Chapter 30

07:45 September 7, 1983 One week later

I had spent the last week before school with both my girlfriends. Either in town or they would come out to the farm. We kept experimenting, and they kept enjoying the experiences I offered them. Occasionally, Patty would come to visit me. I believe they were all discussing and organizing their visits. I never had all three on the same day, and Patty never showed up when the girls planned to come visit. Also, the girlfriends never complained about the things Patty and I did again. Patty never once brought up what I was doing with Amaryllis and Julie, either. Another reason that I figured the three of them were coordinating my love life.

Part of each day was spent working on the fields with Pap-pap, getting them plowed under to lay fallow. Except for the one field that we always planted pumpkins, for him to take to the fall farmer’s market around Halloween and a second planting around Thanksgiving. I suggested that this year we do things differently. He and Granny both asked what I was thinking, and I told them I was thinking we should plant corn in the field next to the pumpkins and plant both pumpkin patches at the same time. That we could actually do a Halloween thing. Instead of harvesting the pumpkins and taking them into town to sell at the farmers market, we advertise a ‘Pick your own Pumpkin’ Patch and Fall/Halloween Corn Maze. We could charge a set fee for the maze to let them wander through it. And have a scale to charge for the pumpkins and let the city folks come and pick their own pumpkins for jack-o’-lanterns and other pumpkin related things.

Granny could also can most of the second field of pumpkins. We could then offer Granny Parker’s Award Winning Pumpkin Pie Filling and other canned things. Granny was canning anyway, so why not sell any extra to the city folks?

Pap-pap and Granny weren’t really sure that it would be worth the time and effort, but it thrilled them to see that I was taking an active interest in farm life. So they were willing to try anything once. Especially since it encouraged me to come up with new ways to make the old place profitable. I had other ideas from my time, too. But some of them may be too modern to catch on in Angel Falls of the 80s. However, this was still Kentucky and even city boys and men wanted to supplement their winter food supply with wild turkey, venison, squirrel and rabbit hunting in the appropriate season. I suggested we offer some limited rights to hunt the wooded forty for a fee. Although Pap-pap was unconvinced, he decided to give it a go and see if anyone would pay for the privilege to hunt when there were so many free places they could go. I reminded him that anyone could and would go to those places. What we would offer was a very limited number of exclusive rights to hunt on our land. We would also do some things to attract the game right now so that they’d be almost guaranteed to get their limits. Pap-pap thought that might make a difference. And was willing again to let me try it this year. If it worked, it would be something we could offer at other times.

The other thing I had done for the week was work on getting ready to visit the gang of five secretly. I wanted to track them for a while and make plans for when it was time to strike without warning. The first thing I did was buy a tin wash tub at the farm supply store. The old tack room at the rear of the barn was where I put it, and I used it to color both the web belt, and three of the jumpsuits black. I kept the sharpening kit out there as well. I needed to find a place out of sight (and mind) where I could dress and practice with both my knife and staff, which I was going to re-stain black and find another Ash wood staff to do in red. That way, the one on my bike didn’t disappear, but the vigilante I was going to become would have weapons to use.

The other things that happened thrilled me. I got a hardship driver’s license and a more modern farm truck. Red was the color I selected on purpose. I wanted to stay away from black in my personal life. Black needed to not be associated with me at all. Thankfully, most of the clothing my sisters had forced me to buy were the colorful and pastel schemes that were so popular in the eighties.

Then, just a few days before school was to start, we got a call from Joseph. The lottery money had cleared all the bank accounts, and he had finally found a financial planner he thought was exactly what I was looking for. He wanted to know if Pap-pap and I were ready to go back to Lexington and meet with her. She was a young associate planner with what wasn’t the second best brokerage. No, she worked for E.F. Hutton. As a matter of fact, I knew for certain that in just two years, a lot of their associates would get caught in a tremendous scandal that would almost end the company. But I trusted Joseph, and he’d interviewed several companies and even more associates. He told me this woman was smart and hungry. He said in a way, she reminded him of both Amaryllis and myself. I talked to Pap-pap, and he agreed to go with me this first time to meet the woman. When Joseph told me her name, I got excited. I knew the reputation of an older version of this woman. She had become known for being one of the few who left E.F.Hutton before the check kiting scandal of the late 80s. She became a big name in the financial world in the mid-1990s. I was about to meet a younger version of the founder of ‘Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’, Miss Morgan Stanley herself. I hoped she was as open to working with me as I was excited to work with her.

*****

Morgan Stanley’s Office.

I was super impressed by Miss Stanley. When Joseph told me she was a junior associate, I still hadn’t expected her to be as young as she was. If I had to guess, I would figure she was around twenty-four or twenty-five. Which would mean she wasn’t just a junior associate, she was probably the most junior associate in this branch of the company. I wondered what the senior associate’s and partners would think when I had her making deals and buying stocks for me in the ten thousand to hundred thousand dollar range.

The secretary showed us into her office and she instantly stood and came to where Pap-pap and I had just entered. She smiled and said. “Gentlemen welcome to E.F. Hutton. Now let me see if I have this right.” She looked at Pap-pap. “Officially, you’re my client, Calvin Parker, but you don’t let anyone call you Calvin. It’s Pap-pap. However, while you are officially my client, you aren’t who I’m working with and for.”