Chapter 4

Jeri said she had spent two weeks sleeping on the floor near a kerosene heater wrapped in a quilt with a thick pad of glued together newspapers over and under her. She said she was wearing three suits of jersey sweats all the time.

Crystal explaned that her man Pat had another houseboat at that time. It had been heated with a coal burning fireplace and two gas heaters. They had used kerosene lamps for light and the water had never gone off as it did in parts of the city. Crystal said they had a gas hot water heater and had laid in plenty of food and coal before the storm hit. She told them it had been the most pleasant time of her life.

Adel wondered if she could find something like this to live on, she had ordered a self propelled chair and another van equipped for a handicapped person to drive. She said she could be self-sufficient here. She could afford to get rid of her 'pain in the ass' housekeeper if she lived like this.

Jeri said "I could come live with you and clean house and cook while I finish school." Adel grinned and said "We must find the house boat first honey."

For two hours Crystal and Jeri made love to Adel, she did have feeling in her genitals and had a dozen orgasms while they nursed her tits and used a vibrating dildo on her then each 'ate her out'. After they took Adel to the bath room and she found she could get herself on and off the stool with no help and saw that she could have gotten in and out of the whirl pool tub as well she was convinced that she wanted to live like this.

They dressed and returned to the living room. Ellen woke because of their conversations. She went to her room and put on her clothes. She stayed there playing with her children.

Crystal said Pat had remarked that three more of these barges were to be auctioned at the Corps Of Engineers base across the bay the last of the month. He had said that it was a shame they would be sold to scrap dealers probably.

Crystal asked Adel and Jeri to wait there until Pat came home and she would ask him if he could convert another one to living quarters like this.

Pat came home after another hour, he was surprised to find company. After introductions Crystal explained that both Adel and Jeri were in her ESP group and were like she was. Crystal said Adel was well enough off to live nearly anywhere she pleased but she felt she would be most happy living on a house boat like this. Crystal asked Pat if he could set up another one for her. Pat told Adel that there were three of the barge living quarters being sold at auction by the Corps in two weeks. He asked if she would like to see them.

Adel said she would if Pat could convert one to this kind of home for her. Pat told them that the next day was Sunday and the advertisement had said the barges to be auctioned could be examined then.

Pat invited everyone to breakfast the next morning and then they would all go look at the barges. The time was set for breakfast at seven thirty and everyone was told to wear light clothes, it would be hot.

Jeri took Adel home, she helped her get inside her house. It was a beautiful two-story brick home. Adel said she had not been upstairs since she had been hurt, she told Jeri that Pat and Crystal's home was larger than what she was living in now. Adel was sleeping in what had been a dining room and the small bath downstairs was not convient for a handicapped person. Adel told Jeri she had decided to put her house on the market months ago. She wanted to move to something more suited to her condition. Adel said that she was going to list the house with an agent Monday.

Jeri asked Adel if she could plan on living with her where ever she moved to. Adel told her she could count on that. Adel told Jeri her late husband had the house apraised for the purpose of increasing the insurance coverage six months before he was killed. That apraisal set a value of just over a half million to the house. Adel said with that she could afford something realy nice to live in. Jeri left for home, Adel's housekeeper was fixing their dinner. Jeri would pick Adel up at seven the next morning.

Crystal's breakfast was great, they spent an hour at that and Adel and Jeri got aquainted with Ellen and her children. Rob took to them and Adel made him her friend for life when she slipped him some suggar-cured ham. Ellen suggested that she clean up after they had eaten, she and the children were not going with them across the bay.

Pat helped Adel into his Navigator, Jeri put her chair in back and Pat drove them to the Corps docks. The gate guard gave them directions and a printed description of each of the items to be sold.

Pat found the sales dock and they read the literature concerning the sales items. The three house barges were items 27, 28, and 29. 27 was minus its generator but was the size of Pat's home. 28 and 29 were thirty feet longer and had ten staterooms with twin beds in them. They were built to house twenty men. All three were recently repainted inside and out and were clean. The heat and air was rated as being in excellent shape on all of them. They were all equipped as Pat's had been.

Adel said she liked the smaller one, number 27 the most. She said just she and Jeri would need no more room than that.

Pat offered to rent her the houseboat and the other side of his dock to tie up her new rented home to. Adel promised to be a good neighbor and asked how much he would want for rent. Pat said he would rent it for four hundred a month. Adel laughed and told them she was paying that much for lawn care each month.

