Hall Pass Ch. 67 - Epilogue
By: LewdLuke
Author's note:
Our story did not end here but I have decided to quit telling the tale.
I have to stop somewhere and this went on for another nine years.
Linda kept a scrapbook from the beginning to the end.
It contains every hall pass that each of us ever wrote including those that were never acted upon.
The book is similar to a logbook.
One look at any of the passes is enough to jog my memory so that I can remember the episode very well.
From the point where the story is now until the last entry in 2001, many escapades became beautiful memories.
If I find the time, I might write some of them up as stand-alone stories sometime in the future.
If I do, you will recognize the characters.
I am going to use the epilogue below to tie up all the loose ends that I have left dangling.
I hope that will be sufficient to satisfactorily end the story for you, the reader.
Many thanks to all of you for your interest, encouragement and input along the way,
Luke
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Epilogue
Bobby Wilkinson succumbed to his illness in the spring of 1993. He had never recovered enough to want to see Linda. Truthfully, he didn't want Linda to see him in his condition. We kept in touch but were never invited to visit before his death. Our last trip to Scotland was to attend his memorial service. He lives on in the child he had with Michelin. The beautiful little boy is Bobby recreated in both looks and mannerisms.
Michelin and Eric Littleton became an item a year or so after Bobby's death. That was no surprise. Sparks had flown between them earlier. In the end, Bobby had encouraged their relationship. He knew Eric to be a good man that would take care of Michelin.
With the help of Eric and Uncle Artair, Michelin was able to keep her estate running profitably. A year later, Michelin married Eric. They combined their holdings and did very well together. We still exchange Christmas cards but hardly anything more.
Anne Littleton also married. We never met her husband. I understand that he was a trader in imported textiles and they lived in Liverpool. We lost touch many years ago.
Big Ed fuller also married his main squeeze. She turned out to be a sweet and lovable person but she was aware of Ed's relationship with Linda. She could never be comfortable with us. The two of them disassociated themselves from the club. They pooled their resources and opened a combination sports bar and café in Addison, Texas. We didn't try to maintain contact with them.
We reconnected with Gary Yoshimura and his wife Yu Yan twice. We vacationed in Hawaii once and they came to the ranch once. This was one of our lesser entanglements and yet we still get cards and letters from them occasionally.
Linda and I made two more trips to the rodeo in Wyoming. We met with Lonnie and his wife the first time. She and I had a good time together but that was the only time. She was significantly younger than I was and probably preferred the younger cowboys. On the second trip, Linda and Lonnie reconnected and Linda gave me a pass for a free hunt. I might write that trip up someday.
Sandy and Carlos resurfaced in the summer of 1992. We hadn't seen them in two years. They had married and had just finished their sophomore year at the great school of the minds in College Station. Sandy was extremely pregnant. They asked us to be godparents to their unborn son. Over the next four years, Sandy finished her bachelor's degree in education and then busied herself rearing her pretty babies. Carlos got his master's in mechanical engineering. He went to work for an international construction firm based in Houston, Texas.
They had two more children. The second was another boy and the third was a most beautiful little girl. Our relationship with them had remained platonic through all this time and of course, we fell in love with the little ones. I thought of them as grandchildren. They came to the ranch several times a year for a weekend.
In the fall of 1998, Sandy called and said that she and Carlos had a weekend off from the kids. They were staying with her parents. She wanted to come for a visit. I cooked steaks and we had a few drinks by the pool. Carlos informed us that his company was sending him to Brazil to work on a project that would last for at least two years. The family was going along. Then they made a ceremony of giving each other hall passes. The good news was, I had the privilege of sleeping with Sandy again. Of course, Linda and Carlos renewed their physical relationship too. The bad news was, one overseas assignment led to another. We only saw them twice after that. Age was a factor here too. Sandy was half my age. (Being old sux.)
We kept in touch with Walt and Liz Zimmerman. We had several more interludes with them including a Caribbean cruise with two other couples from their Florida group. Linda's susceptibility to seasickness wasn't a problem on the big ship. Our relationship with them petered out about 1996 when Luke's last business deal with Walt was concluded.
Kay Linden (Aunt Kay) had a major stroke in 1999. She recovered somewhat but then had a second and more severe one three months later. She wound up in a nursing home after that one. I never knew how old she was but she must have been in her middle or late seventies by that time. Linda and I went to visit her at least once a week while she was still lucid but the last year of her life, she couldn't recognize us. Most of the time, she didn't even know we were there. We visited less often. It was a blessing when she passed in October of 2001.
Kay's passing was very hard on Linda and me but it was harder on Uncle Gus. Gus had played the field most of his life and I think Kay might have been one of only two woman he ever truly loved. He kept her house up for her while she was in the nursing home and then bought it from her relatives after her death. He moved in and lived there until his own demise six years later. His passing devastated Linda.
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