Taking Texas By Storm
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...

Chapter 41

Taking Care of the Home Fires

It was nearly four o’clock Houston time when we landed in Houston.  After we cleared customs, Mr. Odom announced, “Ed, let's just go home.  If there is something happening at the headquarters that we need to take care of, people can call us.  In fact you’d probably have a ton of messages.  I’m beginning to feel as if I’m a fifth wheel around the headquarters anymore.”

When I arrived at the house, Mitchell was there with Allie.  Allie hugged me, “Welcome home, Dad.  Mitchell is going to be spending the night with us.  Doctor Cochran scheduled Mikey’s second surgery for this afternoon, since she had a cancellation and was able to fit him in.  I told Mr. and Mrs. Sheraton that Mitchell could spend the night and tomorrow with me, since I don’t have school tomorrow,”

“Brahim is at school right now, attending my parent/teacher conference.  He should be back shortly.”

“How come I didn’t know about the parent/teacher conference?”

“Dad, I just found out Tuesday that they wanted to have a meeting on Thursday.  You weren’t here and Bra is still my legal guardian.  It would have been better if you had both been there, but he’ll tell you in minute details of what they said.  It may not be until he gets back from opera rehearsal, tonight, though.”

Brahim took that opportunity to enter.  He hugged me, “It’s so good to have you back where you belong.  I’ll explain the meeting that I just had when I get back from practice.  I’m running late.  It should be about nine when I get home.”

Allie grinned, “Dad, me and Mitchell need to go fix dinner.  How hungry are you?”

“I so hungry that I could eat a cow.”

Mitchell frowned, “Is your Dad really going to eat a cow?”

“No, he’s just teasing.  He was saying that he was very hungry.  Let’s go make him some Chicken Valencia with noodles and green beans.  That will keep him from starving.  You can make a salad while I do the cooking.  Dad, there are some messages for you on the phone.  You might want to listen to them and make some calls.  Some of them sound important and interesting.”

I flipped through them and tried to decipher what they might be about.  There was a call from Carlos, “Hey, Mr. President, you’ll be glad to hear that my parents came to Shell Oil to meet with me yesterday.  I decided to lay it all out for them and took Rico with me when we took them to the Executive Dining Room.  I had called the Wakefields and made special arrangements for us.  Rico and I even wore blazers and ties when we met my parents.”

“We had a wonderful lunch and people came up to Rico and me and said hi, but I didn’t make any effort to introduce my parents and I could tell it was getting to my parents.”

“As we were finishing eating, Dad finally came out with his proposal, ’Carlos, we want you to move back home.  We were wrong to put you out the way we did.  We’re so proud of what you’ve accomplished.’”

“I was brutal.  Dad and Mother, there are several conditions that you would need to agree to before we would consider moving into your home.  Number One, Rico and I are more than just friends.  We’re lovers.  If I were to move in, so would he and you would need to keep your wonderful son and daughter and their families out of our faces.  Number Two, the two of you will not try to showcase my accomplishments to all your friends.  I did it on my own and you didn’t have a thing to do with it.  If you start trying to take credit for what I have done, I’ll let all of your friends know what a two faced person you are.  Now, if you will excuse Rico and me, we need to go back to work.  I’ve already paid the bill, so have a good day.”

Rico came on the line, “Mr. Waller, it was so much fun watching the Calderons squirming in their seats.  They knew they had been caught with their pants down, so to speak.  They were totally surprised when we just up and left.  We’ll talk to you when you get back to the office.  Thanks for listening, Rico.”

I decided to let the remainder of the calls wait until after dinner and went to unpack my things and change clothes.  Mitchell followed me into the bedroom, “Daddy’s boss, why don’t you like me?”

“Mitchell, why do you think I don’t like you?”

“When you came in, you hugged Allie and then you hugged his brother but you didn’t hug me.  It made me sad that you didn’t hug me, too.”

Even though I was wearing only briefs, I picked Mitch up and squeezed him and kissed him on the nose.  “I’m sorry, I just forgot to tell you that I was happy that you were here.  I’ll try to do better next time.”

Mitch kissed me and squirmed down, “That’s more like it.  Hurry up, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.”

