This Old Mansion

By: John Bowling
(© 2013-2014 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 2
"Life On The Farm" 

Dateline: Monday, March 4, 2013, Early evening,

Manny narrating

Cliff Miles, a 5' 11", 175 lb, decently built, 22-year-old with brown hair and eyes, walked into the older, remodeled farm house after kicking the light snow off his boots and scraping them on the mat. Going into the kitchen where I, Manny Darnell, was preparing supper, Cliff has just returned from his day's work at George Galenhat's farm next door. The packages of items he carried, he set on the cupboard and wrapped his arms around me while I was stirring something that smelled delicious at the stove, and I gave him a kiss on the cheek. I am physically about an inch shorter than Cliff, a year older, and slightly lighter, with hazel hair and twinkly blue eyes, and a bit less muscular, and smiling.

"How was your day today, Manny?" Cliff asked.

I turned and we met lips to lips, with dancing tongues, in a tight hug, enjoying the feel of each others firm body. It's good that he will be changing into relaxing clothes soon. My spoon, that I forgot to put down, dripped a little on the back of his farm boy work shirt. That didn't stop our play.

"I did some work and finished the core of a computer program to provide control of assorted robotic appliances, so now there is nothing on the agenda to take away from our fun times other than the usual farm stuff."

"You know all that computer stuff is over my head. I'm just a farm boy who likes working with his hands!"

"Hey, how many times do I have to tell you, there is nothing wrong with being a farm boy. Look at all the things you know, and that I love about you, animal husbandry, organic farming, nutrition, and, speaking of hands-on work, how to make me tingle. And that is awesome. You are the one I love, and that is due to your being special! Besides the facts that your body is so lust-able and your personality is so loveable. Oh, by the way, we, together, got a letter from a law firm in Chicago."

"Oh? What was that about?"

"I've been busy being the house wife to a hunk husband, and haven't opened it yet. I thought it's something we should discover together, since we have committed to each other, and it is addressed to both of us. Supper is almost ready, so let's do it after we eat."

"OK. You're a hunk husband also, and you've got to let me be the wife sometimes. I just hope that letter is not something bad. Whatever, we'll get through it together." Cliff wrapped his arms around me, pulled me in tight and I kissed him solidly on the lips.

"Keep that up, you horny stud, and I may have to ravage your hot young body. Make that WILL have to!"

"Let's cancel supper, forget the letter, and spend the night having fun." Cliff's hands were roaming.

"How about supper, you starving sex fiend, then a long quickie, the letter, and an all-nighter?"

We finished supper, cleaned up the table, dishes, and kitchen, and proceeded into the shower, which is rather tight with two grown men occupying it. It does keep us close, even though there are a few elbows bumping other body parts and other such bumping and fondling. Onward, we managed to clean each other up, enjoying the process immensely, and finished each other off with lots of entangled, close up, massaging. Our lusty and proud protuberances deflating into dangling participles just waiting for our next round of excitement where... but that's another tangent.

We stepped out after cleaning up each other and the shower, including some splashes of little swimmers, with all the appropriate tools, hands, tongues, etc. Then, while toweling ourselves dry, I kissed Cliff again.

"Cliff, my personal hot stud-muffin, it certainly has been exciting after you confessed you've wanted to make me your lover and spouse, and finally got the courage. I was thinking the same for quite a while, but was concerned, given the somewhat conservative nature of most people around here."

"Yea, me too, but now we've found out many of them are not really all that opposed to us. They just don't want to think about that. We have been invited to the gathering in the park by the social gadabout in the house across the lake."

"Heloise? Wasn't she the one who got them all to come to our commitment ceremony?"

"Yup. And I'm sure the event will be fun, even with all the flying gossip. She is, after all, the local, unofficial, gossip columnist who does not lack for the want of a newspaper."

"Bet she could broadcast for a mile with no megaphone! Either way, she does not have a mean bone in her body. So whatever the lawyer's letter is about, she probably knows it all ready, as she does with everything."

"Maybe — I doubt it — but she is not mean spirited, and it's rather fun to listen to her rattle on about things."

"Do I detect a note of wanting to do some of that yourself? Or is it this mean bone you're sporting?"

