Fortune

Uncle Ted was buying them all kinds of toys and taking them places with Mommy. And Mommy was so happy and smiling and laughing all the time. I suffered the torture of a thousand small cuts as I kept smiling for the kids as they innocently told me of all the good things they had done. I reached for the gift bags that I brought back from last month fiasco and waited with expectation to see the smiles on their faces. Steven picked through his and said that Uncle Ted had bought them both iPads and iPods.

The bottom of my heart dropped out as I realized I could never compete with Ted Jefferson on that level. Still I kept that frozen clown smile on my face as the social worker warned we only had five more minutes. I grabbed them both and held them and kept telling them I loved them, over and over and over until finally it was time for them to leave.

After they left I noticed Steven hadn't taken his gift bag so I carried it with me. When I got outside I saw Carol's gift bag lying on top of a trash receptacle where Stella had left it. I stared at it. I walked over and put Steven's on top of Carol's and walked to my truck for the drive back.

Month after month I would suffer the same ignoble fate as my children slowly slipped away from me. I started to sense an undercurrent of resentment by the kids being forced to visit with their father. The tighter I tried to hold on, the more they slipped away. Then came a visit where at the end Steven asked me for a favor. I smiled and told him sure. He told me that Ted had tickets to the University of Texas Longhorns game scheduled on the same day for the next month's visit. Would I mind if he and Carol skipped next month's visit?

How could he not see how he had ravaged me with that question? I stammered sure it was okay, the next visit we had they could tell me all about it. Steven reluctantly allowed me to hug him as they walked away.. It became easier and easier for Steven or Carol or both to let me know they preferred to be elsewhere rather than with me during the visits. As Carol told me when I tried to put up a resistance, "It's not like you're really our daddy anymore."

I should have been livid. I should have been fucking livid. I should have been over the top, take no fucking prisoners livid. And all I felt was numb.

"Do you feel that way, Steven? Are you tired of me visiting?" Steven bowed his head and nodded yes.

Well that just left one last question to ask, "Do y'all want to stop with the visits?"

Now both my kids sunk their heads down and nodded yes.

I paused for a minute and neither kid would look me in the eyes.

"Okay, this will be the last visit. I'll keep driving up in case either of you change your mind, but, I won't expect y'all to be here. I wish you only knew how much I love both of you and how much I'm going to miss you." I quietly said.

For the first and only time I left first. And wouldn't you know it I bumped right into Stella outside waiting to pick up the kids. I could tell she was panicking being face to face with me, her damn court ordered 500 yards buffer zone not being worth a fuck to her in that instant. I just looked at her and said, "You won." And then I walked off.

The wedding announcement was in all the local papers, my girl was a little bridesmaid and my son served as Ted's best man. I contacted my lawyer for what I thought would be the last bit of representation and told him to file for reconsideration of the alimony and request the sale of our marital home.

Finally, the court sided with me and ended the alimony. Once we showed the marital home became a rental property, the court ordered that I be awarded the difference upon the sale of the house. Too fucking little, too fucking late.

I went to my trailer and celebrated with a week long drinking binge. I was nowhere near recovering when I heard a knock on my trailer door. As I opened the door empty beer cans cascaded down around the feet of Robert Lambert, my grandparents' neighbor who gave me my first job in razing his old barn.

He looked at the sloppy mess I had become and asked if I could come by his house tomorrow. He had a business proposition for me. I told him I would and I sat mired in the remaining rubble throughout the trailer. I was disgusted with myself and I went and collected every can and then tidied up the trailer as best I could. Then I showered and shaved and made sure I had a change of clean clothes.

When I arrived at the appointed time, he held his hand out to me for a shake and I said, "I'm sorry about yesterday, Mr. Lambert"

He reminded me that he had told me to call him Robert as he led me inside. We went into his den where a woman sat on the couch leaning over to the coffee table. She was poring over a series of maps and then typing into a laptop computer.

