Chapter 11

Sitting in his new office, Glen looked over the material that Wanda had brought over for him edit. It was the next edition of their e-zine and what he had read so far was actually quite good. He couldn’t believe what the trio had done in just a couple of months. They had actually arranged to have family councilors contribute articles on alternative marriages, readers to contribute letters describing their experiences, and a large number of advertisers.

He had just finished an article by a well known psychologist who wrote about five basic alternative marriage schemes that he had studied. This particular article described the most common alternative; the marriage that included swinging. The author had described how these were often fraught with political desires with one member of the couple pushing for it more than the other. Glen was intrigued by what the author had to say. He hadn’t realized that there were so many varieties of swinging lifestyles. In his opinion, it was an extremely balanced presentation of the pros and cons of such a life style. After reading it, he looked forward to the next installment which was to cover the one man and two women type of marriage.

He went through the articles one at a time, making minor edits to the language but not changing the meaning. Most of them were well written and he didn’t have to make too many changes. Some of the authors employed technical terms, so he added footnotes that would explain them. Sandra had explained to him that they would change his footnotes to links that would popup a small window with his comments.

As he read the articles, he also jotted down some notes that could serve as subjects for future articles. While reading the article on swinging for example, he jotted down a note that a good future article would be on how to start a swinging relationship.

He started on the letters and realized that he now had his work cut out for him. Most of the letters were poorly organized and had significant grammatical problems. Cliff had stressed that all submitters had acknowledged that their submissions would be edited for language and other technical problems.

Some of the letters were so bad that he had to basically rewrite the entire thing. However, most of them were so heartfelt that he had to basically leave them alone, correcting only the grammar and spelling. None of them were pornographic, but dealt with the truly trying issues of living in an alternative marriage. There was one, rather large letter than was not so well written, but the topic was interesting and the subject matter was treated with significant delicacy. He set the letter aside to recommend that they invite the person to expand it into an article and get paid for it.

Everything was going okay until Glen started to read Cliff’s editorial. It was titled, “Is HE Watching?” It was a very balanced presentation about alternative marriages and religion. He hadn’t realized that Cliff was such a good writer. Cliff’s conclusion was that if God was watching, then as long as love was involved then God would be happy. Glen’s stomach felt uneasy as he read the article. He was tempted to ask Cliff to delay publishing this particular article. He wasn’t worried about the reaction of people who believed in a loving God. He was more concerned with those who viewed God as a vengeful deity that would just love to catch humans in the smallest sin.

Glen finished his first pass at editing. He would take another pass tomorrow and then give the material back to them. It was a nice little part-time job for him. He basically took two days a month to edit their journal and make recommendations. They did most of the work and kept most of the money. However, they paid for all of the lead articles and gave subscriptions to folks that submitted letters that were published.

He went to the page that presented information about the e-zine staff. He crossed out his name as editor and decided to change it to a pseudonym. He thought about a name, considering several until he decided on ‘Mark Strawman.’ It was as good a name as any. He read the other names presented there. Cliff was the president, Wanda was listed as the webmistress, Sandra was in charge of advertising, Edward Long was the photographer, and Lesley Wright was the art director. He had no idea who the last two people were, but he assumed they were people that the Metchettes knew from Atlanta. Whoever they were, they were very good. The photographs complemented the articles very well.

There was a knock on the front door and he got up to answer it. Before he got out of his office, he heard Sandra shout, “It’s me.”

He shouted back, “Come in, Sandra.”

She came in the cabin and headed to the kitchen. He came out of the office and heard her rattling around in the kitchen. There was another knock on the back door and Glen went to it. He opened the door and was surprised to see Oliver standing there with a couple of very nice trout. Oliver had been coming over about every other week to fish since his first visit before the Metchettes left. Glen had enjoyed his visits tremendously.

Oliver said, “Hello, Glen. I’ve got a couple of fish here. You need any?”

Glen smiled and answered, “No, take them to your uncle. I know how much he enjoys a nice trout.”

Oliver shrugged and set his creel down on the porch. Straightening, he said, “Well, I thought I would offer just in case. I really appreciate you letting me come out here so often.”

Glen stepped aside as he said, “Come on in. There’s someone here that you might want to see.”

Oliver came in the house and looked around. He spotted Sandra in the kitchen and burst out in a smile. He called to her, “Hey lovely lady. I’m glad to see that you came back to keep Glen happy.”

Sandra heard him and came out of the kitchen beaming. She came over to him and gave him a big hug. Stepping back, she said, “Oliver! What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been fishing. Glen lets me come over and fish. Even though we own a restaurant that serves fish, you just can’t beat the taste of a fresh trout.”

Sandra grinned and asked, “Well, it’s nice to know that you have been coming by to take care of this old grump while we were gone.”

“It’s been my pleasure. It’s a lot of fun to have a fishing buddy and a private stream where you aren’t fighting off a dozen other fishermen.”

Glen led his guest to the dining room table and pulled out a chair for him. They all sat down. Glen asked, “So how is business going?”

Oliver beamed, “Amazing. We keep one or two tables free all the time, but the wait for reservations is almost ten days now. We make more off of tips than we ever did working on our old jobs. The restaurant is making a great profit and we are putting that right back into the business. We went out and bought real crystal glasses and serving glassware. We are upgrading the tables and chairs next.”

