Charlie IV
Chapter 34
Kate parked right out front and raced for the front door where she found Charlie right there waiting for her. Naturally she had to pet him and kiss his head. But what she really wanted was to sit next to her husband who was on the sofa with his laptop in his lap. So she went around Charlie and sat next to him.
"I wrote down my final grades." Kate laid the paper on his keyboard so he couldn't miss seeing it. She had finally graduated her second year at MSU. She now had four years of hard work getting her degree. Now she could start looking for a job as a veterinarian somewhere.
Rick picked it up and looked it over. "This is impressive, very impressive." He turned his head to kiss her just as Charlie dropped his ball in Kate's lap and took off running for the kitchen. A moment later the ball hit the bathroom door that was always closed so they could do just this. It was also dirty and needed to be scrubbed, removing the evidence of all the balls that had hit it over the last 2 years.
"Do we stick with the plan?" Rick asked her.
"Move into my parents' house and live with them while I look for a job? You don't mind, do you?" Yes, she knew it meant living with her parents instead of living independently which she had liked the last two years. Now they didn't really need to save the money. Rick had gotten his 1.2 million dollar advance and that book, like all his others, had made it onto the New York Times Bestseller List a number of times so each month they got a check based on how many weeks it was on that list.
His next book, book number 5, was what he was working on now. He was calling it When It Comes Time To Slaughter. How he came up with these names she didn't understand. He had a far wilder imagination than she did. But she loved him and he was perfect for her.
"No, I don't mind. You know I like your parents. It will give you a chance to really look for the right job. And no, I don't mind quitting my job at UPS. Maybe I can get my old one back at UPS in Laurel." Rick leaned across to kiss her again just as Charlie came up yet again and dropped the ball in Kate's lap. At least someone was playing with him. Rick certainly didn't when he had that thing in his lap.
"And Charlie knows that hospital and assisted living places really well. They'll be happy to see him again."
"Good." Now Kate knew this plan had one major flaw in it. They made love to each other daily and she was well aware that she was very vocal when they did. And her parents' bedroom was right over there. Thankfully their neighbors hadn't said a word or even banged on the wall to get her to stop. Maybe they liked hearing her. Who knew?
They just needed to cancel their lease, pay the penalty for breaking their lease, cancel all the services and have their rental package picked up, and drive to Laurel. Even if they did it at night, it was only a little over 2 hours away.
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Kate had a stack of résumés, a generic cover letter, envelopes and stamps, and a list of vet clinics in cities that she was willing to relocate to that didn't include any of the really major cities like LA, Chicago, and such. She had turned into a small town girl and liked it.
Rick came walking out of the kitchen after raiding the refrigerator while her parents were in their office. The last two years had been good for them too. They were even getting clients from surrounding towns and cities coming to see them. They were back to making good money and building up their bank account again.
It had taken a massive hit after what had happened to Katie though they would do it again in a heartbeat if they needed to. However, now Katie had a husband that she adored and he had even more money than they had even back then.
"Don't forget to send one to that veterinarian in Hilo that you talked to. He offered to consider you if you sent him a résumé. Just don't send him that generic cover letter like all the others. Make his personal, make him remember you." Rick kissed her head as he went past her sitting at the dining room table and walked over to the sofa and his laptop. He had a book to finish and get to Black Pawn so they could edit, get it printed, and in stores for Christmas. Christmas in July. It was a strange feeling. Oh, the life of a writer.
"You want to move to Hawaii?" She had talked to that vet for fun. She didn't know Rick was serious.
"Don't you?" Rick walked back to her and sat down across from her. "You like small towns. I mean look at this list. I don't even know half of these places. You like the beach and the Big Island has lots of those. Granted 40,000 people is bigger than here but to me that's still small," he reminded her.
"Except Hawaii's expensive. Charlie will have to go into quarantine. It's a long way from my parents and really far from your mother who refuses to leave New York City." God knows Kate had tried. But Martha loved acting. Something about it being in her blood. When she bled, she bled fake stage blood.
