Benji in Control
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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

Benji In Control is a love story of two men who had very different backgrounds.  This story is a continuation of a previous story, Love Refound, but is a stand alone story.  Let’s meet the main players and get on with the story.

Chapter 1 

Act One

Benji, AKA Benjamin Willingham Christiansen, is six years old and is about to finish the first grade in school.  Benji is the adopted son of Dr. Doug Christiansen.  Benji was found after tornadoes had devastated some homes near Summerhill, which is what the Christiansen homestead is called, nearly seven years ago.  Benji had been found abandoned in a wooded area by his other Dad, Cole Weaver.  A quick note:  Benji does know that he was adopted.

Dr. Doug Christiansen is 34 and was just made the Interim President  of the Harwood Community College.  He’s a widower.  His wife was killed in a car accident three years ago.  Doug will be narrating the story.

Cole Weaver is 22 years old and just graduated from Georgia Tech where he was an All American quarterback and had won the Heisman trophy for the last two years.  He just signed a lucrative contract with Atlanta Falcons after having been the number one draft in the NFL draft.  He has been in love with Doug since he was 16.  The four boys consider him to be their Dad even if he does have a different pigmentation than they do.

Benji’s three step brothers, whom Benji is very protective of, are Mark and Matt. They’re six year old twins and they are just now finishing kindergarten. They turned six on April First.  The last day of school for the year is Friday.  Mikey is four and has been attending a preschool three days a week.  He very much wants to go the big boy school.

There are six other people who live at Summerhill.  The ranch manager, Denny Coburn and his wife Collie and their twin sons who just turned four.  They live in a trailer behind the main house.  Denny is almost like a son to Doug.  He has done a great job taking care of the appaloosa horses and managing all aspects of the ranch with Collie’s help.  Collie takes care of the twins and helps Denny when he needs help.  Two of Denny’s brothers eagerly come to assist and make some money when they’re needed.

The other two persons in residence at Summerhill are Denny’s sister Patty who acts as the boys nanny, the cook and the housekeeper.  She and her partner, Karen Carpenter live in an apartment in the basement.  Karen just happens to be Doug’s secretary at the  college.

Now that you know the main players, the story can begin.  Doug will be introducing other persons as the story unfolds.  It is now Wednesday May 26^th.

Benji had awakened Cole and me asking, “Dads, aren’t you going to work today.”

What happened the night before when a shot was fired in the house had left us a little exhausted.

My parents and my deceased wife’s parents had spent the weekend with us to celebrate Cole’s graduation from college.  They were reluctantly getting ready to depart for home.  Yes, the parents know about Cole’s and my relationship and have no problem with it as long as their four grandsons are not affected by it.  Yes, they very much consider Benji to be their grandson.”

When I departed the house with Mikey, Cole was planning to drive to Atlanta to see if he could find an apartment where he could live when he couldn’t get home when football practice started.  It would get very tiring driving the ninety minutes to and from Atlanta everyday.

When I arrived at my office, I had a series of visitors.  The first visitors were Mrs. Emily McBride and her daughter, Enid, and her daughter’s husband, Doctor Keith Miller.  It so happens that it had been medically confirmed that they were Benji's fraternal grandparents and great grandmother.  Benji knew that they were his relatives, but he had made it very clear that he wasn’t leaving me, Cole and his brothers.  He was fine with them being his grandparents, as long as they accepted his three brothers as grandsons as well.

The purpose of the visit had been to see if they might take the four boys to Disney World for a week, before the Miller were planning to be heading back to Arizona.

I informed them, “I have no problem with you taking the boys, but you need to clear it with them.”

I made arrangements for them to have dinner at Summerhill, so they could see if the boys were amenable to taking the trip with them. 

As I was escorting them out, Logan Turner was waiting to talk to me.  Logan Turner is the owner of the construction company that is going to be building the buildings on the two adjacent blocks which the college had procured thanks to funds from the Robert Nixon Foundation.  The buildings on the two blocks were recently destroyed by a tornado that hit the area..

Logan wanted to know if there was anyway that the college could provide funds while the construction progressed, so he wouldn’t need to borrow funds to be able to pay his employees. I didn’t commit to anything but advised  him that I would check into the matter and get back to him.

Karen arranged for me to meet with the Comptroller so I could find out what could be arranged.

After Logan left, I decided to go talk to Dr. Clark Lewis, who had been my assistant.   When I left Clark’s office, I had another problem to take care of.  The world needs to stop spinning so fast.

Karen and I were standing and laughing after I walked into the office, when the phone rang.

