All Aboard Andi's Dream Ch. 07

Paul rose and took her hand and said, "You did it Jacqui, you really did it!" He was so happy for her he almost cried. The young heartbroken lieutenant he met so long ago was now a full bird colonel and getting polished for her general's star. The two old friends gleefully broke protocol and hugged. "Go take your accolades, ma'am."

"I sure will!" she said, then she walked back to the stage and composed herself. She gave the usual change of command speech, her praise for the members of the wing and her plans for the future, then she turned to Paul and said, "Many of you are going to have some dark days ahead of you. It's no fun, believe me, I was there. I had a friend who had some very dark days in his career also, and we found each other, and we learned how to talk and play a wicked game of racket ball. And we convinced each other to keep going, to keep on doing what needs to be done and to seek help when needed. We gave each other some good advice. When I was flying tankers, I was sure all that was in my future was a 737 with a big heart painted on the tail, and my friend's aspirations weren't even that high. But we hung on, didn't we doc?"

"We did," said Paul.

"And we did ok, didn't we? Here I am up here commander of the greatest wing in the Air Force and there's Doc, with a beautiful wife, two beautiful daughters, a medical practice, a law practice, ten Ford dealerships, an executive chef and a yacht." She paused for a moment, then said, "You win this round, doc, but I ain't done trying!" After the laughter, she continued her speech, asking her troops to look after each other. All Paul could have gotten from that was that there was a suicide problem on base.

Later there was a reception at the officer's club, and Paul took Andi, Yi, and the twins to meet Jacquette. "Damn!" cried Jacki as she hugged Paul, "that uniform looks so good with a goatee!" then her brow furrowed in mock anger as she tugged on his beard, "don't be giving my troops any ideas."

"The DOD directive that allows retirees to wear their uniforms says nothing about AFR 35-10," said Paul as they hugged again. AFR 35-10 was the Air Force Regulation that covered dress and appearance. It was superseded by Air Force Suggestion 36-2903 in 1995 when chief of staff Merrill McPeak destroyed the United States Air Force.

"AFR 35-10 is as dead and gone as your career doc, now, introduce me! I want to meet everyone," cried Jacqui.

"This is my darling bride Andi, I found her in a snow drift, and she allowed me to keep her. Andi, this is my friend Jacqui Davis and what she said was true. Sugar coated but true."

The woman shook hands. "Oh my god you're beautiful!" gushed Jacqui, "and a doctor too?"

"Pulmonologist. I am opening a VA clinic specializing in respiratory issues."

"God bless you! So many troops are coming back from the desert with breathing issues. And who is this?"

"These are my love bugs, this is Sandy..."

"Bug bug."

"And Madeline..."

"Bug bug. Poppa found me in the snow too."

"Momma was mad at him," said Sandy, "but he gave us a ride with his tractor in the snow."

"Now we got chickens!"

"And a dog."

"Thank you girls," said Paul before the twins got wound up. "And this is Yi-jin Carlson, an accomplished chef and the twins governess."

"I heard you were on Chopped! I may have seen you," said Jacquie.

"I got chopped when I failed to put broccoli Rabe in my dessert," said Yi as they shook hands.

"How long are you staying in Minot?"

"We're heading out tomorrow morning," said Paul. "We have Andi's grandma to meet down in Bismark before we head down to Denver and clear out her apartment."

"Thank you so much for coming, it means so much to me," gushed Jacqui.

They didn't stay very long. Everyone wanted Jacqui's time and Paul knew no one else in the room. Jacqui introduced Paul, Andi, and Yi to her commander, and then the commander of the 8th Air Force, along with a senator. The commander of the 8th Air Force was shocked that Paul was a doctor, lawyer, and businessman. "How did you do that?"

"I was alone with time on my hands, and my brother and I inherited several car dealerships from my dad. My brother is a pastor and won't be involved in the dealership operations, but it is his legacy too, and we were getting screwed on taxes by New York State. So I studied, passed the bar, and got our money back. Jacqui forgot to mention that I also raise chickens."

"So how do people address you? Doctor? Counselor?"

"I have nearly five hundred employees now, and I believe that I have met every one, and I've told them all to call me Paul."

After talking a little while with the senator, who sounded like he was going to hit Paul up for money, they said their goodbyes and headed out.

"What do you think?" said Paul. Yi was driving and Paul was sitting in a captain's chair in the second row of the van's seating.

