The Fremont Saga
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 38 

Nice Was Never So Nice

I decided to take my pastels to the Jameson’s house on the off chance that there might be some opportunities for a good picture. I was a little concerned as to how Timmy would react to Carmody, but I shouldn’t have been concerned.

When we arrived at the Jameson’s house, Timmy was a little hesitant to go in, but I assured him, “Timmy, Carmody is really a neat young lady.  You’ll probably fall in love with her.”

Timmy looked up at me with his big eyes, “You aren’t just saying that, are you?”

“Timmy, why would I lie to you?”

When we rang the doorbell, Chris answered, “Welcome to the Jameson household.  Carmody has been waiting for someone her age to come.  She’s bored, since there’s no one to for her to play a game with.”

Timmy asked, “Well, why didn’t you call me?  Where should I put her gift?”

Chris laughed, “She just got home, yesterday.  Why don’t you give her the gift, so she’ll stop whining about everyone forgetting her birthday?”

Carmody entered the entryway in her motorized wheelchair, “Chris, who is it?  Did that young boy you were telling me about arrive yet?”
 

Timmy giggled, “I’m Timmy, you must be Carmody.  Everyone says that you’re the cutest girl in town.  We brought you a present, but I don’t know what it is.  Mother didn’t even tell me that we were coming to a party until this afternoon, on the phone.  You know how parents are?  They don’t think us kids can make any decisions.”

Carmody grinned, “Yeah, I know what you mean.  Where is your Mother, anyway?  Isn’t she coming?”

“She had one of those school meetings.  She should be here shortly.”

Timmy and Carmody disappeared and Chris looked at Tanner and me.  “That’s the last we’ll probably see of them until dinner.  Carmody doesn’t usually make friends easily because all the people her age ask her all sorts of questions about what happened to her.  Timmy acted as if there was nothing wrong.”

I looked at Chris, “Do you have any more photos to send to Mr. Johnson?  I have a couple of paintings that I’m going to be sending this weekend.  We won’t be in school Friday morning.  We have to make a short trip to France, this weekend.  He said he would make arrangements for the works to get to the gallery.  Let’s go find Carmody and Timmy and see what they’re doing.  I have a feeling I might have a couple of opportunities to get some good pictures before the evening is over.”

It was great to watch Carmody and Timmy interact.  They acted as if they were old friends and I did indeed have the opportunity to make a couple of wonderful sketches and Chris was able to get some great photos.

As we were leaving the Jameson house, Timmy announced, “Carmody, I’ll get my parents to drop me off after school, tomorrow, and we can play some more games.  We have to finish decorating our house after dinner, tomorrow, before we go to Tanner’s house on Friday morning.”

When we were in our bedroom, Timmy finally asked, “Brian, what happened to Carmody and why can’t she walk?”

I took a deep breath.  Carmody had a severe case of polio, and she can’t walk.  She goes to a special school, right now, where they are trying to help her to be able to walk.  The school is a very good school for handicapped children, since the children all have physical disabilities of some sort.”

 

“Why haven’t we seen Carmody before?  Does she stay at school all the time?  Don’t her parents want her around?”
 

“Timmy, her parents bring her home almost every weekend.  We just haven’t been around when she was home, I guess.  We’ve been rather busy.”

Timmy looked determined, “I’ll just have to make sure that I can go visit her when she’s home.  She a neat person.  If I couldn’t walk like she can’t, I certainly wouldn’t be very happy.”

Tanner looked at me and raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything.

It was pretty sloppy when we woke up and Timmy decided that it was okay if we didn’t go running, since we had so much to do.  After school, Timmy was indeed at Carmody’s house and Tanner and I went to pick him up.  As we were leaving, Timmy grinned, “Carm, I’ll see you after school, Monday.  You get an extra week off while we have to slave all day.  See you then.”

After dinner, there was no question in anyone’s mind that decorating the interior of the house was the priority of the day.  It was about eight forty five when Timmy and Morgan decided that they had done all the damage they could do.

Dad and Mother walked around and inspected what we had done, Dad commented, “We’ll have to have a party when Lauren gets home.  She called today and asked if she could bring her roommate because her roommate would otherwise have stay at school during the vacation.  Timmy, Lauren wants to know if there will be room for her roommate to go skiing with us?  I told her I’d have to check with you.  We’re to call Lauren and tell her when we get back on Sunday.”

Needless to say, Timmy had us up early on Friday morning.  He was raring to go.  Tanner and I took the luggage and the artworks and put them by the back door.  Tanner went to help the parents and Morgan with their luggage, while Timmy and I fixed breakfast.

As we were eating, Timmy asked, “Did you tell the mailperson not to bring the mail, so people won’t take any money from what comes in for Grandmother’s memory?”

