"Well, you were busy.", said Marilyn.
"Is it always like that?", I asked.
"Well, not always, but most of the time. Tusker's doing a lot of service work and rebuilds, as well as buying and selling the used bikes. I mean, you wouldn't believe what he gets when he does a rebuild and then sells it."
"What wouldn't they believe?", asked Tusker, coming into the living room. Over in the corner little Bucky was watching Bugs Bunny on the VCR, so we all retired to sit around the kitchen table. Tusker pulled some National Bohemians out of the refrigerator and we all sat down and relaxed.
"About your rebuilds and resales on the used stuff!"
My friend gave a wry smiled and nodded. "It's true. I'll pick up some old bike that somebody wants to dump for a few hundred, maybe a grand, strip it down and clean it, rebuild it, repaint it, and BOOM! Classic motorcycle! I'll make ten times what I paid for it."
"Wow! None of that means anything to me, but it sounds good." Tusker knew I wasn't a biker. The only time I ever rode a motorcycle back on the first go, I ended up laying it in the gravel. That wasn't enjoyable, but the bad part was when Marilyn landed on me and broke two of my ribs and put me in the hospital for a couple of days. In Aruba! I learned my lesson! "That pays for the place in Timonium?"
"The service work pays for it. The bike resales and rebuilds are the profit.", answered Tessa.
Tusker grinned. "She's the real businessperson in the room. I can follow along easily enough, but she's the brains of the operation."
That was it for the time being. We talked about old times and new, about my getting out of the army and moving back up to Maryland. We told them about getting an apartment in Cockeysville and made them promise to come up as soon as we got our furniture moved in.
Tusker smiled at Marilyn. "You're going to love it here. The weather's great. You can ride almost ten months a year."
"You can ride. I'll drive, thank you.", she said.
"I don't know, honey. I think you'd look pretty hot in your leathers and colors, with Charlie in the sidecar. Talk about your motorcycle mamas! You and Tessa can form your own gang!", I teased.
Tessa started laughing at that, and she got up and went into their laundry room, coming back out a minute later with a tee shirt of her husband's. On the back it read, 'IF YOU CAN READ THIS, MY BITCH FELL OFF!'
I laughed at that. "One of the guys in my battery had a shirt like that, only it was written upside down and it read, 'IF YOU CAN READ THIS, PICK ME UP AND PUT ME BACK ON THE BAR STOOL!'"
"I don't know about riding. I'll give it a year, but otherwise I'm heading back to New York in the summer. I did three years down in Fayetteville and it was too hot there!"
"Marilyn, that is why the Good Lord invented air conditioners! At least you never had to shovel snow!" She shrugged in agreement at that. "Besides, when we were kids, I can remember Willard Scott on the Today Show, every winter morning telling people where the coldest spot in the country was, and it was always one of two places, either Mooseprick, Minnesota, or Old Forge, New York. How far was it from your parent's house to Old Forge? Thirty minutes? Less?"
"There's no such place as Mooseprick, Minnesota!", she protested.
"That's not an answer, that's an evasion!" Tusker and Tessa laughed at that. Tessa remarked she had heard Willard talking about Old Forge a few times.
Tusker ordered out for a couple of large pepperoni pizzas, and Bucky surprised Marilyn and me by eating an entire piece by himself. Tessa commented, "He's got a very healthy appetite!"
"Which he uses to run around madly!", added his father.
Marilyn and I looked at each other, and then over at Charlie, who was wide awake and looking around at the rest of the world. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?", I asked her.
"I'm not sure!"
"So what are your plans now?", asked Tessa. "After you move into your apartment?"
"Got anything lined up for work?", asked Tusker.
Marilyn looked at me. "Nothing specific. I'll probably get involved in the stock market, investing, that sort of thing.", I said.
"Like in high school?", he asked.
For a second or two I was stock still, and then I tried to recover. "Huh? What?"
He grinned. "Thought I didn't know, didn't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"The money, man! I knew you had some sort of gig making some serious bucks. What was it? You can tell now."
"What are you talking about?", asked Tessa, looking at her husband.
I looked over at Marilyn and sighed. She said, "Go ahead, tell them. I still can't believe it myself."
"Tell us what?", Tessa asked.
"How'd you figure it out?", I asked my friend.
"It was the money. Your folks wouldn't have coughed up for that apartment any more than mine would have. And you always had major cash on you. Whenever you had me pick up booze for you, you'd give me twenties or fifties. Who the hell back at Towson High in those days had fifties? You and the drug dealers, and you didn't use drugs; I'd have known!"
I nodded. It was a habit with me when I worked for LeFleur Homes. I was always traveling and looking at job sites, eating on the road and paying for expenses with cash. I always kept three or four hundred in cash on me at all times.
I shrugged. "I'm pretty good in the stock market. I've had a brokerage account since I was a teenager. Remember that fight I got into on the school bus back in junior high?"
Tusker shook his head, but Tessa nodded. Tusker had gone to Cromwell Valley, I think. "Sort of. I remember three guys tried to beat you up.", said Tessa.
"Oh, shit! I bet that was a lot of fun! For them!", commented Tusker.
I smiled at him. "Maybe not so much. Anyway, the long and short of it was that I sued them and got some cash out of it. Not much, but some. The deal I made with my folks was that I would save it for college, but I didn't put it in a bank, I put it into a stock brokerage account. I've been pretty lucky, too. I'm not going to get into details, but I don't need to work for somebody else."
Tessa looked stunned, but Tusker had an I-told-you-so look on his face. "I knew it! That's why you knew so much about setting up our shop!"
I nodded. "That is correct! And that is why I am going to give you some more help. What are you planning to do there? Your business is too big for your location!"
"I don't know yet, but we have to do something. I'm already looking to hire another mechanic, and I could use somebody in the lobby, but we don't have enough room for the people we have.", he groused.
"And what did I tell you that you had to do way back when you told me you wanted a bike business?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, make a plan! You're a real pain in the ass at times, Buckman!", he replied with a laugh. "Is he like this at home? Always making plans?", he asked Marilyn.
I laughed and answered for her. "Are you kidding? In the Army you can't go to the bathroom without a five point action plan, to make sure you do it in a proper, efficient, and military manner!" Everybody laughed at that. "So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to make a plan!", he said while flipping me the middle finger. Charlie reached out for it, which made Marilyn and Tessa laugh. Tusker dangled it in front of my son, who grabbed for it and tried to put it in his mouth. "That's really gross!", commented Tusker.