Chapter 374

Crash put the coolers on a tray to bring them to us.

“I’ll carry them over for you, I’ll have a Bud or a Bud Lite if you have it,” the General replied.

The General almost dropped the tray into the tub when he looked up from the tray at the edge of the tub. He did not expect to see us in the tub naked.

“Um, oops, ah, I’m sorry, I think Crash set me up,” the General said.

Ching Lee, Marcy and Jenny laughed so hard, they almost woke the boys up.

“Crash, did you set the General up?” I asked.

“No ma-am; I thought Marines were trained to handle anything on the spot, including being a gentleman. I know us Army Air Corps folks were; I guess he just has to get used to things around here,” Crash replied then he started laughing.

“I get the rocking grape, Marcy gets sour grape, Ching Lee gets watermelon, Vicky gets the twisted orchard, and Jenny gets the natural grape juice,” I said.

Crash had turned two rockers towards the highway away from the hot tub. We had rockers everywhere, it seemed, and moved the small table between them while the General was trying to hide his embarrassment.

“You were in the Army Air Corps?” the general said.

“Yep, drafted in June 1942 right out-a school; I had been flying Jennys down at the dirt strip on the island. I did the mail run to Baltimore once a day from June until November 41. I had just finished flying lessons and got a license when old Burt crashed his Model A into a tree and broke both legs,” Crash said and then continued.

“Burt charged me a dollar a lesson and I had to put gas in the plane. A lesson was an hour; the plane used 75 cents in gas. He had a contact with the post office that had to be kept. Burt begged Dad to let me fly the route until school started; I got 2 dollars a day. Thought I was a millionaire,” Crash said.

“I flew B17s while bombing France and Germany, got shot up a lot over Germany but had luck on my side. Those Luftwaffe fighters were bad news. I manage to survive two rotations before coming back to the States. When I reported to go back, my orders had been changed,” Crash said.

“I went to California to learn how to fly B29s that were new. When we went out to look at that thing the first time, it looked like a monster, big and shiny. Took four months and then we flew a squadron first to Hickman and then to Guam. I flew out of Guam until the end of the war. They were still killing Japs out of the caves and tunnels the whole time we were there,” Crash said.

“You fight in the mess in the middle east?” Crash asked.

“I went from the academy to the Vietnam rice patties. Spent a few years in Korea after Nam; I was getting ready to give it up and become a civilian after Desert Storm when 911 hit. I was promoted to general two months later,” the General replied.

“I moved to the Pentagon a year ago, I was glad to get away from there; I have seen enough sand and sand flies,” he said.

“And now you have the gravy duty that goes with the rank,” Crash replied.

“Sometimes it is not so gravy; some of the politicians and ambassadors are spoiled so rotten! But, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem with this assignment,” the General said.

The buzzer went off; fun time in the tub was over. I help get the babies ready for bed; Jenny had to do the nipple part. Burping, new pampers and a few minutes in the rocking chair ended the night for them.

After a round of good nights, hugs and kisses, Lorrie and I exchanged places. I went to her and Vicky’s room and her to my room with Jenny.

There were a couple of hours of moans and whimpers and sounds of pleasure before it was cuddle time. I woke up at 6 with Vicky spooned tight in my arms, something I was soon going to miss so much.

By 6:15 the percolator was sending the fresh coffee smell throughout the house. The girls wandered out one by one for coffee or juice. The General followed Crash down.

I had the griddles on the stove and filled with cooking food, rows of bacon, sausage and scrapple. Another griddle was filled with eggs, scrambled and fried. I had chopped up potatoes to round out the things on the stove for breakfast.

At eight I was sitting at my desk working on e-mails and multitasking on VCATS. There were three times as many secure e-mails as before with my new security clearance and position.