Chapter 5

Chuck

I heard a baby cry and the bed shifted a little. There was activity over by the small table that I was told was a changing table. I raised my head to see who was up and saw Nancy changing a diaper. Her little one was making noises, but not crying. I suppose since she was getting attention that was what she wanted. Wanting to watch what the process was, I turned on my back and propped my head up on a folded pillow. After she changed the diaper, she put the infant back into the bassinette and disappeared into the bathroom to probably use the toilet and wash her hands. Nancy came back in, picked up the tiny critter that was becoming impatient, and carried it to one of three rocking chairs near the foot of the bed. When she was settled, with the baby cradled in one arm, she dropped the shoulder strap of her gown nearest the infant's face.

Nancy used what looked like a baby-wipe, but was probably an alcohol swab or some other kind of cleaning wet wipe to clean her breast and nipple, followed by squeezing her breast to express a little of her milk and rubbed the fluid around the nipple before she moved it to her little one to begin nursing. I could hear the new mother humming softly to her baby as it nursed. Every once in a while, Nancy said something so softly that I couldn't really hear. After a couple of minutes, the gown dropped on the other side, the breast was wiped, and the baby lifted to the other nipple. The little one must have been an eager eater, since I could hear her sucking sounds.

There was another soft cry from a different bassinet. The cry continued for a minute, growing louder, until Judy slid over Frieda to get out of bed. The whole procedure started over again, with Judy changing the baby and going into the bathroom before sitting in another rocking chair next to Nancy. The two girls talked softly while their babies nursed, until Nancy raised her baby, kissed the baby's forehead and pulled her gown strap up on one side, shifted the baby to the other arm, and pulled up that strap. I watched as she stood and walked around gently patting the babies back. After a rather loud burp came from the baby, Nancy kissed the infant and laid her in a bassinet. She was smiling as she returned to the bed, trying to move to the other side of Frieda.

When she saw Lisa in bed with me next to her watching, she rushed back to the surprised Judy and whispered to her while pointing at me, before coming to me and laying a good one on me. Nancy whispered to me, "Why didn't you wake us up when you came home?"

I whispered back, "I didn't want to wake you because I knew you would have to get up to feed the babies."

She kissed me again and said, "Move over so I can lie next to you for a while. Judy will want this spot in a few minutes. Can you believe it, Frieda has twins and they sleep almost all night. She has two healthy babies."

In a few minutes, Judy burped the baby and put her back into the bassinette. When she got to the bed, she said, "Either give me this side or the other, I want to be held for a little while."

Lisa moved back to give Judy room to lie on my other side, then Lisa snuggled up to the new mother. I did get some kisses from both ladies, but in seconds, not even minutes, the two were breathing evenly, signifying they were asleep.

It must have been almost six when there was more of a clamor. One of the babies was fussing, probably wanting to be changed and fed. This time, Frieda, who was now on the outside, got up to take care of her baby. I was surprised when Lisa got up and went to Frieda. They hugged before Frieda changed the diaper and sat down to feed the baby. I could hear them talk. Frieda asked, "I know you guys came home last night, but you should have got us up. All of us would have wanted to talk to you."

Lisa said, "We knew that, but you guys need your sleep. You have to make all that milk to feed your babies."

Right then, another baby whimpered a little. Frieda asked Lisa, "Can you get her up and change her? If you can change her diaper, this one will be full any minute and I can feed the other so we can go back to sleep."

I watched as Lisa picked the little one up, kissing it, and watching her almost giggle as the little one smiled. Lisa did the diaper changing and was holding the baby. Frieda grinned and dropped the other side of her gown, exposing a breast that looked swollen. She held her hand out to Lisa and was given the other baby. Frieda had a real grin on her face as she had both babies at her breasts at the same time.

Frieda soon asked Lisa indicating the first twin she had begun nursing, "Can you take her and burp her? Just rub her back or pat it lightly. Both babies burp easily."