Adel asked if the generator could be replaced in her selection. Pat told her it was not worth the bother, he could run a cable to her and she could use current from his generator when needed. He told Adel that his generator was large enough for both homes.

Pat looked at the remainder of two hundred items on the sales list. There were several items he was interested in. There were three Tug Boats in the sale. Six high-speed Crew boats in excellent condition were on the sale list. An asortment of barges were listed, some were hardly used. Pile driving equipment of all kinds was being sold. In a covered shed assorted pumps and repair parts were lined up. There was an assortment of trucks and cars, some were low mileage vehicles

Pat told the ladies that the size of the auction required that it be one of outcry bids. He liked that better, the bids would be known to all the bidders. Written proposals sometimes caused a person to pay more if he wanted to be sure to get an item.

They left the place and went home. Pat helped Adel out of the car and aboard the houseboat. Jeri called home and told her mother she would be late coming home.

Pat called his old classmate Tim Barnes, he had moved the pumps and equipment from Charleston and remodeled Pat's house barge. Tim was in his office that Sunday afternoon. Pat asked Tim if he might drop by. Tim said he was welcome.

Tim Barnes had space rented up the bay toward town, his office was a twelve wide house trailer. Behind was the Bay Shore and a clutter of worn out equipment.

Pat and Tim talked for a bit then Pat mentioned the reason he was there. He told Tim he was about to buy another barge like the one he was living on and he would like Tim and his crew to re-model it like his. He would like Tim to tow it to his pier and do the work there. Tim said he could contract to do the work on the boat but the engine in his small tug was beyond repair. Pat said he wanted some concrete piling driven also. Could Ted do that? Tim told Pat he had not been able to finish his last piling job, his equipment was junk. Every item he had was good for scrap only. Pat asked Tim if he was going out of business. Tim said it looked as if he was. He said his bigest regret was loosing some very good men and failing in an industry that was booming.

Pat asked Tim if he would sell him his busisness and continue to run it for a salary and a quarter of the profits. Tim told Pat he would sell for the twenty five thousand he owed the bank.

Pat said he would go to the bank with Tim the next day and pay off his loan. Pat told Tim to start the next morning cutting that junk up for scrap, he wanted the site cleaned up so the whole operation could be moved to his property up the bay. Pat told Tim that he was going to purchase at least one tug and one piling rig and maybe more. Pat asked if that twenty-year-old Mack truck was still running at the back of the yard. Tim told Pat it was one of the few things that was. Pat told him to use it to haul the scrap.

Two weekends later Pat drove to the auction in a cold rain, Crystal was with hin. Both were dressed in seaman's rain gear. The auctioneer and his crew were under a shed. Rain was coming down so hard the parking lot was not visible.

Promptly at ten the auction started. Pat bid ten dollars for a clamshell bucket, he was the only bidder and bought it. There were three dragline buckets next, Pat bought them for ten dollars apiece. Next were three trailers made for hauling wood or concrete piling. Pat bought them for a hundred each. His was the only bid.

Nine pickups were next all were in good shape, a few had four-wheel drive. Pat bid two hundred for each one, there were no other bids. A GMC surban station wagon was bid for five hundred, a Ford Crown Victoria went for that as well.

Three Mack tractors sold next, Pat bid one thousand for each. The pumps were next on the list. They had been in ten lots in the shed. One by one each lot sold to Pat for twenty dollars.

The rain came down harder. The house barges were next, Pat bought all of them for ten thousand each. The three Tugs were sold to him for two thousand each. Pat bought all of the piling rigs for five thousand each. There were several air compressors and generators, Pat bought each of them for five hundred dollars. There were several stacks of concrete piling. Pat bought them for five hundred a stack. The items on the sales list were sold. Pat had bought it all.

The rain stopped and people got out of their cars and came to the auction, many protested that the auction had already been held in the heavy rain. The auctioneer anounced that the sale was over and that anyone brave enough to stand in that rain and bid could have bought the items they wanted. He told Pat to follow him to the yard office and he could make arraignments to pay. Pat waited while his purchases were totaled. Pat wrote a check for less than two hundred thousand and was instructed to remove his purchases within one month.

