Читать книгу Exploring Connections - DH Steppler - Страница 6

As it turned out the London papers, all of them, embraced me and all of the companies of the ‘New Holdings’ and turned their venom on to Cary Colton, rejecting him as ‘an American shit bag outsider’ trying to stir things up, make a mess of what was clearly running smoothly, and besmirch the fine business acumen and reputation of the lovely CEO responsible for the conglomeration of businesses throughout Europe, North America, and South America.

“You never know which way these things are going to blow.”

Wyatt explained.

“It could have gone the other way and they could be calling you the ‘shit bag outsider’. For now we can count ourselves lucky and can use any information that the tabloid may find on Cary Colton; you know they’ll print anything they can find on him and make it worse than it really is.”

“Glad they got it right this time. Wyatt it bothers me that Cary Colton went through all the trouble to come here in the first place.” I replied.

“Not only will he not get cooperation or backing he’ll find it difficult to get any information about you or the companies you own. But even if he has information about you he really can’t do anything with it here because you are the one with the local backing. Don’t know what you did but you must have said the right things to the right person.” Wyatt said.

“I’d like to know who that right person is so I could thank them.”

“Millie thinks that it was Trudy, Roscoe’s wife, who posted the article and encouraged all the tabloids to pick it up. Millie heard Trudy speak highly of you personally during the party and when we were saying good bye she mentioned how happy they were to get to meet you. She said something about the first American in years to be of any real value.”

“Trudy, yes I remember; she was wearing one of my designs from our spring line. Her body is perfect for the dress. At the time I thought about using her frame for more designs. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an ally within the written media even if that ally writes yellow journalism?”

“Looks like we already have one.” Wyatt said.

“Switching the subject, how’re you doing going through Miles’ things?” Wyatt looked like he was checking items off a list.

“I’ve got most of the clothing boxed up and ready to be taken. Who should be contacted for removing the boxes?”

Wyatt smiled at me. “A moving company is coming on Friday and will remove anything you ask.”

Wyatt gave me a slip of paper with an address of where we wanted the ‘Good Will’ items to be taken.

“My turn to change the subject.”

I took over the conversation.

Setting the thin ‘treasure’ box on the table between us, I started.

“I have a few pictures in here I’d like for you to look at and tell me anything you know about them.”

Wyatt examined the first picture which was the one with the young man alone, wearing a fedora and smirking at the camera.

“I think this is a picture of Miles’ twin brother, though they weren’t maternal twins. He was murdered and the guilty party was never caught. I heard that his brother’s murder was the reason that Miles became so hard. It all happened long before I ever knew him.”

Next I showed him the picture marked 1927.

“This is Miles but I don’t know who the girl is. They can’t be out of their teens, they look so young.”

Wyatt turned the photo over and read the back.

There were other pictures that I’d set aside that Wyatt recognized. The last picture that I showed him was the one of Tut and Cleo. Wyatt recognized Tut but didn’t know the other bird.

“Can you tell me anything about Tut? He’s on my mind all the time because he’s plucking out his feathers again.”

I let Wyatt think for a moment. He picked up the picture and then reached for the ornate magnifying glass that looked older than the photos he was examining.

“There’s a date in this picture.”

He was looking at the picture of Tut and Cleo.

“October 1963.”

Wyatt read out loud.

“I’ll search through the data base for the businesses and let you know by the end of the week.”

Before we ended the meeting I promised that I’d have everything ready for the movers by Friday.

Design ideas began to jump into my head and even though I went looking for Charlie, I first found the tools to put the ideas down on paper while they were fresh in my head.

Charlie found me sitting at the dining room table drawing as fast as that pencil could fly. He knew I couldn’t stop; so he took a shower and made us some food before he interrupted me.

The scent of the BLT’s drew my attention and the sight of the food right in front of me felt like magic. Charlie kissed my head and asked if it was a good time to take a break and have a meal. Damn it was good being his woman!

Setting the design work aside, I thanked Charlie and dug in. While we enjoyed the food, I brought him up to date about my meeting with Wyatt and he filled me in on the project going on at the ‘Three Women’ office.

We had a couple of hours before we were to meet up with Michael and Lu so Charlie and I took a trip out into the universe and met up with each other to unite and experience that ultimate mating, joining our very beings and essences; we became one unit, one being, complete and fulfilled. That filled the first hour and our physical focus on one another, after, filled the second.

“Woman,” Charlie said, “we gotta go, now.”

While in the shower, I stood with my arms around Charlie. Our time together was moving entirely too fast and I needed more with him.

“Lover.” I pouted.

“Promise me we’ll get online after we get back from Michael and Lu’s to find us a place to honeymoon.”

“I’m with you Woman.”

Charlie and I took the back way to get to Michael’s. Jumping the fence and getting the chance to see the vista from the top of the wall with Charlie’s arms around me changed my disposition completely. I felt really good and according to Charlie, he was feeling pretty good, too. We passed through the dense crop of trees and recognized the unfulfilled need and promise to make love within those trees again. Once again we renewed our promise to meet that need on the return visit.

Holding hands, coming around the last bend, and seeing Michael and Lu waiting for us felt right. Our reconnect was splendid, replenishing, and made all of us groan from the goodness of it.

After the hug-up we headed directly for the guest room.

Charlie and I looked at each other after we were seated on the edge of the bed and he began.

“Helen and I have buzzing in our ears. You guys got that?”

“Si Charlie,” Lu said.

“Like a little bug that sings all around my head.”

