Chapter 15

The rental car's nav system had our hotel keyed in as we pulled onto the main highway. As we got a little closer to town we stopped in at a Walgreen's to get us each a drink, and while we were there we went ahead and picked up a variety of snacks for the room. Tina was a big fan of cashew nuts.

"You like macadamias," she said. "You get some of those. I'll get cashews. The BIG ones. And ginger ale!"

We took an inordinately long time in a drugstore, in my estimation, and we left with a couple of bags full of goodies.

The path through town to the hotel was not visibly different from any other town: the mix of fast food joints, chain restaurants, strip malls, the traffic, but the GPS was inerrant in directing us to our destination.

I parked the car at one of those 'luck of the draw' parking spots very close to the hotel entrance. Tina and I walked in with her carrying the two overnight duffels and me carrying the hard suitcase and our snacks. There was a guy at the counter checking in. Standing next to him was a young girl, red-head, a bit more than five feet tall.

There was something too familiar about the way the man stood. He said something, and I identified the voice immediately. I knew him! Fellow engineer from a couple of projects back. We'd worked together for most of a year.

Okay, let's make sure. I muffled my voice to imitate a particularly memorable radio call. "Dan Richards, report to the supervisor's office immediately. Your transformer blew up!"

Bingo! He whipped around, eyes wide, and I knew the face.

"Alan Dean Addison! What the HELL are YOU doing here?" he said, extending his hand. I gripped it and pulled him up for a manhug.

The little redhead standing next to him was staring.

"I was going to ask you the same thing, buddy," I said.

Tina looked at me, then him. "Tina," I said, "This is Dan Richards. He and I worked on a job together in Arizona for a year."

Tina stepped up, extending her hand. "Hi, Mister Dan! I'm Tina. Alan's wife!"

Dan looked at me, then her, then back at me, then at the little redhead. She was giggling. He said, "Cindy, this is Alan Addison. We worked together on a project in Arizona. Alan, uh ... Tina, this is MY wife, Cindy!"

Now I thought I was hallucinating. She was a cutie, her hair several shades lighter, towards red, than my Tina, and four or five inches shorter, and her eyes were an astonishing shade of green, but she didn't look like she was old enough to be married. Of course, this was coming from a guy with a teenaged wife himself.

She had the poise to extend a hand. "Pleased to meet you," she said, smiling.

"So what are you doing here," Dan asked.

"Tina and I are here for a concert."

The little redhead suppressed another giggle. "Bach?"

"Yes!" Tina blurted. "You too?"

Squeal! Dan's cutie said, "Uh-huh! Tomorrow evening."

"You're checking in?" I asked Dan.

"Yep!" he said. He saw the clerk pushing a form at him and he directed his attention to her and took his room keycards. "Your turn," he said, stepping out of the way.

"Where're you working?" I asked.

"New powerhouse south of Birmingham. You?"

"Plastics plant going in east of Nashville. How'd ya get here? Airline?" I countered.

"Nope," he said. "Remember that plane I was getting rebuilt in Arizona?" he smiled.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "Bush plane you bought in Alaska. Cessna 180, wasn't it?"

"Uh-huh. Spent some money, but she's like new."

"Don't tell me you came in at the field east of town..."

"Yep!" Dan said.

"We saw you flying in. Tina and I were just driving off." I signed my name and got our room cards.

"Okay ... what room are ya'll in? We need to go drop off bags, then we can catch up if you want to."

I looked at the little folder in my hand. "One-thirteen," I said.

"Four twenty-nine," he said. "What? About fifteen minutes? Our place or yours?"

"Ours," I said. "Fifteen minutes, okay?" I nodded towards our two wives standing back in the lobby, chatting and smiling.

He called to his Cindy, "Let's go put our stuff in our room, then me an' Alan have some catching up to do."

Tina came to my side, grinning. "We'll see you in a little bit. This is gonna be interesting."

They headed to the elevator with their bags as we traipsed up the hall.

"What on earth was THAT, baby?" Tina said.

"I don't believe it," I said. "Honey, that was my best friend on that job."

She took a keycard and let us into our room. We sat the bags down and she wrapped me in her arms. "A room all to ourselves." She surveyed the room. Two queen beds.

I would've preferred a king, but this was fine. Tina and I could make do in a twin bed, cuddled in each other's arms. We kissed.

"So," she said, "Now tell me about this Dan guy. Your age?"

"Within a couple of months," I said. "We're both from Louisiana, graduated from two different colleges, both...

"Engineers," Tina said.

"Worse than that," I said.

"Lemme guess. Electrical engineers." She had that cute smirk that she got when she was right.

"Uh-huh. His wife died in a car wreck. He decided to go on the road about the same time that I went through that divorce..."

"And both of you ended up with young wives. Her hair's redder than mine ... but still..." she fixed me in her stare. "And THEY fly their own plane ... What is this, Alan?" she giggled, "some kind of virus?"

I laughed. "Worse than that! We had a blast at that project. I should've kept track of where he went. Email ... Just kinda tapered off. And NOW!" I looked at those clear blue eyes. "Baby, I know this is OUR weekend..."

She smiled. "But we just ran into your old friend and his wife, who's YOUNGER than me, and she seems nice, so maybe we can hang out together?"

"You're a doll," I said.

"You know, baby," she smiled, "Just another one of those special things that happens to me when I'm with you..." She headed into the bathroom. "Just freshening up," she called.

"I need to do that," I said. "Then we can go..."

She bounced out of the bathroom with a smile on her face. "Baby, don't sweat it, I mean with Dan and Cindy. It's like one of those other weekends, you know. Not even as bad as when we brought Susan. We still sleep together."

"Oh, little one," I said, "I wasn't worrying about me. I was worrying about YOU!"

