Chapter 3: Closing on My Dream

Tuesday morning I picked up Nettie, with the top down, and drove to the Commercial Center. We went up to see Argus before going down to the title office. They had a couple of papers to sign that Argus looked over before he had us sign them then he stood and stuck his hand out. "Congratulations Mr. Davidson, you now own or at least you are buying one of the nicest places in the city."

Nettie had a tear in her eye but looked up at me and smiled. She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a big hug.

We drove back to the house where Nettie had the kitchen table arranged with various utility bills and all the keys with nametags on them. "You might want to lock the doors for a while Chuck. I'm told some burglars come to houses recently sold to see what they can get. I told the Wilson's down the block to let their dog run loose for a while, as you are new. That should keep any bad, night people away. You need to go to the house on the other side of Alice and say hi to the Wilson's and their dog, Toy. You'll see why no one will bother you."

"Now, let me get my suitcase and you can take me to the airport. My flight leaves in two hours. It'll take us almost a half hour to get there and then a few minutes to check in and I'm out of here." She went to the living room to get her suitcase.

"Is that all?" I asked as she only had one suitcase plus her large purse and a sweater.

"Yep." She said. "I shipped everything else and I have a book to read on the flight. I have to change planes in Atlanta and again in San Francisco. But by tomorrow morning I'll be there."

Nettie wanted to keep the top down so we drove to the airport with her hair flying. You could tell she was nervous. Happy and excited, but she was still nervous.

We parked and I took her bag to check-in. She had her reservation sheet and keyed in the number. I was surprised as she was booked first class all the way through. Nice ride.

We strolled down to the security check in and stood in line. Nettie looked up at me with a tear in eye. "You know Chuck, I've only known you for a little over a week but I'm going to miss being around you. For whatever reason, you seem like family, like one of my kids. Chuck, I'm going to miss you." With that Nettie gave me a hug. I hugged her back and kissed her forehead. She looked up at me with a tear streaking down her cheek.

"Get out of here Chuck, before you make me cry. Go home. Go to your new home and take care of it. I'll call you when I get there, I didn't disconnect the phone. And Chuck, I'm going to take you up on staying with you when my Sister and I come back to visit. We'll be here for at least Christmas and perhaps Thanksgiving. Bye now. Go." More tears were streaking.

I gave her one last hug, kissed her forehead again, turned, and left. I was choked up with some tears trying to escape my eyes. Darn, just knowing that lady for one week was special. In that short period of time she did a lot for me. She changed my life, even more than she or I knew."

I went back to the house and explored the place top to bottom, inside and out. I found lawn tools in the back of the garage in a separate room. I found a chest full of mechanics tools in the garage as well. Upstairs in the garage I found a complete apartment. A kitchen, living room, bathroom and two big bedrooms all full of furniture and decorated nicely. There was also an office at the top of the stairs. The office had only a desk, chair and lamp and looked empty where there probably had been bookcases or file cabinets.

Inside the house I found all the bedroom closets empty plus the drawers in all the bedrooms were empty. The linen closets were all full of towels. Under the bathroom sinks was toilet tissue and soap. In the master bedroom everything was fresh. The sheets and spread were freshly laundered and everything was spotless. Inside the big walk in closet there was only one thing there, a bathrobe. Pinned to it was a note. "This would have been Herb's birthday present but he passed away before his birthday. Enjoy wearing it. It was a gift when I bought it and now I can give it to someone else who is special. Nettie."

I began carrying some of the boxes from the basement and put them in the rooms where they would be unpacked. I put the kitchen stuff away and checked the pantry and fridge to see what I might need. There wasn't a lot of food in the fridge but there were leftovers from the dinner party Sunday. The pantry had a lot canned goods plus some staples that I didn't have to replace. I was amazed at all the kitchen stuff. All kinds of pots and pans, electric skillet, microwave, mini oven, crock-pots and every kind of utensil made. The cabinets had a nice selection of dishes and glasses. The flatware looked pretty new as well. There was even a dishwasher I hadn't noticed before.

I made the last trip to my old apartment in the Taurus to get my hanging clothes. I turned in the key to the apartment manager who said he had already checked out the apartment and thanked me for leaving it in such nice shape. He handed me a check for the original security deposit, surprise, surprise. On the way home I stopped by a liquor store for beer, gin, scotch and wine. As soon as I knew what my neighbors drank I would stock up. I had not checked to see what Nettie had in the living room bar but I was sure the booze I bought wouldn't go to waste, as it was what I like to drink.

