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Rational Conduct

By Kevin Tatro (US)

Chapter Twenty-One

Expert Execution

Chapter 21 – Expert Execution

David had been here before.  He hadn’t been in all the buildings in this complex, but he had seen the outsides before and had a mental image of the floor plans.  He had a memory for these sorts of things.  A customer had tried to buy these buildings and had sought financing from David’s company.  David didn’t like the deal to start with, but hated it once he was here.  What a twist of events. Is it possible this never would have happened if he had done the deal and there were now office workers in these buildings?  Now he hated these buildings even more.

The two buildings in this section were twins, with only an alley in between them.  The alley was wide enough for a single truck to pass, but the alley was blocked by a large brick wall on this side. A relatively recent addition with no known purpose.  Maybe a last ditch effort to make the buildings usable right before they were abandoned. Throwing good money after bad David mused as he thought of his own situation right now.  Perhaps this is where all obsolete things must come to die.

David had been here before.  Turning the corner of the first building, he didn’t hesitate at the rusted steel door which was positioned oddly in a ten foot alcove carved into the min building and the unexplainable brick wall at the end of the alley. Knowingly, he put his shoulder against the heavy door, and lost no momentum as he entered a stairway which he knew led to the third floor.  He grabbed the stair railing, and swung himself under the stairway, into the dark deserted space under the stairs, where even the homeless don’t go.  There, another steel door opened easily, and David was now in the alley between the two buildings.

The ground was paved, but between the cracks in the pavement tall grass grew three feet high. The buildings on both sides were so close that no sunlight reached the grass, and that was probably the only thing stopping this alley from becoming a jungle.  The architects of hundred years ago constructed these structures like this to let sunlight into the buildings.  Not direct sunlight to bother the occupants, but just enough so they didn’t have to provide lighting.  These old buildings had been designed by the most forward thinking of architects, and had lots of windows, and the buildings were narrow to assure sunlight reached all of the workers stations inside.  This modern design let the light in, but allowed no real view of the alley below.  David felt safe here.  Safer than in the car.

The new, stiff black dress shoes were not nearly as comfortable as the old Converse All Star sneakers, and they dug into his ankles as he raced along the length of this massive building.  Each floor could hold almost two football fields, and each was nearly totally empty.  The loafers slid on the pavement and grass, and wouldn’t be much better on the concrete floors above.  He would have taken them off, but the ground was covered with rough chunks of tar and broken boards, and the floors inside would be littered with bits of metal and broken glass from the ancient sky lights above the third floor.

David was to meet on the third floor, entering from the northwest stairway.  That was what the directions instructed, but the northwest stairway led to a third floor mezzanine level that was separate from the rest of the facility.  This part of the factory had been part of a steel cutting operation, and the mezzanine offices had housed the executive offices where the managers could look down on the workers burning their hands and breaking their fingers in the grueling work below.  The managers watched safely from above, and paid the guys on the floor as little as possible in order to maximize profits.  David understood this and could still feel everyone’s thoughts, even fifty years after the last workman had vacated.

Last time David was in here, the old chain winches hadn’t been removed and still hung from the steel beams above the third floor.  The steel stairways climbed from the ground floor to the third floor in a long exposed ascent to offices of those in control.  Anyone standing up there had a clear view of the open floor below.  That’s what it was like thee last time he was here, and he hoped the floor below was still empty. 

The buyers had tried to convince David that this would make a stunning grand entranceway, and that the upper offices would command a premium rent because they were so desirable.  Nothing about this site was desirable, and David wished the whole site had been torn down.  He imagined a giant implosion, with timed detonation leveling the entire building in a cloud of dust.  He wouldn’t be here if that had happened.  For a moment he wondered if his whole ordeal had been the plan of the real estate moguls who couldn’t do this deal when David turned them down for a loan.  Nice fantasy.  The reality was much harsher.

