Love And Inheritance

"Jason read the bottom line of the spreadsheet and said, "I was a little off on my figures. Including labor hired we have spent $113,327 on the restoration work for the house. The remainder of the nearly $127,000 was spent on the dock and outbuildings or landscaping." Jason handed the printout to the attorney.

""This is just what I need. May I take these to my office?"

"Yes but I would like a receipt for the invoices and receipts. You will be sure they get returned to me won't you?"

"Absolutely. It may take us a week or so but we will return your documents when we bring the check out."

After the attorney left, Jason and Sue sat on the back porch and talked. They mostly were silent, however, from the enormity of the information the attorney left them. Jason completely forgot the work he was doing in the shop. Finally, he turned to Sue and said, "You know, that check will probably be nearly $200,000. I don't know what to do with all that money, honey."

"Who says we have to do anything with it? Why can't we just save it for future expenses, or to put the kids through college?"

"Well, yeah, but I mean, where will we put it. I don't know anything about investing and I sure don't want to leave it in a low interest checking account."

"Well, I know what we can do with nearly $30,000 of it. We can pay off Maude's dock instead of borrowing the money to purchase and move it. I know you didn't want to tie the land up on a mortgage and now you don't have to."

"That's a thought, but we will still have $170,000 or so to invest."

Three days after Jason deposited the check for the house improvements and paid Maude for the boat dock his father showed up at the house. He came storming into the shop where Jason was working yelling about the most recent check from the attorney. When Jason turned to face him, he said, "I don't know how you got that attorney to give you that check for $197,679 out of Dad's estate and I don't really care. I'm here to get it back. The bank can't afford to have that money withdrawn."

Jason had never seen his father act like he was acting. The man was red faced and shaking in his anger. He stood well back from him when he said, "The attorney said I was due that money because of a clause in Grandpa's will. He left funds available to anyone in the family who owned, restored and lived in the house. Since I decided to keep the house and I restored it and we are living in it, we meet the requirements in the will to receive those funds."

"I never heard about that and I really don't care. We need those funds to keep the bank solvent and we need them back right now."

"Well, it's too late. I've spent most of the money. It was to repair the house and property and as you can see, that's what I've done."

"Well, you need to find some other bank to make you a loan on the place then so you can give me the money back. I'll call around for you, tell them you're my son and want to make it on your own is why we aren't loaning you the money."

"No, I'm fine. Don't need a loan. Now, why don't you just go. I've got work to do."

"You haven't heard the last of this. I'll sue if I have to. This just isn't right. Those funds have been in the bank for years under our name. We've used them for our solvency requirements and can't afford to lose them. If the bank examiners see the money gone we'll be thrown into receivership. The FDIC will take the bank and sell it out to a larger one."

"Sorry, pop. Most of the money's gone now. Looks like you should have ran a tighter ship, kept better track of your loans and deposits. Maybe if you hadn't loaned so much money to your friends and let them default you'd be in better shape."

Jason, Sue, and two of his friends decided they could move Maude's dock to its new home instead of hiring the job done. They all had powerful boats and thought they could just unhook the floating slips from the floating dock and move it a piece at a time to its new home on Jason's and Sue's land. They were in the middle of the move when they saw a man, woman and two younger children standing on the dock watching as they neared with the floating dock building.

Jason could see Sue was very excited because they recognized her family when they got closer to the shore. It was all she could do to keep working, driving her boat until they got the floating dock situated and they could begin securing it to the shore and pilings driven into the lake for it.

When they got the dock safely, but temporarily, secured they put the boats they were using in slips and went ashore to greet Hank, Wendi and Sue's siblings. Jason introduced his friends to Hank and Wendi. They visited for a few minutes then Jason said, "Ronnie, you and Sam are welcome to stick around if you want but I think we'll call it a day here. I have to catch up on things with this old squid here."

"Naw, that's fine. I need to get home and catch up on some honey-do's anyway. Tabbi was a little put out when I told her we were going to be busy all day moving the dock and slips."