Dad nodded, “We did tell the mailman to put a hold on the mail.”

Timmy grinned, “Good.  Who’s going to turn the lights on and off so people will think we’re home and won’t try to rob us?”

Dad shook his head. “Timmy, you worry too much.  We have some of the lights on timers, so people will think we’re home, but aren’t answering the door if they come to the house.”

The carriage arrived promptly at eight and Timmy, Tanner and I helped Jaime and Shamus load the luggage and the artworks.  This was Morgan’s first ride in a carriage, so she was overwhelmed.  Timmy explained, “We must be important.  We got the white horses, today.”

We landed on the beach in front of Nice Arms Bed and Breakfast, and Morgan was astounded that no one was paying attention to us.  Timmy explained, “The people can’t see the horses and the carriage and when they see us, they think they’re dreaming.”

The people from the bed and breakfast swooped up our luggage and took it into the opulent building.  Both Mother and Morgan were wide-eyed, since they hadn’t seen the facility.  We were ushered to our rooms, and we three guys did have the master suite.  Armand, explained, “It was a quirk, but we had some early check outs this week, which is rare.  They didn’t even ask for a refund.  The bosses will be joining you, shortly.”

Timmy looked at the gentleman, “Sir, I thought that Tanner was the boss?  Who’s coming?”

We watched as Armand took a deep breath, “Pardon me, sir.  What I meant to say was that your managers would be joining you shortly.  They said that you wouldn’t be eating lunch here, but enjoying the sights of our fair city.  They did indicate that you would be joining us for dinner.  We’ve arranged to have frog legs and escargot that we understand that Monsieur Timothy is so fond of.”

“Mr. Armand, we won’t be dining here for dinner if that’s all you’re serving.  Those are not two of my favorite foods.”

“Timmy, I was teasing.  Will and Archie have advised us that you were not fond of them.  Gentlemen, enjoy your day, and I’ll see you at dinner.”

The help had even unpacked our baggage and Tanner, Timmy and I walked out on the balcony as Morgan came out of her room, “Guys, I’m going to get lost in this room by myself.  I'll probably go to the bathroom in my pants, since it’s so far to the bathroom.  The tub is so big that I’ll probably drown.”

Mother and Dad stepped onto their balcony.  Dad asked, “Guys, what are the plans for the rest of the day?”

I answered, “Armand said that Uncle Will and Uncle Archie were scheduled to arrive shortly, and that they were going to take us out to look around the town and that we were going to eat lunch out.”

Timmy pointed, “There they are, now.  They have the brown horses again.” 

We waved to them and they acknowledged us.  As soon as they were settled, they came and collected us.  Uncle Archie announced, we have reservations at the La Bistro Napoleon, for lunch and then we thought we seen the major sites before we went swimming.  I hope you brought your suits with you?”

Timmy giggled, “They sure didn’t take up much room in our suitcases.”

We had a great lunch and as we were leaving, Timmy asked, “Daddy, may I have my card, so I can pay?”

Tanner shook his head, “Timmy, we’re staying at my house, so this is on me.”

The waiter shook his head, no, “No, Monsieurs, the meal has been taken care of.  We can’t have the owners paying for their food.”

Timmy looked at Uncle Archie, “Shouldn’t we at least leave a tip?”

The young waiter smiled, “Monsieur Timothy, you pay us well and you do not need to leave a gratuity.  It is a pleasure to serve you, since you are here so infrequently.”

I noticed that Dad slipped a bill on the table before we departed the restaurant. 

As we were walking out of the restaurant, we heard a voice crying, “Mister, I’m not going with you.  I don’t care how much you’re willing to pay.  You’re too rough and the last time I went with you I couldn’t move for several days.”

“Look you, little beggar.  I’ll use you anytime I want to.  Get in that car, and I mean now, or you’ll find out how rough I can be.”

I looked at Tanner and we immediately went to assist the young man.  The creep who was trying to take him was flat on the ground not knowing what had hit him when the police came.  The police grabbed the young man and asked, “What did you do to the gentleman?”

Timmy went to the officers, “The boy did nothing, the man was trying to kidnap him.  Arrest that man.  He’s mean.”

The officers were so surprised that Timmy was telling them what to do.  “Did anyone else see what was happening?”

Timmy pointed, “My family and our two friends saw and heard what the man was doing.  I don’t know where my two brothers went.  They probably had to go to the bathroom.”

When Tanner and I were sure the man was secured, we went into the bistro and walked out.  “Sorry, we had to go the bathroom.  Did we miss anything?
 

Timmy grinned at us, “There was some mean man trying to make that boy do things he didn’t want to do.  Something hit the man and he fell to the ground and the policemen came and are going to take him away.  Does anyone have some money?  The boy looks like he hasn’t eaten for a long time.”
 

