the later days, his actions would make a wonderful sexual harassment and hostile workplace lawsuit. She’d own the place by the time she got through with him. Unfortunately, this was 1976. The Equal Rights Amendment was passed in 1972, but it was never ratified. That it wasn’t ratified reflected the sad state of affairs in the world of that day.
Benny shouted, “Enough. Shut up and pay her.”
When her boss turned to glare at Benny, one of the other women who worked in the office went over to Cynthia and handed her a check. They exchanged looks that spoke of shared misery working for the owner of the agency. Cynthia took her check and picked up a box. She quickly threw her stuff into the box. She marched out of the office with Tim and Benny following her.
Outside, Tim said, “It’s lunch time. Let’s stop and get something to eat. We’ll take you to your new office.”
“Thanks. Where would you like to eat?”
“Where’s a good place to eat around here?”
“There’s a barbecue place up the street that’s pretty good.”
“You wouldn’t prefer a seafood place or something?”
“You don’t like barbecue?”
“We like barbecue. I just figured you might prefer something else.”
“Actually, they’ve got a really good brisket sandwich.”
“Okay. That sounds good to me.”
“Fine with me. I love barbecued brisket.”
“How about I meet you there in abut fifteen minutes? I’d like to drop this check off at the bank.”
“Sure,” Tim said.
After she left, Benny asked, “Couldn’t she wait until after lunch to deposit her check?’
“She’s going off to have a cry.”
“Oh.”
“Let’s head over to the barbecue place. We can read the menu and see what we want.”
“Okay.”
Rather than going in right away upon arriving at the restaurant, they sat in the truck to wait for Cynthia. It was actually a good chance for them to discuss their next options.
Tim asked, “So what’s next?”
“We need to get Cynthia settled into her office. We need to call the dumpster service and get started on demolishing the interior of the shit house.”
“Don’t forget that we need to act excited when the girls come back with their cars.”
“You deal with the people. Maybe I should just go somewhere.”
“Benny, you’ve been doing fine lately. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m going to visit Carol before we go to clean the offices.”
“Okay.”
When Cynthia arrived, they got out and met her at the entrance to the restaurant. Her eyes were red and puffy, but neither man commented on it. Tim understood and Benny didn’t even notice. She seemed to have it together.
After lunch, they went to the office. The room which had been Cathy and Sandra’s bedroom had been turned into an office complete with desk.
Tim said, “For now, you can use Sandra to answer the phones. Cathy can do your books if you’d like her help. What you pay them is between you and them.”
“That would be fine.”
“Great.”
Cynthia looked around the office realizing that it was now her place of business. She was the boss and her earnings were up to her. She ran a hand over the desk and said, “I didn’t expect to find that you had furnished it.”
“It was easy enough. Cathy found the desk at a garage sale.”
“Thanks. You’ve done a lot for me.”
Benny said, “I’ve been doing some thinking about your situation.”
“You have?”
October 27, 1973 It was nearing noon on a Saturday morning and Benny was walking eastbound towards the intersection at which he would turn right to head southwards towards home. He was returning from school after having just finished taking the PSAT. Although he knew that what was going to happen in a few minutes would be important, he was more worried about his score on the test. It hadn’t been that difficult, but it had been a real struggle concentrating enough to get each section finished...
November 11, 1973 After backing the van out of the garage, Benny turned the key off and listened to the engine die. He was afraid that it might diesel or backfire. Outside of a bad muffler and exhaust pipe, the van was running like a Swiss watch. Even his father had been impressed on hearing the van running. “All we need is a muffler.” “Skip agreed to fix it. All we have to do is get it there,” Tim said continuing a conversation that had begun well before Benny had started the van. Tim had...
January 14, 1974 Mrs. Parnell watched the two boys who were hard at work. She was having second thoughts, wondering if she had made a good decision to hire them to clean the office building she owned. They were so young, but they had come across very professionally in selling the idea of contracting their cleaning service. Their professionalism aside, she had been more tempted by the chance to get the cleaning of the common area off her shoulders. The price they had quoted her was...
May 24, 1974 Tim and Benny had been cleaning the two office buildings for five months less eleven days. They had been paid $2,400 so far with another $600 coming in a few days. They had over $800 of that money sitting in the war fund. They had spent some money on paying for insurance, gasoline, cleaning supplies, and a second vacuum cleaner. They had used $600 of that money to buy a 1962 F-150 pickup truck and to completely rebuild it. For most days, the truck remained parked in front of...
