Wild Nights, Hot And Crazy Days

Part 1.6: Curiosity

Carman got up and so did I. He showed me around the house, a more thorough tour than we had done earlier, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was too busy thinking about Aiden and trying to figure out where I had gone wrong. Eventually he led me downstairs to show me the rec-room. When we got to the bottom of those stairs my jaw dropped. This place was heaven. There was a pool table, some pinball machines along one wall, and a few arcade games along another. A huge wooden bar was at the end opposite the stairs, and all around this bar were enough decorations to make you think you were in a tavern.

I blurted out like an idiot "Jesus, you guys must be RICH!"

Carman chuckled. "I don't know if I'd call it rich, but we're pretty well off. This was our family farm. We had 350 acres. After dad died some developers started bothering Mom about selling off the land. Bryon and I kind of resented those developers, thinking they were after Mom's land, but Mom told us that she couldn't run the farm anymore. We relented and told her she could sell the land, but we would handle it. Bryon hired some engineers to build the roads, I designed the houses, and this subdivision was born. Once the subdivision was established Bryon opened his own Real Estate company, while I started an architectural firm. The only thing that remains of the farm is this house and the carriage house out back. We took some of the money and put additions onto the house. Bryon wanted the three car garage (Aiden's bedroom is above it), I wanted my privacy so we built an apartment for me above the carport where we parked. I'll have to show it to you before you leave."

"I'd love to see it," I said. Then a thought occurred to me. "Do you live in it alone?"

Carman chuckled. "If you mean 'do I live with a boyfriend', then no. I had lived with one for years, but he got sick and eventually died. When the apartment was first finished he moved in with me, but he was only able to hold on for a year before he passed away.

"How did he die?" I asked. Then I realized how bold this question was and said "Sorry!"

Carman laughed, and said "No need to be sorry. This happened years ago. I still think about him often, but I have moved on. Life must go on, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how hopeless it seems sometimes. But to answer your question: Pancreatic cancer. It is one of the deadliest cancers, very few people survive it and it kills you quickly. He was only 27 years old."

"Wow. That sucks."

"Yeah. Life sometimes does. But enough with the sadness for now. Aiden told me you're a bit of an electronics geek. Come check this out."

He walked over to one wall and I followed him. Against this wall was a stereo system unlike any I had ever seen. The knobs, the buttons, the lights... and the speakers! There were two huge speaker towers, one on each side of the stereo system. They had a big CV logo on them, and I was entranced. Carman noticed me looking at them. He took the foam cover off of one, and you could see the individual woofers, tweeters, and mid ranges (at the time I didn't know what any of that meant, but Carman would explain). On the center of each woofer was the same CV logo.

"Cerwin Vega", he said. "Best money can buy. There are two more on the other side of the room". I looked around and noticed them.

"Wow. That thing must be loud!"

"Not just loud. Music isn't just noise. A car with a broken muffler is loud, but that doesn't mean that it sounds good. There's no point in making loud noise if you're just going to turn it down because it sounds terrible. Here, I'll show you."

He reached up to a shelf and picked a small plastic case off of it, which he opened and pulled a little shiny silver disc out of. He must have noticed me looking at this disc, because he held it up to me. "Compact Disc, or CD. They're new. They're expensive but worth it for an audiophile like me. The sound quality is incredible."