The Inn

by D. R. Mather

  “It may seem minor now, but if they begin working on the pool house, you must be with them throughout the process. The bridge to here is the only one on your planet. It must be preserved. We also understand that you plan to have broken tiles replaced in the pool. Again, it must be you who replaces those tiles. Do we have an agreement?”

  “Actually, I never thought of it but now that you bring it up, we very much do have an agreement.”

  “Very good Kevin, it would be most wise if no one were to find out.”

  “Consider it done then.”

  “Now to things that are of very special interest to you all. Things are amassing in the South; I should expect that you will have very unwelcome visitors before June. We cannot predict the exact time however, so you should all be preparing as best you can.”

  “I don’t suppose you can shed any light on the matter,” asked Kevin.

  “I’m afraid we can’t. As April discovered, we are blocked from most of what goes on. Evil is cunning as well as smart I’m afraid.”

  “Well, if you can pick up anything useful I’m sure you’ll let me know.”

  “That we will Kevin; that we will.”

  They both began to open their eyes and saw Beth and Alex just going to their seats to wait for them. Kevin figured it out almost instantly.

  “Going to get comfy?”

  Beth sat and looked at them, “We might as well; I’m not going to stand up the whole time.”

  Judy giggled; Kevin knew she was aware of it as well.

  “Ah guys, no need to get too relaxed, we already went,” She said, standing up.

  Alex and Beth looked at each other, then at Judy.

  “What do you mean you already went? We just walked away from you,” Beth asked, standing herself back up.

  “I know, neat huh?”

  Kevin explained it to them and settled the matter.

  Kevin and Judy found Cindy in the kitchen; she was making dinner for everyone. “I thought it was time to give everything a good test, it will help get rid of factory oil coatings inside the ovens as well,” she said.

  “So we’re going to have food that tastes like machine oil?”

  “No Judy, I heated everything up for almost an hour first, that got rid of it all.”

  Judy and Kevin walked over to the deep fryers; one was still on and seemed to have fries in it.

  “Nice Cindy, it’s been a long time since I’ve had fries,” Kevin said, almost drooling into the hot oil. Judy was standing close behind him, taking in the aroma.

  “Well then, get your butts out of my kitchen and go sit down with the others, burgers and fries are about to be served.”

  Kevin and Judy bolted from the room. Everyone else was already sitting at several tables. True, it wasn’t as homey as one giant table, but they picked out adjoining ones, so it was close.

  Kevin and Judy were with Beth and Alex. Roland and April were at the other table, soon to be joined by Cindy. In between both tables were the twins in their double stroller, sleeping soundly.

  It was all small talk about the future of the Inn and upcoming plans. Alex, Beth and April no longer worked outside of the Inn; Kevin gave them both two years’ salary in advance to cover things until they got going at the Inn. As it was laid out, Cindy and Roland would run and manage the entire Inn and lodge. Cindy would command the kitchen staff. Kevin had already made several calls to Indiana and had convinced Billy to move there with his family. He would run the inner workings of the lodge with Michelle, as well as the golf pro shop, the golf course, the pool, the ski lifts and any concessions laid about the premises, with full staff for each as required. Staff were to be trained in summer and winter operations so that no-one needed to be let go at any season’s end.

  Kevin had laid out a nice suite in the lodge for Billy and his family to call their home. Michelle had given birth to a healthy baby boy three weeks before Cindy had given birth to her twins.

  Kevin even met with Bill and Katie. Though they would remain at their home, they agreed to maintain the grounds. Bill and Katie were learning about maintaining the lawns and flowers on the property because Kevin was able to ‘convince’ a local landscaper to teach them everything he knew.

  As for Will and Barb; Well, Kevin figured it was up to them really. They could retire and enjoy themselves or help out wherever they felt it needed it. Kevin figured it was going to be hard to get Barb out of the kitchen anyway, and maybe Will would like running the reception desk.