Lisa took the sleeping baby and held it to her shoulder, rubbing and patting her back. The little one belched for Lisa and was taken toward her bassinette. Before putting the infant into the bed, Lisa held her, cradling her head in her palm and kissed her forehead. I swear the little one made a cooing sound while receiving some love from Lisa.

Lisa sat in the other rocking chair while Frieda fed her baby. They spoke so softly, I couldn't hear what they were saying. It must have been good, as both of them were smiling. Frieda was soon rubbing and patting the second baby's back until it too gave a burp and was soon tucked into her bed.

Lisa and Frieda got into bed on the other side of Judy. I reached over and patted Frieda which made her immediately get up on her knees, lean over the sleeping Judy and kiss me. She said, "Oh, Chuck, you've made me so happy. You've given me the true meaning of life. You know, I'm a mom, a real mom with two babies. Thank you, Chuck, I love you."

A couple of tears dripped on my face as I received a few more kisses. Frieda lay back down with Lisa, who held her close, making her feel a part of us.

I woke with a dark little face in mine, because a pixie was laying on me, kissing me, and making owl eyes with me. When I opened my eyes, she giggled softly, and after a sweet kiss, she whispered, "Get up, come visit with us before the rest of them get up. Tina should be back because she was on a short shift and I know Lena and big Tina want to say hi before they leave for school. Maria is awake with us and still can't make up her mind whether she should have come back with you or us. Come on, get up."

I lifted the little one from me and set her on the floor before I rose and crawled over Nancy. As I passed over Nancy, she grabbed me and said, "Not so fast, Sailor. You have to pay a toll when you pass by here." We kissed a couple of times and she slid around to let me sit up, since I didn't have but one leg to stand on.

I had put my peg near the front of the bed and slipped it on. I held my forefinger up as if to try to convey, give me a second. After the bathroom break and tooth wash, I put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt before walking into the family room/kitchen area. I didn't make it very far, as Tina, Lena, big Tina, and Maria all hit me at once. That I didn't fall was lucky, but Lena and big Tina held onto me before I could. When you are smothered by two young ladies, both near six seven, six eight or nine, you give thanks to God for creating such wonderful creatures. In comparison, the diminutive Maria was trying to get closer to me to feel me next to her body. Tina was now standing off to the side, smiling at me waiting her turn. As I looked at her, she winked and nodded toward the counter, where the coffee pot looked as if it had created the morning brew.

There was a lot of excited chatter as I sat at the counter and sipped a mug of coffee poured by Tina. She came around the counter and crawled up into my lap. "Welcome home! We all missed you, if you couldn't tell by the reception. I have some good news. I have been chosen by University Community Hospital for my residency. I can stay right here and be a part of our family, that is, if you want me to." She was grinning as she said that.

Big Tina said, "Get rid of her. Too many Tinas is confusing. I'm here now and want to be called just Tina, not big Tina all of the time, making me sound like a freak ready to happen."

Tina said, "Take a hike, Kid. I was here long before you and I can tell you, the hospital needs a lot of young body parts, so don't give me reason to help you make a donation."

The two hugged, letting me know they were just teasing each other.

Brandy, who had been waiting, came to me, gave me a hug and very nice kiss. She said softly, "Welcome home, Lover." She held up her finger to show me her ring and said, "You know, you have us under your spell. We five girls talked about this and decided a long time ago that when all of us were pregnant or had our babies we would move back to our house to live. We would still welcome you to see your babies, but we would be in our own little cocoon."

As Brandy climbed into my lap on my other knee, she said, "That didn't work. It didn't work at all. As soon as we were at the other house, we all wanted to be here, waiting for you. With the babies, it was even more important to us to be here. You know we all love you. We love Lisa and Tina too, as well as all of the rest of our squirrely family. I think if we had our way, we would bring more and more into our family so you can have dozens and dozens of kids."

Little Tina said, "Don't count me out. As soon as I'm a real, live, genuine MD, I'm going to want a baby. Since I'm going into gynecology and obstetrics, I need to experience what a woman feels when she gives birth. I want that, I want a little Chuck."