August 8, 1974 It was a Thursday and the weather was reasonable. It had started out at 70 degrees at 8:00 when they started mowing lawns and hit 81 when they finished shortly before noon. The weatherman said it would reach 90 in the afternoon, but they’d be done with all of their outdoor activities by then. The worst they would suffer was to drive around in the van which lacked an air conditioner. They had just finished showering and changing out of their yard work clothes. They ate a quick...
September 3, 1974 With the start of a new school year, Tim and Benny were now driving different vehicles to school. Tim was driving the truck and Benny was driving the van. Sometimes they traded off vehicles for situations when one had a need that was better supported by the other vehicle. With school starting, they couldn’t mow lawns first thing in the morning. Getting out at 3:30, they could only get three lawns mowed before 5:00 when they needed to start cleaning the first office. With...
November 24, 1974 It was Sunday afternoon. The day outside was in the high 40s, the sky was clear and the wind was blowing at a nearly constant 20 mph. Taking into account the wind chill, it felt like the mid-30s, it was a good day to stay inside. Tim and Benny were taking it easy at Benny’s house. Now that the weather had turned decidedly colder, they were done with mowing lawns and painting curbs. Their work week now consisted of cleaning office buildings. The good news for them was that...
December 13, 1974 Sandra Miller and Cathy Peterson glared at Tim when he sat down at the lunch table across from them. He had just walked over and sat down without any kind of invitation. Cathy said, “Go away.” “No. I have a proposition for the two of you.” “We’re not interested.” “Yes, you are.” “Are you stupid or something?” “No. In a couple of weeks we will be entering the Christmas holidays. That’s normally a reason to celebrate, particularly since we’ll be out of school for almost...
May 10, 1975 The day was perfect for painting curbs. The temperature the previous night had never gotten below 54 degrees. It was overcast, but there was no rain predicted for the day. The temperature climbed into the seventies around three in the afternoon. It was the first Saturday of the year where they could paint curbs. Sure, there were a lot of days in the middle of the week where they could have painted, but they only worked the curb painting business on Saturdays when homeowners were...
May 24, 1975 Trust is an interesting thing. If you have it, it’s easy to lose. If you don’t have it, it’s nearly impossible to gain. Some people just can’t trust others no matter what. Others shouldn’t be trusted no matter how nicely they smile. When Suzie was five, she broke the cookie jar. Still holding the cookie in her hand, she solemnly swore that she was nowhere near the cookie jar when it mysteriously fell off the counter. Sam tossed a ball through the window when he was seven. He...
May 27, 1975 There was a bit of a chill in the air that morning. The four young people were all wearing jackets to keep warm. The mayor was going along organizing the participants in the parade. They had the fire department with their fire truck, the EMT squad with their new ambulance, and the police department riding front and back. Sandwiched in there were the scouts, cub and boy scouts and brownie and girl scouts. The high school band was there despite the fact that school had ended the...
June 18, 1975 Gladys Parker was born in 1903. At 72, her eyesight was failing, her hands trembled, and she wasn’t as spry as she had once been. She lived alone, but it was getting harder to maintain her independence. Her children had taken away her driver’s license because her eyesight wasn’t good enough. Even she had to admit that she didn’t feel comfortable behind the wheel of a car and had known it was time to stop driving. Her children were pressuring her to sell the house and move into...
August 18, 1975 June, July, and the first half of August had passed with glacial slowness. The weekdays were filled with work, starting early in the morning and lasting until late at night. Yet the money kept growing, slowly but surely. They now had five crews with each crew mowing lawns at four lawns a day and five days a week. Their profit on a lawn was three dollars so they were bringing in $300 a week net. The season would last about 20 weeks and bring in $6,000 in profit. Most of their...
August 22, 1975 During the summer, Fridays were usually the worst day of the week for Tim and Benny, particularly on Fridays before a Saturday which the weatherman had said would be nice. Fridays were already a little stressful because it came at the end of the week after everyone had been working. Then the morning was spent mowing lawns in the heat. After they finished the lawn, it was payday for the mowing crews and paying people actually took a lot of time. The afternoons were spent going...