"Would I? Don't answer that! Probably, as long as it isn't something that could hurt another person."

"Manny, have you thought more about kids?"

"Yuppers. We could foster or adopt some. We can't afford the costs of a surrogate mother."

We walked back into the living room, sat close together on the couch and I opened the letter. It was from Mr. Claude Megan, of a law office in Chicago.

March 1, 2013

Mr. Manheim Oscar Darnell and Mr. Cliff Miles

Woodward Lake

Rural Route

Cadillac, MI 49601

Dear Mr. Darnell and Mr. Miles

A long distant relative of Mr. Darnell, Ms. Helen Oskar Incarbo-Vermillion, requests your attendance at a meeting in Chicago in the home of Helen and her partner and spouse, Dorothy. Among the attendees will be myself, Mr. Claude Megan, a staff lawyer with McGee, Dunback, and Offhill, and my partner and spouse, Mr. Juan Montriva. After a very through and intensive search, it has been determined that Mr. Manheim Oscar Darnell is indeed the principle heir to the extensive Incarbo-Vermillion estate. We have also confirmed that Mr. Darnell and Mr. Cliff Miles are duly and officially married and committed co-husbands, as are Helen and Dorothy. Michigan is behind the times in not recognizing your partnership, due to conservative control rather than leadership. During the meeting, we will begin the processing of legal papers for your current and future properties and other affairs. In order to place Ms. Carbonic-Vermillion’s estate in your names, as a four way joint ownership along with Ms. Dorothy Manchester, Helen's wife, with full rights of survivorship, it is being done concurrently, prior to her leaving this earth for a well-deserved rest. You will be notified of the entirety of what that estate involves in private when you arrive. Briefly, it involves land parcels, a huge company with subsidiaries, an old mansion/hotel with land near your current location, financial accounts, as well as additional items. Due to the set-up as joint ownership, when one of you pass the other(s) will retain full ownership reducing inheritance taxes. The taxes that do apply will be paid out of the funds. For known heirs besides yourselves, including the foster and adoptive family of Helen and Dot, and for other potential heirs, unknown at this time, a trust fund has been set up for them.

We will be expecting your arrival in Chicago, using the Woodward Lake Special train leaving there at 2 PM on Monday, March 11. Snow is not expected to be heavy enough to interfere on the lightly used rail routes. The normal traffic is limited. Jason Crowns will be with the train when it arrives there, and will accompany you back to Chicago. Jason will interface with the people who are in charge of other trains lines to get the WLS back to Chicago. He has done this with us several times. On March 12, a limousine will pick you up at your prepaid hotel at 10 A.M.

Due to some of the requirements, Ms. Incarbo-Vermillion has in her will, regarding care of unfortunate youth and the elderly, also expect Mr. Thomas Kline, a Michigan lawyer in Traverse City who handles family law, adoptions, and fostering, to represent your interests. With him will be his partner, Dr. Chip Mandrake, a general practitioner, family medical doctor. You will all be on the same flight and in an adjacent room in the hotel, if you would care to speak with them. They have four adopted boys who are in school. Also, Mrs. Lucille Smith, with the Michigan Department of Human Services in Traverse City along with Mrs. Marie Longfield of the Cadillac MDHS office, and Mrs. Margaret Trimboc, head of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS). Also, Mr. Daniel Ostenstein, an architect of Traverse Bay Construction and Development, who will be on hand to investigate and co-ordinate construction of the project. That construction has a separate fund which will pay the contractors directly. Also, your neighbor. George Galenhat, whom we expect to play an important role in supplying healthy foods, will be present.

All permits have been approved for the proposal we will be discussing when we arrive; cleanup as well as some construction is in progress. We have enclosed a bank draft as an initial inheritance payment, for $100,000.00, which is personal money for yourselves, not for any purpose of the properties or facilities. We will provide you with access to everything when we arrive at a trip in the near future to the site using the WLS passenger train after snow season.

All discussions of the will that are separate to the renovation and future use of the old hotel, will be in closed sessions including lawyers, without neighbors, friends, or child-care agencies. Family members are welcomed in those sessions. Those who cannot be present may connect by Internet or be sent letters giving details. This session will include introductions to the corporations, trusts, and foundations that are part of this project and your legal inheritances. They are being transferred to the pair of you as joint Chairmen of all the Boards.

