Chapter 13

The crying we heard as we turned off the shower was replaced by Maggie.

“My Daddy’s Dead, “ Melody Rose said.

“That means it’s time for the Tremaynes, and the Lockharts, to live together. “I said. Everyone, give it some time.”

I walked over to the arms of Maggie, giving her a slight kiss on the cheek, adding, asking, “Did you have Wills and other such papers in place?”

“Of course, we did!” I was surprised by her attitude, but she did just lose her husband.

I lowered my arm from her shoulder.

“Paul?” she said.

“Yes, my dear, what is it”

“Pardon my mess, but I am now the sole owner of this property.”

“From the tone of your voice, I hear trouble,” she said.

I went on to say, “Since we believed that Steven was the only roadblock to Melody and my moving to Vincennes, why don’t we give some thought to the five of us all moving there?”

With the estates all settled, including another large batch of money going into our bank account, we took three cars directly to Vincennes, and found some very affordable living arrangements up in the stratosphere of the Marriott Mansion.

We got three side by side suites on the 98^th Floor. Finding that they were fully furnished, my dad put our two homes on the market, after a very careful move of both gun collections to Vincennes. They weren’t allowed in any of Michael Thomas’ properties. Smart Man!

Dad’s work arrangement wasn’t necessary to live on, but he noted that he would go crazy not doing something for a living, so he got together his resume, and found out that the building we were in always had some available jobs from food service to building maintenance to a dozen or more white collar jobs.

A week after we had moved in, he got a phone call from Michael Thomas himself, for an interview.

You could hear him from outside the front door of our Suite 9811198! We walked out together, and he said, “I am the new National Manager for the Palace Drive-In Division of MTI, or Michael Thomas, Incorporated.”

We got Ruth and Mags over, so he would only have to explain it once.

Here is what happened:

“After I got the interview with MT, that is what he wants to be called, I found out he had an office in this very building. He has maybe six offices throughout Vincennes.”

“Anyway, he saw my work history seeing my rise through the same business over multiple decades, and said, ‘Do you prefer Peter, or Pete?’ I told him either would be OK?”

“Did you really tell him that?” my mother said.

“Ruthie, I didn’t want him to think about it, before he sent me away to talk to the next guy. OK, any of you can call me anything, OK?”

“So, what happened next?” Ruth asked, moving over to sit on his lap.

“He asked me about my family, saying he had met you kids previously,” he said. “Don’t worry, I knew you wanted out of St. Louis. So, did I!”

That garnered him a kiss on the cheek from his wife.

“Anyway, despite having so many PDI’s built, he hadn’t ever given any thought to ‘farm out’ the management. The second job on my resume, a few years before I met this lovely lady on my lap, I had a job that took me from St. Louis, to Springfield, to Kansas City, on a regular route, taking locked boxes of information from one to the other cities. This was in the middle 90’s and they didn’t trust a ‘Courier Company,’ so I got the job. He was very impressed when I told him how much fun it was to see the country, so to speak.”

“He asked me if I knew what a PDI was, and because of my son, I answered him. Thank you, Paul. He offered me the job, just like that?”

That got him a kiss from his luscious lady.

He asked her to get up for a moment, and he stepped away.

“He had to pee,” my outrageous mother said.

“Or, you got him hard,” my more outrageous fiancée said.

After things got settled, with Ruth back up on his lap, “So, he told me his goal of 538 PDI’s, through-out all 50 states, mentioning that some of the traveling would have to be by plane, and my tasks would be to follow up that everything was done and complete. Oh, I will be getting a work phone of my own, the newest iphone, whatever model that is, along with business cards to hand to the different PDI on-site managers. That was my only moment of hesitation. Ruthie, I will possibly be on the road again, just like when we met. Is that OK?”

She gave him a kiss, then broke into slight tears. He said, “I do get 30 days paid, but not all at once, Ruthie-Poo!”

That was remarkable to watch, as they broke into a quite romantic kiss.

Mom asked, “Can I go with you sometimes, or your PDI trips. There are some places I have never been, Petie!”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, MT suggested that very thing, so you wouldn’t be inclined to take a lover while I was gone!”

Wow, I thought to myself, it seems MT was quite thorough and progressive.

“Peter,” Melody said, “It all sounds incredible. What did he offer you for compensation?”

I gave her a shoulder bump.

“It’s OK, son. He surprised me by offering $250,000 a year, and I thought about it for all of ten seconds, then said to him, ‘This is all conditional until I speak to my wife and kids!’”

All the ladies started sobbing, as each gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“I need to call him within the next 24 hours to hammer out the deal,” He said. She took him by the hand, and they headed presumably to their own suite to hammer out a deal!

I took my fiancée and her mother to the street level floor, got our car, with Mags in the back seat, and asked, “A movie or shopping at Victoria’s Secret, Ladies?”

Melody said, “Shopping,” and Mags said, “Both!”

I turned to Mansion Boulevard, as Mags said, “I haven’t been shopping in quite some time. Melody may I borrow your fiancés opinion, please?”

“Fine, just don’t grab at him while we are in the store. I assume you are both as horny right how as I am, but it will have to wait until movie. All guys dream of getting BJ’s during a movie, don’t they Paul?”

I was quiet, as I got a great parking space at the VS store.

We walked in, it wasn’t busy, as a short-haired blonde named Kaci walked towards us.

“Good morning, my name is Kaci, who are we shopping for today?”

“If you had a store for men’s clothes, I would be at the top of the line, Kaci. (I got a light head slap) My name is Paul, this is my wife Melody and her older sister, Maggie. They both need all new clothes, underwear, swim wear, evening gowns, the works, please ... at my expense.”

With me being the only male in the place, first thing she did was measure them both with one of those cloth measuring tapes. I recall Mom using them every year on me before either letting out my cuffs or having a size written down on my waist and inseam for pants, and neck and arm length for my button-down shirts. I was surprised she didn’t have one of those complicated metal things that nice shoe stores used.