Home Away From Home - 46. Chapter 46

Young Douglas Haskins arrived on schedule, he spent his first day with his father and the next morning he was at our door. I took him to the kitchen and introduced him to the family. I knew the kids would be glad to see him. I watched him lean down and scratch Anthony behinds the ears. That was enough for Anthony, Douglas got a lick on his hand. Douglas is 16, a little more than a 1 year older than Carlos. Mom and Aunty made a big fuss over him. He was a cute kid and very well mannered. I knew what Mom was thinking.

Now I had to sort out the rooms, I needed another hut. I called the builder and it seemed like he anticipated my call. He brought his gang, we agreed upon a spot and he started to build another hut. I looked at the site and thought I should put another one there for guests. I moved Aunty into the hut I had built for Doug and Clair. This left the hut for Vic empty. Roy came and asked why the builder was building another hut. Jokingly, I said it was for you and Joe. The look on Roy’s face was priceless. He took off.

About 15 minutes later, he returned with Joe. “Are you really building that for us?”

“Absolutely, that one is Doug’s and Claire, family, that one is Vic’s and Nancy, family, and that one is Roy’s and Joe, family.”

I never saw such happy guys. It's one thing when you say family, but it's another when you put something concrete in front of them that brings reality to family. Within a week, they were calling Mom and Dad, mom and dad. The idea of being brothers really seemed to cement the relationship with the hut. Joe made a sign. He wouldn’t show us, we had to wait.

When the hut was finished, Joe and Roy moved in. They took the bed from the house so I had to order a new bed. The builder started to clear a site next to the hut he just finished. He said since he has all his men here, it would be easy to start another hut. So I said to go ahead. The next morning, all of the materials were on site.

PUPPY’S was completed with a total of 18 rooms. Some of the guys had place their names on the rooms. One of the rooms had Al’s name on it. If Al came to live here, that would be his permanent room.

I was glad we had a lot of land because it was getting full fast. The dining room no longer was big enough. Douglas moved into the room Aunty had in the house. She said that she preferred the hut because there were no steps. You could pass any time of the day, if she wasn’t in the kitchen with Mom, she'd be sitting in the lanai.

Soon I heard, “I’m Home.”

The kids always ran to meet him and now Douglas stands behind them, also going to meet Puppy. As usual, each kid gets a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I watched as Puppy grabbed Douglas and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He whispered something in Douglas’s ear, Douglas smiled. “Hey, it’s my turn.” The kids giggled.

“Can we go swimming?”

“After homework is done.”

“Douglas, has your dad spoke to you about school.”

“Yes, he's going to visit the school tomorrow and then make a decision if I'll attend school here or home study. And could you call me Mac instead of Doulas. My friends all call me Mac.”

“No problem Mac, I’ll see that the word gets around.”

By the next morning, everyone was calling Douglas, Mac. He spent a lot of time with Larry and particularly when Larry was working on projects. I also noticed he was talking to Troy and I found them at the piano one afternoon. I caught him looking at the Joe’s painting. “Who painted this?”

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, it's so real looking, I can almost touch the fish and feel their scales.”

“Our resident artist is responsible for all the paintings in this house. He is also responsible for the blow ups of several photos.”

“Who is your resident artist?”

“He lives in one of the huts. You can’t miss it.”

I saw him leave and head toward the huts. Joe had mounted on his and Roy’s hut a sign, ‘Resident Artist’. I thought it was great.

Tony and Rita arrived as scheduled and they brought meat and frozen turkeys. I introduced them to Aunty and Giovanni, they knew Mac. Dad made a comment about the proliferation of huts. Then with my dad, they walked to the garden. The boys had started to build a chicken coop. It's nice to have farm boys who know what to do.

After the arrival wears off and massages are out of the way, Tony gets to business. I thought, I need a conference room, The offices are getting too small for meetings. It's fine for two but sometimes I have four or more. I need to cut out more space from the living room. Today, we used the dining room. Larry set up his charts, Charles had his reports and Doug had his briefings. We met the entire day, Mom served a light lunch at 1 and brought several cups of coffee and tea doing the day. The next morning, Dad went to the PX and bought a small coffee urn that we'd use in a conference room. It took us three days to cover all of the business on our agendas, both Tony’s and mine. I told Tony I have extended Doug’s territory to include China and India, but I need another plane. He said he'd send another one when he went back, but I'd have to pay for it.

That night in bed, “Puppy, I asked Dad for another plane. Doug is taking over China and India. He said he'd send one over but I'd have to pay for it.”

“So what's the problem?”

“I don’t know how much money I have and can I afford to buy a plane.”

“If Dad said that you can pay for it then you have enough money.”

“I keep spending and no one has said they don’t get paid. It's like a wishing bucket that never gets empty.”

“Look Dad uses an accounting firm to keep track of his investments and money. I’ll bet they're doing the same thing for you. I’ll give you their name tomorrow. They keep track of my investments as well. When I reached twenty-one, I got control of my trust fund. I just left it with the accounting firm.”

“It must be a large accounting firm to handle both accounting and investments?”

“The largest in the world, we're share holders in the firm.”

“We?”

“Yes, I bought into the firm and put your name and one on the shares. I think Dad bought some shares for you as well. Maybe it isn’t a bad idea to meet with them and see what we do have.”

“I wasn't planning on flying to the States anytime soon.”

“Why the States, they're located in Switzerland.”

“I never knew what I was getting into when I met you. But I’m glad you are with me because this is all mind bungling for me.”

“Don’t worry. What kind of plane is PUPPY III going to be?”

“I don’t know. I liked our first plane maybe I can swap with Dad and get our old plane back. He can take the new plane.”

A snuggle a kiss and Puppy was a sleep. It didn’t take long before I was asleep as well.