Chapter 64: Vacation

On Friday, April 2, Marilyn and I packed up all our stuff for the weekend and loaded it in her car. We would drive to the Westminster airport, unload it into the plane, and then leave the car for the weekend. I felt like I was climbing in and out of a clown car. It was very nice and very cute - and very small!

“Honey, why are we using your car?” I asked.

“Because the car seat is already set up for my car.”

“Well, why don’t we buy a second and put it in my car? Same type, same model, same everything.” We had gotten this very expensive and elaborate contraption that you could unhook from the car and use as a carry around baby carrier, and then put onto wheels as a stroller.

Marilyn didn’t have an argument against this, and we decided to get a second one for when we came home. As it was, with Charlie in the passenger seat, I drove and let Marilyn ride in the back, which seemed very confusing to our son. He kept trying to turn around to look at his mother.

Lloyd Jarrett turned out to be our pilot, and he loaded our gear into a Beechcraft King Air. By the number of bags Marilyn had packed in the trunk, you’d have thought we were making a pilgrimage to Mecca. I just had my B4, but Marilyn had a jumbo suitcase, and Charlie had even more stuff. “You do realize,”, I asked her, “that your mother has everything imaginable that he’s going to need! She only had thirteen children!”

“It’s not the same!”

I just stared at her for a moment and then shook my head. My wife would learn. Eventually, after we had our children, we joked that the first one is utterly special. The second child isn’t so special but is still kind of nice. By the time the third comes along, they’re all just spare parts! You’re too tired to find anything special about them! We used to say that after we got rid of them all, we’d buy a one-bedroom trailer from her father and move into it, and then throw carpet tacks on the living room floor to keep them from coming back! It didn’t quite work out that way.

We had gotten a call from Taylor a couple of days after we had made our arrangements with her. She had heard from Lloyd Jarrett that a better choice for airport would be New Castle in Wilmington. It was closer to Newark and vastly easier for a small plane to fly in and out of, and even easier for passengers. We got the directions to Suzie.

Lloyd got us loaded and settled in, with me in the copilot’s seat (I made a solemn promise not to touch a damn thing!) and Marilyn and Charlie right behind us. Charlie was turning out to be a good traveler. He didn’t cry or fuss much and seemed to enjoy it all. The trip to New Castle was barely an hour long, and we had hardly gotten up to altitude when it seemed like we were starting down again. It was a little louder than I liked, but what do I know about airplanes. Lloyd kept up a pleasant chatter about the plane as we flew, and it certainly seemed nice and plush.

New Castle turned out to be quick to fly in and out of. Lloyd told me that it was an ex-Army Air Corps base from WW2 that was just on the edge of being commercially viable for scheduled service from an airline. It was big enough and well-built enough to handle commercial traffic, but nobody had figured out how to make any money doing it. The airlines mostly used Philly, and northern Delaware was just too small an area to support an alternative airport. When we landed and taxied to the terminal, we simply parked, and Lloyd and I climbed out. A door to the side of the terminal opened, and Suzie came out, looking quite bewildered. I waved to her, and she just stared at me. I motioned her forward, and she came closer, dragging a suitcase on wheels.

“Hey, there kiddo, you look surprised!”

She stared at me. “When you said we were flying, I thought you meant in a real airplane!”

Lloyd rolled his eyes. I said, “Suzie, this is a real airplane. You think I can charter a 747?”

“You chartered this plane?”

“Come on, let’s get on board. We can talk about it later.” I took her bag and folded away the handle. Lloyd loaded it aboard, and then motioned for Suzie to get on. This time I sat in the back with Marilyn and Charlie.

As soon as she saw the others, Suzie forgot her questions. She hugged Marilyn and then started playing with her soon-to-be godson. Charlie gurgled happily at her and tugged on her fingers.

As soon as we were loaded, Lloyd got into action and was on the radio, getting us clearance to taxi to a runway and take off. I couldn’t complain about the speed or efficiency of everything, and it was a lot more comfortable than flying commercial. A King Air isn’t the biggest bird in the sky, but the seats were very nice, and they sure beat six across seating in the tail end of an overloaded 727.

