Chapter 44

"Kenny, do you know anything about real estate development?" Cindy had put her fork down on the plate, and had used her napkin before asking me the question.

"I know a lot of people make millions of dollars doing it, but that's about all I really know. I inherited some real property from my uncle, and my mother has some income property, and also some raw land that she likes to keep. I know she pays a lot of property taxes on the real estate things she owns."

"What about building houses and shopping centers, one of those planned community developments?"

"Nope, I don't know anything about that. Why are you asking?" I already had an idea, but I wanted her to tell me why herself.

"Daddy has some land, and he was trying to get it developed. I thought you might know somebody he could talk to."

"Well, I already suggested someone to him, but he didn't like my suggestion."

"Who?"

"I told him to do a joint venture with your mother. She has the money, and he has the land."

"Sure, but it was her money he used to buy the land. He can't ask her for any more help."

"Why is that? If it's a good project, why wouldn't he go to her? My parents were separated once, thinking about getting a divorce, and they did a joint venture together, a golf academy. Going in together on it like that, it ended up helping them to work out some of their differences."

"You don't know anyone else? No one?" The way she said it, I had a pretty good idea she wanted me to say I might be interested. I wasn't going to tell her that. If anyone else in my family might be interested, it would be Mama, and I didn't think she'd want to get involved in a real estate project so far from home.

"I really don't. Developing isn't something I'm very interested in right now. I'm pretty sure I heard your uncle Phil say the bottom kind of fell out of the real estate market around here. Does your father think it's coming back any time soon?"

Cindy looked over at Shirley. I could have told her that Shirley didn't know anyone who could develop eight thousand acres of land. That kind of development took years to get all the necessary approvals. Millions of dollars would need to be spent just to get to the point where the builders could finally begin construction. For a project that large, it would probably need to be handled in several phases, not all at once.

"He didn't say. He did tell me that my mom had called him, saying she wanted her money back. He doesn't want her getting more upset with him than she already is."

"Maybe he'd be better off selling the land, letting someone else hold on to it, until the economy around here starts making that kind of developing profitable again."

"He told me he'd sell if he could, then he said the market is too soft for him to sell the land now."

"He can always sell, if he prices the property right. I can't imagine not being able to find someone to buy it if he really needs to sell. Maybe he can break the land up into smaller pieces, then sell off different parts of it. This isn't something I know very much about."

"Joyce said I should talk to you. She said you have lots of contacts, and you might be able to help him." Another interesting piece of information, I thought. I wondered how this particular subject happened to come up in their conversation?

"Joyce doesn't know much about developing planned communities either. There are companies, all over the country, that specialize in that type of developing. I think your father should go find one that might be interested in discussing it with him."

I could see that this conversation was starting to get frustrating to Cindy. I wondered if Joyce had told her I'd offer to help her Dad out, if she asked me to? I wondered if that was a part of the reason for Cindy deciding to come back to stay in the house with us? I didn't like the way my mind was coming up with these thoughts.

"Could you at least think about finding someone to maybe help him out? I'd rather he and my mom didn't get into it again over this money."

"I need to make a call home, Cindy. Let me take care of that first, then we'll all go to sleep, and I promise I'll give the problem some thought this week." I waited for her to nod to me, to indicate her acceptance of my offer. When she did, I got up and went back to the living room, ready to call home.

Shirley was already on the line, having left earlier, when Cindy and I first started talking about real estate. She was already speaking to Derek when I came into the living room.

She handed the phone over to me, because Derek wanted to say hello to me, and ask me when I was bringing his Mommy back home. Derek and I also talked about this bird he had been throwing rocks at in the back yard. He hadn't hit it yet, he said, but he was coming pretty close.

I almost launched into a speech about the consequences of hurting things, but I decided to hold back from it. At his age, it was doubtful that his aim was good enough to hit a bird anyway, and I didn't want him worrying about complex problems, like death, before he even started going to school.

Most boys threw rocks at birds. I knew I had, and I knew too, that I hadn't ever managed to hit one. After five minutes talking with Derek, I handed the phone back to Shirley. I moved over to sit on the sofa, waiting for her to finish with her phone call.

"Kenny, do you want to say anything to Joyce before I hang up the phone?" This must have been fifteen minutes after I had finished talking to Derek. I nodded that I did want to, and Shirley started walking towards me, bringing the phone over so I could speak with Joyce.

Usually, if a man does something like that, you know you're going to be speaking on that telephone in just a few seconds. With a women though, that isn't necessarily true, or even the norm. I sat there, for another ten minutes, waiting for Joyce and Shirley to finish talking about some kind of new catalog that Joyce had received earlier, in the mail. Finally, after exhausting that topic, Shirley said her goodbye, handing me the phone.

