Who Said Good

For many years of his young life he had spent his time exploring the Manor and all the buildings on the estate. On the bus ride he spent the time overlooking the blueprints and re-establishing his memory. Nothing had changed over the years except for one glaring detail. Nestled against one of the many ponds on the property, was the estate's equestrian barn.

The barn itself measured roughly 12k square feet with 6 stalls for the various horses that were on the property at any time. It contained a massive suspension hayloft along with modern tackgear and even a forging room. The detail which was only located on the master blueprints which he had been given by his father was an underground unit that had been built-in that was suspiciously labeled "Wine Room." There were three problems with this suspicious room.

The first was that the Manor already had a wineroom in the basement which in itself had been there since the beginning. The second was that wineroom in the Manor connected to the "Wine Room" in the barn by a series of tunnels stretching almost 400 yds. And the third problem with this new "Wine Room" was the amount of power connected to it which was far greater than any other room in the entire estate.

But that would be a discovery for a future time. As they parked then exited the truck and began to walk together toward the front door it opened. He immediately recognized the gentleman standing at the door from the various phone calls and video chats they had had together over the past couple of weeks. This man had been his father's personal attorney for so many years and knew all the skeletons. Well........ most.

The smile that pierced his face was genuine, he could tell. As they got closer Neal smiled also and extended his right hand. The elder gentleman took it with a firm grasp and his smile even seemed to get broader as he spoke. "Damn.....I thought it was Curt walking up for a second there." Neals' smile returned at the compliment. He also noticed his sister look at him again and this time her mouth dropped open. He chuckled at this as he responded to the older man,"Thank you so much Ronald. I'm happy that you were there with dad at the end moment."

Ronald's smile seemed to falter for a second as tears pierced the corners of his eyes. Neal knew that these 2 men along with 2 others had formed a group of friends for almost 60 years. The countless times that the 4 men met in his dad's office over a game of poker that usually involved scotch, cigars, and meatball subs was amazing and it was from these 4 men that Neal had developed a penchant for the exact same things.

His father had taught him the subtleties and nuances of playing poker including all of the variations while Ronald had taught him the finer subtleties of the true meatball sub and that if an Italian woman hadn't made it....forget about it. His father's other 2 friends consisted of gentlemen by the name of Blaine and another named Timothy. Blaine's wisdom consisted on picking the proper cigar for whatever the occasion was and to never be fooled by the cost. Whereas Timothy's knowledge consisted of the variances also in whiskey and scotch and pretty much any other liquor that was sold both above board and below. But it was from Timothy that he received the infinite wisdom that scotch was a man's drink. A feminine voice from behind Ronald broke him from his reverie.