Chapter 5: Planning ahead

As we drove through Vancouver to pick up the girls I noticed Sandi had a disturbed look on her face. "Ok, what's up Sandi?"

"Oh nothing I was just thinking." she replied.

"About what?" I inquired.

She turned to me and asked, "Do you think there are more people out there as powerful as you are?"

I wasn't sure how to respond. "I... I don't... know. I guess there could be. Why do you ask?"

She smiled at me as she said. "Well you are really a good-hearted man unless you are pushed, but what if there is someone out there as powerful as you with an evil spirit."

"I never even thought of the possibility," and then my arrogance kicked in. "Besides I'm more powerful than even the circle of light and they were supposed to be the creme del creme."

Then she punched a hole in my hot air balloon. "You are sixteen and you have had your powers for six months and you are still getting stronger right? Well what would happen if you met a talent that was say forty and had his powers for twenty years. Wouldn't he be stronger than you?"

"I see your point but what can we do about it?" I said.

"We can train, but not like before when we were just seeing what you could do. This time we train to push your powers to the limit and then we push them even further." Sandi said.

"You think we can train our selves that intensely" I asked.

"No, we can't, but I know someone who can." she replied.

"Who?" I wanted to know.

"It's more of a them, there is an old castle in the highlands of Scotland that is inhabited by eight men. Each man is a master of his discipline. They are the ones to train us." She explained.

"When do you think we should start?" I asked.

"As soon as possible." she responded.

"What about school and my job?" I asked, and yes I knew I sounded like some one playing 20 questions.

"After you spend a year with these men you will know more than your teachers. As for your job can't you have your work e-mailed to you and when you're done e-mail it back?" she inquired

"Well I would have to check into it but I think so." I said.

"Fine it's settled we leave in one week." she stated matter of factly.

The girls were relieved to see me unhurt and I was glad to see them. My aunt was going to make us stay with her and her husband, but I was able to explain that I had a good job and could provide for my family. She didn't like it one bit but she could see that she could not stop me when my mind was made up.

When we got back to Seattle nobody wanted to go back to the house, so we got a nice hotel room.

I called everyone into the sitting room and said. "Ok we need to have a family meeting-that includes you Sandi, you're a part if this family too."

She looked up at me with a smile and a tear.

I started out by saying, "Ok we need to figure out what we are going to do now that mom is gone. Mom had a will but the house and property will be tied up for a while."

Lisa looked at me and said, "I don't think I will be able to go back into that house after every thing that has happened there."

The twins nodded in agreement.

"So what do you want to do? Sell the house?" I asked.

Kate nodded and said, "I think that would be for the best."

"Ok we sell the house. We can't keep living in hotels. What if we buy a new house? With what I make, I can afford a new house." I said.

Everybody liked the idea.

"Ok." I said. "Sandi and I have to go over seas for a year and Kate will be in charge while I'm gone. You will have money to buy food and clothes and whatever else you will need. You need to finish school, all of you. After we sell the house there will be enough money for you to go to collage Kate, you too Debbie. When I get back, I will finish school. Kate, you have a driver's license and I will get you a car so you can run the errands that will be your responsibility. Lisa your responsibility will be to keep the house clean after you do your homework. And Debbie since you're the best cook, you get to make the meals. I will get a cell phone so you can reach me any time. Any questions."

Lisa looked at me with concern. "Even with what you make in your job how can we afford a new house? I mean they're like $100,000 dollars or more."

"Don't worry I have enough saved to make a very good down payment. Besides I have an idea how to make more." I replied.

The next day I called Brenda (you remember my dream girl) and asked her to set up a meeting with her father who is in real estate. She called me back 15 minutes' later and told me that he could meet me at his office at 11:00 today. I thanked her and told her I owed her big.

I was at Jim's (Brenda's dad) office at 10:45 and was lead right in.

Jim stood and extended a hand to me. "Hello Rick, I'm sorry to hear about your mom."

Shaking his hand I said, "thank you."

"So what can I do for you, Brenda made it sound important." he said as he sat down.

"Well Jim, I am looking for a new house, my sisters and I really don't want to live in the house where our mother died. We also want to sell our old house as soon as it is free of the probate proceedings." I said.

"I see, well I don't see how I can help you because I'm sure you don't have enough money to buy a new house," he said.

"Actually, Jim I have saved about $30,000 for a down payment." I really had $ 49,000 but I didn't want to use it all because I knew that we were going to need furniture and other things.

He looked at me with disbelief. "How did you get that kind of money?"

I grinned with a cocky sort of grin. "I work for Microsoft in software security."

"Well I am impressed, let me see what I have on the market. How big were you thinking?"

"Well I was thinking about five bedroom, three bath and about 5000 sq. feet on about one or two Acers." I replied.

"I see you have put some thought into this. That narrows it down to three houses. One is in Kirkland but its on five and a half an acre. The other two are in Renton." he stated.

"Do you have time today to show them to me?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact I do. Lets go." he said.

We went to the house in Kirkland first. As we pulled up, I noticed that tall shrubs and wrought iron fence with a security gate surrounded the property. "Nice." I said.

"Yes it is but wait till you see the inside." He said as he punched in the security code to open the gate. He drove up to a very large 3-story house with marble columns on the front.