I couldn't help notice the austere behavior she projected. Her auburn hair was wrapped tightly in a bun. She was wearing large reading glasses and her face was scrunched in concentration. Her alabaster complexion and lack of makeup did not conceal her attractive features. I noticed she was unusually tall for a woman. I had the totally irrational thought of what it would be like to look into those vivid blue eyes straight on while kissing her.

As though to complete her struggle to appear unattractive, her torso was adorned with a baggy Texas A &M sweatshirt, and her jeans were worn and baggy. It was as though she didn't give a damn about impressing anyone.

"Gayle, I want you to meet John Perry"

Gayle peered over her glasses and it was evident that I didn't impress her. I went to shake her hand and I found myself as a source of disdain as I was captured in the laser beams of those deep blue eyes as she ignored my hand.

"Mr. Perry, would you excuse us?"

And not waiting for an answer she stormed out of the room with Robert Lambert quickly trailing after her. They retired into what appeared to be the kitchen and I became aware of an argument escalating by the minute. The noises were too muffled to make any sense out of until the very end when I heard the woman yell, "Why do we need him?" To which Robert replied, "Because I said so!"

When they came out it was apparent that though a truce may be in effect, a brush war could reignite any instant.

"John, I'm sorry for the interruption let me finish introducing you to my granddaughter, Gayle Lambert."

Gayle gave a fleeting smile but the eyes did not match the smile as Robert continued, "Gayle is a recent graduate at Texas A & M in business agriculture and she came to me with some very interesting news. So I'm going to let Gayle take over now."

"Mr. Perry, what do you know of Shreveport, Louisiana?"

"If you don't mind why don't you call me John. As to your question, not much, I know they have a racetrack at Bossier City and some casinos over there."

"Let me rephrase the question Mr. Perry" she ignored my request to calling me by my first name, "Do you know anything about the history of Shreveport?"

"No, I don't" I replied .

"Have you ever heard of Captain Henry Shreve, Mr. Perry?"

After studying on it, I said, "No, can't say I have."

"What about the Great Raft, Mr. Perry? Have you ever heard of it?"

I responded, "Wasn't that the Kon Tiki boat that Thor what's his name sailed?"

The woman rolled her eyes in exasperation at the response.

"No, Mr. Perry, close to 800 years ago a logjam formed on the Red River. For all those centuries, trees unearthed in the Red River continued to float down to become part of the logjam. At its apex the logjam stretched 150 miles upstream and became so thick that many streams and tributaries and lakes formed as a result of it. You could actually walk on the river for miles and never see water.

As you can imagine many of those trees over time lost their buoyancy and sank to the bottom of the Red River or whatever tributary it caught on at the logjam. And remember this went on for centuries.

Eventually, Captain Shreve was assigned the task of clearing the logjam and he eventually did so to make the Red River navigable. In thanks for doing so, the town of Shreveport was named for him."

I interrupted, "That is a very interesting history lesson, ma'am, but, I understood this was a business meeting. So why is this important?"

"Mr. Perry, have you ever seen lumber made from water stained wood? It is exquisite and more importantly, expensive. And my grandfather and your grandparents are sitting on a gold mine."

It slowly sunk in about my grandparents and Robert Lambert's land abutting against the bank of the Red River. When you add all the tributaries and lakes as well as the wetlands there was no telling how much timber had been buried over the years. True, the Red River was constantly being dredged, but, that would be the main channel. Off to the sides, who knew what was lying in the murky deep?

"Okay, this sounds very intriguing, but, how do you propose to get to this gold?" I asked.

"That is where you and I come in John." Robert interjected, "I will outlay the cash to purchase a large pontoon boat, complete with three winches. Gayle will map out the areas most likely to have sunken timbers, you will pilot, and dive on the timbers and hook the winch chains onto them. Once a timber is up, it will be cradled between the pontoons and be taken ashore. We will jury rig a crane to load the timbers onto a log truck to be transported to a sawmill built where I had the old barn you razed.

From there it will be cut into lumber and we will sell either wholesale or retail depending on the profit margin. There is no telling how much we can make out of this is it is handled right."

