Chapter 123

The old men sat quietly for the most part. The oldest of them hadn't been part of the business from the beginning. The others had been brought in when it started to need more hands. His input was as important as anyone's. "I personally wish Sylvia would stay and be our go between on this thing," he said. "If it weren't for her we would all be sittin' on the porch with a finger up our ass. Don't seem right to do this without her."

"Duke the plan was always to turn my share of the business over to you when the company repaid the loan. This yahoo's money will do that for the company." I said.

"You keep saying that, but it ain't what we want. Hell, we don't know what you do, when you do your work. We don't want to know, but we sure need you to deal with these outsiders," the first of the old men said.

"Anytime you need me to talk for you, I will, if you all agree. I won't charge you a thing for the negotiating either." They all shook their heads. Then Mel are you interested in doing this show as a walk on?" I asked.

"Hell yeah," she said with a smile.

"What you willing to pay her and these guys wives if you want them on," I said.

For the first six shows while we see how the audience feels about them, a thousand an episode," he said.

"No way, I'm sorry that puts all the risk on Mel. You are going to have to do better than that if you want a sexy chic to walk on," I said.

"Two thousand then," the producer said smiling.

"And the old men get approval of anyone else you bring in to show their ass on the show," I said.

"We will have a camera crew here within a week," he said shaking hands. The assistant was busy making notes. They had the run of the old men's share of the warehouse for their camera crew to do their work.

They did not have permission to film my part of the warehouse and definitely not to film me. That was written into the agreement. "Email me that file before you leave and I'll have my attorney take a look at it. Since we both agree to everything it will be just to make sure you don't have any lawyer speak that harms my friends' interest." I said.

"Fair enough," the producer said to me. I was pretty sure he told the assistant to find out what she could about me, if he hadn't already. It wouldn't be hard to find out. Well the work I did for Swamp Dog might be.

I spent Sunday afternoon working on the image of Dog in the swamp. I tweaked his image and washed out the swamp some. In the end Dog really stood out. I saved the file for my first attempt at engraving.

It was late when I finished so I decided to go to bed without Mel's breathing to keep me company. I assumed she was with Wilson again. Maybe they were at the Karaoke bar. I did know that Wilson loved to sing. I also knew he liked the ladies. Since he didn't know Andrew, maybe it was all for the best.

Monday Morning I awoke at 6AM again. Again there was no Mel in the room. I was dressed and headed out when I rode the trike by the Honda. Next to it was parked Mel's several year old Hyundai, so I figures she was sleeping with Wilson. That was going to be a problem. I hadn't been concerned that he slept with her once, but that they were sleeping together regularly. Spending the nights together on the barge was more like lovers, than horny kids.

I rode the trike out, and then flew the airplane. When I landed it felt like the grass was high, so I stopped to cut it before heading home. I went into the warehouse where the Old Men were busy making tool chests. I went into my part of the warehouse. I found everything covered by sawdust. Something Wilson and I never imagined would be a problem inside a closed area.

I made a note to tell Wilson we needed his girlfriend the builder. That should make him squirm. I know it was dirty pool, but hey I needed the work done.

I dusted all the parts, then removed the small thumb drive from my pocket. I added it to the hard drive of small computer. It was meant only to hold the programs to operate the engraver and the ones I added to it for reproduction. I loaded it into the print program then chose the size disk from the on screen menu. It instructed me to insert the disk and secure it in place then close the case. Once all the hoops were completed, it began to hum and I could see though the cover that it was working, even if I couldn't tell what it was doing. There was an admonishment not to open the engraving compartment printed on the outside of the case, so I paid attention to it and waited.

I drank coffee and watched the old men work through the window in the door which separated the two areas. I wanted to go out and speak to the men, but I thought they might prefer that I didn't at the moment. I wasn't sure how they felt about me pulling out so suddenly. Since I was still trying to help, they should cut me some slack. I had no idea if they would or not.

What I finally did was just wander out and begin putting knock together tool or toy boxes together. It was my way of saying, I'm still here till I'm not here any more.

I was greeted with smiles, which was all I wanted from the old men. It took a half hour to cut the disk because it was so difficult. When I finished it was beautiful. It was also time for dinner, I had missed breakfast and lunch again. It wasn't unusual, but it did leave me ravenous.