We flew to Columbus on Monday. We had two cars waiting for us at the airport, a Jag for her dad and a Cady convertible for us. I showed her dad the way to Cummins and then Linda and I went driving around the town. I showed her my high school, the service station I worked at and the drive in restaurant we used to drive thru. We stopped to eat at a restaurant in the shopping center where I worked at a Standard Food Store. We went in and sat down and ordered. My parents walked in, I said maybe they won’t see us but they did and came over to our table. Dad said, “You did not tell us you were in town.”
Linda said, “We just got here. We flew my father into town for a meeting at Cummins.” “Your dad, is he looking for a job? Because they are not hiring now, but there is a rumor that they may get a big contract with a Swedish company. It’s too bad they can’t make it on American Companies,” my dad said.
I said, “Linda’s dad is the head of that Swedish company and they will get the contract.” Mom said, “I did not think you were an American with that funny accent!” I said, “Well you have a funny accent too. Indiana Hill Billy.” “Wil, that’s not the way to talk to your parents,” Linda said. Dad said, “We don’t need a foreigner telling my son how to talk to us!”
“Well, this beautiful young lady is you daughter-in-law and she is carrying your grandchildren. So accept it or leave us alone because I know you don’t care,” I angrily said. “You think so, well we have spent a lot of money on you and your messes.” “Now you are talking about Dan.”
“No, your daughter that we have raised for you and that other tramp you married.” “You have Tammy because you would not let me take her.” “We have legal custody of her now. So you still cannot take her.”
Linda said, “How much money have you spent for him?” “Linda don’t.” “Tell us how much and we will pay you back with interest. We will get our lawyer and get custody of Tammy.” “Well it is not about the money, it is because we had to spend it.” “Well, give us a ballpark figure and then we can pay you and never hear about it again!” Linda said. I said, “Either you leave or we will!” “So you married a pregnant foreigner. She was pregnant when you married her wasn’t she?” “It would not make any difference to you. Come on sweetheart, let’s go, we will eat someplace nice, where they won’t be.” When we got up and left dad said, “You don’t need to take that attitude.” “We did not have an attitude.” We got in the car, “You must have saved up for a long time for a car like that!”
Linda said, “About five minutes. We make about $10,000 a minute. Wil was right, it was not good to meet you!” We drove away. Linda started crying. I said, “What’s wrong honey? Linda sobbed, “I feel so sorry for you. Why do parents act that way?”
“It has been that way my whole life. When I was about four or five, the boy I played with from down the street tripped over a rope that dad had stretched across the drive. He landed on a rock that went right through his lip. Mother came out and yelled at me for pushing him. He told mom that he had tripped over the rope.” Mom said, “Well I am sure that Wil pushed you.”
Ronny said, “Wil had nothing to do with it.” She told me to go to my room and she took Ronny down to his house.
When dad got home he tore out the rope and came in and gave me a whipping with a belt for pushing Ronny.
I told him, “I did not push Ronny, he tripped. He told mom that.” “Well, we know you had something to do with it. Stay in your room.”
“That is the way it has always been. We were riding the bus, I was about sixteen, one of the bullies that lived down the road from us was reaching up and was hitting my little brother Davey on the top of the head. I told him to stop it. He did it again and I hit him with a roundhouse right and knocked him into the bus window. I broke his jaw and the window on the bus. The driver kicked me and the bully off the bus. When we got home my sister Sharon ran in the house, ‘Wil got in a fight on the bus and hurt the kid and broke a window on the bus and now he is kicked off the bus.’ She did not tell her that I was protecting my brother. I came in and Mom said, “You go to your room and don’t you come out till your father takes care of you.” I tried to tell her what happened. She said, “Sharon already told me all I need to know”. Dad came in started spanking me and when I got up over powering him he beat me up. I said that’s it I am out of here. I got in my car and pealed out of the drive throwing rocks and dust all over his new car. And I have not been home since then.”
“I can understand what you meant about your parents. Mine are not quite that bad. They are just locked into business.” “I think it is a lot of wanting to leave you a stable future, more than being selfish.” I replied.
“I never thought of it that way, but you are most likely right. Thank you for that,” Linda agreed.
“Well, I guess that it is time for us to get back to the airport. I have one more place that I want to show you. It is the church that I was saved in.” “I would love to see that. You know one thing I have noticed, we don’t have to kiss as much, but I feel our love for each other more. I feel so close to you it is amazing!” “I know, I feel the same way. I love you so very much, but I feel like you know it without me saying it. We’re like an old married couple. Well I don’t know about the old part.” “Ya right.”
