Benji in Control
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2011 by the Author)
 

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

Chapter 58 

The Secret Hiding Place

We had been riding for approximately thirty minutes, when Benji asked, “Mr. Lauck, when are we going to get to the country.  You can’t have a ranch in a place like this.”

Mrs. Lauck turned around, “This is why we want to move into the city.  If you think the traffic is bad today, you should see it during the week.  If there’s an accident, then it’s even worse.”

We crossed a large stream and all of a sudden there were almost no cars on the road.  Benji sighed, “Now this is more like it.  How far is it to your ranch?”

Mr. Lauck grinned so Benji could see him in the rearview mirror, “Benji, we’ll be at the ranch house in less than five minutes.”

Benji turned to me, “Daddy, we’ll need to call the other three brothers and Alex and let them know where we are, in case they need to talk to us.”

“Benji, we’ll call as soon as we get to Mr. and Mrs. Lauck’s ranch.”

As we were pulling up in front of an adobe brick house that was only one story but had a long wings on either side of the main structure,  Benji asked, “Do the horses live in the house?  It’s so big.”

Mrs. Lauck turned around, “No, the horse stable can’t be seen from here.  Isabel and her husband have an apartment on the left side and the hired help have rooms in the rest of the wing.  Our bedroom suite is on the right side with four guest rooms. 

When we stopped, Benji climbed out and went to talk to the other two guys.  They came to where the adults were standing.  They had their luggage; Benji asked, “Mrs. Lauck, can we go see the palomino horses after we put our luggage in the rooms we’ll be staying in?”

Judge Lauck put his little finger and pointer finger in his mouth and whistled.  It wasn’t long until two teenage boys came around the side of the house.  They had on Speedo shorts and were dripping wet.  The older of the two asked, “What do you need, old man?”

Mrs. Lauck frowned. “Roger, that’s no way to talk to your grandfather when there are guests around.”

Roger fell to his knees, “Oh high and mighty one, what is it that we can do to please you.  I beg your pardon for calling you an old man.”

My three guys were giggling and finally Benji stopped long enough, “Judge Lauck, I hate to tell you this, but Roger had his fingers crossed when he apologized for calling you and old man.”

Roger turned to Benji, “Blabbermouth, for that, you get to spend the night in the stable with horses.

Benji wasn’t going to let this Roger win, “That’s fine with me.  I’ve done it before.  The only problem is that I get scared by myself and R. J. and Rocky are allergic to horses, so I guess you’ll have to spend the night with me.  I’m warning you that I snore and move about when I’m sleeping.”

Mrs. Lauck took control.  “Roger and Kirk, take the boys to the bunkhouse.  They can sleep in the two empty rooms. Dr. Christiansen, Mr. Fox and Mr. Kauffman can have private rooms in the guest quarters.”

Kirk pouted, “Oh sure, the adults get to go first class and us swine have to suffer in the bowels of the house.  Come on, guys, we’ll show you where to dump your trash.”

We watched as five guys disappeared around the corner of the house.  Judge Lauck shook his head, “Roger and Kirk are spending the weekend with us.  Their parents are going to be picking them up at the game, tomorrow.  They really enjoy getting away from the city.  They spend the summers here.  They act just like the hired help.  Some of the young men who work for us aren’t much older than Roger and Kirk.  They work and live here but go to the college, which is about twenty minutes from here, in the evenings.”

Judge Lauck invited us to join them on the patio for a cocktail after we were settled.

The rooms were better than what we had at the Omni.  There was a set of French doors that opened onto the patio from each room.  When I finally joined the others, the five young guys were at the stable.  Roger yelled, “Is it okay if we ride the horses?”

 

Mrs. Lauck answered, “Of course,  the three young men have horses back home in Georgia.  They’re probably better riders than you are.”

The five guys disappeared into the stable and returned with five beautifully matched palomino horses.  They all looked the same to me.  Mrs. Lauck shuddered,  “Wayne, there may be a problem.  It looks as if Benji is going to be riding the Beast.”

I got concerned, “Are you saying that perhaps Benji shouldn’t be riding that horse?”

Mr. Lauck shook his head, “I don’t think Beast would harm Benji, but he has a mind of his own.  We haven’t been able to use him when we do parades like the Rose Bowl parade.  He doesn’t follow directions very well.  Perhaps we should go to the riding area just to make sure that nothing happens.”

The first four horses lined up, with Roger leading the way as the horses took off for the field.  Roger pulled his horse up, “Come on, Benji, we’re waiting on you.”

“Go ahead.  The Beast doesn’t want to do what I want him to do.  I’m going to fix him so he’ll learn to follow directions.”

Benji jumped down and threw the reigns on the ground, “Fine, if you want to stand around and be bored, have at it..  I’ll get another horse when the guys come back.”

He crawled up on the fence and was sitting there ignoring Beast.  The horse picked up the reigns and walked toward where Benji was sitting with the reigns in his mouth.  He dropped the reigns on Benji’s lap,  but Benji dropped them on the ground and slid away from where Beast was standing.  Beast picked up the reigns again and put them back on Benji’s lap, a second time.

Benji took the reigns and slapped them across his hand, “Look Beast, either you do what I want you to do, or I’m taking you back and putting you in your stall.”

We were joined by the foreman and some of the ranch hands.  Benji crawled on the Beast using the fence.  This time it was an entirely different scene.  Beast responded to what Benji wanted and they caught up to the other four guys.  They conferred in the middle of the field and turned and started toward where the onlookers were watching with Benji and Beast in the center.  The horses looked like they were striding in unison and at Benji’s command they would make a circle and break out into a straight line.

