Sarge
Chapter 8

Copyright© 2018 by MysteryWriter

The French Kidnap connection was over, and it didn’t even end in a movie. Of course a movie would have landed me in jail, so it was better off forgotten. It had been a couple of weeks since the raid, and I had nothing to do but rest. Even so, I was still exhausted.

Since Lucy2 planned to return to Texas to visit her family. I chose to return home leaving her in Paris. She wasn’t alone by any means, the prince had sent two of his body guards to be with her. I think he had also arranged a Glock 9mm for her as well. Nobody could take care of Lucy, better than Lucy herself.

My plane left Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport early on a Monday morning. I chose it because it would have the fewest passengers. I would also most likely fly in a smaller plane. Even so I would still be packed into a tiny seat, but it was likely that there would be fewer toddlers.

It was upsetting to find two toddlers have a screaming contest. I wanted to call it a draw with a Benadryl each. Since I doubted their mothers would allow it, I took them both and slept most of the flight to DC. It was an eight hour flight, so I had about three hours while awake. Fortunately the children had cried themselves to sleep.

I found an energy bar in my cargo pants lower pocket, so I waved away all the cardboard in flight food. I chose my own cardboard food, consequently I was starved when we landed. Even so I wasn’t hungry enough for the snack bar burger, so I wandered into the crowd looking for my connection. It was none other than Nita.

“Damn the Lt put your ass back to work quickly,” I said to her.

“Yes he did and I thanked him for it. Believe it or not that last mission bothers me some,” she said.

“Well, if you get the urge to confess, see a young priest, not a cop,” I said as we walked to the taxi.

As I expected Dominic was the driver. “Don’t expect a tip,” I said to him.

“That’s fine your last one wasn’t much. ‘plant your corn early’ doesn’t mean much in downtown DC,” he said with a smile.

“Surely you have an urban garden,” I said with a grin.

“Fuck you Sarge,” he said turning his attention to the road.

At the office the man I called Lt shook my hand. “Let’s go down to the coffee cart,” he suggested.

“Sure,” I said following him down to the elevator. “When did you get to be a coffee gourmet?”

“Since they hired topless baristas,” he commented.

“Right,” I said. She wasn’t topless, but she was damn close. She had arguably the largest cleavage I had ever seen on a waitress of any kind. Since I wasn’t paying I just enjoyed the view. “The coffee is like something you should dip a cheap donut into.”

“Yeah I know you always order truck stop coffee. Look, let’s not beat around the bush. I need you here in DC. You are a natural planner,” he said.

“I have told you, I’m not looking for a job offer,” I said. “Speaking of jobs, how much do I owe you for the intel you arranged?”

“Most of it cost nothing. You would be surprised how popular Lucy is with the operations gang. Also the Prince reached out and offered to pay all the expenses of the mission. I’m going to accept of course.”

“Okay, I owe him thirty K for a payment to your Mafia friend,” I said.

“That was canceled. He said to tell you to thank his daughter the princess for that. He also deposited ten grand in your account for handcuffing her to the truck, so that she couldn’t go inside. I hear he is bragging all over the kingdom about his bad ass daughter. That should be worth the mission cost.”

“Very generous of him,” I said.

“He will expect something for it. My experience is those guys have long memories,” the Lt said.

“So do we, just ask Osama, when you get to hell.” I replied.

“So if you don’t want to work for me, what are you going to do,” he asked.

“Probably take up fishing,” I said.

“Right,” he replied dropping it. “You know you will be back when I find something worthy of your mind and experience,” the Lt said ending the conversation. “You coming back in?”

“Yeah, I need a flight home, and a ride to the airport,” I said.

“I think my secretary and Dominic can arrange those two things,” he assured me.

The flight was just a little after lunch local time. I had Dominic drop me at the main terminal just before Lunch. On the way he stopped at McDonald’s without being asked. I ate the burger while he finished the drive.

“Dominic, I couldn’t have done it without you,” I said.

