Chapter 7: ... There’s Gonna Be a Morning After

Kieth Boyd
Fred Boyd his brother.
Alice Boyd his sister in law.
Nephew John 15
Niece Gabby 13
Jo Anne Wall old girl friend
Windy Wall her ex husband.
Lewis and Ellie Keith’s in laws.
Sarah Marsh retro hippie
General Briggs rd
Doris owner of the consignment shop.
Jo Anne Joyner Wall Keiths first girlfriend. Three girls 16 13 10

oldest daughter ginger
Mr Jessup buyer of Keith’s scooter.
Rebecca Avondale deacon and keith’s client.
Marsha stylist to Rebecca
Gulfcrest hotel/casino
Elanor, Mark and Simon family being stalked
Sylvia Amos sheriff’s detective.

There had never been an overnight guest in the Gatehouse before. Elanor was a good sport about all the inconveniences, so she was a welcome guest. For those of you who have any interest in the mechanics of sex after so long, and with huge balance issues it is a steep learning curve. It was helped tremendously by Elanor’s sense of humor. I also got the feeling that she truly love of sex.

I am happy to so most things still worked pretty much the same as before the ‘Accident’. Some were a bit more clumsy, but overall it was most enjoyable. Even better was not having to worry about accidental parenthood. Elanor informed me, when I asked, that she had undergone a tuba-ligation after her youngest child was born. So the rest of the evening was just fun and games.

When we finally decided to wake up, Elanor insisted that she should take Hondo’s food to him. Some of it was because it was two hours late coming. It would be even more, if we waited until I got dressed. Mostly though it was to convince him that she was a friend who could be trusted. He was still careful around us both. He tolerated us because we took care of him. however he didn’t really have a strong bond with us.

I seriously felt as though one day, after he healed and gained a few pounds, he would just be gone. I would miss him, but if that was what he needed to do, so be it. Hondo would never wear a collar or leash as long as he stayed with me.

“So why did you name him Hondo?” Elanor asked.

“My dad was a huge John Wayne fan. He took me to see the movie Hondo based on a Louie L’amour short story. In the move John comes to a homesteader’s house. The woman of the house offers to feed his dog. John say no thanks. She says, ‘I understand if you don’t want me to feed him, you can give it to him. John says the dog gets his own supper just open the door for him.

Since the dog just wandered in pretty much the worse for wear. He just reminded me of that dog for some reason. John’s dog didn’t have a name, but I decided to call him Hondo. It might not make much sense to you, but the dog reminds me of my dad. He was hard as a horse nail, and self sufficient like the dog in the movie,” I explained.

Her eyes were all misty when she said, “That is beautiful. But he still needs a bath.”

“No way,” I said. “Water is too hard to come by.”

Elanor called her mother to ask if she could wait until after lunch to pick up the kids. She got the all clear, so she demanded that we go out for lunch. We went to one of the access ramps onto the super duper highway. On the access road there was a Burger Burger.

“My kids love these,” she said. “They are mostly the bun, and a special sauce. but they really are different.”

“Well this place is well within my bikes range so let’s give it a try,” I said.

We ordered and she insisted that I get one extra for Hondo. They really were good. After lunch she drove me home she also insisted she be the one to give Hondo his burger.

“Now when are we going to do this again?” she asked.

“Let’s see how we both feel about it in a couple of days. I don’t want to rush you into a decision,” I explained.

“Is that meant to be a soft landing speech?” she asked.

“Not at all, it’s meant to give us both time to analyze our situation. I will tell you now, I’m not family man material. So you need to factor that into your decision.” I said.

She didn’t even answer. She just got in her car and drove away. I can’t say that I was surprised. In retrospect I realize how it sounded. Being honest might be the best policy, but isn’t always the kindest, gentlest thing to do.

