Chapter 3

The flight out to LA was routine. I felt tired by the time I'd cleared the baggage area and had picked up my rental car. Instead of driving all the way up to the high desert, I decided to get myself a motel somewhere along the way. I knew I wanted to put at least twenty miles between myself and the downtown LA area. I ended up finding a motel right off the 210 freeway. It was only around eight thirty, West coast time, but my body's internal clock was telling me it was after eleven. I'd had a sandwich on the plane, and really wasn't hungry. The place I finally settled on was a typical businessman's one or two night stopover. They charged more than the room was worth, but who didn't anymore?

The next morning I called my house to let Tina know I'd gotten in all right, and that I still hadn't decided where I was heading once I left my brother's. I took some quiet joy in letting her know that I was enjoying an outside burrito breakfast in a short sleeved shirt. I told her the temperature had to be somewhere in the seventies.

"You should have asked me to come with you, Jimmy. If you had asked me nice, I'd have left Sherry here and come with you. I told her I was going to if you asked me."

"You seem to always tell the wrong people what your plans are. It's funny that you say that, because I was only waiting for you to ask me if you could come. That's the main reason I waited so long to finalize my ticket out here."

"Sherry's right about the way you lead me around. I didn't want to tell you that when she first said that to you, but she's right."

"By your twat, you mean? I don't think so. I remember you leading me around by grabbing my cock and pulling on it, but I never led you around with my finger in your little puss."

"Maybe you should have. Maybe you should ask me to do a lot of things, instead of always waiting for me to be the one to ask you?"

"I've got to go. I wish now I'd paid the extra and gotten one of those convertibles. It would have been nice to feel that warm breeze blowing on me when I drive. It will be colder up the hill though, so maybe not."

"Don't call me if you do end up going to Hawaii without me. You know how much I've always wanted to go there someday."

"Listen, if you look in my top dresser drawer, in the back, I left an envelope there for you. There's some money in there, and the number of a guy you can call that will drive you up to the airport in New Jersey. I already set this up with him, just in case you changed your mind. I can buy you a ticket from out here, online, for that same six thirty flight I took yesterday. You can pick it up at the airline's counter, just like I did with mine. You can give the guy a hundred, that's what he told me he'd run you up there for. Once you get out here, I'll come get you at the airport, and we'll decide where to go after that."

"You think you've got it all figured out, don't you?" This was the anger that I'd expected from her.

"No. Look in the envelope before you get mad. I left a list of options you might decide on instead of coming out here to be with me. I'll hang up now and call you back in an hour. Look at the note I left first, and then decide what you want to do, okay?"

She agreed to doing that much, and that's where we left it when we hung up. I'd put twenty five hundred in cash in the envelope, along with several suggestions for places she and I could visit, or places where she could choose to go with Sherry instead. I'd even written down the best prices I'd found on the internet, along with the web site she had to use to get those prices. I'd also included one of my credit cards, for her to make the vacation package purchase with. I was hoping she'd choose to pick one of the choices that included me, but I still wanted to give her several other options for getting away from the cold, even if her choice didn't end up with her being somewhere with me.

I phoned my house again in an hour. Tina answered on the first ring.

"Sherry and I both picked Hawaii, but I want to be with you too. Why wasn't that one of the choices?"

"It is. Go ahead and book it, using my card, then get Mike to drive you guys up to the airport. Call me on my cell and let me know which package you picked, out of the three different options I found. After I'm done visiting with my brother and his family, I'll fly over there and join you. Those condos are all two bedrooms. I think the two week one on Maul is the best, but if you want to see more of the Islands, that cruise/condo combination deal looks to me like it's the next best one. If you pick that one though, make the cruise for the second week, not the first, and let them know you'll have a third person in your stateroom. They only charge like three hundred for the third person, and the condo package doesn't care if you have two, three, or four people."

"Why did you put so much cash in the envelope, and your credit card too?"

"That was always the other half of your money from the King Richard picture. I was just waiting for a good time to give it to you. Someday, when you're famous, I'll tell people you used me to model for it. It should be worth a lot by then. The credit card was to pay for your vacation with."

