It has been nice and quiet here for a couple of weeks now, so we have been enjoying some summer fun here at the chateau. However, I have not been able to really join in with all the fun even though I am trying to enjoy things so the others won’t notice. Then one day Galyna found me on the front porch and sat down beside me. “The girls are having fun at the pool Steve,” she said, “why don’t you go and join them for a while.” “You answered your own question before you asked it,” I told her, “it is the girls swim time.” “But the kids are there too,” she added, “and they would love to have their dad join them.

I am sure the rest of the girls would not mind if you joined in. You need to get more involved, you are keeping to yourself too much lately. Any reason for that? Or do I need to order you to my office for an official talk?” “I am surprised you have to ask me what the problem is,” I said, “I thought for sure you would know.” “I do know,” she said, “but I like my patients to admit the problem to me, the conversation works much better that way. What happened was 2 weeks ago Steve, why is it still bothering you?” I looked over at her, put my head down and began to cry.

“Your office, please,” I said. Off we went. “There you are,” said Jennifer, “I have been looking for you and…” She then saw that I was crying. Then Sky came and said the same thing. I asked them both to come with Galyna and I. “It looked like you were trying to commit suicide Steve,” said Galyna, “you were outside by yourself, no bodyguards, no one close by to help you, why?” “I just needed to be alone for a bit I guess,” I told her, “too much pressure lately and I’m not thinking properly. That can cause people, that I love, to get killed.

I need a break, some extra time to get alone and relax and get recharged. Or maybe I just need to retire completely and let Rock take over.” “Have you talked with Rock?” she asked. “Yes, but he doesn’t think he’s ready to take over completely,” I said, “I have thought of letting Matt and Kat take charge more with their teams, that would just leave me with 2 teams. I asked Kristina if she would like more control of her team, but she didn’t think she was ready for that yet.” We talked for quite a while, then we all went out to the pool and joined in the fun.

The kids were ecstatic when they saw Sky and I come out too. Strangely, none of the girls complained about me being out there with them. The next day Mandar was out visiting and he asked Sky and I to join him and Baldwin in the library. Everyone else was kicked out. It wasn’t much of a conversation really, Mandar just told Sky and me what we were going to do, go on a vacation to a secret location that only he would know about, just like when he hid Sky and the children. Sky, however, said that we needed some bodyguards along or she would not go.

She said that Jennifer had to come with us, plus four others and we each picked two. I picked Dawn and Beryan, Sky picked Melanie and Cynthia. Then I said we should make a change so Samantha could come. Sky just said she comes, but no changes with the others. Muffin comes too, naturally. Meow, meow.= Me want Storm too. “Yes Muffin,” said Sky, “Storm has to come too.” Jenny, Cynthia and Dawn’s cats also ended up coming. “Maybe we should just bring everyone along,” I said. The next day we were flying to our destination, wherever that is.

It was a small home somewhere, but Mandar assured me it would be large enough to accommodate everyone. I rather think it will be larger than we need. We landed 3 times at different airports before we finally made it to our final destination. The trip took nearly all day by jet, then we still had to drive a certain distance from the airport. One thing struck us about this airport, it was closed, and obviously had been for some years. It gave a rather eerie feeling. Once all of our luggage was unloaded from the jet and onto the waiting vehicles, the jet then took off immediately.

“No place for them to refuel here,” I said, “anyway, we need to get going so we can arrive at the house before dark. We had 3 vehicles which looked like military trucks of some sort. Oh well, off we went. We drove for about an hour, then our gps said to turn right at the next road. “This is a road?” asked Sky. “It is rather narrow, but it is gravel and that is nice,” I said, “I thought perhaps it would be a mud road.” We drove another half hour and were told to turn left, which we did. This road was even more narrow.

Another half hour and the road stopped, but at the end was our destination, a driveway with an old name hanging from a sign post, “P. I. Gator”. I laughed. “Mandar likes to have his fun,” I said. We turned onto the driveway which was large and circular. The grounds around the house were immaculate, beautiful green grass, shrubs of all kinds in many different shapes, plus flower gardens everywhere. Mandar did tell us he has a full crew of people living here during the year, but they leave whenever he wants to use the house and they will be gone while we use the house.

The house was huge and looked much like a castle on the outside but inside it was more like a modern mansion. There was more than enough food to last us the 2 weeks we will be here. The place was surrounded by forest and if we really wanted to see people, there was a large town not far from the airport, just had to go in the opposite direction. We were all very tired by the time we arrived and unpacked, though we did eat a good meal. We had electricity out here which was nice, especially since it was nearly dark by the time we arrived.

Right after getting into bed a thunderstorm hit with lots of lightning and thunder. Sky did not like that at all, neither did Muffin. Right after we had arrived, I sent a coded message to Mandar to let him know we had arrived and that all was fine. Even with the thunderstorm activity we all managed to sleep well that night. At 7am Jennifer woke me up. “Where’s Sky?” I asked. “Downstairs with the other girls making breakfast,” she answered, “Sky left me here to guard you and make sure you were ready for breakfast on time.

Now, get up, shower and get dressed so we can eat.” I was ready quickly and down we went to join the others, and just in time too. Meow,meow!= It pancakes! Meowr!= And bacon! After breakfast we decided to look around this ‘small house’, as Mandar called it, and for lunch we decided to eat outside in the back garden since it was now sunny and warm again. After lunch we all went for a walk through the garden. This is going to be a nice vacation…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.