“We are almost back to the airport and there is the church that I was saved in. Then I was baptized at a church in town that had a baptistery.” “When we get to Sweden, “I will show you where I got saved. I was baptized in the lake there by my home town.”
“You know the only two countries I ever wanted to go to were Wales and Sweden. I am from a Welsh background and I always loved the Swedish accent. My two uncles are Swedish,” I told Linda. “That was not a very good try at my accent.” Linda laughed. “Honey, it is so beautiful I could never do it right. I could listen to you talk all day. I love you.”
We got to the airport and my old friend Tom Whens came out to meet us. “When I heard you had landed here I had to come out and see you.”
“Tom, this beautiful lady is my wife, Linda, and she is carrying our first two children and I sure hope they are not girls.” “Why is that?” “Can you imagine trying to chase the boys away from two girls that beautiful?”
“I see your point.” “Did you ever get married?” I inquired. “I married the Thomas girl, you remember her. You and her brother used to run around together and she would go along. She sat in the middle between you and Henry just so she could be next to you, but you never liked her.” “Yes I did, she was the reason I liked to run around with Henry.”
“She did not know that. She had it bad for you,” Tom confided. “You are kidding me!” “No, she was the reason that Henry wanted you to take them to church. Here she comes now.”
She came up to me and put her arms around my neck and planted a kiss right on my lips. Linda was really jealous and said, “That is my husband you are kissing!”
She kissed me again and said, “Wil, I have missed you so much. I am so sorry you did not like me.” “I did, that was the reason I picked you and Henry up all the time. I thought you did not have any interest in me,” I replied.
“We have been so mad at your parents. Davey and Pat told us what happened. We were so worried about you. Well, I was. I don’t know about Tom.” “I was concerned too. But then I was not crazy about you like some people I know. Who knows, if you would have stayed around you may be married to Beverly instead of me. Some days that would be a good thing.” Tom said.
“Well, I would not let Wil go for anything. I almost lost him a month ago. That is as close as I ever want to get,” Linda said. “What happened?” Beverly asked concerned. “He was acting chief of the fire department we are on and we were in the chief’s squad looking for a lost little boy, when we heard this bell ringing. Wil thought it was a water gong and we went to check it out and it was burglar alarm. Wil had gotten out of the car and the slimy crook shot Wil in the head. It was lucky that the bullet hit one of the antennas on the squad and split or it would have killed him instantly.” Linda started to cry, “I get so scared every time I think about it.” “Honey, it is all ok now, don’t get upset. It is not good for you or the babies. You had enough already talking to my parents.”
Beverly said, “You talked to your folks? That was a bad thing to do. I did not think you would ever talk to them again.” “It was not planned, we were in a restaurant when they came in. They were extremely rude to Linda and we just left. I was afraid Linda’s Swedish temper would explode.”
“If you would have let me, I would have unloaded on them not for the way they treated me but the way they treated you.”
“So you are from Sweden. I hear that is a beautiful country,” Tom said. “It is. I can hardly wait to show it to Wil.” “Looks like you are doing alright for yourselves.” Linda said, “We are the main shareholders in Swedish Airways, we own Haskeilmyer Air Craft and Haskeil Cargo Transport.”
“This is your plane then?” “No, this is her dad’s plane. We are his pilots. Our plane has three jet engines and has more lady frills on it. It is faster too. I married into it, I am not that smart,” I replied. “That is a crock, you are as smart as anybody, no, smarter than most,” Linda added.
“Well we could argue that point all day. Would you like a tour of the plane?” I said to Beverly and Tom. “Sure, we have never see a Haskeilmyer airplane before.” “It has two great jet engines on it.” “They are Rolls Royce engines aren’t they?” Tom asked. “They sure are.” “How does it fly?” “Linda you tell them.” “It so easy to fly even Wil can fly it.”
“Very funny, let’s see who has the most flight time.” Tom said, “The last time I flew with Wil, he had almost 400 hours. I don’t know how many you have logged since then.” “About another 600 hours. That puts me at over 1,000 hours. How many do you have Mrs. Willy?” “About the same. Ha Ha.”
“Ok, it flies great, as smooth as silk. It has to, or a certain woman would get upset.” Linda punched me in the shoulder from one side and Beverly punched me from the other side. She said, “You should know better than to make a crack about ladies when you are standing between two.” “I give. I did not mean it.” Linda said, “I think he meant it!” Then they punched me again. I said, “I give.!” I moved to the other side of Linda and put my arm around her. She said, “I forgive you. I think.”