"Boring!" chimed the twins from the back.

"It was very meaningful," said Yi. "I like how the Air Force keeps the ceremony and symbolism short and to the point."

"Jacqui was nice, where did you meet her?" asked Andi.

"At the bar at the O club. Melony had died and Jacquie's husband left her, so we were crying in our beers when we met. We kind of propped each other up for a long time."

"She was hot for you," said Yi.

"No she wasn't. I'm like her brother."

"Then she's hot for a little family action," said Andi.

"Agreed," said Yi. "I know hot when I see it."

"You two are crazy," said Paul.

As they headed south on US 83, Paul said, "Look at the sun!"

They looked toward the setting sun and saw a bright white halo around it and at the three and nine o'clock positions there was a ball of bright white light. It looked like there were three setting suns. "That's called a Sundog," said Andi. "It's from the sunshine coming through the ice crystals hanging in the air."

He directed them to the Hacienda, a fantastic restaurant in a tiny town outside of Minot. The Hacienda was famous for its steaks, which all came from locally raised beef, vegetables were locally grown and the prices were incredible. "I really miss this place," said Paul. "Especially the French Baked Potato."

Yi, who had just come back from a tour of the kitchen, said, "they put the whole potato in the deep frier!"

"It comes out perfectly," said Paul as their meals came. The twins had corn dogs, mostly because to a five-year-old, the best food comes on a stick. Andi had the six-ounce sirloin, Yi had the broiled walleye, and Paul had the bone-in ribeye, and each bite was exquisite. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to Minot because Paul was sure he'd never come back. But then, that's what he said last time he ate at the Hacienda.

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Driving to Bismark the next morning, just after sunrise, they passed a small collection of buildings next to the only hill that Yi has seen since she got to Minot. Several signs advertised houses for sale (cheap) and the sign said that the name of the town was "Radar Base." "They named a town Radar Base?" Yi asked.

"No, they closed a radar base and made it a town," said Paul. "Minot Air Force Station was a big radar site, that was built before the bomber base. There were huge, round radar domes on top of the hill, but they were torn out in the 80s. The houses for sale are the old base housing."

They drove past the hill and saw the housing, which looked like any other base Yi had been on when her dad was still on active duty. "Who would want to live here? It's out in the middle of nowhere," gasped Yi.

"You ain't seen nothing yet," said Andi, and they continued south. They passed the small town of Max and Yi had a good laugh at the name of the city (all incorporated settlements in North Dakota are cities) and there was a giant can of beer on a tiny frozen lake in front of the little city. The beer can was easily six feet tall. "I see the beer ad, where's the bar?" she asked.

"That's a betting pool," said Paul. "They place bets on the date that the ice will melt and the beer can breaks through the ice."

"That's a funny name for a town."

"Meh, Maxbass is funnier," said Andi, who was driving.

"NO! There's a Maxbass? Is there a lot of bass fishing?"

"It was named after Max Bass, an officer for the Great Northern Railroad that brought many immigrants into the state in the early 1900s," said Paul.

"What about Max?" asked Yi.

"That was named after Max Freitag who claimed to own the post office," said Paul.

"You're kidding me."

"What's your favorite town girls?" asked Andi. "The one GG showed you last time we were here?"

"Carpio!" shouted the twins.

"Oh god, I forgot about that one," laughed Paul.

"Let me guess," said Yi. "It was named after Guiseppe Carpio who invented the Uff Da Pizza?"

"No," said Andi. "Most towns name their post offices after their town name. Carpio is named after their post office."

"What?" Now Yi was confused.

"They didn't have a post office building," said Paul, "so the Soo line railroad parked a Rail Post Office car there. They had a Car P. O. and that's how they got the name."

"You're such a dak," chuckled Andi, as she held hands with Paul.

"Oh, fer sweet," said Paul, a common expression among girls in North Dakota.

"Yi, look, over there," said Paul, pointing to the right. To the right of them was a huge, long lake.

"Is that Sakakawea?"

"That's just the east end of it. It extends west to the Montana border. There's towns on this lake that exist primarily to support sport fishing."

Andi nodded in agreement. "Van Hook is one," she said.

"I am going to fish that!" said Yi.

"That walleye you had at the Hacienda came from this lake," said Paul.

"I am going to fish this lake empty."

