Chapter 14

A tiny hand was tweaking my nose. It would grab hold of my nose then wiggle it back and forth. Finally, in a very loud whisper, I heard, "Grandpa, wake up. You have to eat breakfast with me."

Opening my eyes and smiling at my granddaughter was easy. Getting out of bed without disturbing Caroline was more difficult.

I put on a pair of jeans, along with socks and shoes, then followed Suzy to the kitchen. She said, "Let's go check on the mama rabbit before breakfast. I like to see her sitting there covering her babies."

We were approaching the rabbit's nest when I stopped Suzy and pointed. The mama rabbit was sitting up looking at us, and on the ground around her were three little miniature rabbits nibbling grass. We just stood still, watching the rabbits, knowing the mama sort of trusted us.

Suzy pulled me to go back inside. When we were in the kitchen, she said, "Now I know the mama rabbit is letting her babies eat regular food. It's neat the way they grow so fast. I guess nature is different for animals than it is for us humans."

When Suzy got up on the chair to get the cereal out, she asked, "Would you want some of this other cereal, Grandpa? There might not be enough for both of us to have CoCo Crispies."

I saw Wheaties, so I asked, "I'll have Wheaties, is that all right?"

"Right, Grandpa, breakfast of champions."

We repeated our ritual from the morning before, complete with the speech about thinking of grandpa when she drinks her Florida orange juice.

Suzy asked, "Do you know why I slept with you last night?"

"No, Ma'am, I don't."

Suzy sat up straight and said, "I wanted to make sure you didn't get up real early and leave without saying goodbye to me. I also wanted to feel you in my sleep. I liked that. You used to hold me at night when I was real little. I remember that. You would hold me at night and sing to me and you would hold me when I took a nap. I wanted to feel that again."

Sandy was standing in the archway of the kitchen with watery eyes. She came in and poured herself a cup of coffee and poured three more. She put one in front of me and carried two from the room. She was soon back sitting next to me, across from Suzy.

"Suzy," Sandy said, "How do you remember stuff like that? You were less than two years old."

"I just do, Mama, it was something that was very warm and very nice. Maybe that's why I like my Grandpa so much."

Sandy said, "She's always talking about stuff that happened when she was really young. She's one of those people that have a memory of their early childhood. I don't know whether that's good or not. Gene says he remembers when you took care of him when he wasn't even two yet. That's hard to believe, but I know those things that Suzy says are true because I was there. Amazing, isn't it?"

Gene and Caroline both came in carrying their coffee cups, smiling, happy to be alive in the morning.

Pointing out the window, Gene said, "You're going to have good flying weather. The charts say you'll have a good tailwind most of the way home. Where will you refuel and stop for the night?"

"I'm thinking Wichita, Pine Bluff, Tallahassee, and home."

Gene was alarmed, "Are you going to try to do it in one day?"

I smiled, "Oh no. We'll probably stop in Tallahassee. Instead of there, we might divert to Panama City for the night, you know how I like that place."

Gene grinned real big, "That's where you used to take me during spring break all the time. I think you liked to look at all the girls."

"Guilty. It was fun for you, I know. You always had a good time."

"I did, Sir, you were really good to let me have as much fun as I did. You were always watching, but you gave me a lot of freedom."

I said, "You earned your own freedom. I watched to make sure you didn't abuse the freedom and the more you stayed straight, the more freedom you got. You were a good kid."

Dan and Mark came in, groggy from just getting up. Dan wanted to be held by his mom, while Mark got out a bowl and cereal for breakfast. He asked Dan what he wanted and got out a bowl for him too. The kids were a tight family.

Gene said, "I have to get going. Even though it's Saturday we have reviews of all the tests from yesterday. Wish I could talk about them, but oh well, as always I have no idea what I'm working with. I'm just an engineer."

I chuckled as I was sure he knew a lot about what he was working with. The kid was too curious to be on a project and not be very well informed.

When Gene was ready to leave, I got a big hug. He hugged Caroline, told her to watch out for me, and for Caroline and I to come back and visit again soon. The kids all got hugs and kisses from their Dad as he left, with the last hug and kiss coming from Sandy.

Sandy watched Gene's truck until it was out of sight then came back to the table, smiling. She said, "I'm the luckiest wife in the world. I have a great man and three great kids. I'm the luckiest wife and mom in the world."

Caroline and I showered and dressed to travel. We packed up, then Sandy and the kids took us back to the airplane. Sandy brought some paper towels and window cleaner. She said with all the people looking at the plane, there would be nose and hand prints all over the glass.