Pat and Crystal dropped by Ted's yard, he had a dozen men cutting the last of the scrap. Tim told Pat that this load and one other would clean up the yard. Pat told Tim what he had bought at the auction and he was to start moving the things off the Government yard the next morning. Tim looked at the list and said "You bought enough barges to move the small things over here as soon as we load." Tim said that with the three Tugs he could move it all the next week.

Monday Pat hired a sign company to install a set of posts and paint a sign for Colson Marine Construction Company. It was to be at the head of a concrete road leading off Bay Shore Drive to a large concrete dock at the bay. Sixty-two years before during World War 11 it had been used as dock for off shore patrol boats equipped with depth charges and definding against submarines. Those concrete bulkheads were as good as when they were built.

Pat directed that a Tug bring the large barge with the eighty-ton crane first, it was to be tied off in the middle of the warf. The other two were to bring the house barges and they would be docked bow on to the bulkhead. The trucks were to be driven to the dock.

By the end of the week all of Pat's purchases were moved to the new site. Pat instructed Tim to tow his twelve wide trailer from the place he had rented and hook it up over the sewer and water outlets of the old office site from in the fortys. That was the last thing to be moved. Tim lived in the back of that crummy trailer.

Pat instructed Tim to begin a crew modifying the houseboat for Adel's use. Pat told Tim to gut enough of one of the larger boats to create a fine office and living quarters for himself. The other houseboat was to be rented for twenty dollars a week to crewmembers. They could make their own arraignments for meals. If a man wanted to use the whole cabin for himself or have his wife live aboard that would cost him forty. Each of the ten staterooms had a small bath.

Pat had spent a lot buying the equipment to create a well equipped company and was spending more to give Tim, Adel and the company space. He had Tim send a rig and crew to drive piling for tying Adels barge off.

Pat had water propane gas and a power meter installed for Adel's barge long before her home was ready to dock across from his. Adel was there every day, she had a self-propelled wheel chair and a van equipped for the handicapped by then. She could go as she pleased. Jeri was there every day after school, she had moved away from home and was living with Adel. Adel was paying Jeri more than she had made at her part time job to stay with her.

Three weeks after Pat's men had started on Adel's new home it was ready to bring to Pat's dock. The houseboat was even better set up than Pat's for a wheel chair invalid. Adel had bought all new furniture for her new home. She had new linnens and towells, all new kitchenware and plates. Adel said she was going to buy all new clothes for herself and Jeri. They were going to begin a new life. She did not plan to move more than a trunk full of things from her old house. Jeri said she wanted to forget the poverty she had been in all of her life. She too wanted to begin a bright new future.

Tim began bidding on projects around the bay. Pat told him to bid only projects that no other contractor wanted. He was to price them high and make a good profit. Pat told Tim that no work was better than work that made a poor profit.

Tim began getting busisness for the new company. He was bidding on projects other contractors did not want. Often his would be the only bid. Because of the crappy nature of the projects he was getting he was making huge profits.

One job that he got was removing a hundred year old railroad bridge. Tim used explosives to shear the bridge from its concrete suports. Pat and Crystal were there to watch that bridge span plunge into the water. They were still there talking to Tim when three divers drug a one and a half inch cable out to the bridge span and dove down and attached it. A small work barge was anchored over the bridge and divers were prepaired to go down and cut loose the first section. The large crane tightened up the cable and the section the cable was tied to moved. The crane dragged a twenty-foot section of the bridge up to the bank. Every one had expected to have to cut that section loose with under water cutting equipment. When that section was set out on the bank Pat examined the broken ends of the metal and told Tim that the bridge was built of black iron not steel and the scrap was worth over twice as much as steel.

Tim began custom towing with the three tugs, that became a good part of the cash flow of the business.

Tim was low bidder to the Corps Of Engineers to remove all of the debris in a section of the bay where hundreds of old boats of all kinds had been scuttled. For two hundred years that area had been used as a dump. The contract was by the ton for what ever was removed. There were nineteen steel barges sunk in that ships graveyard. Tim had his Foreman get those first. Each was raised, usually by sealing the topside and pumping air in them. They were towed to the company yard and slid up on the shore. Crews of men were cutting them up for scrap. That scrap was loaded on a barge to be towed to a place on the bay that melted it down.

Tim had three or four construction projects going at all times. He was doing sea walls, Pier repairs, new docks and a few buildings on shore.