Chapter 9

We drove straight west, or as straight west as was possible. We were out of the city in twenty minutes but were still in the heavily populated suburbs. At the twenty-five minute mark, we turned down a hidden lane and ended up in front of a large three-story home. On a second floor balcony stood a tall man with a wand in his hand.

"Daddy's going to try to impress you. I'm surprised he doesn't have his Merlin hat on. Just ignore him, he'll be fine. Your aura will capture him.

We three were holding hands in the foyer when a woman who obviously was Mercy's mom came in the room. She paused and looked at the three of us, went to Sue, kissed and hugged her before giving me the same treatment. She gathered her daughter into her arms and told her that she loved her.

As she let Mercy free, the tall man with the wand came into the room. With a booming voice he said, "Let's go into the living room."

As we walked into the large room, Mercy made sure she was holding my hand, as was Sue. When we stood in front of the man, I saw something in his eyes that said he was a pushover. I extracted my right hand from Mercy's and held it out, saying, "It's wonderful to meet the father of this special girl."

He did the unexpected, he grabbed me and hugged me saying, "Treat my little girl well, I feel you two will be good for her, but I will still worry. I trust you son, treat her well."

Mercy started weeping and threw her arms around her dad, "Oh, Daddy, I knew you'd feel what I felt. I know Mom does too, but I just knew you'd know, just like I did last night."

Mercy's Mom was standing next to Sue, holding Sue's hand and smiling. She said only two words, but they were strong, "All's well."

When Mercy and the man separated, he shook my hand and said, "My name is actually Merlin. My parents were magicians, so I guess they thought I would be the next coming. Please call me Merlin unless it gives you the creeps. If that's the case, call me Bob, or Joe, or whatever. This is Mercy's mother, Missy, which is short for a really weird name, Mission. Many call her Misty probably because a mist of mystery surrounds her. Come into the kitchen where we can have some coffee or Coke and chat."

When Missy looked at me, I said, "I'm at a loss. You two know so much about us by reading our minds, or at least by Mercy reading our minds and telling Missy who tells you, Merlin. Since you know everything about us, what else do you want to know?"

Missy spoke up, "Actually, we don't know that much about you. Mercy was doing her thing last night when she found you, but she has not dug into your mind because you are special to her. You have to tell us all about yourselves, but we'll know if you are not telling us the truth."

I tried to give them a short synopsis of my vacation, starting a business, meeting Sue, her business, and our mutual successes. I told them the only way to find it all out was to visit with us and talk with all our friends.

Missy said, "You're leaving so much out. There are so many things that have happened to you two that we may have to come down to Florida to find out everything about you. Do you have a big house for us to stay in?"

Sue answered, "We do have a big place, but we use a lot of it for my office. We have some extra bedrooms, so feel free to come. If it's too small for you we'll put you up in a nearby hotel."

Merlin said, in a matter of fact tone, "So you three are going to live a poly life style? Do you think you will be able to continue to enjoy each other after a few months?"

Mercy said, "I hope so, Daddy. Steve and Sue are perfect for me. Their minds are so full of love and friendship that I'm lost within it. It feels like heaven to be there with them. We spent the night together and Sue and I even tried to entice him, but Steve has not consummated our relationship yet, saying when the right time comes, we'll know it."

Missy surprised me, she came and sat on my lap. "Don't deprive my little girl of what is hers. Love her, make love to her, both of you. Make her scream with pleasure and let her magic encompass you. You two together are sending out billions of sexy vibrations that are driving me nuts. I'm going to have to drag Merlin off for a while."

Mercy spoke up, "See, I told you they were doing that to me last night and have continued to do that to me every second I'm with them. They have just captured me."

Sue laughed, "I always keep saying that Steve has conquered me."

Missy gave me an un-motherly kiss, getting up wiggling her bottom on the way up.