  Kevin thought he got it now. This was all great grandpa’s doing: a ‘thank you’ to Will and Barb for being the sweetest couple the family had ever had, from wherever he was now.

  Kevin was outside enjoying a smoke with Judy at his side, waving the smoke away if it headed in her direction. She was making fake coughing sounds just to tick Kevin off. It was still bone-chillingly cold at the Inn at night; Judy was laying half on and half off the seat, cradled up against Kevin. He was reaching over and snuffing out his cigarette in one of the new stone pedestal ashtrays when he stopped in mid-crush. Judy felt his body tense up.

  “What is it?”

  “I have to go.” Kevin got up and ran into the Inn. Judy sat and waited. In less than two minutes he was out the door again and running. He slowed briefly and gave Judy a fast kiss. “I’ll be back in a few hours,” he promised, then ran to the new garages. Judy stood but stayed still until she heard the Mustang start up; it was a sound one couldn’t miss once they knew it. Within a minute, all she heard was tires squealing onto the main road and that deep-throated exhaust. After a few minutes, even that was gone.

  Kevin knew this wasn’t a matter of life and death. He had been told that. But it had to be timed so that he caught the man while he was in the act, as it was the only way it was going to sink in properly. Deeper and deeper into Denver he went. He found the street he’d been looking for and slowed to a crawl. Very nice houses lined this street on both sides. Affluent people lived in these homes. Kevin found the home he’d been looking for and parked curb side. As he got out, he surveyed the house. He found the door he’d be using and went up to it. His trench coat was zipped and closed. Kevin melded through the door and heard the loud noises coming from the back of the first floor. He didn’t need to follow the sound; he knew right where to go. He headed down a hallway and into a very large master bedroom. In front of him was a man and a woman, husband and wife to be exact. The woman was the important one here; she was the Governor’s daughter, newly married just last year. Her husband was hovering over her as she lay on the bed. Kevin could see the man was drunk, very drunk, and he was attempting to make mashed potatoes out of his wife’s brains. He was punching her in the head, ribs, shoulder… you name it and he was trying to hit it. This also wasn’t the first time. Kevin came up and made himself visible as he grabbed the man by his neck. He pulled him off of his wife and yanked him back away from her. He saw she was just cowering with her hands over her face and crying her heart out. Kevin wasn’t choking the man to death; he only had a really good grip on him. He pulled the man to within six inches of his own face.

  “You know, I should kill you right here, right now, but I’m not going to do that. I will tell you this though, if you ever touch your wife like that again, or even yell at her again, it will be the last time you ever breathe in air. You got it?”

  The guy’s eyes were almost bugged out of his head from fear. He seemed paralyzed, but didn’t answer.

  Kevin squeezed a little harder; “I was hoping for a ‘yes sir’ from you. I haven’t heard one yet.” Kevin put his other hand on the man’s shoulder and squeezed real hard.

  “OW, hey, yeah, yeah, I got, I got it.”

  Kevin lifted him and threw him onto the bed, missing where his wife was, and then tended to her.

  “I think you’ll be fine now,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing a little, “I think this incident can be forgotten, don’t you?” She gave a nod and Kevin released her. “You should go clean up an
d get some much needed sleep.”

  She got up and left. Kevin turned to the man and just stared at him. The guy was crying like an infant. Kevin’s work was finished here so he left.

  He got back in the Mustang and drove back to the Inn. Kevin already knew who this woman would become; she would follow very closely in her father’s footsteps, helping him to be elected president of the United States in the next ten years, as well as becoming the next generation in the governor’s seat of Colorado. Something she never could have done with the conditions she was living in now.

  Kevin chuckled to himself as he drove back, “I do love politics.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Today was a banner day to put it mildly.