David was racing along the twelve hundred foot long exterior wall, heading to the west end where the offices were, while his mind was recalling the floor plans he had looked at more than a year ago.  It was a memorable floor plan.  Expansive spaces, with freight elevators, staircases, and catwalks.  Lots of catwalks at that end of the building.  Lots of catwalks and only one staircase upward to the mezzanine level.

David was tired when he reached the fire stairs.  He stopped running for an instant while he looked up the stairs, but only for an instant.  He doubted he outran the car, but they would take time getting out and ascending those steps.  As he ran along the wall he looked over his shoulder and saw no one.  If he was lucky, nobody knew he was here. 

The run up the steps was loud.  These were very old metal steps that had been added after construction, just to meet a fire code.  David had been up them before and was nervous on them noting only a small bolt here or there attaching the rickety contraption to the brick wall.  The bolts had been anchored in with concrete, and over the years, the concrete had started to crumble leaving the whole setup unstable and very noisy.
 
The stairway was outside, and David knew the thick brick walls would prevent anyone inside from hearing.   Besides, the highway ran so close to the other side of this building, the sound of trucks and cars passing on the elevated highway would likely flow in through the old broken windows and drown out any noise he made.

As he reached the top of the stairs, he had a decision to make.  He needed a plan for when he opened the door.  He had to have options, and had to calculate everything before he opened that door. There was only one steel door at the top, and he knew it would still be unlocked.  He was sure nobody had been here since he walked through that door with the last group of potential buyers. The buildings were beyond hope, and there would be no more good money invested chasing bad.  Nobody wanted anything to do with these buildings, and these buildings would just rot right here.  Getting in would not be a problem.  Coming in unseen would be.

On the other side of the door was a metal grate catwalk.  The catwalk extended to the right about a hundred feet along the wall David had just run along.  At that point, the open area ended, and the building became three working floors again.  Those floors were open, and David doubted they would hold Ashley there.

The catwalk also extended to the left, where it connected to the executive offices.  There, it ran from the side of the building he was on, all the way to the other side where the directions had indicated he should enter.  Glass windows lined the finished walls to the left of the catwalk.  Through these windows he would be able to look in at the offices. About half way down the catwalk was an entrance to the offices and another metal stairway three stories to the floor below.  Not many options to calculate.  He put his hand on the gun that had been stuffed in his belt.

If someone was inside, they would be looking for him to enter from the first floor, ascending the steps in front of the offices.  They would not expect him to enter from the third floor.  They would not expect it, but couldn’t help but see him.  The office entrance was a glass door.  Between that and the observation windows, there was almost no way he wouldn’t be seen.  To miss him, the captors would have to be morons.

David pushed the rusting gray steel door open slowly.  It made no noise.  The catwalk and the three story open atrium were just as he had remembered.  He pulled the door open a bit further, and could now see the offices.  The entrance door was open with its wire mesh safety glass, but something was different.  The glass observation windows to the work area below were gone.   Somebody had been in here since he last saw it.  Somebody had been here, and that somebody had thrown rocks or something through all of the windows.  There was nothing between those offices and the noise outside them, and there was nothing to stop one angry father from climbing in through a window and coming in on the creeps through a back office.

David was sure they, whoever they were, would be inside the bigger executive offices, the ones with the windows to the outside.  It didn’t appear as if anybody had come through the lower level doors yet, and he wondered if that was because his companions in the black car had felt it best to let him go on his own, or that they were laying in wait to take him out.  Again he wished Scary Dude was here.  There was something about that guy that David trusted. 

David wasn’t sure who was on his side now.  He assumed at least somebody was, but there seemed to be so many spooky people involved, and there was really no reason for anybody to be on his side.  This moment appeared to be the most crucial to everything he did.  This was the one chance he might have of seeing his daughter again. This thought even surprised David, as it was the first time in days he had entertained the idea of her possibly being alive.  Here is where he might die, where he may face a horror he had feared for days, or where the Feds might find his decaying corpse many weeks or months from now.  It seemed everything would happen here in this decaying, obsolete building that should have been torn down decades ago.

