Chapter 4

Let me explain...

Until the Marriot Mansion was built, the tallest hotel in Indiana was in Indianapolis, the Salesforce Tower (formerly known as Bank One Tower) reaching 811 feet high and 49 floors tall.

In belief of the concept, ‘If you have the money, spend it,’ Trillionaire Michael Thomas co-designed the Mansion and the Mansion Marriott, alongside the late General Contractor Mr. Kenneth Bell.

In a letter he had put in every major newspaper in the 50 United States, Mr. Thomas proclaimed that every hotel he built in Indiana will have 105 stories. Five of them are complete, with another seven in the works, with a few by the new airport.

Once Mr. Thomas became a multi billionaire, he started buying up all available land up to the Indiana/Kentucky border. He even bought the Duke Energy Corporation that had plants and substations all over Southern Indiana.

After the sale went through, he lowered everyone’s rates by 15% all over the country. He talked the Mayors and City Managers of the Southern Indiana cities involved to let him relocate enough people for creating a 13,000-acre airport to replace the smaller one. Only DIA has longer runways in the USA.

The new VIA (Vincennes International Airport) can land just about any plane on either of its two 15,000-foot-long runways. There are four additional 9,000-foot-long runways, with room for four more.

It officially opened on January 1, 2025, and the airport it replaced was razed to the ground. Nothing yet on what may be in its place.

There are rumors that Mr. Thomas is secretly buying large plots of land in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, and Utah.

I have tried to find a commonality to these 6 states besides them all being in the western half of the US, but no luck!

Back to the hotel, if you count the non-numbered floors, it is 105 stories tall.

According to the in-room information booklet: The ground floor is the large foyer, with a number of amenities. Besides a 24-hour restaurant, that serves any breakfast, lunch, or dinner menu item any time of day.

There are also several tube-like devices, where you go in with your credit card handy, and place either your left or right wrist down.

Once you have done that a female voice says, “PLEASE PLACE YOUR CREDIT CARD OVER THE BLUE DIAGRAM!” And faster than you can see it happen, that wrist gets a device like they put on you at the hospital and ‘Voila’ your wrist can pay for just about anything in Vincennes, including trips on the HMS.

Our room number is 790077 with us being on the side pointing west.

Two floors above us is the EE floor where we had a choice of 4 restaurants:

El Tapatio
Ruth’s Steakhouse
Domino’s Pizza
Subway Sandwiches

“OK, lover, you pick?” My lovely Melody remarked.

Do I pick where I want, or do I pick where I think she wants?

After taking a resting breath, “How about Subway?” I had a 25% chance.

“Sounds good to me, Paul, let’s go inside!”

I had to kiss her first, then I took her right hand and we walked in through two sets of doors being greeted, “Welcome to Subways!”

I hadn’t been to one in a while, and we each got one of their ‘Fresh Fits’ with both of us asking for ‘No Onions.’

We watched them being made holding hands and noticing the sign ‘YOU CAN CHARGE IT TO YOUR ROOM, YOUR WRIST, OR YOUR CREDIT CARD. WE DO NOT HAVE, OR HANDLE CASH!’

That made sense. We got our sandwiches with chips and sodas. I charged to the room, simply by writing our room number and my signature.

This felt so cool to be on our own eating together ... for as long as we both shall live!

I had also noticed a sign that read ‘FOOD MUST BE FINISHED BEFORE LEAVING!’

When we were finished, I asked, “Now what, Mel?” That earned me a really hot kiss.