Lisa came from the bedroom, rubbing her eyes. She had slipped one of my T-shirts on and came to me, then kissed both me, Brandy, and Tina who were still on my lap. She made the rounds, kissing everyone who was sitting at the counter or standing across from me, before pouring herself some coffee. Big Tina said, "I have to get ready to go. I have an eight o'clock class and if you don't get there by seven thirty, you sit in the back and can't hear." She kissed my cheek and winked at me, "I'll be back after lunch and will expect some attention then."

Peaches walked in through the sliding glass door to the patio. She came to me, hugged me, pulled back, smiled, and kissed me. She said, "Sure glad you're home. I've missed my one-legged dude who has my Lisa's heart." Peaches and Lisa did some hugging as the rest of us smiled at their reunion.

Lisa asked me, "Want to go to Steve's for breakfast? You know those folks are going to want to see you too."

I actually had to think about it for a second. I love Steve and his family, but being home with my own family seemed so right. I said, "Who wants to go with me for some breakfast?"

Everyone wanted to go with us, and Tina said she was going to wake Taiying, Sing, and Julie. In just a few minutes, we were motoring to Steve's in three big carts.

As soon as we walked in the patio, Lisa and I were surrounded by people welcoming us home after hiding out on a boat. Steve and Sue were at the bar with the favorite morning drink. Steve raised his glass to me and nodded in questioning manner. I nodded back in the affirmative while Lisa was pointing to herself indicating, me too, me too.

We enjoyed a rather passive breakfast, enjoying being with my friends who we had just spent a couple of months with. Steve said, "After spending so much time with each other, I missed you in the morning."

Sue asked, "So did you get to sleep all night, or did you get up with the babies?"

I smiled at her and everyone, "I did wake up with each of them, but let them do their thing without being in the way. I love watching them nurse their babies, cooing and talking to them."

Steve offered, "That is special. When mine were that age, I couldn't keep my hands off of them even when I knew they needed their sleep."

When we arrived, the mothers had disappeared for a few minutes and came back without the babies. I was wondering where they were, when Frieda used the TV remote control to put a small picture in the corner of the big screen that showed the four babies sleeping in bassinettes. As the girls sat down to eat, I saw they had one of those remote monitor things parents use so they can hear when babies wake up.

Steve said, "I've already heard from Tiny and Henry this morning. They are having a great time on that boat. Tiny said the boat will go over thirty knots; did you get it up that fast?"

"No, I kept the RPMs around sixty percent when we were traveling, and that was around twenty-five knots. I figured the reduced RPMs would save fuel and put less stress on the engines." With a smile, I said, "It would be tempting to see how fast it would go. I just didn't want to trash a boat Tiny seemed to like so much."

Steve asked me, "What do you have planned? Anything going on with your employer, or are you still on leave."

"I need to go to DC for some kind of explanation about what just happened," I said with some skepticism in my voice. "The U.S. Marshal over this area says it's important enough that some VIPs want to apologize and thank me. What's the first week of your kids' life worth? I'm lucky the ladies are pretty laid back and knew I'd be back as soon as I could. This isn't a way to have a life, and I might change some of it."

Steve quietly said, "You know you don't need to do anything else but run the charter service. You own it, or at least the majority of it. You could probably make it bigger, have a bigger market, perhaps even ferry around some of the brass that's giving you fits."

"Yeah, I know," I answered Steve. "The problem is I do like the challenges, and so does Lisa. We would prefer some of the crazy stuff would go away, but Lisa loves the adrenaline rush when we have to think quickly and react faster."

"I know what you mean," Steve said. "When Sue bought her first building and plant, we ran into a bunch of strange people who wanted a piece of us. We were able to get past that, but the rush from doing some of it myself, was like a drug. We finally went on our first trip, which was our honeymoon, up to Alaska to escape. That's where we met Dewey and his pseudo brother, John. Before we could catch a plane back to the lower forty-eight, Dewey convinced us to go to Hawaii. Actually, he paid for it and arranged special seating on the flight and special accommodations when we got to Hawaii. Dewey met Sheila on that trip. I suppose it worked out pretty well all around."

