Chapter 9

I was just putting their plates on the table when I heard the storm coming down the stairs. I looked at them as they raced into the kitchen and stopped, side by side, smiling up at me.

Damn if they weren’t dressed better than I could have done. They both wore plain white tee shirts with no logos, no screened pictures, no nothing. They each wore khaki camping shorts, from Bass Pro Shop, with pockets all over them. They wore a pair of their brown, high top, hiking shoes from Bass Pro also. They looked good and they knew it.

I reached down and hugged them, picking them up and squeezing them as they giggled and laughed.

“Eat your breakfast and don’t get egg on your shirts, I’ll be back by the time you finish and we’ll go buy some things.”

I dressed as much like them as I could, I wanted them to know I like the way they were growing up and accepting responsibility.

When I came back down, they were through eating and looked up at me as I stopped for inspection like they had.

“Papa Murphy, you look like us, we sure are proud you are our Papa,” Luis told me and they ran to me. We hugged again, then I showed them how to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

There was already a load in there, so I added detergent and set it to run while we were gone. We walked out to the RV storage shed and got my pickup. It was dust covered and rain spotted, but still looked good.

“We need to wash this truck Papa Murphy, it’s dirty,” Rico informed me.

“We’ll go by Mr. Pride Car Wash and they’ll have it looking just like new in a few minutes. Then we’ll go buy some things for the Murphy Mamas.”

We weren’t but a few blocks from Poplar Ave. east, here in Germantown. When we got to the car wash, there weren’t that many cars this time of day and we were soon standing inside, looking through the big glass as they hand washed and rinsed the pickup.

We walked out as they were drying it to a spotless clean, inside and out. I pulled two five dollar bills from my pocket and handed one to each of them.

There were two Mexican boys wiping the vehicle down like it was a show car.

“Give them a tip, for a job well done and thank them.”

Each of them walked up to one of the boys and presented the tip, smiling.

“Gracias, Little Amigo’s,” both of them said, grinning at me. They slapped hands and ran back to get in.

“Papa Murphy, that was good, wasn’t it, giving a tip for a good job?” Luís said.

“Yes it was, you boys remember that too, when people work and do a good job, they need to be told and rewarded.”

“Will we have money one day in our pockets too?” Rico asked.

“You sure will, as a matter of fact, I’ll buy each of you a money clip today and give you some money to carry in your pockets. You’ll have to be responsible with it, never pull your money out in public. Never tell others you have money, never buy junk food or candy or toys with your money either.”

“Then what will we buy, if we can’t buy those things?” Luis asked.

“You’ll know when you see it. I like buying for others, not just myself. Just think about Mama Kelly and Mama Meg. They buy all the time for others and hardly ever buy for themselves.”

“Yeah, I kinda like that Papa Murphy, so if we ever have money, we buy gifts for others we love and not for ourselves?” Luis asked.

“You can buy yourself something special, I know you’ve seen Bobby spend his money and sometimes he spends money on himself. Just watch all the Murphys and you’ll soon learn how to handle money and not just buy junk because you can.”

“Does Bobby have a job to make money and put in the bank?” he asked.

“No, he will have a job at the resort, just like both of you will. We will all work there to make it a fun place for people to come and play naked. We’ll all make our money that way. We’ll even put you both on the payroll and you can make your own money. Just remember, some boys won’t have money, but you never make them feel bad by showing them you do.”

“Yeah, we have seen Bobby when he buys things for his girls, he never makes them feel bad because they are like Rico and me, broke on their ass.”

“Yeah, Bobby is good with money, I want you both to be good with money too, you will earn your money and it will be yours. I want you to start putting some money in the bank each time you get paid, so you will know how to save money too. You never know when you may need a lot of money, so you need to save some all the time.”

“Is that the way you got all your money Papa Murphy?”

