Charlie IV
Chapter 35
Rick drove them to the real estate agency the next day and the agent was all ready for them. Kathleen had a much smaller Jeep and was more than willing to give them a ride.
"This is 45-35-3 Kahana Drive in Konokaa. Five Bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 5,873 square feet. It sits on 5.42 acres and is listed at $1,799,900. It has mountain and ocean views. The sewer system is on a cesspool; it has solar panels for power. The water is both city and rain catchment system. This is all normal for the Big Island. TV is satellite only which is also normal for the Big Island.
"Take a look around and I'll meet you out back." Kathleen watched them enter.
"WOW! My kind of ceiling. Open beams and…" Rick began counting, "ten skylights on each side of the center beam. Wow!" He didn't think they could do that.
"The kitchen's big and it has a gas range with 8 burners. Looks commercial to me," Kate commented.
"This side has a fireplace, wood burning, no less." But a fireplace in Hawaii?
All the bedrooms and bathrooms were downstairs save for one half bath upstairs.
"This is weird. It's a big room but it has two queen size beds and two closets." Kate wasn't so sure about that.
"This space is different. Rock columns, rock wall, fake beams. What do we do with it? The upstairs is massive and divided into two sections." Rick didn't get it.
They found Kathleen out on the upper back deck. "What did you think?" It was within their price range and had more bedrooms than they had asked for. The only thing it was missing was a pool.
"I don't care for being on a cesspool. I'd rather have a septic system," Rick said.
"No pool, the master bedroom and bathroom need a lot of help, and I really don't like all those rock columns downstairs," Kate declared. "Love the natural light, though."
"Twenty skylights, can't beat that," Rick said.
"We have more to see." Kathleen locked up and took them to her Jeep to go to the next house.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
"This is 27-599 Alakahi Place in Pepeekeo. Six bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 4,116 square feet on 2.14 acres. It has just over 7,000 square feet under roof. It has spectacular views. It is on a cesspool, water catchment system, and power is solar and generator only. There's no pool and no way to add one but you'll love the view. Listed at 1.945 million dollars so still under your maximum budget. I'll meet you out back again." She let them enter and went all the way around.
"I like this entrance." Kate began there.
Rick looked around the huge living room. "Wow, two huge sectionals one on either side."
"Yeah, but you have to yell at the people on the other side of the room." Kate didn't like that.
Dining room was nice. "Rick, come see!" Kate went outside off of the dining room out onto the deck.
"Now this is a view." Rick loved it.
"A two million dollar view," Kate added.
The master bedroom was nice. It also had that view and its own little deck. "My kind of closet." Kate found it. "Bathroom's okay. Not the tub of my dreams, but nice."
"Kitchen with an exceptionally large pantry and a second side by side refrigerator." Back out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. Rick liked it just for the pantry.
"Is this a garage, or a bedroom, or what?" He looked around. It had a large bed up against the support between two garage doors that still had tracks to pull the garage doors open with. There was even a mini kitchenette. "I think they call this a mother-in-law suite."
"I'm not putting my parents in this room." Kate put an immediate end to that idea. "Giant playroom for kids we don't have maybe." It looked like wasted space to her.
"Another living room and another deck with an amazing view." Rick was still stuck on that view.
"What are those things?" Kate pointed at them. "Mini pyramids?"
Rick saw them; they each had a wooden deck. "Tent camping for kids? Dog houses? I have no idea."
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
"What did you think?" Kathleen needed to understand these two.
"The view was to die for, you got that right," Rick told her.
"That garage conversion looked like wasted space to me. I'm not sending my parents down there and still no pool and no beach access, either." Kate was killing it for those three things alone.
"Love the pantry, still not a fan of the cesspool," Rick said.
"One more house for today." Kathleen was striking out so it was time to up the ante.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
"This is 34-144 Kaihuiki Road in Papaaloa. It has a motorized gated access as you saw. Very private. Five bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms and one half bath. The home is 3,760 square feet on 12.84 acres. Cesspool again; that's something very common on the Big Island. Only living in the middle of town will get you away from that. Water is both city and catchment. Power is city that's underground with solar and generator back-up. TV is satellite only. There is cell service.
"This place comes fully furnished, totally turnkey. All you need is food and maybe some cleaning supplies. This house is listed above your budget, however, the seller is motivated. It has been unoccupied and on the market for over 600 days," Kathleen told them.
"Two years?" Rick's eyes opened wide at that.
"What's wrong with it?" was Kate's first question.
"This house is listed at 2.599 million dollars. The seller is very motivated now so keep that in mind. I'll meet you out back again." She let them enter.
"Look at that wall of windows!" Kate walked over to them, ignoring everything else.
Rick saw tile floors of some type. Dining room table or maybe two. "A pool table!" He went that way and walked around it. "Theater room with seating and TV." He was in love.
