Chapter 48

I locked my unit into four-wheel drive and eased down the hill to the cabin. Looking in the rear view I noticed Mark had waited till I was almost half way down before he started after me. I pulled up to the back of the cabin and parked behind the VW and of course Sandra had to remark on it.

"That little car is beautiful, Grandpa. Who does it belong to? I like the picture of the dragon protecting her eggs."

"It belongs to Tran, the girls' baby sitter. I thought it was pretty too, and since she is Chinese, it fits her to a T."

Mark pulled up beside us with a big smile on his face when he got a good view of the cabin and barn. He and the girls climbed out and headed for the door. Sandra was right behind them and they were all talking a mile a minute. I got out and walked to the barn to look inside. I had to admit Tran had used what she learned from my sleep talking to do it like I had talked about. It was two storied and there was a small hay mow in the top with a play area for the kids. There were three stalls on the one side and they were plenty roomy with the feeders easy to get at. The other side had a bunch of wire mesh cages pre-built for any animals the girls wanted. I opened the double doors by the cages and there was room on the other side for any type of equipment Mark wanted to buy. There was a workbench against one wall with electric plugs and lights overhead in the main barn and the storage area. Like it or not I could see she had listened very closely to my rambling when I was unconscious in the hospital. Well, I might as well get this over with so I turned and headed for the house.

When I walked inside I could hear the excited voices of the girls as they checked their new home out. They were already arguing over which bedroom they were going to get. I smiled as I looked around the complete stainless steel kitchen with all new modern appliances. I almost laughed out loud with the picture in my mind of Mark making his glue sandwiches on the new stove. There was a center eating bar set up with the five stools already in place. Hell, maybe she had already furnished it for them. I walked into the dining room and there was a table there that could sit eight people. It was brand new and made to fit in with the rough look of the inside of the cabin. I then realized Tran had gone all out and furnished it with furniture that looked like it was made from the same wood as the cabin. I had to admit it really all did fit in together, with the furniture matching the walls, and it had almost the same wood grain as the wood used in the making of the cabin. I went into the front room and it was the same way. I would almost bet the huge couch that went along the whole wall would weigh six hundred pounds. There was a big modern fireplace with the fan forced heat blowers set into each side of the fireplace. I hoped there was another heat source because when the electric went out during the winter storms, they would all have to sleep here to stay warm. As I found out later there were three generators and a propane heating system for just that purpose. The well was below the cabin, where they had drilled into an underground river, and it had tested almost one hundred percent pure with no pollutants detected. There was a reverse osmosis system in the large finished basement for their protection. I had to give her credit, she had done an excellent job for Mark and the girls. Hell, I would have been proud to move in here if I needed a place to live.

Mark came down from the upstairs with papers in his hand and handed them to me telling me I needed to sign them so they could be recorded. I sat down in the big chair and read them quickly and they all seemed to me to be above board. All in all, between Tran and I, we were giving Mark five acres on each side of the property lines. The cabin had been built straddling the lines between her property and mine so we had equally given them the acreage. There was no mortgage, and the property and cabin were free of encumbrances of any kind. The taxes looked cheap enough to me. I did notice the fencing around the property had already been paid for and would be installed within the month. The back gate would connect with my property, so the girls could come and go to my place easily. The other gate would be at the end of the driveway and would be electronically controlled, and all the area would be clearly posted against trespassing and hunting.

When I saw the last page I was happy. There was a complete breakdown of the costs, and a complete inventory of everything that had been done to the place. My half of it was a helluva lot lower than what I thought it would be, for how well it had been built. Tran had gotten everything done for thousands less than what I had thought it would be. I signed everything and took my copy of the papers. I decided I would stop at the bank today and transfer the funds into her account. The girls were coming down the stairs, which were circular, from upstairs. Their faces were beaming in joy and excitement and I felt at peace because I knew they would be happy here and safe. Tran came over to me and I handed her the other copies she needed.

"I will stop by the bank this morning and transfer my half of the cost into your account. You did well with it, Tran, and I think the girls will be very happy here. I will grade a road from the back gate to my place so Mark can't get lost again finding his way to my cabin. I couldn't believe the furniture matched the cabins wood grain so well. Now if Mark can learn to cook, then the girls won't starve when they are snowed in."

"Thank you Harry. I just listened to you ramble about how you wanted it and made notes whenever you talked about it. I am sorry for what happened between us. I hope we can be friends for the girls' sake. I think Sandra is very special, and she is what you needed to take the loneliness from your life."

"I know you're right on that one. She is very special and so talented it scares me. She is going to teach me how to play the guitar so we will have something to do this winter when we are snowed in. Tran, I hope you meet someone that makes you happy. I would say we weren't meant to be, and you showed that to me."

"Harry, sometime you are so dumb I'm surprised you have lived this long. You wouldn't know what a woman feels or wants if it bit you."

With that last outburst she stomped away from me clutching the papers in her little hand. I must have had a dumb look on my face because I heard giggling from the side of me, and when I looked toward where it was coming from, Sandra was standing with her hand over her mouth trying to keep from laughing out loud.

"Ok that's enough from you. Tell the girls goodbye because we have to go."

She was still giggling as she ran to the back of the house to do what I told her. I could see right now I was going to have to watch for little ears when I was catching hell from someone. I wondered how much she had heard of the exchange between Tran and me before she started laughing at the look on my face. Knowing her, probably the whole thing.

We went out the front door and I had a chance to see the front of the cabin. I noticed the trees had been cut back far enough that if one fell it couldn't hit the cabin. There were still plenty left to screen the cabin from the road, which I figured was almost a half-mile from the cabin. When we walked around the side I saw there was a two-car garage hidden from sight in the trees and again it was also safe from any that fell. Man, Tran had put a lot of thought into all this for them. This idea must have been hers because I knew I had never mentioned a hidden garage. I would almost be willing to bet this is where the generators were kept safe and dry out of the weather. Looking a little closer I could see the exhaust pipes coming out of the roof for them so I had guessed right. I had noticed in the papers I had, that both the garage and barn along with the house had been well insulated to hold the heat. Then it hit me what the vents in the barn were for. They were for heat so the barn would stay warm in the winter for the animals. These girls would have some spoiled animals to play with when they got them. We piled into my unit and drove down the driveway.