Merlin said to give him my cell phone number and to write down our address so he could send more of Mercy's stuff to us. He said, "I have a feeling you three will be traveling light back to Florida. Enjoy yourself and be careful. Mercy, go pack a light bag, take only one dress, but take three pairs of jeans and a couple pairs of shorts. If you need more, Steve will get them for you." As if by magic, a small bundle of hundreds appeared in his hand. "Take this so you have some mad money. You never take your pay from the club, so it is not a gift."

Missy was staring at me and I know I could hear her voice, "Take care of our baby, please take care of her."

Sue was obviously getting the same message as she smiled at Missy and nodded.

Mercy, Missy, and Sue went upstairs to gather clothes. I guess we had a new travel companion. This was kind of quick, even for Sue. But actually, this time, Mercy was the one choosing us, so it was different in that respect.

Merlin took me into his magic practice room. He showed me the many tricks he worked on to perfect them. He said some are tricks, some are illusions, and some, outright mind control and group hypnosis. He tried to show me the differences, but I had to tell him I was a simple guy that loved the thought that it wasn't a trick, but magic. He liked my approach and performed multiple tricks, one after another, until Mercy came in and snatched a live snake from his ear.

"You see, my upstart daughter plays tricks with me and on me continuously. Now where did she get that snake? It's supposed to be in the aquarium in the living room."

Mercy laughed, with Missy following. Missy sent me another message as we left, "Love her, make her a woman."

We waved at them as the Suburban took us back to the yacht club. Mercy told the driver to park the car and come eat lunch with us; he would be taking us out to the airport that afternoon. Okay, I wondered if we were leaving.

Dewey and Sheila were back, with her sporting a nice engagement ring. It wasn't big, but it was nice, nearly the size of Sue's, good choice. The driver's name was Brent and he met us at the restaurant where we had soup and big roast beef sandwiches, complete with jalapenos, lettuce, and tomato.

After lunch, Sue said she wanted to go out to the local small aircraft airport to see what kind of airplane she wanted to buy. The only thing she had ever flown was a Cessna, but she wanted to try an air coupe. "I know those things are expensive, but I fly and so does Steve, so we need an airplane. I think a four passenger would be okay, but I might look at something larger. Perhaps I'll just get two, a little one and a larger one. Not like Dewey's, but something like a turbo six or eight place. I'm sure they fly about the same as a little one, just faster, and with more people. Oh, Dewey, can we rent your plane, or is Florida too far away?"

Dewey said, "Most of the companies that use it are from the west coast, but Florida isn't that far. We would just ferry it down to you and fly you wherever you wanted to go. You might even want to buy one like mine and rent it out like I do. There are lots of companies down there who use rental airplanes.

Sue said, "I don't know about that, but I wish John were here, he knows so much about airplanes. Since he isn't doing anything, I might have him fly down to help me pick one out. Right now I want to go out and see some for myself."

All of us rode out to the airport in the Suburban. There were three companies that were selling airplanes. When we walked into the first place, Mercy became uncomfortable and told Sue that we should leave. She said that there was something wrong that gave her the creeps.

The second place was a true Mom and Pop. They had mostly older Cessnas, a couple of Mooneys, one ancient Beechcraft, and a couple of Pipers. All looked well kept, but none tweaked Sue.

The last place was all business. A man tried to describe all the aircraft he had, but Sue finally said, "I'm a girl, I need to shop. If I can't touch and feel something, I'll never buy it."

We got up and wandered over to the huge hangar. The aircraft were grouped by manufacturer. First we looked at Cessna. There was a nice late model 172/175 that Sue liked. Next we looked at the turbo Cessna and Sue fell in love with a 208. We had jumped multiple price brackets all at once and were told that Sue would need some special instruction to fly it. We looked at some Mooney aircraft, and a couple of the popular Beechcraft A36s. I liked the Beech, but I had heard that some of them were difficult to fly. We wandered back over to the newer 172 and Sue asked the man if she could fly it. She understood that she would have to pay regular rental rates, but she would have to fly it before she bought it.