“Yes, I worked and saved and cut corners and never spent money on junk. Then one day I got the chance to start the company where Uncle Jerry and the Three Amigo’s work. It was a good business and I made a lot of money. I still saved all I could. Then one day a man and his daughter asked me to sell my business for a lot of money. More money than I had ever dreamed of. So I worked hard, I saved my money and invested it in a business, then I sold it for lots of money. Do you see how it works now?”

“I think I do Papa Murphy, will you show Rico and me how to do all that? We want to be just like you and Bobby.”

“Sure, you just watch us as we work and buy things that make people happy. Learn to spend your money on things that will make you more money and then your money will be working for you all the time.”

“Wow, I love this shit, Papa Murphy.”

“Yeah, I love this shit too Papa Murphy,” Rico said and grinned.

“You boys remember to work hard, save your money, never be wasteful, never tear your toys or games up and watch Bobby and I. We’ll make sure you both have a chance to have a lot of money one day. But you’ll have to work and earn it. No one will give it to you, understand?”

“I do Papa Murphy, we never had any money, Mama didn’t either. We want to buy her things and make her happy like you do. We will work hard at the resort and earn our money, won’t we Rico?”

“We sure will, we can work hard. We used to help Mama clean the house.”

“Good, Papa Murphy is proud of his boys. I’m proud to know you’ll both be Murphy Boys too and make your own money.”

When I pulled into the Zales parking lot, I reminded the boys that we had a sworn secret, that we weren’t going to tell anyone until we got to Florida. They crossed their heart and I did too.

I didn’t know kids did that anymore.

When we got to the sales counter, I told the lady who I was and what I was here for. She smiled and said they had my purchases ready for me. When she went back to get them, I took Rico and Luis over to look at the money clips. I wanted to get them used to carrying money in their pockets. I wanted to see how serious they were about wanting to be like Murphys, at this early age.

I saw a lot of clips with diamonds, made of silver and gold. That was too fancy, even for me. I found what I wanted. A simple leather, tri-fold bill clip made like a card holder. Two sides folded, one over the other and third side stayed over the bills when opened.

When the lady came back with my packages, I showed her what I wanted out of the case and she tried to sell me something a little more flashy.

“These are for my sons, I want them to learn to be responsible with money in their pockets,” I told her and she smiled. Then she looked down at Rico and Luis.

“Are these your sons? They sure are some handsome young men, and so well behaved too.”

If she only knew what these little shits were like when they cut loose.

“Thank you, I’m proud of them,” I told her as she smiled and rang up my purchases. I had already paid for the three ring sets in Zales Jewelry store in Brownsville, when I placed the order after seeing the one I wanted there. They didn’t have but one set and I wanted three alike.

When I handed her the money for the two money clips, I handed her an extra hundred.

“Will you please break this up into smaller bills? Two twenties, four tens, two fives and ten ones.”

“Sure, would you like me to put the bills in each of them?”

“No thank you, I want to show them how to do that.”

I picked up the bags and the loose bills and we walked out to the pickup.

When we were seated with the air conditioner running, I handed each of them a leather money clip. I pulled mine out of my pocket and lay it on the console.

“OK, now for your first lesson in carrying money. Look at how I put all my bills in my clip. I have the bills all facing up, with the presidents heads showing. Then all the heads are pointed the same way. See what I mean?” I said as I showed them.

“Yes we see, all of them are in the same way,” Luis said.

“Now, tell me what else you see as I look through my bills.”

“We see a LOT of money Papa Murphy. Man-O-Man, that is a lot of money,” Rico said.

“I wasn’t talking about how much, what else do you see?”

“I see the big bills in back, then the other ones in front,” Luis said.

“Yes, that way I can get out the bills I want, when I pay for something, without taking all the bills out. See?” I showed them how to slip a bill from the middle without pulling another bill out too.”

“Yeah, I see now.” Luis said, as he arranged his bills all one way, then put them into the folding leather clip in order.

Rico watched Luis closely, then put his in the folding clip also. All the ends neatly together.