  Judy went with Kevin to get Will and Barb at the airport. Kevin was beginning to think he had made a mistake taking Judy along. The woman had all but pissed her pants in the ride home. She kept giggling and squirming in her seat, and spent a good amount of the trip facing backwards in the truck so that she could talk directly to them. Yes, her seat belt was still completely on. Kevin was mostly quiet, not that he could have gotten a full sentence in had he wanted to. He knew what he wanted to do. He didn’t want to drive in and have them catch blotchy images here and there as the truck rounded to the drop-off area; he wanted to have them see it all at once. He had paid the crews not to be there that day, and Beth was on the ‘phone’, waiting for Kevin’s call. He would ring her when he pulled into the driveway from the road. Judy was so excited that she almost spilled the beans several times but managed to catch herself before it got out. As Kevin got to the top of the knoll that was the entrance to the Inn, he flipped his cell and hit the preset number. When Beth answered he only said, “Yup, now,” and then hung up; the others never even noticed. As Kevin wove through the turns, he calculated the best place to stop. When he got to it, he stopped the truck and shut it off.

  Will looked out the window and then at Kevin, “I think you missed it by a few feet son.”

  “Nope, we walk from here,” said Kevin as he got out. The Inn was just around the next turn.

  “Didn’t keep up with the driveway huh?”

  “On no, as you can see, most of the snow is gone – even from inside the woods.”

  Now Will and Barb were completely confused, but they marched behind them whilst Kevin and Judy held each other around the waists and blocked the view ahead. As Kevin approached the clearing he turned and went to them. Judy still clinging to his side to block the view.

  “William and Barbara Colburn, welcome home.” They then stepped aside to reveal the view.

  Will and Barb first looked at them, trying to figure out what the heck all the showboating was about. Then they looked ahead. Both of their jaws almost hit the ground in the same instant. For a moment the only thing that Will managed to say was, “Wha…..”

  Barb couldn’t even get that much out.

  Stood in a line at the edge of the drop-off area were Cindy holding the twins, Roland, Alex, Beth and April. Everyone, with the exception of Cindy, held their arms up and shouted, “WELCOME HOME!!!!”

  Kevin and Judy fell in behind Will and Barb as they slowly walked towards the drop-off area. They couldn’t absorb enough in one look to take it all in. They saw the new lodge, the new garages, the dormers on the roof and the new covered entryway, but they had to keep looking back and forth, like it wasn’t real to them. Kevin looked over at Judy to see tears flowing freely down her face, but she kept walking. Kevin had known how their little ‘fireball’ was going to take them seeing all of this, and Judy hadn’t let him down. As they made their way up to everyone, Barb’s vision suddenly focused on something that she had been desperately waiting for: the twins.

  She let out a little “Oooooo….” and made a rushed beeline to Cindy. Within five seconds of reaching Cindy she turned around to Will with the twins in her arms. She was kissing them one after the other. Will headed straight to her.

  Once Will regained his thoughts, he turned to Kevin, “What have you gone and done?”

  “Barb, give Cindy back her children and walk with me,” smiled Kevin.

  She obeyed, though reluctantly. They all ended up walking together anyway, so Barb stole one of them back from Cindy. Kevin gave them the entire layout and future plans for the ‘Colburn Inn and Resort’. He explained what had happened with the State of Colorado and the former ‘land grab’, then told them what was actually theirs. He told them the paperwork came in a few weeks ago with full acknowledgment of the error on the state’s side and that all corrections had been made. Will and Barb only needed to sign the documents agreeing to the new markers and that would settle the matter with no lawsuits on either side.

  “You know Kevin, we could take them to court over it just the same.”

  Kevin slapped Will’s back and laughed, “Yeah, you could, but once everything here is laid out for you, I don’t think you will. You’re still lacking a little information Will.”

  Will shrugged his shoulders because he didn’t understand what Kevin meant, and they continued the outside tour.

  “Now here,” Kevin approached the start of the mountain slopes, “there will be three separate lifts taking skiers to one of three mountain areas soon to be determined. That fourth one out to the right is just too steep and dangerous, so there will be a gondola ride to and from it. The area is to be blasted and leveled this spring.

