The Inn

by D. R. Mather

  “Hey, what’s going on?”

  “Not much,” said the driver, “the graders are going back to the shop; the rest are heading down the slopes.” As the guy said that, the sound of Bulldozers off in the very far distance came back to Kevin’s ears, he’d gotten so used to it that he never really heard them anymore.

  “What about the golf course?”

  “What about it? Throw in some grass seed, let it grow and whack some balls around!”

  Kevin had a big grin on his face. He’d been so busy that he had never found the time to have a look. “It’s ready for that?”

  “It sure is buddy.” The guy got back in the cab and took off. Kevin sprinted out back, passing the heavy equipment heading out. He made the clearing and there it was, every rolling hill, every sand trap in place; there were even three water hazards.

  “Well son of a bitch.” Kevin took out his phone and called Bill. “Hey Bill, when can you start seeding and setting up the greens?” He listened to what Bill had to say and then said, “Excellent, I’ll see you then, bye!”

  Kevin walked to the front of the Inn and headed inside. As he came around the corner to the front of the building, his eye caught two cars parked up at the front area. He looked, then walked, then looked again.

  “Hum, visitors?”

  He walked into the Inn and saw Roland and Cindy behind the reception desk, a huge smile on both of their faces.

  “Ah, what’s with you two?”

  Cindy giggled a little, then tried to straighten herself out. “We, ah, we have two guests.”

  “We have two what?”

  Roland repeated Cindy’s statement, “I believe Cindy just said, we have two guests!”

  “You’re kidding.” Kevin walked over and looked at the registry, “Holy crap.”

  Cindy and Roland were still all grins.

  “I put one couple in room two eighteen and the other couple in two eleven. I figured, why not give them the best view, right?” said Cindy.

  “Yeah, right, did you set up the room rates yet?”

  “Roland and Will went through that yesterday; it didn’t seem to be a problem for the guests.”

  “I see, and what will your first guests be having for dinner?”

  Cindy’s face turned white, “Oh my freaking GOD! Kevin, what do we do, we don’t have enough food for the new menus I’m making. Hell, I’m not even finished making menus!”

  “Now, now, don’t panic, I’m sure we can put a few things together to offer for dinner. I’ll offer myself up as a runner if you need me to pick up some things.”

  “Oh could you? I can come up with a few meals that most anyone would like, but I’ll need a few things, I just don’t know what.”

  “No problem, come into the kitchen and let’s have a look around. Roland, watch the desk, you never know!”

  A while later and Kevin and Judy were at the local market buying fresh vegetables as well as a few assorted meats, according to Cindy’s list.

  “Honey, is this how it’s going to be, just like that?” Judy snapped her fingers.

  “Probably not, I think this was just pure luck. The real push will be for mid-summer and then fall and winter.”

  “This is so exciting, I’m so glad to see that it may just all come together.”

  Kevin faced her. “MAY?”

  “WILL,” she giggled, “will come together!”

  “That’s better hot stuff. Besides, I think we won’t be able to allow anyone to be there other than us soon. I’m even going to send Cindy, Rolland, the twins, Will and Barb to a hotel for a while. I’m not sure for how long.”

  Judy’s smile left her. Anyone who knew Judy could feel the air being sucked from the room when that happened.

  “Oh yeah, we still have a problem to deal with, have you gotten any news?”

  “A little, but not much that I can use. All I know is they’re gathering down south.”

  The rest of the shopping was done mostly in silence. As they reached the register and waited their turn in line, Kevin’s head suddenly straightened up and he looked over at the people in the next register.

  “Here.” He gave Judy money, “I guess trouble just seeks me out. I’ll be right back.”

  Judy didn’t talk, she only watched as Kevin made his way over to a guy who was waiting in line at the next register. All Judy could see was that Kevin reached him and grabbed the guy’s shoulder.

  Kevin whispered in his ear, “No, I don’t think so, come on and give me the gun.” Kevin squeezed the shoulder harder; the man slowly took a small handgun out of his pants pocket and gave it to Kevin, who slipped it into a pocket in his leather trench coat.

  “I want you to go from here to the police department. I want you to confess to the gas station robbery you did two days ago. You need to take your punishment, so do it now.”

  The man turned and faced Kevin, blinked a few times, then headed for the door. Kevin turned and went back to Judy, who was now waiting at the end of the register, having already paid for the food.

  “Hi baby, miss me?”

  “Problems in paradise Hun?”

  “Problem solved, let’s get back to the …” Kevin froze in mid-sentence.

  “Kev what’s wrong?”

  “Oh my god, how could I have missed it? Shit!”

  “Miss it? Missed what?”

  “I’ll tell you on the way to the car, come on.”

  “The ballroom.” Kevin explained as he sat in the car. “It never even crossed my mind. All that planning and I never once thought of it; all that glass, and all of it unprotected!”

  Judy looked at him, “Oh god Kevin, what do we do? We can’t put shutters on that, can we?”

  Kevin looked at her and smiled, “Honey you’re a genius. Actually we can, temporally at least.” Kevin took out his phone and called Steve at the Inn.

