want.”
Jacky left when I went to pick up the kids.
Rachael went all through the house. “Dad, I smell a nice perfume. Has someone been here?”
I knew then I was going to get caught.
I called Julie without thinking. “Honey, we have been invited to the Lawrences’ place in New Mexico. Want to go?”
She was somber. “Who invited us, Brandon?”
Again, without thinking, I said, “Jacky did!” I held off telling her that Jacky had been here.
Julie was crisp. “When did you talk to Jacky?”
I smiled, this time careful of what I said. “She called me this morning. She wanted to talk about Larry.”
Julie couldn’t wait to speak. “Brandon, you be careful. She has a reputation out here of being a man chaser, and yes, I would like to go see the place. I will be finished here in two weeks. Then we can go anywhere that you want to!”
For some reason, Julie and I started phoning each other twice a day, I always called around nine at night; I figured that way it kept her out of the bars. That seemed to be a popular thing in California.
The two weeks seemed to go by quickly. Jacky was calling me every other day. I knew that I was in over my head, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Then Julie came home. She was the perfect mother and wife. She was loving, caring, and her interests were totally on the family.
We got ready to drive to New Mexico. I had already told Jacky when we would be there. We left on Saturday afternoon. We didn’t get far; we made it that first night to Amarillo, Texas. We stayed at a tourist trap and went to a huge steak house. I tried to eat a seventy-two ounce porterhouse steak cooked medium rare. If I ate it all, I got it for free. I couldn’t do it. I had never seen so much cooked meat before. My rooting section still cheered me, even as I scowled when I had to pay for it.
Julie and I were lying in bed when she told me what she had been so tight-lipped about. She was in the running for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She didn’t want anyone to know in case she wasn’t selected. This really eased my mind.
Sunday morning, we drove to Cimarron, New Mexico, stopped and bought gas. I asked the attendant if I was on the right road to Lawrenceville, and he gave me directions to the little town. We headed back out and arrived at the signpost for the town at exactly two p.m..
I drove to the Lawrences’ house. It was more of a mansion, and Jacky came running out leading a group of kids. She had on slacks and an apron, and had been doing a lot of cooking. That was obvious from the apron; it was dirty. We introduced all our kids, and Jacky introduced her kids, and everyone but Franky took off to play. Franky really wanted to go with the other kids, but he couldn’t walk yet. He was crawling and hard to keep up with though.
As we suspected, Larry wasn’t there. He was supposed to arrive Sunday night, but he didn’t.
We spent Sunday night in one bedroom, and the kids slept in another bedroom. Franky slept between us.
Larry arrived Monday morning. He was full of cheer—almost too full. He landed in his own helicopter, making quite an entrance. He had candy for all the kids, even ours. He had a Hershey’s bar for Franky, who made quite a mess with it.
Larry and Jacky slipped off at one point, and I assumed that they had a heart-to-heart talk. I didn’t know if it did any good; both of them were very good actors. They both seemed fine with each other when they came back. They were laughing and carrying on like nothing was going on at all.
We spent the rest of Monday getting familiar with the little town. We seemed to have met everyone in the town. I was surprised; Larry was either related to or very good friends with everyone. Everyone seemed to love him unconditionally. I met the two large, but very strong; men that had held me back off Ralph at the party. They were with their wives and families and seemed just like average citizens. Everyone smiled at us and seemed to accept us as part of the overall family. I had a desire to live in the little town.
I also met Larry’s business partner Safir. She was an older woman, but attractive in an Arabic way. It seemed that a lot of the people had Arabic backgrounds. To my surprise, Safir was Ashour’s wife, one of the big men who protected Larry.
Monday night Larry had a party at his house and it seemed like the whole town attended. I met so many people that I was hopelessly lost with names. What surprised me was that there wasn’t a bad-looking woman in the place. Even the women who were in their seventies were attractive. Everyone seemed to be best friends, and I was slightly jealous. The women took on with Franky, and he was entertained all night. I finally gave up on watching him; it seemed that everyone else was doing that for me.
