Chapter 13

I woke up looking into Caroline's eyes. She said, "I woke up a little bit ago and realized I'm in your control. I want to be here though. I like being in your control. Strange isn't it. We don't really know each other but we really do. Is loneliness a means of meeting someone?"

"We found each other, Caroline, and we can be something special for each other right now, whether or not we will be the same in the future."

"I like it, Mark. I'm very happy to be with you and to be held by you. We better get up or you'll find out how horny I get."

"In that case, let me take one of those pills."

"You better not, I want to see those grandkids of yours. I know they're not babies, but they are still your special grandkids."

Out at the airfield, I refueled the aircraft and checked all of the listed items. Once in the air, Caroline and I began talking about everything that she had ever done and she was asking me about my childhood. Soon we were lined up to land at Cheyenne. They had a small independent airfield southwest of the city, in addition to the main regional airport, and the Air Force Base where Gene did something that he didn't discuss. Thinking that Gene probably used the small airfield, I chose to land there.

The runway was new, smooth blacktop and we were directed to park up near the operations building. As soon as we shut the engine down, Sandy and the three kids came running out of the operations building. I was hugged tightly by the kids, and when I introduced Caroline, the kids hugged her the same way. Caroline had big tears in her eyes because of the acceptance. Sandy hugged Caroline and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She said, "The kids know that anyone Grandpa brings is special."

Sandy and the kids crawled all over the aircraft, looking at it. Sandy summed up my opinion of the plane well, "This is a modern baby 172. I'll bet it flies nice too, Gene will be begging you to fly it as soon as he gets home. He's been calling about every hour to see if you're here yet. If I tell him you've arrived, he'll probably take off from work unless he has some problem he has to take care of."

I had to ask, "Sandy, how did you know I was landing? You haven't waited out here all day have you? I could just have easily gone to the city airport."

Sandy was hugging me, "You think too much like Gene to go into the city airport. We live right over there in that loose subdivision that borders the land here. We know the operators here real well and I told them to call us as soon as a strange aircraft called in. It was a gamble, but we figured it would be you."

I said, "That wasn't very bright of me not to ask where to come in, especially since I haven't been out to see you here since you've built the house. I didn't realize you were building right next to an airport."

"We both wanted this place since we both give flying lessons now. I can leave the kids with a neighbor when I have a daytime lesson. Mark is just about old enough to watch over his brother and sister. Come on, let's go to the house for some lunch."

Worrying about the plane, I asked, "What about the plane. Shouldn't I move it away from operations?"

"Naw," Sandy said, "they will tie it down out here so everyone can come look at it. You're flying a curiosity. There will be fingerprints all over it by tonight. Clint, the operator, asked for you to please leave it out here for him."

We pulled the two bags from the aircraft and rode directly across the runway, over a well worn path, to Gene's and Sandy's house. Gene had done a hell of a job. With help from some of his friends and promises of free lessons, he built his own place that was larger than a moderate sized family would need. He had a small hangar-sized garage that had two entrances. The one entrance facing the airport was where he put an airplane he was working on and the other entrance was used for parking a car. That side of the garage was cluttered with a big lawn tractor and a couple of dirt bikes. The kids immediately had to show us all of their toys.

We had a nice lunch of sandwiches and iced tea before Sandy got a call from Gene. The call lasted only until Sandy said we were here. He must have hung up on her as she looked at the phone and shrugged her shoulders. She looked at the clock on the wall and said, "He'll be here in fifteen minutes or less, should we time it?"

Caroline was having a good time playing with the two little ones. Suzy and Dan had her on the floor playing with both dolls and trucks. Since Suzy was a year older than Dan, she was able to manipulate Dan to play her games more often than his. I could see though, that when Dan was tired of too much playing with dolls, he would go off by himself.

Gene came through the door, walked straight to me, and hugged me. "How are you, Dad, you feeling okay? Have you healed up good?"

"You shouldn't have taken off work. You could have waited until this evening, normal time."

Gene was grinning, "No way, I had to get home to see my Dad. Who's this lady playing with my children who have ignored me coming home?"

"Gene, This is my real good friend, Caroline, Caroline, my son, Gene."

Caroline made the observation, "You look just like your dad except you're taller and a little heavier."

Sandy said, "I try to feed him right so he'll lose weight, but I know that when he travels he probably eats steak and potatoes every night. He's been traveling a lot lately, too."

Gene said, "Dad, I'm so happy you finally came to visit. You always make us fly down to see you. It's about time you flew up to see me. What did you fly?"

Sandy jumped in, "You have to go see it, Gene. It's the new Cessna 162 Skycatcher. It looks like a regular airplane, not one of those kites."

"Let's go see it, Dad. Sandy, we might take it up for a quick spin. We'll be back for supper, though."

Gene and I got in his pickup and drove across the field toward the operations building. Gene used his radio to get permission to cross the runway, then drove up and parked outside the building near the aircraft.

Several people were looking at the plane and peering into the cockpit. When Gene walked up, they began asking him about the plane and did his dad really fly it out here?

Gene introduced me to some of his fellow aviation buddies. They indicated that Gene had been responsible for getting the new runway as the field had become the meeting and storage place for the local military Aero club. It's amazing how much attention you get when some military people begin spending all their free time somewhere.

Gene asked, "Does it need fuel or is it good to go for an hour or so?"

"You know the answer to that, Gene; you always take off with a full load unless you're compensating for weight."

We got the fuel truck over to top off the tanks then Gene wanted to go over the preflight list to see what might be different. The big difference was the Continental engine and the method of checking the oil level.

We unclipped the tie downs and hung them on the rail by the operations building then loaded up. All the curious folks reluctantly retreated to the sidewalk to watch us take off. Gene, used to taking command, got into the left seat, and was going through some familiarization when he looked up. "Sorry, Dad, I didn't mean to assume I could just take over. Do you want to fly it?"