“I know, but thanks for admitting it,” he said. “Anytime you need a driver, if I’m available, I’m in not matter how stinky the shit is.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

I knew it wasn’t me. Some people just like things to continually be in chaos. If their world isn’t in chaos, they will try to manufacture it where ever they are. Dominic was like that. He was a hell of a wheel man, but he was some kind of a pacifist at heart.

He dropped me at the airport where I sat in the lounge for an hour. It took that long before they even began processing us to load. Finally I boarded the large jet plane for the short flight to Piedmont Triad International Airport. It was a regional airport connected to the many surrounding towns by a spider web of interstate highways. With those highways all the bedroom communities were just a few minutes from the airport. Well, all except Bear Creek when connected with a motor scooter ride. That was an hour and a half commute.

I didn’t sleep on the flight down from DC, because I didn’t take the Benadryl before I boarded. I should have, but I didn’t want to be drowsy when I arrived at PTI. I had the long scooter ride on my mind.

The time passed quickly, but frankly I wasn’t there. It was kind of all a fog. When I got home it wasn’t even dark yet, still Sadie Mae’s was going strong. Sadie Mae’s patrons were not hard core bar types, so it could have been worse.

I slept for what seemed like days, but I was back on my early morning schedule on my first day home. Some things changed so slowly, they didn’t really seem to change at all. One thing that had changed was the hometown diner in the strip mall beside Walmart. The sign on the door offered me free WIFI. The sign advised me that I simply had to ask for the password. Everybody seemed to be offering free WIFI these days, I thought.

I was sure there were a few people, like me, who came to the diner for the food. I know it was a strange concept that people might want to hide from the Internet. I kept thinking about it as I ate my eggs and a biscuit. Tonya the waitress, formerly from scooters downtown, suddenly appeared. That was when I realized it had indeed changed.

“Tonya what it world are you doing here?” I asked.

“You stopped coming to Scooters. I missed you, so I moved out here,” she said with a bright smile.

“O course you did,” I said “No really, what brings you here?”

“Family,” she said. “My Uncle Alvin bought this place. I’m the morning manager,” she informed me.

Since it was early even at 6AM, I asked. “So how is the WIFI thing working out?”

“To early to tell. We have only been here a little over a week,” she said.

“I thought so, that’s about how long I’ve been out of town for a job. Work just puts me so out of touch,” I said with a laugh.

“Don’t worry the food here is the same as Scooter’s. Alvin hired Willie the morning breakfast chef.” she said.

“Oh my a chef, I might have to go to another diner,” I said.

“Willie insists we call him Chef, even though he learned to cook on the county farm. While he was there doing a little time for non support of his children. They say he came out with a new skill, and a new attitude. That was ten years ago.”

“Good for him,” I said. “And it was good to see you again. I know where to come to ask for advice.”

“I heard that you bought Tom Sawyer’s lock shop. You turned it into a tiny house I’m told.” she said.

“No a tiny house is too fancy for what I have. It’s more a rustic urban cabin. Stop by sometimes I’ll show you around,” I offered.

“I just might do that,” she said with a smile.

I gave her a better look when she walked away. She was five six or so and probably weighed around one fifty. She had hit forty I was pretty sure, but she still wore jeans and tee shirts to work. Her jeans showed off her slightly over sized hips. The tee shirt showed off her soft mature breasts. The only odd thing was her barn red hair. I knew that it was popular with the kids, but I didn’t expect to see it on an adult. I walked away from her and began my ten mile ride home.

It was almost 11am when I stepped from the shower and into clean clothes. I felt like a new man. I had spent almost twenty four hours in familiar surrounding, doing normal things. I liked that more than I ever thought I would.

I rode to a second hand furniture store. I needed something for my kitchen. The cabinets on either side of the deep janitor’s sink were custom made and I liked them but I needed more storage. Not huge amounts, since I had enough plates and saucers to serve three people, or to stack in the sink to soak after a couple of meals at home. I just wanted more storage options.