"Okay Robert what is the split?" I asked.

"You get 10%", Gayle interjected before Robert could comment.

"No Gayle, I told you that we were going to be fair about this!" Robert angrily replied. "John, for providing all the sweat equity you get 50%. Gayle and I will share the remaining 50%."

Gayle Lambert appeared ready to chew nails from the betrayal her grandfather had just engaged in. She continued to glare at me for the rest of the evening as Robert and I discussed what we would need for the boat. Finally, we decided we had all equipment contingencies covered and I told them goodnight.

As I walked out. Gayle trailed behind me and stood on the porch as I walked down the steps.

"Mr. Perry!"

I turned around and looked up at her and even as she haughtily peered down at me I was struck again at her potential beauty.

"I just want to say Mr. Perry that I am not on board with you being partners with my grandfather and I. As far as I see, we are giving away money to have you on this venture. And as far as I am concerned the day my grandfather realize you are just baggage will be a happy day."

It must have been a reaction to all the events transpiring that caused it but I lit in on her.

"Ms. Lambert, I don't know who pissed in your cereal and I don't fucking care. I came into your house at your grandfather's invitation and you have been a total bitch the whole time. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but, to come out here and talk to me as though I was a dog is the last straw.

You don't know what I've been going through and you don't have any idea who I am as a person. I am tired of people shitting on me and if you think for a second that I'm going to let you shit on me, you've got another thing coming!"

As I stormed off I saw her with mouth agape and then rushing indoors. I suppose to tell Robert how I had mistreated her. I started to wonder what it was about me that pissed off women. I figured I would soon find out if Robert still was interested in being partners. If not, I would have to continue scrambling to earn a living.

When I arrived the next morning nothing was mentioned to me by Robert and the only indication of the previous evening tete a tete was a momentary glimpse of a redheaded wraith adorned in a Texas A & M T shirt slamming her bedroom door shut.

After our mutual flinch and waiting for the reverberation from the door slamming to cease, Robert and I both had the same junior high school boy smile on our faces. After that snicker, we continued discussing what we would need to transport the logs and what we would need for our sawmill. A couple of times we heard the door open and we buried ourselves in the paperwork as Gayle traversed through on whatever objective she was on.

The last time she went back into her room I made the comment that she sure was loyal to her school. Robert commented that since she had been back home that she had worn a Texas Aggie shirt everyday. I knew people that were fanatical about their schools, but, Gayle didn't strike me as that type.

In a week, we had the boat outfitted and ready to go on a trial run. The construction of the sawmill would wait until we determined the feasibility of the venture. If we were not able to dredge up enough timber to make it profitable, Robert could turn around and resale most of the equipment and not sustain too much of a loss.

Me, on the other hand would continue to accrue losing a day wage until my finances would redline. I was desperate for this venture to work and start giving me some breathing room.

Robert after consulting with Gayle decided to go out on a small tributary where we would work unseen by others. As I appeared the next morning, I was surprised from the indications that Gayle was going with us. She had on yet another A & M shirt on as she packed the items she intended to carry in the bed of my pickup. So we all loaded up and drove out to a suitable place to launch the pontoon boat. Gayle sat in the back and didn't participate in any of the conversation.

I drove the boat a short way and killed the engine. We slowly drifted and I picked up the large bamboo pole I had on the boat and started probing the pole into the water. After five minutes, a solid thunk was felt and we anchored the boat. I had my old scuba gear that I had bought when I was in the service, but, the water was shallow enough that my mask and snorkel would work.

I dove into the murky depth and feeling my way on the bottom I felt the slimy texture of a large object. As I felt along the curvature I estimated the girth to be bigger than my arm span. Then I quickly explored horizontally and estimated the length to be around sixty feet. I went to the surface and told Roger and Gayle that we had found our first log.

They excitedly ran the line from one of the winches and I dove again. I found a way to encircle the log with the wire from the winch and hooked the connection together. Then I surfaced again and climbed into the boat. Slowly and carefully I engaged the winch to start drawing the line in. After the slack caught up we became aware of the boat settling deeper into the water as the winch continued to strain. Soon the bow of the boat began dipping and the stern rose precariously.