“Yeah, I’ve got it to.” Michael chimed in.

“What do you think that means?”

“I’ve been thinking about it and think that we can employ the power of the four of us to get to the bottom on it. Focusing on the sound and zeroing in on it alone may give us a clue…”

I stopped mid sentence and decided that I’d try an experiment right in front of them.

Closing my eyes, I brought back from my recall the first time I heard the quiet buzzing. As I listened to it from the beginning I began to manipulate the sound slowing it down to a speed where the sound was audible. It was still difficult to understand but I slowed it down more and more until the answer was revealed to me.

Looking at them with wonder in my eyes, Michael was the first to speak.

“What? Baby, what?”

His voice carried urgency and a touch of annoyance.

“Simply stated, the buzzing is us.” I said flat out.

Michael’s annoyance kicked into a higher gear.

“What the hell does that mean?”

I didn’t answer him. Instead I stood and grabbed Charlie’s hand and pulled him to Michael and Lu. I got them to stand and we hugged up again. When he was calm we took up our positions again on the bed while I explained what I meant by ‘The buzzing is us’.

“Guys, it’s another gift of the connect. We are communicating with each other. Each time the buzzing picks up it’s one of us trying to communicate with our collective. The sound is actually all of our voices together that we need to slow down and isolate.”

“Just how are we going to do that?”

Michael sounded irritated again.

“You know, Michael, the buzzing is bothering all of us but you seem a bit keyed up.”

I stood up and again pulled Charlie by the hand to go to their side of the bed for a hook up.

We embraced and Michael calmed down, we all calmed down. While we were in our huddle I continued to talk about the buzzing.

“While we are together like this, please focus on the buzzing instead of trying not to hear it, try to hear it. Concentrate only on the buzzing.”

I stopped talking and did exactly what I told them to do.

Michael thought. ‘Now I don’t hear it any more.’

Lu thought. ‘Yeah, I don’t hear it any more either.’

Charlie thought. ‘I don’t hear the buzzing but I can hear what you’re saying.’

‘We’re hearing each other’s thoughts. Nobody is talking out loud.’ I thought.

‘I get it.’ Michael thought.

‘We just have to focus on the sound instead of trying not to hear it.’

He laughed when he heard me say a mental, ‘Duh!’

Physically I dropped connection with any of them and thought.

‘Let’s separate to see if we can do this from another location or when we can’t see each other.’

After that initial success, we tried one experiment after another until we learned that we could hear each other’s thoughts, actually decipher the buzzing, when we were within eye range but we couldn’t decipher the thoughts if we were separated by walls.

The final experiment was to see if we could carry on a conversation without talking to each other. It was difficult not to speak out loud. We went for a full half hour without speaking. We laughed often when we automatically opened our mouths to talk. I wondered if the process was easier for Charlie because he didn’t speak much anyway. Charlie heard my thoughts and told me that he didn’t know if it was easier for him because he didn’t know how easy it was for the rest of us. We all laughed over that.

We also made plans to see if we could hear our thoughts when there were others present.

Michael wondered if there was a way to filter his thoughts from the rest of us. We all picked up on his worry about thinking something that he didn’t want any of us to know about.

My thoughts went out there for him to use or not. ‘Michael, do you have something you want to hide from us?’

He wasn’t sure but he knew that he wanted to decide whether or not it should be known by us.

“Michael.” I said.

“Why don’t we just embrace this new wrinkle but make a plan to figure out how we can filter our thoughts.”

After Charlie and I got back to the servant’s quarters we tried a few experiments of our own. We were surprised that we didn’t need to talk if we didn’t want to. Charlie could hear my thoughts and I could hear his. There were moments when it was easier to read his thoughts but then moments later the effort it took was much greater.

I had a late afternoon appointment with Denice and Amanda and again got annoyed when we had to stop what we were doing and head in another direction.

‘Internet when we get back.’ I thought and Charlie picked up on it.

Charlie thought that it was a good opportunity to see if we could get by with no words between us. I liked his optimism.

Denice and Amanda were happy to see us but they were more animated about the trips they would be leaving on at the end of the week. I understood their need to get away and spend some quality time with their men. I forced them to get to the agenda at hand. It only took about 30 minutes once I got them to stop talking about what was happening at the end of the week and got them into the ‘Three Women’ work.

Charlie went to another part of the office to see about the project that would revolutionize our office in the way we presented our fashions to those who visit the store front and the office. He’d made it easy for Millie or anyone really to handle the camera equipment and the projector. He made the equipment ‘idiot proof’ as Millie put it.

Amanda was nearly sick from her excitement. All she knew was that they were going to Rick’s favorite place in the whole world. We each guessed where that might be.

“I know how much he likes baseball; maybe you’re going to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame.” I suggested.

“I saw him watching ‘Ice Road Truckers’, when we were working on the ideas about the fall line. I bet he’s taking you to Canada and the Northwest Territories.”

The look on Denice’s face was pure animation and she pretended to drive a truck and then slide around on the ice. She made us laugh.

All the talk of being alone with their men made me want to find Charlie and work on our own plans to get away; so I steered the focus of the meeting back to the business at hand.

With our calendars set we hugged and parted ways. They promised to spend a bit of time with me before they left for ‘outer-Mongolia’ or wherever and I made them include the time with me, lunch on Thursday on their calendars. It wasn’t a lot of time but that was ok.