We arrived at the Oneida County Airport after another couple of hours, and I marveled at it all. We had gotten to Westminster just a bit before nine this morning, and now it was just barely afternoon. If we had tried to do all this flying commercial it would have taken all day to go through two airports, and we would have ended up an hour away from Utica. After 9-11 you could add another four to five hours in security checkpoints. This was so much better!

We hadn’t talked about it during the flight, since I didn’t want to get into it with Lloyd, and it was still a bit noisy. Suzie’s mystification increased when she found a Caddy waiting for us at the airport’s ‘terminal’ (a shed with delusions of grandeur!) I was able to drive the car up to the airplane and Lloyd helped me load everything up. Then he took off with a promise to return Sunday afternoon at 2:30. That would give us enough time on Sunday to baptize Buster and then have a nice dinner.

We drove to the Sheraton and put Suzie in her room, and then went up to ours, which was a small suite. It’s not that we were being snobby, but the suite gave us a place to put Charlie in his crib. No, we hadn’t brought the crib. I had been able to keep Marilyn from packing that, too. Instead, we would use one provided by the hotel. Suzie simply dumped her stuff in her room and followed us up.

She looked around the suite, and simply said, “Okay, what gives?”

“Hmm?” I asked blandly. I went into the bedroom and returned with a bottle of whiskey from my suitcase. “Drinks, you two?”

“Please!” called out my wife. Suzie simply nodded.

I found an ice bucket and sent Suzie down the hallway. “Find us some ice and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“What about lunch?” asked Marilyn.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” I took the ice bucket back from my sister. “Let’s go downstairs and have lunch, and we can talk there.”

Marilyn changed Charlie while Suzie watched, and then we loaded him into the stroller and headed out. We’d have a nice lunch, a drink or two, and then head over to the Lefleurs.

We made it to the dining room and didn’t have to wait. Charlie was behaving well, so we just gave him a bottle. The rest of us ordered sandwiches and beers. Finally, Suzie wouldn’t be put off any longer. “Okay, no more stalling. What’s with the private planes and the Cadillac and the suite at the Sheraton? Did you guys suddenly become rich or something?”

Marilyn gave a bit of a shrug and simply pointed at me. I looked at my sister and gave a smile. “Close enough. I’ve been investing in the stock market since I was a kid, and I’ve done well.”

“Like what? How well? Are you a millionaire or something?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I am,” I answered.

Suzie just stared at me for a second or two. “Are you serious?”

“You bet! Now, you have to promise not to tell anybody. This is just private, between family members and a very, very few friends. Promise me you won’t blab it to anybody.”

Suzie gave a big grin. “Won’t Mom be surprised! Or do they know already?”

Marilyn and I looked at each other, but we weren’t smiling. I turned back to my baby sister. “See? That’s why I said not to say anything. No, I’ve never told them, and I don’t want to tell them. I haven’t talked to them in four years. Can you think of anything good that would happen if they knew I had money and had moved home?”

“You moved home?”

“I thought we told you that. We’re living in Cockeysville. We bought some property in Hereford and plan to build a house in the spring.”

“HOLY SHIT!” she exclaimed, a little too loudly. Several people turned their heads to look at her, and she gave a guilty look and lowered her voice. “Holy shit! I had no idea!”

“We moved back a couple of months ago when I got out of the Army. We’re renting a town house right now. When you come home for the summer, you’ll have to come out. The development even has a pool.”

“Cool!” Suzie turned to Marilyn. “I had no idea!”

“Neither did I! He kept it a secret, even from his wife!” grumped Marilyn.

I shrugged and failed to look all that sorry. “Yeah? Well, there’s a reason for that. People act differently when they think you’re rich. I have friends now that I would have never had if everybody had known I had money, and the friends I did have I would never know why they had become my friends.”

My sister looked startled at that, and when she glanced over at Marilyn, my wife shrugged and nodded in agreement. “I love your brother, but I don’t know what I would have done if I had known he was rich when I met him. What if I had been too afraid to even talk to him? Or what if some beautiful blonde had been chatting him up instead?”

I smiled at my wife. “That wasn’t a concern. I prefer brunettes ... Ouch!” Marilyn slugged me in the shoulder at that comment. I looked back at my sister. “It’s just, well, keep it under wraps, okay?”

“Just how rich are you?”

I shook my head. “Does it matter? I’m rich enough I can fly on chartered airplanes and take my wife on nice vacations. How rich do you need to be?”