I said, "Dewey has become a special person to me too. You and Dewey have become two people who have taught me a great deal of how to become successful and how to handle money. Look over there at the women who just had babies. That is what life is all about. I suppose I'm being greedy by having more than one or two or three who produce and will produce babies. To me, it is exciting to know that I can help those ladies raise their babies to be good productive citizens."

Steve laughed, "And good musicians too."

"Okay, maybe there is that too, but most importantly is they become good people. Their mothers have good work ethics, although they are a little strange around the edges on a lot of other things. I think they will be good mothers, if not overly protective. Living out here with regular people has helped them, and I know it will influence the kids as they grow."

Missy had been listening to our conversation, and said, "Chuck, you do have some good mothers there and, yes, they are becoming integrated into our community. Little Tiani and Brandy have helped with supper almost every night. They stop by most every day to help straighten up and clean the patio. They like what we are and what we represent. With those two pregnant now, I think your group is going to become more cohesive with all of us. Your household may be disrupted for a while, but you're going to have fun."

I nodded at Missy, "You're right, I'm going to have a lot of fun."

Steve said, "When my two ladies decided to pop with twins and triplets all at once, I was a little scared. Would I be able to be a dad to eight kids? Would I be able to support all of them? Everything has worked out, and look what I have, those eight, two more from Kathy, and her first four, and now Gio's two who I consider mine. I couldn't be more proud of all of them. You know, Chuck, your new kids will be a whole new group of kids who will call all of us dad, mom, granddad, and grandma. I will love to hold each one of them and listen to them babble with words they know, but we'll never understand. It's great that you're carrying on the happy times here."

I said, "When supper is over tonight, what do you think about getting some wind in our face. I'll ask among my ladies who might want to ride with me. I'll ride alone or take one of yours with me, Steve."

Lisa had been next to me and said, "Me, me, me. I'll ride with you. I'll make sure the others are okay with me going, but I love to ride." Lisa took off to talk to the other ladies of my house.

We all sat down for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and biscuits with gravy. I missed this and said to myself, 'I'm going to make sure I get these good breakfasts as often as possible.' Of course, all the weekend sheer gowns and nighties make for a treat too.

Hap came over to sit with us and asked Steve, "What do you hear about Bear and Crystal. I haven't heard from him this week."

Steve said, "They are doing great. They have their golf tours going for them, and have begun hauling family tours to our regular resorts and to the clothes optional specialty resort."

"I'll bet that sucker is getting some prime riding in on that island," Hap said. "The last time I talked to him, he told me Crystal now had her own bike and just like you would think, she is somewhat of a daredevil with it. Hope she doesn't hurt herself."

Steve said, "She is a little whacked out, but I'd bet she's a careful rider. She will just push her limits a little."

Hap was smiling, "Bear and I sure did make the right move coming out here. We are both smelling like roses."

Lisa brought me another Bloody Mary to drink. This one was going to have to be my last or I was going to be blitzed. I kissed her on the cheek and said, "Thanks, Love, but from now on this morning, it better be cranberry juice, iced tea, or coffee. I'm sure I'll need to be alert later."

Lisa laughed as she hugged me before leaving to sit with the other ladies.

Ryan House, Steve's field manager, came over to sit with us and asked me, "How are you doing with giving away your fortune? Do you have any new projects going?"

I told him, "The wounded warrior thing has needed a lot of help, and my own village for paraplegics and seriously wounded men still needs a lot of attention. I've set up a separate fund for one hundred full scholarships a year for the children of KIAs. I have some more ideas for other South American countries, but I don't have contacts there yet. Some of Steve's sales people work the areas I'm interested in, so I'll try to get together with them. What I would really like to do is to get involved with some form of manufacturing so I could provide jobs instead of grants. If a person has a job, they have the satisfaction of earning a living. Steve and Sue are training and educating a lot of people, but will they have jobs when they complete their training? Today's a tough time to be looking for work. Think about how I can do that, Ryan. Perhaps think of a way I can do this in a relationship with our companies."