Back in the servant’s quarters, I began again the business of dispatching with Miles’ belongings. The work in the office took the longest but the other stuff felt more like labor. There were three bedrooms to go through which meant that there were three closets worth of work. I’d already emptied the closet in the master bedroom and was just about half done with the second bedroom closet when I heard Charlie’s thoughts.

‘Oh there you are Woman, my woman. God you’re sexy.’

Charlie came to me for our hello and a proper greeting. His thoughts while we were embraced were discernable because they mirrored mine. Well, except for the peppermint thing. We wanted each other; we were happy to be together; our bodies tingled with anticipation. Charlie was a master at foreplay and he gripped my fanny with his big hands and squeezed me and pulled me into him while kissing me deeply. He laughed when he knew I wanted to be naked. He said that he had a plan for dinner and I could continue what I was doing while he prepared it, not revealing in his thoughts what the ‘idea’ for dinner was.

“Screw dinner.” I moaned out loud.

Charlie laughed, kissed my neck, and whispered.

“I love you, Woman.”

He headed off to the kitchen to prepare our meal and I went back to the closet I was packing up.

It took me a minute to get back into the project but when I did, the time seemed to fly. I was surprised to see women’s clothing hanging in the closet and a small three-drawer dresser with women’s undergarments set far back into the recess of the closet. Careful not to hurt my back, I moved the little dresser out into the room for closer examination. It was the dresser that caught my interest because it looked so old but well preserved. It was the contents on the inside that proved to be most interesting.

All of the undergarments were the same size, small. They had a risqué feel to them like they were costumes and really old fashioned. Each item I looked at felt familiar to me, like I knew it all as well as if I’d designed it.

When Charlie came for me, the contents of the little dresser had been gone through a couple of times and the decision to keep all of it was made.

Dinner was lovely and delicious. Charlie’d set the table and lit a candle. The house smelled like back home. The pork chops were lean and well seasoned. Charlie had prepared some small new potatoes but longed to use some from our garden. His thoughts had me thinking of that garden and home and, of course, Tut.

Charlie wrestled with the thought of calling Tut before dessert but thought, ‘After.’

I was dessert. To hear Charlie’s thoughts while we made love was impossible because he didn’t think. Just like me, he was in the present and feeling the experience.

While we were still wrapped up in each other’s arms we put a call through to Tut. Our timing was off for our first call as Margaret informed us that he was asleep but would wake at any time.

We just stayed in bed playing with each other for about 30 minutes and then placed another call to Tut. He was, at that time, well rested and funny and seemed happy that we called and still loved him like crazy. I sent him words of love and told him how beautiful he was and made him a promise to return in a few weeks.

We spent the rest of the evening searching the Internet for the perfect place to honeymoon. We looked at secluded islands and found so many that making a choice, if we went that way, would be too difficult. We also looked at famous honeymoon spots, ‘adventure honeymoons’, honeymoon cruises.

After the ‘free for all’ on the Internet we got smart and decided what was important for our honeymoon. Charlie said that as long as we’re together he’d be fine. Well, I wanted a little more than that: great weather, no interruptions, privacy, a private pool would be perfect, a California King sized bed, a packed refrigerator and freezer, a gas stove, good cooking pots and pans, elegant dinner ware.

As I was compiling my preferences for that perfect honeymoon, an idea was taking hold in my brain and I changed my search just a bit; ‘Housing for sale’ on Maui.

Charlie and I looked at estate after estate and each of them looked like a tropical paradise but each of them was not right for us – they were too big. We continued looking until we found the perfect place for us to hide away for a couple of weeks.

The place that we discovered wasn’t as grandiose as the other’s we’d looked at but we weren’t looking for size. The pictures showed the place to be absolutely beautiful, lush with fabulous tropical flowers, well secluded with a swimming pool and a very short path to a private beach. The next morning I reserved the small estate for our honeymoon. During the rest of the time we were in London I corresponded with a woman named Patsy with our needs for our 14 day stay.

Carrying around the idea that we were going on a honeymoon helped to create a sort of buoyancy in me and I felt joyful.

We got an early start on our walk to Michael and Lu’s for the planned ‘travel’ so that we could visit with the gardens along the way. Taking our time to appreciate all of the greenery that made up the plant life on the two estates, Charlie and I held hands and strolled without regard to time. Even so, when we rounded the final bend and saw the two of them standing in the doorway waiting for us; we were right on time.

Our hug-up and reconnect was a rush of warmth and wonderful soft feelings. We delighted each other with the near musical sounds of pleasure expressed by each of us.

In the guest room each with a mug of hot coffee, we sat with the air undisturbed by our voices and a conversation going on between us. The focus it took to maintain that conversation was great and we decided that hearing each other’s thoughts would be a selective tool, used only if necessary.

“We need practice; it wasn’t that hard for the two of us.” Charlie said.

Without speaking I reminded Charlie that we barely needed words to communicate, that body language was our native tongue. He laughed.

We spent a great deal of time experimenting with self control in blocking our own thoughts and directing thoughts to a specific person while in the group. As soon as a goal was set for any experiment to understand the silent correspondence it was realized by merely a thought. We were amazed over and over again at how easily our understanding came. Our control over our own thoughts was the key.

With the coffee drank, pee breaks taken, and another good physical hook up, we were ready for a ‘look see’ into what red travel would be like with the four of us. We talked about just going where Ricky took us but I reminded them of my first adventure with Ricky taking the lead and how far back in time she took me and how much recovery time it took.

