Chapter 5 -- Film Fodder
Kat asked, "What about the tenth house on our circle of homes. I know we believe that someone else might join us, but has there been any thoughts about it, or who, or timing?"
Ty shrugged along with Dave. He responded, "There are no plans for it, but it easily fit in the design of the Circle. Owen will be the official owner of the home, but it'll remain mostly unfinished inside awaiting residents who want to pick their decorating and appliances throughout. If you have any ideas, please talk to us or introduce us, or whatever is appropriate."
Dev sounded out, "Yes, I have an idea, at least for the short term after it's finished."
Several people said, "Tell us."
"We make it a guest house. We do minimum finishing, maybe not even all the rooms, but enough so that it's livable and a little better than a room at the Motel 6 out by the Interstate. We don't even finish all the rooms or floors or whatever.
"Since we've formed our group and feel about each other the way we do, the only visits from relatives has been when Alice and Julie's parents showed up, and we know how well that turned out. All the other visits with relatives or parents have been us leaving here and going to them; what if they want to come here? After all, we are in a warm climate and winter will be here not too long after we move into the Circle.
"When relatives came to any of us heretofore, if they stayed with us, we just didn't participate in our Circle activities those days. It was easy. When we're all together, especially if sex is occurring on the patio or in the pool, it'll be kind of difficult to avoid some kind of situation."
Kat said, "Do you want to announce to your parents -- or relatives -- our lifestyle? My parents would react worse than Alice and Julie's."
Alice said, "Just to clarify, our parents have no idea of the grand scale of things here. They were upset because Pam lived with us and apparently I made love with her. We hinted about Owen."
Julie said, "I sent them a change of address card, but never got an acknowledgement. I don't know whether they think we're all having sex or not. On the one hand, I don't care. On the other, I hope that they feel the need to reconcile someday. Oh, and on the third hand, they would positively go ballistic if they knew the full scope of the Circle, including that Alice and I make love."
Sean said amid some modest laughter, "On the fourth hand, I do like the idea of a guest house until someone comes along to really move in and be full-fledged neighbors."
Clarisse had been mostly quiet, but she asked, "How do you invite somebody to join us? 'Hey, we've got this little swinging cohousing project and we trade partners all the time, wanna join us and fuck all the time because we have one house available?'"
Dave said, "Be a little subtle, Clarisse; more like, 'Do you like to fuck? Oh good, then we have a deal for you.'" There was more laughter.
Christie said, "You make me think about what will happen if word gets out about our little venture. Lots of people already know about it, plus we'll have tradespeople in and out all the time. It won't be a secret, and I'm sure our lifestyle will leak out someway. During the weekdays or when workers are coming, we'll need some way to put the word out to cool it in the public spaces."
Ty said, "Let me address that. For one, we will be a private gated community. We'll all have remotes for the gate down by the main road. If we're having anybody up here other than the mailman who'll stay on Circle Road, we'll want to know about it so that we can warn everyone to dress and behave appropriately. We have a security firm looking into cameras and other alerting devices.
"If some individuals or groups, say a church or something, wants to picket us, they're welcome to do it, but by law they can't block the access to our property. Dave, Owen, and I talked about this, and we've decided to also put a single lane road out the back to the neighborhood to our north. It'll be gated like the other, but with even greater security. We want to hide and disguise it even. It'll be for real emergencies, as you might predict.
"The official story we are giving out now and will propagate in a press release when some of the homes are completed will be that we are a circle of close friends who have formed a modern day professional commune. Who knows, maybe some of you will even start to grow a few things on the outer acreage around the project to help solidify that earth mother and earth father image."
Roy said, "I apologize for missing some of the early meetings, but won't the banks want to know exactly what's going on. After all, they'll be the real owners of most of our project."
Ty shook his head, "No banks are directly involved with us except in the float loans we have now. The long-term bank is Owen. Our mortgages, as we complete the process and get ready to move in, will be with one of his subsidiary financial corporations that amazingly specializes in funding and propagating cohousing projects with various missions. Realize that we are small change compared to most of his business dealings. He mentioned that we get lost in the round-off error in some of his financial statements."
The questions fell by the wayside as some of the men and women coupled up and started to get romantic with one another. Alice's moans from having Dev suck on her taut breasts shifted the direction of the after-dinner discussion. Kat going down on Jack also seemed to disrupt things.
Grace motioned Christie to join her, as the two of them started to kiss and make out with a very willing Dave. Bathing suits and monokinis soon disappeared, and then some serious sexual play commenced on the various chaises and futons on the patio. Kat soon had Jack fully entertained as she lay back on one of the picnic tables and he moaned in satisfaction in front of her as he sank his meat into her. It was the first union of the two. Dori had decided that Roy deserved some serious attention, something he didn't often get to do with her despite the two of them working in the same office.
* * * * *
Owen sat in a casual chair in Ty's living room. Dave, and the other board members for The Circle Cohousing Project sat nearby, along with most of the spouses or other singles in the Circle.
Owen spoke, "I have a proposal -- a request really -- that I wanted to put to you as the board for our ongoing project. I would like your serious consideration, but I don't want special consideration either because I once owned the common land the project is being built on or because I am the banker. In this instance, I am just another one of you with a request for consideration. It involves use of some of the land."
Ty was presiding over the meeting. "The floor is yours, and we understand your desire for common treatment."
"Thank you. I'll be blunt in my proposal and then elaborate. I would like to build a paved runway and helipad along the northern edge of the property. The runway would be about fifty feet wide in a one hundred eighty foot clear-cut swath, and would be 8,000 feet long. It would not be visible to the Project because of the curvature of the terrain, but obviously noise from my plane landing or taking off would be heard, as well as any helicopter noise. During a busy week, there might be four to six small jet operations and four helicopter operations in that area. More typically, there might be one or two a week, and some weeks there would be none.
"I would also like to build a hangar in the northwest corner for the plane and copter; it could hold other aircraft as well, but I do not plan further craft for now. I might buy a smaller private plane, but that's kind of iffy. If any of you were inclined to become pilots and use the runway or hangars, it would be available. The building might be visible to part of the Project, but I would like to plant conifers between to make the building relatively invisible from the residential part.
"I have checked with the local authorities and I can do this providing The CCP -- you all -- approve. Zoning is not a problem, and only a few neighbors might be concerned, but one of my staff has talked to them to alleviate their issues.
"Having the plane, helicopter, and home within a few feet of each other would be a huge convenience and time saver for me. I could do some of my work at home, and be ready to travel in a flash. We'd do some aircraft maintenance and fuel storage there, but that'd be serviced by way of the back road."
Owen stopped and looked from person to person to see their reaction.
Ty turned to the board and others, "Questions? Concerns?"
Heather asked, "Will the area be fenced? I'm concerned about children getting into mischief or being in the way down there."
