Esther had brought Aunty and Matilda together.

Now I knew I was in trouble.

All extra-perceptional and sexual experiences aside, those two women were actually quite adept at controlling me. The only advantage I had was that I knew that fact…not that I could change it, but I wasn’t simply a blind puppet. That, and the realization that I could still order them around. That wasn’t worth much, but it was something. How’s that old axiom go? ‘When you see a man of power, look behind him to find the woman holding the reins.’ Yeah, that was my life. Not a bad thing, but it’s best to know where you stand.

I knew one thing for certain, I was very glad that I made sure that coffee, beer and bourbon were tops on our loading list coming out of St. Louis. I was going to eat, drink and then sleep; that was my grand plan for this Friday afternoon. Tomorrow would start a slew of meetings, followed by our ‘Welcome to Rulo’ party; Sunday would simply be a day of rest. Knowing that tomorrow would be a slew of reports and discussion about mundane things encouraged me to relax a little tonight.

I heard some musicians start to warm up somewhere in the background and was happy to see that Amos was on his toes. I also remembered to send a rider to Thomas, Martha and little Miss Daisy, to let them know we were having a party tomorrow. It wouldn’t do to forget them. It was turning out to be very handy that I had added Clara to the assistant ranks; it meant there was always someone nearby to record things when I remembered them. In this case, I smelled BBQ coming from the pits and I knew that meant Matilda and her team had gotten into our meager tomato puree reserves. Our tomatoes were still small on the vine, so it had to be the last of our canned stuff. This meant we needed to add a focus on canning jars during our upcoming boat runs.

The tomato fields were still huge, but if we weren’t able to preserve them, it would be wasted. There were a lot of options for preservation and we were going to try to use them all. All I had to do was note that out loud and Clara jotted it down. Now we just needed to organize a purchasing department for RT&T (Rulo Trade & Transport) and we’d be golden; however to make that work we’d need better communications.

Communication started with postal mail and while the pony express wouldn’t work for me, we did have engineers and technology. What we needed was a fast mail boat. All we had to do first, was get our shops up and running. Then we could build the steam engine to power that boat upstream against the relentless current of the Missouri river.

What would we need make all of this happen? Well, bricks would be a good start. I wasn’t anxious to pay men to attempt to pole a load of bricks upriver when we could make them ourselves. Basically I needed to get industry up and running, I really hoped my captains and council were ready for this push. We had a lot to do and a long way to go and I’d be gone for a lot of this effort. My next trip would be to finish my business with Henry Leavenworth. After that, I needed to head off to the Washington D.C. Patent Office to start making some real money.

We had a huge capital asset called information and I planned on taking advantage of that. To do so, I’d travel the East Coast and sell licenses for my ideas. Information was better than gold and I had a ton of it. I also needed to get to Europe and do the same, limiting myself to North America was foolish and I had a few people here in town now with European connections. Peter and Clara would be the toehold we needed to access continental wealth and industry. The continent would lead to England and so on. Patent licenses…that was the game we would be playing. We would take a tiny sales percentage of every little do-hickey sold. We didn’t need much, but it would add up very quickly. Just ask IBM, HP and Texas Instruments.

All I could do right now was just sit, enjoy Mouse’s company, and relax. I asked Clara to have the engineers meet with me first thing Monday morning, we’d discuss technology and they'd be in Engineer Heaven. With that sorted, I asked my sweet Mouse to get me some sweet corn and BBQ. It was time to relax and eat, and I was craving fresh sweet corn.

I sent sweet Mouse off to get me food, it might seem a bit crazy to send that lovely lady off, but it was also a chance to watch her walk and move. It’s not often you find a woman who is ‘just your type’ and I had lucked into this one. She was long and willowy, with amazing legs and high firm breasts. Her gait was elegant, almost like a dancer. The fine and perfect features of her face were only surpassed by the power of her brain. Not to mention that she had character that went on forever. So, yeah, I liked to watch her move.

She brought me fresh sweet corn.

That was it. Just a simple wooden plate with an ear of freshly picked and roasted corn. It was done just the way I liked my early season corn, roasted in the husk and silk with butter and sides of spices at hand. Hot off the grill, you had to husk it yourself, and the aroma as you stripped that ear sent your taste buds and mind racing.

The first bite was always bare and unseasoned, I avoided the undeveloped nibs and went straight for the young kernels. There was time enough later for butter and other tasty additions. I wanted the clean taste of corn to start and it didn’t disappoint. The rains had been good to us and the corn was incredibly juicy, not starchy in the least bit. The kernels exploded into your mouth spreading all of their sweet and savory flavor. This was the taste that said summer was truly here.

Fresh sweet corn served up by a beautiful woman.

All my troubles faded and life was bliss that evening.