Stormwatch - A Serene Summer Day

Now he was living in a beautiful, warm, in-law suite in his daughter's home with the greatest son-in-law a man could wish for, fishing any time he wants, a cabin of his own... and a twenty-one-year-old... what is she to him? Their relationship never made any sense to him, but he loves every minute of it. She's a beautiful, curvaceous brunette woman, a large breasted darling who could have any man at her beck and call with a snap of her fingers and a wiggle of her shapely hips and round firm ass, but here she is spending her time with a broken-down old welder. And she's smart too, she took some classes at the local community college to learn how to care for him and Josh, she said, "someone has to know how to care of you busted up old guys," and she aced all of her classes. She liked the classes so much she's now planning on going back to school for more and wants to go into nursing as a profession.

After a tour of the village, they ended up on route 39 passing farm after farm, the only interruption was the tiny village of Morton's Corners where they stopped to look at the general store and Mike got to meet the proprietors Elmer and Elinore Ingvist. "Hi Audrey," said the silver-haired seventy year old Elinore, "Camping this weekend?"

"Yep, this is my patient, Mike van Köster."

"You must be Veronica's father," said Ellie as they shook hands, "It's so good to meet you! When is that beautiful daughter of yours going to marry my son?"

"Well, she was planning to marry Josh, I didn't know there was another..."

"I'm just kidding, Josh has been my son even before Doc Jarecki bought that patch across the street from him."

Relieved, Mike looked around, it's one of those great old stores that has everything. He noticed nearly a dozen washboards of four different sizes hanging on the wall behind the counter. "I didn't realize you had a lot of jug bands in the area. Are those washboards made for different keys?"

"Heavens no! They're still used for washing delicates the old-fashioned way, in fact they're becoming more popular for that. Environmentally friendly I'm told." She went to one of the boards hanging on the wall and showed that it was a cover for a small cabinet, and it swung open on hinges. "Crafters love them."

"That is right crafty! Give me two of them, I'm going to put Josh's wood working tools to use."

After that stop they ended up on the road again, heading west, away from the cabin. "Getting a little peckish?" Audrey asked.

"I could eat," said Mike. He didn't eat much at breakfast because his heart was still all a-flutter after waking up next to Audrey.

"I know a great sandwich shop in Gowanda," said Audrey as they sped along.

Mike looked out at the fields of corn and said, "Knee high by the fourth of July," and those fields were at least that tall.

"You a farmer Grandpa?" asked Audrey.

"Nope, in fact that's all I know about farming."

They had stopped in a little pizzeria in the village of Gowanda and got a couple of sub sandwiches for a picnic lunch and the smell of those capicola delights was driving them crazy with hunger as they now headed to Audrey's "picnic spot."

"We're almost to my private beach," said Audrey with a wink as they headed back toward their cabin on Zoar Valley road. Finally, she came to a pull-off and parked on a gravel lot right next to Connoisarauley Creek. After a short walk through a wooded area, they came to a wide sandy beach where Connoisarauley Creek met the larger Cattaraugus Creek. "This is Doctor Jarecki's secret fishing spot," she said as she started to take off her clothes.

Mike didn't know if he was going to tell her to stop. He should say "Stop! What are you doing?" but he didn't want to. It quickly became apparent that she was wearing a bikini under her jeans and T-shirt.

Seeing the look on Mike's face she giggled, "What - do you think I was getting nekkid?"

He shrugged, "there's always hope."

"Maybe someday," Audrey said with a playful smile. She spread out the blanket they brought and sat down for their lunch. The sandwiches were capicola, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, with too much oil on a fresh baked Italian read with a crunchy crust. They were cool and greasy, just the way Mike likes his subs, and the garlic in the salad oil was overpowering and so delicious! Washed down with ice cold Pepsi and to Mike it was the feast of kings.

After lunch they lay back on their blankets and watched the clouds. They were big and puffy, and many were recognizable shapes that Audrey always saw first. Mike rolled on his side and let his eyes rove over Audrey's luscious body, and soon she rolled on her side to look at him. As they gazed into each other's eyes like a pair of mooning teenagers Audrey asked, "What are you thinking about right now?"

Mike smiled, he couldn't tell her, he couldn't tell himself what he was thinking. She urged him again with a "Hmmm?" He finally lied, "Your boobs."

"That's not true," she said, his eyes told her that he was thinking about something different.

