Chapter 7

"So ... that's the deal. David wants to cut your family out entirely." Charles was apologetic.

"I have no problem with that ... We have the watch ... Junior does, that is." David, my dad, said.

"And other resources," I said ... and grinned. Birthday time in the morning ... surprise, surprise, surprise. LOL!

Wendolyn asked Charlie, "Unca Chuck, how long are you staying?"

"I have reservations at the lodge." Charles asked. "By the way," he commented. "You have no idea how much I've missed being 'Unca Chuck.'"

"Well," said Daddy, "You're not staying there. We have room..." he chuckled, "We'll put you in the dungeon. Junior! Show Unca Chuck the house."

So ... I walked beside Unca Chuck and gave him the grand tour.

I showed him the ground floor ... The Rooms of State ... Press Room ... Formal Dining ... Throne Room ... Formal Entrance and Grand Veranda. The rooms were sufficiently 'Royal', 20 foot ceilings, Canadian Maple and Vermont Walnut ... foot wide English chestnut flooring.

"Momma had these rooms added after she gave her first Press Conference and nobody came ... Well, Petosky, Charlevoix and Ludington came ... we almost had Milwaukee but they cancelled.

"Since the addition, we've had the French and Russian Military attachés ... and 'The Press', New York, London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo, Detroit, San Francisco..." I bent over and whispered, "rude fuckers, every one of them. Mother says we have to be nice..." I giggled, "and we are." The grin spoke volumes.

"Where on earth did you get the flooring? Ah ... the watch."

"Yeppers ... mom. One board at a time." I noticed a look on Unc's face, "Do you regret the watch?"

"Not exactly ... I regret the hassle of hiding it. The whole family reaped the rewards when David had it. You can only spend so much and then it's just stupidity.

"Grace is dead, suicide, she was always un ... steady...

MaryAnne and family are in New Zealand and wealthy in their own right. They're citizens now.

My children are... 'untrustworthy' ... take after their mother. I was her second husband. Never had children of my own."

We stopped in front of a giant Mirror.

I said, "Wendy Wanzor ... and guest."

It's voice activated and coded

Mother and I use the same password.

The mirror slid back and revealed a regular Alibaba lift.

"Open Sesame!" I called. The doors slid back. Lurch's voice said, "You Rang?"

"Italy has more elevators than any country in the world and Otis refused to work with us." I told Unca Chuck. "What? Come on ... What's so funny?"

"Open Sesame ... and Lurch ... only an Austin."

"Hey! It's an Alibaba elevator ... only 'Open Sesame' worked the cave. Makes perfect sense.

"No ... don't turn around ... we're going to visit the dungeons. This is where we keep the invaders. Sub Basement, please, Lurch.

"This is part of the original house. The door at the other end of the corridor you're going to see was the only access. Mom said it wasn't nice down here."

The elevator gave off that 'urururu' that the TV Lurch gave just before he crushed a hat. It 'lurched', just a little start, stop, run and started down.

I explained that the elevator was programed to each family member ... had backup power and a huge capacity. We all have voice control and we can change it through a family access computer.

"Daddy will have to program you in ... it'll be interesting to see what weirdness you can come up with."

I held my finger up to my lips.

The door opened on to a long hand hewed rock passage. The light in the passage was dim and flickered ... like torch light.