Benji in Control
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2010 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 30  

The Informal Interview

Walt and I walked into the reception area, “Karen, please call Patty and tell her that we’ll be having an extra adult for dinner.  Greg, are you guys having practice tonight?”

Greg shook his head no, “Coach Carpenter has a meeting so there isn’t a formal practice.  Some of us will probably be at Summerhill, practicing.”

“We’ll see you at the house.  I’m going to take Dr. Baldwin and show him around the area before I take him to Summerhill, so he can be approved by the unofficial board before I have him meet the rest of the firing squad.”

On the way out of the building, I showed Walt the plans for the new facilities.  “This provides an overview of what the finished facilities will look like.”

We walked across the street and Logan was talking to one of the construction workers.  “Hi President Christiansen, I see you met our brother-in-law.  Do you have him tamed yet?”

Walt snarled, “Watch it, Logan or I’ll tell Bill that we caught you messing around.”

Logan shook Walt’s hand.  “Boss, this young man found two more of those whatevers.  What do you want me to do with them?”

“Why don’t you give them to me and I’ll take them home?  Larry Morgan is checking to see what they might be, and if they’re worth anything.  I’ll pick them up after we show Walt around.”

As we were walking around, Walt commented, “This is very impressive, to say the least.  How did you get enough money to do all this construction at one time?  You must have had a lot of support from the state or the people of Harwood must have agreed to a big bond issue.”

Logan and I looked at each other and started to laugh.  Walt looked perplexed, “What did I say that was so funny?”

I answered, “Walt, the state is not involved in the project at all except some of the legislators have been trying to get their hands on the money that we have.  The people of Harwood have not been asked for any additional money.  I’ll explain when we get to Summerhill.”

We stopped by the trailer to turn in our hard hats and pick up the artifacts.  I suggested, “Walt, why don’t you follow me, since Summerhill is on the way to Charlotte.”

When we arrived at Summerhill, Walt asked, “Is this an Academy?”

I shook my head no, “This is our home.”

“Good grief, the college must be paying you a tidy sum for you to be able afford this.”

“Walt, we owned this spread even before I became president of the college.”

“Who are all those young people in the picnic area?”

“Walt. I don’t know; let’s go find out.”

As we walked to the picnic area, I ventured, “I’m guessing this was a birthday party.”

When we arrived at the picnic area, the guys waved at us.  Benji came to where we were standing, “Hi Daddy, we’ll be finished here shortly.  I think Uncle Denny wants to talk to you.  He’s in the stable area talking to a man who came to pick up his mare.”

Walt followed me to the stable and we saw a man pulling away with a horse trailer.  Denny came to meet us, “Have you talked to Burnsey yet?  He saw something today that he has never seen before and I had to remind him that he shouldn’t talk about it when there were strangers here.  I’m sure that he’s going to ask you all sorts of questions.”

“I gather he saw the horses breeding, today. He was bound to see it happen, sometime.  I take it my boys and Rocky didn’t think anything about it.  Denny, this is Dr. Baldwin, he's thinking about applying for a job at the college.  Is Callie available and where are your two boys?  I didn’t see them at the picnic area.”

“Callie took them two make sure that they have all the shots that they will need to go to pre-school.  They should be here shortly.”

Denny shook Walt’s hand, “I’m Denny Coburn.  I’m the hired man.”

“Don’t believe him, Walt.  He not only manages the spread, but he also manages the breeding operation and the scheduling of the parties.  Summerhill would fall apart without him.”

Callie and the twins pulled in and the twins ran to their Daddy.  They were both trying to talk at the same time.  Denny put up his hand.  “Slow down, Jimmy, you start.”

Jimmy grinned, “We didn’t have to get any shots to go to school.”

Denny nodded, “That’s great.  It’s your turn, Johnny.”

“After we went to the doctor’s, we stopped and got backpacks.  Do you wanna see ’em?”

“Guys, you probably should say hello to Dr. C. and his guest, Dr. Baldwin.”

Both boys waved their hands, “Hi.  We’re going to go talk to the rest of the guys.”

Callie approached us, Hi, Dr. C.. Guess you can’t tell that the twins are excited.  Callie put out her hand, “Hi, I’m Callie Coburn and I belong to Denny.”

Walt nodded, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Coburn.  You two certainly have some handsome young boys.”

