Chapter 10

The trip from North Dakota to North Carolina was looking like four days of introspection. If that was what the universe had for me to do, then I wouldn't last very long in this body. I got on the phone with Tom back in Asheville and tightened up the terms of the trust, as far as how to identify the next inheritor.

Ruth shocked me when she elected to stay in the hamlet, but life is full of inconsistency, betrayal, and heartbreak. Martha might have been angling to hook back together with Caleb, but I wondered how successful that would be, since she had been mine and everyone knew it. Mary and Martha went away for reasons I still don't really know, and wouldn't want to spend much time discovering. The new elder handled provided a church order releasing Martha and Ruth from our marriage, thus freeing them to seek another relationship.

Just like Colleen, Rebecca, Beth Ann, and so many others, my women love me for a while, then can't wait to get away from me. It didn't help that I almost got them both killed, when the shooters came after us. The temptation to run from me had to be almost undeniable, when three SUV's of killers try to murder you on the way to the airport.

Driving the coach back home gave me time to think, brood, sort through my feelings, and generally be a big baby about losing the girls. I did a very competent job of acting like one, until I made the decision to stop letting it ruin my life. As soon as I decided to get my head out of my rear end, I discovered the next thing the universe "picked" me to fix.

Because the trust was on my mind, and because I had well over half a billion dollars in my foreign account, as well as over three-quarters of a billion from the phosphate lawsuit added to the original funds, I called Tom again and made arrangements for more of it to be readily available to me. I wanted to be easily able to use it to whatever situation I wished, without going through a lot of red tape. I was thinking about a houseboat down in Florida and another one at Lake of the Ozarks.

It was hours later, driving in the left lane of Interstate Sixty-Four, in Illinois, almost to the Interstate Fifty-Seven turn off, which would take me into Kentucky, when I saw a brand new looking, Honda mini-van blow a tire. The van swerved several times before coming to rest in the ditch on the side of the highway. I managed to slow down, ease over, and pull to the shoulder safely, and I walked back to see if I could help the folks in the mini-van.

I could see a woman holding a small child, comforting them no doubt, due to the noise of the blow out. The mom looked scared but in control, and I slowly approached, not wanting to make it any worse. She looked up, saw the motor coach, which must have looked pretty impressive, and me waiting patiently for her to notice. She smiled slightly and opened the passenger side window so I could speak with her.

"Hey. Are you two alright? That had to be very scary." She was scared. Her respirations were shallow and fast, and she was trying with all her might not to transmit her fears to the child, who was not much older than an infant. When I looked her over from close up, I thought he was about five, and definitely unwell. His little head lolled without a bit of muscle control. His mother had to hold him in such a way that she always supported the little one's head. I doubted he was more than two when I got a closer look.

She clearly needed help, so I said, "Do you know if you have a spare tire and jack? As long as you have a good spare, I can change a tire in no time and have you on your way."

"I have no idea. This is my father's van. We're taking it back to him and were almost there when this happened. Can you look around and tell me if you see the things you need?"

She unlocked the rear hatch for me, and I opened the door to find A LOT of luggage, boxes, and other paraphernalia. Luckily the jack and lug wrench are typically stored in a side pocket with a plastic door over it, and that was where I located the things I needed. Printed on the inside of the door was an explanation of how to use the lug wrench on a bolt in front of the middle seat, to lower the spare which was stored under the van.

That all took a few minutes, and I had the woman firmly engage the parking brake and shut off the motor, so the van wouldn't roll when the jack lifted it clear of the ground. The tire change went just fine, but the spare looked old and maybe dry rotted, so I put it on, made sure it was tightly affixed, and said to the lady, "Your father's spare tire might not take you very far. I think I better follow you until you get where you're going, in case it blows." As I got better acquainted with the van, I could see that it was six years old, but kept so well that it looked brand new.

She looked terribly afraid, but answered. "My father only lives about twenty miles south of here, in Carbondale. If you don't mind following, I would feel much safer knowing you were back there."

She seemed at the end of her rope, and my heart went out to her. Very soon she was back on the road, and I was following a safe distance back. She drove carefully, turned off, made a few turns, and we were suddenly out in the country. We drove along for some time before she turned into a wide driveway that could easily handle the coach. The drive went straight to a very typical mid-western farmhouse, complete with an older man in blue jeans, standing on the porch waving like a maniac.

She pulled up, jumped out, and they hugged like they meant it. When the greetings were done, she got the little one out of his car seat and into a tiny wheel chair.

That broke my heart for real.

He looked like whatever was tormenting him had nearly won, and death was his next stop on the road to heaven. His mother was emotionally suffering. It oozed out from every pore, and her father seemed to know just what she needed and was very quick to see that she got it.

I waited to tell him about the spare tire, and he hurried to help, before greeting me. "I'm Ed Gage. Thanks for taking care of Loni's problem. She said you had trouble with the spare?"

I showed him the weak spot, and corresponding bulge that threatened to come apart any second, and he said. "I will take that back off, and tomorrow I'll run it and the blown one into town for new ones,. I sure appreciate what you did for my girl, and Aaron ... Mr... ?"

"Oh. Sorry. I'm Noah Guthrie. Now that I know your family is safe, I'll just turn around and hit the road. Hope you all have a good evening, Sir."

Apparently I wasn't getting off that easy, because Loni spoke up, and said, "Please let me take you and Daddy out for dinner. It's the least I can do for all your trouble."

I had no intention of causing her any extra work and said so. "Honestly. We have to eat, and I'm far too tired to cook, so we are going out anyway. Please come with us?" She looked so expectant, and I wasn't in a hurry to do much more than eat and find a good place to park for the night, so I agreed. I locked up the coach, while they got the little one into the special car seat that was belted into his Honda SUV.

Loni looked back at me as I climbed into the seat next to the little guy. "So, Noah Guthrie ... Where are you from? What do you do? Where did you get the big-yacht-on-wheels, there? Where are you heading? You have to tell us everything, we're very curious, you know?" She smiled beautifully at little Aaron and said, "My best boy, there, is extremely curious about you because he liked looking at your rolling mansion."

She smiled at him once more and continued. "We've never seen such a big car before, have we Aaron?" He almost smiled, and it broke my heart again.