Chapter 7: Future Plans

The next couple weeks were great; we fixed up the house to suit Virginia and myself. Uncle George was now called "Pop" a compromise on all sides. He also started eating all his meals with us. Virginia remarked that it would be real hard on Pop when we left. Later that day she also remarked how much she enjoyed living on the ranch. I took these as hints but made no reply to her.

On our third Monday there we received a phone call from Mr. Simon that both excited us and made us more alert for danger.

He reported that he had filed for the patent on the formula on Wednesday and sometime Sunday his office had been broken into. Possibly no connection but the only papers disturbed were the file on the lawsuit against the Lab.

I asked him how he knew this and he said that they might have wanted to do more damage to his office but his alarm had notified the police who arrived fairly quickly. The men who broke in were seen running from his building by a couple whom saw them jump into a car and speed away. Theory is they had been listening to the police radio bands.

It is now assumed that the Lab knew I had filed a patent and the court date was set for two weeks from this Wednesday tentatively. Mr. Simon stated that he doubted that we would be in court on that date but would keep us advised when a firm court date had been set and the Lab was most like through asking for continuances by then.

I asked Mr. Simon where he was calling from and he said a payphone charged to the cell phone I was using. I asked him how he could do this and he said that since his phone had died and he gave them the proper information the operator had agreed to put the call through. I told him that was only too sneaky and he said he hoped that it was really unnecessary but better safe than sorry.

I asked him to check on my house and also check on Jen and Bob my renters. Mr. Simon asked if Virginia needed to have anybody checked on and I explained that it might be good to check on Virginia's roommate Linda. We then said our good-byes.

One of the other items Virginia and I had worked on was my newfound powers. Virginia had restricted the use of them to an hour a day which, considering I usually ended up with a headache, was not a bad deal. At first we just practiced them right before we would retire for the night. Lately we had taken to trying different things as the thought hit one or the other of us. This change in practice was bought about when Virginia was taking a can of tomato sauce down. A second can started to fall on her and I mentally pushed it off towards the counter but I was so excited, the can was actually pushed hard enough to dent the wall directly under the cabinet, much to our surprise.

After that we practiced using objects for distraction and later to hit items. We felt this might come in useful as a form of self-defenses. Later when we would walk in town I started to selectively listen to other people's minds. This too we felt could be used to judge people motives or to detect a person who was going to cause us trouble. On one occasion I noticed a mind paying particular attention to us and when I turned and look at the young man he turned and walked away. His mind showed disgust at losing the opportunity to snatch Virginia's purse.

Pop and I had talked to the couple who ran the ranch to the north of us and they agreed to ranch both our places and use Pop's equipment in exchange for a quarter of the net profits. Since there were already several pastures and a small herd of cattle on the two ranches they had a good start to begin with. They also had a herd, which with our extra acreage would allow them to expand. So it was a good deal for everybody.

The only restrictions was they could not use the five acres around either house and the ten acres which I loved up close to the ridge line where I planned to build my new house sometime in the future. Virginia and I had been looking at house plans.

Virginia had found one of my books, which described Earth Shelter Housing and started to do research on it. I must admit from the practical standpoint of maintenance, heat and cooling costs it seems like a very good idea.