"Then don't!" she slipped behind me as I washed my face with a damp cloth. Her warms wrapped me from behind and she squeezed me vigorously. "I love you to pieces!"

I tried to turn. She released me and then trapped me again, our faces inches apart. "This oughtta be interesting. I mean, you KNOW the guy. So how does he end up with a fourteen year old wife?"

"She's FOURTEEN?!?!? I knew she looked young..."

"We started talking," Tina said. "She's a sweetie!"

"But fourteen? You go to JAIL for fourteen!"

Tina laughed. "Says the guy who fled Tennessee ahead of the bloodhounds..." Giggle. "Maybe he's into Barbie dolls..."

"Oooooh, you're a snarky little thing, you are ... come on! We're having company! You wanna call? Or me?"

She grinned. "Four twenty-nine, right?"

I nodded.

She punched the phone. "Hi, Cindy! We're waitin' on ya! Uh ... Yeah! One-thirteen! You an' me'll decide where we eat!" Giggle.

A couple of minutes later there was a knock on the door. I stood up, but I wasn't fast enough to beat Tina to it. She glanced through the peephole and then swung it open. "Come in," she said. "Nice rooms, huh?"

I smiled at Dan and Cindy. "We try to do something like this every two or three weeks. Gets us out of..."

"Don't tell me you guys live in a TRAILER!" Cindy squealed.

I looked at Dan. "Remember when we used to talk about customizing a travel trailer for going to jobs?"

Dan said, "I did it. Works great! This is my second project with it."

"Worked great for me too, until this job." I didn't finish. I looked over my shoulder. Cindy and Tina were sitting cross-legged on one of the beds, chatting excitedly.

Dan looked at me. "Uh, last time we talked, you were divorced. Uh, Tina? How old?"

"Seventeen," I said. "And Cindy?"

Dan looked kind of embarrassed. "Fourteen. B ... but we're legally married. Papers and everything. Since the week of Thanksgiving."

I was a little startled. "Day-um!" I said. "Uh, Tina and I, since October."

Another question, Dan said. "What kind of plane?"

I laughed. "Two, actually. We flew down here in a 182. I bought Tina a 150 to get her license with. It's up for sale now."

I heard a squeal. Cindy. "Dan! Tina's got her PILOT'S license!"

Dan shrugged. "So what do you guys do for dinner?"

"We usually just wing it," I said. "Tina, baby, fire up the laptop and see what's around here." To Dan I asked, "Any preferences?"

"Cindy?" he asked.

Cindy was looking over Tina's shoulder. "We're lookin', baby. We'll let you know!"

Tina looked back over her shoulder. "And it won't be fried ANYTHING!"

Cindy giggled. "We're gonna have to help 'em out. They're all giddy."

"Easily confused," Tina tittered.

Dan looked at me. "Alan, the last time we did something together, we built those bowling ball mortars."

I laughed. "I still got mine!"

"Me too," he said, relating an interesting interaction with law enforcement while driving through west Texas.

Cindy popped up. "We got it, guys!"

"Where are we eating, then?" I asked.

Tina said, "We found a neat Italian place. It got good reviews. And it's not far."

Dan looked at me. "She run your life?"

I grinned. "She IS my life, Dan."

"We're two lost son-of-a-guns, then, buddy!" he said.

Cindy didn't let that comment pass. "No you're not, baby! I FOUND you!"

And my Tina: "You might've found HIM, my Alan found ME." She thought for a second, then said, "Who's got the biggest car? We should ride together!"

"Yeah!" Cindy said.

"I have a Ford Taurus," I said. "Free upgrade. As many of the things as I rent."

"You got me beat," Dan said. "But we could all FIT in our little Focus."

I chuckled. "No, we'll take our Taurus. Do ya'll need to go back to your room first, or are we ready to go?"

Dan glanced at Cindy. "She LOOKS ready, but you never know ... Baby?"

"I'm ready," Cindy said. She looked at Tina. "You ready, Tina?"

Tina shut the cover on her laptop and stood. "I'm ready. Let's go."

I did a quick inventory of items before we walked out of the door and down the hall behind our wives. They made a very attractive pair. Tina's stride was more of a flow. I think Cindy was close to skipping.

I nudged Dan. "Look," I said. "Cuties!"

"Yeah," he said. "Apparently in my former life I rescued puppies or something to have karma like this."

At the lobby the girls stopped and waited for us. Cindy took Dan's hand and Tina linked up with me and we walked out into the crisp post-frontal air. At the car, Tina said, "Guys in the front, girls in the back. Ya'll are taller." We all got in. I saw Cindy reach forward and lovingly touch Dan.

Dan handled digging up our destination on the GPS. We started talking, he and I, about work stuff, as I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. He described his job.

"Sounds familiar, ' I said. "You got the generators and large motors and stuff, and I got the distribution and control. The only generation I have at this place is the generator to keep the coffee pot going in the lunchroom."

"Uh-huh," Dan said. "You ever get Tina out there?"

"No. Got a real anal-retentive safety manager. He wouldn't allow it. I'm surprised he's still on the project, as much as he gets in the way of everything. You're telling me that Cindy... " I could see her smiling face in the rear-view mirror.

"I'm the Engineer's Apprentice," she chirped. She turned to Tina. "I have a bunch of pictures on my laptop. You need to see 'em."

Dan asked, "You remember Bill Carmody, don't you?"

"Mechanical engineer. Managed the mechanical on that Arizona project? Good guy."

"He's the project manager on this one. Cindy's like his godchild. She out there almost every week. Sometimes twice."

I saw Tina in the mirror. "Baby, I wish I COULD go visit your job."

"Lemme try another angle on that, baby, ' I said. I glanced at Dan. "How's all those visits work with her schoolwork?"