“Let’s just take Charlie and Lu on a tour of the portal and give them the benefit of seeing for themselves. If we can control the collective and not go either way, that is to say either back in time or forward in time, no time passes on this side. Michael, remember, we spent all that time examining the portal and no time passed while we did that. It was like free time to us.”

Lu had sat quietly through most of the conversation but she was ready to take some action.

“Si, si, si, let’s go!” Lu chided all of us. Eagerness worked for me.

Looking at each face in our group, we were all smiling like we just got the best gift ever. Displaying our catalysts to be seen by the collective was a given and it was like a toy reunion to see the catch objects in their hands, Michael held ‘Hellie’ and Lu held ‘Arec’ and Charlie held ‘Us’ and of course, the mother of it all, Ricky on the pinkie of my right hand.

The inviting tiny particles were seen first around ‘Hellie’ in Michael’s hand and a split second after were seen around ‘Arec’ and Lu; then Charlie’s ‘Us’ presented and joined the other particles. Ricky made her entrance in a grand way and we were nearly swimming in particles that glowed and danced around us.

Ricky sent her red sparks and the four of us eagerly jumped in and there we were in the portal. We stayed there and showed Charlie and Lu every thing we could think of and took them to dates both in the future and in the past never leaving the portal, never stepping onto those date ledges. Charlie and Lu’s amazement enabled us to relive our own first trip thrill; it was a gift to us to share it with them.

When there was nothing more to show them, we all opened our eyes to see that our heads were very close together as we had each fallen into the middle of the bed when we jumped. We knew instantly that we’d need to address our location and position with more concern at the next go-round.

Carrying a collective smugness, we all wanted to travel and experimented to find that travel with only two or three participants when four are invited blocked portal entrance and no one traveled. Then we wrestled with the dilemma of safety for the four of us if we all traveled.

After much discussion we decided that we’d travel only a brief distance into the future because it took less time from us in the physical world and that we’d be vulnerable for a shorter period of time.

All ‘go, go, go’, we aligned our bodies tightly next to each other on the big bed, and we looped our arms, and presented our catalysts to catch an invitation. The speed at which they responded was a kick and we showed respect by jumping immediately.

In the portal, red and hazy, we still maintained the soft peace and calm that was a product of our reconnect. The portal’s reaction to our collective thought was instant and we were at the date ledge for the following day which we took to breakfast at ‘The Miles’.

Observing things in the future was something Michael and I had done quite a few times but we were joined by Charlie and Lu who were new to all of it. We saw ourselves gathering our food from the buffet table and carrying it to the large round table in the kitchen where we found Denice, Sam, Amanda, Rick, Wyatt, Millie, and David already seated.

Not much happened except we ate and Denice reminded me of our lunch date at 1 o’clock. I told her I’d be there; Amanda chimed in with, ‘me too’. While we watched, Charlie and I kissed three or four times and seemed oblivious to the others most of the time.

We were aware of each other as soon as we were conscious but unable to see or move. Our sight returned after about a minute of darkness and then we took another minute just to focus on our collective thoughts to check in and to see that we were each alright. We were all relieved that something catastrophic didn’t happen while we were away.

Even before movement was possible for any of us we were gripped by a sexual need for our mates that was more demanding than anything our bodies had yet asked of us due to traveling via the universe, red or otherwise.

When Michael could move, he took Lu into his arms and carried her out of the guest room and in the direction of their own room. I really couldn’t say because my focus was Charlie and oh my God he was all about me.

Charlie and I stayed on the bed and rolled into each other and recognized the need seen on each other’s faces and felt as our hands gripped, kneaded, caressed, and massaged urgently. We ate each other up. Charlie kissed and tasted me and in his signature move removed first my clothes and then his own.

Charlie’s need for me was nearly over-powering and almost more than he could handle. After he anchored me on my back, his face only inches from mine; looking at him above me, my breasts tingled, a sign to get more involved I separated my legs to give him more comfort and access when the time was right. For Charlie the time was right immediately and he quickly joined our bodies and ejaculated instantaneously in hot and hard pulses that brought me to climax more than once.

Before I could catch my breath Charlie was ready for another round. Still above me he looked into my eyes and smiled a sweet smile of love. He kissed my forehead and then my nose and brushed his lips across each of my eyes and finally he collected my entire mouth around his big lips and kissed me deeply drawing out of me the need for more lovin’. We thought as one and understood how to achieve our goals. Charlie’s goal was to touch all of me and to make things fit together in, sometimes funny and always satisfying, inventive ways.

While we coupled, we marveled at how wonderful we felt and we urgently wanted to please and tease the other. We satisfied our need of each other and didn’t hurry our lovemaking but honored each other thoroughly.

After a shower and more fun we joined Michael and Lu in the music room to debrief and to reconnect. Michael started because he was ready and willing to go first.

“None of our travel has been that smooth, ever. Helen how was it that you were able to maintain such control?”

“It had to be the power of the four of us together because it was incredibly easy. It was nearly the same as jumping into a current.” I said.

“The red didn’t even feel menacing.” Michael continued.

Lu said, “Go back to the beginning and debrief correctly.”

Reining in Michael and me from our conversation that didn’t include Charlie and Lu was right.

Michael started again.

“The portal felt welcoming and the redness was quieter than the times we’ve traveled before. Our date appeared after only a slight ascension, no bumpiness. When the situation, breakfast, appeared Helen took us there. We saw us all having breakfast at ‘The Miles’. Not a lot went on but we saw that we were together. I heard Denice remind Helen about an early afternoon meeting. When we were conscious again we dealt with the sexual need caused, which was, I might add, insane with its intensity. I couldn’t get close enough to Lu and I think she felt the same.”

