Weekend at the Cabin: XV -- Big Changes
A few minutes into the drive back home, there was something I'd been thinking about.
"Tim?"
"Yeah?"
"Is there anything we can do for them, Tim?"
"Lemme think about it."
* * * * *
Well, to make a long story short,...
I mentioned our friend, Brad. Actually, he's more Tim's friend, but I know him. He's the guy who owns the cabin and lets us stay there when it isn't rented, and sometimes he even lends us his truck to go up there. He owns three supermarkets (now) plus some apartments, and he maybe part-owns some other businesses as well. He's a member of the Jaycees and the Rotary Club, and he's active in a lot of civic stuff and uses his supermarket parking lots for charity fun fairs and things like that. You'd think a guy like this might be a blowhard, but in fact, he's just a really good guy.
Tim was talking with Brad about our last trip up to the cabin and he happened to mention the general store and Tanya and her grandfather, and how isolated their lives were, and how several times we'd wished that there was something we could do to help them somehow.
Having the cabin up there, Brad was familiar with the store and the old man who ran it and the girl he'd seen around the store sometimes. "That little roadside market looks like it does a pretty good business during the vacation and fishing and hunting seasons -- even snowmobiling." He thought about it for a moment. "I got an idea. Gimme some time."
Brad did, indeed, look into it. And what he found was that Tanya's Grandpa had a good little thing going. It turns out that his costs are really low, and as a result, the modest business turns a nice little profit.
Brad has a nephew. He's a good kid and a real go-getter, already doing a great job as the Manager of Brad's #2 supermarket. But what he really wanted was to have his own business. Plus, he wanted a life that would allow him to hunt and fish a lot. Brad thought this would be the ideal opportunity for him.
Brand arranged for his nephew to buy the store (with Brad's help, of course), as is, for a respectable amount, plus he'd pay Tanya's Grandpa a certain percentage of the gross sales. (Brad insisted on that. "None o' this foolish
'after expenses'
BS!").
Tanya's Grandpa was used to living a fairly modest life, without a lot of needs, so the money from selling the store, plus his Social Security and the royalties from the store, would meet his needs just fine.
It seems like through all his business and civic connections, Brad knows everyone. Turns out that one of the people he knows works for the local Senior Citizens' Resource Council. She told Brad about this arrangement called "co-living" or "co-housing" or something like that, where singles and couples live in their own "apartments" but share (and care for) common spaces like the kitchen, eating, living rooms, and even yards and gardens. This sounded ideal for Tanya's grandfather. So (again) with Brad's help, he now lives in one of these "co-living" places.
And what does Brad get out of all this? Absolutely nothing. All Brad gets is the satisfaction of helping out some good people.
Actually, that's not quite true. Brad got a great new employee. Tanya is now working for Brad. Because of her years of working with her Grandpa she knows a lot about the practicalities of operating a grocery store, so much so, in fact, that Brad put her second-in-charge of the dairy section of his main supermarket.
Also, he got a new tenant! Tanya is now living in a fine old Victorian house that Brad bought and converted to a three-flat, and he's renting the cozy third-floor apartment to Tanya. He's even letting her live there rent-free the first month, and he's going to take her rent out of her wages so that part won't show up as taxable earnings.
Anyhow, here's the way Tanya described it to us:
* * * * *
"Now Grandpa's living in this group home, 'cept they call it a "group house," which is really what it is. It used to be a church from 1960, I think, and it's red brick and all on one floor, plus it has a basement, but they just use that to store stuff.
"They remodeled all the rooms into a number of small 'suites,' they call 'em, like a sleeping room and a living room that they call a 'sitting room,' and a bathroom. Plus there's areas that everyone shares -- Grandpa says they're 'common areas' -- like the 'lounge,' and it's really like a big living room, and there's a big dining room and a big kitchen that's real nice. Also, there's a garden, two, really, one for flowers and one for vegetables; and the lawn, and in nice weather it's always set up for croquet.
"Right now there's other people living there -- two man-woman couples and four who's single, like my Grandpa. There's Grandpa and three women. I guess there's more single old women than single old men. And wanna know something? Grandpa says that the two couples
swap
. He says that some nights he sees one of the men or women go into the other couple's room. One time he even saw the two men pass each other in the hall going to each other's rooms.
"I seen one of the couples, too. They're maybe 70, or maybe 75, and they look pretty normal.
"And wanna know something else?? He thinks that two of the single women join in with 'em, 'cause one night he thought he heard something and looked out into the hall and he saw one of the women there -- completely naked -- knocking real soft on one of their doors! And you know what? I seen one o' the women one time when I was visiting Grandpa. She was 75 maybe. But she was hot!
"And Grandpa thinks that one of the single women might be tired of sharing with that other couple and might be wanting a man of her own. This one woman, she's maybe 70 or so, and she looks, well, like a grandmother. She's short, about my height, and she's, I guess the right word is plump, but she doesn't come across as fat -- just 'curvy,' I guess is the word. And she has silver-white hair that's always cut and permed nice, and she's almost always smiling, and she laughs a lot and it seems like she's always happy. I found this old word -- '
vivacious'
-- it means, like, 'lively,' or maybe very alive, and I think that's what she is --
vivacious
.
"And y'know what?? I think that Grandpa and her might be doin' stuff -- sex. Can you believe it??
Yes, we can believe it. Did I mention that Brad also has a doctor friend who, at Brad's suggestion, was happy to write Tanya's Grandpa a prescription for E-D pills, and a pharmacist friend who, at Brad's suggestion, was able to fill that prescription at close to cost?
And since we're talking about sex,...
I had to ask her. "Do you and your Grandpa still get together... you know... so you can make each other... 'feel good'?"
She looked down, and she blushed, but only a little, and she also had this kind of proud little smile. "Yuh, he comes over here sometimes and we... you know... we do a lot of the stuff that we... that we did when we were living back at the store. 'Fact,..."
We waited for her to go on.
"'Funny thing is, it seems like he's harder than he used to be, and it's like his... thing... is bigger than it was before -- can you believe it?"
Yes, Tim and I could believe it. It seems that Brad had "breached confidentiality" and mentioned that the old dude had told him he'd heard about these "special pills," and he wondered if Brad "knew anything about them," and the story about the prescription. So yes -- we could believe it.
But of course, our dirty minds couldn't let something like this rest.
'So, T, is that nice, Grandpa being bigger and harder than he used to be?"
"Oh, yuh! I'm mean, yeah, it feels a whole lot nicer -- not like it is with you guys, but... nicer. And I think he even has a nicer time when he...," and she kind of trailed off.
We knew what she meant:
When he fucks his granddaughter
.
Still wanting to indulge our dirty predilections, Tim asked, "Do