I watched as Mitch left and thought, ‘That’s one very sharp little guy.  He knows what he wants and goes after it.’
 

When we were eating dinner, Mitch looked at me, “Allie doesn’t listen very well, You didn’t get your cow, and I didn’t get my horse.”

We were just about finished eating when the phone rang, I went to answer, “This is Ed Waller.”

“Ed, it’s Adam.  I just had the strangest call from Senor Calderon.  He says he's going to sue us for corrupting his son...”

“Boss, Carlos and Rico left a call on my machine.  It seems they stuck it to Senor and Senora Calderon and told them that they would only come home on their terms.  I can hardly wait until we hear the rest of the story.  Senor Calderon’s peacock tail probably isn’t swaying in the wind right now.  The idiot has no basis on which to sue us.  It is Carlos who should be suing his parents.  I’ll talk to you tomorrow,”

Allie and I were doing the dishes with Mitchell’s help.  “Allie, do we need to go to the store for anything?”

Allie shook his head no, “Not unless we’re planning a big party this weekend.  If we get some unexpected guests we can always go then.  Granddad and Grandmother have other plans for this week end but you never know who might decide to pop in.”

Allie turned to Mitchell, “I think it’s about time for you to get ready for bed.  Your Mother is going to pick you up in the morning to take you to your preschool.”

“Why do I gotta go to school when you don’t?  That’s not fair.”

“I’ll be here when you get home, if you want to come and spend the afternoon with me, but only if you stop complaining.  You need to do what your Daddy and Mother want you to do if you want to grow big like my Dad.”

“Oh, okay.  Can we take a shower instead of me having to take a bath by myself?”

“If that’s what you would like, but then you have to go to bed.  I need to talk to Dad and Brahim about some things.  I won’t be long.  You can watch the television until I get back.”

When Allie returned, he had on a pair of walking shorts and tee shirt and was laughing, “I think Mitch was so tired that he went to sleep before he was in bed.  He’s something else.  He’s one very sharp cookie.” 

Allie was sitting on the sofa, beside me, when the phone rang.  He went to get it and turned it on speaker.  “Waller, Safi residence.  How may we help you.”

The voice laughed, “Shouldn’t you have said that this was the Safi,  Waller residence since there are two Safis and only one Waller living there?”

Allie and I both started to laugh.  Allie answered, “General Khalid, it isn’t us Safis who pay the bills, but the President of Shell Oil who pays them.  He would have a hemorrhage it we talked like that.  Are you in Houston?”

“No, but Amir and I would be willing to come visit with you for the weekend, if you are willing to put up with two Algerian hunks.”

I laughed, “Khalid, we plan to stay here this weekend and would be most honored to have you come and stay with us.  Where are you now?”

“Amir and I have been on official business in Washington, D.C.  We have some more meetings in the morning, but we thought we'd fly to Houston to give you Texans a few lessons.”

Allie asked, “Do you need someone to pick you up?”

“This is Amir.  We’ll be able to find your house on Mercy Circle.  We have this satellite tracking device that can smell you anywhere.”

Allie giggled, “Since I got kicked out of school, I’ll be here all day.  I may still be babysitting when you get here.  We’ll make sure you have clean linens on your bed, and what would you like for dinner?”

Khalid laughed, “How about some Texas steaks?  We haven’t had any of them for a long time.”

“You got it. It will be fun to see you again.”

Khalid spoke, “It will be great to see the three of you again.  Talk to you tomorrow.”

We had just hung up when the garage door opened and Brahim came in and sat down, “I hope your evening was better than mine.  Nothing seemed to please the director and producer.  They want the cast to be better than they are.  I was about the only person who wasn’t derided.”

Allie looked at Brahim, “What I want to know is what you found out when you went to my conference.  What’s going to happen to me?”

Brahim moaned, “Ed, I’m afraid that your son is going to have a head the size of an elephant when he hears what the school plans to do with him.”

Allie hit Brahim on the shoulder, “Bra, stop pussyfooting around and tell me what they said.”

“Okay, if it’s so important to you.  You will be attending the middle school from ten until two each day.  They don’t want you to do the entire day because you have too many people who depend on you.  That includes Mikey and the boys you baby-sit after school.”

