Chapter 2

Jack invited his friends inside for lunch. While they were eating sandwiches and chips, washed down with Colorado Cool-Ade (Coors Beer) Jack discussed his thoughts about a place for the two men to live. He said, “I hate to see all the empty houses here in town. I know there are several for sale and some for rent. You could buy a house and if it needed it we could fix it up for you to live in. These are almost all older houses so shouldn’t cost much as houses go. You could probably rent a decent place for about half your GI bill payment per month. Certainly no more than two thirds of it. Of course that wouldn’t be a fancy place or too large.”

Rat said, “Naw, I don’t want to own no place. I seen Maw and Pa all the time trying to fix this or that and it got darn expensive. One of my buds back home lived with his folks in a rented house. Something broke they just called the owner and he had to fix it. That’s for me. Besides, there’s no way I can afford a down payment on a place, much less the upkeep, insurance, taxes and so forth even if I could make the payments.”

“Well how about this. We’ll look over the houses here in town for sale and if you find one you like that isn’t too expensive I’ll buy it and charge each you half your GI Bill education checks each month for rent. You’ll have to work for me 20 hours a week to make up the rest of the rent. We’ll fix up your house first then you’ll do whatever else I need for you to do. After you finish your schooling you can keep renting from me if you stay around here and we’ll renegotiate the rent or you can buy the house from me.”

“Heck, that don’t sound bad. We’ll go check out that school tomorrow and then if I decide to go we’ll talk about the house some more. Now, what do ya do for fun and excitement around hereabouts?”

“Not much unless you like to fish, swim or hunt in season unless you drive to a larger town. There are a couple Honky Tonks closer that mostly only serve beer. Weekends you can dance with the bar flies and usually pick up some pussy if you need it. I mostly just hang with some of the guys I went to school with or work on my places here in town. Sometime we go down to the river and party with their old ladies.”

“Well I guess that’s better than getting shot at by Charlie. That’s about all we could do back home too. Change your duds if you need to and let’s find one of those Honky Tonks for now.”

The next couple days were spent walking through the small town looking over the obviously empty houses, then trying to find out who owned them and if they would sell. By Friday the three friends had a list of 13 houses that could be purchased and, to their surprise, three business buildings and the old hospital. The old hospital was structurally sound and had been used as a hangout by the local kids for several years after it closed. The men found an unlocked door and wandered through it one morning. The kitchen still contained the old ranges, sinks and other equipment. Many of the rooms were still filled with the chairs, beds and other equipment. Some of the medical supplies were in the stockrooms. The hospital had a clinic with doctors offices on the ground floor along main street with a common waiting room. The cafeteria, laboratory, two operating rooms, and pharmacy were to the rear on the ground floor.

After their tour of the hospital Jack and the guys were sitting in his yard under the “beer drinking tree” sucking down the suds. He said, “I think most of the houses we looked at can be redone pretty easily if you don’t want fancy. A couple of them aren’t fit to renovate but I would guess ten can be and of those ten six wouldn’t take much money to make them real comfortable. Heck, even the old hospital can be redone into apartments and other useful space. Did you see anything you were interested in?”

Puss looked over at Rat then turned to Jack and said, “Well Gimp, I saw a couple I liked ok but I’m still not sure this is the thing for me.”

Rat said, “Oh come on Puss. What the hell else you got going on? It’s nice here and no one’s fucking with us. We can go to this trade school and get our school check and live easy for a while. The Army owes us that much after ‘Nam. Let’s do it for now and if we decide its not for us we haven’t lost anything. Besides, it should be easy if we take the schooling in what we did in the Army.”

The rest of the summer the three friends worked fixing up two houses Jack bought and working on the old drug store and Jack’s house. In early August Jim came to see Jack and he brought the Attorney that handled the estate. After the greetings Jim said, “Jack there was more to your inheritance than we told you when you got the deeds to the store and house here in town. Your grandfather left specific instructions that the remainder of your inheritance would not be given to you unless and until certain actions were taken by you. He further required we not tell you about the secret instructions because he wanted you to make the decisions about your future with no outside influence.

“This summer you’ve proven his faith in you was not misplaced. We’re here to give you the remainder of your inheritance because you’ve met the final requirements to receive it. You weren’t to be given the balance unless you decided to repair his house and live here in town. You were also to be given a separate amount if you elected to return to college and you’ll receive another, final payment if you obtain a degree.”

The attorney opened his briefcase and handed Jack a check for $250,000.00. He said, “This is the amount set aside for you to use in renovating buildings here in town if you decided to remain and inhabit your grandfather’s home. In addition, Mr. Fielding owned the old hospital and all the buildings on that side of main street. They are now yours as well as the house and Sundries store.”

“What! What am I supposed to do with them? Wait, I thought the hospital was for sale? I found a listing for it at the real estate office when I was looking for a house to buy and rent to my friends.”

“Yes, it was for sale but only if it was reopened as a medical treatment facility. At the minimum that meant a doctor’s office, but preferably a small outpatient clinic or hospital for minor illnesses and injury. You can still leave it listed to sell if you want, or you can do anything else with it you wish.”

“Oh. Well crap. I don’t know what to do. Do you have any other surprises for me or is this it?”

Jim laughed and said, “No Jack. This is it now, I promise.” He reached out and handed Jack a large key ring filled with keys and continued speaking, “Here are the keys to the hospital and the remaining buildings. Each key’s labeled for the building and door it fits. We’ll be going now. Have fun deciding what to do with all this real estate.”

After the men left Jack sat on his porch drinking beer, staring out over his yard. Rat and Puss came out with their beer and sat with him. Rat said, “You look like you got kicked in the nuts Gimp. You got problems?”

“Yeah, no. Crap, I don’t know. I just found out Gramps left me more old falling down buildings and I have no idea what in the hell to do with them. shit, this town’s dead. What the hell am I going to do with a hospital, garage and a couple of old store buildings in addition to the Sundry store?”

“Heck, I don’t know but why worry about it now? We have school and other work to do. Come on, let’s have some more beer.”

Time and school went on. Jack was not one of those people that could just lay around though so during breaks and evenings when his school work was caught up he worked on his buildings. After all, he had the money and he hated to see buildings fall into disrepair and fall down. All he did at first was replace broken windows and rotten wood, then he decided to paint the exterior.

One Friday just before summer break Puss brought a skinny redheaded girl home with him. He saw Jack on main street so stopped and introduced him to Gina. “Hey Jack, this is Gina, a friend from school. Gina, this is Jack but we call him Gimp ‘cause he got hurt some and gimped around a lot. When he gets tired he still Gimps some.”

Gina smiled and held her hand out to shake as she said, “Good to meet ya Gimp. Ron and Rat talk about you a lot at school.”

Puss said, “Gina’s in the mechanic school with me and RAT. Well, not really with me. She’s studying small engine repair and I work on the cars ya know. Anyway, we see each other a lot and, well, I guess you could say we’re a couple now. She’s gonna spend the weekend here with us. We still fishing tomorrow?”

“Planned on it. I already have my stuff the truck. Want me to pick you up or we meeting somewhere?”

“Come by the house when you’re ready. You can bring Rat can’t ya? Gina’ll ride with me and we’ll follow you.”

The rest of the summer Gina became a fixture in Sweetwater. By now, all three of the young men had met ladies and they were in town with them many weekends. Jack couldn’t seem to settle on just one and, at present, he was without. Rat seemed to be happy dating a young woman that had been a Corpsman in the Navy. She was in the nursing program at the Vocational school.