Chapter 76

Mikah rode in her seat on the rear of the trike, while I pedaled to the city park. I had recently added an extra loop around a residential block into make my pedal part of the ride, to make it longer. I wore a ski mask under my bike helmet which made me look somewhat evil, but it did keep me warm. I had slit small holes the mask to allow the wings of sunglasses to slip inside it. All the little details would have been too much for most people, but I loved them.

I found a secure handle bar bag on ebay. It allowed me to pack my camera for easy access. The Trike was a real fun machine for both Mikah and me. I took pictures of the wildlife, while Mikah chased them.

When I got back to the car wash from my morning bike ride, which was a lot less pleasant than it had been before the first cold front of the year came visiting. When I checked, I had a message on my phone. The message was simple. ‘Call me.Mica.’ The time stamp on the message was 7AM. The phone’s clock read 8:15.

“What’s today’s emergency?” I asked.

“Did my message have a 911 tag,” she asked. “I don’t think so.”

“Okay I stand corrected. So what is up. By the way Effie is a really smart and a hard working girl you should be proud of her,” I explained.

“Not to mention a beautiful and sexy girl, you perv. What I’m calling you about it is the spare room, the kids fixed up. Is Janet really moving back?” she asked.

“Honestly, I haven’t a clue. But if she wants to visit while we work on the next season’s screen play, it’s okay with me. She only bothers you, because you let her,” I explained.

“She is the Devil,” Mica said with a laugh.

“I hope, now that she is successful, she will be a little less intense,” I said.

“She is more demanding than any man I ever dated,” Mica explained.

“I don’t need to know any more,” I threw it right back at her.

“Come on, you are dying to know what sex with her is like,” Mica said.

“No, I’m dying for something to occupy my time. I have a feeling I’m going to be having more time to spend on some kind of project, now that my rehab is on track. Her next screen play is just the first of those projects. If it’s like the last one, it will make me crazy, but it will keep my mind active,” I explained.

“Yeah, Yeah, you just like having a younger woman fawning all over you,” she said.

“I like having you around sure, but none of you fawn,” I contradicted her.

“Right,” she said. “Well you might be seeing more of me. She emailed me last night. She sent me your new schedule. You don’t really believe she will stick to that, do you.”

“She is going to have to stick to it. I am going to enforce it this time,” I explained.

“Good luck with that. By the way Effie is coming by to oil a desk. I never heard that one before,” Mica suggested.

“She and Jon rebuilt Janet’s desk. You know the one I built with cinder blocks and shelving. They rebuilt it with scraps from the project they worked on. I guess she is going to put a finish on it. I know nothing about it.” I explained.

“Don’t hit on her. I swear, if I fine out you did, I’ll castrate you,” she said without any humor or in voice at all.

“She is my grandson’s girlfriend, what do you think I am,” I said angrily. I was angry because I had a dream about her the night before. It wasn’t about sex, she was just hanging out at the car wash playing with Mikah.

“You are a man, therefore a fucking Dog,” she said to me. “When it comes to a piece of ass, men have no honor.”

“Considering, I’m over sixty years old. I think you can stop worrying,” I tried to explain.

“I’m never going to stop worrying about Effie,” she said. “I’ve got to run, I’m on my way to a call. It’s a breaking and entering of an occupied dwelling.”

“Ah, the good old days,” I said.

I was perfectly happy to drop the call. The electric ceramic heater had been on in the bathroom about ten minutes, so it should be warm enough for my shower. The heater was super efficient in small spaces, so if I didn’t go now it would be a sauna in the bathroom.

Once in the bathroom I stripped off my fleece lined jump suit, then removed my long sleeve white tee shirt, and my briefs. I quickly entered the Fiberglass shower cabinet, where the water was already running. Even though it was going to make it up to forty degrees outside, I had been dressed for the cold wind blowing over the trike.

After my shower, I dressed for my day inside the house. I found a pair of cargo pants and a thermal weaved tee shirt. Finally I put on one of my heavy plaid shirts with buttons. Thia knew a woman who had a sewing machine, so she convinced me to allow her to make a slight alteration to the shirts. The woman buttoned the shirt, then ran a stitch along side the buttons from the bottom to about a foot from the top button. It effectively turned the shirt into a poncho. I loved the first one so much I had her do the stitch on three more shirts. They were each a heavyweight plaid in different colors. I tended to do that. If I found a look I liked, I wore it till everyone was sick of it.

I would have to trade my fishing vest for a thermal vest soon, but for now I still wore the light weight fishing vest over the plaid poncho shirt as I fixed my breakfast. I decided that I wanted eggs, so I cooked them rather than go out. One of the great things about having a daughter, rather than a son, was that she bought the latest counter top appliances. Which meant that three or four year old technology wound up on my counter tops. My appliances which they replaced, wound up in urban ministry’s thrift shop. I thought that it made for a nice circle of life for the small appliances.