He led me to the front door where he punched in another code to let us inside. The foyer was huge and made of marble. Jim let me look for a few minutes then said. "This house has eight bedrooms, five bathes, a formal dining room, a common room, a study, two dens, a restaurant style kitchen, a 3-car garage and an indoor pool."

"Wow, how much?" I asked

He looked at me and said, "Actually I own this house. I bought it at a D.E.A. auction. It used to belong to a drug dealer that the D.E.A. busted. I was going to sell it for $450,000 but I'm going to make you a deal for$350,000 and I will carry the mortgage because no bank will deal with a 16-year-old on a loan of this size."

"Are the other two houses this nice?" I inquired.

"No and they are about as much money." he said.

"Ok we will take it." I said.

"Great lets go back to my office and do the paper work." he said with a smile.

After three hours of paper work, Jim and I were happy with the deal of $30,000 down and payments' $3,000 a month for 161 months ending with a balloon payment of the remaining balance.

After he gave me the keys and the codes to the house, I shook his hand and turned to leave.

"Oh Rick, I almost forgot," as he reached in to his desk and pulled out an envelope. " Brenda wanted me to give this to you. Enjoy the house."

I took the envelope and thanked him. Out in the car I looked at the envelope, on the front Brenda had written "don't open until you're alone." Well I was alone now so I opened it.

Dear Rick,

You told me that you owed me and I know how I want you to repay me. I know you are shy around people you don't know. I also know that you have had a crush on me since you first saw me. What you did not know is that I have wanted you to ask me out for a very long time. Now that you 'owe me big' I would like you to take me out on a date. It doesn't have to be any thing fancy just as long as it is just the two of us. I would like to get to know you without people that we know around making judgments.

Give me a call and let me know if and when you would like to go out.

Brenda

I thought nothing could surprise me but I guess I was wrong. I had no idea that she felt that way about me. As much as I wanted to devote the rest of the day to planning a night out with Brenda, I had other things I had to do first.

After I left Jim's office, I went to Satnet and got a cell-phone that used a satellite to relay signals any were in the world. It cost me $500 for the phone plus $120 a month for service, but it was worth it for my peace of mind.

Then I called a friend at work and asked him if he knew any stockbrokers. He did and gave me his name and office address. That was my next stop.

When I was shown into Mr. Kempt's office he stood and shook my hand then said. "Steve called and said you would be coming over."

"Thank you for seeing me on short notice, and I will get straight to the point. I have $8000 I would like to invest in the market." I said.

"Ok, do you have any preferences as to the stock you want to invest in?" He asked.

"I would like to buy $2000 worth of Microsoft but the rest I leave to your discretion. I am looking for quick gains, if you can make me $100,000 in under a year then I will give you a $10,000 bonus above your fee." I said.

"Well that's an incentive if I've ever heard one, you have a deal." he replied.

"Okay here is $8,000. Thank you for your time." As I handed him the bundle of $100 dollar bills.

"No thank you. I will treat it as if it were my money." he said and I could see he meant it.

After I left Mr. Kempt's office, I went to the bank and withdrew $5000 for the plane tickets and a car for Kate.

I found a blue & gray 88 Chevy s-10 blazer for $2500. So I bought it for Kate. I paid the sales man $50 to have it delivered to the new house in an hour. Then I went to the hotel to get the girls and take them to their new house. When I pulled into the driveway, the girls started screaming and laughing. They couldn't believe this was their new house. Earlier I had all of our furniture and belongings moved to the new house so there was a huge pile of boxes and furniture in the common room. When I got inside the girls gave me a group hug and saying thank-you. Then they all ran off to claim their rooms except Lisa.

"Do you expect me to clean this house by my self?" she asked with wide eyes.

I smiled and said, "No. I will hire a cleaning crew to come in once a week to clean. You just have to straighten it up during the week."

She smiled and ran off to claim her room. After everyone claimed their rooms, we set to the task of putting our things where they belonged.

At 6:00 I heard someone buzz the front gate and went to see whom it was. It was Kate's new truck, I opened the gate and told the driver to put it in the garage. I tipped the driver and sent him on his way.

Kate was up in her room so I called her on the intercom and asked her to come help me put some stuff away in the garage, then turned out the light and waited for her to arrive.

When the door opened she called out my name and I said, "Over here by the workbench."

"I can't see you" she said.

"Then turn on the light, it's at the bottom of the steps." I replied.

When the lights came on, she was two feet from her truck, her eyes got as big as platters.

"How do you like your new ride?" I asked.

"I love it. Oh thank you!" she said as climbed into the 4x4. I handed the keys to her through the open window. She took the keys and then grabbed my collar and pulled me in the window where she kissed me on the lips. It was a quick kiss and she looked embarrassed afterwards so I did what I thought was right and left so she could check out her truck.

I went to my new room and finished unpacking. Afterwards I ordered pizza for dinner. I didn't feel like cooking. After dinner my sisters went upstairs to finish their unpacking. "I'm going for a walk on the grounds, would you like to join me?" I asked Sandi.

"Most definitely" she said as she squeezed my ass.

Just as we got up, we heard Kate call down. "Hey Sandi, can you come up here for a second?"

Sandi looked at me and said. "I guess I'll take a rain check on that walk." Then she trotted to the stairs.

Well I was kind of tired, "I'll take my walk later" I said to myself.