Published: 30 Sep 2019

Once there I found out that his check-up had gone really well and the doctor was pleased with his recovery and has allowed him to return to school, as long as Mike promised to take it easy. No gym and no contact sports. His bandages were sufficient coverage for the wounds on his head and he could drive to school, his dad had been starting up and occasionally using his car, so the battery didn’t die. I also found out that neither of his parents were home, and wouldn’t be for about three hours. I found a great way to congratulate him on all his good news.

We were getting cleaned up after and cleaning the only bathroom after ourselves when Mike said, apropos to nothing we had been talking about (the hot sex we had just enjoyed), “I really like your grandfather, since I’ve never had one do you think he’d mind if after we marry I call him Grandfather too?” I had to stop gathering the towels we had used and just look at him for a moment, I mean, I had just found my grandfather and someone else was wanting to claim him also. It only took me a second to realize that the someone wanting to claim Grandfather was the man I loved, the man I would be spending the rest of my life with, and I told him that he sure could, in fact, I loved the idea. That earned me another kiss, but we still had splashed water to wipe up so we hurried before his parents came home.

Mike picked me up to ride to school with him. We both had good days, with both of us passing pop quizzes in history and getting great grades in papers we had turned in for our English classes. Our week continued on good, we’d study together after school until I had to do my shift in the kitchen at the shelter, and then I’d study some more before lights out. I know Mike did also because now with the cell phone Grandfather had bought me we could talk about a passage in a text we were wondering about or a math problem one of us was confused about, plus we could wish each other a good night’s sleep.

On Friday evening I called Grandfather to check in with him. He told me that Carole had sent him some paperwork that would cover his guardianship of me for the week Mike and I would spend with him over our Spring break and they had all been filled out and sent back already, he didn’t want a bureaucratic snafu to mess up our vacation. He told me he had had a safe trip home; his flight was uninterrupted and smooth, and he admitted that he had slept most of the way home. He said his little trip to Denver was one of the most enjoyable experiences of his life. I already knew the other joyous experiences he had had because he had already told me about his marriage to my grandmother and the birth of their daughter. That he had equated meeting me and my friends with those experiences just made my heart swell.

He told me that he hoped that we both could swim because he had arranged for a boat trip during our week there and he had already booked us for a private guided tour of the big museum at Mallory Square. I assured him that we could swim, we had both taken classes at the Y. He asked if we wanted separate bedrooms and when I stuttered, he laughed and told me not to worry, he had A bedroom for us to share, and his staff was looking forward to meeting Mike and me when we got there. We talked some more and laughed some more, and I told him that these phone thingies worked both ways so if he needed to talk to me he could call anytime I wasn’t in school, but for sure I’d be calling on Friday evenings to hear his voice.

The few weeks until our trip were filled with some new experiences for me. Carole took Mike and me shopping for some new clothes one Saturday. Now I have to explain that except for the suit I wore to Carole and Sam’s wedding I had never had new clothes to wear before. Our clothes at the dorm either came from donations to the facility or from the Salvation Army or Goodwill stores. Yes, I had been to a mall and had seen stores on the streets, but to actually shop in them? No. Even in the months Mike and I had been seeing each other, shopping was never a priority. But Carole insisted we needed new clothes to travel down South with.

Grandpa had told me to use the debit card, so I was able to use it to cover my purchases and I insisted that I pay for most of Mike’s too. I rationalized it by telling him that if I hadn’t invited him, he wouldn’t be having to buy new summer type clothes now. That was a fun shopping experience for the two of us and Carole was cheering us on with our choices. The price of things was amazing to me, but Carole told me that these were really good prices and even with new sneakers it really didn’t come to all that much, I guess. When I told Grandpa that Friday night he laughed and told me that he didn’t care what we had spent on clothes and shoes, but if he judged our shopping trip right, he figured we had only gotten the bare necessities and he couldn’t fault us for that, but he might just take us shopping himself when we got down to see him.

I was a bundle of nerves that week before Mike and I were driven by his mom and dad to the airport where we had to ride around the road in front of the terminals to nearly the end of the drive to the general aviation terminal. His parents waited until we were checked in and our two travel bags were taken to the plane. I wasn’t sure what to expect my grandfather’s plane to look like, but it certainly wasn’t the sleek jet that awaited us. I guess I had equated my grandfather’s age with a propeller driven plane, but this jet was sleek and modern, and it looked like something Hollywood developed for a big movie or as a way to get stars from the studio to premiers or a remote location.

