Chapter 33

I poked Dan in the ribs. "You're fixin' to see a force of nature, buddy," I said.

He looked at me quizzically. "I gathered that. Every time Nikki talks about the group, Cindy's name pops up in the middle of it. One or twice can be a coincidence. EVERY time, that's a phenomenon."

Nikki, Tina, Susan and Cindy were a big, giggly, huggy-kissy teenaged girl knot. Dan G. saw her.

"Her?"

I laughed. "Like a supercomputer with a 'Hello Kitty' sticker on the door."

Cindy's Dan came over and extended his hand to Nikki's Dan. "Dan Granger, I presume?"

The two shook hands and then watched the giggly scrum of young wives break up. Nikki came bouncing up with Cindy to introduce her to her husband.

"Baby, this sis Cindy! Cindy, this is MY Dan!"

Cindy giggled. "Hi, Nikki's Dan!"

"Hi, Cindy," he said. He started to offer a hand, but Cindy trumped that with a kiss on the cheek with Nikki giggling alongside.

"We both have our very own Dans," Nikki giggled.

"Does yours know his master's voice?" Cindy tittered.

Nikki giggled, "O, Cin! Like on those old records, with the dog listening to that old record player? Yeah, he knows. Or we can just wave or whistle!"

"So you've trained yours well. Still, we have Nikki's Dan and Cindy's Dan."

Nikki's quick. I learned that early, doing that Skype thing with her and Tina and Susan. She said, "On formal occasions, they can be Dan G. and Dan R."

"Or 'hey, you'. 'No, not YOU!' 'The OTHER one!'" HER Dan laughed.

We moved the meeting back inside the house. Naturally, Tina had to give yet another tour, and from Cindy she got yet another 'Home Décor for Engineers' comment.

I thought briefly that next time we're down here for more than a weekend, I'm giving Tina my credit card and free rein. However, in retrospect, I'm sure that my two new partners' wives would sally forth with identical instructions, and the three of them would consult to keep us on the same page yet again, premeditated and on purpose this time.

Tina was by my side and caught the expression, questioning me aloud in front of the assembled crew. When I explained, she laughed. "Well, look around you, buddy! You guys do seem to end up doing things that are amazingly similar."

I looked around the room. Four couples, three married. The three married women were all under eighteen, and the IQ of the three was probably in the top two percent of any reasonable grouping of society short of a doctoral program. Three sets of blue eyes, one of green. Susan's natural blonde hair was the longest, just past her collar, the other three were well above the collar, with bangs. Freckles. Nikki had a few, my Tina had a spattering. Cindy had this little galaxy. Susan was sans freckles. But cuties all. I decided that if I was going to follow a crowd, this was the one to fall in with.

The conversation was jumping all over the place when I heard the sound of another car in the driveway. I got up to check and saw my sister headed to the door with a tray. I opened the door. "Hi, Elise!" I said.

"Hi, yourself. I brought y'all some cookies and brownies." She looked over the room. "Actually, I needed an excuse come back and meet this Cindy that everybody talks about."

Tina looked amused.

Cindy squeeked, "Me?" She stood up, all five feet and a bit of her. "Hi! I'm Cindy!"

"And I'm Dan, Cindy's husband," Dan R. said.

"This is my nosy sister, Elise. She met everybody else at the airport," I said.

"Don't make me sound bad, Alan! Everybody talked about Cindy, so I just had to meet 'er." To Cindy she said, "Baby, you're a doll!"

That's the first time I saw Cindy stopped in her tracks, and it was only for a fraction of a second, then she said, "Thank you, Mizz Elise!" and hugged her. "Does this mean my sisters talked about me?"

Tina smiled. "We told Elise you were the ringleader."

"I'm noooot," Cindy said. "All of y'all get some of this! But I'll be glad to be the mascot!"

"Actually, we're more of a set," Susan said. "Kind of like bowling pins. It just doesn't work unless you have all of us!"

Tina said, "It started with me an' Nikki, friends, and then we got separated, then me an' Susan, just friends, then Cindy made us all sisters, and then I found Nikki again, and..."

"It's really like that, Mizz Elise," Nikki said. " A week ago, THEY were a set, and now all of us are."

"Alan says it's like the Manhattan Project, except with cuties," Nikki's Dan said.

Elise laughed. I knew my sister would catch the joke. I wasn't the only one with brains in the family.

"Cute!" she said. "Uh, does everybody here eat gumbo?"

"Oh, yes!" Cindy chirped. "Dan made a big pot for an event at our park in Alabama."

Susan added, "We do. Alan 'n' Tina made some for us on one of those nasty days."

"Well," Elise said, "if you want, I can bring a big pot over for a late lunch tomorrow so you won't have to do another road meal."

General assent was indicated.

"I'll have it here at one o'clock," she said. She looked at me. "I'll take care of bowls and stuff, Alan. I know y'all don't have enough. And don't worry about the house." Then she reminded me about not booby-trapping the place.

I'd left little 'features' for her to find previously, just to jerk her chain. We had a lot of fun recounting some stories of our on-going battles over the years.

The afternoon was occupied with many different conversations, including some pretty interesting discussions of Cindy and her Dan and their self-defense incidents.