“You’ll be home in a few hours.” The third grade moron said to Ashley.  “We got the call, and you’re going home.  As long as your dad shows up with a ride, you’re home free.”
The morons had forgotten that Ashley was in the room when they took a call and stated they would wait for a new guy to arrive.  The new guy made they repeat this several times.  Unlikely the new guy would be a moron as he knew these two needed to have orders repeated multiple times.

Ashley didn’t believe them.  These men were morons.  Immature morons at that, and their acting was horrible. She had no plan for dealing with the arrival of intelligent kidnappers, and she grew scared.  She now cowered on the cold gray steel desk.  Thinking.

Shit!  David had forgotten the drive.   He heard the whole conversation and knew Ashley was there, but he was screwed.   He had gotten out of the limo so fast, he had left the hard drive in the car.  Karen had copied the drive and had transmitted a copy to whomever it was that answered calls at her headquarters.  David figured it must have something worthwhile on it as she seemed glad to have it, but he had left it in the car. He had no intentions of letting anyone in there live, but he had wanted the drive to provide a diversion. David knew deals rarely closed as planned, and he would improvise.

Throwing his suit jacket over the jagged glass of the first broken office window, he straddled the window and entered the corner office on the end.  From here he would listen through a series of vents that connected each office in some lame attempt at air conditioning. 

David had a good view of the moron twins through the vent that connected the office he was now in and the one where they held Ashley.  David didn’t know it, but Ashley was right below him.  He had gone from room to room listening, and had discovered vents in most of the rooms.  The heating and air conditioning systems in here must have been bad, and the rooms had vents between them to allow a flow of air between.  The vents were more like grates. They could be seen through, but they were high on the walls and required a chair or desk to reach them. 
When David heard the instructions to Ashley he had nearly fallen from the desk he was on.  All this time he was certain Ashley was dead.  He had anticipated another fight, and maybe loosing this time. He had seen the bullets piercing his chest and Kelly grieving at the funeral.  He had seen and felt it all, like reliving Ashley’s death a thousand times over. But the potential that Ashley was still alive changed everything. He hadn’t heard her voice or seen her, but David now had some reason for hope. He was so tempted to run inside and get Ashley.  To run in with guns blaring like a western where the hero always wins. Or more likely, to walk in slowly, hand them the sheets of yellow paper, and to bring them to the limo and give them the drive.

David had told Marcel he held additional knowledge, but he was sure that was not enough to keep them both alive.  It was still possible Marcel would have them all killed.  It was still possible Karen and her buddies were not on his side.  There was still a good possibility Karen worked for Marcel or someone else like him.  The odds that he and Ashley would get out of this alive didn’t look good.

David searched all the rooms he could reach without giving away his location. There must have been twenty rooms in this area, and he could only reach four and see into the fifth.  He still hadn’t seen or heard Ashley, and he was growing weary wondering if it was just a trap.  He wandered the rooms for ten minutes.  He stood on desks and old chairs looking through the vents.  He tried listening but heard nothing.  He knew there could be ten of Marcel’s henchmen waiting anywhere.

This place was dismal.  Old gray desks.  Broken wooden chairs, crushed wastepaper baskets, and not much else.  The windows were broken, the walls rotting and crumbling from water leaking through the roof.  Dust and plaster was all over the floors.  This place was dead but didn’t know it yet, and the insides of it were just rotting away without the sturdy exterior ever knowing.  David wanted the commandos to come bursting in and kill the two creeps.  He wanted to know there was no one else around.  He wanted this over.

David took the gun from his rear belt loop.  Karen had given it back shortly before he got out of the car.  He had checked it, and it appeared to be the same one he started with, still loaded.  He still had the fancy suit on, and he looked good. A little dusty and a small rip from being used as shelter from the busted glass, but still looked good. He would just walk in and shoot the two before they knew what happened.  That would work except Marcel had a boss.  When Marcel didn’t get the disk, they would come after David and Ashley, and the rest of the family.  This nightmare would never end.

