Chapter 60

Grace unlocked and bumped the wall just so and the solenoids pulled the bars out of the door and jam which allowed her to bump the door with her butt and it swung open ... inwards. She hit the switch on one of the bay doors and the one on the far end rattled it's way up.

There was a clean floor, a work bench and several machine tools; a couple of old lathes, three mills, a planer or two, two drill presses, vises, a tempering furnace, a pipe extruder and no crimp bender, an old Miller Falls 240 arc and some gas welding tanks and hoses ... stuff ... that was there when we bought the place, probably junk, the last owners wouldn't have left the crap if it had worked.

"Stack the bikes over there ... Arnold?"

"Ma'am?"

"Can or I should ask ... Will you work here ... free reign? I think your bike has merit."

"Yes, ma'am ... I can do that."

"David, Chief ... let's get these bikes off the truck."

Suddenly Grace was a CEO... hoe-lee she-it, a phrase that would see much abuse in the future. We took it as our own.

Truck unloaded, Grace and our sheep-cat herded us dumb animals to the living quarters where the Chief and Arnold used the phrase many many times. I predict wide spread use by the military. I wonder if we can get a Tee Shirt? HOE-LEE in an arc across the top ... bicycle in the middle ... SHE-IT in an arc across the bottom. I told my mind trap of a brain to retain it for future use ... yeah ... right.

So I drew it on a sheet of paper and said, "Grace? File this ... no not there ... file it to keep."

She chuckled. Both our study desks had file drawers. She put it in mine. I took it back out and handed it to her.

"I want to be able to find it again. Put it in yours."

Everybody laughed, even Piper.

Grace likes her coffee thin. Not so thin that she can see the bottom of the cup but at least the top inch of the side.

An abomination before the gods.

Coffee should be dark and thick enough to support a spoon standing up.

Not really ... but if you can see any part of the side of the cup it's too weak.

Grace gave a tour. I made coffee. Four cups on the tray, with real cream and muscovado sugar on the side ... and a cup of hot water for Grace. She can thin hers as she likes.

The old warehouse had an announcement system so I pushed the button and said, "Coffee's ready," in a really gravelly voice. Hey! It wasn't me ... the speakers must have been the first ones ever made. Whatever ... it was spooky as all get out.

The living room is actually a platform with ten inch wide oak planks with eighth inch gaps between the boards ... too wide to keep dropped coins but they will capture car keys in a flash so don't drop anything important.

The furniture is like that, too. Hug me chairs and a hug me sofa. When we were considering furniture, we asked our decorator to find out what kind of chairs the Boss sits in ... how many times a day the Boss gets up and stretches and walks ... especially whether or not they have a regular masseuse appointment.

How does one find out information like that? Ask the executive secretary. Eventually our decorator suggested we spend lots of money and buy Scandinavian or Italian full grain leather recliners with wheels that we could move from comfy seating for guests to study areas for us. (A five hundred dollar chair in 1955 translates to a five thousand dollar chair in 2012.)

Since we were paying her to do the work it seemed like a good idea to take her advice.

She got a bonus.

The comfort was amazing, so when Arnold and the Chief sat the sigh was echoing.

"Oh, God ... what a marvelous chair," said the Chief.

"Hoe-lee she-it," said Arnold.

"Exactly," said Grace.

"And I thought Ready Room chairs for combat pilots were comfortable," said the Navy. "These are better than the Chiefs Lounge."

Since I made it, I poured.

The Navy ... the real Navy ... has the second best coffee in the world, the Chief eyed his cup with suspicion and sipped with gentleness. He smiled and gulped.

Grace sipped, made that face, and added half a cup of hot water to hers.

The Chief and I said, "Eww." But Grace sipped and smiled.

"Good coffee, David," she said.

We shuddered, the Chief and I. Arnold sipped and borrowed some of Grace's hot water. Not as much as Grace but some. He added cream and a spoon of sugar but not before he examined the sugar closely. He tasted it first.

"Wimp," said the Chief.

Arnold laughed. "This is not what we're used to. I love your house. You could put my whole neighborhood in here and still have room for 57th street." He sighed, "I could live here."