  “Hi Steve, I have to make a stop. I’ll be there in about an hour, meet me in the back where the glass doors to the ballroom are.” He said a few more things and then hung up.

  Kevin drove into the parking lot of a metal shop, “Wait for me Hun, I shouldn’t be long.”

  Judy waited a half an hour before Kevin came back to the car. He got in and said, “All set, they can deliver it in two days.”

  “Ah, deliver what honey?”

  Steel. I just ordered twelve, four foot wide, eight foot high sheets of quarter inch thick steel and twelve foot long steel posts. That’s along with steel braces for the whole thing.”

  “HUH?”

  Kevin laughed a little, “Hun, your idea about shutters, I can’t do that, but I can bury posts four feet into the ground, concrete them in and weld the sheets together side by side using the post as connecters.”

  A little later, Judy and Beth were bringing food into the kitchen from Kevin’s Mustang. Kevin was out back with Steve.

  “Sure Kevin,” said Steve. “I can do that. I’ll have a few guys pull up these paver stones from left to right, across the whole face of the doors. I’ll get my small loader in here and trench the whole thing from left to right, then wet set the posts and have the whole thing poured the next day.”

  “If you do it at four feet out, the fourth one can come back to the edge of the building and be attached there, right?”

  “We can do it, no problem; I don’t suppose you’d like to explain this though?”

  “Why Steve, no!”

  “Yeah, I figured as much.”

  “I’ll have to call you when I need it removed, okay?”

  “From concrete? I guess I’ll be using the lighter mix then, but okay.”

  “How’s the pool house coming?”

  “It’s done; all the equipment is in as well as the male and female bathrooms and changing rooms.”

  “So I can give Will his surprise?”

  “Only if you let me tag along.”

  “Steve, consider yourself tagged.” Kevin went hunting for Will.

  For the next few remaining hours of the day, a v
ery grateful William Colburn stood between Kevin and Steve as they went through the different workings of his new shop. When they emerged from the pool house, Will saw a backhoe driving away from the back of the house. There were stacks of paver stones off to the left and right of the new trench.

  “What’s this all about Kevin?”

  “Oh, that, ah, ah.”

  “We have some serious issues with the exterior wall facing here,” Steve jumped in. “We decided because of the weight of the stone that we were going to need a heavy support system to hold it up while we take care of it.”

  “Oh, sure, I understand that, those stones must weigh hundreds of tons, sure.” Will walked towards the house as Kevin removed the friendly hand from Will’s shoulder.

  “I owe you one Steve.”

  “Damn right you do,” Steve chuckled.

  ***

  Barb had pretty much mastered the convection ovens and most of the equipment. It was those damn deep fryers that were giving her fits. Everything was either coming out undercooked or burnt to a crisp. Cindy got to the kitchen doors just in time to hear Barb curse.

  “Damn it, damn it.”

  She knew Barb was taking another shot at them again. She walked over and Barb was looking ready to give up.

  “Hey, what happened?”

  “Look for yourself!”

  Cindy looked at the burnt fries, “Hey, at least you cooked them this time, the last time they came out raw. All you need now is to find that middle time.”

  “I’ve got their middle time right here.” With that, Barb flipped her middle finger at the basket of fries.

  Cindy burst out laughing. “BARBARA, SHAME ON YOU!” It was a pity that Cindy was still giggling while she said it, or it might have meant more.

  “Oh I know, I’m sorry, this thing is just getting me so upset.”

  “Barb, learn this one thing, not everyone was meant to use deep fryers. If you can learn that, you’ll get around it then.”

  “Well someone is going to have to use these or they are gonna sit here.” She walked away directly over to the baking ovens and pulled out homemade bread as if it were timed in her head all along.

  Cindy didn’t even think Barb was aware that it was simply locked into her head. She thought to herself, “She’ll get the fryers, she just needs time.”

  Two days later and the guests had left as quickly as they had come. They said it was a wonderful place and that they would return again. Roland made them a deal that if they could get ten separate parties to hand out the business cards he gave them, they could stay two days for free. He signed his name on the back of each card so that he’d know they were from these guests and handed them over. Each of them asked for ten more and questioned whether he could make it a free three day stay. Roland laughed and wholeheartedly agreed.

  “I’ll keep an envelope with each of your names in my vault. When someone hands me one, I’ll put it in the one with your name.”

  The guests left very satisfied with their stay at the ever-growing Colburn Inn and Resort.

  The concrete was poured and was setting in the back ballroom door area, all the posts were in place; Steve was having his welders come in the next day to weld everything together. There was only going to be about a three inch gap between the top of the steel and the overhanging roof that sat over the door area.

  Kevin decided after the guests had left that the sign should be covered until it was safe to have people stay here. IF it was ever going to be safe.

  By the end of June the lodge was just about finished. It was only going through a few check lists before final inspections.

  The heavy steel post for the three ski lifts were already set and bolted into concrete footings. All four were sitting and waiting for the cable and chair systems to arrive.