Larry had an open bar, but I limited myself to two drinks.
Around midnight, I was standing with a large group of men. Someone came up with the idea of going on a four-wheeler ride. We agreed to do it in the morning, and were going to make an all day affair of it.
We eventually went to bed, and everyone including me dropped right off to sleep.
Tuesday morning, there were twenty-five four-wheelers lined up, some with small two-wheel trailers behind them. It looked like an old-time wagon train. My bike was the fifth one back, and it had a trailer with seats behind it. They were perfect for Rachael, Johnny and Franky. Julie was on the bike behind mine. A man whose name I couldn’t remember was giving Julie and me pointers on riding the bikes. He turned out to be the town’s medical doctor, Robb.
Right at nine o’clock, Larry led the procession out of town, headed north. The bikes spread out over a mile and you rode off to the side of the bike in front of you, so that you wouldn’t eat dust. It started out as being fun, and wound up being one of the best times that I had ever had. We went to a large meadow and made a big circle while everyone caught up. We never stopped though. As soon as all the bikes were in the meadow, Larry led us on up a ridge to a second even larger meadow. We surprised a large group of elk, and the bulls bellowed at us. The meadows were full of green grass and wild flowers. I had never seen so many different colored flowers in one place. There were huge pine trees, aspens, firs and blue spruces. It seemed like the perfect landscape. Cottontail rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, and furry little animals seemed to be everywhere. I had never been to a place which seemed like paradise, but this had to be it.
We went across a small gully about ten feet deep and went up into a smaller meadow. There were buffalo in it. They weren’t disturbed by us, and almost seemed like pets. Some of the people got off and petted the beasts.
Julie pulled up beside me. She looked at the kids and then asked, “Everyone having fun?”
All the kids nodded but were immersed in watching the buffalo move slowly around and swing their massive heads from side to side. I couldn’t believe that my three kids were being so still. They were totally engrossed in all the different things that they could see.
We lined up again and headed out, going the same direction, due north. We went through stands of beautiful aspens and blue spruce trees. We passed a beaver pond where trout were jumping after flies. We saw hawks and bald eagles, the national bird. I had never seen a bald eagle before.
We rode on. My stomach was growling. Then we came to a small cabin. We pulled up and stopped at the cabin. Larry got off and all the children were “freed” from their seats, and they ran around like wild Indians. It seemed like most of the women went in and began to prepare a simple lunch; sandwiches, chips, and soft drinks. Larry showed us where he had been attacked by a large bear and had fought it off and eventually killed it. The blood still stained the floor. They called this place “Bear Cabin” for that very reason.
The two big men had trailers behind them full of five-gallon containers of gasoline. All the bikes were topped off.
I had watched the kids running around and thought that feeding would be near impossible, but they all came when called. I wasn’t sure if they were just minding or were that hung
ry; maybe both.
After everyone was fed, we went on, this time to the west. We came to a high mountain pass that was covered in deep snow. The bikes went through the snow just like they were made to do it. It was the most fun that I had had in a very long time. We rode on through passes, rocky areas that looked like the moon’s surface, and went back down into the tree line. We came to a very rocky area that was full of enormous rocks. Larry pointed out where old Anasazi Indians had built homes in the cliffs. There was a tall ladder on the ground, but we didn’t go inside the ruins.
We traveled on, and about three-thirty came to another cabin. It was called the “West Cabin.” It was vacant too, and was much more modern than Bear Cabin had been.
After a brief rest and a round of candy and soft drinks, we headed south east. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. There were wild flowers everywhere. When we came to a fence line, I looked behind me; the bikes were strung out over a mile. Some people were stopping at various places, which made staying together tough. Larry was constantly counting the number of bikes that he could see, and he would stop and let stragglers catch up.
One place that we stopped at was at the fence line.
Jacky pulled up beside me. “Having fun?”
I smiled. “I surely am. This is so much fun. Do you do this often?”
She laughed. “Not