He placed the gun back in his belt, and buttoned the top button of his suit.  He would walk in, deliver his half of the yellow note, walk them down to the car, and get them the hard drive.  At that point, he would shoot his way out if he had to.  He had to believe Karen and the commandos were on his side.  They had the drive, they had him, and they were smart enough to know that Ashley was here.  This was the plan.

“Who’s there?”  The dumbest of the two kidnappers demanded in response to the well dressed man now banging his way up the stairs from the three story mezzanine.

There was no response.  The banging got louder as the steady steps grew nearer the top of the stairs.  Then the banking changed to the sound of wingtip loafers on the wooden floor of the third story office.  The morons looked a bit surprised when the man with the gray eyes and pinstripe suit stepped into the room.  Ashley looked up but didn’t say a work.

“I believe this is what you are waiting for.”   And with that he held out his hand with the hard drive.  “And now I will take what I came for.”  He held out his hand and said: “Come on  Ashley, time to go home.”   Ashley didn’t move or say a word.

“Not so fast.”  Bellowed the meanest moron.  He held a gun outright, aiming at the chest of the well dressed man.  His equally brainless cohort did the same.

“Before anyone goes anywhere, I have to make a call.”  He pulled a cell phone from his jacket and dialed. 

David held his breath while the phone rang.  He was absolutely stunned.  Unable to move or say a word.  It was all he could do to keep from pulling out the pistol and shooting everyone in the room.

The phone rang and rang again, and yet again.  Nobody was answering.  If he was dialing Marcel, David guessed Marcel was dead.  His henchman probably would have picked up the phone, but the Feds had probably picked him up as well.  There was nobody to answer the phone.

“Hey it’s me, Jimmy.  I got what you want.  I got the disk, the dad, and the kid.  Whad'ya want me ta do?  Call me back I’m waiting.”

The moron had left a message on an answering machine.  If anyone survived through this, the Feds had more evidence on tape.  Morons.

“Looks like we’re waiting here for a while.  Might as well make yourself comfortable.”

With that the man in the well dressed suit sat next to the little girl curled up on the desk.  Tears began running from the little girls eyes, she was finally scared.  It didn’t look like they were going to be let go. This stranger scared her.

Again David had the urge to bust in with the gun and shoot everybody, but he sat still waiting for the call.

It only took a minute.  The ring pierced the silence and set adrenalin rushing in everyone who heard.  And then a directive “Looks like we are all going for a car ride.”

That was it.  That was all David could take.  Without a noise, he swung around the corner and burst into the room and fired once into the center of the chest of the meanest moron who stood near the doorway.  Looking into the eyes of the limo driver who sat calmly on the table next to Ashley, David swung his left arm sideways in the direction of moron number two. He never recalled touching the man, and yet a force or a will seemed to pummel that gunman, who flew backwards hands outstretched and gun held up high, into the filthy widow.  The glass shattered, and the metal frame pulled from the wall as the moron sailed through the opening and took several seconds to hit the hard concrete three stories below.

Ashley looked at her dad.  She was about to jump up to rush to him when another man appeared.  There was no sound and no movement, but suddenly there he was, gun in hand and looking pretty damn serious.   Before David could move, his gun was taken from his hand.  Moron one groaned and moved slightly on the floor, but was silenced with firm foot to the chest delivered methodically but without anger, from the latest guest to the party.  The gun was now pointed at the limo driver, who raised his hands revealing a weapon on his chest.  The steely eyed man in charge took that weapon, along with another one he had strapped on the driver’s ankle, and a cell phone had in his jacket pocket.

He then spoke. “David you and Ashley… out the way you came in.”  Drive to the rear of the building and wait for me.”
David grabbed Ashley and left without saying a word. David felt badly for the driver whom he was quite sure was there to help him, but he had Ashley and was heading towards the door without question.