"Well, ya all're welcome if ya wanta stay. I'll give ya a call in a day or two and let ya know when we're gonna move the rest of the dock. Thanks for today."

The reunited family moved up to the house and grabbed some drinks before they sat on the back porch and looked out over the lake to drink them. Hank said, "You sure have a great place here, Jason. I can see why you wanted to come back to it. The old house sure looks a lot different from what it did when Sue sent us pictures right after you got home.

"I hear you had a little trouble with your family. How are things going with them now?"

"Don't know and don't really care. Dad's been a manipulative, scheming bastard as far back as I remember. Mom's just submissive enough to let him run over her and the girls; well, I guess they take after Dad. They push, shove, lie, and finagle to get what they want, no matter how unethical it is. I've never caught one of them in anything completely illegal but they skirt the line pretty closely at times. I just keep away from them and let them live their lives as they choose. I even had to move our bank accounts to another town and different bank to be sure they weren't snooping on us."

After about an hour the ladies left the porch for the kitchen to prepare the evening meal. After the meal everyone visited a short time longer then went to bed. Jason and Sue were tired from their long day's work and Sue's family were exhausted from the long drive they just completed.

Jason woke the next morning at his usual time of 6 a.m. He followed his normal daily routine and grabbed a cup of coffee on his way through the kitchen headed for his shop. He normally worked on engines until Sue called him for breakfast about 7:30.

Jason had just began working when he heard someone walking into the shop. He turned and saw Hank looking around. Hank grinned and said, "Nice looking shop, here. Looks a lot like one you might have in the Navy."

"Yeah, old habits die hard. I learned how to set a shop up and manage work while I was in and adapted the processes to this one."

"Have anything I can give you a hand with? Looks like you have several engines sitting around."

"No, nothing that's gonna bite me on the ass. You're welcome to just sit and straw boss. Hell, that's probably the only thing you're good for since you were a Chief for so long."

Hank laughed and said, "Enough of that talk. I can still tear an engine down and put her back together faster and better than any young whippersnapper like you and my work would be right the first time."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Same ol', same ol'. Anyway, the trouble tag is on each engine. I charge by the clock hour and there isn't a markup on parts I order for folks. If I use a part from my inventory though I charge retail for it. I just keep a running worksheet for each job, log in on it, record each part I use and its cost. I use the same sheet and log out if I change jobs or stop working on the job for any reason like, maybe, some used up old squid comes in and interrupts me."

Hank sat down in one of the old chairs in what Jason called his break area and watched while Jason worked. They talked and enjoyed their coffee (Jason had made a pot when he got to the shop).

After he finished his third coffee, Hank got up and wandered over to look at the trouble tags on the engines. He selected one and lugged it over to an unused workstation. Before long he was happily tearing the engine down and inspecting it. He had it completely torn down before Sue sent her brother Toby to get the men for breakfast. Hank and Jason cleaned the grease off their hands and arms and walked back to the house in a sea of silence.

While they were eating, Sue asked Jason what he planned for the day. He said, "I haven't thought too much about it. I've got a couple of engines I need to get out as soon as I can. I promised them by Wednesday. I also would like to get the dock secured better in case we get a wind or something."

"I thought I might take mom and Janet to town if you don't need me for a while. I need some groceries and a couple of other things. Can I pick up anything for you while we're there?"

"No, I think I have everything I need. After I get the dock secured better I may take Hank and Toby out in the boat for a while."

Jason stood and moved toward the back door, headed toward the dock. Sue met him there and gave him a quick hug and gentle kiss. They both said, "Be careful" at the same time and laughed.

Hank stood and followed Jason. As he got to the door he turned and said, "Come on, Toby, you can help us until we get ready to go."

"OH, Dad. I wantta play my games. I'm almost to a new level and I want to get it before the rest of the guys do."

"You can do that this evening after we quit for the day. I'm sorry we let you have that I-phone now. We should have just got you another flip phone."