"After doing all this, you're going to have to admit you love me. Will you say it?"

"Call me when you have all your flight information, and tell me where you'll be."

"Please?"

"If I ever do say it, it will because I'm sure I mean it. I have to go, especially if I'm going to be cutting my time in California really short. Take care, and don't forget to call me."

"I love you too, Jimmy. Remember what I told you about when I wanted to go to Hawaii. That's why I'm bringing Sherry, so she can be my maid of honor."

"Now you're talking crazy, Tina. Don't go acting all weird on me and make me regret setting all this up. Your friend isn't visiting is she?"

"No, I'm clear for at least another three weeks. Tell me that you love me, and I'll tell you what I made Sherry promise she'd do if I let her come to Hawaii with us."

I almost said it to her, but stopped myself before I did. It was hard enough getting along with her without her knowing that I probably did love her. I wasn't a hundred percent sure that I did anyway. I knew I missed her a lot, and that I didn't want us to be fighting and apart like we now were.

"If she already promised, how would my telling you that change any thing? I'm very, very, very fond of you, and I've missed having you with me. That's all I'm going to say about that, so try to make it be enough for you."

"We're both going to make you so glad you brought us on this vacation, Jimmy. What you just said, that's enough for right now. I know you really do love me though, and I'm madly in love with you, and have been for a long, long time. Go see your brother and his family. Tell them their future sister in law sends her fondest greetings too."

After the phone call, I started worrying about how I could cut my visit short without hurting Danny and Kaitlyn's feelings. If I just stopped by for a few hours, they would be upset. I'd called them already to let them know I was coming. I wished now that I hadn't, but it was too late for me to be wishing for that. I drove up to their trailer park, getting there before eleven. I figured another four and a half hours for the girls to get on their flight and leave New Jersey. It all depended on what connection they made for the next leg of their trip to Hawaii. I was assuming it would be sometime in the morning of the following day. That didn't give me much time to spend with my family, I had to come up with a big excuse, or else come up with something to get their mind off of me, and onto something else more important to them.

I'd found out, over the phone, that Danny had hurt his back moving some furniture and had been forced to go on disability for awhile. He was getting a check from Workman's Comp, but that was only for about two thirds of his base wages. Even with the money in that account I'd set up for Kaitlyn, I knew they were just scraping by. Thinking about that, I had my answer.

When I got done greeting everyone, marvelling at how big Danny's kids had gotten, the three adults grabbed seats around my old dining table and had a few beers, trying to get caught up with each other's lives. Danny's back was really messed up, he told me, and he was afraid his days of driving trucks and delivering furniture had come to an end.

"What do you think you can still do, Danny?"

"Not much, Jim. When my back isn't killing me, I earn a little bit extra doing handyman things around the park. Maybe something like that. I can try putting some ads in the Recycler papers. I wouldn't be able to do any of the big jobs, and not much of anything requiring ladders, but I could probably get by just doing the things I know I can still do. Problem with doing that though, is I don't have many of the tools I'd need, and I'd need a work van to hold everything. Plus, I'm not that sure my back will hold up if I did all that bending over to get under sinks and things. What I'd really like to do is buy one of those re screening franchises. I know a guy down the hill that makes some damn good money going out on calls and re screening or making all new screens for people's homes. I did some of that with him, and it's as simple as learning how to suck milk out of a tit."

How much do these franchises cost?"

"With all the materials you'd need to get started, including the re screening trailer itself, only twenty thousand. You have to go to the factory school so they know you can do everything right too, but once you finish that, you can make five or six thousand a month easy by busting your hump, or an easy twenty five hundred to three grand each month by not even breaking a sweat. If I get a big settlement for my disability claim, then that's what I'm going to do. They already offered me thirteen thousand, but I told them it wasn't near enough. I'd need at least twenty five to get caught up with things, and still do that franchise deal."

"You think your back would allow you to do this screening deal?"

"Fuck yes. Hell, last month I helped him out for three days on some new homes he was building all the screens for. My back was worse then, and I didn't have any trouble at all, long as I sat down and rested when I got some twinges down in my lower part."

