Chapter 96

"So Wilson what are you going to do now?" I asked.

"Well for tonight, I guess we will go to one of those places with "atmosphere" out on Jefferson Island," He suggested.

What he was suggesting was one of the restaurants on the bay side of Jefferson Island. The ocean side was filled with multilevel hotels. On the bay side of the road down the middle of the island, there were several very nice restaurants. Some of them even served mixed drinks at their tables, but there were no lounges. Those were reserved for the Hotels.

"Okay just this once, but after today we are going to have to find a home style restaurant somewhere." I insisted.

"That's fair enough. I know you hate all the phony atmosphere from a can. It's what you get at a second class tourist location though," Wilson said.

"I know and I'll play nice," I promised. Dinner wasn't too bad. I let Wilson choose since he was more familiar with the Island Cuisine. He dated those kinds of women. You know the ones who wanted to be taken to fancy restaurants to show off their new hundred dollar shoes.

I wasn't wearing my dyke boots, so I was okay for a fancy place. The most likely scenario was that they would seat us in an alcove or behind a post, but I was good with that. "So Wilson what is good here?" I asked.

"Their beef dishes got high marks in the brochure of places to eat on Jefferson Island," he suggested.

"Then steak it will be," I decided.

The food actually was very good, but the country club atmosphere put me off. I suffered through it though. In the end I gave the waiter my credit card to pay the bill. They had thoughtfully added the tip to our bill.

"So what did you think?" Wilson asked when we were in the car.

"I thought we had to get the Bed and Breakfast running again," I replied. "Was that your intention?"

"I going to plead the fifty on that one," he said.

"Well let's go home. I still have time to check on the email accounts, before bedtime" I said. It was 10PM and I was tired. We had a full day cleaning up the place. Not to mention I had been outside in the after the storm rain all day lugging shit around. I was absolutely exhausted. I knew that rain or shine I had to go to the airfield an take a good look around. I had driven by to see the garage still standing with no apparent damage, but I hadn't really checked it out. There were too many other pressing issues. Plus I had a monumental hangover.

I was in bed by eleven and instantly asleep. I had terrible dreams. I had been too drunk to dream the night before, so I made up for it the night after the storm. My sleep was ragged as they used to say in sandbox. Never a full night's sleep. That more than anything else beat me down.

When I awoke it was daylight outside and the sun was trying to peak through the backside of the storm. I drank coffee and waited until 7:30AM before I drove to the airfield. The roads were too wet for the trike and I really didn't feel up to a run. I drove the truck to the airfield, then parked it at the entrance and walked to the garage. I found everything just as I had left it.

It took me half an hour to walk the field to be sure nothing dangerous had blown onto it. When I was sure it was clear, I took the plane up. There was a no fly zone over the landfall site of the storm. I flew withing fifty miles of the storms path inland to see the outer reaches of the destruction. It didn't appear to be that bad. It must have been a small hurricane, I thought.

Since I had pretty much reached the safe range of the plane I flew home. I put the plane down without incident then spent twenty minutes putting it away. Even after all that I still got home before Wilson managed to drag ass out of bed.

I was showered and dress in jeans and a camo tee shirt when he finally made it to the kitchen area. "So did you make it out to the airfield yet?" Wilson asked.

"Yes, I even went up to look at the storms damage. I couldn't fly over the worst of it they have restricted fly overs for a couple of days. I expect it is to give the news helicopters a shot at it without having to worry about gawkers," I said.

"Yeah people like you," Wilson said with a laugh. "So I am going to do some research on the old railroad hotel building."

"Do you really think we need a downtown B&B in New Wales?" I asked.

"I most certainly do," Wilson said. "We might not have the mother and daughter singers, but we can have karaoke or something like it. That little stage in the bar has got to be part of anything we do."

"I don't know that I agree with that," I said. "You know Wilson, we don't know shit about running a B&B, but I know someone who does."

"The Brit?" Wilson asked.

"And Jeremy, they can probably get us headed in the right direction. Tell us what we need to do to be successful," I said.

"Let me get the dry facts from the bank, or whoever owns it, before we get them involved." Wilson suggested.

"Fair enough," I said. "Did we ever get paid for finding those kids?" I asked.

"Don't you even care about the business?" Wilson asked.

"Of course I do, I intend to start checking the books any day now. Just as soon as the bank tell me I'm over drawn," I informed him.

"Well for a quick summery then," he said pulling up his laptop up to the dining table.