“This is President Christiansen’s office, how may I help you?”

“Just a minute Ma’am, President Christiansen is standing right here.”

Karen handed me the phone, “This is Doug Christiansen, how can I help you?”

“Good morning, Dr. Christiansen.  This is Andrea Langdon.  Would you be free to have lunch, say at noon?”

“Ms. Langdon, why would you want to be having lunch with me when I don’t know who you are?”

The voice sighed, “I’ve never been so insulted in my life.  I happen to be the Mayor of Harwood, and I have some things I’d like to speak to you about.  Furthermore, it’s Mrs. Langdon.  I’ll meet you at your office in twenty minutes.”

I handed the phone to Karen, “Why would Mayor Langdon want to meet with me?”

Karen shrugged her shoulders, “Dr. C., I have no idea.”

“Karen, I’ll be in the office when the Mayor arrives.”

The mail had obviously arrived and there was a sizeable check from Mr. Block that was to be put toward the construction of the Field House.  There were also six other sizeable checks from people who wished to be listed as benefactors of one of the other new facilities.

Karen came to the door, “Dr. C., the Mayor is here.”

I put the checks in my desk drawer and locked it.  In fact I shoved all the mail that I had received into the drawer since I hadn’t had time to peruse everything.

I went to the reception area and a stately lady was talking to Karen.  I walked up to her, “I’m Doug Christiansen.  Mayor Langdon, I still don’t understand why you wanted to meet with me?”

The Mayor looked at Karen, “Karen, there is no way that an absolutely gorgeous man like this can be the person who is going to be the President of this institution.  I can’t be seen in public with someone this handsome, even if he’s committed to another man.  I’ll be ruined politically.”

Karen was bent over from laughing, “Aunty Andy, I’m afraid that you are stuck with him.  You did call and offer to take him to lunch.”

The Mayor protested, “When I called, I didn’t say who was providing the free lunch.  Come on Pres., my niece is being her nasty self.”

As Mayor Langdon and I were walking out of the administration building, Logan motioned to us.

When we got to where we could talk to him, he grinned, “Doug, I guess the Mayor conned you into buying lunch for her.  Hi, Andy, what are you doing slumming in these parts?”

“Knock it off Logan, or I'll sic Mr. Young on you people.  I understand that you already had one run-in with the prick.  I wish we could get someone to testify that he actually demanded a bribe to get a permit.”

Logan totally changed the subject, “Dr. Christiansen, we have found some more coins.  What do you want me to do with them?”

“Logan, were they found on a certain property?”

“No, sir, it’s as if they are randomly scattered everywhere.  Now that we have found some, the workers are being very careful not to send them to the landfill along with the trash.  Fortunately, most of my workers are completely trustworthy, so I’m confident that they will give me any coins they find.”

I shook my head in disbelief, “Logan, why don’t you bring the coins that your people have found when you come to continue the discussion we had this  morning.  Why don’t you come about three thirty since I’m meeting with the Comptroller at 1:30?  I should have an answer to your question by then.”

Mayor Langdon grabbed my arm, “We need to go get something to eat.  It seems that we’re both busy people, especially you.”

As we were eating lunch at the deli that was close by, Mayor Langdon confided, “Doug, I had to meet you since Jack told me what happened at your house last night.  I would really like to meet your sons, especially Benji.”

I was confused, “Ma’am, I assume you’re talking about Jack Kennedy because he was the only Jack who witnessed what happened last night.”

“Doug, Jack is my brother.  We were at the same boring family gathering for the death of our grandfather.  We both needed to get back to take care of business.  We had all the b.s. that we could handle about how great our grandfather was.”

“Enough said about that.  I’m really excited for the city, because of the revenue that will be generated with the addition of some full time students.  I’ve been on the Board of Trustees since I was elected mayor eight years ago.  This had always been a vision of Rob Nixon.  I can’t believe it took you one punch of some creep to make it come to fruition.  We need to get back, if you have a meeting at 1:30.”

As I was helping the Mayor to her car, I suggested, “If you would like to meet my four sons, why don’t come to Summerhill about seven tonight?  I’d invite you to dinner, but Patty probably has already started dinner and has Mikey home with her.”

The Mayor grinned, “I really want to see if your friend, Cole, is as studly as he appears on T.V.  I’m just a lecherous old woman.”

I watched as Mayor Langdon pulled out of the visitor’s parking spaces before I went to the office. When I walked into reception office, a gentleman in his late fifties was sitting there.  I walked up to him, “Mr. Oliver, I’m Doug Christiansen; I believe you wanted to talk to me about something.  I have something I would like to discuss with you, as well.  Won’t you please come into my office?  Karen, you might want to come in and take notes.”