  “How many slopes Kevin?”

  “Well, seven on the one closest left, nine on the one farthest left, and it looks like we can get eleven in on the right mountain.”

  “Wow, no fooling?”

  “No fooling Will. We can see the layout of the land now that the snow has gone and with some tree removal, we may even be selling ourselves short, who knows?”

  Will loved the new garages and set about inspecting each bay, one by one. Kevin made his way out to the back of the house and took them through the cleared path to the very back land. He explained the entire plan for the golf course. Will had always thought of it as useless land before, but now both he and Barb could see it in their minds.

  Cindy stepped up, “I’m going to take the twins in; their faces are turning cherry red.”

  Barb jumped right in, “Oh, let me help you.”

  There was a resounding “NO” from everyone. It scared the crap out of Will and Barb.

  Kevin stepped in, “Not yet you two, there are a few more details you need to know about first.”

  Five minutes later and everyone was standing at the main entry doors. Both Barb and Will absolutely loved the overhang; it seemed to fit the house perfectly.

  Kevin’s response?

  “Aha.”

  This part was planned; everyone was in front of Barb and Will as Kevin opened the doors, both sides at once. The group all went in and then stood directly to the left.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Colburn, welcome home.” Kevin gave a warm smile, then joined the group. Cindy had joined them as well. As they walked inside it was impossible to describe how they felt. The marble flooring that made up the entrance area was fully polished and looked like new; the marble stairs had been polished to a new luster. Each step now had a deep red carpet on it, but only the walking path, the rest still showed the marble. To the right, Will and Barb saw the new elevator as well as the new reception area.

  They walked in a little more and looked into the living room, only to see that the panels were now behind the wall and the afternoon sun shone a beautiful reflection off of the ballroom floor. It looked brand new. Will stared at it as if hypnotized. Barb pulled him out of his trance when she let out a little shriek. Will turned to what she was looking at and saw her walking in to the dining room. He couldn’t talk, but followed beside her. In fact, no one was doing a lot of talking. Judy, Beth and April moved past Barb and Will and began to display the buffet area, opening drawers and taking out samples of what was inside. Barb walked over to the buffet and looked at all of the service machines set up. They could hear the hum of
the ice maker. The juice machine still had some chilled orange juice in it. Every appliance used in modern waiting service was sitting on that buffet somewhere. Will took a different direction; he skirted the tables and went over to the display cabinets. All of the separate glass doors had soft lighting behind them, showing the history of the mansion. Kevin had even found a picture of the mansion half built and included it in the collection.

  “Oh my, I didn’t even know these things existed.” Barb had joined Will now and both of them were scanning through a century of the mansion.

  “Please, you can come and look at this anytime,” interrupted Kevin. “The show has only just begun folks, this way please.” Kevin addressed the hall to the kitchen. He and Judy were in front, Will and Barb behind them, and everyone else was following behind.

  Barb perked up, “Kevin Chase, you better not have gotten rid of my wood work bench.”

  He spun on them as he reached the door to the kitchen, “Barb, a woman’s wooden work bench is sacred and should remain that way.” He pushed the door open with his last word and stood aside. Barb entered in front of Will and she simply burst into uncontrollable tears. The poor woman couldn’t even see what was in front of her because she was crying so much. She slid down the wall of the kitchen next to the door and Will shortly followed. Both of them were crying beyond control. Judy and April went down with them, holding them both. Neither Will nor Barb noticed it, but Beth had been sneaking pictures of them since they rounded the last part of the driveway. This one, well, it was for them only.

  For the next hour and a half it was Cindy’s turn to shine. She went through everything the kitchen had in it, explaining briefly how it all worked and when it was best to use things. Barb must have been in and out of each walk-in at least ten times, constantly calling Will to come and see how things were set up. Both of them were absolutely giddy. Will was checking out the new baking ovens when it hit him, long before it ever occurred to Barb.