"Yes, it is!" he lied, "They're beautiful." That part is the truth, most women in his life are modestly endowed, but Audrey's breasts are large and full. They spilled over the top of her bras and jiggled when she walked. He suspected that she had some bras that were the wrong size, and she wore them to tease him because when she goes jogging with Veronica or when she's fishing with Josh her breasts are modestly supported and encased. Now they were laying one atop the other as she laid on her side and it looked so sexy. It was best to concentrate on that.

"If I tell you my secret, will you tell me yours?" she asked.

"Ok, I promise to tell, what is your secret?"

"I..." she looked like she was going to cry. "I call you grandpa so no one will know how I really feel about you."

Mike found a clean napkin and dabbed the tear away from the corner of her eye. What she just admitted made his heart soar and made him very scared at the same time. "My secret is that I like it when you call me grandpa for the same reason, so no one will know how I truly feel about you." He leaned forward and kissed her on the lips and felt her melt in relief as they kissed. "I think we have the same secret," he whispered.

"What do we do?" she said, her voice shaking in fear.

He smiled and softly said, "I don't know, but it sure is fun."

Audrey sighed softly and said, "yes, it is... grandpa."

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

After spending time with the Friedmans, Terri, Andi, and Veronica walked back to the pond and when they got there, they found that Paul Jarecki and his dog Wonka had joined the kids in the water. Paul is tall and slim with narrow set eyes and a hook nose who was madly in love with the woman and children he was blessed with not very long ago. Josh had marked out a swimming area with ropes and buoys made from old Clorox jugs and inside that area the pond was a churning froth of splashing children. The youngest were staying nearest the bank, splashing and playing in the mud or throwing a tennis ball into the pond for Paul's dog Wonka, their older siblings were either racing back and forth on the lawn running into the pond at full speed or on to the dock to dive.

"Mom! Lookat me swim! Lookat me!" cried both twins Sandy and Madeline as they waded out chest deep and practiced their arm strokes like "Unka Josh" taught them.

"Show mommy your kick boards," said their dad, Dr. Paul Jerecki who sat in the water nearby making sure they weren't run over by the bigger kids.

"Yeah! Mommy watch!" The twins ran up to the lawn and grabbed a couple of small foam flotation boards and dashed back out into the pond. Instead of trying to lay on them as most kids would do, they held them out at arm's length and lay face down in the water blowing bubbles and kicking their legs, an important part in learning to swim properly.

"Very good!" cheered their mom Andi who scooped their little brother Danny out of his stroller and waded knee deep into the pond.

"Is Danny going swimmin'?" chirped the twins as they splashed up to their mom and watched her lower Danny to the pond to get his tiny feet wet. He squealed and kicked at the cool, refreshing water.

"No, I don't think so," said Andi, a doctor herself. "Pond water is yucky for little babies, we'll give him a bath back at our cabin. You guys go swim and listen to your dad and Uncle Josh."

"Kay!" then they cried the battle cry of all swimming children, "Watch me!"

Josh had marked a spot on the dock where he allowed the older kids to "dive" from, and he was doing a yeoman's job insuring they didn't land on each other. The water was chest deep for him where he stood next to the dock

Veronica and Terri could only watch in amazement; neither of them knew of this side of Josh. "Damn," muttered Terri. "I'd ask him what he did on the weekend, and he would just say "Ah wuz fishin'." Her imitation of Josh's drawl was pretty good.

Veronica shook her head and smiled broadly, her man! She couldn't contain her happiness as she walked out on the dock and knelt down to kiss Josh whose chin came up to the edge of the dock. It's a floating dock so the myriad of Friedman kids running on the dock made it wobble and rock. "What's that smile for lil' lady?" Josh asked.

"I didn't know you had a soft spot for kids," she said as they kissed.

"You didn't ask," he said. He nearly pulled her into the pond as he broke their kiss trying to prevent Morgan from diving onto his sister June.

"Do we have a window fan for their cabin?" asked Veronica, "and Billie wants a gamebox, whatever that is."

"There are two box fans in the garage, the game box is in the cabinet next to the fireplace, and take them another tank of propane, I think theirs is low. You can take the Willies if you want."

With a quick goodbye peck Veronica sprinted back to Terri and shouted, "We got the Jeep!"