I realized that I had met Mr. Oliver before, but I had never had any direct dealings with the man, so I didn’t know what to expect.

I nodded, “Mr. Oliver, what is it that you wanted to see me about?”

President Christiansen, the college has received several sizeable checks that were to be earmarked for specific purposes, especially the new facilities that are going to be built.  My question to you is, do you want me to invest the funds or what?”

I looked at the gentleman, “Bill, I believe your name is.  It seems to me, it would not be prudent to invest the funds in these volatile times since we could lose a considerable sum of money.   We also know that we are going to need them to pay for the construction that is about to take place.  I don’t know how much you have received, but I also have some funds that are dedicated to the new facilities.  Is it going to be too difficult to keep the special funds away from the operating funds?”

Mr. Oliver shook his head, “Sir, we can make sure that anything that comes in for the facilities can be kept separate from the funds that are received from taxes and state subsidies for the school’s operation.”

“Great.  Karen, would you go see if Logan has arrived.  If not, call him and tell him to get his back side here immediately.  I want to bust out of this place as soon as possible, since we’re having guests for dinner, tonight.”

After Karen had departed, I opened my desk drawer and handed Mr. Oliver the checks that I had received.  “Bill, these came today and they are to be earmarked for specific buildings.  I’m sure that there will be other such checks coming our way as the actual construction begins.   I know that this is asking you and your people to do a lot of extra work, but we need to keep the funds for each facility separate.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the return of Karen, “President Christiansen, Mr. Turner is here.”

“Please show him in.  I would like for you to continue taking notes.  We need to get you someone to assist you.”

I introduced Mr. Oliver and Logan to each other.  “Mr. Oliver, Logan asked if there was anyway we could pay him for his services as the job progresses.  It would seem to me, that we could, as long we have sufficient funds to cover his expenses,  Mr. Turner indicated that he could obtain the money from a financial institution, but that would add on to the cost.  I would like for the two of you to sit down and work out the details.  Mr. Oliver can tell me tomorrow what arrangement you agreed upon.”

“If you two gentlemen will excuse me, I have some things that I need to take care of.”

The two gentlemen departed and I finally went to the bathroom.  When I walked into the office, Karen was laughing, “So that’s the important business you had to take care of.  Here, I put the phone on voice mail and these are the messages you received.  It’s my turn to go to the bathroom.

I was on the phone when Karen brought Logan into the office with a sack.  I finished my phone call.  “Logan, were you able to work an arrangement for the college to more or less pay as you go?”

He giggled like a school girl, “Yep, me and Billy worked out a deal.  We’re going to finalize it over dinner and perhaps some after dinner fun.  Here are the coins that we came up with, today.  I figured you better take them.  There probably won’t be any more left tomorrow after the word gets that we found some more coins.  I suggest you get them out of here before someone robs you.”

I looked at Logan, “I thought you were married?”

Logan snickered, “Hell, I gave up on women a long time ago.  They can’t understand that people don’t really work nine to five.  If I could find me a good man like you did, I’d be hog’s heaven.  I hope that when the right man comes along, he brings his sons or grandsons with him since I ain’t got none.  Doug, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After Logan had departed, I asked Karen to call Clark and tell him I would like to speak with him in my office.

Clark came in without knocking and sat down, “Doug, what did I do wrong?  Are you upset with how I handled my nephew and his parents?”

I started to chuckle, “I guess that you are feeling some remorse for how you handled Tim.  That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about;  I wanted to talk to you about  Larry Morgan.  Is there any way that you can get him down here tonight?”

“Doug, I was just getting ready to leave for Atlanta when Karen called.  I promised Larry’s boys that I would come watch their school show, tonight.  I need to be leaving if I’m going to be on time.”

“Clark, you’ve got it bad.  Here, take these coins to Larry and ask him to call me when he has had a chance to evaluate them.  These belong to the college.”

When Karen and I left the building, the parking lot was nearly empty and the construction activity had stopped.  I looked at my watch and it was 5:45.

As I was driving home, I was wondering what was going to happen next.  How did Cole make out, and what are the sons doing?

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  I am very glad to see this saga continue.  Benji is a very nice youngster, and I will be very interested to see how his story goes.  It seems that Cole and Doug are doing pretty well together. As with all of E Walk's stories, it is very easy to fall in love with every cool character. I want more.

Darryl AKA The radio Rancher

Posted: 12/11/09