"Babe, come see the kitchen." Kate saw two sinks not just one. An enormous refrigerator. Matching appliances and a view.
Downstairs were the bedrooms. "This is huge." Kate followed by Rick walked into the master bedroom. "Babe, his and her shower heads in the same shower." The toilet had its own little room. Two sinks.
"Kate, come outside." Rick had hit pay dirt.
"A pool! With a waterfall." Kate's mouth fell open. "Look at that view. And all that grass. I don't see water but I do see a lot of room for Charlie."
"No kidding. He might get lost out here. We're going to need a tractor to mow all this." Rick saw work ahead for him.
"Covered outdoor seating and dining." Kate looked around.
"You like it." Rick could hear it in her voice.
"Thirty minutes from work. Gated access. It has a pool. I'm not sure about the living room. Maybe that's out here instead of inside. This is Hawaii."
"Before I ask, there are two more things for you to think about. This property is a farm. It produces 10,000 pounds of lychee annually. Also it has a number of coconut, orange, lemon, and starfruit trees on the property. On just over 12 acres of land," Kathleen informed them.
"Lychee?" Kate had never heard of it.
"It's a fruit normally found in certain provinces of China. When ripe it's red to a reddish pink in color. The skin isn't edible but the inside has a white flesh that's best when eaten raw. It's a delicacy to all of the Chinese on the Island. The more flesh each fruit has the higher the price. It cannot be canned though, so only eaten raw when ripe. Selling it will offset the cost of having it harvested for sale.
"Think of it as a grape that's high in Vitamin C," Kathleen explained.
"Well that makes things more interesting," Kate commented. If they bought this place they were buying a farm that needed harvesting each year.
"What do you think?" If this wasn't the one it was back to her office to look for more.
"Love the pool, the hot tub, and that Jacuzzi. I saw that thing," Kate commented.
"Love the pool table and the theater room," Rick mentioned.
"We need to do something about that dining room combination living room. There's something odd about that space," Kate noted.
"Love the wall of windows. No water or beach or even a view of the water, but we have beaches everywhere." Rick glanced at Kathleen. "Give us a minute?"
"Sure. Meet me at the front door so I can lock up." Kathleen left them at the pool.
"The other two are out. Do we keep looking? They want more than we're willing to spend. I mean we have the money and you have a job to pay for the utilities and such. But we already spent a lot on the two cars." Rick raked his fingers through his hair.
"You have a book due soon. An advance of 1.5 million is coming. I'm not going to just let you stop writing. Even I can see that's who you are. UPS was just to get by," Kate pointed out.
"She shows us either something more expensive that we can't afford or something a lot less that we don't like. I guess the big question is do we want a farm full of berries that need picking and sold somehow?" Rick just didn't know.
"Start with 2 million and see what they say," Kate suggested.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
"Have you reached a decision or do we go back to looking tomorrow? I have more properties. They will either be more expensive or less to a lot less," Kathleen warned them.
Rick spoke up. "I have a question. What lava zone are we in?"
"Ooo, I hadn't even thought about asking that." Kate gave marks to Rick for asking.
"All of Hilo is zone 2. Zone 9 is the highest risk. There are active lava flows there. But those are all far to the south of here. If you haven't been there yet I highly recommend it. It will give you a whole new perspective of this planet and what it's capable of," Kathleen suggested.
"We want to start at 2 million and see what they say. We have a little room but not that much room," Rick told her.
"I'll write it up, get one or both of you to sign it, and submit it. Then we wait and see. As I said, he's highly motivated now." Kathleen would do what she could.
"Two years is a long time," Rick agreed. "Maybe the property being a farm is the sticking point. Even we're not sure what to do with the fruit."
"You will. Just ask around town and you'll find out. Lots of volunteers for a price to hand pick the fruit. All those trees are right out back. You can't miss them when they're ripe." Kathleen headed for her Jeep with these two, took them to her office, and got them to sign so she could submit their offer.
"I'll call you at your hotel and let you know what he says." Kathleen still had to sell this offer.
_/\_
In the end they settled at the lower end of halfway at 2.119 million dollars. They would close and take possession in 45 days.
"Can we afford to stay in this hotel for 45 days?" Kate questioned him.
"$8,445 dollars will be the total. A bit pricey but I think we can do it. Besides when we get Charlie back we have to move anyway. So we can start looking and move now before you start your new job," Rick said.
"Deal! I so want Charlie back. It's killing me. It has to be hurting him. He probably thinks we abandoned him." Kate felt tears well up.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
Pagoda Hilo Bay. They moved the very next day and took it for the next 45 days.
"Well it's not great." Rick looked it over. One king size bed. It had a very mini kitchenette that they couldn't cook in. There was a sink, can opener, an apartment size refrigerator with freezer on top, one tiny table with 2 chairs.