“You boys did good, I’m proud of you for that. Now, I think we need to go somewhere and let you both buy some things, so you can show me what you’ve learned about carrying money in just one day.”

“Yeah, lets go Papa Murphy, we want to buy some things,” Rico said.

I figured the best place to take them for this was Wal-Mart. They would have a big choice of things to choose from. I was hoping they’d listened as I tried to school them on responsibility and good judgment. We’d see soon.

“Papa Murphy, we want to do this ourselves,” Luis told me when I walked with them.

“I’ll just go to the section you’re in, then you can shop and pick out what you’d like to buy. Don’t try to spend all your money, just show me you can be trusted with fifty dollars apiece. I won’t fuss at you, no matter what you buy.”

“I know what you mean Papa Murphy, I will help Rico too. You stay right here, we will be over there and you can see us.”

As they walked away, I couldn’t help but think they looked older, even taller today. Maybe it was because I wanted them to be responsible, not bigger or older. I could see the tops of their heads and I knew they were in the jewelry section. I had an idea what they were doing, but I wanted to be surprised, so I stopped watching and just glanced at them now and then.

They were gone about twenty minutes and came back running with their little plastic shopping bags in their hands.

When we got to the pickup and were buckled in, Luis held his plastic Wal-Mart bag up to me.

“Wanna see what we bought Papa Murphy?”

“Is it for me?”

“No Papa Murphy, you gave us the money. Rico and I talked it over, we want to wait to make our own money to buy you something.”

“You showed good judgment. Since it’s not for me, wait and let the person you bought it for be the first to see it.”

“Yeah you are right, we will wait, but we want you to be there when we give it to them.”

“Good, now we all have gifts and we all have secrets. Want to get something to eat? Your Mamas won’t be back for a few more hours yet.”

“Yes, shopping makes me hungry,” Rico laughed.

“How about some good bar-b-que, you boys like bar-b-que?”

“We love it, we like ours really hot too, Papa Murphy,” Rico told me.

Since it was already 2:00, we had missed the noon crowd. We stopped at Corky’s bar-b-que place on Poplar, one of the top three in Memphis.

We were seated in a booth next to the window, me on one side, the boys on the other.

“We need to pee, Papa Murphy,” Rico said as the young waitress walked up.

“The restrooms are right over there in the back,” she pointed and smiled at them.

“We’ll be right back, don’t go away,” Luis told her as they both ran from the booth.

“Hi, I am Jaidyn, I’m your waitress. Would you like to wait for the boys to come back?”

“No, bring each of us a Coke and give us a few minutes to look the menu over,” I said as I looked up at her.

She’s young, maybe college age. Probably Cuban, or possibly Peurto Rican. She’s tall and slender. A tennis player or swimmer, I thought.

Nice butt, really nice boobs and some long brown legs, like Valeria’s. Damn, I miss my women, I better stop this, I thought as she walked away.

The boys came back and slid in the booth, looking for Jaidyn.

“Where’d she go?” Luis asked.

“I told her to bring us a Coke and let us have a minute to look at the menu, you want me to help you order?”

“No, I will order for us, is that OK Rico?”

“Yes, let me pick it out though.”

They sat looking on the same menu, though there was another one lying on the table.

They talked over each and every item on the lunch page and turned it over. They went back to the one they liked best as Jaidyn came back with our drinks.

“Have you decided on what you’d like?” she asked them, then smiled at me.

“Yes we have, My name is Luis and this is my brother Rico. I will order for my brother and myself. We want the large bar-b-que pork sandwich and a large order of fries and we would both like the sandwiches extra hot please,” Luis sounded just like Bobby and I had to smile and wink at him when he looked up at me.

Rico was sitting on the outside, looking up at her. I could tell he was looking her over good and knew before he opened his mouth he was about to make friends with her.

“You are very pretty, like our Mamas, are you Mexican?” he asked, surprising me with his manners.

“No, my mother was Cuban, my father was American, so I am a mixed up Cuban,” she told him and smiled.