There was the pilot and co-pilot to greet us as we climbed the portable staircase to board the plane and a young male steward to escort us to some really comfortable seating in the main cabin. The seats were like overstuffed recliners with built in cup holders in the armrests. He walked us past the twenty seats and showed us the bedroom and the separate restroom in the rear of the plane. Where we had entered was a closet and the little kitchen area, and of course the cockpit (I just had to put that in there, you knew there had to be one, but I love saying that word, cockpit, it gave me an idea, but I’m pretty sure that Mike would be totally embarrassed if anyone ever heard me call him that, I’d never do that to him, but I would try to whisper it in his ear once to see what his reaction will be).

It took about a half hour before the plane was able to taxi to the assigned runway and Matt, the steward, came to check we were both belted in our seats and just as the jets were revving up he made it back to his seat up front. Matt took care of us as soon as the seatbelt lights went off. He brought us snacks and beverages and once it looked like the snacks were done with, he suggested we might want to stretch out on the bed in the bedroom and he would buzz us in there when dinner was ready to be served in about two hours.

Matt went back to his galley and Mike and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows and then chuckled and went to join the mile-high club for the first time. Matt didn’t have to buzz us, we were cleaned up and back in our seats by the time dinner was ready. I asked how he had cooked the steak and the accompanying potatoes and vegetables in that tiny galley kitchen, and he waved me over to see the stack of packaged meals in the fridge and the only cooking utensil, the microwave. He explained that my grandfather had the meals delivered from restaurants and all Matt had to do was to zap them and serve them and clean up after. He then urged me to go eat while my meal was still hot.

I told Mike all about our meals while we ate and Mike told me he thought this was just about the best steak he had ever eaten, and I had to agree, not that I had many to compare this one with. Just when the seat belt light came back on with an audible ding, Matt came and sat next to us, asking if we had any questions we wanted to ask and Mike had one and so did I and Matt answered them and then he explained that we would be riding to Grandfather’s with him, as he actually lived there with his husband Jan, who was granddad’s secretary/major domo (the guy who runs the household). He explained they had lived there for the last seven years, just before my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and died shortly after. Jan had been a local handyman when he and Matt met and fell in love. Matt had been an airline steward when grandfather had hired him away from corporate air service and he was the one to introduce his highly educated lover and soon to be husband to grandfather and the two had hit it off and Jan became grandfather’s right hand man, in business and around the house, keeping things running during grandma’s illness and after her death when grandfather had felt so alone.

It was Grandfather who arranged their wedding, giving them rooms on the third floor of the big house. When they were both home they saw to grandpa’s meals, laundry, and the running of his home. They had instigated the search for me, before they were even certain that grandpa’s daughter had even given birth. It was them who had encouraged the original DNA test that had eventually gotten us in touch with each other. They were both pleased that things had worked out well for us, and Matt said that I certainly had picked a handsome and smart man to marry, and then he talked to us like a long lost friend, asking if we had set a date for our marriage, were we going to wait or marry before moving to attend college? Or were we going to get through our first year and return as a married couple for our sophomore year? Did we know what we wanted to major in?

We only had a short time to begin answering his questions when the captain came on the PA system and announced it was time to prepare for landing. Matt suggested that we start to look out the window near us and watch as we came in for a landing, as the sight of the chain of islands that made up the Keys was great and there was usually a close fly-by of Key West before coming back to land at the airport as the runways to land were from the Atlantic side of the island. As Matt did his thing, preparing the galley and the cabin for landing as Mike and I looked out the windows to watch our landing. It sure was a small airport, but then it was only the second one we’d ever seen.

Matt was up and about even as the plane taxied to the general aviation hangars just past the airport terminal and when the audible ding rang, and the seatbelt lights went off we undid ours and waited until the plane came to rest by one of the big hangers. A ground crew member wheeled the staircase up to the door opening before going to gather our two suitcases from the baggage storage bin under the fuselage. Once Matt saw the bags down on the tarmac, he unfastened the door and welcomed us to Key West. He said we were welcome to move about or even wait for him down on the tarmac with our bags as he needed about ten minutes to secure the galley before he was officially off duty and could drive us to the house.

