Chapter 9

It was time to call Mrs. Philips again. I really wanted that property at the end of the campground, and my strong desire caused my hand to shake as I dialed the phone.

"Good morning Mrs. Philips. How are you this fine day?"

"Just fine thank you. Is that you Mr. Mohr?"

"That it is, Mrs. Philips? Have you thought about my offer?"

"Indeed I have. Indeed I have Mr. Mohr. And I have a counter offer for you."

"Yes?"

"My accountant tells me that I can't afford to sell the entire parcel at this time. It would raise my tax percentage up too high, however, he did suggest that I subdivide and sell you those fifteen acres that you wanted for the price you offered. Then I will be able to donate the rest to the Conservancy. That will give me a good tax credit. What do you say to that Mr. Mohr?"

"It sounds like a win, win situation to me Mrs. Philips! Let's do it! It will take me two weeks to get the money liquid for this deal, is that satisfactory?"

"Yes, I need to get my people to do the subdivision, but don't wait too long beyond that. My doctor tells me that I'm not going to be around much longer."

"Oh ... I'm so sorry!"

I meant what I said. She was a great old gal and her sharp mind made it fun to converse with her. I had so wanted to become her friend.

"Not to worry, son. You are giving me a way to lighten the tax load on my kids with this deal, so let's just move quickly."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Good bye for now, Mr. Mohr."

"Good bye, Mrs. Philips."

I got right back on the phone to my man in the Cayman Islands. (The month before, I had set up several shell companies to cover my ability to produce undocumented money.)

An hour later my banker was working full speed on the project. When all was said and done one of my corporations would own the property. The third call was to Down-East Modular Homes; I made an appointment for the next morning. The 'show-room' (actually a huge field with model houses set up for customers to view) and the factory were in a small town called Broderick, one-hour northwest of us. I hoped that the weather would be nice so that we could use the trike (a Can-Am 'Spyder') and not have to take Rose.

Traveling the back roads of New England is always a pleasure, no matter the season; but done from the back of the Can-Am, out in the wind on a sunny fall day, was enervating!

We arrived at the factory half an hour early, and went into the small diner that was just down the street from the plant. Over steaming cups of coffee, Adin and I discussed the new house.

"I've been thinking, Honey. We know that the pad for the house is out in the open at the edge of the campground, right?" asked Adin.

"Yes?"

"Well, as I was saying, I've been thinking and ... well, that's simply not the right place for the house."

"Ah, ha! That's good, because I've been thinking the same thing."

"Okay then. Where would you site the house?" she asked with a 'cat that ate the canary' look.

"I haven't decided yet. Why?"

"Okay, okay ... while you were meditating in your office the other day I went for a walk and ... guess what?"

I smiled at my wife's exuberance, "What, dear heart?"

"There used to be a house there on the property before! A really, really big house! And ... And ... I think it had a bunker, too! There's this huge cellar hole, and there are big doors in one of the cellar walls ... big enough for a deuce-and-a-half truck to drive through."

She sat back with a smile and continued, "That's where I think we should site the house."

"And just where is this cellar hole?"

"Oh ... about a thousand yards down that old service road that runs out behind the garage."

"Really? Hmmm..."

"Actually, the place looks kind of like the military bases in those old WW II films that you like to watch."

"Well, let's go for a walk when we get back. We'll check the place out. Right now, we need to get going, if we're not going to be late to our appointment."

We gathered our things (helmets, gloves, and jackets), paid the bill, and rode to the sales office.

Down-East Modular Homes was a small but efficient company. It was one of the few of the house building companies that was still doing well, even in this down economy. When we entered the surprisingly small lobby of the main building, the receptionist ... a plump but pretty middle-aged woman ... directed us back out onto the display lot. The sales office was, in fact, in one of the model homes.

I stopped and gazed at the various styles of structures and realized that they were all just different configurations of the same components. The smallest was their summer home model, a single section, twelve by forty feet. It was similar to a single-wide trailer home, but without wheels. It was made from the normal materials used in conventional stick built homes.

As the houses got larger, more and more 'boxes' were added along with different roof styles and exterior finishes—all in all, a very efficient method of construction. Adin got my attention by tugging on my arm.

She said, "Kade, we're going to be late."

"Okay, honey," I said.

I turned and followed the signs to the sales office. Once inside the sales office, my heart fell as the sales man rose to welcome us. He was of that smarmy breed of people that I simply cannot stand. Adin picked up on my mood change instantly, and deduced the reason with remarkable speed.

She said, "We don't mean to insult you, Sir; but we would really like to deal with your house architect, as we don't want a standard model, and we need many questions answered. Could you direct us to that person, please?"

The man's smile never left his lips but it surely left his eyes as he said, "Of course. Please. Have a seat, and I will see what I can do.

