Kenny Ch. 03

A very bemused Kenny decided to do an evaluation of the area and the equipment that he would be responsible for. He had Marta make him a map of the boundaries of the property and went to check it out. The lodge was located on a well wooded and hilly area. Bulldozers had leveled areas skillfully to keep most of the trees intact and to allow the outlying cabins to have privacy amid the vegetation. There were several outbuildings that saw little use now. Most of what they had stored had been moved to the large barn. Some areas had obviously been planted with specific flowering bushes and plants and had been allowed to become overgrown. Ken made his own map of these areas for future attention. When he got back to the barn he found that besides the tractor and all of its attachments there was a lot of other lawn equipment in it as well as a large Ford truck. He had seen the truck when he was working on the Tractor of course, but he had not paid it much attention then.

Now he looked in the dash and found that it was a 1997 Ford F350 with a 7.3 liter Powerstroke Diesel. It was a crew cab truck with the older style square body. He had to wonder just what Marta's husband had needed such a large truck for. He found the keys in the ashtray and checked out the mammoth white vehicle. The registration was up to date and the truck seemed to be in good repair, obviously it had been used more recently than the tractor. If he could use this he could move everything from his apartment in one trip.

He decided to check out the cabins next to see what kind of maintenance they needed. Maybe Consuela could help him with that; at least she should have the keys. With that in mind he set out to find the beautiful girl.

As he walked past the main house he saw Consuela's mother at work in the kitchen. Not seeing Consuela he went to her cabin and knocked at the door.

Consuela answered the door quickly. "Yes Mr. Jacobs, how may I help you?"

"Consuela, I asked you to call me Ken please. I would like to see into the cabins and I thought that you might have the keys. I didn't want to bother Mrs. Horne if I didn't have to."

"I do have the keys Mr. Jacobs," she reached to the right of the door and pulled a set of keys off of a hook, "and you are going to be above me so I cannot call you by your first name sir."

"I'm just the maintenance man; I won't be in charge of you Consuela."

"I saw how the Ladies were looking at you sir, you are to be the master here."

"You're imagining things Consuela; they were just thanking me for helping them. Please call me Ken; I would like to be your friend while we are both working here."

The Latin girl immediately got hot, "You think that because I have a baby and no husband that you can have your way with me? I don't need that kind of friend Mr. Jacobs."

"No, no Consuela. I don't think that at all. I would never treat you, or any other woman, that way. I just want to be friendly and work together to help each other. I don't mean anything else by that. I certainly wouldn't think that you would want anything to do with me; no woman does, let alone someone as beautiful as you. I'll leave you alone if you wish, but please don't think that I meant any harm."

Ken took the keys that Consuela was holding out to him and hastily retreated to the cabin at the other end of the row. He had no idea what had just happened. That poor girl must think that all men are like the one who abandoned her. He would have to get a little more information about Consuela from the sisters so that maybe he could keep from upsetting her again.

As Ken moved away Consuela slammed her door in a fury. The noise startled Stefan and the child began to cry. Comforting her baby allowed her to calm down a bit and Consuela was able to examine what had happened. She thought that maybe she had jumped to a wrong conclusion. Ken might just be trying to be friendly. He didn't act like the boys in school had; sniffing after her skirt when they learned that she was pregnant. But she knew that she was not wrong about what the sisters had in mind for him. She could hardly blame them; lord knows that they have had no gentlemen callers. Maybe she was just a little jealous of them and that was why she had reacted as she had.

In the meantime Ken had discovered several leaking faucets and some cabinet doors and drawers that needed work. These would be things that he would do after the landscaping was done for the week. He could see that he would not lack for work here and he would earn his way; but it still seemed too good to be true. He would be able to send more money to Belinda, pay off his bills, and still live much better than he had been doing for a while.

There were 12 cabins total, six in a line across from the main area where Selena, Consuela and Ken lived, and then six more larger cabins situated around the property in their own little clearings. After he closed the door on the last cabin Ken stood there holding the keys in his hand trying to think of a way to get them back to Consuela without having another confrontation with her.

He returned to the main house looking for Marta, and instead found her sister. For some reason, maybe because she no longer looked like his teacher, it was easier to use Mrs. Friedman's first name than it was to use Mrs. Horne's.

"Hi Marcia, I was looking through the cabins and saw a lot of stuff I can do in them. Would you give these keys back to Consuela for me? I don't want to disturb her again."