"If you were sure you could do the work, I could probably help you out with a good part of that, and you could save whatever disability money you finally end up with for a back up, just in case this doesn't work out quite like you'd hoped. It would mean I'd have to leave here right away though, and I hate having to cut my visit short. I'd do it if it would help you though. How much can you come up with on your own?"

"Nothing, man. We're living on short rations already. It's been tough sledding since I got laid up. Katie's even been talking about looking for something."

"We could get five thousand of it, Jimmy, and I could go with him to help out in case his back acts up. The kids are in school, and I can get help watching them if I needed to."

"How do you figure that, woman? I know your mother can't swing anything close to that."

Danny had been shocked when Kaitlyn had chimed in about her getting five thousand. I'd known, being able to access her savings account online, to the penny, how much she had saved up in that account I'd set up for her. I waited to see what she was going to tell him before I commented on what she'd claimed.

"Danny, you know I always tried to keep a little something back whenever you got any overtime, or when you went out and brought home any extra when you did those odd jobs of yours. This was to be our rainy day money. If Jimmy can help us with the rest, we shouldn't let this chance get away from us. This would mean us having our own business, baby. We wouldn't have to be dependent on anyone else. The two of us could do this, I know it."

This was the very first time, in memory, that I'd heard Kaitlyn being so completely supportive of any scheme that Danny had come up with. I'd watched her facial reactions when Danny had spoken about the re screening business. She had looked excited about it.

"Kaitlyn, have you looked into this franchise deal yourself?"

"Just what Danny told me when he was down the hill working for that guy. He told me how much the business was grossing from making those screens for the new houses. He paid Danny one fifty a day, and that's pretty good money for just an inexperienced helper to be paid. I know Danny can put two and two together and come up with the right answer. You had it right ever since you were a kid, you make a lot more if you have your own business. But only if you work hard at it. Danny and me, we're not afraid to work for what we want. We just never got our chance before."

I knew that was bull shit, because I couldn't count the number of chances Danny had blown over the years. Strangely, if Kaitlyn was planning on getting directly involved in it, I had a pretty good feeling about their chances to make a go of things.

"Here's what I can do then, but it would mean I'd have to fly on to Hawaii earlier than I wanted to. I was going to see about getting in touch with some people, like your sister Bridget, Kaitlyn, and maybe Leslie, or even Delilah if I could find out where she is now. I was hoping we could go out a few times and do some things too. I can see you aren't up for any bowling, Bro. Too bad, because I could probably kick your ass now that you've tweaked your back. If I'm going to give you this other help with the business thing though, my money is going to be pretty tight. I'll need to sell some of the things I've been meaning to sell but haven't gotten around to so far. It might take me some time, so I'd better get on it as soon as possible. You don't think anyone's going to get all hacked off at me for not looking them up while I'm out here?"

"Fuck no, and the hell with them if they did. Especially Leslie and Bridget. Dee was different, but those other two, they have no business expecting anything from you, not even the sweat off your balls. If they ask, which they probably won't, we'll tell them you weren't even able to stick around to spend much time with us. They can like it or lump it."

"I really only came out here to see you and the kids, but I know they'd at least expect me to call them while I was here. You guys are different though, and I feel bad that we couldn't spend more time this trip. Why don't all of us go out and get dinner at the Steer & Stein. Are they open even now?"

"Good idea, get some steaks and a few beers. Kids like their burger's and fries too. When would you have to leave, Jim?"

Danny was mostly concerned with himself, and I knew that. He was real excited at the prospect of making such a big score from me. Kaitlyn was different this time though. I figured she must have really been worried about where their money was going to come from after Danny's disability money ran out.

"Kaitlyn, I'm depending on you to make sure this franchise thing happens, just like Danny says it's supposed to. As soon as I get enough put together, I'll wire transfer it into your account. I'll send fifteen by the end of the month, and another five a week after. You keep that other money you saved, for your living expenses. Danny, I want you to let Kaitlyn handle all the money from this business. I don't want to hear that you went off and pissed any big chunks away. In business, there are always lulls, and you need to have some money in reserve to cover those times. Just let Kaitlyn handle the money, she already knows what she needs to do."