We sat, and he dialed the phone.

"Connie, we have a couple here that would like to do a design build. Do you have the time to see them? Right! Of course! I'll send them right over."

I leaned over and whispered to Adin, "Thank you, honey, I was about to turn around and leave rather than deal with this 'used car salesman'."

Adin beamed that wonderful smile at me and winked. I smiled back and patted her knee.

The smile was completely gone from the salesman's face now and he spoke churlishly as he said, "Connie will see you, now. Her workstation is in the main building. She is the owner's daughter, but is not an architect; she is just a certified structural design engineer."

"That will be fine. Thank you," I said as I rose and guided Adin out of the sales office, without shaking hands. We returned to the main building, and were directed to a large loft like space on the second floor, with huge windows. The space was filled with old-fashioned drawing tables but also interspersed with large digital drafting stations and several wide format printers and plotters along the wall. Connie was obviously the queen of her domain as her personal area had both the old and the new drawing equipment set up on a raised platform so that she could oversee the work floor. It was obvious that everyone that worked here was happy and loved their boss because of the constant hubbub of work comments and jokes that filled the air.

Connie was an effervescent red head in her mid thirties with strikingly white skin and brilliant blue eyes. She waved us over to her work area and greeted us like long lost relatives.

I turned to Adin, kissed her on the cheek and said, "Thanks sweetheart! This is a person that I can work with!"

"Yeah, I saw that you didn't like that guy, and I didn't want us to waste a trip."

Connie caught on immediately, "Ah, yes. Jules is hard to take with that used car salesman persona of his; but he is family, so we can't fire him without starting a family feud." All said with a heavy sigh. "Come, come sit. Tell me what you want. Would you like some coffee ... tea ... soda?"

"No thanks, we just came from the diner," I said.

We sat and worked with Connie for three and a half hours, and came up with a perfect house for our present and future needs.

"I will have the plans and a color rendering ready by the middle of next week. Why don't we meet again ... say, Wednesday afternoon at two o'clock?"

"Sounds fine to me; and thank you, Connie. It has been a real pleasure working with you."

She nodded, smiled and shook our hands, all the while blushing furiously at our compliments. We took our leave, and had a pleasurable ride home. We stopped at Carol's Diner for a real 'stick to your ribs' dinner.

"Kade, can we skip that walk to look at the cellar hole? I'm beat, and I think my period is starting. I'd love to just take a shower and cuddle with you."

"That sounds like a great idea, honey. We can check out the land tomorrow."

Adin hugged me and said, "Thank you my husband. Now can we order out, Chinese?"

"Sure."

"I'm going to take my shower now."

"Okay, but what do you want?"

"Surprise me," she said coyly as she ducked into the bathroom.

"Well I guess she has the married thing down now," I said as I picked up the phone.

Saturday morning I rolled over and looked at my wife as she slept. I loved everything about this diminutive marvel. After a few minutes, she sighed and opened her eyes. She smiled at me, and then caressed my cheek.

"I love you, Kade."

"I love you, too. How about we just sleep in?"

"Mmmmmm..." she moaned as she arched her back in a very cat like stretch.

"Sounds wonderful to me," she said as she molded her body to mine and began nibbling on my neck.

It was after 1PM before hunger and the need to use the facilities drove us from our warm nest.

After brunch, we decided to go for that walk and check out the cellar hole that Adin had discovered. It was a wonderful fall day, and we enjoyed stopping along the way to chat with other campers. The leaf peepers had filled the campground up to capacity. When we arrived at the cellar hole, Adin noticed that the big doors were ajar. She wanted to explore a bit. We made our way down the ramp. Then we opened the doors wide, so that the sun would shine into the tunnel for some distance. My wife was as excited as a small child at the thought of the exploration. We entered the tunnel, and ambled along looking at the detritus on the floors and in the small rooms all along the sides of the tunnel.

We came to a turn in the tunnel and as we were about to retrace our steps a black man came out of the shadows and started shooting at us with an automatic weapon. At first, I was stunned, like a 'deer in the headlights'.

Then I heard Adin scream, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" as she threw herself in front of me. I saw her take at least three hits. She took every bullet that would have killed me. I only received three flesh wounds and I would be willing to bet that those bullets went through my wife first!

Enraged beyond the point of sanity and with a red haze filling my vision, I attacked. In one motion I had my staff in my hand, and I was sending great bolts of energy down the tunnel. The first bolt slammed the gunman back against the wall. The next bolt smashed him into the wall hard enough to send chunks of concrete flying and break every bone in the man's body; the third bolt mashed him into hamburger. I then ran to the turn in the tunnel, and fired three more bolts! There were screams, and then explosions.