Ryan thoughtfully looked at me, "Those are some lofty goals, Chuck. I'll get with Steve and Abe to see if we can come up with what you want. There has to be some way to create employment opportunities."

Julie was sitting next to me and had been listening to the conversation, and she said, "You have helped everyone on the island and will be giving them long term financial security with the resorts you're planning. You said you could hire as many as five hundred people to work there. With the help you've given Limón and the opportunities you've created around the country, I think you have just about done everything you can for the people down there. I know you want to help everyone, but just try to help those men coming back from war, whether they are hurt or not, they will still need jobs. Do what you can for them. In England, there are several agencies that are helping the returning veterans, but you are doing so much more."

Kevin spoke up and suggested, "You know, S&S contracts for a bunch of trucks to deliver and pick up goods. I wonder if you could create a freight company to be the exclusive hauler."

I told Kevin, "That would just put a strain on the current contract truckers. If we go into competition with them, they will go hungry. It needs to be an expansion of an industry, or maybe an entirely new one."

Wes and Mark, who were down the table, joined the conversation. Wes suggested, "I know the 'green' industry has been a bust so far, except for our new concept turbine generators, but perhaps you could do some more R&D in that area. Come up with a sound product that will really save on fuel or electricity and it will be like creating the wheel. Abe and Mark created the new engine for our small aircraft that is super-efficient. Maybe you can use their concept for a car or truck?"

I nodded at the suggestion. Mark offered, "The automobile business is strange. If we come up with something very revolutionary, they might use it, but it could be like so many things they have purchased over the years. They may buy it and shelve it because fuel companies want to make money and the auto company needs to sandbag fuel efficiency ideas until they are forced to comply. That monitoring circuit was created to simplify ignition circuitry systems. The item really cut costs for big automotive manufacturers, but they didn't reduce the cost of vehicles any. I'm glad I licensed the product instead of selling it. This way all of the companies can use it and no one can get hold of it and shelve it."

"There really should be some form of manufacturing that is profitable and something we can hire a lot of people for," I said, still thinking there might be an answer out there.

Billy, the machinist and toolmaker, was sitting with the group, and said, "You know that the large machine shops are still going full blast. There are all forms of aircraft, automotive, and military machined parts that are in demand, and some bids are not even being bid on as the industry is producing at capacity. I even get some of the runoff as a subcontractor. Just look around here locally, there are several big firms that make precision parts for aircraft; a couple that are producing precision automotive parts; and a ton of small guys that make screws, nuts, bolts, fasteners, and injection molds. That industry is lacking and could consume a lot of people. You'll have to train people and the capital investment for equipment would be horrendous, but with the right marketing and good engineers to make and review bids, I'd bet a big machine and tooling company would be successful."

I smiled at Billy, "Okay, where would I find the talent to ramrod something like that? Go proselytize an engineer or manager from a big company?"

Billy grinned back at me, wiggling his thumb back and forth at himself. "You know me, I could do that. I've always wanted to get big, but I've never been money ahead enough to expand to the size necessary. You have the bucks and I have the knowledge. Get me a CFO like Henry or Tiny to keep me in line and give me advice, and I'll work out training for new guys, cross training for experienced people, and make sure everything produced is like Steve's, perfect."

"Sounds good, Billy, where would we do this at?" I asked, wondering if Tampa was the right place to do this.

Billy said, "Find me a big building, or build me one, on about ten acres, enough room to grow and for parking, and I'll work out a budget for training and equipment."

Sitting next to me, on the other side, Steve was now interested. "Billy, how come you didn't come to me about something like this?"

"Steve, I know how busy you are and you have your fingers in dozens of businesses now. If Chuck wants to get into manufacturing, this would be a hell of a place to do it."

I asked Steve, "What about Magellan, what have you, or we, done about that?"