Glen appreciated the level of work that Oliver and his family were putting into this enterprise. He asked the question that he had always wondered about, “How did you ever decide on the old south theme with the slavery era costumes?”

Oliver laughed aloud at the question. He answered, “You know, being black we considered what we could do that no one else would even consider. We realized that no business would ask its black employees to dress up like antebellum house slaves. When we researched it, we realized that the costumes that we had picked out were not the outfits worn by slaves, but the kind of garb that freemen wore.”

Glen nodded at the reasoning. Sandra looked puzzled and asked, “So why the theme?”

Oliver laughed and answered, “While that time was not very good for blacks, it was a time of great grace and beauty. In a funny way, it was a romantic time and very few people can resist the charm of it. Having it as a theme probably accounts for half of our business.”

Glen knew that Oliver was far smarter than most people would credit him. He was glad to know that his impression had not been mistaken. He asked, “So do you get much negative talk from your customers?”

“Not really. I think that the antebellum theme has a tendency to make people a little more aware. We also try very hard to provide service without being noticed. You see us moving around the room and going from table to table, but you don’t really notice us at your table. We don’t hear much that is negative. The very few times that someone is really loud and says obviously obnoxious things, other customers have complained to them directly.”

Glen stated, “Well, I was amazed at the quality of service you provide. I was in the business when my wife was still alive. I’ve never seen such care taken in providing good service and excellent food.”

Oliver basked in the complement. He liked Glen and his down to earth honest ways. He said, “I’m really pleased that you said that. We try very hard.”

Wanda listened in surprise as Glen stated, “Well, at the end of the month the next issue of the Metchettes Internet magazine is getting published. I would like to take them out to dinner that night. Could we make reservations for that night?”

Oliver answered, “Glen, you never have to make reservations. All you have to do is show up and we’ll find a place for you to sit.”

Glen shook his head and stated emphatically, “No need to do that. We are just regular customers that you happen to know. I would hate for something unfortunate to happen to your business because you were making an exception for us.”

Oliver laughed and said, “Nonsense. You four are our best friends. Cliff helped me at the grocery store and made sure that we got the best items for the restaurant. He also talked the manager into extending us credit at a time when we really needed it.”

He turned to Sandra and said, “You and your sister are delightful at worst and a credit to womankind everywhere. Without a doubt, seeing you and her always cheer us up. My sisters will be so happy to know that you are back.”

Sandra laughed and replied, “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

Glen returned to the original request and said, “We will need reservations for five.”

Sandra looked at Glen in puzzlement and asked, “Five?”

Glen smiled and nodded his head. He repeated, “Five.”

Oliver answered, “I’ll add it to the books. What time?”

“Can we make it eight?”

Oliver laughed and replied, “Sure, party of five at eight. I’ll let my sister know to put you down for a table. End of the month.”

Glen looked over at Sandra and could see that she was still trying to figure out who would be the fifth person. He winked at her and turned back to Oliver and said, “Right.”

Oliver looked at the two of them and stated, “Well, I better get back to the house and put the fish up. I have a restaurant to run.”

Glen took him to the door and let him out. Oliver turned and waved as he left with his creel of fish. Glen waved back and watched him go. He had hoped to talk with Oliver a little more, but he understood that the man had to go to work. He turned to Sandra and asked, “Tell me about you and them.”

Sandra asked, “What? Are you jealous?”

Glen laughed and answered, “Jealous? No. I’m just curious when you could have met them. You were around here all of the time.”

Sandra laughed and said, “Silly, they used to get their stuff from the grocery store where I worked.”

Glen sat there and looked flustered for a moment. Then said, “Isn’t it a long way from the restaurant?”

Sandra laughed, “They don’t live that far from here. They would stop at the store on their way to the restaurant. Cliff would set aside the freshest vegetables for them.”

Glen understood that Cliff was a very generous individual that had a good heart, but he had not realized the extent to which the young man had gone to help out another. Oliver was a good man and Cliff had seen fit to help him. He still had to wonder how Cliff had talked the manager of the store into extending credit to Oliver. He would ask Cliff about that some time. Undoubtedly, Cliff had promised to cover the debt.

Sandra returned to the kitchen and started preparing dinner. She was cooking for four tonight. Wanda and Cliff would be over in just a little while, but would return home after dinner. She would spend the night with Glen. He didn’t know it yet, but he was going to have company from now on.

Glen went out the backdoor to the porch and looked at his place. The paths for cross-country skiing had been cut and marked for their winter use. Glen was rather proud of them. There were four trails now and each had a different nature to it. One trail was nice and level. Another went up and down a few little hills. The third trail went around the hills making it curved. The last one was the longest and went around the property. They were going to have a lot of fun this winter.

There were two cords of wood stacked by the back of the house. He had acquired it by cutting down a few trees to make the cross-country skiing paths. The trio did not know about the trails yet. Of course, the fact that their property abutted his meant that they could expand the trials over both pieces of property. He was looking forward to that.

He heard the truck enter his driveway and walked around the house to greet Cliff and Wanda. Wanda got out and ran over to him smiling. She said, “Hey big fella. How are you doing with the manuscript?”

Glen laughed and answered, “So now that you’ve been my boss for half a day, you’re checking up on me already?”