Chapter 3: Where are they now?

I awoke feeling distraught remembering the dreams that had come to me during the night. There were visions of my little redhead telling me what a bad little girl she was in that cute little Shirley Temple voice of hers, and Maria's shy and demure smile, and Kim with her striking big blue eyes, Dana and Candy, their bodies filling their dressed to kill FBI business suits, Jen and the way she placed her hands on her hips when she wanted to get some point across, and the look on Pat's face when I smacked her on the behind, and Heather, the look on her lovely face when she told us about driving the Ferrari, and Clarity how she smiled at me with such love in her eyes. All these memories and more had filled my dreams and I think I had cried in my sleep. Now awake, I smiled at those memories cherishing them.

I showered, shaved and then got dressed in the blue suit. I called Enterprise and rented a car. The rental guy came and picked me up and then after driving back to his office, getting my drivers license, and credit card information, and then walking around the car to make sure it didn't have any dents I drove out of there.

As planned I drove over to where Mary, my ex-wife and Clarity had lived in 1980 and, where Mary should still be living in 2006. I learned from the current resident that Mary could not have lived there for at least the last 20 years, because that's how long she had owned the home. So, that was another thing I had altered in 1980. In my original 2006 Mary still lived in that home.

Next I drove up to the Hollywood Hills house and found only a vacant lot where our lovely home had once stood. I rang the bell at the door of the house located next to the vacant lot. After several long moments the door was finally opened by a guy with a full stock of gray-white hair. He was thin and taller than average, maybe six foot six, wearing burgundy slacks and a clean white shirt, and he looked to be about sixty.

"Yes?" He asked.

"I was wondering about that vacant lot next door." I said.

"It's not for sale." He told me. "If it was I'd already own it. I've been trying to buy that piece of property for over ten years now but I can't find anybody to talk too. Nobody seems to know any real person that owns it. The official deed downtown just lists some trust company. They've got gardeners that come out once a month to keep the weeds down but even they don't know the name of who's actually paying them. I asked them."

"Trust company huh?" I questioned.

"Yeah," He shook his head. "I tried like hell to come up with a name of someone in the trust company. No luck. I located some lawyer handling the trust company but he just told me it belonged to another corporation and they weren't interested in selling. I've tried a few times from different angles but I only came up with dead ends."

"As I recall there used to be a house on that property wasn't there?" I asked.

"Yeah. Nice one too." He answered. "It burned down during that canyon fire we had about ten years ago. Owners never rebuilt. Just let it sit. I don't get it. That property is worth a ton of money."

"No idea how I might contact the owners then, huh?" I asked.

He shook his head, "Like I said if I knew how I'd make them an offer."

"Thanks, I appreciate your time." I said and then I turned away.

"Sure thing," He returned then closed the door behind him

I stopped for a burger and fries at an In and Out then I drove over to the beach house. I parked where I could watch the front of the house and then waited.

I'd been waiting for about an hour when a woman I'd never seen before came out the front door. She looked Hispanic, anywhere between 35 to 55 years of age, around 5 foot 3 inches tall and about 135 pounds. Her hair was black with just a hint of gray, which she wore tied in a bun at the back of her head. She was wearing a gray ankle length dress and carrying what looked like a folded up saw horse constructed from what looked like 3 or 4 inch diameter wood dowels.

She took the contraption to the side yard and unfolded it which made the thing look even more like a saw horse, then she went back inside only to return a few minutes later carrying a throw rug and some kind of paddle. She hung the rug over the saw horse contraception and then proceeded to beat the hell out of the rug with the paddle. With modern vacuums I didn't know anybody even did that any more.