After lunch, where I fortified myself with a couple of beers, we went shopping for Marilyn. Marilyn took longer, a lot longer! Normally I hate shopping with her, this time I detested it! She has to try on everything, wants my opinion on everything, doesn't like what I have to say, and then chews on me before trying something else on. Then we would repeat the process down the street! I'm a guy, a member of a species possessed of both an X and a Y chromosome. Our primary interest in women's dresses is how difficult it will be to remove them!
At one point she came out of the dressing room with something on and turned around in it and actually asked me, "Does it make me look fat?"
I rolled my eyes at this. By now I had lived almost a century, and I knew the answer to this is always NO, but I was losing patience and was hungry. I twirled my fingers and made her turn around a second time. "Yeah, it really makes you look huge! I mean, your butt is simply enormous! I think the Navy is going to retire an aircraft carrier and land planes back there..."
"CARLING!"
"It's fine, dear!"
"You're no help!"
I stood up and gave her a hug. "You are absolutely gorgeous. You can wear anything. Now just pick out something so we can go get a drink!"
"OUT!"
"I saw a bar across the street. See you later!" I scrambled out of range, followed by Joe, leaving her and the shop girl to commiserate about the worthlessness of men. In the end, as I knew she would, she bought two dresses, plus all the necessary underwear and pantyhose required, although she drew the line at shoes. She had a very nice and dressy pair of high heeled sandals that would be fine. A clerk was sent to summon me in the bar, or at least summon my American Express card, so I paid off my bar tab and went to pay for Marilyn's spree and carry everything. I was not asked my opinion on what she had purchased, and was not even shown it!
That had blown the entire afternoon, so after we loaded the car, we stayed and had dinner at the Paradise Beach Hotel, and then we went over to the casino. I prevailed on Marilyn to give me a few hours alone at the high stakes blackjack tables and earned enough to pay for the shopping and some incidentals. I know, I know, what's a billionaire need to count cards for? I didn't gamble often enough to be on anybody's banned list. I cashed my chips in, took a check for a bit over $20,000, and found my wife at the $1 slots. Talk about your differences! We had one last drink, and then went home.
Saturday was actually the first day we had a chance to work on our tans. The weather had cleared and neither of us had any need or inclination to leave Hougomont. We slept late, worked on our tans, swam in the pool, walked on the beach, and took a very strenuous nap in the afternoon. We told each other it was so we would be refreshed in time for the dinner party. That was sort of true. After screwing each other ragged, we did get some real sleep.
While we were walking on the beach, a call came in and was picked up on the answering machine. A car would be sent around at half past seven. Drinks were at eight, and dinner was at nine. That was quite a bit later than Marilyn was used to, although I've always been more in tune with that schedule. At six, before we started getting ready, I cooked up a couple of hot dogs for each of us, to tide us over. We might be dining with the elites of the Bahamas, but around the house, we're incredibly average.
Promptly at seven-thirty a black Lincoln drove up to the front of Hougomont. I was still working on my tie, but Marilyn was still trying to decide on which of the two dresses she was going to wear. She had bought a red number which I liked, and a blue outfit. I finally decided for her by suggesting she wear red tonight and blue next weekend in Washington. There was a knock on the door and Joe went to open it. A large black man was standing there in a dark suit. I glanced out a window and saw the Lincoln idling. I went to the foyer. "Hi, you're here to take us into Nassau?"
"Yes, sir, to Government House.", he replied.
"Well come on in. Mrs. Buckman is going to be a few minutes. Unless you have lights and a siren on that thing, we're going to be fashionably late." I stepped out of the way and motioned him inside. I went over to a mirror and finished with my tie. I turned back to the driver, and asked, "You've taken people to these things before. Is this going to be all right?"
He looked at me and nodded. "That will be fine. Sir Lynden is not that formal."
"Sir Lynden?"
"Sir Lynden Pindling, the Prime Minister."
"Huh. He was knighted?"The driver nodded, and I said, "I don't think I've ever met a knight before. Knowing my luck, I'll spill my drink on him and end up in the dungeon."
The driver smiled. "You'd better not spill your drink then."
"I'll just blame my wife. I presume they do that in the Bahamas, too."
"I think they do that wherever they have husbands and wives, sir."
I laughed and nodded. "I'll hurry her up!"
Considering we were in police custody, so to speak, Joe and Marie were able to stay at Hougomont. I managed to hustle Marilyn out the door fifteen minutes later, and we made it to Government House almost on time. Nobody seemed to think this was a problem. We didn't seem to be dressed improperly. The men were all wearing suits, although theirs were mostly darker, and the women were mostly wearing knee and calf-length dresses. Marilyn's outfit was knee length, and had a V neckline that showed enough cleavage to keep a fellow interested. Our driver let us out of the car and pointed us up the walkway.
It was Assistant Commissioner Javier who found us coming in, and he did the introductions. It seemed like he had definitely risen in the ranks following the capture of the gang on Eleuthera. Well, that was fair enough. He had taken what could have been a very nasty publicity debacle and handled it quite nicely. There were about two dozen people there, but the only two I really paid any attention to were the Prime Minister and the U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, a political appointee of George Bush's whose sole qualifications seemed to be that he had just lost his Senate seat to the Democrats but gave a lot of money to the Republicans.
The dinner was interesting. Both the Ambassador and the Prime Minister seemed curious about the billionaire who had managed to buy a deluxe oceanfront villa without anybody knowing he was there. Some of the other gossip was amusingly catty. It seemed that Sir Lynden was known among his countrymen as the "Father of the Nation", the leader of the country since they gained their independence from Britain back in the Seventies. However, there had been a number of allegations about payoffs from South American drug cartels for allowing shipments through the country, and a recent audit of his accounts showed that he and his wife spent a whole lot more than they earned! Nobody in the Bahamas seemed to care, though, and he remained popular. I wondered what Javier thought about any of that.
The Ambassador, Chic Hecht, got me alone at one point and gave me some tips about living in Washington. He was actually one of those rare politicians who moved back home after his term in office was over. He had business dealings back in Vegas that he had wanted to stay involved in. That was as opposed to Andy Stewart, who had probably put his condo in Cockeysville on the market the day after the election.
Otherwise, we simply drifted around the room and talked to various Bahamian government flunkies and some people from the American Embassy. I gave everybody my standard litany of how much we liked it down here and how I was just a private citizen. A few of the Bahamians wanted to know about my investing in the local economy, perhaps loaning money. I countered by explaining we weren't a bank, but only took equity positions in companies, and we didn't know the local laws regarding that. Everybody promised to get back to me, and I promised (silently) to dump it on Jake Junior.