Matt finally finished, not that it was that long, we were just excited to see Grandfather and where he lived and this island, they all lived on (plus neither of us had ever seen an ocean before!). Matt pointed out a few places on our way from the airport, but we were fascinated by seeing palm trees, some great beach with people hang gliding being towed by motor boats, the unusual buildings, looking somewhat like Victorian mansions and littler homes Mat called cigar maker’s houses. He turned off Eaton Street onto Elizabeth and parked in front of the last house on the right of this block, the big County Library just kitty corner from the big house on the corner, Grandpa’s house. Matt pointed up to the top floor of the house and said he and Jan lived in an apartment up there.

We exclaimed that the house seemed a lot taller than some of the others we had passed by and Matt explained that this really was an older house so the rooms all had ceiling heights of ten feet to allow the tropic heat to rise before there was such a thing as central air, which the house now had. A rather studly, Nordic looking guy came out of the house and helped with our bags as he gave Matt a welcome home kiss and teased that he didn’t have to bring him presents every time he flew for Dad. I remembered as Matt introduced us to Jan that Grandfather thought of these two as the sons he never had. Jan explained that we had all arrived about a half hour before we were expected and that my grandfather was lying down, but should be up soon. As we walked in the gate Grandfather opened the front doors, a huge smile on his face as he waited for us to meet him on the front porch. He engulfed me in his arms as I returned his hug and then repeated the gesture to Mike, hugging him too.

Mat was still in his uniform and starting for the front stairs, apparently to go up and change since he had explained that he had no other flights that week scheduled, and he asked if we didn’t want to see our room and change before the grand tour of the property. Grandpa urged us to get into our shorts and get comfortable, so we followed Matt up the stairs with our two suitcases (borrowed from Sam). On the second floor he showed us to a bedroom down the hall. The room was very spacious, a queen-sized bed occupying one wall and a large bureau the wall opposite. There was a big closet and a door into the room’s private bathroom. He told us he had to get out of the uniform he was wearing but he’d be down to gather us in ten minutes to see us down to the first floor.

We chatted as we unpacked most of our stuff and then changed into the new summer type clothes, we had brought with us. Man did Mike look good in those shorts and the tight T shirt he had put on; it was all I could do to keep from jumping him right then and there. I must have looked good to him too as he ran his hands over my T shirt, telling me he was smoothing out the folds, as I kissed him while we freshened up in the bathroom. Matt came back and knocked on the bedroom door, so I went out to greet him as Mike finished and then the three of us went down the front stairs to the first floor.

The rooms were definitely taller than those we had been in at home, and definitely furnished with some attractive furniture, not all of it antiques, but the look was there anyway. It was just about what you would expect your grandparents to live in, if you had wealthy grandparents. The only modern looking rooms were the kitchen and the breakfast room right off the food prep area. These rooms had been modernized not all that long ago and the windows looked out to a large fenced in yard complete with an in-ground pool and paved patios and walkways, all with lush tropical plantings scattered all over the yard, helping to define the areas.

Grandfather led us through all the rooms and made some funny comments about each, with Matt and Jan piping up every now and then explaining some feature or pointing out something interesting to us. Like in the sitting room, which was separate from the formal rooms at the front of the house. Grandfather told us that they basically lived in this room which was more casually furnished and had a large screen TV and an entertainment center in a big open bookcase along one wall across from the comfy looking couch and the several armchairs across the big room. Jan and Matt told us that they often found Grandfather sitting in one of the recliners fast asleep in the middle of the afternoon and they had to wake him to get him to eat dinner before sending him to his room to sleep, but since he came back from our visit in Denver he had been like a teen, alert and occupied for most of the day, just like a teenager, but ready for bed and out like a light once he got there.

They took us out to see the pool and we saw that one of the patios was set up as an outdoor dining area. The pool itself was not all that large, maybe just twice as wide as you’d expect a lap pool to be. We went back in the house and I was just thinking about something to eat when Grandfather told us we were all going out to eat so while Jan and Matt took us upstairs to see their apartment, we should get ready to go out to eat. He told us that what we were wearing was fine, but we might want to hit the bathroom before we went out to eat.

That was the first parental thing he had said to us and in truth, it felt good. The third-floor apartment was really nice. The dormer windows made for chair sized bump outs in most every room and there was even one that had a desk built into it so Jan would have a view over the rooftops as he did work there. A really nice bathroom, a small but modern looking kitchen with a low counter separating it from the living room area, and two bedrooms, one set up with some exercise equipment.