By the time Hank and Toby got to the dock Jason was already laying out the cables to attach the dock to the pilings and winches on shore. They had just tied the dock to some of its support pilings the day before. Now they needed to attach the cables to the shore side winches and attach it correctly to the pilings driven into the lakebed. It took the three of them almost 5 hours to completely secure the dock and place the walkway from the shore to the floating dock and fueling station.

After the job was complete Jason stood back and looked over their work. He turned to Hank and said, "Thanks Hank--and you, too, Toby. I really appreciate your help. I couldn't have completed this today without you two. Now all we have to do is run the water, sewer, and power lines and the dock will be ready to go. I have several feet of walkways and slips to tow over and attach and we'll be ready to open for business."

Hank said, "How far away is the old location? Could the two of us make it there and back with one of the sections before its too late?"

"Yeah, probably. It's a little less than a mile by water and only a mile and a half or so by road. If you really want to, come on, let's go."

Hank and Toby took one boat, Jason the other. They took off for the old location and were back in a little less than an hour and a half with one of the floating sections of boat slips and walkways. It was nearly full dark before they had it attached to the dock and secured to the pilings that were pre driven for it.

After they fueled the boats and completed the after operation checks the three men cleaned up and raided the refrigerator in Jason's shop for a drink. Hank and Jason had a beer and Toby had a root beer. They sat in chairs in front of the shop and looked at the dock floating and bobbing slightly in the gentle swell.

Hank said, "It sure is quiet and peaceful here. I almost hate to see you open up the dock. You'll have noisy boats and people around all the time then. What, exactly, are your plans here, Jason?"

"I can't really say we have a plan. Everything you see here just sort of happened and we went along with the flow. I inherited the house and these 20 acres from granddad, and Sue and I decided to live here until I got my degree. We decided to fix up the house a little to live in and then we decided to do it all because it would sell better if it was ready to live in if we decided to sell out and move on. Then I found out gramps set aside money to restore the house if a family member restored it and lived in it. I got the restoration costs plus compensation for the labor I personally put into the work.

"Then, one day I was working on one of my engines when a bud of mine saw me and asked if I could fix some of our friends engines. People kept calling me and asking me to work on engines or boats until I work nearly full time now.

"One of the guys asked if we were going to sell snacks and fuel because Maude was closing and there was no other place on this side of the lake to fuel. We checked with Maude and she sold the business so cheap we had to buy it so now Sue's going to run the dock and store and I'll run the shop and outside sales. We're already so busy neither one of us can even think about an outside job, but ya know, we're lovin' it. We're our own boss and we just go at our own pace. Its great. Only problem is, we're to the point where we need to hire two or three people to help. Sue can't run the dock alone and I'm about snowed under with the shop. Maude had herself, two full time, and three part time employees just to run the dock, fuel point and slip rentals during the summer. We haven't had a day off now for weeks because of the work we're doing here.

"Sue wants to put in a small snack bar as well as a small store catering to the fishermen. We're going to need a bunch of help right now or we'll have to cut back on what we plan to do."

"Yeah, I can see that. Ya got 'nother one of these beers?"

The next week sped by. Jason and Hank worked in the shop and actually got completely caught up. They used Toby as a 'gofer' to his disgust. They got all the slips and dock paraphernalia moved from Maude's old site and had everything set up and working. They were still waiting on the various licenses to come in but were operating still using Maude's permits. To make it legal (and because she agreed to teach Sue about the business) she worked the dock as she always had. They managed to retain one of the full time helpers and one of the part time helpers so that lightened the load somewhat. Wendi and Janet helped Sue in the dock. The kids didn't complain about the work as much when, on the first Friday after their arrival, Jason handed them each some greenbacks and told them it was their pay for helping during the week.

When he saw Jason giving the kids the money Hank tried to intervene and said, "Jason, there's no need for you to pay the kids for helping. You're putting us up, and feeding us. That's enough."