The road became a causeway between two lakes, Lake Sakakawea to their right and Lake Audubon to their left. Lake Audubon was frozen and there were easily two dozen ice fishing huts scattered across the lake, along with several pickup trucks and vans. "They take their ice fishing seriously here too," said Paul.

Yi took several photos and sent them to Kenny, hoping he'd agree to a fishing tour of the area.

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"GG!" shrieked the twins as they dashed up the driveway to hug their Great Grandmother Elinore Olson. Great Grandfather Knute stood on the porch and chuckled at the twin's energy while Paul and Yi stayed back and let Andi and the twins have their time with Andi's grandparents. Sandy and Madeline bounced up and down at Nana's feet, trying to show her their stuffed sailfish while Andi hugged her grandmother.

"Uff da! Come inside, come inside, you'll catch your death," said Nana. "We're having hotdish tonight!"

"YAY!" shouted the twins, and they pushed on Nana, urging her into the house.

"Looks like you're going to have to learn to make hotdish," Paul whispered to Yi.

"What?"

The house was warm and filled with trinkets from years gone by. They sat with GG and Ole and swapped stories all afternoon long. The twins found the toy box that Nana and Ole keep for grandchildren and great grandchildren and were setting up a wooden railroad at Ole's feet while Nana and Andi talked the afternoon away. The sun was setting when Ole rose and said, "Miss Yi, if you will join me, I will teach you how to cook North Dakota cuisine."

She followed Ole into the kitchen and he said, "we will make knoephla soup, hot dish, and salad for dessert."

"Salad for dessert?"

"Ja, you betcha. Andi's favorite salad."

Yi and Ole spent a long time in the kitchen and Paul heard a lot of laughter coming from there as the old Norwegian insurance salesman taught the young Korean chef her way around a NoDak kitchen.

In the living room, Andi told Nana about her new clinic and how she couldn't wait to get it fully functional, and her new home. "You have to come and see it," said Andi. "We have room for you and Grandpa, and mom and Harold, and Yi, and still have room for anyone."

"Your grandpa and I aren't so much for traveling anymore, but your videos are wonderful, we want to see Niagara falls in the spring!" said Nana.

"When we get back we're going to ride the Maid of the Mist and go right up to the base of the falls."

"That sounds like fun deary, for you, not for Knute and I. We get dizzy watching police chases on TV shows." Then the sweet old Norwegian smiled and said, "how's an old woman's advice working out for you?"

Andi knew exactly what Nana meant. When she first met Paul she was terrified about her sudden feelings for him and Nana told her that quick engagements ran in the family and Nana told Andi to stop questioning herself and to hold on to Paul "until the angels sing." Andi leaned over and hugged Nana and said, "all my life I've been questioning my feelings and emotions, and where did it get me? When I put my trust in a good man I've been blessed in so many ways, that I can't count them all. If you didn't encourage me to trust him I probably would have ran away as soon as the storm stopped."

"That's not me, that's you, Little Bit, you finally learned how a caring man treats a woman. But now you need to learn how to care for a man. Your first husband never taught you that outside of the bedroom."

"I'd rather not think about that jerk."

"Dinner time!" called Knute from the kitchen.

"Dinnerrrrrrrrrrrrr" sang Sandy as the twins dashed into the kitchen.

Yi set a soup tureen on the table and started ladling a creamy white soup. "This is a variation on potato soup Knute taught me," said Yi. The soup was the only actual challenge of the dinner preparation, and she was proud of it.

Andi tasted the soup and rolled her eyes in pleasure. "Grandpa's Knoephla," she said. Knoephla is a traditional German potato soup with little noodles (buttons). As they were tasting the soup, Yi placed the main course on the table.

"HOT DISH!" cried the twins. To anyone else, it would be called a casserole, but in North Dakota it's hotdish, regardless of what you put in it. It could be cabbage, potatoes and ground chicken. If it were put in a casserole dish and held together with Cream of Something soup, it was hotdish. Yi's variation used ground venison, ground pork, cream of mushroom soup, and lots of tater tots.

"Yi? You actually cooked a tater tot?" chuckled Paul.

"I did it out of love," said Yi and she thought that the tater tot hotdish would be something that Kenny would love. She then put the salad on the table.

"Sketti salad!" gushed Madeline as she looked into the bowl full of noodles. Salad in North Dakota can be anything, and spaghetti salad was one of the twins' favorites. Spaghetti noodles drenched in Italian salad dressing and "salad sprinkle" along with finely chopped tomato, onion and black olives. After refrigeration, it's a cool refreshing salad to take on picnics.