August 25, 1975 Benny sat up in his bed and then turned so that his legs hung off the side. It was Monday and it was going to be a very busy day. It was the kind of day that was the most difficult for him. He was going to have to be around a lot of people, and they were going to ask questions. He could handle any question they could put to him, but they weren’t going to give him time to think about the most accurate answer. He was always ill at ease in those situations. He pulled off his...
September 5, 1975 It was 9:30 at night and they had just finished cleaning the office buildings. They’d had to let their regular crews leave at their normal time, which had dumped all of the work on the backs of Benny, Tim, Cathy, Sandra, and Terry. They were tired and hungry. They were at a chain restaurant waiting for an overworked waitress to show up and take their orders. Benny and Tim had to admit defeat. There were too many lawns to mow and not enough time or people to mow them. They...
September 14, 1975 “Where’s Benny?” “He’s around,” Tim answered. Cathy was genuinely concerned about Benny. She wondered if his absence had anything to do with the sudden sale of the lawn mowing company. She was convinced that Tim and Benny had a fight, and that Benny had left. “You keep saying that.” “He wanted alone time. I’m giving it to him,” Tim said. “I need to know what happened to him.” Tim replied, “You and Sandra wanted alone time, I gave it to you. Benny wanted alone time, I...
November 16, 1975 Sean McCray stood in the middle of the living room surveying the chaos of the place. He was 62 years old and hoping to retire. His parents had passed away four years ago with nothing in their estate except for this old house. He and his sister had inherited the place, but that wasn’t saying much. His father had never updated anything in the house since he bought it. The house was a white elephant. No one wanted to buy it as it currently stood, and it would cost more money...
November 28, 1975 “I’m going to have to fail your wiring.” “You are?” Tim did not sound at all upset. “Yes.” “Why?” “I’ve never seen such a bad job. It looks like a bumbling amateur did the work.” Because the laws had changed in 1974, the older simple two prong receptacle was no longer allowed to be installed in houses. New outlets were required to use the three prong grounded receptacle. While they had not been required to upgrade the outlets, the old wire motivated them to upgrade...
February 9, 1976 “I had a deal with Principal Haley.” Principal Atkinson said, “Mr. Haley isn’t here anymore. I’m his replacement, and I’m in charge now. You don’t have a deal with me.” “I had a deal with the institution of the school. Principal Haley was its representative. You can’t change a deal between the institution and me.” “Now I represent the institution, and the deal is null and void.” “Why can’t we keep things as they were?” “Benny, I find your absences from classes to be...
February 14, 1976 Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year in which couples in love are expected to demonstrate their attraction in some romantic manner. For many, the demonstration should be in a public forum where others can see the expression of romantic love, at least as much demonstration of it which can be performed in public. Flowers, chocolates, and dinner out are classics only because so many lovers choose to do it that way. Or course, that inflates the price of it all. Earnest...
June 1, 1976 The school year was over, the temperature was comfortable, the wind wasn’t blowing hard, and it was dry. This was the first day that they could begin scraping the exterior of the lead house. Until then, the weekends had been too cold to work outside, or too windy for scraping, or both. Since they could only work on the weekends during the school year, they knew it would have taken more than a month to remove the lead paint. Now that school was over and the weather was nice, they...
June 23, 1976 Some car models have an appeal that is universal. From the first day they were rolled off the assembly line, to the day the last one remains in existence, there are some cars that are special. One of those cars was the Chevrolet Standard Phaeton. As soon as Tim saw it, he fell in love with it. It was in sad shape, but Tim had to have it. “I have no idea how we’re going to get it out of here,” Benny said in disgust. There was a tree growing through the engine compartment. It...
August 17, 1976 It was nearing noon and the temperature had just hit 91. Benny had been walking around the property since 10:00 and he was nearly dead from the heat. He headed back towards the house, wanting to cool off in the air conditioning. He spotted another plant and stopped to hit it with a couple blasts of weed killer, known as Agent White, which the State Police had provided him. He continued on his way to the house. Reaching the back door, he put down the canister next to the door...
