Chapter 26: Moving

A week after the wedding – Ashley and Lynn were enjoying their Mediterranean cruise – Trudy’s house became their collective property. DiRosa construction had finished the modifications while DiRosa security had burglar-proofed windows and doors. An unobtrusive, state-of-the-art alarm system had also been installed. Most kitchen appliances were new while the cozy character of the old, mahogany wood kitchen cabinets and furniture was preserved.

Trudy had settled in her apartment over the studio and was quite happy there, while Helen was staying at the old apartment with Danny. They both spent three days packing up their stuff in boxes, and then the moving company drove up with three burly men. Boxed were loaded onto the truck, beds and other furniture were disassembled, and then everything was driven over to their new house. Here, Helen with Irina’s support, directed the movers where to unload what and what to assemble where until the moving truck was empty, all boxes and blankets had been folded up, and all three movers were properly tipped.

In the meantime, a cleaning crew descended on the old apartment while Danny removed the lock and the deadbolt and replaced everything with the carefully stored old lock cylinder and lock mechanism. The traces of installation were carefully sealed with putty, and everything was emptied.

The carpets were still moist from the shampooing, so after another careful, barefoot control round filmed using his smartphone and done together with the foreman of the cleaning crew, Danny locked up the apartment leaving two windows open for the place to dry out. The plan was to hand over the keys to Clusky in the next week. He drove over to the house then to pick up Helen and Larissa, and they spent the night at the Westbrook’s penthouse.

The next morning saw them at the house early where they began to sort their stuff and move in. By noontime, the kitchen and Larissa’s room were ready, and they sat and had an improvised lunch. Over the afternoon they managed to stow away almost everything as best they could, and come six p.m. they were ready to spend the first night in their new house. Both were too beat to cook a dinner and instead had pizza delivered, but they ate at their new dining table, and with their new china and silverware.

On the next day, they pretty much rested from their labors, except for a groceries run they performed to stock up refrigerator and pantry. Afterwards they took Larissa and strolled around the neighborhood. Wherever they saw people outside in their street, they stopped to introduce themselves, and most of their new neighbors greeted them friendly enough. Most knew Helen anyway, since she had lived in the street for over three years.

Irina joined them for dinner, this time a home-cooked lasagna. She had some news too. The merger of Westbrook Inc. with the smaller Two-Bucks retail chain was progressing quickly now. While most of the senior staff at Westbrook would remain and answer to Marsha once she would take over, Marsha would bring a few trusted staff members from the Two-Bucks to her new job. One of them would be Irina. Her future job title was not settled yet, but she would oversee the supply chain under the current COO. Danny envisioned an even bigger Mercedes in Irina’s future.

The following weekend was quiet for them. Tyler and Marsha had already driven down to Kitty Hawk to start their annual vacation there, but Danny planned to hand over the apartment to Clusky and to get the deposit back. For that purpose, he was accompanied by the Westbrooks’ real estate lawyer when he showed up at the apartment at the agreed time.

They ascended the three flights of stairs to find the waiting Clusky who was looking at Danny with undisguised loathing.

“Finally! Do you think I have all day for this?”

Danny looked at his watch. They had made the appointment for 10:30 a.m. and now it was 10:26.

“Keep your shirt on, Clusky. We’re even four minutes early,” Danny shot back. “This is Mr. Claymore, our real estate counsel.”

He fished the key from his pocket and opened the apartment door. Clusky wanted to barge in, but Danny held him back.

“We had the carpeting shampooed. Are your shoes clean?”

Clusky actually checked his soles and then took off his shoes. Danny had his doubts whether his socks were any cleaner. They all entered the apartment, and Clusky began to inspect everything. Danny could tell that the man desperately wanted to find something, anything, but the cleaning crew had done a great job. After twenty minutes of fruitless inspection, Clusky finally threw in the towel and signed the release note. Then he pulled a checkbook from his back pocket and wrote out a check, handing it to Danny.

“So long, Clusky,” Danny said genially.

Out on the street, Danny shook hands with Mr. Claymore and invited him to have coffee somewhere, but the lawyer excused himself. Danny could still tell that he was still pleased to have been invited by the big man’s son and possible heir.

Returning to their house, Danny found that Helen was not at home, but there was a note telling him that she was over at Trudy’s apartment with Larissa. He suspected that he would have a few hours of time to himself before they would return, so he started cleaning up the backyard. Over the years, a lot of unused and broken items had accumulated, mostly in the galvanized metal shed at the rear end of the property. He found Trudy’s old lawnmower which supposedly was still functional. Being an inner city kid, he did not know the first thing about lawnmowers or small combustion engines, but he found a few tips and hints on the internet, and within an hour he had the mower running. Checking the engine oil, he could see that Trudy had not been much about maintenance, and after consulting the internet again and a run to a hardware story, the oil had been changed, the spark plug renewed, the foam air filter washed in gasoline, and the little engine was idling peacefully. It took him a lot of dishwashing detergent — another tip from the internet — to get oil, rust and grease off his hands, but he could clear away his tools and then run the little mower all over the backyard. That done, he could finally rest on the rickety old deck chair Trudy had left behind.

Not for long though, because Helen chose that moment to return. At least, she immediately saw what he had done and gave him a kiss.

“You are useful,” she grinned. “Did you get the old mower to run?”

“It took a while, but it should be okay now. I guess the oil in the mower was still there from the original purchase.”

“Is that bad?” Helen asked innocently.

“Let’s just say, it should be changed once a year.”