"So we find a house with enough bedrooms for everyone to visit. You think your parents won't want to visit Hawaii? And you could invite that friend you made in school. What's her name." Sadly Rick hadn't been paying that much attention so he didn't remember.
"You mean Lanie? She was in medical school. We met by accident, but I do like her. Lanie's hard to resist. She gets right in your face and she doesn't have much of a filter between here and here." Kate pointed at her head first and then her mouth. Kate knew Lanie spoke her mind and didn't care what anyone thought.
"She's thinking of being a Medical Examiner. Working with dead people." Kate's entire body shook at just the thought of that again. She wanted to work with live animals and keep them that way. Not dead people.
"Plus she liked big cities. MSU only worked out because it got her away from her domineering mother and the school was filled with guys," Kate added.
"And you didn't invite her over even once." If she was that good of a friend, Rick didn't understand that.
"No I didn't, did I?" Suddenly Kate felt bad about that. Now here she was in Laurel and Lanie was maybe still at MSU going to summer school. "I can call her. I have the number if she's still there." Kate started to get up but Rick stopped her.
"Right after you write that personal cover letter to that doctor on the Big Island before you forget." Rick got up, gave her a kiss, and headed for his laptop.
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Rick felt Kate plop down next to him so he stopped typing and looked at her.
"Okay, I wrote, not typed, that cover letter like you asked and even put it out in the mailbox to get picked up. Then I called Lanie."
Rick waited for her to keep going. "She has one class for summer then plans to go to New York City of all places. I told you she liked big cities."
"And you told her you were looking for a job in Hawaii, right?" Rick asked.
"Yup, and she immediately gushed about all those topless Hawaii guys out on all those beaches. Lanie loves men in case you couldn't guess. She didn't understand why Hilo with only 40,000 people but the Big Island does have beaches. She wanted to know how big Honolulu was, so I told her. She said she would think about it. But she can't do anything about it till after her summer class.
"She wanted to know if I was still married. Wanted to hear about how handsome you were again. She wanted to know how big you are and I don't mean tall."
"I think I get it and you told her I was 12 inches." Rick grinned at her and she whacked him in the arm with a pillow for that comment.
"You're more than big enough for me, Husband. Speaking of which, my parents are at work and they took Charlie with them so we have the house all to ourselves." Kate smiled seductively at him.
"We do, don't we." He hadn't thought of it like that. Rick watched a still smiling Kate get up, grab his hands, and tug and drag him upstairs to their old bedroom. She could scream all she wanted with her parents gone.
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Jo covered the phone and yelled, "KATIE! PHONE!" and instantly heard her socked feet on the stairs, through the dining room, and into the kitchen where she took the phone from her mother.
"Hello?" So far she had gotten either no reply at all or they didn't have an opening for a veterinarian. She wasn't depressed about it yet. She had a lot of other places to send her résumé to. She was even using Rick's laptop to help her look for real jobs that might be posted somewhere.
"Ms. Rodgers, this is Doctor Trevor Rodriguez at Aloha Veterinary Center. I got your résumé a few days ago. We spoke when you were here on vacation." He needed to jog her memory. Her cover letter had certainly jogged his.
"I remember. You're in Hilo on the Big Island. My husband and I loved our honeymoon on the Islands. Honolulu was a bit big and crowded but everywhere else was lovely."
"Good. The Big Island is the best island in my opinion. I looked up Laurel, Mississippi. Very small town. I take it you like small towns?" Rodriguez questioned her.
"I do. I grew up in LA and then my parents moved us to Laurel where they opened a law practice. They're finally doing pretty well." Kate grinned at her mother who was still in the kitchen.
"You graduated from Mississippi State, I see. One of the better universities in the States. It was a wise choice. The distance is too far for an in-person interview but I remember you. Have you got some time? I have a number of questions for you."