Lu gave her report next.

“Si, I agree with Michael it was smooth and very easy to be part of. I wasn’t scared of the redness in the portal. Having Elena and Michael show us how was good. Seeing what will happen tomorrow morning at breakfast was fun and can’t wait to see if it really happens. I remember that Charlie kissed Elena three or four times during those few minutes. When I wake up, I wanted Michael and couldn’t even see him but I could smell him. When we left you we had really good love.”

We all smiled at her; she was beyond adorable.

All eyes turned to Charlie as he gave his report.

“Jumping into the red was easy; interesting, not scary and the portal was remarkable. It was fun like Lu said to see us at breakfast. Did anyone else see that Wyatt looked a bit put out? Anyway, he did. Afterwards, the sex was ‘off the hook’, to quote a friend.”

We left them knowing that we’d see them at breakfast. Our trip back to the servant’s quarters was round about as we made our way around to all the small community gardens on the estate to say hello. We eventually found ourselves on the trail headed toward the garden wall and when we were in the darkness of that dense crop of tall trees we joined our bodies quietly at the base of those trees fulfilling a promise we’d made to each other.

After we got back to the ‘quarters’, we worked steadily for a few hours on Miles’ belongings. Now and again I’d find a little something, a photo, or a recipe, or a letter, or a personal document and add it to my little box of treasures. As I took an assessment of where we were with the project and what would need to go where, I thought about the large box of documents that I’d need to take to Wyatt for help; so, I made a mental note to talk to him at breakfast to see if I could get some of his time.

While I continued the examination and resolution of all things Miles, Charlie prepared us dinner. I found a little old checkered suitcase that had leather belts as closures stashed in the back of one of the shelves in the linen closet. Even though I unbuckled the belt closures the case would not open. I had to use a letter opener to pry it open. I got it open but broke the letter opener and scratched my arm in the process. One half of the case was filled with completed coin collection books and the other half contained bags of old coins. I set the case aside with the original contents only barely disturbed and planned to go through the case thoroughly at some point.

It was Wednesday evening and we were glad to have the time to ourselves even if we spent the time working on clearing out Miles’ stuff. After dinner and the clean up Charlie and I continued, with determination to finish before bed. We didn’t quite finish but we got very close when I caught what Charlie was thinking.

‘Jesus, Woman how can I want you so much all of the time?’

I looked at him and smiled and thought, ‘How about now, do you want me now?’

Charlie held my eyes as he walked to me nodding his head yes. I dropped the towel I was folding and put my arms out for him to take me. We kissed a deep and wonderful kiss, a beginning. Charlie picked me up and carried me to the bedroom, removed our clothes quickly.

‘Like I mentioned before, we really shouldn’t even bother with clothes.’ Charlie thought.

There were no thoughts from either of us as we enjoyed our lovemaking. We exhausted each other and fell asleep in a sweet state of satisfaction.

My dream was about Tut; I was looking for him but couldn’t find him. Calling for him and going from room to room searching for him and not finding him generated panic and fear. Then I opened a door and found Tut and another parrot. They were in cages. I went immediately to release Tut from confinement. When Tut walked out of the cage, he walked straight to the other cage and tried to open the door.

I talked to Tut but he ignored me and was focused only on the bird in the other cage. The other bird was unfamiliar to me; she was distinctive looking with only two colors, blue and green, pretty but not beautiful like Tut. Before I released the latch and opened the door to free her I noticed that her wings were clipped so she couldn’t fly away.

When I opened the door the two-colored parrot moved sidewise on her perch and Tut walked into her cage and jumped up onto the perch and rested there next to her. She bobbed her head and whistled and Tut repeated the head bob and whistle. They each stepped sidewise closer to each other, bobbing their heads the whole time, until they were touching wing to wing.

When I awoke from the dream I was kissing Charlie; he was above me and ready to couple. Without even thinking I responded to his need with need of my own. It was all good. We’re so perfect for each other.

The following day our good moods were evident from the get go and we brought our cheer to breakfast with us. When Michael and Lu joined us we hugged up before we joined the others at the breakfast buffet and had a brief chat about not changing things but allowing everything to just flow. We’d get together again in the late afternoon to debrief.

While we were seated at the round table and I was kissing Charlie again. Charlie’s ‘one-word’ thought, ‘Wyatt’ was enough for me to check out Wyatt. Just as Charlie had said in debrief, Wyatt was ticked off about something so I focused my attention in his direction for a bit.

Every now and then I’d look at Lu and Michael to see them unable to hide their glee at least from me and I’d bet from my sister either. Denice cut into my thoughts with her reminder of our lunch date and a decision not to disclose the location. A change, I’d assumed that we’d luncheon right where we were. There was no mention of anything different.

Charlie and I kissed; then I caught his eye and thought, ‘Lover, did you know anything about going somewhere else?’

‘No, Woman, if you’re going, I’m going with you.’ Charlie assured me.

‘Damn straight.’

Before breakfast was over, I went to Wyatt while he was getting another cup of tea at the buffet table to say a personal hello and to see if there was some way I could alleviate some of his stress. Setting his cup on the table he hugged me and kissed the top of my head.

Wyatt and I met up in his office about 15 minutes after breakfast. Charlie carried the box of documents I considered to be important and needed Wyatt’s take on.