"What do you mean again Kenny? What did you do?"

"I don't know Marcia. I was just trying to be friendly and she accused me of coming on to her. I don't know why she would think that, I would never treat any woman the way she thought I was treating her. I'm going to move my stuff down to the end cabin and if I can take the truck tonight I can be moved in tomorrow after work. I'll avoid her as much as I can, that's why I want you to give her back the keys Marcia. I'd also like to know if I would be able to use the truck that's in the barn?"

"Yes, yes Kenny. The truck is yours to use whenever you need it. Marta and I are afraid to drive it, it's so big. Can you stay here tonight and go back into town in the morning? We feel much safer with you here at night. And don't worry about Connie, I'm sure that it was just a misunderstanding, I know that you wouldn't try anything with her."

"No, I wouldn't Marcia. I suppose that I can wait until morning to go in; I don't need to be at work until noon. Please explain things to Consuela for me, it would be lousy to have to avoid her all the time." He didn't mention Consuela's insinuation that the Sisters wanted him; that was just too ridiculous to even suggest.

"Thank you Kenny; and I'll see what I can do about Connie. I'm sure that it looked worse than it was."

"Okay Marcia, if you say so. I was really looking forward to working here and I would hate to cause trouble with Consuela."

Marcia moved off to find her sister and talk to Marta about Connie. She didn't really know the girl that well; she and Selena had already been here when Marcia had moved in. Marta should have some idea of what was going on. Whatever had happened, it had hit poor Kenny hard. She knew that his social skills had never been that good, but she could not imagine him being rude to Connie, not her Kenny.

Ken, for his part, went to the mud room to get the key for the end cabin. No matter what Marcia did, he did not want to be so close to the fiery Latin girl and the end cabin had some repairs needed that he could do at night without bothering anyone. When he got to the mudroom where Marta had given him his original key, he discovered another set of keys to all of the cabins. He had not needed to ask Consuela for them at all.

Marcia found her sister in the study taking care of some of the household bills.

"Hey Marta, I thought that Selena and Consuela were okay with Kenny moving in with us?"

Marta put her pen down and looked up at Marcia, "They said that they were Marcia, what happened?"

"From what I can gather, Kenny was trying to be friendly and Connie blew up at him. She accused him of being forward. He is very upset and is worried about having to avoid her. He is even moving to the end cabin to get further away from her. Do you know what is going on?"

"I'm sure that Kenny did nothing wrong, but you need to understand something. Connie spent most of her senior year in high school pregnant. Apparently all the boys thought that meant that she was easy, so our Connie has a very low opinion of the male of the species. Add to that the fact that she herself is the product of rape and then her abandonment by Stefan's father and the poor girl is very touchy. I'll talk to her and to Selena and see if I can at least cool things a bit. I was hoping to build up Kenny's confidence, and this will definitely slow that down."

"No shit Sherlock. She may have set us back a couple of weeks in our ultimate goal. The good side is that Kenny is not likely to get a romantic interest in Connie now. That could have caused trouble too."

"There is that, silver linings and other such sayings. It may also be a good thing that he is not right next to her if we are going to visit him. How soon is he going to move in?"

"Kenny is going to take the truck into town tomorrow and he says that he can be moved in tomorrow night. I asked him to stay here tonight, saying that I would feel safer."

"Good idea, make him feel needed. Well, I'll go ahead and talk to Selena and Connie, no sense putting it off."

"Here, give Connie back her cabin keys. Kenny didn't want to have to do it himself."

"Ahh... the poor boy."

Ken made one load from his former cabin to cabin 6 when he saw Marta and Selena on their way over to Selena's cabin. He went around the back to the barn to stay out of the way as long as he could.

In the barn Ken started examining all the various tools and implements he would need to use. He made up a list of all the things he would need to get to maintain them. Some of the things were stored in large cabinets in the barn, but some things would need to be replaced. Just for motorized items, there was a chain saw, a weed whacker, a gas edger, a self-propelled lawn mower, and at the last Ken found a trail bike tucked away in a corner.

Squirrels had gotten to the wiring for some of the tools and it would all need to be replaced. There were also a large number of non powered tools such as shovels and rakes. Some of the handles would need to be replaced and the shovels and axes could use sharpening as well.

Finally Ken thought that he had waited long enough, and went to take the last load to his new home.