Linda’s dad got back. We introduced him to the Whens. It was about 1400 hours. He said, “Have you kids eaten?” We said, “No. Where is there a good place to eat?” Tom said, “There is an Esquire House Restaurant on 46 at 65.” I said, “Oh, I know where that is.” Linda’s dad said, “You two come along with us.” “No, I am sorry I have to be here and Bev needs to get back to the baby. But thank you anyway,” said Tom.
We got in our car and drove to the restaurant. We went in and a girl came up to me and planted a kiss right on my lips and I kind of returned it. I said, “Sue, it is nice to see you. This is my wife and her father.”
“That means I don’t have a chance.” “She has me lock, stock and barrel.” “That is too bad, I have been waiting for you to come back.” “I would not wish to come back to this town.” “You could take me with you, I cannot stand it either.” “You have money, you can get out by yourself.” “Forget it,” and she walked away.
Linda said, “Who was that?” “I will tell you later. Sorry about the interruption.” Linda’s dad “said an old girlfriend.” The hostess asked a table for three? Her dad said, “Yes please.”
She showed us to our table. I seated Linda and another girl came up and hugged me and kissed me. Linda promptly stood up and said, “That is my husband that you are hugging and kissing!” Pat laughed and said, “That is my brother I am hugging and kissing!” “Mr. Von Haskeilmyer and Linda, this is my baby sister, Pat.”
“Oh, I thought you would call me potato head. I guess you are too old for that. It was great to see you, and to meet you even though I don’t know who you are exactly.” “I introduced you.” I said. “You did not tell her that I was your wife and this is my father,” Linda added. I turned to Pat and said, “I am sorry. I was so afraid her Swedish temper was going to go off. She unfortunately met Mom and Dad.” “You are the Swedish company that I bet you are the company that Cummins is doing business with.” “Yeah, whatever you said. She is an Indiana Hill Billy.”
“Very funny, you know I will get even. I love you brother, see you later, I have to go. The girls I work with are out to the car. It was great to meet you. Regardless of what our parents said, he is a good guy. We need to get together. I can tell you stories! Bye, I love you.”
“That is your baby sister? You have two sisters and two brothers all younger than you,” Linda inquired. “I do not want you to meet my oldest sister. She is a duplicate of my mother,” I said. “Well lets order.” We ordered our food and started eating.
Linda asked, “Where did Sue come in?” “She was my high school sweetheart.” “So what happened, she appears to still have strong feelings for you?” “We thought we were really in love and we wanted to be together so we tried to get her pregnant. She missed three months and was sure she was. We told our families and started to make wedding plans and she had her period. Her parents sent her to a girl’s boarding school and I did not see her again until now.”
“Do you still care about her?” Linda asked. “I think you always have some feeling for the first girl. Don’t you have feelings for the first guy you went out with?” I said.
“Yes I love him with all my heart and I married him. You are my first love and I will not let you go. I love you with all my heart and I will not let you go.” Her dad said, “You are already married?” “The wedding is at end of June,” Linda quickly responded.
“You two sound like your mother and I when we had just started going together. Your mother was just as beautiful as you are and I was always afraid that some guy would come along and take her away. I had had a sweetheart in school that I was forced to breakup with. I know what Wil is talking about. You always remember that first love. It does not mean that you want her back, but you still care about her. Right Wil?”
“Right, sir. Linda is the only lady I ever want to be with.” “Sure that’s what you say when I am here, but what would you say if Sue or Donna were here and I was not?” “I would say the same thing because you are the only one for me. For now and forever.”
“We need to get back I don’t like to land in Chicago airspace after dark,” Linda’s dad stated. We went back to the airport and flew back to Chicago and landed without a problem. Dad flew back to Sweden and we went home.
Linda had more ammo to hit me with if she got mad now. However, she was not mad when we got home. We had gotten WC on the way home and we went to our room right away and ate them. We showered together as always and got into bed. Linda was on me right away and we made passionate love. She laid on me and we fell asleep. Linda woke up in the middle of the night and was on me again. “You are going to object that I jumped on you? I have to get it while I can. A couple of more months and I won’t be able to do it.”
“Then we will both have to suffer.” “I will, but you won’t. I will have to take care of you anyway.” “No, I will wait just like you.” “The other women say that after a week they were having to take care of their guys to keep them satisfied.” “We will see.”
She is so gorgeous laying there on top of me. I still cannot believe she is mine. Every time I pray I thank God for letting me have her.
Next morning we got up and took the truck to the VP department and we worked on getting the rest of the supplies put away. Doctor Cook came by and checked me out and said I could return to duties, but to be careful.