I awoke with humming in my ears. The room was still dark, but I could see light coming in around the drapes and the humming had to be Louise in the bathroom. She never quits. I crawled up and sat on the edge of the bed, scratched all the necessary places and tried to decide if I wanted to brave the john now, or wait until Louise went back upstairs. "I hear you scratchin' out there." Came the musical voice of Louise. "Long night, Romeo?" How can she always be so cheerful in the morning? I pondered to myself. "It was." I grumbled, "What time is it?" "Right close to 2:30 in the afternoon and you ain't got so much as a lick in yet today. You gonna spend the rest of the day in the bedstead, or are you going to get out of it so I can make it up?" She was always so damned pushy, I just get home after a hard night of playing music, and two wild females afterwards, and here she was trying to throw me out of my own bed just so she can make it up. There ought to be some kind of a law passed against this kind of treatment. As I stood to make the trek across the room to the facilities, I was bathed in daylight as Louise pulled the drapes open.
I took a long shower and let the water run on me for a few minutes and then put on a pair of old cutoffs and went up to the kitchen to see if I could con Louise out of something to eat. After coffee and some homemade spoon bread, I decided to spend a short while working on my term paper for the Good Ms. Stone.
I descended the stairs to the studio, and stood just inside the door looking across the studio. This room is really quite a place. It measures forty by seventy five feet and has floor to ceiling windows and the entry door down one short wall facing the river. The stairway door to upstairs is directly across from the entry door. This room houses my sound studio and a kitchenette area with a breakfast type bar, and a lounging area with three big overstuffed sofas and three cocktail tables. Large, colorful, stuffed pillows were all over the place. The walls are dark slab cypress planking, rough-cut and standing vertically. The ceilings are ten feet high, and bear heavy cedar beams spaced about four feet apart crossways, with Spanish style rough textured plaster between. The ceilings above had been sound proofed to keep the loud music from disturbing the occupants upstairs, namely my father and Louise. The floor was carpeted with very thick burgundy plush carpet, which also aided in the sound deadening. In the center of the wall farthest from the stairway is the door into the bedroom suite. This room is twenty eight by thirty six feet and is also paneled in plank cypress with the beamed ceilings. On the right, facing the river are two six foot wide floor to ceiling windows, twelve feet apart with the king sized, walnut four-poster soft-side waterbed between them.
To the far left, across the room, is what I call 'The Great Lake'. A huge rockslide of large stones, many over a foot in diameter, cascades form ceiling to floor, for about eighteen feet left to right, into a Kidney shaped concrete pool in the floor. The pool runs the width of the stones and is from six feet to ten feet across on opposite ends, and is three feet deep at the deep end. The left end of the stone pile extends into the bathing area and closes in one end of the sunken Jacuzzi tub. I have large koi and goldfish in the pool. The water is pumped up almost to the top of the rock pile and when the pump is turned on, the water flows down over the rocks and into the pool. The stones are all mortared in place and the whole effect is most interesting. I enjoy the sound of the running water when I sleep and often let the water run all night. Dad thought I was nuts when I proposed the waterfall and pond, but after we spent nearly a year of evenings and weekends building it together, he conceded that it was a real nice piece of work. It is planted with many climbing type vines and plants, with spotlights and underwater lighting adding to the effect.
The bathroom extends to the left and the whole room is carpeted with the same carpet as the studio. Heavy walnut dressers, chests, and nightstands and two big leather chairs complete the décor. At the right end of the rockslide, a doorway leads into a study. This is where I do my schoolwork. This room is sixteen by eighteen feet and has floor to ceiling book shelves on the far wall, a large desk with a credenza to the left, two leather chairs facing the desk and a small bar with a little refrigerator to the right of the door. On the right end, facing the river, are two tall, narrow windows, and a door that exits outside. I prefer to study in this room because it's always quiet here. Behind the desk, in the left corner, is another door that leads into a cavernous cellar area under one of the bedroom wings of the house. This basement is very large and is used to store lumber and building materials which are used for the constant repairs that are required on a house of this size and age. A complete woodworking shop is also housed in this cellar. Another huge basement room extends under the third wing of the house. It is used mostly for storage. A large mechanical room separates the two basements and houses the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems, along with a power generator, which is used if the power goes off during storms, and the filter equipment for the swimming pool.
The whole main floor was decorated like a great medieval castle. Heavy draperies, cover the windows, massive wood furniture and paintings with huge, scrawling frames, adorned each room. Hammered wrought iron chandeliers hang from the high ceilings, and Persian carpets cover the heavy planked floors. Large candelabras sit here and there throughout the many huge rooms and you almost feel like one of King Arthur's Knights when you are here. The four bedroom suites, each with three rooms are also decorated in the same manner. Tapestries can be found hanging throughout the house. There are also ten fireplaces throughout the house.
The upstairs, five room apartment where my sister Dianne had lived, has been decorated in a purely ancient Spanish motif, and reflected her tastes at the time she had resided there.
The walls, and floors, of the entire house are poured concrete with steel reinforcing. The roof is terra-cotta tile, and for all practical purposes, the house is hurricane proof. It lived through a direct hit by hurricane Dora in 1964, and several other near misses over the years. The whole place is the product of my father's wild and crazy imagination. He tried to give my mother everything she ever wanted and she still died a very troubled soul. I couldn't conceive of how this place had come to be, but it was all mine now and I had no idea in the world what I was to do with it. I guess, I'd just live here and have a good time spending dad's money as long as it lasted.
I crossed the studio and bedroom and sat behind my desk and spread the hand written draft of my paper out on the desk and did a slow proof reading of my recitation. I decided I had presented my ideas as well as I could have hoped. I penciled in a couple of word changes and added one more reference to the butterflies, chuckled to myself, and switched on my typewriter. I had a notion that I should use some really good bond paper to type this on so I jumped up and went upstairs to raid my dad's office for the good stuff. Louise was busy in the kitchen and asked as I scurried through, "You be here for dinner?" I asked her what was on the menu and she said, "Fried fish and hush puppies and slaw." "Absolutely, I'll be here. Best food in the whole world." Louise is a master in the kitchen, and fried fish is her specialty. Not just fried, but deep southern, beer batter fired, makes your mouth water to think about it, fried fish. I got a fist full of the good paper and retreated to my study and cranked up on the typewriter. I had been pecking away for almost two hours when the phone startled me out of my concentration. I had typed fourteen pages and had several more to go. I reached for the phone, and I tucked it under my ear, with the intention of keeping going on the paper while I talked, when I heard the sweet as honey drawl of Camille come over the wire. "Hi Cool, how's my baby brother?" All progress on my paper came to a halt as I turned my attention to my half sister. "Why Sugar, I'm just fine as virgin silk, how's with my sweet brown sugar?" I responded. "Missing you, Sweetie, I just can't wait to see ya. You being good?" She asked. "I'm trying not to be. I gotta tell ya, it's a tough job trying to satisfy all those fine honeys been chasing after me since I started the band. I've had quite a couple of weeks here lately. Not to mention, the neighbors and, by now I suppose you've heard, your mama." I answered.