  Kevin and Steve decided that what went down needed a way to get back up so they managed to squeeze a fourth lift between two of the other lifts to bring skiers back up to the top of the hills. The base area at the bottom of the separate ski areas would have a covered motorized beltway running from left to right, which you could use to get back to the return lifts. The motor houses that drove them were just about ready to go. The Tram or Gondola was ready to go and everyone at the Inn had already made several trips back and forth. When they all got to the landing over on mountain four, Kevin decided that there needed to be a coffee shop and souvenir shop there. The only way was to blast into the side of the mountain and build them actually in the mountain rock itself. Judy and April absolutely loved that idea. Kevin decided to make it happen and work would start the following week.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Benny liked the way things were moving along now. There were thirty men bunked in the barn as well as the farm house. This made for thirty three men in total. The drug deal went better than he had ever expected: it came in and went out three days later, all one buyer, for three hundred thousand in cash.

  Mick used that money to pay connections in different countries and loads of weapons were arriving almost daily. Benny was rapidly on his way to amassing a small army, with the hardware to back it up. The more mechanically inclined men were making boxes to fit under each seat of the two buses. In them they could store weapons and ammo. The back part of each bus was loaded with rations for the trip up and while they were there. No plans were ever made for a return trip.

  It was almost time to get rid of that motherfucker who killed him. One more week and this whole side show was ready to hit the road. Benny just needed the ‘okay’ from the big boss. Benny got one special instruction during the trip up; he was to stop in Indiana and waste a family. Some guy named Billy and his bitch wife and kids. He didn’t even know their last name and he really didn’t give a shit. He was just told to kill them all.

  ‘No problem,’ Benny thought. ‘A small party before the big party.’ It could even be fun if he liked the bitch enough.

  Vince and Stan had been talking. Stan had started to think this may not work out well for him. Second in command or not, given a choice, he’d rather keep breathing for a long time. Vince had his doubts as well, but he hid them from Stan and spent most of his time talking to keep Stan focused, reminding him just how powerful they would all become once they had crushed the ants up at the Inn. Vince considered telling Benny just in case, only, Vince liked Stan and didn’t like Benny. Benny was reckless and didn’t think ahead. He acted on impulse and in Vince’s line of work, that would get you killed sooner or later. It was usually sooner.

  “Hey Stan, remember the promise? Once this is done we will just grow, taking over towns and cities, then states, and eventually the whole fucking government.”

  “Yeah Vince, those are some lofty dreams alright, only, have you ever seen it happen yet?”

  Vince thought for a minute. “Adolph Hitler. Look how much he did, and he was only one man!”

  “Yeah, I believe things didn’t work out so well for him though, am I right?”

  Vince had to agree.

  Stan got up from the hay bale they were sitting on, “Come on Vince, grab those two M-16s and let’s go shoot the shit out of something.”

  Now THAT was something Vince could get in to!

  Benny was making a ‘head call’ of his own. One could imagine it wasn’t quite the pleasant experience that Kevin’s were.

  Whatever it was that talked to Benny, it knew things. It knew that it had a problem with Marie, but it told Benny that it was only a minor setback. Benny bought this hook, line and sinker. It also told Benny that he could no longer count on the weak point at the Inn. That prick, Kevin, had walled it all in with heavy steel. Whatever it was that talked to Benny, it wanted Kevin to die a little slower for that stunt. Benny sat on his bed and grinned; it would be his great pleasure. It set the date that Benny would leave and head up north.

  ‘Roger dodger,’ Benny thought in his head. He’d be glad to finally get back in to action. This ‘thing’ wanted something else as well: if Stan survived the assault, h
e was to kill him.

  ‘My fucking pleasure,’ came into Benny’s head. Then his grin turned into a smile. Benny couldn’t stand that fucking useless shithead.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Kevin woke up with a start and sat up. He had a blanket wrapped around him; unfortunately Judy was wrapped up in it with him. As such, he yanked her up with him.

  “What is it honey?” Judy barely got the question out in English.

  “Billy, Michelle, the kids, I have to get them up here now!”

  “But their apartment isn’t quite ready.”

  “It doesn’t matter, it’s now or they’re going to be killed.”

  “Oh god Kevin, no.”

  Kevin got out of bed; he looked at the clock and saw it was 3:40 a.m. He went for his cell phone and dialed. Judy was sitting up when Kevin came back and sat on the foot of the bed.

  The ringing seemed endless but Kevin didn’t give up. Finally, after over twenty rings…

  “Hello?”

  “Michelle, this is Kevin, I need you to get Billy on the phone right away.”

  “Well, he’s sleeping, but for you he’ll get up. Hold on.”

  Judy slipped up to Kevin from behind and hugged him. This one wasn’t for just love, it was for fear as well as she had no idea how quickly Kevin had received the message or how long Billy and Michelle had to live.

  While Kevin waited he tilted his head back, “It’s okay baby, there’s time, a few days at least.” He felt Judy’s squeeze on him relax.

  “Billy, good, listen, what we talked about, we have to move it forward.”

  “How forward Kevin?” Billy sounded as if he was only half awake.

  “Like in tomorrow, the day after at the latest.”

  Billy was now awake, “Shit, that’s forward all right. Why?”

  “Your lives depend on it. I can’t say much more.”

  Billy had learned something about Kevin – you did what the man said, period. “Okay, but what about all my things? The house?”