We walked to the restaurant, the three of them pointing things out to Mike and me along the way. The menu at the Old Town Mexican Cafe was full of items we had never even heard of before, but with guidance from the others we made good choices I guess because everything was delicious and not a scrap was left on any of our plates. We took an after dinner walk down a few blocks from the restaurant and for the most part it was shop after shop for blocks and blocks. We walked back to the house through mostly residential streets and we ended up watching the sunset that first night from a big porch off the second floor, off the back of the house. We didn’t get to see the sun set into the water, but in the still of the evening we could hear the crowd cheering and clapping from the dock area and Mallory Square, which Jan and Matt said they would take us to see one night.

The next day Mike and I went to the library to nose around a bit, but we spent most of the day lazing about and going for a swim in the pool with Grandpa just before lunch. He had told us a lot about his life here in the house and his business and we gathered from what he had said that there were other properties in town and elsewhere he owned. That explained the plane as he said there were times he had to travel for a week or more at a time, visiting other properties he either owned outright or owned a chunk of in partnership with other businessmen.

That afternoon, about five thirty, Jan and Matt took us to walk to Mallory Square for the sunset celebration. Grandfather begged off, telling us it was just too crowded for him and he’d stay home and wait for us as we had all agreed to send out for Chinese food tonight when we got back. The sunset celebration was like a street fair on steroids. There were jugglers, acrobats, musicians, a guy who had cats that did tricks, stands that sold everything from trinkets to artwork. The outer edge of the pavement was actually the water’s edge and from just about everywhere you could see the sun about to set on the horizon where the water line met the sky. Hundreds lined up along the edge to have their pictures taken as the edge of the sun touched the distant line where sky and water met. Yes, Mike and I asked Matt and Jan to take our pictures with the bright orange sun “dipping” into the water. We quickly changed places with them and retrieving our cell phones from them we snapped a few of them in the same pose.

We then strolled back to the house where with grandfather’s help we chose items from the take out menu for the Chinese restaurant just a block away, Matt called the order in. Jan and I walked down there about twenty minutes later to collect our order which I proudly put on the debit card Grandfather had given me. By the time we had gotten back Mike and Matt had set the outside table for our dinner and the five of us sat down to feast. It was the next day when we all went to Smather’s beach and Mike and I got to go in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

With plenty of sunblock we all made it through to lunchtime before we lined up at one of the food trucks parked at the edge of the beach and I think we all lasted about another hour and a half after that. The para-sailing was fun to watch, but none of us really wanted to try it. There were plenty of college students to watch while they got lifted up in the air and sometimes landing in the water with huge splashes. It looked like fun, but it just wasn’t something any of us in our group wanted to try. We made it back to the house about three that afternoon and the next day was our excursion to the Dry Tortugas.

The trip to Fort Jefferson, the civil war era fort where Dr. Mudd was held prisoner for his involvement in Lincoln’s assassination, was arranged with a catamaran captain that Grandfather knew. His was a private charter boat and it had been placed at our disposal for the day, complete with a crew to man the boat and cater to our lunch and snacks during the day. This was another couple of firsts for Mike and me, our first boat ride, our first exposure to the Gulf of Mexico, our first time visiting an old fort. It was all so new and interesting for us and we couldn’t have had better companions to make the trip with. Jan and Matt kept pointing out interesting things all day to us and Grandfather enjoyed the energy he absorbed from us two younger couples.

We were back at the house by five and we all showered and dressed nice because we had decided on dinner out tonight at one of the restaurants at the waterfront we had set off from on our trip that day. On our way back home, we stopped on the way at a shop that Matt claimed was a lot of fun, but when we entered, we found out it wasn’t a shop, it was an escape room location. There were several escape rooms, everything from a writer’s den to a large, almost yacht sized boat at a nearby pier. With our five we were able to experience the writer’s den right away, so we allowed ourselves to be locked in and we had to find clues hidden in the room to gain our freedom again. Within twenty minutes Grandfather had us all out and on the street again as he explained how he had collected the clues that led him to the key to release us. He did say that he should have involved us more in what he had been doing and looking at, but he decided that he didn’t like being in the room knowing we were locked in there, so he just forged on until he had located our way out.

It was a lot of fun, and we teased Grandfather a lot on our stroll home. We had a fun time supposedly watching TV, but really just talking about our day on the water and then the private tour of Fort Jefferson that Grandpa had arranged for us. Somehow the talk always came back to Grandpa’s quick thinking in the Escape Room that earned us free passes to the place for two the next time we wanted to go. He thought we all might want to go again when everyone was down for a week for our graduation celebration.