Mrs. Lauck shook her head, “I wouldn’t have believed it.  Beast is a horse with an A personality and needs to be in charge.  The only problem now is, will he respond to anyone but Benji?”

Isabel came out on the porch and rang a bell.  Mrs. Lauck announced, “That means we’re going to eat in thirty minutes.  That will give the guys time to get the horses cooled down and get cleaned up before dinner.  I believe that dinner is going to be served on the patio since it’s such a nice day.”

We watched as the five guys took the horses to the stable and walked back to the patio.  There were two young ladies, who were setting the buffet table.  Mrs. Lauck explained, “The two ladies live with us and work for us when they aren’t going to college.  We have a total of six college students who work for us on a part time basis for room and board.  We do pay them a trivial amount, but they don’t seem to complain.  They do eat rather well.”

After dinner, my guys surprised everyone by taking the dishes to the kitchen.  They were starting to rinse the dishes and put them into the dishwasher when Isabel chased them out of the kitchen,  “We’ll take care of this.  That’s what we get paid for.  Go have a good time.”

When it was me, the Laucks, Rax and Boyce, Mrs. Lauck commented, “My goodness, Doctor Christiansen, your sons certainly have good work ethics.”

“Mrs. Lauck, none of these three boys are my biological sons.  We left my three sons, whom I’m guessing are in bed by this time, at home.  Benji was our first and it’s a long story.”

I explained how Benji came to be my son and how I had acquired the guardianships of Rocky and R. B.

I was awakened by someone shaking my shoulder.  The voice was whispering, “Dad, I just remembered something important.”

I turned on the light on the night stand and looked to see who was shaking me.  “R. B., what is it that you just remembered?”

“I think I know where my Mother kept some important things.  It may take me a little time to find them.”

I looked at my watch, “R. B., it’s two o’clock.  There’s nothing we can do about it, right now.  Why don’t you go back to bed and we’ll decide in the morning what to do when everyone is up?  Why don’t you crawl in bed with me so we don’t wake anyone else up?”

“But Dad, Benji and Rocky will worry if I’m not in bed.”

After R. B. departed, I started to think, ‘How are we going to take R. B. to find whatever he thinks he knows where it is hidden and still go to the football game.  I do have to be home on Monday.’

I never really got back to sleep after R. B.’s visit.  When it started to get light, I took a shower and dressed for the day and went to the patio.  I was sitting trying to think how to get everything done when I was joined by Judge Lauck.  “Up a little early, aren’t you, Doug?”

I told the Judge what happened during the night and he laughed, “I’ll say this for you, Doug, you sure do lead a complicated life. Let’s get some coffee and figure out how we can get everything done.  It’s Sunday, so we can zip into the city in no time and still make the football game.  Why don’t you go wake Mr. Fox and Mr. Kauffman and I’ll go wake Ray and we can make a plan for today?”

I did as I was told.  We were sitting on the patio when Rax, Boyce, my three boys plus Roger and Kirk arrived.  Isabelle came out on the patio, “Good morning, gentlemen.  Breakfast is serve yourself.  The juice and rolls are on the table and the egg casserole is ready at your pleasure.”

As we were starting to eat, Mrs. Lauck joined us.  I explained the dilemma that R. B. presented to me in the middle of the night.  Mrs. Lauck shrugged her shoulders, “It doesn’t seem like a big problem to me.  Doug, R. B., you, Mr. Fox and Wayne can go to R. B.’s  house, soon to be ours, and see if you can find the missing treasure.  Mr. Kauffman can drive the van and take the rest of us to the game.  We can meet up at exit 51 on the freeway and make the game in plenty of time.”

Benji asked, “Daddy, how are we going to get into the game if we miss you?  Dad, was going to leave our tickets at the will call office.”

Roger giggled, “Never fear, Benji.  We’ll take the Beast with us and we’ll barge right through the barriers to Grandpa and Grandma’ s sky box.”

Judge Lauck laughed, “Benji, you worry too much.  Be optimistic and think that everything will work out as planned.”

After a quick breakfast, I sent R. B. to pack his clothes and I did likewise.  It was starting to get complicated because of all the mail and paperwork we had collected.  The four of us left for the city in Rax’s rental car. 

When we arrived at the house, R. B. led us to what had been the master bedroom.  He went into one of the closets and was crawling around on the floor.  Rax went to help him, “Ray, what are we looking for?”

“Rax, I don’t honestly know.  I know that there must be somewhere in this closet that my Mother hid things.  I saw her in here two times when she didn’t know I saw her and she was looking for something or putting something away.”

The closet was a big walk in closet but after a half hour, Rax looked at R. B., “Ray, I don’t know where she could have hidden anything in this closet.  It’s filled with clothes and shoes.”

R. B. was in tears, “I was so sure that there was someplace she was hiding things.”  R. B. hit the wall, “Damn it, I was sure we were going to find something.”

R. B, was getting ready to stand, when he yelled, “Payday.”

He pulled out a piece of the baseboard from the closet.  He handed it to me and went back to the space and pulled out a small metal container.  He opened it and gasped, “Dad, look what I found?”

To be continued... 

Editor's Notes:

What did R. B. find? 

With all the time they spent searching, will they be able to get to the game on time? 

Will Dad Cole be able to win the game?

Is Benji going to be able to talk his dads into buying the Beast?

How much could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? 

Will any of these questions be answered in the next exciting chapter?

I hope at least some of them will be.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 03/25/11