“Rico is right, you are very pretty. Do you live here now?” Luis asked her.

I knew I better head this off, no telling what these two boys would come up with next. They sounded just like Meghan and Kelly when they meet a pretty girl and want to take her in.

“Yes, I live here. I was going to University of Memphis, but I may have to go back to Florida to live with my grand momma, she is in poor health. May I have your order sir?” She looked at me.

“I’ll have the same as them, but make mine mild,” I smiled and she did too. Pretty smile.

“We’re going to Florida to live, we’re The Murphys, we’re going to live on a big naked resort there, aren’t we Murphy?” Rico said.

I knew it, I just knew it.

“Yes we are, but Jaidyn may not want to know all that information.”

“What part of Florida, I went to a nude resort a few times when I was a teenager, with my mother and father. Before they were killed in a car accident.”

“We’re up next to the Alabama line in the panhandle, north and east of Pensacola. We’re up near Blackwater River State Forest”

“Really, my grand momma lives in Pensacola, that sounds like where we went years ago,” she smiled really big, then she was gone with our order.

Damn, she sure looks good walking away in that short skirt and her legs are longer than I thought. Hair just like Valeria and Gabriela too. Down past her butt even.

“She sure looks good, don’t she Papa Murphy?” Luis asked.

“Yes she does, almost as good as your Mama and Aunt Gabby, when she walks away.”

“Can we take her with us Papa Murphy? To see her grand momma,” Rico asked.

“Boys, we can’t be asking girls to go home with us like this, we could get in trouble with the law if she thinks we’re trying to hurt her or something.”

“We’ll tell her we’re not gonna hurt her. You got our Mama and our Granny to go, why can’t we ask her to go? Luis and I really like her, I bet she is a lot of fun too, don’t you Luis?” Rico pleaded.

“Look boys, don’t get upset. I’ll make a deal with you. We’ll ask her if she’s going back soon. If she is, we’ll ask her if she would like to meet your Mamas, but you can’t tell her you have three Mamas.”

Damn, I just know this is going to get all balled up. I wish Meghan and Kelly were here.

I had no more than had the thought, when she called. I hate talking on a cell phone in a public place, but answered when I saw her number.

“Hey Baby, how’s it going?”

“We’re through, we called home and no answer, where are you and the boys?”

“We’re getting a sandwich at Corky’s on Poplar, we just ordered, are you close by?”

“Three blocks away, hang on Baby, the Murphy women are knocked up and wound up too. I wish we could all five fuck you right there on a table.”

“All of you are?”

“YESSSSS, Victoria is knocked up all the way to her big titties, I just knew you would plant that Murphy seed in their womb. Murphy, you better eat a big meal and get some rest, she wants some of your ass as soon as we get home.”

“Tell her to bring it on. Y’all come on over, I’ll tell the boys and we’ll get a bigger table.”

“We’ll be there in three minutes.”

“That was Mama Meg, they’ll be here shortly, they’re going to eat with us.”

“Yeahhhhhh,” Rico cheered.

“Can we ask them to take Jaidyn with us?” Luis asked, grinning.

“Tell you what, lets just let them talk to her, I bet they’ll make it happen.”

“Can I just whisper one little whisper to Mama Meg about her?” Luis asked.

“Like what?”

“Like, I think she sure is pretty.”

“OK, just that one little whisper, then you will see how us men can get the women to do the things we want them to do.”

“Yeah, I like that Papa Murphy,” he grinned.

Jaidyn came back and I told her we had more family coming unexpectedly and would need a larger table. She moved us over to the center of the room to a big round table.

We had just sat back down when the door flew open and I heard the Murphy jingle.

Oh Hell.

Hey, Hey, we’re the Murphys

We’re gonna have some fun

We’re headed down to Florida

Livin naked in the sun.