She was right. The aircraft had obviously been a popular attraction. Even while we were washing the windows, several people came up to look into the cockpit. I did the preflight, then hugged and kissed the kids and Sandy. Caroline received as many hugs and kisses as I did. She really enjoyed the attention.

We lifted off and climbed to seven thousand feet. We were almost instantly in a fairly heavy tailwind. I should have checked the military weather before taking off.

When we landed at Wichita, we were way ahead of schedule and we didn't require as much fuel as would be normal for the distance we flew. I did check the weather and saw that we would be in that heavy flow all the way to Tallahassee. On our way to the next stop, I asked Caroline, "Want to stay overnight in Pine Bluff, Tallahassee, or how about Panama City?"

With a grin, she said in the headset mouthpiece, "Panama City. Will it be late when we get in there?"

"Maybe not with the tailwind we have. Our ground speed is almost a hundred forty. We might make it by around nine."

Caroline sounded a little down when she said, "Oh, I thought we might be able to go to the beach."

"Tell you what. We don't have to be back yet, so we'll stay overnight tonight and tomorrow night. Between those two nights, we'll play on the beach."

Caroline's face brightened. "Oh goody, I'll have to get a swimsuit, but that will be perfect. I've never been up there and it's supposed to be a real nice beach. Can we stay out by the water?"

"When we get there, I'll call a few of the hotels and find out. We'll have to get a car anyway to go out there, so we'll make guaranteed reservations and find some food before we get there."

Caroline sat in the right seat, grinning.

We did land before nine. We had the plane tended to, a reservation for an oceanfront room, and a rental car before nine. Using directions given to us by the operations people, we drove across to Panama City Beach and stopped at an Italian restaurant across the street from our hotel. The food was great and we could easily have overeaten. I wasn't drinking and asked Caroline if she might want some wine. She said, "Don't drink anything. I think I want you to take one of these. She laid a blue pill next to my iced tea. With a big grin, I swallowed the pill then we had gooey cannelloni for dessert.

The room we had was perfect. The ocean noise made the room perfect. We went to bed with the door to the little porch open, letting the night sounds in. We put the result of the pill to good use. At one point, before I gave out, Caroline said, "I don't care if I do walk funny in the morning; this is too good to waste."

We were sound asleep by midnight after we happily moved to one side of the bed.

The next morning Caroline was like a little kid. She couldn't wait to have breakfast then to run to a shop to get swimsuits. She said, "I'm going to get the most scandalous suit they have. I'll tell them that I want something that's barely legal. I have the tan for it and I want to show off for you."

"Caroline, you don't look your age at all. You look perhaps fifty at the most. The young guys will be drooling all over you."

She said, "I only want you to drool all over me. I wish you could use those pills two days in a row. I'm ready for more right now."

That gave me a twitch. Maybe I would still work for an encore later, after all.

Caroline did get a skimpy suit, but it wasn't as miniscule as they had. She made a good choice in that the suit was tiny but covered her to the point of looking sexily sophisticated. I bought another pair of trunks.

We had to use a gallon of lotion while we were out in the sun to keep from burning. I even bought a slouch hat for my bald spot. By noon, we were ready for lunch and a nap, then we went out some more in the afternoon. That evening we walked the beach until we found a little beach restaurant that served some nice fish dinners. We ate and had some drinks, then walked back to the hotel.

In our room, with the door open again, Caroline said, "This has been the nicest vacation I've ever had. I know it was to see your son and his family, but I was a part of all of it. Oh, Mark, you've spoiled me forever. I'm almost feeling guilty that we've had so much fun. I hope Shirley and Betty don't get mad that I might want to steal you. We've just met, but we've become very close, very quickly. At least we know you have to wait, since you don't even have your divorce yet."

We fell asleep kissing and hugging, with the ocean sounds blending in with our sighs.

We got out of bed early Monday morning, ate breakfast, and went to the airport. A half hour later, we were on our last leg home wearing big smiles.

Caroline said, "If Betty wants to be a part of our blue pill time, you can at least take care of her tonight. Shirley is going to be a little jealous. I'll tell you something, though, you've made me feel like more of a woman and a special person in these few days than I've ever felt before. I wish I had known you when we were younger. We would have been good for each other."

"Probably so, Caroline, life is funny though. We have to play with the hand we're dealt. Let's just enjoy each other now that we have this special connection."

She looked at me and talked to me through the headset, "I hope I won't be too clutching, too protective, or jealous. I'm normally not that way, but I'm going to be a little strange around others. I promise to be an adult."

