Chapter 64

When Bill and Mom returned Mom had a question.

"Where are all those men going to eat if they have to stay here?"

"I think there are a few Suburbans around they use to go to cafes for meals. There are two busses to take equipment operators and other workers to motels at night. The drivers sleep in their trucks though. I think the busses take them to the motel for showers during the day while the others are working," Bill said.

"Tell the truck drivers not to worry about going off to eat, unless they don't like Bar-B-Q, I'll call and get some sent out. They can shower in Tiffany's and Jennifer's houses too if they'd like. In fact they can make themselves at home in them while they're here," Mom said.

"I'll tell them, but we might have to call the cops again to get them to leave when this job is over. And aren't you worried about them damaging something?" Bill asked.

"I guess we shouldn't tell them, but we're going to tear those two houses down later anyway, and I know Tiffany and Jennifer have already taken out everything they want to keep.

"The only things left in either of the houses belong to either Tom Dalrymple or Greg Jackson. I doubt there's anyone here who gives a damn what happens to the houses or the contents, except for the foam we just unloaded," Mom said.

I wondered what Mom was up to. She was always nice to everyone who acted like even half a human, but she didn't take in stray cats. She went into the house and I followed her, in fact I kept following as she entered the study.

"Something is on my mommy's mind, isn't it?" I asked, after shutting us in.

"Something surely is. I have a feeling every one of these men is under that control - truck drivers and all. I intend to find out and if they are, they'll be under our control when they leave," Mom said.

She was probably right. I hadn't even thought about it, but after she had her say I was sure. I went back out front, grabbed the closest one I could find and asked him to come inside to talk, leading him into the study with me.

Mom spit out the keyphrase and he went under right away. I knew Mom had anticipated what I was doing when Sherilyn walked out of the little closet.

Sherilyn grilled him a little, but she didn't get much. He was a truck driver and this construction thing was his full time job. Our job was the biggest rush they'd ever had, since Chuck had told them they had to be through and gone by Sunday, but they often did this kind of thing and had put in helipads and airstrips all over the country.

The driver didn't know any of the why's about it, this was just his job. He wasn't curious about anything either. No doubt gathering information wasn't one of his instructions.

Sherilyn did some reprogramming on him. He would still respond to the old keyphrase but he knew he was ours now. He wasn't about to reveal it though. She instructed him to call in if he came across any information he thought we should know.

In other words he still wasn't curious for the benefit of the others, but he was keeping his eyes open to report to us. It seemed to be getting very complicated around here to me, especially since I knew Mom intended to get hold of everyone on the job.

I decided it wasn't something I could do much about. I left it to Mom and Sherilyn and went out to the kitchen to see if there was something I could influence, like food. Suppertime was approaching.

My heart was wounded when I got to the kitchen. There were women in it working, but they seemed to be in the process of putting things away and abandoning their efforts.

Kamakeata was there to give me the news, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

"Sharon cancelled the cooking for tonight, she called someone and ordered all the Bar-B-Q in the world. It will start arriving in a few minutes.

"They're going to bring some in here and will be serving at the tables out on the patio. They're also setting up more tables over in Tiffany's back yard, for all those men outside," she said.

"I'm glad you stayed around to give me the details. I get nervous when I don't know where my next meal is going to be," I said.

"Jimmy, with all the women you have now it isn't going to be possible for you to miss a meal, trust me," she said.

"I know, but it doesn't mean I don't like to be reminded occasionally."

She laughed at me and then went on about her business. I wandered around wondering if I should be doing something. Every now and then Jeff or George would come through, carrying a piece of computer equipment or some of the odd wiring. I guess Mom did have a serious talk with them.

On one trip I decided to follow Jeff when he came by with a large box. I thought I saw a picture of a flat panel display on it. He went upstairs toward Jacob's new bedroom.

Jeff went into the first bedroom on the wing, one of the ones I'd had to take the mattress out of the other night. When I walked in behind him I was amazed. The bed's frame and all the other furniture had been removed.

There was a really nice desk with a good executive type chair behind it. It also had small access holes in the top for cables and such, and there were already two boxes almost the same size as the one Jeff had brought sitting on the desk. I hesitated to speak to Jeff, thinking Mom might have left him in a sour mood, but finally I did.

"Hi, Jeff, what's in the boxes?"

"These three are the monitors, I've already got the computer down here in a compartment this desk has for it. The desk is made to look like an executive's, but it's designed to be easy for computer installation," he said.

"Is it going to have three monitors?" I asked, since it's what it looked like with the three boxes.

"Yes, and no. It goes together like one big monitor and they all work together. For instance, the Windows Desktop will be spread across all three of them." he said.

"How can that work?"

"It works great. The mouse cursor moves across the boundaries like they were all one space, you just have a lot more room. If you need a lot of windows open you can drag them anywhere on any of the panels you want to," he said.

"It sounds great, but will it really work right?"

"It better, there are three video cards for each machine and they're made to work together. If you were going to be playing action games with a lot of graphics you'd only use the center one for the game, but otherwise, most things will do fine on any of them," he said, and he sounded convinced.

I said goodbye and left. I guess Mom must have been correct about them dragging their feet. From the way he talked about the stuff I could tell it hadn't happened to arrive today. I wondered how she'd made him get moving.

When I got back downstairs there were men from some place Mom had called bringing food into the house. Some of the new women who liked to hang around the kitchen a lot now were setting it down and opening the big containers and putting food in big dishes.