September 16, 1976 Cathy stared at the check for $6,893.33, unable to believe that she was actually holding that much money. The house had sold for $44,000 and that was her share of the sale. Sandra had a check for the same amount. Neither one could believe it. They each had another check for $163.23 which was what was left in the account which had held the money to fix up the house. Benny said, “You’re going to get hit with capital gains, but it shouldn’t be that bad. You’ll need to...
November 14, 1976 Cathy placed the plate with the pot roast on the table with pride. It was a crock pot recipe with celery, potatoes, carrots, and onions cooked with it. Mrs. Parker had given her the recipe and watched her prepare it. The dish looked great and she hoped that it would taste great as well. She took a seat at the table next to Benny and across from Sandra. Mrs. Parker was seated at the head of the table with Benny and Tim to her sides. It was a simple gathering of friends for...
November 17, 1976 Tim and Benny assisted Sandra and Cathy in removing their heavy winter coats. The two young ladies sought out Gladys’ family having been invited to sit with the family. The young men carried the coats to the coat rack that was off to the side of the entryway into the funeral parlor. They hung the ladies’ coats and then removed their own. It was a little awkward since they were wearing their winter coats over their suit coats. The temperature outside was a chilly 36 degrees...
December 31, 1976 The temperature outside was bitterly cold. At 4:00 in the afternoon, it had hit a high of 23 degrees. With the gas heater, the temperature in the outbuilding where they were sitting was in the low 50s. They were looking at the 1935 Chevrolet Standard Phaeton admiring the paint job they had just spent $900 on. That was a huge amount of money to spend on a paint job at the time, but it was worth every penny. Benny said, “Mohair seat covers.” “I thought they made sweaters...
July 20, 1977 Benny graduated and, as a result of his parent’s demand, he walked the stage and received a roll of paper that was supposed to represent the diploma. Tim told him that he had walked the first time through, but he didn’t remember it. It was highly unlikely he would remember this time, either. He had spent the walk mostly staring off into space thinking about things. After the ceremony, he went to the office and picked up the actual diploma. With the high school diploma, and his...
July 22 1977 After one day of taking Darvon, Tim swore he’d never take another one. It wasn’t because it made him nauseous or ill. It was just that the light headed detached feeling it produced reminded him of each time they increased his pain killers while he was dying of cancer. For a day or two, he’d feel the drugs, but then the pain would return, and remind him again that he was dying. That was a memory that he’d rather not recall. At the moment, he was carefully painting the trim...
August 17, 1977 It was at 11:14 on this surprisingly cool Tuesday morning when Benny finally received the certificate of occupancy for the house, and he was legally free to move into it. He looked at the slip of paper and put it on the kitchen counter. With a wad of bills in his pocket that was large enough to choke a horse, he and Cathy got into the van and headed to the largest department store in the area: Wal-Mart. Sandra and Tim followed in the truck with Sandra driving. They parked the...
October 19, 1977 The university’s semester was half over and Benny had mid-terms this week. He wasn’t exactly stressed out by them. His math class was a snap. He did have some concerns about the English class, which was taught by a woman who was in love with poetry; and the history class, which was taught by a ‘memorize the event and date’ type of professor. His chemistry class was something new for him, and was requiring him to work at learning new material. He was also taking a government...
November 24, 1977 An odd kind of emotion appears in parents of young men and women who are about to venture out on their own. It is most pronounced during holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. There’s this sense that the family is starting to fragment with a child leaving the nest. As a result, there is a tendency to demand all of the children appear at home during the holidays. Sandra’s parents were coming to the realization that their daughter was already testing her wings in...
February 8, 1978 Snow is a rarity in Oklahoma City. It doesn’t take much snow on the ground to bring ‘the world’ to a halt. It’s a result of not having salt trucks, or snow removal equipment. Unfortunately, it’s seldom just snow, alone. It’s often preceded by drizzle, rain, or sleet. If the ground is cold enough for the snow to stick, it’s cold enough for water to freeze. The result is ice covered by snow. The primary hazard of that kind of weather isn’t trip and fall accidents - although...
April 22, 1978 The prom is a special occasion, particularly for seniors. It’s the last hurrah of high school. This makes it the social event to cap off the entire education experience which — as everyone knows, or should know — is more social than intellectual. It is a big deal and no one wants to show up without a date. Those without a date are more likely going to stay home rather than suffer the social embarrassment of showing up alone. Young men worry and fret if the young woman they ask...