I pulled out my wallet and handed some money to the young man and he almost started to cry, “Merci, Monsieurs, now I will have some money to feed my two brothers, tonight.”

After he said that, the young man disappeared in the traffic of the city.

We had a site seeing trip of about an hour and we went back to the bed and breakfast and changed into our mini bikinis.  I took my pastels with me and it didn’t take long before I had some wonderful opportunities.  Timmy and Morgan both made friends.  I was able to make sketches of them as well as one of my parents talking to Uncle Will and Uncle Archie, who definitely very well endowed.  My favorite one that I did was when a young woman and Tanner were coming out of the water.  It must have been very cold.   I watched as they went into the Nice Arms.  I thought to myself, ‘I hope that young woman doesn’t have designs on Tanner.’

I was to find out at dinner, that she worked at the Nice Arms as a server.  She just happened to be assigned to our table when we were eating.  Needless to say, Tanner received the best service.  That’s not to say that the rest of us didn’t have excellent service as well.  Dad, again slipped a good sized tip on the table as we left the dining room. 

We walked out on the veranda and were talking to the other guests and they were from everywhere.  Timmy met his friend who was from New Zealand and they were walking along the beach.  Morgan’s friend was from Norway.  A young man came and sat down beside Tanner and me.  “Hi, my family and I are here from Finland.  We decided to get away from the cold for a week.”

I put out my hand, “Hi, I’m Brian Benson and this is my brother Tanner Tailor.  We're visiting for the night.  We’re from Nebraska.”

The young man started to laugh, “Oh, so Tanner is the young man who owns this establishment.  We heard you were coming.  When you go home to Fremont, tell my cousin,  Klaus Kindner, that you met his cousin, Olaf.  Small world, isn’t it?  What are your plans for tonight?”

I shrugged my shoulders, “We really hadn’t made any plans.  We’ve had a long day, already.  Why don’t we go to our room and see what we can find to do?”

Olaf looked at me funny, “Are you suggesting that we do something sexual.  If you are, I’m not interested.  I have a girlfriend back home, and she’d have my ass if I messed around.”

Tanner started to laugh, “Olaf, I can assure you that Brian would be the last person to suggest that we do something sexual.  I’m guessing that from the way he’s assessing your body, you’re about to become a model for one of his artworks.”

Olaf did make an excellent model, and I was finishing when Timmy came into the room, “Who’s he?”

“His name is Olaf Kindner and he’s from Finland and he knows some people who live in Fremont.”

Timmy asked, “Do you know Raoul Kindner?”

“Yep, he’s a cousin.

“Raoul is in my class at school.  I’ll have to tell him I met you.  Brian, do I gotta take another shower, since we took one before dinner?”

“Nope, make sure you brush your teeth good, though, since we had a lot of rich foods.”

Timmy came out of the bedroom in his briefs and hugged Tanner and me.  He shook Olaf’s hand, “It was nice meeting you, Olaf.”

I grinned at Timmy, “Tanner and I will be joining you, shortly.” 

To be continued...
    

Editor's Notes:  Well, except for the confrontation with the mugger type guy that tried to kidnap the boy, I think things were rather calm.  I am glad that Tanner and Brian were able to make life a little difficult for that nasty man.

Carmody seems like a very nice little girl.

When I was about five years old, you know, back sometime before they had invented time, I had Polio.  I think I managed to contract most if not all of the various childhood diseases.  I actually think I got if from the vaccination that I had to get when I went to Kindergarten. Back at that time, I think they were using a live virus to inoculate people against Polio.  Mine was a mild case, and the only part of my body that was affected very much was my right arm.

It took me almost a year to get back all, or most all of my strength in that arm. My mother was very insistent that I do my exercises every day, because, as she told me, my cousin, Norman, didn't try hard enough, to get his strength back, and had to walk with braces.

My mother didn't believe in giving up. When she was in her early thirties, she had ovarian cancer and was given around six months to live. She had treatment, such as it was in the 1940s, which consisted of removing whatever parts inside of her were cancerous, and then she was sent home, to die.  As I said, I think she was in her early thirties, at the time, and she survived.  She lived to be 90 years old. And she never stopped gloating about the fact that she outlived every doctor that had told her she would be dead within six months.  That woman Had real guts. No one was going to tell her she had to quit. No sir. She wouldn't let me give up either.

So all I can say is, Go Carmody, Go! Don't give up, and don't ever let them tell you that you can't do stuff.  Give it your all, and fight to get well.  You can do it. You have Timmy on your side. I am sure that with his help and encouragement, you will do just fine.   

I can hardly wait for the next chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher  

Posted: 09/10/10