Ashley was too scared to say a word.  She grabbed onto her dad’s neck like she did when she was a baby.  He carried her past the unmoving body of the bleeding moron, and ran out the office door, across the metal catwalk, and out the fire escape door.  He was nervous carrying her down the three long flights of stairs on the rickety fire escape.  The new leather shoe soles slipped on the metal stairs, and he had only one hand to grab a railing to steady them. Besides that, she was not a baby anymore and was getting heavy for his aging body.  He saw no one in the alley, but when he reached the bottom there was a car at the foot of the stairs.  Just then it occurred to him the orders he heard from the man with the gun.  He said drive to the rear of the building and wait for me.

“ Ashley, get in the back.”  David opened the door, dropped her to her feet, and she jumped into the back seat of the brand new Audi TT roadster.  IT was a great car, but David didn’t notice it, he only remembered the command: “drive as fast as you can to the rear of the building.”

David turned the key and slammed the car into gear. As he did the car ripped up portions of the crumbling pavement.  Coming out of the alley he took a left towards the back of the complex, though he didn’t slow for a moment, he did look to his right.  There were no cars coming.  He didn’t see a thing.  Not even the body of the moron on the ground below the window he had just thrown him from.

The Audi picked up speed fast, and they were nearly three hundred feet away from the building when David heard a tremendous roar.  It was an explosion like he had never heard before.  This was more than a typical TV or military explosion, this was massive, and the earth shook.  The earth shook, and the building they were just in, came crashing down with a force that David could never imagine.  It seemed the entire complex was coming down.

The silver Audi lost a bit of traction sliding around the last corner of the complex.  Nobody was chasing them, but the cloud of debris was sure to cover everything around him in seconds.  From full throttle to full brake, the Audi came to a screeching sliding halt to within inches of the man who held the gun.  He appeared to come out of nowhere, and was now getting in the car.

He said only one word. “Drive.”

David put the petal to the floor again, and used the paddle shifter through gears one, two and three.  They passed through the concrete tunnel at over seventy when David was instructed to stop and turn around.  The turn took only a matter of seconds, and the three starred at a huge cloud of dust that arose from where the buildings used to be.  It was an awesome sight and nobody said a word.

The world was becoming peaceful, and David was about to speak to the gunman, when a shadow emerged from the dust.  It was traveling very fast, coming through the tunnel right at them.  The large black limousine passed right by the Audi without slowing.  As it passed, David looked for the commandos, but didn’t see them.  It appeared to be the meanest moron driving.  David even captured the image of blood on his shoulder where he had shot him.

David was shocked.  He had seen so much, but he couldn’t understand how this clown could be in the car of his accomplices.  How did they loose the car to that moron?  Were they in on it together?  He turned and looked past Ashley out the rear window just as the black limousine exploded in a massive fireball.  The roof blew off the car as the entire mass jumped off the ground, windows exploding glass in every

David was in shock when he turned his attention back to the gunman.  He wanted to say thank you but wasn’t sure if those were the right words.  He still wasn’t sure they were safe.

David spoke first.   The speech was slow soft and compassionate, “Do you have a name?  I don’t have a name for you, so I kinda refer to you as the Scary Dude.”

The tall man in the gray suit opened the door and got out.    He left the door open for a moment and bent his tall body down a bit to look in.

“It’s all over.  You don’t have to worry about anything.  Nobody is going to bother you again.” 

He paused to accentuate his next statement.   “It’s really over.  And… as for my name…   I kinda like Scary Dude.”
 
He gave another of his little smiles and added, “There are some Pop Tarts in the glove box and a few bucks under the seat” 

With that he closed the door.

As he stepped out of the Audi, he appeared to step directly into an SUV that had materialized without warning. And as stealthily as it had arrived, the SUV disappeared.