“Oh! I guess it was overdue then. So, what do you say? Think we should leave day after tomorrow?”

They were planning to join Tyler and Marsha in Kitty Hawk. Danny nodded.

“Sounds good. That gives us tomorrow for packing. Jeez, this’ll be our first real together vacation.”

“You’re right. I’m really looking forward to it. How was the appointment with Clusky?”

“He was pissed off because he couldn’t find a thing to complain about. Then again, without Mr. Claymore, he might have tried something, but I could see him swallow when I introduced Claymore as ‘our real estate counsel’. I think he was too scared to try anything.”

“Good. I want us to relax over the next two weeks. No problems, no irritations, just you, me and our little terror.”

“Whom we can unload on Marsha and Dad!”

“Exactly. Now go and shower. You stink a little. Have you eaten yet?”

“No. You?”

“A snack at Trudy’s. Let me prepare a late lunch while you shower.”

Twenty minutes later, he sat down at the dinner table. Larissa was in her booster chair already and happily gnawing on a piece of crusty white bread, while Helen served them an omelette with tomato and mushroom slices. It tasted delicious, and he told Helen.

“Thanks,” she smiled. “I actually enjoy cooking.”

“You’re getting better with it too. Now, with Lynn chipping in and Ashley ordering pizza on her days, we’ll have dinner duties less than two days per week.”

“She’s really hopeless, Ashley I mean.”

“She can do it if she really tries, but it’s not her thing.”

“Well, she has other good sides.”

“True that. I hope they’re having fun.”

“They will. Come on! Island hopping in a chartered yacht! How can that not be fun?”

“Sea sickness?” Danny hazarded.

“It’s not the Atlantic. The Mediterranean in summer, how bad can that be?”

“You’re right. They will be all right. Maybe you and I can do something in the same vein next year?”

Helen grinned. “You can stop right now. You already talked me into it.”

“Any particular places you want to see?”

Helen nodded. “How about northern waters? North Sea and Baltic Sea. We could see St. Petersburg, the Baltic states, Sweden, maybe Scotland.”

“Just not Finland,” Danny laughed, setting off Helen into giggles too.

“Deal.”

Two days later, they were on the road south. Danny had also replaced the old Volkswagen station wagon with a Mini Cooper Clubman model, offering a modicum of (small) family friendliness and a much increased coolness factor. Helen had complained about the Volkswagen mom bomb for some time, and now she was happily piloting her new toy southward. Danny missed the size and comfort of the Volkswagen, but then again, he had hardly ever driven it himself, much preferring his own Cooper which was even smaller than the Clubman.

Arriving in time for the afternoon coffee, they quickly unloaded the car and joined Tyler and Marsha on the deck of the vacation home. The house felt a little empty without Ashley and Lynn, but that was how things were. After coffee, they all went for a stroll on the beach, with Larissa now big enough to walk all by herself without falling down very often. At first look, Danny and Helen did not see any familiar faces, but then again, it was late afternoon and most people had left the beach already.

As Helen had predicted, the next two weeks were all about being together. With Marsha and Tyler available as backup, Danny and Helen took beginner’s lessons in surfing, using rented equipment from the surf shop. They had some fun with it, but they were honest enough to admit that they were anything but naturals. Still, doing things together and even failing together further cemented their relationship.

One week into their stay, they finally met Rosalind on the beach. She was with an unassuming guy named Fred Lister, her boyfriend as she told them with a little blush, and she was staying at the family house with him. Fred was a first year med student at Johns Hopkins, and Rosalind’s mother fully approved of him. To Danny, he seemed to be a nice enough guy, but a bit too old for his age, even for a family guy like Danny. Rosalind seemed to like him though. They exchanged phone numbers and proposed to have dinner somewhere while in Kitty Hawk, but that never worked out during their stay.

The second week passed quickly too. Danny and Helen gained some skill on the surfboards, they walked the beach with Larissa, and they had quiet dinners with Marsha and Tyler. In contrast to the previous year’s drama, the stay in Kitty Hawk was a real vacation, and when they locked up the house on the next weekend and drove back to Philadelphia in a two-car convoy, Danny was as relaxed as he had ever been. Again sitting in the passenger seat, he watched his girl as she drove, smiling a peaceful smile.

“Penny for them,” Helen remarked after a while.

“Just being happy,” Danny answered. “Enjoying the sights.”

“You’re staring at me.”

“That’s what I’m enjoying.”

Helen chuckled softly. “Boy, we’re kinda boring.”

“I can spot you at the wheel and you can look at me,” he offered.

“Goof! Nope, I like driving this car.”

“And I like watching you driving this car. Everybody wins.”

“Sounds like it,” Helen admitted. “So, what’s up next week?”

“No plans yet. How about another road trip? Ever been to DC?”

“No. You?”

“Nope. Then again, it’s 100 degrees in Washington this time of the year.”

“Philly’s not any better.”

“Good point. Washington then?”

“Hell, yes! Let’s see something. The summer break will be over soon enough.”

“Okay. I’ll find us a hotel once we’re back home.”

Just like that, three days later they were in Washington DC, milling around on the Mall with thousands of other tourists, catching a glimpse of the White House, visiting museums, taking a towboat tour out of Georgetown, and taking Larissa to the National Zoo.

For the heck of it, they spent another day in Baltimore on the return trip, visiting the harbor and the aquarium. It was a perfect contrast to the weeks in Kitty Hawk, and they enjoyed it quite a lot. So did Larissa who just loved zoos and aquariums.