April 25, 1978 Reading the newspaper, Robert Kane sat behind the desk at the pawn shop in his high tech wheel chair. This one, the latest of many, had a motor that pushed it along and a little knob that he could use to steer it. He had lots of things that allowed him to overcome any difficulties posed by his lost legs. It wasn’t that he was lazy, but it did allow him to move around while holding things in his hands. He heard the jangle of the cowbells above the door and lowered the paper to...
June 2, 1978 The weather was nice, but a little cold. It had in been in high 40s and low 50s all night. The wind was blowing, but not too hard. Sunset was around 7:00. Tim and Benny could grab eight hours of work on Tim’s house easily, even making allowance for the fact that they had to clean the office buildings. They could do the same Thursday. Friday afternoon would be spent putting out envelopes for curb painting and Saturday would be spent painting curbs. They would get a full day of...
August 6, 1978 Tim and Benny were sitting in their office chatting. It was one of those few occasions when it was just the two of them. They had felt a need to sit back and assess what was happening. There was a tendency for everyone to gather at Benny’s house to discuss business, but Benny objected to that. It was his home, his refuge, and he didn’t really want business intruding into it. Tim understood. Tim said, “It appears that I’m now a general contractor.” “Don’t you need a license?”...
August 19. 1978 Sandra finally chose to buy a very plain set of furniture for the living room. She managed to find a middle ground between ‘middle aged stodgy,’ furniture and the trendy fashion furniture which was favored by people her age. She avoided the ugly browns, oranges, and greens that seemed to dominate the furniture world, and ended up with a cream colored living room set with matching end tables and a coffee table. She had picked up a cheap dining table from Target. Her father,...
September 2, 1978 Tim woke up and scrubbed the sleep from his eyes. The birds were making such a racket, that sleep was impossible. He glanced over to the other side of the tent, and noticed the empty sleeping bag. Benny was up already. Tim poked his head out of the tent. Outside the tent was a remarkable tableau. Benny was sitting on the bench of the picnic table, appreciating the view of the lake. Three does were standing within twenty feet of him. One was eating some grass at the edge of...
November 11, 1978 This year things were very different for Benny. In the past, he would have worked at the office building every evening from 5:00 until 7:30. It was as regular as clockwork, and brought the four of them together every workday. The four would often eat dinner together after work, but without exception Benny ate dinner with Tim. Since they had sold the business, Benny didn’t have that hanging over his head. Sandra and Cathy were still working there, but were now answering to...
December 2, 1978 For early December, the weather wasn’t that cold. At 10:00 am, it was in the sixties although the wind was blowing at 20 mph with gusts up to 26 mph. The wind made it a lousy day to move. It seemed like anything bulky tried to take off on its own during the short trip from the van to the house. This was a major moving day for three of the four members of the group. Having made the decision to rent out her house, Cathy was moving into Sandra’s place. Tim, having finished his...
January 9, 1979 It was a Tuesday and college was out for Christmas break for another week. This meant that Sandra, Cathy, and Benny were available all day. Tim and Benny had decided that it would be a good time for a business meeting. Everyone was getting antsy about the price of silver. It was oscillating around $6.00 and everyone, with the exception of Benny and Tim, was hoping that marked the beginning of the take off in silver. It was a dollar increase over the past year. Tim and Benny...
January 16, 1979 It was cold that day, but not horribly so for January. It was a Tuesday and Tim was inside the house with his crew working on drywall. It seemed to Tim that his life was settling into a rut. First he’d tear out the walls, fix the wiring, put up new walls, tape them, paint them, and then put on the fixtures. Once all of that was done, the carpet layer would come in and install the flooring. Then it would be on to the next interior. It wasn’t that simple. There was also the...
April 13, 1979 Ted Brooks peered over his half rim glasses to examine Tim and Benny. They had opened their books for him so that he could prepare their tax forms. Their records were first rate and he enjoyed working with them, although the quality of their books was due more to Cathy’s efforts than either of the two young men. It was hard to believe that two guys so young were worth so much. He had watched them slowly grow the net worth of their businesses. He looked over the page that...
June 10, 1979 Happy to be ready to leave, Benny slammed the trunk of his car shut. He had finished packing for his trip to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area where he was going to camp for the next seven days. He had been planning to start this trip back on June 1, but the weather forecast had predicted rain for the next day. He figured he’d put it off for a day or two until the weather cleared. It was a fortunate decision since the weather had been terrible since then and he would have...