As we were walking toward the house, Walt stopped, “Doug, you wanted me to meet the Coburns for a purpose, didn’t you?”

“Okay, so I’m guilty.  Yes, I wanted you to meet the Coburn’s to show you that interracial marriages are accepted in the Harwood area.   Callie’s father is on the Board of Trustees for the college.”

“Doug, Bill and you both said that your significant other is black, “Who is the person and will I get to meet him.?”

“Not on this trip.  When I talked to Cole last night, he said he wouldn’t be home until Sunday at the earliest.”

“What is it that Cole does?  Does he travel on business?”

“He is required to travel.  He’ll be in Seattle from Thursday until Saturday night.  He’s not a traveling salesman, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Why are you being so mysterious.  What is it that Cole does?”

“Does the name Cole Weaver mean anything to you?”

“You mean the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons?”

“That be the critter.”

“You mean to tell me that you and Cole are a couple.  Hell, our oldest son would give his teeth to meet him.”

I decided we had played enough games.  “Walt, tell me about your family.” 

“As you surmised, my wife is an Anglo Saxon.  Marguerite has her master’s degree in library science.  She’s currently a stay at home Mom, but wants to get back to work as soon Rollie starts school.”

Rollie is four and will be starting preschool this fall.  Jimmy, Johnny and Rollie could almost pass for brothers.  Our daughter Andrea is eight and our oldest son Peter just turned eleven.”

I started to laugh, “It’s a good thing the guys call one of our permanent guests Rocky instead of Peter, or things could get very confusing if you move here.”

Walt scowled, “We have two other young people who we would need to be concerned about as well.  Margi and I are the caretakers for a niece and nephew of mine.  In fact, I guess you could say they are our foster children.  The two of them came to us with a lot of emotional baggage.  We finally got them through high school and now need to find them a safe environment for them to start college.  Harwood might be a good place for them to get started.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the six boys,  Benji approached Walt, “Hi, sir.  I’m Benji, dad’s oldest son.”

Walt shook his hand, “Hi Benji, it’s a pleasure to meet you.  I’m Walt  Baldwin.”

I spoke before anyone could say anything, “Guys, this is Dr. Baldwin.”

Benji continued, “Dr. Baldwin, these are my brothers, Mark, Matt and Mikey.  These are our other very good friends, Rocky Throckmorton and Burnsey Lewis.”

After everyone had shaken hands, Matt announced, “We need to go hide our money and get ready for dinner.  Patty says we have ten minutes to get ready to eat.”

The guys disappeared up the stairs and Walt asked, “Where did the boys get money?”

“If the groups that have parties leave a tip, the boys get a share of the tip.”

“Isn’t that child labor?”

I shook my head, “Not exactly.  The boys enjoy interacting with the young visitors.” 

Burnsey was the first to return.  He went and stood next to Walt, “Dr. Baldwin, have you ever seen a boy and a girl horse making a baby?  We watched as it was happening today and I couldn’t believe how big the boy horses pecker got.  I still don’t understand how it all fit into the girl horse.”

I sucked air, “Burnsey, this is not something we should be talking to guests about.  I’ll explain, later, what was happening.”

“But Dr. C., Benji says that it happens all the time.  Why can’t we talk about it in front of guests?”

 

Walt nodded, “It’s probably okay to talk about what you saw when there are no women around.  I agree with you.  It is amazing to watch animals mating, but it isn’t something you should talk about to people you don’t know.”

We were saved by the arrival of the other five guys.  Benji took charge,  “Guys, we need to go see if Patty needs help.”

Walt looked at me, “It’s apparent who the boss is around here.”

“Benji is the reason that I married my wife and why Cole and I were able to get together.   I’ll have to tell you the story of how Benji came to us.  He is adopted, and we know who his paternal grandparents are.  We have even met his mother, and his father is dead.  His Great Grandmother lives here in town and we even had lunch with her, today.  She is the person who donated the funds for the McBride Library that you saw being built.”

“In fact the Student Union building is going to named after Benji's father, with funds provided by Benji’s grandparents.”

“Does Benji know all this?”

“Yes, but he still considers Cole and me to be his Dads.”

The conversation was interrupted by Rocky, “Dr. C. and Dr. Baldwin, dinner is ready.”

The guys helped Patty and Karen be seated before they sat down.  Walt was flabbergasted by what was happening.  He was sitting between Matt and Mark and I had Benji and Mikey on either side of me.