Once he had mentioned our graduation, he asked Mike if he was all caught up on the school work he had missed while hospitalized and then too in his recovery at home. Mike playfully told him that with me acting as his tutor and bringing him his class assignments every day there was no way he would have been allowed to slip behind in his studies as I was a real slave driver when it came to school work. Plus, he told everyone that I had a unique way of rewarding him when he completed an assignment and he wasn’t going to risk missing out on that. Grandfather had somehow kept informed of what was going on with the prosecutor’s office and knew that the three thugs who had attacked us had pleaded guilty in court and had received fifteen-year sentences for their misdeeds.

We lazed around the next couple of days, some of that time alone with Grandpa who wanted us to keep in touch, even though he knew we had finals coming up soon. We readily agreed to his request, reminding him that those cell phone things worked both ways. We spent some time walking around the neighborhood and hitting some tourist spots with Matt and Jan also. They were just such good company and great listeners also. Mike and I were able to talk about our being lovers and wanting to get married and those two were like talking to older brothers who had gone the marriage route themselves after finding employment with Grandfather, who they both loved and treated as a parent and a well-respected boss.

They gave us advice that made a lot of sense. They suggested marrying during the Spring Break next year or at the end of our freshman year. They thought that this Summer was too close to be getting started at the University, in new surroundings for us. They thought that the Winter break would be too hectic a time since we’d have the Christmas and New Year’s holidays to contend with as well as moving out from the dorm and moving into whatever home Grandfather bought for us to live in for the rest of our college years. They assured us that whenever we decided, or wherever we decided to marry, they would be sure to accompany Grandfather, they wanted to see us as happy as they were. After all, if they thought of Grandfather as their parent, that made us their nephews.

Our trip home started with our goodbyes to Grandfather and Jan at the house. They both kept hugging us as it got nearer to the time we had to leave for the airport with Matt who was the scheduled steward for our flight back to Denver and our last semester of high school. If we were teary eyed when we left Key West, we were practically bawling when we had to say goodbye to Matt when we deplaned in Denver to be picked up by Mr. Clarke who was stopping to pick us up after his shift at the post office. He wisely only asked if we had a good time on the way home, saving our detailed explanation of our week at grandpa’s for dinner time, where Carole and Sam were joining Mrs. and Mr. Clarke and us for the evening meal.

Getting back into our study and school routine was fairly easy for us. We both had good study habits and we had several opportunities to study in the evenings together. One thing we didn’t work on together was our final term papers in English class. Yes, after we had written them, we each read the other’s hoping the other would pick up on any mistakes we had made. Not surprisingly we had both written about our Spring vacations. It seemed we had slightly different takes on some of it, but by and large we both had loved the experience and the people we had spent it with. Our teacher liked them too, He said it reminded him of being in Key West when he was younger, and he thanked us for reminding him of his very pleasant time spent there in his youth.

One month led to another and our routine didn’t waiver, we studied hard and at commencement we were announced as being accepted at UMASS in Amherst, along with several other graduates who had also been accepted at various colleges and universities around the state and country. When graduation was over, we found Grandfather and Matt and Jan with the Clarkes, both the older pair, Mike’s mom and dad, and Sam and Carole, my caseworker, the younger pair. Grandfather had rented the same suite he had before, and it was there we had our first graduation celebration. Room service had an elaborate buffet dinner spread out when we got there after more photos had been taken. There was a birthday cake included, as my 18^th birthday was in two days, on Monday and Mike’s was the following week and we would celebrate it after our week in Key West, or maybe just before we left on the following Tuesday.

The reason we were flying down on Tuesday was because on Monday there were papers to sign for my release from care at the Department of Children’s Services. I would be considered an adult in the eyes of the state and expected to make my own way in the world from then on. Carole and I had gone over all of this before and we had talked with Grandfather for the last several months as well and it had been arranged that for the short time before we left for the University in Massachusetts I would bunk in with Mike and his parents at their apartment. Grandfather had set up a more than generous monthly allowance for me and I would at the time of signing my release papers also receive the moneys left in trust for me from the sale of my mother’s possessions.

Grandfather made a toast and then handed both Mike and me envelopes. His graduation gifts to us were gift certificates to several on campus shops and eateries at UMASS and were even usable in the campus bookstores. The reason behind these were we had accepted our placements at the university, but declined the generous offers of the all-encompassing scholarships. Instead Grandfather had paid for everything so the two full ride scholarships could go to other worthy recipients. He had arranged for us to stay at an on-campus bed and breakfast for two weeks before we would be able to move into our dorm. He thought we would be able to get to know our way around and purchase our required texts before most of the incoming students were there on campus. The food vouchers were not usable at the dorm dining room, but then he had placed a generous amount in our college accounts to cover that expense also.

