Chapter 27: Meanwhile

Now we jump ahead a couple of years. Tracy and Alex have two absolutely beautiful girls running around their house and since they can now well afford it, they have hired a full time live-in housekeeper. Elizabeth had given birth to twins (boy and girl) making Alex the proud daddy of four little packages of energy. Cathy and I have had three kids (2 girls and 1 boy).

Sally and Tommy finished up their bachelor degrees and are both still on the payroll of Greg Thomas Engineering Consultants which has grown at an explosive rate to the point that the payroll totals 200 people in various positions. I have opened offices in Los Angeles, Houston and Seattle. Cathy and I spent a lot of time flying on commercial flights and came to the conclusion that we needed to do something else.

I traveled down to Savannah Georgia to meet with the people at Gulfstream about picking up a used airplane. They showed me several ones they had available and I settled on a G150 which would suit our needs. With a range of 3000 miles at a cruising altitude of 41,000 feet it can carry 6 passengers + crew. At mach 0.75 it can go from our home base to Los Angeles in around six hours. I arranged for the plane to be delivered to an airfield near our home by the pilot and co-pilot I had hired. The plane was delivered after a week and we all, Cathy, I, Tracy, Alex, Sally and Tommy drove the 5 miles to the airport to see our new toy. When we arrived the girls were impressed since in big letters on the side of the plane was written:

Thomas Air Charter Service

I had figured to keep the plane and crew justified I had to do air charters. Cathy was shocked to see that below the pilot's window the name of the plane was:

Lady Catherine

We all climbed aboard and the plane took off giving us a tour of the area. About fifteen minutes after we reached altitude (10,000 ft) I ushered Cathy back to the lavatory where we could officially christen the plane in the manner that we christened the house, boat and all the cars. Staggering back to our seats we were met with some suspicious stares from our other passengers. On my way by I leaned over and whispered to Alex "Are you guys members of the 'mile-high club?"

Alex looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face until it finally dawned on him what I was talking about. He then tapped Tracy on the shoulder and motioned for her to come with him to the lavatory in the back of the plane. I won't intrude on their privacy but suffice it to say that they came back to their seats with big smiles on their faces. Tracy had that all-to-familiar 'just fucked' glow on her face and Alex was totally out of breath. Those two literally collapsed into their seats.

Sally and Tommy were totally in the dark as to what was going on. I had Tommy come with me foreword where I whispered to him "Four of us on board are members of the mile high club."

"What is that?" he asked.

"It is quite simple. You get it on at an altitude of over 5280 feet."

He had a puzzled look on his face for about five seconds before it dawned on him. He made a mad dash toward the back of the plane grabbing Sally along the way. The lavatory door slammed shut and there were giggles and moans wafting up the aisle followed by a scream which threatened to shake the plane apart popping rivets all over the place. That daughter of mine was really vocal. They took a full ten minutes before they made it back to their seats. Sally took a detour to my seat, plopped down on my lap and gave me one of her steel melting hot kisses followed by a "Thanks Daddy."

The rest of our flight went pretty uneventful as we gawked at the various sights from the air. As per our flight plan the plane landed at the Buffalo airport. We taxied to a stop and a limo pulled along side and we were transported to the local country club associated with the one of which I was a member. We had a sumptuous dinner and even danced to some the music of a small four piece orchestra. It was a very romantic celebration of our new plane. We left the club quite late and arrived back at the airport and climbed wearily into the plane. The flight crew boarded after their ground check and we were off. It took us about an hour before we were back on the ground piling into my Escalade for the short trip home.

Early the next morning after our required mattress stress testing there was a phone call. I picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Mister Thomas?"

"Speaking"

"I don't know if you remember me but this is Grace Walton, supervisor of the DSS office."

"Yes, I remember you quite well. Congradulations on your promotion. What can I do for you?"

"Well, it seems we have a problem that I hope you can take care of."

"You know that I will do anything I can for you people."

"I was hoping you would say that. Can I come by and talk with you this morning please?"

"Definitely, come on by and I'll put the coffee on. Oh, by the way, we have moved and the new address is 128 Morning Glory Lane."

"Isn't that the old Master's estate?"

"Why, yes it is."

"I know exactly where that is so I'll se you in about thirty minutes."

I hung up the phone and answered a million questions from Cathy as we got dressed and made our way to the kitchen to get ready for our guest. She arrived right on time so Cathy buzzed her in through the gate. Our door bell rang and we let her in. I had her take a seat on the couch as our housekeeper came in with a tray of all the fixings for coffee. Grace took a sip of her coffee and set it down on the table. She took a deep breath and spoke:

"Mister Thomas you and Cathy have a lovely home. I'm glad to see that you have done so well."

Just then Cathy walked in saying "Why thank you Ms. Walton. We like it."

"Let me get right to the reason for my visit. A situation has developed due to a terrible accident where a young girl has been orphaned. I knew that you are the kind of person who would be willing..."

I interrupted her with "Ms Walton, say no more. We would be happy to help. When can you bring her by?"

"I figured you would say that. She's out in the car. May I bring her in?"

"By all means, yes. Bring her in to her new home."

Ms. Walton went out to her car and brought the girl in carrying a suitcase. The girl was acting quite shy until Cathy went over and gave her a hug saying "Welcome to our home or should I say your new home?"

We all sat down in the living room and discussed the situation. It turned out that the girl had lost her parents in an accident while she was at school. DSS was called to the school and picked up the girl to take care of her. She was placed in a temporary foster home with an older couple who made sure she had a roof over her head and was fed well. Ms. Walton was not too happy with that arrangement so she thought I might let the girl into our home. She introduced the girl as Christine Sanderson. I immediately spoke up: