Chapter 24

When I woke in the morning, amid three women, I had Sue between Mercy and me on one side, with Mickey on the other side. I gave one of Sue's big nipples a suck, making her squirm, and moved over Mickey to get out. By the time I had made coffee, Mickey was in the shower. I pee'd and joined her. We had not even begun to play when Mercy came in with us. The attraction Mickey and Mercy had for each other was enough for me to be very aroused, but I was also smart enough to just quickly wash, give both a kiss, and get out of the shower.

I dressed in jeans, T-shirt, and loafers to be comfortable all day. As soon as I turned on the light, holding Nelda's birthday card in my hand, Glenda came, holding her cup and a card. Tiny and Ruth came with a card, followed by Shawna and Charlie. Every person who came had a birthday card. Nelda finally came to the patio.

"Some one stacked lots of vases of flowers outside my door. It took me a long time to put them in the house. They are just so beautiful. Whoever did it, thank you."

"Happy Birthday, Nelda," came from the entire group.

Once she was sitting, she was inundated with cards and hugs. It only took a minute before big tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Thank you, thank you," she said, as she dabbed her eyes with a hankie. "This is the best birthday I've had for a lot of years. I'm just so lucky."

The people leaving ate a quick sandwich, and I told everyone we were leaving for Cincinnati. Sue had gotten up to hug everyone before I loaded the luggage into the truck. I called out to the Aero Park and asked if the attendant could bring the 200 out to the ops building. He was happy to do it. Tips help. My sister, her family, and Mercy rode with me to the Aero Park, where I parked right at the plane making it was easy to load the luggage.

I re-parked the truck and began the pre-flight outside inspection. I still used the flip chart so I wouldn't forget anything. Once I was satisfied, I pulled the chocks and climbed in, pulling up the stair and door combination. I went over the safety stuff on the card and sat in the left seat to began the inside checklist right through the startup procedure. As soon as everything was spinning good and checked out, I had permission to taxi and takeoff.

The first thing I did was to call in the flight plan as the air conditioning began pressurizing the cabin. It cooled down quickly. We were only at nineteen thousand today because of traffic, so we needed to get there and home before the big clouds began to build.

Two hours later, we were landing. I had called a limo to meet us at the private terminal. We unloaded the luggage and sent the family home. Mercy and I pee'd, refueled, grabbed some bottles of water and a couple of pieces of fruit, and were back in the air within forty minutes.

Just before we were getting ready to start up the engines, I had an idea. I called Ernie Wainwright and asked him if he would like to come out to the house tonight for a steak and some birthday cake of a friend of ours. He said that he would be there but without the woman he went out with sometimes. He said the woman and he were not really compatible.

Mercy looked at me and said, "Are you trying to play Cupid?"

I wanted to try to be home as close to noon as possible. We were wheels down and locked at twelve, parked by the fuel pumps by twelve thirty, with everything logged and the plane in the hands of the happy attendant, with a nice tip in his pocket.

We made it home for lunch just before one. Glenda and Alice had taken Nelda shopping. They had also made her a doctor's appointment for a physical. She had not been to a doc for over ten years because she didn't have the money.

Mercy and I ate before we went to the Holiday Inn site to see how they were doing. The utilities were being dug in and the foundation was being formed before pouring. There were plumbers and electricians putting in the conduits for all of the water, power, and communication on the first floor. Darnel was checking the location of each item. He had his own survey transit and was double checking measurements. He was my kind of guy.

It looked like the pipes for the sewer were being put in for the hotel, as well as the buildings in the park. This was progress.

Mercy came with me to the shop and wanted to go back to see how Ryan was doing. Sandy had him polishing a head. He had been weighing and shaving parts earlier, so they were giving him a real lesson. He said it was really exciting when they finished an engine and everyone crowded around all of the instruments to see what the performance was. He said they told of having an engine that they had to completely tear down because it had a strange small vibration. He said that the cause had been a tiny piece of a rubber glove that had caught on a rod bearing. The girls had accused one of the gay guys of leaving his condom in there. Ryan was enjoying his time in the motor shop. A surprise was to see Michelle working with Shawna on a custom bike she was building instead of working with Sue's people. Michelle was bent over the bench, putting together a stator. Shawna saw me and smiled nodding her head at Michelle. Interesting.

We walked over to see how Jeff and Drew were doing with Crystal. Drew and Crystal were head first in a chassis the mechanic was working on. Crystal was pointing out how the driveshaft mid-bearing was wearing improperly because the U-joint was the wrong size. She was telling them that it wouldn't be long before the tranny seal would start leaking, and then the shaft bearing would probably freeze or the joint would break off. She said the whole thing would already have to be replaced, but the transmission was going to be rebuilt anyway, so it didn't matter. She pointed out how the inside left tires were wearing funny. She said it was probably a bad air brake release cylinder. They would need to look for the problem. Crystal obviously knew her trucks.

I asked Mercy what she thought of Crystal. She said, "That's more woman than I want. It's going to take a hell of a man to tame that one."

It's fun to watch the race day truck people go through the trucks. They have everything open so they can clean and restock. Some people are cleaning out the inside as others polish up the new bodies on the trucks. Most of our orders for the bodies had come from the race day trucks.

I asked Debbie how everything was going, and she said it was 'perfect, ' with a smile. I wasn't needed there, so Mercy and I went to the house to see if Sue wanted to use the gym. She did, so we all went for an hour, and while Sue went back to work on fashions, Mercy and I went to the pool. When DeeDee and Star saw us, DeeDee and asked me, "Do you have another girlfriend now? How come you keep bringing new ones around and you don't give me a chance."

"DeeDee, we're just not meant to be. Sorry, Honey, you're built and all, but our schedules just don't match."

