Chapter 55

Present – Ben, Mabel and Thom – The food arrives for dinner

We haul the now empty soup pot back to the kitchen and Thom offers, “I will be glad to clean this for you.”

I reply, “Thanks for the offer but if I work it right this should fit in the dishwasher.”

Thom questions, “So it doesn’t even need to be prewashed?”

I shake my head and continue, “Not with our dishwasher.”

Thom exclaims. “Damn, what sort of dishwasher do you have?”

I answer, “It’s just a normal dishwasher that I modified to have additional cleaning power.”

Thom laughs and asks, “Please don’t tell me that you added more power to it like ‘Tim the Tool Man Taylor’ did on the TV show Home Improvement. I practically laughed my ass off when it exploded.”

I glare at Thom and reply, “Of course not! Unlike the fucking Tool Man, my home improvements work.” Then I add, “However, that episode wasn’t as funny as when the toilets exploded.”

Thom continues to laugh and agrees, “Yeah that was classic. Damn, I wish we could watch those again.”

I inform him, “Well, we do have all of them on the computer so we can watch them anytime you want.”

Thom asks, “How did you...” He pauses and then says, “Forget it. I’m sure I don’t want to know.”

I smile at him and agree, “Yeah, you probably don’t want to know.”

The front gate announces over the intercom, “Ben, there’s a food truck here with a delivery.”

I walk over to the intercom, press the button and say, “Please send them to the front door of the cabin.”

I ask Thom, “You feel like helping bring the food into the kitchen?”

He eagerly replies, “Of course, especially since I can’t wait to have one of your famous hamburgers. However what I would really like is some of your chili.”

I explain, “Thom, the chili would be too spicy for the prisoners. Besides I need antelope meat to make it and right now the freezer is empty.”

The front door guards announce over the intercom, “Ben, the food delivery van has arrived.”

Thom and I head to the front door and begin to bring the food into the kitchen. I’m surprised when the delivery driver helps and comment, “Thanks! I didn’t know you were going to help.”

He replies, “I was told since this order is going to be for Mabel that I needed to help.”

I suggest, “You might want to talk to Mabel concerning breakfast tomorrow.”

He answers, “That’s a good idea, thanks.”

We walk into the kitchen Mabel looks up and says, “Rick, it’s good to see you again.”

Rick replies, “Not as good as it is to see you again Mabel. So you’re working here now?”