A few minutes later, with everything loaded and the golf cart moved out of the way, Veronica prepared for her first solo flight on Josh's 1949 Willies CJ-2a Jeep. Terri's been in it before, this was the Jeep in which she wanted to ride topless as she and Josh cruised the back roads of the Southern Tier of Western New York last summer. It was nearly original, with only an aftermarket set of seatbelts and safari top added. Veronica has driven standard before, but never a vehicle with a manual choke. Her dad's old snow blower had a manual choke so this should work the same way, and she figured it out. That part was easy, the hard part was remembering that the starter button was on the floor. Set the brakes, all three shift levers in neutral, pull the choke out all the way then push it halfway in, pump the gas once then halfway and hold it, then with the left foot hit the starter button. The old machine roared to life and with a few minor coughs, and as Veronica eased the choke in slowly and Terri said, "You know how to work these old machines... I thought you were younger than that."

Veronica glared at Terri as they backed out of the driveway and turned toward the path to head back toward Cabin #8. Veronica never knew what life was like before power steering, but she learned quickly and soon the old veteran was soon cruising through the forest.

Veronica took Terri the long way, the path is actually a big, winding, mile long loop where Veronica goes jogging every morning. She pointed out the remains of the demolished cabins, one of which is planned for rebuilding and another that only needs a roof and a new floor. Another spot where the cabin was gone had a level gravel parking pad, picnic table, firepit, and one of those metal monopole charcoal grills you would see in older parks. In the deepest part of the woods, they came across what looked to Veronica like a picnic shelter, but Terri insisted that it was a chapel, it was a pavilion but only had a small stage at the rear, the rest was a dirt floor.

Rounding a corner and turning left at a Y in the road they arrived at Cabin 8 where they found the Friedmans still setting up. They dropped off the fans, propane, a few empty plastic jugs to collect spring water at the nearby spring, and a large wooden box filled with decks of cards, a chess/checkers set, and board games of every kind to a grateful Billie. Then saying their goodbyes, they went back to look at that open pavilion bringing Marj along with them to inspect the place.

"This is the place," said Veronica as she stood where she thought the bride and groom should stand. It wasn't a ruined cabin, it was a nice pavilion, open sided with a stage at one end. The scouts must have had shows and maybe church services here. What looked like rows of stumps were log sections that were set in the ground up on end, Veronica assumed there were boards nailed to the stumps to make benches. "This is where Josh and I will have our real wedding."

"It is kind of dark in here," said Terri as she and Marj tried to glean some history from the carvings in the beams that held the roof up.

"It'll be fall," said Veronica, "There will be fewer leaves on the trees, and if we do it in the morning, the sunlight will come in from that direction lighting us up," she said as she pointed up the main aisle toward the eastern horizon.

"You want to have a morning ceremony?" asked Marj.

"More time to honeymoon," said Veronica with a waggle of an eyebrow. "I was thinking a Saturday morning, then the gang from work can come. What's that field right there between the trees?"

"Looks like a ball diamond," said Terri as she stood on a stump to look. There was a tall chain link fence on one end of the field, it had to be a softball diamond.

"That would be a great parking lot for the guests," said Marj as she stepped up on a stump to look. The field is near Trevette Road, they could add a driveway.

"I'll see if Andi and Paul have a brush-hog to clear the undergrowth," said Veronica.

"I've got to get back and get dinner started," said Marj who has a tribe to feed.

By the time Veronica and Terri got Marj back to her cabin, Ant had dinner almost ready, the kids were in their family's cabin and were changing out of their wet bathing suits, Ant had a fire going and the oldest girls Linda and Billie were helping him get dinner ready. Marj hopped off the jeep and said, "This is why we're here Ronnie, Ant works so hard at Andalon he misses things like this."

When they got back to the cabin Josh was setting the picnic table for dinner, he had an umbrella up over the table and two large citronella candles burning on the table and a Coleman stove heating up a pan full of oil sitting at the end of the table. "Where was Josh's pickup all day?" asked Terri, who noticed that it was back as they returned his prized jeep to the garage.

"That was..." Veronica caught herself, she just realized that no one told Terri about Audrey, even though Audrey has been back in Western New York for weeks. "That was my dad," Veronica finally finished. "He went into town to get a plastic shed to store his fishing poles."

"Wha?"

"They left just before you got here, and it looks like they spent quite a day in town."

