Tank's Farewell

He waved and headed for the pizza place. We saw him that night dancing in one of the venues.

We met with the planning staff and we set up the wedding. On the top deck at ten in the morning. The ship was invited and warned. The top deck was reserved for adults only because topfree sunbathing was allowed there. Topfree was a new word I learned for sunbathing without a top.

All four ladies wore very colorful halter dresses to the wedding. I wore the white slacks and colorful shirt they picked for me. The briefs said, "Helen".

The ship's officer and I stood near the railing overlooking the next deck down, the pool and the sea. The ladies stood at the most forward railing of the top deck. As the music began to play Helen untied the halter and tucked it inside the high waist of her dress. She walked towards us with her bare breasts proudly on display.

Rose was next and did as her mother. She proudly walked down the aisle as any woman in the audience stripped off her top as well.

Teri and Ayla walked the aisle together. The service was short and to the point. Helen became Mrs. Helen Peterson. When he said, "You may kiss the bride" I kissed Helen, Rose, Teri and then Ayla. We stood in a receiving line for a while, being greeted by all those who had attended. After half an hour I pulled a bottle of sunscreen from my pocket and rubbed it on Helen, front and back. She moved and I rubbed it on Rose, then Teri and Ayla. There were others who volunteered for the duty, but it belonged to me. There were plenty of bare breasted women at the reception. I'm sure most of the men got lotion on their hands.

I had arranged for our dinner to be served in a private room for just the five of us. We had to walk through the main dining room and were greeted by everyone as our wedding party made the trek. They had, of course, covered their breasts when we left the top deck. I had the four women walk before me.

When the door closed behind us I kissed all of them. Helen first and last, I made a very short speech when all the serving staff were outside.

"It may have looked to most of those people like I was marrying Helen, and they were right. I married her for the rest of our lives. I also married each of you for as long as it nurtures you to be married to me. Tomorrow we will be on an island somewhere. Look for a ring you would wear for that long, a symbol of our love and care for each other. Show me the ring and I'll put it on your finger."

That night Helen and I stayed alone. We stood at the railing of our balcony nude and watched the moonlight on the water, listened to the waves and the wind, smelled the salt air. We made love. We talked until the early morning and slept a little.

At nine breakfast was delivered and we ate as we got ready to go ashore. We met the girls on the gangway and wandered into town together.

We hit every jewelry store we saw. In the third one Ayla found her ring. I bought it and put it on her finger.

As we went down the street I stopped. I saw a woman I had known for many years, my ex-wife. She had stepped into a jewelry store up ahead.

"Pete. What's wrong?" Teri asked.

"I just saw my ex-wife up ahead."

"God, we can be so friendly it can blow her mind, if you want." Helen volunteered.

"Here's what you need to know: She wouldn't go with me to Tank's funeral. She said he was dead and it wouldn't matter if we went. She knows nothing about the money."

She came out of the jewelry store and spotted me. She smiled and walked towards me. Ayla and Rose slipped to the side unnoticed.

"Well, look what the cat dragged a long ways from Dip Shit South Dakota." She stuck out her hand to Helen and said, "I'm his ex, Charlotte."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Helen Peterson, his wife." Charlotte's eyebrows went up and she said, "You must have money Honey, cause he sure as shit hasn't got a dime."

"I'd have married him if he didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Pete's a great man. When was your divorce final?"

"February fourth, last year. Why?"

"Cause the twentieth of February last year Pete inherited some money. Since you had already divorced him, he doesn't have to share it with you. I'd like you to meet one of our daughters, Teri ." Charlotte shook her hand and said, "Nice to meet you."

At that moment Ayla bounced into view and kissed me. "Thank you Daddy!" She turned to Charlotte showing her ring. "Look what Daddy bought me! It's real diamonds!"

"Very nice." Charlotte said.

Helen introduced her to Ayla and then Rose came from behind us. She kissed me and her Mom and thanked us for her graduation present. Helen introduced them and Charlotte asked what graduation present.

"Dad and Tank started a Foundation to help kids get a college education. My present is a job at the Foundation. My other present was that Daddy paid for college!"

"You have enough to pay for college for her?"

"For all three of them, just like I did for our three, till Sharon dropped out."

"I was married to you for a long damn time. I'm entitled to some of that money."

"I have some for you. All you earned by keeping me happy and cared for all those years." I pulled a five dollar bill from my pocket and stuffed it down into her cleavage. I turned with my ladies and said, "Don't spend it all in one place."

Bumping into Charlotte didn't ruin the day.

In the final jewelry store we entered I saw what I was looking for. I asked the sales girl to show it to me. I put it on and knew this was the ring I wanted. It was in the shape of a knot. Four braids intertwined around my finger. I turned to Helen and asked, "Do you like this ring?"

She looked for a few seconds and called the girls. "Look! Pete found the perfect ring! It marries him to all of us and all of us to each other." They oooooed and aaahhhed for a while and I asked if the jeweler did engraving. He did. I had him put an "H" on one strand, an "A" on one strand, an "R" on one strand and a "T" on one strand. HART. When he was done I wore it. We knew what it meant. It didn't look like a typical wedding band, but we didn't have a typical marriage.

For the rest of the cruise we had fun. Helen and I watched the girls frolic and once in a while we frolicked too. We danced and swam and tanned and did just about anything that struck our fancy.

When we arrived back in Hot Springs Keys was ready for us. She had prepared an office for the Foundation in Tank's old house. The sign on the front door had a picture of a tank on it and the words "The Tank Rogers Educational Foundation." Rose moved in and took over. Helen and I volunteered as her staff. Helen did office work and I was the gofer.

