Epilogue

Denny married Becca before the house was finished, but they brought the baby home to the new family compound. There was still interior work being finished up, but that wasn't much to cope with. Denny elected to cut short his police career in favor of joining the family business.

Brian and Polly Spruell also moved into the family compound with their new daughter. Brian also elected to quit police work, with the exception that he was an auxiliary deputy in El Dorado County. He was called on rarely, usually for search and rescue duty.

Val married Zack Simpson in a ceremony that was half pomp and grandeur and half fraternity party. Among the wedding gifts were over two hundred towels, packaged one per package. The label on each package said "For use after hot and sweaty sex." Sergeant Rollins, the Booking Sergeant at the North Substation, either found or invented (he wouldn't say which) the gift he gave. It was a small jar, about the size of a baby food jar, with a black metal lid on it and a thick waxy substance inside of it. The label said "GOAT HORN POLISH".

The couple stayed in Sacramento, where Val continued college while Zack worked on finishing up the last seven years of his career so he could retire. They were in close contact with the rest of the family though. It was anticipated that the concert venue at the estate would be finished, if all went well, about the time Zack retired. The opening of that venue would cause a serious explosion in the number of people who came to the property and a chief of security for the whole enterprise would then be needed. Zack had already put in his bid for that job. Val's first son was born ten months and two days from the date that he took her into "protective custody" at her mother's house.

Gidget had her second daughter on her fortieth birthday. Bob was her birth coach and stayed with her throughout her labor and delivery. She named the little girl Destiny.

Sunny delivered her second daughter three months later. The nurses gave Bob a cake in the labor room. It said "Welcome back Bob" and "For a Sunny Delivery". The cake was only half right. It was a long labor and the baby seemed to want to stay right where it was, even though Sunny was dilated eight centimeters. Fourteen hours later, when she gave her last convulsive push and the baby lay squalling in the doctor's hands, she lay back sweating as Bob wiped her brow. She smiled tiredly as the baby was laid gently on her chest, still crying and she caressed it, trying unsuccessfully to sooth her. She looked at Bob. "What do you think about naming her Stormy?"

Sally finished "The Longest Nap", her memoir of Bob Winkle, AKA Bob Van Winkle in a year. Since Bob's family had been so closed to the press, there was a lot of interest in it to begin with. The marketing campaign was brilliant. It played on the supposition that alcohol put Rip and Bob to sleep, and the irony of the fact that Bob was going to make wine for a living. She had chapters in which Dr. Adams gave his hypothesis about what had happened to Bob, but left out the potential value of Bob's gene structure. That would have caused a riot. She compared Rip's story, as told in his own hand, using excerpts of the journal, to Bob's experience. It was a smash hit, catching the imagination of everyone who read it.

The Rip Van Winkle Winery produced its first crop of award winning wines almost three years to the day from the date Bob Winkle closed on the property and gave Annie Montgomery a free hand to operate as she wished.

The wine was marketed with the slogan "Wine worth the time". Annie shared a special bottle with her employer after the awards ceremony in which Rip Van Winkle Winery was awarded best in two wines in the American Wine Awards, one in the under $20 field and one in the over $20 field. When the first bottle was gone, another was opened. Annie drank a lot more than Bob did, which is probably why she took off her signature faded checkered shirt to expose perky upturned breasts with nipples that turned out to be a mouthful. The rest of her clothes seemed to fall off of her by magic.

The wine is probably also why, as her hymen was pushed aside by Bob's steel hard penis, Annie felt very little discomfort. As she lay spread under the now legendary man in her bed on the upper story of the stone house, she thanked him repeatedly for letting her live her dream. Then she thanked him for giving her what she had missed in her quest for fame in the world of wine as his prick dug deep and she shuddered through an orgasm that laid to waste those she occasionally felt as she diddled herself. Then she thanked him for giving her a second orgasm. He said she was most welcome, stopped her babbling by kissing her soundly, and deposited as much of his potent semen in her womb as he could force out of his body.

Getting the winery to that point took a lot of work, and the women of the Winkle clan learned that it was the kind of work they not only enjoyed, but relished. Martha, June and Betty were trained by Annie to participate in and supervise the once a year pruning of the vines, which kept them busy during that time. Then there was pest control to deal with and the harvest after that. They chose to hand harvest the grapes both because they had the casual labor available, and because Annie preferred it that way. It took longer, but only the most perfectly ripe grapes were picked, and at precisely the right time.

Gidget had a flair for the distribution portion of the business, both to distributors and direct sales to customers on site or through the mail. That let her stay close to home, where she took care of her daughter and Sunny's daughter during the days.

Sunny, Becca and Denny developed and operated the animal portion of the enterprise, spending long hours with trail breaking crews on the mountain sides, establishing camping locations for overnight trail rides and getting stock and handlers in place. The riding operation began shortly after Sunny delivered. Becca preferred to keep her son with her during the day, carrying him papoose style in a rig that could be worn on either her back or front. Denny spent as much time with the carrier strapped to his body as she did. One of the signature programs of the Rip Van Winkle Riding Stables was the twice a year benefit program they had for disabled children and child cancer patients. Denny developed a travois with bicycle wheels that could be hauled by a horse and that would comfortably hold a person who could not mount or sit in a saddle. In this manner, the level of disability was no longer a factor in making the trail ride experience available, primarily to children.