Chapter 6

Fred sighed with relief when he reached the bank teller two minutes before closing. It had been a tight race with time and his activity with Janie had left him sore all over! A thirteen-year-old girl could kill a man my age in the sack, he told himself as he drew out his weekly payroll.

He was crossing the bank parking lot to his car when he ran into Ed and Linda Jackson, the couple who had launched he and Grace on the cruise into the world of swinging.

"Hey, hi!" Ed greeted with a broad smile.

"Hi, Big Dick!" Linda said softly, enjoying a hearty laugh when she saw the reaction on Fred McElhaney's face.

"Hi!" Fred returned their greeting.

"Say, Fred," Ed Jackson said in his most friendly, placating voice, "I know it's presumptuous of us, but I wonder if we could ask a big favor of you?"

"Glad to help if I can," Fred returned, wondering what this was all about.

"Didn't you say that you're a contractor?"

"That's right," Fred replied, "guilty as charged, I'm afraid."

"Well, Linda and I are buying, or at least thinking about buying, a condominium unit."

"We're on our way there now," Linda added.

"We're supposed to make up our minds tonight and give them a deposit if we're interested. We wondered if you had time to look the project over and tell us if it's a good deal? Of course, we'd be happy to pay you a fee .. ."

"I never charge for advice," Fred returned with a laugh, "because all too often that's what my advice is worth, Ed-nothing! I'll be glad to. Maybe we can work out a compromise," he added, glancing at his watch. "I have to make a quick inspection tour of two houses I have under construction-just keep the subcontractors honest, you know? Five minutes each ought to take care of them. So why don't you ride with me? I'll make a quick run through and then we'll ride over to this project you're looking at."

"Great!" Ed said.

"Can we leave our car parked here?" Linda asked.

"Sure," Fred replied. "The bank's closed and nobody will mind."

The three of them piled into Fred's Ford and Fred drove out to his two construction sites. Linda and Ed joined him on his inspection tour.

"Boy, you certainly go first class in your materials, Fred!" Linda commented as they toured the houses.

"My homes are all custom built," Fred responded with a smile. "They cost a little more, but really not as much as you'd think. Contractors who cut corners usually pad their pockets."

"Those bathroom fixtures are almost twice as expensive as the regular ones," Linda remarked.

"Not at my cost," Fred said. "Anyway, you can use first class materials in almost any house for about eight per cent more."

Fred left instructions for several of his subcontractors, including a message that he wouldn't accept the tile that had been poorly laid in one of the bathrooms. Then they climbed back into the Ford and drove over to the Apple Orchard Townhouses where Ed and Linda were considering a condominium.

Managing to dodge the salesman, they made a complete tour of the project. Fred was not at all impressed with the quality of the construction, but he said nothing until they were sitting alone near the swimming pool.

"Well?" Ed asked.

"Remember, this is just one man's opinion," Fred cautioned, "and it's free. Materials and construction here are definitely second class at best. Some of it's third class in my opinion. Did you notice those kitchens?"

"Did I!" Linda remarked. "I thought they were poorly designed and terribly cramped."

'That," Fred remarked, "and the fact that all of the appliances are from a warehouse of discontinued models. I know, I was offered the same junk at a big discount. How many square feet does your unit have?"

"Let's see," Ed said, flipping through the papers he'd been given. "Fifteen hundred and twelve."

"And you're' paying forty-nine-nine for it?" Fred asked.

"Right!"

"Well, you might consider it this way," Fred said. 'The ground is at best worth four thousand, so you're paying about thirty bucks a square foot for construction."

"What about all the facilities?" Linda asked. "The swimming pool, saunas and recreation area?"

"That's a point," Fred admitted, "but a developer figures those on a per unit basis. There are fifty units here?"

"Fifty-two," Ed said.

"Okay, take a thousand dollars a unit and you're way ahead of all of the facilities and landscaping, believe me. That means that you're still paying more than twenty-nine bucks a square foot for a second rate construction. You could have prime construction for about twenty-five bucks a foot in this area."

"So you don't think it's a good buy?" Ed asked.

"I didn't say that," Fred laughed. "That all depends on what you want."

"And you don't know what kind of neighbors you'll get in a project like this," Linda commented.

"Linda always dreams about a swinger's community," Ed laughed.

"Well, you'll have to admit that a neighborhood of swingers would be something else!" she returned. "You'd certainly never have any trouble with your neighbors about parties, and you would have to risk joining all those mail-order clubs to meet swingers."

"That's a hell of an idea!" Fred laughed. "Has anybody ever put a swinger's community together?"

"We heard about one in southern California," Ed remarked.

"And that one in Miami, Florida," Linda added.

"But they might be tall tales," Ed said. "We've heard about them, but we've never met anyone who has seen them."

"It could be done," Fred remarked, lighting a cigarette and staring pensively out into the night.

"How?" Linda asked eagerly.