“Cary Colton is issuing subpoenas to Michael and Lu; he’s including them in a suit against you and everything that you’ve ever touched.”

His face was serious but also annoyed.

“This bloke is starting to get my dander up and is going to get a major ‘piss off’ from me.”

Wyatt showed more emotion than I’d seen from him since he told me of his love for Millie.

Seeing that kind of emotion coming from him was, for some unknown reason, a comforting and endearing thing. Because of that comfort, I didn’t worry about Cary Colton and what he might try to do to ‘The New Holdings’. But I was still concerned with what he might do to Michael and Lu.

“God Wyatt, he can’t do anything to them, can he?”

“We don’t know what’s on his mind but, I can tell you that I’ll do my best to figure it out and protect all of you if I can. My own investigator’s on him. Helen we have our ducks in a row, so please don’t worry.”

Forgetting to talk to Wyatt about the documents I brought with me wasn’t the problem it could have been because I tripped over the box when I went to leave the office.

Wyatt thumbed through the box for only a second before a smile spread across his face.

“Miles you never cease to amaze me; you were one clever man.” Wyatt whispered.

“These documents are the close to a case that’s been a ‘bone in the brew’ from before Miles’ death. Where did you find them?”

“In the old desk in his office,” I answered.

“If you come across anything else like these please let me know. These are valuable and represent control of hundreds of thousands of jobs and their possible elimination. The case has been held in limbo but the introduction of this information will solidify our legal and financial claims and save those companies in order to fix them – that was Miles’ intention and I’d like, with your permission, to continue with his vision.”

“Of course, Wyatt, you have my total blessing to do what you know to be right. Please keep me in the loop; we’re a team; I count on you.”

We parted with hugs and ‘see you on Fridays’.

Charlie was whistling when I found him in the closet of the office with a box on the chair next to him. He was removing some coats from the back of the closet, searching the pockets, folding them with care, and placing them in a packing box. Pretty sure that I’d gone through that entire closet, the question was in my thoughts as I came to Charlie for my hello lovin’.

‘You did.’ Charlie thought. ‘I found a pocket door that led to these.’ He thought as he showed me the brown wool coat he was folding.

As it turned out that little ‘pocket door’ led to a lot more than those over coats; though those over coats yielded nearly 3 thousand dollars in cash and multiple leather wallets, each with identification for Miles.

In a few of the pockets Charlie found gold and diamond cuff links and in one he found a personalized hankie with the anagram ‘C’. The hankie was a delicate pale pink, very light and still carried the scent of peppermint.

‘Does everything remind me of you,’ Charlie questioned as he handed it to me to examine.

Catching the look in Charlie’s eyes changed my focus entirely. Right then was our only chance at being alone for awhile so our only real priorities took over and he reached for me. Without a word the decision was made to spend every second we could enjoying the feel of each other both in bed and in the shower after. Even watching each other dress was a treat but also an erotic draw that we were sad to have to deny due to our commitment to lunch with our sisters. There was comfort for us in the knowledge that our honeymoon was in the very near future and then nothing would interfere with our need to bond profoundly.

Our intimate little lunch turned into an extravaganza arranged by Millie that had us all: Denice, Sam, Amanda, Rick, Michael, Lu, Charlie, and I in a large stretch limo, drinking champagne and heading ‘to the lights’ as Denice put it. The weather had again turned nasty causing the day to be dark, not unusual. At that moment we all would have preferred to be in sunny California. Millie’d recommended a place called ‘The Leather Exchange’ which was on the second floor of a quaint looking English pub. The food was excellent and for that reason alone we were glad we went.

Denice looked at me and made a toast.

“To success in all that matters, cheers, thanks a lot, eh?”

We raised our glasses, joined her, and showed respect by drinking to her gracious toast. When Denice spoke everyone was given permission to look at her; so we did. She lit up the room; wearing yellow and white in a design that I’d swear was Amanda’s. It suited her youthful flare and all-female attitude. Her smile was like a shot of endorphins or a lovely hit of chocolate and we all got the perfect dose of it at lunch that day.

Denice and I made eye contact on a number of occasions; she smiled a private smile for me only. I am proud that she’s my sister and a bit sad that our relationship has had to change as more people came into our lives. The bottom line would always be true that we’d be there for each other when ‘push came to shove’.

Amanda was quiet, as she had been for the entire trip; quiet but not sullen, maybe introspective. She stayed closer to Rick and touched him with greater frequency; I took it to mean that they were building a tighter bond. Rick smiled and talked quietly but mostly to Sam.

Sam and Rick broke away from each other now and then to smile at their women and say appeasing words to them. For the very first time it dawned on me how difficult they would find it to be away from each other for the week and a half planned.

Michael and Lu were their comedic selves and bantered back and forth a sexy innuendo humor that kept us all laughing. Michael would say something risqué and Lu would say, “I will spank you, Michael,” in a voice and accent beyond cute.

Seated next to me in the large round booth and closest to the exit was Charlie; he sat close to me with his arm around the back of the booth enabling me to sit even closer. He listened quietly, kissed the top of my head a couple of times, put his head down and waited for the food.

Another reminder from Denice was regarding the next meeting of the ‘Three Women’ principals in four weeks - taking place after schedules began to mean something again. We all hugged our good byes and headed in our own directions each having personal business to handle.

Charlie and I met at Michael and Lu’s, for our final ‘red travel’ before we left for home on the following day, Friday, after the haulers came for Miles’ belongings.