Sincerely,

Mr. Claude Megan, LLD

Staff lawyer with

McGee, Dunback, and Offhill of Chicago

#1 Intaglio Square, Penthouse Suite #2469

Chicago, Illinois 60677

I was thinking about how the two of us could be elevated to positions like those with no 'official' training or degrees. I concluded that a good percentage of people were not 'officially' trained, but learned by doing something they enjoyed, and did excellent work. Great-Aunt Helen was a supreme example.

Cliff spoke up and said: "My mother will love that. Not the money — the group home for kids."

"I thought you were adopted?"

"I was. My adoptive mother, Mabel Thorpe, was always like a real mother to me. And she would love to have some grand kids."

"Looks like she will get the chance if this goes through."

"That would be super. Should I tell her?"

"If I recall correctly, I would expect her to move in with us and take over. And being an excellent adoptive mother, she will do very well working with us on this project. I will have to make sure she does not overly extend her mothering over me."

"Don't tell her, for a while anyway. We need to get this thing going first."

"OK, but if she visits, she'll figure it out in a few minutes. And she was hinting about a visit when she called last week. And when she gets together with Heloise? I don't even want to think about that! Remember that weekend last fall when all those people were around the neighborhood? This Helen probably had something to do with that."

"Manny, your mother would be just as adamant if she were still with us, and some of the women around the lake would as well. I suspect there will be volunteers as part-time house mothers. You know, that would make approvals by the MDHS (Michigan Department of Human Services) easier, with the place having real, live, mothers around, and I don't mean that in any derogatory way."

"After this visit they are making, we'll get my mother involved."

"And speaking of mothers, we will have to find a lot of kid-friendly people for all kinds of things, house keeping, cooking meals, grounds keeping, medical, teachers, accountants, etc."

"You mean you can't do all of that for, say, a hundred, young people? Then what did I marry you for?"

"I'll get you for that, you little rascal." I slapped him on his solid buttocks, loving the feel of it. "Um-mm, good." As I gripped them.

"Ohhh… Yes, Mother!"

"Yup, you would be good as the grounds manager handling everything outside, much as you do now for George, if you want to do that, while I manage things inside. We will get people to help do the work and for specialized areas. I want an always-available picnic area outside for the kid's lunches, which are created out of our gardens and home grown meats, and no rain during the time they are playing outside."

"So my task includes controlling Mother Nature? Let's just put a cover over the space."

"You should be able to do that as easy as I can manage everything inside along with several dozen kids. And a cover would block out the sun, what little we have here."

"OK, let's keep our eyes and ears out for good people, decent motherly and fatherly types, as well as some potential jobs for teens starting out. And we'll check out Heloise's notes on the neighbors. Would this satisfy your desire to be a parent?"

"Way more than satisfy. We also will have kids who don't want to abide by rules. And apparently all ages, or at least kids and grands, with staff somewhere in the middle, and perhaps any age with physical limitations. A lot of people who need care, not supplied by society in general."

"Sooo... Are you ready to become a foster parent and a caretaker for a whole gaggle of kids and some adults?"

"We need to let those geese, and the gander's also, enjoy things. Come hither." Cliff led me outside, lifted his hands in the air, and proclaimed: "Let there be rain!"

The sun continued to shine! A bright, sunny day is something rarely seen in this area of Michigan until mid-summer.

"There, see how well I, not being some real or imaginary god, can control Nature. We normally have some clouds. Now, are you ready for the up-coming storm of young people? We have some time to prepare during whatever repairs or rebuild construction happens to the structure we have only seen from a distance through the trees, and we are going to need that time."

"They have prearranged some things. Anything we can do to make our situation better will help, including becoming certified as foster parents."

"Also, I'll speak with George about their invite for him, and about combining our farms together with this new project. This project could certainly use both of the farms to produce fresh, healthy food to a large family of youngsters and adults. At least until farms can be getting crops on the property they are referring to. We could prepare some fields there once some of the trees have been cleared.

To be continued...

Posted: 01/03/14