Three minutes had passed when with nothing more than a smile between he and Ashley, who was now in the front seat with her seat belt on tightly.   David was on route 95 heading north toward their home when the car phone rang.

“David.  It’s Artie.  Are you Ok.”?

David looked over at Ashley, who was now sitting on the seat next to him.  “Yeah.  We’re great.”  Ashley smiled.

“I am so glad to hear that.  This thing was totally out of control.  I’m so sorry I lost you, but I had to hide.  I actually had to call in help for myself.  Are you guys ok?”

As Ashley opened the glove box and took out the frosted strawberry Pop Tarts David spoke with Artie. “Thanks Artie, we’re great.  You’re the best friend a guy could ask for.  You even remembered the Pop Tarts.”

“Glad you like them.  Sorry I didn’t get Ashley’s favorite, but I never thought I’d have stashed this car for her.”

“Strawberry is her favorite.”

“I know, but I didn’t have time to get the strawberry.    If I could get strawberry in there for her, I would have, but hey, you know I like the cinnamon and I never anticipated it to work out this way.”

David looked at  Ashley who was chewing down her favorite strawberry Pop Tart.

“Hey….. David. How’d you get that e-mail to me?  I had no idea how to reach you.  I had to shut just about everything down, then the next thing I know, everything is back up and running like nothings happened, I get a message you and Ashley are OK, and a number to call you.  Are you really Ok?”

“Artie we’re great!  What can I do for you pal.”?

“Hell.   Forget it.  If you’re good I’m good.  I learned a shitload this week. Scared the piss outa me, but I learned something.  Oh... not that it’s all that important, but do I owe a reward to anyone?”

“Not unless a guy named Scary Dude calls.  Gotta go, but we will talk soon.”

In typical fashion, back to his old self, David hung up the phone.  But this time he was ready to talk with his daughter.

“ Ashley, waddaya say we take a road trip.  I have a feeling mom went south for a while and I thought maybe we could use a vacation.”  A big smile came to her face.

“Can we stop at McDonalds first.  I’m hungry.”

“Well I’m not sure we can afford it.  Dig around the back seat and see if there is a case or something.”

Ashley undid her seat belt and dove into the back.  She returned a moment later, buckled her seat belt and opened a silver brief case.  “I think this should do.” She belted out with a look of joy.

David turned to see an entire case of money.  Not the size of the first one Artie left him, but if they were all twenties as it appeared, probably fifty to sixty grand. “Yeah, I think we can afford McDonalds.”

David picked up the cell phone. “New York Times Please.  Classified section if they have it.  He waited a moment.  Hello.  I’d like to place an ad in the personal section.  Yes.  In capitals T-A-T, then a small R.  Yes. Then a capital O.  Next line. Time to come home. Kelly, meet us in Disney.

With that David got off the next exit and headed south.

Afterward – Rational Conduct

Kristen Smith sat in the living room of her small Pasadena apartment watching a movie by herself.  She hadn’t watched a movie in years, and instead of feeling guilty about it, she felt great.  She had been at her new job only six months and had received her second promotion today.  Everybody in the office loved her, and she worked with an intensity nobody could match.  She was attractive, in her late thirties and in very good shape.  She went to the gym regularly, and was now just considering saying yes to one of the guys at work who had been trying to ask her out for months.  She was happier than she had been for many years, yet right now she was a bit freaked out.  Not scared, sad, or nervous, but just a bit freaked out.

She had been exchanging E-mail with a new client who had just signed a huge deal with her, and while she had never met him, he raved about this new gangster film she should see.  She said she didn’t really care for those types of films, but agreed to rent it anyway.  She felt a bit stupid renting a movie because some unknown E-mailer made her feel guilty enough to do it, but now she was hooked and was replaying a part of it over and over again.

The gang was controlling most of England, and was involved in the typical gang stuff, prostitution, gambling, drugs, and fake passports and such.  But there was this one underling.  He was pretty high up on the organization, and he thought he could do whatever he wanted.  He started dealing weapons even though his boss told him he didn’t want him involved in that stuff.  The guy got away with it for a while, but then his boss found out.

