Chapter 66

Jennifer Warren carried the box of hot pizza into the house. After a week of work, the majority of their possessions had been unpacked and put into place. The pizza was her way of celebrating moving into her first house.

She put the box of pizza on the table and said, “I bought a pizza.”

As he looked Looking at the box, her husband, Ben, walked over to the table.

He said, “I see you bought a Parker’s Perfect Pizza.”

“I know it’s your favorite,” Jennifer said, smiling at him.

She had ordered it with pepperoni on half and black olives on the other half.

“I was so glad to see that they had one in the neighborhood,” Ben said.

He had been worried when Derkins had bought out Parker’s Perfect Pizza the year before, but there hadn’t been any change in quality.

Walking over to the cabinet to get some paper plates, Jennifer said, “I ran into our neighbor there.”

“Who?”

“Dan — the guy that lives next door. He works there,” Jennifer answered. She had been surprised to see someone from this neighborhood working in a pizzeria. It was kind of hard to believe that the manager of a store like that could afford a house in this area.

“Really?” Ben asked surprised. He took a seat at the table.

“Yeah. I guess he’s the manager or something,” Jennifer said shrugging her shoulders.

Dan had looked like he was having a very good time. She put a paper plate in front of Ben. Ben shook his head. His opinion of the neighbors wasn’t all that positive. It didn’t seem right for one man, three women and six kids to live in one house like that. It didn’t matter that it was a big house. That was just too many people living together. He asked, “So which one of those three women is he married to?”

“I talked to one of the women who lives over there the other day. I think she said her name was Alison. She said that all three of them are married to him,” Jennifer answered. It was rather difficult to hold a conversation because the woman was busy with all of the kids. That many kids would have driven her crazy, but Alison seemed to be having a good time.

“That’s wrong,” Ben said shaking his head in disgust.

Opening the box of pizza, Jennifer said, “I don’t understand why any woman would settle for a third of a husband.”

Shaking his head, he said, “I’m beginning to think that we made a mistake moving into this neighborhood.”

“Why?”

Ben answered, “I was talking to another guy who lives up the street. He said his name was Tom. He’s a chemist. He told me that he’s got two wives.”

“Did we move into a Mormon neighborhood or something?” Jennifer asked.

She’d never heard of such a thing as a man having multiple wives like that. As far as she knew, it was against the law.

“I don’t know. It must be some strange cult or something,” Ben answered with a sigh. It wasn’t natural for people to smile all of the time like that. For all he knew, they’d be trying to convert him and his wife. He said, “I’m half tempted to get on the phone and give that real estate agent a piece of my mind. She should have warned us about this.”

Jennifer patted her stomach and said, “We moved here for the schools. This school district is one of the best in the state.”

Grinning at Jennifer’s swollen belly, Ben said, “I guess we can put up with some strange neighbors for the sake of little Ben.”

“Or little Jennifer,” she commented with a smile. She knew that Ben was convinced that she was going to have a boy.

Ben said, “Or little Jennifer.”

Taking a slice of pizza covered with black olives, Jennifer said, “Let’s eat before the pizza gets cold.”

Ben and Jennifer sat around the table eating their slices of pizza. Each of them was lost in their thoughts.

After his second slice, Ben said, “This is a great pizza. Who ever started that company deserves to be a very rich man.”

“It’s a great pizza,” Jennifer agreed. said.

Ben ate his slice of pepperoni covered pizza thoughtfully. He didn’t understand how someone who worked as manager of a chain restaurant could live the lifestyle suggested by the neighborhood in which they lived.

He said, “They must pay well if the manager of one of their stores can live in this neighborhood. Either that or he lives off what those women earn.”

Shaking her head, Jennifer said, “They can’t make that much. One of the women doesn’t work. She stays home and takes care of all of those kids. I heard that the other woman is some sort of nurse and the third woman is an artist. Nurses don’t get paid squat and there’s no money in art.”

“You’re right,” Ben said. He shook his head as he thought about how their parents had provided them with some money to help make the down payment on the house. He said, “They must have a rich relative who is supporting them. You can’t live in a house like that and raise so many kids on the kind of money they must make.”

“You’re right, honey,” Jennifer said.

She looked at the nearly empty box and sighed. It was hard to believe that the two of them could polish off a pizza like that. She grabbed the last slice of pizza.

Ben sat back in his chair and smiled. He said, “As far as I’m concerned, a Parker’s pizza is a perfect pizza.”

Jennifer had just finished throwing away the empty pizza box when there was a knock on the front door. She went to the door and opened it. She was surprised to find one of the women from next door standing there holding a large basket of fresh fruits in her hands.

She said, “Hello.”

“Hi, I’m Alison from next door. We met the other day.”

Jennifer nodded her head and said, “I remember.”

Holding out the basket, Alison said, “We just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood. We’d have been over earlier, but you looked busy with unpacking and all that.”

Accepting the basket, Jennifer said, “Thank you.”

“We’re having a barbecue with some friends this evening and thought you might enjoy having an evening off. We know how stressful it is to move,” Alison said with a smile.

“Uh, sure,” Jennifer said wondering how Ben would react to the invitation.

“Great. I hope you like ice cream,” Alison said with a smile.

“Ice cream?” Jennifer asked.

It had all started with a quest by Tom to create the perfect root beer float. Dan had come to the conclusion that the weak link was the ice cream. Tom had decided that it was the root beer. Alison shrugged her shoulders as she said, “Dan is thinking about opening an old fashioned ice cream parlor. He’s been experimenting with a bunch of different recipes for homemade ice cream.”

“An ice cream parlor?” Jennifer asked wondering how he expected to support a family with an ice cream parlor. It was almost as hard to believe as him supporting them by working in a pizzeria.

Epilogue

A year after Dan had married his three wives, Tom married Amanda and Terry. Although the relationship between Tom and Terry never turned sexual, all three of them were happy with the marriage. There was love among all three. While working on her doctorate, Amanda had two children. The three of them, along with a housekeeper and a nanny, raised the children. They continued the family tradition of celebrating holidays and special occasions to great excess.

Tom ended up working for the company at which he had interned. He rather liked making scents for various products. He never did save the world by throwing scented soaps at invading space aliens, but he was happy. As a joke, he did create a batch of root beer scented detergent that he gave to Dan one Christmas.

Amanda ended up working in a research hospital testing new drugs derived from plant extracts. Most of her job was maintaining and developing new tissue cultures on which the drugs could be tested. It was rewarding to know that her work demonstrated the effectiveness of several new drugs.

Terry made a name for herself in the world of finance. After the deal between Derkins and Parker’s Perfect Pizza, she went on to transition another company from a local business into a national chain. As a result of her success, she became a regular on television business programs. She credited most of her success to having learned Dan’s checklist of questions.

Kim Parker met and fell in love with a young man who knew how to deal with her moods and insecurities. They moved out of state after getting married. Over time he taught her that she wasn’t in competition with anyone other than herself. He cheated on her twice, but she never discovered it. She cheated on him once, but he never discovered it. It wasn’t a fairy tale marriage, but it wasn’t a bad one by any stretch of the imagination. They did love each other. She ended up having two kids and was a very loving mother to them.