The two girls left and you could tell they were perturbed. Mercy said, "Those girls are not all that bad. They are both a little embarrassed they are dancers, but they both have good hearts."

"I know, Mercy, they just don't do it for me. I don't need any local talent when Sue keeps taking in strays like you and Mickey."

"Hold it there, Steve," Mercy said. "Your mind is what attracted me and made me want to be with you and Sue. And from what I heard, you were the one to bring Miss Mickey home. You can't blame Sue for your women problems."

"I didn't ask either one of you to stay, Sue did. She's the one who wants to keep the pet who followed me home."

Mercy punched me before challenging me to race some laps. We swam hard for fifteen minutes and went back to the house. Merlin and Missy were there, along with Ben and Beth. They were already getting into the good liquor early. I guess it was a good thing my sister left, Ben and Beth may need the big room.

Martin, Glenda, and Nelda came home from their shopping adventure. Glenda and Nelda both had some new things. I got Nelda a glass of iced tea, and began getting the steaks ready. I had bought forty good New York strips. They were all fairly thick and about twelve to fourteen ounces each. Some people would only eat a half of one, while most of the guys would easily eat a whole one and still want more.

Supper went pretty smooth. Forty steaks was just about right, considering several women shared one. Abe has a sixth sense about steak and eating. He and Alice showed up for supper as they were in town changing RVs. He had typed up separate appraisals of each RV he had rented so far. Abe was doing exactly what I had asked. He rated the mechanical characteristics; performance, ease of set up, auxiliary generator, all the tech stuff. Then he rated the inside: design, comfort, toys, cooking facilities, bathrooms, washer, dryer, and visibility from inside when riding and at a camp. We probably could have sold the analysis to a magazine. We wanted the information to make a good decision.

Sue thought inviting Ernie was a great idea. Ernie ended up sitting between Sue and Nelda, becoming fast friends. We found out Ernie was just a little under a year older than Nelda. It was a neat coincidence.

After supper, everyone gathered around Nelda and sang happy birthday. Then the fun began. Everyone, or every couple, had a gift for Nelda. None were large gaudy gifts. All were personal, something she could really use and enjoy. Sue and I gave her a television for her bedroom. She had an ancient one in her living room, but we gave her a nice one that could be put on a shelf that was in her home, just for its use. I'm sure Nelda used far more electricity having the TV on all night after that.

Nelda became so excited by all the attention that I was actually concerned. Sue was able to get her to take a little walk to calm down. Nelda told Sue that now, since she was eight-six, she might need to take it a little easy. They walked for over a half hour, and came back to have a huge cake with eighty-six candles. When Nelda blew at them, Merlin waved his hand and they all went out. She looked up at Sue and said, "I know my wish will come true and you'll have a grand baby boy."

We all had ice cream and cake. Everyone of us knew how precious life was by our association with Nelda. She was good for all of us.

Before Ernie left, he and Nelda took a short walk up the road and back. When they returned, they were both smiling. Nelda later told us that Ernie was going to come back out to see her soon. I told her to always invite him for supper and he would be here. He loved free food.

As it got late, folks began to go home. I took Nelda home and made sure she was comfortable with her new TV in the bedroom. The cable was already installed there. All I had to do was hook it up and plug it in. There were batteries included for the remote, so Nelda was instantly ready to fall asleep with the TV on the first night.

When I came home, Sue, Mercy, and Mickey were waiting for me with some kind of chocolate drink that they said was guaranteed to relax me. It damned near knocked me on my ass. We sat together and talked as a group until it was time to put me to bed. They did put me to bed, very nicely.

The big day was here. The first building of the new business park was complete. The Perkins was opening. We were invited to the pre-opening gala when the new cooks and waitresses experiment on invited guests. It's kind of a tradition that the tradesmen get a free meal at the dry run opening. The entire park crew was coming, in addition to the tradesmen and contractor. Ernie was accompanying Nelda to the restaurant. They were rapidly becoming a couple.

Everyone ordered from the main menu, but most took the hint and ordered the special. Perkins doesn't serve alcohol, so there was no beer with this meal. Sue was happy that there was a place close by that she could come for that midnight snack she craved so often. Shawna, Debbie, and Hanna were in total agreement.

As time had passed, Charlie, Hank, Jim, and I had traveled without our babes more often. It was surprising that Sandy, Mandy, and often Mickey, wanted to ride behind Charlie, Jim, or Hank instead of riding their own bikes. The sidecar was in use often with Mickey or Mercy riding in the sidecar and/or behind me. I don't know what the protocol was, but they figured it out. Sue was becoming content to sit at home and wait for us to come home to attend to her. The two girls never let her even consider that they would attempt to become my favorite. Sue was always shown she was first in my heart and first in my desire.

The next big deal was when the Holiday Inn Express opened. A hotel opening happens without a lot of fanfare. We came up with a manager who had experience and had a desire to make a place like ours enjoyable and profitable. We instantly had deals going with every business within ten to fifteen minutes of us. We would enlarge that area later but we wanted to concentrate on the local businesses.

The body fabrication shop was almost done. The fiberglass shop was complete and already casting body parts that were even superior to the parts cast at the original shop. The chassis area was huge and being staffed by as many genuine diesel truck mechanics as we could find or steal. We had so many back orders that when we began calling the customers in, they had to re-arrange their schedules. It takes a minimum of a week to pull the old body off, rebuild the chassis, and put the body back on. Actually that's really fast for that much work. During the time the work is being done, we put the customer up in the Holiday Inn.

There are shuttles that go into the city, and of course, there is the Perkins across the street. Hap figured out that a bunch of truckers at a Holiday Inn would probably like to go to a titty bar while they were waiting.