Chapter 26

Jan said sure, and I told the girls where we were going.

"We need to go up and check on the old mule man. I want to see if he has a big Jack he can sell me. We can visit our other mules while we're there - the ones I paid for and haven't had time to pick up yet. And that's another thing. Jan, do you have a radio aboard that can talk on the CB channels?" I asked.

"Yes, as long as you're talking about normal CB traffic. We can't do single sideband or any of that," she said.

"Well, we'll try it at first and see how it works out. I don't guess we'll be flying and driving at the same time much anyway," I said.

Jenny had to go inside and change into at least some semblance of a flight attendant's uniform. I didn't know why unless it was something to do with the new pilots, but we waited her out just the same.

Even though I realized we'd get there much faster this way I still didn't have it settled into my head. I was thinking of the long trip and how wasted we'd all probably be when we finally made it home. It was quite a shock when we landed at my mule man's house less than two hours later.

We caused a little excitement when we set down, but my mule man was out front from the noise by the time I stepped off the ladder and he smiled wide when he recognized me. He called his wife out and after everyone was introduced she asked if we wanted a glass of tea and I said yes before the others could cause any conflicts.

In only a couple of minutes she came out with glasses of ice and a big pitcher of tea. There was a little fooling around getting everyone seated at the picnic table and the tea served and then my mule man had to ask.

"I see you've come up in the world now, flying around in a helicopter. Did you come by to trade off a few mules?" he asked, and I could almost see the dollar signs spinning in his eye sockets.

"Not on your life. I came to see if I could buy a big Jack. Does your Daddy have one for sale?

"Oh. He has five or six, but he don't sell 'em. He don't want the competition you see. Come to think of it, he just might let you have one since you've been such a good customer and he don't have any mules for sale now anyway. Let me go into the house and call him," he said, and got up and headed inside.

The girls got started up talking to his wife then, but they were talking lowly down at the end of the table and I couldn't hear what they were saying. Soon enough though my mule man was back outside and he told us his Daddy said for me to come on out and take my pick.

"Why don't you come with us? We probably won't stay long and we can drop you off on the way back," Jerrilyn said, and I could tell my mule man wanted to go - I was surprised his wife was also all for it.

One nice thing about the new helicopter was more windows outside. You could do a lot more gee whiz looking around, especially when we were flying low as we were now. Air traffic control wasn't a big problem around Springfield Missouri.

Of course the old man didn't know we were coming in a helicopter, so he was outside pretty quickly as we set down. I could tell he did like the notion of his customers dropping by though.

The old man didn't make on over our method of arrival, but I just knew he secretly liked it. He was even more impressed with the twins who had done the flying, but soon enough he wanted to talk about his Jacks. He said he couldn't sell me his best one - the one responsible for all the mules I'd bought from him, but he let me have my choice of four offspring.

"Ya need to get a Jenny too ya know, at least one. The secret to raising big mules is having a big Jack and the best way to make sure you always have one is to raise 'em your ownself. Well you know you can't get a Jack from a horse on either end of the breedin' so you need a Jack and at least one Jenny, don't'cha'see.

"What kind of mares are you planning on puttin' the Jack to," he asked.

I told him about my quarter horse mares and then told him of the Arabians. His interest perked up a little, but of course he had something to say.

"Those quarter horse mares will probably give you good strong mules, but they won't have good working shoulders. You can still put 'em to a plow probably - they just won't be able to use all their strength. They'll be fine for packing and all that of course, but you just won't be able to put 'em in no serious hitch for pulling heavy loads.

"I've heard of folks breeding a Jack to half Arabs before, but I never knew anyone who had the money to breed up a mule off a real Arabian. I'd shore like to see what your mares put out from one of my Jacks."

"Well I'll send up here for you to come take a look when I get some of 'em on the ground if you'll tell me which Jack and Jenny to buy," I told him.

He agreed and he told me all about the Jack. It was a younger brother to the one he used for his own breeding, and he sold me a nice big Jenny to take along. He warned me again to get the Jenny bred as soon as possible since there was nothing more important to raising mules than a good big Jack.

The old man was more talkative this time and when he and his son started telling tales it was very entertaining, but soon enough we headed back and I promised the old man I'd come up next week to get my stock off his place. We even shook on it this time.

Right at the last we talked him into going up with us for a look around his place from the air. When he agreed he said he had to go get his wife to come too.

"I'd never get another meal cooked if'n I didn't take her along for this ride."

We gave them a look see all the way to Springfield and back then set down and let them out. My mule man and his wife were out next and then we headed back home. I felt we'd done a hell of a job since we were back home and the women, including Jan and Sharon, were in the kitchen cooking lunch before two PM.

The real deal got started after lunch was over. Jan and Sharon asked me to come outside and mark off the spot for the new hangar and fuel tanks. This led to a few questions about what hangar and fuel tanks and I finally got the news the Emir had ordered a big metal hangar and a fueling setup for the helicopter.

Hell, this was going too far and I tried to get Jerrilyn to call Kuwait on the Blackberry and tell him we didn't need all that.

"Don't be silly, Tommy. The tanks will be underground and they won't be in the way. No doubt the Emir has his own deal for fuel and it's probably way cheaper for him to do it this way than it is for him to have to buy the fuel from anywhere local," Jackie said, and when she put it that way I didn't have a leg to stand on - besides I don't guess I really had any objections in the first place, but it was so outrageous.