“How much are we talking? David plans to lease it,” Dad said.
“I can get you into it for the same money as the new Cadillac.”
When the girls got back, Mom pointed to the Ford.
“He’ll take that one.”
“Do you want to drive it?” Mr. Sullivan asked.
I looked at Peggy, and she nodded that she wanted the Ford Hennessey VelociRaptor. After all, she was the one who had to drive it on a daily basis. But I glanced at Dad to make sure, and he gave me a little shake of the head. I guess I didn’t need to drive it.
“No, I trust them to decide. Write it up,” I said.
Dad and Caryn went into the office to work out the details. They let me sit in it while they did that. I checked the odometer and saw it had almost thirty thousand miles on it. The interior was equivalent to the pickup truck version, with leather seats and high-end trim. It was comfortable. I climbed into the middle-row bench seat, and there was plenty of legroom, even for me. Even with the back-row seating up, there was a ton of storage area. The back seat could be folded down, and if you did that, there was enough room for me to stretch out at an angle. The back hatch was unique: the rear window could be opened without opening anything else. At the bottom of the hatch were two half-doors that opened outward like an ambulance.
I envisioned loading up the guys and taking some trips, or it had plenty of room for five car seats for little ones.
I walked around the exterior, and it had a couple of minor dings, but I would expect that in a used car. While I would never pay what they wanted for a new one, I could live with the used price. Peggy and the kids would be safe in this car. I worried a little about the additional horsepower, but Peggy wasn’t the irresponsible type. I might take it out and put it through its paces, but never with any of the little ones on board.
When we left, I made a point to thank the Sullivans for taking care of me.
◊◊◊ Wednesday February 17
I skipped the dojo tonight to go on an adventure with Brook. The weather had warmed up for the last several days, and we got a call that the ice was off the local ponds. That meant we would do our first open-water dive. We stopped at the dive shop and were outfitted with wetsuits. We had already each bought a tank, regulator/octo, mask, snorkel, BCD, dive belt, and fins. I think I figured out why the class was so cheap.
I’d balked at buying a wetsuit because I never planned to dive when the water was this cold ever again. Brook, on the other hand, decided she wanted one. It wasn’t like it would break the bank; the one she bought cost her around $400. I just couldn’t see getting into the water when you’d need one.
What sucked was they didn’t have one in stock that would fit my long arms and legs. I either had to pass on the dive or suck it up and leave a couple of inches of skin uncovered.
“You’re a wuss, Dawson,” Brook teased me.
“Yeah, let’s get this over with.”
“Good boy. For spring break, we’re going somewhere warm where we can take advantage of this. How does the Caribbean sound?”
“Better than this,” I agreed. “Okay, deal.”
We loaded everything up and followed everyone to a farm near the highway. In the Midwest, the land is flat. To put in a bridge, they need soil to build the ramps to raise the road. Instead of hauling in dirt, they would make a deal with a farmer to put in what’s called a ‘borrow pit.’ They dug out all the soil in a square hole next to where the bridge would be built. Those holes filled in with groundwater.
If a farmer wanted, the state would give him fish to put into the pond. To provide the fish with cover, many farmers would make artificial reefs out of different objects. For the little lake we were using, the farmer collected Christmas trees. He tied cinder blocks to them and just left them on the ice. When it thawed, the trees would sink to the bottom and give smaller fish cover.
We met the farmer at a gate, and he let us in. He then had us follow him down a dirt road to the borrow pit. When we got out of the cars, he gave us a rundown.
“This end of the pond is shallower. We added gravel and then sand to make a nice beach for the grandkids. As you can see, there’s a levee around the outside of the pond. That prevents any runoff from the fields from getting into the water. The fertilizer can mess up the ecosystem and kill off the fish. We put some Christmas trees on the ice. I was hoping you would check them out and make sure they didn’t stack up on each other.”
Our instructor made sure we had all our equipment on and that it was working. Brook and I were the first two he went out with. He told us to walk backward into the water because you would trip over your flippers if you didn’t.
When we first got in, the water was frickin’ cold as it got into your wetsuit, but your body warmed it up so it wasn’t too bad. Around my face, wrists, and ankles, it remained cold, but I gutted it out. The visibility wasn’t high; I could probably see six feet.