"I have all the time you need." Kate made the cord stretch into the dining room and sat down at the table. She proceeded to tell him all she had done at MSU. What field work she had done as part of her classes. What animals she knew about including cows, horses, and even llamas.
"Alana's husband wants to move back to the mainland so I'm in need of a veterinarian. We deal mostly with pets but with your knowledge we might be able to branch out and do site visits for horses that are on the Big Island. There are also donkeys. I don't know of any cows on the Big Island but I could be wrong. You'll need your own car and it will have to be four wheel drive. A Jeep Cherokee or similar would work best since the back will be filled with veterinary supplies. It will get dirty on some of our backroads."
"I can handle that. I'm not afraid. Are you offering me a job?" She and Rick needed to do a lot of planning.
"Indeed I am. I have your email address so I'll send all the forms you'll need to fill out and find a way to send back to me if you agree to the terms. Can you be here in a month? Alana gave me 4 weeks advance notice which was kind of her." He would be in trouble if she hadn't.
"I will find a way to make that work. Thank you! My husband and I just need to figure out what to do with his truck, my car, our RV, and Charlie. He's our collie. He's a registered Therapy Dog. Charlie loves people." Kate couldn't help but talk about Charlie.
"A Therapy Dog? I know of a local hospital that might be very interested in him. I'll also send you all you need to get Charlie here. I can't get you past the 30 day quarantine but I might be able to arrange for that quarantine to be here at the Center." Rodriguez might have a way. He wouldn't know till he asked.
"That would be great! Thank you so very much. I'll fill it all out and send it back just as fast as I can." Kate was thinking of taking it all to her parents' office and faxing it or sending it to Hawaii via two day delivery. She doubted anyone did overnight to Hawaii. It was just too far.
"Excellent. I'll look it over and make the formal job offer. I look forward to hearing from you, Kate. Enjoy the rest of your day. It's very early here. It's the time difference. You'll get used to it. Bye."
"Bye. ...I GOT A JOB!"Kate yelled loud enough so everyone could hear.
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Kate had everyone including her parents at the table and Rick had his laptop.
"I need a Jeep Grand Cherokee or something like it to carry vet supplies in the back. I might be making house calls on horses. What do we do with the truck, my car, and the RV?" Kate asked. "The rest is just clothes and your laptop."
"Don't worry about the car, Katie. It's just a piece of junk we bought to help you get around. We'll get rid of it," Jim said.
"I like our RV but do we need it in Hawaii?" Kate asked. "There are only just so many places you can drive."
"Let's see." Rick looked at his laptop. "RV parks on the Big Island. We need one of these since we need to plug in. Our refrigerator only works on electricity."
He sighed after looking for a while. "No RV hookups anywhere on the island. Lots of campgrounds to park an RV but no hookups. Not even a place to dump the waste tank that I can find. Looks like tent camping or nothing. I'm sorry, Kate."
"Sounds like we sell it. SHOOT!" She liked their RV. "Do these places have bathrooms and showers?" She wasn't going tent camping without those. She wasn't that kind of girl. "We can leave it with mom and dad. They just have to buy a truck to use it."
Rick went back and looked. "Most do, yes. But some don't allow dogs."
"We're not going to those are we, Charlie?" Kate petted him since she'd give up Charlie over her dead body. "Do we sell the truck too? Wait to buy something there or buy it here and ship it over?"
"Let's see what the dealers say on the Big Island." Rick turned back to his laptop.
"Kona on the other side of the island has a JEEP dealership. They presently have 6 Grand Cherokees: two white, two green, and two gray." Rick spun the laptop around so Kate could see.
"Call for price. How thoughtful of them." Kate didn't like that but they had what she needed it sounded like.
Rick made up his mind. "We might as well sell the truck, fly into Kona if that's possible, buy two of them, and drive to Hilo. I'm thinking 4×4 is the only way to go. If Jim and Jo are willing we can leave them the RV. Keep us from having to sell it somehow."