I held up my hands, “Bra, how are we going to be able to arrange for Allie to be transported back and forth between schools.”

Allie stood, “Dad, I can walk between the schools.  They’re only two blocks apart.  Bra, did they say what courses I would be taking?”

“Allie, you will have an input in the classes that you will be taking.  The counseling people of the two schools will work with you on Monday to develop a plan that is good for you.”
 

Allie hugged us, “Thanks for making this happen.  I will miss my friends, but I can still help them in the evenings if they still need my help.  I’m going to have a difficult time going to sleep tonight.”

After Allie had departed, I hugged Bra, “Guess who’s coming to dinner tomorrow?”

Brahim looked pensive, “It’s got to be someone that I wouldn’t suspect, so I can rule out Dad and Mother.  Grandpa Darryl and Uncle Tom were just here.  The only other people who I think might come would be General Khalid and General Amir.”

I sat up and took a deep breath, “Why did you suspect it might be them?”

“I was watching the news last night, and there was a clip that showed Khalid and Amir attending some big international energy meeting in Washington.  I was a little miffed when they hadn’t told us that they were in the country.  I guess they had to see how their time played out.”

After Bra had a snack we went to bed to make up for lost time.  We were awakened by a small body, “Allie, says you’re to get up.  He’s making coffee and wants to know if there is anything else that you want to eat?”

I pulled Mitchell on top of me, “Would you please tell my bossy son that all I want is coffee, since I need to go boss your Daddy around.  Tell Allie to make sure that Bra has a good breakfast because he’s all worn out.”

Mitch hopped down, “I’ll go tell boss, Allie, what you said.”

I had just gone into the kitchen when the phone rang.  Allie answered, “This is Allie Safi. … Oh hi Mr. Bloom. … Yep he got home last evening and he’s standing here spilling a cup of coffee on his clean shirt. … Here let me put him on.  I think he’s coherent.”

“Hi Tom, what’s up?”

“Ed, we decided that we should take two cars to work for now on.  That way we aren’t all stranded at the headquarters to wait for the stranglers to be ready to go home.  I’m driving today, but we need to work out a schedule so we still can use the HOV lanes as much as possible.  It sure makes it quicker to get back and forth.  We have a lot of exciting things to talk about today.  We set your staff meeting at ten so you could get caught up.  I’m leaving now.”

The ride to work was fun and when we arrived at the Headquarters building, I was accosted by Senor Calderon.  “Waller, what kind of ideas have you been planting in my son’s head?”

“Senor Calderon, you are the person who should be explaining and not me.  It was you and your wife who threw Carlos out.  He picked himself up and has made something of himself.  My parents have had the opportunity to get to know Carlos and Fredrico and are as thrilled for the two young men as am I.  They complement each other and make a wonderful couple.”

“Why couldn’t Carlos have found someone rich at least and not some foreigner to take as a companion.”

“Senor Calderon, your son isn’t a two faced person like you.  He’s had his share of hard knocks, and it’s just too bad that you were one of the persons to administer them to him.  I have absolutely no respect for you and the way you turned your back on him.  Now that he’s made the big time on his own, you want to claim credit for it.  Senor Calderon, you are going to have a difficult time gaining any love or respect from either Carlos or Rico.  Now if you will excuse me, I have a company to make sure is running properly.”

I went to the Pit Stop and Tripp handed me a latte and a Danish, “It’s on the house.  It looks as if your visitor is going to have a stroke or a heart attack.  I have to hear the story of what you did to the pompous ass.  He has been here almost every day trying to talk to you, Mr. Odom and Carlos.  You and Mr. Odom weren’t here and Carlos was always too busy to talk to him, except for when the guys took the Calderons to lunch in the executive dinning room.  My parents are still laughing about what happened there.”

As I was going up on the elevator, I shook my head, ‘Surely the rest of the day isn’t going to be like the way it has started off?’

To be continued...

Editor's Notes: I don't think Ed should ever say that things aren't going to continue to be the way it started.  You would think that he would know better, by now.

Mitchell is making quite a bit of progress, isn't he?  Allie seems to have a real knack for helping other people improve themselves.

It will be interesting to see what has been happening to General Khalid and General Amir. 

I am ready for the next chapter!

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 09/03/10