"What did Cindy tell you when you asked her about Eddie and Dale?" Obviously, Shirley had told her that Cindy and I had discussed the subject. Joyce seemed very anxious to find out what I'd learned.

"That it wasn't anything to do with her own feelings, except that they were two more women she didn't want me sleeping with. You're on her list too, so you better watch out."

"Do you think that's all it is?" Joyce sounded concerned still, not asking me about Cindy preferring that she and I be exclusive bed partners.

"Well, she's worried about them being here, but I don't think it's because of any feelings against them, or her having problems with their color. She doesn't want any trouble here, for Eddie and Dale, or for her family, after."

"You think everything's okay then?" I heard Joyce wanting to be reassured, hoping I'd put her own fears to rest.

"I'm going to wait and see. I hope so. Cindy also told me you said she should ask me about developing her father's land. Was that because you know how helpful I like to be, or was it because you needed to come up with a good reason to make Cindy decide she wanted to come back here?"

"Kenny, you need to quit thinking like that. Cindy was already back with you and Shirley before she mentioned one word about that land of her father's. She said she was worried about him, and about what might happen with her parents if they started fighting again. We started talking about what was causing them to be fighting, that was when she told me about the land. Did you know that one of the farms that is part on that land was being farmed by the parents of the boy who raped and hurt her?"

"No, I didn't. Underwood is a common name in this area, just like Macklinson is. It doesn't surprise me though. I remember the boy's name was Colin Underwood, and that the land was called Underwood something."

"Cindy's worried about it. She thinks her mother is going to sue her father, to try to get her money back from him. She's afraid it will lead to even more embarrassment for him. She doesn't want that to happen, because the last time, her father got all depressed about how things turned out. Can't the land be developed? Cindy says it would be a good place for houses."

"I don't know. I guess it could be, but people don't like to spend a lot of money putting together projects, unless there's already enough demand for what they plan on building. Right now, according to one of Cindy's uncles, the demand just isn't there anymore. No one is building too much around here."

"What about someone buying it from him, as an investment, like the properties you and your father bought that time we were all vacationing out in California? Maybe we should think about buying it from him ourselves, for all the children? I've heard you say that land is a very good long term investment. How much would doing that cost us?"

"It cost Gene four million, but that was when he thought he could turn right around and sell it. I would imagine he might let it go for less than that now, but I'm not going to ask him."

"You have the money, why not do it, Kenny?"

"I can't go around buying up other people's mistakes, Joyce. That isn't how you're supposed to do things."

"Maybe it should be how we do things. If you don't want to buy it from him, then please tell me how much money I have available now?"

I knew that she wasn't going to let me off the hook on this, not after she asked me that particular question. I knew Joyce, and I knew money wasn't really very important to her. She'd spend whatever she thought she had to, gladly, if it meant someone she cared about wouldn't have to suffer. She wasn't a practical person about money like I was.

"Are you sure this is what you want us to do, Joyce?" I tried to put as much resignation in my voice as I could manage. I knew that Joyce would keep after me, until she finally got her way, or until she talked my parents, or someone else, into buying that land from Gene.

"Its what I want, Kenny, but I'm not going to try to force you to do it. You can decide, and then I'll support whatever decision you make, just like I always do."

Translated into plain English, what she had really said was that she was willing to allow me to pretend it was what I had decided, or what she and I decided on, together. The only way this would change was if I tried to get tricky later, deciding not to go through with the purchase. Joyce had decided we were going to buy that property, helping Cindy's parents avoid further hard feelings over money.

What Joyce and Cindy didn't know, would never know, not if I had it my way, was that I was actually excited about buying those eight thousand acres of land. I'd have suggested doing it myself, if I could have thought of even a halfway plausible explanation for why I wanted to do it.

Getting a large tract of land like that, already together in a single large parcel, this close to a city, had to be a good thing. It was also a great investment, especially if you were a strong enough owner to be able to afford to hold it for whatever length of time necessary to assure a profitable outcome.

I could do that, but I hadn't been able to figure out a good justification for wanting to. Now, because of Joyce, I didn't have to. All I had to do was let it seem like I was giving in and allowing my wife to once again have her own way. I was already a past master at doing just that.

I tried to contain my excitement, after getting off the phone with Joyce. I went off to look for Cindy. I took a quick glance at my wristwatch. It wasn't even nine o'clock yet. If I finished telling Cindy what Joyce was making me do, quickly enough, she might still have time to call Gene with the news about what I told her I was willing to do for her.

I found Cindy sitting on the bed, with little cotton balls separating each of her toes. She was waiting for the nail polish to dry on her toenails.

