Returning home left both Molly and I feeling relaxed after the long ride. As Frank Rhoer rode away in the passenger seat of his own vehicle, I stretched out my back and then turned back to our cabin.
"So, what do you want to do?" I asked Molly, "You want to go for a walk? Get all the muscles loose? Or are you tired? Do you want to take a nap? Or do you have something else in mind?"
"Something else?" Molly raised an eyebrow with some curiosity.
"Something we couldn't do with my parents across the hall," I commented and pulled her into a hug from behind.
"Oh... that..." Molly chuckled, "if it weren't for the long car ride, I wouldn't be opposed to that. You are a magnificent male... and mine."
"But not today?" I asked.
"Not today," Molly nodded, "Let us just enjoy being back. Besides, we'll need to call your folks anyway. Let them know that we made it back safely."
I slowly nodded, accepting the decision.
"After that... I don't suppose a nice walk would be out of order though," Molly commented, "get everything loosened out and let everyone know that we're back."
I nodded again and we slowly made our way into the cabin for the moment. Once inside, I went up to our bedroom and dialed my parents' number. After a couple of rings, my mother answered on the other end of the line.
"Wayne residence, Polly Wayne speaking," my mother spoke.
"Hi mom, it's me," I reported to her, "I'm just calling to let you know that Molly and I have just arrived at Bandhavgarh. Everything looks fine here. We're doing well, so you have no need to worry."
"Good to hear, George," Polly Wayne answered on the phone, "getting everything unpacked?"
"Pretty much," I answered as I heard Molly messing with something in our laundry/cold room. She was probably getting a load of laundry started to wash the clothing we had worn while on the road, "we'll probably be going for a walk in a little while though. Loosen everything up after getting pretty stiff laying in the backseat of my truck."
"I'll leave you to it then," Polly Wayne answered, "thank you for letting me know you made it home safely."
After hanging up, I made my way back downstairs to cheek on Molly. She was adding detergent to the washing machine and the half empty bag of dirty clothes lay at her feet.
"Mom was glad to hear that we made it back safely," I told her, "where do you want to walk to?"
"I thought we'd go see how Dave and Tabby are doing," Molly commented, "What do you think?"
"I have no problem with that," I replied as Molly set the washing machine.
"Good," Molly nodded, "because by the time we get back, it'll be time to move this to the dryer and start the next load."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A few moments later we slowly made our way up to the vineyard that Dave and Tabby Choir ran. As we approached we found Dave working with his grape vines in front of his home. He noticed us approaching as we got closer to where he was.
"Hey! You're back!" he said in an excited voice as we walked toward him.
"Yes, yes we are," I nodded, "How are things?"
"Oh, things are fine," Dave answered, "things have been quiet, and it looks like I'll get a good crop of grapes this year."
"That's good news?" Molly asked.
"It's excellent news, given that we only just planted them last summer," Dave answered.
I nodded, remembering the help I'd been hired to give Dave the year before. As I did so, Dave came out from his rows of vines and approached us closely.
"Veronica was a little bummed that her favorite person from school hasn't been there for a week," Dave commented.
"I'm her favorite?" Molly gasped.
"She wants to be you sometimes," Dave replied, "Of COURSE you're her favorite."
Molly ended up a soft, yet happy smile, "then I suppose she'll be glad to hear that we're back."
"When did you guys get back?" Dave asked.
"About half an hour ago," I told him, "we're getting some exercise after a long car ride."
"Where did you guys go?" Dave wondered.
"Peoria," Molly explained, "Leona Washburn got married and we were invited to the wedding."
"Oh," Dave nodded, "tell her congratulations for me."
"It's "him" now," I told him, "it's a long story."
Dave blinked for a moment and then shrugged, "all the same, tell him congratulations for me."
I could hear some unease with saying "him" in reference to Leona, but he didn't know that Leona was now Leon. I guessed that would have to be explained at a better time. After a moment, Dave turned to walk toward his home. He motioned for Molly and I to follow him.
"Oh, and while you're here," Dave spoke, "let me give you your mail."
"You collected our mail?" Molly asked.
"We didn't want it to overflow the little box you guys got," Dave answered, "you'd end up losing it."
We followed him in. Dave only went as far as a counter near his front door and pulled a small stack of letters and things and handed them to Molly.
"We wanted to make sure you got your mail," Dave finished.
"That was very neighborly of you," I told him.
"I'd expect you two to do the same for me," Dave shrugged.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There wasn't much in the mail that was very important. It was mostly junk mail that we shredded almost as quickly as we opened it. The mail that was important were a few bills and things. Thankfully though, we had plenty of time to get them in the mail. When we returned to Bandhavgarh after visiting Dave, Molly and I went in two separate directions. I went upstairs to deal with the bills that had arrived while Molly returned to the laundry. Once all the checks for paying these bills were written, I made my way back downstairs.
"So, how far back did we fall with those bills?" Molly asked as I found her seated in our living room while the washer and dryer were both hard at work to clean the next load of clothes or dry the load that Molly had started before we went on our hike.
"Not to far," I answered, "we're actually fairly far away from being in the red. We've done a good job at budgeting things..."
"Though, some of it is related to Micheal York giving us the cabin," Molly answered with a sigh.
"Yes, but we're also making just enough to absorb the hit it will do to our taxes," I assured her, "and the bills didn't hit us too hard."
"Good to hear," Molly nodded and put on the television, "I can take them in to the post office tomorrow during my lunch break."
"I figured that would be the plan," I nodded, "let's watch something funny... something to relax to."
"You read my mind," Molly replied.
She eventually flipped through various channels until we'd come across a situation comedy. It was a fairly new one, but as we watched it seemed to be a good one. We watched it until our laundry was done. By that time, though, it was rapidly approaching for dinner and Molly then switched from laundry to cooking dinner. I continued watching it until our dinner was ready. As we sat down to dinner, we moved onto the next main item on the agenda.
"We'll need to restock our deep freeze pretty soon," Molly commented to me, "most of it went into what we took to Peoria."
I nodded, "we can do that over the weekend. We will have work tomorrow... or at least I do."
Molly slowly nodded, "yeah, I'll have work too. It'd be nice to have a day or two to settle back in... but we've already taken a week and a day off of work for the wedding."
I nodded.
"You won't have any trouble with the Super Intendant for taking the time off?" I asked.
"I'm sure he doesn't like it, but I am well within the rights as part of the agreement to work as Mrs. Fitzpatrick's aide."
"Hopefully he won't try anything sneaky," I commented.
"Tabby's gotten her announcement made in the newspaper that she's running against him," Molly answered, "and I'm sure he knows that Tabby will be firmly against him when it comes to dealing with me... he'll be focused on campaigning for reelection."
"And hopefully he loses," I replied.
"Hopefully Tabby makes a better super intendant," Molly nodded.
"I'm sure she will."