Another interesting line of conversation was flying. Considering that three of the four couples had flown in for the gathering in private planes, Nikki and her Dan decided (well, I think Nikki might've decided for both of them) that learning to fly was a good thing.

When it came time for the trip to the restaurant, two SUV's were enough, but the loads were segregated. All the girls were in one, all us guys in the other.

Dan G. asked, "D'ya think we're being talked about?"

Dan R. replied, "Only in the best possible way. I'll get a report this evening, I'm sure."

"Relax," I said. "They're sisters. They get along together. They're in love. With us."

Jason crossed his arms. "That's a two-way street, you know."

"They do get along together," Dan G. said. "Nikki and Tina, well Nikki said they had a bond from being together in school. But Susan and Cindy jumped right into the middle of that. I listened to some of their Skype sessions, and there's not any of that 'She's My friend' jealousy that you see sometimes in groups. They're a unique bunch."

Cindy's Dan reacted. "You're looking at a group that was kept on the outside most of their lives. They're finally in a place where THEY all fit in. Susan's the only one who had anything like a normal family life, and she fits in there, too."

At the mention of Susan, Jason perked up. The boy is so obvious. "And Susan just brings another angle to it. She says that she kind of shows what a normal family can be like, at least to Tina and Cindy. I'm sure that Nikki gets some of that, too."

I asked Nikki's Dan, "So when do the flying lessons start?"

"You people are going to cost me a fortune," he laughed, then added, "soon."

"Look," I said, "Five hundred miles. Any weekend. Or more. And for the business we're going to be in, the ability to side-step airlines and all that garbage..."

"Or take a cutie off for a mini-vacation..." Dan R. added.

"Yeah," Jason said, "with a cutie flying, grinning at you the whole time. Alan, you gave it to Tina, and now she's given it to me and Susan. My sweetie's getting wings."

Cindy's Dan sighed, "I gave it to Cindy. I just wish she was old enough to..."

"I know she's frustrated about her age, Dan," I said. I told the rest of them, "She gets so aggravated. She can fly, though, as long as Dan's got a set of controls. But she can't get behind the wheel of a car."

Dinner was good. Tina and I had eaten at this restaurant a couple of times before and it was her call, reservations for the gang, and a meeting room. We enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Nikki complimented Tina for her choice, causing her to blush.

We didn't do crawfish, at least not the boiled crawfish. That's something that I like to do in a traditional setting, outdoors, where the inevitable mess isn't a hassle. We did have the conversation, though.

Neither Cindy nor Susan had experienced boiled crawfish, although both had eaten them in various other dishes, including some that were still on the table before us.

"But they grow in a ditch," Susan had remarked.

"No, these are either farm-raised, or the best ones come out of the swamp. And you LIKED 'em in a sauce!" Nikki told her.

"I've seen pictures, you know," Susan said. I observed that Cindy was letting Susan take the lead on this exploration. "When you boil 'em, they're on your plate, lookin' at you..."

Tina was in full giggle mode, having just watched Cindy's husband talk her through eating her first raw oyster. The look on Susan's face as she observed that was filed under 'priceless'. Of course, after that, the conversation swerved into the aphrodisiac effects of oyster consumption.

The crawfish question was settled when Cindy's Dan announced that his sister and brother-in-law were lining up for a proper crawfish boil two weekends from now. "We can all show up at their house. Brother-in-law's won prizes for his outdoor cooking. Does it up right!"

"Mike 'n' Tootie can cook. Take my word for it!" Cindy added.

"Your sister's okay with this?" I asked.

He laughed. "They do it all the time. All they need is a number." Dan R. continued, "Dan, you and Nikki are close enough to drive. The rest of us can fly in."

Tina smiled. "I think we have an opening that weekend."

"Can me an' my guy hitch a ride?" Susan asked.

"Of course," Tina answered.

Another plan.

I dunno. The conversation over food was fun. After the table was cleared, we got down to business. I passed out some papers, we talked about the proposed business, talked about the building we were interested in buying (We all need to show up there for a visit), about who was going to show up whenever, and decisions were close to being solidified. We talked in general terms about our various financial situations and how we'd compensate investments into the building and the business.

Cindy's Dan produced the names of an Alabama judge and an attorney who were ready to work with us on incorporation and legal issues. I thought it interesting that our mates were in the middle of this conversation. I know that Tina and I had talked about every point as I drafted the documents. It was apparent that I wasn't the only one to consider his wife (or fiancée, in Jason's case) an equal in discussions of plans for the future.

I was glad. This was lining up to be a close-knit business, closer than a lot of family businesses. But then ... sisters!

We were in the parking lot at ten, again breaking up into two vehicles for the trip back to our house, with the same split, girls in one car, guys in the other.

Part of our conversation was about what THEY were talking about. Another part was groans of satisfaction over the food, and yet another was reiterating the evening's activities. Since our destination was my house (and Tina's) she and I just herded Jason and Susan inside and closed the door after the good-byes were complete.

The house had a bath and a half, so showers were lined up: Susan, then Jason, then Tina, then me. Yeah, I thought about saving water by showering with Tina, but in view of Susan and Jason's unmarried status, I elected otherwise.

A jeans and blouse-clad Susan went into the bathroom and a Susan clad in men's pajamas came out. I notice that Jason's eyes almost made a clicking sound when she returned to the living room.