"Well," Fred began slowly, "something on the order of a condominium like this, I suppose. It would have to be a private project not offered for sale to the general public."

"Limited to swingers!" Linda cried excitedly. "Oh, wow! Would that ever be something!"

"How difficult would it be to put something like that together, Fred?" Ed asked.

"I don't know. From the standpoint of buying the land and designing and building, it would be easy. Getting the swinging couples to commit themselves and put up the front money would be something else."

"How many couples would it need?" Linda asked.

"Well, I suppose it could be built on a stairstep basis. We could buy enough land for forty or fifty units, but start with as few as twenty-five and then add on later as it expanded."

The Jacksons became very excited about the project and Ed took out a note pad and pen to do some calculations.

"Let's say, for example," Ed began, "that Linda and I wanted to buy a unit in this project. How much would we have to come up with?"

"About the same down payment as you'd have to make in this project here," Fred replied. "Between twenty and thirty per cent."

"And that's all?"

"Sure. The financing would be the same. From the standpoint of the unit itself, you'd put less down, but to cover the land price and the improvements such as underground utilities and all we'd need a little more. I'd have to work it out, Ed, but I really think it could be handled with twenty per cent."

"What problems would we have?" Linda asked.

"The only problem I can see would be getting twenty-five couples to agree to buy and to put up their down payment in advance. We'd need that to buy the land and arrange the financing."

"Ed!" Linda said excitedly.

"I know," Ed replied. "The Big Gate."

"The Big Gate?" Fred asked.

"It's a group of swingers," Linda explained, "a big group. I think they have fourteen or fifteen couples as members."

"That's a starting place," Ed said.

"Look," Fred cautioned, "I like the idea and I honestly think Grace and I would buy. But I have to warn you that from my experience it could take a long time to get twenty-five couples together to pay advance down payments."

"Then what do you suggest?" Linda asked quickly.

"Well, the ideal way would be to get one or two wealthy swingers to front the project. Then we could sell the units off as we built."

"The Morgans!" Linda and Ed said at the same time.

"Harold Morgan is loaded," Ed explained, "and he and his wife are devoted swingers. They might be perfect for this!"

"I know Betty Morgan would go for it," Linda remarked.

"Harold might," Ed said a little less confidently. "Would there be a profit in it for him?"

"Look, Ed," Fred laughed, "you can set one of these projects up any way you want. The more profit there is, the more the thing costs on an individual basis-or the less the quality. If this Harold Morgan would take a short profit, I think you'd have an easier chance of selling it out quick. I don't care if they're swingers, people react to a good buy."

"I agree," Ed said. "Look, Linda, why don't we forget about this project here ..."

"What project here?" Linda asked with a laugh.

"And we'll concentrate on seeing if there is any interest in putting together a swinger's condominium."

While Linda and Fred walked back to the car, Ed Jackson went to the sales office and bruskly told the salesman that they had decided against buying at this time.

Driving back to the bank where the Jacksons had left their car, Fred asked them if in their swinging experience they had ever run into a swinging family unit with children participating.

"Sure!" Linda remarked. "There are a few of them here in Portland."

"Who?" her husband asked.

"Remember those people-the Harmons, I think their name was-who live in Riverview?"

"Oh, sure!" Ed said.

"They have a fourteen-year-old son who swings with them. That boy has an eveready cock, I swear! He was still hard when the rest of you men were flat on your backs."

"And you took him on just before we left!" Ed laughed.

"Well, I couldn't let the poor little guy go to bed with a hardon, could I?"

"And there's that couple who have the penthouse downtown," Ed suddenly remembered.

"That's right!" Linda agreed. "They have an eleven-year-old boy and a fifteen-year-old girl who ball with them."

"How do other swingers react to that?" Fred asked.

"I've never heard anybody say anything about it," Linda replied. "The ones we've met are popular swingers, so that should tell you something."

"Just thinking about that little fifteen-year-old minx gives me a hard-on!" Ed laughed.

"The men like to ball young girls," Linda remarked.

"And I've never seen you women turn down a young boy!" Ed returned.

"Of course not! Kids are fun. I guess all swingers like to ball kids."

"Then it's not unusual to find a swinging family?" Fred pressed.

"Not at all," Linda assured him.

Fred pulled into the bank parking lot and the Jacksons thanked him again for his advice on the condominium. Before they left the car, they asked him if he'd be willing to put the swinger's project together if they could arrange for the initial financing.

"Sure!" Fred replied. "As Hold you, Grace and I might very well be buyers ourselves. If you get any interest, we'll sit down and put a package together to see if swingers would be interested."

Ed said he'd call as soon as he'd talked to several people, including Harold Jackson.

"That reminds me," Linda said. "Harold and Betty have a fifteen-year-old boy. I think he swings with them every now and then."

They said goodbye and Fred pulled out of the parking lot. He glanced at his watch and was surprised to find it was after ten. No wonder he was so damned tired!