Our red travel was used to see what Cary Colton would be up to the next day and listened to his conversations that were pertinent to either me or any one of us. His main purpose in life seemed to be gaining revenge on me for Gene Handy.

We aligned ourselves on the big bed with Lu and Charlie in the middle and Michael and I connecting from the outside. Even though we expected them, we were still surprised at their appearance when the particles showed and even more so when Ricky sent her four red sparks. Surprised yes, but no one hesitated to jump.

The portal was a light red haze but comfortable with the four of us there. We were prepared with the date, the person, and the situation so as not to waste time or be misconstrued.

In the time it took to think it we were presented with the ledge. We barely completed the request and our options lay before us with the person and then further with the conversations. I mentally programmed each conversation to follow the next as Charlie had suggested earlier so that we wouldn’t have to keep moving in and out of the portal.

It worked. Cary Colton’s first conversation was with the Reference Librarian at the Civic Center in Marin County.

“Can you point me in the direction of any written information about the relationship between Helen and a Mr. Miles K. Henley?”

Cary Colton spoke to her using a seemingly practiced charm as though he thought she held the most important job in the world and found her to be fascinating and sexy.’

The Librarian wrote down what he needed and he didn’t speak again and wasn’t spoken to until he was visiting Gene Handy.

“We filed suit today for ‘Wrongful Injury’ and a number of other crimes. We cast a wide net and included the chubby Canadian singer and his wife, the little bitch that I hear actually clobbered you with that bat. I’m working on ways to bring the whore’s off-spring into the mix. I’m terribly sorry for you little brother but your situation is a whole lot of fun for me.”

Fast forward to the two brothers sitting at a card table; Cary Colton was eating.

“You know these ‘Lean Cuisine’, the Chicken Alfredo’s aren’t half bad but you gotta eat at least three or you get hungry in an hour. I’d fix you some but I know you won’t eat it.”

Handing his beer to Gene Handy, Cary Colton said, “Here don’t tell ‘em where you got it and I’ll get you another in a few minutes. Drink it down fast.”

Gene Handy, apparently very thirsty, gulped the beer down in one long drink. True to his word, Cary Colton produced another cold beer; Gene Handy drained the beer just like before. Colton laughed and patted Handy on the head, produced another beer, and left the room.

The last conversation was with library personnel again.

“I’m searching for periodicals regarding the late Mr. Miles K. Henley can you show me the process for using the search engines in these databases?”

After that there were no more conversations that weren’t just garbled up questions of himself like, ‘Can I pull this off? How strong is she? Will Sharon be proud of me? ‘Will the Lord help me because I advocate for his fallen soldier?’

We woke and the process was familiar. We could smell each other and then see and then speak, and then move. Michael, practiced at taking the lead, carried his wife from the room.

Charlie and I saw only each other and tried to tame the urgency of our need and enjoy the feel of each other while striving for sexual satisfaction.

An hour later, before we hugged up to say our good bye for a few weeks, Michael and Lu both praised the process and the way I put it all together. They said it brought clarity and with that success came a change in attitude by all of us. That attitude was no longer that of ‘excuse me, can I see’ but was changed to ‘I know the way, I’m going to see.’ Neither one of us felt that we needed permission to take control of our destinies; we were each confident in our personal strength as well as our collective.

That evening, tucked into Charlie’s big arms, I remembered that we hadn’t explored the place behind the pocket door that Charlie discovered in the closet.

‘Lover, you asleep?’ I asked Charlie mentally.

‘Yes,’ Charlie thought.

Back in the closet with the pocket door, I soon discovered there was a room on the other side of the small side-closet where the overcoats had hung earlier which opened with another pocket door. That room was approximately 20’ by 20’ and carried shelves of collectibles. On the top shelf was a large box with catalogs and stamp books and tools for the hobby. On one shelf was another box with books for coin collecting and rolls and rolls of coins from silver dollars to penny rolls found rolled and stacked evenly in the box. One wall in the room had a huge white screen and there was a projector that hung from the ceiling, shelves of CDs and DVDs. There were three comfy chairs placed strategically around the room for easy viewing.

Though I was exhausted I continued my ‘look see’ in that ‘hobby room’ thinking that there may be information somewhere in there that pertained to Tut and I didn’t want to leave it for another time and be without that information. I also remembered Wyatt asking me for any papers that were out of place that I found. Being methodical was not easy because I knew time was running out and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find whatever it was that was surely there.

The videos were labeled so I decided to watch a few of them while I went through a collection of papers that were scattered on the top of a smallish desk. The video was dated 1963. I got the oddest of feelings while I watched and listened to Miles on the video. It felt like he was speaking directly to me. He was quite good looking as a virile 45 year-old.

His direction and tone were as though he were leaving a message for someone; it felt like the message was for me. Not unlike me to think something crazy like that because when he left that message I was not even a year old and he couldn’t have even heard of me.

He talked about the very room I was in and what the place was to him. He said it was a place of peace and quiet, a place where ideas took shape and plans were made and personal research was conducted.

“This room,” the Miles on the video said as he raised his arms to show it was that very room “is where decisions are made.”

Collecting a handful of papers from the desk I moved over to the center comfy chair to watch the rest of the video from Miles’ own place, from Miles’ perspective and I was thinking that just sitting where Miles sat to decide would help me make good choices for his companies.

When the video ended, I started the next, keeping them in order chronologically seemed important. I watched Miles continue his dialog with the camera about what was happening in his life during that time. He talked about a woman that he hoped to meet but I wasn’t sure if he had seen her or was just making her up but either way he never said her name.

