Emend by EclipseChapter 2
- 3 years ago
- 20
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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 vehicles side by side, as near to the entrance of the store as they could get.
They went into the store and grabbed four shopping carts, one for each of them. The ‘Great Shopping Expedition’ was about to begin. Benny stood there for a minute looking down at his shopping list. The items listed on it weren’t in any particular order, but the store was laid out according to categories of items. For example, the store had the coffee makers, toasters, and waffle irons all on the same section of shelving, while they appeared on his list on pages one, three, and four. He wished he had a tablet with a spreadsheet on it it. That would make it so much easier to keep track of what they found.
The first department they hit was ‘Bath,’ and the first shelf contained towels. Cathy grabbed four sets of dark blue towels: bath towels, hand towels, and wash clothes. Benny went through the list finding the three different items, and checked them off. Then it was shower curtains, of which they bought one. Cathy made sure that it was nearly the same color as the towels. Benny didn’t care about that, but she did, and she was the one grabbing them off the shelf. She also grabbed a package of the shower curtain rings. Benny went through the list and didn’t find shower rings on it, but he did check off the shower curtain. Then it was bath rugs, accessories, and a bathroom scale. The last hadn’t been on his list, but she added it on general principle.
The next section was ‘Bedroom.’ Cathy loaded up the cart with sheets, pillow cases, blankets, mattress protector, and a comforter. He was taking his bed from home with him, so he knew what sizes to get. He was bringing his pillows too, so didn’t need to buy any. All of these items were bulky and Cathy’s cart was filling up quickly. Benny duly checked those items off his list.
Then it was on to window treatments, where she picked up curtains for each room, curtain rods, hardware, and shades for the bedroom windows. All of the curtains were plain functional white linen. He checked the items off his list. The hardware was simple, yet functional, so that it could be installed quickly. Again, this was an area in which Benny didn’t have a preference, so Cathy went with items that could match anything he put in the room.
Then they hit the kitchenware items. Now Sandra stepped up and started loading her cart. At this point, Benny took more of an interest in what was being purchased, and handed the list over to Cathy for her to check off items. Kitchen appliances filled an entire cart. The items themselves weren’t that big, but the packaging increased the volume significantly. A ‘Mister Coffee’ coffeemaker, a toaster, a waffle maker, a crock pot, a blender, an electric skillet, and a mixer filled a cart. Tim took over pushing her cart while she went on to load another cart with pots, pans, bake ware, cookie trays, baking dishes, kitchen utensils, measuring cups, a pizza pan, and a timer. The kitchen utensils seemed never ending. Then she reached the knife sets and picked out one with knives and a wood block for holding them. Cutting boards were not on the list but one went into the shopping cart anyway. She picked out a set of silverware for eight. Then place settings for eight which was followed by glasses for eight in large, medium, and small. She picked out storage containers of various sizes.
Then it was on to the home care section. His cart soon filling up with mops, brooms, sponges, and cleaning solutions of various kinds. Waste baskets and plastic bags for them were soon added to the cart. He picked out a small vacuum cleaner. Then he went over to the section with lamps and bought enough for the rooms that required lighting. Light bulbs were an afterthought.
He went over his list and found that he had not picked up a dish drying rack, coasters, coffee cups, or a tea pot. They went back to where those products could be found and added them to the cart. By now, people were taking notice of them. A store employee followed them discreetly.
They went to get into line when the manager came over and opened a new line specifically for them knowing that once they started it would be some time before they would reach the bottom of the last cart. It was obvious from the start that the person the manager put at the cash register was a relatively new employee.
Things went well for about thirty items and then it was full stop. They needed a price check on an item. The person ringing them up stopped and waited until the person who went to check out the price returned. A few more items were rung up and then there was another item requiring a price check. He stopped to wait for the runner to return.
Tim asked, “Can’t you ring up other items while they’re checking the price on that one?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“This is how I was told to do it.”
“Well, why don’t you set it aside, and when the person returns with a price, you ring it up then.”
“No.”
Benny said, “He’s got the brains of an amoeba.”
Cathy said, “I don’t get it. An amoeba is a single celled organism. It doesn’t have brains.”
“Exactly so.”
It wasn’t until the guy had nearly finished ringing up the second cart when the manager happened to notice what was happening. It was pretty obvious that he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He went over to fix the problem.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m waiting for a price check.”
“Why aren’t you ringing up the other items?”
“You told me to wait until I have a price to ring up the item. I’m waiting until I have a price check.”
The manager had to keep himself from saying something very unflattering to the guy. He rubbed his forehead wondering if the guy was possibly that dense. Obviously, he was that dense. He looked over at the four people waiting and could see they were losing patience.
“That doesn’t mean that you can’t ring up other things until you get the price.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
He watched the guy ring up a few more items. On seeing him ring up one of the items, the manager’s head dropped and he uttered an oath.
“Did you see the sale tag on that?”
“What sale tag?”
“The one right above your thumb.”
“What about it?”
“What’s the price on it?”
“Ninety nine cents.”
“How much did you charge them for it?”
“The big price on the package.”
“How much was it?”
“A dollar thirty nine.”