"They who?" asked Terri. From across the pond could come the sound of the plastic shed banging and bumping as it was being jostled into position, accompanied by laughter. "Sounds like he's got company."

Josh came up behind Veronica and put his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear, "Come on, you can't deny him that kind of happiness. Either of them."

"I know," she whispered.

Just then the sound of a feminine voice floated from across the pond, "Oh Mike, you're horrible... do that again." followed by peals of laughter.

"Let's feed the kids," sighed Veronica and she walked over to the porch where a triangle bell straight from a western movie was hanging from the edge of the porch roof. She took the striker and rattled it around the triangle and yelled "Supperrrr!"

"Coming!" came the cry from across the lake. Suddenly the porch on the cabin across the pond was illuminated by the gentle yellow glow of a bug light and after a moment the sound of oars splashing and the sound of a feminine voice calling "Stroke! Stroke! ... what? I can't believe you said that you dirty old man! Stroke! Stop it, you're making me laugh... Stroke!"

"This is killing me," grinned Terri, "I can't wait to see who this is."

In the gathering dark of the evening two figures appeared coming up from the pond, the short feminine looking shadow said, "I have to go wash up," and dashed for the cabin. Mike stepped into the circle of candlelight while at the end of the table Josh fired up the Coleman stove and started to fry the fish.

Veronica handled the introductions, "Terri, this is my dad, Mike von Köster. Dad, this is my friend from work, Terri McCarthy."

"Hi Mike," said Terri. "Who's your little buddy? Sounds like she likes you."

"Terri!" Veronica snarled.

"We knew it was going to happen," Josh muttered in a sing-song voice.

Mike's voice suddenly grew very cold, and his handshake grew very firm. "She's my friend... we're very close." The last time Veronica heard her dad's voice that cold was when he found that Maureen, Veronica's sister, cleaned out his savings account.

Terri immediately knew that she had gone too far. A shadow stepped out of the cabin, stepped into the candlelight said nervously said, "Terri... it's me."

Terri looked, blinked, looked again and suddenly recognition dawned on her. "Audrey?" Terri gasped. She practically shoved Mike aside to get to Audrey. "I didn't recognize you with your hair all normal n' shit! I was afraid you were going to be someone awful, eh?"

"I thought you hated me," gasped Audrey as Terri hugged her.

"Maybe for those awesome boobs, but I never hated you," said Terri. "I hated your dad, he was an asshole, he was always hitting on me n' shit."

"Mom was worse," said Audrey relieved to find that the woman she wondered about for years didn't hate her.

"You mom was?" gasped Terri as they sat down and began talking like the old friends that they never were but always wanted to be.

"Gawd yes," said Audrey, then as they leaned close to talk, Josh slipped a paper plate with fresh fried perch fillets in front of them, and Veronica loaded their plates with potato salad and fresh slaw. The two young women didn't notice as they conversed.

As Mike was starting to edge his way onto the picnic table seat next to Audrey, Josh indicated a big comfy folding chair at the head of the table, "Dad, why don't you sit at the head of the table?"

Mike looked a little confused and said, "This is your land, this is your house..."

"Dad," smiled Josh, "this is your family, all of us."

"Including her?" asked Mike as he pointed out Terri.

"Yeah," sighed Veronica, "her too."

"Hey!" said Terri, her nose wrinkling in mock anger.

Josh placed a paper plate with two large fillets at the head of the table. "Here's your smallmouth from yesterday.

Mike sat down with a smile, a tear welling up in a tired eyes, for the first time in such a long, long time all was right with the world. "Thank you, son," he said hoarsely. He and Audrey held hands through dinner, this time atop the table.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

It was a warm, beautiful night, and the girls were gathered on the patio of Veronica and Josh's cabin chattering happily and painting each other's nails while they talked about the upcoming wedding. Linda and Billie, Ant's oldest daughters. Billie is theirs, Linda is their adopted daughter, a slim black girl with long wavy hair who is the same age as Billie and both were in their glory; the most beautiful woman they know, Veronica, and the coolest girl on earth, Terri, were painting their nails, doing their hair, fetching them drinks and snacks. Terri and Veronica remember what it was like to be at that age when they were taller than the boys in their class and their breasts just wouldn't form no matter what prayers they said, what diet they ate, or what exercise they did. Being awkward, geeky, and having a mouth full of braces was tough on a girl and it's amazing any of them make it through that stage.