Hondo and I spent the remainder of Saturday alone working on the new pusher trailer. I needed a new bike to use in testing. I left Hondo laying on the porch as I drove down the farm road. Once I got off the dirt road things got a little better, but the county road was far from perfect. Every bump was bone shaking. The reason is simple, ordinary bicycles have no suspension. Most mountain bikes are only marginally better. There are a couple of designs that look better, but really aren’t worth the extra money. Especially not for me. I can’t raise my leg up high enough to mount them even thought I replace the factory wheels with much smaller ones.

At the thrift shop Doris helped me by ringing up a twenty four inch bike, a twenty inch bike, and a sixteen inch bike. Then I used my cloth tool bag filled with wrenches and pliers to remove the wheels from them all. Then I carefully packed all six wheels onto the larger trailer. I also packed the twenty inch front wish bone fork along with the bearings. On the very top I tied the full frame from the twenty four inch girls bike. After cleaning the work space, I rode away. I was headed home slowly and carefully. The trip home was uneventful thank god.

The best thing about that trip was seeing Hondo when I arrived home. He actually wagged his tail at me. A small victory yes, but a victory nonetheless. I still didn’t pet him, but I made a glass of instant iced tea and sat on the porch talking with him. He seemed to like it even though he showed almost no emotion. With Hondo there was no way to tell for sure. After a while I rolled the trailer into the Circus tent to unload the bike parts. When I finished it was 4PM, close enough to quitting time for me to head to the Gatehouse. I carried some left over chili into the house.

The first thing I did was put the chili on the two burner, RV gas cook stove. I recovered my phone in order to check my messages. Message one was from Alice. ‘Keith whats this I hear about a dog. Elanor had to tell me.’

“Hello Alice,” I said to my brother’s wife.

“Elanor told me you had adopted a wild dog?” she asked.

“When they have gone wild, I think they call them feral,” I said. “Either way Hondo was just a stray.”

“So that was what the fifty pounds of dog food was for?” she asked.

“Yes it was. He was mostly starving when he wandered onto the place,” I said.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” she asked.

“He needed taking care of honey. I didn’t want to overwhelm him with new people,” I lied. “He will be up to meeting you guys one at a time soon. Why don’t you stop by tomorrow and bring him a quarter pounder with cheese from McDonald’s,” I suggested.

“I need to go to the hair dresser tomorrow. I’ll swing by after,” she said.

“I’ll be working you might want to blow your horn before you leave your car. I’m not exactly sure how Hondo will react to a stranger,” I said.

“I’m not a stranger. I’m family damn it,” Alice said.

“See you tomorrow,” I said.

“Okay, oh call Elanor. Make sure she is alright,” Alice demanded.

“Okay,” I agreed.

I sat in my black chair a the kitchen counter to eat my chilli. When I finished, I quickly washed the dishes then called Elanor.

“Hello Elanor,” I said when she was on the line. “Is everything okay?”

“Sure, why wouldn’t it be?” she asked.

“Well Max could have checked your house last night,” I said.

“No, I think he has decided to leave me alone, at least for a while,” she said.

“Well I just wanted to check in on you,” I said.

“I’m glad you did, and I’m glad about all the things that happened between us,” she said.

“I was to. I’m also sorry if I upset you when I said I wouldn’t make a good husband,” I said.

“Actually you were right to warn me. I’m going to change my expectations. I just want some time to think it over. I’ll call you when I decide what I want you to be for me,” she said.

“Okay, well good night. Let me know if you need anything,” I said.

Later that night in bed while looking at the ceiling, I thought, about Elanor. I came to this conclusion. I had kicked her husband’s ass to assure her safety. She had paid me in ass, which seemed fair. So we were going forward dead even. There were no losers no matter what we decided.

I decided to build a three wheeler scooter with a scooter motor to power it. It meant I had more research to do, and I would need to learn to weld much better. It was one thing to spot weld two pieces of metal together at a bolted joint. It was something else to weld a drive sprocket that would be under great stress continually. I took a Utube welding course. Since it was just all the video instructions on Utube, it wasn’t recognized by anyone. Well so much for my welding certification. To be honest I was more worried about doing the job right than any piece of paper. Hell I didn’t have room on my walls for a certificate anyway.