"It has a refrigerator for Charlie's canned food. It also has a view, a pool, and A/C." Kate shrugged. "We're going to be at the beach with Charlie when I'm not working anyway. And Babe. We're going to need cell phones now. We can't rely on this thing working." She pointed at the phone that was in the room.
"Cell phone store here we come." Rick got kissed by Kate for that.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
Kate was plugging in her brand new Nokia 3310 to charge the battery and began trying to memorize her new 808 area code phone number. Rick was doing the same and combined they used up the available plugs.
"Now we wait for Charlie to be set free." Rick headed to the deck to sit down and look at the view.
"They better or I'm going to kill someone," Kate announced and joined him on the deck to look at the view.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
Rick and Kate were both carrying what they were going to need for Charlie into their room. Thankfully they'd found a pet store and spent money.
Rick had the bag of kibble and a case of canned food. Kate had everything else. Doggie bed, leash, three tennis balls, poop bags, flea and tick stuff, new brush to brush him weekly, and one stuffed toy in case he changed his mind about tennis balls.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
Kate kept looking at the clock. She had been working her job for the last 2 weeks and so far everything was easy. No need to use the x-ray machine. Up to this point she had seen dogs, cats, and one parrot. Mostly it was just shots. The worst was a seriously dehydrated dog that had been outside with no or little water for far too long.
She hadn't berated the owner though she had been sorely tempted. It wasn't her job to teach them. Her job was to tend to the animals even if they kept coming back. Though if that happened she would call someone.
Finally the clinic closed and Kate raced to her Jeep and drove home. But after opening the door she wasn't being attacked by Charlie like she wanted to be. There was no one home, not even her husband.
She did find a note on their bed though. Meet us at Ray Beach Park. It was signed Dog Lover. Kate dropped the note and ran to her Jeep so she could get there.
Thankfully that park was actually within walking distance but she was in a hurry so she skipped walking or running and drove. She found a place to park and then went looking for them.
"CHARLIE!" Kate was so impatient that she started calling him. Then suddenly she saw this big dog that was the right color racing right for her with his leash flapping all over the place.
"CHARLIE." She felt tears run down her face. She had never seen him run that fast. He was flat out moving. Kate got down on her knees, held out her arms, and soon she was hugging him and crying tears of joy for all she was worth.
Charlie was whimpering and whining and doing all he could to wrap himself around her while being hugged, petted, and kissed. "God, I missed you." Kate didn't want to try and stop crying. It took a while for both of them to calm down. When she did she finally saw Rick standing there smiling widely.
"That was pretty much me when I picked him up." Rick wiped away a tear that had escaped. "He heard you and ripped the leash right out of my hand."
Kate was in no hurry to release him. "I've been watching the clock all damn day."
"We have a seriously large kennel he was shipped in that's in our room now," Rick said. "I've been thinking of taking it back down to my car and stuffing it in the back to create more space for him."
Kate chuckled. "I didn't even see it. Just your note." She kept hugging him and kissed him again.
From this location they could hear planes landing and taking off from the airport that was right over there. They could even see them from their balcony. They were really close.
"What do you want for dinner?" Rick asked. Mostly because he was hungry but he'd had more time with Charlie than Kate had had.
"Thai maybe?" Kate had to think about that enough to clear her mind and even think of something close.
"Sombat's Fresh Thai it is. You can take Charlie home. Here's the poop bag." Rick handed her the bag in case Charlie did anything and then leaned down, kissed her, and walked to his car.
"He'll be back, Charlie. We're never leaving you again." Kate swore she wasn't ever moving back to the mainland and going through this again.
[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]
Charlie didn't leave Kate even when Rick opened the door and entered with Thai.
"Chicken Pad Thai noodles for me and Chicken Pineapple Curry for you. One can of Diet Coke and one regular Coke." Rick put it all on their tiny table to eat from like they'd been doing since they got here.
"Thanks, Babe." Kate was reluctant but she got up and left Charlie and went into the bathroom to wash up first.
"He doesn't look hurt." Kate had looked him over from head to tail. Opened his mouth and checked his teeth.
"Nothing I could find. The staff loved him. All the other dogs would bark a lot while Charlie just laid there and looked sad according to them," Rick said.
"Poor Charlie. We're not doing this again, we're just not. I'm not putting him through that again," Kate told him.
"I have no intention of moving again. However..." He did have bad news.
"However?" Kate stopped eating and looked at him. "However?"
"I have an email from Black Pawn. Book signing number one is in Honolulu this time. Two weeks from today, actually. It's called Da Shop." Rick shrugged; he had never heard of such a place. "I need to look that up." And he still had work to do to meet this requirement.
"Duh Shop?" Kate mispronounced the name. "At least it's not in LA. There and back in one day, maybe. I can ask if I can bring Charlie into work with me. Maybe I can put his vest on him and he can greet customers." She went back to eating while stealing glances at Charlie. It felt so much better having him around.