At the third store I found a small kitchen hutch. It had two doors on the bottom part with two storage shelves inside. Then above, it had two open shelves. The top of the hutch would probably hold the microwave, I thought. I could store my toaster oven and hot plate on the top shelves as well. That would free up my cabinet tops for more important things. Things like my coffee cups, and thermos bottles. The thermos, I used to carry iced tea to the lake for dinner. Hand held food while surrounded by nature was a real treat. I mostly needed a place for my new dish drainer.

In other words I was still moving in three months after I bought the place. I had done a lot to it, but I needed to do a lot more. A couple of more uninterrupted months would be nice, I thought. Those thoughts ran through my head while I freed my scooter from its restraints. I attached the custom made cargo trailer to the scooter, then left for the mile trip to the antique store. I had already paid for the hutch so it was just a matter of laying it on it’s side, then tying it to the cargo trailer. The scooter didn’t like towing the trailer, but it did just fine with it. Well at least it did long enough to reach the lock shop.

Later in the afternoon I decided to go on a picnic to the Haw River access park in Bynum NC. It was an easy thirty minute ride on the scooter. The scooter, even though I loved my bikes, had opened up new possibilities for me. First thing I had to do was make a large two quart pitcher of iced tea, using the dry mix from Walmart. My big Bubba thermos, also from Walmart, held half the tea, along with most of the ice from one tray.

The next thing I had to do for my picnic was to drive a couple of blocks to Little Caesar’s Pizza. I took whatever was ready, then had them pack the pieces in a paper bag. It was easier to carry that way. Then I was off to the Haw River View with my pizza. I would be in heaven for a few minutes anyway.

I ate two of the slices, then wrapped the bag tight. I had known all along that I wouldn’t finish the pizza. When I left twenty minutes later, I carried the pizza with me. It gave me a chance to try out the new scooter saddlebags. The saddle bags were much easier to handle than the backpack, which tried to pull me off the scooter backwards, had been.

I got a wild hair up my ass after the pizza. I wanted to start fancying up the place. First thing would be painting the walls. That was a DYI project, so I began researching finishes for the concrete block interior. After the research, I was determined to stucco the interior walls. That is until I read how long it takes to do it. I couldn’t do it in a day, so my DIY dreams disappeared. Instead I began to look for stucco companies.

After looking on the web, I rode over to the diner near Walmart for breakfast. I would have even without the need for a number. As it was I called Santiago’s paint company. Their card had a small line which read ‘we do stucco’. I gave him a call and asked him to come take a look. As usual I had to wait two days before he could get to me.

“I can do the complete outside for $950, and be done in two days,” he agreed.

“I want the inside done as well, and I only have a grand total to spend,” I said.

“I’m sorry senior, I can not do it for that,” he admitted.

“I’m sorry too. Thanks for looking at the job for me,” I said.

‘Tell you what, how about we set a schedule for payment. Like if I do the inside you give me $500 then $500 more when I finish the outside. That way I can work you in when I don’t have anything else,” he asked.

I quickly thought it over and said. “$400 for the inside, and $600 more when it is all complete,” I suggested.

“Okay, so you don’t trust immigrants. We are not all out to steal from you,” he said.

“If you were named Smith, and you were white as the driven snow, I would still say the same thing,” I replied.

“Okay, I have a young man who can do the inside prep work Saturday morning. You have to get the furniture out of there,” he said.

“If it isn’t raining, I’ll put it in the yard while he coats the walls. It’s only three walls I wanted done inside. One of those has a humongous plate glass window,” I said.

“I will stop by in the after noon and do the spray. So, that’s why the difference in the payments?” he asked. I just nodded.

The kid worked most of the morning applying the blue painters tape and clear plastic over the floors and the ceiling. He obviously spoke very little English.

That afternoon around four the owner came by and coated the walls. They worked from 8AM till 5PM. He warned me not to touch the walls at all on Sunday. I had clear plastic tarps over the furniture on my lawn for two days. Fortunately the only moisture was a little dew. It actually turned out very well. It did look a lot like adobe when he finished. I just needed some red tiles at the edge of the roof, I thought.

 
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