Chapter 369

Saturday morning we met Joni, Paula, Alica and Amanda at Morton field. We had an 11 AM appointment at Fort Lauderdale with the owner of the L100-30 that was at Lockheed. We had 10 million in cash - as stipulated by the sales contract - from the vault in wheeled carry-on luggage.

The flight was jovial; we were having a good time. Today was one those days we could enjoy the class and comfort of a G5. It was a no rush flight with no pressing work after the transaction was completed.

After the transaction we were going to walk the beach and get dinner at an ocean front restaurant before returning home. Our house rental customers raved about the restaurant.

Kerry Boyardee was in a wheel chair and was waiting with his two sons and an attorney in the meeting room at the general aviation terminal when we arrived. We were thirty minutes early.

Lorrie came prepared with copies of all the paperwork for the plane. Lockheed had even supplied a new certificate of ownership for the aircraft that the current owner needed to sign over to us; it was the same as an automobile title.

We stacked the 10 one million dollar blocks of money on the table and signed all the paperwork. We were all done in 30 minutes.

None of us had brought any swimsuits or gear. We walked the beach and shopped the shops until our reservation time for early dinner.

We were back at Morton Field by 8PM. I ran the security videos just to be confident that things were quiet at the gym and no one had been around the Horsey house today while we were in flight. Maybe I was a little paranoid but I wanted to be safe than sorry.

The weather on Sunday was supposed to be a nice warm early summer day. We planned the first cookout of the season. Jason, Lisa, Mom, Dad, Jake, Mindy, Eric and Frank along with both of their wives, Victor, his daughter Allie and the four homeless girls were to be there. Joey, Janice, Becky, Lisa Brownly, Sly, Erica and Glenda (the infamous north six) were home from college for the weekend and were invited along with Mable and Mike, Eric’s secretary and her husband.

Sunday morning we had a light breakfast and then prepared all the foods that we normally had at one of our cookouts. I was devious in my inviting Eric and Frank; I wanted them to meet Alica.

Alica, like Paula, had personality and attitude that was infectious. She was very withdrawn and cautious the first few weeks, but once she was confident that no one was out to take advantage of her, the real Alica came out.

How could she recover and be so positive after what she had possibly been through at the foster home? Then trek a thousand miles as a runaway - let alone live in a junk car in the woods all winter - only spoke of the power of determination to survive and youth.

Joni and Paula had been in the area since midsummer and watching over Alica and Amanda since November. I wondered if there was a word of mouth network of some kind for runaways in the area.

I don’t know who Jenny called the day after I picked up the runaways, but the new town administrator resigned for personal reasons. The police chief suddenly found a job in another county to be closer to his wife’s ailing parents.

Herb Albertson was named the new police chief. He had seen the girls at the restaurant with us and had apologized several times for the actions the department forced the field officers to take.

We had everything ready before the invited guest arrived; the four girls had come over before we finished breakfast, wanting to help put lunch together.

We set up all the tables and chairs in the garage and the grills out on the apron as we did for every cookout. No matter what the weather did, we were always a step ahead.

The cookout went off well and as planned. Family and friends with plenty of conversation made it a nice day. In some ways, it went better than I expected.

Victor lost his wife of ten years to cancer last summer and had taken it hard and because of his nine year old daughter Allie, had not been socially active. His life revolved around her now and of course work.

Allie befriended Alica almost as soon as they arrived. Allie had been to the gym several times with Victor and to our cookouts several times last year with the group.