Within a month we had applications from college students scattered all over the country. We got a few that just didn't feel right to Rose. Rather than turn them down she gave me the files and I went to visit them. The third one I visited had filed as a single female, 28, poor family and working retail to make ends meet. Her address turned out to be a box in a copy center. I watched it until she collected her mail and came out to drive away in a year old Mercedes.

I followed her to a retail store and saw her park in a reserved spot. When I went inside I saw her sitting behind a desk in a glass office. A sales clerk helped me look at some things in the store and casually I asked about the woman behind the desk.

"She's the owner's daughter. When he isn't expected she sits in there."

"Is she an assistant manager or something?"

"No. She's the owner's daughter."

"Don't you all work on commission?"

"Sort of, yes."

"Sort of? How does that work?"

"All the sales for the day get totaled and the commission gets split between how ever many girls work that day."

"Is she working?"

"She's on the clock."

I had taken enough of her time. I bought one item. Outside I sat in my rental car and watched the store. At a quarter to five Daddy showed up and his daughter was straightening clothes on a rack. I followed him into the store.

His daughter approached me. "May I help you, Sir?"

"I'd like to speak to the owner or manager if that's possible."

He stopped on his way to the office and came back. "I'm the owner. How may I help you?"

"With a private conversation, I may be able to help you. May I have a few minutes of your time?"

"Is this a sales call?"

"No. I don't sell. I give things away. Ten minutes?"

He turned and went into his office. I followed. He closed the door. When we were seated I gave him my file on his daughter's application. He looked it over and said, "Right name but wrong address. The information is wrong as well."

"The address is at a copy center. The young woman who greeted me when I came into your store picked up the mail from the box and came here. She drives the silver Mercedes parked outside.

He motioned to the young woman to come to the office. She came in and was quite polite, asking, "Yes, Mr. Carlson. May I help?"

"Yes, Linda, Please have a seat." He didn't introduce us. Linda sat. Daddy asked, "Linda do you want to go to college?"

"Yes! You know I do."

"Have you applied anywhere?"

"No, not yet."

"I'm afraid you have lied to me. I can forgive that. What makes it worse is that you lied to him." He pointed at me. "You applied for scholarship money and lied on the application. Are you twenty-eight? Do you live in a studio apartment?"

"I can explain."

He held his hands up and she stopped. "You can go to jail. Tell me why you did this and I'll see if I can rescue you one more time."

"A friend of mine, Donna Franklyn, found a notice for a new grant or scholarship program. We read it over and they'll pay for rent, tuition, books and living expenses. When you graduate you pay them a small percentage of your earnings for five years. It's like free money! I could go away to a good school long enough to get married and do it all for free!"

"So, you would take the Foundation's money to go look for a husband with no intention of paying them back?"

"They made the rules. Free money is free money."

"Is what you make here free money?"

"No. I work here." I shook my head. They both looked at me.

"I don't think she's telling you the whole story. I think I can prove what I say. May I?"

He nodded. I stepped outside the office and motioned the sales staff together. "Get all your sales slips for today. Just the ones you sold. Don't hold any you didn't personally sell. When you have them come to the office."

One of the girls asked, "Are we in trouble?" I shook my head and went back into the office.

"Well?" Mr. Carlson asked.

"They're gathering evidence. It may take a couple of minutes."

We waited. When the knock came Mr. Carlson motioned them inside. As they came in I said to his daughter, "Please go get all your sales receipts for today." She got up and walked slowly from the room towards the cask register.

I said, "I arrived when she did. Until fifteen minutes before you arrived she sat behind your desk. She didn't serve a single customer. She earns money by letting these ladies make all the sales and then splitting all the commissions." Mr. Carlson was angry. He asked, "Have any of you ever seen her make a sale?"

No one nodded.

"One of you go get something that costs over two hundred dollars. Bring it to me please." The young woman I had spoken to was out and back in less than a minute. She held a black dress in her hands.

Mr. Carlson called out, "Linda, come here please."

As she came through the doors she said, "I can't find them."

"It's Ok. Please go ring this up for me, would you. Mr. Peterson, if you'll give her your credit card Linda will handle it for you."

I gave her my credit card. At the door with the dress in one hand and my credit card in the other she burst into tears. "I can't do it! I don't know how!"

Mr. Carlson took my card from his daughter and handed the card and my file back to me. "I'm sorry you had to come all this way to wake me up. There is no excuse for my behavior. Things will change and starting now. Ladies from now on initial your sales slips. Commissions will be determined by your sales, not divided. Each of you will receive a thousand dollars to compensate you for what my daughter stole from you."

On my way back to the airport I called Rose and made my report. She gave me another application to check out. I flew to San Antonio.

The young man who had applied was the son of a civilian who worked for the U.S. Air Force. He had been killed in a freak motor pool accident. This nineteen year old had no family in the US and the insurance money was quickly running out. I visited his apartment. I saw his Dad's things partially packed in boxes, his college books and papers scattered here and there and a tired young man. I checked with his boss at the market where he bagged groceries. Everything said, "He's perfect for us."

I called Rose and said, "Fund him. I'll give him some cash to tide him over. Don't count it in his total."

Rose got him into a good school and we funded him through the Masters.

I spend about a week every two months on the road. I don't look like an investigator. I love finding kids like Jose and giving them a hand up. On the wall of Rose's office there are copies of checks we have received from our kids. They graduate, get jobs and send us ten percent of their gross. Those checks go back into the fund and help other kids. The Foundation now owns four apartment buildings for our kids to live in.

Helen and I have attended sixteen graduations for our kids. Rose has been with us for some of those. Ayla and Teri don't attend graduations. They attend weddings. We always give special gifts and the cards are signed, From Tank and his Family." Maybe there never will be farewell to Tank.