I had lunch at a small place in Westminster, and then drove back to the town house. Marilyn was busy trying to feed Charlie as well as do the laundry, so I rescued her by taking my son. She thought I was getting off easy until he spilled his bottle all over me and then burped up the rest on top of that. I took him up to the bathroom and stripped off both our clothes and we took a quick shower together. I'm not sure whether he liked the shower or not, but it certainly seemed to fascinate him! I returned him naked and clean to his mother to redress.
"I can't believe you gave him a shower!", she exclaimed. Charlie wriggled and giggled in his mother's arms as she struggled to put a fresh diaper on him.
"Hey, a man's got to do what a man's go to do! He's a natural at it! He'll never want to take a bath now."
"Men!", she exclaimed. She finished dressing him and then dumped him back in my lap.
I waited until Charlie got sleepy and then put him in his crib. Afterwards I grabbed the phone and started dialing a few of the travel agents that Lloyd had recommended. I made an appointment to meet one of them, a Taylor Hannity of Dream Vacations, at our house tomorrow afternoon.
I'm not quite sure why I selected Ms. Hannity from the names Lloyd had given me. Maybe it was because she didn't seem to bat an eye when I asked her to meet at our home. The other two wanted to meet at my office or theirs, and were curious when I said I didn't have an office. Ms. Hannity never missed a beat and simply asked for the address and the time to be there. Maybe she was familiar with the habits of rich people. Or maybe I needed to get an office to meet people in. I would have to give that some thought.
What in the world would I do with an office? What would I do there? Hide from Marilyn? That didn't seem like a productive use of my time, even if I wanted to be productive, which I was ambivalent about to begin with. I sort of liked just goofing off!
Taylor showed up the next day at 2:00 in the afternoon. By then we had been in the town house for almost two weeks and everything was basically put where we wanted it to be. The walls were still white primer, but it was a good primer and simply looked like a stark white finish coat. I could live with it for a year, especially since the alternative was having Marilyn hector me into painting and wallpapering. If Marilyn decided she wanted colors, maybe that office idea would pay off after all!
The doorbell buzzed at us and I said, "I'll get it.", and headed towards the door. I opened it to find a trim brunette in her mid-thirties holding an attaché case. "Hello. Ms. Hannity?"
She gave me a dazzling smile and held her hand out. "Call me Taylor. Mister Buckman, I presume?"
I shook her hand and nodded. "Call me Carl. Come on in ... I turned and said, "Marilyn, our guest is here."
Marilyn came closer and said, "Ssshhh! I just put Charlie down for his nap. You wake him and he'll be fussy for hours!"
"How old is he?", asked Taylor.
"It will be five months next week.", answered my wife.
Taylor smiled again. "That's a good age. By this time next year this place is going to look like a war zone. Kids that age can get toys out faster than you can put them away!"
"This time next year I hope to have that problem in our new house.", I replied.
"Oh?"
I nodded. "Come on in. Let's sit down and talk." I led the way to the dining room. "Please have a seat. Can we get you anything? Coffee? Tea?"
"Coffee would be lovely, thank you."
I'm sure it would be, if I knew how to make coffee. I don't drink it, so I don't know how. Marilyn smiled at me and said, "I'll do it. You want some iced tea?"
"Please."
She snorted in laughter at me, which mystified Taylor, and went to the kitchen. I smiled at Taylor's quizzical look. "I can't stand coffee and Marilyn knows it. I don't even know how to make it."
"Well, don't go to any trouble on my behalf."
I waved off the concern. "Don't worry, she always has a pot on the Mister Coffee."
"So, exactly what did you have in mind, Mister Buckman. What kind of dream vacation do you want?"
"Well, several things come to mind. I suppose that at the top of my list is that I can't stand flying commercial. Even if we travel to the same old places everybody else does, I don't want to spend the entire day in airports. I did enough hurry-up-and-wait in the Army. I don't need to keep doing it now."
"Is that where you got the limp?", she asked.
Marilyn brought back two cups of coffee in one hand, holding them by the handles, and a glass of iced tea for me. "Cream or sugar?", she asked.
"Black is fine, thank you."
"I take sugar in mine." She sat down next to me and asked, "What'd I miss?"
"I was just asking if your husband got his limp in the Army."
I gave a wry shrug. "I made one jump too many with the 82nd Airborne. Now I'm in investments. As I mentioned, this is only temporary. We just bought some property out near Hampstead and are going to build a house. I promised Marilyn to take her on a nice vacation once I was out."
"Sounds like fun. Well, you already know we can handle flying with charter operators. What did you have in mind?"
I glanced at Marilyn, and then pressed ahead. "Two trips, actually. The first is to her family in Utica. That won't be any too fancy.", I turned to my wife. "You were saying we need to get Charlie baptized, right? You haven't even joined a church down here, and all your family is up there. We can fly Suzie up with us, take a weekend, give him the bath, and then leave him with your folks while we fly off on our vacation."
"You make that sound so simple!", she answered.
"That's because it is simple.", interjected Taylor smoothly. "Simply give me the dates and I can arrange it. Will you want a car while you're there? Do you plan to stay with family or will you need a room? Any preferences?"
"That's what I've been saying!", I added. "The only reason I want to fly is because seven hours in the car is going to really bother my knee!"
"Okay, that's one trip. What did you have in mind for your vacation trip? That will be just the two of you, correct?"
I nodded. "We talked about that. Neither of us have been to the Bahamas. However, I don't want to just stay in a hotel on the beach. I'm thinking something a little more exotic."
Both women asked the same thing at the same time, "Just how exotic?", although Marilyn asked it in a much more suspicious tone.
"Okay, I'm thinking a private villa of some sort, on the beach, but private. Not too private, though, since we'll want to go into town and see the sights or whatever. No desert islands. Is that sort of thing possible?"
Taylor nodded. "Certainly. The only question is how fancy you want to be and when you want to go. Some times of the year are more popular and more expensive, or might already be booked. The Bahamas are actually a bunch of islands, although quite a few have small airstrips that private jets can fly in and out of."
"How much lead time do we have to give you?"
"Well, I would prefer a few weeks, but I can show you some ideas in a day or two."
I smiled at Marilyn and nodded. "So I'm not actually as crazy as my wife thinks I am."