June 16, 1979 Tim drove into the park and had to drive around the campground to find the spot where Benny was holed up. He drove around for thirty minutes before he noticed the tent tucked up out of the way. He parked his jeep and walked over to the tent. Benny was lying there, staring up at the sky. A golden eagle was circling above. Benny was watching the magnificent bird. Tim sat down, lay back, and looked up at the sky. The golden eagle was gone. A turkey neck buzzard had taken up in...
August 10, 1979 At 11:00 in the morning, the temperature was already 82 degrees but it felt like 92 and the forecast suggested that temperatures would be reaching the high 90s by the late afternoon. Tim was seated on the step before the front door, waiting for their university guest, Dr. Frank Hennequin, to arrive. The visiting professor was an historian specializing in studies of the French support of the American Revolutionary War. Tim wasn’t sure what to expect, but the professor was...
September 3, 1979 It was Labor Day weekend and, with the exception of Benny, the usual suspects were planning to participate in the annual Labor Day parade. Tim had missed last year since he had met up with Benny who was camping. This year Benny had taken off for lands to the south, for a change. He was heading towards Texas rather than the eastern end of Oklahoma. He didn’t have much experience traveling south like that, except to visit Tim once, in his first life, when Tim lived south of...
November 22, 1979 Benny walked into his parent’s house without knocking. After all, this was his family home and he had been invited for dinner. It was his first visit in nine months. He had begged off on other invitations using the excuse of school or working on houses. There just weren’t too many excuses one could use to escape Thanksgiving. He did manage to surprise the whole family by being early. Not everyone was happy to see him. Upon entering the house, Lana screamed at him, “You...
January 16, 1980 On Thanksgiving day the price of silver had been a respectable $16.19 and everyone in the business of investing was talking about the scarcity of silver. Your average person on the street was becoming aware that something quite unusual was happening in the silver market. The CBS, NBC, and ABC were now talking about the price of silver during the evening news. On Christmas, the price of silver was $24.60. If Thanksgiving dinners had quiet conversations about the price of...
February 22, 1980 The dust was starting to settle as far as silver was concerned. Silver had hit its peak at $49.45 an ounce on January 18, then started dropping precipitously. After thirty days, the price had dropped to $30 an ounce and was still falling although it wasn’t plummeting. People who had waited to sell their silver were upset they hadn’t sold it earlier. People who had bought silver at the high were cursing the drop. Today, Tim, Benny, Sandra, and Cathy were meeting to assess...
April 1, 1980 Tim and Lily drove up the road. Tim knew that he had gone too far when he saw the steel bridge. There was almost no traffic on the road, so he did a U-turn right there on the highway. Coming back they found the dirt driveway to Benny’s property. Tim slowed down and turned onto it. There was a cattle guard across the drive so he didn’t have to deal with a gate. The cattle guard was new. The posts of the barbed wire fence were wood tree limbs cut to size. The barbed wire was...
June 22, 1980 The male half of the wedding party was gathered in the back of the church. Tim was the groom. Benny was the best man. Robert was the groomsman. It wasn’t a very talkative group. Tim was thirsty, but afraid of drinking much of anything lest he needed to go the toilet in the middle of the ceremony. Benny was lost in his thoughts about his new house. It was finished, but the second one for the help wasn’t. Robert was just watching the two of them amused by it all. It was amazing...
September 11, 2001 The landscape around the house had changed significantly over the past 21 years. It was a lawn worthy of a golf course, front and rear. The lawn ended at a gravel path that led down to the river. To one side of the house was an orchard with apples, field pears, peaches, and pecans. There was also a little garden that was still producing vegetables, including tomatoes, bell peppers, beans, squash, and corn (despite the best efforts of the raccoons). Over 21 years, Benny...
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IncestSeptember 20th was going to be a very special day for Mary and her husband Mark. It was their first wedding anniversary. It was fortunate that the day would come on a Sunday, as that would give Mary time to visit all the local malls so that she could decide on a gift that would both please and surprise him. This would be a hard job for her. Even though they had been married for nearly a year, she did not really know that much about what kind of gift he might like. It didn’t really matter...