It was getting late. All the boxes were emptied and broken down. Everything seemed to be in order. I went out back to check on everything and to put the Taurus in the garage and shut the door. I backed my T-bird up next to the garage and almost left the key in it. I was going to have to be careful. I reopened the garage and took the keys from all the ignitions and made sure those doors were all locked.

As I closed the garage door again I heard a thump, thump coming across the driveway. A huge dog came right up to me and smelled me. He sniffed up and down my leg, nudged me in the crotch, and then walked around me. He came back to stand in front of me, tilted his head then barked. No not barked, woofed a loud, deep woof. I know better than turn and run so I just stood there watching him. He put his nose to my hand and licked. Then put his head under my hand and rubbed it back and forth. Just about the time I was going to wet myself, there was a loud laugh from the other side of Jack and Alice's back porch.

"You passed." The voice said. "That dog never makes a mistake. You must be the new Chuck Davidson."

A man appeared from the shadows. "You better pet Toy if you're going to be his buddy. He seems to like you a lot."

About the time he reached me, Jack came out of his porch door carrying a few beer bottles. He yelled, "Hey Chuck, meet Charlie Wilson and his tiny mutt, Toy."

Giant Jack came strolling over dwarfing Charlie and I handing us each a beer. "Sure glad I can tell you guys apart." Jack said. "We now have a Chuck and a Charlie. Ha, Ha." He laughed.

"What kind of dog is this?" I asked Charlie as the dog had a huge broad shepherd face but a very tall stocky body of some other breed. Toy's back was about four-foot tall while his head was even higher.

"Some kind of monster shepherd, part sheep dog and part monster pit bull. He really is a sweetheart but he does scare the hell out of anybody that he doesn't know or who doesn't know him." Charlie said. "Say, I'm gonna teach him to crap in your yard at night so any bad guys would just trip over his pile. What do ya say. Think that'll work?"

Jack chimed in. "You'll need a bulldozer to clean up after that monster."

We had gravitated back toward Jack's house. There was a distinctive smell coming from the back porch and it sure wasn't cigar smoke. Smelled like very good pot. Jack saw me sniff the air.

"Wacky tebaccy." Jack said. "She usually gets toasted this time of night. Hope you don't mind. She'll share if you use that stuff. Me, I like to drink my silliness."

Charlie offered, "Myra usually comes over and the two of them get funny together. Myra is visiting her Mom tonight so Alice is alone."

"So Jack said you play golf?" Charlie asked. "What's your handicap?"

"I play at golf and I have no earthly idea what handicap I would be. I shoot for bogey golf. If I'm only eighteen over, I'm still under a hundred. I have shot two games of eighty-nine on a par seventy-two course." I bragged.

"Then Saturday morning you make up our threesome for seven a.m. tee time. We'll walk over about six and drive some balls and practice putting before we tee off. How about it?" Jack asked.

"This is perfect," Charlie said. "Since Dave just moved, we were going to have to take a catch as catch can third and or forth guy. They make you have a minimum of a threesome for a round. They prefer foursomes but three works.

"Did Nettie leave you her card?" Asked Jack.

"Yeah, she did. She left one from Herb as well as Hers. Do I need to do anything with them?" I asked.

"Next time you go over there. Take them and some kind of document that you bought the house and they will make up your new card. The ones you have will work for now," Charlie said.

"Nettie told me to leave Toy out for a while to watch the neighborhood, so just watch out for him when you move your car out in the morning. He likes to visit with anyone moving around. I'm gonna see you guys later. Got some stuff to do. Nice to meet you Chuck," Charlie said all this on his way back to his house. Toy didn't move. He still was right at my side with his head under my hand.

"Guess we ought to go in too." Jack said. "Gotta work tomorrow. See ya tomorrow Chuck."

I waved and walked to the porch. I glanced over to June's and saw what appeared to be Sunshine watching out an open kitchen window. I waved and yelled "Hi," she waved back and I went in for the night.

Wednesday started out nice. I got up, showered, put on my new robe and went down the back stairs to the kitchen. I tried out the espresso maker. It is nice to have water ready for fast coffee. I made a very strong cup of coffee and put a pan on the stove to start some bacon. Fifteen minutes later I was eating bacon, eggs, and toast with more coffee. After cleaning up the kitchen, I went up stairs and changed into some khaki's and a polo shirt. I straightened out the bed and sent my clothes from yesterday down the laundry chute. As I was going out the back door, June came over. She was wearing shorts and a T-shirt that fit her very well. She was obviously braless as she was showing some fat headlights on her rather large breasts. Size and age were making them sag a little, but very little. Her movement up the stairs made the two points of interest dance.