"Joyce said to tell you hello. I told her about your father needing to either develop or sell that land. I'm not saying I agree with what she wants to do, but you should ask your father how much he'd take for that land. How much for an all cash offer?"

"You need to ask him about that, Kenny. I know he'll be happy with whatever you can give him. He just doesn't want my mom being angry about that money anymore."

"I've already got a number in mind, so you better tell him I won't even consider going above that number, not one dollar more."

"What's your number?"

She looked like she was trying to figure out a way to hop off the bed and come give me a kiss or two, to express her gratitude.

Instead, I was the one who dropped down on the bed, putting my face down between her slightly spread legs. I put my lips down into her soft pussy hair and softly spoke my number to her.

"How much? I couldn't hear that, Kenny."

I went searching for her clit, with just the very tip of my tongue. When I located it, I gave her four quick flicks with it. She still didn't get it. I had lost sight of what I was trying to communicate to her, so I simply put my tongue in her opening, and started licking her down there. A whole bunch of licks.

"Twenty two million? Oh, Kenny." I lifted my face up out of her pussy

"Four million, Cindy, not twenty two. I'll bail him out of this, for you, but I'm not letting him make a profit when I do it." Satisfied that I'd made my point, I went back to eating her again.

"He only spent three and a half million, Kenny, not four. He kept the rest back as a reserve. I'll tell him you'll give him three and a half, okay?" I was too busy to answer her, but I nodded my head up and down, glad to see that she was looking out for my interests.

Cindy never got a chance to call her father, not until the next morning. When Shirley came in and saw what I was doing to Cindy, she wanted some of that for herself, so she straddled Cindy's face and settled in for what she hoped was only the very beginning of a nice long night.

I can't speak for either of the ladies, about how late each of them were up, but I know I was fast asleep before ten thirty. Combined with our earlier session, I dropped off, totally exhausted. I vaguely remembered hearing Shirley yelling something later, after I'd already called it quits and rolled myself away from them. She'd never done that with any other girl, not when I had heard her.

Gene called me just after ten the next morning. He sounded pleased with things, telling me that Cindy had called to tell him he should call me. He said she had told him to ask about an idea I might have for developing his land.

"How much are you in that deal, Gene?"

"Most of four million I'd say, just a little shy of it."

I smiled when he told me that. If he'd been truthful with me, I probably would have offered to pay him the three and a half million, and we would have been done with it. I guess it was natural that he'd want to negotiate the best deal for himself that he possibly could. Since he hadn't said three and a half million, we'd both have to play the negotiating game until we could come to an agreement.

I was pretty sure Cindy had already told him that I'd agreed to pay him the three and a half million. That was what she told me she'd be doing before I left for work.

"That's a lot more than what I'd heard, Gene."

"Where did you hear an amount from? I'm not a person who likes to have his financial activities talked about." I was sure that Gene suspected that Cindy might have told me the amount he had paid. I could tell him she had, and end the negotiation. That wouldn't have been as much fun though.

"I think his name was Otis Davis, Lena's husband. He works down at the Hall of Records? Titus Tucker introduced us, and we started talking about one thing or another, and somehow, your name came up in our conversation."

"Well, that purchase price they use didn't count all the money I had to pay out in closing costs, or the back taxes. I paid a pretty steep fee to have the property surveyed again too. I was talking about all of it together, because that's what I counted when I told you how much I'm into the land."

"Does that also subtract out all the money you made from renting out the land to be farmed?" I loved being able to drop that little piece of information on him.

"Where did you hear I was doing that?" I could hear Gene's slight hissing sound as the wind came out of his sails. This was the fun part. I knew where we'd finally end up, but I wanted Gene to feel satisfied that he never had a chance to get a penny more than he did. He'd be unhappy if he went away feeling like he could have done better in the sale.

"Phil told me. Said you were making enough to carry all your other expenses, just from that."

"I'm not going to try to fool you, Kenny. I'd like to get out of that property without it costing me too much. Why don't you just go ahead and make me an offer for it?"

"Three million should do it then. You still have most of the money we paid you for your company stock." I wanted to toy with him, just like he was toying with me.

"Kenny, I'm not a young man anymore, and I'm out of work. I need that money to live on, until I decide what I'm going to do for work."

"My father is looking for someone to run our new plant in Nevada. You should give him a call, see if he might be able to use you for that." I knew Gene was already beginning to regret his decision to quit Macklinson's. He might think he had the inside track to coming back, but I didn't want him over confident about it. If he did come back, I wanted him open to all the changes we'd be making.

"Cindy mentioned a figure to me, about halfway between what I'm asking, and what you're offering. Since it looks like we both could be sitting on the phone all day, without either of us getting this thing settled, why don't we try to save some time? Let's just make it three and a half million, Kenny, with you handling all the purchase expenses?"

