Lloyd got us loaded and settled in, with me in the copilot's seat (I made a solemn promise not to touch a damn thing!) and Marilyn and Charlie right behind us. Charlie was turning out to be a good traveler. He didn't cry or fuss much, and seemed to enjoy it all. The trip to New Castle was barely an hour long, and we had hardly gotten up to altitude when it seemed like we were starting down again. It was a little louder than I liked, but what do I know about airplanes. Lloyd kept up a pleasant chatter about the plane as we flew, and it certainly seemed nice and plush.
New Castle turned out to be pretty quick to fly in and out of. Lloyd told me that it was an ex-Army Air Corps base from WW2 that was just on the edge of being commercially viable for scheduled service from an airline. It was big enough and well built enough to handle commercial traffic, but nobody had figured out how to make any money doing it. The airlines mostly used Philly, and northern Delaware was just too small an area to support an alternative airport. When we landed and taxied to the terminal, we just parked and Lloyd and I climbed out. A door to the side of the terminal opened, and Suzie came out, looking quite bewildered. I waved to her and she just stared at me. I motioned her forward, and she came closer, dragging a suitcase on wheels.
"Hey, there kiddo, you look surprised!"
She stared at me. "When you said we were flying, I thought you meant in a real airplane!"
Lloyd rolled his eyes. I said, "Suzie, this is a real airplane. You think I can charter a 747?"
"You chartered this plane?!"
"Come on, let's get on board. We can talk about it later." I took her bag and folded away the handle. Lloyd loaded it aboard, and then motioned for Suzie to get on. This time I sat in the back with Marilyn and Charlie.
As soon as she saw the others, Suzie forgot her questions. She hugged Marilyn and then started playing with her soon-to-be godson. Charlie gurgled happily at her and tugged on her fingers.
As soon as we were loaded, Lloyd got into action and was on the radio, getting us clearance to taxi to a runway and take off. I couldn't complain about the speed or efficiency of everything, and it was a lot more comfortable than flying commercial. A King Air isn't the biggest bird in the sky, but the seats were very nice and they sure beat six across seating in the tail end of an overloaded 727.
We arrived at the Oneida County Airport after another couple of hours, and I marveled at it all. We had gotten to Westminster just a bit before nine this morning, and now it was just barely afternoon. If we had tried to do this all flying commercial it would have taken all day to go through two airports, and we would have ended up an hour away from Utica. After 9/11 you could add another four to five hours in security checkpoints. This was so much better!
We hadn't talked about it during the flight, since I didn't want to get into it with Lloyd, and it was still a bit noisy. Suzie's mystification increased when she found a Caddy waiting for us at the airport's terminal (a shed with delusions of grandeur!) I was able to drive the car up to the airplane and Lloyd helped me load everything up. Then he took off with a promise to return Sunday afternoon at 2:30. That would give us enough time on Sunday to baptize Buster and then have a nice dinner.
We drove over to the Sheraton and put Suzie in her room, and then went up to ours, which was a small suite. It's not that we were being snobby, but the suite gave us a place to put Charlie in his crib. No, we hadn't brought the crib. I had been able to keep Marilyn from packing that, too. No, we would use one provided by the hotel. Suzie simply dumped her stuff in her room and followed us up.
She looked around the suite, and simply said, "Okay, what gives?"
"Hmm?", I asked blandly. I went into the bedroom and returned with a bottle of whiskey from my suitcase. "Drinks, you two?"
"Please!", called out my wife. Suzie simply nodded.
I found an ice bucket and sent Suzie down the hallway. "Find us some ice and I'll tell you all about it."
"What about lunch?", asked Marilyn.
"Are you hungry?"
"Yes."
"Okay." I took the ice bucket back from my sister. "Let's go downstairs and have lunch, and we can talk there."
Marilyn changed Charlie while Suzie watched, and then we loaded him into the stroller and headed out. We'd have a nice lunch, a drink or two, and then head over to the Lefleurs.
We made it to the dining room and didn't have to wait. Charlie was behaving well, so we just gave him a bottle. The rest of us ordered sandwiches and beers. Finally, Suzie wouldn't be put off any longer. "Okay, no more stalling. What's with the private planes and the Cadillac and the suite at the Sheraton? Did you guys suddenly become rich or something?"
Marilyn gave a bit of a shrug and simply pointed at me. I looked at my sister and gave a smile. "Close enough. I've been investing in the stock market since I was a kid, and I've done well."
"Like what? How well? Are you a millionaire or something?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I am.", I answered.
Suzie just stared at me for a second or two. "Are you serious?"
"You bet! Now, you have to promise not to tell anybody. This is just private, between family members and a very, very few friends. Promise me you won't blab it to anybody."
Suzie gave a big grin. "Won't Mom be surprised! Or do they know already?"
Marilyn and I looked at each other, but we weren't smiling. I turned back to my baby sister. "See? That's why I said not to say anything. No, I've never told them, and I don't want to tell them. I haven't talked to them in four years. Can you think of anything good that would happen if they knew I had money and had moved home?"
"You moved home!?"
"I thought we told you that. We're living in Cockeysville. We bought some property in Hereford and plan to build a house in the spring."
"HOLY SHIT!", she exclaimed, a little too loudly. Several people turned their heads to look at her, and she gave a guilty look and lowered her voice. "Holy shit! I had no idea!"
"We moved back a couple of months ago, when I got out of the Army. We're renting a town house right now. When you come home for the summer, you'll have to come out. The development even has a pool."
"Cool!" Suzie turned to Marilyn. "I had no idea!"
"Neither did I! He kept it a secret, even from his wife!", grumped Marilyn.
I shrugged and failed to look all that sorry. "Yeah? Well, there's a reason for that. People act differently when they think you're rich. I have friends now that I would have never had if everybody had known I had money, and the friends I did have I would never know why they had become my friends."
My sister looked startled at that, and when she glanced over at Marilyn, my wife shrugged and nodded in agreement. "I love your brother, but I don't know what I would have done if I had known he was rich when I met him. What if I had been too afraid to even talk to him? Or what if some beautiful blonde had been chatting him up instead?"
I smiled at my wife. "That wasn't a concern. I prefer brunettes ... Ouch!" Marilyn had slugged me in the shoulder at that comment. I looked back at my sister. "It's just, well, keep it under wraps, okay?"
"Just how rich are you?"
I shook my head. "Does it matter? I'm rich enough I can fly on chartered airplanes and take my wife on nice vacations. How rich do you need to be?"