“Alice, I need for you to do me a favor,” I said into the cell phone the morning after I declared myself certified to weld the new oversize sprocket onto the wheel.

“What kind of favor,” she asked.

“I need you to start getting Hondo used to you. It’s just in case I’m not around to feed him. I don’t want him to starve,” I said.

“Neither do I. He was hesitant to take that burger from me the first time I was there. What do you have in mind?” she asked.

“Fix his evening meal and bring it over. Then step out of your car and pour it into his bowl. Bring a bottle of water and add it to his water bowl. Then even if I’m gone for several days, he will be okay here alone. Well alone except for you. I’m not sure you should try to pet him, but he might be okay with it after a few visits,” I explained.

“Okay, I’ll start bringing his food and water tonight. Don’t feed him and I’ll be there after dinner. I might bring the kids. They have been bugging me to see your dog,” she added.

“You might want to bring them one at a time,” I said. “I won’t be coming out of the house while you are here feeding him.”

“I got it. You want it to be as much as possible like the real thing,” she suggested.

“Yes, that’s about it,” I agreed. “I think he will be alright, but if he acts aggressive just drive away. Don’t ever take a chance with him. I have no idea how violent he can be.”

Even though I was worried the whole thing went well. Hondo tolerated Alice. He actually was more friendly with Alice than anyone else. By the end of the week he was wagging his tail at her. He wasn’t all that enthusiastic, but it was a tail wag for sure.

I got the new bike built, including the new sprocket welded onto the old one, within three weeks I had it ready to try. From concept to completion in three weeks was a record for me. If I included my DIY welding course took considerably longer. That new scooter was my Christmas present to myself.

My brother gave me a dorm refrigerator for Christmas and I gave him a trolling motor for his boat. I wasn’t sure he even fished, but if not maybe he would start, I thought. The kids got gift certificated and Alice got an Afghan carpet. I knew a guy, who could get them straight off the boat. Whose boat? he assured me I was better off not knowing.

Hondo and I welcomed in the New Year with half a steak each. I had bought it then decided to share it. He ate his and looked longingly at mine. Yes I allowed him in the house on cold winter’s nights. He was a good roommate. He didn’t crap or piss in the house, he didn’t come home drunk, but it hadn’t been decided whether he would poach my women or not. It hadn’t been decided because neither of us had a serious lady friend. Hondo was likely to get a girlfriend before me.

After my half a steak, I had two more glasses of instant iced tea then turned in. I slept good with only one nightmare. Well I guess technically reliving a moment in time as a dream didn’t qualify as a nightmare. It wasn’t even the moment before the car bomb went off and changed my life forever. It was the moment several years before the ‘accident’ when my best friend got shot in the face. I was paralyzed by fear for several seconds that seemed like and eternity. A night interrupted by a moment of terror was nothing new, but that didn’t make it any easier. I only hoped it would get better with time.

When I awoke New Years day, there was a serious chill in the Gatehouse. Hondo was laying on the floor near the heater. The fire was flickering inside the ceramic grate, but it wasn’t keeping up with the cold. I turned the heater up as I passed it on my way to the shower. I stepped inside to pee then ran some water to flush the drain. What I didn’t do was step under the stream of water. What I wanted to do, and did, was to go back to my bed. I waited inside my sleeping bag which was also under a thick thermal insulated comforter.

Hondo woke me again a half hour later. He wanted to be outside, so I opened the door for him. At forty degrees it felt as cold as a deep freeze to me. I managed to take a very quick shower and dress for the weather. I wore a thermal tee shirt with a fleece sweat shirt over it. Long heavy jeans completed the look. I looked in the mirror and decided I was ready for the day.