"No, its not Hank. You have all pitched in and been a great help and we owe you. I have some money here for you and Wendi also. If you hadn't helped like you all did we would be way behind instead of caught up. If anything, we owe you still. We would have paid as much or more if we had hired someone off the street and still might not have been as caught up as we are now."

The dock they purchased from Maude was 80 feet by 40 feet. It had a store area 25 by 40 feet and an enclosed fishing area 20 by 40 feet. The remainder of the floating dock building was devoted to restrooms, a snack bar and kitchen with a small inside dining area. Wendi and Janet jumped in and took over the dining area. Outside the enclosed area of the dock was a wide walkway. On the end where the snack bar was there were six outside tables for guests to sit also.

In addition to the typical sandwiches and appetizers sold in such places, Wendi offered a few authentic Chinese meals. The menu varied from day to day but her staples were Broccoli Beef, General Tsao's Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Mongolian BBQ. Of course, she also had egg rolls, plain steamed rice, and fried rice. She also sold several types of seafood such as fried shrimp, clam strips, scallops, and, on weekends, Lobster and Crab legs. It soon became obvious to the family that people were coming to the restaurant for a meal then leaving. She was actually getting business not related to or brought in by the boating and fishing part of the company. They had to add more enclosed floating room to feed the larger crowds that showed up for meals.

After Sue's family had been with them for three weeks they were sitting in the back yard relaxing after yet another busy day when Hank took Wendi's hand and said, "Jason, Wendi and I have been talking and we have a proposition for you. We weren't sure where we wanted to live when I left the navy. No longer than we've been here, we've been happier than most places we've been before. We like working here on the lake and we especially like having all the family together. This seems like a nice little town, too.

"We wondered if you would mind if we just found a place to live here and we kept working here for you? Hell, you've said yourself you are going to have to hire more full time help. Why don't we just stay and keep doing what we're doing now and you just quit looking for more help?"

Jason looked over at Sue. She was smiling wider than he had seen her for quite a while. He raised his eyebrows slightly. She smiled larger and gave a slight nod to her head. He said, "That's fine with me. We both appreciate the help you've given us. We feel guilty for working you so hard though when you're supposed to be relaxing in retirement. Are you sure you want to jump into something like this? You know the hours we'll have to work to stay on top of things."

"Yeah, we're sure. Wendi loves to cook and is already making friends with some of her regulars. I like to tinker with engines and small boats and I'm making friends with some of the men that come to the shop. The kids like it here also, so yes, we're sure."

"Heck, then its a done deal. We'll have to get you set up as employees, though. I've just been paying you all under the table since we thought it would be a temporary deal. I might even have an idea for your house. There is a guesthouse behind our house you know. We haven't done anything with it yet but it is a two-bedroom building with an entertainment room that could be made into a third bedroom. The kitchen and dining area are together and there is a small living room. We can fix it up for you and we can call it part of your pay if you want."

"That might work. How about we look at it tomorrow?"

Early the next morning Jason and Hank went out and looked over the guesthouse. They carried their coffee with them and sat on the porch drinking the coffee after their cursory inspection of the building. Hank leaned back in the old chair and put his feet on the porch rail. He sipped his coffee then looked around the yard and out over the lake. He took a deep breath and said, "Well, I reckon this will do just fine but I suppose I better let maw see the house before we get too carried away. Could sit here for hours looking at this view and listening to the quiet."

Jason laughed and said, "I agree with you on the view, but you better enjoy the quiet while you can. I suspect during the busy season this will be one noisy place. You'll have people all over yelling and carousing. You'll have boats coming and going hitting the dock for fuel or supplies and none of them seem willing to move slowly and quietly. It'll be even worse if Sue gets her way. She's talking about putting in pads for some campers and clearing spots for tents to rent out. She's even talking about turning two or three of the bedrooms into a B&B. I swear, you let that woman get a whiff of money and she tries to figure out some way to get it out of your hand and into hers."