“Why didn’t you charge him the sale price?”
“I just put in the price on the package. I don’t look at all of the little stickers.”
Tim and Benny looked at each other. One of the things they had grown used to in the future was the scanners at stores. People didn’t enter the prices, they scanned the bar code on the item and the price was looked up in a database.
Tim said, “Someday.”
“I hope it is someday soon.”
The manager pulled the kid away from the register. He voided the sale and started over. He was a whole lot faster and more accurate. He hit one of the items that had required a price check and sent the guy to look it up. He was through with the rest of the cart before the guy came back with a price.
Even with the manager ringing up the sale, it took time to get through the four carts of items. There were a half dozen price checks. It seemed like each price check took longer than the one before. Finally, he rang up the last item. Pressed the button to calculate the taxes and rang up the total.
Tim, Benny, Cathy, and Sandra stared at the amount on the register. They were experiencing ‘sticker shock.’ Tim and Benny had begun to think of prices as being cheaper in 1977 than in 2017. They were selling houses for around $40,000 which would one day bring in $140,000 or possibly $200,000. The broken arm had cost $235 dollars to treat. In the future it could be more than $4,000.
The problem with that kind of experience was that it didn’t transfer over to everything. The drip coffee maker cost $19.95 in the future while still costing $19.95 in 1977. A lot of manufactured items were the same price or higher priced than their equivalent products in the future. Yet, the $19.95 of 1977 which required 9 hours of minimum wage work to earn, was much more precious than the $19.95 of 2017 which required 2.5 hours of work to earn.
The number which was showing on the cash register was an astonishing $1,134. Cathy and Sandra had never seen a single sale in a regular store receipt that had cost so much. Tim and Benny had been expecting the total to be about a third of that. Fortunately, Benny had a wad of cash in his pocket since he was expecting to go furniture shopping next.
Without looking too flustered, Benny paid for his purchases. Everyone watched him peel off twelve one hundred dollar bills from his roll. It was pretty obvious that he had more money than that left. The manager made change and closed the register.
They pushed the carts outside, where they loaded them into the van. The smaller items had been packed in paper bags. The larger box items were left loose. The back of the van was pretty full, so they put some of the larger boxed items in the bed of the pickup truck.
They returned to the house rather than go on to the furniture store as had been planned. The truck and van were unloaded. The linens and other cloth items were put away where they were to be stored. The boxed items were unpacked and those that had to be washed before use were set aside. In the process, they discovered some items that Benny hadn’t put in any of the carts, but were necessary; such as a flatware tray, dish rags, and kitchen towels.
While Cathy and Sandra took care of washing the dishes, cookware, and flatware, Benny and Tim went off to talk. Of course, the subject of the talk was going to be about the budget.
“You spent about $800 more than you budgeted.”
“I was shocked by how much it came to. I looked at the prices, but I never thought to add them up.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get furniture.”
“Can you afford it now?”
“I’ll get a couch, two chairs, and a coffee table for the living room. I’ll get a less expensive dinner table and chairs. I’ll talk to my parents about taking all of my bedroom furniture rather than just the bed. I’ll get a twin sized box spring and mattress set for the one guest room. I’ll use a simple metal frame for the bed. I’ll leave the other room empty for now.”
“The living room will be dark if you don’t use some lamps in it. You’ll need end tables for the lamps you bought.”
“You’re right.”
“You need a desk.”
“I’m not getting one of those ‘assemble your own’ desks. I want a quality desk.”
“Let’s see if there’s an alternative,” Tim said.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. You think about a place to get good quality furniture cheap,” Tim said.
Benny stared off to the horizon for a moment. “There are garage sales, but people are getting rid of what they don’t want to keep. We might find something good, but the odds are against it. What we want is something someone wants to keep, but can’t.”
“And?” Tim asked knowing Benny hadn’t completed his plan yet.
“How about an estate auction?”
“Antiques are expensive.”
“Antiques are expensive when a dealer sells them. They are cheaper when the dealer buys them. All we have to do is go where the dealers are buying and outbid them.”
“That’s not a bad idea. For now, you can use two sawhorses and a sheet of plywood until we locate a good desk. We’ve got the sawhorses and a sheet of plywood. Cover the plywood with a desk protector and you’re good to go.”
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...
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...
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...
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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Incest"And then the dumb son of a bitch thought he would try to outrun the bull."Everyone except my cousin, Sean, the butt of the joke, laughed at his expense."Yeah, well, I didn't know," Sean said bitterly though a smile teased his lips.Sean, his brother, Shane, my two brothers, Ethan and Eric, and I were sitting around in our aunt and uncle's barn. The whole family and some close friends had gathered for the end of summer holiday and to surprise our grandparents who had recently celebrated their...
My thanks to a First Aid Course and the Twins (full story)For those who don’t like long stories, I’m sorry but I hope you all enjoy.Chapter 1 We’ve just finished an excellent meal at our favourite restaurant. My wife is sliding out of her chair as I pay the bill. Sam has a great body, even at 45. Tonight her dress is a striking little red number. The length is respectable but the cleavage displayed is outrageous. Her exposed bosom guaranteed us excellent service. I complement her once more for...