We landed about ten and taxied up to the hangar by the charter office. I got out and helped Caroline out. Inside the charter and rental office, I said, "DeDe, I've brought your new toy back."

"How did it fly? I thought you might stay out another week."

"No, Dede," I said, "I need to get back and do some work for Steve. He was nice enough to let me use the plane. Here's the log, I'll fill the bird up with fuel. Take this card and use it for the charges."

I left the office, fueled the aircraft and made sure the inside was cleaned out. The glass was still clean from cleaning it in Cheyenne before we left. Since there was no rain, there were no spots. I pushed the plane into the hangar before going into the office to get my card and the receipt.

DeDe handed me my card back and I said, "Do you have the receipt? I need to write it in my checkbook. I use a debit card."

DeDe looked at me and said, "Will you get out of here. Steve said you were to fly free, that means free, no charge, you don't pay nuttin. Now get." The lady was grinning as she told me to get.

Jesus, how am I ever going to repay a guy like that? I was going to try, that's for sure.

We drove back to the park. As soon as I stopped in front of Caroline's trailer, Betty, Shirley, and Prissy came out to meet us.

Prissy was first, "I heard you actually flew an airplane by yourself out to see your son. That is really something, Mark."

"It was special, Prissy."

Betty had already hugged Caroline and hugged me too, before saying, "You two snuck out on me. I'll bet you had a great time. You'll have to tell us all about it."

Shirley said, "Okay, you two, how many blue pills did you use."

I burst out laughing and gave Shirley another hug. I said, "You'll be happy to know, we only used one. We were very careful so that I would be able to take a pill upon our return."

Shirley had an evil grin, "Oh goody, I've been thinking about those blue pills all week."

Prissy said, "Well, you be careful with those pills. When you get up there in age, you don't want to take them very often. I won't let Donald have one but about once a week."

The picture flashed in my mind of the very old couple making love. I hope I would be like them. Seventy-five years together and still getting it on once a week, unbelievable. Thankfully, Prissy left so my smile wouldn't give me away.

Caroline said to me, "I'll bet you had the same mental picture I had. Sweet, wasn't it?"

Betty said, "Go put your bags away and let's go to the patio to show them you are back. You two have been the talk of the park since you've left. You didn't go to Vegas and get married, did you?"

Caroline said, "Betty, you know the man is still married. I'm not the only eligible lady around here."

Shirley said, "You may not be, but it is Betty's and my consensus, you two are perfect for each other. We're going to nurture that and hopefully have ourselves a special couple."

I blushed and Betty gave me a hug and said, "I'm so happy for you two. I hope I can still have a cuddle every once in a while."

Caroline and I exchanged glances. She said, "You know we did talk some, but we've agreed that we don't know each other very well yet, and we need to do that before we talk any serious stuff. So help us to tell others to take it easy."

We went to the patio by walking between trailers, since the cart wouldn't hold four of us. Everyone welcomed us and had to hear all about the trip. Caroline was the tour guide and told about the trip up and back, along with the trip to Denver in the borrowed Apache. Steve was interested to hear that my son and his wife were both instructor pilots and earned quite a bit by teaching. He thought it was neat that there were so many nose and handprints on the 162 Skycatcher that we had to wash the windows to fly back.

After lunch, I walked the ladies back to their trailers. With my cart out of the shed, I ran to the cart warranty area to find eight carts waiting. I guess they didn't work Saturday. I was able to finish all eight before five. I was cleaning the stall and the bench when Steve walked in.

"Hey, I figured you were here when you weren't in your trailer. You didn't need to bury yourself in work as soon as you returned."

"I wanted to get caught up. There are some folks that need some help and I want to get to them in the morning. I've had my visit and now it's time to catch up. And, ah, thank you for letting me use the Skycatcher. It was a pleasure to fly. It was easy to handle, even in a heavy tailwind. It didn't pitch at all, rode right along."

"That was my gift, Mark. You've added some maturity to our group and I want you to know we enjoy you. Let's go have a beer before supper."

"Ah, Steve, I play pool on Monday's and Wednesday's. I've missed a few weeks because of moving and getting hurt. It's time I fulfill by commitment to the team."

"That's great, Mark. Where do you play?"

I told him, "Monday night at Fatso's, but it is a traveling league. We play out at Bulls Club and Skids too. Wednesday is also a traveling league and we play all over. From out on fifty-sixth at the Tally Ho to out on 580 at Stroker's pool hall."