I jumped up when Luis and Rico did, they were dancing and singing along. I was trying to get them to stop before we were thrown out. There were only a few couples and a few scattered people eating at this time of the day. They all looked up when the singing started and I looked around for the manager.

He didn’t show up, but Jaidyn came back smiling that beautiful smile and the singing stopped.

“Oh My God, is this our waitress?” Meghan asked.

I knew she would. I can see the wheels turning.

She looked at Kelly, they both looked at Maren, Valeria and Victoria. Here we go.

“Meghan, this Jaidyn. Jaidyn, this is Meghan, Kelly, Valeria, Maren and Victoria, and yes, we’re all the Murphys,” I introduced them.

“May I have your drink orders? I’ll get those for you while you look at the menu,” she said with that cute accent and pretty smile. This girl was in for a cyclone ride if she wasn’t careful.

“We all want bottled water please and a small bar-b-que salad each,” Meghan said, then they all exchanged looks again as they stood to allow me to seat them. I looked across the table and Luis and Rico were seating Valeria and their Granny.

“Oh My God, I could just scream, that makes me so happy to see those two learn so fast,” Meghan said.

Valeria and Victoria grabbed the two boys and hugged them.

I looked at them and we shared a wink before the three of us sat back down. I noticed that Luis had managed to leave a seat on the other side of Meghan and he quickly sat beside her.

I watched as he looked around, then looking at me, before he tapped her on her arm. This kid is only four, here he is about to play on his Mama Meg’s sympathy toward all young girls, to get what he wants.

Conniving little shit.

I watched as he pulled her hair back so he could whisper in her ear, holding his cupped hand up to cover his whisper. She looked at him, then whispered to him as Jaidyn brought their water.

Here we go.

“Jaidyn, that’s such a pretty name for a pretty girl like you, how do you spell it?” Meghan asked, squinting at her name tag.

“J-A-I-D-Y-N, I really like it and my mother said it was her mother’s name too.”

“I love it, where are your folks from?” Kelly asked.

“My mother was from Cuba, she came here in a boat as a young girl and she met my daddy, he was American and they got married. He was in college and he became a teacher and we moved to Pensacola, then he and my mother were killed four years ago in a car accident.”

“Oh Baby, I’m so sorry. Do you go to school up here now?” Kelly asked.

“Yes, I’m a Junior at UM, but I may need to go back to Pensacola to be with my grand momma, she is not well.”

“Does she live in Pensacola too?” Valeria was in on it now.

“Yes, she lives there in my mother and daddy’s home.”

“What are you majoring in, I graduated from UM last spring,” Maren was in the mix now.

Jaidyn needs to just throw up both hands and surrender.

“I’m specializing in special education and I’m taking computer science and programming too, but I want to teach boys and girls, Luis and Rico’s age.

She was done now, stick a fork in her. That did her in.

“If you go back, will you continue your education?” Meghan asked.

“Oh yes, I have already signed up for an online correspondence course to get my degree. This is something I promised my mother I would do before she died.”

“I know we’re keeping you from your job, what time do you get off?”

“I get off at 4:00.”

“Can we all meet with you, after you get off? We may have something you’d be interested in,” Kelly said

“But I’m not sure I’ll be staying here.”

“I mean in Florida, we own the Little Beaver Nature Resort.”

“That’s the name of the one we went to, I remember that name. You mean you own it?”

“Yes, we just bought it in August and we’re adding on and making a lot of changes. We need to talk about your future Jaidyn,” Meghan told her.

“But I want to be a teacher, if there’s anyway possible.”

“There is a way possible and we can make it happen, will you please meet with us? We’ll meet you anywhere, or you can come to our house,” Kelly was involved now and she was determined to help this young girl.

“You have customers waving for you Jaidyn, go take care of them, we’ll wait on you. Do you have a car?” Kelly asked.

“No, I have to take a taxi to work and back because it’s so far, I walk everywhere else.”

“Go, then get your sexy ass back over here when you get off work, now get, before I take you over my knee,” Kelly laughed.