"I kind of liked that young lawyer we hired to handle the stock purchases and the bank settlement. Let's go ahead and use him for this too. I'll have a check sent to an account he'll open for us, and we'll close when you get all the paperwork completed, and the deed notarized for me. I'm buying the whole eight thousand acres from you, Gene, so I expect it will turn out that you're selling me everything you bought last year."

"The Underwood place was only seventy seven hundred acres and some change, Kenny. That's what I thought we were negotiating about. I already owned that other two hundred and forty acres. I bought it at a tax auction, right before I got the big piece."

I hadn't known there were two separate parcels. Eight thousand acres was what I thought I was negotiating for. That was the number I'd been hearing all along. This needed more clarification than what he'd just offered me.

"What did you pay for that two hundred and forty acres?"

"I'm not selling it, Kenny. That was originally Macklinson land."

"Well, all of it is Macklinson land right now, and its going to stay Macklinson land too, unless I get all of it in this deal we've been discussing. Where is that two hundred forty acres located? Is it bordering on the Underwood property, or is it separate from it?"

Gene didn't answer me right away

"It's right behind it. It touches it, but only on the little side. All we ever could use it for is a little bird hunting. There are some trees on the hilly side of the property, so it wouldn't be good as farmland anyhow. Half of it is too hilly to be of any use to anyone."

"I've got to go, Gene. If the land means so much to you, let's both go out and take a look at it. If it doesn't look like it belongs with the other land, I might be willing to let you keep it, as long as we can come up with some price I'd think was fair."

"When are you going to have time to go look at it, Kenny? I'd like to get this deal done as soon as we can. Lee is starting to kick up a fuss with me, and I'd like to give her a date when she could expect her money back."

"It looks like I'm going to be busy, either here, or back at home, for at least a month or two. If you're in such a big hurry, just include the other piece in the sale, and I'll go look at it when I can. I'm sure I'd be willing to name you a fair price to buy it back from me, after I've taken a look at it." I was getting very curious about that land. I decided to ask Kyle about it, when I saw him later in the day.

After I finished talking to Gene, I called my father, and we were talking about the trip to New York he'd be taking. I mentioned that I was probably buying almost eight thousand acres of land within a few miles of the baking plant.

When I told him I was taking the money for the purchase out of money currently sitting in my personal trading account, my Dad asked me if I had enough in there to do that without jeopardizing my trading abilities.

"I've built it up to over twenty seven million Dad, Spending less than four million isn't going to affect it any."

He expressed his surprise that my own personal account had grown so large. When I told him some of the figures for the charitable trust accounts, Brenda's account, and the children's trust accounts, he was even more surprised.

"Hans and Gerta's account is more than two million now. I told you I've been able to make more trades now, because of the new pricing programs. When I get some of the grains trapped inside one of my boxes, I trade it like crazy, until it moves out of either one end of the box, or the other."

"From what you're claiming now, Kenny, you've been making far more money trading our grains, more than all of the rest of us do from producing the actual products to sell."

"I wasn't claiming anything. I thought you already knew that, Dad. That was the main reason why I wanted to trade on all those other bakery's grain needs. Don't you remember when we were thinking about doing an IPO, by spinning off all the bread bakeries? We were going to put the stock we kept into the three main charitable trusts, then use that income to fund all of our charitable giving. We decided to just keep things how they were, because our trading profits just from trading our own grain needs came to more than what the net bakery profits to the trusts would have been. This was way before I made all those improvements in my trading program."

"I remember it, but we sure weren't talking about making fifty million dollars a year, Kenny. As I recall, that amount was less than a million dollars."

"What was that, around five years ago? I'm not making fifty a year now, not even close to that. The money that I have now, in my own account, is money I've accumulated since then, from the extra I haven't needed to use to pay for our living expenses. The charitable trust money earnings have to be disbursed every year. All the rest of the personal accounts, we just pay the taxes, and keep investing whatever we have left over."

"You're almost twenty five now, Kenny. What are you planning to do when I turn over all your trust assets from Bunny's estate? You'll have quite a fortune to invest when you get control of that money."

I was happy that he reminded me about my main trust. I'd been a little troubled about what would happen when I turned twenty-five. My life was already very complicated, just keeping the personal situation functioning. Between the family, the group homes, food program and all my trading, I felt like I already had all I could handle. This was why I was feeling the strain of being involved full time in the family business too. I wanted less responsibility, not more.

"I was going to ask you about that. You've been doing well by keeping it invested for me, and I haven't had to use anything, not since we set up the charitable trust accounts with the money you advanced me. If I could, I'd like to keep all that money together, just like it is now. Joyce and I don't need it for anything, and I like having it kept separate from the money I make with my trading."