As we were finishing dinner, Benji asked, “Dr. Baldwin, do you have time to go for a swim before you need to leave or are you spending the night?”

Walt frowned, “Benji, I didn’t bring a suit and I need to go back to Charlotte tonight.”

“We won’t swim long and we don’t wear swimming suits if there aren't any girls there.  It will probably be just us.  We can fit all of us into the golf carts, so we don’t have to take the tractor and wagon.  I’ll go get the towels as soon as we help with the cleanup.”

I took Walt on the deck after dinner.  He looked at me with a funny look, “We aren’t really going skinny dipping, are we?”

“That’s up to you, Walt.  The boys’ grandfathers have been skinny dipping with them, so they won’t be surprised by what you might be packing.”

“Does Cole go skinny dipping with the boys?”

“Every chance he gets.”

The boys were coming out on the deck when a car pulled in.  Benji looked at me, “Dad, I guess we’ll need the tractor and the wagon.  That’s Uncle Clark and Uncle Larry and the boys. Go pull the tractor around.”

As we were loading the wagon, Derek and Austin arrived with their three boys.  Walt looked at me, “Who are all these people?” 

“Clark is my Vice-President and Athletic Director, and his partner Larry is a numismatist who has been taking care of the valuables that we have found that are responsible for the college being able to expand.  Derek is our Dean of Students and Austin is our Dean of Admissions.  I’ll make the introductions at the lake.”

When we arrived at the lake, the boys were off of the wagon faster than you could shake a stick.  I must give them credit.  They did leave their clothes in piles so they wouldn’t get mixed up.  Everyone except Walt started to undress.  Benji came out of the water, “Dr. Baldwin, no one is going to make fun of your penis.  If you move here, this is the way we swim every chance we get.”

Everyone was in the lake when Walt finally decided to join us.  It soon became apparent that he was not an aficionado of swimming.  Benji swam over to him, “Don’t worry Doctor Baldwin, some of these other people don’t really like to swim either.  They like to be able to relax and cool off.”

I joined Walt on the pier.  We were joined by Larry.  “Doug, those relics that your people found are extremely valuable.  I would suggest that you keep them in a safe place until such time as the college needs money.  Unfortunately, I probably made a big mistake when I did what I did today.  I couldn’t find anyone who had an idea what the things were.  I went to the Museum of History in Atlanta and an old man recognized what the relic was.”

“He explained to me that people of the south melted all their gold jewelry and placed it inside an ore and buried it in the ground to keep the Yankee carpetbaggers from being able to take it.  It seems that Harwood had a master smelter who did the work for the people from miles around.”

“The gentleman asked me how I came to be in possession of the relic, and I told him that it was found while construction crews were working on the new construction at the Harwood Community Junior College.”

“He was trying to find out if there were any more such relics that had been found.  Thankfully I had taken just one with me, so I could truthfully say that was all I had in possession.  Anyway he called someone at the Smithsonian in Washington, and they had an animated conversation.  The outcome is that you will probably be receiving calls from Mr. Ogleby from the State Historical Society and a Ms. Esterbrook from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.  We have the relics in the van.  You need to put them in a safe place.  This may explain why the other coins were found in the area as well.”

When we arrived back at the house, Walt looked at me, “Remind me never to be a college president.”

I laughed, “Just because I never get any sleep doesn’t mean there aren’t some good times,  I don’t enjoy being in the spotlight, but I am not about to roll over and play dead for the bureaucrats.  Walt, why don’t you plan to take Friday off and come for a formal interview on Friday.  You and your entourage can always stay at Summerhill.  We’ll find sleeping facilities for everyone.”

Walt smiled, “I think this is where I might fit in.  Besides, I can make sure that my brother-in-law isn’t robbing the college blind.”

As I was walking Walt to his car, I started to laugh.  “I guess I’ll have to have Bill report to my office every night, to see what he’s walking away with.  Drive safely and call and let us know when you’ll be arriving.”      

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  Well, Walt is certainly aware that Benji is in charge.

He doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that Cole and Doug are a couple.  I think he and his family will fit in very nicely. I can hardly wait to see what happens next.  I wonder what will happen when the big wigs from the Smithsonian institution get a look at the artifacts. I bet they will be scrambling to get their hands on them.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 08/06/10