“How?”

No way to explain that one. “Remember long ago when I had that fight on the school bus...” I gave her the quick and simple explanation. I finished, however, with, “Don’t tell the family.”

“You know I wouldn’t do that!”

“I know, it’s just ... it would become a problem.” Charlie was snoozing peacefully, so I ordered another round of beers. “How’s the family?”

“It’s okay. Hamilton’s working for the phone company now. Aunt Nan and Aunt Peg got him a job there. He works the midnight shift in the billing department, I think. It’s something to do with computers, anyway. Did I tell you that before?”

I nodded. It’s what had happened before. “Is Mom on his case about going back to school?”

Suzie grinned. “Of course! He started part time at UMBC.”

I snorted at that. Back before, he had spent seven years going to school part time at UMBC, and then dropped out with only 6 credits left to go, giving some bullshit statement about a conflict over the course scheduling. He simply refused to ever finish something properly. It was part of his mental problems. He just threw it all away.

“How’s Mom and Dad?”

Suzie shrugged. “Mom’s Mom. She’s just like always, as long as nobody mentions you. You’re the one who caused all the trouble. I don’t know whether she just says that to hide the fact that Hamilton’s a jerk, or whether she actually believes it. Probably both.”

I just nodded. What more could I say?

“Dad asks about you from time to time.”

My ears perked up at that. “Oh? Like what?”

“Well, he knows that you and I stay in touch. It’s just that sometimes, every few months, it will just be the two of us in the house or driving, without Mom or Ham, and he’ll ask if I’ve heard from you, if you’re all right.”

I felt a cold and painful fist closing around my heart. Without my brother, couldn’t I have had a decent relationship with my father again? What made my brother so hateful? What had changed in me this time that made him so much of a problem? I missed my dad. “What do you tell him?” I asked quietly. Marilyn reached over and took my hand.

“Nothing you’ve asked me not to say. Usually just that you are fine and happy. He doesn’t know about Charlie or getting out of the Army or moving home. If he presses, I simply tell him he has to ask you directly. I did offer to give him your phone number, but he hasn’t asked for it. Maybe you should call him?” she said.

I shook my head sadly. “And say what? Listen, if he asks, give him the number. I can pretty much guarantee, though, that if he calls, it won’t be from home, where Hamilton and Mom can throw a tantrum. He’ll call from the office.”

“I’m sorry. It can be pretty weird at times. As soon as I’m out of school, I’m moving out and getting an apartment.”

We talked about her classes for a bit. Suzie was finishing up her junior year and had another year to go. She was sharing a suite with three other girls, and they planned to stay together the next year, too. When I asked her about her love life, she blushed and told me to mind my own business. That just made me laugh and push harder. If you can’t tease your baby sister about boys, what’s the world coming to? Marilyn was happily torn between defending Suzie and asking questions of her own.

Charlie woke up and fussed, so I paid for lunch, and we went back to our rooms. We planned to change him, clean up a bit, and then head over to the Lefleurs for the rest of the day. I told Suzie to come up in about 30 or 40 minutes. I told Marilyn we needed to get ready immediately.

The family reunion with Marilyn’s folks was interesting, to say the least. We had traveled up here frequently over the years since Marilyn was very close to her family. I should say that Marilyn frequently traveled to Utica. Quite a few times were when I was in the ready cycle, preparing to invade some far-off place on a moment’s notice. If it fit with her schedule for school, I would often fly my wife home for a week or two. This, however, was the first time I had visited in over a year, and Marilyn hadn’t seen them since her parents had come down in the fall when Charlie was born.

It started simply enough, but like I suspected, it got complicated quickly enough. “How was the drive up?” asked Harriet.

“Well, actually, we flew. Carl’s knee gets stiff when he sits or drives for a long time,” answered Marilyn. I just nodded agreement.

“Oh, so you drove here from Syracuse? What, did you upgrade the rental car?” Harriet was looking out the window to the parking lot and could see the Cadillac.

“No, we had that waiting for us at the Oneida County Airport in Whitestown. Carling arranged a charter flight. We flew to Philadelphia and picked up Suzie, and then flew here. It’s so much faster if you don’t have to go through a regular airport!”

I rolled my eyes slightly. Both Harriet and Big Bob turned to face me. “You chartered a plane?”