Neither Robert nor Gayle had that much experience in a boat. I had as a teenager enjoyed going fishing many times in a bassboat. But never had I tried to land something this big. Still my experience at working with heavy machinery at my construction job gave me a clue on how to handle this even though it was a different application.

The boat continued to angle down and Robert and Gayle appeared anxious. I was as well, but, wanted to give a sense of confidence. Without warning, the inert suction holding the log to the bottom gave way and the line from the winch easily rolled in.

A light of anticipation appeared on Gayle's face and as the tip of the log appeared in the sunlight for the first time in untold years, a hearty laugh came from Gayle. I was back in the water ready to run the second line around the log now tilted at an angle from the riverbed. I swam and tossed the winch line under the timber and swam to the other side to hook it up.

Once again I went to the surface and was at the controls of the second winch. Since the log was no longer stuck in the riverbed the second winch line came up easily and soon we had our first log strapped to the boat.

It was cause for celebration and Robert and I shook hands and patted each other on the back. Robert and Gayle laughed and hugged one another and me and Gayle...sorta stood beside each other uncomfortably until we drifted away from one another.

I slowly drove the boat toward the shallow end of the water near the ramp and we determined that we had dredged up a cypress tree. Gayle explained that was one of the more sought after timbers.

We continued going out that day and we finished with five cypress trees ready to be loaded and harvested. As we drove back we discussed how to proceed. The ice thawed and Gayle talked as long as it was business related and she directed her comments to Robert. We decided I would drive the boat directly to the site in the morning and continue harvesting logs. Robert and Gayle would go ahead and purchase the logging truck and bring it to the bank of the river.

By use of a loading arch, winches, and log tongs and chains on the log trailer the logs would be loaded unto the trailer whereupon we would deliver our first load to an existing sawmill and sell our load. With that capital outlay we would begin to construct our own sawmill.

I got up before dawn and drove back to the lake and launched the boat just as sunrise broke. I found the first log and dove back into the water not taking into account how chilly the water would be that early in the morning. I forced myself to complete latching up the log and got it ashore. I then scurried to my truck and turned it on and allowed the heater to combat the early signs of hypothermia. Clearly, there were still some lessons to be learned in harvesting the logs. Then I remembered my scuba gear on board and luckily the neoprene wetsuit still fitted me. It would be able to take the edge of the chilly water until I was warmed by the truck heater or the sun.

By the time Robert and Gayle arrived with the truck an additional ten logs had joined our trove. I backed the truck up and attached the tongs and chains that would assist the arch in winching the timbers up on the truck. It was arduous and inefficient, but it was the cheapest way to load until the scale of our business justified using a log crane. Since I was the only one with enough experience, Robert and Gayle watched my efforts.

As I finished chaining the last log, I overheard Robert asking Gayle if she still thought I was unnecessary to the operation. The silence was gratifying to me as Gayle continued to barely tolerate my presence. Finally, I had enough logs loaded for the first load. The remaining logs continued to sit in the shallow water awaiting their turn on the second load.

I drove the logging truck to the sawmill we had planned to offload the logs and where our expected buyer was waiting. Gayle and Robert drove ahead of me as we approached the logyard. The trailer was weighed and inspected by the buyer who finally threw out a number that I was agreeable to. There was where I saw Gayle earn her keep.

She reminded the buyer what the present price was and how demand was continuing to outpace supply. Also, the present rate did not take into account the grade and size of logs that we had transported. The buyer was going to get double the board feet from our logs and therefore would have to pay accordingly. They continued to dicker back and forth until they reached a number that duly impressed me and Robert.

Arrangements were made to meet and inspect the second load I would deliver and the buyer would have a check waiting on us. I scrambled back eager to get the second load on the trailer and in the logyard. The vast difference in pay made me willing to accept Gayle as a necessary evil. I could only hope she would reach the same accommodation with me.