While Miles talked on the video, I listened and tried to make sense of the papers that were scattered about the desk. Eventually I stacked them neatly in a pile with plans to give them to Wyatt before we left for the airport the following day. Collecting another file from a drawer in the desk and sitting back down on the main comfy chair in which to read it; it didn’t take me long to realize that most of the documents would need to be seen by Wyatt. I cut to the chase and collected the business files to give to Wyatt and set them aside; at that point, there were two file boxes full of them.

There was a worn baby book among the files without much information in it but a few baby pictures and in the middle was a worn and yellowed 8” x 10” picture of Tut. My heart started to pound when I saw the picture and I began to gather items for another box that I would take home with me. The picture of Tut gave me renewed energy and I picked up my pace while sifting through more of Miles’ personal mementos and such.

On my hands and knees to reach a box that had been shoved to the far wall under the desk, I could feel cobwebs but didn’t see any spiders until I pulled the box into the open. When I removed the lid, the mother of all spiders came strolling out of that box.

“Holy shit,” I yelled and leapt away from the box but kept my eyes on the giant hairy thing.

My first instinct was to run but the spider was between me and the exit. I gauged the distance to the door and jumped again when I saw Charlie standing there looking at me. Charlie had a better angle to see what the spider was up to so I pointed to the box.

“Lover, there’s a big spider in the box.” I said.

Charlie laughed until he saw the spider; then he got serious. He slowly walked up to the box and squatted down to look at it. I thought I’d pee myself when he reached into the box and allowed the spider to walk up his arm.

“This guy’s a pet.” Charlie said. He spent a minute calmly talking to the spider before he put the spider onto a shelf and gave him the run of the place.

“I had a pet tarantula when I was a kid.”

Charlie said when he looked at me and saw the question in my eyes.

“That spider is a mix with Goliath Bird Eater and maybe a Chilean Rose Hair. It’s probably surviving on mice and such.”

He came to me and pulled me into his arms and molded our bodies together; that was when I realized I was naked. Wow, our skin felt warm and soft and smooth together. I liked it and so did Charlie.

“I didn’t realize you were so eager to go through this stuff.” Charlie said.

“I was thinking that I’d find more information about Tut plus, Wyatt is searching for some documents that Miles was keeping safe. Lover, I need more time with this room.”

“Can I help?” Charlie was with me.

“We’re doing two things at once, watching the videos in chron-order and going through things. Right now I’m going through the desk. You want to take the right side?”

I smiled at him.

Charlie wrapped me up in his big arms and kissed me deeply before setting me down in the main comfy chair.

“Just to let you know, that’s a taste of what’s comin’.”

He scooted the box that had housed the spider over to the chair where I was sitting; he looked through it with me to make sure there were no more ‘pets’ that would frighten me. There were a dozen smaller boxes inside the box. Each of those boxes held what looked like hand made music boxes covered with sea shells. On the bottom of each box was a preprinted label that read ‘For’ and then a persons’ one name.

I wrote down each of the twelve names to ask Wyatt about them later. Charlie placed them all back in the box and stored it on a shelf to the right with the other boxes that I’d gone through already and didn’t want to give them to the ‘Good Will’ just yet.

“I’m gonna make us some coffee.” Charlie said as he brushed my lips with his and left the room.

When he got back I’d gone through a couple more of the boxes on the rather large shelving unit and delegated one of them for the ‘Good Will’, the other had questionable documents mixed in with a bunch of photographs that I wanted to spend more time with. With Charlie’s return, the process picked up speed and we could see real progress after another hour and another pot of coffee.

I was a bit jittery from all the coffee but I wanted more. Charlie left again and when he came back he was carrying a large try laden with scrambled eggs and crisp bacon with toast covered in jam. He also had with him my yellow robe. We made a makeshift table and gobbled up that great breakfast.

There were quite a few boxes left to get through and when we finished with our morning meal, we each took one. Again, I found even more documents that Wyatt would need to look at. Hoping that the documents would help to alleviate some of the worry Wyatt had been carrying around, I carefully stored them with the other papers that gave me pause or question. Interestingly I was willing to hand over the documents but unwilling to give up the secret of the hidden room.

We removed the boxes for Wyatt and the boxes for the ‘Good Will’ to a place that was easily accessible for either Wyatt or the guys in the moving truck. We turned off the light and closed up the pocket door to the bigger room and then we closed the pocket door to the little coat room.

“Two hours.” Charlie said as he bent to kiss me.

The first hour was spent expending some sexual energy that Charlie built up because he watched me pack while naked and then he watched me eat. It all worked for me. We wore what Charlie had laid out for us, dark blue. We looked good. He said that he just thought about what he liked and went with that.

While stashing our luggage in the limo, Wyatt arrived to let me know that he would keep a vigilant eye on everything. He also mentioned that he’d keep Ollie in the loop, two brains being better than one and all.

Wyatt also reported that he was still working on information about the photographs and the October 1963 date in relation to Miles’ life.

Hugging Wyatt good bye I gave him more information.

“There are four boxes in your office of documents that Charlie and I found stashed in one of the closets. I have a feeling that they’re important.”

We were going to be back before the Olympics but after our honeymoon.

Charlie and I flew out of Heathrow headed for home, anxious to see Tut and our garden. We slept most of the trip huddled together under a blanket with our hands on each other. Exhausted from lack of sleep I was happy we’d made the effort and took care of as much as we did.