Chapter 175: Welcome to my home

Thursday, June 24, 1971

“Good morning,” Sandy said gently. She was dressed, and sitting on the foot of the bed. Her bed, in the main house. There had been no one home when I got here last night, and I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow.

“Good morning to you,” I said as I got out of bed, stretching. “Which way is the bathroom?”

Sandy nodded towards the door to the ensuite bath. I left it open so I could hear her as she told me about her overnight flight and the helicopter ride from the airport to the ranch.

“Maybe you should talk to your family about adding a helicopter landing pad?” I suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea. Mom and Dad are waiting breakfast on you,” she informed me.

“I love you,” I said as I stepped out of the bathroom, having completed my morning routine. Pulling her into my arms, I kissed her. “Clothes?”

“Just throw on your robe. We’ll decide at breakfast where we’re going after we talk to my parents.”

Sandy led the way downstairs to a large kitchen-dining room. Both the General and his sister, Sandy’s parents, were in the dining room, at one end of a table that was large enough to seat ten or twelve people. They seemed to be going over some paperwork with their morning coffee.

“Good morning,” I said to them as Sandy dropped my hand and headed for the kitchen. In moments, she was back with my first cup of coffee. And another kiss. I started to share my heart with her, but decided this might not be the best time. While Sandy was a very warm and caring individual, her parents were not so demonstrative.

“Well, pooh!” Sandy thought to me as she sighed. “I guess you’re right. They are acting like fuddy-duddy’s this morning.”

“Fuddy-duddy’s?” I started to ask, then thought better of it as I saw where the General was looking.

Jaye just looked at her brother as he studied me up and down without replying. I decided we might as well get this over with, but before I could say anything, Anna came waltzing out of the kitchen, wearing an apron over her shorts and top, and carrying a platter of sausages and bacon.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” she smiled as she sat the platter on the table and bent to kiss my cheek. “You feeling any better this morning?”

Without waiting for an answer, she and Sandy disappeared back into the kitchen, only to return moments later with a platter of scrambled eggs, fresh tortillas, and finely chopped peppers. I noticed the sour cream, pico de gallo, and green chili sauce, were already on the table, along with what smelled like homemade hot-pepper jelly. I unconsciously wiped the drool off my chin with the sleeve of my robe.

“Let’s eat,” she said happily.

Sandy and Anna carried the bulk of the breakfast conversation as I was too busy chowing down. I already knew that Jaye was, by nature, a very quiet person. And this was my first time seeing the General in a setting other than work. It occurred to me that I needed to come up with something other than ‘the General’ to address him by. My next thought caused me to chuckle out loud.

“What?” asked Sandy.

“I was just trying to come up with another way to address the General when we’re not working and it occurred to me that he probably wouldn’t like it too much if I called him ‘Dad’,” I thought.

Sandy laughed and Anna began choking on the bite she had just put in her mouth, looking at me with wide eyes. “Don’t you dare!” she said when she could speak.

“Dare what?” her mom asked.

“Why not?” Sandy asked. “After all, he is going to be their son-in-law and the father of their grandchildren.”

I quickly scanned the General when Sandy mentioned children in the plural. I knew that Anna had not yet told him about the twins. His emotions were jumbled and confused. Not a normal state for him.

Unfortunately, it’s like that with all us guys when it comes to dealing with women we love. And right now, he was trying to deal with my presence and two of the women he loved most in the world, his daughters. When he finally spoke though, it was about the cover story he had told the NSA about Anna ‘finding’ the alien women.

He quickly filled us in on the story of how Anna had discovered the two women on the way to the ranch, and how she found out they were ‘different’ when she tried to treat them. “I don’t know how long I can keep them off of Anna, the Indians, or you,” he concluded. “That will depend on what the aliens tell them, and how much of it they believe. If they start checking, it will only be a matter of time until they put two and two together and find the reservation. That means that they find you as well.”

His last comment was directed at me as I made a mental note to contact Dawn and get the alien parts out of her warehouse.

Since there wasn’t anything I could think of to add to the General’s comment, we moved on to the gold.

“It turned out to only be ninety-four bars. Two seem to be missing,” Anna said. “That would be consistent with what you were thinking about where it came from. It turns out that Doug was already familiar with the story of the two cousins. He said that one of the missing bars may actually be on display at the museum in Denver.”

“Doug?” I asked.

“Doug Simmons is the publisher of the local paper. He showed up with the Sheriff and I didn’t figure it would hurt anything.”

“Okay,” I replied. “Where’s the gold now?”

“It’s in the tool shed, for the moment,” Anna explained. “I hired some of the Sheriff’s deputies to guard it. Vickie called and said that they hired a security company to see to the transfer to a bank. There’s an armored car coming tomorrow to take it to Denver. The assayers will start on it the first of the week.”

That reminded me of something. “Adriana?” I thought to her.

“Huh? Oh. It’s you. I’m in a meeting with Catherine and the attorneys,” Adriana thought back.

“Sorry to bother you. I have a quick question. Do we have a public relations firm for the company?” I asked.

“I’ve been telling mom we should hire one, but we’ve never had one before. Your grandfather and my mom usually handled things,” she replied.

“If I wanted to hire one, do you know of a good one?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. There are a couple of firms that have expressed an interest in working with us for some time. One in particular, I think would be very good.”

“Great. Can you have Vickie or Grace call them and set up a meeting with me?” I asked.

“Sure. When and where?” Adriana asked.

“Tomorrow. Here at the ranch. In the Dining Hall, at noon,” I replied. “Do you think they can make it that fast?”

“Check back with me in an hour,” she said.

“Thanks,” I told her.

“You don’t have to thank me. I love my new job!” she gushed. “I never dreamed I would be the assistant to the president of the company. And I am amazed at how everyone treats me now.”

“I’ll check back,” I told her as I cut the connection. I was glad that they were treating her well.

I then informed the General and Jaye that I was hiring a public relations firm to handle the gold.

“Isn’t that expensive?” Jaye asked.

“That depends on what you think of my next idea,” I told them. “What I’d like to suggest is that you let me buy the gold from you.”

“What?” Jaye and Sandy cried. The General looked at me suspiciously, as Anna just grinned. “So, that’s what was rolling around in your little brain last night,” Anna thought to me.

“Hear me out,” I said. “Because there are some things that I am aware of, things that are going to happen in the future, I’d like to become partners with you. I’ll give you five and a half million now, and another five and a half million within ten years. I’ll take care of everything including the security and the public relations. The tax ramifications will be on you for your half, and I’d like to run all this by Izzy and the bean-counters to find the best way to structure the deal for all of us.”