Kristen was rewinding a scene and playing it over and over again.  The mob boss sends a couple of his faithful servants over to this guy’s place.  They pick him up and drive him to a place that looks like the Grand Canyon, and there they chuck him over the edge, and he flies to his death. 

It’s a neat scene, but what intrigues Kristin is the look on the guy’s face.  He really looks scared. The cameras are focused up close on his face, and he looks completely terrified.  It looks too good to be acting, and the special effects are wild as they don’t cut the scene and dub in a dummy as they throw him over the cliff and the camera follows his body until he splatters on the canyon floor below.  He looks like he’s not acting, he’s terrified, and he looks just like a guy she used to know.  Somebody named Marcel.

(2)

It’s a perfect day.  The Caribbean doesn’t get any nicer than this.  Small puffy clouds, a nice warm breeze, and exotic islands all about.  Sitting on the deck of a one hundred and eighty foot yacht, a very wealthy gentleman sipped a drink with his wife, and watches his grandchildren windsurf in the bay where the yacht was anchored.

He is an exceptionally wealthy man capable of many things.  He owns these islands and everything around them for nearly a hundred miles.  Cruise ships don’t pass through these waters, and airplanes don’t pass overhead.  If another boat enters these waters, the chief intelligence officer on board this rich man’s yacht makes a call to some influential friends and a US Coast Guard ship or a navel vessel from one of the nearby countries dispatches a plane or ship to let the stray know they are traveling in restricted waters and must turn around.  This gentleman is Very Powerful.

“Sir, I have a message for you.”  A one way videophone is brought forward, and the wealthy man sips his drink and watches the screen.  A very serious looking gentleman is on the line.

“Hope you’re enjoying your day sir.  Everything is back to normal.  All operations are OK.  We’ve re-established friendships with some influential players who questioned our motives, and eliminated all the viruses we could find.  Back to where we were before, only better than ever.  Learned quite a bit, and our world is now a better place for it”

“Happy to hear it.” The rich dude replied. “It’s probably good to test our strength once in a while.  Clear out the dead wood, bad apples and all that.  Let the others know.  Thank you, and have a good day.”

The phone is being removed from the table, and the rich dude speaks again.  “Would you please ask the captain to get the chopper ready?”

“Are we going home?”  Asks his wife

“Yes we are dear.”

“Oh thank God.  I hate these last minute excursions.”  She stands and waves to the kids on the sailboards.  “Let’s go.”

(3)
A man places his head on a little girl’s head, and she turn to look up at him.  She obviously doesn’t know him.  “Are you having a good time” he asks?

  “Yes sir.  This place is a blast.”

“That’s good I’m glad you are enjoying yourself.  Is the rest of your family having fun?”

“Yeah they’re having a great time.  We’ve been here two weeks and dad says we get to stay another week.  My big sister is out there in the wave pool with my dad, and my other sister is out there with my mom.  She stays in a bit closer to shore because Mom’s scared of the waves.

“And what are you doing?”

“I just came into to get a towel.  I had sand in my contact lens.”

“Oh.  That can hurt.”

“Mister.”

“Yes.”

“I hope you have a good day too.”
“Thanks.”

The little girl started to run off but then turned.  “Hey.  Guess what?”

The tall man smiles a bit and asks, “What?”

In the animation of an excited ten year old girl she answers, “My dad wrote a book about a girl getting kidnapped.  He got lots of money for it and that’s why we get to stay here.  Bye.”

The tall thin man smiled and looked at her as she splashed off to be with her parents.

A very attractive, slightly shorter woman grabbed his hand, with their shiny new wedding rings showing.
 
As there hands clasp she snuggles up to him and he asks, “Would you like to have kids?”

“Yeah I think I’d like that Artie.”

THE END