"We can keep them and sell them for you. Or we buy them and sell them and send you two the money," Jim offered. "Might take longer than a month though."
"Now you need a Realtor to call after you two figure out how and when you want to be there. You need a place to live. Big enough for guests." Jo smiled at the two of them.
"Big enough for you two and Martha. We need to send Charlie now, though. A 30 day quarantine somewhere here or there is a long time. Might as well start now. Sorry, Charlie." Kate petted him since she was really going to miss him.
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It is two weeks later
The car and the truck had been sold so that just left the RV that Rick had sold to Jim for ten dollars. What Jim sold it for was up to him. The money he got would be sent to them minus the ten dollars.
They had the name and address for a real estate agency in Hilo called Cocoran Realties. Hopefully they would have what they were interested in. They had even agreed on how many bedrooms and the maximum price they were willing to spend.
Jim, Johanna, Kate, and Rick were all inside the airport waiting for their first leg of their journey, their flight to Houston. Like before it was going to take them a lot of time. Houston to San Francisco to Honolulu to Kona meant a lot of hours in the air.
"Just call us when you reach Kona. I don't care what time it is, please tell us you arrived safely." It was all Johanna cared about.
Charlie had already been gone for two weeks so maybe by the time they had a house unless it took too long to purchase one, they would have Charlie back. Even if it was in a hotel room.
Two teary-eyed people walked to their plane and the beginning of a new life while two equally teary-eyed people stayed behind.
Jim and Johanna really did like where they were now. That hadn't been just talk to Black Pawn and his lawyer. Granted they were here because of Katie but they would do it again in a heartbeat. Now Katie was healed, married, and starting her career in Hawaii.
"At least we have a place to visit and won't need a hotel room or a car." Jim was trying to look on the bright side.
"We are going, Jim. One day soon we're going." Johanna watched the plane carrying their only daughter and her husband back away and taxi to the runway. Only then did they go home.
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It took them four hours to buy two Jeep Grand Cherokees, one white and one dark green. Kate was taking the green one since she hoped it might hide the dirt she was expecting to get on it.
They both had maps to get from Kona to Hilo and their hotel of choice if they had a room for them.
Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. Deluxe Ocean View at $189 dollars a night was more than Kate was comfortable with but they didn't accept pets so they would be moving anyway if they couldn't find a place to purchase and live in fast enough because of Charlie.
Leaving her Jeep behind, Rick drove them to the Aloha Veterinary Center so Kate could check in and tell Dr. Rodriguez she was here. They just needed to find a house to buy.
Rick sat in the lobby while Dr. Rodriguez showed her around between pets he needed to see.
Rick looked up a while later and saw Kate was back. "And?"
"It's nice. They have a decent number of exam rooms, a place to do blood work and check for worms and other things. An x-ray machine, an incredible operating room, and everything else a clinic needs. I start in 2 weeks. The vet that's leaving is almost as young as I am and she's nice. She's just going where her husband needs to go.
"Dr. Rodriguez did say he would like it if we lived not much more than 30 minutes from here. I might get an emergency call and need to make a house call. He's already sending out information to locals that the practice will work on horses now, too. Guess who gets to make those house calls?" Kate smiled wide.
"Charlie does," Rick teased her.
Suddenly he found Kate in his arms. "I miss Charlie. This is going to be a long 2 weeks." Her soul was hurting and she couldn't explain it; it just did.
"Yeah, I miss him, too. What do you say we go find this real estate place next. They can start looking up houses for us to check out. Then we can find something to eat. I'm starving."
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Turned out her name was Kathleen and she wanted to know what kind of house they were interested in. How many bedrooms, any specific areas of the Big Island they were interested in, and finally what their budget was. Hearing the budget she told them they had a lot to choose from. She would start lining up homes for them to see beginning tomorrow.
"Food!" Rick announced and walked away since he spotted a place right outside her front door.