"No, Son, you're curious, go ahead. I'll watch to make sure you do it right."

Gene laughed and said, "I feel like I'm twelve again. We sure did have a lot of fun flying just about every small aircraft made back then. This is a slick plane. It's wild what they are doing with this Light Sport designation."

After Gene had read through the takeoff procedures and associated information, we started up and let it warm. A few minutes later he was requesting runway access.

Up, up, and away. As soon as we were off the ground, Gene said, "We'll go south towards the mountains. North is all the Air Force Base and Regional airport traffic. I want to see how it handles stalls." We went through the activities an instructor pilot would require of a student, going farther south as we flew.

Gene said, "We're close to Denver, want to see how the plane handles altitude on takeoff?"

"Not really, no need, Cheyenne is over six thousand feet. It just always seems you have to climb to get to Denver."

"We should be getting back anyway," Gene said guiltily. "Sandy will have a big supper cooked for us. This is really great that you came out to visit, Dad."

Gene gently landed the aircraft, saying that it handled just like the larger Cessna and was super to fly. Again, he parked up next to the ops building and made sure the fuel truck would visit the airplane before long. We hooked the plane up to the tie downs and drove back across the runway and field to go home.

Gene was saying, "I'm trying to get this area out here tilled, leveled, and planted in grass so we can use it for some of the experimental junk that people are building. We could also use it for an additional takeoff and landing area for people to get used to grass strips. A few of us that live over on this side are thinking of building our own hangars, too. The big garage works for my stuff, but wouldn't work for anything larger. I'm thinking my next bird is going to have two engines. The Mouse is worth enough to make a deal on something. I'm not looking yet, but probably will soon. Sandy wants a bigger airplane, too. She says we might be able to get a few charters out of it. As it is, we get two or three flights to Denver to take people to get on a plane down there, or would that be "up" there?"

My goodness, the kid had a bunch of plans and/or dreams. I knew he made good money, but not exactly how much. I know he is employed by the Defense Department but I'm not sure of what division. I think that was classified. He used to work on rotary wing storage as they called it. In other words, helicopter armament, but that was all Army stuff. Now he's been at this base, involved in a project for close to seven years, with no end in sight. Who knows what they do out here in Wyoming. I guess that was the point.

We had a great supper and played outdoors with the kids. It's really neat to watch Dan ride the little 50cc motorcycle out in the back. Mark rode like an adult and had a few jumps built, along with some tight corners to ride around. The kicker was Suzy riding a 125cc bike. It was bigger than she was, but she was fearless. She was jumping higher than Mark, but couldn't drag the bike around a corner like he could. She just wasn't big enough to man-or-woman-handle the bike the way a bigger person could.

Gene said, "Mark is about ready to give up motorbikes and start flying. I think you had me handling the stick when I was nine or ten. I remember our best times together were flying. I think that's what happened with Sandy and me. We met because of flying and we're raising our kids with airplanes. It's just natural that they should fly as soon as they can."

We, that is Gene, Sandy, Mark, and I, had a pleasant time talking about life while Gene, Sandy, and I were having a beer in the kitchen, watching Caroline playing with the two younger ones. The evening was really pleasant.

After the kids had been put to bed and it was time for the adults to go to bed, Sandy and Caroline had already had a conversation and we were put together in the spare bedroom. Caroline hugged me and said, "That was just perfect. Playing with the little ones was really a lot of fun. I think if I could do that often enough, I could forgive myself for never having kids."

"You know, Caroline, you should go over and volunteer at the daycare at the clothing company. You could play with kids a couple of days a week and help out where you would be needed. You're in great shape. I can't believe how limber you are. You get up and down off the floor like a kid. I guess I just need to lose some weight."

"You're just right for me, Mark; you are perfect to snuggle with."

We quickly dropped off to sleep.

Suzy was sitting on the bed staring at my face. When I opened my eyes, she held her finger to her lips and made a "Shhh" sound. "Grandpa, don't wake Caroline up. Come on, get up, I want to show you something outside this morning. You'll like it."

I slid from bed and put on my pants and shoes. I slept in my drawers and T-shirt, so it was easy to get going.

Noticing the kitchen clock said just after five, Suzy and I went out the back door and she led me out into the field. She squatted down and pointed. Beneath some tall weeds and grass; a mother rabbit was sitting on a nest. Suzy must have been around the nest enough that the rabbit wasn't overly afraid of us. I could see her panting, so I moved back a ways. Suzy said, "She has babies. There are three of them left. She used to have more, but I think a cat got one."

Suzy stood up and took my hand. She said, "When I first came over here, the mama rabbit jumped up and ran. I watched it and it didn't run that far. When I didn't follow, it ran back by me. Mom said that the mama rabbit did that so I would chase her and not harm the babies. I found the babies, but I didn't touch them. I did look at them. I try to come out every morning to see how she's doing."

We walked back to the house with a few backward glances at the well-camouflaged nest. Inside, Suzy said, "I usually fix my own breakfast because Dad doesn't get up until six. Mom gets up then too most of the time. Mark and Dan sleep late, because they never want to go to bed at night."

Suzy pushed a chair over to the counter and used it to get a box of CoCo Crispies out of the cupboard. She got two bowls and two spoons and put them on the table. She got out two small glasses and two bigger glasses and put them with the bowls.

With practiced ease, she poured two bowls of the nasty cereal, then poured some milk in each bowl of cereal. Next, she filled our two bigger glasses with milk, then brought out a half gallon of orange juice and filled the two small glasses. Before putting the orange juice container back in the refrigerator, she pointed to a word on the container and said, "See, Grandpa, I have a little of Florida every morning. When I drink my orange juice, I think of you."