On Monday Carole picked me up and drove us both to the center and per the regulations I signed myself in for the last time and went upstairs to my dorm room with some boxes the hotel had provided and packed my meager possessions up. Mrs. Clarke and Mike were coming in two hours to pick me up and they had said that there was plenty of room for my stuff in their storage locker in the lower level of the apartment complex. Grandfather had suggested that I separate out my winter clothing so those boxes could be sent to me at the University, along with some items like some of my books and a few other odds and ends that I could live without until at least mid-August when we could check into the dorm for freshman orientation. The new summer clothing and some of my workout togs were packed in two boxes I would take and use while Mike and I roomed together for the roughly 2 months before we had to go to the University. A travel bag was packed for the week we’d spend at Grandpa’s starting tomorrow. Tonight, I’d spend with Mike in his/our room at the apartment.

Once the boxes were packed and I had distributed my unneeded items to the other guys in the dorm room a porter took the boxes down to the lobby and I went to meet with Carole and the director of the facility. Carole had the necessary paperwork ready for us all to sign and the director had the trust documents and a check from the state for the couple of thousand the state provided all those who aged out while still in the system. They then escorted me out to the lobby but my boxes were no longer there and they walked me into the cafeteria where there were about 25 boys that I had been living with, and several staff members within the group, but there was also my new family, Grandpa and Mike, Matt and Jan, Sam and Carole, and Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. The “going away” reception only lasted about an hour and a half, but it was a really emotional one for me and some of the other “long termers” as we called ourselves.

Mike had once asked me why I had never been fostered out and I had to explain that I had been a sickly baby, then a fat kid, and then a fat and pimply teen, until I got Carole as a caseworker and between Sam and her they transformed me into the sculpted intellectual I was today, the same guy that attracted his attention just a half year ago at their wedding. I had been told that my smarts scared off couples that already had kids, that they were afraid I’d be smarter than their own kids. Others couldn’t overlook my tubbiness, afraid that people would think they had over fed me.

Once the reception was over and the goodbyes said, the Clarkes all helped get the boxes to the storage room under the apartments and then Mike helped me get my other stuff stowed in his/our room, saving out the bag packed for traveling. Once that was done, I helped Mike pack his travel bag and we both went to help his folks decide what to take with them.

We were picked up in the morning about nine and “the car” Grandfather had hired for this was a big stretch limo which we all fit into, Carole and Sam were meeting us at the general aviation terminal. Matt and Jan raved about the suite they had shared with grandpa and I noticed that Matt was traveling as one of us today as he was in casual clothes just like everyone else. He explained that another steward was working our flight today, and we would be the first big group to fly under his care.

We arrived at the general aviation terminal and we met the new flight attendant/steward. His name was James and although he seemed a bit nervous, Matt soon had him calmed right down. Matt told us later that it was only the second time he had flown with Grandfather on board and he knew that the plane was owned by him, so he was a bit nervous, but once everyone had a quick tour of the plane we were all strapped in and traveling down the runway. Once at our cruising altitude the seat belt lights went out and that distinctive ding sounded, releasing us from being tethered to our seats. We mingled for a while until James put in a DVD for us to watch which soon had us all in our original seats with snacks and beverages distributed amongst us.

Apparently, Grandfather had picked the movie, it was an oldie that apparently my grandmother had liked, South Pacific. We all enjoyed seeing it and during one of the musical numbers several of our group were singing along with the cast of the movie. The song was; I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair. Mike and I didn’t know it, but most of the others did, even Grandpa, and there was one voice that at first, I couldn’t identify, but the great rendition of the song was being done by James. It was during our dinner service that both Mike and I praised his singing and he blushed as he thanked us, I thought then that he was just a bit shy about the praise we had given him. Grandpa had seen our exchange and when he was served his dinner, he also complimented James and told him that there were dozens of DVDs on board and a lot of them were musicals and he hoped James would sing along with them whenever he was on board. I think that simple gesture helped James settle into his new job and remove some of his nervousness around Grandpa.

When we did arrive at the Key West airport James was complemented further before we left the plane and Matt told us later that James had left an airline position much like he had.

Art has once again graced us with another of his stories. You may contact him by email: ArtWest at CastleRoland dot Net

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