Steve grinned, "We're going to be forty-nine percent partners with them right away, and will be pumping in some extra capital. The deal will be signed next week. I have John, my boat charter guy down there now to help them with designs for some smaller pleasure craft so they can sell to a broader market. John told me the Magellan brothers have hired over thirty new people and are trying to expand their building."

"Am I really involved in that? How much?"

Steve answered, "Thirty-three and a third of the forty-nine percent. Dewey is our other partner. I didn't want fifty-one or more percent, as I wanted them to know it was still their company. They take a lot of pride in their work and I wanted them to feel as if it's their company."

"So how did you get my money for this?"

Laughing, Steve said, "Easy, I told Ben there was a small investment you were making with Dewey and I, and he transferred all of our money and some extra for cash flow. It's already coming back as the new boat orders are selling well. Ah, you went to Costa Rica in one. They have catamaran sailboats the same size as that, some smaller, some larger, plus there is an order, with a deposit, for a hundred foot motorized catamaran for island tours around Key West."

I asked, "Can we get Jeff's and Gerry's composites involved in that operation? I know Gerry and Dennis are working on the barnacle resistant composites, so it would be a natural for Magellan."

Steve said, "The composite isn't ready to license yet. Dennis says he probably has another three to six months of testing to do before he can guarantee the product. Gerry wants to get it on the market now, but Dennis is taking the engineering approach to be sure about the product."

Billy said, "What about my idea of a big machine shop? Do you think you might do something like that?"

"Do me a favor, Billy," I said, thinking it over. "Get all of the general numbers together, and how many people you think could become employed, and let Steve and me review it. I like the idea and I like that you would be involved. I know you are exacting, so you would be the right person to oversee the work."

"Hot damn!" Billy exclaimed, "Wait until I tell Connie; she will have a fit. I've talked about this for ten years or so. We'll have the best around and we'll be winning a lot of bids because we will ship zero defects."

Julie told me, "See, all you have to do is ask and opportunities come. I know you're thinking of thousands and not fifties or hundreds, but if you open several shops that employ thirty, forty, or fifty people, soon those will add up to what you want."

"Yeah," I said, "if Steve or Steve and Dewey get involved, this won't be using up much of the extra capital I have right now. Ben won't tell me how much I have to spend, he just tells me to invest more."

Steve said, "You better check out your charter company. I think they have some aircraft they want you to look at. They think that with the new government sell-off of semi-personal aircraft, you can pick up some for prices totally off the charts. You know that will include helicopters too, and all of that will require more pilot and ground crews. You probably need to spend a day out there. I'll go with you and we can do some research together."

"Unless they want to buy a half dozen or so 737s," I said cockily, "That won't put a dent in one of my American Express cards."

Steve was looking at the ceiling, trying not to meet my eyes, I had to ask, "Steve, how many, and what kind of aircraft, are you talking about?"

Steve answered, "I thought you could probably keep another three or four of the fancy 737s for short term charter and Dewey wants to use about six for the Hawaiian golf tour business that's part yours, so with inflight crew and ground people, you're talking about hiring around a hundred, plus you're going to have to have a hangar built out in California or somewhere on the west coast, as well as in Hawaii. That's going to put a serious dent in your debit cards."

I sighed, knowing there were multiple places for mutual investment with Steve around. I couldn't complain though, as everything Steve, Dewey, and I became involved with made a profit. I mentioned, "That golf tour stuff must be really taking off for them to be chartering that many aircraft. It sounds as if that should be a separate entity all together."

Steve said, "It sort of is right now. This is something Dewey is keeping his eye on. As soon as the new Hawaiian resort is built, he's planning on offering a package that includes transportation, resort, and a golfing tour on the islands."

I said, "That's good; I'm glad you guys know what's happening. I'm always lost when it comes to all of this business."

Steve smiled at me, "When all of this first started, I had to come home every night and just stare into space at how fast everything was happening. Money seemed to be growing on trees, so I know how you feel. I think you're safe from Ben finding you another couple of hundred million right now. I know he has some deals in the works, but nothing very hot. We'll corner him and find out. Besides, your island deal is going to keep you busy for a while."