A Child's Haven - 2. Chapter 2

Later that evening, over dinner, I listened as Dad told Mom about my plan. Mom just smiled at me. I saw the twinkle in her eye and knew she’d be in my court. Dad looked at me and smiled. I knew then I had his support as well.

The next morning when I arrived at the warehouse, I was met by two men. “Are you Brad Williams?”

“Yes, how may I help you?”

“Your dad hired us to clean and seal the floor with a hard gloss finish.” While the foreman spoke, I noticed four men taking machines into the building, from the peripheral of my eye.

When they left that night, they told me to stay off the floor and that they’ll be back the next day.

At dinner, I thanked dad for the help. “It’s the least I could do. If you’re serious, and evidently you are, I’ll help all I can.”

The next morning, the crew was back. “We’re going to coat the floor today. You’ll not be able to use that room for at least three days.”

I thought, how can I continue my renovation? I needed to continue. When I was leaving that evening, I took the time to check out the loading dock. Taking a few minutes to check around that area, I saw a ladder that went down into what should be the basement. I’ll explore that tomorrow.

In the morning, instead of entering through the back door, I checked out the ladder at the loading dock. When I got to the bottom of the ladder, I found a sealed door. After getting some tools, I broke through the door, and I was in the basement. The previous owners must have sealed it for a reason. Now I can work in the basement for a few days.

I laid out the showers, lockers, partitions, washers, dryers, and sinks using some chalk. With that done, I now needed to search for the shower cabins. I knew getting lockers wouldn’t be a problem. Checking my watch, I still had time to visit some of the second-hand stores.

That evening, I brought my mom and dad up to date on my progress. “I laid out the floor plan in the basement, and now I think I’ll ask those men who polished the first floor if they could polish the basement and then add a sealer. What do you think, Dad?”

“I think that’s a good idea. I’ll give them a call.”

“Mom, I checked out a few second-hand clothing stores this afternoon. I could probably get quite a few clothes there. I was thinking of clothes that could be worn by both boys and girls.”

“Brad, let me help with that. I feel left out of this project.”

“Mom, that’d be great. I’m not sure what sizes I’ll need, but I bought some t-shirts today and a few pairs of jeans. I’m not worried about the length, so I concentrated on small waist sizes.”

True to word, the floor crew showed up again with sanders and polishers. Of course, the lines I laid out were destroyed. But I could always make them again.

When they left, I was told to stay out of the basement for a day. I was ok with that since they completed the dining hall. I ordered the picnic tables and contacted a company that made vending machines.

I wanted to concentrate on the second floor. I needed to brick up the windows. They were 50 feet high. I also wanted to begin the construction of the additional floors. I figured I could divide the 60-foot height into a total of three floors that would give me a total of 336 cocoons.

That evening I told Dad about my plans for the second floor. “Dad, I need to start dividing the second floor into three floors of approximately 20 feet each. I also need a mason to brick up the windows. Do you know of any firms I can use for that? I could use a local contractor, but I don’t know any.”

“Let me see what I can find out for you. How’s the floor on the first floor?”

“It looks great. They did a fantastic job and polished and sealed the basement floor. But maybe I was in too much of a hurry. We’ll probably have to break the floor for water and sewer lines. But I guess I can have them come in and do it over again. I’m going to order some equipment for the dining hall.”

“I see you’ve started to name the floors.”

“I think that’s the best way rather than the first floor or second floor. It denotes the primary reason for the floor. I think I’ll call the floors where the cocoons will be installed the hives.” I made that comment in jest, but in reality, it’s probably appropriate.