"I should have stopped in a North Dakota kitchen before going on Chopped," said Yi. "It's good training for that show."

"Most North Dakota cooking is using what's left after being snow stuck for two weeks," said Knute. Yi didn't have to ask him what the expression snow stuck means. She's felt it back in Western New York.

Dinner was a success and Miss Ellinore entertained the twins with stories of their mother when she was five. "One time, after playing in the snow, we came inside and gave your momma a bath. I must have turned my back because when I checked on her, she had every toy in this house in the tub with her."

"I did not!" cried Andi, but she knew it was true.

"Such a tomboy," said Knute. "She climbed every tree and bush in the back yard."

"We didn't have any trees in Colorado!" insisted Andi.

"I got a whole forest to climb!" said Sandy.

"Uh huh!" said Madeline. "And a barn to climb!" She had gotten a peek at the stack of hay bales in the upper loft and wanted to climb them. She didn't know that it was hay that was being stored for the neighbor's cows that give her milk every day.

"Are you ready for dessert?" asked Yi as she got up.

"I am," said Paul. "What's for dessert?"

"Salad," said Yi as she put another dish on the table.

Andi's eyes grew enormous when she saw the treat set before her. "Cookie salad!" The ingredients are simple: a can of fruit salad drained, a can of pineapple chunks drained, half a package of fudge stripe cookies crushed, and all the cool whip you can get in the bowl. Mix, chill, serve, and keep your fingers clear. It's going to go fast.

Conversation went on into the night, laughing and telling stories of Andi's childhood over coffee. Finally, Paul rose and cleared the table. In the kitchen, he loaded the dishwasher and filled the sink with the pans that Yi used and washed them by hand. Soon Knute appeared by Paul's side and began drying the dishes. "What was Andi's dad like?" asked Paul.

"Oh that poor guy," sighed Knute. "He went to the Colorado School of Mines and graduated with a degree in Mine Engineering. But he graduated into a flat economy. No new mines and the ones that were open weren't hiring. It was go to Peru or some damn place like that," said Knute. "He could have made damn good money in South America, but he couldn't take Heather and Andi with him, so he gave it all up to keep his family together."

"What did he do?"

"Anything, any job he could get. Anything to put food on the table. Usually auto mechanic. He responded to every National Guard call up for the money. Occasionally Colorado hired him to close up abandoned mines." Knute turned to Paul and said, "That guy had nothing but hard luck, but he never drank, never took it out on Heather and Andi, and always paid the rent on time. I don't know if they ever knew how sad he was inside." Knute sighed and looked out the kitchen window at his frozen lawn. "I don't know how he did it," Knute whispered. "I felt so sad for him..."

"He's Andi's hero," said Paul.

"And it's going to stay that way," said Knute firmly. His expression let Paul know Ole would not tolerate any insulting of Daniel Robert's memory. "A little girl's dad should be her superstar, and it looks like the twins finally have one in you. You need to keep it that way."

"I'm trying. I'm completely new at this and I hope I get it right," sighed Paul.

"That's all any of us can do."

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They left Bismark long before sunrise after a breakfast with GG and Grandpa Knute at the local Kroll's Diner. Krolls was shiny aluminum on the outside and inside it was 1950. From the black and white checker tile floors to the candy apple red metal flake vinyl seating to the individual little jute boxes in each booth, it was a blast from the past.

The meals were huge, GG, Knute, and Andi split a Garden Skillet (mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and green peppers, blended with hash browns, topped with American cheese) Yi and the twins split a Rancher's Omelet (Ham, onions, green peppers, topped with American cheese served with hash browns), and Paul had hamburger steak with two eggs, hash browns, biscuits, & gravy and he shared the biscuits & gravy with the twins.

Afterwards, Paul took a moment to be alone with GG and Knute. "Thank you so much for keeping Andi safe for me, she and the twins are the light of my life and all they do is speak of you."

"Thank you for being so kind to Andi" said GG. "Keep in mind, we're still keeping an eye on you."

"Trust but verify," said Knute.

Paul laughed and patted them on the shoulders, "as it should be. If you need anything, please call. I've been blessed with so much and my most precious blessing never would have happened if you hadn't taken a late night call for help."